SGOTM 13 - One Short Straw

Ragnar thinks that he is going to expand. As predicted, razing Willem's City = Ragnar expanding, so it's good that we left Willem alive for so long.

The Maceman next to Ragnar's Settler COULD attack, but that's an Axeman with an Anti-Melee promo in a Forest. I'd rather wait. A single Chariot that lands and attacks (or even amphibiously attacks) the Axeman once it is inside of a City (instead of in a Forest or a Jungle) will get far better odds... and guess what... we have been spamming Chariots.

So, I'm not concerned at all with an Axeman City Defender.



We kill off a Barb Swordsman. Hmmm, maybe it is time to think about building Hadrian's wall? Hehe. What I SHOULD be doing is building Wealth here, but I'm going to pump out one more Galleon first, if I can.



Okay, so I moved the eastern Trireme into position for a block... and then looked closer. NO! It is not a block! Rangar can sail around to the SE towards our Worker on the Grassland Jungle square. Oh well. Since Ragnar left one of his Triremes out of position, I decide to attack (having 75% winning odds against his Trireme thanks to our earlier-earned Combat II promotion).


As you can see, our first Trireme won but has his health in the yellow, while the second Trireme sunk one of the Galleys.

I think that I will just leave these two Triremes in place (the eastern Trireme has no movement points remaining anyway).

Now, the question becomes... should I move the Galleon that is located to the NE in this screenshot on top of our half-health Trireme or should I allow Ragnar the chance to attack our Trireme? I think that I'll move to guard our Trireme.



Our empty Galleon in the south should be able to help out if Ragnar's units go to the south, while our Galleons to the NE will be able to help out if Ragnar goes in the predicted path of going 1SE towards our Worker then NE. Note that the following screenshot was taken out of order.

Anyway, it's not a real concern, but I figure that if we "guard" our Trireme and if Ragnar is dumb enough to keep his Trireme split up from his 2 Galleys, then both of our Triremes will be able to attack his Galleys and still get good odds against them, without us having to use a Galleon in the fight.

If he does take the time to join up his troops, then they won't be moving very far and the Trireme will be easy prey for our southern Galleon. So, I'm not really worried at all.



We drop off 6 units at Ragnar's in-land City, a force that looks more than capable for the task.



We Bombard at his SE City. I see no reason to attack with a Maceman yet--let's wait for next turn when we can use 2 Trebs to soften-up the defenders. The key to keep in mind is that it will be the timing of the LAST City that falls that matters, so rushing an individual attack here or there won't help us overall but could cost us if we lose badly due to rushing things. So, calm and measured we will go about our warring.



Our troops march on Ragnar's capital, which only has 5 units but I could have sworn that there were 2 Horse Archers the last time that we looked, so he definitely has some troops that are wandering around. All the more reason to calmly proceed with our attacks to avoid making mistakes.
 
Clockwise
Okay, well I don't really have any Galleons in position to make a Galleon chain going towards the NW side of Ragnar's island.

However, I could just move our Galleon in that direction.

Here's a screenshot of what I could do. Is that where you would like to send this Galleon?

I was thinking that we were going to chain these units to the SE then the south then the south east... within 2 turns they could probably almost make it all the way around the island to Ragnar's capital, if that's what we want to do.

However, I suspect that you'd rather send the troops to the NW side of Ragnar's island, as per the following screenshot, correct?
 
By the way, in that last screenshot, you can see that Isabella moved onto our Clam... but did not Pillage it. Instead, she set up a Blockade mission, which is actually pretty sneaky. It will probably disrupt 8 Trade Routes!! I'll be sure to kill that Trireme as soon as we get a Galleon that is free to do so (free Galleons which we should have plenty of starting next turn, now that we're [probably?] not doing a Galleon chain around the south side of Ragnar's island).
 
By the way, the last screenshot may have spoiled things for you, but we successfully razed Isabella's City of Salamanca.

After the Trebs hit, the Horse Archer goes in against the un-collateral-damageable Catapult (did I tell you how much I love Horse Archers? Oh yes, I think that I did).


Thanks to our Trebs plus our Medic I promotion, our City Raider III Maceman is up to the task of taking out one of the Archers.



Hmmm, Mr. Super Weak against Mrs. Super Weak. I might as well give it a shot. We won.



Our southern Cities have whipped 2-movement-point units. Let's hope that they will be enough to take out Murcia (Isabella's southern-most City).
 
