RB PBEM #1 - Mehmed (SPOILERS!)

[Dreylin]

t145 - OK, AssLine looks like it's only just 3t, so lets see what can be done to speed it up:

Right off the bat, putting Istanbul to Research is enough to knock the ETA down to 2t. So let's experiment with the other cities and find one that is just right....

Looks like Diyarbakir is the best candidate; it has just completed a Spy, and is the smallest city capable of providing the needed beakers that is also not busy building it's own Infrastructure.

OK, with Infantry due in 3t, it's time to start lookingat where can start a pre-build Rifle:

Istanbul can do a 2t Rifle, but that would pop out before the new tech triggers the upgrade. I'll queue a 2t Cannon, with significant overflow into an Infantry.

Edirne is also a 2t Rifle, but can do a 1t Worker then overflow into a 2t Rifle.

Gaziantep is in the same situation, and the extra Workers will be useful.

Mecca - growing like a weed - starts a Courthouse.

Kayseri starts a Levee; maybe not the most immediately profitable build, but take advantage of the GA Hammers to push it out fast.

Conf. to Mecca on second attempt helps with expenses.

Most Workers are still laying down the initial Railway links, but I free a couple to start some needed infrastructure in Old Arabia.

The Culture push at New Damascus has been greatly successful, and has claimed back both the NW tile and the WNW, leaving the city much more secure from attack.

I'm going to give you the whole screenshot to summarise the region, so sorry for the size of the image but I think it will help:



You can see how I've been tracking the cultural situation on the border, and mh's troop levels (tbh, that's what has been taking most of the turntime recently!)

Any attack that I make into mh's lands is going to run up from New Damascus along the ridgeline and the decide whether or not to turn West or East. The small advance party N of New Damascus covering a Railroading Worker is unlikely to be attacked since it is out of reach of anything except Cavalry.

Also note the "hidden" reserve of Cannons between the two cities. These can be removed from any initial counter-attack by severing the road underneath them, so this is where one of my new squad of Spies is heading. A second is going for the Coal, and the third will probably sit in Vienna to accumulate Stationary benefits. My current Spy is reconoitering the depths of mh's land to get visibility on the new cities planted up there.

In anticipation of moving against mh, I start to shuffle some troops Westward, as well as sending all reinforcements that way.

[Dreylin]

t146 - OK, quick turn and we'll see if we can get three in a day.

Edirne: Worker - Rifle
Bursa: Machine Gun - Machine Gun
Konya: Ironclad (w/massive overflow) - Cannon(1t)
Samsun: Cannon - Bank(2t, and last needed for Wall Street)
Gaziantep: Worker - Rifle
Kufah: Forge - Levee
New Damascus: Courthouse - Barracks

Same thingas last turn really, gearig up for gearing up for War. Civics revolution is open to me again, but I'll hold off for another turn to allow Assembly Line to complete. No more troops fo mh except an Ironclad out of Mainz.

[Dreylin]

t147 - Hmmmm, 2t Factories sound like a good idea; maybe we'll put off bulk Infantry for a while.

Istanbul, Bursa, Konya & Sarmatian get started on 2t Factories. Baghdad starts on a Barracks for future Drafting, and Diyarbakir comes off research to start a 3t Factory.

With Assembly Line in, research moves onto Astronomy, due in 2t @100%. I request 190g from Ruff to cover the next turn, and then also offer a map trade.

Rifle to Infantry upgrades are 80g a pop; don't think I'll be doing many of those!

Workers have finished connecting up all the cities, and are now dispersed to upgrade Mines and work on the newer city's surrounds.

I consider switching civics now, but will hold off until the last turn of the GA to maximise the GA payoff.

[Dreylin]

t148 - it dawned on me yesterday that Mehmed II is Organised and therefore gets half-price Factories.

Samsun, Gaziantep, New Damascus start in on theirs.

And really that's about all for this turn....

[Kyan]

Thanks for the screenshot. Really helps to gain an insight into the events as they unfold.

[Dreylin]

t149 - held a bit of a Council of War with Ruff this morning; we discussed both our ongoing tech routes and attack plans for sooooo and mh.

Regarding attack plans; it sounds like the Eastern War is pretty stalled at the moment. sooooo's defenses at Sparta and the fact that Ruff has to walk across 2 flatland tiles seems to suggest that without an overwhelming advantage, any stack will be shredded before arrival so we need a game-changing tech/ability to enable such an advance to succeed.

In the West, I can put a stack outside the walls of either Medina or Vienna in a single turn, however that stack will be on flatland and vulnerable to having the Cannons Flanked off. The safe® attack route is to run along the ridgeline North of New Damascus and hen be able to strike at either city. That route, however is significantly slower, and would allow mh to buid up his defensive force in anticipation, and also shuffle troops between the two cities to maximise the defense at the targeted location. I do have an tech advantage at this point with Infantry available, however by the time I can build up a force and march it up the slower route mh will also be able to produce/draft/upgrade Infantry (his tech is currently showing Assembly Line in 4t) and thus nullify any advantage.

So reviewing the upcoming tech options, there seem to be three "game-changing" targets: Flight/Fascism for Paras and Fighters, Industrialism for Tanks, and finally Artillery - which cannot be flanked until much later. All of these routes require Physics, which is my current target after SciMeth. After some consideration, we decide that Flight/Fascism probably offers us the most game-changing opportunity - to drop Paratroopers over the Mountain ranges and attack weakly-defended backline cities. Besides, Ruff wants to grab Fascism for the WW-reducing options, and that seems smart plan to me too.

We also decide to once-again split teching duties and go back to being self-sufficient in that respect. I will tech: SciMeth, Physics, Flight; while Ruff grabs Fascism, Combustion, & then probably Artillery. If he has not completed Combustion prior to my completion of Physics, then I will put some beakers into either Biology or Communism.

OK, so on with the turn and I immedately see that another of my Spy-chicks has been caught in mh's lands. I think that firing the head of my "Intelligence" Agency is in order and som new Skulking trainin should be initiated.

Astronomy completes, and I start SciMeth - will review research rates a little later in the post...

Istanbul completes Factory and is now at break-even Health, so can't put a Coal Plant in immediately. Choice is for a long-delayed Hammam (with +2Happy), or a Grocer (with +25% gold). With +8 currently under the Happy Cap, it has to be the Grocer. (this will also offer an additional Health bonus once I get my second Bananas connected.)

Edirne completes Infantry, starts a Factory.

Ankara finishes Sistine Chapel and I debate whether to start Wall Street or put in the Factory first. Factory will use up ~75base hammers; while Wall Street will require 321base Hammers with just Forge, or 268bH with Forge & Factory so a difference of 53bH. So the Factory would be ~22bH from paying itself back, but would delay the completion of Wall Street by 1t. Taken a step further, if I followed the Factory immediately with a Coal Plant, that would use an additional 67bH (for a total of 142bH) and would reduce the required base Hammers for Wall Street to 201 - so the Coal Plant pays for itself by the time Wall Street is complete. Bottom-line, I lose 1t of Wall Street gold mutliplication (currently a minimum of 28g) but have a Factory and Coal Plant in place in Ankara. I think that Factory wins out here.

Bursa completes Factory and now has -4 Unhealthy. In this case, I think a 1t Hammam beats a 2t Grocer, since the city only makes 7 Commerce!

Konya's Factory gets Health to break-even, but with a higher Commrce rate, the 2t Grocer beat the Hammam; however I need a Frigate out of here first to give me flexibility to protect the Galleons which will come out of Sarmatian.

Sarmatian is Unhealthy after Factory completion, but not starving, so starts on the planned Galleon for Island colonisation.

Izmir completes the Ironworks, and starts the first Settler for the Island.

Baghdad completes Barracks, starts Factory.

Mecca: Courthouse - Factory.

Vote for Ruff as Pope.

Edirne's new Infantry heads to Sarmatian for Island duties, Workers mill around building Railways.

Finally - since this is the last GA turn - Civics:

The two questions are: Theo vs. OrgRel & Free Speech vs. Bureau vs. Nationhood.

I think the first is an easier answer; while I would like to be running OrgRel right now, I think that in the not-too distant future I will be back to mass-producing troops; at that point the second promo will be valuable (in addition it allows 2-promo ships from Drydocks which is good for giving Ironclads additional movement.)

Legal is more complex; first Bureau vs. FS, Commerce effects are to funnel more through Oxford Uni, vs. more diversified destinations for Towns. I think in this cse, FS has the commercial advantage, not least because it costs 7gpt less in upkeep. Then the balance becomes between the added Hammers of Bureau vs. the Culture of FS. I think this is also sides with FS, as he added culture has been valuable to claim territory from mh, while the impact of the added Hammers is lessened by Factories & Power.

So now it comes to Nationhood vs. Free Speech, which comes down to Drafting vs. Research. With Assembly Line in the bag a Draft now costs 2Pop, but (again) with Factories & Power coming online, each Pop is producing more Hammers. Additionally, Drafting is most efficient on low-medium size cities which regain pop faster, however most of my cities are now size10+, where pop is much slower to regrow. If I'm not going to be doin significant Dafting, the there's little benefit from running the Civic.

So ultimately, there's no change in Civics to take place.

Research-wise, Ruffand are debating parallel break-even research paths vs. Binary wit one feeding the other. I can run max 80% this turn -which would show me as 1t from SciMeth - or I can run some cut-down % down to +495g at 0%. With expenses at just under 200gpt, itwould be nice to store some gold for future turns, while aso showing SciMeth as further away.

0% Research will show SciMeth as 6t remaining (probably 2t at 100%), and leave me with ~590+g for 2.9t of 100%.

10% Research will show SciMeth as 4t remaining (probably 1-2t at 100%), and leave me with 500+g for 2.5t of 100%.

20% Research will show SciMeth as 3t remaining (probably 1t at 100%), and leave me with 400+g for 2t of 100%.

30% Research will show SciMeth as 2t remaining (certainly 1t at 100%), and leave me with ~350g for 1t of 100%.

50% Research will show SciMeth as 1t remaining (certainly 1t at 100%), and leave me with 200+g for 1t of 100%.

I think that going with 20% for this turn leaves the most options for going forward, while concealing true progress on our research targets and most-closely approximating full-turns worth of gold.

[Dreylin]

t150 - well then, what's next?

Bursa: Hammam - Courthouse (1t).

Konya: Frigate - Grocer (2t).

Samsun: Factory(unhealthy) - Grocer (2t).

Diyarbakir: Factory - Grocer (4t).

Sarmatian: Galleon - Grocer (3t).

Izmir: Settler - Settler (1t) for either second Island city, or SW of Kufah.

Kayseri: Levee - Courthouse (2t).

[Apparently economic & Health buildings are all the rage!]

Settler, Infantry & Jannissary load onto Galleon and set out for "New World", while I discover a Barb city in the extreme SW ... not an optimal location as far as I can see!



mh got his GSci as expected and sooooo got a GM. Ruff used his GE (as discussed) to incoporate Mining Inc.; it looks like it'd give me 12H for ~10g added expenses ... will definitely have to get an Exec from him and see what can be done.

Research up to 100% to complete SciMeth this turn; -205g so I can keep it up for only a single additional turn. Physics is saying 5t, so if I want to make a straight run then I'd need ~1000g. I think I'll run 0% again this turn which will get me another 344g (or 1.75t) and give me almost enough for 4t.

[Dreylin]

t151 - Ruff bombards me with requests for my spare Mining Inc. resources.

Istanbul: Grocer - Infantry

Edirne: Factory - Grocer

Bursa: Hammam - Machine Gun

Gaziantep: Factory - Coal Plant

Izmir: Settler - Factory

Najran: Levee - Barracks


Well, looks like I was right about mh's plans for a Golden Age; he's adopted Bureau & Rep. On the other hand, my Cutural efforts have bourne fruit at Konya and pushed back the border towards Mainz. That narrows mh's potential line of attack with pre-Astronomy units, so I can re-arrange the defending Ironclads.

Galleon with settling party reaches the Southern spot of the big Island and disembarks onto the target spot to claim the Coal.

SW Barb city contains just two Longbows; I dispatch an additonal 2 Cavalry to ensure the attack.

With 794g in the bank I have enough for just less that 4t at full-pelt, but I expect some additional gold from taking the Barb city so I think it's time to make the run for Physics with sooooo still 2t from Astro. A turn at 70% will complete SciMeth this turn with just -19g. Then I can run 4t at 100% which should get me within a break-even turn of Physics (if not the whole way).

[Dreylin]

t152 - SciMeth comes in, start Physics.

Bursa: Machine Gun - Infantry

Samsun: Grocer - Settler (for SW Banana city)

Izmir: Facory - Settler (for third Island city)

Kufah: Levee - Library

Kayseri: Courthouse - Factory

Kufah: Barracks - Factory



Found Malata on the Island for Coal and Whales and bonus Furs! Starts Granary & borders will expand next turn from Sistine free specialist. Second settling party gets ready outside Sarmatian, while a third is in preparation to grab the last spot.

mh has produced a third Ironclad in Mainz, so I'll be glad to get Sarmatian and Konya back on Naval units after their current builds complete.

[Dreylin]

t153 - Ruff takes Astro and notes that sooooo also finished it last turn.


Istanbul: Infantry - Coal Plant

Bursa: Infantry - Infantry

Konya: Grocer - Privateer

Gaziantep: Coal Plant - Grocer (city currently starving at -3unhealthy)

Sarmatian: Grocer - Galleon

Izmir: Settler - Grocer

New Damascus: Factory - Lighthouse


Quick once-round the cities shows everything coming along nicely, and a check of the demogs shows that I'm waaaay ahead on production even though mh is in a GA! In fact, the demogs screen looks very good to me:



There's lots of Caravel activity in the Ocean (one good reason to commission a Privateer), but as-yet no other Galleon/Frigates. I load the Galleon with 2Settlers and an Infantry and set out to Sea again. They will land in 2t on the Western side on the Island and found on consecutive turns to claim the whole mass. The new Galleon will follow with three Infantry to secure the defenses. I check and find only 2Inf in range, so look to swap the builds at Izmir: an Infantry would take two turns, but I can get a 1t Machine Gun instead. Grocer delayed a turn.

Do my inventory of culture level and find that the tile ESE of Mainz is on the verge of flipping to me. Excellent.