So, personal sitch, then the turn report.
As noted before, when I signed up I thought we'd be ~15 - 30 turns ahead of where we are now, going by the experience in PBEM7. That hasn't happened, particularly since turn 126. Anyway, 30 - 40 turns would probably be enough to decide a winner, as it seems to be pretty clearly coming down to us and the Raiders - can Russia's work ethic and a recovering Australia build enough ships to outmatch the Raiders? I don't think the game is settled at all, since Archduke has given up but Roland and Sub can be expected to give us a hard fight whenever they get around to it, and Woden and Ljub together I think can outmatch us in modern ships - until ironclads and battleships gave us the edge, I think. Australia can build anything it can research, it just lacks the build queues at the moment to do it. It also needs gold (I'd settle Crabville sooner rather than later, that can be quite a gold engine for the cost of a single settler) to support a decent sized modern military, as even the tiny squadron it fields now is steadily bankrupting it.
Anyway, isntead of a mostly-decided game everything is very much in doubt, but I'll be packing up my computer and other belongings as I move across the world ~June 14 (flight is on the 22nd), and then I'd be in quarantine until the 8th of July, at which point I'd have access to PC bangs. But that's already a delay of nearly a month, and then I'd only be able to play about once every two days through the end of July and August, and obviously my girlfriend and I will want to travel in that time and spend weekends together, etc. So failing to replace me means the game will grind to a halt. So I better start now, with ~3 weeks to find a solution.
So much for that. Onwards.
Turn 136
I unlock the next step on the road to ironclads, where I pin my hopes of victory. Mass Production opens Shipyards, which in turn open Steam Power, while my IZs represent the other half of the tree: they will build Workshops, which will open Industrialization, which brings us a supply of coal. The ironclads and coal mines in turn will give us Steel, which locks out frigates and caravels from taking Russian cities, and the coal power plant will give us Refining and a battleship (NOT Steel, as of Gathering Storm, apparently). Both ironclads and BBs require coal, notably, which means this strategic resource is even more precious than oil. If I unlock Industrialization first, then I alone will know where I must attack and where I must colonize to seize as much coal as I can. Whoever has the most coal fields the most units and has the msot factories - if Archduke's England survived into the coal era it'd be really formidable. I understand now what the designers intended with England's janky set of GS bonii.
Anyway, even if Industrialization is deep in the tree, I have a plan to field ironclads anyway. That will be a nasty shock. 66% that Steam Power is close and accessible right now.
The big news is an attack on Galron 3 (I suppose now Melee Squadron 3 due to the upgrades) at Mitla. China attacks me with 3 galleys, 2 quads, and a frigate, but doesn't achieve much. I counterattack with my 2 caravels and 3 of my galleys, upgrading the 4th. The result of the opening rounds of the battle of Mitla:
1 galley and a quad sunk, a further galley and quad damaged. Now, there might be more Chinese ships in the fog, since I know he has a large navy. But I have the strength advantage and I want to destroy as many Chinese ships as I can before he upgrades them or concentrates them for defense.
The response causes me to re-evaluate my plans for Indochina. When I made the plans for Burke and Wills, Sub had all the naval power and Roland stayed off the seas, while China was largely unscouted. Now, though, look who's driving that alliance:
China has vastly superior culture and science to Indonesia. He has a much larger military, and I imagine a good proportion of that is in ships. Despite the larger military, he has a vastly larger income than suboptimal, and a vastly superior faith economy as well. By every single measure, China is miles ahead of Indonesia. He even has more ports than Indonesia, because I have scouted at least 3 Chinese shipyards and a fourth - Fil Hilander - is visible as the Mausoleum city in the distant north, compared with, uh, Call Me Al for Indonesia (not counting Good Time, and Graceland has a just-finished harbor and is working on a lighthouse. I'm allowing those to continue until I can pillage the lighthouse and harbor both, PLEASE turn your hammers into gold for me, sub, by all means).
