Joe-01

[ticktockclok]

You guys still need another player? I'll join.

 

[Perplexity]

His special unit is Phalanx, replacing spearman, power=5, bonus vs mounted units. Also he is aggresive so has the promotion.

If I were playing solo, I would probably fill our island and grab the northern island before attacking. So I'm eager to see how this plays out with the early attack.

 

[JesusOnEez]

You guys still need another player? I'll join.

Sorry, we're sticking with five. We'll put you in as a reserve if you want?

Ste

Perplexity,

I'm not to hot on the military side of things, but aren't spearmen/pikemen generally good for defense against mounted unit, thus our swordsman should kick the crap out of them even if the Phalanxes are his UU?

 

[Perplexity]

I'm not to hot on the military side of things, but aren't spearmen/pikemen generally good for defense against mounted unit, thus our swordsman should kick the crap out of them even if the Phalanxes are his UU?

Well, you are correct that the Phalanxes have no special bonus against swordsmen... but they are still 5 strength, swordsmen are only 6...

 

[JesusOnEez]

Well, you are correct that the Phalanxes have no special bonus against swordsmen... but they are still 5 strength, swordsmen are only 6...

Hmm...wonder if we're close enough to construction to build a few cats as well...

 

[vovan]

Well, right now, they have only three archers defending, so if we can mount an attack within the next 20 turns, six swordsmen might be enough. However, after that, I, personally, would also really concentrate on settling the rest of the island we have.

+$0.02

Vovan

 

[JesusOnEez]

Well, right now, they have only three archers defending, so if we can mount an attack within the next 20 turns, six swordsmen might be enough. However, after that, I, personally, would also really concentrate on settling the rest of the island we have.

+$0.02

Vovan

True...

(Waits in anticipation of Temmage kicking Alex's arse...hopefully)...

 

[temmage]

Heh, playing right now. Expect an update soon.

 

[temmage]

Pre-Turn: Everything looks good; our cities have pretty good production so I decide to take advantage of that with my turnset. Here’s the plan guys, for better or worse:

-Settle the island to the north. Hills and nearby calms make it a well-rounded growth/production city.
-Swords and Gallery to take out Alexander. His gem mines will make an excellent spot for a commerce city.
-Get Metal Casting to get the Colossus.

Turn 1: New York finishes building a gallery and resumes Settler.

Turn 2: Alphabet has been research so I choose Metal Casting next. Worker finishes gold mine north of Boston; I send one tile south to begin a farm.

Turn 3: Sword finishes in Washington and I begin another one. (Its only two turns a piece!) I move him to New York to await the war! Worker finishes chop east of Boston (and Library will be constructed in 15 turns). I begin a farm on the same spot.

Turn 4: A former fog-busting warrior arrives at New York; I station him there to keep down unhappiness.

Turn 5: Sword finishes in Washington and I begin another one. Settler finishes in New York so I begin a gallery. I load the settler and a worker onto the gallery to go settle the north island.

Note: All the Swords get City Raider Promotion.

Turn 6: We’re the 6th most advanced civilization!

Turn 7: Another sword in Washington. Worker north of Boston finishes farm so I have him construct a road to link the three cities together.

Turn 8: Gallery finishes in New York. Begin construction on another. Worker finishes farm so I move him to the west of Boston to begin construction on the cows.

Turn 9: Another Sword! Philadelphia has been established on the northern islands. I move the worker that arrived with the settler to the south to chop-rush a lighthouse. Worker finishes a farm north of Boston so I move him south to construct a mine.

Turn 10: Fishing boat finally arrives at the calms! We get calms! Hoo-ray for calms!
====
Now for screenshots:

Our military forces at the moment. Once we hit six swords and three galleys, we can invade Alexander.



The world as we know it:



I can already see the gems in our coffers...
The presence of horses means that he could possibly have chariots and/or horse archers. I suggest that we query up some spearmen just in case.



Alas, I'm sorry to disappoint everyone who was anticipating a war on my turn; may the next player show Alex no mercy!

 

[temmage]

1. JesusOnEez - on deck
2. Perplexity -
3. goraemon -
4. temmage - just played
5. vovan - up

 

[goraemon]

Do we have any current visual on Alex's city? 10-20 turns is a long time and he may already have better units up. His cultural defense may also be up from 40% to 60% or whatever. In this case swordsmen alone are very weak and we'll need cats and probably some defensive units too. And generally it's a better idea to hold on to promotions until you know exactly what you're going to use it for; additionally because promoting a wounded unit after a battle immediately restores a lot of its health. Good luck with the next players..

 

[vovan]

Got it. Will play tomorrow.

 

[temmage]

Do we have any current visual on Alex's city? 10-20 turns is a long time and he may already have better units up. His cultural defense may also be up from 40% to 60% or whatever. In this case swordsmen alone are very weak and we'll need cats and probably some defensive units too. And generally it's a better idea to hold on to promotions until you know exactly what you're going to use it for; additionally because promoting a wounded unit after a battle immediately restores a lot of its health. Good luck with the next players..

