ROTQM10: Raging Over the Quarreling Mountains

Moscow MM - please swap from Oasis to river cottage. Oasis never matures, and our economy is weak right now. We need to get more cottages maturing, and more built.
Novgorod can support some cottages, so please send the workers up there.

I'm still don't like construction. We still don't have much of a core, and don't have the economy to capture more cities. Getting a religion is going to be very tough unless we capture it with this path.

I would like to propose moving "D" one NW. Still on a hill, and we will have a second iron source. It works us toward having more rear cities. For the economy to survive more cities are needed that just have one military unit and plenty of cottages.

I'm also not so sold on construction and I only dropped a few beakers in it. But i would still prefer Currency to a religion , if you ask me :/ BTW, if we want to go religion now, why not make Henge for a GP ? it is still open, it is a fast build ( for a wonder ), gives GP GPP and saves us the work of making a monument to pop borders out.

That cottage is newly built ( this turn IIRC ). That is why I have forgot to change it. The workers that were near Novgorod were busy down there connecting the eastern cities to the cap and farming that rice.

I'll update the pics in a hour or so ... but there is not much to say in the report, really ...

Updated the report .

pholkhero
ozbenno
LKendter
rolo - just played
pigswill -UPPPPPP
mystyfly - on deck

Poor old Korea!!!

If we want a religion we should go after CoL (if its still available) that leads into Currency as well. Still think Construction is better, we're letting Joao (and the others BTW) expand at his pace at the moment, leaving him more dangerous later (ie with Feudalism as he will prioritise that). Even without elephants, swords and cats will plow through his cities now but once he has longbows not so much.

Ozbenno said:

Still think Construction is better, we're letting Joao (and the others BTW) expand at his pace at the moment, leaving him more dangerous later

Click to expand...

Are you thinking keep or raze all? We don't have the economy to keep many AI cities at this point.

Would certainly raze the visible city, we don't have any scouting as to the lay of his other cities but some might be keepers. We can afford 2-3 more cities I reckon.

Once we had Construction (and maybe HBR) we can research CoL, whip out Courthouses and then Currency for more trade route gold.

rolo's idea of Stonehenge for a prophet is also intruiging if we have somewhere we can chop it out quickly.

Got It.

But not in a huge rush to play when we have no consensus over strategy.

I reckon that the first thing to agree on is which victory we're aiming for. We ain't going to get diplomacy and religious would be far from easy. Space would be very protracted. Cultural would be very challenging with these settings. That leaves domination or conquest. My preference is for conquest, raze virtually every city (keep Gwall city) and let the barbs run free, pillage cash will support our economy and fewer cities means less city maintenance which is usually the enemy of research.

If we are considering a raze and pillage to support the economy plan, then IMO horses must be connected. We need those two movement units to pillage faster.

sorry all for being away...don't know if you all know but i'm going thru a divorce right now and have been a little down in teh dumps the past week or so, so sorry for going awol...

great turns so far, and i agree on conquest here for us. with the highlands map, dom would be such a PITA...

i also wonder if we should settle what we want in the near-term, build up and head out to the smashing... or maybe after constr, build up a small stack and head out nearby...

So looks like the consensus is on conquest in the long term. This probably means that stuff like currency and CoL are slightly lower priorities. However after another look at the save we're very short of happy resources in our corner of the world so running HR looks like the best bet for bigger cities. I'm still not convinced by religion. Maybe something like monarchy> construction> HbR> currency (or currency before const>HbR). In the longer term I'd prefer vassalage to bureau for extensive warfare.

Microwise St Pete can double whip a spear, overflow into settler, finish axe while regrowing then look for another doublewhip. I doubt we'll complete a settler this set however. Moscow build lib in 3, grow in 3, run 2 scientists, build archers. Novgorod needs a couple of workers, at least one chop into library. Rice city needs to keep one worker to keep it growing. Clam city work forest hill to complete WB in 10 (unless we can fit a chop in somewhere), then monument.

edit: I'm planning on playing tomorrow based on plan above and any feedback received in the next 24 hours.

plan looks a-okay to me. I agree on religion...let's make with the cracking of heads

Sorry for the delay.

