Blid-01- A ring to rule them all

[Kikinit]

I am leaning towards building army instead of wonders. With everyone of our cities exposed we need military spread reasonably even. Roads and engineering will be needed to help us quickly react if we are threatened.

 

[acidsatyr]

I'll play since there's 15 till CS.
I dedicated my turn to building military.

move some units toward Sparta since there is Khan's Chariot and archer,
I think he's just waiting the right moment to declare.

trade construction to munsa for literature + mono + 30. Still not
going to go for library since it takes 30 to do it in the capital.

Sparta forge, catapult->spear. We get Conf. in Lyons, I didn't convert.
Asoka and HC are Budd.

...build some more units.

Whip forge in Orleans.

Whip library in Orleans, hire scientist there for now

on my last turn Khan declares war.
CS in 5. I didn't move units.

good luck

 

[Kikinit]

Bloody Ghengis... Thank goodness you were building units in preparation of just this. I notice he's got the holy city. Should we go and raze it to make sure he can't get the shrine income? No-one else has that religion.

Actually, what should be our course? He's not in the direction we want to go, so do we just defend and keep on expanding the way we want? I am leaning towards just pillaging everything he owns to slow his development. Maybe raze a city or 2 but they'll just be rebuilt as we can't fill in the gaps. Raze cities that put cultural pressure on us only.

EDIT: And this talk about what type of win. To me a variant win would only be once we've made a closed ring.

 

[acidsatyr]

we should criple him as much as we can (given that we survive this well), even if it means razing his cities, since he'll just declare it again. Watch out for Alex as well, dont leave empty cities.

 

[hamtastic]

Hey there, this is pretty interesting. Can someone post a picture of your overall progress on the ring so that the lurkers can see? Good luck!

 

[blid]

Another war already ? wish you good luck Kikinit (I guess you knew you are up)
it seems like Sparta has decent defense, acid
What are we aiming for after CS ? I am at work and can't see
I won't mind expanding in Khan direction and securing this part of the coast. I think he already has a coastal city there

 

[Kikinit]

Yeah I'd worked that out blid. I'm up and I've got it and playing now.

I just looked at the save and realised that Genghis is not even our neighbour. I was thinking that he was the guy to our West but he's a distance to our East. I'll send a few troops over to see what I can do but I'm not going to leave us exposed. I think this may end up being a reasonably phony war.

 

[Kikinit]

Right.. I've got good news and bad news.

The good news is that the war is going well. Only lost a single catapult so far and taken out maybe 10 of Ghengis's units. We've got an attack stack at Ghengis's nearest coastal city ready to start a war of attrition.

The bad news is we lost our iron. And not to bl**dy Ghengis either. Report to follow.

 

[Kikinit]

(0) 225AD (turn 124) - Action begins at Sparta. I promote a sword to Combat I and he takes on the chariot and wins. I then attack the archer with another sword and he too wins.
(1) 250AD - Orleans: Library -> Axeman, Sparta: Axeman -> Catapult.
I also sent a force east for recon. It's quite a decent force so as not to get in trouble.
Our capital does not have control of the Elephants. Damn 53% Malinese.
(2) 275AD - GK Axe & Chariot coming towards us now.
(3) 300AD - Mansa's about to culture bomb Niani!!! We might loose our iron

(4) 325AD - Waves of chariots and axes are coming from GK but he sends them in groups of 2 and 3...
(5) 350AD - CS is in. I revolt to HR and Bureaucracy. I thought about OR as well but it increased the turns of anarchy from 1 to 2 and it's not going to help us right now anyway as we don't have a state religion. We could choose a religion but I think we don't want to alienate any of the AI's by going to a religion they don't like.
Next tech I chose Machinery to get Macemen.
Orleans: Axeman -> Settler
Sparta: Cat -> Walls (should have done this before the cat.)
And here's the bad news. Niani has been culture bombed and we have lost control of the iron!!!!
IBT: Axeman defeats GK Axe.
(6) 375AD - Two spears take out 2 of GK's chariots but it leaves 1 in a vulnerable position. I don't want to loose any axes or spears right now as we can't build any so I attack the axe/chariot stack with a cat at 50% odds. He almost wins but no luck here.
IBT: Another GK axe attacks an axe and loses.
(7) 400AD - Lyons: Granary -> Forges (1/2 price for us and we should build them in every city asap.)
(8) 425AD - Paris: Aqueduct -> Colossus. It was mentioned that we should go for that and with the capital in bureaucracy it can finish it in about 9 turns.
(9) 450AD - Glad we've got achery now.. as it's the best defender we've got. Sparta: Walls -> Archer.
IBT: Axe beats GK Axe, Spear beats GK chariot which withdraws.
(10) 475AD - Not much.
(11) 500AD - Sparta: Archer -> Cat (this is our best offensive unit currently)
Spear beats a GK chariot between Paris & Sparta. Here's the situation at Sparta.

