[Spoilers] Woden takes on the World (PBEM18)

[Woden]

Turn 197
Open the save to find that Kaiser was able to kill my wounded battleship. Ouch, that hurts! I didn't expect him to push on Alara Kitan so soon. My mistake, I should have sent him farther north to heal, or even back to The Grey Havens. Good thing I am in an alliance with suboptimal, if he realized my navy consisted of 2 fleet battleships, an ironclad, and a caravel, he would probably come and take my coastal cities. I will need to invest in some more ships in the next 20 turns. Here is what it looked like when I opened the save...



Kaiser has a army musket on the aqueduct, blocking me from pillaging it. So, I pillage the commercial hub for 459, the furs for 229, and the industrial zone for 229. I then shoot the city with my battleship and take it down with the closest cuirassier. Before I raze it, I take a pot shot at Kaiser's musket army. I hope he is not too aggressive, I will lose my cuirassier corps that razed the city but I don't know if he can reach my battleship with his artillery or kill my chariot corps. I don't think the battleship would die and I guess I got enough faith to cover 2 chariots if he dies, so no real lose but it would nice to keep the unit. One of the remaining cuirassier that pillaged was able to make it back to the encampment and the one that didn't pillage kills Ichabod's cavalry. Here is how it looked after everything went down...



One thing I find funny is the siege tower with his pike and shot. Not going to work on urban defenses. He would be better off deleting it so it stops costing him maintenance.

Not much happening on the Ichabod front. He did repair the encampment at Curitiba, so I figured it was time for my battleship to leave and get into position to support that attack on Rio. His pesky cavalry did manage to pillage a trade route before I killed it, so that sucks. I will have to find time to build a replacement.

Cavalry is out at Rivendell and the path to Bologna's campus is open. I pillage the university and retreat back to the encampment. I can pillage it 2 more times. Plan here is to pillage it to get Flight done, build a balloon in Gondor, and then use the artillery from Moria to bombard its walls so I can raze the city. I am not getting any science from them and I only have 2 campuses right now. Better to deny the others its science benefit. I would keep it but with Kaiser in a Heroic Age and me in a Dark Age, I doubt I could keep it loyal, even though it is so close to my capital.


Turn 198
Start turn off with...



I buy my last chariot with faith, then extract a Phoenician classical artifact to boost Combustion. Next, I send my cavalry unit to pillage Bologna's library and finish...



I also get enough overflow to finish Flight next turn. Over near Kaiser...



I only lost the corps cuirassier. I was expecting that one and everybody else survived. I start creating a bunch of army chariots and cuirassiers. Time for a policy swap...



Time to get unhappy. I need gold more than anything else, so I put most of my cities into unhappiness with removing Liberalism for room for everything else I need. I have a breathtaking neighborhood finishing at Gondor next turn to boost Conservation but will have to switch off of it a few turns while I try and get a bunch of builders out to harvest all the old growth wood and plant some new growth forests. I do have a few forests left that I will chop into units and I need to plant some trees up by La Venta for a National Park and boost to Radio, which will boost Mass Media. I should be able to get Radio completed by the time I need it if I start planning now. I really do need to get to the next tier of Governments, specifically Fascism, to get rid of some of my war wariness.

After thinking about it last night and today when I played my turn, I decided not to upgrade to tanks yet. I did check and the cost of a single chariot upgrade is 420 ...



A single cuirassier is 155. That makes an army tank cost 1,260 to upgrade form an army chariot or 465 from an army cuirassier. I didn't upgrade anything yet to save on maintenance and get more gold for more upgrades while I wait to get a few balloons out and get all my units into position. I figure I have 6 turns...why, because I moved my spy to Rio this turn and it takes 6 turns to get there. Also, I figure I can use the next 6 turns to get as many builders out as I possibly can, then switch out of the builders and upgrade cards and into an attack policy set-up. This will give me time to chop out a balloon at Helm's Deep and maybe Fez. I can always upgrade if either Kaiser or Ichabod try launching an invasion. A tank army will bring my city defenses above 100, so even artillery will have a tough time bring the walls down.

Looking over things after I made my moves, I notice something interesting...



