The Immortal Challenge 3: The Gathering Storm
- Thread starter aelf
- Start date
The power graph is not fake. It just means what it means. And if the AI knew how to whip/draft it would indeed mean loads of power. However they dont so it likely just mean insane large cities as you can allready see. Dont be too worried about that. Sad we cant realy use GL unless you somehow manage to do some very fast warmongering and capture the continent uberfast going under 0% effective research if necisarry.
aelf
Ashen One
I've finished playing the next round. Will post the update tomorrow 
carl corey
Deity
I've finished playing the next round. Will post the update tomorrow
You have to register this as a trademark.
r_rolo1
King of myself
I've finished playing the next round. Will post the update tomorrow
Not being picky, but are we using Earth days or Venus days ( 240X Earth
ones ) for the definition of "tomorrow" in your sentence? Just to clear things...
Hackapell
Rhetorician
aelf
Ashen One
Hey, I'm nowhere as good as Blizzard is at doing this. Just as I get more than disillusioned with that company, they announced Starcraft 2... with no release date! 
Hey, I'm nowhere as good as Blizzard is at doing this. Just as I get more than disillusioned with that company, they announced Starcraft 2... with no release date!
Haha! It said estimate release October somewhere on the site so expect it sometime next summer
(as your next update will be to maybe?
)
aelf
Ashen One
Round 5: 680AD - 1040AD
I began the round by taking the suggestion of trading Philosophy to Bismark for Feudalism:
My feelings had leaned overwhelmingly for getting Machinery instead, especially since we're paying the same amount of gold (instead of less, as I had expected before trying). But the argument that Feudalism would make Civil Service cheaper won me over.
And the war against Rome continued. We whipped two catapults on the second turn and sent them to join our army at the front. Whether we'd head for Rome or Ravenna and Magyar, we could certainly use more of these WMDs. But our offensive had to wait. There were finally signs that the Romans were mounting a counterattack. First, two galleys were sighted heading in our direction:
When they were first seen, near Antium's Tip, I feared that it was heading for the end of our peninsula, where Hastings, defended by a single chariot with no hope of meaningful reinforcement, stood. Fortunately, the AI isn't so clever. Blinded by the overwhelming need to recapture his cities, Caesar landed his force near Neapolis.
It was small, but composed of effective units. And he landed it on a hill. Maybe the AI is not so hopeless after all. But, anyway, I sent two elephants from our stack to shadow the movement of the galleys, so we were able to defend the city. One of the catapults that were heading for the front hit the stack first to soften it a little. I promoted it with Drill to help ensure that it would score hits against the longbowman. Then our elephants moved in. We were quite lucky - one of them won at rather low odds (30+%). And the others weren't unlucky, so we only lost that one catapult in the battle.
The successful defense spawned our first GG:
As I almost always prefer it, he was attached to a chariot to be a Medic III unit. However, this time, the chariot had Medic I already (promoted after it got lucky and killed a crossbow at low odds near Nottingham, before the latter could pillage our copper), so there was enough xp for a spare promotion after Medic III (also thanks to Charismatic). I gave it Morale for the extra movement. Now we have a super medic that can zip to anywhere he's needed in no time
There was more good news a few turns later; a rather big thing, in fact. Iron was discovered in a mine near Nottingham:
That meant, at least, that there's no necessity to take either Ravenna or Magyar in this war and we could bide our time to attack Rome itself.
However, Caesar wasn't going to give us an easy time. The galley-borne stack and the pillaging crossbow weren't the only Roman units to enter our territory. Elsewhere, a few Praetorians and macemen began making their appearance and had to be dealt with by Shock elephants, often not without cost. Because of this, we had to keep building elephants, especially in our productive capital, and couldn't risk the anarchy from switching to Bureaucracy when CS was discovered. Eventually, both our copper and iron mines were pillaged. We even lost a worker to a Woodsman II maceman that cleverly used a forested hill to run in and capture him. But we managed to destroy every attacker, and once we added more catapults to our stack, it began to move against Rome itself.
We had built a trireme in Hastings, which I had meant to send to Rome to scout its defenses out, but a Roman trireme blocked the way (couldn't travel on the ocean to sail around) so it couldn't get there. Because of this, we could only send our stack there blindly and hope that Caesar didn't have too many units.
We made another trade with Bismark after getting CS:
The Romans already had it, so it wouldn't be long before the Germans get it too. I considered using the same gambit of partially researching Machinery and then trading for it, but I decided not to take the risk this time. Bismark could get CS anytime. These techs we were getting are quite important anyway, and the gold was nice and would help us research Machinery ourselves.
Then, just as we began the Siege of Rome, we managed to score another hit:
Elephant vs. a longbow in a new city gives pretty good odds of winning. We kept the city, of course.
