MLDR005 NOW what?

[ChrTh]

I'm not offended, no, not at all ...

(actually, I'm not, I just wanted an excuse to use the twitch smiley)

I believe I moved a troop out of Smolensk, and I didn't go back and check on it, that may be why it's about to riot (or I may've forgotten to check before I passed it on, in which case, )

I set Rostov to build Temple because I'm honestly concerned about cultural pressure from Germany. Not that it'll flip, just that it'll lose some its squares (and I know we have HE there, but I was still concerned)

I set Sagres to worker because it can't grow past 2 until the area around it is irrigated or chopped, and I wasn't sure how available other workers were. If some of the other workers can get over there, then yeah, change it.

EDIT: Of course, libraries provide culture too

 

[microbe]

preturn: so..we have 13 turns left for the peace treaty with Germany, but I doubt we'll need that much time to finish off Portugal.

We still haven't met more people. This is not good.

I switch builds as NP mentioned.

(1)70AD: archer kills sword but redlines. [1-0]

(2)90AD: archer army drops to 5hp but kills a spear, and retreats to hill. Since Oporto is on a hill, I decide to play safe and slow to avoid casualty.

IBT Portugal lands a sword next to Smolensk, but we cannot do anything about it.

(3)110AD: IBT the sword attacks and loses to spear in Smolensk. [2-0]

(4)130AD: some German units appear at the border. Looks like a sneak attack??

(5)150AD: I may have to move the army to the German front, so I try to attack with our archers. We lose a sword and an archer and kill 3 spearmen, razing Oporto. We get one slave.

Army retreats to the front.

[5-2]

I buy Polytheism from Germany+5g by 12gpt. I lower lux to get Map Making+4g by 24gpt. We could also get Philosophy or CoL but I choose Map Making.

We start Monarchy as min.

IBT Germany declares on us. We retreat two AC's and kill one sword, but lose two workers. [6-2]

Sumeria completes Sun Tzu.

(6)170AD: I set research to Monarchy.

Capital is 15spt.

We claim the gems and with a couple of temples built in core cities we are able to eliminate the lux rate.

Horse 3/1 kills redlined AC. [7-2]

Switch Krasnoyarsk to walls losing 5 shields.

I use a vet spear to attack redlined AC and it wins and promotes. [8-2]

Lose sword to vet AC and elite archer retreats it. [8-3]

I upgrade one warrior to sword.

IBT Redlined AC loses to our 3hp elite archer. [9-3] Ottomans complete Knights Templar.

(7)190AD: Lose two archers and kill two spearmen, capture Leiria. [11-5] Portugal is OCC.

IBT Port archer kills archer. AC kills spear. [11-7]

(8)210AD: Upgrade one more warrior. Archer army kills a sword. [12-7]

IBT Germany loses archer and sword, but AC again kills our spear. [14-8]

(9)230AD: RNG favors me this time as 4 swords kill a mini stack of 1 pike + 3 MDIs. [18-8] Horse retreats from pike but shows MDI, and sword kills it. [19-8]

IBT the same AC kills our spear again. [19-9]

(10)250AD: archer army kills AC. Sword kills the AC which killed two of our spearmen. [21-9]

Note:

There are more than 20 units in the south mainly in 3 stacks, mostly offensive (MDIs/swords/archers). The eastern front is much easier dealt with. I guess we will lose some cities.

I haven't gathered enough forces to take out the last Port town.

There is a port archer next to Smolensk.

 

[microbe]

 

[romeothemonk]

I see it and will get to it on Wed.

 

[meldor]

Good job catching the snaek atack and gettting the techs. It looks like we will find out the metal of RomeoTheMOnk in heavy military conditions. This is either the beginning of glory and the beginning of the end. We can't make peace with Germany again, we have to stay at war, peace won't last 20 turns. Do not hold back on pop rushing defensive or offense if that is what it takes. It is better to have higher lux than lose cities. Once the initial rush is over and we survive, then we can start to push forward, after getting rid of the Ports.

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

We have the beginnings of a hit list:
Portugal - OCC
Germany - Making it hot!

 

[ChrTh]

Lousy Germans :grr:

Don't forget the Settlers are (were?) in Orenburg ... they should be able to help fill out the SE.