The hills are alive with the sound of battle,
A song they will sing for two thousand years.

Not much to say apart from that, but for those who want a more detailed report here goes...

T0. Swop research to monarchy via med, priesthood. To delay it even further set research to 0%, at least until we have a library or two. SP starts spear.

T1. Double whip spear in SP, kill barb warrior, yea! Move east axe north to replace a somewhat vulnerable looking fogbusting warrior.

T2. Rostov mon>granary. SP spear>settler (for overflow).

T3. SP settler>axe, Moscow lib>archer, assign 2 scientists while working cottages.

T4. GK send in a chariot/spear combo. They die. Whip gran in Rostov.

T5. GK ain't learning, he sends in 2 chariots, spear and archer. Rostov gran>library.

T6. GK's stackette kills an archer before dying! Inspired by this loss a Great General emerges in SP.


Somewhat unconvinced by his command abilities (perhaps unfairly) he becomes a Military Instructor in St Petersburg.

T7 SP axe>spear. Axe relieves fogbusting warrior in the north east. Barb axe dies attacking axe near SP.

T8. Start researching. Barb archer appears from the black hole south west of Moscow.

T9 Moscow archer>rax. Archer attacks axe in north east and dies, good job it wasn't a warrior, eh.

T10. Novgorod whips library. Yaroslavl WB>monument, works clams. Barb archer dies attacking archer near Moscow.

T11. Move archer south west to illuminate the darkness near Moscow. SP spear>settler, double whip settler coz I can.

T12. Jo's turn to be annoying. Stackette of axe, 2 spears and archer.

T13. Not much.

T14. Not much either.

T15. Lose axe annihilating Jo's stackette. The Crazy Horses Gang aka Donny 'The Axe' Osmond, Marie 'The Spear' Osmond and wee Jimmy the settler are looking for somewhere to settle down and call home. The true pioneer spirit (why they've turned up in Russia I really don't know).



Our workers have been busy building roads and relaxing by cottaging. They've been promised that if they cottage for long enough they'll become Village People.

A save:

Hi guys, I'm back from my exams. The game is looking really good as far as I can tell

We break even at 50% which means we can settle a few more cities. That horse city looks short on food, I would move that either WW or SWW (also grabbing marble). Another good spot is up north between pigs and iron p).

We really are desperate for so monarchy is good. Moscov not working corn kinda does hurt my eyes though We could use it for settler/worker pump or whip it some more, but not working a 5F tile is a waste.

There are a few units no longer required to do fogbusting, the south-east-corner warrior and the south-west-of-moscov archer (as soon as the other city is settled). Our settler escorts also should go check out that barb city there, looks pretty tasty :yum:.


Got it.

I'd also go for horse city where the archer is, grabbing marble in the medium term.

Novgorod grows in 2 and can run a couple of scientists. Moscow pops GS in 5 turns (scientists got reallocated when barb archer turned up, didn't notice for a few turns).

Once horse city is settled the archer south west of Moscow should become obselete and Moscow should be pretty fogbusted so can use spare warrior as garrison while its archer goes up north, probably to Yaroslavl, freeing up an axe for fogbusting. Moscow could indeed build a settler or worker and could double whip it once we get the GS.

pholkhero -on deck
ozbenno
LKendter
rolo -
pigswill - just played
mystyfly - came back at the right moment and playing.

nice set, pigs. i agree w/mysty about some new cities but think they should NOT be settled by us. that barb city near horses, and perhaps that city up near SP might make nice additions to our empire.

also, perhaps we should explore SW of the barb city to make sure that lake there extends to the bottom of the map or if there's a way for the AI to enter our lands that way. boy, it'd be nice if it was a dead-end down there, no?

thx for the roster, LK ~

Since there is already a settler near horse we should settle that. Coimbra doesn't look like a good city at all and its on a hill so it won't be a walk in the park getting it, and we must keep moscov from growing until we get monarchy so another settler isn't bad. And a pig/iron site isn't bad at all, especially for this map. Other cities may build more units I agree and move for the barb city first, then go annoy joao a little. We could consider building a small stack of defensive units (shock axe, combat spear, a healer, a pillaging chariot and a few archers) to limit joao's growth so he'll be picked out more easily later.

