Tweet
Opening the next save, we should be mere 2 turns from discovering Motorized Transport. That's close enough to start prebuilding tanks wherever possible.
Mulling the tank production plans over, I've eventually ended up doing a fairly detailed analysis. I focused on pumping as many tanks as possible, as fast as possible. Needless to stress why - the tanks are our ticket to the modern era. With a decent tank army, we should be ok. Without it, we will have to pray to the RNG...
Since things are going to move very fast now (at least I believe they are), I was almost exclusively looking for cities capable of building 1t or, at worst, 2t tanks. Everything else I considered "too slow for practical purposes". I focused on making good use of what we seem to have an abundance of - cavalries/horses and gold.
Abundance of cavalry...?
Yes, abundance of cavalry. Of almost useless cavalry, to be precise. Our cavalry, with the attack of 6 only, is very ineffective against infantry, unless that infantry is down to its last hp. Trading 1 or even 2 cavalries for a tank is an extremely good deal, since a blitz-enabled tank can rip through even just lightly wounded infantry pretty fine. Considering how much arty we have, even few tanks would help us inflict considerable losses.
So, for my extreme tank production plan below, I assume disbanding cavalry wherever 1-2 of them help us to a 1t tank.
No need to elaborate on horses, I believe...
Abundance of gold...?
Yeah... as for that gold... some of you suggested trying to steal Radio. Well, let me explain why I am not particularly excited about this idea.
It is obvious that GS are distributing their techs to GoW and ND only once Lego acquires them (the only exception was helping GoW to tanks). Which is, actually, beneficial to us! It's because of this strategy that we are facing only one research rival ATM. GoW & ND are forced to idle research-wise now... Means it's only GS researching modern techs - and that, in turn, means that we are catching up tech-wise. Not only because of our own research power, but because we are going to get a nice shiny free modern tech from Vox (and it will be only us getting it - considering the circumstances, I have no problem at all denying this free tech to others). Had they forgotten about this silly "tech blocking", they'd be able to not only maintain, but even increase their tech lead on us, being 3 against 2 (or 2.5 against 1.5)... but for some reason, they seem to believe that forcing us to spend few hundred extra gold is worth slowing the whole world down. :shrug:
Now, if we stole Radio (which is not granted, I believe, since even using "safe" does not guarantees success)... GS would immediately distribute Radio, and everybody (namely, GoW) would start researching modern techs. We would be unable to do any real fast research, since we'd have our gold reserves gone. So, we‘d effectively help others increase their research output at our own expense.
OTOH, if we do Radio in 4t (and we're perfectly capable of doing that, losing no gpt), GoW/ND may have to wait 4 more turns before being able to proceed to modern times. We keep our gold reserves, being able to either use them to bolster our war production, or speed up our research once in modern times.
And above all... we do not risk losing all that gold for nothing.
Yes, if we stole Radio successfully, we could use radio towers boosting the stats of our troops. That would be a very welcome thing. We'd get the Voxian free tech 4t earlier (but considering that it's most likely going to be Ecology, it would be no big deal). We could start our own modern research 4t earlier...
But is that worth risking/spending all our gold (and yes, it would be all our gold)? Is it worth waiving 50gpt of interest? Is it worth waiving our ability to shortrush massively? Note, please, that in order to regain the ability to shortrush, we would have to slow/stop our research, effectively nullifying/reversing the effect of the whole steal Radio thing.
As an alternative to this plan, let's have a look at how fast we could be building tanks if using all that gold for partial short-rushes:
Fast Tank Production
Tanks cost 100S a piece. Means that:
100+spt cities can build them from scratch in 1t. We've got only one such city - Legopolis - and it's not going to change (I don't believe Karina can get there, even if stealing tiles from the neighbouring cities). Considering that Legopolis lacks barracks, that it's our only city equipped with an airport, and that bombers cost 100S as well, I'd prefer keeping Legopolis on bomber production, if we are able to muster "tank cities" enough. Being able to seriously damage enemy ships close to our coast before engaging them will save many a ship flying our flag. And with virtually all our cities building tanks, it will be quite important to minimize our losses at sea.
90+spt cities can transform a disbanded horse (7S) and 12g (3S - shortrush to 10S/worker) into a 1t tank. Karina will be our only 90+spt city after finishing its hydro plant this coming turn. I believe this is a no-brainer... Karina has barracks and getting a shiny new tank every turn in exchange for measly 12g and one superobsolete horse will be golden... Karina shall start with this horse+gold-to-tank production the turn after the coming one (in 1250AD), using the F1 trick to switch its bomber prebuild to a tank in 1260AD.
