LK169, Italy, CCM 2.5, AWM

[LKendter]

This is really not our typical Always War game

Look how much exploring I did to find China.
I had to explore as the extra Oracle settlers are running out of locations to be built.

This is the blandness between us and China. This area is simply filler cities for science and unit support.

 

[LKendter]

America has just 5 cities left. They should be our first kill.

Two of the city locations are clear. You can see borders now touching our borders of Sheepish Pig Iron. There is a possibility of another city at green dot. It is on a hill. My gut says that would be the best spot to limit overlap based on where I think the two USA cities are. A production city with < 20 tiles is far more valuable than those boring grasslands near China.

 

[LKendter]

This is the long irrigation chain by Rome and Veii. With having no breaks in the forest the irrigation chain has to go outside our borders.
The one stack of workers is completing the last forest to mine. After that, I was planning on all those coming up the blue water line.

 

[LKendter]

Pink dot is my next proposed city. Since I got two settlers during my set, I suspect the next is JJ's set. This is a powerhouse city with 2 strong food tiles to support production. It has the bonus of connecting well with Viroconium.

The best part it is the jumping point into our attack on China.
One this to watch is this is also the area where Maghreb troops are coming from.

 

[LKendter]

This is my current planning for our research. I just selected Engineering, so going after Sacred Art is an option. The problem on the Sacred Art path is a prebuild. The best Veii has is great religious center for 5 lousy turns. I only pulled of the Philosopher's Stone gambit (barely) was thanks to Circus Maximus being a long prebuild.

 

[LKendter]

The next big push is USA. I hope their last 5 cities aren't too tough. It would be nice to get a kill. It would be nice to stop starving these cities. Until they are dead, I don't feel I have a choice to avoid flips. I'm hoping those 5 fit nicely with our empire.

Please avoid navigation and renaissance as long as possible.
I want to get as many bonus settlers as possible from Oracle.
I want to keep the Roman Senate and Limes as long as possible.
Between those 2 techs, it is a tough choice.
Navigation is totally useless. Navigation opens up useless naval guns. Renaissance opens the pathway to universities, medicine (500 shield battlefield medicine prebuild), observatory, etc.
I'm open to discussions on this one. Luckily there are 4 techs to research before a decision need to be made. As of now I lean toward keeping Oracle active for those bonus settlers. I'd rather fill in all that stuff by China than have another civ head that way putting us into yet another war. We've been very lucky that Japan has been MIA. 6 civs is a bit much to fight, and I don't want more.

In case you can't tell from the picture overload, I felt a LOT to communicate from this set.

ROSTER:
LKendter
Greebley (up)
Jersey Joe (on deck)
Elephantium

 

[LKendter]

The one map problem we have is NO saltpeter. I couldn't even spot it disconnected.

 

[Jersey Joe]

The one map problem we have is NO saltpeter.

Hopefully there will be some close to an American town we annex.
Given than Slatpeter is only found on hills, mountains, and in the desert maybe we should fog bust the hills north of Ravenna and Sheepish Pig Iron.

I like the Engineering -> Clockworks path. It get us builds that increase shield production and lets us cross rivers without penalty. Based on the Roman's actual historic road building prowess, crossing rivers should be a perk that comes with building The Limes.

I like your new Green dot spot. I think Green dot will share tiles with 2 American towns, but that should not hurt Green Dot's production potential.

Pink Dot pushes our borders so far west that before we build a forge or slavery, we should build a Castle.

 

[LKendter]

Given than Saltpeter is only found on hills, mountains, and in the desert maybe we should fog bust the hills north of Ravenna and Sheepish Pig Iron.

Taking the last American cities should expose more hills and mountains. Lets see those results before deciding to further explore north. North has the highest risk of meeting more civs.

 

[Elephantium]

Pink Dot pushes our borders so far west that before we build a forge or slavery, we should build a Castle.

Why a Castle?

 

[LKendter]

Why a Castle?

Unit healing post Roman Senate and much stronger city defense.

