SGOTM 9 - Bede

[Bede]

Roster check:

Bede - will get on it Sunday - still two days of madness left. If classical or Crakie want to take a proper crack at it barge on
Crakie - swapped with classical
classical hero - did what was necessary
crazybeard - parts is parts
Bahzel - played
Marc Aurel - no revolution, just building up the army.

Good progress in getting the upgrade work done. Our best plan is to get at least one army and lots of infantry over there then carry out a scorched earth campaign. Cavs and infantry against MechInf in towns without bombers can be painful. Guard the Spanish island against MechInf landings. Thye can be offensive little buggers. The enemy will not hesitate to use bombers against armies so try to figure out where the bombers aare and do what youo can to neutralize them.

If you can work out a tactic that will get the bombers to our mainland (bait them with a town) then having sufficient force to take it back when they fly thier bombers in it will work.

This has become a Deity level game with the Vikings way behind in technology so sound tactics with high kill ratios are important. Hard to do against MechInf I know.

Your calculations on the luxes are just a little out of phase. The luxuries will put many more people back to work earning even more gold for the Celtic coffers, giving them lots of room for upgrades of obsoletes and cash rushing of units and moving up the lux slider. If you really want to cripple an AI opponent sell them resources or tech for gpt. THAT will trash their economy.

Fascism is probably our worst choice of government. It will kill the economy, such as it is. I think that government is in the game to give the humans a chance against Deity AI, as the AI always chooses it over Communism, for some really bizarre reason.

 

[classical_hero]

The celts are already in the Modern age since they are building th SETI project.

 

[Crakie]

1700-1750 AD:

Not much to report. I went over all our cities in the preturn to maximize the number of scientists (shaving off a turn from our research) and started building ducts, harbors and courthouses with civil engineers in corrupt areas. We are closing in on our max units support, so we will need more cities.

Upgrading time has pretty much ended, so I switched research back on. We are doing 6/7 turn research at 100 %. The core has almost finished building its factories and coal plants and is focussed on building more military. Bedeville is put on the Mil Academy, Tromso the Heroic Epic. Those armies will come in handy.

We will need a modest defensive force on our main land, I'd say 15-20 arties along with some cavalry. Coastal core cities will need protection from marines. The spanish lands will also require a similar defense force. IMHO,our attack force should be around 60 arties, 20 inf, 40 cav, 10 settlers and a fleet of transports to match. I have arranged our forces in handy stacks to easily check our progress in building that.

The Save

 

[Bede]

Got it. Will play tomorrow.

Merry Christmas to you all and to all a good night!

 

[Bede]

And so it begins

Some more playing with specialists gets us the same research time to Transports but puts over 150gpt in the till. The towns in the north really need nothing other than a few 'ducts so using the CE's to build infrastructure is less useful than using lots of beakerheads.

I get this when I push enter

And this

And this comes in less than 8 turns later

All ten turns are spent tending the science rate, upgrading galleons to transports when Combustion comes in nad doing lots of map reading to figure out where to start on the Celts. We need to deny his critical resources (oil and rubber), then once we have airplanes start in on wrecking his towns and rield improvements (though artillery is better for culture killing)

So, in a clear violation of SG protocol I turn the game over by making this my last act of diplomacy

The initial plan:

The first of his two oil supplies has been cut. Use what terrain advantages you can to get to the next one, doing all the damage possible on the way. Cavalry against MechInf in cities are real losers, so use the forces to scorch his ground. Once we have bombers, due in two, then we can think about what to do about the cities. Pampalona needs to be walled off, don't worry about taking it down, just keep the MechInf in there crippled. Brennus has foot soldiers up the NE neck of Spanish Island Keep 'em hurting and they won't be much of a threat.

There is a General on the way to America, load an army with cavalry and move out across the Celtic lands. By using America as a shield I think it is possible to get transports across the ocean wihout taking too many bomber hits. Put troops in regular transports and cover with spare veterans. The vets will take the hits and the regulars will get through.

One last time, scorch the ground, cut the road network, take out the important resources, ignore the cities, keep the troops together and don't chase strays.

Keep the Ottomans happy, give them money if you have to. As soon as Abe has some infantry showing in his garrisons invite him in against the Celts. I sold him rubber and coal so let's hope he makes good use of them.

