LK154 - CCM - Bablyon

I think the choice for our next city site falls between 1, with a cow and three BG, or 2, in a dense field of BG. 2 is probably better in absolute terms, but I'd choose 1 to end any danger of an enemy settlement's cutting us off from our source of iron and horses at Akkad.

We're even with or ahead of most of our rivals in tech, though three civs have elements of the next bottleneck, Republic-Monarchy-Religion. Our gpt situation is dire at the moment, but we'll come out of the red in three turns when our obligation to send 20 gpt to Greece ends.

We're building World Religion Islam in Babylon, due in thirteen turns. The logic here is that 1) the Wonder screen doesn't show that any of the four other Muslim civs are building WRI, and if 2) this just means that all four are on other land masses, then 3) the evidence of completed Wonders is that ours is the most advanced continent. But there's obviously some risk here of wasting shields if we fall short, and if the team isn't comfortable with the idea we don't have to do it. Right now we can still default to a slightly overpriced academy in Babylon and then start building attack units there.

Nineveh can stick with military production for some time now, and Assur can do the same after it builds its marketplace. Ellipi might start a marketplace when it completes slavery.

We have a slaver/Enk team in Russian territory near Yekaterinburg, in hope that the Russians won't react and the slaver will get a shot at the unprotected worker. None of the other potential attacks in that area is safe enough--not even against the 4-HP chariot, given that it's fortified and prevents retreats.

Our one surviving scout should avoid going into enemy territory, and it may last a while to show us more of the map.

We have a scouting Enk out in the central woods, too.

LKendter (up)
Greebley (on deck)
Jersey Joe
Elephantium
Northern Pike

Northern Pike said:

We make a straight exchange of Iron Working for Code of Laws with the French.

Click to expand...

NICE! I almost traded IW to the French for gold during my round - good to see that you got a better deal on it

540 BC 0
I see nothing to change.


500 BC 1
Enslaver kills a Russian worker, but we get nothing.
(IT) I think our warrior beat an attacking enslaver near China.


450 BC 3
Our GPT drain is gone. However, we still only make $1/T after it is back.


425 BC 4
Uruk is built by the southern cow. The idea of another civ putting a city in that area, and blocking off our horse / iron site made that decision easy for me.
We are now raking in the cash at $17/T.


375 BC 6
That was just pathetic. Our enslaver dies to a chariot. 4@2 should have beat 4@1.
(IT) Montreal is the home of World Religion Christianity.


350 BC 7
(IT) We get screwed by an auto-boot by China leaving our enslaver exposed, and he is dead. I forget how frustrating keeping these guys in action is.



Summary
3 turns to we have World Religion Islam.
No tech progress during my set. I saw no deals with the leaders, and the backwards civs are showing up with anything interesting.


ROSTER:

LKendter
Greebley (up)
Jersey Joe (on deck)
Elephantium
Northern Pike

We've had epically bad luck with slavers so far. It's 20-20 hindsight, but perhaps our policy should be never to attack a fast unit with a slaver, since the chance of losing the slaver effectively doubles.

This Religion-Monarchy-Republic bottleneck we're in has always been one of the hardest problems in CCM, with no way to work around three expensive techs. In the past we've sometimes had to settle for a Monarchy-Republic twofer and the fifty-turn run on Religion.

We can save some gold by switching from 6-1-3 to 7-0-3 and keeping our 50-turn run going with a scientist, even if he has to switch towns every turn so that he doesn't stall any one city's population growth.

We need to start thinking about, and building up for, our first offensive. Russia or China is a pretty wretched choice, since both are almost broke. But China is a bad early enemy because of the Great Wall, so I think it has to be Russia. We might want to be more aggressive about scouting Russia's borders with Enks.

With the comments on first war, so far I agree with Russia.
We should concentrate our slavers on him.
Wake up the catapults, and start moving them his way.
Our offensive units should move that way. I may have a couple of stray offensive units near China.

Once Babylon is done the wonder, we need to start chaining irrigation south. Our resource city, and the new one are food poor and won't be worth much until we get water that way.

Agreed. Babylon needs to have some of its forest cleared so it can grow, so irrigating from Babylon to Uruk (the new city) will be win-win. Uruk's cow should be irrigated, not mined, for fast growth there.

I should mention that Akkad can build Great Iron Mine. GMI can go in the build queue there after granary, slavery, and walls (since Akkad will be a front-line city in the Russian war). There's no rush, since the 50% boost to the city's commerce won't matter until it grows more.

