Industrial Age

970AD Time for a new 2fer. Techs really fly by now.
Buy Magnetism from Spain for 131gpt
Magnetism + 17 gpt gets me and Hammurabi into the modern age.
Blah, he gets nationalism as his free tech. Window for crushing the English is closing fast.
If I go full tilt, I can get Steam in 10. I am fairly certain AIs will get there before me, so I put a lone scientist on Medicine instead.

990AD No longer in Golden Age, our income drops to 446 gpt. We do have some rather large deals though.

1000AD will be celebrated as the year of the final English war. I fully expect to grab all but one of the English cities within a couple of turns, as they will have pikes and spears against Cavalry.
Leeds is the first city to fall. York is next, followed by Cambridge, Liverpool and Coventry.
More than half of England falls in the first turn.

1010AD Round two sees some english troops appearing out of the woodworks, but no attacks from them. I grab Nottingham,Canterbury and Newcastle, and English are down to a 4CC.
Get my first lost cavalry in the battle for Exeter. Exeter falls though.

1020 Get Reading and Dover, making England an OCC. Will wait for peace. They might be able to survive for some time. Last city is also not defensible, and is begging to get atatcked, perhaps making a blood enemy out of Zulus or Aztecs. This is something I do not want. If I am to get a blood enemy, it had better be Iros. They are by far in possession of the most lands on this continent. Dial up research, hoping I will get a monopoly on Medicine while Ais research Steam.

1040 Rome, Babylon and Spain, the three nations with Nationalism, have decided they should war upon one another. Let them throw good shields after each other.

1060AD Finish Newtons in a second ring city. Ack, disaster has struck. Somehow my rep is toast, and I can no longer use gpt in deals. sigh. Sign peace with England, mainly for Warwearines. NO leader this time either, but I only had some 12 elite victories, so was not really expected.

1070 England and Babylon signs an MPP. Wonder what is in it for Babylon. England is an OCC.

1090 Zulus are in trouble, and I gift them some iron and techs, to help them make a better defense than impis.
No steam from any of the AIs. I am waiting impatiently.
I have 5 more turns before I know if it was a smart 2fer to go for Medicine, or if every single AI went for Communism.

1120 Medicine comes in, and Aztecs complete Magellans. I am counting on getting every wonder from now on. :) Sell Medicine to those with money, and they will have to fund my own research into Steam. Had hoped the AIs would have gotten that tech by now.
Iros now have Nationalism, so I missed my cavalry window for them. I wont gift Germany into Industrial age, as it is only one out of three he will get Steam.

1170 Aztecs and Iros goes to war. Have to watch this closely, as I hope one of them will qualify for Blood enemy. Otherwise I will have to live peacefully.
Steam is known. I can buy it from Spain for 1560 gold, or research it myself in 2-3 turns for 1300-1900. I buy it and start max research to Industrialisation.
Pay Spain 80 gpt for Steam Sell coal to Russia for 9 gpt and 580 gold. Hmm, quite probably Russia that got Steam as her free tech.
Should have saved my money then. As they say, hindsight is always 20/20.
Heh, get another 48 gpt from Spain for an extra coal:)
I will bleed Iros of some cash now, since I will need another 20 turns building Infra now before any possible attack can be made upon them.
Get 80 gold and 33 gpt for a lux, and that is basically all of his gold.
Good luck trying to get steamed now :)
Trade iron for gems from Arabia. He is mauled from all sides, and can need a break.
The Great Roading begins. This is the time where I ALWAYS regret not having more workers. On the other hand, in this game I will not be able to join them to my cities after they have finished their work. This time I may even build a couple of RadioTowers just to get rid of the gpt cost for them.

IBT: ooooo Get ironworks message. Lets hope it is close to one of my palaces.

1180 Gah, Birmingham, a size 2 city stuck in amongst the hills and mountains is my ironworks city. blah.

IBT: Finish a University, and Industrialization goes from 7 to 5 turns.

1230AD Industrialization comes in, and I start on Sanitation. Considered Electricity, but dismissed that possibility due to my belief in that an AI would research that before I could.
Trade Ivory+Industrialization for Nationalism from Babs.
Get 114 gpt and 500 gold from Rome.
Rest are poor, and do not want to pay industrialization for Communism. Hoping I can get Communism from Sanitation instead.
Gift Arabia up to Nationalism. I want them to survive against Rome.

