Warlords and Autocrats (World I)

[dirtysock]

Looks like Inca got stomped, but how did China fare?
Surprisingly, pretty well, they managed to take back the old Dutch lands

But that war weariness really does bite, so I sue for peace with the Germans, enough land has been gained anyways.
The deal is all profits, so the CEO approves of it

With the Germans temporarily weakened, the CEO of China Teas™ decides to go on vacation to the lovely island of Aztecolzia
He also brings a fleet of blimps and a private army with him

The next turn, this happens, giving me a free excuse to join the fun and beat up the Aztecs

After a little planning, the landing goes off without a hitch

The Aztecs never did recover from that coalition against them and the subsequent Persian annexations, judging by the skirmishers and pikemen defending themselves...
After a swift takeover of Malinalco, the Chinese army marches west towards Tzinzuntzen, but before the siege even begins this blimp has an existential crisis

Thankfully, the CIV III devs never actually programmed the naval AI to attack air units in the water, because that's impossible in vanilla
Thanks Sid Meier!
Anyways, after a few casualties thanks to the local Aztec riflemen, Tzinzuntzen is seized, so hopefully no one has to spell that out ever again this game

With only 1 turn left, I take advantage of the blimp's crazy maneuverability and the fact that units can load and unload from it without losing a movement point, the Chinese forces quickly fly south towards Tula and
proceed to take it without a problem
That's all I can do this turn, but to recap how the rest of the world is doing, Germany is marching into Incan lands, India and Persia took the Aztec holdings on the mainland, and Persia is getting demolished by the rising Roman Empire

I must say I greatly underestimated both the guerilla not costing maintenance and the blimp just being a crazy transportation tool in its own right before this
All in all, a very delightful cruise for the CEO of China Tea™
Better watch your coastlines for a blimp

 

[Quintillus]

Persia is getting demolished by the rising Roman Empire

Indeed they are, and with a plummeting share price and angry investors, furious that their capital has been lost, the board of directors fires the CEO and reaches out to a former CEO to see if he'd like to attempt a corporate reorganization.

The situation isn't good. Persia has become a battlefield between its own now-backwards forces, and allied Indian forces, and those of Rome, who is bent on expansion and so far making progress.

The economy is awful due to paying 55 GPT to India, with 12 more turns set on that deal, but there's not much alternative as the only alternative is fighting them, which would be the end of Persia Corp.

Just as bad, war weariness is astronomical. A 10% lux slider is the maximum that can be afforded, and that just isn't enough; that's why all of Persia's cities are so small, the stockholders of Persia Corp have been selling and relocating to anywhere else in the world.

The only good news is that China is selling us a bunch of resources for cheap, and there's a halfway decent embargo network against Rome, though it doesn't include the Aztecs, whom we are also at war with.

The new CEO has heard through the grapevine that China has a secret new weapon that's been taking out the Aztecs, so he asks if they might be willing to help against Rome. It turns out, they are, and by using one of our swingin' Persian merchant's tricks, we can even get them to pay to join the war and bail out our economy in the process:

The dyes help the happiness problem too, getting more people to work in the fields, which boosts the economy, which lets us boost the luxury slider, which helps the economy, which lets us raise the luxury slider more... it's a virtuous cycle, and we settle on 30% luxuries to get our cities growing again. Still no science (though we could aim to finish Combustion in 78 turns if we really wanted to), but that's a problem for once the war is over.

Speaking of which, three Cavalry+ are near Persepolis, and it is quickly retaken from the two Roman tanks defending it. The CEO then sends all of Persia's troops towards the front; there are only 21 of them and if India decides to attack us we're screwed regardless. He also decides to build a couple Heavy Missiles in case we need them to take out some heavy Roman troops.

By year 256, India has 11 tanks rolling through our territory. This is good and bad; it is not unlikely that they will capture formerly Persian cities, and what if they don't return them to their rightful shareholders?

In 257, the deals where China gave us resources for a song end, and this time they want money for them. Maybe they realized they entered a real war instead of an Aztec war? We decide we can live with Cavalry, Heavy Missiles, and Machine Gunners and skip Infantry. But our deal to import Wine from India also ends, which we renegotiate more favorably.

Soon enough, we're only 30 turns out from Combustion! Our economy is still bad, but less bad.

India attacks Arbela, our former city on a hill, in 257 and 258, but is repulsed each time. As we watch the results the second time, we're contacted by a messenger from the mighty Inca.

We laugh and thank him for the war happiness. We may be weak, but not Inca levels of weak!

