Boff-03 pleasenomonty (Sally, Monarch, Ice Age)

Grover22 said:

Got it. I'll try to play a quick turnset this morning before I head off for work.

Quick question: Do we want to take that barb town to the north? My guess is yes, and if I don't get a quick answer, I'll start playing towards that.

Jim

Click to expand...

No, we don't want that barb town. We have nothing in the area to attack it with, and taking it would be absolutely ruinous to our maintenance. The land between the mountain bands is actually not bad because a river runs through it (hey it's a canyon), but it is too far away and impossible to reinforce; at least at the moment. When we launch boats from Kyoto it may become a possibility.

168 80BC

CoL comes in in 16 turns.

Barb town in the north? I'll move Nikki and the other horses nearby so we can grab it. Will 3 horses (and a chariot) be enough? I'll check the odds before diving in, I guess.

Damascus is about to start on a horse archer. I consider setting it to a sword, but the HA will get to the barb town faster if we need him.

I hit enter.

169 65BC

I see Silver's posts and will not try for the barb town. Instead, I'll plant a town NE of Medina. Here are the tiles I consider:
4N3E of Medina, coastal forest/plains: 6 coastal tiles, 3 river tiles (one of which overlaps with Kyoto)
4N4E of Medina, coastal forest/plains: 7 coastal tiles, 1 river tile, 1 un-irrigatable jungle/grass
3N4E of Medina, coastal forest/hills/plains: 8 coastal tiles, 1 river tile, 1 un-irrigatable jungle/grass, 3 mountains

Overall, I like the third site for the extra hammer from the hills under the city. It also has one more coastal tile, and this will probably be a commerce city. And the hills can't hurt for defense later on.

I start migrating an extra archer from Damascus to that site, and I'll build a settler soon. workers will start roading to there when they're done with their other tasks.

Damascus will build a replacement archer after it finishes its horse archer.

170 50BC

Medina finishes Hindu missionary. Send him to Damascus, as that town could use the culture and something else to build.
Start Medina on another missionary, to be sent with the settler to the new city site. 4 turns for missionary.

The southwestern horse has seen all that he can see. I start him on his way back home, towards Damascus. He is on auto-pilot to get there.

We can kick our research up to 60% and still be +1gpt. That shaves 2 turns off CoL, so I do so.

171 35BC

There is a barb worker out chopping a forest, but he doesn't become visible until my horse's second move is used. Probably he'll scamper back home next turn. I'll try to grab him if he comes back out again after that.

Kyoto still can't whip Madrassa, but it must be getting close.

172 20BC

Medina grows to size 8. Works a plains cottage. Next growth in 28 turns. One below happy cap, and three below health cap.

173 5BC


There is a second barb town east of the first, and that one has iron.

Wang adopts hereditary rule, and Catherine is in it already. We are just this turn able to switch civics again, and now Kyoto can 2-pop whip the Madrassa. We adopt HR and slavery and whip.

174 10AD

Pyramids built somewhere else. Switch Mecca to Monastery. (It was that or temple, and we're below our happy cap). 5 turns.

Kyoto finishes library. Start granary. 40 turns. 5 turns to growth.

Medina finishes missionary, starts settler. 9 turns. I work two forest/grass instead of cottage/plains, and that drops to 8 turns for the settler.

175 25AD

We collect 185 gold for our partially completed pyramids.

Nikki gets attacked by a wandering barb archer and wins. Down to 1.8/6 health. Up to 10/10 experience. I save the promotion and let him rest up.

176 40AD

I'm going to pause it here because I think maybe you guys should think over taking those two barb towns to the north. There might even be room to plant a third town up there, east of them.



Also, I think our horse "deal" with Cathy can be cancelled as of this turn. I didn't want to be the one to do it, though. She looks angry enough to me.

Roster
Silver >>Up Now<<
Liq ==On Deck==
Grover -heading off to work-

Well... the barbs chose ridiculously bad city site for those two cities... They wasted a lot of grass, and wasted a fish (we'd have to settle another city to pick it up). They both have food, but Uzbeck gleefully wastes the silver in exchange for 2 mountains, and itself is actually settled on one of our high food tiles.

Meanwhile, Visgoth is on the wrong side of the peninsula, cannot work the fish, and is picking up ice and tundra while wasting another grassland (all the grass is eventually irrigable btw).

That being said, we are hurting for cities. Of the two, Uzbeck is the one that is not as bad, and it is thankfully easier to capture as well. But without a route to the capital, it will be expensive even after courts.

I think our best bet would be to launch an invasion force across the bay to take out those two cities and replant where we want them. Real estate is limited enough that I wouldn't settle for taking those two cities where they are.

Hopefully when we get CoL we can broker Cathy for it, although I'm not keen on helping out her economy...

Wow the placement on those barb towns suck. Well if all else fails, a town 4 north+1east would collect two ocean fish with chop support, tho need to see the land around it. Maybe can make two towns with one fish each if there's other nice tiles up there.

Cheers!
-Liq

Grover22 said:

I guess that's one strategy. Mine is to jump in, play, make my usual mistakes, and watch how Silver and Liquidated recover from them. They're the experts here, not me.

Welcome aboard, though.

Jim

Click to expand...

Thank you.

I considered trying to join this SG, but I couldn't tell if the game was open or not. Plus, at the moment, computer time on my PC is somewhat erratic. We live with my mother-in-law and since July she has decided to sleep upstairs with us, in the bedroom that once belonged to our son and where my PC is located. She goes to bed at around 8pm, which is the time I am ready to have some quality Civ time. Recently (2 of the last 3 nights) she has slept downstairs in her own bed, but I don't know if that will continue or not.

If she continues to sleep downstairs I'd like to join, but not until then.

40AD (176):

Preflight check. CoL in 6, losing 4gpt... At 80% research, it's CoL in 4, losing 14gpt. We have 375 gold in the bank, so go for that. We need the courts up ASAP.

