FRFR - Finally Ready For Regent!

[Charis]

Now we have SunTzu, a lumbermap, and food for our elephants, what more could we want?!
Well, ok, sure, world domination, but beside that, we're set! Well, world domination and
saltpeter. Oh wait, World Dom, Salt, Smith's and Bach's. Um, Magellan's too! Ok, those
would be good. We would be happy then. For now we're learning how to read and study.
We need to, just to understand our plots to capture all three. Let's see...
Banking to come in now, Econ around 60%, to time it's completion same time as Palace in
Bangalore. Pune to aim for Magellans taking a granary and cathedral first then using Palace
for prebuild. Finally, Delhi does univ, not bank, and gets ready to have bank (not) finish
when Music Theory (researched quickly) comes available. MT after Econ, then Nav later.

The 'players' in the game are: France (distinct top dog), Iro, England, Celts, Russia.

We have monopoly on Banking, to be used if we can get a lot of money for it, but otherwise
frankly, fast tech pace is our worst enemy. If Celts implode, watch Joan.
(These are just reminders to self, condensing many earlier comments)

[0] 1150 - Despite having 44 cities, the build queues are impeccable.

[1] 1160 - We're 61 shields from enough for Smiths at 7spt, or 9 turns away, so we
set Econ to research in 9. (60%, still surplus)

Celts have Astronomy, lack Banking. No one else has banking. At some point I'll want
to sell that to Joan and suck her cash. Right now she offers 37gpt+140g or more.
I'll watch that. Actually, Celts offer 100gpt (!) and can't go higher. Joanie will
offer 117gpt as fair price (i.e., she can go higher but won't) Can't beat that with
a stick! Then can get Astro from Celts. Delaying a few rounds should receive similar
payments unless something odd happens, and keeps things just a tad slower.
Neither Russia nor Iro nor England can manage a single gpt. Waiting also puts a further
lock on Smiths.

[4] 1190 - Joanie shows up with Chemistry. Celts can't afford to buy it at mono, but
both are still interested in paying alot for Banking. Seems like gettings something
nice for Econ on the turn before Smith's is due would be nice.
(IBT) Arabia and France ally vs Celts. Oh puleeeze Joan. (I've not seen her make progress
yet though)

[5] 1200 - Small price drop in what Joan offers for banking. She's likely researching it
herself. Only 98gpt now. We could instead give about 200g+Dyes+Banking for Chemistry,
but that doesn't slow her down. We can wait til Chemistry not monopoly to buy it.

Banking to Joan for 87gpt+199g. Banking to Celts for Saltpeter+2gpt. Banking+Dyes
to Iro for Astronomy. I could have taken cash from Brennus instead but wanted to
leave him some cash to fight Joan. Hiawatha is now polite.

Saltpeter is expensive, and I don't plan to re-purchase except for a cav upgrade,
so many cities switched to Muskets.

[6] 1210 - Bah!! The French cur has Navigation! Not to worry (??) as we can self-research
BOTH that and Music Theory in about nine turns. The problem is, will she start Magellan's
in middle of war? And where?

Pune was 1 turn from Cathedral, instead switches to University. With possibly one
slow down turn, we can make it there if we research Navigation next.

(IBT) Spain joins Celts in alliance vs France.

[8] 1230 - Iroquois and Celts have Music Theory (and lack Econ)
Now it's going to be quite a race! France does not. If Delhi knew last turn it could
have gotten more ready, didn't expect it so soon. We swap to Bank, and will buy
in a turn or two (So we start Democracy, maybe Shakespeare!). Smith's is due in 2.

(IBT) France and Celts come to peace, seems a stalemate.

[9] 1240 - Celts and Iro both start Bach's! France picks up MT and the Celts both
Navigation and Chemistry, as expected. This will lower the price of both Nav and
MT, and with Smith's due next turn, great timing. Iro for MT last is suggested,
with Navigation before that from Celts, hence Chemistry and cash from Joan.
Econ to: France for Chem+WM+238, Celts (+2gpt) for Nav, Iro for MT+27g.

Smith's due next turn, Bach's in 27 to 30 in Delhi, Magellan in 17 in Pune.

[10] 1250 - Smith's is ours! Income jumps up about +30gpt higher

Where is our competition for Bach? Entremont, Lyons, and Niagarra Falls.
The first two are serious competetors, with good chances to beat us.
If we can get Free Artistry (monopoly) before they do, there will be no loss
in Delhi and a nice wonder there. If we lose Bach's, my fault, but it didn't
seem obvious at the time. No indication that MT would come so soon by AI, and I wanted
to research Navigation first to keep Joan from snagging Magellan. Of course, now
the AI's are fully mined in wonder cities and if the prebuild isn't solid, we'll lose.

[10] 1250 - The world map has now been sold all around. If it was worth more to a small
civ, I didn't want Joan to get any

- Possibly upgrade galley to caravel in Punjab and send a musket or two south.
- If you want more muskets while we have saltpeter, can rush a few more, I didn't.
- Similiarly, some colony cities with harbor should get a barracks and built a musket

Save file FRFR 1250AD

Good luck,
Charis

 

[Skyfish]

Hey Charis !
Real nice screen on that wonder, however when I look at that chart giving all the Civ traits, I see that :
Americans are E(xpansionist) and E(xpansionist).


