An Experiment in Terror

[ASGetty ((Zovo))]

Alright, note the year 1410AD:


Here is my Capital the Holy City of Gao, where it all began. Note how much more epic Stonehange appears when it's in the ocean.


Here is the northwestern portion of my territory, my central trade-hub of Tombuktu just edging Gao out in size. That damned city is a mad producing machine.

Also, Great Wall enclosing three cities for the win!


Here is the southeastern edge of my territory, the borderlands. All together, Songhai lies almost entirely within a naturally fortified river-lands area; a great boon when coupled with religious attributes that provide Happiness for cities built alongside rivers. A religion, I might add, that appears to be -really- popular.


This is what happens when Korea gets a little too big for their britches and attacks my sourthen settlements. Busan, Jeongju, and Pyongyang all once belonged to Korea (and briefly Carthage in the case of Pyongyang). The mountain range makes up the major fortified area of my sutheastern frontier, see how it runs south all the way to the ocean and only has one pass which I've fortified with a citadel. I may swing south and snatch Seoul in the future, but for now I'm allowing the Koreans to stew in their own helpless juices.


This, here, is what happens when the Aztecs decide that my army, weary from the Korean campaign, probably couldn't hold off an attack if they launched it while I was concentrated down south. Songhai's unique knights proved incredibly valuable in this instance, not just for their immense mobility, but also for their knack for beseiging cities. While the Aztecs lurched westward against my lightly defended cities, I was able to circle behind them and capture the city of Teotihuacan before they could turn around and do anything about it, effectively cutting their territory in two and capturing the Aztec jungle warriors in a pincer between the new units being churned out by my well-established cities and the veteran army now at their back.

The terrain didn't do me any favors though since I was mostly horse units and their jungle warriors put up a good fight, but ultimately it was futile and I captured Tlatelolco as well. I've considered taking their Capital also, but right now I'm well fortified with the river between they and I, and their last city is serving as a little bit of a buffer between myself and the antagonistic Carthagians.


And finally, future goals. to the southwest lies a huge chunk of uninhabited land completely cut off from the rest of the continent by my borders. Three city-states also share this territory. The goal is to populate this region hoping that in the future (since it's currently pretty devoid of any luxury or resource aside from bananas) I will discover oil, aluminum and uranium there. So, I intend to spread southwest at my leisure while maintaining a defensive force on my primary border, and putting together some manner of navy to defend my Capital and coastal settlements since, really, that's my primary weakness right now. Anyone with a decent Navy could cause me some problems.

[ASGetty ((Zovo))]

Ha!
Turns out, when you've got a butt-ton of cities, you can do all kinds of things at the same time!



I'm having a really good time this time around. I've been largely successful, but none of those successes have come simply; and that makes them better!

I decided early on last night to take Seoul, which has turned out to be a really good decision since the Koreans had beefed it up to produce all kinds of stuff really fast. After I did that the Korean's sued for peace, which I allowed without excessive demands. Right after that, the Hunnic horde's descended on beleaguered remnants of Korea.

My standing policy of "I will not have Hunnic neighbors." forced me to defend Korea on principle so I, with the aid of my new ally the City-State of Yeveran, helped them drive back the Huns. That's when, in pursuing the fleeing Huns northward I discovered the always antagonistic Carthage had snuggled the infantile city of Gades right up along my border and were moving troops to the west.

The time had come to put an end to my constant war with Carthage. The southern approach to the Carthagian cities were a tangled mass of hills and jungle, and while it wouldn't be a nearly disastrous as trying to fight the Aztec Jungle Warriors, it still wouldn't do my horse-based army any favors. The easier route was through the Aztecs to the north.

So, afgter a timely upgrade from trebuchet to cannon, I marched on the Aztec capital, and once takenswung south to Hippo Regius driving a wedge through the Carthagian army isolating Gades and the few units surrounding it. Then I turned my attention east toward Utique while a highly advanced group of Crossbowman and Musketeers dealt with the stragglers around Gades.

The Battle of Utique turned out to be my most heated yet. The Cartagians brought in both land and naval units to fortify and support the city. Their over-reliance on pikemen making life difficult for my cavalry. But between my cannons and the Crossbows I brought forward from the newly conquered Gades I was able to subdue their navy and move units into Utique.

Then they counterattacked with more units from the undiscovered lands further east. I actually lost Utique (and a Great general) again in the exchange and just barely repelled them, driving them once more out of the city and claiming it for myself. For reference purposes, Utique had a population greater than 10 when the fighting began. Ragged and weary my armys halted their advance and rested; myself coming to the realization that I was dangerously close to overextending my reach, a point only emphasized by the group of hunninc settlers that had slipped in behind me from the north and set up camp at Sebeta.

So, I set my fresh off the assembly line naval units to harrass the Hunnic settlement while, once again, my army turned it's attention away from it's stated goal to enforce the "I will not have Hunnic neighbors" policy, leaving a skeleton crew in Utique to hold down the fort, as it were, until Carthage finally offered a peace treaty; which I reluctantly welcomed. The day of reckoning for Carthage, once again, delayed.

And, of course, all of this was going on while behind the scenes I frantically built Circuses and Collesiums and Theaters and Mosques and did everything I could to stem the tide of unhappiness.

[Kaez]

Jul 26, 2012 16:20:32 GMT -5 ASGetty ((Zovo)) said:

My standing policy of "I will not have Hunnic neighbors." forced me to defend Korea on principle

Principles like this are needed to make games really fun. You have to self-impose some kinds of limits or doctrines. Intentionally making harder choices instead of easier ones. That's what really makes the game fun.

[ASGetty ((Zovo))]

Jul 26, 2012 16:39:00 GMT -5 Kaez said:

Jul 26, 2012 16:20:32 GMT -5 ASGetty ((Zovo)) said:

My standing policy of "I will not have Hunnic neighbors." forced me to defend Korea on principle

Principles like this are needed to make games really fun. You have to self-impose some kinds of limits or doctrines. Intentionally making harder choices instead of easier ones. That's what really makes the game fun.

I just really hate the Huns, they seem to be programmed to screw you over, so I just won't tolerate them, in any measure. . . and I'm sure as hell not sharing any borders with them.

I call it a "principle" but it's not really. That makes it sound very RP which isn't the case. I know the Huns are bastards, so keeping them perpetually off balance and away from my cities is a tactical decision. It's not so much a tough decision, it's a necessary one.

Korea will still be there later, and I've no interest in conquering them at the moment.

[ASGetty ((Zovo))]

Finally showed Dido what was up last night.
Next stop Korea!

[ASGetty ((Zovo))]

So, where did we leave off.
Ah yes, I was perched on the doorsteps of Korea and Carthage, while fending off Huns from the north.

For the most part, though expanding quickly, my empire ha been growing by means of retribution. That is, I haven't really launched an attack against anyone who didn't first attack me. All that has changed.

300 Years have passed since the last screenshot and great change has come to the empire of Songhai.


SongHai Heartland

The Songhai heartland continues to grow, found to be rich in coal and aluminum (as speculated) this prevalent resource has helped propel Songhai to the for front of the technological race. Factories if the cities and Hydro electric plants on the many rivers have allowed expansion to continue it's upward trend unimpeded for decades upon decades. In time it became wearisome to continue to humor the various threats from stagnating neighbors.


Formerly Carthage

Carthage was the first to go. Scouts unveiling that my previous campaigns into Carthagian territories had left only a single city still standing (where I expected there to be several) made them both and obvious and easy target. Dido's wealth of pikemen did her little good against muskets and rifles, and her city fell rapidly before my cannon. Being able to purchase Great Generals with faith came in handy when it came time to barricade myself against the marauding Huns up north. Alternating Citadels with mountain ranges created an impassible barrier and allowed me to safely steer my attention to the restless cities of Korea down south.


Formely Korea

Though they were many, the Korean cities never quite recovered from the loss of their capital. They put up a viliant fight, but just couldn't stand against the onslaught of an army a full Era ahead of them. Korea succumbed slowly, but were subdued none-the-less.

Finally, I could turn my attention to my last remaining neighbors on this continent; the Huns. While I had long overshaowed them both technologically and militarily, the pressence of a vast wilderness between my territory and thiers far to the north made it impracticle to deal with them in anything but a defensive manner. To move my forces against the Huns would have left my southern flank wide open to attack with no means of support should I need to return quickly.

Happily, though, while I was fighting Korea in the south, the Hun had taken it upon themselves to found three new settlements just north of my barricade; Gansu, Suessa and Bay of Quinte. Once I was able to turn my attention in their direction I was able to use these small cities as stepping stones, of a sort. None of them were large enough to significantly affect my empires happiness levels when captured, and I was able to utilize the Hun-built roads to travel the wilderness more quickly.


Formely . . . Hunland?

Using my monetary resources to maintain alliances with Venice and Milan I was able to keep the Huns main force north of the city states while I captured their south cities. I then pushed through Venice into the Hunnic heartland. I was quite surprised by just how many cities they actually had up there (8?) and it ended up being a much longer campaign than I had anticipated. Making me that much more thankful that I'd had the forsight to leave them til last, despite the constant provocations.

All through this time period I was getting repeated messages regarding the goings on of the other continent on the map. It seems the Roman Empire is keeping pace with me, capturing capital after capital and always just above or just below me on the various reports that pop up every so often. Several other nations were present over there, suffering Rome's constant attacks, and each of them would be easy prey should I opt to attack.

