No posts since the last episode, guess it was a not enough content, so here is some more
The era of the egyptian Cuirrassiers - The overseas invasion of Russia!
1 AD is normally the time, where I give another clearview over the empire, its military, its economy, its demographics, but the empire is still in its 2nd golden Age, so I'll catch up on that as soon as it's over.
Interesting things are happening:
Bribing Viccy + Asoka against Lincoln + Suleiman seems to have been one of the best choices I've made in that round. Even though Lincoln is lacking in tech, he is able to conquer Warwick from Viccy. As hoped, their war is pretty intense,
here is a Graph from 50 AD showing, that both sides have lost a lot of forces, while my empire has regained the same strength that I had before conquering Hatty:
Having Hatty as a Vassal severely highered my maintenance though. I don't know that for sure, but my guess is, that the Vassals cities are handled as if they belonged to onesself. I guess this, because later I found out, that one doesn't even pay supply for units in the Vassals territory.
Lizzy is currently researching Democracy. I support that, because now that I got Cuirrassiers, I plan on conquering her after I've conquered Peter. Maybe she could build the Statue of Liberty for me? That'd be really nice, as that Wonder is tremendously expensive for its time.
I have bribed Wang Kon against Peter and Washington was so nice to join the war aswell. Aim of this: Getting better Diplo through sharing wars again.
The holy city of buddhism and city of the Mahabodi (buddhist Shrine) ,
Heliopolis, has come out of revolt in 30 AD, greatly reducing the deficit the empire has being at 100% research still. The city is very large, so I can whip the Gold-multiplier-buildings once the GA is over. Like this, the city will give and amazing income of almost 200 Gold per turn!
A great Prophet is born! Not exactly what I hoped again, I'd have prefered either a great Engineer or a great Scientist, but it's not as bad as it sounds at first, because remember my GP Farm Pataliputra? Yes, that city is the holy city of Hinduism, so it's time to get another Shrine,
I build the Kashi Vishvanath. Atm. 32 cities have the hinduist Religion, so this Shrine is not as powerful as the Mahabodi of course, but it's still very nice to have it.
Peter's capital, the city of Moscow falls. I was building tons of Galleons at that time in Kyoto and took Cuirrassiers from Strikeforce 2, which were healing in Akhetaten, and sent them on the overseas invasion healing on the Ships.
Just to give you an impression where Moscow lies, here is a picture:
Here is a closer view of Peter's territory showing also the Ressources:
Peter is willing to capitulate, but as he's being hated so much by the other AIs (and I don't wanna get any negative diplo) , and because I don't think that he'll make a good Vassal with his cities being small and surrounded by ice,
I don't accept and plan on exterminating him completely. I don't mind that his cities are horrible, as that doesn't matter once I'll have Sushi & Mining, with those two Corps, even the worst cities become awesome. Regarding the ressources the cities have, those are even really nice, because Furs are awesome tradegoods, and three times Copper are already 1.5 Hammers by Mining Inc.
I found the cities 25 to 27 (just as a last, all cities founded from now onwards are island cities that are of no importancy except that they secure Sushi-ressources and will contribute to the highscore in the end, that is why they're only mentioned by numbers) , but more important, in
80 AD, I finally reach Communism! I instantly start the construction of the Kremlin in Lisht, as I want Thebes to be able to construct the SoL in the case Lizzy doesn't build it fast enough but other Civs having Democracy by then, so I have to hurry. Splitting Wonders giving Specialist Slots is also always something good in a Sushi-game, Lisht will be transformed from a pure production city to a "Spy-City" (a city getting the Espionage Point multiplier buildings working Spy Specialists) .
Finally, Research could go towards the biggest goal, the tech of
Medicine via Biology (note that I still don't have the tech "Corporations" but Lizzy has it, so I'll either get it because Hatty can trade it from her, or I'll get it once I vassalize her) ,
but I decide for another detour again: I still own only 12% of the world, I cannot only have thoughts about getting Sushi asap, I must also think about conquering the world, as I have to win that game somehow, and all those cities will also contribute greatly towards my highscore. Researching
Physics will give me a GS to lightbulb Biology and I'll get another GS in the near future, I will also need to start a 3rd GA as I used the great Merchant from Economics to upgrade the War Chariots to Cuirrassiers, and Physics would give me Airships which are awesome in combination with Cuirrassiers / Cavalries.
