Phaedo02- Rage_Against_The_Machine

[Phaedo]

Oh, I think there are a few more sets left in this one. Let's just keep the regular order. I'll get to mine in a few hours so Tusker will probably have it by the weekend.

I'll use my best judgement for the builds. Did Alex have any subs when you checked his forces? If so, maybe a destroyer or 2 rather than battleships might be the better call. I guess it's just the AEGIS that defends so nicely against bombers so it would only be a sub concern.

 

[Bucephalus]

Oh, I think there are a few more sets left in this one. Let's just keep the regular order. I'll get to mine in a few hours so Tusker will probably have it by the weekend.

I'll use my best judgement for the builds. Did Alex have any subs when you checked his forces? If so, maybe a destroyer or 2 rather than battleships might be the better call. I guess it's just the AEGIS that defends so nicely against bombers so it would only be a sub concern.

I'm not sure if he had any subs, but he did have more destroyers than you could shake a stick at (even a pointy stick!), so I'm not sure it really makes a difference what we send - he's got enough naval firepower to sink 20 Battleships; I just wanted to have some kind of defence for the transports.

So I'm not sure seeing subs would help; if we're not at war, we can't sink them, if we are at war, we're sunk anyway.

The other consideration was shields - Battleships would waste no shields, destroyers will.

As you like, though. You're steering the ship.

 

[Bucephalus]

Thanks

Either way works for me, but I do really want to play again before this game ends!

Not only will you get to play again, but if all goes well in my set, you will have the most decisive set in the whole game.

If I steal Computers, it's likely that the Eastern fleet wil be two turns off the Greek coast, and the Western fleet will be in harbour ready to sail, again two turns from Greece.

It will be your job to land the forces and capture their Uranium.

So, no pressure then.

 

[Phaedo]

Pre-turn: Take a tour, MM a bit and change some builds to tanks.

IBT Manhattan is built

T1 1605AD
From T1 -- T4 (1620AD): Not much. Do a little trimming with the workers and move units around so I can better see what we have.Clear Pollution and work the Dutch island. In 1610 (T2), make an MPP deal on the IBT. As we are going to break the deal, I thought it would ensure us some peace.Pollution slowed down Tokyo's Battleship build so rushed it on T4.
Rush the army

T5 (1625AD) -- T10 (1650AD)
Not much happened. Kept clearing pollution and railing the Dutch island so it will be more easily defended. Rushed the Army on T6 (1630AD) so another one will be ready to be rushed on Buce's first turn. I also built an airstrip in the tundra in the south so we can use the one on the Dutch island.

Current forces:
70 infantry
61 SAMs
11 tanks
9 armies
22 transports (11 on each side)
4 Battleships
27 arty
8 bombers
3 jets

All and all, a very uneventful set

I think we could boot Alex out without resistance and the rest of the Dutch island could finish being railed.

In the South, there is a stack of 30 SAMs, 10 infantry and 5 armies with 4infantry (unloaded) each.

In the North4 army combos and 25 SAMs

Spoiler :

 

[Bucephalus]

make an MPP deal on the IBT. As we are going to break the deal, I thought it would ensure us some peace.

Not only that; if Alex was to DOW, he'd have to DOW on himself straight after - good thinking.

OK, is there anything we need to discuss or can I play it tonight?

I've just looked at the save; although we're a bit behind on the Armies (they needed rushing with 5 turns left, not 4), if I get a successful steal on Computers, I can have us 1 turn off the Greek coast for Tusker's set.

I'm thinking it's best to leave those Greek units on Dutch Island until we are ready to go; if Tusker gives the boot order on turn 1, Alex might DOW and give us some War Happiness - He would be the aggressor then.

Edit: I've just re-read your post; if Manhattan is built it might be wise to rush those Armies and go on my last couple of turns - he has Space Flight, which means he can make tactical nukes.

I'm thinking the quicker we take his Uranium now, the better; what do you think?

 

[Bucephalus]

I'm going to hold off until tomorrow night since no-one is on-line.

The bottom line is that if we get a successful steal on Computers, I can have our Armies on the U by turn 10; Alex has Space Flight, and Manhattan means he now has access to Nukes.

I'll wait for opinions, though.

 

[Phaedo]

I agree that the earlier the war the better. If you can successfully get PCs, we get MI armies, which would be ideal. If not, it means infantry armies right? Are we strong enough? If you think so, go for it.

 

[Bucephalus]

I agree that the earlier the war the better. If you can successfully get PCs, we get MI armies, which would be ideal. If not, it means infantry armies right? Are we strong enough? If you think so, go for it.

