Advanced Tactics Gold preview AAR

[Arditi]

Ciao Gents,
Vic has given us the go-ahead for a "preview" play-through of an ongoing multiplayer AAR.

The setup will be 4 human players and 5 AI players. Myself (Arditi), Roy (Webizen), Tom (Tweber), and the final player has not come forward yet. All are testers. We will try for a turn a day and will continue the game until one winner is declared. Pictures, economic decisions and strategic choices will be shown and discussed to show the flow of the game.

Wish us luck![:)]

[Arditi]

First turn completed and sent on to Roy(Webizen). We have a call in to another tester today. It appears my nation is divided and surrounded by human players. I have offered peace to all players as a result of my situation. Pictures forthcoming.[:)]

[Josh]

Tom is in the game?
You guys can always surrender in the first turn ofcourse. [;)]
Ahum, may the best AI win!
 
/patiently awaiting the screenshots. Thanks for the AAR.

[Arditi]

Here is my strategic situation. My capitol is seperated from my mainland. I must set up sea superiority there and make friends...I hope.[;)]

[Arditi]

Here is the world situation. It appears all nations are accesible to a world ocean.

[Tac2i]

My turn completed and forwarded to Allan who has agreed to be our fourth player. I must admit these random games with both human and AI players make for some interesting challenges. I have one other game like this in progress and its a nail biter in that the human players are a bit on edge versus the intentions of the other human players and wondering if one of the AI will declare war.

In this game I decided one of the AI has me boxed in and that can't stand. Besides I heard he was massacring some of his own people that were in revolt, so I declared war on the New Union. Had to act fast so didn't have time to consult congress ; )

Accepted an alliance offer from the Soviets (Russ) since he is a close neighbor.

[Arditi]

Here is the current situation. Red-Russ ...blue-Roy....Yellow-Tom and purple is Allan who is the most land connected. The rest of us are fragmented. I am allied to Tom and Roy for safety sake while Allan-Germania has no allies at the moment. Roy and I have started invasions of AI players to help with our economies. The tension is there. Who will do what?[:D]

[Tac2i]

Me (The Empire): Turn to Allan (Germania). I've encircled one New Union City and hopefully it falls next turn. With Russ (Soviets) also attacking New Union it is only a matter of time before that AI player is defeated. Next up will be Eastern Empire (AI). I noticed that the Confederates (AI) declared war on Allan. The Confederates will regret that as I'm sure Allan will jump on them quickly.

[Arditi]

Turn 3 sent to Roy. Consolidation across the nation takes place. My continued advance against the beleagured AI nation of the "Union". Myself(Russ) and Germania ally to one another. I am allied to all human nations now. I have declared war on the Confderates and propose to my ally Germania that I occupy the city of "Reading"" and he take te rest of the Confederates to include a city and resources within the region. A fair trade our nation knows. We hope our new found alliance with Germania means that we will work together and they see the fairness of this trade. See map. Gents, this is the best wargame around in my estimation. [:D]

[Ande]

Such exiting situation!
Purple
It seams to me that purple has the strongest initial position but have limited strategical choices. He can
1. attack red
2. attack yellow
3. do any of these after gobbeling up the nabourghing AIs
and when he's done with one player, he'll go onto the other. I would suspect that purple would be interested in getting blue to distrupt the sealanes for red and yellow but there is little incentive for blue to agree to this.

Red will struggle with establishing himself on the other side of the woods on the northern continent. He will also be weary of his nabourghs' intentions in his southern realm. If purple doesn't attack him right away, he will do so after conquering yellow, it would therefore be wise of red to create an alliace with yellow. If no alliance  is created, purple can conquer the small AIs at will without any risk of intervention from red or yellow. There might be a point for red and yellow to make a secret agreement to attack purple when he is at most engaged with the AIs. Such an alliance would eliminate the need for a great navy for both red and yellow.


Yellow is, I would say, in the weakest position, being the most spread player. On the other hand, he got some excellent possibilities to spread on the southern continent. If he makes the agreement with red he might be able to take some pieces of purple and at the same time get the entire southern continent. He will need to have a large navy at some point but as long he keeps good realations with the other seafaring players he should be ok.

Blue is the one who knows exactly what to do. He will get the entire northen continent. At some point he will clatch with red an then he'll loose his southern annex but if enough time has passed he might not care to much. He will then slowly fight his way through the woods and get reds capital and achieve total domination on the northen continent

[Tac2i]

Blitzkrieg against New Union continues! Kastl captured and Jena now under assault. I love this game!! Now allied with Russ (Soviets) and Tom (Republic). No communications thus far with Germania and my old AT buddy Allan. Russ and I discuss (via in game messaging) how to divide the nation of New Union. Initial discussions take place about Eastern Empire.

One of the biggest changes in ATG is that you cannot use captured enemy cities to build anything other than Political Points (PPs), recycled ore, or recycled oil. That means for the entire duration of this 4 human player/5 AI game I have only 4 cities to produce combat units. Critical to success is having at least one dependable ally and capturing enemy cities and resource hexes. The enemy cities will be used to take over production of PPs so that my at start cities can be devoted to production of combat units. It also means that we'll all need to build some factories to have additional production capacity for combat units.

[Tac2i]

The assault on Jena begins...

[Tac2i]

Final situation at the end of my turn...

[Arditi]

Turn 4 sent to Roy.[:)]

[all5n]

All human players allied...

I see a lot of mis-use of the ally feature in the near future.

[Tac2i]

Jena captured! Moving up to attack Koningsbergen, New Union's capital.

[Arditi]

Interestingly, Tom moves into his ally Roy's nation...a piece of it that is...what are his plans? Tom's Capitol is encircled in white. My nation lies to the north of this incursion delineated by the green and white border. What will develop. Roy gobbles up AI cities which adds to his resource or PP collection...how ever he chooses. Allan and I work together, it seems, to divide up the northern Confederacy. He allows me "Reading" and he takes the resources and the other city.

[Arditi]

Ande, your analysis is interesting.  Feel free to share all thoughts people.  It makes it interesting for us as well.

My advance with horse drawn/transportable infantry continues into New Union territory.  I hope to take the city and two resource hexes.  I have a breakthrough.

[Arditi]

advance and breakthrough.

[Tac2i]

Turn 5: Eastern Empire (AI) joins in the battle against New Union. The Republic (Tom), as I expected after his last move, declared war on me. This goes to show that one should not make or enter into alliances willy nilly. Alliances should only be made with those you think you can count on. Tom, you sneaky person! ; ) By the way, Tom also declared war on Russ and then offered peace. I'm sure he did this to break the alliance so Russ could no longer see what he sees. My hope is that Russ does not accept that peace offer.

I think the world of human players is very likely now divided between Russ (Soviets) and Me (The Empire) against Allan (Germania) and Tom (Republic). I'm currently at peace with Germania (Allan) and allied with the Soviets (Russ). Allan is currently allied with Russ and Tom. I think the alliance between Russ and Allan is on very shaky ground. At least I hope these things are true, especially with regards to the Soviets. I'll need a friend down the road.

The battle for New Union's capital may take a few turns. More on that later. Due to the nature of the developing situation screenshots may be classified and not posted here.