JOE-05 - The Crusades

[Rince]

Preturn
I turn down science a little bit to have money for emergency upgrades in case Fred attacks us. I know we need knights and banks so I tried to find a middle way (-32/turn, Guilds in 9).

1378
Mediolanum: Courthouse > Granary
Rome: Harbor > Settler

1382
Neapolis: Missionary > Missionary

1388
Mainly troop movements. I don't want to attack Thebes directly, I therefore prepare two armies to take the ex-french cities first. This will give us a short and straight frontline. Tours is heavily defended.

1394
Lyons: Treb > Mace
Mediolanum is coverted to christianity

1400
Hatty discovers Liberalism
Rome: Settler > Mace
We declare war on Hatty

1406
Paris: Library > Christian Temple
Pisae: Christian Temple

(We have a happiness problem with the war)

1412:
Someone circumnavigates the world
We finally get our GP, the Church of Nativity turns our -33 deficit in a -8 deficit!
We lose a mace to a knight near Tour. A whole enemy stack appears near Tours (2 Mace, 1 Knight, 1 Crossbow, 1 Cat). Good that I kept half of our army there!

Battle of Tours:

We throw a cat at the stack and it retreats against a mace.
The next cat also retreats (lucky us!).
Praet kills Crossbow
Praet kills Knight
Praet kills Mace
Praet kills Mace
Axe dies to Cat (I leave the cat since I don't want one of our units in open field without backup)

Battle of Hieranconpolis:

Treb dies to Longbow
Praet kills Longbow
Praet kills Longbow, city is ours.

Battle of Abydos:

Cat retreats against Longbow
Praet kills Longbow
Mace kills Pike, city is razed.

1418

IBT a sword attacks a Horsearcher of us which I tried to get to the iron to pillage it, it wins.
Tours is bombarded by a cat.
Praet kills cat.

Neapolis: Missionary -> Treb
Orleans: Forge > Mace
Lyons: Mace > Stable

1424

Guilds is in > Banking
Our severly injured horse archer was able to get to the iron and pillage it, no more knights for you Hatty!
An army sets out from Tours into the direction of Thebes.

1430

Rome: Mace > Knight
Lyons: Stable > Knight
Marseilles: Forge > Mace
Essen: Library > Christian Temple

Overview:

So basically I would recommend to attack Thebes next, it is not even very well defended, about 4 units IIRC.
Tours currently serves as a block which can react to any enemy movements towards our cities.
So far there was not much action at sea. There's an egyptian galley somewhere north, but far away from ressources.
We also shouldn't forget the egyptian city on the island.
I also put some units into the cities bordering with Fred, just in case.


ROOSTER
Cosmichail
Rince - just played
JesusOnEez - skipped
Mice - UP
Vra379971 - on deck

Greetings,

Rince

 

[Cosmichail]

So the battle on Egypt has begun. She is weak but I didn't see any knights but yet one showed up. Good job on getting that iron pillaged.

A couple things we could do:

Whip in Paris those red faces away. We could whip CT for 2 pop now and that's the amount of red faces.

Also Orleans tile placement. Working two forest tiles when it could work on farm (grass) 3 food and grass hill 1f3h to gain another hammer for the same amount of food.

Should we upgrade the odd heavy experienced unit to deal with melee. I notice the crossbow is defending Tours. It always good to have a crossbow in the stack for anti melee.

I have to say that the Praets do a good job and am impressed. Good progress Rince. Have fun mice......

 

[mice]

Wow, 2 days with no internet because of some weather related outrage here where I live.

Got it !!

Nearly missed my turn. I really dont like having no internet. Will play soon when Ive caught up with the postings.

 

[Rince]

I really dont like having no internet.

Yeah, life feels so empty without an internet connection. Highspeed internet should be declared a basic human right in my opinion

Rince

 

[JesusOnEez]

Nice turns Rince. Those Praets really are a good, long lasting unit.

 

[Rince]

Nice turns Rince. Those Praets really are a good, long lasting unit.

Thank you and yes, the Praets are quite astonishing. Didn't lose a single one and they were doing the heavy fighting. Now that we have knights this will change slowly maybe. But a Praet with City raider III is still very useful.

Rince

 

[JesusOnEez]

I'd like to see a few of our CR3 Praets upgraded to Maces, although it seems we're doing well without having to do that. Longbows? Pah!

Always nice to keep hold of them for CR3 Grens as they rock, and you can't make them...they have to be upgraded old units...very valuable the CR3 Gren!

 

[mice]

I'm getting a bit nervous. Freddy is +1 with us and we will son raze holy cities ( I hope). I did a few things at 1430 but I haven't played on yet.

