R&L02 - The Missing Fleece

[rrau]

preflight (1500ad)

ok

turn 1 (1505ad)

worker actions and moving troops

ibt: we get a palace expansion

turn 2 (1510ad)

worker actions and moving troops

ibt: get the message to build Wall street

turn 3 (1515ad)

worker actions and moving troops
Switch Karakorum to Wall Street in 4
China knows radio so is probably building radars

turn 4 (1520ad)

worker actions and moving troops

ibt: lost our wines from China.

turn 5 (1525ad)

worker actions and moving troops
Buy WM from Mao, see some radar towers have been built. Our military is still average compared to theirs.
Decisions, decisions. DoW on Mao or buy more wine?
With Radars and infantry, I decide buy wines for 97gpt from Mao to give us time to get tanks. (could have bought it for steel, but I want us to be first to tanks)

turn 6 (1530ad)

worker actions

ibt: complete Wall street.

turn 7 (1535ad)

worker actions

turn 8 (1540ad)

worker actions

turn 9 (1545ad)

worker actions

turn 10 (1550ad)

worker actions
China just learned steel this turn.
Mass production is due in 5
Karakorum is building an army to fill with tanks.

 

[Bede]

Got it.

Looks around for an opponent to kill.....

Peering into corners....

 

[Elmarae]

R&L was worried about rrau and I being warmongers....

Bede

 

[jb1964]

@rrau, did US come in? Good call to not go to war w/ Mao at this time.

@Bede & Elmarae - leave me something to shoot. Although my last set was enjoyably calm I'm in the mood to open up someone w/ both barrels.

 

[rrau]

yes, we got US in 1540.

 

[Elmarae]

@jb I promise to leave you a settler or two to hunt down... assuming Bede leaves me anything.

At least I have this comment in the right thread now

 

[RowAndLive]

R&L was worried about rrau and I being warmongers....

I wasn't worried at war at all. I was making a joke of jb and I being builders at heart, and keeping us apart.

 

[Bede]

@jb I promise to leave you a settler or two to hunt down... assuming Bede leaves me anything.

Not to worry Elmarae, Armageddon shall be yours, I've just been doing the warm-up.

 

[Bede]

Armageddon shall be yours

My objectives for this set required getting control of a winery, putting a spoke in the Chinese research wheel, and getting Mao to use up some of his troops.

So started by loading cavalry into some boats and setting sail for the coast of Japan, declaring war on on India and getting an alliance with China against India. Then sold China Combustion for everything he had that I wanted(Communism, 350g+240gpt). This worked in four ways: 1) it pulled the Chinese offensive troops to the east; 2) by 1555 the Chinese Democracy was in anarchy on its way towards becoming the People's Republic of China; 3) the Chinese people were broke and their treasury never grew above ~250 in ten turns; 4) they learned nothing in ten turns after several rounds of 4-5 turn research.

Collected the two Indian towns on the island with a couple of cavalry attacks. Then once the ships arrived off the coast of Japan signed an RoP with Mao for safe passage, positioned a bunch of troops, and declared war on my real target, Japan. By 1570 Japan was no longer a factor and we controlled the Napa Valley wineries.

From then on it was a matter of watching Mao roll up the Indian cities, tending to the research pace (MassProd then MoT and on to Flight right on time with a lot of science farming to hold the costs down).

In 1595 the Chinese had finished the Indians

and we had one tank army in place and another 8 tanks off the production line.

We have three cities capable of tanks in 2, three capable of infantry in 2, and whole bunch able build tanks in three or infantry in three. (Once we turn the science rate down we can use a cavalry short rush to increase the number of towns capable of tanks in two: rush a worker for 80g (10 shields)then a cav for 320g (90shields), last ten from native production. With an income of >1000g, that is at least two additional tanks every two if we don't want to cut into capital. We could also mobilize for a production boost on the interturn as most of our infra work is done I think.

