MRG's Random Game of Randomness

[MrRandomGuy]

Oh, I forgot to rush for an army. That was an unintentional oversight on my part.

 

[Lanzelot]

Something strange happened to my account

You could also send a PM to one of the Admins. They should be able to insert your current mail address and also merge these two accounts into one, so you don't lose your history.

 

[Spoonwood]

I see one city with a factory, and two other cities about to complete a factory this turn. All of those cities are also on rivers. 3 hydro plants costs (3 x 240) = 720 shields. A coal plant is 160 shields also. Hoover's Dam costs 800 shields. So, if some other cities will get factories, Hoover's Dam makes sense. But, if no other cities get any factories, just making hydro plants, or coal plants once coal becomes available, seems preferable.

 

[MrRandomGuy]

Doesn't Hoover affect all cities on the same continent regardless of a factory?

 

[Spoonwood]

The civiliopedia says that a hydro plant increases the output of a factory by 50%.

 

[Lanzelot]

Spoiler Turnlog :

Preflight: lower lux slider from 30% to 10%, increase science from 60 to 90%, Scientific Method due in 4.
Switch KK to Universal Sufferage.
Almarikh: short-rush settler for 16g, Cav will finish one turn faster.
Ulaanbaatar: Marketplace
Dalandzadgad: can use a hill instead of coast, Cav will finish this turn instead of next. (Hmm, why is it building Cavs anyway, it doesn't have barracks?!)
Choybalsan: switch to aqueduct
Erdenet: Marketplace
Tsetserleg: Police Station
Ch'ongfu: Courthouse (otherwise the forest will go waste anyway...)
Barun-Uurt: is the only city with happiness problems. Hopefully a courthouse will fix that. Hire a scientist for now.
Ereen: Courthouse
Batshireet: University
Choyr, Nalayh: Courthouse
Taegwon: Aqueduct
Tes: Temple


(General question: now that we have Cavs (and soon Cav Armies), do we still need artillery type units? I think they only slow us down and cost lots of maintenance... Most of the towns I have changed above, were building cannons. If we upgrade the remaining Trebs, we'll have 33 cannons, which I think is more than enough. So I stopped building new ones for now.)

Move all units, who can still move, out of the Byzantine cities, especially the Armies.
Sell Portugal The Corporation for dyes and 21gpt
Sell America Industrialization for silks
Can almost set lux slider to 0%, but Erdenet and Tabriz still need their Marketplace. Switch Tabriz to Market and short-rush a few shields in both cities, to get the Markets more quickly. Hire scientists for now

We are now making -2gpt. (But some payments from Korea are about to expire.)

T221, 1060AD:
Darn, I forgot to rearrange the shipchain... It's a bit out-of-order with too many units at the end and not enough at the beginning. Will fix that now.

Ta-Tu: Factory -> Army
Kazan: Factory -> Palace
Daland: Cav -> Barracks

Our stack of Trebs at Caesarea score two meager hits. I decided to leave that to the Koreans, leave the Trebs behind and move the fast-moving units on to Smyrna. Better secure the gems quickly and then move on to Spain, than to waste time here.

T222, 1070AD: Egypt and Byzantium sign a trade embargo against us. No big deal, we were not trading with Egypt anyway.
Korea has taken Caesarea. That was quicker than expected. But they threw tons of LBs against this city...

LB Army kills one Rifle in Smyrna. Hold back the Cavs. Next turn we'll have two more Armies and more cannons.

T223, 1080AD:
Constantinople flips. Good that it is empty now.
Two Cavs ship-chained from the mainland re-take it.

Two LB-Armies and 3 Cavs take Smyrna, losing one eCav.

T224, 1090AD:
The Americans have taken Nicomedia. Korean Frigates keep bombarding Chalcedon, thanks to that, our Cavs can hopefully take it this turn.
Finish Scientific Method. I keep it for myself a few more turns, until either someone finishes Universal Suffrage (stopping the cascade) or KK finishes ToE.

ToE is due in 7 turns. With a bit of deficit, I can still do Steel in 7 turns, so I sell Electricity to Egypt and America for their cash, maps and a worker.

Disband a couple of useless Trebs to finish a Settler in Smyrna.

T225, 1100AD:
We capture Chalcedon. Settler from Smyrna secures the gems.

T226, 1110AD:


T227, 1120AD:
Our saltpeter deal with Korea expires. Not enough gold to renew it, and I don't want to give them Scientific Method just yet.
Building Keshiks and Factories for now.

