Handy 23 Random AWE

[ThERat]

Map is standard size for sure

must be too much Civ4 lately. There map size is so much smaller and playing a standrad map feels like huge +beyond in terms of lag etc.

 

[Northern Pike]

It wouldn't be easy to tell from the shape of our empire that we're playing AW. We had to do it this way, though.

BTW, we can see an Aztec city in the west, but we aren't at war with them yet.

 

[Obormot]

We can see their city, but cannot make contact yet.

 

[Northern Pike]

That's an interesting oddity. Are we morally obliged to march a unit over there and declare war as soon as possible?

 

[handy900]

Roster
1. Obormot
2. Sir Bugsy has it
3. M60A3TTS
4. Northern Pike
5. ThERat just played
6. Greebley
7. Handy

That's an interesting oddity. Are we morally obliged to march a unit over there and declare war as soon as possible?

I don't think so. In past games when we have seen borders we would often ignore them until we actually saw a unit we could contact, or expansion naturally took us in their direction. If they show up on F4 you have to declare, but in this game we are avoiding F4.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Pre-flight – I know it is a Obormot trademark, but I hate having undefended cities close to the fog.

IBT – Construction=>philosophy (cause it was cheapest.) A Portuguese archer moves next to undefended Oporto. I hope Henry doesn’t have a settler or a lot of defenders in Sagres.

70 – @ Sagres - Our army starts losing, then makes a comeback. Only one defender…

The fledgling Portuguese are destroyed. That was nice. I go to the big picture and see that we have contact with Cleopatra and we are at peace! That’s completely unacceptable so I ring her up and immediately declare. So we are still at war with five civs.

We’re starting to feel some pressure towards the center of the front

There is an Egyptian galley next to Emerita. I switch it to a spear and rush it.

Science up to 30% to get Philo in 4.

90 – Manuevering.

IBT – Isabella wants to talk. Sorry, we’re not playing that variant.

110 – nada

130 – Found Grumpus Regius.

IBT – Philosophy=>Code of Laws

150 – Science up to 50% to get CoL in four.

IBT – The Egyptian galleys start heading north. An Indian warrior is dropped off next to Lisboa.

170 – Found Nicopolis.

190 – A Spanish sword strays from the appointed path (see screen shot) and Maximus appears.

Science down 20%. Decide to march north on the east coast.

To be continued...

 

[Sir Bugsy]

210 – Well marching north pays off fairly quickly.

Maximus forms an army, but we can only load one legion into it. Kill a spear in Ganges.

IBT – CoL=>Currency (due in five)
Get the Pentagon message.

230 – Kill some bad guys.

250 – Found Grumpus Maximus. Capture a Spanish settler.

After Action – There is an Egyptian galley sailing west from Sagres so keep some troops along our southern shore.

The situation in the east:

The central front:

Save: http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/Handy23,_250_AD.SAV

 

[handy900]

Roster
1. Obormot
2. Sir Bugsy
3. M60A3TTS UP
4. Northern Pike
5. ThERat just played
6. Greebley
7. Handy

Good progess. Looking more and more like Pangaea, which IMHO is more fun than continents.

 

[M60A3TTS]

Got it. Will play tonight or tomorrow.

 

[Northern Pike]

This isn't a comment on Bugsy's round, but it's a pity that the granary builds in Ratugundum and Brundisium were changed, with the former at least close to completion. Now we're making no serious effort to produce workers, with unimproved tiles throughout our core. I think in the present situation I'd switch Ravenna and Handispalis to granaries and then worker-pump duty, sacrificing the settler the latter is about to build.

I'd also change the four barracks we've got going in former Portuguese cities to workers, since we'll never build much in those towns.

I'd like to start hand-building the FP in Oboraugusta, as a precaution in case we never feel we can use a Great Leader for the FP rather than an army. We can certainly get Oboraugusta to 4 spt, and probably 5 spt unless future city foundations make it more corrupt.

We shouldn't forget that three sites for useful fishing villages are still available east and south of Rome.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

There weren't any granary builds going on when I took over, although we did have most of the kingdom working on workers. I switched out two of those for defense and allowed the remainder to complete. I used the workers for transportation improvements over core improvements.

Actually there are a lot more than three fishing village sites available.

My thoughts on the barracks builds are not some much for building vet units as being able to heal quickly. Just me.

 

[M60A3TTS]

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/Handy23_350_AD.SAV

Pre-turn: Pisae change from legion to aqueduct in 9. Drop lux to zero.

IBT- Indian reg archer kills legion (0-1)

Turn 1 (260AD) Legion kills Indian archer (1-1) Kill two more Indian archers at Ganges. (3-1) Spot Spanish Medieval Infantry.

