OCCC1 - Small Emperor OOC Conquest

[Kulko]

Besides that, OCC conquest @emperor sounds like a tough challenge. I'll be following this.

Well thanks to Lanzelot this definietely isnt. His idea is working perfectly at this level.

in 590 AD Korea was gone and in 690 AD I cleared the Ottomans off the island. Its 740 now and I have taken the first 3 towns of Osman and gifted them to America.

Korean war
I send 2 pikes over together with a stack of zerks. The 2 pikes were gone before I could take the last city and both korean cities were filled with 4 or more units. I am pretty sure, on deity you need an army whenever you need to take inland cities, or a fast strike attack like knights.

The mopup of the osman cities was not that hard, but slow. Landing a Zerk, reloading it next turn and having to wait another turn before you can use him again feels like it takes ages, although the whole business was over in 5 turns. Most cities had one spear by the time I reached them. Given that on higher difficulty levels the conquest is also going to take longer I would expect two spears in most cities on deity, when you get around to reconquer.

Osman war
First I made twice the mistake of trying to take Izmit with 4 units, which is located on a hill and surrounded by Tons of units wanting to attack my island (which is in that direction). Both Attacks fell short by one or two units and one of them even cost me a Zerk.
So I then decided to start somewhere else and leave Izmit for later, when I have more units brought over from new builds.
I Also landed the pike army in the first city I took and send it to pillage the iron. But it seems like they have another source somewhere. ALso the army has been subject of random attack every otehr turn, but since it stood on a mountain so far, it did not do it any bad.

Maritime warfare
The AI doesnt built a lot of ships, but when they do, its always a pain, since you cant get superiority on them, and I had bad luck with elites attacking vets so far. and sometimes these guys are attacking my transports until I found ou, that I was save on the sea squares. Is it possible to load a Cat on a galley and use it on the sea? because a way to soften them up would be a great idea.

 

[Tani Coyote]

I've tried loading various artillery on boats before, only to find they cannot use their move while on board. Quite tragic, actually! Only thing one can really do is aim for better ships and their assorted bombardment power.

 

[Lanzelot]

OCC conquest @emperor sounds like a tough challenge. I'll be following this.

Well, this is only our "test game" before we try it on Deity in the real SG.

and sometimes these guys are attacking my transports until I found ou, that I was save on the sea squares.

Yes, this is an important bug to remember for these kind of games: the AI doesn't attack you on sea squares, even if they could return to coast safely after the attack.

I've tried loading various artillery on boats before, only to find they cannot use their move while on board. Quite tragic, actually! Only thing one can really do is aim for better ships and their assorted bombardment power.

May be possible on lower levels, but on Emperor and the more so on Deity, it'll be impossible. By the time you have researched up to Frigates, the AI is in the industrial age.

 

[Lanzelot]

 

[Kulko]

okok, So I had a lot of work to do in the last weeks and not gotten around to much diplomacy. but I have played another 20 turns a few weeks ago in the middle of the night. unfortunately they were not well documented:

I send a fleet of 4 galleys 8 Zerks around the west side of the osman island which took about 5 turns. In the meanwhile I collected another taskforce of 8 zerks from the korean taskforce and new builds. I conquered Edirne and Izmit. I also landed my pike army and used it to destroy the osman iron mines.

Thats about the time where my luck left me for good. I combined booth armies before Istanbul sending about 12 zerks. But since osman had parked all he had left in the city and I was one or two units short of getting it. In the meanwhile he had also declared war on america and reconquered his cities.

After healing my losses I took Istanbul a few turns later, but now I had to marsh around the island to take 3 more cities. All in all it took me until 1030 AD to finally get rid of them. By then I had been forced to destroy all their troops myself.

Now I send units over to get rid of america. They controlled their big home island, which they had shared with russia, as well as a second island of 4 cities.They alsohad started to send settlers over to the korean island.

Unfortunately they settled an inland city on the korean island, so I send 2 pikes and 3 zerks to get rid of them.
In the meanwhile I send the mainforce to conquer the secondary island. I coordinated the assault to conquer 2 cities on that island and the korean inland city in one turn. In the beginning all went as planned even though I met my first Muskets. But in korea one of my zerks lost to an spearman and the other two where not enough to kill all defender (2 Spears/1 Longbow).

Status:
America still owns all core cities, but I have destroyed most of their sattelites. They have salpeter and also researched gunpowder. MY force in korea is mostly destroyed I stand at only 11 zerks due to continuing minor losses when attacking cities on hills.

 

[Lanzelot]

It looked so easy in the beginning, but I guess on Deity it'll be quite a challenge...

 

[Kulko]

Well I botched that one completely.

I was successful for a few more turns, taking western (ex-russian) part of the island and gifting it to Germany. But fighting against Muskets in Cities means you will loose a lot of Zerks and was never really able to build up an army.

But then Philadelphia finished the Khnights templar and I have attacked them twice by now with forces of 6 Zerks, always losing with one defender left. This has cost me most of my units so I am now holding at 4 Zerks total.

OTOH America has Astronomy and is sending unassailable ships with 3 ACs every 3 or 4 turns. and due to their retreat capability they are a real pain to kill. and now Crusader start to appear too, so it will get only worse. Of Course Amercia has also started to take back its old cities from Germany.

I think the problem as always was, that I attacked all wars a few turns to early with insufficient troops leading to unneccessary losses, which are now biting me.

As am lesson for later games, we might want to minresearch gunpowder in order to know where it is hidden.
Alsos the naval battle is much worse than I expected. Since you cant really get a adavantage in the odds (no bombard and no better ships, apart from elites) you will always lose aships, when you fight. and sooner or later caracks start to appear.

I still believe, that this is winnable on emperor, but I doubt we can push it to deity. and I am not sure if we can push it to standard map with 8 enemies.

 

[Lanzelot]

Ok, so do you abbandon this attempt?

Should we then try our main game on Emperor again? Or at least go up to Demigod?

 

[Kulko]

Well on Emperor I am pretty sure its possible, if you dont make as many mistakes as I did, but I would be game for Demigod too.

What do you think concerning The opponents? Maybe this game was a bit heavy on Scientists too? After all we want a slow tech pace. OTOH I dont really care if the AIs got usefull units for counterattack because there is never going to be one.

So how about america, hittites, Egypt, China and japan or arabia instead?

 

[Lanzelot]

Let's continue the discussion in the SG thread.