HNDY05b AWS as the Sumerians

Always War Sid C3C 1.22 As the Sumerians [ Concurrent with HNDY05a, an AWS game as the Mayan Fighting Farmers. ]


Sumerian Special Forces Amphibious Assault Team Member.

Another chapter in a series of Always War tiny continent maps by the Grumpy Old Men of War Always Sid. War Always Did you mean Always War? Err, no, ugh, I meant to do it that way. GOMOWAS
HNDY04-AWD|HNDY03-AWDG|HNDY02-AWE


C3C 1.22 Patch
Level: Sid
Variant: Always War
Civilization: Sumeria
Continents: 70% Water
Size: Tiny
Age: 5 Billion
Temperature: Temperate
Climate: Normal
Barbarians: Sedentary (We can use the cash)
Rivals: 3 Randomly Selected
AI Aggression: Normal
Victory Condition: All are enabled. We could lose to a UN vote [if we get that far ] We’ll take a win any way we can get it, but conquest or domination are preferred.
Culturally linked starts: Off
Respawn: Off
Preserve Random Seed: On
Cultural Conversion: On
Patch: 1.22 C3C

Roster
Handy [Out until 8-1-04]
T_McC
Greebley [Out 7/24 to 8/7]
Barbslinger
Yom


Lucky candle to light the way.


Always War Boilerplate as we play it
You may only trade when you first meet a civilization, and must declare war on the same turn after trading is complete. If you see a new AI unit, you must make contact & declare war that turn. Absolutely no turn based trade (such as GPT) allowed. If you see a new face on F4, you are obligated to declare war that turn (after trading). Players must declare war if they are exploring and see AI units, but are not required to actually attack the units they come in contact with. No peace treaties, ever. You may check F4 as often as you like to spy on the AI's tech, resources, luxuries & city count. We are not allowed to build embassies .

Discuss any move that seems exploitive before doing it with the team. Although there are not too many exploits available in AW, we’ll follow the forbidden blatant exploits banned by GOTM and RBCiv such as no "Free Wealth". Other normal game exploits such as "Baiting the AI" with an empty city to create a kill zone are an AW tradition and are allowed. Also, you ARE allowed to initially keep a city, move a settler to the same spot as the city, and then abandon and immediately resettle. This is considered an exploit in RBCiv rules, but is okay in our AW games. In addition if you need to build a city one square deeper into enemy territory just to move borders to steal a resource, go for it. We may keep or raze cities, and can keep slaves. You may whip at will, including captured cities or cities where all citizens are unhappy.

SG Stuff
You have 24 hours for an "I got it" and 72 to play. If you need a one day extension, then mention this before the 72 hours are up. Players can work out skips between themselves, just post a message to the thread. If you can't play within 72 total, switch places or ask for a skip. We will play 10 turns at first, and possibly fewer later (5) if the turns begin to take too long.

Roster
Handy
T_McC <- UP
Greebley [Out 7/24 to 8/7]
Barbslinger
Yom [Out until ??]

The turn log to 2550bc is in the planning thread. If the zipped save here does not work, grab Greebley's save in the planning thread.

OK, Got it!

I'll take this one and Slinger can pick up HNDY05a.

We'll run this way:

T_McC
Barbslinger
Yom
Handy [skip until 8/1, at least]
Greebley [skip until 8/7]

HNDY05b - Swingin' Sumerians

2550 BC (0)
We are in a GA, researching Masonry at break-even. We have 2 cities. No imminent danger from the Russian Archers. I can see 4 Russian cities, so I'm guessing that there isn't much south of Moscow. Would be nice to sneak another city of our own in here.

We'll see if an Elite Enkidu can pillage in peace.

IT - Elite Enkidu gets attacked, wins with 3 HP. Six Russian Spears converge on St. Petes. I don't think that is a winnable battle.

2510 BC (1)
We do pillage a tile, but will have to retreat next turn if we're not killed. That was more a defiant gesture than any great strategic thought.

Ur completes Archer, goes to worker. Move a couple of EW's into position to bait attacks from the Russian Archers.

IT - Lose pillaging EW, but win three other battles. Nets us a new Elite EW.

2470 BC (2)
Ur completes worker, goes to EW. Healing EW in the East starts to explore.

IT - Mayans complete Pyramids.

2430 BC (3)
Ur: EW --> Settler.

Have to slow research on Masonry.

2390 BC (4)
Swap Ur to Archer, the settler can wait. The Russian Spears are chasing our Elite EW, who is now fortified on a Hill in neutral territory. We can move 3 Archers + 2 EW's to cover next to St. Pete next turn.

IT - Zulu complete Oracle

2350 BC (5)
Move stack next to St. Pete. Ur continues with another Archer. We need one for defensive bombard.

IT - Russian Archers move to the single combination of squares that would prevent Ur from growing this turn.

2310 BC (6)
Assault on St. Pete: We lose with 2 Archers, but win with 2 Enkidu and capture the city. We now have as many cities visible as the Russians.