Here is the state of Beijing in 1600:

The RoP with Mao and the 200+gpt deal have about ten to run, though I would be surprised if Mao lets them. I would use what time we have to build the forces in both the homeland and the Napa Valley. I have built a defense line of fortresses across the border with China, providing interlocking fields of fire for artillery and staffed them with tubes and infantry. Keep building them up.

I envision the coming war as a modified Hammer and Anvil, with a major armored push supported by artillery and infantry from the east (the Hammer), and a more slowly moving Anvil of cavalry and armor and infantry from the west.


All but one of the cavalry armies are in the Valley. March them across China towards the homeland laying waste to everything in your path.

Projected campaign plan:

Operation Anvil

In the interim before the war starts the worker horder could fill the gaps in the fortress line to create a "Corridor of Death". As enemy troops move across in front of a fortress line they will take "zone of control" hits from the units stationed there and can be destroyed when they reach the end.

I'll be watching with great interest.

 

[Elmarae]

Got it..

So if China starts a war, it's raze their cities? unless there is a wonder we want?

 

[Bede]

Rip 'em. And don't worry about the wonders. It's only us and them and only one will be standing at the end.....

Just remember, pillage first, then burn....

 

[RowAndLive]

Objectives completed. Mission accomplished. Excellent set-up, Bede!
I'll be optimistic and say that it looks like Mao won't live long enough to get back to me, but I'll just have to wait and see.

Since we have all of the lux items again, perhaps we should go for a cultural win?

 

[jb1964]

Very sweet setup Bede.

When short rushing I would look at disbanding an obsolete or plentiful unit rather than paying the 80g for the first 10 sheilds.

Culture win? I just don't see it in the cards, or mountains, as is the case here.

Elmarae, I don't think you need to wait for China to start the war as there's nobody left to offend, IIRC. I would keep 'em long enough to keep the units on the road/rails and then abandon after moving on.

However, do with Mao as is your want. The term "Spank me!" comes to mind at this moment.

 

[RowAndLive]

Fully agreed. There is no one to worry about offending.

 

[Bede]

@jb, didn't even consider the disbanding of units, but we have a very long front to cover and hardly enough units as it is. Unless we used workers to get the first couple of shields but we have more cash then needed and a prety good income.

 

[Elmarae]

Plan of attack:
Phase one is to is ROPR to Pillage either all the Rubber or Oil in China's control. Only New Beijing is build on Rubber. Investigate Bombay (56g) and see that China has 4 Rubber and 4 Oil.
Phase two will be to remove his luxuries (one of those is our fleece): Looking at Bombay still I see he has : 1 Gem, 2 Silks, 3 Furs and Ivory, 4 Spices, Dyes and Wine, 5 Incense. (I will remove them from least to first)
Phase three will be mop up his rioting ass. The only tanks in Tiananmen Square will be ours.

The pillaging will be done with our cavalry, will need 2 per square (one to remove the railroad and one to remove the road.

Any city 3 squares from the border I'll put 1 Art 3 Inf. Spread the rest of the inf along the border 2 units if possible, or 1 Inf 1 Cav...

In the slightly corrupt cites, ones that can't make Inf/Tanks/Art in at least 4 turns will make Settlers to expand our borders into the claimed territory. Does a size 1 town give a def bonus? or would we have to get it to size 6 or 7?

As long as we can survive the first counter attack with most of our forces intact we will have a constant stream of Tanks to wear down China's combat ability.

 

[Elmarae]

Well... Finished my 10 turns finally... Sorry it took so long.

Spreading out the infantry 2 a square along the border, with the remainder assigned to protect the Artillery. I decided to pull troops from the cities to bolster the border, leaving all of them undefended, I didn't think it was too much of a risk and if China did break through I didn't think they would be able to advance far. Fortuneately it never became an issue, the few times they did break through they never progressed far and where easily repulsed.

