[SPOILER] Glory and redemption. yuris125, PBEM77

[yuris125]

The natural great person came up great engineer. So I can start a GA without waiting for Communism. I'll probably get the Communism great spy anyway, before Alhazard grabs it. He's had enough great persons this game

AdrienIer keeps being resilient, and researched Military Science now. I'm the only player without access to Grenadiers now. Hope I won't get punished for it. I've been counting on not being punished for it for the last 20 turns, if not for most of the game. Might as well do it for half a dozen turns more, until I switch to Nationhood at the end of the golden age

Don't know if I'll kick it off next turn - I absolutely need to finish Communism, Nationalism, and Constitution to switch to final civics during this golden age. Don't know if I'll have enough time to research all that in a short GA. Might wait a couple of turns to make sure. Although Nationalism is almost fully researched from earlier, when I was trying to race for Taj. Not sure. The sooner I can get it done, run through the golden age, and switch to Nationhood at its end, the better

One undecided point I still have is which religious civic I want to be in after the golden age. I have access to 3 religions, and with Sistine in place there's a possibility of trying to go for a cultural victory. However, only Confucianism is more or less well spread, the other two are in 1 or 2 cities. I also finished Scientific Method now, and cannot build Monasteries. So if I want to spread them, I have to stay in OR. On the other hand, the late game has to be heavy on military, and Theocracy is a much better civic in this case. What complicates things is that I still don't have Theology, so if I want to go Theocracy, that's an extra tech to research during the golden age. As an extra consideration, right now I cannot focus on a cultural attempt in any case, as I can't afford to go Free Speech over Nationhood

The most likely scenario is that I will switch to Free Religion at the start of the GA for that 10% research bonus. Then at the end, switch to Representation, Nationhood, Slavery (unchanged throughout - too chicken to switch out of it even just for the GA), Mercantilism, Theocracy

[yuris125]

Kicked off the golden age, switched to Mercantilism and Free Religion. Researched Communism in a single turn (with a bit of overflow helping). Making over 1500 bpt right now. Feeling proud of myself. Those who know how much other players are making probably think I shouldn't be that proud

Commodore is on Steel by the way, and I expect going full speed towards Combustion, while I'm messing with Communism and Nationalism and Constitution. Yet another proud moment for me - proudly following the footsteps of Elizabeth and Victoria by focussing on economic research while behind in military

[yuris125]

Doing two turns a day lately, and the golden age is almost over. Yet another "a tech a turn" golden age so far Techs picked up - Communism, Theology, Nationalism (started earlier, finished now), Military Science, Constitution. On the last turn will get Drama at something like 10% science. Need gold as apparently Axes and Maces upgrade to Grenadiers - might want to do it now or soon, that's one way I can increase my power rating

Otherwise massing Oromos and Trebs to finally make a decisive attack on India. So tired of him defending well, even offered peace twice

[yuris125]

Realise I stopped updating the thread as I do every so often. This time it's not because I started losing (although I'm not by any means winning ) - mostly too much going on between extra work for extra money + Christmas rush + We Are Billions (a pausable RTS is a godsend for someone like me, who likes the genre, but can't play properly with 50 apm, and doesn't find it fun to work on improving it). Fact pace of this game also doesn't help reporting - we're still doing 2 turns a day, and I constantly find myself taking screenshots, writing notes, then finding that we already played 3 more turns

I'll try to post a good proper update before the end of the year, but the gist of it is that I really really need to finish off AdrienIer as quickly as possible, because war weariness is killing me - it's currently giving 7 to 9 unhappy faces in all cities. I offered 15gpt to Commodore for two of his spare luxuries, and was very happy when he accepted - but I'm still only barely keeping happiness under control

The good news is that I am making progress in this war - since the last report I took 3 cities off him, and am now sieging Varanasi once again. The bad news is that both Commodore and Alhazard have Combustion now, and I'm still 3 or 4 turns away. If they hit me now, I will be very sad. Especially since the difference in the power graph didn't budge at all, despite me drafting Rifles every turn....

[yuris125]

As you might know, Alhazard also declared war on AdrienIer last turn. To be honest, I'm surprised it took so long for someone else to jump in. AdrienIer has been low in power for a very long time, and while my war against him didn't exactly go smoothly, both Alhazard and Commodore have had much more power than me for pretty much the whole game

In any case, it is good news for me in this situation - the sooner AdrienIer is conquered, the sooner my war weariness go away. Alhazard took 4 cities on the first turn of the war - may sound like a lot, but I imagine he had all his units fighting me and didn't have particularly strong defences in those cities. The end is in sight

I did finally take Varanasi

Still working on that proper update.....

[yuris125]

Last time I reported that I got the great people needed to kick off a golden age, at the end of which I could switch to Nationhood (amongst other civics). That happened on T145, and from then on, the name of the game was "build units in every city, press the draft button in any city which doesn't have draft unhappiness". I also set research towards Rifling - Rifles may not be at their best in a world where everyone has Grenadiers, but they still are the best units to draft

As I built more and more units, they were being sent either north or south. The massing point for units going south was Ahmedabad, that undefended city I took off AdrienIer at the very start of this war. Now it was the crucial rally point




Even before the effects of the drafting spree fully kicked in, on T149, I unloaded a stack of units near Agra




Not a huge stack, but certainly one which demanded a reaction. AdrienIer reinforced the city and hit my stack with a fair number of units




The side effect of this, however, was that Lahore on the southern coast ended up almost undefended




And remember where I said my units were sailing either north or south? Well, the ones going north were ending up right next door to Lahore, in Matara. Also note my Frigates on top of a seafood resource - I moved them there last turn, it's so natural for Frigates to protect seafood in this situation, and they had to stay out of range of AdrienIer's naval stack... but they could also reach and bombard Lahore from that tile!