I guess it all hinges on Computers; I can get six Armies on each U source, with 30 SAM's each for air cover - and I think those Armies need to be MI's.

If the steal fails, we'll need to postpone if Alex DOW's; if it succeeds, I don't think we're ever going to be stronger, and he must be building his ship now.

I'd be a lot happier if we had Battlefield Medicine but we don't; whether it's enough....well that's in the lap of the Gods.

I'm hoping their Bombers are still at sea so they will have to re-deploy before they can start bombing - I'm not certain that SAM's defend if they are not fortified. I can only hope so; do you have any knowledge of this?

The Eastern fleet is the most vulnerable because it will be at sea for 3 turns before the Western fleet sails if I'm to coordinate the landings, as I must.

I think the MPP was a good idea; if we hook up some lux's to sell it's got to help, and they are in Demo so they are less likely to initiate hostilities than before.

Anyway, I guess it's down to 007 now.

 

[Norton II]

Sounds good to me. Let's take out his uranium as soon as possible.

 

[Bucephalus]

Another thought occurs:

Once war begins, if we can steal Space Flight we can build a few Tactical Nukes; they would make a mess of any big naval stacks that get too close, especially nice if we can pinpoint their Carriers with Fighter recons.

 

[Phaedo]

I like the tactical nuke idea. I was thinking about cruise missiles but they just don't seem cost effective.

 

[Elephantium]

What's the plan if:

* We fail to steal computers?
* We lose our spy in a failed steal attempt?
* Alex DOWs on us after we fail to steal computers?

Other than wondering about our backup plan, I'm pretty happy with our direction. Now is a good time to make the attempt for Computers - we can't afford to let Alex build a big stockpile of nukes and/or get started on Uranium-requiring ship parts!

 

[Bucephalus]

What's the plan if:

* We fail to steal computers?
* We lose our spy in a failed steal attempt?
* Alex DOWs on us after we fail to steal computers?

Well, although it was too late to play the set last night, I did attempt the steal:

Spoiler :

So you will inherit an action packed set. Enjoy.

 

[Bucephalus]

I like the tactical nuke idea. I was thinking about cruise missiles but they just don't seem cost effective.

I'm a big fan of Cruise; some of those Arty builds are still 40+ turns from completion, whereas if they were switched to Cruise they will finish in less than 10, just in time for the war.

They are lethal bombard, and used in conjunction with Bombers or Arty they are devastating, just the job for hitting any ships that come too close.

 

[Phaedo]

I haven't used them much. It just seemed like a lot of shields for a one time hit. Although if the arty builds are switched, that really doesn't affect the main military builds. The lethal bombard is nice though. Bombers do as well, yes? Would you use cruise as a final attack or the first one?

So, we wait 4 turns and try again I guess. Do we just send infantry armies or do we wait the 4? I suppose we have committed to the invasion and infantry armies are pretty tough. We just do it without MIs.

 

[Bucephalus]

I haven't used them much. It just seemed like a lot of shields for a one time hit. Although if the arty builds are switched, that really doesn't affect the main military builds. The lethal bombard is nice though. Bombers do as well, yes? Would you use cruise as a final attack or the first one?

I use them first if using Bombers, second if using them with Arty; they give three big bangs - enough to sink a regular ship in one - and they are relitively cheap. They are best built in semi corrupt cities where you don't want to waste the shields on wealth but Bombers, Tanks etc take too long.

So, we wait 4 turns and try again I guess. Do we just send infantry armies or do we wait the 4? I suppose we have committed to the invasion and infantry armies are pretty tough. We just do it without MIs.

I think you should re-open my spoiler and scroll down a bit.

 

[Phaedo]

Gotcha

 

[Bucephalus]

Gotcha

BTW, you only need to wait 4 turns to attempt to plant a Spy after a failed attempt at doing so; a failed attempt at theft doesn't stop you trying again if your Spy escapes undetected, nor does it prevent you trying to re-plant your Spy if he's caught and killed.

Except that he would be dead, so it would need to be someone different.

 

[Elephantium]

Whee! Carnage time! This weekend is going to be fun!

