LotR15 -- OPEN SG Regent With a Twist

[SesnOfWthr]

IIRC, the GA will end about turn 9.

I too thought Arathorn probably wanted this to be more difficult.

Maybe 150 turns next time?

 

[microbe]

Got it. Can't resist a GA.

 

[microbe]

preturn: I establish embassies with Ottoman and Babylon:

Ottoman: size 7, 13spt, 4fpt, 4 lux, only horses, 4 spearmen, building a bank in 6 turns.
Babylon: size 4, 7spt, 0ftp, has a clown, only iron, 3 pikemen, building a settler in 3 turns.

IBT a spanish LBM appears from north.

(1)1330AD: Rider kills the LBM. I upgrade spear to musket in Beijing. Sword army moves next to Barcelona.

IBT another pair of pike/spear appear from north.

(2)1335AD:

@Toledo: 2 riders retreat, but other two kill spearman and we capture it.

Upgrade two more spear.

@Barcelona: sword army kills two reg pikes and lose 4-hp.

Diplo: we now know India and Celts. Celts has Music Theory, PP, Navigation and Economics. India and Vikings have Chemistry in addition.

Iron to Vikings for Chemistry+Navigation+Contact with Hitties+21gpt.
Chemistry+horses to Celts for WM+furs+PP. India and Vikings have Metallury. Vikings also has Democracy.
I try immediate steal on Vikings and take Democracy.
Democracy to India for WM+Metallury+7gpt+64g.

Research to Military Tradition in 9 turns with +38gpt.

Embassy with India: size 9, 15spt, 3 lux, all resources, 3 spearmen, builing WE in 1 turn.

I intentionally didn't trade with Ottomans to make sure we'll kill it before it gets Sipahi.

WM+Contact with Babylon to Hitties for gems. It turns furious with us - our bad rep spreaded around?

We are at tech parity. We only lack Economics and Music Theory, but we don't need them anyway.

IBT The two spanish units left our territory after we moved a musket on top of the horses. FP city builds a regular rider.

(3)1340AD: Switch Beijing to library in 2, hire a scientist, and lower lux to 0. Income jumped ~40gpt.

Spain now has musket!

Sword army kills musket and pike, and we capture Barcelona with Sistine Chapel!
One rider retreats but two kill pikemen and we raze Santiago.
Silks are now online!

I raise sci to get MT in 7 turns still with +38gpt.

Ottomans get Chemistry.

WM to Ottomans for WM+15g.

(4)1345AD: more movement. Attack Seville next turn.

IBT Barcelona disposes us, but we have no unit in it.

(5)1350AD: We lose a vet rider and an elite rider against a reg musket, but the 3rd elite rider kills it:

An army is formed immediately. MT is in 4 turns so we'll reserve it for cavalry.

IBT A few Spanish units show up in the north. Palace expansion.

(6)1355AD: ZZZ

IBT Barcelona disposes again. Beijing and Nanking riot.

(7)1360AD: 5 cats hit one pike. Horse army kills two pikes. Rider loses but redlines the last pike. Another rider finishes it off. Seville is razed.

Kill a few longbow in the north and lose an elite archer.

(8)1365AD: India has Physics.

IBT Military Tradition in, palace expansion.

(9)1370AD: upgrade a bunch of riders.

IBT our GA ended.

(10)1375AD: cav army formed and moved next to Madrid together with other units.

I think we can make peace with Spain after taking Madrid.

There is an Ottoman settler/spear pair trying to settle. I'm blocking it.

 

[T_McC]

If we've captured any Spanish cities, I would only make peace if the Spanish capital jumps up North after Madrid falls. Otherwise the next player gets to prepare (and probably start to execute) the avalanche vs. the Ottomans.

Cavs vs. Spears ... :devil2:

 

[Coilean]

Got it, and done.

preturn: It's about time Hangchow and Tatung grew up a little, so I switch them to Aqueducts. I switch a few cities from musket to cav production.

1380: Position more troops next to Madrid. Set worker fleet to chopping down some trees to cheapen these temples in the hinterlands. Upgrade a couple troops.

1385: Beijing builds marketplace -> cav (4 turns). It looks like we can get it down to 3 turn cavs once it hits size 12.

We begin the attack on Madrid:
Horse army kills vet musket, -5 hp (I mistook it for the cav army ).
Cav army kills vet musket, -4hp.
Cav army kills vet musket, -0hp.
Cav army attacks vet musket (-2hp) and retreats (eep!).
Cav kills vet pikeman, -2hp.
Cav attacks reg pikeman (-1hp), and retreats.
Sword army kills reg pike, -4hp.
Sword army attacks reg spear (-1hp), and retreats.
Cav attacks reg spear (-2hp) and dies.
Elite rider kills 2hp musket, -2hp.
Elite rider kills 2hp pike, -0hp, and produces General Tso! I can't resist and rename the unit Chicken .
Horse army kills 2hp spear, -6hp.
There is a 1hp spear left, so I take a gamble and attack with our now 3hp horse army, which is our last available attacker and...
Madrid is ours! We capture Pyramids, Mausoleum, Colossus, Sun Tzu's, and Copernicus.