In 259 we exert our military power, and attack Arbela and Rome's 15-defense-on-a-hill Infantry with our cuirassiers. Many good men are lost, but the city is retaken. Persia will rise like a phoenix!

Unfortunately, 8 Roman tanks are revealed by the city capture; we're going to need some assistance from India here.

India does provide some help, and also makes a power move by signing a mutual protection pact with Germany. The world situation is now a bit clearer.

The Inca, down to their last two cities, are finished. The Aztecs should already be gone, but for some reason still have one city that China's blimps haven't conquered yet. China vs Germany is Germany's to lose, and now India has ensured that their front-runner status on their home continent has also been stamped and validated.

The Aztecs seem to have won a respite from the gods, as in 261 China makes peace with them. We rapidly follow in making peace.

In 262 we move 19 units - nearly the size of our entire army in 255 - next to Sidon. The city is retaken! The empire restored!

Those seven Roman tanks are pesky, and India has temporarily run out of steam; they're also distracted by trying to escort Chandragupta back home to build an army. We take out the front two Tanks (with help from a Heavy Missile), which reveals yet another in Lugdunum. The good news is we brought along 8 defensive units.

There aren't quite enough Cavalry+ to attack Lugdunum, let alone have a chance of defending it, during the CEO's return to the helm, and he insists on a nice retirement at the end of the ten years' time. The Board will have to settle for the modest return on their stock price, unlike the poor Inca who are down to one city. Hey, maybe they'll pull an Aztecs! Montezuma convinced Bismarck to make peace, and now they rule a peaceful city-state!

 

[dirtysock]

Nice reconquest of Persian lands!

 

[dirtysock]

I'm sure the Aztecs were valiantly smashed by the Chinese blimp brigades

The Aztecs should already be gone, but for some reason still have one city that China's blimps haven't conquered yet.

The Aztecs seem to have won a respite from the gods, as in 261 China makes peace with them.

The Aztecs are alive? Seems like a waste of an invasion
I soon find out that there's bigger issues then the Aztecs, mainly, the Romans

It actually isn't a big issue, after shelling the tank offshore and pumping some lead into it, an Infantry kills it without an issue
I also proceed to crank my research bar to 0%, the money is needed for some cheeky espionage
All according to plan

On the sidelines though, the Incans died on 266, surprisingly outlasted by the Aztecs
Anyways, the main battle plan
The blimps are escorting tons of Guerilla, Machine Gunners, and Infantry+ towards Cumae, where the plan then is to pump so much lead into the city that conquest of it is swift while Rome is distracted in the north
All formulated by a general who previously served in the Aztec War of Blimps
Meanwhile, the navy starts to shell the Romans luxuries so they can fall into riots
Gold is still an issue though, so I sell some excess gases to the Persians for a reasonable profit

I proceed to destroy one of the Romans sources of heavy oil
Anyways, once the group arrives, the shooting of Cumae begins

Unfortunately, some losses make me decide Cumae is not the greatest target to attempt, so the Chinese 2nd Army marches south towards Viroconium
Unfortunately, part 2, the Germans declare war on us, and we cannot attack them unless we drag India against us via MPP
Fortunately, more heavy oil is blown up by our excellent navy
More espionage later, I confirm my decision to move south, as there is just not enough Guerillas to handle this admittedly small defense after last time

Good news though, I destroyed all the Roman gem sources that I know of on 273
I also had destroyed a German road near Ollantaytambo, buying us an extra turn, very crucial seeing what's at the border

Thankfully, I was still investing in that borders defense, and wipe out 1 stack of tanks with some Mortars, Machine Guns and Landships
I then have an encounter with the German navy, but knowing how they performed in the past, superior Chinese navy tactics leads to a clean victory against their own destroyer
After some more espionage scraped together by selling the granary of Bejing, I decide that Viroconium is the way to go, mostly because of the destroyer support offshore

After some shelling and subsequent shooting, the Roman defenders collapse in the face of all that lead
It's easily taken afterwards

Blimps were crucial for this, using their crazy maneuverability yet again, I was able to funnel quite a few extra troops towards the city to make this even possible
I proceed to sign peace with Rome because quite frankly, there is a much bigger issue in our own lands
Sadly, the Romans really didn't give much besides 12 gold, but you take what you can get
Not much happened globally though, besides the Persians taking and proceeding to lose Lugdunum

 

[Quintillus]

Oh boy, China vs Germany. That's the big one. Fortunate for China that they had a human in charge when it happened, not so fortunate that they won't for the next 10 turns, and that a fair amount of troops were overseas. Also unfortunate that they will most likely trigger India's MPP now that an AI is in charge, although it looks like India still has enough Romans on their hands to not be a major concern in the short term.

