GR15 - AWE on Ultra Huge Map

[markh]

A few times I got the message "Too many cities", but I am not sure whether I tried last turn. I do not think that the AI is that smart having settlers in position to try to found cities. We will be quicker each time, so I would not be worried about this too much.

 

[Northern Pike]

Sounds good.

I've got it. I doubt that I can play more than one turn a day, and I don't have too many days available before a period of travel. But I'll try to get something useful done.

 

[ThERat]

we can still found cities, I checked...NP please do settle what is possible. It's not that the AI is not smart enough (sometimes they are), but they stop settler production and won't have settlers hidden somewhere if we always hit the city limit

 

[vmxa]

Even if they have a settler they have to get to a place they can and want to settle. Anyway how about we settle replacement town near our empire, rather than out in the tullies, so we do not have to defend them or risk workers to improve them any?

We are not going to fill the land anyway, but having towns all over heck, makes them harder to keep track of.

 

[Greebley]

When we control our land mass it won't truly matter where our towns are. We will probably want to set up watch towers (outposts or units) to look for landings - any interior city location won't matter.

We will want our towns concentrated in the grasslands until we cover all of them. They make the best science farm.

I would consider anywhere that is grasslands as a location that towns will eventually exist.

 

[vmxa]

Yes when we control it, but in the mean time some locations are in need of too much protection, make for more opportunities to get careless and need extra units to safe guard.

 

[Northern Pike]

Well, I'm flirting with the reductio ad absurdum of a one-turn round. We've taken nine cities in 1690, of course eliminating the Aztecs, but I still have to tidy up our position tactically, find actions for a lot of workers, and so on. If I'm able to play a second turn we may be able to eliminate Egypt, but I don't know whether I'll have the time.

 

[TimBentley]

Well, I'm flirting with the reductio ad absurdum of a one-turn round.

lurker's comment: It wouldn't be the shortest round: ST1

 

[vmxa]

NP do what you thing is right. Do not worry about getting the game to me as I will fair no better I suspect. It will probably be a turn a day during the week as I
have to do it first thing in the morning before going to work.

 

[Northern Pike]

lurker's comment: It wouldn't be the shortest round: ST1

Amusing link--thanks.

 

[Northern Pike]

1695 AD, end of turn

 

[Northern Pike]

1685 (0): It's strange that we haven't made contact with the Chinese. Are they isolated on an island somewhere? Maybe we should call them the Taiwanese.

I switch nineteen cities to factory builds.

I unearth some units with movement and we slay another seventeen Babylonians, losing an inf (17-1).

We found See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and Speak No Evil, giving us a useful barrier on the Egyptian front.

On defense we force two Eg cav to retreat, and repel the attacks of two Aztec MDI (19-1).

An Indian cav appears out of the fog in the completely ungarrisoned area around Far West Cow, capturing some workers.

The French ambush two of our frigates and sink them, though we take down two of theirs (21-3).

Medicine --> SciMeth, due in four turns at 70% science.


1690 (1): We defeat the final spearman in Mandalgovi and eliminate the "Glorious Aztecs" (22-3).

We take Abydos (soon abandoned), held by three musketmen (25-3).

We found the tactical town of Evil.

We raze Hieraconpolis, held by four musketmen (29-3).

We found the tactical town of Lucena.

We take Byblos (soon abandoned), held by four musketmen (33-3).

We found the tactical town of Salvio.

We raze Avaris, held by three musketmen (36-3).

We found the tactical town of Damiano.

We raze Lisht, held by three musketmen (39-3).

We take Elephantine, held by three musketmen (42-3).

We take Asyut, held by three musketmen and a cav (46-3).

We found the tactical town of Lopez.

We take Giza, held by three musketmen (49-3).

We catch two Iroquois frigates and an Ir galleon in range of our big frigate stack at Lapurdum, and bombard and sink them (52-3).

Outside cities we smite 49 enemy units, losing a cav, a knight, and an MDI (101-6), and gaining two Great Leaders/armies.

We repulse the attacks of an Eg cav and two Persian frigates (104-6).

A French frigate attacks our large galleon stack off Zululand, and sinks one (104-7). Did someone have a theory that the AI wouldn’t attack big naval stacks?


1695 (2): We take Buto, held by three musketmen (106-7).

We take the Eg capital of Thebes, held by just four musketmen. We lose a cav (109-8).

We abandon Elephantine and found the tactical town of Vicent.

We take Heliopolis, held by three musketmen and a cav (113-8).

