AU 505 The Power of Fascism DAR 5 - Research of Fascism Complete

[nbarclay]

From that point, it was just a matter of waiting for borders to expand. Fascist xenophobia was delaying many desired border expansions, but enough cities were close enough to expansioin that victory would not take long. Finally, in AD 1515, the Dutch and Russian leaders officially conceded that America, with two thirds of the world's land and ninety-seven percent of its people, was clearly the world's dominant nation.

[nbarclay]

In conclusion, it was really fun - and a bit funny - the way technological progress went in decreasing order from east to west. Greece, the Dutch, and the Celts were all in the industrial era by the time I attacked them, but none had time to research Nationalism. Russia was just short of the industrial era when I attacked them, but entered it during the war - and, conveniently for America, got Medicine rather than Nationalism. So four of my opponents came close to being able to oppose my cavalry with riflemen, but none quite made it.

[IthacaMike]

the Washington Culture monster.

Regents level, AU mod.

I did not keep notes, this is from the play back.

The culture rout continued. I got both Copernicus and Newton in Washington along with Adam Smith. With the Knights Templar producing Crusaders I had budding military.

The Romans were going to be the first target since I was going to need their Saltpeter.

Once I got Fascism, (about 1375) no more mister Nice Guy. I signed MPP with everybody but Rome, declared war on Rome, and put a sacraficial Worker on the front line. Dog Pile on the Romans! My Crusaders snapped up Veii and the slaughter began.


Ithaca Mike

[Cryptor]

Sid Level: 1150 AD

The good news is I just traded for Fascism, and I've got plenty of time to take over the world before 2050. The bad news is the uber dominance of Germany, controlling 42% of land area and 51% of population. Now I can actually attack someone, I think my best chance is trying to control my continent firstly. I'm level in tech with the Greeks, so I'll have a shot at them after I build up an army.

I've basically stayed up in tech by not researching myself instead buying and trading, except this turn I stole Replaceable Parts from the Dutch using a spy and traded it for The Corporation, Scientific Method, Fascism and Democracy, by chaining through the AI's in order of tech level.

I've only had one war, the Germans declared war on me about 30 turns ago or so. They landed one infantry. I thought it was obvious then were going to declare war, so I set science/luxuries to 0%, maximised my trade from cities, and traded them about 240gpt for Steam Power and some cash. Next turn they did declare war, but their sole infantry was defeated by a fortified spearman, but I had about 10 longbowman waiting to pounce. Since I got all my gpt back, I brought Industrialisation and traded it for about 5 techs. I then placed units on all coastal mountains and hills, to stop them landing there. Next they came with two infantry, which I beat down at the expense of 6 longbowman, which I have a lot of as throughout the middle ages I traded my sole source of iron for tech all the time. Ten turns later I gave them 10gpt for peace.

Due to this experience, I don't think the AI is great at conducting intercontinental invasions, so I'm not as worried about the Germans as their size suggests.

But the power graph is still a concern.

[Dominae]

Fascist Abe: A Tale of the Golden Eagle

So I do not quite have Fascism yet, but I could trade for it anytime and plan on delaying until it is efficient to do so. Partway through the Industrial era, I figure this is the appropriate DAR for me to report in.

Recall from my DAR1 report that my goals in this game are twofold:

1. To make effective use of Fascism.
2. To explore the entire tech tree.

Thus, my self-imposed restriction in this game is that I will not engage in offensive warfare with any civ until I have researched or traded for every tech in the tech tree. This is why, during this DAR, I am an uber-builder, and not a crazed Fascist/Cavalry warmonger.

I left off in my last DAR shortly after contacting all civs, just a couple of techs into the Medieval era.

250BC:	Invention
150BC:	Forbidden Palace (Philadelphia)
110BC:	Gunpowder
50AD:	Chemistry
	Germany: Chemistry for Education, Printing Press and 46gpt
	Celts: Chemistry for Gems, 31gpt and 210 Gold
90AD:	Sistine Chapel
190AD:	Metallurgy
250AD:	University (Washington)
280AD:	Astronomy
	Russia: Silks for Wines and 26 Gold
340AD:	Physics
350AD:	Germany: Physics for Spices, World Map and 115gpt
	Carthage: Physics for Gems, 105gpt and 9 Gold
400AD:	Theory of Gravity
420AD:	Netherlands completes Copernicus' Observatory
	Germany: Theory of Gravity for Banking, 79gpt and 19 Gold
430AD:	Newton's University
450AD:	Magnetism
	First to Industrial era!

As you can see here, my main focus during this stage of the game was the tech race. I was determined to build Copernicus' in Washington, but wanted to avoid Education to gain maximal benefit from the Temple of Artemis. Once Germany got Education, though, it was silly to stay away. From Invention onward, I have been the tech leader in this game, starting with only a few techs, up to 4+ come the Industrial era.