Feeling lucky, I attack a Russian Archer with the Elite Enkidu. Win but no leader.

2270 BC (7)
Win on IT vs. Russian Archer. St. Pete may be in trouble on the IT. We have two Enkidu defending with a single Archer cover. Three Russian Archers will attack.

IT - We win two battles and have another Elite Enkidu.

2230 BC (8)
Masonry comes in and I pick Iron Working. We're on a roll, lets get swords and really step on Cathy!

The GA ends so we may have some consolidation to do.

2190 BC (9)
GA ends, and we'll be fighting with Archers for a while still.

2150 BC (10)
The GA ending means no settler these turns, but next leader gets to plant another city and make us Army-eligible. Then he has to get us an MGL.

Another Russian Archer suicides against St. Petersburg.

Picture in next post. Kill ratio was only 12-3, but the Russians are starting to get spread out. I really want to get a pillager down in sight of Moscow, maybe we can get Cathy to keep whipping her capital and stop her from building many settlers.

Picture of our lands. Cathy has one city that isn't visible, but she still only has as many cities as she started with.

South of St. Pete is a lake, so don't be surprised to see Russian troops coming from that way.

The blue dot is where I was thinking about placing the next city. The intent is to be a death-trap for Russian Archers, forcing them to attack across a river onto a Hill against a city that should be able to erect Walls fairly quickly. The red dots would then be rear-line locations that wouldn't have to be defended very heavily. We need a lux, and we need more Workers.

The two units in blue circles can converge on blue dot for the founding. The settler can also take an Archer and an Enkidu from the Ur area with it. Three EW's and an Archer should get that city founded safely.

It would really be nice to be able to plant EW's on the Hill and Mountain N of Moscow. A few more victories and we may have a couple of spare Elites to put there.

Next leader can consider whipping the Walls when St. Pete grows in 3. 50/50 you kill the Russian citizen.

Might be hard to pop a leader on defense, but our Archers seem to be dieing faster than they can promote. Keep burning Russian units, and maybe try to get close enough to cities so the AI keeps whipping them down to size 1 or 2 and can't build settlers.

In case it is not apparent:

Slinger is up!

OK! Let's give this one a shot. I don't see Moscow mentioned in your summary but I'm guessing SW. Sure would love to get rid of Cathy once and for all.

Moscow is S of Novograd, on the eastern shore of that lake. Look at Greebley's log in the previous thread, you can see it there.

Best guess for where the 4th Russian city is: Right around the eastern ruins.

Take 1 away they build 2!

HNDY05b – 2550bc

Preturn – 3 archers, 8 enkidus rates us average vs. Russia. That’s a good sign. St. Petes group is thinking of moving on Novrogod in a few turns.
IT – Rax> Archer in Sumer. We kill an archer and go elite in St. Petes
[1] 2110 – Hold for this turn hoping they attack. Workers move to mine between Sumer and Ur.
[2] 2070 – Another archer dies and we pop a settler. Kill the last archer there and start moving with 3 Enki’s and 2 archers. A Russian scout is in the north.
[3] 2030 – Zulu finish colossus. Kill the scout but need a taxman in Sumer now. Russians have founded 2 new cities!
[4] 1990 – Rush the walls. Settler is in place on the hill. Ur-Enki>Archer. St. Pete’s gets a taxman after pop rush. And it killed our pop. Uhg! Adjust sliders because I would rather grow but it kills our research.
[5] 1950 – St. Petes-Walls>Rax. 2 archers heading for St. Pete’s.Those towns are pop 2 already! Attack next turn.
[6] 1910 - We destroy Novrogod at the cost of an archer and Enki. Collect 2 slaves. Hope the walls hold at St. Petes
[7] 1870 – Fortify in forest with assault crew to heal and hopefully deflect some of the attack towards St. P.
[8] 1830 –They are pop 3 now.
[9] 1790 – Win twice at St. P. No Promo. Sumer-Archer>Enki. Pulling back healed troops. 3 Enkis in St. P’s now.
[10] 1750 – Retreating a bit to collect some archers for next attack.

St. Petes will be unhappy until it grows due to the walls pop rush. They have some archers moving in so a round of defense is probably on tap. I’m wondering if the rax builds are good, they take so long and we have to get on the attack. Those shields may be better for 2 archers.

Disagree. We should be building Rax since they last the whole game. By the time you build 3-4 vet troops (even 20-shield units) I have to figure the Rax pays for itself.

If we're still just 1 city behind the Russians we're doing terrific. Establishing a defensive front and planting a couple of more cities behind us may be the way to go for now, although we're having a lot of success with burning Cathy's cities. If she can't keep her 1st ring cities alive, we should be able to hang with her in production/research until we can get some better units out in the field.

From what I saw she'll be putting out cities faster than we can burn them. And they grow fast too. Well, let's keep chugging along.

Ok, Yom is up in this one.

Handy isn't back until Sunday at least, so we can afford a leisurely pace for a short while.

I'll have a picture and a ramble later.

