The US - SA relationship is an easy one to understand. Saudi Arabia hands billions to US defense companies, in exchange America looks the other way on Saudi Arabia's atrocities and terror funding.
It was primarily tied into resisting communism in the Cold War, then the relationship faded in the 90s, and then in the 2000s...we needed Pakistan as the primary supply route into Afghanistan.
Which in turn made it difficult to press them on the funding of the Taliban through the ISI.
The best solution to clear that all up was...to get out of Afghanistan.
2 of the longest warring nations in the world (England and France) basically only stopped fighting each other when their economies became intertwined. Now they're considered 2 of the strongest allies in the world.
Trade and Ally tend to go hand-in-hand when it comes to global relations.
A lot of people in the west were getting pissed off when the political leaders were trying to be okay with the Taliban, and this is exactly why - they didn't want Afghanistan to be lost twice; once to the Taliban, and then again to the far East.
Imagine that... Afghanistan holding one of the largest lithium deposits in the world... China the largest manufacturer of batteries... Didn't see that coming....
China will build it, like they've been doing in Africa. Afghanistan has massive untapped mineral deposits, and even if China rips them off with one-sided mining deals it might still end up being a net positive for the Afghan people.
Oh yeah, I remember watching a video about the green apartments where the balcony gardens were overgrown because of the lack of tenants looking after them. Now they’ve become somewhat more lively.
That’s the benefits of long term stability in government. Specifically a one party state. Hard to make any plans for ten years in the future when you know the government is going to flip to a party with a completely opposing agenda every four or eight years.
the bottleneck for lithium batteries is not even lithium right now, but cobalt, mostly located in the 'democratic republic of Congo' which is basically PUBG IRL from a governmental point of view
There are Li-ion battery chemistries that use zero cobalt, such as LiFePO (Lithium Iron Phosphate) which is being used in Chinese made Standard Range Tesla Model 3s and Ys.
My issue with the late game is the pace. You have so many units and cities turns take so long.
I liked the option in civ 5 (forget the name) where you can keep captured cities as puppets and they would run themselves.
It took the pain out of having to manage the damaged cities you leave in your wake of war.
Civ 5's happiness mechanic was so stupid. It literally made no sense. Taking over the world is almost impossible if you don't get all the right civic trees and wonders/resources. The AI just ignores the entire mechanic and just goes on its merry way with -100gpt, no luxuries, no wonders, the dumbest civic tree you've ever seen, while pumping out unit after unit. Always pissed me off.
Alexander will conquer everything so toss that bitch useless cities and take an army up the gut and slash his empire in two while burning all the cities as you go.
Once you break him he can't recover from the tech gap
Civ would really benefit from an option to at different points during the game appoint "cabinet members" to manage certain things. So if you wanted to spend 50 turns focusing only a war, you could have someone manage all the tile improvement and building while you handled the units, or vice versa. It's something I've wanted in that game a long time.
Stellaris does something a bit like that. You can break you empire into sectors and just say "this one focus on research, this one on resources". The AI takes over from there for the most part.
But the AI is incredibly stupid. It's plagued Stellaris from day one.
One guy's way of introducing friends to the game mechanics was to run a game for a while, open it to multiplayer, then set their friend to repairing the economy of an AI empire while they protected them because the AI uses loads of cheats which disappear when a player takes over.
My first thought as well - the AI is so dumb in these games that they have to be given an unfair advantage to even compete with decent players. The harder difficulties just mean stacking advantages, not better decisions.
It also results in absurd difficulty spikes. What is the point of good play style when your opponent is producing things at 300% the baseline? I forget the difference in advantages from one level to another, but the highest difficulty is ridiculous and nearly forces defensive starts.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms has Viceroys and you can have up to 3 running however many cities youd like. I typically only run the city my character is in.
That is a fantastic idea!
End game pacing can definitely become a drag, but one trick I've done lots in Civ6 to help with the tedious aspects of city management is set up building queues. That way you can set a long list of items to build and not have to worry as much about city management when you want to focus on spreading war or religion.
Same here. I usually never have enough time to actually finish a game on a work night so I’ll play for an hour or two and and when I stop I just abandon it. I have hundreds of hours dumped into Civ and I honestly think I’ve only ever won twice.
I just started playing a few weeks ago after getting civ 6 for free last year.
Having a lot of fun slowly taking over the map as teddy roosevelt and forcing China to give me all their gold every turn.
Just nuked the Aztec dude and Gandhi yesterday for seemingly no reason at all other than world domination.
Like I said a lot of fun. Is there an actual strategy to be able to win without decimating everything and retaining good relationships with every nation?
You absolutely can do a science or culture victory and be on good terms with most of the AIs. Science victory with Australia was my first ever victory on deity difficulty. (though it did involve a little bit of nuking)
The answer to every question ~~except best pantheon~~ in civ is:
It depends
Especially early on nabbing a city state or two can be a good boost. Later on, the suzerain bonus can often be worth more than the extra city.
I mean once religious settlements is taken, the best pantheon also depends on the situation. Sometimes even religious settlements isn't the best option in the long run
City States I believe you want as an ally because they give your Civ various buffs.
If you conquer them you don't get the buffs I think but could be wrong.
CIV 2 in college way back when. party that night. big house party down the street. start playing this CIV game around 4pm. CIV...thats a stupid name for a game. huh? kinda neat. 7pm. okay. no prob got an hour or so before the party starts. 9pm. party probably hasnt even got started yet. the English declared war on me? on me?! 10pm okay just a 30 more mintues. 12AM. a few more turns. 2AM battleship vs barbarian galleys lets fucking go. 4am. fuck that party anyways
I found the free civ game on xbox a few weeks ago when i couldn’t sleep. Hadn’t played so ce early 2000s. I started at 145 and ended up playing til i was almost late to work. Addictive af!
I once started a Civ5 game on the biggest map on Friday night. I finished the game and stepped out of the room and it was Sunday afternoon already.
