MLDR005 NOW what?

[ChrTh]

WOW
That was some good fightin' there ... I'm glad I didn't have to take that turn cause otherwise we would've been slaughtered.

I can't believe how far behind we are in the techs (Navigation already?!) ... hopefully once we meet everybody we'll be able to do a lot of 4-turn research to catch up.

 

[meldor]

Another great set of turns from NP, but we have come to expect as much. The only thing I would like to see is for us to get rid of Portugal. OK, I would also like to make contacts with the rest of the world.

It looks like arty will again be the key to taking the game. By the time we make it to the other landmass, we will need to have a healthy load of pingers.

Microbe
RomeoTheMonk
Northern Pike
el_filet (Playing)
Meldor (On Deck)
ChrTh

We have the beginnings of a hit list:
Portugal - OCC, needs to go...
Germany - Starting to lose it
Aztecs - Gone, couldn't last
Sumeria - The first taste of the other side

 

[romeothemonk]

I think that we should be able to use our Sword army to cover a large SoD on our eastern front and push on to Berlin. We should have 10-15 cats, and a couple of loose swords and ponies to put under neath. Then walk towards cities, plowing them under as we go.

 

[microbe]

Cool. So our next target is Sumeria? The problem is how we get there. We have a long way to go for Navigation, and by that time AI would probably have got rifles.

 

[romeothemonk]

I think crushing the Germans, revolting and getting infra while we get up to Magnatism is a good plan. We will make the Sumerians come to us, because we obviously can't get to them.

 

[microbe]

By the way, let's kill Portugal asap. It would reduce the research cost for us.

 

[el_filet]

i got it...

 

[el_filet]

i just played a few turns yesterday, but will finish tonight. sorry for the delay.

 

[el_filet]

470 AD (0):
look for a passage for galleys, but don't find any. ur with GLib is in a central location anyway. it seems we have to do some research.
will send some newly produced swords to finish ports

IBT:
loose sword to counter
rostov: sword->galley
izmit completes cop

480 AD (1):
kill AC
barely hurt countering knight
kill MI (2-1)

IBT:
lose/kill a unit (3-2)
moscow: sword->sword

490 AD (2):
up lux to get 2 turn sword from blacktown

IBT:
construction->currency
sagres: rax->spear
faraway: lib->spear

500 AD (3):
switch rostov to granary for chop

IBT:
lose 2 units and 2 workers to german counter
moscow: sword->sword
gems town: lib->court
blacktown: sword->sword
yaroslavl': sword->sword

510 AD (4):
lose unit killing injured pike (4-6)
get back our workers (7-6)
found samara next to cow->walls
kill one of hamburgs defenders (8-7)

IBT:
ports have galleys

520 AD (5):
hamburg has 2 new vet pikes :arg:
kill 2 invaders (10-7)
poprush lib in orenburg to use the leader

IBT:
germans unload MI next to orenburg
lose sword to counter
moscow: sword->sword
blacktown: sword->sword
novgorod: lib->settler
smolensk riots wallbash: sent unit to orenburg last turn, now riot and to late to avoid attack )
orenburg: lib->FP

530 AD (6):
hurry FP (redirect units meant for ports to protect)
retreat AC (and expose sword, but needed to get him away from our cats, protect with spear)
switch some size 6 cities to settler

IBT:
lose exposed spear and sword (to 1HP AC)
lose spear in orenburg (10-10)
push the front: horse->horse
orenburg: FP->granary

540 AD (7):
switch court in smolensk to duct
contact korea: they need iron

IBT:
lose a sword in samara, but orenburg holds (12-11)
moscow, blacktown: sword->sword
sagres: settler->horse
krasnoyarsk: lib->temple
kazan: settler->settler

550 AD (8):
cats still show 3 defenders in hamburg, but miss mostly

notes:
stopped because nothing seems to work for me today
at least i didn't lose the FP
passage from meldograd to hamburg killed us (me), should have used the army for cover but defended cats from TTD
let some units unmoved
cats in krasnoyarsk & S of khabarovsk (some unmoved)
we can sell korea/sumer lux for currency or korea iron+luxes for republic (get it currency next turn anyway)
walls in western town still needed

 

[romeothemonk]

470 AD (0):
notes:
stopped because nothing seems to work for me today
at least i didn't lose the FP
passage from meldograd to hamburg killed us (me), should have used the army for cover but defended cats from TTD
let some units unmoved
cats in krasnoyarsk & S of khabarovsk (some unmoved)
we can sell korea/sumer lux for currency or korea iron+luxes for republic (get it next turn anyway)
walls in western town still needed

A couple of questions arise. How do we get republic next turn? We really don't want it as we will always be in locked war with superior opponents.
I really suggested using the army to cover the troops. The Germans will Nickel and Dime us to death if we don't.
I like getting currency as any of the first tier techs will really help us. Where is the German iron? Can we pillage the snot out of it?
Not to offend El_Filet but any offense needs to be covered well and solidly coordinated. I lurked through all the AW games on CFC for the past year to develop the strategies I try to use. I do not claim to be an expert, but they really helped my game in attacking a vastly overwhelming, technically superior foe. I also concur with destroying the ports very quickly.

