GA II - Straight-Up DemiGod

[Bede]

Run a little backcheck and discover our trade problem stems from Henry the Navigator. When Isandlhwana defected it took the wines we were trading him.

In 570 take a chance and settle Poitiers in the face of Portugal at Isandlhwana and rush a temple and finsih rush the temple at Amiens.

In 590 the borders at Poitiers expand and we pull in some wine from Isandlhwahna.

By 600 I feel confident to turn up research and hire a couople of scientists to get us to Invention in 10 turns with 31g in the bank and 17gpt in hand.

In 630AD Rome declares on Portugal and Henry's borders at Isandlhawna expand, we lose the wine and the sans-culottes run riot in the streets of Paris.

It looks like Julius is launching his assault on the former German towns from a base at Jerusalem in the west...and we can now buy Horses or Iron from Julius for our Silks....leave it for the next better map-reader as I'm not sure I trust the trade route.

In 650 Zulu would like a look at our maps. Decline the offer.

We are proceeding to Invention with all deliberate speed with scientists and some money. We can buy buy Chivalry from India for Engineering but I don't see why. Rome will sell us horses for silks, so we can build horsemen for upgrade to cavalry should it turn out we have saltpeter in our little corner....

Mostly just trying to hang to what we have and keep the neighbors friendly.

At least this time I hand the game over and we are at peace with the world.

 

[Ginger_Ale]

Nice, peaceful turns. Gozpel is up. If only our reputation was intact...

 

[gozpel]

I got it.

Peace? I can't play while in peace!

Ah well, I get over it. I might not being able to play this until tomorrow.

 

[Bede]

I'm sure you fix that little problem, goz

 

[gozpel]

Pre-turn - Speed up research a notch.

Swap some tiles to get a couple of buildings faster.

Give silks to Rome for horses and TM. Can't do anything for that map. But at least we can start building some ponies.

660AD - Buy WM from Vikings for WM and 8g. Sell WM to Rome for WM and 3gpt.

670AD - Vikings starts Magellans.

Trade Greece silks for incense.

We build our first horse

680AD - Rome starts Smiths.

I give India Engineering for Chivalry, 1gpt and 6g. Not necessary, but every gold counts.

690AD - Nothing really.

700AD - We learn Invention.

India joins Portugal against Rome.

Ghandi got 223g, I take that for Invention.

Rome wants 72gpt and 294g for iron!

I take a big decision here, but we don't really have a choice. I buy Gunpowder + furs from Rome for 59gpt and 294g. We have unconnected saltpeter near Amiens, next to Zulus borders.

Lower luxtax to 10%, a couple of cities gets specialists. We're making 46gpt atm, this will drop as we get more units of course.

710AD - Vikings have spices for sale, I take that for silks, 5gpt and 35g.
We can turn down luxtax to zero, 2 clowns and a scientist are hired. Not too bad, as we make 59gpt after this.

We still have one silk for sale, but I want Portugal to throw a fit. Or should I give it too them for 10gpt? I wait a turn or two.

Caesar would sell saltpeter for around 30gpt, but he won't part with his 3 extra iron for anything. Not that we need saltpeter, I just checked.

720AD - More civs start Magellans. And Smiths.

Ghandi demands 23g, bugger off!

730AD - I start FP in Marseilles, just to do something worthy. 23 turns though, so this can be changed.

Dang it, messed up workers, should've sent 6 instead of 5 to salty mountain.

740AD - Portugal and Rome sign peace

Saltpeter is connected!

750AD - We have our first musketeer!

So there, I added 10 horses to our almighty army. No possible way to get iron, so I suppose we have to give Zulu another go when we have 20-30 horses? And hopefully trigger GA too.

We have 244g and 51gpt atm.

Portugal would buy our silks, but do we want to sell it to them?

India is down to one city, Rome just took Delhi.

