3 grams - Prodigal Son's

[RowAndLive]

I'll play what I can and post. Given the season, perhaps we should switch to 5-turn sets until New Years?

 

[grahamiam]

i'll leave that up to each player.

edit: to be more clear, 10T is just a guideline. if you only have time for 5T, that's fine. if you want to play 11 or 12 or so to setup the next player, that's fine as well.

 

[RowAndLive]

850 – 0
Little Big Horn changed to market in 6.
Change Cattaraugus to market in 8.
Load army near NFalls & move, leaving 3 knights with Treb stack.

Japan won’t give us a MPP for any price, and won’t sell us any techs nor their extra saltpeter for any price. This doesn’t bode well.

@Teruel, DoW on Spain, lose a vMW, eMW kills 2/3 pike, eMW -4 kills spear & captures Teruel > lib in 80, reinforce w/ 2 knights & 3eMW.

IBT: Spanish conquistador takes & levels Dijon.
Japan ends gems & silk deal & won’t sell anything (salt for gems + silk + 213g + 38gpt only gets doubt). Won’t offer anything. They won’t even trade maps!
Celt & Aztec trade embargo ends.

Sal bank > univ in 9 (prebuild?), Kawauka settler > lib in 80 (create taxer for net +3gpt), Teruel resistance ends.

860 – 1
eKnight -3 kills Conquistador.

IBT: French & Aztecs embargo us. France DoW on Japan – oh no! Celts request our departure (my accident) – ok.
VFalls bank > cathedral in 10, Marseilles market > pike, Centralia pike > bank in 15

870 – 2
Give Japan silks to go polite from annoyed. Sell gems to Japan for 17gpt (he won’t give even a penny or map more). Now gracious, and will sell WM for WM + 268g – yes.
settler in place to rebuild Dijon.

IBT: Byz fleet moves in near Cherbourg – 3 frigates + 1 galleon – uh oh! Expecting an attack at Amiens or a new city near Neodak. Mongol galley near Kiohero. Celts want 24g to swap WM – no.
Rheims rax > pike in 4, Mauch Chunk market > knight in 8.
Owego riots > taxman, Tyendenaga pike > knight in 10.

880 – 3
Grand River built on site of Dijon > lib.
@Logorno, eMW dies taking 1 off spear, vKnight -2 kills spear, eMW -2 kills spear, eMW -1 kills 2/3 spear & captures city > temple.

IBT: Byz fleet sails away N. Whew!
Alleghany duct > granary, Tours settler > settler, DTower market > knight, Caughnawaga pike > lib in 14.

890 – 4
Army passes Tours, much maneuver.

Workers @Sal digging canal to 1SE of present, 2NW of LBHorn.
Settler & warrior available to move.

 

[grahamiam]

Roster 24hrs got it, 72hrs play it
bede
admiral k
denyd
RowAndLive
M60 <- UP
grahamiam<- on deck

 

[RowAndLive]

I know the gift of the silks, and the WM buy were iffy, but I felt we really needed to keep Japan on the good side. Didn't declare on Viks since army hadn't arrived yet, and the galleys weren't there to carry anyone around them.

 

[grahamiam]

I know the gift of the silks, and the WM buy were iffy, but I felt we really needed to keep Japan on the good side.

that's ok, but in my experience, AI's will attack regardless of thier attitude, so I'm not sure we gained much. I've even been sneak attacked by gracious AI's, but that may have been because I was bankrupting them via gpt payments. Japan is far from broke so we should get everything we can out of them.

 

[M60A3TTS]

I'll try and grab it tonight. Priority items will be get the army engaged, then switch Sala pre-build to HEpic and find that French salt. Keep moving northwest along the peninsula.

 

[grahamiam]

sounds like a good plan. looking forward to a juicy setup

 

[M60A3TTS]

The save at 990 and not looking good

Preturn: Science @ 0, MT in 37. Mauch Chunk has 9 uncorrupted spt and an entertainer they don’t need, so put him to work. Building a knight there, so now it will turn out one every 7. Tonawanda has a taxman it doesn’t need, so back to work with him as well. Looks like our galleys are about 12 turns distant from landings against the French, assuming they survive the trip.

