LL2 - Drake (Scenario)

[AntiTwelve]

Preturn.

I've given the game the once over... lots of bombards (LOTS)... no workers... spectacular.

Btw, our culture is MASSIVE! Good times.

IT- Spain and Germany sign peace.
Scouts boot us from their acqurid Irish lands.

Turn 1.
Destroy a Spanish Carrack... and move a lot of ships. [1-0]

IT- France and Spain are also at peace now. A Carrack attacks and DIES (giving us a Sea Dog)! [2-0]
We learn the concept of Limited Monarchy, begin taking on Military Strategy.
London produces a treasure.

Turn 2.
We revolt and draw a single turn of anarchy.
Like, WTH... it's already turn 10 in the log book. I'll play 5 more turns to even it out.

IT- Lots of Dutch movement.

Turn 3.
We're now a limited monarchy, re-MM to opitimize cities. I get our Irish workers back home and start to mine tiles.

IT- Germans want to trade us Military Strategy, nope.

Turn 4.
Start switching units from bombards to muskets/riders.

IT- o

Turn 5.
Capture a treasure ship in the south, it'll be home next turn set. [3-0]

IT- o

Turn 6.
Not much.

IT- Scots and Spanish are at peace... hmm...

Turn 7.
Destroy one of those bloody privateers. [4-0] Get one of our treasures in and we're rolling in the dough (we should rush a couple of units whenever we get treasure in, then some postal relays up (and workers))!

I trade the Dutch 675 gp for Military Strategy and start our production on Regimental Organization in 10.

Get the Scots to redeclare on Spain for 180 gp.

Afterthoughts::
*The French are doing heavy damage to the League. Ouch.
*Treasure unit coming in soon, be careful with our weakened support ships.
*Sending units EAST to Ireland, I'd rather take care of that first before we attempt the Scottish choke and highlands.

Sorry I didn't post yesterday, RL is becoming a "unique" issue right now.

Braveheart... who?

 

[killercane]

Up late, so I played em out.

Turn 1

Move the settler to Ireland. Kill two Scottish caravels with our sneaky sea dogs.

Change London to Army Training, due in 4.

We still have 19 turns on our MA against the Spanish with Scotland. Do we intend to break our rep? I'll let Bede decide. ROP with Scotland. If we're going to break it we might as well rape them hard.

Turn 2

Move troops. Ireland is ripe for the taking. Mainland Scotland however needs more troops. Rush 2 MaA. Wow rushing is cheap. I wish we could build barracks close to the lines.

Turn 3

Whack a French carrack.

Rush some MaAs.

Turn 4

Kill a Scottish caravel.

We can turn science down to 20%. France knows reg org.

Turn 5

Wool and 12 gpt to France for reg org, MA w/ Spain, and wines.

The League gives Salt and 36 gold for reg org.

Bristol riots.

Treasure produced and returned to London. Army training is done there. London unfortunately cannot get to 20 spt for 2 turn MaAs at the moment, so I give some tiles to Canterbury.

Germany has magnetic compass. They want all of our gold for it. I set research to adv finances for trade possibility. Mag compass leads to all the other techs.

Investigate Edinburgh (Scottish capital) for a whopping 14 gold. Good lord they have a lot of militia; screenshot below. Glasgow has 12 defenders upon investigation. Limerick (Ireland) only has 4.

Here we go. The Dutch will give us Mag Compass for 400 gold, MA against Spain, and 5 gpt. Done.

Take 978 gold from Germany for 55 gpt.

Hire 4 scientists to get Mobile Clocks in 10 at -5 gold.

We have a barracks city on the west coast that I have been using to rush a MaA every other turn. I forget the name of it. MaA have amphibious attack so we might be able to use that on Scotland. I think we have some more carracks we can bring to that region to carry them around.

 

[Bede]

Got it.

Rape of Scotland coming up.

 

[AntiTwelve]

Bede, keep us rolling.

