[SPOILERS] Khan's Thread

[Mr. Cairo]

OH has been fighting back where he can, but still being pretty frugal with his units, using mostly HAs:



He's just taken back Nowhere with units from Tourist, and Auro has been forced to pull back to consolidate. Attacking through all that culture must be a pain. So, for now, my plans to take some of OH's cities are on hold, and I'm going to try and hurt Auro when our enforced peace ends. More details next turn, although I'm not planning on a full on war of conquest, more opportunistic strikes.

info:

techs: Al got Mil. Trad. everything else is the same. But Auro spent almost 1000 gold last turn and it doesn't look like he upgraded a lot of units.

[Mr. Cairo]

Next turn we go back to war with Auro, probably. I have a few opportunities available to hurt him, the first of which is a more limited version of my old naval attack plan:


Next turn I'll be able to blast past though two frigates and burn Feeding Buffalo. After that I'll see what more I can do, but he does have a bunch of cavs a couple tiles north of Mound City that can come down to protect his other cities.

Elsewhere I can take opportunistic hits agains his forces fighting OH:

Depending on what OH does I can try and kill a bunch of Auro' cavs here next turn, hopefully OH will see what I plan to do and take actions that'll maximize the damage I can do.


Here I can road those two tiles marked 'x' (only needs one worker each thanks to Steam Power) and attack Thought II, which has a GG CG3+Morale Rifle in it, it'll cost a few Cavs, but's it's probably worth it. And if those cannons are still there (they've been there for a couple turns now) I can kill them too. I don't plan on getting into a full on fight with Auro, more just hurting him where I can while he's busy with OH.

This brings me to once more ask the question of lurkers who've actually played more than one PBEM here: does liberating a city count as gifting a city?

If I have to I'll ask in the tech thread before I play the next turn, but I'd rather not give away any information.

Info:

Auro got Steam Power at the same time as me, but is lacking Eco+Corp on the way to Assembly Line. Not expensive techs but still a delay. Thoth got Steel. Al got Literature, probably with overflow.

My own techs if anyone is interested. I'm missing Drama, Theology, and Divine Right, but I'll probably get the first two with overflow after Assembly Line.

[mackoti]

yes, its count.

[Mr. Cairo]

Thanks mackoti, good to know.

Well, this turn I hurt Auro quite badly. I burned two cities, and killed 2 Frigates, 4 Cannons, 2 Cats, 9 Cavs, 4 Rifles, and one GG. It cost me 5 Cavs (2 deleted), 1 Rifle (deleted), 2 Privateers, with 4 more Cavs probably to die in Auro's turn, but at high enough health that I figured the xp I'm giving to Aruo was worth the possibility of him getting unlucky on a dice roll or two.


Naval attack:
Last turn:


After the attack:

After softening them up with Airships and sacrificial Privateers, I killed the two Frigates and burned the city from the sea. There was only a single Archer defending the city AND the GG still in there, so it was trivial, although the rifle was injured enough that I didn't think it worth it to leave it there and I deleted it. He has quite a lot of troops moving around on the shores of this lake, so I doubt there'll be any further opportunity to do any damage, unfortunately.


Southern Front (North OH-Land):
Last turn:


After the attack:

The cannons and cats were still there, so were easy pickings, although I had hoped to get better results on the flanking and not have to use so many Cavs, but oh well. OH's city had been "reinforced" with a Longbow, which just meant that there were two injured cavs there after the city was razed that I had to delete. I lost 2 Cavs attacking the GG CG3 Rifle. I'm sure OH isn't going to be happy about me razing the city, but even if I could have liberated it, I probably wouldn't have, it was too vulnerable, and too good to be left in Auro's hands.


Northern Front (South OH-Land)
Last turn:


After the attack:

This one is a little complicated, but I'll try to explain well enough. Auro moved his units such that there was two stacks on the two desert tiles by Ier, one is still there, the other, where the red circle and sign is, I killed. OH did in fact use his cats to weaken that stack, and I ended up killing all that with the loss of a single Cav. Afterwards, I thought about just leaving the injured Cavs in the city, the Pikes and Grens would defend before my injured Cavs, and defend pretty well (Chichen Itza's pretty good in these circumstances). BUT, there was no guarantee that OH would leave those units in the city, so I took the somewhat drastic action of ending my OB agreement with OH, teleporting my injured Cavs to the hill they're on now. I then re-offered the OB, with a goodwill gesture of 200 Gold to go along with it. Maybe a bit too much, but wth, he can use it, and I got about that much when I took those two cities anyway, so it's no real loss.

So, after some thought, I decided then to offer Auro a peace treaty once more. If he's smart he'll just accept the losses and take the treaty, or at least kill those Cavs and reoffer. He can't really continue his offensive against OH while at war with me, and he can make some real progress against OH in 10 turns. But he might be angry at my attack and so chose to maintain the war against me, possibly even offering peace to OH. I want the 10 turns to secure at least one of my borders while I build my factories before my military production ramps up again. Thoth has continued to power up his military, and it looks like he's preparing to attack OH soon:


Meanwhile Al is also increasing his power, and actually reported this turn, so maybe he's going to do something.

I any case, I'm back in first place on the score board, so yay?



Info (armies not totally accurate, many of my Airships were on bombing missions this turn so I don't have as complete a picture of the world)

[Mr. Cairo]

so Auro accepted the peace. I have to wonder if he checked the minimap or the score screen before accepting, or maybe he thought I just waned another ten turns of peace. In any case, good news for me.

bad news for OH. Thoth invaded.

Here's two minor attacks:





and the main attack force:



OH has this in the city:


Now, I think I understand what is going on, 85% defenses are tough to get through with mostly cats, even with the Treb and 2 Cannons. So I'm assuming that OH is assuming that Thoth isn't going to attack this turn, and OH will have another turn to build up before he attacks out? I'm not entirely sure, I don't have much experience with these kinda battles, where each side has scores of units. I hope OH is right and Thoth can't attack this turn, because if Thoth can then OH has thrown away a lot of Cats for nothing.

What this means for me is that I'm going to be vulturing some of OH's cities sooner than anticipated.


Here I'm going to take Astley II and Gazglum, and burn Jowy.


While here I'm going take Hazard T-Hawk and Spirits. And possibly burn the other two cities if I can. I'm not going to get that 200 gold back from the trade routes, but I am from city captures. I'm also going to offer Auro OB next turn    Let's see if he forgives me.

[Mr. Cairo]

So Thoth just bombarded the defenses and OH just sat there. Auro is advancing, slower now he has less units. I'm going to have to attack OH in a couple turns.

That's enough for the international news, this turn was all about the domestic stuff. 

I popped a GA and swapped civics, then started Factories in almost every city:



Here's my capital, 1-turning a Factory:




You might notice the hammers on those town tiles; I decided that for the duration of the GA that Police State isn't very useful if I'm not building military, while I have 25 towns that can benefit from US, netting me an additional 50 hammers, and being a cheaper civic. (The other swap was into OrgRel, of course).
Khan is going to be 1-turning buildings for the next little while: Factory->Levee->Coal Power Plant->Kremlin. Although it would be more efficient to swap the power plant and levee around, I need some overflow to 1-turn the Kremlin (maybe, I'll have to check). That'll give me 1 turn where I can rush-buy stuff with the Kremlin bonus before I go back to Police State, idk if there's much I'll be able to efficiently buy, but why not. I don't really need the Kremlin, but it's not that much of an investment for me, since I've already put a bunch of hammers into it (so as not to waste overflow while building Cavs), and it keeps it out of anyone else's hands. But I'll be able to at least rush-buy a building in the two newest cities of First Sword and Adjunct.

Moai city in a GA:



Demos while at 100% science:


Obviously, Thoth's economy is much stronger than mine (we're both in GA), but hopefully I can keep ahead in tech long enough to win. My tech path is going to be something like this:
Steel->Railroad->Combustion->Electricity->Industrialism. I may swap Electricity and Combustion around if I think I don't need Destroyers on that little lake I share with Auro. I have a lot of Windmills so the earlier I get Electricity the better.

I'm in a bit of a dangerous time right now. I have enough of a military to defend myself, but I kinda need to take some of OH's cities, or Auro and Thoth will be too large for me. Will I be able to hold them? I have 9 more turns of peace with Auro, but Thoth is another matter. I'll need to husband my forces, and closely track the fights between Thoth and OH to see what kind of losses he takes. I might also look for an opportunity to do to Thoth what I did to Auro, and find an injured stack I can wipe out without taking many losses. the problem is I'm not building military, I'll be able to re-militarize once my factories come online and I swap back into Police State (110% hammer bonus building units), but will I be able to catch up? My Airships are providing an incredibly valuable service right now, giving me basically total map vision each turn, and if I need them they can really take the sting out of an enemy stack, or weaken a top defender or two. I don't know why no-one else is getting them, oh wait, yes I do. Both Thoth and Auro (and maybe Al) have wonders that'll be obsoleted at Sci Meth, too bad for them. I certainly do not regret getting Physics when I did (I needed the GSci anyway).

Info:

Al got Optics.

[Mr. Cairo]

Everything proceeding on track (mostly). Once again Oh did nothing and Thoth finished bombarding the defenses. He also took and burned a few other border cities:

One of them he resettled (OBEY THE COWGOD)

I'm likely going to attack OH next turn, probably, although I will likely lose out on Gazglum to Thoth.

Techs:

Al got Chemistry last turn.

Auro got the Statue of Liberty, which is nice for him.

I also have decided to scrap the Kremlin plan, and instead build the Pentago. Doing so will let me avoid Theocracy and either stay in OR or go back to Free Religion, I haven't decided yet.

I've also been putting some thought into Commando units, but for now it's too far away. It is really hard to get enough XP when you're not CHA or AGG. I'm still going to stick with the whole "get tanks and smash" plan.

[Mr. Cairo]

Scratch the attack on OH this turn. I need to wait until his and Thoth's huge force actually fight. He sent me a trade asking for Iron, I guess asking for military assistance. I thought it might mean that he's going to hit Thoth's stack next turn so I moved my main force of Cavs to within range of it in case he does enough damage that I can swoop in and kill a lot of units (then do the cancel OB trick again). The other "trigger" that can set of my attack is Auro looking like he'll take Oh's cap. I want to prevent that, and I'll raze it if I have to. It certainly looks like Auro is shifting gears to go that way. Also, Gazglum was reinforced, so Thoth's not taking that this turn, while units from my southern (OH's northern) border with me have been pulled back to the front lines, making my eventual attack a bit easier.

Domestically, a bunch of Factories finished this turn, and Coal Plants begun. After them it's going to be health buildings so my cities don't starve (Aqueducts and Harbours), then, in decreasing priorities: Observatories, Drydocks, Intelligence Agencies, and Grocers (although some cities might need them for the single health they currently will provide). After that it's all military, all the time, with Police State back in action. The units my cities are going to build is going to be based on what they can 1-turn, and I'm pretty sure that once the Factories and Coal Plants are in all of my cities will be able to at least 1-turn an Airship, and most a Cannon. The higher hammer ones will build Infantry and Cavs.

I decided to get Steel now, during the GA, so I can build Drydocks during it, and in case I need cannons earlier than I anticipated. I can get it in 2 turns, just.
Meanwhile Thoth's GNP is absolutely insane:

And that's AFTER his GA ended, and he still appears to be building Cannons. I just don't know.

Then again, here's my spike in Mfg:



Demos:



And finally, I just want to show off this city, one of the new plants that replaced a city burned by Auro:

GA+Caste+State Property is just amazing. Only just finished a Forge and is going to build a Factory in 4 turns :D

[Mr. Cairo]

Stuff happened:


Not sure exactly what happened but both sides lost a bunch of units, especially collateral. OH lost most of his HA's as well. Those 20-something Cavs I have selected are in range to hit Thoth's stack, but upon closer inspection I saw that most of Thoth's own Cavs were on such low health that I would mostly end up killing other stuff, and it wouldn't be worth it. In any case, I kinda want OH to lose most of the Grens in that city before I vulture in. Also, Auro is moving units back to our borders:

Note the direction those Cavs are mostly facing.

Annoyingly, Auro is also going after Jowy, and not OH's cap:

I wanted to raze that city.

Power Graph:



Techs:



Back at home I'm still mostly dealing with unhealthiness. However, I hope to solve a lot of that by trading for OH's only Banana (which is conveniently located by a city I plan on taking), and building Grocers in those cities that don't have them. I'll still need a couple Habours/Aqueducts, but that's OK. The Pentagon says it'll be done in 4 turns after I hit end turn, but that'll probably go up to 5. I've decided I probably will go back into Free Religion at the end of the GA, sacrificing a situational hammer bonus for better teching.

[Mr. Cairo]

Annoyingly, OH retreated back to his capital this turn (Thoth, who plays after me, just reinforced his stack with a few more defenders and cannons and sat still) OH left a few Grens behind, but most has gone back to his cap for a last stand:


This is annoying because it means his main force is close to the cities I plan to take in the coming turns, and he decide to make my life miserable instead of holding out in his cap. I'm going to have to be a bit more cautious taking those cities, keeping my cav stack back to kill off any Grens that come charging forward.

Here is Auro's advance:


I may have to take Astley II next turn. 
Unfortunately, not only did OH reject my offer for his Banana's, I'm also getting Cows from him, so the first turn of a war with him will be tough, before I capture the cities that have Bananas and Cows by them.



As you can see, I'm my people are suffering quite a crisis here, but this is the result:



As it happens, I misunderstood Factories and Coal Plants. I thought the addition of Power sent the Factory bonus from 25% to 50%, but it actually adds 50%, so almost all of my cities are going to end up with a base 110% hammer bonus, plus an additional 25% when making units from Police States. So, I'm going to be able to 1-turn basically every unit I can build from most of my cities. Let's see if I can match Thoth's power spike:

But not the dip from the battle with OH, who clearly came off the worse off.


This is also relevent:


I'm currently well ahead in tech (see below for comprehensive comparison of techs), but I'll need to continue using Research builds to maintain it at this rate, although I kinda think that he's spending a lot of that on unit upgrades? Also, Auro is researching Railroad, I'm pretty sure, he's been at 100% science for a few turns and that's the only tech expensive enough to take that long. I think.

Demos:



The amazing Khan:


And if you're wondering, I can indeed 1-turn the Kremlin (not from scratch):

I will probably have to swap from the PH mine to the lake to avoid starvation for a turn or two, before I get the 

Techs:



Here's how we stand on techs compared to everyone else (important techs in bold)

OH: I'm up a lot: Monotheism, Theology, Feudalism, Philosophy, Liberalism, Guilds, Banking, Economics, Corporation, Nationalism, Constitution, Music, Military Tradition, Replaceable Parts, Rifling, Compass, Optics, Astronomy, Scientific Method, Physics, Communism, Steel, Steam Power, and Assembly Line.
The only techs he has on me are Drama and Military Science, which makes sense, Grens were his best option.

Auro: I'm up Philosophy, Liberalism, Corporation, Assembly Line, Scientific Method, Physics, and Communism.
He has Drama, Divine Right, and Democracy on me. Thanks to the Pyramids, I don't really need Democracy, unless I wanted to go for the Statue of Liberty, but I decided against it.

Thoth: I'm up Compass, Optics, Astronomy, Economics, Corporation, Steam Power, Assembly Line, Scientific Method, Physics, and Communism.
He's up Drama.

Alhazard: I'm up Theology, Constitution, Liberalism, Economics, Corporation, Astronomy, Steel, Steam Power, Assembly Line, Scientific Method, Physics, and Communism.
He's up Drama.

Speaking of Al, last turn I sent him a fish-fish deal, and this turn he sent one back, so I don't think I have to worry about an attack from that direction, of course, it was unlikely anyway (due to Geography and our small border), but it's nice to have one thing less to worry about.

Anyway, back to techs. When I write it all down like that it become really quite clear how much farther ahead in tech we are compared to the rest of the field (especially down the Sci Method path). Also, although I didn't bold Physics, allow me to once again praise the airship. It was thanks to them that I knew I was safe from an attack by Thoth, which let me go on my massive teching spree towards Assembly Line. I have near-perfect map coverage each turn, I can keep track of unit numbers, and the movements of my opponents main forces. They are giving me the kind of edge that normally comes from a massive EP advantage, only better. While getting the free GSci was the main reason I got Physics (and getting access to Communism and State Property was the main reason to tech Sci Method), those Airships that came along for the ride have been indispensable.