He fired on my cuirassier on the Great Bath, and the p&s attacked, but they did little more than chip damage. This cuirassier has no promotions and there's no pillageable farms nearby, so I'll pull back to Poutine and begin healing. Otherwise, no surprises anywhere. The Indian army is regrouping, either for a stand at Delhi or a stand at Trivandrum. Canada is basically mine to overrun, so let's do that.
First, I have 2 oil. I generate 3 per turn from my single well, and one of my bombards upgraded in queue, consuming one unit. So, I upgrade 2 of my bombards on this front, and use the third to shell Winnipeg:
The auto-upgrading in queue is something I really wish I could turn off, given my need to manage resource flows. Lots of times, I'd rather upgrade an existing unit in the field rather than spend the resources on a building unit. Plus, with my fantastic gold income, I'd much rather finish the unit, then upgrade with Gold and professional army. But the game doesn't give me that option. With oil, that seriously complicates things, since the resource is so limited. I swap off Replaceable Parts for a turn - Screw Loose is finishing a Musketman and I don't want that unit to randomly become an Infantry next turn, burning one of my oils and delaying the unit finishing for some time.
Before I bring up my units for the siege, I kill the Indian pike&shot:
Add another unit to the pile. India's power briefly dipped down to 600 a few turns ago, from a high of 900, and he's only slowly crept back up to near 700 power. Mine dropped from 1700 to 1300, but with healing and new completions I've now surpassed my power from the beginning of the war. Neato.
Anyway, we hit Winnipeg last turn, so it's stuck on Medieval walls. That means my siege tower is effective, and the low strength means my muskets are very strong. The city should fall next turn:
Next turn it'll get hit with an artillery, not a bombard, and I'll have two muskets attacking, plus whatever horsemen are needed to finish the job.
With Winnipeg secured, I send most of Second Army's cavalry racing over the plains to Quebec City. Quebec only has Ancient Walls and I get a hit in before he finishes Medieval walls:
I also spot a Varu just outside the city. India's been building lots of those - I guess for the strength debuff, boosting his cities a bit? Resource shortages? I don't know what his thinking is. Anyway, I try to hit the Varu before it gets into the city, but I don't do as much damage as I hoped - I guess the combat preview doesn't include the Varu's debuff when you mouse over when not adjacent to it!
The Varu survives with 26 health and will be able to limp into Quebec next turn. I don't think that will do much, since I'll have artillery firing on the city within two turns or so, but he has to do what he can. The final setup, with almost nothing left to pillage, looks like this:
With the campaign here all but concluded, I think I've decided to concentrate everything except a few cavalry on the thrust through Calcutta. Our artillery are unstoppable by anything India can put into the field, and from Calcutta we'll be very secure with all the mountains. We can threaten Patna easily, and if he throws his army at mine, I can bring in First Army from the north to assist, catching him in a vise. The fastest way to end the war is through Calcutta, not Hyderabad. We can leave Bangalore and Hyderabad for mopup operations after the battle at Patna.
I will send a single artillery to help shell down Quebec, and send a musket with a siege tower, but the other 3 muskets and 2 artillery will march directly for Jerusalem once Winnipeg falls next turn. I hope to get Jerusalem before turn 110 so we can begin the mountain campaign.
In the north, First Army creeps ever closer to Delhi. We find the knight corps withdrawn and a crossbow corps waiting in the city:
If he gets the gold to upgrade those to field cannon, they will have a nasty sting. However, I'm contemplating rushing Delhi anyway. I've got most of my muskets up, but the bombards are hopelessly bogged down in the thick jungle of the Madurai Pass. However, Delhi has only Ancient walls, so my siege tower is effective! If I hit the city next turn, if I'm lucky, then he won't have his medieval walls up. You can see him building them (for reference, ancient walls have no towers, medieval walls have towers but no turrets, and renaissance walls have conical turrets on top. Walls under construction have massive gaps in them), so an opportunist raid here would, for the third time, send a lot of Indian production up in smoke.
The knight corps could become a cuirassier corps, and the xbow corps a field cannon corps; but he doesn't have the gold to do both. I think I'm ready to lunge a bit aggressively forward here. Worst case scenario, I suck the entire Indian army into the battle for Delhi and end up in a nasty scrap, forcing me to pull back to Madurai with my tail between my legs - but then the way forward at Calcutta should be clear. Best case, I take the city and am poised to push into the Indian heartland as soon as my bombards are up and upgraded into artillery.
Final situation:
He's not defending in front of the city, so I feel like the bulk of his troops retreated to Trivandrum. I'm going to lunge next turn, accept the blows, and see if I can speed the fall of the city.
My brave courser is probably doomed:
Another Indian courser appeared and now he's all but trapped. If I run for the coast, the courser catches and kills me. My only chance is to flee to the lake near Kabul and hope the city-state doesn't shoot me to death. It's a slim chance but it's all my guy has, so I'll give it a try.
