LK151 - WM, where are we?

[Northern Pike]

Jiikoo has expressed my position, if more bluntly --an American war would be a tremendous, potentially game-losing gamble in an attempt to solve a problem (the intrusive American city) that's irritating but not critical.

I'll add that with worker merges, we can raze/replace the American city much later in the game and still get good production from the new town.

 

[CommandoBob]

4 0470 BC

Buy The Republic from Babylon for Monarchy and Currency.
Sell The Republic to America for Wines and 1252 of 1252 gold.
Sell The Republic to Sioux for Incense, 21 gpt and 353 of 353 gold.
Sell Literature to Indonesia for 124 of 124 gold.
Sell Literature to Austrailia for 94 of 94 gold.
Sell Literature to Venezuela for Silks and 86 of 86 gold.

Brasilia: library in 4-> market in 6; set to zero growth to keep at size 12.

Drop luxury from 50% to 30%.

And we begin the Revolution.

Workers at Braisilia move to road/mine the grasslands next to the American border. These tiles are now being worked by the city to keep it from starving.
Workers begin the last part of the Fortaleza-Claudia Donovan connection.
Irrigate the flood plain 2N of Five Wheat Feat, useable by Cure Dream and HG Wells.

Settler pair reach Jayne Cobb and start walking northwards.
Road the hill 1E of Artie Nielsen.
Mine the grass 1S of Belo Horizonte.

Trespass near Coro, Venezuela.
​

[IBT]
Preboot from Venezuela.

Brasilia starves.

Russia is building The Great wall.
Indonesia is building The Great wall.
Babylon is building The Hanging Gardens.
America is building The Temple of Artemis (again).
America is building The Hanging Gardens.
Sioux are building The Great wall.
Sioux are building The Hanging Gardens.


5 0450 BC

Trespassers
American rSword 1S-1SW of Brasilia, heading west towards Cincinnati.

Begin the last leg of the Rio-HG Wells route.
Road the hill 1S of Captain Mal Reynolds, to connect Herbert West.

Sell Literature to Germany for 54 of 54 gold.
​

[IBT]
Get the boot from the Sioux.
Preboot from Germany.
Brasilia starves again.

We become a Monarchy.

The Great Wall is built in Washington, America.

Sioux are building The Hanging Gardens (again).

6 0430 BC

Trespassers
American rSword moves into his own country.

Road the game tile near Claudia Donovan.
Road the first forest between Rio and Artie.

Drop luxury rate to zero; hire a geek in Brasilia to keep the city happy.
This is our only geek.

Road 1E of Five Wheat Feat, makes it faster to Fortaleza.

Trespass the Sioux again.
​

[IBT]
Preboot from the Sioux.
Preboot from Babylon, stricly naval.
Boot by Venezuela.
Boot by Russia.

Salvador: worker -> vSword in 3.
HG Wells: catapult -> catapult in 4.

China is building The Temple of Artemis.

7 0410 BC

Babylon knows Engineering. Only Babylon knows it, however.

Two new roads are connected to HG Wells.

New worker in Salvador goes to help the Rio-Artie turnpike.
​

[IBT]
Preboot from Australia.
Boot from Germany,
Preboot from Venezuela.
Preboot from Russia.

Fortaleza: vGalley -> granary in 7.
Captain Mal Reynolds: catault -> catapult in 7.

8 0390 BC

Irrigate 1E of Five wheat Feat.
Mine the BG 1S of claudia Donovan.
Settler pair finish walking.
Hill roaded at Artie, send those two workers to road the second forest on the Rip-Artie turnpike.
Road the plain 1NE of Captain Mal Reynolds.
Settler is ship chained towards Jayne Cobb.

Meet Egypt. We are up by Polytheism and The Republic.

Sell Polytheism to Egypt for 345 of 345 gold.
​

[IBT]
Booted by the Sioux.
Preboot by Egypt, naval only.
Preboot by Germany.
Booted by Russia.

Five Wheat Feat: worker -> worker in 4.
Cure Dream: worker -> worker in 4.

Egypt is building The Temple of Artemis.


9 0370 BC

Road the grass to connect Herbert West.
Road the plains 1SE of HG Wells.
Road 1SW of Five Wheat Feat.
Road the grass 1N-1NE of Artie, shared by Belo Horizonte.
Mine the last grass near Brasilia.

Leena is built near one of Austrailia's Iron Colonies; starts a temple.
​

[IBT]
Preboot from Russia.

