Playthrough: the Hardest Bhutan to Bhutan

Day 1:

I managed to snag a game just as it opened and found this sequence of countries chosen to be pretty amusing. A race to get the majors, and then there's Bhutan.

It's my first time playing this map AND my first time playing 4x. Let's see how... wow, not great. I get 6 militia, 2 AT, and 2 AA to start. I'm already in the negative with Food and Goods, and the only reason I'm not losing Oil is because I didn't start with any oil-consuming units.With only three native provinces, manpower is going to be a huge challenge... but Recruiting Centers consume Food and Goods, which I don't produce at all.

Diplomacy: My first goal is self-preservation. Tibet borders me to the north, UK to the east, India to the west and south, and Nepal just a couple provinces to the west. I'm most worried about India, UK, and China, so I reach out to them. UK and China both Share Map with me, for some reason. India doesn't respond--a bummer, if they gave me ROW I could target Nepal, which has Food and Goods producing provinces. However, if India is just inactive, that would be great for me--there are a ton of provinces there, which will greatly help with my manpower concern.

There's a ton of cringey roleplaying in the newspaper, which is almost always an indication of bad players. That's a good sign . A quick review of nearby players is honestly a little ridiculous:

Tibet, 2 wins in 102 games joined. India, 3 - 235. China, 3 - 64. Nepal 0 - 25. Comm China, 1 - 108. Siam, 38 - 402. UK, 11 - 314. France, 4 - 175. Afghanistan, 0 - 55. Germany, 1 - 811 (infuriating, what a waste of the most interesting starting country). USSR, 4 - 73. Iraq, 5 - 579. Persia 1 - 123. Maybe limit the number of games people can join so they don't just go inactive every time?

Others of note: Xingjiang, 14/27; Mongolia, 2/10. Japan, 3/5. And Mongolia and Xingjiang have premium, which means they'll have a warbond edge on me (great idea, Bytro )

Production: Bhutan's starting research is militia, infantry, AT, AA, arty, and AC. I rule out the first 5 because I don't think I'll have the Food and Goods to produce them. I'm sad that I can't play with PA arty, one of my favorite units. However, with a Rares city and one rural Steel province, rocket arty might work. AC will be a must as a Pan Asian country, and LTs are always great. There we go: ACs, LTs, and RA to start, and hope I don't run into heavy armor

I decide to produce a few more militia to sneak around with. I produce 4 and then switch to AC. (In hindsight, I think militia was a poor use of manpower, but they did come in handy later.)

Construction Strategy: the Capital starts with a Barracks and an Industry. I build a Tank Plant to get ACs going and then switch to spamming RCs. My manpower can only take me so far, so I figure I'll have some extra resources and invest them in an Industry in the Steel province. My empty province gets an immediate RC.

Shortly after start, a supply drop pops up in Tibet. From what I can see, they haven't moved any units yet. India hasn't responded to my message and I don't want to start a war with them just to get to Nepal, so it looks like Tibet is my first target. It's an easy one to grab. (Thankfully since the stealth rework, my ACs can see Tibet's L2 militia.)

Drum roll...

Food AND Goods, a huge win for me.

Once I get into Tibet, I realize another reason why making militia was a mistake--they lack a city terrain bonus, while Tibet's infantry get homeland AND terrain in the cities. Making infantry of my own might have been a better idea.

Regarding warbonds, I genuinely have no clue how to use them. Production capacity isn't going to be an issue given my abysmal rate of manpower generation, so speeding up anything production-related is of limited value. I decide to warbond the RCs in my capital to increase manpower ASAP. Once LT research finishes, I also warbond a mini stack of 1AC and 2LT to scope out India and prepare to rush if they're inactive.

By the end of day 1, my captures in Tibet have brought my Food and Goods into the green. Only Oil is negative now.

5/0 k/d

29/0 provinces

Bhutan stronk

jubjub bird wrote:

Day 1:

I managed to snag a game just as it opened and found this sequence of countries chosen to be pretty amusing. A race to get the majors, and then there's Bhutan.

It's my first time playing this map AND my first time playing 4x. Let's see how... wow, not great. I get 6 militia, 2 AT, and 2 AA to start. I'm already in the negative with Food and Goods, and the only reason I'm not losing Oil is because I didn't start with any oil-consuming units.With only three native provinces, manpower is going to be a huge challenge... but Recruiting Centers consume Food and Goods, which I don't produce at all.

