RBC13E -Middle Ages- Delirious Danes (Deity)

Hm, why isn't this RBC13D

!



Ok, fellow Vikings, let’s aquire a few Relics, sell them on the Bazaar down in Jerusalem, and visit a few more interesting places for the missing VPs

What we have:
We start with 6 Berserks, 2 Swordsman and 3 Longships (all regular). 3 of the ‘zerks are already far away from home in Nantes. We have 5 cities; Hedeby (capitol) and Ribe have a decent production, Lund some growth potential, Lejre is mediocre, and Nantes pretty useless for itself (but a good forward base). We have a Harbor, Market, Temple and Barracks in Hedeby; nothing in all other towns.



What we don’t have:
Everything else. We have no resources at all, only 2 city spots we’re likely to get (one in Jutland, and a prime site at RL Berlin), and especially no time. With the Deity bonus, most AI cities will churn out a Spear every other turn; luckily, they should be busy with initial REXing until all of Siberia is settled. We can build more Berserks right from the start, but at 70sp, even our capital needs 12 turns, tough this will improve after border expansion (and because of the GA). We won’t be able to build more Longships before turn 40.


Now, where are we going to find those Relics?
The German, English and Frankish Relic starts in their respective capitals – Paris, Regensburg and Chippenham (at the Western coast, not London!) - , the Burgundian Shroud of Turin in Rome. That rules out the Burgundians as early target. Only Chippenham is coastal – looks like we should throw all we have against the English first . Unfortunately, this city starts with 4 defenders (+ the Queen), and England has 2 Galleys, so they could visit us as well...and they start with Iron connected. Nevertheless, I vote for attacking them ASAP. This will of course trigger our GA around turn 3.

Who’s next?
A more difficult question. The difference is, we need to capture those cities; if they’re autorazed, the spots would be resettled in no time by Poland or Burgundy – the main reason why we shouldn’t start with Germany or France, but wait until Bremen or Boulogne are at size 2.
Germans:
Pro’s:

• Our direct neighbors. Their Northern cities (Bremen, Hildesheim, Naumburg) will be core cities for us.
• They’re weaker than the Franks in the beginning.
• Crippling/ eliminating them would make our core pretty safe.
• We could get a landbridge down to Venice/ Rome

Con’s:

• Regensburg is quite far away, as well as their Iron and Wines.
• Aside from Bremen, this will be an exclusively land-locked war.
• Their cities aren’t that great, pretty crowded (though we most likely will destroy Straßburg by killing their last king).
• It’s my country, and Würzburg is even my hometown.

Franks:
Pro’s:

• Nantes is an excellent base for a two-pronged attack towards their core.
• Paris is close to the coast.
• Their 2 Iron need border expansions, so they won’t have additional Swords.
• Paris is one of the best cities on the map, and their lands in general are superb; if we’re extremely lucky and get 2 Leaders, we should consider a Palace jump. If we need more room, we could extent our territory for any Celtic settlings there without risk.
• We could seriously cripple them, but avoid attacking Bordeaux, so they will survive (better a weak Frankish neighbor than room for a strong Burgundy). If they threaten us, some Berserks could take them out at any time, since Bourdeaux is coastal.

Con’s:

• They start already strong, 6 Swords, 8 Spears, and a few Warriors.
• Our empire will be divided into 2 halfes.
• Some cities (especially Ghent) are under heavy cultural pressure from the Burgundians.
• If they manage to ally with the Germans, we have a problem.

Pretty tough decision, if you ask me. I for one would wait if we really manage to seize the English Relic; if that fails, we should pick the Franks by all means, since it’s more likely to get theirs. So IMHO, start with England, and let’s discuss again. In general, I lean towards France.
Once we have the Relic(s), we should get a Settler down to Cyprus ASAP, and build a base for the assault on Jerusalem. No good idea to land with the Relic-Carriers, and fail to take the city...