Here we can see a bit more perspective on the Ivory City area.

We have a Galleon that is selected which can drop off a Mace, a Pike, and a Treb next turn.

Ragnar's City has a Swordsman and an Archer defending it, but we also believe that he has various units that are roaming around.

We also have a Horse Archer in another Galleon that is positioned NW + W of Ivory City that can't unload until next turn.

To the west of Ivory City, we have dropped off a Chariot and our wandering Maceman has moved to defend it.


Another Chariot has dropped off to the west of Ragnar's Axeman + Settler, in preparation for ambushing them when they all but certainly settle in 2 turns on the ex-Willem location.


Both of these Galleons have moved this turn as they were picking up units and then dropping off the 2 Chariots.



Hopefully, you now have enough info to give suggestions about what to do about those western 2 Galleons.

I.e. the Galleon that is in Barcelona that is a bit farther away from Ragnar's Ivory City and could drop off units next to Zaragoza next turn versus the Galleon that is to the north of there (south of St. Petersburg) that can drop units off next to Zaragoza on the current turn but would also be closer to Ragnar's Ivory City to actually be able to get those troops into play in time to make a difference against Ragnar.
 
I was thinking of chaining around to ivory, going clockwise around Ragnar's island. No biggie though.
Well, those 2 Galleons had troops that they could shuttle immediately (and one of them already had 2 Chariots inside of it from the previous turn). It seemed to make sense to drop those troops off ASAP instead of using 3 Galleons just to shuttle 3 units.
 
Hmm. They're too far to set up a galleon chain. I'd prefer to send it towards Ragnar as I think the boat near Russia will let us finish Izzy in 2-3 turns. Up to you though.
 
We ALSO have this Galleon in the region, which was just loaded this turn and could be used for Zaragoza next turn, if we wanted:



Basically, we have a lot of units floating around. :cool:


EDIT: Okay, based on your last feedback, we'll send both of those western Galleons (the one S + S of the Banana in the above screenshot and the one in Barcelona) towards Ragnar's Ivory City and will use this new Galleon to land 3 troops by Zaragoza next turn. If these 3 fail to destroy Isabella, then we'll probably also be able to amphibiously attack with a couple of Chariots a couple of turns from now.

If there are empty Galleons that are able to help out, we'll get in a bit of Galleon chaining, but if not, then we might just do some amphibious assaulting with these backup units when the time comes.
 
Things are looking good at Lisbon, with only a wounded Chariot and a Trireme remaining after the Maceman depicted below makes his attack.



We continue to Bombard at Guimaraes without attacking. We will have troops from Vicky's area that can land next turn.



Coimbra has 6 Maces coming after it. I put a Worker lure out there in the hopes that he'll go for the Worker, but if not, he does only have 5 defenders. Note that the Maceman that is depicted being 1S of the Grassland Rice is counted amongst these "6 Macemen," since I moved him to join the western-side stack just after taking this screenshot.



For fun, we use up our 3rd Great General on as many land troops as I could muster. Note that this time, I remembered not to immediately promote these 3 Macemen. ;)

Of course, I misclicked and grabbed the Warrior (that's what happens when you try and grab units that are north of a "tall" boat in Civ 4--either the boat gets selected or the units 2N of the boat get selected). So, while only the Macemen got the Experience Points, the Warrior is being sent into battle :crazyeye:. Whatever. Another Galleon picked up the 3rd Maceman and ended its turn next to Gold Island, while the Galleon depicted here moved on top of our yellow-health Trireme with 2 Macemen and 1 Warrior aboard, hehe.
 
Okay, so we sent both of those Galleons towards Ragnar's Ivory City. One Galleon is selected while the other has its units displayed in the hover text.



Okay, sure, it figures... Ragnar's fourth City IS COASTAL! Oh well, we'll get it in due time.



Here's a bit better view--I mean, if I'm not making a counter-clockwise Galleon chain, I might as well do something with these in-the-middle-of-nowhere empty Galleons. We spot a Horse Archer that will probably reinforce Ragnar's SW City.



Here's a City Screen view, so that you can see which Resources that we have access to. Does anyone want to beeline to Sid's Sushi? :lol: Yaroslavl' finally expanded its borders and can now work the 2 Food-based Resources.



