SAM-01 Smoke and Mirrors

[Whosit]

I might be able to play a bit tomorrow. I'll see what I can do.

 

[Whosit]

Smoke and Mirrors

Well, I'm gonna play a few turns just to keep things moving (and because I'm not sure that I'll be able to get to it tomorrow). Gonna try and keep things short and sweet; also going to try and not mess up like I did in aCK-2.

Turn 361, 1702 AD

There is a Great Scientist. Dunno what we planned to do with him. Bulbs part of Astronomy, but I don't think that we're too keen on that. I'll build an Academy somewhere. Stalingrad seems like the best spot right now, so I send him south.

One spy waiting in Lyons. Hopefully it won't be caught before we get there.
I don't see anything that would have scared us off the attack, but I'll keep my eyes open.

I'll run through the citites, but after that, doesn't seem like anything else to do this turn.

Elektrogorsk is building a Cossack but has no stable. A lot of hammers are in it already, though, so I'll let it finish.

A few towns could use courthouses, even Stalingrad, once we're in peace again.

Bah, Pacal already has Democracy. If we got the SoL, plus Merchantilism, Representation would have been nice. Oh well.

Turn 362, 1704 AD

Stalingrad: Cossack < Cannon (4 turns)

Rostov: Cossac < Cannon (5 turns)

Rheims: Theatre (38 turns)

Ahh . . . I can trade for Democracy now . . . but I won't. Must repress Builder tendencies. Can't have all the Wonders. Especially since I don't know how long Pacal has had to work on the SoL.

I see no reason not to redeclare on Napoleon, so war again!

D'oh. Gave all our Riflemen Combat II because they were in a group at the time . . . OK, I should probably have gone to sleep instead of play. Oh well.

Turn 363, 1706 AD

Magnitogorks: Cossack < Cannon (3 turns)

The Academy in Stalingrad cuts a turn off of Steam Power (9 turns)

Turn 364, 1708 AD

Tell Zara to flip off. We don't want Open Borders with him.

Karachev: Grocer < Jail (9 turns). War Weariness is a . .. .. .. .. ..

Archangel: Cannon < Library (20 turns). It has decent commerce.

Oh. Can't revolt Lyons 'cuz we don't have enough EPs. Well, let's try stealing money, then. Yay! We get 88 gold. Second one gets caught. Oops.

Hrm. So they still have 50% defense from town. 47% retreat odds against the Musketeer. Good news is: the Musketeer is the best they got. Once he's gone, it's cake.

We withdraw! Still a lot of Pikemen to get through, though. I send in a Combat II, Cover, City Raider I Rifleman against their longbowman. 68% odds. He dies . . . . Oy, it seems I did attack prematurely. I'm really not doing too well at Civ lately. Lose a flanking II Cossack to Pikemen, so . . . . Same kinda rifle against a City Garrison Longbow. 70% odds. Win. Again. Win. Cossack kills Pikeman. Pikeman kills Cossack. Pikeman kills Rifleman . . . grr. We had 90% odds!

It's a mop-up after that.

We get a Great General. We can build West Point in Magnitogorsk (and we now have the stone for it, too). I send the General on a hike to Svetlograd. Probably to embed.

There's a lot of "yearning to join motherland" unhappiness. Meh.

Turn 365, 1710 AD

Napoleon sends a lone Curassier to its death.

Elektrogorsk: Cossack < Jail (8 turns)

Healing.

Turn 366, 1712 AD

Stalingrad: Cannon < Cannon (5 turns)

Magnitogorsk: Cannon < Cannon (2 turns)

Yaroslavl': Confucian Temple < Forge (7 turns)

Yekaterinburg: Granary < Theater (25 turns)

Paris: Granary

Pacal Builds the Kremlin. Boo.

Turn 367, 1714 AD

Tell Capac that we can't bother fighting the Ethiopians right now. Oops, he's down to Pleased now . . . so I beg 420 gold off of him. Or, wait, he was pleased to begin with. Urgh . . . tired eyes.

