Chevalier Rides Again: A City Lights exploration

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

City Lights II 115

My capital floods, because of course it does, requiring multiple turns of repair to get everything back up:


I haven't built a single ship from Canterlot.  

The Battle of Ziz continues, as a Punic ironclad sallies from the city to claim one of my battleships. My subs counter by sinking 2 full-health Korean battleships, and there are more submarines closing in on Seoul and Gongju. I'll be ready to begin my attacks on the enemy mainland soon:



Ziz will be attacked first with my frigates and surviving battleships, while the subs attempt to shut down Korean shipbuilding on this sea. I have an ironclad en route to strike the finishing blows - all of mine were sunk in the battle - and more replacements being built. 

In the south, Biruta's encampment is stormed, enabling me to pivot and begin blasting down Brussels' encampment:



Once those are down I'll be clear to move up and begin blasting down both cities.

[Erasmas]

Good to see another tight war. I hope they will not give up now that you have repelled their attack. There is still the Venetian Arsenal that can cause you some pain.
Is the City Lights mod doing anything for you?

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Good to see another tight war. I hope they will not give up now that you have repelled their attack. There is still the Venetian Arsenal that can cause you some pain.
Is the City Lights mod doing anything for you?

City Lights is pretty fun, and my urban districts are going to be the key to winning this game, I think. I'll do a deep dive on them next turn.

115

The Punic ironclad doesn't withdraw, but finishes off a crippled battleship. Ironically, my coal crisis has now eased and I'm able to begin healing my BBs and ironclads again, but I need to restore the coal mines in the south to really get off the mat here.




In the northern sector, I dispatch the ironclad, ignoring the enemy cuirassier (he can land or not as he likes, I'll murder him eventually), instead concentrating my efforts on Ziz which should fall by turn 117 or so. I also begin to group northern submarines near Seoul's harbor and the other Korean cities in that direction, intending to do my best to cut off production via harbor pillages and city razes, like so:




In the south, my line infantry is killed in the enemy encampment, and I'm also greeted with a Phoenican battleship armada. Thankfully I have artillery and observation balloons to counter it, but the advance here will stall until I can deal with that behemoth:




If he keeps focused on Trottingham, I can hold, but that armada COULD head for Saddle Arabia and points west, and there's not much I can do at the moment - I drew off my ironclads to reinforce the northern sector after the battle of Ziz, leaving one ironclad fleet to patrol the seas here.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

City Lights 116

The great battleship armada south of Trottingham unexpectedly ventures into range of my artillery positions, as it bombards my line infantry on the shore. I snap up the offering, blasting away it and exchanging my damaged ironclad fleet in the city for the battleship armada:






This is a bit of a wrench, but the coal shortage means I'm not repairing anyway, the armada won't make that mistake again so it's now or never, and I need to sink it in order to keep Trottingham safe. The hammer exchange is something like 760 to 1290 in my favor, or roughly one ironclad, in addition to the strategic benefits. 

Anyway, the renewed enemy naval assault has caused me to halt my bombarding advance, and my infantry reserve has been depleted, so I'll halt for now while I train up some reinforcements. I probably can't advance against Biruta until I at least neutralize the encampment at Brussels, and I probably can't do that until I obtain naval control of the shore. So this front is degenerating into a Western Front-style stalemate while my navy carries out more decisive action in the north.

Speaking of, Phoenicia sees the consequences of losing control of the seas as I raze the great city of Ziz:



That's one shipyard down. Now, do I take the detour to bombard and burn Lpqy next? I think so. It's basically isolated and helpless now against battleships, and to the north I am getting a pretty firm grip on Korea's coastline. One submarine has entered Seoul's harbor to cut off shipbuilding there, and to the north I'm gathering a second, small squadron to deal with the Korean harbors there:



4 subs and 2 frigates with more on the way, not really city-takers but enough to sink ships and keep things on lockdown until the battleships finish up at Lpqy. If I divert north to hit Korea first, Phoenicia can build some more ironclads in the south and be irritating. So we'll burn the city, THEN roll up Korea's coast. From there, we strike south.

The engine of my resistance are my urban districts. Here's a typical example, at Canterlot:


The city has 63 production, 14 of which is coming from its Classical Borough. Now, you gotta note that I have -7 amenities from war weariness! (I'll probably try and make peace after taking Brussels and Biruta). That's costing me 30% of Canterlot's yields. Furthermore, the city was pillaged AGAIN by a flood, just after I finished repairing the sabotaged industrial zone (a Korean spy sabotaged my Industrial Zone three turns ago, did I mention that?), and of course there's still the damaged outskirts from the enemy invasion attempt. So Canterlot has contributed NOTHING to the war beyond 2 cuirassiers, who admittedly were key to driving off the enemy invasion. So I've managed to outbuild two enemy civs at sea while my strongest city has been plagued by sabotage and natural disasters (seriously, the flood was incredibly shitty luck - shitty in that the RNG picked that river to flood, on that turn, at that severity. Something like three nat 1s in a row - the randomness of natural disasters is the biggest drawback of Gathering Storm in multiplayer. See also roland's entire civilization getting pillaged by TORNADOES in PBEM20). Here's the rest of the city, in its damaged state:


Campus produces 6 production even though it's pillaged.

