Rat44 CCM - Ultimate Challenge

The Mongols have ten cities, the Germans and the Japanese eight, and the Canadians and Greeks seven--more or less what would be expected from my trial game, or Rat's.

The five rivals we've met don't know any techs we don't have, nor do they have enough gold that it's worth selling them techs, so on the trade front it's just a question of watching for opportunities. One exception is that the Germans will give us 80 gold and 6 gpt for Masonry. We should check that offer every turn, and take it if it starts to go down, indicating that they're researching Masonry.

Right now our workers are operating as a two-man, two-turn roading stack, which isn't ideally efficient, but is necessary since we only have enough units to cover them safely (meaning an escort of two) if they're stacked together. In the next eight turns I'd suggest they should road the BG north of their present location, road Boston's BG, and irrigate and road Boston's cow.

Washington can begin Royal Stables after it completes AF. After RS, it might be a good idea to build a scout or warrior (one-turn builds, by then) and send it south of the capital to clear fog. We need to know what's in that area.

New York's next warrior can stay in the city to bring the garrison up to two. It would be good to get walls built here in the next round, too.

I'd move our western scout onto the nearby mountain to get a good look at the area, then decide whether he should move north or west. I'd tend to favour north.

Nice lucky break meeting the Germans and getting a ncie trading opportunity

I agree with getting a warrior up to search the area in the north. With horses almost secured, it is now important to make sure we have iron. With all the hills around, we should be able to get some.

The next settler will come in 10 turns, so we should be able to plant another city. Currently I would suggest to head south the claim more hills with BG as well, but we can decide that after the next set.

Greebley is up

Ok, I got it.

lurker's comment: just signing in and finding a place in the cheap seats.

Well I am on the first turn and have a decision I thought team input might be good for.
Germany got Writing. We can trade 548 gold, 3gpt, and Masonry for Writing. Likely Greece will give us something for it - they have 77 gold (but not very much).

If we wait, Germany will pick up Masonry and the price will be higher. I am not sure we will get more trading partners unless we find someone with our one Western Scout. Everyone seems broke or behind but Greece.

So do we want to do the trade? We will have about 20 gold and 11 gpt after trade.

Oh, also I am building the stables first. We are at 9 shields which is poor at building AF for 10 (2 turns). AF will come after when we have 10 shields.

It's a difficult decision, but I'd say no to giving away basically all our gold, and so our flexibility to make a better deal later, in a onefer. If the Germans are making that demand they clearly aren't assigning a lot of value to Masonry in the deal anyway, so we shouldn't let the danger of their acquiring it elsewhere rush us into anything.

I think once someone else knows the tech, the value might drop...so wait for now I'd say.

This is a risk we ave to take.

lurker's comment: Your friendly neighborhood lurker is standing by!

Good luck guys.

double post.

Lurker's comment: Looking forward to the League of Legendary Legends adding more literature to the lists of legendary labors.

Didn't get a chance to finish last night, but I hope to be able to finish tonight.

IBT: Making 10 shield flag when we are at 9 Shields doesn't seem the best option. I am going for the Stables first and then build the flag in 1 turn instead of 2.

2500 BC: Spot a Spear and Settler from Greece with our Scout.

2380 BC: Build a Slaver. Send it out.

2300 BC: Canada has 2 workers for sale. I buy them for 238.

2220 BC: 2 Civs have Writing and 2 have some cash. I Buy writing for 400 gold + 10 gpt and then sell it for 246 and 146. I was hoping they had some gpt, but neither did.

2180 BC: Japan has Iron Working which is too expensive for us.

2140 BC: Upgrade Clan to Settler.

Notes:
We are currently using a Scientist in Washington and running 0% science. Otherwise we have to go to 40% lux.

We have 3 Workers and 2 Canadian Workers (bought).

Japan and Germany both have Iron working now so it can be bought for our gold and 1 gpt. There are no further trades though so it might be better to wait - UNLESS we want to know where the Iron is before moving our settler.

Is it worth ~500 gold to know where the iron is before we settle? It might be. I think I would lean towards doing the deal.

I am building Slavery for more shields. Not fully sure if we want something else first. Washington really could use a temple, but I think I would like to boost the shields first.