I'm pleased that Persia didn't lose any ground. With India helping they shouldn't have, but I would not have been surprised to see at least Sidon become Roman, either...

 

[dirtysock]

Be wary of India, Quin

 

[Hyreon]

First multiplayer session!
India has made peace with Rome.
India has entered the final stage of development.

With dirtysock's purchase of Civilization 3 on Steam, we were able to play a proper multiplayer session, and invited a few others.
A guest decided to play the role of Persia. I'm playing as India, and dirtysock is playing as China.

With the newfound potential of three human players at once, we begi-

Two turns in. Well, it's not for everyone. Take care, and thanks for participating! Also, sorry I forgot your username >.<
With the newfound potential of two human players at once, we begin.

An initial flurry of fair deals starts us off. India buys Dyes for Wines, but China is just a bit backwards at this point for trade secrets to be worthwhile. They also ask us to break a military protection pact with Germany, but such a deal isn't in the interests of our shareholders. Germany is, after all, our greatest source of revenue. But if our war against China doesn't result in any actual casualties, and only lasts two days... well, we held up our end, right? I'm sure that counts.

Germany informs us that they are no longer able to supply us with their Petroleum. After some failed renegotiating, we agree. Germany then informs us that they are no longer able to supply us with their Petroleum. Closing out of the menu, we are informed by Germany that they cannot supply us with their Petroleum. Multiplayer, woo!

Both me and Persia are in a "war" against Rome, which is just about the most one-sided conflict that has ever existed. It's basically just a race to see who can capture the most Roman cities. Persia is kind enough to make a right of passage, to even the odds a bit. It's cavalry versus tanks; raw speed versus consistency. Who will win the land grab?

I get the first few cities, but Persia is not far behind, capturing most of Northern Rome. I made a particularly bad blunder by using my bombers after I attack Neapolis, successfully emptying it - only for Persia to swoop in and grab it.
I repeat the exact same mistake the very next turn, allowing China control of Pompeii. China wasn't even supposed to be a player! I guess that makes it a three-way race.

Fortunately - and just in time - my secret weapon arrives.

The steamroller is as fast as cavalry, and can carry up to 10 units with the right fuel. Used correctly, that's 5 whole turns of movement for my tanks! The animation actively hurts to watch, because it is so slow, which I suspect would matter in multiplayer. But, my opponent being an AI and laughably outnumbered, it's pure speed. This allows me to decisively capture Rome and Hispalis. Only one Roman city remains...

Wonderful. Malta is a one-tile island city, so the only way to break through is Marines. I only got these recently, but I've been planning an invasion here since turn one. I amass my army of - well, two marines. I deploy my - well, two bombers. And then I use my - well, two destroyers. I was otherwise occupied, alright? Land doesn't grab itself.
The invasion goes quite poorly, but I put India in a great position, should they ever decide to move in for the kill, by focusing on Bombers and Battleships. Blitz bombard is nothing to sneeze at. Actually, it's probably broken. Never got around to testing that one. War weariness is still an issue, so I sign a peace treaty with Rome. A mere formality, of course. They have no chance of recovering.

A few Indian scientists discover the fundamental nature of atoms. Despite their politicans' obsession with money, they have higher goals. They are miles ahead of their backwards peers in Germany, in Persia, even in China. With their technological prowess, India would come out on top in a world war. ...probably. They begin theorizing how to ensure their people survive. No matter what comes.

Oh hey, I got the funny blue tech line. Wonder what it's good for. Looks like only space parts, but isn't the point to win by Conquest? Weird.

I apologize for image quality this time around, I'm reviewing my obs stream for screenshots. I imagined multiplayer would go a bit too fast, so this was the best way for me to get everything.

 

[dirtysock]

China has made peace with Rome and Germany.
India has clobbered Rome, but did China clobber Germany?

Of course, don't mind the tanks, Ollantaytambo held and even generated a leader!
Being the goofy goober I am, I didn't take any other screenshots not knowing I would do a post
To sum it up though, seeing that the session was 20 turns, I decide to hold a revolution, except I did it too late
What do you mean by too late? I mean China is still in revolution when the session ends
Meanwhile German matters, after a peace deal, they immediately invade again, causing a messy situation that eventually gets cleaned up after a few turns
However, in the Scramble of Roman Descent, noting the Indian blunder, I seize the opportunity and take Pompeii via blimp trickery

Meanwhile, in Aztecolzia and the Hangchow Peninsula, things didn't go so well, with the German air force pounding in those regions, it took a moment to realize what was causing this as the AI was moving everything so fast

But don't let that fool you, with our glorious army of ..? landships???
They were the only thing at full health, and I needed to kill the Germans ASAP
After they were dealt with though, and a bloodbath where my stack of artillery was almost lost and death to the leader, we had cut Germany in 2 pieces
Curse the input lag for suboptimal play

But Germany is in 2, I call this a success, albeit bloody
I then proceeded to sign peace with Germany because the AI would ruin the advantage
But Indias rise is concerning, watch out Persia

 

[Hyreon]

The Aztecs have been destroyed by the Persians.

As far as I'm concerned, the world can be vastly divided into these groups:

• Major powers: India and Germany.
• Minor powers: Persia and China.
• Obsolete powers: Aztecs and Rome.
• Extinct powers: Netherlands and Inca. Wait, don't these have something in common?

I randomly roll Persia. I check to see if I'm at war with anyone. I am! With Rome. Wait, they only have one city. This should be easy!

Or not. Unless I want to go back to the medieval era and start sending Boarders their way, this is a dead draw. I fleece them for Flight, and my people rejoice. So do my finances.
I use this trade to gain Mass Production from China. With India having a controlling influence on my continent, I must look elsewhere if there is progress to be made. Ships will help with that.
The lone Aztec city of Tlacopan seems like a viable target, so I launch an invasion scheduled 8 turns from now.

Persia needs a long term plan. They are the only faction with both Coal and Rubber, so if I can purchase Natural Gas, I have the strongest defenders (Infantry+), and with factories, plenty of them. I offer Ivory to China and they happily oblige.

Once my tanks land on Tlacopan, the Chinese and Indians are not far behind - they sign an alliance against the Aztecs! Their bombers successfully ruin the city, but without land troops to capture it, it's all mine. Goodbye, Aztecs!

Persia is mostly where they started, but now with more capable defense, and a new city.

 

[Quintillus]

I decide to play a session, and not wanting to play Persia right after they've been played, nor to destroy my former civ with India, I flip a coin to decide between Germany and China. It's heads; Germany wins. Somehow they're at war with China again, no one seems to remember how it started.

Germany has advanced a bit since dirtysock's turn, essentially taking things back to where they were at the start of that session, and unsplitting their empire.

There are just enough tanks by Ollantaytambo to take it, and a leader is even generated, Barbarossa.

Ollantaytambo is quickly retaken by the Chinese, and the following turn they bring Persia into an alliance against us, causing widespread revolts due to the lack of exotic Persian luxuries. Well, two can play at that game, and we sign a mutual protection pact with India. Persia promptly attacks us, ensuring their doom.

We finally get our artillery up to Ollantaytambo and this time it is destroyed once and for all. Expect hordes of Pioneers to be incoming. Maastricht, to the east, is then captured as well. It's hard to tell if we're really winning or if it just looks like it because we're throwing our reserves at the front, but we're gaining ground.

Meanwhile Central Island is a three-way battleground, where our Tanks are winning, making Tsingtao German again.

The strategic importance of the island is near-zero, but our tanks were already en route when the turn set started.

The much more important bottleneck cities of Rotterdam and Den Helder are captured in 311.

We wind up capturing Delft and Amsterdam as well as Groningen by 315, for a net of 8 cities, and would have taken The Hague (just to the right of the screenshot) but for some poorly-delivered orders.

Still, as 315 approaches, we wind up with our government having a 35% approval rating, and find that the reason is that somehow we are at war with India. Much finger-pointing ensues, but we decide to take the opportunity to make peace with Persia and China, extracting tribute from the latter. Then we see the reason we wound up at war:

Persia and India still have a Mutual Protection Pact despite being at war! Now those are some swingin' diplomats' tricks right there!

Hey, it could be worse, we've been paying 153 GPT to an unknown civilization (probably the Aztecs) the whole time, at least this only resulted in war with the most powerful country in the world.

World map:

Germany is close to being able to punch through to take out China. Persia has lost Tenochtitlan to India, but gained Antium and Veii - somehow, David is beating Goliath.

 

[dirtysock]

Demotivated by China's continuous losses, I take a trip to the remnants of the Roman Empire, aka Malta
Seeing the state of the island's defenses, I defund the local university to soon pay for some civil defense

Meanwhile, in international news, the Central Island is now owned by the Germans completely, as relations between the 4 major powers break down

Of course, the Persians and Indians somehow have a MPP still
The situation for China looks dire.

