RB15: Taking The Long View
- Thread starter Garath
- Start date
. Good luck Garath.I haven't forgotten about this, I just haven't had a good opportunity, when I was certain I could devote however much time was required, this weekend. Since we're in no rush, I figured it could wait for one.
Assuming my housemate actually gets up and goes to work today, which is not entirely a given, I shall play this afternoon.
Doesn't look like drafting will be worth it, huh? Well, I'll see what I can do anyway then. More cannons, I guess. Can't be all that long until Rifling, right? :crazyeyes:
Garath
Assuming my housemate actually gets up and goes to work today, which is not entirely a given, I shall play this afternoon.
Doesn't look like drafting will be worth it, huh? Well, I'll see what I can do anyway then. More cannons, I guess. Can't be all that long until Rifling, right? :crazyeyes:
Garath
Lurker Comment
If you let your cursor over the "draft" button on the City Details Screen, a popup will let you know what kind of Unit you could possibly draft and at what cost. Checked this out when still in an early stage of the game and it showed Axemen.
If you let your cursor over the "draft" button on the City Details Screen, a popup will let you know what kind of Unit you could possibly draft and at what cost. Checked this out when still in an early stage of the game and it showed Axemen.
@Garath- Just so you know I won't be able to play from (and including) Wednesday March 29 until April 4.
The problem with drafting Musketmen, is they are just too inferior, Mansa has infantry
. It will be a slaughter takinghis cities (we could never keep the ones on his home continent).
The problem with drafting Musketmen, is they are just too inferior, Mansa has infantry
. It will be a slaughter takinghis cities (we could never keep the ones on his home continent).Right. Well, late as these turns are, it's a good thing they've happened during the only week when that doesn't matter. Anyway, even if nobody's looking right now, here they are...
I open up the save, and what I see is Cannons. Everywhere, pretty much, is building Cannons. And this is exactly as it should be! They're what we desperately need.
Anyway, I'm going to declare war as soon as I fill one more transport with Cannons, to be the first invasion force. We do still need a couple more Transports, actually. We've got enough for the first invasion fleet, but not for the second. I'm going to slip a few in as and when.
Turn 1 (1936):
Noooooo!
90% chance of an Engineer, and what do we get?? No Pentagon for us
We have no relevant use for a Great Scientist at the moment, however we really really will have use for at least one Golden Age before this game is over, so I save him in Washington. Reassign New York away from starving, back to normal.
Turn 2 (1937):
It's time, Mansa. IT'S TIME.
Wadan falls first. That first fight, a win at a mere 10% chance, set the tone for the entire battle, which we won massively better than the odds, with only two cannons lost in total! The four spare that I didn't even need head down to the New York Staging Post, the rest will catch up as they heal. We're short of transports to make them a full group, though on the other hand we'll probably lose enough from the first group that there will be spare transports to return from that.
The invasion fleet reaches Tadmekka, still on the first turn of the war:
That's its defence force. The destroyers bombard the city defences down to 6%, and I assault. Even so, though... killing fortified City Garrison Infantry with an amphibious landing is tricky, no matter how much City Raider you have.
It's done. But boy was that painful... we lost 7 Cannons (plus the one sitting where Tadmekka used to be, and another one retreated, and everything that won was hurt. RNG compensation for Wadan, perhaps. Still, Mansa is a city down, and all we've lost is a few turns of production, so I'm happy enough!
Louis is the only one who will even talk about declaring war on Mansa, but due to No Tech Trading we can't afford to pay him for it, sadly. Alex is still at war with him, though, and he declared 30 turns ago, on my last turnset!
I open up the save, and what I see is Cannons. Everywhere, pretty much, is building Cannons. And this is exactly as it should be! They're what we desperately need.
Anyway, I'm going to declare war as soon as I fill one more transport with Cannons, to be the first invasion force. We do still need a couple more Transports, actually. We've got enough for the first invasion fleet, but not for the second. I'm going to slip a few in as and when.
Turn 1 (1936):
Noooooo!
