Executive Summary: I finally get some licks in.
Pre-Turn - Move some MechInfs to cover the towns near the Persian transport - there could be Marines in there. Probably not, given the AI's stupidity about invasions, but you never know. Everything else looks good.
317 (1635 AD) - Various MA builds complete and build new MA's to follow. Xerxes fails a spy plant in our capital.
The Persian "fleet" waits patiently without unloading, and gets sunk by our bombers. Completed MA's fan out to cover empty coastal towns (again, probably unnecessary). The fleet starts out for Persian soil and will get there in 3.
318 -
Clever Springs United Nations -> Cruise Missile. Keep spewing out the MA's. Would we like to hold elections for Secretary General? Ah... no.
319 - Nuke Power comes in, but even running full-bore on research with all specialists set to scientists we're stuck at
5 turns on The Laser. Bugger. Go back through and tweak the rate and specialists some more. We end up at 80% research and -91 gpt. The fleet arrives off the Persian shore, but lacks the movement to land units until next turn. Bombers awake and bomb out the Oil near Intombe. Xerxes has one other oil source, but it's in the small town of Dallas in the previously American island. Unless he manages to complete a harbor there, he should be oil-less for the remainder of the game. Remaining Bombers hit Umfolozi, but don't make any headway against the MechInf there. The lone Jet Fighter on the Carrier runs Air Superiority.
320 - Bring it on, baby...
Salamanca Thrusters -> ICBM. Bedeville Manhattan -> ICBM (maybe a prebuild, maybe not). Clever Springs Cruise Missile -> ICBM. Xerxes fails a spy plant again. Persia is willing to negotiate, but I think it will be more fun to pay him back for razing Smelly. Switch VValley to ICBM, again possibly as a prebuild for one of the final parts. The fleet unloads at Umfolozi, and the boats and bombers manage to redline the MechInf and TOW inside. Too bad we can't attack with the troops until next turn. The workers have nothing else significant to do at this point, so fortify them in stacks of 10 near Salamanca in case something comes up. Similarly, every coastal town has a unit in it now, so any future MA's will sit near Salamanca.
321 - I chat with Xerxes to taunt him and notice that
he's still got oil. Unfortunate, but not really worth worrying about at this point. Upon further inspection, I see that while Dallas has no harbor, another nearby town does. He also has lots of cash, so if he ever does manage to plant a spy, we'll want to be prepared for sabotage. But at the moment, he has no parts even started. Hammi has five in progress, but none completed. Hammi is back Fission, Nuke Power, and Satellites. Persia is back Nuke Power, Superconductor, SynFibers, and Satellites. Two of the cruisers escort the Transports back home to get artillery - we're close enough that the transports end next to Troy, so we can load this turn and drop off in two more. The battleship and remaining cruisers bombard first, and the follow-up by the bombers finishes off both the TOW and the MechInf,
allowing our fearless troops to stroll casually into Umfolozi before burning it to the ground. Remaining bombers start on Intombe and hit the Barracks there, and the fleet moves around the horn to get better position on the next Persian cities. The rest of the forces move ahead to Intombe, and two MA's start the attack (I kinda forgot we had the army). One is lightly damaged and kills a TOW, the other falls to the wounded MechInf. Now I remember we have a Tank army and use that to wipe out the MechInf and the Tank waiting underneath it.
Intombe burns. The rest of the MA's take cover under the Tank army. Back at home, load up 3 transports with artillery and the rest with a selection of other goodies.
322 -
Babs complete Storage/Supply, their first SS part. But wait, out of the fog, a lone figure appears!
I consider bombing him, but figure it would more amusing just to watch him. Unfortunately, he doesn't end up doing very much. Harriet Bay starts an ICBM. The ground forces rest for a turn, since a couple need to heal and the artillery and fleet are still en route. A Bab deal just ended, so
I sell Hammi Fission for 760g + 141gpt.
323 -
Babs complete the Engine. The transports unload their cargo, and the ground troops prepare for more raping and pillaging next turn.
324 - Babylon and Persia sign a peace treaty. We'll see about that... A single Persian bomber appears to hassle our army.
I give Hammi some Coal to put him back at war with Xerxes. War whore... While I'm at it, sign an alliance with Shaka - perhaps you can see where this is heading
. The Laser comes in. Adjust specialists to get
Robotics in 5 at 100%, -327 gpt. Eotin Bay takes the Party Lounge, and will finish in 3. Lurkersville switches to a Palace for the Stasis Chamber. It has 62 shields already (at 62 spt), so it will be good to go by the time Robotics rolls in. We'll have plenty of ICBM's as backups in case something goes wrong. Boats bombard Isandhlwana for a few hits. The artillery take up a position in range of both Isandhlwana and Tugela and let loose a shell to redline the last defender. The offshore bombers move in for the kills, but none of the seven manage to score a hit. No matter, as an army and an MA finish the job, promoting the MA and temporarily keeping the city in order to keep everything in position by using free rail movement. The artillery turn their attention to Tugela and redline its two defenders. One MA finishes off the first defender handily, but the second MA is destroyed. A third MA finishes the job and I keep Tugela - you'll notice that its position provides outstanding potential for evil-doing.
At this point, I consider handing off the game to Bede, but then I figure "Hey, sometimes you've just got to treat yourself." One more turn to go, and it should be a fun one. Back at home, I tell the nuclear engineers to put in some OT. The ground troops in Persia split up and occupy the mountain tiles two spots from Persepolis and Pasargardae. The transports run back and fetch a couple more MA's. The newly conquered Persian towns are abandoned.
325 (1675 AD) -
Hey, Xerxes, what's that behind you?
No, honestly, I have no idea what happened to your two most important cities. Must have been Shaka - I saw him playing with some uranium behind the U.N. You should really talk with him about that.
Here you go Bede - bring her on home.
and about 15 more specialist farms.
And thank you, Bede, for your help with all my questions.
RIP
