New Succession Game

[Salarakas]

Good to know the war has started.

Any idea when you will finish your set? It has already been a full week now since you got it. If you don't have the time to play a full set for whatever reason, it would be better to post the save of a partial set so that the game won't stall altogether.

 

[Salarakas]

36 hours since my last post and still no update.

Sorry if I sound a bit rough here but I suggest that if the save isn't posted here in 24 hours or we at least don't get an update from TheOverseer714, Daeron should go ahead and play from Ovo's save. I hope there isn't anything serious that's keeping TheOverseer714 from playing but we can't wait forever. The norm in many SGs is 24 hours to get it and 48 hours to play, at least until the industrial times or huge maps where the turns can take longer.

 

[Daeron]

Ohh well, means I might get to play during the weekend.

 

[Optional]

Overseer, can we hear from you?

 

[Daeron]

I'm guessing he has internet problems. I have to work late tomorrow, so I probably can´t finish my turns before Sunday.

 

[TheOverseer714]

Hi guys. You are correct that I am having Internet issues, but the reason is that I am in the hospital. Tuesday morning, I went to the hospital for a suspected heart attack.
Fortunately it was not, but as I have cardiomyopathy, they kept me for testing. I was scheduled to have an internal defibrilator inserted today, but that was rescheduled for Monday. Going to be a long weekend in the hospital. Anyway, please pick up the most recent save and skip me. I will be back as soon as possible. Life's little adventures, eh? Anyway, another procedure that wasn't postponed, a cardiac catheterization, revealed no blockages and my heart is a little stronger than suspected, so I may be around for some time yet. Don't worry about me, I have a strong team of doctors and excellent nurses to keep me going. See you soon!

 

[Daeron]

Good to hear from you Overseer and hope all will be going well with you. Don't let the hospital food get to you!

 

[Daeron]

All right, I've got the save now. Need a bit to get familiar again with the situation.

Things to do:
- Switch all builds from universities to cavalry, not sure yet about the marketplaces. If I'm not mistaken the war weariness from last war is still lurking.
- Upgrade trebuchets to cannons, we'll need them against the swiss mercs
- Start war as soon as the trade ends (in 3 turns)

Not sure yet where I'm going to strike the hardest. Groningen sounds good, but with Haarlem and Breda we take out their ability to produce knights. No other civs have free iron for trade.

Even on regent I'm not used to being 'outcultured', I always get libraries in all towns, even unproductive once. So I will see about the razing, I don't think a flip is that bad. If the chance is really big, I just leave one unit outside and starve it down. The moment the city flips I seize it and starve it down more. They'll be at 1 pop in no time this way.

We'll see how strong our economy is after the 143 gpt we get from, the Dutch ends. I don't think it's as good as some thought, so we might have to except a some slower research. Which is no problem, if we have the continent developed research will be a snooze.

 

[Optional]

If I'm not mistaken the war weariness from last war is still lurking.

A war weariness count gets kept per civ. So no war weariness from the Hittites anymore, since they're gone. If you meant war weariness from the Dutch, I believe we have collected some war weariness points against them, and they would become relevant again, since war weariness points only get substracted again after having reached at least minor war weariness. It can't have been much though, what we collected earlier.

If the chance is really big, I just leave one unit outside and starve it down. The moment the city flips I seize it and starve it down more. They'll be at 1 pop in no time this way.

There might be more defenders after a flip, since the AI can rush units in the interturn. After taking a town it can never flip during the first interturn, but it can happen anytime after that.

I thought the Dutch would have multiple sources of iron and horses, since they appear to have traded both to the Hittites earlier. So I don't think just taking 1 or 2 towns from them will be the end of their production capacity.

 

[Daeron]

They have two sources of iron near the border. The war has started and their force seems to consist mostly out of swiss mercs, ac and crusaders.

I'm not going to finish this today it seems, so monday it is.

 

[Daeron]

Glad this is over.. I hate war..

I think our situation isn't quite as terrible as I could have made it, but it's close. The Dutch turned out to have cavalry, not many. but I lost a lot of cavs myself to them and it pretty much ruined any semblance of strategy in my game.

