JOE-05 - The Crusades

[Rince]

Here are my turns. I'm sick ATM so please forgive if I am a bit brief but I have to get back to bed

Turn 1

Workers move east to improve Antium and build road to Cumae.

Turn 2

Nothing, except that seeing that goody hut on the island makes me think that we should maybe get sailing soon for transporting a warrior and later settlers over there.

Turn 3

Worker build road on rice in anticipation of agriculture.

Turn 4

Border pop in rome. No new interesting tiles in reach though.

Turn 5

Border pop in the latest french city. This is quite annoying because the scouting warrior was pushed back and has to make a big detour now.

Turn 6

Agriculture is researched, start to farm the rice since the road was finished the same turn. As I agree with our need for culture, I set research to Mysticism.

Turn 7

Nothing.

Turn 8

A barb warrior appears near Cumae. With a little shock I realize that there's only a warrior defending Cumae. No problem usually but I left the axeman in Antium sit around there doing nothing. He moves towards Cumae but won't reach it before the barb because the road isn't finished yet.

Turn 9

Nothing.

Turn 10

Barb warrior attacks and looses.
Christianity spreads to Cumae! Quite a surprise, and a good one since we have "free" culture now.
Rome finishes its granary and looses the whipping unhappiness. I set production to Praet.
Antium is currently undefended because I sent the axe to cumaes defence. We might want to put the victorious warrior from Cumae there.

Ok, here some pictures of our exploration efforts:

First, an overview of the island.



And of some territory south of the french city closest to us. They got iron and gold down there!



Roster:

JesusOnEez
Cosmichail
Rince
Mice up next
Vra379971

Greetings,

Rince

 

[mice]

Got it, and hope you get well soon.

 

[Cosmichail]

Good stuff Rince. I am glad you went for mysticism for the monuments. We need to get culture to Antium. Funny how Cumae gets religion but Antium doesn't.

Looking at Louis's progression I'd say those horses are gone. We won't need them as such but it'd be nice to have for anti axe duty. Maybe after mysticism we think about sailing for lighthouse/galley and check that island out. Like you said Rince it'd be nice to get a galley over there. Better to send a scout to pop a hut than warrior though so I say we use our scout for that if he isn't tied up in Louis's culture. Sounds like a flu bug Rince which seems to be going around. Hope you get well fast.

 

[mice]

So tech to sailing after Mysticism. Good idea.

I'm a bit worried about our commerce situation, and lean towards us cottage spamming the island ahead of pushing outwards Louis.

I changed one of the the possible sites



If others want to push toward Louis thats fine by me.

I see Louis as a preat/catapult victim, with the attack on a few galleys,and the north defended easily.
I dont think we can rush him early, and we dont have the econ to support it yet, so we should take his cities a smidge later IMO. His cities will be valuable I think,and we need them.
On the other hand a preat rush could snatch the top 2 cities , and then defend and sue for peace.

Will move the warrior in Rome to the rice spot south, to stop a barb spawning there. Spears coming up in the new towns. Would feel safer with Preats , but I guess the spears are quicker.

I dont want to chop in Rome because of the health issue. Next builds; Galley in Rome. It's at it's happy cap so we are working the forests not the seafood.
Obelisk in Antium even though JoE hates them. What do you think? Libraries are far off.

 

[Cosmichail]

Concur Mice I don't think we are near doing anything military wise.

Sailing is a good choice and we could get a galley and land a scout on that island and clear the fog. (see that in your plan)

As to chopping in Rome I have the same sentiments as two forests = 1 health so better to keep them. Go ahead and change the spears if you like I think Praets are better. Maybe having one or two spears is good for anti horse but Praets are indeed better.

Putting obelisk in Antium is necessary even though Joe hates them. I personally like them especially playing as Egypt. Wow two priests in an early game and voila you have GPriest before anybody.

We need to get that gold hooked up and worked for commerce. It will help with happy too. What concerns me about not working sea resources is that we loose the commerce and reduces our research. That happy cap is a pain and I'd let it grow unhappy and whip the red faces away for now. It also really depends how much whipping we have done. Have fun Mice....

