Shyuhe-6.5 - War!

Well, I didn't really have a choice in the matter but we did not go on the offensive. I was... busy protecting our earlier gains

IT: I juggle a few tiles. Otherwise looks good. I also upgrade the GG spear to a pike.

201:
That's good news.

202: Monty suicides his stack on Texcoco (which now has a castle). We get a GG. I also re-assign all EP to Boudica - maybe we can steal a backwards tech eventually. And in the IT, this shows up:


204: CS is in. I upgrade Zhukov to a mace.

205: sailing is in.

206: I finish off Izzy's stack with a combination of suicide catas, elephants, and a healthy dose of Izzy suicide.

207: Nappy sends a nasty stack to the ex-Celt city. He's fielding HA+trebs.

208: calendar is in. I think that's it for "economic techs" for the time being I've set research to guilds but no beakers invested. I think we're going to need it very soon. Nappy also sent his stack after us and while he lost his stack, managed to take down a number of our units (they were still healing from the earlier Izzy assault). So Camu is a little light on defenders. Otherwise our fronts are looking steady.

Here are our current threats (minimal compared to what I was facing earlier):


and



I'm more annoyed that Boudica is blockading us with triremes. I built one by reflex but it may be better to hold off. We're going to get swarmed by them anyways so maybe we should go guilds -- optics before continuing down towards gunpowder/grenadiers (or rifles?). I don't think chasing liberalism is worth the price at this point. On the upside, Monty is definitely gassed compared to the others. His stacks are max 5-6 units compared to 8-10 I'm seeing from the others. So we may want to try forming an offensive stack on the east to attack him soon.

Oh and we got a GG lying around. I wasn't sure what to do with him so he's by a sign next to Babylon. We should probably settle him but I couldn't decide which city is the best.

I think if we're going to steal techs we need Alphabet; with the added bonus of seeing how far we are compared to the AI's. For all we know we might have a decent shot at getting a big tech from liberalism.

The thing with Monty is that we can leave him be. Since we have pikes and a castle he's a nuisance, not a threat. I still think it might be better to attack those who actually form a threat rather than Monty.

Yes we'll need alphabet to steal techs. But as it was, we couldn't see anybody's research anyways and we'll need to get alpha eventually for PP. Maybe by that time, we'll have enough EP to steal a tech or two Or maybe city revolts.

Yes Monty is not a threat but that's why I think it's better to take his land now. We can shore up our back line and then gradually push west through Nappy. I figured we can minimize the size of our front line that way. I'm worried that if we drive into Boudica, we'll run into stiffer resistance and stretch our front too far. Although Boudica's size 14 city on our border looks reaaaaal nice...

Nice defense. But I think we need to adjust units composition a little. We have not build a single mace (the only mace is upgraded) nor trebs -- we need them to go on offensive. Thus I don't see how we can go on an attack before the next-next turnset.

Our pikes are upgraded GG as well, those are dangerous since they are our supermedic but will be asked to defend first, until they are very injured then the spear will take over. I will thus bite the cost and upgrade some normal spears to pikes.

The city up north is building one more settler ... hmm, I think Trireme is needed if we do not want to suffer the same trade blockage here.

I think we can jolly well forget abt espionage in the short term. The AIs are quite adept at spending esp points. We need to use infiltration in order for us to be able to steal techs. It can be done, but not without substantial changes to our general GP situation.

Sailing is in .. a few lighthouse (esp in the holy city) would do us good.

I don't see how we can attack Boudica further without preparing a substantial defense troop to go along with an equally substantial attacking forces. Going for the weakest to try to get stronger so that we can fight the strongest later might be the better alternative here.

Good luck!

The upgrading of GG pikes was kind of forced. The AI sent swarms of mounted units and pikes are really the only good way of taking them out (elephants being expensive).

The additional settler is to fill in the river tiles between Camu and Babylon. Boudica has sent about 4 triremes. Unless we can field an equal number, we can't really win. Hence my suggestion of waiting until optics to fight on the seas.

And since I haven't posted a roster recently:

Roster
shyuhe
BurnEmDown - UP
Ralph_Jackson (on deck)
Paulus III
GreyFox

Got it, will play tomorrow.

T0 - GG settled in Babylon (it already has 2 GGs)

T1 - Nothing special, killed off most of Gandhi's troops.

T2 - Most of Freddy's troops are dead, but we lose a high-level Swordsman in the process . Whipped garden in Calix (was starving due to sickness).

T3 - We lose an elephant in Camu. 3rd trireme will be built soon, but Boudica has 5 of them, and they're all CII, which means we'll need at least X1.5 of her ships.

T4 - Monty attacks but we get no losses.

T5 - Nappy has some Trebs and Maces near Camu which means he might be a threat. Settler is done in Sakae. Triremes whipped at Sakae and Akkad.

T6 - Sippar is founded between Camu and Babylon, Bowman sent from Akkad to defend it. Triremes attack and we kill 1 of their triremes while losing 3. However next turn we'll kill 1 more.

T7 - Isabella is moving it's stack in towars Sippar, might be dangerous. Boudica's Trireme near Akkad dies. I set research down by 60% to keep in a good state of GPT. GG born in Sakae, sent towards Babylon.