(Split because of too many tags)

Our meager Lands:






Resǿrch:

We will put a lone Scientist at work, preferably in Nantes, to find out (again) how to builds those cool Drakens. This would take 40 turns even at 100% Science. After that, someone will try to figure out how to build Blacksmiths, and maybe even how to write the sagas about our heroic battles, still at a 40 turn per tech rate. The funny thing is, we nevertheless will be first for at least 2 techs, so we have a slight chance for a SGL!

Wonders:
Forget them. They are great, but come far too late for us –that is, for our research capability.

Extra style points:
Since our success mainly depends on the initial Berserks and Longships, they deserve to get individual names – I love those Viking nicknames, ‘Knut the Quarrelsome’ .
On the way to the Holy lands, we should try to grabb the Burgundian Relic as well, just for the score.

Roster:
Aggie - 2 Relics seized
6thGenTexan - Army formed
Doc Tsiolkovski - up!

Skyfish ?


No save, whoever starts it, just load the Conquest, make sure to set Aggression level to normal (though this doesn't really matter, most Civs here are at 5 anyway), and please, use the default colors!

I have no problem with starting this one. But I have to read up quite a bit. Thanks for all the info so far Doc!

I'll be looking at the game today to get some first impressions to add.

I have looked at the starting positions of all our emenies (well, the ones closest to us) and we clearly have the advantage NOW. That indeed means an early GA and I love the sound of taking over the English island as a first step.

Our unit is by far the strongest for a long time. And it is amphibious on top of that.

We need good land (like England) and need to expand. After that we need a lot of berzerks and longboats and be the terror of the sea.

Sounds like fun

I agree that we need to strike hard and fast. I have not looked a the english land, just what I've seen in our start and some other treads. That bordering German city would be a great place to start. Posibly pick off Britanny while we hae north from Nantes. We can see if there are any other choice coastal towns to take.

I don't have many ideas on initial builds but Lund should start with a settler to keep the Swedes from all that land.

Research on our tree should stop at Smithing if we have no plans to build a wonder. By the way, where is our iron, in England?

England has iron for sure. I think we can easily conquer England in almost no time at all. So I still vote for going after England first. That can be done with our six berzerks.

But then. The English land will be totally empty except for one or two cities. Do we bother? Or are we going after the Germans next to increase our core?

Also: how can we move a relic? Can it go in a longsip? I have never played a scenario with a relic before!

Errr...vigorous veto . We will never be able to build Harbors! England is essentially useless for us; everything we want is their relic.
Note it's about the best strategy for Norway to capture all of England, and jump the Palace - but our brothers have a really ugly start.

Aggie, the Relic is a "Princess", if a unit is on the same tile, a 'seize relic' button shows up; you can grab it, and the name of the unit is in red now.

Re: Our Iron - either near Regensburg, or near Chartres

Re: Settling Sweden? Me thinks we should get those 2 sites nearby, and after that, we cannot afford to make more Settlers during the GA. And Lund has no harbor as well...

Re: Initial builds - Lund on Settler (Granary?), Hedeby on Berserk, Nantes on Spear/Archer/Warrior, Lejre and Ribe on Barracks.

Re: Research - we want our complete tree, the last tech gives a fantastic small wonder (Heroic + Magellan's). Maybe we could get some generic techs with the pointy stick (or sharp blade), but out of those, only CoL will be useful.

A really important point: After the first turns, the Relics can travel everywhere! We must seize them ASAP - we should reach the Grail in time, and the Frankish/ German one will either still be in their capital, or carried by a unit we slay anyway. But there's no such thing as 'Let's attack some coastal cities for fun!' in the opening game (Celts???), we need to go for the Catholic capitals.


Btw, if we launch the attack on Chippenham, we should board one of our Kings as well; don't raze the city, move the Longboat with the King in, and let him take the Relic (I expect at least 5 defenders, and we have only 6 'zerks). Then, gift Chippenham to some else, and get a lift for the Berserk that took it.

Wow, you played this one (or other relic games) before? I think we all agree on Chippenham. So after that we have to try getting the other relics and before long travel to Jerusalem with a lot of berzerks?

