Wrapping Up City Lights: The Coalition Perspective
The coalition players were gracious enough to share with me their communications logs. If they read this and are willing, I'd also love to type up any retrospective thoughts they have on the game. But I want to share the logs with you, along with my own notes and comments. Sadly I don't have back up saves for most of this, but we'll do our best to provide context anyway. So let's dive in:
For context, Incurian is Phoenicia (and has played briefly on Realms Beyond), Eltar is Korea, Rob is England, and Gob is the Netherlands (also a brief RB participant). Math, the Roman player, had dropped out by this point.
So here is the first seeds of what would become a global nuclear war by the end. Equestria's explosive growth via Work Ethic & Monumentality had not gone unnoticed, and so Phoenicia (! not Korea, as I had assumed) reached out to begin forming an anti-pony coalition. The plotting started last November, about turn 80 or so, and continued until the war launched on 98, in late February. For context, here was my nearest report to when they realized it was dogpile me or give up the game.
My core cities of Canterlot, Definitely Not Rapa Nui, Baltimare, and, increasingly, Manehattan, are becoming fully mature. The original 3 in particular are becoming monstrous. Canterlot and DNRN can build anything in 1-turn between their faith production and their urban districts, and their science is competitive with Korea's seowon economy despite me having relatively few developed campuses (yet). My first wave of expansion cities on the northern coast are finishing out their Desert Folklore Holy Sites, which will instantly translate into +10 production boosts for each city.
Canterlot, my capital, is almost literally out of things to build:
It has two urban districts (a Classical & a Renaissance borough) and 4 other districts, needing to reach size 13 for its next. The Holy Site, far to the west, is actually closer to DNRN and is boosted by two adjacent mountains, DNRN's Government Plaza, a holy site and campus (both belonging to its sister city), and a Classical borough (belonging, of course, to DNRN). Combined with my Desert Folklore pantheon giving adjacency for desert tiles and Canterlot's holy site is at +9 adjacency, which is boosted to 18 via the Scripture civic I have slotted, and due to my Work Ethic belief that 18 faith is converted to production, 25% of the city's total.
The Campus is next. It is adjacent to two mountains, DNRN's holy site, the commercial hub, and the Classical borough. That gives it +6 adjacency, doubled to 12 via the Natural Philosophy civic. The Classical borough is home to an Elder Teachings building, which enables a project (repeatable up to 3 times) which grants +2 production to campuses and boosts their Great Scientist generation. So it also is contributing 6 production to Canterlot.
South of the Campus is the Classical borough. It is adjacent to a mountain, the campus, the commercial hub, the Industrial Zone, and the city itself - all told that adds up to 8 production, 1 gold, 1 science, and 2 food. It's also on top of a niter deposit. The specialists working the district generate a further 4 production, 2 science, and 2 faith.
Southeast of that is the Industrial zone. Bordering some of Baltimare's mines, the Urban borough, the city, and a mountain, it has a pedestrian 4 adjacency. Note that I built Macchu Picchu next door - I am overflowing with production and my territory is very mountainous, so it was an easy call, and that's contributing a bit here. All told, the city has built every building it possibly can (once the University completes...), so it pumps units for eurekas and inspirations in its spare time.
Definitely Not Rapa Nui is similar, but with only 33 production a turn it's still churning through buildings. It needed to build the Ancestral Hall and now the Intelligence Agency on its government plaza, still needs shrines and temples, libraries and universities, etc. It diverted, as well, for the Pyramids wonder to give all my builders +1 charge. Still, it will gradually mature.
Here's my first area of expansion outside the core, the Wild West:
Manehattan in the center has developed into a city to rival DNRN, with 34 production per turn. It is young, only founded a short while ago, and has a Classical borough with Elder Teachers and a Campus finishing a library, in addition the mandatory Holy Site. Fillydelphia is a valuable rural city like Baltimare, but I'm not sure how to develop it with further districts - probably a Harbor to avoid taking the useful rural tiles, but beyond that? An Encampment to try and trigger the discount for other cities? An entertainment district will be vital later? Not sure. Need to think. Vanhoover is tentatively going to become a rural city, as I spot a nice Aqueduct/Canal combo to place a +6 Industrial Zone to cover the western districts with factory production later. Along the northern coast, Salt Lick City, Las Pegasus, and Maneaco are young plants still finishing up their holy sites. Salt Lick will then build Petra, Pegasus will go Urban, and Maneco has no choice but to specialize as a rural city, if it does at all.
Also visible are my 5 trade routes. This number will grow, as lighthouses/markets/Farmer's Markets are the next priority after Holy Sites. Most funnel to Baltimare, given the food and production yields, but as the cities mature I'll instead start running routes either to Phoenicia and Korea for gold/science or from my urban cities to my rural ones to maintain food and population growth.
South of my continent, over a small sea, I've settled a colonial zone, New England (to contrast Old England on the far side of the world).
Buckingham and Manechester were settled first, and along with Trottingham are building DF holy sites near the Phoenician isthmus (Phoenicia is occupied besieging Brussels to the southeast, which is shielded by Mt. Roraima on one side and the sea on another, so you can only approach from two tiles - good luck!). New England is home to valuable citrus and banana plantations, and will be mostly a farming area, but I do intend to make Manechester an urban city down the line.
West of New England is the island of Yucatan:
Saddle Arabia is overrun with barbarians and needs muskets to clear it out, then it will be home to a single city. La Venta's island of Yucatan will host 3 more mostly filler cities, as we start to draw near to Roman and English borders over the western oceans.
North of Yucatan, west of Equestria is the island of Mexico:
Mexico is home to a Pony colony on its southeastern coast, and has more expeditions pushing to settle along the southern coast as well. A final city is planned for the northwest, near Holland, but Dutch explorers are starting to sniff around and I may lose the Yokeyo site.
East of New England we find the Phoenician homelands:
Note the siege of Brussels in the southwest! Phoenicia has plenty of Cothons and decent science and culture, but has made little use of the City Lights districts. I would have eaten Kumasi before Brussels.
Northeast of Phoenicia is the Korean core:
Korea has made extensive use of Rural districts in particular and has one or two Classical Boroughs, and seowons everywhere. He also has sprawling colonial possessions around the world. His science and culture are clearly tops, but he doesn't have the production I do, and I feel fine with where I am as my universities come online.