Some of the polar ice is expected to melt in 5 turns and, more importantly, the seas will rise in 16 turns.  I check my cities and looks like La Venta could lose the deer and Mount Doom will lose its Theater Square (ouch). I am not 100% on the mechanics of sea rise, since I rarely play games this long. Do all the tiles mark first to flood, flood, or is there some randomness to it where only some of them flood? Any lurker knowledge would be appreciated. If all of them flood, then suboptimal is in for a world of hurt...



Both Compo and Nora Batty are settled on tiles that will flood during the first round of sea level rise. He will also lose Stonehenge. That could hurt him somewhat. I also find it interesting that he has a bunch of land that he could have settled ages ago. I wonder why he never settled it?

[Woden]

Turn 199
Open the save to the boost to Conservation, 3 era points for a breathtaking neighborhood, and...



Looking around and going through the notification, I see Ichabod has killed my field cannon at Rohan with an artillery. He must have a balloon since I can't see the unit and I have vision on all tiles in a 2 tile radius. This might be the start of some invasion or more harassment. I might see either Rohan's or Erebor's walls decrease next turn. More likely Erebor's, since I can see the tiles 3 tiles away from Rohan. I also have vision on tiles 3 away from Rivendell and don't expect any artillery around there, as it would be open to counterattack. I think I might need to upgrade next turn and start my advance a little earlier than I wanted. Ichabod also pillaged a mine and my university at Rivendell, and I can't risk him getting more money and science. I will start pillaging his lands around Rio and hopefully drag all his units down away from my borders. My second engineer finished at Helm's Deep and I am having him place a railroad down towards Rio. My other one is placing a railroad across my empire, heading east. He is currently just east of Rohan. This should give me some mobilization if I need to shift units around my empire. If I upgrade next turn, I can upgrade 3 army chariots, 1 corps catapult, and 2 army cuirassiers, for 5 army tanks and a corps artillery. If I forgo the artillery and plan on them when I can get balloons out, I can add an army tank and 2 single tanks to the mix. Eight tanks, with 6 of the having a base CS of 97 might be able to do some damage against Ichabod. I still have 5 turns until my spy gets to Rio, so I will be blind there and I won't have the addition +3 CS for listen posts and I am 3 turns from being able to slot War of Religion for another +4 CS. I, once again, am facing a monster CS disadvantage. Ichabod currently has a +5 CS for an alliance, +5 DotF, +3 for intel, for a total of +13 against me in his own lands. Luckily, he is not running War of Religion, but am pretty sure he could swap into if I attack. At best, I am attacking at a +10 CS disadvantage but that is where armies and corps come in. I doubt he has any armies and probably the 3 corps needed to boost Mobilization. I need Infantry and a Modern General. Then, at least I can get close to an even playing field. Sorry, I am just rambling here, this turn was relatively boring and got me asking myself why I am waiting while my enemies are getting stronger. The longer I wait, the more I will get pillaged and the stronger Kaiser may get to attack me on my eastern flank. I need to take any advantage I have right now. I will need about 3 turns to get my units into position. I plan on attacking from the west, since I can have my battleship provide support.

Anyways, the front by Kaiser is quiet but suboptimal has come to collect artifacts...



I move my cuirassier over to block him. Now that I think about it more, I think I will have the chariot at The Grey Havens block the one just north of the city and let him have this one. I can only extract 3 and I extracted my second this turn, so I will move my unit next turn.

Down by Rio...



My battleship came across a Pike and Shot that was going after the barb camp and took a pot shot at it. He will probably run away but my battleship is going to stick around to provide support.

Last turn, Canada came asking for a trade of 20 oil from his 20 iron. I rejected it because I don't need iron and I don't want to see my oil go to one of my enemies if he (Canada) thinks I am making too much progress against one of them.  Both Kaiser and Ichabod have small reserves of oil and don't think either is making more than 3 barrels per turn (1 oil field). Basically, I don't want him playing kingmaker. Will, he came back with this...



