***Spolier*** Tour de France avec Beam

Grille · 11-01-2005, 20:10

(spammy update, 207 turns played)

So repeated attacks in 195 and 198 with Cav-army and Cav-SoD grinded Babylon's garrison enough. Inbetween attacks, there was a healing pause in New Paris;
The Babs have been in facism for some time, thus they drafted and rushed their pop down. Counted 14 rifle kills in total during 195/198, most of them drafties/regs, plus 2 longbows. French casulties were 6 cavs and 1 knight (older elite).
Grabbed TGL, Leo's, Pyramids, MoM, HG and KT.

Inherently a very nice harvest, yet Babylon is tourism boomtown on top of that (apart from KT which is completly useless).
[interlude: AI's smartness, chapter 42:
All city improvements except for a courthouse (!!!) were gone. Very obliging AI, builds a court in their cap which even stands the war aftermath.

Steam says we have a source of coal.
Btw, reviewing the pic above, I notice the sun in the info box.

Weird, since all the techs dropped in at next turn's start; the 'enter-new-age' popped up then as well.

199: "It's raining cats and dogs!"
(btw, anyone knows that golf-themed 'gopher' flipper?

)
France collects the fruits of the great TGL abuse:
education, banking, demo, economy, astronomy, navigation, physics, free artistery, magnetism, ToG, nationalism, steam power, communism, medicine, industrialization, facism.
But.
16 past edu techs in one go *looks* great at first sight (and probably it *is* - from a tech-catch-up or SP-game perspective), but I would have preferred an earlier grab, i.e. short time after the first peace treaty with the Babs expired (fucked that thing up).
I was investing too many shields into military units. These were inferior (at first), thus the casulty numbers were of course higher. Then the needed upgrades consumed large amounts of commerce. Not running a war economy, Beam could meanwhile certainly stuff his core with unis and banks, plus he's eventually got a railroad headstart. He could do that staying cool and calm, because the starting locs offer low AI sneak attack danger (regarding his ROPs, I think he blocked the small borderline at least after RRs came up). Furthermore, he knew I could not cross the ocean safely and he could even guess I was going to be busy enough with Babs. And the latter assumption would have been finally confirmed by my war declaration vs the Babs.
No surprise I lost my formerly very comfortable demograph lead as time went by (199):

26.88 KB
The first drop in numbers (189) was synchronized with the start of the German-Chinese war. A few turns earlier, I had noticed the German ROP vanished (all other civs were almost always ROP'ed IIRC). So I thought a dispensible bunch of Riders were shipped over to Germany for an easy GA start with few risk of any real threat (German's on other continent; plus them fighting, at least officially

, Babylon).
I'm not so sure anymore if his GA was really launched.

The GNP/MFG boost could have had other reasons as well (commerce stuff, RRs/FP). Although I was ahead of Beam by industrialization in 199 (+communism, facism btw), so no factories on his side at that time.
Got a bit unlucky with these techs, as I could not sell them around. Ai either knew them or were broke. Beam got all these techs one turn later, obviously by trading electricity. Interestingly, every civ knew elec, so Beam could re-skim the (possibly refreshed) AI market on the new turn. At least I got it from Germany for a cheap 68gpt plus iron (captured an extra source N of city of Rennes).

202: Chairman Beam gets fat (French press now calls him "Sofaman"

).
Beam completed ToE. Well, it had to happen sooner or later. Looks like the usual electronics-shot, Beam has HD under construction. Rep-parts seem unknown yet.
Beam also builds US.

Bought corp for 166gpt from Otto's (unknown to Beam) and traded it to Hitties and Germany for luxs and half-decent gpt. Beam grabbed it of course in 203.

Meanwhile my party arrived at the lovely seaside town of Eridu. It was struggling, so no need to install a French governor. Razed for 1 slave which is now held captive on a remote sugar plantation. Or so the tale goes.

