SGOTM2 Germany - Team scout

Okay - this is a "got it", though it will probably be pretty late before I get to this. I've got a few PMs to look over from an unrelated matter, 5 turns to play in a late industrial era slugfest, and there's something else I need to do...

...Oh yeah - I need to take off my shoes so I can count past ten!

@Gengis: Consider "green" after Leipzig is abandonded...

Guess we crossposted, and mine was missing a quote part. Fixed now to be more readable.

Gengis Khan said:

No worries, we still profited quite a bit. And it was a good move gifting Currency to Lizzy.
If at any point my suggestions come off condisending, or anything like that just slap me with a fish. I'm not trying to turn this into a TDG, just makeing sure a good time is had by all & we all walk away having learned something. Besides, we can't do that well, I have another wooden spoon to win!

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I didn't think for a minute that it was patronising Just sound advice, and I kicked myself for not having thought it through enough to get there myself! So the halibut remains on standby for now I'll bring it out if we get saddled with the spoon!

Gengis Khan said:

But all this is insignificant when compaired to one thing....... the green city is 7.5 tiles from our capitol.

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Ok, I didn't spot that Yep, that would rather shaft our RCP9 ring...

Gengis Khan said:

And btw, I'm going to need to get a definition for shirking.

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Slacking, skiving, shirking - all good English slang for not pulling your weight! As in "Stop shirking and get working!"


Tal

/shirk on

450 BC - In Flight Check/Turn 0?

The raging hordes of barbarians tell me that at least 2 civs are in the middle ages.

Diplo check:
Catherine is in the Middle Ages, and will sell us construction for 370g+WM
Joanie is in the middle ages, and will sell us construction for 340g+WM
England is down Polytheism.
(Note to Tal: the land grab phase is not a good time to sign a RoP...)

Buy Construction off Catherine for WM+330g, and we learn Monotheism, just like that.
Buy a worker off France for 25g
Gift Poly to England.
Sell Monotheism to Joanie for WM+480g

Do a little scouting with our galley
...a settler auto moves...
...move another settler...
=====
IBT - Barb horses kill all of our scouting warriors.
Hamburg Spear>Spear | Frankfurt Archer>Spear
Change Nuremberg to Walls for the time being... with 2 dozen Barb horses around, they could easily empty our treasury.
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Turn 1 (430)
Continue recall of scouting warriors.

=====
IBT - lots of Barb horse movement in from the north. I'm afraid our treasury may get emptied here shortly.
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Turn 2 (410)
Recalling scouting warriors...
moving settlers, a few worker moves.
Our valiant conscript horse whacks one barb horse, no promote, forts on mountain.
=====
IBT
Russia and France sign MA v. England
Incredible Barb horse hordes... this sucks.
Berlin Settler>Settler
China completes the colossus
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Turn 3 (390)
recall what little is still out there...
Give Lizzy 200g ...rather let her have it than the barbs, and hope to get it back selling construction
Move a settler under an elite warrior on a mountain. Doubt it'll hold
=====
IBT - the barb horses kill a settler pair, a huge stack of Barb horses arrive outside Nuremberg.
Nuremberg Walls>Spear
London Completes the Great Library
Delhi Completes the Great Wall
=====
Turn 4 (370)
Change Leipzig to Spear and whip it.
A spear that was created a few turns ago arrived in Nuremberg last turn, and fortifies this turn with 19 Barbarian horsemen outside Nuremberg. I can't even remember what the walls bonus is against Barbs... or if there is an additional bonus for walls against barbs... fingers crossed.
=====


IBT - Our spears in Nuremberg are promoted to Elite, but are eventually worn down. The barbs hit the city 4 times, destroying the walls, killing a citizen, and carrying off 34g, 32g, 29g.