Then, hitting Rome with all the might of our catapults, three of which survived, we captured it:
Again, we were quite lucky and lost few units. The city wasn't very heavily defended, but it had at least two longbows, a crossbow and a praetorian. Yes, there's another city to east, though, which would put annoying cultural pressure on Rome unless we got rid of it.
Anyway, here's what we found in Rome:
Good stuff! The forge and the Academy were true jewels. However, for the city to truly shine, we would have to take and raze the Roman city to its east. The latter was on a hill, though, so it might be a problem, especially since we didn't have many catapults left after Rome.
[to be continued in the next post...]
I began the round by taking the suggestion of trading Philosophy to Bismark for Feudalism:
My feelings had leaned overwhelmingly for getting Machinery instead, especially since we're paying the same amount of gold (instead of less, as I had expected before trying). But the argument that Feudalism would make Civil Service cheaper won me over.
And the war against Rome continued. We whipped two catapults on the second turn and sent them to join our army at the front. Whether we'd head for Rome or Ravenna and Magyar, we could certainly use more of these WMDs. But our offensive had to wait. There were finally signs that the Romans were mounting a counterattack. First, two galleys were sighted heading in our direction:
When they were first seen, near Antium's Tip, I feared that it was heading for the end of our peninsula, where Hastings, defended by a single chariot with no hope of meaningful reinforcement, stood. Fortunately, the AI isn't so clever. Blinded by the overwhelming need to recapture his cities, Caesar landed his force near Neapolis.
It was small, but composed of effective units. And he landed it on a hill. Maybe the AI is not so hopeless after all. But, anyway, I sent two elephants from our stack to shadow the movement of the galleys, so we were able to defend the city. One of the catapults that were heading for the front hit the stack first to soften it a little. I promoted it with Drill to help ensure that it would score hits against the longbowman. Then our elephants moved in. We were quite lucky - one of them won at rather low odds (30+%). And the others weren't unlucky, so we only lost that one catapult in the battle.
The successful defense spawned our first GG:
As I almost always prefer it, he was attached to a chariot to be a Medic III unit. However, this time, the chariot had Medic I already (promoted after it got lucky and killed a crossbow at low odds near Nottingham, before the latter could pillage our copper), so there was enough xp for a spare promotion after Medic III (also thanks to Charismatic). I gave it Morale for the extra movement. Now we have a super medic that can zip to anywhere he's needed in no time
There was more good news a few turns later; a rather big thing, in fact. Iron was discovered in a mine near Nottingham:
That meant, at least, that there's no necessity to take either Ravenna or Magyar in this war and we could bide our time to attack Rome itself.However, Caesar wasn't going to give us an easy time. The galley-borne stack and the pillaging crossbow weren't the only Roman units to enter our territory. Elsewhere, a few Praetorians and macemen began making their appearance and had to be dealt with by Shock elephants, often not without cost. Because of this, we had to keep building elephants, especially in our productive capital, and couldn't risk the anarchy from switching to Bureaucracy when CS was discovered. Eventually, both our copper and iron mines were pillaged. We even lost a worker to a Woodsman II maceman that cleverly used a forested hill to run in and capture him. But we managed to destroy every attacker, and once we added more catapults to our stack, it began to move against Rome itself.
We had built a trireme in Hastings, which I had meant to send to Rome to scout its defenses out, but a Roman trireme blocked the way (couldn't travel on the ocean to sail around) so it couldn't get there. Because of this, we could only send our stack there blindly and hope that Caesar didn't have too many units.
We made another trade with Bismark after getting CS:
The Romans already had it, so it wouldn't be long before the Germans get it too. I considered using the same gambit of partially researching Machinery and then trading for it, but I decided not to take the risk this time. Bismark could get CS anytime. These techs we were getting are quite important anyway, and the gold was nice and would help us research Machinery ourselves.
Then, just as we began the Siege of Rome, we managed to score another hit:
Elephant vs. a longbow in a new city gives pretty good odds of winning. We kept the city, of course.
Then, hitting Rome with all the might of our catapults, three of which survived, we captured it:
Again, we were quite lucky and lost few units. The city wasn't very heavily defended, but it had at least two longbows, a crossbow and a praetorian. Yes, there's another city to east, though, which would put annoying cultural pressure on Rome unless we got rid of it.
Anyway, here's what we found in Rome:
Good stuff! The forge and the Academy were true jewels. However, for the city to truly shine, we would have to take and raze the Roman city to its east. The latter was on a hill, though, so it might be a problem, especially since we didn't have many catapults left after Rome.
[to be continued in the next post...]
aelf
Ashen One
Haha! It said estimate release October somewhere on the site so expect it sometime next summer
(as your next update will be to maybe?
