Drachen’s Puzzle

[Drachen]

Originally posted by zorbop
I got very far, then messed up by clicking the wrong place, so i dont know if it would actually work, and did not want to go through the entire proccess again, so let me ask you...

***SPOILER***
Capture nearest american city.
Get steam power from them for peace and a bunch of gold.
give aztecs tons of tech so they have steam power and trade them for coal.
build railroads to the city w/ the ship.
move army to ship and then to another ship until you transport it to dover

***Spoiler***

You were able to get Steam Power for peace?

[Dominae]

Hm, Zorbop's solution is better, but mine is less work.

[zorbop]

yes, but it required capturing a city first. then giving them about, umm, all my gold, and all the gold i was making. and pretty much everything else i had to offer.

[zorbop]

Originally posted by Dominae
Ok, I've found another solution (by the way, the reason I'm not posting a screenshot is that I'm too lazy to download an image resizing program):

*** Spoiler ***

1. Sign Peace Treaty with Americans.
2. Steal Steam Power from Americans "Safely". Thankfully, it works.
3. Look at the map and despair over the Coal situation.
4. Gift the Aztecs into the Indutrial era. Finish by gifting them Steam Power.
5. Trade for Coal with the Aztecs for a pittance.
6. Use Workers around Nuremberg to build Railroads N, E and SE-SW of it.
7. Move the Musketmen Army to Bremen. This only costs 1 (3/3) MP due to the rails.
8. Bring the Galleon in Hammer to Bremen and Load the Army onto it.
9. Ship chain using the other two Galleons with MPs left to bring the Army into Gloucester.
10. Move the Musketmen Army to Dover with its remaining MP.

I know this works, but did you really give all those techs to the Aztecs, or is it possible to trade for Coal from the Portuguese somehow?

*** End Spoiler ***

I dont think so. i tried the portuguese first, but there infersturstructure is really bad. they only have roads on 1 of the coal they have.

[Dominae]

*** Spoiler ***

I think Drachen's less expensive solution might have been to trade for Medicine and that other tech the Byzantines have but the Americans do not. This would save some resources because the Byzantines like the English but the Americans, for obvious reasons, do not. Just a guess.

*** End Spoiler ***

[Drachen]

Originally posted by Dominae
Ok, I've found another solution (by the way, the reason I'm not posting a screenshot is that I'm too lazy to download an image resizing program):

*** Spoiler ***

1. Sign Peace Treaty with Americans.
2. Steal Steam Power from Americans "Safely". Thankfully, it works.
3. Look at the map and despair over the Coal situation.
4. Gift the Aztecs into the Indutrial era. Finish by gifting them Steam Power.
5. Trade for Coal with the Aztecs for a pittance.
6. Use Workers around Nuremberg to build Railroads N, E and SE-SW of it.
7. Move the Musketmen Army to Bremen. This only costs 1 (3/3) MP due to the rails.
8. Bring the Galleon in Hammer to Bremen and Load the Army onto it.
9. Ship chain using the other two Galleons with MPs left to bring the Army into Gloucester.
10. Move the Musketmen Army to Dover with its remaining MP.

I know this works, but did you really give all those techs to the Aztecs, or is it possible to trade for Coal from the Portuguese somehow?

*** End Spoiler ***

Congratulations Zorbop and Dominae! My solution was very similar and yes, I did gift the tiny Aztecs into the Industrial. I did not gift them the non-essential techs like Republic and so I may be able to keep their coal in my pocket for some time to come. It was at any rate my only chance at getting my rails up quickly, the Aztecs are not going to be a threat, and the only real downside I could see was the possibility of the Aztecs trading Steam to Theodora or generally raising the tech bar a bit. My assessment was big gain small downside. I do have a question though. In my game I made peace with America and my MPP with Theodora remained intact. I then went back and reworked the auto saves so that workers would be available to place the Nuremberg railroad part of the puzzle and when I made peace with America then, it broke the MPP with Theodora. I’m not quite sure why that is and would appreciate any help you can give me.

[zorbop]

I don't know why that happens. I wouldn't worry about it though, as the puzzle is already pretty hard.

Very clever puzzle, i enjoyed it.

[Drachen]

Originally posted by zorbop
I don't know why that happens. I wouldn't worry about it though, as the puzzle is already pretty hard.

Very clever puzzle, i enjoyed it.

Thanks Zorbop!

When I saw the coal solution I just thought "what a cool lesson this would make."

[Arnelos]

As for unit warping, I thought of that as well. Of course, I was considering the idea of using palace jumping and unit warping as a last resort and was trying to get an MGL first.

For some reason, trading for Steam Power and coal n ever occured to me because I didn't think to check the Foreign Advisor screens to see if Steam Power was even available.

Oh well.

Nice puzzle.

[Drachen]

Originally posted by Arnelos
As for unit warping, I thought of that as well. Of course, I was considering the idea of using palace jumping and unit warping as a last resort and was trying to get an MGL first.

For some reason, trading for Steam Power and coal n ever occured to me because I didn't think to check the Foreign Advisor screens to see if Steam Power was even available.

Oh well.

Nice puzzle.

If it had been your game for real you surely would have checked the advisor and then I'm pretty sure you would have seen the answer. I'm glad you enjoyed the puzzle.