RLC#4 Sitting Bull.

[Gregonar]

Goodness. Setup in 3 unconnected chunks of land vs deity AI. Each turn must take like an hour...

How long will it take Isabella to win cultural? If her cities get 500/turn, then you have roughly 25000/500 = 50 turns to take her out. Going Saladin first would be ideal, but do you have the time?

 

[pigswill]

Its not actually that bad.

For one thing its immortal rather than deity .

Japan and America are connected by railroad. France has only just been acquired so its still in revolt and will take quite a few turns for borders to get sorted and basic infrastructure to be built:



Pomthom's suggestion of trying to get Zara to close borders to create a semi-permeable membrane has been overtaken by events:



Given these factors and the fact that Saladin is further from winning I reckon it'll have to be Spain next. I'll need to recall the stackette from France and build up a bunch of new units to supplement it.

Japan will occupy itself with capturing a city here before joining the main war:

 

[pomthom]

Probably a stupid suggestion but should you raze one of the legendary cities just to be sure she'll never get it back??

Pomthom's suggestion of trying to get Zara to close borders to create a semi-permeable membrane has been overtaken by events

Indeed...!

 

[pigswill]

War against Spain? Why not?

Several turns of setting up to start with:

Bella demanded biology in 1765 and was advised to be fruitful and multiply.

These French have obviously got used to abstract architecture: Lyons flips to Arabia in 1775.

In 1785 we're the second to discover rocketry and Fred wants 600g to trade rocketry for electricity. We accept this shocking demand.

In 1790 we trade electricity and rocketry to Zara for assembly line.

Zara (and Fred) declare war on Saladin!

With all this testosterone flying around we succumb to temptation:







In 1795 the testosterone feedback loop smacks Zara and Fred in the face. They also declare on Bella! Khazak falls for the loss of an artillery. Time to advance!

Not much happens for a few turns. Moving through the countryside. Bella's stack goes for Zara's stack. Fshing nets get ripped and repaired, Bella loses a couple of destroyers. Fred completes Apollo in 1804.

At last some action in 1806. Zara captures Murcia. We lose two artillery and capture Santiago. Our next great general is born (Tecumseh ).

More tedious manouvres. Zara builds Apollo.

We capture Kushans in 1814 without loss. Bella has had enough already:



We open borders and do some trading:



We also trade rice, fish and clams to Bella for corn, wine and fur. We trade gems to Fred for musicals. Health and happiness abound.

France is stabilising (until the next war ):



We've lost our tech lead:



Bella has beaten us to Mass Media! Will she build the UN before us? What happens if she does? Who votes for who? On the oher hand her cultural pretensions have been seriously delayed:



Are we ready to try stomping Saladin? Will he capitulate to Zara first?

Its all very confusing .

 

[pigswill]

The Final Chapter.

We left off in 1814 having just accepted Isabella's capitulation and demonstrated largesse to a vassal.

In 1818 Tours succumbed to the lure of the orient and joined the Great Caliphate.

Insufferable!



We landed a few units near Basra who got swamped by myriads of Arabian riflemen, cannon, camel archers etc etc. Our infantry swatted them like annoying midges and the following turn (1826) we captured Basra.

1828. !! Saladin's amphibious party (rifes, cavalry) capture Tokyo! . Cash rush a few infantry in Japan. Fred kindly stomps them almost to extinction and our newly recruited infantry dogs recapture Tokyo the folllowing turn.

1832. . Didn't see that coming. Fred has built the UN! We vote for ourselves against Fred.

1836. The results are in. Saladin abstains, Isabella dutifully votes for us, Zara surprisingly votes for us. Fred loses badly despite voting for himself.

Meanwhile we have a strong of conquests: Kufah (1836), Damascus (1838), Lyons (1840), Tours (1842).

Quick break to vote for victory and see what happens:



In 1844 we capture Baghdad and Saladin finally capitulates. I forgot the screen shot but it wasn't very exciting so you haven't missed much. It's pretty irrelevant anyway:

1846. Didn't need your votes anyway young Sally :



Miserable score (112k) but a win's a win I suppose...

 

[georgjorge]

Congratulations on your win! It was an entertaining read!

One thing that stood out to me was your reluctance to go to war unless you were dominant in technology against your enemy. With the advantage of whipping/drafting heavily in war preparation as well as the favorable kill ratio of siege, you don't necessarily need a tech advantage to win - you can fight even bigger enemies at tech parity and sometimes tech disadvantage (like Macemen + Pikes + Trebs against Knights or Muskets, or Riflemen + Cannon + Machine Gun against Infantry or Artillery). Just make sure you have the numbers to deal with enemy siege, and you should be fine. In this example, you probably could have taken on both the French and Saladin a couple of centuries earlier, which would have snowballed into even more troops earlier. But it was a great game to read about anyway!

 

[pigswill]

Its certainly true that big armies can be whipped and drafted quickly enough if you're in the mood and its also true that numbers can swing the balance. On the other hand fighting at or below tech parity is going to give you heavier casualties which affect your war success ratio which affects the AIs willingness to surrender. Furthermore casualties have to be replaced which means more whipping and a weaker economy.
I am indeed a cautious player and have little confidence in my luck (or skill). I probably should try going on a whipping/drafting frenzy to convince myself.

 

[pomthom]

Nice win mate! A cautious but very solid win