GR26 - AWE Archipelago vs 30 civs (No GL)

[vmxa]

Lurker:

Try Darski's palette it helps a bit with the 31 nations. I find it a bit better than the other two, but any of the three is better than the default colors. You just copy it into the art/unit folder.

 

[Greebley]

Roster:
Greebley - On deck
markh
ThERat
Commando Bob - Up
Northern Pike - Away until March


Do post an 'I got it' so we know someone is working on playing. You can take up to a full week to play and need not play a full 10 turns. Both become common in the latter part of the game due to the large size of these games.

 

[CommandoBob]

Got it. Might be able to play tomorrow.

 

[CommandoBob]

Despotism
10% Tax
80% Science
10% Luxury

01 gold, +2 gpt That's close.

Iron Working in 18 turns.

City Builds

1. Istanbul (5) vArcher in 2, grows in 4.
2. Edrine (3) barracks in 5, grows in 6.
3. Bursa (1) walls in 10, grows in 7.

Military
00 Settlers
01 Workers
01 Warriors
02 Archer
05 Spear

Current Units: 09
Allowed Units: 12
Support Costs: 0 gpt

Compared to Germany we are Weak.
Compared to Japan we are Average.

01 Furs connected.

Incense is 2W-5SW of Bursa. We would need 2 cities to connect to it.

[IBT]
Japanese warrior runs and hides in the fog.

1 1725 BC

3 gold, +2 gpt, Iron Working in 17.
​

[IBT]
Istanbul vArcher -> vArcher in 3.


2 1700 BC

Worker completes road to Bursa. I thought the mining was already done and moved him across the river into Bursa. Now I see that neither Cow outside Edrine is mined. Maybe I did the right thing by accident.
Warrior found another source of Incense last turn and finds one more this turn.
​

[IBT]
Japanese Warrior appears 2W of Bursa.

3 1675 BC

In Bursa we have two Spears and a Worker. Need to road to the Incense. Best tile between Bursa and the Incense is 1W of Bursa, a BG. rWarrior is 2W of Bursa. Move out both Spears and Worker, city is still functional. vArcher will move into Bursa next turn. It is on the Cow 1E of Bursa.
Scouting Warrior does some fogbusting on the way home.

7 gold, +2 gpt, Iron Working in 14.
​

[IBT]
No attacks by Japan.

4 1650 BC

vArcher moves into Bursa.
eArcher, fully healed in Edrine, moves into Bursa also.
Worker begins to mine the BG.
​

[IBT]
Japanese Warrior fortifies.

Istanbul vArcher -> settler in 4.
Edrine barracks -> vSpear in 5 (to go with the settler).

5 1625 BC

10 gold, +0 gpt, Iron Working in 11.
​

[IBT]

6 1600 BC

​

[IBT]

7 1575 BC

10 gold, +0 gpt, Iron Working in 8.
​

[IBT]
Germany comes calling with 3 units, 2 rArchers and an rWarrior, out of the fog, north of Bursa.

8 1550 BC

Mine completes, so we road.
Wake vSpear in Edrine, send to Bursa. Three units in Bursa: eArcher, vArcher and (now) vSpear.
Move vArcher in Edrine. Two units in Edrine: vArcher and vSpear, with another vSpear completing this turn.
​

[IBT]
Two more German Archers appear, each in differnt tiles.

Istanbul settler -> vArcher in 3.
Edrine vSpear -> vArcher in 4.
Bursa walls -> barracks in 14.

Bean counter complains about our gold.

9 1525 BC

At Bursa we now have walls and the Germans will have to attack across a river. Fortify vSpear in Bursa and wait.
Settler in Istanbul moves toward Edrine.

10 gold, -1 gpt, Iron Working in 7.
​

[IBT]
German Archer and Warrior die in the waters around Bursa (2 of 2).

10 1500 BC

The mined BG west of Bursa is now roaded. rWarrior of Japan is fortified where we need to move to next.
Wake eArcher in Bursa.
eArcher removes the obstruction (3 of 3).
Worker moves onto that BG.
One vSpear moves with the Worker.
The other vSpear moves in Bursa.

Out in the west, vWarrior hacks down a Japanese rArcher (4 of 4).
​

[IBT]
The save is attached.

 

[CommandoBob]

Southeast Ottoman Area 1500 BC

Spoiler :

This is just a rough guide of how we could hook up the Incense. Our worker is ready to mine/road where it stands now. The Light Blue City has three places it could go. Light Blue Dot is on the north side of the river and will probably draw a lot of German attacks. However, the better location, Light Blue Circle, is a BG, which I don't want to waste as the center of a city. Both of these are next to the river, so growing to size 12 is not an issue. Light Blue Triange also avoids the BG and is south of the river, but it will need an aqueduct.

The Light Green Dot is where I see our city that will claim the Incense for us.

What I don't like about this proposed setup is that it puts all our cities are in one long, skinny rectangle. That's fine for now, but we need to make that shape into a box or something.

That's why the Settler and a vSpear in Edrine have not been moved. I'm not sure if what I see is the best thing.

Ottoman Core 1500 BC

Spoiler :

I've included a screenshot of our core for further discussion.

The German force is 2 rArchers and 1 rWarrior.

Military
01 Settler
01 Worker
01 Warrior
04 Archer
06 Spear

Current Units: 13
Allowed Units: 12
Support Costs: 1 gpt

Compared to Germany we are Average (we were Weak).
Compared to Japan we are Strong (we were Average).

01 Furs connected.

We need workers or slaves. Having just one is bit tedious.

 

[Greebley]

Sounds Good - I got it.

