BLA1 - Mystical Monarch

[SesnOfWthr]

Just because:

alerum68
SolarKnight
Blasphemous
Vizurok - finishing up
Smellincoffee - up now
bigchief - on deck
SesnOfWthr

 

[alerum68]

Sesn, do you like the color red, or are you really a Red Sox *AND* Niners fan? It just seems sacriliage for a Niner fan to be rooting for any team besides the Giants. As for me... Raaaaaaaaaiders!!! And Yeah, i like the Oakland A's too. Oh yeah, gotta stay on-topic... ummm... ummm.... Oh yeah, should we go for the Great Library? I didn't see it doing much in the DGIT2 game, and wonder if it's really worth it on Monarch level. We were at regent with a scientifc civ in the DGIT2 game, and we pretty much we're the tech leader to the end.... If we get more early contacts at first it may help....

 

[Vizurok]

OK, here's my set of turns....

Preturn: no changes

Turn 1 (2110 BC)
Beijing: settler --> granary
Settler pair moving to spot 1 area

Turn 2 (2070 BC)
worker goes to BG to mine it

Turn 3 (2030 BC)
research set on 20% - there's no use running on 10%, Writing in 34 turns, 4 gpt.

Turn4 (1990 BC)
exploring...

Turn 5 (1950 BC)
Canton founded --> spearman (you can change it!)
The city is between the two advised spots - that's better! imo
Warrior as MP.

IT: Warrior dies by vulcano eruption in Spain!!!

Turn 6 (1910 BC)
nothing

Turn 7 (1870 BC)
worker starts road at the BG

Turn 8 (1830 BC)
Contact with an Iroquis settler pair... they have IW.

Turn 9 (1790 BC)
nothing...

Turn 10 (1750 BC)
worker will connect Canton --> moving

Summary: We're behind in tech, we can get everything with trade easily, but it has high price: 209g + 1gpt. Spain has got two tech without gold!!! I dont know how she is doing...

The Save

 

[Smellincoffee]

Nuts, I'm up?I have to play a turn DGT and then SGOTM probably. Er, let's discuss some things while I do those.

 

[Blasphemous]

In my first Monarch solo game which I started yesterday (or was it Sunday? =S), I decided to avoid going for wonders in the early anceint age, so as to break my addiction to the Great Library, and I was surprised to find that having my capital free to pump out settler pairs and offensive units is a huge advantage, and I am now the tech leader in the early Middle Ages, always ripping everyone off with my monopolies on techs. The power that my capital supplies me with allowed me to expand more than most of my continent-mates and to start plowing through my nearest rival the second they tried to steal my land (I declared when I had only three offensive units, right now I'm in temporary peace working on getting my hordes to the front line so I can strike powerfully.)
Also, not needing to try and squeeze techs out of the GL allows me to go straight for Astronomy rather than going down the gunpowder line, meaning I will rule the seas before long. =D

So yeah, I'd advise avoiding the GL this game.

 

[SesnOfWthr]

Personally, in my solo games, I rarely build any wonder at all before ToE. I find the hundreds of shields are better spent elsewhere, and besides just because I don't build it doesn't mean I don't get to use it... Besides, as mentioned, the GL is far more effective on the higher levels. On Monarch we should be able to outproduce/outresearch the AI without it.

Blas: Actually I'm living just south of Boston, so all my friends think it's sacrilege for my to not root for the Pansies, er Pats. However, I've been a Niners fan since I started watching football 15+ years ago, and I'll be damned if I jump ship now. The Red Sox are just a way of life around here. It's really hard to explain, but this town lives and dies with the Sox.

 

[Blasphemous]

Blas: Actually I'm living just south of Boston, so all my friends think it's sacrilege for my to not root for the Pansies, er Pats. However, I've been a Niners fan since I started watching football 15+ years ago, and I'll be damned if I jump ship now. The Red Sox are just a way of life around here. It's really hard to explain, but this town lives and dies with the Sox.

alerum asked about that, not me. =P

 

[Smellincoffee]

I'm afraid you'll need to skip me until next Saturday.

