ROTQM10: Raging Over the Quarreling Mountains

Good point LK!!

Also note that the size 8 city (name hidden by wheat) is a great choke point as it has mountains to the west (although maybe there is a path 3W1S). Capturing this should stop troops from the west coming through and allow us to eradicate GK at our leisure.

I agree to take the cities LK pointed and then to work on erasing GK. GK known land is a nice addition and it would actually reduce our defensive needs ( LK is right, being big means a smaller border/ core cities ratio.

BTW , with so much water in the west, maybe we can actually get a use for a navy ?

I looked at resources - we can get dyes, fish, wheat, and incense (with junk city). That would really help grow our cities up.

OK, I have played but won't get a chance to put up a report until later tonight.

Basically, cleared out all the rif raff from in our border (except for 4 weak units up north that are no bother).

Razed GK's city and resettled Vladivostok 2 tiles east to hold that front. Have masses of troops here at the moment to move onwards when healed.

There are two stacks incoming on the same square in Mongol territory, one Incan and one Byzantium. Might be best to let them come to us, destroy and then march for the other Mongol city.

I'm also starting to set up a second stack in Oporto to head for Portugal, we can secure this territory pretty quickly and the Portugese and Vikings seem gassed.

Chemistry is in and its only 250 turns until Steel at 0%!!

Didn't build any workers but we could use some now for our newly freed semi fontier cities.

Will post the save and a couple pics later on.

Not a problem, since it is Midnight here and going to bed in a few minutes.

Right, a couple of screenies and the save.

First, our eastern army.



This will be at this city in 3 turns I think



We should be able to see off this and move forward to take this GK city and seal off that front compeltely.

Starting a northern front against Joao and Ragnar should see that flank secure as well.

I did notice a small Viking stack that is going to head our way next turn, again we have it well covered.

@LK: Building cottages in a production city because we can't farrm the tile YET is not a mistake, just keeping workers busy. Working cottages in such a city while lacking better tiles is no mistake either. But keeping them later on when we can irrigate, that is a mistake in my books. Do you see this differently?

The idea to cut trough GK occured to me as well. But, he doesn't pose a threat to us at all. We can use him as a buffer and see enemy stacks earlier (with our spies). Then we are busy enough with our current front, I'd rather just keep pushing north until joao is gone, then start pushing west.

mystyfly said:

@LK: Building cottages in a production city because we can't farm the tile YET is not a mistake, just keeping workers busy. Working cottages in such a city while lacking better tiles is no mistake either. But keeping them later on when we can irrigate, that is a mistake in my books. Do you see this differently?

Click to expand...

If we are only keeping workers busy I would prefer roads and chopping all that forest (real pain in war).

High level - no, specific examples - yes

St. Pete is only a timing issue - why destroy the cottage when we have a unimproved grassland to put a work shop on?

Novgorod is what really got me. #2 income city is NOT a production city, and it only dropped #2 because you destroyed the cottages. It was #1 in raw income. You don't weaken your strongest income city for farms that you can't work after growth. We have to hire a lone scientist and work a worse cottage to go to no growth!


GOT IT

good turns, oz ~ thankfully we finally got that city on the hill we've been pining over. hopefully we can start pushing up north as you seem to think we can (can't look at the save here at the library) while holding fast for the time being at our new city. I think wiping out the north is probably more important, in the short term, than heading further west.

also, if novgorad is the city to our far east as i seem to think it is, then it should definitely be all cottaged. imo, probably all those 3 cities in the SE (minus the one in the actual corner) should be focused on cottages. however, let's just let the issue drop at this point so as to avoid more friction.

LK's got it, so that puts rolo on deck

I'd slightly disagree. Heading west to secure that flank on the lakes seems a short term objective, heading north once western flank is secured is medium term and then heading further west after that is long term.

GK is not a block to other AIs, they just stroll through his territory.

We seem to have huge amounts of forest to chop so probably could do with more workers.

There is plenty of forest to chop for sure.

I think Old Sarai is a better blocking city than Vladivostok for the other non-GK AI, we can whip walls and culture there as it has a decent size. We should move out to take this as our next step on this front, while building an army to head north and take out Portugal.

Ozbenno said:

I think Old Sarai is a better blocking city than Vladivostok for the other non-GK AI, we can whip walls and culture there as it has a decent size. We should move out to take this as our next step on this front, while building an army to head north and take out Portugal.