Therefore, the center of gravity for Team Sandbox is China, NOT Indonesia. We still need Indonesia's cities to effectively knock them out, but I'm reconsidering the wisdom of an attack on Call Me Al. I could do it, I have no doubt, but it might be more gains at an easier cost to take inspiration from Suboptimal's invasion at Rodeo and strike for the center: an invasion of Borna Borasic.
The battle of Mitla, playing with the screenshot tool.
Borna is easily reached from Shikishima by sailing west by north (instead of north by west for Al), and it looks like it controls the cape that divides Indonesia and China. In one direction are Ryan Kent and Steve Davis (and Glen Kamara), all valuable prizes, but in the other are Fil Hilander and presumably the Chinese capital, also valuable. If I park my fleet at Borna, I divide the enemy defense fleets, can overwhelm either one at my leisure, and then burn my way up that coast. That will effectively knock both out - Indonesia will be backwards and have a single shipyard worthy of the name, with only 3 cities, once the island of Sakhalin is mine. China will lose ~3-4 cities either way, which should be crippling.
The advantage is this hopefully preserves my fleet power a bit more while still burning out the Sandbox team, letting me be free to strike a powerful blow at Phoenicia (Cuneiform-Mitla-Abjad-Heiratic axis) or Norway (Wodin - Baldur - Heimdall) with virtually every ship I can muster on turn 156. If I can effectively cripple one of their civs on the opening blow, whichever I judge more dangerous at that point (depends on research and income, mostly), then that SHOULD decide the game.
So right now I"m thinking of sailing west after the fall of Vladimir and striking for Borna Borasic. THe downside it leaves Second Fleet pretty badly exposed up by Good Time, so I'd need to be cautious with it, but I think I can use it to trade space for time and we have no pressing need to defend Good Time after its liberation, so that's not too bad. I'd love to have the 3 frigates and, uh, 5 galleys now available for the main fight, so I might press with them to try and draw off ships from Borna.
Anyway. The fleeing jong appears, takes some civilians, and is met by Imperial Russian Navy patrols who are very cross indeed with their behavior:
I cut him off from points north - if he wants to run, he has to use his full movement, otherwise my new, faster caravel can catch him. There's rpetty much only one way he can go. I need to drive him off or sink him with so many traders moving in these waters. A bireme would be nice, eh?
Otherwise, the shelling of Indonesian cities continues. I can begin the shift to Borna in I estimate 2 more turns, hitting the city in approximately 5. That should draw the enemy fleets into confrontation, which I hope to win with more and better ships than they have. The sinking of the fleet is first priority, obviously, only then the city.
Kaiser and Archduke jumped 20 points of culture over the last few turns. One reason why:
That explains Kaiser. Archduke I THINK signed a cultural alliance with Japan instead of a military one and has been running his trade routes there??? That makes no sense but who the hell else could he be trading with? How else to get 20 points of culture in 2 turns? English culture is superior to Russian at the moment!
Fuji Bay:
Fuji is growing in 7, not 10, otherwise accurate. The shipyard will double the poor city's production, but it's not due for 22 turns - evne AFTER the war with Phoenicia is scheduled to begin. It'll pay for itself if the game goes long. I don't much fear an enemy attack in these waters - with my shipyards and MBDTF to the north, we can play defense here enough that the main blow on their island has time to succeed.
Russia:
I figure sooner started, sooner paid for on the Workshop. The interruption in ships physically pains me but I think is unavoidable. Short term pain for long-term gain. Once the workshops and shipyards are done there really is nothing but ships to build. Sevastopol was either the builder or a temple for more faith. I have a few more improvements I can make. Aleksandr will be almost out of useful builds - maybe units for inspirations after that, or a builder pump. Even a settler? I dunno.
Svalbard:
Debating putting Ushakov on ships. That's potentially 3 more build queues than I counted on, at the cost of science. Do I go for short term gain here to compensate for the mainland? Hmmm...I am leaning that way, honestly. More ships will always pay off, the campuses can be a backpocket thing to pull out when Phoenicia/Norway are in danger of catching up - thankfully they will crater in research soon.
