P3-02 - Hostile Takeover Inc.

[Meiz]

Yeah, we should research Chemistry next and then continue with SM. There's so much infra to be built, but we would need to rise an army as well. I'd already start to churn out some trebuchets while waiting for rifles. Drafting is probably the most efficient way for us to take Roosevelt out quickly.

We are way below of happy caps so let's grow our cities asap!

 

[PaulusIII]

Yeah, we should research Chemistry next and then continue with SM. There's so much infra to be built, but we would need to rise an army as well. I'd already start to churn out some trebuchets while waiting for rifles. Drafting is probably the most efficient way for us to take Roosevelt out quickly.

We are way below of happy caps so let's grow our cities asap!

Scientific Method makes no sense with the rules... what are we going to tech after that? Communism and Physics are only going to delay corps and Biology isn't a prime target until we are sure of that Great Merchant - I'd prefer heading for Railroad unless we get that GM quickly.

The only reason why I'd tech Scientific Method right now is as tradebait for Chem or RP.

Got it as well. I'm up now, right?

 

[Meiz]

Scientific Method makes no sense with the rules... what are we going to tech after that? Communism and Physics are only going to delay corps and Biology isn't a prime target until we are sure of that Great Merchant - I'd prefer heading for Railroad unless we get that GM quickly.

The only reason why I'd tech Scientific Method right now is as tradebait for Chem or RP.

We'll find out if we get a GM in 3 turns.

Got it as well. I'm up now, right?

Yep.

 

[Loki Strikes]

Medicine before RR... I am not sure which we should grab first... we don't have a GM atm, but biology will help a lot... RR techs give us levies + help towards rifling + AL...

I would probably go Medicine line as it trades a lot better, AI's love RP and SP, however this is Emperor so they are teching stupidly slow... slight lean medicine hear as food really is king, but I would be interested in counterarguments.

 

[nocho]

I'm fine either way... An extra avantage of going RR is that we can start churning out cannons with steel for hostile takeover activities. Biggest downside is that Mansa and Roosy already have chemistry and we have nothing to trade for it. That would be a plus of going SM.
Well, thinking of it a bit more I'm slightly inclined towards SM hoping to pick up chemistry in trade. With some luck WvO might get it shortly as well. If next great person is a GS, would it part bulb chemistry anyway? Might actually be SM... Again:

 

[Pindrus]

I think the advantage to MiningInc. is that it allows us to build up a war machine quicker. While in the long-run Sushi is probably more powerful it takes a while for cities to build up and to convert farms to workshops or w/e. Mining is working 100% as soon as it hits the city. As Loki says, it is also closer to military techs, so if our goal is to roll over FDR within the next few turnsets it is probably the better choice imho.

However, if a GM pops up in a few turns I could certainly see going for Sushi and waiting a bit for war. Though the game has gone on long enough without any from Shaka!

 

[PaulusIII]

Some overzealous proponent of progress has decided to put watermills in operation at the Ore Office... unfortunately, that took away irrigation so we had to fix it.

Techwise, I went RP->Steam Power while trading for Chem, Steel and Scientific Method. Unfortunately we got a GS, going by the name of Tycho Brahe... we should put extra merchants to work in the capital. Fortunately P) the GS pollution has gone away with Scientific Method

And now for the finale... *drumroll*

Gentlemen, I am proud to present you our first acquisition. While the board is still a bit anxious at the idea of trying to take over actual nations, we have captured the city of Hsung-Nu from the local tribes and are planning on fitting the city out for future acquisitions in the area.

We have also received two important reports from our industrial espionage division, important for our future plans.

INTEL REPORT - TOP SECRET
Concerning Mansa Musa

We have noted before that the economy of Mali is second to none - while Mansa was doing research he outresearched everyone including our American competitors. We have however noticed several oddities around Mali as of lately.

Firstly, we have no trouble at all obtaining information about the Malinese economy. The lack of security is especially noticeable as many of the other competitors are far better at guarding their assets and R&D, while Mali's budget is supposed to be larger than both ours and that of the Americans. We even know that he has developed the technology of Communism, which offers advanced intelligence gathering as well as despicable socialism. So why has he been slacking off in the intelligence department?

Secondly, because of this lack of security we noticed that his R&D budget is very small as well. He has literally been stuck on researching Physics forever, and as such we expect the Americans to beat him there.

