LotR14 -- RAW (and uncut?)

[Arathorn]

Better to be lucky than good....

Nothing to do on the inherited turn but hit enter and hope. The one warrior attacks Teno and dies.

(1) 2110 - There's an archer near Teno with no one else near it. I can attack it completely safely. I do so, with a vet, and win.

(I) Spear completes. Settler ordered for now.

(2) 2070 - Two Chinese warriors are now next to Teno. I move the archer from last round back in and attack with the other (better promotion chances). Our archer wins and promotes.

Spain shows up on Shift-D and they have nothing -- no gold and no techs (down 3 of ours) but two ciites. I declare war, of course.

(I) Second Chinese warrior attacks Teno and dies. Spanish warrior fortifies outside our borders.

3 - 2030 - Heal. Rest. See Edrine founded on old London site in the interturn.

4 - 1990 - Switch Teno to archer, as there are few places to settle. Elite archer takes out Spanish warrior without a scratch and is joined by another archer and the vet spear. I'm eying Istanbul.

Then Philosophy comes in. Oh, err...what did we have in mind? I can't imagine putting a city on the Great Library, so Literature can wait. I take Mathematics as a fairly expensive tech and one that helps us out. Catapults can help with city-breaking significantly. We get Math for free and start on HBR, which is relatively cheap and reasonably valuable. Archer -> archer.

5 - 1950 - Move towards Istanbul. Watch a Roman warrior suicide against Teno. Good ole defensive bombard and 5 hps vs. 3 hps....

6 - 1910 - Move. Switch archer build to jag, who can move enough to help with Istanbul. After he comes in, start a catapult.

7 - 1870 - Move next to Istanbul. And see two Persian warriors there, who can attack my mini-stack. $#@)(*& I hope they don't. Jag also moves into position to strike next turn.

(I) Persians move SE instead of attacking. Cheer!

8 - 1830 - Will my turn be a huge success or a disaster? I cross my fingers and attack Istanbul's showing regular spear with our elite archer. I only lose one hp, destroy the spear, and capture Istanbul! Whatdya know? The other archer and jag weren't needed. Spear moves in, too, and fortifies. Resistor, but he'll go away soon.

(I) Persians come back to play. Catapult -> spear.

9 - 1790 - Two archers each kill a Persian warrior by Istanbul. In the interturn, two Chinese warriors move next to Istanbul, which has only a vet spear right now.

10 - 1750 - Maneveur a bit. Archer for defensive bombard in Istanbul. I think it'll hold. Edrine should probably be the next target, but we should wait for it to expand its borders -- about turn 7 or 8 of the next player's turn.

Roster:
T-hawk -- UP NOW
Reagan -- ON DECK
Kylerean
Arathorn
Speaker -- skipped 'til July 9, approximately

Arathorn

 

[Kylearan]

I'm glad you had better luck than I did. Now let's see when swords and even uglier things will advance upon us...

 

[Reagan]

Then Philosophy comes in. Oh, err...what did we have in mind? I can't imagine putting a city on the Great Library, so Literature can wait. I take Mathematics as a fairly expensive tech and one that helps us out. Catapults can help with city-breaking significantly. We get Math for free and start on HBR, which is relatively cheap and reasonably valuable.

This is precisely what I intended when I started Philo research. In fact, I initially started us on Masonry before Philo so we could get Math for free, but was able to quickly swap to Philo after swinging a deal for Masonry. We're likely to use 'pults (and other artillery units) aplenty during this game.

 

[T-hawk]

I see it, not sure if I can play tonight, can tomorrow at the latest.

Enemy swords are no problem if we've got enough catapults, so I'll try to focus on that.

 

[Arathorn]

I would also focus on hooking up our iron. Istanbul has iron and it's not THAT far for our workers to go. I'd finish their current work on the incense hill, though...at least roading it.

MM possibilities abound in Teno. It can do 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 shields with various levels of food (and commerce -- you can actually change the lux slider depending on the configuration in the city). I recommend watching it like a hawk. I know I did.

BTW, I guess I made the swap between T-hawk and Reagan permanent. We'll go with it, though.

Arathorn

 

[T-hawk]

Apologies, but stuff came up today and I couldn't get to it. Can tomorrow, which is still within the 72-hour window for LotR games.

 

[Arathorn]

Thanks for the update, T-hawk. No worries but it's always nice to know what's going on.