East of Phoenicia and southeast of Korea is the Roman Empire:
Territorially very impressive, the Romans are pretty underdeveloped and making no use of any City Lights districts.
North of Rome, there's a lot of territorial tension with England:
England occupies an isthmus between the Netherlands to his northeast and Rome to his south. The English player has complained about cramped territory, but he does have lots of offshore islands and stuff to settle, as well as the single best start location in the game - his capital is adjacent to Kilamanjaro!
Things to note: as of October, my science was still considerably behind Korea's and had been all game. I also had only just began the chain of colonization that I think galvanized the Coalition. But you also see how much more use I made of City Lights districts than the eventual coalition did. Korea and Phoenicia's empires, though, largely stagnated from that point, while I settled my northern coast, two additional islands (Mexico, which wound up bearing the brunt of the English assault later, and Yucatan, which saw a few serious battles with English raiders). I also managed to develop my core areas more than they did. England changed the most, though, conquering 75% of Rome and 50% of the Netherlands.
My attention at this time was consumed with the Randoms war - these turns saw me in the midst of the nerve-wracking campaign to raze Tokyo and break the Japanese navy. I didn't start giving City Lights serious thought until the spring.
By December, planning amongst the three Coalition groups was in full swing:
Note: I was marking coal on the map for everyone else in an effort to be helpful! England had complained about a cramped settling area, but had numerous coal islands possible nearby. This was instead taken as a threat, I guess.
They show their inexperience in warfare here - they build muskets & siege to try to crack cities, when you really need gunpowder units - Frigates and Bombards - and their upgrades to have any kind of chance. That explains the heavy musket assault on Cloudsdale to open the war.
From there, things stewed through December and January, while I concentrated on the great sea war in the other game. It's not until mid-February, turn 98, that Phoenicia is ready to attack:
And
For context, here is my first-turn of the war report. The major takeaway is that I was totally blindsided, not expecting a serious war (partially because their military power was so low! Less than mine, still), and thought it would be mostly Phoenician raiding since I (correctly) didn't judge him to have the muscle to do any real damage to my cities. I had a large but scattered army and a small but concentrated fleet:
The fleet I more or less immediately flung into an effort to save Trottingham, which succeeded, but at the cost of heavy casualties - most of these original units would die over the next 25 turns. The army, too, wound up immolated in the back and forth fighting at the Biruta passes, but it did its job (and one bombard would survive to the end of the game, participating in the capture of Seoul!). So, with my main fleet caught up fending off Phoenicia, I had to crash-build a home defense navy, wrest control of the seas BACK from the coalition - from scratch, mind you! - and then go over to the offensive to secure peace. I wrote this strategic plan on the first turn:
Quote:here is the strategic plan:
I. War goals:
a)Neutralize enemy shipyards on the Libyan Sea to prevent any chance of their ever threatening Equestria
b)Capture of Brussels and Byblos to secure the southern flank if possible.
Limited goals for a limited war. Accomplishing these two should prevent any future wars.
II. Strategy
1)Build out two fleets - one to hold the south, one to scour the north. Focus on melee ships first to achieve naval supremacy, build up frigates/battleships as possible to take & raze the enemy cities on that sea. Privateers as needed.
2)Concentrate the army in New Equestria after the sea lanes are secure.
3)Build the Venetian Arsenal as soon as practicable - I ahve two possible locations.
4)Build out privateers, ironclads, and frigates until there are no more enemy ships visible, then swap to amenity builds.
That more or less worked. The major wrinkle was their refusal to sign peace even after I torched the shipyards. I also started the war with Eletricity unlocked, which meant once I researched Refining (for Battleships), I immediately had oil hooked up and all my privateers became far more expensive subs. The heaviest blow was London completing the Venetian Arsenal, which I missed on the map completely until it gave me a rude surprise. I also never got to the amenity builds due to the eventual endless flood of English units thanks to the VA. Still, this more or less worked.
Moving on:
Korea/Phoenicia's initial strategy was
a)Mass pillages to shut down my shipbuilding and deny me strategic resources
b)A major land-sea assault on Trottingham
c)Seizure of Cloudsdale in the north to upgrade Korean units and raze my northern coastal cities.
The attack on Trottingham faltered due to two factors:
1)The proximity of my standing navy - busting barbs in the southern ocean - scuttled the naval assault, narrowly. Both of our starting fleets were consumed in this fight but I could replace the losses, Phoenicia never recovered.
2)The land invasion had to cross difficult terrain into a narrow, 2-tile wide isthmus against field cannon and bombard fire (and line infantry vs Musketmen):
Trottingham and Manechester could each only be attacked from a few tiles, and each blocked any efforts to push deeper into New Equestria. I was frantically research Steel from the moment war broke out, as well.
In the north, not only did I have no units, I had no ability to even build units:
So that was a narrow run thing.
Late in Feb the spirits of the Coalition were the highest they'd ever be, as they closed in on Cloudsdale and Trottingham. With battleships soon to come and seeming total superiority in the north, they figured England would soon join in pillaging from the west and they might be able to steadily close the ring.
However, inexperience told here. Humans build a LOT more units than the AI when at war, and they attacked with too small forces with no sustained replacement plan in place - meanwhile Equestria was spitting out units from every single city and flinging them at Korea right away, in a desperate bid to slow them down.
My report from the time is worth reading in full:
Quote:City Lights 101
Quote:This is starting to become very serious.
- Napoleon at the Berezina, November 23, 1812
A second Punic ironclad is built and the two launch a concerted attack on Trottingham, doing rather more damage than I'd like. I still need 2 turns to get Steel online, and I don't think the city can hold out on its own. However, I gather my own squadron - 2 ironclads of my own, supported by 2 frigates, a privateer, and a caravel, as well as a bombard on land - off to the west. If the ironclads turn and fight me, I can draw him into a fight in the strait long enough for Steel defenses to come online. If he presses the city, I think he'll redline it, but then I can hit him next turn and hopefully save it. Either way it'll be close!
To the north, the attack on Cloudsdale is also serious:
If I had even one ironclad here, I could see it off, but I don't, and so no way to hit back at the moment. Cloudsdale isn't an essential city and so this doesn't pose an existential threat, but even losing the city for a few turns (or seeing it razed and having to build from scratch) is a serious irritant.
Still, next turn my first emergency ironclads begin to come online, and every turn thereafter will see more and more hulls hit the slipways. We know how many privateers I'm willing and able to build in a fucking pinch, so I hope they're ready for the swarms of little bastards that will be coming for them. So we might suffer some more setbacks than I hoped, but should be okay...I think.