IBT- Mongols declare war on Japan. Palace gets some towers. Spanish galleon sails past Logrono.

Turn 1 (900AD) Move forces up to the Celt border. Hold the army at Grand River to see if the Spanish galleon lands anything.

IBT- No landings to report. Marseilles pike>library. Susquehana pike>aqueduct. LBH pike>bank. Trees now added to palace entrance.

Turn 2 (910AD) Declare war on the Celts. Troops move up.

IBT- Rheims pike>pike, Celt galleon and frigate set sail from Cataractonium. Spanish galley drops sword by Oiogouen.

Turn 3 (920AD) Troops move up to Cataractonium, vet rifle showing. We send knight from Marseille to kill reg Spanish sword. Knight army attacks vet rifle at Cataract and kills it, we lose 7hp. Sala university>HE in 3. Reg rifle dug in @ Cataract. RNG is nice next round, vet knight kills rifle clean AND promotes. And another reg rifle shows. Lose a vet knight and lop off one hp. Gamble with an elite knight who redlines, and wins. Cataract falls with 2 settlers. So 4 workers there. Two more workers adjacent to the town are rounded up. MM Sala to 25 spt.

Eboracum which is the next Celt city on the peninsula has salt, so we will not need to make a landing against France to take hers. Science to 50%, MT in 8.

IBT- Spanish galleon unloads conquistador. Spain declares on Japan. Byzantines and Japan ally against Aztecs. Cattaraugus market>knight. Chartres harbor>settler. Spanish spear by Ebracorum. Byzantines offload settler group by Cherbourg.

Turn 4 (930AD) MW takes care of the Conquistador. 12 knights on their way to Ebracorum. 2 of our galleys sink the Spanish galleon at the loss of one galley. I love the fact that our arrow-wielding vessel sunk a cannon-laden vessel. Rest of the fleet seeks refuge in Paris.

IBT- Byzantines plant a town down in the open between Grand River and Cherbourg.

Turn 5 (940AD) Trade a galley with the Spanish. Hopefully it carried something. Knights to the edge of Ebracorum.

IBT- Trade territory map with Dad. Sala HE>university. Dad kills reg Spanish spear near Ebracorum.

Turn 6 (950AD) Lose 3 knights to 3 rifles, 4 more knights redlined, but Ebracorum falls, along with the salt. MT now in 5. Change Cherbourg build to rax.

IBT- Lone vet Celt Cav spotted vic 2NE of Amiens.

Turn 7 (960AD) Plant St Regis next to the Byzantine town of Ohrid. Well, Dad won’t part with MT at any price, and we may be in trouble real soon, so push science to 90% MT in 2. MW rides up to check the Celt out, and he has a twin. Ruh-ro! Only one thing to do. Attack! Bad idea, lose MW and MI and only get 2 hp off cav 1. Now we just made him mad. Hitting enter won’t be good.

IBT- Well, there’s a bunch of Celt cav now, Amiens falls and dye colony is overrun. Pulling several garrisons out to meet the threat causes some cities to riot. Spanish town of Vitoria sends out a longbow which dies against our knight.

Turn 8 (970AD) Two knights kill 2 reg pikes and Vittoria falls. The next IT isn’t promising to be any better than the last, so it’s time to launch counter-measures. Throw about 4 French workers in about 6 tiles and hopes Celts goes for them. That will give us time to get a counterattack organized in a couple turns.

IBT- Neodakheat falls as there are 7 celt cav in the area now. Sure enough, Celt cav go worker shopping. All of a sudden, half our cities riot because our dyes are gone.

Turn 9 (980AD) Abandon St Regis, upgrade some knights to cav, and scatter more workers. MI kills a 2hp cav, knight army kills another cav. Sala started on Mil Academy. Please change if needed.

