RBC1 - The Incans Rise Again

[Griselda]

Well, this is starting to stagnate. I'll play on Friday unless Sullla knows he can instead.

Now that everyone at least has the game, I'm thinking we should use 24/48 rules. We'll go longer than 48 later on, of course, but for now that should be enough.

-Griselda

[Griselda]

Well, I thought we'd hold a bit for everyone to get their games, but I didn't expect quite this long! Let's hope I can remember what's happening here.

(0) 750 BC - Whip rax in Hua. Move unmoved archer out in SE. Lux to 30%. Cuzco to settler. We could also use some workers, to get roads out to those far cities. Anda to warrior so the single Mongol fortified down there can't take the city on his own.

BT - Tiwa spear - worker. Hua rax - spear. Anda warrior - worker. Barb horse doesn't attack our archer.

(1) 730 BC - Our archer kills the horse. We won't be able to kill all those frozen barbs for a while, so I decide to try to settle them out! Our other settler can do some backfill. Macchu Picchu to granary. It's a decent city, and at +4 a granary seems like a reasonable thing. Lux to 30%. Vilcas to worker.

BT - The barbs must have heard about our plans, our maybe it was the warrior emptied out of Vitcos to protect the settler! One horse moves, and attacks the warrior. The archer hits on our free shot, and we win. The second horse kills the warrior.

Cuzco settler - worker. Vilcas worker - temple.

(2) 710 BC - I want that knight spot, but I don't think we're in any position to get there alive. I decide to head for a spot E of Arequipa for now.

BT - Cuzco worker - settler. Tiwa worker - spear.

(3) 690 BC - I send a spear up to replace a warrior at the choke.

(4) 670 BC - Settle Nasca on the far east coast. I debated a long time between that spot and the one just to the NW, but the fresh water at the current location sold me. It's got one flood plain, it's coastal, and it should be able to have decent shields (eventually).

BT - I left a Chasqui fortified on a hill, thinking it would be safe there, but a barb killed it. Cori settler - worker. Greeks complete temple of Zeus at Sparta.

(5) 650 BC - Our SW settler is in barb-popping location. Atico is settled to fill in the north desert. I decide we don't need spears. I don't think we need warriors, either. We can escort our settlers all day long, and they're still toast if any of those stacks of 10 barb horses attack. We need archers! Our barracks cities swapped to archers.

BT - The Mongols send a galley south.

(6) 630 BC - Settle Juli in the SW. The camp pops, but all 11 barbs are still there, right next door. Oh well, at least I can kill them from the safety of the city now! I kill four of them this turn.

We continue settling with Chuito east of Cuzco.

BT - Cuzco settler - archer. Hua archer - archer.

(7) 610 BC - The horses by Juli still don't move, even though they don't have tents anymore. We can kill one this turn, and there's 6 more left. The Mongols have landed a settler by the iron/horse spot. I'm sorry I didn't prioritize that one, guys, but I didn't think we could. Our Chasqui will keep an eye on the settler pair.

BT - The fortified Mongol units move, and the barbs move. Was there some sort of AI freeze in effect or something? Tiwa archer - archer. Olly worker - granary.

(8) 590 BC - Kill 3 more barbs at Juli. 3 left now. Arequipa will get sacked next turn, as the bars are finally there. Buy map making from Greece for 264 g plus 8 gpt. I hate to use gpt, but this is an emergency! Tiwa to galley.

BT - Arequipa, size 2, is sacked. It loses several turns on a temple and one pop, but that's it. It would have taken many more shields worth of units to kill all those horsies. Cori worker - worker. The English complete the Mausoleum of Mausollos.

(9) 570 BC - We kill the last of the Juli horses- no losses! The barbs are coming to Olly, rush an archer.

BT - Horses move up from the south. Cuzco archer - archer. Olly archer - granary (prebuild for courthouse at some point?). Iroquois complete lighthouse.

(10) 550 BC - We kill 3 out of 4 of the new Juli horses, losing one archer. I moved two workers by accident south of Vilca, sorry. There's a settler pair there. I had been thinking of sending it to the river/wheat spot, but there's clearly a barb camp, so be careful. The northern settler is headed towards the iron/horse spot, but may not make it that far. The spices are important, of course, but just got put on the back burner with all the barbs and trying to fill in to Olly.