Click to expand...

I've started playing already, and I am working that way.

The fun is I have two healthy stacks from the Inca to deal with...

Probably won't post a report until tomorrow my time. There is a lot to think about with those "fun" stacks coming our way.

1515AD
Situation review:
Steel is going to take an eternity, but I leave us working toward cannons.


I've gone through every city and marked what I feel it main focus is - income or production.
Yekat was flagged mixed as neither really fits. This makes sense, as the main goal was to secure horses.
Some like Novgorod and Thracian have some production abilities as a bonus. Thracian with three spices alone leans it income.
Coimbra and Vlad are pure production, and I marked the only logical path to irrigate Coimbra's rice on the map.


It may slow us down short-term, but I am going to pump workers heavy this set. We have 8 workers to 11 cities on a map with a TON of forest. Plus we are missing some key roads such as Yakutsk to Yaroslavl. That is costing our knights built in Yakutsk several turns to get to the front.
(IT) The AI lost two units. That was the only action anywhere.


1520 AD
Kill a couple of Joao's units by Oporto. I see a decent start from Ragnar on the way. Portugal and Viking may be hurt, but they are still around. The good thing is most of the units are older stuff.

Yaroslavl badly needs more food. Getting irrigation to the city is going to be a pain. After staring at the map for a while I realize the only want to get food there is chaining it from St. Pete. That is yet another reason to pump out more workers.
(IT) All the action was by Oporto. All of it was AI units dying.


1525 AD
Our knight is pretty hurt, but that stupid sword is finally removed from the Yaroslavl hill.

The two AI stacks are bypassing Vladivostok at the moment. It is time to see what the primary city will be. I don't want to move our main stack until I know what they are up to. This really increases my desire to wipe out Khan's wheat city.
(IT) Oporto is the AI obsession at the moment. We killed 5 more attackers, but lost two defenders.


1530 AD
There is another large Incan stack behind Old Sarai. I'm still worried this turn could turn ugly.


1535 AD
I finally think know the AI target - Coimbra. The good news is the headaches by Oporto have stopped. I can shuffle some of the units around.


1540 AD
I get to kill 3 stray AI units by Old Sarai (Khan's wheat city). I hope to kill a big stack next turn. Then I can move on Old Sarai.
(IT) We discovered a source of gold by Novgorod!



1545 AD
We kill 10 Incan units losing nothing. At that is left is a stray sword near Old Sarai. The fun is there are more units coming our way next turn.
(IT) Coimbra is bombarded, but nothing else.


to be continued tomorrow.

LKendter said:

to be continued tomorrow.

Click to expand...

Aaah, the suspense

1550 AD
The offensive stack by Old Sarai is simply healing this turn. At the bare minimum I'm hoping the non-Mongol units leave the city next turn. There is a LOT to attack right now.
(IT) Coimbra now has no culture defense. The AIs still haven't started attacking.
We now have Ragnar and Alexander moving toward Oporto.


1555 AD
(IT) When you really don't want to enter, you know there are too many units near you.
LOL - well I wasn't expecting us to lose 2 units and kill 17. That pretty much toasted that incoming stacks.


1560 AD
Old Sarai is bombed to no defenses.

I destroy the last remnants of the AI by Coimbra.
(IT) He we go again, this time in Oporto.
We kill 6 losing nothing. I have no idea why Greece retreated there stack. I see a small stack coming from Portugal.


1565 AD
The assault on Old Sarai only cost us a CR3 mace. However, we barely took it due to the sheer volume of units to kill. This is the highlight of my set. I don't argue with picking up some cash. That speeds up steel a bit.




(IT) The AP has been built.


Summary:
I'm not sure if Yaroslavl is the best Moai spot, but it will take ages before we can build it anywhere else. With the massive chopping to get food to the city, this was IMO the best time to sneak it in. Adding more shields to the good production of this city can only help us long-term. Once we can get some farms, and all the hills are worked this may be our #1 production city.

I've almost completed the road above Yaroslavl, so our troops can get to the front faster.

Except for Old Sarai, we have spread Taoism to all our cities.

I have gotten us up to 18 workers, but we still need more. I'm down to Novgorod building them.


We are set to push south on Mongolia. We can get three decent cities, dyes, and fish. Don't forget to empty the southern fort when done. Those units are perfect MP for the cities behind our lines.

