LK65 - Demigod - world map

[LKendter]

Got it,
I will see what I can do. I hate having a large cavalry force idle before Infantry.

Just watch the target. We have a ton of outbound goods and payments. I think our ONLY legitimate target is China. Even that throws away a huge amout of GPT.


@ALL - Let's stop dealing with France, and put a boycott on anything more to them. The Zulu will prevent our 100K win. France just has to many wonders I want. RAZE the rest of those cities.

 

[Grimjack]

The only target I have identified which doesn't lose us a lot of money is Australia.
The problem with this is that we do not have much of a transport fleet.

I could start the Chinese campaign though. It would cost us some 3000 gold, but it might be worth it to shave turns of the domination threshold.

 

[Kylearan]

Could you post some pictures from time to time, for us lurkers? Pleeeease...

 

[Grimjack]

LK65 , 1400AD the year of the cavalry.

Take my time, checking the lay of the land. There are lots to learn, and despite only five turns per player, lots change between turns.

We have industrialization in three, a railnet in place, and lots of idle cavalry disrupting the peace in and around Delhi.

As to our neighbours, China is paying us 345 gold per turn in some tech deal. Fair target, but expensive. Zulu also has a tech deal running, but they are only paying us 193 gpt. I have not seen their SoDs though, so add a bit of uncertainty to them. To our north we have the French, and they are paying us a staggering 450 gpt. That’s a respectable chunk of our income right there. Finally to our south we have the Australians. They are really backwards, but alas, we do not have very many ships. The Babylonians could be a snack, but we are giving them Saltpeter for another twenty turns. Hope no one sneeze at them and wreck our reputation.
The Songhai might be a juicy target, but we would have a hard time to defend any land we grabbed. (Not to mention they have a rather nasty UU)I will see how many ships I can build in my five turns, and then next player can decide if we want to go across the sea to Australia, or if he would rather wait five more turns and take out the Chinese.

Having thought about it over night, I decide that freeing the Arabian peninsula from the Zulus would be worth 2000 gold, so I demand the Zulu vacate our premises, and he leaves ??
I declare anyway. The only deal we have with them is them paying us, and I want to use our cavalry while they are worth something. I am hoping for a short war, so we can deal with the more important Chinese front to secure our back. ( Of course should the Zulu collapse, we can continue against the Songhai and liberate the entire African continent. )

Alexandria is defended by Muskets, and after our cavalry army deals with the two top veteran ones, it is target practice for our cavalry against the remaining defenders. ( One of which is a conscript Medieval. ) I realize my mistake when I raze the harbour equipped city, and my computer grinds to a standstill for almost 2 minutes.
I kill off some 10 stray Zulu units skulking about just outside our borders. Manage to lose one cavalry against a regular musket, but considering I killed ten of them, I think I got off lightly.
Raze size 9 Knossos in the far north. I am razing because I can use the workers, and have a suitable supply of settlers.
While getting rid of troops on the road to Eulbar, Akbars shows his superior skills at riding, and is promoted to general on the spot.
In the ensuing siege of Eulbar, his lack of presence is felt, and we lose one cavalry.
I load up Akbars army with three cavalry only in case we want to go sailing and visit the Australians with them. I cannot reach the last city on the Arabian peninsula, and it will live for a turn until I can get troops in position to attack. Otherwise I hunker down, and see what the Zulu will throw at us. They are not likely to throw the Songhai at us, as they are at war. We are locked in peace with the Songhai for a lot of turns due to deals.

Phew, talk about preturn. It is now two and a half hour later than when I started.

IBT: I see a lot of French and Chinese troop movements, and even some battles between them. Songhai and Zulu on the other hand sign peace. One lone Zulu knight moves within visible range on the other side of the Red sea.