Moscow: Jail < Rifleman (6 turns)

Rostov: Cannon < Cannon (4 turns)

Try to beg money from Pacal, too. No go.

Napoleon speaks. No Capitulation, no Techs. Bah.

Turn 368, 1716 AD

Lost a cannon between turns 'cuz a Curassier came out of somewhere . . . .

Magnitogorsk: Cannon < Cannon (3 turns)

Spend 62 gold to stop dustbowl stuff.

Turn 369, 1718 AD

Nappy does silly things.

Start to bombard Orleans. Should take 2 more turns.

Turn 370, 1720 AD

Zara makes demands . . . .

St. Petersburg: Cossack < Jail (8 turns)

Bombard. Move units.

Turn 371, 1722 AD

Stalingrad: Cannon < Rifleman (5 turns)

Magnitogorsk: Cannon < Rifleman (3 turns)

Rostov: Cannon < Rifleman (4 turns)

Pacal and Suryavarman have a defensive pact.

Send in a City Raider II cannon with 50% odds. It dies, but it does a bit of damage.

Cossacks do their thing. Orleans is ours, no losses aside from the cannon.

Turn 372, 1724 AD

China wants help in war. Nope.

STEAM POWER < Railroad

Novgorod: Library < Market (23 turns)

Hrm. The only coal in our territory is on a windmilled hill near Svetlograd. The other closest one is in French territory nearby Orleans.

Napoleon will Capitulate, but no techs. I want to capture all of France.

Napoleon was kind enough to put some troops out in the open. I kill them.

Quiting here because it's late, I'm tired, and I'm probably making mistakes. I forgot to see if Napoleon will make treaty for his techs. We NEED to take at least Mersailles, or whatever, to have a secure source of coal. Even if we take him as a vassal, we can't demand the coal until he has steam power, too.

I think we should at least take the southern two cities, get his techs, then finish him off after the peace treaty expires.

There are some scattered troops around Orleans, mainly Riflemen and cannons. We want to advance them south in a lump, with whatever fully healed Cossacks we have to take the cities. Cannons bombard and whittle, etc.

 

[Glare Seethe]

Ah, I should've paid attention to the espionage points, my bad. But good job taking both cities. I'm a bit torn now whether to capitulate Nappy or not, he's been so tenacious that we've had to completely tear him down to the point where he's entirely useless as a vassal, so why not finish him off completely? On the other hand, I am itching to go after Huayna. He doesn't have Replaceable Parts and his stack is so perfectly positioned to be wiped out on the first turn of war.

We could vassal Nappy and give him back Orleans. I'd like to keep Lyons, though we don't need any of his other cities. Sucks about the motherland unhappiness, but we do get the full BFC of each city so they won't be completely useless. Unhappiness can be dealt with anyway, and we get +1 happiness from having a vassal. I dunno. I guess Dave is up next so more likely he'll eliminate Nappy completely. I am fine with that too.

edit: I think Ironworks should go in Svetlograd, West Point in Magnitogorsk. We might want to slot in some levees in our cities if we can afford to not produce units for a little bit (depends on how many we have left after the war with France and how soon we attack Huayna).

 

[Whosit]

I agree with the placement of the Iron Works and West Point. Heh. Svetlograd turned out to be a pretty nice production town. Stalingrad is kinda -eh- nowadays.

Somehow, I don't think Huayna's stack is going to go anywhere in the time it'll take us to conquer France. The other reason I mentioned the Motherland unhappiness is that it is quite high in several of the cities, as high as +7 in Lyons, I think.

Oh, I should also mention that most of the troops that were built in the east were kept in Svetlograd once I realized that we're no longer on Friendly terms with Capac.

We certainly have enough Cossacks, and probably enough cannons to handle Nappy now. I think we need some Riflemen to handle garrison duty, and then more siege for the Inca.

 

[Dave Hartwick]

I have to drop out. It's been good playing this one. Have fun.

