The (Second) MGE Sailing Succession game

[-Jrabbit]

Not sure who's turn -- looks like SG[1] or me...

Need a ruling.

[-Jrabbit]

Never mind. I recall now that SG [1] is on hold until at least Wednesday. I'll play before then.

[-Jrabbit]

Sailing Away...

The Rabbity One in ascendance, returning to the scene of the crime...

It's 1880, and that's just about the amount of GP in the treasury. We have 22 cities, 4.96 MM ppl, and have a soft fundy tax plan of 80-20-0. This nets +325 per turn, and a tech each 67 turns. We're still 4 techs from Robotics (which we need to enable city bribe).

We're at war with most of the known world, and allied to the Chinese (who seem to be supreme). Our historical tech deficit has disappeared due to the fine work of Mata and the Haris. The only outstanding tech is Fundamentalism (known by two AIs. )Our power is Moderate and our reputation Questionable.

City check finds a number of harbors being grown in cities otherwise without white goods. Some of these are changed to temples or barracks and rushed. Increments are purchased here and there.

The Rabbity One decides he likes the attack plan posted for Hlobane and Zimbabwe. The ongoing internal trade program will be continued. We need Vet Armor, transports galore, and a navy.

PRESS NEXT TO DIE...

1881
--Zulu cavalry kills our injured cav north of Styx Crossing.
--Carths take Monol city of Bergen (civil war).
--Mongols develop Espionage.
--Temples build in Cerberus Gate, Mizzen. Barracks in Aristotle.
--Jump-start the armor-building program by rushing to end of the third row. (Hmmm... Hard fundy would help keep RB costs down with the 20 GP Fanatics...)

1882
--Spanish get Conscription, Chinese get Mech Inf, Carths get Refining.
--More fighting north of Styx Crossing... Mongols los cavalry, DD, cannon. Zulu allies, the Carths, also lose a cannon.
--Incremental building starts in earnest. Treasury down to 1349.

1883
--Carth cav kills our cav. Zulu marine spotted.
--Copper (d), Mizzen to Polly Famous (96). Spice (d), Circe to Sparta (174).
--Change to 50-0-50 to see what celebration will do for us. (Without happy wonders, probably not enough...)

1884
--Galen builds barracks, The Institute an aqueduct.
--WTCD in 9 cities. Net income slips to 273/turn.
--Troop of spies makes landfall on Zulu Island.
--Shipchains shift to accommodate freights and troop movements.

1885
--Zulu DD sinks empty transport.
--Carth cruiser spotted outsdie (empty) Gorgon's Lair. Switch from Rifle to Coastal Fortress.
--Zulus demand a chat -- Only 2 rifles! They reuest CF, then peace, and we agree. (This is perfect timing, as we are about to build our attack point.)
--Zulus ingore our "feeble" demand for tribute.
--Spanish get Monotheism, Chinese get Amphibious.
--Mongol frigate kills our exploring galleion. (Was hoping to grab fundy with with onboard spy.)
--2 more cities join the celebration. Income up to 290/turn.
--Zulugate founded (using ancient settler who could not seem to learn modern engineering techniquess).
--Zulugate instantly populated by armor, cavalry, fighter (eactly 10 spaces from Stx Crossing), and 5 spies.

1886
--Spanish gain 2 techs from Zulus (one was tactics...)
--Mongols learn electricity.
--Gorgon's Lair builds coastal fortress, starts on Alpine.
--Zulu ship moves threateningly near our naval supply line but keeps the peace.
--Our navy now includes 2 vet cruisers and a submarine, all in line to shelter troop movements.

1887
--Zulus learn Machine Tools. Our spies drool in anticipation, but are told to wait.
--Another celebration starts. Income now +305/turn.
--Scylla builds aqueduct.
--More troops land @ Zulugate. We're up to 6 armors and 8 spies there.
--Our troops on allied Chinese land perform extra mapping duties, though both riflemen are recalled on a transport.
--Faders are moved back to 80-20-0, whence they came.

1888
--Zulus trade Machine Tools to Carths for Refining.
--Chinese learn refrigeration. Carths learn combustion.
--Chinese transport drops an armor, a cavalry, and a cannon outside Poyphemus.
These are our ALLIES???
--Mongols land at Gorgon's Lair, claim empty city as their own. They take 12 GP and Mobile Warfare. We now have one Partisan on this remote island.
--Mongols demand a chat. We note they are at war with the Carthaginians, which seems odd, since the attack on Gorgon's Lair was like a cooperative effort between the two...
--Mongols are a rich Fundy, with 36 cities. The demand 750, we laugh, they re-declare WAR!
--Barracks at Styx Landing. All WTC Days are cancelled.
--Oops. Messed up freight transfer. See below.