The Cavalry charged out to the locations of the rubber (I now realise I should have used Inf as well for defence. I also removed China's access to Dyes and Incense.

The Counter-Attack was brutal, with China losing a few units to the Cavalry.

Then I started a systematic attack of which ever city was in range of the artillery. Pound it into the ground, walk in with troops. I took an average of one City a turn. Moving Settlers into the newly claimed territory, abandoning the captured city and settling, expanding our borders for further attacks.

At one point, China had a Cavalry Army. It attacked Nara and one single Marine defeated it... flawlessly. He promoted to elite so I renamed him Defender of Nara.

Claimed Leonardo's Workshop and lost it the next turn to a flip, so took the city again and razed it. Fixed that problem.

China tried a counter attack over the mountains close to the Arab lands, For 2 turns he moved units into that area, about 20 Cavalry and 10 Inf. I just let him build it up as the units were land locked, they could only move one square a turn. When they were one turn away from being able to advance onto flat ground that's when the Artillery left the front lines and moved to attack. Redlining all the enemy forces with the Artillery, I then proceeded to attack with all our veteran tanks, quite a few promoted to Elite and one Leader was also spawned.

Now we have 3 Tank Armies (named 1st 2nd and 3rd Tank Division.)

The Cities that are corrupt are currently building settlers, even though it would take 30 turns. As needed a settler can be rush built. I've been using the workers to rail everywhere even if we aren't going to use the square to make cleaning up pollution easier, and also to be more forgiving of a misclick on direction and losing movement.

It took 8 turns to research Flight because of war weariness. So radio is only just started, I put research to 0% so that the next player had some gold to play with and they would have a choice of upping research or not.

China will talk peace and will give peace for 700g, option is to declare peace, take gold and then declare war in the same turn. It's not like our rep means anything now. Or we could try leaving a city undefended to see if China takes the bait and declares on us. The city closest to China's capital would probably be the best bait.

The city Captured is an occupied city, I kept it for the purpose of putting cities in the 3 corners with the settlers currently being built in the Arab lands. Using the rails in occupied territory then abandoning the city and founding the new ones. There are a few inf builds due to provide defence for those cities.

I started some Destroyer builds because there are some Ironclads bombarding the terrain, (one spent 4 turns bombing a railroad on a mountain, it wasn't even mined)

The A's represent where the artillery is in 2 groups. The T's are where our tank armys are. C is where I propose we build cities for Science farming.

Typically I cycled what each city produced if they could build in less than 5 turns. Tank > Artillery > Inf > Tank. Mobilisation is probably the way to go, there is very little infrastructure that needs to be built.

Good luck jb!

- Roster -
rrau - In the back room
Bede - Cooling his heels
Elmarae - Just done
jb1964 - UP
R&L - On Deck

 

[Bede]

Crush 'em all, say I. Doesn't look like we need a breather.

 

[Elmarae]

Yes I agree...

But I think we should get the 700 gold off China and declare peace. Vacate the town near the capital, leaving it undefended. If China takes the bait and declares, we have War Happiness. Otherwise at the start of the next turn, declare war and attack.

 

[jb1964]

Turn 0 – 1650 AD
Well, we have all the lambs and I don’t see a prohibition against Communism so we’ll make the switch. The quickest way to end this will be to steamroll Mao but our people aren’t going to let us keep this war going. We draw six turns of anarchy.

IBT:
One notable Chinese attack resulted in the loss of Mao’s cavalry army. Moron.

Turn 1 – 1655 AD
The war weariness is gone. But then again, so is any productivity.
It would seem Mao’s forces are in tatters but over the next 6 turns we’ll play it safe.
We bomb Beijing silly killing off 7 population but the defending units remain relatively in tact.
An elite cavalry wins creates another GL. I rename the unit “Dean” after my cousin that was in the US Cavalry. He’s a real horse nut that spent most of his service riding in funerals. The tank army is named 5th Tank division.
We loosen up the defensive lines a bit to reposition a few infantry. Now it’s time to stave off the starvation.