As noted before, when I signed up I thought we'd be ~15 - 30 turns ahead of where we are now, going by the experience in PBEM7. That hasn't happened, particularly since turn 126. Anyway, 30 - 40 turns would probably be enough to decide a winner, as it seems to be pretty clearly coming down to us and the Raiders - can Russia's work ethic and a recovering Australia build enough ships to outmatch the Raiders? I don't think the game is settled at all, since Archduke has given up but Roland and Sub can be expected to give us a hard fight whenever they get around to it, and Woden and Ljub together I think can outmatch us in modern ships - until ironclads and battleships gave us the edge, I think. Australia can build anything it can research, it just lacks the build queues at the moment to do it. It also needs gold (I'd settle Crabville sooner rather than later, that can be quite a gold engine for the cost of a single settler) to support a decent sized modern military, as even the tiny squadron it fields now is steadily bankrupting it.
Anyway, isntead of a mostly-decided game everything is very much in doubt, but I'll be packing up my computer and other belongings as I move across the world ~June 14 (flight is on the 22nd), and then I'd be in quarantine until the 8th of July, at which point I'd have access to PC bangs. But that's already a delay of nearly a month, and then I'd only be able to play about once every two days through the end of July and August, and obviously my girlfriend and I will want to travel in that time and spend weekends together, etc. So failing to replace me means the game will grind to a halt. So I better start now, with ~3 weeks to find a solution.
So much for that. Onwards.
Turn 136
I unlock the next step on the road to ironclads, where I pin my hopes of victory. Mass Production opens Shipyards, which in turn open Steam Power, while my IZs represent the other half of the tree: they will build Workshops, which will open Industrialization, which brings us a supply of coal. The ironclads and coal mines in turn will give us Steel, which locks out frigates and caravels from taking Russian cities, and the coal power plant will give us Refining and a battleship (NOT Steel, as of Gathering Storm, apparently). Both ironclads and BBs require coal, notably, which means this strategic resource is even more precious than oil. If I unlock Industrialization first, then I alone will know where I must attack and where I must colonize to seize as much coal as I can. Whoever has the most coal fields the most units and has the msot factories - if Archduke's England survived into the coal era it'd be really formidable. I understand now what the designers intended with England's janky set of GS bonii.
Anyway, even if Industrialization is deep in the tree, I have a plan to field ironclads anyway. That will be a nasty shock. 66% that Steam Power is close and accessible right now.
The big news is an attack on Galron 3 (I suppose now Melee Squadron 3 due to the upgrades) at Mitla. China attacks me with 3 galleys, 2 quads, and a frigate, but doesn't achieve much. I counterattack with my 2 caravels and 3 of my galleys, upgrading the 4th. The result of the opening rounds of the battle of Mitla:
1 galley and a quad sunk, a further galley and quad damaged. Now, there might be more Chinese ships in the fog, since I know he has a large navy. But I have the strength advantage and I want to destroy as many Chinese ships as I can before he upgrades them or concentrates them for defense.
The response causes me to re-evaluate my plans for Indochina. When I made the plans for Burke and Wills, Sub had all the naval power and Roland stayed off the seas, while China was largely unscouted. Now, though, look who's driving that alliance:
China has vastly superior culture and science to Indonesia. He has a much larger military, and I imagine a good proportion of that is in ships. Despite the larger military, he has a vastly larger income than suboptimal, and a vastly superior faith economy as well. By every single measure, China is miles ahead of Indonesia. He even has more ports than Indonesia, because I have scouted at least 3 Chinese shipyards and a fourth - Fil Hilander - is visible as the Mausoleum city in the distant north, compared with, uh, Call Me Al for Indonesia (not counting Good Time, and Graceland has a just-finished harbor and is working on a lighthouse. I'm allowing those to continue until I can pillage the lighthouse and harbor both, PLEASE turn your hammers into gold for me, sub, by all means).
Therefore, the center of gravity for Team Sandbox is China, NOT Indonesia. We still need Indonesia's cities to effectively knock them out, but I'm reconsidering the wisdom of an attack on Call Me Al. I could do it, I have no doubt, but it might be more gains at an easier cost to take inspiration from Suboptimal's invasion at Rodeo and strike for the center: an invasion of Borna Borasic.
