Das Boot (directed by Wolfgang Petersen and Singaboy)

[Singaboy]

Turn 95:

Recorded History is done and I switch policies again. I give up Urban Planning and swap it with Natural Philosophy for an additional 6 science for now. I decide to produce more expensive crossbows and enable Feudal Contract.
Research is then set to Medieval Fairies, currently needing 14 turns but with the inspiration, it should be done in 7 turns.



Now, the military situation at Asgard is almost the best I could have hoped for. The bombardment aimed at a galley and twice the horseman covering the battering ram. I assume Japper thought he could catch them with his swordsman but was stopped short by the river crossing. That was a big mistake. The horseman was lucky and survived too.



Time to move in with force

First I use my horseman that is promoted to kill archers, but it falls short 3 health points. It's a good start though.

I take the archer out with a second horseman. My crossbow has attacked the swordsman too. 

Another horseman attacks the swordsman hooping to take it, however it barely survives

Time to attack the city center, I remove the wounded galley and attack with a healthy galley taking away 50% of the city walls. This is excellent and more than I had hoped for. The reduced city strength certainly helped me here a lot. Moving out the swordsman reduced the strength by 8 points, that's massive.

I have yet another healthy horseman ready to attack and the final result of the siege looks like this

The city walls are gone! The city itself will heal next turn but my assaults will bring it down eventually. Japper's archer and swordsman are trapped thaks to oledavy's archers. So much about helping Japper. Japper can attack only once with his archer inside the city or swap the units and attack. If he swaps out the archer, the archer is dead. If he doesn't the swordsman is dead. Not an easy choice for him here. He has a third archer behind Asgard but it is blocked by oledavy's units. oledavy's units cant do that much against my General strengthened horsemen and I will hopefully be able to hunt them down if they don't retreat.

I had to sacrifice my crossbows advances due to the attacks but that's well worth it. The heavily wounded horseman has retreated into Hufeisengipfel. One crossbow will disembark to move east of Asgard. A 5th horseman is on its way to join the attacks. My promoted horseman is hopefully the target of attacks as it can always pillage the wheat for healing. In fact I might pillage the stone too for some added culture.

I think overall this was far better than I had expected and it shows that an all out attack might be better than hesitation. My military score is at 640, while both my enemies hover around 160-150. Once Asgard falls, I hope Japper's morale is gone and I can swiftly sweep though the land. Before this turn, I had feared that the attack might completely stall.

[Singaboy]

Turn 96:

I lost a galley and oledavy attacked my promoted horseman. There is no way that I am going to take the city this turn. I need to defeat some units first and get more units into proper position.



First thing is to remove the wounded archer from oledavy. I need to have a better idea of the battlefield beyond Asgard too. Killing his sacrificial archer reveals Japper's third archer. I wonder whether he can shoot at my galleys from his position.

Since I can't attack the city enough to take it, I decide to heal two wounded horseman and bring one in a better position to go after oledavy. The horseman covering the battering ram moves onto the sheep tile and promotes back to full health. It gets the same +5 attack versus ranged units to hunt down oledavys archer. The promoted horseman pillages the wheat back to full health. It has 2 movement points left and does some peeping to the north.

I need to get rid of the swordsman. Surprisingly, my crossbow is not able to defeat it entirely. I get the idea to move in the quadrireme for the kill and get an Inspiration for that too.

I decide to attack Asgard with a galley and my last horseman in range wounding it in the process. I need to get this city faster in order to consolidate my campaign and make progress to eliminate Japper. At the end of the turn, I have 5 horsemen in range to attack the city next turn. However, Japper and oledavy combined might take out 1 - 2 units. That's the price I have to pay for the frontal assault. However, I hope once I have this city in my hands, the resistance will break and units too scattered to harm me in a serious way.

I finally have one of the crossbows in range of the General. It will be able to move NW and attack the city at the same time. The city will be at 159/200 health next turn. I assume I will need to use one horseman to defeat oledavys archer (or at least wound it severely). It should leave me with a naval unit, a crossbow and three horsemen to attack the city. City strength will be at 30 at the start of the turn.

It might just be enough to finally take the city. As usual, we will need to wait and see what the next save presents.

At home, Weinberg has finished its builder and is starting the campus. A forest chop will go into the campus next turn. The forest needs to be chopped for the CH to be placed there. It might be really expensive to build but the next Great Merchant would add +0.5 gpt for each specialist district of the destination. Since Aachen will have 4 of the districts (not sure whether the capital counts too) next turn, that's +2 gpt per trade route. Not too shabby with more trade routes getting added.

Aachen and Salz am Meer will finally finish their harbors next turn adding +6 gpt. This will speed up cartography and should then take another 3 turns before I can upgrade a galley.

Aachen's harbor has the nice side effect of adding yet another +1 hammer to each trade route resulting in +1f +5h per route. That's pretty powerful too. Salz am Meer will produce a trader to provide the Inspiration for Medieval Fairies. Aachen will go for military production duty as I want a couple of crossbowmen to defend my homeland from a possible attack from Woden and Archduke. With the path I have chosen, I will be the target of all of them I fear.

The game is at the very least, much more exciting for me than PBEM2 after the loss of Frankfurt.

[Singaboy]

Turn 97:

The turn starts with a few messages. I have lost yet another galley to Japper's archer. This needs to stop. oledavy joined in and his galley attacked one of my galleys. His archer always tried his luck against my promoted horseman with not much luck.

We have met another city state, Toronto. The task I get is to get a Great General. I wouldn't mind that, but Woden has run a project and will likely nab the next General. I might want to compete for that, but I also need to strengthen home defense.

Two harbors have given me the Eureka for Cartography and caravels are a mere 2 turns away. Of course, building them from scratch will take forever. Zuckerstadt is a good city to produce naval units, but without the right policy, I am not going to sink hammers into that.

At Asgard, Japper has produced a spear but it simply moved out of the city and didn't attack. Weird Japper could have potentially taken out my General covering horseman here with a combined archer + spear attack. The way the spear is moved, it's just a sitting duck. If I can get rid of the spear, I can attack the city with 4 horsemen and the quadrireme if needed. This looks promising.



First, I need to get rid of the spear and since crossbows do nothing much against cities due to the -17 city attack penalty, they are the units to take out the spear. The fire of two crossbowman is too much for the new spear and the passage for the horseman is paved. By the way, the promoted crossbow has the +10 district promotion which hasn't really helped in this campaign, but will serve me all the better in a defensive war.

Time to attack the city. I need to be careful as in the north, there are two archers waiting for opportunistic attacks. I attack from the south and west first. After the first two horsemen attacks, the city health is down from 159/200 to 80/200. That's a decrease of 79. With the city having less health, the bonus for the horsemen gets better and I might have the chance to take the city.

In fact the next attack brings the city down to 42 health and the last horsemen is enough to take the city The tough siege of Asgard has finally ended. The power of General boosted horsemen at this stage of the game is just too much. Even better, I get the inspiration for Civil Engineering for having 7 different districts. The strange thing is, none of Japper's cities has a harbor. What had he been doing the whole game so far? The city has a holy site though, but as I am not the founder of a religion, I am not sure what advantage I get from it besides a little bit of faith. There is still one religion to grab and I might want to go for that. For now, the city starts to produce a really slow builder. I will need a builder to repair tiles and connect luxuries etc.

I still have one more horseman free to attack and it will demonstrate the power of coursers promotion. With overwhelming odds of 45 -15, the archer doesn't stand a chance and my horseman sustains a damage of a mere 8 health. The horseman reveals yet another oledavy archer. He is very welcome to feed me with more fodder. On the screen below, you can see that one crossbow is about to land to distract Japper's archer.

I will need to move units north and think about the best path to continue my campaign. There are still quite a few cities to take, though without walls, that should be easier. I need to move fast to prevent Japper from building more defenses.

Finally a look at my home land. With two harbors done, the cities can go on other duties. Aachen starts a crossbow (4 turns), Salz am Meer produces the needed 4th trader (3 turns). Weinberg benefits from the forest chop bringing the campus to 4 turns. As with other cities on this crammed Island, it runs out of tiles to work. I need to build some specialist districts. Unfortunately, I can't afford to buy tiles at the moment as I need to save the gold for caravel upgrades. If I can manage to get two caravels fast and aim for a new government, I will sit in a pretty good position.

The next trade route will go to Kiel to speed up its progress toward specialist districts and a harbor. With cartography providing +2gpt per sea resource, I would need yet another builder to improve those tiles.

On turn 100, I will pause for a bigger overview of scores etc. I will need to think about longer term strategy as well. Woden and Archduke might not sit back but plan to attack me. Archduke will have two Great Admirals. I will need to be able to counter their naval incursions, if they come. Keeping a technological edge seems paramount here. Once cartography is done. I will head for knights and musketmen.

[Singaboy]

Turn 98:

Through the diplomatic thread I know that Archduke and Woden are now more or less associated and will form an alliance. This is dangerous. On the other hand we have oledavy and Japper. I need Jester on my side and maybe he had been thinking the same. He comes with an offer, what it is we will see later.
Jester had been on the receiving end of both oledavy and Japper I believe and has a score to settle. I would be glad to support him to be able to not lose sight of my northeast, which is Archduke and Woden.

The battlefields provide another important clue. oledavy has a galley in an ocean tile. Would it have been a turn later, I could have wiped him out. He has acquired cartography by now. I am relieved that he only shows up with two galleys and not caravels. I do hope that I have enough gold to upgrade my galleys soon.

Japper has produced a new archer but it that won't help him. I am not sure why he pulled the archer out of the town. I guess he fears I am coming after his cities or my wounded horseman are too big a draw for him.



First I check Jester's deal he proposed and it's a very good deal for me of course gaining a new amenity. With war weariness starting to increase, I need to do something about happiness. One thing is not to grow cities too much, the other is to gain more amenities. I return the favor by sending a delegation to gain a level of information access. I do hope Jester will return the favor as I need the gold urgently. 




As for the military situation, I need to balance conquest with care for my units. I can't really afford to lose any of the 5 horsemen to continue a speedy conquest of FIVE remaining cities from Norway.

First thing is that I retreat both galleys in the west to heal and potentially get upgraded. I keep a crossbow in the vicinity to be able to support my navy. Should oledavy bring in his galleys and attack, I will have at least that one crossbow there for support.

On the Norwegian front, oledavy retreated his archer, which gives my western horseman the chance to heal. I promote two horsemen and attack the eastern archer. I guess I will attack the northern Nilfheim before turning west, while keeping an eye on the east with my crossbow. Landing on the hill, the crossbow spots the long boat that seemingly healed in Utgard. Should Japper decide to attack with his long boat, it might be dead. Of course, he could decide to move south, but he will no longer be safe in ocean tiles from next turn onward, a fact he doesn't know yet.



At home, my production continues unchanged, the northern builder connects another rice for extra gold and culture sacrificing some production in Zuckerstadt. Weinberg will grow its borders next turn and the builder will build quarries on both tiles in due time. The remaining 2 charges will be used to improve rice and cattle at Aachen. Oh, a final act of this turn is to rename Asgard to Weidenfels (the sheep next to the mountain tile gave me the inspiration for a city named after a small village in Franconia).

[Singaboy]

Turn 99:

Jester didn't send me back a delegation. Well, think I will need to remind him as I got no spare cash. However, I rather have him distract oledavy than fighting me. Cartography is done and with a new era, a lot of new quests from city states come flying in. However, besides the quest from Carthage for the Printing Press Eureka, there are not many attractive quests. I will get a Great Engineer in two turns who gives me a free Printing Press Eureka.

oledavy's galley sailed towards my galleys not knowing that I have a crossbow waiting for it. Japper has attacked my horsemen twice with his archers and fell into the naval trap I set up for him (I was fearing he would sail east to harass my coastline)



First I check the cost of a caravel upgrade. Well, I will need to wait for Medieval Fairies to finish to swap policies to be able to upgrade two caravels for a total of 270 gold. I guess upgrading my fleet will be much easier than building new caravels from scratch. These things are really expensive.