 

[microbe]

The kill ratio doesn't look so good.

By the way, why did we research Construction instead of Currency? I was thinking we needed markets more than aqueducts?

 

[el_filet]

killing ratio is terrible. i just continued research, but some ducts may help with support in monarchy. BTW, revolting?

@romeothemonk
we get currency next turn, i corrected it in the log.
i chose to defend the cat stack, but should have delayed the attack and united units from TTD & meldograd.

the worst part is, it may have worked if i didn't forgot a fortified unit. anyway, i wasn't patient and now we all have to pay for it. sorry

concerning the ports:
sent 3 units S, one returned to defend orenburg, one there, one on it's way. (all swords)

 

[meldor]

We need Republic like we need scouts... We will most likely be a monarchy for the rest of the game. The only late game govenments would be either Facism or Communism. Any government with WW will not work as we will never be at peace.

I want to get rid of Portugal and get us going again against Germany. Hopefully somewhere along the way we can get the rest of the contacts.

Microbe
RomeoTheMonk
Northern Pike
el_filet
Meldor (Playing)
ChrTh (On Deck)

We have the beginnings of a hit list:
Portugal - OCC, needs to go...
Germany - Starting to lose it
Aztecs - Gone
Sumeria - The first taste of the other side
Who is next???

 

[Northern Pike]

By the way, why did we research Construction instead of Currency? I was thinking we needed markets more than aqueducts?

A fair point, but I was concerned about getting aqueducts built for the transition to monarchy, as El Filet divined. More fundamentally, we were obviously going to get both Construction and Currency before we could complete any expensive structures anyway, so it wasn't an important decision.

 

[Northern Pike]

It's worth persisting with suicide galley runs until we contact the Greeks, since this would only require our ship to survive one interturn on the ocean.

Since this is Conquests, the cities around our FP won't help us as much as they should until they all have courthouses. I'm not suggesting that they should all switch to courthouses now, but it's something to keep in mind.

El Filet, I appreciate the fact that you've got plenty of settlers in the pipeline. This is too often overlooked.

 

[meldor]

550 AD (0)
Units at Hamburg attack leaving a pike on top. I do get a MGL when the elite attacks. I don't have the units to finish the job so I quit whilst ahead. They lose 3 pike, we get 1 MGL. I will pull the troops back so that we can build a second army and let things heal. The archer army takes out a knight at Emerita and a horse kills a pike and covers our cats at Krasnoyarsk. I have to use an injured elite sword to kill a knight at Samara and keep it from getting our workers. When checking the diplo screen, I find we have contact with Korea and I add them to the list. (6-0)
(I) Elite sword is nailed by an AC. Portugal drops an archer off by our empty city. We get currency and enter the MA. Our free tech is Mono and we start on Fuedalism due in 10. Rostov Granary->Sword, Yaroslav'l Sword->Market, Samara Walls->Library. The Sumerians start Newtons (6-1)

560 AD (1)
Kill the Porto Archer with a nearby sword. We have a new sword army and Moscow is switched to the Pentagon. Since the knight and AC moved out of Hamburg and the unit on top is a reg pike, I ping it with the cats and it seems to be the only unit. Our sword army kills it and we capture the city. I hope I don't regret it, but I want to keep it long enough to bring a settler up. I am hoping that the horses in the north aren't connected and we just got the Germans horses. I kill an MDI with an elite sword, the second with an elite horse and we get a second MGL. It looks like we will have the Pentagon as soon as I can get the leader back to a city that won't waste too many shields. It will most likely be in Krasnovarsk as it only has 2 shields on its build and 29 turns to go. Moscow back to sword. (11-1)
(I) We lose one sword in Samara and the other hangs on by a single HP. (12-2). Moscow and Blacktown Sword->Sword, Novgorod Settler->Sword, Meldorgrad Walls->Rax, Khabarovsk Cat->Cat.

