AU501 - DAR5: Flight

[Aqualung71]

DAR5 Game Play - part 4

1320AD: Well it worked and I got Longevity.

1325AD: Mursalis dropped another 3 crap units on my mainland and I used my first Infantry Army to dispatch them.

1330AD: So much for invading Hittites for Saltpeter – some just appeared on my homeland!

1345AD: The Dutch declare war. Probably didn’t like me taking out the Japs before they could.

1355AD: Started consolidating the 2 westernmost islands against possible Dutch attacks, while continuing to build my fleet and military for the Sumerian invasion.

1360AD: Maya demanded Steel, but backed down.

1365AD: Hoovers completed in Adrianople. Hittites landed Cavalry on my southern island. Garrisons too weak to attack, so made peace for 15gpt.

1370AD: Sold electronics to Maya for 275gpt + 360g. Gil has nothing to offer, can’t get him polite anymore and only 4 turns to go on my huge gpt deal with him. The die is cast! But the logistics are a nightmare – I have 3 islands to take, and need to make sure I have sufficient transports/support fleet and military units. It will have to be a piecemeal invasion.

1375AD: The AI is smarter. The Dutch have sea-blockaded my only coal resource with a single Frigate! Will have to do without it until they’ll see my envoy.

1380AD: Combustion researched.

1385AD: A bug – completed an Ironclad and was allowed to build another, though my Coal source is still blockaded. City screen showed up with Coal. Next look it had gone again, but could still build the Ironclad.

1390AD: Decisions, decisions! Gil will give me 320gpt for Steel, but I need to invade him to get Oil and increase my size. So be it! Forces land on his Oil island. I spotted another oil on the south-east isle in Sumerian territory which would have been easier, but I couldn’t have been ready for war before now anyway.
Politely asked stupid Mursilis to leave my island and once again he declared war This guy is becoming very irritating. Need to send more forces to that island – he cost me a couple of men.

The Dutch agreed to peace and gave me a few gpt. I tried to gift some gpt back, but William wouldn’t take it. He did accept a few pennies cash though. Seems he still has war on his mind! Or maybe it's because I just invaded Sumeria?

1395: Loaded a 4th Infantry into my Army on the Sumerian island and attacked. 17 hit point Army (16 attack, 20 defense, 2 movement) against Infantry in a town on a hill (17.5 defence). RNG must be on my side. Killed 2 at the cost of 4 hitpoints, but he’s got more Infantry there. I should have brought some Artillery. Hope I can last! Second Infantry Army dispatched to the southern island. The main thrust has been delayed until Oil is secured.

1400: Infantry Army finished off his last 2 Infantry defenders with the loss of only 3 hitpoints. RNG still favouring me. Oil still a few turns off as I need to culture-expand to get it.

1405: Mass Production finished. Going for MT instead of Flight. Sold Steel to the English for 270gpt + gold, so I can keep the research rate up. William finally accepted my 5gpt gift and now he’s only annoyed. With MT only 5 turns away, my planned Infantry Army invasion of Sumeria is looking decidedly doubtful. Meanwhile, the Maya are routing France and may become a KAI. Gil has brought Egypt into the war.

1410: Finished another Army in Kyoto. Have now reached my limit due to number of cities. 5 Armies only!

1420: All military production stopped. 10 Commercial Docks now under construction. With research rate high, these are much better than Banks. The fleet is waiting for upgrades to Destroyers/Transports and will then attempt to establish a beachhead on Sumeria with 2 Armies, and additional Infantry and Artillery support.

1430: MT completed. Opted for Amphibious Warfare to provide the possibility of Marine support – 12 attack strength is useful. Plus I want to invade before I finish this DAR! Started another Army as I had added a further new town on the western jungle island.

1445: Sumeria dragged England into our war, which cost me a bunch of gpt from English trade deals.
Finally landed my invasion force next to Sumer. Consisted of 1 Tank Army x 4, 1 Infantry Army x 4, 2 Tanks, 14 Infantry and 7 Artillery.

1450: Took Sumer without much difficulty, then moved forced outside Kish. Sumeria’s response – move a Guerilla (yes, one!) within my borders and send a Galleon and Ironclad within clear range of my 6 Destroyers. France destroyed.

