C3c Pbem: "beantown" Mesopotania (newbees)

[SpikeIt]

Congrats PB. I have to admit I've never played with a wonder victory either so that was a bit unexpected. I figured you had a good lead on me to the Great Lighthouse though. I couldn't complete it for another 7 turns (Forbidden palace building at the moment) and I couldn't look at your city. Nice job. Here I was last night trying to figure out if I can take some Phoenicians cities while they were in anarchy to grab some VPs to try and make up for the wonder you were building all while holding off Warnings bowman trickle and fending off Loch's more formidable stack coming into my heartland... Somehow I think I was doomed, but at least my newly formed companinion infantry would have had some fun.

I should have hooked up my ivory and built the Status of Zeus sooner! Drat. You took forever building that thing.

 

[SpikeIt]

Hmmm... Ok, I guess it's over. Darn, don't I just hate those sudden endings!

Congrats to the mighty Egyptians! But couldn't you have waited just one more turn so I could launch my attack on the Hittites!?! I launched an unofficial attack and took down Tarsos but that's not very satisfying. I didn't get a victory notice either so I just sent the game along anyway.

Geesh. To add insult to injury you still attack Tarsos! Where was the official attack going to come from. I hope at least my three brave spearmen took out a horsie or two.

 

[SpikeIt]

And to just continue my string of posts....

I'd be interested in another game King Stu... Its crazy playing these scenarios when I haven't played them before. But this was a lot of fun.

 

[punkbass2000]

"I should have hooked up my ivory and built the Status of Zeus sooner! Drat. You took forever building that thing."

Tell me about it. I think I must have accidentally switched it to something else briefly and left the screen once, because I recall opening up the save once after building it for a while and feeling like I had way less shields than I should, plus I went through anarchy after that. Must have been at least 25 turns altogether.

 

[LochNorFarm]

To add insult to injury you still attack Tarsos!

I didn't get to attack anyone in this game. Let me have my fun!

And yes your spearmen did put up a spirited fight, taking out one horsie and forcing a couple of retreats. But it was an act of desperation to go on the attack. With wonders getting snatched away from me left and right my only option was to get completely offensive (never hard for me). Meanwhile Punkbass was over in his corner of the world quietly accumulating his wonders and leaving us all in the dust. Darn those ruthlessly effiecient Egyptians!

 

[SpikeIt]

I received the save from King Stu yesterday. I presume there is no point in moving this along further. Maybe I'll open it up to see if it ends the scenario...

 

[WarningU2]

I retired. All the Babylonians fell on swords they were preparing to use in battle with High Tights. I received confirmation from LouLong that a PBEM game ends like this with a Victory Pop Up only for the winner. Very important to take that screen shot.

I don't begrudge Punkbass for the win. Good Game and congrats again. This is the first PBEM scenario I have ever finished despite several attempts that all eventually die. So this was a great way to see that a PBEM game can actually be played out.

Morale of the story is understand the victory conditions going into the game. Still I didn't necessarily like the way this ended. It was just getting exciting battle wise. I had a bunch of swordsman going to the front since my Bowman were struck down pretty effectively. (nice job Hittites) The Sumerians were just about to take on Phoenicians. (We had a 3 way alliance) But boing there's that darn wonder.

Next time I will give Wonders more attention.

 

[punkbass2000]

I sympathize with you WU2. I wasn't a big fan of the way it ended. I had planned to invade eastward from the beginning. By the time I was getting ready to set up, I noticed I could grab the HG quickly and that the MoM was about to be built. I then realized that the final wonder wasn't in the final age, it was just at the end of a dead-tech-branch. I immediately bought the first tech in that tree and then researched the next two in four-turns each, while using a palace pre-build in my best coastal city (production-wise). I had not expected it to end so early either, as I say, I only recognized the implications of the scenario eight turns before the game was over, so I quickly amassed troops on the Phoenician border in order to steal the Colossus a turn or two before I discovered Navigation.

 

[SpikeIt]

So who was in the 3 way alliance? Babs, Medeans, and Sumerians? Or Egyptians? As for the wonder, I noticed it was in that age as well, but didn't realize the implications. No one was building it, so I had a palace build going as well to switch, but my coastal cities were very weak compared to my core. Nice job on the alliance whatever it was - was it the wonderless vs the wonder-full? Or just pick on the Hittites. I was half waiting for the Mycenaeans to be bought in on behalf of the Babs to cause me some grief on my back side.