Will play tomorrow. Opinions on stretching for the Incense?
If our workers are mostly south, then Iron in the hills near the capitol would be slower to hook up. I think one or two workers would stay north in case of iron near the capitol (Or the ones I build stay N)

 

[Kulko]

lurker's comment:
I wouldn't think that one lux is worth stretching that far out. Better set up a efficient core first to produce the units needed to claim the incense in the first push.

 

[Greebley]

One interesting aspect is that distance corruption is pretty much not a factor in these games. In other words it doesn't matter where cities are placed. What would happen is that the incense city would start out as a core city, but would fall down the corruption ladder as closer cities get founded.

The lack of distance corruption is due to the size of the map of course.

 

[Greebley]

Preturn: Switched Istanbul to Worker. We definitely need more than one worker. Actually, I will switch Edrine to a worker as well to get the cows in play.
Decide to send the settler S. The river space to the south looks pretty good. BTW, settling on the shield won't matter. There are 6+ BG's around a new town and once we get to size 7, we get the shield under the city. Therefore we do not waste a shield by settling on it. Only concern might be enemy troops on some shield squares. I like the fact that we get river defense and can move units both ways between cities.

IBT: Archer and Warrior attack and die.

1475 BC: Kill final Archer across river.

1400 BC: Found Iznik on open circle for the reasons above. Worker will continue to build a road toward Incense.

1350 BC: Bad news - No Iron in sight - thats not good. Warrior will explore mountains to south and I will try to send a unit north. I think I see Japan to the South.

1300 BC: Spot a Japanese settler in the South. Unfortunately, units cover it before I can capture it.

1250 BC: Leaving a Warrior unmoved. I would just fortify it and hope to kill some Archers (its in the mountains) but we could retreat it instead.

Notes:
No new units appeared on my turns. Japan is way to the South which is bigger than I thought it would be to fit 4 cities. There may be a natural choke point to the South.

I was planning on an Incense Colony defended by the Spear, but that was before I knew where Japan was. I am thinking we can still do it, but we can discuss.

 

[Greebley]

BTW we have 4 workers now.

 

[Northern Pike]

We've found that the AI doesn't pay much attention to our colonies this early in the game, so I think the incense colony would still be a good idea.

To discover no iron in this much rough terrain is certainly bad luck.

 

[Northern Pike]

[Duplicate post.]

 

[markh]

I got it. Will play tomorrow.

 

[ThERat]

no iron with all the hills around

that's bad and might be the killer

 

[markh]

IBT : the Japanese archers all go back towards their home

1) 1225BC : our Northern spear runs into a Persian one : WAR

IBT : A Japanese settler/spear combo moves towards the incense field

2) 1200BC : not much to do

IBT : 2 German archers appear from the NW, a German spear moves inn from the North together with the Persian one

Toku settles Satsuma 3 SE of our intended incense colony

3) 1175BC : shuffle units

IBT : a Japanese archers kills our warrior in the Japanese mountains

4) 1150BC : not much

IBT : the German units are closing in

5) 1125BC : kill the German intruding spear

IBT : nothing

6) 1100BC : kill 2 German archers losing one of ours

IBT : nothing

7) 1075BC : not much

IBT : nothing

8) 1050BC : kill the Persian spear that came with the German losing one of our archers
raze Satsuma losing one archer

IBT : nothing

9) 1025BC : just moving units

IBT : Wheel -> HBR

10) 1000BC : moving units

At least we have 2 horses, so I set research to HBR, but this can still be changed as no beakers are invested, yet.

 

[ThERat]

a third enemy? This landmass surely is bigger. If we assume 2/8 luxes would equal 1/4 of enemies = 31/4 would be even more...

got it. Are we going for horses or maths first?

 

[CommandoBob]

Given the way our cities are placed, I think Math (catapults) might be the slightly better choice right now. If our cities weren't so strung out in a line, I'd favor HBR. Then we could send Horses quickly from side to side of our empire.

As it is, each city is almost on its own, so pinging the attackers and driving them away for a few turns seems like a better idea.

I'd favor Math to HBR by 55-45. More of a feeling than anything else.

 

[Greebley]

Ya, you have a point. We also have no Iron and may be fighting swords soon in which case I think math is also better with no attack 3 unit.

OTOH we get horses much sooner than we would math.

 

[markh]

I'd slightly favour horses. Building horsemen while researching maths would be my choice.

 

[ThERat]

Pre-Turn
MM a bit, decide to stick with HBR as we need 2 techs anyway for maths

1. 975BC
play defensive as the Germans show up with quite a few units

IT Germany loses an archer that attacks Uskudar

2. 950BC
attack German spear and get a MGL
we all know that archer armies stink, but we need a military victory for HE and won't get any other army soon, form army and defeat 2 more units

IT lose an exposed archer to a chariot

3. 925BC
defeat chariot and decide to send archer army south. Germany is not is sight anyway and the army might be
able to wreak havoc in Japan


4. 900BC
zzz

5. 875BC
our south moving army spots an unescorted settler, Japan is daring

IT lose a spear at Uskudar to an archer

6. 850BC
defeat German archer, situation at Uskudar still dicey
the Japanese settler didn't settle as it was covered by a spear, we gain 2 slaves

IT lose another spear at Uskudar, but defeat 1 archer on defense

7. 825BC
defeat spear/archer combo at uskudar, the city has walls now and this should be better
defeat another spear

IT Spains finishes pyramids, Sumer Oracle

8. 800BC
found Aydin, exploring spear finds German borders

IT exploring spear gets killed by a Persian horse

9. 775BC
army reaches Japanese core

10. 750BC
we have another 2 settlers that I would settle as indicated in the pic
army is at the Japanese core soon, we need to be careful though