Spoiler Thread for AU 203

[Dominae]

Persia, Part 1

I hit Motorized Transportation around this time. Thus, I start thinking of Oil again, because my Infantry/Artillery combo will not capture Persian cities fast enough for my taste now that they've got Infantry of their own. CTRL-SHIFT-M shows me a few options:

1. The Bab 'Resource Island' (Catt's name)
2. OCC Rome (yup, they're still alive and sitting on Oil!)
3. Northern China (right across from Berlin)
4. Some Persian colony in 'The Narrows' (see screenshot)

Option 1 is bad because Babylon and I are great friends (i.e. they're giving up 200+gpt and Luxuries). The problem with option 2 is that I would need to rush a Harbor, which is not easy under Communism with a size 2 city. Option 3 is bad too because I've also got some per turn deals with China, and they're my allies for the time being. So option 4 is given the nod, considering that I'm already at war with Persia. I actually sign a ROP with England to get at the Romans as insurance, but the tricky English block my path with their slow Workers. This was by pure chance, I think, but it was a nice move on the AI's part nonetheless.

So, 1400AD, the turn I get MT, I steal Communism from the Babs (Carefully, for 1400 Gold) and begin the big revolution. Up to now, I've been the relatively peaceful builder, but the tides are changing, and soon I will the aggressor, and I will be VICTORIOUS!

My warmongering sentiments are supported by the comments on the blueprints for the new Panzer unit that has just become available, which I quote:

"The increased speed of the German Panzer makes their blitz maneuvers much more dangerous to their enemies, a power which is noted by all nations foolish enough to stand against Germany in the industrial age."

1420AD, COMMUNISM!

I send off four Galleys (sad, when my people know how to build Transports) full of units to get some Oil from the Persians. Panzer pre-builds begin.

Here's a screen of the Oil source I chose. Of particular note are the cities of Moscow and Liverpool, which block troop passage even with a ROP. This helped my control of the Chinese and Persian forces immensely.

[Dominae]

Persia, Part 2

Oil brings Panzers, and Panzers bring victory. I push down into the Persiand lands with speed that surprised even myself. Panzers are truly dominant.

I conquered my first Persian city (Zohak) in 1430AD, and in 1585AD they're down to 3 cities. Their RRs truly did bring all their offensive forces to my door initially, as the only resistance I encounter is 3-4 Infantry per city, with a few "runners" (Infantry that run out into the open, presumably to assault weak spots in the offense) every few turns or so.

Here's a screenshot from the turn before I conquer the Pesian capital. Notice the stacks of Chinese Infantry in the upper left, which are desperately trying to get a piece of the action (our ROP is over at this point).

[Dominae]

China, Part 1

At this point my core cities are producing nothing but Panzers, Cruise Missiles and (later) Mechanized Infantry, a trend which continues until the end of the game (Panzers being replaced by MAs).

I divert extra forces to wipe out Rome, England and the rest of Persia around The Narrows. This does not take long. Rome's claim to fame was that their Elite Spearmen forced my Veteran Panzer to retreat!

Now that Persian is gone, China is looking for someone to be angry with, and I'm the best target. This is fine with me, as the Chinese are next on my "to do" list. The Babs are still my friends, although I've stopped selling them techs in case I have to conquer some of their lands eventually (i.e. in case conquering the big continent is not sufficient for Domination).

Here's a screenshot of the turn before I get MAs, 2 turns before I declare war upon the Chinese. The Mountain tiles were simply perfect for dealing with all the annoying Chinese Infantry: because they use Infantry to attack (no Tanks yet), they lost almost 30 Infantry to my MIs. One MI took out 12 (including a Cavalry army) all by itself!

[Dominae]

China, Part 2

As I start capturing Chinese cities, China trades for Motorized Transportation which gives me something else to fight other than Infantry. My momentum is too great at this point, and I grab about 3 cities per turn.

The Aztecs want a piece of me too, and ally with China. I send over 4 Transports full of MAs and MIs to their peninsula, which are greeted by a few Cavalry and Riflemen, but mostly Pikemen and Longbowmen.