No, the first part of the update is actually early
But I've run out of time, so the second part will really only be posted tomorrow.Can't wait for another half 
Btw, am I the only one, who has strange feelings about your Protective civ having traded for Feudalism and researching Machinery, but not having Archery yet?
Well, I can actually well understand it - it has been a busy schedule.
I always tend to waste my resources for building CG Longbows in my cities, which shall never see combat and could well have done with warriors instead. But as we are supposed to demonstrate the strength of Protective, should we squeeze Archery in after Machinery?
Btw, am I the only one, who has strange feelings about your Protective civ having traded for Feudalism and researching Machinery, but not having Archery yet?
Well, I can actually well understand it - it has been a busy schedule.
I always tend to waste my resources for building CG Longbows in my cities, which shall never see combat and could well have done with warriors instead. But as we are supposed to demonstrate the strength of Protective, should we squeeze Archery in after Machinery?How easy is it to get together enough troops to take out the rest of cesar cities? or alternativly leave him with a couple buffer against bismark and then vassalize him(so you can still trade a bit with bismark before jumping on him). Can you take on bismark anytime soon?
aelf
Ashen One
[continued from previous post]
Rome had already been taken and there was a respite from Caesar's incursions, so I decided that it was time to switch to Bureaucracy:
That shortened the remaining research time for CS by a few turns. We almost paid the price, though, since Roman incursions resumed immediately and with more intensity than before (except when the two galleys came).
Then we met the first overseas civ:
Didn't know how advanced he really was compared to our continent beyond the fact that he had Paper already. Anyway, it's not like we didn't already know we had some catching up to do.
Back to the war. Caesar's forays were getting dangerous and we had to end the war within a few turns if we didn't want to suffer a crippling loss somewhere. I sent whatever was healthy in our stack and the remaining catapults to attack the eastern city. The catapults only had the chance to bombard the city for one round, merely reducing the defenses to 11% from 20%, and the hill city had a longbowman, so you can imagine that the chances of winning for our first CRII axe were quite bad. However, we got lucky again and he won. The other defender, a pikeman, was easy meat.
The city was razed. I don't see what else we could do with it, even if that meant making Caesar even angrier with us. And then we sued for peace:
Those were what the Roman was willing to give. Of course, WFYABTA is a consideration as usual, so I opted not to take 2 cheap techs. Anyway, both are dead-end techs, in a sense. I see why we would need Archery, but we can spend a few turns to research that ourselves, while Monotheism doesn't lead to anything new and would be completely useless with the lack of religion. I decided to bargain for Literature and some gold instead, and he was willing to give the tech with 100 gold.
We were able to jack up our research with all the gold in our coffers. We might even be able to make a decent run for Liberalism if Peter doesn't prioritise his research properly. However, on the next turn...
How advanced was he really? That's bad news. Perhaps the other continent is so advanced there's no hope of winning. That would really suck 
But I remember hearing of a few GGs being born there, so they should at least be fighting among themselves.
The round ended after the discovery of Machinery. Here's how advanced everybody is, as far as we can see:
We only have Philosophy on Caesar. And we've hit WFYABTA with Bismark, unfortunately. Let's hope we meet more people from the other continent soon and they're not that advanced.
Here's the power graph:
Maybe we should buck up. Anyway, we should start building for our next war to finish Rome off.
The GNP graph:
Well, we'll see when Emancipation comes around, eh?
The map of the continent:
Now we have the whole of the Gulf of York (Antium to the Romans) under our control. Well, at least until Bismark's settler gets to the tip of our peninsula and settles a poor city there...
Anyway, I think researching Archery next would make sense while we hook the iron back up. After that, we should probably head for Printing Press and Rifling, trading for Engineering along the way, if possible. After that, it will be a Democracy beeline.
We should be able to take care of Caesar once we build some crossbows and more elephants and catapults (maybe after a round of economic builds to improve our economy, like a market in London?). We could take Ravenna (raze and rebuild on the previously brought up Site B), Magyar and either Pisae or Cumae or both, in that order. After that, we'd probably build up and invade Germany when we have Redcoats, with Caesar as a vassal helping to distract Bismark. Hopefully, we would be able to catch up with the other continent once we control most of ours and cottage spam under Emancipation.
What do you think?
Rome had already been taken and there was a respite from Caesar's incursions, so I decided that it was time to switch to Bureaucracy:
That shortened the remaining research time for CS by a few turns. We almost paid the price, though, since Roman incursions resumed immediately and with more intensity than before (except when the two galleys came).
Then we met the first overseas civ:
Didn't know how advanced he really was compared to our continent beyond the fact that he had Paper already. Anyway, it's not like we didn't already know we had some catching up to do.
