Monarch Training 2

[viper275]

I vote for myself.... although danz's would be second. I have a settler coming in 2 turns. I can tell that Catherine popped at least one hut (conscript warrior) and this would be the disadvantage to my save. However, if Russia gets free techs we can trade for them, so I say only settlers are a concern and even then not that bad. We can easily take that chokepoint on my save, which is good but also it looks like Russia could easily grab it on danz's save (nothing against his turns, but that chokepoint might be taken by russia...)

On the settler pump, see my dotmap. Danz is referring to the city point near the Russian warrior on my dotmap (Worker Pump text was supposed to be there but I did a little typo.) I suggest the the two cows SW of London (W-W-SW-SW, I think) also marked on the dotmap. It has fresh water, but is slightly further from the capital.

 

[danz]

I also like viper's start. Here are the pros and cons, as I see them:

+ Warrior in excellent position to block Russian settlers. I didn't even uncover this second, more restrictive land bridge in my explorations. That's a great position.
+ Settler in 2, which is not bad at all.

- Two huts ceded to Russia. A russian city established in the far NE corner of the island would not be good, because it would negate our blocking move. However, this is a strong possibility, not a certainty.
- We paid money to Russia for WC instead of finding it in a hut. This is not so bad because they are in despotism, so it would b diffiult for them to spend it on anything but diplomacy. And they are isolated... or so we hope.

Overall, I would be quite happy with viper's start. It has no real drawbacks, only a slightly increased chance of Russian hut-popping versus a decreased chance of Russian expansion to the East. If it's a tie, I will gladly give viper my vote

 

[Keiji]

Hmm tough call on choosing my vote. It's definitely between Danz's and Viper's. My save and Kutzov's save are probably too far behind in population growth to be considered and Clive admitted himself that his turns weren't so great.

In the end I think I'll choose for Viper's save because of his better chances to take the land bridge. As for the settler factory I'd go for the NW site because it will have immediate access to three BG's besides the 2 cows instead of just 2 BG's and 2 cows for the SE site. (at least as far as I can see). Besides I don't think we'll need more than 6 pop in the settler pump.

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

We're off with viper's save. post #34.

Roster:
D. Richter (pikeman) -up
danz - on deck
Sir Clive
keiji
AK
viper275 - just played

A thought on the pump - I like the hill N of the lake to NW of London. would make it easy to irrigate the cows.

Please get the bridge guarded asap!

 

[Sir Clive]

We're off with viper's save. post #34.

Sorry I didn't get back in time but I would have gone for Viper's save too , just edging it over danz.

 

[danz]

Excellent, can't wait to get started! I think Viper put us in great position. And since we already know the are no shortcuts to other islands North, our Curragh can take a chance on an Eastern crossing. Feel like going for a swim, Richter?

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

@ all - request that you post roster when you complete a turn.

@ clive - I think it is time for you to get an avatar.

 

[Sir Clive]

@ all - request that you post roster when you complete a turn.

@ clive - I think it is time for you to get an avatar.

Avatar now activated

 

[Detlef Richter]

OK, got it. I try to post tomorrow.

 

[Detlef Richter]

Here we go:

2950BC: London grows in 4 and finish the settler in 2. This means we loose
our capitol, so i MM it to grow in 4 and build in 5.

2900: nothing

2850: nothing

2800: London builds settler, next warrior

2750: nothing

2710: nothing

2670: found York and start a granary

2630: nothing

2590: nothing

2550: nothing

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

Roster:
D. Richter (pikeman) -just played
danz - up
Sir Clive - on deck
keiji
AK
viper275

 

[danz]

Got it, will post next 10 moves tonight.

I'm surprised at the location of our 2nd city, but since I get to build #3 where I thought #2 would be, I'll give it a cool name

Once #3 is built, I'm thinking of having it build some barracks while it grows in size, then alternating production between settlers/workers and military units. London doesn't have enough food to be a settler or a worker farm, so maybe it can build military units and curraghs.

What does everyone think about our early produciton focus? How soon should we plan on going to war against Russia? And once our exploring curraghs spot land, should we settle there or wait till we consolidate our own island and prepare to land a military force that can take an established civ?

- danz

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

What does everyone think about our early produciton focus? How soon should we plan on going to war against Russia? And once our exploring curraghs spot land, should we settle there or wait till we consolidate our own island and prepare to land a military force that can take an established civ?

build 3-4 more curraghs for suicide runs if needed. Curraghs can't transport, so we can't expand beyond our island until MM. After the boats are in the water, London become a military producer. My $.02

 

[Keiji]

I agree with Kutzov, after building start producing spears to escort our settlers and when our part of the island gets full we'll be set to take on the Russians.