1250AD Babylon declares war on Zulus who are down to a 1CC. We also get our first factories online.
Starting Coalplants in the designated wondercities.
Hmm, Aztecs qualify for Blood enemy by destroying the English. Will wait a couple of turns and see if Iros is likely to qualify to. Would much rather fight Iros, as they have a lot of land. Their lands are much closer to mine as well.

1270 Sanitation comes in, and I do not know if I should go Electricity/Scientific Method, or if I should detour around Corporation.
Will set it on Electricity, as it is more likely the AIs will have chosen Corporation. ( I think. )

1275 Have to build redundant raillines as Aztec and Iro cavalry are clogging the rails. Amusing to see them duke it out in my jungles that is not railed yet.

1280 I have thought about it enough. We cannot live with the knowledge that the Aztecs eliminated OUR enemy. Let it be known henceforth that all things Aztecs are considered evil, and we will use all our might to punish them.
Noticed that a cavalry of mine who attacked an Aztec army managed to rettreat. Perhaps archers and cavalry in the army.

1290 My advance into the Aztec heartlands is struck a mild blow as Iro irregulars are blocking all three railroads to the front. I will have to fortify on the mountains, and hope the counterattack is weak. Still no new techs from the AIs. What are they doing?
Iros ought to have a somewhat good economy, seeing as he has as much lands as I have.

1300 Discover the AIs have researched Electricity :( I will not buy it from them though. I have a one turn research on it myself. Will then research Scientific Method, hoping to score a monopoly on that one.
Bah, Buy it anyway from Iros using Sanitation to get full price out of him.
Get Communism from Spain for Sanitation and Electricity.
Policestations are starting to get needed.

1305 Capture Magellans. Wonder if I can keep it. I am somewhat light on defenders, building mostly cavalry, and taking the losses on the chin.
Zulus are reduced to a OCC, and I have him surrounded, hoping to prevent his death by one of his enemies.
I will have to build some fleets to, once marines are available to the AIs.
With no way to increase size of cities except naturally, this is the years of the great irrigation.
Well, two can play the game of interference. I position my troops so that Iros cannot attack with their main SoD, setting them up to just soften a hard target.
Do have some Warwearines now, so I go a preventive 10% lux tax
Do get a leader after some 20 battles with my elites. Will use him to rush a palace in Cambridge. Ought to be central in my 'acquired' lands.

Cambridge will be my palace as it completes the library.

1315 Hmm, will have to wait one turn with the palace move, as I am using the palace as a prebuild.

1320 Prebuild for ToE perfectly timed. Hoover not as perfect, but not shabby either.

For the second turn in a row Iros block all access to the front. Does not matter much, as defenders are not plentiful any longer. When driving out the final Aztecs on this continent, I hit the jackpot after only some 4 attempts. Another leader is here. This one will be an army.

Only a single AI had any money, and we take Isabellas 232gpt for Scientific Method.
Since Aztecs has their capital on a 1 sector island, I figure it is time to sign peace. Reccon it is at least 20 turns before I have marines. I WILL remember to pick them off at that time though.
Time to go ultra builder in order to get new core productive ASAP. Also have to build up a proper defense, in case Iros decide to get frisky.

IBT: Should have waited with signing peace. Tenochtitlan depose us before we had a chance at starving them. Bah.

1330 Turns are starting to take a real long time, and I will perhaps soon have to resort to automated workers just to keep my sanity. Iros will grab the city that revolted to Aztecs.

1335 AIs are giving me a hard time on The Corporation. I KNOW they will research it in case I start it, but if I do not start it, they will happily ignore it for exciting techs like Espionage or some such. I would be able to USE those stock exchanges. Start a lone scientist as a compromise.

1340 Another continent war erupts on the other continent, and I gift Germany Nationalism to even the playing field. I want them all to survive over there.

1355 We complete the Hoover dam to much rejoicing across the lands.

1360 Spain manages to convince Iros to go to war against the romans. This could be good, as Iros might just drive out the roman settlements along the shores of my continent.