As soon as flight comes in build one airfield in the Spanish island and a whole bunch of them in the plains of the north (at least four) There are still a few galleons needing upgrade (one thing I'll say about this team we don't leave ourselves short of ships ) All aircraft should be based in the airfields, not in towns. Brennus will take apart the cities with his bombers, but will ignore airfields.


If it looks like you can capture Boston, do it and give it back to Abe, that will keep that southern oil out of Celtic hands.

Do not change any citizen assignments in the homeland other than adjusting tax guys to scientists. The four core towns are pretty nicely tuned for their tasks.

We need that third army out there so we can build the Pentagon.

Gandhi still hasn't learned his laws or letters yet. This guy is hopeless.


Roster check:

classical hero - go get 'em and have some fun
crazybeard - waiting with worm on tongue
Bahzel - played
Marc Aurel - no revolution, just building up the army.
Crakie - took a crack at it and set up a Boxing Day surprise for classical
Bede - wrapped the box for our hero

 

[classical_hero]

At least my turn will be alot of fun. There better be an army of troops for me to defeat the celts with. We also need to know where his uranium sources are so that we do not get nuked to oblivion.

 

[crazybeard]

Alas, it looks like we won't know for some tiime where the Uranium is. I count 6 required techs before we can advance to the Modern Age. much less research the necessary tech (Fission?) In addition, there are at least two optional techs we need to get (Communism and Amphibious Warfare)
How likely is the AI to first strike with nukes?

 

[Bede]

Espionage should come after Flight but I think we still lack Nationalism. If Abe has it we could steal it from him. If he declares war, well, so be it. Pound him into the ground and go from there.

@classical, you have enough artillery to do some damage to the resources, enough cavalry to finish the pillaging, a general on the way to America and a bunch of infantry. Avoid pitched battles with Brennus if you can. As we are supplying Abe with two critical resources I think it unlikely he will risk his existence to join Brennus, he might get stupid though.

 

[classical_hero]

Turn Zero. I also was able to take Pamplona back again for the loss of no Calvaries. I killed two MI's and there was a jet fighter in the city. I am strting to believe that not every single action has been done in every turn.


Every Celtic city that I capture, i will raze because they will be dangerous for us to hold because.

IBT. I am very nervous to see what happens when I press enter. So here goes.. We lost our entire invasion force. We just did not have enough troops there to cover for the superiority of there technology and there amount of units and the fact they have more units than we do. We managed to kill a few of their units. They can afford to suffer such losses whereas we cannot. I have only played the end of the previous guys turn. What should we do? A Strategy must be in order for us to do well. I will not play another turn until we have a better strategy, because we really needed three times the units to even stand a chance.

 

[Crakie]

Say what? We had a stack of whatever covered by plenty infantry on a mountain and we lost everything?

EDIT: I opened (just opened, nothing else, that's allowed right?) the 1770 AD save, and the stack is NOT on a mountain, nor able to move to it in the same turn. It should have been on the mountain when war was declared (with a lone cav to pillage the oil close to american territory). If the stack would have stood a chance I don't know but I also feel it is/was rather small in every department (cav, art and inf).

 

[Bede]

I think our best strategy right now is shoot the general, or hang him for treason.

I am guilty of seriously underestimating the opponent. And for that I apologise to the team. It is so heinous an offense I have no way to make amends.

We can probably fight off the Celts for as long as it will take to get a peace treaty. Then regroup and try again.

If you all want to fire me, or hang me by my big toes until the blood gets back to my brain, or boil me in oil, or....... <Goes off looking for barbed wire for the belt to hold up the sackcloth trousers>

 

[classical_hero]

FYI, the units that did the attacking were Naturally tanks, Mech Inf, Inf, TOW, Cav, Marines and Guerillas. We really did underestimate the Celts.

 

[Crakie]

I think our best strategy right now is shoot the general, or hang him for treason.

I am guilty of seriously underestimating the opponent. And for that I apologise to the team. It is so heinous an offense I have no way to make amends.

We can probably fight off the Celts for as long as it will take to get a peace treaty. Then regroup and try again.

