Sorry I couldn't get to it before the Manchester trip... getting up at 4:30am is not my thing, something I rarely do and hope to never have to do it again. Anyway, I'm back now, and even have the new save. So here's a secret report of Zara Yaqob's Commission of Chief Strategists of Japan titled "Commodore Menace and What Can We Do About It"
1. Science. Commodore chose not to go down the Paper and Education line, instead pursuing Military Tradition and Optics. As a result, he's very far from Rifling, and would have a problem beating Rifles with his force, which features Cuirassiers as the best unit
Our researchers are reporting that after completing the current project of Replaceable Parts, we could concentrate on investigating the matter of giving various freedoms to our citizens. If successful, that should be enough to inspire them to figure out the secret of Rifling on their own
2. Visibility. Thanks to the efforts of our spies being focussed so heaily on Commodore, we have full visibility of his lands, and near perfect information on what he's doing
Our spies are also reporting that Commodore is experiencing a severe happiness problems, and may have to abort his aggression in the near future if he doesn't solve it
Of course, one of the way to solve it is to completely eliminate the Ottomans. Which, judging by the power graph, he will be able to do. But this should give us time to have the first Rifles ready on defence
3. Geography. As pointed out earlier, our border with the former Ottoman territory, which will soon join Commodore's empire, is very short, and is only formed by two cities, Hittite and Nagoya. We only need to put as many defenders as possible in these cities to protect ourselves from a land attack
4. Taj Mahal. As can be seen from screenshots of Commodore's territory above, he's 9 turns away from completing Taj Mahal. We finished Nationalism this turn, and can complete for the wonder
Next turn we will be able to change our civics, and should switch to Slavery and Organised Religion. This will speed up the wonder further, and will give us the option to whip it to completion should we feel it's necessary
Stealing Taj Mahal from Commodore should be a key part of any plan to address his menace. It is important to deny him a free Mausoleum-powered golden age, but it is also important to get a free golden age for ourselves, as it will help us to the way to advanced units he cannot compete with
With the above points in mind, here is the plan we recommend
* The immediate priority is to complete Taj Mahal before Commodore. Use any means necessary to secure the wonder
* Prioritise military builds in cities. Build Knights before Rifling is discovered, and Rifles afterwards. We need to reduce the gap in power
* Take Rifling with Liberalism, then research should go towards Cannons. We may be able to defend against Commodore, but we only control 18% of land area; Commodore can win the game without ever attacking us!
* Commodore is likely to start attacking from sea when he finishes Astronomy, so watch out! Izumo should provide island cities with units, and we may have to abandon Yokohama as there is no land access to it
* Look for opportunities to grab some of the Ottoman land Commodore is freeing up
* Plan to attack Commodore with Rifles and Cannons. We currently have the strongest economy in the world, but if he is allowed (and chooses) to consolidate his acquisitions and stabilise his economy, we will not be able to compete
Sincerely,
Chief Strategists of Japan