1370 At last, a tech. Russia has Replaceable parts. It is a monopoly, but I will use my Atomic powers to trade with them.
And that ought to teach me to trade before doing all worker actions. Stupid newbie mistake. Lost an entire turn of RP enhanced worker actions.

1380 Universal Suffrage comes along. Iros raze a roman city, and hopefully I will be able to settle once the iro cavalry has moved.

1390 Core around Forbidden palace is fully developed and optimized. Have some cities going at 90 spt. Had hoped for 100+, but perhaps Forbidden Palace site might reach that, since it is a bit behind on growth, having spent a couple of turns building Wonders.
Around new capital in England, jungle is cleared now, and work is proceeding briskly to clear out the humungous jungles in old english core. I am really into not losing workerturns here as I send a lot of trailbreakers into the jungles to build roads. Those trailbreakers then are followed by the woodchoppers after they have built the road.

1395 As I renew lux deals, I will support the smaller nations of Spain and Germany, hopefully helping their research. ( Not the large one of Russia. )
Dyes from Spain for 122 gpt --> Starting to get expensive here....
I am 12 turns into my single scientist on Corporation, and still no sign of it. Weird having tech at almost a standstill with such large nations around. Feels like almost entire game has been this with the many 40 turners I managed to get in at the beginning.

1405 Finally, Spain has researched the Corporation. I will pay Spain some gpt for it
Send Electronics to Isabella for Corporation and some 300 gpt. Dislike hastening tech pace, but think tech pace would be higher if I fed her large amounts of money.
Will wait a couple of turns, and then make the same offer to Russia when she has managed to get her gpt up a bit with the newfangled Stock markets. I put my single scientist on Radio, as that looks like the most expensive tech around. Will have to be careful not to advance to modern before marines can take out the nefarious Aztecs though.
Spend 9,000 gold rushing stockexchenges and factories.
My income now is 1973 gpt. Fun to see what it is after my stock exchanges completes.

1410 Income now to 2140 gpt. So I will regain my 9000 gold in some 60 turns.....
I expect the income will increase rapidly as the non-rushed Stockmarkets complete.
No need to rush in cities producing 70+ shields.

1420 Starting to use governor to manage citizens moods as cities become optimized. This is mainly so that a citizen gets placed when I clear pollution, savin me a couple of seconds every turn. Turns take long enough as it is.
Some sort of deal has run out, as I make less now than I did before.
In an amazing coincidence, Russia has Espionage and Electronics as well. Wonder what exchange rate AIs use amongst themselves for her to have used Espionage to get Electronics from Spain.

1430 Old core is now finished with infra for a looong time, and income from cities is up to 2870 gpt. New core just needs to grow, as all of the jungle is now gone. A couple of turns are left before I can start optimizing those cities for production.

1440 Think it is fruitless trying to get more land from a developed AI with Infantry. Will tech up to Tanks without trading, and go for a tank rush. Other option would be to crank out lots and lots of Artillery for a slow but steady advance with a couple of turns of peace in between to placate peaceniks.
So, I will tech and build infra, and then hit with full production from two cores. ( Incidentally introducing a possible 10-20 % extra penalty on my score. )

1450 Investigate Oka, an Iro city on the border to check if I can outculture it, but no luck. All culture enhancing improvements are built in a size 8 city. On the up side, I can only spot one rubber resource, and it is only defended by 3 riflemen. If most of the cities are defended by only three riflemen, then it might be feasible to wage a short blitz with my leftover cavalry, peace for 20 turns while I research tanks, and then a final mighty push.
I will build up some cavs and artillery during the three turns Radio takes to come in, and then depending on spy results, I will strike at Iros with the goal to take out key resources. ( read rubber. ) With their extremely low income during communism, I doubt they would be able to afford buying on the open market.
I have 9 cities reachable by their cavalry ( If I make initial targets. I have plenty of infantry, so those cities will have 7 infantry in them each and overlapping radio towers. Have no real use for my workers now, they only cost a lot of money. )