T228, 1130AD:
Korea signs a peace deal with Byzantium! Now that Byzantium was down to its last city. As the road in Egypt is currently blocked, I decide to go after the last city, Septum, myself. Would like to eliminate the flip risk, and America may still take a while to do it. (Though it has captured 2 Byzantine cities so far.)
And Korea know Scientific Method, darn. Three more turns left on ToE. Let's hope, no one finishes the Suffrage till then. (Or Korea does.)

T229, 1140AD:
Korea starts ToE in Hyangsan, second ring, size 12, quite productive.

T230, 1150AD:
Ta-Tu produces our first Army. (Despite the pollution that hit the forest this interturn.)

As our gold is not enough to to finish Steel this turn, I sell Korea our horses for 727g. We can soon get new ones in Spain...
Also sell Scientific Method to Sumer for incense and gpt.

As a lot is going to happen next turn, I'll play one more turn...

T231, 1160AD:
The Portuguese pillage "our" horses in Spain...

Steel is finished, I select Atomic Theory and buy Replacable Parts from Korea for Steel, 600g and 31gpt.
And we have rubber! (And Korea doesn't, but I already expected this, as I have already seen lots of Korean Guerillas, but no Infantry.

ToE finishes and we get Atomic Theory. Select Electronics and buy Refining from Korea for Atomic Theory, rubber and 2gpt.
We also get Electronics, but I will keep it for now, until the Hoover Dam is secure.

Two LB Armies and two Cavs take Septum. Byzantium has not stood the test of time...

But the Spanish are still going strong, despite the fact that they are fighting the rest of the world... 6 Cavs currently visible at the Egyptian-Spanish border, and I have already killed 5 in the previous turns, losing one. It's time that our Cav Army will arrive there, so we can move into Spain.
Spain has so far lost only one town: the furs town they stole from us . The Portuguese now own it, which makes it more difficult to get it back. But with 5 luxxes, we are already running 0% lux, so no high priority to get the furs.

Kill all 6 Spanish Cavs, losing one of our own.

Handover notes:
We have three more techs to go until Tanks. We could do Combustion now in 9 turns at -25gpt. However, I think that Korea is currently researching it, so might as well collect cash now, upgrade our LBs to Guerillas and the Cannons to Artillery, and then trade Electronics for Combustion, preferably one turn before Hoover's finishes. Then we get the full price for it (because Hoover is not yet built), but the AI can't snatch it from us. (The Hoover Dam needs 9 more turns, but we only have 5 more turns of GA, so it's probably more like 11-12 turns. I started more Factories now, since with Hoover's they really pay off)

Main objectives in Spain are of course Valladolid, so we can cash-rush 1-2 settlers there and finally get coal (and horses). And then Alicante: it has the only Spanish oil resource, and we of course lack oil. (Of course... So far we really had zero resources of any kind in our starting territory... Our two rubber are both in conquered Byzantine territory...)

A large stack is currently in Septum. If we decide to go 0% science now and upgrade our units, you can do it there, the barracks remained intact. Otherwise the next player can already move it towards Spain this turn.

A few ships are on their way to the eastern shore to set up a shorter ship-chain to Spain.

 

[Spoonwood]

(General question: now that we have Cavs (and soon Cav Armies), do we still need artillery type units? I think they only slow us down and cost lots of maintenance

Artillery proper never slow things down for me. On the contrary, they almost always fire every single turn, and pick things up, especially with some settlers available.

 

[MrRandomGuy]

Artillery may seem slower, but with infantry/rifle defenders it's best to use to prevent mass cavalry casualties. While cavalry do withdraw from combat, they don't always especially with the annoying conscript units the AI loves to draft after nationalism. I usually quit using artillery once flight is researched. Bombers have a nice long range.

 

[MrRandomGuy]

Oh who is next? Is it me?

 

[choxorn]

Doesn't Hoover affect all cities on the same continent regardless of a factory?

All cities get the Hydro Plant, but without a Factory the Hydro Plant doesn't do anything.

 

[Lanzelot]

Oh who is next? Is it me?

I have completely lost track, but both choxorn and tjs282 haven't played in a while it seems.

 

[choxorn]

I'm still out of town for a couple of days, go ahead and play a set

 

[tjs282]

I have completely lost track, but both choxorn and tjs282 haven't played in a while it seems.