Arathorn

 

[T-hawk]

OK, here we go.

Inherited turn: Change Tenoch to catapult, leave Istanbul building barracks but I may switch that later.

Between turns, both warriors attack Istanbul, but our spear holds and goes elite.


1725 BC: Just consolidating.

1700 BC: There's a Sumerian settler pair near Istanbul. Move an archer, cat, and spear to go after them, but I don't think we can catch them.

We can, however, disperse an undefended Chinese horses colony with a jaguar.

Tenoch catapult -> catapult.

1675 BC: Yeah, the Sumerian pair moved away. Two American warriors showed up. Attack one with a catapult and an archer... and lose dealing no damage. WE NEED CATAPULTS...

1650 BC: Kill American warrior with our elite archer. The other one can and does attack Istanbul but the elite spear holds.

Horseback Riding came in. Nothing else we need immediately, so set research to max on Polytheism to go towards Monarchy.

Tenoch catapult -> warrior which it will build in one turn while growing.


1625 BC: Bump off orange archer by Tenoch. Bit of a situation at Istanbul, with two Babylon warriors that can attack the city, but we've got a 4/5 elite spear and a jag on defense, and the spear holds.

1600 BC: Maneuvering. Tenoch grows to size 8 and warrior -> horse. Tenoch is producing a nice 10 spt with +3 food.

1575 BC: Our 3/5 elite archer kills an Ottoman archer that was bombed to 2/3. Also bombard a Spanish settler pair that wandered onto Istanbul's hill, but I don't want to risk attacking uphill this turn when I can bombard it to 1 HP next turn.

1550 BC: Hmm, the damaged Spanish settler pair moved away - I didn't think it'd do that. I chase it...

Tenoch horseman -> horseman.

1525 BC: It's the Year of the Catapult. Bombard an Incan archer and kill it with the new horseman who promotes to elite - but not before the horseman redlines. Also bombard that Spanish settler pair that finally fortified to attempt healing, and nab two slaves.


1500 BC: An Arabic settler pair moved onto our iron. Bombard it twice and kill it, and the two workers start right in on roading the iron. There's also a 3/3 Roman spear guarding a settler. I can attack it with a 4/4 archer... and we win and promote!


Total on my turns: one unit lost, four built, two promoted, six slaves acquired. Also, we have a road complete from Tenoch to Istanbul. Edrine has expanded borders but we haven't had the units to go for the city yet.

Tenoch is due to complete an archer this turn to counterattack one of the two incoming archers. It's a no-brainer to keep Tenoch in a 10spt configuration right now.

Istanbul can complete a 20-shield item this turn; I'd recommend a catapult. Three catapults plus the jag can defend against the incoming Spanish warrior and then maybe go after Edrine.

 

[Speaker]

Just wanted to give you guys an update on my status: after graduation I went home, having not yet secured a job. After 5 weeks at home, the most time I've spent there in 3 years, I desperately needed some time away, so I packed up some clothes and hit the road to visit some friends and return to my version of sanity. I've been gone a week now, and don't see myself going back for another week at least. Basically I'm asking to be placed on indefinite skip until I ask to be reinstated, and I wouldn't be insulted if you decided to replace me. I have been following along, and would prefer to stay benched until I can play again, but I'll understand if you guys feel like four players is too few for the next week or two.

 

[Arathorn]

Nice turns, T-hawk. More slaves is a very good thing. If we can keep up with improvements in our cities and fast movement between them, I'll be very happy.

Roster:
Reagan -- UP NOW
Kylerean -- ON DECK
Yom -- if he wants in...I'll PM him
Arathorn
T-hawk
Speaker -- on indefinite skip

I prefer running with 5 than with 4. I'm fine with six, too. Although the game is fairly quick right now, with only a couple of cities, it might get much hairier later. Since Yom expressed interest, he's in if he wants (I'll PM him). Otherwise, we'll run with four until Speaker is back.

Speaker, as long as you give me warning, you'll never lose your spot. Whenever you feel like returning, just let us know and you'll be back in the rotation! (Now, if somebody just disappears for a couple weeks with no warning, I'm generally a bit less accomodating...). Good luck with sanity.

Arathorn

 

[Speaker]

Thanks Arathorn. I'll keep you updated.

 

[Reagan]

I believe I have typed the requisite ten characters in order to say "I've got it." I should be able to play/post by Sunday afternoon.