BTW, LK, do you remember where and how we met the Aztecs? If they turn out not to be on our continent, this will be very important information.

I was thinking irrigating from Babylon to Uruk (the new city) to Akkad (IIRC lots of plains).
Plus we will need that irrigation chain as we approach the furs / elephants city as that is also plains heavy.

I don't recall how me met the Aztecs. Must have been during the IT.

LKendter
Greebley (up) Overdue for got it.
Jersey Joe (on deck)
Elephantium
Northern Pike

LKendter
Greebley (up)
Jersey Joe (on deck) If you can take, please post a got it and I will swap you with Greebley.
Elephantium
Northern Pike

Okay, I got it, swap me with Geebley.

Will start preping for war. Any thoughts on using the slave worker to colonize the ivory and building war elephants? I will not do this without approval.

Our usual conclusion and practice has been that phants, though fun to use, just aren't cost-effective except for the four civs that specialize in them. Unless I'm overlooking some change in 1.8, they cost 65 shields for an attack factor of three when our swordsmen cost 25 for the same attack strength. And this isn't C3C, in which good players can conduct offensives practically without losses; we need the raw numbers provided by cheap swordsmen.

The question of whether it would be worth colonizing the nearby elephants to use them in trade is a separate one. I'm slightly against it, because the AI's offers for resources are generally insulting, but I'd be glad to hear other opinions.

First war step to fight Russia is to get the catapults I fortified, any offensive units up north, and roads close to there cities.
I wouldn't colonize the elephants. I eventually want a city in the area to grab them and the furs.

LKendter
Greebley (on deck)
Jersey Joe (up) (swapped)
Elephantium
Northern Pike

Right after Babylon finishes building World Religion, several deals we made finish and we get back 40+gpt. Assuming I get Monarchy in a trade, should I immediately revolt into it (I do not see any reason not to)?

Also, after World religion is finished, I plan to start chopping the irrigation chain to from Babylon to Uruk.

Yes, by all means revolt immediately to monarchy if you can, though it may be optimistic to think we'll have the chance on your round.

If we time things right, with three fifteen-shield forests coming down at the same time, we should be able to get a one-turn theatre built in Babylon. This may require some forward planning so that we'll have enough units in the area to cover workers on three tiles.

Northern Pike said:

Our usual conclusion and practice has been that phants, though fun to use, just aren't cost-effective except for the four civs that specialize in them. Unless I'm overlooking some change in 1.8, they cost 65 shields for an attack factor of three when our swordsmen cost 25 for the same attack strength.

Click to expand...

All kind of elephants in CCM have one additional hitpoint.

Preturn: No changes and no trade opportunities.

Between turn: China enslaves Enkidu Warrior by Ellipi.
France demands Construction. I give France Construction.

250bc: Our bowman kills the enslaver.
Between turn: China starts building the Great Wall.

225bc: Hire a scientist in Nineveh drop science to 0% gain 10 gpt.
Between turn: Babylon WorldReligion->Swordsman; Nineveh Market->Aqueduct; Ellipi Market->Walls;
China completes the Great Wall.
Nubians establish an embassy in our Capital.

200bc: Workers work. Troops parade.
Between turn: Greeks are building Hagia Sophia.

175bc: Workers work. Troops move south for war games.
Between turn: Babylon sword->Theatre (being chopped); Assur Theatre->Sword; Ellipi Walls->Horseman; Akkad Granary->Walls;

Lost Furs and lost Northern Exploring ship.

150bc: Workers work.

125bc: Workers work.
Between turn: Babylon Theatre->Sword; Assur Sword->Sword; Ellipi Horeseman->Horseman;

Lost Wines.

100bc: Send 260 gold to China for Wines.
Between turn: Nineveh Aqueduct->Merchantship

75bc: Workers work.
Between turn: Babylon Sword->Town Center (being chopped);
Nineveh Merchantship->Sword and fire scientist; Assur Sword->Sword;
Ellipi Horeseman->Horeseman and hires scientist;

50bc: Workers work.

Between turn: Babylon Clan produced; Akkad Walls->Slavery;

25bc: Workers work.

Here are 2 screen shots.

The first shows 3 places where I was considering building a city before I swapped with Greebley.

The second shows the Russian city missing from the first picture. Also, it shows the troops we have in Akkad.



Here is the save: