[PB75 Mjmd] Call to Power

[Mjmd]

I forget if I've done this song yet, but doing it anyways!



PB67 Ginger border city. We had INTENSE discussion on this even though it made no sense for him it was soo good he just wanted.



T270 continued

Went with option 3. Double moved back and formed up my line of battle. First row is JUST a battleship and 2nd is a battleship + destroyer.



The line of just battleships is in range of him. So he can attack or retreat A. He is outnumbered so I expect a retreat. If he just goes back 1 then I will advance 1. Probably repeat an additional time. Want a good seal so subs can't sneak in against HE city PPTQ.

I will note there is NO reason Civac couldn't have matched me at sea. A) he has a small fleet north that would even up our battleship numbers. I half suspect this is all a ruse to then attack Ljub. SD hasn't moved out with his ships. B) Civac has 11 port cities to my 6 (and two of mine are pretty weak, note not counting  3rd culture city). But a lot of his don't have drydocks and some of the ones I can see with my airships have never produced a ship that I can tell.

Oh you noticed Civac DID build Manhattan project. I wasn't counting on him as I half suspected a fake out so I was two turns out myself. Decided on 9 ICBMs and 2 tactical nukes in lower production high pop cities. I could do more tacticals, but they are pretty easy to play around and I do just need regular troops and a lot of my medium size cities are slow growers because I haven't fully spread cereal mills and probably won't at this point.

Its super awkward my next GP is due in 4 turns. I'm likely to turn on tech fully in 2 turns because planning on whipping in 4 (MAYBE 3?). IF its an artist MAYBE I go for culture, but I'll already have turned on tech. The awkward thing is I'm whipping away my two best science cities, so turning on tech after whipping would be meh but obviously waste of possible culture turns.

I do suspect Civacs great engineer is pegged for a ICBM which is why bomb shelters are going up. Probably should have just gone mass media and stolen Cristo with it instead and then teched fascism for police state.

Ljub got democracy. I kind of like that Statue is off the normal path. In pb66 was used as a catch up wonder by Tarkeel. Greenline who was ahead tried to get greedy in PB72 and get too early and maybe lost the game because of it. Neither Civac or I this game wanted to spend the relatively medium amount of beakers on it as we were constantly racing each other. However, I do think its too late for it to matter and I don't think this game is stalling out like PB66.

[Mjmd]

T271

Civac went into full retreat as predicted and I moved to position I want to form my wall of steel. Got 1K fail gold from manhatten project, which makes up for the 3 destroyer upgrades I didn't tell ya'll about. Anyways, turned on tech this turn.



Civacs northern stack disappeared west (I believe based on its not east of where it was). Wondering if his fleet will try crossing the ocean other way. Keeping a destroyer screen ahead of him that way so should know way ahead  of time. Although I may keep some new battleships in west ish just in case.

BTW Pin I suspect I know your secret and I will reveal it soon!!!! Assuming Civac doesn't post first when he discovers satellites.

[pindicator]

I have no idea what you are talking about ...

[Tarkeel]

Ljub got democracy. I kind of like that Statue is off the normal path. In pb66 was used as a catch up wonder by Tarkeel. Greenline who was ahead tried to get greedy in PB72 and get too early and maybe lost the game because of it. Neither Civac or I this game wanted to spend the relatively medium amount of beakers on it as we were constantly racing each other. However, I do think its too late for it to matter and I don't think this game is stalling out like PB66.

It's a good illustration of the differences between MP and SP: In SP you really want Democracy for the economy civics anyways, but you can't afford to run those too much in MP. The value of Statue itself is also very map/civ dependant; it was *great* for us in PB58; in PB66 it was more experimental with the new specialist oriented civics. Not as good as MinInc, but a decent stop-gap.

[Mjmd]

I'm sure Ljub spoiled ya'll for this turn. SIGH. But first Commodore I need an Ottowa scale for my capital. With environmentalism and cereal mills it finally got full size! Working an artist over last tile as I wanted it ahead of JPJ which has less chance of artist.



Mind capital has less population in current turn as I whipped 7 ICBMs last turn. It should have been 8. For the life of me I can't figure out why I couldn't whip a city as I had 2 production over what I thought I needed. Ah well.

T274

I think SD is auditioning for PB81 continent. Nauf and Civac split their units (nauf only 2 turns ago grumble grumble). SD took the approach of consolidating 3 of his stacks into 1........... I mean his main stack was also in range of border city before, but this was even better.



AND ITS GONE



So 5/7 ICBMs used. What now?

Civac had a nice 30 infantry gathered northish I probably should have hit. BUT my hatred for this city was too strong (and its one of two cities Civac could MAYBE build ICBMs in).



I actually thought about nuking on the impi so I could kill rest of the cav and also hurt city south of it, but it actually doesn't let you nuke neutral units. While there is a VERY suspicious filler city east of Naufs city I manged to not screenshot, I went with the peaceful path of just nuking the same spot again. I STILL didn't get the copper, but I did irridate the gems for total of 7 tiles. Although I actually killed off Ironworks so he can rebuild elsewhere which isn't ideal. Mind with 7 fallout tiles its still a better copper city than mine until biology.....

While I thought I took a picture of each location I nuked I missed using 1 nuke against his capital which has oxford. Got 4 towns and the pop. I'm trying to limit Civacs ability to tech (as my oxford was pop wise 'nuked' when it whipped) and wage war. Speaking of



While my navy defensively could have handled this, his northern stack is also coming around to join up. I also get to put my fleet in between SDs fleet and his homeland now. Essentially meaning he has no army defending his  entire empire. Its possible Nauf steps in. He can't really do anything about this.



