AU501 - DAR5: Flight

[Aqualung71]

DAR5 Game Play - part 4

1320AD: Well it worked and I got Longevity.

1325AD: Mursalis dropped another 3 crap units on my mainland and I used my first Infantry Army to dispatch them.

1330AD: So much for invading Hittites for Saltpeter – some just appeared on my homeland!

1345AD: The Dutch declare war. Probably didn’t like me taking out the Japs before they could.

1355AD: Started consolidating the 2 westernmost islands against possible Dutch attacks, while continuing to build my fleet and military for the Sumerian invasion.

1360AD: Maya demanded Steel, but backed down.

1365AD: Hoovers completed in Adrianople. Hittites landed Cavalry on my southern island. Garrisons too weak to attack, so made peace for 15gpt.

1370AD: Sold electronics to Maya for 275gpt + 360g. Gil has nothing to offer, can’t get him polite anymore and only 4 turns to go on my huge gpt deal with him. The die is cast! But the logistics are a nightmare – I have 3 islands to take, and need to make sure I have sufficient transports/support fleet and military units. It will have to be a piecemeal invasion.

1375AD: The AI is smarter. The Dutch have sea-blockaded my only coal resource with a single Frigate! Will have to do without it until they’ll see my envoy.

1380AD: Combustion researched.

1385AD: A bug – completed an Ironclad and was allowed to build another, though my Coal source is still blockaded. City screen showed up with Coal. Next look it had gone again, but could still build the Ironclad.

1390AD: Decisions, decisions! Gil will give me 320gpt for Steel, but I need to invade him to get Oil and increase my size. So be it! Forces land on his Oil island. I spotted another oil on the south-east isle in Sumerian territory which would have been easier, but I couldn’t have been ready for war before now anyway.
Politely asked stupid Mursilis to leave my island and once again he declared war This guy is becoming very irritating. Need to send more forces to that island – he cost me a couple of men.

The Dutch agreed to peace and gave me a few gpt. I tried to gift some gpt back, but William wouldn’t take it. He did accept a few pennies cash though. Seems he still has war on his mind! Or maybe it's because I just invaded Sumeria?

1395: Loaded a 4th Infantry into my Army on the Sumerian island and attacked. 17 hit point Army (16 attack, 20 defense, 2 movement) against Infantry in a town on a hill (17.5 defence). RNG must be on my side. Killed 2 at the cost of 4 hitpoints, but he’s got more Infantry there. I should have brought some Artillery. Hope I can last! Second Infantry Army dispatched to the southern island. The main thrust has been delayed until Oil is secured.

1400: Infantry Army finished off his last 2 Infantry defenders with the loss of only 3 hitpoints. RNG still favouring me. Oil still a few turns off as I need to culture-expand to get it.

1405: Mass Production finished. Going for MT instead of Flight. Sold Steel to the English for 270gpt + gold, so I can keep the research rate up. William finally accepted my 5gpt gift and now he’s only annoyed. With MT only 5 turns away, my planned Infantry Army invasion of Sumeria is looking decidedly doubtful. Meanwhile, the Maya are routing France and may become a KAI. Gil has brought Egypt into the war.

1410: Finished another Army in Kyoto. Have now reached my limit due to number of cities. 5 Armies only!

1420: All military production stopped. 10 Commercial Docks now under construction. With research rate high, these are much better than Banks. The fleet is waiting for upgrades to Destroyers/Transports and will then attempt to establish a beachhead on Sumeria with 2 Armies, and additional Infantry and Artillery support.

1430: MT completed. Opted for Amphibious Warfare to provide the possibility of Marine support – 12 attack strength is useful. Plus I want to invade before I finish this DAR! Started another Army as I had added a further new town on the western jungle island.

1445: Sumeria dragged England into our war, which cost me a bunch of gpt from English trade deals.
Finally landed my invasion force next to Sumer. Consisted of 1 Tank Army x 4, 1 Infantry Army x 4, 2 Tanks, 14 Infantry and 7 Artillery.

1450: Took Sumer without much difficulty, then moved forced outside Kish. Sumeria’s response – move a Guerilla (yes, one!) within my borders and send a Galleon and Ironclad within clear range of my 6 Destroyers. France destroyed.