90% chance of an Engineer, and what do we get?? No Pentagon for us
We have no relevant use for a Great Scientist at the moment, however we really really will have use for at least one Golden Age before this game is over, so I save him in Washington. Reassign New York away from starving, back to normal.
Turn 2 (1937):
It's time, Mansa. IT'S TIME.
Wadan falls first. That first fight, a win at a mere 10% chance, set the tone for the entire battle, which we won massively better than the odds, with only two cannons lost in total! The four spare that I didn't even need head down to the New York Staging Post, the rest will catch up as they heal. We're short of transports to make them a full group, though on the other hand we'll probably lose enough from the first group that there will be spare transports to return from that.
The invasion fleet reaches Tadmekka, still on the first turn of the war:
That's its defence force. The destroyers bombard the city defences down to 6%, and I assault. Even so, though... killing fortified City Garrison Infantry with an amphibious landing is tricky, no matter how much City Raider you have.
It's done. But boy was that painful... we lost 7 Cannons (plus the one sitting where Tadmekka used to be, and another one retreated, and everything that won was hurt. RNG compensation for Wadan, perhaps. Still, Mansa is a city down, and all we've lost is a few turns of production, so I'm happy enough!
Louis is the only one who will even talk about declaring war on Mansa, but due to No Tech Trading we can't afford to pay him for it, sadly. Alex is still at war with him, though, and he declared 30 turns ago, on my last turnset!
Turn 3 (1938):
Mansa's counter is... nothing except killing the cannon that destroyed Tadmekka.
Losing units like that is painful for ye olde War Weariness, though. We've got a shockingly large amount for a mere 1 turn of war, I'm afraid. I mean seriously, have we fought him before when I wasn't looking? 4/5 war weariness on the first turn? Ouch! This would be a whole lot simpler if we didn't also have +6 Emancipation unhappiness, it really would. Or a culture slider, you know, that sort of thing...
In fact, overall this is really not a great turn. Alex signs peace with Mansa, and this happens:
Without me even having noticed him completing the Apollo Program... he's built four Casings on this one turn. And we can't even build spies to keep a watch on how he's doing! Why did I ever let myself in for this variant?
Turn 4 (1939): Our Battlegroup gets bombed a little: one fighter intercepted, one small amount of damage.
Oh, this is gonna hurt, but it's got to be done...
Yep. It did. In fact, I barely brought enough Cannons, it was so messy. A further 8 Cannons were lost.
In fact, we're losing so many units that having 8xp rather than 6 on the is making very little difference, and so I change from Vassalage to Nationhood, for the addition 2 happy per city from Barracks. Eventually it may be possible to draft usable things, even. You never know. It's also cheaper, which is a nice small bonus.
Detroit founded on the Oil where whateverthatcitywas used to be (by the way, I destroyed that), just ahead of Louis. It'll be hooked up in 2, with plenty of time before we actually need it, since our tech rate has died another horrible death due to the war.
Turn 5 (1940):
Here's Timbuktu:
The defences are surprisingly not as much stronger here in the capital than elsewhere, the difference is only 2 Artillery, which just take loads of collateral and then die. On the other hand, I don't have another set of 18-20 Cannons on hand to take it, which going by previous experience may well be what I need. In fact, looking at F5, I only have 18 cannons total, and three of those are over in China, and quite a few more are hurt. Replacing them is going to be tricky, of course, since we're (already) suffering fairly crippling war weariness. I'll be able to get together enough forces to take out Timbuktu, I believe, hopefully by the end of my turn but if not then set up for the next one. After that... we may not be able to do any more. Razing his capital will help, but it won't be enough. I'm not sure where we go from here.
If only someone would build the UN, and force us to adopt Emancipation...
I'm going to have to pause here. I'm not yet 5 turns in, but it's been well over 2 hours now, and I'm feeling temporarily disillusioned with our chances again, so I'll get back to this again later.
Garath
Mansa's counter is... nothing except killing the cannon that destroyed Tadmekka.