I lost the race to Copernicus'...by only one turn! Fortunately, I had already reached Theory of Gravity and was able to switch Washington over to Newton's (which is strictly superior to Copernicus' because of it's greater Culture output - still, it would have been nice to get both). Had I thought over the timing a bit more, I could have built the Wonders I really wanted (the Sistine Chapel was kind of a throwaway, although still useful).

Amsterdam is a powerhouse in this game - the Dutch built the Colossus, the Great Library and Copernicus' there - which is kind of confusing because its land is not overly amazing. I only had one Wonder city going during the Medieval era, Washington, so I was not able to snag as many goodies as I could have. This is okay, as all the Universities and other infrastructure allowed me to really push the tech race beyond the AI's capabilities.

I must note that the Forbidden Palace has been really useful. At first, it boosted production in my cities in "Alaska" (that pocket of land I claimed in Roman territory) to 2 Shields per turn, which was quite nice combined with short-rushes. Then, as my core cities got bigger, it reduced Corruption such that, with a Courthouse, all of them had less than 10% (approximately) loss of Shields. Yay Strat forum!

460AD:	Russia attacks Germany
470AD:	Germany reaches Industrial (Medicine free)
480AD:	Russia attacks
	Rome: Silks for Alliance versus Russia
510AD:	Netherlands: Magnetism for Economics
530AD:	Steam Power
	Coal!
550AD:	Germany: Steam Power for Spices, 260gpt and 221 Gold
	Carthage: Steam Power for Military Tradition, Navigation, Gems and 186 Gold
	Netherlands: Steam Power for Medicine
600AD:	Magellan's Voyage
620AD:	Electricity
660AD:	Railroads 90% complete

Just as I entered the Industrial era, I was worrying about my continued success against 7 Demigod AI civs that were not at war with each other. Russia was the strongest civ but a bit behind technologically, while the Germany-Netherlands team promised to challenge my tech lead. Even Carthage, against all odds in light of all its Tundra, was on the rise. As I was planning an allied war against Russia - one that I had to encourage but not declare - Russia kindly attacked Germany. Problem solved! Hopefully all the civs would be drawn into the carnage, and switch to Feudalism or something.

Then, of course, Russia decided that I was a good target too, and declared war on me a few turns later. I never saw a Russian unit until I asked for Peace a few turns later (I did, however, trade for Military Tradition, just to be sure, although what came of this in reality is that the Military Academy proved to be useful prebuild). The rest of the world dogpiled Russia, but Catherine managed to get out of it without a scratch, and even conquered a bit of German territory.

Meanwhile my concern was putting a rail on every inch of American soil. With all my Worker-joins and with only one Worker-pump, I did not, upon reaching the Industrial era, have enough manpower to do this quickly enough for my taste. Conveniently (or by design?), most of my cities produced about 10 Shields per turn, and were each working a few coastal tiles. This allowed me to produce a Worker in each every turn, for about 5 turns (from size 12 to size 7). Thus, when I got Steam Power (and discovered, to my relief, that I had Coal - see screenshot!), I had about 30 Workers. 90% of my tiles had Railroads were down 13 turns after Steam Power.

In the screenshot below, notice the Settler who has been patiently waiting for a millenium for a border shift that will allow me to claim Rome's only source of Iron. Also notice the Coal - how lucky!

[Dominae]

Fascist Abe: A Tale of the Golden Eagle

670AD:	Scientific Method
700AD:	Russia: 3gpt and 5 Gold for Peace
730AD:	Industrialization
	Theory of Evolution
	Atomic Theory
	Electronics
750AD:	New Orleans flips to Rome
	Netherlands: Electricity and Industrialization for 549gpt and 1792 Gold
	Carthage: Industrialization for Sanitation, Gems, 8gpt and 26 Gold
	Germany: Industrialization for Spices, 99gpt and 35 Gold 
	Celts: Music Theory for Slave Worker, 4gpt and 26 Gold

Of course, an Industrial era would simply not be an Industrial era without a beeline to the Theory of Evolution! I timed this Wonder quite well: it completed 5 turns after I discovered Scientific Method, just enough time to research Industrialization. At this point I was five required techs ahead of the competition, who had decided to discover stuff like Democracy and Nationalism instead.

All was not perfect, however, because in 750AD I lost one of my Alaskan cities, New Orleans, to Roman Culture. This was not a huge blow because I still had access to Coal, but I nonetheless was annoyed because I had invested a lot of Gold into New Orleans to avoid this very occurrence. I have not yet had one AI city flip to me, despite my top rank in Culture.