I'll be back home on Sunday evening, but likely not in any fit state to assess our progress until Monday at the earliest. If chox can't play either, then it would probably be best if MRG takes the next set.

Ah, ninja'd again!

 

[MrRandomGuy]

Preflight:

Taking over Spain looks pretty straightforward. I'll have a main stack of cavalry and armies go after the cities mentioned in the handover notes.

Spoiler :

The path I drew in red will be the main attack force. Green paths will be a few siege units protected by a rifle or two. Those won't be intended to take the cities quite yet, but to draw some of their units away from the main attack force. We might not need to use that strategy since Egypt appears to be sending their own fighting force along with our units, but better safe than sorry.

Need to cash rush a settler to finally settle near or on the coal. Probably going to settle on the coal itself to save time if I get there before Diu expands.

I like the idea of no research until a turn before Hoover is completed then trade. Will upgrade units as suggested.

 

[Lanzelot]

since Egypt appears to be sending their own fighting force along with our units

And don't forget Portugal, they were the only ones who took a Spanish town so far. BTW, it's really amazing, how well Spain is still doing at the moment. I saw around 10+ Cavs in the 2-3 turns since I arrived at the Spanish border (and killed most of them...) But the combined efforts of three nations should now finally be able to subdue these treacherous aggressors...!

Regarding cash-rushing a settler in Valadolid: for this the resistors first need to be suppressed. Directly in the turn of capture, a city cannot flip back, so it is safe to move a huge stack into a city the turn it is captured. (But move it back out the following turn... I am currently playing another Demigod game (where I admittedly have much less culture than we do here), and it happened already twice to me, that a city flipped back on the second turn!) Also remember that Armies are very good at suppressing resistors. So by moving three Armies and a bunch of units into Valadolid, we should be able to suppress it and then rush the settler on the second turn. (Then we only need to hope that the city doesn't flip right away, as then the 116g would be down the drain...)

Another way to produce a settler guaranteed is by disbanding enough units on the first turn of capture: for example 3 Trebs and a Cannon would yield 31 shields, so the shield box would be full and the settler gets produced, even though the city is in resistance! That way we would have the settler, before the flip risk becomes an issue. If you plan to go that way, leave a couple of out-dated units un-upgraded. (We probably won't have enough cash for upgrading everything right away anyway.)

 

[MrRandomGuy]

I was actually thinking about cash rushing a settler in old Byzantine territory, loading it in a ship, and dropping it off close to the coal spot.

 

[Lanzelot]

Whatever the fastest way is. We have lots of workers sitting idle, waiting to get those rails and mines up... (The rails may even compensate the loss of shields after the end of the GA somewhat and speed up Hoover by a couple of turns, if we get coal fast enough.)

 

[MrRandomGuy]

Turn Log

Spoiler :

Preturn Turn 231: Cash rush settler in New Kazan.

IBT:

Lots of units are going to Spain. Also a Korean Privateer sinks one of our ships. I know it's Korean because it happened on their turn.

Ulaangom and Tosontsngel are in civil disorder

T 232: Use a galleon to sink the Korean privateer. No hp lost.

It will take 7 turns for a ship to travel from old Bayzantine territory to be able to drop off settler. I decide not to give it an escort as Korean frigates are bombarding Valladolid.

Upgraded as many units as I could

Put entertainers in the aforementioned cities. Raising the lux would net us less gpt.

IBT:

Egypt took Kahun and Jaen. Spain then took Kahun back. Even Sumeria is getting in on the action by landing troops by Valladolid. Spain killed the Sumerian troops though.

Korea wants Electronics for Fascism. Sorry Korea, we're not ready to trade that yet.

T 233:

Upgraded more units in Septum

IBT:

Portugal wants to trade world maps and we give him scientific method. Active agreements show a few things like ROP and the Spanish alliance I think would be good to keep going if he decided to cancel them. Saving Scientific Method for that purpose and not now.

Egyptians take Kahun and Spain once again takes it back. I'm not sure why they're fighting so hard for Kahun.

Sumeria and Spain sign a peace treaty. Sumeria can't do much damage to Spain so I'm not going to bother giving them an incentive to declare war on Spain again.

Spain and Korea sign a peace treaty. That one hurts a little more because the Korean frigates were bombarding Spain.

Another Korea privateer sinks a galleon. Jerks.

