AU 107 Spoilers

[Theseus]

1936 AD

Here's the map.

(Actually, I screwed up... this is the 1938 AD map... hint hint)

[Theseus]

1936 AD (an interesting year)

FINALLY, I got a branch tech lead. While the AI civs researched Adv Flight, Rocketry, Fission, and Space Flight, I went for Ecology. Actually, I wasted about 4 turns of research on Computers, and then *smacked* myself in the head... 1) there was no way I'd trade that away, and 2) uh, can we say MA upgrades for my massive force of Tanks? Duh.

I could only get Adv Flight and Rocketry for it, but I also got a lot of gold, and a couple of luxuries.

So, I'm at peace, my next tech (Syn Fibers) is gonna take a while and there's no way I'm trading it anyway, my two primary landmasses are filled out and merrily a-building, Germany has had its production power completely destroyed, I'm paying god knows how much in military expenses... what's a guy gonna do?

(Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that I had airlifted as many units as I could to the Bab north, and loaded up maybe 10 Transports with the rest of my Tank force and a bunch of Infantry, including a slew of Armies, and sent them towards the Bab SW coast. Oh, and I had 70 Jet Fighters on patrol in forward cities, and in two naval attack groups. Oh, and I also had 40 Bombers and 40 Arty poised in the bottleneck city. But that's all, really.)

So yeah, just being me, I went after Hammie. Babylon and Ellipi have a slew of GWs... otherwise it's gonna be pillage, burn, and raze, baby.

Three huge attack divisions, each consisting of several 3xCav+Tank Armies, 4-5 Infantry, and 25-30 Tanks. The land division came out if the bottleneck city, and rested on a hill 2 tiles from the Bab city to the north and east. The first naval division landed on a hill 2 tiles from the Bab city to the south and east, and the second on a hill 2 tiles from the coastal city further to the SE (Babylon, btw, is the city right above that).

[There'll be a better screenshot of the local mayhem in the next few posts]

Rather than attack my forward forces (boy does the AI hate Armies), here's what Hammie brought to the party at my bottleneck city, prior to my counter-attack.

[Theseus]

1938 AD, Hammie's retreat

I pounded the crap out of him. Between Arty and Bombers, I poured steel rain onto the attack stack, Ur, and Ashur.

Took three cities (no intention of holding Eridu in the south... waiting for the next turn to pull back towards Ashur, and then abandon). Will starve Ur down to 1 pop.

There are appr. 35 Tanks in that center stack, ready to take down all vulnerable Bab forces.

[Theseus]

1938 AD, what's left of Hammie's retreat

Damn, sometimes the RNG is tough... I thought I'd completely take out all of Hammie's attacking forces, but they were stubborn little bastards.

Here's all that's left though:

[Theseus]

1938 AD, a sidenote

Far from the Bab front, I decided to be sneaky and mean to my "ally" Bizzie (NOT! I STILL HATE HIS GUTS).

As his empire was now restricted to captured lands south of the French chokepoint, his culture was a mess and some cities had been razed, so he had a number of territory gaps.

Back when we declared peace, around 1900 AD, I had dropped off a Transport full of Explorers near Bizzie's northernmost city... as of 1938 AD, they have completed a counter-clockwise tour of the gaps in German lands, pillaging every road / RR possible. That forted Horse used to be a German colony, which I cut off and was subsequently abandoned and destroyed (!).

Bizzie is now officially screwed... WOOHOO!!

[Theseus]

1942 AD

Gotta fun new tactic for you late-game warmongers. I call it "The BIG Bombardment."

Capitalizing on my new auto-bombard technique, I set it up so that the only units awake were appr. 20 Bombers in Corfinium and 20 Arty protected by the 4xInfantry Army plus some additional Infantry.

Holding down 'b' and clicking 40 times, I sat back for THREE MINUTES and just watched as Babylon was pounded flat! Did this twice!!

[Theseus]

1951 AD

The war goes on... Babylon and Ellipi have been captured, and most surrounding cities have been razed, effectively putting Hammie down for the count.

I'm thinking an MA-fest will finish this damn thing off, probably by conquest, which I've never done.

As a last screenshot for the moment, this is what I call a well-protected chokepoint, in the middle of the big continent.

[Theseus]

1956 AD

OK, just declared peace with Hammie (for the moment). With the exception of Bablyon and Ellipi (directly east), all the cities in the central eastern part of the Bab continent are new and Roman.

He's got Fission and Space Flight on me, still...

BUT:

Bizzie: 2 Panzers
Hammie: 0 Tanks
Caesar: 71 Tanks, 2k gold, and 5 turns from Syn Fibers

Hmmm....

[Theseus]

1962 AD

I launch the MA Overrun.

Jesus wept... especially given the low culture of the southern German territory, 3 moves is just devastating.

I now control all GWs, having only built one... I also notice that I've got 17 Armies!!

[Theseus]

1964 AD

I feel like I gave birth (panting, , sweaty, exhausted).

Domination victory, 4315 pts.

MAs swept the world in 3 moves. Almost too easy... my last capture, however, was not by the MAs, but rather by six 3xCav+Tank Armies, four moves into Bab territory.

The best part was definitely overcoming and nailing Bizzie, against pretty tough odds... god, watching the replay was amazing; his takedowns of England, France, and Russia were like lightning.

Whew, I need a break.

[vmxa1]

All hail Caesar.

[Arrian]

Good job, good writeup. You killa lotta Panzas.

-Arrian

[Dominae]

Yes, nice game Theseus. Care to tell us how long the whole thing took you?


Dominae

[Catt]

Nice game and write-up! It seems the war went well .

Catt

[Theseus]

Thanks, guys. It was brutal, but going waaaay back to AU 102 (that was the bad one, right... Germany) and my Egyptian Mess, it felt great to marshal a series of come-from-behind-military victories, concurrent with catching up in tech and infrastructure.

It's hard to say how long it took, as I had to stay away from Civ3 and 'poly for a chunk of time until Saturday... 30 hours, including the write-up?