 

[Bede]

So it is war with Scotland
All goes well in Ireland

Jan 1590

Jul 1590

Jan 1591

And Ireland in its entirety is ours.

Things do not go so well in the north. The invading force at Glasgow stalls out and then is wiped out by Highlanders in Jan 1592 which leads to this revolting development in July 1592

It takes a little timew to ferry the Irish force to the gates of Glasgow but in Jan 1593 Carlisle is revenged

The force at Edinborough has retreated to the fortress line, one on each side of the border. Took a few casualties killing the garrison so made a pullback to heal up and get some more bombards or even wait for more effective artillery.

There has been a little action on the Flanders front with our detachment destroying the Tercio in Antwerp and the Dutch finallyh making an offensive.

The Channel is full of Dutch pirates whoich we cannot bombard with the coastal batteries. I would much rather have them hanging out in harbor than threatening our sea lanes to the American treasure,

The Sea Dog guarding the sea lane into the Spanish delivery city was sunk by Muslim pirates and Hawkins was sunk trying to pick up a Spanish galleon on its departure from the West Indies. There is a whole raft of Sea Dogs heading south to try and cut off the Treasure but they will be too late.

I built a line of carracks out across the mid Atlantic from the Channel in hopes og being able to bring the treasure home more quickly. Unfortunately that didn't work.

The treasury was bulked up by loans from the Dutch and the Muslims just before I opened the hostilities with the Stuart king, so the deficit is higher than it should be but there is lots of cash to support it.

I was tempted to make a peace deal with the Stuart once Glasgow was in our hands but then I thought, just push him back to the highlands and maybe even all the way to France. It is just going to be a grind to get past Edinborough but once that happens the rest should go pretty quickly. I did make an ally of Willie in the Stuart war as he ahd lots of troopers in Ireland and I really didn't want Jimmie to sign with Willie. What's interesting is that the Catholic Stuart has not asked the League for help.

 

[AntiTwelve]

Alright, the save is in my hands.

Hmm... I'm quite perturbed by our lost city in the north, but you fought valiently to take Glasgow from them.

I'll push the Scots back north and consolidate our naval forces into a giant armada. Also, we might wanna get a settler or two pumped out to effectively use Ireland land and rebuild our burnt down city.

Expect a good kill ratio.

 

[AntiTwelve]

Well, looks like the Muslims and Dutch are taking it hard to the Spanish, while the League seems to be making a comeback against France.

Preturn.
Some build changes, mainly returning to unit builds (took London off the SW and will wait for a leader instead).

IT- lose a Man-at-Arms, but 2 Highlanders (HL) bite the dust in the north. [2-1]
We also lose wool from the Muslims.

Turn 1.
Kill 2 muskets and 1 HL [5-1]
Rush a brax in Warwick and start lots of other braxes (vet units are SO much better than reg units in this scenario). Then I rush a wall in Glasgow to prepare for those *$%*!# knights!

IT- Kill a HL on defense. [6-1]

Turn 2.
We're having a LOT of happiness problems.
Kill a HL, pike and a knight. [9-1]

IT- Dutch try an amphibious assault vs. Trondheim (Scottish), but fail.

Turn 3.
Lose a musket and kill one. [10-2]

IT- Kill HL on D. [11-2]
We learn Mobile Clocks and begin research on Mills (to get us cannons).
London produces an army!

Turn 4.
Holy CRAP we're paying a ton of gpt to other civs, I actually have to turn off science and we're still running a deficit (@ -19 gpt).

6/11 bombards hit @ Edinburgh
Kill 4 militia, lose a MaA

1/6 bombards hit @ Stirling
Kill 3 militia. [18-3]

Oh, fantastic, all of our major allies have also researched Mobile Clocks, so no brokering of techs.

IT- Scots and Dutch make their peace.

Btw, after the above deal was made, we automatically made peace with Scotland (I lost the screen shot I took). I've never seen this happen before, so when they dialed us up to leave their lands I simply redeclared.

