RBC15A - France - Sid

[Arathorn]

For as frustrating as the turns went to play, in retrospect, they weren’t all bad. The PRNG was against me in a lot of ways, but progress was made on many fronts.

On the inherited turn, I initiated a dogpile against the Ottomans. The Austrians actually pay us 122 gold to ally. Russia pays us 24 gold, but we had to kick in gems and wine for them. Prussia was paid gems, 15 gpt, and our WM for an alliance against Ottomans. We’re pretty safe at this point.

Micromanagement nets me some reasonable gains. If a city is going to starve and produces only 1 spt anyway, it might as well be all tax collectors! The old Spanish cities, while not flip risks, are very unhappy about the war. So they tax themselves a fair bit. Really, a LOT of cities have happiness issues. Oh well.

It’s turn 54 of 96, so we’re past the halfway point of the game. We have 36,395 VPs (of 60,000 needed). The VP race is not a competition, as Austria is second, with 14,465. The only race, currently, is against the clock.

The Spanish and the Brits attack us. The Spanish lose a cav and we lose a volt. The Brits lose a lifeguard and we lose a tile improvement by Portsmouth. The Brits send a bunch of ships OUT of London, for mysterious reasons. And Prussia and Russia realize their names are too similar to keep fighting and make peace.

By March of 1809, armies are ready to roll. Cannons go 2 for 5 vs. London. Two armies kill a lifeguard and 4 vet redcoats. Elite IGuard dies to conscript redcoat (RC), signaling the end of any good luck I may have had. ICav retreats to conscript RC, ICav dies to conscript RC, ICav finally kills a conscript. London is going to take some killing.

In other news, thanks to Speaker for the worker/IGuard combination by the dyes near the Ottomans. That colony got formed and the sixth lux lets me put a bunch of slackers back to work. Build times go down across most of France. Oh, and some Spanish interlopers are cleaned up. And the mostly volt army is sent south.

The Brits are the only nation to attack this time. A lifeguard (LG) and household cavalry (HC) die to the IGuard army in Portsmouth.

May, 1809 news is 3 for 5 cannons at London, but the mostly-healthy army redlines to kill a single injured RC and the rest of the troops must rest. 6 soldados die in Spain, but we’re still healing more than fighting down here.

Ottomans send some janissaries our way. That’s what the army is for. Brits kill the IGuard in the stack by London, but lose a LG and HC in the process. Spain thrashes impotently.

By July, the French forces are reduced to simply maneuvering. Our numbers are low and our artillery count is abysmal. We still don’t have Artillery Tactics and I’m saving cash for a potential steal of that important tech fairly soon. A check of the F3 advisor shows the Brits with 49 RCs, 34 LGs, and a very small number of HC. The Spanish have 44 soldado and no cavalry. They shouldn’t last too long.

In the interturn, our Danish allies declare on the Prussians (but we’re not at war with them YET). Thanks for nothing, Danes. A couple HC and a LG impale on the IGuard army. And Brits from Gibralter appear in Spain to harass our troops there. The funniest, though, is a janissary unloaded by the Ottomans clear over by Bordeaux. That’s a LONG sail to drop off cannon fodder.

The movement of July pays off in September. By London, the cannons go 3 for 5. We attack. LG dies. LG dies. RC dies. We retreat to a RC. RC dies. RC conscript dies. Retreat to a conscript. Kill RC conscript times three. And it still stands strong. Sigh.

The janissary is dispatched with little trouble (a retreat, but no losses).

And, in Spain, we kill 7 soldados, including all the defenders of Porto, which is now in French hands. Cannons and lone ICavs are protecting our cities with defense by offense, while the armies are going after cities…starting with Porto hoping to shrink the front.

The Brits continue to assault Portsmouth, losing a couple LGs and a HC to our defending army. What I find hilarious is that they load up a ship to move units two squares to a location reachable easily by roads from the city of origin. LOVE the so-very artificial AI, don’t you? Getting some landings on the ruins, too, as usual.