 

[Jersey Joe]

Please avoid navigation and renaissance as long as possible.
I want to get as many bonus settlers as possible from Oracle.
I want to keep the Roman Senate and Limes as long as possible.
Between those 2 techs, it is a tough choice.
Navigation is totally useless. Navigation opens up useless naval guns. Renaissance opens the pathway to universities, medicine (500 shield battlefield medicine prebuild), observatory, etc.
I'm open to discussions on this one. Luckily there are 4 techs to research before a decision need to be made. As of now I lean toward keeping Oracle active for those bonus settlers.

I favor learning Renaissance before the Navigation. I opens up the path to many techs and lets us keep getting bonus Settlers from the Oracle. I would avoid learning Navigation until we have no choice but to study it.
Unfortunately, learning about the Renaissance makes The Limes obsolete and the free barracks it supplies will disappear. However, at this point in the game we are normally building Castles and looking to build Small Wonders that provide barracks effects in production cities.

 

[LKendter]

ROSTER:
LKendter
Greebley (up)
Jersey Joe (on deck)
Elephantium

 

[Greebley]

I have got it. Will start Friday/weekend so will check for more comments before I begin.

 

[Greebley]

More enemies and they are close with fast units

Preturn: Only change is to skip walls for Seatle. It is protected by mountains so should not be attacked.

IBT: Several attacks from different directions. loss of a unit

1200 AD: Capture Boston without loss.

1225 AD: Kill random units. Get a Monk and expand Virconium's Border for insta-wine and get the Deer as well.
We meet Poland

1250 AD: Move on for attack on Seattle.

1275 AD: Seattle is Destroyed. Wasn't paying close enough attention, but I think it was just planted. Also spot Chicago.

IBT: Japan has started showing up. Moved most troops back from China border.

1300 AD: Start exploring desert looking for Saltpeter.

1320 AD: Poland has already shown up in big numbers near Chicago. I attack one unit next to the city but the defense 1 unit red-lines our 6 hp attacking Elephant. Chigago will almost certainly fall to Poland.
I pillage Mountain square near China to slow them down.

Notes:
(Turn 155) Will stop here - running low on time (going on a trip this weekend) and we can discuss Poland strategy.

You can see the US border with ctrl M/ctrl N - I marked on the map.

We have a monk near Philadelphia so we can expand a border to slow Poland - I think Washington and Philadelphia border should meet if we do.

If we lose the city (expected) we should be able to take it back in the near future, but other Polish units plus skirmishes in the south with Japan and China will be annoying.

 

[LKendter]

Please STOP exploring for Saltpeter and pull the units back. Adding Poland is bad enough. We can't afford anymore enemies. We have a decent size empire, but not enough to take on the volume of civs we are finding.

Glad to see USA is almost gone. Mapstat gives them 1 city. It will be nice to get our first kill.

Once USA is gone, I think China is the next target. We know they are the most backwards of the civs we are fighting. In addition, we haven't seen any fast units from China.

I think Green dot on the mountain near USA is the next spot. It adds another productive city without expanding our borders.


ROSTER:
LKendter
Greebley
Jersey Joe (up)
Elephantium (on deck)

 

[Jersey Joe]

Having Settle auto raze is not that bad. It was going to lose tiles to "green dot". Looking at the posted map, it looks like we could build 1 tile northwest of where it was on the road.

I got it.

 

[Elephantium]

Preturn: Only change is to skip walls for Seatle

1250 AD: Move on for attack on Seattle.

1275 AD: Seattle is Destroyed

Did the USA have two cities named Seattle?! This was confusing to read.

 

[Jersey Joe]

Did the USA have two cities named Seattle?! This was confusing to read.

In a way yes. If you recall , the first city we every annexed was Seattle. Then the USA built a second one , east of Sheepish Pig Iron.

 

[Greebley]

We had already gotten contact with Poland before we started exploring so exploration is not why we met them.

Agree we don't want to find another civ, but I think Poland might make a good next enemy (close and best chance of Saltpeter) and we could really use defense 4 so some small risk I think is worthwhile. We just don't want to go too far.