RBD Succession game 1 - Ghandi Tales

The valiant and relentless Indians had not only avenged the genocide of their
friends, the French, but they had struck a dagger into the very heart of Persia,
striking almost to their capitol. The people were ecstatic! They turned to the
pungent weed in celebration, and as one might expect, the line of CharisGangdhi
came once again to power. However, the discussion in his first cabinet meeting
was shrill indeed...

We have them by the short ones and can't let go! We've cowered in fear from the
Persians long enough, let's be DONE with them, once and for all! Thus cried
the military advisor, whose thirst for blood was not yet quenched. His domestic
advisor chimed in, "Our empire, once so strong in trade and matter of finance,
is now weak and in disarray. The people too, are so weary in war. It is time
for this to end. My friends, we have achieved our objective, as once fortold in
a vision to our forefather, Charis II -- "Tarsus!" The bolt-locked door to
the East. The military advisor spoke, "Charis, you KNOW how much you've been
pushing for 'Attack only with great differential advantage', and you cried out
that we chose heinous timing to start this war, delaying the learning of the ways
of the Cavalry, and waiting until they had riflemen. NOW, however, is the time
of advantage. They have no defense! If we take 8-1 odds and let them regrow
by seven, it's 15-8, or less than two-to-one." The Science advisor chimed in
here: "But if we focus on growth and build no more combat units at all, we'll
have tanks and mechanized infantry and the ability to pump them out at an
incredible rate!" He also noted "Sir, the Palace is due in Bombay
is due in just 18 seasons, we MUST research

Charisgandhi, no stranger to confusion, had again to make a tough choice, one
for peace or one for war. Actually, there was one _compelling_ factor which
guided his decision. In his heart, he wanted peace, but Persia refused to
greet his emissaries!

Five year plan:
1- Try to keep Pasagardae from flipping (not sure I know how ;p)
2- Beat down Persia until they're ready to accept peace on OUR terms
3- Do not neglect the economy in finishing up this war phase
4- Get Scientific Method asap and build the TOE wonder, slowing down Bombay shields a bit

1625 AD (0) - CharisGandhi VI ascends to the throne to the wild weed-induced
cheers of the masses.

1630 AD (1) - CG makes peace with the Zulus, and charging them 50 gold for it.
We reduce our weariness in half. The Persians will not hear from us, and will
be attacked mercilessly until they do! Some minor shifting, including
slowing DOWN the shield rate in Bombay, to give us time to learn of the
weed-induced theory of evolution :p The army positions itself to go after
the mighty city of Perseopolis. On the Persian turn, NOT A SINGLE action
taken. Now it is THEY who cower in fear! We complete the Wall Street in Delhi.
The people of Pasagardae demonstrate, and we scoff at them, driving as many
as we can right out of town. (In fact, some are complaining that the Persians (!)
drafted them, so they are considering reverting to Persia rule, go figure!)
Orleans seems to have had enough of this war, and they start to whine. We pump
a settler out of Tarsus, taking it down to size one, and move it "into the gap"
between Persepolis, Susa and Gordium. If we have to live and fight on this
forsaken continent, I want *one* India born-and-bred colony as a base.

1635 AD (2) - Military Rail completed to Pasargadae.
At least a dozen cavalry stormed upon Perseopolis. No artillery met them, and
three riflemen defeated, although all but three cavs were so hurt they had
to withdraw. One elite cav rolled over a conscript with no damage. Another
conscript popped up to defend. How many were there?

No more cavalry in the area. Hmm... One is brought up from Paris. He defeats
the conscript. Now a Knight appears to defend. They're getting worn down.
One more rides down all the way from Jaipur... he just smoked the tired and
scared Persian horseman, then nothing was left visible, but a catapult or
two. Perseopolis was ours in ONE round of fighting! The canons, about eight of
them, were still one turn away! It homes Shakespeare's theatre, and out of
respect, we do not raze the city. (After consulting the 'net' advisors, and
finding nothing said in this context.) Besides, it makes *8* unhappy citizens
content there. 6 resisters, and.. wow... Copernicus, Great Wall, and the
Pyramids. No idea if we can hold this culture rich city, and I'm not sure if
I want to garrison TOO many there and have them all flip, but let's at least
let the battle weary rest up and put down the resistance.

Persian response: refuse to acknowledge our envoy. (Did a raze earlier have
something to do with this??)

1640 AD (3) - The Zulu want to ally against the Americans. I appease (and yet)
mock them with a freewill gift of a world map instead. Hmm... they have Gems,
we have wines. We can sell gems for 14/turn, or get the trade for gems if
we give them 350 gold. An extra luxury would help us a lot, but that's kind of
steep. We compromise as us giving two luxuries for one of theirs. That let's
us kick down luxury costs to 10% and push science faster. It also doesn't
give them a big chunk of cash to use to trade for techs.

We complete Mil Rail straight into Perseopolis as first action.
New Bombay is founded in the heartland of Northern Persia :)

1645 AD (4) - On the Persian turn, three units move in our area. One cav rides
across the continent and mows down one of our cavs who ran ahead of Rifleman
cover. Two musketmen park outside of New Bombay. They are cut down like dogs.
We shift our forces toward Arbela. One workers takes a wrong turn and is left
out alone. Hmmm... a Persian cavalry picks him up, to have himself surrouned
by 18 of our units. You're right, this is a flaw. :p (I'm not trying to
bait, but I didn't see him hanging alone.)