1465 Attack starts and I earn another 10% penalty on my score.
Start the softening up with artillery. Primary goal this first turn is to liberate the east, to prevent a two front war.
Secondary goal is the iron rich northern parts if Iros. This will of course leave their entire core untouched, and that may not be wise.
Will see how much the plan survives contact with the enemy.
.
20 Cavalry is enough to reduce Tenochtitlan forces to 3
Cavalry spread out around the captured Tenochtitlan. Losses estimated at 4 cavalry.
1 Army and 3 cavalry is enough to capture Oka, which is target number 3. Will see if primary target is soft enough so that I get forces left over to do something constructive in the beachhead the Oka capture gave us.
Hmm, 20 cavalry and 18 Ramboes are not enough to clear the Iro eastern provinces from cavalry.
Wonder briefly why he stuck some 30ish cavalry on his far eastern armpit, but then again, he has chosen Communist as government, he will do anything.
I send my remaining 12 cavalry and 4 elites to that front to get rid of the cavalry forces.

IBT: That was odd. An iro infantry manages to defeat a fortified rambo on a hill guarding a radiotower. Without taking more than one hit.
It is evened out as my infantry on the mountain defeat the Iro cavalry army taking only one hit.
Second core will stay on infra during this initial attack. This is supposed to be a skirmish mainly, bleeding Iros dry of troops, letting him poprush more in his big cities.

1470 Hmm, Intombe is autorazed. That is good fortune, as it took up two places for cities. I will send my two combat settlers there right away, and then produce reinforcements, should that happen again.
The east is also pacified, and all that remains is to heal troops, and change to the western front where the iros are starting to mass troops.

1475 I have developed a method to the madness of all the units that work for me.
First I collect all the active units somewhere central. Then when I know how many and of which sort, I draw up my plans, and deploy.
The units not on rail is first railed, and then collected. Quite easy to forget anyway, but I have lowered the number of mistakes involved in using my units somewhat.
Feels wrong that human stamina should be a limiting factor though.
I only occasionaly can resist the urge to press next turn enough to allow me to micro a few cities. It is important to micro. Several cities can be pushed from an annoying 75 to a golden 83 spt. Do not really like the dynamics of this though. It creates unneccessary labour.
Realize it is part of the game though, and there may even be people who think this is the fun part of the game. For me it is a means to the end though.

Notice I have one snip of war weariness. Will adjust luxtaxes just in case.
Most of my goals have been met, and the iro cities are starting to be defended by Infantry, so it will soon be time to sue for peace.
Perhaps I can even get a couple of more cities by the peace deals.

1480 Heroic Epic is completed. Hopefully I can get a leader now for Military academy. ( Or is it better to keep that one for prebuild purposes... Hmm, nope, could use armies as prebuilds . )
Sherman appears when we drive out some Iro cavalry who had tried their luck at seaborne invasion. Sherman is used to get an infantry army.
Get Refining from Caesar for 11 gpt and Electronics. For 9000 gold, I can get Steel in four turns. I could also get 25 cavalries. Decisions Decisions.
Russia is in Democracy, and has Steel as only research option. Question is, can I research substantially faster, in order to pauper her. Decide to let her do the tech this time. Have to learn how fast she will research eventually.

IBT: Spain extorts me for 260 gpt for her two luxes. And this is with me supplying her with one lux too.

1485 Capture another two cities. Artillery sure makes its weight felt. It is timeconsuming though, and losses start to rack up war weariness, so I sign peace for another three cities. Time to get production up so that I can roll over him with tanks later.

1490 I assume I will be at peace for the next 20 turns, and my entire core is now developed according to taste, so I put some 50 workers on automatic, just to get the rest of the lands roaded/railed.

1495 Germany cancels our gem deal. Someone must have pillaged his gems, as nothing I can offer will get me the gems. Have to deal Isabelle 160 gpt to keep the dyes.
Expensive to keep the luxuries when you have a large empire. I can only hope turns will get less intense as we get more modern, as this is taking a huge time investment to get underway. I can barely fit in two or three turns every day.

1510 Military Academy comes in and is set to produce armies. Will need some two infantry armies, and two or three tank armies.
Guessed right. Russia and Spain now has Steel. Time to see if it was cheaper letting her research, than researching myself. Yup, she only wants some 5000 gold for it. Will give seller gpt instead, as I want her to research full speed. ( for now. Wonder why I could do this, as my rep was/is shot.)
Buy steel from Isabelle for 240 gpt. Fuel for their research.
They will likely research almost as fast as I can, and for much cheaper.

1520 Ironworks complete in a size 5 hilly city. Too bad we are not allowed to relocate cities. Could have been an awesome city with some more food.

1530 Iroq and Spain sign MPP. This could have some repercussions on my future plans for Iroqs.
It may be time to start building wealth.
We have some 200 infantry and 120 artillery. This is approaching the limits for what is feasible to use as defenders. ( Also, still have 60 cavalry parading about. )
Income from cities is up to 4300. Suspect that is fairly decent with the lack of rivers that this continent has.

1535 Start Pentagon in Cambridge

1540 It has now been six turns Catherine, where is the Combustion I ordered ??

1545 Combustion comes in, and I feed Isabelle 295 gpt for the knowledge of how to build an engine that uses the worthless black stuff bubbling up of the sands in the desert.
Time to crank up my own research now. Need to time techs so I can get a window to take out my bloodenemy Aztecs before I enter the modern age.
I also need to be first in the modern age to ensure I get all the wonders. Do not want the AI to get them.
Start a 50% four turn research on Mass Production. I am keeping a 10-12 thousand reserve of gold for rushing tanks.

1560 We complete the Pentagon, and I can fill up my armies. Mass production is about to be mine, hopefully at monopoly, so I can bleed the AIs for some money.

1565 Mass production comes in, and I go for Motorized transportation.
Hmm, did not get a monopoly, as Russia to has gotten the tech.
I had thought she would go for flight.

1570 Plant a spy in Iro HQ to check their army. They have 31 cavalry and 130 infantry. Their 35 clads will make turns take a clong time, since my fleet consists of two destroyers and a couple of transports. I do have 151 Artillery and 260 infantry together with 60 cavalry. Hopefully I can build ten-fifteen tanks every turn as soon as the tech comes in.

1585 Once again Russia has kept up with my research. Odd. Go medium research on Marines. Need to wipe out the Aztecs.
Will gift Germans up to tanks. They can use a golden age right about now, or they are at severe risk of elimination.
Declare on the Iros. Spain declare on us of course, since I had forgotten about their MPP. Bah.
Will need to raise lux taxes somewhat, since I just lost three luxes.
Bomb Gayagahee from size 23 to size 12 yellowing all defenders. Time to spend some cavs. ( Three move nedeed to attack. )
Ten cavalry is enough to take the city, losing four of them.
New Cattaragus is conquered losing one tank.
Lose six tanks and a cavalry in the battle for Akwesasne. :(
Mauch Chunk is much more reasonable, only making me lose two cavalry.
Tonawanda falls without losses for me. It was of course completely redlined by my artillery beforehand.
Ixtapaluca costs me one cavalry, but down it goes.
In order to prevent nasty surprises, I saturate the front with infantry, in sensitive places two sectors deep. It is of course possible for a human to break out, but I suspect the AI will be unable to do more than scratch the most threatening infantry, and not hurt the advance at all.
The secondary purpose is to keep his forces inside HIS territory, and not gallivanting around in my mountains, razing improvements and causing trouble.

IBT: Lose four cavalry to counterattacks, but not before he loses two infantry and two cavalry attacking them.
They were hiding in the mountains. Infantry tactics seem to work, and his cavalry pillagers are bogged down in mountains/hills on his side of the border.

1590 Leapfrogging is getting harder this turn, as Iros have spread their cities out.
I want to bombard before striking at cities, due to cities being defended by at least three infantries.
After the tragic losses last turn of my tanks, I will try to be a little bit less enthusiastic with using them.
Onnontare falls though.
Owego falls after being bombed down to size 12. Need five tanks to take out the redlined defenders.
Battle of Neodakheat produce Jackson, a leader. He is used to rush an army.
Chiconautia falls.

IBT: Iros lose 4 infantry and two cavalry killing two infantry for me, and get back some three workers I hadn't managed to evacuate.
Get riots in large cities without policestation in spite of me cranking lux up to 20 %.
Akwesasne depose us, costing us another two infantry.