 

[Norvin_Green]

Sorry to see you go Dave. It was fun. Glare seeing as I can't play until Thursday at the earliest and it looks as if its just Whosit (who just played), you and I left why don't you play a set? Let us know, ok?

 

[Glare Seethe]

Okay, I'll play tomorrow. Will rename Paris in Dave's honor.

 

[Glare Seethe]

IT, 1724AD:

I am going to capitulate Napoleon because a) we have all of his best cities and b) we are losing players so we should probably speed this game up a bit. Going to turn around and hit Huayna next.

I am normally a rather benevolent master to my vassals so instead of demanding his bananas I just gave him some cows for them. I did, though, try to demand Astronomy since he wanted both Liberalism and Replaceable Parts for it. He refused. Damnit Nappy I did you a favor by not killing your sorry ass like my teammates were expecting and this is how you repay me? I ended up giving him Lib, RP and 110g for Astronomy and Economics. Maybe a mistake? I dunno.

The motherland unhappiness has went down to 3-4 in most cities, so that's good and rather manageable.

Rename Paris to Hartwickgrad.

With a settled GG it'll be another unit pump. Maybe some ships. The rest of Nappy's town look more like commerce cities, I'll send down some workers to cottage up what isn't yet cottaged.

You know what, I'm gifting Orleans back. I don't want to waste units on this worthless city.

All troops are sent towards Juli. Gonna park them on the hill outside the city so we can declare and kill Huayna's stack on turn 1.

1726AD:

AP vote comes up, I choose a trade embargo on Pacal. He needs to be slowed down a bit. Zara gets a Great General.

1728AD:

Zara demands we cancel deals with Huayna, but I refuse. I know we're about to declare on him but Zara is honestly a non-factor in this game and I'm not about to suck up to him.

Brush fires near Novosibirsk means I pay to replace the forge.

The vote passes and we lose a bunch of deals with Pacal. Haha. Didn't notice how many active deals we had with him, but whatever.

1730AD:

Not much.

1732AD:

A hurricane hits Lyons and we lose the lighthouse and observatory.

Werzdaartist completes a drydock and begins nonstop galleons. I honestly have trouble finding stuff for our workers to do at this point, so I send one of the two who were mining the coal near the Incan border to scout out some Incan cities. Defenses look weak so far, but we basically already knew that.

1734AD:

Give Huayna Communism for 780g and a world map. Cuzco is defended by a maceman, a swordsman and a longbowman.

1736AD:

Peace treaty with Huayna is complete and he has just finished Corporation. Is he going for Assembly Line next? A Great General is born in China. I open borders with Sury and give him rice for 10gpt. He's expansive anyway so what does he need the health for? I think this will benefit us more than it will him, hopefully. Trade routes are good. (edit: just realized we were in Mercantilism at this point anyway so it was benefitting him much more...)

1738AD:

Huayna's navy is parked in Tiwanaku.

I send the worker onto Heracles Hill. Maybe we can take this city and claim back this legendary location. Huayna's teching Physics now.

I set a rally point for all ships coming out of Werzdaartist to Yaroslavl'. That'll be the departure point for our navy. It takes the galleons 14 turns to sail all the way there but once we'll be producing transports that'll be down a few turns.

1740AD:

Recall the worker travelling across the Inca Empire as Railroad is due in a few turns and I want to start building rails between Magnitogorsk and the eastern front.

1742AD:

Huayna adopts Emancipation and State Property. If we raze cities we risk the partisan event, so maybe just keep everything. Most of our troops have made it to Juli by now, and I send a small stack of 7 cossacks down to St. Petersburg to take Goth as well. Since Yekaterinburg is lightly defended (only one chariot) I don't want to risk one of his patrolling cuirassers taking it.

1744AD:

French revolt in Hartwickgrad.

1746AD:

Mao makes peace with Zara and a source of gems is discovered near Rostov. Would have been nicer in one of our commerce cities, as it is it takes off one hammer from the mine.

1748AD:

It is time. Our stack is huge and fully healed.

