Cookbook #1 (Sally, Immortal)

[floydmcw]

Played to T196 and I'm going to ask for some help if that's okay (seems like everyone else has already won their games).

The turnset started out well. Traded for Guilds and Eng. Shaka declared on QSH on T167 which seemed helpful, I figured he would slam a lot of units into a PRO AI.

Lib'd Nat on T174. After this things started to drag. It took 5 turns to research Gunpowder and 10 turns to get MT. I had whipped a couple muskets and built some camel archers thanks to Guilds. But I couldn't whip aggressively, I needed the surplus REP scientists.

Meanwhile Shaka was not doing badly at all, he took two cities and made peace just as I got MT. I switched to PS/Vass/Theo which helped my unit production but now my economy was in the toilet.

T192 I declared with 14 cuirs (and some muskets and camels). I also had a decent sized army from my previous war, for garrisons and covering my mounted stacks. I took Nodwengu and Ondini the first turn, and a couple turns later was menacing two more cities. I had scouted Shaka's land while at peace and didn't see any large stack.

On T195 the large stack showed up (knights, 8 trebs) and took Nodwengu back. Then a resolution ended the war.

So now it's T196, I've taken three Zulu cities. But Shaka is there with a big stack. Am I in trouble or is this just a bump in the road?

My plan is
- Build and whip more cuirs for 10 turns
- Declare on Shaka
- Pillage the farm and road next to Ondini
- He should move his stack next to Ondini
- I splat the stack and flank all his trebs

But I have a GS and could bulb most of PP, then work on rifling? Not sure how long that would take.

 

[Powerfaker]

Glad I could squeeze in time to play this turnset (in the middle of moving out to new appartment).

That bloody JC.........

Spoiler :

......just didn't want to capitulate. So ended this turnset with ceasefire.
Shaka and Boudi are vassal still need to capture Monty (and hopefully not Qin for Dom victory)

 

[Fippy]

Played to T196 and I'm going to ask for some help if that's okay (seems like everyone else has already won their games).

Yep it's okay, we are done with the cookbook and all games can be played or discussed freely now

Shaka first at Economics? Now we have seen everything here
Chemistry from Qin looks very interesting, maybe put 1t research in and then trade for Edu?
Cuirs should roll over Knights, Maces and Trebs (his stack) yep.

 

[floydmcw]

Yep it's okay, we are done with the cookbook and all games can be played or discussed freely now

Shaka first at Economics? Now we have seen everything here

Lol I didn't even notice that.

Chemistry from Qin looks very interesting, maybe put 1t research in and then trade for Edu?

I tried that, but my economy is in the toilet now that I'm in PS and have a big army. (I'm losing more than $30 per turn at 0%).

I could swap out to Repr, but would rather focus on getting a big army -- is that wrong? I didn't like missing Chem but figured someone else would trade it to me later.

Cuirs should roll over Knights, Maces and Trebs (his stack) yep.

I feel like getting a big army together is a hole in my game. How many cuirs do you think I should have in 10 turns? (This save has 13.)

I whip each city every 10 turns. The cities with raxes build units, some of the non-rax cities are building wealth when not whipping units. And there are still some forests left.

Should I whip more aggressively in some cities? Should I pick one of the coastal cities with a single seafood and whip it every other turn? Every 5 turns? I know people whip aggressively but don't know the details.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Fippy]

Imo really good players will focus on 1 part (must do on deity i.e.) mainly,
while keeping an eye on other stuff.

So yup, you should get plenty more Cuirs if your main focus currently is war again with Shaka.
Can never have too many top units, maybe they can also backstab Qin later or become Cavs, who knows?

Meanwhile keep an eye on good trades for gold (selling cheaper techs possible?), i usually check that screen each 2t.
(Bug, Buffy etc also notify you when AIs have gold).
Also consider suiciding old units, or if they are really useless disbanding can be better than paying gold each turn.
Try keeping good tiles like towns when whipping, mines can almost always be whipped away, coast for sure, and so on

 

[krikav]

I have an attitude that when I have reached a key military tech which I intend to leverage upon, I change my focus completely, from one turn to another my precious villages/towns are worth nothing to me.
Now commerce is evaluated as close to zero, while food and hammers are key.