My reading of this trade is: "Poor me (Canada) has only iron units and a research rate of 128 versus suboptimal, who has oil units (tanks; saw gossip about it) and a research rate of 176, I need your oil so I can research better units without revealing my own oil." The gold is about where research of those 2 are now.  I think suboptimal will switch gears and turn on Canada as soon as he can. He is the easier target and with Canada making peace with Kaiser, suboptimal lost his +5 CS bonus right after signing a new alliance. But dude, you made our bed and switch to the dark side. You have alliances with both Kaiser and Ichabod, who you were just at war with and are currently helping out against us, your former allies. I am not going to send you oil because I have no doubt it would end up in Ichabod's hands if I start taking his cities away from him and he came asking. I hope suboptimal comes after you. It keeps him away from me while I fight Ichabod. I also need suboptimal because I am sending him 6 trade routes for roughly 100 and 18 and am getting 3 luxury resources from him. I am currently at 31 war wariness right now dependent on him. I hope he depends on me as much as I depend on him. I would be hurting big time if I wasn't trading with suboptimal.

Speaking of amenities, I was plotting out where I could possibly add National Parks and have marked out 6 possible locations. I am not building parks because I want tourism and try to go for a cultural win. No, I need them for the amenities. I can get 6 amenities (2 in home city and 1 each in the closest 4 cities) for fairly cheap, the production cost of a couple of builders and the faith cost of the Naturalist. I think they start around 560 and increase after each one is bought. I have 4 parks marked out in the west and 2, with the option of a third, in the east. With the coming fight, I need to get working on these because my war wariness is bound to go up.

Finally, I came across one of the biggest bullshit mechanics of the game. Did you know that you can't swap tiles from a conquered city? I know you can't "steal" tiles if you conquer a city, swap its tiles to your own cities, and then raze it. But what if you borrowed a tile to that city from your own city to help it out with production. Here is Porto Alegre...



It has no problem taking tiles from my other cities. But look at Helm's Deep...



I can't swap any tiles "owned" by Porto Alegre? I came across this little tidbit of information because I wanted to swap the gypsum tile to Helm's Deep to speed the balloon up. That gypsum tile was originally Weathertop's but I gave it to Porto Alegre to give it some more production. But since Porto Alegre never revolted, so it is still "occupied", nope, can't share any tiles. At this point, I did a little experiment and swapped all the tiles I could to Porto Alegre and couldn't swap any of them back, even though I literally just swapped them there. Then I exited out and replayed my turn...BS! This is a full loyal city that is getting -10 loyalty for occupation but still has an overall +18 per turn loyalty to me. You would think that you could at least swap tiles you originally grabbed with your own cities, they should be culturally yours. I think this is an example of where Civ 4 tile system was way better, tiles where culturally owned and it was tracked by the game, not this statics BS where borders only change because of culture bombs or conquering.

[Woden]

Turn 200
Open the turn and find, as expected, that Erebor has been shelled...



Time to spend some money. I upgrade 1 catapult corps, 3 chariots armies, and 2 cuirassier armies for 1 artillery and 5 tank armies. My city strength increases by about 30 and my MP should increase about 300...



I check to see what odds I can get against Ichabod's corps musket...



92 versus 97...ouch! That is not good. I can increase my attack by 7 once I get a listen post going in Rio and slot the War of Religion policy but still, this is going to be a slugfest of an attack. I need more artillery and ranged units for an effected attack. I need to figure out how many I can get out while Erebor still has walls.

Getting the gossip...



suboptimal is going crazy with the artifacts. There is no doubt he is looking for some radical cultural win. Doubt it will work but whatever.


Turn 201
Open the save and see the bombardment of Erebor continues...



The increased city strength help reduce the damage but it is still worrisome. I move some of my tanks down towards Rio but am now rethinking it. I will probably be better off trying to slam into Belem. Supply lines will much shorter and all I really need to do is kill Ichabod's units, since I can replace mine much faster than he can replace his.

I check over by Kaiser and seems to have left his capital relatively open...



He pulled back his units, must need them over by the front with suboptimal. I need something to change in this game and I think I see an opening. I decide to send Kaiser a message...



Peace or the sword. My hope is that he is worried about a dogpile and will peace me out so he can change focus onto suboptimal. Not sure if he will abandon Ichabod but he did it to me early in my war with Ichabod, so figured I will try. If he accepts, great! Ichabod will lose the +5 CS for an alliance, if not, I am going to go more radical and send a peace offer to Ichabod, offering both Potro Alegre and Fez and not ask for Misty Mountains back. This might seen like a lot but with 31+ war wariness, it should be a gain on the end as my most productive cities will become happy and I can shift my resources towards Kaiser, who should be easier to take land from (no DotF). Not sure what Ichabod's goals are in this game but it will be a generous offer. I just need something to happen, attacking into Ichabod's land where a corps musket is equal to an army tank will not work.

