Lazy Days of Summer Sxn Game

[Old n Slow]

Save tonight, log tomorrow.

[-Jrabbit]

[Old n Slow]

Just a short blip for now (notes were left at home )

The Greeks are nearly complete with Manhatten. (rushed an SDI in Toofarawy, but even then it may be too late.)

We have Stealth technology -- a few Stealth fighters should come on line next turn.

We completed Environ -- but a sampling of Auto pilot didn't bite with Solar Plants.

Took out Kansas City (wanted Cincinatti with Hoover's -- but emptying out the city took it to size 1 -- so it still remains in American hands. Also took Seattle (Warning - Portland may have three bombers -- and some of our troops are not vets.)

There are a couple of engineers NW of Delhi -- one has started mining the other was to found a city -- Jump off port for a Greek invasion. We'll see if they live.

Global Warming is almost upon us AGAIN! (And with Nukes -- maybe another time after that!!)

[Old n Slow]

We’re very close to another global warming…Put a couple of cities on auto; rush a couple of things.

1955 (1) -- 15 Skulls. (Americans sink a boat outside of Minneapolis; they also slay a Jeep in Yokohama. See a Greek boat pass by Toofaraway.) Make a Uranium truck in Buff. Smack a Destroyer+; Lose a Jeep & Destroyer for a Tank in the SE American Theatre.

1956 (2) -- still at 15 Skulls (clean 10, get 10.) Buff Ur to Mt (hoping for a RR+) but only nets 82 (hardly worth the effort.) Buff set to auto (Dom =Market) Smack remaining stud around Delhi (should have left a Part, but Oh well -- we have other plans there anyway.) Drop off a boat’s worth of units in the Seattle/Portland arena.

1957 (3) Discover Env, opt for Super (no other choice) Now down to a net dozen Skulls.
(American air force Strike and slay four units (with four bombers -- three go back in Portland, & one in Seattle. Greeks and Russians start Manhattan)

1958 (4) -- Down to 11 Skulls, do some spot checking, nobody on auto wants to make a Solar Plant -- (we really do need to make an effort for Hoover’s.) (Huh???!! American bomber Smacks (and slays) an Aegis cruiser in port, bypassing 2 Parts, an Alpine and THREE Fighters??!!!) Take Seattle & Super & 171 coins.

1959 (5) Opt for Stealth, discover Stealth, opt for FP (toggle back to 7.3.0) greeks nearly complete Manhattan.) Raze size 1 Mailkop. Take Kansas City (now size 3, down from size 9. Clean up the nearby Parts. Really wanted Cincinnati (for Hoover’s) but after beating down to size one, decided to let it stand rather than losing the wonder. Take Karachi +141.

a few units are still available for orders.

Notes,

We’re about to enter the nuclear age -- Rushed an SDI in Toofaraway -- only after did I see a primo spot (covers all three cities in the theatre) for a small city with coverage -- maybe after founding the new place the next player can sell off my mistake (off course if the Greeks nuke the site THIS turn, it is still a mistake, but now a different one.)

I went after a science push (Stealth & Solar Plants) so that’s part of the reason for the seemingly light activity -- also focuses on some American targets (some key wonders imho.)

Have a couple of Engineers (one mining, the other to found a city) in NW (former) India -- want a port to launch an invasion of Greek lands.

[-Jrabbit]

We're averaging about a turnset/month on this one. And only 5 turns each...
It's 1959 and looks like a real slog.

Most recent player was OnS, preceded by the duke, La Fayette, and me.

Since no one seems excited about bringing this to a conclusion, I'm stepping up -- skipping the following scheduled players:
atomant (who seems lost in darkest Africa)
Straybow (computer problems apparently persist)
Ben Kenobi (obiwan-18 when this started. Ben seems to be OTF-only these days. )
Bob_Smurf42 (MIA; last Poly post over 10 months ago)

I have downloaded and will try to make sense of this in the next few days.