1650 AD (5) - Americans ask for an MPP. 20-40 more years of war? No thanks Abe.
Hospitals are now getting completed, in addition to factories, coal plants,
cathedrals and more. I've had no new military built. (We're not losing any!!)
Hmmm, those aren't musketmen, they're conscript riflemen. Just the same, they die.
Dual prong assault, Bactra and Arbela. We put a hurtin on the former, but not
enough cavs to finish it. Arbela only has Musketmen, who give us not one,
but two elite cav, before taking the city. We keep it for now :p (CharisGandhi,
the fool, has no heart to raze.) An ironclad off Besacon shells it for fun, and
eliminates some citizens. (Where on earth have their ships gone?)

1655 AD (6) - We lose our supply of Zulu gems.
Sardis puts up strong resistance, two muskets almost holding off 4 elite cav,
but we prevail. (Just see now that their new capital is down in Ergili,
in the South.)

1660 AD (7) - Nothing has flipped yet. Maybe the cities of influence are just
disappearing too fast :p Somehow thought, the cultural borders have
shifted and one line of rail is 'in the green', leading to Parsigardae.
Two cavs had come at our riflemen guarding the rail, they withdrew, and
could not make it back to their city in time. So on our turn we pursued and
defeated the weakened units. Bactra finally fell, but took our heaviest
losses, two vet cavs.

1665 AD (8) - A few resistences end, no off-turn battles, and we're one turn from
electricity. Zulu and America come to peace. The Persians STILL refuse to talk to us!
Gordum, with just two musketmen falls, and gives up a catapult.

1670 AD (9) - Persia and America come to peace. Just one more city left to assault
in the North, Susa. Trying to starve some of the city. Perseopolis in particular
would be bad to flip. Just two conscript Riflemen in Susa, taken down by Canon
and two cavs, one turning Elite. The "Campaign of Northern Persia" is completed!
(Now if they'll only sign a peace treaty :p)

1675 AD (10) - Three cav come riding toward New Bombay. Glad it wasn't one square
South. Harbor of their new capital, Ergili, was destroyed ;) An ironclad
takes out a Frigate in the Tundra seas, then steams to Punjab for repairs.

The Persians still refuse to talk to our envoy. This is great loss for them, for
the next envoy we sent will be from the line of Yan! If he has ANY sense, he will
take peace, and very soon. You might also give gifts of World Maps to Zulu so he
doesn't bail out early of our trade agreement.

For the next technology after Scientific Method, you probably want to take the
cheapest one (Espionage?) since TOE will give us the two cheapest that we're not
working on (Replaceable Parts and Communism). Timing was a little off, getting two poor ones, and probably losing a few hundred shields holding Palace turnholder so long and diverting to Nationalism.

Thus ends the glorious reign of CharisGandhi VI. :egypt:
 
Now, get on your elephant and play your turn in succession game 2! The Nihongo are crying out for the mighty Charisgawa to lead them to greater prosperity! Or at least for a little pungent weed. [pimp]
 
After a brilliant campaign sacking the very heart of the Persian empire and capturing their capital, CharisGhandi was riding high. Not since the most ancient days of India had the line of Charis enjoyed such popular support across the whole of the Empire. While much ado was made about pungent weed, the truth is that no weed was being smoked. CharisGhandi and the current Senators of that noblest of lines displayed the most good humor about the illicit past of a few of their forefathers, who broke the law and indulged in the Weed. Continued monitoring of the situation by the SBI confirmed that the President was entirely clean, and was only humoring his political opponents because he simply had no fear of them whatsoever.

But then, mysteriously, the latest son of the CharisGhandi line, upon election to the family seat, declared an end to voluntary testing for Weed-Trace, saying that the point had been made and it was an insult to continue to insist on constant monitoring, and blah blah blah. Opponents smelled weakness.

Then the scandal broke! The new city in the heart of Persia, which bore the name of "New Bombay", in honor of the CharisGhandi line of old and the City of Charis, was found to have been settled not by Indians, but by PERSIANS! Yes, it's true, CharisGrandson-of-the-Weed had ordered Persians to be rounded up and moved around, all the whilst fraudulently pretending to be establishing a secure Indian settlement inside Persia! Leaders in the Senate immediately invoked the No Confidence vote and an investigation was conducted into the President's medical condition. He was found to have been smoking Pungent Weed and was sentenced to life without parole. The elder CharisGhandi testified that he did not know of his son's return to the old addiction, and in turning state's evidence, was cleared of all charges. The glory of his achievements at war were not tarnished and his approval remained somewhat high in the polls. A crackdown nationwide was made on weed smoking.

Who now would lead India? The Yans were much talked about, as they often rose to the fore after some scandal or other, but the Yans said a collective "No Thanks", as they had all gotten out of politics years ago. Hocus Merchants had also resigned from the Senate. The Monkey Party was nowhere to be found. In fact, a new kind of crisis came over India as nobody wanted to run for President!

The Senate fumbled around for a year or so, but there was so much party bickering and gridlock, it started to interfere with the war effort. Too much disarray was disrupting logistics, so reluctantly, General Siri-Yan agreed to allow himself to be nominated as Interim Prime Minister, until such time as somebody else stepped forward to run.