The good news is we have a full army and one waiting to be filled. The bad news is that we hardly have anything to fill the second one with. I made pics, but too tired.

The very first ibt Tyrana deposed on me, after I put in some cavalry. The same happened later on with Holwerd. I really suggest we do not try to keep them anymore.

I think we're still averadge now compared to the Dutch, we were stronger until Holwerd deposed us taking cavs with them.

WW after 7 turns of war is at 25 %.

Spoiler :

Pre-flight, 430 AD: It appears the Netherlands are a democracy right now, I missed that. That's good news.

Science 60 % (Theory of Gravity in 6 turns)
Luxury 20 %
Income: 99 gpt

Unitcount: 105, with 71 allowed
Army support is 68 gpt

Flip risk in Tarsus is 6,4-12,7 %
Flip risk in Tyrana is 5,2-10,3 %
Flip risk in Harran is 2,7-5,3 %

There's still little infrastructure connecting us to the north.

Switching universities to cavalry.

I'm starving Tarsus, the flip risk is too high.
Starving Harran.
006 Ivory of Bonampak is building a colloseum, not sure why, switch to explorer. It also has a barracks but produces only 6 spt at size 11. I keep the barracks for now, since we don't have too many yet.
MM 009 Calakmul to produce 10 spt.
MM 011 Kami for 10 spt

IBT:
Hattusas rebellion ends
Harran rebellion ends
Alaca rebellion ends

Hattusha -> settler

005 cannon -> cannon
006 explorer -> explorer

Tyrana deposes!

Turn 1, 440 AD:

I move the science slider down a notch, still in 5 turns

I upgrade the trebs. other than that nothing much happened apart from putting troops in position.

IBT:
001 Cavalry -> Cavalry
Order restored in Hattusas
The Resistance in Tarsus,Tyrana and Alleppo ends
013 cavalry -> cavalry
Hubishna worker -> worker

Turn 2, 450 AD:
The Dutch discover magnetism.
Our gpt deal ends with the dutch, only the incense remains for one turn. Need to slow down research to 6 turns. Would be 7 turns if I wasn't starving Tarsus and Tyrana.

I leave open a few borders citites to see if the dutch will take the bite

Found 023 Cozumel -> worker

IBT:
Xerxes tries to boot our galley

Order restored in Tarsus
003 cavalry -> cavalry
004 gold hill marketplace -> cavalry
012 cannon -> cannon

The Dutch borders expanded, forcing me to pull back a few units

Turn 3, 460 AD:
We're kind of low on muskets to guard our stacks of artillery, I switch a few builds to compensate.

We end our deal with the dutch for incense and raise lux to 30 %. ToG in 6 turns.
Next turn we declare.

IBT:
002 cavalry -> cavalry

Turn 4, 470 AD:
We go to war

Explorer pillages the first iron

2 v. cavs kill 2 swiss mercs to take lauwersoog (2 of 2)

Turns out Lauwersoog has barracks, an aqeaduct and a harbor. -> Caravel

1 v. cav takes out a mace (3 of 3)
1 e. knight defeats archer (4 0f 4)
1 v. cav defeats mace (5 of 5)
1 v. cav defeats merc (6 0f 6)
1 v. cav retreats the second defeats a merc and we raze Tyrana (7 0f 7)
1 e. cav defeats a merc and we get our first leader! (8 0f 8)

I quickly build our first army, ignoring the elite*

We attack Holwerd with some bad luck, no deaths but a lot of retreats but we manage to take it.

3 v. cav victories against mercs (11 of 11)
1 v. cav defeats lB (12 of 12)


IBT:
2 AC kill a v. cav and an e. cav.

