3-star scar

[zippyriver]

Which brings up Tetonka. Since he is not allied with anyone no one would get mad if I stomp him out first. Eliminate the Lightning strike from game. I wouldn't want to take out Grasshopper and have Lil' Mizz Anorexia ally with him.
(loving all these nicknames the two are getting. "Signor Ratface" still has me :rofl: )

Just some things to share from the last session.

Caught a revolutionary and a demogag back to back. That was nice. Counter struck with Demogog, Locusts & Bomb Lg Shipyard. Waited 4-5 min and sent in a pickpocket.
******
My hero:
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/9714/myherovo0.th.jpg (http://img297.imageshack.us/my.php?image=myherovo0.jpg)

This guy's job, is to protect the code at all costs. He's a damn good marine. (Windtalkers)

Shouldn't he turn into a general or something? Maybe in the X-pack.

********
This was nice
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/9217/bricksiy8.th.jpg (http://img412.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bricksiy8.jpg)

Going to use it to beef up the settlement (alcohol, etc) so I can upgrade more houses to citizen. I did have to endure a revolution little later on, so it's needed anyway (@49 settler & 52 citizen right now). At war with both right now so not a lot else to do. (hilariously opposite of an agressive strategy) :lol:

I have since walled off that beach.

[Maxie Zeus]

As far as I can see from your communication it is not mine but your strategy that is extremely risky. You spend a lot on military and fleet very early and fall behind economically resulting in a war you can very easily lose. I keep my peace with Nadasky and Emilio for a very long time

1: Fill the entire town radius with citizen houses. At this point, the entire island was nearly full of production buildings.

Very grateful, of course, for your AARs (ah, so that's what the acronym meant!) and advice. Still, let me be clear about my "strategy." (I use scare quotes, since I'm not sure it even merits the term.) Because I don't think it's the strategy that's at fault. It's my tactics that seem to be inadequate.

That's because I've actually been doing what nullspace recommends. I landed, built four lumber, and threw up pioneer houses as fast as I could, filling in as much of the city square radius as I could—subject, of course, to bad landforms, roads, firebreaks, and public buildings. Right after unloading, I put my ship on a trade route between the Indians and the Iroquois, buying bricks and wool for my own account and shuttling tobacco between them. I did well enough that I turned down an alliance offer from the Indians and was able to secure one with the Iroquois. (Then they stabbed me in the back. <nixon>Oh, they'll pay for that. Don't think they won't pay.</nixon>) Then I put up cloth production, using the wool I'd got from Tetonka to jumpstart the weaver huts and did a crash upgrade to settlers.

Getting to Citizen was slower, but I'm having a hard time seeing how I could have upgraded 96 houses to Citizen in less than 2 hours (which is the time it actually took me to get there) on a 10K budget. (With 50K, sure, no problem.) But that's tactics. And that's where I seem to be blind.

How are you getting through step 1, nullspace? How long does it take you? Forgive me if in my frustration I comically exaggerate, but you give the impression of building 150 houses, upgrading them to citizen, laying out all support structure, rolling out a 20-ship navy, and bottling up the AIs—all within 7 minutes of starting the game. Even if it's more like 90 minutes ... how are you doing it? My best time was 122 minutes, and that was while driving my cash reserves down to near zero several times.

Anyway, I was doing this with an eye toward building a navy with which I could dominate and defeat the AIs, but my first priority was to get the economic base that could support such a navy. In the early stages—contra the impression I seem to have given Eagleclaw—I've actually been quite pacific: I've stayed on my island, only built 8 troops for defensive purposes, and built no warships. But if I was unable to get to nullspace's step 2, it's because the AI's jumped me before I could get there.

That is an aggressive strategy, but aggression has the advantage in this game. If you really want to play a defensive strategy, I think diplomacy and deterrence is the only hope. A fighting defense really doesn't work well. Turtling on one island may keep you alive, but you'll never be able to get to aristocrat level and win the game.

So it's true that I have had to turn defensive. In fact, given zippyriver's warnings about the AIs, I've been playing with an eye toward falling back on the defensive, and I went out of my way—with wall-building—to have a defensive line I could fall back on. But the ultimate goal remains the same: to get the demographic and financial strength that will let me re-emerge and send Los Dos Diablos back to the hell they originally clawed their way out of. To anticipate my AAR, I am actually modestly optimistic that I can pull that of.

Now, all that being said: I am eagerly looking forward to doing a replay of just this island and trying to push the early growth even harder. But hopefully also smarter.

(By the same token, though: I'd love to pass my 2 hour 2 minute save on to Eagleclaw or nullspace and see what they could do with the dog's breakfast I'd made for myself by that point. :lol: )

Anyway, on to the latest AAR, which covers hours three through six (the 2:00 to 5:45 game hour marks):

I'll start with two observations on battle tactics:

First, the corner patrol strategy has worked better than I'd ever dared dream.

After reloading the last save, I requested aid from the Queen. She sent two small warships, which I put on patrol after offloading their armies on an enemy colony. One ship had the bad luck to run into Ramirez and was damaged, so that it was caught and sunk after an hour (an hour!), but the other survived for two hours before being sunk. That's two hours of sailing along the map edge, often with two but sometimes with eight enemy warships tagging along behind. True, the second relief fleet had worse luck, and both ships were sunk even before they reached their first corners. And a warship from the third relief fleet was similarly unlucky. But because of this strategy, I've actually been able to keep a Warehouse up and running for most of the game, even in the depths of a two-enemy war. That has let me lay in nearly 300 brick and sell lots of my surpluses.

Even better: Right now I have an undamaged Explorer patrolling the corners with the entirety of both enemy fleets—roughly twenty ships—trailing sedately behind. The line stretches across half the map. :rofl:

More about this Explorer later in the AAR.

Second: I was sufficiently intrigued by zippyriver's description of his cannon tower blocks to try something similar. Behind my warehouse (which was cut off from everything else by a wall, I erected six cannon towers. They were bloodied early on and managed to drive off one fleet, even sinking at least one small warship. But later in the game eight small warships pulled up next to them and just beat the snot out of them. No ships sunk, though three had to pull out after severe damage. I lost replaced three towers but ran out of coin, and lost my entire line of towers. If the damaged ships were repaired, it was all a straight loss for me. In this game, at least, I think I'd rather save my cannon and coin for a fleet.

The rest of the play has been, as I expected, X steps forward and (X-1) back. Hours three and four (2:00 through 4:00) were rather hairy, what with the constant lightning storms. My wood, tool, brick and coin production/acquisition were out of synch early on, so I was never able to fully repair the damage before the next storm struck. But I was able to patiently accumulate large surpluses in all categories over the long haul. I also patiently have been investing my coin in fire-fighting improvements, so that by now I've got three firehouses (though at least one always gets struck by lightning) and cobblestone roads. As a result, lightning storms are now more of a nuisance than a calamity. In the first attacks I would lose 25 to 35 houses plus chain damage; in the latest I lost only 5. And my supplies are such that damage is easily and quickly repaired. Still, I'd be in much better shape if Tetonka weren't allied with Madame Fang.

(Confession: I have allowed myself a couple of game reloads after making some bonehead moves. Anti-tip to fellow idiots everywhere: Never exhaust your tool supplies after your Warehouse has been destroyed and your Ore Mine exhausted and before you've upgraded it to Deep Ore Mine. If you do, you either have to load a save or resign the game. There's just no other option.)

There've been a few other crises. A well-poisoner managed to start a virulent plague—fortunately, just after the Free Trader had been by and not before. BTW, I don't understand how Dr. Waddlebottom chooses to make his rounds. When he leaves one house, I've noticed, he won't go next door to the another stricken house but will instead pedal halfway across town to a different house. I'm convinced every plague would last only half as long if he managed his time better than he manages his bicycle. But the fire brigades, I've also noticed, seem to do the same.