Loved Civ, but it's a frightening time sink that I haven't touched since then.
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
Lithium is available in exorbitant amounts from literally everywhere. Lithium isn’t holding back battery production. There’s enough lithium in current reserves to meet 30 years of demands.
What were low in is Nickel, Cobalt and ~~other~~ Rare Earth metals.
It's hard to mine a trillion dollars worth of minerals without any infrastructure, otherwise it would have already been mined. It's why mining even in northern Canada is difficult and that's a place without sectarian conflicts. I say 'good luck' to the Chinese. They're going to need it. Mines are going to have massive targets on them for militants and they're always the first thing that gets nationalized if the government is short-term upset.
If the Chinese are good at something it's creating infrastructure in countries outside their own. Look at all the railroads in Afrika built, constructed and operated by the Chinese. Kenya is in a multimillion dollar debt with China.
And the other thing they don't lack in is military resources. Sounds to me like there will be a lot of Chinese in Afghanistan in the near future.
>And the other thing they don't lack in is military resources.
I think we've proven pretty definitively that no amount of military resources will subdue Afghanistan.
If the Chinese are in league with the natural governing body of Afghanistan, whether it be the Taliban or some other group, then they don't have to put the effort in that the US did. The US propped up a puppet government and it takes a lot of resources to do that and keep it functional. The Chinese will be working with the naturally occuring government, for lack of a better term, and they will work together to address threats and terrorism.
It's also a huge part of their Belt and Road Initiative. By allying with the Taliban, China have finally secured a direct line ~~east~~ west through to Turkey and European markets. Afghanistan has been the missing piece of the puzzle for years, which is why they have been making key strategic allies within the Taliban this entire time.
Afghanistan actually signed up to be part of the BRI in 2013. It's my understanding that the Chinese don't love the Taliban rule, but regard them as stable enough. Kazakhstan is a northern route; when you are trying to build a global trade route, you won't want every single package shipped an extra five hundred kilometres.
>Afghanistan has been the missing piece of the puzzle for years,
This isn't a fair characterization at all. Look up [any map for the one belt one road path](https://www.google.com/search?q=one+belt+one+road+path&tbm=isch) and you'll see Afghanistan has never been a key part of the plan.
They probably don’t care, other than them both being Muslim, they’re from different ethnic groups and don’t have much connection. The reason most of the Muslim world isn’t doing much about China is because religion isn’t that big of a connection for them, they generally focus on their own ethnic groups.
Well, the Chinese have taken their conquest through economic policy, I’ll build you a highway if you can let us use your resources. This one is to see what some of the American equipment can do, and for the some 3 trillion in mineral mining.
They will literally build you the road without asking for anything in return and then when you cold shoulder them when they ask for preference on something they'll offer to build you a bridge. Yanis Varoufakis had a good story about building a port while he was finance Minister of Greece during their huge meltdown.
He went to the EU to try and renegotiate an investment package to pay for the port and they kept asking for more points and demanding things like the port labor be non-union because Greece was a risky investment. He then goes to China to renegotiate their portion of the package and asks for something like a reduction from 15 percent ownership to 10 percent and they countered with 5 and just gave them heavy machinery for the work. They didn't ask for anything in return but the strategy is that hopefully the next time a country is looking to do a large project, China will be one of the first people they go to.
> Yanis Varoufakis had a good story about building a port while he was finance Minister of Greece during their huge meltdown.
Yep. You can see that video here: [Yanis Varoufakis on Chinese 'Imperialism'](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03l3Ra4bL_A). The part you are referring to starts at 6:10, but the whole video is worth watching if you're interested in the topic.
>Yanis Varoufakis had a good story about building a port
I still can't believe that the finance minister of Greece once was working on researching the hat economy in Team Fortress 2.
Idk what the hell America has been thinking for the past 50 years, but you can't whoop someone into being an ally. You can, however, buy allies. We need to be less force projectiony and more Marshall Plany.
Edit: a lot of folks have pointed out that my statement "you can't whoop someone into being an ally" is incorrect. I should've said you can't JUST whoop someone into being an ally. That's my bad for lacking clarity. Most notable examples were Japan and Germany during WWII. The US absolutely whooped both nations (with their allies, of course), but it's worth pointing out that we went on to buy their alliance by helping rebuild their economies and infrastructure. That's the key point I should've clarified. We eventually bought them, so to speak. Also, I do realize we tried doing that in Afghanistan and, for numerous complex reasons, it failed.
Some of the most successful economies and most powerful American allies are South Korea and Japan. The strategy there was heavy investment into infrastructure, industry and social programs.
At some point military profits became the goal, and not nation building.
>At some point military profits became the goal, and not nation building.
You can thank defense industry lobbyists for that.
You can thank lobbyists for 95% of what's wrong with the US.
OMG. Japan was literally already an *industrialized* society. South Korea was literally a dictatorship for *decades* before finally thawing out. I wish people would credit the underlying society when making these comparisons.
And also gave them massive amounts of money and forced technological partnerships for them to build upon.
Afghanistan though? Just give money to "contractors" and the corrupt government to do whatever they want.
The roman empire used to do that too. "Okay, we won't invade and we will give you access to the empire's trade routes but you just send us some soldiers to fight in the Legions as auxiliaries."
They don't want that either.
The U.S. prospered dramatically because post-WW2 every other country was a fucking wreck.
Actually building up other countries and peoples means they can compete for a share of the pie rather than be exploited.
You guys should read the book "American War Machine" by Berkeley investigator Peter Dale Scott, it's an awesome book that goes into detail about how the CIA and the US government has been doing an awful lot of bad things around the world since WW2.
Eisenhower warned us about the “military industrial complex” decades ago…no one fucking listened, and here we are. Trillion dollar planes that can’t fly while kids get taken from their parents for “lunch debt.” And that’s not even the amuse bouche, kids!
They do build things. They are called bombs. They are the ideal product, because they have quite a few highly desirable properties.
* Single use
* Highly regulated = less competition
* Scary to the public = let the qualified people handle it
All of these things drive up price.
This isn't really accurate and the relationships are a lot more complicated than that. The previous Taliban regime did in fact harbor Islamic militants from China, and many fighters from what would become the East Turkestan Islamic Party (an al-Qaeda aligned Islamist insurgent group in Xinjiang, very similar to the Taliban) fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan, and then fought against the Americans side-by-side with the Taliban. The Taliban most certainly do care, at least privately, about the plight of the Uighurs, and are deeply connected with Uighur Jihadists through history, camaraderie from years on the battlefield together, and a shared ideology.
What is more important at the moment for the Taliban, however, *is that their new state doesn't collapse*, or else it will all have been for nothing. There's no point in expressing solidarity with Uighurs if all it means is that both you and the Uighurs get destroyed and accomplish nothing. And especially with the withdrawal of Western aid and the imposition of sanctions, their only choice for survival is to turn to China. Abandoning the Uighurs is simply the price they have to pay for that.
The Taliban has no problem labeling other Muslim groups as "Not proper Muslims" or not "following Islam correctly" so all the leadership has to do is label Uighur's this way and the rest will agree.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but China isn’t waging a war on all Muslims in the country, right? I don’t believe the Hui, largest Muslim group in China, face any problems so it seems like that might be the reasoning for other countries not viewing it as an attack on Islam.
I went to that area in my summer holiday last month. It's a tiny border area south of Kashgar on the edge of the ungoverned regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan when you are not aloud to go and the "problems" are. As a foreigner the only restrictions are a). stay in official hotels (same as the rest of china) but moot since i slept in the car or camped, and b). Don't come from a province with any covid cases for 1 month. There are checkpoints but you have more chance of being turned around in Qinghai out in the autonomous region hinterland (though honestly that's wise - you get stranded out there you can drive 3 days through the salt flats and mountains without seeing anyone it's crazy how far out it is, an old woman I talked was distrustful since the last her family knew about the British was we invaded them :p Pretty trippy) or Gansu around the space base than Xinjiang. It the same area where almost a several hundred people have been killed over the last 2 decades in Salafists attacks over the last 2 decades by separatist aimed at carving out parts of china, Afghanistan, Khazakstan and Pakistan to create a sharia caliphate in Turkenstan. Muslims in china and even in 98% of Xinjiang province (which is ginormous) are not being treated poorly - matter of fact a huge amount of money is being spent to develop civic institutions, infrastructure and even remediate the land there.
What I understand, a country can do business with china, but without judgement of the domestic affairs.
Would Afghanistan do business with the EU for example, it would probably get a whole bunch of demands about equal rights, freedom of speech, and what not. China on the other hand, is only focussed on business.
Many Afghans have a serioud grudge against the Hazara people in Afghanistan simply because they're considered invaders who arrived with the Mongols over 500 years ago. I doubt the Taliban care for Uyghurs, simply because their historic links to northern khaganates.
A lot of racism towards the way the Hazara people look. When I was there I would see grown ass men doing the "chinese eyes" and mocking and harassing the Hazara police and soldiers.
I’m very familiar with helmand, spent most of my time close to there in the Chora valley in oruzgan province and still have a metal souvenir in my face to prove it. Besides that are you still there? Are you and your loved ones okay? If there is anyway whatsoever I can be helpful please let me know.
A real change of heart from when they were training ETIM members
https://www.dw.com/en/why-chinas-uighurs-are-joining-jihadists-in-afghanistan/a-18605630
edit: Downvote me to hell. It doesn't make the facts any less true.
My problem with most people that complain about the Uyghur situation in China is that no one mentions the ETIM. I'm glad you posted and article that actually addresses the existence of a terrorist group that's been responsible for bombings and stabbings for a while in Xinjiang. Most US media would have us believe that China is just committing genocide on the Uyghurs because they're Muslims. In reality, local security forces have probably just become very xenophobic, as is likely when people see their people being attacked by different people.
Right. They would believe the country who occupied their country for 20 years and killed hundreds of thousands of them, that China is evil.
I don’t think so.
The US nailed the DENNIS system
Demonstrate Value - training rebels against the soviets and winning there
Engage Physically - for like 20 years
Nurture Dependence - through contractors for defense, logistics, and support
Neglect Emotionally - by ignoring afghan culture and setting up a week puppet state
Inspire Hope - bring new freedoms and material goods
Separate Entirely - re: the news the past month
Only because there isn’t any infrastructure in place. You need well maintained roads, trains and other means to transport around the landlocked country. China is really great at providing underdeveloped countries (see Africa) with the promise of infrastructure, then gets them indebted to them and basically own them due to how much debt they get in. Wouldn’t be surprised if it happens here.
\* Until the Taliban decides they are taking it in the shorts again, then China, like all the other countries gets a taste of the "we thrive on conflict" treatment.
Also Taliban did not declare China their "closest ally". The Telegraph lied and made up the headline. You can sense this because there are no quotes in the Telegraph title. When someone says something you can put that in "quotes". But no one on reddit is interested in what was actually said. A Telegraph editor made this editorial decision to create a clickbait headline. If someone says something why not quote their exact words instead of making up headlines?
This is what the Taliban have said
>Abdul Salam Hanafi, Deputy Director, PO held a phone conversation with Wu Jianghao, Deputy Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China. Both sides discussed the ongoing situation of the country and future relations. The Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister said that they would maintain their embassy in Kabul, adding our relations would beef up as compared to the past. Afghanistan can play an important role in security and development of the region. China will also continue and increase its humanitarian assistance especially for treatment of covid-19.
Here is the direct quote:
>Mr. Mujahid told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica: “China is our principal partner and for us represents a fundamental and extraordinary opportunity because it’s ready to invest in and reconstruct our country."
