AU 503 DAR 5: Flight

[Catt]

You've made it through the Industrial Age, or have you? This is the fifth spoiler thread for AU 503: Pillage and Plunder

What challenges did industrialization present? Did you use any modernized Chasquis (explorers) for any pillaging? Did you build Hoover's Dam and if so where? Where are you taking the game (or where is it taking you )?

[Catt]

Stock Rules; Emperor

Part 6 of 7

With the luxury of an SGL, Pachacuti was free to delay pursuing the Theory of Evolution. The Incans researched Replaceable Parts and thankfully controlled a source of rubber. The Corporation was researched, enabling stock exchanges throughout the empire (Smith’s meant the exchanges were of course upkeep-free). Pachacuti eventually researched Scientific Method, but only after China had discovered it.

During this time, Mursilis declared war on the Incans for now apparent reason. Utilizing a ROP with the Mongols, a steady stream of Hittite units, mostly cavalry and infantry invaded the south. Pachacuti commanded only a token force of cavalry built during a trade for horses and saltpeter, but did command an artillery force of impressive size. Infantry were often called upon to finish the wounded. Only once was an Incan city in any real jeopardy, and after many, many losses, Mursilis sued for peace.

In 1535 AD, Machu Picchu completed the Theory of Evolution (having already completed Universal Suffrage). Atomic Theory and Electronics were taken immediately, and research on Steel begun (Refining having been discovered). Of course, with not a single river amongst the Incan lands, Hoover Dam was left for others. Each of the Incan cities contented itself with a coal plant after the construction of factories.

Incan technology leadership was exploited to import luxuries, the occasional bypassed technology, and gold. But there was little gold available; even the mighty Chinese, now in control of the entirety of the new continent as well as several smaller islands, could not run a surplus. The Incans toiled away, improving their cities and strengthening defenses.

In 1675 AD the enormous Chinese empire completed Hoover Dam.

In 1700 AD the Incans discovered Flight and were launched into the Modern Age.

Catt

[Strollen]

AU Mod Emperor.

The new millenium brought a new government Democracy and the Inca empire flourished under it. The next 400 years were ones of prosperity and mostly peace.

Enjoying a large empire of 19 settlements with Dye, Silk, Spice, and Ivory excess of coal, and iron. The Inca devoted much of their energy to scientific research with most cities completing universities between 950-1250. An even bigger boom was enjoy by the creation of large number of factories. The lake city of Tiwanaku was very fortunate to be the site of an iron works, and with a total production capacity of just under 100 shield she proved invaluable in building many wonders great and small.
Sufferage, Longevity, Theory of Evolution were all complete often just a turn or so after the Ottomans started building them.
Hoover was a bit more difficult since I realized very late that only the Forbidden city of the Mongols was a strong industrial city located on river, but the competion of Hoover in 1430 proved to an immense boom for the Inca nation.

The ottoman empire proved to be a reasonable competitor, but insisted in researching the dead end paths of Communism, Fascism, and esponiage. We were anxious to sell the Ottomans are excess luxuries and buy wine from them, and gems from Portugal, but we resisted all the Ottomans enducement to sell our technology secrets. We soon learned that if we waited we could buy these secrets from China, Portugal or India for an old tech that the Ottomans already had. When the Theory of Evolution was completed our tech lead over Ottomans lengthen to 3 or 4 techs.

In 1430, having competed both Hoover and our first tanks, we decide to punish the Hittities for there continual border incursions. We lost our finally ancient Cav army attacking a musket on hill city, but that was our only set back. We managed to conquour 2 Hittities cities per turn and soon the Hittities were assimilated into the Inca empire.

Meanwhile the Vikings persisted in keep troops in our land we order them to leave the same turn we destroyed the Hittities. Much to my amazement they declared war. The vaunted Viking navy was no more than an annoyance, and their rifleman, musketeer and beskers were no match for our elite tanks and artillery. By 1535 the vikings were no longer on our continent.
In addition to getting more incense we also gained 2 MGLs in the war.