[-Jrabbit]

1967 Zipfile

I played 8 turns, and we're in the home stretch. We've only been nuked twice, and the bad guys are (mostly) on the run... Lots of selling of improvements to finance rush-buys of planes, spies, and transports.

Log will be lengthy, but later.
Here's the save.

[-Jrabbit]

Please note...

I have not completed the 1967 turn. Many units in the former Greek homeland (and others here and there) have yet to be moved. There is a choice -- either make a start on attacking the remaining Greek cities, or (my recommendation) gather and heal our forces for a serious assault in the near future.

I've taken the approach of decentralizing ground forces so that we won't be paralyzed by a single well-placed nuke. That's why you'll see a lot of our forces in fortresses.

With nukes, navies, and air forces now a big part of the game, I took the liberty of customizing build orders in cities I considered "threatened" by enemy bombers and naval forces. Generally, this meant SDIs, SAMs, spies, transports, and stealth, though I tried to stay true to the rules -- which is why we are using jeeps in such great abundance.

The original playlist:

Old n Slow
atomant
Straybow
obiwan18 (Ben Kenobi)
Bob_Smurf42
-Jrabbit
La Fayette
Vlad Antlerkov

The table has been set. IMHO, only logistics can stop La Fayette from finishing the job...

Can you finish this in 8 turns, monsieur?

[Bloody Monk]

Need to change the save name to ru_

Sounds good, -Jrabbit. The logs should be very interesting.

The save unloads properly but it was given the wrong prefix. When unzipping the save, change the name from "co" to "ru" or you might have trouble comparing this to the previous turnset.

Monk

[-Jrabbit]

1959 - 1967 turnlog

While many of his fellow mayors have retired to their vacation estates, Comrade -Jrabbit has seized command of our scattered, lazy forces. He calls in his advisors to take stock of the world's political, social, and military landscape.

Cities: 64
Population: 48.50 MM
Treasury: 4,258 GP

We are running a tax-intensive society, with a 70-0-30 regimen producing a net of 965 GP each year. Pollution remains a major problem, but we do have a lot of engineers on the job, both in the homeland and on the Japanese-American continent.

The foreign ministry reports that, despite our Spotless reputation, we're at war with everyone:

Indians -- Fundy, only 2 cities remaining

Greeks -- a Republic of 23 cities, over 4K in gold, with 3 Structural SS components built

Americans -- Democracy, 5 scattered cities, 987 GP

Germans -- Republic, 5 large cities, 1600 GP

Japanese -- Fundy, 2 cities, 800 GP

Russians -- Republic of 18 cities, half in the distant north, about 2000 GP.

GOALS
--Eliminate marginal civs (Japs, Americans, Indians).
--Begin a serious assault on the Russian/German continent.
--Get the damned Greeks under control
--Use our only tech advantage -- Stealth -- to create a superior air force, using spies to eliminate SAMs as needed.
--Embrace the Autobuild and overwhelm the AI with superior numbers of inferior units.

A massive run-through of tactical status in each theatre results in some units being activated and pushed around. Seeing our fat bank account, -Jrabbit examines all build orders, activates and overrides the Autobuild as appropriate, and rushes a bunch of units (including SDI defenses in Sicyon and Delendapolis), running the bank account down to 2196.

ENTER -- 1960
--Greeks complete Manhattan Project of Krasnoyarsk. russians abandon.
--Greeks learn miniaturization, start trading techs with Germans.
--Barbs near Hakodate (possible custom build site!)
--SDIs built in our 3 remaining Greek border towns (Delenda, Sicyon, and Toofaraway).
--Barracks in Seattle, Port Facility in Kansas City.
--Fresh pollution allerts in 6 cities.
--Shimonoseki revolts for 776 GP (404 plunder!). We get 2 rifles, a paratroop, an alpine, and a cruise missile. Nice! Japs down to one city -- Mingapulco, which is very remote.
--Transport with a lone spy is sent off, hopefully, in the direction of Mingapulco.
--Our stealth fighter strafes Richmond; our Paratroop takes the city (105 plunder).
--Cincinnati (1) with it's prize of Hoover's Dam, comes into our sights. Democracy = no bribe. After due consideration, we decide we don't have the time, cleverness, or patience to get Hoover's. So Cincinnati is RAZED.
--Phoenix captured (112 GP).
--We rushbuild, we adjust build orders in the Greek theatre. Some Expensive Stealth Bombers are completed. Autobuild starts work on two nukes.

