1515-1520 AD:
Five Roman units found their way into Japan territory. I hit them with artillery and then with my ragtag stack of elites: 1 tank, 1 MI, 1 infantry and 1 cavalry. No great leader. Never again will Roman units that enter my territory survive the other AI players.
Did an investigation of German city of Dortmund. This is the lone German city west of Queen Barbie. There are only 3 MI in there. This city is a planned target of my first assault. Maybe the strength of the German army is out making war.
Have not mentioned that Japan passed Egypt and took 11th place in score quite a ways back. Did an analysis of scores and found that Japan, China and Germany tied with the highest increase in score (10 points per turn). India gained 8, Mongols 4, England and Arabs 3, Rome 2. The Americans (-4), France (-4), and Russia (-3) are all in free fall mode since they are out of the game. If Japan does not get herself killed and/or nuked out, she should finish at least 8th. (
Four AI down - I am not exactly sure when America was knocked out, but my guess is it is right around now.)
Corruption is up to 407 per turn. This is amazing since it is over double Japan’s total income at 590 AD when I picked up the game.
At this time every tile east and north of city Second American Road is fully improved with railroads and mines or irrigation.
1525-1540 AD:
MPP with Germany ends. Bismarck regrets he does not wish to extend it. Is he prophetic?
Completed Wall Street. Woo-hoo! Extra 50 GPT thank you very much.
India gets England to join the war against Rome, so the trade embargo ends.
Japan’s military now “average” compared to Germany. Japan is still weak compared to China’s military.
Income 1817, corruption 450, gaining +600 gpt.
1545 AD:
Finally Rome acknowledges our envoy. Collect 200 gold for peace.
Buy fission from Arabs for 1610 gold. Japan has two uranium tiles in her territory.
Germany signs MPP with Arabs. Wonder if Japan’s gold financed it?
Gave furs to Elizabeth. Maybe she will look better wearing them. Really I wanted her polite, and I want her to think about the furs she will lose if she joins Germany against me.
Japan ranks 2nd in GNP and annual income, and 5th in manufactured goods.
Over the last few turns Japan has started building more military units in preparation for the next war. I hope to avoid using mobilization.
I am chomping at the bit to get this war started - just waiting for ROP to run out in 4-5 more turns.
1555 AD:
Making final preparations for war. Moving all available units to key areas in case Bismarck wants to start the war before Japan does. I notice Germany has a large group of units in Miami, so Japan puts up another city nearby for fodder (named it Fodder). Start putting up radar towers at strategic locations and backing them with a couple MI. Start organizing workers into larger stacks so they can finish their jobs and get to a safe place. Build cash to use to buy alliances or MPP with other civs.
Sell dyes to China for 40 gpt.
1575 AD:
Preparations are complete. The ROP ends next turn.
China destroys the Romans. (
5 AI down) I suspect Caesar realizes he should have given in to Bismarck’s demands. Fortunately Rome was so short on units that they did not invade Chinese territory and force Japan back into the war, dealing her another rep hit.
Bismarck requests renewing ROP, Japan says no thanks. Now he is furious. I am not watching the reputation that closely, I am surprised he is not just annoyed.
I keep seeing potential holes in my defense, so slowly I reduce my defense on the China border to one or no units per city and move them to the German border.
Phase 8 – Japan Goes on the Offensive
1580 AD:
Japan signs MPP with Indians, to augment current MPP with China and Arabs. I think this MPP cost about 300 gold.
Germany has units in Japanese territory. I tell him “remove your forces or declare war”. Bismarck chooses war. Germany is in trouble now but it is about to get worse.
Japan pays 930 gold to sign MPP with Mongols.
Japan pays 50 gold and 100gpt to sign MPP with English (chose gpt because I was afraid she would quit the war early)
Japan now has MPP with everyone left except Germany. Note that two MPP’s were signed after Germany declared war on Japan, but before Japan invades.
Now, Germany still has MPP with the Mongols and the Arabs. Knowing this Japan chooses not to invade German territory. Instead Japan takes about 15 workers who were passing through at the time, and hunkers down for the German assault.