1455: Kish taken, at some cost. The Infantry Army encountered tougher than expected opposition and fell. Reinforcements have been called from the mainland.

1460: Agade taken on the south-eastern island. WW kicks in.

1470: Ur captured. Traded Mass Production to the Dutch for Radio + 39gpt.

1475: Sold MT to the Dutch for 230gpt + 1660 gold. Didn’t want to but really needed the cash. Just hope they don’t declare. Mobilised to produce a few quick Tanks for the Sumerian campaign.

1485: Peace with England - mobilisation ended. Dutch have got Flight!

1505: Flight researched. Only Advanced Flight remains in the Industrial age. At Tech parity with the Dutch and English, with the Maya 3 behind. Nobody else close.

Overview of DAR5 Play

The war with Sumeria really slowed down Byzantium development. This war should have been prosecuted much earlier. This would have grown the empire more quickly, providing more income and research. Also, I have had to send Transports and Destroyers half-way across the world to capture their outer-lying towns.

The higher support costs in Republic have really hurt (see screenie below), but Democracy would have been untenable given the length of the Sumerian war – 21 turns so far, and luxury slider at 30% to cope, even with US and some happiness wonders. 3 cities still to take, all on different islands. Logistics require some work in this game.

The Dutch have taken advantage of my troubles and emerged as the KAI. They have caught up on tech. Perhaps also the subtle power of Democracy is being shown here. Somehow, England are also at tech partiy – they must have been trading a lot. My trading slowed significantly as I tried to keep the Dutch away from Tanks, but it didn’t work. Most of the AI civ’s are in Democracy. Is this an AUMod tweak Dom?

My lack of Banks and Stock Exchanges may have hurt me financially, although with the tech slider at 90-100% and good gpt deals coming in for most of the age, the Marketplace/Bank/SE 150% would not have made much difference.

Victory Plans

I’ve started a UN pre-build – can’t afford to lose that one. Once Sumeria is conquered, research will improve substantially and I should be able to make a Spaceship win, but I will have to expect the Dutch to invade.

My strategy therefore will be to concentrate my forces in the north-east using the former Sumerian island as the staging point, and when I am ready to strike, try to provoke them into a war. The objective will be to raze their best 2 or 3 cities, as they have a small but highly productive core. This will be done with sea-bombardment. Marines are an early option, but once MI are around they will be next to useless. A landing will also be very dangerous, as I am sure they will throw everything they have at an invading force. I will have to bring along at least 5 or 6 Tank Armies to get the job done.

[Aqualung71]

DAR5 - Screenies

The screenie below shows the almost crippling cost of maintaining an adequate defensive military while building an offensive strength in the Byzantium Republic:

[Aqualung71]

And the Sumerian possessions:

[Dominae]

Originally posted by Thriller
Most of the AI civ’s are in Democracy. Is this an AUMod tweak Dom?

Not that I know of; alexman would know for sure.

[Aqualung71]

Originally posted by jshelr
On AI behaviour, the smart Maya blockaded our coal resource

Yep, same thing happened to me with the Dutch. Was it the same coal resource on the second western jungle island where there was only 1 square access to the water? Me thinks probably

[Cort Haus]

DAR 5.1

(Emp, Standard Rules)


To Start With
The previous DAR (to Steam) saw the end of the Hittites, and the one before (to contact) saw the demise of most of the Japanese. The coal turned out to be in one of the Japanese cities I got for peace after losing 10 units in a flip.

Coal was hooked up in 1000BC, one turn before Electricity. A 2-turn worker pump was set up near the old swamp-fish, as many workers had been added to cites.

Militarily, the Sumerians would be next, but not before Muskets have been built to consolidate what was held.

For wonders, the prebuilds were way behind the tech, and there was 13 turns left on ToE when Sci Meth came in 1050. Researched Atomic Theory at 12-turn pace, saving cash, and got a 2nd SGL! Traded Navigation to Russia for Music Theory and rushed JSB.