If you all want to fire me, or hang me by my big toes until the blood gets back to my brain, or boil me in oil, or....... <Goes off looking for barbed wire for the belt to hold up the sackcloth trousers>

Hehehe... no comment

Ooooh, if only we had taken on the Celts instead of Spain first! THAT was our big mistake.

I agree with fighting off the Celts, regrouping and trying again though. Good thing we didn't get Abe into the conflict yet (it would have killed him anyway).

 

[classical_hero]

Hehehe... no comment

Ooooh, if only we had taken on the Celts instead of Spain first! THAT was our big mistake.

I agree with fighting off the Celts, regrouping and trying again though. Good thing we didn't get Abe into the conflict yet (it would have killed him anyway).

I agree with this. We should have gone for the Celts first and then the Spanish. Another error was the fact that we were not prepared for the invasion as we should have been. One thing I am not happy about it the fact that I am playing the save immediately after war was declared. I believe that it should have been my decision to do that.

I will play the save next year, IE, when I get back from New years celebrations.

EDIT. I will play tommorrow. I am still trying to overcome the shock of the situation that Bede left me in.

 

[classical_hero]

The save. Enjoy
Turn 1. I should have enough Artillery on the Spainish Ilsand to keep the Celts at bay. I upgraded a Musketman for 90 in Santander. We will lose Vitoria IBT if thing should happen.

IBT. Lets see what the Celts can do. We only lost Vitoria, so it was not as bad As I thought it would be.

Turn 2. We now have Flight. So that means that We will now be building more Bombers. AS you can see from this picture, that I have decided that we should try and get Motorised Transport so that we can get tanms and be a much more prevalent threat, If we can get it in time, that is.

We will lose the east Isle because two tnaks and MI landed on the Mountain and all we have it one Musketman on the whole Isle, so we will lose more cities, but I doubt that we should lose to many more cities, unless they have marines. I am now switching many cities onto Bomber Production. It is a good thing that they have lethal Bombard. Soo that will mean that we go on a bombing campaign. I have learnt to stop worrying and love the bomb. I did some Bombardment to some ships but until we get some Bombers, we will not be able to sink them. We neeed to get going on killing the Celts because they are very close to the Cultural limit. Before I pressed enter I did some micromanaging so that the cities are now being the most effedctive they can be.

IBT. We lost two cities. We lost Hovd and Elverurn. Santander is now empty due to Bombers. and The Ottomans have an alliance with Indians against us. I must say this game just became interesting.

Turn 3. I have just made an Infantry Army since it will be most beneficial for us right now to do that. I have managed to do some bombarbment of Elverurn. One porblem is that we just do not have enough untis to cover all our problem areas. I managed to kill one MI but we lost two Calvary attacking the city. I managed to kill a tank outside of Stockholm after some bombardment.

IBT. We lost East Ilse City.

Turn 4. We managed to kill two MI with our Inf army. Every Celtic Unit on our Continent is now redlined so we soon will be albe to get the city back. Once we have that city back i will try and see If we can get peace with the Celts. I will have a few bombers nex turn.

IBT. Nothing of note happened. We lost one INf to a Sipahi but we will be duly dispatched. The Celts did some more Bobmbardment and we only lost an improvement, but not casulaties.

Turn 5. We managed to sink tow Destroyers after Bombarding them to red and then having the Bombers sink them. Unfortunately we lost one bobmer in the attempt. We injured some more destroyers. Lets face it, we are in deep trouble and I think there is really only going to be just one outcome, and that is that we will lose this game.

IBT. We lost one unit to Bombardment, but we did not do to bad that turn.

Turn six. More Bombardment. This time I was able to kill a destroyer and a transport. Hopefully I shall have Elverurn back next turn and them I shall talk to the Celts.

IBT. MORE Celtic Bombing. I managed to defeat a TOW with one of my Infs.

Turn 7. I have managed to kill two more units in Elverurn and they are down to just a Marine, I think. I also killed a destroyer in that city also. I also have killed a Cruiser and a Destroyer, leaving just a Destroyer and Transport behind. Eventually our superior tactics can overrun the Celts, but we need to do it fast. The Celts are now In anarchy so this is good news.

I think they are going to Communism since Fascism is still quite expensive. This war will mean they will lose alot of Production and we should be able to get the better of them.