T 234:

I sink the Korean privateer

Upgrade more units

Finally in position to start bombarding Valladolid next turn

Raise lux slider to 10% because more citizens are getting unruly and are about to revolt.

IBT

zzzzz

T 235:

Cannons fail to knock down health of rifles. That's ok, there's more able to assault the city next turn.

IBT

Errr. Koreans were not researching Combustion. They are building Hoover.

A Spanish galleon with frigate escorts appear near Dyrrachium.

T 236:

Ok, time to adjust a few things. Raise science slider to 80%

Give Sumeria Atomic Theory and resign a MA against Spain.

Korea only wants world map and 280 gold for another MA. Awesome. I give it to them.

Maybe that will stop the Spanish from landing in old Bayzantine territory. For good measure, I rush an infantry in New KK just in case.

Cannons knock 3 hp off of 2 VR. Much better Cavalry army finishes them off. We now have Valladolid.

One citizen resisting, but city is size 2 now. Good thing the galleon will be able to drop the settler and rifle in the next turn.

IBT:

Spain drops a rifle and spear right by Constantinople. Ok that's easy to defend with a rifle.

Spanish frigates approach the ship containing a settler. They don't attack it. Probably ran out of moves. That was too close.

A Korean cavalry attacks the Spanish rifle, but doesn't kill it.

Our golden age ends.

T 237:

It occurs to me that raising the science slider in response to Korea building Hoover was just plain silly. And a waste of gold. There's no possible way to keep our research high enough to beat Korea. Maybe if we were still in a golden age. Maybe. But definitely not when it's over. I lower science back to 0% and smack myself on the head for being a dumb dumb.

Drop the settler and rifle escort in Egyptian territory close to the coal.

Kill some Spanish cavalry that came out of the fog of war in the IBT.

Move rifle to defend Constantinople.

IBT

Egypt takes Kahun and Spain recaptures it again.

T 238

Killed the Spanish units near Constantinople.

Upgraded some cannons to artillery since Valladolid kept the barracks. Then realized that was probably a bad idea. Fingers crossed!

IBT:

Egypt took Kahun from Spain and managed to keep it this time.

Pollution strikes our capitol

T 239:

Cleaned up pollution

Marched units towards Palma

IBT

zzzzzzz

T 240:

Double check things and note that people are getting more unhappy. Raise lux to 20%. Then I remembered that some trade agreements expired, so I don't have to raise the lux slider!

Portugal gives us dyes, world map, 14 gpt and 13 gold for replaceable parts.

America gives us silks for Scientific Method

Egypt has spare oil! Might as well get that spare oil while we can. We can get saltpeter and oil for Atomic Theory. Easy and done.

Notes and stuff:

- Hoover is due in 2 turns. Koreans were researching Electronics instead of Combustion. I had a one turn panic mode where I made a dumb dumb move then realized my mistake and smacked myself.

- The settler is in place directly on the coal. You can begin the process of mass railing next turn.

- I have moved the original ship chain away from where it was. Korea kept sending privateers to attack our ships, but they don't seem to care about the beginning chain headed to southern Spain. I guess they just didn't want us having ships near their homeland.

- Everything is set to assault and possibly take Palma next turn.

- A few settlers were made that I didn't know what to do with, so I just kept them in the cities they were built in.

- The ship that dropped the settler and rifle off I've kept near Valladolid because I don't know what to do with it. I'm sure it's useful somewhere.

- You can attack the Spanish cavalry near Valladolid if you want, but it's not necessary. They've been ignoring our units and attacking Kahun. I have no idea why Spain wants that city so badly. I'd suggest just letting the Spanish and Egyptians bleed their troops on each other where you can.

- The volcano near Baruun-Urt smoked a few turns ago but didn't erupt. Be cautious in that area when building rails.

 

[Spoonwood]

Spain drops a rifle and spear right by Constantinople.

Yea, in a recent game playing as India, I had control of Paris on a coast, and some AI I was at war with dropped off units by Paris. The AIs target empty capitals on coasts, whether or not it's currently doesn't matter. It only matters that it was someone's capital at some point in time apparently.

 

[tjs282]

OK, I'm now relatively caught up on what's been happening in my absence (I mainly wanted a look at the last couple of pages' worth of screenshots, because our holiday-apartment's WLAN / internet was too slow/erratic to transmit them to my phone while I was reading the posts).

I'd be able to DL the last save this evening, and play the next turnset over the next couple of days — if that's OK with everyone?