Adventures of the Vietnamese (II)

[12tn2]

Great story!

Really? ^^ Wow tks for your support, now things are being hotter this story will eventually get more interesting, I hope
Also, sorry for my late update. This Euro cup costs Dinh Tien Hoang quite some sleep
Very very bad news on the turn right after I wrote the last line... A Skirmisher appeared in Djenne!!

Damn it. We were a little late Now that Dinh Tien Hoang thinks about it, even if he had declared war ASAP and prevent the Malinese from mining the copper tile, his lone axeman would have had to spent at least two turns to defeat Mansa Musa's defending warriors, and that's enough for the city to whip a Skirmisher By waiting for the second axeman to arrive, our leader has let his opponent to not only finish that fearsome UU but also upgrade one of his warrior to axeman in Djenne Thus gone our chance. So unlucky... we missed the window for about one or two turns
With this turn of the tide, the Vietnamese now are left with no clear victim to target. Attacking the Arabian may earn us a holy city, but for what? Now the critical spot has been occupied, while Mecca has no food resources whatsoever, and Medina is even in a crappier place. Talking about it, Dinh Tien Hoang's bet is that Saladin must have raced for the promising 'pink' spot, too, but lost pathetically, so he dashed to that corner of the map But if we're not going to kick someone's ass then what's the use of those finished swordsmen? Guess we'll still have to beat the Arabian, then Since Mecca is naturally connected with us by the river, if the Vietnamese are to capture it we can get rid of building roads for some time. It'll also guarantee the right corridor of the map to Dinh Tien Hoang's control, and then we can backfill some cities on the edge. And our empire can make use of those massive forests in the Buddism holy city, too! Hmm, seems it's not that bad then. So, plan A, commence!

 

[hoplitejoe]

I say rush nukes

 

[MedicInDisquise]

Nukes, nukes everywhere.

 

[12tn2]

So the first war of history has been initiated! After ten turns of Open border with Saladin, Dinh Tien Hoang immediately canceled it and declared (hey everybody, can Open border be canceled before 10 turns by declaring war? I don't know for sure ). One of our swordsmen got expelled out of the Arabian border, but he and his comrades instantly re-enter that dark green colored land. We approached the capital's outskirts in 1080BC, and this is the aftermath of battles:

Got it! Hehe... Prior to the siege, our army's intelligence stated that there's an iron source next to the city, but Salad hasn't been able to mine it, definitely because of his empire lacking the needed tech. On the other hand, Mecca will stay at 40% culture during our attack, because according to the maths it'll have to wait until the 80s turns to reach the 500 milestone. In addition, there are two archer and one settler in the city, and note that it's on a flat grassland tile! Just as good as it can be... because once the settler departs, one of the two defenders at that time will have to move out with him, and the Buddhism holy city would have only one archers left. It turned out just as our prediction, but when the troops encircled Mecca, Saladin managed to field one more archer So it's 3v2 - we have three swords and one axe who could reach the city that turn, but one had to shift his direction toward the settler pair in order to prevent the Arabian from founding more (it's easier to target an escorting archer than a city protecting one, right? ). None of our men was at level 3, but our first Cover Swordsman managed to win. The second Sword got bad luck and died, but he left his opponent in red and thus an easy meal for our waiting Axeman. He charged forward and captured the holy city without a scratch
Now Salad's score has dropped deep, but Dinh Tien Hoang is expecting it to reach zero in the next few turns...

 

[12tn2]

With just one city remaining, our army are marching toward the destruction – of Saladin, of course Two swordsmen manages to reach that forest tile just north of the now capital city and can strike without the amphibious penalty. Two others, including an axeman, didn't make it in time and will have to cross the river if the Vietnamese happens to need their service (you know, troop rendezvousing and gathering are always a problem in warfare – if you have read Leo Tolstoy's "War and peace" you'll agree with us ). Now, what does the Arabian leader has in Medina? Just merely an archer and a warrior. Oh, nom nom And that capital has not even reached its first defense bonus level – we captured Mecca four turns ago. Hence, without hesitance, Dinh Tien Hoang ordered the attack.

