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

[Grille]

(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

[Grille]

Hmm, must take more notes or I will confuse too much stuff, especially when doing power seesions in the middle of the night. Greece is no more at war with Hitties, must have missed the peace deal pop-up.

208:
Rats. I'm actually down to 10 cavs.
At least I'm still strong compared to the Babs and the RNG gives some compensation:


188.14 KB

I could sue for peace with the Babs, they would almost give up 2 towns.
I will try to throw everything fast available against Ashur in 2 turns, hope for a GA trigger, then sign peace with the Babs.
So what. An army or...

184.28 KB
No idea how this will work out. Palace cost was 700, so I guessed my former core isn't ranked too bad.
On the long run, the new core should be more productive and the FP more effective with regards to distance corruption. Or it was the dumbest move ever. At least Babylon would not flip.


continued:
209:
for the record, lost about 80-90gpt @ 100% tax by palace rush

[Grille]

210:
Ashur with Sistine's captured, plus GA started!
(no peace yet)

142.29 KB

Took over demograph lead except for population. It is to be blamed on settler/worker builds and Beam's cities being larger.
China, as I know it:

114.17 KB


Here's the power bar, note the recent developments (China improving, France stagnating).

77.54 KB

Tax is of course still on 100%, because it's more effective than researching.
The GA dramatically increases gpt, so I go shopping.
Greece gets 166gpt and wines for rep parts.
Korea gets rep parts for sanitation, SciMeth, 30g, WM.
(Germany and Hittite wouldn't accept that deal, guess they spent beakers towards rep parts already)
Greece gets 210gpt, 80g for espionage.


IBT210:
Babs and Germany make peace.

Will try to build IA ASAP. If Beam wants to build the UN, I should notice the construction location in time; his current number of cities doesn't allow a 1000-shield-worth palace for a direct switch from the pre-build.
So there would be a chance to sabotage the stuff.

211:
Babs know rep parts. WTF, they were completly broke in 210.
I plan a hill city north of the Babylon horse, then I might sign a peace treaty.


Strangely, based on the cap leaving Paris, Beam asked if I would continue the battles on my continent. Not sure if that was just out of interest (.1% sure) or if he had ulterior motives (99.9% sure). He might have deal/trading interests with Babs and/or Germany which I could possibly mess up from his POV (only that my military is too weak).

[Grille]

213:
My Cav army just died. I attacked with 8HP left a 3HP rifle in Uruk (hill town, what else). I could raze Uruk in the end, but sure thing there's rubber in that tiny bit of land which was once Bab's territory. Didn'T notice this in 211 at first sight, because it is, of course, on Eulbar's city center square. By some other chance, Eulbar is one of their last strongholds.(the other one being Ellipi, at least they're still weak in total).

4 warriors in Ashur have quelled this & that, the rest of my mood, plus an amazing amount of 0/4 resistors yet.

The valium medication *could have* started working, but an evil Chinese leader doesn't stop grinning from that F7 HD pic, which now says 'completed'.
Oh well.

[Grille]

The following turns were not that spectacular. My new core is progressing well and my old core completes factories, policestations and banks in the first place.
MilAc has been completed in Marseilles (FP city).
I took Eulbar, so the Babs are out of rubber.[]
The Hittites took another remote city of them, so they're down to two.

more interesting:
223:
Korea gets 111gpt, horse, wine for refining (2 oil).
224:
IA completed, Beijing spy plant attempt failed.
IBT:
Greece declares on Beam!! Hehe. I hope a huge amount of gpt went down the drain.

226:
Somehow Beam forgot selling steel around. Greece has the AI monopoly on it. Plus, even more strange, most AIs have too much gpt. At this point, French salesmen put their feet, hands and other extremeties available into AI's door, unfurling various trade activities.
Buy steel (and renewed an incense deal) grom Greece for 297gpt.
Steel gets resold to:
-Ottos for 159gpt
-Germans for 94 gpt
-Koreans for 61gpt, 652g, WM
Hittite then sell atomic theory for steel and 65gpt.
Very fruitful bazar.

I notice that Beam actually only trades with Korea and Ottos. He doesn'T have oil and horse (guess he traded a horse source and Greece pillaged the other, as WM indicates); to deny a road to lux and strategic resources, I sign trade embargoes vs China with Germany, Hittite and Beam's enemy, the Greeks:


102.08 KB

Not too bad for an embargo.