By November of ’09, my fifth turn in power, things are coming to a head. In Spain, 7 cannons barely manage two hits on a LG, but an ICav finishes him off, unfortunately destroying the grand battery (GB) he was guarding. I lust after those artillery weapons, but our income is very low right now, so steals are hard to come by.

London’s cannons go 2 for 5. It only costs one ICav to kill a LG, a reg RC, 5 conscript RCs, and an injured HC to get….

 

[Arathorn]

Yes, that’s a one hp army capturing the city. No, it wasn’t one hp when it attacked the one hp HC in London. Yes, I was worried. No, I had no other attackers. And, yes, I did attack with a red-lined army. Sue me. Anyway, I steal a few troops from our northern cities to defend London a bit.

Very bad interturn. Ottomans pay the Swedes and they ally against us (and against Russia). Denmark makes peace with the Ottomans, so we do, too, against our will and breaking a number of alliances. We then break even more deals when we declare on the Prussians because of Denmark. Can I play without allies next time? Cities are unhappy with the loss of war happiness vs. Ottomans and/or weariness vs. the Prussians.

At least the Prussians don’t attack us yet this turn. The Brits did, killing a volt and ICav in London. The Spanish were allowed to attack, too, and a soldado dies against a volt. It’s starting to get FUGLY. On the plus side, our income is looking a bit less sick, with Adam Smith’s in London.

The calendar flips. It’s January of 1810 and Napoleon has the Spanish on his mind. A full ten soldados die, including all the defenders of Oviedo, which is now in his grasp. Corunna in the very NW of Spain is the only city still “behind the lines” as he desires them. It, too, was attacked, but not enough units were sent to capture the city.

The French also try to incite a dogpile on the Prussians, to save the weakly-defended (but not undefended – thanks Speaker!) northern cities. The mostly-volt army had to kill a couple janissaries in the south but is now headed back north. It alone may be enough, but allies are good. Alliances are also impossible. Our ally destroyed our reputation for us, so that alliances against the Prussians are impossible (e.g. wines, gems, 1000 gold, and 200 gpt to Russia has them insulted). I guess the annoying Danes are our only ally going forward. The rest of the world is pretty well embroiled in war, however, so it shouldn’t be a HUGE deal.

That 1000 cash is enough for a careful steal from the Brits. Recent evidence says there is a difference in success chance between careful and safe, but I still think careful has the best odds overall. Of course, it fails AND our spy is discovered. Such is life.

Interesting interturn. The Brits in England attack the IGuard army, which is now defending London. It eats a couple LG and a HC without breaking a sweat. A lone IGuard in France defends successfully against a landed LG. The Spanish thrash. The Prussians send in their cavalry. Amsterdam’s volt retreats the attacking cavalry, but Brussels loses a volt to a cav. Danish cavalry that had been moving towards Spain are now nearing the Prussian border, so we’ll have some help, at least.

By March of 1810, the French troops are tired. Cannon bombing is rather ineffective. It’s a three-front war, and that’s always hard. Troops on Britain primarily rest, although one ICav army is healed and kills a LG and RC.

Spain’s troops must have received some special high-intensity training (on flatlands, even). One regular soldado very nearly kills an attacking ICav army (started with like 8 hps). That army doesn’t die. The army attacking Corunna, which attacked with 9 hps vs. a conscript soldado, isn’t as lucky. (Attacking with only 9 hps may be , but against a conscript with only 4 defense? I think it was the right move.) Scratch one army.

Austrian cavs are removed, but a couple units are semi-exposed. The mixed army is moving to help as rapidly as it can. It will be there soon, to anchor the defense (or offense, if such a thing is possible/necessary on this front).

