Preturn:
Bad luck, we got the only AI with knights (War Elephants) that doesn't require iron,
it would have been nice to fight against an AI without Knights.
IT: The Romans have more units near Iznik than we would need to take out the
whole continent. Bad thing, the Indians would give us two luxes for Theology
but because they are next on our list -> no deal.
A lot of Roman troop movement back north.
We better make sure we get an alliance against the Indians like Meldor proposed
or we have 200 legions and 400 MDI's in our backyards.
And wow, Abu is a backward guy. If we get Navigation, we should get some of his beavers.
270: We take Akkad without casualties and get a fresh slave.
Only one elite sword in position to attack Ashur this turn, a pike gives him cover
and I don't want to risk any horses. I can live with the
result as we get GL Suleyman, 4 turns too late. (I think that's the hard part of
an SG: Meldor and NP were leaderfishing and I get one with the first elite victory,
this is your man guys
)
I think the Chapel is wortheless for us, we need Bach. Because I don't expect
a new GL before MT (The Babs don't seem to have any spare units left), I want to
save him, two more content citiziens would really help us.
On the other hand I expect the war with India to begin during my turn and
an army would be nice for tactical reasons.
IT: The Roman 'Expedition Force' continues withdrawing north, a lot of Indian troops move
back west towards their side of the landmass.
280: With the MDIs in position, we take Ashur and get two more slaves and a third iron source.
I decide to connect it immediately to be prepared.
We land near Kish.
IT: A Bab bowman commits suicide at our vet pike near Kish.
An important boarder expansion at Konya, we get the land tiles south and
India no longer has a direct route to its colonies on our side.
290: We take Kish from its lone spearman defender getting us an elite knight,
Ok, only Nippur left. The stupid Romans are blocking my troop movements.
Istanbul is already size 10, some cities without temples are problematic too,
we badly need luxes. Rushing the harbour in our new Ivory town is still way too expensive,
so I have to increase lux to 20% to avoid clowns in several towns.
300: Road to our salpeter source, order settler. Guarding the salpeter
with an MDI while the spear heads back for upgrading.
Some unit movement, mainly preparing for our war against India.
310: Hannibal seems to be the tech leader, he got Education.
2 knights are healing in Kish to attack Nippur.
Order Cats in our corrupt south.
IT: Most of the Roman troops have left our territory and should be in the Caesarea-area
320: 2 new knights are finished. Continue clearing the jungle in the north,
our iron source in the south is online, just to be on the save side.
330: Both the Romans and the Indians got Education
, we will likely
have to pay the Romans.
I load our two galleys and go for Nippur.
IT: We get Education, the GL was great.
I spot the first Indian War Elephant.
340: I land at the hill near Nippur.
350: I take Nippur and the weak Babs are gone. They were just not good enough
to survive at deity.
In Austria, we have a proverb (I guess it doesn't make sense in English):
Something like "We showed them were to get the good stuff"
After the units in Nippur are back at full strength they can be used
to take out the Indian city near the iron.
The next player has to declare against India, but he may want to investigate those
2 cities on our side of the landmass, should be cheap.
I saw only horses, spears and longbows and I doubt that the Indians have the
money or the raxes to upgrade these units.
The westen front is more problematic, I saw the first Elephants.
Note: Our galleys and a few workers are unmoved.
I stopped at this point (only 9 turns this time) because a few decisions are necessary
which will determine our plans for the next 10-20 turns:
1. I would suggest and alliance with Rome, immediately.
It is costly (35gpt and 8 cash), but India is strong and in the case of a dogpile
we would be in real troubles. Rome has a lot of units in the Caesarea-area and the
additional pressure against the Indians might be just what we need because our
military is not as strong numerically as I hoped it would be at this point of the game.
2. Our defense position in the west should be OK, I added Cats but we still are short
on them, so I ordered a few during my turns.
Main goal are those two cities on our side of the landmass to shorten our front considerably.
I built a road to the salpeter source, the next player can decide whether he
wants to upgrade to muskets (via a colony, so the source would be online this turn)
If I had to play the next turns, I would delay the connection (it is outside our current boarders
so the road won't connect it immediately)
to produce those cheap pikes and grab the source with the settler I built in Babylon
after the region is secured, mainly because our production capability is not that great
to produce many knights AND musktes.
3. What to do with our GL.
Since I had only 2 elite battles after I got him I decided to keep him.
Now the war with India will start this turn and we should agree on our priorities.
I see two possibilities: Wait for BACH (which would help our happines situation
enormously, saving a lot of money) or an army to better block the Indians
at the western front. Because we will fight defensively for some turns until
we have absorbed most of their offensive capabilities a musket army that covers
our knights and cats would be an excellent choice, but a knight army would not be
a bad choice either.
IF we want an army, we should build it now to get all those leader-chances
during the next turns.
Good luck ChrTh, you get all the fun this time
SAVE
NP
our saltpetre. We don't consider this an exploit, do we?