006 explorer -> musketman
007 cavalry -> cavalry
009 musketman -> cavalry
kadesh settler -> settler



Turn 5, 480 AD:
We surround Breda
v. cav defeats archer (13 of 13)
v. cav defeats AC (14 of 14)
army defeats 2 mercs defending groningen (16 of 16)
I decide to risk it a little sending a v. cav in (17 of 17) But it turns out the dutch have cavalry!
Lose an e. knight by my being stupid (16 of 17)
v. cav loses to v. cav (17 of 18)
v. cav defeats AC (18 of 19)
v. cav defeats AC (19 of 20)
v. cav defeats v. cav and we raze groningen. We couldn't keep it because of the 2 losses. And it's right next to amsterdam. We get 6 slaves and cut off one supply of horses

Rush settler in Harran

IBT:
We defend succesfully against a lot of units, I think we killed three AC's, two crusaders and a mace, losing two cavs

(24 of 27)'ish

001 cavalry -> cavalry
Harran settler -> settler
Hattusha settler -> settler
014 marketplace -> cannon
017 cannon -> cannon

Turns 6, 490 AD:
The Persians discover Navigation
I decide to rush science in the red to get ToG in 1 turn

Our artillery sucks... no mercs got hit in Breda

e. LB defeats cav (25 of 28)
v. cav loses to yellow cav (25 of 29)
v. cav defeats cav (26 of 30)
v. cav defeats merc (27 of 30)
2 cav retreat, 1 loses (27 of 31)
v. cav defeats merc (28 of 32)
e. mace defeats relined merc (29 of 33) And we take Breda
e. horseman defeats archer (30 of 34)
v. cav defeats crusader (31 of 35)
army defeats crusader (32 of 36)
army defeats mace (33 of 37)
v. cav defeats mace (34 of 38)

We're still averadge compared to the Dutch

IBT:
Not sure what happened, virus scanner..
We research ToG
011 cavalry -> cavalry
015 markerplace -> cannon

The dutch are building newton's. I'm getting used to getting beaten by 1 turn to a tech on this level.

Persians research economics

Dutch galleons are spotted, a lot of them

Turn 7, 500 AD

Found 024 Not Groningen -> barracks

We pillage the second iron
army defeats crusader and merc (37 of 41)
We spot a third iron deposit
I notice I put 023 in the wrong place. Sorry

e. mace defeats mace (35 of 39)

Some real bad luck with artillery. It's only good for hitting air!

Research magnetism at 30 % in 11 turns, +65 gpt.

IBT:

lose a mace and 2 cavs to dutch cavalry (35 of 42)

021 worker-> worker

Turn 8, 510 AD,

We get hit by war weariness after those losses.

1 v. cav and 1 e. knight defeat 2 merc (37 of 44)
v. cav defeats cav (38 of 45)

We're finally strong compared to the dutch, but I think I overstretched..

v. cav defeats spear, but redlines (39 of 46)
e. mace defeats archer (40 of 47)
v. cav barely defeats mace (41 of 48)

Our caravel runs from a frigate

IBT

003 musketman -> cav
Holwerd deposes.. great, I couldn't quell the resistance and starve it down. We lost 3 3/4 cav
Adana settler -> settler

kill 2 spears (43 of 50) raze holwerd, no slaves

Found 024 Not Holwerd
Pillage the third iron
Hubishna worker -> worker

Turn 9, 520 AD

We raze Holwerd and found 024 Not Holwerd. I must accidently misclicked and din't look and send founded 1 tile SW of intended tile.

IBT:

We kill 2 dutch cav, lose 1 2 cav and a spearman (45 of 55)

001 cav -> HE
002 cav -> cav
004 cav -> cav
008 marketplace -> cav
010 library -> cannon
018 marketplace -> caravel

Turn 10, 530 AD
v. cav defeats merc (46 of 56)
v. cav defeats mace (47 of 57)
e. cav defeats merc and we get our second leader!

Build army in Harran, wish we could fill it.

 

[Optional]

It was always going to be messy fighting a fully healthy Demigod AI. At least you didn't end up in hospital, like your predecessor.

Yes, starving is almost undoable. It already was with those Hittite towns. I heard the shouts about starving then, but if we wanted to continue the war we couldn't devote all our units to quelling, and without quelling no starving - resistors don't eat!

