82 fortification damage in a turn is great. This was only 2 artis, next turn it'll be 3, since I bought anohter one for 1760 gold. As the fortification gets damaged, I'll do more damage. In 3 turns tops, the wall is gone. After that, it'll be very hard for Woden to defend (he'll need to ocuppy tiles with units, which means his units will be vulnerable to my arti fire as well). And without walls, I can move in his borders without suffering free hits.
Next turn, my cavalry will pillage the road in the banana tile, most likely. This will make counter attacks harder for Woden, since he'll need at least 5 movement to attack my artis.
This campus had an university, so I could pillage it 3 times. That's 700+ science, with no cost to my side. Great. Next turn, an arti will start moving towards Misty Mountains, to take position against Rivendell.
Kaiser's messages are a bit criptic... Not sure if this was a straight up offer or he's trying to send me a message. Well, I hope he's willing to trade oil, as next turn I'll have 5 oil units with only 3 oil per turn. I still need some turns for my next oil source, but I have a bit of a stockpile to spare. I'll probably try to buy Kaiser's oil with one of my Great Works of Writing. I bet he'll like them, but they aren't worth much for me (2 culture a turn, meh). Winning this war is way more important.
Just to be clear, winning for me is damaging Woden to the point that I can get peace for a decent price (at least Porto Alegre back), while nearing the end of the Alliance with Kaiser, so I can backstab Kaiser. But we'll see. If Woden keeps building Wonders and Neighborhoods, perhaps I can damage him to a point of going somewhere. There are some inland cities that I could possibly keep, I think.
In a very, very optimistic future, I could kill Woden main port cities and slowly destroy his navies with planes. That would allow me to settle/capture cities at the coast again. Not keeping my hopes up, though (Woden has 5k in the bank, he can conjure a arti + baloon defense from the thin air to fight me back).
My plans got severely hindered, because Woden managed to up his cities strength to over 100. That means my arti do about 15 points of damage to the city walls. The city strength likely comes from a Tank Army. At least I managed to make Woden spend his 5k gold, likely in units.
I pillaged some roads to make an invasion tougher. I'm still bombarding the city, as Woden doesn't have a proper defense in place in the region yet. Not sure if something will come out if this, though. I'm keeping up with unit production, mostly Pike and Shots, that I guess can do a good enough job against Tanks considering all my bonuses. I need to protect Rio de Janeiro at all costs, so I've sent a spy to Porto Alegre to give me visibility of that area.
My first spy promoted to secret agent and could choose +2 when stealing tech boosts or +2 to neutralize governor. I went with the latter, as it gives me more options. I accepted the mission to try and kill Pingala in Woden's best city. 90% of success. If I keep being annying, perhaps I can extort something for peace?
Last turn, I offered peace to Woden (he cedes Misty Mountains, I cede Porto Alegre). I can't make any meaningful gains, nor damage to him, bu going on the offensive right now. He has a bunch of Tank armies positioned for defense, he has artillery as well. Right now, my best chance is just to show that if he attacks me, he'll take a lot of damage. In this sense, perhaps getting peace make sense.
Another reason for this decision is: Kaiser just got a bunch of his army destroyed by Suboptimal. He tried to advance in Sub city, but it was close to coast and I think Sub ships destroyed him.
If I get peace with Woden, I'll try to get a DoF. Than, I'll attack Kaiser when our alliance is over (5 turns). Kaiser is under attack by Sub and Woden (although Woden retreated for now, they are still at war). Kaiser's army is not that strong. He can't defend 3 fronts. And his Capital is near Woden and near the coast, so I'm betting he'll defend there with more emphasis. In a scenario of a big dogpile, I can perhaps take quite a lot of Kaiser's southern cities.
This serves to show how big was the capture of Misty Mountains -> I have access to Kaiser's south through that city, which opens up a lot of possibilities.
I think this move makes sense for Woden as well. Again, i'm not a treat to win the game, so would it benefit him to keep most of his army tied to me? I'm hoping he thinks this isn't worth it. Not only I want peace, but I want him tieing up a bunch of Kaiser's army.
Extrapolating this scenario, the end game will be Woden vs. Suboptimal. Woden has a lot of production, but his science and culture are lagging behind. Sub has a lot of Great Works (which I plan to steal, by the way) and a great economy. With Kaiser gone, the tension between them will rise. If I can get a lot of land from Kaiser (let's look at the best scenario here), perhaps I can make further gains against CMF, which lags behind in science and culture, and actually have a shot to win?
I don't know, but this seems to be my only out, so I'm playing for it.
Well, I "betrayed" Kaiser. In the span of a few turns, I went from attacking Woden while allied with Kaiser to attacking Kaiser while allied with Woden. My military alliance with Woden gives me +5 against Kaiser, which is great.
Kaiser has one big problem: he lacks Oil. Only a 3 source, from what I can see. I have 6 per turn on land and more on water, that I don't have the tech to use yet. No oil means no arti, no infantry and no early planes. He has a lot of aluminum, though, so he can have the better planes.
I'm currently sieging the encampment in our border city. Kaiser had an arti army in the city, but moved it away last turn. If he doesn't come back, I'll be able to siege the city without counter. Since Kaiser's front with Woden is huge after Woden conquer Bologna, Kaiser has to defend on a lot of different places. I think Kaiser recaptured and liberated Bologna? I'm not sure if that was the best move, because his army probably got vulnerable while doing that.
I was bound to get Einstein as my next GSci, that would be useless (he gives +4 science to research institutes, which I'll probably never build). Someone stole him from me and that gave me Alfred Nobel, that gives +100 GPP for all current and future GPs. That synnergizes a lot with Brazil and meant I was able to faith buy a modern GG this turn, which is a great boon for my army (it boosts ARTI!).
There's a chance I'll end up with a way larger empire after this, with an avenue to attack Canada for even more land. Meanwhile, Woden will have to fight Suboptimal and I'll be left alone. It's a chance.
Do you have any images from your turn? I'd like to study how your game's going and learn a few things for my own PBEM20 game. You could also attach the save file of one of your turns, if that's better.
(February 25th, 2021, 18:22)marcopolothefraud Wrote: Hooray, we love to see a comeback story!
Do you have any images from your turn? I'd like to study how your game's going and learn a few things for my own PBEM20 game. You could also attach the save file of one of your turns, if that's better.
For sure, I'll attach the next save. I'll also post pictures.
My capital and by far my best city. I finished the Biplane and decided to focus it a bit on infrastructure. I'll get a +6 Neighborhood to keep it growing. I also want a Zoo, which will give +5 science, due to the jungle bonus. Most of my science and culture comes from this single city. If I lose this, it's game over. I had to chop some tiles here during my defense against Woden, otherwise the city would be even better.
Guarulhos is a city settled solely for the Oil. Curitiba is a city I kinda gave up on some turns ago, because it's in range of Naval units, which I can't defend against. But now, this cities will be responsible for building me a navy. I can fit 9 boats into those inland lakes (and I can build armadas as well, to fit more). After I have the navy built, I can either settle a new city for a Canal or get the Panama Channel to liberate them. I can build Minas Geraes, my unique boat. I need a presence in the water to have more impact and I'm hoping that the naval card will help me with this. If I play my cards right, I can perhaps surprise Suboptimal later in the game.
My current take is that Artillery are my best units to build. Kaiser can't really defend on the field, if his power numbers are to be trusted. I'll also show a picture of Woden's army later, so you can see the trouble he's facing. Perhaps I'm making a mistake by not going full army (you can see that I have some domestic builds going on right now). Vitoria will go back to military as soon as the Neighborhood is ready (the Petra city needs a bit more housing and I'm eyeing some Eurekas for the military techs). I'm also a bit limited by resource demands (I think I made a mistake with the Biplanes, they are kind of weak - perhaps their best point is the psychological damage against Kaiser, since they are units he can't really defend against right now).
My spies. One of them is going for Kaiser. I was thinking about killing Victor in the city, but perhaps the diplo visibility is better (since I have a master spy, it'll give +2, which is +6 strength). There's a chance Kaiser will empty the city of Victor, when he sees that the city is doomed. I think he's focusing on defending his Capital, since he moved an artillery army from the city (which is the best unit he has for defense, I don't think I could crack the city with that unit defending). The other two spies will steal artworks from Suboptimal. One is promoted for that and would have 75% chance of success. But I decided to do the Spy Operation mission first, so I can get almost 90% chance of success. I also don't want Suboptimal mad at me right now. 10 turns from now is a better timing, I guess.
The Era ends in 3 turns and I think I'll scrape a GA. I killed a musket army from Kaiser with my plane, that gave me +3 points. The last two points will be a Great Musician and starting an inquisition. I need a GA for the loyalty, otherwise I won't be able to resist the loyalty pressure from Kaiser's cities. I'll take a look at my dedication options, but I'll probably go with the Army one, for more production to units.