We lose an exposed musket, but get a HL on D. [19-4]

Turn 5.
4/12 bombards hit @ Edinburgh
Kill 6 units, lose a MaA and Capture Edinburgh! The Scottish capital is pushed way into the central highlands.

3/6 bombard hits @ Stirling
Kill 6 units here too, but there seems to be only one guy left (didn't kill him so as not to expose a unit).

Destroy a Dutch privateer. [32-5]

Seeing as how this is on DG, I didn't mind that kill count ratio... too much.

Aftermath::
~Scotland is on the verge of collapse and we're 1/4 the way into the game. By 1/2 way, Scotland, Northern Spanish cities and possibly the Netherlands should be under our control as well.

~We need units and infra BADLY, so just wait for leaders to rush our projects.

~Keep our Sea Dogs in stacks of 3 (minimum) to effectively take on Spanish gold ships.

~Try and get two settlers up, one for our lost city and another to put in Ireland (for a MUCH better city spot). Rushing workers is a good idea too, once we get our gold back!

Grimace at Wallace

 

[killercane]

Pre turn

Sell some walls in Ireland.

Move 3 units to Trondheim in Scotland.

Rush settlers in Newcastle and York.

Next turn we can probably get ivory back.

Change research to Sci Method.

T1

Take Stirling. Trade Wool and 400 gold to Muslims for Ivory. Lux to 10%.

Alright. Militia dont cost upkeep. London is minus one militia now somehow. Will keep the MaA there next turn.

Disband some coastal artillery. They're pretty useless anyway and they cost us 3 gpt.

Sci Meth in 13 at -14 per turn.

IT
watch with interest as the Dutch pound Antwerp.

T2
Heavily damage Perth. Disband two carracks.

Down to Sci Method in 11 turns at +19 gold.

T3
Take Perth and Trondheim.

T4
Sci Meth drops, Spain must have it as no one else does.

Set up to hopefully take 2 Scottish cities next turn.

T5
Take Aberdeen. Scotland will give Thurso and a size one island city for peace. After the next turn (and hopefully another city) we might consider taking that.

12 gpt for wool from Nenry of Navarre. Hes the only one with excess gpt.

Mobile Clocks to League for 185 gold.

Perth and Stirling are susceptible to Highlanders but they havent sent any our way in a while, so the troops are pressing the line forward.

With a few more cities we'll have unit costs under control.

Ive been looking for an opening to take Antwerp but there are still too many muskets there despite their losses.

Winchester is on a prebuild for the ToE type wonder, two pikes are there for MP duty to max its shields.

I dont think we can attack the Dutch due to our alliance. Oriental trade might be nice for the additional luxes.

 

[Bede]

You guys are having way too much fun with this.

Nice job getting the economy back in the black, killer, and way to go on the Scottish offensive, cizzle'.

Got it and will see what I can do about the rest of Scotland. Do we want to take on the other Catholic nation? Henry of Navarre (good Proddie that he is) is our friend - but what about the League?

And where oh where is the Spanish Armada? Are the Muslims and the French really taking it to them that hard?

 

[AntiTwelve]

Winchester is on a prebuild for the ToE type wonder, two pikes are there for MP duty to max its shields.

Hmm... I looked over the wonders in the civilopedia and it seems The Method wonder has been changed. If I remember correctly it no longer has the +2 free advances. If that is the case, then we'll just build the stronger research wonder.

I dont think we can attack the Dutch due to our alliance. Oriental trade might be nice for the additional luxes.

I forgot if it was a locked alliance or not... we could definetly use their luxes.

Great fighting though killer!

Got it and will see what I can do about the rest of Scotland. Do we want to take on the other Catholic nation? Henry of Navarre (good Proddie that he is) is our friend - but what about the League?

