GK1- The Wrath of Khan!!

[Bede]

Quoth the Errant Knight:

Oh, Bede, she slapped me. Those iron gloves hurt!

Bugsy, it's just like cowboys and their spurs, you gotta get the gloves off 'em if you want to get close.

I think we should stay at war with France at least long enough to disconnect her iron and horses. Maybe we should consider the pillage all tiles around the capitol move and make her starve. It is much longer and harder, but it is effective.

Now is the time for the pillage tactic to come into its own. Rather than take on Paris head on, cut off her iron and horses, then ask for the shirt off her back for peace. I would almost rather knock her back to the Stone Age by razing Paris and taking down one of her other cities but now that I think on it we do want to keep the neighbors in a proper frame of mind towards us for a while yet. Razing Paris won't help.

Not having looked at the map yet, is there any cultural risk in our fifth city from the proximity of Paris? Should probably change its name to Bardstown in honor of Jim Beam, or maybe Schnappsburg would be better? What do you think?

Writes Stapel:

It even might be a good idea to keep peace with the Russians and forget about the old iron souce (for now....) . Our swords are obsolete anyway. So: make peace and keep peace, build libraries everywhere, build a harbour. Hook up horsies and iron west and northwest of Ivory City. Build up a knights force. Be prepared to do some Indian bashing (in case Mahatma builds culture or settler there), but focus on France and Russia.

I like your ideas here, but only after a little pillaging in the French homelands. I don't quite fancy the notion of a war with the fat lady in pearls yet, just because she can be a real pain before you can make her sing. Does Schnappsburg have enough reach to cover the French iron mtn or is that already behind Paris's cultural border. (Suppose I could look at the map)

Await further commentary.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Our wines city would have to have Paris razed to get the French iron. There actually is a bit of a flip risk since to took three French tiles when I settled it. I figured a headstart to building that city was worth it. A temple becomes a number one priority there if Paris isn't razed.

You can call the city anything you want. Vineland was the first thing to pop into my brain, since I was thinking of grapes rather than wine.

 

[Bede]

Given the above I'm afraid Paris does have to burn. I think her other cities are far enough away that culture push on Vineland will no longer be a problem.

Then on to her other closest cities to pillage off her horses and prevent resettlement of her Western Marches. I would then propose to let Cathy do what she wants at Grozny, we can build colonies in the west for horses and iron, in that order. Put the War in France in maintenance mode: defend Vineland and prevent encroachment while building other stuff in the homeland.
And if the opportunity presents itself, finish off England.

And I keep forgetting about the Cat in the Hat. Do we want to hire a few Zulus to go beat on him again?

 

[Sir Bugsy]

X-man has fewer cities than we do and he isn't restricting himself. If you hire Shaka to fight him, the X-man won't survive. Good thing? Bad thing? Hard to say.

 

[Bede]

X-Man isn't contributing anything to the tech race, is he?

OTOH, do we want Shaka to be the 2,000lb gorilla on the other continent? Course there are still the Babs to keep him in check, maybe.

Too many possibilities, methinks. Killing the odd Persian will be kinda like barb hunting, offering opportunities for promotes and maybe a little gold in the end.

 

[Bede]

No further discussion?
Will play this morning, starting now, post tonight.

 

[Bede]

GK1 650AD-750AD

Preturn
FL (Fat Lady) will sell Education for 670g and WM
Gandhi will sell for 560g and WM
WofB will give WM, TM ED, ENG, 21g and 2 workers for peace
Hammi will sell Ed for 620 or Eng for 510g
X-man has nothing to give for peace
Liz now has iron, no horse and no techs to really make use of the iron (swords, maybe)
Shaka wants =>600g for either Eng, or Edu.
All of this is too rich for my blood.
Paris will burn!!
Open embassy in Zululand, in anarchy. Zimbabwe producing (at normal), 7spt. 15gpt, pop12, has 5Imps and 1Pike in garrison, employing 2Sci and 30%Sci, building ZUniv. Has Pyr, Cath, Col, etc. 16cpt
Open embassy with FL. Republic, 9spt,32gpt, 2SP and1P in garrison, has iron(1) and horses(2), 4 lux, building Leo's, has UnivM.