 

[Ginger_Ale]

I think you're getting good at builder turns gozpel. Who do you think we should trigger our GA with? I'm thinking Greece. They have a couple cities near our core, they aren't too big...I'm not sure of their resources, but I'm sure we can find a way to overpower them.

ThERat is up, viper on deck.

 

[ThERat]

got it, will play either tonight or tomorrow night since I am up in other games too.
so, what does the team think?

go for greek cities and replace them? (I do not want more flips, the ex Zulu city flipping to Portugal cost us our reputation (was my fault, really apologise for the trade to Potugese )
or go for Zulu and finally claim the iron?

I think we have to go for MT top priority with salpeter in our hands. and then clean up 'our' island and get it completely for us alone. I can see that Rome is really big.

 

[gozpel]

I forgot to mention that I crammed in Toulouse near Intombe.

Greece or Zulu doesn't matter, but we don't have the horses for that yet. Think 3 horses per defender, it doesn't matter if it is muskets. Horses eventually does the job, but at a cost. That's why I said 20-30 horses, to get a couple of cities

30 is better. And then we trigger the GA at the same time and sue for peace as soon as we can. Raze and replace sounds good.

When I think of it, we should upgrade those archers to LB's, they are pretty good picking off knights at least.

 

[ThERat]

Pre-Turn
everything looks fine, we will not attack Henry soon, ship him silks for 10gpt

1.
IT Rome demands TM and 33g, I cave. India is gone

6. 810AD
great Zulu border expanded and our salpeter is theirs, ok that's too much. I am going for Umtata
My patience is really running out, I want those horses and maybe iron, also our salpeter back

IT now vikings demand money, we cave 45g, Greek finishes copernicus

7. 820AD
move to the gates of umtata with my mini SoD

8. 830AD
clear some units approaching our cities
assault on Umtata
we raze Umtata losing 4 horses only [dance]
I will wait a turn to settle, salpeter is ours again

IT somehow their units do not dare to attack the musketeer

9. 840AD
found Bayonne by the horses, now I hope for GA and peace asap
rush barracks in poitiers, since knights are attacking there

IT
well, surely they do not want to attack musketeers

10. 850AD
I was so tempted to attack one more time with an elite unit and

now what to do with it? I leave it to the next player (maybe switch FP to
Bayonne, rush it and switch Marseilles to palace or so, at least that would reduce the flip risk, right?)
I upgraded one spear to musketeer at Poitiers, all other units unmoved

I checked and Zulu would go for peace with a good discount on chemistry, now that we have horses and salpeter, we would only be
2 techs away from MT, we should wait until they attack our musketeer to get GA, then immediately go for peace

 

[Bede]

Nice....

goz builds and buys, tHERat goes to war, gets Umtata and a leader and horses.

You may have to put a Musketeer on offense to trigger the GA, the AI seem to avoid them like Purple Death when they are fortified in a town.

 

[viper275]

Got it.

 

[Ginger_Ale]

Yeah, like Bede said, wait for Musketeers, and then use them to attack to get our GA, get a couple of towns, and then get peace or continue warmongering? Great turns though!

Viper, he knows he's up.

Note: I will be away from the 18th - 21st, so I can't play my turns. However, I will have internet access, so if you can post a couple of screenshots at that time, it'll help me. Thanks.

 

[ThERat]

You may have to put a Musketeer on offense to trigger the GA, the AI seem to avoid them like Purple Death when they are fortified in a town.

after razing Umtata, my SoD with a musketeer on top was next to a knight and LB, but they just went on to Intombe, I hoped for an attack and GA, but well. we need to use a musketeer to attack I agree. btw, we won't get a couple of cities from Zulu, they do not have so many and towns are just flips later on. we need to raze all that and found again.
I strongly recommend to get chemistry from them, trading has become an issue since I broke the reputation. I think we should revert to steals soon, with GA and FP we will make a ton of money.
Once we have Cavs, we can pick our enemies one by one.

 

[viper275]

Preturn- Move units. Send the MGL back home, don't know what to do with him.
IBT- Henry builds Magellan's. Vikings start Bach's.
1
IBT- Caesar declares on Alex. Henry enters Industrial Age.
2
Figure it's time to trigger a GA. So that's what's what I did.
IBT- Lose Incense, lots of places riot.
3
Buy Incense from Alex for Silks and 50 gold or so. Capture Bapedi.
IBT-Portugal declares on Zulu. Order restored in the empire.
4
IBT- WW hits badly. Lux to... 20%.
5
Cash rush a temple at Bayonne, it needs culture fast.
6
IBT- Lose Spices from Ragnar but I get them back for Silks, 7 gpt, and 4 gold. Vikings build Copernicus's
7
IBT-Rome builds Shakespeare's.
8
Assemble a good stack of doom and go to Ulundi.
IBT- Scandinavia and Portugal sign mutual protection pact. Ulundi captured by Portugal.
9
Finger slipped and Bayonne is going to be captured by the Zulu I think I can retake it, though.
IBT- Bayonne captured by Shaka. It'll be ours soon though... Henry almost took it... THANK YOU RNG!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FP built in Marseilles.
10
Iron Metropolis founded... by iron, of course. We are now in possesion of iron. We've probably got enough gold now to buy techs. Decided against too many new Knight builds because we can upgrade.

Ginger Ale is up, I think.

 

[ThERat]

Buy Incense from Alex for Silks and 50 gold or so. Capture Bapedi.

you mean you did not raze the city? well, hope it won't flip again...and what happened to our leader? did you form an army? I did advise against an army, because I felt we did not have any suitable units and wanted to wait for Cav's.

ok, had a look at the save and I want to make some further comments, I hope it doesn't sound harsh

1. when I stopped my turns, Chemistry was 35 turns away. now 10 turns later, it is still at 30 turns. why was the scientist fired?
2. Iron Metro looks like a flip town. do we actually need iron at the moment? I think Cavs do need salpeter and horses.
3. what happened to our leader? it is resting in Paris and waiting for what? if we didnt use it to speed up FP, that's fine. But as long as it is not an army, we won't get any other MGL. at the moment the guy is simply a waste. it could have been used for a powerful defense musketeer army.
4. I see rifles and we don't even have theology and chemistry, we are horribly behind in tech. this can only be fixed through steals etc. we have such a huge army consiting of what? horses? well, we won't take rifle cities with that. zulu is gone very soon, we could have brokered for chemistry long ago and open the path to MT, which we need badly.
5. to upgrade a horse to a knight cost 120g, we make 144gpt at the moment, thats 1 knight a turn. not the speed we need to fight rifles and we need to upgrade to Cavs anyway.
6. why are we still getting horses from Rome and pay them for 59gpt when those deals expired long ago?
7. this is DG, if we aren't fast, the AI will beat us to whatever other victory condition there is

maybe I am no good at DG myself, but I feel every move is important and can cost us. I already destroyed our reputation by not imagining isandhlwana could flip to the portugese. that cost us dearly.

 

[Ginger_Ale]

I got it, will play tonight after school. I'll see what tech trades I can do...I'll also see how expensive steals are. We might need some banks, though.

 

[viper275]

you mean you did not raze the city? well, hope it won't flip again...and what happened to our leader? did you form an army? I did advise against an army, because I felt we did not have any suitable units and wanted to wait for Cav's.

The leader is back home, I think we should just wait until we get cavs. Probably should just raze Bapedi now that I think about it.

1. when I stopped my turns, Chemistry was 35 turns away. now 10 turns later, it is still at 30 turns. why was the scientist fired?

I didn't fire him.... I hope the governor iisn't on.

2. Iron Metro looks like a flip town. do we actually need iron at the moment? I think Cavs do need salpeter and horses.

I suppose not, but I'd think that iron would help us fight wars.