If we can't take on the Dutch, then by all means I think we should establish our empire here for bonus points and to maintain our open waters. We'll have plenty of units to take on the League from behind, plus they're MUCH closer to us than Spain. If there are enough turns left after that () then we can take care of the Spanish.

And where oh where is the Spanish Armada? Are the Muslims and the French really taking it to them that hard?

Since all of Africa has been taken by the Muslim, I am almost 100% positive the Muslims are dropping units like mad in southern Spain. We're probably missing out on some crazy naval battles down there too.

 

[killercane]

And where oh where is the Spanish Armada? Are the Muslims and the French really taking it to them that hard?

I didnt see much action from the Spanish navy. I sent out the 3 ships in the south to scout around but they didnt see anything in the first couple turns and I think I forted them in the south. You may want to reactivate them and continue probing around. Theres another sea dog in the northern part of the carrack chain that I used to roam around but he likewise saw nothing.

You may have to turn unit animations back on if I forgot to switch that back. The Scots will be about cooked by the end of Bede's turns.

Hmm... I looked over the wonders in the civilopedia and it seems The Method wonder has been changed. If I remember correctly it no longer has the +2 free advances. If that is the case, then we'll just build the stronger research wonder

I didnt recheck the civilopedia so you're probably right on. I made the mistake of assuming that it was the same.

The League looks like a prime target after northern Spain and her dyes. Germany would be a smaller front and we could capture quite a bit of gold from their cities there (and mercenaries if the other civs would pay us for them). I seem to recall something from the civilopedia indicating that one of the new Oriental trade luxes would show up in or around Germany, but Im not sure.

Oh and Antwerp has probably 4-5 elite muskets on top with some cannon support. We could launch a naval assault on it for the dyes, but we need to clear out those Dutch privateer looking ships to get there as they seem to be clogging the bay there.

 

[LouLong]

Hi, I am back ! .... and see playing the English definitely seems as easy on DG as Spain was at emperor (or was it monarch ?) !

Good bunch, you are.

The Method indeed changed. The tech for it (scientific method) already gave one tech for free. Allowing with it the building of a +2 techs wonder definitely was overkill, especially since the tech-tree is rather short. It doubles research output and has effects on corruption.

Taxmen : since they have 2 effects and only 1 can show you probably did not see it but if they indeed fight corruption a little they also add 1 to the treasury. Please check it though as it seems citizens with 2 different bonus (or more) are prone to create problems.

Spying and upgrading costs : oops, it seems I lowered them way too much. I wanted to make them quite cheap so they can be useful tools in the game but even if Scotland is not far from England, 14 g is really too small a fee to spy on their capital.

You mention Trondheim, guess it is a city the Scots built. Arghh ! One of the small things it is easy to forget, new city names for the different civs. I will need to correct that.

Germany : with "defense" units with 40 in defense, I doubt you could capture a German city (or at a terrible cost). They are not more placeholders and trading partners than a real playing civ (I even thought of removing the "sign MA" from them).

Dutch : indeed you are still in a locked alliance with the Dutch so don't attack them ! lol On the other hand, albeit some people did not like it so much I gave privateers hidden nationaly again as the race for profit did not stop even during a military alliance and albeit a real pain it sure adds some action and prevents the creation of large "quiet" maritime holdings, meaning you always have to be careful.

Oriental Trade and SW : the resources that appear (underneath cities usually so be careful) when Oriental Tade is discovered are NOT luxuries per se. They are strategic resources needed to build the SW (and they need to be within the city radius) that then generate 1 hapiness. Most countries have both resources in their starting coastal towns (ie Bordeaux, Plymouth, Marseilles, Cadix,...) so basically what can be interesting for you is to capture some of these towns to prevent other civs from creating their own Trading Companies. But you won't take much more benefit from it as you can only build 1 SW per civ.

 

[AntiTwelve]

Bede, where art thou courageous Monk of Multiple Practices?

 

[Bede]

What is this? I found no mention in the 'pedia.

Carrrying treasure from Spain?