Maybe you notice the
difference to the Incan-game I played in Replay #3 now, things like Libbing Medicine or beelining Sushi are just not possible as one isn't such a superior position all the time. I'll maybe write a comparison between Replay #3 and this game at the end of it, as I think that this game was played a lot better the previous. I think I understand why people say about the Incans that they're "broken", meaning that they're basically so overpowered with Marathon setting that the term overpowered is not enough for them.
At the end of the 2nd GA, in 80 AD, with the egyptian cities coming out of revolt one after another, the empire breaks through the sonic-barrier of 1000 Beakers per turn:
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So how much is left of that after the end of the GA?
Here is the promised clearview of the empire at 160 AD (I know this is again some turns away from the closest possible date after the GA, which would have been 90 AD, but I took a save from which I know that I microed the cities well and a save where Heliopolis also had a Bank, something making noticable differences, and anyhow, 160 AD is only 16 turns from 1 AD, compared to the length of the round till now this is only a deviation of 3%) :
First, let's have a look at the financial advisor:
Things to see, are:
The deficit has grown large. Even though the empire has
2 Shrines creating a base-income of
more than 200 GPT (including multipliers) , it's Hatty's cities + the newly conquered russian ones + the number-cities which have
greatly increased the City Maintenance. After City Maintenance, Civic Upkeep is the 2nd major factor that causes the empire expenses. The
large military (with the medium sized cities) is the 3rd.
The
main source of income are the Traderoutes, those are giving about 350 Commerce. After that follow the worked tiles with about 250 Commerce. That Commerce is converted to
Research at a 100% Rate creating 1000+ Beakers (!) still! (If you ask yourself why the empire is still making 1000 BPT although the GA has ended: 1. Free Market is a lot more powerful with deficit Research than Mercantilism and 2. I always switch to production heavy tiles during the GA, so often work tiles like plains-Cottages that hadn't even grown yet. )
Amazing fact: Trading Ressources is giving about 150 GPT atm. which is almost as much as the 2 Shrines are giving!
I have no notes about this but I think, that I switched to State Property at some time, because I simply could not pay the expenses of the weak island cities anymore. This would cost me some Beakers, and some time later, I could not even sustain the
100% tech-rate, but I find it amazing that it was possible
for over 2000y.
After having seen the economy, let's see how my empire compares to the others:
What has changed since the last clearview, is, that I can now compare to the top-empires in every discipline, even though my population is a lot smaller than theirs. The AIs are also having a larger military still, but this doesn't matter, as I have Cuirrassiers and they don't have Rifles yet. It's the 1st time I'm #1 in Production, Food and Gold.
For a closer comparison, here are the Graphs:
The GNP-Graph doesn't show anything special other than that the empire having greatly improved, while the Research was at 200 BPT in 1000 BC, it's now over 1000 BPT, so it's 5 times as high. Looking at the production, one sees the amazing power of GAs, while my empire was barely able to compete with the others 100 turns ago, it had almost twice their production during the GAs. That production was used for expansion and developement of the cities which are the fundament for an even greater lead. The Food-Graph shows the exact opposite of the Production-Graph, production-tiles were worked. After the war was over and the cities out of revolt, the GA was over so I switched to food heavier tiles again (i. e. Plains-Cottages to Grassland-Cottages) , that's why it goes up almost vertically. Basically one can say, that from being able to get #1, I now am #1.
Just for completeness, a look at the important cities:
The Capital, the city of Thebes, home of Oxford University. This city has grown by only 2 population points since the last clearview, but has a lot more buildings. As told last time, this city was at the switch from being everything to being a specialized research-city, the switch has been made,
the city makes 350 instead of 50 Beakers XD
The GP-Farm, Pataliputra.
This city worked 7-8 Specialists at a size of 11 during the GAs, it got a Shrine in the end, because of that and because I needed Merchant-Slots I whipped a Grocer in it, so it's a little bit smaller than it was already. It's an important city, but
one of the weakest GP Farms I ever had. Great Person output reflects this very well, while I was able to create about 3 GPs from the main GP Farm only in my Incan games, this one barely created 2.
The
HE-City of Ahmedabad, fully developed and as already mentioned, working Food-heavy tiles after the GA.
The
future Ironworks-City of Bangalore, also set to Growth. It's
short before the switch from being a multi-purpose-city to a specialized maximum-production-city.
Another city of great importance, the city of Osaka, home of the
Globe Theater. I'm still
waiting for guesses from you how much turns the whip-timer of this city will be in the end, atm. it's still low at 50 turns.
On this screen
still a production city, but will become a Spy-City, constructing the Kremlin, the city of Lisht. Working maximum production tiles as the Kremlin is possibly the most important Wonder after the Oracle (and maybe the MoM) , enhancing whip-efficiency from 100 to 150%.