We noticed in a survey in the Tourist Office that while not having much culturally remarkable wonders in the city such as Paris or Persepolis, several Malinese cities are well-regarded as holiday destinations because of the cultural climate in the cities. As such we might have found where Mansa has been spending his budget surplus. All this information makes us think he's up to something. As he's effectively halted R&D, I do not expect him to pose much trouble should we choose to take him on at a later stage.

INTEL REPORT - TOP SECRET
Concerning Roosevelt

Unfortunately, our American competitors are still ahead of us and we know he's been preparing something as he's amassing his forces. However, I do not believe that we have reason to worry about him. We have closely monitored all the troops entering and leaving their barracks in the cities, and we noticed that there was little activity in the border cities of Philadelphia, New York and San Francisco - most troops there are the longbowmen still making up the American garrison. We did notice abnormally high troop concentrations around the harbour cities in the southeast, and transport ships there as well. As such, we have reason to believe that Roosevelt is not aiming for us but instead another nation. Japan or Persia have been suggested as likely targets.

 

[Loki Strikes]

My bad on watermill... thought there was irrigation coming from elsewhere

What should we do with our Astronomer friend? Would an academy somewhere be prudent?

 

[PaulusIII]

Might be useful, but I really didn't have a clue what to do with the guy.

 

[Meiz]

I think it's about time to build some cannons soon. I'd suggest we use the GS to start golden age, push out the final infra while speeding up RR, Biology and hopefully our GM. Then we research Rifling, start to draft and take out Roosevelt.

I assume we are now going for Sid's Sushi and Mining Inc.? Should Riverside Office be our Wall Street city / corporation headquarters? Ironworks should probably go to Mine Operations.

Got it!

 

[Loki Strikes]

Corp HQ in riverside sounds okay, however Volcanic Office is the Jewish holy city... Also in volcanic office we need globe theatre, at the end of my set we were only 2 theatres away, we haven't had any more built at this point... Volcanic Office is building a custom house and doesn't have that many hammers to begin with it needs to be working on the GT.

Riverside will be a great exec spam city so we should spread it there as fast as possible regardless of if we found it there or not.

A golden age with scientist seems like a good idea, we can use it to swap into Judaism + pacifism to try to push out a merchant again... also slavery to whip into place theatres + globe theatre and probably nationhood + caste + FR at the end of the golden age.

 

[Meiz]

Preturn

Fire off a golden age with our scientist to get our next GP faster, and also to make a free revolt to Judaism + Pacificm + Slavery. Luckily I noticed that Volcanic Office is about to get a GP at the same time as HQ. One specialist is fired and the problem is solved.

Turn 1

As suspected by our intel, America declares war against Japan.

Turn 2

Louis makes an odd deal of trading our 780 gold for nothing and becomes annoyed by our obious answer. I'm not sure he understands how we do business, but surely he'll learn in time...

Turn 4

We start to build Wall Street in Riverside Office while Mine Operations is building Ironworks and Volcanic Office Globe Theatre.

Turn 5

Obtain another settlement from the island.

Turn 6

Railroad is learned, so we continue to Biology and pray for GM next turn.

An so we have our first corporation!

We get this event, but somehow I feel that Roosevelt has bigger things to worry about soon...

This is also our last turn of golden age, so we revolt to Free Religion, Caste system and Nationhood.

Turn 7

GA is over but for some reason I don't care...

Turn 9

Roosevelt captures his first city from Japan.

We are still missing one town from the island.

Turn 10

Tokugawa loses another city to Willem and capitulates to him.

Turn 12

Stop here to even the turns. Roosevelt just poisoned Riverside Offices water supply, so I feel a little sorry for still missing the rifles

We get this event, so I'm able to hire two artists to pop the borders next turn.

We also trade Rifling from Darius so now is the time to DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT!

Our HE city can build cannons every second turn, so we'll be ready soon.

Research is left to Medicine, obviously to get Sid's Sushi. Wall Street is about to finish so Riverside Office should spent the next century to build corporation executives.

Good luck!

 

[Pindrus]

This report deserves an exemplary performance review Meiz!

I cannot look at the save at the moment, but Roosevelt's attack on Japan may have opened a key window of opportunity for rapid advancement of Hostile Takeover's charter statement. Depending on current American defense readiness, non-peaceful territorial acquisitions could perhaps commence even within a few years. Though, of course, expansion of our corporate influence takes top priority--profits before market share as General Motors shows, right?