 

[Bucephalus]

OK. Preparations can begin.
Rush Army;
Move Workers in to position to hook up lux's;
Upgrade Infantry;
Move Eastern fleet to Groningen;
Switch some of the more advanced Arty builds to SAM's;
Rush Barracks in Dreft to upgrade Infantry on Dutch Island;
Switch a number of builds to Jet Fighters for off shore recon, Bombers to follow;
Any other advanced Arty builds switched to Cruise missiles - all will be ready inside 10 turns - we have 22 Arty pieces on the mainland, which should be enough in conjunction with the Bombers and Tanks to get anything that lands, and I'm hoping the Cruise will stop those landings by destroying shipping.
As soon as the Barracks in Dreft is complete, I intend to mobilize; the extra shields don't help Bombers but they do Tanks and Mech Infantry - not sure about Cruise.
I'm going to have to rush three Armies in 6 turns but if I disband our Infantry Army in Osaka it will offset the cost of one of them.
Disband Frigate and a Galleon;

Enter:

Turn 1)

Osaka completes Army;
Disband Infantry Army in Osaka, Rush Army;
Connect Lux's;
Various Fighter/ Bomber builds;
Upgrade Infantry on Dutch Island;
Transport reinforcements and Arty;
Trade lux's to Alex - the thief will only give 2 for 3, but it should help keep him happy, we hope.

Turn 2)

Complete Army in Osaka, begin another;
Alex completes SETI;
Begin moving MI's to cover our best cities from Marines.
Chop forests on Dutch Island to deny cover to Greek troops.

Turn 3)

Load 6 Armies with MI, load transports with Armies and SAM's;
The Eastern Fleet sails for Greece!
Rush Army in Osaka;
Various builds;

Turn 4)

Army completed in Osaka - one more and the Western Fleet can sail;
Various builds;
We now have 13 Bombers in Amsterdam - there are 27 Greek units on Dutch Island;
Transport 6 Tanks there.

Turn 5)

Greece adds SS Docking Bay to their ship;
Rush our last Army;
Rush remaining 5 SAM's - the Eastern Fleet sails next turn:
Various builds.

Turn 6)

Greece adds SS Cockpit to their ship - this would not be a good time to find that they have another source of U that we've missed;
Last Army completed;
Load Armies with MI's
Load on Transports with 30 SAM's;
The Western Fleet sets sail;
Eastern Fleet in position off Greek coast.

And with battle looming large, General Buce takes a 20 minute break.

Turn 7)

As dawn breaks over the mighty Greek Empire our brave Sons of Nippon hit the beaches - the Eagle has landed!

Greece adds SS Life Support to their Ship;

We hit Greek units hard on Dutch Island - Arty & Bombers make inroads, Tanks take out red-lined units.


Turn 8)

The Eastern Army secures one U - no bombing;
The Western Army moves to one tile away from the second source - no bombing;

Greek units attack and lose on Dutch Island.

Succesfully steal Space Flight;
Greece has 7 Tactical Nukes and 7 Nuclear Subs.
They also have Satellites, but no ICBM's;
The massacre on Dutch Island continues but there are a few hold outs in the mountains still.
Still no bombing of the Armies.

Turn 9)

The ******** Nuked us! But they wasted them on a couple of Northern tax farms;
Heavy bombing of Dutch Island but they have just three units left;
Our Armies finally attract some Bombers but shoot them all down with the SAM's
Rush Army to fill with Tanks - we are bound to get some landings.
Successfully steal Satellites - now we can build ICBM's.

Those Nukes have brought on some serious WW; lux to 10% - if it needs to go up to 20% we are better off as a Monarchy.
I've re-based the Bombers to Groningen - our recon has showed up where their Carriers are and they are in range.

Turn 10)

Greece adds SS Fuel Cells to their ship

Big invasion fleet off the NW coast.

It costs 4 Bombers but we sink 2 Carriers (and presumably 8 Bombers) and 5 Destroyers.
Arty and Cruise sink transport off the NW coast.
Dutch Island clear now.

As far as I can see, we got to their U just in time; they have just one component left that needs it (SS Stasis Chamber due with Robotics)

We can begin our own SS just as soon as we feel that we have enough homeland defence - if we can get another couple of Tank Armies together it should be enough with Arty and Cruise and Bombers.

It will be tough but they are ignoring our invasion force, as expected.

So it's build and steal and fight from now on; the fighting we can handle - the AI is rubbish at amphibious landings, though it will be a bit of a hard fight when they get MA's. We definitely need Tank Armies.
They are down to their last 14 Bombers, though.

I've set Kagoshima to build the Apollo program which is due in 9 turns.

I doubt that our people will take another Nuke without us needing to change Govt.

They have 5 Tacticals left, but if they waste them on our Northern cities like last time, we'll be OK - they can't build any more without U.

When we can spare a city to do so it would be good to knock out a few ICBM's of our own - lets give the people of Athens a touch of radiation poisoning.

I've left a couple of SAM builds running - they bombed our Bombers last time so they could do with a bit more protection, but that should be enough - I think Tanks and Bombers and Nukes will do the job for us.


>>THE SAVE<<