| Spoiler warning! This page may contain details about a particular map and/or someone else's tips. If you want to tackle the game unaided, click "Back" or a link to take you away from this page ! |
The purple nation in Imperialism using the map key "Nepal" may have a fair chance of winning.
Game reports[]
Robin's first (Normal difficulty)[]
1815-1825[]
Capital at the suggested point near the three scrub forests getting 2 grain (not expandable) and 3 fish; start rail north-east. Order a second Engineer to start the northern port for more grain (also not expandable). Bid for food, cotton, wool, timber; offer 1 each of clothing and furniture; set up 5 consulates - the 5 MNs that produce iron, coal, and a fibre (because there should be less competition for their favours than in MNs that also produce timber). Start 6 mills/factories and two Indiamen.
Buy a little food. Prospector finds black gold. One of our MNs has no other suitors; we offer 5% to the others. Upgrade a trained worker to train further as a miner. We've used the rest of our paper to train two workers. Replace it when we start having timber.
When we switch our bid from wool (which is rarely offered) to iron we get offered lots and buy quite a bit initially but just the diplomatic minimum for a while after that. Not much timber being offered, and unsurprisingly we are getting none.
Haxaco is selling lots of food!!! Later it will be the first to have the Times report a real shortage.
Black gold number 2! So we will soon want to buy more than the minimum iron. and maybe establish another consulate.
Even after we start buying cotton and continue selling stuff, by Winter 1817 we are bottom on Council projection. Blue is top. Surely those placings will be reversed soon? After we start producing furniture and hardware on a regular basis we will have to examine blue.
Winter 1819: Haxaco is still selling 3 or 4 food per turn. How?? It is not transporting from any orchard. We have found some gold and are building a mine and a depot for it. We are also expanding our workforce and have expanded our steel mill. We will need immigrants soon. We continue to buy diplomatically useful amounts of food, priced in the low 80s.
Summer 1819 "Deneb short on horses"; I don't remember seeing a horse paddock anywhere. Maybe someone has some and Deneb is the first to want some. Let's bid. We did; no offers, and the price went up.
Summer 1821 - order first immigrant. We have 5 expert workers (and no others) and more work than they can handle. We are 3rd in Council projection; blue is 5th. We can't build a port on a swamp though one of our rivals did that years ago! But next season we can, since buying the Iron Bridge tech, which has only just become available to us.
Spring 1822: food is up to $102; we have started buying more than the minimum (and we have seen that Haxaco sometimes buys and sometimes sells, presumably losing a little money in subsidies but gaining diplomatic points). Fall 1822 - Square Set Timbering: yippee!
Winter 1823 start fort at north port. Summer 1823 blue has built military; nobody else has; we start grenadiers.
Summer 1824, open our 8th consulate, trying to get more imports, and open embassy in Bruhr, to give our prospector (and maybe - after we get a Developer and finish the Level II work locally - our miner) more useful work. Next turn offer Bruhr pact.
Zimm's top spot derives almost entirely from the fact that it has built 4 or 5 army units (to Devron's 2 and our 1); we are #1 in Interior Strength, Diplomatic Strength, Industry, and Internal Transport; top equal in Merchant Marine (having 12 holds) and World Exports (with Haxaco); 2nd equal with Ordune for Labor (Zimm's 6th). Devron, despite its 2nd spot in military, is bottom overall, notably in industry and labor. Kem is 6th.
- Current info derivable from map
- Deneb can transport 9 grain, 12 meat, 1 timber, 3 gold, 6 coal, and can build two more ports with grain fields; they have no new forts.
- Devron City contains a mine (don't ask me how!); they can also transport 1 grain, 5 meat, 1 timber (hardwood), 1 gold, 2 coal, 3 iron, and can build another port for 1 grain and 3 meat; have 2 new forts
- Zimm City (up a river) contains a mine (don't ask me how!); they can also transport 1 grain, 14 meat, 2 timber, 6 gold, 1 coal, 2 iron; little scope for more ports or depots without mountain rail; have no new forts, and they have one river port on a mountain(!!)