And our swords has done two good jobs. They all defeated Salad's pathetic guards and proceeded to his harem to finish the kill. Goodbye, Saladin, we'll do it quick Next time, try focusing a little more on your metal, not your wives and religion and the furs for your wives' coats (man, he even denied both deer and corn at a way better spot just one tile south west of his former Medina in order to grab more fur ). The city was then razed to dust, and the Vietnamese were able to capture a worker among its population. Both of our attacking men were injured, but they'll recover in no time.
On another note, Mecca has got out of resistance and is now producing a granary (and of course, culture – it'll expand in 900BC, and again 18 turns later). Dinh Tien Hoang is thinking of a way to make the most our of those unchopped forest tiles nearby. Who knows, this city can even be our settler and worker pump in the future...

 

[12tn2]

Now with the Arabian civilization is in the past, our battalion of swordsmen are jobless and are entreating their supreme commander to find another target. This thing is giving Dinh Tien Hoang some headache. Attacking the Americans is difficult, they are in the south region of the Great plains while our troops are grouping in the north. Besides, Washington has both iron and copper, and we don't have a scout in their land right now to clarify whether he has a large army or not (and according to the charts, it's pretty awesome). What's more, moving our men all the way across the map will almost guarantee us of missing the striking window, or maybe even render them outdated. Meanwhile, beating the Malinese is even worse, their capital is not worth keeping even if we are able to win it, and their best city of Djenné is heavily guarded by at least two axemen and a nearly unbeatable Skirm... oh wait:

A barbarian axe? Good! But... uhm no, he won't be able to challenge that fortifying Skirmisher next turn ... but WTH? Mansa Musa moved his ultimate defender OUT of the city? And now the lone barb axeman is dashing uphill toward his stupid enemy under a rain of spears... and yes! He did it! Now the opportunity is once again opening before the Vietnamese!
What an unimaginable event. Last turn this hill city seemed so inviolable, yet this turn it looks so tempting for a siege. Due to Manny's extremely foolish decision, our troops are now having a chance, and Dinh Tien Hoang is not wasting his time gathering men, who have just healed in Méc Cờ (in case you wonder, our leader has changed the former Arabian capital's name according to the way we Vietnamese spell it ). If nothing unexpected happens, it'll be a 4v2 battle in the next two turns, and we've having a belief that Djenné won't be reinforced soon ...

 

[strijder20]

Well, he's got enough population in that city to whip another skirmisher, I'm afraid
By the way, you can cancel all deals (but a peace treaty, of course) by declaring war.

 

[12tn2]

Well, he's got enough population in that city to whip another skirmisher, I'm afraid
By the way, you can cancel all deals (but a peace treaty, of course) by declaring war.

So we did waste one or two turns outside the Arabian border waiting Lucky for Dinh Tien Hoang that didn't change the outcome of the war with Saladin. Anyway, it's nice to know that, tks
And yes I have to agree with you that we may face not one, but even two Skirmisher in Djenné when launching the attack, but that's only in case Manny was a human
Thus Dinh Tien Hoang has initiated the second war in history, this time with Mansa Musa. The Malinese leader giving dumb orders to his Skirmisher is not the only reason: first, Djenné has just finished the Stonehenge in 725BC – did you notice that circle architecture in the last pic? Exactly the answer to our leader's question of how to deal with the cultural issue of his new cities in the future It also guaranteed that the city is not building something militarily at the time and made us pretty sure about the number of defenders not being increased when we launch the attack (provided that the AIs are bad at emergency whipping ). Second, that barbarian axeman, as you can see in the last picture, has 2.5 hit points left, and he's on a hill! So the next turn Manny has to move someone among his troops (hopefully the ones defending Djenné) and attack this brave barb guy, otherwise he'll definitely level up and destroy their source of copper. In the best case scenario, one axe from that city will even lose, and the African leader will have no choice but to station his sole guard left in Djenné and see his resources being pillaged one by one. To be honest, that's far from reality, but we can hope that Mansa Musa's axe will be seriously wounded from the fight and render the city even more vulnerable. Anyway, the Vietnamese will declare war regardless of the situation – we have missed the chance once, and will not let it slip by again...

And yes it turned out just like what Dinh Tien Hoang wanted. Our swords had low odds against those axemen, but we also had our own axes to soften them down. Intense battles happened, but finally we have entered the city triumphing Now what will be our next target?

 

[Killroyan]

Keep it coming. Timbuktu is a bit to tough right now. It has 3 invincible skirmisher hehe.

 

[12tn2]

Keep it coming. Timbuktu is a bit to tough right now. It has 3 invincible skirmisher hehe.