730AD was a joyous turn, where I discovered three techs simultaneously. I went for the usual Atomic Theory and Electronics branch with the Theory of Evolution, eyeing a potential Golden Age from Hoover (I built Magellan's - another throwaway - which is Expansionist).

But 750AD was even more joyous, despite the loss of New Orleans: just scroll back up to my notes and check the deals I completed. Although I had to give up two strong techs, I received approximately 13000 Gold from the Dutch! This 600gpt represented most of the AI's research output at this stage of the game, so it was a no-brainer for me to take control of it. The Netherlands got a little further ahead technologically than I would have liked, but without any cash flow the other civs were not able to trade themselves into an equal position.

800AD:	Replaceable Parts
	Rubber!
830AD:	Longevity	
850AD:	The Corporation
920AD:	Refining
950AD:	Carthage: Scientific Method for Gems, 238gpt and 232 Gold
	Netherlands: Refining and Scientific Method for 533gpt
	Germany: The Corporation for Spices and 81gpt

There are two things to note here. One is that I managed to hold on to the 600+gpt I had negotiated for 20 turns earlier, something which I hope to do for the remainder of the game (well, at least until Fascist Abe rears his head!). Two, as you can see, I built Longevity before the Hoover Dam! I did this, again, mostly for fun reasons: I have never built this Wonder before. Also, I wanted to explore its usefulness in the late-game, particularly with respect to Fascism's forced resettlement. And finally, it seemed a good idea to delay my Golden Age (triggered by Hoover) until all my cities had completed their Factories.

Below is a screenshot of the first use I made of Longevity: a weird-looking 1-turn Worker pump!

[Dominae]

Fascist Abe: A Tale of the Golden Eagle

1-turn Worker-pump:

[Dominae]

Fascist Abe: A Tale of the Golden Eagle

And here's a screenshot of my empire just one turn later. As you can see, Hoover Dam completes next turn, which (as I mentioned above) triggers my Golden Age. With all my cities almost fully-developed, it should be a big one!

The "Next Turn" button beckons...

[Golden Bear]

Monarch, stock.

America continued to play from behind while researching ahead. Dutch were about even technologically and I traded back and forth with them, generally staying about a tech ahead. Towards the end of medieval I streaked ahead a little. First researched nationalism for riflemen. Made a poor trade with Russia for saltpeter and converted all the knights and started cav everywher possible. Russia briefly traded coal to me and I got a network up before it ran out. Carthage had coal and saltpeter. Rome had saltpeter.

After Nationalism, I went Steam, medicine, Sci met and Fascism. At Steam I hit the jackpot with SGL. BTW I changed to Industrial a bout 1050 a.d. My plan was to time the change to Fascism to correspond to completion of TOE, and, a turn later, Hoover. Hoover popped my GA just in time to build factories everywhere and finance my war of expansion. It worked fine.

The second I was in Fascism, I started cleaning out the Romans. The Romans were weak and sort of wrapped around me. I coveted their Dyes and saltpeter too. However, I was really looking to the Carthagenians with Ivory, Gems and Coal. My cav got pretty battered while taking the Romans. I generated a Cav army. Meanwhile, the Greeks, Dutch and Russians all declared on the Carthagenians. All according to my script. Their huge reserve of Ancient Cav disappeared South to fight the Greeks and offshore invaders. They never appeared again.

I then hopped on the Carthagenians and overran them. Rome with one city on the other continent signed peace. Dutch and Russian troops tried to beat me to cities. However, by timing my attacks correctly, I managed to let them sap the Carthagenians strength down and then swoop in.

This left Greeks on my continent. Netherlands and Russia were gorillas. Greeks and Dutch had MP treaty. I signed a MP with the Dutch while the Greeks had troops in my territory. I shelled them, but left them alone until the Dutch sided with me. The Russians, scavengers that they have been in this game, declared in an effort to get a piece of the Greek pie. However, I overran Greece and wound up with small armies of Russians and Dutch in my territory.

The map shows the situation a couple of turns after Fascism started, after Rome has been conquered and Carthage half conquered.

Fascism: Waiting for Fascism probably slowed down my progress to domination. If I had been able to finish off Rome and Carthage earlier the game would have ended much quicker. As it is, I only got to Fascism around 1500. Fascism works well for unending war, as long as I am bend on complete conquest. The annoying lack of culture feature means that the world area only moves up by 9 squares when a city is captured and essentially never fills in. On my home continent, I eventually started bleeding the "Yellow 12" cities for American workers which I then transplanted to Roman and Carthagenian cities in order to get their culture working.

THe speed for completing worker actions is obscene with Industrious trait. I could see using Fascism with a Religious/Commercial civ in order to fight wars and build infrastructure and then quickly drop back to Republic or Democracy when conflict is over.

[Golden Bear]

From scanning over the previious posts I can see that I lagged a bit. I tend to be overcautious some times and I made some bad errors. but I got to the end.

After coming into Fascism, I decided that I would just play a forever war and try to play off my stronger opponents against each other. There was no sense in spending a lot of time in building anything but military units so that is what I did. I cleaned up my own continent by finishing off Carthage. Next was Greece. They had a MP with Holland, who I was not ready to take on yet. I signed a MP with Holland while Greece still had units in my (formerly Carthage) land. Dutch declares against Greece. I overrun Greece with Cav and rifles - later Arty and Inf. At the end of this war, I have my own continent with a couple of piles of Russian and Dutch troops.

I sit back to pllan my next move. I have 7 luxuries - I have a foothold on the other continent (TOC) which has about 8 infantry in it. I negotiate luxury trades with Holland and Russia. I crank up to get to Motorized and tanks. A turn later, Netherlands attacks. I consider getting Russia into an expensive alliance but I am afraid the Dutch will overrun them before I can get across.

The Dutch attack my colony on TOC and overrun it after hellacious losses. Then the Dutch and Russians start a game of prowling my coasts and landing troops. I build tons of artillery and destroyers and eventually whittle them down. After a long while, they both accept peace.

In the meantime, I have been edging transports down to the SW because I noticed that the Russians and Dutch left a gap on the southern part of TOC. I drop in a settler, 14 infantry and 3 cav. Within a couple turns, the first tanks are over too. Just at that opportune moment, the Dutch attack the Russians. I wait a turn for both parties to get engaged and then attack the Russians myself.

In a few turns I have crept up to the gates of Moscow and I am in a good defensive position. I turn around and attack the Dutch and quickly clean out the settlements around my original landing place. Meanwhile, the Dutch have to cross hostile Russian territory to get to me. Sometimes things are just too perfect.

The rest was just plug and chug. The Dutch tired themselves out in the Russian mountains and then had no reserves. I kept cranking out armies and eventually wound up with 8 or 9 or them. Bombers bombed, transports kept up a stream of troops.

It was all over in 1822, with a paltry score of 2878.

Fascism: It was great for finishiing up my RRs in a hurry. It was great for dealing with hostile countries who would not let me get peace. However, the lack of culture from new towns hurt. I could have had domination much earlier than conquest. The lack of culture also hurt the score. Maybe it is more useful on higher difficulties than Monarch where fighting can be a way of life. As I said earlier, it is begging to be paired with the Religious trait.

[jshelr]

Emperor Level AU Mod

In 1080, our temple expanded the border of another coal town on resource island and later settled on the site of the razed city.

Production in our ToE prebuild was ahead of schedule and we had to slow it substantially.

We were able to buy fascism from the Dutch and resell it to nearly everyone for a huge profit.

When America finished ToE, Hoovers was just a few turns to completion. We lost the race to longevity, however. Our military academy just built its first army. Railroads finished around 1200.

Several prolonged wars while remaining in democracy by the AI are remarkable, but can't last forever. We should soon have a big tech lead. The Germans are our nearest competitors, and they are more than three techs behind.

I think democracy may only last until synthetic fibers are discovered. Then, let the revolt begin, and sweep the map

[jshelr]

Here's the tech situation. We are headed to refining. the game has so far followe a very typical arc with the AI in the lead until just before the industrial era and the human civ sweeping past early in that era.

[jshelr]

Cultural Theft of Oil and Coal

After refining was researched, Hoover’s brought a golden age to America. (The dictator made his plans behind the scenes for his eventual fascist takeover as the people celebrated in the streets )

We had no oil, of course, but another settler/temple on resource island stole an oil source from Greece. Coal is under the barrier in our northern city and oil is right under the Knossos label where the arrow points. Maybe Knossos should give up and flip.

A bit later the world’s first global war broke out. This is to our advantage, as the next post shows. So, we will just sit tight. Now it’s looking like fascism will come relatively soon

[jshelr]

Diplomacy a la Alexman

[jshelr]

Something interesting happened:

For the good sport of it, America decided to see if it was possible to run away from the pack on tech without trading. It was not. Germany changed government to Republic, rather than commie or fascism, and Carthage stayed democratic. They "worked together" to catch up by motorized transport, which means Germany is really ahead.

But the interesting thing was that Germany was in possession of gold in the 15,000 range for much of the period. Where did they get gold of that magnitude?

Has anyone else run into this development? I try to play these games quickly and then go back and read the threads. So, I don't know if others saw the same sort of thing.

Anyway, onward. We will have to change to fascism and try to take out the Germans before they dispose of the Dutch with their UU.