King of the World #2: Frederick

Hey, you forgot the Maxim relating to early war:

Without Cats, against a high culture defended city, always have 2 times the number of attackers in your force than the number of defenders.

No wonder Antiuum survived

Anyway. Cats can solve any problem. Get a force of Swordsmen/Cats and take over the world!

Cheers.

Good job on the attack on Rome, Neal! The Antium assault was a tough break, though. I think with Rome and Iron, though, you can still win if you do it right, and have just a bit of luck.

What's unfortunate is that your assault failed, and all those archers are now going to be promoted. There's no help for that, though. I agree with Brave Jay's course of action - take care of Antium (With some of your shiny new Catapults and Swordsmen - however many you think is enough, then add in two Swords and two Catapults! Another failed assault, and you're doing) After you take Antium, make peace with Rome if Caeser is still around, and then attack France when you have a large enough force. (That's probably for the round after next)

Catapults are a great relief to finally have, but the even more devastating weapon, the trebuchet, is just an engineering tech away.

Brave Jay said:

Catapults are a great relief to finally have, but the even more devastating weapon, the trebuchet, is just an engineering tech away.

Click to expand...

Actually its just a metal casting, machinery, engineering tech away afaik.

AlessioCerci said:

Actually its just a metal casting, machinery, engineering tech away afaik.

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It seems there's always someone spoiling my vague generalizations with cold hard facts

In this round, things have started to look up. We established our borders, continued to build up our military, and got our specialist economy up and running.

In the beginning, we made a deal with the devil:



Yeah, we're putting Catapults into the hands of someone who's just crazy enough to use'em. The way I see it, though, she was gonna research Construction sooner or later, anyway, and this way we a) get something for it, and b) maybe get on her good side a little bit.

Hinduism spread to Hamburg. Finally, a religion! We quickly adopted it and joined the Hindu bloc. Its founder, our new buddy Saladin (in most games, that's a contradiction in terms) offered to help us with the finer points of religious observance in exchange for advice on putting on a show:



In 125 B.C., I felt that our forces were sufficient to take Antium (Well, that and the Peace Treaty finally ran out):



I'll admit, I thought I was reaching for Drama. It was kind of a knee-jerk reaction sort of play to get Theaters up to fight off the French borders, but Saladin gave us a nice selection of religious techs for it. Not only that, but we recieved another pleasant surprise as our war machine trundled toward Caesar's last foothold (get it? Because Italy looks like a.... never mind) on the continent. Our belligerent neighbor Catherine offered us this for it:



Monarchy! Hereditary Rule! Finally, our happiness problems are over (or at least abated significantly)! We took the opportunity to adopt not only that, but Organized Religion as well.

By the birth of Christ, we had largely pummeled Antium into submission:



I've gotta say, we got really lucky on those withdrawal rolls. Our throwaway suicide cats can now upgrade into useful veteran units.

Antium fell with only the loss of a catapult and a pair of Axemen:



As you can see, we're researching Literature. Unfortunately, a couple of our colleagues already have it, so we're a little behind in the Great Library race. Once the tech was researched, all of my workers immediately booked it to the lands around Berlin for the deforestation effort.

Also, Rome does have some presence in north Africa. Lacking boats (and much interest in competing with Hatsepshut for marginal land), we let Julie throw in the towel:



We scored another miracle in 275 B.C.:



The Great Library! We also got Hypatia, who looks a little more... mannish than she's usually depicted. She taught us the secrets of philosophy, despite the fact that Taoism was already on the map. Long-term, maybe I should have settled her, but Philosophy is one of the most expensive single-bulb techs out there, and it should be tradeable.

Indeed, Hatty stepped up to the plate with a nice little offer:



And Alexander (already relegated to "little buddy" status on the map) gave us another crucial tech.



Finally, we met Elizabeth, who we easily got up to Cautious with a little gift:



I love Lizzy. She's so easily bought.

So, state of the world. Here's Germany with a focus on the Wehrmacht in Berlin:



And Italy:



I should be getting that tile back from Alexander pretty soon, so Italy will be whole once again.

(Why the Archers, you ask? Well, Louis is our next target, and he WILL couterattack. Nothing's better for fending off a counterattack than CG Archers)

Here's the Diplomatic Advisor:



Our list of friends and enemies is starting to take shape. It's pretty much Judaism vs. Hinduism. We do have a lot of Christianity in our lands, and the holy city is in southern France, protected only by a pair of Longbows. But adopting Christianity at this point would make us an international pariah.

