LK152 - the weak Venezuela

[Northern Pike]

We move forces based on armies next to Mar del Plata, Cordoba, and Viedma.

Tucupita temple (rushed) --> settler, El Spice courthouse --> bank, Barinas bank --> Llanero, Canaima walls (rushed) --> temple.


850 (10): The Second Knight Army storms and razes Mar del Plata, held by three musketmen, single-handed and almost without the loss of a hit point—a demonstration of how much stronger it is with a Llanero incorporated (77-3). We gain no workers from the razing, which usually doesn’t happen this early, but fortunately we have other workers in range to road the ruins and let us replace MdP on the same site, with Aparicio.

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

We found Guiria just east of the ruins of Tucuman, razed last turn.

The First Knight Army and the Second Llanero Army together seize and raze Cordoba, defended by three musketmen and a longbowman (81-3). We gain five workers, a treb, and a catapult.

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

On the Pacific coast the Third Knight Army single-handedly captures and razes Viedma, garrisoned by three musketmen (84-3). We claim four workers and a treb.

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

We replace Viedma with Guasipati, on the same site.

We defenestrate another knight landed near Salvador (85-3).

In further fighting, again mostly in the Andes, we bludgeon three knights and two longbowmen (90-3).

On the Atlantic coast we found Merida, to fill in a gap between Aparicio and Cumaina.

We trade our WM around for 136 gold (including gpt) and more map knowledge.

Nineteen elite victories this round, two of them defensive, generated two Great Leaders.

 

[Northern Pike]

The reckoning:

 

[Northern Pike]

The Argentines are clearly beaten, and with six armies we should be able to take most or all of their nine remaining mainland cities in the next round. When the time comes we’ll have to rush galleons in a nearby city* to take their barely-island city of La Matanza on Tierra del Fuego; the voyage from cities we hold already would be too long and dangerous. They don’t have any truly outlying cities—nothing in Siberia or Hawaii, etc. —so we have good chances of a clean kill. That’s an argument for holding perhaps the last five or six or their cities rather than razing them; I believe Greebley likes that approach anyway.

*For this reason, we should try to arrive at the tip of South America with one settler still unused, so that we can rush galleons without having to suppress resistance first.

We have a combat settler positioned three tiles north of Jujuy, which will give us good access to that city and then Buenos Aires. However, if we found the town next turn, and choose to rest the 9-HP Second Llanero Army in it, the AI might be willing to attack the army, so please be careful about that.

The Aztecs are still at war with the Argentines and are sending ships in their direction, so we shouldn’t leave coastal territory unclaimed after razes or we’ll probably have irritating Aztec enclaves.

Our present tech goal is for the right civ (China, Germany, and Babylon are the best candidates) to discover ToG, so that we can trade Magnetism and MilTrad for it and enter the IA. More realistically, since AI civs rarely seem to choose ToG before Magnetism, we may just have to buy ToG with MilTrad and gpt in a peace renegotiation.

The Argentines aren’t too badly behind in tech, so when we’ve taken their remaining mainland cities we could consider letting them survive for twenty turns in their island city on Tierra del Fuego if they have something we want, presumably ToG. I’m not a big fan of this approach but we should bear the possibility in mind.

A couple of the implications of our making trades as peace renegotiations, as best I understand it, are that 1) we have to be constantly aware of where our gpt is going and when the deals expire, since the gold will not automatically return to us after twenty turns, and 2) the opportunity to trade with a given civ and give gpt will only come around every twenty turns, so we have to plan in advance.

Our next large-scale worker task should be to develop Hikari until it can work twelve tiles, and then merge it up to that size, or close. Some if this can be done indirectly, e.g. clearing the tile two NE of El Spice as we’re now doing will allow ES to work that tile and Hikari to work one of ES’s.

We’re using our GA much more to build infrastructure than units, but any city that completes a bank can switch to Llaneros, and in any case I’m confident that we can finish off Argentina without many reinforcements. We can rush Llaneros in Fortaleza, or even closer to the front, if we need a few more.

We can afford to rush any temples we’re building as soon as they’ve accumulated one shield to reduce the cost.

 

[ThERat]

Amazing progress, too bad about the trade reputation. I guess Greebley would be able to take the rest of South America in 10 turns.

Do I understand correctly, that we will then turn around and go after the Aztecs right away? This would also mean to avoid any trade deals with them from now on.

 

[LKendter]

Wow - a lot further then I thought we could get in 10 turns vs. Argentina.

I’m not in a big rush to hit the Aztecs. Especially with the GA going I would really like to get buildings up. With our rep ruined I’d like to see if we get can a decent tech pace with libraries up a running.
Depending on peace negations is very ugly. I recall sitting there going through every town, setting all to taxman, all cities to starving, and other headaches before trying a peace negotiation. And if you guess wrong it is a total cluster.

It isn't like we have rails up to get a bunch of strong science farms. With the amount of jungle I hope we have coal, but it is still multiple techs away, and the slower pace of the next age.

ROSTER:
LKendter
Elephantium
Northern Pike
Greebley (up)
ThERat (on deck)

 

[Northern Pike]

I'd like to attack the Aztecs as soon as possible, perhaps predictably. We'll be dependent on Llanero armies for a long time to come, and they can only lose effectiveness as our enemies progress through the musketman-rifleman-infantry upgrade path.

