[SPOILERS] Chevalier Mal Fet and Marcopolothefraud lead a Soviet Down Under

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

:O

how quickly can you grow Blueprint to size 10 to get a harbor? That would let every single Australian city build ships when needed.

And yeah, I think you'll need to worry about the raider flank. Probably a target strength of ~1000 points, or 20ish modern ships, is what's needed for minimum safety. Having our own fleets widely separated won't be ideal but we have so much ground to defend it's almost a requirement. But they will have the same problem.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 141




We hit the Renaissance age. I was worried that Barasic would finish its walls with me delaying a turn, but it did not. Rolandane has been building medieval walls in all of their settlements - waste of time if you ask me. Now it takes me 3 turns instead of 2 to batter them down, sure, but what would ships have done? Possibly have driven me off entirely. 

Anyway, I take Hic Sunt Dracones:




I reject Monumentality for the first time, because there's only about 2 spots left to settle and neither one can be productive before I need every city capable of self-defense. Builders can be supplied from my interior, notably Imperator Aleksandr which has shit all else to do. Reform the Coinage was a strong contender - it would net about +20 gold per turn, and it would make my traders immune to Indonesian pirates, but I don't expect them to ahve a navy much longer, and the +2 movement is killer. My ships now move at 9 tiles per turn to most other powers' 5. I can run literal rings around their fleets. 

China is in a Golden Age, as usual, but no one else is. If Bruindane took HsD, then his ships are at 7 to my 9, a closer contest. If he took Reform the Coinage...I will be sad, but oh well. Hopefully he took monumentality because builders aren't worth shit now. 




Woden is in a heroic age, and Ljub, Archduke, and Sub are Dark. That should ease loyalty problems. 

Also, the Phoenician/English science situation is more dire than I thought - they plunge all the way down to the 40s. So, Ljubljana will stall out - the biggest threat at this point is sheer numbers of caravels and frigates, and Norwegian pillage-science. Thankfully Woden was furthest behind before his pillaging spree, although he's showing no signs of stopping, and the Japanenglish continent is perfect, with almost no inland areas. Compare that with all three other teams' starting areas and these guys were vulnerable to Norway in a way no one else was. 

Thank God Woden didn't think to do this in the Classical war or we'd've all been cooked. 

Anyway, let's get on with the war. I move up everyone to Barasic, spreading my caravels out as much as practical to hide my numbers:




The walls will fall next turn, and the city the turn after, probably. So, China has 2 turns to scramble together a relief force or this lovely city falls. Note one incredibly irritating fact:




Roland spent Hildegaard on a 4 adjacency holy site. Mine would have been 16. God, that pisses me off still. Consider this vengeance for Civ VI's screwed up Great Person system, Roland. I should be pulling in near 160 beakers per turn right now. 

Bah.

I move all my ships that direction, upgrading 2 galleys to caravels as I go. I have another 7 caravels now on the way to join the 9 already present, as well as 5 more frigates to give me a total of 26 ships converging on Barasic. The plan is to lure the enemy fleet into a decisive battle and then lunge either up the Chinese coast or the Indonesian one, burning out their last ability to resist. It should all be done in 20 turns or so, leaving about 10 to reposition to hit Woden's shipyards. 

On land:




Sub hit the courser but didn't kill it, and is bringing up a pike of all things. I swap units around, promote the courser, and kill a crossbow. If the other one stays in rnage, it dies, so I expect the Indonesians to fall back. I will buy a man at arms at Brother next turn to deal with the pike. 

Akkad falls easily:




Amusingly, I could keep it:




City's total garbage, though. It burns. 

Rapid overviews:








Ichabod, you will be prepared to take over in about 10ish turns? One week or so?

Sorry for two quick posts in a row - I have to go to dinner with my cousin! :D

[Ichabod]

I'm available when needed.

Are you going to be around to read reports and such? If possible, I'd prefer to keep executing your plans, rather than to make the game my own, since you have dedicated a lot to it. I will do my best to report the turns and such.

But if you prefer to forget about this thing all together, just let me know that it can work either way.

About the game, I wonder if we could benefit more from pillaging as well. Wouldn't Mercantilism for Privateers and coastal raids make sense? Perhaps we could get more from pillaging China/Indonesia than conquering them. With all the movement from your ships, it's trivial to go in, coastal raid, and get out of range of any possible retaliation from land.

I think your position is very, very strong.

