GR6 - Persia II - AW Demigod.

[Northern Pike]

The force is light on pikes

This concerns me too. An island civ which hasn't been fighting can have an appalling number of cheap units by now, even at DG.

 

[ThERat]

I think even if we won't completely survive the first wave, we could possibly get an army, which I would try and turn into a musket army for the defense.
Don't be too scared and go for it.

 

[LKendter]

Don't be too scared and go for it.

I got a partial turn done. I went for a few more pikes and so far the landing is holding.

I should have the full results sometime tomorrow.

 

[Greebley]

Settler completes in 1 turn nearby.

Feel free to pull back if you want more pikes and the settler. We don't have to land this turn.

 

[LKendter]

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/GR6-650AD.zip

550 AD
I don't understand why we explored so much of the Mongol and Egyptian coastlines. IMO the galley should have stopped after finding Egypt.

I am delaying the invasion a couple of turns to get a settler and more defenders.
(IT) The Celts are building Bach even though we haven't gotten education. We know the tech leader in this game.


560 AD
Pasargadae is formed.


570 AD
(IT) The GL is toasted as we get Education for free.


580 AD
I think this is a really small landing force. However, I am in totally unknown territory here. I can't remember the last time I tried invading another landmass with galleys. A landing force of 12 units seems too weak.
(IT) The Arabs totally ignore the landing?


590 AD
I kill a landing force of one warrior and one longbow by Bampur. (2-0)
(IT) The Celts are the total run away civ for science. They are building Smith's.


600 AD
New Persepolis is formed.

We lost 1 immortal and killed 1 spear. We are pitifully short of bombard units. (3-1)
(IT) Persepolis hits the magic 15 shields for every other turn catapults.
The Mongols complete Knight's Templar.


610 AD
Well this will get the AIs attention. New Pasargadae is formed in Arab land. I burn some cash to rush walls.

I kill 2 archers and 1 spear. Lack of fast units leaves a unit alive. (6-1)

New Arbela is formed. The frozen waste area is creating some awkward cities.
(IT) The Arabs lost 1 archer, 2 warriors and 7 horses. We lost 2 pikes and 1 immortal. (16-4).
I think it would have been a lot worse without the additional pikes. Things should get better next turn with the walls.


620 AD
New Antioch is formed.

I kill 4 horsemen. (20-4)
(IT) The Mongols want to talk.
I killed 3 archers and 5 horses. Despite the walls a warrior killed an immortal, and a horse killed an immortal. (24-6)
Isn't on a hill with walls a good enough defense?

630 AD
I hate to burn more cash, but I rush a barracks in the landing zone city.
I killed 1 spear, 1 warrior, and 4 horsemen.

Now how often do you see the below screen?

Need I say we have an empty army in Arabia? I will load it next turn as I want the named elites inside it.

(IT) I killed 6 archers, 1 warrior and 5 horsemen. (36-6)
The only problem is the immortals keep coming up as defenders. Even with upping the number of pikes to 6 I really didn't bring enough after 2 died. What is bad is we are a long way from getting more pikes over there.

Well don't hold your breath on seeing this building. IMO the pentagon is pretty much useless for us as it is WAY to long before we get ships that can move 4 unit armies.

Now how is this for a silly landing?

640 AD
I killed 2 horsemen, 3 spearmen, 1 longbow, and 1 archer. I lost 1 immortal attacking an archer. (44-7)


650 AD
It looks like Bampur will be the sucker zone for the AI. Our army kills the knight and longbow that landed. (46-7)
I do suspect we will eventually want a little more reserves in that area.
Over in Arabia I killed 1 spearman. The armies assaulting Kufah need to heal.

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

Summary:
I started switching away from mainly buildings. Trying to fight a war with almost no reinforcements coming along isn't fun.

RAZE Kufah even though we want to keep most Arab cities. We need a flip free city for the landings and while Kufah lives we don't have it.

The first reinforcements are finally on the way. Unload at sea as it is 3 movement factors back to the loading zone. NP will start to see a reinforcement stream arriving.

I have NOT burned up the initial AI units yet. There is still a lot heading toward the beachhead.

Would you believe we already control 20% of the world? That is with tons of missing border expansions at home.

Signed up:
Greebley
LKendter
Northern Pike (currently playing)
T_McC (on deck)
ThERat

 

[Northern Pike]

Got it. Nice start.

What's the policy on ship chaining in this series?

 

[LKendter]

Got it. Nice start.

What's the policy on ship chaining in this series?

Well it doesn't matter for Arabia. However, we may want to hear for the other civs.