IBT- Quiet

Turn 2 (270AD) Kill 2 Indian spears at Pune (5-1) and get 51 gold before the torch. Bag 2 slaves. Incredibly careless move as I select a cat and hit “B” instead of “G” and cut our own road. Kill Indian warrior and Spanish archer by Lagos. (7-1).

IBT- Quiet.

Turn 3 (280AD) Start a couple horse builds. We have none, and we need a tad more mobility on the wide front.

Vet legion kills Indian warrior (8-1). And then 4 Indian archers who ventured off the mountains onto the low ground north of Artexata. (12-1).
Then 2 more by Ganges (14-1).

IBT- Lose 2 legions to archers (14-3).

Turn 4 (290AD) Vet spear kills offending Spanish archer after a cat redlined it. (15-3). Added an elite Spanish warrior to the tally. (16-3).

IBT- Quiet

Turn 5 (300AD) Vet legion kills Indian spear (17-3). Vet legion kills Viking archer (18-3). Army kills reg Spanish sword. (19-3). Elite legion kills reg Indian archer (20-3).

IBT- Vikes drop off a reg MI by our army.

Turn 6 (310AD) Kill the MI. (21-3). Kill 2 Spanish spears at Zaragosa, army down to 6hp. (23-3). Big battle with Spanish swords, and I’ve got the cats firing to the tune of the 1812 Overture, followed by Tears for Fears “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.”
3 Spanish swords go down. (26-3). Science to zero with one scientist brings MM in 1.

IBT- Conscript Vike warrior that attacks vet spear in Lagos, goes red from defending cat and dies. (27-3). One of the AI’s dumber moves. MM in, feudalism in 6.

Turn 7 (320AD) Trajans army kills another spear at Zaragosa (28-3), and although it only has a reg archer left, can’t take any chances as the army is down to 3hp. Back off the army to heal. Army destroys barb camp for 25 gold.

IBT- Oboragusta riots.

Turn 8 (330AD) Two elite legions kill 2 reg spears at Ganges (30-3) and collect 30 gold. It’s pop 1, so can’t get any slaves for it. We’ll keep it with an option to raze. Legion kills Spanish archer at Artaxata (31-3), 3 cats knock an hp off 3 Indian reg archers. Legions kill them all. (34-3).

IBT- Barb warrior attacks legion in mountain and dies. Start a couple markets in the core.

Turn 9 (340AD) Disperse Ligurian camp for 25 gold. Kill Spanish reg spear with vet legion and we promote. (35-3).

IBT- Quiet

Turn 10 (350AD) Found Arretium and disperse barb camp for 25 gold. Army kills Indian archer. (36-3). And done.

Feudalism in 3. The battles have been at Artaxata as the AI has been trying to get archers up on the mountains next to the town, or in the woods by Lagos. Our army by Zaragosa is back up to 11/14. We have an army by Lisbon doing essentially shore patrol, but only 2 AI landings. That army is really the only defense for our east coast cities. Also tried to do some irrigating to get the towns up in size, although we are second in pop. I have to guess India is #1.

 

[Northern Pike]

Nice kill ratio. I've got it.

I used the workers for transportation improvements over core improvements.

Sure, I know good players hate to waste worker-turns on movement. I just think this should be a general principle, not a religion.

 

[handy900]

My thoughts on the barracks builds are not some much for building vet units as being able to heal quickly.

This is a bit of a judgement call that can change as the games moves along. If we are marching forward quickly, and the city will not be on the front line very long we wont need a rax. If it is a hot spot and destined to be one for some time then you want the rax. The priority can change quickly, and you can always switch a rax to cat or settler if we don't need the rax anymore. This is one of the "fun" MM things I miss in C4.

We do want to make sure we have adequate workers. Building roads for our units to get to the battle quickly is a good idea. Movement means leverage.

 

[Northern Pike]

450 AD--Legionary still has movement

 

[Northern Pike]

350 (0): I move a few units towards the former Portuguese towns, to free our army from defensive duty there. I'll try to unite all three of our armies into a strike force by the end of my round.

We pick off a Sumerian archer and a barb warrior (2-0).

Greebutetia library --> legionary.


360 (1): We deal with two Indian archers and a Spanish archer near Artaxata (5-0).


370 (2): Our advanced army razes Spanish Zaragoza, held by two spearmen (7-0). We gain three slaves (as a worker was in the town) and 41 gold.

We found Gordion in the centre of the Portuguese lands.

We defeat an Indian archer near Artaxata and generate the Great Leader Germanicus (8-0).

A regular spearman holds Lisbon against the attack of a Viking swordsman (9-0).