I have also had two instigated Riots. Fortunately, they were late occurrences and the damage was easily contained by the fire brigades. On the upside, I seized both opportunities to max out the taxes while the riot was in progress. Hey, they're already po'd, so I thought I'd really give 'em something to complain about.

Demagogues have been active, but my surpluses are such that rats are doing me more damage. Basically, my workers go on strike and I just tell them just to treat it as paid vacation.

From the Department of It Couldn't Happen to a Nicer Guy: Vermincelli got hit twice by hurricanes and was badly mauled each time, even losing two army units. Fly, my monkeys! Fly! ... Wait, not like that!

Progress of the war:

It's not all been static. At 2:55, Castelli made peace with me. At the 4-hour mark, he and Cruella even had a three-minute war with each other. At 4:15 Madame made peace with me after a successful ingratiation. During that time I even built a small shipyard and launched a small trading vessel and resumed my Indian-Iroquois trade. I didn't have enough coin to build the fleet I needed, though, and I lost the shipyard forty minutes later, when the Ice Queen attacked me again and the Tetonka storm took it out. At 5:28 Castelli also attacked me. So, we're back to the usual situation. In only one respect has it evolved. Widow's Pique has evolved to the aristocrat level and she's fought the Queen twice. Remnants of the Queen's second fleet have eluded her (though she has at least 3 large warships) and are still at large in the archipelago.

But at the 5:45 mark, I'm in far better shape than I was four hours ago. I have 51K in coin, 260 cannon, and mammoth wood and cloth production. I'm running a 900 coin surplus. Lightning attacks are now, as I've noted, a nuisance and not a threat. I have the population (and the money) to build and support a 20-ship navy. And I have that Exploration ship leading my enemies' disorganized war fleets to the opposite side of the map. Many of Madame's have also been damaged in battle. In short, it's just about time for me to start repaying the Queen for her support, and help her crush a poisonous rebel.

The plan: When the enemy's fleets are on the other side of the map, I'll drop in five small shipyards and crash build 19 ships. If the enemy is on their way back to me en masse after those ships are all built, I'll head over to Castelli's and see if I can't force a peace offer from him by bombing his stuff. If the enemy is still circling the archipelago—which I wouldn't put past them; they are often very stupid—I'll see if I can't pick them off piecemeal by intercepting the trailing ships with my numerically superior force.

Unless, of course, they manage to get back and Copenhagen my fleet before it's fully built.

Either way ... Oh, this is gonna get fun here in a bit. :lol:

[zippyriver]

Anti-tip to fellow idiots everywhere: Never exhaust your tool supplies after your Warehouse has been destroyed and your Ore Mine exhausted and before you've upgraded it to Deep Ore Mine. If you do, you either have to load a save or resign the game. There's just no other option.)

You do have one saftey net against this. The AI seems to ignore piers. Early on I tried to keep one up at all times. Then when the Queen gives you a colonize package, you might make it to the dock.

Nice AAR!

*******
Got my houses up to 100 citizen, and 1 settler. Plagues have been a pain, so my population have been on a yo-yo for a while. I set-up my Wh in the south cove, and have a decent enough block of towers. I made peace with Nadasky, and Emilio seemed to be ignoring the Sw (left over from the queen) I had, so I went kind of slow to see if I could draw him into the range of my towers. I only built one shipyard, as was uncertain if the towers would work. Test the waters so to speak. I managed to build 5 Sw and started to raise an eyebrow at nearby islands. Juan Valdez was still ignoring my increasing fleet. Thinking I might be able to snatch Emilio's cocoa/alcohol island. I went ahead and built a Sm trade ship for the troops, but left it unloaded for the time being.

Meanwhile, when I have got assistance from the Kween, I have been dropping off the troops on the Asian's island. I have a unique assotrment of 8 there at the moment. Another delivery or two and I'll squash that chump.

So things were starting to look up, when the widow declared again (sooner than expected, as the peace treaty had only been in effect a short time). And Emilio decided it was time to go after my fleet. Oh well, here we go. I managed to sink a couple of each of their ships (both fleets showed up about the same time) before losing my ships. I sent about 75% of Nadine's fleet fleeing, and Emilio was routed about 3/4 the way through. Sadly, total AI ships sunk was pathetically low for the damage inflicted. Nadine broke off her attack and ran with the rest of her ships, as the towers were overpowering her remaining ships. Even though I lost the ships, I kept the warehouse and shipyard.

That's what I get for jumping the gun, and starting the fleet too soon.

[Maxie Zeus]

So things were starting to look up, when the widow declared again (sooner than expected, as the peace treaty had only been in effect a short time). And Emilio decided it was time to go after my fleet. Oh well, here we go. I managed to sink a couple of each of their ships (both fleets showed up about the same time) before losing my ships. I sent about 75% of Nadine's fleet fleeing, and Emilio was routed about 3/4 the way through. Sadly, total AI ships sunk was pathetically low for the damage inflicted. Nadine broke off her attack and ran with the rest of her ships, as the towers were overpowering her remaining ships. Even though I lost the ships, I kept the warehouse and shipyard.

That's what I get for jumping the gun, and starting the fleet too soon.

Oh, that's a heartbreaker, and it's the kind of nightmare that haunts me every time I get close to building ships when the hard AIs are in the game. Got me thinking about what I'll do if they come after me in this game before my fleet is ready. Probably take a tip from Holy Grail and ... Run away! :biggrin:

[Eagleclaw]

(By the same token, though: I'd love to pass my 2 hour 2 minute save on to Eagleclaw or nullspace and see what they could do with the dog's breakfast I'd made for myself by that point. :lol: )

That is possible. The saved games are in the C:\Program Files/Anno 1701/Savegame files. Can I have the 5 seconds save instead please?

Getting to Citizen was slower, but I'm having a hard time seeing how I could have upgraded 96 houses to Citizen in less than 2 hours (which is the time it actually took me to get there) on a 10K budget. (With 50K, sure, no problem.) But that's tactics. And that's where I seem to be blind.

How are you getting through step 1, nullspace? How long does it take you? Forgive me if in my frustration I comically exaggerate, but you
give the impression of building 150 houses, upgrading them to citizen, laying out all support structure, rolling out a 20-ship navy, and bottling up the AIs—all within 7 minutes of starting the game. Even if it's more like 90 minutes ... how are you doing it? My best time was 122 minutes, and that was while driving my cash reserves down to near zero several times.

Playing with patch 1.02 I have a 15K budget and not a 10K budget. Are you still playing 1.01? You drove your cash reserves down to near zero?

Dont you trust your queen? You must get as much as you can from your queen. You control your cash flow and then you bring your cash down to a few hundred. Ask the queen for support. You get it and spend it carefully and now you must get a negative amount of cash. Now she helps you again. After each upgrade of the houses, you do the same again and again. Be careful in multiplayer games - she is not quite as nice there!

Maxie did you really build 150 citizen houses and 20 war ships in 122 minutes? On this map? If you did, you had a sure win and I think anyone would like to take over that saved game.

My timing for this map is somthing like is:

1:25 Main island: 49 citizen houses, 16 settler houses, 9 pioneer houses, 1 ore mine, 1 ore melter, 2 tool smiths, my clay pit is exhausted, 1 fishing hut, 4 cattle farms, 2 butchers, 4 tobacco plantations, 2 tobacco processing, 6 sugarcane plantations, 3 distilleries, 4 grain farms, 2 mills, 1 bakery, 4 sheep farms, 2 weaving huts.
Northern island: 2 whalers, 4 whale oil manufacturers

1:42 Main island: 45 merchant houses, 17 citizen houses, 12 settler houses. In addition to the 1:25 building I added 2 theaters and a warehouse on a western island planned for cocoa production. I still only have one ship.