When it comes to unit production, I divide my cities in two categories the first category is cities of some size (8-12?) and putting out decent ammount of hammers 15-20? Or if they are of some other interest, such as a city with heroic epic, or the capital.
These cities I whip only very slightly, if at all.

All other cities, be that coastal ones or commerce ones or what have you, these are whipped ruthlessly. Preferably I want 3pop whips over 2pop whips, but if I get too much overflow and am forced to do a 1pop whip I do so.
I want an army now.

 

[Fish Man]

I have an attitude that when I have reached a key military tech which I intend to leverage upon, I change my focus completely, from one turn to another my precious villages/towns are worth nothing to me.
Now commerce is evaluated as close to zero, while food and hammers are key.

When it comes to unit production, I divide my cities in two categories the first category is cities of some size (8-12?) and putting out decent ammount of hammers 15-20? Or if they are of some other interest, such as a city with heroic epic, or the capital.
These cities I whip only very slightly, if at all.

All other cities, be that coastal ones or commerce ones or what have you, these are whipped ruthlessly. Preferably I want 3pop whips over 2pop whips, but if I get too much overflow and am forced to do a 1pop whip I do so.
I want an army now.

Usually I save my villages and towns to get to rifling or beyond if it's on deity (more often than not AIs love their grens, and the best solution to that is pinch cavs + frigate party). But besides that...yep, everything goes. Barring food and tiles with 5c or more, everything's fair game for the whip

 

[floydmcw]

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Am on T210 now. Things are looking pretty good. The first war wasn't so bad, it was disappointing to find out Shaka had a big stack but I did take 3 cities and then got to build more military while Shaka was out of war mode.

 

[krikav]

Even if it at times appears that the AIs can conjure units our of thin air, it is still noticable how much less units they can muster once they start losing cities.

 

[Gwaja]

Oh... so....

The victim that used to be subjected to cooked maps is now hosting a new series based on cooked maps?

I like it!! ^_^

 

[Fish Man]

Oh... so....

The victim that used to be subjected to cooked maps is now hosting a new series based on cooked maps?

I like it!! ^_^

Long time no see! First TMIT, then you...seems like everyone’s returning now.

 

[Gwaja]

Long time no see! First TMIT, then you...seems like everyone’s returning now.

Hi there!! Glad I am not the only one. ^_^

 

[floydmcw]

At long last the T230 save:

Spoiler :

Per my earlier post:
- Traded for Guilds and Eng. Shaka declared on QSH on T167. Mao didn't defend very well.

- Lib'd Nat on T174. T192 declared on Shaka with 14 cuirs (and some muskets and camels, and a fair number of medieval units).

- Took 4 cities, but a big stack (which I had somehow missed when scouting Zululand) showed up and retook one.

- T195 Apo resolution ended the war. Thanks QSH!

Then:

- T206 declared and pillaged road/farm 2 away from the stack, and next to Ondini. Shaka fell for the bait and I smashed up his stack.

- Then I had to take 5 cities before he capped on T219.

- At peace but economy was bad (like -50$ at 0% bad). Considered attack on QSH but he has grenadiers.

- Had 3 GEs and used 2 of them to bulb Repl, which I sold to Boudica for $1290.

- QSH declared on some overseas folks, that might make things a little more difficult if he builds units.

- 2 turns from Rifling. That should time nicely with Apo resolution -- 4 turns to upgrade and get units in place.

Notes for anyone who wants to play this save:

- Apo resolutions are "on the 5s" so declare war on T226.

- kwaDuzka has minimum # of garrison units to stave off culture flip, hopefully that can go down as the city gains 4 per turn.

- Hammers in build queue of some cities, can switch out of wealth when Rifling obtained.

- Shaka is working on Chemistry which we can trade for.

- QSH didn't have a big stack when I scouted his land a few turns ago.