There's a worker by Vitcos trying to hook up the ivory. That will help the economy quite a bit.

We are very behind on tech, and the minsci on construction will come in in 11. Both AI have it, but it seemed reasonable to finish it out while buying others. Maybe Charispender can help in the tech department!

Save Us!

Griselda - just played
Charis - UP UP UP
Jester - on deck
Kylearan
Sullla
Skyfish

[Charis]

Pacharis Inca (now known as Pacha-ching!) comes to power

His first words are... eep! That's just from reading the report. Looking at
the actual map... 16 cities and large territory? Sweet! That plays to our
strongpoint, agriculture. Then Ca-Ching looks at the status screen. DEAD even
three-way on score, and we're ahead of Mongols in power. We lead the planet in
population with 14%. And the Mongols are at war with Greece, lovely. Really,
the only issue AT ALL is that we're hugely behind on tech. Waaaay behind.

What's the best way to get out of that hole? The pointy stick of course!



We declare war on the Mongols, converge 3 units on Hovd, attack and kill the warrior
near Cori, and surround their archer down south. Finally the Chasqui kills the
settler pair. Next turn we ally with Greece, and the Mongols are so toast. They'll
be throwing about 3 techs our way before the round is over. Just kidding. I didn't
declare war. Yet. But this approach has merit. In a solo game I might chance it,
but might pass for the same reason I pass here, we're stuck at present with attack 1
units vs attack 2 defenders. With even odds and greater local concentration of force,
I would hit them for sure, despite our low national military. Instead I'm going to
continue the settling plan, but get a few more units in place to open up the pointy
stick door for our next leader.

[0] 550 BC - Swap Cuzco to rax and MM it to get 10spt. Other minor mm changes in
corrupt cities. If only getting one shield anyway, work grass instead of forest, etc.
Macchi is set for grow in 3, granary in 4 - we save a half-box of shields by slowing
growth by two turns.

[1] 530 BC - Archer takes out barb camp in NE. Down south our Chasqui peers at about
six barb horses, and in running away, stumbles into an *English* spear-settler pair.
They're not too far from SE knight spot. Good news is that *whoever* settles there
will have it 100% corrupt and we'll be able to capture it easily enough. The English
have Philo, CoL, HBR, Poly, Currency, and Constr (but only 9 total cities). I doubt
if the other civs have met them, since they have more techs than our neighbors,
who lack Polytheism and Currency. Clearly it's the other continent who has reached
the Middle ages and caused the barbarian uprisings. Can we buy Polytheism from her?
Not quite. Gah... here we go again... Ca-Ching starts doing his funny little tech
dance. I doctor the books, er... work the tiles to look like we have +38gpt. Not quite
enough? Eep. Kick that higher, and can buy Polytheism for 65g+43gpt. Tis monopoly price,
but we in turn get to sell at monopoly until the Mongols meet her next turn.
To Greece for 635g, then to Mongols for 282g. Huh, no techs? Wait... Return to Liz
with more cash in hand, and try to buy Currency. We're a few gpt short, so we go
deeper in hock (Ca-CHING!!!) 932g+9gpt buys Currency. Dial up Alex, before he
meets this Liz gal. To Alex for CoL,HBR,Philo+207g. He's now Middle Ages. Currency
to the Mongols for 369g. Done. We'll be in Middle Ages ourselves in 10 turns when
our minsci Construction finishes. England has Monarchy and Republic too, but they're
way too expensive.

Let's see what the total cost of all that ca-ching was... We paid 997g+52gpt
then received 1593g and five techs. Converting at 20g/gpt rate, that means we got
five techs for net 444g, or less than 90g per tech. Considering Currency alone
cost 1112g, that's phenomenal

That leaves us with two remaining issues. We did all this with a paltry 85g in our
pocket to start with, so now we'll be running at negative income for some time. The
second issue is that our neighbors are now in the Middle ages. That's not too big a
deal though, as they were close, as the other civs are already there, and as the
Greeks already have their 3-def hoplites. I return to all the cities I put on curr
tiles and taxmen and try to get back to a 'sane' deficit. That ends up being
581g-20gpt for the next 20 turns unless Liz demands tribute which we'll refuse.