1:50 I built a garrison

2:00 I built a small wharf

2:32 I had 8 small warships and a good economy, peace with everyone and a trade agreement with Emilio.

3:10 Main island: 67 merchant houses, 7 citizen houses. I have build additional 4 grain farms, 2 mills, 1 bakery and a university on the main island, 2 brickworks, 2 honey manufacturers, 4 cocoa farms and 2 chocolate manufacturers on two smaller islands. I like chocolate. I have
also build a small trading ship. In cash I have 1.316. Yes 1.316. What more do I need?

I do not build many more houses on an island of this size. If you like big cities you can always build them on the islands you take from Emilio or Nadasky. This is not a standard plan but I find it natural if you have decided to stay on that funny little island. It is so small that I have to buy tobacco and alcohol all the time.


I have not had a problem with tools this game, and maybe that is the problem.

My smelter currently supports all 3 (1 tool, 1 cannon, 1 weapon). When I don't need the weapons and cannons, I shut those two down and continue with tools as needed, and with only running one building that requires "raw iron", allows raw iron to stockpile for the times I have to run all 3 at the same time. I also like to have a warehouse stock of iron ore, so I can still run the smelter if needed with the mine
shut down during times of cash stress (post plague, riot, goods expansion etc.)

Yes, zippyrive, I think that is the problem. From one ore you make tools canons and stockpile raw iron for later use. I think we need the full supply of the canon factory through the entire game in order to build war ships and canon towers. We need at least the tools from two toolsmiths. I even buy additional tools in order to develop colonies. I need 2 - 4 brick works and buy additional bricks. With a little more than one toolsmith your development is very slow and you will find yourself in a war in notime because you lag behind. You are at war with Emilio AND Nadasky while you are at settler level on a small island. That is not my idea of fun. You must be tough!

No I do not have 100 % success with ingratiation (what a word, why dont we just call it bribe?). I just pay and give some gifts and sometimes I get attacked anyway but any delay is welcome.

http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/2219/anno1701medals02xb1.jpg

[zippyriver]

After sticking my toe in the water and stubbing it on an iceberg (literally and figuratively). I gave some thought to the details. There is no way at this point to produce a fleet large enough to take out both of theirs at the same time. And it's been more two front than tag team for the most part. Emilio and Nadasky need to just screw and get it over with. If they allied with each other, it might weaken them both.

Both have touched aristocrat, and about half of their fleets are large warships. Lodge missions are a joke. I wish I had their success rate.

So in a nutshell, I got em' right where I want em' .:rumble: :rumble:

After the third time denying me, I figured something in the game was stopping the OK for reinforcements. I was not at max troops, so that wasn't it. Oh well. Letz go nutz.

I positioned my rag tag fugitive division of 3 mortars alongside the river's edge of the Aztec temple and placed the 3 grenadiers between the two in echelon formation. The lone pike "inspected" the opposite front corner and the 2 lancers dismounted mid building near the pike (4 attack points). I hot keyed two groups, with only lancers in one. Ended my trade agreement with them in a most abrupt and rude fashion. I keyed the main group first and targeted the temple, followed by the lancers. I basically ignored the native warriors, so the battle, although very intense, was short lived. He had all of his units left, and a temple ablaze (although not ruined). I watched with intent as the temple HP slowly decreased in spite of any bucket tossing. About 30 seconds after the battle ended, the building collapsed. Ciao baby. Too bad for Inspector Clueso. No more fartinization for you. (I still need to go deal with Tetonka before someone switches to him.) Nadainsky nabbed the now empty Aztec island like it was full of beefcake or something. Enjoy it.

I made some decent sales to the FT after that and had a fair chunk of change to work with. I had also received an explorer from the Queen. I tossed the wood overboard and made a B-line to the Indians. I got there just ahead of the fleet, sold the tools and sent it long way around the island before setting the patrol orders (to maintain the line).

Immediately, I built 7 SW (started with the queen's gift) and 2 Sm traders. I had to top off the load with a couple of units, so got those out as well. I loaded 8 Grenadiers on one, 8 pikes on the other and sent the whole lot out of the cove. About this time, the explorer got sunk. I requested reinforcements and got them this time, so the horskie and 2 morts from that joined the blitz (although arrived slightly late).

I hate it when I get focused on a particular task to the point other things get blocked out, but it happens. And during those rich times I sometimes make uber-blunders. So don't ask "why that one?" oh tay? :rofl:

The target. None other than the cocoa/cane/gold/gems to the west (no clay pit. :bash: ). Both AI have warehouses on it, but it has not been developed much. I previously had dropped off a troop or two and rampaged them until they got destroyed, so that probably had something to do with it (altho was quite a while ago). My stack of grenadiers got stuck on a map glitch and couldn't move, but I had not caught that before sending my two troop ships back to port. The war ships were kinda busy. Thanks to the late arrival I was able to capture the landing site Wh from Emilio, drop down a quick road, and get those troops unstuck. Unfortunately, they had in tow nadine's fleet, so I couldn't reload the stuck troops and move them over a little bit. I left the two gift ships to way-lay the enemies and boogied the 3 remaining Sw toward the main island (1 made it, as did one trade ship). And I could now re-turn my attention to the scattered malarkey going on on the island.

Maintaining a Wh at this point would be futile, so I spent my two most damaged units to grab a market that was close to the now destroyed Wh (first unit spent in paragraph above). This established a toe hold, as the market also covered a good section of the beach. I have more units on the land than I can get in a group, so I decided to split them up. Selecting some of the grenadiers, I sent them to the beach-less corner taking out markets as they went. The pikes, remaining grenadiers and 2 mortars headed over to Nadasky's section to deal with the watchtowers, markets and Wh there (the larger beach). The corner grenadiers had an easy job, spent one on a market, and converged them with the rest of the army. Market destruction took a while, as both Emilio and Nadasky were landing invasion armies and would not hesitate to spend a fresh pike on a destroyed market.:lol:

The battle continued to rage for a while, and although I was taking some losses I was holding the ground (with a couple of minor retreats). Meanwhile, I set the last warship to escort the last cargo ship, and loaded it up with tools, bricks and returned it to make a drop off. I would get wood from lumberjack huts. I estimated the timing in such a way as to arrive as I was capturing Nadine's Wh. This worked, surprisingly. I not only made the drop but made it back to the main island. I was able to partially wall off the original beachhead, but needed coin to go further. Having spent my wad, I dropped taxes enough to take the red river plunge, which triggered a coin gift from the queen (then I re-set taxes, of course), and planned another big brick/tool delivery.

I managed to get full market coverage of the target island, and partially wall off the other beach where nadine had been dropping off units. The second delivery reached the new Wh (just as I built it) and made the crucial drop, just as the dual fleets converged. The other funny thing was Nadine also dropped off some troops right then too.. in the water. Because her pre-selected spot was now walled. I hurried the cargo ship around the corner to grab up the castaways and left the Sw fully engaged with a Lw+++. I picked up the units and made it back to the beach to add them to what I had there already, in the nick of time. Back to being ship less again. But Emilio took about a 40% loss of ships and Nadine lost a couple (counting from the start of the blitz), so I am not complaining about it. With the delivery, and the Tory glory I finished the Sm beach wall, and almost finished the other one. I have the bricks on the island to finish it off, just need some more coin. And with the FT being able to visit my main island, I am hoping to get what I need sooner rather than later.

Nadine decided to offer peace, so I took that. And considering how Emilio got a little spanked, I figured he would cool down for a little bit.

