[Spoilers] Dreylin's short visit to a late Era

[Dreylin]

2gold = 2t until the Peace treaty with REM is over? Seems like something we'd reject and then offer back to confirm acceptance rather than accept to have on the books.

I'd planed to start troop movements this turn, but wasn't sure about declaring ASAP - though that would at least allow us the first move rather than reacting to REM.

[OT4E]

Make fleet, do not let unprotected transport pass through... And do not leave forces under strike.


Also need some settlers, whether we go for a fight or not. Settlers are the most important part of controlling conquered lands.

We are doing 1280 research points per turn and our MFG shows over 1100 hammers, so I guess getting industrialism in 2 is possible without big sacrifices.
About civics I agree, no need to change before we finish research.

Also we need transports to make any agressive action, but without at least 2nd promotion they are not very useful.

[Dreylin]

Hmmm, looks like ~350/1,100 hammers are already going into Research/Wealth and we'll need 600+ addl. Beakers to get Ind in 2t. We can switch ~100h from Wealth to Research, leaving us with ~500h across 2turns available for builds. So maybe we can get the 8 Destroyers at 1-2t build out and everything else to Research.

Once we've finished Ind, we can whip a couple of Settlers at GP & maybe Chickens or Pigeons (will see).

EDIT: there's no way to pre-build Battleships, correct?

[OT4E]

To think of attacking scenario I need to spend more time in game seeking for attacking opportunities. First that comes in my head is to kick REM from pindicator's lands. Make 50 tanks quick, then using OB regain control of his farthest cities, replant most of them, then declare him war and capture the back ones quick with transport. The most important zone of interest is island between us, pindicator and REM, we cant let REM dominate there.

[Dreylin]

OK, I'm pretty certain that we can get the rest of the way next turn:


I sent back Scooter's proposal without the gold. Still not certain we will declare at the earliest opportunity - although we could do so without making an actual move on REM, I suppose.

[Dreylin]

t339 -






But we can get to Industrialism with 2 build queues to spare!

[Dreylin]

Hmmmm. CivStats says that Donovan took one of our cities this turn. 2 possibilities: 1) I wasn't paying enough attention and he built some boats - which is entirely possible - or 2) Water Buffalo revolted again and offered to flip to his Civ and he accepted it.

I didn't think that latter was usually possible for conquered cities, but maybe it is; even so, with No City Trades in the rules, is this situation covered?

If the former, then I guess he's committed to being REM's de-facto Vassal for the rest of the game.

Either way it's a pain in the arse; I guess I'll see tonight.

[Dreylin]

Aha:


Well that explains things, loss of Culture. Also Aluminium under the new city.

Devil of a day and my brain hasn't recovered so I'm going to take a day to think about the turn before continuing.

Things to consider; I don't think we have the forces yet to make a dent on REM anywhere, but should I declare on him this turn anyway to show intent to Scooter & pindicator? Takes away any element of surprise of course, but not sure there's any of that left anyway.

Here are 1-shot overviews of the potential theatres of war:




Then there's this:


I assume that Scooter is on the ball enough to have spotted it - and at least he also has OB with Donovan - but I don't think I have anything in place to assist him.

Then there are builds; what proportion of Ships vs. Land Units:


A few Happiness and a lot of Health issues showing up now.

No time to build Grocers, unfortunately, but Civics can help with the Happiness somewhat if we switch to Nationhood. Theocracy I think for certain and back to Slavery.

[OT4E]

My intuition says that REM is most vulnerable in former pindicator's land. But the attack must not be obvious. The preparations must look like:
1) build transports everywhere
2) stack them in 2-3 groups
3) build tanks and make them disappear in unlnown direction
4) stack some units both fronts
5) shuffle transports
6) make a move having most units unloaded from one of the cities (pindicators front or one of his cities if they remain)
7) raze/replant/pillage
8) have a 2nd wave

In thia times everyone sees everything, but there is no way to know that some of transports are empty.

[Dreylin]

Makes sense.I'm going to start with step 0) build fleet, first but I can start squirreling away a few units on the Galleons that we currently have ... or more accurately a few more units since I have some already staged about.

Overnight thoughts -

1) Artillery or Flight next unless I can somehow 1t Fascism to pick up access to Police State (Refrig has benefits, but probably not enough)

2) No Civics revolt this turn: there's nothing ready to whip, so I'd be losing the Workshop Hammers for only the benefits of other Civics - +2xp on 4 units and a bit of extra happiness.

3) Chickens will switch to a Settler that can whip off the unhappy/unhealthy pop. Maybe GP too...?

4) I probably will declare on REM this turn to show intent, but I don't think there's anywhere to hit him currently. Still wavering on this as it encourages preemptive reprisals.