Mecca is pretty much autopilot, slowly getting more pop and working useful tiles. If/when we go for GLib, this is where we want it, so we can deforest all those rivers towards a useful cause.

Medina cranking a settler in 6, but not working 2 cottage tiles. These are our lifeblood at Medina. I switch to the cottages, and settler is in 8. Oh well, we are not in a rush to take on more maintenance anyways.

Damascus going for an HA in 2 turns. Can crank decent hammers in this place. We have a water supply here for when civil comes, but the plains are fairly uninspiring to tell you the truth...

Baghdad is on a 29 turn Madrassa, but grows in 4, so we'll MM to work the horses to get that thing pushed out a bit faster. We want it out fast as we need to pick up the furs.

Kyoto going on a granary. Whip in 3 turns when it grows. Need a lighthouse whip here too, which we can do right after because lighthouses are cheap.

Dial up Cathy and cancel the horses, since we get nothing for them, and if she wants she can demand them again (we'll get more rep if we agree).

Nikki is hurt, so promote combat 1, as the other promos are fairly meh, and we have other HAs who can pick them up later anyways...

Medina spammed a missionary and it's between Kyoto and Baghdad, as all other cities are already Hindu. Kyoto could use the happy (although we do not have a state religion yet in order to not piss Cathy off too much to trade), but Baghdad could use the culture. Since we still have to build a temple in Kyoto, I send the missionary to Baghdad to spam more culture there.

55AD (177):

Cathy gets a Great General, so they are still clearly beating the snot out of each other. Power graph actually shows a drop for both of them last turn, so big fight for sure!

Donation, Beneficence, and Oblation head to the city site hill to chop it out. I agree with that site, as it is fairly strong, and doesn't pick up any ocean. Also closer to the capital, so that's always good. We don't want to waste to forest, so let's cut it AND build a road so the settler doesn't have to wait. Hmm... actually seems like it's 4 tiles to the site anyways, so road not necessary...

Gratuity going for the hill chop outside Kyoto. We'll still whip the granary, but then we can save pop on the lighthouse I guess.

4 archers in Uzbeck now, so serious military will be needed to clear the crap out. Use a HA to punk one of them now, as we have like 70%+ odds plus withdraw.

Hinduize Baghdad for the extra culture point.

70AD (178):

Damascus done a HA, but I keep him at home for a bit. We are paying supply costs, and that's ugly. But when we found the city on the hill, those will go down, as that counts for 4 units outside of our territory right now. We dial a Monastery in 13 for the culture battle.

Kyoto growing next turn, so anticipating the whip.

Promote the victorious HA Combat 1, and retreat to heal.

85AD (179):

Ok, strange event...



Would be nicer if an actual deer resource popped, but no such thing.



And Wang lucks out getting a peace treaty from an event. I don't expect that to hold up too well, but we'll see. Funny, war starts with an event and ends with an event. At least they still hate each other .

The chop of the hill goes to Medina and the settler that will soon occupy the hill, yay. 9 hammers, boo...

Hindu Monastery finished in Mecca, go for the temple as it is discounted so 3 turns, and gives happy.

Kyoto gets a 2 pop whip towards its granary as it grew this turn. Mecca and Baghdad both popping to the next size next turn. Let's celebrate!

Oh, and CoL in next turn, so quite eventful indeed!

100AD (180):



And...



...in Medina. Exciting!

Well, we win a free missionary, and since we are in no state religion, he goes to Baghdad to again try and boost up the culture. Hope he doesn't get rebuffed.

Baghdad grew and I stagnant it by working the silver.

Cathy is being a tough customer... but Alpha is valuable, so do this...



Kind of surprised she took it straight up. I asked her what she wanted, and it included Med, but she went for this.

Tech choices now... Well, I was going for Aes->Lit, but we need Poly first, and we will get ripped off just trading for Poly, so I set it in 3 turns. Note that Parth is still up for grabs and is discounted by our marble. A good wonder to couple with GL, and a 2x efficient cash sink for Mecca if someone else gets it.

Bleeding -8 for Poly in 3, so just leave it.

Whipped Granary is done in Kyoto, and I dial a lighthouse. Overflow and chop will both go into it, so good to go!

Punk another archer at Uzbeck with a HA, trying to get all HAs some XP.

115AD (181):

Well it figures!



We put a turn into it and then it's offered for us. Lose about 40 beakers on the trade, but whatever, better than giving away HBR or something...

With that done, immediately dial for Aes.

Continuing to punk random barb archers...

Confuci goes smoothly in Baghdad, so another cpt for it.

130AD (182):

Cathy will trade Mono, but we honestly don't need it and have nothing smart to give anyways...

Temple finished in Mecca... not sure what to dial next. Going to actually go for a settler, to send the long way around with HA escort. We can easily punk off Uzbeck and re-found somewhere nicer...

145AD (183):

Settler done from Medina this turn, so send him to the hill. Medina back to growing, and dial a courthouse.

Kyoto set to grow next turn. Ideal to pop a boat from here, so I'll see what I can do in that regard.

160AD (184):

We found Najran on the hill site.



Losing 4 gold after the fact, so let's see what we can do to help things. Dial a granary in Najran first. Will need to use chops to get this city on its feet.

Dial science down to 50% so we are no longer losing cash.

175AD (185):

Wang gets Maths this turn, so both Cathy and Wang will trade it, whee. Wang won't take Math for HBR, despite even value, so we bite the bullet and give him Alpha for Math, lol.



Chops now empowered. Hmm, from the tech screen, looks like Cathy already has Construction. If we wanted something from MC, that would be it, as it'd allow us to go medieval on Wang... Will consider...

Hindu Monastery finished in Damascus, dial up a badly needed courthouse.

190AD (186):

Slow turn, moving units and crap. Kyoto grows to size 4 next turn, so slotting in a galley to get a hammer...

205AD (187):

Wang shows up and demands that we cancel deals with the Russians. Uh, no...

I 2 pop whip the Galley in Kyoto, so we can get troops across the bay. Honestly the only time when I would ever whip a Galley...

Punted off an archer at Visgoth...

220AD (188):

Galley is done in Kyoto, back to the lighthouse. Settler is ALSO done at Mecca, so dial a courthouse.

Load 2 HAs on the Galley and set out.

Remember that Cathy had Construction. Oh well, it doesn't matter as she is not willing to trade it. Guess that means that we're not willing to trade MC .

235AD (189):

Galley gets to shore by Visgoth and unloads the two HAs. 5 HAs now here. Going to go back for the settler.

250AD (190):

Stuff happening this turn. Baghdad gets a border pop, and Kyoto gets size 3. Border pop means we need to get workers down to get that fur online...

Ok, well at Visgoth, one more turn of healing for the HAs.

Also managed to chop out Najran's granary, so dial up a Madrassa, and we'll get on that too.

265AD (191):

Gratuity is heading south for the furs, and we are good to go at Visgoth...



Promote first HA flanking 2 and he dies. Ok, damaged the enemy and we did save on maintenance now, lol.
Next HA is smart and withdraws! Yay!
3rd HA (has C1), punks off an archer.
Then we go in with the last HA and take out Visgoth.



Torched in preparation for our city.

We win 2 barbs workers, so all is good.

Here are my recommended sites... See spoiler for breakdown.





Subject to discussion of course. Passing the buck here, as I've taken more than enough turns already, but wanted to get that barb city down, and a settler en route.

Beware, as Cathy just got Aes and is mobilizing for war. Don't know when she got Aes, but it has to have been in the past 3 turns, as she did not have in on turn 188. We need new troops on the home front while, as I sent an archer on the boat, and moved a lot of HAs (will probably stay there to deal with Uzbeck). Our power is last place, so we need to work on that. It's up to the team to decide on more expansion. With courthouses coming up, I THINK we can handle it.

We can get Aes in 2 turns, if we run at 80% sci. We got some loot from Visgoth, so I think we should do it, in case Cathy is trying to build Parth (although we will probably win due to having Marble).

I put some chops into Damascus' courthouse because we need it up. It's done in 4 turns, but after that I think we should ignore growing and just work max hammers to spam some units there.

After Lit, not sure what we are looking at next. Consider currency to get routes. Construction gets us cats, but as we have a new avenue of expansion, probably not pressing. Machinery or Feud are the same cost to get us into the Medieval era, and both have a unit we can use.


Roster
1. Silver <-- Just Played --
2. Liq >> Up Now <<
3. Grover <-- On Deck --

CommandoBob said:

Thank you.

I considered trying to join this SG, but I couldn't tell if the game was open or not. Plus, at the moment, computer time on my PC is somewhat erratic. We live with my mother-in-law and since July she has decided to sleep upstairs with us, in the bedroom that once belonged to our son and where my PC is located. She goes to bed at around 8pm, which is the time I am ready to have some quality Civ time. Recently (2 of the last 3 nights) she has slept downstairs in her own bed, but I don't know if that will continue or not.

If she continues to sleep downstairs I'd like to join, but not until then.

Click to expand...

As a general rule, Boff games are usually open, as we typically cannot attract enough people for our doomed games (the RNG and map scripts hate us).

Game is cruising along, so feel free to join at any time. If not here, there will more than likely be more Boff games

S.ilver said:

As a general rule, Boff games are usually open, as we typically cannot attract enough people for our doomed games (the RNG and map scripts hate us).

Game is cruising along, so feel free to join at any time. If not here, there will more than likely be more Boff games

Click to expand...

Thank you very much. Once I get a better read on Grandma's sleeping habit (if it is for the better), I'll let the team know.

Preturn: 265AD
OK again, a pleasure to follow silver. Nice going on setting up red dot and the it entailed, as usual hehe.

First order of business is dial science up to 80% for 2 turns on aes.. at 80% lit is 7 turns and currency is 10 for roughly -21ish gold a turn. That dovetails nicely with draining excess gold just before currency lets wang and chung to come begging.


The new Barb Workers are given their proper titles. They will chop Red Dot's forest before settling.

[1]280 AD
Whoa Nelly, moving that galley out of cultural borders is worth 3 gold a turn hehe lets hold off til forest is chopped! Also start chopping a random forest outside of kyoto's BFC.

[2]295 AD

Aesthetics comes in and for some reason Liq hears Nemoy's Voice saying the Art for Art's sake line.. This when Liq knows full well Firaxis didn;t spring the cash to hire him again. Obviously, Liq is listening to that Booty Shakin Music a bit too loud

So Mecca goes for a parth immediately going stagnant for max hammers. It's 13 turns... one chop will go into it for 45x 2.25ish. Max hammer mode til Glib done then time to grow.

Dial science down to 70% so lit in 7 at -17 gold a turn.

Medina will try for a Zeus (for denial) after Courthouse finishes in 4ish turns. That wonder needs to get removed. If Cathy wants it, it's hers.


oooh?
Wang will trade Construction but will not take Code of laws straight. meh. Aes and HBR are avil as well as MC but uh 559 beaks in favor of Wang isn;t good enough for an 11 turn tech right now. Will burn that bridge when we get to it.

Pull 2 workers from up north to chop and farm in Mecca. Don;t really need the hammers but one less turn on parth is fine and we can use another grassland farm for Mecca.

[3]310 AD
Red dot forest chops for a masterful 9 hammers leading to Kyoto's lighthouse a turn early haha. So now has 8 surplus food. Will slot in a Courthouse as maint is 5.37 36 turns of ugly but more hammers incoming from one more distant chop...

Maybe
Not to mention working a mine next population.

Chop plunks some hammers into Hapless Najran's Library so move work on to the other scrub forest hehe.

[4]325 AD
Sad how a building going up is news....
Damascus gets it's courthouse and gold jumps +3 a turn @70% science hehe. Slot in A hindu temple for the culture.
Baghdad gets it's Library so place it on a 36 turn Courthouse.