Losing units like that is painful for ye olde War Weariness, though. We've got a shockingly large amount for a mere 1 turn of war, I'm afraid. I mean seriously, have we fought him before when I wasn't looking? 4/5 war weariness on the first turn? Ouch! This would be a whole lot simpler if we didn't also have +6 Emancipation unhappiness, it really would. Or a culture slider, you know, that sort of thing...
In fact, overall this is really not a great turn. Alex signs peace with Mansa, and this happens:
Without me even having noticed him completing the Apollo Program... he's built four Casings on this one turn. And we can't even build spies to keep a watch on how he's doing! Why did I ever let myself in for this variant?
Turn 4 (1939): Our Battlegroup gets bombed a little: one fighter intercepted, one small amount of damage.
Oh, this is gonna hurt, but it's got to be done...
Yep. It did. In fact, I barely brought enough Cannons, it was so messy. A further 8 Cannons were lost.
In fact, we're losing so many units that having 8xp rather than 6 on the is making very little difference, and so I change from Vassalage to Nationhood, for the addition 2 happy per city from Barracks. Eventually it may be possible to draft usable things, even. You never know. It's also cheaper, which is a nice small bonus.
Detroit founded on the Oil where whateverthatcitywas used to be (by the way, I destroyed that), just ahead of Louis. It'll be hooked up in 2, with plenty of time before we actually need it, since our tech rate has died another horrible death due to the war.
Turn 5 (1940):
Here's Timbuktu:
The defences are surprisingly not as much stronger here in the capital than elsewhere, the difference is only 2 Artillery, which just take loads of collateral and then die. On the other hand, I don't have another set of 18-20 Cannons on hand to take it, which going by previous experience may well be what I need. In fact, looking at F5, I only have 18 cannons total, and three of those are over in China, and quite a few more are hurt. Replacing them is going to be tricky, of course, since we're (already) suffering fairly crippling war weariness. I'll be able to get together enough forces to take out Timbuktu, I believe, hopefully by the end of my turn but if not then set up for the next one. After that... we may not be able to do any more. Razing his capital will help, but it won't be enough. I'm not sure where we go from here.
If only someone would build the UN, and force us to adopt Emancipation...
I'm going to have to pause here. I'm not yet 5 turns in, but it's been well over 2 hours now, and I'm feeling temporarily disillusioned with our chances again, so I'll get back to this again later.
Garath
Garath said:
Garath,
Looks good so far. I mean 4/5 WW on the 1st turn!!!! That is insane!! By watching the scores as you razed Mansa did not drop at much as I expected him to. The point is mote in any event as he already built apollo and some parts (I doubt we can delay him or others another 100 turns from launching), so as you predicted a time wins seems unlikely (can't blame a guy for hoping though
). Razing the capital would help the score and the launch factor, but i have a feeling that not only our science but are production too are taking a serious dive, I bet that by the end of your turn we won't be able to produce anything. Anyway looks good!-Atlas
Well, here I go again.
Having established that moving a transport with units in does not stop those units from healing, and that the destroyer with Medic will heal units in transports, I retreat the fleet out of enemy territory to allow the remaining Cannons to heal. They aren't any use till more catch up anyway. I do split off a few Destroyers to go a-pillagin' and stuff though, while I'm at it.
I take the excessively painful step of whipping Jails and other Happy buildings in cities where the population are starving anyway. It hurts, but we have to get something out of them, right?
Thinks have got to the stage where every city needs looking at and microing every turn to get what can be got out of it under the crippling unhappiness. I don't anticipate that having changed by the end of my turn, so consider this a heads-up, Jabah.
Turn 6 (1941): A Mansan Destroyer has turned up over by China, and a Sub by our remaining Destroyer at home. I kill the sub, and upgrade the Ironclad over there to hopefully deal with the Destroyer. It's combat III, though, so don't hold out *much* hope.
Most of the towns that have had Jails whipped are (temporarily) just about coping with the weariness. Once we lose more Cannons that'll be tricky again, but for now we're just about on top of it.
Turn 7 (1942): We lose to the Combat III Destroyer without even scratching it. Argh! So much for the resources at out island colonies, anyway.
In what is actually something of a nonevent, we connect Oil.