Well, the first problem is that Lagash is founded on the wrong spot. It was supposed to go on the tile 1S, to be on the river to get an additional defensive bonus and an extra food since we're Agricultural.

Cathy has 5 cities, we have 4. St. Pete should be more useful soon. I think it's also living down a whip Cathy gave it. That has to expire soon.

We're fine with unit support, but can always use more workers. Can we afford a n 8-10 turn period where Ur builds a Granary? I think it can easily do the 7-5 4-turn settler trick, but I'm afraid we don't have enough production to allow it that break.

Not sure where to place the next settler. Picture has a few suggestions. I'm not sure that we are strong enough to found on that Hill S. of St. Pete, but it sure would get Cathy's attention. I also think we need to secure a lux before reaching out into our 2nd ring to plant targets.

Maybe after Iron Working we head for Math?

Just get us a leader and all will be well in the world.

So ... uhhh ... anyone seen Yom?

I can play later this evening if Yom has not yet turned up. Too many chores to catch up on to play now.

I need a break after SGOTM3, but I'll play it tonight for sure. If Yom gets here first that's fine, I play after him. Otherwise I'll pick it up this evening (Sunday night).

I got it (10 char.).

Yom said:

I got it (10 char.).

Click to expand...

Good Luck. I'll pick it up next.

Turn 0 - A quick overview of our lands shows that we are in good shape defensively. We are also only down the Wheel, IW, and CB.

IBT - another warrior approaches St. Petersburg.
Ur:Settler->Archer
Chichen Itza completes the Temple of Artemis.

Turn 1 - I send the settler to the relatively safe dye spot for now.

IBT - Our elite enkidu fights off an archer. A settler pair comes out of the fog West of St. Petersburg as well as another archer southeast of St. Pete's

Turn 2 - A vet enkidu fights an archer on offense and becomes elite, freeing up our 2 archers to go take care of the settler pair.

IBT - Damn, the settler pair moved onto the hill I didn't want them to go to. They'll be sure to settle and get a defensive bonus.
Sumer:Enkidu->Archer

Turn 3 - The idea of a leader is too tempting for me and I use our elite enkidus on offense to attack archers, but we get no leader. That's the last offensive attack I'll make with them for some time.

IBT - Sure enough the pair settles.
Ur:Archer->Enkidu.

Turn 4 - Kish founded by the Dyes.

IBT - An archer shows up south of our attack party.

Turn 5 - I'm leaving Smolensk alone because of its hill, but I'm going to head for the Russian Heartland. Our elite enkidu defeats a regular archer, but no leader. Perhaps I'm pressing my luck too much, but I really want a pillaging enkidu army.

IBT - Ur:Enkidu->Settler (to settle the hill S. of St. Pete's).

Turn 6 - I turn on emphasize production.

IBT - 2 Archers show up south of our raiding party.

Turn 7 - WTH? Despite emphasize production being on, the stupid governor picks a grassland tile over a plain one!
Our veteran archer loses to another veteran archer! Our other archer wins, -1hp and becoming elite in the process. I take a gamble and attack the 1/3 archer with an 3/5 enkidu and win, -2 hp, getting us the leader I was waiting for!

IBT - Unfortunately, there was more than just a spearman in Yaroslavl' and the Elite enkidu is slayed by a regular archer.

Turn 8 - An army is created in St. Pete's. Our elite archer flawlessly slays an archer but no leader. With the objective of getting an army now accomplished, the now elite archer/enkidu pair will head back to help defend the town that will be built S. of St. petersburg. I load the army with 2 vet enkidu warriors for now, to allow us to get more leaders from our 3 remaining elite enkidus.
Our veteran archer flawlessly kills another archer.

IBT - IW comes in, set research to alphabet (in 12). We may want to build the library
Sumer:Archer->Enkidu

Turn 9 - I move some archers toward the front to help in the defense of our new city. St. Pete's oppression wore off last turn, but it needs 2 units in the city to keep its one citizen happy, so it's on scientist duty for now.

IBT - Ur:Settler->Granary
Copan completes The Hanging Gardens...we really need TGL if we can get it.

Turn 10 - We're low on money, so I swap the scientist in St. Pete's to a taxman. Wow. Looks like russia wants to start expanding badly as I find an archer defending 2 settlers a bit SE of the hill.

Our best bet for TGL would probably be either Sumer or Lagash. Sumer is better equiped for it atm, but we get the advantage of not losing troop production if we build it at Lagash. I didn't notice it until now, but russia just founded a city way out east by Yakutsk, so they might have boats. The only Iron in our site, is just outside of Moscow, so we need to get that army to the front Asap and pillage Russia to the stone-age (if they aren't there already. Also, we can use the army to get 4 slaves if that russian archer doesn't move too far away from the army. Either way, I would chase it down to keep russia producing settlers (slaves) for us and not troops. Alphabet is due in 9 at 0 gpt.

Yom! You got the lucky break we were all hoping for. I think we need to load that army with another vet Enkidu when the opportunity presents itself.