IMO we can't afford to move on Lisbon yet. If those stacks appeared at the Coimbra and Oporto at the same time they might have fallen. I held the cities on sheer volume of units. Lisbon would further stretch the front.
Old Sarai needs to start getting quality defenders. The first musket is on the way, but we need a lot more.

The only area I cut was science. I got Rostov back on wealth, but steel is still a while away. You can't work on everything at the same.


pholkhero
ozbenno
LKendter >> just played
rolo >> up now
pigswill >> on deck.
mystyfly

Ok, got it.

LK did a splendid job, but left me with 2 greek stacks to deal with I'm worried with our stack in new Sarai :/

Anyway IMHO we should take GK out now, consolidate a defensive line in that area and then move to take the portuguese and the viking out of the equation... that makes Lisbon the next target after GK, but that will take a while

Great set, lee...keep up those prayers to the rng

I wonder if taking braga is worhwhile to get a clean line to our new holdings in the west?

One we get Khan's southern cities, I would gladly take Braga. Start swing a line up north, and put more cities behind our lines.

LK let me with 2 greek stacks ... none of them would be much of a issue ... if they had not converged to Old Sarai . Them and this:

Well, a lot of units and near a city with no defense. Not nice. They only had a flaw: no spears or pikes . That allowed me to use and abuse the flanking ability of knights and our heavily promoted phants to do this:

( P.S reloaded here due to BSOD :/ ) Notice the XP earned ... and the other 2 stacks in line to be destroyed. In fact the first 2/3 of the set were spent using our attack stack in Old Sarai to fend various stacks, mostly Incans ( but also Greeks and Bizantines ... even a Mongol mini stack tried it's luck ). I guess it was similar to LK predicaments

A mine luck out:

If you look to the pic with attention, you'll see that by that time, Moai was done...

I forgot to add pics on this , but there has been some action near Oporto ... typically a x-bow + something + 4 cats. Nothing to write home about. We also won a GG, that is currently in our cap. I'm not sure that we need another meddic for now, but the next GG might take a while ...

Anyway, I took a lessening of pressure in Old Sarai to smash out our way south:

A couple of lost trebs and the city was ours ( we lucked out a little and were able to skim out thee top defender fast ). As the damage to our units was small, I continued south ASAP ... except the knights, that were sent to Old Sarai. More enemies to fend out ( for the next player that my set is done ):

As you can see, no spears or pikes ... perfect knight prey. With a wall ( and hopefully a castle soon enough ), we can fend them with ease.

A F1 screen, to end:

I strongly urge the team to start the FP somewhere. I haven't done so because I've not seen any discussion on this, but we need to cut expenses fast ... otherwise we have atleast 2 more full sets until we get to steel :/

Anyway, our SoD is finally free of defensive tasks and the mongol cities south are nothing to write home about ( remember that we need to raze the Mongol cap, due to Budhist infection ) and should be cleared in the next set or something similar. Besides that the only real thing to do that is not obvious is to finally do the irrigation chain to the Ivory city next to where Coimbra was ( the area was not safe for workers for quite a while ) ...


P.S For whoever is promoting units to Guerilla III : Guerilla III is a offensive promo. If you have a unit that is to be used in defense, you should not promote them to Guerilla III.

Another city picked up in a turn set is nice.

The Mongols have no wonders, so if we really want to avoid getting any Buddhist cities I am ok with razing. However, I would ask that we have a settler coming up the fort side to replace it. I want to claim those dyes. Resources are part of the reason I wanted to head toward Mongolia. War weariness is starting to become a pain, and I'll gladly take more happiness sources.

Hopefully Pigswill can at least take Besbalik and be marching on Karakorum. We are starting to make progress now, but it is slow. I want to wrap up the southern push soon. I would like Libson or Nidaros soon to get a GP factory going.

I see NO good city for the FP. I want it far from Moscow, and Old Sarai / Oporto are the furthest cities we have. Both will take ages to complete it.

We still have plenty of worker stuff to do. Chop the forest such as 2 SE of Vlad. That would speed up getting the badly needed courthouse. Not to mention chop a workboat for the clams. That city needs to start growing.

There is a TON of forest north of Yaroslavl to clear. Plus there are gaps in the road net near the front. Those could make the difference is more units arriving in a critical battle.



pholkhero
ozbenno
LKendter
rolo >> just played
pigswill >> up now
mystyfly >> on deck.