Turn 8 (1943): Industrialism comes in (Plastics in 11). If only, if only, if ONLY we had Rifling! Tanks would make this So Much Easier...
We have Aluminium by Washington and Chicago and St. Louis, the first of which is already connected up, not that it'll be much use yet.
Since the Mansan Destroyer headed over to our main island rather than continuing to pillage where it was, I kill it with two of our own, not even losing one since it retreated! Both of ours are enormously hurt, but we're alive and they aren't.
Nothing much further of consequence happens, though it is nice to be able to scroll around our civ and see that almost all cities are back to building sanely-timed Cannons, and very few of them are actually starving right now.
Turn 9 (1944):
I dump a couple of machine guns out onto a hill in the general vicinity of Timbuktu, in the hope that some of the 4 Artillery currently in there will come out and get stuck out of the city. If they do, I'll attack it next turn with the 18 cannons I have hold of. If not, it'll probably have to wait for another transport or two, say another 3-5 turns.
Turn 10 (1945): This is Timbuktu:
I swear, most of those units were not there last turn. Looking closely, most of them are on transports. Which means possibly if we wait around, they'll come out and face us. The Tank and the Gunships are completely new, though. Regardless, I can't take that city now with the forces to hand. I leave the decision as to what to do about the force there, either wait for it to come out or simply ignore it and go kill the next city south, to someone who has more idea about the Naval AI than I do.
I've therefore left our entire fleet pretty much unmoved. You can choose what to do with it. There are half a dozen more Cannons completing in the next few turns, too, so more transports can be sent to join the main. The seas are relatively safe at the moment, but I've still been escorting everything with a couple of destroyers. A couple of the 9 with the main stack may have to be sent back now to achieve this.
Regardless, we need to attack something relatively soon. After we do, though, we'll get more War Weariness. Any cities that get too unhappy to be of any use and are actually starving, I recommend whipping the FACTORY this time. There's still plenty of time for them to be of use. This game ain't over yet!
Rifling is no more than 25 turns away, max. After that point, there will be TANKS.
Once we have to sign peace with Mansa, we won't be able to afford war with him again for a while. It just won't be an option. If we can afford it, though, and hopefully we will be able to, we can try using the time to take out China, and maybe even head after Louis. We shouldn't lose so many units there, especially once we have Tanks (try to have the factories up by that point where possible), so the WW shouldn't be so dire. We need to keep our options open for Domination!
If, and we know that's a big if, we're going to win this game, we're going to have to stop at least Mansa and Freddie from launching, and more if it's not going to be Domination, I think. I believe Domination is still what we have to try for, since we aren't currently winning in score, so definitely need more land either way. This should be fun!
Garath
Having established that moving a transport with units in does not stop those units from healing, and that the destroyer with Medic will heal units in transports, I retreat the fleet out of enemy territory to allow the remaining Cannons to heal. They aren't any use till more catch up anyway. I do split off a few Destroyers to go a-pillagin' and stuff though, while I'm at it.
I take the excessively painful step of whipping Jails and other Happy buildings in cities where the population are starving anyway. It hurts, but we have to get something out of them, right?
Thinks have got to the stage where every city needs looking at and microing every turn to get what can be got out of it under the crippling unhappiness. I don't anticipate that having changed by the end of my turn, so consider this a heads-up, Jabah.
Turn 6 (1941): A Mansan Destroyer has turned up over by China, and a Sub by our remaining Destroyer at home. I kill the sub, and upgrade the Ironclad over there to hopefully deal with the Destroyer. It's combat III, though, so don't hold out *much* hope.
Most of the towns that have had Jails whipped are (temporarily) just about coping with the weariness. Once we lose more Cannons that'll be tricky again, but for now we're just about on top of it.
Turn 7 (1942): We lose to the Combat III Destroyer without even scratching it. Argh! So much for the resources at out island colonies, anyway.
In what is actually something of a nonevent, we connect Oil.
Turn 8 (1943): Industrialism comes in (Plastics in 11). If only, if only, if ONLY we had Rifling!
Tanks would make this So Much Easier...We have Aluminium by Washington and Chicago and St. Louis, the first of which is already connected up, not that it'll be much use yet.