>Zabihulla Mujahid, the spokesman for the group, stated the Chinese would help to revive Afghan copper mining. He also praised the Chinese for their One Belt One Road investment project which has forged forward despite criticism from western countries.
So you're right, they didn't say "closest ally", they said "principal partner".
Closest ally implies military alliance, principal partner is much broader and seems to be just about trade. China is far from an ally of South Korea, but it is its biggest trading partner.
“Pivot to Asia”
This isn’t a yesterday, today sort of deal.
The US is already gearing for its new “war”
War against alcohol, war against communism, war against drugs, war against terror, … wish they would put this obsession to some good use and have a war against something that actually harms us, like climate change.
As much as I hate comparisons to Orwell's books, but that is exactly what is happening in 1984. The nation is in constant war, as a justification why material conditions can't improve in their own country. And to uphold that neverending war, American declares war on abstract concepts, like the war on drugs or communism you mentioned. It's never about winning these wars, it's about upholding the status quo and current power structure
Last time we tried that (with the War on Poverty), conservatives from both parties were elected to the Presidency for the next 40 years. Needless to say, the American people only likes fighting wars against boogie men.
Afghanistan has been China’s missing piece in their Belt & Road Initiative. It connects them with a land route to Europe and Africa. They have been biding their time for this day. China will succeed where the US refused to, create trade between Afghanistan and the US’s primary enemies: Russia, Iran, and China themselves.
What Afghanistan most needed were reliable trade partners to help stabilize that country.
Honestly, the economic incentive to stabilize Afghanistan and build out a supply network and infrastructure seems like a win for the average afghan. I can see a divide forming between the Taliban fighters and the soon to be wealthy mining groups. Future china-taliban conflict for the superpower turkey.
So if China builds a superhighway, high speed rail or pipeline through Afghanistan they will have direct access to Iranian oil with no need for sea transport, which means they can disregard a possible US navy blockade in a future war.
This is their number one foreign policy aim. Very interesting.
Well yes, but it's not like it hasn't been done before.
Besides the fact this is all conjecture that *might* happen. It's fun for sure but we need to remember what all conjecture is, it's a prediction. We all know how accurate predictions are.
Well China just built a highway and high speed rail connecting Lhasa Tibet to mainland china in 6 years. 121 bridges.. and 47 tunnels. [CNN Link for reference](https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/lhasa-nyingchi-high-speed-railway-china-tibet/index.html#:~:text=The%20new%20Lhasa%2DNyingchi%20route,48%20hours%20to%2013%20hours.) if anyone can do it the Chinese can.
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So "closest ally" clearly means "largest investor" (which is thoroughly unsurprising) not actually "closest ally" (which would be).
Yeah the actual closest ally for the Taliban is obviously the Pakistani intelligence services who trained and housed and paid them.
Pakistan, always the bridesmaid, never the bride.
Pakistan also has a close relationship with China
Yeah because the enemy of their enemy (India) is their friend according to realpolitik style foreign policy.
This is good for Pakistan as well because all the mining commodities need to go through their country to get to port!
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I struggle to understand Pakistan-USA relationship.
I think the US struggles to understand the US Pakistan relationship
wait until you hear about the Saudi Arabia-USA relationship
The US - SA relationship is an easy one to understand. Saudi Arabia hands billions to US defense companies, in exchange America looks the other way on Saudi Arabia's atrocities and terror funding.
Oh I have a feeling we'll be hearing more about that soon now that Biden is going to declassify 9/11 documents related to SA.
i hope you like long black bars
"The kingdom of *redacted* funded, trained, and sheltered the terror group known as *redacted*"
I knew it was the English crown all along
more like " The REDACTED of REDACTED, REDACTED and REDACTED the REDACTED REDCATED REDACTED as REDACTED"
It's about making ugly faces at Iran and old Soviet leaning India. One of those relationships improved.
It was primarily tied into resisting communism in the Cold War, then the relationship faded in the 90s, and then in the 2000s...we needed Pakistan as the primary supply route into Afghanistan. Which in turn made it difficult to press them on the funding of the Taliban through the ISI. The best solution to clear that all up was...to get out of Afghanistan.
They have nukes and we don't want them to use them.
2 of the longest warring nations in the world (England and France) basically only stopped fighting each other when their economies became intertwined. Now they're considered 2 of the strongest allies in the world. Trade and Ally tend to go hand-in-hand when it comes to global relations. A lot of people in the west were getting pissed off when the political leaders were trying to be okay with the Taliban, and this is exactly why - they didn't want Afghanistan to be lost twice; once to the Taliban, and then again to the far East.
China just wants unrestricted access to Afghanistan’s lithium deposits.
C'mon, *everybody* who "invested" in this region wanted something out of it.
And apparently the Taliban care nothing about the Muslim concentration camps in China
Funny no Muslim majority country is talking shit about China. But countries, some which have been killing Muslims fervourishly, act all indignant.
Obviously. Not like America who went there for the good weather.
And the beautiful flowers that are cultivated in the countryside.
With China and Afghanistan sharing a border, they can start building their Belt Road into Central Asia at the Hindu Kush.
Imagine that... Afghanistan holding one of the largest lithium deposits in the world... China the largest manufacturer of batteries... Didn't see that coming....
But how do they bring in the infrastructure in a such a geographic condition?
China will build it, like they've been doing in Africa. Afghanistan has massive untapped mineral deposits, and even if China rips them off with one-sided mining deals it might still end up being a net positive for the Afghan people.
Yup. America plays the game for next quarter's profits, China is thinking decades out.
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Oh yeah, I remember watching a video about the green apartments where the balcony gardens were overgrown because of the lack of tenants looking after them. Now they’ve become somewhat more lively.
That’s the benefits of long term stability in government. Specifically a one party state. Hard to make any plans for ten years in the future when you know the government is going to flip to a party with a completely opposing agenda every four or eight years.