His inaugural address was quite short: "I'm no politician. Let the Senate debate whatever it pleases, and pass whatever laws, just don't interfere with the defense budget and everything will be all right."

As he turned to leave the podium, a senior reporter barked out a question. Not being a politician, Interim Prime Minister Yan paused out of courtesy. "What was that?"

The reported yelled out, "How long will you continue to serve?"

"Until the next election is held. Not long, I should hope."

"What if no suitable candidates appear? What then? At what point would you step down?" the reporter asked.

"If nobody else wants this difficult job, I'll see it through to the end of the war with the Persians."

"Even if the war drags on and on?"

General Yan started to catch on. These reporters could be a real pain in the backside. He turned and left the podium without any further comment.


For years, the front remained stalled right where it had sat when the Weed Scandal broke. General Yan continued to have nothing to do with political debate. His interviews were a few short questions and shorter answers, and his ratings in the polls dropped steadily as war weariness grew and there were calls for the Do-Nothing Prime Minister to resign.

Persia grew increasingly bold, sending an envoy to General Yan at his headquarters in Calcutta, offering to call a halt to the war and sign peace. The General entertained this envoy, asking what Xerxes was willing to offer India for peace.

"Offer?" scoffed the envoy. "The front has remained stalled for years! You are stretched too thin. A little more time and we might rout you right on back to Bombay where you belong! You are lucky we are willing to offer you peace at all."

General Yan drew his sword and lopped off the head of this lackey personally, before the dog had a chance to wag its tongue any further. "Send the body back to Xerxes. Tell him the head is decorating a pole overlooking my courtyard here in Calcutta. Persia started this war, but I am going to end it. Tell him he can surrender Antioch and Tyre to us, in exchange for one hundred years of peace with India, or it will be HIS head on a pole beside this one. Now go."

When Xerxes did not reply with his surrender, India entertained no further envoys from Persia. Their calls for more talks elicited no response whatsoever, not even any kind of acknowledgement.

More years passed, and nothing at all happened.

Yan's approval ratings went into the toilet. Persia mocked him from across the line, and even sent their troops into occupied Persia in a few feeble attempts to liberate their cities. Yan ordered all his troops to hold their positions. Cannon fired on the Persians as they drew near to the cities and fortified positions of Indian troops, decimating their ranks. Yan ordered some of these remnants mopped up, while others were allowed to make their little noises and yip and yap like pomeranians, then run back to Xerxes with tails between their legs. More years passed, and nothing at all happened.

Yan did order a few divisions of riflemen, supported by half of India's cannon brigades, across the line and into Persian held territory. They advanced slowly on Antioch, and Persia did attack them a couple of times, with poor results. A few units of cavalry that had been posted in the most remote corners of the empire were shuffled around in "routine maneuvers", drawing criticism from a number of politicians. Nothing much else happened.

In the winter of 1690 AD, fifteen years after coming to power, with no presidential elections at all held since, and industrial waste and pollution piling up around the Indian mainland, the trade agreement with the Germans expired. Siri-Yan botched the renegotiation, and Germany withdrew from the treaty, taking their incense with them. Two thirds of India broke out in riots which lasted all through the winter. The Senate begged Yan to act, but he repeatedly told them, "Let them riot, I don't care."

With approval ratings at an all time historical low (just 7%), General Yan sent an envoy to Persia with a message containing just one sentence: "This is your last chance to surrender." Persia replied with a laugh.

On April 2nd, 1690, the siege of Antioch began with massive cannon bombardment. The temple and marketplace of Antioch were destroyed, and the defensive positions of the Persian rifle divisions were struck hard, decimating their ranks. For five weeks, the cannon rained fire and death upon Antioch, and then out of nowhere arrived the Indian cavalry, sweeping through the breaches in the line to rout the beleaguered Persians. Antioch was won in just six hours of hand to hand fighting.

Elite units of engineers rushed into occupied Persian lands, laying rails to connect the Antioch lines to the Indian infrastructure. In just two short weeks, a line was operational. By rail and in secret, General Yan pulled every last horse and rider from every corner of the Empire and shipped them into the Antioch metropolitan area. And then they swept south, into lightly defended backline territory, brushing aside all opposition. Not even the highly fortified defensive positions of Tyre, located on the high ground, could hold out more than a couple of days. They could not even get word of the surprise attack out of the city, to warn their leaders in Ergili. Some of the most elite Indian divisions led the charge, and vanguard units suffered simply brutal casualties. The entire Seventh and Eighth divisions were wiped out, the Eighth to its last man, and still Yan ordered the troops up the hill into the teeth of Persian gunfire. And then just like that, the Persians broke and Tyre fell to the onslaught.

Siri-Yan then divided his force into three armies. One he sent southeast, to Buffalo. One he sent directly south to San Francisco. "Burn them to the ground." Those were their orders. The third force he led personally, on to Ergili. All three armies charged at breakneck speeds, catching the overconfident Persians unprepared. The world had never seen warfare like this! Elite Indian cavalry charged into the cities, routing the defenders at every turn, absorbing huge losses without pause or mercy. Buffalo burned for nine days, two thirds of its citizenry perishing in the carnage. The rest were rounded up and put in chains. Siri-Yan himself led the charge upon Xerxes's Palace in Ergili, and personally clove the dog's head from its shoulders and mounted it on a pike for display. He is rumored to have told the Persian King, just before slaying him, "You chose unwisely."