I pressed the enter key and waited. It seemed like eternity. Would the Germans be smart enough to stay out of my territory?
Nope. They invaded Japan. As soon as they did, all 5 other civs immediately declared war on them! I felt like Japan had hit the jackpot, and the foreign advisor announced all five declaring war on Germany. Bismarck liked war, now he will be up to his ears in it! This is a good example of using the
rogue state strategy, which I use as often as possible to make my wars easier.
The German assault began. I lost three cities with a total population of 9: Gatorade was razed, Fodder was destroyed and New Incense was captured. I lost a couple radar towers. Just about everything he attacked was fortified MI with radar tower support. He assaulted my position defending the aluminum near Buffalo, but ran out of units. After the assault I had one cavalry left under the radar tower there!
1585 AD:
Now it is Japan’s turn for offense. Japan promptly destroys an MA army and a panzer army, and every last unit Germans brought into Japanese territory. There were probably about 25 modern armor and some guerillas. Of course he lost a bunch of MA in his initial attack as well. Japan used artillery against the armies and MA on hills before taking them out with MA. Japan had to take down some German radar towers to help these attacks.
Further, Japan began acquiring German territory. Dortmund, Dallas and Richmond were taken, greatly simplifying the border defense. New Incense was recaptured.
All this war generated a great leader.
I rebuilt radar towers where needed and adjusted defense. I am sure Germany will try again.
I think Japan cleaned up the German units a little too well, as India took Miami from Germany. That was followed by a significant flow of Indian and Chinese units toward German (former American) cities just off the southwest corner of Japanese territory. This is fine with me since I don’t want the AI taking any of the prime territory just east of the forbidden palace. These cities are so far from the Indian and Chinese capitals that they will be totally corrupt anyway.
Germany had a chance to return fire but they had few units to attack with, so the counter was weak. No cities were lost.
1590-1615 AD:
Germany’s borders are in full retreat. Japan is taking as many cities as she can, focusing effort to the east of the forbidden palace. Took cities as follows: 1590 – Cologne; 1595 – Munich and New Berlin; 1600 – Hannover, Leipzig, and Bonn; 1605 – Konigsberg and Berlin; 1610 – Stuttgart (renamed to Skipper at daughter’s request) and 1615 – New Leipzig. All of these cities are prime real estate for Japan, and will greatly help increase production once the resistance ends. Most of them were taken with help from artillery to weaken units defending radar towers, then hitting cities with whatever arty was left before attacking with MA.
Taking Leipzig nets Japans first great wonders: Sistine Chapel, Hanging Gardens and Copernicus. May not help now but it is still sweet to have them. Berlin also nets a great wonder: Sun Tzu’s Art of War! Barracks everywhere on the continent will be handy.
During this time I saw some very big stacks of Chinese MI and MA (over 50 tall and I think more than one), as they shifted fronts to attack Germany off Japan’s eastern border. Someday Japan is going to have to defeat those stacks. I guess she will need lots more units by then. China did put those stacks to good use as Germany is losing cities to China as well.
I also saw lots of ships. Ships were everywhere, all nations except Germany, clogging up shipping channels. I can’t tell you how many times Japanese ships had to take alternate routes because ocean tiles had hidden subs in them.
In 1605 MPP with China expired. Japan does not renew it. China is the next target. I will stay polite and trade but do not want to be obligated to the MPP.
Bought miniaturization from Arabs for 1820 gold, bought nuclear power from England for 1580 gold. Bought spices from Mongols for Ivory, Dyes, 60 gpt and 35 gold. Japan is a republic and the extra luxury will help unhappiness (and cheaper than upping luxury slider 10 more percent).
Somewhere along the line here I did move the luxury slider to 10%.
Rush built a transport and two battleships to move GL to new palace location. Decided I did not like positioning of New South Palace city, so Japan built one a little farther south on the coast. I named it “New Groobz”.
Japan passed Russia and Arabs to move into 9th place in scoring.
1620-1625 AD:
Japan took nine more German cities. These were mostly straight up MA attacks, with selected use of arty to assist taking out radar towers.