80+spt cities can transform a disbanded cavalry (20S) into a 1t tank. We've got only one city practically able to do 80+spt: Red Bricks. Jackson is theoretically able to get there, but only if demoting Legopolis to under 100spt, which is a bad idea. However, there is currently a problem with Red Bricks - the city lacks barracks. We can either sacrifice 1t to build them there, or put up with building regular tanks here, trusting that they will be able to promote to vets through killing badly wounded enemy units. We should also keep in mind we still want some modern wonders, especially Internet - however, reasonable research times for Computers and Miniaturization (considering a beeline to Internet) are 5-6t and 6-7t. That's 2+4+(5 to 6)+(6 to 7)=17 to 19t away. But Red Bricks would be done in 12t with a 1000S wonder... conclusion: I believe it would be best to build quick 1t barracks here and then use Red Bricks to turn cavalries into tanks, 1 per turn.
70+spt cities can transform a disbanded cavalry (20S) and 40g (10S - shortrush to 30S/settler) to a 1t tank. We've got three suitable cities for this kind of production: Jackson, Zargonia, and Kloreepville. All of them have barracks, so as soon as they finish their current assignments, they should start with tanks. For Jackson, it will be this coming turn (1240AD) already, doing the first tank in 2t, using the F1 trick to switch production in 1260AD. Zargonia shall start in 1250AD, after finishing the current submarine build, using the F1 trick to switch production in 1260AD. K'ville only after finishing the current carrier build - in 1260AD.
60+spt cities can transform two disbanded cavalries (40S) into a 1t tank. Q.M. is already capable of that (will do its first tank in 2t, starting this coming turn), Panama will get to 60+spt after finishing its hydro plant in 1250AD (just in time).
50+spt cities can build 2t tanks just fine. We'll have 4 of those: Forkmouth from 1250AD (after finishing its hydro plant), Logville from this coming turn, S'haven, and Tarzania (both already at 50+spt).
40+spt cities can build 2t tanks either using a shortrush to 60S (44-80g, only possible in coastal cities, via a privateer) or by disbanding a cavalry in the middle of the production run. We’d have four cities like that available: Dye Fields (48spt -> 48g/tank for a 48-to-60S shortrush), Abilene, Tiberium (~45spt -> 60g/tank for a 45-to-60S shortrush), and Ahhmyfoot (45spt, 1 cavalry needed). I would leave Ahhmyfoot focused on infantry production – it’s not that we won’t need new ones... Ahhmyfoot would be helped by Horsefish producing 3t infantries.
This would be seven 1t tanks per turn from Karina (cost/turn: 1 horse + 12g), Red Bricks (cost/turn: 1 cavalry), Jackson, Zargonia, Kloreepville (cost/turn: 1 cavalry + 40g), Panama, and Q.M. (cost/turn: 2 cavalries) – total cost for these seven 1t tanks would be 1 horse, 8 cavalries, and 132g per turn. Add three to four 2t tanks per turn from Forkmouth, Logville, S’haven, Tarzania (no additional cost), Dye Fields (48g/2t=24gpt), Abilene, and Tiberium (60g/2t=30gpt) and we are at 10-11 tanks per turn, spending 132+24+30=186gpt and a number of obsolete units.
10-11 tanks per turn at this cost sounds acceptable (as in "enough") to me, so let’s leave Legopolis pumping bombers out. Here is the tank production timeline then:
1240AD
2t tank builds start in Jackson, Panama, Dye Fields, Logville, Quanto Mechanico, Abilene (6)
Red Bricks starts barracks
1250AD
1t tank builds start in Karina, Red Bricks, Zargonia, Kloreepville (4)
2t tank builds start in Forkmouth, S’haven, Tarzania, Tiberium (4)
1260AD (Motorized Transport discovered)
10 tanks completed - 10 total
1t tank builds start in Karina, Red Bricks, Jackson, Zargonia, Kloreepville, Panama, Q.M. (7)
2t tank builds start in Logville, Dye Fields, Abilene (3)
1270AD
11 tanks completed - 21 total
1t tank builds start in Karina, Red Bricks, Jackson, Zargonia, Kloreepville, Panama, Q.M. (7)
2t tank builds start in Forkmouth, S’haven, Tarzania, Tiberium (4)
1280AD
10 tanks completed - 31 total
1t tank builds start in Karina, Red Bricks, Jackson, Zargonia, Kloreepville, Panama, Q.M. (7)
2t tank builds start in Logville, Dye Fields, Abilene (3)
1290AD
11 tanks completed - 42 total
At this moment (that's 6 turns into the future, including the coming turn), we should hopefully be able to revisit the military production strategy and adjust it according to the situation.
Note, please, that unless we spot GS halfway across the ocean this coming turn (implying a landing around Invoice, on flat land), we'll be able to meet the landed units with tanks - since we should have 10 of those already in 1260AD.