Our troops in San Francisco suffered from a supply line stretched too thin, and were unable to press their way to victory before the winter. When Siri-Yan heard of their retreat, he flew into a rage. "No!!! We MUST take San Francisco! We must take it NOW!" But the logistics would not allow it. One division of Persian conscripts there had dug in to a brilliant defensive position and held out, decimating even elite Indian Cavalry who tried to take them. Indian forces ran out of ammunition, food and water, and had to pull back.

On November 14th, with Snow falling on the ashes of Ergili as trainloads of Persian civilians were trucked out to begin forced labor on Indian rail lines, General Yan met with his political advisors. "General," said his top aide, "The riots continue unabated, despite our glorious victory. I fear that the government itself may fall unless you step down."

"Just a few more men," said Yan. "Just a few more men, a few more cases of ammuntion, a few more boxcars of rations, a few more gallons of water. San Fran should have been ours."

"Your plan was brilliant, General! We have crushed Persia for good. They are defeated! Let us call an end to this now and go home. You have kept your word. You have won the war. Let the career politicians bicker over what to do next. If you exit now, you will be hailed a hero, and they won't be able to tear you down."

The General returned with Xerxes's head to Calcutta, where he penned a letter to Xerxes's Cousin, who had formed up the remnants of the Persian goverment in the colonial lands, at the former English city of Reading. "Give us Cincinatti with all its silks, Memphis and Ghulaman, the contents of your treasury and 7 tons of gold per cycle in tribute, and I will sign a treaty promising Persia 55 years of peace with India. I urge you to agree."

The Persians returned the treaty with their signatures, and Prime Minister Siri-Yan travelled to Delhi, where he signed the treaty into law and then promptly resigned with no comment. He left office with an unprecedented 93% approval rating, after just three turns in control of India.

But who would be the next President now?
 
In the power vacuum that followed, a laborer from Punjab accidentally signed the wrong form while filing for unemployment insurance and became the only candidate on the ballot for President of India.

Lumberjack Lou was swept into office. He didn't do much of anything, except chop down half the forests in Persia "to create jobs", order the rest of the national labor force to "clean up the environment" from all the pollution left behind during General Yan's short term, and order research into "Replaceable Parts"for the steam powered saws in all his new lumber mills.

Somehow, India managed to survive this madness. The military continued the Yan policy of suppressing Persia through forced celibacy. Unable to breed, for the most part, with men and women held in separate prison camps across Persia, the Persian population was reduced to a manageable number in every city on the continent except Tyre, where the military maintained a strong garrison. Whether this was merciful, or cruel, continues to be debated, but all agree that it was a step up on the humanitarian scale from starvation, which had been used earlier. Thusly, did the legacy of Siri-Yan not only include the final conquest of Persia through his "lightning war" tactic, sweeping away the entire Persian armed force in a few short months with an unrelenting assault, but also the securing of the occupied lands. The Celibacy Law expired in 1725, and the now muchly reduced Persian peoples were granted full citizenship within India.

While Lumberjack Lou's reign was noted for not much of anything except cheap lumber, all that chopping of trees did speed the construction of Indian temples in occupied Persia, which was otherwise paralyzed by corruption. A few were even completed. The treasury, which was depleted to almost zero by the zealous defense spending of Siri-Yan, was slowly rebuilt, and interest from the surplus began to increase. The silly Replaceable Parts concept for powered wood saws turned out to be useful after all, as the military figured out how to make guns and cannons with this same concept. Perhaps the next President will be able to modernize our military forces, if the country has the will to spend yet more on defense. We shall see.

Ganges has begun construction on a great project, a dam. How it will be finished, nobody knows. Lumberjack Lou pushed it through, though. Another of his pork barrel projects. When far northeastern Persia was completed defoliated, and some of the mills had to close, Lou dropped in the polls and was swept out of office.

Xerxes's shriveled, shrunken head still adorns a pike outside the Yan winter residence in New Calcutta, on the very site of the former Persian Palace. Not much is left besides the skull.

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(Here is the saved game from the end of my turn, for the next player to grab. The one from 1690 is purely for the curious).

- Sirian
 
Because I picked up from charis's turn to see how the world looked (I'm not seeing as many screenshots as I used to), and decided to take Antioch on my first turn. Since there were only two defenders, I didn't bother bombarding it, I just rushed in and took it with the cavalry and the Persians sued for peace right then. Since all they would accept was a straight peace treaty deal, I decided to tell them to stuff it but I wasn't too serious about continuing with the war and never took Tyre (though I cut their supply of horses so I wouldn't see any more cavalry and they were more or less decimated militarily by that time)

In other news, when I got Scientific Method, the palace in Bombay was so far along that ToE finished in a single turn with a waste of 334(!) shields and no chance of getting anything but communism and espionage.

As for the germans, they must have lost their excess spice, since no matter what I put on the table (including sanitation and whatever else you had but they didn't), it was always "They would never accept such a deal". Maybe check the German borders to see if any spice has changed hands? They aren't embargoing us since I was able to sway them into other deals including embargoing persia for wine.
 