Diplomacy: My first goal is self-preservation. Tibet borders me to the north, UK to the east, India to the west and south, and Nepal just a couple provinces to the west. I'm most worried about India, UK, and China, so I reach out to them. UK and China both Share Map with me, for some reason. India doesn't respond--a bummer, if they gave me ROW I could target Nepal, which has Food and Goods producing provinces. However, if India is just inactive, that would be great for me--there are a ton of provinces there, which will greatly help with my manpower concern.

There's a ton of cringey roleplaying in the newspaper, which is almost always an indication of bad players. That's a good sign . A quick review of nearby players is honestly a little ridiculous:

Tibet, 2 wins in 102 games joined. India, 3 - 235. China, 3 - 64. Nepal 0 - 25. Comm China, 1 - 108. Siam, 38 - 402. UK, 11 - 314. France, 4 - 175. Afghanistan, 0 - 55. Germany, 1 - 811 (infuriating, what a waste of the most interesting starting country). USSR, 4 - 73. Iraq, 5 - 579. Persia 1 - 123. Maybe limit the number of games people can join so they don't just go inactive every time?

Others of note: Xingjiang, 14/27; Mongolia, 2/10. Japan, 3/5. And Mongolia and Xingjiang have premium, which means they'll have a warbond edge on me (great idea, Bytro )

Production: Bhutan's starting research is militia, infantry, AT, AA, arty, and AC. I rule out the first 5 because I don't think I'll have the Food and Goods to produce them. I'm sad that I can't play with PA arty, one of my favorite units. However, with a Rares city and one rural Steel province, rocket arty might work. AC will be a must as a Pan Asian country, and LTs are always great. There we go: ACs, LTs, and RA to start, and hope I don't run into heavy armor

I decide to produce a few more militia to sneak around with. I produce 4 and then switch to AC. (In hindsight, I think militia was a poor use of manpower, but they did come in handy later.)

Construction Strategy: the Capital starts with a Barracks and an Industry. I build a Tank Plant to get ACs going and then switch to spamming RCs. My manpower can only take me so far, so I figure I'll have some extra resources and invest them in an Industry in the Steel province. My empty province gets an immediate RC.

Shortly after start, a supply drop pops up in Tibet. From what I can see, they haven't moved any units yet. India hasn't responded to my message and I don't want to start a war with them just to get to Nepal, so it looks like Tibet is my first target. It's an easy one to grab. (Thankfully since the stealth rework, my ACs can see Tibet's L2 militia.)

Drum roll...

Food AND Goods, a huge win for me.

Once I get into Tibet, I realize another reason why making militia was a mistake--they lack a city terrain bonus, while Tibet's infantry get homeland AND terrain in the cities. Making infantry of my own might have been a better idea.

Regarding warbonds, I genuinely have no clue how to use them. Production capacity isn't going to be an issue given my abysmal rate of manpower generation, so speeding up anything production-related is of limited value. I decide to warbond the RCs in my capital to increase manpower ASAP. Once LT research finishes, I also warbond a mini stack of 1AC and 2LT to scope out India and prepare to rush if they're inactive.

By the end of day 1, my captures in Tibet have brought my Food and Goods into the green. Only Oil is negative now.

5/0 k/d

29/0 provinces

Your armored car can’t see max level stealth units like commandos and paratroopers

his food and good production was red for a while until he captured tibet, so maybe now he can start using mot inf

Mot inf have higher attack vs unarmored, but they have much less HP and are an inferior armor class, so they do worse against the most common soft targets on the map (infantry and militia) than AC. The scout factor almost never comes into play--I've never actually encountered a situation where my ACs couldn't see a unit--and the speed advantage is almost negligible.

(On most maps, I also prefer selling Food to the market as it's usually one of the highest-priced resources, but that doesn't matter to this particular playthrough because there are no AI to buy my Food )

Further updates coming shortly. It was a busy weekend.

jubjub bird wrote:

Mot inf have higher attack vs unarmored, but they have much less HP and are an inferior armor class, so they do worse against the most common soft targets on the map (infantry and militia) than AC. The scout factor almost never comes into play--I've never actually encountered a situation where my ACs couldn't see a unit--and the speed advantage is almost negligible.