 

[Northern Pike]

I've played four turns so far, and everything has gone smoothly. We've razed Kufah, and we have a new army which I'm about to fill with knights. I may need my full 48 hours to finish the round, though.

What is the general feeling about holding Arab cities versus razing them? I know that LK has talked about keeping them, apart from Kufah. The problem is that with the powerful force of armies we've got now, operating against spearmen, we should be able to take the Arabs' cities quickly--but not if our armies have to wait for garrison units. So I'd rather raze everything our armies can reach, at least in the eastern half of Arabia, and worry about filling in the land later (I have been producing settlers). But if the sense of the team is strongly against this, I'll proceed more slowly and try to hold the cities we take.

 

[ThERat]

I'd say raze to get some slaves and faster elimination, we need to turn to the Celts, where ever they are.
We can slowly rebuild the cities. By the way, what is our research doing? Are we closer to galleons already to be able to ship our armies later on?

 

[Greebley]

I would like to move quickly in attacking Arabia to get the most of our Immortals. Normally I like keeping cities, but go ahead and raze if it is going to slow you too much. Do keep cities when the Arabs appear gassed.

 

[Northern Pike]

750 AD, end of turn

 

[Northern Pike]

650 (0): I switch the courthouse builds in Bampur and Borazjan, since both towns are at least 90% corrupt. I also switch Ghulaman's courthouse build, though I don't disagree with it as much, because we need settlers.

When all the pikemen in a stack are elite, you know there's been some serious fighting.

I cash-rush the beachhead city's library. We might clear away all cultural pressure so quickly that this will prove to be unnecessary, but it's not a gamble I want to take.

Two Keshiks land next to New Pasargadae (the beachhead city).

Eight Arab units die attacking New Pas--six archers, a warrior, and a horseman (8-0).


660 (1): We cut down an Arab stack of four spearmen and an archer between New Pas and Kufah (13-0), generating the Great Leader Darius and so a fourth army. I'm going to wait a couple of turns until I can fill this one up with knights.

One Keshik dies attacking New Pas, and one retreats (14-0).

The Mongols are building Bach.


670 (2): No action in Arabia, as our armies heal and the Arabs don't attack.


680 (3): We raze Kufah, held by four spearmen and an archer (19-0). We capture a settler in the town, so the total haul is seven slaves. The horseman meant to enter the city fails and retreats, though, so an Immortal ends up in an exposed position.

Someone else just got Chemistry, since our time to discover it has dropped dramatically.

Osman pops up, having apparently bought contact with us, so we're at war with the Ottomans.

We defeat an Arab archer attacking New Pas, but lose the exposed Immortal (20-1).


690 (4): We cut down an Arab horseman and a redlined Keshik outside New Pas (22-1).

Another two Keshiks land next to New Pas.

Antioch aqueduct --> Immortal.

Tyre completes its library. I'm not sure why a temple was built here first.


700 (5): The Arabs still have thirteen units visible outside their cities, so they aren't gassed yet.

Science down to 20%, Chemistry still due this IT.

Our new knight army tracks down an Arab horseman (23-1).

Six Celtic units land between Birka and Behistun. If our defensive army doesn't do well this will be ugly.

Chemistry --> Metallurgy, due in twenty turns.

Hamadan harbour --> barracks.

The Mongols are building Copernicus.


710 (6): Our homeland army defeats a musketman and a knight (the only fast unit, fortunately) in the Celtic stack, but an Immortal fails miserably against an MDI (25-2).

Our armies ride down two Arab horsemen and a Keshik as they approach Baghdad, also capturing a settler (28-2). I let the Arabs have the resulting slaves, since they'll be ours again soon enough.

New Pas isn't grinding the Arabs down the way it used to, because their visible units are mostly spearmen, which don't attack.

The moment of truth: will a veteran MDI attack an Immortal army down to 8 HP? Apparently not, so we should be all right in the Birka/Behistun area.


720 (7): We dispose of the rest of the Celtic landing force--two MDI and two LB (32-2).

We get set up for the attack on Baghdad (recapturing the two slaves and destroying a horseman on the way; 33-2), with all three armies next to the city and seven trebs shipped in from New Pas for fire support.

Another Celtic landing between Birka and Behistun--this one just a single knight, fortunately.

I spot a Celtic galley off our west coast.

An Arab archer dies attacking New Pas (34-2).

The Celts are building Shakespeare.


730 (8): We take Baghdad from its garrison of three spearmen, an archer, and a horseman, losing an Immortal (39-3) and capturing two workers. We then raze the town for another five workers.

We ride down the Celtic knight (40-3).

I cash-rush a barracks in Behistun. We need a town on this coast where our army can heal quickly.