 

[SesnOfWthr]

Hope its nothing serious, SC.

Here's where we are now:

alerum68
SolarKnight
Blasphemous
Vizurok
Smellincoffee - skip
bigchief - UP, if he feels better
SesnOfWthr - ON DECK, maybe up

 

[Smellincoffee]

Senior pastor's wife died.

 

[bigchief]

I got it. I'm feeling better, and will play sometime today.

 

[bigchief]

Turn 0 - Turned Science down to 10%, Traded Iroquois Masonry, 193 Gold & 1GPT for Iron Working. Traded Mongols IW for Wheel. Sold Wheel to Iroq. for 192 Gold. We have horses in our borders, Iron is nearby. We need to get it before the Mongols do.

Turn 1 - Smoke Jaguar kicks our warrior out of his territory. Mongols settle on nearby Iron (must have already been there). Warriors explore.

Turn 2 - Shanghai: Temple -> worker, Warriors explore.

Turn 3 - Warriors explore.

Turn 4 - Shanghai: worker -> settler, Canton: Spearman -> worker, Exploring warrior spots dark green border north of Mayans.

Turn 5 - Warriors explore - Workers work. Exploring warrior meets Aztecs. They are backwards. We are up Alpha., Wheel, & CB. They have no money and nothing to trade.

Turn 6 - Warriors explore - Workers work.

Turn 7 - Beijing: granary -> spear

Turn 8 - Canton: worker -> settler

Turn 9 - Exploring and working

Turn 10 - Shanghai: settler -> barracks.

Notes: I did not move the settler. We need to decide where to put him. We are boxed in good, and way behind. We are now down Mysticism & HBR to Spain and Mongols, down Myst. to Iroquois, even with Maya, and up Alpha & CB to Aztecs. I think we need to send out the settler in Shanghai & the one being built in Canton, then get ready for war. We can build chariots until we get Writing. Trade for HBR, upgrade to horsemen, and take out the Mongols. It will take them a while to connect the Iron to their capital, so they shouldn't be too hard to take out, if we do it soon. We could also stand a couple of more workers. We only had one when I started for 3 towns.

The Save:

 

[bigchief]

Screenshot:

 

[SesnOfWthr]

Wow. Things have gotten a bit worse since my last turn, huh?

Well, I got it, and I'll see what I can figure out.

 

[SesnOfWthr]

IHT – Well, things don’t look so wonderful here in China. We have half as many cities as any other visible AI, no iron, and we’re running out of room fast. Our military consists of 3 spear, 4 warrior, 3 workers and a settler. We’re down Myst and HBR. It looks to me like the only thing to do is settle where we can, and start building archers to take the Mongol iron. Once we have iron, everything changes.

I change Canton and Shanghai to archers. I probably won’t build much else during my turns. We’ve got a narrow window to take that iron, and I know that I have no desire to be sending archers up against swords, if it can be avoided.

I send settler pair to claim incense.

1475 bc (1) – Beijing spear -> archer.

1450 bc (2) – Zzzzz

1425 bc (3) – Shanghai archer -> settler. Nanking is founded to claim incense. Start archer.

1400 bc (4) – I consider trying to swing a three-fer by buying math from the Maya, but I decide to hope we’ll get writing first.

1375 bc (5) – Beijing archer -> settler. Canton archer -> warrior.

1350 bc (6) – Spanish builing the Oracle.

1325 bc (7) – Iriquois are building the Pyramids.

1300 bc (8) – Our northern explorer sees light blue borders.

1275 bc (9) – Shanghai settler -> archer. Canton warrior -> settler. I am extremely tempted to take out a Mongol warrior/settler pair that I see, but I don’t. The blue borders belong to America. Lincoln has Myst, and not much else.

1250 bc (10) – Beijing settler -> archer.

Recap – The settler near Beijing is headed towards the forest SE of Beijing that Blas and I disagreed about earlier. After settling make a warrior for MP. The settler near Canton should go to the tile one E of the cow south of Canton, where the warrior is on a “goto”. When the current round of archers finishes, we should launch the attack. Six archers should be enough to take Almarikh. Depending on our success there, the next logical target would be Ta-Tu, for the furs. We should keep trying to skim off settlers, as there are a few more cities we can build. Also, any Mongol cities will probably be autorazed. It would be good to have a couple settlers standing by in case of that.