As I finish with the Chinese, I put the squeeze on the Aztecs, coming from the North and South at the same time. The Aztec empire falls in 3 turns. As a side note, looking at their lands, I'm surprised they didn't do better. Anyone know why?

I'm getting a Leader or two per turn at this point, and am using them to rush cultural improvements so that the game ends quicker. Communism and modern warfare are fun, but I've been moving MIs and MAs around for too long now.

The Domination victory popup appears in 1710AD, 58 turns after my switch to Communism.

I thought the end-game graph was particularly funny this time, as it describes precisely the aims of this AU scenario. Can you pick out the turn I went Communist?

I'll post some strategy comments later. Thanks for reading, and I hope you're enjoying your games as much as I did mine!


Dominae

[ducki]

I don't seem to be able to Draft...
Republic, w/ Nationalism, I should be able to Conscript 1 unit per turn.

The 'pedia says to click the Draft button on the city display, but there's not one.

Any ideas? Did I just miss part of a change to Republic?

TIA,
ducki

[Catt]

Part 1 of 5

I’m not finished yet, but wanted to present a more complete AAR – my previous post was really just the tale of going after oil. Although that challenge seems to have turned out to be the seminal issue in Germany’s success, I thought I’d fill in the gaps a bit.

Given the rules of the game, my strategy from the get-go was to be REX with a technology push towards Literature – I wanted both the GL and the ability to build libraries quickly for a strong cultural position. My plans were interrupted by a Roman archer rush I could see coming from a long ways off. What could that one Roman warrior be doing fortified in the mountains just outside Hamburg? Where is this stream of Roman archers and a few spearmen headed – the only thing north are German cities? My REXing was therefore slowed a bit by the need to build a few extra spearmen and some archers. Ten to fifteen turns later, after 6 or 7 Roman units fell, Rome was happy to make peace. Earlier in the war I had one of my exploring warriors just outside Rome, but of course I couldn’t attack. He was killed, unfortunately. All other fighting took place just south or west of Hamburg which was built on the hill three tiles due south of Berlin (the start location). My forces never threatened Rome whatsoever, and so I was shocked by the peace terms – Rome offered Mysticism, Horseback Riding, and Masonry (IIRC) plus its entire treasury of 1 gold. Thanks you very much.

About this time I met Xerxes for the first time and I was shocked and a bit frightened by his empire. From the trading screen I could see that my three cities (with a settler ready to go, plus my capitol, means I had “5” cities) were quite easily bested by ten Persian cities (not including the capitol)! I really wanted to see the Persian start location! And I was angry that Caesar had slowed down my REX, if only a little bit. Despite the massive amount of luxury and then strategic resources available, I noted that we had no bonus food resources – my later view of the Persian and Chinese start positions obviously explained those empires’ fast start.

I used the Colossus as a pre-build for the GL and was ready to switch production when I finally got Literature. I could see that the GL would still have many turns of production to come, and didn’t switch production out of fear of telegraphing my acquisition of Literature to the world. This was silly, because of course the AI knows when a new technology might be available for trade. Only a few turns after discovering Literature, Mao demanded it and I refused, triggering the first Sino-German war. It was a war of little consequence. Several Chinese archers and warriors bounced off my spearmen – others died at the hands of German archers. I cravenly made peace, paying 100 gold and my world map, as a real contingent of Chinese forces had finally made their way to the German border at the southwest gem peninsula.

Somewhere along the line, Germany became a Republic. Military units and libraries were preferred builds, and for the Republic was born with few marketplaces (a rarity for me). At just about the advent of the Middle Ages, Mao again demanded tribute, was refused, and launched the second Sino-German war. A German-Russian-Persian alliance was formed and easily held the Chinese in check. Roman forces did get to fight a few battles with advancing Chinese forces, and luck shined on Rome, for a great leader emerged. The leader returned to Berlin where he would oversee the construction of Sun Tzu’s Art of War.