(On most maps, I also prefer selling Food to the market as it's usually one of the highest-priced resources, but that doesn't matter to this particular playthrough because there are no AI to buy my Food )

Further updates coming shortly. It was a busy weekend.

Days 2 and 3

I should have mentioned that I captured Tibet's capital shortly before day change, so there are no revolts at the start of Day 2. I sit in 31st place with 40 points. The Herald publishes the top 24 economies, and unsurprisingly I am not on that list.

The general plan for the next couple days: continue taking Tibet's cities, take out Nepal, and rush India ASAP. India has a ton of provinces, which will really help my manpower situation. I'm going to stick to AC/LT/RA for now.

Diplomacy:

Late in Day 1, Italy posted in the newspaper about being willing to help tiny countries with resources. I can't turn that down. I reach out, and am gifted 4000 Oil. Japan, who I noted before has 3 wins in 5 games and thus is presumably both active and planning to play until the end, messages me and expresses interest in future teaming, noting that they already have one teammate on the map (Mongolia, an alliance partner). Later in Day 3, I get 5000 Oil from China. I ask for Food and Goods too but get no response

Construction:

I continue to use my warbonds on Recruiting Centers. Both L3 in my cores are finished shortly after Day 2 begins.

I have a TP in my capital and need a secret lab ASAP so that I can kill some of the soft targets hanging around Tibet, Nepal, and India, so I build one in Gerze. In Day 3, I upgrade my TP to L2 and start the L3 upgrade thanks to China's Oil gift. I also continue RC construction, now building in nearby non-core cities. It's not very efficient but I don't have any other way of getting manpower up. I can't overdo it, though, due to my limited Food and Goods production.

Production:

My manpower is already running low, so I put my resources to use by researching Level 2 AC and LT. Later in Day 3 I'm able to research AC and LT L3 as planned, and jump upgrade as much as my manpower would allow (which was all but 2 LT, not bad--I upgraded the other 2 LT later). L3 is important to see the Commandos that some nations (including India, as I discovered) start with. I plan to jump to L5 later if I make it that far. I spam as many RAs as my resources and manpower will allow, getting up to 4 by the end of Day 3.

I start a war with Nepal just before going to bed about 1 hour into Day 2. Just before bed I check on my neighbors and notice that Xingjiang hasn't left their borders yet but has definitely constructed some buildings, so they're active. They seem decent, and they're certainly familiar with 4x. Ugh.

Others like India and China are quiet--China hasn't moved a unit in a little while, despite being active diplomatically.

It's weird to wake up in the middle of Day 3 after barely seeing Day 2. I've bumped up to 24th place with a whopping 50 points. I do not make the list of most advanced nations

I finish off Nepal thanks to my newly-produced RA, which greatly helps with my casualty efficiency compared to my conquer of Tibet.

I start my India rush and oh my god PA AC/LTs on plains are crazy fast in 4x! I run my runners around the empty provinces while moving my RAs from city to city to whittle the garrisons down. India is definitely inactive so it's easy, just tedious without Premium.

Late in Day 3 Xingjiang rushes a presumably-inactive USSR, which must have been why they were so quiet. Perhaps they've left their border with me open? I'll need to spy on them soon. I'm doing decently well with cash but have been trying to save it for when people go AI and market prices get lower... but I guess that's still like 5 days away?

At some point in Day 3 I get a nice DM from our forum friend Undaunted, who must be butthurt about losing to a noob USA and decided to lash out at randoms. Sorry for your loss buddy. Stay classy.

At the end of Day 3 I'm worried about revolts and have taken a ton of damage, so I position units in province centers to hold territory and heal. Here's where things stand:

At the end of Day 3:

32/0 k/d

145/0 provinces

Day 4

Thanks to my progress in Tibet, Nepal, and India I start Day 4 up in 11th place with 100 points!

Seven provinces revolt, an easy cleanup. India has 5 more cities to capture including the capital.

I'm still figuring out a warbond strategy. It's my first time playing since they were introduced. Manpower is so low that there is little value to speeding up unit production--I'm basically maxing out my production rate by just producing normally. I've sped up some RA production just to get to cities as quickly as I can, and I've sped up RCs in my core to increase manpower. Later in the day I decide that intel agents might be a decent usage given my precarious position in Asia...

