2.0 grams - The Whip and Saddle (C3C)

[SpikeIt]

Quick update. I won't likely be able to post results until tomorrow night. Thunderstorms last night limited me to one turn. Forcast is similar for tonight. But just maybe I'll get lucky. I feel some newly upgraded cavs will be very helpful versus the Celts.

Oh, any thoughts on tech research beyond Military Tradition? I started on Navigation because we could use the ocean passage for our boats. Tech trading might be a bit difficult because we're ahead of pretty much everyone except the Koreans who have two techs at monopoly. I could probably trade them Military tradition for navigation if we desire. At this point it might be best to shut research off and poor our money into upgrades/rush buys. 2-fers on the trading front will likely hard to come by with no one keeping pace besides Korea.

 

[grahamiam]

Quick update. I won't likely be able to post results until tomorrow night. Thunderstorms last night limited me to one turn. Forcast is similar for tonight. But just maybe I'll get lucky. I feel some newly upgraded cavs will be very helpful versus the Celts.

no problem, thanks for keeping us informed. cav are always nice

Oh, any thoughts on tech research beyond Military Tradition? I started on Navigation because we could use the ocean passage for our boats. Tech trading might be a bit difficult because we're ahead of pretty much everyone except the Koreans who have two techs at monopoly. I could probably trade them Military tradition for navigation if we desire. At this point it might be best to shut research off and poor our money into upgrades/rush buys. 2-fers on the trading front will likely hard to come by with no one keeping pace besides Korea.

lets avoid the optional tech of Nav. I'd rather we research physic as we can get Mag quicker (with bigger galleons for our army) plus, we can touch everyone we need to with the GLight right now. and don't give anyone MT. let them figure it out themselves we're ahead wrt military tech, no need to give that up for an optional tech.

 

[SpikeIt]

lets avoid the optional tech of Nav. I'd rather we research physic as we can get Mag quicker (with bigger galleons for our army) plus, we can touch everyone we need to with the GLight right now. and don't give anyone MT. let them figure it out themselves we're ahead wrt military tech, no need to give that up for an optional tech.

Good points. Yeah, I wasn't keen on trading MT away for exactly that reason. I imagine Korea won't be far behind in researching it though. But hey, they are our ally (for) now anyway. Navigation being optional, oops --> kind of in line with my whole thought process last night anyway. I'm kind of glad I was limited to one turn as I was a bit brain dead. Before starting I MM'd a city to avoid riots, but managed to miss another 3 or 4 (thankfully small, inconsequential ones). Oops. Not the start I had in mind.

 

[grahamiam]

I'm just reposting the roster since i will be out of town tonight and tomorrow. good luck spikeit and gozpel!

Roster update:
scoutsout
grahamiam
barbslinger <- just played
spikeit <- UP
gozpel <- on deck

 

[scoutsout]

Just a quick note... if I should go incommunicado anytime soon, it's not because I'm quitting or anything. Unless something changes in the next 24 hours, there's about an 80% chance that I will experience the eye of a hurricane by this time tomorrow. With that comes a pretty good chance that I'll lose electricity, which might make it hard to play in any SGs.

 

[SpikeIt]

Yup. Should finish up tonight and post. Sorry again for the delays; the weather lately has been a mess. I think Gozpel is going to have some fun with the Celts. They've presented me with a bit of a surprise - Cavs!

Hold on to your hat, Scoutsout. Hope all goes okay down there. Say hi to Charlie for me. He'll be paying my area a visit sometime Sunday (much diminished, I'm sure).

 

[barbslinger]

Batten down the hatches Scout! Charlie should be quite a ride. Sounds like good drinkin' weather though. It would be a good time to get trapped in the hotel bar where a bunch of models happened to be staying.

 

[grahamiam]

Batten down the hatches Scout! Charlie should be quite a ride. Sounds like good drinkin' weather though. It would be a good time to get trapped in the hotel bar where a bunch of models happened to be staying.

now that's the way to have a hurricane party! stay safe scout!

 

[scoutsout]

@ 'slinger: I should be so lucky. My wife thinks 'American Photographer' is porn. But I am gettin' some drinkin' done.

@ SpikeIt: If this thing is still a hurricane when it gets to Florida's east coast, you better batten down some hatches yourself Remember Floyd? This one isn't as big, but it's better organized...

It looks like I'm going to luck out... it turned NE sooner than I expected it to. Gator will get more of this than I...

 

[SpikeIt]

Scout - glad to hear things are going to be fine by you. I'm just looking forward to lots of rain.