It's not necessary to get outcultured like this on Demigod, even not while being at war all the time, although you would need the AI at war as well, so perhaps that does require a bit of luck.

Don't forget to post the save, Daeron.

 

[Salarakas]

First of all, speedy recovery to TheOverseer714. News like that really put things into perspective - this is only a game. Do you think you will be able to continue this SG or should we carry on as a three piece now that Own is out as well?

I got it. Or would if there was a save. Can't comment much with no screenshots or the save. The kill ratio is good although the flips are bad news indeed. Great to finally have some armies. Cav armies are so much fun.

 

[Daeron]

Sorry, I was sure I attached the save, because I forgot before and edit the post to do it after

Here are pics from the north, west, south and east.

Spoiler :

Right now the Dutch have been sending almost all their troops to Haarlem. Which is why things went a bit crooked there.

 

[ThinkTank]

@Overseer: hope you get well soon!

@team: if you need a hand I can play if you want. I played a handful of SGs with Overseer, including SGFN07, SGFN04, and TT01.

 

[Daeron]

Yes, starving is almost undoable. It already was with those Hittite towns. I heard the shouts about starving then, but if we wanted to continue the war we couldn't devote all our units to quelling, and without quelling no starving - resistors don't eat!

I've never had this issue before with quelling. I'm guessing the difficulty level factors in?

So far I've been really surprised with the difference to Regent as far as war is concerned. With the three Regent games I played myself since starting this SG, I've been outplaying the AI on all fronts. This turnset really showed me I still have a lot to learn where war is concerned.

The moment dutch cavalry showed up things started to go crooked.

The kill ratio is good although the flips are bad news indeed. Great to finally have some armies. Cav armies are so much fun.

Yeah. We lost about 6 cavalry total to flips. And a lot of our kills were AC, mercs and maces. While the Dutch almost always went for our cavalry. So it probably doesn't translate into shieldcount quite as nicely.

@Overseer: hope you get well soon!

@team: if you need a hand I can play if you want. I played a handful of SGs with Overseer, including SGFN07, SGFN04, and TT01.

I'd definitely welcome another player at this point. The turns are starting to take a lot longer right now.

 

[Salarakas]

I'm on the second turn and we already have to run 50% lux. I'll try to hang in long enough so that me might have a chance on getting some IA tech in the peace negotiations. The Dutch have riflemen now too and we are very low on units considering how long our front is. Their frigates are not that fun either.

Why did you capture Breda instead of razing it? No resisters were quelled during the first IBT so I had to empty the town in fear of it flipping. It's now a sitting duck for their cavalry units. I might end up abandoning the town.

I've never had this issue before with quelling. I'm guessing the difficulty level factors in?

It's their insane culture compared to us. The higher the culture - the more resisters and the harder it seems it is to quell them. I would never keep any towns (apart from key wonders) when fighting an AI with this much more culture than me.

 

[Daeron]

Why did you capture Breda instead of razing it? No resisters were quelled during the first IBT so I had to empty the town in fear of it flipping. It's now a sitting duck for their cavalry units. I might end up abandoning the town.

I was hoping to shoot for the incense as fast as possible so we could run lower lux. It backfired.

 

[Optional]

@team: if you need a hand I can play if you want. I played a handful of SGs with Overseer, including SGFN07, SGFN04, and TT01.

You also shared the start of SGFN05 with Overseer and me. Your analysis are usually refreshing, Thinktank.
Salarakis is playing just now. I suggest we see how where we will fit you in after Salarakas' set. Own is away for a month, not without internet access as far as I know, but he will probably gladly leave it to us to welcome a new player.

 

[TheOverseer714]

I'm back, everything went well, though my chest feels like I got kicked by a mule. I had lots of support from my family and home care nurses (love my ladies!) All went well, and I am on the road to recovery, will be rarin' to go before long. Thanks for your support and kind words, it's kind of nice to have friends all over the world wishing you well. By the way, welcome aboard ThinkTank. Your contributions will certainly make this SG even better than it already is.

P.S. The food was actually pretty good.