Random-01: The Wheels Come Off

[njorls]

Peace broke out

Peacetime civics

Wang's stack that invaded France

We got a great artist in Perseopolis, suggest a golden age

Wang's stack near our western borders, he's got airships, infantry, marines and a machine gun

Our airships are stuck, I put a sign and started a settler where we need a city so they can move westward

 

[pawelo]

Things look up

Still, I don't like Wang having Infantry - we will have to swarm him with our guys to break him.

Can we redirect all EP on him to get a clear view of his power?

How many turns do we stay in peace before DoWing our main opponent ?

 

[azaris]

A few points:

Keep track of where Wang's stacks are. The first thing we must do when we DoW is to smash them.

Save the GA for when we want to switch to wartime civics. I think this burns the GM also, but maybe Sushi is not a priority for us.

Infantry and MGs can be handled but only if we have enough airships. Then we can declare on Korea.

Make sure we have jails in place. WW will be an issue.

It's stuge up next, isn't it?

 

[stuge]

Let's see what I can get Wang for christmas.

 

[njorls]

I thought it was just 1 great person to get a GA, don't have the game in front of me. We're spiritual so we haven't needed them for civics changes yet. We captured Maudeleum of Maussos so it should be a 15 turn GA.

Forgot to mention that most of our stack was in Dijon

 

[stuge]

I used the GA for a nifty 15-turn Golden age. Talk about a major boost. The GM was sent to Pacal's capital for a trade mission that yielded 3450 gold. The idea was to use that cash to upgrade our rifles in Dijon to infantry. I realised too late that units cannot be upgraded in vassal territory. :weed: Oh well, we now have a nice budget surplus and I upgraded our rifles in the centre of the map, since Wang has a SoD holed up in his city there.

Regarding Louis, I gifted him a bunch of resources and sci. method and steam power. I figured we'd better make him as useful as possible. We could give him physics and assembly line, because then he might actually be of some use against Wang. He could trade them around, but I think that wouldn't hurt us too much.

Teching went finish assembly line-> steel-> railroad. We now have our workers automated, laying down railroad tracks. I usually trust the task to them, especially with a big empire. If the next guy feels ready for the MM, be my guest. I realize that this isn't optimal (team)gameplay, but I was feeling lazy. Research is set to electricity, going for industrialism and marines. We could also go combustion-> flight-> facism for paratroopers.

The military build-up consisted mostly of airships. I positioned the stacks of four around Wang's borders, so they can inflict maximum damage. Our stack is still in Dijon. Other stacks are in the center of the map.

Wang will be a tough nut. He can build tanks and marines now. Fortunately he has only one source of oil, coming from an offshore platform. Let's hope that airships can destroy those. I suggest that we wait until the end of the GA, switch to wartime civics and DOW Korea, drafting infantry and hoping to overwhelm him.

Pawelo is up to get the slaughter started. (Better you than me. )

SAVE

 

[pawelo]

stuge, this won't be forgotten

I already have a nice warring coming up for the OCC, I'm up to do some civing tomorrow

Got it for the best and the worst...

 

[pawelo]

God it's a crazy thing to go swarming tanks land with cavs...

Still, it's not that bad.
I stopped one turn earlier because we have decisions to take on what do we want to do.

I got the game with 5 turns of GA remaining - used wisely to get more and more Airships done. God I love them - they are a breathe of fresh air in our current war.

I checked for oil and it turned out Wang had two sources - the offshore platform and Tours, which is placed directly on oil. I decided to dispatch the whole Rifle army and a nice pack of Cavs from Dijon to the north.

We go Oxford in Constantinople. I put every single city on military duty.
On the last GA turn, revolted to Nationhood and Police State.
I drafted 3 infantries asap - did the same every following turn.

GA finished in turn 445. We discovered Electricity and started Industrialism for Marines.

Settled the Airship City:



We got a Great Prophet born in Thebes. I put him asleep for group decision.

When everything was ready, it was time to go:



Several airships bombarded Tours, and we got the city with several Cavalries lost :



Oil is ours. One more to go.
Tours suffer a SoD attack, losing every single combat against tanks and marines... Wounded Wang troops retreat to Pyongyang. I upgrade all remaining Rifles to Infantries.

Unfortunately the offshore platform is impossible to bombard with Airships. Therefore, I attack with a full-50 cav stack on the southern city of Avar.