We look to be thisclose to meeting another CIV ... good thing too, I was getting antsy that we'd take out Germans and have no one to fight!

 

[romeothemonk]

It looks like I will try and set this up as an AW type game play. I will most likely pop rush a lot of pults out east. I think we should get some more ponies into play, and I will try to build some at the end of my run. I will try to focus almost exclusively on just repelling the hordes, and setting the next guy up for destroying them.
It looks as if we just attack eash stack, we will get wasted. I will try to get a funneling mechanism set up. I will probably not put any effort towards the ports.
A full strenght vet MDI will attack a fully healed archer army.

 

[ChrTh]

I think before we play we need to remember the important words Mr. Burns taught us, as they are quite appropriate for our situation:

Mr Burns: "Ooh, the Germans are mad at me. I'm so scared! Oooh, the Germans!"

German: "Stop it with the pretending to be scared, Mr Burns…"

Mr Burns: "Uh oh the germans are coming to get me, oh don't let the germans come after me, they're so big and strong."

 

[microbe]

Yeah we need cats, but we are short of units too. Cats won't do any good if we do not have enough units to kill or defend.

We may move some of our forces at capital to north.

 

[meldor]

A mix of both would be good. It wouldn't be bad to hurt them and allow them to retreat to heal and give us time to build up. Once we have a good stack of pults, then we can handle them.

 

[Northern Pike]

A full strenght vet MDI will attack a fully healed archer army.

Useful to know, though unfortunate.

It looks as though the Germans are on a path which will lead them to attack Krasnoyarsk cross-river, which might help us a lot.

Our first opportunity to counterattack may well arise on the Moscow front, so it would be good to keep one settler over there.

 

[meldor]

A sword army would come in real handy about now...

 

[romeothemonk]

IHT: Whip 2 pults.
IBT: Kill 1 port archer, 2 German archers and a german sword (4-0).
Turn 1: Bombard and kill German archer by Sagres. Disband our scout to save on unit costs. (5-0)
IBT: Kill 4 german swords and 1 archer, lose 2 spears and 1 archer. (10-3)
Turn 2: Use archer army to whack elite german sword. Kill an archer and a conscript warrior. I really need more offensive units. Kill an Mdi Near moscow. (13-3) Lose 3 archers on Lagos trying to elimante ports. (13-6)
IBT: Lose a 1 hp sword to the Germans (13-7).
Turn 3: Use the army to kll 2 archers by Sagres (15-7). Horse whacks archer by sagres. (16-7) Lose a horse to a redlined spear (16-8). March on Hanover.
IBT: Lose 3 spears kill 1 MDI. I guess spears on mountains aren't that effective. (16-11).
Turn 4: Kil 3 pikes lose 1 sword, raze hanover for a pult and 2 slaves. (19-11) Kill an offending MDI (20-11). Kill a pike on iron mountain by Moscow. (21-11).
IBT: Kill an MDI, retreat an AC. (22-11).
Turn 5: Kill 2 swords and 1 spear. (25-11).
IBT: We learn Monarchy, Sumerians finish leo's.
Turn 6: Kill a spear with an elite archer, kill a pike with a sword. (27-11). Bombard some and hunker down. Preparing an offensive to go get munich and Dyes.
IBT: Win one and lose one with MDI on spear. (28-12).
Turn 7: Kill a spear and an archer. (30-12). Lose a horse, and expose another archer, but kill another archer that was really in a bad spot for us. (31-13)
IBT: Lose an archer and a spear and kill 1 MDI. (32-15).
Turn 8: Kill a spear, an archer, and an MDI by Krasynorosk. (35-15). March a good stack on Munich.
IBT: Kill an MDI (36-15).
Turn 9: Kill a pike by Krasnorysk. Risk our port scout playing matador. (37-15)
IBT: Our scout did his job. (37-16) Philo to CoL
Turn 10: Moved some stuff. Emeteria is in trouble so I left our fast movers in Krasynorosk unmoved.
I may have lost a turn in here, but I can't imagine where.
I think I may have gassed the Germans. I had 10 elite wins no leader.
I lost no cities, razed one, but I think Emerita is done for. Sorry. My first real exposure to high level attacks like this. I usually am more prepared for attacks, but the nature of the game means that the sneak attack we took really sucked. The Island with the curragh didn't really lead anywhere.
Next better Player

 

[microbe]

Wow, very nice job already!