So that means Kumbi Saleh is the next target. Reasonable enough
Look at the hot spots of the year (hint: most of them are at the edges ):

First things first. Good news sent to Dinh Tien Hoang from the battlefield is that our troops have surrounded Kumbi Saleh (to do this, one of our swordsmen has attacked a barb warrior on the hill tile south east at 99.9% chance, and was dropped down to about 2 health What an unlucky dice roll , we expected smaller injury with that odds). The bad news is, Mansa Musa has also marched one of his Skirmisher – initially we thought this guy is going to reinforce the besieged city, but he suddenly headed toward Chen Nì midway! Oh, in case you wonder, our leader has changed the Malinese settlement's name as an action to affirm the Vietnamese's control over it, and also to continue the tradition of spelling our cities our way Now this bolt move of Manny posed a significant problem to Dinh Tien Hoang. Chen Ni has no defenders at the moment, and to ensure the 'pink' spot's safety, our leader had to shift a nearly healed sword and an axeman from his route to Kumbi Saleh toward the north east, occupying the road and ready to intercept that UU when he leaves the high ground. This act, however, affects the chance of our winning at the front: the Vietnamese will only have three swordsmen to wipe out two Skirmishers at the Malinese city. We can just hope for our men to handle the attack successfully. Oh, and you can see one last sword in the bottom of the map? He can't arrive in time for the strike, so Dinh Tien Hoang decided to use him as a troublemaker in the Malinese capital Those cows and farms being pillaged will deal quite a blow to its population!
On another note, a barbarian axe has appeared near our new city of Mech Ca (yeah, that guy on top of the screen). The Vietnamese are busy making settlers out there and don't want to stop, so the task of protecting the holy land is placed upon their archers. Let's just pray for the best...

 

[12tn2]

Our objective has been completed: destroying Kumbi Saleh! First, the Vietnamese troops killed the daring Skirmisher who entered that wheat tile. Then, our three swordsmen charged into the city but didn't manage to finish it in the first wave of attack: two guys on the hill died, only the plain tile one won. But next turn that surviving sword himself, after promoting to regain fighting strength, succeeded in wiping out the also healing defender left (he was renamed Lữ Gia after the deed). According to Dinh Tien Hoang's order, Kumbi Saleh was razed to the ground. Its position has so many overlapped tiles with a nearby barbarian city, which the Vietnamese leader is having a plan to capture soon. Moreover, it lacks a lot of food and a new city in a better place would be able to alleviate this issue. So we burned the Malinese city and made peace with them (marching our army toward their capital is somewhat a suicidal act – those swordsmen and axes won't stand a chance against at least three Skirmishers in a 40% hill city). Thank you Manny, for using your UU so stupidly Our troops then stopped to heal, waiting for the order of taking the barb city. Meanwhile, a settler rushed toward where once was Kumbi Saleh, and founded Hải Phòng:

That's nice, but not everything is according to plan We received the news of that barbarian city being captured by Alexander almost at the same time Since we don't have an intent to war with the Greek in the near future, our expansion in the north toward the west has to come to a halt. And soon Dinh Tien Hoang will be neighbor with Alex, don't know whether it's a good news or not Now we'll focus a little more on backfilling cities to prevent barbs from spawning continuously like recent turns...

 

[12tn2]

Due to that mean Tokugawa keeps refusing to open borders, our scout got quite a problem reaching Athens from the south of the map. He did try to sneak past the left of the Japanese cities, but there's already a barbarian settlement blocking the way, with an axeman wandering around, so Son Tinh had to head back and took a detour What's up with you, Toky? Even Mansa Musa has put aside his grudge and trade with us! Be careful, if you don't want to be friend, you may end up being an enemy with the Vietnamese, and that's not a smart choice
After a long time like forever, we managed to enter Alexander's land, and what our scout found was really interesting:

Just like Saladin's capital, Athens has no food, but the difference here is that the city possess all the luxurious resources like gold and silver!! According to what Dinh Tien Hoang has deduced earlier from the demo numbers, the Greek has one two-coin tile in their first ring, and that's the flood plains fur tile (weird, eh? I've never saw those weasels on desert before. Maybe the Great plains map has exceptional script for fur ). This discovery also explains why Alex did so well in term of GNP (as you can see yourselves, this city is the holy land for both Hinduism and Judaism), but poor when it comes to crop yield in the early game. He has iron in the capital as well, so we are going to see some illustrious phalanxes in the upcoming years. Other than those, what's most notable in Athens is the concentration of hills – there're nine of them including the city spot, of all types and containing most of the resources out there. But with a serious lack of food, the Greek will have a hard time leveraging those hills then Anyway, we were surprised that somehow Alexander managed to get his capital to size 7...