Moved great leader to New Groobz and rush built the palace. Abandon Temp City and New South Palace to keep the forbidden palace as a rank one city. (I had been rush building settlers to get population down in those cities.) The problem here is the balance of German cities is now in the 20 tile radius from the new palace. I plan to keep them to the end of the war then gift them to Arabs or England (the weakest civs) to minimize corruption in the 20 or so tile radius around the FP. Corruption dropped from 561 to 354 after the jump.
China is really crushing Germany’s outlying cities, as Germany ends this turn with just 8 cities left. Germany no longer owns any former American or Egyptian cities.
1630-1640 AD:
Took six more cities from Germans, eliminating them from the game in 1635! Germany leads China and India in score by a few hundred points so they will lead in scoring for a while, but the German empire is history. (
six AI down: Egypt, Russia, France, America, Rome, Germany)
Gave four cities to England and two to Arabs. These cities were too close to the new palace, and would affect the ranking of the forbidden palace.
Bought the laser from Arabs for 1590 gold. I wanted this to upgrade 67 artillery to radar artillery.
Japan passed France for 7th place in scoring.
Income is up to 2681, corruption is -451. Japan is making +1068 gold per turn, even with the luxury slider still at 10%. At this rate she can buy a tech every other turn with a few hundred gold left over. There is over 5000 gold in the treasury right now.
Japan is going to need more workers to improve the newly acquired land quickly. Some new cities have been built in large gaps between the newly conquered cities. This will ensure every tile is worked once the population grows. With Bismarck gone I am hoping Japan will have peace for a while to prepare for the next war.
No great leaders were produced after the palace was built. Japan could use one more for a possible future palace jump to the other continent.
China is Japan’s main obstacle right now. If Japan can successfully weaken China then she will be almost unstoppable.
Phase 9 – Ramping up to be #1
1645-1685 AD
Japan passes England for 6th place in 1665 AD, and passes America for 5th in 1675 AD. In 1675 the scores are Germany 2212, India 1997, China 1857, Mongols 1482 and Japan 1134. Japan is now gaining 20 pts/turn, more than anyone else.
Japan has been busy with infrastructure building. Building marketplaces, banks, stock exchanges, hydro plants and in former German cities and in some of the former American cities. Building mfg plants in core Japan cities. Japan is second in mfg. goods. Being number one means Japan will not have to rely on superior combat techniques to keep up. I am building the industrial machine to be number one and take on China.
I am staying friendly with all of the remaining civs. Renewed MPP with England, India and the Mongols. Renewed ROP with China.
Unit inventory in 1685 AD: 8 settlers, 82 workers, 13 cavalry, 10 infantry, 5 tank, 186 mech inf, 59 modern armor, 67 radar artillery, 2 transports, 1 carrier, 1 AEGIS cruiser, 1 nuclear sub, 1 bomber, 5 jet fighters, 1 stealth bomber, 11 armies!, and 4 guerillas. This military is weak compared to India, China and the Mongols, avg compared to England and strong compared to Arabs. It is clear Japan is going to need more units to be the world superpower.
The world is at peace.
1690 AD
Believe it or not Japan starts losing power on the power chart. Japan is not ready to attack China but I am concerned they are pulling away. I am starting to think Japan should start a diversionary war against one of the civs on the other continent. Japan could start it and then use minimal forces allowing her to build up. Maybe I can steer China into using up some of that army overseas, and give Japan time to catch up with military. Too bad I just signed all those MPPs. I guess this is 18 turns away.
Complete purchases of all techs of modern era. I also purchased a few from prior eras that I had not acquired yet. The most I paid for any of them was 2150 gold. I do not plan to buy or build any more techs for this game. Next tech to research: free artistry.
1695 AD
Ghandi declares war on the Mongols, starting the diversionary war I wanted! The timing was impeccable. Japan was forced to declare war due to the MPP as were the Arabs (who had MPP with India). England also declared war.
I immediately sign MPP with China - even though it cost 1090 gold. This is my chance to get them into the war.