The shipyard, Kyoto. What Ahmedabad is when it comes to producing ground-troops, this city is concerning the production of ships. It was the best production city that was coastal and available early, that's why it got the
Moai-Statues to further increase its production capacity.
The last city of great importance,
future home of Sid's Suhi, Mining Inc. and the Wallstreet, having the powerful Mahabodi: Heliopolis. You can be excited about this city, as with becoming the home of the Corporations, this city will have some incredible stats in the end. Atm. it's already quite fascinating creating an income of 160 GPT while only causing maintenance of 5 GPT (that's 1/30) .
There are some things you can't notice from the screens I already posted:
- I did some crazy Settler-whipping at that time. Cities like Bomay were whipped down to size 4 (look back, the city had at least 7 good tiles, so I don't know if this was the right decision, but I was tired and thought "wow, this is all taking sooooo long" )
- The cities are regrowing on Banks (at least that makes sense) .
- Even though I was dead tired at that time, I still had the right instinct and produced the Workboats for the island cities in the empires core-cities, and found out something very interesting: Once Astronomy has been researched, those Workboats can sail over the Ocean! Never noticed that before, but also never sent Workboats on long-term-missions before.
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So this was the clearview I promised, but I guess the re-reading of it made me again tired. If it weren't for me to be excited about what came next, I would now go to sleep, but now I'm awake again, so I continue with the Writeup in 120 AD, the turn where St. Petersburg and Yakutsk fall:
More interesting than Peters crap-cities, which sometimes still have ancient units as defenders but still cause losses,
is the typically sized AI stack you can see on the picture. Those are Washington's units, and counting them, one gets to the number of 39! I'm always amazed by AIs capability to build units, just look at the scoreboard in the lower right corner, Washington has only got 10 cities and is highly underdeveloped, he doesn't even has access to the sea and his cities are getting culture-crushed from Frederick, Pericles, Wang Kon and Hammurabi. He's the 2nd weakest AI (not counting Peter who's as already defeated and not counting Vassals) , still his Military has about the same size as mine.
Overseas invasions are a pain, anyhow, Peter is a joke, in 140 AD, his next two cities fall, one didn't even have a defender! *lol*
With him being no opposition at all, I only have to coordinate the movement of the Galleons, until
I finally have conquered all of his cities in 190 AD:
6
cities gained through war, 1 normally founded in the meantime, makes
34 in total. Things that also happened in the meantime were, that
Frederick declaring war on Mansa O_o . That was unexpected, but I don't mind those two fighting each other,
Mansa fears that "I'm too far advanced" so doesn't trade techs with me anymore, guess I'm almost on my own now (I still have Hatty to research for me) , good if the others are fighting, only makes it easier for me, though this war honestly is too far away to play any role at all. I just couldn't think of a better bridge to
another view at the tech-screen:
This basically shows the
inability of AI to research Military Tradition. While AI has Democracy, Chemistry and Corporations, it's just too dumb to get the most powerful weapon of its era. Anyhow,
not having the additional TR from Corps is costing me a decent amount of Beakers, but I refuse to research something that has already been researched by 1/3 of all Civs! Good thing to notice is, that
nobody has researched Communism but me, therefor, the Kremlin won't be endangered.
Hatty funking up my trade-relations because of combined Diplo-stance is something that really was, well, something, maybe I'll listen to
WastinTime next time and play without Vassals, though the thought of having had to conquer all of Hatty's cities really is, well, something again.
I guess with superior Diplo and no need to win as early as possible, Vassals are simply not necessary.
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This is the end of the episode "The era of the egyptian Cuirrassiers - The overseas invasion of Russia!" . It contained a clearview of the empire around 1 AD, and it ends in 190 AD with me still not having Sushi but therefor having another opportunity: I could bribe WK against Hammurabi O_O . The bribe is tremendously expensive, he want's more than 2500 gold for it, but if I maybe wait until he's some turns before having researched a tech... WK is still a global player, as is Hammurabi, and the war of Viccy against Lincoln already proved out to be extremely valuable... Well, I'm not going to spoil that, only the name of the next episode, which is 2 episodes: "The era of the egyptian Cuirrassers - The 2nd Blitzkrieg!" and "Crazy expansion prior to Sushi - Securing the Ressources first" . Till then, cya,
Seraiel
I confess, I went into WB 
and replaced all his chariots with archers, and then took the city, but I'm going to start over and do it in the correct order this time. I also gifted Toku a city in the tundra about a million miles away from his land, and got him to pleased. 
.