- Haxaco can transport 7 grain, 9 meat, 5 or 6 timber', 4 gold, 1 iron; can build 2 more ports with 1 grain and 1 meat each; have 1 new fort (in currently valueless central province)
- Ordune can transport 8 grain, 13 meat, 1 timber, 5 gold, 3 coal, 1 iron; negligible scope for more ports; one new fort protects inaccessible fruit; pact with Zazi
- Kem City contains a mine (don't ask me how!); they can also transport 1 grain, 8 meat, 2 cotton, 2 gold, 4 timber, 3 coal, 1 iron; 1 new fort (in a less than useful place)
- We (the Council-leading world-dominating Nepal) can transport 7 grain, 9 meat, 3 timber, 3 gold, 8 coal, 6 iron; can build 3 more ports for additional 3 grain and 10 meat; 1 new fort, in most valuable satellite province; pact with Bruhr
- Summary of above detail
(food, other processables, gold; top bold, bottom italic)
- Den 21, 07, 3
- Dev 06, 06, 1
- Zim 15, 05, 6
- Hax 16, 05, 4
- Ord 21, 05, 5
- Kem 09, 10, 2
- Nep 16, 17, 3
- Totals for 6 GPs
1 cotton; 14+ timber; 15 coal, 8 iron - so our mines in Bruhr should be iron first
1825-1835[]
Summer 1825: expand steel mill to 8. Consulate in Manx (which produces everything).
Winter 1826: expand metalworks to 4. Haxaco offers timber.
Winter 1827: expand textile mill to 4. Spring 1827: Developer; $3,440 for cotton. Food now $121; plenty for sale but maybe we should buy a bigger proportion; we have only 34 left. Summer: $2,220 for Bruhr coal. Fall: Bruhr wants $10,000 for gems: Developer rests.
Summer 1828. Stop offering steel to see whether price recovers - nobody seems interested. Try 25% in Manx for a while. Fall: University expands: usual 10 paper free. Round about here we ordered our first Sapper.
Winter 1829: $2,160 for Bruhr coal. Spring: $2,220 for Bruhr iron. Fall: Paddle Wheels: buy. $2,200 for Bruhr iron.
Winter 1830: Consulate in Issa, looking for more timber though it's very "close" to Haxaco. Spring: Zazi submits to Ordune; Manx submits to Zimm. Order Paddlewheeler (8 holds). Summer: start north-east port for 1 grain and 3 meat. Haxaco seeks alliance: OK. Fall: $1,940 for Bruhr coal. Start south-west port for 1 grain and 3 meat. Order Raider. Switch bid from wool ($257) to coal ($97).
Winter 1831: $2,180 for Bruhr iron. Spring: order Farmer. Summer: Pont submits to Deneb; Issa submits to Haxaco. Expand steel mill to 16. Fall 1831 first General. Bruhr remains independent. Expand clothingand furniture factories to 2.
Spring 1832: Kem and Deneb declare war on Devron. Summer: Embassy in Sindel. Ordune seeks alliance: OK. $4,620 for Sindel forest.
Winter 1833: Deneb seeks alliance: OK. Spring: Ordune and Haxaco join against Devron. $4,620 for Sindel timber.
Summer 1834: $4,380 for last Sindel hardwood. Fall: Capture the first Devron province - with level I forest! Needed a 3rd Raider to get enough guns over. Kathay submits to Zimm.
Winter 1835: $1,540 for Bruhr coal. Take 2nd province.
1835-1845[]
Spring 1835: expand lumber mill to 8. Take 3rd province. Fall: Declare war on Wodan (which has pacts with Devron - ha! - and Kimm - which is now #2 militarily as we have just passed it; and we have allies)
Winter 1836: Wodan submits to Devron (as we expected). We send 5 raiders into beachhead position. Expand metalworks to 8. Deneb fails in another of its many attacks on Devron; "1 Regulars, 3 Artillery" is not a good attacking force against "4 Minutemen, 1 General" (with fort). Summer: Promise Bruhr $1,000 indefinitely. Compound Steam Engine in effect - mostly for the forest effect at present, so we should order a Forester. Fall: Capture Pasco (1 Reg, 7 Gren, 1 Arty, 2 Sap, 1 Gen v 3 Minutemen and 3 Regulars, leaving only 2 Regs) - First port will have 2 meat, fruit, coal mine, and iron and gold mine! Second will be almost as good with grain farm instead of fruit. Loke submits to Deneb - that may be our next target, also for its fruit.