Our limited forces arrive at Ning-Hsia and can start bombarding. Probably not enough to take it without big losses. We may just want to go around it and have a look for an easier target. If only it wasn't on a damned hill.

As you can see, I did one extra turn to get it to an even no.

Here's the save:

 

[angeleyes]

I'll play tomorrow, wait on comments,

- where does the settler in Orleans go? on the hill between Sparta and Ning hsia ? (above the cow).
- we can build Heroic Epic ! Paris i propose ...
- I want to bribe Hatseput to go to war with Genghis (for CS), i'll trade CS anyway for feudalism with Huany
- barb city east of Orleans is exactly on the right spot
- @Kikinit : do you think we can get that iron back with culture-building in Paris ?

another thing: so Niani is culture bombed ( 4.000 culture points ) Paris only has 613 culture points. Still the gems tile , exactly between Paris and Niani , is ours (75%). That culture bombing is not that powerfull it seems ...

 

[sooooo]

Nice defending of sparta

My thoughts:

The stack near ning-hsia needs a couple more catapults to be useful. It's a waste of units to be sitting there for 5 turns while the lonely catpult bombards. We'll need at least 2 suicide attacks to make the odds favourable anyway. Even if we take it, it will be tough to defend with Alex breathing down our necks.

I wish I had crippled Alex more in my turnset. I don't trust HC either. This variant is tough!

Nevermind about the iron, lets pump out catapults. They're better at taking cities than axes anyway. Shame about the elephants.

Don't worry about aquaducts for unhealthy cities. We want production, not growth.

 

[Kikinit]

yes you are right there are not enough cats in that force. It was sent out as an expeditionary force and found the city a bit too far away.

Cats are going to have to be our main method of attack for a little while. We really didn't need that culture bomb right on top of our iron. Ning-Hsia is going to have to be ours eventually as it's a nice coastal city so we may as well get together another few cats and circle the force around Ning-Hsia doing a bit of pillaging while the new cats are built and moved over.

 

[blid]

Well, this culture bomb was an unexpected
The iron is only 51% malinese and I don't think Nanni will beat Paris in cpt. But let the colossus finish, it will give more culture points to get back the phants. These were lost before culture bombing so we need to fight back for borders.
We will eventually need to build some taoist temples and get a cathedral in Paris but this is not priority.
Care with Asoka, he has a galley with a settler. If he don't decide to return back on the next couple of turns, close borders temporarily. He may steal the cows spot and we really don't want that. He is at the diagonal with us and may be the last AI we ever have to fight (that is if we survive).
We are in 500AD and we only have 4 cities. I think we need to continue this war with Gengis, until we get his two coastal cities. CS for hatty to attack Gengis seems good. This war is going to last a bit. So I propose to switch to all military here (colossus must be finished though). Cats of plenty until we get that iron back then maces. When we get Khan coastal cities and maybe raze another, a bit of Alex crippling. Then chase the next target. The settler can be delayed a bit for the benefit of cats. I think we need to be more aggressive here to stand a chance.

Concerning techs, I'd rather trade CS with Asoka for feudalism. Mansa is annoyed with Huayna and HC is asking for both alphabet and civil service to get it so I guess he already researched it for a good part

And a detail : capital should really be working those dyes. We can switch from a grassland farm to keep the colossus at minimum number of turns.

Good luck asperge. Heroic epic in Paris sounds fair but not before churning some cats. We are warring now
Settler can go to cow spot to give us a culture bridge to NingHsia. Alex will be settling this one sooner or later if it stays empty.

 

[blid]

Hey there, this is pretty interesting. Can someone post a picture of your overall progress on the ring so that the lurkers can see? Good luck!

