RBC15f - Ottomans - OPEN - Emperor

Pre-flight check: Scroll through the cities, firing governors and making a few tweaks here and there. (Wines+1gpt to Brother Bede for helping me remember how to fire governors) Rush a few builds...

IBT - Russians move some troops in the north, some builds complete. Vienna starts some Grand Batteries. France declares war on Prussia

Turn 1 (Jan, 1811) Some GBs redline 4 Russian Guards at Bryansk. Kill 4 Russian Guards, losing no units. Rush a Barracks in Konigsberg. Finish rush a few units.

IBT - Russian Guards kill 2, lose 2 north of Bryanks. I'll have to work to improve a 3:1 kill ratio. Kiev riots :smoke:

Turn 2 (Mar, 1811) Mostly troop movement. Dispatching a force to try to take Sevastapol. Advance a task force on Tula.

IBT - We lose 2 Sipah that I foolishly left exposed, but 4 Russian Guards are killed. Russians advance an Elite Guard from Sevastapol.

Turn 3 (May, 1811) Grand Batteries redline Elite Guard, Sipahi kills it. Grand Batteries from Konigsberg lay waste to the 4 in garrison at Danzig. Danzig falls without any Ottoman losses. Sipahi kill 2 more Russian guards outside Warsaw. Skirmishing outside Bryansk, I lose 1 Sipahi to a Russian Guard, but in the process of killing 2 we get another leader.

IBT - Sweden and Russia sign peace. Dangit.

Our people want to build the General Staff School! (Is that the pentagon?)

Turn 4 (Jul 1811) Sign Sweden on against russia for Iron and Horses. Move troops on Tula, New Sipahi Army whacks a guard at Bryansk. Troops advance NW of Tula (I want to attack from the other side of the river) Sipahi move northward. Some troops move towards the future French front. In a move that may upset some people, I cash rush-finish 7 turns off the Army build at Belgrade. It will be 3 Janissaries strong next turn.

IBT - Russia and Denmark sign peace. France and Russia sign peace (uh-oh) Britain wants to trade maps, get a gift of 10g instead. Napoleon demands our Territory map and 23 gold. I hate to give him our map, but we are not yet in position to fight Napoleon. Russians lose a Guard attacking a Janissary, Russians advance 4 guards N-NE of Bryansk.

Lvov riots :smoke:

Turn 5 (Sept 1811) I am taking a gamble here. I've circled the Tula expeditionary force all the way around to the north side of the city. Other troops generally move towards the future French front. Troops advance on Vilnius.

IBT - Russians retreat one Sipahi on the border...and shuffle troops all over the place. I think that move on Vilnius has them doing the Indecision Dance.

Warsaw Riots. :smoke:

Turn 6 (November, 1811)

Napoleon wants 429g+11gpt for an alliance against Russia. I don't know if that's ill advised or not, so I'll leave that open for discussion.

Relentless bombardments of Tula, Vilnius and Sevastapol ensue on this turn.

At Sevastapol we retreat a couple of Sipahi killing one unit. I mis-click sending a Janissary to the next hill...and since that mis-click matters, I reloaded at this point.

Two Sipahi take Vilnius. Our Sipahi Army kills a healthy Russian Guard that was moving on Konigsberg. Our Sipahi army takes care of a healthy Russian Guard threatening Kongigsberg, then kills another that was in range of the Batteries. Lose 2 sipahi going after another guard. A Sipahi kills a Guard.

I lose a Sipahi in the Siege of Tula, but it falls. Though these units need a rest...they're in position to move on Moscow.

Status:

Along the French frontier: Prague has 2 Janissaries and a Sipahi. Salzburg 2 Janissaries and 2 Sipahi, Venice has 4 Janissaries, 2 Sipahi, and a Sekhan.

Outside Sevastapol we have a couple of Janissaries, a Sipahi, and 4 Grand batteries. 2 Grand Batteries and a couple of Sipahi are in the area. Once Smolensk is taken we should have 6 GBs that should be sent to the French frontier.

A fresh Janissary Army is moving northward to join the Sipahi Army outside Vilnius. My advice would be to use these forces to take the southernmost Russian cities, and then start positioning them to go against France.

We now have a Sipahi Army, a Janissary Army, 16 Grand Batteries, and Two Sipahi that are one tile from the gates of Moscow. :D Russia is not yet gassed, but they're close to the edge.

So...for the next better player, here's > >The Save< <
 
Solid progress. :goodjob:

Couple of things:

Rivers give no defensive bonus in this scenario, so you don't need to circle around to avoid attacking cross-river.