With more settlers showing up South, and with our acute need for iron, the
warrior-settler heads to the Northern iron patch.

IBT - Two barb horses move next to Nasca. At least we have a spear there.
The two foreign settler pairs move *west*, away from the 'knight' spot,
which means it's already settled, or they see something better. Actually,
that wheat/cattle/river spot they're heading to looks great.

[2] 510 BC - Our settlers press forward, our archers head towards barbs for that
crucial ca-Ching economy boost! IBT some horses appear near workers.

[3] 490 BC - Warriors move to cover those workers.
IBT - Four more horse move next to Nasca. Greeks start SunTzu.

[4] 470 BC - Macchu finishes granary, starts settler (probably rax soon)
Chuquiapo is founded on hill on the coast near iron. Unfortunately... not quite
close enough. I thought the proximity with Arequippa would merge the border
over the iron, but no. Moving one step closer was just TOO close to Arequippa though.
That means a temple whip (or worse, a colony) asap.

IBT - Mongols and Greeks come to peace. That's not so bad actually, as a highly
dominant Greece would not be that great. English start Sun Tzu. A Chasqui defends
against a barb horse, and more of those move off Nasca hill to chase workers.
The mongols settle 'Tsetserleg' on the river near wheat, next to cattle.
The English settler nearby then shuffles back east.

[5] 450 BC - Our South roaming settler chooses the gap between our core and Anda,
on a coast and river, with wheat, two BG and game in the full radius: Huanuco Pampa.

IBT Mongols start Sun Tzu. Barb horses run past our warrs defending workers toward
city.

[6] 430 BC - Notice Macchu is set to grow to 8 then pop settler back to 6, not efficient.
So we swap off settler to temple, as it has happiness issues. Archers intercept the barb
horses. Painfully we lose a warrior, and see no promotions. (Bah, 'regular' units :P )
Our first galley is finished, and we sent it around the South coast to see if we can
find the other civs (e.g. England's home).

[7] 410 BC - Ivory finally to come online! That cuts deficit to -10gpt.

[8] 390 BC - Hmmm, those are horses on the hill east of Olla, aren't they. We have none
yet do we? Hurry up settler from Andahuaylas! Our archer trio takes out a barb camp,
and we hear 25 ca-Ching! sounds. A settler just finished in Cori in our NW. Do we
send him just up to that jungle to form a choke city, or continue to rely on our
warrior fence? The fact that the AI has NOT grabbed it highly suggests that we'll find
no rubber or anything there. What can wait... must. It heads East instead.
At Vitcos a temple is whipped, also Vilca. Our galley sinks a barb galley, and puts
in at Juli.

[9] 370 BC - zzz til IBT - Good news! Karakorum has completed Sun Tzu! Er, why is that good
news? That's an eminently capturable and useful city/wonder, in the hands of a
not-too-strong civ on our continent.

[10] 350 BC - Some barb activity South of Arequippa, our archer is first to stumble on
a camp, as two occupents LEFT it IBT. So we attack, and... ca-Ching! 25g.
We see Liverpool is founded to get the SE iron, but it's not in the 'Knight' position
per se, leaving the horses free.

To our next leader, Jester...
- Settler due next turn out of Andahuaylas, it's strongly urged that he go six
squares north, then probably one NW, on the coast(hill) directly next to horses.
We definitely need those.
- There is an unmoved settler near Atico. He could instead get to this horse spot,
or send him somewhere else. 3-4 squares SW of Nasca looks good when you look at that
in combo with the other settler next to the horses, filling in a large gap nicely.
- Decide whether to colonize iron or to whip Arequippa to pull it in. (That route will
take about 11 turns when a double whip will do the trick.
- The archer trio down south has been sweeping along vs barbs, no new ones seen yet.
- There is an irrigating worker quartet bringing life-giving water all the way to our
eastern shore. Together they irrigate in one turn. Likewise another quartet is
irrigating down West and South. They just did two squares not in radius at the moment,
but the choices of squares to mine outside Vilca wasn't optimal. When they're done
they can chop a few forests at Vitcos perhaps, as a courthouse would be helpful there.
- I had been running closer to 10-13 gpt deficit these turns, but at low growth. I've
taken a few more cities off taxman to get them growing again, as a treasury of
483g, -25gpt for 10 more turns doesn't sound as awful as after the deal which left
us at 581-20for20.
- Despite being weak militarily compared to other civs, I was surprised to get no
tribute demands this turn. They're all still busy expanding? Ah, looking at F8,
our score has climbed a notch for sure, our power is second only to Greece, and our
culture... er... ew, better whip a dozen temples out before new govt I see!
- Our scientist is now at Andahuayla, which at present needs a specialist anyway. Keep one.
- Yes, there is a Mongol warrior next to an undefended town. Don't worry, that oaf
has been patrolling aimlessly for ten turns now. Thoughts of war have been but off
considerably, as their entrance to middle ages means that our hookup of iron and
horses are top priorities now!

