1500 AD (Pre-Flight):
-We’re over the domination area limit but not the population limit. F3 says we have 12 native workers and I count around 23 slaves. I don’t think joining workers will quite get us there, sadly- there’s definitely enough citizens in the world that ~35 isn’t going to be 5% of the population.
-Based on what MRG said about the UN build I think Sumeria should be about 7 turns from finishing it; I can easily recheck it. That said I’m not sure if we need to- we can always avoid the Diplomatic victory being a problem by just declaring war and MA’ing Korea against Sumeria. We might have to. I think it would be fairly doable to rush some transports near Sumeria and send an invasion force their way- we have enough Tank armies to do some damage to them.
-I reassign some specialists in the core to work the fields to keep cities from starving. Outside the core, I rush Harbors in New Karakorum 3 and New Bayanhongor 2, send some formerly resisting American workers back into the fields, and build a few railroads near some other starving cities that will finish before they starve. I discover, to my immense annoyance, that Korea still hasn’t actually railroaded their territory enough to send more workers through it, making me wonder whether it would be worth it to just go build some damn rails in Korea myself.
-We don’t need any more cities but we need population, so I reassign every settler or worker build in any city to build a Tank instead.
PAUSE FOR DISCUSSION
-After discussion, it’s clear we’re attacking Sumeria. Our Transports in the middle of the ocean would all take 7 turns to reach it, so I decide to just rush some transports in the cities closest to Sumeria. I notice to my annoyance that one of them, Pi-Ramesses, has a bunch of resistors and can’t rush, so I relocate enough troops there to hopefully quell the resistance quickly, and while I’m at it also have some units try to put down resistors in other places.
-Spend 675 gold to upgrade our captured American Trebuchets to Artillery
-Start building some railroads in Korean territory to get troops through them to the eventual Sumerian front faster, and put other workers in our core to work clearing some of the pollution there- why are there so many just sitting around doing nothing when there’s work to be done?
-The lux rate clearly doesn’t need to be at 70% anymore- messing around I realize I can comfortably drop it to 0 and just handle the few unhappy cities with some taxmen.
-We’re making lots of money now and I really want to make sure I’m right about how much time we have, so I investigate Lagash again. 7 turns out. I can’t imagine Pusan is closer if it was 26 turns out 10 turns ago. I breathe a small sigh of relief.
IBT:
-Our deal with Sumeria for Incense runs out. They’ll continue selling it to us for Rubber, three of our luxes, and around 165 gpt, but I figure at that price I might as well just raise the lux tax back up again and I’d rather them lose Rubber sooner rather than later, and we’d just lose the Incense in a few turns anyway.
-Sadly, this means a few cities riot from the lack of Incense. Whoops. On the bright side, most of the resistance was quelled.
1505 AD (Turn 1):
-I go check what Korea wants for Wines. They’ll trade it to us for Furs, Dyes, Spices, Ivory, Horses, Coal, and 66 gpt. Sure, I’ll take that. I kinda want them to have Coal so they’ll get back to building more railroads. To try to direct those railroads where I want, I stick tanks on all the mined squares near Pusan that don’t already have a railroad so they can’t use it to speed up the UN build.
IBT:
-The riots end, build another Army and a bunch of Tanks, and global warming erases a jungle! I didn’t think there’d be enough pollution for that, but there is.
1510 AD (Turn 2):
-Rush some more transports and wait for all the armies to heal.
IBT:
-Not much else
1515 AD (Turn 3):
-I can get 8 transports full of things to Kuara this turn, that will do. I cancel all active deals with Sumeria and then note that they still have a Rifle in our territory. Realizing I might be able to get them to remove or declare for WH if I wait a turn and I can also get 5 more transports ready in the meantime, I decide this can wait… one more turn.
IBT:
-More Tanks build, and global warming hits again, turning a forest into a plains
1520 AD (Turn 4):
-Okay,
now it’s time to fight Sumeria. I repeatedly demand Flight and Ironclads from them to piss them off (I also, just for the hell of it demand both individually… they continue to reject the demand), then ask them to remove or declare and… they remove. Boooooo! Well fine, if they won’t start the war, I will, and I declare war on them.
-I immediately sign Korea into an MA against Sumeria for… just Gems straight up? Really, that’s all it took?
-I have an elite tank kill the Sumerian Rifle that left our territory and… it gives us a leader! Sweet, one more tank army! (1-0)
-A Destroyer passes by and sinks a Sumerian Submarine (2-0)
-My transports unload 8 tank armies, 5 cav armies, and 13 artillery next to Kuara. Hopefully that will be enough.
IBT:
-Around 10 Sumerian Bombers mostly target Destroyers near their island and other than lightly damaging one of the tank armies leave our landing party alone, but sink 3 destroyers (1-3)
1525 AD (Turn 5):
-Bombard Kuara with 13 artillery and 3 destroyers, scoring 16 straight misses. Damn it. Well, send in the tanks, then. The Tank Armies combine to kill a TOW and 4 Infantry in the city is ours (6-3). We’re up to 65% pop now.
-Cav armies kill 3 Infantry in Kua, take the city (9-3), capture five workers outside
-Sadly the heavily mountainous terrain stops me from making further advances, so I just use the transports to drop a bunch more units in Kuara and hope to push forward next turn.
IBT:
-More Sumerian bombers come, again mainly targeting our ships but not sinking any this time, and a couple of SOD’s show up at Kuara and Kua. A Sumerian sub sinks one of our transports (9-4)
-I forget to check happiness and Seattle, Washington, and Philadelphia are all unhappy and riot. Philadelphia riots so hard it decides to depose us and join Korea. Phoenix, though not rioting, also flips to Korea. Two culture flips in one turn makes me an extremely sad panda.
1530 AD (Turn 6):
@Der: Artillery knock all 6 infantry in the city to 2 or 1 HP, and Cav armies kill all 6 (15-4). We’re at 66%, but I’m not finished yet…
-Kill all the Sumerian units in our territory: 1 Guerilla, 2 Tanks, 1 Cav, 11 Infs, 2 Enkidus, 2 Archers, 2 Pikes, 2 Swords, an LBM, and a Rifle, losing just 1 Tank in the process (40-5)
@Ashkak: Tank armies kill 4 Infs and a TOW, take the city (45-5)
@Kutha: Tank armies kill 3 Infs and take the city, though I lose an outside-the-army Tank doing so (48-6)
-Destroyer sinks the sub that sunk our transport (49-6)
@Bad-tibira: Tank Armies kill an Inf and a TOW, Tanks kill 2 Inf, take the city (53-6)
-An inf on a mountain outside Bad-tibira puts up a hell of a fight, killing one Tank and retreating 2 more before dying (54-7)
-We’re at 68% in both area and pop, that should do it. I have our Cav armies pillage some roads in Sumerian territory to ensure they can’t attack any city except Bad-tibira, and just in case of flips I join all the captured Sumerian workers to some of the cities I captured this turn, and join a bunch of workers back on the mainland into other cities.
IBT:
-Some more bombing runs happen and a few Sumerian units head towards our territory, but no attacks.
-A bunch of cities celebrate We Love the Genghis Khan Day, guess I must have captured another lux and not realized it (I check later and realize it’s because Ashkak had 3 of Sumeria’s Incense sources). We also get the final palace expansion in celebration of our victory.
-Lagash completes the UN, a little too late there (not that anyone would win a vote with Korea and us at war with Sumeria)
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