Blid-01- A ring to rule them all

[Kikinit]

Ok. I've got it. Nice of Asoka to found a city where we want and then for it to become the home of Islam.

So I should go to war with GK. I'll do that.

 

[Kikinit]

(0) In revolt so not much to do
(1) We've got a great merchant in Paris. I'm not sure what to do with him so I'll use him to explore while he moves to the far side of the map for a trade mission.
(2) I give up what to do with the workers. I keep on getting told off for y builds and really do try to make sure that cities always have enough food as a priority, then probably build cottages too much and mines and mills too little. Let's see what I did wrong this time, everyone has their own opinions of what to do.
(3) Unit cost is quite high. We better go to war to make the expenses worth it and get a few more cities to spread the load. I employed a couple of scientists in the capital to get a Great Scientist in about 20 turns. We could do with an academy in the capital and our next GP only requires 200 GP points. Keep an eye on the specialists as the governer will rearrange it everytime the city grows or WW steps up a point.
(4) HC wants us to cancel our deals with Munsa. I have to say no. I am concerned though about some troops along our Northern borders. I hope we don't get declared on.
Orleans: Harbor -> Longbow for defense
Sparta: Maceman -> Harbor
I declare on GK by stealing 2 of his workers. Sorry, make that 3 as one of the workers is actually 2 .
IBT: GK's HA comes over the border 2 spots and steals the 3 workers and another that was on the same cell. He then moves them into his cultural area, right next to my big stack
(5) Lyons: Library -> Courthouse
(I reloaded here as I slipped on the mouse and sent someone in the wrong direction. I replayed all moves as per before except the slip.)
I take back 4 workers. They now follow the stack as if I send them back they'll get taken again.
(6) Moving troops into position.
(7) Ning-Hsia: Maceman -> Longbow for defenses. Cats bombard at Samarqand.
(8) Orleans: Longbow -> Lighthouse
Battle for Samarqand: Cat Withdraws, Cat wins, Mace wins then cat wins. City is razed. Too easy!!
Battle for Tabriz: I have to take this now before Hatty takes it from under our nose. Luckily, Hatty has mostly reduced it's defenses and the only longbow is already severly injured. I wouldn't have had a big enough force to take it yet if not for that.
Cat attacks and wins. Axe defeats injured longbow and it's ours. Thanks Hatty. Now we need to raze all of GK's cities that are putting cultural pressure onto it. No problem
IBT: Hatty moves her troops into the city to help defend. Again thanks Hatty.
(9) Gunpowder comes in and I selected Chemistry. No turns are put into it and we can discuss what to do next.
I only played 9 turns as that bought it back to the right number.
Paris: Settler -> Temple to counter WW. I also realised here that WW had taken one of the scientist away and I put him back.
Sparta: Harbor -> Library

Troops are moving through GK's lands. We shouldn't have too many problems razing a few more of his cities to relieve the pressure on the coastline. See the pic below. I think the settler might be best put along this coast somewhere once we relieve the cultural pressure. We might also want to get a few more courthouses so we can get the forbidden city up soon.

It is proving to be an interesting variant, that's for sure.

The save:

 

[Kikinit]

Forgot to mention that the Great Merchant is still exploring. We may as well let him reveal a bit more of our opponents lands before taking the trade mission money.

 

[blid]

nice turns Kikinit
I agree with you on settling somewhere east of Ning-Hsia. Otherwise, the khan will settle again and put pressure on us
Wandering with the merchant is a good idea too. I think India will probably provide the most money.You can use the shift-right click to check for that
We have too many workers. I already took three from Alex and you took again three from GK. Just delete them

Fellowship :

blid
acidsatyr
Kikinit -- just played
Asperge -- UP
soooo -- On deck

EDIT :
P.S
the save is kind of invisible

 

[Kikinit]

Hmm... I'm sure I uploaded it... Hmmm.. checked my attachments and it's not there... must have done something wrong. I remember browsing to it and I must have forgotten to press upload...

EDIT: I'm thinking that a good place for the city along the coastline would be on the hill to the west of the maceman in the pic.

Here it is.

 

[angeleyes]

Got it & some suggestions:

- trade-opportunities : - get optics + 90,- for philosophy from Huayna, - get paper & music + 30,- for gunpowder from Mansa, - next turn sell paper to Hashy for a lot of money (530,- she has now) + worldmap ?.

- I don't like food-poor Paris on scientists ...

- Why is Rheims not making money ??? Put citizens on corn and money-plots and rush from time to time a building. I want to rush a library here and give it one or two scientists.. Forget the barrack, it will never make units.

- I would have prefered to raze the new conquered Mongol town and put a new city right from the river. Now i want to put the new city left from the river. Building it on that plain-hill means you are getting extra only desert-plots as far as i can see. I'm not sure about this.

- Now we can make our own fast musketeers

- I'll wait 20 hours for comment ...

 

[sooooo]

Re: Paris. I think it's wise to keep production low in Paris for 11 turns to get an academy. I would rather have an academy than 3 or 4 cats/macemen because the troops we can build now will obsolete soon. The academy will last the whole game.

But we definitely need to amass some troops near HC's border. Our large stack can raze a couple more mongol cities, but any new/spare troops should head north.

 

[blid]

- I don't like food-poor Paris on scientists ...

Well, sooooo already answered for that

- I would have prefered to raze the new conquered Mongol town and put a new city right from the river. Now i want to put the new city left from the river. Building it on that plain-hill means you are getting extra only desert-plots as far as i can see. I'm not sure about this.

There are still tiles to unfog south of this hill. You can decide based on what is revealed. City spamming with the great lighthouse is not bad. Also, if we space them, culture pressure will be harder

And get some musketeers going

 

[angeleyes]

Re: Paris. I think it's wise to keep production low in Paris for 11 turns to get an academy.

You all forget that Paris gets great people points from Colossus and GL. At this time chance of getting a great scientist is only 41%. It will take 13 turns to get it, but if you all want this, OK. But in case we get a great merchant again, a library in Rheims will be ready for a 100% GS-chance

 

[sooooo]

You're correct that there's a chance of a great merchant in Paris. I had not forgotten that. However, if we use Rheims for GP production, we will definitely get a merchant in Paris before a scientist in Rheims. It would take Rheims 50 turns to make a scientist, assuming it had a library now (it doesn't). Without the scientists in Paris, Paris would (almost certainly) produce a merchant in 31 turns. I think we should gamble on the scientist now that the GP points have been invested by Kikinit. To abandon them now would waste that potential production in Paris. Our chances of a scientist increase every turn. I think it will be somewhere between 50% and 55% in 13 turns. My vote is to take that risk.

 

[angeleyes]

Earlier than expected i've played my moves. Genghis has only one city left, Alex 3, Mansa and Hatsheput are looking very powerfull...

1150 AD: get optics, music and paper and some small money via trade.Lyons: rush courthouse. Rheims > library. Ning-hsia > workboat (!)

1160 AD: Rheims > rush library, change name in Sorbonne to make it's function clear . I wanted to sell paper to Hatshy but the ***** gave all her money to Huayna Delete one worker, use another to distract a keshik from the copper.

1170 AD: maceman kills keshik.

1190 AD: battle of Turfan:
- cat. does damage & dies,
- cat. does damage & dies,
- maceman (94%) kills longbow,
- maceman (99%) kills longbow,
- axeman (85%) kills axeman ......Turfan is destroyed

1200 AD: Karakorum captured by the egyptians !
Huayna: furs for silk

1220 AD: peace with Genghis for his worldmap. He's an OCC!

1230 AD: Hatsheput and Genghis make peace. She's becoming pretty powerfull with lots of knights and cats (look at second picture and mil. advisor in the save). Get 1100 gold from merchant. Finally we have our own seafood at Tabriz.

Didn't have much choice for our settler to settle, because Karakorum survived the battle, but it takes the sheeps. Have build first theatre's in the new city's for culture (Hatshy is creative too). Made a few musketeers and a few granaries and chopped some woods outside city range. If Paris fails to deliver a great scientist, Sorbonne can make it. Sooooo good luck.

ps. there are some workers outside city-borders chopping to speed up production, go on with it before AI settles there...