Those Dastardly Dutch
Around 1100 I made 2 tech trades with the strong Dutch, including Sci Method for 210gpt and 310g. 2 turns later they fleece me by landing a knight and rifleman by Tyrana. What trash
I traded them Incense for all their cash, then signed an MPP. I also surrounded them with strong units. They still DW. At sea I attack a caravel with a Frigate and lose They have Magellan any the Dromons can't catch them.

World War
I pulled in the Maya with 2 lux, the English with 1 lux, and Russians with 15gpt and 100g, Egyptians with Invention. That just left Sumeria, who I'd have quite liked a war with, so I let NL try and hire them to DW on me. I was paying out to Sumeria too, so it would cost the Dutch some.

Atomic Theory was researched on the turn of the ToE, and I took Electronics and Radio. Hoov in 9 turns.

Started on Replaceable Parts at 70% (6 turns). I wanted faster workers, and I wanted to know where the rubber is.This was all new ground. I'd never had 8 industrial techs but not Industrialism before. It's usually my second. I really wanted to try a ToE dash on this game, but it also differed by my researching Atomic Theory first.When Rep Parts came round there was, as expected, precious little rubber in the world, and none nearby. The best bet was the tiny Dutch Island in the South Sea, and the next turn a galleon was despatched containing a Cavalry army, heading for the rubber plantation at Gouda. The Mayans, though, were looking like they were about to DW on me. The Dutch were in Facism and pop-rushing merrily - their cities had shrunk. Sumer as also in Facism and is annoyed. It looked like this could get messy.

With Rep Parts, Engineers could be deployed to build mainly courthouses in distant cities. With high food and pop 6, 4 engineers can do a CH in 9 turns.

In 1260 the Sumerians & Dutch sign alliance against us. This is what I wanted. The Mayans landed a Knight outside Nara (W. Island). This is not what I wanted. I was getting 2 lux from the Mayans, so I traded for another lux with the English and raised the lux slider. I didn't know how much war-joy I'd get, so I played safe.

Hoover Dam was completed and not a factory in sight. 5 turns to Industrialisation. Prebuilds going in core cities. My 60 workers were giving sharp support costs of 168gpt to the Byzantine Republic.

The Mayan Knight killed my Rifleman in Nara. Dromons bombarded the Knight to 1HP, and a Cav finished off. Close, and a cigar. To keep island holdings, you need numbers on-site.

[Cort Haus]

DAR 5.2

The War with Sumeria

The plan vs the Sumerians was to fight a defensive war at the chokepoint while building factories then go on the offensive.

A couple of Atries were rushed in Hittita - I was short of units there, and spread thin generally.2 Rifles were moved onto the swamp on at the Hittitia/Sumeria chokepoint where they got slaughtered by two longbowmen. 10 enemy units then showed up, forcing a few "big trouble" emotions through the system, and a retreat from the chokepoint tile. The lack of reinforcements was not encouraging (had been going a bit builder-tastic) and I change most core factory-prebuilds to artillery and a rifles.


It looked like this



They had



and we had



I know it's all pretty tame compared to other people's wars, but ..

On the far western Island, where Sumaria had 2 cities, my cavalry gots defeated by their pikemen, and my AC were defeated by defending archers. There was success, though, on the near-western island, where my injured Cav defeated a sole Ekido to take Agade, and ownership of the whole island.

{now, some dates and use of present-tense reporting}

1275 Take Icin on far western island. They have one city left on that island now. Sumeria will now make peace, but without concessions.
Sank a Mayan frigate with a Dromon bombard! Cool.

1280 Sumers land 4 units (Rifle, Pike, MI, LB) off a galleon nr Hattusas. 1 arty arrives from mainland and knocks down rifle, finished by cav. Sword Army takes Pike and MI, & my Elite sword redlines himself taking the archer. North, many of their bombarded units retreat, but new ones appear. 4 Arty bombard their stack (3 rifles, 2LB, 1MI), and I lose a Cav and another retreats before my Crusaders hit redlined Rifles, the MI and 1 LB, and my AC finishes the other LB.
I hurry Barracks in the beseiged Aleppo, very belatedly. Then I realised I had an Arty left to ping, which I did at the Rifle/LB on the chokepoint. An MI and a Cav took them out. (It was at this point that I 'rediscovered' 4 cav in Hattusha :doh: )

So 8 Sumer Units killed this turn, 14 left visible in theatre, of which nine are wounded.

Industrialisation discovered, start Corp at 20%, saving money. manage to get some Hittite cities to 10spt and shortrush Rifles, Cav, Arty while core cities lumber towards factores.

Far to the east, in the other war, the Rubber Squad (Cav Army) are 3 moves from Gouda. Everyone's favourite rubbery cheese?

1320 - Sumer goes quiet, and I advance. Erech on the Western Island repels my attack.
Then about 10 Sumerian Geurillas & Rifles turn up on the border, but I lose some cav against redlines.


1340 Take Lagash
It finally occurred to me to send my explorer in to pillage their iron.

The back of their army had been broken, and cavalry rode out to take Umma (1345) and Sumer (1350). A Rifle dropped by boat took the last hp.

Refining in 1350, Started Steel. Oil at southern top of SE island.Good.


Used Engineers and food deficit in low-shield core cities to help their factories.
Spend money on the hugely expensive defensive upgrades.


1355 Uni Suff

1360 Dutch Infantry appear on the scene in Sumeria


Kish attacked - Two Sumerian Uber-Rifle destroys five cavalry and defeats four more. In desperation, I send an Ancient Cav against the last one, which wins, and Kish falls. Ouch. Consider peace (WW rising) but can't get all cities. They have one with oil on a tiny island (Akshak). Erech is on my far Western continent, and repelled my initial 2-cav attack, killing 1 cav. Now 3 cav and an arty + 2 dromons are ready to strike next turn. Ur has at least seven rifles, and I don't have enough Cav, so arty pounds away at tile imps, to starve it down and remove income.

Erech bombarded by 1 arty and 4 dromons - dromons get 2-3 hp of rifles. Cav follow and Erech falls. They won't offer Akshak now, while they did before.

1370 - Dutch take Bad-tibira - that gives them their foothold.
3 units come out of Ur towards arty, maybe. This helps

1375 Gauda builds worker (should have brought one) who moves onto the rubber.

(this is what Gauda looked like before it was taken (date lost))




Dutch land 6 units by Ur.
Attack on Akshak fails. Needs Army!
Dutch lose 5/6 units.
12 arty punds Ur - plenty of HP taken. Sword Army follows up and kills 2 rifles. Then Cav finishes. Sun Tzu! Mausolus! A ton of tourist income when I get the corruption down! Akshak's now their capital, complete with oil reserve. A backup oil sounds handy, though .... The Dutch have one city on this continent.





1395 Rubber hooked up
1400 Sell Electronics to Dutch for 1100g + 5gpt. they had 100+gpt for other techs but their Fascist economy is too unstable.

A defensive plan is needed. There will have to be further conquests I expect. One for Aluminium, another for Uranium.
Now we have the land of four civs, and six islands, we need to set up a network of boats and defenders (including offensives) to support all islands. This is key to 'pelago play. Decide that the faithful old Dromons, eith Combustion 2 turns away, can finally be upgraded to transports, and a fleet of destroyers & cruisers built.
Each city to have 1 infantry with surplus units on each island, and/or on boats capable of island hopping. Old AC guarding cities to be replaced with inf, and the AC to collect up to be used as future anti-flip garrisons.

1415 - Combustion. Start Flight.
Take Akshak - final Sumerian s.island city with oil. Good! They deserved it. Carry on...

All these years later, and the Maya and Russians are still at war with the Dutch. All are in facism.

1435 - Finally average, not weak cf Dutch. I have 55 Inf, 22 Cav, 13 arty, 9 transport, 3 Army, 4 guerilla, 12 AC
1450 NL/Maya make peace.
1455 Discover Flight!

[Cort Haus]

Addendum

I didn't say in there when I made peace with the Dutch, it must have got lost in the notes. I think it after I'd taken the rubber source. Apart from the long journey to that source, I kinda forgot I was at war with them after their initial landing, as they were so busy with the Russians and the Mayans. Eventually they brought in Sumaria against me, which is what I wanted though not quite prepared for. Once I'd whittled down Sumeria the Dutch switched sides and came in for a piece of the pie.

