JAR02, Always War Emperor

[Elephantium]

Smash it!

 

[SuedecivIII]

We have 45 swordsmen here, enough to finish off the continent. I'm going to stop building military units.

We got the GLlib ok.

We also got a new MGL. What do you guys think, rush the pentagon?

Oh, and our suicide galley sees another civ. Should I contact them for free GLib techs? Or abort mission?

 

[Bartleby]

lurker's comment:

I'm not sure if MapStat goes off the foreign advisor's comments (they admire our culture, they are dismissive of our culture, etc.) about culture or if it tries to read it off the culture graph....

I remember Dianthus saying that MapStat measures the culture by counting the pixels on the culture graph.

 

[Elephantium]

I'd say abort mission. We can start exploring again once we've conquered our continent. In the meantime, having long-range wars going will just be a distraction from the more immediate goals.

 

[tjs282]

We also got a new MGL. What do you guys think, rush the pentagon?

That lets us put another unit in each Army, making them stronger -- but also unshippable before we have Combustion/Transports. I'm not sure that's an advantage, when a 3-Sword Army (at least on high-defence terrain) is already sufficient to protect our stacks/approaches.

So is there another SWonder we could use the MGL for instead? (I assume HE is done or nearly done by now?). If not, then I'd rather have a 4th Army, if we can build one.

Failing that, then an expensive building, like a Courthouse/Market somewhere in/near the core? ('Ducts cost us 'only' 50 shields, so I wouldn't Leader-rush those).

Oh, and our suicide galley sees another civ. Should I contact them for free GLib techs? Or abort mission?

Does it look like they could reach us, from what you've seen of the map? If so, abort.

If not, and they might have techs that we didn't learn from the Incas and Mongols, but could learn from them + the Incas or the Mongols, then I would say contact them. Might as well take the techs while we can get them.

(Do we know Feud yet? I'd feel a lot safer knowing we could put Pikes in our core coastal towns, against potential Dromon bombardment...)

FWIW, I'm good with razing Olyan in favour of 2 conduit-towns as well.

 

[SuedecivIII]

I thought it over, and I agree, I'll abort with the galley. We want them to tech beyond education so when we finally meet, we can get extra techs past education for free.

They can't reach us from our west. Maybe from east of the Mongols/Incans if they have great lighthouse, but I suspect not.

I agree, there's no good choice with leader. I vote make an army and don't put anything in it. Sound good?

 

[CKS]

That is fine with me.

 

[Judminder]

Fine with me too

 

[SuedecivIII]

Interturn: They attack our units on mountain 3 times, winning once against one of our swords. Mongols move in two horsemen

Turn 1: We kill Mongol Horsemen with our army. We advance our settler to Incan hill, so we can use their wine road when we plant.

Interturn: we get middling rng against incan attack.

Turn 2: We clean up the rest of incan units.

Turn 3: We plant city and place our stack next to Ollantaytambo. Micro tech to save a little gold, since CoL next turn.

Turn 4: We’re in medieval era! I’m gonna turn off tech since we have Glib in 2. We delay the attack to get the catapults into place.

Unit support is an issue so I’m switching to aqueduct in any city that looks like it could grow past size 6, but doesn’t have one.

Turn 5: It looks like we’ll get Glib, so I’m gonna suicide some galleys to try to find the other continent. That way we can get their free techs.

We raze Ollantaytambo with no casualties. I decide to attack the two incan units on mountain, we need a road north to their capital.

Turn 6: Glib completes. We get up to feudalism for free. We start on marketplace in our capital.

Turn 7: We take Almarihk.

Turn 8: We take Ta-Tu, securing silks. Our GA expires.

Turn 9: We set up to take the Mongol capital. Our boats arrive near the western civs, we reconsider and abort the mission.

Turn 10: We are in place to Cuzco next turn, Karakorum in 2. We plant new city 1 tile SW of Ollantaytambo

Thoughts: we're taking the pyramids, don't forget to sell our granaries.
We take the Temple of Artemis next turn, that should solve our
Our capital is mostly done a marketplace, in case anyone wants to switch to sun tzus.
We should work on colonizing those islands once we have the Mongols and Incans taken care of.

 

[SuedecivIII]

Some screenshots

 

[CKS]

Looks good! It's nice to see the map changing significantly, and it looks like the Mongols are about done for.

 

[jarred!]

Roster:
1. jarred (on deck)
2. CKS
3. tjs
4. judminder
5. suede (just played)
6. @Elephantium (up)

Nice job on the steamrolling! We should keep them alive for the GLib techs until we're ready to go for the next continent.

Kazan seems like a nice purgatory.

 

[tjs282]

Some screenshots

Hmm... to get irrigation to Tzintz, we're going to need a third conduit-town, on the Hill 2NW of Almarikh — which will make it pretty crowded (ICS'd) up there. Should we consider Settler-disbanding Almarikh, or just leave it as is?

Also, I see Vilcas has nearly finished building a 'Duct, but I would still rather (eventually) refound it on the Incense-Hill, to let the water run through to the NW as well — especially now that Anda has already been moved, and thus has more 0-1 FPT and fewer (potential) 2 FPT-tiles in its BFC. Since 'Ducts can't be sold, they represent too permanent an investment of shields for my taste — so if this was my game, I'd immediately switch that, e.g. to a Mace.

Given how flat the rest of the Incans' territory looks, that Iron-Mountain NE of Ixta may well be their sole source — and based on the visible borders of Cuzco and Huamanga, I'm also pretty sure that it's only inside their borders as a 'filler' tile between the adjacent radii: that is, collapsing the borders of either Cuzco or Huamanga would leave the Iron outside the Incas' control. So do we have enough units outside Cuzco to be able to take it in the next 1-2 turns?