IBT- Izzy wants peace, no deal as she won’t give techs. Mauch Chunk still rioting. Aztecs land outside Paris.

Turn 10 (990AD) Time to do something right for a change. Knight army recaptures Neodakheat and 12 workers inside. Kill a couple more cav. Spread out the workers to try the same ploy again. Still 7 cav in area. Upgrade some more knights.

Post turn. Started out well, but we’ve basically run out of options here. The north is essentially defenseless. At least the knight army is in a blocking position.

Next up, if we can make peace with Aztecs, we need to as Paris cannot be defended.

We need to decide what do do about the Byzantine town of Ohrid. It’s blocking our moves back south. The cav can get through, but not knights, since they don’t have the movement points to get away from the town area, and they just get booted back. Next turn, the 4 cav parked there can make the jump over. If we leave it, we’re delayed getting troops back. Of course war probably means another 40 cav at our door.

There is a settler in Cataractonium, it can be used to raise and replace to remove flip risk.

Still nothing going with alliances from Dad. I don’t see that giving him any special deals will help us, now that our rep is torched.

 

[grahamiam]

rough and tumble, eh? ok, got it. will try to play and post tonight.

 

[denyd]

I'd rather limit our offensive to the Celts & Spain (maybe add Aztecs). Nice job of stemming the Celtic invasion. With cavalry available we should be able to turn to the offensive against him quickly.

Would signing MA's with Dad improve his attitude and maybe get us a tech?

 

[RowAndLive]

@M60 - I'm not real clear if Eboracum and it's salt are still connected, and defensible, or if Ohrid is blocking, as I don't have a map readily available. I'm assuming no ports to allow connection.

If we do have a connection, then maybe we should make peace with Brennus and concentrate on Spain. Peace with Monte would be a help too. That would allow us to focus on reaching MT and building / upgrading Cav & muskets. I realize that we're already facing rifles, but knights and MW are just so passe at this point. How can we maximize our tech strategy to get the critical mil techs sooner. What do we still need to advance the age?

 

[grahamiam]

R&L, we already have MT. I think our focus for research should be a beeline for espionage, but we still have a ways to go for that. I think we need Physics, ToG, and Mag to get to the MA. Maybe astro too but i'm not sure.

M60, can you post a pic?

 

[M60A3TTS]

I'm at work right now, so I can't post a pic at the moment. The salt is connected, no problem there. We can build cav anywhere. I would love to make peace with Celts, but I think the rule is still no contact until they make the first request. Ohrid is simply delaying getting our units south, and the area immediately around the Celts cav has very little defense. Most towns are empty.

 

[M60A3TTS]

Here's the pic

The current situation

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

Cross fingers and hope the Celts like workers better than cities...

 

[grahamiam]

Preflight check: Switch Latrobe’s market to a cav and rush. Move the galley’s out of Paris as it will fall next turn to the Aztec’s.
Why are we building a mine next to Ohrid? Wake that worker and move him to help get the road to Cherbourg.
Izzy already offered peace so I dial her up and get peace + astronomy for 41gpt and WM.
Switch some musket builds to cav’s.
Go thru and MM cities, taxstarve the new celtic ones. Also move troops southwards from Spain. Move the citizens in the totally corrupt, 1spt towns from mined hills and onto irrigated grass, then hire as many taxmen as possible.
MM to get a cav out of Devil’s Tower next turn with a little starving.
Switch Gayagaaha to an aqueduct from a temple?
MM Oil springs to shave a turn off the cav
MM Caughnawaga to shave a turn off the Library
We are up to +204gpt or research physics in 8T
Leave research off as there’s a lot of knights that need upgrading.

Looks like we’ll lose 4, maybe 5 towns on the IBT.

IBT: Spain and Aztec sign embargo against us.
Aztec’s capture Paris;
Lose 3 workers, Army is redlined in Neodanwhatever,
Grand River is captured,
Army is killed by another cav and Neo is taken;
Tours is captured;
A cav and 2 rifles land up near Oiogouen.
Latrobe riots but I have not clue why (3 happy, 3 sads, 2 taxman) -> cav; Allegany riots too so I cycle thru to make sure others don’t
Avignon temple -> weath and 2 taxman; Devil’s town cav -> cav

T1: 1000AD Near Oigouen: cav retreats from Rifle (2/4); cav kills rifle; MW kills cav. MM some more cities

IBT: lose a couple more workers but no towns.

T2: 1010AD Retake Grand River + 2 workers, costing us 1 cav. Start researching again but due to the lux tax, best we can do physics is 12T.
Switch Sala to a University.
Look at F1 till my eyes bleed, MM cities. Increase research to 50% (physics in 8T, -11gpt, 123g in the bank).

IBT: Lose a couple more workers in jungles, tying up the cavs, but no towns.
Tona cav -> cav (MM for production); Oil Springs cav -> cav; Marseilles Library -> bank; Centralia bank -> cav (MM); Caughnawage Library -> cav; Gewauga riots again

T3: 1020AD Recapture Tours, killing 2 cavs and losing 1. Recapture Onnontare, killing 2 cavs and losing 1. Redline a knight but kill a cav near Grand River.

IBT: Lose an MW to a Celtic cav near Grand River; Vitoria flips back to Spain

T4: 1030AD Kill cav near Grand River. Investigate Neon and it has a reg rifle showing. Only 3 cavs healthy enough to attack so I hold off.
Attack Paris, causing the Mongols to DoW on us: Vet cav kills reg rifle (2/4); vet cav retreats from rifle; vet cav retreats from 2/3 rifle; vet cav kills rifle; reg cav kills LB and we retake Paris

IBT: Lose an MW and Cav to Celtic cavs; Sala University -> cav; Rheims cav -> cav

T5: 1040AD Retake Neodakheat, losing 2 cavs vs 1 cav and 2 reg rifles along with 2 elite promotions. Get 12 slaves, 15g, and our dyes back.
Near Grand River: Lose 2 cavs and redline another killing a single damn cav At least the winning cav promotes to elite
Thanks to our 3rd lux I can monkey with the sliders and shave a turn off physics.
What the heck have I been thinking? I find a settler in Eberacum so I sell off all improvements and raze the town. I replace with Salty Hills.
Sala can do max 26spt If we mine the 2nd mountain, we’ll be at 27spt.

IBT: Spain and Celts sign a trade embargo against us
Cattaraugus cav -> cav
Celts move us an MDI, rifle, and knight towards Neodakheat.

T6: 1050AD Move some troops up to consider taking Amiens. Need to sleep on this one so I take a break and finish tomorrow.

 

[denyd]

Nicely played G-Man. We've regained most of our lost cities and with now available we should be able to switch from defense to offense some time soon.

I was thinking that we might be able to improve dad's opinion of us if we allied with him in one of his wars. We might be able to get a tech for some gpt that way.

 

[M60A3TTS]

Nicely done, indeed. So it looks like we've uncovered a new exploit, "worker-chaff." Seems to do wonders in slowing the AI down. You have to love how they get parked in a nearby city, so we can capture and repeat the cycle. I think about the only thing we haven't done for dad is gift him 10 gold. But the thing is, his attitude is like polite already. He just won't give us an alliance where we need it most. We may just have to hunker down and deal with it until the effect of our alliance breach wears off.

 

[grahamiam]

he's actually gracious, even after he lost the silks when we lost Tours. however, he won't pay a dime for horses (he lacks those) and he scoffs at any alliance. i think we've boned him pretty hard and it'll be interesting if he ever decides to buy stuff from us again. this makes espionage all the more important.

Re: worker diversion: this works fine as long as the worker is on some rough terrain like jungles or mountians or hills. if the worker is on a road, i found that the cav can capture the worker and still attack the city with the remaining movement points. that's how we lost the army. after that, i was making sure the workers were in the jungles, thus tangling up the cavs, leaving them exposed to knight and MW counters.