Winter 1837: capture Bellevue (mainly so that Hax doesn't get the use of its iron). Spring: 3 seasons of bribes pay off: we have Bruhr as a colony. Deneb finally gets Taraval after adding 7 regulars. Haxaco short on lumber - the first such report about lumber. Summer: Dev retakes its inland province Wawona and we lose a Regular. Order Forester. Fall: Hax takes Kenniwick, preempting our larger-force attack on it.
Winter 1838: attack on Wodan City surprisingly fails (4 Regs, 6 Gren, 1 Sap, 1 Gen v 3 Minutemen in fort). Attack on Wawona also fails.
Spring 1839: Production of 9th raider brings first Admiral and SOTL. Summer: Zinlu submits to Kem, leaving Kessel as the only MN to which we offer subsidies. Fall: Railyard expands, and Pasco becomes a village, producing 1 steel.
Winter 1841: Two raiders in their first blockade season sapture 2 traders and 3 clothing. Pasco becomes a town, adding 1 hardware (having recently added a second steel). Spring: Hurshen submits to Haxaco, which finally takes Wodan City. Fall: Capture Trader and Clipper and retake Wawona.
Winter 1842: Capture Ulloa, preempting Deneb, gaining more gold and grain, while intercepting a few more ships. Fall: Pram submits to Deneb. Guards.
Fall 1843: Idolon submits to Ordune.
Fall 1844: Ulloa becomes a village, producing 1 steel. Expect 2 or 3 fruit-eaters to be off sick soon (until we can pay to make them soldiers) - we should have stockpiled more cans!
Winter 1845: Expand steel mill to 24, as we can ship 18 coal and 24 iron. Sharpshooter tells us that Devron has 5 Arty, 4 Militia, 5 Rifle Infantry, 2 Siege Artillery, 1 General: 17 units. The General has 3 medals; 3 of the others have 1 each. We may use that info next turn, but being in top slot on Projection and Diplomatic and Military strengths we may not need it.
1845-1855[]
Around 56% with 67 votes. Deneb got less than 25%, which gives us hope. Keep them from getting more than another three and we have a chance. How do we proceed to get 90 votes? Options:
- Persuade the non-voting MNs to support us
- Conquer a lot more territory, preferably not MNs
If we conquer too many MNs (most of which are colonies and therefore can't be separately attacked)), some of the others may take more than 10 years to forgive us.
We really want to take Loke's eastern province to get its accessible orchard, and that means declaring war on its overlord, Deneb. If we succeed in allying with most of the other GPs, we may get away with that, as long as they don't turn on us. Weak Kem is Deneb's only other ally at present; their combined military strength totals more than ours. (Measured in millimetres on my screen, current military standings are: Nepal 76, Deneb 66, Zimm 49, Haxaco 40, Kem 38, Ordune 37, Devron 34.) If we can keep Haxaco and Ordune, we have a combined 154; even with just Ordune we would have 113 to Deneb/Kem's 104. But we would be more secure with Zimm on board.
Spring 1845: our attack on Devron City (a mean attack in view of its vote for us?) failed: 6 of our 31 units died, including both of the old arty and the new arty. Small consolation: Ulloa has become a town, yielding 1 hardware (i.e. almost $800 per turn).
Winter 1846: seek alliance with Zimm. No go. Rethink the fruit problem: we're still able to buy at least 2 each turn, often up to 7. We have access to enough resources to grow our industry considerably. Having 25% of our immigrants unable to work is just an added cost, which reduces but does not negate the benefits of industry growth. So let's resume immigration (with militarization to keep us #1) until resources dry up. Also resume developer work on gold and gems because it is profitable in the medium term (more than coal and iron if you don't want to buy them). Fall: $11,300 for Bruhr coal+gems.
Fall 1847: Sindel joins the empire.
Winter 1848: Kessel submits to Zimm. Fall: pay $12,000 for Advanced Iron Working (Ironclads). But military expansion should generally be army so as to use up people?
Summer 1850: We and Deneb haven't tried Devron City again. We have 5 raiders blockading it, with some success: it shows up as "0" holds in the trade reports. Now we have two sick workers and no food for immigrants. Maybe there's a limit, because the workers get fed before we can offer food to immigrants. So we need more experts. Fall: order token Ironclad.
Fall 1851: Twelt submits to Deneb.