1455: Kish taken, at some cost. The Infantry Army encountered tougher than expected opposition and fell. Reinforcements have been called from the mainland.

1460: Agade taken on the south-eastern island. WW kicks in.

1470: Ur captured. Traded Mass Production to the Dutch for Radio + 39gpt.

1475: Sold MT to the Dutch for 230gpt + 1660 gold. Didn’t want to but really needed the cash. Just hope they don’t declare. Mobilised to produce a few quick Tanks for the Sumerian campaign.

1485: Peace with England - mobilisation ended. Dutch have got Flight!

1505: Flight researched. Only Advanced Flight remains in the Industrial age. At Tech parity with the Dutch and English, with the Maya 3 behind. Nobody else close.

Overview of DAR5 Play

The war with Sumeria really slowed down Byzantium development. This war should have been prosecuted much earlier. This would have grown the empire more quickly, providing more income and research. Also, I have had to send Transports and Destroyers half-way across the world to capture their outer-lying towns.

The higher support costs in Republic have really hurt (see screenie below), but Democracy would have been untenable given the length of the Sumerian war – 21 turns so far, and luxury slider at 30% to cope, even with US and some happiness wonders. 3 cities still to take, all on different islands. Logistics require some work in this game.

The Dutch have taken advantage of my troubles and emerged as the KAI. They have caught up on tech. Perhaps also the subtle power of Democracy is being shown here. Somehow, England are also at tech partiy – they must have been trading a lot. My trading slowed significantly as I tried to keep the Dutch away from Tanks, but it didn’t work. Most of the AI civ’s are in Democracy. Is this an AUMod tweak Dom?

My lack of Banks and Stock Exchanges may have hurt me financially, although with the tech slider at 90-100% and good gpt deals coming in for most of the age, the Marketplace/Bank/SE 150% would not have made much difference.

Victory Plans

I’ve started a UN pre-build – can’t afford to lose that one. Once Sumeria is conquered, research will improve substantially and I should be able to make a Spaceship win, but I will have to expect the Dutch to invade.

My strategy therefore will be to concentrate my forces in the north-east using the former Sumerian island as the staging point, and when I am ready to strike, try to provoke them into a war. The objective will be to raze their best 2 or 3 cities, as they have a small but highly productive core. This will be done with sea-bombardment. Marines are an early option, but once MI are around they will be next to useless. A landing will also be very dangerous, as I am sure they will throw everything they have at an invading force. I will have to bring along at least 5 or 6 Tank Armies to get the job done.

[Aqualung71]

DAR5 - Screenies

The screenie below shows the almost crippling cost of maintaining an adequate defensive military while building an offensive strength in the Byzantium Republic:

[Aqualung71]

And the Sumerian possessions:

[Dominae]

Originally posted by Thriller
Most of the AI civ’s are in Democracy. Is this an AUMod tweak Dom?

Not that I know of; alexman would know for sure.

[Aqualung71]

Originally posted by jshelr
On AI behaviour, the smart Maya blockaded our coal resource

Yep, same thing happened to me with the Dutch. Was it the same coal resource on the second western jungle island where there was only 1 square access to the water? Me thinks probably

[Cort Haus]

(Emp, Standard Rules)


To Start With
The previous DAR (to Steam) saw the end of the Hittites, and the one before (to contact) saw the demise of most of the Japanese. The coal turned out to be in one of the Japanese cities I got for peace after losing 10 units in a flip.

Coal was hooked up in 1000BC, one turn before Electricity. A 2-turn worker pump was set up near the old swamp-fish, as many workers had been added to cites.

Militarily, the Sumerians would be next, but not before Muskets have been built to consolidate what was held.

For wonders, the prebuilds were way behind the tech, and there was 13 turns left on ToE when Sci Meth came in 1050. Researched Atomic Theory at 12-turn pace, saving cash, and got a 2nd SGL! Traded Navigation to Russia for Music Theory and rushed JSB.

