NCSG1-Suryavarman II!

[S.ilver]

Looks like some good warring. If JC still doesn't want to give us tech, we should keep the fight up if we can afford to (or maybe send a spy to take it?). We need to get something other than culture mashed cities from this war.

Depending on how fast schwartz plays, I might need a skip, because I can't play until Monday.

 

[schwartz]

I probably wont play until tomorrow evening, and I'd have no problem waiting a couple days for you to play after that (It's within the 24/48 rules anyway.)

 

[Bleys]

Great sets guys, I am SO glad I bribed Sulie into this war with us, the AIs suck even worse when fighting 2 fronts.

Someone suggested putting a couple turns into Machinery to get JC to give it up, that may work. Can we trade for Feud ourselves from Suli?

We need to get as much culture into that Gem city ASAP as we can. It will go a LONG way to helping our fund situation.

I am liking how this is going. We will have a nice army, and when we get Machinery, we should be looking at Qin soon, before he gets Feud himself. LBs backed by Chus arent going to be fun to deal with, and it wont be long before Qin stabs us in the back anyway. We may want to give JC peace as soon as he gets enough cash to make it worthwhile. In the meantime, some of our military could be moved up toward Qins area for later, especially Maces when we get them.

What did we do with the GG? I like the idea of sticking him on an Elly, to be honest. It will eventually upgrade to a Cavalry, which is what we want, a 2 move unit, but for now, we can get him some nice XP using the BE special move, stomping on Chariots in the middle of a stack of Pikes, LOL.

 

[grandad1982]

Nice fighting Groo.

Is anyone willing to trade some cash for all those gems we just "inherited"?

Also is Sulieman still fighting Toku? That would explain his satack legging it to the west.

I like the idea of stealing Mach. Do we have the EPs for that shizzal?

Has anyone though on my AP suggestion? Tech could go Mach (somehow), Vassalage, CS, Theo. If we pop a GE then I think we should definately try for the AP.

 

[Bleys]

I like the AP idea, I think we should pull the switcheroo as well. Currently, we are in Judism for the faction. We should make SURE we have Confu in the city that builds the AP, then switch to it a couple turns before the AP is done, so only we get the hammer bonus. We can spread it to a few AIs gradually, but our cities will be ready and have both Temples and Monastaries ready in as many cities as possible.

 

[schwartz]

Forget it I can play now

 

[schwartz]

Inherited Turn:

Fire spy at A. Thom and run another scientist instead.

Yasod switches from Courthouse to Settler.
Cancel the Furs <-> Silk deal with Suleiman now that we have our own Silk hooked up. Try to get gold but neither Qin nor Suleiman will take a Furs <-> Gold deal.

Stack moves on Rome (Has GLH, Colossus, ToA and SoZ and is the Hindu holy city. )

Push JCs espionage weight to 2.

IBT: Spy caught

251:
Found Isvarapura near the city of JCs that we razed and dial up a barracks:

Our workboat is done exploring, I send it to hook up clams, hopefully will make a trade: clams <-> gold. (EDIT: Qin has clams, sorry for , we could hooked up the seafood near Isvara)

IBT: JC suicides an axe on our axe.

252:
Amsterdam: Catapult -> Catapult
A. Wat: Jumbo -> Jumbo

Connect our GG with a Flank II Jumbo and start him down the Medic line, he's now 1 XP away from level 6 (Probably )

A. Wat is in culture trouble, we need to get some culture in there soon.

The AP idea went out the window here, Ragnar built it this turn

253:
Hague: Jumbo -> Catapult
I suicide the lone cat in our stack against Rome, bombarding would do 4%..

First Jumbo retreats at 38% odds.
Win one fight at low odds and the rest have 75%+ to win, so:

He also has 2 settled GGs in there, but no Hindu shrine . I took peace for machinery, saving us the last 5 turns and time to build up for another assault on Silver's set.

I started teching Paper (7 turns), University of Sankore (stone!) is a nice wonder too.