As for Agra, despite taking this damage, I still had a shot at taking the city. It wasn't safe with AdrienIer's units in vicinity, but I also had reinforcements incoming, so thought it was trying. After hitting the city with the Cannons, there was exactly the same number of defenders as attackers, and I had 50.6% odds against the top defender. I lost it - so the remaining units loaded back into Galleons and returned to Ahmedabad. They did their job anyway - getting a foothold on this island was all I needed, with heavy reinforcements from drafting only half a dozen turns away

One problem I had was that because I lost a fair number of fights, both at Agra and at Lahore, everyone's favourite Civ mechanic kicked in for real







(Somehow I picked a city which doesn't actually have any unhappy citizens for this screenshot. But it was a real problem in larger cities)

This was where I sent the trade offer I mentioned before to Commodore




I always feel weird when trying to price such a trade. He accepted without negotiating, maybe I could've gotten it for less? It's easy with AIs, you know how much they value their luxes at, but it's oh so hard with humans. In any case, I'm not too fussed about it, if I offered 10gpt and Commodore asked for more I likely would've lost more from extra unhappy citizens while negotiations went on. I'm not unhappy with this deal - in fact, considering 15gpt don't matter that much in the grand scheme of things at this stage of the game, I would't have been surprised if he rejected a gpt trade out of hand. Glad he didn't - these luxuries helped me muddle through the worst by now I have Theatres in most cities and can fight unhappiness with culture slider, but I couldn't back then

[yuris125]

The next half a dozen turns went on with me drafting and sailing units. My favourite views of this period of the game is how all the Galleons are moving back and forth through all the oceans about their business







Truly magnificent! But it can only be magnificent if all this movement has a purpose

On T157, I moved a stack out of Lahore in general direction of Vijayanagara




The funny thing is, while this is a relatively scary stack, it is once again a decoy. Just like the Agra / Lahore attack - this time the plan was to take Agra from sea




Attack went without a hitch The biggest concern was that AdrienIer had units in the middle of the island, and I fully expected him to hit the city after it was captured. I emergency picked up a few more units from Ahmedabad, and knowing there were more full Galleons incoming, felt relatively safe. But it was a scary moment

It did end up alright







As for the stack outside Lahore, I loaded some units onto Galleons nearby, some moved back into the city. However, I did make quite a big mistake there




As you can see, units loaded unit Galleons were mostly Cannons. Vijayanagara was almost undefended - but I had only 6 units which could attack the city amphibiously! If I loaded real units onto Galleons and had Cannons in Lahore, I would've been able to tkae Vijayanagara right there and then; then, with Indian culture disappearing, hit the remaining stack with Cannons and clean it up. It's understandable - I expected to have to siege Vijayanagara, and planned to land on the furs tile next to it and attack with Cannons from there. But I should've at least split the Cannons, not load them all onto ships

Because of this mistake, AdrienIer was able to mostly save his stack. I still went with the original plan, unloaded the units next to Vijayanagara, sent in the first round of attacks - and found the city empty the following turn




From here, the story becomes less exciting - it goes on the lines of "unload units, take city, move on to the next city". This is the stack which took Varanasi (took long enough for this city to become rightfully Ethiopian!)




And this stack took Delhi just across a straight (not a huge stack, but I had extra units on ships in case they were needed




AdrienIer still has quite a few units, which I likely will still have to fight. But with Alhazard also taking 5 cities off him, he's down to his last island

[yuris125]

This brings us to the current turn, where I encountered Alhazard's attacking units




I highlighted AdrienIer's naval stack rather than Alhazard's mostly because of how sad it is to see a stack which has been a threatening force around these seas for so long, but is about to become hopelessly obsolete. As far Alhazard's stack, that's just a few wounded Cavs, they won't take the city by themselves, and I should have the units to at least contest it. The only question is - how willing is Alhazard to declare on me if I take a city he wants?

The biggest news of the turn was of course this




Not only did Alhazard start a war between the two game leaders, they also did already have some fighting - it likely isn't a phoney war. This could be game deciding.... Alhazard has significant advantage on the ground though, Commodore's best units are Grenadiers and Knight while Alhazard has Rifles and Cavs and is on the way to Infantry. If Alhazard manages to land a large stack, Commodore might be in trouble. I expect his navy to be good enough to deny it though

My preference of course is for their fight to be long and inconclusive while I assimilate Indian territory...

[yuris125]

Instead of what I hoped for, Alhazard decided to declare war on me and kill my units earmarked to take AdrienIer's last two cities. I admit I exposed them, perhaps unnecessarily, but with Alhazard at war with Commodore, I didn't expect him to attack me as well. Instead he signed peace with Commodore a turn later

From what I saw, Alhazard's diplomacy in this game has been non-existent, he's been declaring wars of opportunity at the slightest opening, without caring what other players would think. With his tech lead and biggest army, he probably can afford it - but I wonder if there's a way to sign Commodore up for a joint war against him... the joys of AI diplo - just how much is he interested, and just how can I even make the offer...

[yuris125]

Looked at the power graph. This is what happens when you sail your wooden fleet next the other guy's Destroyers, and that guy declares war on you




Pretty depressed about the game. Building Destroyers everywhere so that I can defend at least to some extent if Alhazard launches a full scale invasion

At least I can blame the French