IT French Knight gallops out of Paris and burns Vineland.
Russia offers to extend Peace Treaty-Accept
Berlin War=>war
Dyeburg riots so bump lux to 10%

T1 660AD
Seige ofParis: Cats 1-5. Attack with Elite Archer Archer dies but takes hp off Pike. Elite Sw kills vet Pike but no promote Elite Sw dies but redlines Elite Pike Elite Sw dies but redlines vet Pike Vet Sw kills reg pike, no promote Vet Sw dies takes hp off vet pike Vet sw kills elite Pike Vet sw goes down to -3 Elite Pike
Pull workers back from rubble of Vineland
Assemble Sws at borders of Grozny

IT Workers lost!! Berlin war=>war IP war=>war Coastville riots Raise lux to 20%

T2 670AD
Seige of Paris: Cats take 2hps off Pikes. Elite sw kills elite Pike, still no promote
Vet Sw kills reg Pike, no promote Last vet Sw kills -2hp Elite Pike Paris falls and burns
Jeanne will offer Avignon and Education, 29g, 10gpt amd maps for peace. Thinking I'll keep Avignon until Vineland can be rebuilt and having that city will keep Jeanne back to the east for awhile anyway and that we can farm Avignon for a settler and workers(should have kept Paris but the victory went to my head), will dispatch French slaves to build colonies on iron and horses.

IT

T3 680AD Colony built on horses. Swap production around to horseman and spears (Knights and Pikes). End of war with WofB makes empire much happier so turn lux down Workers road and chop jungle and build colony on French iron. Garrisoned warriors upgrade to swords No tech deals available at reasonable prices

IT

T4 690AD Wokers irrigate at future site of resurrected Vineland

IT FL wants TM. Suspicious as I am I refuse
Berlin Horseman to Knight
IP Spear to Pike

T5 700AD Vineland rises from the rubble. Start Library at maxspt With wines back everybody is smiling again. Turn lux back to 0 Abandon Avignon

IT Dyeburg Sp to Pike Coastville Sp to Harbor Sp upgrade to Pike India War/settler pair appear in West next to Iron Mtn

T6 710AD Workers road. Knight dispatched from Berlin to IP

IT Shaka wants Territory map and 32g. Suggest he stick it. He declares war. Persian set/Sp pair appear in NE next to Iron colony India founds city right next to iron mtn

T7 720AD Dispatch sword from Vineland to deal with the Cat in the Hat. Elite Sw captures two slaves but fails to promote
Rush Lib at Vineland Switch citizen to higher food tile Collect forces at IP for Indian disciplinary session

IT Shaka sallies settler/Imp pair from NewZim
WofB sends workers towards Vineland ???

T8 730AD Sally Sw from Berlin to deal with Shaka's Imp Workers at DB chop jungle start on more. MM DB to get back on pop growth path Workers at Berlin finish forest chop and road start mine So far no settlers from France trying to reclaim lands

IT Lizzie calls and offers peace and her second city Forget it hon Berlin K to K IP P to to Sw Put scientist back to work and raise Sci to 10%

T9 740AD Move K to cut off Shaka's Imp. Start forces at IP towards Liz or Gandhi, whichever comes first Move Sws on guard duty E of Grozny towards NewZim

IT WofB gallops K out of Rheims on scout mission. Shaka's Imp/sett move east towards Vineland Horse colony falls victim to Rheims expansion

T10 750AD Shift forces from border of Rheims to Iron colony on mtn Begin collecting forces for assault on NewZim

SitRep
In a word, I'm unhappy. France is dwindling but Shaka and Gandhi grow stronger. England has second city and iron. Expect to see swords heading our way. Iron colony will fall to French real soon now and horses are already lost and only four K's will be built I built too many pikes when I should have been building K's but at least we are well defended in the border towns. We are at least average or better militarily to others. Have 12 turns to go in peace with WofB and 10 with the Fat Lady. Only bright spot is PP due in 2 and that looks like a good gambit . If we can stay at peace with the rest of our neighbors should be able to get much gold and many tech for it .

BandB

Very humbly submitted and hoping next guy can do better,

Bede

 

[Gengis Khan]

Gengis Khan- on the bench
Our Resident Flyboy
An Irish Monk- Just played.
A past & future HOFer- UP!!
A man inlove with his car- on deck.

 

[Stapel]

Gorm (Gorm is up huh?) ? Any news from the front?

 

[gormdragan]

Opps, I didn't know I was up. This is a got it.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Sorry Bede,
It looks like I left Vineland poorly defended for you. Great job recovering from a poor set up on my part.

 

[Bede]

It was a little disconcerting to see that knight come galloping out of Paris and reduce Vineland to rubble!!