1405Ad That’s odd, we have cities with rails on either side, but no rails through the city. Zariqum is razed and captured, and with the exception of a small French city, the Arabian peninsula is ours.
I make some 150 gold from map sales before turning in for the night. It would take a long time for an IBT, and I am not certain I can hinder myself from the just one more turn syndrome once the IBT is done. I am so tired now that such a turn might prove a bad move.

I will hopefully complete my turns tonight. One question you might ponde during the day. ( I will at least ) Now that the arabian peninsula is free, and there looks to be a complete lack of counter from the Zulu, should I push into southern Africa while the going is smooth, or should I just seek peace as fast as possible, freeing up our troops for an assault on the Chinese ?
Such a push will probably be a ten to fifteen turn push considering the lack of rails and the distances involved. ( I do not want to expose our workers to the evil Songhai who might sign a RoP with the Zulu enabling them to catch our workers. )

Grimjack

 

[LKendter]

I decide that freeing the Arabian peninsula from the Zulus

Don't forget the Zulu are #1 in culture last I checked. We don't want to beat them up to much and risk 100K win. A few cities down isn't bad, but this war needs to be limited.

If they have anything thing else is Asia, we could beat those cities up.

 

[Rubberjello]

Yeah. I vote against going into Africa for now. Having lived through one scare of a Songhai SoD coming out of the fog in the North, I don't want to repeat the experience in Africa!
I say we go after China now. After all, we're only doing them a favor by canceling their debt to us, right?

 

[Grimjack]

IBT: Considering the length of the IBT, someone somewhere is trading cities. I cannot see anything though. Russia and Zulu sign peace. Hope that doesn’t mean a SoD will appear somewhere in the north. Zulu ships drops a knight at one island, and a miniSoD at another island, and that island may very well be toast. I will likely get it back in the peace deal, so I am not very upset.

1410AD I spend this turn railing/roading my way to the Chinese, and also healing our armies. I want to make a lasting impression on the Chinese. I intend to start in the south, and work my way northwards in a sweep, hopefully grabbing/razing most of their cities. I also rush a couple of riflemen so that any new cities next turn will not be empty.

IBT: Iroqs and Aztecs sign peace. Zulu sign in the Russians against us. I do not even know where the Russians are now a days. I do not expect them to live long enough to enjoy whatever the Zulu paid them. Oooo, we get a defensive hero when our lone regular rifleman withstands a zulu knight, two zulu medievals, and a Zulu longbow. The great Singh will have to be transferred to the mainland soonish. The Zulus two other attacks met with just as dismal a fate. A musket defeats a knight unscratched, and a rifleman gets dinged when defeating another knight.
Industrialization comes in, and I start Electricity. I will go min science on this, as I do not see any reason to hurry the tech race right now. If somehow the AIs do not go down the Communism/Fascism way, then it might be a mistake to go min science. I intend to do some warring now, and I could probably use the money rushing stuff.
I miss the bigger picture thing, and Gordium completes its Colloseum

1415: Finally the IBT ends, and it is 1415. It is time to get down to the serious business of conquering the world. I demand the Chinese invaders vacate our premises, or I would have, had they had any surviving troops inside our borders. Instead I just declare war.
Tatung is razed, Mandalgovi burns as well, but we lose one cavalry in the burning.
Lose another cavalry as I raze Ta-Tu. Macao has a tough Musket as defender, and we lose two cavalry while burning it. Shanghai is captured, as I do not need the disruption in the transport lines when I go after the heart of China.
I lose one cavalry capturing Rostov. With that name, I do not suspect the Chinese influence is very great. Too late I remember we are at war with the Russian island empire, and I will have to leave a guard outside, in case it flips. Our blitz ends at the gates of Beijing, where 12 cavalry is not enough to seriously dent the defenses. I only lose two cavalry, but I have several retreat when damages began to rise.

I put our palace prebuild on Suffrage. As I do not research into ToE, I suspect that is the best I can do with it. Our army prebuild was just the right size for a factory.

I will see if I can manage to grab a couple of screenies for you tomorrow, as I will have more time then.

