Gr10 - 5CC AWE

[Northern Pike]

where exactly do we want to settle the last spot? Is it the tile between the iron and the game?

The tile south of the iron, which I believe is the same thing.

It's time to chop Istanbul's deer forest and get the town to +5 food.

This is obvious, but Edrine should switch to the palace pre-build right now, not after it completes its barracks, which would be useless during the long GLib build.

I know it's standard play, but I don't much like the idea of sacrificing ten turns' growth to get a worker out of Iznik, when they cost three (or two) turns' growth at Istanbul.

 

[ThERat]

save

Pre-Turn
stayed on maths,
founded Uskudar #5 and final town at the original proposed site

then we went through some dicey turns, defeated 4 warriors + 2 archers on defense, lost a warrior

we have 1 sword now at Bursa, Istanbul has to produce a few more
I ran 1 scientist in Istanbul since we can't get 15spt anyway and this saves us valuable science output

4 workers that connected the iron are trapped at the #5 site due to many Mongol troops

maths is due in 2, then writing -> literature, Edrine is on a pyramids prebuild while Iznik is on a temple
(this we could change if we feel we need a rax

our empire

a closer look at the razor thin situation at Bursa

 

[ThERat]

I think we should swap Iznik later on to the SoZ prebuild once it has grown. I am also not against temples, they aren't useless here since so far we have 0 luxes

 

[Obormot]

I also think we should chop the deer and produce some workers in Istanbul from time to time, but don't build any workers from other cities, Istanbul will grow much faster with a granary and 2 food bonuses and we better keep the towns at more or less the same size to keep lux low. There is no need for temples when growth speed is synchronized, just build a workers in towns that grow too fast and join them to towns that grow too slowly. A temple gives one happy face and costs 1 coin to support, it is only usefull when one town is bigger then other which can be avoided by carefull planning. But i think that western town should build a library to expand its borders, i didn't do any calculations, but it very well may be that this 40 shield will pay off and it'll build SoZ faster that way

 

[ThERat]

agree on border expansion via a library in Iznik rather than a temple. However, literature is some turns away. We need to keep science as high as possible due to the prebuild.

Maybe we can join some workers to Iznik later on, we still need to improve our land a lot, Bursa is working unimproved tiles.

 

[M60A3TTS]

We also need to deny the Mongols their iron source. If we can keep them using archers we're much better off. Didn't see any report of the pink guys. Are those Incans?

 

[Obormot]

Agree, if we can spare a couple of spears then we should send them over to Kazan and fortify them on that iron

 

[Greebley]

We also need to deny the Mongols their iron source. If we can keep them using archers we're much better off. Didn't see any report of the pink guys. Are those Incans?

I realized I missed the most important part of my report and was going to report it but ThERat already played.... I met France during my turns and declared war. Apologies for forgetting that important point in my log.

Another important point is that the road from Istanbul to Bursa is useless for getting between the cities. We only went that way because it connected iron faster. We really need a better road there - otherwise it is 2 moves between the two towns in both directions.

 

[M60A3TTS]

I'm not convinced that Edrine should prebuild for GLib. If our workers are way over at Uskudar, it will be a while before Iznik has any real output for anything. And there is no guarantee that the AI doesn't have its own ivory source to build SoZ. Our iron road is tenuous. If we lose it, a good Plan B for offensive units is ancient cav, but that means we need SoZ sooner rather than later. Why not have Edrine build SoZ? At this level, Istanbul should be able to build the GLib from scratch by merging workers to Pop 12 once we hit literature.

 

[Obormot]

Well its not easy to decide. I don't want to build a wonder in Istanbul because it is our fastest growing city, so it is best to build workers there. But getting SoZ earlier is nice of course. There is another option to build both wonders in Edrine. But it looks like we can wait a bit before making the final decision because we'll build at least one wonder in Edrine anyway and we can decide which one later. And Iznik should expand borders before startng a wonder anyway. We may just continue playing for now and decide a bit later.

 

[Northern Pike]

I've got it.

 

[ThERat]

I'm not convinced that Edrine should prebuild for GLib.

Well, Edrine has some nice production already that seems to tie in with the writing/lit research. I agree that we could build SoZ in another city than Iznik. We could use the capital for that. Or Edrine again. Edrine has a disadvantage that is pop 6.