Well, you can see it in the minimaps in Kikinit post. We are still far from getting the whole ring

 

[Rex Tyrannus]

Lurker:

I'm quite impressed with the AI use of a culture bomb to actually acquire something useful. I've not seen that before. Of course, it's your capital he did it against, so you'll have your iron back in a few. Still, that's good strategy. Better if Mansa builds some culture in that city.

 

[Kikinit]

He did it to save the city I guess. It was at 2% malinese before he bombed it. It would have flipped soon and the bomb might have saved it. For a while at least.

 

[angeleyes]

preparations : bribe Hatsheput to declare on Genghis for CS. Get feudalism from Huayna for CS and alphabet (Asoka didn't want to give me for CS).
(1): promote swordsman to level4 > heroic epic is possible. .Start bombarding Ning-hsia. Two axeman defeat two GK-axeman standing on the cow . It's somehow ironic but we are building Colossus and no city has even a lighthouse.... Get philosophy from Mansa.
(2): ....bombarding Ning-hsia
(3): spearman near Ning-hsia beats attacking Keshik
(6): Colossus comes in Some won't like it but i'm gonna build lighthouse and the Great one. Swordsman near Hing-hsia defeats attacking keshik
(7): Asoka found city between Sparta and Hing-hsia....(at good spot). Machinery comes in, start with Guilds for knights. I was tended to declare on Asoka but then realized i would only destroy the new city, and it's on a good spot.
(7): found Rheims for gold and later the corn
(8): finally Battle of Hing-hsia:
> catapult dies but causes good damage,
> swordsman (67%) defeats archer,
> swordsman (70%) defeats spearman,
> spearman (70%) defeats keshik,
> axeman (99%) kills archer > We capture Hing-hsia without losses ! Ther's Copper within range !
(9): Hing-hsia: axeman dies ta attacking keshik Decide to make peace with Genghis because within 10 turns we will not be able to do anything agaist him. We get horsebackriding, 110 gold and 4/turn. Get sheep from Asoka for our only dyes.
(10) The iron spot is for many turns at 53 %, hope this will change uor way once we get the Great Lighthouse (3 turns left)

Offcause i played like a sissy making money and culture in Paris but now we can without any doubt full on military

 

[Kikinit]

Awesome stuff Asperge.

I never expected to get Ning-Hsia that easily. I thought we didn't have enough forces. And it gives us copper to add to the bargain. That will be handy when we go for space victory .

At first when I saw Asoka's city I thought.. that bastard... but actually, we don't need to do anything about it yet. We can take it when we are prepared. Let him develop it a bit for us.

 

[blid]

good job taking Ning-hsia Asperge. The tech exortion may serve us as we don't have iron and phants and we can build some HA.
Going for lighthouse and great lighthouse means we are not bulding military. So even after ten turns, we won't be ready to war. Hatty is not a warmongerer at heart and will sign peace quickly. I am at work, so is sparta pulling some cats or HA ?

preparations : bribe Hatsheput to declare on Genghis for CS. Get feudalism from Huayna for CS and alphabet (Asoka didn't want to give me for CS).

I think Asoka changed his mind once Hatty got civil service. I don't know if it would have worked in this case but consider in the future the order of trades. Start with the expensive ones. Tech value drops everytime a new AI knows it

(7): Asoka found city between Sparta and Hing-hsia....(at good spot). Machinery comes in, start with Guilds for knights. I was tended to declare on Asoka but then realized i would only destroy the new city, and it's on a good spot.

This is very annoying. I did ask to close borders with Asoka when I saw his galley

Care with Asoka, he has a galley with a settler. If he don't decide to return back on the next couple of turns, close borders temporarily. He may steal the cows spot and we really don't want that. He is at the diagonal with us and may be the last AI we ever have to fight (that is if we survive).

I am glad you didn't declare war too. Diplo is important in any game but in this one it is vital. If we don't declare, this indian city will expose us more and if we attack, we are loosing a precious ally. War declarations should be a group decision unless an opportunity appears but then again, player can pause and post a mid-game report

(8): finally Battle of Hing-hsia:
> catapult dies but causes good damage,
> swordsman (67%) defeats archer,
> swordsman (70%) defeats spearman,
> spearman (70%) defeats keshik,
> axeman (99%) kills archer > We capture Hing-hsia without losses ! Ther's Copper within range !

That is good news

Would post more comments/directions tonight when I load the save

 

[blid]

fellowship :
blid -- On deck
acidsatyr
Kikinit
Asperge -- just played
soooo -- UP for 10