Grimjack

 

[LKendter]

Oooo, we get a defensive hero when our lone regular rifleman withstands a zulu knight, two zulu medievals, and a Zulu longbow. The great Singh will have to be transferred to the mainland soonish.

Turn him into an army on that island! That way we have a chance at another leader.

==================================

I intend to do some warring now, and I could probably use the money rushing stuff.

If nothing else we need to rush some settlers to replace those Chinesse cities.

To use my favorite line - we can always use more workers. With our core size I am sure we have an absurd amount of rails to build.

==================================

I suggest we keep the China war going to quite a while. This is why we went to Monarchy. Most of our other potential opponents have open deals and are off limits.

 

[Grimjack]

I am building workers out of corrupt cities after they make their temples to our greatness.

Also, workers are coming in at the amount of some 10 workers every turn, given the speed of razings going on, but you are absolutely correct, another hundred workers would not have had problems finding something to do.

( I did make an empty army. They travel by ship just as easily. There are not many opportunities for leaders though. For some reason it is not often a weak defender in position. )

 

[Grimjack]

IBT: I do quite a bit of partial rushes for our factories, but I do not invest the money needed for a full rush other than in our highest production city.
Found a couple of Chinese riders up in the north, but French national guard makes short work of them.
Six Chinese cavalry counters nets three killed cavalry for us, and three killed cavalry for them. That is quite lucky as they were attacking our cavalry.
Aztec and Argentine sign peace, but Aztecs is in a big dogpile anyway. Zulu move up some cavalry in range. Seven could I count, and it is unknown if there are more in the shadows.

1420AD Beijing falls, and as it contains the marginally decent Magellans, I keep it. I realize the flip risk is horrendous, but I intend to put junk units inside only.

Lots of movement and healing positioning, to prepare for the next players initial push.

IBT: A French privateer sinks our Frigate in the Medieval ocean. The Chinese counters kill off an Elephant and a cavalry, but they lose two cavalry against our riflemen. A small landing on our islands is also detected. Remains to be seen if it is also remembered.
The zulu lose one cavalry against our Suez wall. ( I have built fortifications. )
Both our riflemen are redlined though. A lot of cavalry move up, and I may have to divert forces from the Chinese border if I cannot talk reason with the Zulu.

1425 I use our Cannons liberally now that there are units inside our borders, and we get several easy fights against redlined troops.
Canton does not contain anything worth having, and thus it is razed after a bitter fight. Our cavalry army is actually retreated.
Mycene in the north is razed, as it is within range of our cavalry, and no cities in the south are.

Our core is fully railed, but it remains to be optimized. We have several exposed cavalry, and it may be that we need to rush a few. With our income we can rush 8 every turn.
I have left you with some spending money, to put where you think we need it the most.

I recommend getting peace with Zulus now, freeing up those forces at the Suez to reinforce the Chinese hunters. Chinese campaign ground to a slow crawl, once the met the full force of their cultural borders.

I will see if I can attach the save, as I have had severe problems with the upload system now that I am on phoneline from home.

Grimjack

 

[Grimjack]

I am working on the save. I will have to upload to a third party somehow, or wait until tomorrow. I will edit in the link to this note when I manage to get the save onto the internet.
Weird that I can attach files, but not upload them.

 

[microbe]

Maybe the save is too big so it can't be attached? The "Upload File" link doesn't work?

 

[Grimjack]

Save can be found at this place I hope.

Fixed the URL

 

[microbe]

nope not there.

EDIT: now it's there..

 

[LKendter]

LKendter (on deck)
Microbe
Meldor
Grimjack
Rubberjello (current playing)

Remember 5 per round (post-industrial) - STRICT 24 hours got it, total 48 hours for a least a partial update
I couldn't disable 100K win. We need to avoid the culture leaders for as long as possible.

 

[Rubberjello]

Got it.

Chinese for Breakfast.
Chinese for Lunch.
Chinese for Dinner.
and munch, munch, munch, munch!*

*Popular new Indian military marching song

 

[LKendter]

Got it.