My exploring Great Admiral makes landfall at Fukuoka, of all places, and finds a natural wonder waiting:
Nagoya is just down the coast. I'll sail down to map out the coast, then go north to see if I can find Hungary.
A look at pretty much all of Germany, for planning purposes:
The resource screen, for record keeping purposes (in case I want to examine trends later):
Finally, visibility at Patna reveals a field cannon, freshly chopped out of jungle. No walls in the core cities yet, he's not desperate:
We once again face a scramble to gather points or face a Dark Age on turn 109. That will be bad for my conquests, unless India lands in a Dark Age, too, so I'll try to pull 20 points out of my butt in the next couple of turns.
We finish Colonialism next turn. My next goal, I think, must be levee en masse here at Mobilization. Conscription gets dramatically less effective with corps - you double your maintenance but you still only get 1g/unit off. With the amount of units I have, Levee en Masse is worth something like 30 gold per turn to me, 30% of my current income.
Delhi is still working on Medieval Walls:
Base strength of 58 is still manageable for my muskets. I'm going to go ahead and go for it. First Army altogether musters about as much strength as India's entire civilization, so even though the margin isn't as great as I like I think I can win a battle for the city. At that point, the endgame with India will be in sight - a climactic battle around Trivandrum-Agra-Patna.
To the rear, I found the city of Little Rascal, now that it has not much strategic relevance beyond the oil beneath its marshes:
The oil is worth the city all on its own, and then if I bog down at Delhi or Agra then the roads I'm building from here will dramatically ease reinforcements. My progress has been faster than expected - we've only been at war since turn 90, and I didn't expect to be thinking about the advance on Patna before turn 120. I've also taken lighter casualties, after the rough early turns, so I haven't needed reinforcements urgently.
Thinking of force compositions, right now the two cavalry units - cavalry and cuirassiers, soon to be tanks - make the most sense for me. Artillery does the hard work of cracking city defenses, and between pike&shot and anti-tank units there's a HUGE gap in the tech tree, all the way to Chemistry. So, there's basically nothing India can field that can really stop a cuirassier or cavalry in the open field, adn their superior movement speed and pillaging ability makes them much more flexible than my muskets. I'm keeping a steady flow of muskets in my cities, but that's mostly for Corps purposes than for them to function as independent units.
At Quebec, the varu is attempting to withdraw over the river??? Instead of taking refuge in the city and continuing to provide a -5 debuff. Bizarre choice:
He also took a shot at one of my cuirassiers. Until I promote them with Barding, the new model field cannons in India's defenses have a bit of teeth to them.
Further west, the initial setup at Winnipeg:
Another cuirassier, shot. The dead unit is my courser in the far east, killed by Afghan crossbowmen.
I open fire with my artillery on Winnipeg, absolutely devastating the city:
200 damage combined in one shot, folks. This was against Medieval Walls. All of India's massive city fortification efforts over the last 20 turns are basically useless - which is why I'm content for him to waste production on walls until I'm ready to start attacking the city, at which point my gentle pokes scuttle his efforts and I can storm the place.
An unlikely roll of the dice means I have to use two units to storm Winnipeg, which will probably delay the fall of Quebec by a single turn:
Oh, well. The Battle of the MacKenzie River ends with another crossbow and pike & shot added to the pile of dead Indians. In the east, the battle of Quebec continues as we run down the fleeing Varu:
Then I move up most of my units and start pillaging. There's also an intriguing possibility on the horizon:
Bangalore and Patna have two campuses with universities side-by-side. Hyderabad and Bangalore don't have walls up yet, meaning only units could stop me. If I get my two surviving cavalry units in there, I could completely burn out both campuses in 2 turns. We could be on the campuses by turn 105 if I go directly over the river, and putting them to the torch basically scuppers Indian science while providing a massive boost to my own.
That's the next step for the cavalry, obviously. The muskets/cuirassiers/artillery will slug it out in the mountain passes to Calcutta, but my horse will go either straight through or, if defenses appear, then an end-around by sea and knock out India's science.
Final set up in the south:
By turn 101, Quebec will be surrounded, and by turn 102 it should fall. Jerusalem should be taken under bombardment on turn 103, and that city should fall on turn 104 or 105. Calcutta is bombarded by 107, and falls by 110. Cavalry reach the river on turn 100, cross 101, and reach the campuses by 102 or 103. IF defenses appear, we'll go by sea and through the back door.
Honestly, if no defenders appear, sending a single artillery unit with some cuirassiers this way makes sense to mop up these cities. I think we'll do that after Quebec, send the other two to Calcutta.
In the north, First Army begins the attack on Delhi:
For the defense of the city, India has mustered 1 crossbow corps, 1 knight corps, 1 knight, and a courser. If he throws everything at my exposed musket, he can kill it, then I can engage and destroy this army. If he pulls back, we'll start pounding the city instead. I expect dispatching the army to take 2-3 turns and the city to fall by turn 105.
Let's see...The only other war news is in the west, where more German raiders are nosing over the Chocolate Hills. This time they find the first of my flying column assembling to turn them back:
I'll soon have 4 cuirassiers and 2 cavalry on this front. When I can spare the production, I just need a pair of artillery pieces and I can start a drive on Aachen here.
