AG12 - Space Race (Sid)

[Yom]

I would prioritize ships and immortals, building only a few pikes. We'll need 25-30 ships.

 

[Aggie]

IHT: I renew the lux deal with the Otto's. Instead of giving me a lux and 18 gpt for one lux I now get Ivory, Incense, world map and 14 gold for Spices. Since we have a ruined rep, this must surely mean the the Otto's are at war with the Vikings.
I lower the lux tax to 20%. We make 101 gpt.

I decide NOT to make a possible 2fer for a lot of money (renegotiate peace with the Vikings to get Invention and then trade with Germany). The reason is our TGL-gambit. Therefore I also fire the scientist.

IT: Babylon demands tm and 29 gold. I give in.
Persepolis, Antioch: pike->immortal. Harmadan: galley->galley. The Ottomans start ToE!!

Turn 1 (660 AD) I start moving troops and galleys to Dariush Kabir.

IT: Sardis, Samaria: galley->galley. Ergili: treb->treb.

Turn 2 (670 AD) The Germans have Invention now. Babylon has infantry.

IT: Persepolis, Antioch: immortals->immortals. Arbela: pikeman->immortals, Zoha, Gordium: galley->galley.

Turn 3 (680 AD) The Vikings appear to have lost a few cities to the Ottomans. It good to see them at war. They are the biggest empires on the planet, with the Aztecs.

IT: Pasargadae: galley->galley.

Turn 4 (690 AD) Nothing much.

IT: The Inca join the Vikings in the war vs the Ottomans. No more Inca soon? A viking berzerk attacks Chalco of the Aztecs. Babylon and Korea fight within our borders. Persepolis, Antioch, Arbela: immortals->immortals. A curragh tried to get home, but sinks

Turn 5 (700 AD) The Aztecs now know Nationalism

IT: Gordium: galley->galley. Sidon: market->barracks. Tyre: galley->harbor, Hamadam, Bactra Ghulaman: galley->aquaduct, market. We have quite a few galleys now and need the vital improvements.

Turn 6 (710 AD) The Vikings are hurting seriously. And the Babylonians win the war vs Korea. The Ottomans are now not only the most advanced, most cultural and richest. They also have the highest population. We can now trade world maps every turn and until now I see no Aztec railroads. I have seen Aztec rifles on our continent though.

IT: Persepolis, Antioch: immortals->immortals, Sardis: galley->galley, Samaria: galley->aquaduct,

Turn 7 (720 AD) Map trades.

IT: Pasargadae: galley->harbor, Arbela: immortals->immortals, Ergeli: treb->treb, Istakrh: galley->harbor.

Turn 8 (730 AD) More map trading.

IT: Persepolis, Antioch: immortal->immortal, Gordium: galley->aqueduct, Zohak: galley->temple.

Turn 9 (740 AD) I build an embassy in Scandinavia for 56 gold. The only have one lux and are starving the capital. I also build an embassy in Berlin for 62 gold. They have an enormous amount of troops in the capital and only appear to have iron. Germany is at peace with the world, but Scandinavia is at war with the Ottomans, Koreans and Aztecs.

IT: Antioch: immortals->immortal, Sidon: barracks->immortals.

Turn 10 (750 AD)

Well, we are in the position to make a 2fer. Get a tech from one civ and then trade it with the Inca for Monotheism. However, I decided against it, because we are going for the TGL. The Inca deal is gone in 8 turns. We should probably make a deal then, because the Inca may go soon, giving our money back. The Aztecs have rifles, but no rails yet. This is where our troops are atm:

And all our troops plus world map:

 

[Aggie]

I think that we should be able to sail to the Aztec lands soon. We have a couple of immortals in fortified cities and other galleys are on their way to the meeting point. Our home continent will have almost no defense for a couple of turns when we sail away. But otoh we can't defend ourselves atm anyway

EDIT: We need 16 turns to sail to the Aztecs lands. I guess we have to leave asap. PS: Jinjan is about to riot.

