Brennus Thirdly

Spoiler T164 :

Sacrificing scout to peek abit, he doesn't have much westwards.


Of to whipping civics, I pay through the nose for iron again and do a round of whipping.

Now I'm getting somewhere.
That middle pack is taking up an excellent position, with ability to strike right away at Utica and simultaniously having access to the two spots I have marked with x, threatening both those cities.

Someone bribed Toku to declare on Napoleon.

Now I feel I have enough cuirs to take this with relatively safety


I suffer very heavy losses, alot of bad rolls, but I get Utica and finally have my own iron.

After some healing and resupplies I move forward. I brought with me the gallic wariors but then realize I want all xp on the cuirs.
When I take this, I see Chicken Itza and remember that he built that. Perhaps thats why I'm getting so horrible odds.


I say a prayer that Hadretrum is holding up under the pressure from Nappy and WvO and start to think that it was a mistake having Napoleon join the game.


I thought this city would fall right away, but Napoleon takes his time and bombard, and my units that where eyeing Hannibals northern cities are routed here to either snipe the city or to change focus to Napoleon.


Hannibal flees into the arms of WvO when Napoleon takes the city.

 

Spoiler T171 :

I declare on Napoleon and cause an absolute bloodbath. Don't think I lost a single unit.


I try to bypass that city because it's hilled, cultured and he is filling it up with nastiness, wish I had a HA available to do a vision guy with but I do it with this cuir.


Toku is making progress.


My old units are running around, saving the captures from Hannibal from starving too much. I cold-whip a theatre in them because I think it's handy to have the culture slider as a panic measure, then it's forge, barracks and then just cuirs. If the city is filled with cottages I make a try for forge->bank instead.


Toku took Tours and I'm moving back and forth alot, looking for opportunities. Capital looks weak now.


T170 I move all units into this spot, threatening both cities.


He choose to defend Lyons, and I take Paris, this was the result of that fight, pretty lucky rolls on my part, winning a bunch of 70-80% fights.
Here I'm very careful looking how many xp each fight gives, trying to maximize the chance of leveling units up.


Napoleon thinks that we would make a great team, and I agree completely.
A meat shield that have a tendancy to build a ton of units between me and WvO who thinks I'm the devil himself is a great relief!
He gets Paris back right away.


Toku should learn to defend his captures better.
He has 440g on hand so I sell him Education, then I DoW and take this, Napoleon gets it back right away.


I think the best is to just try to roll over Toku now. Don't think I need to stop and build economy and tech yet. Napoleon does some teching and should be able to defend me if WvO goes redfist.
Hinduism has spread to Zara, and he is spreading it around. He will super easy to have friendly. His huge number of cities is worrysome though.

 

Cuirs are still so much fun (imo), i remember when several regular posters said "okay, always Cuirs..show something new ~~).
And i often thought, why. Anything else on many maps falls under trying something new, not your best option.

 

@Fippy
Yes I agree, and for me it's even more fun.
The units I have most experience with is probably cannons, or possibly catapults with whatever I have at that stage.
I'm usually too careless to perform well with cuirs, it's tough learning to be patient and move around.

 

Go Big K and the MIghty Celts!!! Been fun watchin' you break out...

I'd offer you insightful and ingenious advice but sadly I possess none of that

 

Spoiler T174 :

Overview after some micro.
I want to whip some more cuirs before swapping civics again, think OR is the next thing, I want some banks and some missionaries for the captured cities.


Some trading with Napoleon and I have more happines so I can send some scattered horsearchers and elephants that I had as city garissons upgraded to the front. Taking it slow and steady with Toku.
HR-Burocracy-Slavery-Organized religion now.


Oh nice, a free city right away!


Where is his army...? Up somewhere west? He did have a stack that took that city from Nappy earlier.


This city is under pressure from Napoleon, think I'll try to work on an GArtist here.


My military police left Cathage to stand and guard in Hadrum, thinking that if Carthage revolt I can get it back later. The turn I move ofcourse I get a revolt though.


Osaka fell.


Not much defense there either, moving cuirs to strike Nara.


Ah, THERE they are! Thanks for hanging in there Napoleon. (Looking at this screen shot now when posting, I see that there are units of WvO too, I didn't see that when playing. Thought Napoleons city here was in grave danger and didn't want him to lose all his culture buildings.


How about a ceasefire Toku? You agree? Nice, I applaud your wisdom too!

 

Spoiler T177 :

Nice! I hope I can broker this to Napoleon for PP or economics.


So nice with the march promotion, almost all cuirs are full HP after just one turn. -> Redeclare.
I promote two cuirs with that anti-seige promotion to kill trebs who attack. Already have two strong combat3 shock guys for the pikes.

He doesn't strike my SoD, but instead sends one lone elephant down to Tokyo, which I didn't see was in range. He had a chance to kill my medic there.
Instead he places is SoD right outside the gates. Phew!

