LK66 - AWE, Emperor, Germany

[LKendter]

None of the AW parameters were discussed in the planning thread.
I went with Small world, large continents, wet, warm, 5 billion years old. No barbs in the game.

The Civ was not mention, so my choice was Germany was for scientific / militaristic. I realize a GA will be difficult via wonders or very late game. I felt having archers / spears immediately were very valuable. If nothing else that is the worst to face for initial starting units.


4000BC
Our start has no rivers, and no food bonuses. I start max research on the wheel to locate the horses.


3500BC
Our border expansion reveals a nearby ivory. Can anyone say statue of Zeus?


2750BC
Leipzig is formed. It is on a river, but it lacks in food resources also. I haven't spotted a single bonus food except for a sugar on plains.


2670BC
A flood plains wheat tile is spotted and we finally have bonus food. The bad news it is to the south and will make first contact earlier.
(IT) The wheel completes, and the next tech up is Masonry for possible city walls and to head toward catapults.
We have horses north of Berlin. [dance]


2590BC
We have first contact earlier then I wanted. It is Sumeria with the better defending Enkidu warrior.
War is declared without any deals.


2550BC
The warrior I spotted was on the Ivory tile.


Summary:
Let's hope we survive the next couple of rounds. A nearby GA neighbor will be very rough to fight.


LKendter

Remember 10 turns per round - STRICT 24 hours got it, total 48 to complete.


http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/LK66-2550BC.zip

 

[LKendter]

I just realized I forget to post player order.


LKendter
JustBen (currently playing)
Meldor (on deck)
hotrod0823
Grimjack


Remember 10 turns per round - STRICT 24 hours got it, total 48 to complete.

 

[JustBen]

I got it. I gotta re-install v1.15, but I'll get on it once that's done.

 

[JustBen]

I really like the choice of the Germans. I've always thought it was cool that they started with spears & bows, but I never figured out how to exploit it.

We'll work something out for the GA. We can always seize stuff. And did someone say Statue of Zeus...?

2550 BC (Inherited)
Looks good. [enter]

2510 BC (1)
Berlin Spear > Spear

2470 BC (2)
2430 BC (3)
2390 BC (4)
2350 BC (5)
Berlin Spear > Archer
I'm eying an archer-enkidu pair, but they're still far to the south.

2310 BC (6)
2270 BC (7)
2230 BC (8)
2190 BC (9)
Berlin Archer > Spear

2150 BC (10)
I did a small bit of recon over these 10 turns, but the warriors hit the end of their respective mountain ranges so I turned them around this turn. Not too much land; mostly I just wanted to be able to see more hills in the immediate vicinity for when we get to see iron.

Masonry is due next turn and our science has been MMed. Our civ hasn't researched infranstructure yet. I'd like to see a Granary pop up, but that may be a naive choice. Horseback Riding and Ironworking are both possibles, but with archers & spears available already maybe not so important.

I just realized that I forgot to MM happiness, though I think we have enough of a garrison in Berlin to keep from rioting.

No one who speaks German could be an evil man

 

[JustBen]

The world as we know it. Note that the body of shallow water to the east is salt, not fresh.

 

[LKendter]

LKendter
JustBen
Meldor (currently playing)
hotrod0823 (on deck)
Grimjack


Remember 10 turns per round - STRICT 24 hours got it, total 48 to complete.

 

[Grimjack]

Just checking in. Looking good so far. We have lots and lots of land available.

Lets settle before we explore further. ( Hmm, thats probably goes without saying inthis company )

Grimjack

 

[meldor]

Originally posted by Grimjack
Just checking in. Looking good so far. We have lots and lots of land available.

Lets settle before we explore further. ( Hmm, thats probably goes without saying inthis company )

Grimjack

In AW(E) exploring is almost a no-no at this point. The longer we go without the second and third contact the better we wil be.

I have it, cats are one of the required units. The way to win AW is to find the place that the AI wants to attack and make it a killing zone. Cats are really needed to turn the odds in our favor. We have to have a high kill ratio.

 

[handy900]

[/lurk]
FWIW, be careful in AWE about building cities more than 2 tiles apart. Three tile separation means you cannot shuffle units without leaving them exposed, and reinforcement can't be done in 1 turn. You are right on the money about cats. Cats + walls are the great equalizers and kill ratio boosters. Zeus is sooo sweet in AWE!

Best of Luck!

[lurk]

 

[Coffee]

Good luck to AWE. Its always fun to read.

 

[JustBen]

I was pushing the envelope on the extra recon, but I knew it. I wanted to spy some land and some iron-potential area while we had the chance because we won't once the Enkidu stacks start marching in. My decision was vindicated by the fact that I did not encounter new civs.

I turned the scouts around on turn 9 not to frustrate the next player should he decide to scout more, but because I knew we were done scouting.

We can (at some point) build a town 1 SE of the sugar to get a network of towns a turn's march apart. But I'm sure LK already thought of that when he planted Leipzig. Any dotmappers care to weigh in?

Yah, catapults. We'll want those before iron or horsemen. Is it worth getting them before Pottery, too? We have to go through Alphabet first to get there. What's the correct choice? I'm sure it's evident if you AW a lot; I just don't.

 

[hotrod0823]

I think Math is a priority for the cats as well as the trade value. We have a very limited trade time and getting math first would be huge. Not to mention if we manage to get a SGL.

As far as settling I think the Ivory could be a nice spot not to mention the boost we would get if we have a real shot at Zeus. Also, securing the Moderately sized choke to the East should be a priority. We want to secure our boarders and build a nice "kill zone" as Meldor suggested. The northern territory can be filled at our leisure and a future settler/worker colony looks like could be located near the souther river but I fear it will have too much food and too few shields to be productive enough.