Back to the war. Caesar's forays were getting dangerous and we had to end the war within a few turns if we didn't want to suffer a crippling loss somewhere. I sent whatever was healthy in our stack and the remaining catapults to attack the eastern city. The catapults only had the chance to bombard the city for one round, merely reducing the defenses to 11% from 20%, and the hill city had a longbowman, so you can imagine that the chances of winning for our first CRII axe were quite bad. However, we got lucky again and he won. The other defender, a pikeman, was easy meat.
The city was razed. I don't see what else we could do with it, even if that meant making Caesar even angrier with us. And then we sued for peace:
Those were what the Roman was willing to give. Of course, WFYABTA is a consideration as usual, so I opted not to take 2 cheap techs. Anyway, both are dead-end techs, in a sense. I see why we would need Archery, but we can spend a few turns to research that ourselves, while Monotheism doesn't lead to anything new and would be completely useless with the lack of religion. I decided to bargain for Literature and some gold instead, and he was willing to give the tech with 100 gold.
We were able to jack up our research with all the gold in our coffers. We might even be able to make a decent run for Liberalism if Peter doesn't prioritise his research properly. However, on the next turn...
How advanced was he really? That's bad news. Perhaps the other continent is so advanced there's no hope of winning. That would really suck But I remember hearing of a few GGs being born there, so they should at least be fighting among themselves.The round ended after the discovery of Machinery. Here's how advanced everybody is, as far as we can see:
We only have Philosophy on Caesar. And we've hit WFYABTA with Bismark, unfortunately. Let's hope we meet more people from the other continent soon and they're not that advanced.
Here's the power graph:
Maybe we should buck up. Anyway, we should start building for our next war to finish Rome off.
The GNP graph:
Well, we'll see when Emancipation comes around, eh?
The map of the continent:
Now we have the whole of the Gulf of York (Antium to the Romans) under our control. Well, at least until Bismark's settler gets to the tip of our peninsula and settles a poor city there...
Anyway, I think researching Archery next would make sense while we hook the iron back up. After that, we should probably head for Printing Press and Rifling, trading for Engineering along the way, if possible. After that, it will be a Democracy beeline.
We should be able to take care of Caesar once we build some crossbows and more elephants and catapults (maybe after a round of economic builds to improve our economy, like a market in London?). We could take Ravenna (raze and rebuild on the previously brought up Site B), Magyar and either Pisae or Cumae or both, in that order. After that, we'd probably build up and invade Germany when we have Redcoats, with Caesar as a vassal helping to distract Bismark. Hopefully, we would be able to catch up with the other continent once we control most of ours and cottage spam under Emancipation.
What do you think?
Anyway, I think researching Archery next would make sense while we hook the iron back up. After that, we should probably head for Printing Press and Rifling, trading for Engineering along the way, if possible. After that, it will be a Democracy beeline.
We should be able to take care of Caesar once we build some crossbows and more elephants and catapults (maybe after a round of economic builds to improve our economy, like a market in London?). We could take Ravenna (raze and rebuild on the previously brought up Site B), Magyar and either Pisae or Cumae or both, in that order. After that, we'd probably build up and invade Germany when we have Redcoats, with Caesar as a vassal helping to distract Bismark. Hopefully, we would be able to catch up with the other continent once we control most of ours and cottage spam under Emancipation.
Good job. The above also makes perfect sense. As far as battle-tactics goes, I'd say Pisae and Cumae should be the first targets. If Caesar agrees with Vassalization then, I'd advise leaving the rest to him and moving together against Bismarck ASAP. Don't wait for Redcoats - it could well be too late by then. Only huge fields of Cottages could get you past of the other continent before some schmuck there launches towards Alpha Centauri...
We should be able to take care of Caesar once we build some crossbows and more elephants and catapults (maybe after a round of economic builds to improve our economy, like a market in London?). We could take Ravenna (raze and rebuild on the previously brought up Site B), Magyar and either Pisae or Cumae or both, in that order. After that, we'd probably build up and invade Germany when we have Redcoats, with Caesar as a vassal helping to distract Bismark. Hopefully, we would be able to catch up with the other continent once we control most of ours and cottage spam under Emancipation.
Good job. The above also makes perfect sense. As far as battle-tactics goes, I'd say Pisae and Cumae should be the first targets. If Caesar agrees with Vassalization then, I'd advise leaving the rest to him and moving together against Bismarck ASAP. Don't wait for Redcoats - it could well be too late by then. Only huge fields of Cottages could get you past of the other continent before some schmuck there launches towards Alpha Centauri...
Cabledawg
King
Why do you need Archery? I cant even remember the last time I researched or traded for archery. Only reason i could see you getting it is for longbows for garrison duties, but even then I prefer un its that can attack out of a city.