 

[Northern Pike]

I haven't looked at the save yet, but that sounds like an excellent performance, given that we lacked the requisites (a lot of bombardment units; units with high attack factors) for an extreme kill ratio.

Got it.

 

[meldor]

Sounds like a great job. We need to get rid of the Ports so we can push the Germans. I would hate losing any city, but the AI usually doean't raze if it thinks it can hold.

Can we sneak a Galley in to try and get those contacts?

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

We have the beginnings of a hit list:
Portugal - OCC, needs to go...
Germany - Making it hot or are they shot?

 

[Northern Pike]

470 AD, end of turn

 

[Northern Pike]

360 (0): Everything looks good, given the difficult situation. The only point of technique I'd mention is that a stack sent to attack a city we're obviously going to raze, such as our mini-SoD next to Munich, should have a settler right with it, not trailing a few turns behind.

To have done as much curragh exploration as we have without spotting the least hint of an off-continent civ is terrible luck. I'll pop-rush a galley in Khabarovsk, as suggested by Meldor, to increase our chances.

Leiria may well flip back to the Portuguese, but there's not much we can do about it.

Our army destroys the MDI next to Emerita, so the town should be safe for now (1-0).

IT: An AC attacking Khabarovsk redlines and retreats, and the other German MDI around Emerita dies attacking the spearman covering our army (2-0). Emerita isn't attacked. The bad news comes around Munich, where an AC destroys one of the spearmen in our stack, and where powerful German units are converging so quickly it may not be practical to attack the city (2-1).


370 (1): We pick off the redlined AC outside Khabarovsk (3-1).

Our army destroys a pikeman and a spearman, both redlined by cats, near Krasnoyarsk (5-1).

We yellowline and defeat the archer next to Emerita (6-1).

Our stack near Munich disposes of three of the German units swarming around it, two MDI and a pikeman (9-1).

IT: MDI attacks destroy two swordsmen in our stack near Munich (9-3). Worse, a German knight picks off one of our horsemen in the area (9-4).


380 (2): Our beleaguered stack near Munich accounts for another two MDI, and a pikeman (12-4). We also destroy the knight in the area (13-4).

The two German pikemen roaming around behind our lines in the east having finally separated, we pick off the redlined one (14-4).

We dig an MDI out of the forest near Khabarovsk (15-4).

IT: The Germans attack thrice more on the Munich front, losing an MDI and an archer and destroying one of our horsemen (17-5).

Yaroslavl library --> swordsman.


390 (3): We destroy an archer outside Emerita (18-5).

IT: The Germans make two AC attacks around Munich. We lose a spearman to one and defeat the other (19-6).


400 (4): Again we make only one attack, against an MDI in the forest near Khabarovsk, but it generates the Great Leader Peter (20-6).

IT: Our forces around Munich take more brutal punishment from MDI and AC, losing two swordsmen and a spearman (20-9), but we're finally in a position to assault the city without attacking cross-river.


410 (5): We take Munich from its garrison of three regular pikemen and an MDI, remarkably losing only one swordsman (24-10). We raze the town for three workers, and also capture two catapults.

Code of Laws due in one turn, but I can only cut the research rate to 50%.

IT: The German attacks on our extremely depleted stacks around the ruins of Munich fortunately come to nothing (archer and MDI destroyed; 26-10).

Khabarovsk is now the danger point in the east, and I have to allow an MDI attack there, which destroys a spearman (26-11).

A Portuguese archer landed near Smolensk dies attacking a spearman (27-11).

Sagres library --> catapult.

Two forest chops near Sagres both reveal BG.

Code of Laws --> Construction.


420 (6): We found Time to Dye near the ruins of Munich.

Peter the Great forms a sword army in Moscow. Obviously the FP would have been nice too, but I think the most important thing now is for us to resume the offensive in the west.

We bombard and destroy a stack of three archers and a spearman outside Krasnoyarsk (31-11).

Our archer army cuts down two MDI outside Khabarovsk (33-11). The forests next to the city will hamper our operations until we get them roaded.