254:

Tokugawa wins AP election, we DO have a buddhist city so we need to watch out for some of the resolutions there. Most dangerous would be an embargo with Suleiman, who is annoyed with Toku.
Now that the war is over I slip a monument in front in A. Wat to try to relieve some cultural pressure.

Qin is at friendly so we don't need to worry about a backstab at this point
Spread Conf. to Rome for the culture.

255:
Governor put a spy specialist back in A. Thom
Quiet turn, nothing to order around.

256:
Raja: Lighthouse -> Baray, works tundra/hill to be stagnant until it finishes, but it'll grow faster afterwards.

257:


258:
Amsterdam: Catapult -> Catapult

Rome comes out of revolt, it pulls in 15 beakers and 17 coins (which is nice because maintenance is -9.62 gpt)

259:
Nagara Jayasri: Courthouse -> Barracks

We reach 5 million souls.

I'm assembling our military in two main stacks, one in Ravenna and one in Rome for Silver to play with as he sees fit. I'll put signs up regarding some other things too.

260:
Nothing new to command, continue moving units to their destinations
(signed them if they're not there yet)
There IS a settler waiting (hasn't moved) in Yasod (also signed) for Silver to use.
Paper came in:

Overview:

Power:

Map:

Tech:

Roster:
1. Krick19
2. Groogaroo
3. Schwartz > Just played
4. S.ilver > Up
5. Rex rgis of Ter > On deck
6. Grandad
7. Bleys

Save:

 

[schwartz]

Also:
We just finished paper so the tech is just a placeholder.
U of S is queued in Yasod, but we can change that too.
There was some good in that set

 

[S.ilver]

Got it. Might actually be able to play it sometime tomorrow, will see how time goes.

I can't say that I see a whole lot of with your turn schwartz, it looks pretty solid. Only real was using the general on a Flank 2 Phant. Personally, I would've built a chariot and exp bombed it by itself, in order to max out the promotions and get the super medic asap.

Some thoughts from a quick peek at the save. Our city maintenance is really killing us, so courthouses everywhere are a must. I think our FP needs to go up too. It's kinda culture pressed right now, but Ravenna looks like a decent spot for it, because it's in the middle of the Roman empire, which we should absorb shortly (although we need more catapults first!).

Rome has some sweet production potential down the road. Only 3 hills, but it has copper, marble, plains cows, and a huge river running down the flatlands (not to mention the clams). When the time comes, we should slather waterwheels all over the place and deck it out with HE and WP (JC nicely settled 2 GGs for us already).

Rajavihara sucks, and I'm not sure why we settled the place. We've got plenty of happy thanks to representation, so it's our theoretical cap, so we don't need the furs. It's costing an ugly 6gpt in maintenance (it rounds up), and we're not even trading the furs. We can trade it to Qin, Sulei, or Ragnar for 5, 3, and 2gpt a piece, so I'm not sure why we're not (unless we want to deny them happy resources, which would be the question of why even settle this city in the first place). To add insult to injury, we are working on a painfully long baray. Would be better to build a granary, then switch to the coasts and whip whatever else we need. At least we'd get the 3 commerce per coast tile in the meantime to make up for the stunningly bad maintenance. The filler city sign I placed in the capital would've been better, because it actually has food, and is close to the capital, and has the incense, again, not that we need any more happy.

We're going to pop a GP from Thom next turn, 68% chance of being a Great Scientist, which gives us some choices. We're running sucky commerce right now due to our inflated maintenance, so I'm not sure how great an Academy would be. I THINK the bulbed tech would be education, which would help us out with universities to hire more specs. Otherwise, we could settle the Scientist, probably in Amsterdam so we can ramp up the science concentrated in that city. The other 32% chance is the Spy, which I would just use to bomb Qin and steal his techs (although I'm not well versed in espionage).

Also noting that Hari would make a better build candidate for UoS, based on base hammers (29 turns as opposed to 38). Still has forests to chop, although I'd save those, and just chop the one outside the FC. I don't think we're in any danger of being beat to that, because no one else has paper yet.

