Always War Deity on Standard Pangaea

[Mumpulus]

Turn 130 - 50AD
I fix some MM, thereby already increasing treb production.

IT
15 French horsemen move into our territory, all on forests. One non-essential road gets pillaged by the Mongols. Retreat one Keshik at Verbotene Stadt.

Turn 131 - 70AD
We kill a bunch of horses and all Mongol units near München. We have a wounded army again though.

IT
We do very well at Düsseldorf, where pikes retreat a Keshik and defend against an LB and a crusader. The Egyptians start Bach's.

Turn 132 - 90AD
While killing one of the many French horses, I finally get lucky again:

Hengest forms an army, which is filled immediately to kill 2 more horses and still be in position to attack Almarikh next turn. Another army moves onto Almarikh now, killing another unit along the way.

We're suddenly above unit support, not bad . Furthermore, there are only 2 healthy strong attackers (Mongol LBs), and 5 French horses in range.

IT
A stack of weak Aztec units approaches, and ... the French attack the Aztecs!

Our first university finishes in Berlin, and Verbotene Stadt finishes its walls.

Turn 133 - 110AD
One army kills 3 pikes in Almarikh, a second army kills another. There are units healing there though, so the city holds. This will be a tough nut to crack.

I am able to shift some trebs forward to the Düsseldorf Mountain nearest to Almarikh, and kill 2 Keshiks with the third army.

Because of that, the tactical situation improves a lot, and I take a chance. I use a 2hp eKnight to kill a redlined LB, and:

He rushes the Pentagon in Düsseldorf.

I have 6 trebs to spare, that move next to Almarikh to aid in next turn's attack.

IT
A knight defends against an unexpected attack by a wounded LB and promotes. Gunpowder is in, Chemistry is due in 23 turns.

Turn 134 - 130AD
Trebuchets do well at Almarikh, but there are just too many defenders inside to take it this turn. I let all the armies heal. The additional units I put in place last turn just kill of units that are returning to Almarikh.

I then turn my attention to clearing more of those French horses, and my luck really has turned:

Rommel rushes the Forbidden Palace in Verbotene Stadt.

The promised land:

IT
We retreat a Keshik at Düsseldorf.

Turn 135 - 150AD
First I clear this turn's batch of French horses. The influx of those will slow a bit since I saw a nice even exchange between the French and the Aztecs during the IT. With all our armies, we are a bit short on units again.

Bombardment reveals 3 pikes in Almarikh, and there must be at least a couple of healing units still there. Since I have two armies there, I decide to press on this time.

The battle for Almarikh

The first army, that still has only three units in it, is at 11/13 hitpoints and attacks a fortified 3hp veteran pike. A defensive treb shot hits, but the pike does no further damage, so the army is still at 10 hitpoints. An unfortified 3hp veteran pike is next. A defensive LB shot does no damage, but the pike itself defends better this time, and takes off 3 more hitpoints. The army is at 7/13 hitpoints now, with one movement point left. A fortified 2hp regular pike is defending now. I take a chance and go again. Both a defensive LB shot hit, and the pike does well. The army ends up with only 4 hitpoints left, but the third pike is gone.

The second army has only 7 hitpoints to start with, and there are 6 Keshiks and a crusader visible nearby, that could attack in the coming turns. So I think I'll have to call off the attack. I do decide to "take another look" by attacking with a 3hp *MDI. That attack shows yet another LB with a defensive volley, but another pikeman does bite the dust. The next unit showing is a 2hp regular LB. A 4hp elite sword takes care of that one, and there is no more defensive shot. That means there are at most 2 LBs left in there.

The army should be able to handle that. The first LB takes off 1 hitpoint of our army, the second one does no damage, and:

I found Karlsruhe on the hills near the Almarikh ruins. It's in a very good defensive spot, with jungle or mountains on all adjacent tiles except one, and a river nearby. The 6hp army will do defense for the first turn.

I finish by using the third army until it goes down to 4hp, but it does kill 3 Keshiks.

