Doing Deals With Baddies - A Cheeky Browse Through English Foreign Policy

[grs]

Wow, seems we abstained from mm the southern isle for 20 turns now.

Brighton gets the harbor, not the useless court. It can not grow beyond size 2 without one even if it gets a useless court in 60 turns. Liverpool switched to temple. Oxford starts a settler after the temple it could have completed many turns ago.

70AD: Peace with Bismarck: peace, mono and ivory cost us silks + 30gpt. How much did he demand? 35g? Cities start MDI after finishing thei current improvements.

...

110AD: French want peace - we can't yet.

190AD: Germans complete Leos.

210AD: Spain has a galley near Brighton, France near Warwick.

230AD: Kill French spear/archer and Spanish spear/sword, losing a sword. Rush the rest of the harbor in Brighton.

250AD: Russians complete Leos.

I'd load 6 MDI and 2 cats in galleys next turn and attack the far behind Americans. They lack horses and iron and are still far in the AA, so you only will face spears and archers. Goal should be to get all or their isle. I would take cities if possible and starve - they "only" have twice our culture. Else you will have to build settlers and I do not see we can get them fast.

Warwick could switch to aqueduct - if we attack Lincoln cultural pressure is gone and it needs to make use of the food.

I missed a deal of getting Republic from Ghandi for Mono + 120gold, as if that would not have been a crappy offer...

 

[grs]

Just to remember:

Meeting France: 610BC (turn 97)
DoW: 10BC (turn 127)
Peace: 420AD (turn 157)
DoW: 720AD (turn 187)
...

 

[ThERat]

Wow, seems we abstained from mm the southern isle for 20 turns now

I checked the 2 saves, I wouldn't call it that way, though a tiny change could be made
sometimes we all miss a tiny detail, sometimes even at the last turn and since the next person would tirely check, it looks as if there was no MM
also, if you check, you can actually get one more fpt for Dover now, since Oxford can't grow. not that it matters.


let's see whether graham can pull this war off

 

[grahamiam]

let's see whether graham can pull this war off

looks like all i did was get us killed. ah well, what can you expect. arabs had to use all those horses at some point. it's an interesting and fun concept, just not the right map and probably not the right level.

Preflight check: 12 towns giving us 24 units. Currently, we have 21 units, but 6 need to be replaced (5 warriors and 1 reg spear). And 4 swords can be replaced by MDI’s if desired. Target is America which we could launch from anywhere, so maybe it’s a good idea to get some MDI’s down to the island to support the wounded swords.
Switch Canterbury to a Market as I think we want more units, not more soon to be obsolete arty.
Remove the citizens in Oxford from working the American border tiles, still getting 3spt. Turn them into scientists.

Load a couple MDI’s into a galley and they leave. MM lux slider for 1T as MP’s will be in town next turn.

IBT: Abe asks us to leave but we won’t. uhoh, Spanish galley shows up off the island.
London MDI -> MDI; Nottingham MDI -> pike

T1: 260AD Readjust the lux due to our new units. MM London for 14s this turn.

IBT: 2 more Spanish galleys show up off our island. That’s definitely not good. 6 units for 3 sword defenders
Warwick Lib -> market
Russians complete Sun’s
Lose our dyes

T2: 270AD Sell Currency to the Arabs for dyes and 1g; Upgrade a swordsman to MDI for 30g.

IBT: York ‘duct -> market; Newcastle Lib -> harbor; Oxford settler -> court; Liverpool and Dover riot on the island due to being cutoff from Lux’s, though I think they should still be able to go thru the American coast.
Paris finishes KT

T3: 280AD Drop off 2 MDI’s near Liverpool, as there’s a Spanish galley outside
IBT: spear and archer dropped off near dover, only 1 sword in area. French galley trolling off Warwick
London MDI -> MDI; Nottingham pike -> pike
German’s building Magellans

T4: 290AD Move galley and 2 cat’s into Warwich so I can move the MDI and cat into Newcastle if needed. Also, disband a warrior in Hastings to get to 24 units. 2 MDI’s move out from London to help Newcastle and Canterbury.
I’m forced to let Dover fall.

IBT: Interesting; France drops off archer in Arab territory. Dover captured by the Spanish, costing us 10g
Coventry MDI -> MDI

T5: 300AD Won’t be able to recapture Dover this turn, so I disband 3 warriors to get to 22 units (11 towns)

IBT: Germans and Russians building Newtons; Oxford riots due to loss of lux

T6: 310AD Near Canturbery: MDI kills archer (2/4)
@ Dover: MDI kills spear (3/4); Sword kills spear (3/4) and we retake the town.
Build an Embassy in Berlin and see that they have a ton of units.

IBT: Arabs move up a ton of units and attack, taking Newcastle; French land a bunch of assorted stuff at Newcastle.
Spain lands 4 units near Oxford; Sword in Dover defends against archer and promotes (4/5)
London MDI -> MDI; Nottingham pike -> MDI
Germans complete Sistine’s
T7: 320AD Switch Hastings and Canturbery to pikes. Disband 2 cats in Warwick due to town loss.

IBT: Lose MDI to French longbow, lose Canterbury to Arab horseman

Lose 2 MDI’s to many junk arab units (both were promoted to elite) and they take Hastings

Lose a sword in Oxford to a Spanish archer

Hastings horseman -> horseman
Russians complete JS Bach’s

(more next post due to forum limits)

 

[grahamiam]

T8: 330AD Futz with lux slider due to loss of dyes.
Near Oxford: MDI kills reg spear (1/4); swordsman kills reg spear and promotes (4/5); ¾ MDI kills reg archer (1/4 )
I turn off research as that’s pretty pointless now.
I start committing suicide as this is beyond recovery and the prng is killing me, an elite swordsman dies to a spear (2/3 )
We now have 19 units and 9 towns, so I disband our last warrior in Brighton

IBT: 2 Arab horseman overwhelm the MDI in Coventry, and we lose the town.

The elite sword left Dover unprotected so it burns to the ground.
¼ MDI in Oxford defends against redlined archer and wins (2/5)

Liverpool horseman -> archer
German’s complete Magellan’s, French complete Newton’s

IBT: Fend off 5 Arab horseman in York, losing 2 MDI but holding with the horseman vs a Spanish archer and spear. As a final act of lunacy, Germany demands TM and 18g, and I tell them to stick it Now we are at war with them too.
London riots, I seem to be unable to figure out why though as it was fine last turn. Ditto with York (lost 2 MDI’s and it freakin’ riots )
Nottingham MDI -> horseman
Germans are building Smith’s

Lost track of turns due to all the fun

T10: 350AD Near Oxford: 4/5 sword dies to 2/3 spear; 4/5 MDI kills spear (2/5). Tough spear!
Use a ¾ horseman to kill a horse near York

Well, that’s all the hell I can take right now. This one has hit the crapper, not sure if we wanna bother continuing.
If so, then the next player should check the unit count and disband as required.

 

[ThERat]

I would be up next, please spare me the agony, of course I can continue the useless fight.
I like this concept, but must ensure that Arabs do not share the same island as us. this made it pointless from the start IMHO. Am surprised we could actually last that long. But that was no fun overall and that's why I had my share of moves as well.
So, guys are you game for a rematch, maybe at DG, I could roll some starts tonight (and make sure Arabs are not on our Island)

 

[grahamiam]

i'm really stuffed rat, and need to slim down on my sg's atm (i was up to 8, and that's just too many for me). so i will need to sit it out.

 

[bed_head7]

I'm not giving up so easily. I'll storm America with two pikes and six medi, leaving our little island empty, if that is what it takes.

 

[grs]

This one has hit the crapper, not sure if we wanna bother continuing.

No, this is lost and it was quite probable we lose it once the Arabs attack us.

I like this concept, but must ensure that Arabs do not share the same island as us. this made it pointless from the start IMHO. Am surprised we could actually last that long. But that was no fun overall and that's why I had my share of moves as well.

Hmm, that does not make it easier. I do think the game was some fun, but if you sign up for a SG it would be nice to try to play at your best skill instead of saying the game is no fun and therefore I play turns

So, guys are you game for a rematch, maybe at DG, I could roll some starts tonight (and make sure Arabs are not on our Island)

Not me.

 

[ThERat]

Hmm, that does not make it easier. I do think the game was some fun, but if you sign up for a SG it would be nice to try to play at your best skill instead of saying the game is no fun and therefore I play bad turns

if you look at the SG's I am in, I always try and do my best, though sometimes do make mistakes, but always put in the best effort. I did this here as well, but I guess overall the motivation must have had an effect. Look at goz8 - silence is golden and see what situation we are in. I definitely did play with dedication so far

 

[grahamiam]

Hmm, that does not make it easier. I do think the game was some fun, but if you sign up for a SG it would be nice to try to play at your best skill instead of saying the game is no fun and therefore I play turns

i, too, was annoyed by his statement. however, i have play(ed) 2 games with theRat (ak6 eclectic and goz8) and i find him reliable, on time, and thorough. i think theRat just needs one or 2 desperate, come-from-behind victories in an sg to realize that giving up too early is not good and not appreciated by other players. hopeless or not, we owe our teamates our best effort. hopefully, we pull it out in goz8 and he experiences what i'm writing about as he has definitely given his best effort in that game. i look forward to playing with him in future sg's (and you and JD as well )

@bedhead: i'm not sure how many units we can support, but i had to disband 3 of the 4 galleys to keep up the troop count up so escaping from that island alive is almost impossible. you could rush one or 2 and then go. i'm fully against troop warping by gifting away cities to neutral ai's. even so, we'll be down to 4 or 5 cities (8 or 10 units) and defending against spanish landings and probably 20 or 30 american archers. this assumes that the arabs lay off after taking the island.

 

[ThERat]

maybe I should not have posted all that. it's not as if I did not play properly here. I just wondered about one or 2 funny moves I made. that led me to my statements. I would never let other SG players down by not playing properly. In fact I find it annoying myself when players do not follow team decisions or do commit to the game. so, please don't take too hard what I wrote before.

@bedhead. you want me to continue to play, I can always give it a go.

 

[bed_head7]

I'll take it, since I am the one that wants to continue. I haven't looked at the save yet, so I am not hopeless. Perhaps I will change my mind.

 

[bed_head7]

350 AD (0) - Give it a looksie. We can support all the units we have!

360 AD (1) - Well, we are screwed. French bringing in a caravel. Lots of Arabs.

370 AD (2) - Germans and Spanish make simultaneos landings at Brighton.

Now just a race to see who gets it. Belatedly, I sign America in against Arabs and Spanish. Maybe they will absorb some units for us.

380 AD (3) - What are they thinking? We just lost Brighton.

400 AD (5) - The Arabs will finally accept peace for Monotheism. We are left only with Nottingham at this point, and four cities overall.

410 AD (6) - No attacks!

IT - This may have something to do with our breaking our deal with them.

440 AD (9) - Sent in the workers to do a real unit's job. Who knows, maybe it will work.

IT - Maybe not.

450 AD (10) -

460 AD (11) - Uh?

IT - Things are starting to look bad, but London revolts to us! Rejoice!

 

[bed_head7]

470 AD (12) - However, the southern island looks like this. I had a sceenie of the Arabs just as they settled Anjar, but so much happened last turn.

480 AD (13) - Somewhat belatedly, remember to make peace with France. Oh well. They only needed 180g.

IT - Down to London and Nottingham, this just may mean the end.

520 AD (17) - Whaaa? We are still alive?

IT - Two bars of health, one pike and one horse, keep us alive.

530 AD (18) - The tide may yet turn. It is getting so crowded outside Nottingham that conflict may break out. Color discs on to emphasize, uh, the colors, I guess.

IT - Maybe not. Well, I lasted longer than I expected.

How dare they call the Queen of England names like this?!

At least it is helping me fill out my personal HoF.

I ought to put this much effort into every single set and post. But I don't. I really liked this game, and still my play wasn't the best. I do like having grs after me, as it helps force me to play in a more disciplined manner. Sort of a bummer this never got off the ground. I somehow feel this may have turned out differently had Nad been able to play, and eagerly await his return. In the meantime, I may steal this idea and try it out on Demigod, as ThERat suggested, or something similar.

I don't think we got any points at all in the variant, as our silks were disconnected, unless we get points for everyone else surviving even as we were destroyed.

 

[grahamiam]

well, at least its done very nice write-up! it is a good varient, but i think diety + this start is a little too much.

 

[tomasjj]

lurkers comment:

Too bad. As I said before I think the variant is real interesting.
Adds a bit of role-play to it.
The start with the Arabs there just made it real, real hard.

If you want to try it again I would very much like to participate in it.

JJ