Our expansion is almost done. Once we grab that iron, we’ll have twenty turns to build some swords for another assault on the Mongols. When we do assault Almarikh, attack from the til one E of where the two archers are now. We certainly don’t want to be attacking across a river to boot.

Once we get writing (if we get it first), we should be able to trade it around for all available techs. Then I would start a philo run at maximum research.

>>>SAVE<<<

 

[SesnOfWthr]

The red spots are where the current settlers should go.
The blue spots are additional city locations.

 

[alerum68]

Good Turns Sesn. I'm about to do something I've never done before, a archer war. How many should I have before going at this? I played my SGOTM tonight, so consider this a got it, but won't play until monday more then likely. (Completion of inventory tommorow at work) Lets talk about possible ways of taking out Mongolia in that time... like I said, archers wars are new to me.... Usually if I have this kind of a start I move on to another game, but because we're playing it Random, I feel we need to stick with it til the bitter end....Once we take Almarikh and claim some iron I'll be feeling much better.

 

[SesnOfWthr]

Archer wars aren't my favorite, but I just got some valuable experience in Sesn1 (link in sig). We are going to take losses, have no doubt. Our 2 attack will be taking on a 3.5 defense. Realisitically, you should be able to take it with five or six archers, but with 9 or 10 we could have a chance at also taking Ta-Tu with the furs. Make sure to keep the archers on defensive ground, pick off the spears/archers Temujin sends at us, and sue for peace. I wouldn't worry about getting techs from him, as we should be able to catch up with writing. Ideally we'd like to get at least a couple of Ulanbaatar, Kazan, and Tabriz. There will also be another city very soon.

As long as we stick to set goals, we should be able to improve our position very quickly. I would have the road next to the iron already built with the two workers standing by. If you can manage a couple sword prebuilds, we can hurt them even more. The most important thing is to not lose our archers in open ground, and pick our attacks. Hopefully we'll get a couple quick promotions to improve our odds. Can't remember, is China militaristic?

 

[Vizurok]

Good turns!
Archer strike!

 

[alerum68]

I went ahead and played my turns tonight just to keep the game moving along. Didn't do to badly, but I did loose a city/settler right after the war started... Besides that, things went smooth. Here's the turn log:

Turn 0 (1250BC) (I think the SG I finished just a few hours ago ended 1250BC... we're in much better shape then we are here.)

Looks like we don't have many cities.
MM Canton for growth over shields.
No trades right now. Writing in 7... should make a killing with that.

IBT - Nada

Turn 1 (1225BC)
Send settlers to the 2 red dots Sesn suggested. Looks like the best city sites to me.
I take that back... one of those settlers made the move himself. Ghost of Spirits Past maybe?
Explore and workers work...
Contact with England! Wonder what they have to offer... Myst. Bah. We'll wait.

IBT
Iro kick us out of their territory.

Turn 2 (1200BC)
Tsingtao is founded in the south, near some wheat. Set build to Archer
DAMN! Warrior moves to the spot where the cow and the wheat was going to be settled, and Spain beat us to it! Where shall I send the settler now...All the good spots are to the far east, and he's way over in the west... The only thing I see doing is settling on the spot, but that will crowd Canton, but should still be okay. That or moving to the forest spot between the horses and game.... I think I'll take the southern site. Less work to get it up to speed.

IBT
Workers near Nanking connect Incense. We don't have to worry about happiness for a while now...
Spain ask us to leave the area of Santiago. She's so cute in her furskins I can't tell her no.
English are building the Oracle.
London completes The Colossus.... did I make this game Monarch or emperor?!

Turn 3 (1175BC)
Decide to found Xinjian where I stand. I can send another settler to the spot between horses and game.
Do a bit more exploring.
Archers come in next turn, so once I get them in place I'll declare war. It will probably begin right as I'm about to pass off to the next leader.