I don't think I constructed anything of note on Day 4, probably just more RCs where they make sense.

Production:

I know I'm incredibly weak to air right now and I've got plenty of Rares production, so I research ints. It helps that they're one of my favorite units to use and I hope I get a chance to see them in action in 4x. I continue to churn out LTs and RAs as fast as my manpower will allow. I consider upgrading to L2 RA but decide to chance it and go for the more efficient jump to L3 once that's available. Finishing my conquer of India boosts my manpower to 2000/hr (is that equivalent to 500/hr in regular speed?) which seems decent. (Note: I'm pretty sure I fatfingered a manpower booster at some point during Day 4 while playing on my phone but don't know how to verify that. My intention was and is to complete this without boosters so I figured I needed to mention that.)

I've now got a huge coastline and I don't have enough manpower or enough units to focus on coastal defense, so I decide to just leave it wide open. I think it's unlikely anyone will come for me, and anyone that came with an organized attack would destroy me no matter how many units I leave behind. I do put one militia on the coast closest to my capital just in case someone gets cheeky with a one-unit capital rush.

India's capital is a huge windfall, 142k cash. RA made the whole conquer pretty efficient:

I continue my strategy of buying resources from the market when needed, but at this point I'm pretty flush with cash and think about spies. I put some warbonded intel agents to work to figure out who might be a threat, and things aren't looking good with Xingjiang. They've contacted Japan to team and are producing L2 arty and RRGs, which would counter me pretty well. His message to Japan sounds like he's American, so I'll have to attack while he's sleeping. Unfortunately, nighttime is ~2 in-game days from now and things could look very different by then. I put 5 spies in his territory to see what I can find. Hopefully he's focused on USSR and has left his cores open. I also put 5 counters in my own territory.

Given how long it will be before an invasion of Xingjiang, I decide to knock off Afghanistan. Easy enough:

As I started my invasion I noticed Persia on the border and send a message to test activity. They respond and move away from the border. Strange. Then they promptly fire a flying bomb at the Soviet Union, lol. They're in a coalition with Iraq, who also hasn't expanded yet. As the day comes to a close I decide I've got enough time to attack Persia too, after day change.

Status at the end of Day 4:

I didn't record k/d and provinces from this day. I haven't lost any units or provinces yet so they're both something/0.

Day 5

I've leapt up to 6th with 160 points. I'm 12th in Wealthiest because of all the cash I've grabbed from inactive capitals. Spending that cash will be a challenge this round. I'm also 3rd in Most Feared, which would normally indicate AI souring on me but in this case it doesn't matter--there are no AI yet.

That's about it for the good news. The bad news: my spies revealed Xingjiang and it's close to a worst case scenario. They have a variety of units that will collectively counter me pretty well, they're using boosters (at a minimum, two L2 flame tank boosters, and presumably others), they're actively stacking units in their core, and they've got Premium so they have a warbond advantage and will have fire control with their ranged units (including RRG). And I already know they've been messaging Japan (260 points) who is teamed with Mongolia. Sigh.

This puts me in a tough spot and I'm forced to reevaluate my plan. I think I've got three options:

- Attack Xingjiang immediately, avoid the big stack and run around their cores and hope for the best

- Ignore Xingjiang and try to continue my expansion west. It's not like I've got a ton of core territory to protect

- Try for Diplomacy and form at least a temporary alliance with Xing/Japan/Mongolia, if they'll let me

(I guess I could have also used boosters of my own to fight fire with fire. I've never used a flame tank booster so I've got 28 of those, along with an assortment of other units. I just don't like boosters so decide against it.)

I decide on the second option: continue expansion as rapidly as possible. Later in the day I fire off a message anyways in case Xing is in a diplomatic mood, complimenting them on their rapid conquer of USSR to test the waters.

Persia is mad that I've attacked them but don't have enough units to put up resistance. They do have an L3 Secret Lab in Tehran which becomes another RA production hub. I continue on to their coalition mate Iraq, which is another easy conquer though requires some maneuvering around their BB at Basra. It's satisfying to watch units poof off the map when the last province is captured.

Xingjiang responds, so I mention the idea of working together. They agree. Nearly immediately after, Japan messages me as well. I guess that settles that--the four of us agree to Share Maps and work together for now. Unfortunately, at this point I'm pretty much giving up on my original goal of soloing the map unless something drastic happens.

With the Xingjiang threat hopefully dormant, I move into Saudi Arabia and start shifting my eastern units towards China, which would be a big win too. They've been mostly inactive since their early diplomacy.

At the end of Day 5:

69/0 k/d

250/0 provinces

Day 6

I'm now up to 4th place and make my first appearance on the largest economies list at 13th.

It's taken me 5 days of rapid expansion just to get my economy to the level that Turkey and South Africa are at with zero activity.

Speaking of Turkey, I start a war there with the same strategy: run through empty provinces with ACs while whittling units in cities with RA. It's not very exciting when everyone is barely active . At least Turkey has produced some units and occasionally moves them around.

I finish Saudi pretty easily--they were completely inactive.

I've been continuing to build RCs and produce as much RA as possible, so I'm running low on Food. I put my warbond stash to use to speed industry in the nearest Food city to my capital. It's non-core, but it's the best I've got.

I capture an intact air factory in Turkey and figure this is the time to start to think about air support, particularly because I've now got provinces on the Mediterranean. Naval bombers and interceptors will be all I need. I research naval bombers and produce 5 level 1s, then decide to use my backlog of warbonds to speed researches 2-4. It feels dirty. I start research level 5, planning to jump upgrade my NBs up to level 5 when it nears completion. I plan to repeat the same with interceptors.

There isn't much construction to talk about. I continue industry in my nearby Food city. My manpower generation can't sustain simultaneous production from many production buildings so I haven't bothered upgrading those. Production is more of the same: producing as many ACs, LTs, and RAs as my manpower will allow (in addition to my mini airforce).

Still no AIs, which means no good resource deals in the market. I'm forced to put my spies to use, and decide to start to gather intel on the Mediterranean by putting them in Italy, Romania, and France.

I went to bed at some point during Day 6 and don't have end-of-day info.

Day 7

I continue climbing the ranks up to 4th place.

My spies got a Romania reveal. They have tacs but otherwise not much to worry about.

Units: Level 3 RA unlocks on Day 8. I start L2, which will take all of Day 7, so that I can start L3 immediately on Day 8 and jump my RAs up. I also start ints, as planned, so that I can defend against some of the bombers used by European countries.

Japan took Nat China overnight. I would have preferred to take it myself, but oh well--I didn't have enough units to fight two fronts at the same time. I settle for taking out Siam, which has most of UK and France's territory in southeast Asia. They fight back a little bit.

I've crossed into Europe, dodging Turkish cruisers. Istanbul is the final city I need to eliminate Turkey, but it's going to take a while to get rid of these heavy tanks with just RA...

Unfortunately, Turkey is online and keeps moving their cruisers in range, threatening my ability to take Istanbul. Suddenly they make a massive, hilarious mistake: they decide to run from Istanbul.

I force-march my AC to get there before they realize their mistake and... poof. All of their units disappear just before day change. Even better, Istanbul contains a partially-damaged L5 tank plant--absolutely perfect. Now I can start production in Europe and don't have to worry about crossing water. I warbond a couple prop centers to get it up to a feasible morale ASAP.

I snag a supply drop in leftover Soviet territory: Food and Goods, another win.

I'm into Europe, my economy is acceptable, and I've finally got decent production lines going.

Now I've got to start thinking about countries going AI. Reviewing activity in the newspaper, I determine that Germany is certain to go AI. France very likely. UK was active during the first few days but has been quiet since and may follow shortly after. UK is so spread out and borders me in so many locations now that I'm not sure what to do about that yet.

I decide to clear out the minors that still border me so I don't have to worry about AI declaring war later. Goodbye, Oman and Yemen (with Muscat just before day change to lock in my expansion).

While clearing Saudi I notice Italy moving units in Egypt, which they captured a while back. I scout some of the nearby Italian provinces. Italy must have seen me, because just before day change they give me ROW unprompted.

Earlier I had turned my SM down to ROW with the UK, assuming they might go AFK. Just before day change, they start moving units too. Hm.