 

[Fippy]

Looks like you will have fun with Cavs soon Floyd,
i would push research to 1t Rifling so you can start quickly on Qin.
(new Cuirs now would just cost upgrade money, and you can start whipping some Cavs 1t sooner. Can also put some hammers into Cuirs in cities, build will switch and you can whip Cavs)

 

[floydmcw]

Looks like you will have fun with Cavs soon Floyd,
i would push research to 1t Rifling so you can start quickly on Qin.

The train to the Apostolic Palace leaves on T226

(new Cuirs now would just cost upgrade money, and you can start whipping some Cavs 1t sooner. Can also put some hammers into Cuirs in cities, build will switch and you can whip Cavs)

Those are all good points and I will finish rifling next turn.

I assume I can keep playing?

 

[Fippy]

Yep play on

 

[Powerfaker]

I finished the game.......domination victory 1804AD (T272)

The road to victory didn't go particularly smooth

Spoiler :

1 Shaka 1220AD
Wrong timing. Had to defy an apostolic demand after a couple of turns. Defeated his stack of the BC war, conquered 3 cities. Then with 4th city at 1 defender left couldn't defy another demand, so peace was signed.

2 Boudi ±1350AD
In the mean time I had accepted to join in on Boudi with JC/Isabella. Boudi at this point turned out about to collapse. With little resistance I captured some cities and I think snatched her vassalization from JC ± 1450AD. So breaking of war with Shaka may have been fortunate after all

3. JC/Isabella and Shaka simultaneous ±1500AD.
My main army on the other continent moved on against JC. In the mean time my planned reinforcements formed a new army against Shaka (apostolic vote just past). 2 cities quickly taken made him capitulate. JC's massive army on the border of Boudi was quickly defeated. On the downside I didn't take his city with caravel fleet right away, which became a fleet of frigates that I had no answer to. I did manage to ferry over most of my Shaka army. Only my admiral, William the conqueror, died, RIP. Then while taking city after city JC refused to capitulate. I got in serious negative gold issues so signed for peace ±1600AD and a little restoration of my empire. I had also worked on bringing an army to the west side. Isabella's 1 city last resort there (as vassal of JC) was taken early + a foothold on the mainland.

4 JC 1680AD
Despite the gold issues I tried to hold on to most of my conquered cities. If I wanted to dominate without conquering Qin I would need the land. The air cleared after JC's quick capitulation ±1700AD. For ages I was working on researching my way to cannons. Finally got there now, yay.

5 Monty 1715AD
Quickly capped at 1735AD. Lots of tech trading made my progress leap forward to artillery ao.

6 Qin.
Now it was waiting time for cities to get out of revolt, while moving my army back home in case I needed to attack Qin, which appeared necessary. Conquering his 1 city pressing my culture was enough to just pass the dominatiion limit....

Especially the war against JC of my cav's+rifles versus his cuirs+grens and his sea domination was a long lasting tough one, both military and economically (up to 10 war unhappy in the end)

 

[floydmcw]

Here is T300, cruising along to a space victory after taking most of the continent:

Spoiler :

Declared T236[*] with 25 cuir, 19 cav, 2 rifles. The only tricky part was Beijing on a hill; I was afraid QSH would tech Rifling. But he didn't, and he foolishly withdrew some units when I threatened other cities, so I was able to cap him on T249.

At this point I controlled the continent except for 4 cities. Started a 12-turn golden age, moved capital to Macau, built IW and FP in Beijing, Wall St and Mining Inc in the conf city.

* As it turns out the Apostolic Palace was not super relevant; I had enough votes to block any resolution.

 

[floydmcw]

T352 space victory. Kind of slow but I had to tech everything myself.

Boudica attacked me twice, the second time she brought a load of units and took a city on the southwest coast. But it was all for nought, I retook the city with Mobile Arty then cleaned out her fleet with jet fighters.

Thanks Fippy for running this! Very educational!

 

[unas876]

Definitely nice to follow and read along this topic, I have to say. Would do again