My Spanish opening and dot mapping and maybe a walk through..

[Silu]

oooh didnt know that. I normally work them and leave them till biology. lol

Biology has nothing to do with irrigation. You get +1 to every farm (irrigated or not) with Biology but with irrigation you still get +1. You can build non-irrigated farms after Biology because then they are better than unimproved land, but still worse than irrigated farms.

On a total side note, IMO Rice should get +2 from irrigation.

 

[kossin]

Ragnar has spices you can trade for with sugar - you have some unhappy in a few cities. You can also renegotiate your sugar deal to Alex to get an extra 4 gold/turn.

Military wise - Ragnar has 3 cities, he'll be a pushover. A good approach is to whip (in cottage cities whip mines/unmatured cottages - keep farms/food) 15~20 cuirassiers (depends on Alex's power), focus espionage on Alex. He's pretty big (12 cities well spaced out) so I'd do it in 2 waves. Do it fast while you have a tech edge.

The first wave would be to revolt Sparta, and then take take it on the first turn of war. Unfortunately he hasn't built the shrine so Argos isn't high-importance. Also in the first wave, he'll bring in his SoD (which you want to find out before the war by scouting). Keep a sentry to monitor its movement and take it out in the field, should be easy. Take peace for techs if you can or a Cease Fire. Doing so will allow you to redeclare ASAP when your stack is healed. Ragnar might send 4~5 units your way too so keep a few units with cleaning duty. If your stack is ok or you have a super-medic, try to take out a few more core cities (Athens, Halicarnassus).

The second wave, all you have to do is take the rest of his cities. He'll offer barely any resistance. You will perhaps have teched towards rifling, if so it'll be even easier.

Your economy will hurt a bit, but afterwards you'll have so much land (and his land is pretty well developed), all you need to do to win is tech Democracy.

 

[Gumbolt]

Been doing the cookbook so not had a chance to toy with this today. I am still working on this.

 

[Gumbolt]

I got to gunpowder and I whipped all my 8 or so cities twice. My population halved.



With about 16 or so Spanish UU I DOW the Greek. I waited for his stack from his Holy city to arrive and knocked it out. 6 knights or so and a few trebs.

I then attacked and took Sparta followed by Athens making sure to destroy the horse resource. It took many more whips to maintain the defences and build up of troops. Ragnar was a pain and sent a stack of 7-8 units at my border city. Took many units to hold this at bay.

Eventually I took Corinth and his forbidden palace city and he offered 280 gold for peace.

I have met the English who are not too far ahead of me in tech although my tech rate has been hammered by the whipping.

Advice going forward. I was thinking of attacking Ragnar as he is no longer a Greek Vassel and will have Rifles soon.

Not got time to load pics as i have to go out soon.

 

[Loki Strikes]

Things look great, Alex looks like he can be knocked out, you have visibility in his cities... spend some EP on city revolts, his SOD is negligible, his garrisons are weak and backwards, you can completely demolish him, looks like your using Conquistadors as garrisons? and they aren't together? you have enforced peace with Alex. You have 1.5x the power of Ragnar go finish him off while you are at peace with Alex fine, but neither of them can stop you right now, whipping your cities was definitely the right move, maybe even whip a few more conquistadors to be safe, but this game looks won... the continent will be yours in very little time.

 

[kossin]

^^ What Loki said.

Moreover, I'd wake up those workers and keep them doing something. Last thing is whip the cities coming out of revolt. They're going to starve anyway so get the angry citizens to build something instead (Library in Sparta, Courthouse in Athens).

 

[weekend_warrior]

edit: whoa, didn't see that there were 4 pages already.

 

[Gumbolt]

Ragnar is fast heading towards Rifles. Yeah i kind of forgot to use the EP points in the first war. Alex without horse made job easier.

The Conquuistadors are spread out as many were healing. I took 280 gold off Alex as it seemed a reasonable deal. He does have a lot of catapults, trebs, pikes sitting around. Pikes are a PITA with +20str and formation.

The other continent is still a threat. Their are 4 Ai somewhere and my starting 8-9 cities dont even have unis!!! I could whip them.

Just back from 2 day trip to Brighton so will try to progress this later. So many things to do and sooo little time.

 

[Loki Strikes]

Don't build unis till Alex and Ragnar are taken care of, your production is thin enough already, maybe even whip out 10 more conquistadors to speed things up, but unis, not yet.

 

[Gumbolt]

Think you are right. Alex cities will have good infrastruture. Hopefully find a good city for Oxford Uni.

 

[Gumbolt]

Okay Vikings fall easily with 1-2 units lost for 15-20 on their side.

I whipped out 5-6 for Conquistadors. I was unable to use spies against the vikings as they kept being caught!!

I launched a force of 18 or so Spanish UU and went for Vikings second city which fell with no losses. The capital and third was a similar tale the next turn. I let the vikings capitulate as their 2 final cities would require a naval assault I did not have the fkeet to deliver. Alex is the bigger target next.

Alex has now hooked up horses again down South. Grrrrrrr. 0.8 vs me so still a risk.