Here is our view of the world:


Griselda - (In shock we're about to enter middle ages when we hit 'enter', and
that with 85g cash we bought five techs for 90g each )
Charis - Spent!!
Jester - UP!
Kylearan - on deck
Sullla - in the dugout
Skyfish - in the hole

RBC1-Incans-350BC



Good luck to our next leader, who will likely need it :P
Charis

[Iester]

Geez, Charis, haven't you seen me play enough times to know that I *never* declare war on my turns?



Maybe it's time to start.

I've got it. I'll play it out tomorrow. Looks like we're in for a fun ride, lots of temple whippin' to do.

Jester

[Iester]

(Inherited turn)

I decide to move the settler to the square you recommended, not seeing any reason why that’s not a good idea.

Turn 1

Construction comes in, start engineering at minimum. Not sure if it’s a worthwhile idea, but it’s not like we can do anything else research-wise.

Settler comes in, he’s going up to the horsies. Andahuaylas starts a temple, although that could just be a placeholder for something more useful, if the next person has a better idea.

Mongols start the Great Library.

I build a colony on the iron. Why wait?

I don’t really know what to do with the galley at Juli, so I send it to explore around the southern coast.

I move to start some serious deforestation near vitcos.

Turn 2

Archer trio in the south finds a barb camp, lightly defended.

Turn 3

Vilcas revolts, whoops, should have checked for that.

Cuzco finishes marketplace, switches to colosseum.

Our archers are initially victorious, and the camp should fall next turn.

Turn 4

A barbarian horseman kills a chasqui in the southeast. The archer kills him as soon as I get the chance. The barb encampment to the SW gets sacked, and an archer gets promoted to veteran.

Vilcas whips a temple, as does Machu Picchu. Juli switches from a catapult (?) to a temple.

Turn 5

Machu Picchu finishes temple, switches to marketplace. Feel free to change this to a colosseum if you like, I couldn’t decide which we need more there. Huamanga starts a temple. Vilcas starts a settler, as does Villacamba.

Tamboccocha founded on the white dot. I start it on a temple, although that can be changed long before it finishes. I’ll get one of the archers to defend it for now.

I switch Atico to a temple. Again, it can be switched back, I just think we need the culture, plus that bonus grassland tile might help its rather barren location.

Turn 6

The English start the Knights Templar.

A barb horseman pillages near Andahuaylas, so I attack him with a warrior. The warrior dies, fantastic. Uh, I dunno what to do about that. I’ll just hope he doesn’t move anywhere, maybe get the archers over this way.

A barb galley sinks ours. More lucky breaks for us!

Huaras founded by the horses.

I just notice that I seemed to have wiped out our specialist! Oops. That’s not good. It’s not like we’re likely to get anything in at 50 turns anyway, but…

Turn 7

Barb horseman attacks, kills our warrior, and steals 19 gold. Grand.

Ica finishes granary, switches to temple.

The English have a settler on our fair isle, in the extreme SE… we’ll have to kick them off pretty soon.

Turn 8

Cuzco revolts… bah. I should have been paying closer attention. Oh, well, at least we have our scientist back.

Tiwanaku rushes temple. Wait, I did that between turns! D’oh, that’s an exploit, right? Oops, sorry. I was checking if any other city was about to revolt, and I got a little overzealous. It starts on a worker.

The Mongols have founded Baruun-Urt (!?!) in the SE, near the English cities.

Corihuayrachina builds a setter, so I send it to darkest Peru (the jungle up north) to grab the ‘nanas.