Also, England joined hte war, 'coz fuck me, but my two robot allies joined the war. Maybe that'll keep him busy a while.
Should be exciting times!
Quote:The attacks both north and south are pressed hard, and Trottingham is redlined. My squadron attacks from the west, sinking a Phoenician privateer and ironclad, but a damaged ironclad remains next to the red-lined city. In the north, near Cloudsdale, enemy muskets come ashore and I have only one heavy cavalry unit to oppose them. If the cities can survive one more turn, walls come online, but it's VERY close.
In the end, that was the lowest point for me, as Trottingham fell and Cloudsdale was redlined - but Steel arrived literally just in time to save the day:
Quote:City Lights 103
Trottingham falls to the Phoenicians and Cloudsdale is probably doomed to fall to Korea, but Steel comes in just in time:
Instantly, every single city spawns 400 hp walls and now I'm effectively immune to conquest absent battleships or artillery - both of which require coal and oil. Need to scout the map for oil resources, so refining is next. It will cut off my ability to build Frigates as long as I have coal, which is a bummer, and the loss of Trottingham cuts off 2 sources of coal.
Phoenicia suicided one of his ironclads to redline the city and the other takes it, but my squadron is intact and I am able to recapture on the same turn - which spawns walls and now the enemy army and navy in this area are effectively routed. More and more of my own armed forces are arriving, so as long as I can defend the sealanes south of the city, I can hold here. My melee naval units pull back to the west to repair, and I'll follow with the frigates next turn. They're exposed but nothing to be done about that right now. A major priority will be pushing the army to the east to secure the two coal mines and get them repaired. I do have two bombards which might be able to account for the Punic encampment guarding the pass, but I have no plans for a land invasion right now.
In the north, Cloudsdale is redlined and 5 muskets are ashore or nearly so:
The ironclad will be one turn too late, arg! I can only hope that they're demoralized and retreat, but don't count on it. That city is likely lost, but thankfully it's far less important than Trottingham - it can be resettled fairly easily, while Trottingham would have cost me multiple strategic resources and districts.
Anyway, my cities unleash hell. I destroy a marauding Punic caravel in the far west, securing that area I think and putting an end to trader losses and harbor pillages, and begin to secure control of the gulf south of my mainland. The cuirassier hits the two Korean muskets in the north, in a dim hope of drawing fire away from the city.
Final setup is like so:
The land invasion can be defeated using Steel defenses and native unit production. The sea invasion I also think I will eventually drive away. Phoenicia can't sustain his caravel there and needs to sail a LONG way to repair, and Korea has fewer shipyards, so I have high hopes there, although Cloudsdale might fall.
In the south:
only an enemy field cannon remains in view. The first wave here, at least, has been repulsed. Now I have to get ready for round 2 while I focus on clearing the northern ocean.
Also...
Phoenicia starts the Panama Canal, but it will only enable a single city to contribute ships to the north? Seems like a waste of production if you ask me.
We see in the chat logs above that the Canal was started in an effort to bridge the continent, but Phoenicia didn't quite grasp that they wouldn't be able to build another canal on the far side of Sidon to finish things. So his second city was effectively out of the war from this point. (I later built a proper canal, at Carthage - it finished the same turn I nuked London and so became instantly not needed).
The coalition morale began to drop as Steel finished:
and
Interestingly, completion of Steel was the first major turning point in the war, although I didn't realize it at the time. While I was still very much on the back foot and trying desperately to hold on both fronts, Phoenicia and Korea had seen Steel defenses basically end any hopes of capturing cities. In fact, in what I think was a mistake, Korea temporarily pulled back from Cloudsdale - I think a determined assault should have taken the city, walls or no walls. But I can't test it. Anyway, from ths point on Phoenicia resigned himself to simply screening Korean battleships, knowing he'd never catch up technologically. Korea felt like he was barely hanging on around Cloudsdale, while from my perspective, I was barely hanging on:
Quote:City Lights 105
The enemy coalition destroys 3 units on the interturn - I lose a field cannon to cavalry attack at Trottingham, a privateer in the southern ocean, and my relief ironclad is sunk outside of Cloudsdale, as pictured above. Korea has formed a musket corps south of hte city, and has another near my capital, supported by a Phoenician musket and crossbow. I have two cuirassiers, an ironclad of my own, and the city defenses to resist with here.
In what I think is in retrospect a mistake, I sink the Korean privateer, leaving only the ironclad and frigate left, but removing the city garrison. The Korean single musket is killed by a cuirassier from the city, and my second cuirassier mangles the Phoenician crossbow but doesn't manage to kill it.
Another horseman is joining the fight next turn, and I have wiped out the small enemy squadron on my south coast while savaging the northern attack, but it's still touch and go here. Two privateers will be able to pick off the enemy frigate next turn, I hope, and if the ironclad survives I can fall back into the city to regroup. The enemy doesn't quite have enough attacks here to really make gains, I pray, and I am slowly stabilizing.
In the south, an enemy knight got my field cannon unexpectedly, but counter-fire destroys it in retaliation. THe enemy naval squadron has pulled back out of sight, and I need a breathing space to gather another naval force in the straits guarding access to my central ocean:
Finishing refining upgraded many of my frigates in queue, AND I already had oil hooked so I lose the ability to build privateers, sithspit!
on the positive side of the ledger, I have 13 turns left on the Venetian Arsenal project and no way that I can see of being stopped, and my total power has already surpassed that of my two enemies, who are losing units much faster than they are replacing them.
Interesting, both Phoenicia and I felt that we had won the naval battle of Trottingham. From my perspective, I had saved the city and driven away the squadron from immediate danger, from his perspective I guess he saw my units hunkering down in cities and felt he had won sea control.
So, phase one of the war had lasted just over four weeks real-time, about 7 turns. The Coalition had formulated and launched a surprise attack, aiming to conquer two cities, pillage harbors and resources, and attempt to lay the groundwork for a more serious offensive. The standing navy had been able to turn back the southern assault, just barely, while Canterlot's crash cuirassiers and an emergency shipbuilding program had just barely sufficed to preserve Cloudsdale, for now. Steel had closed off most serious dangers, so the Coalition pivoted to pinning down as many pony forces as they could in New Equestria while Korea upgraded to battleships and continued trying to win Cloudsdale. I'll cover the second phase - the struggle for control of the Libyan Sea, ending with the Battle of Ziz - next time.
