MM5: One City Smackdown Redux: Greek Glory

[akots]

...If we face knight to knight (or ansanr,keshik) we are in trouble.

No real trouble until cavalry. Then the real trouble will start. We will certainly be able to survive to that point. Hopefully, research will slow down around Chemistry/Astronomy.

Seems that time to kill has come finally. America might be the first to go before they get Gunpowder.

 

[LKendter]

@romeothemonk - Elite hoplites are pretty much ignored by the AI. I noticed the elite I had starting to walk toward America stopped at the mountain. I am curious why that unit didn't go pillaging? We need to do everything we can to keep the AIs stuck on longbows and spears.

 

[bed_head7]

Elite hoplites were not ignored during my turns for some reason. They redlined a healthy one twice, which was why Russia was not as pillaged as I would have liked at the end of my turns.

 

[romeothemonk]

The Americans were really picked clean during my turnset, and I really needed all the units during my 10 turns. I really picked the Russians clean on my turns though.

 

[Mark1031]

Pre: things look a little rough to me. We have lost the hold up north and lack iron and horses.

560: Kill a bunch of troops. Kill American settler. Switch to archer builds. I assembled a task force of 5 trebs, 2 MI, and 3 AC under Hop cover and head them toward Boston and our nearest horses.
570: Kill some troops. No losses get leader. Which I use to build Cathedral. Iron reconnected.
580: More carnage. No losses
590: Chiv comes in and I start KT. I know some may dispute this but I think it is worth it, if nothing else it will help with home defense.
600-630: Fending off troops. We reach the gates of Boston but the trebs hit only the Rax and temple. Second round we take a few HP off of the 2 Pikes defending and take the city loosing 1 MI. Unfortunately, the damn horse is still in Washington’s cultural boundary. I had the road out there ready and everything. I have to retreat some of the ACs as Athens is under too much pressure. Washington will have to wait for a few rounds.
640-650: I think I lost like 1 Archer and I know I lost 1 elite AC at full strength vs a 1 HP Mongol devil sword.

Sorry for the sketchy write up but its late and I been a bit busy lately. We need the horses bad so I think Washington should be the next goal. Once Athens is secure and KT is in you could whip out some archers for home defense and send out the AC on Washington. I left the 5 trebs out near the site of old Boston. Once we have horses and iron on line we can do 2 turn knights by short rushing a MI to 40 shields. This will cost 40gp every 2 turns.

Bed Head 7 UP
Akots On Deck

 

[bed_head7]

Same as MM4, I can play Sunday morning. If a problem, akots can jump in before me.

 

[akots]

Nope, not in a hurry here, will wait unless somebody else is eager to play.

 

[bed_head7]

My main goal for these turns was to take all pressure off the capital, if at all possible. After that, I was undecided between getting knights and trying to get an army and then getting knights. In the end, getting knights won out as a priority simply because of its practicality. However, akots should not have too much of a problem getting us three cities for an army during his turns.

A few turns in, I recieve this notice:

Oh well. It lasted awhile. By this time, there are only a couple units floating around our borders, and no direct threats. Slaves are roading so that we have a decent setup for claiming three quickly.

In other wonder related news, we also finish the Knights Templar, and our first Crusader will recieve his sword and shield during my last turn.

Our stack finally reaches Washington, and our trebs set to work bombarding. I discovered that Great Wonders can be destroyed through bombardment (the Great Wall was destroyed as well later on).

Unfortunately, the Russians laid down a city near the horses, and a horse colony was still just out of reach. The stack that took care of Washington moved toward the new city, and by the last turn, managed to destroy it.

As the pressure was taken off the capital, a small stack was formed to harass Russia, as I had been doing during my turns. In 740AD, Yekaterinburg burned (and apparently the picture went up in flames). Russia, though unable to build much of use, has lots of cities able to build archers, as our pillager (who didn't do much pillaging) discovered. They will last a bit longer than I had expected they would.

Sun Tzu's Art of War was built, by the Portuguese I believe (another lost screenshot), so we should begin to actually see some veteran units. I also saw a couple veteran swords marching down from Mongolia, so perhaps barracks in other places are in progress.

