Right then.
Combustion (4) -> Sailing (1) -> Calendar (1) -> Compass (1) -> Optics (probably 1) -> Astronomy (5ish).
My turns are going to be full of excitement!
Before I start, a couple of small points to clear up:
Yes, it *is* Mansa that's the commerce powerhouse AI, though possibly not by as much as the main demographics screen suggests. As to how he's doing it, I can only suggest he's getting *lots* of Commerce off the ocean, and probably has Many Cottages as well, while he's at it.
The Composition and Disposition of our Military 'Might':
Most of the stuff is on the picture. As you can see, the main points are:
The Ironclads need to move NOW, given that war will be declared before the end of my round. The cannons and Grenadiers have plenty of time to group where they're going to be picked up, but I'll get that started now anyway.
The most significant problem is that we don't appear to have *nearly* enough Grenadiers. We're going to lose those taking cities, especially once Rifles become the top defender (Mansa already has them in his city. Mao doesn't, *yet*), and so 9 total, 7 on the front, is barely going to get us started given that we'll probably have to leave some of them behind as city defence as well.
Most of the military I build, therefore, is going to be Grenadiers. Everything else looks great.
5 turns before the big changeover and the massive Galley push, though I am going to have to work out when I can insert a Lighthouse into the queues of each coastal city as well.
I'll be declaring war before the end of my round, and hopefully taking Ningpo. The major thrust will be left for Jabah simply because there's only so quickly that we can build and move Galleys. I recommend the shown plan, taking each island city in turn, before he gets Rifles in them. Even amphibiously, we should be able to take Longbows with Grenadiers and Cannons, if a little painfully. Rifles, though, just won't happen effectively before Marines, and they'll be a long while yet. Remember that our Ironclads can bombard city defenses.
Turn 1 (1832): Nowt much. Somehow now
Louis has a settler pair up by Mauryan. Anyone know how that got there?
First couple of MGs are sent to Staging Point LA.
Turn 2-3: Zzzzzz. Buildup. Nothing interesting happens whatsoever.
Turn 4: COMBUSTION! Entirely useless to us without Oil or Uranium, of course... Sailing will complete entirely from the overflow, so I turn research down to bare minimum for at least one turn. We can use the (LOTS) of money to upgrade most of our Muskets and Axemen and suchlike to Grenadiers for use in the attack in the few places where they can be spared from MP duty.
Turn 5: SAILING! The ability to actually carry units overseas! The building that actually makes our fishing villages
worth something!
4 coastal cities immediately set to Galleys, in most cases leaving partially complete Ironclads in the queue. It may be important to remember they're there.
Research back up to 40% to get Calendar in 1 turn with some overflow. Still +300g, to go with the 550 from last turn. I buy Mansa's map for 260g with some of our surplus, the price has evidently gone up again since he has knowledge of pretty much the entire map. Of course, now so do we.
Germany:
Greece:
Both look fairly middle-of-the-road.
Turn 6 (1842): Calendar! Plantations! We have only the one Dyes to do, but it's worth a happiness in each city, so I'll get right on that.
Research goes back to the full 80%, to ensure decent overflow from Compass onto Optics.
Also, I set a couple of the less interesting coastal cities to Lighthouses, including... no,
not including Mauryan. The barbarians had built it for us! Now why did I never think of that, when I was wondering whether it was worth capturing all that time ago?
Oh, and there's one more order of business this turn...
Come Get Some, MAO! The Time has come at last!
The first battle, as you can see, was a great success. No other action was seen on the first turn of the war. I spent it moving the Ironclads into place around the islands ready for bombardment, and ideally to intercept any incoming shiploads of troops, which is another reason for declaring this early, to give him time to put together a force that we can kill easily and cheaply at sea.
Most Ironclads have been promoted Flanking I/Navigation to get the extra movement point, since that's where they normally suffer, but there are a couple of Drill II ones lying around to kill things with more efficiently.
Turn 7 (1844): More of the same. First landing up at Ningbo. Compass -> Optics, indeed in 1 turn again.
Turn 8 (1846): Optics comes in, giving our Ironclads a badly-needed sight range improvement. Astronomy in 5.
Lose the first Cannon attacking Ningbo at 75%, and have the first Grenadier taken down to 2.4 health at 95%. Grumble.
More random bombardment of the other island cities, Shandong and Tianjin. We have 6 Ironclads in the area, all they had was two Caravels guarding the nets, which I have of course killed without loss. I haven't pillaged the nets, since we'll be capturing the cities sooner rather than later, but I am sitting on them so they can't actually be used or anything.
Turn 9 (1848): A Galleon pops out of Tianjin, so I kill it.
In other news...
(broken link to the capture of Ningbo here. It was worth 61g. I'm pretty sure you can fill in the rest.)
I keep the city, why not.
Turn 10 (1850): Still more of the same, really. Here's the current state:
We have about 10 Galleys already, in two major groups. There's a large flood of them been coming down from Seattle, at 1/turn after the first 2 took units across to capture Ningbo. These Galleys are being loaded up outside Houston where the Grenadier is displaying as on the water now. Make sure to send enough units from the main stock at LA to Houston to keep filling them. I've got the next two Galleysworth there waiting as it stands.
The other group of Galleys is on the way round the point at San Francisco, after being built in that region. They're a little behind the others, but will still be in plenty of time to achieve things. The first one to actually be filled is sitting beside LA right now, ready to head out.
10 Galleys may well be enough. I've shifted most of the southern cities over to fill in their Lighthouses as well, they all still have an Ironclad in the queue as well, which it may be wise to allow to finish after the Lighthouses.
The inner cities have been building military for my whole turn. I went back to a more thorough mix of Grenadiers and Cannons after I remembered that Cannons can take City Raider, and are therefore
better for actual city assault than the Grenadiers are against Longbows, and probably fairly equivalent against Rifles when they show up.
Speaking of the inner cities, many of them are right on their happiness limit, and that's AFTER connecting the Dyes on my last turn. More MP may well be necessary, though taking time off military to build the Confucian Temples, and indeed spreading more religions and building those Temples as well, will alleviate this once we can afford to stop building military. That time is not yet, however.
As you may have noticed from the picture, I've put science up to 90% at -144gpt. We can afford that for two turns, and it gets us Astronomy a turn sooner, which I think is relevant since it supercedes our Galleys with Galleons. Of course, it'll also give us Observatories, which will be *another* building that we'll have to work out when and whether we can squeeze in amongst the military fanaticism that we so desperately need to be the overriding force of the rest of the game.
As you see, we have actually managed to increase out power rating fairly seriously over the last couple of turnsets. Given where Alex and Mansa are, though, there's a long way to go! Don't stop building for a while yet.
I'm done. Jabah, take us some Chinese cities!
Garath