Singaboy and Sullla's team thread

[Singaboy]

I played T154 for China with little happening. I will have an image for it, showing the German fleet in northern waters closing in on Lisbon. Well, he can't capture the city as I have two units blocking the attack. It will give us another 7 turns of great trade routes.

I chopped out a battleship at Shanghai. If Archduke doesn't recall his navy soon enough, I might actually have an advantage in the western part of the Ocean. It will take some gold but I can upgrade a bunch of things here to be able to fight them. Russia's cossacks are by now not that terrifying any longer with their 67 strength. Of course, fighting them on their own soil grants them +15 strength, not really a good idea. However, tanks with their strength of 80 will more than match cossacks on neutral soil. As Russia has half of its forces as cossacks, it will be difficult for them to fight China.

More important than China's turn is the fact that England has really exhausted all their forces in the Northern Sea. There was no unit visible and no attack. It will be interesting what Lepanto and Valletta do to Rome's war weariness. I must remember to take an image before and after.

I thought some time about Hathor. It seems impossible to attack directly. However, if I can get some support from battleships, I should be able to get some tanks towards Jutland. If I can manage to take that city, it will split England and Nubia and force Nubia to send some troops east. From Jutland, it might just be possible to capture Kurgus. Combined with China, it might after all be possible to crack them. Wishful thinking maybe, but we shall see.

The next few turns will be interesting indeed. I am curious how long it will take England to start attacking Rome's cities in the west.

[Modo]

Since you can take cities easier than England he may not even choose to attack but try to defend. Your defenses now almost look at the MOO1 level.

[roland of gilead]

will you just try to defend v Germany Singa while taking out England Nubia?

is that even possible? certainly attacking both will be carnage. But if you can make inroads by taking English and Nubian citys perhaps you can edge to victory. Well wining the DRAW. 

I think maybe you guys have been caught out still empire building as the game moves on to a chopping phase. Better get chopping.

[Sullla]

Is anything going on right now? It's hard to follow since there haven't been as many pictures lately, although I quite understand with Singaboy playing both of the turns. England finally being out of ships is great news, and now we should be able to start taking the remaining English cities on the eastern ocean. If you can get all of them, I'd offer a peace treaty as soon as the 10 turn forced war period is up. Attacking into Hathor sounds incredibly risky to me, but I think you're the better judge of what will work and what won't work there. The big picture strategic situation remains the same: capture/raze all of the English cities on the eastern ocean, then turn and send Roman ships into the southern ocean to deal with Germany and possibly more English ships.

I kind of wish that this game would come to an end so that we could put this thing to bed and read some of the other spoiler threads. It's weird to see a game continue onwards despite everyone agreeing to a draw and it being clear that none of us are strong enough to conquer one another. I think that the only reason we're still going is because TheArchduke wants to attack someone before the game ends. Still, as long as you're having fun Singaboy, I guess that's all that matters.

[Singaboy]

@Sulla, I have been reporting the major action while playing for to players with mostly 2 set for 1 turn a day. It is taxing and the game been decided to be a draw, but I am trying my best to report the important things.

Anyway, a picture of China during T154
Germany's navy is approaching Lisbon, but won't get anywhere until T161, when they can declare war on us. It will cost us quite a bit of gpt,on the other hand, a split German navy might be in the best interest of China.

Steam power is running for another 2 turns, but I will swap over to combustion next turn to get it done by T156. Thanks to two harvests, China will have around 1500 gold for knight - tank upgrades which cost a bomb. I am hoping to upgrade the fleet as well up to T160.
Armadas and armies are 4 turns away.

[Singaboy]

Finally Rome is on the offense here  

T155:
Combustion is done , Urbanization too  
This means tanks and the drop of Professional Army. My usual scouting between Siena and Venezia reveals another sea dog. It seems, England is trying to get to Siena. It might be their next target to prevent Rome's fleet from crossing over. I have to tread waters very carefully here with the limited navy I have. I hold back the attack from now, as I want to swap policy cards.