 

[sooooo]

Blimey, Hatty is a monster after swallowing most of Khan. Are we agreed to apply the hammer to HC? I'll try to build us an army for that. He has a few buddhist friends that we could annoy. Asoka we will want to hammer sometime anyway and I guess Hatty is one of the more trustworthy AIs. We would be safer in free religion but that will have to wait until liberalism. After chemistry should we go steel (cannons), nationalism (towards cavaliers), replacable parts (towards rifles) or paper (towards liberalism)? I'm undecided but probably favouring steel. Wait, do we even have iron for cannons? Dammit we don't do we. Er, advise?

I'll play on Monday evening (GMT).

 

[angeleyes]

We have already paper. The problem is how to engage the knights, we can't make pike's 'cause we lack iron. We could get ivory to make war-elephants. Who said we don't need iron ? . We also will need a bank at least in Paris soon with every new city we score and the big army we need. Paris is making a theatre, to get to the iron plot that's since times on 52%. Maybe rush a theatre in Sorbonne to get the iron? Also the first coastal city of Hatshy has iron in it's borders

 

[blid]

Only HC has education so maybe we have a chance at liberalism slingshot if he is chasing the great merchant from economics. HC don't have gunpowder yet

Cannons are very helpful. Theatre and the academy should help us with culture to get back this iron. At a last resort, we can use artists (I think that Mansa is abusing of them)

 

[angeleyes]

Sparta can build a taoist temple quickly (it gets two forest chops soon), then Paris can build a taoist pagode for 50% extra culture. That will do the job.

 

[sooooo]

I played 10 turns. It became pretty aparent that HC has to be taken down imminently. He is the tech leader, but is not that high on the power chart (the leaders are MM and Hatty, then it's HC and us). He has nationalism already, but is yet to research gunpowder. Soon he will have cavaliers and grenadiers and we will have no chance for ages.

However, all of our troops are on the wrong side of the ring. I spent my 10 turns moving them to the correct side. Hatty has plenty of room to expand into so I doubt we have to worry about her. Once we get free religion we should be extra-safe.

Chemistry finished and I started education. With the declaration on HC coming so soon, a military tech wouldn't arrive in time to affect the battle. Instead we needed an infra tech.

We got a great merchant in Paris and I used him on a trade mission to Thebes, allowing us to continue our 100% science.

The greeks are destroyed thanks to Mansa Musa. He is theoretically willing to declare on HC but we don't have anything he wants at the moment.

Finally most of our troops arrived at HC's borders but that's my 10 turns up. We should be ready to declare in 1-2 turns.

A settler is due next turn for the spot marked "colossus city". A Taoist Pagoda is due in Paris in 5 turns. The iron is now 51% Malinese.

We have 3 grens, 7 musketeers, 6 macemen, 8 cats, 2 swords and 1 axe near Lyons. We have 1000 gold for upgrades. HC's knights are a worry. There's not a lot we can do about them because we can't build pikes, elephants or rifles. Good luck Blid, you're going to need it.

The ring so far for the lurkers:



And the save:

 

[blid]

Got it. So time has come to battle our first serious oppenent.
Like you say, I fear HC will have cavalry very soon. Without rifles, cavs will be a real pain in the a$$
Having Mansa with us in this battle will be key. I'll start by beggin. If he won't go, then maybe education will be enough to bribe him
Walls in Lyons can be of use to defend. A frigate or 2 will be nice to have too (damn iron, when will it switch )
Hopefully, I'll play my turns tomorrow.

 

[Kikinit]

I am not sure we want Mansa to be any more powerful than he already is. He is just following us around and filling up all the nice spaces that we are leaving for him. Maybe we shouldn't take and raze every city of HC's freeing up space for Mansa.

We are taking on a big opponent here. I expect that we are going to see quite some retaliation in big numbers of units. We want to be prepared for his retaliation with the right combination of units and not leaving stacks without some healed defenders.

 

[sooooo]

Any city we raze should be completely pillaged to delay MM's growth if he does resettle the spot. Musketeers are good at this.

 

[angeleyes]

don't want to annoy everyone but why is our heroic epic-city making a settler when we are going to war ?, and why is Sorbonne not making an academy with two scientists? We should rush the taoist pagode because facing knights without pikes is wasting a lot of shields imo.