Now I think he is neutralized.


Vision guy goes first (I really must learn to keep a few 5xp HAs for this purpose) reveals his cities weakly defended, so the uninjured cuirs move forward.


The importance of spreading religion, just one lone missionary here took down revolt chance from 6.6 to 3.2%.


Argh, I missed out on the Astro-trade with Napoleon.
Now at the end of the turn, I also notice that WvO has gone redfist. Please hurry get those grenadiers Napoleon!


Not good enough defense Toku.


He doens't want to talk though. Bothersome, because I would like to have him as a vassal quickly too, and move my units back home and prepare to gobble up Hannibal once WvO sends his DoW.


I beg 1g from Sully and Zara just to be safe if WvO decides to bribe them on me.
Then I swap civics. Trying Free speech here.
3 cities are running specialists and the rest get to grow undisturbed for 5 turns, just slowly putting hammers into cuirs. If they are close to completion of a cuir, they swap to a musket. Want to be in vass/theo when they complete.

 

Spoiler T183 :

This was the main reson for free speech. Was thinking I should starve out a GArtist here, but after borderpop I instead choose to just stay stagnant working food and running as many artists as I could.


I place the cuirs like this, because I think it's less likely that he wants to go on the offensive if he has to strike over the river.
He loses 3 trebs and kill one cuir in a counterattack against Kyoto, I mop up the elephants and fill up in Kyoto with reinforcements too.


I get economics from my overseas buddy.
He is very dissapointed that I'm not in theocracy though.


Toku is still not talking, very annoying because I want him as a vassal to get his tech and leaving Kagohsima here as a impact buffer shield against WvO.


With Napoleon at the gates, he sees reason though.



Lovely!!

Time for another round of whipping.
Did not get out a GPerson, but food bar in Tolosa and The artist city is empty, will fill up over 5 turns now and then at it again.

Have to give Toku 200g and MilTrad for SciMet even though I put two turns into Scimet.
I get Constitution from Zara for divine right and Miltrad.
Could have given him PP instead, but I think it makes sense to give him economic techs lasts, he is sure to gain some serious speed soon with all that land anyway.


Ok Toku, are you ready for this?
I declare on WvO here and move in on Hannibal. This was probably way too cocky. There was no reason to rush.

 

Spoiler T185 :

Zara makes a colony of that souther island.
I was quite sure that would happen at some point.


If I would have had the economy I would have done more EPs on Zara, as they are doubled when they make a vassal. Those 146 I got on Zara came from just the stray buildings, but I got those 146 on Alex now as well.
Very funny that I think about these things, and I have a Spy there in Hannibals city to gain something from the last 251 points I have on him, but just forget to use the spy before taking the city... >_<


Nappy was halfway through SciMet when I got him as a vassal.


I thought I would get to replacable parts MUCH sooner, so I have done windmills and watermills everywhere. Nice gain now though.


Making swift progress against Hannibal.


Although I have dirty rotten luck in the south, lose 4 75% fights in a turn. Next turn I lose one more too.


And umm... hmm.
WvO is comming with 5 cannons, 9 cuirs and 15 mixed medieval units.
I hope Nappy has something up his sleeve.


I demand Tokus map before he dies. Got to give him credit for his stubbornness. <3

 

Spoiler T187 troubles. :

Nope, Napoleon doesn't have much going here.


It was my intention that Toku would become my vassal so I could get his tech and to have something slowing WvO down, I wanted him to die as small vassals are often a problem. But this was abit too quick.
Not sure how I will handle that doomstack of WvO now.


If WvO decides to move into Tokus old land I can't stop him now.
I can cold-whip some units and I'll do that just to make the cities smaller too.
Have 7-9 cuirs further down south preoccupied with Hannibals last city. (Pretty severely injured ones standing in Tokyo with the medic.)
I do have 14 fresh elites (At least 13xp, combat3+march) standing in Nara.
One option is to launch a counterattack at Mastricht which Napoleon is softening up abit. If I could get that I would raze it.


I'm in war-civics now and should at least whip the round of cuirs I have in queues.
Economy is still very bad, want to reach communism so I can trade that for rifling with Napoleon in a while, but the only way thats likely to happen is if I go into pacifism and get that guy out from Tolosa and run a GA.

I can't get any help from Sully who is now in free religion and isn't my friend anymore, and Zara apparantly loves WvO so can't get help there either. If anythign WvO is likely to bribe them on me once peace treaty wears off.

Argh... why was I soo eager to declare... I could have gotten alot of turns of calm in and Nappy could have reached rifling and communism together and stocked up much more units.
Napoleon does give me historical points for overextension and bullheadedness though. ^_^

 

Might be worthwhile baiting him into taking Tokyo and then hitting him with the counterattack. It would sure be nice attacking into those cannons rather than getting attacked by them

edit: **kyoto, not tokyo

edit2: I just realized kyoto and tokyo are anagrams of each other..

 

@earthy

Spoiler Still T187 :

This is what I did, and alot of empire micromanagement (trying to maximize commerce, need communism asap.)
I have a cuir and a musket cold-whipped and I try to defend them half-heartedly with some low xp cuirs.
Only cuirs and that wounded stack of WvO can reach Kyoto next turn and I think he is tempted to heal up instead of attacking.
Most of the other guys are going for a counter-attack. Soon to push end turn!

 

Glory for the celts!

Spoiler T189 :

I move forward most units, placing light guards in my frontier cities to somewhat secure the completion of the cold-whipped units.
I also move my stack in reach for it to counterattack on Maastricht.

Next turn, I see Wilhelms stack, injured and helpless in Kagoshima, a flatland city that is in revolt and I wonder why my stack isn't placed SE of Kyoto...

Likewise, I'm not going down into that hell-hole, 6 cannons ready to hammer me if I even succeed razing that city. Not wasting all my elites on such a venture...

Hannibal is defiant to the end, costing me two more cuirs in 75% fights. Up to 7 cuirs lost here now on two absolutely worthless cities.
Should just have made peace with him and bothered about that later.

Civic swaps, I gain only 80bpt from this, prior to micro though but it says alot about the sorry state of my empire. Oh well.. getting a guy out T190 and then I'm pulling of a GA straight into state property heaven.

Moving most units into striking range of Kagoshima. Should have moved the cuirs in Satsuma too because he can't reach that city, but that I didn't see.

The scientist eagerly awaiting the arrival of his friend.


There is 9 healthy cuirs and 7 healthy pikes in Kagoshima, many of which would have been injured if I had the brains to strike last turn.
Also one full hp musket and a full hp longbow.
The rest is only injured cannons and medieval stuff.

An absolute bloodbath ensues. Not much left of WvOs doomstack.

Better still, this makes him want to do a ceasefire!
Little does he know, that the ceasefire might only last for half of a turn... His half.

 

Spoiler T197 :

That was a short ceasefire.
Just whiping him out here.
I pop a GEng, and think if I should do something fancy, but no. Just GA. I need to get to communism asap.




Next turn, I'm punished for not remembering to beg and get peace treaty. WvO somehow manages to get the whole world declare on me. Not sure what he gave them though.



Communism is in, I swap to rep+nationhood+caste+stateproperty+theocracy.
I can't get rifling for communism so I put beakers into rifling. Sully is comming with a stack there.



I take a ceasefire with WvO after moving cuirs as west I can to have them teleport to the right side of WvOs culture.
I then sell communism to him for almost 1400gold.
Can't get rifling cheap from Napoleon so wait untill next turn, then I start to upgrade cuirs to cavalery.


The culture faded, I can get reinforcements up!


Awwww.. Sully has rifling. And I was just getting warmed up.

This one looks empty enough to suicide abit into.

I haven't done much cavalery fights, but it seems they do quite OK against rifles properly promoted. It's not as bad as HAs against spears.
And on these guys I guess flank makes much more sense as they already have quite abit of withdrawal chance.
First two cuirs here was just units with broken/irrelevant promotions that just got lucky.

 

Spoiler T212 :

Don't want to hit Ankara head on as it's on a hill and doesn't hold much goodies. And I pillage on the way to Istalbull.


I have no idea why he is leaving his cities with rifles, but they are somewhat easy pickings on flatland (70-80% odds)


He just keeps doing it too. I think I start to realize why people like to go for cuir->cavallery more than rifles/cannons.


mmmm....


After this, he is willing to capitulate. And i get some island city in the deal too.
I also make peace with Zara and trade SciMet for chemistry with him.
Now with Kremlin, I just set all cities to "*Cavallery" and whip without discrimination, just zerging everything now.


Last relevant fight. I hit two of WvOs cities T0. I then take alot of cities from him, wanting to get electricity in a peacedeal but he is too stubborn for that.


Playing very fast and sloppy now, as I always do when I feel I'm winning too much.
He dosn't want to give me electricity prior to Utrechts fall, but he is willing to capitulate.
I take Utrecht but I still get no electricity. >_<
Then I accept his capitulation which I should not have done.
Was stuck at 60% land or something around that number. With former ottoman cities going in and out of revolt and getting a city flipped to Napoleon.

 

Spoiler T222 Dom :

60.73, annoying.


Had to go abroad. If rifles didn't really stop cavallery, infantry certainly does. But with numbers anything can be done.

It only took a few cities for the limit to trip.

Wooo hoo! Celts rule!

 

Yes in hindsight you should've taken more Ottoman or Dutch cities in order to avoid having to sail all across the ocean to fight some infantry, but good game overall, even with the sloppiness here and there!

 

I’m popping in to say hi! It’s a bit late for me, but will looking through the thread later.

 

Hope you enjoy it, @Harv !