mb2-a space oddity

[TedJackson]

I forgot to mention that there's a Settler due in Mecca and a galley in Najran (5 turns). I thought it might be an idea to settle the North of Greece's island

Use it as a holiday home maybe?


regards

Ted

 

[mad-bax]

A little holiday villa in Greece. Nice!

A little holiday island formerly known as Greece. Nicer!

 

[Hooray]

Got it. I'll play today if possible.

So...let's see what I'm supposed to do this time...
I'm supposed to start an honorable war with the Ottomans. That means I can't attacks Aydin yet since it's only size one. It has a wheat, though, so maybe I could just wait a few turns until it grows?
I should start settling on Greece's island.
More focus on workers than on expansion for now.
Possibly prebuild for GL.
Sell WM each turn? I noticed Ted there mentioning increasing our map's value, so I assume that's what he meant?
Anything I'm forgetting that was mentioned?

Hmm, the FP in Medina? I guess this means we'll need a Palace move at some point...

 

[mad-bax]

That's about the size of it. Simple then.

I think your turn will be a lot of fun.

 

[Hooray]

Uh....don't hate me for this, but things didn't exactly go very well. Things started out okay, but kinda went downhill towards the end.

Pre-turn: I change our attack plans a bit. Attacking Aydin would only delay our troops from reaching the real Ottoman lands. I move our units south towards Iznik.

510 BC: Mecca Settler -> Spear
Baghdad Sword -> Worker
Mecca's spear goes with Settler as an escort, they will be sent to Greek Island.
Some barb hunting.

490 BC: Kufah Sword -> Temple
Basra Temple -> Spear
Khurasan Spear -> Temple
Mansura Worker -> Spear
Barb camp dispersed.
Dark green border spotted!

470 BC: Mecca Spear -> Horse
Medina Barracks -> Palace(prebuild)
Baghdad Worker -> Horse
Najran Galley -> Temple
Aden Temple -> Spear

Okay, our mighty Horsemen are ready for glorious battle! War is honorably declared against the Ottomans.
A wandering Otto warrior is killed.
Two Horsemen manage to capture Iznik with practically no opposition!

450 BC: Damascus Sword -> Temple
Fustat Horse -> Galley
Muscat Spear -> Temple
Gems are connected!
Lots of barb hunting in the northern tundra.

430 BC: The green border turns out to be the Aztecs. We make contact.
We trade all of our contacts (Ottos, Indians, Greeks, Babs), for Mathematics, Contact with Egypt, and their WM.
Egypt contacted. We trade just our WM to them for their WM and all of their 203 gold.
A teal border is visible across the water from Egypt, but no contact is possible yet.

410 BC: Mecca Horse -> Harbor
Basra Spear -> Galley
Resistance in Iznik ends.
Barb camp dispersed.

390 BC: Damascus Temple -> Worker
The city of Merw is founded on the Greek Island with Wheat and Cattle in range.

Our Horses are now in position to attack Istanbul. However, I hold off for a few turns to await the arrival of some swords.

370 BC: Cleo whines about our galley in her territory...
An Ottoman Archer attacks a Horse and retreats it.
Damascus Worker -> Horse
Baghdad Horse -> Worker
Fustat Galley -> Worker
Indians start Lighthouse.
Philosophy sold to Aztecs for 64 gold. Just trying to keep the tech pace moving.

350 BC: Osman comes begging for peace. I laugh in his face.
He responds by attacking one of our Swords with an Archer. We redline, but win.
Oh, I see a foreign border across the water to the SW of Greece.

Okay, now is the battle for Istanbul! First, I attack a Settler/Spear pair. Two new slaves for us
Now for the attack on the city itself.
A Reg Sword dies. Another Reg Sword dies.
A Vet Sword dies. A Vet Horse dies.

A Vet Horse wins (yay). Another Vet Horse wins.
A Vet Horse dies. Another Vet Horse wins.
....Ack!! There is only a redlined Spear now defending Istanbul, but I have no attackers left to kill it!!
Maybe next turn.

330 BC: Alexander whines about our galley in his territory.
Baghdad Worker -> Sword
Aden Spear -> Harbor
Kufah Temple -> Worker

Okay, let's try this attack again.
Reg Sword attacks Istanbul, and dies.
Vet Horse attacks and DIES!!
That's it, I can't attack Istanbul anymore. Our offensive has failed. Only a few injured units remain just outside of Istanbul's radius. Our army is now in shambles....

I could certainly blame the RNG for my failure. But, I can only blame myself for bad strategy. I probably could have won if I hadn't retreated nearly all the injured units. I should have kept them there to attack the next turn.

It's not hopeless, though. Once those injured units heal up, they still might be able to take the city. Istanbul now has two Spears, but any more reinforcements are unlikely within the next few turns.

In other news, there's a Galley to the Southwest of Greece. It can be sent directly West to gain contact with that yellowish border.

Here's how the world looks now:

And here's the save:
The Save

 

[vbraun]

I coudnt of done better.

Don't you hate it when you attack with like 10 units you dont take the city and are left with little to none attackers...
We each take 10 turns now? Any suggestions for War stratagy?

 

[Hooray]

At the risk of repeating my failure, I think we should hit Istanbul with what little we have left before they have a chance to get more defenders. The remaining units should be healed up in 2 or 3 turns, which is probably too short of a time for Osman to build any more spears, since I'm pretty sure that second spear in Istanbul is newly built, so he probably has one building from scratch now.

Ah yes, that second spear. If not for that little bastard, I might have risked attacking with some injured Horses...

I hope the next player has better RNG luck. The two spears in Iznik fell effortlessly. There's no reason we can't get that same luck again with Istanbul.
If we can just take that capital, the Ottomans will be crippled, and we'll be at our leisure to build up more forces to wipe them out.

 

[mad-bax]

Nice turns Hooray. Wouldn't worry about Istanbul. We'll get it.
Exploration and contacts very well played.

vbraun. You're up as you know already.

Tips for this war?

If I were you I would put a stack of swords together (4 or 5) for Istanbul. They will be pop rushing like mad now. I would use horses for all the pop 2 to 4 towns in stack of 5 or 6. I would build one or two spears to garrison the new cities. You can get them there quicker by moving them into a town with a spear in it already and then moving the original spear along.


Most of all enjoy it. Experiment a bit. (but win).

 

[TedJackson]

Well played Hooray

The only thing I would have played differently would have been hanging onto our contacts.

Being the only civ having contacts with all the other civs is a very powerful position and really allows control of the tech pace (as well as pulling in lots of money from tech trading - buying from one, selling to the others).

Please don't take this as anything other than a little constructive criticism and perhaps a pointer to something you weren't aware of.


regards


Ted

 

[Hooray]

But won't giving out our contacts help the tech pace move faster? Normally I would have withheld contacts. It's sometimes difficult to tell what needs to be done in a variant, I guess.

 

[TedJackson]

If you hold back on contacts then you can retain control of tech & trading for a while. That way you can decide who gets to stay up in tech and who gets to fall behind simply by trading or not. Used along with WM trading it discourages the AI from bothering to make their own contacts.

Obviously there is only a short window of opportunity. It can't last beyond the Middle Ages but it can be very effective.

Having said that, it isn't crucial. I really only mentioned it in case you were unaware of the significance. So don't worry about it.


regards

Ted

 

[Hooray]

Normally I wouldn't have done it. Sorry.
I should also mention that a small corner of Aztec land is visible from Ottoman lands. It would probably not have been long before the Aztecs gained contact with the Ottomans (and likely the Indians as well through trade).

Maybe I'm just making excuses...

 

[mad-bax]

Hooray: You have no need to make excuses.
The whole point of SG's is to put every turn of a game under intense scrutiny. If we never expressed alternative points of view then whats the point?

You played it one way, Ted would have done it another. Me, Iwould have done something different to both of you. I would have traded contacts between the off-island civs to allow them as a group to research faster, but keep the monopoly of what they learn for myself.

 

[TedJackson]

Originally posted by mad-bax
Hooray: You have no need to make excuses.
The whole point of SG's is to put every turn of a game under intense scrutiny. If we never expressed alternative points of view then whats the point?

You played it one way, Ted would have done it another. Me, Iwould have done something different to both of you. I would have traded contacts between the off-island civs to allow them as a group to research faster, but keep the monopoly of what they learn for myself.

Nicely summed up mad-bax.


regards

Ted

 

[Brewster]

Hi everyone. I'm back from holidays and have enjoyed reading about the progress of the game so far. I await my turn in the rotation and will try to keep up the good work.

 

[mad-bax]

Brewster: Good holiday?

Nice timing, you're on deck.

We are all eagerly anticipating vbrauns tale of the annihilation of the Ottoman empire

 

[Brewster]

The holidays were very good to me and I am looking forward to playing some civ. This is the first time I have gone an entire week without playing at least one turn since I got the game back in Dec.

 

[mad-bax]

OK Brewster, vbrauns 3 days are up, so I'm skipping him. A little harsh, but that's the kinda guy I am.

You're up. The save link is towards the top of this page, posted by Hooray.

 

[TedJackson]

Keep them dawgies movin'


Ted

 

[vbraun]

I had part of the turns done (like 3 I dont usually play a civ game where i record every last thing i do). Plus i ve been really busy I only got to it last night but oh well. Sorry for holding you up....

And Hooray posted is turns later in the day so i have still like this afternoon.