Is that right ? maybe I should check my Civ manual again

 

[Sirian]

Skyfish: Rome, China and Persia are messed, too. However, Charis likes "extreme variants" sometimes, so who knows what is actually going on there.


Inherited Turn: I got interrupted a few times trying to pore over the map to make plans, so a couple of HOURS got added to the end-of-game PTW timer while I was almost wholly AFK. That darn timer thing is going to show just how often stuff like this happens, too. I know I micromanage, I know I take time to scan everything six times and do my thinking while I'm scanning, but now must I be conscious of not going AFK with the game running, lest it give people the (FALSE) impression that I live and breathe Civ3 24/7? Sheesh.


OK, let's try this again.

Inherited Turn: We've bought saltpeter but have troops lying around un-upgraded and a big wad of cash in the bank? This must be rectified. Lessee here... ah, hmm. 20 pikes = 1200g to upgrade them? Sheeeeeeesh. She+esh, even. Well, OK. BAM. Insta-Musket (TM) brand military training. "We suck your treasury dry, but you'll be glad we did when the Russians come sailing in."

Ripoff artists!


Yeah, OK. I like the Charis Plan so much, I spend almost my whole round building muskets. (Me? Pass up infrastructure to train units we don't immediately need? Am I running a fever? Ha, who knows!)


Celts no longer at war with France? But Celts still at war with Korea, and France still at war with Spain? Scratch two weakly AI's, I'm thinking. Not much to be done about it now, except take bets on which of the AI's gets wiped out first. I gift invention to Spain and Korea with the (pathetic) hope that they'll fight a little better with longbows.

Hmm, one settler, one dot left. I load him up and off we go.


Early: Musket training. Unit shuffle to get vet spears from unconnected cities to barracks for upgrade. Charis suggested sailing south with muskets. Well, I decline. He can do it on the next round if he wants. I move to fully secure the homeland, and send our surplus ships out to bust fog.

Middle: Musket training. Unit shuffle completed. Democracy researched @2nd, after Joan. I obtain current map info and conduct surveys of AI Bach sites. Hmm. As far as I can see, none can possibly equal our 19 net spt at Delhi. I veto the "Free Artistry Backup Plan". If the AI researches it in time, they'll get it in the cascade. If not, we'll build it at the FP city from prebuild after the cascade dies, and nab Newton's in Delhi. Meanwhile... I run all cash to replenish the treasury, and wait for Joan to research @1st and follow her.

Late: Musket training. Rushed courthouses in 1shield core cities, topping off their tanks. Then rushed granaries at all-fishing sites on the west. Plan to rush aqueducts and then markets, too, and perhaps cathedrals. Worth it long term, at least for the two sites that are so near the FP, second ring. Someday these cities will get some offshore platforms, see... and... oh never mind.

Then I check our deals to clean up the round. All round long, AI's go from broke to broke, never able to offer US anything, as the instant their gpt comes available again, they make another new deal with France or Iro or Celts. WAIT! Check this out!!!

Joanie is so hard up for more lux, she will PAY US in addition to a lux for lux trade?!? Incredible.

Since we have some size 11 cities that can use the extra help to get to size 12 without stopping to build 120 shields of colesseum, I go ahead and make the deal. I also cancel the lux deals with the Celts, losing out on 26gpt they can't afford to renew payments on. However, this frees up 1 of each of our lux and gives Charis deal-making versatility if he wants. I could have made good profit selling more to Joan but didn't want to boost her too much. If we want more lux, we could trade old tech to the pathetic Aztecs.

We can reconsider in 20 turns as to whether we want to renew with Joan again.


Finally, I did almost all planting my round, only two new dots added to the lumber map. It seems to me that we have several towns IN NEED OF more forests, and have wandered off the trail in regard to lumberjacking. If a city does without a forest it needs for, say, 20 turns... losing 1spt the whole while, where is the lumberjack savings?

Bengal in particular needs a new forest (and could stand to have its current ones chopped down to see if bg tiles underneath, but only AFTER there are enough other forests to take up the slack). That's the biggest example. New Bombay, Dacca, and Chitta also need more shield tiles available, and need them yesterday. Lush Isle also needs to be more forested, although I rectified the situation at the north city.

Everything is on track with our wonders. I'm confident we have Bach in the bank, and since Magellan will complete first, it can't be a cascade casualty. If the AI gets to ToG first, we lose Newton. Nothing to be done except to do NO first-civ research, and have them slowed as much as can be. If Shakespeare's doesn't fall in the cascade, then might as well go for it at FP site (which will actually have more total food going than Delhi anyway, post-hospitals).

Here's our military situation, and yes, for the first time we are now significantly over our unit support budget, since I spent the whole round training more muskets. However, I feel quite secure, on the whole. And we've already bit the bullet, we will be able to upgrade all these vet units to rifles with only modest budgetary pain. I thought about researching metallurgy while the saltpeter deal is still alive, to build cannon and coastal forts, but decided not to do it. We were too cash poor and I wanted to rush a few key items before it got too late to be wise to bother.

We're FINALLY ready for Regent... in 1300AD!