Taking shyuhe's advice to heart, we have been spamming extra Galleons and have thrown every available troop into the mix, with even an Archer on board. So, next turn, we'll have 2 Pikes, 1 Horse Archer, 1 Mace, and 1 Archer landing on the shores of Zaragoza. Do you think that Isabella will like our little surprise? ;)

Note that the "third unit" in Zaragoza is a Mighty Work Boat. Ooooo-oooooohhh, scary! :lol:
 
Before we end the turn, we notice that Ragnar has a Trireme lurking in our backwaters. I'm essentially going to ignore it.



We advance the turn. Joao kindly suicides a Catapult against our Medic-III-enhanced stack, meaning that by the time that our Maces will need to attack, they will be at full health anyway. Thanks, Joao! :)



What's this? Ragnar has suicided his Trireme! Yaaa!



Hmmm, okay, so during wartime, a Blockade won't disrupt Trade Routes--it will just disrupt usage of the Coastal/Ocean squares. Haha, the joke is on you, Isabella, as we can still use our Lighthouse-enhanced Lake! ;)



Ragnar, predictably, plans to set up his own blockade. Like we really need the Food at this point in the game. Too little, too late there, buddy.



Lisbon finally falls! 2 Macemen with a Combat Medic have finally done the trick.

"Hey, don't forget about us Trebuchet Handlers!"

Okay, okay, the Trebs helped out a lot, too. :D



Hmmm, we have troops in a nearby Galleon that can amphibiously assault, so I get a little bit impatient and decide to attack.



We won the first battle, lost the second battle...



... and won the third battle, without needing the units on the Galleon. I suppose that the units on the Galleon can just remain on board, in case Joao gets any ideas about sending that Settler in Coimbra anywhere.



Here's the Settler that I was talking about (still inside of Coimbra). We could potentially attack the City next turn or could just wait for 2 turns... but I prefer to attack next turn, so that we don't end up seeing 6 defenders for 6 attackers--better to space the Macemen attacks out over the course of multiple turns. You can see the accidentally-grabbed Warrior highlighted in the list of selected units in this screenshot, even though those units are halfway across of the world.



Hello, Isabella. Surprise, it's your birthday!

"No, it's not!"

You're right, we were wrong, it must be tomorrow.

"No, it's really not!"

Hmmm, then I guess that tomorrow will be a good day to die.

"Maybe you will die, but not me! I still have Murcia, remember?"

Hmmm, okay, you are right. But Zaragoza shall take the heat on the next turn!



Speaking of which... it will take us 2 turns to take down this City (3 if we are unlucky).



We push the advance on Ragnar's SE City, if for no other reason than to see if we can't lure a couple of wandering mounted units to come and try and reinforce the City.



The City is still alive, but with only 1 wounded defending Horse Archer inside of it.



Here's a view of Ragnar's capital. We should have some reinforcements (including a Warrior) arriving on the scene soon, just in time to potentially help out with an amphibious assault.


Ragnar has run his Settler away to here. I think that therefore, I will capture and KEEP all of Ragnar's Cities, just to give less locations for that Settler to place a City.

Our budget can certainly afford us to keep additional Cities at this stage of the game.
 
Here's how things are looking at Ragnar's Ivory City. He does have quite a stack of units nearby has has a Horse Archer and a Chariot to the SE of the City as reinforcements.

Actually, there's a second Settler in this City, so he has TWO Settlers floating around... therefore, I really want to keep all of his Cities, unless I don't think that we'll be able to fend off any counter-attacks on said Cities, in which case they will get razed.



Our western Galleons have arrived on the scene. They could drop off units next turn and then attack two turns from now. So, two turns from now is looking to be our ideal ending date, assuming that these AIs don't sneak their Settlers out to new City locations.



We go and collect yet another 2 units to be dropped-off next turn.



Here is yet another unit that we pick up, although it is only a Chariot.



Our units arrive on the scene next to Birka. Since our targeted end date is 2 turns from now, we'll aim to Bombard for a turn and then attack on the following turn.



Let's go after Ragnar's remaining fleet of Galleys, just to tie up that loose end, shall we?



We won the first battle, how about the second one?



No, we lost the second battle.



However, a Galleon comes to the rescue and destroys Ragnar's last (known) Galley, thus removing the possibility of him surviving via the capture of one of our core Cities.
 
Well, Mitchum, I have been writing the story from the perspective of you, the reader, sitting right next to me, pointing at things and asking "what's that?" and "what's going on over there?" etc. Of course, all the while I've been trying to dodge your dripping ketchup and/or mustard from your hotdog, preventing it from falling on my keyboard by providing you with lots of pretty pictures.


