Rat45 CCM - Gideon's Band

[Northern Pike]

Outside cities and garrisons, all during our conquest of the Turkish core, we pummel nine Janissaries, three Sipahis, two riflemen, two hussars, two knights, an inf, a 75, a longbowman, and a pikeman. We lose one inf and gain a Great Artist (228-44). This still leaves close to a hundred Ottoman units we’ll have to grind down one by one, since we can’t eliminate Turkey at the moment.

The Romans occupy the fringe of the former Ottoman lands, with three outlying cities (Verona not shown), all of which we can reach:

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

It would be most stylish to eliminate Rome in one turn, but that would involve a risk of our failing to take Pisa (on an island) or Udine (behind mountains), so we’ll get started now.

The Romans have more than a hundred units distributed through what are now our lands, including one stack of more than fifty. But it looks as though they’ve never built a fast unit, so we can almost completely ignore their stacks until (we hope) they all come off the map with Rome’s elimination next turn.

We don’t give Rome a boot order, because the last thing we want is for any of their out-of-play units to teleport to more useful locations. So, we make the declaration of war.

The battlefront in more detail:

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

We remove Naples’s garrison, held by a musketeer (229-44).

We capture Naples, held by three musketmen (232-44). The Romans have no gold we can take.

We found Rollingshaven, giving us access to Rome.

We demolish the garrison serving Rome and Udine, held by an arq (233-44).

We seize Rome, held by five musketmen, for the loss of an ET (238-45).

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

Setting up our attacks for next turn, we move stacks next to two island cities, Roman Pisa and Ottoman Denizli, and two cities behind mountains, Roman Udine and Ottoman Bingol. In the process we sink two Ottoman galleasses off Hebron (240-45).

We could take a few more Roman cities, but it’s a foregone conclusion that we’ll have them all next turn, so we turn to tidying up the position.

We culture-bomb Istanbul.

We batter another fifty-eight Ottoman units—twenty-one Janissaries, eleven Sipahis, five hussars, five riflemen, three late pikemen, two heavy artillery, two inf, two arqs, two knights, two sabre fighters, one 75, one LB, and a Jumbo. We lose three ET, three inf, a Lancia, and a lawyer (298-53). We gain a Great Leader (who part-rushes another dreadnought), a Great Artist, and a partisan.

We also account for five Roman units—two musketeers, two musketmen, and a lawyer. We capture a slow settler = worker and lose an inf (303-54).

We sink three Arabian ships off the west coast of our continent, though we lose an ironclad to a galleon (306-55).

We build (and rail) another ten airfields in the northwestern tundra.

We abandon the seven Ottoman and Roman cities we aren’t allowed to keep, and found eight new towns in approximately the same locations.

We found a final five towns to fill in gaps in our lands.

The final position after an eventful turn:

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

We go 2-1 against Roman attacks, losing an inf (308-56). Our other enemies just bombard us with galleasses—terrifying stuff.


1841 (4): The Portuguese aren’t easy to kill. We use our now-substantial coastal fleet to sink six of their vessels, including three potential houseboats (314-56), then capture Faro again; but they still have a settler somewhere. We re-load.

We’ll start with the two outlying Turkish cities within our reach. We found Tschai so that we can have a garrison for our attack on the island city of Denizli—probably unnecessary in this case, but the best technique.

We capture and raze Denizli, defended by two Jans and an LB, also sinking at least one ship in harbour (318-56). We gain no workers from the razing.

We take and raze Bingol, held by an arq and a late pikeman (320-56). The razing yields two workers.

This reduces the Ottomans to their one city on the other continent, but we’ll still have to deal with about fifty of their ground units later in the turn.

Turning to the Romans and their ten remaining cities, we found Kotan on Pisa’s island so that we can build a garrison for that attack.

We storm and raze Pisa, held by four musketmen, for the loss of an ET (324-57). We gain six workers.

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

We now have the pleasure of ending Verona’s impudent existence on our home peninsula. We found a tactical town (soon after abandoned, to avoid unpleasing congestion in the motherland) to deal with the forest barrier, then seize Verona from its two defending musketmen and raze it, also sinking at least one galleass in port (327-57). We gain two workers.

We replace Verona with the new town of Gethsemane.

We capture and raze Udine, held by three musketmen (330-57). We gain four workers.

We demolish Genoa’s garrison, held by a musketeer (331-57)

We take and raze Genoa, held by four musketmen (335-57). We gain six workers.

This reduces the Romans to a fringe of five cities, apart from the outlying town of Modena which is the one we’ll leave them if we can’t get a clean kill:

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

We excise Milan’s garrison, held by an arq (336-57).

We storm Milan, held by four musketmen (340-57). We gain control of Roman Senate, making this the one Roman city we can keep.

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

We culture-bomb Milan.

The city whose name is fogged out in the screenshot is Venice. We demolish its garrison, defended by an arq (341-57).

We seize and raze Venice, held by three musketmen, for the loss of an ET (344-58). We gain nine workers.

We wreck Livorno’s garrison, held by an arq (345-58).

We capture and raze Livorno, defended by two musketmen (347-58). We gain four workers.

We replace Venice with Cath in approximately the same location, giving us access to Florence.

We demolish Florence’s garrison, held by an arq (348-58).

We take and raze Florence, held by three musketmen (351-58). We gain ten workers.

We found Dordolio near the ruins of Florence, bringing us near Turin.

We demolish Turin’s garrison, but somehow lose an ET and a Lancia to an arq on clear ground (352-60).

We storm and raze Turin, defended by four musketmen (356-60). Between captures and the razing we gain eight workers.

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

We sink the only two potential Roman houseboats we can see (galleons), along with an escorting galleass, so the moment of truth as regards a clean elimination will come when we capture Modena (359-60).

We easily take Modena, defended by two musketmen…and the Romans are still in the game. We re-load.

That means that about 125 Roman ground units, all slow, won’t come off the map and will have to be defeated individually. We don’t have that many fast-unit attacks still available this turn, but fortunately 110 or so of the Roman units are wandering around forests and tundra in what used to be Carthage, and can easily be contained. At least they’ll give Rat something to do besides moving ships and workers.

Apart from the three enclaves of Roman Modena, Portuguese Faro, and Viking Cirta, then, the continent is ours.

That leaves us to deal with the Ottoman and Roman units still on the recent battlefield. Of Turkish units we expunge twenty Janissaries, fifteen inf, ten riflemen, one marine inf, one Sipahi, one cannon, one arquebusier, one late pikeman, and one sabre fighter. We lose five ET, capture a supply shipment, and generate a Great Leader, who part-rushes a dreadnought (400-65).

Against the Romans we extirpate nineteen musketeers, seventeen musketmen, fifteen longbowmen, nine arqs, five Praetorians, three spearmen, and a bombarde. We lose three ET, an inf, and a cav, gain a partisan, capture a worker, and take a slave (469-70).

The Turks are left with no ground units on our continent at all. The Romans still have fifty-five in five stacks, but they threaten nothing and should present no problem next turn.

We sink an Arabian war galleon off the west coast of our continent (470-70).

We build another thirty-two airfields in the northwestern tundra, for a total of seventy-six there.

We found another eight towns, approximately replacing razed enemy cities:

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

Four slaver victories this round provided three slaves.

Fifteen partisan victories this round yielded four partisans.

Six lawyer victories this round generated two Great Artists.

Ninety-nine elite victories this round produced seven Great Leaders.

 

[Northern Pike]

The far shore: