[SPOILERS] Chevalier Mal Fet and Marcopolothefraud lead a Soviet Down Under

[marcopolothefraud]

Can any of you proofread a 3000 word history essay? :D

Well, guys, my history teacher has graded my essay and I got an A-. I've been batting a B or B- average for most of my papers (I'm good at class discussions, but I struggle with proper argumentation and narrative structure), and this felt like a borderline miracle to me.

Do y'all want to read it? It's about music too, though not hip hop music.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Share your triumphs with us!

[marcopolothefraud]

  Jazz Diplomacy - The Trumpet and the Radio.docx (Size: 22.18 KB / Downloads: 6)

Enjoy!

[Krill]

Thanks for that Marco, it was an enlightening read with a great intro.

[El Grillo]

Neat read, thanks for sharing! I’ve played the trumpet since I was a kid and this was something I honestly had never once thought about.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

The wind whipped the waves flowing into Borodino harbor into whitecaps as the little dispatch boat wound through the busy seaway. It was another bright, clear, and above all cold day in the Russian capital, the sun shining high over the spires and domes of the palaces and manors of the wealthy. The harbor was alive with the sound of hammers pounding, saws, er, sawing, foremen shouting, the crash of lumber falling into place, as the shipyards of the city were frantically expanded, even as the empire's war fleets swelled to the largest in the known world - for their enemies were many, and growing. 

Some few noticed the little boat - just one mast, fore-and-aft rigged, a little cutter favored by the fleet as dispatch boats, able to swiftly traverse all the corners of the ocean. Even so, news was often months out of date by the time it reached the palace or the Admiralty - it had been weeks before anyone heard of the unexpected Battle of Mitla, or of Captain Harrington's heroic battle with the rogue jong over near Svalbard. The entire city had been on edge - men were a little too loud in the taverns, women kept their children a little too close to home, the city watch a bit too snappish. Admiral Magellan, highest ranking of all the Navy's officers, had sent word that he was entering Sandbox Bay, with the intention of meeting and destroying the Combined Fleet in open battle. Since then, no word. 

The Combined Fleet! The name alone sent a shiver down every Russian's spine - mothers used it to scare their children at night. It conjured up images of jongs, the catamaraned vessels loaded down with grinning pirates, clenching their cutlasses, hordes of archers pouring arrow fire all around them. Everyone had heard stories of what happened to Rodeo - to Low End Theory - to Marshal Mathers and to Aquemini - to Ilmatic itself. And everyone had had a brother, or a husband, or a father, or a son, on one of the valiant little galleys of the first Imperial Navy, that had gone into battle despite hopeless odds again and again, desperately hoping to slow down the enemy even for another day, another hour. And while that fleet, thanks to the heroic efforts of the galleymen, and the shipwrights of the empire (who had designed the ingenious 'frigate', now standard ship of battle across all the world), had been defeated, rumors had come of another, even larger and more terrible, being fitted out in the north. 

So as the messenger reached the dock and hurried towards the Admiralty, rumor and whispers swirled in his wake, as if carried by one of the frequent chill winds over Lake Taymyr. There was no announcement, no conscious decision - yet everyone in the city without urgent duties elsewhere found themselves drifting to the Palace Square. By the time the First Lord of the Admiralty emerged from his office, and his carriage carried him through the square to the Palace, it seemed like half the entire city was there. 

Inside, the Great Hall of the Duma was fill to the bursting, every delegate in his or her seat. The susurrus of murmers faded to nothing when the great doors were thrown open. Grim-faced, the old man stumped down the central hall. It was so quiet you could hear every footstep, as 900 eyes followed his slow progress towards the seat at the far end of the hall, where the Imperator himself sat enthroned. Slowly, wearily, he drew to a halt before the imperator, reached into his coat pocket, and pulled out a folded letter. Though it shouldn't have been possible, the hush grew deeper, more still, as he donned his spectacles and scanned the lines. Finally, he nodded, looked up at the emperor, and spoke only one word:

"Victory." 

It was later said they could hear the cheering in Australia. 

Turn 144

We'll get there. Let me take you through in order. First, I start the turn by unlocking a new government:




This unlocks a pretty neat trick. First, I take advantage of the free policy swap for finishing a civic - well, no, first I do some pillaging. A dead trader and a burned mine yield enough gold, with Professional Army, to upgrade my final 3 surviving galleys to Caravels. The Russian Navy is fully modernized, 30 turns or so after we unlocked the newest designs - and only 6 turns before Caravels become obsolete.  

THEN I do my free policy swap, taking Wars of Religion and Oligarchic Legacy to boost my Frigates by 4 and my Caravels by 8:




Yes, I drop Professional Army - and Press Gangs to do it. Bear with me. 

The situation on the front at the start of the turn:




Pretty much exactly as expected - five units lost, including my double-promoted frigate. Idiot. Oh, well. Phase II of the Battle of Call Me Al commences, now with my units having ANOTHER 8 combat strength piled on top of the +13 I was already getting on sub from my Admiral/Alliance/visibility (and +6 on China, down the visibility bonus and the Wars of Religion bonus). So now I'm +14 vs. China and +21 vs Indonesia, meaning like units hit stronger than armadas do. And I've got way more units that either of them. If you decide to burn down me and my peace-loving partner, build more ships next time, assholes. 

I'm a bit in a vengeful mood here. 

We start over at Second Mitla, where Roland brought up 3 caravels as reinforcements to sink one of my own and save his frigate. I will sink one of his in retaliation:






Killed in exchange for 10 damage to me, and I have good odds on the other two in the fog. I know of 4 remaining Chinese units in this theater, the two caravels, a wounded frigate, and a quad, while I have 4 more caravels joining Melee3 next turn. I should have total naval supremacy on this coast in 2-3 turns. 

Side note, I don't find Tsingy yet:




Now, on to the main event. 

Look at the damage here, as even my Frigates shred his Caravels:






I concentrate my attacks on China, since he can actually sort of damage my ships while Indonesia threw something like 5 attacks at a single Caravel last round to just barely sink one. 

Caravels and frigates close in from both sides, swatting aside an Indonesian caravel, just barely failing to kill the man at arms (98 damage, stings), and then obliterating the Chinese frigate squadron:






With the Chinese fleet destroyed, remaining ships blast down the walls of Steve Davies, shell Ryan Kent (sending all that production into medieval walls up in smoke), and sink the galley just because:




The Combined Fleet two turns ago consisted of 4 frigates and a jong, a galley, and six caravels. It now consists of a caravel, a jong, and lots and lots of driftwood, in exchange for 2 frigates and 2 caravels of my own. 

Quantity has a quality all its own. 

An advantage in numbers usually translates into a huge disparity in losses like this, as I can quickly wipe out entire ships and take them off the board, while Indonesia had to use its entire fleet to take out ONE ship. When you add in that I got first strike due to my Golden Age dedication, AND the qualitative advantages I've been careful to stack up, and the result is a very satisfying massacre. If you sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind, Sandbox. 

Final situation around Call Me Al:




We retain 10 frigates and 11 caravels immediately on the battlefield, with more caravels that I have since diverted to the west since there's no more targets for them. In fact, while I should lose one or two more ships here, I think our ship losses have largely come to an end, so we can stockpile everything from now to turn 170 for the war with the Raiders. 

From this moment on, I think the war at sea at least is effectively over. 

For my next trick, I switch governments:




Flip into Theocracy, get a new free policy swap, and with the fighting done I drop Oligarchic Legacy and pick Press Gangs back up:




You can do other stuff with this trick, obviously - flip into and out of Professional Army on the same turn, grab Raid, be in Limes just long enough to chop walls, whatever. It doesn't come up but 3-4 times a game (whenever you unlock a new government, so Political Philosophy, each medieval government, each modern government, basically), and you can only do it if you actually switch governments (so be sure you're done with your old one), but sometimes it comes in handy. 

Abroad, the Japanese navy is mostly annihilated, so I drop back to Lakton and Tibbet's Brook to prevent harbor pillages:




The Australian Navy could do the same with Milne and other points, and if you can get adjacent to mines, too, to keep the damned Norwegians off them that also would be helpful. Woden pillaged so much taht he's bought shipyards and Workshops with his gold:




