[Spoilers] Slowcheetah Slinks Ahead (Well Hopefully)

[Catwalk]

Good call on the city gifting situation What are your chances of winning like now? A few overview shots would be nice.

[slowcheetah]

I wanted to declare war on everybody, but Sian has curassiers and bRICK has rifles so I didn't think that'd be a particularly prudent course, read, suicidal. Cannons make musicman a pretty easy target. I've taken 3 cities and lost I think 1 knight, 1 mace, 5 cats and a Jan, and the mace was lost to a war chariot at about 80% odds.

I think my overall game chances are still good, but I'll go into that more in a little while. First an overview of musicmans territory and what the kerfuffle in the tech thread is about.

Here's his territory in 1450 AD, I took his capital this turn but didn't take a picture or save the EOT save.

The North




The South




Sian and bRICK had already blackmailed musicman into giving up his stone city (visible in shot beonging to Sian) and a further city below Bramble (bRICK). Frankly I'm happy for those two to have the cities the stone city would have been an absolute arsehole to take and the city below bramble would have been exceptionally far removed from my empire and probably indefensible.

Ok, now here's the shots from 1460AD the current turn.


The North (I've placed the 1450 screenshots below so there is less scrolling






As you can see in the North, musicman has gifted the cities of Speed and Viduka to Azza. Viduka is definitely a city I want, it's in a good place to assist boumsong in a battle against bRICK's cultural dynamo Hellmouth, and will help me secure the chokepoint. Speed is honestly a little stretched from the empire and I'm not sure whether I'd be able to hold it. Azza certainly won't be able to, if anyone, including me agresses on him. However, I don't really want to fight Azza currently, and he's out of the game techwise so he doesn't particularly worry me, and can have the city. Whipping down is a bit spiteful by him, but I've hardly been a friend to him this game so I don't really mind.


The South






Ok the South, and here is where things get really annoying. Music's given cities to my two main rivals, effectively forcing me to give concessions if I want to take the cities peacefully. Why do I want to take the cities peacefully?

In Sian's case it's due to the exceptionally long front we share, I'm not ready for a war with my best troops in musicmans land, and he has the ability to surprise attack with curassiers. In bRICKs, his power has been spiking with rifle drafts and he has a fair garrison in the laundromat (Musket, Pike, 2 rifles and a chariot). Additionally the majority of my cannons and my medic are up in solano, and taking down rifles with a bunch of injured catapults, knights and Jans sounds like a lot more effort than it's worth.

However, I have to compromise because now they hold the cities the buggers probably feel like they have a right to ownership. Human nature. The laundromat for bramble is a reasonable trade, which allows me to use bRICK as a partial shield from Sian. However, giving up settling rights to the corridor between Kell and owen is NOT. It was a crucial line of reinforcement to owen from my main empire which is now cut off, and even more than cut off, thanks to weird culture mechanics the area is now fully owned by Sian anyway.


Plan of Action

I'm going to move my forces out of solano (I'll move out 7 Cannons, 7 Jans, three cats, a treb, two pikes and my medic three chariot, all fully healed). Gonzalez should be mine by turn 140 barring horribly unlucky dicerolls. I may ask Azza to hold Viduka until then so that I can.

The south depends on how Sian responds, if he refuses to give up owen then I'll take it with a few knights against his longbow, and offer him peace for the capturegold. If he gives up owen, then I'll heal my forces for two turns in caroll, which'll allow them to meet up with some reinforcements (two cannons, a Jan and 2 trebs). They'll then march on bramble. I should be able to remove musicman from ownership on turn 142. Hopefully, he'll whip it lots

Domestically

My two most fun projects are building OU in my capital and Ironworks in Drasnia (second city). Once it has Oxford the capital has little to build aside from Observatories when I get around to researching Astro so the mines can revert to Drasnia and the Vale can run more tasty specialists






I'm planning on using lots of superpowered workshop cities on wealth builds to allow plentiful 100% research. Virtually everywhere has a granary, courthouse, forge and barracks and can either build units or gold depending on the war situation. My max GNP will probably be lower than everybody elses but I should be able to keep it up more, especially when I get factories online. A few cities will be designated research cities, and may actually recieve proper infrastructure Maragor, Vale of Aldur and some of musicmans cities have a fair few cottages. Otherwise it'll be production with a few specs mixed in.

Due to this goal my techpath will see my attacking communism soon. I'm up chemistry on Sian and bRICK my two main competitors, and before Oxford's online Scimethod->Communism takes 8 turns. I'll wait the two turns for Oxford to come online so It'll probably be about 8 turns until state property. Hopefully I'll get the great spy, even if I am slightly to late for the great spy, the Ironworks will be present in Drasnia at that point so the Kremlin should be mine barring a GE.

After communism I need to make a decision, Biology will provide the most passive benefits to my economy. I have a LOT of farms. Consequently, I want to research this as soon as possible. Railroad and steampower combined will provide the most benefit to my defense with railroad movement plus machineguns. Corporation would be nice to have for wall street, as would astronomy for galleons and observatories. I'm probably going to go for Biology as things stand, but if big power spikes start occuring railroads and steampower could be soon.

[Catwalk]

How is world domination going?

[slowcheetah]

In brief, I don't really have a time for a full report now and don't have 'net at my house so I can't do one in the evening.

1) I finally destroyed musicman this turn. This got rid of war weariness which was nice, and spawned me another great general. I may settle him in my Moai/Heroic Epic city. I'm giving the city to bRICK but it decreases the length of my front with Sian so I'm not to unhappy.
2) All the rest of musicman's cities are out of revolt, although they are still very small, and I've filled in a few gaps on the map. The worst infrastructure actually came with his former capital which was even missing a granary.
3) Azza gifted me his two island cities, I gave one to Sian, not particularly wanting a war right about now. I gifted him my spare fur and may give him more resources if he needs them to prolong the war.
4) I finished the Sistine chapel the turn before last. This jumped my GNP from about 1000 at 50% with some wealth builds to 1700 odd at 50%. This might worry folks.
5)Sian and bRICK currently have better military technology than me. Rifles, cavs and cannons (in 1 turn for Sian) compared to muskets, knights and cannons. They are both at war with Azza, unfortunately it's currently Sian who is making the gains, hopefully Azza will a) put up a good fight and b) bRICK will end up with more of the cities.
6) In other wonder news I finished ironworks recently in my second city, this will be used to build the Kremlin from next turn.
7) I finished communism in the last turn, I'll be revolting to state property although my other civics are yet to be decided. Kremlin takes 5 turns so I'll probably stay in caste and then switch to slavery in 5.
8) I need to decide on my technology options, I really, really want biology (4 turns) but I think that railroad is a better option. It'll allow me to build machine guns and give me the rail network for a solid defense.
9) An assault on Sian would be tempting but for a successful one I'll probably need boats (beyond galleys) and air support plus better units than musketeers. I don't think I'm going to be able to get that before he reaches the next military threshold. So I'm going to further develop my defenses and economy. Hopefully Azza bogs him down some. Sian is the main threat, bRICK's still in but has too few cities.

I'll try and put some actual overview pictures up tommorow

[slowcheetah]

Pictures time

Lets begin with an overview of the situation. Azza got crushed, Sian unfortunately Sian seems to have got a lot of the cities, although bRICK snagged a couple. This puts current city counts on:

Me: 27
Sian: 33
bRICK: 18
Azza: 2

Sian's a little ahead in me on city count but I currently have the edge in the demographics. This may change when his new cities come out of revolt, but I don't think it'll swing the balance massively in one way or another. bRICK's in this technologically but I don't think he has enough land to win without taking some off of Sian or me.

Demographics and Graphs (spoilered for size)

The massive spike you see if partially cultural. I was running Free speech at the time to build up my recently acquired culture quickly and on that turn I finished Sistines (I was last to music, and Musicman was collecting religious wonders so I am genuinely flabbergasted that no-one built that already.

I just got state property and have lots of workshopping to do in musicmans land so expect that value to keep increasing.

Sian was ahead as I slaved and drafted for war (and he's always had more cities). Now that he's been drafting and my new conquests have begun to come online, crop yield is looking much rosier.

I'm back in nationhood and am researching rifling in order to try and hold on to my number one power spot

Haha, I'm finally overtaking those guys who have creative traits and found religions

I may put some intelligence agencies down. Knowing what the others are doing will be useful

Ok now lets have a look my empire:

Here's some shots of new cities, these are those taken from Musicman and the city gained from Azza in addition to a newly settled city.



Morbo is the city recieved from Azza. I'm hoping to use it to put cultural pressure on Sian's new conquests. Ankara and Solano are in the process of being farmed. They'll whip in some infrastructure when the Kremlin completes in 5 turns regrow and be workhopped over.


N'Zogbia, Gonzalez and Slurms Mckensie are going to be workshopped and then Produce things (probably units). Caroll gets to keep its cottages because it has a fair few towns, and is slightly off of the frontlines. Music, if you're reading do you know about chain irrigation? You were (and now I am) losing food yield from the dry rice and dry wheat.


The Laundromat has the hindu shrine and will be my wall street city when I eventually get corporations. I'm stealing mines for Owen currently and am going to use it as my Globe theatre Draft camp site. They may get actual city shots later in the report.

Here's my 'core' empire. I've spent a lot of effort attempting to wrest cultural control back from Creative Sian here, and it's starting to pay off.




Just this turn Arendia wrested that forest from Alphabeat's cultural control. This is defensively important as it stops Sian one moving me with cavalry. I may found a junk city on the sign in an attempt to wrest the deer from Sian. Cthol Murgos is working on the oil but the deer seems a lost cause without some aid. If I can do that the only city that can be one moved is Edirne. Which makes defense slightly easier, and also opens up greater attacking possibilities.



Middle Section, they aren't doing much of any note. Buildings, wealth and units really. Mallorea and the vale of aldur are my 1+2 commerce centres.



Drasnia is building the Kremlin. Cherek, Nyissa are complete shitholes there entirely to facilitate defense or getting stone quickly for the mids. Nadrak could have been decent but Vale and Drasnia stole a lot of its tiles. It was orignally down to be my globe theatre site. However, I didn't have drama for ages and its mirror Owen can actually use that copper mine to build the globe.



Culture war is a draw here, although my Moai/HE city may be fighting a losing battle. Worryingly Sian has a galley in Kashmir (bottom right of Dal Perivor). Its only possible use would be to boat my cities. Luckily we have three turns of an ingame forced peace treaty left. Otherwise my one Longbow garrison would be dead. This means I need to keep the city stocked with more troops. Which depletes those available for elsewhere.

Specific City screens:

Capital



5 Turn Kremlin



Hindu Shrine



Technology. I'm going rep parts to rifles. Forgot that steam power was a pre requisite to railroad. So I need a better defense. Rifles and cannons should be able to stop anything they have currently. A dogpile from the two of them would probably put me out of the game though.

[slowcheetah]

I got the Kremlin, remarkable considering I am the only player with scientific method :P. Steam Power comes in a turn. Both Sian and bRICK seem to be on the assembly line path (steam power and railroad respectively).
For myself, assembly line first doesn't seem the best play. I'm down constitution and bRICK's already on railroad so I'll probably lose the race to the Pentagon. I have the Kremlin, lots of farms and I'm spiritual so I don't think production will be an issue at this point. A force of machine guns, cannons and airships should be able to defend from Infantry, particularly if my civilisation is rairoaded. As a result my tech path will be RR->Biology (to make slavery more appealing)->Physics (to get the first past the post bonii). Physics may come before Biology if someone researches Sci-Method. I have a great spy wandering around in Sian's territory (I'm not sure that was a wise decision, I think I already should have used him for a GA), and the main bulk of his army looks to be in Azza's territory. bRICK has more troops on the edge of his territory but I think he is more likely to play passively than Sian so I am less worried.

[slowcheetah]

So, I just finished a golden age where I absoutely dominated the demos. Over twice the production and half again the GNP of everyone else (well Sian and bRICK). Knocked out railroad->biology->Astronomy during it. I'm going to two turn physics next and then work my way up to assembly line for factories. Airships, machine guns and railroads=defensively set.

I currently have a Great engineer, and am due another great person (almost certainly not engineer or scientist) next turn. If I get to assembly line first I'll slow build the pentagon, and fire a golden age once I've got factories up, if not I'll rush it with the engineer.

I'm not entirely sure how to win the game. With Azza gone it's down to three, we all have railroad so there isn't really going to be a period of military supremacy for some time, possibly end up being a space race. My economy is currently winning, although specs will tail off compared to cottages. However, if either one of them looks to be getting a significant GNP advantage my tonnes of workshops should be able to build enough to slow them down.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, I'll try and do a fuller overview this weekend.

[slowcheetah]

Emancipation anger is one of the most unfun things the game has to offer. I know it's realistic and everything, but it's a game and I really don't like things that limit other civic options. The civic is powerful enough in itself with the boost to cottage economies without having to derail workshop economies into the bargain.[/align]

[slowcheetah]

We've wrapped up, so here's an overview of how the final war went and some closing comments.

The war started after Sian had founded Sid's Sushi, I'd been getting worried about him when he erased my techlead during a golden age. That coupled with emancipation anger ruining caste for me , meant I needed to attack soon. Luckily with Sian out of a GA, and factories and coalplants whipped all over my land, I had a massive MFG lead, (more than him and bRICK combined)



The specific turn of attack was partially motivated by Sian starting to put machineguns in his border cities. Cutting off easy kills. On the first turn of the war I attacked in three places.

Firstly, using a transport loaded with four infantry I attacked one of his core cities (D-A-D). Airships helped cripple his troops (MG and Archer) and then the infantry attacked. I figured I'd lose three Infantry to kill the MG and then the last would take out the archer. Happily the first guy beat the MG, the second took out the archer and the city was returned to the Poptastic hell from whence it came.



My second attack was at Big fat Snake, a city Sian earned during the Azza war. It was guarded with an Axe, with an MG ready to reinforce next turn. I had infantry in Ankara so I razed it. There was a big stack in 8R, but with rifles against infantry I wasn't particularly worried. I ws successful with one infantry who promoted to Guerilla II.



My third attack was on Carpark North. Since it was guarded with MG and Archer I repeated the 4 infantry transport trick. It did not go well. The MG won flawlessly over my first unit and two and three didn't do enough to kill it. Consequently I left this city unkilled.



That was the first turn of the war over. I didn't actually have troops in position to do truly major damage to Sian, but I wanted to prevent him from a) spreading Sid and b)building factories and then attempt to roll over him when I got tanks. Additionally it was nice wiping out a city with only an axeman with it. My land itself had railroad pretty much all over it, I had plenty of cannons scattered around and more and more fighters were being produced each turn. Additionally, I'd been pushing culture for about the last 50 turns and could only be one moved in a couple of places.

To be continued in about 15 minutes.

[Catwalk]

Ooohh, cliff hanger! Staying tuned for the sequel.