EDIT2: There are a couple of interesting developments. The knowledge of the AI tribes are spread over 1.5 ages. We are almost level with the Inca, the scientific Germans are in the middle of the MA, the Aztecs and Korean should be somewhere at the start of the IA and the Vikings, Babylonians and Ottomans are ahead. This could give us the opportunity for trades in the future. Especially when the Viking and Korean advance is slowing because they are crippled.

ROSTER:
Greebley-----on deck (holiday from July 24th to August 9th)
betazed-----skipped until further notice
Mark1031
Aggie
Yom--------up

 

[Greebley]

Looks good aggie. If we think the forces may be sufficient, we can launch now, but continue to build galleys and immortals and especially pikes to send off. If in 16 turns we don't have sufficient troops then there will be more on their way. If we do have enough then the units on their way land on the Aztec shores and basically are sacrifices. They land maybe 2 turns before our main attack and will draw most units away. If the Aztec have rails by then, I think we will want to land all units simultaneously. The Aztecs will go for the weaker stacks first (If we did the 2 turns before, they kill the landing units the first turn and can still attack our main stack too).

I would buy the Aztecs territory map every few turns (or do map bartering for fun and profit with all civs). [edit: The reason it to find out when they get steam]

 

[Yom]

I got it.

I won't set sail just yet. Maybe in 3-4 turns when we have 40+ immortals ready to sail. We have enough ships though.

Too bad on the Aztecs getting rifles, but it's not like we weren't expecting that in the first place. It looks like Greebley/Mark will get to launch the TGL offensive.

BTW, how are we planning to get to the Aztec lands? ROP with the Germans? We might be able to get an ROP with the Aztecs and Babylonians, go through Aztec waters to the Babylonians and then (when the ROP runs out) declare war on the Aztecs. What do you guys think?

 

[Greebley]

I think a ROP with Germany and Babylon are absolutely required. Otherwise we will get booted to who knows where.

It was 15 turns to the spot that is closest to the capitol and 2 to attack (the 15 turns are from the current location of the ships)

 

[Aggie]

We certainly need the ROP with Germany and Babylon. And afaik we are allowed to decalre war while having a ROP with the Aztecs as long as we declare outside their borders.

EDIT: If we sign a ROP with the Aztecs, Germans and Babylonians NOW it will expire when we are ready to attack the Aztecs. That might be the best way to go now. I would personally not wait more than 4 turns before sailing off.

 

[Yom]

Turn 0 - We have 23 Immortals Fortified by Dariush Kabir, under 5 pikes and 2 trebuchets. I move some veteran immortals from the cities they were guarding to go towards the Galleys. It looks like the vikings did well in their war with Germany as they own Hannover and Cologne on the German continent (Beserkers are deadly even in the hands of the AI it seems).

We have 2 regular immortals but I decide not to take them. 1 is too far from the front to get their in time, while the other is protecting a city surrounded by German units. It wouldn't make a difference of they wanted to attack us, but they might be less tempted if we had a unit in the city. Unfortunately, Germany isn't at war with anyone, so they may be tempted to attack us.

I swap Sardis from a galley to an Immortal. The galley will not make it to the front in time.

IBT - Persepolis:Immortal->Immortal
Sardis:Immortal->Pikeman (for homeland defense)
Arbela:Immortal->Immortal
Jinjan riots . I even saw Aggie say to MM it.
Istanbul completes the Theory of Evolution. Whatever techs they get, I hope the Babylonians (most advanced after Ottomans) get it by the time we get TGL.

Turn 1 - Not much to do other than moving Immortals and giving Jinjan a taxman. I will probably set sail 1/2 way through my turn.

IBT - Babylon declared war on the vikings.
Antioch:Immortal->Immortal
Edrine completes Universal Suffrage

Turn 2 - Same old.

IBT - Germany signs an Alliance with the ottomans against Korea. That should keep them off our backs. The Inca make a peace treaty with Korea.
Persepolis:Immortal->Pikeman (for homeland defense, the other immortals won't make it to the front).
Sidon:Immortal->Immortal

Turn 3 - The same...