Two Accuracy-promoted cannons take down Juli's 40% cultural defenses and all the others get CR. We lose one at 94% odds but the others all retreat. By some kind of miracle Huayna ends up with one chariot defending (and a frigate) when all of our troops have already attacked. All except Jeanne d'Arc.

Here's a sample of the combat log:

Meanwhile on the southern front our small stack moves onto the iron mine next to Goth. Unfortunately there are forests all around the city so I can't attack on the same turn.

1750AD:

Huayna's power:

No sign of any counterattack, of course. We have a lot of unhappiness in our cities but that's actually more due to a lot of AIs having adopted Emancipation. We need Democracy so I give Lib and MT to Zara for it. He's worst enemy of Huayna and Mao but who cares? They are pissed off at us anyway.

We have a Great Scientist coming soon from Mezh so maybe we can trigger a GA to make a civic switch. I don't remember if we have already had a GP-powered one, if we have we'll need another GP first. In that case I'll just take the anarchy instead of waiting. For now though I'll up the culture slider a bit.

Anyway. We capture Goth plus a worker who was working outside the city. Main stack is healing in Juli. I'll split it up into a mounted stack and a rifles/cannon stack. Mounted will hit cities on flatlands while the cannons will take care of the hilled cities.

1752AD:

Railroad in, workers start railroading from Magnitogorsk to the east. Frankly I think we have more than enough troops to deal with Huayna so I don't know if it's really necessary. Maybe best to imrpove mines first. Plus Magnitogorsk is actually building West Point at the moment. That reminds me Ironworks in Svetlograd after the next cannon...

Start Combustion.

Give wheat and cow to Zara for dye and ivory cause we really need the happiness. Give something, don't remember what, to Nappy for sugar. I thought we had sugar already but I guess not. Happiness issues: alleviated for now.

1754AD:

Huayna's actually building a decent stack in Huamanga. I hate waiting for our stack to heal, why isn't Jeanne d'Arc doing this in one turn?

Starve Mezh a little bit to get the GS in one turn instead of two.

1756AD:

Rembrandt the Great Artist born in Mezh? Uh, okay. Can't use him for a GA, though, so I'll send him to Stalingrad to sleep. I don't want him sleeping in a coastal town cause I'm paranoid about unexpected attacks, not that I have any reason to be. I guess I'll just make the switch to Emancipation and State Property now: 3 turns of anarchy. Will end this set once we come out of anarchy.

Stack is finally healed so I send most of the cavalry northwards towards Vitcos and the rest towards Huamanga to deal with Huayna's brand new stack.

1758AD:

Whoops, I forgot to do the civic switch. My bad.

Napoleon has sent us some help, heh.

We capture Vitcos of course.

1760AD:

Pacal says:

You're just embarassing yourself.

The battle for Huamanga goes basically as you'd expect except Huayna's got one unit more than we do so we'll have to take it the next turn.

We do get a great general. I'm thinking a second medic unit for the siege stack. Always good, and with West Point being built in Magnitogorsk we don't really need any extra promotions or even a Military Academy anywhere (we don't even have MS at the moment). We have a lot of veterans that can for sure deal with both Huayna and whoever is next (Sury?).

1762AD:

Not much else to report when in anarchy and all your stacks are healing.

1764AD:

Okay, out of anarchy, here's the situation on the front.

Stack 1 in Vitcos:

It's due for Ollantaytambo next, I think.

Stack 2 just outside of Huamanga:

These were the troops that took no damage in the attack on Huamanga therefore they can just soldier onwards towards Cuzco.

Stack 3 healing in Huamanga:

Stack 4 ready to lay siege to Vilcabamba:

We can't take it this turn, though, the garrison is decently large and three of our cannons have just arrived so they can't attack yet.

And look, that first galleon built in Werzdaartist is finally arriving in Yaroslavl'.

I set the latter city to build frigates but maybe more galleons is better. We have a large army. If Hartwickgrad ever stops revolting it should produce some ships as well.

