DrA vs Anarres *SPOILER*

[Aggie]

It may be a very good idea to continu the war The Iroquois and Chinese appear to be valuable partners.

[prettyvacant]

hmm. everything seems to be in favour of going to war immediately (potential allies, cav v non rifles=rapidly running out of time etc) apart from annares asking for peace. My theory is that it is a double bluff - he really does want peace and thinks the best way to get it is to ask for it and you think that (as often in diplo) he is saying the opposite of what he wants). (clear?)

Have you got, can you get, a railway through the Iroqouis lands?

[DrAlimentado]

And in the cold light of day I am just a little worried... Anarres could could have a very decent number of military still, and has more advanced rails. He could get nationalism any second, and he has Sun-tzu and will mass-upgrade his defenders to Rifles. He could be stockpiling cash to buy/break my MA's with, or just have a hefty income. Dam, I will need to really study the situation in the next save I get!

One thing I might do though - I could send a force of just a couple of units to hopefully trigger the MA's against him. Let him deal with china for a while and build up my forces/rails a bit more.

[ERIKK]

YOU SHOULD ACT FAST, TIME IS WITH ANARRES I GUESS!

[digger760]

what about mobilization with the GA...do the two of them make kickass production? i have never seen that before.

[DrAlimentado]

173 - anarres has got MPP's... arse. invasion momentarily postponed...

174 - he's got nationalism AND industrialisation (well he says he has indust. could he be bluffing?)... hmm... electricity has also appeared for the chinese and iroquois. I smell a monopoly trade. bastarrrrd.

176 - finish last of my non-military builds and mobolise. I'm in GA till 182, GA + mobolisation is a sight to behold:


mega-prod before indust.


Anarres is at least 1 tech, probably 2 techs in front. He is railing quicker than me but I am pumping 4-5 workers every 2 turns and catching up quick. I have also taken the precaution of not selling my WM anymore, I'm just buying the chinese one mainly (their the main AI) - hopefully this will keep anarres in the dark as to my railing progress

He will likely lead me in tech from now on... unless I can either get a monopoly trade on soemthing, or maybe do some tech stealing. I get Indust. in 2 turns, after that I'm going to consider going to 0 sci and just get money for steals. If we just sit it out there's a fair chance he'll get tanks and infantry before me and mount an attack or even go for some other win (UN?)

I think right now I have a bigger mil (according to F3, but he could have old units and do a mass upgrade at the first sign of trouble) and I'm sure I'm out-producing atm too (no1 in F11), but the MPP's are a tough cookie to beat. hmm.....



178 - After a bit of thought I decide to try and force some action I declare war on the iroquois and stick a worker inside their territory...

the iroquois attack my worker. triggering the MPP's:
chinese declare on english (unrelated...)
I auto-declare on english (MPP with chinese)
china declare on iroquois(MPP with me)
china declare on mongols(anarres) (MPP with me... I guess)
ottos declare on iroquois(MPP with me)
mongols(anarres) auto-declares on me (MPP with Iroquois... I guess)

I'm a little surprised that china declared on anarres, after all he hasn't attacked anyone!! but all the happier for it

I'll cautiously take some Iroquois cities and get to a better position from which to attack anarres, my mil is steadily increasing...

[DrAlimentado]

We've played abother 20 turns.

I have burned a path through the iroquois and taken Salamanca which has some very useful wonders; Universal Suffrage, Pyramids, Smiths, and a useless one: Great wall. Razed the other iroquois cities and planted some of my own. The iroquois still exist but only on the other side of the pangea where they have a crappy 6 city state.

The Mongol-Spanish border is a stalemate...




We each have stacks of Infantry blocking any advance and have both razed the approach routes so that there is a 2 tile no-mans land seperating us. The only exception is in the north where I have a city touching a mountain defended by 8 mongol infantry. Until tanks it seems unlikely there will be a breakthrough, although you never know, it is possible with cav and arty but it would be painful on the aggressor.

We have no agreements bar the settler creep one and we keep switching the ai's around against eachother every few turns, annoying for us both to an extent but I suffer more as I have a long border with the chinese. They can't really hurt me much anymore but it is a pain having to man a couple of chokepoints, I can channel them where I want and ping-pong their stacks until I turn them each time but it's a nuisance that I am unable to return to anarres - china is the only AI with any real military value and they have no way of attacking anarres (silly mountain border).

I am drawing level with the chinese in tech, although because my building infrastructure is crappy (don't have unis/banks in all core cities yet) my research rate is pretty slow still... I have a nasty feeling anarres has gained a few techs on me again. (I spent a few turns mobolised and with no research, built a shitload of infantry and arty and stole rep-parts from the chinese.)

Maybe I should do a blitz of the ai on my side whilst anarres will still have trouble attacking me, whatever I do it seems all too likely with his lead in tech and my own tardiness he will get tanks before me and have better cities quicker. Hmmm... I need a plan!!

*puts thinking hat on*

....

[WildFire]

How much money do you have? I have found that in my sp game, stealing techs worked very well.

[DrAlimentado]

well money can be got at the expense of research, problem is there is only china to steal from. For the moment I will use a mix of canny research (=researching monopoly techs) and stealing.

[DrAlimentado]

198:

Dr Alimentado says:
mil action: an arty captain got a bit over-zealous and commenced an arty barrage on baruun-urt
anarres says:

Dr Alimentado says:
results:
Dr Alimentado says:
12 arty fired: 4 misses: granary, marketplace, library destroyed :
anarres says:
ffs!
Dr Alimentado says:
2 'nothings' -
Dr Alimentado says:
ie: hits on troops but i cant see
Dr Alimentado says:
3 pop reduction
Dr Alimentado says:
mwuhahaha


199- we make a treaty (I guess anarres dosen't like his core being shelled )

quote:- peace, no embargoes or MA's against the other human, let current MA's and embargoes die naturally for 30 turns, ending in turn 229, at the start of DrA's turn.

-- no MA's, no MPP's, and no chinese RoP for 40 turns, ending at the start of anarres' turn 249

Hopefully I can catch up in infra in the treaty period. Some skillful research and stealing will be required to close the gap in tech though. I decide to research espionage as a monopoly tech for trade purposes as well as spying. I quickly finish off the ottomans and only remain at war with anarres (a phoney war whilst our MA's expire) - still my WW remains very high though

trade espionage (+>1000 gold) for scientific method. I attempt a couple of steals from china, the first is at medium safety and succeeds! I get refining from that one The next is also at medium safety but fails... I had got too cocky... I can't really afford to lose 2000+ gold on a failed steal! I decide to research for the moment and maybe save money for a safe steal if it will be a decisive move, I really don't want anarres to get tanks a long way ahead of me!

During all this period I am building factories and coal plants and getting my infra up to scratch. When anarres and I finally make formal peace (in 211) my WW drops from 40-60% to 0 and my empire becomes massively more profitable, hurrah! Now I actually feel like I can keep pace with anarres, although his infra is probably better and he still has a tech lead.

china remain at war with anarres and although a ROP is prohibited by our treaty I allow china to send a steady flow of troops through a narrow carridor of my lands to reach anarres. They are unlikely to damage him much but several 10+ stacks of infantry and guerillas pass through to hopefully pillage his tiles and be a general nuisance. After the stream dries up I close the gap to stop them sending their injured troops back through my land, china has territory on the opposite side of the pangea too so they will limp across anarres lands being a pest for a while yet.

218 - anarres gets Hoovers. This was kind of inevitable with his tech lead, although I had a leader waiting just in case I somehow got electronics before he could build it. China dosen't even have atomic theory so anarres must be holding onto atomics and electronics, hmm... I wonder if he built it or rushed it.

around 220 I manage to research steel and to my amazement anarres doesn't already have it! I decide to hold onto it myself, I could trade it for communism and sanitation with china (which I do badly need!) but then annares would likely trade china for it himself and would be 3/4 techs nearer to tanks than me. I think I can get a better trade once atomic theory is up. I set myself to research combustion in 5 turns. Commercial is beginning to pay off!

225 - research combustion, china has atomic theory now so I trade with china and get atomic theory and sanitation for combustion. Then my killer move... I safe steal electronics (4000+ gold...) and hold my breath... it works!! hehehehehe. a masterley move I think to myself, I have actually gone ahead in tech at a critical moment!! anarres still dosen't have combustion and I can get a head start on motorised transportation, w00t!!
Of course I make an incredibly stupid mistake - I FORGET TO GIFT ELECTRONICS TO CHINA TO PREVENT DAN TRADING IT FOR COMBUSTUION. Bah! stupid stupid stupid stupid! I have gifted him a tech. Fucker. Still, I am ahead a couple of turns in research even with this mistake.



231 - After lengthy and tiring negotiations (this is an understatement... ) we extend the peace treaty for 10 turns, and the no-MA treaty by 5 turns. F3 shows anarres has been expanding his forces over the last 10 turns very quickly, extremely quickly! I set the last few non-military builds ( a few police stations) and I mobilise, lets see who can outbuild the other in tanks

the new treaty:

[quote- peace, no embargoes against the other human, ending in turn 241, at the start of anarres' turn.

-- no MA's or MPP's against the other player, and no Chinese RoP, ending at the start of Dr A's turn 254
[/quote]

We will have peace now until 241, and it is a simple arms race. We will both have radio by then, of course my core is shielded by a large buffer zone of mainly useless cities (worker and science/tax factories) and anarres core is the border...


232 - Research motorised transportation! I check and Anarres hasn't got it He must still be at least a turn, hopefully more behind me.


238 - research Radio. I am still ahead of Anarres. Our forces are similar in size and expanding at very nearly the same rate although he may just have the edge on me. He also likely has more vet infantry than me as I conscripted heavily to block the chinese out of my territory. I do have a few more tanks than him though.


When the war comes he gets first strike, I am tempted to draw him in a little way then counter-strike. It will be hard for him to defend a border and attack....