SUCCESSOR NOTES
Whew! The Chinese landing at Polyphemus took me completely by surprise (despite Fighter recon missions, the evaded our detection). Before hitting Enter, you have the option to chat with them. Or to pound their encroaching troops. But they are very strong and have a significant navy (including BBs). If you choose not to, they will almost certainly want to chat next turn...

With the Chinese getting nosy, protection of our eastern coastline is a new priority to consider. I suggest the nearly-complete BB ub Cimmeria as a good start.

Engineers are just about done with basic railroading. Our larger landmasses (Polyphemus et al) needs resources (food, shields).

In the far west, the Athens landmass been used primarily for Freight production. There are several engineers there, finetuning the production. Once theat's done, there's a very nice 3-whale island north of there that could house a couple cities.

We're very close to having a shipchain from Athens, through Troy, all the way to Cimmeria et al. If we're ever to reach Robotics (which I want for the Howies more than the city bribe), we need to trade our way to it. (Though at a tech every 4 turns, I would be the Chinese will, er, "make it available" sooner.

There's a transport (or galleon) in the shipchain carrying 3 freights -- due to operator error. One (the Wine from Aristotle) is supposed to go east (toward Athens) and the other two (copper and dye IIRC from Athens) are heading east.

There's a galleon with a spy heading north to Mongol country, hoping to steal Fundy.

Zulugate is exactly 10 spaces from Styx Crossing. he fighter there is running patrols to spot any Zulu force before it gets close. I would advise continuing this until the attacks on Hlobane and Zimbabwe are done.
And that could be very soon!

[-Jrabbit]

1888 Zipfile

Here's the save, 435K zipped down to reasonable size.

The next turnset should be challenging and fun.
And assuming he's back, SG [1] is next.

[duke o' york]

Originally posted by Old n Slow
1868 (6) Become Fundy

Sorry for asking a potentially dumb question, but which government were/are we in? This is the last change I could find.

If we are in a soft fundy, then why didn't you deliver any caravans while the cities were celebrating? There doesn't seem much point in them celebrating if we're not going to take advantage of the double trade.

If I'm wrong here, then I'm sorry and I'll join the queue at the docks for the short ferry ride from Troy to the Institute.

[-Jrabbit]

We are in soft Fundy.

I celebrated to learn how tax income would be affected in a world without any Happy WoWs.

Some payoffs were definitely non-celebrating, though I think some were. Frankly, with the travel distances involved, that was secondary to my vain attempts to construct a working shipchain. (Came close, but it's not quite there yet.)

I'm confident SG [1] will fix things a treat...

[Bloody Monk]

-Jrabbit,

Read your log and feel very thankful for the detail. I agree with the military side of your plan. That is looking good, esp the BB's. I don't think the Chin landing is a problem since there are no engineers to plant cities. We are allied so any nefarious activity will "send" their units home, or am I misremembering that too??

The point alluded to by >doy< is a good one, I believe. Fundy needs a domestic side to make it sing, and that means celebrations and deliveries. Science by way of trade. Even though it all will have to be domestic, it should still be a priority. You noted the desire to get Robotics, and while our spies have stolen everything not nailed down, internal trade will help that along.

Could you please give some expansion of your vision for the timing and TOE of the Zulu assault?? Thanks!!

Monk

[-Jrabbit]

Originally posted by Bloody Monk
Read your log and feel very thankful for the detail.

Thx for the kind words. I take some pride in providing good material for RCC.

I don't think the Chin landing is a problem since there are no engineers to plant cities. We are allied so any nefarious activity will "send" their units home, or am I misremembering that too??

I rarely have allies, so this is a mystery to me. I'll be watching with great interest to see how it works out.

The point alluded to by >doy< is a good one, I believe. Fundy needs a domestic side to make it sing, and that means celebrations and deliveries. Science by way of trade. Even though it all will have to be domestic, it should still be a priority. You noted the desire to get Robotics, and while our spies have stolen everything not nailed down, internal trade will help that along.

I placed a higher priority on military development. We don't have a lot of commodities available (except in our Size 1 and 2 cities), so I built more transports than freights. I can only think of 1 delivery that could have been increased by waiting for celebration (and mea culpa for that).

Could you please give some expansion of your vision for the timing and TOE of the Zulu assault?? Thanks!!

Basically, I was working toward Grigor's posted plan --

Load 7 spies and an engineer on a transport in Archimedes. Sail to the NW and build a city on that offshore island near the Zulus (so that spies have a close place to rest)

Load another transport with 8 vet Armor. Probably need a 3rd transport with spies.

In one monster turn:
Land spies and take out city walls in Hlobane, then occupy with Armor. (UN) Do that first so the Zulus can't force peace. Then do the same with Zimbabwe (Mike's). Use the UN to force peace so Zulus can't retake the cities.

I began by building a city (Zulugate) on the 4-square island off their lands, picking the only spot within range of our Fighters. Once that was in place (and with an uneasy Zulu peace treaty), I began ferrying armor and spies. A fighter flies patrol to (it is hoped) forewarn of any Zulu assault. By the end of my turn, we had about 6 armored divisions in position, with several more under construction.

The game plan: Ferry a spy or two across to Zululand, detail their city defenses in the two large target cities. Ride their rails to map the rest of their empire. If all goes well, occupy a fortress.

Evaluate the recon data to determine the troop strength needed to pull down the walls and blast the defenders into oblivion. I was planning on about a dozen tanks and maybe 8 spies, but perhaps 2 transports worth of armor would be safer. Two engineers to create an insta-fort would ideally be part of the first shipload to land. Another option is to include a marine for direct occupation from the transport (iirc one of the object cities is coastal), but that's more in the area of a flourish than a need. Per Grigor, take the UN first and refuse to chat between city assaults.

So, continue excessive RB production of tanks. Leaven with the odd defensive troops (vet Alpine vs militia, Fighters to do recon and pick off stray units).

The Zulu naval presence will soon become negligible (as they only appear to have a couple port cities.

Once the frontal assault is over, we'll have much easier celebrations (Mike) and the Athens-Zulu trading can begin in earnest, passing through the Home Islands en route. The navy will need to continue growth to protect the shipchain, as the Mongols have become belligerent in the meantime.

[Bloody Monk]

Thanks, Jr. That sounds like a great plan!!

Re: the marine...if the city flag has dropped, any mil unit can step off the boat into the city to take it over. Not sure if you meant that or that you would have the marine fight from the boat to drop the flag.

Re: allies...When the alliance gets broken all mil units from each party get sent back to their nearest city. Hence the danger of letting them land an engineer, lest he build in our territory.

That Battle Plan forms the basis for a great movie, "Back From the Brink". Hats off to Grigor.

Monk

[-Jrabbit]

Originally posted by Bloody Monk
Re: the marine...if the city flag has dropped, any mil unit can step off the boat into the city to take it over. Not sure if you meant that or that you would have the marine fight from the boat to drop the flag.

Really? I had no idea. (Again, it's never come up in my games.) Always just assumed that entering an emptye city with troops from a transport would be treated the same as an attack.

The education continues...

Re: allies...When the alliance gets broken all mil units from each party get sent back to their nearest city. Hence the danger of letting them land an engineer, lest he build in our territory.

Again, my ignorance is exposed. I remember loving alliances early in my Civ playing, then quickly souring on them as encroaching "friendly" units blocked my RRs, etc. I could swear those "friendly" troops pulled off some sneak attacks on me (which seems wrong linght of your note here), but that could easily be a faulty memory bank...

That Battle Plan forms the basis for a great movie, "Back From the Brink". Hats off to Grigor.

Agreed. Grigor's plan seemed viable, which had the added bonus of allowing me to be a little lazy in the planning dept. On this mega-world, that was most welcome.
Looking forward to Stu's execution...

[Grigor]

I was just walking my dog and thinking about how I messed up my turns when the attack plan coalesced. I have no idea if it will work.

[Bloody Monk]

Don't worry. Remember the first lesson of battle. No plan survives first contact with the enemy. It shows promise. That's all one can hope for.

Monk

[La Fayette]

Poor Zulus

I don't think they will last long

Log tomorrow morning

[La Fayette]

... just a juicy introduction before going to bed:

7 ex-Zulu cities now bear a white flag and Robotics is next tech

[Bloody Monk]

WooHoo!! That rocks!! Very pretty picture, indeed, good Sir.

The log will be quite long...one might hope anyway.

Monk