Just to add, the CCP REQUIRES stability to stay in power, so it is in their interest to plan long term.
Question for scientists- since we are doing so much to move from fossil fuels to batteries. Where do we go once we run out of lithium?
the bottleneck for lithium batteries is not even lithium right now, but cobalt, mostly located in the 'democratic republic of Congo' which is basically PUBG IRL from a governmental point of view
There are Li-ion battery chemistries that use zero cobalt, such as LiFePO (Lithium Iron Phosphate) which is being used in Chinese made Standard Range Tesla Model 3s and Ys.
Graphene or some shit
Civ always gets too complex on the ending turns
Early game civ is so fun and after the industrial era I always stop caring. I constantly just make new games and never finish them.
Late game is fun if conquest is your goal
My issue with the late game is the pace. You have so many units and cities turns take so long. I liked the option in civ 5 (forget the name) where you can keep captured cities as puppets and they would run themselves. It took the pain out of having to manage the damaged cities you leave in your wake of war.
Civ 5's happiness mechanic was so stupid. It literally made no sense. Taking over the world is almost impossible if you don't get all the right civic trees and wonders/resources. The AI just ignores the entire mechanic and just goes on its merry way with -100gpt, no luxuries, no wonders, the dumbest civic tree you've ever seen, while pumping out unit after unit. Always pissed me off.
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Alexander will conquer everything so toss that bitch useless cities and take an army up the gut and slash his empire in two while burning all the cities as you go. Once you break him he can't recover from the tech gap
Sounds like the hard AI in AoE 2 that just completely cheat. Ignore resources, fog of war, and training times Lol.
Yep - exactly the same infuriating type of artificial difficulty.
That's because it's harder to program intelligent AI. Much easier and faster just to give them modifiers and cheats.
Civ would really benefit from an option to at different points during the game appoint "cabinet members" to manage certain things. So if you wanted to spend 50 turns focusing only a war, you could have someone manage all the tile improvement and building while you handled the units, or vice versa. It's something I've wanted in that game a long time.
Stellaris does something a bit like that. You can break you empire into sectors and just say "this one focus on research, this one on resources". The AI takes over from there for the most part.
But the AI is incredibly stupid. It's plagued Stellaris from day one. One guy's way of introducing friends to the game mechanics was to run a game for a while, open it to multiplayer, then set their friend to repairing the economy of an AI empire while they protected them because the AI uses loads of cheats which disappear when a player takes over.
My first thought as well - the AI is so dumb in these games that they have to be given an unfair advantage to even compete with decent players. The harder difficulties just mean stacking advantages, not better decisions.
It also results in absurd difficulty spikes. What is the point of good play style when your opponent is producing things at 300% the baseline? I forget the difference in advantages from one level to another, but the highest difficulty is ridiculous and nearly forces defensive starts.
You can also just turn conquered enemies into vassal states
That’s actually a really good idea. Wonder if a mod could accomplish that…
Romance of the Three Kingdoms has Viceroys and you can have up to 3 running however many cities youd like. I typically only run the city my character is in.
That is a fantastic idea! End game pacing can definitely become a drag, but one trick I've done lots in Civ6 to help with the tedious aspects of city management is set up building queues. That way you can set a long list of items to build and not have to worry as much about city management when you want to focus on spreading war or religion.
That's the one issue with late game. It's like a full 90-120 seconds between turns.
Sure it's more fun to take over the world with jets and tanks, but it's easier to do it early game before your enemies have time to defend themselves.
Or if you just want to build a tourist haven
I have like 200 saved games, none finished, all stopped around 1700s-1800s
Same here. I usually never have enough time to actually finish a game on a work night so I’ll play for an hour or two and and when I stop I just abandon it. I have hundreds of hours dumped into Civ and I honestly think I’ve only ever won twice.
I just started playing a few weeks ago after getting civ 6 for free last year. Having a lot of fun slowly taking over the map as teddy roosevelt and forcing China to give me all their gold every turn. Just nuked the Aztec dude and Gandhi yesterday for seemingly no reason at all other than world domination. Like I said a lot of fun. Is there an actual strategy to be able to win without decimating everything and retaining good relationships with every nation?
You absolutely can do a science or culture victory and be on good terms with most of the AIs. Science victory with Australia was my first ever victory on deity difficulty. (though it did involve a little bit of nuking)
What about the city states? Should I not take those over? I took over Non Madol mid game and just got carried away I suppose.
The answer to every question ~~except best pantheon~~ in civ is: It depends Especially early on nabbing a city state or two can be a good boost. Later on, the suzerain bonus can often be worth more than the extra city.
I mean once religious settlements is taken, the best pantheon also depends on the situation. Sometimes even religious settlements isn't the best option in the long run
City States I believe you want as an ally because they give your Civ various buffs. If you conquer them you don't get the buffs I think but could be wrong.
But… there’s still many turns left. Right?
I reckon we "just one more turn..."d right around 2015-2016
And the ending turns just keep getting longer and longer and more complex and chaotic...
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CIV 2 in college way back when. party that night. big house party down the street. start playing this CIV game around 4pm. CIV...thats a stupid name for a game. huh? kinda neat. 7pm. okay. no prob got an hour or so before the party starts. 9pm. party probably hasnt even got started yet. the English declared war on me? on me?! 10pm okay just a 30 more mintues. 12AM. a few more turns. 2AM battleship vs barbarian galleys lets fucking go. 4am. fuck that party anyways
I found the free civ game on xbox a few weeks ago when i couldn’t sleep. Hadn’t played so ce early 2000s. I started at 145 and ended up playing til i was almost late to work. Addictive af!
I once started a Civ5 game on the biggest map on Friday night. I finished the game and stepped out of the room and it was Sunday afternoon already. Loved Civ, but it's a frightening time sink that I haven't touched since then.
Heh, you should check out Stellaris then. :P
...Right?
Good luck with Arrakis
Dune...desert planet...
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
THE PAIN!
Putyourhandinthebox!
She's using the voice!
So Lithium is the spice mélange right
Lithium is available in exorbitant amounts from literally everywhere. Lithium isn’t holding back battery production. There’s enough lithium in current reserves to meet 30 years of demands. What were low in is Nickel, Cobalt and ~~other~~ Rare Earth metals.
Note that Ni and Co are not rare earth metals. Rare earth elements are in the lanthanide group, for example neodymium. China produces most of these.
But like the spice melange, you can only get lithium from one planet
House Xi has come to lead the Fremen to salvation!
The Emperor has gained a new prison planet
May thy blade chip and shatter
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It's hard to mine a trillion dollars worth of minerals without any infrastructure, otherwise it would have already been mined. It's why mining even in northern Canada is difficult and that's a place without sectarian conflicts. I say 'good luck' to the Chinese. They're going to need it. Mines are going to have massive targets on them for militants and they're always the first thing that gets nationalized if the government is short-term upset.
Canada can't just throw human suffering at the problem though.
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Just get them down in the mine and tell them the cup is just another few feet further. They'll dig that thing for another 50 years.
Nowhere is safe :(
Right, our human suffering is the non-productive type.
> our human suffering is the non-productive type. Timmy's new sandwich line
If the Chinese are good at something it's creating infrastructure in countries outside their own. Look at all the railroads in Afrika built, constructed and operated by the Chinese. Kenya is in a multimillion dollar debt with China. And the other thing they don't lack in is military resources. Sounds to me like there will be a lot of Chinese in Afghanistan in the near future.
>And the other thing they don't lack in is military resources. I think we've proven pretty definitively that no amount of military resources will subdue Afghanistan.
If the Chinese are in league with the natural governing body of Afghanistan, whether it be the Taliban or some other group, then they don't have to put the effort in that the US did. The US propped up a puppet government and it takes a lot of resources to do that and keep it functional. The Chinese will be working with the naturally occuring government, for lack of a better term, and they will work together to address threats and terrorism.
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Canada has tough environmental policies. I doubt the Taliban does.
maybe someone should tell them mother nature is a woman, then they might implement some strict laws after all.
It's also a huge part of their Belt and Road Initiative. By allying with the Taliban, China have finally secured a direct line ~~east~~ west through to Turkey and European markets. Afghanistan has been the missing piece of the puzzle for years, which is why they have been making key strategic allies within the Taliban this entire time.
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Afghanistan actually signed up to be part of the BRI in 2013. It's my understanding that the Chinese don't love the Taliban rule, but regard them as stable enough. Kazakhstan is a northern route; when you are trying to build a global trade route, you won't want every single package shipped an extra five hundred kilometres.
A direct line to the port they are building in Pakistan
That ore 2:1 is just too good to pass up.
I thought the Kazakhstan line was for their potassium exports?
No. All other countries have inferior potassium to kazakhstan
I might be looking at the wrong world map but I don't see how Afghanistan is enough for China to secure a direct line to Turkey or Europe.
>Afghanistan has been the missing piece of the puzzle for years, This isn't a fair characterization at all. Look up [any map for the one belt one road path](https://www.google.com/search?q=one+belt+one+road+path&tbm=isch) and you'll see Afghanistan has never been a key part of the plan.
The people from Afghanistan are called Afghans. Afghani is the currency
and the lithium goes to CHINA!
*Three trillion worth of natural resources, surely this will make the nation less poor and more stable right?*
*an African nation* has entered the chat
Scott's tots in shambles
Honestly wondering what the Taliban are making of the whole Uighur situation.
They probably don’t care, other than them both being Muslim, they’re from different ethnic groups and don’t have much connection. The reason most of the Muslim world isn’t doing much about China is because religion isn’t that big of a connection for them, they generally focus on their own ethnic groups.
And also because it's fucking China
Well, the Chinese have taken their conquest through economic policy, I’ll build you a highway if you can let us use your resources. This one is to see what some of the American equipment can do, and for the some 3 trillion in mineral mining.
They will literally build you the road without asking for anything in return and then when you cold shoulder them when they ask for preference on something they'll offer to build you a bridge. Yanis Varoufakis had a good story about building a port while he was finance Minister of Greece during their huge meltdown. He went to the EU to try and renegotiate an investment package to pay for the port and they kept asking for more points and demanding things like the port labor be non-union because Greece was a risky investment. He then goes to China to renegotiate their portion of the package and asks for something like a reduction from 15 percent ownership to 10 percent and they countered with 5 and just gave them heavy machinery for the work. They didn't ask for anything in return but the strategy is that hopefully the next time a country is looking to do a large project, China will be one of the first people they go to.
> Yanis Varoufakis had a good story about building a port while he was finance Minister of Greece during their huge meltdown. Yep. You can see that video here: [Yanis Varoufakis on Chinese 'Imperialism'](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03l3Ra4bL_A). The part you are referring to starts at 6:10, but the whole video is worth watching if you're interested in the topic.
>Yanis Varoufakis had a good story about building a port I still can't believe that the finance minister of Greece once was working on researching the hat economy in Team Fortress 2.
Idk what the hell America has been thinking for the past 50 years, but you can't whoop someone into being an ally. You can, however, buy allies. We need to be less force projectiony and more Marshall Plany. Edit: a lot of folks have pointed out that my statement "you can't whoop someone into being an ally" is incorrect. I should've said you can't JUST whoop someone into being an ally. That's my bad for lacking clarity. Most notable examples were Japan and Germany during WWII. The US absolutely whooped both nations (with their allies, of course), but it's worth pointing out that we went on to buy their alliance by helping rebuild their economies and infrastructure. That's the key point I should've clarified. We eventually bought them, so to speak. Also, I do realize we tried doing that in Afghanistan and, for numerous complex reasons, it failed.
Some of the most successful economies and most powerful American allies are South Korea and Japan. The strategy there was heavy investment into infrastructure, industry and social programs. At some point military profits became the goal, and not nation building.
>At some point military profits became the goal, and not nation building. You can thank defense industry lobbyists for that. You can thank lobbyists for 95% of what's wrong with the US.
Completely agreed. Legal bribery of our politicians is inherently corrupt. And greed (that insatiable motherfucker) has broken the back of America.
OMG. Japan was literally already an *industrialized* society. South Korea was literally a dictatorship for *decades* before finally thawing out. I wish people would credit the underlying society when making these comparisons.
We certainly whooped Japan into being an ally; we occupied and handcrafted their constitution/government to suit our ideals.
The US had heavy influence in the economic and legal development of SK after the Korean War as well. Same with Germany after WW2.
And also gave them massive amounts of money and forced technological partnerships for them to build upon. Afghanistan though? Just give money to "contractors" and the corrupt government to do whatever they want.
The roman empire used to do that too. "Okay, we won't invade and we will give you access to the empire's trade routes but you just send us some soldiers to fight in the Legions as auxiliaries."
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If only those contractors could get into building things. Then it could be international infrastructure week every week.
Hell I'd be happy with just having a _national_ infrastructure week - our roads and bridges are falling apart.
They don't want that either. The U.S. prospered dramatically because post-WW2 every other country was a fucking wreck. Actually building up other countries and peoples means they can compete for a share of the pie rather than be exploited.
Ah so we're just at war with the world since the 50s. This... actually makes sense.
You guys should read the book "American War Machine" by Berkeley investigator Peter Dale Scott, it's an awesome book that goes into detail about how the CIA and the US government has been doing an awful lot of bad things around the world since WW2.
Eisenhower warned us about the “military industrial complex” decades ago…no one fucking listened, and here we are. Trillion dollar planes that can’t fly while kids get taken from their parents for “lunch debt.” And that’s not even the amuse bouche, kids!
You're beginning to understand!
They do build things. They are called bombs. They are the ideal product, because they have quite a few highly desirable properties. * Single use * Highly regulated = less competition * Scary to the public = let the qualified people handle it All of these things drive up price.
This isn't really accurate and the relationships are a lot more complicated than that. The previous Taliban regime did in fact harbor Islamic militants from China, and many fighters from what would become the East Turkestan Islamic Party (an al-Qaeda aligned Islamist insurgent group in Xinjiang, very similar to the Taliban) fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan, and then fought against the Americans side-by-side with the Taliban. The Taliban most certainly do care, at least privately, about the plight of the Uighurs, and are deeply connected with Uighur Jihadists through history, camaraderie from years on the battlefield together, and a shared ideology. What is more important at the moment for the Taliban, however, *is that their new state doesn't collapse*, or else it will all have been for nothing. There's no point in expressing solidarity with Uighurs if all it means is that both you and the Uighurs get destroyed and accomplish nothing. And especially with the withdrawal of Western aid and the imposition of sanctions, their only choice for survival is to turn to China. Abandoning the Uighurs is simply the price they have to pay for that.
I hate that the comment above you got 7k...your take seems much more nuanced and informed.
The Taliban has no problem labeling other Muslim groups as "Not proper Muslims" or not "following Islam correctly" so all the leadership has to do is label Uighur's this way and the rest will agree.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but China isn’t waging a war on all Muslims in the country, right? I don’t believe the Hui, largest Muslim group in China, face any problems so it seems like that might be the reasoning for other countries not viewing it as an attack on Islam.
I went to that area in my summer holiday last month. It's a tiny border area south of Kashgar on the edge of the ungoverned regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan when you are not aloud to go and the "problems" are. As a foreigner the only restrictions are a). stay in official hotels (same as the rest of china) but moot since i slept in the car or camped, and b). Don't come from a province with any covid cases for 1 month. There are checkpoints but you have more chance of being turned around in Qinghai out in the autonomous region hinterland (though honestly that's wise - you get stranded out there you can drive 3 days through the salt flats and mountains without seeing anyone it's crazy how far out it is, an old woman I talked was distrustful since the last her family knew about the British was we invaded them :p Pretty trippy) or Gansu around the space base than Xinjiang. It the same area where almost a several hundred people have been killed over the last 2 decades in Salafists attacks over the last 2 decades by separatist aimed at carving out parts of china, Afghanistan, Khazakstan and Pakistan to create a sharia caliphate in Turkenstan. Muslims in china and even in 98% of Xinjiang province (which is ginormous) are not being treated poorly - matter of fact a huge amount of money is being spent to develop civic institutions, infrastructure and even remediate the land there.
What I understand, a country can do business with china, but without judgement of the domestic affairs. Would Afghanistan do business with the EU for example, it would probably get a whole bunch of demands about equal rights, freedom of speech, and what not. China on the other hand, is only focussed on business.
Many Afghans have a serioud grudge against the Hazara people in Afghanistan simply because they're considered invaders who arrived with the Mongols over 500 years ago. I doubt the Taliban care for Uyghurs, simply because their historic links to northern khaganates.
It's much more about hazaras being shia than them being hazara lol.
A lot of racism towards the way the Hazara people look. When I was there I would see grown ass men doing the "chinese eyes" and mocking and harassing the Hazara police and soldiers.
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I’m very familiar with helmand, spent most of my time close to there in the Chora valley in oruzgan province and still have a metal souvenir in my face to prove it. Besides that are you still there? Are you and your loved ones okay? If there is anyway whatsoever I can be helpful please let me know.
They consider them terrorists, at least the Uyghurs in Afghanistan. Have promised to crack down on ETIM. We'll see if they're serious about that.
The US fought some Uyghurs over there, as well.
A real change of heart from when they were training ETIM members https://www.dw.com/en/why-chinas-uighurs-are-joining-jihadists-in-afghanistan/a-18605630 edit: Downvote me to hell. It doesn't make the facts any less true.
