HNDY08 - AWDG Babylon - Small Pangaea

[Northern Pike]

First steps:

 

[grs]

Northern Pike!

We should fill the open space as fast as we can and continue to push for the next Arab cities. Let's hope to have at least one strategic resource near.

 

[handy900]

Well done guys.

I'll try to get this tonight.

 

[Greebley]

An excellent set of turns

I am glad the warrior rush worked and has become a bowman rush

I agree on the early GA and bowman. We want to do as much damage as we can to Arabia as we can before any other civs show up. They are definitely "in the way".

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Press hard on Arabia. If we were able to remove them early, this game will get immensely easier.

 

[Greebley]

Handy,
Can you add Grs to the very first post? I was momentarily confused and realized it was because he wasn't listed there.

 

[grs]

He kicked me out for Northern Pike

 

[handy900]

He kicked me out for Northern Pike

Oops. Sorry sorry sorry.

Roster and Order of Play
Handy
Sir Bugsy
Greebley
Yom
grs
N Pike

grs you did already play, before N pike, right?

I'm up I think.

edit:
Recap
Handy – over explores. :thumbdown:
Sir B – nice recovery.
Greebley – Build walls and we survive.
Yom – too much schoolwork gives him a headache.
grs – Bags Baghdad
Northern Pike – Takes Medina.

 

[Yom]

Yom – too much schoolwork gives him a headache.

Too true, I got 3 hours of sleep Sunday night and got sick Monday afternoon...

As to the game, we're off to an awesome start. We might have to get rid of the Arabs the old-fashioned way (without pillaging) just because of the small size of our landmass.

 

[Greebley]

Yes you are up Handy.

It turned out that your exploration was beneficial. Otherwise Arabia would have plopped a town down before we met and we would have to deal with taking the city and initial units. As it was the initial unit rush was over so we could go on the offensive. The lucky candle is on your side

I am suprised Arabia went in our direction so quickly. I hope it doesn't mean decent real estate is really limited for settling.

 

[handy900]

Lots of new friends.

Since this is Pangaea I suggest we stick with the CxxCxxC build.
Here is a proposed dot map with the idea of perhaps moving the palace to the Red Dot if we find ourselves with a spare leader. I’ll settle the red dot pronto and we can hopefully work our way north. Lots of BG down here which will help us a ton.

I hare building settlers in a GA, but I think I’ll do it anyway when the food box gets a little fuller.

I plan to build a road for our settler to travel, so the worker moves in that direction.

It occurs to me we could do quite a bit of damage with a stack of cats & bowmen, likely producing a bowman army. Cats with a bowman army could capture any size 6 city on flat ground before Pikes with relative ease.

The slave sits on one of my dot map future city sites, so he will move.

IBT
Babylon – bowman - bowman

Turn 1 1475
3 bowmen consolidate into a stack & move NE. The SOLTD (Stack of less than Doom) is healed and sets off NE also.
Bowman near the homelands spots 2 barb horses. We will have to guard our workers

Turn 2 1450
Nineveh – bowman – bowman
Bowman kills barb.
We find Mecca & Wines. The city is size 5 and on flat ground. Bad news for Mecca.
I’ll wait for the bowman arrival to attack
Arabia has 4 cities including Mecca.
They have wines and Ivory . for Zeus

IBT
Babylon – Bowman - Settler

Turn 3 1425
I almost changed my mind on the settler. We can capture all of Arabia if we pump out bowmen now, but we need to get a city down to protect Babylon. Dial slider down a notch. Wheel due this IBT

IBT
Wheel – IW. There are lots of hills near Mecca. Let’s hope we get lucky and see iron nearby.

Turn 4 1400 BC
Not much

Turn 5 1375
An archer moves onto flat ground and our elite warrior attacks him ad produces…nothing.
I’m not going to build roads on future city sites, I’ll skip those to build a road toward Arabia.
Oh, Horses are 4 tiles from Nineveh.
21 turns to IW

IBT
Babylon – Temple – bowman. Lux goes to zero.
declare war on Egypt as settler & spear walks by.

