GA II - Straight-Up DemiGod

[gozpel]

Last turnset I had a quarrel with Portugal and couldn't set up an attack on Zulu properly. Guess what? I'm in the same situation again

Pre-turn - We're looking good, no changes in builds. Hire scientist instead of the 10% research and sort out some tiles here and there and we get 20gpt.

Happiness will soon be a bigger issue and we're already paying 20% luxtax.

70AD - Someone learnt Engineering IT and traded it around.

Sell Lit to India for their 40g, so I can rush a settler from Rheims. There's a spot open SW of Swazi.

90AD - Half a dozen Portugeuse units Move next to Rouen.

Start market in Paris.

110AD - Cool, we kill 2 AC's and 3 archers on defense, losing none. Both spears in Rouen promotes to elites

As predicted, 3-4 cities are unhappy as they grow, including Paris. Give them clowns and taxmen.

Kill 2 archers and start moving a decent stack towards Braga.

130AD - Zulu declare on Germany!

150AD - Greece starts Sistine.

We kill 3 spears and lose 2 archers by taking Braga. The town keeps the harbor.

170AD - Rome starts Sistine too.

Portugal wants to talk, I don't.

Dijon founded.

Lose an archer while killing 4 archers and a spear.

190AD - Nothing.

210AD - Those irritating portuguese mozzies keep on coming, send your darn troops to Germany!

230AD - We kill 2 horsemen and an archer, last horse retreats.

The unhappiness is annoying, we need another lux or something soon. I don't like to use too many specialists, but we have no real choice right now. 30% luxes would put us in negative income.

250AD - One turn left on the alliance with Germany. Portugal would give a couple of towns for peace. Or we might try another tech for gpt, which we don't have too much of.

A few more Port. units are going to attack IT. We have some pults and an elite archer by Ngome, together with a bunch of other troops. There is another elite archer in Braga, I forgot to move him.

We really would like those wines Zulu are sitting on, right now we barely hang on and I had to MM towns every turn to keep the people happy.

 

[Ginger_Ale]

ThERat is up.

My notes; Are we seriously behind in techs, or are we not that far behind? If it's the latter, I would much rather get cities for peace, because cities = gpt, which we need a lot more of. Marketplaces are key, and so are luxuries - even if we get one more, it'll help us out and maybe we can turn the luxury back down to 10%, netting us some gold.

Happiness is always an issue in Republic before trading overseas, because at max, you can only have 3-4 luxuries, usually...once we can trade everywhere, we'll just buy some luxuries and be happy. The situation isn't looking too bad.

 

[ThERat]

ok, got it, but may be only able to play tomorrow evening (S'pore time) since tonight I bring out my students for some good food.
am at work now, anyone can post a screenshot?

 

[gozpel]

So far a couple of civs knows Theology, as they started Sistines. Not easy to know what else they know

What's irritating is that Greece has some incense, but already trading it to someone. And germany got some dyes, but no roads leads to us. And of course those nice wines that Zulu have, so you're right. That 4 luxes that we will have, sooner or later

 

[Bede]

Nice job, gozpel.

Next time against the Zulu, send a settler and just burn the town. Resettle closer to the iron, or the horses, depending on which one we need more or sooner.

 

[Ginger_Ale]

Some screenshots, on behalf of ThERat.

 

[ThERat]

Pre-Turn
MM a bit,change Tours to harbor for growth, change swazi to settler we need it, if we attack and resettle zululand
attack AC with archer but lose, 2nd archer redlines but AC retreats
press enter

IT
AC loses against our spear, one archer lands near Paris
Delphi completes Sun Tzu
Zulu builds Leo, Germany and Rome build Sistine

1. 260AD
kill archer near Paris, one elite victory but no leader

IT Germany asks us about alliance against Portugese, i decline
Paris archer -> temple
Guimares (Por) finishes Sistine

2. 270 AD
make peace with Portugese and get Mono (since Vikings do not have it) for 12gpt and 50g
get engineering for mono 6gpt and 35g from Vikings
decide next target is the wine city

IT Germany demands our lux, i decline and he accepts that groucho

Greece and Portugal sign alliance against Germans
Swazi settler -> library
chartres riots

5. 300AD
declare on Zulu and march towards wine city
IT Rome and Port sign against Germany
Rome completes Leo

7. 320 AD
siege of wine city, take it, losing 2 archers, march towards tugela

8. 330 AD
attack tugela, lose 1 archer and autoraze town, net 1 slave and a treb
settler now on the way to resettle site
next target umtata

IT Germany and Zulu sign peace

9. 340AD
wines now online
having a secure route to portugese, we trade them wines and silk for 13gpt and 42g
zulu would give us intombe already, but first we need umtata

IT zulu now attack with LB and capture one of our workers with impi
i guess we need to be quick in getting umtata

10. 350AD
move stack to umtata, next turn we can attack

I hope we can get out of that war fast, netting umtata and whatever we can then extort from zulu, we might want to go for bapedi to secure horses at least
some tech deals might then be possible as well. i tried to start some marketplaces, we also should start FP to improve the economy
i hope we do have salpeter so maybe can build our UU and then cav's

this is such a toughy

the save

 

[viper275]

Got it.

 

[Ginger_Ale]

Definately not an easy DemiGod game...

I'm on deck..

 

[Bede]

I don't usually post detailed suggestions at this point, but now I'm going to.

@vipr, play slowly!!!!