(Because it would be a waste to pillage the Mountain road/mine they already took the time to build for us...)

If we can't capture Cuzco that soon, do we have a Settler anywhere handy, who could found on one of the Grass-tiles just the other side of the Mountain, and deprive the Incans of their Iron that way? We then wouldn't/won't need a Temple in Ixta either (if we were going to build any infrastructure there, then Walls + Harbour + Lib would be my 'druthers; otherwise, just Walls).

Same goes for Chalco: Walls (+ Harbour? + Lib?), not a Temple...

May I be the first in this thread to quote Brother @Bede...?

Temples...temples...priests are prevaricating parasites who pillage the body politic.

You want culture, build libraries. You get something back from the investment.

You want content citizens, build marketplaces, trade for luxuries, build towns for luxuries, build colonies for luxuries.

If happiness is a problem in a settler or worker farm, it is a self-limiting problem. Raise the luxury tax, hire an MP, you only need to make the expenditure for a couple of turns. Temples are with you forever and are a permanent drag on the economy.

 

[Elephantium]

I've got it. I'll take a look tonight.

tjs: Agreed @ Vilcas. I'll switch it and start work on Settler-disbanding the town.

Re: Incan Iron, plan A is to seize Cuzco immediately. Plan B is to take Huamanga. Plan C is to build a tactical city N of the iron. Plan D is pillaging. Sound good?

I'll take a look at Ixta and Chalco, too.

May I be the first in this thread to quote Brother @Bede...?

Ah! You are an educated man! Excellent quote, sir

 

[jarred!]

There are other routes through the mountains, and we have other sources of iron. I have no problem with pillaging it, although if we can cap either of those Incan cities just as fast, then it doesn't matter.

I also agree with tjs Bede about the temples. They aren't necessary in our game.

 

[SuedecivIII]

The Incans have iron on an island up north. I don't know if it's been hooked yet.

I generally agree about temples, but in a city that remote with such poor land, I doubt we'll get uncorrupted commerce any time soon. I doubt a library would do any good.

It's a moot point though, we're about to capture ToA. I just left it as a prebuild.

In regard to Almarikh: I really don't mind getting ICS around the fringes of our empire. It could be pretty useful for the unit support.

 

[Elephantium]

Pre-turn:

Oh, it's an early handoff: T179 instead of 180 in-game.

Tenoch and Tzin are both rioting
There's no obvious cause -- Suede, did you up the lux slider after the last IBT?

I switch Vilcas to Mace and MM a bit.

IBT: Ta-Tu captured by Mongols!
Enemy units zip around like ferrets!
A bunch of cities build things, but I don't get the usual popup!

Ctrl-P time.

HOLY MOTHER OF-

Change *ALL THE SETTINGS*!

T180, 650AD:

eHorse dies at Ta-Tu
vHorse seizes city.

Cuzco: Cats go 2/3. rPike showing.
3 Armies kill 3 rPikes
One army kills a fourth
vSword kills 3/4 Pike, promotes
vSword dies
vSword kills 2/4 Pike, promotes, seizes city.
Temple of Artemis is ours, along with 3 slaves and a Cat.
7 resisters.

T181:

Battle of Karakorum:
Sword dies
Horseman kills Spear, promotes
Horseman retreats
Sword narrowly kills Spear
Sword kills Spear
Sword barely kills Spear
rSword kills Archer, promotes.
We now own the Pyramids!

rSword kills stray Mongol Archer
Cats redline, and Horse kills mace near Cuzco.

T182: Build Charity: Water near Almarikh

T183: Sword army kills a stray Mace and Archer near Cuzco

T184:

Siege of Huamanga:
Cats go 3/4
Army kills rPike, going down to 5/13 health!
City holds for now...

Battle of Kazan:
Cats redline two Spears
eHorse kills Archer
eHorse narrowly kills redlined Spear
Mace seizes the city.

Mongols are no more!

T185:

eSword kills stray Archer
Sword army kills stray Mace

Siege of Huamanga, part 2:
Cats go 2/4
Mace army kills 3/4 Pike
Mace kills 2/3 Pike
City is ours.

T186: Move troops...

Heroic Epic completes!
T187:
We meet the Dutch. They're up Engineering.

T188:

Tepexpan settled on the much-discussed point
Sword army kills a stray Pike on the way to Ulaanbaatar. Ugh, the Pike pillaged the Dyes road

IBT we lose a Mace in Cuzco to a Horseman attack
T189:
Kill the Horseman.
Move units up to Ulaanbaatar

IBT - Cuzo deposes us. Edo riots as a result; I scroll forward to stop more riots.
T190, 750 AD:

Battle of Ulaanbaatar:
Cats offer a dismal 0/5 performance.
Mace kills rPike
Mace dies
Mace kills 2/4 Pike and seizes the city.

 

[SuedecivIII]

I think I might have passed off the turn the GA ended. That would cause the disorder. Sorry, I'm bad at counting turns. I would have happily played one more and taken Cuzco

Good job!

Meeting the Dutch is a shame. But if we avoid meeting any other civs, we can still get techs from GLib past education.

 

[jarred!]

Roster:
1. jarred (up)
2. CKS (on deck)
3. tjs
4. judminder
5. suede
6. Elephantium (just played)

I got it. Basic plans are to finish off the Inca and to let the other AI find us. Settler-disband vilcas and move it to the hill, and finish chain irrigation into ex-Japan.
Do we want to start settling the Japanese plains now? Otherwise, I'll continue building infrastructure and trickling out MDIs to cover losses.

 

[CKS]

That was an interesting set of turns. Good job on getting rid of the Mongols.