[marcopolothefraud]

:O

how quickly can you grow Blueprint to size 10 to get a harbor? That would let every single Australian city build ships when needed.

And yeah, I think you'll need to worry about the raider flank. Probably a target strength of ~1000 points, or 20ish modern ships, is what's needed for minimum safety. Having our own fleets widely separated won't be ideal but we have so much ground to defend it's almost a requirement. But they will have the same problem.

Blueprint is just not going to have the housing to grow to size 8, let alone size 10. I plan to turn it into a Builder factory - the new cities badly need some infrastructure to grow to their former heights.

On the Flower Boy front, I only have 1 Frigate and 2 Galleys, though it'll grow to 3 Frigates and 2 Galleys next turn. Illmatic will start making ships next turn too, bc its Holy Site will finish.

As to what Ichabod said, I think Privateers are nice, but I doubt I would build them unless I run out of Nitre. Frigates have +5 ranged strength and +5 melee strength compared to Privateers, and they cost the same price.

[marcopolothefraud]

BTW, "someone has called a Special session of the World Congress". If Archduke has called it bc Woden is conquering his cities, do you think we should vote to aid Archduke/Kaiser? I think we should.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Nooooooooo not another wasted turn!

oh well.

We should. If we can join the emergency, we can backstab, and my entire navy is right next to Woden. I'll reroute my traders to Japan/Australia, and burn as much of Norway as I could. That means sparing Indochina but honestly we can take them at any point.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

As for privateers, I'm torn. Marco has a good point that they're not as good frontline combat units - which makes sense, since otherwise they'd just straight be better Frigates. However, look at the value Woden has from his upgraded Caravels.

Side note - one good thing about sinking the Norwegian fleet is that fresh-built caravels won't be able to pillage, only the upgraded longships.

Anyway, there's a lot of gold to be had. We'd be leaving value on the table if we built none, but if we lose control of the seas due to worse ships then that'd obviously be game over. The trick is to build enough combat ships (I'd go for Caravels over frigates - cheaper, hit harder, and win one on one fights, frigates are city-takers) to win control of the seas and then have spare capacity pillage. A small pillaging fleet of 4 or so privateers probably woudl be valuable.

[williams482]

The Norwegian coastal raiding ability is inherent to their leader and applies to all naval melee class units, not just the longships.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Balls.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 142

The endgame is taking shape. I do think we have a chance, if Archduke and Kaiser can hold out long enough...this will be very tight. If they weren't collapsing like a wet paper bag, it'd be an easy win for us. Oh, well.

Big news:




The workshops finish, phase one of Operation Merrimac. That eureka's Industrialization for us, and the shape of the tree is THE major part of our research strategy for the next 30 turns, so let's take a look:




Fantastic. Metal Casting revealed Steam Power right behind it - it's an easy research once we get Siege Tactics in, which is at one turn. I was holding techs one turn from completion due to the era flip, now we get a discount on all of 'em! So here's the plan:

First, beeline Steam Power up to the boost. The boost is due on turn 150 - that should be our target date for finishing it. That will allow Sevastopol or Borodino to build a canal, enabling Sevastopol and Sissoi Veliki to serve as shipyards as well. I don't know how expensive the canal will be - Borodino could get it done faster, but Sevastopol has little else to build...except, wait, ships, which will be useful once the canal is complete! Anyway, that's the plan. 

Step two is Industrialization:




The big obstacle there is Economics, which requires two banks, which aint no one getting. BUT we have a secret weapon: Galileo. 

Galileo earns us 1000 science at my chosen tile, plus our own natural 150 science per turn (triple English and Phoenician science, 50% more than China, our nearest peer). That's enough to grab Economics in 1 turn. So the timeline is:

1)1 turn for metal casting.
2)1 turn for Astronomy. 
3)5 turns for Steam power (dump one turn into Sanitation).
4)1 turn for Economics.
5)8 turns for Sanitation (no way around this one)
6)5 turns for Industrialization.

Thus, we will start being able to earn our own Coal in 21 turns, or turn 163. Whether that should go to Coal Power Plants or to Ironclads, I don't know. Probably ships. The only coal in the game right now is ARchduke's income from his Great Admiral. I went ahead and asked him for it, but we could send another request when we unlock steam power on turn 150. As much as we can get will let us upgrade ironclads early, which will be a nasty surprise for the raiders. He's got no use for it...