Well to me it looks like the mountain range continues to the bottom but don't know for sure. Definitely need to check that out.

IMHO the natural pace for this game is to get a good and defensible core of cities of our own and then go out and rampage. The easiest way is to put our northern border in the mountain ( basically done ) and to push our border to the western small sea. So you count with my vote for a attack to the barb city ... with some luck a AI might already had made some damage

And yes, check if the mountain range gets to the southern border of the map. it would be very nice if it does, but even as it is, it is still a good natural border for us.

Played 15, pretty interesting set We do no longer break even at 50% but continued expanding and exploring. But everything in order:

IHT

Switch moscov to corn and settler to be whipped for 2pop some time later. As I said not working a 5F is a minor offence and we don't want to run into unhappiness. Switch research to 0%.

1

Switch research back on. Did this to complete priesthood on 0% next turn but should've waited until the GS.

2

Crazy Horse City founded. Barb city uncovered btw, defended by 2 archers and watched closely by a portugese archer. 1 axe from st pete deployed to help get rid off the barb city.



Don't remember the turn (and that BUG percentage hides it in screens) but the axe kills the portugese archer. Moving the 3 settler guards next to barb city as well. I decided to have a go, suiciding the spear and archer to mop up with the 2 axes.



Same turn, GS pops



I had him build an academy in moscov to help push towards monarchy. Bulbing is out of the question and academy benefits us more in short- and long-term (but maybe not in mid-term though).

Finding out whether the mountain range closes off completely down south proved trickier than expected, until finally....





Should be easily defendable though. That stack didn't head our direction, or at least it didn't take the southern route.

In the meantime I sent a stack of an axes, a spear and a guerilla archer (IIRC) to have a look around in portugal. They did find the vikings but on that very turn joao kinda did the same as me (though he had 2 spears, 2 archers and 1 axe). Those attacked and died on the IBT to the 15th turn, no losses. The last archer is fleeing though.






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Overview and comments:



Moscov should grow as large as possible while building archers for MP and city guards in new cities (as soon as we are in HR).

Rostov is running a scientist for lack of good tiles.

Yaroslavl will pop borders in a few turns, worker is ready to road and mine it then, unlocking swords. Builing a library since we're paying plenty of unit maintenance.

Novgorod is building the oracle in hope of failure cash and since it is running out of useful infra to build. There was a barb warrior approaching at some point who is dead by now.



Our two southern cities are getting set up, horse city has a granary already. 1 worker connecting those to the Main Highway while the other connects it to the river and thus to the ex-barb city.



The settler party for pig/iron is ready, accompanied by a worker. An additional axe is on the way as you can see. Not sure we should settle it just yet as we'll be bleeding cash but definitely settle sooner rather than later, this will make a good city.



Something a little more general: We had far too few workers. Lots of cities were working crap tiles for the benefit of a decent road network it seems. I built a few more workers, that is looking way better now. I tried spreading them across our empire, especially west.


HR is great for our empire as we have several cities at -cap. But what we really need now is alphabet and then currency to build research/wealth for our cities that aren't really doing anything useful (like building library in a zero-commerce city) just to avoid increasing unit cost. We shouldn't have any problems with keeping our empire defended. St. Pete can build more units, especially swords soon, as it has a settled MI.

Noice!!!

Things seem to be going well. HR will be good for us, grow some cities. Agree that Currency and Alphabet would be good next targets.