LK152 - the weak Venezuela

[Northern Pike]

Edelweiss took most of my Sunday evening

Wikipedia doesn't offer much guidance on this--were you drinking a lot of white wine? Playing a wargame about mountain troops? Singing the show tune?

 

[Elephantium]

Edelweiss is a PBEM here on Civfanatics using the Hinge of Fate mod.

 

[Northern Pike]

Thanks for the link--an interesting thread.

 

[LKendter]

150 BC (0)
Russia has all the cash, but we have nothing to sell them.

I wipe the archer as suggested, and promote to elite. (1-0)
(IT) 33 gold isn't worth annoying Russia over. Ms. Ugly can have it.
The elite spear survives a sword attack. (2-0)
Sadly, the settler pairs from Brazil turn around.
Barinas gets a library, as I'm worried about culture squeeze in that city.


130 BC (1)
An elite MDI wipes a spear, but no leader. (3-0)

The Songhai get republic for $59 and $76/T.
(IT) The elite MDI barely survives a sword attack. (4-0)


110 BC (2)
We have first contact with Egypt, who is dead even with us in tech.
I kill 2 spears. (6-0)

Of the visible civs we see, only Germany as monotheism. We give him 3 techs for it.
The gambit pays off, as Russia gives us all cash $1435 and $27/T for monotheism. I was hoping Russia would really want it. El Spices thanks Russia for the temple.
I get a bonus as Egypt gives $87 and $40/T for it.
(IT) This round sucked. The pike covering an MDI is attacked by swords. We lost our stack killing 2 swords. (8-2).


90 BC (3)
Our elite sword finally gets the wandering spear on flat ground, and kills it. (9-2)
An MDI by El Spice barely kills a sword. (10-2)

I ship America engineering for $51 and horses. We can use a few fast units for the interior.


70 BC (4)
Elite MDI beats a sword. (10-2)
Elite sword beats a sword, but will die as he found a stack of 4 units behind it including swords. (11-2)
Elite MDI beats a sword. (12-2)

This isn't good - Brazil is willing to give less for a peace treaty.
(IT) We are next to a Recife, and the AI sends 2 spears and a settler above it.
As expected, we lost that sword. (12-3)


50 BC (5)
MDI hits spear in Recife and lost. (12-4)
Next MDI barely beats a spear in Recife. (13-4)
2 Elite swords beats 2 spears in Recife. (15-4)
MDI beats a 1 hp sword, and we raze Recife. (16-4)
As slow as this battle is going, I refuse to capture this early on. We get 4 workers for our troubles.
MDI kills one of the spears guarding the settler, but nothing more in range. (17-4).

I grab a worker and $16 from Argentina for monarchy.
I ship the Aztecs monotheism for $437 and $36/T.
(IT) No attacks by Brazil.


30 BC (6)
Inching Forward is founded.
Our first horse kills the settler that is now unguarded as the injured spear didn't move.
Elite MDI kills the injured spear. (18-4)
Elite MDI kills one of the injured swords by Inching Forward. (19-4)
MDI kills another one of the swords (20-4)
(IT) No attacks by Brazil.


10 BC (7)
Reg MDI kills the 1 HP wandering spear in the north, and is now a vet. (21-4)
Elite MDI kills a 1 HP sword. (22-4)

I know the standard is clear, then road. However, I need the road between El Spice and Inching Forward ASAP to keep moving forward. I can't wait for the jungle to be gone if I want to hit the next city.
Our 2 frontline cities need fast movement between them.
(IT) I'm tempted to call his bluff, but America gets monotheism.
A sword dies again the walls of El Spice. (23-4)


10 AD (8)
Elite MDI kills a sword. (24-4)
Elite MDI kills a spear. (25-4)
MDI kills a sword and goes elite. (26-4)
(IT) The beggars are getting tiresome. The Aztecs get $100.
We lost 2 pikes to swords, while killing just 1. (27-6)
Invention arrives via the Great Library.