Persia is also doing surprisingly well in its war against India, and Germany somehow seizes an Indian city on Chinas main landmass
But back in Malta, the funds are scraped together to improve the islands defenses

We proceed to set our sights on a barracks to further increase the islands defenses, when we are informed that the citizens of Ravenna have risen up against their Persian oppressors!
Turns out Persia was beating up Indias southern lands, but not guarding them

With the newly regained land I proceed to trade Gems with the Persians to improve Roman quality of life

The Romans hang on a slightly stronger thread now.

World map

 

[Hyreon]

All civilizations have entered the final stage of development.
I roll India by random chance, and play 10 turns. But it wasn't very interesting, so I rerolled: Germany.
I object to this, so I just decide to play China.

The first thing I notice is the massive land war I'm engaging against Germany. And it's not going well.
The second thing I notice is that I'm using landships. That can't be right - I'm researching the Drakon!
The third thing I notice is that the AI hasn't actually completed the tech tree - they've forgotten to pick up Combined Arms.
The fourth thing I notice is that Combined Arms won't help me because China is lacking petroleum. Without it, I'm pretty much stuck where I'm at.
This isn't great.

I'm going to need friends, so I sue for peace with Persia. I happily give them Atomic theory, and they boost my economy and intel.
It turns out Atomic theory is worth quite a lot! I make a similar deal with Rome, getting them up to speed. It won't help them anyway, but they have a lot of gold per turn that I want first dibs on.

Turn one is a massacre. I lose over 5 landships and take out nothing. Of course, they are offensive units, so I counterattack. It's not nearly as good - 8 kills for 5 losses... and I've overextended.

Not like I'm the only one. I'm pretty sure if he tries to escape, I have enough troops to catch him.

Er... them. I have enough troops to catch them.

Oh, who am I kidding. The best I can do is start smelling like a Durian. Maybe then he'll stop trying to eat me alive.
I set everything to build Machinegunners. These units double as both defenders and artillery, meaning that I can deal damage without ever risking my own troops. That should make attacking me nasty enough that we can focus on the real threat, India.
I see an opening in Macao and I go for it with my few remaining landships. It's a success! I even hold onto it for a little while. For quite awhile, I'm gaining more troops than I'm losing, and the same cannot be said for Germany. At least, as far as what is reaching the front lines. It's a rough fight, but they're not winning yet.

Yeah, Germany really doesn't need either of those armies. I eliminate them with some well-placed gatling rounds. I feel like I'm a disservice to my ancestors with how I'm managing these blimps, but they're still proving somewhat useful. They aren't rail cars, but eh...
Other than a transport jumpscare that turned out to just be two cavalry and a tank, Germany really wasn't able to threaten China very much at all. Despite being a thorn in Germany's side for 10 whole turns, they still won't even listen to an offer for peace. Disappointing, but hopefully they'll listen to reason eventually.
Some other highlights...

Hah! You and what army?

Persia's back at war, even though I never attacked India. So it looks like this world war isn't going to end anytime soon...

 

[Hyreon]

A modified save where Persia and India do not have a MPP has been attached. Whoever plays next decides whether to use the patch.
We've crossed 333 turns with this save, so it's time for more stats!

World Map

Power Levels

Faction Popularity

Play Time

Military Overview
(You could technically figure out the resources by right-clicking every visible tile - so it's not spoilered.)
(Units are only based on available resources. They may not have it connected, or have the tech, or they may have more due to trade.)

 

[Hyreon]

It's been a year and a half, so I think it's time to do a double turn!

China again! My lucky day.

The Germans gave us a generous gift of three of these guys. More war machines for the war machine! Christmas came early. Or late, I suppose.
They also have a nasty habit of leaving their tanks unguarded. Good target practice for my machinegunners' lethal bombard.
Germany is also trying a sneaky naval attack, but fortunately, I've come prepared. Meet the rail car.

The Rail Car can transport up to 10 units and travel up to 3 tiles. By maneuvering it close to all my cities, I can get them to pick up passengers from almost anywhere in my empire and give them unprecedented mobility. With units like these, who even needs railroads?

The breach is quickly contained. While conducting a great deal of border patrol, I rally the Rail Car back to Macao to do a few back-and-forth runs. This lets my troops move without expending movement - very useful for my army of now 20+. The Car is "encumbered" with the extra trips, but that won't matter over short distances.

I hoped to use these advantages to begin the Blitz of Haarlem, but I wasn't able to clinch it by my last turn - and since the AI can't make good use of either of these tools, it's looking more like the Siege of Haarlem. We'll have to wait and see what happens.

As a reminder: anyone is welcome to play a few turns in this! We can get in contact if you're confused by how to start this as a LAN game (and thus pick your faction), or if you want to set up a multiplayer session. But either way, now is when the scenario is most exciting!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, Civ Fanatics!