Here's the full map as we approach the end of Day 7:

And here's my status:

I keep my spies in Romania, Italy, and France.

115/0 k/d, 397/0 provinces

Amusingly, all of those kills are classed as PVP because no one has gone AI yet. I'd guess that not even 50 of them were actually active players, and barely active at that. This map is surely the greatest k/d farm ever and I will no longer trust the stats of anyone who plays it regularly.

Day 8

I'm now #2 in points... and #8 in strongest armies! Still trailing the major powers who have barely done anything (like Germany, who I think was a Day 0 inactive)

My spies get the reveal on Romania and it looks the same as before. No units moving. They've got a tac stationed in Bulgaria, so I know those two at least have ROW with each other and presumably Share Map. I also get reveal on France, similarly seeming to confirm they're offline because no units are moving. My popularity with France is 12%, so assuming inactives go AI on Day 9 I'd expect them to declare war not long after.

As planned, I start RA L3, a 10-hour research even with the 4x speed. Maybe I'll warbond it later . I beef up the tank plants and secret labs in my production cities in preparation for that and for AC/LT L5 in two days. I start int L2 research, planning to run that up to L5 like I did with NBs.

The Asian team seems to be pretty stable and I assume there's low risk of backstabbing, so I continue my move of units towards Europe and Africa. UK is moving their units through my land towards Africa, presumably retreating. They later message and ask me to join their coalition... with France and a presumably inactive Belgium. No thanks.

A supply drop pops up in a French province in Indochina. I guess that settles that, I'll be starting that war myself. It's an easy scoop and gives me Food, Oil, and Rares.

I scope out Bulgaria, preparing to attack in a little while. Instead of waiting, Bulgaria launches an attack, coming at me with... two L1 ints and a flying bomb . At least I know they're active.

I don't have many units nearby. They start sending stacks at me, and start warbonding rockets to send at my stacks and at Istanbul. Sigh, all that work on morale. They're also warbond healing all of their stacks against my ranged attacks, but I don't have the proper units to engage them in melee yet. I produce a few LTs in Istanbul, speeding one or two with warbonds too. I warbond an airfield to move my ints and NBs closer, and warbond the upgrade to L2 in case Bulgaria wants to sabotage it.

I finally maneuver enough units to feel comfortable engaging in melee, sacrificing a province in the process. Of course he warbonds to full health immediately before the units meet. Here's what it looks like part-way through the deciding battle.

I ended up needing to direct attack with my NBs to avoid losing a unit in the melee. I gave the melee stack one or two warbond heals after the battle to get it out of the red.

This was my first time engaging in a war bond battle and it was miserably unfun. Watching someone who's barely played all game launch rocket after rocket at you and constantly heal their units is frustrating, and forced me to use my own warbonds to counter. It just became a warbond-off. I guess that's what Bytro wants with that update.

Anyways, that seems to be most of his army and I'm able to run around afterwards, capturing a few cities and his capital just before day change.

Asia is mostly the same, so here's where things stand in the West at the end of Day 8:

157/0 k/d

470/1 provinces

Day 9

I have well over 200k entering Day 9 and am still only 15th in the list of wealthiest. Also, inactives didn't go AI like I thought they would, wow.

(I just noticed while putting this writeup together that apparently Japan bought Premium at some point on Day 8 )

I'm finally number 1 in something, though: the most feared!

My spies revealed all three of my targets: Italy, France, and Romania. Romania is barely moving but is at least somewhat active, I guess. France continues to appear inactive. Italy has been positioning units in Egypt, including medium tanks, and has a large Navy and a minor Airforce. They have 118 units compared to my 102 so I'm not at that big of a disadvantage.

UK continues to move units around, getting antsy I think. They've got 144 total units but spread across the world.

I finish int L4 research, but Elite AC/LT research unlocks tomorrow so L5 int will have to wait. I knock out L4 AC and L4 LT. L3 RA research completes shortly before the end of the day but upgrading all my RA costs 32k Rares and 26k manpower, oof. I have to stop production for a while so that I can maximize my jump upgrade, which I'm able to do for all but two RA. Man I'm glad I upgraded, though--these things absolutely melt unarmored stacks. I produce a couple coast guard militia in Europe but otherwise stop production so that I can do the same with AC and LT soon. I also focus on upgrading my production facilities towards the west, taking Sofia's SL up to L4 so that I can produce RA in Europe and taking the tank plant in Riyadh up to L5 so that I can prepare to fight UK/Italy/France in Africa.

