1841 AD Turn 431
Well I was moving along with the knowledge that it won't be till Hannibal gets Mass Media that the AP goes obsolete (thanks again Chieron), and judging from the tech screen in the diplo menu, that could be enough time to get my AP victory. Fair enough. UN stays on hold in the capital.
Note: turns throughout this period are going at the rate of 2 years each but for the last turn. In 1840 it switches to 1 year increments.
Then In the year 1810 AD, once again a little surprise changed everything. All my allies declared on Caesar and his now-on-again-vassal Hatty. Merely to keep pace diplomatically, I knew I had to join in. With the Panzers online, I figured I should maybe make it worth my while. At that time I had four Panzers and a modest game plan, as below.
1810: Pre War Plan
I declared in 1814 and 13 turns later, propelled along by ,the rush of the blitz, we had subdued 11 towns and kept 9 of them. That's an average approaching one town taken per turn of the war. Troops lost: 1 panzer in a fluke 90% odds loss. Now I just have to rethink my economic game plan...
The key was speed and massive naval superiority. What happened was that we grabbed the first town, Shuruppak, in the NE, almost immediately with a naval strike on the four garrisons there. Then within a turn or two, we had taken it's Western neighbor Arpinium with the help of just enough panzers and footsoldiers. By this time, scouting had turned up Rome's massive naval fleet on the east coast in Setia.
In 1816, a newly minted destroyer from my easternmost town, home of the Maoa statues on a pointy peninsula, stumbled across a Carthaginian attack party of 4 troop ships. They were going to vulch Eastern most Mediolanum if I didn't get over there in a few turns.
1816: Hanny Hosing In
That same year the Roman navy launched in the east. There were 7 caravels protecting 7 galleons, from what was visible before the list cut off on the screen. They would be on the shore of our continent in 2 turns if I didn't destroy them, but though I had a bunch of units they couldn't touch in terms of power, there was just one in position to strike that first turn & perhaps 6 the following. That would leave all the galleons, with their 21+ land units, presumably, unscathed. Bear in mind that there were just one or two archers or LB's garrisoned in most of my cities. That's a good reason to have a superior navy! So we banged away at them with the destroyers and then lined up in a naval barricade that would send them out to sea and not toward my land.
1818: Northern Rush & "You'll Just Have to Go Around"
The risk was that seeing the threat, the Roman vessels would attempt to save their cargo of land troops by landing them at the nearest beachhead, which would have put them a tile away from the newly acquired Shuruppak where two infantry were doing some healing. Luckily, they weren't too clever and they attempted to go around my ships.
Needless to say, none of them made it to their destination.
Meanwhile, in the northwest, you can see the three transports, mostly 3/4 full, racing past Ravenna to snatch up Mediolanum before the Carthaginians could get there, with a destroyer or two to soften up the defenses with bombardment.
We got Medilanum and, several turns later, with war weariness beginning to set in, we controlled the North.
1828: Life in Four Northern Towns
At this point, Caesar launched his only counter attack to actually arrive, an SOD at the town of Ravenna. (You can see a canon in the tile to the east and there is more coming.) The panzers pretty much decimated them in the field with very little damage. That turned out to be a key move.
Later, we trapped and snuffed out a mass of Roman war production on the high seas for a second time.
1832: Where Do You Think Your Going?
This was 9 frigates and 3 galleons.
Meanwhile, on the domestic front, we built R&R (previously we'd had Broadway) and started on the massive Apollo project. A city popped up in the fog between Sitia and Antium. All those $ towns on the floodplains made it the first real money center, so it was hard to resist. As a result, though, Antium had to go. The pace accelerated with the bombers and the 5 transports working a relay to the east now. Julius kept offering Thebes for peace, which was tempting as it's a shrine town, but that meant we'd need to clear some more space. Why not take the Egyptian capital? Maybe Rome too?
In 1838 Rome, Antium, Memphis & Heliopolis were all in the crosshairs. But 4 of the Panzers to take the far eastern Heliopolis (with 6 defenders in it) were still on my continent, over 15 tiles away, mostly by sea...and one was a turn away from being built. 1840 Antium falls and Memphis is shelled down to one weakened survivor. And the four panzers have been relayed in that one turn via three transport to the shore off Heliopolis. (That trick of being able to load and unload without using movement point works btwn boats and not just in ports. EDIT- Not true. Movement points are expended, but you can load and unload even after the movement points are all used up, thus an unlimited amount of times.) 1841: down goes the one guy in Memphis & a panzer is advance in a feint toward Thebes. The four panzers outside on the shore of Heliopolis are joined by a fifth from the western theater. Meanwhile, Hatty has conveniently moved one defender out and the musket man one tile West (?) The destroyers have taken the defenses to 0%. The panzers blast in from the boats.
Outside of Rome, there are four panzers blasting away at 99% odds, on the 5 defenders, and the tanks all have 2 attacks each. He's down to one wounded pikeman.
This is where it is time for clemency, me thinks. You can't destroy a nice capital like that (and don't need to...my city centers have plenty of cultural room to thrive). Besides, I don't need more maintenance, or, more to the point, the job of clearing or taking the cities around it, but I might be able to use it later.
At this point, the culture slider is at 50% and still not keeping everyone happy. And big picture, we had all the AP votes if we got Gilg, and for UN, we were nearing half the votes in the council. We sue for peace, and get Caesar to throw peace with Gilgy into his already sizable concessions.
1841: Peace Terms
And just to make sure we stay everybody's favorite, we bribe the others into peace so their war buddy bonuses don't exceed ours.
1841: Chill, Brother Hannibal
1841: Nap it Off, Bonaparte
1841: Post War, The New Map
And that was the end of that war.
Building airports for the trade routes...but may have to break down and go to state property. I'm making about 18 gold trading out 5 of my 10 sushi type resources. Don't see it as a financial boon to go with Sid's Sushi. I'm holding out a Great Merchant for now in case I want to build up pop on this new Southern continent, and perhaps among my faithful constituency, in order to swell my constituency. Haven't ruled out another war down the road to storm the rest of the landmass, or at least give Thebes more breathing room. Soon I'll be at 80% sliders with positive cash flow...teching toward superconductor for something useful to build: labs. Refigeration for the speed getting there and the health...I think that was my reasoning.
Any thoughts on that old question, "What's Next?", very much invited.
.
-resources (and already scraping the happy cap in some cities even without WW)
)...Plastics first bcs I loves me my Three Gorges. All that clean power from a central location...mmmm...
Still, it doesn't seem to alter the point much - can't count on those catagories. Just have to see in game what the wonder building tendencies are. I wonder if these vary with leaders across games, or it's consistent and the guide just somehow mis-ascribed them.
easily
