Monarch charming

[Asaf]

Looks just fine. Go ahead.
I won't be online until Sunday.

 

[cripp7]

IHT-
Trade JC 2gpt>incense
Nobamba & Cowville >courts

1808ad-
all cities to build

1816ad-
Nappy demands fur...ok

1818ad-
courts
upgrade 6 hwahcas to cannons, back to building units

1820ad-
Seoul grenadier>rifle
Nobamba court>rifle
see Roosy with artillery!

1822ad-
CT grenade>rifle
SS cannon>*cannon

1824ad-
Seoul pops copper
Cowville granadier

1826ad-
Seoul rifle>*grenade>*rifle
Cowville granade>grenade

1830ad-

stop here, just upgrading cannons some granadiers, not much really. lost track of turns.

 

[mlinneak]

Sounds good cripp7

I should be able to work on this during the weekend. I will likely keep up the trend of trying to upgrade some of our troops, and keep an eye out for any trading opportunities.

 

[cripp7]

Good Luck! I'll be back Sunday afternoon to check out any progress

 

[Asaf]

Upgrade troops sounds right. And build some new ones.

Have we decided how we're going to try and win this thing?
Take down Napo and go for Dom? (we'll have a hard time with Roosy).

Maybe we should start a war between 2 AI's (Roosy and Sally?)

What's our next tech path?

Can't look at the save now. I hope to have smarter things to add when I can.

 

[Asaf]

Looking at the save, a few observations:

First of all, good news: We are the closest to domination. A little far, true, but the others are far behind. Taking Napo's eastern land is the first step, and then we're in a very good position. We should keep our great artist for this.
We should probably try taking the rest of his land fast before other vultures will come soon after. I know I'm contradicting myself a bit here, but we should probably send Roosy to attack him when we're ready ("Fear my SAM infantry!").

Problem is we have nothing to offer him.

Out inner cities are hardly protected. I know this is the edge of a Pangaea, but the AI could have ships (Roosy already has a frigate exploring there) and our capital is protected by archers. I think we should have a couple of more advanced defenders in each of the important cities. Maybe just 1 rifle in each important coastal or near-coastal city (Seoul, Ulundi, Copper Town) since we'll probably need these units.

Ulundi is . Finishing the forge will indeed solve this. I recommend whipping it in a few turns for 3 pop.

We also have health issues all around, but we can't afford to stop and build health buildings now.

Cowville should work the gold instead of a 3-food farm. It'll take a turn longer to grow, but we'll get +10gpt.

Besancon and Khazak can stop focusing on culture (no risk of flipping anymore).

We should probably get ready to DoW Napo soon, possibly by the end of this turn set (and I'm not just saying that because I'm next ).
mlinneak - if you want to have the war in your turn set, I don't mind if you play a double set (if cripp7 doesn't mind). I think we both got some city-conquering action, and you didn't.

The first step is obviously taking Rouen in the north with the Khazak stack.
And then either Orleans or Paris, each will expose us to a stack going for Lyons from the other direction. So we should probably focus this turn set in sending units to Lyons so we can have 2 stacks there, or alternatively enough garrison.

I'm thinking of less razing (although that's what we agreed on last time) so we can grab land more quickly to Dom victory. What do you think?

After taking a few cities we should probably focus on research (hopefully we can get some from Napo for peace). We should think of Oxford (I guess in Cowville), so seowons, but I'm getting ahead of myself

 

[mlinneak]

Thanks for the input, Asaf.
Sorry I did not get this over the weekend as planned - we went to my mother-in-laws and then I had a rough couple of days.
I should be able to play sometime within the next few days. I am happy to just work on buildup for you - war turns make me nervous!
I agree as well that we need to either replace or upgrade some of these defenders it is just hard to find the and to do so

 

[Asaf]

Ummmm.... ping?

 

[cripp7]

...pong

 

[mlinneak]

sorry sorry sorry!
turnsets to come tonight i promise - barring any power or internet outages
sorry to be so unreliable! i wasn't like this before really - i will get this posted tonight though so we can move forward

 

[mlinneak]

Plan: Build up an army to go after Napoleon

1830 AD - 1850 AD
I built a few more rifles and cannons
I was able to whip the forge in Ulundi for 3 which did indeed resolve the unhappiness issues there
I let Besancon continue with the buildings it had in queue, a library which has finished and a lighthouse that has not
Khazak did not have anything in queue, so I had it build a barracks to help with the military output and it is working on a rifleman for us now
I upgraded a few units, a couple of musketmen, a swordsman and a spearman, and a hwacha, along with one archer
We still have several that could use upgrades, including a trireme we should upgrade to a caravel for only 50 gold
I left research to 0 for this set, to get more cash for upgrades, we still have 315 right now and are making 139 / turn set like this, we don't have enough invested in steam power yet to finish it at 100%

I am not sure on the cost effectiveness of upgrading as opposed to deleting and producing new - it does not seem as though we have a lot of production to work with though, maybe more forges would be in order

We are still behind in power - it would be great if we could get Roosevelt to declare too but we still have nothing to purchase this request with

The save ~

 

[Asaf]

Very nice buildup mlinneak!