May 1810 is my last gasp, my Waterloo. In Spain, 10 cannons fire on a 3 hp soldado on flat ground. Only one hits. Still, it’s only 2 hps, so an elite ICav goes out to finish him off. And dies. A second elite ICav is successful, but…sheesh. A nearly full hp ICav army attacks Corunna. The reg soldado there does die, but redlines the army.

The troops in Britain are almost too afraid to attack. Many troops there are healed, though, so it’s probably time to go on the offensive again, with the small cannon stack and two ICav armies.

At the end, France has 45,035 VPs, a gain of 8640. Two more 8-turn sets of that will get us a victory. Austria is still second, with 16,735. It’s only turn 62 of 96, so we have plenty of time, if things don’t go all to heck in a handbasket.

Spain’s main force is 35 soldados. That’s really not a lot. They should fall soon. On the other hand, our forces down there are VERY tired and need healing badly. It’ll be a while before we can attack again in earnest. The failure to capture Corunna leaves an ugly blot on the landscape.

I did successfully replant a spy in Britain. They have 38 RCs, 4 HC, and 33 LG for us to deal with. We might be able to capture England, but Ireland is probably out of reach.

I leave the next player with thin fronts, too few troops, limited cash, much better income, lots of foes, Brits on the mainland, injured troops, and my best wishes. I also think mobilization may have been lost on turn 7. Check it.

Plusses: 3 cities captured, including the biggie of London. Income increased almost 10fold. 6th lux connected.

Minuses: Lost an army, reputation completely trashed, no new techs, strong and close enemy to the east, injured troops all over, still too few artillery weapons. No MGL despite numerous elite wins.

ROSTER:
T-hawk – UP NOW
Romeothemonk – on deck
Speaker – may play again
Arathorn – done, I presume

Arathorn

 

[T-hawk]

Some epic fights indeed. That siege of London took what, 25 turns from the first attack until we finally captured it? Still, the invincible armies carried the day...

I see that Britain's capital moved to Dublin, on Ireland, so that's the next city that they're going to stuff with 10+ lifeguards. I would expect the rest of Britain to fall in fairly short order, hopefully no more than 3-4 defenders per city.

60K VP does take a while, eh? At least it's a high enough number to allow really playing out the scenario on Sid, unlike the low caps that ended the Fall of Rome and Middle Ages games so soon.

I see it and should be able to play by Wednesday or Thursday.

 

[romeothemonk]

We can build one more new army, and after taking one more city, get another army as well. The Fully loaded cav armies appear to be quite effective at slicing and dicing through the opponents.
I was surprised that it took until ~turn 60 for Denmark to hose us on the Alliance deals. If we just play defense, we might be able to get prussia to go against the weaker Danes, and maybe destroy them for us.

 

[T-hawk]

Just updating... I'm almost done with moving and am becoming less busy. Don't have DSL set up yet at the new place, but I do have the computer set up and can take the save back and forth on a CD-R from work. Should be able to play tonight and post back tomorrow morning.

 

[T-hawk]

Apologies again for the delay, but here we go.

Arathorn was right in that we lost mobilization; I fix that.

Diplo check: We have no active alliances currently. I'd like to end the Sweden and Prussia wars ASAP, so I don't sign any alliances. Austria will pay 13gpt for Silks, and we're already exporting a lux to them anyway, so no reason not to take that. The Ottomans actually don't hate us and will accept our credit, but there's no such deals we want to make (our entire economy for Artillery Tactics, no thanks.)

Arathorn's cautions about having too few troops all over are indeed true... but all I can do is wait for more to get built and pray that Prussia doesn't overrun anything. I get a spy planted in Prussia, revealing an astoundingly meager, gassed army of nothing more than 32 Fusiliers (4-4-1) and 9 Cuirassers (5-4-2).

==========

Between turns, the Brits suicide two cavalry against London and the Prussians suicide one each against Amsterdam and Brussels.

Jul 1810: Knock off the British units on the mainland and several on England. Attack a redlined Prussian horse with two conscript Volts but the Prussian wins all four HP exchanges.

