Monarch Training 2

[Keiji]

Allright make that a 'Got it' then. I'll get right on it.

Edit: Here's what I did.

Pre-flight Check:
No real optimizations can be made as far as I can see.

1625 BC (1)
Workers to cow. Nothing further.

1600 BC (2)
London Archer -> Spear
Workers start irrigating.

1575 BC (3)
Nothing much.

1550 BC (4)
Nottingham worker -> curragh
1st worker road cow
2nd worker to next cow

IBT
Barb comes out of the fog E

1525 BC (5)
Spot another barb camp N
Send London warrior for reinforcement of York

IBT
London riots without MP, DOH!
Two barbs attack our units but get slaughtered.

1500 BC (6)
Archer destroys W barb camp and promotes in the process.
Send curragh on a suicide run to the west.
Turn up luxury to 10 percent.
MM York to not grow before granary completes.

1475 BC (7)
Our curragh survives and reaches new land!
More barbs come out of the woodwork E.

1450 BC (8)
Another barb reveals itself S of York.
London spear -> archer
York granary -> settler

1425 BC (9)
Nothing much

1400 BC (10)
Nothing much

Those barbs are becoming a real nuisance. We definitely shouldn't send out settlers unescorted. The curragh that braved the high seas did find a new island, but it doesn't seem to be inhabited and I haven't found any indication of another island nearby. Hopefully we're not really stuck with the Russians forever . The Russians are up Writing and Masonry BTW.

 

[danz]

Guys, this is great, everyone wants to do something slightly different, things get confused, but you know what, we're still going to

D. Richter you're right, strategies vary from level to level and map to map. So maybe on a Monarch/Archipelago map we have a little bit more breathing room, since no AI is likely to make an appearance on our island any time soon. But if we play aggresively and expand faster than we have to, it's not going to hurt us. If anything, it will make the next stage of the game much easier, because we'll be bigger and more developed than our rivals.

Also, keep in mind this is no-research. Our progress is at the mercy of trade and diplomacy. It's much easier to be diplomatic when noone can touch you

 

[viper275]

Eek!! I'm up? I'm up in all my games now. I may need a skip, I'll see how long the other turns take.
EDIT: This means got it, but I'll probably need a skip.

 

[viper275]

I noticed we were at turn 64 so I decided to play up to 70. I won't need a skip then.
1
None
2
Zzzzzz
3
Uneventful
4
Hardly anything
5
Nothing
6
Writing for 469 gold to Russia.

 

[danz]

How did we get writing with 0% research...

 

[viper275]

Sorry if I didn't make this clear, I traded 469 gold to Russia in exchange for Writing. That is, I bought it from them.

 

[danz]

Sorry if I didn't make this clear, I traded 469 gold to Russia in exchange for Writing. That is, I bought it from them.

LOL good move, they can't spend the money in despotism anyway, so we'll just take it away from them when we go to war

Speaking of war, let's get a barracks in London and start producing some archers there. We need to have a short war with Russia where we raze one of their cities and they sue for peace. This will empty their treasury, give us all their techs, and slow them down a bit. Then 20 turns later we can have another short war. Personally, I would prefer a few of short wars that net gold, tech, and maybe some leaders. We need to weaken our opponents so they can't hurt us, but we shouldn't kill them because we still need someone to do our research. Thoughts?

Unrelated issue: city spacing. Nottingham is in a problematic spot. The only good tiles it can work are those it shares with York. It should really be one tile to the North. Now that it's there, let's develop some of those grassland tiles so our laborers don't work unimproved grassland. And once York produces a settler, let's go North across the river instead of spreading out to the East or South. We need a more compact, easily defensible territory. When we reach the Northern shore, that's one less border we need to secure, and a two-city Eastern front is easily defended by 2-3 units, freeing up our military to move on Russia. Thoughts?

p.s. I just finished the third "training" conquest on Sid with a domination victory as the Germans. I really wanted to kill the Dutch king, but his Swiss Mercenaries spoiled my taste for sieges!