Finally, the power graph:



Given the amount of hammers I've devoted to units, I'm surprised it's so low, though I will admit that a lot of those units died to take Rome.

So, anyway, I'm glad to say that I think we've weathered the storm. We have a little bit of breathing room, and we should have an army capable of taking France (and, by extension, Spain) pretty soon.

... Right?

The save: http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/118138/Frederick_AD-0400.CivWarlordsSave

Do Louis already made some nice wonders for you ( like the sistine chapel or the mids)? Some scouting would be apropriate ( sigh, you didn't have OB with him. Oh well, that means that he probably spent most of the time building wonders...)

P.S Why you don't use the upload system of CFC for those big files ( single file limit is 10 MB )?

You're so smart. Thanks, Rolo!

Just take care of one thing: At 500/600 kb per save, the 30 MB will disappear as fast as candies in the hands of children....

Oh, no. It's 500-600 KB a save now. Once we gwet into, say, the industrial era, you're talking a meg, meg and a half.

You spend most of your time building units yet even Louis the culture guy and most other civs are higher on the power graph. The AI does build a lot of defensive units though so they have much less potential to inflict damage as attackers than you. Add the fact that you know how to concentrate your forces and use siege properly and they stand no chance.

We may be a few thousand years late, but our original game plan is back.

The beginning of the round came with a sobering reminder:



Wow. Caravels in 520. Looks like we're gonna be playing the good, old-fashioned continental power Germany. The Americas are gonna be full up by the time we get over there.

You can also see the announcement of a couple of wonders- The Church of the Nativity in woefully-underdefended Lyons (which is a good thing), and the construction of Chichen Itza (which I could frankly care less about).

We managed to trade happiness modifiers with our good buddy Qin:



Admittedly, with our SoD in our biggest city, we don't really need it, but hey, it might come in handy on a rainy day.

Genghis Khan came by for a visit with hat in hand:



Yeah, take it. There are Caravels wandering around the Mediterranean. I don't think Metal Casting is much of an advantage anymore. I'd rather not have to deal with a bunch of Keshiks running around burning my cottages, anyway.

Cyrus came by and offered another trade:



Calendar probably ended up doing more harm than good (I have no Plantation resources and would end up... acquiring Stonehenge), but the rest is well worth it.

Our stack of doom was taking shape in Berlin (swords and catapults). I wasn't looking forward to the massive casualties I'd suffer against longbows. Mansa Musa, though, offered me the chance to kick things into high gear:



Note my progress on Machinery up top. That sounds like it's worth 250 gold to me. Even as my enemy, Mansa ends up being more benefit than hindrance.

And Asoka completed the deal:



The couple of turns off of Machinery was trivial (though certainly nice), but Theology and the gold was crucial.

I immediately changed civics and started pumping out Macemen:



And upgrading some of my more experienced Swords.

Charlie Darwin was born in Berlin, babbling something about natural selection. I put him to work in the paper mills:



And bought Cyrus' map with it. Being such a central power, and friendly, he was our best choice to expand our horizons beyond our pitiful borders:



Here's what we learned. It turns out that Russia isn't quite as scary as I'd thought, after all:



Cyrus did a great job of cutting Catherine off. Of course, a small nation tends to have an inordinately huge army, given that they have nothing better to put their hammers towards.

In 680, we were finally ready to roll on Paris:



We made some final trades to build up a war chest (Paper to Cathy for Compass and 420 gold, Drama to Qin for 110) and let slip the dogs of war.

Louis sent a frankly pathetic offensive stack right into the teeth of our SoD:



We ended up losing a catapult, but that's acceptable.

As we finally parked outside gay Paree, we received a nice little punch in the gut:



What gives, Qin? We're in the same religious bloc and everything! Genghis jumped on the bandwagon, too.

Needless to say, my allies were not going to let this stand:



That should keep them busy for a while. Ladies and gentlemen, I think this qualifies as World War I!

In 840 A.D., the Germans took Paris. Scratch out the year, and that sentence has a sadly familiar ring to it:



What was inside? Sadly, no Pyramids, but an interesting assortment of stuff nonetheless:



Chichen Itza? No wonder there were more casualties than expected! Ah, well. I guess in a crazy map like this, that might actually end up helping out once or twice. And there's Stonehenge. Why did we accept Calendar, again?