We can build the Statue of Liberty if we want to. 21 turns in Svetlograd still without Ironworks, unfortunately (which I completely forgot to start in Svetlograd even though I said I would build it after that one cannon), but chances are someone's already started on it. We are Industrious with copper though...

Since we just came out of revolt and lost free specialists but gained lots of happiness I would suggest micro'ing each city, since no doubt some stuff has changed in them. I'm leaving them untouched. The GG is sleeping in Novgorod, I forgot to wake him up before saving, sorry.

 

[Whosit]

Ahh, that Napoleon is truly incorrigible. When we get the chance, I suppose we'll have to increase the garrison in Hartwickgrad and build some cultural buildings to make sure it doesn't flip back to France. That would be a tragedy. If we need to, maybe we can make Napoleon break his vassalhood and we can conquer him again.

I'll look at the save a bit later and come back to edit in some more comments, but it sounds like the war is going well. Getting Capac's main stack in one swoop certainly helps us out, and it sounds like you took out his main counter-attack at Huamanga. A four-stack attack seems a bit unorthodox, but I see no need to combine all our forces to take out the Inca. Let's just make sure that our other cities are building enough extra troops to garrison our new conquests so that we don't have to leave many of our troops behind.

Oh, and we could probably use a Military Academy, maybe in one of our northern shipyards so we can pump out naval units faster. Only reason I don't recommend it in Werz is because of the long commute. Putting one in Svetlograd is another option, but probably unnecessary. Iron Works is a must, though. I wouldn't pursue the Statue of Liberty at this point, though. It's possible that we still have a shot, but Pacal has had democracy for a long while now and even with copper and the Industrious trait, it seems like it'll be a long-shot. We'll want Assembly Line for the Pentagon, of course, so if we get Iron Works in Svetlograd, it should be able to build Wonders like that for us.

*edit*

OK, let's see what I see.

Svetlograd is starving. It should probably take the sheep back from Huamanga to fix that.

Oh, if we're running out of things for workers to do, let's begin building forest preserves around Elektrogorsk. We'll save time later when we hit biology and can build the National Park.

For Hartwickgrad, let's get a Theatre, Temple, and Library in there ASAP, even before the dry dock. Maybe even in preference to the courthouse. Neither of those buildings will do us any good if we lose the city.

I think that it's funny that Stalingrad is still being defended by a Warrior. Maybe in their spare time they can do Car Insurance commercials. Well, once we finish Combustion, anyway. Oh, I don't know what the plan is for the tiles, but if we're doing lumbermills, put them on the river 'cuz they get an extra commerce.

I don't know how much Incan territory we want to take, though I'd like to grab as much as possible, at least as far north as Heracles Hill. We can rename that town Heraclesgrad or something, right? Tiwanaku, the gems town, would be a nice addition to our economy as well. Otherwise, I guess we can cut down some more forests for farms and work all the tiles. Might not be a bad idea as the few extra hammers will get multiplied with forge + factory when we get there.

Make sure that Mezh gets a new scientist when the observatory is done.

Buzzed through the other towns, didn't really see anything worth noting, but a closer examination may be warranted.

Hmm, I was thinking that our southern group should just ignore Arequipa on the southeastern coast, but if they take it, and the northern cavalry group clips the iron up there, I think we'll have disconnected Capac's iron source. Not a huge deal, but then at least he can't make Macemen or Crossbowmen. Honestly, I guess there's no reason at this point to worry about that. Oh, wait, the Civilopedia says that iron is required for Cuirassiers, so it might be worth it, after all.

The Southern Cavalry Group can probably handle Vilcabamba, Arequipa, and Machu Pichu; The Center Groups can push for Cuzco and Atico; The Northern Cavalry Group can take Ollyanta--Olleyanta--OllyOllyOxenFree . . . and hold the Northern Line until the rest of the army can rendezvous. Then one group can head to the northwest, taking Andahuaylas and Corihua--; northeast to Chuquiapo and Tiwanaku; finally, all will converge on Heracles Hill.