I run the risk of Ichabod accepting the off and using the 10 turns to build up a larger force but I should have planes by then and able to better hold off any advance while my army is over by Kaiser. But that is just rambling, let's see if Kaiser accepts. I am doubtful as he may see this as weakness on my part. I just need something radical, so I am not dragged down in slugfest while Kaiser and suboptimal pretend to fight and continue to build wonders.

[Woden]

Turn 202
Start off with Conservation finishing...



I see that Kaiser has offered a counter offer...asking for my 4 northeastern cities.   I have twice his military power and he is fight another player with over twice his MP, why would I ever consider this. I was thinking of offering Ichabod peace but I am going to hold off for now. Ichabod put more envoys into Bologna and they peaced me out and then declared again. I read up on war wariness yesterday and I think every time they declare peace, I lose a bunch of war wariness. I checked and am now at 30 war wariness. I was up to 31 when I checked a few turns ago, so I did lose 1 point. I am not sure if that was form natural decay or the peace with a city state. I was expecting a larger loss (like 4), so not sure if the city state is acting as described. Regardless, I was going to peace out Ichabod to get ride of my WW but being in a war with Kaiser, it will not decay as fast as I would like. It won't get any worst for a while, since it is tracked for each civilization and only the largest is applied. But it would only decrease by 1 every 8 turns (400 points = 1 WW, decays at 50 points per turn when at war = 8 turns per 1 WW). Not really worth the effort. I would get a decrease in 2000 points for peace but that is only 5 of the 30 WW I have now and I would still have to run one of the happiness policies. In summary, I would not get as big a benefit from not being in a war with Ichabod as I hoped and, right now, it is not worth peacing him out. My hope is that Kaiser has more envoys and regains Suzerain again. Then I will see if my WW drips again. I wish I could go run over Kaiser, simply for that ridiculous counteroffer. But, he called my bluff and I need to attack Ichabod. If I remove him from the game, all my WW with him disappears a turn of 2 afterwards.

Anyways, Ichabod continues to bombard Erebor. I had my cuirassier check out how many artilleries he has...



Three, all single units. I will move my army tank into the city next turn to raise its defenses up to 112. I am also going to have a few more army tanks over by Erebor to set up an attack. I think I am going to wait until I can get at least 1 biplane out. I should have a few more artillery and some field cannons to help with the attack. Rohan started an aerodrome this turn (due in 3) and will go into a biplane afterwards. Also, I am going to move Magnus to Rohan and chop the last forest. I got some envoys from Conservation and I dumped some more into Venice. I think I might dump the rest I have because I am going to take out Bologna, so no point in keeping any around. I am running the gold per envoy diplo card, so I am just losing gold for each turn I don't have them in a city state. 

This for a policy swap. Here is my current policies...



Out went Force Modernization and Public Works for Grande Armee and Wars of Religion. Two turns until my spy reaches Rio and I can run a listen post and reduce Ichabod's CS advantage. The only other options I have now for reducing it more is converting his cities out of his religion (not going to happen) or a Great General. For the Great General, I am going to start saving faith after I buy the naturalist to by the next General (Kaiser gets one in the next couple of turns) and I might run a project at Gondor after the balloon. 

We get the climate change notification. I checked out the climate change screen



Looks like we have more polar ice melting and have 9 turns until 1 meter tiles start flooding. I did read up on climate change a little bit and it seems like suboptimal's cities are going to be fine. The buildings in the city center will get pillaged and he won't be able to fix them until he gets a barrier up but his cities will still be able to function. Districts will get pillaged when the tile floods and can't be fixed until a barrier is up but if we get to 2 meter flooding, the tile submerges and destroys the district. Luckily, the city can build another one on a different tile. So, I will lose the theater square at Mount Doom but can rebuild it elsewhere. I plan on harvesting the deer tile at La Venta, so no harm there. Other than that, I think my tiles are safe for a while. Fez has some 3 meter tiles but that is about it.

[Woden]

Turn 202
I start the turn repositioning my troops and take a peek at Belem...