A quick attack on the Aztecs wouldn't be incompatible with LK's preference for using our GA to build infrastructure (as we're certainly doing now), since the GA has fifteen turns to run, and that's about how long it should take us to eliminate Argentina and march our armies north again. The extreme narrowness of the Aztec front means we won't need a large army when we start that war.

 

[ThERat]

A quick attack on the Aztecs wouldn't be incompatible with LK's preference for using our GA to build infrastructure (as we're certainly doing now), since the GA has fifteen turns to run, and that's about how long it should take us to eliminate Argentina and march our armies north again.

Along my lines of thought.

 

[Greebley]

I got it.

I certainly won't make deals with the Aztecs. Any deal would extend past our GA and lock us into 20 turns of inactivity.

Once Argentina is gone, the Armies will move northward in any case, so no decisions will be different on my turn, war or not.

 

[Greebley]

Finished playing. We own the main continent and can land on the island with a 3 unit army in 2 turns.

I will post sometime tomorrow.

 

[Northern Pike]

Great work.

 

[ThERat]

Sounds terrific. Time to turn round to go after the Aztecs

 

[Greebley]

Preturn:
I don't really agree that turning off growth in size 12 cities. Let them keep growing and then build a worker when they get close to max. It costs us a single turn to build the worker and a turn (or two) at size 11. Also if size 11 and size 12 make a units at the same speed you can just pop off the worker as soon as you hit size 12.
The only case where size 12 only applies is when zero growth (and nothing else) gives the unit a turn faster. In this case its cities that make 40, 27, 20, 16, shields exactly.
I also think self research will be useful. A good science rate and scientist farms can get us ahead of the AI in tech (especially if we keep cities) to allow us to get to 100% tech rate and still have positive gold.

860 AD: Build the new town of Rock Lobster as NP mentioned. Use 14 hp Army and 3 Llama-ro's to capture the city.
Armies heal for the most part.
Pick up Economics for Magnetism.
I could trade away Mil Trad and Economics + gold for Democracy. Democracy being a govt tech would be worth a lot more for buying TOG, but since Mil Trad is not well known, I decide to skip the trade for now.

IBT: Single Knight charges us.

870 AD: Kill several Muskets in Buenos Ares. Jujuy is now empty so a flip won't hurt us. We also move toward Mendoza.

IBT AD: Advancing Knight Knight landing and a Longbow.

880 AD: Capture Mendoza and Buenos Aires.
No good trades. We really want Indonesia to pick up TOG as we have 4 techs they do not for trade.

890 AD: I can cover Mendoza but not Buenus Aries. It has a single (regular) Musket Guard since I didn't adance last turn. They may take it back in which case it shrinks a bit. Armies are healing next to Buenos Aires so getting it back will be trivial. We should also capture the next city in line so it will be safe after this.



IBT: Well this is excellent luck for us...Aztec and Sioux are at war.
Argentina and Aztecs are at peace.
Oh and Russia and Indonesia declares war on the Aztecs
Argentina did not in fact have enough units to take back Buenos aries. I think it wasn't attacked.

900 AD: Rosario is captured. It was closer than I thought it would be as one army took big damage vs a Musket (9 hp of 14) One injured Knight kills two of our units an Elite Mace and Vet Llanero

IBT: More dogpile on the Aztecs by civs that don't matter.

910 AD:
Capturing San Juan goes very well and our Cavalry Army kills 3 Muskets. This was nice as it was the only Army that could reach.

920 AD:Bahia Blanca capture by Armies. Attack La Plata with Llanero and capture the city without loss. Defense has been lighter with 2-3 units and occasional Regular.
Finally got a leader and build a new Army
Note that I have been checking deals but no civ has gotten TOG before any other tech.

930 AD: All our Armies need to heal. If Argentina builds or has a Knight they can take back La Plata but we have troops near it.

IBT: Get our first flip of the round with Buenos Aires.

940 AD: After bombardment a MDI takes back the city and becomes elite.
For Santiago del Estero we first kill Muskets with Armies but also find two Spear (we took their saltpeter) which is attacked by Elites that both win.
Some slower units are already marching back.
I build Bilaboat which builds a Galleon for our 3 uni army to ride.

950 AD: I may have missed recording what happened for this turn, but we own the continent and stuff is healing or moving north. We still have to deal with flips so some armies should stay south.

Notes:
The active unit is the size 3 army. I would put it into La Plata next turn. The turn after the army can be loaded while in the town, and dropped off on the island with no risk to the Army. La Plata flip during that one turn would delay us and cost us the boat. There is a settler that could replace it but its not far enough south.

Units (especially slower ones) started north but it's long trek. Several armies are Healing and watching for flips so they can take the city back.

Tech is still not happening. Either Germany or Indonesia could get TOG and we have 2 tech to trade for it. My thought is maybe to try to steal from the Aztec when we are ready for war. If successful, we have the new tech. If fail they may declare war on us giving us the war happiness. If we fail and they don't know about it, then we can choose to war or try again. I am unsure what is the best choice when you want to go to war. It might be to try immediate perhaps more than once.
We can also just trade without getting a 2-fer for it.

 

[LKendter]

There is no question Argentina is broken. Now we need to hope no houseboat when we take their last city. If there is, then keeping their cities is going to create a pain to break resistance. Those cities are most likely science farms, but that doesn't work if resistance is going.


ROSTER:
LKendter (on deck)
Elephantium
Northern Pike
Greebley
ThERat (up)

 

[ThERat]

Got it. The tech steal with the Aztecs sounds like an idea. I will assess the situation.