 

[Reagan]

1475 – Teno: archer->cat. Istanbul: cat->rax. Ummmm . . . we’re not at war with Joanie?! I ship her HBR for all her 49gp and then declare. Our elite archer then draws his bow, fires a few shots, and punches three successive holes in France’s settler’s warrior escort. What could be better than getting two more slaves? How ‘bout this . . . .

Our Teno cat strikes a blow to a Portugese archer, which is dispatched 2-0 by our new vet archer. Our Istanbul cats go 2-1, knocking an opposing warrior to 1hp, then our vet jag wins 1-1.

1450 – After our cat misses, our elite horse goes 3-3 to take out an Incan archer.

1425 – Teno: cat->horse. Our cats go 2-0 against a Russkie spear, which is then dispatched 1-0 by our archer.

1400 – Swap Istanbul to settler and Teno to sword. We need four cities before we can form a sword army.

1375 – Bomb a Sumerian archer 2-0 and whack him 1-1 with our jag. Bomb an Ottoman archer 2-0 but can’t attack because our “victorious” unit would end up in an unattractive position next to Edrine.

1350 – Teno: sword->sword.

1325 – Go 2-0 bombing the Otto archer again and take him out with our new sword, who promotes to elite (and gets covered by our elite spear).

1300 – Go 1-0 bombing an incoming archer, then win 2-0 with our elite* archer. Bomb another Otto archer 1-1 but don’t attack him (it would draw us back into Otto territory).

1275 – Teno: sword->spear (for now – we could leave it as a spear and spend 60gp to upgrade a warrior or we could build another sword and delay our attack on Edrine by a turn).

1250 – Istanbul: settler->rax. Cats go 1-1 versus a Sumerian archer, then our elite archer takes him out 2-1. The Otto archer moves within range of our horse, and is thumped 1-0. I’m going to stop here with a lot of units left to move because we have some choices to make. There’s a warrior-archer pair in the red circle approaching from the east. The green archer is fortified, but the yellow spear is approaching from the west. There’s a settler in Istanbul that could follow the orange arrows to build another town in three turns. If we can take out Edrine and found a new town, we can build an army and return to leader fishing with our elites. The workers by Istanbul are out of projects for now and could chop the forest to the west of Istanbul in order to have the barracks done in five turns and begin connecting our new city. The downside is that it’d leave Istanbul woefully underdefended. We have two archers, two swords, a spear, and two ‘pults on the river side of Teno, with a spear due in one or sword (if swapped) in two. Two workers are mining the incense hill and three more could move there in one more turn. We could also chop a forest by Teno to boost unit production by one turn. Decisions, decisions.

edit: Tinkered with the images.

 

[Kylearan]

Got it.

Regarding images: If you attach them, they will only show automatically if the whole post has only one attachment. So either you will have to split up your report into several posts, each with one attachment max, or you have to use the old method (upload them on the server, link to them with an IMG tag pair).

 

[Reagan]

I just went back in and tried pulling one of the image links out but the first one still doesn't show. I have it tagged in the message as (img)http://forums . . . (/img). The tags are in brackets, of course, but I put them in parens in the example so they wouldn't be triggered. What am I doing wrong? Does the .zip file count as a second attachment in addition to the image?

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Don't think your link is wrong, but the file is not valid. What kind of image is it) Jpg, gif? IIRC nothing else works.

 

[Reagan]

Arrrrgh! My tinkering must have messed up the links. I just fixed it (I think).

 

[Arathorn]

Roster:

Kylerean -- PLAYING NOW
Arathorn -- on deck
T-hawk
Reagan
Speaker -- on indefinite skip

Yom is too busy to join us. We'll run with 4 until Speaker gets back. Any chance we can go conquer another town or two to add to our empire? Looks good, though.

Arathorn

 

[Reagan]

Any chance we can go conquer another town or two to add to our empire? Looks good, though.

We should own Edrine by the end of Ky's turns and Tiwanaku can't be too well developed (I don't think it's connected to its capital).

 

[Kylearan]

Does the .zip file count as a second attachment in addition to the image?

Yes, I believe so. That's why I use the attachment feature only for the save, and the old-fashioned "upload file" and IMG tags as you've described for the pictures.

I haven't looked at the save yet but will be able to play in about 12 hours. You think I should be able to conquer a city? Sounds good!