I use my crossbow to attack oledavy's galley and bring the health down to 50%. I keep my galleys there to heal. My odds are still not very good against a +5 boosted unit. I would assume that oledavy doesn't want to suicide his galley and moves away. I need to buy time there to upgrade at least one galley (I would like to upgrade one galley in the east as a deterrent).

At Weidenfels, I use my crossbow and quadrireme to sink the long boat. This earns the quadrireme a promotion which is even better.

On the battlefield I advance toward Nilfheim and put it under siege. Next turn I can attack with 4 horsemen (most probably Japper will shoot at the wounded horseman) and a crossbow. Those units will be used to move west to take the next city there. on the eastern side of the Island, I have a crossbow, will land a swordsman that can be supported by a horseman (now a little beat up). One more horseman is moving up from Hufeisengipfel and will need a few turns to reach that city. I will also use the galley and quadrireme to support the attack on Utgard. I want to take out Japper as fast as possible to make full use of the newly acquired cities that have good potential to become productive. 

I have started on stirrups for knights. Next turn, Salz am Meer will have the trader produced and then go for city walls. The trader will give me the Inspiration in two turns hopefully finishing Medieval Fairies. I will need to disable an production bonus for military units to enable 50% upgrading cost for caravels and knights. Once in a new government, I will have more choices with 6+1 policy cards. I should get to the new government in about 10 turns.

I will need to invest in infrastructure for a while building up walls to protect myself from Woden and Archduke. I also want more markets and libraries. The Great Merchant at hand does look really attractive giving +2 gpt for trade routes to Aachen (+0.5 gpt per district). I might have to run a few projects for that.

[Singaboy]

Turn 100:

Jester has sent the delegation back to me. Niflheim's archer shot at my wounded horseman as expected. He also has his second long boat showing up at Hufeisengipfel. To engage in battles there will not do him any good. His military strength has decreased to 80, while mine is at 550+ even with lots of wounded units. I feel my strength has to go up further to deter the rest from attacking me.

oledavy's galley left, I wonder whether he is coming back with caravels as he has that tech too. However, it won't take me much longer until I can upgrade 3 galleys for a whopping 405 gold.



While attacking Niflheim with my horsemen, I have capacity to use the crossbowman to pillage the deer for 50 gold. In case lurkers wonder why I pillage, I only pillage tiles that can easily be repaired without costing charges to builders. On top of that, under occupation, those cities do not give me much anyway (75% penalty on everything). I will have a builder ready in time to repair the needed tiles.

I continue to attack the city with the remaining two horsemen and capture the third Norwegian city. Amazingly, Norway still has 4 cities left. No wonder his land and cities are so underdeveloped. Getting 7 cities without capturing a city state costs a lot of hammers. He might have been better off striking a balance between expansion and development.

All four horsemen are wounded and need to heal for at least 2 turns before turning their attention west. In the meantime, I get a force moving east. In three turns, I will be able to assault Utgard properly including a galley and quadrireme. There is still one city somewhere in the fog, that I have yet to uncover.

On my home Island, things develop slowly. Aachen and Zuckerstadt are about to finish their crossbowmen before going for some infrastructure. Salz am Meer has finished a 4th trader and starts city walls for additional defense. I feel Kiel needs city walls too.

Weinberg is about to finish its campus to increase science to 50+ which is really important so that oledavy doesn't run away too much. I need to defeat Japper faster to make sure I make a real jump in science and culture. I hope to be able to finish this in 10 turns provided his last city is not in some completely remote place.

[Sullla]

Another thumbs up for an amazing game with continued excellent reporting. Out of the four Civ6 PBEM games thus far, I think you've played the strongest game of anyone to date. This has been a perfect example of the strength of Germany as a civ - we might be seeing Germany put in the same category as Rome and the military rush civs after this game. Really, really well done thus far.

Since it's Turn 100, have you thought about where you want to head next after the current war is over?

