GR6 - Persia II - AW Demigod.

[Northern Pike]

Good work, BH.

This early army is a precious gift, and we need to adjust our builds to take full advantage of it. So I think Persepolis and Pasargadae should switch to Immortals immediately, which (assuming a second Immortal build in Pers.) would put us in position to attack the one visible Viking city with a three-Immortal army by the end of the next round.

BTW, does a victory by a UU in an army trigger the GA in the usual way? The answer to this doesn't affect my belief that we need to get an Immortal army out on the rampage right away, though.

Of course, Darius should form an army before there's any theoretical chance that we might get another unasterisked elite victory.

I agree that Arbela should just continue pre-building the Great Library. In general, I've found that unless the case for a city improvement before the pre-build in the GL city is clear and overwhelming, it's best just to start right in on the GL.

 

[Greebley]

Greebley (currently playing)
LKendter (on deck)
Northern Pike
T_McC
bed_head7
ThERat (out until the 22nd)

I got it. I haven't looked at the save, but I think I agree with NP's assessment.

 

[T_McC]

I'm not sure I'm feeling a lot of pressure to get an Army out there ASAP. The Vikings aren't really putting up a fight, and I think we can get away with 1 more city (2 is probably pushing it) before our GA. [I think that's all of 5 turns delay.] The more roads we have layed, the better our Despotic GA will be. It might also be nice to get a couple of spare workers out to merge into Arbela once the GA starts, while not killing our work capacity.

Compromise might be to build a Settler now, but wait to send it out. The capital can build Immortals after the one settler (should still be 10 spt), and after our first victory Persep should definitely do 2-turn Immortals. Not sure Pasagardae can do 10 spt then, but it will be close.

 

[Greebley]

I think the idea is to attack them now because they are weak, but more towns is good too if we have a good place to put it.

I may try to get to this tonight so express any opinions soon

 

[bed_head7]

I am with T_McC on this one, but of course his plan means managing the capital as I suggested in my log, so I guess it isn't much of a surprise that I agree.

 

[T_McC]

I'm thinking one more town SE-SE-E of Gordium (river hill) or SE-SE-SE of Gordium. I'm not sure which connects to the Viking city better, but you can tell from the borders on which tile the Viking city was founded.

Most any other city we could found is junk. The one town I am advocating is based on wanting to be able to capture the Viking city. I hate to lose pop during a GA, but I also don't want to go the entire GA without expanding. Something has to give, and I think that something is captured Viking towns.

 

[Greebley]

Preturn: bed_head's method is efficient. I will follow it.

Early: Lose an Elite* spear to a regular archer attack.

Mid: Another Spear is Lost

Late: Build the Immortal Army. Kill a Spear and our GA starts.

Notes:
I would make writing our next tech to research. We don't have any time to take side paths. Mining the iron (4 shields) will speed up the Palace and it would be nice to be ready for it in minimum time.

I think we want to build lots of Immortals and some spears as well.

Capitol is at 16 shields so will be on immortals every 2 turns.

The renamed Pasaregardigurlsiguis or what ever it was is now Wheat by the Sea. At 9 (11 in 4 when it grows) shields I would build some spear. We will want at least 2.

Antioch is almost done with the Barracks.

We get Mathematics next turn.

Army rested this turn. It should be good to hunt down Vikings next turn. I see no reason to wait. There is a Settler in town but we may need another spear. I liked the town on the hill SE-SE-E of Gordium.

The warriors are blocking the Spear. Hopefully our immortal can kill it so we can go back to MP duty with the Warriors.

Mine the Iron! It will be worth 4 sheilds in our GA if it is mined.

I wouldn't mind capturing Viking towns if we can. When we bring the war to them, their cities will produce no culture so flips won't be an issue. It may not be worth delaying the army to guard them, so I see us razing some at least until we can get other units there.

We are using our GA early so lets not waste it. We need to maximize the damage we do to the Vikings to make it worth while. Expanding may be good too, but I don't want to drop the capitol below 15 shields.

 

[Greebley]

Greebley - Just Played
LKendter - Up
Northern Pike - On Deck
T_McC
bed_head7
ThERat (out until the 22nd)

 

[LKendter]

I am playing...

 

[LKendter]

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/GR6-1000BC.zip

1250 BC
It looks the GA main goal will be to fix the think troop level. Having a front line city with just a warrior for defense makes me uncomfortable. As is typical the GA really screws up the settler factory.
(IT) Math is finished, and writing is next.
The Arabs complete the Pyramids.


1225 BC
Didn't I turn off animate our moves last time?
The army kills 2 archers getting an internal promotion. (2-0)


1200 BC
Once again the army kills 2 archers. (4-0)


11755 BC
Our brand new immortal can't even scratch a spearman in the open.
The other immortal revenges his brother.
The army kills another archer walking toward the furs zone. (6-1)


1150 BC
The army will need some RaR, but it kills yet another archer. (7-1)


1075 BC
I kill 1 spearman. (8-1)


1050 BC
I kill 2 spearmen. (10-1)
Reykjavik is auto-razed.


1025 BC
(IT) Have I ever mentioned I hate the RnG sometimes? We lose an immortal behind walls with catapult support to a regular archer. The other archer is dead. (11-2)


1000 BC
Our first 2 free workers have made it home.

I kill a spear / settler pair. I killed another archer. (13-2)


==========================

Summary:
Keep the immortal army forward razing Viking cities. That will be the fastest way to end the stack of archers heading our way.