Area resettled. I also plopped New Orleans near old Ashur, my emnemy's new cap. It has Sistine's.

207: heavy losses

I had pre-worked Ashur's garrison with the Cav-army and now wanted to make a combined attack with a Cav-stack/army. Possibly not having enough cavs ready for a blitz-raid, I figured that repeated attacks should be again the way to go. Benefitting from retreats, i.e. stealing more HPs than losing own HPs (with fatal results, anyways) and eventually killing some units while not having too many own casulties in total, and then making a healing pause seemed to work well enough when attacking Babylon. Ashur is on a hill, still a city, so chances were the Babs would draft/rush their pop down to town size after the first run.
Note that another Cav-stack sitting near the city of Babylon should originally stay there and react on a flip or the usually upshowing units; Babylon is normally defended by 2 warriors only and therefor needs an offensive defence. This Babylon stack was in Ashur attack distance as well, though. Of course I considered pulling one or another cav out of this Babylon stack helping on the Ashur front, but just as a lucky option in case the Ashur main attack stack would come very close to even capturing the city.
The main attack stack did very well. The army killed the two first rifles w/o taking much damage, so I went for a third army battle which was also succesful. As a result, the main defenders were gone and thus the remaining Babylonian forces (reg and conscript rifles) in Ashur were fair game for the single attack cavs.
If I counted correctly, a 1/2HP rifle, a 2/3HP rifle and a longbow was left over after this first attack. I had been acting very carefully before, usually avoiding any risks. But ww kicked in recently and the Ashur garrison looked small enough, so I wanted to hurry up. I called units of the Babylon stack in. At this point, the shit started flowing into my general directon. I called in the first cav, second... etc. Except for 1 retreat and two succesful survisors, the extra Babylon stack was completly wiped out.

I killed the last rifle eventually, but had only one 3/4HP cav left over ready for an attack vs the still remaing single longbow... Ashur remained Babylonian. Who cares for a spear, the longbow is the devil!!

I had stopped military builds due to factories and banks being ordered, so these heavy losses really hurt. The desaster is well reflected on F3. I'm now weak compared to Beam (and some other civs). Beam might add 1 and 1 planning a spontaneous invasion.

Well, at least some rail tracks have been built already, so I can push stuff around quicker.
My earlier thought about Beam trashing his rep was of course dumb, since the Babs certainly trashed their rep in the process of pillaging their wines (the advisor says Hammurabi betrayed our Chinses "friends" anyways).

Beam is very likely the tech leader, avoids wars (peace with Germans for some time), has ROPs with everyone and trades stuff, so UN might very well be another option for him. His tech pace should be well, because it looks like he could almost totally skim the gpt market. OTOH, in the meantime, the AI got themselves involved into wars while some switched to facism and thereby cripple their gpt (and global tech pace, resp).
Actually, these wars are present, agressor (IIRC) stated first:
France vs Babs
Germany vs Babs (originally caused by the MA with me)
Hittite vs Germany (through MA with Babs)
Greece vs Hitties
Ottos vs Hittites (through MA with Greece)
Babs vs Hittites (through MA with Greece or Ottos); this one is a bit strange, since it broke out very recently. [crazyeyes] The Babs should be troubled enough and the Hitties were their former ally vs Germany... Added to that: Despite of this Hittite gang bang, they captured the German core city of Munich (on other continent from their POV!) and hold it for some time now.
Only Korea (signed peace with Babs) and China have no wars. Korea is still in facism, though.