However, it's pretty clear that Rome needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later. While match me pretty close technologically and surpass me in a couple of areas, if I ignore them to do battle with weaker nations, they will undoutably pull ahead. So, while scouting the Roman borders I stumble upon this little archipelago of the coast of Carthage; a fantastic staging area for a naval campaign.


Staging

So, stage I shall. I'm currently in the process of massing forces here for an assault on the Roman capital. Caesar has been fighting endlessly with the Iriquois to his east and, I expect, has left his capital largely undefended. I'm getting close to another Policy upgrade, which will finish off the Autocracy tree, giving all my units a 25% combat increase for 50 turns. I fully intend to time that to match my landing on the Roman continent.

[Kaez]

God, that's lovely. I'm going to start up a new Civ campaign when I get home today.

[ASGetty ((Zovo))]

To Rome!

[Matteo ((Taed))]

Does that ship in the bottom right still have sails on it? I don't think he's going to do very well against your aircraft carrier.

[ASGetty ((Zovo))]

Jul 31, 2012 13:27:24 GMT -5 Matteo ((Taed)) said:

Does that ship in the bottom right still have sails on it? I don't think he's going to do very well against your aircraft carrier.

Yeah, that's Austria. They're one of the easy targets I'm saving for later. Probably last, since they are rapidly expanding, setting up little settlements all over the map, but they are so far behind they pose little threat to my empire's well being. I just don't want to have to disperse my army all over the map to deal with them when there's still three other nations on the board.

It's gonna go; Rome, Byzantium, Iriquois, Ethiopia, then Austria. Might actually finish off Byzantium before Rome since Rome has already conquered all but thier capital and I've currently got that one city blockaded with battleships and whatnot. Screen shots of all this to come.

[ASGetty ((Zovo))]

Last time on "An Experiment in Terror," our hero had launched a massive attack on the Empire of Rome. Lets see how that's going.


After making the initial landing and establishing a pair of settlements in which to purchase replacement units if necessary and provide some friendly territory for naval healing in the event things go sour, I pushed south into Roman territory.

Meeting little initial resistance I split my naval forces into and east and western divisions, using battleships to soften the defenses of coastal cities and bombers for those more inland. This approached allowed for swift conquest of Antium and Cersie.

As expected Caesar's ongoing war with Hiawatha left his capital almost completely undefended and Rome fell with startling haste.



Continuing my bombardment approach I pushed still deeper into Roman territory, allowing my submarines to scout ahead and deal with any potentially dangerous naval units that might be lurking along the coast. These scout eventually discovered that the foundation of the Roman Empire lay on a vast island, completely cut off from the rest on its cities.



An advantageous revelation to be sure. A more tactically minded individual might ask; Zovo, why not just park a few subs in the channel to keep any reinforcements from crossing over while you conquer Rome's most important cities?



Yeah, I did that. Once the main island of Rome was conquered, my efforts focused on the former city-state of Mombasa. One thing I've always done is heavily value the alliances of city-states. Their gold and resources helped when fighting Korea, their defensive capabilities were invaluable while fighting the Huns, and the expansive borders of Mombasa would serve a similar purpose while I subdued and reinforced my new island stronghold.



Liberated!



Once back in fighting shape I began my conquest of the mainland Roman cities. This was slow going as, while fighting for Mombasa, Rome made peace with Hiawatha and began sending units south in great concentrations. I feared, after the first few cities, that I might have underestimated Rome's military might and launched an attack with too few units--rather the wrong units--to be effective. My newly acquired rocket artillery, while great for breaking down cities, was less effective for repelling attacks by Roman infantry and my forces were being whittled down, slowly but surely.



I needed a distraction. So, with my naval forces located in the sea north of the Roman mainland I sent a landing party to one of Rome's more Northern cities; just a pair of tanks with Battleship and bomber support. The capture was swift, but any efforts to push any further inland at that point were quickly suppressed. I had to be content to hold just the one city until the rest of the army could catch up.



But Rome continued to concentrate their counter attacks south, and my assault was stalling out. Further efforts were required to divide their defense thus weakening them all around. A secondary Naval assault was amassed and launched from Gao.



Hitting Rome on the North Eastern side, utilizing destroyers rather than landing units to capture minor cities and establish beachheads in several places.







Once these locations were captured, bombers and fighters were used to pick off any stray land units headed south and slow the advance of the Roman counter strike. Once again, my main force began gathering steam. . .

So, here we come to the end of my progress thus far. This is the part where I susually go; "Now all I have to do is sit back and build stadiums like crazy because all this conquering has created a lot of unhappy folk.

[ASGetty ((Zovo))]

So, yeah, once sufficient weight was massed against my front lines, once again the juggernaut marched forward.



Maintaining my divide and conquered strategy, I used a combination of bombing runs and a single destroyer to capture Lake Simcoe capturing it and effectively slicing Caesar's remaining territory in half. Whether or not I was capable of holding those cities against whatever he had concealed in the clouds there was irrelevant, the important part was creating yet more distractions, more points of attack, and still more chinks in the armor.