- Sirian

 

[Sirian]

A fresh look at our kingdom. Note all the new tile improvements!

 

[Rowain deWolf]

Wow 300 gold income without any roads; That shows the power of coastal-tiles together with the Commercial trait


Good Luck with this Baby

Rowain

 

[Sirian]

The lack of commerce surely isn't the worst of it. Our capital has 19 shields, net, one wasted (maybe a courthouse would clean up that last shield? Might be worth it). Our FP site can mount 17 shields at break-even food. (Those cattle forests are great!). Our iron city can amass 15 shields, 4 of them lost to corruption.

Those are our only three cities with more than ten net spt.

:fish:


- Sirian

 

[Charis]

Regarding Sirian's leaving the timer running... at least I can share the blame
in that one. It's going to be a long running game!

Good move on the massive musket upgrade. Looking at our shield output, the thought
of trying to hand build 100 infantry with shields is not pretty. I don't share your
enthusiasm on Bach's, but I really hope you're right! The no-sci at all seems odd,
but I'll stick with it for now, to avoid cascading wonder problems. We can research
new techs in 4-7 turns, so if we go and do 28 turns at 1 sci we'll not want to switch, eh?

Key players are the same, France, Celts, and Iro. England has dropped to second tier, with Russia.

[0] 1300 AD - Odd, Iro will give 1 gpt for our map. Most queue orders look great.
I think I changed one or two to muskets.

[1] 1305 AD - Plantin...
[2] 1310 AD - France shows up with Physics. So do Celts and Iro.
(IBT) The Rampaging French have destroyed the Spanish!!

Does the thought of beelining to Mil Tradition and hitting the French REAL SOON
hold any appeal?? When the saltpeter runs out, I'll start on some Jumbos for upgrade.

[3] 1315 AD and [4] 1320 AD - quiet

(IBT) England and Celts ally vs Korea. France starts Shakespeare's (darn!)
and our saltpeter supply runs out.

[5] 1325 AD - I note that island to the NE of Germany, and with one scouting boat
now back home, I load up a settler and musket to head there. The Celts as well as
French have Free Artistry. Not a huge loss is Shakespeare's as our cities don't have
food to grow large enough to need that.


[6] 1330 AD - Pune complete's Magellan's voyage! We're again masters of the sea!
Pune tries now to slip in a cathedral and will proabably head back to prebuild wonder
duty later.

[7] 1335 - So much for the settler, England has now settled that small island (Birmingham)
Instead he sails for some poachable land near Celts and Korea. Long goto, so stop him
if you want him elsewhere.


[8] 1340 AD - [9] 1345 - zzz
[10] 1350 AD. Quiet, no new techs.

Save file FRFR 1350AD

You might have some adjustments in the queues, especially if you get an itch for
a cav invasion. Metallurgy took a single sci anyway. Feel free to stop, buy, or ignore
that. Bach's is due in 9 - I hope we get it. At least we can buy Free Artistry if not.
(then research ToG quickly) I've not sold any lux, too keep pace slow AND to reduce
shields in wonder building cities. You may want to trade some for tech later.

Good luck,
Charis

 

[Sirian]

Not much happening. Charis allowed Bangalore to sit on size 6 all round, even though I left it ready to grow to 7 early on his round. I change it to high food. That's about it.

Hmm. Well, we have a lot of dough in the bank. We have a number of fishing villages who either can't get any shields off the land, or can't get many, and most of these are in the midcorruption range, second ring. I decide to invest in some of them, so I rush a few markets, a few aqueducts, a granary or two. We have plenty of happy going, at the moment, and a number of cities that could sustain higher population. I decide to put every last one of these sites on max food. This causes our shield output to plummet, but I'm trying to think long term here.

Well, OK, that's about all that happened.


Oh. I went ahead and traded two lux to the Iroquois for Physics, then started ToG research. The next turn, France started on Newtons. So we're definitely not getting both Bach and Newton. To be honest, I think Newton is more urgent. I was hoping the tech pace would go slower and we could nab both in Delhi, but that's clearly not happening. Should I buy ToG and swap out to Newton's, finish it now, and get moving on a bank? I think about it.

The next turn, the Iro's also have ToG, and three civs (France, Celts, Iro) have metallurgy. Gah. England and Russia are lagging a bit, and the rest are small fry. This is probably my only chance here to grab a 2fer, ToG and Metallurgy for the price of one. Hmm. I decide we have to go for it, so I send a big wad of cash (over a grand) to the Iro's for Gravity, then trade that plus dyes to Celts for Metallurgy.

Hrrm. I now have the ability to switch to Newton's. But... what if France or Celts get Bach? That would not be good. Even though I prefer Newton for us, I want to deny Bach to France or Celts. I stick with Bach's.

I continued my nurturing of fishing villages. We still have (barely) half the turns in the game in front of us. Investment of ~700g now into a market plus aqueduct for these fishing villages is only seeing immediate return of about 7 to 9 gpt increase from each, but they will now also continue to grow, and they will also be building up shields toward something else, and each shield is worth something. I'm sure this investment is worth it, effectively picking up interest off an initial expenditure that will eventually overtake the price paid and generate profits. Eventually. Oh, forgot to mention, also pick up 2gpt per city moving from 6 to 7 in added unit support.

Then what do you know, Charis's worst fears come true! With help from the lux I traded them for tech, and maybe some help of some kind from the cash I gave them for another tech, the Iro's just barely overtake us and complete Bach's half a round before we do! I think it's a complete disaster! Except... France and Celts already took their turns this round, so they can't cascade. I get to switch to Newton and we complete that on next round. Celts complete Shakespeare, France is shut out.

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. Despite my I actually got what I thought would be the best scenario out of that mess anyway: We got Newton, and neither France nor Celts got Bachs, PLUS France was also denied the Theater. Our game results are blessed. Praise be to Shiva! :worshp:

Oh yeah, Korea was wiped out early in the round. I founded a city next to the former location of Seoul, at the end of the round. There are blasphemous "roads" in range, and we cannot use the tiles until these are pillaged. I founded on an iron, and it's on the coast, although this city is so far away that there's no chance we can defend it if we end up at war with any of the powers on the main continent in the next eon or two.

I suggest rushing an explorer down there, pillage our tiles, then as much in neutral land as we can manage. Rush a temple too? Up to Charis.

Late in the round, Iro and France made it to Industrial age. I waited for Celts to follow. On the last turn, they did, and I bought magnetism from them. We swap ages, and none of these leaders are scientific, so none start with nationalism! Too bad we can't really keep Russia from getting there, they aren't that far behind, and they'll positively clean up brokering their free tech.

I swap a taxman at Bovinus to scientist and start research on nationalism. There, we're doing research, Charis won't have to squirm uncomfortably while staring at a readout that says our next tech is due "shortly after never".

Oh, the combo of barracks and harbor at Yankee Doodle means we now have better troops there. Might be worth it on the other islands to have one town with both harbor and barracks, even if we have to rush, and then do a troop shuffle to get all those spears upgraded to pikes BEFORE nationalism would force us to pay to turn them into rifles. Just a thought.

I went ahead and renewed our lux trade with Joan. She's paying us 10gpt now, up from 4gpt.


Now here's one more thought. We can't exactly entertain plans for attacking anybody with gunpowder, but... we aren't going for conquest this game. We're going for domination. Perhaps we should give serious thought to waging war against the Arabs and Vikings? Would be nice to own all their lands before they can mount any kind of serious defense. Those Berserks... the Vikes still don't have feudalism, perhaps we can hit them first? I don't know. I'll let Charis think about it, examine our scattered offensive forces, and decide what he wants to do. Nobody yet has MilTrad, but maybe a few ships of mid-inf and a few muskets to guard them would be enough, you know? Maybe. All we'd have to do is give them a good crippling to start, we could mop up the rest later. ... The Vikes are awfully far away, though. Arabs are a lot closer. Well... Charis can puzzle over it, see what he thinks.


The lumber maps have been updated. I chopped some. Some spots currently being chopped may not be marked yet.

FRFR - 1400AD


- Sirian

 

[Charis]

Since the previous reign of the anti-industrious Charis X, we've made
a push on the low-shield high commerce coastal towns in second ring,
putting them on max food. In an unusual turn of events, Sirian pulls his
biggest of the game yet gets stellar results!
Indeed Newton's for us, Bach's (and Shakespeare) denied to Joan is a very nice deal!
We even have a 'beachhead' city now, in the ruins of old Korea. Four of us in industrial
age, but none will have Nationalism until Cathy gets there.

The thought was raised about going after the Vikings and Arabs soon, to help with
our domination goal. We will not really have any big lag or increased bonuses with
the advent of Steam Power, and with MDI vs Pikes or a little later, Cav vs Muskets
we have decent odds.

Let's take a closer look...

I've been watching the histogram closely all game, and up til right now we've seen
a smooth increase in score with time. Now the rate of increase is decreasing, meaning
we're no longer 'pulling away', but starting to see the beginning of our decline. And
when folks get Steam Power we'll see our advantage start to fade away quite distinctly.
In fact, the power curve is worse, we've actually started to see our decline, as the
Celts grow in power (taking out the Koreans).

The Arabs lack Chivalry and their UU, and the Vikings are even further behind,
even without Feudalism (spear defenders!) If we don't attack them the AI surely
will, and be much harder to dislodge. Oh my, "The Arabians have the archer."
Same comment for the Vikings. It's time to strike.



I swap several cities off mktplace, library or bank where their commerce is only
so-so, leaving stronger cities on infrastructure (e.g. Bombay, Madras, Delhi)
So about 5 elephants and 4 MDI's in production. With move 2 and defense 3, upgradeable
to cav, the Jumbos are quite nice (although a lot of shields for our civ). Even though
not easy to build, we'll want some on hand to upgrade later anyway.