So, for fun, we "trap" Joao's 3 Triremes. For even more fun, we kill one, but we may regret that decision later.



We advance the turn. The Barbs are still encroaching upon England, so we deal with them swiftly.



There you have it: Joao had his revenge and sank the first sunken Galleon of ours in the game!

Of course, that fact just motivated me to go for this throat, so he will pay shortly for that transgression.



Ragnar gets in a last lick on our Clam by pillaging it.



Okay, Joao, it is time to meet your maker. In we go with Uber Treb.



It seems that the odds are in our favour (100% ;)).



And we use our Medic III to finish him off, so that his final Settler can be accounted for.

Thus ends the Portuguese Civ and his offending Trireme magically disappears, muahahaha! I told him that we'd have the last laugh!



Okay, so like, Isabella, yes, we regret keeping your City alive. No, it's not your birthday, nor is it your death day, but we're going to try and kill at least one of these Archers now anyway (because honestly, you are promoting up the Guerrila line and those promos aren't helping you when you aren't in the Hills, fool!). It's unlikely that you'll get +5 Experience Points if we lose--actually the display tells us that you'd only get +2 Experience Points if you won, so we take the risk and attack.



We won, but there is still 1 more Archer defender there.

2 Horse Archers and 1 Chariot versus an Archer and a potentially-whipped second Archer... will we be able to take her down next turn?



We suicided a Pike then threw in our Horse Archer... now it's time to finish Zaragoza once and for all.



Hmmm, you've got to love Accuracy-promoted Trebs, as a single Treb took down the City defences in one Bombardment, prompting our units to "go for it!"



"Go for it" they did, and they captured Birka!



A Settler ran to Ragnar's SE City of Uppsala, so we took and kept that City, capturing his Settler as a Worker.



Why not, right? I mean, we have some units in a Galleon that can amphibiously assault and Ragnar only has a few City defenders... let's take it to him, if we can.



Things are looking really good... but wait, why kill a Horse Archer with a Maceman, when...



... we can kill the Horse Archer in style using a Pikeman! :)



He only has 3 land units in his City... let's try and take him!



Okay, not great odds, but we have numbers on our sides.



The City is ours and Ragnar can't send out his Settlers anywhere!


Only 1 AI left alive! I don't think that I can speed that many more troops towards Isabella, but I'll look to send whatever troops that I can. Now we're just at the mercy of her potentially whipping and us going up against the random number generator if she does whip a second City defender.
 
With some intensive Galleon-chaining from the Portuguese lands, we can come close but not close enough.



Another Galleon chaining effort in the east will arrive too late as well.



We still have a chance to play for Domination, if anyone wants to try to do so! :lol: Yes, of course, I'm joking. Maybe it's not such a good idea to make jokes like this one when we are so close to victory, eh? ;)
 
So, one more turn... or will it be more? Uh oh, the pressure mounts! Can we do it or will Isabella hole-up in her isolated corner of the world, rebuffing all attackers? Will she learn Feudalism in order to help thwart us? Well, I'm tired so I am going to bed and we can find out tomorrow.

Haha, just kidding. Okay, here we go!

I panic for a moment when I see a 3rd unit inside of Isabella's City. Of course, when you look at first, you'll see the hover text, but I didn't see the hover text immediately because my mouse wasn't hovering there at the time. Fortunately, she just has 2 boats in the City.

Apparently, "nobody has no worst enemy," and there are two of them! :crazyeye: A Bug in BUG? :lol:



We caught someone's Spy in Barcelona! Either it belongs to "nobody" or else to you know who!



Okay, so let's use a Chariot first to soften up the defender.



Uhhh, that didn't work. Not a scratch! Uh oh, now I'm starting to feel the pressure. In we go!



And that's it! We didn't even need to use the last Horse Archer!

Okay, a very important question: WHAT DO I DO NEXT?

Okay, yes, it's a newbie question, but better a newbie question than a newbie mistake: can I just click on the End Turn green circle and we will win? Do I need to do anything else? I WILL wait for an answer, so I'm serious, please give me a reply! :)
 
Yes, you can just click the green circle. Might be worth setting all cities to research to see if we can finish a tech for extra points. Just ctrl-click a city and build research to set all cities to research.

Thanks for bringing this game home! Appreciate the story telling too :)
 
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