Leipzig Spear>Spear
Munich Spear>Spear
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Turn 5 (350)
Move a spear into Nuremberg.
some worker moves...
found Dortmund in the jungle.
=====
IBT - 8 Barb horsemen advance on Salzburg. It's pop 1, spear next turn (that'll change) and there isn't much of a way to reinforce it. A barb horse pillages improvements outside Nuremberg, Barb horses cut our spear to 2hp.
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Turn 6 (330)
Force a worker to stop roading to evacuate.
Hide a settler in Munich and hope for the best.
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IBT - our wounded spear is only able to hold off one barb horse. The second kills it flawlessly. We lose 25g, 23g, in Nuremberg. another sacks 20g, 18g.
Salzburg, our shields in the spear are lost, 22g, 19g, 17g, 15g, 14g, 14g, 13g,
Berlin Settler>Spear | Hamburg Spear>Spear | Bremen Library>Spear
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Turn 7 (310)
There is not much I can to but soak up these barbarian attacks. I put a warrior in Salzburg, hoping he'll hold off 2 barb horses.
=====
IBT - Our Spear in Leipzig holds off 4 barb horses. Nuremberg is sacked again at a cost of 12g, 11g.
A barb galley redlines our scouting galley. Dangit.
Heidleburg Spear>Worker
Cologne Spear>Library
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Turn 8 (290)
Move some settlers outward. a few worker moves, take a warrior out of Munich and send him to Nuremberg to take a whack at an approaching barb warrior.
=====
IBT - a lone barb warrior advances on Nuremberg.
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Turn 9 (270)
Whack the barb warrior at Nuremberg, promoting a warrior.
Switch some cities to expansion builds
England has Republic
=====
IBT - 2 barb horses appear in the hills. A russian archer appears south of Cologne
Leipzig worker>worker
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Turn 10 (250)
Some worker moves, some settler moves
Drop a spear in dortmund
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IBT - a warrior forted on a mountain fends off 2 barb horses.
More barb horses appear from the north.
Berlin Settler>Settler
Hamburg Spear>spear
Frankfurt Spear>Worker
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Turn 11 (230)
founded Brandendburg on a NE RCP9 site
popped some barbs from a goody hut on the island to the NE
=====
IBT
More barb action, and we lose a galley.
====
Turn 12 (210)
some worker moves.. take science all the way down to 20%.
====
IBT - We discover Monarchy
Check what is the big picture, click on Konigsberg, and "waste" a bunch of shields on Hanging Gardens.
Konigsberg Hanging Gardens>Market
Heidleburg Worker>Library
Stuttgart Spear>Worker



=====
Turn 13 (190)
Trade Monarchy to Russia for WM+230g+Republic
Trade Monarchy to France for WM+37g, to England for WM+67g
====
IBT a barb horse attacks a warrior on a mountain.
Bremen Spear>Court
Bonn Library>Worker
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Turn 14 (170)
move some workers onto incence hill. That Hanging Gardens should kick off some WLTKD soon...
some worker moves.. pushing northward.
=====
IBT - this is really getting old... a couple of Barb horses appear out of the fog and kill a settler that was escorted by an archer.
Berlin Settler>Settler
Hamburg Warrior>Warrior (time to do the Warrior-Sword Upgrade thing)
Frankfurt worker>Rax
Munich Spear>Settler
=====
Turn 15 (150)
move a few workers, send a settler pair NW instead of N, to replace the settler pair I had headed towards a potential FP Site.

Those Barb horsemen were brutal, but I think the worst is over with.

After Action Review:

The good: We got a couple more towns settled.
The bad: We got a wonder that is a happiness crutch. It'll make our score look good in the short term, but it's going to kick our butts when steam power arrives.
The ugly: Lost 2 settlers to barb horses. That hurt worse than the gold.

I've got a settler pair headed towards the center of the northern lands... which I propose we call the badlands.

Lots of wars to the south, which should buy us some time to do some settling and re-build our military.

I've got some workers poised over the Iron. I think we need to upgrade every warrior we've got, and send the regulars out to play whack-a-barb.

Special Bulletin to follow.

*****Special Bulletin*****

We've reached a critical juncture in this game, in more ways than one. I propose to do something a little different.

On the player side, we haven't heard from two of our teammates in some time. I would like to give them a chance to come back and enjoy the game with us. I may try the e-mail thing later on. On the game side, we're lagging behind in terms of the number of turns played. Within the game, we now have access to 2 forms of government. Though I think it's a little early to switch, I don't want to delay that change unnecessarily.

Having said all that, here is what I propose - re-initiating the order of go, as follows:

I would like Gengis to take another 20 turns. If it seems appropriate to revolt, he may do so according to his best judgement. Playing 20 turns should allow him some quality play on either side of the revolt. This will also catch us up a little bit.

After Gengis' 20, and a little discussion, Tal can play 10. From that point, we will freeze the game until next Friday (one week from today) to allow Q and Tweed to come back to the game, catch up, and get involved.