Turn 9

Woah, the Mongols have a settler pair down in our territory, ready to grab our precious oasis! When did that blockade go down? Ah, whatever. They can take it.

Turn 10

Temujin demands 35 gold… I cave. Why? I think we could be in a better position before we take him on. We’ve got too many cardboard cutouts, not enough warm bodies. I agonized over this one, but I’m pretty sure this was the right move. Not like we won’t take the hammer to him eventually, but now would not be the time of maximum advantage.


AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHH HHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I check the trades afterwards, and our good friend the Khan has NO IRON! We could have spanked him around the block! Bah!

Oh, well. Revenge will be sweet.

English and Greeks start the Great Library.

Conclusion

I feel like half a split-personality drunkard; he gets to splurge, I get to nurse the hangover. I didn’t do any trades, of course, since that’s Charis’ job. (Not that I begrudge that, you’re a phenomenal trader, and I’m much better at getting out of holes than digging them.)

So, my turn was pretty much maintenance and temple building. There are a few more of those to whip in good time, look out for those.

A lot of our construction is placeholder-ish. I felt a little directionless, ( ) so maybe the next person should go back and decide with a little more vigour. Maybe build some swordsmen? I dunno.

This especially is true of the settlers. We’re building lots, and only need two or three. So, decide which we need and where we need them before they finish, there’s still plenty of time on the clock to make the key decisions.

Jester

[Iester]

Er, yeah, the game. Here it is.

The Sacred Game of the Four Corners

Jester

[Charis]

Given your last comment of never starting a war on your turn, Temujin was wise to choose your last year in reign for his demand. Overall, a very good turn I would say, Jester

Since you mentioned a lack of direction, I'll throw in some thoughts --

On direction
-- start now to prep for a short war as we simultaneously get out the last 3-5 settlers we need to fill up our land
-- get some courthouses going, we have tons of cities but a lot of corruption
-- get a galley to the waters East of the SE tip, where it seems
England came from, to see if there are other civs with her
-- ASAP, once we have about, oh, 8-10 swords+horses,
we'll go to war with Mongols. Capture Baruum-Urt (if it doesn't autoraze) and Tsetserleg with minimal forces. Main attack stack captures Hovd (in 1 turn, if we have ~5 horses there to hit it
immediately). Then with swords try to take Choy and Kazan, although these would be bonuses not essential. The goal is to purge our interior lands, get firm cities at chokepoints, and inflict enough pain for a tech or two compensation (Specifically, Republic would be great). The timing must be ASAP in that we want to hit them with swords/horse vs spears, NOT pikes, and definitely before they get their UU!

On micromanagement
- Always hit F1 before hitting end-of-turn. To let a ultra corrupt city revolt is one thing, but the captial?!
- In a size one city you never want a clown as there is no one else to make happy. Andahuaylas should be a taxman.
- If a city is amongst the most unhappy you have, tailor tiles to work more shields and less food. Cuzco for example has a specialist (eep, in the capital?!), but is producing 3 food for colloseum in 7. It should go 0 food and colloseum in 5. When the capital needs a clown, it's time to nock up the lux slider (and/or build the colloseum)

Options for next leader to consider
- Chuqiuapo might swap to temple?
- Machu Picchu needs a worker to mine some grass. If we're thinking war, I would definitely swap to rax and with mines it's at 6spt, or 30shields per 5 turns.
- Vitcos needs 38 shields for a courthouse and is size 3. Rather than wait I would double whip it and make it capable of more than 1 shield and 1 commerce. What's that, it won't let you? Swap to granary which is 18 shields to go. Whip it, then immediately switch back to courthouse, whip again.
- We have THREE cities with rax, Cuzco, Tiwanaku and Huamanga. When Cuzco grows one more it can do 15spt, or one sword per two turns, highly recommended. Poor Tiwa is stuck at size 6 with only moderate food but cranking workers. He needs an aqeuduct and courthouse. Huamanga is hurting too, at 4spt, and trying to get one more gives one more wasted shield instead. Consider swapping temple to courthouse.
- After about five more settlers the map will be full. With three cities working on settlers, we're about right, and nearly done with peaceful expansion.
- Change Huaras to worker and send some more workers out of the irrigating quartet to the horses asap!