Feudalism --> Engineering.


380 (3): One of our armies disperses a barb camp for 25 gold, defeating a warrior in something of a mismatch (10-0) .

Germanicus rushes the FP in Barbarentum, now Forbidden Barbarentum.

We hack down three Indian archers outside Nicomedia, and a fourth in the north (14-0).

The Aztecs show up on the diplo screen, and we declare war.


390 (4): Our northern army takes Indus from its garrison of two spearmen (16-0).

We cut down an Enk outside Bugsacuse (17-0).

A barb warrior attacks one of our armies (18-0).


400 (5): We get started against Aarhus, destroying a Viking spearman (19-0).

Elsewhere we defeat a Viking warrior, a barb horseman, and (on defense) an Indian archer (22-0).

We found Agrippina near the FP.


410 (6): A lull, and we slay only an Indian archer, on defense (23-0).

The first SoD shows up--eight Sumerian archers and six swordsmen.

The Indians are building Knights Templar.


420 (7): We resume our attack on Aarhus and take it from its remaining garrison of one spearman (24-0).

We destroy an Indian archer (25-0).


430 (8): We cut down a Sumerian stack of two swordsmen and an archer outside Arretium, with our new MDI units doing good work (28-0).

Outside cities we dispose of a barb horseman, two Indian spearmen, and two Spanish MDI (33-0).

Pompeii Grumpus aqueduct --> MDI.


440 (9): We carve up a Spanish spearman near Aurelianorum (34-0).

We kill a Sumerian swordsman outside Arretium (35-0).

We found Cyrene, extending our contiguous holdings up to Ganges.

Around Aarhus we destroy a Viking archer and an Indian archer (37-0).


450 (10): We crush two archers and a swordsman, all Sumerian, outside Arretium (40-0).

We eliminate a Spanish spearman near Forbidden Barbarentum (41-0).

In the northeast we smite five Indian archers and two spearmen around Aarhus (48-0).

Twelve elite victories this round produced one Great Leader.

 

[Northern Pike]

We face a decision about our three armies, which are together as a strike force, but still possibly many turns away from any important enemy city, given the bad terrain in the northeast of the known world. I think we should do the consistent thing and send them north through the jungle to whatever lies beyond, presumably the Spanish heartland. But if the general feeling is that this would waste too many turns, we can move them west through the Ganges-Cyrene-Agrippina corridor and have them on the Sumerian front in about eight turns. Or, of course, we could let them play defense where they are while settling the large empty space behind them, since our front line is well to the north now.

If we do send our armies off into the fog, we may well want to abandon Indus and Aarhus, since we don't have enough units in the area to hold them without the armies. I've left one Legionary in the area with its movement, since it can't be moved intelligently until this decision has been made. It has to move somewhere before we press Enter, or it'll be attacked by MDI units.

The front north of Rome, with the Sumerians attacking in force, is definitely the active one at the moment. I think we'll be all right, but the situation will be uncomfortable until we get Engineering in about six turns and can cross the area's rivers freely. Until then, keeping our main stack on the right side of the river in response to the Sumerian SoD's movements will be crucial.

I don't think the Sumerian SoD will attack Seleucia, a walled hill town, given the movements of other Sumerian units. If it does we'll lose the city, but we'll slaughter a lot of the SoD first.

We have plenty of infra builds going, with the Heroic Epic also due in eight turns. We can produce a lot more units than we are presently if we feel a crisis has arrived.

Our settler south of Ganges can settle where it stands, unless we're concerned about the volcano. The settler now near Forbidden Barbarentum might then found a city three NE of Aurelianorum, if it seems safe.

Now that the area in the centre of our empire has the FP, the ratio of irrigation to mines there is too high. So all new improvements should be mines, and eventually we'll have to mine over some irrigation.

Don't overlook the new Aztec city SE of Grumpus Regius.

Brundisium and Grumpus Maximus have granaries, so ideal or not they're our worker pumps and shouldn't be used for anything else after the former's walls complete. Rome is still a four-turn settler factory.

 

[Northern Pike]

The northern front (with Sumerian SoD next to Seleucia):

 

[handy900]

In a hurry so I'll just bump this and come back and read the report fully later today. Looks like a very detailed report. I like that!

Roster
1. Obormot
2. Sir Bugsy
3. M60A3TTS
4. Northern Pike
5. ThERat up
6. Greebley
7. Handy

 

[M60A3TTS]

I think focusing on the Spanish is the right thing to do, as they are very weak with their surrounding swamplands. The other thing is we definitely want to aggressively settle these open areas that will in turn drive down our unit support costs. We are spending 37 gpt for our present military.