 

[danz]

build 3-4 more curraghs for suicide runs if needed. Curraghs can't transport, so we can't expand beyond our island until MM. After the boats are in the water, London become a military producer. My $.02

That's odd, when I played one of the scenarios, I used a curragh to ferry a settler. It saved some time even at a movement rate of 2 because I didn't have a road network at the time. But looking at the reference, it says a curragh has a transport capacity of 0. That's a shame

But it does simplify our strategy quite a bit! We expand as much as possible and squash Russia when it becomes convenient to do so, hopefully after extorting a few techs out of them. In fact, we can shrink them down to 1 city and use them as a leader/tech farm until we're ready to do the same thing to another AI

 

[viper275]

That's odd, when I played one of the scenarios, I used a curragh to ferry a settler. It saved some time even at a movement rate of 2 because I didn't have a road network at the time. But looking at the reference, it says a curragh has a transport capacity of 0. That's a shame

In the Middle Ages conquest, Curraghs have a transport capacity. I thought that Curraghs had transport capacity too for a while.

I say that we should destroy Russia very soon. Did someone say something about Diplomatic victory? A victory like that is kind of something you should keep in the back of your mind early on, which doesn't mean we have to go for it, but since we need someone to trade with in No Research, conquering every civ in the world doesn't sound too smart, neither does ruining our reputation. So, if we were to destroy the Russians early when hardly anybody knows them, the other civs won't know about it and we could get away with it .

 

[danz]

I think the way reputation works is that as long as we fight honorably (we declare war while outside our opponent's territory, we honor all treaties, etc.) our reputation will remain clean. Cathy will hate us, but if we're carrying a bigger stick, that's her problem

We might consider *not* fighting honorably, however, if we think it will be to our advantage. We could set up a GPT deal and break an ROP if it will guarantee that we will completely destroy Russia before they contact any other civ. As long as they're wiped off the map before contact is established, our rep remains clean. This is risky, doubly so in a no-research game. So, I would prefer going the honorable route.

As long as Russia remains isolated, we can slowly gather a force of archers and spearmen and attack them in 10-20 turns. Will their present location allow even two cities, or are they stuck with Moscow until they break through our blockade? If they only have Moscow, a force of 5-6 archers (+ 1-2 spears as escorts) would be enough to wipe them out. Otherwise, I would wait for 7-8.

 

[danz]

2550 - We've irrigated grassland and are in the process of irrigating a BG. This is not doing anything for us for a long, long time, since all that food is wasted in despotism. We should only irrigate cow/wheat tiles. Switched worker to mine BG. After that, he will go south and chop+mine the fur forests to create 2FPT/2SPT tiles and generate some chopping shields. Also switched granary->curragh since we need to explore ASAP and the granary will take 28 turns at the present pace. We need to grow once before it will be buildable. York looks good.

2510 - We've crossed into Russian turf to take a look at Moscow, and Catherine wants us to leave. The Russian warrior camping out next to Moscow heads home, maybe they think our warrior is laying siege to their capital

2470, 2430 - Our warrior in the East keeps exploring, but keeping an eye out on York, which will need an MP soon.

2390 - Worker mines BG, starts to chop fur forest (tbd in 4, gotta love C3C chop times). York growing in 1, warrior is there as MP.

2270, 2230 - Switched to working furs in addition to mined BG. The idea is to build granary in London ASAP while also making sure that the granary is done before London grows again, otherwise food will go to waste.

2190 - Forest will be chopped in 1, making sure the granary is done ASAP. Next player should MM London, making sure that London grows exactly 1 turn after granary is done, and that minimal shields/food go to waste. We need a settler for the Northern cow town ASAP after the granary, and some settlers/workers out of York. Our curagh spotted a barbarian camp ready to send a raiding party our way. There is probably 1 more to the North, so we should probably escort our settlers with the MP warrior, who can be replaced afterward.

Population: London 2, York 3 (settler in 1 turn)
Treasury: 177 + 11 GPT
Nothing unexpected in screen shot, skipping to save disk space...

 

[Detlef Richter]

To hold or rep clean, you can place a worker/slave near the russian border, declare war and wait. The russians capture our worker and does the first step into our territory. Our rep stays clean.

 

[Sir Clive]

Looks as if I am up ! Got it!

I will play tonight (London time) . Haven't had a chance to look at the save yet and am just about to leave for work so I will post pre-turn thoughts tonight before I play.