[5]340 AD
Bah chop went to Damascus, not kyoto. oh well.
Medina gows to size nine and move work onto a grassland cottage for growth in 10 over a partially builtup plains cottage. Courthouse next turn yay.


Ow red dot founded and Blam we get hit for a good 7 more gold a turn... erk. dial in library like now hehe. hooking iron up then chopaholic. That's a sweet town after culture bounce... for this map

holy crap....

wow, just wow.
lets see if we can flip that pos and NOT keep it.

[6]355 AD
Cathy comes willing to trade MC for her construction... rofl.

Courthouse builds in Medina saving 3 gold a turn.. go for an 18 turn Statue of Zeu for cash or denial.

We need military hehe.


[7]370 AD

So scary hearing those horns.
And never a chance for Zeus.

ok so we need to build something froma few towns and spamming useless archers isn;t in the cards...

We didn;t even get a favorable trade dip bonus.

Damascus and Medina are on those cats. Medina moves work off the failed zeus.

[8]385 AD
Cathy demands we go jewish.. meh ok.

We get 42 gold from that zeus. not at all bad


[9]400 AD

yeah so Lit comes in and we can build the great Library. YAY. 10 turns for Currency.

Parth decided in 4 turns then onto a leasurely Glib.

Wang gets a Great general and Medina pops it's borders again. Lots of pretty colors on the autolog.

[10]415 AD
Cathy comes looking for us to join the war... sigh. no can do as....


Yeah those two hate each other so much we can afford to use matchsticks as deterrent. Stand back or I'll uh.... flick ya!

[11]430 AD

Kyoto Culture bounces so that means.....

Score!
Kufah has fishies!


[13]460 AD
Big turn!

Woo and stuff.

Great Library is in 10 turns unassisted so not going to bother chopping since no one else has lit.

Medina builds our first cat and goes for a 5 turn Confused temple on account Medina is close to happy cap and our friends are busy.

Currency is done in 4 turns at 100% science, which we can afford. That tech will pay for itself.

Next tech needs to be Feudalism so we can build longbows for defense and have vassalhood to play with as a civic.

Interesting power graph...



Glib in 10 turns. Belatedly switch out of slavery saving 2 gold a turn. no one can afford the whip any time soon so it's 10 gold at least as Kurfah is gonna need more than 5 turns to be whippable. We really do NOT want a slave revolt in mecca while working on wonder. Keep in mind that kyoto needs to NOT be whipped until it's galley whipping anger is over.

Mendina's culture landed us those godforsaken Incense sitting in the mountainous deserts btw and Baghdad's library is powning the southen culture.

Boring turns hehe. 15ish turns give or take Grover. Let you spam a wonder screen at least.

We are still Jewish and everything is annoyed with us. lets also pop a spy from Mecca when it finishes it's wonder and courthouse or from Medina after that temple.

Cheers!
-Liq

Got it. Will get in my set tonight, starting in two hours or so.

Fun fun! not sure how we will ever be able to attack anyone but hey! it's good clean fun abusing photoshop!

Cheers!
-Liq'd

Looks good Liq... Wang and Cathy still beating each other up, so we have time. Surprised there have been no cities taken yet, so that means this whole exercise has been burning units on each other, nice.

I think we need to expend our energy expanding to cities in the north. Our land is just very marginal, and our production levels are complete garbage. Demographics says we are the best, but that's just due to us building wonders and getting 100% bonus from the marble.

Uzbek looks like it popped a border, so it must have cultural defenses now. It is size 3, has a wall, monument, and a barracks. That's 50% defensive bonus for the two archers that I last saw there (may be more now). That doesn't bode too well for our HAs. We'll either have to burn them, or use cats. And we have only one boat so far, and little capacity to build another, so it looks like we'll have to be careful in how we use our units there.

EDIT: Might want to freeze Medina's growth by building settlers for the north. We'll need Damascus' Cats to take down Uzbek's defenses now, unless we want to throw HAs. Probably best to start shipping ASAP as we only have one ferry, lol.

204 460AD

We have a cat sitting still in Medina. I get it rolling towards Kyoto and the ferry.

Kyoto's only unit is a HA. The town gets unhappy when I test moving him out, so I move him right back in. I move out Erwin the Woodsy Warrior from Damascus towards Kyoto to relieve the horse. We really need units.

Damascus is left with a single archer, Chester, with Drill 3.

205 475AD

We have 3 turns to Currency and are -42gpt with 137 gold in the bank. We'll just make it.


206 490AD
Uh oh...


Cathy's war with Wang is over. And she has completed the Shedwagon Papaya (or whatever it's called).

Damascus finishes a catapult. It starts on a 9-turn elephant.

207 505AD

Hanging Gardens built in a far away land.

One cat and Kyoto's HA land across the bay. I move other horses towards Uzbek. A barb worker is out and free for the taking, so Nikki and Fran gobble him up. The galley will go back to pick up cat number two.

Our gpt drops because the HAs are out of our territory now. We are -50gpt with 1 turn left on Currency and 50 gold in the bank. We'll just make it.

208 520AD

Cathy gets a great merchant.

Narjan's radius expands, but there are no better tiles than the ones it is already working, at least until it finishes its lighthouse. After that, we'll do either a courthouse or a market, I guess, and move off the mine/hill and onto a coastal square to un-stagnate.

Kufah grows to size 2, working iron and fish now. Growth in 12 turns, Madrassa in 8.

Start on Feudalism (for longbows). 29 turns at 40%, +2gpt currently.

209 535AD

Wang demands Literature. I decline.
I offer him fish for gold, and he takes it.

Medina finishes temple, starts on settler. 9 turns.

I have some idle workers start chopping forests that are outside of BFCs, including one that borders Wang's city to the south. It's in our culture, though, so presumably we'll get the hammers from the chop. (The mouse-over says +36 hammers for Baghdad)

210 550AD

One cat and our HA army has moved next to Uzbek. Defenses are at 50%. Shelling with one cat will commence next turn, and with two cats thereafter.

211 565AD



Well, I guess that's good.