We sue for peace with Spain, taking them for everything they have, which is WM, TM, 30gpt, 46gp, Economics, and Music Theory.

We upgrade 3 horseman in towns that suddenly have barracks. Samarra switches to building a settler.

1390: Troops take some R&R in Madrid. Rush a worker in the starving Madrdid. Palace gets a little taller.

IT: Ottomans found Zonguldak in our territory, despite our escorting troops. Oh well, the defending spearman shouldn't pose much of a threat once we declare war in a few turns anyway.

1395: Begin moving troops to the Ottoman front, leaving behind a garrison of 3 cav in Eulbar to act as defense for the fledling western half of our empire. Buy an aqueduct and a temple.

1400: More troop movement.

IT: Babylon signs onto the Viking's war against the Ottomans. Ottomans manage to acquire saltpeter somehow, as the visible spearman in Xinjian turns into a musketman.

1405: More troop movement, war next turn.

1410: We declare war on Ottomans. We conquer Xinjian, Canton, Tsingtao, and Ankara while razing Izmit and destroying the new Zonguldak settlement near Madrid. We have no nationals left in Xinjiang any more, but I feel we have to try keeping it just on basic principles .

1415: Reposition troops and heal. Some temples rushed.

IT: Indian settler lands at the ruins SE of Barcelona, escorted by an elephant. We still have 3 turns of peace treaty with India before we can attack without ruining our rep, although I don't know how much that matters with everyone furious at us anyway.

1420: Sinop razed. Antalya has Leonardo's, so I risk keeping it. I haven't seen any new muskets or pikes (just a bunch of spears), so I think Osman either lost his offshore suppliers of ore and saltpeter or is just plain broke . Courthouse rushed in Madrid, which should allow it be half uncorrupt as long as they have WLTK day; it has significant tourist revenue.

1425: Salonika and Uskudar razed; we suffer our first casualty for the war (a cav).

summary: Old Spain is almost completely within our borders now, excepting the Indian settlement made this turn near Barcelona (which has an elephant defending it). There is also a Babylonian settler escorted by a pikeman wandering around near Toledo: we should be able to give it the boot in a few turns after the temples expand. Ottoman borders no longer touch ours at any point, and our troops stand poised to attack Istanbul. We have resisters in Ankara, Xinjiang, Antalya, and Tsingtao. There are 2 settlers, one having just arrived where I think it should settle in old Spain, and another near the Ottoman border, which I suggest we use to secure some wine. Our populace is about to become a bit disgruntled in 2 turns when our fur and gem trades expire, assuming we aren't able to renew them.

 

[Arathorn]

Boy, that didn't take long. I really thought 100 turns of nothing would take longer to overcome, considering how important the early game really is. I guess not. We're completely out of the hole and can easily rock the whole world.

My hope was that our early neighbors would be quite strong, since there was land for four civs but only three claiming it. Semi-true but not really. Too many good warmongers against AIs that fought early (shame on them! ) and the Great Library in our neighborhood. The early hole-digging was nice, but we're in a dominant position now.

I'll see this through to completion, but it's pretty easy mop-up at this point.

Rule change: Play 10-20 turns, as you choose.

Arathorn

 

[Ankka]

Next challenge would propably be to take it to at least 0AD... on a pangaea it would be worse, the AI's would trade a lot more.

 

[microbe]

Should we declare the game won? It's now just a regent game.

Where are all the players that complain there aren't SG games for beginners? Now is a chance. You can also participate in a LotR game.

 

[Grimjack]

Missed the mark some and mis-posted

Grimjack

 

[Arathorn]

I hate leaving a game unfinished.

Got it.

Arathorn

 

[Arathorn]

It's amazing how much/little one can get accomplished in 20 turns.

Early: Fought the Ottomans. Captured many of their cities. Vikings got in my way, too, so got them to declare on me, so I could clean them off our shores, too. Did some tech deals to get some petty cash and some luxuries.

Middle: Finished off the Ottomans. Fought the Babylonians, too, as they were in the way. Finished off the Babylonians. Captured most of the Viking cities on our continent. Did a 2fer to get us into the Industrial Age for nothing more than Iron and under 100 gold. What a deal!

Late: Made peace with the Vikings after cleaning them off our continent. I couldn't get a city on their continent, as much as I would've liked, and Berzerks, even in the AI's stoopid hands, are dangerous. Declared on and finished off Spain in about 3 turns. Researched Steam Power and began the railroads. Laughed in Mursilis's face when he demanded Spices and then signed the Celts and the Vikings up to fight him for us. Did fill a couple ships to send that way. Worked on the railroad.