I finish my military engineer and start a musket corps. When it finishes, I'll finish the Infantry research. The engineer, sadly, turns out to be useless - he can railroad only a single tile per turn, meaning it'll take ages to get anywhere worthwhile! What a disappointment. Oh, well. Now I know.
I circumnavigate the globe at Nagoya:
My admiral, sailing from India, has now found tiles that my scout discovered nearly 50 turns ago, back when Nagoya was a Hungarian, then a Free, then Japanese, and now Hungarian city again. I will turn north and see what I can discover of the Hungarian coast next.
I'll do a roundup at the end of this post, to go with the turn 50 and turn 75 roundups. A quick round of reporting on the war, first.
First Army situation:
Interestingly, India opted not to make a hard fight here. The Knight Corps has vanished, I guess to the south, but the knight and courser fortified in place. The city and crossbow corps attacked my cavalry, which was the worst possible choice India could have made - I pillage the farm and I'm completely healed. A second courser appeared.
I feel like I'm going to get hit from the south as I try to surround the city, so I'll lead with the cuirassier corps in that direction. That unit is best able to take care of itself, and, while valuable, it's not irreplaceable. I'm finishing ~1 cuirassier every turn (roughly 4 turn builds in 4 different cities), so two turns from now I'll make good if he dies. So, we'll slip him to the south, send the cavalry to the north, and bring the infantry head on. Then, once all my flanks and supports are set up, I'll go about the business:
I find the knight corps having pulled back to the south, while we pound away at the city. In a move that I think I'll come to regret, I do order an attack by my cuirassiers on the knight. I should ahve instead let him come to me, breaking his fortification bonus, instead of attacking at worse odds than I needed to. Now I'm exposed - the city, crossbow corps, knight, knight corps, and at least one of those coursers could all attack me next turn, which is probably curtains. Oh, well, we'll gut his army in the process, and the city is reeling after only 2 musket attacks. Next turn I'll have 3 available, and the turn after that, 5. Delhi is doomed by turn 102.
Final set up:
Next turn I'll close the jaws on the city, chasing the units away with the cavalry while the ranger and other infantry claw away at the city itself. Jeanne d'Arc will be up next turn as well. I plan to take the city and regroup until the artillery arrives down the road, which will be in only about 5 turns. Then we'll creep down and begin shelling Agra, beginning of the end for India.
At Quebec, he fired on a barding-promoted cuirassier. Walls went up at Hyderabad and are probably only a turn or two from finishing in Bangalore. I'll go by sea to the campuses and avoid the field cannon fire.
There isn't much fighting to do this turn, so instead I send all units forward. One artillery is headed north to begin shelling Jerusalem. I should be able to hit Quebec in force next turn:
In the west, Germany has pulled back from my borders now that I have defenders in place. He's also now making 0 gpt, or less, so his army strength has about capped out. He only has 68 gold, too, so he's going to need loans, pillaging, or serious government reform in order to stay afloat.
My four most important cities, all settled by turn 25, and the main sources of Polish strength. They have been the sources of our settler waves that have pushed Polish expansion well beyond any other power in the game, and the resulting high pop and solid infrastructure has us lapping the field. With another 25 turns to develop, these are all mature, well-established cities:
Just Read the Instructions.
Turn 50:
Turn 75:
Turn 100:
JRTI continues to hum along. The lack of food and housing continues to limit the city's growth, although sewers are now available. Very little infrastructure has been added in the last 25 turns, but notice that production has still nearly doubled, in large part due to the factories going up around the wider empire. JRTI has been pumping units for nearly 50 turns now, between settlers, traders, and military units, and that trend is likely to continue.
But Who's Counting:
Turn 50:
Turn 75:
Turn 100:
BWC mostly functions as an exporter of builder labor to the rest of the empire, reliably turning out 5-charge builders every 3 turns for most of the last 25. It found time to squeeze out an Encampment, and its walls are courtesy of a great engineer. Faith and gold output have doubled, production increased a modest +50% but a factory is finishing across Gdansk Bay soon.
Of Course I Still Love You:
Turn 50:
Turn 75:
Turn 100
OCISLY has grown greatly in population over the last 25 turns, and is the largest native Polish city in the world. It has added a Holy Site since last time and has good gains in faith, but the loss of Free Inquiry has seen science remain stagnant. Modest pickup in production from nearby factories, it's been a unit pump lately, too, notably the center of the Polish Aeronatics Center, responsible for both of our observation balloons.
It Builds Character:
Turn 50:
Turn 75:
Turn 100:
Plagued by recurrent floods - twice in the last 25 turns - IBC has barely grown; however, production has nearly doubled thanks to the finest factory and coal power plant in the empire. IBC's production is exported to the entire core of Poland and is a large driver behind the increases in production at JRTI and OCISLY in particular. Today it has joined in training new units of cuirassiers for the front.
New Poland
My big wave of 4 cities that began to separate me from the pack. These cities are now centers of military production and training, although the western outposts have come under raider attack near the border.
Gravitas Shortfall:
Turn 50:
Turn 75:
Turn 100:
A huge beneficiary of the factory at IBC, Gravitas Shortfall has at last overcome its production shortfall and is a solid, productive city. Population has increased modestly and builder labor has developed most of the hinterland so it makes more production and more food than ever. No infrastructure has been added as it trains units for the war effort.
Me, I'm Counting!:
Turn 50:
Turn 75:
Turn 100:
MIC's main addition has been the military academy, letting this city directly train corps from its encampment. It hasn't received much builder attention yet, although one is in the queue at BWC (technically a sister city, right?). I'd like to get some more lumber mills up so I can pump out units as rapidly as possible from this city. It has trained two military engineers, one to boost Ballistics and one as an experiment to produce a railroad while I finished up Nationalism; regrettably the railroad is going to be mostly a disappointment. I will need to carefully map out a route to maximize my gains from it. Future plans here are just units, units, units.
Ask Your Mother:
Turn 50:
Turn 75:
Turn 100
AYM is the site of my westernmost factory, covering a few cities not reached by IBC's factory. The power plant is finishing in 4 turns. Virtually no pop growth and the sack of the holy site by a rogue Indian archer have limited this city's growth since turn 75. Most of its build queue has been developing this industrial zone. Once it finishes, it will start producing units promised for the German and Hungarian campaigns to come.
Home By Christmas:
Turn 75
Turn 100
HBC is much the same, with the exception of an added Commercial Hub and Sukiennice in the intervening 25 turns - it has been mostly on military duty. It is the nearest city to Aachen and its hub has been pillaged by raiders from the Teutonic frontier. It is still working on self-defense cavalry forces.
The Southern Frontier
All of these cities are on salt water, and were settled mostly to contain Canada and grab land. They were useful bases to launch my own invasion and conquest - er, "liberation" - of Indian Canada, though. All have encampments in addition to the ubiquitous CHs (or, in one case, a harbor for discount purposes!). These are garrison cities.
Screw Loose:
Turn 75
Turn 100
SL has added an encampment, barracks, and most notably, the Terracotta Army. The promotions it granted enabled the two Polish armies to keep rolling after winning the border battles and have been a large part of the reason why India hasn't been able to regroup. Production here is a little low, and housing is still hard to come by, so I may never get a military academy. Instead it's a musket factory, to be joined into corps when they catch up with the veterans at the front.
Look Out Below!:
Turn 75
Turn 100
LOB has exploded in the last 25 turns! Note that production has TRIPLED, mostly due to the addition of an encampment (with barracks and armory) and an IZ rapidly finishing the infrastructure to cover the southern cities of SL, LOB, FD, and GD with production blankets. Then I am going to finish a military academy and have a second corps pump. The harbor district was never placed and probably never will be - not needed.
Flexible Demeanor:
Turn 75
Turn 100
FD has had modest increases in production and gold, with the addition of a barracks and sukiennice since turn 75. Mostly it works on units, and that will continue for the future. Its niter mine was vital, though, especially in the early days of the war when I needed every musket and bombard upgrade I could get. In many ways, this might be considered the first of what will become several "resource colonies."
Funny, It Worked Last Time...
Pinned as "Late" before, this was the last of our initial dotmap to be settled. FIWLT has lots of food and surprisingly good production, but with no infrastructure yet it contributes little to the economy as a whole. For now it's working on a unit, then I expect I'll try to get some basics set up. The game probably will never see this city repay its investment, beyond being a useful frontier base near Jerusalem.
Liberated Canada
These three - soon to be five - cities were initially built by a dropped player and then the AI. India conquered them shortly before turn 75 using mostly a levied army from Jerusalem against the weak Canadian AI. Then, most of the country was burned out by Polish raiders in the course of the war. The result is a mostly burned-out wasteland in some places, but Canada is slowly recovering. A few of the cities might even become decent contributors if India is ever fully conquered and occupation penalties are removed.
Gunboat Diplomat
GD, formerly Vancouver, is a bizarre dry plant built by the AI, in a place where it's impossible even to build an aqueduct. It has no improvements, largely flat, featureless terrain, and a single campus with library. I kept it mostly because it's not worth the effort to raze and resettle this late in the game. Instead, it's working on a university because I like seeing my beakers go high, but it should probably swap to units after that. A builder is detailed at BWC for this city to at least develop the hinterland a bit.
Poutine
Once the largest city in the world, before the Polish conquest, Poutine boasts a massive food supply and not much else beyond its silver mines. It is still heavily damaged from the war and is in the process of repairing its holy site. The faith generated will be put to good use later. After that, it will probably switch to unit production unless I feel a Commercial Hub is somehow worthwhile in this chilly city. Note also the absolute waste of the Temple of Artemis.