Signed up:
Greebley
LKendter
Northern Pike (currently playing)
T_McC (on deck)
ThERat (skip May 5 to May 22)

 

[LKendter]

A picture from the front lines:

 

[T_McC]

Looks like settle on the current spot, then the Hill between the Sugar and Furs (FP site?), and the spot 3 SW of the stack to complete the square.

We could keep Stockholm if it isn't whipped down to size 1, but it may not be worth the bother to garrison something that far away. Do we know how many cities the Vikings will have left after that? If the answer is 2-3, then we might be able to eliminate them before a flip, but otherwise it isn't really in a great location with all of those mountains to attack from. Sounds like its better off razed.

 

[Northern Pike]

Do we know how many cities the Vikings will have left after that?

As I understand the strict version of AW we're playing, we have no way of checking, though Greebley is welcome to clarify the point.

It begins to look as though we're alone on a small continent with the Vikings.

Got it.

 

[Greebley]

Ya, you are not supposed to look via F4.

I believe the Espionage page only shows visible cities so you can see so you can look there. (correct me if I am wrong). This could be used to find a city name that is covered by fog (you can see the city but not the name).

If you already looked then don't post the number.

I don't know if anyone "plays along on the side". If you do, do not play past the last posted year or explore differently. I would like to at least partly simulate the knowledge our civ would actually have.

I say "partly simulate" because we do know the tech tree. If we see a cavalry we are allowed to "know" that that civ can build cannon for example even if we don't have cavalry ourselves.

Actually, I think it is bad practice to explore places not discovered in game or play past the last posted year in any game, but this one especially so.

 

[LKendter]

Looks like settle on the current spot, then the Hill between the Sugar and Furs (FP site?), and the spot 3 SW of the stack to complete the square.

I was thinking settle on the current spot. I already built the road network to that spot.

 

[Greebley]

Current spot seems good to me too.

 

[Northern Pike]

750 BC, end of turn

 

[Northern Pike]

1000 (0): A Viking archer gets lucky against one of the spearmen in our hill stack (0-1). Founding the new city immediately, though probably OK, looks a little too risky after this.


975 (1): Our army finishes off the last two spearmen in Stockholm (2-1), capturing two workers, and razes the town.

We defeat an archer landed next to Arbela (3-1).

Science down to 10%, Writing still due this IT (after which we start on Literature).


950 (2): We have no attacks around Gordium, but in the IT the Vikings finally commit themselves and move four archers next to the town.


925 (3): We cut down three archers outside Gordium, and another a little farther east (7-1).

We found Bactra, the proposed hill town.

An archer dies in a bad attack on the spearman covering one of our Immortals (8-1).


900 (4): Our army finishes healing.


875 (5): We account for one archer near Bactra, and get a promotion to elite (9-1).


850 (6): Our army destroys a settler/spear team (10-1), and I send the two resulting slaves back towards our cities, though I don't know whether they'll make it. (Eventually they do.)

We defeat an archer outside Gordium (11-1).

We get a secondary force of four Immortals, two spearmen, and two warriors moving towards the Viking cities, in the hope of taking and holding one or two.


825 (7): We eliminate an archer outside Bactra (12-1).

Our army seems to discover Trondheim--at least, that's what the shape of the cultural border implies--and definitely locates Bergen. Since I don't particularly want to attack a capital's garrison with one unit, however powerful, I'm going to send the army to Bergen.


800 (8): Our army advances on Bergen and destroys a spearman there (13-1).

Four captive workers reach our lines.

To keep our secondary force moving forward I have to allow the Vikings a fairly good attack on it, and we lose a spearman (13-2).


775 (9): Our army defeats another two spearmen in Bergen and enters the city (15-2). It's a close call, but our secondary force is just a little too far away for holding Bergen (which is under cultural pressure from the presumed capital) to look like a good idea, so we keep things simple and raze the town, gaining a slave.

We destroy an archer (which was stalking one of our slave caravans ) south of Bactra (16-2).

Our GA ends.


750 (10): We cut down two archers near the ruins of Bergen (18-2).

One elite victory this round didn't produce a Great Leader.

 

[Northern Pike]

Our army and our force of independent Immortals are united now, and together they should be able to move south and take Trondheim without difficulty. After that I suspect we'll just have some easy mopping up to do against the Vikings. We have two warriors in our strike force to serve as a cheap garrison, so we can try to hold Trondheim.

I assume that Persepolis will be returning to its role as a settler factory now that our GA is over. We have a lot of space to fill.

The Vikings have shown no inclination to attack Bactra, a hill town, so I've skipped walls and started building a barracks there.

We have a settler in position to found the proposed city between the sugar and the furs.

The two slaves I've got working on hooking up the furs are obviously in an exposed position, and should be covered with a spearman or just withdrawn, depending on how daring the next player is feeling.

Although it's not a certainty yet, I think we have to start planning on the assumption that we're going to be alone on a northern island once we've finished off the Vikings.

 

[Northern Pike]

The eastern front: