HAM-01: The Hanseatic League

[Cosmichail]

I know your spirited approach Greyfox and that you don't like to quit. I am quite willing to finish this game since we are already at 1820. We need some direction here. For one thing what about research we need universities at some point and fund science to some degree. We need to consider representation but we don't have enough happy for that.

Another thing we can do is buy techs since we are pumping out 500 plus gold per turn without science although this is very expensive though as per my example. I kind of at the time was hoping Isabella would redeclare so as to acquire some more cities as we can do little with our 6 cities. Like won't be able to ever build Oxford/FP. We could settle on the ice but as a policy I never do that. Since we haven't made the goal our leader kind of lost interest. Baru/Pigswill are no longer playing so that leaves the four of us.

I have known Soooo to be usually prompt with game but haven't heard much from him either.

Victory conditions mmmm. We need to improve our score for time victory. For diplomatic Saladin/Catherine are both pleased with us but GK/GW/Isabella are all cautious except for GW is annoyed. It is likely knowing the nature of the AI they will vote for whoever isn't the human. Like say we build UN and get control and likely be Catherine then. All the other AI's except for Saladin will vote for her and Sally for us. That won't get us near a diplomatic victory so in order to do that we have our work cut out for us.

Perhaps build it in crappy ice city and gift it to GK or Isabella but that's not always doable since the AI doesn't like to take crap cities but might if it's close to their borders. (PS this is a silly idea as then GK/cathy would be up for sec gen. but trying to think out of the box)

 

[sooooo]

Hi, I'm waiting for instructions from our leader Hamtastic as to what to do now.

 

[Cosmichail]

Yes that would be nice. That's what I like about playing in your SG's Sooooo you always come up with a plan. Keeps us going in a certain direction.

 

[hamtastic]

Hey there! Sorry for my absence. I think we should keep going. I've enjoyed reading the most recent turnsets, and I think we can do reasonably well. One of the interesting things should be to see how well a bunch of merged merchants do for us in the late game. So my vote is to forge ahead, into the future.

Yes, we may want to expand some, but we can start pissing off our neighbors again to do that. Maybe particularly GK, although I haven't seen a map of his territory or whether we have any tech advantage.

Cosmic, I had meant it just as a skip, since I'd been really busy, but I have some time now, so I'll give it a play (we'll count it as a swap instead of a skip)

 

[hamtastic]

Shareholders!

We have reached a point where we need your voice. I will update you on our current situation, but I need direction from the Board!

During my tenure, I began the process of investing in research & development. We finished researching "constitution" and began work on our most important project, "corporation."

A prized super-accountant was noted in our Bruges branch, and was sent to Lubeck to work. His addition in Danzig would not have enabled any further development, but the extra energy (+1 food) he brings to Lubeck would help us greatly there.

Around 1826, I began to take stock of the situation. Our competitor, Washington, has researched far beyond our current capabilities.

Also, he won't trade with us! Anti free-marketeers should be stopped!

As such, we encouraged Mr. Khan's corporation to attempt a hostile takeover... He would have done it for gold alone, but I thought we might benfeit more from receiving something else in return.

We also needed more information about the state of the world, so I engaged in purchasing maps with our new-found gold. I realized afterward that we could probably sell our new knowledge to others, but I did not do that yet...

So anyway, things seemed to be going well, with the forces of free trade punishing those who favored restricting trade, when Washington showed up again:

Umm, no, washington. We're PRO free trade. DUH.

Then the stable trading situation started to go downhill. Two things are particularly surprising. A company involved in fighting off a hostile takeover has begun to try for its own!? And why has Catherine declared? Has Saladin's company done something wrong?

Anyway, what should we do, oh board of directors? I need guidance!

 

[GreyFox]

Cathy and Sally has been warring sinc emy turnset, so no surprise there.

GK is an idiot to war with Washy, but that's good for us, so I am not complaining. Can we get Izzy to war with Washy as well? Then we backstab Izzy .... but most probably not.

We need to expand. We have 2 choices: first is to declare on GK and earn brownie points with washy. That is a bit non-Hanseatic, of-course. The other choice is to eliminate Izzy, and hope to catch up in terms of pop wise, which would help us in diplomatic push.

Cathy is likely to win the war, so we must somehow make her not our opponent ... we should try to make washy the opponent in UN instead.

 

[Cosmichail]

I agree keep Cathy happy oh yeah......btw she got Cossacks ho ho ho as she put it. I say we go after Izzy as we have a sort of army positioned there. Add five or six more grennies and some cats (although cannons would be better) and pikes as she likes those horsies. She probably has conquistadors. I think GK will be tough to deal with. I would really like to see Seville taken (south of Zwolle) which would be a nice prize.

1. Ok screw the variant get an army together and go after Izzy.
2. Build enough banks for Wall street (In Danzig)
3. Army 10 grens/5 or 6 cats/2 or 3 pikes

In order to get us CR grennies do not research rifling and build maces and upgrade to grennies with CR promotion. We need to be able to get more XP for our units so vassalage? I don't think theocracy is an option as if we take on Cathy's religion Saladin will be unhappy and vice versa so that's a tough decision. Some of the maces in Zwolle have CR2 bonuses but we need more of those a lot more.

Since GW is ahead in tech he is likely to go for the UN anyways. If he does that will be bonus but we need to get pop up as it will be Cathy/GW then.

One last thing don't forget about Bismarck's UU. It's one of my favourite although very late in the game. That tank is quite good and would offer us the opportunity to dominate by taking out GK.

This is suppose to be a peaceful SG but we are trapped and need to accomplish a hostile takeover and the Spanish/Mongolians seems a good target but we need an army and we really should reinforce our eastern front in the event GK gets any ideas.

 

[sooooo]

Hi, I'm busy for a few evenings so I would like to request a skip.

The diplo situation looks like a big challenge, and could be fun. I agree that's our most likely win condition. Of course we will have to apply the to acheive this .

 

[Cosmichail]

1. Hamtastic == just played
2. Cosmichail == on deck
3. Sooooo == skip
4. Greyfox == oop but might take it UP

If Greyfox can't play I can take it Monday.

 

[hamtastic]

My first report was based off just 6 turns of action, so here comes a second report (plus the save)

I think I played another 7 turns, since I switched to democracy on my first turn of continuation and stopped when it finished. Why democracy? Well, it will allow us to spend all our gold to buy troops quickly. We may want to do a switch to universal suffrage and vassalage. Theocracy would be nice, but then we'll have to revolt into a religion as well, which adds 2 turns total more anarchy (not good). However, if we switch out of hereditary rule , we'll have major happiness problems. We can probably buy more happiness resources pretty easily. This will be WAY better than using the culture slider, since that will cost us a lot more overall than buying the resources.

During my remaining turns, we faced a number of requests. GK asked us to declare on GW, and we did, since GW really hates us anyway.

Toku came along and asked us to adopt mercantilism, which we refused, since we're not really into that, and there is pretty much no chance we care about what Toku thinks anyway. Getting him to open borders is near impossible.

Something amusing: It's not good to go to war when a bunch of your troops are ages away from the battlefield because they were off destroying barbarian cities.

Finally, a look at power graphs, etc.:

Again, I suggest switching to universal suffrage, buying a bunch of 6 xp troops. (this move will also free up all our military police who we can then upgrade and send to war.) I then vote for attacking Izzy, although I think we shouldn't bother with Seville. But Madrid looks pretty good.

 

[GreyFox]

Huh? Since when are we down to four?

Hmmm ... Ok, got it.

Switching away from HR to US may have very adverse effect on happiness ... I must evaluate the cities first.

--

 

[Cosmichail]

Baru's computer is kaput and can't fix it any time soon. Pigswill decided to leave since his interest in it has waned and is tied up with other SG's. (mainly because we failed the variant)

I agree we don't have enough happy to leave HR. What about emancipation won't that help with happy and affect the other civs. We do need vassalage for XP as we need CR2 grennies and better to build maces first then upgrade. In addition does not free religion (if we aren't there already) also provide happy for each religion in each city as well as culture for conquered cities.

 

[hamtastic]

Well, I know there are more happiness resources for sale from Saladin and Catherine, so we can probably get some of those. One of them is dyes, I think, so we'll have +2 happiness with that in cities with theatres. We can also buy sugar, although I think that gives more health, not more happiness. Additionally, we could turn on some culture for a bit, just until we've spent some number of turns in those two civics buying units. I think building an army conventionally might just take way too long. But that's up to Greyfox now.

 

[GreyFox]

RE: Corporate Wide Policy Change

To All Staff,

With effect from the next working day, the Hanseatic Corporation will implement a new policy that moves us away from HQ tight control to a corporate wide aggressive-sales policy. Under the new policy, divisions HQ are to implement more agressive sales methodology so that salesman would be more experienced. This policy is codenamed "Vasslage". The management do realize that such an implementation will reduce the revenue of the central HQ, but it is our belief it will, in the long run, help us in our takeover bid of the Spanish trade centres.

Although there have been suggestion put forth by the Board to at the same time move us to Universal Sufferage and Emanicipation, we believe that such measures is not beneficial at this moment. Money are best saved to upgrade our sales personnel, especially when we are so close to acquiring Steel. Emanicipation is largely a reactive policy which does not actually help boost worker's morale. It is only effective in soothing employee's disconsent when other corporations uses emnacipation.

Signed
CEO

---

RE: Recent Corporation Developments

To All Department Heads,

The company had recently promoted one more Star Employee (GMerchant). When considering where to reassign him, it is to this board surprise that the four previous Star Employees were distributed among two r,egional offices, Danzig and Lubeck. It is my opinion that such employee should only be settled in one corporation, to make full use of the Wall Street. It is thus our recommendation that future Star Employees be assigned to Lubeck alone.

Speaking of Star Employee, we are somewhat dissatisfied with Brunges, as they produced a Star Employee whose skill is not in demand ... we had no use for a Star Employee whose only expertise is selling art pieces.

The temporary decision is to grant im a long vacations, and consider other us eof him in future, such as having him to manage newly acuired companies (read: bomb newly captured city[/b]), or to conduct a Golden Aniversary Celebration (read: trigger Golden Age) with another Star Employee.

We are pleased to announce that we had acquire the secrets of Corporation and Steel, bringing us various benefits, among all is equiping our sales personnel with cannons.

It is also to our great pleasure that we are listed top in the Forbes new list. Congratulation to all, and keep up the good work!

Finally, we recently traded business secrets with the Russian Corps, and acquire Military Traditions, giving us a new class of sales weapons, codenamed "Cavalry".

Signed
Chairman of Directors' Board

---

RE: Urgent Memo -- Hostile Takeover Bid by Spanish

To All Regional Directors,

The Spanish has initiated a hostile takeover bid, after trying and failing to rob us of our business secret.

Their initial attempts is laughable ...

... with a much more respectable follow-up later ...

... which were both countered and neutralized. In response, we launched a counter-takeover, which should be successful. Below is the latest development on the CFC Index.

Signed,
CEO

---

Some more notes:

- I have signed cease fire with Washy after he signed peace with Toku. We should concentrate on Izzy now.

- I think we have to choose one side: Cathy or Arabs. Cathy is the obvious choice, but she is likely to be our opponent in UN. We are currently incurring -ve points for trading with each of their worst enemy, which is themselves

- We are now suffering Emanicipation penalty, so in retrospect, trading away Democracy is not such a good idea

- I played 13 turns to bring us to a good year

>>> The Save (1870AD) <<<

Spoiler Detailed Profits and Loss Statements :

Turn 292 (1844 AD)

IBT:

Turn 293 (1846 AD)
Wang Anshi (Merchant) (Great Merchant) born in Visby
Kiel finishes: Granary

IBT:

Turn 294 (1848 AD)
Kiel begins: Longbowman
GreyFox: Why are the merchants separated???
Tech learned: Corporation
Danzig finishes: Catapult
Lubeck finishes: Catapult
Visby finishes: Catapult

IBT:
Confucianism has spread: Danzig

Turn 295 (1850 AD)
Research begun: Steel
Danzig begins: Maceman
Lubeck begins: Maceman
Visby begins: Maceman
Rostock grows: 10

IBT:

Turn 296 (1852 AD)
Maceman promoted: City Raider I

IBT:

Turn 297 (1854 AD)
Lubeck finishes: Maceman
Bruges finishes: Buddhist Temple

IBT:
Judaism has spread: Samarqand (Mongolian Empire)

Turn 298 (1856 AD)
Lubeck begins: Maceman
Bruges begins: Maceman
Maceman promoted: City Raider I
Maceman promoted: City Raider II
Danzig finishes: Maceman
Rostock's borders expand
Kiel finishes: Longbowman

IBT:

Turn 299 (1858 AD)
Tech learned: Military Tradition
Danzig begins: Maceman
Kiel begins: University
Maceman promoted: City Raider I
Maceman promoted: City Raider II

IBT:

Turn 300 (1860 AD)
Cavalry promoted: Combat I
While attacking, Cavalry loses to: Spanish Conquistador (7.90/10) at 69.9 percent.
While attacking, Pikeman defeats (0.48/6): Spanish Conquistador at 11.1 percent.
While attacking, Pikeman loses to: Spanish Conquistador (2.80/10) at 41.9 percent.
While attacking, Grenadier defeats (12.00/12): Spanish Conquistador at 99.9 percent.
Tech learned: Steel
Lubeck finishes: Maceman
Zwolle finishes: Grocer

IBT:

Turn 301 (1862 AD)
Research begun: Rifling
Lubeck begins: Colosseum
Zwolle begins: Barracks
Pikeman promoted: Medic I
Grenadier promoted: Combat I
Maceman promoted: City Raider I
Maceman promoted: City Raider II
Longbowman promoted: City Garrison I
Visby finishes: Maceman
Bruges finishes: Maceman
Jalal al-Din Rumi (Artist) (Great Artist) born in Bruges
Zwolle grows: 11

IBT:
While defending, Grenadier defeats (6.60/12): Spanish Grenadier at 96.4 percent.
While defending, Grenadier defeats (12.00/12): Spanish Grenadier at 87.7 percent.

Turn 302 (1864 AD)
Visby begins: Jewish Temple
Bruges begins: Colosseum
Maceman promoted: City Raider I
Maceman promoted: City Raider II
Maceman promoted: City Raider I
Maceman promoted: City Raider II
Cannon promoted: Barrage I
While attacking, Cannon loses to: Spanish Grenadier (3.84/12) at 24.9 percent.
Cannon promoted: Barrage I
Cannon promoted: Combat I
While attacking, Cannon defeats (4.44/12): Spanish Grenadier at 30.1 percent.
While attacking, Cavalry defeats (7.35/15): Spanish Conquistador at 80.2 percent.
While attacking, Grenadier loses to: Spanish Conquistador (5.10/10) at 51.2 percent.
While attacking, Cannon loses to: Spanish Grenadier (3.12/12) at 50.0 percent.
While attacking, Grenadier defeats (12.00/12): Spanish Conquistador at 73.6 percent.
While attacking, Pikeman defeats (1.68/6): Spanish Conquistador at 87.5 percent.
While attacking, Cannon defeats (12.00/12): Spanish Conquistador at 73.6 percent.
While attacking, Cannon defeats (12.00/12): Spanish Conquistador at 99.4 percent.
While attacking, Grenadier defeats (12.00/12): Spanish Grenadier at 99.7 percent.
While attacking, Grenadier defeats (12.00/12): Spanish Grenadier at 99.9 percent.
While attacking, Grenadier defeats (12.00/12): Spanish Catapult at 100.0 percent.

IBT:

Turn 303 (1866 AD)
Grenadier promoted: Combat I
Cavalry promoted: Combat I
While attacking, Cavalry defeats (0.75/15): Spanish Grenadier at 64.9 percent.
Grenadier promoted: Combat I
While attacking, Grenadier defeats (5.16/12): Spanish Musketman at 67.1 percent.
While attacking, Cannon defeats (8.88/12): Spanish Catapult at 99.6 percent.
While attacking, Cannon defeats (9.12/12): Spanish Catapult at 100.0 percent.
While attacking, Cannon defeats (10.68/12): Spanish Catapult at 100.0 percent.
Cannon promoted: City Raider I
Cavalry promoted: Formation
Danzig finishes: Maceman

IBT:

Turn 304 (1868 AD)
Danzig begins: Cannon
Maceman promoted: City Raider I
Maceman promoted: City Raider II
Cavalry promoted: Combat II
Rostock finishes: University

IBT:

Turn 305 (1870 AD)
Rostock begins: Cannon
While attacking, Cavalry loses to: Spanish Grenadier (7.20/12) at 64.3 percent.
While attacking, Cannon defeats (11.76/12): Spanish Grenadier at 74.5 percent.

 

[Cosmichail]

1. Hamtastic == swapped (me thinks but played)
2. Cosmichail == UP
3. Sooooo == on deck
4. Greyfox == just played

Good stuff Greyfox and yeah I did wonder about trading away democracy but hey c'est la vie. I do prefer to have cavs as to do some damage to Izzy. We really don't have much in the way of production cities but will see what we can do.

@Hamtastic - iirc sugar provides 1 food and 1 happy.
We could cancel our deal with Cathy selling clams and trade it for dyes to Saladin. I did mention this some time ago in the thread. It is wise to think about going to war whether we can we deal with it and where is our army and not let this thought process happen after the fact. (in other words don't rush into something because we need more land. We need an army too which at that side we don't have much at all.) What bothers me about AI asking for help is that they will often make peace right after. That really gets me goat so I rarely give in unless it suits me. You can only afford to be pacifists if you are on a landmass alone or with another pacifist like Gandhi. So more focus on military was/is needed.

Another thing too is that the AI will take whatever we have in available gpt per turn much like when you do a trade with them. (not the case in warlords anymore as they hold back coin now) So if we try to purchase they will ask for all gpt and quite often one of our resources that we cannot spare. (especially if strategic resource)

@team another hindsight remark but we should not have given into Izzy much earlier and provoked an continuation of the last war. Izzy will keep that up until we beat her into submission. In other words she must be wiped out. Sooooo I was surprised when you gave in as we had an army ready to go.(well sort of it needed more units but was a start) and she only had HA's/swords at the time and we maces/knights but now we face conquistadors and grennies.

This is "I got it" and will get an "real army" together for Izzy. Looks like we will have to hold out for a while, whilst the onslaught takes place. In addition the GA could do good being merged in Zwolle too and anywhere else siince he gives 3gpt. Btw Greyfox nice on getting steel, cannons are great too and once we can get some momentum will do well against Izzy.

EDIT: We have not the greatest production cities right. I did also mention that it would be easier to keep building maces promote them to CR2 and then upgrade to grennies right? With a low production maces are easier and faster to build but hey how come we are going for rifling? Why not communism for state property to get those workshops happening? Maybe not in the theme of the game but we need production and workshops with state property very powerful. We needn't worry about mounted units since cavs will do well against conquistadors. CR2 grennies eat rifles for breakfast so I will go that route and veto rifling.

 

[hamtastic]

Great write-up, greyfox. I wondered about the merchant separation myself, and I put the one that I got in Lubeck so that it would get the +1 food and grow some more. I think that ideally we would have concentrated all of the merchants and great merchants in one city together, to get best effect of wall street, but it's a bit late now.

I believe this should be my "got-it," since I think I'm up again.

 

[hamtastic]

Cross-posting sure is fun... Shall we consider our swap permanent then? That'll be fine with me.

 

[GreyFox]

@Cosmic: those grenediars we have that are not CR2 are not built by me. I only build maces and upgraded to grens after promoting them to CR2.

As to rifling, in case you haven't noticed, pikes sucks at defending against conquistador. Grenies aren't any better. Cavs are okay, I have a 50% success attacking conquis with Cavs. Rifleman are the best counter to conquis ... EDIT: ah I forgot that rifling obsolete maces ... my bad. Please swap it out until we had enough grenies.

I did have a force going towards Seville (on the spice in my last screenshot). The forces at the hilltops are sufficient for defense. Use the stack for attack.

 

[Cosmichail]

That was my point but I see you understand Fox. (although I do agree on that we need the rifles for conquistadors). Do cavs really do so poorly against conquistadors. We'll have to risk some and if we get a promotion make some with formation. Grens can also cut it with formation too against cavs but will have to see against conquistadors. I see that force now and likely a good spot to hold out whilst she attacks.

Hamtastic what do you mean by permanent swap that you will follow me now?
If we follow the last turns this is how roster would look:

Hamtastic -
Greyfox -
Cosmichail
Sooooo -

Soooo skipped so he would be up after me then you again. Do you concur?

 

[GreyFox]

Maybe I had horsehockey luck, one cav lost at 69% against conquis (see my spoiler).