Kyoto finishes courthouse. I start it on barracks. Considered market and considered forge, but went with barracks.

Uzbek shelled down to 46%.

212 580AD


Uzbek down to 38%. A barb archer is in the woods 2 S of his city. I move some HAs to cut him off so that he can't get back.



Narjan finishes lighthouse. Move off the hill mine and onto a coastal tile for growth in 10 turns. Start building a courthouse because its 88 turns is less than the market's 110. Although the market would give a little better return...with current numbers, courthouse would be +1.73gpt, market would be +2.25gpt.

Kufah finishes Madrassa. Start an 11-turn granary.

213 595AD


The cutoff barb archer attacks Nikki and loses. Nikki is down to 3.5 health and the medic moves to her.

Uzbek down to 30%

Kyoto will grow next turn and still be under its caps. 5 turns left on previous (galley?) whipping unhappiness.

214 610AD


Mecca resumes courthouse. I reallocate worked tiles to de-stagnate mecca, and growth is in 3 turns and courthouse is in 3 turns. We have plenty of room under the caps there.

Can get research to 50% now, break-even, so I do. Feudalism in 15 turns.

Kyoto finishes barracks and starts an axe.

215 625AD


Cathy adopts theocracy. Somebody's in trouble. Hope it's not us.


Ok. Now I don't worry so much that our gold is -1 per turn at 50%. We have a 76 gold cushion.

Medina finishes settler and he heads towards our boat. Starts a market, 15 turns.

Damascus finishes and elephant and starts another, 9 turns.

216 640AD

Not much to report.Kyoto has 2 turns left on axeman and 2 turns left on previous whipping unhappiness. Medina might be ripe for whipping, too.

217 655AD

Yippee.

Baghdad finishes courthouse. Starts 15-turn barracks.

Uzbek down to 0%, with two rookie archers and a worker as defenders.
Bobby (flanking 2) at 70% to win withdraws, gains 1 xp, up to 7/10.
Nellie (unupgraded) at 70% to win does win, gains 3 xp, up to 8/2.
All other HAs have 10xp already and can't gain from barbs, so Nikki administers the knock-out punch.

Uzbek is raised. We gain another worker.

Mecca finishes courthouse. Starts an 11 turn market.

Here I choose to end my set.

We have a settler on the green dot site who can start a city next turn.
Medina could maybe be whipped, and Kyoto can be whipped after it finishes its axe. If you don't like the production in Mecca or Baghdad, you can change them now without losing invested hammers.

Roster
Silver >>Up Now<<
Liq ==On Deck==
Grover -resting-

Sweet turnset Grover. Very nice job taking out Ubzek and spreading the exp.

The moose event was total win with the free 8 food hahahaha that the event rocks for us is an indicator on just how pathetic our lands are hahah. Actually moving work off the silver and onto the grass means growth in 7 turns. amazing. Btw instrad of barracks lets spam all those culture buildings and maybe a wall in bag.

210 Gold in the bank, who knew barbs were so profitable?

Nice job on landing the fish for gold trade from wang. I tried that a few times and he wouldn't take it. Guess you caught him on a good day hehe.

Nice work on closing the gap with cathy's score. Have to love that Glib for propping up our pathetic science rate.

Cheers!
-Liq

Nice set Grover. As always though, I do have some criticism . I wouldn't have had Damascus producing non-stop elephants. Those beasts are expensive, and their effectiveness is not what it could be since all our enemies have them as well. I would've continued to crank out cats, as we are far from trebs, and we will need siege to take Pyongyang.

I think I might actually go for orange dot first, as it appears Cathy is encroaching on the valley quickly with her culture.

Watchmen question:

Good read so far!

How long does it take ya'll to write the reports with the cropped pics and all?

I run civ windowed so I can have notepad open and toggle between screens. I actually write the report while I'm playing, so that slows down play, but that's good as it helps you think. The cropped screens are done in Photoshop after, so no major time spent there. The point of it is to cut down on unneeded clutter and to direct attention. Also helps folks with less bandwidth.

I'm still in the learning curve for turn logging efficiency. Currently, I alt-tab back and forth between civ (full screen), wordpad, and The GIMP. I do the cropping as I play. I'm getting faster at cropping, and that part doesn't take too long now. The constant switching between civ and wordpad to write the text takes much more time, because I often have to switch four or five times per turn. Taking notes on paper and then switching once per turn or once per five turns or once per set might speed things up for me, actually.

It probably takes me about 2 hours to play and write up 15 turns. I guess that's a rate of of about 1 turn per 8 minutes.

Jim

655AD (217):

Preflight check. We look to be in good shape. Cathy is only beating us by 2 GNP.

First thing's first. We now have Sid's "Oblation" & "Charity", lol.

Ok, with that out of the way, we will settle Orange dot first, to be followed by Green dot, then Blue dot. Black and white can fight for the last settler, if I even make another this turn.

We also want to shift cap to Kyoto to deal with maintenance issues forthcoming. Need a forge first.

Mecca will switch to a settler in 6. The market is nice, but we are moving the cap, so we'll lose like 8 commerce in this place.

Medina is working on a market, which is good due to its high potential commerce output. I contemplate working the cottage tile, but that adds turns to the market, so no.

Damascus is spamming War Elephants. While not a problem as they are good units, they are pricy, and everyone else has them so it is a bit futile trying to use them as cavalry defense. They will easily rock HAs and such, but we want a few spears in case of other elephants. Damascus will get on that later...

Baghdad is working on a barracks, and since it seems unlikely that we will ever build a unit here, more culture is in order. I dial for a Hindu Monastery, as we don't need the happy from the temple, monasteries provide more culture, and the boost to research will benefit Baghdad, as it makes a whopping 16 commerce per turn for a crap city.

Kyoto about to finish an axe. We want to get the Capital moving process started, so a forge soon after. Also need to mine the last hill and eat some forests for this city.