Renaissance Borough adds another 6 even though it's pillaged.


The Foreign Trade company lets me build 3 extra trade routes, which will be juiced up by the Cree once I get around to actually building them. 

Summary of the whole:



An incredible city even half-wrecked and war weary. When I get it repaired and the war ends nothing in the world can match it...except my three other urban cities in the core, to the west. We'll show off Definitely Not Rapa Nui next turn.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

City Lights 118

I get a pretty firm grip on the Korean coast, exchanging one last sub for a Korean battleship, but by and large the Korean fleet seems absent now. Seondeok's power is down to 424, compared with 1730! Cree.



The plan here is to pillage out the shipyard and hten pull out of range, but I will use my subs to put the coast to the torch. The Seowon is juicy, as are multiple mines on this coast. If Korea doesn't make peace, Seoul will be a target for an expeditionary force once I take out the northern cities - it's vulnerable to raids from my sea.

Southern front sees a temporary pull-back from Phoenicia:


I've managed to make repairs here to get coal back online and even in surplus (at least until more battleships finish...), while my artillery is shelling away at Brussels' encampment. Once it's down I can move up my army to shield the artillery while I go for Biruta, but it's still very WWI here.

Amenities are terrible. I would like to make peace, but I intend to remove any ability they'll have to come after me first.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

119

One sub in teh north is sunk by a BB stuffed into Gongju, which will make taking that city very difficult. However, Seoul is nearly neutralized as a shipyard, and Lpqy will fall and be razed next turn. From there I'll move north on the major harbors near Busan. I don't think Korea can cover ALL of them, and I keep building BBs as long as my coal holds out.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

123

4 turns of mostly indecisive skirmishing. Turns out a pair of Korean battleships were tucked away, and joined by an ironclad they sink a sub and a frigate of mine - I counter by sinking hte ironclad and one battleship as my fleet moves en masse on Korea:




To the south, Phoenicia's northern coast is burned, while I continue to shell away at Brussels. We also have successfully built our first planes. I hope to begin advancing in force here soon as I assemble more artillery.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Meanwhile, in City Lights I...






On turn 117, a tundra plant that I intended as an oil and niter colony discovers Mt. Kilimanjaro hidden away in the frozen northern wastes, undisturbed by any major civilization for millennia. That's kind of hilarious that the Rome player never scouted this far north (he has a colony a bit to hte south), but I happily shift my intended plant to bring all of Kilimanjaro's tiles iwthin a 3-tile radius of the city, which should now grow like a weed. 

I'll build a canal to enable shipping out. Again, super wacky to find an undiscovered natural wonder this far into the game.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

City Lights 125

The war drags on. 

On the northern front, we're beginning our attack on Korea's northern colonies, due to a small battleship fleet that Seondeok has assembled in the Bay of Busan. I need to clear them from the flanks before I can properly shut down Seoul's harbor:



Note the Fighter deployed in Korea's cities. Bombers will be a serious problem - I deploy two biplanes myself at the moment but am about 8 turns away from Advanced Flight myself for my own metal airframes. Thankfully Battleships have some AA capability, but I need to get fighters (and even a carrier?) online to get some air cover over the fleet before Korea rolls out Bombers. The two battleships sheltering behind Sangju might engage, but if they do I think I have the ability to demolish them. Note the overwhelming number of battleships, and my subs are to the south. Goal is to raze Sangju, then Busan, and finally Gumi before rolling south past Gongju and threatening Seoul if Korea doesn't make peace at that point. 

On the southern front:


A biplane and destroyer guard the sea passage to the west, where an enemy ironclad fleet is attempting to slip past Maretropolis. My artillery continues to batter away, slowly, at the enemy defenses. More artillery is being built and I'll upgrade these to corps and armies. This is clearly a secondary theater, though, as i continue my main efforts in the north. Phoenicia just really isn't a threat.

However, England has eaten all of Rome at this point and is leading in culture and science. I point this out to Korea and Phoenicia, but they demand that I give up every city outside my home continent in return for peace - this, in a war where all the momentum is on my side! It's a slog, though, and I do desperately need peace to restore my own amenities. Their situation si worse, since their losses in units and cities must be heavier, but they might not even realize! Anyway, it's interesting to see if I can turn a 3-way dogpile into a win at this point. England has superior tech and the Venetian Arsenal, but needs some time to catch up. I need to batter Korea and Phoenicia itno submission so I can turn my fleet loose on England's shores BEFORE the gap is closed.

Bombers and nuclear solutions are on the table.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

On the southern front we trap and sink the enemy ironclad fleet - between the promotions, fleet, and the enemy military alliance though his fleets outfight my destroyers even with the tech edge. I needed the city strike, the biplane, a battleship, and finally the destroyer to sink it. 

The artillery continue to pound away. I will be able to move up and suppress both encampments soon. Just holding position here until the fleet finishes in Korea.

Speaking of:



The siege of Sangju is ongoing. 3 Korean battleships and a fighter mount hte defense. I sink one battleship in exchange for one of my own and bring the city down to half health. Next turn or the turn after I should be able to raze it, then can move on. I do think victory on this ocean is near, especially since next turn I'll have my own Military Alliance in place with Rome (30 turns ago I mistakenly made it with the Netherlands, thinking the AI was at war with my enemies - they weren't! Bah!).