3. what happened to our leader? it is resting in Paris and waiting for what? if we didnt use it to speed up FP, that's fine. But as long as it is not an army, we won't get any other MGL. at the moment the guy is simply a waste. it could have been used for a powerful defense musketeer army.

He's at Paris, I wasn't thinking and should have made him into an army, but I thought he would be a cav army (I don't really like defense armies.)

4. I see rifles and we don't even have theology and chemistry, we are horribly behind in tech. this can only be fixed through steals etc. we have such a huge army consiting of what? horses? well, we won't take rifle cities with that. zulu is gone very soon, we could have brokered for chemistry long ago and open the path to MT, which we need badly.

We recently got the cash to do that (after Chemistry for peace with the Zulu, you'd be stuck), and in SGs (at least from what I've heard), it's generally best not to make trades and stuff like that on your last turn and the next player can do that preturn, plus the team can discuss it.

5. to upgrade a horse to a knight cost 120g, we make 144gpt at the moment, thats 1 knight a turn. not the speed we need to fight rifles and we need to upgrade to Cavs anyway.

Good point, but we don't have to upgrade them. As I said earlier, I'd think that iron would at least help our conquests a bit.

6. why are we still getting horses from Rome and pay them for 59gpt when those deals expired long ago?

I'm not sure....

7. this is DG, if we aren't fast, the AI will beat us to whatever other victory condition there is

This is only what I think, but it doesn't look like that will happen in the near future. Space may happen, but not right at the moment. Conquest doesn't seem possible. Only Rome is sort of near domination (31%), but not really there. Culture can't happen even to Scandinavia ATM because they are about 1/10 to either victory.

maybe I am no good at DG myself, but I feel every move is important and can cost us. I already destroyed our reputation by not imagining isandhlwana could flip to the portugese. that cost us dearly.

I agree. I didn't imagine that either (happened during my set of turns.)

 

[ThERat]

the deal with romans is still on, never mind next player should cancel it.

I think, we should just try and capture Intombe, then go for peace (hopefully Zulu still surviving this long) and try and get a straight up deal for chemistry. I know we do not have many options but steals from AI.

We have a lot of units that are obsolete, maybe we should disband some to free up cash for steals and later Cavs? I agree that leader can be used for a Cav army, that would be a very powerful tool.

sorry if I sounded a bit harsh, didn't mean to, was just a little puzzled about some things happening there. we are all still learning, and different players have different style, that's what makes this SG fun.

 

[Ginger_Ale]

Turn 0 - 950 AD
We abandon Bapedi (flip risk).
We sign peace with Zulu, and get Theology and Chemistry in exchange for 799 gold. Hopefully, in 20 turns, when peace runs out, we'll have cavs.

Turn 1 - 960 AD
We end a 59 gpt for Furs deal with Rome. We resign for 80 gold and 15 gpt.
We can afford to turn lux down 10%.
We resign a Portugese deal of Silks for 10gpt to Silks for 17gpt.

Turn 2 - 970 AD
Nothing...

IBT: Portugese capture Mpondo...Zulu only have 1 city left.

Turn 3 - 980 AD
Troop movements.

Turn 4 - 990 AD
We buy Education from the Scandinavians for 850 gold and our World Map.

Turn 5 - 1000 AD
Movements and worker actions.

Turn 6 - 1010 AD
Nothing...

Turn 7 - 1020 AD
Cut some jungles.

IBT: Portuguese destroy the Zulu.

Turn 8 - 1030 AD
We buy Metallurgy from the Romans for 1190 gold. One tech away from MT.

Turn 9 - 1040 AD
Nothing...

Turn 10 - 1050 AD
Notes: Acquire MT asap. I suggest turning science down for one or two turns afterwards for upgrades. Then, declare war...maybe on the Greeks?

-----------------

Bede is up, gozpel is on deck.

 

[Bede]

Got it.

Keep on keeping on, I guess. MT to cavs then Death to the Greeks.