As for the iron road, there isn't a need to worry too much. The AI will never pillage road outside your borders, currently we need to worry only about 1 road tile and the AI seems to prefer to city or climb the hill next to it.

Once Istanbul has churned out a few swords (maybe we are lucky and get an army as well), we should be able to keep the iron.

 

[Northern Pike]

1000 BC, end of turn

 

[Northern Pike]

1250 (0): We defeat three attacks on Bursa by Mongol archers, though it's close (3-0).


1225 (1): Mathematics --> Writing, due in 14 turns at 50%.

Istanbul swordsman --> spearman (to sit on Kazan's iron).


1200 (2): Uskudar walls --> barracks.


1175 (3): Istanbul spearman --> swordsman.


1150 (4): Two French warriors die attacking Uskudar, and the spearman there promotes to elite (5-0).


1125 (5): Not much.


1100 (6): We move two spearmen onto Kazan's iron, which isn't hooked up.

Two French warriors fall attacking Uskudar (7-0).

Istanbul swordsman --> swordsman.


1075 (7): The last of our four workers trapped around Uskudar escapes. These workers were able to do some useful work while in the area, though one road they built was soon pillaged.

One of our spearmen repels the attack of a Mongol archer near Kazan (8-0).

The Vikings complete the Colossus.


1050 (8): With some offensive units now available, we cut down two Mongol archers around Uskudar (10-0).

Well, here's irony--having founded all five of our cities, we get a settler from a goodie hut just beyond Kazan. At worst it'll be two free population points, if we can get it back to safety.

Istanbul swordsman (with forest chop) --> swordsman.


1025 (9) - 1000 (10): Not much.

Four elite victories this round, all defensive, didn't produce a Great Leader.

 

[Northern Pike]

With five turns to Writing and 28 turns left on the Pyramids, the GLib pre-build in Edrine seems to be on schedule. The only downside is that we're at 40% lux to keep Edrine happy at size six.

It's hard to make exact calculations for Iznik without knowing how corrupt it'll be at higher populations, but it looks as though we can have the Statue there in 42 turns at worst if we don't build anything else first. (This implies mining two of the town's hills.) I don't think that waiting for a cultural expansion, which one way or another would cost about 60 shields when the Statue only requires 200, could be quicker. So I've got a palace pre-build going in Iznik, although there's still time to change it to almost anything if the team doesn't like the idea.

Our hut settler and the spearman escorting it are taking shelter on a mountain east of Kazan.

 

[Northern Pike]

The east:

 

[Obormot]

I got it. I think i'll just calculate what is faster in Iznik - library first or SoZ first.

 

[Greebley]

Some good turns. We have consolidated our position and it looks like we will be able to go on the offensive pretty soon. SoZ will really help as well if we can get it.

Roster:
ThERat
Northern Pike
Obormot - Up
M60A3TTS - On Deck
Greebley

 

[Obormot]

OK it is time to make a decision about wonders, so lets see what's going on in our cities.

We have 6 workers now. It is not bad because we are industrious, but with only 5 cities we want to grow even faster then usual. We also have more roads to build due to loose spacing and we'll have to build a few colonies to hook up luxuries and maybe horses. We also have some nasty jungel and march tiles in our borders. So i think we need quite a few more workers.

Istanbul is now making 10spt and 5fpt at size=8. We can build a sword and a worker very 4 turns there. We can also build a wonder there, if we improve hills we can get it to 15-20spt. A library there will also be nice even though it doesn't need to expand borders - it'll help a lot with research cause Istanbul produces almost 50% of our beakers.

Edrine is building the Pyramids now and has accumulated 151 shield. It can buil TGL in 28 turns or SoZ in 6 turns. We are running 40% lux now because of that city. If we lower it to 30% and hire a scientist in Edrine instead of working the forest tile we gain 3 beakers per turn and 2 coins per turn (Writing 1 turn faster). The wonder build in Edrine will only be slowed a little bit, because one of the shields was lost due to corruption and food doesn't matter cause it is at size=6 and needs an aqueduct. Basicly trading 1 shield for 5 gold - well worth it imho.

Bursa is building barracks now, but it is not very productive now because of poor tiles. It can get access to 3 BGs after expanding borders. So i may switch barracks to a library if the situation on the front will be more or less quiet. This is also the city our free settler should join, because it is the only one without a food bonus and the closest one.

