Up in three games, just finished Cordova, now Franks, next Byzantines, wee!!
Tis 888 AD and the empire is quite young. Rulers are flush with the excitement
of exploration and building their kingdom. A young man, Charis the Hotdog is secretly
a deep admirer of Joan, and has somehow managed to undertake ruling her kingdom
while she is away on a great mission, something having to do with setting up a
Holy Roman Empire. In any case here are the chronicles of his reign.
With the prebuild underway and in good shape, here's what seems to be the key to our
success with our initial plan for HRE and quick knighthood -- to build a strong
economy, make contacts FAST so that when Horseback Riding becomes available, we must
buy it at any cost and broker it around to all other civilizations. Likewise Castle
Building which will expose our already known West Church. If we can accomplish this
and if we have some horses ready, the wars of exansion and the quest for glory
can occur with Knights, two techs before anyone else - and we'll turn on our neighbors
who would dare use Knights against us.
Vigilance in trading and exploring, building, and economy, are the goals for this reign.
Secondary goals include hookup of horses and iron, although we probably want about one
warrior per city for cheap MP and let the good units loose.
Settling? I like a spot E/NE of Clermont on river next to quarry, a hill-river spot
on edge of Pyrenes mtns, and the river coastal spot NW of Paris. So that's a minimum
of three settlers. Probably another on the hill between Bordeaux and Angers. One is
due from Paris this turn. There won't be many more from Paris, as it's production is
too good. Boulogne swaps to settler, but other queue choices seem good.
[0] 888 AD - We have 9 contacts, and so are missing 8. Those are: Rus, Fatamids,
Abbasids, Turks, Byzantines, Poland, Magyars, Bulgars. We need a southern ship,
and we need a wandering king for the non-coastal middle ones. Darn... that warrior
has gotten too far away, and we have no extra defenders AT ALL. We're stuck with
the warrior scout. Finally, I rush the curragh in Ampurias for faster contacts.
IBT - Orleans expands and iron is in range to hookup. We'll want some more warriors
first though.
[1] 891 - Paris settler heads for eastern quarry site. Wow, actually Paris is a four-
turn settler factory! Nevermind comments on stopping settling - since our war ambitions
are medium-long, not short term, more cities now, peacefully, is probably best.
[2] 894 - movin. IBT - Shoot, Burgundy founds Naples close to where my settler was
heading, beating him by two turns. Of course the AI founds OFF the river, ON the
uber forest tile, ruining the setup there 8-\ Burgundy gets added to my hit list!
[3] 897 - In fact, I'm going to cede that whole East coast to him and let him settle.
We'll capture them all later, nicely far from their capital. Did I say capture?
I meant "Annex for the good of the most Holy Roman Empire!"
[4] 900 - Lyons is founded on a hill bear Nantes, Bordeaux and Angers.
Burgundy has HBR! Our treasury of 104g+12gpt won't buy it. Anyone else? Germany,
so we're not talking a monopoly here. Also having it are England, Denmark, Norway,
Castille, even Celts. Sheesh. Missing it are Cordova(22g), Sweden(34g)
Here is where NOT having run into Poles, Magyars and Bulgars hurts. It's also too
bad that so many knew it on the first turn it was known. (And yes, I did check EVERY
civ last turn, no one had it) If we can't broker it, there's no rush to deal. We will
not have a ton more contacts any time soon at all, and we can get about 66g back if
we stretch for it now. Sliders down to zero, 104g+19gpt won't get it?! Ouch!
Commercial civs are Cordova, Fatamids, Abbasids, Rus, Turks. GAH! Precisely the ones
we don't know (except Cordova who lacks the tech) We need to make more contacts and hope
those last two can't buy in anywhere.
[5] 903 - Cordova came up with HBR. GAH! Must have been close to reseaching it himself,
as it would never sell for 22g. Swedes still lack it.
[6] 906 - We meet the Magyars, who naturally know how to ride horses.
Rheims is founded on the river to our SW. There's room for one more city, much
later, on the river hill 1 square S and 1 SW.
IBT - Sonofabiscuit! Bloody English land TWO settlers and two spears two squares
ahead of the settler on goto to his nice spot SW of Paris. That does it!!!
Time to turn ploughshares into swords! Add ENGLAND to the hit list of cities to smack
down and capture... er... annex for the Holy Empire! Hmm, if they don't settle right
where they land it will still fit the pattern and I have an alternate spot to take.
But if they do settle where they land, it will kill an uberforest and will once again
ruin a 'prudent' settling pattern. Anyone taking bets against this folly?
[7] 909 - Some cities turn to rax, and we head a worker toward the iron now. Enough
is enough. IBT - Sure enough, England founds Canterbury in a *ridiculous* spot.
[8] 912 - We meet the Fatamids. They have HBR of course. We meet Poland, who lacks HBR
and lacks ANY money to buy it. I found the city of Tours NW of Paris.
It's close to Canterbuy but that's their fault. I hope to raze not capture that
misfounded blight.
[9] 915 - Paris finishes a settler and vows never to produce another. It starts a spear.
Chatres is founded.
[10] 918 - An English settler pair has moved RIGHT NEXT to Paris!
The pure insult of this is too much to bear! We tell them they MUST withdraw.
They tell us basically "Yah, yah, we'll withdraw when we're ready.
That's it. I hope our next leader is ready for some action. Their answer is not
good enough. I declare war, and whack the pair. That nets a promotion to vet and
two workers, and our first 25 victory points
A regular warr out of Angers (what an appropriate name) roars out of the city along
the road and slices open a wandering and unsuspecting English warrior. He promotes.
The "Buying" season for HBR has come and gone. We must obtain it or Castle Building
by Pointy stick! We can't afford to pay for both techs in our HRE timeframe.
England will pay us HBR, and Burgundy will (imho) cough up Castle Building.
Castille and Cordoba are parading settlers in our land too. It's VERY tempting
to hit them as well, but the warrior on spear odds are too poor. If you like that
idea, bring in a sword to do the duty. I'm sending down free swords from the North
down to the scene of the action.
Notes
- We need just one more settler, which Bordeaux is working on, to settle the spot
next to the wheat, next to Canterbury, once we autoraze it. No more from Paris,
which needs to climb up to 15spt and start spitting out swords for our pre-Knight
campaigns. England is the first such war. I would highly recommend whacking any
Celtic, Cordoba or Castille settler pairs if you can get a sword or two into position
to attack all troops in our land at once.
- The gold-for-tech plan is now *scrapped*. Use gold for vet warrior upgrades and
if needed, a small rax rush. Those swords will 'buy' our next two techs.
- I would also highly recommend war with Burgundy next. We can trim them down and make
them weaker for when we get our Knights, plus raze their capital which is putting
tremendous pressure on Ghent, and make them pay for settling in OUR lands!
Our look at the terrain...
RBC13F Franks 918AD
Roster
Kylearan
Charis
Kabuki <-- UP
Ridgelake <-- ON Deck
Good luck! Kabuki, it's up to you to lay down the smack!
Charis
)
But my madness seems to be contagious, as you call me Ridgelake twice in your post, and yet... I'm Kylearan! 
