LotR9 -- OPEN eXtreme Variants

[Arathorn]

Things are looking very good. I'm not sure. Are the Mongols gone? If so, we're down to two foes. In my experimental games with OCC AW, it was always at the two foe mark that things got a little dicey.

With bankruptcy looming, we can change X Ville to producing wealth. This will get us a little extra cash and stop the flow of immortals, so that our unit costs will get under control. It sounds crazy, but it's the thing to do. Believe me. It sounds like we're at about that point.

One or two MPs can stay back to defend X Ville, but all the rest of our forces should be going to fight. One or two scouting past the Mongols on their land area, and the rest to fight off the Ottomans and explore around/past them.

Keep the pressure up on the fledgling civs. They're getting to the point where they massively out-produce us, so we need to take advantage of superior troops, both in quantity and quality, while we can.

And don't be afraid to lose a troop here and there. LKendter's got it right. Each loss is worth one gpt.... But don't throw troops away needlessly either.

If it's not won, I hope to claim tomorrow, but I just can't tonight.

Arathorn

 

[6thGenTexan]

The Mongols are gone. They only had 3 cities.

-6gntxn

 

[Belisar]

I hope it is OK to claim it again after 4 persons.

"got it"

 

[Belisar]

Preturn: I think we are in a good position.
We have 6 luxes. The wines will be connected next turn, I wake the
Aztek worker and send him north of X Ville to connect the last source, Gems.

730BC: I found the wine colony, fire tax collector. We are up to 28 Immortals.
As suggested I start wealth in X Ville.
Move the troops.
We are at -3 gpt with 31 cash, meaning we can keep our army for 10 more turns.
I guess we will have a few cassulaties and from then on we just have to stay at 25.
When the Gems is online, X Ville will need one MP less, meaning all 25 Immortals can be used
offensively.

710BC: Start road towards Gems.

IT: An Otto archer stops near our leading group.

690: And gets slaughtered, giving us the next elite Immortal.
We advance inside their boarders.

670: No enemy units in sight. We advance further.

IT: We lose 1 Immortal to an archer from Istanbul, voila, only -2 gpt at 20 cash.

650: Step next to Istanbul.
We also advance at Aydin, guarded by a warrior.

630: We attack Istanbul, kill two spears and an archer, but the injured archer is left.
We raze Aydin, was defended by 1 warrior.

IT: The next archer stops near our units at Istanbul and a single spear
(where is his settler ) comes out of the fog NW of Istanbul.

610: We kill both the last archer defending Istanbul and the one that is near the city.
Spot the next one on a hill east.
We advance to Edrine.

IT: An archer steps out of the fog near Edrine.
The spear walks west, two tiles north of our road.

590: Send an Immortal to intercept the spear.
Raze Edrine, was defended by two spears.
Kill the archer. I send two injured Immortals on two moutain tiles to heal and scout.
For the moment, I can see only the small town Uskudar east
Their road-network seems to end north of where Edrine was located.

570: I spot a orange boarder north, near the coast.
3 Immortals go for Uksudar, some are healing.
The bulk is on the road and needs a few additional turns to arrive at the front.
Move worker on Gems tile.

IT: 2 archer approach form Uksudar and one out of the fog north.

550: Found Gems colony and disband one MP in X Ville, meaning we are at -1 gpt, 10 cash
and we still have 27 immortals.
I kill the spear north of our main road.
In 3 turns, our road towards the Ottos (or should I say what is left from them )
will be completed.
Currently, I can see 3 Otto cities, each beeing approached from an Immortal stack.

In 3 turns (with MM on turn 2) X Ville will grow to size 12, the we should be at +- 0 gpt.


This will certainly be over soon, it was great fun

And what is left from the Otto-core:

SAVE

 

[Arathorn]

Got it. Don't think I can finish in 10 turns, but I hope to off the Ottomans and find the last civ.

Arathorn

 

[Arathorn]

Need immortals killed? I'm the man for the job. No, not really. Offed a bunch of archer in 530. THen, in 490, I lost an immortal while razing Iznik and Antalya. I lost another in 470, but got a double palace expansion anyway.