I fly through Romania, but have to be a little smarter with my border management--I don't want to open up a border with Germany, who is certain to go AI, whenever they do go AI in this game mode. I also rush Hungary, saving their capital for last. Xingjiang has started advancing west, looking like they're headed for Poland.

Just before day change I notice Sweden started running through the middle of Germany. Interesting. I throw 5 spies in Sweden. Their player profile is meh, not terrible I guess.

According to the newspaper they're using light tanks, bombers, and artillery. I should counter that pretty well, if we do have to battle.

Here's where things stand at the end of Day 9, with zoom-ins on Europe and Saudi Arabia.

186/0 k/d

532/1 provinces

Days 10 and 11

Bhutan #1 baby

I'm also doing pretty well economically at #3

Day 10 is quick because I want to sleep.

I got reveal on Sweden, France, and Italy. Sweden is not a threat. I also tried Germany, but didn't get it. Two of my spies are caught and outed in the newspaper.

FINALLY inactives go AI. Germany, no surprise there. Mexico, Venezuela, some other smalls. Notably, France and Spain do not go AI and must have been active at some point, along with UK and Italy that I already knew had been active as recently as Day 9.

I draw back and plan for a good night's sleep. If I can get positioned, I think I'll hit Italy, Sweden, and UK all at once tomorrow. I speed LT L4 research with WB now that Elite research is unlocked, and I start that. It'll take 9.5 hours, long enough for me to sleep, and once it's done I don't think anyone on the current map will be able to stop me.

Day 11:

It's the weekend so I slept in, which felt nice. I'm now 2nd, 640 to Japan's 740.

Sadly, Japan's quick conquer of an overmatched USA has probably eliminated my chance at a solo. I think it'll just be an easy coalition win. If we were to coalition now we'd have 740 + 640 + 220 + 90 = 1690 out of the needed 2418. Solo would be 1674.

Liberia has been doing well in Africa, and unfortunately took the province that my french spies were in. I got a reveal on them. They're still hanging in there but aren't a threat. At first glance, I thought my spies had revealed Sweden's army too, which surely finished off Germany overnight... but wait, that's Germany? AI Germany reversed Sweden's conquer while I slept and expelled them from mainland Europe. Oof. AI trade embargoes immediately start kicking in, too, and my global popularity stands at 6%.

My resources built up overnight, so why wait? I start the elite upgrade for AC and LT and finish the research with warbonds. I have enough leftover to do the same with L5 ints. My production has shifted to be more air-focused, as I continue with ints and NBs including on the Indian peninsula as coastal defense against someone like UK. At some point in the day I capture a supply drop on the German border but missed what was in it and don't know how to find out. My guess is Goods, Metal, Rares based on my resource counts. I'm still flush with cash so have also been buying from the market to fund upgrades. Even at prices of 12-15 it seems worth it, as I've got enough cash for spies. I can't go crazy though--now that AI has taken over, capitals won't be as juicy anymore. I also decide to move my capital to improve front-line morale--normally a tough decision, but with so little production in my core it's easy. I move to Mosul.

Switzerland reaches out and asks for peace, which I just find odd. Why join games to just sit there and do nothing, and then expect active players to not conquer you?

I have to decide how many enemies to make at once. In addition to my war against AI France, I could start a war with active Italy, active UK, or AI Germany.

I decide to go for Italy first and move into position around midday. Italy has a few battleships stationed between my territory and the Italian peninsula, which I'll need to take out first. I plan to attack after day change and hope for a spy reveal. Originally my plan was to chance a Red Sea crossing without support:

I message Xingjiang with my German intel and he agrees to handle Germany while I attack Italy. My units land just before day change, and I notice Italy upgrading some units in Africa. Hopefully too little too late. It feels bad given Italy's earlier kindness, but that's the way the game goes. I declare war and take a screenshot to show status...

But it's outdated, because 90 seconds before day change this happens:

Alright, let's do it.