I only got two MGLs total. One rushed the Pentagon very early. The other become a nearly-empty army being sent to the other continent.

I had to deal with probably 7 flips, as our culture is still somewhere between pathetic and non-existent. Our military is still inordinately thin -- good thing the AI is so badly off as well. Many infra projects got completed and a number of troops were built, too. Losses were light in combat, although I lost one/flip. Fought a few muskets, a lot of pikes and spears, a couple berzerks, several longbows, a couple MDI, but nothing serious.

India has Nationalism, but I still think we should declare on Ghandi soon and clean the last non-Chinese city off our continent. Then, we can relax and race for space or we can continue to on our foes.

Anybody else interested? The game is easy at this point, but I thought there was some interest in an easy regeant game... True? You can't screw things up badly enough in 10 (or even 20) turns, so feel free to play! Anyone!

Arathorn

 

[SesnOfWthr]

Curious, I see three views, but no posts.

I guess I do get to go for another stroll with it then. I'll either have the turns up in a couple hours, or 24 "ish".

I hope the "ish" is OK if I get too tired to finish tonight.

EDIT: "ish" did indeed happen. I didn't realize we were just starting to railroad. Will finish my turns Friday evening sometime.

 

[Arathorn]

No problem on the "ish". The large empire makes turns take longer. With some pretty serious pauses between plays, you're fine. Plus, 24 hours from claiming won't expire until Friday night anyway!

Arathorn

 

[SesnOfWthr]

Well, comp just crashed and lost this whole post, so let's try again.

Tried to basically balance filling our borders in, building some infra, making a few more units, and a few settlers too.

Hittites are about to be eliminated. Even down to their last town, they won't give up nationalism for peace.

Only got one leader, on about my third try. After that had rotten luck, including nearly losing our 10 hp cav army to a conscript rifle.

Rifles are pretty prevalent now, so much of the rest will have to be fought with armies and artys. Finished Industrialization, got Electricity, and we're now 4 turns from RP. I slowed research a bit so I would have cash to rush temples and such.

We still lack gems, and are trading for our furs. We do have sources of incense and ivory now.

We have about five cities on the other continent, with a few more settlers on the way. We have about 50% of the total land, including our entire continent within our borders.

We have a basic rail network in place, and I have started focusing on the core. Have not even worried about terraforming very much. Took me most of my turns just to get the rails to the vast majority of our cities.

Domination, Conquest, Space, and Histograph are all viable victories at this point, but dom and conquest would only require another set or two.

If I think of anything else pertinent, I'll add it in later.

PS - This is what I meant by the "ish". I knew a Friday night would be late.

 

[Foresight]

Got it. It is 12:48 am so I will play tomorrow morning, soon as I wake up.

 

[Foresight]

This game is won so I thought I would set up the next player to have some fun. I played 19 or 20 turns and since I am not going to waste an entire rain forest so I can write it all out, I will give a brief log.

Trading with Celts
Nationalism/10 gold/wm for Electricity


Normal to War-Time initiated. Change almost every town to Cavalry minus a few that will complete factories soon.

Turn 2: Brennus asks to renew deals. I say no.

Turn 3: We learn Replaceable Parts. Science shut to zero now.

Turn 4: Brennus wants to renew another deal. I say no. Lux to 20%.

Turn 5: ---

Turn 6: ---

Turn 7: Take out an indian city

Turn 8: Take out another indian city. Leader created. We make straight up peace with Gandhi.

Turn 9 - 13: ---

Turn 14: Rush Palace in (haha forgot to write down the name...it is the city by the incense). By the way, someone should be merging workers. I know I could have, but there were too many.

We give Vikings New Yangchow for free.

Turn 15 - 20: ---

We now have 115+ Cavalry on their Continent + 7 Armies ready to go. Celts and Indians just aquired Replaceable parts, but the amount of Cavalry will win this easy. Since they only upgrade 1 per/turn, we are fine.

I hope you aren't irritated Arathon. I saw you wanted Space Race or Conquer.

There are I think 4-5 Cavalry guarding our Continent which is fine + a few muskets. I could have simply researched our way to Transports (because our 4 man armies couldn't fit in galleons, but I did the math and we are actually getting more out of the palace/free city trick).

 

[Foresight]

Three things to add. Yes, Domination victory can be reached quite easily, but domination is boring.

Leave the vikings until the end or they will use their beserks and a good number of our coastal cities.

If you are wondering why I replaced the palace and gave a city away for free. When you have men in a city and give it to an AI, the men in the city get booted back to the city with a palace. Because I moved it to the other continent, it was a free-one turn move of over 100+ units.

 

[Speaker]

This is a serious exploit.

 

[LKendter]

Ignoring the exploit factor this is a terrible move.

This crippled our core. All of the well developed cities are totally corrupt now. Our production just fell throught he floor, and we pretty much depend on existing troops to win.

 

[T_McC]

Got it {grumble, grumble ...}