Left active for akots are a few workers. I was considering recolonizing spice, as I think one more luxury will allow us to go without luxury. It might be two. I forget. The crusader is also fortified with moves still left in the capital. I would probably be sending him to one of the three cities in the next picture, but every player is comfortable with a different amount of defense in the capital. If the crusader is removed, then the only units left will be those healing. That was basically what I had the whole time, though, and since we have a lot of fast units it was not a problem at all.

I think these three cities can make decent targets for our army. The scattered stack that took out Washington, plus one of the AC on the way up that could use some healing, should be suitable to take care of Atlanta. A couple of MI, the two trebs, and maybe an AC or two should be able to take out Yamama when you are ready, and then Muscat could probably be taken by a crusader and a couple of AC whenever the rest of the cities are ready to be attacked. Taking a couple turns to heal and then attack will probably mean a bit of pressure from archers and a couple swords at the capital, but I doubt it will be anything to cause any worry, especially since we'll now be able to do 2 turn knights for the rest of the game.

 

[Mark1031]

Nice Progress. I think we should do min on banking if you haven't already. I know Akots doesn't like the idea of an army but we could really use it to pillage the northern civs which would make life a lot easier. If they get to cavs it will be essential, we cannot afford to face cavs and it would be hard to research there ourselves.

Akots UP
LKendter ON Deck

 

[bed_head7]

I didn't do anything with research. I do not even know what was autoselected when we got Education. Or were we working on something else?

I knew akots didn't think it was a big deal, but getting one should not be too difficult here, and why say no to an army?

 

[akots]

Banking seems good, I got it, will play soon.

 

[akots]

Preturn: I decide to rebuild the spice colony and defend it with a hoplite. We also have enough slaves to block all landing tiles around Athens. Some might consider this as an exploit though. The slaves can be also sent to Athens and disbanded there or kept covered by the troops in case there is a need to build a road. We also need to mine the plains by the river to get a few extra gpt.

[1] Kill assorted enemies and rebuilt spice colony, luxuries to zero, research min on Banking. Preparing to take 3 cities: Yamama, Muscat, and Moscow or Yaroslavl’ (not sure about the last two). First knight in action! It feels good.

[3] Five attacker and 4 trebs are ready to storm American capital, 3 attackers around Moscow and two Arab cities can certainly be taken next turn. Yaroslavl’ is on hill and has pikeman on top, close call it is.

[4] AC redlines but takes out the pike in American capital. Second AC attacks, kills the spear and we capture the city!

Two other Arabian cities captured without losses, army built! Apparently will be loaded with AC for speed.

Cities abandoned. We kill English spear/settler pair and get yet another leader! I’ll use him up for Heroic Epic in Athens. Not that we need it, just don’t see anything more useful atm. I’m sure we’ll get a few others before Banking comes up. We can also rush a Coliseum and may be Library but the latter two improvements might be pretty useless.

[5] Heroic Epic rushed. It is just for fun, I understand it is completely useless. Our glorious troops raze Moscow. Russian government escapes to Vladivostok. This might enhance their overall production but we will certainly face less units in the long run. Moving in for a kill of America. We lose 2 exposed knights in the interturn but little could be done about it.

[6] America has been finally eliminated at the cost of elite AC.

It now comes to Arabia and England, two strongest AIs. Russia is also very annoying with a horde of archers wondering around. Unfortunately, army cannot go north immediately and has to deal with two stacks of Mongol swords coming to Athens. We get another MGL in the interturn on the defensive but alas, he does not survive.

[8] Army is down to 1 hp and runs to Athens to heal but there is no end seen to Mongolian swords, they keep coming and coming. England starts on Copernicus.

[10] Another Russian city razed. Athens is under considerable pressure still. IMO, we need to assemble an offensive group of a few knights and start razing cities while keeping defense around Athens with crusaders.

SAVE

 

[Mark1031]

Great work Akots. This is starting to look much more promising with an army up north we shouldn't have to face too strong of units.

LKendter UP
Romeo On Deck

 

[LKendter]

Akots - Just Played
LKendter - Got it

 

[LKendter]

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/MM5-950AD.zip

850 AD
I don't understand why we built an ancient cavalry army with knights available. I would appreciate an extra point on offense and defense.