Effects of the thrust: Scratch one native culture. And a relatively useless island at this point in the game, ripped from the hands of both Burger King and Dairy Queen. With it walled off, I can develop it at my leisure. And it's close enough I can make a delivery here and there if need be (maybe buy honey and get my chocolates on-line). The left overs were (besides markets) 3 cocoa plantations and a gold mine. I'll keep the gold mine for a bit, and see how well It works out for retail. Will at least fill the Wh, even if I don't keep it. 100 coin sleeping is steep.

I figured it was a good time to save. And glad I did, as the BS hit right after that. A plague, followed by two poisonings, and another black death. I still had over half my houses infected and had already lost close to half my citizens (about 800 people dead so far). Running hard red because of the tax loss, and Emilio trying to work on some of my main CTs, things were starting to get frustrating (4 plagues? gmafb!).

I successfully ingratiated Emilio, and shortly afterward he offered peace. At 12:42:30, I was not at war with someone, since about 30-45 mins into the game. I am gushing cash, but figured that will pass now that I can take a breath. WRONG! at 12:43:16 Nadine declared again and brought her fleet of large to bear on my remaining cannon towers, and with the current coin problems I can't replace anything yet. They might survive, but not sure. And then I got hit with a revolutionary.

If not for the compacted plague events, I might have continued, as I would have had the coin to endure. But it ticked me off pretty good and I almost aimed the CD at the drywall. So needless to say, I will have to reload. And I think it is during the first plague hit, but don't care. If I quit the game now, I would have to say I lost to the disasters (although it would still be salvageable, it's just too many steps back for my liking).

A note on the cannon towers. During the plagues, they did manage to repel two Emilio attacks, and sunk 3-4 large warships and about the same number of smalls doing so. In absence of 4 plagues, replacement towers are doable. So that part is working, except for when you get a bad series of RNG rolls. (random number generator)

[Maxie Zeus]

That is possible. The saved games are in the C:\Program Files/Anno 1701/Savegame files. Can I have the 5 seconds save instead please?

Which one is the 5 seconds save?

Playing with patch 1.02 I have a 15K budget and not a 10K budget. Are you still playing 1.01? You drove your cash reserves down to near zero?

Dont you trust your queen? You must get as much as you can from your queen. You control your cash flow and then you bring your cash down to a few hundred. Ask the queen for support. You get it and spend it carefully and now you must get a negative amount of cash. Now she helps you again. After each upgrade of the houses, you do the same again and again.

I've never gotten a dime out of the queen, even when down near 100 coin, so I've never gotten in the habit of asking. In fact, I've never gone into the red, as I've never known what would happen.

So, I've been financially hobbled by that early on? Huh.

Also, I'm playing 1.01 patch, so yeah, I'm starting with 10K.

Maxie did you really build 150 citizen houses and 20 war ships in 122 minutes? On this map? If you did, you had a sure win and I think anyone would like to take over that saved game.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

No, that was my parody of nullspace's described game. If I had that, I'd have won so quick. No doubt of that! :lol:

No, I had about 96 houses (80+ citizen), walled-off beaches, full support structure, 8 land units, but no ships. Also, almost no coin to speak of. I've decided the walls, which are expensive, are a big part of the problem. By preparing a defensive line like that, I'm falling between two stools--insufficiently offensive while setting myself up for a defensive war of attrition that's hard to come back from.

Anyway, thanks for the description of your opening moves! Later this week I'll relaunch it from the start and see if I can move faster and smarter at the start.

I'll post my tale later. In fact, I've got three of 'em.

[Eagleclaw]

Which one is the 5 seconds save?
Sorry that was an attempt to make a joke. :rofl: Your description of the situation in your saved gave was so grave that I would prefer the starting position - the 5 seconds save. I need to rehearse my jokes. :bash:

No, I had about 96 houses (80+ citizen), walled-off beaches, full support structure, 8 land units, but no ships. Also, almost no coin to speak of. I've decided the walls, which are expensive, are a big part of the problem. By preparing a defensive line like that, I'm falling between two stools--insufficiently offensive while setting myself up for a defensive war of attrition that's hard to come back from.


On maps with big islands I dont use walls untill I get to the Aristocrat stage and I start the wars against Nadasky or Emilio. I find it easier to keep the peace. I have tried to block the beaches early on maps with small or medium sized islands where it is more difficult to keep up with the computer players. When i block the beaches I use a single line of houses with a road behind to the firemen and more houses behind. I try to get all the houses as close to the water as possible and fill out small irregularities with small pieces of wall. Remember spaces for watch towers or canon towers later.

Basically in these cases I build the city on the beaches and keep the production inside. The only problem is that the town centers take up some space.

[Maxie Zeus]

Gather 'round, boys and girls, cuz today Uncle Maxie's Afternoon Theater brings you a triple feature, chock full of pirates, red men, red coats, and more!

First up, it's For England's Britches! (Warner Bros., 1938)

When last we left our intrepid idiot adventurer (who in this story is sometimes played by Errol Flynn (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029843/) and sometimes played by Cary Elwes (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107977/)), he had sent his lone exploration ship on a merry tour of the archipelago, drawing the enemies' vast armadas behind, while he plotted to strike them from the rear with a quickly improvised armada. "God's wounds," his skeptical lieutenant (Walter Brennan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Brennan)) muttered behind his toothless gums. "Doth the old man have a prithy clue what he's gettin' hisself into?" "Ha ha ha!" our adventurer replied, as the vacant light of madness danced in his eye.

He dropped four shipyards on his southern peninsula and crash-ordered 8 ships. His storage sheds were bulging with wood and cloth and cannon, but he knew he wouldn't have enough of the first two materials for the twenty-ship navy he planned to build, so he put a passive trade order in with the Free Trader (Claude Rains (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Rains)) for more. When he had the first 8 ships he ordered four more, while ordering his just-completed fleet to rendezvous just south of the rocky spit of land known as Dead Man's Dagger. As they waited, two small trade vessels belonging to Emilio Castelli (Peter Lorre (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000048/)) passed right through the budding armada and were sunk. "Ha ha ha!" our hero said again.

The other four ships were quickly launched, but the Free Trader had not shown up yet, so our adventurer put a hold on his building plans and considered his next course. His exploration ship was drawing fire and seemed not long for this world, so he ordered his first 8 ships north for a raid on Castelli's large shipyard.

As they went north, though dark clouds began to gather, and the voice of the savage Iroquois chief Tetonka (Cedric Hardwicke (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedric_Hardwicke)) thundered from the sky. That was the first inkling our protagonist had things weren't going to go as smoothly as he had hoped.

But leaving his colonists to fend for themselves, he sailed with his ships to the north, where they reduced Castelli's shipyard to rubble and then turned south again. The enemies' fleets were in the area, and he decided it was better to raid south of the equator while still gathering his strength. As he passed his island he was horrified to see 20 houses aflame; as he watched, stricken, almost all of them collapsed. It was the worst attack he'd suffered from the Iroquois in many a moon. He resolved to have it out with his fire chief (Ed Wynn (http://homedir-b.libsyn.com/podcasts/cf6431fdbe673231d1961117925ea469/4629ae5c/journeys/images/Ed_Wynn.jpg)) upon his return.

The populace weren't having any of it either, and lent a receptive ear to a Revolutionary (Leonid Kinsky (http://www.filmreference.com/Films-Dr-Ex/Duck-Soup.html)). Our hero reflected that it would be very hard to manage both a war and an economy riven by disasters at the same time.

Be that as it may, he got his 8-ship armada to the south, where it destroyed a couple of colonial warehouses before receiving word that his exploration ship had been sunk and the enemy fleets were on their way to Dead Man's Dagger. Sensing a great opportunity, he ordered his four-ship reserve fleet to leave the peninsula, from which they were trailed by six enemy vessels, and rendezvous with his main fleet in western waters. The plan was to lure the enemy's detachment into an ambush against his combined 12-ship unit.