The walls at Erebor are at 181/400. I move an army tank into the city, bringing its defensive strength to 111. Even if Ichabod brings down the walls, I am not sure he has anything that can bring its health down to zero quickly. The city health is at 172/200. In order to capture the city, he will need multiple turns to attack and my tanks should be able to kill the attackers, wo I think the city is probably safe. That being said, I do think I need to take out the artillery if the war continues.

Over by Kaiser...



Not much is positioned on his approach. Either suboptimal is giving him a harder time than I have given him credit for or his units are staged just out of sight, hoping I attack. He only as a MP of 834 compared to my 1788 and suboptimal's 1763 (I am higher than suboptimal now!), might not be that much in the fog by me.

I think I am going to offer Ichabod peace in a few turns. I am going to offer him just Porto Alegre but want to complete the builder first. Not sure if he will take it but if he does, Kaiser will be an easier target. No DotF to fight and if I get peace with Ichabod, no alliance bonus. We will fight on equal ground and looking at his city defensive strength, no army tanks. I also got to start looking at what is coming up on the tech tree. Kaiser's science is 65 more than mine and I am getting close to the point in the tree where it takes some effort to get boosts or boosts can only be had by great scientists, so I will fall behind in tech. Also, we are getting close to nukes and if left unchecked, I will see myself nuked, because why not! I think there is an opportunity to make gains against Kaiser that will be easier than making gains against Ichabod. I just need to pay the price and I think it might be Porto Alegre and letting him keep Misty Mountains. I have been going back and forth with myself on who it is better to focus on and I think it is Kaiser at this time. I don't think Ichabod can pull away like Kaiser could.

[Woden]

Turn 204
Only thing that matters this turn...



I am pretty sure he has all his spies in my land and last turn I moved most of my army tanks just out of range of his artillery but hoped he might see them so he would accept peace when I offered it next turn. Well, it looked like it worked really well because he came offering peace with each keeping their spoils of war. Since I was going to offer him a little more than that, I gladly accept and move all my units over towards Kaiser's land. I know I have at least 10 turns before he can attack and I will probably offer a friendship in 5 turns to see if I can seal the peace so I can attack Kaiser.

[Woden]

Turn 205
Open the save to a deal from Ichabod...whales for spice. I accept and offer a friendship to lock in peace for 30 turns.
I also get a Admiral (Togo Heiachiro) who adds 6 loyalty to a city. I send the Admiral to The Gray Havens to help out my battleship. I grab my last artifact near The Gray Havens, an classical barbarian one. I have 2 classical and one renaissance one. I look at what suboptimal has and he has 1 classical, a bunch of ancient ones, and a few renaissance ones. I send him a trade for his classical one for my renaissance one. See if he may be interested in giving me a themed museum.

Looking around at the front, I see an issue with pushing on Kaiser right away. I can't declare on Bologna for 9 turns and because of the envoy race between Ichabod and Kaiser, their borders reach a bit to the east, leaving me only a 3 tile path into Egypt. This won't work. If I push on Kaiser now, he will be able to blockade my units an pick off my tanks with his field cannons and artillery as my tanks stall out killing his front line units. I need to spread his units out and attack along a large front so all mu tanks can attack and be supported by the few field cannons I do have. I am going to have to wait until I can declare on Bologna before I can make an attack that is not bound to fail. The best scenario would be that Kaiser gets more envoys and regains control of Bologna, then I can move through their territory to his units and kill the city, completely opening up the front. I do have my artillery ready to start bombing the city...



It has started working on Kaiser's encampment and my single artillery is doing about as much damage as his army artillery attacking my encampment. Next turn I will bring down my corps artillery and make an army that should be able to zero his encampment by the time I can declare on Bologna.

In world news, suboptimal has made peace with Kaiser and Ichabod. Looks like he is not understanding the way the wind is shifting towards taking Kaiser out. I understand peace with Ichabod but why Kaiser. If Ichabod accepts my friendship, I am pretty sure Ichabod will join the cause once his alliance ends with Kaiser. If he does, I will look to get a military alliance with him (which is crazy considering I razed a bunch of his cities).

I bring my army up to the front and see if I can get any of Kaiser's units out in the open. I doubt I can push with the ridiculous 3 tile approach. This delay will help him get more defenses up but it will also let me get more support units out and in place to help attack. I am going to have to look at his oil reserve. If he is out of oil, it measn he has more units than he can support and all his units can't heal and will get a CS penalty equal to the amount of oil he lacks. I think he only has artillery now but if he gets out tanks, it might hurt him.