 

[Mumpulus]

Here's another picture of the situation at the front. It should be pretty self-explanatory.
I've provided details for every stack, the stats for loose units can be read from the hitpoint bars.

As you can see, the red dots and exploration area aren't in the same place as my planned attack.
That could be a problem. I'll have to think that over before continuing.

 

[Mumpulus]

Our military again:

And an annotated snapshot of the economy, with the strongest producers:

Not all towns are in their standard configuration, due to a chop finishing soon. I put the "standard" figures in as well. "(CH)" means I'm building a courthouse there, which should help of course. Berlin will finish a settler next IT, but I'm getting close to putting it on military, and peeling off settlers elsewhere. As soon as happiness in Heidelburg becomes manageable (I poprushed a lot there), I'll shift main settler production to there. Stuttgart will finish its barracks on the IT, and will also start producing knights. It can do 5spt at the current size, and will grow soon into even more shields.

I've played 15 turns since I posted that things weren't looking good, and I gave myself 20 turns to fix that. Our military is still very light considering. Any big landing up north would be problematic, and we lack MPs in a few places. But the situation is markedly better now. I've taken down the first enemy town, and was able to replace it immediately. A third luxury resource is within my grasp. Towns are growing steadily. The FP has been built, and production is up due to that. So things are looking better indeed.

I'll try to squeeze in some more infrastructure if possible. As soon as the spices are under control and the combat situation allows, I'll revolt to monarchy. I'm hoping the front can be controlled with one army, which would allow the other two to make a dent in the Mongol core. That'll have to wait a few turns though, because I haven't even filled all the armies yet.

 

[CivRulesAll]

hmm... deity ill be following this story til the end! ive seen an Iroquois sid archipelago once,that was really good, so i expect this is gonna be fun =D

 

[Rodent]

Subscribed!

Some bit of luck with the leaders!! If you get another leader will the military academy be on the cards?

 

[CivRulesAll]

Subscribed!

Some bit of luck with the leaders!! If you get another leader will the military academy be on the cards?

u only need 1 army and military tradition to build military academy

 

[Mumpulus]

I did get lucky with all those leaders for a moment there, but then again, it had been a long time since I got my first. I haven't counted the number of elite victories, but I've had a lot of those of course.

Like CivRulesAll said, I don't have MT yet, so no academy yet. The next leader will become an army for sure. The one after that will probably rush the Heroic Epic (which I still haven't built), unless I've succeeded in taking out several more enemy towns. If that's the case, I'll take a town off troops and hand-build the HE, and the leader will become another army for higher conquering speed. I don't think the situation will feel sufficiently comfortable to do that though.

 

[Mumpulus]

I didn't expect to get back to this game so soon, but I just had to continue with the next turns, given that some serious attacks on the enemy are finally coming. You know the feeling.

But it will be hard for a little while. Like I sketched in the comments with the last overview picture, I'd like to settle the next towns to the south, which is in the path of French, but away from the much stronger Mongols. On the other hand, as far as military strategy goes, the reasons for going after the Mongols are compelling: they are stronger, and we are probably very close to their core, where there are some nice prizes to be had (Knights Templar, Leonardo's Workshop).

The dichotomy is unfortunate, but I decide I'll have to live with it. There's no use in expanding very slowly in the jungle and playing defense only. The time has come to attack.

Turn 136 - 170AD
We have contact with the Hittites, probably via PP-contact, because I can't see any units:

With all the trebs near Düsseldorf, I succeed in pinging most units. I only kill one though, and let the other troops heal.

IT
French and Mongol boats approaching in the south.

Turn 137 - 190AD
There's an archer and a horse in the Verbotene Stadt forest. The archer is killed by an elite knight. I don't have many units to spare, so I take a 4hp elite swordsman from Karlsruhe mountain. It gets hit by a ZoC shot from one of the Keshiks outside Düsseldorf. A redlined horse still shouldn't be a problem, so I attack anyway, and I'm glad I did:

Barbarossa forms our fourth army. I have to use another army to kill those Keshiks near Düsseldorf, because our trebs perform poorly. They would have threatened our roading crew.