The ambush went swimmingly—until enemy reinforcements that had been held in western waters showed up. There was no point in fleeing—too many of his ships were damaged—so the hero threw them into a gigantic fray. He lost them all, but consoled himself with the thought that he had probably forced an exchange on the enemy, and that would be expensive for them.

Returning to his island, he replaced the burned-out houses with pioneer huts and was delighted to find that the Free Trader had been by in his absence. He was giving thought to rebuilding his fleet when enemy ships appeared off Dead Man's Dagger and began attacking the shipyard and wall there. It was a huge force—more than he'd stomached on being in one place—of three large warships and at least eight small warships. He saw no point in letting them batter the seawall with impunity, so he threw his new wood plus his tool and brick and cannon reserves into cannon towers.

'Twas a glorious battle of shot and smoke and the agonized screams of men falling into the water. The enemy fleet ignored the cannon towers and their own losses while pounding away at the walls. The brick crumbled in a dozen spots, in twenty spots, but the shore batteries belched flame at the castles of canvas and wood until—an amazing sight, really—the last of them slipped beneath the foam.

"Ha ha ha!" said our hero, for he imagined that he had dealt his enemies a mortal blow: at least ten ships in the earlier melee, a near dozen here: surely most of his enemies' fleets rested now at the bottom of the unforgiving sea. True, he had no ships of his own, and his town was still in ruins, but surely he had bought himself a breathing space.

Then his lieutenant came with news that at least ten large warships had parked themselves off his northwest coast and were laying waste to his Warehouse. And the skies began to darken again.

Seeing no way out, our shot himself.

[a word from our sponsor; reload last save]

*****

Next up: The Big Duck (Warner Bros., 1942)

When last we left our cynical hero (Humphrey Bogart (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000007/)) he was gazing out bitterly at the sea and wondering how a two-bit saloon keeper like himself could keep at bay the dark forces of Emilio Castelli (Conrad Veidt (http://www.conradveidt.de/)) and Madame Nadasky (Gale Sondergaard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gale_Sondergaard)). Even if he built a fleet—and he had the men, the money, and the material—how could it survive against their overpowering forces, especially as they had enlisted the aid of the warlock Tetonka (Orson Welles (http://www.doctormacro.com/Images/Welles,%20Orson/Annex/Annex%20-%20Welles,%20Orson%20(Mr.%20Arkadin)_01.jpg)) against him. "My friend," his trusted lieutenant (Paul Henreid (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002134/)) whispered sympathetically. "When the sky is darkest, then can we see the stars!" "Shut up, you Viennese sausage," our hero snarled back.

Still, there was something in what the man said. They'd pushed him around, and they'd push him around some more, and there was no point in sticking his neck out so they could take his head off. But he was strongest on his own ground. Maybe if he invited them onto his playground, he could get some of his own back.

Quickly he set about building a small shipyard on his north shore as bait and ringed it with a dozen cannon towers to defend it. He had been stockpiling material for a fleet; now he'd use it as the teeth for a land-based trap, and as reserves against the warrior's curses. It wasn't long for the curses to materialize, but he handled the aftermath quickly and efficiently.

It wasn't long before the enemy's ships laid up beside his wharf and began to attack. But they didn't exhaust themselves against the sea walls, as he'd hoped. No, they struck the cannon towers, and he found himself replacing them again and again. And all the while, the enemy simply cycled the damaged warships out while bringing new ones in. Coin was running short before the enemy, providentially, gave up and sailed away. Then came a summons from Nadasky, offering peace on generous terms. Our hero bitterly agreed.

Though he knew better than to trust the silken blandishments she offered, he was not prepared for the incompetence of his bricklayers (The Three Stooges (http://www.threestooges.com/)), who had left a crack on one of his beaches for the enemy to exploit. Madame Nadasky did so now, and landed troops on the beach. And then landed more troops. And then landed more troops. "Screw this for collaborationist BS," said our hero, who saw the double-cross coming twenty minutes away, and declared war on her. His cannon towers decimated her forces. And then more large warships than he had ever seen suddenly appeared and in a few seconds destroyed two of those towers. Telling his lieutenant to slip away with his sweetheart (Ingrid Bergman (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000006/)) and lose themselves in some nameless colonial hellhole elsewhere in the archipelago, our hero poured himself a stiff drink with an arsenic chaser.

[station identification; game reload]

*****

Finally: Captains Contemptuous (MGM, 1957)

When last we saw our protagonist (Burt Lancaster (http://www.thebeststuffintheworld.com/stuff/burt-lancaster)) he was looking northward over the battlements of his settlement. A less observant man would have taken the glitter in his eye for madness; a closer look would have seen the malice underneath. "What kind of a ... sick freak ... would do what you're suggesting?" his trusted lieutenant (Kirk Douglas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirk_Douglas)) gaped. Our hero turned slowly and held his friend's attention with a hypnotic eye. "I'm the most dangerous kind of man there is," he said with a calm that belied the fury he felt. "A man with nothing to lose."

Quickly he issued his orders. A small shipyard turned out two small trade ships; his garrison issued arms to eight grenadiers and seven pikemen, the most he could support. From above, the voice of the Iroquois witchdoctor (Charlton Heston (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000032/)) echoed. "Curse me well, savage," vowed our hero, flashing his own adamantine teeth against the lightning. "It will be your last." "Last but one," muttered his lieutenant. "If we're lucky," he added sourly.

The ships quickly weighed anchor and were soon speeding toward the home of the Iroquois. As the townsfolk repaired their buildings from the storm, their brothers and fathers landed on shores where drums played menacingly. "Smash the last infant's brains against the last standing totem," ordered our captain.

The dusky warriors fought bravely and terribly on their own account. Smoke veiled fields that ran with blood. When the great chief's hut finally evaporated in smoke in flame, only one pikemen was left to stand silhouetted by the bloody glare. Then he too expired. And for one last time, in Tafelrod, the sky smoked with lightning.

The damage had scarce been cleared away when enemy ships appeared over the horizon. Our protagonist quickly improvised some cannon towers, and though he lost and had to replace many of them, he eventually drove the greatly damaged enemy fleet away.

"A little sabotage is in order now," he told his friend after the damage from the last lightning storm had been repaired. He had a quick consultation with the representative of the Indians (Peter Sellers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Party_(film))) and, soon he could see the clouds of locusts descending on the fields of his arch-enemy, Madame Nadasky (Katherine Hepburn (http://www.imdb.com/gallery/mptv/1138/Mptv/1138/3756-0006.jpg.html?path=gallery&path_key=0053318)). "Now I need a pickpocket, a saboteur, and a demagogue," he said. Alas, the four strokes, though profitable and successfully carried out, did not visible damage to his antagonist. "Very well," he said calmly. "Get me Ramirez [Victor McLaglen (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037193/)]. If I can't win, at least I can have fun."

The next four hours are repetitive but exciting, though there are a few lulls where hostilities are suspended. But the fight always resumes. Our hero builds and dispatches fleets to raid the far corners of the map; warehouses after warehouse goes up in flames before his renegade ships are caught and shattered by superior firepower. Large warships drop anchor to bombard wharfs before being driven away by cannon towers, which are themselves wracked, ruined, and repaired at a breakneck pace. He small warships to cruise the local waters, to harry and savage enemy ships as they limp away from the cannon towers. Finally, he sends one pair of ships to circle the archipelago, drawing off the fleets of Emilio Castelli (Jack Lemmon (http://www.curtispublishing.com/images/NonRockwell/9650116.jpg)) while he stealthily outfits a small four-ship squadron (all he can afford by this point) to raid the Italian's home base. The raid is wildly successful, destroying large shipyards and the main warehouse. Meanwhile, the decoy pair has chanced upon and sunk three of Castelli's small trading vessels as, heavy with tobacco and cocoa, they labor their way back to a non-existent port.