We should surely get iron working before moving the settler next turn. We might need to build some spears for protection as well.

The Roster:
ThERat
Northern Pike
Greebley
Elephantium - up
CommandoBob - on deck

I'm glad that waiting to get Writing worked, and buying Canada's workers was a big win.

I think that mining Boston's cow rather than irrigating it was a mistake, though. Getting full value from the one high-food tile we could see was the main rationale for putting a city there. Promoting fast pop growth in early cities is much more important in CCM than in the unmodded game.

ThERat said:

We should surely get iron working before moving the settler next turn. We might need to build some spears for protection as well.

Click to expand...

There is substantial risk in this, since once we fall out of the brokering game at deity--which we'll be doing, by spending all our gold with no immediate way of gaining it back--it can be hard to get back in. But in this Sid-like position, I agree that we have to do it. If we don't claim iron with our next city it may never happen.

And Rat is right to imply that Washington's next two builds will have to be units, to give the new settler/city some protection, though after that I think slavery is the right build there. I'd favour granaries in New York (after walls) and Boston (replacing slavery).

Once we've bought IW our next 50-turn target should definitely be Construction, as the only third-tier tech we can reach.

Ya, I agree with what has been said. Get Ironworking, make Spear for settler.

We may want to move settler right away. We would have enough defenders if we combine worker stacks - there are 2 right now which frees up 2 units. We can then build the spear to split the workers again.

You are also right - I should have irrigated the cow. Sorry about that - my play has gotten a bit rusty since I am playing less.

Greebley said:

We may want to move settler right away. We would have enough defenders if we combine worker stacks - there are 2 right now which frees up 2 units. We can then build the spear to split the workers again.

Click to expand...

That sounds like a good idea. If we do see an iron tile when we buy IW, there will probably be enemy settlers heading for it already, so every turn counts.

I've got it.

Pre-turn:

Buy Iron Working. We can see two sources of Iron: One NW of Boston by six tiles, and ... the other about 4 tiles SE of Washington. Rather nicely placed near the BGs and Tobacco, actually

IBT:

NY: Walls > Warrior

Turn 1 (2100 BC):

Switch the scientist to clown to stop a riot in Washington. Sci slider to 10%.

Switch research to Construction because I forgot to do that before hitting 'enter' on the preturn

IBT:

Zzz...

Turn 2 (2060 BC):

MM sci slider for scientist ... odd the way the calculations are jumping from turn to turn.

IBT:

NY: Warrior > Granary

Turn 3 (2020 BC):

Switch Boston to Granary.
Move workers to irrigate that mined cow.

IBT:

Washington gives us Training Chariot and Enslaver.
Canada has a new town NE of Boston.

Turn 4 (1980 BC):

MM Washington to stop a riot and sci slider to 10%.
Canada has a settler pair making for our iron, the greedy savages! Fortunately, our settler just moved into place to build our new city next turn

Germany and Japan have Maths now.

IBT:

Washington: Slavery > Native Spearman

Turn 5 (1940 BC):

Japan has Seafaring now, too.
Ooh, we can sell IW! Greece ponies up 4gpt + 109 for it.
I don't bother selling to Canada (only 20 gold) or Mongols (0).

Philadelphia founded. Making a Flag.

IBT:

NY gives us an Apprentice.

Turn 6 (1900 BC):

Lose an Enslaver to a Canadian rWarrior. 0-1

IBT:

Washington: Spears

Turn 7 (1860 BC):

Enslaver retreats vs. rWarrior escorting a Settler
Greece, Japan, and Germany now have Trade. Sadly, we can't afford anything to set up a twofer

IBT:

Zzz...

Turn 8 (1820 BC):

I retreat the enslaver to Philly to heal.
Canada has Horses to trade.

IBT:

Washington: Spear > Archer

Turn 9 (1780 BC):

Zzz...

IBT:

Washington's culture borders expand, bringing the Iron into our territory. We can now build Tomahawk Warriors
Philly: Flag > Walls
Greeks complete SoZ.

Turn 10 (1740 BC):

Switch Washington to Tomahawk Warrior.