If we guess 5 defenders per capital, 3 per city, 2 per town, there would be at least
24 defenders in Arabia and 18 in Scandinavia. Our forces will be superior but not
tremendously so (and no artillery support), so I would guess we would want 8 full
galleons to take out a whole island. 3-4 Galleons would be enough to set up a beachhead
and to take a few cities. That means we'll need more ships, and a few settlers too.
This turn won't see any action, but hopes to set it up. (Depending on how aggressively
Sirian pursues it, and if he likes Vikings or Arabs first, it might come right back
around to me before we hit foreign soil)

BTW, if you wanted to change targets... consider Germany/Russia. Russia lacks Physics
and Metallurgy. That's four techs from Nationalism, when that slingshot will propel them
out of backwardness into major power status. We could strike Germany, likely very easily
as they lack Gunpowder (they lack Invention!) to establish a beachhead, then continue
right on to capture the entire Northern half of that island, capturing four Russian
cities (far from their capital, not a big flip risk) for quickest peace if we like,
and a convenient chokepoint in the middle of that continent. Put a major hurt on them
BEFORE Cossacks! It also relieves pressure off our 'strong' small islands. Think about it.

Also to note - Vikings have a *coastal* saltpeter source, easily taken. NEITHER Vikes
nor Arabs have any lux whatsoever. Too bad. If we had 1-2 more lux, we could go to
Democracy, given our solid infrastructure now, and probably gain +50-100gpt or more.
Without the lux, it would probably be a tie or near tie having to bump up the slider.
Sadly, Russia-Germany continent has no coastal lux either.

[0] 1400 - Bovinus gets put back on settler detail for native cities on whatever island
we go after. The troops and ships will be gathering in New Delhi, able to head in
any direction.

[4] 1420 - Movement of new troops and ships, some MM, some rushing

[5] 1425 - France and Celts now have Mil Tradition. Russia has picked up Metallurgy.
(The Iro don't yet have MT.) Vikes have picked up Feudalism (still lack Engr)
Arabs have made no progress.

[6] 1430 - More war preparation.
[7] 1435 - Delhi starts a courthouse, to try to turn 19spt into 20.
[9] 1445 - Germany has Invention, still lacks Gunpowder. England now has Chemistry.

[10] 1450 - France now has a monopoly on Nationalism. Joan is a tough cookie.

- If you want more MDI's, Madras can kick out one warrior per turn to upgrade
- Some cities contributed excess MP units and should get replenished with Pikes asap.
- An explorer has been made at New Seoul and is 'reclaiming' the land
- I followed the lumberjack map, but I think I might be marking at chop-start, while
you're doing it at-finish.
- There is the option of buying Mil Tradition, renting saltpeter, upgrading all the Jumbos
to cavalry. This would be expensive unless you brokered MT to Russia for the salt itself,
if deciding to ignore Russia in the near future, hitting the pinks quick then Germany
- The invasion force now consists of...
10 Galleons, 2 settlers on Cow Island, 1 loose elephant, and *ON* the ships are:
15 Jumbo's, 9 Muskets, 7 MDI's, 2 Longbows. This should put a world of hurt on the
banana republic of your choice (Vikings, Arabs, Germany), and with reinforcements would
likely do the job of taking the North half of "Prussian" continent. You could even go
for beachhead, take three cities, rush a native rax and harbor, on BOTH Arabia and
Scandinavia, and rely on rushbuys to create the units needed to finish the job on
both continents 20 turns later.
- I even left you *OVER* 1K of gold (and +361gpt) so you could rushbuy whatever you needed
to fill in the attack force. Two of the ships, for example, still need to be loaded.
- I don't often leave you with a whole unmoved invasion force (and spending money) for you
to use as you see fit, so enjoy!

Save file FRFR 1450AD

Because of the long distance involved in just reaching the targets, if you want to take 15 or 20 turns and actually HIT your targets, feel free to do so!

Good luck,
Charis

 

[Sirian]

Inherited: Charis setting me up with a vast army ready to attack somebody? *(faints)*

Actually, this is a very good job. I should be able to accomplish noticeable progress within ten turns. Only one ingredient missing from this recipe. "Hmm, needs salt." Charis has not supplied me with any explorer units, so I will have to do the pillaging with the combat units, and that will be especially awkward with the slow ones. I will try to rectify the shortage of "Environmental Engineers" but by the time I get any to the combat zone, it's going to be his turn! Ha!


Early: Our ships sail south. We declare war on the ecoterrorists in Arabia. Elizabeth decides she doesn't care to live any more, declaring war on the Celts the turn AFTER they have picked up nationalism. Looks like we're going to be facing down two superpowers on the main continent, Celts and French.

Middle: Vanguard lands near one Arab city. We attack and defeat two regular spears, completing our first action of the game in 1470AD:

More ships arrive. More landings, more combat. Their counterattack consists of a few archer-spear pairs and we pause to mop these up. Then begins the work of returning this beautiful land to a pristine condition. More Arabian units pester us like gnats, but we swat them and continue our dedicated work on restoring the environment.

Here you see our first elite unit. We lost one mid-inf attacking at Kazan, but that was all. One jumbo retreated. They had six units in this town, so we needed all three boatloads I landed there at once.

Late:

Razed Mecca, burning it to the ground, along with the Great Wall. I had to use a musket on offense vs an archer to finish the attack on the first try, he wins 4-0 and promotes to elite!

We pick up five slaves. I capture a fourth town and settle a fifth. All resisters suppressed, some citizens lost to starvation, but I stop short of going all the way, as we can peel off a few slaves from these towns and have no-cost labor in ten turns.