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

D. Richter (pikeman) - up
danz
Sir Clive
keiji
AK
viper275

@ keiji - my apologies on the roster skip.

Speaking of war, let's get a barracks in London and start producing some archers there. We need to have a short war with Russia where we raze one of their cities and they sue for peace. This will empty their treasury, give us all their techs, and slow them down a bit. Then 20 turns later we can have another short war. Personally, I would prefer a few of short wars that net gold, tech, and maybe some leaders. We need to weaken our opponents so they can't hurt us, but we shouldn't kill them because we still need someone to do our research.

Strongly concur.

 

[Keiji]

@Kutzov - no problem, as long as you didn't do it on purpose. You did do it by accident right

I would have to agree that we should let the Russians live for a while to do our research for us.

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

You did do it by accident right

of course, i did it by accident - i would much rather do the war thingy than the build thingy. Mauer thought me how to run a roster

 

[Bede]

@AdmK, you asked for it

lurker's comment:

So here he comes, the Grumpy Old Monk of Training Games (GOMTG).

1) you have picked one of the hardest variants for an Archipelago map.

2) You need more boats to make more contacts. You have two in the water now IIRC and one in the stocks. I would scrap the archer build at London and build another. That way you can box the compass to make more contacts.

3) Russia is your only possible trading partner right now and is scientific. Close off the landbridge between the two halves of the island with a town soonest so Cathy woon't steal into your core, then trade like mad. Pay her everything you have in gpt for whatever she will sell you so she will keep her research pace up. That way when you do make new contacts you just may have trade bait.

4) Don't sweat the barbarians, just don't send out unescorted settlers. If they threaten a town go spend some money with Russia, then move your troops out unless you are positive you can defend successfully. If you leave the town open the worst they can do is take what little gold you have left, but they won't pillage the terrain improvement. Just don't let them sit on improved terrain. If you have some archers around go clear out the camps, but don't make a project out of it.

5) No research variants are about banking not warfare. Build your economy and that means granaries, population and improved terrain, build just enough military to provide for barbarian control and MP duty as the towns grow. Keep the citizens working roaded tiles for the extra gpt.

6) You need more workers!!! At this stage of the game it is more efficient to have one worker per town than to gang them. Once the granaries start kicking in you need two and possibly three. The objective is to have a field ready for the new citizen as it reaches working age. The ideal settler group is a settler, defender and worker roading behind.

7) As you are on an island city placement and spacing is crucial. As a seafaring nation with the coastal commerce bonus given a choice a town should be built to use as much coast as possible.

Here endeth the lesson

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

Here endeth the lesson

So now you're Sean Connery. I thought I had multiple personality disorder

Thanks for the input!

Still want to stomp Cathy but will restrain self to allow for trading potential.

 

[Detlef Richter]

Got it. I hope this is correct now.

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

Got it. I hope this is correct now.

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

Even if this is not correct, it is now written in stone. Unless we get a skip request.

 

[Detlef Richter]

Time for growing:

1250BC: changed London to settler

1225: nothing

1200: lost a warrior against barb-warrior

1175: lost a suicide curragh

1125: found Hastings and start with granary
meet Portugal on an W iland and they are not alone (but i don't know
the others -- i lost this curragh)
trade iron working with Portugal for 12gpt+175g
trade iron working with Russia for masonry+210g

1100: London builds settler, next warrior
York builds warrior, next settler
Nottingham builds worker, next worker
lost a suicide curragh

1075: nothing

1050: London builds warrior, next curragh

1025: curragh finds unsettled iland to the E

1000: found Canterburry and start with granary

Dark green borders

This is my settling position.

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

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

 

[danz]

Got it. Playing now.

 

[danz]

1000 BC : I thought we were supposed to settle on the hill NW of London so it could get irrigated sooner? There's some wasted BG there now, I'll have to put a filler city N of London to use it. Hastings is also in a wierd spot, because it makes it impossible to use the whales without putting a new city two tiles from London. Oh well...
London:Rax (we need at least one city to crank some military).
Nottingham:Warr (barbs have thinned us out in the East, need some safety margin).

