Fox-20 -- The Harsh War

[Jabah]

I have it.

Cottaging is (I think) needed, but will take time to take off.
One other solution to our finance is to settle 1 (or 2) city able to work multiple gems (for example the one one the west coast of the inside (mark 'city?' on the map and SShot, it has food available also)

Jabah

 

[GreyFox]

Cottaging is definitely the way to go.

Adding cities does have the effect of decreasing the units support cost (i.e. each new city, IIRC, gives some free unit support), but the problem is they have their own maintenance cost. The trick then is to build cities which can support themselves. The 3 gems site you pointed out is an excellent choice, except for one caveat: it need one border expansion to work on any of the gems. The time it takes for us to build a monument and for its border to pop might prove the death of our economy. Thus, for now, it might be better to settle due east of our capitol to grab that two gems, or the Shining crab site. Or try to take one city and have some spare cash to fund through the period while we are waiting for the border to pop.

--

 

[Ozbenno]

We would have to have spare cash in any case to support a new city until the gems can be mined. The extra maintenance is probably more than the reduction in unit support costs and we're skating at bankruptcy at the mo.

 

[Olodune]

I actually like the idea of building another city to reduce maintenance costs -- as long as its reasonably close to our capital and has quick commerce potential. We certainly have enough workers for some serious cottaging either way. Once catapults are in the field pillage income should increase substantially

 

[GreyFox]

Looked at the save, only one note on city MM: Vienne. Currently one pop is working on the vanilla mine instead of the gems mine ... working on gems will bring us to break even, so I suggest we do that (even if it means delaying mids by some turns).

I also think it is okay to bring get one more settler out. Need not settle him immediately, maybe wait until plunder money to come in.

--

 

[Olodune]

Looked at the save, only one note on city MM: Vienne. Currently one pop is working on the vanilla mine instead of the gems mine ... working on gems will bring us to break even, so I suggest we do that (even if it means delaying mids by some turns).
--

Yep, good catch. There are some barbarian bones on that tile from a couple turns ago -- I forgot to switch the citizen back

 

[Jabah]

T0 - 290BC (T154)
I know roads are over-rated, but some are usefull sometimes for faster movement between our cities (West of Bibracte)
Change Bibracte to settler

T3 - 245BC
Louis has completed the Oracle

At Susa (after healing), we won all the battles (including some middle-low odds) but one.
Wait 1t to avoid the partisans in a wrong situation.

T4 - 230BC
lots of Barbs coming (Teno is the new 'hot' spot for barbies)

Raze Susa, get 5 explorers as partisans

switch research back to high to finish Construction in 2t

T5 - 215BC
Bibracte settler-> back to military (gaelic/archer...)

T6 - 200BC
Construction->Currency

T9 - 155BC
Hatshe is enjoying a Golden Age

T10 - 140BC
Peak at Persepolis and it is defended only by 2archer !!!
(make it +1 whipped for the next 2 turns)
More troops converging there.

Found the new city, our finance immediatly improved by a huge +1gpt !!

T11 - 125BC
Japan is sending some archers away towards us. settler+worker still in Kyoto (up to the end).

T13 - 110BC
Christianity fidal

T14 - 95BC
Try my luck at Persepolis (we have some troops to sacrifice!!)
CR3 gaelic wins at 45%
CR3 Gaelic wins at 60%
CR2 gaelic loses at 45%
Cb3 gaelic wins at 65%
Medic Gaelic loses at 90%, grrr
Cb3 Charriot wins at 95%

-->raze
Can't see any of the partisans ... good

Set research much higher. for a few turns anyway.
I play a few extra turns as they were some workers that I gather to do some projects and wanted them to start instead of leaving millions of orders (preparing the new city, by cutting tree for speeding library and preparing gems mines)

T17 - 50BC
Japan has killed, at last, our spying warrior, need to send another unit there (gaelic guerillaII would be perfect).

A french archer comes and knowk at Gergovia door, he is welcome to attack or go in the lowland next turn.

An archer is on GOTO to Teno, a Gaelic (not on GOTO) should go there as we lost a chariot against an perisanexplorer earlier (explorer dead by now).

Woodie warrior should be going to help healing our persian troops (the leftover)

Bibracte could build a colosseum next if we want to grow happily to size11.

research back to 20% stable (might need a bit of extra cash).

We have a very nice city to build at some time, 3gems, 11 water (7fresh, 4salty) for Maoi

Jabah

save attached

 

[Ozbenno]

Good progress here!

I think Louis should be next in line for a visit after we finish Cyrus. A few more troops as well as the woodie should join up for this. As we have Construction, the cattapults are an obvious choice.

Code of Laws after Currency I assume?

berserks appears to be UP

 

[r_rolo1]

I agree... Louis needs a visit fast. Some cats with our experienced troops should make the job.

I like the spot proposed by Jabah... good money and easily defensible. Too bad that our economy can't hold it now

Clearly CoL after currency.....

 

[berserks01]

Ok, I've got it for tomorrow then. Hmmm ... I would've gone CoL before currency, but currency helps so I'm not complaining.

 

[Ozbenno]

Currency is the pre-req tech for Code of Laws, otherwise we would have to research Meditation and Priesthood first.

 

[berserks01]

Oh, are we that backwards Heh, guess I'd forgotten that

 

[GreyFox]

Actually going Mediation and Priesthood isn't such a bad thing as they give happiness. Buddha is spreading slowly through our Empire. Plus they would ad up to less beakers than Currency. But we have invested half n Currency already, so let's continue currency -> CoL.

Some comments on save.

The general progress of our cities are superb! Great work there. The pre-chopping of the gems which are waiting for cultural pop is also a good move.

My main gripe is still Vienne. The plains forest is chopped and ??? at least grow a cottage there instead of building a camp at Bibracte which is useless -- we aren't even working o the wheats, why do we need another camp? Some farming suggestion at Bibracte I would disagree. In fact, I am considering to build a cottage over the wheat instead. Speaking of Bibracte, its is growing at happy cap, so consider whipping a colosseum.

On the military side, we need cats and mix in some spears. I suspect we would see blue HA soon. Speaking of cats, I was wondering why we still have none ... construction must have came in for quite some while since we are already half-way through currency.

--

 

[Olodune]

This game could roll to a surprisingly early victory is we stay focused

Lets get some cats out soon ... maybe even whip a few

 

[Jabah]

I thought about meditation and Priesthood, but when choosing, only Teno had religion, anf it was (at 20%) 30t for curency compared to 6+6 for the other two which were not needed.
Also markets in a few cities (and merchand specialists) might do better than courthouses

Vienne : I am trying to speed the Pyramids .

Bibracte : we are not using the wheat, because we have 2 scientists. When building the settler, we were using the wheat and would have enjoyed another camp. Also we can/should grow to 11 (just need a fast colosseum).

The maoi city : we probably could have it once we have a few market and merchand specialists on line.

Jabah

 

[berserks01]

Took a look around, MM a little bit and hit enter.

Cyrus is trying to sneak a settler out, too bad I caught him. The settler ran back to city IBT and I took out the 2 archers.

GS born in Bibracte, I sacrificed him for an Academy there.

GG born in Bibracte, sent him to Gergovia to be an instructor.

We got a useless good event

Pyramid in, I switched to Police State.

I stopped here. I have a stack near Cyrus's capital. I am also forming a nice stack at the border of Gergovia for Japan and America.

 

[Ozbenno]

I think with all out military pumping from here (Police State is great for that), we could have this game well on the way to being won.

 

[Olodune]

I think with all out military pumping from here (Police State is great for that), we could have this game well on the way to being won.

Yep, I agree. We should continue to develop our core a little -- both to support a larger army and to allow us to back off and tech, if needed.

 

[GreyFox]

I got it.

We still do not have a stable enough income (currently at -3gpt@10% ) to sustain our military operation ... however things should get better when we have courthouses (and thus forbidden palace). The first priority is still get the economy up. Thus I would focus on commerce instead of production in all our cities at this stage.

Military wise we should probably cut down on military production (thus making Police State not a good choice now ... Rep might be better at this stage) since we can't afford them. However, we still need a few spears. There are still none in our empire. Spears are still better at killing chariots which we know enemies already have and are the only way to survive when (not if) horse archers start to appear. Given the distance from our cities to the front line, it will be too late to build spears when we see them. We need to build them now.

Improvement wise I am not satisfied with how our workers are deployed. I really don't understand the point of building deer camps and farming tundras in cities which are already at their happy cap. More on that when I post my report tomorrow.

But over all I am pleased with the game's progress. I think we would win this with little trouble (depending on how the so-called improved AI will led Hatty and Loius made use of this period -- while it is economically inviable for us to produce an army that can suppress all of them -- to expand and build up). Good job by all players!

--

 

[Jabah]

The new city has not reached enough culture yet to work the 3 gems, I would chop the forrest on the gems to speed the library (or anything that make culture) even if the chop are outside (for now) the cultural border. Then 3 gems + market should improve our economy.

I still think markets are more needed than courthouse for economy recovery and more needed than extra trooops as well for a while (if we have finished currency that is).