LK154 - CCM - Bablyon

[Jersey Joe]

Yes, by all means revolt immediately to monarchy if you can, though it may be optimistic to think we'll have the chance on your round.

You were right, I was being very optimistic, best I saw was when I offered 300 gold plus 65 gpt and was told by out adviser "we are getting close to a deal".

If we time things right, with three fifteen-shield forests coming down at the same time, we should be able to get a one-turn theatre built in Babylon. This may require some forward planning so that we'll have enough units in the area to cover workers on three tiles.

I might have tried this if I did not have to wait for World Religion to complete. I did it in 2 turns with 2 chops(one chop each turn). Third chop just went into Town center. 2 turns from now Babylon should be able to produce 20 shields per turn.

 

[darski]

this is quite a challenging game. Will be watching

 

[LKendter]

Glad to see we got the world religion.

ROSTER:

LKendter
Greebley (up)
Jersey Joe (swapped)
Elephantium (on deck)
Northern Pike

 

[Northern Pike]

Lost Furs and lost Northern Exploring ship.

If we lose an important exploring unit due to a mis-click, as I assume must have been the case here, it's all right to re-load. We aren't competing with other people.

We have two workers dangerously exposed outside Ellipi. It appears that the workers had the movement points to keep moving after crossing the river and their escorts didn't, but in any case, the next player needs to correct this immediately.

 

[Northern Pike]

The Russians have elephants, which we can see at Yakutsk, and furs, whose location we don't know. So since we can hope to have those items by conquest before too long, I don't think we need to found an otherwise feeble city to claim them with our new settler. My site Two, from post #80, still looks best to me (perhaps predictably ).

 

[Jersey Joe]

If we lose an important exploring unit due to a mis-click, as I assume must have been the case here, it's all right to re-load. We aren't competing with other people.

It was not a mis-click it was a calculated risk. The Mongols had 3 coastal tiles in a row blocked. In sailing around the blockade, I risked stopping at sea and sank.

We have two workers dangerously exposed outside Ellipi. It appears that the workers had the movement points to keep moving after crossing the river and their escorts didn't, but in any case, the next player needs to correct this immediately.

This was on my part, I moved the workers anticipating covering them with a warrior from Ellipi (not seeing that the warrior had to cross a river).

The Russians have elephants, which we can see at Yakutsk, and furs, whose location we don't know. So since we can hope to have those items by conquest before too long, I don't think we need to found an otherwise feeble city to claim them with our new settler. My site Two, from post #80, still looks best to me (perhaps predictably ).

I agree your site Two has the potential to become one of our most productive cities (all it needs is mines and roads).

 

[Elephantium]

Re: military units.

Personally, I think we should favor tuskers over stabbers

 

[Northern Pike]

Joe, thanks for the clarifications.

 

[LKendter]

ROSTER:

LKendter
Greebley (up)
Jersey Joe (swapped)
Elephantium (on deck) - don't know where Greebley is, but if Elephantium can get it, will skip Greebley this round.
Northern Pike

 

[Elephantium]

Ok, I have time to play both today and tomorrow. I've got it.

The plan right now is to continue building forces for the Russian invasion. I see that we have 15 units ready at the front, including only two EWs (needed for Akkad and the Worker). I'm going to get that up to 5-6 EW and 15-20 attack units.

Ellipi takes 8 turns to send a 1-move unit to the border with Russia. Horseman completes this turn; EW completes next turn; that EW is at the front at the end of my turnset.
Assur takes 6 turns, Ninevah takes 5. Between all three that's 10 EWs at the front at the end of my turnset - double what's needed. Instead, I'll keep Assur building Swords and turn Ninevah to EWs.

Babylon will take 2-3 turns to produce a Town Center (How many worker moves does a chop take?). I think it can get to 20 spt by the end of my turnset. In the meantime, that's 2-turn Swords with a 4-turn travel time.

Units produced and moved to front:
Bab: 2 swords
Ninevah: 5 EWs
Assur: 2 swords, 1 EW
Ellipi: 3 Horsemen (but we need more EWs for Worker and city coverage) -> 1 Horseman

Adding in 4 swords, 1 bowman, 1 chariot, and 1 horseman already on the move, that's 27 attack units and 6 EWs. More than needed. Maybe I'll keep Ellipi on Horsemen and put Assur on EW duty...

This all ignores infrastructure buildup, too. I'll start some Town Center builds (in Ninevah and Ellipi) in the second half of my turnset.

Perhaps most importantly, I need to get the Settler to the next city site. NP favors a hill surrounded by grassland BGs. JJ marked a potential spot SW of Babylon in the plains. I generally favor spots with food bonuses, but nothing with food bonuses gets even close to NP's hill spot in terms of BGs.

Thoughts?

 

[Northern Pike]

I like that overall schedule very well.

Ellipi doesn't have a barracks, so it can only produce regular units. The most useful regulars we can produce are Enks, which will be sufficient to cover workers* as long as they're stacked two to a tile, and can thus free veterans to go to the front. So we may want to shuffle the builds around to account for this.

*And also to garrison unthreatened cities.

Town centres are not a natural build for our present cities, since they're not corrupt enough for the corruption-reducing effect of TC's to matter. I don't mind the current TC build in Babylon, since I'd like to see how much "50% luxury output" (from the Civilopedia) helps in practice, but we don't need any more. Nineveh should definitely stick with military builds, since it has a barracks, and Ellipi probably so.

Please bear in mind that we'll be irrigating Uruk's cow, not mining it.