WinnipegThe Ends of Invention
TEOI is the former Winnipeg, Canada's third city and second "decent" one. The terrain is flat and uninspiring. It was just conquered this turn, so Winnipeg is burnt out and undeveloped. The theater square is the only one of its kind in the world, apart from perhaps Antananarivo, and the Great Bath has generated some faith. Otherwise it has some mines, some horses, and not much else. Ugh.
The North Coast
A mixture of late-settled cities and a few conquered city-states, this area is rapidly becoming a backwater. In the west, an enemy border lurks, and to the northwest and northeast is unclaimed territory filled with barbarians. This provides Poland's only access to the sea (as is appropriate).
Youthful Indiscretion:
Turn 75
Turn 100
Settled initially as a luxury filler city, YI has proven surprisingly valuable since finishing the Pyramids. It has added a CH/Sukiennice and an aerodrome since we last saw it. It built a cavalry while waiting for the discovery of oil, then it will build a plane. I'd like 3, but oil is so precious...It also just suffered a devastating flood, which pillaged the commercial hub and destroyed many improvements.
No More Mr. Nice Guy:
Turn 75
Turn 100
Food, culture, and production have all more than doubled and NMMNG is now fully integrated into the empire. Next turn it's finishing a harbor and then a lighthouse to finish its contribution to the trade network. Then I'll decide if I'm building a fleet or an army to take on Hungary with.
I Thought He Was With You:
Turn 75
Turn 100
This unimportant colony has proven very, very worthwhile - adding a lighthouse and then an entertainment district in an effort to combat increasing amenity issues around the empire, ITHWWY managed to build the Colosseum in 10 turns. It adds 10 amenities and 10 CPT to the empire, a very worthwhile build and a big reason why our CPT is pulling away from India.
So Much For Subtlety
The former Nazca has tons of food and not much else. The Holy Site is terrible and the surrounding terrain offers only oil, which alone redeems this city. If it weren't free, I would have burned it. Blegh.
A Series of Unlikely Explanations
Once intended to be the northern frontier, along with Nuremberg, ASoUE has an incredible food surplus and has exploded in population since its foundation. It grows more rapidly than infrastructure in the young colony can keep up. It is building a harbor for a trade route and then to begin contributing to the hypothetical navy. German raiders lurk just to the south, though, and might threaten the sugar plantations.
Boo!
Founded on the same turn as ASoUE, Boo! is a sister city in many respects. It has strong food and somewhat stronger production than her southerly sister, thanks to a nearby coal mine. Like the other northern cities, it's finishing a harbor and lighthouse. This city lies closest to Hungarian borders, with a city sitting in the fog less than 10 tiles to the west. This frontier settlement has an air of wariness about it as its citizens walk the streets. It recently dispatched a colonial expedition to the north, prospecting for oil. Beyond this point, though, it's just barbs and tundra.
The Indian Frontier
The last area of Poland are the cities lying along the border with India. These cities were initially frontier outposts to establish our sphere of influence, but both have grown itno valuable contributors and are crucial for supporting the ongoing Indian War.
Just Passing Through:
Turn 75
Turn 100
Hands down the finest city in Poland. Production has more than doubled since last time, aided by rapid population growth, but most notably an incredible and fully developed Industrial Zone. Sitting in the shadow of the volcano, JPT can build anything in heartbeats. After it finishes my greedy University build, it's going to go back to units to strangle the life out of India.
Look Ma, No Hands!:
Turn 75
Turn 100
LMNH has grown only slightly since last time, mostly building units. It hasn't had time to add any infrastructure beyond the basics, though it does profit from JPT's factory to the south. A builder would also be helpful here. This city has mostly been a throughpoint for points beyond the frontier - though it's no longer a border city since the successful Indian operations.
Cargo Cult
[spoiler]
A wealthy desert city, the high production and gold come from about 4 trade routes in an effort to rush the holy site and then get Petra up. Petra was lost to a German GE snipe, regrettably, so as a consolation prize it will finsih out the holy site to get the faith flowing nad then join unit production.
An Unfortunate Conflict of Evidence
The former Madurai, AUCoE has potential with decent food and production. It has no districts beyond the commercial hub and has been mostly undergoing repairs since its conquest a few turns ago. Once the Sukiennice finishes, the city will be ready to take its place as a contributing member of Poland. Which probably means units from now to the end of time.
Little Rascal
Initially conceived as a solution to the maddening problem of transit through the thick terrain between JPT and Madurai, LR took on increased importance with the discovery of Oil prompting an immediate colonization effort. LR has lots of potential to be a decent city, limited only by its housing, so the initial builds are probably granary->aqueduct before examining commercial hubs or campuses.
Overview
In the last 25 turns, Poland has grown from 18 cities to 27, an astonishing 50% increase (although no match for the more than doubling between turn 50 and turn 75). Science is identical, due to two factors:
1)The loss of Free Inquiry resulting in lower totals per-city. I stopped running Town Charters at the same time resulting in lower per-city gold generation.
2)The declaration of war led to a decrease of 15% from Geneva.