[Singaboy]

Thanks for the really kind words, Sulla. Coming from you, it certainly means something.

What are my plans beyond the capture of Japper's cities. Well, I obviously can't lean back and rest on this campaign's success. The rest will be well on my heels. The good thing is that Jester wants to attack oledavy. I have a NAP with Archduke until T120. I am wondering whether Archduke will simply sit back and wait 20 turns before making a move on me or does he aim at oleday or Jester.

Let's have a look at the scores first:

Singaboy 212
Archduke 181
oledavy 155
Woden 144
Jester 118
Japper 103

science
Singaboy 48.7
Archduke 40.8
oledavy 67.1
Woden 31.9
Jester 24.0
Japper 13.3

culture
Singaboy 30.0
Archduke 19.0
oledavy 29.0
Woden 15.3
Jester 14.5
Japper 12.4

Domination:
Singaboy 576
Archduke 360
oledavy 144
Woden 255
Jester 196
Japper 80

Singaboy 9 cities, 15 civics, 21 techs, 42.4 gpt (409g)
Archduke 6 cities, 11 civics, 18 techs, 52 gpt (250g)
oledavy 5 cities, 14 civics, 22 techs, 20 gpt (210g)
Woden 6 cities, 12 civics, 22 techs, 31 gpt (114g)
Jester 4 cities, 12 civics, 17 techs, 20 gpt (330g)
Japper 4 cities, 11 civics, 17 techs, 19 gpt (145g)

Overall, it doesn't look bad for me at all, taking into account that 3 cities under still under occupation. oledavy is playing a very strong science and culture game but lacks in terms of military. His military strength in fact is terrible considering his relatively modest gpt. He has a 'attack me next' sign all over his back. I feel together with Jester, I should be able to make a real dent in his empire.

As horses are good with my GG, they won't be enough against an invasion of Japan. I will need to have a strong navy coupled with crossbows and knights. I will get knights in 3 turns. However, looking at the technology tree, I feel it would be good to get to cavalry as fast as possible to have overwhelming odds here.
Let's have a look at the tech screens:




After stirrups (3 turns), it would be 5 techs to Military Science. Most Eurekas are achievable.
Construction 2 turns (with 50 science)
Castles 4 -5 turns (with a new government I get in around 8 turns)
Siege Tactics 7 turns (with 2 bombards Eureka)
Printing 6 turns (Eureka gained from Great Engineer next turn)
Military Science 9 turns (if I can kill a unit with a knight)

I am looking at around 30 turns maximum for that and it would tie in nicely to deter Woden and Archduke while supporting my campaign against oledavy (which could start in 20 turns or less)

As for Civics, I will finish Medieval Fairies, then head for a new government with Exploration and head for guilds. there are several very tempting policies that I can't miss out on. I will have to forgo the Inspiration for Civil Service as I do not want to stretch myself trying to get a city artificially to size 10. In my mind, this is not worth the effort and would get that city into amenities issues anyway.



A last look at Great people shows that the Great Merchant and the Great General would be nice to get. However, the effort for the Great General might be too large and by the time I get there, I am looking at industrial era cavalry anyway. I will net the Great Engineer next turn and hope for a much better option for the next Great Engineer. I am not competing with the Great Scientist race as it is too competitive to start with.

[Singaboy]

Turn 101:

I get the Great Engineer and decide to use it at Aachen. I might add a district there without going for size 10 after all. Maybe an entertainment district if necessary. Hence, I get the Eureka for Printing.
Weinberg has finished its campus, science notches up a little to 52.9. The city goes right away for a library (4 turns) to be able to employ a specialist as it is short of tiles currently. Aachen starts a market (4 turns) to support the increasing military maintenance.

With the Eureka for Printing, I earn a 3rd envoy in Carthage but Archduke has just declared war on the city state. Nothing I can do about it. TheArchduke has 3 swords next to the city and Carthage sports some archer and warrior. It won't be long before the city state falls. A pity.