In any case, I just rambled a bit longer than I was anticipating. Oh well. I'll let some other comments come in.

 

[grandad1982]

Nice set Schwartz, not much as far as I can see.

That entire NW Roman penisular looks so nice for some dry dooks in the future! I can feel a combined arms war coming on - well in about 500 hundred years anyway!

If we pop a GP we don't really need then maybe we should burn a golden age.

Shame about the AP. I heard that the buddists smell of cheese so their welcome to it!

I got to say I love the UoS. one thing to make sure is that we have the max number of religious buildings to get the full benifit! Actually a GA would help all this immensly.

 

[Groogaroo]

Nice round schwartz,

Rome is a nice aquisition, all those wonders plus the 2 GG's... Sweet. I agree HE/WP is a sound plan for the city.

Not sure why we havn't traded the furs yet, might be just a case of forgetting, I think they were getting hooked up on my turn and I just didn't think to mention it! opps! See no problems with trading them off, especially if we can get GPT while our economy is is still a bit shaky!

I rarley buid UoS, but then never focus much on wide spread religious buildings, but if you guys wanna go for it then no problem.

 

[S.ilver]

1150AD (260):

Preflight check. We have an unmoved settler, but I'm not going to use him, for several reasons. We're still stuck running 30% science, which isn't great (but we live thanks to specs). And secondly, we are eggshell thin on the homefront, with one unit guarding most cities. This may be acceptable for the back end of our empire, but near Rome, and near China, this won't cut it.

Let's see what we've got. Yaso has pretty poor production for any future wonders, and UoS will take too long even with the chops. The city is due to hit the health cap in 6 turns, so it needs a Baray.

Some of our workers are doing questionable things... like farming a tundra at Nagara when there are farmable grasslands.

Raja gets switched to a 12 turn granary so it can grow pop faster. It is useless if we don't fill out all the coastal squares, so that should be the aim.

I set Hari to build UoS for us in 29 turns (will drop with chops and extra citizens).

Isvar gets switched to a Granary, because it has no infrastructure, and little hammer potential until we get workers over here.

I stand by engineering because we need faster roads (we actually need more roads, we lack some routes between cities).

1160AD (261):

We get a Great Scientist in Thom. I weigh the options. A settled scientist or an academy would be great long term. The tech to be bulbed in Education, which won't even finish with the scientist, so let's not go there. But a GA right now would help us get on our feet, especially with the poor economic state we're in. I decide on the GA, and start it. 10 turns of Golden Age.

Spoiler :

Since we're GAed, I use it as an opportunity to switch to better civics. Serfdom and Vassalage. Serfdom because we need our workers working faster more than we need whipped stuff. And Vassalage to help with military builds (and because our capital sucks so Bureau isn't great).

Swing the fur deals with Qin and Sulei. Also do some trades of techs with Sulie and Qin.

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

1170AD (262):

JC makes peace with Sulei. I don't think they actually fought a whole lot.

Cats done in Amsterdam and the Hague. A forge for Amsterdamm, and more cats at The Hague.

1180AD (263):

Monument done in Wat, dial up a theatre.

1190AD (264):

Peace ends with JC. That means he's going to feel more pain.

Qin comes to us and wants Civil for Phil. He also wants money. I tell him to take a hike.

Dial up JC and declare war.

1200AD (265):

Destroy one of JCs Axemen near Mediolanum.

Barracks in Naga done, dial a longbow.

1210AD (266):

Looks like Sulei is trying to make himself an island stronghold.

South stack begins bombarding Antium, while north stack takes on Mediolanum, because I don't want to be backdoored.

1220AD (267):

JC collaterals our southern stack with a catapult that dies.

Engineering comes in, yay.

Spoiler :

Set tech to Guilds, because most other cheaper stuff is tradable.

You called it schwartz. We get the AP on our case about Suleiman. I defy the resolution because we only have 1 city with Bud (Wat).

Spoiler :

LOL. Our supermedic healed all the damage from the collateral. Nice.

Baray done in Yaso, so it can grow a bit more. It orders a forge, but I stall its growth a bit because of WW.