The other continents has popped up. Russia has Not one but 3 vassels and nearly 50% of world population. He is slightly backwards for now but no doubt has a huge military.

Few pics in the spoiler to follow.

Spoiler :

The fallen Viking cities.

Terms of defeat.

Demographics

Tech front - Russians behind but English and Indian vassels could be a pain.

Edit! I forgot to add the save. Oops

 

[Loki Strikes]

Gumbolt, power ratio means very little, walls and castles and barracks contribute to it and he probably has lots of those. Also AI's have giant city garrisons, power really means very little. You can see his cities garrisons and his SOD, neither are impressive, press your attack now, he is backwards and stands little chance... get spies fortified and just roll him over.

 

[Gumbolt]

I would of normally have gone in with trebs and other units but as you point out I have very little production. His defensive have proved frustrating!!! I perhaps should of used more spies but espionage points are at a premium.

Alex is down to 2 cities and has now capitulated. I have suffered heavy losses with 39 of my UU now dead. 14 lived to tell another day. This has not been helped by him building pikemen and gunpowder units and some unlucky RNG results. I had to fight off nearly 15 or so units at the start of the second war.

Overall I took banking and capitulation. His 2 remaining cities may prove a pain but i am done fighting for now!!!

Tech wise English have chemistry and astronomy that I need. Not sure how further down that line they are.

Where to go now? I have tiny cities due to whipping. Science is lacking at 200 beakers. Once I get a few banks the situation will improve.

I have made a few civic changes that were probably not wise. I could really do with a GP for holy city.

So space victory or try for domination with my weak production empire?

 

[kossin]

Your only worry should be Stalin. You are his worst enemy. Trade pigs for his 20 gpt and gift him an old tech to get +4 fair trade boost. You probably can't get him to Friendly for a long time (-4 trading to his worst enemy) but if you can get him to Pleased, chances he'll DoW you are much slimmer. Don't forget to modify your espionage (weight on Stalin imo).

Once your last few cities will come out of revolt, your economy will steady itself. Switch out of war civics (trade for Economics if you can) to cottage-civics: you've got 30+ towns! Free Speech will make that a good 60+ commerce.

Go for Democracy next, run emancipation as cottages grow to towns, then with the land you have, you can do anything. If you decide to go space, then run SP and workshop over all those cottages.

 

[Gumbolt]

Go for Democracy next, run emancipation as cottages grow to towns, then with the land you have, you can do anything. If you decide to go space, then run SP and workshop over all those cottages.

Run SP????

Isses going forward!! War with Stalin means war with every Ai on the map. My Vassels are weak really. Although Ragnar has some units but nothing to last a war.

Options.

Whip out some galleons and assault with Rifles/Infantry/Cavalry. Again no real production and my army is virtually next to nothing. I must assume Stalin has a huge stack!

I should perhaps build more banks and commerce buildings to increase science level above 10%. Need to set up Oxford uni/Wall Street/ Globe Theatre/ HE too.

Right off to clear my head. for a bit. Need to close up Napoleon cookbook round.

 

[kossin]

No, don't go after Stalin, at least not just yet! Recover the economy first. He might Dow you though, that was my point.

SP = State Property

 

[Gumbolt]

You were not wrong about the Russians. Galleon after galleon came at me with knights aboard. My poor uu were kept busy. Whilst i have riflemen now I still am at a far too low power compared to Stalin. 0.3 acck. Plus side his cities are now visable to me.

I gave away music for peace. Music in 1760ad? Small beers for peace.

On the plus side the BPT are closer to 1000 now and could well reach 1500 before the end of the game. Might need to draft some riflemen sooner or later.

 

[kossin]

Stalin: trade for his GPT as usual.
Why are you heading to Rocketry?
Either get a military or Economic goal at this point. Your cities aren't fit for a Space victory just yet.

Heading to Combustion will allow you to sink any navy Stalin sends your way for a long time.

You've got a ton of Towns. Running US might be the way to go soon. Rush-buy an army and crush Stalin if you want.

 

[Gumbolt]

Stalin: trade for his GPT as usual.
Why are you heading to Rocketry?
Either get a military or Economic goal at this point. Your cities aren't fit for a Space victory just yet.

Heading to Combustion will allow you to sink any navy Stalin sends your way for a long time.

You've got a ton of Towns. Running US might be the way to go soon. Rush-buy an army and crush Stalin if you want.

Switching to US would knock 200-300 off my BPT. Would be nice to get rid of stalin. He does have air ships and 2-3 useful vassels.

 

[Gumbolt]

I got very lazy and went for space victory. I think I clicked through most of the last 60-80 turns.

Biggest threat came from Ghandi who got 2 legendary cities. Had to destroy Delhi before I won. Biggest shock was the way the cruise missiles at the end destroyed half my improvements.

Russia, England and Salladin were a pain in spamming troops and sending in destroyers. Russia had 2-3 ports with fleets of transports in. I kept a stack of about 12-14 destroyers to keep this at bay. He was fine till he got destroyers.

Overall making a naval assault never quite came off as I was so far behind on troop level and the English kept pulling ahead on techs for a while.

Anyway heres the save. May do another game soon.