I manage to purify all tiles within our control by the end of my round, but of course that slowed the offensive. It seems to me that avoiding any use of roads is unrealistic. Rather than torture myself to keep track of what was or wasn't getting road boosts, and rather than have to pillage roads in the area before taking a city, I would deal with the military priority first, then pause and wipe out the roads before moving on, along with ensuring no use of improved tiles by the cities. If there were a half dozen explorers on hand, the roads would become less of a problem.


Half of England is under Celtic control now. Iro's got Nationalism, and Joan has Steam. Russia has Physics and most of the small fry have moved up a tech or two.

We have a few elites now. If we should pop a leader at this point, I urge making an army, to better our chances for more leaders over the warmongering second half of our game.

Although we might have had a chance to really wound Russia, and that might have been better, I didn't think we'd have that much force scraped up that quickly. Even though our eight loads of troops overwhelmed the Arabs, they were still mostly wounded and somewhat dispersed by the end of the round.

Anyway, I made the choice to go for the softer, more distant target. I have some hope that there's rubber down there, somewhere near Medina. That or uranium, since the Arabs inexplicably decided to settle first in the tundra, if you know what I mean.

Vikings have iron and feudalism now, so they will be a little tougher. We shouldn't have any problem scooting on over there from Arabia. With Celts swallowing England, I'm thinking we should just keep going for the softest targets. Arabia, then Vikes, then Germany and perhaps Russia, then if the Aztecs are left, nab them, saving the Iro, French and Celts for last. We won't have to conquer both Celts and French, we can keep one as an ally and only go against them a wee bit if we have to to get over the hump, once all the others are gone.

If France doesn't get any of England, then the Celts may no longer be the clear second place. They might even catch up to Joan, and leave the Iro's in distant third. Now that everyone big already has nationalism, Russia will no longer be able to cash in. They might get a big boost in their own right, but they won't be raking in the sales.

I think it will be good for you to get some low-pressure combat with this "pillage asap" policy. It is interesting, the effect of wiping out the roads around captured cities, then having your healed units crawl out of there a couple of turns later, with the same sluggishness you'd have in lands under enemy cultural control.


- Sirian

 

[Sirian]

FRFR - 1500AD

 

[Sirian]

I had noticed that WLTKD plus two forests, on Yankee Isle, brought in 2spt. I then splurged on courthouses there and at Bovine Isle to get some income and spt going. We need to get forests up on those cattle at Bovinus, as that site now has 4spt (FOUR) on max shield config.

Please note, running WLTKD is responsible for half the corruption reduction. If that stops, we lose the shields. Better to rush one courthouse now, and let the sites bring in more income and a few spt on their own, than to be rushing units later. Let them build the units themselves.

Only these locations are enough in range of our palaces to make this worth it, though, and only after they got harbors and got connected up (the third element of corruption reduction: need all three to redeem these sites).


- Sirian

 

[Sirian]

"Up to His Eyeballs" (TM) brand SG feasting seems to have had a head on collision with real life contingencies. Charis is understandably absent, with Mrs. C (literally) off her feet and him having to take on extra load for a bit here. I just hope he doesn't have to drop any of these fine SG's and that everything stabilizes for him soon.

We're just getting to the best parts of this game!


- Sirian

 

[ControlFreak]

It's been an extremely interesting varient. I hope you guys can keep going.

Best wishes to Mrs. "C".

 

[Charis]

Not to worry... I'm catching up and this game is not in danger

Sirian did a good job with his (almost unprecedented) nice setup of an invasion
fleet ready to go, and socked it to Arabia. Next up are the Vikings, maybe just
in time before they get Berzerkers, but not quick enough to see no Pikes. We need to
'cleanse' the Arab land before doing much else down there. There are still five Arab
cities, so it's not over yet. (But I only see spear defenders)

Celts and French remain the two powers, Iro slipping to a distant third, with Russia
and England not far behind. The rest, Germany, Vikings and Aztecs are very backwards.

We can get Mil Tradition for peanuts from the Celts (Ivory and Dyes actually) Ah wait,
no saltpeter, we can wait until Iro or Russia can sell that tech.

[0] 1500 - Build orders look great. (Dacca was a single shield short of finishing last
turn, but that's minor. Sheesh we have a lot of cities)

(IBT) A cursed longbow uses roads to hit our Jumbo, but we win. That's it.

[1] 1505 - Movement and pillaging, heading to Baghdad.

[2] 1510 - Movement and pillaging, landing on Fustat island.
(IBT) An Iro ship seen not far from New Punjab.

[3] 1515 - Fustat, with two spears, falls. So does Baghdad. Harbor intact
Medina, the new capital, has three spears who lose to Jumbos. The city is ours.
I'm capturing, btw, not razing, as I hope to have Arabs wiped out very shortly.
In fact, I'm using ships to get several units to the south end quickly.
At Medina, granary and harbor intact! Najran's two spears are eaten by the
Jumbos. I'm *so* glad we're hitting these guys before 'Iron'.
We land outside Khurasan.

(IBT) The Iro ship heads back, a Russian one hits same spot. Patrols?

[4] 1520 - Khurasan, temporary capital, is captured over the protest of two spears.
Yet another harbor intact, nice! We land at Anjar their last city.

[5] 1525 - Anjar only had one spear. The rampaging environmentally pure Indians have
destroyed the earth defiling Arabians! All aboard!! Don't miss the
next ship over to Scandinavia lest they get Invention! We can rushbuy units for
defense of Arabia, I want to hit Vikings hard and fast. Delhi2, Khurusan, and
Najran get to keep a Jumbo each for zone defense. We've bought a few explorers
to do most of the pillaging here.

[6] 1530 - Seveal Arab temples bought to fill in the many gaps.

[7] 1535 - Some ship movement in the south, and it's not the Vikings

[8] 1540 - I notice there's coastal saltpeter on East coast of Vikings! A settler
is rushed in Arabia to found on that site. It looks like a simul landing on the
hill outside Bergen, and outside Trondheim, will crush their two best cities
quickly (razing probably)

[9] 1545 - Getting in position.

[10] 1550 - Sets 'da man' up for a spike!

Leader notes...
- Once again, *amazingly* I leave you with a half-dozen loaded ships ready to
land an invasion. There's also 4100g in the bank!
- The Vikings still lack Invention and Chivalry, and have 0 gold, so go-go-go!
There's only 8 cities an no reason to stop for peace, so decide on whether to
capture all or raze. There's really no sufficient garrison troops though.
- The three southern ships can land on a hill next to Bergen, or land on the saltpeter,
*or* land their troops just North of Birka. The two Northern ships can dump their
units on the hill next to capital Trondheim this turn. There's one more ship a turn
back that can go either way. Number seven just east has a settler (Arabian) and three
Jumbos. As soon as the ships can return to pick up more, there's a half-dozen
explorers ready to cleanse the land!
- Extra units awaiting a ship are in Calcutta. A shipfull just pulled out of Delhi.
- Map or not, the foresting is getting too burdensome except in new ultracorrupt
colonies. Several workers are unmoved this turn.
- New Seoul might do well with a granary before harbor?

- I didn't see til after upload, but New Karachi is unhappy, plz fix.

- Below is a map with our Arab holdings, and the main (red) or alternate (blue)
invasion routes into Scandinavia.

Save file FRFR 1550AD

Good luck,
Charis

PS@ControlFreak - thank you

 

[Sirian]

OK, this was an interesting round. I need to cut the report short a bit, sorry.

I managed to make short shrift of the Vikes. They have one city left. Most of their towns were guarded by spears, not pikes, and yet we took casualties as if they had pikes after all! Sheesh. Two spears held off our entire jumbo force in one instance! Also, we got not a single promotion. Not a single one!

Frankly, our forces there are gassed. Lucky we don't have far to go. Should be enough to finish em.

France/Celts started Suffrage late.

FP site on factory prebuild.

I rushed cheap units across our colonies prior to losing chance to do so with Nationalism. So we got some extra cheap defenders.

I traded dyes, ivory, ~600g to Celts for Steam. WE HAVE TWO COAL CONNECTED! Wait'll you see where, too.

Coal = build clads. Maybe also coal plants in Game Isles/Lush Isle.

Our first ironclad done next turn in Delhi.

I traded dyes, 25gpt to Iros for MilTrad. Upgraded some jumbos.

(Oh yeah, got the coastal salt-p connected).

Russia went industrial, signed MPP with Joan.

England down to island fishing villa.

We still have ~500gpt income. Down to 1k cash tho.

Joan back to paying us slightly in the lux trade.


Any city with 8+ net shields should go for factory. Start prebuilds asap, buy in if you see a 2fer deal.

Plenty of good stuff to do now. Clads, rifles, cavs, unit shuffles, factory plans, etc. Maybe also time to go pummel Germany, or start thinking about it at least.

Reykjavik, Baghdad = jumbo upgrade sites.

Some isles blockaded now.

Uh...


FRFR - 1600AD


- Sirian

 

[Sirian]

OH ONE MORE THING (tm)


Birka needs to be moved south one tile. Can be done later, but don't buy anything there until it's been moved. We want to get all those coastal tiles in range for domination.

 

[Charis]

Spears defending Vikings?! Yeeeees! Glad we got over there before Invention.
Gassed forces? So they'll need to stay and (between there and Arabia) serve
as the island garrisons? I'll finish them off for sure this round. We've got the
salt online, excellent! There's also the option of continuing to make jumbos and
cheap defenders in the few non-coastal cities (or non-harbor colonies) for some time.

Let's see, you mention coal connected, where might they be? Lush central, nice, and...
Bovine Flatulence?!? HA!! Actually a third one under New Punjab but unconnected.

Next foes? Well everyone has Nationalism, and presumably a decent number of
rifles. Next up however is infantry, so we go now for a cav vs rifle blitz
or hold our peace until Motorized Transport. We'll most certainly want to have
a BIG push then against the weakest or largest target. The more industrialized our
foes get the more their advantage over us becomes. We'll get a big boost when we can
make commercial docks, and if it goes that long, offshore platforms
For now, yes, we need to build/upgrade rifles, keep up the strong economy, get a 2-fer
for new tech, and probably and offensive cav supply. With our lack of roads, they will
be very useful for a long time to come. OMT comment was move Burka south.