194/0 k/d

539/1 provinces

what are uk's stats like? judging from what i can see on the map he hasn't done much fighting. hopefully he doesn't have tons of units in africa...

Day 12

What a day this will be.

Here's where things start:

I'm up to #2 in strongest armies, still trailing my partner Japan.

I ended Day 11 with 9 milsab spies in Italy and still didn't get a reveal, so I'm going in blind. UK attacked so close to day change that I didn't think to shift some spies over there, so I'm also blind to their movements. My Swedish spies also struck out, but that's not big deal. I got a reveal on France again, mostly to stay aware of where the AI is placing their ships since their land units aren't much of a threat.

I start my rush into Africa and see what Italy's upgrading: they're taking L2 inf and L1 mediums both up to L3.

Unfortunately for them, they upgraded on Plains. My stack doesn't get there in time to hit them before the upgrade finishes, but it doesn't matter--plains-boosted PA Elite LTs absolutely shred.

I go bomber hunting in mainland Italy with my ints, trying to remind myself that 4x speed means I may give an inadvertent patrol tick if I don't pay constant attention. I catch 5 bombers refueling, and take out another 5 ints. This clears the way for my ground units, which rush through. Unfortunately, Italy has been producing a ton of battleships. It's a poor strategy, but it complicates my rush because of how skinny the peninsula is. My NBs take a ton of damage destroying the mixed naval stacks but it's worth it. They consolidate ground units where they can but it doesn't matter, I've caught them off-guard and overwhelmed them. I get 200k for capturing Rome, so spies won't be a problem.

Last I recall UK had moved a lot of units to Africa. I hope my little invasion force is enough to deal with Italy and UK. I run around unabated until finding their stacks deep in Africa. They're still moving ships around elsewhere and have started wars with my teammates in Indochina, which don't go well. I assume they give up at some point because unit movement stops.

My conquer of Italy goes so well that I continue on to France with 1.5 hours left in the day. I discover that they've been actively producing L2 heavy tanks. My ints pick off a few single French units here and there, and I manage to save Switzerland's Zurich until just before day change to lock in gains.

In a weird twist, though... Japan turns off share map. What? At this point I've committed to the coalition, so my east is basically vacant. Xing and I message him--apparently he thinks one of us sold him out to UK, a weird fear given that we're actively at war with the UK. He's just being paranoid, I guess, and agrees to coalition up to cement our partnership.

The amount of progress my ACs and LTs were able to make was ridiculous. Here's the end of day status:

Spies: Spain, France, UK

411/0 k/d

821/1 provinces

Taffyta Muttonfudge wrote:

what are uk's stats like? judging from what i can see on the map he hasn't done much fighting. hopefully he doesn't have tons of units in africa...

Day 13: The End

I surge into first place. Look at all the flames in Africa and Europe:

Today is just cleanup, as we're collectively about 100 points away from winning. My spies reveal both UK and Spain. Neither have much. I don't get a French reveal, but that's OK because France is basically done. All 3 are active players still, somehow.

I finish off France and quickly run through Spain, and collect cities in Africa wherever I can. It looks like everyone else in Africa had quit.

Here's how it ends:

It ends on a Sunday afternoon, just in time for me to pick my wife up from the airport and not have to explain why my face is buried in my phone all night

Overall, it was fun but exhausting. 4x is too much for me, I think. I would have liked to go for the solo, but considering Xingjiang's stacks when I had to make that decision, and knowing now how active Japan would end up being, I don't think my chances were very good. It feels like a disappointment but whatever.

I did not enjoy warbonds. It didn't feel right to use them myself, and it was frustrating when others used them against me.

As I said earlier, that map is also a ridiculous k/d farm. I actually think all of my kills were technically PVP in this game despite how inactive the entire map was. Being able to play 9 days against stationary units that don't fight back is bad enough; getting credit for those kills as PVP makes it seem even worse.

Anyways, I hope that was enjoyable for the 6 people that still frequent this forum. I don't anticipate doing any more of those, and may take another long break here now that we're getting this resource change--a change I'm not a fan of. Maybe I'll come back someday and do a WAW playthrough where I try to see how ridiculous things can get if I spend my 1M Gold in the same game

Oh, and @Undaunted, I hope you enjoyed it as well and think again before harassing randos on public maps