Inherited Turn: only some minor micromanagement, and more troops sent out toward Calcutta, so I can try to attack in two turns.
1922AD: India attacks and obliterates all (ALL!) of our forward troops near Tours, smacks down a couple of the ones advancing on Calcutta, and sends troops into our territory! Their battleship sinks our unescorted transport near French Island. A mech and a tank get parked on a hill next to Kolhauper, conveniently blocking the rail line, while a tank rolls up to our workers building a road to the polluted cattle south of Chartres. I send more units toward Calcutta.
Our troops move into position to attack Calcutta. I use our settler to found Richmond at the forwardmost unclaimed spot on the Chinese border. I staff this city with several troops.
Our army on the island with Ganges (think that was the one) attacks and kills one defender. More defenders left, so the city stays in Indian hands.
I load a troop onto our lone helicopter, ferry him to a remote island and unload him. Ooh, hey, that's pretty useful! Airlift one unit to any city, without need for airport? AND the unit can unload on the same turn and take action? OK, copters just got upgraded on my strategic depth chart.
Our stack of artillery on French Island bombs the Indian battleship to one hp and our destroyer finishes him off!
The ship lost two hps though, so it has to dock for repair.
Ya know... in my other infantry game? My foes were closer and I attacked sooner. I was facing rifles, cav, some infantry, and minor logistics, and was backed by literally hundreds of draft-rushed exploit truops (expendables, massive garrisons, etc). THIS... is a bit more challenging.
1924AD: Indian sub sinks our Man-O-War. I didn't even see where that was, and have no idea where to go hunting that sub.
Our transport from French Island moves out all but one arty, one elite inf, and one marine. Rest are landed on Uranium island just west of Lyons.
Two enemy tanks attack Richmond! Whew, they almost killed an elite infantry! One tank destroyed, one retreated.
Calcutta bombarded with about 8 artillery, then we attack and capture the city (some losses, and our marine army heavily wounded).
I spot the AI doing its new Offensive Artillery routines and realize that we are going to be slowed down (maybe even in some trouble) unless I take action to secure Lyons better. I decide we need a fortification. I'll park a stack of infantry and a big stack of artillery and use them to shell anything in the area (and counterattack as I can), and when not shelling units, we'll shell Tours, just barely in range.
Capturing Calcutta puts us in range of that conscript mech and artillery pair and I bring over an artillery pair of my own! After shelling one hp off the mech, a marine attacks, wins! We capture the artillery unit, then I have to move in some infantry to protect the wounded marine.
In fact, I had to do that ALL OVER the place, as our artillery would shell the advancing units, then our marines would attack, and inevitably use hps if not whole units! And then I'd have to cover them, and even then we lost some of the covering infantry units! India was still quite strong at the start of my turn.
Captured Ganges, but our army needs rest! I use copters to ferry two infantry units to the city to boost the garrison. I'm also rotating out our marines on garrison on remote islands we have captured, replacing them with defensive infantry.
I send all our prop fighters to Orleans for upgrade.
I send jets and bombers to our empty carriers and move them into attack position at Indian islands.
I fill our new army unit with four infantry (we're taking a bloodbath on trying to advance individual units into enemy territory) then move over half a dozen marines and a bunch of artillery with them.
We're advancing on Delhi.
:scout:
I build our fort near Lyons, man it with the rest of our artillery, use most of the guns to bomb the Indian mech-arty pair stationed on the mountain, then attack with THREE marines (first two dying) to take out those units and take over the mountain. Two more vet inf moved in to cover. Last few infantry bombard Tours, where four Roman cav have been landed. Cav vs Mech? Yeah, good luck Caesar.
All he's going to manage to do is promote some Indian mechs.
1926AD: Roman cavs all kick the bucket. India charges a mech onto a mountain below Chartres. OK THAT'S ENOUGH OF THAT. I vow to place garrison units onto all those darn mountains. In the mean time, two more marine units perish against a 1 hp mech on a mountain after I bomb it down to min health.
Then we finally win, and I pull infantry from anywhere I can find them, leaving nothing but longbows on garrison in some towns. No more of that Indian mountain charge thing. I thought taking Calcutta would stop it, but they are determined to find some high ground (is that, too, another upgrade to the AI? Valuing definsive positions??? OMG, what's next, something approaching a semblance of strategic competency??? Knock me over with a feather.
).
After bombardment, our army on Uranium Island attacks and kills a regular mech (ouch, lost a lot o hps there) and our marines finish up, taking heavy losses. One survivor promotes to elite and we capture the city!
Our first Explorer unit decides to check out Chinese territory. I spot a conscript mech down there, so I take an artillery, reduce him to 1 hp, then a marine finishes the job. Hmm. Not only was India fortified on a bottleneck (with a fortification) but so is China, at the next bottleneck. Is this a hint of further strategic improvement? Or just dumb luck? More info needed.
1928AD: Tours bombed into stone age, our marines take over! I move a decent size garrison into the city. India charges a mech toward Richmond. I bomb it then kill it with a marine.
Our entire stack of prop fighters upgraded to jet.
Our Major Stack keeps marching on Delhi. Some artillery are now within two spaces and we start bombing, the city falls below size 17. Our first dogfight victory! Our jets shoot down enemy interceptors!
Copters land three marines on Indus island (just off Ireland, think that one is Indus).
Our bombers discover that Pune is a veritable fortress, and I give up hope of taking it out until we can land Army units there. No sense suiciding marines until we have a stack of a dozen or more in position, and fully backed by bombers! (Not going to happen on my turn, bigger fish to fry). Good news: Pune harbor wrecked.
1930AD: Indian tanks kill one of our infantry, but one tank fails to retreat vs another infantry in the red, dies, and our unit promotes to elite! He's in the Big Stack, too, so he will live.
An Indian tank kills our marine who killed that mech charging toward Richmond last turn. We bomb the tank and another marine kills this tank, in an endless tit for tat. Well enough of tat!
I move an elite inf in to cover the marine.
Delhi is shrinking, down to size 10 now, some from our arty, some from their starvation, drafting, and/or poprushing.
I move workers into the grassy patch next to Tours. We must have a road there! And of course I have to move in cover units, too.
Indus captured! Two marines lost, but only two defenders, one defeated by our third marine, one by that infantry somebody left there (
Thank you thank you). India's running out of colonies!
1932AD: An Indian mech attacks our infantry cover for the workers trying to build a road to Tours, one infantry destroyed.
Do you realize that mech attack strength is higher than any defensive strength we have? You do realize that? Oh cool.
We bombard with arty from Lyons Fort on the river, reducing the mech to one hp. We attack with a marine, who dies, the mech is promoted. We bomb him back to one hp (takes five arty shots). We attack with another marine, who dies. We attack with a third marine, who also dies, and the mech promotes to elite. We bomb the elite mech with the last of our artillery in that stack, then pull more arty from garrisons around the island, all miss. Desperate now, we attack with a fourth marine, who knocks off one hp, then dies, and an Indian Great Leader is produced! All we have left in range is our two infantry garrisoned on the mountain. We attack with the first, he loses and dies. OK this is our LAST CHANCE now, or that great leader is going to run off and the last thing we need to see is an Indian ARMY of mechs!
Our seventh attacker (and remember, all but one of them going up against a unit with only ONE hp left!!!! !!!! !!!!) finally wins.
This has to be the most grueling single unit battle I've been in. We're winning this war, but India sure is inflicting a Heavy Toll on us!
Go Sirian! 
So every time it grew to size 7, I drafted it again. Same with Norwich. I also drafted some in Ireland, but kept it sane there. Those cities MUST keep running WLTQD or their production will go into the drink.
I attack with a marine, who kills one conscript mech and promotes to elite. I move more troops into position, maybe we CAN actually take a city after all. (Up to next player whether to try, or wait for better odds).
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