Egypt builds an embassy
Someone starts ToA
Persia completes Oracle

Turn 6 1350
Grab 25 barb gold
Take Mecca with no losses getting 1 elite Bowman out of the deal.
No troops are available to attack the Egyptian settler guarded by a warrior. I hope to get them next turn. We can use the slaves.

IBT
Resistance ends in Mecca.

Turn 7 1325
Elite bowman captures the Egyptian settler, but no leader.
Wow – the scientists of Mecca knocked IW down to 5 turns. That will go back up as they die off.
Mecca begins walls.

IBT
Babylon – bowman – bowman
News of a major uprising near Mecca
Babylon – bowman - bowman

Turn 8 1300
Holy cow we’ve hit the mother lode of luxuries. We spot Najran & furs. There are also elephants around here close by.
Spot Sumerian settler and declare on him.

Can’t kill him this turn.
Found Ashur 2 tiles from Babylon & Nineveh. I selected barracks here. I think the attacks will come at Mecca since it has wines.
We are only 2 tiles from having roads to the wines, and both tiles will be under construction next turn.
I can see both Sumerian and Egyptian settlers. Four more slaves would be sweet.

Turn 9 1275
Not much

IBT
Babylon – bowmen – bowmen
Nineveh – bowmen – bowmen

Turn 10 1250 BC
Capture Egypt’s settler.
Watch the Barb horsemen, you are safe next turn, but we must stack workers and cover with protection to avoid losing them.
The Sumerian setter is going to eventually move to flat land. We can wait to attack him when the odds are better. I want the furs first.

Notes:
It looks like we can effective seal off a nice piece of land once we take over Najran next turn. Sadly the city will auto raze. The city is NOT on hills, and you have 3 bowmen against regular spears.
Temple next in Mecca to protect the wines would be a good selection.
With horses, cats and ivory we have a chance here.
Colony on the ivory to get SoZ started worth considering.
Six turns to wines.
Remember to check on the clown in meccas to see of you can fire her.

Wide angle lens picture below.

 

[handy900]

1250bc

 

[Northern Pike]

Great stuff! If we can hold the Mecca-Najran line and settle everything behind it, we'll be in a remarkably promising position relative to our tough start.

The fact that Najran will auto-raze should at least let us anchor that part of our line on a newly founded hill town.

I see your point about CxxC settlement in an AW game, of course. When this wasn't discussed in connection with Nineveh I assumed the rest of you didn't consider it a priority.

Slightly later: As long as we continue to make progress against the Arabs and can expect to grab their ivory, we should plan on switching Ashur's barracks build to a palace pre-build for the Statue of Zeus. To have Ashur complete the barracks and only then switch to the Statue would be inefficient. This implies a research plan of Alphabet --> Mathematics (which would also get us to catapults) after IW, needless to say.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

I have it. After IW, any preferences for research, or whatever is cheapest.

 

[Northern Pike]

Cross-post, or cross-edit. I think Alphabet --> Mathematics is the best path after IW--please see above.

 

[Greebley]

I agree with NP on the research path.

I prefer towns within 3 of each other myself - for example I prefer Handy's red dot over the purple for this reason. This is especially true along the front line. It makes things harder if one can't shift defense as needed along the front.

I agree on building towns on the hills when we can. That will really help.

I see us building a town N of Mecca on the lone hill, a town where the spear are standing now and one to the S also on a hill.

 

[handy900]

I agree. definitely reserach towards Math asap, and let's hope the ivory is nearby. Fighting 3 civs (soon 4 I bet) for ivory in a DG game will be a challenge.

I'd vote pottery after we get math. Cats with bowmen and Acav would make a nice steamroller.

I see your point about CxxC settlement in an AW game, of course. When this wasn't discussed in connection with Nineveh I assumed the rest of you didn't consider it a priority.