To the south, I'd sent a Catapult and two or three Macemen against Lyons (The Christian Holy City), mostly as a stalemate maneuver. Try to freeze the forces that would otherwise reinforce Paris, and all that. Sadly, it didn't work. Fortunately, this meant that Louis left its defenses to a Longbow, a Spearman, and a Horse Archer. Um, okay:



Not only did the Church survive, but we nabbed a granary to boot! I'll take it!

Around this time, we popped another GS, which we put towards Education. We might just be in the Liberalism race! And Catherine demanded 140 gold to stay off our backs. With all of our forces mired in France, it was worth keeping her happy.

In 920, Denmark fell:



And we accepted Louis' surrender:



(He's holed up in Norway, by the way)

So there we have it. France is ours. Spain is next, followed by either Russia or England.

Save and State of the World to follow.

Here's the icy north:



Yeah, we could have taken France's last city, but we only have one Galley, and Louis is Cautious, so it's not like he'll be a total thorn.

Germania proper:



We're now shaping up into a genuine world power. Thank Vishnu (We're Hindu, remember?) that attack on Rome worked.

Speaking of, here's Italia and Spain, who I think should be our next target:



May as well put them out of their (and our) misery.

The diplomatic situation:



Yeah, the war with the East is still going on, but aside from a Chinese Warrior and a Mongol Chariot and Scout, I haven't seen much of'em. Neither of them will talk to me, though. Should we postpone Spain and Russia and batten down the hatches in anticipation of an Asian Stack of Doom?

Finally, the Power Chart:



I still don't understand how we're as low as we are. We've pretty much been pumping out units since 4000 B.C.!

Science-wise, Guilds, Music, and Astronomy are out there, which we don't have. We have Philosophy and Paper on an awful lot of people, but I don't know if that would be a good idea, given the Liberalism race.

The save: http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/118138/Frederick_AD-0920.CivWarlordsSave

Very good job. I think it'd be ok to trade paper away, just not philosophy or education.

YEAY GO PERSIA

and btw good luck you you can do it

See if Cyrus will declare on Khan/Qin too, would make your job much easier. I wouldn't worry too much about an enemy attack because with India fighting China the Chinese will have better targets available. Izzy next deffinately, Madrid will be a tough nut to crack but its culture is going to cause problems in former France. IMO, go Spain, then England, then Russia, then Egypt in attacks, then you can turn on a few old allies for more land.

Neal said:

I still don't understand how we're as low as we are. We've pretty much been pumping out units since 4000 B.C.!

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The population size has a big impact on the power score, and your cities are quite small compared to the AI cities.

Nice play so far....

Kietharr plan is good ( he took the words of my mouth ).

P.S Wierd, Isabella hasn't founded any religion....

Edit: Why are you building a forge in Antium? Not for the prod bonus, most surely ( this is not BTS, you don't have Moai statues to give 1 per water tile. By the way, this map's Europe will be a even bigger powerhouse in BTS because of that. Must try... )

All right, we're pretty much set on Spain being the next target. Should we build up a little bit more of a military first? We have plenty of Macemen, I think, but our catapults were largely decimated after being thrown at the walls of Paris. How many Cats/Trebs should we bring?

I think the next round will be a fairly in-depth blow-by-blow of the attack on Madrid (largely glossing over any buildup we decide is necessary). The battle over France involved much more back-and-forth than I was really able to include in what ended up being a fairly long round. What do you all think?

Oh, and one more thing: I think we're in the catbird seat regarding the Liberalism race. Should we end up winning it, what should we take as our freebie? Astronomy? Printing Press? Nationalism? Gunpowder? Guilds would be kind of a waste, but that's technically also an option.

Rolo: Good point, I suppose. Antium does have decent production (Plains/Hill/Mine, Plains/Hill/Grapes, and a pair of Plains/Sheep), but I guess it isn't really enough to justify the forge. I guess I'll just shift it to some trebs (or maybe some Hindu missionaries to bring Old France around to the One True Faith, since that's my monastery city).

I wouldn't neglect your forces to the east, just in case. With one city, spain might be loaded with troops. I wish you could use passive espionage to see what's inside there. I would have liked to have seen a great artist to have been used in paris for the culture bomb, and an immediate ending to resistance in a highly productive city. maybe u can pull that off on another city some time. good work so far, i'm enjoying this a lot.