China comes to me with a peace deal:




After I stop laughing, we move on. Japan offers a cryptic message:




Please help us in our war? Peace or war? Well, we WANT to help you, bud, but we're locked out of attacking because I didn't expect you to melt like snow in summer. Maybe this emergency will let us backstab the Raiders, in which case I drop my assault on China immediately, take any peace deal they offer, and pile into Norway. 

Archduke is soon going to be down 4 cities:




He's down to sub levels soon, and unlike Kaiser China actually is a pretty tough customer. 

Speaking of, let's knock him down a peg, shall we? Jerkface was complicit in the unprovoked assault on us, now he begs for peace as if he gets to escape the consequences of his actions. No SIR. I have 12 frigates and 17 caravels in the theater now, accounting for ~1600 power, more than their entire militaries combined, and those ships move faster and hit harder. With 9 movement points per turn I can concentrate anywhere along the Chinese coast. This turn I make use of that speed. First, we scout around the corner for the Chinese squadron that hit Melee 3 and zapped my great writer:




Nothing, but we do find the outskirts of Connor Goldson, China's third city. It looks inland. 

Second, as more ships pile up, I move up and take potshots at the nearby cities of Glen Kamara and Steve Davis:




I picked up this trick before. Roland can't finish those medieval walls he was building in both cities now - so all the production he invested in it, which can be hundreds (medieval walls cost more than frigates with Press Gangs active), has just gone up in smoke in both cities. Build ships, people. Anyway, he doesn't get the walls, and now I can strip each city of ancient walls in ~6 frigate attacks. Kamara is a low priority (although it's a juicy, juicy prize - it's the Petra and Colosseum city), but Steve Davis can build ships, so it dies. Ryan Kent I COULD have attacked, but it would have meant exposing a frigate to the Chinese fleet northeast of the city (where it's chasing Australia's fleet into the deep blue yonder - I could ahve diverted some of my frigates to try and hit but that would mean a fight with an unknown number of ships - I think it's wiser to concentrate right now, especially since Australia can churn those babies out in like 2 turns at the moment). I'll hit it next turn and cross my fingers that he doesn't finish walls on the interturn. If he does, no biggie. 

Scouting Caravel reveals an enemy caravel in Steve Davis, but the Chinese frigates are charging east and Sub has a small, weak navy, so I can accept battle here. I move up my frigates to begin the attack next turn. 




I shift as many frigates and caravels as I can spare this way, plus the great admiral. 




There should be a battle next turn. Barasic burns on turn 143, Steve Davis on 145 if nothing changes. Ryan Kent will go by 147 and Call Me Al at around the same time. That will be that. I might content myself with burning Barasic and trying to stab Norway, though. 

Over on land, Sub's crossbow retreated but not far enough:




A potshot and a courser charge and it's gone. Now, I know of one surviving pike, a slinger, and probably a third unit in Graceland in the far north, but by and large the Indonesian army has been defeated over the course of 3 turns using entirely faith purchased units. We lost one knight doing so, or 1.5 turn's faith. Not a bad outcome. 

Next turn we begin the assault on Proof:




Two knights, two crossbows, two trebuchets, 2 men at arms, and a siege tower. Plus whatever else I buy. 

Remember, I offered sub a peace deal after his jongs were sunk for only my two cities in return, no reparations for the mutilation of Australia. Sub rejected it. Then, after he lost all his conquests, and his city-state, and one of his cities, I offered him peace in exchange for the remaining island cities, as compensation. He rejected that. Now China's coast will burn. Will he take my third offer? 

Situation in China:




Fuji Bay:




Donskoi comes off ships for ~2 caravel's worth, to get a harbor and lighthouse out. I couldn't chop at Nikolai because I am stupid. 

Central Russia:




Navarin is back on ships, project done. Borodino and KS come off ships for 8 turns to get shipyards out. Sevastopol starts an entertainment complex - between this one and the one at Oryol I can cover every city on the mainland with a zoo in the lategame, similarly factories can reach nearly every city. Oslyabya and Nakhimov could cover the two colonial areas, respectively. 

Svalbard:




Most cities have placed campuses now, but they remain on ships. This is an excellent shipyard! Very pleased, it's helping cover my builds on the mainland. Russian power is above Norway/Phoenicia combined and I am not slacking my pace. Either they keep up or they try to catch up in IZs/Campuses and let me pull ahead. Hopefully it's enough to stay ahead of their 4,000 pillage gold. Woden even pillaged his way past me to Reformed Church! That's how much science, gold, and culture he's getting. Disaster.