Mulling the tank production plans over, I've eventually ended up doing a fairly detailed analysis. I focused on pumping as many tanks as possible, as fast as possible. Needless to stress why - the tanks are our ticket to the modern era. With a decent tank army, we should be ok. Without it, we will have to pray to the RNG...
Since things are going to move very fast now (at least I believe they are), I was almost exclusively looking for cities capable of building 1t or, at worst, 2t tanks. Everything else I considered "too slow for practical purposes". I focused on making good use of what we seem to have an abundance of - cavalries/horses and gold.
Abundance of cavalry...?
Yes, abundance of cavalry. Of almost useless cavalry, to be precise. Our cavalry, with the attack of 6 only, is very ineffective against infantry, unless that infantry is down to its last hp. Trading 1 or even 2 cavalries for a tank is an extremely good deal, since a blitz-enabled tank can rip through even just lightly wounded infantry pretty fine. Considering how much arty we have, even few tanks would help us inflict considerable losses.
So, for my extreme tank production plan below, I assume disbanding cavalry wherever 1-2 of them help us to a 1t tank.
No need to elaborate on horses, I believe...
Abundance of gold...?
Yeah... as for that gold... some of you suggested trying to steal Radio. Well, let me explain why I am not particularly excited about this idea.
It is obvious that GS are distributing their techs to GoW and ND only once Lego acquires them (the only exception was helping GoW to tanks). Which is, actually, beneficial to us! It's because of this strategy that we are facing only one research rival ATM. GoW & ND are forced to idle research-wise now... Means it's only GS researching modern techs - and that, in turn, means that we are catching up tech-wise. Not only because of our own research power, but because we are going to get a nice shiny free modern tech from Vox (and it will be only us getting it - considering the circumstances, I have no problem at all denying this free tech to others). Had they forgotten about this silly "tech blocking", they'd be able to not only maintain, but even increase their tech lead on us, being 3 against 2 (or 2.5 against 1.5)... but for some reason, they seem to believe that forcing us to spend few hundred extra gold is worth slowing the whole world down. :shrug:
Now, if we stole Radio (which is not granted, I believe, since even using "safe" does not guarantees success)... GS would immediately distribute Radio, and everybody (namely, GoW) would start researching modern techs. We would be unable to do any real fast research, since we'd have our gold reserves gone. So, we‘d effectively help others increase their research output at our own expense.
OTOH, if we do Radio in 4t (and we're perfectly capable of doing that, losing no gpt), GoW/ND may have to wait 4 more turns before being able to proceed to modern times. We keep our gold reserves, being able to either use them to bolster our war production, or speed up our research once in modern times.
And above all... we do not risk losing all that gold for nothing.
Yes, if we stole Radio successfully, we could use radio towers boosting the stats of our troops. That would be a very welcome thing. We'd get the Voxian free tech 4t earlier (but considering that it's most likely going to be Ecology, it would be no big deal). We could start our own modern research 4t earlier...
But is that worth risking/spending all our gold (and yes, it would be all our gold)? Is it worth waiving 50gpt of interest? Is it worth waiving our ability to shortrush massively? Note, please, that in order to regain the ability to shortrush, we would have to slow/stop our research, effectively nullifying/reversing the effect of the whole steal Radio thing.
As an alternative to this plan, let's have a look at how fast we could be building tanks if using all that gold for partial short-rushes:
Fast Tank Production
Tanks cost 100S a piece. Means that:
100+spt cities can build them from scratch in 1t. We've got only one such city - Legopolis - and it's not going to change (I don't believe Karina can get there, even if stealing tiles from the neighbouring cities). Considering that Legopolis lacks barracks, that it's our only city equipped with an airport, and that bombers cost 100S as well, I'd prefer keeping Legopolis on bomber production, if we are able to muster "tank cities" enough. Being able to seriously damage enemy ships close to our coast before engaging them will save many a ship flying our flag. And with virtually all our cities building tanks, it will be quite important to minimize our losses at sea.
90+spt cities can transform a disbanded horse (7S) and 12g (3S - shortrush to 10S/worker) into a 1t tank. Karina will be our only 90+spt city after finishing its hydro plant this coming turn. I believe this is a no-brainer... Karina has barracks and getting a shiny new tank every turn in exchange for measly 12g and one superobsolete horse will be golden... Karina shall start with this horse+gold-to-tank production the turn after the coming one (in 1250AD), using the F1 trick to switch its bomber prebuild to a tank in 1260AD.
