HNDY01 Babylonian Rampage (AWE C3C)

[barbslinger]

Originally posted by alerum68
How the hell are you guys surving a war against Infantry with KNIGHTS and Pikes?!

What KNIGHTS and Pikes? We just started building them last turns. We've been doing it with archers. Now that we will have KNIGHTS and Pikes we can really put the hammer down.
I think it's cause we are building SPECIAL KNIGHTS and Pikes! It could also be our magical catapults.

 

[Greebley]

Trebuckets can make a huge difference if you have a decent number of them. Since infantry are slow they move next to a town; you bombard them down in hp. With sufficient Trebuckets, you get them to 1 hp and can attack, preferablly with an army. A 4 hp knight works vs a 1 hp Infantry a good percentage of the time.

Before we got knights and pikes, we had only met a very few. Those were handle with our longbow army after bombardment. The other strategy is to let them attack you. A spear army does pretty well at defending. For non-armies you take casualties they win half and lose half (building on a hill really helps here), but you have exchanged a cheap unit for an expensive one.

As for how we are going to handle the 9 infantry and 2 guerillas (or whatever it was) in the approaching stack... I would go with a mix of bombarding to lower hp; concentrating on ones that are going to pillage; defend cities with spear armies backed by pikes (the hope is that when the army drops low enough in HP the pikes take over - there is a real risk of losing the army though); and using the longbow army to kill low hp infantry. That stack is fairly scary.

If the numbers of infantry increase, then we probabaly will lose the game. We have limited Cats and pikes to defend ourselves.

 

[barbslinger]

I was looking for ward to making some possible progress in this game. Now I'm hanging my head about that 9 infantry and 2 guerillas

 

[barbslinger]

Handy01 – 1550AD – Wow, does not look good for the northern cities. Our offense consists of 30 buckets, 3 knights, 12 LB’s. We have 2 spear armies, a LB mix army and a bowman army all with 4 units. There are infantry and rifles everywhere and a cav ready to pillage the iron road. We have 99g in unit costs that are financing our huge border patrol of 51 warriors and 38 spears. Cities look OK on happiness with 0% lux and we are 44 turns from chemistry at +36gpt. I am thinking that money is for the one horse upgrade and/or wall rushes. I can attack a rifle on a hill but that does not compute at 27%. Here we go. BTW, did I say it does not look good. There are guerillas and infantry crawling everywhere.

IT – Everything went by so fast I missed it. Nineveh – Bank>Knight.

[1] 1555AD – We are 6 gold short of rushing the walls in Elba. The infantry are knocking. I realize that the buckets are useless against the infantry, well 35% chance so I take down the rifles and kill 2 of 3 losing a 5/5 LB to a 1/3 rifle. Not looking forward to this next turn as Elba will probably fall to the load of inf, guerilla. Most all cities with Brax are on Knights and here goes.

IT – Elba falls after taking out 3 infs and a guerrilla. It burns. Nina which I threw a couple extra boys in to protect against 4 cavs falls after the ¼ crusader takes out the healing army. China owns it now.

[2] 1560AD – I take back Nina to save the trebuckets but it will fall with a 2/4 LB inside. I don’t know what happened but we now have 709g? We only had around 56 before. Civ gods toying with me? I rush the brax and walls in the 2 northernmost cities. Swap around units that are injured on our shores. Kill a just landed 2/4 cav with a knight at the choke of Sippar. Kiss Nina goodbye. I also rush the 65 turn knight for 230g and 130g in Eridu. Chemistry in 14 turns at –10gpt.

IT – Nina burns. Lots of injuries on the shores. 4 knights complete.

[3] 1565AD – Move knights towards front and swap out injuries. However, it looks way too late. We are going to be swamped up north. There is a gaggle of boys waiting in line to tear us up and little defense except armies and LB’s. I burned one elite again trying to get a 2/4 rifle. This feels hopeless and the magical trebuckets are proving futile against strength 10 infantry. BTW, airplanes are bombing now.

IT – Out port is captured by the Zulu with a lone knight after Chinese cavs batter it up for him. Knights are moving up though to retake it, maybe. Those cavs came out of Hittite fog. Harran defended against an inf and 3 knights. 3 planes this time.

[4] 1570AD – The Chinese have 4 4/4 cavs poised across the border from Equina. There are cavs and knights outside of Harran. What to do. There is no path to abandon Harran so it looks like a fight to the death. Bomb down the knights and a lot of the cav (not the Equina ones that are out of reach). I have 1 knight to fight with and he kills a now exposed MDI.