T8 - It seems Isabella didn't move her troops. Trireme whipped at Sakae.

T9 - Isabella attacks Camu and we lose 1 pike, HA, WE, and CB, she loses most of her stack.

T10 - Most of Boudica's triremes are dead, we should probably use our triremes to blockade her (coastal capital). Guilds is in, I finish here since I'm not sure which tech should be next and since it's been 10 turns. Gunpowder (13), paper (7), or banking (8) seems like the best choices

T10 -

The other alternative is a quick detour up through literature. HE will double military production and could be very helpful. I think we also have marble so it should be a fairly quick build in Babylon. I'll post some more thoughts later tonight.

We need more defenders in Camu. I would leave all mounted units on the jungle hill 2W1S of Sippar. Since they don't get defensive bonuses anyways, it's better to have them in a position where they can go to either border city in a turn. I would also build a few LB in Babylon to beef up our SW defenses. I'm worried the AI's going to show up with another big stack soon and since the AI think Camu is the most lightly defended, they're all going to swarm it. 3-4 CG3 LB will go a long way towards holding that city.

Techwise, I think a short detour to HE may be worth it. Building the HE in Babylon (4 settled GG!) will be awesome and help offset the lack of bureau. I would also build a few knights before trebs. We want to make sure our defenses are ok before we go after Monty.

I would also micro some of the tiles we're working (2x fish and gold). Otherwise looks good!

Roster
shyuhe
BurnEmDown
Ralph_Jackson - UP
Paulus III (on deck)
GreyFox

Ok Got it

Ralph

Pre Play Plan

Well Fox and Shyuhe have nailed it in my opinion in that Cuma will bear the brunt of the AI Attack and its current real garrison (1 medic, 1 pike , 1 Longbow + 1 cross bow) will need a lot of reinforcing ready for the AI SoD we should be seeing soon. Mean while Dur and Tex are well defended and can hold their own.

Research will go Aesth, Lit, Heroic Epic in Capital, Banking. Banking is selected as Mercantilism will be a civic we stay in until the end of the Game.

Builds.

Holy City gets a lighthouse, capital pops defenders for Cuma until Heroic Epic unlocked then highly promoted Macemen to prepare for an Offensive. The rest a mixture of Longbow, crossbow and Trebs.

Initially things go well with the last enemy Trireme being sunk so we can start a blockade to the west and Issie stack versus Cam not achieving much.

In 1560 AD literature comes in and we Start on Banking, things still quiet around Cuma (which is now well defended) and maybe I misjudged the ferocity of the Attack there?



Fred is sending troops to the NW but as all good AI’s do is willing to suicide them across the River



And a few truns later does exactly the same thing!!

By now Cuma is very well defended and maybe I am lulling myself into a false sense of security



Then We find Issis has a sneakier attack in mind with a real stack going vs Dur. We just have time due to our roads to reshuffle some defenders from Cuma to Dur to give it a chance.



Then whilst they are on their way in a devilishly coordinated move Boudi and napoleon launch their real attack vs Cuma...



Can we hold both who knows

Well we hold Cuma just but only just as its defenders have been slightly shredded. There are two wounded knights and a wounded xbowman left of the Attackers..



The position in the North is also finely balanced and should be interesting.



Other things.

1. We are only just holding our own. Going offensive seems distant
2. Boudi has Caravels so our triremes are under threat (she has sunk two already)
3. Haven’t switched to merc yet, Gunpowder selected for research..

Looking Tricky..

Ralph

Got the save. I must admit it looks pretty grim. We need knights to deal with Izzy's offensive at Dur-Kurigalzu: we will not survive 7 CR III trebuchets, not even our longbows can hold back that many quality siege engines. Damned Citadels!

Worse even, Camulodunum's defenses are so undermanned I fear we might lose it if I don't intervene immediately.

Prepare yourself, Paulus... It's going to be one nasty round. GreyFox, I apologize in advance for the whip anger I'm about to cause.

PaulusIII said:

Prepare yourself, Paulus... It's going to be one nasty round. GreyFox, I apologize in advance for the whip anger I'm about to cause.

Click to expand...

Love it....

Sorry for elaving you in a tricky position but not sure what else we could have done.

Ralph

It's not surprising that the AI has massed larger stacks as they had some time to build up more troops. After this wave, I imagine we'll have a little breathing space (10-20 turns?). Assuming we don't lose any cities of course.

As for the whip anger, I don't think we have a choice. Just try to spare Babylon if you can so that we can maintain some semblance of an economy.

Izzy has 5 trebs next to Dur-K and it's at 78% defense. She can shave 20% per turn and since her attack courage isn't very high, I don't think she'll attack for probably 2 turns, maybe 3 if we're lucky. So try to whip some knights in the further cities and CG LB in the closer ones. Then cross your fingers and pray We should probably stop those treb builds for the time being

Also I'd move a catapult from Camu to Sippar just to be safe. It's only defended by a single bowman so Nappy may get courageous and try suiciding his knights.

About Boudica's caravels: they can't pillage so at least we won't lose seafood (although they can sit on them). I wouldn't worry about them for the time being.

Roster
shyuhe
BurnEmDown
Ralph_Jackson
Paulus III - UP
GreyFox (on deck)

Edit: I just realized Babylon has the HE already. Screw not whipping it, it has farms and corn to regrow with later. Let's whip out knights (at least the first one with the whipping penalty). We can suicide elephants against the pikes guarding the stack and then hope the knights can cripple the trebs. That's really the only thing frightening in that stack.

Go ahead and whip .... I rather handle lots of red faces than lots of enemies

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I don't think you'll ever beat Mutineer's record of -10 from whip anger. That was some ridiculous whipping...

I change all trebuchet builds to knights - we want knights, and lots of them! I check out the situation but I've already assessed we're in trouble. I'll wait one turn with whipping, though - whipping without hammers invested is only necessary in absolute panic. But then again, we're fighting for our lives here. Research is kept on Gunpowder. If anything we want military techs now.

I decide to put research to 0 for a turn. I want gold for an upgrade - we have a C IV/Shock chariot in DK. If that chariot doesn't qualify for upgrading to a knight I'm lost. I give Zhukov two more promotions (C V+VI, that's +35% strength!) and we're ready to go.

We lose Sippar in the IBT to two of Napoleon's knights. I thought they'd be out for the duration or at least take a brief stop to heal, but I was wrong in my assessment. If anything it's a temporary setback though - we deal with the knights the turn thereafter and Sippar is ours again. Meh, it wasn't that great a city to begin with. But still - we want it back, and it was sloppy on my behalf.

Before the main course though we get an appetizer for the bloodshed to come. Boudica's at it again and tries to retake Camulodunum for the umpteenth time. Fortunately she's rather bad at building a stack, it's only a few elephants, HA's and trebs. Notice the one fatal weakness... which means we take down the trebuchets with pikemen (yes, they actually come as stack defenders against pikemen here!) and defeat the mounted troops easily.



Izzy's still there, unfortunately. Three turns time however can change a lot, we now have 6 knights ready to destroy the trebuchets.


Unfortunately we lose all our elephants to incoming attackers but the knights shred her stack to bits. The trebs are still there; suffice to say, however, that a treb with 0,4 strength isn't very intimidating. Izzy finishes the job herself by suiciding them all; if I remember correctly we didn't lose a single unit in the defense of DK that turn.


By then however we're faced with a new problem: Camulodunum is under attack again by two stacks from - who else - Napoleon and Boudica. On their own it wouldn't be a problem but with both stacks together we might be in trouble. Just to be certain I slam the knights into this stack as well, lose 1 to an elephant but the rest of the units are swept aside.


You can also see some good news in that screenshot; we finally have cultural control over the tiles west of Camulodunum. This means we'll have an easier time picking off stacks than before.

Gandhi goes 'me too!' as well and sends a stack which is... quite honestly, pathetic. We have much better macemen than he does, and that's not even counting our God of War Zhukov!


Notice that we still have a view in the enemy's teching. We actually have a slight military edge against most of them.


... Wow.

I knew we had to use more knights, but I never knew how much they would save us from more SoD's. They make our defense line at DK/Camulodunum a LOT stronger simply because we have so little logistical problems in swapping them from city to city.

I stop here. We've researched Gunpowder, I've switched to Mercantilism now there are no threats in sight and we can recover. The whip damage is not that high actually.

We're almost at a point where we can expect to go on the offensive again! We have five trebs and some offensive maces/knights ready, plus xbows/pikes for stack defense. There are no threats at the moment: we have one stack incoming at DK from Freddy but we should have no problem taking it down as he's got seven trebuchets... but only one anti-mounted unit. GF: You can chew on Freddy's stack.

Nice defense! Knights are so awesome at this point of the game. The AI doesn't build nearly enough pikes/elephants to protect stacks from them and flanking just kills siege.

MM stuff:

Babylon should build a grocer at some point - probably after we send out the offensive stack towards Monty (which should be good with another 2-3 trebs and a few maces). We should also mine the plains-hill-forest since it'll be better than a 3 hammer tile and there's no health bonus from the single forest.

Camu could use some musket defenders and some knights for protecting the western front should be good. Otherwise, I think we actually have some breathing room to go after Monty!

We may want to consider researching an economic tech again soon. I would actually prefer to have MT than steel at this point, as siege is the only thing that's really scary right now (till rifles). Also, meditation is not that bad as a monastery in Babylon is 4 beakers. Plus having the state religion in cities will give us gold as well.

Also at some point, we should try to build a couple of more workers. They'll help develop the jungle area.

Roster
shyuhe (on deck)
BurnEmDown
Ralph_Jackson
Paulus III
GreyFox - UP

Nicely done

However, I am worried abt sacrificing our elephants (now we have none in the important cities). Perhaps a couple of cats could do the job damaging the pikes so that our knights would win (cats are definitely cheaper to sacrifice), or promote some knights with flanks so that they withdraw from a fight with the pikes, but still damage the trebs.

Got it, I haven't looked at the save yet but probably there shouldn't be any big questions I need answered before I can play.

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