Was this taken by a knight I had purposefully moved just in case? Yes yes it was. Cut the area off via bombers cutting railroads. The above is a horrible picture. It doesn't show my 3 bombers off to the SE along with Ljub suspicious filler, or the bomber to the west built in city so not to arouse suspicion.

Obviously goal of all of this is to invade SD, which is why attacking the Civac fleet also made sense. That was 4 transports, which I assume all of them were filled with tanks that disappeared from the south when it departed originally. But ya SD invasion.



I could have attacked Ljub this turn and razed some border cities and I'm probably a fool for not doing so, but we had a defensive pact, we've had good relations, and maybe he just wants second.

[Mjmd]

T275
I didn't even get a SINGLE   . FOR NUKES. Come on lurkers step it up.

You get short 1 picture report.



-SD killed a mini stack of 4 guerrilla II infantry and 1 tank with his remaining army leaving Poptarts open except for 3 Civac units.
-Killed 2 Civac battleships after he killed 1 of my destroyers (I got lucky and won a 36% fight) because I figured he would sail out for it. Did lose my forward 2 destroyers for free leaving me somewhat blind to his remaining fleet.
-Ljub did not close borders allowing me to bomb Civacs oils. Unless ljub sent a gift of oil (he JUST discovered combustion and has 1) that will leave Civac oil less for a while. If Ljub does gift oil I will consider that a declaration of war.
-SD declared war on Ljub and has 4 COMMANDO grens in Civac territory (along with rest of his army from his fleet). I've been paranoid about 1-2 ggs for a while, but glad I'm pushing that border back. But ya did you expect Ljub to throw himself at me and hope Ginger / Civac didn't stab him? To me if they wanted to show commitment they would have marched their entire army towards me. I wouldn't have allied with them short of  that. Speaking of the Civac infantry stack in the north remains static.
-Captured 3 cities this turn with another 2-4 hopefully next turn. Depending on reinforcements I am a little light on tanks in far north and in the south.

[pindicator]

[El Grillo]

Dereliction of duties, indeed

[Mjmd]

T276

This is a funny offer especially as SD made peace with Ljub.



So I've been meaning to talk about this, but it brings up the question of WHERE I'm stopping this invasion.

A big part  of that is incoming Nauf forces. My invasion is basically 20 tanks and 2 transports with marines. It can't actually stand vs an army / make progress (why nuking all of SDs was so nice). I probably have to stop sending troops west soon as well just in case Civac and Ljub become allied enough to both send forces. Ljub did do some happy trade with Civac, but no oil yet which is the one I care about.

Nauf is sending SOME troops, but knights to the rescue???



I would like to raze Apple Crisp and No Bake Cookies and take everything south. If I'm greedy I would go a further line north. If my airships spot a bunch of nauf troops in SD lands I may raze Potato salad next turn. However, I am thinking of the middle line because this looks good.



Also shown a bunch of Naufs troops which can't do anything fast at least. There are more west I know from previous scouting, but it can't be THAT much. Killed off his worker on hill trying to reconnect.

Those nukes did come with a price in food , GNP, and production (although I did other whips the 2 turns I was in slavery as well).



My fleet going west would have been fine to defend my old territory, but to cover my new territory my redeployment is a bit slow. He just killed off a privateer sentry off west, so if the rest of his fleet continued on he is only 1 more turn off from being able to attack my ships. Also, pulled back airships from Ljub territory so pretty blind to Civac atm. Nuking his fleet and denying oil was pretty essential as I basically have to defend 2 directions at sea.

[Mjmd]

T277

We are going stream of consciousness reporting as I think there is just too much these turns to remember everything I want to report.

I'm excited about whatever this settler is up to. Scouted a little more and there are more Civac units off to east and north. I think he unloaded his northern transports in Nauf lands.



HOWEVER, there is NOTHING in SD lands. Like NOTHING. I had planned on razing Chicken & Biscuits but I kept it.

In the west I can't tell if Civac didn't scout with the aircraft in his carrier or he didn't care?



I lost a 73% fight to make up for earlier then cleaned up that little stack including what I'm assuming is a transport full of tanks. As mentioned discovered some ships I couldn't take (although his carrier was guarded by 1 BS and I was tempted to go for the low odds bs fight). Scouted with my southern destroyer off screen and discovered his ATTACK SUBMARINE!!!! No clue if its loaded, but killed with my 8 move bs instead. It did mean I couldn't bombard Meat Wraps where SD seems to be trying to hold out for reinforcements. Which meant my odds were low enough even after bombers went in decided not to go in this turn with my marines.

Took total of 3 SD cities this turn making me even with Ljub. Have another 3 for sure lined up next turn with a possible 4th.

Making a round of sam infantry lot of places just in case a bunch of jets show up. Should only be 3 turns until my own, but I'm more aware than most people to the weakness of intercept missions so a good sprinkling of sam infantry won't go awry. BTW I'm sure some of you have noticed but I'm heavily using bombers this game. PB66 my only other late game I only built 2, but this game I'm up to 18 with another 2 in production. Not sure how much they will drop off after SD invasion / with jet fighters around, but figure they will be good defense vs stacks invading too and they are pretty good at helping me push SD cities.

Civac is selling some mining inc resources to Ljub and Ljub spread to 3 new cities this turn in addition to 4ish he had before. Even being Zulu that has to be costly.

And end report with a mistake. I mentioned how I had purposefully put capital ahead of JPJ, but that was just flat out a mistake. Capital will be still be able to get its GP out before end of game whereas I'm not as sure JPJ can.

BTW Forgot to mention Drunken Sailor produced a merchant and I used it on a trade mission for 1100 gold IE a full turn of tech.