Not even the Queen can resist our hero's dash and élan and grants him an army of two pikemen and three grenadiers, carried aboard a warship-escorted exploration ship. It has the bad luck to run into a pair of Castelli's patrolling small warships; the captain of our hero's warship gallantly sacrifices himself so that the exploration ship can set down its army on a southern island shared by Castelli and Nadasky—it's one of their main entrepot. Their ship is itself sunk soon afterward, but the army marches smartly around, burning every plantation and market building they chance upon. Nadasky lands a nine-unit force on the northern shore of the island, but the island is bisected a stream; the destruction of one of Castelli's marketplaces destroys the only bridge over, so that Madame's commander (George Sanders (http://www.salon.com/07/features/sanders.html)) can only snarl helplessly as his rival lays waste to his mistress's southern holdings at will.

Meanwhile, pirate raids and the occasional one-ship sally have kept Castelli's warehouse in a perpetual state of ruin, though no blockade is permanent. The damage is severe, though. Soon, senates are going up in flames, and merchant houses devolve into squatters shacks. Castelli begs for peace, and, as one of his fleets is harrying one of our hero's, he is granted a respite.

But it's too late for Castelli. At 9:18, he resigns the game. A few minutes later, Madame also grants a truce.

[Eagleclaw]

Big applause to Uncle Maxie's Afternoon Theater :hello:
Whaw! I wish I had been there. Now I am looking forward to the DVD. My own games seem a bit dull now.:sad: Everything is so silent. What shall I do now? :bconfused

[nullspace]

Uncle Maxie's Afternoon Theater
That was great! I'm amazed that you actually eliminated Emilio in the last one. I would have given up and started over long ago.

[zippyriver]

Not to fear, all you anti-reloaders. You get a score this round. I went back to the most recent save, and it was right after Emilio agreed to peace and during the final plague. Nadimsky still declared war, and I was forced to watch my cannon towers get reduced to rubble. I did get a FT visit while this was going on, but was down to about 3 towers at that point, so I used the little bit of coin surplus I got (at least I got out of the red) to finish off the wall on my prize island :rolleyes: . With the plague finally over, I was able to regrow my population and was about 4k in the red when I was able to bump the taxes back up.

I took a good look at Dornigen. This thing is worse than my other one. So I set up a settler camp. The extra coin will be helpful. Broom Hilda decided a second walnut was not acceptable, and spent quite a while knocking down walls near New Camp. She even destroyed the pier. No big deal really, for if she lands troops, I still have my whole army there. However, that never happened and she offered peace at about 15:00. Dual peace again, placed necessary Whs. Let's see what happens.

Dornigen's income was a much needed relief, but as it turned out, it had a much more important role. AI lodge activities came about as quick as they had access to them, but they kept targeting Dornigen. This kept my main island safe, except for the occasional plague. After the crippling loss of nearly 1,000 people, I was thrilled to have some rebuff. This enabled me to keep income decent for quite a while. I started passive buying honey, while the 3 cocoa plantations filled up the Wh. Gold sales were adequate as well. I also was able to drop two sm ship yards on the main island.

I had been buying lamp oil for a while (started at 50, increased order 10 at a time until 100), so set that to 200. I made the necessary improvements to delivery chocolates and let that stock up to about 150. I reached my goal, and upgraded to 23 merchants. Emilio immediately asked for a trade agreement, which I was happy to agree to. At this point I had trade routes running and was in the process of switching frat to Tetonka (of course I got off one last locust strike). It just so happens he has my colonial good (big big grin). Glad I didn't take him out earlier.

I then opened up a jewelry chain, and the extra taxes along with the surplus sales to needle nose made that worthwhile. Trying to move him to alliance status, but doing it at a snail's pace.

I know the first order of business is getting my army out of camp snoopy, So took a couple of sm traders and my small fleet of SW and picked up my guys. After dropping them off on Lang Wu and setting positions, I crushed them. No more flat sails, which was something I had to do if I am going to have any maritime plans. That ticked off everyone, but no one's diplomacy status changed over it. I figured I would tip the scales back a little bit, and followed suit and removed Ramirez from the game. Gave a chump change gift to Emilio, which he loved. Few more of those and who knows what could happen.

Supplies are doing well, university research is under way so I unlocked the remaining areas and upgraded to 48 merchants. Still making coin, but not as much as before all the internal builds. I need to start making plans to take Nadanski's marble/whale island. So what does she do? Demands a tribute. Hmmm. Not quite ready yet, so I agree. Right after-wards she also offers a trade agreement, which I also accepted. Lot of options now.

[thegrindre]

I love it!!! This thread is fantastic!!!!!!!:hello: :hello: :hello: :go: I'd pay good money to watch this action...

[Maxie Zeus]

Kudos to zippyriver! That's great! Very interesting to hear that fighting your way to merchant capacity actually made the enemy more amenable to you.

But me? Well, I was having so much fun fighting—and had stored up so much bile toward Nadasky—that I just kept it going as a wargame. Like scenario 10, but without the silly hoops to jump through.

I haven't got time to work up any clever narrative, and the action was pretty repetitive. I'll just give the highlights and strategizing:

When I reloaded my save (at 9:18), I had just eliminated Castelli and Nadasky had offered me peace. I spent twenty minutes taking a survey of the situation: my land, my cash flow, my prospects. Mostly, though, my eye kept wandering back to Castelli's now-vacant island. It was big and close to my own; it had only three short beaches, ideal or turtling; it had whales; and it had a bottomless clay pit. It also had roads already laid out, most of them cobbled. True, it couldn't produce tobacco and so couldn't support citizens by itself, and I wasn't about to try to maintain a nicotine habit for anyone there while Nadasky was still prowling about—even if I had the excess land for more tobacco and alcohol chains. But I figured it could hold and support more than a 100 houses at Settler level quite comfortably (eventually I built 130 there), and that the extra coin they could generate would more than adequately support a lamp oil chain or two.

So I reloaded my 9:18 save and made a dash for the island. I built a warehouse—and promptly lost the surplus from the build when Nadasky's bomber instantly blew it up. No matter, I had plenty more where that came from. Using my saved up material, I built four lumber and started putting up houses wherever I could. The old houses had evaporated before I arrived, but it still had cathedrals, a university—a real boon, as it let me research university tech without the expense of upgrading to merchant and building one—and other whatnot standing. I got rid of a lot of stuff as expensive inessentials—who needs theaters when you're only going to build settlers, or watchtowers when you are going to build seawalls?—but I kept the cathedrals and the university. I laid out the three bread and five cloth chains I'd calculate I'd need to support the population (with profitable surpluses). I started up brick production. I started mining the one (alas, not deep) ore vein for tools. And I started building brick walls across the bays.

I'd just gotten everything done except the last wall when I ran out of money and Nadasky declared war. I made my first request for $$ from the queen, and she blessedly came through with 6000 coin, which let me slap up the last wall just before Nadasky's forces arrived.

The next hour or so was tedious back and forthing, with me begging another 12K coin from the queen in order to keep my cannon towers up and running. Fortunately, Nadasky spent this part of the game concentrating on my original settlement, so my new island warehouse generally stayed up. I was even able to make a few runs between my islands, transferring tools and cannon to my new island and brick to my old.

Eventually Nadasky decided to concentrate her fire on my new settlement, and that's when I hit on a neat trick. I'd built the warehouse on the southern beach, closest to my original settlement, and ringed it with four or five cannon towers. But there's a hook of land that sticks out south of the beach, which any ships approaching from the west (like Nadasky's) have to skirt. I built six cannon towers at the southern extremity of this spit of land. This was enough to stop her ships from approaching the warehouse, as they'd get hung up and attack that fortress. This kept my warehouse going for long stretches, during which the Free Trader would visit to buy the lamp oil that I soon had squirting out of every orifice. My God, I've never been so happy to see him show up, and to show up regularly. He'd drop at least 3K coin each visit, and sometimes more. So I was making a clear profit even though my running account was often in the red.