Chinese for Breakfast.
Chinese for Lunch.
Chinese for Dinner.
and munch, munch, munch, munch!*

*Popular new Indian military marching song

Well Chinese is the only thing on the menu for now...

Of course, when we can cancel all the deals with France we have another tasty treat. Can you say lots of usefull wonders...
@all - please end the France deals ASAP. I want to have them eligible for attacking soon.



FYI - I took a quick look at the game. Check up in scandanvia - there are some fortified units in the middle of nowhere including workers...

 

[LKendter]

I got a chance to look at the game. Our take over of the Zulu cities in the Middle East turned out more important then I realized. The Zulu are doing more then simply stopping us from a 100K win. They may actually be a danger to do so at around double our culture. Don't sign peace with the Zulu. We want to raze a few of there cities to slow there culture growth.

I notice there are four workers by New Delhi 2 - please capture them. I can't have enough workers. Our core still needs a lot of help.

 

[Rubberjello]

Preturn: Rush a bunch builds and units. Wake up the wayward snoozing workers in Finland. There are no movement points left to capture the workers by New Delhi2. Hopefully the AI won't implode them during the Interturn. Wake up our loafing Cavs in Scandinavia and put them to work by marching across the world to Siberia. We have a bunch of deals expiring with France this turn, but won't renew them. 9 turns left on our newest deal with them (ROP)

IT: Chengdu 2 (Island in South Pacific) gets taken by a Chinese Rider vs. a Reg. Rifle. Rider was dropped of last turn apparently. We lose a total of 3 Cavs and 1 Rifle to quite a few Chinese Counterattacks from Cavs. Quite a few recently captured slaves get recaptured by the Chinese. The Zulu front goes just as cr@ppy. 2 Zulu Cavs kill 2 of our Rifles and almost capture a big stack of our Cannon! There are at least 8 more Zulu Cavs in sight also. We need to retreat back to our Suez Canal defenses, and even then hope to hold out!

1430 (1) I don't think we have to worry too much about Zulu culture, Lee. We have over half their culture but we are gaining 449 every turn compared to their 483. Ours will only accelerate with our new conquests, while theirs are going to straightline. Kill 3 of the victorious Chinese Cavs, and get "our" Workers back. The Battle for Tsigntao (the new Chinese Capital) did not go too well. While we killed 6 Muskets there, our entire force was redlined and couple of Cavs lost. Conscript Rifles are showing up now. I also kill 3 of the oncoming Zulu Cav horde.

IT We lose 2 Cavs and 2 Rifles to Chinese counters. Germany and Zulu sign a Trade Embargo against us. 5 Zulu Cavs attack at Suez. 3 are retreated and 2 killed with no losses to us.

1435 (2) Capture Merv (Chinese) with no losses thanks to some Frenchies softening them up for us. Finally capture Tsingtao (And Newton's University) with no losses from 4 more Conscript Rifles. 2 Cannons are also captured. Conquer and Raze New Tientsin with 1 cav loss. Kill off 4 more Zulu Cavs, but more just keep coming.

 

[LKendter]

Finally capture Tsingtao (And Newton's University)

On this large of a map Newton's is probably useless to us. If nothing else, probably 100% corrupt.

On the other hand it further kills China's research ability
I think they are losing there position as a tech leader.

Starting to sound like we could use a rifleman army to protect our units. How soon until the military academy can start pumping armies?

=======================================

I don't think we have to worry too much about Zulu culture, Lee. We have over half their culture but we are gaining 449 every turn compared to their 483. Ours will only accelerate with our new conquests, while theirs are going to straightline.

We don't know when double will kick in for a lot of there buildings. I agree for know hold at the Suez, but once China is crippled I would feel better seeing a few of there cities razed.

As for our culture increasing I agree as we rush more temples in new cities. Now China is really helping us we the new city issue...