I consider it a priority in AWE & above. Still important @ AWM, but the situation sometimes allows for some leeway. We were so far away from the AI, we could make an exception for Nineveh. Also, they had already sent their "first wave". Now that the AI will be streaming toward us, the CxxCxxC will become a must for all future cities.

Sir B Keep an eye out for Sumeria & Egypt's first wave heading toward the wines. Mecca could use a couple of extra bowmen to deal with what is definitely on the way. Our kill ratio will suffer until we get some cats.

Please let there be some iron in one of those hills around the Mecca area.

 

[Greebley]

If a large enough stack appears outside Mecca we may want to rush the walls.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

I wish you guys would knock off the “Sir” stuff. How about just plain ole Bugs. Here’s a set of turns I think everyone will like.

Pre-flight – 1250 BC – Abu has a total of three cities. That’s some good news. We have an increasing power curve. I always like to see that.

Consider changing Babylon to a settler, but I’ll wait for the bowman to complete first.

IBT – Watch a stack of barbs take out some Arabs and Egyptians. Our stack outside Najran kill about ten or so barbs. We’ll have to heal up now.

1. 1225 BC – Lose a bowman to an Enkidu, that will spark a despotic GA for the Sumerians if they don’t have one yet. Kill him with an eBowman.
Lose a bowman to a redlined Egyptian spear. Kill it with a spear. (2-2)

IBT – Watch an Egyptian warrior whack about four barbs before getting nailed. Barbs pillage an Arab road.
Babylon: Bowman=>settler

2. 1200 BC – Fortify a spear on the road outside Mecca to attract some barbs. Science down, IW next.

IBT – Our spear kills four barbs. IW=>Alphabet. Bump science up to 80%, due in 6.

3. 1175 BC – Kill an Arab archer. There is iron at Mecca and Najran. The road the barbs pillaged was an iron hill. (3-2)

IBT – A stack of Egyptian warriors approach.
Nineveh: Bow=>Bow

4. 1150 BC – We now have wine connected. Move towards the iron. March on Najran.

IBT – Babylon: settler=>Bow

5. 1125 BC - @ Najran – Lose a bowman, kill a spear, then…

Agum builds an army. I think I’ll fill it with bowmen. Kill the remaining spear and Najran autorazes. (6-3) Lux to zero.

IBT – A stack of three Egyptian warriors approach. Our GA ends.
Egyptians complete Zeus.

6. 1100 BC – Kill the three Egyptians, lose a Bow. (9-4)
Science comes down to 50%, alphabet due in 8.

IBT – Mecca: walls=>barracks
7. 1075 BC – Found Ellipi. Load Bows into army.

IBT – Some green clad dudes walk into view.
Babylon: Bow=>settler
Nineveh: bow=>bow

8. 1050 BC – Boys in light green are Persians. X-man doesn’t have iron. So sad. I can’t make any deals. He is up pottery, myst, HBR, and Alphabet. He has six cities. Horses, incense and spices are hooked up. Declare war like a proper grumpy old man.

IBT – The Sumerians send another settler pair our way. Iron is hooked up.

9. 1025 BC – Switch Nineveh to a sword. Kill the Enkidu. (10-4) Start marching toward Damascus.
10. 1000 BC – Kill a Persian spear and collect two more slaves. Kill an Arab spear. Spot an Arab settler pair headed our way. Kill an Arab archer with the army so we can build the HE if we want. Damascus has ivory. Attack Damascus with the army, kill the spear and capture the city. (14-4)

After Action – Hopefully I didn’t just extend us too far east. I wasn’t expecting just one defender. The Arabs have one city to the south of Damascus. Our kill ratio is getting better. Once we get cats, it should improve significantly.

Here’s a SITREP:

Save: http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/Handy8,_1000_BC.SAV

 

[grs]

Wow, our first leader and the Arabs down to 1 city!

On the SoZ: I would only build it in a city with barracks, or it will only produce regular ACs.