The Coalition War phase 2 - the struggle for the seas
I missed a few messages from just prior to my getting walls up:
I added them to the report above.
Anyway, with the immediate crisis over with Steel - both attacking parties pulled back to regroup - we were able to go over to the offensive for the first time of the war. I grouped most of my units in the central ocean, sending the bare minimum to Cloudsdale and Trottingham, and then moved en masse to attempt to wrest control over the Libyan Ocean separating my continent from the Coalition's. Covering these turns, I wrote:
Quote:City Lights 106
As expected, I lose my northern ironclad, leaving me with a weak navy near Cloudsdale at the moment. One cuirassier also falls on the northern front, but those are replaceable and expendable. Otherwise no major losses, though Phoenica pushes a broad assault on my southern front near New Equestria by both land and sea.
My defending bombards, field cannons, and city defenses extract what toll they can, but I'm unable to concentrate enough firepower to sink any individual ship - I really feel the loss of my two frigates here. A line infantry polishes off a Punic field cannon near the land bridge, leaving only a Punic musketman in sight. I hope to secure the land area to restore the mines nad industrial zones and reclaim my coal reserves, but the enemy Encampment and the difficult city of Brussels are significant obstacles.
I shift down a few reinforcements from the north, giving me 4 damaged ironclads against 4 equally damaged enemy ironclads. My hope is that the difficult terrain, city defenses, and sizable ranged and siege contingent tip things in my favor and enable me to hold my ground here. Everything else is sent to the middle sea, where I aim to establish sea superiority and begin a counteroffensive.
I have 4 ironclads here on the Gulf of Hammamet, soon to be joined by 2 battleships and a fifth clad. That should be enough to begin operations against the enemy coast, where there are several enemy shipyard cities and one Korean harbor to pillage, which should shut down shipbuilding on this ocean and give me permanent ascendency. Overall things are going okay, but it's a long slog ahead.
Quote:My screenshots failed for 107, but two blows:
A Korean battleship turns up outside Cloudsdale and sinks my two privateers alongside the ironclad. I had intended to destroy the final Korean frigate with it. I have only one ironclad in theater now, so I hold back out of range until I can scrape up more ships.
The heavier blow is - England completes the Venetian Arsenal! I hadn't spotted him building it outside of London. Terrible news, that was going to be my ace in the whole to decisively win the war. Now I'll ahve to do it the old fashioned way, ugh.
Stalemate prevails on the southern front in New Equestria. Enemy has same forces, probably bringing more up behind. I'm gradually strengthening my hold on the middle sea, and battleships come out next turn for me. Coal crisis. Nothing to be done about it.
Quote:Turns 108 - 109:
Northern front: The situation at Cloudsdale has largely stabilized. 3 Equestrian cuirassiers manage to eliminate all invading ground forces, and city defensive fire reduces the Korean squadron by a privateer and a frigate, leaving him with 2 ironclads and a BB in the northern theater, while I have 2 ironclads and some submarines on the way.
Very uncomfortable not having absolute naval supremacy. Not a situation I'm used to!
Situation by the end of 109. The battleship could ultimately take the town BUT he has to be covered by his clads to do so. I'm countering with a mixed force of subs and ironclads, while a second force is headed to raid Seoul.
Central sea front: Our swelling force of ironclads and battleships begins to gather here. We drive off two Punic ironclads and seemingly open the way for a raid on Seoul's harbor, which will severely restrict Korean shipbuilding on this sea. That will then enable a naval assault on Phoenicia's northern cities, to burn them and establish permanent control on this ocean.
SOuthern front: All parties withdraw, stalemate ensues. Though I do get one of the Korean 'clads.
Upgrading bombards to artillery and researching flight to enable balloons, which will enable me to break the Punic defense on the isthmus.
Coalition chatter for these turns:
The Coalition spirits were initially high, as the Korean battleship continued to shred reinforcements I sent to Cloudsdale, but they failed to notice that neither the north nor the south was my main effort - the center was. And they dramatically underestimated quite how many Equestrian hulls were hitting the water every turn, figuring the skeletal force at Trottingham was actually my main fleet. Lesson here: Watch the power numbers on the diplomacy ribbon. You can always have a very fair estimate of the size of your opponent's armed forces, and if you don't see them ONE place, figure out where it makes the most sense for them to be.
The other major factor was a coal crisis on both sides at this time. I knew of my own coal troubles, but Coalition stocks were also dropping, limiting their ability to deploy modern battleships and ironclads - I somewhat alleviated things by deploying a large force of submarines, too, which wound up being decisive at Ziz.
So, as they pulled back, while I sent a handful of forces north, most of my ironclads, battleships, and submarines gathered in the center. I kept bleeding ironclads being over-aggressive, trying to pillage the harbor at Seoul to cut off Korean shipbuilding, only to be continually surprised by more of HIS ships. But I had just enough for the main event.
The turns 108-118 were the turning point of the war. In the south, Phoenicia launched one final major assault on Trottingham in an effort to draw as many units south as he could. His crippling lack of coal, though, sapped his combat power and made his ironclads crumple like tissue paper. As I moved towards the Punic coastal city of Ziz, Korea actually called off the siege of Cloudsdale and instead steamed south in an effort to cover the Coalition harbors. Both fleets detected each other at the same time - mine sailing east from my main production area south of the continent, his sailing south through the sea that separated Korea from Equestria. Here are my turn reports for the Battle of Ziz, which lasted about 8 turns covering the month of April, real time.
Turn 112 (11 April)
Quote:City Lights II
Storm waves of ironclads lash my southern coast, while the main Korean and Equestrian fleets clash in the central seas.
First, the southern coast:
This was the situation on turn 111 after on 110 two Punic ironclads pushed up to Trottingham's coast. The city defenses and artillery battered the ironclads inside, before I used two of my own to finish them. I was a bit worried about leaving the two ships exposed, but figured they could weather a Phoenician counterattack. I was correct:
Opened 112 to find 4 more ironclads battering, but not destroying, my defensive fleets. I once again have a storm of city, field cannon, and artillery fire, and have more ironclads in the city nearby. By the end of the turn, two more enemy ironclads sunk and a third is crippled. He's lost 4 ships on this front and had a fifth badly damaged, while I have no losses so far. The southern front is holding and I will soon be deploying a balloon here to begin shelling my way over the pass.
In the north:
The main Korean fleet is concentrated out of sight in the Libyan sea, just north of Ziz. I had intended to begin attacking the Phoenician cities, but spotting the Korean fleet made me deploy for battle. We'll engage in furious fighting here, but a)I can better afford losses, and b)I think I have a slight numbers edge, so I accept the engagement.
Korea, also, attacks, dealing heavy damage but failing to sink anything. I counter with subs and fresh ironclads, managing to sink 2 Korean battleships and a Korean ironclad, but the last one unexpectedly survives on 1 hp, sinking two of my own:
Still, I have multiple more replacements en route and he can only resupply from Seoul with any facility, so on the whole I think the exchange is in my favor. If I win this battle, I think I win the war as I'll maintain a stranglehold on this ocean for the rest of the game.
Turn 113 - 114 (16 April)
Quote:City Lights II - turns 113 & 114
The battle of Ziz continues, but seems to be largely settled in an Equestrian victory by the end of 114.
On 113 Korea sank my easternmost ironclad and crippled a battleship. I can't heal due to coal shortages, so I even keep the battered and barely-afloat ships at the front, where normally I'd focus on force preservation first and foremost. We'll slug it out to the end, though. I counter by pouring all my fire on the double-promoted ironclad, figuring that it's hard to replace and once it's gone the rest of the fleet will go easier:
It is sunk, leaving me with two ironclad attacks against an enemy ironclad and battleship. Notice that the Korean vessels are dramatically better than my own. Korea doesn't seem to have a resource shortage (Phoenicia does), Korea and Phoenicia have a military alliance (my military ally, Rome, isn't at war with either! Just England! Bah), and a Great Admiral is backing the fleet. I should probably spend my faith on an admiral, but I was hoping to use it to pray for a land army in a bit.
Anyway, to attack the battleship would suicide my two surviving 'clads, so instead I form them into a fleet in what turns out to be a futile effort to ride out the next wave of Korean attacks. The fleet is sunk, alongside a crippled battleship, on turn 114. However, I have multiple submarines (4) and even frigates joining the battle, plus follow-on battleships, and the Koreans are left with 1 crippled battleship versus a hefty surviving navy:
Military power stands at 1600, over 3 times what it was at the start of the war, and dramatically above Korea and Phoenicia combined - who have both seen their power fall.
Korea is expanding shipbuilding though and is taking measures to contest the Libyan Sea:
A canal going up at size 1 Gongju will allow a second point of entry for ships built by his mature eastern cities, and Busan definitely didn't have that harbor (with lighthouse!) at the start of the war.
my strategic plan is still to destroy the enemy fleet first, and then dispatch subs to occupy the enemy harbors/canal, while I use my main fist to raze cities on this coast.
Update on the southern front later. No major changes but our first observation balloon is online and we're going to shell our way through Phoenicia.
Turn 115 (20 April)
Quote:City Lights II 115
My capital floods, because of course it does, requiring multiple turns of repair to get everything back up:
I haven't built a single ship from Canterlot.
The Battle of Ziz continues, as a Punic ironclad sallies from the city to claim one of my battleships. My subs counter by sinking 2 full-health Korean battleships, and there are more submarines closing in on Seoul and Gongju. I'll be ready to begin my attacks on the enemy mainland soon:
Ziz will be attacked first with my frigates and surviving battleships, while the subs attempt to shut down Korean shipbuilding on this sea. I have an ironclad en route to strike the finishing blows - all of mine were sunk in the battle - and more replacements being built.
In the south, Biruta's encampment is stormed, enabling me to pivot and begin blasting down Brussels' encampment:
Once those are down I'll be clear to move up and begin blasting down both cities.
Turn 116 (24 April)
Quote:
(April 20th, 2024, 16:39)Erasmas Wrote: Good to see another tight war. I hope they will not give up now that you have repelled their attack. There is still the Venetian Arsenal that can cause you some pain.
Is the City Lights mod doing anything for you?
City Lights is pretty fun, and my urban districts are going to be the key to winning this game, I think. I'll do a deep dive on them next turn.
116
The Punic ironclad doesn't withdraw, but finishes off a crippled battleship. Ironically, my coal crisis has now eased and I'm able to begin healing my BBs and ironclads again, but I need to restore the coal mines in the south to really get off the mat here.
In the northern sector, I dispatch the ironclad, ignoring the enemy cuirassier (he can land or not as he likes, I'll murder him eventually), instead concentrating my efforts on Ziz which should fall by turn 117 or so. I also begin to group northern submarines near Seoul's harbor and the other Korean cities in that direction, intending to do my best to cut off production via harbor pillages and city razes, like so:
In the south, my line infantry is killed in the enemy encampment, and I'm also greeted with a Phoenican battleship armada. Thankfully I have artillery and observation balloons to counter it, but the advance here will stall until I can deal with that behemoth:
If he keeps focused on Trottingham, I can hold, but that armada COULD head for Saddle Arabia and points west, and there's not much I can do at the moment - I drew off my ironclads to reinforce the northern sector after the battle of Ziz, leaving one ironclad fleet to patrol the seas here.
Turn 116 (27 April)
Quote:City Lights 116
The great battleship armada south of Trottingham unexpectedly ventures into range of my artillery positions, as it bombards my line infantry on the shore. I snap up the offering, blasting away it and exchanging my damaged ironclad fleet in the city for the battleship armada:
This is a bit of a wrench, but the coal shortage means I'm not repairing anyway, the armada won't make that mistake again so it's now or never, and I need to sink it in order to keep Trottingham safe. The hammer exchange is something like 760 to 1290 in my favor, or roughly one ironclad, in addition to the strategic benefits.
Anyway, the renewed enemy naval assault has caused me to halt my bombarding advance, and my infantry reserve has been depleted, so I'll halt for now while I train up some reinforcements. I probably can't advance against Biruta until I at least neutralize the encampment at Brussels, and I probably can't do that until I obtain naval control of the shore. So this front is degenerating into a Western Front-style stalemate while my navy carries out more decisive action in the north.
