Bede01:Funny thing happened...

[scoutsout]

@ Bede: you recall correctly, in C3C a MGL can rush a small wonder.

So are we ready to build a FP already? Nobody wants to see how far we can push our empire to the northeast?

 

[Cuivienen]

Got it!

I think we should built the FP in former Arab lands, but I think we can also hold back for a little while.

Quick question -- should we eliminate Arabia, or take Khurasan and Anjar and then demand The Wheel, Polytheism and Map making of him? Either seems like a good idea, and we seem to be ebhind the other continent, wherever that might be. I'll wait for responses before playing.

 

[barbslinger]

I was thinking get demands now. Any tech that leads to higher level techs. We can use him as a subserviant for a while. He will never be strong again but we can use him for trading over and over. Until we get an FP in his lands those cities are useless to us. I don't think he will be building culture. It'll be settlers for him, desperately. Even let him across to settle in the desert to our east, or jungle in the NE. We can take those towns later and get more tech.
Right now I think heading for markets and looking for other Civs are much more important than dealing with puny Abu. Extort away. We'll get more tech in 20.

 

[Bede]

Concur.

 

[Cuivienen]

Good, that was what I was thinking. I'll get him down to an OCC in Basra, blockade him on the peninsula, then extort all of his techs.

 

[scoutsout]

Originally posted by Cuivienen
Good, that was what I was thinking. I'll get him down to an OCC in Basra, blockade him on the peninsula, then extort all of his techs.

Hey - don't box him in too badly - let's let his settlers use their divining rods to locate all of the saltpeter, oil, rubber, etc... (I'll bet anybody here a six of their favorites that there's either oil or saltpeter in the 9 tiles of that Arab city to the NE...)

 

[barbslinger]

I agree with Scoutsout. As stated in my prior post I don't mind if he has 3-4 or 5 tows spread out all over. If he is OCC you can't extort. We'll take him out in due time. Get what you can and then let him wander with settler pairs freely. The other AI, infrastructure and barbs are the biggest worries right now.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

I bet it isn't in the nine tiles. I bet it is directly underneath the city

 

[Bede]

So take two towns, extort what you can, then, since wandering Arab goatherds need shepherds, detail an AC to keep an eye on them, then let 'em loose to settle the badlands while we fill up the south.

 

[scoutsout]

Something tells me Cuivienen's already playing cute little elvish tricks with our favorite serf, Abu-the-sock-puppet.

@ Sir Bugsy: take away the city center, how many tiles have ya got? (Actually, one of those tiles is water...so I'm not takin' that side bet Bugs...)

What would you all say if I suggested we get some spears (or maybe Legionnaires) to guard some worker gangs to build us a nice road headed Northeast for expansion towards that jungle area that had the spices Barbslinger spotted?

 

[Sir Bugsy]

@ Scout - you have eight left over. So I'll take the one in the middle and you can have the other eight. Actually the AI have really good aim since they can see the entire map.

I'm betting it will either be saltpeter or oil under that city.

 

[Cuivienen]

Originally posted by scoutsout
Hey - don't box him in too badly - let's let his settlers use their divining rods to locate all of the saltpeter, oil, rubber, etc... (I'll bet anybody here a six of their favorites that there's either oil or saltpeter in the 9 tiles of that Arab city to the NE...)

hehe. Too late. He has Map Making, though, so his Galleys full of Settlers will be wandering the coasts.

 

[barbslinger]

Originally posted by scoutsout
What would you all say if I suggested we get some spears (or maybe Legionnaires) to guard some worker gangs to build us a nice road headed Northeast for expansion towards that jungle area that had the spices Barbslinger spotted?