Salvador: vSword -> vSword in 3.
Rio de Janerio: settler -> settler in 4.
Claudia Donovan: vHorse -> vHorse in 5.
Artie Nielsen: vSword -> vSword in 5.

The Hanging Gardens are built in Little Bighorn, Siouxdom.


10 0350 BC

Mine the BG between Claudia Donovan and Captain Mal Reynolds.
Mine the grass NW of Fortaleza.
Finish the Rio-Artie turnpike.
Mine 1N of Artie Nielsen.
Mine 1SE of Belo Horizonte.


New settler walks to Fortazela, to meet a boat.
New Sword tags along, one tile behind.
​

And the save is attached.

 

[CommandoBob]

New Cities

Spoiler :

Mrs. Frederic and Leena are both visible here.

The Light Green Circle is where one settler is ready to make a new city. I am not sure if here or somewhere on Japan is a better place. A galley is nearby for furter transportaion, if needed.

Trading
From The Great Library we picked up six Ancient Techs.
We bought Republic from Babylon and sold Literature to anyone who had at least 50 gold.
We import Wines from America, Incense from Sioux and Silks from Venezeula. All deals are good for 14 more turns.

We are the richest civ in our known world.

We met Babylon and Egypt.

Babylon alone knows Engineering.

We are learning Feudalism at 1 geek speed. That geek is in Brasilia.

We are now a Monarchy.

We have ships exploring the Land Down Under, the Northwest Passage and the West Coast of America.

We have warriors walking around.

Random Stuff
We have two catapults near Five Wheat Feat. A third one is in HG Wells, ready to join them.

Two vSwords are 1S of Rio, next to the Amerian border, trying to be menacing. The vSword 1N of Artie is on his way to join them.

The ship chain needs some work. One galley can be based in Fortaleza and another 1W of Herbert West. Next turn those two can be in place. The next two, on the other side of Herbert West, are already set. These four galleys are not blessed with any special names. Firefly Japan shuttle is a bit further north but can move south.

The settler and Sword will arrive in Fortaleza next turn, but the Sword will be out of movement and cannot load until the following turn.

Worker Locations/Tasks
One slave, 2SE of Cure Dream, irrigate flood plain in 3.
Two workers, 1NW of HG Wells, roading plains in 2.
Three workers, 1W-1SW of Brasilia, mining grass in 1.
One worker, 1SW of Five Wheat Feat, roading plains in 2.
Two workers 1SE of HG Wells, roading plains in 1.
Three slaves 2SE of HG Wells, roading grass in 2.
Three workers, 1W-1NW of Captain Mal Reynolds, mining BG in 2.
Two workers, 1W-1NW of Fortaleza, mineing grass in 3.
One worker, 1NE of Captain Mal Reynolds, roading plains in 1.
Two workers, 1N of Hebert West, roading grass in 1.
Two workers, 2N of Artie Nielsen, completed forest road.
Two workers, 1N of Artie Nielsen, mining grass in 3.
One worker, 1N-1NE of Artie Nielsen, roading grass in 2.
Two slaves, 1SE of Belo Horizontes, mining grass in 6.

No combat, again. We visited people, but some of our neighbors are touchy when we get snoopy.

Military
02 Settler
21 Worker CCM
06 Slaves
20 Warrior
12 Spearman
05 Sword
01 Horse
03 Catapult
06 Galley
02 Curragh

Current Units: 72
Allowed Units: 36
Support Costs: 36 gpt

Feudalism in 34, 00% Science (geek in Brasilia), 00% Luxury, +74 gpt, 4076 gold.

 

[LKendter]

ROSTER:
LKendter (up)
Greebley (on deck)
Northern Pike
CommandoBob

 

[Northern Pike]

It's good to be down to 0% lux.

CB's green-circle site looks fine as a land grab. After that we should concentrate on completing our control of Japan. Three more cities, arranged as in the screenshot, will cover every tile there.

It would have been good to settle the Philippines, where our northernmost city at least wouldn't have been too corrupt, but we can see an American border there under the fog so perhaps it's unwise now. Mixed islands are generally inconvenient when we go to war.

Salvador is about to hit size seven, so it should switch to a one-turn worker.

Fortaleza's granary build looks odd, since the town isn't a settler or worker source. I'd suggest we should switch to a marketplace or barracks there.

We still want to build the FP in Brasilia after its marketplace, of course.

We can easily afford to rush all the temples we're presently building. It's helpful to get them finished in the BC's for doubling purposes.

Germany, surprisingly, has 38 gpt that we can pick up for techs.