When was the alliance formed? Before or after the Babs original attacks? Just curious. Diplomatically I was shut out pretty early once the battles began.

 

[punkbass2000]

The alliance did not include Egypt. I was politically isolated My only trade was through the Myceneans and a lux deal with the Phoenecians.

 

[WarningU2]

I initiated it with Medes first because the Hittites seemed to be running away with both points and land mass. You really pissed me off too because you were expanding east when you had ample land to your west. My plan was to expand to that horse and then attack Phoenicia however when you built that city and locked me out of that horse available ... oh that broke the camels back I didn't want to worry about Sumerians so I baited them with an alliance to allow him free transport through my land to Phoenicia. I really didn't want to win at this point just cause chaos My cities were producing swordsman like mad - 5 every two turns - when punkbass won. What was hurting me was the time it took for me to assemble my troops ... I couldn't get them to the front fast enough.

 

[SpikeIt]

I initiated it with Medes first because the Hittites seemed to be running away with both points and land mass. You really pissed me off too because you were expanding east when you had ample land to your west. My plan was to expand to that horse and then attack Phoenicia however when you built that city and locked me out of that horse available ... oh that broke the camels back I didn't want to worry about Sumerians so I baited them with an alliance to allow him free transport through my land to Phoenicia. I really didn't want to win at this point just cause chaos My cities were producing swordsman like mad - 5 every two turns - when punkbass won. What was hurting me was the time it took for me to assemble my troops ... I couldn't get them to the front fast enough.

Now couldn't we have just traded horsies and attacked someone else? You were really stretching yourself thin expanding north like that. And the land to my west was all a hilly mess and a pain to connect. The Medean alliance would have turned the tide. As for your sword production, I was able to spit out 4 to 5 companion infantry each turn at that point. That production allowed me to reinforce Adana so quickly. Before your attack I had maybe 1 spear in Adana. By the time your stack was there, I had about 8 horsies, a few 3 men and 4 or 5 spears. But the Medeans would have definitely made a mess of things. If only I could have gotten Sumeria to attack you on the rear. Chaos you managed.

Now surely someone else was watching the Egyptian score, right? I couldn't have been the only one. The Hittites may have been leading in points (until close to the end), but not by much over Egypt.

 

[LochNorFarm]

But the Medeans would have definitely made a mess of things.

Yeah, that's about all we're good for.

It really was a wonderless vs. wonder-ful alliance. When WarningU2 proposed it I had just lost out on yet another wonder and was so bitter and frustrated I just wanted to lash out (what a world leader I'd make, eh?). WarningU2 had a pretty sizable force so I thought it would be better to join him rather than try to beat him. Getting King Stuart on board was key so that we wouldn't have to worry about our other borders and could focus on a single front to the west.

For me the plan was pretty simple: push west until stopped. It took a while to gather my forces but I finally rolled in everything I could into the Hittites' territory. Also, I had just started banging out immortals which really could have done some damage. Of course, the Hittites would be building up their military too, but I hoped to at least take them down a notch before they stopped me. And it's not like I was picking on you, Spike It. You were just more convenient to attack! The ironic thing was that the turn before the game ended I asked WarningU2 what were going to do about the Egyptians who seemed to be running away with the game. If only they had been the ones on our borders...

 

[SpikeIt]

And it's not like I was picking on you, Spike It. You were just more convenient to attack! The ironic thing was that the turn before the game ended I asked WarningU2 what were going to do about the Egyptians who seemed to be running away with the game. If only they had been the ones on our borders...

Too little too late I guess. Egypt managed to slip under the radar long enough. Don't worry about me. I'll take being picked on as a compliment to my position in the game at that point. There definitely wasn't a good reason for anyone to join me at that point given my position in score. It would just solidify my spot. Its too bad the Myceneans weren't in a more strategically beneficial spot for me to at least pull them in to play a little interference.

Anyhow, I enjoyed that as my first PBEM and MP game. There's a lot more to think about when its real people behind the civ leaderheads than just the mindless AI. Strategically things are upped a notch when you can't "peak" at the techs the other humans have in the F4 screen. Having a AI civ in the game probably sped things up a bit research wise as I'm sure I'm not the only one to use the Myceneans to purchases a tech or two from.