I think the spices to the E will be easier to get. We will have to attack that jungle sooner or later and it will take a lot of workers and I think our workers are still in infra push. We will get to it I just think it will be in 30-40 turns though. I am reasonably certain the whole darn continent will be ours someday unless we really screw up somehow. It seems that since only 2 luxes are here that Abu is our only other neighbor. That leaves that prime land up north near the 26 barb horses an area we can expect company from someday. I think sending some AC's to work on clearing out the immense barb camps is probably in order. 5 AC's will take 5 turns to clear out a 25 horse camp and then you need some sentries to keep the land lit up. That is a lot of manpower clearing out what looks to 4 visible camps and whatever else that may be in the fog still. I think we should be getting an FP, heading to Republic and fluffing out our cores while expending what we can find the other civs. If some one else settles north or in the jungle, big whoop, we can handle them and once we have the continent we look to be huge.

 

[barbslinger]

Originally posted by Cuivienen
hehe. Too late. He has Map Making, though, so his Galleys full of Settlers will be wandering the coasts.

Someday maybe. They will be so far flung and corrupt it will be 20 turns before he will even have another defender in them, notwithstanding pop rushed ones. He will be easy pickings and the more settlements he gets the less settlers we need and we need all we can build to settle our south and into the jungle. Abu has no glory days to be had. We will run over him again when need be.

 

[scoutsout]

Originally posted by barbslinger
I think sending some AC's to work on clearing out the immense barb camps is probably in order. 5 AC's will take 5 turns to clear out a 25 horse camp<snip>

One very minor point here - IIRC the AC have been toned down in the latest patch. They used to be a 3/2/2 unit, now I think they're basically an Iroqois Mounted Warrior (3/1) We might want to be careful sending small stacks of AC against large stacks of Barb horses... I know the vet A/C have 5 hit points... but I'd hate to lose AC to barbs... we'll only get so many. If there are hills/mountains next to the barb camps we'll be okay... if the camps are on open terrain it might be worth considering some spears for the barb patrols...

 

[barbslinger]

I'm confident that if they are fortified in the jungle they will do well. 96% favorite on vet, 98% on elite. Just kill a barb and fortify with a stack. Then leave a sentry/settlement and move to next camp

 

[scoutsout]

@ Barbslinger: If you're confident, I'm happy. I think your last confident statement had something to do with Warrior Code and the Arabs not presenting much of a problem...

And thence did Rome's Troubador take sharp pointy things in hand, and did smite Abu-the-whipping-boy. And like a jack-sandaled thug (for "jackboots" would not be invented several eons hence) he did gird up his Fender Guitar, and make the maidens of Mecca dance until they could dance no more, until there was only one left. And he did speak to the last maiden, and sayeth unto her: "Henceforth, may all your children declare from birth 'I am a citizen of Rome', lest I be forced to break out my Axe once more.

 

[Cuivienen]

Rome the Backward

(IT) -- Take Khurasan, losing an Archer. 3 slave workers! The Arabs will give us Anjar (Saltpeter/Oil city ), 19 gold and The Wheel for a rest. However, he would also give us The Wheel, Map Making, Polytheism and 19 gold for Code of Laws and a rest. I'd rather just trade CoL after signing peace -- first deal accepted.

That's a good one -- Arabia will trade us neither map Making nor Polytheism for CoL. *sigh* I guess we'll have to wait until their wonders are built.

There are Horses south of Khurasan, near Pompeii and near the former site of Medina. There are even more Horses near Arab Basra. No other ones visible.

Khurasan starts a Temple, Anjar starts a Spear.

I rename Viro to Viroconium so we don't get the name as a suggestion again. We can call it Viro.

330 BC (1) -- Barbs attack Pisae. They fail miserably.

Cumae: Warrior --> Settler
Pompeii: Warrior --> Archer
Rome produces an AC.

Found Brundisium on the site already chosen. Warrior.

310 BC (2) --

Rome: Spearman --> Spearman
Kufah: Warrior --> Temple

Spot those barb stacks in the east. Yeesh!

290 BC (3) -- Barbs kill an exploring Archer. Settler pair retreats to the relative safety of Pisae.

Veii: Settler --> Settler
Hispalis: Barracks --> Spearman
Ravenna riots... Oops. It gets a taxman.
Pisae switched to Walls to guard against barbs.