Narjan working on a slow courthouse. That's fine because Narjan sucks, and still produces more commerce than it costs anyways. 83 turns is bad though. When it grows in 5, will possibly put it on the mine so we can finish this thing soonish...

Kufah just needs to get on its feet, and that is rapidly happening with a 6 food surplus. Two hills mined and one more needs to be to provide a chop to whatever building we want. Yay. Granary not yet done, but not worth whipping this town.

The clowns are again preparing for war, and seeing as they are each others worst enemies, I am expecting them to go at it again. That, and if they attacked us we would probably die fast, means it doesn't matter much, lol. Tech wise, we lead due to hiding MC and currency. Wang now has Calendar but won't trade. Might be worth it for Cathy to tech it and us trade it, will consider that distinct possibility, as we need to get on Civil posthaste. Hmm... well, Wang's reason for not trading is "We don't like you enough." Maybe after war breaks out, we'll drop Jud and see if he changes his mind.

670AD (218):

Kufah grows and works the iron mine. Yay, only 5 turns left on the blasted Granary. Ouch, this town costing 7 maintenance... such that chops to get a court and forge are a good thing. Forge first for discount.

Nellie runs down another barb archer that was harassing orange dot's site. Our settler team moves under cover to Orange site.

Kyoto is done it's Axe, so dial for a 13 turn forge. It will help the hapiness for sure.

685AD (219):

Cathy gets Christianity in St. Petes. So we know she just got Theo, but doesn't matter as she got the Paya earlier anyways.

I think HARD, and well, Baghdad is unlikely to ever work any of the Tundra Forests it has anyways, so I'm going to destroy them all for the culture buildings.

Promote Nellie Sentry, and we'll send her in to see what she can see.

700AD (220):

Yeah, so crap news completely this turn...



It was Wang, BTW, and he got it from Damascus. Stupid crap town...

Ok, well switching to a spy in Damascus so he can't do that kind of crap with us anymore.

In better news, we found Orange Dot (Basra).



Our economy takes a 5 gold hit, mostly because the HAs are back in borders now. Basra dials a Madrassa, as always.

715AD (221):

Yeah, go eff yourself thief!



Then it gets worse, as Cathy tries to beg for currency. Uh, no.

Cathy drops a Jewish Missionary on Basra, so instant culture, thanks Cathy.

Najran growing next turn, so good to go.

Barb archers appearing near Kufah, so moving HAs...

730AD (222):

Nikki runs down the barb archer before it can cause any damage, yay.

Monastery done in Baghdad from chops. I dial a Confucian one too.

Kufah also finished its granary though chops, dial for the forge. Need courts after.

745AD (223):

Ow, the mystery city up north popped borders putting pressure on Basra...

Looks like Cathy is gearing up to go after Wang.



Oh, and we can see Wang's research now due to me redirecting the EPs at him. He's going for Civil in 17.

Settler done in Mecca, dial for another in 5.

We also got an against the odds GS in Mecca. Next GP due there in 25 turns... Ok, so choices are GA, Academy, Settle, or Bulb. GA is weak as our empire is weak. Academy is fairly weak too, because we don't have concentrated tech anywhere in great amounts. A settled spec would be stronger, but we are not running Rep for full benefits.

HOWEVER, Phil has not been discovered yet, and therefore Taoism is up for grabs. It also advances us an era. I stew on the decision for a while, and then take it.



Najran gets Taoism.

760AD (224):

A barb axe appears in the forest, but Nikki has bad odds, so will let it stay for now.

Cathy's stack in St. Pete's continues to get taller. Bad things happening for Wang. I am hoping she does not take Pyongyang, but will shadow (not that we can do much at the moment.

Confucian Monastery done in Baghdad, just the Jewish one left to go. Then we basically crank temples until the end of time.

lol, Wang is losing time on Civil, down to 19 turns from 17 earlier, lol

775AD (225):

Try to spread Tao in Damascus, but the RNG is vengeful, and it bounces, boo...

Settler gets on boat to head for Green site.

790AD (226):

Bobby the HA goes in to try and kill the barb, but withdraws with 73% chances. Ok, whatever at least he didn't die. Nikki gets to clean up the mess.

Spy is done in Damascus, and redialing the War Elephant. We have EPs on Wang now, so going to try and swipe Calendar.

Kyoto growing next turn to max pop. Need to slow this place somehow, but it needs buildings and our Palace.

805AD (227):

Cathy comes to us wanting to trade MC for Mono and a pile of cash. BUT notice she has Calendar. Since the jerk Wang already stole MC, little point in hiding it, so do this deal.



Map is now centered, looks like our continent is on the west of the map.

Since we have Calendar now, Wang has nothing to offer, so sit the spy back in Damascus for defense. Might want one for Baghdad as well.

Nellie is still chilling and watching the enemy stacks build up. Cathy's is huge next to Wang's.

We found Khurasan (WTH) on Green Dot.



Now losing 17 gold per turn, fun. We start on the obvious Madrassa.

A market finished in Medina this turn to help that sad statistic though... Dialing up a Cat, as they are always usable.

Take spending down a notch, but Feud is still in in 1 turn, only losing 5gpt now, yay.

820AD (228):



Joy! Protective LBs ftw!

Moving on, we dial for Civil, as we managed to pick up Calendar back there, so meh. I finally see Grover's discount in action because Civil is cheaper than Machinery in terms of turns, despite costing more raw beakers. Prereqs FTW! 19 turns for Civil.

At -5 gpt right now, paying 8 gold in support for units. I revolt Vassalage, as it will cost us 5 more gold, but we save 8. Net savings of 3 and we win XP for our units (level 3 out of the gate with barracks). I also revolt to Serfdom at the same time. We don't really need faster workers, but it is the same price as Tribalism, and we are not looking to run Slavery or Caste, so do it anyways (we are Spi, so we can switch it out whenever).

Settler done in Baghdad, dialing up Longbows. I note that MoM is up, but it is unlikely we will ever make decent use of a Golden Age, although it is sped up by marble.

Baghdad finished the last Monastery, so we will spam temples with raw hammers. Not going to eat forests for these...

