Mayor problems for team Roadkill

[Killroyan]

There are no direct wonders for us to build to be honest. Sury is almost for certain building spiral minaret and angkor wat. That leaves us right now with uni's and oxford in our capitol as the only option.

About the farms at Konya, I forgot aobut the maintenance. Just thought give it 1 farmed plains tile and at size 6 work the gem mine (if I am not mistaken) for max size and income.

 

[LKendter]

My concern is a path toward more wonders. Are we hoping for nationalism if we can win the race for liberalism?

 

[CreeDakota]

I apologize. I have not played in a timely manner and am still unable to play today. I am still interested in this game but other priorities have trumped gaming this week.

If someone else is ready and willing to play right now I can accept my turn being skipped. If you guys are comfortable waiting I will try and free up some time this week.

 

[Killroyan]

Lkendter (Up)
Pholkhereo (on deck)
Killroyan (just played)
Cree (pass)

 

[LKendter]

Got it

 

[LKendter]

1300 AD
I cancel a worker farming tundra above Bursa. We can't afford the extra maintenance cost to work junk like this.

I hate to play around with our cash reserves, but Khmer already knows education. The race for liberalism is critical for us as grabbing nationalism gives us a wonder and our ONLY chance for a golden age.
(IT) Our horrid borders by Persepolis cost us two exposed horse archers.


1305 AD
GAG - caught a spy too late on go to Pasargadae. I prefer to control these as targets can change.

I never wanted to do this, but Istanbul is going to build units while waiting for the next wonder as soon as the monastery is done.


1310 AD
Khmer also has philosophy. This is really ugly. And they have most of the cash, so had to grab more to fast tech run.

I give the Dutch education for compass, WM and $270. We really need the cash to keep 100% science going - the only chance at liberalism first.
(IT) Our lack of counter to knights continues to hurt. I can't wait to our first pikes reach the front.


1320 AD
I sell Saladin compass for $300. We need the cash to keep going at 100% science.
(IT) Persepolis takes a serious hit. We lost some of the units there.


1325 AD
Persepolis is difficult to reinforce, and I don't know if I can withstand another serious assault. I killed off most of the attacking units, but we are running out of troops.

Even peace won't help, as we can't reinforce that city. I wish we had taken Dariush first. That would have given us access from one side. I am now in a race to take that city before I am forced to accept peace. The trouble is once peace is accepted; we will never get another chance to reinforce due to the culture trap.


1330 AD
I really don't want to help #1 Khmer, but I send them stone for fur and $6. We badly need the happiness.
We now have walls in Persepolis. Hopefully that slows him down a little.
(IT) Persia lost 3 units and us none.


1335 AD
Good news - bad news. Good part is Sury declared on Persia. The bad part is that breaks the trade route, and we lost the badly needed furs.
Two fresh longbows arrive in Persepolis.

I start a revolt it Dariush. It is a bloodbath, but we barely capture the city. I merge our general into the city.
We get another general from this battle.
(IT) We are screwed - we lost the race for liberalism. We ignored this too long for all the wars.


1340 AD
It gets worse. Sury already has Nationalism. We've lost the battle for Taj and our only possible golden age. We really have an issue now what new wonders we can build.

I sent the Dutch philosophy for optics, WM and $140.
(IT) The AP vote is for the world to declare on Darius.
Mao declares on Darius before the AP vote.


1345 AD
I give stone to Willem for Silver and $7 / turn.
(IT) The AP vote fails, and then the Dutch declare on Darius.


1350 AD
Now we have knights approaching Bursa. I kill 1 of the first 2 with a pike.


1355 AD
The incursion is over.


1360 AD
We got a merchant in York.


Summary:
Things have calmed down. The extra wars have dropped the attacks down to nothing. The next player can decide when they are ready to march on Pasargadae. We are lucky, and that city already has merged GP.
Our spare GP are hiding south of Susa.
I really was nervous with 2 GP in Persepolis that I couldn't get out easily. The variant can't afford the loss of any GP. We are still only at 15.8% of the needed land. We need a lot more cities.


Cree
Lkendter (just played)
Pholkhereo (up)
Killroyan (on deck)

 

[Killroyan]

So much happening. As far as I can tell LK you played a good set. Everybody is at Darius throat but Sury is becoming ugly right now. With the 5 GP we have left we could conquer England after the war and get some dutch cities to ensure our borders on the left side. We are going to need a lot Maybe we should have started with an extra settler on this difficulty but hey at least it is not a boring succession game hehe. Good job LK.

About the war, lets keep it going as long as possible. We gain the diplo points for mutual struggle and maybe we can beg some more money from the others. The fact that we lost liberalism and didn't gain nationalism hurts like hell so it looks like we should just focus on getting more gg and just conquer the whole damn map. We have 6 GP in reserve. Combine this with about 4 more GP to be born and maybe 3 more GG to be born and we might be up to 13 more cities which is far from enough to win this map. We might need to rethink our strategy. Should we just beeline all the GP techs (economy/communism/fascism/physics) and just hope to trade all the other techs?

 

[pholkhero]

got it

 

[LKendter]

Don't forget cities like Pasargadae - it already has a merged specialist - free city capture.

I hope at least one of the last 3 English cities will also be that way.

One advantage of going on the dutch - we can lock silver for ourselves once the border cities are ours.

 

[pholkhero]

i wonder if those english cities are really worth the GPs?

 

[LKendter]

If we didn't get the English AP resolution those three cities behind our lines would have forced me to make peace with Persia.

I think England may get bribed / vassal again. I want simply borders, and those English cities make our borders a lot simpler.

 

[Killroyan]

I agree with the simple borders and no more "we yearn for our motherland" and no more cultural pressure. So as soon as we quit the Persian war, we should be at Englands doorstep

 

[pholkhero]

Alrightey, so: take Parsagardae, and get ready for war with England. Got it.

Started off by moving our armies toward our target. Domestically, I focused on missionaries for Judaism, Christianity and now Buddhism. With three shrines, these will be a great source of cash in this terrible, terrible map ~ we esp need Buddhism in all our cities.

Before the sacking of the city, Mao came by:

I took the deal just b/c he was already annoyed with us, and I didn't want to piss him off any further right now.

Next turn, after the spy took down the defenses, we lost one catapult in the whole fight.

Two turns later, we can build Janissaries:

I also made peace after Darius lost several cities to Orange and the Khmer.

He capitulated to Orange the next turn

We're 3rd in the techs, according to Thucydides.

Suryavarman came by:

I said no for now, just in case war comes as at this point, I noticed that Victoria vassaled to the Khmer. We also had a chance to pass a resolution, but it was only to stop trading with Arabia. I chose not to pursue it, though.

We hit 5 million people:

Land at 3rd is good, and we should be able to make it to number one by taking a bite out of the Dutch lands. We're in a great position to win a normal game ~ whether that translates to makign us able to win the variant, idk.

Here's england:

I sugggest moving from south to north and our troops are massed there. realistically, i can't see wasting 3 of our precious GPs on those cities. I think the middle one is the only one we should keep. I also have our NE border cities with a bit of garrisons, but new jannisarries should be moved to Parsa to rebuff any attack from Surya.

And just for kicks, here's what's left of Persia:

 

[LKendter]

The vassal situation has made this tough who to hit next. We still need to take out English, the Dutch, and then move on the other side of the mountains to pull this one off.

I didn't want to hit the Dutch next, but has the diplo force it?

Cree (on deck)
Lkendter
Pholkhereo (just played)
Killroyan (up)

 

[pholkhero]

well, if we can assure that surya can't get through persian lands, we're safe from him. conversely, if we can't, the units are set up so that we can cut through england quickly, and stay on defense in the east until we can get peace.

alternately, hit orange and persia will open up a rather long front to defend against in the north where we might have difficulty defending right now.

 

[LKendter]

Good point about the border block. I vote for England next. Get rid of the mother land whiners.

 

[Killroyan]

Very nice turnset Pholk. We are doing great if you ask me. A little light on our GP's but hey we are at +53 gold at 0% science woot.

Sounds good about the war with England but I guess we need a bit of a build up first. Like 10 janissaries or so for the strike on England and against a sneak attack from Sury. We better make sure we hit England hard and fast so Sury gets very little time to respond to that.

I see we are building the FP in Perse which is a good thing. Did we already whip the jewish monastery and temple? If so, brilliant. If not, insert those asap for the cultural pressure.

So tech wise, we are now researching printing press. Wouldn't it have been better to get the military techs like guilds towards cuirasseers? We could use it for the ongoing wars. Guilds also open up banking and economics or are those techs already gone? Can we steal guilds from Darius about now?

About the espionage points. To whom are we going to redirect the points? Sury would make a good target but..... it is far more likely that we will hit the orange first. The Dutch normally have less of an army so should make a good target. We could use however some insight in his cities. I want to secure the left side of the map first to be honest. If we can get Willem and Darius that would be great. I will check Darius cities tonight to see if there is a gp hidden somewhere and then redirect the esp to Willem to check his cities.

So PPP:
1) Build up a stack of jannisaries and trebs to hit England hard and fast.
2) Build up a defensive stack for Sury.
3) Tech PP and trade it around?
4) Redirect ESP to Willem or try to steal guilds from Darius.

 

[CreeDakota]

I dont like a DOW on England. WvO is a better target. Prolly not ready for at least 10 turns. Switch Espinoage to him now.

Attacking England gains us only a few crappy cities and pisses off the map leader and a solid friend in Sury. Sury can trade us techs, WvO can't. WvO is at cautious or worse to the entire map too.

I would split the stack and attack Nmidjem and Amsterdam. Drop defense in Nmidjem with spys, probably slow wack away defense in Amsterdam. Likely just defensive on Darius Side, he is a broken spirit already.

Sury is our only real threat to the game. He is larger, teching well and builds units well. I would play him as much as a friend as possbile the rest of the game and never plan to declare on him. Beat him to a victory via, UN, SPACE, or culture by capturing the cities of all the rest of the AI.


I dont see and tech trades ready right now but hopefully we can get Liberalism from Sury, plus Guilds and something else before we break our monopoly on Gunpowder.

As far as research I think Printing press into Replaceable parts is solid.

Hire specialists in Istanbul, Edrine, York. All can pop a GP before end of game.

Darisg Kabir and Pasagardea should both Whip.

 

[LKendter]

Sury is our only real threat to the game. He is larger, teching well and builds units well. I would play him as much as a friend as possible the rest of the game and never plan to declare on him. Beat him to a victory via, UN, SPACE, or culture by capturing the cities of all the rest of the AI.

To be honest, I don't know if we can win without fighting Sury. We shall see.
Just don't forget about the below.

5) Only way to win is domination (although all other victory option are open for the AI)

No matter what despite the constant economy struggle we need to start another war soon. We have enough GP around right now to take several cities.

 

[Killroyan]

To be honest, I feel something for going to war with the dutch instead of the english. How are the relations between Sury and Willem? If they are bad we should be able to attack Willem without problems. He also has the better cities. Englands cities are craptacular to say the least so I would love to get my hands of some of my hometowns (as I am Dutch).

About Nothingham, we still haven't gained a tile there to the left? Seriously, with putting out 16 culture per turn you would expect more push over there.

I will not be able to play untill sunday morning. Cree, if you want, you can play your turn now. If somebody else wants to have a go, be my guest.