Now onto civ stuff...

Right. At war with both Russia and Celts. Russia has a slew of swords. The Celts? Who knows. Celtic saltpeter is on a mountain.

Korea is up Banking and Navigation, has Incense and silks avail, lack spices. 14 on alliance vs Celts/sending 12gpt

Mongols lack Republic, Mono, Feud., Eng. 14 on alliance vs Celts, lack spices

Abe: lacks Currency, horses. 19 on alliance vs Russia

Incas: lack Lit, Mono, Eng, have no iron

Aztecs: 1 left on peace/16gpt, lack Metallurgy

Japan: woefully backward

We have 29 D units including an MDI, a warrior, and 2 swords.

[0] 950AD
Hangchow, our FP city is stuck at size 6. Switch Rider build to aqueduct. MM to use mountain cutting 1 turn off build.

Specialist at Tatung called up to avoid riot.

IBT
Russian swords and spears march right by our troops, even passing through St. Pete's w/o stopping.

Military Tradition comes on-line, start Navigation, but unsure if we need to keep researching. With everyone at war, only Korea seems to be pulling ahead.

We can build the Miliary Academy.

Fudge! Missed Tlaxcala. It riots.
Wow, I really missed things. Macao riots. This is going to be painful. What I get for starting late in the evening.
Ningpo, Anyang

[1] 960 AD
Units in Russia rest for now.

Oea: Celtic Uber musket proving too strong. Will wait for reinforcements as lost 2 riders and retreated a third.

Found New Tsingtao.

Start upgrading Riders to Cavs. To ease upgrading, switch temple build to temple due in 1 at Leptis Magna. This will help to upgrade riders in Carthage faster to get them to Celtic lands. Thinking focus of these turns is to get foothold into both Celtic and Russian lands.

Korea has Printing Press available too.

Switch research to Physics due in 12.

IBT
Aztecs and Celts sign alliance against Mongols
Aztec peace deal for 16gpt is up. We can't trade with them, but their citizens are still in our cities. Trying to keep unrest under control, I decide to extend the peace deal for now.

Shantung start Military Academy due in 27.

[2] 970AD
More upgrades, moving cavs.
Abe has money to burn and since we're in an alliance for 17 more, I sign up by trading Monotheism for 22gpt and 20 gold. This gives us a bit more income for upgrades.

IBT
Russia keeps sending troops past us.


[3] 980AD
More movement, upgrades.
Celts have Banking and Navigation now.
Trade Korea Spices, horses, contact with Japan for silks and 2gpt. Wanting to see their world map, I trade contact with Inca (will likely get from Japan anyways) for WM, 6gpt, 15 gold.
Doesn't reveal a whole lot more, but does reveal small land mass with Celts on it to the west of Mongolia.

IBT
That wasn't good. Our riders hanging next to Oea waiting for cav reinforcements learn something new... The Celts have Military Tradition! Celtic cav kills a rider.


[4] 990AD
More movement.

IBT
Celts reinforce Oea.
Americans take Yekaterinburg.


[5] 1000AD
Try Oea again: vet cav vs elite Musket, retreats. vet cav vs elite musket, wins.
Vet cav vs reg musket retreats. Vet cav vs reg musket dies.Vet cav vs vet cav, wins.
Vet cav vs 2/3 musket, wins. Vet cav vs 2/4 cav, wins. 3/5 elite rider vs 1/3 musket loses and promotes. Vet cav vs 2/4 musket wins and Oea is ours. We'll keep it for now, starvation diet.

St. Petersburg: Vet cav vs vet spear, retreat. Vet Cav vs Vet spear, wins.
Vet cav vs 2/4 spear, wins and St. Petersburg is ours. Chock full of improvements, but no connection to our mainland, so can't use rax to promote riders.

Position some troops at Yaroslavl'

IBT
Nothing to speak of. Celts have Music Theory and start JS Bachs.
Leptis Minor riots.

[6] 1010AD
Yaroslavl': Vet cav vs vet spear: wins. vet cav vs vet spear: wins. Figures, elite cav vs vet spear, lose. Rider army vs 3/4 spear wins. Yaroslavl' is ours. Keep it to sell improvements, will replace. Sell courthouse, harbor and rax. Abandon.

IBT
Celtic Caravel heads north toward our lands.
Korea wants to trade Navigation for Military Tradition. I decline.

[7] 1020AD
New Xinjian is founded 1 north of old Yaroslavl spot.
Moves a few troops toward Moscow which is size 2.