Kylearan - UP
Sullla - on deck
Skyfish - in the hole

Hmmm.... Let me think out loud here... I wonder if Kylearan can set up Sulla for war on his watch? 2.5 swords from Cuzco, 2 from Tiwa, 1.5 from Hua, and first half of Sulla's watch would see an equal number of horses/swords, doing horses last or further away so they both reach the front at the same time, and we're talking start of war right at end of Sulla's turn or beginning of Skyfish. Delay past that would almost surely mean pikes, except, fortunately, for the two Mongol cities in our interior which can't get iron.

Good luck,
Charis

[Kylearan]

Got it.

[Skyfish]

we're talking start of war right at end of Sulla's turn or beginning of Skyfish

Yes !
War Me like it

[Kylearan]

The first thing I notice is that not only the Mongols lack iron, but Greece as well! Not only have they iron not hooked up yet, but in fact there is none on their territory! Ok, maybe there is under the small unexplored patch in the northeast, but I doubt it. That spells doom for Mongolia in the short run, and for Greece in the long run as well (their hoplites saving them for now, but Mongolia's Keshiks? Oh come on!). I like Charis' vision of war ASAP, so I'll follow his suggestion and try to prepare us for that. I was the one who built our first barracks, so it somehow figures that I will be the one to start preparing us for war as well.

I increase lux to 20% and fire the specialists in Cuzco, Machu Picchu and Tiwanaku.

Tiwanaku is swapped from worker to swordman (we will get some slaves as compensation soon). Machu Picchu is swapped to barracks, Olly to courthouse, Huamanga to sword. Vilcabamba is swapped from settler to courthouse - sorry, one settler less, but with 66% corruption (4 of 6 shields lost), I want a courthouse there rather sooner than later. Vitcos feels the double-whip, and Andahuaylas gets a taxman instead of a clown (no scientist, since I figure we will have engineering in 48 turns anyway, one pointy way or another). Ica is swapped from temple to settler - it's low on shields and probably will be for some time to come because workers are needed more urgent elsewhere at the moment. Nasca gets the galley whipped (could have been done six turns ago already), Juli, Chuito and Tamboccocha are set to courthouse and Huaras to worker. I wake up the archer in Tamboccocha and move him north - I don't like the Mongolian warrior near empty Arequipa at all.

Then I hit next turn.

(I) A barbarian horseman kills our veteran archer on the hill down in the south, and the Mongols found Ereen south of our, er, "blockade" which is open like a barn door at the moment.


130BC (1): Arequipa gets the temple whipped. In the north, a settler was on goto which I didn't catch, and he finds...an Iroquois pike/settler pair! Both Iros and England have engineering which Greece and Mongolia have not, and maybe one or both of the latter have not yet made contact? Our payments to the English have ended this turn, but our treasury and income are not enough to get us engineering. So I temporarily set lux to zero, and now am able to buy engineering for 250g+44gpt. And indeed it's a monopoly for us to Greece and Mongolia! Unfortunately, though, Mongolia seems to be nearly done researching it for themselves, but I trade it to Greece for the republic, monotheism and all of his six gold pieces.

That's 375 gold per tech - sure, given that amount of money, Charis the former Enron employee would probably have catapulted us into a comfortable tech lead. But I like this simple 3-fer anyway, given that we we got two middle age and a government tech.

Revolting now is out of question, though, as the gpt deal would kill us (actually, I need to bust a camp or build some roads not to go negative even now). But I guess the end of our short war will be about the same time our gpt payments will end, so let's continue the military buildup. At least our unit support limit isn't reached yet with all these empty cities.

(I) The Iroquois start to build the great library. Their pike/settler pair decides not to settle right away, but move one step - a big mistake. A third English city (Brighton) appears on our continent, at the spice location. It has a big sign at its entry reading "target me!". :shotgun:


110BC (2): Riobamba founded, in deep jungle. I hope the Iro pike won't attack it, as it will be undefended for the next two turns.


90BC (3): MM Cuzco


70BC (4): Our palace gets a nice lawn. Chuquiapu has now growth problems and so gets partially whipped.


50BC (5): Huanuco Panpa has growth problems as well and gets partially whipped.

(I) Hovd's borders expand, and our ex blockade units get kicked out.