IBT - A privateer comes out of the fog and sinks one of our Galleys on its way to the rest of the fleet. This is another danger for our invasion force that we didn't expect.
Germany signs an alliance w/ the ottomans against the Vikings. Germany signs another alliance w/ the Ottomans, this time against the Inca.
Pasargadae:Harbor->Barracks
Arbela:Immortal->Pikeman
Antioch:Immortal->Pikeman
Ergili:Trebuchet->Aqueduct
Dariush Kabir starves and Tyre is now starving too. Did Alesund overtake them in culture or something?

Turn 4 - More waiting. If only Immortals had move 2 or if our core weren't so far from the docking point. Actually, the departure will be a little later than I had thought.

IBT - The German units finally unfortify and head north.
Persepolisikeman->Pikeman
Bah, in my sloth, Ghulaman riots.

Turn 5 - I will disembark in 3 turns. Unfortunately, I am short a galley (and a half) thanks to the privateer attacking. I will have to leave behind the trebuchets.

IBT - Scandinavia signs a peace treaty with Korea.
Sardisikeman->Pikeman
Antiochikeman->Pikeman
Sidon:Immortal->Pikeman

Turn 6 - More waiting. The departure is tantalizingly close.

IBT - look at those germans go...
Persepolisikeman->Pikeman.
Arbelaikeman->Pikeman

Turn 7 - We set sail next turn with 5 Pikemen and 41 Immortals. It should be enough.
I sign an ROP with the Germans for a mere 17 gold. I get an ROP with the Aztecs for 61 gold and our WM.

IBT - Pasargadae:Barracks->Pikeman
Antiochikeman->Pikeman
Tyre:Harbor->Marketplace.

Turn 8 - Our glorious Army sets sail. Wow. Which Galley to board? I name all of our galleys "Regular Galley" or "Veteran Galley" so that I can put the pikemen on the Veteran Galleys. If we are attacked by Privateers, these will be the first to go. I buy the Aztec territory map for 2 gold and confirm that he has laid no rails. I move the Galleys manually. We don't want a ship to block our path and force the Goto pathfinding the wrong way.

IBT - The Inca want to extend the peace treaty. I accept. Soon we won't need to renegotiate peace with them.
The German army heads north.
Persepolisikeman->Horseman (we can build a lot of these in our main cities and disband them in 2nd and 3rd ring cities for shields)
Gordium:Aqueduct->Harbor
Sidonikeman->Pikeman (then maybe horsemen).

Turn 9 - Not much. The fleet advances. 13 Turns to the square where we declare war, 15-16 turns to Tenochtitlan. Korea seems to be headed for the history books as it only has 2 core cities left, thanks to the Babylonians and Ottomans (let's hope they're even tech-wise with each other so that we won't still be behind a bunch of techs. This is a very war-torn planet as Heidelburg is apparently Aztec and Cempoala and Tamuin are Ottoman.

IBT- Arbelaikeman->Horseman
Antiochikeman->Pikeman
Samaria:Aqueduct->Harbor

Turn 10 - Still not much to do. I switch JinJan from a Courthouse to an Aqueduct. Some Persian Horseman/Cash-rush can speed it up. I swap Zohak from a temple to a Harbor to be completed next turn. After that it needs an Aqueduct so that it can grow.

I haven't signed an ROP with the Babylonians yet, though the next player should before entering their territory (we don't want to get booted out. Once we enter the tile from which we are going to launch our war, I would wait one turn until the galleys have full movement and then declare war the next turn. Otherwise, the Galleys are at risk for 2 turns at sea rather than just 1.

 

[Aggie]

Looks like Mark1031 is going to have all the fun, or tragic

Korea is almost gone. Should we renegotiate peace to get a cheap tech or do we not bother and wait for the capture of the Aztec capital?