Speaking of, Phoenicia sees the consequences of losing control of the seas as I raze the great city of Ziz:
That's one shipyard down. Now, do I take the detour to bombard and burn Lpqy next? I think so. It's basically isolated and helpless now against battleships, and to the north I am getting a pretty firm grip on Korea's coastline. One submarine has entered Seoul's harbor to cut off shipbuilding there, and to the north I'm gathering a second, small squadron to deal with the Korean harbors there:
4 subs and 2 frigates with more on the way, not really city-takers but enough to sink ships and keep things on lockdown until the battleships finish up at Lpqy. If I divert north to hit Korea first, Phoenicia can build some more ironclads in the south and be irritating. So we'll burn the city, THEN roll up Korea's coast. From there, we strike south.
The engine of my resistance are my urban districts. Here's a typical example, at Canterlot:
The city has 63 production, 14 of which is coming from its Classical Borough. Now, you gotta note that I have -7 amenities from war weariness! (I'll probably try and make peace after taking Brussels and Biruta). That's costing me 30% of Canterlot's yields. Furthermore, the city was pillaged AGAIN by a flood, just after I finished repairing the sabotaged industrial zone (a Korean spy sabotaged my Industrial Zone three turns ago, did I mention that?), and of course there's still the damaged outskirts from the enemy invasion attempt. So Canterlot has contributed NOTHING to the war beyond 2 cuirassiers, who admittedly were key to driving off the enemy invasion. So I've managed to outbuild two enemy civs at sea while my strongest city has been plagued by sabotage and natural disasters (seriously, the flood was incredibly shitty luck - shitty in that the RNG picked that river to flood, on that turn, at that severity. Something like three nat 1s in a row - the randomness of natural disasters is the biggest drawback of Gathering Storm in multiplayer. See also roland's entire civilization getting pillaged by TORNADOES in PBEM20). Here's the rest of the city, in its damaged state:
Campus produces 6 production even though it's pillaged.
Renaissance Borough adds another 6 even though it's pillaged.
The Foreign Trade company lets me build 3 extra trade routes, which will be juiced up by the Cree once I get around to actually building them.
Summary of the whole:
An incredible city even half-wrecked and war weary. When I get it repaired and the war ends nothing in the world can match it...except my three other urban cities in the core, to the west. We'll show off Definitely Not Rapa Nui next turn.
Coalition coverage of these events:
Discussion:
The Coalition initially thought they were doing well at Ziz. Korea wavered from despair at the first sight of my fleet, to confidence "that he was giving better than he was getting", and then at last desperate Phoenician measures to stave off defeat - flinging in a cuirassier as a meatshield (I ignored it), attempting to purchase a battleship at Ziz to save the city (never got the chance). The enemy military alliance expiring sailed completely over my head, of course - I was second to last in turn order, just ahead of England, so it expired on Korea's turn and was renewed on Phoenicia's. But it gave one single turn of relief from Korean +5 attacks. I lost all my emergency-built ironclads in the battle, and had to start over from scratch on melee units, but my submarines carried the day in the end. The enemy inability to replace losses, coupled with Phoenicia's main strength faltering on my southern defenses, meant that I had a decisive edge in numbers for the battle, and I sank the Korean fleet, which never really recovered from this battle.
In the south, Phoenicia's last gambit was using Santa Cruz coupled with a frigate upgrade to unleash a battleship armada at me, which drove back my first effort at a counteroffensive over the mountains. However, he got a bit too bold with it, ventured into range of my artillery, and lost it. It seems the loss of Ziz and the battleship broke Phoenicia's morale, as not only did he never again take the offensive in the war, he also stopped messaging with Korea about tactical details. The remaining Coalition correspondence is solely the three-way conference between all the major powers. We'll pick up the narrative there for the month of April, where on April 16 (about the time I was clearly getting the upper hand on the central ocean), there was a brief flurry of messaging:
The key revelations here are how behind England was, still, only just entering the Renaissance era and still far from unlocking key strategic resources like niter, coal, and oil. He was in the midst of conquering Rome and the Netherlands to rectify these issues, but he needed the Coalition to win TIME, and in the end, he was too late by the slimmest of margins. They also still underestimate Equestrian shipbuilding capabilities, considering the war "stalemated" at Ziz and not considering the implications of Equestria's continually swelling military power compared with their own (self-confessed!) inability to replace their losses.
The fall of Ziz also triggered my first peace inquiries, which is why you see England bringing up wargoals at the start of May.
With the destruction of the main Coalition fleets at Ziz, the war entered its third phase: The reduction of the enemy coastline, and the gathering of strength for my decisive offensive in Phoenicia, while England completed the conquest of the two AI powers in his neighborhood and he began to gather the strongest enemy fleet of all - one that very nearly caused me to totally despair. I'll cover that tomorrow.
The Coalition War Phase 3 & 4: The northern Korea offensive & English Intervention
The defeat of the main rival navies at the Battle of Ziz (and a short follow up at the Battle of Gongju a few turns later) basically broke Phoenician morale, as Dido ceased most tactical communications and instead turtled up in her cities awaiting the Equestrian counteroffensive. However, England frantically stepped up efforts to get a modern navy afloat and Korea turned to technological solutions, improvising a defense of his western coast using artillery, emplaced battleships, and a small but deadly air force. Meanwhile, I reached out in the chat seeking to know the Coalition's war goals. My intention here was to begin a line of negotations to try and settle peace after I'd taken out Korea's harbor & canal cities, Phoenicia already having been dealt with. I didn't want to win the game via Domination unless I had to, and war weariness was killing my yields (while England skyrocketed at an alarming rate). I also hadn't built a single hammer of infrastructure in 20 turns at this point and was eager to get back to peacetime building. That triggered a flurry of messages:
Quote:City Lights 118
I get a pretty firm grip on the Korean coast, exchanging one last sub for a Korean battleship, but by and large the Korean fleet seems absent now. Seondeok's power is down to 424, compared with 1730! Cree.
The plan here is to pillage out the shipyard and hten pull out of range, but I will use my subs to put the coast to the torch. The Seowon is juicy, as are multiple mines on this coast. If Korea doesn't make peace, Seoul will be a target for an expeditionary force once I take out the northern cities - it's vulnerable to raids from my sea.
Southern front sees a temporary pull-back from Phoenicia:
I've managed to make repairs here to get coal back online and even in surplus (at least until more battleships finish...), while my artillery is shelling away at Brussels' encampment. Once it's down I can move up my army to shield the artillery while I go for Biruta, but it's still very WWI here.
Amenities are terrible. I would like to make peace, but I intend to remove any ability they'll have to come after me first.