835AD (229):

More barbs appearing next to Kufah, so later will send out scouts to take care of that, sigh...

The forge finished this turn in Kyoto, but so did like 2 chops. That's 145 hammers towards the Palace. Done in 5 turns, brutal...

850AD (230):

Archer is on the flats, so attack with Bobby. He's not fully healed, but shows 80% chance of victory... Ok withdraws again, at least he didn't die! This Bob is channeling another Bob's spirit from FS-1 clearly...

So again up to Nikki to clean up the mess...

Damascus finished a War Elephant, so dial up a Longbow. Moving Chester to get on the boat with the settler for Blue Dot.

Working on the Plantations for Incense and Dyes...

860AD (231):

Kyoto is celebrating we love Sally day, so we save like 6 cash this turn, yay.

A forest grows near Medina, not sure where, but I guess that means more chops, lol

Longbow done at Mecca, dial another. Sending that one to Baghdad, lol.

The forge is done in Kufah, and an obvious courthouse is necessary, so dial that.

870AD (232):

A GS is born far away, whee.

Nikki spots more evil barbs, so we punk them.

And Chester and Co. land on Blue Dot.

Medina finished a Cat, so shipping it to Damascus for muster, and dialing a Longbow.

880AD (233):

A barb warrior is incoming on Kufah. Only Bobby around as Nikki is fogbusting the north... sigh... I guess the archer will win XP next turn, lol

Found Blue Dot Anjar, and our gold is now down to -11 @ 40% tech. Sigh... Palace next turn. Anjar doesn't need a border pop immediately, so go for a Granary first. We can work the fish immediately so do that.



Longbow makes it to Baghdad, so fortify him. Probably can delete the Archer later, but our power sucks, so wait till we have more LBs.

Civil in 14, Cathy has teched nothing except Calendar in the last little bit. Would not be surprised if she was trying to research DR, lol.

890AD (234):

Exciting stuff. First Wang offers us 200 gold for Lit. Meh. Gold is nice, but helping Wang is not. Still, Wang is likely to die soon, so might want to take him up on this deal, since Lit is now useless, lol.

Then a Russian Spy gets caught at Damascus, SCORE!

Bobby has only 80% odds against the barb warrior, but Fran has 99.9%. So use Fran, and make Bobby switch places.

Palace finished and our -11 gold went to +1 gold, woot. Kyoto has a lot of good options. I tentatively dial a Longbow.

Longbow finished in Mecca, shipping off to the border cities and ordering another.

Well, crap this does not look good.



I see the pile of nasties that Cathy order going NORTH rather than going east into Korea like we want them to. That's bad news for us, because WE are north. And that area has only HAs defending it, so trouble for sure...

Kufah lacks a barracks and all other nice things like that, so this is definitely trouble... Since we are in Vassalage though, I dial a War Elephant.

Well... it looks like I will play this overtime, as it would be irresponsible to leave the save here... I was going to pass it off here due to the Palace finishing, but ugly SoDs moving at us warrant attention from the warmonger.

Going to recall Nikki to the front as well, barbs be damned...

Basra also dials a wall...

900AD (235):

The killer stack in the north is indeed coming for us...



We have basically nothing there to hold them back with... Troops falling back fast and I am getting ready to load some Longbows onto the boat... I have Nellie shadowing the SoD for now, but she'll run for Basra ASAP.

910AD (236):

Well, this complicates things...



They are BOTH coming after us.

Various nasty sabotage from Wang happens. Najran gets poisoned, not that we care, and the Elephants by Damascus get blown up. More work for the workers.

I had 2 workers working on the Incense, but they flee the border at best speed, due to this.

At Baghdad, there are units incoming, so rushed some longbows down there.



Cathy's units are STILL incoming, but the wall is done in Basra along with a border pop. Set up a longbow, and hoping to chop it out.

Also have enemies incoming at Damascus, but the War Elephants are there, so we should hold...



A longbow is due at Kyoto next turn, so going to get ready to ship it north.

920AD (237):

The foul Koreans attack my Longbow on the silver mine with 3 chariots and 1 spearman, and they all die.

At Damascus, the War Elephants destroy two Hwachas. Damn stupid Korea and their UU...

Nikki withdraws against a barb axe, and the archer defending Kufah, finishes him.

We are still chasing after a Korean Sword near Mecca with a Longbow, going to try and bait him.

Need to dial science down to 30%, really hurting now.

From all that, Sargon is born in Medina... Ok, nice, except that Medina is NOT a military town. Going to send him to settle in Kyoto.

Medina's Longbow finished and is marching, dial another.

Damascus Longbow finished, but this is a front line, so dial a War Elephant.

Baghdad finished a Hindu Temple. Tempted to dial walls because we are pro and they are cheap. All attackers here are dead though, so just a panic move.

Kyoto Longbow done, dial another.

Anticipating an attack from Cathy next turn...



930AD (238):

And here it is...



Pusan got hit by a Hurricane this turn, good riddance.

Well, Wang's dudes ran for it last turn, and he will give us 85 gold for peace.



2 turn war is over, but the other one is just starting...

LB is not done and won't be for 4 turns, so I revolt to Slavery. However, I can't whip the LB even though we finished the chop. This city is likey dead... Shoulda chopped the LB first, my bad guys...

Settle the General in Kyoto.

Longbow done in Mecca, dial a War Elephant.

940AD (239):

Cathy amazingly does not attack Basra, but bombards it, despite the fact that all our units in it don't get defensive bonuses! Yay!

I whip the Longbow, and another is 1 turn away from the boat.

The WE in Kufah is also done, so I dial another LB there.

All units are running north for our pathetic 1 ferry as fast as they can.

950AD (240):

We finish building the camp at Damascus again and it gets blown up, AGAIN! Well, ok workers haven't moved so do it again!

Trade Wang Gold for Clams, as we need to keep him pacified. I also drop to no state religion, but that makes Cathy furious, heheh...