IT – Towns hold. No planes this time? Think they are remanuevering. Cavs go for Harran instead and we win all battles. Henry comes begging for peace.

[5] 1575AD - Kill 2 MDI with now healthy E LB and 4/4 knight. Bomb down some of infantry. Pull 3 knights up to look at Out Portugal.

I’m stopping here so we can all appreciate this, soon to be I’m afraid, defeat. Plus I have to get to sleep. Quite frankly I see no hope and this game is now making me ill to watch the carnage and not seeing a ray of hope. With flight out it will only be a matter of time before tanks show. That means no continental conquest to even have a chance. Sorry guys. Let’s get another one going!

I hear tanks rumbling in the distance

 

[T_McC]

I see it and will play tomorrow. Sounds like I can close it out, and we can start a new one.

 

[T_McC]

HNDY01 - Stick a fork in us!

1575 AD (0)
Let's see, we have neither Horses nor Iron, and will lose another city on the IT. I think I'll only need to play 5 to make my decision about how winnable this game remains.

IT - Shore Bombardment, Bombers, buildings get knocked down. We do win 2 of 3 against Chinese Cavs.

1580 AD (1)
Recapture Out Portugal. Kill a Crusader with a sacrificial Longbow. Our two cities (and two Spear Armies) in the North will fall next turn. They are so surrounded, there isn't an open square to retreat from.

The other great image is the multi-nation seige includes units from 3 Eras. What do you figure the Arabian Infantry thought when the 3-Man Chariots showed up?

Actually, fight through a square and retreat with one of the Spear Armies. Will have to leave a bunch of Trebs behind. Sell walls and Barracks and abandon Equinia.

IT - Our city in the north holds, because only the Chinese have the cajones to attack.

1585 AD (2)
Complete a couple of units, try to fall back to Out Portugal.

1590 AD (3)
The Arabs are really not impressing me. They have a big stack of units, and only attack with a Regular Sword. S*** or get off the pot Apu!

IT - Harran finally falls to the Chinese. Multiple nations have Bombers now. It almost looks like Portugal is trying to land something. Maybe I'll see the first Marine?

1595 AD (4)
The funny thing is: We have lost so many units that our economy is healthy again.

1600 AD (5)
It doesn't matter.

Final notes:
I second the motion to declare this game a loss. No resources + No water + Terrible landform = Loser!

Anyone else want to view the carnage?

 

[Greebley]

This is try two. Not sure where my first attampt to post went. I probably forgot to submit it

First do people want to play Spanish AWE? Barbslinger, do you have any desire in running a game? If not I will probably start it.

I also made this picture collage of our demise for the lurkers. We also now have the answer to Alerum's question on how we survive using only knights vs infantry. We don't

 

[T_McC]

@Greebley - I'd like another crack at AWE, and while Spain is in the spirit of the rest of our series (Always War with Crappy Civs), they are really bad! When I think AW, I think Seafaring!

But I'll try anything. I would like to wait until my two RBC13 games are finished, but if I'm at the end of the rotation the heavy-war turns in this game won't come until after both RBC games are done.

 

[Yom]

I'd like to try another AW game. Let's just hope we get better luck when it comes to land this time .

 

[Greebley]

Yom, I was thinking you would want to play and was planning on reserving a spot for you since you missed this one.

I think it very unlikely things will be worse than this (though I did have a game with only a single irriatable on my home continent most was tundra - That start will be rejected if it comes up for this game).

 

[barbslinger]

Just finished off my Babylonian Diety settlers getting the victory splash so I'm up for another. If you guys can agree on land size, form and civ I can try to set it up. We want a decent food start and hopefully near a river. I'm thinking continents, and the Spanish due to Greebleys vote for 9 tiling pillaging. It is late, astronomy but that may be right when we need it landing on the other continent. We need to cleanse ours early this time.

 

[Greebley]

I think a standard or large map with continents. Barbslinger, make it a YOUNG world. More mountains will make it easier as you need to have your defense 2 conquistadors stop on a mountain each turn for safely. How about Roaming barbs, normal on temp and wetness? And Spanish of course

Players so far: Barbslinger, Greebley, TMcC, Yom. I would say 5 or 6 total.

 

[barbslinger]

Well, this one started out looking quite promising with the choke and the decent size piece of land we were able to acquire. The only thing I think that could have perhaps won this game would have been an early archer rush for the iron, hope to move or FP there and if we could of held iron. It was really quite frustrating.

Well lets put this one down to experience and move on.

Here begins the rule of the nastiest woman to rule a country. Queen Slingette of Spain is determined to kill anyone whom stands in her way of global domination.

New AWE has begun