30BC (6): An archer duo gets rid of a barb camp and gets a much needed 25 gold. Juli gets the courthouse double-whipped. Our galley tries a suicide run eastwards from Dover, and spots blue borders.

(I) The Iros start the Sistine Chapel


10BC (7): Two Mongolian archer/future-double-slave pairs try to get through the ex-blockade at Hovd; I hinder them. Our galley has survived, and makes contact with the Mayans! They have 11 cities.

(I) The English start the Sistine Chapel, and finish the Knights Templar. The Iros switch to Leo's.


10AD (8): Machu Picchu is finally set up to produce 6spt, but unfortunately needs a taxman. Our galley finds beautiful Theodora of the Byzantines, who only controls six cities - war or bad lands? I'm looking forward to the ability of map trading.


30AD (9): Whip temple at Atico. Horses are finally connected! Switch far-away cities from swords to horsemen.


50AD (10): Troop movement, worker actions.



We now have the impressive army of 16 warriors, 8 archers, 4 spearmen, 5 swordmen and 1 chasqui, all in all 34 units (not counting the workers). Compare that to our 20 cities (plus two settlers on the way) and it's clear that we're ready for war. Unfortunately, Khan seems to sense this: He has moved an elite archer and a warrior into Tsetserleg. Four of our archers are already waiting outside their border and one is on the way, and roads to it are finished as well. The few swords we have are at our blockade at the moment (or on the way); I haven't moved them yet. Baruun-Urt and Ereen have not yet units outside their borders, so maybe you could move them in that direction.

I've played cats and mouse with the two settlers/archers at the blockade (if this were chess it would have been declared a draw already due to repetitive position ) to get the four slave workers when war is started. Mongolia still lacks iron, but beware: They may have Keshiks or longbows by now.

Interesting times ahead!


Roster:
Griselda
Charis
Jester
Kylearan
Sullla - UP
Skyfish - ON DECK


-Kylearan

[Griselda]

Hooray for contacts, and for gearing up for future pointy-stick researching. Hopefully these two things will help everyone maintain direction and interest no matter where they fall in the turn rotation.

There's still no word from Sullla, so I hope he's doing OK. We're going with strict 24/48 at the moment, so hopefully he is able to at least check in by Tuesday some time.

Roster:
Griselda
Charis
Jester
Kylearan
Sullla - UP
Skyfish - ON DECK

[Sirian]

This forum needs a new smiley: one smiley with a spear or "pointy stick" and an evil grin prodding a forlorn second smiley, either in the rear end or the ribs. Dollar to a donut, that would see a lot of use.

They could call it, THE PROD.


- Sirian

[Griselda]

Well, Sirian, this was about the closest I could come to a "prod"

Not quite what you meant, but hey

Still no word from Sullla. Sullla, we hope you're doing OK, first and foremost. However, we should probably auto-skip him until he's checked in.

Roster:
Griselda - on deck
Charis
Jester
Kylearan
Sullla - skipped
Skyfish - UP NOW

[Griselda]

Skyfish? Are you available? This looks like a fun time to be picking it up.

-Griselda

[Skyfish]

Yep I got it !
Thanx Gris !

[Skyfish]

50AD : not a lot to change, few bits and bobs here and there.
Indeed we should strike early we dont have enough horses yet but these 2 settlers are just too much to resist...

70AD : We kill the 2 archers defending the settlers at the cost of 1 sword, but get 2 promos to Elite !
We capture Tsetse at the cost of one archer. A loose mongol warrior threatens Tambococha.

90Ad : The mongols send a horse and an archer against our "wounded stack" but we survive and the horse has to retreat.
Reinforcement is on the way.

110AD : We lose a sword but kill 2 horses and an archer : all of the action is by Hovd. The mongols have tons of reinforcement
though...
Caxamalca is founded in the south.

130AD : the flow of units from the Mongols is just non-stop I have to retreat in Arequipa and try
to counter.

150AD : This is getting ugly, we lose an archer and a wounded horse to the mongols.
There is a force of 5 archers, 1 elite horse and 2 vet horses near our border.
We manage to take the Elite horse out with no cost but lose a horse to their 2...

