LK154 - CCM - Bablyon

[Jersey Joe]

IIRC we always could, but the usual pattern of the games was that 1) we were very short of workers; 2) such workers/slaves as we could spare were needed for garrisons; 3) we had a lot of workers, but they were all needed for railing as we entered the fast-conquest phase; and 4) we won. So it wasn't an option we used much.

It is almost funny. I view this very lack of the workers needed to improve the land as a reason not to emphasize building Hospitals.

 

[Northern Pike]

I see your point, but if a city outgrows its number of improved tiles that can be remedied later in any lull between wars, provided our minimal rail network has been built. There's no way to win back lost time on a city's growth except by merging, and as discussed the right time for that never seems to arrive in CCM.

 

[Greebley]

There is a Nubian city past the choke right? We should pick a relatively strong civ into the war against Nubia to take out that one city. USA perhaps? No point in allowing flips.

I would say Nubia, Inca, France and then deal with south of the Choke...

So merging does add one Population in 1.8? Though I agree we won't be doing this much....

 

[LKendter]

I really don't see worker merging used much. All lands are in terrible shape still around some towns. Plus once we rail, we will need workers to convert irrigation to mines.
Even the WM we rarely merged expect for special situations, or at the very end when we hit land %, but lacked population.

 

[Northern Pike]

We should pick a relatively strong civ into the war against Nubia to take out that one city.

This keeps coming up. There are no military alliances in CCM!

No point in allowing flips.

The main thing we can do about this is to work really hard to put every possible unit into each Nubian city during the safe interturn, so we have the best chance to end resistance immediately.

Also, once we hold the Inca coast, which shouldn't be too long in game time, an expedition of rushed ships to take Wawat would be quick and safe. Or we could just make an RoP agreement with America, since according to the current plan we'll be turning our armies in the other direction once we meet them.

 

[Northern Pike]

Even the WM we rarely merged expect for special situations

Well, one of those special situations was that it was my round. But I agree with you and Greebley about merging in this game.

 

[Elephantium]

@Greebley - we can't make military alliances in CCM.

Edit: Ninja'd by NP!

Edit 2: I'm about halfway through my set, Ballana has fallen, and that gave us 2000 gold. I've done quite a bit of trading, and we're starting to be able to upgrade defenders to Musketmen in far corners of our empire.

 

[Northern Pike]

Sounds great.

Just as a BTW , updates in the form of edits rather than new posts are very easy to overlook.

 

[LKendter]

Just as a BTW , updates in the form of edits rather than new posts are very easy to overlook.

Very true - if I didn't see this post I would have missed edit #2.

 

[Elephantium]

It was a ninja edit

The second city gave us over 3000 gold. Next target is the Nubian capital. They just don't have enough units to really even slow us down.

 

[Elephantium]

The save:

 

[Elephantium]

Pre-turn:

A bit of MM...
Babylon can hit 40spt, she just needs to work a forest tile.
Cathyton badly needs some more Worker attention.
Akkad is still growing; we can dig more Mines whenever we can start building Workers by hand.

IBT:

Shanghai riots. Sigh, it had sufficient happy faces before I hit 'enter'
BOOOO! America completes East India Company! Ninevah had 6 turns left

T1 (1734 AD):

Mullah kills LB near Cathyton, no conversion

IBT:

Mongols renew peace, straight up.
Inca and USA sign peace.
We lose Incense.

 

[Elephantium]

 

[Elephantium]

T2 (1736 AD):

I cancel all the deals that ran out this turn and start making new deals:
Elephants to USA for 517 gold (they have no gpt but lots of gold on hand)
Furs to Mongols for 11gpt.
Furs to Carthage for 11gpt + 6 gold.
Iron to Egypt for 33 gpt + 53 gold.
Medicine to Mongols for 77gpt + 210 gold.
Furs to Spain for 9gpt
Furs and Medicine to Indo-China for Dyes + Elephants
Enlightenment to Greece for 52gpt + 17 gold.

I pass by on Nubia (duh) and Inca (we'll very likely be attacking them in less than 20 turns). We're up to +199 gpt!

IBT:

ntr

T3 (1738 AD):

The game crashes as I'm starting to move units

Restarting from the autosave seems to work OK.

IBT:

Nubia wants us to give them 25gpt + Furs for Incense

T4 (1740 AD):

Inca is now in the IA.
Dial up Nubia. It's war time!

IBT:

Nubian cavs, plus a couple of Muskets move in. We lose four Hussars in the first wave. 0/4

T5 (1742 AD):

We autoproduced a Clan, Schneider75, Heavy Artillery, and Marine Infantry.
We lose one Hussar, plus one retreat vs. one stray Musketman E of Ballana. 1/5
Lose another Hussar on a second stray Musketman. 1/6
We retreat another Hussar trying to wipe out a Garrison S of Ballana.
Lawyer signs a Great Artist from a Cav. 1/7*
Hussar kills a redlined Musket on the same tile 2/7
We lose a Hussar before we kill a stray Cav between Dongola and Ballana. 3/8

IBT:

Spain declares on India!
Nubia punishes our advance from last turn, smashing five Hussars in various tiles near Ballana. 3/13

T6 (1744 AD):

Enslaver shackles a redlined Cav. 4/13+

I can't build a Garrison in neutral territory I have to either spend eight Monks at Anyang to get another border expansion or delay Garrison support to after the fall of Ballana. Rats.

Ballana:
Cannon ticks 1hp from a Musketman.
Cannon kills Musketman. 5/13
Treb redlines Rifle but gets destroyed 5/14
Lawyer signs another Cav as a Great Artist 6/14*
eMullah converts another Cav and generates a Leader 7/14!*
Hussar kills Cav 8/14
Hussar kills redlined Rifle 9/14
Enslaver dies to injured Cav 9/15
Hussar kills it and liberates 2000 gold from the city 10/15

Mullah converts a stray Cav 11/15*

IBT:

We lose a couple of units in Ballana to Nubian Cavs; I lost track during the battles, so 11/17?
Resistance in Ballana ends.
Propaganda upsets Cathyton.

T7 (1746 AD):

Enslaver captures a Schneider75 crew 12/17+
We lose an Enslaver vs. stray Cav 12/18
Mullah kills that Cav 13/18
Enslaver kills a redlined Cav 14/18
Two Cavs kill stray Musketmen 16/18

Dongola:

Cav rides down a Musket 17/18
Cav dies charging a Rifle (redlines it though) 17/19
Hussar dies to a conscript Musket 17/20
Cav kills that Musket 18/20
Lose a Mullah trying to kill a Cav 18/21
Hussar kills redlined Rifle 19/21
Hussar kills Cav and seizes the city for 3300 gold! 20/21

 

[Elephantium]

 

[Elephantium]

Two Cavs retreat vs. mountain garrison arque
Third and fourth Cavs die 20/23
Fifth Cav destroys the Garrison! 21/23

I find a couple of EWs, Pikes, etc. and hit "Upgrade All", spending ~1500 gold all told.

T8 (1748 AD):

Almost no combat this turn; I'm just consolidating gains. I do hit an exposed Schneider75 with a Cav, though. 22/23

IBT:

Egypt destroys Japan. Damn, we had 9 turns left on a Furs trade; this may have blown our rep
Nubia loses a Rifle to our Cav 23/23
A second one forces a retreat
A third one kills it 23/24

We build the National Exchange, thanks to the Leader 2 turns ago.

 

[Elephantium]

 

[Elephantium]

T9 (1750 AD):

Stray units-
Musket W of Dongola:
2x Hussar retreats
Hussar kills Musket 24/24
Rifle S of Dongola:
Schneider75 destroys Rifle 25/24
Hussar rides down Rifle S-SW of Dongola 26/24
Hussar charges Cav 3SW of Dongola 27/24

IBT:

No action.
Israel cancels our Spices deal; I renew it as Spices + 243 gold for Furs + Horses.
Dongola deposes us.

T10 (1752 AD):

Second Battle of Dongola:
Cav dies 27/25
Cav dies 27/26
Hussar rides down Rifle 28/26
Hussar kills Rifle and seizes the city again 29/26. "only" 1404 gold this time.

With garrison support, the Battle of Napata:
4x Cav retreats
Cav kills Rifle 30/26
Cav dies to a Rifle 30/27
Cav retreats
Cav kills Rifle 31/27
Cav kills Rifle 32/27
Cav kills Rifle 33/27
Cav kills the last Rifle 34/27, the city gives us 2211 gold.

 

[Elephantium]

 

[Elephantium]

Handoff notes:

The Nubians are on the run. We can take Meroë either next turn or the one after (depending on whether you want to use our Cannon battery - a couple of Hussars or Knights to take out the Garrison E of the city would help, too)

Ballana is safe from flips. Dongola and Napata are not; we don't have enough units to absolutely prevent flips.

Toshka will take a few turns of movement; probably T4-5 of the next turnset.

Axum and Aniba could fall in the next 1-2 turns, assuming the next player is willing to split our forces. We *are* running low on cavalry (both Cav and Hussars, mostly due to the need for garrison troops in Ballana); I have reinforcements headed for the front, but it's a long supply line.

The Marine Infantry next to Babylon needs to deliver a Supply Shipment next turn.

Speaking of which, we can build Supply Center (Ivory) in Elit, (Incense) in Ballana, and (Wines) in Shanghai that - does anyone see any reason to delay those any further? I'm thinking queue them next since the map looks like a pangaea.

We can sell Incense to Canada; they have lots of gold. Maybe as part of a deal for Democracy; they want Incense + ~9300 gold; USA wants Incense, Iron, and ~8800 gold for it. Or it's 6 turns at 70% science (which we can sustain for ~25 turns with our current treasury).

As I was looking at those trades, our rep seemed intact.