Bugs2.0 - The Gauntlet Revisited

[scoutsout]

Hey denyd, do you still need a swap, or do you want to pick this up?

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Scout why don't you grab it. Denyd can pick it up after you're done.

 

[scoutsout]

Alrighty then... got it.

 

[scoutsout]

Pre-flight check - not much

IBT - Korea wants to re-negotiate lux deal. Silks+10gpt for Korean Dyes.

Turn 1 (360)
Bolu founded, starts a Rax
Rush a spear in Shantung for 36g.

IBT - Shantung spear>harbor

Turn 2 (370)
Dial up Henry, and trade Iron for Military Tradition+5gpt.
Dial up Theodora, trade MT+25gpt+244g for Banking.

IBT - Henry wants to re-negotiate incense-silks trade. I add 10gpt.

Turn 3 (380) - just some worker moves

IBT - Iznik Cannon>Court

Turn 4 (390)

some worker moves...move some bombard units...

IBT - I have to add 7gpt to the furs deal with Korea. Mugla riots, gets a taxman.
Uskudar cannon>Court

Turn 5 (400)

Shuffle some bombard units...disband a couple of warriors to get some gpt coming back into the treasury.

IBT -

Turn 6 (410) Some worker moves...shuffle some bombard units.

IBT - Mugla Cannon>Market | Izmit Sipahi>Sipahi | Aydin Court>Aqueduct

Turn 7 (420) Consolidate 3 cannon and 2 Trebuchets together, get them moving towards the longbow stack.

IBT - Carthage starts Copernicus'

Turn 8 (430) shuffle some units...disband a warrior in Chengdu

IBT - Istanbul Sipahi>Sipahi | Bursa Sipahi>Sipahi | Chengdu Rax>Court

Turn 9 (440) move the bombard units

IBT - Anyang Spearman>Worker | Chinan Spear>Harbor

Turn 10 (450)

Dial up Carthage and declare war.
First Knight to Oea falls redlining a NumMerc.
First Knight into Leptis Magna promotes Killing a NumMerc. Second and third Knights retreat, 4th Knight kills NumMerc in Leptis Magna.
Take a Sipahi and go after Oea.

Take a couple of Sips out of Chengdu, and hit Leptis Magna. DANGIT. There is one more Numidian Merc there.

I advance all of the longbows and bombard units on Hippo.

The stupid cat jumped up in my lap, hit <Enter> so I didn't get to take another screenie.

 

[scoutsout]

After Action Review:

The good: Got us Military Tradition, some Sipahi, and a Golden Age. At a cost of 100s per Sipahi, we need the GA.

The Bad: I underestimated the garrisons at Leptis Magna and Oea. Hopefully the Sips will deal with them next turn.

The Ugly: We'll know in the IBT if there is one. We'll either roll over Hannibal quickly, or we'll get hammered. I doubt it'll be a stalemate.

For the next better player, > > The Save < <

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Well I think we need to make an offering tp the RNG

Scout - Just played
Denyd – Up
Yom - On Deck
DJM Gator
Bugs

 

[DJMGator13]

Good turns Scout

With 2 different attack points in CART territory, hopefully the AI will get confused on where to send reinforcements. Also the slave worker SE of Chengdu could be a nice distraction for a 2mp CART unit.

 

[denyd]

Thanks for the pickup Scout - I got it and will start tomorrow night.

Nice trading, I'll see if I can pop out a couple more Siphai and stomp on Carthage.

 

[scoutsout]

With 2 different attack points in CART territory, hopefully the AI will get confused on where to send reinforcements.

...Make that 3 points in Carthaginian territory... there's a stack of longbows with Treb/Cannon fire support in the west, some knights and a couple of Sips against Leptis, and a Sip and a Knight at Oea. As long as denyd doesn't get confused where to send reinforcements, we oughta be okay.

 

[DJMGator13]

...Make that 3 points in Carthaginian territory... <snip> and a Sip and a Knight at Oea.

I wasn't counting Oea because he can only rush a defender there, unless he has a galley nearby.

As long as denyd doesn't get confused where to send reinforcements, we oughta be okay.

Hopefully that's an inside joke. If not Scout can always just draw some stick men with arrows to use as a road map.