Meanwhile, back down south with my primary force, I stormed into Gowanda and Beijing, capturing them both rapidly. A mis-click actually resulted in me giving Beijing back to the Chinese for the duration of a whole turn. A mistake I rectified the following turn because I'm a mean person. I actually felt bad.



Once finished with Lake Simcoe I brought the navy south to Constantinople. Capturing that city would achieve two major goals for me, the first it would bridge the gap between Ostia and Salamanca solidifying my Eastern beachhead into a legitimate front which could then be fortified and and utilized as more than just a distraction. Second, it would secure for the only luxury resource I'd yet to capture for my empire, Citrus.



While I worked the Eastern Front I began to move my western navy to the north with plans to begin a similar campaign on Rome's more minor northern cities. I was enroute when began to sail through what appeared to be a zerg-rush in the making, courtesy of Austria. I opted to ignore Rome's northern cities for the moment, just in case Austria gets any big plans. While technologically inferior, I, too, left much of the main Roman island lightly defended while I ran my primary army. Should all those pikemen land at once, they could potentially cause problems. Nothing world-shaking, but something I'd rather not be unprepared for.



Seems Caesar's might be coming to his senses. This is the first time he's offered me a Peace Treaty which didn't also include me surrendering every city on the map to him. Too little, too late, homeboy.



When Constantinople fell, thanks to finally securing citrus, every city I own went into "We Love the King Day" and a Golden Age dawned in the same turn. The extra resources provided by the Golden Age would be invaluable when Rome finally mounted another counter attack.



And counter attack they did. Seems just west of Constantinople sat Rome's adopted capital of Adrianople, where Caesar had been stockpiling forces under the fog of war for a while. When Constantinople fell, piles of machine gunners and infantry (both fairly resistant to bombers) piled into the former Byzantium territory intent on kicking me out while the city was still healing itself. If I hadn't had the Golden Age in effect, I don't know that I would have been able to generate enough troops quickly enough from Ostia and Salamanca to hold them off.



But I did; at least long enough to bring my Western landing force (remember them, those two lonely little tanks) into play. Again, thanks to the Golden Age, I was able to quickly fortify that branch of the army, storm two minor cities and, combined with my southern army, converge upon Adrianople with a three sided assault. . .



. . . They were unable to defend. And with that, the last of Rome's major cities has fallen. The rest of their empire are the scattered remnants of other empires, loosely connected and few if any with a population greater than 10.

[WJChesek ((Evern))]

Just looking at the world map at the bottom there...

So much orange.

[ASGetty ((Zovo))]

Aug 1, 2012 16:54:50 GMT -5 WJChesek ((Evern)) said:

Just looking at the world map at the bottom there...

So much orange.

Is that unusual? I got the impression that that's how most of you guys played... World Conquest that is. Is it impressive, this thing that I'm doing?

One of the things I love about this game is the way that it gets simultaneously bigger and smaller. Like, as you progress (especially on a huge map) the world just seems to get bigger and bigger and bigger, but your units can cover more and more distance more quickly, so this world expansion is sort of controlled by your capabilities.

And not just physically, but time spans grow and shrink as well. In the ancient era small things take centuries to achieve, multiple years fly by per turn; but as you progress, turns become shorter and shorter (by the game clock) and huge achievements are completed in comparatively small periods of time thanks to the advance of technology.

It's a -great- simulation of how any society's world-view changes as time progresses and how technology has made this great big huge world seem very small and accessible. There are just so many levels of goodness in this game.

[WJChesek ((Evern))]

Aug 1, 2012 17:02:19 GMT -5 ASGetty ((Zovo)) said:

Aug 1, 2012 16:54:50 GMT -5 WJChesek ((Evern)) said:

Just looking at the world map at the bottom there...

So much orange.

Is that unusual? I got the impression that that's how most of you guys played... World Conquest that is. Is it impressive, this thing that I'm doing?

One of the things I love about this game is the way that it gets simultaneously bigger and smaller. Like, as you progress (especially on a huge map) the world just seems to get bigger and bigger and bigger, but your units can cover more and more distance more quickly, so this world expansion is sort of controlled by your capabilities.

And not just physically, but time spans grow and shrink as well. In the ancient era small things take centuries to achieve, multiple years fly by per turn; but as you progress, turns become shorter and shorter (by the game clock) and huge achievements are completed in comparatively small periods of time thanks to the advance of technology.

It's a -great- simulation of how any society's world-view changes as time progresses and how technology has made this great big huge world seem very small and accessible. There are just so many levels of goodness in this game.

Well, yeah. But I've never really played a game past the industrial era. Any longer past that and my laptop starts to struggle to decide what happens between turns.