I'm sure that we can take him as a Vassal at that point if we don't want to bother finishing him off.

I also propose that we come up with new names for conquered Incan cities so that we don't tie our tongues trying to type them.

Like . . . Vilcabamba can become: Labamba.
Ollantaytambo could be . . . . Whositgrad! Naw, I kid. Only Heroes of the State like Dave get towns named after them. Otambo?

I guess our roster is now:

Whosit (waiting)
Glare Seethe (just played)
Norvin Green (Up Now)

It'll be a quick rotation. Y'know, I kinda feel like I'm in Red Group (how appropriate) during the Death Star attack: We're losing comrades left and right! But we must push on and destroy the enemy. Xanthus, radiofreestl, Dave Hartwick: We shall never forget you, you who have given your lives in defense of Mother Russia. Your deaths shall be avenged! . . . OK, done being dramatic now.

 

[Glare Seethe]

I agree about SoL and good point about a military academy in one of the coastal towns. We'd have to sidestep to MS, but maybe we can trade for it, I don't remember. Alternatively we can switch to Universal Suffrage and buy tons of transporters. Or Police State. We are going to have the Pyramids once we take Cuzco.

Four stacks is just to speed things up, there is no resistance at all and each of these stacks can handle at least 2 cities on its own. The fourth one can take the two southern ones (remember that iron/wine spot we were eyeing at the beginning of the game?), the second is heading to Cuzco and the first cossack-only stack can take some of the northern cities, I think those are his best ones anyway (Tiwanaku has double gems, I think). That leaves him only with the northern areas, which is probably enough to capitulate him.

Hartwickgrad will never actually flip back to Nappy but it will suffer revolts until we have enough culture in it (dunno how much). I probably should've kept more troops there but I wanted them for the Inca war. In any case we can definitely divert some more units to the former French cities to quell any future revolts, they can be productive cities.

 

[Norvin_Green]

Got it. Will try to post plans later and get a set in tonight. Just as a warning despite having this game pretty much locked up I'm sure I'll screw up somewhere with 4 stacks!!

 

[Whosit]

Eh, just take it slow and steady. Each turn will probably take longer than usual, but I'm sure you can handle it. 'Sides, four stacks means four times as fast, right? Right?

 

[Norvin_Green]

Or 4x the casualties. Ha ha ha!

 

[Norvin_Green]

I'm not going to go into too much detail as having looked at the save we'd really have to botch this to lose. I was going to cottage over all but one farm in Moscow so that we can get some more cash there. As for garrison troops, was going to start building rifles in one of the production cities to hold our newest acquisitions. Going to try and get the SoL in Svetlograd than IW. Is that correct? Pacal and Sury have a defensive pact but that shouldn't stop us from blowing threw Sury next. In general for coastal cities what do you guys think of customs houses?

 

[Glare Seethe]

Pretty much agree with the plan. At this point coastal cities that are not building galleons/transports, like Grenoble, can't contribute much except foreign trade route commerce, so focus on that plus espionage buildings (since EP is not dependent on commerce they can contribute just as much as any other city in that regard).

SoL we'll probably lose but we can deviate to it, sure, we're not in urgent need of anything else. Will make up for losing Mercantilism.

Also agree with declaring on Sury next. Maybe you could bribe Pacal into a war to break up the defensive pact, otherwise we'll just take the hit... I don't see us declaring on Pacal himself, probably Sury > Zara > Mao and that'll be enough, since Pacal's tech leader (or is that us?) we can just leave him alone and get the win without having to fight at pairity.

edit: Can't look at the save at the moment so I can't comment on which cities to take as Whosit did, but Cuzco and Tiwanaku for sure, and it'd be nice to take the one near Heracles Hill. But yeah... doesn't really matter I suppose. I think the stacks are well positioned to take pretty much any Incan city except the very northern ones, but those suck anyway.

 

[Norvin_Green]

Turn 0 (1764 a.d.)