Note the workshop in Thor, which popped up the same turn he finished the IZ (he has 0 Great Engineer points as yet). Note also the double shipyards in both cities, despite them working on IZs. On the one hand, this is a good way for him to leverage his gold into catchup - he gets the same eurekas that I do, and the production boosts, obviously. On the other hand, they're shitty shipyards - only +2 production at the moment, while I refuse to build any less than +8 (one is +10), and his IZs are also only +2 compared to my +3's. Further, all his pillage gold is now laaaargely expended (figure the rest will go towards that second workshop as soon as Loki finishes the IZ), and he just basically got two of his cities on par with Russian ones. Borodino and Navarin and Knyaz Suvurov all still outproduce him, and I have such a science lead AND Galileo that I should be able to get factories up much sooner - and I only need 2 factories to cover most of my relevant shipyards! So I think I'm happy to see the gold spent this way rather than on ironclad upgrades in the future. I'd also love to see ljubljana do the same, or buy monuments/libraries with it. It's SO inefficient that it will quickly disappate their pillage gains, especially since I'm diverting every spare unit now to block further pillaging. 

Also, it looks like Woden is setting up these two cities to be his industrial heartland, so those, along with his capital, are our wargoals. 

Final situation, East China Sea (which is, of course, west of China  ):




8 caravels and 1 frigate immediately available, goal is to scout the 3 cities present on this coast and determine which are our targets. Fil Hilander obviously is burnable since it's the Mausoleum city (unless he built a harbor off an inland city...damn. Fingers crossed!), but I don't know about the others. 

Situation, Sakhalin and Banda Sea:




I expect Sub to murder my Trebuchet on his turn, since there's an Xbow inside Proof, so this will be a tough nut to crack. I might need to start investing faith in replacement trebs down here. I'm pretty rubbish at land warfare, but I should win through sheer numbers since the GMC grants me unlimited reserves. 

Fuji Bay:




Russia Proper:




I plan to harvest that copper for Ironclad gold. Ichabod, we have 12 coal available, but we can get more from Archduke I think, perhaps even for free, so you should be able to operate at least one ironclad as soon as turn 150 (or whenever it's convenient to swap into PA). A few to be the tip of the spear against Woden/Ljub are needed, I think. 

Svalbard:




It really needs some builder love to be as developed as the core. I miss Monumentality, but damn that +2 movement won me the war.

[Sullla]

These narrative passages are outstanding Chevalier, they really bring the Russian civilization to life. It's been a pleasure reading your turn reports over the last few months and I'm selfishly unhappy to know that they will soon be coming to a close. Fortunately it looks as though you were able to complete the Russian revenge tour by chasing off the enemy ships and then sailing over to their coastline and sinking a whole lot of boats. I still can't believe that suboptimal turned down a peace offer a few turns ago that would have cost him only the cities on the central island - what did he think was going to happen when the enemy team with 2000+ military rating showed up in force?

Anyway, I had a completely off-topic question for you unrelated to this game. I know that you're a big fan of military history and have visited a number of different battlefields over the years. By any chance have you ever been to the Vicksburg battlefield? I'm visiting my wife's family in Mississippi this week and I'm heading to Vicksburg on Friday. It's not particularly close to where you're from in Missouri but I figured I'd ask if you've been there and had any information to share. Regardless, good luck with your upcoming big move and thanks once again for providing so much entertaining content to read through!

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

It seemed appropriately symmetrical to do POV posts both on the turn the war started and on the turn the war effectively ended I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Re: Vicksburg, no, I haven't been. I'm reading Michael Ballard's book on the campaign as we speak, which I highly recommend (doubt you can get to it before Friday), but it's just been too far of a hike. The closest I got was in April, when I drove down from St. Louis to the Shiloh, Iuka, and Corinth battlefields. I would have stretched the trip to Vicksburg, but unfortunately (fortunately, really) my COVID vaccine appointment was for the same weekend of spring break and so I had to hurry back - and I couldn't go any other weekend since I'm leaving the country so soon.

Anyway, look for the fortifications on the south and east sides especially, and if you can head north of town to Chickasaw Bayou battlefield, where Sherman's December attempt on the city came to grief. Sadly, the river has changed course, so you can't really picture Farragut and Porter's failed attempt on the city in June and July of '62, but at least you'll be able to appreciate the climate the Union was operating in as it tried to take the damned place.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

145

We commence mop-up. 

I realized halfway through the turn, to my horror, that my image capturing software wasn't working, so some parts of the turn are missing. I don't know if it's worth it to reload and attempt to recreate the results, I'll see what I've got as I write this report. ...actually, most of it's here, it just funked out in the middle, oh well. Nothing too exciting. 

We'll start with the war, since that's what you're all here for. 

