Well, okay, not evil. Merely misunderstood.
Game rules:
* This is an OPEN game. Anyone can join in; first person to say "got it" after a turn log has been posted may then play 10 turns of the game. If no one posts "got it" within 48 hours of the last player, I will take the turns.
* Because this is an open game, feel free to pick it up, but PLEASE- try to be descriptive of what happens on your turns, as well as your general strategies.
* All LK rules are in effect- no RoP rape, no Palace jumping, etc.
Notes on the game:
We are Militaristic and Religious. Our unique unit is the Knight (5/3/2), available with Feudalism.
Forests produce an extra food, making them the equivalent of mined grassland. Please do not chop down forests without very good reason.
Norse Tradition, Byzantine Ingenuity, Western Church, and Arab Learning are all culture-specific techs: they can be researched and stolen, but not traded. We will get Western Church automatically once we have entered the 2nd Age.
Swords now upgrade to Crusaders (4/3/1). Longbows, Pikemen, and Swiss Mercs all have different stats, but we'll deal with that in the 3rd Age when they show up. Read the Civilopedia!
We start with 5 workers, 5 warriors, 4 swordsmen, 2 galleys, 3 kings, a treasure, and... an army!
Strategy Thoughts:
Tech: We should research Norse Tradition first; that will allow us to get Smithing and build Blacksmiths (+50% production) soon. HBR is easily traded for, or possibly extorted: see below.
Enemies: Obviously, first and foremost are the Celts. They occupy our God-given lands and should be driven out- the cities in Wales and Cornwall will be nice, productive additions to our Kingdom. Scotland and Ireland are less so, and we may wish to let those towns grow until they are big enough that conquering them are actually worth substantial victory points. Scotland should be saved for last lest we destroy all of the cities we'd like to conquer (As their capital will have a King in it, the only one after Wales is conquered). Of course, we should also work to keep the Celts from getting any Iron, which will make their cities much easier to conquer. To that end, I plan on declaring war on the Celts and taking over Wales as soon as they get their Iron hooked up.
Second come the Vikings- Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Norway has a few cities nearby: Dublin in Ireland and Orkney in Scotland. The Danes have a nice city near Brittany as well. However, we need to be very careful in this war- we can't defend against their Beserks, and should only go to war with one of them when we can launch a quick and devestating attack and get to peace before a counter-attack, otherwise we'll be re-building all of our cities. Check out the Viking threads and see how many of those teams are talking about pounding England, and you'll understand our need to keep things quiet for at least a while.
Finally, there is France. Historically, England took over a great deal of the territory that we now consider France, and I don't see why we shouldn't follow that path. We have galleys, and they don't, so we can send a lot of units over to fight in their country and expect little in terms of direct counter-attack. However, we should probably take care of the Celts first, as they are weaker, and we don't want to risk losing the game to a few bad early rolls.
Military: We have two big advantages here. First, we have Galleys- no other non-Viking civ has those, and so we have more transport capacity than the Celts or France until Seamanship comes along... which is a long ways away. We must protect those at all costs, as we cannot replace them until we get Seamenship. I suggest sending one off to explore, and keeping the other at home for convoying purposes.
We also have an Army. I see no reason at all not to load it up with 3 swordsmen for
the Celts soon. Our Army will be our biggest advantage in the coming war, and in keeping our lands safe from Viking raiders.
I suggest we leave our Warriors in towns as MP; while they could upgrade to Swordsmen, that's pretty expensive (60 gold per), and we don't really need spearmen on the defense: once we have the Celts bottled up, the only offensive unit we'll likely see will be Beserks with strength 6, so a defense of 1 compared to 2 doesn't really do much for us.
Expansion This is our big weakness. There's space for a city south of York, and on the semi-island in the south. (Anyone with a good map of England, or whom is actually from there, feel free to suggest new names for cities.) There's space for a city in Ireland, but we shouldn't settle it until we're ready to fully invade.
Other than that, there isn't much that others won't get to first- there's no point in rushing to Scotland when the Celts will still be a bottleneck between our cities, and mainland sites will likely be gobbled up by the Franks. So we will likely only be building 1 or 2 cities early on.
Growth No aqueducts, remember, until we bother to research Byzantine Ingenuity and get Lost Roman Secrets, or Arab Learning and get Medicine. That's something we may do later. But not now. So plan for cities of size 6 except for London, Bamburgh, and whatever city gets built south of York.
Wonders Going for the HRE is a standard plan because it's very smart. Having the HRE gives us 2 free techs, which will give the owner Feudalism before anyone else, which means Knights-a-go-go. Hopefully, we can get Smithing before Castle Building comes around, and get a big production bonus for fast construction. But chances are, we can't. Chippenham is our best city for Wonder building until Cornwall is captured and brought up to speed. Once anyone starts on Castle Building, we should switch Chippenham over to a Palace as a pre-build.
Economy Economies suck in this scenario. We'll be lucky to have research and keep upkeep costs. Don't be afraid to switch towns to Wealth- it may seem wasteful, but this early we don't have a lot of build choices, and having money coming out of a city is better than things that do us little good but add to our upkeep. By that token, I suggest no Granaries in any city other than London and Bamburgh- with a 6 pop limit and no real pressing need for Settlers, there's little good for them, and the 1 g maintenance will hurt.
Any questions? With that, I shall declare "got it", and start my 10 turns.