The completion of Sun Tzu’s unexpectedly triggered a German golden age (BTW – I think I’m the third or fourth player to report an inadvertent or unexpected GA ). Seeking to use the GA to catch up in infrastructure, Germany made peace on neutral terms with China. Although the alliances had run their course, the Russians and Persians continued the fight.

Below is a screenshot from a randomly selected saved game – it gives a good view of the German REX results (middling, at best) and the state of the world in the Middle Ages. It also highlights how much I neglected what I would call “conventional” infrastructure in many of my games – note that although I am researching Economics (having foolishly thought I could get there first and snag Smith’s (I wasn’t close), I haven’t even built marketplaces in my southern cities. Also note my city placement – too often planting cities in the center of land in an effort to culturally expand to the coasts – not nearly enough coastal cities -- a boneheaded move that cost me greatly later. My early strategy – the GL for tech and libraries for culture, followed by temples for more culture – was poorly conceived and then poorly executed. In looking back over my game, I have seen a lot of boneheaded, unclear thinking and execution – most of which I will post later in a “lessons I learned” post after the AAR. In short, this randomly generated screenshot made me ask myself “what in the heck was I thinking (if I was thinking at all)?”

EDIT: Fixed boo-boo

[Catt]

Part 2 of 5

War raged on the homeland, but Germany remained aloof of much of it. China crushed the Aztecs and controlled a huge swath of territory. The Persians and Russians were often at war with China. Germany was occasionally dragged in, but rarely fought since Chinese units needed to get past allied troops and cities first. Soon the English were routed too. Just as German was preparing to enter the Industrial Age, during a period of calm on our landmass, Mao once again declared war against Germany, triggering the third Sino-German war. Virtually all German forces were rushed south to hold our southwestern border city, and once again alliances with Russian and Persian forces were bought. Mao sent hordes of Chinese riders and then cavalry at us, and it was actually quite dicey for a while. An inefficient road system to our southeast slowed the stream of Persian and Russian allied forces – even with an RoP, an uncluttered road is needed and German workers had been neglectful in that regard (how I missed having a bunch of slave workers). The allies survived the initial onslaught, and eventually, especially with the RRing of the transit routes after steam power, the Persians and Russians pushed back Chinese influence. Germany stayed in a technical state of war with China for quite some time, though saw little action after the exciting start of hostilities.

German research at the beginning of the Industrial Age focused on securing ToE and Hoover Dam, which could only be built in Berlin. Bismarck bypassed Sanitation and Longevity which was a mistake in retrospect. We did secure Scientific Method prior to other civs and managed to trade it for Communism and Replaceable Parts, IIRC. But Babylon had become a technological powerhouse, and had already researched Sanitation, the Corporation, and perhaps Replaceable Parts. Because only Berlin could build Hoover, and because it was the capitol and therefore could not use a palace pre-build (meager as that was in any event), Hoover Dam was still 20 or so turns from completion when Germany acquired Electronics via ToE. The Babylonians built both Longevity and Universal Suffrage, and much to Germany’s surprise started building Hoover when Berlin was 3 turns away from completing it. This was the first time in Bismarck’s memory when, after securing ToE, any AI opponent even discovered Electronics (and usually Atomic Theory) before Bismarck or his forbears had completed Hoover Dam. Although it is possible that Hammurabi used espionage to steal technology, Bismarck simply believed that the Babylonians had built a research powerhouse – with Longevity and their isolation (read peace on the homeland), Babylonian cities rapidly reached size 25+ population.

With the discovery of Refining, the German dilemma was exposed. Bismarck hatched a plan to take and secure “Resource Island” from the Babylonians. Not only would a successful operation supply Germany with needed resources, it might also slow the Babylonian juggernaut by forcing Hammurabi to abandon Democracy and rule with an iron fist.