Situation in Sandbox Bay at the start of the turn:




Our caravel nearest the Indonesian capital was sunk, as expected, but otherwise no real losses - sub attacked one of my caravels with his own and, as you can see, was more or less wiped out by the effort. My caravels hit with the strength of ironclads against him. Would that it were so easy against Woden and Ljubljana, but I expect them to have a military alliance and equal visibility, to say nothing of my not having a Great Admiral advantage (at least theirs is medieval and can't boost any ironclads that appear). Still, if we can get a small core of ironclads together by turn 170, which is eminently doable depending on our coal situation, we should be able to win a fleet battle like we did here and seize the initiative. Actually, on the whole, I'm optimistic about our chances after this turn. 

Over in the west, the Second Battle of Mitla draws to an end as the Chinese ships have withdrawn:




Now, if they pulled back to heal - as seems likely - then the only possible place they could have sailed was northeast, to Fil Hilander, the only Chinese territory within range this turn. I'm willing to gamble Melee3 that that's what Bruindane did, so I begin to close the jaws of my trap on the final Chinese ships:

First, confirm that the western new arrivals - sailed all the way from Fuji Bay, paused to sack Akkad! - have the movement reach:




Jesus. 8 movement really lets you zip around the world. 

Anyway, the supporting frigate throws in some fire, and then we go to work:






Note the 21 to 45 damage differential - having superior strength really does mean everything in this game. 




The frigate from Mitla escaped, but it cost Bruindane virtually all his remaining ships to do so. 

I move in my remaining caravels from Melee3 and early arrivals from Melee1 to scout the remaining Chinese coast. We find three cities this turn - all can be bombarded from the sea, although like Glen Kamara Conner Goldson will need to be given the finishing blow from a land unit:




As far as I know, the entire surviving Chinese navy consists of that damaged frigate and that damaged caravel. The Chinese shipbuilding effort was a heroic effort to scramble together a defense, but it was too little, too late - it looks like the Chinese didn't put their first hull into the water until turn 112 or so, and not a serious effort until turn 120 - the same turn that the initial wave of jongs was being destroyed outside Australia. Do not fight a naval war without building ships. It will not work!

The worst part is, I think in the end China built more ships than Indonesia did, and certainly fought them more effectively - the two battles of Mitla were nasty surprises from a perhaps over-confident Russia, although I will point out that in both tangles I came away with more or less equal tonnage sank (vastly more, in the case of Second Mitla), and the Chinese Eastern Squadron was shattered over the course of two turns. 

Let's mop up around the Battle of Call Me Al. Two frigates and a caravel make short work of Steve Davis:




I hold off on deciding whether or not to burn or keep it. Ryan Kent is next. Four frigates circle the island like sharks around a dying whale and, after a pause for double-pillaging:




This one can be held with a governor, but it does nothing for the flip time on Steve Davis, even with Amani present. Davis burns, Ryan Kent is retained as a forward operating base and renamed to Scott Brown, which will be a nice wedding present for Roland when he gets back from his honeymoon. 

Meanwhile, on land, I badly blunder the attack on Proof, needlessly exposing a man at arms to attack from 50 Ways:




It'll be wrecked, and of course Proof itself has enough firepower to kill or maul any unit Sub wants to. I will need to continue constant unit purchase here until the city is taken, which I will. The last two cities can get some frigate support, so I should have less trouble. I'm very bad at land warfare - my units can never move as far as I wnat them to. I was attempting to outflank the city, but I should have just rotated through over the commercial hub after my knight or other MaA gets ravaged by the city. 

My bandicam futzed out, but I also begin the attack on Call Me Al - which I realized can't purchase walls, thanks to Marco's well-timed snatching of Valetta.  Nice move there. The walls are at 50% health and will fall next turn. The city itself should fall on turn 147, which will in all likelihood be my final turn of this game. Might make it to 148, we'll see. 

On the Anglo-Punic front, it looks like our stubborn defense of English harbors from the damned pirates has caused a bit of regrouping from ljub and Woden:




I doubt the pause in city captures will last long, since they're most likely just repositioning around the continent from the fall of Archduke's eastern half, but it's a nice reprieve. After a black couple of turns, Kaiser and Archduke have recovered enough to bloody ljub and Woden's nose a bit, even, as they lose a handful of ships here and there despite an even greater superiority of numbers than I had before this last turn. I think I will wrap up my war within 10 turns and have about 10-15 to position and prepare for their war next. 

