NCSG1-Suryavarman II!

[Rex rgis of Ter]

So thus an age of peace began for the Khmer. No wars beckoned to them, The Chinese offered them open borders, bringing their people much closer. A new city was founded, creating a monopoly on Fur, and much more.

The Turnset began with distressing news, an enemy had destroyed the Angkor Wat courthouse!

Spoiler :

Little happened over the next turns, except the farming of many areas around the capital, and other cities.

However, in the year 520 AD, Rajahivar was founded. The city would never amount to much, but it gives us much fur. Once it is all hunted, we can trade it to others to help recover our economy.

Spoiler :

So the turnset ended, with little happening.

• Amsterdam is building the GL, and will be finfshed in 54 turns. However, a road is being built to marble and will cut this in half.
• I would like us to not settle anywhere for awhile, until our economy is much better. However, I think it would be advatageous to start colonizing the islands west of the capital.
  Spoiler :

  
• I have started exploring China with an axeman. I would like to explore the east, to see if we can still grab those cities.

 

[grandad1982]

Nice set rex.

I bet it was Qin who destroyed our court house. Man he's gonna get a slap one of these days!

As for not settling anywhere else we have some pretty good sites at the mo so thats fine by me!

I'd love to say "got it" but I see no save

 

[schwartz]

Good looking set. Looks like Rajavihara can max out at size 8 with a lighthouse. Still, it serves its purpose.
OB with China will hopefully give us some Judaism spread, so we can join that bloc and go after the outcast, JC.

 

[S.ilver]

Looks like good turns, but since there's no save, we can't really say

 

[Rex rgis of Ter]

Sorry, the save is here

 

[grandad1982]

Nice one.

Got it. I'll probably be able to play on monday morning - GMT.

Any suggestins till then?

I'm thinking workers and mainly building up our economy. Any specific diplo ideas?

I might als build some missionarys to spread conf a boost our cash flow even more.

Going to chech the save but I won't play just yet.

 

[grandad1982]

Oh yer does anyone know if HoF and the unoffical patch are compatible? I guess not, but am I right?

 

[schwartz]

HoF is not compatible, but Bhruic's patch is, I'm using it.

About plans for the set:
As I said, we should probably look to join the Jewish bloc, but spreading confucianism around is a good plan as well, the shrine will help keep our slider high for those cottages. Just continue moving towards GLib and hopefully get an academy up in the capital, as it's our best science city right now.

 

[Rex rgis of Ter]

1. We have plenty of worker, we don't need to many

2. Explore the area east with the gold, to see if we can grab it

3. Get all the furs hooked up and sell them for gp/resources

4. Place farms near Amsterdam

5. Tech currency and build one everywhere

6. Keep Espionage up, we don't want more hammers lost from spies

 

[grandad1982]

Well I played 10 turns, because I forgot to check if we had dropped from 20. If its 20 still I don't mind playing 10 more!! Equally I'm happy to pass it on so I can finally start my NCFred game!!

OK then.

As the dawn rises on a new day in the lands of the Khmer, the common folk have little idea that thier lives will be thrown in to anarchy for many years by the kings astute reading of his doplomatic situation!

210: We decide we would like to be Jewish and convert promptly.

The diplo situation before....

....and after.

Mighty Suryavarman II decides that espionage efforts should be consentrated on his closes rivals.

I reconfigure the Hague to work the sea tiles instead of the mines to whip it in the near future.

I check through all our cities and notice Jaya and Raja have their govenors switched on. Naughty. I turn them off.

I hit enter.

211: Our new found faith allows us to OB with Sulieman. I send a spare worker to the Dam and another to Hari to build a farm on top of one of the cottages there. I see this as a military city ATM so more pop will mean more hammers. I hope this action does't diplease anyone to much.

212: Math> Currency. Worker to hill near Thom to start a mine. Thom finishes its Monastary and starts on a Missionary to spread the Confusian faith far and wide - it appears our Glorious Leader is only paying lip service to the Jewish faith after all....

The road to the marble is complet and the construction time for the GL drops to 17 turns.

213: Start a cottage near Thom.

Start a farm on the grassland tile by the marble.

I whip Jaya's granery and the Hagues galley.

Archer arrives at Wat and the old archer is sent off to explore the Devious Chinese lands.

214: I send our galley W to explore and start a spy in the Hague.

In Yaso workboat is completed and sent to investigate the islands to our E. Suryavarman feels they would make an lovely holiday resort for people to "discover" themselves, thus providing some lucrative trade routes.

Jaya starts on a Jewish monastary.

I realise that the worker near the Hague is set to build a road to Raja! I stop him and send him ahead to get started on a fur camp ASAP. With sailing we don't need to road the city to get the fur - will need to road the camp though.

I drop our science slider to 20%(!) to stop us losing money.

Heres some pretty screens.

Must have been cut off by the war with Sulieman.

I check out what JC is saying. Hmmm....

Then I notice this! Double Hmmm....