@ Gengis, Tal, what do you guys think?

Ok, lots to comment on there, Scout... First of all, good job on doing the 15, that really helped me out.

scoutsout said:

(Note to Tal: the land grab phase is not a good time to sign a RoP...)

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The only thing I can say in my defence is that I thought it was extememly unlikely that in 20 turns, when France was at war with England already, we would see any French units in our territory. However, I take your point...

The barbarians. With hindsight we should maybe have tried to anticipate the coming of the MA, but I think you did as good a job as you could, considering the truly vast hordes that appeared. I would have to check the save to see exactly what was going on in the SE - hopefully that stack made a beeline for Russia, and isn't currently hacking through the jungle towards us!

The HG - a nice benefit in the mid-term, but I appreciate your warning about steam power. Let's plan accordingly - marketplaces, and as many luxuries as possible. From memory, the only luxury resource we don't have is located in the SE (though I can't remember what it is... silks?), through all that jungle, nearer Russia, and in the opposite direction to the one we have decided (correctly) to expand in. Maybe later we will be able to hook it up, or initiate trade with France for some furs...

The wars - I don't know if it's just me, but I haven't really noticed the in-fighting drastically affect the tech pace... And like you say, the longer they are all focussed on the south of the continent, the better for us.

scoutsout said:

Having said all that, here is what I propose - re-initiating the order of go, as follows:

I would like Gengis to take another 20 turns. If it seems appropriate to revolt, he may do so according to his best judgement. Playing 20 turns should allow him some quality play on either side of the revolt. This will also catch us up a little bit.

After Gengis' 20, and a little discussion, Tal can play 10. From that point, we will freeze the game until next Friday (one week from today) to allow Q and Tweed to come back to the game, catch up, and get involved.

@ Gengis, Tal, what do you guys think?

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Sounds like a good plan. We could do with some continuity, and 35 consecutive turns from our top two seems like a nice way of catching up on some turns as well as in-game progress.

Good job, Scout


Tal

Bah, I've been naughty! I read the spoiler thread without reading that I wasn't allowed to do so until Scout posted our summary... I thought MA plus 3 contacts was the requirement...

Hopefully I will be let off with rather than


Tal

Tal: I view the wars as the single biggest thing in our favor on the land grab. The wars aren't slowing down the tech pace because we've stepped in and helped the "weak sister".

On the barbarians: Hindsight is always 20/20. Based on the level of Barb activity we saw to this point, there was nothing at all to indicate that the raging hordes would be that bad. I strongly suspect that this was a tweak on the part of Mad-Bax... or whoever created the map for GOTM8.

Sorry you got spanked for reading the spoiler... There are always prerequisites for surfing them, but I didn't realize a summary post from me was one of them. I'll surf over and find the thread...

Didn't actually get told off, I'm just copping to my crime before it's noticed... Didn't want the mods thinking that my surfing that thread was in any way underhand or devious!

Well, our "summary" (such as it is) has been posted, so surf away! And I don't think it'll be any big deal. You surfed after we hit the middle ages, and we've had the requisite contacts for some time now.

As to the HG, I don't think it will really be a problem come Steam. At that point we'll have markets everywhere & when we're selling techs cheap we can always get them to throw in a lux or two.

Just letting you guys know: without even glancing at the save, I fully intend to revolt to Republic during my turns. Best to get it out of the way now, the decreased corruption will be neccessary in building our FP(since we won't be lucking out in a Leader to rush the FP), and with our low military/high city count Republic is the perfect government....... we just have to get the population up in all our cities.

I'm not a big fan of putting the game on hold a week. Now that we're rolling I want the trend to continue, but you're the bossman. And I do want to hear from Tweed & qm again.

Got it, any other suggestions before I start?

@ Gengis: I thought you'd want to go ahead and revolt. I was tempted to, but with the barbs and such still creating problems (and losing 2 settlers) I wanted to bounce back just a little bit under despotism.

No further suggestions for your turns. Take 20.

On "putting the game on hold for a week" - the clock started ticking yesterday. Under a standard 24-48 rotation, we'd only get 30-40 turns in over the next week anyway, and that's if everybody played promptly. If you play 20, and Tal plays another 10 in the next couple of days, we can afford to wait a few days to see if the others come back. I won't keep it on hold past next Friday.