Game rules:
* This is an OPEN game. Anyone can join in; first person to say "got it" after a turn log has been posted may then play 10 turns of the game. If no one posts "got it" within 48 hours of the last player, I will take the turns.
* Because this is an open game, feel free to pick it up, but PLEASE- try to be descriptive of what happens on your turns, as well as your general strategies.
* All LK rules are in effect- no RoP rape, no Palace jumping, etc.
Notes on the game:
We are Militaristic and Religious. Our unique unit is the Knight (5/3/2), available with Feudalism.
Forests produce an extra food, making them the equivalent of mined grassland. Please do not chop down forests without very good reason.
Norse Tradition, Byzantine Ingenuity, Western Church, and Arab Learning are all culture-specific techs: they can be researched and stolen, but not traded. We will get Western Church automatically once we have entered the 2nd Age.
Swords now upgrade to Crusaders (4/3/1). Longbows, Pikemen, and Swiss Mercs all have different stats, but we'll deal with that in the 3rd Age when they show up. Read the Civilopedia!
We start with 5 workers, 5 warriors, 4 swordsmen, 2 galleys, 3 kings, a treasure, and... an army!
Strategy Thoughts:
Tech: We should research Norse Tradition first; that will allow us to get Smithing and build Blacksmiths (+50% production) soon. HBR is easily traded for, or possibly extorted: see below.
Enemies: Obviously, first and foremost are the Celts. They occupy our God-given lands and should be driven out- the cities in Wales and Cornwall will be nice, productive additions to our Kingdom. Scotland and Ireland are less so, and we may wish to let those towns grow until they are big enough that conquering them are actually worth substantial victory points. Scotland should be saved for last lest we destroy all of the cities we'd like to conquer (As their capital will have a King in it, the only one after Wales is conquered). Of course, we should also work to keep the Celts from getting any Iron, which will make their cities much easier to conquer. To that end, I plan on declaring war on the Celts and taking over Wales as soon as they get their Iron hooked up.
Second come the Vikings- Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Norway has a few cities nearby: Dublin in Ireland and Orkney in Scotland. The Danes have a nice city near Brittany as well. However, we need to be very careful in this war- we can't defend against their Beserks, and should only go to war with one of them when we can launch a quick and devestating attack and get to peace before a counter-attack, otherwise we'll be re-building all of our cities. Check out the Viking threads and see how many of those teams are talking about pounding England, and you'll understand our need to keep things quiet for at least a while.
Finally, there is France. Historically, England took over a great deal of the territory that we now consider France, and I don't see why we shouldn't follow that path. We have galleys, and they don't, so we can send a lot of units over to fight in their country and expect little in terms of direct counter-attack. However, we should probably take care of the Celts first, as they are weaker, and we don't want to risk losing the game to a few bad early rolls.
Military: We have two big advantages here. First, we have Galleys- no other non-Viking civ has those, and so we have more transport capacity than the Celts or France until Seamanship comes along... which is a long ways away. We must protect those at all costs, as we cannot replace them until we get Seamenship. I suggest sending one off to explore, and keeping the other at home for convoying purposes.
We also have an Army. I see no reason at all not to load it up with 3 swordsmen for
the Celts soon. Our Army will be our biggest advantage in the coming war, and in keeping our lands safe from Viking raiders.I suggest we leave our Warriors in towns as MP; while they could upgrade to Swordsmen, that's pretty expensive (60 gold per), and we don't really need spearmen on the defense: once we have the Celts bottled up, the only offensive unit we'll likely see will be Beserks with strength 6, so a defense of 1 compared to 2 doesn't really do much for us.
Expansion This is our big weakness. There's space for a city south of York, and on the semi-island in the south. (Anyone with a good map of England, or whom is actually from there, feel free to suggest new names for cities.) There's space for a city in Ireland, but we shouldn't settle it until we're ready to fully invade.
Other than that, there isn't much that others won't get to first- there's no point in rushing to Scotland when the Celts will still be a bottleneck between our cities, and mainland sites will likely be gobbled up by the Franks. So we will likely only be building 1 or 2 cities early on.
Growth No aqueducts, remember, until we bother to research Byzantine Ingenuity and get Lost Roman Secrets, or Arab Learning and get Medicine. That's something we may do later. But not now. So plan for cities of size 6 except for London, Bamburgh, and whatever city gets built south of York.
Wonders Going for the HRE is a standard plan because it's very smart. Having the HRE gives us 2 free techs, which will give the owner Feudalism before anyone else, which means Knights-a-go-go. Hopefully, we can get Smithing before Castle Building comes around, and get a big production bonus for fast construction. But chances are, we can't. Chippenham is our best city for Wonder building until Cornwall is captured and brought up to speed. Once anyone starts on Castle Building, we should switch Chippenham over to a Palace as a pre-build.
Economy Economies suck in this scenario. We'll be lucky to have research and keep upkeep costs. Don't be afraid to switch towns to Wealth- it may seem wasteful, but this early we don't have a lot of build choices, and having money coming out of a city is better than things that do us little good but add to our upkeep. By that token, I suggest no Granaries in any city other than London and Bamburgh- with a 6 pop limit and no real pressing need for Settlers, there's little good for them, and the 1 g maintenance will hurt.
Any questions? With that, I shall declare "got it", and start my 10 turns.