I previously described the German effort to secure Resource Island (many posts above) and won’t retell the story again. But I’ll throw in some screenshots. Below is a shot either one or two turns after landing and taking our initial target. The population remains at 4 – all resistors – so I wasn’t able to assign workers to land tiles to show the 7-turn harbor build I previously described. The Babylonian bombing runs began the next turn, I would guess. In the upper right of the screenshot you can see the one surviving destroyer from my convoy of three that had been tasked with securing the sea lanes between Resource Island and Babylon – two destroyers were sunk by Babylonian cruise missiles as they entered the straights from the southwest; the third hightailed it around the eastern edge of RI and was planning on heading north and then back to safety. It stumbled into significant Babylonian naval forces and was sunk by a submarine the next turn. A fourth destroyer on the northwestern edge of RI “bumped” into a submarine but survived the engagement. It too was sunk the next turn.

[Catt]

Part 3 of 5

With a spy planted in Babylon, our military advisor warned us that we faced a much stronger enemy.

[Catt]

Part 4 of 5

150 years later, Resource Island is pacified, but its countryside is ravaged and it is still subject to Babylonian landing parties. Germany has finally controlled the skies over RI, and naval control is close.

With control of all of RI, Germany was able to focus its attention on China. Mao, ever the friendly neighbor, launched the fourth Sino-German war just 2 turns before Bismarck gave the order to attack Babylon’s colonies. Mao was also at war with several other countries, and only rarely did Chinese forces show outside German territory. Without the need to constantly replenish materiel on RI, the German industrial effort churned out panzers for a strike on China. Bismarck vowed that the fourth Sino-German conflict would be either the last or the penultimate, but at Bismarck’s decision. Mao’s days of taking the initiative in regards to Germany were over.

As described previously, German panzers rolled through poorly defended Chinese cities and made surprisingly quick headway into the Chinese core. Germany soon controlled numerous wonders of the world, greatly helping the German economy.

[Catt]

Part 5 of 5

While Germany disemboweled China, Persia destroyed Russia. Bismarck watched as a stack of Persian armor and infantry moved over Germany’s southeastern border. He was confident that the Persian forces were headed to Russian controlled Kaifeng, but he substantially strengthened German defenses to his south nonetheless. And then Persian and Chinese treachery showed through – with a large force in German lands, Xerxes declared Persia part of an alliance with Babylon and declared war.

German retribution was swift, however. With China largely defanged, Bismarck shifted his attacking forces from the Chinese front to the new Persian front. The initial Persian strike force was mauled, and subsequent panzer strikes exposed the fundamental weakness of the Persian military. German armor marched quickly towards Persepolis.

The screenshot below shows the trespassing Persian forces on the turn of their declaration. The superimposed minimap just above the proper minimap is taken from 4 turns after the declaration and shows the German advance.

More to tell when I finish the game, especially the “lessons I learned” post I promised – I turned a critical eye on my own game and found numerous flaws and stupidities.

[Catt]

@Dominae - great write-up and very well played!

Originally posted by ducki
I don't seem to be able to Draft...
Republic, w/ Nationalism, I should be able to Conscript 1 unit per turn.

The 'pedia says to click the Draft button on the city display, but there's not one.

Any ideas? Did I just miss part of a change to Republic?

There are a couple of other restrictions -- IIRC, the city must be at least 6 or 7 pop, and I think there is a restriction on drafting foreigners (in case you somehow acquired foreign citizenry).

Catt

[Dominae]

As always, nice effort with the AAR, Catt. Just one comment:

Originally posted by Catt
Roman forces did get to fight a few battles with advancing Chinese forces, and luck shined on Rome, for a great leader emerged. The leader returned to Rome where he would oversee the construction of Sun Tzu’s Art of War.

I assume the German Leader returned to Berlin to rush Sun Tzu's, right?


Dominae

[Dominae]

I'm under the impression that only your citizens can be drafted, and you need to have at least a size 7 city. I'm actually certain about the second part, but I recall drafting out of big Persian cities, so I might well be wrong about the first.


Dominae

[ducki]

You guys are right about the size.
I don't know about foreign nationals, because I don't have any, but the size thing is correct. Naturally, I was trying to draft out of my crappy cities(towns, actually. bad word usages, city/town, in the docs. too confusing) that are too small.

Thanks!

[Catt]

Originally posted by Dominae
I assume the German Leader returned to Berlin to rush Sun Tzu's, right?

Yes I will fix it.