Looks like he has Iron after all.

215: Toku drops by with this request. Shove it Toku!

Start a forest chop for the Dam.

Yaso grows and I assign the new pop as a scientist.

Start a fur camp. I whip the monastary in Hari. With JC "hands full" its probably going to have better things to do!

Our roving axe gets to our potential city site.

216: Hari starts an axe - we lose 3 hammers from the overflow.

Thom hits its happy cap so I change the corn tile to a plains farm to stop growth.

Qin sure wants that incense, he has four workers to get it hocked up!

217: Hari: Axe> Axe

218: Conf spreads to Raja and we start to make +1 gold per turn! Oh yer baby!

219: With JC in a war footing and him apparently having Iron I make this trade. I could have got calender instead but I think we need cats - also brings us closer to our UU!

I send a worker to Wat.

Chop for the Dam complete - the worker finds a nice canal side cafe and chills with a phatty boom batty. Only 3 turns till the GL is in.

220: The Dam worker, now high on "life", thinks that after all that destruction he should give something back and starts a farm/hippy commune.

I start a chop for Wats courthouse.

Farm at Hari done.

After 200 years of hard work Suryavarman II decides its time to compile a short set of works to record his growng empire.

Our capital

The Chinese lands.

Our exploring ships.

Diplo

Tech

Power. Sadly I can't tell which colours are whom etc, so I don't know where we stand! Help please!

@ Bleys

If you fiddle with worked tiles you can put us back in the black but I decided growth was more important than the cash in the very short term - Yaso will grow in 3 turns and can then work a 3 commerce cottage.

I'd consider whipping the Jewish monastary in Jaya as well and then pumping out missionarys with the whip when appropriate.

I'd send the spy to explore JC's land and find/pillage his iron.

Reassigning EPs might be good so we can steal some techs/cause some havoc. I'd leave Sulieman alone as hes fighting the evil Buddists ATM and doesn't need the distraction. JC and Qin would be natural targets -JC has alot of techs!

Markets and a few more courthouses might be a good idea.

I can't decide what would be the best tech path. I'd guess HBR for our UU but CS for chain farms could be nice, as would MC! I think HBR edges it.

One last thing, getting our UB in the lower food cities would be pretty sweet for the +1 food! What a lovely UB....

Hersa Wiki link to an article about the Khmer empire if anyones interested.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Empire#Suryavarman_II

Enjoy!

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

The save.

 

[Bleys]

OK I got it.

Also, about the HoF MOD, Bhruics patch is not compatible. Here is what I do as a workaround. I keep a copy of each .DLL in the proper folder, and when I play this, I use Bhruics, and when I am done, I re-install the original. I dont know of any other way to do it, having Bhruics patch installed messes up some of the stuff in the HoF and the games get really messed up and old HoF saves wont open if Bhruics is installed and vice-versa, its a real mess.

With regard to the game, I am concerned about both JC and Qin. Qin backstabs, and JC will go to war for very little. Getting Construction was a great idea.

Techwise, I am thinking we tech MC and try to steal or trade for HBR. I will also try to build our UBs where needed most.

 

[grandad1982]

If we go MC I guess we get xbows which should do ok vs praets.

I think I'll just stick to Bhruic's for the moment as I cant be arsed to chop and change.

 

[Bleys]

Played my set, and I have a juicy bit of news . . .

ITS ON!!! JC has DoWed on us. I will do my full update in a moment, uploading my screenies and such now. We should be fine. Got a bit of a problem with the WB saves in my other game series, though, see the PYL I thread for info (Note: Nobles Club games are fine if played below Monarch, the problem is in the higher levels)

Granddad, if you leave Bhruics patch in, you can still use the HoF mod. The incompatibility comes with loading saves.

HoF + B's patch = one kind of save, those saves cannot be opened by HoF + original DLL
HoF + original DLL = another kind of save, those saves cannot be opened by HoF + B's patch.

The result is that you cannot play official HoF games, or submit them, if you have Bhruics patch installed, even if you use the HoF mod. There will be an asset problem. If you have no plans to ever submit games or play the monthly BotMs, then you are fine.

 

[Bleys]

Well, as I said in my teaser post, its on. JC DoWed on us. Not sure why, here is the Power graph, we are pretty close to him. I also gave him a trade but didnt get a "Our trade relations have been good" diplo, I changed it from his original offer though, he offered 525 for CoL, and I gave him HBR and Aest for 860 instead (for research cash). I also made a trades with Qin and Suileman during my set, getting Monotheism + 90 gold for Lit from Qin (with 1 turn left on the GL, so we were 100% to get it) this one with Suile:

The gold helped our tech rate a LOT, and we needed Calendar, so it looked good to me.

I also bribed Suile into the war with JC, the same turn he DoWed on us:

At any rate, I will start at the beginning of my turns. Currency came in 1 turn later, and I started HBR. I added a few more specialists to a couple cities, not too baddly, but I had our tech up near 200 beakers a turn at one point. Once HBR finished, I teched through MC. Thats right, in my 10 turns, I teched both HBR and MC, and traded for Monotheism and Calendar. The power of the Mids is in running specialists for tech, and not worrying as much about the slider.