Two things of note: One, the Coalition didn't actually expect me to accept their goals (predictably, I simply replied, "No."). Their minimum terms were lightyears beyond what I was willing to accept - since by this point I was pretty handily winning, I expected to be able to dictate demands, and certainly wouldn't be giving up a single city. So negotiations faltered, and I opted for a strategy of pressuring Korea via city razes in his core to compel him to accept terms, while strengthening my army & navy in Phoenicia to begin a land offensive with the same goal in mind. The other thing to note is London had moved pretty firmly now towards an imminent offensive of his own, relying on Redcoats for his muscle. Thankfully he never got loose on my mainland, but that 6 promotion redcoat on Yucatan Island DID cause me fits.
My own turn report from May 1:
Quote:119
One sub in teh north is sunk by a BB stuffed into Gongju, which will make taking that city very difficult. However, Seoul is nearly neutralized as a shipyard, and Lpqy will fall and be razed next turn. From there I'll move north on the major harbors near Busan. I don't think Korea can cover ALL of them, and I keep building BBs as long as my coal holds out.
So, with peace negotations having failed, I used my navy to finish razing Lpqy, the second city on the Phoenician coast, then steamed north towards Korea's harbors. Along the way, I encountered and sank the surviving Korean battleships - about 3 - but by and large these turns were spent with the Coalition in the dark about my intentions:
And my report from the time:
Quote:123
4 turns of mostly indecisive skirmishing. Turns out a pair of Korean battleships were tucked away, and joined by an ironclad they sink a sub and a frigate of mine - I counter by sinking hte ironclad and one battleship as my fleet moves en masse on Korea:
To the south, Phoenicia's northern coast is burned, while I continue to shell away at Brussels. We also have successfully built our first planes. I hope to begin advancing in force here soon as I assemble more artillery.
It was also in the middle of May that I began to realize that this really was war to the death, and that I'd probably need radical military solutions to the problem. Up to this point my research had been on techs with immediate defensive purposes - Steel, for defenses, Refining for Battleships, Flight & Radio for Aluminum. Now I began a concerted beeline to nuclear fission, planning to utilize Canterlot's absurd production capacity to rush out the Manhattan Project and then bombs before anyone else could compete, fielding as many bombers as possible.
Quote:City Lights 125
The war drags on.
On the northern front, we're beginning our attack on Korea's northern colonies, due to a small battleship fleet that Seondeok has assembled in the Bay of Busan. I need to clear them from the flanks before I can properly shut down Seoul's harbor:
Note the Fighter deployed in Korea's cities. Bombers will be a serious problem - I deploy two biplanes myself at the moment but am about 8 turns away from Advanced Flight myself for my own metal airframes. Thankfully Battleships have some AA capability, but I need to get fighters (and even a carrier?) online to get some air cover over the fleet before Korea rolls out Bombers. The two battleships sheltering behind Sangju might engage, but if they do I think I have the ability to demolish them. Note the overwhelming number of battleships, and my subs are to the south. Goal is to raze Sangju, then Busan, and finally Gumi before rolling south past Gongju and threatening Seoul if Korea doesn't make peace at that point.
On the southern front:
A biplane and destroyer guard the sea passage to the west, where an enemy ironclad fleet is attempting to slip past Maretropolis. My artillery continues to batter away, slowly, at the enemy defenses. More artillery is being built and I'll upgrade these to corps and armies. This is clearly a secondary theater, though, as i continue my main efforts in the north. Phoenicia just really isn't a threat.
However, England has eaten all of Rome at this point and is leading in culture and science. I point this out to Korea and Phoenicia, but they demand that I give up every city outside my home continent in return for peace - this, in a war where all the momentum is on my side! It's a slog, though, and I do desperately need peace to restore my own amenities. Their situation si worse, since their losses in units and cities must be heavier, but they might not even realize! Anyway, it's interesting to see if I can turn a 3-way dogpile into a win at this point. England has superior tech and the Venetian Arsenal, but needs some time to catch up. I need to batter Korea and Phoenicia itno submission so I can turn my fleet loose on England's shores BEFORE the gap is closed.
Bombers and nuclear solutions are on the table.
The war did mostly play out as I predicted in that post, narrowly.
The coalition's reaction to my fleet re-appearing at Sangju:
It was the northern assault here that also, essentially, convinced Korea to abandon any offensive plans and bunker down. In fact, apart from - highly effective - raids by his air force, which defeated me in the First Battle of Seoul, I wouldn't really engage with Korea again until his last stand at the MTW-Aynook line, where Equestrian nuclear weapons made his defense useless.
Quote:Sangju will fall next turn:
It only survived this turn because my destroyer was out of range! Poor planning on my part. I'll lose a battleship because of it, and miss the chance ot take out the hwacha, I expect.
From there, we'll ignore the Korean coal colony to the north for the moment, try and occupy Busan's harbor while opening a bombardment, but move my main force down to Gongju - I want to raze that city before it finishes the canal. That done, any chance of Korea completing a northern canal in a realistic timeframe is lost, and only Busan and Seoul harbors (and Gumi) will remain on this sea. Busan can be taken from my side with battleship fire and a single land unit, so that will be done, and Gumi will also be taken - possibly kept for coal? - and Korea's presence north of the isthmus will be eliminated. At that point I will be prepared to offer peace to the enemy coalition.
In the south, we pound away! Slow going.
So, the month of May played out with the burning of five cities - two Phoenician and three Korean - up and down the coast, and the remnants of Korea's fleet being hunted down. Peace negotiations failed, and at this point, the Coalition staked everything on an English offensive sweeping in and altering the balance in their favor one last time. It took until the end of that month for the English fleet to come up and modernize, while I finished off Korea's threatening cities, tried and failed to burn Seoul, and settled on the overland drive through Phoenicia to Korea's heartland.
My coverage of the opening of the English campaign:
Quote:City Lights 133
Three turns on and the siege of Seoul is progressing well. Uh, which is good, because the English fleet - as large as the Equestrian and backed the Venetian Arsenal - is starting to put pressure on my far west.
One tech down on the road to atomics. Nukes are going to have to be my ace in the hole, I don't like my chances against an all-up English fleet.
In the archipelago west of my mainland, a brand-new destroyer hunting Korean raiders in these waters stumbled onto the English main body. Their Sea Dogs took a new battleship, as well, so I've lost two good units here in 2 turns. The remaining ships in the area flee back to local cities. I can make a stand behind my walls until battleships show up. I need battleships of my own to counter them, though.