Attack Cardiff on England with the cav army, knocking off two lifeguards and revealing redcoats underneath.

Investigate Frankfurt, revealing six defenders inside, and that the Prussian AI has their luxury slider at a whopping 70%! Our army starts whacking on the city although it'll take a few turns.

Investigation of Corunna shows four units and our army there has only three attacks. It kills two units, then moves into our territory so it can heal next turn.

Between turns, Denmark helpfully knocks off a couple Soldados for us. Prussia streams a bunch of units at us.. not a whole lot, but we're still VERY thin in this area. Amsterdam helps out by going into food shortage to hire about 7 policemen to get a cannon built this turn.


Sep 1810: Continue to attack Cardiff. A defending H-Cav scares the heck out of me by knocking 6 straight HP off our attacking army but we win with 3 HP left. The other army finishes the job and captures the city.

Clean up more Prussian units, but I've gotta pull the army back into our territory to play zone defense instead of attacking Frankfurt. Clean up more Spanish units and heal one army this turn.

Spain's got a conscript Frigate at sea... how did that happen?

Between turns, Prussia makes a desperate push at attacking Brussels, but fortunately I was able to draft more Volts than they've got cavs, and next turn our army can clean up the rest.


Nov 1810: A conscript Volt attacking a redlined Prussian cav spawns a leader for them! But our next Volt kills them both.

Resume attack on Corunna, but this city has just been drafting conscripts like mad. Three more kills this turn still leaves a conscript Soldado showing. Also clean up more British and Prussian units.

We've got enough to try a careful steal to get Artillery Tactics... but we fail, but at least don't lose our spy.

Between turns, I'm an idiot and lose undefended Medina to a lone Soldado.


Jan 1811: Recapture Medina. Four more conscripts die in Corunna and it *still* doesn't fall!!

Start knocking units off of Nottingham with armies. Scramble in Spain to keep things safe against too many Soldados. Prussia seems to have run out of units so that army pushes again towards Frankfurt.


Mar 1811: Frickin FINALLY finish off Corunna. Also bring the full force of three armies against Nottingham, and that city falls too. Start attacking Frankfurt.

Some missteps in England temporarily lose us some cannons, but we get them back easily enough.


May 1811: I've been assembling a decent though motley stack at Frankfurt. This turn, Prussia put together a stack of about 5 cavalry of their own that are right outside Nancy. I'd like to capture Frankfurt and then make peace, but a city investigation shows 7 defenders which I can't take out this turn. I can take out most of Prussia's stack, and trust that 3 conscripts in Nancy can hold against whatever they send.

In England and Spain, more cleaning up of units. England is going well, but I haven't made any real progress in Spain at all. That should change soon, now that the one army isn't tied up at Corunna so it can join the other one.


Jul 1911: A couple Prussian cavs took out a couple exposed units, and I'm forced to concede that we just don't have the gas on the Prussian front to make progress there. Our one army there is the old slow Volt army, and I just can't bring enough I-Cavs to bear over here. On top of that, Frankfurt is shrinking (down to size 9 now) and by the time we capture it, it won't even be worth much VP.

We make peace with both Sweden and Prussia this turn; they have an MPP with each other so we need to do both at the same time. Prussia gievs 100 gold for peace and Sweden gives a couple workers.

We also *finally* succeed with a steal of Artillery Tactics this turn.


Sept 1811: An investigation of Leeds shows only four units on defense. Some army poundage later, it's ours.

But then a bloody ridiculous Redcoat outside the city kills THREE of our attacking units.

But then in Spain, an elite I-Cav pops a Leader, and the resulting army is what I need. This new army gets loaded with I-Cavs and, along with an old army, walks up to Valencia and starts hitting it.

Valencia will fall next turn. The Spanish front is quite solid now, with three armies there. The British front is less so because I did overextend a bit to capture Leeds; we may lose Portsmouth this turn but we can take it back once the armies get a chance to heal.

Totals: 4 cities captured (3 on England). VP increased from 45000 to 56750. Next leader should finish it up in 4-5 turns or so; one English city plus two Spanish cities will put us over the 60k.

 

[Speaker]

Nice looking set of turns T-Hawk. Vive la France!

Romeothemonk – UP NOW
Speaker – done, I presume
Arathorn – done
T-hawk – done

 

[romeothemonk]

IHT: Wow, our forces in Britain are stretched very thin. Spain should crumple easily now.
IBT: Russia and Spain sign a Trade Embargo on us. Spain advances an unholy amount of Soldado's towards us, instead of playing defense. We kill some brits at Portsmouth. Cardiff will fall here.
Turn 1: The English troops need to heal. Put 1 imp guard in Cardiff, he has to hold off 3 redcoats. Capture Valencia, Capture a catapult. Spain had 30 Soldado's on the IHT, I killed 5 now they have 32. Kinda hard with 6 cities. (I know drafting, but I hit the city that they drafted from) Re-mobolize, upgrad a lot of G-bats. Cleaned up four more Soldado's in Spain. We are at 58 and change for VP's.
IBT: Russia and Denmark sign MA against Spain. Kill a life guard at Portsmouth, Cardiff is not attacked. Otto's and Prussia Sign peace.
Turn 2: Kill a bunch of Soldado's and Heal. Reinforce Britain and Heal all over.
IBT: Ottomans and Russia sign peace.
Turn 3: Capture Cartenga to put us over the Top on VP. Will pull some stunts to elevate the VP total now. Kill a ton of stuff. Sign peace with the Spanish and get medicine at a huge discount.

I have attached a few pictures. If anyone wants to help me score some more Sid Victories on my conquest HOF I would love to play some more. PM me if interested. (I will probably do the Fall of Rome one by myself.)

 

[Arathorn]

Nicely done, all. We got it done through the chaos of RL...and got it done convincingly. Nary a doubt. This was the easiest of the Sid-level scenarios I've participated in. We felt thin on troops often, but we actually were pretty strong at nearly all times and points.

Arathorn

 

[T-hawk]

One thing we learned is that the AI's Sid cost discount turns into a game advantage largely by their advantage in infrastructure building. With all the infrastructure pre-built in this scenario, the players' tactical capabilities (and invincible armies) easily overwhelmed even a 2.5:1 advantage in unit production capability.

That said, we still rode the invincible armies to victory here. They can capture cities with no losses, repeatedly. Without them, cracking even a fringe AI city on Sid would take several losses of regular units or a stack of 50+ artillery pieces with their maintenance cost. With them, it was just a matter of time until even 15 fortified units in London would inevitably fall.

What's next? Try Sengoku, or move on to the WWII scenario?

 

[romeothemonk]

Well T-Hawk, I beat WW2 as Japan on Sid in 15 turns by myself. I am sure that with the strategic guidance and masterful MM of a team such as this, Sid could fall in as little as a doxen turns with Japan. A real challenge would be the Americans or Brits on Sid. After testing out a theory on Rise of Rome, that might be ready for a Sid visit. (Personal game going on Deity as Macedon, Game is just mop-up after 35 turns). Either I got much better, or just really lucky.
Sengoku would be nice, but the Playability is still a major issue. Also of Note is that it will probably require several tries as the Barbarians are frisky and plentiful in that scenario. (daimyo has fallen in the first 10 before)
I would also consider a MesoAmerican game or for a real challenge to keep Arathorn and Speaker around and busy, a Mesopotamia game on Sid. No Infra whatsoever there. I have kicked around a few strats for that one as well, but the Human would need to Warmonger and trade very well to have a prayer. The computer as Sumeria would pump out Enkidu's every turn for a really long time (2/2/1 extra HP, 10 shields for the Human). The other great part is that there is no artillary for a looooong time in this game.
Let me know if any of this sounds exciting or even worth the effort.