Preventing revolt was my only priority at first, and I was pulling units from all over the empire to send to Persia. I've heard that if a garrison contains more units than the city has population, it won't flip no matter what. Well, I've been trying that out, and have not lost a captured city since, including through some rather dim-looking far-flung capital and wonder captures.

Sure, Antioch was ripe for plucking, and maybe nothing would revolt, but why take the chance? The AI is pathetic at defense. It only defends front line cities. (It IS smart enough to know what's on the front line, and what's not). Everything else is left with one or two defenders, and all extra units are sent out on the attack, with workers be the end-all priority target, and everything else but the threat (in most cases) is targetted next. The AI's are thus just so much wheat before a blitzkrieg with rails and cav/tanks, regardless of whether or not they have expended all their offensive units. I've pulled off similar moves and then been counterattacked by fifty cavalry on the next turn -- but invariably they target workers first (can't avoid it, as new workers get captured and I can't track every possible AI move), then they target easy-to-kill stragglers, and mostly ignore trying to retake their lost cities. :rolleyes:

Since Tyre was on a hill, and so was Buffalo, I absolutely did not want either of those cities to become the front line, with the AI drafting and whatever else. I saw that I could take them all in one turn if I prepared well, and as it was, half of India went undefended briefly to muster enough garrison, even though I razed two of the cities. I expected to raze San Fran, too, but came up short. Tyre and Buffalo had been pretty tough.

My objective was to rid us of the Persian threat for all time by depriving them of the rest of their homeland cities, while still making certain none of our gains revolted. I accomplished what I wanted in three turns. Perhaps it could have been done faster, but I don't gambit on EVERY turn I take. :)

By the way... the 1690 zip contains both the "before" and "after" saves from that turn.


- Sirian
 
Well that was an unexpected although pleasant turn in the Yan reign! I thought war was done, but Sirian's push was strong and VERY effective. Gaining the cities in the treaty was, I thought, a bit much -- then again I've not asked for cities as peace terms.

But...

With replaceable parts comes Infantry to *those that have rubber*.

We don't have rubber, but...

To the East and West of Cincinnati, either way, is RUBBER. To the east the Persians guard it at Dariush Kabir. I would think a rapid build up of units to Cincinnati followed by a strike on Dariush would have long term benefits, and any counterattack would have to deal with our new infantry. (Hmm... need a harbor there to trade it... can rush it in Ghulaman for about 300 gold)
I'm glad you posted year 1690, wow, now that's a blitz :goodjob:

Way to go Sirian :)
Charis
 
There is also rubber on the island *just* to the west of madras (on the same computer screen). It is not in occupied territory yet.

And there is a fine galleon for transport at madras :cool:.

It is a problem for the next president to solve :cool:.

Speaking of which, Charis, we seem to have a gap in our line of succession. As you initiated this game and set the rules, I feel it is your call. Should Jaffa assume power forthwith?

We have had an offer to fill the breach, which no one has addressed (probably because no one felt they had the authority). Should we accept? Or as, the rest of us have played together this far and gotten a bit of cohesion, and we all have an alternate line of communication, should we finish with what we have and invite those interested into the next game?

I was about to add a disclaimer along the lines of "I'm not trying to dump this on you, but...", but actually, I AM trying to dump this on you :cool:.

I also feel I am better served accepting an executive decision and getting on with this game and future ones than in debating the status of this one, so I give you my proxy.

Let's just keep the mighty purple elephant rolling and move on to future challenges :cool:.

--cy
 
Cy, no dumping at all, tnx for reminding me of the 'gap'. I would have to thank all participants both for doing a splendid job playing, and to resolving the friendly fire (or least calling a peace treaty ;p). The roster and turn order now stands as:

Charis
Sirian
Jaffa
Cy
Skandranon

24hrs to post 'Got it', 'Pass this round' or post the results. After a got it, another 24 hrs (or 48 hrs from last post, whichever is longer), to play the turn and post results. Keep in mind you don't HAVE to take the full 10 turns if time is short.

This is definitely a quorum, and we'll stick with these til game end. Thanks to those offering to hop in -- but we're just too far along and expect no further drops at this point. We look forward to playing with you in another game soon :p

A note of thanks too, to the lurkers who de-lurk enough to say they're enjoying the game. That does encourage the extra effort in our write-ups :love:

Without further eloquence, let's get back to conquering the earth!

Charis

PS Good eye, Cy on that rubber. *IF* the world map is current and it's still up for grabs, that might be a VERY nice goal for our next player. We'll want a rubber source from somewhere very soon.
 
Hi! Just wanted to say that this has been a fun game to read about. :)

Keep up the good work everyone, I hope everyone is having as much fun playing as we, readers, are having.
 
And so the wise men of India came once again in search of the Monkey Cult. They searched the abandoned temple, and sent agents of the SBI to pose as banana-vendors at bazaars throughout the land, but no trace of the tailed ones could be found. And then, just as it seemed they would have to turn instead to the ale-houses to find their king, a note was shoved beneath the door. It was signed with the mark of a pawprint, and said simply, "Build railroads. And get some rubber."