1961
--Greeks are surprisingly quiet. Calm before the storm?
--WLTC in richmond.
--New pollution in 7 cities. Engineers hard at work.
--Bangalore is captured (402 plunder )
--Calcutta revolts to the Commie Cause for 270 GP - 73 plunder. INDIAN CIVILIZTION DESTROYED!
--We gain a foothold on the Greek homeland when Marathon revolts for a hefty 3,123 GP. In the bargain, we gain a cruise missile, a fanatic, 2 rifles, and Women's Suffering.
--Greeks demand a talk, then demand superconductor. We fart in their general direction. WAR! continues.
--After purchases and adjustments, only 159 GP remain in treasury. Finance Minister is put to work on an economic revitalization plan...
--Stealth bombers from homeland trekking continuously to Gortyn, our toehold near Greeklands. Total range of 24 squares is just enough to make it there from Warrenville without refueling.
--Troops picked up by transports in southlands, head for staging area on Chalco Island for an assault on Greeks from the south.

1962
--Greeks NUKE Bombay. ("Bomb"-bay ) Half the population goes up in the mushroom cloud. Engineers are alerted to bring their shielded bodysuits...
--Greek airforce bombs Delendapolis heavily.
--Jap submarine sinks transport with spy. Mingapulco will have to wait...
--Only 3 new pollution sites. Engineers nearly caught up, some actually move to infrastructure projects...
--Remote American city of Portland is captured. 59GP
--Los Angeles falls before our mighty howitzers, netting us 409 GP and a Cure For Cancer.
--AMERICAN CIVILIZATION DESTROYED.
--With two new happy wonders, advisors suggest we max the tax. Now 80-0-20, with some minor worker/entertainer adjustments.

1963
--Greeks change to Fundamentalism.
--Russians bomb Los Angeles, then NUKE Satsuma.
--Germans bomb Minneapolis.
--Eleven cities with fresh pollution. Engineers scramble. The sun looks ever brighter...
--With Marathon surviving, we decide to go for it. So it's sister-city of Miletos is bribed for 1162. We start landing troops near Marathon, while the air force gathers in Sicyon.
--Six howies and 2 spies make landfall in Russian homeland, capturing Tblisi, Sverdlovsk, and Smolensk. We plunder about 350 GP in the process.
--891 in the bank after rushbuys and adjustments.

1964
--Greek DD easily kills our helicopter. (Didn't know they could do that!)
--Sicyon stealth fighter kills Greek bomber.
--Russians move troops into and around Kiev for defense.
--Massive tech trading among AIs continues.
--German AEGIS spotted near West Chalco.
--Nine cities on the pollution list...
--Gold delivered, Osaka to Odessa, 348 GP.
--Hut yields 100
--Kiev captured, 152 plundered.
--Our spy reaches the Greek homeland, finding SAMs in Eretria, Sparta, and Delphi. Sparta also has a completed nuke. Capital of Knossos has walls but no SAM. Greeks seem to have no fighters anywhere!
--SAM in Delphi sabotaged, spy captured.
--Stealth force and howies attack and capture Sparta. We net 152 GP, outmoded STWA, and their SAM.
--To finance the war effort, we begin a massive Used Infrastructure Sale, concentrating on unis, libraries, and sewer systems. Treasure swells to 3683, then down to 3099 after our IRB phase.

That's 5 turns. -Jrabbit, drunk with power, decides to continue.

More to come...

[Bloody Monk]

--Cincinnati (1) with it's prize of Hoover's Dam, comes into our sights. Democracy = no bribe. After due consideration, we decide we don't have the time, cleverness, or patience to get Hoover's. So Cincinnati is RAZED.

Probably will not matter even if Global Warming sets in, but killing its Engineer would allow it to grow and then Hoover could be captured. Not that pollution has been a problem....

Have the Lazy Rules been suspended entirely now?? Does being at war everywhere now allow one to "work around" the auto function?? I remember some discussion earlier but not its outcome. Just asking....

Or, perhaps, was the mislabeling of the save because you thought it was a different game??

If all was kosher, then way to go!! Making great progress, now.

Monk

[-Jrabbit]

Bloody One -- Not sure what you mean re Cinci. American city, in democracy, size 1. It needs to be at least a (3) to take it without razing, since killing the occupants reduces population. This could take until endgame, especially if it decides to build, say, a barracks. Unclear what you mean re "it's engineer"... Did it have one? Should I have known this? (Like I said, I'm not all that clever, especially once I learn Stealth... )

Re filename: Just mislabeled. The "co" is from "comrade"...

Re Lazy Rules: Still in force. Details follow.

I've tried my best to obey the rules of this game, but it's clear we did not anticipate all the vicissitudes of the late-game dynamics back in 4000 BC. Probably more accurate to say that I worked pretty darned hard to stay within the spirit of the rules. Here's what I mean...

If you look at the save, you'll see we are on Autobuild (nearly all military) for virtually every city, EXCEPT --

--Warrenville (mine) and the Capital, which spit out a Stealth Bomber (or fighter) every other turn (OK by rule)
--cities with enemy troops (AI partisans or barbs) in the radius
--cities just taken (awaiting adjustment)
--cities deemed in a condition of "under siege" (mostly beng those within reach of AI bombers).
--"For the good of the Commie Empire" exceptions -- previously used by many to grow many engineers -- has been invoked a couple times for needed infrastructure. (Despite the pollution threat, no engineers were forced.) IIRC we have Thermopylae needing a Harbor to avert starvation, and a large city (Lafayette?) on the southern continent (away from the action) where I started a Mass Transit in 1967.

The only other thing that's been happening is AI changes to the build queue casued by incremental rushbuying. (Complete a couple extra rows toward an AI-planned Armor, suddenly the Auto function wants a jeep or cruise missile, even though you already have 60 shields in the bos.)

This situation what I meant when I said we didn't anticipate everything in 4000 BC. It's a borderline call. I decided that, if the original Auto-desgnated unit was important to the war effort, I would go ahead and complete it -- on that turn, so I wouldn't have random non-Auto cities about. Where it didn't matter, I rolled with the Idiot Auto function...

If that's not kosher, y'all can send me to The Institute. (Speaking of which, we don't have one... La Fayette, please RENAME to create one.)

IMHO, more egregious was *someone* deciding to found the occasional new city (there's one near the ex-Japanese area), south of bombay). This, I believe, is verboten.

Fighting on all fronts at once creates a lot of opportunities for build options. Rushbuilding maximizes those options, though I always waited a turn for some "natural" shields to be in the box. Most-needed items that the Auto function almost always avoids are spies and transports, both cheap to rush. For the assault on Greek lands, I gathered howies and tanks from all over the empire (a task made do-able by a very nice RR network). Like the Greek Invasion, our incipient Chalco Assault Force (to be logged soon) was assembled in this way.

In general, I let partisans hang around and built needed items, killing them when they started to raze my railroads and salt my crops. (We don't have enough engineers to dedicate to repairs, more important to clean up pollution.)

Anyway, BM, that's the story. Sort of an exercise in ethics. Hope I passed the test...

[-Jrabbit]

Still no time for the rest of the log, but I wanted to post this...

AutoAdvisor build preferences, military...

We currently have ALL military techs available. The Auto function strongly prefers the Mech Infantry unit (about 2/3 chance)

In descending frequency, here's what it seems to like...
1. Mech Inf -- by far most common
2. Cruise Missile
3. Helicopter

That's probably 80% or more of total choices. After that, it's something like...
4. Paratrooper
5. Alpine Troops

Other choices are relatively uncommon, but I did see these on occasion...
Armor
Howitzer
Nuclear Missile (right after AI built Manhattan, we started 2 of them. No more since then.)
Stealth Fighter
Stealth Bomber
Rifleman (in weak city)
Engineer (once, on a new continent)

As stated above, there are definitely mediating factors, since build orders can change during a rushbuild. Sometimes, it would change from military to city improvement (like a SAM) when I hit "Both" option. (No check to see if you really want to lose half your shields, either... )

Similarly, a check of an AI city pre- and post-attack showed a change. (Pre-attack, it was building infrastructure. After attack began, I checked for number of remaining units in the city and saw it was now poised build a fighter jet...)

Since we rarely use AutoAdvisor, I thought these notes might prove interesting to some...

Hope to finish the log later today.

another thing noticed was that my bombers and cruise missiles were ineffective against AI BB's and AEGIS, while the Germans took out a fresh BB with a single CM. I understand there may have been a Vet factor, but the disparity was really quite pronounced. I don't do much with naval forces, so I'm hoping there's a reasonable explanation for this.

(Hmm, maybe this belongs in the strategy forum...)

[Bloody Monk]

I tried to ask my question in the most gentle way because I really do not understand the situation. I did not mean to imply you had done something wrong. That's why I used the confusion smiley twice, to bookend the others.

Actually, I do not understand the Auto build process. I can't determine how to activate it from the save. Also, contrary to what you stated, and what prompted my original question, when I looked at the city build screen for the civ, every city was set to either "auto off" or "changed." I, wrongly it seems, assumed this meant the cities were not on "auto."

Only now as the game is ending do I realize that I don't understand how to activate one of this game's critical elements. I would be grateful for a heads-up on that topic. Your description of how you handled the build queues was brilliant!!

If one opens the previous save (1959) that you began with, there is an engineer at work outside Cincinnati (along with a howie). Whatever. As I said, that point probably doesn't matter as the game will not last much longer.

Monk

[-Jrabbit]

Finding the AutoAdvisor

Monk --

You do it individually for each city. So click on a city to pull up its status window (worker deployment map, improvement/WoW list, shields, beakers, etc.)

from there, go to the screen that allows you to "Choose" what to build (settler, horseman, phalanx, etc in the early going). You do it all the time when you want to incrementally rush. Look at the bottom of that window. There are (iirc) 4 buttons, one of which is called "Auto."

Click it, and the AutoAdvisor pops up.

That's another window, which offers the choices of "Military Advisor" (builds units), "Domestic Advisor" (builds city improvements, WoWs), or "Both" (game decides which advisor to choose).

Once you've chosen the AutoAdvisor, go back to the city screen. Under the shields, there are two buttons. The one on the left is "Buy." In normal conditions, the button on the right reads "Choose." But if you "choose" the AutoAdvisor, that button -- which still gets you to the same build options window -- now reads "Auto Off" (since, presumably, you would at some point get disgusted and want to turn off the stupid AutoAdvisor.

Just that simple. Took me awhiile to find it when I started this game (last June!!!!!).

[-Jrabbit]

BTW, Monk -- no offense taken. I just took your post as a chance to explain some of the challenges of playing a late-game scenario with this ruleset.

FWIW, I like to think we've had our rough patch (lo, many months ago), worked it out, and have advanced to a higher plane of communication -- one characterized by straightforward meanings, and (one hopes) a certain style and panache in creative expression.