This may not be relevant on your round, but we'll probably want to take Yakutsk before Yekaterinburg, because a size-one town (for now, anyway) will be much easier to hold against the twin perils of counterattacks and flips. Taking Yakutsk will deprive the Russians of their elephants, too.

 

[Elephantium]

I was thinking the TC builds would help growth; Ellipi can't grow any more right now because of happiness issues, and Ninevah is close to that point.

OTOH, getting Furs online will help with that.

We're of much the same mind re: units in Ellipi. I can see reg. Horsemen being useful, too (retreat giving them a better chance of getting to vet), but reg Enks are definitely useful to fill holes in our defensive stance.

 

[Northern Pike]

I see your point about happiness problems and town centres, but if we're going to build happiness structures most of our cities still have temples and/or theatres available, and those are cheaper improvements with a more clearly defined benefit (one happy face each) not dependent on where we've set the lux slider.

 

[Jersey Joe]

Babylon will take 2-3 turns to produce a Town Center (How many worker moves does a chop take?).

1 of our workers can chop a forest in 4 turns it will yield 15 shields. Also, it takes 1 worker 4 turns to irrigate. (Our Russian slave takes 3 times as long to do anything.) If you chop a Babylon forest to finish the TC, I would suggest chopping a Plains forest. (I think we should mine the Babylon plains, even before railroads.)

I think it can get to 20 spt by the end of my turnset. In the meantime, that's 2-turn Swords with a 4-turn travel time.

If I remember correctly, once Babylon grows you can move a worker off irrigation and to a forest and have 16 base shields which, with Slavery, will yield 20spt.

Perhaps most importantly, I need to get the Settler to the next city site. NP favors a hill surrounded by grassland BGs. JJ marked a potential spot SW of Babylon in the plains. I generally favor spots with food bonuses, but nothing with food bonuses gets even close to NP's hill spot in terms of BGs.

Thoughts?

I just like making dot maps NP's hill spot will be a very good production center once we get it mined.

Hopefully you can find someone to trade us Monarchy.

 

[Northern Pike]

Once we found the city at Two, we'll have the northern portion of our position fairly well under control. So I'd suggest that we use our Russian slave to found a colony on the furs seven tiles NNW of Akkad, rather than waiting until we found a city in the area--which may be a while, since it's not a very good site.

 

[Elephantium]

Ninevah and Ellipi => Enks
Assur stays on Swords

1 AD (T101):
I pull all four Workers by Babylon into a chop; it's the only way to chop my way to a TC in 1.
I start the Settler convoy to NP's Spot #2; he's covered by two Enks, a Horseman, and a passing sword this turn.

Babylon TC > Sword
Ninevah and Ellipi: Enks

25AD (T102):

Settler gets to Assur. I can put Babylon at 20spt (Thanks for pointing that out, Jersey Joe!), but I keep it more focused on growth; we already get 2-turn Swords.

Ninevah and Ellipi: Enks
Assur: Swords

50AD (T103):

Keep moving troops... I notice that $city just got a culture expansion, so we'll take two turns to approach once we declare.

Ninevah and Ellipi: Enks
Bab: Swords

75AD (T104):

Yet another quiet turn...

Ninevah and Ellipi: Enks
Assur: Swords
Uruk: Granary > Slavery

100AD (T105):

The Settler gets to the hill. The Workers there are a little awkward; 4 is too many for roads but not enough for mines.
Canada, Greece, Inca, and Nubia have all entered the Age of Discovery. We have some catching up to do...

Ninevah and Ellipi: Enks
Bab: Swords

Lots of people building Royal Tourney

125 AD (T106):

I build Eridu north of Ellipi and start work on National Symbol.
I also switch Ellipi and Ninevah to Temples.

Canada completes Hagia Sophia

Assur: Swords

150 AD (T107):

Sigh. We STILL can't buy Monarchy: Horses+519g+67gpt (all we have) just makes "I doubt they will accept this proposal." with Israel.

Nubia completes Royal Tourney

Babylon: Swords

175 AD (T108):

Russians moved a Spear + Warrior to 2S of Akkad. Enslavers kill one and take the other one into our service

Russia complains about our Enk (moved to cover Enslaver). We apologize.
Italy completes Roman Senate

Assur: Swords

200 AD (T109):

More moving troops...

225 AD (T110):

Handoff time. The new city is building the National Symbol, Ninevah and Ellipi are nearly done with their Theaters, and we have a SoD near the Russian front. I'd wait 3-4 turns to declare; the Russian slaves will be done with the road on the current tile in 4 turns.

I have the Worker stack near Uruk watering Plains tiles towards Akkad; it needs more improved tiles to work ASAP.

In other news, the Vikings have taken Yakutsk! With the war between those two civs, we should have an easier time expanding on that front. For that matter - we do still want to attack Russia, right? I wouldn't mind taking Yakutsk from Scandinavia, but we're probably best off going for Yekaterinburg.

 

[LKendter]

LKendter (on deck)
Greebley (MIA - waiting to here from)
Jersey Joe
Elephantium
Northern Pike (up)

 

[Northern Pike]

Nice work preparing our attack. It's great news that the Russians already have a war on their hands.

I've got it.

 

[Jersey Joe]

Looks like the Town Center works as advertised.
With 31 total commerce, Babylon gets 9 happy faces at 30% luxury tax.
Nineveh, with 37 total commerce, only gets 6 happy faces at 30% luxury tax.

 

[ThERat]

Nice game guys

I would attack Russia right away, they have a war at their hands and certainly are exchanging units with the Vikings. Don't wait too long.