The battle of Mitla, playing with the screenshot tool.
Borna is easily reached from Shikishima by sailing west by north (instead of north by west for Al), and it looks like it controls the cape that divides Indonesia and China. In one direction are Ryan Kent and Steve Davis (and Glen Kamara), all valuable prizes, but in the other are Fil Hilander and presumably the Chinese capital, also valuable. If I park my fleet at Borna, I divide the enemy defense fleets, can overwhelm either one at my leisure, and then burn my way up that coast. That will effectively knock both out - Indonesia will be backwards and have a single shipyard worthy of the name, with only 3 cities, once the island of Sakhalin is mine. China will lose ~3-4 cities either way, which should be crippling.
The advantage is this hopefully preserves my fleet power a bit more while still burning out the Sandbox team, letting me be free to strike a powerful blow at Phoenicia (Cuneiform-Mitla-Abjad-Heiratic axis) or Norway (Wodin - Baldur - Heimdall) with virtually every ship I can muster on turn 156. If I can effectively cripple one of their civs on the opening blow, whichever I judge more dangerous at that point (depends on research and income, mostly), then that SHOULD decide the game.
So right now I"m thinking of sailing west after the fall of Vladimir and striking for Borna Borasic. THe downside it leaves Second Fleet pretty badly exposed up by Good Time, so I'd need to be cautious with it, but I think I can use it to trade space for time and we have no pressing need to defend Good Time after its liberation, so that's not too bad. I'd love to have the 3 frigates and, uh, 5 galleys now available for the main fight, so I might press with them to try and draw off ships from Borna.
Anyway. The fleeing jong appears, takes some civilians, and is met by Imperial Russian Navy patrols who are very cross indeed with their behavior:
I cut him off from points north - if he wants to run, he has to use his full movement, otherwise my new, faster caravel can catch him. There's rpetty much only one way he can go. I need to drive him off or sink him with so many traders moving in these waters. A bireme would be nice, eh?
Otherwise, the shelling of Indonesian cities continues. I can begin the shift to Borna in I estimate 2 more turns, hitting the city in approximately 5. That should draw the enemy fleets into confrontation, which I hope to win with more and better ships than they have. The sinking of the fleet is first priority, obviously, only then the city.
Kaiser and Archduke jumped 20 points of culture over the last few turns. One reason why:
That explains Kaiser. Archduke I THINK signed a cultural alliance with Japan instead of a military one and has been running his trade routes there??? That makes no sense but who the hell else could he be trading with? How else to get 20 points of culture in 2 turns? English culture is superior to Russian at the moment!
Fuji Bay:
Fuji is growing in 7, not 10, otherwise accurate. The shipyard will double the poor city's production, but it's not due for 22 turns - evne AFTER the war with Phoenicia is scheduled to begin. It'll pay for itself if the game goes long. I don't much fear an enemy attack in these waters - with my shipyards and MBDTF to the north, we can play defense here enough that the main blow on their island has time to succeed.
Russia:
I figure sooner started, sooner paid for on the Workshop. The interruption in ships physically pains me but I think is unavoidable. Short term pain for long-term gain. Once the workshops and shipyards are done there really is nothing but ships to build. Sevastopol was either the builder or a temple for more faith. I have a few more improvements I can make. Aleksandr will be almost out of useful builds - maybe units for inspirations after that, or a builder pump. Even a settler? I dunno.
Svalbard:
Debating putting Ushakov on ships. That's potentially 3 more build queues than I counted on, at the cost of science. Do I go for short term gain here to compensate for the mainland? Hmmm...I am leaning that way, honestly. More ships will always pay off, the campuses can be a backpocket thing to pull out when Phoenicia/Norway are in danger of catching up - thankfully they will crater in research soon.
I Think I'm Gwangju Like It Here
A blog about my adventures in Korea, and whatever else I feel like writing about.
A blog about my adventures in Korea, and whatever else I feel like writing about.
I shift most of the fleet past, we'll creep down the coast and join up with everyone else at Shikishima - if the Indonesians come out to fight we'll fall back on Australia's squadron coming up. 