First, I need to upgrade as many knights as possible in the east to stage an attack on England (not Hathor for now, I agree it would be suicidal)

Knight to tank upgrades are insanely expensive even at 50% discount. I think, Sulla had the impression that corps and armies would enjoy a discount fro upgrades. I know that you simply pay double or triple the cost. No discount as a knight-> tank upgrade costs 230 gold. With this, I can only afford 4 knight upgrades. I use the gold for two tank corps to push defense values of cities up. This will make it even harder for anyone attempting to attack Rome's cities. I am hoping to send those tank corps east to attack English cities with some naval support.

Time to take out Professional Army and test a new policy. I am waiting for levee en masse for some substantial maintenance savings here, but let's try this. 50% gold for killing troops that are from an earlier era.

With that policy in place, I sink the sea dog with Rome's ironclad fleet causing a mere 7 damage. This results in 20 gold for us. This reveals another frigate. The good thing here is, England has got no city at all to upgrade any troops unless they take a city from us. This has to be prevented at all costs. It won't be that easy for them, just look at the defense rating for Rome's cities, Venezia and Siena at 86
I take out the frigate with a double shot from the privateer fleet and the battleship gaining as many hp as possible. I will have tp continue to sit tight here. Roma's settler will be done next turn. I have another privateer fleet waiting to cross via the canal, that should be operational on T157. In the meantime, I am trying to get some builders to chop whatever is left to chop for quick units.

Let's move attention to the eastern Ocean. I take Lepanto via a shot from the privateer fleet, then an ironclad. That was trivial as I mentioned. The capture reveals a Nubian ironclad to protect Valletta. That is too bad as it will delay the capture of the city. On the other hand, Rome will gain an extra 30 gold sinking the ironclad.

I sink the ironclad using two battleships, then use three fleets to shell the walls in Valetta, then finish off the attack with a third battleship and finally the ironclad. The city is going to fall next turn. Surely the crossbow will attack on of the ships, but that doesn't really concern me.
I will turn around fleet as fast as possible to move south and take Midway and other cities. No time to be wasted here at all to get the ships west. I will pick up some promotions while moving.
Lepanto with its harbor gives Rome yet another trade route, I swap Ostia to produce that.

What about war weariness? Well, the new city starts with no war weariness and maybe the idea to dissipate that might be working

[Singaboy]

T155 (China):

Well, another turn for China came in with big news. Nubia decided to attack at Acre defeating one cavalry corp. With his GG boosted army, he can potentially wreck a lot of units. With China a turn away from tanks, the decision here is easy. China is retreating in a  controlled manner.




I move the units west. I am trying to get some buffer to protect the field cannons. Nubia is smarts enough not to attack at Napoli as Crusade will make my units pretty hardy and filed cannon shots all the more painful for Nubia. Let's see how aggressive Nubia will be trying to attack my forces. In the worst scenario, he might take out a cavalry corp and the wounded field cannon. I am sort of hoping he will attempt to enter Acre's territory. What he might not expect is that next turn, China will have 3 tank corps there (cost = 1380 gold to upgrade).
I will simply attempt to stall Nubia here while not really attacking myself. There is nothing to be gained here. I am hoping that Woden is losing patience (he and CMF played their turns within 30 minutes), attempting to storm the city. It will have a defense value of 80+ next turn. He can't really turn towards Napoli as China's troops will be even stronger there.

Nubia turning its attention south clearly means that he might not expect Rome to go after England's cities north of Hathor. Even Nubia will its GG boosted troops can't be everywhere.
Mobilization is 3 turns away and with it, levee en masse, handing China a little more gpt (a new trade route boosted the income beyond 130gpt btw).
Rome will send its extra gold over to China for now so that China can upgrade the units in the west to be prepared for Germany's and Russia's attack. If I can form a battleship armada and tank army, it might just demoralize them.

On the other hand, 4 versus 2 does spell serious doom here for us.



