The Heel of Shaka's Evil Curtain

[Slickshooter]

The world is in turmoil as Shaka has taken most of the world as his vassal through military might, but was ultimately unable to take Victoria (Me) and Hannibal into his evil sphere of influence. He will come to regret his failure at capturing Victoria earlier as she plans to launch a massive amphibious invasion of Shaka and quickly strike his capital along with powerful coastal cities. The only problem lies with how she will connect her industrious port of York to the more commercial port of Nottingham.

I've thought of building forts from York to Nottingham, but then realized that wouldn't work. My numerous colonies are also unable to provide any decent production yet and I don't know if I can draft ships, but what would be everyone's course of action? Shaka and I have nearly equal techs and his military is literally 5-6 times the size of mine. I would appreciate any suggestions and have attached a save (It's an epic prince game btw).

 

[CivCorpse]

It may help to develop your tiles. All those forests you are working should have lumbermills with railroads. If you go to war with shaka and have that kind of limits on your production...shaka is going to mash you into paste

 

[Slickshooter]

Well the thing is that most of the forests you see actually do have lumbermills, but I still don't have railroad due to being low tech with colonial expansion.

 

[DaveMcW]

What makes you think Shaka will roll over and die if you manage to sneak attack his capital?

He will crush you like a bug.

Always check the power graph (F9) before you start a war.

Shaka's ally Montezuma isn't even visible on the power graph, but I bet he could crush you too.

 

[CivCorpse]

Oh man are you in trouble

 

[Slickshooter]

What makes you think Shaka will roll over and die if you manage to sneak attack his capital?

He will crush you like a bug.

Always check the power graph (F9) before you start a war.

Shaka's ally Montezuma isn't even visible on the power graph, but I bet he could crush you too.

Well yeah I know I won't destroy Shaka from razing three of his coastal cities, but I just want to make his vassals break free which they've done in the past. I've fended off Monty before, I don't think he has the tech lead to really give me a threat, but I'll try to look out for him. I'm lucky to be one of the last of Shaka's conquests and I know I can't declare war yet that's why I'm planning on how to build the fleet in the first place (I've just moved into prince, don't have much experience)

OK, i opened up the save. yes you have some lumbermills. But you could use a lot more workers. The copper near London is unmined. tartar need a workboat on those fish.

Trade with MM for nationalism and all his gold...research Constitution for 1 turn then trade for it. Then corporation then Assembly line. With shaka's troop numbers, redcoats won't give you enough of an edge. Once you have Assembly line, switch to theology and nationalism draft 3 infantry per turn from various cities to allow the unhappiness to spread the unhappiness.

Though i don't think this will be enough to save you. Look at Nicea (zulu city 4-5 tiles west of hastings. Do you see the 37grenadiers/19cavalry/35ruflemen/22cannons/12knights there? Open the trade screen and ask shaka to declare war on hannibal....you will see he has too much on his hands...aka..i am already about to declare war on someone. From where he has his troops positioned...I am guessing that someone is YOU. I would switch to nationalism right now, draft redcoats like crazy and build cannons instead of buildings.

Thanks for the advice, I guess I'll start drafting right away, once you've put everything in those words now I know I'm screwed. I'm going to try to fight Shaka but even if I fail this save, how would I combat the infinite number of spies that destroy my tiles, I always perform counter espionage every other turn but that catches most spies while leaves others to destroy my improvements sometimes.

 

[CivCorpse]

OK, ignore most of the previous post. I seriously doubt you will be around long enough to get to assembly line. And I snooped in some more of your cities. You have THREE GG's sleeping....settle them somewhere. I would spread them to your three best production cities.
Start teching railroad ASAP. Trade Communism to HC for theology and nationalism. Use one of your GE's for a golden age, and revolt to nationalism/theology and start drafting like crazy. Not the best use of a GE, but if you're dead then it won't matter. Bulb part of Railroad with the other GE. Build cannons to weaken his SOD, draft redcoats all over the place for defense...not just from shaka but from his vassals as well. And then start building machine guns when railroad is completed. Finish biology and trade it for constitution then trade RR for corporation. tech assembly line. And hope you're not dead. Run an engineer in London to try and get another GE for mining inc. or to build the pentagon.

Yes war with shaka is on the horizon...but not like you are planning. The heel in shaka's iron curtain is descending upon you.

 

[CivCorpse]

Thanks for the advice, I guess I'll start drafting right away, once you've put everything in those words now I know I'm screwed. I'm going to try to fight Shaka but even if I fail this save, how would I combat the infinite number of spies that destroy my tiles, I always perform counter espionage every other turn but that catches most spies while leaves others to destroy my improvements sometimes.

