AU208: Total Eternal Forever War - Reports and Comments

[Konquest02]

Great game!!

[Theseus]

MS, that was friggin' great!!

It's admittedly a re-start, but wait for mine...

[Theseus]

DAR FOR MY RE-PLAY SO FAR

I am writing this up on 8/29-30/03... god, this feels like it's taken forever... looking back at the BC saves, even the early AD saves, feels like an eon ago (well, I guess it was )..

Don't post till I reach 1630 AD, please... thanks.

[Theseus]

4000 BC

Barracks and Archers are pretty much the plan. Something of an effort at doing RCP, but it's not a major issue.

3700 BC:

WOOHOO! EXP in action... discovered a village 7777777 of Theseusheim!!

3500 BC:

Bronze Working from a hut.

2900 BC:

MOFO! A second village 3332 of T-heim!!!

That is one heckuva start.

Met the Iroqouis, traded for Ceremonial Burial, and declared. They've lost one Archer and one Warrior thus far.

2750 BC:

Damn, met the Romans.

Here we go... Rome first.

FLASH FORWARD

10 AD:

Many, many Archers later, I capture Salamanca, which has the Hanging Gardens, and use a GL to build my FP there. I know it's not perfect, but I am planning a LOT of cities on the home continent, for massive military build-up and financial support, and need to get going. I also wanted to wait for Berserks before building Armies, unless I had a surfeit of early GLs (which I did not).

I rush-build in 8 cities (this took a lot of pre-planning actually), and revolt for monarchy.

150 AD:

I meet Lizzie, who is to the south. I make two trades:
Polytheism and 80g for Literature, Construction, and Philosophy.
Monotheism for Currency, WM, and 290g.

Not bad... and DOOM ON YOU, bee-yatch. She has the Colossus and the Great Library, yum yum.

Hammy, wherever he is, is the culture whore, with the Great Lighthouse and the Oracle already built in Babylon.

270 AD:

I am near control of the continent. The Iroquis were actually much harder than the Romans... ah, well, that's maybe cause I whacked Caesar off his friggin' iron hill ASAP. Anyway, it took serious mixed stacks (8? units at a time) of Archers, Swords, and Spears to successfully fight my way north.

Researching Feudalism... oh yeah baby, Berserks are on the way. Frantically building southern harbors to have vet Galleys. I've got 23 Archers, 6 Swords, and 15 Spears. Also frantically building Settlers for obvious reasons.

Corruption is already bad in certain cities... not sure I understand why. Rome, for instance, is losing 7 out of 11 shields. I am 6th in most rankings that matter.

[Theseus]

340 AD:

Iroquois? Dead.

360 AD:

Rome? Dead.

Marmalard? Dead.

That last GL from Rome? Priceless.

Time to BUILD like I've never built before. I'm not a huge micro manager, but this time, man, I even did spreadsheets.

390 AD:

I meet America and Babylon. They are ahead by solely Republic.

I use that GL to build Sun Tzu.

410 AD:

India.

430 AD:

Egypt.

The gang's all here. And it ain;t pretty. Egypt looks the toughest. The critical decision faced by all of us playing this BASTARD... where to attack?

FLASH FORWARD AGAIN

840 AD:

Scandinavia is almost fully settled, with the entire coast complete and just a few holes up north.

The sea lane for Bab Galleys to the northwest is dangerous, and allows them to build a city on the northern tundra isle, and then on the single tile speck to the NE... I'll deal with that presently. It also allows them to send attacking troops in dribs and drabs to my coast there, which I am using as training tools for Knights.

I'm researching Navigation, and I've been holding off on upgrading any Archers to Berserks to delay my GA, but feel ready to start it.

860 AD:

My first Berserker attack is on a Bab Knight... and it friggin' retreats! I don;t mind at all.

940 AD:

Scandinavia fully built out, finally.

I also my first amphib attacks on the two Bab cities on the northern tundra isles... Berserks versus Spears just ain't fair.

Happiness is a bit of an issue, btw... luxuries increase in importance to me just about now. Having remained in Monarchy, I also put more effort into using MPs than I have in most games before.

GA triggered. Whoa...Lizzie don't know what kinda whupass is comin' her way.

1050 AD:

Continuing to use the NW as a GL farm, I am able to snag Smiths.

1200 AD:

Hammie has added Magellan and Newton to Babylon... paint a damn target there. Delhi ain't so bad either, with the Great Wall and Sistine. But first things first...

The attack on England is ready.