Those Dastardly Dutch
Around 1100 I made 2 tech trades with the strong Dutch, including Sci Method for 210gpt and 310g. 2 turns later they fleece me by landing a knight and rifleman by Tyrana. What trash
I traded them Incense for all their cash, then signed an MPP. I also surrounded them with strong units. They still DW. At sea I attack a caravel with a Frigate and lose They have Magellan any the Dromons can't catch them.

World War
I pulled in the Maya with 2 lux, the English with 1 lux, and Russians with 15gpt and 100g, Egyptians with Invention. That just left Sumeria, who I'd have quite liked a war with, so I let NL try and hire them to DW on me. I was paying out to Sumeria too, so it would cost the Dutch some.

Atomic Theory was researched on the turn of the ToE, and I took Electronics and Radio. Hoov in 9 turns.

Started on Replaceable Parts at 70% (6 turns). I wanted faster workers, and I wanted to know where the rubber is.This was all new ground. I'd never had 8 industrial techs but not Industrialism before. It's usually my second. I really wanted to try a ToE dash on this game, but it also differed by my researching Atomic Theory first.When Rep Parts came round there was, as expected, precious little rubber in the world, and none nearby. The best bet was the tiny Dutch Island in the South Sea, and the next turn a galleon was despatched containing a Cavalry army, heading for the rubber plantation at Gouda. The Mayans, though, were looking like they were about to DW on me. The Dutch were in Facism and pop-rushing merrily - their cities had shrunk. Sumer as also in Facism and is annoyed. It looked like this could get messy.

With Rep Parts, Engineers could be deployed to build mainly courthouses in distant cities. With high food and pop 6, 4 engineers can do a CH in 9 turns.

In 1260 the Sumerians & Dutch sign alliance against us. This is what I wanted. The Mayans landed a Knight outside Nara (W. Island). This is not what I wanted. I was getting 2 lux from the Mayans, so I traded for another lux with the English and raised the lux slider. I didn't know how much war-joy I'd get, so I played safe.

Hoover Dam was completed and not a factory in sight. 5 turns to Industrialisation. Prebuilds going in core cities. My 60 workers were giving sharp support costs of 168gpt to the Byzantine Republic.

The Mayan Knight killed my Rifleman in Nara. Dromons bombarded the Knight to 1HP, and a Cav finished off. Close, and a cigar. To keep island holdings, you need numbers on-site.

[Cort Haus]

The War with Sumeria

The plan vs the Sumerians was to fight a defensive war at the chokepoint while building factories then go on the offensive.

A couple of Atries were rushed in Hittita - I was short of units there, and spread thin generally.2 Rifles were moved onto the swamp on at the Hittitia/Sumeria chokepoint where they got slaughtered by two longbowmen. 10 enemy units then showed up, forcing a few "big trouble" emotions through the system, and a retreat from the chokepoint tile. The lack of reinforcements was not encouraging (had been going a bit builder-tastic) and I change most core factory-prebuilds to artillery and a rifles.


It looked like this



They had



and we had



I know it's all pretty tame compared to other people's wars, but ..

On the far western Island, where Sumaria had 2 cities, my cavalry gots defeated by their pikemen, and my AC were defeated by defending archers. There was success, though, on the near-western island, where my injured Cav defeated a sole Ekido to take Agade, and ownership of the whole island.

{now, some dates and use of present-tense reporting}

1275 Take Icin on far western island. They have one city left on that island now. Sumeria will now make peace, but without concessions.
Sank a Mayan frigate with a Dromon bombard! Cool.

1280 Sumers land 4 units (Rifle, Pike, MI, LB) off a galleon nr Hattusas. 1 arty arrives from mainland and knocks down rifle, finished by cav. Sword Army takes Pike and MI, & my Elite sword redlines himself taking the archer. North, many of their bombarded units retreat, but new ones appear. 4 Arty bombard their stack (3 rifles, 2LB, 1MI), and I lose a Cav and another retreats before my Crusaders hit redlined Rifles, the MI and 1 LB, and my AC finishes the other LB.
I hurry Barracks in the beseiged Aleppo, very belatedly. Then I realised I had an Arty left to ping, which I did at the Rifle/LB on the chokepoint. An MI and a Cav took them out. (It was at this point that I 'rediscovered' 4 cav in Hattusha :doh: )

So 8 Sumer Units killed this turn, 14 left visible in theatre, of which nine are wounded.