So build railroads they did. In every space that a railroad could conceivable be of any use, they sent workers to lay tracks. The workers complained muchly of being sent up into the mountains, where it was cold and the work was hard, but the directive had been clear, and into the mountains they must go.

Two galleons were outfitted and sent in search of rubber. One headed west, and founded New Lahore in the jungle lands. The other went south, to a place where rubber could be stolen from Persian control, but was thwarted when the Persians moved their borders before the expedition arrived. But rubber was found near New Lahore, and arrived on the Indian mainland in 1758.

The wise men argued at great length as to what to do with the second expeditionary ship. It was directed to head towards New Lahore, where there was, just about, space for a second settlement on the opposite coast, but has not yet arrived.

At around this time the Zulus announced they would no longer be sending their gems to Indian bazaars. There was some grumbling, but the populace was mollified when a new amusement was found -- watching the manouvres of the English fleet as the y circled pointlessly off the Indian coast.

With the continent thoroughly railroaded, and rubber acquired, the wise men declared that the directives of the Monkey Cult had been properly observed. It was time, they said, for a new leader to take control of Indian destiny...
 
Well done securing the rubber source and executing your term well. Looks like when Electronics is done (soon) it will be just in time for Ganges to knock off the Hoover Dam in short order :goodjob:

(Holy Cow! Lil Ganges??! The "finger" town of Cy? Cranking out 50 shields per turn and housing an uber-wonder?!) :love:
What's particularly good about Hoover's is that: i) you get EFFECTS of Hydro plant even if you couldn't build one in your city (ie no river, like most of our top cities), and for us, it's for all on continent, and we're on a megacontinent :p

Good luck to Cy and Skan,
Charis
 
The citizens of India begged the monkey party to continue their wise government, but they abandoned the highest office to research the perfect banana daiquiri. This left only the “cheap beer” party to run against the “let’s bang our heads against the wall party”. Facing that choice, the wise citizens of India opted for the cheap beer, and Cy_Ghandi took control.

Unfortunately for fair India, he skipped the transitional briefings to take his son to a curious event called by the uncouth name of “monster jam” and returned late into the night muttering strange tales of a giant, wheeled beast known as “monster patrol” driving over the tops of other, lessor, k-car, wheeled beasts. Most odd. Fortunately for India, he inherited a situation virtually impossible to screw up.


The overriding theme of his tenure in office was to be frustration. The primary source of frustration lay in the country’s internal labor situation. The beer-sotted-ears-ringing president wished to allow the workers the freedom to finish the rail net in the manner they thought was best while remaining free to clean up pollution as needed. However, he had a rather distinct vibe from his cabinet that he was required to instruct every single worker, as they finished their previous task, exactly when, where, why, how, to what extent, and under what conditions to labor next. The only bright spot was that there were only 25 workers, whereas on a country this size, the President would normally be running 50-75 workers, which might explain his abhorrence of individual direction versus the convenience of shift-a once the military net is in.

The secondary source of frustration was to be the rubber situation. Everyone now thinking of condoms is required to go outside, slap themselves firmly in the face, and say out loud “I AM a dirty chap, I AM a dirty chap, I AM a dirty chap.”

Contrary to a lot of Civ3 fans, I think the feature of resources expiring is fun. That also means I want 2 of the end-game resources—rubber, oil, aluminum, and uranium. We have only one rubber (look, I warned you once, now you have to slap yourself TWICE, and look up the meaning of saltire, and write a 5 paragraph essay on why you should never accept a ride to church from someone who calls the confederate battle flag the stars and bars, because they don’t know the difference between a bar and a cross). The first is on the end of a loooooong supply line and adjacent to the current Persian capitol. The other is juuuuuust out of reach in Persian territory. Both are on other islands from our glorious continent. I want to knock the putrid Persians back from both of these points. I have the military. I don’t have the transport. Grrrrrr. It COULD be done, but it is much better to wait until we upgrade our galleons to transports. Grrrrrr. Over the course of my turn, I construct a few more Galleons to be upgraded…

1762. Rail king.

1764. Founded New Karachi near the rubber city (look, do I have to slap you down? STOP thinking like that). Persian cultural pressure is intense. Bummer. Still, Jaffa, you beat a Persian settler by one turn sequence—they were in spot to settle, but our turn was first.

1766. Electronics! Woot. The great leader Chandragupta drafts a momentous project—the idea is to pen up a great river until it acquires great force, then release it in measured amounts and use the energy to build our empire. I approve the concept, and send him to Ganges to survey the site. I judge it as the best city—on a river, yet in the interior and safer from sea attacks or fire from the sky. He goes with great enthusiasm, but reports back that a previous President has already set the plan to build this wonder into motion, and that all the raw materials are in place and the project can be completed in only 4 turns. Woah dude. Upon consulting with my advisors, it appears I was informed of this before I took office. I mutter something about “monster truck exhaust affecting my brain” and send the leader off to Paris to get drunk. The Hoover Damn is begun.