Our final foe is Korea. A warrior of theirs appeared north of this interminable jungle in 450 BC. I traded them contact with the soon-to-be-extinct Ottomans and our world map for their world map and Alphabet, just because I could. The world map was very nice, though. It shows them with 9 cities. Hmm....that's a bit of production power, but nothing >20 immortals can't handle. They do have iron, too...two sources, so we'll probably see a few swords, probably 2-6 or so...

The Ottomans lasted until 370 BC, when I razed Uskudar and eliminated them from the game. Most of our forces are headed north to deal with Korea, but it's a slog through a bunch of jungle.

By 350, I was close enough to their core, though, to get us a couple more slaves -- spears just don't guard settlers well from immortals!

I don't think Korea will fall in 10 turns -- but they should die in 20. We're back to a bit of positive cash-flow, but I'm pretty sure any new immortals wouldn't make it to the front in time. Just crush with what we have!

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/lotr9-350bc.zip

Who's next?
Arathorn

 

[Belisar]

Seems like the shortest SG ever played
We were a bit lucky because we hadn't to deal with defense-3 UUs.
The Greeks or Hanni would have been tough, infantry-casualties at the other side of the pangea are difficult to replace.

 

[Arathorn]

Nobody willing to take a few minutes to crush a fledgling civ with a flood of immortals?

Nobody up for the challenge of trying to eliminate them in 10 turns?

Arathorn

 

[LKendter]

I am sure somebody will come along.

As for me - 7 more modern war turns on a world map.

 

[Coffee]

I'd like to try but can't post a got it for another 2 hours and still complete in 8.

 

[ChrTh]

I'm tempted to try, but you may be noticing my sig right now ... although you never know what insanity I may get into tonight

 

[Coffee]

got it

 

[Coffee]

350 BC - 0
Start another immortal in X-ville for mp duty.

330 BC
Inchon falls, start the march on Korea.

310 BC
X-Ville immortal -> wealth

290 BC - 3
Split the available immortals into three groups to attack Korea.
Pretty much strung out behind this grouping.

270 BC - 4
Wonsan falls

250 BC - 5
Just more movement. I'm ignoring the warriors. They can have the one worker back.

230 BC - 6
Cheju falls. Lose a worker.

210 BC - 7
More movement.

190 BC - 8
Ulsan falls

170 BC - 9
Hygasan falls
Soeul falls
More movement

150 BC - 10
Well not quite 10 - 3 cities left.

130 BC - 11
Pynonyang falls
Pusan falls

110 BC - 12
Namp'o falls -> Victory

The Game

 

[Coffee]

270 BC

 

[Sir Bugsy]

That has to be the fastest SG victory I've seen. Congrats to all for a very well played game. And to Arathorn for a very well thought out variant.

 

[ChrTh]

A 2-page SG. That HAS to be a record!

 

[Belisar]

Nice job, Coffee. Did you need something to relax from our NOW game
Victory in 110BC [dance]

 

[Arathorn]

Comments:

- Two pages? Less than a week? Awesome!!! Sul5b should take notes!
- What's the final score? I'm curious. Such an early victory usually gives a good score, even on regent.
- HOW do people lose on regent? Or lower levels? It's hard for me to fathom.
- This played easier than either of my trial games. Our starting location was much better, so we got to 15 spt faster than I had before. This was, incidentally, the second start I rolled. The first was not a true pangea, which I really wanted. Starting in a corner and expanding one way only helped, too, I think.
- Thanks to the participants! This was a lot of fun, especially for such a quick little game.
- I think I lost as many immortals as the rest of the people combined -- 3. What's up with that?
- Thanks for finishing us up, Coffee. How close was my 2-6 swords estimate? And smart on ignoring the warrior and going for the cities.
- Realistic to try on Monarch? Or a standard map? I dunno, but these games play so fast, it can be tried easily. It's more of a snack than a meal.
-

Arathorn

 

[Coffee]

@Belisar Thanks and yes I suppose did.

@Arathorn I'll have to check on the score and report back. Only 1 sword I'm afraid and he impaled himself. I enjoyed the 10 turn challenge. Monarchs good.

Thanks to Arathorn for this SG. This was a fun read. Good game to all.

 

[Coffee]

The final score was 6529.