[nbarclay]

Emperor Level, AU Mod

At the time I conquered the Mongols and took the Hittites' continental holdings, I was expecting to need to go into Communism to make good use of their lands. But what had been intended as an interim experiment in democratic government turned out to work surprisingly well, well enough that I didn't feel any real pressure to change governments. It wasn't long before I was seriously considering staying in Democracy and at peace (if I could) for the rest of the game and aiming for a space race victory.

After only building two wonders myself through the medieval era (the Statue of Zeus and Smith's), I decided to see if I could sweep the industrial wonders. I built factories in my capital (using a rush build) and in the city north and just a little east of the capital the turn after I researched Industrialization, and then started work toward wonders in those cities. In the meantime, my Forbidden Palace city (just north of the lake) started work on its Iron Works, which would eventually make it the most productive of all Inca cities. I also ordered my northern workers to focus the vast majority of their efforts on railroading those three cities as quickly as possible to speed up wonder building. (The Vikings had my empire cut in half by that point, with one work force north and the other south of the Viking lands. Fortunately, the two work forces turned out to be well balanced in size.)

Those efforts, plus judicious use of a prebuild or two, yielded nice dividends. I completed the Theory of Evolution in the city northeast of the capital in 1425, Longevity in my Forbidden Palace city in 1435, and Universal Suffrage in my capital in 1440. The Hoover Dam took a lot longer because it had to be built in a captured Mongol city, but in 1550, my sweep of the industrial wonders was complete.

In the meantime, for perhaps the first time ever, I made extensive use of the draft to bolster my military in peacetime. By the end of the industrial era, I'd drafted a total of something like seven rifle units and twenty-one infantry units. With my core consisting almost entirely of coastal cities with no more than moderate production, my cities had "better things to do" than to build up a military through conventional means. But I had cities that could do some occasional drafting without interfering with their production, and drafting gave me a little more firepower to discourage Scandanavian adventurism (at least thus far).

And, as I've noted before, Longevity and the draft can be a fairly powerful combination. With totalitarian governments, it is possible to draft two units the turn before a city grows and replace the conscripted population instantly. With Democracy and Republic, the ideal with Longevity is to draft one unit two turns before the city will grow and another the turn before it grows. Not that I was always careful enough to time things optimally.

I had one culture flip go against me since the last DAR, and another go in my favor. The one that went against me involved a Viking town that the Mongols had captured and that I had then taken from the Mongols. It's loss stung, especially on top of the two flips I'd already suffered to the Vikings. But I'm using larger garrisons in border cities now, and I've gained to a point where I'm significantly over half the Vikings' culture (and gaining steadily), so I hope I've seen the last of adverse flips.

The flip in my favor involved a Hittite city that had defected to the Hittites after being captured, but that later decided it wanted to be a part of my empire after all. This isn't (quite) the first time I've had a captured city flip away from me and then later flip back to me, but it's always interesting when it happens. The nicest thing about that flip was that it took the pressure off me to come up with forces for a naval invasion of the Hittites' island.

On the other continent, India wiped out China to become even more enormous than it already was. Later, the Ottomans took the last two Portuguese cities on the continent. So out of eight civs that started the game, two are dead and two are reduced to a single island city each.

My Incas discovered Flight and entered into the modern era in 1575 AD. At this point, the three healthy AIs are all behind me by five mandatory techs (Combustion and its descendents and Electronics) but ahead by two optional ones (Ironclads and Espionage). India had fallen just a little behind the Ottomans and Vikings during its fighting, but is caught up now. Unfortunately, I'm only three turns away from having to give up a tech from my lead to renew one set of tech-for-luxury-plus-gold deals, and my other set of deals comes up for renewal four turns after that. That's going to eat into my lead a little.

As for my own tech pace, I was able to research Combustion, Mass Production, and Motorized Transportation in four turns each, but had to drop back to a five-turn pace for Flight. I'm entering the modern era able to research any of the first-tier modern techs in six turns but none any faster than that. Once the Internet is finished, I should be able to achieve a solid five-turn pace, at least assuming I can keep my income from the AIs high enough (and, more importantly, that the Vikings don't take a notion to attack me). That should leave me in good shape for a space race victory if peace holds, although things could get tricky if the Vikings decide to attack me.