In other news, the aerodrome finishes at Rohan and I start a biplane. I have an engineer heading towards The Black Gate to place an airstrip. The builder is out at Porto Alegre and will chop out the first biplane in 3 turns, once Magnus establishes. The second should only take only 5 turns to complete, since Magnus is going to give Rohan an extra 18 I also need to get more food to Osgiliath so it will grow to 16 population and build an aerodrome. I was stupid and looked in a campus awhile back that I haven't build yet that I could have used for an aerodrome. I will build teh campus after the current battleship build to speed up my science rate. The plane is to go after bombers instead of infantry right now. That should help against Kaiser's cities. I don't see an aerodrome in Egypt, so I might be the first to biplanes. Ichabod is building one at his capital, so he might beat me but I plan on chopping it out, so who knows. 


Turn 206
I open the save to both Ichabod accepting my friendship offer and suboptimal accepting the artifact trade...



I moved up my army tanks last turn and Kaiser was able to shot one twice with his army field cannons, injuring it. I pull my units back for the time being...



If I were to press the attack without being able to move through Bologna's territory my units would stall and he would be able to pick them off. I am not going to be too careful here but I need to at least be able to take out as much MP as I lose and won't be able to do that unless I can run through the desert area.

Elsewhere, I have 3 trade routes to renew this turn. I send them all to Osgilaith. I also switch production to 1-turn a granary to increase the housing cap for faster growth. Once I hit 16 population and build an aerodrome, the city is going to pump out bombers. I should be able to get the campus and buildings built before I am able to build the aerodrome.

Unless someone tries something, I will get the next General next turn with the project at Gondor completing next turn.


Turn 207
Extra early turn today. I think suboptimal might have the day off for the holiday, as he played his turn around 2:30 pm, his local time.

Kaiser put some more envoys into Bologna and I am now at war with them...



He moved his units up and hit my army field cannon, injuring it. I move it back and bring a tank to take a look at his forces. I think he is getting impatient and I can use it. I pull my units just out of range so he will have to move up to attack. I hit Bologna's city center with my artillery, taking 73 HP off the walls. I will see how much I take off next turn, I might be able to rush in with my tanks and take the city. It will either be next turn or the turn after. A bunch of tanks should be able to do enough damage to the city center to take the city without removing all the walls. I get my General this turn and send him to the front. We are now equal to Kaiser's CS bonuses.

Next turn will be a fairly big turn...



I can chop the biplane and build my national park at La Venta. I just need to remove the oil rig to boost the appeal of the southern tile to charming. I can rebuild the oil rig once the park is constructed. I started 3 new trader routes from Osgilaith to various city but might have made a small mistake. I don't remember if I sent one to Rohan. Magnus will establish next turn and he will provide an extra 2 to trade routes to Rohan (not that I have any). I will have to check and send the next free one to Osgiliath for more food. Growth is down to 12 turns and might be able to reduce it further.

With the national park, Radio will finish and I will start on the tech that unlocks fighters and bombers (don't remember what it is called right now). The boost is 2 biplanes, so Rohan will start another one. I don't think I will need to chop the next biplane, so may keep it for the bomber or help Osgiliath build its aerodrome. I did switch a few cities to builders this turn. I have lots of improvements (forest and lumbermills) that can be down and need lots of builders. If I am going to push on Kaiser fairly hard, I will need lots of reinforcements and need all the production I can get to put them out quickly. Any open plains tile will get a forest and lumbermill and I have a lot of those tiles around, especially out side my core.

Finally, 4 turns until sea level rise.

[Woden]

Turn 208
Open the save to Economics finishing...



I get the notification that Pingala has been neutralized. Not sure if that is Ichabod or Kaiser but it sucks. 8 turns to be able to send him back and 5 turns to get him re-established. Suboptimal has finished the Bolshoi Theatre. And Magnus has established in Rohan. There is also a deal offer from Kaiser. He is asking for peace and a luxury trade. I send him a counteroffer...



I ask for his 3 border cities. No way he accepts. I figured I would counter the same way he did. I gave him a chance but now I have decent army and need to use it.

Here is the current front...



Not much movement here. I am going to give 2 more turns, then I take Bologna. This will give me time to get my biplane to the front.