 

[Daedwartin]

Due to that mean Tokugawa keeps refusing to open borders, our scout got quite a problem reaching Athens from the south of the map. He did try to sneak past the left of the Japanese cities, but there's already a barbarian settlement blocking the way, with an axeman wandering around, so Son Tinh had to head back and took a detour What's up with you, Toky? Even Mansa Musa has put aside his grudge and trade with us! Be careful, if you don't want to be friend, you may end up being an enemy with the Vietnamese, and that's not a smart choice
After a long time like forever, we managed to enter Alexander's land, and what our scout found was really interesting:

Just like Saladin's capital, Athens has no food, but the difference here is that the city possess all the luxurious resources like gold and silver!! According to what Dinh Tien Hoang has deduced earlier from the demo numbers, the Greek has one two-coin tile in their first ring, and that's the flood plains fur tile (weird, eh? I've never saw those weasels on desert before. Maybe the Great plains map has exceptional script for fur ). This discovery also explains why Alex did so well in term of GNP (as you can see yourselves, this city is the holy land for both Hinduism and Judaism), but poor when it comes to crop yield in the early game. He has iron in the capital as well, so we are going to see some illustrious phalanxes in the upcoming years. Other than those, what's most notable in Athens is the concentration of hills – there're nine of them including the city spot, of all types and containing most of the resources out there. But with a serious lack of food, the Greek will have a hard time leveraging those hills then Anyway, we were surprised that somehow Alexander managed to get his capital to size 7...

its because while he has no food resources, he has plains and grasslands, places you can put farms. he actually has a balanced capital in my book. not as much food, but that off-set by the amount of farm-able tiles, theirs iron, lots of hills (meaning he doesn't need workshops), and fur, gold, and silver to provide lots of money. he can run a pretty good economy at that stage with those.

 

[12tn2]

Yes that's right, but did you notice our scout Son Tinh? He has just visited the south side of Athens some dozen years ago, yet there were no farms. You can see even the gold tile is not mined (or perhaps pillaged by some barb). Maybe things are better in the north of his BFC, but anyway, that was a good effort from Alex. Though I'd prefer a regeneration if we roll that start

 

[strijder20]

its because while he has no food resources, he has plains and grasslands, places you can put farms. he actually has a balanced capital in my book. not as much food, but that off-set by the amount of farm-able tiles, theirs iron, lots of hills (meaning he doesn't need workshops), and fur, gold, and silver to provide lots of money. he can run a pretty good economy at that stage with those.

And that capital site is making me throw up. Farmed plains give one hammer and feed the citizen working them - that's all they do. He also has no food to work the silver, iron and the gold. He did extraordinary well for his character and starting spot though.

 

[12tn2]

Dinh Tien Hoang has been waiting for hundred of years for the cultural border of the former Malinese power city of Chen Ni to expand and cover a marble tile just north of it. Techs have been readily researched, a worker has been waiting, and when the quarry is on we started constructing the Oracle. Our leader was worried since it was a little late for this kind of wonder, and there are a bunch of opponents who possess large amounts of hills and hammers (among them, the most remarkable is Washington, he has finished the Pyramids some turns before ). Hence, the only two forests outside Chen Ni were not spared and turned into marble for the build (?) And look, this is the result:

Neat! Now the Vietnamese have another beautiful shiny gilded roof chalky white marble building which stands close to the ugly gray circle stone installation artwork in this super strong resourceful pink dot city of Chen Ni (and the thing in between is the famous but popular yet powerful granary ). How handy it is – we just need more wonders like this in the chosen GP farm city! Two more GPP can always help. Besides, with this completion Dinh Tien Hoang can choose a freebie – you can guess, it's Machinery FTW! The rain of arrows from Nỏ liên châu is a nightmare for any stack of units in any citadel.
When approaching the AD years, the Vietnamese have to face bad news: they've run out of spare money for dozen of turns, and the tech speed is now significantly slowed down. This is not very happy for a Financial leader, and Dinh Tien Hoang has tried to deal with it by signing Open borders with all the civs available (of course Tokugawa refused again, as always ). But that doesn't help much...

 

[12tn2]

The warring time has prevent us from introducing the newly founded cities. So here are two of them:

One Malinese and one Vietnamese. After the war, Mansa Musa has managed to get back to three cities in such a short time – pretty impressive for him. Gao was settled with two defending Skirmishers right out of the gate – it seems that the tech whoring leader has learned quite something from the clash with Vietnam But unfortunately, right after the year of its founding, the Malinese city's border was pushed back hard by Chen Ni's expansion – so ironically their own former powerhouse How convenient ... Since Gao is in a pretty good place, if we want to invade it we can launch the attack right from our land
On the contrary, Da Nang – our third founded city, even before Hai Phong – was settled just for the purpose of filling the space between the southern and northern part of the Vietnamese empire (and look, it just fit perfectly in the gap ). The city's only resources are a river and thousands of trees. Nevertheless, with our worker's axework help, it managed to finish the basic three buildings of granary, forge and barrack, while contributing to the country with at least two settlers! Viva chopping! However, cities like Mec Co and Da Nang are strains to our nation in term of maintenance, and they produce very small amounts of coins. That's why a tech like Feudalism takes so long, to such an extend it surprises us!
On another note, Judaism has spreaded in Da Nang. So now we have a chance to convert to the faith that both Alexander and Tokugawa are following, and Dinh Tien Hoang is thinking of a dogpile... Will it worth an anarchy?

 

[12tn2]

With the AD years reached, let's take a peek into the Vietnamese capital and see what's going on there:

So Hanoi is at size 8, and going to be 9 in 50 years. Meanwhile, with the current food rate, its neighbor Hochiminh city needs three turns to attain another pop. But by swapping tiles (to be more specific, the grassland pig and the floodplain farm), both will be able to grow at the same time. That's the advantage of having many overlap! This expanding of population is timed to match with the conversion to Hereditary rule and Vassalage of our empire in the near future. Talking about Feudalism, we're stacking some units in order to get those two plus xp when the civic arrives. Combine with the free Combat promotion, our army will be guaranteed veterans right out of the gate!
As you can see, Hanoi has used all of its riverside cottages. When the capital hit the next pop it'll probably have to work a mine. Non-river grassland is a bit unattractive in the eyes of Dinh Tien Hoang, and we won't be able to use the Spice and Sugar yet, because the leader wants to delay Calendar some more time for the new cities to expand their borders (by the way, Hanoi's culture itself is going to gain the 'refined' level soon). But that's ok, at 60% research our capital is producing a good 42 beakers, thanks to an Academy which was built in around the 80s turn. Buddhism has been naturally spreaded to the city, and its people is benefiting from a temple, and maybe even one more happiness if we choose to follow the way of Buddha. But that move also presents a downside: the relationship between Dinh Tien Hoang and Alex and Toky will be spoiled. We now at least need them not to intervene in an upcoming war...

 

[12tn2]

So you're probably guessing who's our next victim Yes that's Washington We should attack sooner rather than later, or he will run away with a crazy wonder spam (despite having marble, we have just lost the Parthenon ). Take a look at the below picture and you'll find out why:

Holy cow! What a ridiculous concentration of these cattle in this capital So that's why the American can achieve such a high number of gross production (most of the time, higher than the Vietnamese and anyone else) while still grow like a weed (this city is also the most populated one on the map). Besides, it has a river and floodplains! No wonder Washy can also keep up with our leader in term of GNP. We haven't seen Kyoto yet, but this site is definitely the best amongst the AI capitals Dinh Tien Hoang has felt an urge to capture this land right from the moment his scout uncovered the last tiles around the city, but he was wavering between that and the desire to finish up Mansa Musa – Timbuktu is just like a thorn into our core But this stealing of Parthenon from Chen Ni is the last drop into the already full cup and has helped our leader to make up his mind – prepare to meet your makers, Washington!
Before the inevitable war, our scouting units of Lac Long Quan and an unnamed spearman have collected some intelligence about our opponent's land (nice job, my spear ). Washy has five cities, among them Philadelphia and Atlanta are total crap. Boston is in a good spot with spices and especially a horse resource, but too bad the American haven't figured out a way to expand its border. Maybe we Vietnamese can help by 'moving' their capital westerly, no ?

 

[hoplitejoe]

Holy cow!