1768. In the off-turn between 1766-1768 Shaka comes calling and demands espionage or he will come to raze all out cities. I invite him to take his unique unit, encase it in rubber (hey, it’s a running joke), and insert it up his aqueduct. Shaka mutters something about needing to see a man about a dog, and scuttles off. On my turn, I go fishing to see how badly he wants it. Badly. Hmmm. I do the diplomatic route to see what is up. America already has it. Germany offers only 13 gold, which to me says they will have it in 1 or 2 turns. England offers only 21 gold. I decide that espionage will be common knowledge in 1 or 2 turns among the AI, and go back to Shaka. I trade it to him for Incense, his pitiful treasury, and 36 gold per turn. Idiot. I understand the principle of not trading with the AI when you have the tech lead, but this one was worth it :cool:. All the same, I grow tired of outrageous demands by other nations. As we were not in peril, I have been husbanding funds to get our saving up to 1k gp on each turn, so that we receive the maximum bonus of 50 gp per turn from the Wall Street. I now decide that penny wise is pound cliché, and upgrade all our riflemen to infantry. The good news is we have 74 infantry. The bad news is I am going to have to hit the @!^%#$^%@#$^@%$ “f” key 74 times next turn…

1770. Railroad from hell and carpal tunnel from the upgrades.

1772. When is it good when you suck? When you are a Hoover! The Hoover Dam is completed.

1774-1780. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Notes: Refining is due in 2 turns. After I post this, I’m going to see where the oil sprouts, but I haven’t yet. Heh.

We have 566 in the bank, and are at +69 per turn. 1k in the bank is ideal for wall street, but ya gotta spend when ya gotta spend. We’ll probably need on the order of 4k in the bank to upgrade to mech infantry, so keep that in mind. We have 93 infantry right now—somewhere between 100 and 150 is probably overkill. I’ve aced out the swordsmen, but there are still about 20 cav around. They are borderline useless now, except vs Persia.

I have a couple of settlers stashed in case of opportunities.

I have one settler on the way to a square near the rubber that probably will vanish before he gets there. That whole idea was a bust. The square he was originally sent to we got via cultural expansion the same turn he was due to settle, so I set him in motion to a secondary and sucky location. There actually was a point when I sent him, but now he is a wandering idiot…

On the rubber thing—how do you feel about red ribbed? Whoops, wrong forum. Anyway, I beefed up forces around it a bit, but it is still at the end of a long string. If you want to get aggressive, I have made some more Galleons. I personally thought the supply line was tenuous before transports, but I can be an old granny sometimes. I mean, we have 93 infantry right now. We can afford a few turns without rubber without noticing :cool:.

Oh, and whoever jobbed Elizabeth on the trades, good job. The pacts are long since expired, we are draining her treasury, yet she does not renegotiate :cool:.

--Cy
 
One note about AI offerings in trade: when they offer little, it may mean they place low value on your offering, or it may mean they are too broke to afford it and will happily let you play philanthroper if you are of a mind to. It's up to you to figure out if their offer is up to par, or merely trying to sucker you.

One easy way to tell the difference, is if you try to increase the gold per turn by 8%-10% of the total net worth of their offering and they "would never accept such a deal", they are broke. If they are behind other AI's in tech, they are broke. (AI's will always sell one another tech IF the other can afford the current market value. Unless they are at war.)

The English got Communism first, on my turn, right before Theory of Evolution. I tried to buy it from them, even offering a tech (because we'd get another tech ahead anyway), but no dice. They may well be close to the breakthrough, but the Germans looked pretty darn broke last I saw them. Did you try to raise the price on the English? See if they really did value it low?


- Sirian
 
At the urging of his cabinet, CyGandhi takes a well deserved rest, and goes off to vacation with the English ships off the Indian coast, bringing lots of cheap beer.

The English ships will sail in circles off the coast for another twenty years and counting. Oh well. In his absence, the Hippopotamus Party conducts a coup and takes over.

1782 - Upon casual inspection of the cities, twelve Coal Plants are discovered. They don't provide extra benefit (they don't stack with Hoover's Hydro) and so they are sold to a mystery group of investors, who buy all twelve for 240 gold. This also frees up 36 gold/turn in maintenance, and suddenly India's finances are looking much rosier. Much movement of workers is undertaken. Plans to secure another source of Rubber are scrapped - since Rubber doesn't run out, if we hold on to the source we have (should not be hard) we're set for life.

1784 - Refining is discovered! A great miracle - India has two local sources of Oil. New Madras is built upon one, and one is near Persepolis. The Eighteenth Cavalry Brigade is sent immediately to the one near Persepolis and proceeds to tear up all roads leading to the area and post large KEEP OUT signs all around, on Presidential order. Cheap beer? Pungent weed? The media hypothesizes, but none understand.

1786-1792 - Much movement of workers. The President commissions fifteen new divisions of artillery pieces, not noticing the twenty existent upgradeable cannon divisions. Large cities with nothing else to build orient their productions to wealth, as India goes for an econ-tech push. During this time, India's profit grows to over 200 gold/turn while maintaining peace and order, as well as researching as quickly as possible. The treasury exceeds 1500 tons of gold. A prophet of the Monkey Cult is found in Delhi muttering the words "Waiting for tanks!" over and over again. The media wonders. At the same time, legions of workers tear up irrigation ditches all over India and put in mines instead.

1794 - Reports stop coming in from the city of Zimbabwe. Zulu cavalry units mass on the borders of Cincinnati and Ghulaman. An envoy sent to clarify Shaka's intentions is returned to Delhi...and to Madras...and to Bombay...and to.... The media chooses not to elaborate. The Zulus declare war on India. Realizing that there is no way whatsoever to defend the outer cities, the President calls up his good friend Abraham Lincoln and offers a mutual protection pact if Lincoln will part with five gold per turn. Lincoln happily agrees.