I started CS on my "pass it" turn, so if we decided we want to tech something else, it can be changed. I figure CS because we are going to bust JC out hard, and have him give us Machinery for peace (I hope), but we MAY want to switch to Fuedalism instead of CS, and maybe Vasselize JC, dunno. Still havent found his source of Iron though, the spy has been up there looking around quite a bit, heh.

Also a couple turns after I took over:

We also popped a GS in Yari, so I ran him over to make an Academy in Amsterdam. I didnt think we needed Philo just this minute.

Also, I built a few Cats, as well as a couple Stables so our UU can come out with XP. I also have both a Dye and Sugar plantation up, and traded a Fur to Suile for Silk. He also has Gold for trade but wouldnt go for just the Fur, so I figure maybe some Sugar will entice him. Now that we have MC, a Forge + gold = + happy, so its important. Currently we have Silver, so after this war, lets get to work on some Forges.

Oh, I also revolted into OR, once the GL was done, and got some Missionaries out to spread Judaism, and get the building production bonus.

I whipped some stuff, so take careful note of current unhappiness numbers, and try to keep it down. The Sugar City is growin like mad, and we should be able to get units out of there quickly. I also sent the Axes we had gathered in Amsterdam toward JCs city down there. PILLAGE THAT ROAD! maybe we can cut off his Iron.

So your up Krick. I knew the war was coming, we all did. We have a nice stack in the city JC is headed for. If you get him on a flat, wipe him out, theres already a Cat there, sac it if you need to, and use the Axes. I gave all our axes CRI, but maybe we need some Combat I Axes so they can get Shock with an upgrade. Rags teched Theology, too, but doesnt like us.

During this war with JC, I would LOVE to take his city by Amsterdam, and his Gem city, then give him peace for Machinery if its doable. I suggest we keep pumping out Units, I took some specialists off and put them in hammer tiles, now isnt the time to worry about our tech rate. Pillaging his Iron is primary, or destroying it with the spy, if he can find it. I hope its not a trade, but it may be. He has extra gems to offer for it, so taking his source of trade bait may also remove his Iron.

Good luck guys! No worries, this game is pretty well in hand, good playing by all. Our cities are solid, have most of the key buildings, and we have some decent military units. Those axes should be able to take at least 1 city from JC, and once his stack attacking us dies, we can send that army toward Rome, even.

Our cities (all but the Fur one) in a spoiler for space:

Spoiler :

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

 

[Krick19]

Okay, I have it, just a question or two. Have we seen his stack? And when should I attack? I definitely want some cats before I attack. (suicide/bombard).

 

[Bleys]

His only "real" stack is that puny thing headed for Sugar City, where we have 10 units or so. Other than that, he has a few guys hangin out here and there, the Spy can spot em for you, I only saw about 3 other Praets, all in more distant cities.

He will likely suicide his "stack" on our city, he has to cross river, or go into the flat. Either way, once he tried to take Sugar City, you can probably launch a counter attack through whats left of his army. In the meantime, pillage around that city by Amsterdam with the Axes til you can bring some Cats in. We have a Galley in that area too, use it to blockade, then that city wont be able to do much.

I suggest a few HAs as well as an Ellie or 2. HAs can travel around fast and flank. In the Stable cities, give them some extra Flanking. Whip if you must, but be careful, I whipped some, not a ton, but some. Cats are excellent for 2-pop whips with lots of overflow, build for 1 or 2 turns, then whip for 2. Try to get your own stack of a couple cats, bunch of Axes, a couple Ellies, and a Sword or 2. Stacks like that are very hard for the AI to deal with.

 

[Roxlimn]

Shock Ballista Elephants for the win. Better than Axes because they're more general purpose, with 8 strength basic. The only thing that can stop them, really, is Pikemen.

Given the diff level, I think spamming Shock Ellies with some timely whips and mass production of them should defeat JC handily.

 

[grandad1982]

^^ I agree. its time our UU got some action - even if its UU trait is a bit rubbish...

 

[Groogaroo]

Hey guys, sorry, havn't been around much last couple of days. Just been catching up on the last few reports, well done everyone nicley played! There seems to be a pattern evolving in this game. War always seems to begin on Kricks turn and ends on mine! so we'll see what happens. I agree its time to crack out the war ellies, I mean ballista ellies! what ever they are ellies are the bee's!

 

[Krick19]

Now for those of you who will undoubtedly make judgement over my decision to use ellies a bit more instead of axes, it's for the flavor of the game. Won't it be cool to see those ballistas used?

Now a summary of my plan:
The stack:
a good number of Shock Ballistas
a few axes
a bit more than 5? cats so I can suicide them
A few HA's
maybe a sword of two.

I'll try to take out his stack, try to form my own, may attack.