I load a third army with a fourth knight, and move it out, killing an Aztec swordsman along the way. This is what it reveals:

I already pillaged the road where the army is, and I'll pillage the other marked roads as well, during this turn and the next. It is very strange to see so little of the lands improved there.

IT
An Arab caravel approaches from the north. We may see some landings soon. The Mongol and French galleys from the south continue northbound.

Turn 138 - 210AD
Our lands are almost clear of enemy units. I leave the French and Aztecs alone because they will go after each other. I move a second army towards Ta-Tu and kill a pike there.

IT
The Aztecs attack the French as expected, but the French attack us. They lose all the units in their stack of about 5 or 6, on the 3-unit army in Karlsruhe. The Mongols land a lone LB at Frankfurt, no problem there.

Turn 139 - 230AD
Kill another pike in Ta-Tu, but it takes a lot out of the army. Since it came from the other side, I have to waste all the movement of the second army there to cover it. All roads to Ta-Tu have been cut though.

I move a new settler towards its spot. It's just the French there, so I can cover with pikes and a knight. Roading crews are small, but larger ones are forming. There are some roads already in place too. Verbotene Stadt's borders have expanded, so one roaded hill is under our control now.

Here's the situation on the western side of the front:

Here's the situation on the eastern side of the front:

 

[Mumpulus]

I noticed I haven't posted a picture of the northern lands in a while. Here's an overview at the end of turn 139:

 

[Rodent]

, careful with the AI landings, although you have some defense there

 

[Mumpulus]

I have more than enough landing defense, for the current landing area. I'm just afraid of what will happen when I cover one too many of the precious tiles around my big producers, and the landings shift to the north all of a sudden. I stand to lose some towns then. I have 1 knight by Bremen, and that's it. Actually, I'd like some units in the northern towns just to serve as MPs. I'm just way short on troops. You can see in that last picture that I'm building regular pikes in Köln and Hannover, to take up some MP duty. But there's nothing I can do right now. I just have to hold on a few more turns and produce more units, all the while hoping there aren't any landings in the north.

 

[Mumpulus]

I have been contemplating what to do next, and the priority should be to become a monarchy. During the last five turns, research time on chemistry has gone from 20 turns to 20 turns. Not good. I'm hoping monarchy will allow faster research. I'll need the spices hooked up, so that will be the next step.

IT
The French unload an archer and two horsemen by Berlin. They are still at war with the Aztecs luckily; I see some attacks again.

Turn 140 - 250AD
I start by killing off the French landing party without much problems. At the front, trebs perform ok, so there aren't many units I have to kill really. The Aztec stacks are in the jungle, so I'll just whittle those down before decimating them. I can attack two French horses on flat land, and the second kill gives me:

I don't have nearly enough knights to fill another army, so Richtofen will rush the Heroic Epic next turn, in Verbotene Stadt (our citizens will finish building a barracks there next IT).

IT
We are attacked by a few Aztecs at Karlsruhe, but they do little damage.

Turn 141 - 260AD
I have so few units, I'd rather not attack too much. However, I want to move my current settler forward, so I have to kill some Mongol LB that advanced to Verbotene Stadt. The only unit that can reach it is an elite horseman, and well, you can guess what happens when he wins:

The leader creates an army that will sit empty for a while.

The units in Düsseldorf retreat some Keshiks, that are then finished off by the army in Karlsruhe. I move units and settler forward to the empty hills. I also move the western army forward, with another settler underneath.

IT
Only exchanges between French and Aztecs, mostly in favor of the French (who are really blessed with good RNG).

Turn 142 - 270AD
Augsburg is founded in the middle of more jungle, cutting off some French supply lines.

IT
The Arabs and the French each land a unit by Berlin. The French start Bach's. A pikeman covering a roading crew near Heidelburg defends against a Mongol LB.

Turn 143 - 280AD
Here's another tactical nightmare, especially with my inferior numbers. I'm afraid to take the army out of Karlsruhe, because the Aztecs might do some damage.

I go ahead with the plan outlined in the picture (sorry about the poor quality of the blue texts). We lose an eMDI on the crusader, and a vKnight on the landed French spearman. A regular spearman has to finish him off (he was on a jungle tile too).