I have e-mailed Tweed, "Q's" e-mail function is disabled on his profile. Karasu is aware of this, and well...we'll cross bridges as we come to them, whether or not those guys come back.

Sounds good. I'll get it played tonight..... I think I'm still up in a SG somewhere.

Gengis? Are you done with finals yet?

I'll get it played tonight. Is there an echo in here?

Sorry guys, rough couple day, I'll bang it out shortly.

Good deal... here's where we are:

Gengis: "got it"
Tallanas: On Deck
Tweed: MIA (Please post if you're coming back)
Scout: Scratching his head
qm1pooh: MIA (Please post if you're coming back)

Ok. Tweed and qm1pooh have been (temporarily, I hope) removed from the roster.
I will add them back if they come back and the team is happy with their resuming play.

@Karasu: Thank you.

Gengis, Tallanas: If either of you know of someone you'd like to invite to join us, shoot me a PM. (GK: anybody in the TDG?)

Flight Check- Military report: 2 settlers, 17 workers(+4 slaves), 15 warriors, 1 archer, & 11 spears. (16 cities). Pretty good, we need more warriors for barb hunting, but the jungle is seriously slowing us down.

We have 46 units, and 41 citizens total. Basically switching now will cost us about 5gpt, but I want to go ahead & get it over with.

Russia & France are back at war with England.

Hehe, France doesn’t have Republic. Since I fear France might have the ability to do some damage to England(and London is now a border city, I don’t want the GL to fall into Joanie’s hands), I’m going to wait till she comes out of Anarchy, then gift her Republic & hope she will go for it(which she most likely will). Those extra turns of Anarchy might slow down the pace a bit, but it will give England a much needed break.

Revolt….. and draw 8 turns of Anarchy!
Go around & MM all our cities for growth.

Change Dortmund from spear to warrior.

T1(130)- Dortmund: warrior>library
Switch Seizburg & Brandenburg to warriors(from spears).
Wake up units in interior cities & send them to the outsides to scout/protect. (Republic doesn’t have any MPs).

IT- Spear guarding settler fends off barb attack. Thank god!
Salzburg: warrior>spear

T2(110)- France hits Monarchy, sell Joanie Republic for the low low price of WM & 7g.

IT- Spear in Brandonberg fends off barb attack, -3hp.

T3(90)- Incense hooked up.
Joanie decided against revolting. Shock, is the AI actually acting intelligently? Probably just dumb luck.

T4(70)- In a pretty cool coincidence I found New Berlin, which just happens to be our FP city.

T5(50)- Found New Leipzig.
I’m forced to stop the growth in Berlin to keep it from rioting in 2 turn.

IT- Warrior & Spear both flawlessly fend off barb horsemen.

T6(30)- Warrior kills barb, is redlined but then promotes to veteran. Nets us 25g.
Joanie has Fuedalism.

IT- Workers finish roading our Iron Mtn.
French start Sun Tzu’s.

T7(10 BC)- Our advisors bring great news, we’ll officially be a Republic next turn!

IT8(10 AD)- Boo yea! About fricken time!
Warrior takes out horseman, 25 more gold.
MM all our cities out of growth & towards our new economy.

Joanie won’t sell Fued yet, and still has a Monopoly on it. Us switch off Fuedalism will take away all the beakers we have stored on it, therefore increasing our price. Oh well, I switch from Fuedalsim to Theo(60% due in 13 at +1gpt). Hopefully we can snag that in time to do some Tech/Tech trading.

Cash rush a worker in Leipzig for 16g.

IT- France & England sign peace treaty.
Warrior fends off barb, -1hp.

Leipzig: worker>worker (we’re fastly approaching time to abandon this city)

T9(30)- Rush settlers in Berlin & Munich for 150g. (both cities were maxed out in pop and would riot unless growth was checked).
Rush galleys in Hanover & Numemburg for obvious reasons.
Sell our WM to Joanie for hers & 24g.
Sell our WM to Cathy for hers & 26g.
Sell our Wm to Lizzy for hers & 4g.

IT- Berlin: settler>settler
Hamburg: warrior>spear
Munich: settler>settler
Nuremburg: galley>galley
Hannover: galley>galley

T10(50)- Warrior kills barb, -1hp & pockets 25g.
Disband our warrior trapped on the island.
Switch Munich from settler to worker factory. Berlin is enough to snag all the rest of the land we want now that the rush is over. Plus there’s A LOT of work to be done.
Change Berlin from settler to library. (only takes 4 turns & will help out a lot while we’re finishing up settling.
Switch Kongisburg from Market to library.