With this stream of mini-bonanzas (and the occasional gift from the Queen) I was able to occasionally build fleets of four or five small warships, which I would send to lurk west of my new island when it came under attack. Nadasky would always pull her ships out of battle before they were sunk, and I used these small fleets to harass and sometimes even sink two or three large warships as they limped back to port. (I eventually nicknamed that stretch of ocean the "Toothpick Machine.") Unfortunately, I would never be able to fully destroy one of her sorties, for reserve warships would always hurry up before I could finish off every returning ship, and I'd even sometimes lose my small fleet because I wasn't quick enough to see the enemy coming.

In between these sorties, I'd send my small fleet out to raid remote islands; again, sometimes they wouldn't return. I was able to outfit one wildly successful mission, though. I had twice picked up castaways left by failed amphibious landings. They were expensive to maintain, so I snuck them up to one of Madame's northern islands, which they burned clean of hops plantations and whale oil production. Of course, I lost the transport soon afterward, but I was able to get a second ship out to pick them up and transferred to a second Nadasky island. The pattern repeated: lose ship; ravage island; build new ship; land on third island. One reason this worked, though, was because I had a six-ship fleet sailing around and distracting her main battle group.

Alas, eventually that battle group got tired of chasing my boys and turned its attention to my lamp island. In the heat of battle, I'd forgotten to keep it supplied with tools, so it was a nasty shock to find myself unable to replace cannon towers. Nadasky's fleet destroyed all my towers, then my warehouse, and then came south to corner and destroy the rest of my small warships, which I had left lurking in the expectation of making more toothpicks.

This was the low point; if Nadasky had been smart, she'd almost certainly have been able to finish me off, or at least keep me impotent for a long time: I was broke, had no ships, no way to get income, and so had no way to sneak a small ship up to my lamp-oil island's pier to drop off tools. Fortunately, the AI just doesn't know how to exploit its advantages, and when I begged for peace, Nadasky granted it even without demanding tribute. Maybe she was feeling the pinch from my raids.

During that pause—which would be the last war-free moment in the game—I stuffed my lamp oil island with tools and cannon, rebuilt the cannon towers, and built an 8-ship fleet. I also rescued my marooned army, built a second army, and sent both on small trading vessels to lurk off her southern cocoa/tobacco islands. Nadasky didn't wait long before declaring war on me. When she did, I landed my troops and blitzed both islands. One army was ultimately defeated and destroyed by an enemy expeditionary force, but not before converting the whole island into grassland. Back in home waters I turned the toothpick machine back on: Nadasky fed her warships to my cannon towers, and my enlarged fleet was this time able each time to destroy a fairly large proportion of her ships as they limped home. I took losses but generally was able to keep a core of five ships afloat, sometimes only by fleeing into far waters and doing the "patrol the corners" routine. But all my production and warehouses stayed open, and with the cash they generated I was generally able to keep between eight and ten small warships afloat at all times.

In the mid-point of this endgame Nadasky and I settled into a routine. She'd feed some ships into the grinder; I'd chase them back; and when she saw me approaching she'd chase me back home with the six large warships she always had in reserve.

But I was steadily wearing away her navy; I'd also long surpassed her in both population and game points by this point. Feeling confident after building my first large warship, I sent it and seven support ships into her home waters to raid her warehouse. It went badly—very badly, as they were surprised by superior forces that appeared behind them, and I lost my new baby. But the adventure seemed to rattle her, or do something to the AI algorithms, because she became increasingly addled tactically. After licking my wounds and building back up to an 8-ship strength, I again raided her island, this time with spectacular results. I destroyed her warehouse and her three shipyards (two of them large) before her lions showed up. She also seemed to lose her appetite for the woodchipper: I kept my fleet intact and tried luring her back to the cannon towers, but she turned away before reaching them. Again, we settled into a pattern: I'd sail west, trying to tempt her back into the buzzsaw; she'd chase but then turn away before reaching the towers.

All this time, I'd had no need to rebuild cannon towers and had saved up enough coin to build three large warships. I then put them together with the five small warships that had survived my various encounters with the enemy and staged another successful raid. Proof that Madame was getting catatonic or something: on my way in, I passed one of her large warships. It was at full strength, but it just sat there and declined to return fire while I smashed it into wet kindling. Moreover, a glance around the map showed that three of her surviving behemoths were cruising uselessly in northern waters. So I continued to her island, where I destroyed her warehouse and then laid waste to small and large trade ships as they tried coming in to port. I also took out her rebuilt shipyards. And when her large ships did show up, they came in singly and I was able to take them out almost without damage to myself.

That gave me total naval supremacy. The end wasn't quick: I had hopes of forcing an early capitulation on her as with Castelli, and so wasted much time bombing her coasts and mopping up her now-isolated colonies. But when I finally did stage an invasion, resistance was pitiful: two dragoons. At 18:32, with only one marketplace left, she resigned the game. Victory was sweet.

*******

Most of the credit for this win I have to give to Eagleclaw, for his tips about lamp oil and royal gifts. Also, I have to credit the AI's tactical incompetence. Me, I just contributed grit, determination, and the hole I'd originally dug for myself back in the game's first two hours.

[zippyriver]

I took advantage of the dual treaties, making massive jewelry and chocolate sales to both AI (more jewelry than anything). Of course Emilio was the primary recipient. I did end up with him offering an alliance, but I never could get him to enter the fray (dork!). Of course I had to continuously make tribute payments to Nadasky, but when stripping her of 7-10k for goods, it was still profitable (I would send a load of goods after each demand. Get my money back).

I used the coin to finish off all research, and fund lodge activities. I also brought in enough to build and maintain maximum ship count. At the end of this phase, I had 8 large warships, 5 cargo ships and 10 small war ships. Some of the small were on escort duty. I also capped the Large troop transport with 1 pike and 3 grenadier holds. I had upgraded 90 houses to merchant, and in spite of the huge military maintenance costs, was turning about a 100 coin surplus. Lamp oil purchases made it hard to accumulate a lot of coin, so I wanted to eliminate that drain.

My turn :censored: !

First order of business (after one last goods sale and round of lodge activities), was establish a Wh on Gaenscingen (marble/whale island). The prude of course declared war right away, but I had my troop ship right there and landed the army.

Meanwhile, center map, the meat sandwich I had prepared for her idle fleet of about 8-10 half damaged ships began. With her in between the fleets of small and large, it was short lived, to say the least. I sent the fleet of 7 Lg to harass her main island and the fleet of (now 6) small to offer support on the oil island invasion. The ships damaged from the initial sea battle were sent for repairs (1 Lg, 2 Sm). A little later I combined them with 3 other Sm that were on escort duty and set them on a patrol between the oil, Asian and main island.

The naval phase was long and tedious, and I did lose a couple of Sm cargo ships and Sm war ships, but overall her naval defeat was crushing. Along with the damage dealt to her main island and the loss of the oil island, I had my foot on her neck. The island battle raged almost as long as the naval battle. She was diligent in replacing markets and watch towers, and landing troops to counter the invasion (in spite of the fleet there). But eventually it fell, as I had delivered enough supplies to expand with markets (didn't use any troops to capture anything). I did save 2 whalers and 2 lamp oil factories, but the rest of her stuff got destroyed (lot of sheep farms, some hops). I will have to revisit this island and clean things up a bit, get rid of excess markets, roads, etc. But for now, it is functional, providing whale and lamp oil via trade route to my main island (goods there are a mess anyway). The extra "stuff" I got from that island I hauled first, then set a trade route to haul the produced goods. Also have grabbed a number of floating cargo boxes.