Since the Mansan Destroyer headed over to our main island rather than continuing to pillage where it was, I kill it with two of our own, not even losing one since it retreated! Both of ours are enormously hurt, but we're alive and they aren't.
Nothing much further of consequence happens, though it is nice to be able to scroll around our civ and see that almost all cities are back to building sanely-timed Cannons, and very few of them are actually starving right now.
Turn 9 (1944):
I dump a couple of machine guns out onto a hill in the general vicinity of Timbuktu, in the hope that some of the 4 Artillery currently in there will come out and get stuck out of the city. If they do, I'll attack it next turn with the 18 cannons I have hold of. If not, it'll probably have to wait for another transport or two, say another 3-5 turns.
Turn 10 (1945): This is Timbuktu:
I swear, most of those units were not there last turn. Looking closely, most of them are on transports. Which means possibly if we wait around, they'll come out and face us. The Tank and the Gunships are completely new, though. Regardless, I can't take that city now with the forces to hand. I leave the decision as to what to do about the force there, either wait for it to come out or simply ignore it and go kill the next city south, to someone who has more idea about the Naval AI than I do.
I've therefore left our entire fleet pretty much unmoved. You can choose what to do with it. There are half a dozen more Cannons completing in the next few turns, too, so more transports can be sent to join the main. The seas are relatively safe at the moment, but I've still been escorting everything with a couple of destroyers. A couple of the 9 with the main stack may have to be sent back now to achieve this.
Regardless, we need to attack something relatively soon. After we do, though, we'll get more War Weariness. Any cities that get too unhappy to be of any use and are actually starving, I recommend whipping the FACTORY this time. There's still plenty of time for them to be of use. This game ain't over yet!
Rifling is no more than 25 turns away, max. After that point, there will be TANKS.
Once we have to sign peace with Mansa, we won't be able to afford war with him again for a while. It just won't be an option. If we can afford it, though, and hopefully we will be able to, we can try using the time to take out China, and maybe even head after Louis. We shouldn't lose so many units there, especially once we have Tanks (try to have the factories up by that point where possible), so the WW shouldn't be so dire. We need to keep our options open for Domination!
If, and we know that's a big if, we're going to win this game, we're going to have to stop at least Mansa and Freddie from launching, and more if it's not going to be Domination, I think. I believe Domination is still what we have to try for, since we aren't currently winning in score, so definitely need more land either way. This should be fun!
Garath
Jabah
Emperor
Ia ma back and have the save. But having travelled all night, I am not sure I will be able to play all my turns today.
Jabah
Jabah
No rush. The turns are long and hard now (playing and posting mine took a good 4 hours, at least), and I'd far prefer you to take your time and play them brilliantly than get them done and play mediocrely. Atlas isn't available to play until the 5th anyway, so you've got a couple of days to play in.
Whether or not playing brilliantly still has a chance of making a difference, I'm really not sure anymore. But I know I won't give up until we actually win or lose.
Garath
Whether or not playing brilliantly still has a chance of making a difference, I'm really not sure anymore. But I know I won't give up until we actually win or lose.
Garath
Jabah
Emperor
I had played 7t up to now, still need to play the last 3 tonight.
I have mainly good news, but WW is being really high. Mansa is running out of coastal cities, so maybe, I will capture one and sign peace. (keeping it while at war would be suicidal against gunship and tank.
Problem is that even if he is now behind in score, he keeps building SS components (thrusters right now)
Jabah
I have mainly good news, but WW is being really high. Mansa is running out of coastal cities, so maybe, I will capture one and sign peace. (keeping it while at war would be suicidal against gunship and tank.
Problem is that even if he is now behind in score, he keeps building SS components (thrusters right now)
Jabah
Thanks for the update, it's nice to know you're still on it, even though I know it easily can take this long.
Sounds like you're doing well, I wasn't expecting us to still be at war after 7 turns. You say he's running out of coastal cities, does that mean you've managed to kill Timbuktu, or not? I like your plan to capture a coastal city and declare peace, particularly if we can do it without it being *completely* swamped in the borders of any other cities. Might not be possible though.