 

[Yom]

I'm back.

Nice job on starting to take out Carthage Scout . With our Uber-UU and GA we should be able to take control of our starting continent soon, despite being unable to upgrade knights.

 

[denyd]

Well I got started last night and the phrase of the day is a quote from one of Bugs' childhood comedy duos, "Well it's another fine mess you've gotten us into Ollie"

I'll finish up tonight and post then

 

[scoutsout]

I hope that's not a sign that I pulled the trigger too quickly on Hannibal...

 

[Sir Bugsy]

I guess it is an indication of how old I am, when not only do I know who Denyd is talking about, but I have watched way too many of their movies. I think I prefer the Marx Brothers or Abbott & Costello to Laurel & Hardy

 

[denyd]

FIRST THE LINK

Turn 0 – 450 AD – All looks pretty good, though I have to wonder why we don’t have more city defenders

IBT: Elite LB loses to Vet MDI (2/4) – Ponderosa MDI->Library

Turn 1 – 460 AD – Assault on Hippo:
Cannon go 1 for 3 – Trebuchet 1 for 2 – Vet LB (2/4) kills Reg N-Merc – Elite LB (3/5) kills Reg N-Merc – Vet LB dies to Reg N-Merc (1/3) – Vet LB (4/4) kills Vet MDI – Vet LB (4/4) kills Reg N-Merc and we take Hippo – William captures 2 Workers – Assault on Leptis Major: Vet Sipahi (2/5) kills Vet Knight and promotes – Elite Knight (1/5) retreats from Reg N-Merc (2/3) – Assault on Oea Vet Sipahi (1/4) kills Reg N-Merc – Pull wounded units out of Carthage to heal – Hurry barracks in Bolu

IBT: N-Merc kills LB – Edrine Sipahi->Sipahi – Bolu barracks->musket – Korea starts Magellan’s

Turn 2 – 470 AD – Cannon redline – N-Merc – Elite LB (2/5) kills N-Merc – All other units are healing - Everyone except China now is up Navigation & Democracy

IBT: Loses Elite LB to attacking N-Merc – Vet Spear (5/5) defends against Vet Knight and promotes (thanks LB assist) – Beijing Library->Musket – Palace Expansion gets us a front lawn – Byzantines start Magellan’s Voyage

Turn 3 – 480 AD – Assault on Oea: Vet Sipahi (4/4) kills Reg N-Merc – Vet Sipahi (1/4) retreats from Reg N-Merc (2/3) – Assault on Leptis Major: Elite Sipahi (4/5) kills N-Merc and Leptis Major is ours – After redlining a Vet N-Merc & Vet Warrior outside Hippo: Vet LB (3/4) kills Vet N-Merc & Vet LB (4/4) kills Vet Warrior – Vet Sipahi (3/5) kills Reg Knight and promotes

IBT: Knight kills out Vet LB – With LB assist Elite Spear (3/5) defends against Vet Knight – Istanbul Sipahi->Sipahi – Salonika Aqueduct->Musket

Turn 4 – 490 AD – After knight is redlined by cannon – Elite Sipahi (3/5) kills Knight – Assault on Oea: Vet Sipahi (2/4) kills Reg N-Merc and Oea is ours – the rest of the units are allowed to heal

IBT: Shantung: Reg Spear (2/3) defends against N-Merc – Izmit Sipahi->Sipahi – Palace Expansion gets us a front porch

Turn 5 – 500 AD – Troops advancing on Sabrathia – Hurry a market in Mugla

IBT: N-Merc pillages a road near Chengdu – Mugla market->musket – Bursa Sipahi->Sipahi

Turn 6 – 510 AD – Final movements before assault on Sabrathia

IBT: Korea starts Smith’s Trading Post

Turn 7 – 520 AD – Assault on Sabrathia: Cannon go 2 for 3 and Trebuchet go 2 for 2 – Elite Sipahi (2/5) kills Reg N-Merc – Elite Sipahi (3/5) kills Reg N-Merc – Vet Sipahi (4/4) kills Reg N-Merc and takes Sabratha sinking a caravel – Defense of Mugla: Vet Sipahi (3/4) kills Vet N-Merc – Vet Sipahi (3/4) kills Reg N-Merc – Vet Sipahi (3/4) kills Vet Warrior – Vet Knight (3/5) kills Reg N-Merc and promotes – Elite Knight (3/5) kills Vet Warrior - – Hurry Sipahi in Istanbul – Korea & Portugal both want a bunch for Economics

