1735AD (0) - We are completely dominating the game with GNP and production several times higher than that of our nearest rival. (We are in the middle of a golden age, but still...
We are at 34% land, so we just need to finish Peter and conquer Alex, possibly hitting Louis as an afterthought. I take a bunch of obsolete units from Persepolis and spread them throughout Alex's lands to check out the size of his forces. Checking trades screen reveals that he doesn't need any techs from us. I hope that's a mistake, otherwise we are about to face a lot of infantry.
1740AD (1) - Workers continue railroads towards Russian Front and start railroads towards future Greek Front. I order up more infantry and canons and start moving all available troops towards Greek borders.
1745AD (2) - We attack Smolensk without even bombarding it, because city raider infantry is unstoppable and our city raider catapults can take out their defending catapults. The city is easily captured with 2 workers and 175$.
Then it's Moscow's turn. The odds aren't as good, so we bombard it with our 3 catapults (we need more canons) from 60% down to 33%. We capture the city, 2 workers and 225$. Some of our troops are badly wounded and I realize after the battle is over, that I forgot about several elite infantry units, because there were too many in the stack. We didn't lose any anyway, so it's not that bad.
One of Smolensk workers checks out Novgorod (last Russian city) across the bay. He sees Grenadier, Musketman, 2 longbowmen and a catapult. I direct 5 units of infantry towards the city, with an ETA of 7 turns. Looks like Russia should be finished by the end of my turnset.
I check the map and realize that there are only 3 sources of oil on the entire map. One is in the middle of Alex's lands. The other is in the fartherst corner of France and the 3rd is all the way in England. So
no tanks for us. (See attachments for resource maps, showing strategic resources.) By the time we'll be able to get our hands on either of the oil resources, we'll be very near the domination limit anyway.
The war against Alex will still be a challenge, because we have a huge border and each of his cities is protected by 4-7 units. (Mostly Riflemen with some Grenadiers, Catapults and a few Canons thrown in.)
1750, 1755 (3,4) - Building Infantry and Canons everywhere. I am not building anything else, because the game should be over in less than 30 turns.
Moving troops into position next to every single Greek city near our border. My plan to deal with extended front line is to simply make a 4-prong assault against every border city and reinforse where necessary. I'd rather lose one of newly captured cities on counter-attack, than have that counter-attack come towards our older cities from an unexpected direction.
War Weariness is getting pretty bad, so I turn the culture slider up to 30% and drop science down to 50%. We aren't going to have time to benefit from any new discoveries anyway.
1760 (5) - Alex offers crabs for Uranium. I renegotiate for Crabs, Sheep and 16gpt. I'd prefer if he used Uranium to build useless navy, instead of infantry. Talking about infantry, he is still missing Assembly Line, but I don't know how long that is going to last. So I'll attack as soon as I am ready to take 3 border cities.
Infantry kills a grenadier at Novgorod.
1765 (6) - Louis asks for Open Borders. We agree.
Artillery -> Biology(4) We might as well grow our population, since there are no other technologies we'll need. (Oil is inaccessable and Mechanized infantry will come too late.)
1770 (7) - St. Petersburg and Smolensk come out of resistance, so I rase culture slider up to 50% to save them from starving. (We don't need more research or cash, so might as well keep people happy.) I note that Alex retreated most of his troops back from the borders.
At Novgorod, Infantry kills Grenadier, Infantry kills longbow. Only 2 catapults left, so the other 3 infantries turn back, killing a musketman that was just unloaded from a galley. Novgorod will fall next turn, and most of my troops are in position, so I decide that Alex's time has come.
Here are Alex's garrisons, as seen by our scouts:
Sparta - 2 Cav, 3 Rifle, 2 Canon, 1 Gren
Athens - 4 Rifles, Canon, Gren
Thermopilae - my Elephant got killed by Russian longbow, when trying to enter a hill for a better look. I think it had 4-6 units last time I checked.
Mycenae - 2 Rifles, Canon, Gren
Corinth - Cav, Rifle, 2 Canons, Gren
Rhodes - Rifle, Gren, Cat
Byblos - Rifle, Gren
Delphi, Herakleia, Ephesus - unknown
Points of first attack:
Argos - Rifle and 2 Grens against 5 Inf, 3 Canons
Knossos - 3 Cav, Rifle, Canon, Gren against 5 Inf, 3 Canon
Thessalonica - 2 Rifles, Canon, Gren against 6 Inf, Canon, Cat (1 turn to reach city)
Termopilae - 11 Inf, 3 Cats from Moscow assault (3 turns to reach city)
See attachment picture of Eastern Front.
I declare war.
Knossos - bombard from 40% down to 16%. Chances are still only 25%, so we fortify and wait for reinforcements. (Longbow and Spear in Arabela are upgraded to Infantry.)
Argos - bombard from 60 down to 24%. Infantry dies to Rifleman (at 63%), Infantry dies to Grenadies at 75%, Infantry kills Gren, Infantry finishes wounded Gren, Infantry finishes wounded rifle without scratch and takes city and 156$.
IBT - 2 Canons recapture Argos. Another canon captures worker I forgot to move.
1775 (8) Argos - City Raider canon kills canon. Another canon kills wounded canon, captures city, becomes medic. 2 surviving infantries promote (healing to 18 health) and enter city.
Thessalonica - bombard 40% to 26%. Infantry dies to CGII Rifle (29.2%), but hurts it badly; Infantry dies to CG rifle (62%); Infantry kills Gren (79%); 2 infantries finish off Rifles and capture city, getting 152$.
Knossos - (stack was hit by canon, but only minor damage) Suicide 2 barrage canons.
After this, I can capture the city losing only 1 infantry. The city is occupied by a Garrison infantry. (Even these extra garrison infantries can be useful.

) Another infantry kills the canon you see in the picture without taking any damage.
Finally, 2 last Cats in Novgorod are killed, giving 2 Workers and about 150$.
IBT - Killed a Rifleman at Argos.
1780 (9) - I am now building Artillery, instead of Infantry, because combination of City Raider and Collateral Damage makes it much better for taking out cities as I've seen last turn. I remember this from Desert War scenario and last turn gave another illustration. (Lost 2 canons and 1 Inf against 6 units in Knossos and 2 Inf against 3 weaker units in Thessalonica.)
There is a lot of troop movement, but the only action is destruction of 2 Cavs and a Canon assault forse near Argos.
1785 (10) We finally got access to Horses. lol
Biology finishes and I choose Combustion, just in case we do get access to oil before the game ends. Culture slider goes down to 20%.
Thermopylae is defended by just 4 units. I brought 11 infantry and 3 cats. Talking about overkill...
City Raider III infantry is just scary. It killed Garrison II Rifleman in 33% defense city without a scratch. Thermopilae falls quickly with no further losses.
We also kill some Cavalry near Yakutsk.
Kylearan, most of the troops are unmoved in case you have other plans, but here is my tentative plan:
Northernmost stack goes to Sparta. It has only 1 catapult, but plenty of infantry, so it should be ok. You could wait until some artillery gets there, but we are producing units faster than everybody else combined, so we can afford to throw away a stack.
Stack that took Thermopilae goes to Athens.
All troops in Arbela area go to Ephesus.
Strike forse north of Knossos waits for Knossos trooops to heal and moves towards Mycenae. (I was sending it towards Hyrclean, but taking that city alone would live it surrouned by Greek culture, so Mycenae should fall firsth.
Troops in Thessalonica will probably have to stay there to prevent a French revolt.
Have fun.