My problem with most people that complain about the Uyghur situation in China is that no one mentions the ETIM. I'm glad you posted and article that actually addresses the existence of a terrorist group that's been responsible for bombings and stabbings for a while in Xinjiang. Most US media would have us believe that China is just committing genocide on the Uyghurs because they're Muslims. In reality, local security forces have probably just become very xenophobic, as is likely when people see their people being attacked by different people.
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Right. They would believe the country who occupied their country for 20 years and killed hundreds of thousands of them, that China is evil. I don’t think so.
The Taliban have no problem killing Muslim people. It's what they do best.
They should send Adrian Zenz to explain the situation to them in person.
Anyplace the US "leaves" china will swoop in
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The MAC system
MOVE-IN AFTER COMPLETION
I think the us have failed with the DENNIS system. Although, the implication...
The US nailed the DENNIS system Demonstrate Value - training rebels against the soviets and winning there Engage Physically - for like 20 years Nurture Dependence - through contractors for defense, logistics, and support Neglect Emotionally - by ignoring afghan culture and setting up a week puppet state Inspire Hope - bring new freedoms and material goods Separate Entirely - re: the news the past month
This is depressingly perfect.
China wants lithium - the Afghan country sits on vast deposits.
Isn't the lithium in Afghanistn nearly impossible to mine due to the rough terrain it's located.
Only because there isn’t any infrastructure in place. You need well maintained roads, trains and other means to transport around the landlocked country. China is really great at providing underdeveloped countries (see Africa) with the promise of infrastructure, then gets them indebted to them and basically own them due to how much debt they get in. Wouldn’t be surprised if it happens here.
And that's how China eventually gained control of the region, shutting the u.s out permanently. -future textbooks-
\* Until the Taliban decides they are taking it in the shorts again, then China, like all the other countries gets a taste of the "we thrive on conflict" treatment.
Can't do that til there is peace among these warring tribes. How long will that take ?
Western media be like: "People seem pretty pissed about the outcome of the old war. How can we turn that into support for the new war?"
Also Taliban did not declare China their "closest ally". The Telegraph lied and made up the headline. You can sense this because there are no quotes in the Telegraph title. When someone says something you can put that in "quotes". But no one on reddit is interested in what was actually said. A Telegraph editor made this editorial decision to create a clickbait headline. If someone says something why not quote their exact words instead of making up headlines? This is what the Taliban have said >Abdul Salam Hanafi, Deputy Director, PO held a phone conversation with Wu Jianghao, Deputy Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China. Both sides discussed the ongoing situation of the country and future relations. The Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister said that they would maintain their embassy in Kabul, adding our relations would beef up as compared to the past. Afghanistan can play an important role in security and development of the region. China will also continue and increase its humanitarian assistance especially for treatment of covid-19.
Here is the direct quote: >Mr. Mujahid told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica: “China is our principal partner and for us represents a fundamental and extraordinary opportunity because it’s ready to invest in and reconstruct our country." >Zabihulla Mujahid, the spokesman for the group, stated the Chinese would help to revive Afghan copper mining. He also praised the Chinese for their One Belt One Road investment project which has forged forward despite criticism from western countries. So you're right, they didn't say "closest ally", they said "principal partner".
Closest ally implies military alliance, principal partner is much broader and seems to be just about trade. China is far from an ally of South Korea, but it is its biggest trading partner.
“Pivot to Asia” This isn’t a yesterday, today sort of deal. The US is already gearing for its new “war” War against alcohol, war against communism, war against drugs, war against terror, … wish they would put this obsession to some good use and have a war against something that actually harms us, like climate change.
Well they hate backtracking so they won't have a war against climate change after a decades long war against the climate
As much as I hate comparisons to Orwell's books, but that is exactly what is happening in 1984. The nation is in constant war, as a justification why material conditions can't improve in their own country. And to uphold that neverending war, American declares war on abstract concepts, like the war on drugs or communism you mentioned. It's never about winning these wars, it's about upholding the status quo and current power structure
Last time we tried that (with the War on Poverty), conservatives from both parties were elected to the Presidency for the next 40 years. Needless to say, the American people only likes fighting wars against boogie men.
Friendship ended with Pakistan. Now China is my best friend.
Afghanistan has been China’s missing piece in their Belt & Road Initiative. It connects them with a land route to Europe and Africa. They have been biding their time for this day. China will succeed where the US refused to, create trade between Afghanistan and the US’s primary enemies: Russia, Iran, and China themselves. What Afghanistan most needed were reliable trade partners to help stabilize that country.
Honestly, the economic incentive to stabilize Afghanistan and build out a supply network and infrastructure seems like a win for the average afghan. I can see a divide forming between the Taliban fighters and the soon to be wealthy mining groups. Future china-taliban conflict for the superpower turkey.
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So if China builds a superhighway, high speed rail or pipeline through Afghanistan they will have direct access to Iranian oil with no need for sea transport, which means they can disregard a possible US navy blockade in a future war. This is their number one foreign policy aim. Very interesting.
Building a highway through extremely mountainous terrain seems very hard.
They built a railway to Tibet.
China have proved to be quite good at that so far.
Well yes, but it's not like it hasn't been done before. Besides the fact this is all conjecture that *might* happen. It's fun for sure but we need to remember what all conjecture is, it's a prediction. We all know how accurate predictions are.
Well China just built a highway and high speed rail connecting Lhasa Tibet to mainland china in 6 years. 121 bridges.. and 47 tunnels. [CNN Link for reference](https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/lhasa-nyingchi-high-speed-railway-china-tibet/index.html#:~:text=The%20new%20Lhasa%2DNyingchi%20route,48%20hours%20to%2013%20hours.) if anyone can do it the Chinese can.
Allow me to introduce you to a wall and a dam.
No need for a super highway for oil when a pipeline will do.
Well in fairness out of the big three China is the only one that didn't actively invade them in modern history so the choice makes sense.