Captured with some Airships bombing and almost 10 cavs dead... Hard times for horses

The oil is still in Korea influence, therefore I stop to discuss plans.

Here is the situation on the relevant front:



Every single oil turn, the Wang gets Tanks. He has six of them in Pyongyang, one more in Seoul. Marines are pretty much everywhere. He still has some Cavs and cannons, but he suicided most of them on Tours.
We are a little bit stronger, but it's rather illusionnal.

A nice stack progresses in the middle of the wheel on Zapotec. We have Airships down there, as well as near Korea, in several french and our cities.
I keps some spies in Korean territory to guide Airships.

I would get most of the huge Cav stack attack the oil city and get it with Airships support. Beware of Pyongyang and the main Wang army inside.

Who's up ? Our leader maybe ?

Good luck!
You'll need it

Oops, almost forgot it, Marines time in 3

 

[stuge]

Nice work, despite the odds.

We've just got to keep pushing. Our empire is something like five times the size of Wang's. We'll be able to overwhelm him.

Do gunships have wheels? If not, we should head for them next.

Keep strong. When Wang kneels before us, Pacal and Augustus will be pushovers.

 

[azaris]

Got it, will try to play tomorrow. Might take only 10 turns if it's too intensive.

 

[azaris]

I started playing but then ran into .

Wang now has fighters which causes great pain to our airships. Marines are queued but it takes a zillion years to get them to the front. Louis refuses to build a fort that would allow our ships to pillage the oil, but Wang has destroyers anyway so I doubt that would work.

I killed one stack of tanks/marines/cavalry. No progress was really made because we don't have enough spies and machine guns to protect our stacks from counterattacks. Then it crashed with "out of video memory", so you get to kill the stack all over again.

Looks like my Radeon X1300 is not up to the task. I'm not going to play if it means having to save every five seconds hoping that the game doesn't crash. Sorry guys, I guess I'll sit this one out at least until the warfare is over (which probably won't happen). We need more replacements but that has to wait until after Christmas.


HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

 

[pawelo]

Holidays ?

If you mean this time of the year when you can surf & play @work, I'm fine with you

Seems like the game is going to be a real PITA, at least while Wang is still alive (which could be, well, forever).

Happy I've played just before

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

[stuge]

Anybody want to grab it? Njoris?

I could try to slog through some turns after New year. Although modern wars aren't too peachy on my comp.

 

[njorls]

We're at 4 people total, 1 players comp can't handle modern warfare, another player might have problems with it. Do we have enough to continue? Azaris mentioned getting more people.

 

[azaris]

I will try to recruit more players after the holidays are properly over, but it's not easy to get players mid-game especially when it demands a powerful setup to play and is at a tedious phase, cf. Angry Korea Man.

Can njorls pick it up for now?

 

[njorls]

I played a turn.

I'm sorry but I can't go any farther in this game. It's going to be too hard a slog, the variant cripples us, and Wang Kong is a beast, I honestly don't know how to continue. We're in a position that's beyond my capability as a player to handle. I've been suffering from Civ 4 burnout lately as well.

 

[pawelo]

I tend to agree with njorls (except for the civ4 burnout ) - this situation is beyond my modern warfare abilities. It would be doable with some artillery, but marines/infantries/cavalry against tanks (and soon enough even better beasts, I bet my lunch on it)...

At this moment in the game, I would tend to drop the variant regarding Wang and try to get the Conquest victory regardless - which will already be a tricky thing.

 

[azaris]

Tanks can be defeated (quite easily) with anti-tank infantry. We should have gone for Artillery as soon as it became apparent Wang was going down that path. Do we try to get peace, regroup and try again?

 

[azaris]

This game is officially dead.

 

[pawelo]

I'd like to assess some stuff before leaving it dead for too long - do you think (all the roster still around) something could have been done another way in order to achieve the variant ?
Looking back at the game, I am pretty positive every step we (and you before I arrived ) have taken was a way to go. Still, I wonder what if:
- in the cataph time, we relied more on caste/merchants and cities producing wealth to maintain a huge army fighting on both fronts (greece / persia) at the same time ?

I'd like your input - no figures, just the g*t feeling of yours.

It was hell of a huge game. Although it's dead, I think players around have achieved a great empire while going along the variant rules.
I've had a great time participating to it on the last part. Thanks azaris for setting this one up!