Aggie vs Jack Merchant, the revenge *spoiler*

[jack merchant]

A horse on the start, nice (pic in the open thread on CFC, too lazy to upload it here now. However, Aggie's start is certainly more powerful with three bonus grass and a river. There are flood plains to the East and a river with some BG to the west, so my capital will probably not become my settler factory.
We'll have to see how it turns out but I'm worried that I may have overestimated my capabilities after the fine showing in the first game.

[anarres]

jack, can we have a link to the open thread instead then? :)

[WildFire]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=52656

And you even posted in that anarres ;)

[jack merchant]

Thanks WildFire !

I promise to post more pictures as we progress, but at the moment there is nothing much interesting going on yet (what do you expect at turn 13 ? ;) )

[jack merchant]

Initial exploration reveals my neighbours are the Persians, the Mongols, and the Ottomans [lol] Does someone want me dead ?

[jack merchant]

Due to the cramped nature of the first map, we asked for a restart and got one - this time, with 2 settlers for the human player and 2 for the AI too.

My 2 start cities are situated thusly:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/jack merchant/200362215717_AJ2_lands.jpg
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Due to goody hut luck and trading, I have all first-level techs and mysticism now (turn 20).

[jack merchant]

At turn 60, my min sci run on Polytheism completed, netting me 4 techs and the world map. I'm at parity now and have started min sci on the republic. Also, much of the cash raised has now been invested in embassies so I know better what's going on now (not much as yet [crazyeye])

I have 6 towns with 2 settlers on the way, and Mosvow and St. Petersburg turned to settler factories. I survived a Persian sneakattack when I had two cities, but I suspect I better be wary of renewed Persian attention.

[Black_Waltz]

*demands update* ;)

[jack merchant]

tomorrow.......

[jack merchant]

My empire a couple of turns back, just after the fucking Persians stabbed me in the back:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/jack merchant/20038514435_avsJ_empireGAwar.jpg
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I have retaken Yakutsk and Sevastopol and captured Sardis, after which peace was signed. But the Persians are going to pay, and that's a promise [fdevil]

Half my GA is over and most of it was spent in mobilization as my military was pitifully inadequate. I'm glad Aggie didn't choose to land on my shores or I'd have been in serious trouble.

I have to think of a way to get ToE now - even in my GA, my research capability is pathetic and if Aggie has a leader ready, I'm screwed.

[jack merchant]

St. Petersburg has been chosen as the site for the ToE prebuild, as it can use the palace. All available workers have been sent there (at turn 189)so I hope that it can produce enough with railroads and GA bonus to get there before Aggie.

Aggie, unfortunately, has an Iron works city close to the capital but bizarrely, it's only size 7 still, has the IW due in 15 and is not fully improved yet - if I were Aggie, I'd build up that city as quickly as possible and merge in a few workers to get it to size 12 ASAP.

[jack merchant]

Well, Industrialization just arrived so I have Moscow on Suffrage now and St. Petersburg on ToE prebuild. I'm leading Aggie by Communism and Industrialization now, but it probably won't do me much good if he gets to ToE first. My research capability is still nonexistent, even though I just screwed the English out of a 100gpt payment by telling them to remove their forces or....

On the downside, that means I'm now at war again and they bought in the Zulu, who just started paying me 29gpt and were providing me with incense. I was secretly hoping they'd buy in the Iroquis instead, who I am paying 160gpt in tech deals.

Edit again: The Zulu bought in the Iroquis for me to give me back the payment. Also, I sold the Iro's dyes for 200 gold upfront which I can now safely pocket [crazyeye]

[anarres]

I was reading on the CFC attitude strat article by bamspeedy that any deal that involves a gpt payment on any side will incour a small rep hit when the deal is broken.

Important info for those of us who like to screw the AI, I suggest you read it. ;)

[jack merchant]

I'd better [eek] While it does mean there's a downside to the screw-the-AI strat, I do think it's a little unfair. So far, I'm the only civ in this game that has kept its deals for 100% while the AIs have broken theirs left, right and center. The boot order to rob the English of their gpt is the only remotely nasty thing I've done - the others were completely beyond my control. Oh well.........