Iznik is building Palace and has accumulated 22 shields. I really don't like that build - it takes more then 40 turns to build SoZ and more then 40 turns to get access to wheat and BGs.

Uskudar has some nice tiles, but is very corrupt. It should buil a courthouse quite soon. A courthouse in this case will help more then usual, because most of the corruption is distance corruption, while in a normal game at least halve and usually more is rank corruption. A corthouse cuts distance corruption by halve and only reduces rank corruption slightly. So in case of 5CC it should be much more effective then usual. A library there will give 1 BG, 2 forest and one grass tile. Not very urgent, but still nice to have.

OK, after thinking about this for a while i think that M60's plan is the best. I'll switch Edrine to SoZ and Iznik to a barracks->library and start TGL later in Istanbul. This is the most efficent way: we get SoZ almost 30 turns faster (!), that's 6 more ACs. If AC=knight that's ~400 shields saved. We get TGL at about the same time because Istanbul should be able to build it in 30 turns, maybe even faster if we improve the hills. We won't waste food in Edrine that cannot grow now, but can put it on workers instead and later build an aqueduct. We'll get the good tiles around Iznik earlier. Finally getting ACs earlier will allow us to build libraries instead of units in our other cities. So basicly all our cities will benefit from such a switch . We'll loose ~30 shields in Edrine because it'll take some time to connect ivory, but i think it is not that important compared to all these benefits.

1000BC, end of NP's turn
- switch Iznik to barracks (if we go straight for library we'll loose shields).
- Continue building the sword in Istanbul. I don't want to start TGL prebuild yet, but do several worker-sword cycles because we might need some troops urgently and the workers may very well speed up the build and regain lost turns.
- Hire scientist in Edrine and lower lux.
- Settler/spear pair start moving.

975BC
- Send 2 workers to hook up ivory ASAP. The new sword from Istanbul will protect the colony.

950BC
- Istanbul builds sword and grows, worker next. Lux raised for a turn.

925BC
- One french warrior commits suicide at Uskudar. (1-0) Mongols are chasing our settelr pair, but have no chance to catch them.
- Istanbul builds worker, starts another sword.

900BC
- Writing is done, Literature is next, due in 13 turns now.
- Mongols stopped chasing our settler pair and they have a stack of 7 archers that can arrive at Uskudar in 3 turns. I sent some reinforcements there.

875BC
- A road from Istanbul to Bursa that doesn't cross river is done.

850BC
- Istanbul: sword->worker, the last one before switching to TGL, i think.
- Iznik: barracks->library prebuild.
- Our sword dies attacking mongol archer, another sword kills mongol archer, our archer kills mongol archer near the iron hill. (3-1)

825BC
- Istanbul: worker->TGL, due in 37 turns now at 11spt, but that would drop drastically after i MM for shields when Istanbul growth. It will take not more then 25 turns.
- The free settler arrives at Bursa, but i change my mind and decide to join it to Iznik, it is currently our smallest city and the wheat tile there is blocked from the river by 2 mines and it won't be able to catch up in growth quickly.

800BC
- The mongol stack attacks Uskudar, we losoe a vet spear and kill 5 archers. (8-2)

775BC
- Bad news: the mongols have another source of iron because i see 2 mongol swords. One of them is now near Uskudar, the other one will arrive next turn. Our sword dies attacking mongol sword. Another sword finishes him off. Our archer kills mongol archer. (10-3)
- Ivory is connected and SoZ will be done next turn.

750BC
- SoZ is built in Edrine. Start barracks there so that it produces veteran ACs, due in 4 turns with a chop, so our first AC should be veteran. After that Edrine should produce some more workers.
- TGL is due in 21 turns in Istanbul currently. We'll loose some shields if someone completes the Pyramids before we learn Literature (7 turns left), but not much.

All recent mongol atatcks were at Uskudar. There is a stack of a sword and 2 archers next to it now, we have a spear, 2 swords (1 of them wounded) and an archer inside and a spear on the iron hill next nearby. I'll leave it to the next player whether to attack with our sword and archer or not. Bursa and Uskudar are building swords currently, but i think at least Bursa should be switched to a lib unless there is an emergency. The free settler is in Iznik and should join the city after the cultural expansion. Alternatively we can wait for it to get to size 7 before joining to save some food.

Some screenshots:

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[M60A3TTS]