Whatever, I'm not sure what to do now. It seems I must act militarily vs Beam. The trouble here is I have no military nor a fleet for the job

, not even soon. Furthermore, the forces are now even too weak to deal with the Babs effectively (they started pillaging near Babylon during IBT 207 as the responsible cav stack there is gone/damaged).
Also, I'm desparatly waiting for my GA!! - Babs avoided an attack on a musket, whereas I attacked their easy-to-kill longbows with elites hoping for the next GL.

edit: seems I messed up some turn numbers, corrected them

11-01-2005, 20:10	#23
Grille Join Date: May 2003 Location: in a swamp. Posts: 901	(spammy update, 207 turns played) So repeated attacks in 195 and 198 with Cav-army and Cav-SoD grinded Babylon's garrison enough. Inbetween attacks, there was a healing pause in New Paris; The Babs have been in facism for some time, thus they drafted and rushed their pop down. Counted 14 rifle kills in total during 195/198, most of them drafties/regs, plus 2 longbows. French casulties were 6 cavs and 1 knight (older elite). Grabbed TGL, Leo's, Pyramids, MoM, HG and KT. Inherently a very nice harvest, yet Babylon is tourism boomtown on top of that (apart from KT which is completly useless). [interlude: AI's smartness, chapter 42: All city improvements except for a courthouse (!!!) were gone. Very obliging AI, builds a court in their cap which even stands the war aftermath. Steam says we have a source of coal. Btw, reviewing the pic above, I notice the sun in the info box. Weird, since all the techs dropped in at next turn's start; the 'enter-new-age' popped up then as well. 199: "It's raining cats and dogs!" (btw, anyone knows that golf-themed 'gopher' flipper?) France collects the fruits of the great TGL abuse: education, banking, demo, economy, astronomy, navigation, physics, free artistery, magnetism, ToG, nationalism, steam power, communism, medicine, industrialization, facism. But. 16 past edu techs in one go looks great at first sight (and probably it is - from a tech-catch-up or SP-game perspective), but I would have preferred an earlier grab, i.e. short time after the first peace treaty with the Babs expired (fucked that thing up). I was investing too many shields into military units. These were inferior (at first), thus the casulty numbers were of course higher. Then the needed upgrades consumed large amounts of commerce. Not running a war economy, Beam could meanwhile certainly stuff his core with unis and banks, plus he's eventually got a railroad headstart. He could do that staying cool and calm, because the starting locs offer low AI sneak attack danger (regarding his ROPs, I think he blocked the small borderline at least after RRs came up). Furthermore, he knew I could not cross the ocean safely and he could even guess I was going to be busy enough with Babs. And the latter assumption would have been finally confirmed by my war declaration vs the Babs. No surprise I lost my formerly very comfortable demograph lead as time went by (199): 26.88 KB The first drop in numbers (189) was synchronized with the start of the German-Chinese war. A few turns earlier, I had noticed the German ROP vanished (all other civs were almost always ROP'ed IIRC). So I thought a dispensible bunch of Riders were shipped over to Germany for an easy GA start with few risk of any real threat (German's on other continent; plus them fighting, at least officially, Babylon). I'm not so sure anymore if his GA was really launched. The GNP/MFG boost could have had other reasons as well (commerce stuff, RRs/FP). Although I was ahead of Beam by industrialization in 199 (+communism, facism btw), so no factories on his side at that time. Got a bit unlucky with these techs, as I could not sell them around. Ai either knew them or were broke. Beam got all these techs one turn later, obviously by trading electricity. Interestingly, every civ knew elec, so Beam could re-skim the (possibly refreshed) AI market on the new turn. At least I got it from Germany for a cheap 68gpt plus iron (captured an extra source N of city of Rennes). 