To make things right again: knight army kills vPike, rPike and vSpear; second knight army kills redlined Keshik, and:

Capture 3 trebs and 5 slaves. The money our troops plundered allows me to turn up research again.

IT
We fend off three attacks, but also lose one battle. We gain an elite Pike.

Turn 144 - 290AD
Our 3-knight army kills 2 spearmen in Lisht. An LB remains and if I attack I won't be able to defend our own settler, so I hold off.

Turn 145 - 300AD
Spices are hooked up.

Our army kills 3 more units in Lisht, and:

I found Freiburg in its stead, and start walls of course. I'll probably revolt next turn, after our next knight is produced. I'll have 5 knights not in armies then, and I can upgrade a *Horseman too. That should get me through the anarchy.

 

[Mumpulus]

IT
How rude, they didn't even come to say hello:

Turn 146 - 310AD

Now that we know everyone, let's see what our military advisors can teach us about the inter-AI diplomatic relationships. The following picture is based on the records on unit captures on the F3 screen. Some workers may have changed hands peacefully, so this isn't conclusive, but these wars have probably been going on:

The Aztec-French war has been confirmed, and is still raging. All this is probably the reason why I'm still alive.

I pull the trigger:

IT
We hold on to our army in Freiburg by 1 hitpoint! The Russians start Bach's.

Turn 147 - 320AD
At the end of this turn, there is only a single enemy unit within our territory. It's been ages since our lands were this safe. Still, that one unit could do some damage. Trebuchets are on their way to help out starting next turn.

IT
The damned French longbow kills our pike in Freiburg.

Turn 148 - 330AD
Our fallen comrade is avenged by an elite knight. We get a university in Leipzig:

IT
This time we defeat an LB at Augsburg.

Turn 149 - 340AD
Augsburg is garrisoned with an army now. The empty army that we still had is getting filled now. We have 3 free knights left, two of them in our core to handle landings.

IT
The first musketeer shows up.

Turn 150 - 350AD
Somehow, this game is getting easier. I can actually move an army forward towards the Mongols again. 3 turns of anarchy to go.

IT
It would appear the landing spot has shifted, because lots of boats are now sailing around towards the München area.

Turn 151 - 360AD
Oh, look what I've found:

IT
An Aztec swordsman lands by empty Leipzig.

Turn 152 - 370AD
Just killing units and pillaging around Karakorum.

IT

Turn 153 - 380AD
The first thing I ordain as a monarch is to rush walls in Augsburg.

There are currently 10 units in my territory, some wounded. I'm using three armies for defense right now, but I should be able to reduce that to two when I get some more roads up. That'll give me three armies to play with at Karakorum.

Some more great news: if one goes three tiles east from Karakorum, you see the ocean. I'm seeing an 8-tile front line right now. Aztecs are coming from the north, all other civs except the French are coming by boat. So I may be able to isolate a big chunk of land all for myself.

 

[CivRulesAll]

is it possible we could get a map?

 

[Own]

Hey Mumpulus

I'm probably retired from civ at least for a long time, but I just had to say that this game here is out the control. Good luck! I'll be watching (as you may have noticed, I do lurk the SG forum from time to time).

 

[Mumpulus]

is it possible we could get a map?

I duly apologize for the lack of a map. I really wanted to post one, but I decided instead to go with the verbal description in the last paragraph in the post above.

Allow me to explain.

I wanted to play just a couple of turns yesterday, to round up the turns that I had played the day before and also a few I played a week ago, and get right up to the turn where I would revolt. I then put my report together, and that was supposed to be that. I finished around 9pm. I had played only two turns, as planned. I hadn't planned on playing any more turns beyond that.

But then I suddenly succumbed to this strange and complex disease called "One More Turn (TM) syndrome": I got this irresistible urge to get these anarchy turns out of the way. I just had to find out if those turns would mean the end of this game. And I thought, hey, there's not as much need for micromanagement during anarchy, so these turns will be fast. And after all, it was only 9:00pm, what else was I going to do? Anyway, you know how these things go, right?

But then everything just went horribly wrong. First off, I got contact with the Russians. Now, I had already seen on the F3 screen that there were other wars going on. I had resolved, some time ago, to make that picture showing the AI wars as soon as all contacts were in. So I just had to make that picture. That makes it 9:30pm.

I don't remember exactly what I did after that, but I see from the timestamp on my picture files that it took me another half hour to create the revolution picture. I probably spent some time looking over things to determine if there were other tidbits of information worth dispensing to my audience. And I must also have pondered for a few more minutes whether or not I really felt ready to go into anarchy.

Then came the micromanagement for anarchy, where I had to shuffle quite a few tiles to keep cities from starving. By the way, I didn't mention this before, but Nürnberg lost some population (one pop unit to be exact) due to the reduced productivity. Add another 20 minutes before the Anarchistic Knight shows up. Also, clearing all those enemy units with so few of our own units available requires some planning, especially with troop depletion being more of an issue during a period of seven turns without replacements.

During the next few turns, 340AD to 360AD, I started using the armies to attack more. That takes more planning, because you don't want to end up with an army out of place. You can also see that during those turns, enemy target count decreased ("this game is getting easier"). One consequence of that was some unused trebuchets. Well now, in my log I don't describe this in detail, but that requires even more planning. Firing a trebuchet is done quickly: find the strongest defender covering attackers that can attack, point, press 'B' and click. But moving a trebuchet is an entirely different beast: you have to estimate how the enemy will move, then based on that estimate determine where the dangerous attacker stacks will be and whether or not they'll be sufficiently well defended to warrant the use of artillery. Actually, in this case I looked two turns ahead, to decide if I could send out an army (which I did in the end).

With all that, it is 11:08pm by the time I have found Karakorum and made a picture to share my joy.

Let's say it took 15 minutes per turn on average to play those quick anarchy turns. Plus some overhead to create the pictures and log. At 11:30pm I finish actual play. So now I'm angry with myself because in reality I knew up front that anarchy turns don't play fast if I'm the one playing them. No turns play fast in AW. But anyway, I've played those turns so I might as well post about them too, right? Surely, some folks on CFC must be curious if I got through the anarchy in one piece, right?

Putting the log together and uploading the pictures to a fairly unresponsive imageshack site takes another thirty to forty minutes. Actually debating with myself if I'm going to make a screenshot of the Mongol lands takes a few minutes as well.

In the end, it's 0:20am, and I decide against posting a map. I just put in the quick note, and decide to make a picture before I start the next sitting.

Ah, don't you all love that nice feeling you get when you've played civ for too long, even when you swore not to fall into that trap again?

Anyway, before I forget: you'll find a map, with directions, in my very next post.

 

[Mumpulus]

 

[Mumpulus]

The current state of the German military. Numbers between parentheses show the number of elites per unit type. I'm paying 45gpt upkeep right now. Four towns will become cities soon (8pgt). I'll also try to settle some of those red dots soon.

An assessment of our strength by our military advisor:

 

[Mumpulus]

Berlin, our Kingdom's capital city, was founded in 3950BC. It is only in recent times that it began to fully develop into a true city. Before that, it had been the main center of efforts towards our nation's territorial expansion.

Berlin will finish a marketplace in 2 turns, a barracks after that in 2 more turns, then 5 turn knights. It already has a granary, library and university.

At +14spt, it will have +4fpt, with no problems to do +8fpt every fourth turn for growth in 4 turns. With the granary there, I'll often peel off a settler.

 

[Mumpulus]

Leipzig is our second city, founded in 3100BC. It has always been the most versatile city, both strong in production and commerce, while also providing settlers and workers at times.

Leipzig is just getting started on a fresh Knight. Leipzig really does 12spt after corruption, except on this first turn of the cycle for extra growth. You can see a free mined plains tile that will be used for that. For this turn only, I keep it free for München to pick up upon growth next IT. Leipzig does 6 turn knights for now. Once it reaches size 8, it will be able to do 5 turn knights.

Leipzig has a barracks, library and university.