Germany is just too nice a target too ignore, I think I'll work on setting up an
invasion there. (Wow did England go poof!) Actually Aztecs aren't bad targets either.
If we do end up hitting Iro (or getting hit by them), taking Mauch Chunk is a choke
that lets us cleanly own the entire southern half of that continent.

[0] 1600 - The Flatulent city switches to ironclad. New Pune's taxmen confused me,
as moving a citizen to forest gets 2spt instead of 1. Basra, ultracorrupt city
working on a cathedral? It switches to clad (although at 78 turns for either one,
you'll get to change it back if you explain why )

[1] 1605 - MMOW. (More movement of workers, for those reading )

[2] 1610 - Down at Aarhus, jumbo retreats, jumbo beats pike, jumbo beats spear.
The last Viking city is ours. We'll take good care of it!
We queue up the typical things, temple, harbor, and occasional barracks in
the colonies, final buildings or cav back home.

[4] 1620 - Settler moved to the forest on the coast NE of Birka to grab several more
nice coastal tiles.

[5] 1625 - Birka rushes a settler to move it south.

[7] 1635 - 'Birka Reborn' is founded.
(IBT) Interesting... France and Celts have signed an MPP?!

[8] 1640 - All is quiet. Until midturn. Then German requests an audience. MPP and RoP?
Lol, right. Then he lands a single Longbow on Forbidden Isle!!???

[9] 1645 - I have three loaded ships, waiting for a few more to hammer Germany, and
he comes to pick a fight with me??! He doesn't even have Chemistry or Education.
Clearly he is an unwashed Cretan. I've held back a bit on rushing, now I spend a
few on our eastern seaboard. My initial thought was to kick the bowman out,
but doing so losing our element of surprise. If he attacks next round, so be it,
he's tarnished as a sneak attacker. If he doesn't, Sirian can wait until there are
six boats off their coast ready to land, THEN let him declare war on us.
The Iro btw, catch up, and the big three all have Communisma and Industrialization,
and we continue to await a 2-fer. Most civs are annoyed with us for some reason.
Perhaps from wiping out two civs?! Two of our galleons get in position to reach
German soil in one round.

(IBT) Oh my, Germans declare war?? What a surprise?! Their lone longbow
impales itself on our fortified rifle. The Iro start Suffering... er, Suffrage.

[10] 1650 - Our ironclad sinks the errant German galley. At this point, one the last
turn and war starting, I'm passing off to Sirian (who is Finally Ready for Regent!)
I leave... (800g and about 500 gpt income)

Two galleons full of cav and rifle that can land on German shores this turn.
One more near New Madras that can hit them next turn.
Three almost full galleons off Lahore, with a clad. One more full one at New Kohlapur.
One full off Turkey which can reinforce New Seoul, or turn back if you want more
garrison in Turkey island.

Best I could do in a short time frame, but I hope you like your armada!!

- Some of the 'blocked' small islands near home donated a cav or rifle for the assault
- *JUST* this turn Russia picked up Mil Tradition. I had been thinking a pre-emptive
ministrike before they got Cossacks might have been interesting.
- We might want to rush a settler in the east somewhere for a 'native' city on German
soil.

Save file FRFR 1650AD

Good luck,
Charis

 

[widdowmaker]

My god men..... Hey i just had an idea. Why dont you sign MPP'S with or MA's with EVERYONE and pay them to liek you. Then hit france. Trade embargo russia. And cause a havik. Seems liek you are trying to get ignored as a world power but wiping out 2 civs gets you the lime light. Also why dont you bend the ruels a bit. You can build a road ONLY to connect a resource to your civ. You may never work that square an dmay never walk on it. This woudl help you a lil bit. Good stuff here. In my game i jsut went commy and my ppl are dodging drafts.

 

[Charis]

> Hey i just had an idea. Why dont you sign MPP'S with or MA's
> with EVERYONE and pay them to liek you. Then hit france.

My initial thought was... I can't remember if this is allowed. Then I check the front of the thread and our rules aren't there (to keep some mystique).

The special rules we've been using are:

* Workers may not build tile improvements: no mines, no irrigation, no roads. (No railroads).
* Clearing jungle, forest, pollution is OK. Planting forests is OK.
* Building forts, outposts, radar towers, airfields is OK.
* Our cities may never make use of improved tiles. If we come into control of improved lands, we must pillage the tiles before we may use them.
* We are not allowed to sign Right of Passage agreements.
* No colonies.

If or when we end up fighting Celts or France, I would bet on an MPP or alliance, but we're going to pick the low hanging fruit first.
Trying to get ignored as a world power? No, we're ignored because we're so far out in front on land and score it's not funny. The AI doesn't know how much of an advantage they're getting with rails though...

> Also why dont you bend the ruels a bit.


Are you suggesting we're not ready for regent?!?!?!!??
You're also suggesting that to Mr. I-would-rather-die-a-horrible- death-than-bend-a-rule Sirian!

Try an OCC Deity game?? What are you, crazy?? We're now finally ready for regent!

Actually though, you're off. We've already won that one, and it wasn't overly hard. See RBP15, diplo win:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18047

Thanks for your input! I might name a city after you!
Charis