What can I say. Its nice to have this kind of firepower.


Turn 1 (1766 a.d.)

Mao wants to make a deal. I swap Communism in for Steel and he takes it.

Make a few resource trades for cash with Pacal & Zara. Push the slider up and lower the happiness as we can afford to right now.

(missed Pacal's mugshot)

Olly –whatever falls. It has the Museum of Mausallos. Let’s remember that when discussing possible golden ages. Try to think of something clever to rename it. my mind is totally blank (good thing this game is in the bag!)

Spoiler :

Napoleon cancels banana deal so take fish instead.

Turn 2 (1768 a.d.)

Laugh all you want about Nappy’s 2 HA stack. Knucklehead didn’t finish the job so Nap took Vilca with them. Boy do I feel dumb.


Turn 3 (1770 a.d.)

Send units into Vilca to heal. Advance towards Cuzco.

Turn 4 (1772 a.d.)

Take Cuzco.

Spoiler :

Turn 5 (1774 a.d.)

Ho hum. Another turn another captured city. Tiwanaku is now ours.

Spoiler :

Turn 6 (1776 a.d.)

Mostly units moving and healing. HC is getting to us with frigates near Mezh.

Turn 7 (1778 a.d.)

Seeing as I skipped a turn without capturing a city I made up for it by razing two. Atico which was to the east of Cuzco (partisan citizens spawned) and Chuquiapo which was between Tiwanaku and Corihuayrachina (say that three times fast)

Turn 8 (1780 a.d.)

Take down Arequipa. Combustion will be in next turn.

Spoiler :

Get a load of this:

Spoiler :

Turn 9 (1782 a.d.)

Begin bombarding Corihuayrachina. We should be able to capture on the next turn. Slot in Biology as Combustion is in. Upgraded 2 frigates to destroyer so that next turn we can decimate HC’s fleet.


Roster:

Whosit (up)
Glare Seethe (next)
Norvin Green (suffering from war weariness)


Save attached:

 

[Glare Seethe]

Looks good. Let's take Machu Picchu, Coryhuayrachina and Vilcas at the very least, hopefully that'll be enough to vassalize him. Biology next is good, once Huayna's capitulated we can trade for Corporation with him and then immediately start on Assembly Line.

I'm thinking another civic switch would be good. We have a lot of towns so Free Speech will do us more good than Bureaucracy (especially since we have enough production), and I'm thinking Universal Suffrage or Police State. Probably the former. What we can do is try and generate a GP out of Mezh ASAP, just whatever kind we can get as long as it's not an artist. By that time we'll have AL already, we can trigger the GA, switch to US/FS, turn on 100% gold and upgrade all of our galleons to transports and all of our rifles to infantry. AND rushbuy lots more transports - we probaby need around 15. With the GA we should be able to generate enough cash.

Nappy will likely never be able to hold Vilcabamba against Russian culture from all sides.

On a sidenote, everyone is playing 10-turn sets but I've been playing ~20 turns all the time. I thought 10 was more for Normal speed. Should I cut it down next time?

edit: Sury's preparing for war, maybe beef up defences in northern coastal towns, he hates us. On the plus side if he declares on anyone it breaks his defensive pact with Pacal.

 

[Norvin_Green]

Please Please Please keep playing 20 turn sets!! I don't know how you do it. It took me so long to play my 10. It is hard when you have so many things going on to keep track of them all especially when you aren't the only one playing. I felt exhausted after my turns. Whosit, please check around as I think I have a few units on auto-move (sorry).

 

[Glare Seethe]

Okay cool, I just didn't want to hog all the turns or something!

 

[Norvin_Green]

Do you find it hard to figure out what the player before you was doing? For instance, when I got the save from you all the stacks were grouped together. In my SP games I don't do that as there are countless times that I accidentally gave the whole stack the exact same promotions. So when I took over I ungrouped them so as not to screw up. It pretty much doesn't matter in this situation as we are slicing through HC like nothing but it certainly would if it was a tough battle.