I might have hit Jeanne for Eng rather than the gpt but I felt rebuilding the treasury fot the upcoming upgrades was more important than Longbows and Leo's which we won't get a chance to build anyway given that war with the Hindu or the Fat lady is imminent, not to mention pinning Shaka's ears back a little.

Good luck, gorm!!

 

[gormdragan]

I will play this SG tonight (This is the top priority).

 

[gormdragan]

Preturn:

Things look good, though we need to recover our horse resource. We need significant troops in the French front.

760:
Hurry rax at Vineland.

Trade dyes+WM for horse for Cathy. Knights!!! Knights!!! Knights!!! Once our treaty with France expires we will take out Joan.

New Zimbabwe was razed.

770:
Printing Press discovered, starts Musical Theory.

Vineland makes rax, starts marketplace. Moving our native workers to join to Vineland.

Captured Zulu settler.

Trade Printing Press to Babylon for Engineering+56g.
Trade Printing Press+Dye+Ivory+125g to India for Invention+Banking.
Trade Printing Press to Russia for 13gpt+31g+WM.

Switch to 40-turn gambit on Democracy.

780:

790:
Astronomy is out. Too expensive.
Berlin makes knight, starts bank.

800:
Peace with Persia.
Peace with Zulu for WM+27g.

810:
Musical Theory is out too.
We are behind by Musical Theory, Astronomy and Gunpowder.

820:
Ivoryopolis makes knight, starts knight.

830:
Smolensk makes Sistine Chapel.

840:

850:
Crap!!! Russians settled between our cities.

Summary
(1) We have an SOD of 9 swords, 6catapult, 3pike, 4knight ready to take the French.

(2) We should take Orleans and Rheims, then kick the Babylons off our continent. Hence securing our own horse resource. Leave the French with Marseilles and force her to give us gunpowder (and maybe Musical Theory).



The Save

 

[Stapel]

Ok Gorm!

Unfortunately, my one and only true love broke down in France last saturday . A piece of the pully of the batterycharger broke off... I never knew that was even possible! I will retrieve her tonight, and will probably need 8 hours for it.
Work tomorrow, and after that I will visit my parents during the weekend.

I am up and will thus play monday evening (afternoon in the Americas). So, if the next player can play his turns first, it is all fine by me!

 

[Stapel]

I just received a phonecall from southern Belgium. My French ain't great, but is good enough to understand I cannot pick up my blue baby to night .

The good news is that I

Got it

 

[Stapel]

Pre Turn 850 AD: MM-ed Vineland. Growth in 1 turn.

Turn 1; 860 AD; our troops move a bit closer to the French border
Turn 2; 870 AD; some workers on the move.
IT: The French want to renew the peace treaty. What do they think? That we are pascifists? A French knight kills itself in a suicide raid to Vineland.
Turn 3; 880 AD; We bravely enter France
Turn 4; 890 AD; We wipe out Orleans, in one blow.
Turn 5; 900 AD; We wipe out Rheims. Two more elite vics, but no leader. We build a horse colony. Since we are done with Jeanne for now, we move our troops towards (not in) Babylonian territory. As this Babylonian dude refuses to give gunpowder, he needs to suffer! WAR! Troops move into bab-lands.
Turn 6; 910 AD; 3 out of 5 cats do damage. No 6 kills baylonians in Zariqum. We raze it with swords. A knight destroys Zippar.
IT: French build Paris next to our horse colony….. Bastards!
Turn 7; 920 AD; We have two banks. Next player can decide on what to build next. Another useless elite vic destroys a Babylonian town. Jeanne is ready to talk, but we will need to destroy Paris first. We demolish Nippur.
IT: Russians start Magellan and Adam’s
Turn 8; 930 AD; Goodbye Paris. Another fruitless elite vic ! We raze the other two Bab cities on our continent. Peace with Jeanne: Gunpowder and Music theory, 3 gpt. Babs don’t want to talk.
Turn 9; 940 AD; Babs talk: we give 202 gold, 10 gpt and get astro and chemistry.
Turn 10; 950 AD; I didn’t do a thing! Up to the next player.

If we attack the Indians, we will soon have saltpeter.


Da Save

 

[gormdragan]

I will be on vacation from Christmas until next year. I hope to play at least 1 more turn b4 I disappear.

 

[Stapel]

I guess this is a rather busy periosdfor all of us! Take your time!

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Gengis Khan- UP!!
Our Resident Flyboy - On deck
An Irish Monk
A past & future HOFer
A man inlove with his car- Just played