202: Chairman Beam gets fat (French press now calls him "Sofaman"). Beam completed ToE. Well, it had to happen sooner or later. Looks like the usual electronics-shot, Beam has HD under construction. Rep-parts seem unknown yet. Beam also builds US. Bought corp for 166gpt from Otto's (unknown to Beam) and traded it to Hitties and Germany for luxs and half-decent gpt. Beam grabbed it of course in 203. Meanwhile my party arrived at the lovely seaside town of Eridu. It was struggling, so no need to install a French governor. Razed for 1 slave which is now held captive on a remote sugar plantation. Or so the tale goes. Area resettled. I also plopped New Orleans near old Ashur, my emnemy's new cap. It has Sistine's. 207: heavy losses I had pre-worked Ashur's garrison with the Cav-army and now wanted to make a combined attack with a Cav-stack/army. Possibly not having enough cavs ready for a blitz-raid, I figured that repeated attacks should be again the way to go. Benefitting from retreats, i.e. stealing more HPs than losing own HPs (with fatal results, anyways) and eventually killing some units while not having too many own casulties in total, and then making a healing pause seemed to work well enough when attacking Babylon. Ashur is on a hill, still a city, so chances were the Babs would draft/rush their pop down to town size after the first run. Note that another Cav-stack sitting near the city of Babylon should originally stay there and react on a flip or the usually upshowing units; Babylon is normally defended by 2 warriors only and therefor needs an offensive defence. This Babylon stack was in Ashur attack distance as well, though. Of course I considered pulling one or another cav out of this Babylon stack helping on the Ashur front, but just as a lucky option in case the Ashur main attack stack would come very close to even capturing the city. The main attack stack did very well. The army killed the two first rifles w/o taking much damage, so I went for a third army battle which was also succesful. As a result, the main defenders were gone and thus the remaining Babylonian forces (reg and conscript rifles) in Ashur were fair game for the single attack cavs. If I counted correctly, a 1/2HP rifle, a 2/3HP rifle and a longbow was left over after this first attack. I had been acting very carefully before, usually avoiding any risks. But ww kicked in recently and the Ashur garrison looked small enough, so I wanted to hurry up. I called units of the Babylon stack in. At this point, the shit started flowing into my general directon. I called in the first cav, second... etc. Except for 1 retreat and two succesful survisors, the extra Babylon stack was completly wiped out. I killed the last rifle eventually, but had only one 3/4HP cav left over ready for an attack vs the still remaing single longbow... Ashur remained Babylonian. Who cares for a spear, the longbow is the devil!! I had stopped military builds due to factories and banks being ordered, so these heavy losses really hurt. The desaster is well reflected on F3. I'm now weak compared to Beam (and some other civs). Beam might add 1 and 1 planning a spontaneous invasion. Well, at least some rail tracks have been built already, so I can push stuff around quicker. My earlier thought about Beam trashing his rep was of course dumb, since the Babs certainly trashed their rep in the process of pillaging their wines (the advisor says Hammurabi betrayed our Chinses "friends" anyways). Beam is very likely the tech leader, avoids wars (peace with Germans for some time), has ROPs with everyone and trades stuff, so UN might very well be another option for him. His tech pace should be well, because it looks like he could almost totally skim the gpt market. OTOH, in the meantime, the AI got themselves involved into wars while some switched to facism and thereby cripple their gpt (and global tech pace, resp). Actually, these wars are present, agressor (IIRC) stated first: France vs Babs Germany vs Babs (originally caused by the MA with me) Hittite vs Germany (through MA with Babs) Greece vs Hitties Ottos vs Hittites (through MA with Greece) Babs vs Hittites (through MA with Greece or Ottos); this one is a bit strange, since it broke out very recently. [crazyeyes] The Babs should be troubled enough and the Hitties were their former ally vs Germany... Added to that: Despite of this Hittite gang bang, they captured the German core city of Munich (on other continent from their POV!) and hold it for some time now. Only Korea (signed peace with Babs) and China have no wars. Korea is still in facism, though. Whatever, I'm not sure what to do now. It seems I must act militarily vs Beam. The trouble here is I have no military nor a fleet for the job , not even soon. Furthermore, the forces are now even too weak to deal with the Babs effectively (they started pillaging near Babylon during IBT 207 as the responsible cav stack there is gone/damaged). Also, I'm desparatly waiting for my GA!! - Babs avoided an attack on a musket, whereas I attacked their easy-to-kill longbows with elites hoping for the next GL. edit: seems I messed up some turn numbers, corrected them