Also, apologies for the numerous typos. I was first re-writing the story as semi-readable prose, then hastily editing present tenses to past tenses, then giving up on that (as in all my DARs) and pasting in the notes. Playing turns in two PTWDG's limits resource availability for AU!

[Cort Haus]

Catt, I'm very impressed with your game, sir. You're able to play C3C like I could only play PTW. In this format I'm reduced to warmongery. I shall study your DARs! One question - who was selling you the rubber?

Nathan, your era-tech lead and survival at a high skill level with a paper-thin military is mind-boggling. The kind of game worthy of the great and legendary Gathering Storm economic master-architect. Too bad about the resource scarcity - did you see the thread on the strat forum where I steadfastly advanced the theory that C3C Strategic Resource Scarcity, er, sucks? Dom is exagerating the problem for the reasons he described, but I'd say that getting both Horses and Iron on our modest island was an uncharacterist abundance of those two by C3C standards.

Dom, you mentioned the user-friendly sea lanes, but I also thought the land was much more 'blobby' than the pelago's I get. I've lost count of the number of games I've played (including a couple of C3C) where I start on some stringly, spindly, gangly island with about 15 sea squares in the radius of my starting spot, and Germany and Russia 8 tiles away. The blobby islands allowed all civs to have a decent productive core.

[Dominae]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
Dom, you mentioned the user-friendly sea lanes, but I also thought the land was much more 'blobby' than the pelago's I get. I've lost count of the number of games I've played (including a couple of C3C) where I start on some stringly, spindly, gangly island with about 15 sea squares in the radius of my starting spot, and Germany and Russia 8 tiles away.

The larger the map, the less "stringy" the islands on Archipelago maps seem. Glancing at your minimap, I would say the islands are just as "blobby" as they should be for a Large map.

In other words, I did not tinker with land form much. I did, however, place the starting locations by hand.


Dominae

[jshelr]

Originally posted by Thriller


Yep, same thing happened to me with the Dutch. Was it the same coal resource on the second western jungle island where there was only 1 square access to the water? Me thinks probably

Indeed, 'twas just that spot.

[vmxa1]

What does blobby mean exacly? Is a good thing or a bad thing?

[Cort Haus]

By 'blobby', I mean round islands, where you can get a capital in the middle and a decent ring of cities round it. It's a good thing - IMO. I usually get spindly island starts, with sea east and west of my capital.

[Catt]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
Catt, I'm very impressed with your game, sir. You're able to play C3C like I could only play PTW. In this format I'm reduced to warmongery. I shall study your DARs! One question - who was selling you the rubber?

Thanks, though my DARs are not much to read -- I tried to do a better job in the "post game comments" thread. To answer your question, dear Catherine of Russia provided me a steady stream of rubber in exchange for tech trades. Cathy had declared war back in the middle ages (she was just out of the ancient age) but I made peace before ever seeing a Russian unit. After that early "war" we remained at peace for the remainder of the game. The basic tech research-broker strategy I used enabled: (1) massive gpt from the Dutch; (2) decent gpt plus resources & a luxury from the Russians; and (3) piddling gpt and a luxury from the English. The Mayan's largely dropped out of my trading circle with their repeated DoW's, and I was content to let the Dutch play the middle man (I believed that the Dutch were siphoning all the Mayan gpt for tech trades).

From rereading my DAR, I refreshed my memory -- I didn't trade for Rubber as soon as it was available for trade because I didn't have more than two or three upgrade candidates, didn't have the production power to build a lot of Infantry during 20 turns, and had other build priorities (factories). I remember checking how much Rubber would cost on a straight gpt basis around the discovery of RP by others (when I was in a much better position to utilize the resource) and it was along the lines of 40 gpt -- hardly back-breaking. When I decided I could use some, I just asked for an extra from Cathy as part of a tech deal and she was all too happy to comply. She remained polite or gracious for much of the end game.

Catt

[Cort Haus]

When you waited for factories and stuff, Catt, you weren't worried about Russia trading it to someone else for the rest of the game? It can be difficult to prise resource trades open.

In my game, Egypt had one of the 'Russian' sources, so there were none to trade. Strangely, Egypt was small and marginal all game but Russia never clonked 'em. So far ...