Industrialisation discovered, start Corp at 20%, saving money. manage to get some Hittite cities to 10spt and shortrush Rifles, Cav, Arty while core cities lumber towards factores.

Far to the east, in the other war, the Rubber Squad (Cav Army) are 3 moves from Gouda. Everyone's favourite rubbery cheese?

1320 - Sumer goes quiet, and I advance. Erech on the Western Island repels my attack.
Then about 10 Sumerian Geurillas & Rifles turn up on the border, but I lose some cav against redlines.


1340 Take Lagash
It finally occurred to me to send my explorer in to pillage their iron.

The back of their army had been broken, and cavalry rode out to take Umma (1345) and Sumer (1350). A Rifle dropped by boat took the last hp.

Refining in 1350, Started Steel. Oil at southern top of SE island.Good.


Used Engineers and food deficit in low-shield core cities to help their factories.
Spend money on the hugely expensive defensive upgrades.


1355 Uni Suff

1360 Dutch Infantry appear on the scene in Sumeria


Kish attacked - Two Sumerian Uber-Rifle destroys five cavalry and defeats four more. In desperation, I send an Ancient Cav against the last one, which wins, and Kish falls. Ouch. Consider peace (WW rising) but can't get all cities. They have one with oil on a tiny island (Akshak). Erech is on my far Western continent, and repelled my initial 2-cav attack, killing 1 cav. Now 3 cav and an arty + 2 dromons are ready to strike next turn. Ur has at least seven rifles, and I don't have enough Cav, so arty pounds away at tile imps, to starve it down and remove income.

Erech bombarded by 1 arty and 4 dromons - dromons get 2-3 hp of rifles. Cav follow and Erech falls. They won't offer Akshak now, while they did before.

1370 - Dutch take Bad-tibira - that gives them their foothold.
3 units come out of Ur towards arty, maybe. This helps

1375 Gauda builds worker (should have brought one) who moves onto the rubber.

(this is what Gauda looked like before it was taken (date lost))




Dutch land 6 units by Ur.
Attack on Akshak fails. Needs Army!
Dutch lose 5/6 units.
12 arty punds Ur - plenty of HP taken. Sword Army follows up and kills 2 rifles. Then Cav finishes. Sun Tzu! Mausolus! A ton of tourist income when I get the corruption down! Akshak's now their capital, complete with oil reserve. A backup oil sounds handy, though .... The Dutch have one city on this continent.





1395 Rubber hooked up
1400 Sell Electronics to Dutch for 1100g + 5gpt. they had 100+gpt for other techs but their Fascist economy is too unstable.

A defensive plan is needed. There will have to be further conquests I expect. One for Aluminium, another for Uranium.
Now we have the land of four civs, and six islands, we need to set up a network of boats and defenders (including offensives) to support all islands. This is key to 'pelago play. Decide that the faithful old Dromons, eith Combustion 2 turns away, can finally be upgraded to transports, and a fleet of destroyers & cruisers built.
Each city to have 1 infantry with surplus units on each island, and/or on boats capable of island hopping. Old AC guarding cities to be replaced with inf, and the AC to collect up to be used as future anti-flip garrisons.

1415 - Combustion. Start Flight.
Take Akshak - final Sumerian s.island city with oil. Good! They deserved it. Carry on...

All these years later, and the Maya and Russians are still at war with the Dutch. All are in facism.

1435 - Finally average, not weak cf Dutch. I have 55 Inf, 22 Cav, 13 arty, 9 transport, 3 Army, 4 guerilla, 12 AC
1450 NL/Maya make peace.
1455 Discover Flight!

[Cort Haus]

I didn't say in there when I made peace with the Dutch, it must have got lost in the notes. I think it after I'd taken the rubber source. Apart from the long journey to that source, I kinda forgot I was at war with them after their initial landing, as they were so busy with the Russians and the Mayans. Eventually they brought in Sumaria against me, which is what I wanted though not quite prepared for. Once I'd whittled down Sumeria the Dutch switched sides and came in for a piece of the pie.

Also, apologies for the numerous typos. I was first re-writing the story as semi-readable prose, then hastily editing present tenses to past tenses, then giving up on that (as in all my DARs) and pasting in the notes. Playing turns in two PTWDG's limits resource availability for AU!

[Cort Haus]

Catt, I'm very impressed with your game, sir. You're able to play C3C like I could only play PTW. In this format I'm reduced to warmongery. I shall study your DARs! One question - who was selling you the rubber?

Nathan, your era-tech lead and survival at a high skill level with a paper-thin military is mind-boggling. The kind of game worthy of the great and legendary Gathering Storm economic master-architect. Too bad about the resource scarcity - did you see the thread on the strat forum where I steadfastly advanced the theory that C3C Strategic Resource Scarcity, er, sucks? Dom is exagerating the problem for the reasons he described, but I'd say that getting both Horses and Iron on our modest island was an uncharacterist abundance of those two by C3C standards.

Dom, you mentioned the user-friendly sea lanes, but I also thought the land was much more 'blobby' than the pelago's I get. I've lost count of the number of games I've played (including a couple of C3C) where I start on some stringly, spindly, gangly island with about 15 sea squares in the radius of my starting spot, and Germany and Russia 8 tiles away. The blobby islands allowed all civs to have a decent productive core.

[Dominae]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
Dom, you mentioned the user-friendly sea lanes, but I also thought the land was much more 'blobby' than the pelago's I get. I've lost count of the number of games I've played (including a couple of C3C) where I start on some stringly, spindly, gangly island with about 15 sea squares in the radius of my starting spot, and Germany and Russia 8 tiles away.

The larger the map, the less "stringy" the islands on Archipelago maps seem. Glancing at your minimap, I would say the islands are just as "blobby" as they should be for a Large map.

In other words, I did not tinker with land form much. I did, however, place the starting locations by hand.


Dominae

[jshelr]

Originally posted by Thriller


Yep, same thing happened to me with the Dutch. Was it the same coal resource on the second western jungle island where there was only 1 square access to the water? Me thinks probably

Indeed, 'twas just that spot.

[vmxa1]

What does blobby mean exacly? Is a good thing or a bad thing?

[Cort Haus]

By 'blobby', I mean round islands, where you can get a capital in the middle and a decent ring of cities round it. It's a good thing - IMO. I usually get spindly island starts, with sea east and west of my capital.

[Catt]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
Catt, I'm very impressed with your game, sir. You're able to play C3C like I could only play PTW. In this format I'm reduced to warmongery. I shall study your DARs! One question - who was selling you the rubber?

Thanks, though my DARs are not much to read -- I tried to do a better job in the "post game comments" thread. To answer your question, dear Catherine of Russia provided me a steady stream of rubber in exchange for tech trades. Cathy had declared war back in the middle ages (she was just out of the ancient age) but I made peace before ever seeing a Russian unit. After that early "war" we remained at peace for the remainder of the game. The basic tech research-broker strategy I used enabled: (1) massive gpt from the Dutch; (2) decent gpt plus resources & a luxury from the Russians; and (3) piddling gpt and a luxury from the English. The Mayan's largely dropped out of my trading circle with their repeated DoW's, and I was content to let the Dutch play the middle man (I believed that the Dutch were siphoning all the Mayan gpt for tech trades).

From rereading my DAR, I refreshed my memory -- I didn't trade for Rubber as soon as it was available for trade because I didn't have more than two or three upgrade candidates, didn't have the production power to build a lot of Infantry during 20 turns, and had other build priorities (factories). I remember checking how much Rubber would cost on a straight gpt basis around the discovery of RP by others (when I was in a much better position to utilize the resource) and it was along the lines of 40 gpt -- hardly back-breaking. When I decided I could use some, I just asked for an extra from Cathy as part of a tech deal and she was all too happy to comply. She remained polite or gracious for much of the end game.

Catt

[Cort Haus]

When you waited for factories and stuff, Catt, you weren't worried about Russia trading it to someone else for the rest of the game? It can be difficult to prise resource trades open.

In my game, Egypt had one of the 'Russian' sources, so there were none to trade. Strangely, Egypt was small and marginal all game but Russia never clonked 'em. So far ...

[Cort Haus]

A reliable tech customer has been a problem for me. The Dutch DW'd after one or two turns of a 200gpt deal, and after bringing in the world against them, most civs are in Faciism with limited or erratic gpt availability.

[Catt]

The Dutch screwed me out of significant gpt early in the game ("significant" given the context of the then-current tech research costs) and it took some time for me to enter another gpt deal with them, but they had so much gpt available, I eventually couldn't resist.

The risk that an available resource is traded away before one is ready to use is real, to be sure, but it's not always that difficult to "creatively" bring a source back on the market -- fomenting wars (even without any real aggression) or trade embargos works nicely. Such methods can be expensive, of course, but then taking things by force can also be expensive. I can't remember for certain, but I think that the Maya or Dutch also had an extra source of rubber available now and again.

I've also experienced the "wartime fascist no available gold phenomenon" in many games, though very little of it in AU 501 -- but that usually means a pause in gpt deal-making for me -- I'll just steam along on my own, and check every few turns for any newly available gpt. Even if it never comes back, I usually count on my own science rate to out-research a fascist AI civ, establish a good lead, and then trade techs that are two or three back from a leadership position for luxuries and resources (and occasional lump sums) instead of gpt.

Catt

[Aqualung71]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
In my game, Egypt had one of the 'Russian' sources, so there were none to trade. Strangely, Egypt was small and marginal all game...

Probably the same one that I ended up capturing from them at Pi-Ramses. This seemed to be an anomaly, as this Egyptian city was separated from the rest of their empire by Russian territory. This made it easier to take with Medieval units. If the Rubber had fallen in Russian territory I would have thought twice about invading. I guess this may have significantly changed my strategy from there on in, since Rubber was the cornerstone of my military build-up at that time.

[Catt]

I should add, by the way, that rubber wasn't all that high on my list of priorities once I'd expanded about as far as I wanted to -- it would be needed for the spacerace, but with neither an infantry nor a tank advance planned, a solid defensive force was all that was needed (navy and bombard units).

Also, in my game Russia held two extra sources since it controlled the small island to its southwest (which held a rubber source, making a total of 3 given the 2 sources on Russia's home continent) that, in others' games, seemed to be controlled by other civs.

Catt

[Aqualung71]

Originally posted by Cort Haus

OT I know, but how did you get multiple screenies in the one post?

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Thriller


OT I know, but how did you get multiple screenies in the one post?

First, go to the upload area of Apolyton and upload the file to your account. Once uploaded, right click on the link to the screenie (in IE) and Copy Shortcut.

Then enclose the link in IMG tags - you can use the IMG button for this in the Post Reply screen, but it puts it at the end and you'll have to move it to where you want in the text.

repeat until allpicsdone();

[jshelr]

Originally posted by Cort Haus


First, go to the upload area of Apolyton and upload the file to your account. Once uploaded, right click on the link to the screenie (in IE) and Copy Shortcut.

Then enclose the link in IMG tags - you can use the IMG button for this in the Post Reply screen, but it puts it at the end and you'll have to move it to where you want in the text.

repeat until allpicsdone();

Guys, do we have any "how to" threads for those who are very backward about posting screen shots. I would be happy to supply some regularly if I had a clue how to do it

[Aeson]

At the start of the Industrial Age, I thought it might be fun to build some Privateers. So I built a couple and started sinking all the Galleys that wandered by. Soon enough a Man-o-War showed up, and I sailed back to my harbor. The Man-o-War wasn't fooled though, and bombarded my city, starting a war with the English.

Making the diplomatic rounds, I decided to just sign up the Mayans in an alliance. They had been the tech leader for the whole game, and definitely had the most cash. Worked out just as I had hoped, and they bought most everyone else into an alliance against the English. Those civs then had cash, and needed something to spend it on, so they formed up new alliances between themselves. Within a few turns, every civ was at war with at least 2 others, except me. Only the English didn't like me.

I had been running a very scarce military after the capture of Osaka. Just keeping enough units to keep it from flipping, while the rest of my empire was defended entirely by Workers. So the fact that everyone was busy beating each other up suited me just fine.

I researched Industrialization, but the Mayans beat me to it by a couple turns... after having researched/bought Medicine and Electricity... which I didn't have. My tech rate was still too slow to keep up conventionally, so I turned to espionage. A safe steal cost about 1/2 what it would take to buy a tech, and so I stole Electricity a few turns after researching Industrialization and selling it around. This allowed me to trade for Medicine, and start research on Scientific Method.

The AI's had researched Fascism in the meantime, and the Mayans thought it would be a good form of government. Must have been the war... Anyways, the Mayans were no competition for Scientific Method (or anything thereafter). I was able to Scientific Method for a few turns before trading it away, and ToE was mine. It came with Atomic Theory and Electronics. I traded Scientific Method around for Replaceable Parts, Rubber, Saltpeter, 1560g, and 30gpt. I was already bleeding most of the AI gpt from earlier deals, but the resources were badly needed.

I had traded for Saltpeter earlier, and built up a force of Cavalry to hit the Japanese with. I had only been able to build 8 though because I was building Factories and Coal Plants first. I took those 8 Cavalry and my Med Inf Army and waltzed through the Japanese after playing defense a couple turns. Much much easier to deal with all those Archers and Spearmen with Cavalry!

The Russians must have gotten sick of seeing me use their resources so effectively, and they landed on the near West island. I drafted a few Infantry before demanding they leave, and then used them to kill the Cossack and Med Inf they had invaded with. Signed up the Mayans and Dutch against the Russians, and didn't really have much bother from them. I wasn't able to build any more Infantry or Cavalry though, which sucked.

I had found the Rubber island, and had a Settler on the way when the Dutch built a city there. The Oil island I had claimed. The Dutch city didn't actually claim the Rubber, and so I kept my Settler on is voyage. The turn I landed, the Dutch borders expanded and claimed the rest of the island though. I was getting 400+ gpt from the Dutch at that point and didn't want to break any treaties... so I put the Settler back on the boat and left them floating next to the Rubber. A couple times so far the Russians have landed troops but so far they haven't been able to take the city.

I had noticed that the Sumerians were quickly gaining ground on the Hittites, and getting close to the Hittite Saltpeter. I wanted to keep the Sumerians from ever getting Muskets, and so once the Japanese were in hand, I sent my only 4 Riflemen to go sit on the Saltpeter. They got there a turn too late, the Saltpeter had just been roaded. So I cut the roads, and watched as my Riflemen were beat up by Med Inf and Longbows.

I had finished off the Japanese completely. Loaded everything up, along with a Settler, and made a military camp just south of the Hittite Saltpeter. The first turn I was able to cut the Saltpeter again. The next I captured 2 cities, and then a city every other turn. Wasn't long before all the former Hittite lands were mine. In the fighting I got pretty lucky with Leaders, and two more showed up. 2 Cavalry Armies, my Med Inf Army, and finished building the Military Academy.

First Army that I built was filled up with 4 Infantry (had just completed the Pentagon) and sent along with 8 Artillery to the Sumerian core. My Cavalry had made it up to the bottleneck by this point, and most of the Sumerian units were down that direction. I was able to take a city with just the Artillery and that one Infantry army. Killing 2 units a turn when I knew there was another defender. Didn't want to move my Infantry army off the stack of Artillery of course.

Once my Cavalry Armies (I had 3 at this point, but one was left in former Hittite lands to deal with the occasional Russian landing parties) joined up with the Infantry Army, the Sumerians folded. In 1210AD they were no more.

I had researched Radio, using Atomic Theory and Electronics as 4 turn buffers each so that I could be sure to get it first. I was thinking I would trade it for Steel and Refining, but by the time I had it, none of the AI's had finished either. Fascism really really hurts the AI. The Mayans were able to finish Refining a turn before I did, but they didn't trade it around. So I did. I was first to Steel after that.