It would be nice to have a staging post that we can put Tanks in before we go to war with him again, anyway. Speaking of which, I don't think it's even all that long until we get them anymore! So yes, sign peace when sensible, short period of rebuilding (hopefully getting some more factories in) then Tanks Tanks Tanks!
(then declare war on someone else. Mao and Louis if we've got the time, but we might well not. The point there being that if we get their lands, we should at least have the highest score just in case we can delay things that long, and it's a start to Domination too.)
If Mansa's still only at Thrusters, we've still got a chance. Burning his coastal cities down will have hurt his tech pace considerably, and tech will be his bottleneck for actually completing the spaceship. Remember, Fusion is pretty deep down the tree. And no-one else has even completed the Apollo Program yet, have they?
Garath
Sounds like you're doing well, I wasn't expecting us to still be at war after 7 turns. You say he's running out of coastal cities, does that mean you've managed to kill Timbuktu, or not? I like your plan to capture a coastal city and declare peace, particularly if we can do it without it being *completely* swamped in the borders of any other cities. Might not be possible though.
It would be nice to have a staging post that we can put Tanks in before we go to war with him again, anyway. Speaking of which, I don't think it's even all that long until we get them anymore! So yes, sign peace when sensible, short period of rebuilding (hopefully getting some more factories in) then Tanks Tanks Tanks!
(then declare war on someone else. Mao and Louis if we've got the time, but we might well not. The point there being that if we get their lands, we should at least have the highest score just in case we can delay things that long, and it's a start to Domination too.)
If Mansa's still only at Thrusters, we've still got a chance. Burning his coastal cities down will have hurt his tech pace considerably, and tech will be his bottleneck for actually completing the spaceship. Remember, Fusion is pretty deep down the tree. And no-one else has even completed the Apollo Program yet, have they?
Garath
Jabah
Emperor
Yes , all his eastern coastal cities including Timbuktu were burnt. I will try to capture one on the western side and maybe send a settler to the now empty eastern side before other AI.
I saw no message about Apollo and we are not too far away in point from the first 2 (egypt and germany) so a time victory is a possibility if we can slow their launches.
We will finish Plastics at the end of my turn, no idea what is next after...
Jabah
I saw no message about Apollo and we are not too far away in point from the first 2 (egypt and germany) so a time victory is a possibility if we can slow their launches.
We will finish Plastics at the end of my turn, no idea what is next after...
Jabah
Jabah
Emperor
T0 - 1945AD
With quite a lot of unhappy, I queue or start jail (or happy building) and will whip them asap.
Regarding Timbuktu, there are too many defender to do anything, I will let the transport go with troops to kill them at sea and (maybe) attack a less defended Timbuktu.
Djenne is nicely place south and could be reach by transport so I will try that.
It is defended only by 3 (real) units and it is pyramids + confuscius shrine, so a VERY nice target.
5 dead cannons, 4 retreated or are victorious and the 10th razes the city. throwing Mansa to 3rd place.
IBT - our cannon (on the ground) is killed by a gunship, nothing else.. (well million messages we learn that we intercept a fighter with a destroyer as well)
T1 - 1946AD
Now Timbuktu is slightly less defended... but we need more forces.
And bingo.
transport without escort (3 infantries and a settlers feeding the sharks).
Decided to go after Awdaghost first if possible.
Done it. with the last undamaged cannon.
Scientifist becomes an academy in Portland.
IBT no reaction from Mansa
T2 - 1947AD / T4 - 1949AD
Regroup our troops while Mansa builds a thruster.
Unhappiness decreases a bit, due to less need for emancipation (some AIs changed civics without me noticing)
we still can build cheap (25h) chariot for MP, there will be a lots more at the end of my turn..
T5 - 1950AD
regroup a new cannon forces for Timbuktu.
Discover a group an invasion force and sink it with a destroyer casualty.
T6 - 1951AD
Mansa had removed far too many troops from Timbuktu
lose lots of cannon including several at 80%/90% but raze Mansa capital and take his 3rd place.