On topic, I'm discovering that when you provoke wars, it's a good idea to have a military [cool] I'll post the F3 screen when I next get a turn, but to say that my forces are stretched thin would be something of an understatement [crazyeye]

[jack merchant]

Blah, forgot about the F3 screen.But suffice it to say that with the help of a few cannon and rails, my forces were able to beat off the English and Iroquis, and peace with the Chinese was signed for a small price. I bought The Corporation off the Iro's in the peace treaty - anyone wanna bet that that will last for 20 turns ? [tank]

In other news, the war had a nice bonus:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/jack merchant/200387211946_JvsA_leader.jpg
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The leader is now in Moscow waiting for someone to get to electricity and Sci Meth.

[yndy]

quote:Originally posted by anarres

I was reading on the CFC attitude strat article by bamspeedy that any deal that involves a gpt payment on any side will incour a small rep hit when the deal is broken.

Important info for those of us who like to screw the AI, I suggest you read it. ;)


I think you missed 'except if the other civ declares war and thus breakes the deal'

[jack merchant]

Which is precisely what happened next - several Persian cavs entered my land. Thinking of a sneak attack, I bought refining for 200+ gpt and issued the inevitable boot order [cool] Only later did I notice that they were really after a stray Iro musket in my lands. [crazyeye]

The English forces that just entered my lands have no such excuse, however, so next turn I'll buy Steel off them and boot them out. I'm not ready for another war with them at all, but I'm 99% certain they are planning a sneak attack so I might just as well get the tech.

The war with the Persians also ended my alliance with them vs the Zulu. I signed peace with them and they were kind enough to sell me Espionage at a bargain 45 gpt.

With all this, I should be caught up in tech aggain next turn at no cost in gold whatsoever :D Another benefit of all these wars is that Aggie seems to think I'm only in it for the leaders - and I already have one :)

I should point out that this is not my usual style of play at all - but since I can't compete with Aggie economically, it'll have to be by exploiting the game mechanics and going to war a lot.

[jack merchant]

English attention is focused on Smolensk:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/jack merchant/200389174819_14Englishcavs.jpg
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That's about 14 cavs there, with about 6 already dead on the previous turn. As you can see they're moving past the city towards my inner cities (Moscow and Kiev for example are completely undefended) which gives me the chance now to kill them in the open instead of fighting them in the jungle. Which is good,because last turn (211) I lost about 5 cavs attacking the English in the jungle at a loss to the English of only 2 cavs.
This might be seen as exploitative, but the truth is that I just don't have enough troops to adequately defend all my cities !

The Englis are also after Riga in the South, but it's holding valiantly. 2 vet rifles, 2 conscripts and a cossack have already killed 6 English cavs on defense there at no losses to our side.

The Persians, meanwhile, are after Sardis and are sending a couple of cavs every turn. I lost two workers due to the infuriating PBEM movement bug, but on the whole, they are not a great threat yet.

What I really need is for the Iros and the Chinese, who are also at war against the English, to make some headway so I can take the fight against the English instead of hanging on by the skin of my teeth.
I'm glad Aggie and I agreed on peace until the modern age, as I'd have been in serious trouble if he'd decided to join the fight.

[jack merchant]

Seeing as the AIs were so dilatory at researching anything resembling Electricity, I decided to use my leader for an Army - with all the fighting going on, I felt sure I would get another one. However, as it turned out you can't build the Heroic Epic during Mobilization !
Fortunately though, I did get another leader and since Moscow was building the Military Academy, it could swap to the HE right after the peace with the Persians was signed (turn 222).

I provoked another war with the Iro's too, getting back the 123 gpt I had paid them for Combustion and 2 luxes. But I am beginning to discover the downside - the AIs are indeed less willing to talk soon when you go to war too frequently.

Anyway, I have my hands free to deal with the English now - their empire is beginning to show the starin from constant war with me, the Iro's and the Chinese (though they are at peace now). I was able to capture one of their cities at an earlier stage but had to abandon it after it turned out I couldn't hold it. I'm now hoping to refound that spot and maybe capture a few other cities. Suffrage is really helping me !

[jack merchant]

Turn 231

With Aggie getting Hoover and obviously quite capable of self-researching everything, I may get into trouble come the Modern Age due to our agreement. The techs left to go are Rep Parts, Mass Production, Mtr T, Flight and Radio. Assuming Aggie will need an average of about 5 turns to research each one, I have at most 25 turns left over to get on even terms with him.
I can't get everything by stealing as I have about 1800 in the treasury and am running about +600gpt - meaning I can only steal safely every 5 turns or so assuming the AI doesn't contribute to the tech race (if they do, so much the better, I'll just pay with gpt and go to war again :D). And even safe steals aren't guaranteed to work.

There's only one thing left for it then - by the time Aggie reaches the MA and signs up everyone in alliances against me, I'll have to have conquered most of the known world, or at least everything up to the choke in Iroquis lands so my lands will be easier to defend. I'll take about 2 turns to get some stock exchanges completed and some coal plants started, but after that, it's back to mobilization and full-scale war (although Aggie may gift Rep Parts to the AIs to make things tougher for me). The Persians are probably first as their cities are mostly smaller and they don't appear to have metropolises yet. After that, it's race to the choke (I may get a ROP with the English) to kill the Iro's, then turn around and destroy the English.

Hopefully Aggie will think I'm going for domination and go to war himself - and since he doesn't have Suffrage, that should slow him down a bit. And if he doesn't, I WILL go for domination [evil]

[jack merchant]

I almost got Aggie to declare war on someone when I provoked the Zulu into war against me (around turn 240). No actual offensive against the Zulu is planned though -this was merely to screw them out of about 400gpt :D. Basically I'm taking AI exploitation to all new levels here (to Aggie's understandable annoyance) but it's the only way I can even remotely keep up in tech. Only the Chinese like me anymore now !

As far as I can tell, only three techs are still left before the modern age: mass production, motorized transportation and radio. My concern is that Aggie will no longer trade them to the AI but gift all of them to the AIS the turn he reaches the MA to get everyone to go to war against me. This means I need to speed up my conquering, and the odds for that succeeding aren't good right now. I have captured 4 towns from the Persians but they hate my guts so badly right now that they still won't talk- which is a big problem, as I'm forced to run 40% luxes to cope with WW ! The other AIs have had enough time to recover from the earlier wars too, so conquering them won't be a cakewalk either.

However, I do expect to be able to sign peace with the Persians before the MA. After that, I'll go after the English and sign everyone who wants to in alliances against them so as to drive up the price for Aggie to sign them up against me. I am even considering a ROP-rape if I get tanks quickly enough, but I did that on a small scale in the first game against Cartouche Bee and felt rather unclean afterwards, so most likely won't do that again. Anyway,the Zulu lack oil so won't have tanks and the Chinese are buying 3 or 4 luxes off of me, so they should revolt quite quickly if they lose those.

But while I may be able to weaken the AIs sufficiently to make sure they aren't a threat come the MA, I'll have to deal with Aggie's army too, and that could prove problematic :(. There is a chokepoint which I could occupy, but I'll need ROPs to get there and since three quarters of my cities are unoccupied most of the time, I daren't sign any.

[jack merchant]

People probably want more pictures before they reply, so here you go ;)

The minimap and my army:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/jack merchant/200381517261_AJ_army.jpg
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As you can see I'm eligible for the Pentagon now [cool]. I've got two Cossack Armies and an Infantry Army now, will create more Infantry Armies as I get more leaders. I have now had five leaders total - one cossack army was lost against a rifle and one leader was used on an airport in Moscow in a bout of temporary insanity.

Demographics:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/jack merchant/2003815173019_AJ_F11.jpg
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Suppose Aggie is first everywhere - only my income is higher because he's likely still running max science.

[Skyfish]

I dont think a Domination win is gonna work in time Jack [sad]

[jack merchant]

Me neither - but I'll try :). My casualties against the AI so far were way too high though - that should improve now I'm getting more and more artillery.

[ERIKK]

[lol]
Tell me more about the airport!!!
Like..., why?

[jack merchant]

It seemed a good idea at the time [smokin][[slanteye][stoned][drunk][headstab]