It seems that the R&D Department's appendix was lost on my copy of the report, but I believe they may be in need of some direction if they are close to developing medicines. Without looking at the research possibilities, I might suggest pursuit of internal combustion engines to bolster the naval forces.

 

[Meiz]

Unfortunately Roosevelt has riflemen, grenadiers and cavalry already, so we need to prepare for some even fights.

We haven't invested any breakers for Medicine and currently it takes 10 turns to research it. I would probably head to Assembly Line after that.

Nocho is up btw.

 

[nocho]

Ok, got it, but won't play before Wednesday, so ample time to comment!

I guess the key is "DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT" as you stated...

Oh, and since I'm a real corporation noob, where do we found Sushi? Also in wall street city, or can you only found one per city? See, I rarely use them ...

 

[Pindrus]

Found Sushi in the Wallstreet city. Corporations co-exist as long as they don't use the same resources/compete. So Sushi uses fish, crabs, clams & rice, while Mining uses Gold, Silver, Iron, Copper, and Coal--so no overlap there. We probably want both in just about every useful city, at least that's how I usually play.

 

[Loki Strikes]

Get mining spread to all troop producing cities (HE especially ASAP, when we have sushi in, workshop over farms for production boost... steam roll time)

Who cares if Roose is at parity, we will troop spam + human tactic him out of the game.

 

[Pindrus]

I concur with Mr. Loki. With RR we can bring in a few Machine Guns to act as stack defenders. Rifles and cannons should bring down rifle garrisons with the sacrifice of a few of the latter.

 

[nocho]

I had a very quick look at the save. Very few things to comment, main thing is that I think it's better to found the "missing town" on the island 1 SW from where the sign is (1SE of the fish). Darius' border popped already and where the sign is a future city may suffer a bit from cultural pressure. Moreover it could get at the fish without need for a border pop and if need be get irrigation up north.

Will send mining executives to our productive cities. Do we want to send them abroad as well and if yes, to whom first?

AL after medicine sounds good to me, but will probably just play the 10 turns to when medicine is in. Hope to play this evening CET.

 

[nocho]

A quiet set of turns before all hell would break loose.

1650 was the year that cunning minds in the public relations offices in Group Headoffice devised a publicitary campaign to draw young men from their basketball courts in the soon to be fearsome Zulu army. They came up with posters such a these.

In the background the flag of the first target of the nation.

Drafting was fierce and unrelenting and especially the western seaside cities offered lots of young men willing to fight for the fatherland, getting them off working ocean tiles, when they were not playing basket, that is.

This basically continued till the year 1700.

Not many noteworthy events passed by, if it were not for the greatest monument the nation could hope for.

And the founding of a new town:

Not on the sign for the reasons given in my previous post, hope you don't mind. I just realized I didn't give it a proper name. Next player, please, do so! Island Office or whatever, or something more creative...

Mining executives have been sent to Naval Opps, Mining Opps and HO and a new one has just been built. Do we want to spread abroad?

1700 Medicine comes in and we build Sid's Sushi. Ironworks just finished in Mining Opps. I hand it off here with all units left to move. The only thing I did this turn was founding the Sushi thing, so we can also still draft this turn.

I think time has come to start using some force. The current army looks like this, highlighted the units that matter for offensive stacks.

In the next pictures the stacks in Naval Opps and HO, with hover information about the defences in New York and Philadelphia respectively. In the north, San Francisco has 2 lousy rifles and a grenadier (and a loose cav), same defences as Washington has. So I think it's a good time to strike, possibly even in this turn. Note the airships by the way. Another reason to attack now is that Roosy just got assembly line so can start building infantry.
Obviously next player should make proper stacks, but everything is railroaded so we can enter American territory in 1 turn from both Naval Opps and HO.

Before declaring war on Roosy however, I would first release him from his cash as he has 2000 spare change right now! He's not in US so can't rushbuy infantry, but still, I say trade around medicine. Roosy gives democracy+2000 for it and will throw in archery as well! Yay! This way we can also pick up physics from Dario or Mansa for medicine.

Finally, the resources screen. As we just built Sushi we can get seafood from many people. Note that we both import and export coal. We need happy resources as emancipation unhappiness is starting to build up, as well as the presence of unhappy draftee's mothers who fear the lives of their sons in the upcoming hostilities. I read in a strategy article on these forums that with corporations it's usually worth it to give gpt for resources. I'm no expert on that but we may have to consider that.

Anyway, I think war must be imminent.



Pindrus, have fun with it and good luck!