Elsewhere, I remove the oil rig and place the national park. Then, I chop the biplane and get a bunch of era points...



The national park boosts radio, finishing it...



Looking around, I have 2 sources of aluminum in the northwest. One with a farm over it that I remove and will mine it next turn. And one with an Entertainment Plaza on top of it....



There are also 2 sources in the northeast...



One I can buy soon at The Black Gate and one I will get when I take Bologna. I can see 1 source in Kaiser's and suboptimal's empires and Ichabod has 3 near Rio, 1 within his borders and 2 near were one of the cities I razed was located. For research, I start Advanced Flight and Mass Media will finish next turn. My war wariness has dropped to 22, so all my cities are content. With Mass Media finishing next turn, I lose the +1 amenities for a garrison unit, so some will go back to displeased. Once I can get more builders out, I can place more national parks, which will help with happiness. I also can improve the second fur at The Black Gate. For some reason, my 1st furs is going to suboptimal. I don't remember trading it to him but I did lose my spice, so maybe it was replaced for the lost spice.

[Woden]

Turn 209
Bologna is no more! But, before we go there, I open the save to...



And do a policy swap...



Retainers obsoleted with Mass Media, so I slot Public Works. Also swap out Grande Armee for Force Modernization. I am pushing on Kaiser and will pillage for gold, giving me more money to upgrade all my chariots who are not stuck in my cities providing happiness. Without Retainers, at least half of my cities are displeased. I need to get more national parks ASAP, which means more builders and the need for Public Works.

Now for the main event. I start the turn scoping out Bologna...



I notice Bologna's field cannon has moved south, clearing the way for me to hit the city from all 4 open tiles. It is redlined because I hit it with my encampment before taking the screenshot. I hit the city with my army artillery and bring 4 army tanks to surround the city. I hit it with all four tanks...



And the city is mine. Everybody but me loses a bunch of science. Suboptimal goes from 227 to 205, Kaiser from 229 to 202, Ichabod from 145 to 128, and william482/CMF from 150 to 123. I feel bad for Canada but everybody else can suck it, especially whoever kicked Pingala out of Osgiliath! Nobody better call a stupid emergency on me, actually, only Kaiser or williams482 can science I have a friendship/alliance with the other two.

I am also able to kill one of Kaiser's army P&S. I hit it with the city defenses, my injured tank, and 2 army field cannons. Tough little bastard. I bring most of my units down to Bologna to limit loses. I also bring over an army cuirassier and upgrade it to an army tank. Now have 6. I might lose one or 2 tanks but Kaiser will leave himself open for a counterstrike and don't know if he can or will risk it. I do leave a few older units exposed and I shot his army artillery with my fleet battleship. I want to give him some easier targets so he will hopefully leave my tanks alone. Here is how things looked at the end of the turn...



Also note, the era is ending in 10 turns. I am 1 point away from a normal age and 14 points from a heroic age. I am pretty sure I can get there with a few more national parks, a military academy, and an Atomic Tech (Advanced Flight). Might even go over if upgrading to a fighter counts for points. I could also fill out my religion for some more points.

Finally, something new happened in the scoreboard...



Suboptimal has taken the lead, or at least the lead until I took Bologna. I have 991 points. On the Great Person Screen, suboptimal passed on the next Engineer and if Kaiser passes, I will get it next turn.

Next turn, I will probably shift my units a little north to get away for the Encampment at Claire Finn and hit him in the middle of all his forces. Plan is to kill as much as I can with limiting my loses. I have twice his MP, so even if we take equal loses I should be ahead. I do need to make sure to pillage his Government Plaza. I think he has a decent faith income and need to prevent him from faith buying units. All I need to do is pillage the Grand Master's Chapel. It is close to Bologna, where his eastern army field cannon is located, directly east of Bologna. My field cannons and biplane might be able to kill the unit and then I can move one of my tanks in to pillage it next turn. I guess will have to see what he does on his turn.