One other footnote: I've been a rather generous about giving in to AI demands lately. India is powerful enough that I'm afraid they'd declare war, and while I haven't been getting gold per turn from them, the two luxuries I'm getting from them are critical to my being able to maintain WLT?D in my southern cities. And I don't want to even contemplate what war with the Vikings would be like, considering the huge margin of military superiority they must have at present. (The fact that no oil ended up in my territory doesn't exactly help me be more interested in fighting either. )

Nathan

[Action]

Monarch
1455-1754

Wonders:

Built the theory of evolution in Vilacamba, which was originally founded in the middle of that huge jungle.

Missed the Hoover Damn by 2 turns in the former Mongolian Capital of Karakorum. This was annoying because I had pollution on a mined tile next to Karakorum for 15 or more turns... if I had cleared it up I would probably have gotten the wonder.

The Chinese got Suffrage but switched to Fascism anyway.

Wars involving me:

Soon after I discovered Replaceable parts, the Vikings declared war on me, without provocation.

As a commie with lots of gold per turn from the AI, I was able to do mass upgrades even without Leo's Workshop.

Soon swarms of former medieval infantry and trebuchets, now guerillas and artillery were rapidly sieging Viking cities, as well as newly built infantry and cavalry.

They had built a small rail network which I was able to use, often taking two cities per turn.

Really, they didn't have much of an economy anymore. their cities were pretty small and crappy, and they didn't have much of a military, after I killed their initial force of a few berserks and cavalry it was mostly regular riflemen, although they had infantry I quickly took their rubber.

I'm not sure why they declared, I guess they wanted to go out with a bang. Their terraforming was horrible, they left a ton of jungle uncleared. I guess because they were at war with the Mongols for so long? Dunno.

I did get the Colossus, The Great Library, Magellan's Voyage, Leo's Workshop and JS Bach's Cathedral out of the deal, plus oil and incense which I didn't have before.

A few years later, as I was planting spies, the Portuguese got pissed and declared on me. They are by far the weakest and most backward Civ and an Ocean away.

Still no leaders.

AI wars:

Previously, without any help from me, the Chinese had declared war on the Indians. The Indians are my rivals, and my spies tell me their military is much larger than Chinas. They've already taken a few small cities. The Hittites also joined the war due to a MPP.

But then when the Portuguese declared on me, the Indians declared on them. The Portuguese are weak, right next to the Indians and don't have any gun powder units.

If the Indians eat the Portuguese and part of the Chinese, they will only get stronger. At least they're in Fascism now, researching slower.

Techs:

Inca Communism: All industrial except Amphibious warfare and Advanced Flight. Three techs up on the next highest.

Hittite Democracy: behind me by Mass Production, Flight, Motorized Transport

India Fascism: behind me by Mass Production, Flight, Motorized Transport

Portugal Democracy: waay behind everyone, can't say how much as they refuse my envoy.

China Fascism: behind me by Combustion etc

Ottoman Democracy: behind me by Combustion etc

Rivals:

Indians have: Adam Smith's, Great Wall, Hoover Dam, Knights Templar, Shake's Theatre.

And a huge military. They may grow even more in these wars they're in.

I might have to do something to save the stubborn Portuguese (still at war with me) from them.

Score:
India: 1545
Inca: 1239
China: 944
Ottomans: 842
Hittites: 767
Portuguese: 724

[Mountain Sage]

1280AD:
We declared war on Scandinavia to take their island (the ‘big’ one).

1310 AD:
We signed a MPP with India and bought Medicine for 2’200 gold.

1320AD:
The Ottomans declared war on us. Not their best move, since China, India and Portugal declared war on them.

1335AD:
Faro (Ottoman) fell into our hands. Now we have a foothold on the other continent. Scandinavia declared war to China and India ! We made peace with Scandinavia for 250 gold (received, of course) and declared war on Portugal (they have 2 interesting cities…).

1365AD:
We made peace with the Portuguese and the Ottomans.

1385AD:
Sold Scientific Method to India for Industrialization, 48 gpt, 760 gold and to China (SM and 1’780 gold) for Replaceable Parts. Went for Nationalism in 9 turns.

1405AD:
The Ottomans declared war to India. With our MPP, we are at war now with them.

1440AD:
We made peace with the Ottomans for 1 city and 200 gold. Now we have a nice beachhead on the continent.

1460AD:
With ToE we got Hoover. Now it’s time to build some real military. Sold Atomic Theory for the Corporation, 40gpt and about 2’000 gold, + spices.

1490AD:
Traded Electronic for Refining. Steel in 8 turns.

1500AD:
Since the Ottoman capital was razed, we build up a brand new city, with 3 wines in its radius, and a big We Love Me party it was!

1525AD:
Researched Steel, now it’s Combustion in 14 turns.

1535AD:
India declared war on us and we lost Faro… We signed a trade embargo with China vs. the Indians.

1550AD:
The short war with India ended and we got 3 cities. Had to pay 20 gold for them, imagine!

1600AD:
We researched Combustion. Now it’s Flight in 15 turns.

1660AD:
With Flight, we took out of commission our cumbersome Galleons (no relation between the two, of course). Now, let’s wait for Mech Inf. for a few upgrades.

[Mountain Sage]

Economics

[Mountain Sage]

The Power Graph

[Theseus]

FLIGHT

AU Mod, Emperor

After SP, I beelined for Rep Parts… the jump in combat power in the AU Mod is quite significant, and I knew I’d want it to cleanse the continent.

I got there in 1782AD, and immediately upgraded all frontline troops to Infantry, Guerrillas, and Arty.

I had to wait a bit due to a leftover ROP, but I was planning to launch my attack on the Mongols just around 1800 AD… and then 1790 AD, the friggin’ Vikings declared on me!! :grr: Well, that was a bit of a mistake, you silly buggers!!

[Theseus]

1800 AD: Oh, poor furry ones, no more coal for you!!

[Theseus]

I ended up using a lot more Infantry than Cavs in taking out the Vikings, partially due to terrain, but also because I knew India would have to be taken down in the not too distant future, probably facing MIs… not a good equation for Cavs.

I popped FOUR more GLs in the Viking campaign… three more Armies: two of Cav+2ACs [edit: correction - I did not do that... this should have said "two of 3xCavs"] and one of 3xInfantry, and moved the palace to Chuito at the north end of the lake.

Here is the lay of the land in 1830 AD, post-Vikings (at home at least… they still had that one little island city down in the southwest of the world).

[Theseus]

OK, Mongols are obviously next, but there are serious problems in the west… the Ottomans are just insane (oh, btw, somewhere along in here they declared war on me, and did a few halfway decent IC landings… 20 Sipahis within two turns… but I was able to fend them off), but more importantly, I’ve got my first ever significant CULTURAL threat from the Indians… Delhi is now over 13,000 points, and I figured that the “tourist attraction” bonuses were soon to kick in.

Oh, and the Hittites declared on me… OH NO!!!

Alright, so, onto 1842 AD… what would YOU do??!! (and don’t forget those spices!!) And people call me a warmonger… sheesh!!

[Theseus]

It’s been a very fun game… given the AU Mod changes, and the corresponding development of three KAIs, there have been loads of little surprises along the way… who’s this little guy? Ain’t mine!

[Theseus]

This was seriously annoying… and worrying… not just locally, but on the western continent:

[Theseus]

Well, lookie lookie, what do we have here? And in an IC invasion, no less!!

I saw a lot of AI Armies in this game, and will try to do screenies of them all. I was truly happy to see them, although some of the mixes, like this one, bugged me.

On the other hand, as I posted in one of the miscellaneous Army threads in other forums… mixing Infantry into a fastmover Army is really not the end of the world. Given the C3C movement bonus, think about it… yeah, Cav Armies take a serious slowdon, but think about the increase in power!! And by the era of Tanks, well, they are 2-movers anyway… kudos, I say, for a fortuitous decision set for the AI!! There were even times when I was seriously tempted to add Infantry to my Knight+2xAC Armies, but I was able to get to Tanks in time for my needs (hint hint as to what is coming! ).

So using the example here, what does India have? 2xTank+Cav+Infantry… Assuming they have the Mil Academy (they do, they do):

Attackers 1&2: 27
Attacker 3: 19
Attacker 4: 16

Defender 1: 17
Defenders 2&3: 15
Defender 4: 10

All wrapped up in 17 hps and 2-moves!! Not bad, not bad, Gandhi you ole warmonger you!!