Despite these two heavy blows, and no science infrastructure construction since, our own population growth has rebuilt us back to our former heights (although all our competitors posted increases in the same time). More impressive, though, is our culture per turn, which has nearly doubled, almost entirely due to population as I've built very few monuments (as you can see). Faith generation has doubled, gold profits have halved - but that must be measured against a fivefold increase in our total military power over the last 25 turns. We have the largest military in the world AND the largest income in the world. Germany, with less than 1/3 of our troops, is bankrupt. So, total gold HAS increased, but expenses have increased even more rapidly.
On the whole, though, Poland is in a more dominant position than it was 25 turns ago. We converted our expansion advantage into a science advantage and then turned that into a massive military edge. Our armies are on the march and the remaining three powers have united against us.
It's entirely possible that 25 turns from now, everyone will have conceded. Hopefully, India will be extinct and we'll be well on our way to invading Germany and Hungary.
A new turn! Three in a day! This is crazy. Everyone seems to be enjoying the war, except India, but he's still dutifully turning in his save.
Turn 101
The turn opens with a couple of diplomatic notifications (actually, looking at my screenshot, one was there last turn). The first is from India - he offers peace in return for the cession of Vancouver, Poutine, Winnipeg, and Madurai. While it's an encouraging sign of a broken spirit, it's also a bit insulting. Quebec and Delhi are mine, too, you couldn't throw them in to sweeten the deal? Anyway, I'm all in - I will win via domination or via breaking everyone else's will.
So I reject it.
The second notification is that Hungary has declared war on Antananarivo:
He is about 50 turns behind where he should be - that CS is right next to his second city AND it was under Japanese suzerainty for like, twelve years. Still, it'll be yet another city for Hungary, who with the reduction of India is now emerging as the second power.
News from the front.
First Army:
He threw everything he had at one of my highly promoted musketman, coming within 4 hp points of killing him. If he'd attacked with his cavalry, he WOULD have killed the unit. Instead, though, the horsemen have vanished - India is pulling his field army back from Delhi and concentrating to the south, he must be.
Anyway, I don't bother to pursue the retreating Indians and instead turn my attention to Delhi. The city is surrounded and now is under bombardment from my light forces - the ranger and the field cannon:
Perhaps unable to withdraw, he left the crossbow corps in the city to die.
To the south, the Winged Hussar does a bit of scouting and discovers that India spent his gold reserves levying Kabul's army:
Thank God. He gets about 3 more crossbows, which do nothing to my units and fall over against a stiff breeze, when he could have had a cuirassier corps. If he had upgraded those knights into cuirassiers, I couldn't have taken Delhi this round. Instead, the city is doomed and my melee units pour over the walls and itno the city streets:
Victor rides in, and squads of cavalry patrol the streets to keep the city in line. I forgot to pick out a name ahead of time, because I wasn't anticipating on capturing Delhi this round, but I think it's going to become Irregular Apocalypse.
Final setup at Delhi. All of First Army save the two artillery pieces with their balloon are assembled:
My spy is establishing at Agra, but I'm going to spend a few turns healing and upgrading. Oil income is up to 9 per turn (minus 5 for artillery), and will grow to 12 with plastics (2 turn research after combusion). I'm going to upgrade my cuirassiers at this army into tanks next turn with professional army. Then even his field cannon will struggle and his city defenses, his pikemen and his muskets (he can only have the one, given the hurt I've put on his niter), will be mostly useless. Knights - even a corps - will be right out. With a cuirassier, a winged hussar, and a cuirassier corps, I will field 2 tanks and a tank corps for the final push. Once everyone is healed, I will start to probe forward. My intention for the attack on the Indian core is to seize that line of tiles with two cattle on it for my artillery. That will let me shell both Trivandrum and Agra. The Indian army will have no choice but to come out to fight between those two rivers, where my tanks and field cannon corps will destroy them.
India's strength has risen to his highest ever pitch of 883, but it's still less than half of my 2000 points. I have more military than the other three powers combined.
Second Army situation:
Limited fire from the cities. With no units, I can be aggressive at Quebec. I move up my army and surround the city, accepting the damage and trading blow for blow at Quebec. I want to overwhelm the city and start to press India from the rear. With the cavalry raid, there's no real need to conquer Hyderabad and Bangalore, nor can I do so easily without an observation balloon which is badly needed elsewhere, so for now we'll bypass the city. The battle for Patna is coming on sooner than I thought and I want Second Army in position to support First Army if necessary. I'd sure look dumb if my flagship force got defeated and driven back while Second Army was faffing around with irrelevant colonies in the south!
Final setup:
My triple promoted cavalry crossed the river and attacked Bangalore in an effort to stop the walls, but I forgot that trick doesn't work with ancient walls, dummy. He can still finish the walls next turn, so I'll still be attacked. I shall have to pillage the farm to heal and move onto the campus. This unit can pillage once per MP, so turns 102 and 103 will see 2 Indian campuses totally put to the torch. That should tank his science rate and effectively remove any chance he has to reach a unit capable of countering my tanks. The other cavalry has moved to sea to bypass Hyderabad, and will primarily be a reserve and support force.