We trample a spearman outside New Pas (41-3).

Two Arab units, a horseman and an archer, die attacking New Pas (43-3).

Two Celtic galleys are cruising off our western coast, though nothing lands.

Dariush Kabir courthouse --> library.

Borazjan library --> trebuchet.


740 (9): We destroy a Mongol LB and an Arab horseman next to New Pas (45-3), while our armies heal.

More Celtic cruising off our west coast, but no landings.


750 (10): We bombard and sink a Mongol galley, which may impede the flow of nuisance landings in Arabia (46-3).

We dispose of an archer near New Pas (47-3).

We move three armies next to Medina.

Thirteen elite victories this turn, five of them defensive, produced one Great Leader.

 

[Northern Pike]

The Arabs have two visible settlers, so they'll probably found cities near New Pasargadae soon. I don't think it'll be worth turning our armies around to deal with the new Arab towns. We might even wait for them to reach size two and then take them at the end of the campaign.

We may be able to conclude the Arabian campaign without adding much to the forces we've already got in Arabia (which include three settlers). We have plenty of reinforcements coming, but we need to strengthen our defenses against landings, especially in the Birka-Behistun-Bampur region and our core.

If we prefer to consolidate our hold on the eastern half of Arabia before moving into the western half, we can certainly do it, since the halves are only connected by two narrow choke-points.

We aren't finished developing our core. In particular, Arbela's mined grassland tiles should be irrigated, and the tundra tiles in the Arbela-Ergili-Sardis arc should get forests.

We have two galleys sailing to rescue a pikeman and three slaves hiding on Arabia's marshy northern peninsula.

I have a palace pre-build going in Arbela, intended to get us the Military Academy as soon as possible.

I have Sidon running an intentional food deficit so that it can produce a trebuchet every two turns.

 

[Northern Pike]

The battlefront:

 

[LKendter]

I also switch Ghulaman's courthouse build, though I don't disagree with it as much, because we need settlers.

I don't understand why it is so hard to get courthouses built in SGs. They more then pay for themselves in the long term. Even the 90% corrupted city would have been work it. I don't like building settlers in the really corrupt cities as they keep killing our specialist cities.

Six Celtic units land between Birka and Behistun. If our defensive army doesn't do well this will be ugly.

Well that was even faster then I expected. I knew more units where needed there.

 

[LKendter]

I took a look at the game. I am curious why Bampur is now guarded. I would much rather have the landings in a controlled spot then someplace random along the borders. That was my goal with leaving that city open.

 

[T_McC]

I got it. Will poke around and see what I can see.

 

[T_McC]

Well, the first thing I see is that we've got a new friend. England appears on the F4 screen. They had nothing, and we couldn't trade anyway. So now the gang's all here.

We have a trio of 3-member armies in Arabia that we can't move until Galleons, so I'm leaning to trying to finish Abu off ASAP and not delaying to settle. That might even encourage the AI to land slaves for us.

We have 90 shields towards the Palace in Arbela. If we keep the pre-build we are going to have to go for Mil Trad before Astronomy, or waste a lot of shields. Unfortunately, we're going to need Astronomy in order to safely transport our troops to any other island. So do we want Cavalry and no safe way to transport them? Or do we want Knights and Caravels? We know the Mongols and Celts can reach us, but we haven't seen the English and I guess the Ottomans were sold contact with us as well. With Caravels we can safely reach the putative Egypt-Mongol continent. The pre-build can go to ... something else ... and be re-started later on my turns. We also need Astronomy to get the Arabian Wines home to our continent.

My initial hunch is to use any leaders we get now for empty Armies until we figure out where we're going next. I think that a 2-member Knight Army would be safe landing on enemy soil, particularly on high ground. No idea on the resource distribution although we have yet to see any Saltpeter based units. If we have the only stable Salt supplies ...

 

[LKendter]

I would make Arbela a marketplace. This game has a potential to wrap really early and we don't even need to worry about the Celts. We are at 21% land and 27% population. Look how many homeland tiles still aren't claimed. We then add in the Arabs lands. By that time we will be clearly past the halfway point. I almost suspect one more nation taken out may all but do it for us.

We also need Astronomy to get the Arabian Wines home to our continent.

I think that alone will justify astronomy next. More happy faces equals larger cities that and that will really benifit us.

 

[ThERat]

England appears on the F4 screen. They had nothing, and we couldn't trade anyway. So now the gang's all here.

careful, we are not supposed to ever open F4 IIRC. no trades and no screens where we could find out info about the AI's. Only the espionage screen would be allowed (if we would ever get spies that is)