Another Brennus Game

[krikav]

T112 save

 

[krikav]

Spoiler T120 :

I leave Vienne empty in favour of continuing to push forward, thinking that I can always take back that city later.

But for some reason, he doesn't take it. O_o

I snipe of a careless elephant, (and win!!) I also get a HA outside of Aachen for free.
However, still no chance for ceasefire. :/
Is this because my empire is too small?

Escorting out my catapults out of Aachen, want to meet up with them and have them for Vienna.

The gallic warrior with almost full fortify and guerilla2 defends against a evil elephant.
Was contemplating to turn back and attack with a catapult, but he almost only have seige in his stack so the collateral would be thin.

That looks scary. :'( Still no ceasefire.

One mace tries to attack Aachen but dies, that seems to calm his catapults down.
But a Knecht appears out of nowhere and gives my catapults a beating.
Turns out Pericles gave Charly iron for dye. Argh. >_<

I try to sacrifice the scout, hoping his stack would stomp it instead of attacking the city. I just need one more turn!

 

[Fippy]

Good to see you doing well, deserved with the difficulty of those maps
With Charly's land you should be in okay shape?
Bighat already pressuring you hard on the island shows that only war was an option imo, agree that GLH here would be just rng luck based.

 

[Fippy]

Oops your new update looks more dire, geez

Stack outside Aachen looks beatable, lots of weak defenders (Cats and HAs), only 2 Jumbos?
Hmm maybe you need more yourself too.

 

[krikav]

Spoiler T121 :

I almost die, but just almost.

My turn...

Still won't accept ceasefire. And 100g for peace isn't enough, neither is 200g.
But 300g, that satisfies his hunger.

Now I'm in quite a hole. :/ Not sure if this is recoverable.
Didn't get the holy city so espionage wouldn't be as effective.
I need to get alot of happines so I can starve out some GPersons from these huge cities.

Ivory and/or clam to Gandhi to get fur/spice, and silver for rice with pericles perhaps.
Perhaps I should even pay GPT for wine/gold with Hannibal...?

If I get philo really fast I might have some trading possibilities with Charly and Pericles, but I don't know if thats enough when I have 5 cities, 2 severely culture pushed, one whipped to oblivion and being crushed by hanging gardens and one foodless crapspot.

 

[krikav]

Oh, one idea is to try to buddy up with Ragnar somehow, he is behind and I could do some trading with him.
DoW Gandhi for shared war bonus and go out of religion, perhaps try to self-tech monarchy if it's doable quickly for his fav civic.

 

[Fippy]

Hmm Ragnar will not trade until pleased, annoying. Looks like too many negative hits already?

Your army looks fine for Prague with GG help, even against Castles and Longbows. Enuf Cats fix anything, so i think you have to keep taking land from Charlie soon. Some resi trades can cover for more whipping anger.

Some crazy tech pace there which hurts you, not sure what to do against that for now.
Maybe have to selftech Mona, for happy and Ragnar.

 

[krikav]

I'm not sure what on earth I'm suposed to do about the landsknechts though... I don't even have any friggin iron for xbows. Have to see how the next 10 turns look, have studied the situation now and it looks even more dire than I thought.

Spoiler :

Did these trades, had to pay Hanny 12gpt for the gold else the city at Joaos place is toast.
DoWing Gandhi would be horrible. Maybee after monarchy.

Swapped out of buddhism and gave sold Ragnar a tech for 40g but that was not enough. Think I need one more point. Gave him my resources to see if I can get a point that way.

This city has 5-8% chance of revolt. Will try to ship some units here pronto. But with the happy resources I can at least work the fish and get some worker. I have only two. I can also go for some settler because I have foodless space and those are OK with GLH.

This city is also eager to revolt. Hopefully I get OB with charly next turn and can start to move units here.
Trying to get a GSci seems most sensible so I can bulb philo.

 

[Fippy]

Against Schnekts you can promote some cats to drill - shock, not great but makes them about even on defense.
On offense they will hopefully be taken down with collateral.

Island city i see as whip down and abandon, hopefully no revolts until you got some more units out.
Not sure if i would go for a worker there, with clams you could get more size 4 growths (for Jumbo or Cat whips).

 

[krikav]

Spoiler T143 :

First things that happen next turn is taht Aachen goes into revolt.... Can't use that city for 6 turns. >_<

I settle some junk citites, this one gave me +15 commerce per turn or something in that order, quite GLH ridiculousness.

Why not build Taj Hanny? You deserve it!

I get a well deserved break. <3 Gandhi.
The same turn though, he holds a AP vote to give Joao that city. I defy. Going to keep that city and stack up defyment untill it flips so I get as much city culture in there as possible. And the traderoutes are lovely too.
Machinery looked even better at first, as Ragnar didn't have it (!!)

But no, could not be that lucky.
I'm on my way to feud btw, I want a couple of longbows in the cities I have stolen from Charly, as I'm to spread out and can't properly defend. (Or at least, I lack the skills to do it.)
Next turn I get feud for compass+160g, I agree to that.

And I was so happy that Pericles dropped that trade, now Hannibal provides Charly with Knecht-material. :<

A revolt in this city too. I even went back to buddhism to reduce the odds (4% something here)

T136 Ragnar capitulates to Gandhi! Which is usually the other way around. Gj Gandhi!
Joao also proves the world is round.

I contemplate my fate here.. No use bulbing philosophy when I can't trade with anyone.
I decide to go for an academy in the capital, even though I probably have to go full espionage as soon as I get some multipliers (nationalism).
An academy also increaess the chances that I reach guilds in time for it to be trade-worthy.

I'm quite sure that I have never ever had Guilds as a tradebait this usefull before.
Gandhi at scimeth, and Joao is pushing physics.
Noone seem to have any beakers invested in guilds either.

Most of Charlys stack is up north, which 3-5 turns ago consisted of 3 jumbos, 3 HAs, 2 catapults, a knecht and a mace.
There is also some scattered stacks further south.
He has managed to get a prophet and made the shrine too. I'm starting to get some hopes up!

 

[krikav]

This game is starting to get quite tedious. Just a quick update at T188:

Spoiler :

I wanted to kill Charly off. He refused to capitulte for the longest time, and I doubt I have much use of him alive at this stage.
Maniz down in the dye-jungle could have been nice to have him hold as that would culture push Hannibal abit, but it has already flipped by this time (Unlucky with revolts today it seems!)

Anyway, I was too eager and just lost 3 well promoted elephants and a fresh treb on galleys because I was careless and didn't see boats of his. Now I have to replenish boats and make sure they get over safely. >_<

Still utterly and hopelessly behind.
And extremly annoying at Pericles, who is stubbornly refusing to tech gunpowder and rifling, even though he is being constantly hammered by Hannibals cavalery, and he is starting to lose cities too...

I lost a whole bunch of spies trying to steel tech, and will have troubles getting more over as privateers roam the seas now.
But I got PP and Constitution, so now I can get jails up.

Looking at it now, charlys land is kind of bad too.

This was really nice though, only saw this island when I got someones map, and quickly whipped a settler and sent a galley down. Was suprised that it was still available when I got here.
But a source of iron is a great relief.

I have whipped alot and put overflow into heroic, so should be able to get a substantial boost there.
Flipping in and out of nationalism, being in burocracy for 5 turns saving cash, then back to nationalism and 100% espionage untill cash is dry again.

I'm not that good at these situations.
I'm fine when I can catch up some AIs with inf+artilery, or when I get a land advantage abit earlier and can go for tanks+bombers against a technologically superior foe, but like this I have a tougher time.

I know there is always the option to go nuclear though, but thats likely hours and hours of tedious micro.

Any thoughts or pointers?
I'm tempted to leave this game for more fun adventures now.

 

[Pedro78]

Nice write-up as always, Krikav.

Spoiler thoughts :

How I see the rest of the game going:

Steal your way to Communism (via Astro) from Joao for SP + Intel Agencies, then stack EPs on Hannibal, until you gift him the island iron city full of spies & steal your way to Industrialism, Flight & Facism. Then you probably want factories + power at least in some cities (but definitely not in all of them, Forge+SP+Police State = +60% already), and you probably want to whip your late-game army, since you have decent food but few power tiles. Then you can probably win Dom by wiping out the eastern continent.
If Joao is too strong at this point (mobile artillery, modern armor & stuff), a good thing to do is to raze all his coastal cities to cripple him (very easy with Marines + fighters). Then move in with a stack of troopers in the last coastal city & take out the landlocked ones with fighters + troopers. Can take out even the strongest AIs this way in my experience, all you need is a strong fleet (at least 10-15 battleships, otherwise your ships & army are never safe) and enough fighters (~30-60 depending on how big the AI is), + spies to destroy the bunkers.

Carthage is coastal so space is not a threat. Might have to watch out for culture though (didn't look at the save).

Did anyone build the Kremlin? If it's in a captureable position, you may want to secure it and skip building factories altogether.

 

[krikav]

Thanks!

Nice strategies, thanks alot for mentioning those!
Been following the mantra of ignoring naval units more or less completely, but it makes sense that they make a comeback i the very late game.
Have rarely (if ever) used paratroopers either.

Kremin is built by Joao.
But there is a GGeneral somewhere unused, and another one will spawn if whiping out charly. So could get two military academies too for an alternative way to ignore factories. (MilAcademy in two strong cities, heroic in another).

But I feel abit exhausted by this game already, and I think I'll move on to the third Brennus start that I have stacked up. (Looks abit easier!)
If I invest the time and energy into going that late game and trying to learn some of the tricks, I have to have somewhat decent odds of success, here I have a hard time seeing myself juggling both these juggernouts. Hanny is sure to capitulate Pericles soon and Gandhi will be a culture threat sooner than later.

 

[krikav]

Continuing this series with a third Brennus game.
Brennus Thirdly