Preplay:
Well, it actually looks like Liz has researched Philo, as there is only 1 unfounded religion (attached to Divine Right).
We also have quite a lot of troops. I'm not really sure we need that many more to repulse attacks of Gallic Warrs, Axes, and catapults. Also not sure about the monument build in the new city. We should just get a missionary in there to pop the borders instead of wasting so many early hammers. It's almost done though so a granary is queued.
IT (193 - 295 AD)
I let all the current military builds finish. Do some micro to take advantage of the GA (work hammer + comm tiles at the expense of food). Again, we should have mined the riverside hill before non-riverside hills here:
I hem and haw about hiring scientists in Constant. We should be grooming it for a supreme bureau capital, but it's the only place with GPP invested
In the end I keep the eggheads, maybe we can bulb paper after picking up math in trade. Unfortunately the place where we need hammers to build the AP is now committed to running 2 scientists.
100% science with Theo in 4.
Turn 1 (194 - 310 AD)
I begin to form up a pillaging party. Bren has lots of nice cottages in his capital. I note that we haven't built a single spear, but can't see horses in Bren's land. Will queue up a spear next in Thessa. Nicea and Constantinople both finish military builds and get to work on lighthouses. We need growth!
Turn 3 (196 - 340 AD)
I whip Const so that the LH is done to start AP next turn. I think we're a bit fuzzy on what exactly our variant means (I don't remember anything about the AP?), but it seems to be the team decision to go for it.
Turn 4 (197 - 355 AD)
Theo is in:
It gives us some new trade possibilities, but I hold off to get at least a few turns of work on the AP
The pillaging party has reached cottage central and goes to work!
I turn research to 0% and set the target to
currency.
Turn 5 (198 - 370 AD)
Excitement! Bren attacks our pillaging party with some cats + axes. We trade off blows but are able to mop up during our turn. GG's are born on both sides and I immediately settle ours in Thessalonica for double-promo units. The best part though is that now his cities are defended by only an archer or two each! We should be able to raze Gergovia and perhaps Bibracte.
Our exploring warrior has also done all he can with closed borders to the English, so he is retired of his commission.
The First* Battle of Bibracte has also brought down the cost of bribing Shaka, so I make the following trade to keep him busy and for the +diplo, plus the cool sound effect:
Turn 6 (199 - 385 AD)
Our offensive stack moves out towards Gergovia! The axemen begin to play dice to see who has the great honor of being the first to throw themselves against the city. Good thing we don't know how to do math yet or they may realize what their chances for victory are!
Turn 7 (200 - 400 AD)
GE is over and we are at +9 gpt at 0% science. Not the greatest, but our pillage income is rolling in! Change around tiles worked to refocus a bit on food.
Turn 8 (201 - 415 AD)
The bigger they are the harder they fall?
Turn 9 (202 - 430 AD)
Or maybe not... Well this is an interesting development. We don't really have a counter to War Elephants (with only 1 spear in our entire army). Hopefully Bren will make peace after a city is razed.
Speaking of which...
Turn 10 (203 - 445 AD)
Being the brilliant tactician he is, Bren decides to attack (and die) with a lone catapult instead of his elephant. Our forces in his territory consolidate and should probably head back to our own lands and heal. Bren still refuses to talk so we can't even ask for peace.
Turn 11 (204 - 460 AD)
Bren must be reading this, as he brings in the big guns now with a couple elephants. Our forces are beating a quick retreat. Hopefully some will make it back, but with 1 city razed and several hundred pillaged gold I think the excursion was worth it.
Turn 12 (205 - 475 AD)
Our retreating army continues to be harassed, but no units are lost as a catapult and elephant both withdraw against axemen (was a lucky roll on the WE vs. Axe). Now we are onto a forested hill so we should be safe. Bren is also sporting horse archers now, so that was definitely a small window of opportunity that we had there. If we had attacked 10 turns later, even with more axes, we would be toast!
Turn 13 (206 - 490 AD)
Bren continues to throw spare units at our retreating stack, losing a horse archer and withdrawing another elephant. We are now back in our own territory, and with that I will end my set.
Closing Thoughts
AP Update--Still hiring two scientists, but with more food from the LH and pastured pigs we have grown enough to support them and still work the mines. I'm not sure if we'll get the AP. We still only share Theo with Liz, so if she hasn't decided to build it we should be able to.
I started a settler in Antioch (no more green tiles to work) and a galley in the newest city. It's on the wrong side to get to the Maoi site, but I'm curious about the island S of Zululand. If it turns out to be a dud we should just settle 1 SE of the cows to deny Shaka the spot. It will be a decent production site for ships + missionaries. We should also found our dye city pretty soon as we have workers clearing jungles far ahead of the time it takes for cities to grow into the tiles.
Shaka hasn't sent anything towards Bren, perhaps for the best. I would take peace as soon as we can, even if we need to give some techs.
Some tech trades are available (more would be if Washington was on speaking terms
):
If we do the Pericles trade first, we can probably get some cash from Hammy in addition to math. I held off in case the team wants to protect the AP, but I'm in favor of making the trades. With lit out so long I think GLib is probably a lost cause.
We have enough cash to run about 9-10 turns at 100%, which is more than enough for currency (5 turns) and even enough to just skip to CoL (7 turns). I think our next two big research targets should be CS and Calendar, not necessarily in that order. We have TONS of calendar resources--dyes all over the place plus a couple spices and an incense. I would put in a vote for making the trades above and researching CoL -> CS. We can probably trade for calendar with Theo or CoL if MoM goes soon or someone doesn't decide to build it. Liz & Shaka currently have it. We can also see that Bren is researching Feudalism in 29 turns (wonder why he is researching so slowly...)
The worker NW of Constantinople should go farm and connect the wheat for the health. I've also marked some irrigation for the new city, so avoid cottages there please. Keep an eye on growth as we are close to happy cap (over in Thessa, but it will continue to pump military for police).
Some overview shots:
Roster
Sirlion
Grandad1982
cripp7
Pindrus - Just Played
White Dragon - Up
narri
And the save:
an archer in Nicaea for 2pop.
+1