Woden is really powerful. Right now, I can only win by playing the diplomatic game right. I think I played it perfectly in the past 50 turns or so. My war against Woden was profitable, because it gave me the strategic advantage of a way into Kaiser's cities, that Misty Mountains blocked. And the backstab against Kaiser gave me the opportunity to get more cities, while Woden does the heavy lifting (Kaiser will obviously defend his Capital more than anywhere else). As previously mentioned, the next steps is to ensure I profit from the inevitable Suboptimal vs. Woden endgame. Suboptimal is surging ahead in science and culture, and he has very defensible land. But Woden's production is unmatched. This balance of power is needed for me to try and take what advantages I can get: Kaiser cities, an opportunity to attack CMF, perhaps some opportunities to attack Woden or Suboptimal. If Suboptimal tries to turtle for a cultural victory, I'll let Woden deal with him, for the most part and focus my resources on growing my empire. It's the only way for me to win. That doesn't mean I won't steal Suboptimal's art and be as annoying as possible (perhaps try the naval surprise I mentioned earlier).
Pillaging is back on the menu! Pillaging against the AI feels almost like an exploit, because you get so much from it. But I kind of like it in MP. I think it works to decentralize the combat from the city center and it fits the 1-Unit gameplay. I wonder if "all units have commando" + "cavalry not affected by ZOC" is a good combination, though.
Marcopolothefraud, the save is hopefully attached to this post. It's from a couple of turns ago, but I can send the next one if you want it.
I changed the civic to Exploration, to await for the Conservation Inspiration. I need Exploration, because the next naval production card comes too late. I'll use the civic change to get the upgrade discount card for 1 turn, to upgrade my cuir army to a tank army and my musket army to infantry army. I'll also adopt the +1 movement card and the pillage card, as I'll pillage a lot of Kaiser's land.
I realized I'll likely capture Kaiser city before the 6 turns for the spy mission is ready, so I moved my spy. That was really bad planning on my part (really bad), as the spy will take 7 turns to get to the next city (so, 13 turns until mission is ready...). The city I moved him to is the third city in order of what I'd possibly capture. I figured that, if I already captured that city in 13 turns, I probably don't need that extra combat strength. Luckily, the gods of civ smiled to me:
I was first in the GM race (the previous GM I could see was one that gives extra tourism for civs you have a TR to), but Suboptimal rushed him. That gave me Mary Goddard, which is +3 combat strength against everyone! So, I used the faith I was going to use for an apostle (to get an Inquisiton for Era Score) to buy her. That gave me the needed era point + that awesome effect. That was quite the lucky break! After the mission against Kaiser, I'll have +9 strength on all my units.
Suboptimal is trying to be cheeky here. If he goes for that excavation, I'll declare war and kill his unit. I'm hoping I can just block it or that he realizes what will happen, as I quite like the hapiness from the deals we have. Or should I let him get this and steal it from him later? Not a good option, as he has such a large amount of Art stuff that I would spend the whole game robbing him and would still not get all of them.
I'm really, really hoping that Kaiser doesn't get a Golden Age next age, as that means it'll be way easier to hold cities against him.
I sent the Spy to Talla Keyali. Right now, I'm wondering if that city will be standing in 13 turns, since Kaiser's defenses appear to be on the ropes right now. Claire Finn will fall next Woden't turn and, as you can see from the next screenshot, I'll likely capture Steve Newton next turn. I've sent 1 diplo point to Woden, trying to signal that he shouldn't try to snipe Steve Newton from me. If he does that... Well, I can't really respond right now, but after that, most of my game will have to be focused on hurting him. Hopefully he doesn't do it, but I can't really fault him if he does it. I just now realized what a hit that will be to me, considering we have a NAP. By the time I can respond to that, I'm out of the game already.
I could have tried to snipe Claire Finn from Woden, but that would have been suicide as well. And I probably wouldn't be able to, because the city is likely surrounded. I should have surrounded Steve Newton with my own units to not allow Woden to snipe it. Not doing it was a big mistake. I just hinged my game in Woden's good will, with no need for it, other than to preserve a bit of health on my units...
Man, what a terrible mistake. And to think Woden already played his next turn and I still have to wait to see what happens. Either I get a shot into a very good position in the game or Woden completely blocks me off it and I can't really do anything about it...
So, I used the faith I was going to use for an apostle (to get an Inquisiton for Era Score) to buy her. That gave me the needed era point + that awesome effect. That was quite the lucky break! After the mission against Kaiser, I'll have +9 strength on all my units. 