The other news is, that there was no counter attack on Rome's navy this turn near Siena (I also think no counter at Valletta as the city state will play its turn after China)

[Modo]

That policy card that nets you gold for killing older units sure looks sweet, does it apply only when you kill a unit on the attack or even if they lose units attacking you?

[Singaboy]

@Modo, I am not sure, but that would be interesting to know.

T156:
Rome is clearly on a roll. Anyway, is there a bug with privateers versus privateers. How come I can spot England's sea dog from two tiles away? This happened before with England's sea dog armada. Maybe fleets can see 2 tiles even if the enemy is supposed to be invisible?
I attack the sea dog with my privateer fleet and then the battleship to earn more gold. Tonnes of gold are needed from now to upgrade China's troops til T161. Roma's settler is on the way to found a new city on T158.
For the time being my ships will only move about the vicinity of Siena and Venezia. Moving forward would most likely be suicidal.



And the England front, I move a tank corp forward and spot units that are less than frightening. This is looking good and encourages me to move all tanks forward with field cannons behind.



I conquer Valletta with a battleship shot as well as the ironclad which earn a promotion as well. That is great as I can then sail back immediately. The city has awesome production if it has the population. Now at pop 4, it's just an average city but better than nothing. Can someone tell me why the city walls are only at 100 strength, half of what is supposed to be? Seems to be another glitch.



I move a lot of troops towards Midway, Actium and Judtland. Actium has a frigate to defend the city. Midway's cith health is halfway down by sniping battleships. On land, a field cannon removes one crossbow that was standing on the hill. Unless Judtland gets its walls up soon, the city might be gone next turn or the turn after that. Nubia is the one with advanced technology (they are only 1 level behind us in tech), but England seems somewhat backwards. This is the opportunity to be seized.

Oh, Roma starts yet another trader which will give Rome trade route 16 and 17 in 2/4 turns.



Let's have a look at the strategical view. Next turn, Actium can be attacked by at least 2 battleships and 2 fleets. That won't be enough to capture the city in one turn, I assume. If the ironclad can actually slip past Actium (I reckon ZoC will stop it), it will capture Midway first (there are battleships that can attack Midway from the west) and then on T158, Actium. With TGL is Rome's hands, battleships will then be able to move 7 tiles a turn and sail west as fast as possible to reach Siena and then defend that part of the Ocean. With the capture of Midway, I can pull some ships west even on T158 itself.



As a last action of the turn, 350 gold are shipped over to China, which really needs the gold for upgrades.

[Singaboy]

T156 (China)

Well, Nubia took a second cavalry corps, that's a pity really but I feared worse. The field cannon corps is still alive.

China's turn will always get me to check the situation for Rome and it looks pretty fine there, Midway has a frigate inside as well, but there is no major disruption in the offensive there. Nubia has continued to attack my units, obviously focusing on one corp which is no more.
What they can only guess, is that fact that combustion is done and three tank corps about to enter service there.



I connect the oil which boost a great tile even more. This also gives the Eureka for plastics.

China has 2000 gold and yet, it doesn't seem to be a lot in the face of three 460 gold upgrades. With three tank corps, I am hoping to scare Nubia a little. They can't attack this turn obviously, but they can make a stand. I manage to take out one of Nubia's corps myself. This opens some troops for counter attacks. However, if Nubia decide to attack, my tank corps will retaliate with force.

I have a feeling that Nubia has pulled some of its faster cavalry corps north to help England which is perfect as it splits their forces. Maybe, Woden knows that Kurgus might the the next target one Jutland is taken.

Anyway, you can see that CHina's gold is depleted, using it for 3 tanks corps (1480 gold) a knight -> tank, a quadrireme -> battleship and a crossbow field cannon upgrade. There are still plenty of units in the west that China needs to upgrade and I wonder where all that gold is supposed to come from. Even Levee en masse will give us only so much gpt.

There is the spy mission with the spy arriving at its target city next turn. However, with 50% chance of success, I can't bank on it at all. Rome needs to take out more units and generate more gold with trade routes here.

As for research, ironclads are available to China next turn (even more gold needed). While Rome will head to get infantry, China might go for composites.