T7 - 1952AD
Mansa coastal cities are now far away in the west (probably too far away to reach before end of turn).
T9 - 1954AD
Plastics -> Radio
Egypt founds in Mansa lands. Mansa rebuilds one city.
Land lots of troops near Gao. very risky (defence is quite small, but we need first to bomb it down)
IBT - no counter on our stack except a fighter.
T10 - 1955AD
4 cannons get the defence to 0% (from 80% with the right promotion).
Suicide lots of cannons again and capture Gao. Consider keeping it.
It is not on the coast, but at size 15, with shrine of a religion. Since Mansa borders are relatively far away, decide to keep. The settle next to it should buid where it is to be an harbour, get the 2 sea-food
Comments
I didn't sign peace in case we change our mind, but our troops will be easy target for Mansa, so I recommand accepting his 1310g for it (I don't know if we can get a city as well). Of course, cities are not optimised because the end of WW will whange everything.
The settler next to Gao should build "Gao's harbour" either where it is or 1W to get the 2 sea food.
there is a settler with minimal troops just East (under destroyers), but Mansa had rebuild and both Louis and Fred have settlers in boat as well.
Washington had already a coal plant, Boston after Factory should build hydro plant (and possibly 3GorgesDams?).
Jabah
With quite a lot of unhappy, I queue or start jail (or happy building) and will whip them asap.
Regarding Timbuktu, there are too many defender to do anything, I will let the transport go with troops to kill them at sea and (maybe) attack a less defended Timbuktu.
Djenne is nicely place south and could be reach by transport so I will try that.
It is defended only by 3 (real) units and it is pyramids + confuscius shrine, so a VERY nice target.
5 dead cannons, 4 retreated or are victorious and the 10th razes the city. throwing Mansa to 3rd place.
IBT - our cannon (on the ground) is killed by a gunship, nothing else.. (well million messages we learn that we intercept a fighter with a destroyer as well)
T1 - 1946AD
Now Timbuktu is slightly less defended... but we need more forces.
And bingo.
transport without escort (3 infantries and a settlers feeding the sharks).
Decided to go after Awdaghost first if possible.
Done it. with the last undamaged cannon.
Scientifist becomes an academy in Portland.
IBT no reaction from Mansa
T2 - 1947AD / T4 - 1949AD
Regroup our troops while Mansa builds a thruster.
Unhappiness decreases a bit, due to less need for emancipation (some AIs changed civics without me noticing)
we still can build cheap (25h) chariot for MP, there will be a lots more at the end of my turn..
T5 - 1950AD
regroup a new cannon forces for Timbuktu.
Discover a group an invasion force and sink it with a destroyer casualty.
T6 - 1951AD
Mansa had removed far too many troops from Timbuktu
lose lots of cannon including several at 80%/90% but raze Mansa capital and take his 3rd place.
T7 - 1952AD
Mansa coastal cities are now far away in the west (probably too far away to reach before end of turn).
T9 - 1954AD
Plastics -> Radio
Egypt founds in Mansa lands. Mansa rebuilds one city.
Land lots of troops near Gao. very risky (defence is quite small, but we need first to bomb it down)
IBT - no counter on our stack except a fighter.
T10 - 1955AD
4 cannons get the defence to 0% (from 80% with the right promotion).
Suicide lots of cannons again and capture Gao. Consider keeping it.
It is not on the coast, but at size 15, with shrine of a religion. Since Mansa borders are relatively far away, decide to keep. The settle next to it should buid where it is to be an harbour, get the 2 sea-food
Comments
I didn't sign peace in case we change our mind, but our troops will be easy target for Mansa, so I recommand accepting his 1310g for it (I don't know if we can get a city as well). Of course, cities are not optimised because the end of WW will whange everything.
The settler next to Gao should build "Gao's harbour" either where it is or 1W to get the 2 sea food.
there is a settler with minimal troops just East (under destroyers), but Mansa had rebuild and both Louis and Fred have settlers in boat as well.
Washington had already a coal plant, Boston after Factory should build hydro plant (and possibly 3GorgesDams?).
Jabah
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