 

[LKendter]

30 AD (9)
Elite sword kills a sword. (28-6)
Our elite spear tries his luck versus a 1 HP sword. (29-6)

All the MDIs get nowhere, but a stray spear pulls it off. The RnG is always crazy.
We now have a victorious army from attacking a 1 HP spear. (30-6)

Elite sword kills a warrior. (31-6)
Horseman kills a sword, but it is left exposed. (32-6)
(IT) We have horrid defense luck again losing a spear, the exposed horse, and a sword just killing a sword. (33-9)
We get notice about the Heroic Epic being available.

 

[LKendter]

50 AD (10)
Don't chop will complete HE in 20 turns.

Our galley made it to England to find another Russian city. The next set should hopefully see some fresh contacts.


Summary:
The red circle is our MDI covering the stack building to raze Brasilla. As you can see Brazil is by no means spent. At this pace I expect my next set to still be war with Brazil.

A couple strays are collecting in the north. At some point we need to start a second front to deal with those desert cities.

ROSTER:

LKendter
Elephantium (up)
Northern Pike (on deck)
Greebley
ThERat

 

[LKendter]

And the save.

 

[ThERat]

Well, well, Brazil is surely posing some opposition. However, with our first army we should be able to slowly take them out.

Great trading btw

As NP suggested, if we get yet another army, we should keep it for knights to fill.

 

[Northern Pike]

Yes, trading for Monotheism to sell it on was a perfectly judged gambit.

One mace army to let us start HE and serve as a stack anchor is fine, but I agree with Rat (or with Rat agreeing with me ) that we should keep any further armies empty until we can fill them with knights.

 

[ThERat]

by the way, thinking longer term. Since we are religious, wouldn't a switch to communism make sense later on?

 

[Northern Pike]

Hmmm...it's quite a while since I've played a huge-map game that ended in communism, so I'm not sure. Will it be a good idea to average out our corruption amongst good cities and all the junk towns in tundra and desert we'll have before the end?

 

[ThERat]

Forgot the averaging part....played too much CCM...forget communism

 

[LKendter]

Plus to have to be careful with commie to get courts into all your good cities before the switch, as they will drop in productivity.

 

[Elephantium]

MM:

Coro gets the gold hill - 6 spt
One Banana gets a mined hill - growth is still due in 2 but 6spt
What happened in Three Banana? It looks like it should have completed a Pike on the previous IBT. Last minute change from a Settler build?
Switching citizens assignments around between Panama, Caracas, and DCYLA allows 14spt in the capital and 10 in DCYLA while wasting less food in Panama.

IBT:

We lose the Mace next to the Army to a Brazilian Sword 0-1

Russians complete Sun Tzu
Turn 1:

Advance on Brasilia, ignoring numerous swords in the open.
Bombard a lone sword near El Spice, covering with Pike and mace

Turn 2:

Siege of Brasilia:
MDI Army kills Spear (9/12 hp) 1-1
MDI Army kills Sword (8/13 hp) 2-1
eMDI kills rSpear and razes the city. 3-1

Horse kills redlined Spear 4-1

We meet Babylon; we're at tech parity with them.

IBT:

Brazil goes 1-1 against one of our Pikes 5-2
They drop off a Sword at Inching Forward, too.

We get Chivalry

Babylon completes Leo's

Turn 3:

I switch most of our military cities over to Knights.

We redline the Sword at Inching Forward; eSword kills it 6-2
We kill a redlined Sword in the open 7-2

Valley of the Green founded on the ruins of Brasilia
We meet backwards France; they lack the AA govt techs and all Medieval techs.

IBT:

Russia completes Knights Templar

Turn 4:
We ping two Swords and a Spear next to Inching Forward
We bombard two Swords in the open and kill one of them 8-2

IBT:

Sword suicides on our MDI from T4 9-2
Their forces converge on empty El Spice.

T5:

eSword kills stray Spear 10-2

IBT:

Another Sword gets dropped off at Inching Forward
Australians complete SoZ

T6:

eMDI kills stray Spear threatening one of our Worker stacks near Three Banana. 11-2

We bombard two Swords at El Spice; eSword kills one. 12-2
MDI kills the other and promotes 13-2
We ping an Archer and kill it with another MDI 14-2
eMDI kills a stray Sword 15-2
We lose an MDI trying to kill a wounded Sword near El Spice 15-3
We lose an eSword trying to kill the landed sword next to Inching Forward 15-4
An rSword promotes as it finishes the job 16-4

IBT:

Brazil offers us a straight-up peace. Sorry, dude, you're going down.
They narrowly kill one of our exposed Swords and shuffle around a lot of units. 16-5

T7:

We redline a Spear next to Inching Forward and kill it with a Sword 17-5

Army kills Sword at Rio de Janeiro 18-5
MDI kills stray redlined Sword 19-5
...but that was ill-advised; it reveals a full-health Sword right behind it
eMDI kills a redlined Spear near El Spice and generates Leader Blanco! 20-5

IBT:

As expected, we lose that MDI 20-6
China demands Monotheism. We can't afford the war if they declare and buy in the Aztecs or Argentinians, so I cave.

T8:

eSword kills redlined Sword on the road. 21-6
Rio de Janeiro:
eMDI kills rSpear 22-6
eMDI kills rSpear 23-6
Goodbye, Rio!

IBT:

Sword dies on our MDI near the ruins of Rio 24-6
Sword dies on redlined MDI on the same tile 25-6

T9:

MDI kills stray Spear 26-6
MDI kills stray Sword 27-6
Sword kills Settler pair 28-6

IBT:

We get Theology and Gunpowder from the GLib

T10:

I found the semi-tactical town of Blanco Bay.

It enables our Knight Army to attack Porto Alegre and raze it after killing two Spears 30-6

 

[Northern Pike]

Great progress, and a nice kill ratio.

The only bad trend here is the fast tech rate. We're going to lose the Library when our commerce base is still miserable.

I've got it.

 

[LKendter]

Summary:
I can’t load the game at the moment. I hope our new city is connected to the road net. I think I may have failed in my summary to mention we really need roads to help hold our new cities.

I don’t see us getting chemistry from the great library. It is time to start 40 turn research.

We still have a ton of cash - may as well rush another settler from El Spice. I did once on my set.

I'm glad the wonders for extra units are on the other land masses. I'd rather not deal with those at this point.

ROSTER:

LKendter
Elephantium
Northern Pike (up) (already got it)
Greebley (on deck)
ThERat

 

[Elephantium]

Valley still isn't connected by road net -- I had some slaves working on it, but I didn't have enough units to keep them safe until they could finish the job

The Knight Army will really help there.

Russia has Chem already...I think we have decent odds of getting it from the Lib. It could go either way.

One more thing...I think we'll be really well set for a West coast campaign once we get a stack of 4-6 Knights and a Pike or two. Brazil has a lot of units running around, but they're not accomplishing much.

Finally...Valley of the Green hasn't been attacked yet. It looks really vulnerable with just the Spear there, but I've been lucky thus far.

 

[ThERat]

I agree with LK to employ one single scientist for chemistry. You never know.

By the way, I would not go for such suicidal offensives with border cities defended by a mere unit. This is asking for trouble. No need for that.

Another question for the team, do we keep a special place for FP or do we just rush it anywhere with a MGL?

 

[LKendter]

For the FP - the only thing I ask is decent quality city.
I don't want to waste it on a two shield max city. A decent distance from the palace would be nice.

Hopefully it opens up soon as more cities are built. And we can build it at least once city behind the front lines just in case of a surprise.

How long till Brazil is spent. I still notice a lot of swords walking around.

 

[Greebley]

I think we need to get more workers. I don't think we have enough given the amount of jungle. The knight towns can slip one in between knights for example.