LK58 - Middle Ages Scenario

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Ever thought of bringing a Settler to the Holy Land, to have a fallback if the initial attack fails?
And thus you'd only have to disembark a stack of defensive units first, while the important ones are save on the ships (ships are save in this Scenario, since only the Dromon and the Barb vessels are flagged as 'Naval Power', and I guess Byz won't ally against you) and can unload next turn.

 

[LKendter]

I see it - I will play tonight or tomorrow night.

 

[Justus II]

@Doc,

I thought about loading a settler, but I saw a problem with it. First, it would have to be built 2 tiles away, and Jerusalem would obviously have the superior culture, so the attack units that landed there would have to take an extra turn to move up, then attack. Knights could attack the same turn they landed, (after the city is built) but not the Longbows, and also not the catapults. That gives him more time to bring in reinforcements and/or counterattacks. Otherwise, you would have to land the catapults and slow units adjacent to Jerusalem, but then that means 2 stacks to defend. It could still be done, I guess, as there is a settler in Strasburg due in 2 turns, if LKendter decides otherwise. Another fallback option would be to build Byzantine (Battlefield) Medicine, I think Paris can complete it in 15 turns, which would give us healing in enemy territory. However, I think if this first assault doesn't take it, it will be too late to wait and heal, he will be able to reinforce far faster than we will!

 

[meldor]

I am in from the cold...let me know when you want me to pick up a turn...

 

[LKendter]

With utter disgust I report this turn

1293 AD (pre-turn)
Have to complete this turn, but mostly worker actions.
The Byzantines have 26,460 vp -
I have no choice but to sail this turn and pray it is enough.

It is under priced, but I sell Castile Religious Persecution for $73, wm and $8/turn. This lets us rush the final galley.
(I) The Celts and Magyar sign peace.
Cordova establishes and embassy with us.


1296 AD
Do or die time begins, and the fleet sets sail. If that assault fails, we lost as Byzantine will break 30,000 vp before we can mount another force.
(I) Byzantine and Cordova sign peace.
Bulgars and England sign peace.
Kievan Rus and Abbasids ally vs. Byzantine.
Sweden and Abbasis ally vs. Byzantine.
Poland and Kievan Russ ally vs. Magyars.
The Magyars have been eliminated by Germany.


1299 AD
(I) The Byzantine complete Hanseatic League - Colossus and Smith's.


1305 AD
Bulgars and Cordova ally vs. Poland.
Castile and Cordova sign peace.

1308 AD
Our fleet passes by Sicily. However with Byzantines up to 29, 035 it is too little, too late.
(I) Byzantines and England sign peace.
England and Abbasids ally vs. Turks.
The Turks are destroyed by Kievan Rus.

1311 AD

Summary:
We are frelled - we waited to long to sail. I have no idea the Byzantine were this strong.
I record the 2nd loss for the LK series.

 

[Justus II]

Wow.... I never thought to check the VP totals, I wonder how they went up so fast, that's averaging nearly 1,000 VP/turn!! Where did that come from? From the sound of things, they were the target of a dogpile, but they must have been able to kill everything coming at them.

 

[Grimjack]

We vill have revenge. Someday somehow the Abbasids will pay for holding the holy city of Jerusalem hostage.

I suspect they got very well rewarded by the double gpt in the beginning, as they were techleaders. Tihs let them research tech and build wonders to amass VPs.
Their heavy combat orientation in the end game sealed our fate.

Grimjack, who is willing to have a rematch.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

I just finished this with Germany (Demigod, but 1.13), and the situation was pretty much the same - Byzantium had about 26000VP when I finally managed to get a Mediterranean Port, then I had to eliminate the Bulgars only to deny Theo the VPs, and when I finally returned the Splinter (Jerusalem was raised earlier, but I brought enough units just in case), Byzantium had passed the 29000. Darn close, but I guess the superior speed of my Galleys with the Viking Sagas saved me.

I dare to advertise this here:
Reconquista!

 

[Rubberjello]

I feel for you guys!

This is a tough, challenging scenario. As others have mentioned, the GPT bug, FP problems, and lack of tech brokering due to the separate tech trees makes this Conquest tougher than the difficulty selected, IMO.

I must confess that in my solo victory on this one at Emporer level with the Germans, I caught many lucky breaks and was able to research a couple of the "other" tech trees. This was quite fun, but I think you guys did not have the luxury to do that. Yes, the Viking Saga really helps in the final sailing of the invasion fleet, but more importantly the ability to build Blacksmiths (Viking tree) early in the process really helped out everything else for me.