Overview of Fuji:




Missionary is 4 turns' out from Nikolai. 

Russia proper:




The results of my new 4 amenities are underwhelming...I was hoping for 4 content cities - say my largest 4 cities. Nope. I think Retainers + skirmishers (or cheapest equivalent) is the way to go here. I have 2 EDs placed with a third going down from Oryol next turn. But they can only help ONE city before zoos give their radiant bonus, so that's no solution. We're just too damn big, with 21 cities* and the highest pop in the world. And I want to grow Borodino to 15 for the inspiration...Anyway, we start a meeting house for lack of better options. 

Svalbard:




Present shipcount is 12 frigates and 25 caravels...and 1 galley. I have only one fleet at the moment since I combined everyone for the big Sandbox Bay op, but now I'm splitting my 6 squadrons into 2 fleets again. Melee3 and Melee1 are establishing a blockade around China, while Frigate1 is reducing Sandbox Bay and Frigate3 is sailing around to begin the fun at Fil Hilander in ~5 turns. Melee5 is supporting Frigate1, Melee2 (forming a re-activated Second Fleet) is en-route to the Chinese coast or scattered around southern Japan. 

*Indonesia and China combined have 13 cities

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

So, I'm a bit optimistic. We are going to hit ironclads in good time to go to war on turn 170 - long enough to upgrade a few and move them into position. Our power is nearly equal to Woden and ljubljana's combined and it's going to grow. We got through the teeth of the enemy navy losing only about 10 ships total, spread out over multiple turns. Meanwhile, the raiders have taken greater losses and I THINK have less ability to replace them.

We have the advantage in terms of quality of ships - ours are faster with the Great Lighthouse, and a few GA-boosted ironclads - and in research, which absolutely torches both absent Norway's pillaging. Woden DID just hit Stirrups which is ages back, so he hasn't even got Universities unlocked yet. I think he only hit Caravels around turn 130 or so, so he has a looong way to pillage to hit Industrialization. I think our interior infrastructure is more developed, too, and I crush Woden in faith income, which is about equal to Roland's, so I will have a larger capacity for land units when needed.

THe wild card is productive capacity. They both get +50% to the relevant units, since the fact that Woden can't get boosted frigates or battleships hardly matters when naval supremacy is decided by melee ships. That actually outclasses my cities at higher levels - Borodino, for example, is at 40 production with a 10-hammer lavra. Ljubljana, assuming he's at 30 production, will be getting 45 production towards ships. So as he hits about 30 hammers per turn or so, he'll gradually pull ahead of me - when it comes to naval units. Same goes for Woden (and whaddayaknow, monitoring the GMC progress in (W)Odin revealed that it has more or less exactly 30 hammers). Now, I CAN use my Work Ethic for more things than ships, though, like factories. So if I want any chance, I have to get those factories down - which I will beat them to factories by AGES, and even though it means two cities not building ships the overall hammer boost will drive all my shipyards into the stratosphere. I have about as many shipyards as they do, but that's without them conquering all of England and Japan, which would be bad. Obviously.

I'm optimistic, though, because of Australia. Marco has 3 more turns of boosted production left and is already nearing Phoenicia in terms of total power. He's getting traders out so he can afford it, too. If the Australian fleet is the match of either one of the Raiders, and the Russian navy remains about 2:1 on them...then I don't see how we can lose, if we're aggressive enough. Australian productive capacity when fully realized is best in the world.

So my rough plan for the war, I think, is for Marco to handle the east in combination with my Fuji yards and for me to handle the west with the core and Svalbard. I will direct an attack right on Woden's industrial heartland, either forcing a battle with superior ships and speed on my terms (Woden has no GA...) or burning his southern cities. Marco can have ships in the area - not many! - to liberate the two nearby city-states at opportune times for x2 production. Meanwhile, Marco can either defend if they attack SFFB OR he can lead an assualt on Woden's English colonies, liberating or burning as he likes, for more production and to diminish their production base.

Australia is now third in the world in science and will soon be second as China continues its free fall. Culture is decent enough. Total city count is good, population is low, but that can be fixed. Production is perfect, gold is acceptable (ie not bankrupt), so he's almost fully recovered, right on schedule.

A fight between Russia and the Raiders would be evenly matched. A fight between Soviet Australia and the Raiders I think is advantage: us.