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[LKendter]

350 BC (0)
Now that I've loaded the game, I realize we have a 4th possible target - Australia. I saw the colony before, but now I see their cities nearby.
Any enemy still needs more scouting before we move forward.
I wonder if Russia has already had a war. I don't recall Samara on the list of natural Russian city names.

Per NPs suggestion, I give Germany map making for $33 and $38/T.

Fortaleza is pretty ugly at 9 shields. I swap to barracks, and the fish. I'm hoping at size 6 it can get to a more useful 10 shields.

Salvador goes to marketplace next. I prefer to let the city stay at size 7+, as we get better unit support. We need to grow more of our towns up.

Culture rating tends to be one of our biggest problems with world map play. I like NPs idea of temple rush.

I want to keep working on more workers. We have a ton of undeveloped tiles, and no workers in Japan. I'm not sure how good Japan will be, but I at least want roads between the cities.
(IT) We have a lot of whining civs complaining about being inside of borders and booting us out.



330 BC (1)
Chloe Armstrong is founded at the Green circle site.
(IT) I suspect Germany won't be around long. I just watched Babylon take one of his cities. Plus I see a massive amount of Bowman heading his way.


310 BC (2)
(IT) Babylon builds the Temple of Artemis, let the cascade begin.


290 BC (3)
The Mongols showed up on the trade screen. With them willing to give furs, I figure out where in the Americas we met.
Overseas trade routes are to flaky this earlier, so I simply empty his bank of $142 for literature.


270 BC (4)
Dr. Jeremy Franklin is founded in Japan.
I give Venezuela polytheism for $128.


250 BC (5)
(IT) The Great Library earns its worth as we gain feudalism and engineering. The next guess for tech is invention.


210 BC (7)
Adam Brody is founded.
I ship Egypt monarchy for $117 since they suddenly have cash.
I ship the Aztecs monarchy for a worker and $3. First one I've seen this round.
(IT) Russia is definitely at war, as I see their troops fighting something. It is always confusing to see just 1/2 of the battle.


170 BC (9)
India is in South America around where Brazil would start. Literature is cheap, so I give it to him for $50 recovering part of our embassy cost.


150 BC (10)
Australia has some cash, so I ship them polytheism for $90.

 

[LKendter]

Summary:

I know it is still early in the game, but I already wonder if Babylon is going to become a monster.

Despite spending a lot of cash on temple rushes, and military upgrades we still have over 3K cash on-hand.

Russia is at war with America
My opinion about a possible war with them is changing. If we can also drag Venezuela into the war, we should be able to pick up at least few cities. No matter what I want the deal with them to end. Please make sure our troops our outside of America borders. I don’t know if it was the India RoP that caused the broken rep, but I don’t want to go through that again.


ROSTER:
LKendter
Greebley (up)
Northern Pike (on deck)
CommandoBob

 

[Greebley]

If America is at war, then that will solve the issue of the initial rush.

I will look at the situation and perhaps start a war - I think we have 4 turns on trade deals left? I would need to look at our cities defenses to make sure we don't risk one of the unconnected ones.

 

[LKendter]

4 turns sounds about right for America, but I can't say for sure of the top of my head.

I worked on getting roads toward our newer cities, but that was by no means complete.

I was still in the middle of shuffling troops around for upgrades.
I didn't even get finished vet warrior to sword when feudalism came in, and the cycle started again with adding spear to pikes to the mix.
I think we have at least one border city with just a reg warrior. Those need to be shuffled to the interior.
We have a handful of bombard, and pikes to protect our stacks, but it still feels weak to me.
If war looks like viable to you, then I suspect we want a lot of partial rushed troops. Keep using that cash to get an advantage.

 

[Northern Pike]

Efficient settlement of Japan.

Helena G. Wells is stuck at size six with a full food box, which is wasteful. I would switch the trebuchet just about to complete there to a settler.

We have a handful of bombard, and pikes to protect our stacks, but it still feels weak to me.

I would make that "very weak".