IBT: Carthage comes calling and we could get a city & some gold, but that’s not really enough – Vet Knight wounds our Vet Sipahi (2/4) – Istanbul Sipahi->Sipahi – Pyongyang builds Copernicus and lots of wonder switches

Turn 8 – 530 AD – Troops advancing on Carthage

IBT: Iznik courthouse->musket

Turn 9 – 540 AD – Defense of Chengdu: Vet LB (3/5) kills Vet Warrior and promotes – Outside Carthage: Elite Sipahi (3/5) kills Reg knight – Vet Sipahi (3/.3) kills Reg Knight – Other troops have reached Carthage – Spend our cash and hurry 3 Sipahi – Portugal & Korea now with Physics

IBT: Lose a Vet Sipahi to Knight attack – Edrine Sipahi->Musket – Bursa Sipahi->Sipahi – Izmit Sipahi->Sipahi – Aydin Aqueduct->Musket – Lisbon builds Magellan’s Voyage

Turn 10 – 550 AD – Assault on Carthage: Cannon go 2 for 3 and Trebuchet go 2 for 2 (more than 5 N-Merc in Carthage) – Sipahi dies to Reg N-Merc (2/3) – Sipahi (1/4) kills Reg N-Merc – Sipahi (4/5) kills Reg N-Merc and promotes – Vet Sipahi dies to Reg N-Merc (1/3) – Elite Sipahi (2/5) kills Reg N-Merc – Vet Knight (3/4) kills Reg N-Merc – Vet Knight (3/5) kills Reg N-Merc and promotes – Elite Sipahi (3/5) kills Reg N-Merc and Carthage is taken with Leonardo’s Workshop – cleanup: Vet Knight loses to Reg Knight (3/4) who promotes – Vet LB (4/4) chases Vet Knight – Vet Sipahi (4/4) Vet Knight

When this turn set started I felt like my job was cooking bacon at the nudist colony.

I don't think I've ever been in a war with so many undefended cities, I kept waiting for a Carthage caravel to land and a city would be gone. I've got 4 units playing a zone defense on the west coast. I had a bout of temporary sanity and started a couple of defenders, so we can garrison our border & coastal cities. Considering the cultural difference between us and Carthage, we should be shooting to wipe them out, unless we want to look forward to lots of flips. Physics is for sale at the moment (250g + 75gpt) but I thought killing Carthage was a higher priority and besides someday our GA will end and we might become cash short.

Bad luck with Elite RNG and we won 10 elite battles and had no GL.

I'll check back tomorrow morning.

 

[scoutsout]

When this turn set started I felt like my job was cooking bacon at the nudist colony.

Sorry for leaving you feeling so exposed there denyd. Nicely fought set!

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Sorry for leaving you feeling so exposed there denyd.

You guys are too funny.

That was a very nicely executed campaign Denyd.

Scout
Denyd - on Hannibal
Yom – Up
DJM Gator - On Deck
Bugs

 

[denyd]

Glad you gentlemen enjoy my strange little sense of humor.

A couple of things for the next guy I forgot to mention:

1. We should get our navy (1 galley) to the SE corner of our land, there's a Carthage city on an island with our city that should be ours.
2. We are way behind on culture to everyone so be careful how many units you leave in a recently conquered city.
3. North of Carthage is the final Chinese city, if we want to stir the pot a little we could give China and outdated tech for an MA against Carthage and give Hannibal a weaker target to distract his attacking troops.
4. I don't know whether it's C3C or lucky RNG, but my bombardments were much more effective than I remember in PTW.
5. We should start a couple of caravels as we'll need some troop transports soon to begin visiting other exotic locales.

 

[DJMGator13]

Yom - do you have this?


RosterYom – Up
DJM Gator - On Deck
Bugs
Scout
Denyd - on Hannibal

 

[Yom]

Turn 0 - Nothing

IBT - Our Dyes Deal expires but we get 14 more gpt out of it this
time.