Having finally attained some momentum, I turned my attention (and army) to her southern supply islands Tafelrod and Birchfield (in that order). The mop-up on those islands was no where near as hard as the oil island, as she was about out of troops (not counting her national guard). I certainly didn't have enough to take her main island, hence the new targets. Emilio did manage to nab one beach on Tafelrod during the battle, but I was able to seal him off fairly well and control the majority of that one. The third target was simply a cake walk, only encountering about 4 watch towers. Total troop losses were only about 4 grenadiers (I picked up more castaways of hers than that).

Several times, she offer a cease fire, with each time adding more coin to sweeten the deal. Each time I refused. I just kept working on her islands. Conquest of #2, took a little longer than it should have, because a "hurricane" decided to interrupt my advance. I had to run my troops all over the island, trying to stay away from the tornado. I didn't lose any, but it gave her time to rebuild a number of markets, which stubbed my advance temporarily. The hurricane (moving NE) seemed to chase my ships. First my troops had to dodge it, now my ships in the area had to do the same (giving Nadasky the time to rebuild). Again, the ships in the area were able to dodge it, though there were some very close calls. Dornigen was not so lucky. It cut across it and plucked up about half of the buildings there, including a deep gold mine, a jeweler and two confectioneries. As it rolled off the coast it took my exploration ship with. I then had to halt all my trade routes to keep them out of the way of this monster. Fortunately, it passed between the rest on my islands without incident.

Now I have coin problems. My main had got hit with a hard plague during that time also, and I faced about a 700 person loss, as did Dornigen from the hurricane and revolutionary dual hit. I still have a surplus of coin, but am now starting to gush cash, especially after having lowering merchant taxes to regrow the population. The other drain was the sheer number of market places, Whs and shipyards needed to secure the land (otherwise she would nab them back, or Emilio would take them). I finished off the conquest of the two southern targets but was halted in going any further as I had hit deficit. The Queen gave about 3k, followed shortly after wards by about 1200 from Emilio. It was enough to dam the river while my merchants finished growing, and I hit 100 coin right as that was done, bumped up taxes and I was making 4 coin profit (talk about minimum wages). High taxes, a war, a hurricane and a plague. I am starting to feel like G.W. Bush.

Nadasky again offer peace along with 7600 in coin. This time I decided to accept. She has been properly spanked for her earlier indiscretions, and my "situation" is in an utter mess. I need to re-establish trade routes, clean up and build/re-build islands, move some materials around, sell surpluses, heal troops and ships (which have ended up scattered around like marbles on tile), and basically re-group and re-form. With turning a small profit, a couple of deliveries to Emilio, and Nadasky's tribute(that felt good saying that) I should be able to get things taken of.

Nadasky and Emilio are about equal now in strength (Emilio declared war on the Queen and got his ahum handed to him, twice :lol: ), and I am now the clear power house, and set to advance even further. I know the ice witch will do some rebuilding, but I have to take a break from the war as well, as further progression will of course cost coin that I don't have at this moment. It will be a lot easier, and cheaper now, as I still have the majority of my ships.
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Oh yeah, forgot to mention the added annoyance of the native island bug I ran into. Nothing like having to rebuild islands you already own because of a bug. Details in the annopedia bug thread.

[Eagleclaw]

I have enjoyed participating in the threads on playing Anno 1701 at the hard level. A lot of entertaning adventures have beeen published.

It was therefore with great interest I looked at the German thread Endlosspiel "schwer" und die "Verstecken-Strategie" by AnnoWolf.
Click me
It has bee rated with ***** and has been read by 7,856 people.
The theme is playing with the queen and with trader quests in an unrevealed map. I was surprised that the basic idea is to save the game from the start, investigate the map and find an island in the south with grain, tobacco and sugar cane. The the game is reloaded and you sail directly to the chosen island. After that the idea is to hide for the AI (Artificial Incompetance) until you are ready for war.

Investigate and reload. This is cheating :nono: We should be better than the AI :go:
Another thing is that only a very small part of the maps with few outcropping have islands with grain, sugar cane and tobacco.

Is this a typical difference between German speaking and English speaking people?

[zippyriver]

I read the Hide The Weenie thread a while back, but didn't give it much thought.

I look at it this way. It's just a game, and as such you want to get as much enjoyment ot of it as possible. If a simple sneek-a-peek makes it more enjoyable for the player, it's their choice. I don't have a problem with it.

I did this a lot while learning at the normal level, so I could try different islands and strategies. When I moved up to hard level, I again would take a look, namely because I wanted to have a self-supporting island to check out how the AI acted at that level.

I find not using any cheeze-wiz a lot more enjoyable when playing a serious game (as opposed to a development or learning game), but to each his/her own. I would have a hard time bragging about a victory in a challange game doing this, or any of the other questionable tactic. But my "questionable" guidelines are of my own design, and not everyone will have the same perspective on what is acceptable. IF a guantlet is thrown down, what is allowable should be stated in the OP. Since everyone knows the peek is allowed, it's no big deal.
Just my .01999.

edit: 7800+ views and only five voters? :lol: /// Typical Americans here, no one votes (on any of the first page threads) :sad: .

[Reka]

The the game is reloaded and you sail directly to the chosen island. After that the idea is to hide for the AI (Artificial Incompetance) until you are ready for war.

Investigate and reload. This is cheating :nono: We should be better than the AI :go:
Another thing is that only a very small part of the maps with few outcropping have islands with grain, sugar cane and tobacco.

Now, now. This is not a very accurate description of that strategy. I tried it myself only once, as it can make the game a bit boring, but still I think the basic observation is rather good:

As long as you don't see any settlement of your enemies, they won't attack you, and thus winning is basically guaranteed on any level, as you can leasurly build up a huge army.

This cheating aspect which you mention is not at all central or necessary. You can simply start a game & seek two islands along the equator, a northern & a southern one. Then your chances of building a stable society on them are rather good, if necessary you can always buy missing goods from the free trader. You just need to make sure that you occupy all beaches of these islands entirely.

Apparently some ppl like to seek the perfect island & reload, but I repeat, this is not necessary. Thus there is no cheating involved, which I find quite remarkable for an easy winning strategy.

[Eagleclaw]

You are absolutely right Reka. The observation that the computer players do not attack if you have not discovered any of their settlements is correct and important.

And it can be used as you say without planning a reload. I am trying it myself at the moment where I have looked at the entire map before the game in the Rich Uncle Moneybags (http://forum.sunflowers.de/showthread.php?p=339652#post339652) game. This is the approach suggested by Bojaen.

As I wrote in that thread I also agree with you that it is quite boring ("Like playing Anno 1503 in the dark") :sleep3:.

[Maxie Zeus]

I think it depends on how you look at it.

If you take the game semi-seriously as a simulation, then playing on an unrevealed map is like sailing into the unknown and hoping you can build a settlement. The Queen's advisors are surely right to warn her against financing that kind of expedition! On the other hand, playing on a revealed map is like moving into a region that's well-explored and well-connected but also chaotic and undeveloped—the Caribbean circa 1701, in fact.

Looking at the map and then reloading it with the fog back in, though, is like sailing into an area that has been mapped but which is still in the "wilds"—rather like the east coast of North America in the early 1600s. Henry Hudson and other early explorers had been through and noted what was there and roughly where it was, but it was still full of surprises, and different groups could settle in it and not discover each other until much later. In a sense, this is the most "realistic" way of playing the game, and it would closely mimic the way Virginia, New England, and especially New York were settled. So I think it's defensible in that regard.

Nonetheless, it's still an abuse of the game settings, which enough in my eyes to make it a cheat.