270 BC (4) -- Our Warrior and Archer exploring the north both go down fighting huge stacks of barbs. The barb tribes are much more problematic this game than Arabia!

Rome: Spearman --> Settler

Disperse a barb camp to the south.

250 BC (5) -- An AC kills five barb Horsemen, but still dies. The stacks to the east are about halved in strength.

Viro: Worker --> Worker

230 BC (6) -- No barb activity. *whew*

Rome produces an AC. It heads to the east.

210 BC (7) -- Barbs approach Viro. We won't be able to hold them off.

Rome: Settler --> Spearman
Neapolis: Worker --> Worker
Pisae: Walls --> Spearman
Ravenna: Worker --> Spearman

Syracuse founded in old Arabia. It brings in Horses. Warrior.

190 BC (8) -- Barbs kill a Warrior near Viro rather than attacking the city.

Disperse another barb camp. Workers flee the barbs.

170 BC (9) -- Barbs fail miserably at Pisae, but flawlessly kill a Warrior in Pompeii. Strangely, the rest of the stack doesn't follow up, leaving the city with a single Warrior. Probably better to let the barbs steall most of our gold than continue to lose troops and slow our expansion. I move the Warrior out of Pompeii.

Veii: Settler --> Settler
Antium: Temple --> Spearman
Byzantium: Warrior --> Barracks

I spot a Sea square across the Ocean near Arabia. Our Curragh goes suicide to investigate -- and we see Coast and a border but inches away!

150 BC (10) -- Pompeii is pillaged many times -- we lose most of our gold and the city is now size 1, but the entire southern barb force is gone.

Our Curragh doesn't sink! We meet the Americans... who are up all visible techs and in the Middle Ages. *gulp* There are yellow borders south of America.

Rome: Spearman --> Settler
Pompeii switches to a Spearman.

I'll leave all remaining decisions to the next player. The southern and eastern barb stacks are almost entirely gone, but there is a stack in the jungle to the northeast of Ravenna and another far to the north near where our Warrior was killed.

Roman Arabia, the Basran OCC and America:

Rome Proper, including the subdued regions to the east and south.

 

[barbslinger]

The barbs really seem like a problem. Thank goodness for the AC's. Looks like we will still have barb trouble to our SE and SW until we can get some sentries/settlers to light the area up. We should continue to plant some towns near that eastern spice area and get those spices online. Looks like Cuivienen has some units there and the workers will get there soon.
Infra push to get to repub soon. I'm thinking our unit count will be massively over and repub should not happen until we can GA with a legion and build some markets during GA. Next player should look into it but despo gets 4 units and Repub towns only get 1 unit maintenance. Our lack of lux is hurting us for now and keeping many cities from going to size 7. We can plant more towns, Find the iron and try to get the GA to occur right as we come out of anarchy. That way we will have extra cash to build markets so we won't have a cash crunch.

 

[scoutsout]

America in the Middle Ages... that probably explains the obscene stacks of barb horsemen...

@Cuivienen: Nice job with the curraugh... that strait looks wide enough that it should be some time yet before we see settlement pressure on our continent from the AI... assuming there isn't a narrower straight somewhere...

A possible future city site: There's a hill with some .. AC? on it that looks like it would be able to use the bananas for food while claiming some desert for possible saltpeter or oil...

I have this sneaking suspicion that we should let Abu hang around long enough to finish him off with some Legionnaires, I fear they're already outclassed on the other continent.

Theory for the Senate: This is a really nice sized landmass that we're on, and if we can get it settled before the AI can get settlers over here, there's a good chance that we'll have the resources we'll need to pursue a victory of our choice.... we might even have a surplus of some strategic resources with all the desert and jungle we have on this rock...

My $0.02, workers, settlers, barb control...

Edit: Cross-posting w/ Barbslinger... something about Republic and unit support.... it seems to me that there's a difference between Republic in CivIII/PTW and C3C... we might want to check it...