Hatty will defend a city with Great lighthouse, Ankor, and? one other wonder.

The news that Hatty can't make Knight is really good. And no Pikes . This make knights our priority build.

Preats are 8 strength, same as a Mace. Is there a battle advantage with the mace?

I'm not sure that's why I'm asking.

We have to get them to Grens at some stage and these battles now are very key, so I answered my own question. Spend the gold if we have it.

Teching. After Banking , phiolosphy - Gunpowder - or Paper towards education? BTW I took the priests out of Rome and we are running scientists now.

 

[Cosmichail]

I'm getting a bit nervous. Freddy is +1 with us and we will son raze holy cities ( I hope). I did a few things at 1430 but I haven't played on yet

I was worried about that too and Rince went to war faster than I would (which I admire ballsy) as I thought perhaps puting in longbows in our cities bordering with Germany may be a good idea. Hatty at some point may bribe him into war and if we have praets defending not good.

Preats are 8 strength, same as a Mace. Is there a battle advantage with the mace?

Yes maces have a 50% melee bonus but same strength. You do not necessarily have to upgrade just throw in a crossbow and any melee attackers will have to fight crossbow. Everybody is different on that but the crossbows I use always have drill promotions as that also reduce colloratal damage.

Looking forward to your turn and I'd build a few longbows just in case but again that is your decision. If Freddy does attack it will be a stack maybe and we don't have a very good defense on that front. Some knights may be able to deal with that but he has pikes so again that may be problematic.

 

[mice]

Turn 0 1430 re-jig Orleans to get a couple more hammers.
Slowdown growth in Paris as it is at it's happy cap ,temple whipped and coming next.
Veto building of cottages in Lyon. It is one of our two unit pumps. The forests will have lumbermills soon enough.
Send the CRII preat guarding Hieroplis towards Thebes to help with the battle, and send a replacement from Paris.

Trireme to Roman seafood because Hatty has a trireme up there.

Turn 1 1436 Brave Horse archer dies to muskets near Thebes. He has gone to meet his reward.

Speaking of meetings...

He is annoyed but I use the old trick of giving him 20 gold. He is now cautious and will open borders. He has Banking ,Paper and Music. If we tech to Gunpowder we can trade it with him. It will help him to cossacks, but we will be facing those anyway as he is .... Confucian.

Workers sent to Aretuim to develop it more as a prod city. 2 workers to Tour to move with the army later.

Turn 2 1442 Upgrade Trireme to caravel only 65 gold. Cheap. Our seafood is safe now.

Mace on the galley in moves to a safe bit of coast to reinforce Tours.

Elizabeth.

Annoyed and Buddhist but after 20 gold is cautious. Again, we can trade gunpowder with her.

running 2 scientists in Pisae, and yes to NE there.

Tours menaced by a war chariot. Mace beats it. I left the crossbow in Tours because it is CG II.

Turn 3 1448 Naval battle !

Veiw of Thebes. 8 defending units, no siege luckily, but not a pushover. It could slow us down.

Turn 4 1454. A HA comes out to attack us. It withdraws from our preat
Knights started in Cumae, Orleans. Knight finished in Lyon.

I choose Gunpowder as Banking is in. Decide to stop here to wait for advice. (is that allowed in SG's?) We can change back out of Gunpowder but it seems like a good idea to me as we can trade it, and we get to grens sooner, taking the Freddy threat into account.

It's good news that Peter and Liz are on the same continent with different religions. We can get them fighting.

 

[Cosmichail]

I choose Gunpowder as Banking is in. Decide to stop here to wait for advice. (is that allowed in SG's?) We can change back out of Gunpowder but it seems like a good idea to me as we can trade it, and we get to grens sooner, taking the Freddy threat into account.

I agree since we are facing muskets against Hatty. It's amazing how quick the ai reinforces the city. Good thing we have trebs to deal with the muskets. Usually have grens by that time but they are teching fast.

As to Pisae the two scientist there should pop a GS but don't know when. With NE there it we'll get it faster so then we could use him for Education. We might want to slip in Paper after GP to allow the GS to part bulb Education. I don't think we are in the running for liberalism with lizzy in the game. So after Paper definitely beeline for grens.

It'd be nice to bribe Peter to war with lizzy to slow her down as she is a tech whore unfortunately. Just like Hatty.

Decide to stop here to wait for advice. (is that allowed in SG's?)

Of course.

If you are concerned about the capitol maybe go for a lesser target so as to fool her into trying to reinforce another target. Perhaps leave the capitol until we have stronger troops in place. A couple of drill crossbows would help a lot too to protect our Praets. Also because of the negative too for Freddy it'd be better to hold off on the capitol until we have better defenses if you feel that is a possibility since I have not seen the game.

 

[Cosmichail]

Just noticed you are at the capitol but those two muskets/longbow are going to be a pain.

 

[mice]

Going for lesser cities was what I considered too. I took the gamble and went for Thebes, mainly because that way we can ensure that the iron stays out of action. This is key to our victory, thanks to Rince and the horse archer.

We may have to slow down a bit after Thebes, but it will be a king-hit on Hatty, and we can build up again with more longbows and crossbows.

So the siege of Thebes will commence.

I'll finish up much later today.

 

[JesusOnEez]

I'd go for Thebes...generally, although Muskets look scary because they've got "guns", I tend to find they're less effective than Longbows for city defence...don't know if that's just luck on my part though!

Oh, and Rince reported that Liberalism had already been discovered by Hatty, so maybe she used it for Gunpowder as her free tech.

 

[mice]

put in spoiler to make opening the page quicker. (I think)

Spoiler :

Turn 5 1460 Change a few builds from Knight to Longbow, especially near Germany.

All the culture stripped from Thebes.

Treb attacks, withdraws causing 6 collateral damage.

Catapult dies causing 6 collateral

Treb at 48% dies causing 5 collateral

Treb at 48% wins against musket

top defender now a mace at 6.2 strength.

Combat 2 mace wins to mace at 83%

CR2 preat at 94% loses to LB !

CR2 preat at 96% wins to LB

CR2 preat at 97% wins to LB

CR2 preat at 98% wins to musket

GG medic preat at 99% wins to HA

CR2 preat at 99.6% wins to LB

CR3/combat preat (injured) at 96% wins to HA

1 Egyptian longbow remains in the city.We ahve 2 catapults left to attack.

This seige lasts 6 years you know. A lot of other things happen in the empire. Let's look at them for a moment.

Great General born in Rome.

A first look at the heathen land.

Mehemed has just 7 cities. Liz has just 6. We have 15. Peter has 11 and is annoyed again.

Peter is annoyed with Liz and is pleased with Mehemed. Liz is the meat in the sandwich over there.

If they declare on her they will get all her land. Diplomacy could be tricky with these ones.

Meanwhile back at the siege, the order is given to finish off the defenders and raze the "holy" city.

Our catapult wins and the city is taken, and razed to the ground.




Turn 6 In the year of our lord 1466 a new city is founded on a hill next to the ruins of thebes. It is called Arpinium, A grisly cross is fashioned from the remains of a catapult. The preist travelling with the army consecrates the bloody ground and the city is now Christian.

Out of stories and tales mode / I settled on the hill purely bacause it is more defensible. I couldnt see any disadvantage. We can still get the iron. So we took the capital for the loss of a cat,a treb, a preat. Not bad.

Turn 7 1472
Army healing nicely. Miltary moves are the Longbows and knights but I move them to mid- Paris area so that they can divert quickly to defend if Freddy attacks. The next player will see units all over the countryside. They can be deployed either as defence or attack on Hatty as you see fit.

Whip Knight in Cumae to use the unhappy faces, Whip NE in Pisae to use 2 unhappy faces. Running 2 scientists.

Turn 8 1478
whip Temple in Paris to use 3 unhappy faces. It is now at it's cap.

Turn 9 1484 All healed, I leave 2 maces in Arpinium and head for Memphis to meet a mini-stack from Tours en route.

We lose a trireme to Hatty's 2 caravel stack.

Turn 10 1490 Military moves to Memphis, and defense positions near Germany. Freddy is cautious. No negative for razing a holy city. Must only be the city of the faith one is in.

For the next player. There are 2 Egyptian units hanging around Tours. They will pillage for sure, but are not much threat.

Also just realised that Memphis is a holy city. We will have to raze it, so maybe it's better to wait for a settler. None is being built.

On the other hand it will hit her hard. All her shrine gold gone. She can build muskets, trebs and Horse archers now.

I noticed our power rating is quite a bit higher than Freddy's. He's not such a threat now I think. So possibly better to smash Hatty while we can.

Cosmichail - Black Knight
Rince - Teutonic Knight?
JesusOnEez - Knights of the Realm
Mice - All Knight
Vra379971 - Up

 

[vra379971]

I'm up? *yawn*

Will try and play tonight. Likely tomorrow.

 

[mice]

Hi Vra. If you take Memphis dont forget to raze it. Holy city.
I'm only reminding you because I see from other SG's you have a lot on your plate, I mean exams - good luck.

 

[vra379971]

Thanks =)

WE RAZED THE GREAT LIBIARY!

I know we had to...but...*cries*

 

[mice]

And we already razed, Great lighthouse, Hanging gardens, Ankor Wat.

 

[vra379971]

*glares sullenly*