Next turn, I will try the next spy planting attempt in Beijing (penalty flag is likely gone then).

[Grille]

227:
The plant attempt failed again.
Babs are down to their cap, Ellipi.
I rushed an army (to be filled with infs), which will slowly give them the rest (hopefully). Slowly, because I have seriously ignored unit construction recently. Still cavs lead universities by... 3:0.
If Beam has a spy, there's of course potential trouble ahead. Maybe he thinks of a bug when looking on F3, since my military must even look MUCH weaker than expected.
OTHO, Hittite and Greeks just signed a MA vs China (Hittite also sign MA with Greece vs Korea). The Hitties are no real threat and their declaration will boost his happiness of course, but Greece and Hittite are not supposed to vote for Beam. That is, as the situation looks like now, a UN vote would not be a total nobrainer for Beam.

Beam captured one Greek city so far. But even if he soonish blitzes them down, it would likely take too long making good use of the newly gained territory. I'm playing for time; once my new core reaches full production capacity, I may make serious plans for an invasion; trouble here is that nukes may be around by that time.

No idea how to win this. Hmm, I actually have a histograph head start...

[Grille]

229:
Excellent, Chinese walls now have ears!

The Chinese army (and Chinese ice-cream) has been infiltrated (and fluoridated) by the international subversive French conspiration.


38.02KB

While Chairman Beam took a seat at his wargame table with the staff, the "UN and Weapon Inspector" took inconspicuously these shots with his spy cam:


111.17KB

108.98KB

]
And I thought the situation was much worse! No marines present. The 2 armies are annoying, though. Of course, I cannot be sure if Beam got them from the actual war (i.e. state of the art armies).

Greece knows combustion, AI monopoly.
I get it for 263gpt.
Korea buys combustion for electronics (wow!), 8gpt, 50g and WM.
Ottos get it for 49gpt, 884g and WM.
Hittites throw in ironclads and 3g.
The Germans have oil(!) and nothing much to spare, get ironclads for a lousy 27gpt and 2g.
With combustion available among the AI, I hope I can trade my extra oil in the near future. (Beam lacks oil and ironclads, btw)

Minimap-time:

20.21KB

Considering Beam's transport capacity:
If at all, I'd be yellow if Beam lands stuff near the crosses, as he could totally block land access to those 2 cities by placing two stacks near them. But that's rather hypothetical I guess.

IBT:[crazyeyes]
Babs & Greeks sign MA vs Germany.
Babs and Greeks sign MA vs Ottos.
This game has become a bloodfest!
(at least on the paper)

230:
Sooner than I exptected, the red spot on the mini map above has been removed. The Babs are history. Beam had a trade embargo with them against me, maybe now he broke a deal.
GA is over. Except for MFG (#2), I'm still doing well; I think the palace rush was worth it, although a leader-made army instead would have crushed the Babs much earlier, possibly followed by an attack on Germany afterwards. Oh well, kinda ironic my Cav army died shortly after rushing the palace.
Btw, I've asked Beam if we would be allowed to twit the AI hard. He didn't answer in time, so I didn't go for a gpt/MA fuck-up just before wiping the Babs out. But since there's tech-parity, that would have only helped for some resource trade-aways (to Korea and Hittite at the most, Greece had still enough gpt anyways).

[Grille]

234:
Greece is still doing fast research. Could be it's because they don't have to give their hard-earned money to the evil Chinese anymore, plus they get lots of gpt from me.
They now know Flight! (Beam has it already, as well as bombers, since he has native oil now)
I buy flight for 288gpt and resell it to Germany for all their spare income, which is 87gpt. The other AI are completly broke.

[Grille]

235:
Beam cut of Greek incense which I got by the combined steel deal in 226 for 297gpt as 7th lux. On the bright side, I spare a lot of money, but many cities slip out of WLTKD in the process, eventually messing up turns-to-completion for their build projects.
Alternatively, I buy silks from Greece for 77gpt.
Beam is still in the industrial age, so I guess he stopped research. Good for me... I think.
Could be he scrapped/delayed possible UN plans or he fears I steal his techs. That is, he called me a stealer, so he's prolly not considering that I got the techs from Greece. With Greece denying envoy, he could not have checked for their techs.

kinda off topic (gfx glitch):
It'S winter time, the hills are covered with, erm, snow:

67.69KB

[Grille]

236:
Blah. Now my rep is gone. Beam just pillaged the roads surrounding the Greek capital.