IBT
Americans raze the northern Russian town. American swords start streaming down.
We complete the Pentagon in Canton. Can't really take advantage too much as we can't ship the larger army. Canton goes on Cav duty.

Some of our Aztec workers, in a last act of defiance, add on a strange looking addition to our palace.

The Celtic caravel has almost entered the strait between Carthage and China. Our northern empty cities must look tempting.

[8] 1030AD
Seige of Moscow: Rider Army vs vet spear, wins. Army vs reg spear, wins. We capture Moscow and get a catapult. Since the Chinese people would never fool with such silly contraptions, we prompty destroy the catapult for use as firewood.

Seige of Novgorod: Vet Cav vs vet spear, redlines, but wins. Vet cav vs vet spear: retreats.
With only two troops left, I hold off this turn.

IBT
The Celtic caravel heads back as I blocked the straight with a caravel. Going around Carthage?

Well, what do you know. Old Abe, not being able to get to the last Russian city, and apparently not thrilled with sending money our way, decided to declare war. We'll likely lose St. Petersburg at least.

Abes swords wipe out a rider and a redlined cav and St. Petersburg is no more. Abe's swords are up to New Xinjian is next, guarded by a lone musket.

[9] 1040AD
Army attacks vet spear at Novgorod: wins. Army attacks vet spear: wins. Army attacks vet spear: wins. and Novgorad is ours! Aargh, that darn Russian settler to the north stops us from eliminating them. I send troops back north to take him out and to hold back the Americans.

Walls are rushed at New Xinjian.
Some reinforcements are landed from the sea.
Vet cav takes out Russian sword and the settler and Russia is ours.
We clear a couple of American swords.

Moscow was quite wipped as I can't put the lone citizen to work.

IBT
Celts land troops on Carthage near our poorly defended cities. Longbow, MDI, musket. Time to move our army. Two more Celtic caravels are off shore.

American stream down a ton of swords. They impale one sword on our musket.

Celts take Mongolian horse island.

[10] 1050AD
Cavs take out first two swords threatening Moscow. Large stack is one turn away.
A few cavs and our army are healing near Novgorad. Can wait another turn before moving.

Our rider army clears out the Celtic landing party.

Our naval transport of 15 cavs heads toward Celtic saltpeter. Upon approach see it guarded by a small welcoming committee. I'll leave it for the next leader to decide what to do. With that in mind, I'll leave the moves on the boats over there.

Physics is due in 2

The Celts are going to be fun to deal with. They have cavs and lots of troops. We are going to need many more troops than I have lined up at the moment. I felt a bit hamstrung as our cities don't seem to produce a whole lot of shields. Cav builds take a while.

We should be able to handle Abe just fine, once we weather the initial onslaught. Good luck. The local brigade is a bit undermanned at the moment.

 

[grahamiam]

nice play spikeit, looks like things are progressing...

Roster update:
scoutsout <- on deck
grahamiam
barbslinger
spikeit <- just played
gozpel <- UP

 

[gozpel]

Alright. I got it.

Btw, good job last players!

 

[gozpel]

Pre-turn - The intended assault spot in Celtic lands is occupied by a bunch of units, decide to move the ships back to the western tip if the island.

Move a couple of ships to old Carthagian lands, as there are a lot of Celtic ships there and we have very little defense.

Set Shantung to palace and Beijing to Military Academy.

1060AD - Celts land 6 units near Carthage. I see movement of over 50 celt units, where we were supposed to attack.

Saltpeter near Macao disappears.

Remove the 6 celts, including 2 cavs. Change my mind of attacking Celts, even if most units are obsolete, our force is too small for this. And they have cavs now, so it will be too costly.

Check back on what America is doing. 16 swords and 3 spears next to Moscow.
Remove 11 enemies.

1070AD - Pretty unbelievable, ONE american sword kill 12-hp rider-army in Moscow, we lose an elite cav too.

We learn Physics, ToG in 9t at 80%. I give Physics and contact America to Korea for Banking, Navigation, incense, WM and 400g.

Kill 7 american units and 2 celts.

Don't really want to move our sailing cavs around the world, so I change my mind again and decide to have some fun. If we lose the units, there's always the possibility to take peace.

Land settler and 16 cavs and a rider on Celtic island.

Give Maya Teology, Lit and WM for WM and ivory.

Our alliance with Korea is over in 2 turns and when I check what they offer for MT, I can't resist. 84gpt and 50g for MT, done. They can pay for our research for now. I think we can do this safely, because they buy horses from us.

1080AD - Korea sign peace with Celts one turn early.
Celts are building Bach and Smiths.

Found the town Ching-Chong Stronghold on Celt island. Disband a caravel for walls.

Attack Camolodumum, kill 3 muskets, lose a cav and raze the city. Pillage tiles around Stronghold. This will be hard to keep when those hordes of muskets and MI's come, but we can only try Rush a couple of units at home to ship over next turn.

I drag Korea into the war again, giving them 236g and WM plus ROP, so we don't get backstabbed.

1090AD - Kill 5 american units, no leader luck.

1100AD - ROFL - Celts have 3 stacks of muskets, MI's and other assorted obsolete units near Ching-Chong, I count to some 80 units! I think this city is a lost cause.

Hmm, I just have to count them:
23 muskets
40 MI's
7 LB's
1 archer
11 pikes
and 4 spears

Maya land a couple of units next to unprotected Novgorod.

Kill 2 american pikes in St. Petersburg and take the city, we have dyes.

Tell Maya to get out of our lands and they declare war and we lost ivory.
Kill the 2 units.

1110AD - Korea completes Magellans
Maya land 5 silly units near Novgorod.

The Celtic hordes enter Ching-Chong's territory

Kill the 5 Mayan and we get a leader. An army is formed and kill 2 american swords right away.

1120AD - We survive the initial onslaught in Ching-Chong, we lose 3 units and kill 5. Got 6 units dropped off as reinforcement, we have 18 there now. It will cost the Celts a bit to take the city down

We take Buffalo and Yekaterinburg from America.

1130AD - We go 13-4 in the next wave in C-C. Reg MI's shouldn't just kill elite cavs and muskets! But they do.

We take Chicago, lose a cav against spear

1140AD - 18-7 to us against Celts, now LB's kill our elite cavs. Kill a pike and 2 hurt MI's.

1150AD - Again an MI kill elite cav, amazing. 1-1 this round only. 40-15 to us, not very good considering we're losing elite cavs against junk. But at least we're holding the town still.

We learn ToG -> Magnetism in 7t at 90%.

Army in America single-handedly takes out 3 pikes and a MI and capture San Fransisco.

We need reinforcements both in America and Ching-Chong.

Oops, we can build Newtons, forgot to change that...Shantung and Beijing are pre-build cities.

 

[scoutsout]

We need reinforcements both in America and Ching-Chong.

I sort of figured that.

Swap some pre-bulds, fight the Maya, the Celts, and the Americans... got it. I'll play this mañana.

 

[barbslinger]

Looks good. Now to decide if we want conquest or domination. I think if we take out Carthage, America and then the lowly Inca, I don't think the Maya are in this world, we will just about have it with culture expansions. We are pretty close to rails so it will be easy either way.

 

[gozpel]

Erh, what was the rules about bombarding units? I hurried a cannon in CC and maybe shouldn't. We also captured a catapult and the other throwing thingie in America. Disband?

 

[SpikeIt]

Great job. I wasn't sure what to really do with the Celts. I kind of forgot to mention to extent of the greeting party on the Celtic saltpeter. Nice move disbanding the caravel for the walls in Ching Chong. Its the little moves like that I have to incorporate into my routines for this game.

As for catapults and cannons, I believe we said no to all of the above until artillary. We have some sort of limits on art too, but I don't think we detailed it. My troops used a captured Russian cat for kindling, as much as it pained me to do so.

 

[SpikeIt]

Right. Throwing thingies are out too.

 

[grahamiam]

Right. Throwing thingies are out too.

nice job gozpel how much junk is left for scout to clean up?

throwing thingies are definitely out , guess you can disband it towards a barracks or something. i like the celtic land for our horsy's, we should be able to run wild if we don't get thrown off once we get mag, we should upgrade a caravel and get the cav army over to CC.

Roster update:
scoutsout <- UP
grahamiam <-on deck
barbslinger
spikeit
gozpel <- just played

 

[scoutsout]

I swear - you guys are a freakin' HOOT! First, there's Gozpel, tellin' me I need to get some reinforcements here, and some troops there... and then there's this one from Graham:

... how much junk is left for scout to clean up?

so this is combination "send reinforcements" and "Mop UP" duty...and somewhere I need to start a dadgum WONDER build ...and somehow get a Galleon ...so we can ...

upgrade a caravel and get the cav army over to CC.

From Murphy's Laws of Combat: #1) When you're short of everything but enemy, you're in combat.

Question for the team: If I somehow manage to take a wonder away from Brennus, are you guys gonna get mad at me if I sack it?