I start the 4th trade route in Kiel. It triggers the Inspiration for Medieval Fairies as expected. Unfortunately, the additional 5 hammers do not shorten the market (3 turns left). The civic will be ready next turn with some overflow into Exploration. I will try and wait a little with upgrading two caravels as they cost more maintenance. I want to upgrade one of them for now to deter oledavy in the west.

At Utgard, I decide to bring the Great general for support while the units at Niflheim (now called Hirschfeld) heal. You can spot walls being built and I have no idea how much longer I can wait for the attack until they are up.

Next turn I will have a galley, a sword, a GG boosted crossbow and a horseman ready to attack the city. The battering ram is there for support too. I hope to conquer the city in 2 turns and continue to move north. I might send the GG back to fight in the west with 4 horsemen and 1 crossbow there.

Near Hufeisengipfel, Japper tried to avoid my crossbow and generally an attack by sailing into the open sea. Well, he doesn't know I have cartography and seafarer that are not afraid of the Oceans. In fact, he sailed into a real trap. I have three galleys available to attack. I get all three into position to benefit from a nice +4 flanking bonus.

Each of the galleys attacks in counterclockwise fashion. After two attacks, his long boat doesn't look too good. In fact, the long boats fate is sealed and sinks. I feel some sense of satisfaction as Japper started his pillage nonsense long time ago not knowing it will come back to haunt him badly. Take that, Viking friend!

A nice side effect is that the last galley earned a promotion. Surely, the ideal candidate for a unit upgrade to a caravel next turn (I will adopt the right policy next turn). I will get embolon promotion which gives the ship +7 strength in naval battles. This caravel will have a strength of 57. Pretty powerful against galleys, even the Japanese type of strength 30.

[Singaboy]

Turn 102:

I am greeted by a new civic but also the fact that Utgard has just finished its walls and bombarded my horseman. However, I will not lose much sweat over that I think. I am more concerned about Archduke taking Carthage, though the city state has now a sword too besides the archers etc. If only the city state is smart enough to get the sword into its own city instead of the pool of water next to it.




First I attack Utgard. The wounded horseman doesn't have to attack, as it can swap position with the second horseman there. I attack with the horseman, crossbow, swordsman and a galley and the city is pretty beat including its city walls, which have evaporated.

The city will fall next turn and I hope to march on without much delay though units might be wounded. Unfortunately, the next city is out of reach for my navy. My attacks will have to rely on horsemen, a sword and the crossbow. For that reason, I might leave the GG in this corner.

I hope to have glimpse at the western city next turn to check whether the battering ram should move south. Maybe I should build a second battering ram for more flexibility.

With Medieval Fairies, a change in civic cards is possible. I Implement Professional Army for the cheaper upgrades. This also means that I will not produce military in the next few turns until I get to a new government. My main Island is on infrastructure big time. Zuckerstadt and Weinberg produce libraries, Kiel is on a market, Salz am Meer is still building its walls, Zitronenhain on its eternal harbor district.

However, as I swap out Serfdom (I won't finish any builder before another policy swap), I get Urban Planning back for added production. Once Japper has been beaten, this policy will result in additional 13 hammers for all cities. As I need more gold, I implement Merchant Confederation for now. Let's hope Carthage with its three envoys won't be beaten so fast.

I upgrade the galley that is up for a promotion and all city defense ratings shoot up by 12 points (need to check this again). This is important for the attack that might eventually come from Woden and Archduke.

In fact, I am starting to wonder whether it might be better to attack the closest target, the person whose ratings have recently gone up a lot. Let Jester deal with oledavy while I try and harm Archduke before his navy gets too powerful. I have easy access to his land via Zitronenhain. I am confident, that I might be able to fight a land war in England avoiding his navy. I have to make sure though, that I can protect the northern passage between out Islands and that means lots of navy and ranged forces. I would also need to pull back my GG to support knights and crossbows to fight Archduke.

I might have to change my research strategy to head for musketmen first before cavalry in order to get the Eureka for square rigging and frigates. I still have a technological advantage over Archduke and Woden. It will only get better with a pacified Norway.

My plan is to build walls in all coastal cities and start to produce more knights and crossbows before hitting turn 121 when the NAP between Archduke and me expires.