In the west, my flying column is assembled and ready to repel attacks anywhere along the border:
It needs only artillery to take cities, so my next available builds will be an observation balloon and a pair or trio of artillery pieces. Then this force, now designated Third Army, will begin to advance through Aachen pass and try to storm the German capital. At present, it consists of 5 cuirassiers and 2 cavalry.
There's a danger of Hungarian intervention in the northwest, near Nuremberg, in the next ~10 turns, once he takes Antananarivo, but even Hungary doesn't have strong enough units to seriously threaten a Polish city. Especially not once tank corps come online. Once I have plastics to upgrade my oil income, we'll finally research infantry. I'd like to get at least a corps with whatever spare oil I have.
Total losses:
3 cavalry
1 courser
2 cuirassiers
Units destroyed:
3 coursers
2 muskets
4 varu
1 knight
2 pike and shot
2 archers
13 crossbows
1 (German) courser
5 cities taken, innumerable pillagings back and forth on both sides. 29 units lost in 11 turns of warfare. India has managed to cut his staggering losses mostly by being in constant retreat since the battles of Vancouver and Madurai - since then, his melee units haven't stood and fought, instead falling back again and again. His units have come from isolated units in Canada getting picked off by my fast moving horse army, and his city garrisons going down. Thus, all of that ~900 power is gathering near Patna.
I vote to generate more grievances and to stop my own borders expanding via culture. I'm bleeding Favor like crazy and Hungary alone can outvote me, let alone India and Germany, so I try to farm some diplomatic favor points in case those somehow become relevant.
No one else is anywhere near Combustion, and Civil Engineering gives me 1 more civic than India. With his culture now slashed to half of what it was, while mine has grown to double the field, this lead should hold up. I swap into Professional Army, naturally, dropping Veterancy as my harbors in the north finish.
Second Army at Quebec:
The last Canadian city. India never really stood a chance here and my muskets pour into the streets:
Routine at this point.
Final setup of Second Army:
I should need about 3 turns to reduce Jerusalem - one more turn to get the guns brought up, two turns of shelling, and then storm the city. Expect it to fall on turn 104.
In the north, First Army's heavy cavalry upgrades to tanks, which will be my war winners. I start to regroup and reposition my forces for the decisive push on India's core. We need only the artillery to come up, so we can deal with the Renaissance Walls in Agra and Trivandrum - I don't want to go in only to have to pull back while getting pounded by field cannon corps in the invincible cities. Once the artillery is up, though, in about 5 turns, we can push.
My Ranger spots a pair of Courser corps moving on our flank:
Interesting. I wonder if India is attempting a pillaging expedition? He's going to run smack into the artillery, visible on the roads to the west between Little Rascal and An Unfortunate Conflict of Evidence, so I quietly reposition some of my more westerly units to swing in and take them from the rear.
Meanwhile, my spy establishes at Agra and now I have a perfect look at India's defensive setup:
Two field cannon combined into a corps, a musket coming up from the capital, a varu in place behind the river, and a cuirassier healing. Oh, and the knight corps. If this is all he has left...well, once my army is healed I'll go through this like a knife through something easily knifeable. My own muskets, fortified, get odds on the knight corps, which is only 58 strength. With Jeanne d'Arc and my intel on enemy movements I get +11 CS already, so corps or not the knight is badly out of date.
In the south, my cavalry reaches and pillages the first of India's two campuses, burning out the university and library. India's science tumbles an astonishing 25%:
When I repeat the exercise on the other campus next turn, he'll be down to ~70 science, last in the world. That will effectively bring his modern research to a grinding halt. He has no chance of reaching oil, and even if he did, he'll just find that his only source is at sea, near Jabalpur. Basically, India is done, I just have to finish walking my units over there and taking everything.
Abroad, Hungary is expanding. He's founded 3 new cities lately, not counting this one. Again, good news for me since those aren't military units.
It's almost time to think about life after Patna. Right now my intention is to mop up Bangalore and Hyderabad with Second Army, while First Army turns east and sweeps through the Indian colonial region and Kabul. Third Army can handle the German front, so at that point I will embark both armies. First Army sails for Hungary's northern coast, Second Army lands near Fukuoka-Nagoya. If my navy finishes in time (it should complete in ~15 turns), then they'll support the landings. If not, oh well, I might catch Hungary napping with his army in the west near my borders.
First, the Indian courser corps have reached the borders of An Unfortunate Conflict of Evidence - and are in range of one of my artillery pieces, plus my westernmost elements of the main army. Second, a crossbow shot out of the fog at my cavalry. I thought I was covered, given the hill and jungle between us, but he apparently still has vision from that tile.
Here are the units involved in the second Battle of Madurai. I have 1 artillery in range, another coming up this turn, a field cannon corps, a musket, and a ranger. I also have, y'know, 2 more cavalry and 3 tanks plus a field cannon and 4 more muskets available, but most I want to keep healing at Delhi.