Anyone who played the scientific civ game knows what I mean .

Hotrod

 

[JustBen]

Hey, wait a minute! I'm a dotmapper!

Red: I think this is what hotrod was talking about, and I agree wholeheartedly.

Orange: These seem like nice city spots, properly spaced for an AW game. The Sumerians are in this direction.

Brown: Put your visions of a city here right next to those magazines talking about flying cars in the near future. It's not even a matter of racing there -- it's a terribly vulnerable position to be defending from anyone. Should still be a good city some day, though.

Blues: Either spot will force anyone attacking from the east to go through or next to the city there. Dark blue has the mountain next to it, though. When I made the map I liked dark blue a lot better, but as I try to articulate my arguments for it I have come to realization that light blue is just stronger in every way. Note especially that dark blue is not on the river.

Greens: I tried a bunch of times to get a back-filling scheme that I liked. I failed. For my latest attempt, I asked myself, "Why did LK put Leipzig where he did?" That's what you see here, but I'm still really happy with my results.

 

[LKendter]

For my latest attempt, I asked myself, "Why did LK put Leipzig where he did?"
It was the combination of the river, and the border lock got another grassland in play. This city is part of the back fill, but I wanted to get a decent size to pump at least some military. Berlin for the moment will have to provide at least one or two more settlers and some city will need another worker or two.

On the dots by ivory - another consider is how easy to pillage? I can't do a map right now, but will try and offer an alternate idea tonight. Our ivory would be to easy to pillage, and I don't want a critical luxury at risk.

 

[Grimjack]

I would also place our Ivory city right on top of the grassland Ivory. Then we will be somewhat assured of it, as long as we can keep the road to our backlines secure.

Grimjack

 

[JustBen]

Is "the grassland Ivory" the forest ivory? The pillaging problem is not one I had considered -- thanks.

And I also reread my post, and found a critically missing "not" when I was attempting to express my displeasure at my green dots.

I also like Leipzig; I was just trying to let you get into my head by saying that I was trying to get into someone else's head. I don't think any part of that metaphorical mess worked out properly.

With the repositioning of the red dot, pretty much my entire map is trash. But it's okay; I learned something today.

 

[meldor]

2150 BC (0)
Not much to look at yet. Rax in one and Masonry in 1, hit enter.
(I) Finish Masonry and start Alphabet. I think we can do better with Cats than anything else, plus we need Mat to have a go at Zeus. It is only a 200 shield wonder and would give us an early leg up. Leipzig Rax->Worker (I decide to sneak one in before the heat is turned up.

2110-2070 BC (1-2)
Decide to swap spear build to get in second archer. I would like to hit them before they hit us and archer do provide early bombard support.
(I) Berlin Spear->Settler

2030 BC (3)
Nada
(I) Two archers and an Enkidu Warrior come out of the fog.

1990 AD (4)
Shifting the warriors.
(I) They seem to be going past us.

1950 BC (5)
(I)They turn towards us now. Leipzig worker->Spear

1910 BC (6)
Well, the Enkidu warrior won't be starting any golden ages, it went down to an archer. The second archer takes out one of the opposing archers without a scratch and promotes to elite to boot. One of the returning warriors takes out the last archer, but a am sad to report that he did lose a HP.
(I)Another archer comes out of the mist. Berlin Spear->Settler.

1870-1790 BC (7-9)
Our elite archer steps out and takes his shot at the opposing archer. He wins without a scratch and in only our first elite battle Barbarossa appears.
(I) Nada.

1950 AD (10)
Move the leader and archer back into the city of Berlin.

I believe the Statue of Zeus is a military wonder and can be rushed with a military leader? Is this not correct? If so, I would save him for that purpose. We have a settler next turn in Berlin and enough spears and archers to cover him to land on the ivory. We are eight turns from Alphabet and maybe 14 more to Math. If we do that we can have Zeus.

If he can't rush Zeus, then the next best thing is to make an army of archers and go after the Heroic Epic as early as possible.

I think Lee is going to kick me out of his SG's. For the second time in a row, I have used up every one of our elites getting leaders. Of course, I had to generate this one myself...

Killing four of their units and taking a total of 1HP damage, getting an elite and then a leader with only to attacks of a unit...you guys better skip me next time or I will lose every unit we have, I am do for a bad turn of luck, or maybe I got it out of the way with the AWE game I just played solo. Started next to Mayans, had no iron and no saltpeter. Luck I was Scandinavia and survived to Zerks. I didn't get a single leader unit after 1800 and finished the game with 3 Zerk armies and 10 Cav armies. First game in a long time to go past 1920AD.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/LK66-1750BC.zip

 

[hotrod0823]

[dance] Very Nice!

I've got it but will not play until later tomorrow night

Before then let me know on what we are doing with leaders, dot mapping etc etc.

 

[JustBen]

A leader by 1750 BC? Wow. Armies are good. I don't think they can rush any great wonders; only small wonders.

What do y'all think about an Archer/Archer/Spear army? Advantages: Not getting shredded by having a defense of 1.3. Lone spears won't be able to keep up with its 2 moves.
Disadvantages: One fewer archer to step up during a bad RNG streak. Smaller army attack bonus. Computer may not actually attack the army anyway.
Indifferences: We'll have a move of 2 no matter what.

 

[LKendter]

He wins without a scratch and in only our first elite battle Barbarossa appears.

Well guys our first need is *4* cities. We get a leader before we have enough cities to build an army.

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

I think Lee is going to kick me out of his SG's. For the second time in a row, I have used up every one of our elites getting leaders. Of course, I had to generate this one myself...



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

LKendter
JustBen
Meldor
hotrod0823 (currently playing)
Grimjack (on deck)

Remember 10 turns per round - STRICT 24 hours got it, total 48 to complete.