570 AD (2)
I swap FarAway to a Galley as the one we have is way up north and I don't want to wait. I kill the 1hp knight at Samara and decline to attack the knight on the mountain with a hurt army. The other knight and MDI are out of range. (13-2)
(I) We lose an exposed sword but our elite spear holds off a knight. (14-3) FarAway Galley->Settler, Khabarovsk Pentagon->Rax, Bryansk and Novosibirsk Cat->Cat.

580 AD (3)
I kill an AC and an MDI in the west. There are no units in the east. I move a spear to the empty coastal city with a German Galley moving down the coast. Since the Pentagon is in, I pull the trigger and we will be in anarchy for 5 turns. (15-3)
(I) The Sumerians start Smith's.

590 AD (4)
Kill 2 knights in the west. Nothing much else. (17-3)
(I)Not much.

600 AD (5)
Kill another knight in the west. Abandon Hamburg and replace it with NPgrad. I send the Galley out into the unknown. (18-3)
(I) Only one German unit appears in the east. Wouldn't you know it. The Ottomans come calling and I swap them our TM for their WM and then our WM for contact witht he Greeks. The Sumerians complete Magellans. The good news is that our Galley doesn't sink. The really good news is that the Greeks are as backward as we are. We are up Lit on them and they are up Republic on us.

610 AD (6)
The Knight in the east is out of range for everything but the archer army. It takes it out as it is only a reg. I start moving one of the sword armies to the east so we can raze the smaller cities on that side before tackling the German core. It will also help when we go to capture Berlin. (19-3)
(I) Two more German knights appear.

620 AD (7)
I kill off the 2 knights and wait for us to get our new government. (21-3)
(I) Three more Knights appear in the east. We are now a Monarchy.

630 AD (8)
I kill one of the knights but can't do anything about the others.
(I) We kill a knight on defense at Meldorgrad, but we retreat one and lose a horse in the east at Emerita. (22-4) Moscow Sword->market, Blacktown Sword->Market, Postov Spear->Spear

640 AD (9)
I kill one AC and a knight in the east but the second 1hp knight retreats. The cats outside of Lagos go 1 for 4 so we hold off the attack. (24-4)
(I) The Germans are now sending MDI and Longbows, that must mean the horses were lost for at least a while. TimeToDye Walls->Library, Sagres and PushTheFront Horse->Horse,

650 AD (10)
The cats at Lagos go 2for4 and we then attack with our 3 swords. We lose on but we take the city and Portugal is no more. (26-5)

Microbe (On Deck)
RomeoTheMonk
Northern Pike
el_filet
Meldor
ChrTh (Playing)

We have the complete hit list:
Portugal - Gone
Germany - Starting to lose it
Aztecs - Gone
Sumeria
Korea
Ottoman
Greece

[Edit} forgot to change Portugal's banner to "done"

 

[Northern Pike]

Another army, the Pentagon, the transition to monarchy, all the contacts, Portugal gone--tremendous round. Obviously our technological backwardness is still a problem, but this looks like a position we're going to win now.

 

[Northern Pike]

We've reached the point at which a two-turn pump producing workers for merging will help us enormously. Samara is the obvious candidate. We should switch to a granary there, not even letting the library finish, and then produce nothing but workers for a long time. Getting Samara to 5 fpt and 5 spt at size five will be simple.

We're listed as strong relative to Germany. So the Germans must really be gassed, given that we have the kind of army the AI underestimates.

Bear in mind that we don't have Engineering, so it will take our cats in NPgrad two turns to get over the local river and into German territory when we move forward in the west.

 

[meldor]

I agree with the worker pump. We could even use two of them. We will need increased workers until we get the cities optimized for monarchy and then we can merge them into the cities as we get the markets going in them.

I only have 3 markets building right now, as I didn't want to totally stop our production of military. As we go through the German core we can swap more cities over and get our core built up. We also might pick a city or two that can do nothing more than pump out galleys. We will need quite a few to get our troops over to the other side. We will also have to assault the German island in the north.

I added a fourth unit to all three armies as I thought we would need it, but hopefully by that time we can have enough Galleys to make the crossing, we will have armies that aren't filled too much and we can take them across.

As for Tech troubles, the Greeks could be a big boost to us on this count. If we can split research with them (IE, get the tech they don't and swap), we can double our research rate and maybe move back up to the bottom feeder 2fer deals area.

 

[ChrTh]

I got it. If it's ok with everybody, I'd like to take my time on the game to make sure I don't hoose it up. I should have it back by Saturday morning (GMT-5), evening at the latest.

(if it's not ok, tell me)