The Hague is done a cat, so make another!

Bombardment continues at all cities. Antium is dead next turn.

1230AD (268):

Ok, we defied the resolution so Wat will be pissed. But I consider that better than a pissed Suleiman.

Spoiler :

I hit Antium with a Suicide Cat, and it actually does good damage to the top defender. Send another one in, because odds still aren't great. And the last one in. Ok, so all 3 cats died, but the city is pretty messed up now.

A longbow gets run over by a Phant flawless. Then an Axe destroys the other longbow. Then the Praet gets taken down by a Phant. And we get another Great General. Scipio Africanus born in Yaso. Will sit on him for the group to decide what to do.

Spoiler :

CaoCao gets the honours and demolishes the poor horse archer remaining in Antium. City is sacked and we take 95 gold.

Spoiler :

Remaining axeman steals 3 of JCs workers. Yay!

Spoiler :

Forge is done in Amsterdam, so go for Macemen!

Antium's granary survived the sac, so go for a courthouse when it gets out of revolt.

1240AD (269):

Mediolanum's defense is finally down, but it'll be a tough take because we only have one cat. It causes collateral but doesn't damage the lead longbow. So here go the valuable units!

Holy $#!t, Flanking 2 Phant somehow killed the longbow with only 22% chance. Only 1 health left, but damn that's impressive and got 5 exp from that fight.

Send our best CR3 axe in and he dies at 60% chance . I guess luck doesn't always go your way.

Other CR3 axe owns the axe sitting in town. Last Phant gets cleanup to kill the Longbow that killed our CR3 Axe. Kills flawless and takes the town and 182 gold.

Spoiler :

1250AD (270):

JC decides to play rough and use his horse archers. He kills some catapult reinforcements, but then tries to attack the Ballista Elephant based in Rome. Not smart.

I decide we need more troops before we can seriously think about going after any more of JC's cities. Since they need time to build, there's no use wasting WW. JC won't give us anything but his map for peace, not even compass, but I take it.

Spoiler :

JC's map is not bad, as it reveals most of Ragnar's territory (I suspect he settled a city on the tiny island). It also reveals Arpinum, which is clearly JCs source of iron.

Spoiler :

Quick synopsis. Burned a Great Scientist on a Golden Age, and used it to seize more of JCs cities, as well as get some good progress on UoS at Hari. Consolidated our border with JC and got Ravenna more breathing room so we can dig it out of the jungle and make it our FP city.

Somewhat sloppy warmongering, because I overestimated the ability of our units. We didn't have enough cats!

Next steps should be to consolidate our gains while waiting for the JC war anger to die off before finishing him off. His island fortress is not worth going after, and if we can kick him off the continent, he'll probably make a good vassal.

UoS should be due next turnset. We need some infrastructure, city defenders, and more cats before we declare war again.

Might have been major defying the AP, because Wat gets 5 extra unhappy. Not sure whether it justifies not getting the relations hit.

Roster:
1. Krick19
2. Groogaroo
3. Schwartz
4. S.ilver <-- Just Played
5. Rex rgis of Ter ** UP NOW **
6. Grandad <-- On Deck
7. Bleys

 

[Bleys]

Wow, NICE WORK FELLAS!! You guys are SO far above Noble level its not even funny.

I think we should be looking to absolutely spam Buddism ASAP, and take at least a "controlling no-vote" for future elections. Are we still in OR? If so, it can be done pretty quickly.

We have a pretty firm control on this map. I am not sure about giving Qin Machinery though, heh, that opens up Chu's. They are lethal, but to our advantage our Jumbos arent Melee. Qin stabbing us in the back should be our next "concern" to keep a sharp eye on. Send some spys up to find his stacks and see what hes up too. That guy is notorious for some sneaky BStabs. Our underbelly is exposed to him, and since we arent in HR, we dont have a 3-4 unit buildup in each city. Perhaps LBs all around ASAP is another thing to fit into the plan. I definitely like the idea of a long pause before either finishing JC or vassalizing him. If hes a vassal, and has buddhism, we could get an AP win pretty quickly here. I love the AP these days, the hammers are so strong, and thats stuff that we should be building anyway, for the happiness and science if nothing else. I always seem to neglect the religious development in my cities except when I see those 2 hammers.