I do claim a sea dog with defensive fire, though:
Still, the situation is grim. England is technologically behind but he's been able to eat two entire AI civs in peace while I've been defending myself, and Phoenicia and Korea refuse all reasonable peace offers. I figure I have a narrow window to eliminate them while England closes the tech gap, and then I use my stockpiled nukes on Victoria. :/
Quote:On the western front, which consists of the island of Mexico astride two major channels separating me from English seas, Victoria sent a fleet of privateers to raid my northern oil rigs. Two rigs were pillaged but I sank a Korean submarine and 3 English privateers using a destroyer and submarine garrison I had in the area:
Builder labor is en route to repair those two oil rigs, but I don't have a shortage yet. The battleships are sailing towards where I expect the main attack, the city of Neighpon which guards the OTHER major channel, south of Mexico:
I've sunk several frigates and privateers here before England realized my defenses were strong and he pulled back out of range, but really I'm making do with a threadbare fleet on this front. My defense plan is to garrison the cities with battleships to enable them to reach out and blast attackers, while I'll try to station subs and destroyers behind the cities to sally out and finish off attackers. Sadly I can't devote any air power to this front to give it real teeth. The obvious weakness is the extended front, down from Yokeyo (visible in the far north, facing a slowly-sinking Netherlands civ), through Prance on the northern side of the channel, to Neighpon on the south side. England can focus all his fleet on one city, while I can only respond to his moves.
Here's an overview of this entire front:
We know at least 3 battleships (a fleet and a singleton) are opposite Neighpon, and we sank a Sea Dog in the north. That's 205 power accounted for of his 1900, leaving 1700. 2 more battleships, 140. A frigate, 55. 2 artillery, 160. We're down to 1345 power to account for. I can spot a third artillery behind a redcoat, 2 redcoats total, and a cavalry, totaling about 280 power, so all in all we have about 1060 unaccounted for. Every Dutch city is probably spawning a new Redcoat as it falls. Well, okay, we can handle that. They have to come by sea, so he'll be vulnerable to my sea and air power. The real danger is the highly promoted battleships running around - he could have another dozen of the things, though I think he has a fair number of sea dogs as well.
Still, assume I have to deal with ~12 battleships and ~8 Sea Dogs coming from the west soon. I'll need at least 4 battleships and 4 destroyers of my own, estimate, to be able to seriously slow him down at my cities. The good news is I'm ahead in tech nad my defenses are very thick, so he'll have a hard time cracking them.
Nukes. Nukes are the salvation here, even against the VA. If he gathers the fleet to besiege a city, I'll drop Little Boy on its head and then mop up.
As you remember, June was essentially a lost month due to vacations, so July was the last month of the war. Here's all the remaining correspondence I have:
The "brand new battleship" I mentioned being lost, along with the destroyer, which stumbled into the main body of the English fleet. Apparently it came before England had his own battleships, as he couldn't even repair it. Possibly a coal shortage?
Korea notes his victory at Seoul, and they debate English coal shortages. Note also that England needed to "hit him hard" and "run him over" - they knew that most of my fleet was on the eastern front, and that I was stitching together a defense in the west out of scraps, odds-and-sods that the local cities could build. I don't think England expected to get hung up on Neighpon as long as he did - when the city eventually fell he took Prance and Cloppowa pretty quickly (Cloppowa basically without a fight), but his momentum was gone, his damage too great, and my next-gen units wound up destroying the English fleet at the Battle of Ponyville (the last serious battle of the war) at the end of July.
And with that, the Coalition basically ceased to function. Through July, they fought their individual battles. My artillery, battleships, and bombers at last - no longer distracted by the Koreans to the north - blasted through the passes to Phoenicia, put Biruta to the torch, and liberated Brussels. Phoenicia surrendered all his cities to Korea, and I raced through the final cities unopposed. Korea, having saved Seoul for a few turns, stitched together a defense at the former Punic cities of Mtw and Aynook, exacting a heavy toll on my land units in particular with his bombers as I moved over Phoenicia, but my concentrated fleet and the first detonation of a nuclear warhead in anger broke his defenses. Sidon fell one turn, Mtw and Aynook another, Jinju a third, and finally Seoul, Gyeongju, and Suwon all at once. Korea at last surrendered at that point, and my fleet raced through the archipelago to get to London, arriving in range to drop a nuke just as England faltered at Ponyville and also surrendered.
overall, the strategy of the coalition had some good ideas - pillage my strategics, spread my fronts thin, and try to cut me back before I grew too large. Korea's tactical defenses, particularly at Seoul, were excellent, and he exacted his share of blood as he fell. England managed to come from multiple ages behind to equaling me in Modern tech, and put together the largest, most successful coalition offensive of the war, capturing or razing three Equestrian cities. And Phoenicia achieved the only offensive success in the first phase at Trottingham, successfully stymied me for a long time at Brussels and Biruta, and selflessly gave his coal, oil, and in the end even cities, to his comrades.
Their main failing was in inexperience - they didn't realize exactly how many units I would bring to a fight. I don't think they built units from every city every turn, and they didn't assemble (well, England did) large enough fleets to rally crack cities - for example, Phoenicia had a dozen caravels spread out all over my empire to pillage traders and harbors, but those were picked off relatively painlessly in the first ten turns. Imagine if he'd used those to capture Trottingham, and then formed to defend the strait west of Equestria - the same place I formed my fleet to defend against him coming north? Trottingham certainly would have fallen, as it did against his reduced fleet, and this time I wouldn't have had the ships in place to instantly recapture. I don't think he'd've managed to overrun New Equestria, still - Steel defenses would have stopped him cold and he still had chokepoints to overcome - but he would have been far more irritating to dig out, and would have captured fully two coal resources, possibly easing his own shortages and making mine even worse - and THAT in turn might have altered the outcome of the Battle of Ziz. I lose there and it takes me ten turns more, possibly, to win control of my ocean, and THEN England has more time to wreak havoc in the west. I expect I would have pulled ito ut in the end, especially with nuclear weapons making the difference, EXCEPT they'd also retain Biruta and Ziz, both of which had access to uranium of their own...One shudders to think! So congratulations to the Coaltion - they very nearly pulled it off. GG and congrats to everyone. See y'all in another thread.
It was great to follow this. I only play Civ 6 as a builder game but with the right setup and against humans it can be a good wargame too as you showed here.
Thanks for the write-ups!