First, I take a shot with my artillery at the southernmost courser. Then, I bring up my field cannon corps and delete the northern courser in a single shot.
I bring up the musket and attack the southern one, because I played this turn unfocused. Should have led with the ranger. Instead, the ranger comes up and strikes the final blow, removing two relatively dangerous enemy raiders from the map:
That's 108 Indian military power off the map. He started the turn with 754, leaving him with 646 power.
Further east, let's deal with that crossbow. I move up the cavalry and find a musket and two crossbows hovering on my flank. I want to chase 'em off:
The corps can delete the levied crossbow, so I do so. Then the cavalry dispatches the injured crossbow and I'm left with just a musket and crossbow in this sector, plus the encampment:
That's 80 more power off, leaving him with 566. That musket is almost certainly the same one that trapped my courser, so that's 55 power we know of. There was also a varu and a courser in that theater, accounting for 84 more, leaving him with 427 around Agra and elsewhere. At Agra, the knight corps is 58 strength, the musket is 55, the field cannon corps is 70, the varu 40, and the curassier 62. That's 285 accounted for, leaving ~150 power in the fog, or about 3 units. Against that I field 5 muskets, 2 tanks and a corps, 2 cavalry, 1 field cannon and corps, 1 ranger, and 3 artillery, totaling 1,109 power. In other words, I have more than 4 times his visible strength at the city, and more than double his total remaining strength.
Yes, the war is over as soon as I can get these artillery units in range of the walls. Then we'll reduce the cities, one after another.
In the south, we burn out all but Patna's campus and library:
I opted to pull my injured 3-promotion cavalry out - his pillaging ability is incredibly useful and I'd like to preserve him for future operations. The other cavalry will burn the library and campus if he can, or withdraw if he gets seriously in trouble next turn. I might run up to the Natural Wonder near Chennai, which fully heals units that pause near it. India may have a few units floating around, though, so I should probably be more cautious...
At Jerusalem, the artillery begins its bombardment. We knock off about a third of the city's walls with one cannon firing; next round we'll have two which should open the way for my cuirassiers to take the city. I also form a musket corps:
In the narrow confines at Calcutta, a Musket and a Cuirassier (tank?) corps will lead the way, holding the ground for the artillery. We should take Jerusalem on turn 104, open up on Calcutta at 107, take the city at 110, and open up on Patna by 115. Then we take the city by 120. Working timeline.
Second Army is entirely unupgraded since it is only facing fixed defenses so far. Once there's danger of meeting the Indian field army, I might throw some upgrades this way, but look at how slowly my oil reserves are increasing. With units in the queue, I can support very few more modern units. I finished plastics this turn (thanks to pillaged science!) and have two aquatic wells, plus a settler on the map to grab the tundra oil near Lisbon, which will bump my stocks up to 18 per turn. 9 artillery and 3 tanks account for 13, a biplane makes it 14, and I have 2-3 tanks in the build queues which will max me out, basically. The civics card Resource Management or something will let me field 6 more, so a total of 24 modern units, and if I conquer India fully I can develop his oil well to bring my maximum total to 28 (or 21 without the card). In other words, apart from a few tip of the spear units, cuirassiers, cavalry, and muskets will basically be the main force. That's why I haven't researched infantry, still - can't afford 'em.
Would it be feasible to research Chemistry, build as many Pike and Shot as you can, and upgrade them into AT Crews? AT Crews have the same combat strength as Infantry, but they're cheaper (400 production vs 430 production) and they don't need oil. I trust that they can defeat Musketmen/Field Cannons, especially if they're grouped into corps and armies, right?
Quote:The campus + Newton would be worth +10 science all on its own, then Newton enhances all his other universities for a further +4 science. Add in Rationalism doubling those buildings and you get close to the increase. I should take rationalism myself - I don't ahve many cities of 10+ pop (only one, in fact, OCISLY), but I do have lots of +3 campuses. I don't like NOT having twice the science of the rest of the field - India being within 100 points was threatening enough that I decided to take him down. So I will rejigger my policies in 3 turns to take advantage.
I am not sure if this is relevant any more for you, but I tested this to be sure for another game:
- Rationalism ads +50% science for buildings if the Campus has adjacency 3+ and +50% science if the Campus city is 10+ pop. (The card reads differently to me, like an increase and then additional 50% for the conditions)
- Rationalism works on
- base building value (2 Library, 4 University, 8 Research Lab)
- GS added values (Hypathia +1, Newton +2, Einstein +4) per building
- Rationalism does not work on bonus coming in from City states
Basically it compares to Natural philosophy for a Campus with Library and University (without the GSS
- adjacency 3+ / less than 10 pop => Rationalism worse than Natural philosophy
- adjacency 2- / more than 10 pop => Rationalism better than Natural philosophy
- adjacency 3+ / more than 10 pop => Rationalism way better than Natural philosophy
Once I have plastics to upgrade my oil income, we'll finally research infantry. I'd like to get at least a corps with whatever spare oil I have.