Well done though. This game is won unless Qin pulls something out of his butt. We dont want to lose to a cheesy AP vote though, so getting as many votes as we can ASAP is pretty important.

Great turns, all of you. I need to work on my reporting, heh. I get so caught up in playing , etc.

 

[Rex rgis of Ter]

Got it

Whats the tech plan? I'll work on building up our economy, to recover from the war, and hopefully build up our forces to finish off JC. 10 turns should be up tommorow or Monday.

 

[schwartz]

Great set Silver. I knew I had some with a couple workers.. I rushed a couple of decisions on the last turn and came up with a couple bad ones
Nice work with our army, it wasn't too huge but good enough to sack a couple cities
Also good call on the trades, I meant to do the fur -> coins trades but completely forgot about it (I had a crash right after my inherited turn).
Bleys makes a good point about buddhism, I think we should focus on getting it spread to our largest cities at the moment, to try for a blocking majority.
Poor Ragnar, trapped in that tiny corner.. No wonder he's doing so poorly.

@Bleys:
I write my report as I play (I sometimes alt+tab out 4-5 times per turn ) and it takes a looong while to play those 10 turns that way.

EDIT:
About my GG usage, I regretted it about 3 seconds after I did it.

 

[S.ilver]

Yeah, I thought long and hard about doing the trades involving machinery. But it was either that, or Civil Service, which is a more expensive tech. We also had a monopoly (still do, but JC is close to researching it) on Civil Service, and it was the gateway to paper, and hence UoS and Liberalism eventually. Qin had already put some beakers into it too, so he would've had it in a dozen turns.

Probably be wise to beef the military a bit with some Longbows. We still lead in power, but if someone attacked us, we'd get run over because our military isn't big enough to cover our empire.

I'm thinking Guilds -> Banking -> Education, and trade for Philosophy to unlock Liberalism and Econ. Free tech and free Great Merchant if we get there first (and there's no way anyone's beating us to it now unless we try not to get it), and the techs on the way unlock nice infrastructure buildings.

And yes we're still in Organized Religion, because we have no other choice other than a throwback to Paganism.

EDIT: Bleys, I run Civ4 in windowed mode and have notepad open on a second monitor. Would still work with one monitor though.

EDITagain: About Buddhism spread. I think we need to wait until the AP votes again and vote along with the resolution, otherwise we get pissed off people and nothing much else. Yeah, that's my for the turn. Probably would've been better to take the diplo hit with Sulei (not like he helped us much in the war anyways).

 

[grandad1982]

Hmm. Should probably try to get as many of the religions in all our cites as possible, not just Buddism. When we hit Lib its time to switch to FR. We'd lose AP power but the diplo field will be leveled for us a bit more as our Jewish brothers will like us a bit less and the heathens will like us a bit more. Of course going buddist and would open up whole load of fun....

Also Rex maybe you could pump out some conf missionarys to up our shrine income.

Talking of Hari and gold, should we start to think about getting it ready to be our wall street city if we're heading up towards economics from Lib.

Edit: I say time to switch to FR what I mean is time to think about it! It would kick our reaserch up a gear and is easy happy faces.

 

[schwartz]

grandad:
Until we're ready to war with Qin we shouldn't go into FR. He's at friendly due to the +6 "We care for the brothers.." and he'd drop to pleased, if not cautious, if we switch from Judaism. At cautious, I'd expect him to come looking for a fight

 

[grandad1982]

True. Very true!

 

[Rex rgis of Ter]

I'm heading for Liberalism.

I'm spamming missionaries left, right, and center, for gold.

What do you want me to do with Scipio? I want to settle him in the capital or Amsterdam. Also, I am going to settle the GP.

Finally, I'm going to settle the desert city, with iron, wheat, and incense.

Any comments?