On top of the Colossus in York and the GLib in London, England has built Copernicus and Shakespeare in London. They've got gunpowder (and saltpeter, %@^#^%@!!) , and are partially upgraded to Muskets. In other words, this is probably the best performance I have ever seen by AI England.

Well... TOO F*CKING BAD FOR YOU, LIZZIE!!

I've got 40 friggin' Berserks, 10 Pikes, and extra empty Caravels for protection, outside of EVERY ONE of your oh-so-conveniently coastal cities.

DOH! I realize after taking down the English continent in one fell swoop that I forgot about Dover on the island next to Scandinavia... quickly rectified.

[Theseus]

1265 AD:

The number of enemy Frigates harassing me was stunning. In general, I think I was taking 35-40 bombardments each turn.

My response? At home, Workers and Cannon, in mass numbers, Knight-packs for land defense, and defenders on all key points (including especially maintaining roads for coastal cities). In England, it took some time, but I would eventually man all the shores.

And then... Ironclads. I think I maxed out at around 45 of them. It took a while (another few hundred years), including letting the enemy near my shores for Cannon softening, but I pretty much wiped the seas clean (unfortunately, not to soon after, enemy Destroyers would start to appear).

This is around when I started really feeling the expense of maintaining the troops. My stats had dramatically improved though, now being #1 in land area and mfg. goods.

This is also when I very much missed the various Pillars available in a normal game, including especially diplomacy, trade, and things Machiavellian. I would definitely have been fomenting unrest, mistrust, and war on the far continents by now.

1335 AD:

Time to strike out for new lands, meet strange people, and kill them.

India, you call to me. Luxuries and GWs, it's like there's a "Labor Day SALE!" sign on you.

This was a BIG turn.

I sent off the Strike Force: You'll see it below: 40 Berserks, and 16 each of Cavs, Cats, and Rifles, for a total of 98 land units. 'Prolly the biggest IC invasion I've ever done this early. Ironclads and extra Galleons as protection, as there are enemy Frigates EVERYWHERE.

Even though I'm facing Rifles, the sheer friggin' amphib power of this attack force still jumps out at me! Does anyone know, btw, what defensive supplements exist against amphib attacks?

On top of that, I quickly built up my Cannon force to a total of 80 or so, to deal with the bombard attacks at home.

I also started drafting like mad, for coastal key defense points and for MPs under monarchy.

I'm feeling the pain... supporting a huge military (301 units against 176 allowed), a massive number of Workers (I think I peaked at around 80, when Steam Power allowed RR... critical here), no trade, not enough lux. And my economy sucks compared to a normal game, at 6.2.2 with only 110g and 30gpt, reseach on Steam Power at a 24 turn rate with 11 to go.

I'm a good bit behind on tech, but no one is building Universal Suffrage or ToE yet, so I'm not in too much trouble, and that also means Rep Parts and Infantry are not yet a worry for my Berserks.

The strike force:

[vmxa1]

Compared to Au402 this game was a lot less painful. At least turns do not take long. Looks like you are having fun now.

[Theseus]

1335 AD: (cont.)

And support:

[Theseus]

1400 AD:

I started with Calcutta to cut off the peninsula, including getting defenders from sea to sea.

GLs started really popping at this point, given the mass of Indian and especially Bab troops that I had to dispose of. Oh look, there's one now!!

[Theseus]

1415 AD:

Capturing Delhi (and two luxuries) was really the hingepoint of my strategy and campaign in India... aside from being a capitol and delivering the nicenicenice GWs, it represented the heart of the Indian subcontinent, and a wonderful locus for driving India into the sea and commencing the dismantlement of Babylon.

The Indian city placement... WTF.

More GLs ensued... and Armies started to become a key component of the Viking military.

Reinforcement cycles from the homeland, and even England, becomes a key focus. I had two fleets going, with 24 to 40 new troops arriving every 4-5 turns, mostly Cannon, Rifle, and Cavs at first, followed by many Infantry, random Berserks, and then Arty.

But PUSH ON is the Scandinavian motto!! The fleet at 63 of Karachi is already moving on to break Berserks, including a 3x Army, onto the northern arm of Babylon.

[Theseus]

1630 AD:

This is as far as I've gotten, and I'm going to take a break for a bit and play AU 209.

A reasonable resting / reporting point, as I've just (finally) ejected India from their homelands, and started the attack on the Babylonians.

I also, BTW, started getting Bomber attacks from an American city on the northern tundra isle (quickly dispatched with 3 Guerillas and an Infantry, who then, with some reinforcements, manned the shores), but I haven't seen any Tanks yet. America has two airports and Egypt has one.

I'm researching refining, but I'm not that far behind, with India and Babylon not having it yet... thus far I've been researching with 1 scientist until I see the drop in research time which indicates that all four other civs are in possession, then turning on the heat.

Also, after having destroyed the vast majority of enemy Frigates and Ironclads, they are now showing up in force with Destroyers and recently Battleships (especially Egypt).

First, India / Babylon.

Chittagong is now the Indian capitol, and one of only peace-loving two cities. After I am done with the Bab homeland, I look forward to having the last few Indian and Bab cities as "war-time production on/off switches."

I've gotten the Indian lands mostly built out, with the exception of two sites in the southwest. For once I was glad that the list of city names is not long enough... all Scandy cities here are "New" and the Indian cities were all starved down to 1 pop, so I am not too worried about flipping.

I used two 3xBerserk Armies as the nutcrackers to take out the cities on Hammy's northern peninsula... against INFANTRY. Soften just a wee bit with Ironclads, attack with two Armies, continue with disposable vets, clean up 1 hp units with elites. Expensive in terms of sacrificed vets (4-5 per city?), but worth it.

I also, just on principle, sent a 3xRifle+Infantry Army and two vet Cavs to do some pillaging and cut the peninsula off (in the process scaring the crap outta Ur, which Hammy starved / drafted down from 20 to 3 pop).

I've got a lot of those defender Armies, btw, I think 6, with 2 in each of the eastern front cities. The remaining Armies are all 3xCav, with one empty.

My big expense to date has been upgrading Cannon to Arty. One of the things that has taken so long is that I have NOT been vigorous about taking out enemy Transports... with so much bombardment available, I've rather let enemy troops land, pound them down to 1 hp, and go for promotions and GL hunting.

[Theseus]

1630 AD: (cont.)

I'm not paying much attention to the former England lands. I had considered a Palace move, but military production was going so well at home I didn't want to divert resources into re-building these cities.

(On a related note, I did at one point several weeks ago play the game out for a while having switched to communism... I didn't move on India and Babylon fast enough though, so I scratched it. This, then, is technically a partial re-play of my re-play ).

I initially protected key connection tiles with pikes, and had a roving force of Cannon and Cavs, but have slowly been drafting excess pop here and at home (upon reaching 12 pop in my main cities), thus manning every coastal tile with conscript Rifles and now Infantry. I have then been transporting Cavs (starting with elites) and Cannon over to India.

BTW, I have been unable to draft English pop in the 7 and over size cities... why should that be if the civ is dead? Really annoying.

You'll notice that the former English cities are mostly empty... I've been OK with that up till now (even though I've been foregoing the MP benefit... these cities are all losers anyway), but enemy Marines will soon be a threat, so I'll put some Infantry in them shortly.

[Theseus]

1630 AD: (cont.)

The homeland is pretty crammed full. I have not been re-irrigating shielded grassland, as pretty much every tile is already being used. I spend the most time checking shield production and balancing between Infantry and Arty / Cav builds to make sure I'm not wasting resources.

At this point I have conscripts in most cities, with one Cav per coastal city. I have defenders on key connection tiles, all coastal hills / mountains, and certain ongoing bombard targets. Some of the northern forests are still getting nailed, but I'll get them coverage shortly.

The RR network is mostly done, and remaining Workers are either repairing bombardment or finishing off the central mountains. I had a lot of native Workers at one point (80?), but have been disbanding them to save gold as they finish their tasks.

[Theseus]

1630 AD: (cont.)

Upgrade costs have been a major issue. I realized long ago that I could leave defenders at home and in England un-upgraded, thus the spectrum of defending units.

I've got almost all the Cannon in India upgraded, maybe 20 or so to go.

[Theseus]

1630 AD: (cont.)

Running low on Berserks... can;t wait to introduce Marines to the mix. Hmm, hmm, good... add a Marine to the 3xBerserk Armies, and upgrade to Transports!

Speaking of mixed unit Armies, if I had thought of it at the time, I would prolly have made my defender Armies 2xRifle+Guerrilla+Infantry. I had sorta forgotten about my old MIs until the American Bomber attacks in the north, though.

Babylon, btw, has in fact been attacking the Armies... with Cavs though.

I lost a lot of Ironclads on picket duty, so I've now pulled many back into port, and am softening the enemy Battleships and Destroyers with Arty fire first.