War Academy : Sea Power.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Shiber
Hmm... I wanna hear what Sir Ralph has to say about this.

As always at this time, I'm at work and have no map available. But I don't need to. We have an excellent survey for solving these questions. The Royal Geographic Society should determine, where the other continent most likely will be located.

Shortly about the situation and my plans. IIRC, we are still missing 4 civs. That is not much, better would it be, if there was an even # of civs on the continent. Also, they are probably pretty backward, because they can't trade with so many opponents as civs at our continent. So we probably won't get a big push from them, trading our map etc. So I would limit the # of galleys we are willing to risk to, say, 5 or 6 so far. If we spot another coast with a galley and it sinks, we can still discuss about building a couple more.

But we can still get a push from by trading maps to civs on our continent. Maps with so many unknown tiles are very valuable. So if we trade them to all civs on our continent in one turn and do this wisely, we can get a tech or 2 for it. Note, that trading maps is not the same as trading contacts! Even though the other civs on our continent will know where the others are, they still won't be able to get there.

Now, we could make sure to push both continents even in tech, by selling the techs they lack to the others. We can get a good amout of money this way. Do not leak any contact! Especially don't give in to demands (that's ridiculous, but happens), even if it means war. After this, tech-broke between the 2 continents. That is incredibly powerful! If any of the sides discovers a new tech, wait a turn, till it's sold to all others on the same continent. This will make it cheap for us, as we possess the contacts to all. But it will be incredibly expensive on the other continent, because they lack the contact to other civs having this tech. Sell it immediately to all who can pay an appropriate amount. First to the ones with the most money.

After any of the sides discovers Navigation, it's time to sell contacts. This brings again a lot of cash, but ends our hegemony.

[Shiber]

After navigation, we might want to send troops to conquer some valuable pieces of land from our opponents because they possess certain luxuries that are nowhere to be found in our continent (such as gems, for example).
Whoever can monopolize those luxuries to the rest of the Abananabans will be rich!! Besides, diamonds are a girl's best friend...

[=OttomusCeasar=]

Originally posted by Shiber
After navigation, we might want to send troops to conquer some valuable pieces of land from our opponents because they possess certain luxuries that are nowhere found in our continent (such as gems, for example).
Whoever can monopolize those luxuries to the rest of the Abananabans will be rich!! Besides, diamonds are a girl's best friend...

Yes, by all means let's establish military bases that suck up as many luxuries as possible on the lost civ's continents.

[joncnunn]

Military bases over there will be competely unproductive, and the AI could culture bomb it and/or conquer it.

Bases on isolated islands where we would be the only one on the island are fine.

[Shiber]

We don't care about their productivity, we just want the luxuries. As for defending it against culture flip, a temple, two garrisons, some entertainers (to generate a 'We Love the King Day') and maybe a cathedral later will do the trick IMHO.

[GhengisFarbâ„¢]

Like America's world-wide network of military bases produce huge quantities of aircraft carriers........

The point of a military base is to "hold" something, not make something. We can hold things okay, with a temple, cathedral and troops. Choosing the proper sites will also make a difference.

[joncnunn]

2 Garrison units on the lost civ's main land won't be enough to protect from a miliary invasion. Even 10 units might not be enough if one of the AIs there has a big army and they want the territory.

Far flinging bases where we would be the only one on that island are fine though and should be colonized just in case a strategic resource latter appears on them.

[Shiber]

We can assess the amount of military units necessary to hold the colonial city when we know who we're dealing with. In any case, two or three fortified musketmen behind walls or in a city have an effective defense of 7 - enough to hold off even knights, and I have a feeling the lost civs will be still running around with swordsmen or knights by the time we take this colony.
In any case, it's pointless to speculate about exact figures before we meet them and see what they have that we want and what kinds of troops they have.

[joncnunn]

Well, it's also quite possible that all luxaries on the mainland are already inside cultural boundaries of the lost civs so the whole discussion cuold be mute.

[Shiber]

In fact I was assuming that. I meant that we'll have to take those luxuries by force.
Anyhow, I think we agree on one thing - this whole discussion is mute. There's no point in going into detail when discussing our relationships with the lost civs since we don't know anything about them yet except a few stats. Let's cross this bridge when we get to it, alright?