Winter 1853: spy tells us Devron City has 3 Arty, 4 Minutemen, 5 Rifle Infantry, 4 Siege Arty, 1 General, i.e. they have upgraded two Arty but not added units; a few more medals than before (which I guess we helped them get); our Ulloa force is size 60, and we could quickly import enough to take it to near 80. Bought 9 food - yes, it can happen. Cash reaches 55,000. By Fall it has reached 80,000. Our engineers have been busy doubling forts.
1855-1865[]
Spring 1855: not bothering with a picture, vote was 63-27: no more for Deneb but fewer for us from MNs because Deneb has Diplomatic edge. Let's attack Devron again. Lopez becomes a village and sends 1 lumber. (Moving troops to Ulloa takes quite a while!)
Our unnamed adviser (looking like the Foreign Minister) says:
- "Your excellency, I am pleased to report that the capitol has been expanded to accomodate [sic] increased diplomatic traffic resulting from the glorious annexation of another Great Power.
- "We will be able to recruit more workers to the city each turn."
Yeah, right! Buying as much food as we can, and being regularly told by that same adviser that "Industry does not need more Food", we may be struggling!
Our Interior Minister says (more respectfully and believably):
- "Congratulations, Your Excellency! Your wise industrial policies have spurred the growth of the hamlet of Devron City into a village. You will see the new materials produced there on the Transport Ledger."
He goes on to give us the new very familiar message headed "Provide Balanced Diet" then the familiar message headed "Invest in Technology".
Spring 1856: The Imperial Times" reports the victory in its typical robotic way without checking the facts: trotting out the standard advice about grabbing other Devron provinces. Of more interest is the discovery of oil. Seems we can't prospect for oil until we have the Oil Drilling tech; $25,000 sets that in train. Again try to get Zimm as ally now that there's no chance that Devron might turn on them. Furniture (1223) is now worth more than hardware (1183); clothing (1379) still top. Adjust our 113 freight cars to include Devron City steel and one of its coal.
Summer 1856: Zimm says No. Start refinery and prospecting. Fall: oil at first strike, next to depot. Order driller. Dedge now favours us - the 25% made a difference! But it has a rich green relationship with every other GP and their colonies while only pale green with us and ours.
Winter 1857: Devron City now a town: 1 Hardware (adding to its 2 steel). Expand steel mill to 32. Start Power Plant (for a mere $5,000 - no lumber or steel). Promise Dedge $1,000 per turn. Spring: Order another Paddlewheeler (to go to 46 holds). Switch bid from coal to oil (now priced at $110). Summer: get 1 oil from Sindel (presumably from its one swamp) and from another MN. Fall: $2,360 for the Sindel oil swamp. We now have rich green relationship with Dedge; offer $10,000 per turn and invite empire-joining (despite advice that it will be ineffective).
Winter 1858: Kifisia (site of our first port) becomes village, producing 1 fuel. Expand refinery to 4. Deneb declares war on Zimm; we decline to join in. Spring: Times reports "Deneb breaks Alliance!"! Kem has also broken - so Deneb is alone, as is Zimm. Invite Dedge again. Fall: Dedge says No. Kem declares war on Deneb. Haxaco declares war on Zimm - we join in. So does Ordune.
Spring 1859: "Improved Fertilizer". Buy it.
Winter 1860: Capture Morris; see horses in Bergen (currently inaccessible); Deneb's force in Sussex may be able to take it first. We can build depots on hills but can't build ports there; AI nations can build ports on mountains on rivers or the coast. Fall 1860: Capture Bergen with no deaths on our side and sparing 3 minutemen; Times reports only a repulsed attack at the other end.
Summer 1861: gradually restoring (at 25 guns per turn) the troops that were sent back to Nepal City after a failed attack. Moral: don't attack from widely separated ports or you may get all attackers sent back to the wrong one, unable to restock empty provinces immediately. Our internal transport can handle only 25 guns per turn. We have 12 lengths of rail; what else counts?
Spring 1862: Capture Nassau, which, despite being adjacent to Devron City and containing part of Zimm City's outlet to the sea, has been less strongly defended than Essex. Nassau itself is "blockaded" by another Zimm province that contains the river mouth; we have designs on that. Ordune may beat us to it, moving from its south-east province. Haxaco is getting into Zimm's colony Manx.
Summer 1862: Capture Essex, losing no units and sparing the Minutemen (who seem to have tackled our infantry while the stronger defenders fled). t the end of that season we send 52 units to attack Zimm City and the program stops responding. Three times.
- (expect more)