IT- Kongisburg: library>market

T11(70)- Send some warriors back to barracks to be upgraded.
Disband a couple warriors.
Rush 2 galleys for 200g. (yea, that’s my game plan till we’re broke or have contacts. We need to meet the other Civs.)

IT- Nuremburg: galley>galley
Hanover: galley>galley

T12(90)- Archer takes out a barb, promotes & picks up 25g.
Warrior is redlined, but kills barb. 25 more in the bank.

IT- Spot 3 barb galleys heading for one of ours. Time to take to the high seas.
Leipzig: worker>worker
Munich: worker>worker

T13(110)- Rush a galley, a couple set out into the unforgiving seas.

IT- Berlin: library>settler
Nuremburg: galley>galley
We lose a galley.

T14(130)- [dance] Galley spots a great border & moves into Japanese border! (too bad it’s in the sea still so it might sink.)
Hopefully this isn’t an indication of things on the whole island, he’s down Currency, Monarchy & Republic.
Trade Toku our WM & Republic for Contact with Indians/Chinese, his WM, & 11g. (I wouldn’t even give up anything for contact but he needs out of Despot bad, and I don’t want to risk our galley sinking & us not getting those contacts.)

India & Mao are both down Currency & don’t have much money.
Sell Mao Currency for WM & 43g.
Sell India Currency for WM & 7g.
Sell Toku Currency for WM & 31g.

Switch Nuremburg & Hannover off galleys. Disband the rest.
Kill a barb, 25 gold.

I’m not a big fan of us being the tech pace setter here. As soon as we get Theo, I’m introducing all our neighbors.
Use our new found gold to open some Embassies:



At least they’re not at war with each other.

IT- Hamburg: Spear>spear
Frankfurt: barracks>library
Our galley next to Japan is lost.

T15(150)- Bestow the gift of Monotheism apon the New World. Hey there’s even Indians to give Polio blankets to, imagine that!

IT- Vet warrior fends off barb, & promotes to Elite.
Munich: worker>worker
Stuttgart: worker>library

T16(170)- Elite warrior takes out a barb, 25 more gold.
Found New Hamberg(in the north) & New Kongisburg(to the SW, our last 9RCP city). Surprise surprise, both start on libraries.
Spot 4 French Swords & a horseman heading west, uh oh!
Change New Kongisburg to walls, which will be rushed if they continue west. I’ve got a couple units headed there as well but I don’t think they’ll get there in time.

IT- They keep heading west, war might be inevitable.
Berlin: settler>settler
Leipzig: worker>settler (after it is produced Leipzig can be abandoned, it’s getting crowded over there)
Heidleburg: library>catapult

T17(190)- Rush walls in New Kongisburg for 36g.
Sell our WM around for spare about 50g, this is a fraction of it’s worth now that we have everything explored, but I need gold bad, next turn we would have gone in the red. Turning research down isn’t an option cause my plan is to get Theo before Joanie attacks, and trade for Fued plus gift her a bit of gpt. Hopefully that will be enough to get her off our ass.

IT- Spear fends off barb horse, -2hp.
Hanover riots. Yea, yea I’ll stop making jokes now Scout.
New Kong: walls>catapult

T18(210)- Not very much.

IT- French pig gets to barb camp 1 turn before me.
We learn Theology! Start on PP with a single scientist. (I’m turning off research for 2 turns so we’ll have the cash to rush a courthouse in our FP location, then we can start on the FP.)
Hamburg: Spear>Spear

T19(230)- French swords have kind of veered north, whether that means they’re not attacking us or they just want to go for our undefended cities to the north I don’t know.
Trade Joan Theo for Fued & 62g, but I throw in 4 gpt just because.
Sell Fuedalism around for pocket change, then gift everyone up to parity.

IT- Kongisburg: market>catapult
Munich: worker>catapult (needs a chance to regrow a bit)
Calogne: library>drumroll please….. catapult
Salzburg: library>I don’t even have to type it anymore

T20(250)- Russians start Sun’s, France starts Sistine.
And in the best news I’ve seen all day… France has Chivalry.

Report & pictures coming up.