Although the Dutch made a valiant attempt at Antwerpen the Tercio was just too tough and they died and then so did the English outpost in 1600

Now researching the commercial kowledge and building The Method in Winchester. Army Training built an army now filled with English pikes and set for shipment to Normandy. As soon as 'killer finishes the Scots, the little island in the Irish Sea would make a good spot to exile Jimmy, shift the bombrds to the south and take on the League.

The League has been making progress with the Spanish in Flanders and Philip's holdings are squeezed. He has also been taking it hard in the Med and has been driven back to Iberia.

The Stuart resistance proved a little stronger than expected but they seem to have little offensive capability left as I only saw four Highlanders and two of them were in Oban.

Go get 'em killer. With the Revenge of Elizabeth we can reclaim what was lost lost in Normandy at the end of the 100 Years War.

@Lou, it appears that research is locked at no less than ten turns. Just wanted to confirm.

 

[killercane]

I think Cizzle is next and is chomping at the bit to get at it. Nice as usual Bedelator.

 

[AntiTwelve]

Indeed it is my turn, and ohhh shall the beautiful red kroovy run smooth down their pollshacks whilst I display me yarbals. >: D

Great work on the military front Bede, I agree with all the next moves except one. I believe we should send a carrack or two full of units and finish off the Scots so as to stop any resentment of our authority over Britannia. After that... it seems the League will become our final target (besides Spanish-held Holland).

Got it.

 

[killercane]

See if you can get that island city and Thurso in a peace deal so our troops dont have to travel as far to get back to the front lines. Scot culture is poor so we should be able to either peace them out for those two cities and 1) take our time with the capital and Blair or 2) peace, and immediately take the capital while marching on Blair to end them.

 

[AntiTwelve]

I'll see what is the best action to take when I play my turns, although it'll be bothersome to destroy our rep OR wait 20 turns for peace.

Perhaps I'm just too much of a warmonger to care for either option

 

[AntiTwelve]

Even though I really wanted to play my 5 turns... it seems RL is taking its toll. This will have to be a skip for me.

 

[killercane]

Dont let The Man hold you down Cizzle. RL can be a pain.

Turn 1

Ha got 4 new Sea Dogs off Gibraltar by whacking Chebeks. Spain must be really hurting if the muslims are getting this strong.

Bombard and attack Blair and GET A LEADER!

Peace with Scots/ get last two cities from them. Sci Method for Salt from the League. They are the only ones lacking it. Germany has matchlock and mounted troops reform. The Dutch have mounted troops.

Our rep is pretty ruined already; no ROPs or anything like that are available.

Investigate Inverness. There are 23 units, mostly militia, but also 4 Pikes, and some highlanders. We have 22 bombards, but only 12 attacking units. None of which is very overpowering. I decide to move away from this front and go for the Spanish victory points. Inverness is worthless. I really hate keeping the Scots alive but oh well. This might come back to haunt us but you can blame me.

Turn 2

Those 4 shiny new sea dogs are gone. There are about 10 chebeks that I can see running around on the Spanish treasure route. No Spanish ships.

Move troops towards the staging area.

Turn 3

Woo! Spanish treasure ship taken, we have some new booty.

Put Scotland back into war with Spain for 130 gold. Dont need any alliances to screw us there.

What to use Leader Lord Mountjoy on? You know what, lets see what the Spy Service does. I dont recall using it in the last game. Did we even build it? On second thought, Ill just build an army.

Turn 4

Nothing besides we control the channel to Antwerp.

Turn 5

London can do 20 shields now with some things mined for 2 turn MaAs. We can take the entire northern coast of the League with amphibious assaults if we get enough firepower.

Bought two sea dogs. They can clear out the lane to Antwerp and its lux since the 2 other 'dogs were killed this last IT. Guess we didnt control its so well huh.

There are several troops loaded up. We can make an assault soon. Hopefully Antwerp is still low on defenders (its still size 1).