 

[Greebley]

Preturn: I make the change NP suggested. One minor change of Horse to Pike in towns with Warrior. Move the Cats.
I also send an exploring Warrior to see the town we can't see near our GLib. That would allow us to investigate it.
[Edit: I made several junk trades in these turns that I did not fully record. Old tech for paltry gold]. The last turn was the only one I got gpt for. I did get lux as mentioned.
IBT: I trade for Spice for Map Making. I recall that you can trade for a resource with non-per-turn deals and it doesn't hurt your rep, just theirs.
130 BC: Settle the town of Lucy Heartfilia. This is better known name than Cure Dream but still anime. Trade for some more resources [Edit: I made and other resource deals as things ran out or came up - all for tech so no risk]
I move the troops and rush 2 units. American troops are far from us at the moment and I dislike their town placement.
Not sure if France is new, but they have nothing.
IBT: Watch the Americans and Russians battle it out.
Watch the Mongols gain a Leader fighting Germany.
110 BC: Another unit rushed. Move troops.
IBT: China wants Engineering and they get it.
90 BC: Beyond France is Persia from whom we get 123 gold for Polytheism.
Persia now has Monotheism. I give them Feudalism and Engineering. It allows me to verify America has only 9 gpt and 9 gold.
IBT:
70 BC: Declare on America and move units into their lands near Buffalo the town we want to take.
50 BC: Capture Bufallo getting 2 Elites and a loss. Its size 9 so I sell the buildings and Abandon it. Replace city with Natsu Dragneel.
IBT: Some MDI spotted near our borders. A settler is off to steal a spot.
30 BC: Moving troops to take out Richmond. Land settler on the island south of us.
10 BC: Troops for Richmond are in Five Wheat Feat. Build Erza Scarlet on the new island.
10 AD: Found the town of Grey Fullbuster.
We kill our first three American MDI and get our first Elite victory (with no leader gained.
Move on Richmond, the spot that got settled out from under me before.
IBT: A Pike behind Walls is killed by a MDI. Roving Warrior killed by MDI. They also sinK a Galley.
30 AD: We capture Richmond losing a MDI to one of their pikes. I keep the city but move in a settler to replace it next turn.
IBT: Just before we can attack the American units they all reverse to go after Richmond.
50 AD: Nothing to attack and the next attack is unclear. There are 3 areas where we overlap that could be pursued.
I make several deals this last turn including some for gpt and random resources. I sell the ancient times techs for cheap.
Notes:
Babylon has Invention. I actually think we want to trade this (or even give?) to as many civs as have Monotheism. The reason is with that tech they might start Chemistry so we get that before Theology and Education. In other words giving away the tech may make the Great Library stonger for us.

We cannot speak to America yet. We have only been able to pick off 6 units other than defenders. Despite their large Civilization size and a number of units seen, they have blundered around for 5 turns doing nothing while we took two cities. I feel our defenses are sufficient, though we may see their Swordsmen show up. They are fairly easy because they have shown no Speed 2 units.
I will circle on the picture where I think we should attack next. taking the Southern peninsula seems reasonable. Or we could make peace. We have the two towns I really wanted to claim. I think I prefer continuing the war however

We lost one Boat so we have 2 going for theirs. I am not sure if that boat has units - probably not as they attacked with it.

I have rushed units for this war as suggested so that we are more comfortable now. However, with trades and a good income we are not lower than when I started.
We have 19 Pike and 21 MDI. We could use some Trebuchets to give us better odds. We only have one and the 5 Cats. Rushing more units may be reasonable, however we do want to drive towards Cavalry when we get Education so building Libraries (soon) and keeping the cash for 100% science can get us there with some hope of having Cavalry when others do not (though this may require republic or science farms). Or keeping cash for steals or trade.

I did not MM the cities as I was getting weary. It would be good to do this. I did make deals in the final turn so that is checked.

 

[Northern Pike]

Tremendous start. I'll try to keep the war going, although it's still possible that the Americans will show up with twenty MDI outside Brasilia and we'll have to make peace on whatever terms we can get. I hope Abe will talk soon so that we have that escape hatch.

Of course we couldn't keep the captured American cities, but at this stage of the game wouldn't it have been more natural to raze them for the workers? Sometimes holding a city for a turn is smoother tactically, I know.

I've got it. I'll MM before hitting Enter--no problem.

 

[Greebley]

I would have liked to raze them but that would put the units at risk to counterattacks and we didn't have enough troops for that. I wanted to move the settler onto the spot first which means the city must be there with its roads.

If we don't want to/need to settle on the same spot we should be able to raze, but we may need more Horsemen so we can take the city and then retreat.

 

[LKendter]

Summary:

I'm happy to see most of the world low on cash. That means we've down a good job of grabbing every dollar we can.

It is nice to see some workers in Japan. Some of those cities may at least have some productivity, so I'd like to see them up and going. The road net between our weaker cities continues to improve.

We have plenty of cash, so can Natsu rush a temple? I'd like to get better control of our borders.

I agree to keep pushing America as long no big stacks show up. New Orleans and another iron source is very appealing. Plus that is the best land in the area.

We only have one settler, so can Rio switch back to settler mode?

If we are keeping forward vs. America, then I would like to use up some cash to rush more troops. Fortazella could switch to a 7-turn unit to part rush a MDI.

Venezuela will join the war for monotheism. If we want to keep this a long-term war, I'd like them to join the party.

ROSTER:
LKendter
Greebley
Northern Pike (up) (already got it)
CommandoBob (on deck)

 

[Northern Pike]

I would have liked to raze them but that would put the units at risk to counterattacks and we didn't have enough troops for that. I wanted to move the settler onto the spot first which means the city must be there with its roads.

So I imagined--thanks for the confirmation.

 

[Northern Pike]

View attachment LK151-250AD.SAV, end of turn

 

[Northern Pike]

50 (0): Phenomenal accumulation of luxuries--I don't know that I've ever seen us have all eight so early.

I check our MM, fixing a few minor problems.

The screenshot shows our front line against America. New Orleans is the preferable next objective, but American pressure against Brasilia may draw our forces farther north. We'll see how it plays out.

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

One of our galleys narrowly sinks an attacking American galley (1-0).

Salvador trebuchet --> maceman, Brasilia maceman --> maceman, Five Wheat Feat worker --> worker, Cure Dream settler --> worker, Jayne Cobb harbour --> trebuchet, Adam Brody worker --> trebuchet.


70 (1): The Americans have nineteen macemen near Brasilia, so even though they're just shuffling them around indecisively so far that situation could become untenable in a moment. Fortunately Abe will now grant peace on equal terms, so we can play with the draw in hand, as chessplayers say.

With that assurance, we risk some mace-on-mace attacks without catapult support around Natsu Dragneel, smiting six American macemen (and a spearman) for the loss of two of ours (8-2).

We slay one American spearman outside Wendy Marvel (9-2).

We lose a pikeman and a horseman to American counterattacks around Natsu Drageel (9-4).

The Americans again don't advance on Brasilia.

Rio de Janeiro treb --> treb, Natsu Dragneel temple (rushed as recommended by LK) --> treb, Belo Horizonte maceman --> maceman, Claudia Donovan pikeman --> pikeman, Wendy Marvel walls (rushed) --> temple, Mal Reynolds treb --> treb, Ezra Scarlet walls (rushed) --> temple.


90 (2): We club down another American spearman around Wendy Marvel (10-4).

Our single maceman holding Ezra Scarlet in the northern Philippines strikes down an American archer landed next to the town (11-4). The city remains in danger, though, since we can't easily reinforce it in the face of American naval superiority.

We get a proper tactical road built between Brasilia and Wendy Marvel.

We set up our sneak advance on New Orleans—sneak, in that it’ll depend on a road built at the last minute.

An American galley appears out of the fog and sinks one of our galleys (11-5). Their extra movement point due to the Great Lighthouse is a problem.

The Great Library brings us Invention. We later see that the Babylonians, who occupy much of North America in this game, already have Gunpowder.

Salvador and Brasilia maceman --> maceman, Artie Nielsen settler --> maceman (not ideal technique, but we need a settler near New Orleans right now), Helena G. Wells settler --> treb, Cure Dream worker --> worker.


110 (3): We sell Construction to the backward Indians (who received an evidently terrible start in South America) for 14 gpt and 6 gold.

We implement Greebley's idea of speading Invention around to increase our chances of riding the Great Library as far as Chemistry, letting Russia and Persia have it for token amounts. We don't extend the principle to the Venezuelans, since they'll probably be our next target.

We move sixteen combat units, three bombardment units, and a settler onto the hill just east of New Orleans.

We bombard and send to the bottom the American galley that sunk our galley last turn (12-5).

We dispose of two roaming spearmen near Brasilia (14-5).

The pikemen in our strike force outside New Orleans do well against a violent counterattack by American macemen, going 5-3 (19-8). But the American response to our invasion brings a lot of units into New Orleans, and our attack looks dubious now.

The GLib brings us Chivalry.

Five Wheat Feat worker --> worker, Wendy Marvel temple (rushed) --> worker, Grey Fullbuster temple (lumberjacked and rushed) --> treb.


130 (4): It’s clear after the bombardment and three attacks (we defeat two pikemen and lose a maceman; 21-9) that there are more defending units in New Orleans than we have attackers. Our strike force will be obliterated on the interturn, and the situation is deteriorating at Brasilia and Natsu D too. Facing this situation…