We take Pi-Ramesses, held by just two musketmen (115-8).

We take El-Amarna, held by three musketmen (118-8).

Memphis is completely behind a screen of mountains. This will definitely call for a tactical settlement.

We abandon Thebes and found the tactical town of Philidor.

We take Memphis, held by three musketmen (121-8).

We take Alexandria, held by three musketmen, and eliminate the “Glorious Egyptians” (124-8). Thirteen Eg units visible to us come off the map.

Just beyond Alexandria we spot the border of a Korean town.

We mop up twenty Viking units in our Aztec holdings (144-8).

The Vikings have an asterisked elite pikeman. You don’t see that a lot.

We bombard and sink three Persian caravels, in further naval action off Lapurdum (147-8).

Elsewhere outside cities, meaning mostly in Egypt, we expunge 48 assorted enemy units, losing a Gallic (195-9). We gain one GL, and so our forty-third army.

Well, two turns represented my maximum expectation for this round , so that’ll have to do. I won’t be able to play again until early March, due to travel. If you gentlemen can fight through these immense turns and win the game before I’m back in action, I’ll be most impressed.

Fifty elite victories this round produced three Great Leaders,

 

[Northern Pike]

Judging by city counts, we should be able to finish off the Vikings in two turns and the Koreans in three, once we get to grips with them. The only problem is covering the distance. The best approach to the Vikings may be by railing the road north from Nottingham—it’s long, but it appears to lead to their core without a break.

The Babs have two fair-sized stacks near New Durocortorum (one on the mountain), and a small one near See No Evil. Other than that, we’ve destroyed every enemy unit in sight.

Alesia can switch to and complete ToE as soon as we discover SciMeth in three turns. Entremont will then be rather late with Hoover, but it doesn’t really matter.

We were sending our convoy of cannon to the Hittite lands with no attack units at all except the army which would also have had to serve as the stack anchor, which seemed to me a recipe for disaster. So I sent the convoy back to Zululand to pick up four cav units, and it’s now heading north again. The two cav armies we still have in Zululand should be able to raze a few more cities by themselves.

Most of our settlers are next to the capital.

Durocortorum needs to have one of its tiles mined.

 

[Northern Pike]

Forward through Egypt:

 

[vmxa]

Ok I got it and will see how much I can get done. Have a good trip NP. The AI will surely attack a stack of unescorted galleons. The distances are so great and they know where you are, so it will be hard to sneak a stack past them.

Later, once we have exposed most of the map and can see no one can get to a convoy, you could sneak ships past.

I also feel it is not a good investment to have single or double stacks of frigates out in the open. They will get attack and eventually sunk. There is not much value in trading frigates with so many enemies.

A stack of 3 or more is another matter. Still I would prefer to see them in port to sally out to attack passing ships and return to heal. There little point in trying to sink galleons under escort, it is easier for us to kill the landing party.

If we must send out unescorted galleons, at least have several empty ones that will be the defenders and not lose units as well as ships. The AI has to have subs to sink specific ships.

 

[madviking]

lurker's comment: How many cities do you have? It looks like a quarter or more of them (them being 512)...

 

[ThERat]

very nice progress NP...though you only played 2 turns, it seems you cleared a lot of land

now, let's see whether vmxa can clear the rest of the land

 

[vmxa]

lurker's comment: How many cities do you have? It looks like a quarter or more of them (them being 512)...

We have 239 right now.

 

[Northern Pike]

I also feel it is not a good investment to have single or double stacks of frigates out in the open. They will get attack and eventually sunk. There is not much value in trading frigates with so many enemies.

I agree with your points about naval operations, and I tried to concentrate our ships, except for two galleons which have pushed so far north exploring the open ocean that they might as well keep going. I don't know how our big galleon stack got separated from its frigate escort, which is now about two turns away from it.

We have a depleted elite frigate on the northern Hittite coast, which you might overlook since it's fortified to improve its chances of survival.

 

[Greebley]

Agree on stacks of 3 Frigates or more. As far as sinking ships, I think that if fleets start bombarding us, then targetting them with land artillery and then sinking them is best.

Roster:
Greebley
markh
Northern Pike - Out till March
vmxa - Up
M60A3TTS - On deck
ThERat

After we get TOE and electronics for Hoover, I vote for spending 8 turns to get Espionage (I think both techs will take 4 turns) and the world map. We can also see enemy troop numbers which will help us know the threat level of an AI. Do the rest of you also think this is a good idea?

After Espionage, we go for flight. We are able to research very fast, so it won't take too long.