1595 After a hefty bombardment Salamanca falls. Akwenase is recaptured.
Use 8 cavalry and a tank army capturing Oioguoen. Had some luck with retreats, and only lost three cavalry.
This was the last city in the Iro north. Only core Iro is now left.

IBT: Spain makes a heavy statement. One clad bombard my coastline to no effect....
RNG smiles upon the Iros, and they kill off three infantry without getting losses.

1600 Niagara Falls falls after being bombed down from 23 to 12 in size, yellowing and redlining all the defenders.
Lose a couple of cavalry capturing Oil Springs.
Lose three tanks in the battle for Caughnawaga, but prevail.
Lose four cavalry in the battle for the bombed out Grand River.
That was all the cities easily reachable. Spend the rest of my units on SoD-control, trying to take out the pillagers.

IBT: An iro Ironclad sinks our elite destroyer. Several riots as war weariness steps up.

1605 Skannayutenate falls after vanquishing two tanks.
Incredibly enough, Russia still hasn't researched Flight. Instead they chose Marines, the same as me.
Seems like it is almost impossible to get a monopoly. Buy Amphibious for 650 gold. ( Which is more than it would have costed to finish research on my own. I now nix research for a short while, until I vanquish Aztecs.)
Put luxtax on 40% instead of research.
Charge Centralia with 12 tanks without artillerysupport. Get lucky with retreats, and only two dies.
I now control the Iro rubber, so hopefully there will only be four infantry in every city.
Allegheny is also on this turns fall-list.
Kiohero falls in a leapfrog attack, and we have a resort on the western coast of our continent.
Goiguen falls after extensive bombardment.
And thats all the reachable cities.
Time to position troops for next assault.

IBT: Fairly quiet IBT. One Iro infantry is defeated attacking a rambo of mine. Second Iro infantry defeats my rambo. 50% luxes seems to be the medicine against war weariness.

1610 St Regis is first to fall.
Gandastetaigon the Iro capital follows shortly.
Iros are still in Democracy, how about that. Down to 33 infantry now though.

1615 Kahnawake is the first city to withstand a turn of siege. I had three tanks to little in the assault, and it is not reachable by my cavalry.
I am somewhat mollified as Cattaragus falls to my might. Ganogeh falls.

1620 New Niagara is taken over, and Iros have only their northern tip left. Kahnawake is taken, and we get Patton.
I will save hime for the Internet wonder. Wouldn't want Russia to grab that one.
Chondote for some reason is only defended by two infantry, and falls quickly in spite of me not using many artillery on it.
Next turn after I grab Kente, it is time to make peace with the Iros, and give them a small reservation where they can live out their days. After that it is time for the great tech race with the Russians, so that they will not grab any wonders.

IBT: Get our first Iro flip as Gandastetaigon depose us. Was somewhat expected to get a flip, since Iros had some 50% more culture than I had.

1625 Use the opportunity to bomb down some population from the flipped city before retaking it.
Declare war with the Aztecs. Time they pay for what they did to the English. First marine does no damage, and promote the rifleman. The rest of the marines get a chewing out, and they go out and do their jobs.

Bomb Iros, and then sign peace for their remaining cities. I then sign a RoP with him, so I can park a fleet in his territorial waters to prevent any aggressors from going and getting him.
Also sign peace with the Spanish. Get Flight from them for another 290 gpt.
Gift Germany into modern age, looking for a 2fer. Russia and Spain know Ecology. Germany gets Fission.
I will take my chances with a five turn research into Computers. Expensive as hell, but hoping to get a monopoly and end my financial problems.

1635 I am slowly bringing the Iro cities down to size 1, for cultural buildings. Starting to collect peace-forces. Have been playing with the thought that I should place an 'honorguard' around a city of every remaining civ, just to make sure no one takes them out. Figure if I send some workers along as well, helping them road and improve, it would not be a case of resource denial.
My peace forces are my plan to prevent AIs from killing each other off. Since I cannot gift cities, I will send 'neutral observers' over to the other continent, putting up roadblocks so that armed forces cannot navigate. I will also have to send 'volonteers' along with the forces, roading, railing and improving the lands.
Sign RoPs with the other continent. Only AI able to pay for the privilege is Russia. Rest has warred their coffers empty.