 

[mice]

Good point about the sea resources. I haven't changed yet so I'll stay on the sea and then whip when i can.

 

[JesusOnEez]

Nice turns chaps. I'm going to let go of the Praet rush idea. Out starting land was pretty sucky generally, so I'm in agreement that we should go for settling the western island before someone else does, and also wait until Cat's before having a crack at Louis.

Has Judaism been founded yet? Monotheism would be handy for spreading the word...

 

[mice]

OK, nice turnset.
T1 moved Rome's warrior to the riice in the south so that a barb cant spawn there.

T2 zzz

T3 Warrior in Louis' land contuinues scoutign. I think it's the best use for him. we need more info.
Whipped an axe in Rome onto the nearly finished preat for 2 population. Rome now at happy cap (6) growing in 3 turns, so I swithed 1 seafood to hammers

T4 Myst in , Sailing started. Spear done in Antium, started monument.
Axe done Rome with 1 turn to the preat. Next cued will be a settler to use all that food and hold population at 6 while sailing is researched.

T5 sent axe to Cumae, our only barb danger zone now. Cottage in Antium because we wont be able to work moeer mines. It will probably be a good commerce city.

T6 Monument whipped! Pop grows back in 1 turn !!



T7 Settler due in 7 , moved preat north too. Warrior sees good land in Germany. We will take this land I think.




Somewhere in these turns, work boat sees new barb land. With hindsight I maybe should have scouted Louis' coast, but here we see another place to settle. This opening could be all about settling rich land for ourselves. It could be a real water map which would make the game very interesting.



With these islands, Louis' land and Freddy's, we can have a foundation to take over the whole world





Freddy asks for OB I say yes . Not sure about the consensus here, but it seems we need info and will be spreading our religion soon so ...I said yes.


T8 Wheat finally finished in Cumae, health in Rome is OK now so I dont connect it, just send the worker to pasture the cows. Warrior in Cumae goes up to the hill in the north. He can fog bust which means we only have 1 tile to defend from barbs, the wheat tile. I thought the axe in Cumae could stick his nose out a bit and see what has changed.

T9 -10 carry on of builds. Settler in 4 , sailing in 9

JoE , yes Judaism has been founded.

 

[vra379971]

Okay...where do we want to go from here.

 

[mice]

If it were me carrying on I'd build a galley to get the settler over to the island, and scout Louis more.

If we war with only Louis and Freddy, this island should remain unmolested as a cottage pump for centuries to come.

Maybe Rome as a settler pump, Cumae doing troops, Antium on the gold. Antuim came make galleys too.

 

[Cosmichail]

Just wondering has anybody got the circumnavigate bonus yet? The area you are scouting I think it's good as it gets us closer to that bonus. That can be a real navy lifter. Even try to buy map to complete circumnavigation but I wouldn't trade. Louis/Hatty will be up clogging up our island in the sun.

Excellent on getting the monument built in Antium at least we can get the gold hooked up soon.

If it were me carrying on I'd build a galley to get the settler over to the island, and scout Louis more.

I agree a good plan for now.

Indeed Rome is a great settler pump and whipping city. Probably a good spot for the Globe down the road.

Rooster update:

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

I agree with Jesus our land is mediocre so far and hopefully the island of Dr. Moreau will have something to offer. We need a good cottage city as Rome with constant growth we need to keep the forests there for health. In addition once we get to lumbermills Rome will produce a lot better. If we are inclined to chop those forests then better with cottages. There's always Angkor Wat for a priest production city but AI generally likes to get philosophy fast on Warlords.

 

[vra379971]

Okay, I played it. Terribly uneventful, but we built a settler, and I founded our new city to our NE, and blatantly walked one tile past the suggested spot so we can preserve the forest (and leave the wheat).

We have another settler coming in 3 turns. I'd whip a galley and head off to the Island. Also, I put us unto writing, but no turns invested yet.

 

[Cosmichail]

Okay, I played it. Terribly uneventful, but we built a settler, and I founded our new city to our NE, and blatantly walked one tile past the suggested spot so we can preserve the forest (and leave the wheat).

Good call VRA and looking forward to your report.

 

[JesusOnEez]

Good stuff, we're expanding quite well. How does everyone feel about going for Monotheism after Writing? I want to start getting the faith spread as soon as possible, and it'll speed up production in our cities with Christianity.

Plus, getting as many cities Christian as possible will be good for spying.

Also, although we haven't met Mehmed yet, eventually we have to get Theocracy up and running to prevent Islamic spread to our cities for fear of giving cities away. Especially now we are exploring further out...

I'm thinking for now that the general way to go is get Monotheism, then go for Construction, build up an army of Cat's/Praets and whup Louis about, whilst at the same time expanding to the eastern island, or possible the barb island...

Thoughts?

 

[JesusOnEez]

Just wondering has anybody got the circumnavigate bonus yet? The area you are scouting I think it's good as it gets us closer to that bonus. That can be a real navy lifter. Even try to buy map to complete circumnavigation but I wouldn't trade. Louis/Hatty will be up clogging up our island in the sun.

We're a fair way from the circumnav bonus. The map hasn't had the "big zoom-out" yet, so don't let that decieve you!

 

[mice]

Yes ,that sounds like a good general direction. I'm keen to start pushing the religion around.

 

[Cosmichail]

Yeah you're right Jesus I realize that now about circumnav bonus. I just like to always make sure to get it first. I notice too map is fractal so Mehmed could be near by or even on another landmass. I think the more we scout the better. Although sometimes fractal has one continous landmass and we may even if we sail the shores enough have a chance at it with WB or galley. Never too early to keep that in mind.

Monotheism sounds good obviously for organized religion which will give us the extra production too.

(I don't know but I haven't had Islam spread much overall but that's maybe because it's usually a late religion and I get the impression with CivIV the more religions you have in a city the less likely of spread.)

I take it too that we don't have theology just the religion?

As to tech path don't forget you do need mathematics for construction too.
So mono->mathematics->construction

 

[JesusOnEez]

Yeah, I meant to beeline to Contruction after Monotheism.

Got it right...we DON'T have Theology!

 

[Cosmichail]

Terribly uneventful, but we built a settler

Me thinks some of us are itching for action already including me. We need a super/super production site and pump out those praets and convert everybody the hard way. It would be nice though to have theology for XP points as I'd rather fight with CR2 Praets then CR1. I don't play Romans a lot more of a Viking nut. Those Praets are pretty powerful though and we should use them before we see those vassalage messages.

With the land we have so far capturing some nice cities as Mice pointed out (freddy/louis) would help us out. Right now we are lacking a really good production city and hopefully that fourth city will meet that need. Although Rome with it's food can whip lots of Praets. One other site I notice too that qualifies as super production site is near the copper northeast but I don't think there is enough food to support working a lot of mines.

Maybe that island will give us a good production site where one can get 20 base hammers early. Even that would take 4 turns to build Praets at 67 hammers each. At least with the whip we get 90 hammers for 2 pop and end up with 23 overflow. Even better if we have forge in Rome. 90+25%

 

[Cosmichail]

Vra posted "played" on this date/time:
Mar 15, 2007, 11:12 PM

It's now Mar. 18, 2007, some 2-1/2 days later. Last time Vra you played you posted a one liner and then waited over 2 days to post final report. (Mar 5 played - Mar 8th posted report)

Is there any reason why you can't just post the report once you play and upload the save. All this waiting around makes me loose interest and not fair to keep the team waiting for so long. I hope you will post the report today and upload save so we can move on. (considering since the play is uneventful it only takes like an hour to play and half an hour to put report together at best????? Why does this have to take almost 3 days???)

Sorry to complain but I really loose interest when it drags on and forget even what the game is about having other games to play too.