Counter espionage only makes it more expensive for the enemy. and you need to d it every 10 turns. Doing it every 2 doesn't help. To stop spies you need to keep a spy in each city. Or build a security bureau (available at democracy i believe).

 

[Slickshooter]

OK, ignore most of the previous post. I seriously doubt you will be around long enough to get to assembly line. And I snooped in some more of your cities. You have THREE GG's sleeping....settle them somewhere. I would spread them to your three best production cities.
Start teching railroad ASAP. Trade Communism to HC for theology and nationalism. Use one of your GE's for a golden age, and revolt to nationalism/theology and start drafting like crazy. Not the best use of a GE, but if you're dead then it won't matter. Bulb part of Railroad with the other GE. Build cannons to weaken his SOD, draft redcoats all over the place for defense...not just from shaka but from his vassals as well. And then start building machine guns when railroad is completed. Finish biology and trade it for constitution then trade RR for corporation. tech assembly line. And hope you're not dead. Run an engineer in London to try and get another GE for mining inc. or to build the pentagon.

Yes war with shaka is on the horizon...but not like you are planning. The heel in shaka's iron curtain is descending upon you.

Counter espionage only makes it more expensive for the enemy. and you need to d it every 10 turns. Doing it every 2 doesn't help. To stop spies you need to keep a spy in each city. Or build a security bureau (available at democracy i believe).

Wow ok thank A LOT, I would never have thought about the game in such a broad outlook, I tend to do whatever I feel is good now without looking into the future. Thanks a ton for the advice and I'll definitely have more of a goal next time I play, though I just like time victories.

 

[vicawoo]

I want to hear how this ends. I have no idea how bad it is, but maybe you can get him to suicide some troops on some highly promoted machine guns while you raze a few of his cities.

 

[CivCorpse]

I want to hear how this ends. I have no idea how bad it is, but maybe you can get him to suicide some troops on some highly promoted machine guns while you raze a few of his cities.

LOL, oh it's bad. Really really bad. Survivable, but bad. He let shaka grow to the beast we all know he can be if left unchecked. If he can survive until infantry then he stands a chance. But he will have to become very aggressive as soon as he gets infantry or shaka will get them, and then he is toast.

i want to know how he does as well.

@ slickshooter. You didn't play too badly but you sort of skipped some things.
A. you need a Great person farm. It's the mid 1800's and you still don't have the national epic built.
B. you started with shaka to the north and monty to the south, it's pretty impressive that you're not dead yet. If Monty is your neighbor he should usually be target #1. With shaka if you let him expand he will become a monster.
C. saving up GG's is not the best idea. Settle them for the exp points and use 1 or 2 for a super healer. Usually a chariot/scout/explorer with 6exp plus a great general to get MedicIII
D. If you get boxed in like that, you need to sound the war horn. In this case Monty to the south. Taking him out would leave you only one border to defend while you deal with shaka.

 

[Mister Giggles]

This should be entertaining to see.

 

[Slickshooter]

Well, I've failed two attempts to fend off Shaka's 28 cannons and idk 75+ offensive units? Regardless those two were offensives and I will not give up! I know I can mass produce grenaders to upgrade to machine guns when railroad is done and if I can build more and MORE units I will destroy him especially with an earlier save, I'll post if I'm successful, if you guys are successful with my save tell me how .

 

[vicawoo]

They should make this a scenario

 

[goldenhero]

They should make this a scenario

lol, I can see it now! "Surviving Shaka and Monty" and the description would be something to the effect of "You are stuck between Shaka and Monty, good luck sucker!" the only difficulty is Deity

 

[Slickshooter]

Muahahaha, I thought the situation was hopeless until I realized that I could actually choose the battleground. Why defend a non-hilled city on my border when I have +100% defense Fort Freedom? These are the formation of Shaka's massive army and my greatly outnumbered army on the eve of the battle (The grenadiers were upgraded to Machine guns with +45% city defense)

My cannon bombarded him as he stood defenseless on my plains and he was quick to respond with a bombardment of his own, but due to the resilience of my men, tired of Shaka's tyranny, and because of luck they held out and this was the result.

My men finished off the rest of his army next turn with a crippling offensive. Oh, and guess who now has the #1 army and is rearing to join the alliance?

Huayna Capac broke off from Shaka the turn after the battle, helping with my long-term goal and I won 4 generals due to this amazing battle, but without general CivCorpse's guidance this could not have been accomplished, I salute you.

 

[Commodore Nate]

What can I say but well defended

 

[goldenhero]

I have to say that power graph is really funny lol

 

[CivCorpse]

awesome. Did you finish the game? If not then go smack shaka in the teeth

 

[Slickshooter]

I'm struggling to beat the game as my cottage economy is in shambles and he still has triple the number of troops I have and can outproduce me, so I'm not sure how I can clinch this without Hannibal's help.