[Woden]

Turn 210
Open the save to whole bunch of notifications. My spy finished his mission at Ed Mercer and I have him start another listen post. Ichabod declares war on Kaiser. Looks like he sees where the winds are blowing. He also sent a deal, my extra cocoa for 5 per turn and open borders for both of us. I accept, not doing anything with it and I don't think anybody has something I am already not getting to trade for it. Canada asks for a trade of my Jade for silk. I am getting silk from suboptimal but accept the trade since with the way the game has gone so far, not sure if suboptimal will jump on Kaiser's side of the war. To keep up with the shift alliances, I ask Ichabod for a military alliance. Not sure if he will accept if he has a bunch of spies in my cities still but thought I would try to get the +5 CD bonus. It would be good to fight a war where I have the CS bonus advantage for once. Kaiser passed on the engineer and I am forced to take him. I send him towards Weathertop so I can place a few seaside resorts for gold. Finally, I get a notification that I finished a quest for Venice. Not sure what for, maybe completing a spy mission.

Here is the front...



No big counterattack from Kaiser and he looks to have moved all his units into a single line on our shared border and upgraded all his P&Ss to anti-tank units. Not the best move to have them so spread out, as it limits the flanking bonus (is that what is called, can't remember right now). My objective is to pillage his Government Plaza so he can't faith buy units. I move my field cannons up and my artillery into Bologna. Hit the anti-tank unit with a FC and artillery, then the tank, and finally finish it off with the other FC. Then have the tank east of Bologna move to the GP and pillage the Grand Master's Chapel. Next, I work on Kaiser's northern flank, killing the army cuirassier, the army anti-tank unit, and killing the army FC northwest of Kelly Grayson, finishing him off with my biplane...



I think this might be the first kill with an air unit in one of these PBEMs. Does anybody know if air units (beyond balloons) have been used in any previous PBEMs? Here is how it looked at the end of the action...



He should be able to kill one of my tanks with a focused effort, not sure about 2. He might have some surprises in the fog but with Ichabod attacking, he is going to have to chose where to reinforce. I did pillage a market and set up my units to pillage more next turn. I should have enough gold to upgrade the corps catapult that is moving to Rivendell's encampment and will meet up with the artillery that finished at Erebor. 

Overall in this current attack push, I have killed a army P&S, 2 army anti-tank, and an army field cannon for a total of 313 MP and have lost zero units. If I lose 2 tanks, it is 194 MP and will still be ahead. I am going to try to pillage for upgrade gold, I have plenty of chariots left to upgrade to tanks. With Ichabod jumping in, I don't think Kaiser is going to last very long in this game. I did notice 2 Canadian Cuirassiers by Ed Mercer. I hope Canada is not thinking of trying to block me for Kaiser's cities. I don't know why else they would be over here. I send Canada a trade of 1 niter for 2 horses. Hopefully he understands it as I see your cavalry and you will get the gun if you get in my way. If they move into blocking positions next turn, I will denounce Canada and declare war when I can. My tanks should be able to 1-shot a single cuirassier. I would think that both Canada and England would see that 2 aggressive players are attack Kaiser and would want to jump in to split the share of his land, not block progress. We will see what happens in the coming turns. I would think Canada would at least want to capture a few border cities while all of Kaiser's army is in the north.

My inquisitor made it to Bologna and converted them to my religion. If I can make the city content, I might be able to hold on to it. I will hook up some furs in 3 turns and place a national park at Moria in 4 turns. I could do it in 3 turns if I buy the forest tile that The Black Gate will grab in 4 turns. With converting Bologna to my religion, I have 4 turns until it revolts, so I might have to buy the tile. I need 8 amenities to get all my cities to content...



I am down to 21 war wariness (from 31) and not running any amenities cards, so I should be able to get my cities happy without them and be able to run more useful policies. I also have 3 or 4 more location (after the one at Moria) for national parks. My next one will be at Bologna, which will cover mostly desert and mountain tiles, then one up by Hobbiton. Then we will have to see if I need more amenities from the parks.

My alliance with suboptimal ends in 4 turns. I am going to try and renew it to get a 2nd tier alliance and I don't want his navy showing up on my shores. If he declines, I will have to shift my coastal cities to shipbuilding. This will be a little of a gamble on my part, since I am not sure if he can win via culture in less than 40 turns. I am going to have to increase my cultural output to slow him down. My national parks should help and if I can get some seaside resorts, I might be able to slow his progress. We will have to see. He is losing a theater square with a few artworks in it next turn...



I am also losing my theater square at Mount Doom. They will only be pillaged next turn but can't be repaired unless we can build seawalls and those are still a ways off.