ROSTER:
Greebley-----up (holiday from July 24th to August 9th)
betazed-----skipped until further notice
Mark1031----on deck
Aggie
Yom

 

[Greebley]

Ok, I got it.

I will send off a few more pikes in boats for the "lure" attack to try to pull their units out of position.

 

[Aggie]

Why can't I get that image of captain Ahab out of my head? Good luck though. We have a decent chance here. Greebley, you are right about the lure attack.

 

[Yom]

We don't have any boats left, though we can make tons of units. A couple of Vet. Galleys out of Tyre should do to transport some pikemen and the 3 Trebuchets I left behind.

 

[Greebley]

Preturn: I wake some units. to send as lures. Rush a galley.

Early: Build galleys with an occasional rush move some pikes into the galleys to send off. Attempt to defend all my towns.\

The Koreans have been destroyed.

Aztecs and Scandanavia are at peace.

Ottomans demand tribute
Ottomans establish an embassy.

Mid:
Germany and Inca sign peace.
Germany and Vikings at peace.

Vikings demand tribute

If we ever need money we can just attack an Ottoman town. He has 17k in the bank. Ottomans have nearly 50k Culture.

Late:

Babylon and Ottomans sign an alliance vs the Inca. One of the ships is sunk by a Privateer.

Notes:
Ok we are not in our official spot but we are 3 turns out from the capitol same as the spot we were going for. I think We can declare war on the very next turn. Land our 4 decoy pike and start our fleet in

Zohak will have 7 units in it as it is near the aztec town on our island.

The germans have blocked off our town and are pretty annoying.

Not sure why the Ottomans sent their ships in. Perhaps they are after the Germans? Ottomans are pretty strong.

 

[Greebley]

We are just in time. I traded maps with everyone and see the Aztecs first rails [note that there are more not in this picture]

I suggest we declare next turn. We are 3 away which I think is as close as we can get.

Good luck.

 

[Aggie]

Next player, don't forget to send that "lure" stack in. And it also may be a good idea to investigate Teno first.

EDIT: I vote to have an MA with Babylon or another close neighbour that could spread their troops. Our lure attack is too small to scare them I'm afraid.

ROSTER:
Greebley (holiday from July 24th to August 9th)
betazed-----skipped until further notice
Mark1031----up
Aggie--------on deck
Yom

 

[Yom]

I believe the plan was to go 3 SEW and then 1 South to stay in Babylonian Lands. I'm sure an ROP won't cost anything over 100 gold, so we can easily afford it. I wouldn't want to put our units at risk 1 turn more than we had to. It looks like the Aztecs got Steam.

Lucky Mark gets to take the Great Library (hopefully) and then the hard part starts .

I'm not sure about how many Galleys it takes for an AI to boot you out of their waters, but I wouldn't want to risk getting kicked out into Aztec lands the turn we were planning to attack.

Edit: For instance, take the stack of Galleons/Frigates the Aztec have next to our fleet. We wouldn't want to lose ships to those units. My proposed path doesn't delay the attack, and, at the same time, only exposes our fleet to attack for just one turn.

 

[Greebley]

The only thing is that the lure stack may lure units out of the capitol. We can investigate the city, but still may not know whether we should attack our not. I do agree we should investigate however to give us some idea.

[Edit: I think we want to take land on the 3rd turn. That will give units two turns to move away toward the lure so they cannot attack us. we could start back further though.

It will also take 2 turns do line that up which means 2 more turns of rail. I think we should attack from where we are.

We of course already have a ROP with Bablyon else we would be booted back home on the inter-turn.

 

[Yom]

@Greebley: It's not quicker, it's just that the Aztecs only have 1 turn to attack our ships using that pathway, rather than declaring war now, and exposing our units for 2 turns.

 

[Greebley]

I guess I am less worried about boats and more worried about land units. We can see what other think.

 

[Yom]

I don't care about the boats, it's what's in the boats that I care about. Until we land our immortals, every boat we lose is 2 immortals down the drain.