By the way: of course it's not the idea to attack ' for fun', but rather for vitory points. Bt we could do that later as well I guess...

Note that I want to start this one up. I like to play within 6 hours, but if I haven't seen more consensus I will wait until tomorrow morning CET.

Until now I am all for:
-min science in the Viking tech tree
-capturing the Relic of the English
-give away the city having the relic to the Celts(?) and travel back to our core this way
-follow the build path Doc T suggests
-undecided: try to get the next relic (Franks) or enlarge our emprie and capture a few German cities.

By the way: my victory status screen is all messed up and almost unreadable. Am I the only one?

Hmmm, I hoped for a debate. But I start playing now.

I sorry all, but don't expect a nice write up from me. I have about 5 games at the same time, which is fine. But not for the write ups
I have the build order as Doc T suggested. The berserks and a king are sent to the English capital. I have Nantes on a lone scientist and lxury at 20%.

Turn 1 (846 AD) We sail to England.

Turn 2 (849 AD) The ship from Nantes aleady has arrived on the spot.

Turn 3 (852 AD) We honorably declare war on the English.

-A regular berserk is redlined vs a spear, but:



-The berserk promotes to veteran. Next unit is a sowrdsman in an army. We lose one hitpoint, but that army is gone Again our berserk promotes.
-Again a berserk redlines vs a sword this time, but it promotes and:



-A berserk first has to kill an English queen, but then we capture Chippenham We are also proud owner of two slaves.

One of the berserks seizes the Holy Grail in Chipenham . We then give Chippenham to the Celts.

The GA allows us to have 0% luxury.

Turn 4 (855 AD) I decide to prepare the troops for an invasion of the Franks.

Turn 5 (858 AD) Longboats sail south.

IT: Ribe, Lejre: barracks->berserks.

Turn 6 (861 AD) I declare war on France. Two vet berserks kill spears (one promotes) and we take Boulogne. I make peace with with England for 5 gold.

Turn 7 (864 AD) Troop smove towards Paris.

IT: Hdeby: berserk->berserk.

Turn 8 (867 AD) Three berserks kill two spears and a sword. We see the relic now, but I wait one turn so that I have troops ready to seize it.

Turn 9 (870 AD) Two berserks are needed to kill the new spear and a queen. But I forgot that I had to cross the river to enter Paris, so the relic isn't ours yet.

Ribe grew to size 2, requiring lux at 10%.

IT: A Franish sword and two spear are no match for our berserks.

Turn 10 (873 AD) I oversaw Lund which riots now. I hire a scientist there and fire the one in Nantes. We seize the relic in Paris.

The berserk which seized the relic is now just north of Paris.

873 AD save

Now that's what I call "focus"... grabbing the relic from England then sailing away from their shores and laying down the smack on Paris for a second!

I didn't think non-coastal Paris would be so easy. I shall have to tell the Swedes this

Charis

Holy Cow!!!! Two relics on the first turn. What is next, pushing the Germans south from Hedeby or securing some more French towns?

My idea is to get about 15 berserks and then sail to Jerusalem with a relic. Getting the last relic sounds like a good idea as well though.

I haven't played a scenario -except for the Fall of Rome- yet, so I don't know if bringing a relic (or two) to Jerusalem is enough for victory.

Excellent plan, Aggie! Elaborated in the last details, too.

"Get about 15 or so Berserks and sail them to Jerusalem." That's the spirit we need

Seriously, well played.
I was hoping for some more discussion as well, but since we seemed to agree in every single point, I didn't answer to your posts agian so far.

Now, we have one problem: We have only transport capacity for 12 units, and by the time we'll reach the Holy Lands, those are most likely not enough (the Abbas start with some Ansars, and Jerusalem will have 8+ Spears for sure). So, keep beating on the French, we want some more cities (Ghent, Orleans, Angers), each of them has a resource - Horses (useless, but tradable), Iron, Wines.
Settle near our core.
Wait for more Longships before our main forces board, but get a Settler down to Cyprus/another island to build a forward base.
We could try to grab the Burgundian Relic as well then, but IMHO Germany is a bit too risky for now - until you tell me we've taken those 3 French cities within 2 more turns , and extorted HBR.

We should have won this, and if we'd start with one more Boat, I wouldn't expect to get my turns. The only way to still loose this is to loose the Relics during the assault on Jerusalem; that's why I insist on that mediterranean base.

@Aggie: Each Relic is worth 10k VPs at the very moment the unit carrying it is on the VP location; we need a total of 30k, but the missing ~8000 should be easily aquired the way, by visiting some more towns.

Over to 6thGen!

is it still to late to join?

Note: If i join, I will be on vaction this Sunday without a comp :/

Captain: So far, Skyfish hasn't checked in - if he doesn't show up until Monday, wellcome aboard!

More than 4 players would be nonsense, this game won't see more than ~60 turns I guess.

Swap Nantes to barrack. It might as well produce vet spears. Scientist moves to Paris. Joan will give Ampurias and Bordeaux for peace. We want Ghent, Orleans(capital) and Angers. I do not have a French map handy but I'll press on Joan some more to find the iron at Chartres?.
END TURN

IBT Kill 4 warriors and a sword attacking Paris getting a promotion to elite. Boulogne resistance ends.

876AD-1 Lund setter-->settler 4hp elite defeats spear in Ghent and captures 2 slaves. Already loosing 2 squares to the Burgundian, I raze the city. Change Boulogne to Barrack for vets. Same with Paris & to help heal our berserks. Kill an archer aproaching Paris.

879AD-2 Slaves begin to work at Boulogne. Hedeby's berserk is 1s away from being 1 turn. MM for growth and income for the 2 turns. Add Lyon to the list Joan will give up for Peace. She is holding onto Angers. Home to a King?

882AD-3 Vorbasse founded NW of Lund by fish. Kill a sword approaching Paris and Harold Bluetooth arrives to form an Army. Kill an archer outside Orleans and promote to Vet.

IBT An archer kills my 3hp elite berserk at Orleans.

885AD-4 Use 64 of our gold for the Barrack in Nantes, 68 for the barrack in Vorbasse and 40 for the barrack in Boulogne.

888AD-5 Barracks start on spears. Heal before attack in Orleans again.

891AD-6 Resistance in Paris ends so I spend 48g on the barrack. Kill 2 spears in Orleans with no losses.

IBT Paris riots. :crazyeyes:

894AD-7 Paris barrack-->spear. Kill an archer near Paris to promove to Elite. 2-Elite army loses 5hp to a reg spear in Orleans so he take out a 2hp archer heading back to Paris to heal. England has HBR now. After Joan our army needs to pay Elizabeth another visit.

997AD-8 Ribe berserk->berserk Lund setter-->temple (Can be changed to another settler for our Medeteranian outpost.) Kill another archer between Paris and Orleans. Settler arrives NE of Ribe. Another town south of Hedeby would be 2 squares away between the cow and horse because of German settlements.

900AD-9 Lajure and Hadeby complete berserks and start more. Kill a pair of spears in Orleans. Germany has picked up HBR.

903AD-10 Kill a sword and a spear in Orleans. We are down to archers now, at least 3. Watch out for the happines in Boulogne and Paris as troops pass through. The berserks in Boulogne just got off the boat and another is due to arrive next turn. The scientist in Hedeby is not affecting production times. The settler has not settled. I'm not sure where to plant him, for most area or tighter build.

The barracks in France are to provide for their own defense when we pull out our beserks. We are 20 turns from building boats and our homeland will not be building anything else but those and more berserks.

Is there a way for our "relic guards" to drop their items? I did not see an "advanced action button" when they were hilighted. The two swords could pick them up and free up 2 more berserks for the upcoming battle.

I was not able to do much to advance our cause. The Diety production kicked in and France is producing as many units I can kill in a turn. That will change now that reinforcements have arrived. Sky or Doc will get to hammer France.

VP's Our 1345 to Germany's 60. No one else is fighting or we only see victory information for the civs we have contact with.



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