IBT
3 cities build archers. Reset builds to archers.
Mongols are building the Pyramids. Cascade I bet.
Spanish switch to Oracle.

Turn 4 (1150BC)
MM a bit. Nothing big.
Move archers towards my launching points. 6 archers, 3 different locations and Almarikh, if the Ancestors will it, shall be ours. Will declare in 4 turns.

IBT
zzz

Turn 5 (1125BC)
MM canton to get some more gold and still build settler next turn.
Explore and workers work...
Fort warrior in Xinjin.

IBT
Canton Settler ==> Settler
Iro are building the Oracle

Turn 6 (1100BC)
Wake all the archers around Almarikh. Going to declare next turn.
MM a bit to get some more gold. +17 a turn now, with writing in next turn.

IBT
Writing comes in. Set research to Philo at 80%. The reason I turn it so high is so we can get it and get our free tech... I don't see the AI getting it to us first, even if we trade writing. Hope I'm not wrong, but figure it's worth the gamble. 1+gpt, 472 in bank. Phil in 14 turns.
Beijing archer==>archer
English are build Temple or Artemis.

Turn 7 (1075BC)
Call up the Mongols. Tell them to give us HBR or we're going to destroy them. He laughs... worth a shot. Declare war
Move archers east across the river to join the other 2 archers from the north.
Notice a smoking Volcano near the Iro. Looks like it'll blow very soon, so move warrior away from it. Hope it's not to late.

IBT
Shanghai Archer ==> Warrior. We're about to get Iron. I want to have warriors ready for upgrade quickly.


Turn 8 (1050BC)

*** Battle of Almarikh ***
Vet Archer vs Reg Spear. Archer is bombarded by their archer, takes no damage. Loose 1hp but kills spearman.
Vet Archer vs Reg Spear. Looses 2hps but wins.
Reg Archer vs Reg Archer. Dies, without taking 1 HP off archer.
Reg Archer vs Reg Archer. Is redlined, but wins and promotes!
Almarikh is ours, along with the Iron.
Set it's 1 citizen to work the iron. Set build to warrior.

Found Chengu in the North between 2 Mongol cities. Set to warrior.
Workers connect Tsingtao to Empire.


IBT
Mongols enter our lands.

Turn 9 (1025BC)
Go to diplo screen to see what I can get for Writing. All but 3 civs already have it. Looks like Abe is the best deal.
England has Poly up, but even trading Writing and all our gold she still won't dont it. We're behind Poly and Math, but at par with everyone else with alot of gold. If the Phil gambit works, and we can claim Map Making as our Free Tech we can trade ourself rest of the AA.
Move some archers toward Ta-tu and a few more toward Hovd. 4 a city should be enough, and this should hurt them until we connect Iron.

IBT
Chengdu falls due to bad RNG. Had 1 warrior defending. Should have waited til it built a second before I went to war. I'll take the punishment for the SNAFU. It auto-razes.
Beijing Archer == > warrior
Shanghai warrior ==> warrior
Nanking Archer == > spearman

Turn 10 (1000BC)
Move stack of 3 archers in place to take out Ta-Tu and in 2 turns Another stack can take over Hovd. You may want to wait another turn on Ta-Tu and move the archers across the river. THe Mongols didn't have the iron hooked up so they're in the same pinch we were. Archers and Spearman on both sides.

Notes:
I don't like how Cangdu went down. Feel very foolish for building a city that close to the front with only 1 warrior defending, but we are running out of land to inhabit very quickly. I'm hoping Hovd and Ta-tu grow before we reach them so they don't autoraze, but I'm willing to take it either way. We're still building settlers.

Keep Phil on High and hope we get the free tech. No others have it, and I don't see anyone going down that path.

I'm building warriors as well as Archers now. That's so we can upgrade them to Swordsman when we connect Iron. Will take around 6 turns to connect it... I think. We should be able to take 2 if not 3 Mongolian cities before that point with just archers. After we take them we may want to think about making Shanghai our capitol. Is pretty centralized and has alot of shields with all those hills and BGs.

I think that's everything. Sorry no pictures... things have changed to much, and it's 11pm here.

Save is in attachment.