Longbow is done in Kyoto and there is a backlog, so dial a Galley for another Ferry.

I make an executive decision to evacuate Basra. 2 LBs don't stand a chance against the cats. We have 2 cats on the scene and might be able to take the city back, but we stand no chance if all our units die in the defense. Cathy has 5 cats with CR on them. Best to nullify that promotion... Also, we have lots of HAs, which are only good if they can withdraw. They can't withdraw on defense, so we will die.

Also going to spend all our money upgrading Erwin to an Axeman, lol.

960AD (241):

Cathy's troops walk into Basra unopposed. Revolting for 2 turns there. I can have 3 WE of my own on site next turn, so we will hope they don't attack.

Workers got out alright, so just a minor setback...

WE done in Mecca, dial another.

970AD (242):

Cathy does not attack in the inturn, so here goes!

Cats have horrible odds against WEs, so send in our own WEs first. They go 2/3 with the first one dying. One more wounded WE left in the city.
I send in the first Cat and it dies to the archer instead of running, boo...
Next defender is the wounded WE, and I want to kill it, so let's not use a cat. Let's see, Drill 3 longbow does the trick with minimal damage.
Send in the next cat and it withdraws after beating on an archer.
Our second longbow can take down a catapult.
Fran then has the odds for her, but withdraws against an axeman. At least she didn't die.
HA follows up by destroying an Axe.
Then Nellie takes down an archer, and Nikki provides backup in destroying an Axe.
Bobby takes out a cat, and then we have run out of quality units to attack with. Running matchups properly here, and the chariot Quincy can do nothing.

Still units in the city, damnit...

Medina done a LB, dials a Cat.

980AD (243):

Ok, damn, Cathy upgraded her Archers to LB and attacked us in the inturn with cats. We took some nasty collateral, but no one died, so we're still ok.

BUG reminds me that Najran becomes unhealthy next turn, but whatever, that city will never grow anyways, lol. Water still probably poisoned.

Ok, well nothing has much good odds against the 4hp longbow... Bobby earned a promo last turn, so give him Combat 1 and attack. Wow, he won. Didn't expect that at all, that effer sneaks out of things just like his predecessor.
Ok, well next LB is up, and the best unit to take it down is our top WE, so do that.
Then we have a favourable matchup of HA vs cat, but we lose, boo.
Nellie then kills a cat, and we are running out of healed units to work with, so Quincy the medic XPs on the cat, lol.
Send in the last WE to kill the Cat and we have Basra again.

Ok, walls are gone here, so that's a problem... Incoming nasties, so put LBs in, we'll get more in a few turns.
Also seems Cathy is sending 3 more WEs and a cat, ugh.

Kufah finished a Longbow, and we need more units, so dial another. Courthouse can wait until we are not dying!

Kyoto finished a Galley so get on a LB.

Basra's asking what to build. Doesn't really matter as this place is likely to get conquered again, but dial up a LB.

990AD (244):

Cathy attacks us with 2 Axes and a Spear in Basra in the inturn, and our LBs eat them, whew...

War Elephants turned around in the inturn too, so dial up Cathy...



Dial Basra's Madrassa up again, lol. More trees to die.

Walls finally finished in Baghdad, so whew there... Not that it matters as Wang is a pansy. We dial for a Jew temple as the Madrassa here hasn't gone epic yet. Have not even looked at this town the whole war, but it seems it is holding well against Hyangsan.

Kufah gets back on its courthouse btw, and we turn up sci a notch, as Wang hates us and won't trade.

1000AD (245):

WE done in Mecca, dialing up a market as we need it bad now!

Wang is teching currency, this we can see. I revolt us back into Slavery mostly to save us cash.


Finally get to pass it off, as ugly war crap is done. Somehow managed to kill off Cathy's SoD despite bad rolls (and one good one from Bobby).

Cathy managed to tech Feud while we were fighting, but we still have a tech lead on these bastards. Wang has Civil, but won't trade it. Meh, civil coming in 6 crap turns bleeding 6gpt.

Basra has been delayed by Cathy's stupid shennanigans. It was almost done it's Madrassa, but I aborted it because it would've been blown up in an attack anyways...

Our economy is in rough shape because all of our stupid trade routes went internal. Once we have Civil, I think Machinery is the obvious next choice.

Mecca gets a GS in 3, bulbs Compass, so might want to settle as our economy is in bad shape right now (but somehow still second best). It really dived when the idiots DoWed on us, but we're ok now...

Power wise we are now 0.8 on Cathy and 0.9 on Wang so we can probably halt unit builds after this round to avoid going bankrupt. Need to distribute the LBs around, and delete old archers. Border garrison needs to be tougher though, as we saw...

Yes, S.ilver just hogged 28 turns, but did not want to give Liq an ugly stack that appeared to be coming north. So instead you get your favourite rebuild Liq. .

Never did get around to building the plantation on the incense... Possibly ship some Toku workers north to help with the chop out of the cities. We have little left to do in the south, and the north needs courts, forges, etc, really quickly...

Now that the war is over, highly recommend building the Colossus in Kyoto. Reason? Neither of our two stupid neighbors has any city worth mentioning on the coast that could logically put out Colossus. Meanwhile we have 5 coastal cities at the moment, with more likely to be on the way. Many of them will be exclusively working water tiles as the terrain sucks, such that Colossus would be a huge shot in the arm commerce wise. It is only 15 turns in Kyoto and Kyoto has little else pressing to build at the moment. The danger of losing it to the other continent is low as well, as we are kicking that continent's ass in tech clearly.

I ignored my own advice about the War Elephants. Grover, you made the complete right call by building them here. Everything else we can field is way too weak at the moment to do anything, so good call mate. Your WE's saved us from Wang, and then were shipped to Basra to save us again from Cathy.


Roster
1. Silver <-- Just Played --
2. Liq >> Up Now <<
3. Grover <-- On Deck --

Wow, Silver! Great job!

Can't wait until I get home from work tonight so that I can load the save and investigate myself.