Damn... Napo has ironclads. Oh well, better kick his a$$ before he kicks ours.

I think I'll build a caravel in Lyons (and whip it next turn) to scout the inner sea's cities (orleans and rouen) to see if we can start the attack.

My attack plan:

north stack: raze rouen -> go to rheims, take it and keep it
south stack: raze orleans -> go to Paris, take it and keep it
(I'm optimistic, I know)

I'll try to keep Lyons safe from any counter-stack.

The GA should probably build his great work either in Rheims or in Paris. We'll see.

Then negotiate for peace to get some more techs. Hopefully he won't capitulate to Roosy.
Maybe ask for capitulation?

Should we keep Orleans instead of raze? a holy city after all...
Not sure if we can afford it though.
After the war (if it's in my turn set at all) - a round of economics build up (courthouses, banks). And possibly Seowons to get Oxford.

 

[cripp7]

Sounds good, good luck! I'm just really lurking (I think we all are till it's our turn) I'm busy with CivV so I'm still interested in how this turns out. If I was playing this as a SP game I would've quit a while ago. This keeps me going to the bitter end in my other games now.

 

[mlinneak]

Sounds good - don't forget we have a trireme just sitting around, you could spend 50 gold to upgrade that to a caravel instead of building one if you want

 

[Asaf]

I only have the Civ 5 demo, but I know what you mean.
Half the people here are busy playing Civ 5

But this is my first SG, so I really want to complete it...

Back to business:
No turn-based report this time (at least for the start). Only highlights.
Roosy has completed Apollo program, so we'd better hurry up.
A couple of turns later: Napo's golden age has begun (he had a GE last turn, so it must be it).

Scouting with the new caravel (the trireme was too far away so I whipped one anyway) - Orleans has 5 rifles (1 C1, 3 CG1, 1 CG1+2). 60% defense bonus.
Rouen has 3 rifles and a cannon (40% bonus).

We have a new GS. No point in settling him and we have 2 academies already. I'll use it to bulb something when we know what we want (currently scientific method).

Declaring on Napo @ 1856 AD.

And to the turn based section (this is a war after all)...

1858 AD -
Napo sent 2 knights into our borders. Our rifles quickly overcame the issue.
A cannon did some damage to our north stack.
He moved a rifle out of Rouen. A gren took care of this.
2 rifles were sent from Orleans, looks like they're going to Paris.
Good. We'll have a much easier time with Orleans.

1860 AD -
Our caravel in the inner sea destroyed a galley which came from Orleans (and a GG was born).
It also revealed to the west of this sea Napo's stacks O' doom:

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

Oh, yeah. Napo has machine guns
Sent an HA to take a look at Paris...

looks like we're going to Paris!
Through the small south stack. Which was destroyed. We lost 1 gren.
We also razed Rouen and lost 1 cannon.

IBT: We have suffered a lot of collateral damage, lost the scouting HA, the caravel next to seoul, a gren and 4 cannons.

1862 AD:
Destroyed a stack coming from Orleans and a few units sent from the south. Lost a cannon and a gren in the process.
Created another warlord, in Lyons, out of a LB for the for rifle upgrade. Most units there also needed 1 or 2 XP for the next promotion so that worked out nicely.
WW + emancipation problems cause me to raise the culture slider to 30%.

IBT: We lost 3 grens and a cannon after taking collateral damage.

1864 AD:
Advancing towards Rheims in the north.
I should have done this a while ago - Gave Roosy 510 (we had over 1000) to DoW Napo.
A minor retreat to the hills next to Lyons (of most units). Let's see what Napo does with this new DoW.

IBT: Again, collateral damage and some casualties.

1866 AD:
Whipped cannons in Ulundi and Nobamba for ~4 pops (too unhappy).

IBT: Again, collateral damage and some casualties.

1868 AD:
Fight back. Destroyed most of Napo's large stack, a few french wounded are left and some more units a little behind. We have 2 stacks, so at least one will survive (I hope). If we survive this we can go back to take Orleans.

IBT - We lost one of the stacks, with the cannons and Hanz the old warlord. Not many of Napo's units are around now, but we can't reach them all in 1 turn.

1870 AD:
Advanced north stack (killing a rifle in the process) to Rheims. MG, 2 rifles and a knight @ 80% defense bonus. We begin attack next turn.
In the south we killed some of Napo's units, advanced some units from Lyons. We'll see what happens.