Turn 1 - Not Much, mostly resting. I leave a sihapi in our
unprotected backlands as mobile defense (9 squares ).

Turn 2 - I was planning on attacking next turn with full artillery
support, but our Sihapi's show that there are only reg Mercs on
defense, so I press ahead. We take Utica with the loss of one
Sihapi thanks to bad PRNG.

IBT - We renew the iron deal with Portugal getting Physics,
Navigation and 1 gold for Iron and Wines . Gotta love the
ridiculous price of iron when you're the one with extra.
We successfully defend against a knight.

Turn 3 - Resting. I waste 25 shields at Beijing to start a
courthouse .

IBT - Renew deal for incense w/Port., gaining 4 and 1/2 gpt (they
pay 10 gold).

Turn 4 - More resting, Theveste will fall next turn, as will Leptis
Minor if I find it weak enough to push on.

IBT - Carthage advances 1 longbow, 1 MDI and 2 knights past our
troops (they can be easily slaughtered if I delay the attack). Renew
Furs deal, once again gaining money. This time it's 12 gpt.

Turn 5 - apparently a barb camp just appeared West of
Carthage. It's on the exact same spot I was planning on building a
city, too. Theveste falls with no losses, giving us 6 slaves and a
leader. Did someone say, Sihapi army? It gets loaded with 2 elite
sihapi. I destroy all the threatening units (including a previously
unseen knight behind theveste) without any casualties. The attack
on Leptis Minor will begin next turn.

Turn 6 - Leptis Minor falls like a ton of bricks. Our artillery is
overwhelming successful and we don't even lose a hitpoint. No
leaders despite 4 Elite wins this turn.

Turn 7 - Nora will fall next turn. Cirta will fall in 2 turns unless I
find that it is weak enough to take and hold next turn (without
artillery support).

Turn 8 - Both Cirta and Nora fall this turn, though our army loses
6 hp. As the fortune favors the bold and I still have 3 sihapi that
can attack this turn, I attack Rusicade. After the death of 2
NuMercs, it falls as well. The Carthaginian capital jumps to the
Island city of Hadrumetum. The only other Carthaginian cities are
Cirta (near Nora) and Rusaddir (on our Iron island). As Carthage
has more culture than us, I would push for complete annihilation
as they have no techs (other than democracy) over us. I rush some
Caravels.

IBT - We successfully defend against an MDI.

Turn 9 - The Gambit that Cirta only had 1 Numidian Mercenary
fails, but we still kill 1 of the city's defenders. Cirta will fall next
turn and the next player will be set up to take Hadrumetum soon
(either 2 or 3 turns from now).

Turn 10 - Cirta falls.

Summary: Our Golden age will be over next turn, but we're
in great shape. I prioritized Infrastructure builds over Sihapi's in
my turns as they're so damn powerful and Carthage was very
weak. Our empire is huge and will be even stronger once we end
all resistance (soon, as soon as we get a military unit in all
resisting cities and Carthage is destroyed). The only important tech
we are behind is Magnetism, which should be easily bought. I
would still wait for a 2fer (if one doesn't arise, our economy is
strong enough to buy or research it and 2+ other well known
techs). I would keep all our cities on infrastructure and build
courthouses everywhere. We will eventually be in
communism, and most of our cities can benefit from them
anyway. Even Rusicade, the 2nd Northernmost Carthaginian
city isn't 1/1 (it makes 2 gold). So build them wherever
possible. I would build a city Just outside of Carthage either 1 SE
or 1 S of the cow tile there to redeem some wasted tiles. Bursa is
building the Forbidden Palace and will complete it in 17
turns (it says 12 b/c it hasn't taken into account the end of the
golden age yet). Also, build Libraries. They're really cheap,
and we'll be doing our own research upon researching the
Industrial Age. We can win any way we choose (save cultural
victory), but I would prefer a Conquest Victory to be 100%
certain we have conquered the Gauntlet. Whatever path we
choose, Carthago delenda est! (I've always wanted to say
that ).

P.S. Those caravels can be used to mop up the Chinese once
Carthage's been eradicated.

P.P.S. (what does that even stand for?) The Army can have another Elite Sihapi loaded, but I would wait until we have no opportunities for leaders (we can carry an army with 3 sihapi once we get Magnetism).