IBT. We took some more damge during Bombardment. The Celts landed near Aarhus. We had a Submarine attack a Cruiser of ours, but we did not sustain any damage.

Turn 8. I managed to take Elverurn and now the Celts are willing to talk. I managed to kill the attacking units near Aarhus and I also killed three Destroyers and hopefully soon I will be able to destroy two Transports in the next turn. So far the Celts did not do as much damage as I though they would do. Thank god for that. I was wrong about the Change of Government as they are now in Fascism.

I managed to get America's WM, 3g and Communism for Flight. We are also up Mass Production.

IBT. More Bombardment.

Turn Nine. We killed a Transport and we injured a destroyer. I am starting to build up a navy so that we can become stronger against their navy. Not much Else Happened, just an exercise in Getting even.

IBT. More Bombardment.

Turn Ten. After what I thought would be a nightmare tunr, things have tunred out not to be that bad. One mistake I did was I should have been able to kill a Carrier but I did not play the last turn as well as I could. We are sufferinf from a pounding but we can hold onto these positions we should be able to destroy them. I have now ended my turn, which did not turn outt to be as much of a distaster as i thought it would have been. The next player can have the choice of seeking peace with the Celts if they want, or continue this war. If they continue the war, then kick ass. Having just lost three cities with one gain and one retake, I think that things are not too bad afterall. Enjoy you turn Crazybeard. The Indians still need to CoL before they enter the next era. We now must be wary of winning by domination because we have the Population but we lack the Area, so we need to be prepared. Here is the Victory screen as I leave this turn. The areas of note are in red. The Culture of the Celts is a big worry. Look at the city on Entremont and the whole civ of Celts.

 

[Bede]

Nice recovery from my cock-up, ch.

What we were looking for has been achieved. The Celts are Fascists and have probably mobilized their economy so no more Wonders (except UN, and no SS parts) and their culture accumulation rate is half of what it was. That is where we want to keep them.

If we can muster the airpower over in Spain we can use bombing runs to destroy cultural buildings in the cities and wreck their economy while we prepare an invasion force.

So if you want my opinion, keep the war going.

Roster check:

crazybeard - bomb them back into the Stone Age
Bahzel - played
Marc Aurel - no revolution, just building up the army.
Crakie - took a crack at it and set up a Boxing Day surprise for classical
Bede - screwed the pooch
classical hero - got got but got out of it

 

[madviking]

I'm back just to tell you/

 

[crazybeard]

As always, I won't have access to my CivIII computer until later tonight. Rollergirls premieres tonight, so I won't be able to look at the save until well after 11

I see a lot of things I don't like, not the least of which is that it's my turn

If you knew my gaming history, you'd know that "bomb them back to the Stone Age" is my specialty"

We need to go into high gear on Bomber production. We're going to need a lot of them. I think we want to hit Entremont with several bombing runs every turn. Once we've identified their sources of Aluminum, Oil, Rubber, and Uranium, those will also be high on our target list. And any Naval unit that comes near our shores should be sent to the bottom. We may be talking about 30 Bombers, or even 50. Flak units are also fun (3 or 4 in a newly captured city can really whittle an enemy's air power), but bombers first.

The major problem I see is getting all the units we want produced in a short time. The Ottomans also worry me. Not that they're a meaningful threat, but if we start grabbing their cities, we may find ourselves with a Domination Victory.

All input is appreciated.

 

[Bede]

As for the bomber tactics I would pick a city or metro and hit until the there are no cultural buildings left standing, then hit it again till there are no peeps left for whipping either, then move on the next one. And so on and so forth until we can make another landing in force on their shore.

Osman is a majot annoyance but no real danger, so why not just contain him? Do we own any optional techs we can use as bait for his Modern freebie? Not sure where we would get them from, though. Anyway, skirmish with him until the time comes to see what kind of deal can be made.

 

[Bahzell]

If Osman becomes to much of an annoyance, can always just kill him off and give his cities to Abe to avoid the Domination Win. Should start Bombing runs on the resources that Brennus needs now for his modern units. If we want to get Units over to Spains old territory, then we should get to Airfields asap. as we can then airlift units over there then transport them over to Brennus by ship.