All my alliances expired (I waited to kill the Sumerians off until they did), and I made peace with the Russians. Now I have most of my quarter of the map, and am pondering whether to continue conquest or just sit back and call a vote/launch a spaceship.

[ducki]

Originally posted by Aeson
Just keeping enough units to keep it from flipping, while the rest of my empire was defended entirely by Workers.

[Aeson]

This is the first time I've played through the Industrial Era in C3C. The new specialists are really cool.

The far West island has built nearly everything using Civil Engineers. It's pretty easy to get a size 12 city to 12 shields a turn. The two cow city is able to make 14, and with a Courthouse and Police Station, it's producing 17 shields a turn. A far cry from the 95% corrupt cities in Civ/PtW!

In developed (and non-corrupt) cities, Policemen tend to be a good value, and they all seem pretty well balanced except for Entertainers. When 1 shield extra will build the improvement in the same time as 2, Policemen give your commerce a boost. Taxmen and Scientists are both very useful still as well. Not sure if this is a good thing though... I'm constantly switching between Policemen, Civil Engineers, Taxmen, and Scientists in all my cities depending on the situation.

[ducki]

Not sure if this is a good thing though... I'm constantly switching between Policemen, Civil Engineers, Taxmen, and Scientists in all my cities depending on the situation.

At first glance, I would see that as a Good Thing(tm), as opposed to having all those specialists that don't get used.
Would you mind elaborating, or were you being funny?


And I still can't get over the "defended entirely by Workers" thing. You, sir, are insane. And I have much to learn.

[Aeson]

Well, it might be more apt to say I was defended by the oceans. Drafting allows you to run basically no military if your landmass is secure, because the AI will never land more at once than you can deal with by drafting. If you don't mind the 'exploit' you can even do the same thing with short rushing. I was able to deal with the only 'peacetime' landing by draft, but would have used short rushing if I had to.

You can be invincible (on your landmass) with just Workers up till the Vikings or Marines show up too. I don't do this as it's usually too costly, and a bit too unreal for my tastes. I do set up outposts on coastal Hills and Mountains so that any pre-amphibious invasion has to be on flat land though.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by jshelr


Guys, do we have any "how to" threads for those who are very backward about posting screen shots. I would be happy to supply some regularly if I had a clue how to do it

So my answer to your call sucked then? Sorry.

[Cort Haus]

Superb stuff from Aeson as usual.

[Catt]

Originally posted by jshelr

Guys, do we have any "how to" threads for those who are very backward about posting screen shots. I would be happy to supply some regularly if I had a clue how to do it

Originally posted by Cort Haus

So my answer to your call sucked then? Sorry.

Not sure where (since I am too lazy too search) but I presume Cort Haus gave detailed instructions elsewhere. I'll give very rudimentary instructions (no guidance on how to resize actual screenies to the proper size, nor how to add any editorial content or other "editing" techniques to a screenshot).

Most keyboards will have a "print screen" button -- usually enabled by the ALT key (although you would think SHIFT would be sufficient), and usually located in the upper right of the keyboard (north of "F12"). If you're running a Microsoft Windows operating system, you've probably got MS Paint installed as a utility graphics program -- it should be found from the Start Menu, by selecting "Programs" and then "Accessories." With Paint running in the backgroud, go ahead and play your game. When you want to take a screenshot, hit ALT and PRT SCRN at the same time. Then use ALT-TAB or any other method to temporarily bring up the Paint application instead of the Civ application. Use CTRL-V, the paste command, and the screenshot of your prior screen should be pasted into the Paint graphics program. From there, select "Attributes" from the available menu commands along the top of the screen, and set the size of the screenshot to 800 by 600 (max for 'Poly). Next, choose "save as" from the file menu. When the "save" dialog box comes up, be sure to change the "Save as type" drop-down box from a bitmap (.bmp) to a jpeg (.jpg) which is less data intensive and is a requirement for 'Poly posts. With that you have a saved file ready for posting -- when you post a comment and want to add a screenshot, at the bottom of 'Poly's post page "Browse" for an attachment and attach your desired saved file -- it will appear as a screenshot (rather than a downloadable file) so long as you saved it as an 800 x 600 .jpg file.

Catt