IBT: Mao seems hell-bent on getting his cavalry killed but does manage to wound a defending infantry and then pick off the tank it was defending, our only loss during this IBT.
Ironclads pummel our shores with the force of a mighty fart. JB is left shaking on the floor, apoplectic, and tucked in a fetal position. I can’t wait to build some destroyers.

Turn 2 – 1660 AD
Beijing’s population has dropped by two so Mao’s been recruiting.
We pick off the cavalry and a rifle doing a little leader farming.
Bomb Beijing silly and it falls w/o any units lost. Elite cavalry scores us another GL and we form another tank army. Move in a settler, abandon, resettle.
Killed a musket and unhooked a coal and a spice in the west.

IBT:
An infantry and cavalry are lost while Mao provides us many targets of opportunity.

Turn 3 – 1665 AD
Lost an elite cavalry trying to leader farm in the west. We take Gordium.
Elite attacks in the east score us another GL. Will have to wait for more tanks to fill the army.
Bomb Ulaanbalamajama and bring armies up to clobber next turn. Several of our armies are healing.

IBT:
“Captured” attracts many cavalry attacks that kill a defending infantry. More Chinese cavalry and infantry units come up for elimination.

Turn 4 – 1670 AD
Picked off units, bombed, captured, abandoned and resettled on Ulaanbaatar.

IBT:
Mao brings up more troops for elimination. No losses. I get the distinct feeling that each turn the AI is skimming a minimum of units from all remaining cities to mount these feeble attacks.

Turn 5 – 1675 AD
Picked off units, bombed, captured, abandoned and resettled on Nanking.

IBT:
Many cavalry and infantry attacks result in the loss of an infantry.
A warship and transport appears near our island.
We are now Commie.

Turn 6 – 1680 AD
Picking off troops we get another GL
Positioning for an attack on Kaifeng.
Radio in 10.

IBT:
We lose an infantry that was pillaging furs and shore bombardment disconnects our only wine.

Turn 7 – 1685 AD
We loose some WLTK cities thanks to the disconnected wine.
Whip an infantry out of Captured.
Captured Satsuma.
The battle of Kaifeng generates a GL. We now have two empty armies awaiting tanks.
We’re out of settlers for the moment so we’ll keep Kaifeng.
We end the turn using the whip liberally.

IBT:
Lost a few infantry guarding a stack of 8 arty. The PRNG is favoring the Chinese cavalry and infantry.
China finally lands a lone cavalry on our island.

Turn 8 – 1690 AD
Recaptured our arty.
Kill off the cavalry w/ an elite. No GL.
Filled two tank armies w/ our freshly whipped tanks.
Moving mounted troops out of the west to cut off Asia Minor (silks & oil), the southern most territory owned by China that reminds me of Italy.

IBT:
Choyr takes exception to its recent treatment and riots.

Turn 9 – 1695 AD
4th, 5th, 7th and 8th Tank Divisions take Chengdu after brutal bombardment brings it to size 5.
Pillage Mao's oil. More liberal use of the whip.
Make peace w/ Mao for 1480g.

IBT:
Mao demands that we leave. We refuse. It's go time again! Yes, this was evil.

Turn 10 – 1700 AD
Pick off more of those units that keep trying to snake deep into our territory.
Found a few cities to fill in the gaps that the Chinese keep trying to exploit. I was temped to keep this valley of death open but sooner or later it will bite me.
Bomb and blitz Taejon taking it w/ a remaining population of 2. We keep it.

Notes:
There are 6 tank armies and two settlers with movement. We have 8 tank divisions.
Kaifeng’s still in resistance. Once it calms down I would whip a tank.
We have a number of destroyers that have driven off or sank the ironclads in our NW.
China has a few battleships, destroyers and transports roaming about.