170AD : Longbows make their way towards us but the Mongols are ready to talk!
I throw everything I have at them and then out of nowhere comes a Great Leader !
we can get peace and the Mongs will pay Literature, 1gpt + 2g. Cant get anything more.

I believe we need to take peace now but I have no idea what to do with the GL: we desperately need an FP but with
that horrible corruption bug...that could make things even worse...

I need the team's feedback here

[Charis]

Was that just a highlight, or is the only city we've captured Tsetserleg? What about Ereen and Baruun? Hovd?

If none, you may have ruined your 'appetite' on the delicious settler snack and not had as much for dinner as hoped, certainly no dessert :P

It's vital to know whether the unit flow is non-stop or just 'all they got'. In other words, have we now reached their peak (and a good time to stop) or after what seems like a big crunch, are they now so out of gas that stopping would be insane?

In any case, the key question is the MGL. Just how bad *is* the FP bug? I no it exists and that it's quite broken, but... what exactly would happen if we rushed a FP in, oh...
Tamboccocha? Seems like a great location for one.

The safer bet would be to build an army immediately, put one sword in it, and use it to kill a defense-1 target, and later throw a few MDI or MDI/musket in there for general purpose use. With that approach you build army, partially fill, get your kill, then halt the war. With the FP approach we may as well take peace now.
(A vet/elite horse will do too, just be SURE it's at strong odds to win, if you prefer to add a pair of Knights to the army later)

The problem with the way things have turned out is that we've not purged our interior or owned the chokepoint, so we'll need one more war with Mongols, and we'll be facing quick Keshiks at that point. Given no iron for Mongols and Greece, as someone pointed out a manifestdestiny plan of owning our entire continent is a very good and obtainable objective. If we're going there, and our national ambition that large, Karakorum itself is a good FP city.

Without rather a few more swords and horses available and in position, I don't see the point of continuing the war. Unless that is, you can maneuver enough units to be on the offense, not defense, vs a weakly-defended longbow stack.

At the point where it's no longer advantageous to continue the wary, we'll want to stop, regroup and build some better attack units, and almost surely revolt out of Despotism. (To Republic?)
If you expect not to take over the continent and if the FP bug is an improvement of some sort, rush FP now in or near Tambo. Otherwise (larger nation expected, or FP 'hurts'), then make an army and get a victory then immediately take peace -- we can fill it with better units when they're available not long from now.

Looking at the score we're in good shape. And our next steps will only see our position improve. England is in prime position for a smack down as we continue purging our interior - perhaps we can get another tech out of them.

Good luck with the rest of your turn
Charis

[LKendter]

The FP reduction corruption by NOTHING. It is a 100% waste of time until the patch comes out next year.

[Kylearan]

The two settlers could have been kept busy for some more turns easily by moving our chasqui left and right. That way, the war could have been delayed a bit longer to make sure we could have captured more cities during the first two turns, but oh well. We have captured Tsetserleg and can get a tech for peace, that's a nice gain!

Too bad this leader cannot rush the great library. Okay, in fact I like this change. Because of the FP bug, I'd vote to form an army with him, especially because they are so powerful now. I don't know our exact unit situation, but maybe with a 2-move sword blitz fast-healing army, the war could be prolonged a bit to see if the Mongols will be gassed soon and we could capture Hovd and the cities in our territory? If not, at least get one victory in and don't fill the army now.

I'm all for revolting into republic after the war, not monarchy or feudalism. Short pointy-stick research wars can be fought in republic quite easily; for example we should think about throwing England out of our continent before committing ourselves to a major infra push. Especially their spice city would be a major boon to us.

Looking forward to the rest of your turn, Skyfish!

-Kylearan

[Griselda]

Although I haven't tried it myself, it seems like the FP would at best be no better, and at worst be a disadvantage to us. So, I'd prefer just about any choice to a FP personally (although part of me is curious to see just how bad it is).

It's a shame that the people who review Conquests don't care about the details of the program. Conquests has a lot more "stuff" than PTW, yes, but PTW was much more playable out of the box. Yet, Conquests gets great reviews, and PTW didn't. I do think I'll enjoy Conquests a lot with the right patch, but trying to avoid all FP building and gpt deals is just too painful at the moment. </rant>

As far as the war goes, it's always hard for me to say without looking at the save. Just do your best, and we'll work with whatever happens.

-Griselda