General Staff School is the Pentagon, and very worthwhile use for our next leader. Adding a 4th Sipahi to our Armies bumps up the attack value by 2 as well as adding 4-5 HP.

Once we take Moscow, colonize (and guard) the Silks. That may save us 60 gpt in lux tax.

We are at 31/27 for domination, with 10 size 12 Russian cities remaining. The good thing is that the front is narrowing a bit, so we'll soon be able to use one attacking stack with two artillery stacks.

If we really wanted to get France back in against the Russians, pay the Danes for an MA. :)

Population looks to be the primary difficulty for Domination. Try to keep captured cities as well-fed as possible.

I noticed another good thing: Sevastopol is showing a Musket as a top defender. :hammer:

I still don't see us attacking France in this game. We should be able to win by bonking Russia.
 
T_McC said:
Rivers give no defensive bonus in this scenario, so you don't need to circle around to avoid attacking cross-river.
Boy, do I feel silly now. I might have taken Moscow if I'd known that. :blush:
If we really wanted to get France back in against the Russians, pay the Danes for an MA. :)
I am clearly not accustomed to these locked alliances either. :worship:
Population looks to be the primary difficulty for Domination. Try to keep captured cities as well-fed as possible.
The captured stuff wants to riot a bit... we could use a little happiness help...
I noticed another good thing: Sevastopol is showing a Musket as a top defender. :hammer:
I did manage to clip two Guards (one who showed his face and one in the city) but I think there are 2 muskets and a catapult (?) in there. It should fall in another turn or two when another couple of Sipahi get there. The fire support only consists of 4 GBs.
We should be able to win by bonking Russia.
If that's the case, then we're well on our way. When that second Janissary Army links up with the Sip army at Vilnius we will have two pretty stout Stacks of Doom.
 
I would still be wary of Napoleon. The Mad Corsican would just love another front.
 
Agreed we shouldn't be waving empty cities at Napoleon, but our fresh troops should still be heading for the Russian front. We will reach the point in another year or two where troops produced in our core can't reach the Russian front in time to do any good. Then we can divert them west. But we're not at that point yet.

I also think we are so far ahead on VP that the only thing a French declaration would do is prevent us from winning by Domination. We'd have to settle for either a VP win or a Histogram win. No way can the French assemble stacks to really threaten us, not after all the wars they have been in and how the AI scatters its troops.

One hedge is to have a couple of cities in the west producing GB's. I doubt we can get many more move-1 units into Russia, so adding a few fresh artillery in the west is our best defense against Nappy doing something stupid.

Besides, he's going to be at war with Russia again soon due to his locked alliance with Denmark. Right? :D
 
The GBs are very powerful in this scenario, I think overbalancing. In the hands of the human, we already knew that combined arms were the key to winning, but the GB is like having artillery in the AA.
 
...just some ramblings...

We will soon have two ... "Army Corps" (2 Armies with fire support and other units) assembled; one at Vilnius and the other south of Moscow. With 2 Russian Cities to grab in the south, the Vilnius corps could take that mission and still be close enough to France's northern flank to do us some good. There is also a Russian city SW of Danzig... using the corps to take that city would put troops ON Napoleon's northern flank, and position it to push into former Prussian lands. The corps outside Moscow could either press north or northwest after taking Moscow.

There are 4 GB's outside Sevastapol, and 2 others in the general vicinity. Once Sevastapol falls, those GB's could be re-deployed to Venice. Those GB's could arrive in Venice 8 turns after the fall of Sevastapol.

IIRC, Vienna is productive enough that we could probably cash-finish some partial Janissary builds there, which might allow us to accumulate some reasonably strong infantry in Prague and Salzburg. That lousy little size 6 town NE of Vienna could probably be dedicated to making GB's, with the occasional cash-rush finish.

The city that is SE of our Military Academy city is close enough to Vienna that it could supply 1-move units to the southern flank. I tried to get a couple of troops into those border towns, but the garrisons are still a bit light.

At this point I wonder if we shouldn't take a few more cities from Russia, and then move towards the French. It would be a real slugfest... but I'd hate to push an Army Corps all the way up to St Petersburg, only to get attacked by Napoleon.
 
I'd argue to continue pushing the Army groups into Russia. scout said it himself: The nearest group is 8 turns from the French front. There are only 24 turns left in this game!

The Russian cities are just as populous as the French, control more territory, and aren't defended by units with a defense of 8. The French are not going to spontaneously drop 20 ICavs on us, the worst they can do is capture a couple of smaller cities before we re-group, and that's assuming they forget about their wars with Spain and England and move all of their troops against us.

This is all an academic argument. Unless I'm getting games confused, we're ahead by > 10K VP here. This is a win, the only question is how we win. I don't give the AI any credit for being able to figure out "Hey, they're going to win on VP, we'd better attack!". We're the only friend Napoleon has, and in (now) three games in this scenario as the Ottomans I haven't heard one peep from the French.

Now watch those be famous last words. :lol:
 
I didn't realize we were that close to endgame... in that case....

St. Petersburg or Bust!
 
T_McC said:
Maybe Ankaa will take a turn in the game thread he started. :mischief:
Where's Sir Bugsy? Didn't he play one of the earlier setup turnsets here?

Four armies... many Grand Batteries... at the gates of Moscow (quick, somebody put some Tchaikovsky on) troops at the gates of... something that starts with an "S"... and stuff generally scattered all over creation.

What could be more fun?

C'mon, hasn't anybody here "got it"? :D
 
I've been watching and throwing in a few comments. My SG plate is a little full at the moment. If someone doesn't pick it up by Saturday morning I'll probably jump in. Since I'd be attacking Moscow I wouldn't put Tchaikovsky on. It may inspire the Russians to scorch the earth and the brutal Russian winter could end up defeating us.
 
Let's see if a little hypnosis will work here...all you lurkers read this ten times:

Watch the gold watch swinging in front of your eyes...
you are getting bloodthirsty
Two Janissary Armies...
you are getting bloodthirsty
Two Sipahi Armies...
you are getting bloodthirsty
Many Grand Batteries...
you are getting bloodthirsty
The Russian Front beckons...
you are getting bloodthirsty
Yes, you... lurking in the thread...
you are getting bloodthirsty
Pick up the game and play!
you are getting bloodthirsty
 
Pre-flight – Nov 1811 – Wake up some nearby Sips and move them next to Stettin. Scout has our cities nicely optimized, even using some Bobbies to keep the local citizenry honest. We’re at 31% of land and 27% of pop. We can always join in workers for the pop.

IBT – Mostly the Russians run away. Some serious production.

1. Jan 1812 – Have Tchaikovsky taken out and shot for writing such an Anti-Ottoman overture. Oh, that was Anti-French. My bad. :D

@ Sevastopol – Bombard the defenders and kill two. Lose a Janis to a conscript musket.

March on Moscow.

IBT – Several Russians march on Vilnius.

2. Mar 1812 – Every defender at Moscow is redlined by our batteries. We lose one Sip to a redlined defender, but take the city.

@ Sevastopol – We lose two Sips. Kill one defender.

@ Stettin – Kill one defender and have two Sips retreat.

Bombard Riga.

@ Vilnius – Kill two Russian Guards.

March on Smolensk. We’re up to 32% land.

IBT – We lose an army to a Guard at Vilnius. We also lose a Sip.

3. May 1812 – Kill some invaders around Moscow.

At Stettin – Have an army redlined. Retreat and cover.

IBT – Kill two Guards at Vilnius.

4. Jul 1812 – Tired of dinking around at Sevastopol, I send some troops in force.

Capture Riga. That adds a percentage point to our land total.

IBT – Get the mandatory retirement year announcement.

5. Sep 1812 – Lots of maneuvering.

IBT – Portugal wants a trade embargo against Denmark. No Thanks.Russia wants to talk peace, you won’t give us cities for peace. See ya. Danes want MPP. No.
Moscow riots as resisters become unhappy. Konigsberg riots cause I was a dope.

6. Nov 1812 – Clear out some guards around Smolensk.

I fall one attacker short of taking Stettin, lost two.


After Action – Stettin should fall next turn.

Smolensk is in the crosshairs as well.

There is a force in Vilnius that could probably march on Minsk in a turn or two.

We’re at 33% land and 30% population.

Situation:


Save: http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/RCB15f,_Nov.,_1812_AD.SAV
 
@Bugsy: Looks good! I think we should be able to win by domination here. Did I underestimate the garrison at Sevastapol?
 
There are at least four defenders there. We have a lot more GB's there now.
 
Sir Bugsy said:
There are at least four defenders there. We have a lot more GB's there now.
Well then...it would appear that I DID underestimate that garrison... oh well.. at least it's a V.P. location, and another % towards the domination win.
 
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