IT: No attacks.

We reject a Portuguese request for an audience.


430 (7): We finally dispose of the other pikeman behind our lines near Bryansk (34-11).

One of our elite archers loses five straight rounds to a redlined MDI, before we destroy the MDI with a second attack (35-12).

We account for another redlined MDI around Khabarovsk (36-12).

IT: We lose a horseman in the east to an elite, six-hit-point AC (39-13). Either that accursed unit has crossed the continent after tormenting us in the battle for Munich, or the Germans have two of them.


440 (8): Our archer army destroys two MDI near Khabarovsk (41-13).

IT: The Germans do have two elite AC, and they both cost us units--a spearman in the west and another in the east (41-15).

We're informed that the Aztecs have been destroyed, so that's one name that'll never appear on the hit list.

I briefly glimpse a Sumerian galley as it passes Leiria, sailing west to east, but the Sumerians don't appear on the diplomacy screen.


450 (9): By moving a spearman, I'm able to make contact with the Sumerian galley. The Sumerians have a relatively modest fifteen cities, but plainly they took the main role in destroying the Aztecs. They have four luxuries hooked up, and they want our surplus ivory. I've almost given up on trading away luxuries in Conquests, since the risk of having a trade route cut is disproportionate to the insultingly low valuations the AI civs place on luxuries; but I decide we have to have the Sumerians' world map. So, ivory, our WM, and 63 gold to the Sumerians for their WM.

There's no monster civ on the other continent, with the Sumerians somehow the strongest despite their having started in an immense jungle. What's disturbing is that the Sumerians have reached Navigation.

Somewhat ironically, we only learn the location of Hamburg from the Sumerians' map, though it was obvious that there had to be a German city somewhere between Nuremberg and Munich.

We were never anywhere close to reaching the other continent with our ships. The (very slight) breaks in the ocean we were able to discern were dead ends.

We destroy both elite AC, along with an MDI around Khabarovsk and a pikeman outside Emerita (45-15).

IT: No attacks, although two more German knights appear.

In the Blacktown library --> swordsman.


460 (10): Our sword army and its escorting units move next to Nuremberg, destroying a knight en route (46-15).

Our archer army slays another MDI around Khabarovsk (47-15).

IT: Our elite spearman in Khab. forces the other German knight to retreat.

The Koreans complete Sistine Chapel.


470 (11): We take Nuremberg from its garrison of two pikemen without loss, although our sword army has a horrible day and falls to three HP, requiring us to expose a swordsman in the final attack (49-15). We raze the city for two workers, and capture two catapults.

We finish off the redlined knight outside Khab, and an MDI near the ruins of Nuremberg (51-15).

We found Meldorgrad just south of Nuremberg's ruins.

Ten elite victories this round produced one Great Leader.

 

[Northern Pike]

I think we're reaching the tipping point with respect to the Germans. They're only sending units at us in small groups, and their slow units--which we're in a good position to bombard now--aren't much of a problem.

My inclination, after our army heals, would be to make a two-pronged advance on Hamburg from Time to Dye and Meldorgrad. Our force in TTD isn't strong enough to advance on its own, but with seven catapults it can help us a lot, and we need to get it back into the game. Cultural pressure on TTD is a concern too.

Despite where I put Meldorgrad for tactical reasons, we should probably found a city on the desert tile northeast of the much-discussed cow. This would be a first-ring town with a narrow but useful slice of tiles to itself.

Rostov can build a swordsman, a settler, or a galley (for a suicide run west) immediately, depending on your preference.

When Faraway and Novgorod complete the libraries they're working on, all our core cities will have them.

My hope is that by the time Meldorgrad and Time to Dye are about to complete their walls, they won't be needed and the builds can be changed.

Of the builds I've got going in our corrupt cities, Smolensk's courthouse and Gems Town's library (to provide a cultural expansion giving us access to two more gems squares) will complete fairly soon, and should be allowed to complete. My other builds in corrupt towns are just suggestions.

As usual in this kind of game, our rear-area garrisons are thin. We should try to keep two horsemen within one move of Orenburg while it's empty, and the same applies to Novosibirsk.

 

[Northern Pike]

The western front: