TE External Consulate - War/MA Planning

[Bertie]

We’re well on our way to annexing enough territory to take us up to the domination limit so we can stops our wars and concentrate on building culture. We still have China, France, Spain, Persia, and Portugal to conquer; and also need to finish off the Dutch. We need to decide how we want to proceed in our wars for the next few turnchats, and also whether we want to enter into new MAs (all of our current ones have expired). Of course we may also want to take a break and make peace for a few turns (although the Byzantines want gunpowder for peace, which we don’t want to give them; and neither Spain nor Portugal will talk to us at the moment).

Because we’re a Republic we are subject to War Weariness. However, Persia, France, Spain, Portugal, and the Byzantines all declared war on us first, giving us War Happiness. I’m no expert on WW/WH so I invite someone more knowledgeable to comment, but I believe as long as we minimize the time our troops are in enemy territory at the beginning of turns that we’ll be slow to accumulate WW in our current wars. When we declare war on the Netherlands we’ll accumulate WW more quickly; so we want to be sure that is a very short war.

The French have reduced China to 3 cities, so I propose that we do not target China soon for annexation. Rather, because we can blockade Gem Mountain with defensive units, I suggest we form a ROP with China, and then quickly move through their territory to attack and take the 3 cities the French captured from the Chinese (Shanghai, Nanking, & Tsingtao). I also suggest we take and raze the Spanish city of Murcia (NE of Naples) during the next turnchat.

After that we need to decide whether we want to continue fighting the French; take out the Persians; finally eliminate the Dutch; or do all simultaneously. Our military forces are reduced in number, however, so until we build them up it’s going to be difficult to fight on several different fronts at the same time.

We can form several MAs against the Byzantines. The Hittites will ally against the Byzantines and give us 5 GPT & 40 Gold in exchange for Monotheism; Japan will give us only a worker & 10 Gold for Monotheism (Japan is broke); and Maya will give us 13 GPT and 41 Gold in exchange for Invention. MAs of course run for 20 turns, and if they’ll impact WW negatively we may not want to enter into these (I don’t believe they will, but as I said I’m not a WW expert).

Thoughts?

 

[zyxy]

I'll look in more detail later, but here are some initial thoughts.

Spain is fairly strong: it has GWall, iron,horses, maybe knights?
France is weaker: no iron or horses, so archers and spears, perhaps longbows for France. The occasional Templar knight. Maybe we should bring up some cats to deal with those.
China is going down fast. Horses but no iron.
Portugal is weak and far away: phony war.

Our armies are too small for multiple wars atm. I think France should be our prime target. I like the idea of RoP with China to help them against France. Hopefully, the French will have expended most of their forces by now, and then they'll be a pushover. Take the former chinese cities, maybe one or two more to get nice borders. Then cancel the RoP and eliminate China.

Spain is tougher: pikes and walls. I would prefer to wait for cavalry. Murcia could be taken, but casualties may be high. Murcia might be doable. Perhaps Persia is a better target. By taking Persia we can seal off the neck of the continent, and then come back for Spain/Portugal.

I think some MA's vs Byz are good, to prevent diplomatic isolation on that side of the continent, and to keep them fighting real wars. Definitely not give gunpowder away. Don't know about WW.

 

[Furiey]

We may have to consider finishing the Dutch. The new Dutch capitol is putting cultural pressure on the new cities we have there. We'll obviously want to wait until our Peace deals expire, but it should be pretty quick. As for the Spanish, I've only seen Spanish Archers so far, same for the French (and Spears obviously).