The assault force at the Zulu horse town is attacking across a river. Drop down from the mountain into the jungle.

If you think you have the time and can muster the force there is a mountain pass to the grasslands with a river between it and Umtata. If you can put some spears and cats or trebs there it will help reduce the city.

If you are successful, do not refound on the spot. Move to the mined grassland to the NW. It is on a river and puts the horses within our boundaries immediately.

It looks like Shaka lost his iron to the Germans, so he's not going to give up Umtata as that is his only source of horses.

Looks like the worst we have to face are A4 Longbows and D2 Imps. Not good but not the worst. Far better than knights or pikes....

A little kulthcha wouldn't hurt either if the war goes well....

So far so good, we are not fat and happy but we are in the hunt...

 

[ThERat]

If we want to raze Umtata and resettle, it would be best to use the settler currently at the former Tugela site, and churn out another settler to claim that position as well.
There are several zulu units running around, I saw LB's and horses. I fear if we wait too long for the assault, we might lose that stack. There is only a 2hp and 1 hp spear on top at the moment.

Viper, use your own judgement and play slowly and decide whether to go for peace or continue the assault (that said, you should definitely go for Umtata IMHO)

 

[viper275]

Preturn- Move the archer. I'll play slowly. I notice Paris is at 17 spt, I wonder if I could get it to 20.
IBT- Zulu kill some of our archers and a spear.
1
Amiens founded.
IBT- Zulu kill more archers.
2
Umtata captured. Greek archer running around in our lands but I'll keep him (don't want to fight Greece ATM.) Lots of people are unhappy, lux to 30%. I'll keep Umtata until a settler arrives, don't want the Zulu to resettle. MM a bit so the settlers are built sooner. Now to continue the war or not.... 6 archers at or near Umtata (but I expect to lose one or two IBT), 6 more on the way... Got a spear hanging around... Sounds okay.
IBT- Ragnar kicks me out and I land on an undiscovered island, controlled by Portugal.
3
IBT- Redlined spear kills a 3/5 and a 1/4 longbow!
4
Lux to 40%, otherwise Paris will riot next turn. Somehow research stopped, hire a scientist to continue. When we steal the horses NW of Umtata Shaka will still have horses NE of Ulundi.
5
Paris is at 20 spt now (1 archer/spear per turn)
IBT- Rome demands 31 gold. Accept. Ragnar demands 33. Accept again. Bullies! Shaka kills a spear at Umtata.
6
I kill Zulu longbows outside Umtata (was a little hesitant because it's across river and the enemy was on a mountain. An archer dies. Start to rethink further attacks but with 3 more archers on the way I think there will be enough for 1 more city.
IBT-Umtata riots.
7
IBT- Braga flips to Portugal :thumbdown
8
Impi near Isandhlwana, according to CombatCalc he should be no problem though.
IBT- Impi pillages and we lose the lux, Isandhlwana riots.
9
IBT- Isandhlwana flips to the Portugese! I'm not too happy with Henry anymore... Now I've assembled a good stack of archers at Umtata, enough to go to Bapedi next turn (I think there were 13 units there or something like that.) And Umtata flips! I'm so angry... They get a free musket, I wonder if that means they have Saltpeter?
10
Well no peace yet although I think it's necessary. The team can discuss it and the next player can do it preturn if we're agreed. Oh, and research stopped since there are no specialists.

 

[ThERat]

with our NO culture flips are unavoidable...but does that mean you lost all 13 archers?
well, no horses, no more wines, no iron, it doesn't look very rosy

 

[Bede]

Let's see, Umtata was pop5 (all Zulu), 3.5 tiles from Zulu capitol, and connected by road, our culture is 60% of the Zulu, there is only a tenuous road connection to our capitol, not surprised it flipped away from us.

 

[viper275]

with our NO culture flips are unavoidable...but does that mean you lost all 13 archers?

IIRC it was 2 spears and 11 archers. All gone.

I realize it's possible, but I'd think the garrisons would significantly reduce the chance despite other factors against us.

 

[Ginger_Ale]

A lot of times when we are close to AI capitals, sometimes it's good just to starve the city down, and keep our units outside the city to retake it if it flips. That's ok though, you did good getting Paris to 20 spt.

I got it, will play tonight. Also will aim for some peace...

 

[Ginger_Ale]

Actually, something unexpected came up...I won't be able to play until tomorrow. I hope this is ok...if you don't hear from me in 24 hours, just swap with me. I'm fairly positive it'll be done in 24 though.

 

[Ginger_Ale]

Turn 0 - 450 AD
Sign peace with Zulus, we give 170 gold, we get Feudalism.
We turn lux down 10%.

Turn 2 - 470 AD
We buy Incense from Greece for 230 gold.

IBT: Lots of MAs were being signed.

Turn 4 - 490 AD
We sell excess silks to Portugal for 8 gpt.

Turn 6 - 510 AD
Germany is being crushed by 4 nations at war against him with MAs...
They have 1 city left.

IBT: Germany is no longer.

Turn 10 - 550 AD
It seems our reputation is blown...



Ginger_Ale - played
Bede - UP!
gozpel - on deck
ThERat
viper

 

[Bede]

Got it.

Play tonight, I think.

 

[gozpel]

I didn't reply to any of this, much because I was shell-shocked and I think next player has to find his own ground.

Those flips totally sucked! And losing our whole damn army in the process doesn't make it better. One of the completely flawed ideas of CIV happened there.

But we will get over that and continue as planned, just slightly behind schedule