IBT - Roosy took back Phili from Napo.

1872 AD:
Bombarding Rheims. Napo's units in the south have retreated. Gathering some more forces to get to Orleans (need some more cannons - a couple more are on the way, almost there).

1874 AD:
A french revolt in Lyons.
Took Rheims! razed it, since there's no way in hell we can afford it.
I intend to end this war ASAP, get whatever we can from Napo. Right after we take Orleans (MG + rifle, and that's it!).

1876 AD:
Destroyed a cannon. Got another GG.
Napo is willing to talk. Will give 110 for peace. He's stubborn...
Oh well. Orleans it is.

1878 AD:
Roosy has completed his first SS casing. We don't have steam power yet.
Advancing on Orleans, started bombarding it. Advanced the northern stack to Charters, killed a gren. Forgot to pillage the town... so much gold...
Will pillage next turns.
Building wealth in a few cities and played with the culture slider to avoid bankruptcy.
Napo is willing to give 330 now. Let's see what he'll give next turn...

1880 AD:
Roosy has his 2nd SS casing.
Caesar was willing to spare us 70. Lucky us.
I'm pondering starting a GA. If we have to, soon.
I've constructed a military academy in Seoul.

1882 AD:
Razed Orleans (had 2 rifles, MG and a knight).

Pillaged a town (completely). got 75.
Napo will give us 610 + 6gpt + world map for peace. Won't give us scientific method or Steam power.

Our economy is a rack with the WW. Not to mention the non-existing research. Sorry.
Cities sizes have decreased because of starving and WW. That's world war for ya.

I played 16 turns. Wanted to see this through.
Stopping here to discuss whether we want to accept this offer, or continue pillaging and razing.
Maybe go for Paris, to keep it. probably not many units left there, and we need the land.
The war went far worse than I hoped, but we did raze 3 cities without losing any of our own. It cost us A LOT, though.

We still have the GS and GA waiting for orders.

To get Dom victory we must grab more land (we need som settlers) and let our population grow back (Saladin passed use in that department!). We need to restore our economy for that.

North front:

Spoiler :

South front:

Spoiler :

Victory conditions:

Spoiler :

Cripp7 - do you want to keep playing?

 

[cripp7]

big sigh....I think I'm throwing in my towel on this one. Don't know if it can be won, maybe, but Roosy might go space first. Good news is Nappy has taken a real beating! So count me out, I'll lurk along though if you and mlinneak keep going.

Good luck, it was fun while it lasted!

 

[mlinneak]

I will continue with you Asaf - I'd like to finish too.
I'm not very good at monarch though so far.
I can try to play some turns in the next few days.
Do you think we have the resources to press on? Do you think we could vassal Napoleon? A percentage of the vassal's land and population count towards ours for domination don't they?

 

[Asaf]

@cripp7 - That's too bad. Thanks for playing. It was fun
Feel free to throw your comments when you see us making huge mistakes.

@mlinneak -
Great! Let's dominate the world
I've only won 1 monarch game so far, and it was a diplo victory. So I'm not swimming in this level either.

Half of the vassal's land and population counts towards our domination. It also increases our happiness but it will increase our maintenance cost (I checked the Warlords guide...).

Roosy is still at war with Napo (I think), but this will end if Napo capitulate.

I think we can push a few more turns to take Paris (and use the great artist) and then we can probably get a much better deal (capitulate + techs?). But not more than a few turns since our economy really does suck (WW + emancipation). If we continue the war we should pillage some more towns with our north stack (there's a LOT of gold in the pillaging business, I'm told).

We could spend both GP on a golden age once we make peace (instead of partial bulb + culture bomb), which will probably help our econ a lot after we end the WW.

What do you think? Should we continue the war a little while longer? I'm leaning towards taking Paris, but I really don't know what's right

After the war we probably need a couple of settlers to claim the freed lands.

And then an econ boost (and increase our population) round(s), and then build our military against Sally. I hope we can get to the domination threshold before Roosy sends off his space ship.

I actually think we have a shot at winning this game, as as it sounds now.

 

[mlinneak]

This sounds good so far. I will try to take Paris, hopefully that will push him to capitulation. As long as we can get him to cap to us and not someone else we should be ok.
Not sure if culture bomb or GA would be better, now that you mention it. Does the culture bomb end the revolt caused by taking the city like it does in BtS? I would have to check the map in the save, but I think I am still inclined to do the culture - it should help block off some of that area too so we can fill it with our settlers shouldn't it?
I know I will not be able to play tonight, but I am hoping to on Thursday.

 

[cripp7]

Wait until the city is out of revolt then bomb it.