1796 - Zulu cavalry swarm towards India's extracontinental holdings. Cincinnati and Memphis fall. New Lahore forces two Cavalry away without taking a hit. Ghulaman is taken and razed(!). America, reacting to this heinous breach of world peace, declares war on the Zulu. The Zulu then attack America, triggering America's MPP with the Germans, who also mobilize and declare for the Americans. Zulu units retreat from Indian shores. They have bigger worries now. Due to the loss of the Zulu gold and luxuries, domestic readjustment is called for.

1798 - The Germans call and graciously cancel the trading agreement for dyes. Financial intelligence reveals that this is because they are completely broke. This is confirmed a day later when the President innocently offers the German Ambassador Ivory, Wine, Dyes and Furs for one gold and the German ambassador is forced to say "I'm sorry, but Germany can't do that right now." The ambassador is later discovered sobbing into his pillow. A single Zulu ironclad goes up to the Indian shores and discharges a single shot which misses the railroad it was aimed at.

1800 - Combustion is discovered. The Zulus are nowhere to be found. Some cities go into disorder due to unhappy citizens complaining about the war, but a good dose of money put into luxuries and sedatives keeps order. However, the President is soon found to be partaking of too many of these sedatives and is ousted from office.

Comments and stuff:

All right, I don't know what pushed the Zulus into war, maybe profit jealousy or something. They have seven workers of ours, and took out three of our least productive cities - no big loss in any case. With America and Germany going after them, I doubt they'll be able to pose any serious threat to our continent. IMO, we can wait for Motorized before we do anything active against them. I have a sneaking suspicion that the Zulus will do a good job against the broke Germans, but we can afford to wait. They'll grind at each other long enough for us to deliver the lethal stroke, I think.

Sorry about the MPP, Charis and Sirian. Lincoln was asking for Coal or Electricity for the alliance. He HAS coal, one square outside the borders of Kansas City, but the AI being the AI, he won't touch it for another century at least and every turn America spends without railroads is better for us. Germany wouldn't attack Zululand straight up but by activating their MPP with Abe, we can get them into the party for free. I tried to have Elizabeth join the fun but she wouldn't take anything other than Electricity.

Domestically, we are pretty sound. I did replace a lot of irrigation with mining, just because our early cities have too much irrigation. Specialists in Civ3 seriously bite. They provide either one tax or one science, added at the end (i.e. is not enhanced by libraries, universities, wonders etc). So there's no benefit to excess food, and I adjusted what I could so that most cities had just enough food to have 20 or 21 citizens and pretty robust productions. We have lots of gold now, too, even while going at 50% science and 20% lux. We COULD get Mass Prod in 4 turns instead of 5 but that means we take a -20 gold hit each turn. I prefer sacrificing one turn of speed for seven hundred gold, dunno about you.

As for the oil, I cut one off because I don't want to risk them both going on the same turn. Having two only increases risk, it doesn't do anything else.

Anyway, all I did was set up, the real fireworks should come during Charis' turn. Good luck!

-Skan
 
EDIT: Got it! Thanks for the repost, should be done this afternoon.

Skan, I can't seem to unzip your upload :( (Bad CRC) If you could repost, or if any of the rest of you CAN unzip it, please re-zip and repost. If caught soon I can play, otherwise it won't be til tomorrow eve. :eek:

Charis
 
The AI covets cities with resources. It's ONLY higher priority is capturing workers. :rolleyes:

If Cincinatti was never reinforced, then one nonvet rifle (or inf) sitting there was like waving a sign saying "Kick Me". I did all I could on my turn, including building a galleon and sending it in that direction. Given a few more turns, there would have been about eight more rifles and some artillery down there.

Securing rubber was a higher priority, though, and depending on how strongly that town was garrisoned, it may also have been part of the attraction for the Zulu, although I kind of doubt it if they don't have Rep Parts yet.

This kind of "nothing will deter them, they are coming" invasion, against a lightly defended city with precious resources, is what I've been warning against since the beginning of the game, to encourage the team to keep enough forces in Madras and Calcutta, then later in Chittagong, to deter aggressors. I'm kind of surprised, with how lightly Madras was defended at times, that the English never attacked us. I see these kind of wars in most of my games, even though I know about them and try to prepare or deter.

The MPP's will take the heat off us, but if one of the other AI's collapses, it may mean that a new superpower emerges that will have to be attacked and subdued. Sometimes, trying to be peaceful builders just doesn't work out if the AI's tear into each other so much, that some become too strong. If Persia hadn't been so aggressive, taking lands from France and America, and had sat back in their initial area peacefully, this could have been a much less bloody game. So it goes.

By the by, the Zulu's attacking us while still owing us a bunch of gold casts some long shadows over the decision to sell them tech. If I thought Cincinnatti was not going to be reinforced heavily and immediately, I wouldn't have asked for it, but post-Hocus I have been reserving more of my thoughts about upcoming turns. So I'll take the blame for setting us up for this war. Just know that that wasn't my intention: there was no secret Yan plot to set off such a crisis as this.


- Sirian
 
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