Most likely, we'll reach his shores with the six swordsmen in about 10 turns. What I am hoping for is that we land the men, devestate key production tiles, and beat him in a war of attrition. Because Collosus was a stated objective by Joe (and one that I agree with), I decided to get Metal Casting instead of Mathematics -> Construction for Cats. Hopefully though, we wont need to use cats.

Targets when we reach the islands would be to, first, destroy the horses, and then work on destroying mines on hills and other metal resources.

 

[JesusOnEez]

Most likely, we'll reach his shores with the six swordsmen in about 10 turns. What I am hoping for is that we land the men, devestate key production tiles, and beat him in a war of attrition. Because Collosus was a stated objective by Joe (and one that I agree with), I decided to get Metal Casting instead of Mathematics -> Construction for Cats. Hopefully though, we wont need to use cats.

Targets when we reach the islands would be to, first, destroy the horses, and then work on destroying mines on hills and other metal resources.

Coolio...nice prepwork. However, having a rethink, we may be safer to invest in a couple of cats...once Metal Casting comes in, we should make a beeline for Construction...build a couple of cats (shouldn't take long with production output...2 for swords ). Two cats and six swords should be enough "just in case" he's got the Phalanx. We could send the swords as a raiding party for the mines/horses than send the cats in when they've done, just so we're not wasting our time...he may not attack a raiding party for the sake of leaving Athens with less defense...I'll leave that to vovan to decide, and follow up on my turn...looks like that's when the foitin' will start.

Ste

 

[temmage]

Coolio...nice prepwork. However, having a rethink, we may be safer to invest in a couple of cats...once Metal Casting comes in, we should make a beeline for Construction...build a couple of cats (shouldn't take long with production output...2 for swords ). Two cats and six swords should be enough "just in case" he's got the Phalanx. We could send the swords as a raiding party for the mines/horses than send the cats in when they've done, just so we're not wasting our time...he may not attack a raiding party for the sake of leaving Athens with less defense...I'll leave that to vovan to decide, and follow up on my turn...looks like that's when the foitin' will start.

Ste

My reasoning was that it would take maybe 20 to 30 turns to tech to Cats, another 5 turns to build at least 2, and 5 turns on top of that to ship them over to Alex's place. Within that space of time, we should have finished the war with Alex by then.

But, I hope you and vovan give Alex a good kicking in the arse!

 

[JesusOnEez]

Well...probably proceed as planned, but if he's got a bunch of Phalanxes when we get there, might back off...we have open borders so we can have a look before taking the plunge.

Are we better off attacking from a hill then flat lands? I'm not sure of the advantages of what ground to attack from (apart from DO NOT ATTACK ACROSS A RIVER!!!).

Ste

 

[JesusOnEez]

Goreamon, I've just been going back through the last few turns...wasn't Boston meant to be one tile east of the cows? Where it is, we're sharing three tiles with New York as opposed to one, and we still would have had the gold...

...oh well...can't do much about it now.

 

[Perplexity]

Goreamon, I've just been going back through the last few turns...wasn't Boston meant to be one tile east of the cows? Where it is, we're sharing three tiles with New York as opposed to one, and we still would have had the gold...

...oh well...can't do much about it now.

Yeah I saw that too and thought the same thing. Bummer.

However, this position of Boston will have 1 less overlap with the west coast city, assuming we put it SW-SW-SW-W of Washigton. So on net it's only 1 more overlap.

 

[JesusOnEez]

However, this position of Boston will have 1 less overlap with the west coast city, assuming we put it SW-SW-SW-W of Washigton. So on net it's only 1 more overlap.

Mmmmm...we'll be missing out on working the money and food from three water tiles though...I think we gained a hill or two by going where it is though.

Hopefully it won't make much difference in the long run, we're not missing any resources by having it placed there.

On a side note, I finished a single player game with the same settings as this one (just for kicks). I made the fatal mistake of changing my objective too many times, and ended up coming second to Frederick in a time victory.

On Warlord...

However, if I learned anything it was to have an objective and stick to it...I was tech leader by a long way, but didn't originally plan a space race victory...left it too late for that. I think one of my main problems is that I'm too nervous about going into combat, especially in the early game. I try and keep everyone happy and that just doesn't work. I'll probably play another one during the course of this SG and see if I can take a more planned approach to it...this SG definately helps as tactics get discussed, whereas in a single player game I tend to play by ear, never making dotmaps, rarely micromanaging.

I've already gained a bit more knowledge from this...using warriors to keep land visible to stop barbarians settling close was a new one on me, and I'd never really used a chop rush for anything.

Anyway, off topic!

 

[goraemon]

Yeah that was a kind of give-and-take I had to take because, 1 tile east of the cows, Boston would have had access to some water tiles but couldn't benefit from it because it'd still be non-coastal, so it can't build stuff like lighthouse/harbors/water units etc and wouldn't benefit from water trade routes anyway. Sure we get a bit more overlap this way but that's usually the last consideration prior to placing a city.

We also shouldn't discount the possibility that Alex has found copper or iron somewhere else and capable of building axemen. Swordsmen alone would get trampled in that case.