975 BC : MM York a little, Sett in 1.
Start shuffling warrs from land bridge eastward. We need to give them some experience fighting barbs. The arch that's left is a good blocker. Cathy will not attack, she's too weak.
Nottingham Warr->Worker.
Archer takes NE barb camp for 25 gold, no promotion.

950 BC : York Sett->Sett.
Founded Coventry on tobacco (waste) but within reach of whales. Whales not within reach otherwise. Puts fish into Canterbury's workable area.
Kill barb in SE, no promotion.

925 BC : Nottingham:Sett (too many shields for worker after working tiles that York could not).
Germany spotted in the East. They're up Math + Mysticism.
Trades:
Germany: Math<=>7GPT+9G
Portugal: Wheel+5GPT+185G<=>Math
Russia: 399G<=>Math

900 BC : York Worker->Sett.
Send worker to connect Iron, another to conect Horses.
NW curr finds empty island.
MM London, Rax in 1, after that Warrs in preparation for mass Sword upgrade. We have the Iron, we have the cash, we just need a keg and we're ready to party !

875 BC : London Rax->Warr.
Find out Portugal has Horseback Riding.
Trades:
Germany: Myst<=>282G
Portugal: HR<=>Myst+1GPT+44G
Germany: 266G<=>HR
They're almost broke, we have 800+ gold, everyone even in tech except Russia who can't afford anything.

850 BC : Founded Warwick, Coventry can now work cow tile, switches to producing worker.
Archer kills barb NE, no promotion.

825 BC : London Warr->Worker (have to keep pop down because of unhapiness).
Archer clears barb camp NE, collects 25 G, promotes to elite. Time for this guy to see the Russian front. Replacing him with regular warr. We should rotate military in/out of barbarian frontier so they all gain experince.
Contact Dutch NW, build embassies with everyone.
Amsterdam: Size 5, 1 clown, 2 spears, Pyramids in 17.
Berlin: Size 5, 2 spears, Pyramids in 24 (nasty cascade coming).
Moscow: Size 2, 2 spears, 1 warr, 1 settler sleeping, anoter built but not enough population to finish! Russia is getting ready to explode, they need breathing room and might start a fight if the power ratio changes in their favor.
Trades:I'm getting ROP with everyone except Russia, we don't want anyone to get bought by Cathy when the time comes, and we like to keep AI attituded on the positive side.
Dutch: (ROP)+MM+46G<=>Math+HR
Germany: 1GPT+93G<=>MM
Portugal: 1GPT+67G<=>MM
We now have 918 gold and averyone else is flat broke.

800 BC : Warr in SE kills barb camp, colects 25G, no promotion.
NE curr stops on last costal tile on tip of island, ready to cross N next turn.

...Dutch building Oracle...

775 BC : Some more MM, warrs slowly shuffling E, elite arch shuffling W, currs carefully exploring (never ending on sea/ocean tiles unless absolutely necessary and they start the crosing with 3 movement points... we should have very few sinkings!)

We have loads of money, all the tech we need to kill Russia, and good trade relations wit everyone else. Now we just need to settle the rest of this island, improve tiles, and build up military. I'm thinking we start a war in the next 10-20 turns. Thoughts?

 

[viper275]

First we need a worker factory, remember what Bede said. I suggest Coventry (assuming it has access to the cow.) A little corruption, but hopefully various things can help that.

Now that we know Portugal I say we can attack Russia. Any reason to? I say it's to get control over our entire island. The more land we have, the more cash we'll get per turn, which is something to use in trade (and No Research isn't about anything if it isn't about trade.)

 

[Bede]

lurker's comment:

Following progress with interest.

danz is right, Russia has got to go. Now that I've seen the rest of the island it is obvious they are worthless and dangerous, an expansionist nation with no strategic resource and nowhere to expand but right down your throat.

on the trading, gents. You have a lot of counter parties to work with now and lots of money. Find a scientific nation and start feeding them gpt and use the unscientific nations to fund the buys.