Hi you all! Once again i see good advice around. Yes, the landgrab is essential to acquire a good starting point for the invation. And the cultural expansion followed by founding of a fort on the spice tile seems the perfect way to go.
About ships, alas i have not one of them at the moment.
940AD - Strategic considerations
The game has progressed well since now. The last phase has been pretty straighforward, but now it's time for some serious considerations before deciding the next step.
First, i get rid of all the non-critical tasks. Tlaxcala must be connected to the rest of my cities. Slaves are sent to build a road in the plain west of Calixaca. Other are sent to mine the plain east. Next turn they will be rejoined and sent to road the mountain.
Workers are rushed in Tenochtitlan (the city will be moved next turn) and Calixaca.
The knights sent to conquer Tlaxcala are all are all garrisoned in the town. There are barracks there, and so they can heal quickly. Some muskets are sent too. Cultural pressure from America is not to be underestimated.
Second, Alex. It should be a convenient idea to let him progress a little. He's scientific so he'll get a free tech at the start of the industrial era. A tech that i can acquire via trading. Let's offer him wines and spices. More happiness should help.
Now, Egypt. The city-state of Pi-Ramesses is defended by 4
spears and 1
archer. An easy prey. Cleo has no iron and no saltpeter, and she also lack the money to upgrade that worthless archer into a longbow. And, finally, she's so backwards that there's no possibility that she will ever acquire a useful tech for me.
I have some legions that won't be too useful from now. I can send them south and have them capture Pi-Ramesses in 7/8 turns. It may be a good idea to fill my army with knights and send it too. A victory is almost certain and i'll be able to build the Heroic Epic, thus raising my chance to poop leaders. But there's the possibility that the army will be required elsewhere...
America now. Amazingly, Abe lacks Physics and Metallurgy. He went for the "optional path" instead. He knows Banking, Democracy, Free Artistry, Navigation and Economics. I can see it from its government and from the wonders he's building. I feared he could have already mastered Military Tradition (Cavalries) or being on the way for industrial age (Riflemen)... good for me.
I go to the steal technology menu, just to see how much it costs. Safely spying for 1892 gold, less than expected. Being in Vanilla, if i steal Banking i am awarded a second tech. The choice would be Economics (i don't mind about Democracy) unless Abe discovers a new tech. Metallurgy or Physics would be more useful. Perhaps it's a good idea to delay the tech robbery.
I need to spy at least one american city. My pick is San Francisco. Size 11 city, founded on a hill, 110 gold to investigate it. The picture is quite revealing.
Only 3 muskets, 1 vet and 2 regular. But defending at 9. I'll need lots of catapults and all the knights available. And the army. But Abe's defenses are lower than expected.
110 golds, and the city is producing wealth instead of units. Some economy problems? Abe is spending 80% in science and 0% in luxury. What are you researching, Abe? 42 beakers only in San Francisco is a good science outcome. Near to 1000 culture points, more than my best cultural city. But only 7 shields per turn. 5 turns for a musket, 6 for a knight.
Resources. Saltpeter, iron and horses are available. This translates into knights and muskets. And cavalry, when available. The good news are that Abe has only
1 supply of each of them. A resource denial could be an option. The matter needs further investigations. First, let's locate the tiles producing those resources.
Saltpeter is extracted from a desert tile south of New York, in a
coastal tile. Good news. A caravel from Tlaxcala, loaded with muskets, can reach quickly the adiacent coastline and drop units directly on the saltpeter tile. But oviously it must be built first.
Iron. Out from a hill right below Miami, that American settlement on the island NE of the main continent. There's little to do about it.
Horses. Where are they? There's no visible source of horses in the American territory. Under a city? Checked. Nope. They should be acquiring them via trade. Let's go into the foreign screen and see... yes, there's an active trade with the Iroquois, and those bastards have at least 2 sources of horses in their mainlands. Nothing to do then. I can deny saltpeter to Abe, but cannot stop him from training knights. Anyway, better than nothing.
A thing is absolutely clear: i need to strengthen a little before starting the invasion, and some preliminary operations are also required. Tlaxcala must expand culturally ASAP. That spice tile will be quite useful: once claimed, a settler can found a fort there and claim a little more land. This way, both San Francisco and Atlanta may be reached in only 1 turn, and a coordinated strike on the 2 american cities is also possible.
The alternative is using boats to unload troops next to the selected target, thus avoiding some movement penalty. The problem is that i don't have these boats. My naval power is absolutely zero at the moment. We'll go for the land route then. A temple will be rushed in Tlaxcala next turn. 5 turns to expand size 2, 6 turns in total from now. More than enough to poop a foreign settler and send him on the spice tile.
The plan is showed in the image. Dark blue: the border after cultural expansion. Light blue dot: the place where the fort will be founded. Light blue: the border after the foundation of the fort. Red: troops movements. Yellow: the american source of saltpeter.
Another thing to do is to end the works on the communication line. Two tiles still need to be roaded, a jungle and a mountain. After connecting Tlaxcala, peons will be sent there to address the problem. This web of road and cities will be quite useful in providing the necessary reinforcements from the core cities to the front line once war is declared. The drawback is that i need a quite large stationing force on the affected cities, in order to assure that this "domino effect" on troop movements doesn't stop somewhere in the middle.
Here's my army now. Even if "compared with America, i have a strong military", troops aren't enough for a quick and successful invasion of America, since the most part of the defender are actually needed in the communication line. And
surely they aren't enough to address the cultural flips problems that will show up
for sure.
Amazingly, the turn isn't over yet. I still have to move troops and give some production orders... and still decide about those legions that should be sent to Cleo... as a nice gift for her birthday, of course