80+spt cities can transform a disbanded cavalry (20S) into a 1t tank. We've got only one city practically able to do 80+spt: Red Bricks. Jackson is theoretically able to get there, but only if demoting Legopolis to under 100spt, which is a bad idea. However, there is currently a problem with Red Bricks - the city lacks barracks. We can either sacrifice 1t to build them there, or put up with building regular tanks here, trusting that they will be able to promote to vets through killing badly wounded enemy units. We should also keep in mind we still want some modern wonders, especially Internet - however, reasonable research times for Computers and Miniaturization (considering a beeline to Internet) are 5-6t and 6-7t. That's 2+4+(5 to 6)+(6 to 7)=17 to 19t away. But Red Bricks would be done in 12t with a 1000S wonder... conclusion: I believe it would be best to build quick 1t barracks here and then use Red Bricks to turn cavalries into tanks, 1 per turn.
70+spt cities can transform a disbanded cavalry (20S) and 40g (10S - shortrush to 30S/settler) to a 1t tank. We've got three suitable cities for this kind of production: Jackson, Zargonia, and Kloreepville. All of them have barracks, so as soon as they finish their current assignments, they should start with tanks. For Jackson, it will be this coming turn (1240AD) already, doing the first tank in 2t, using the F1 trick to switch production in 1260AD. Zargonia shall start in 1250AD, after finishing the current submarine build, using the F1 trick to switch production in 1260AD. K'ville only after finishing the current carrier build - in 1260AD.
60+spt cities can transform two disbanded cavalries (40S) into a 1t tank. Q.M. is already capable of that (will do its first tank in 2t, starting this coming turn), Panama will get to 60+spt after finishing its hydro plant in 1250AD (just in time).
50+spt cities can build 2t tanks just fine. We'll have 4 of those: Forkmouth from 1250AD (after finishing its hydro plant), Logville from this coming turn, S'haven, and Tarzania (both already at 50+spt).
40+spt cities can build 2t tanks either using a shortrush to 60S (44-80g, only possible in coastal cities, via a privateer) or by disbanding a cavalry in the middle of the production run. We’d have four cities like that available: Dye Fields (48spt -> 48g/tank for a 48-to-60S shortrush), Abilene, Tiberium (~45spt -> 60g/tank for a 45-to-60S shortrush), and Ahhmyfoot (45spt, 1 cavalry needed). I would leave Ahhmyfoot focused on infantry production – it’s not that we won’t need new ones... Ahhmyfoot would be helped by Horsefish producing 3t infantries.
This would be seven 1t tanks per turn from Karina (cost/turn: 1 horse + 12g), Red Bricks (cost/turn: 1 cavalry), Jackson, Zargonia, Kloreepville (cost/turn: 1 cavalry + 40g), Panama, and Q.M. (cost/turn: 2 cavalries) – total cost for these seven 1t tanks would be 1 horse, 8 cavalries, and 132g per turn. Add three to four 2t tanks per turn from Forkmouth, Logville, S’haven, Tarzania (no additional cost), Dye Fields (48g/2t=24gpt), Abilene, and Tiberium (60g/2t=30gpt) and we are at 10-11 tanks per turn, spending 132+24+30=186gpt and a number of obsolete units.
10-11 tanks per turn at this cost sounds acceptable (as in "enough") to me, so let’s leave Legopolis pumping bombers out. Here is the tank production timeline then:
1240AD
2t tank builds start in Jackson, Panama, Dye Fields, Logville, Quanto Mechanico, Abilene (6)
Red Bricks starts barracks
1250AD
1t tank builds start in Karina, Red Bricks, Zargonia, Kloreepville (4)
2t tank builds start in Forkmouth, S’haven, Tarzania, Tiberium (4)
1260AD (Motorized Transport discovered)
10 tanks completed - 10 total
1t tank builds start in Karina, Red Bricks, Jackson, Zargonia, Kloreepville, Panama, Q.M. (7)
2t tank builds start in Logville, Dye Fields, Abilene (3)
1270AD
11 tanks completed - 21 total
1t tank builds start in Karina, Red Bricks, Jackson, Zargonia, Kloreepville, Panama, Q.M. (7)
2t tank builds start in Forkmouth, S’haven, Tarzania, Tiberium (4)
1280AD
10 tanks completed - 31 total
1t tank builds start in Karina, Red Bricks, Jackson, Zargonia, Kloreepville, Panama, Q.M. (7)
2t tank builds start in Logville, Dye Fields, Abilene (3)
1290AD
11 tanks completed - 42 total
At this moment (that's 6 turns into the future, including the coming turn), we should hopefully be able to revisit the military production strategy and adjust it according to the situation.
Note, please, that unless we spot GS halfway across the ocean this coming turn (implying a landing around Invoice, on flat land), we'll be able to meet the landed units with tanks - since we should have 10 of those already in 1260AD.
Comment