This game has gone on a lot longer then I expected. There is finally one dead civ, but I expected to be in wrap up mode by now. Without the ability to keep up in research this game must end before rifles.

I don't know what Mark's policy is, so I leave the worker blockade by the coast. This violates my house rules, but mine are a bit stricter then average.

I am glad to see Akots built a spare iron colony near the horses. I was thinking the same thing should happen.


860 AD
I kill 2 Egypt swordsmen. (2-0)


870 AD
I killed 1 English spearman and 1 Portuguese spearman.
I lost 2 AC to injured spearmen. (4-2)
It looks like my time to suffer with RnG attitude.
(IT) A Russian archer is killed. (5-2)


880 AD
This is frelling absurd. I lost a healthy, elite AC to a *1 hp* spearman.
I killed 1 English spearman, 1 Mongol archer, 2 Portuguese horsemen, and 4 Russian archers. (13-3)
(IT) I watch England kill an Arabian settler pair.


890 AD
I killed 2 Portuguese spearmen, 1 Portuguese archer, and 1 Russian archer. (17-3)


900 AD
I killed 1 Portuguese archer. (18-3)
(IT) A Mongol sword dies promoting our undamaged hoplite to elite. (19-3)


910 AD
I killed 1 Portuguese archer and 2 Russian spearmen. (22-3)

I razed Novgorod.


920 AD
I killed 1 Russian archer, 1 English longbow , and 1 German spear / settler pair. (25-3)
I disbanded the workers as there are to many units between them and getting home.


930 AD
I killed 2 English spearmen, 1 English longbow, and 1 Portuguese archer. (29-3)
I razed Warwick.


940 AD
I killed 2 Russian spearman, and 1 Portuguese horseman. (32-3)
I razed Vladivostok.
(IT)


950 AD
I killed 2 Arabian spearman, 4 Portuguese archers, and 1 Portuguese spearman. (39-3)

==========================

Summary:
With the army by Russia I really hope we can kill there northern holdings quickly. I would hope the could be reduced to Smolensk shortly.

The attack force by Portugal will be fully healed next turn and can head toward Evora. The units are junk, but Portugal is sending a lot of them.

Once Mansura is razed please bring those buckets home. I didn't like defending the homeland with almost no artillery. I would prefer not to have to build any more like I did during my turns.

 

[romeothemonk]

I see it and it is on the list of games to play.
How is our unit support? Can we build more knights??
Good work on wiping out some cities LK.

 

[LKendter]

I see it and it is on the list of games to play.
How is our unit support? Can we build more knights??
Good work on wiping out some cities LK.

We still make +24 GPT with a ton in the bank. We can keep pumping out military, and enjoy the free units for a long time.

 

[Mark1031]

I don't know what Mark's policy is, so I leave the worker blockade by the coast. This violates my house rules, but mine are a bit stricter then average.

In this case and am OK with it. On an Island map blocking the whole Island I would consider a no no as I think is a somewhat standard SG rule. I'm sure we have enough military units to block the desired squares around Athens if people are uncomfortable with it. It's just the military units need to be continously repositioned and the workers can just be fortified so I would view it as a convienence rather than an exploit in this case.

EDITon't forget we can spend the money to short rush Knights in 2 turns.

 

[akots]

The way the workers are placed, they are blocking only workable tiles but there are a plenty of other tiles to land and threaten the Athens. Otherwise, the governor messes up with production and we lose a possibility of building knights in 2 turns. So, not our fault here but the glitchy governor imho.

@LK: We did have only a single knight available to join the army iirc and Mongolian swords were coming. Besides, extra hit points are also a good thing to have. I was thinking of a purely pillaging hoplite army at a certain point but finally decided against it.

 

[LKendter]

@LK: We did have only a single knight available to join the army iirc and Mongolian swords were coming. Besides, extra hit points are also a good thing to have. I was thinking of a purely pillaging hoplite army at a certain point but finally decided against it.

Well I am very glad we build an offensive army.
It should hopefully finish off Russia shortly. That alone will earns its keep. We need less civs in this game.