Nobles' Club 222: Alexander of Greece

[elementoffear]

@elementoffear

Spoiler :

Yes in this case I had enough healed Cavs and almost healed Cavs plus some reinforcements heading towards Damascus that were within range of the stack - so I decided to attack straightaway.

And just to test what would happen if I healed another turn ?
Ragnar did indeed bombard Damascus from 60% down to 44% (see below) - so I could have healed for another turn as well
IIRC the AI will usually bombard down to less than 20% or so before attacking

View attachment 546321

I dont take credit for this idea - that belongs to @Lain (pretty sure I learned it from watching his videos)

BTW: @Lain announced he is playing this NC game next on Deity - so I look forward to that

FYI: if you are looking for a more "unconventional" approach using Alex have a look at AZ video
(but maybe not against Shaka)
(using the GrEng to build GLH does work - if you are quick)

Edit: Oops wrong spoiler tag

Thanks @Excal , I took your last 2 games and tried implementing the ideas in all the last few NC stuff and it works like a charm.

 

[Eagle777]

I am watching Lain's game with great interest, cool that he's doing one of these.

I am curious about one thing - he did not enter worldbuilder and add archery and those other deity technologies to Barbs like the first post in this topic says.
Isn't that a problem?

 

[sampsa]

I am watching Lain's game with great interest, cool that he's doing one of these.

I am curious about one thing - he did not enter worldbuilder and add archery and those other deity technologies to Barbs like the first post in this topic says.
Isn't that a problem?

I was worried about the same thing, but later you can see barb archers spawning. Apparently he had added archery in wb before starting recording.

 

[Jellybug]

Imm/no huts/no events

Spoiler 50 BC :

Settled in place, though strongly considered on the wine. Really didn't want to orphan a fish as coastal start on high sea level makes for some tightness. Turns out wine was better, oh well. First site on stone- share corn, second site on spice near crab (wastes a spice but can share a fish if needed), third site near fish/cow/wheat.

I think worker-worker- settler- axe would have been easier, but I had room for 4 site construction attack and stone for pyramids (figured neither Surya nor Zulu would build them and wanted them to catch up). Started mids in 2000BC while 3rd settler on way to crab site.

Meanwhile, Shaka starts plotting with 3 cities! This was a very important turn. Do I chop -> whip the settler in Sparta as planned or divert the chop to phalanges? Definitely not gonna finish that granary in Corinth before a few units. The Mids? Abort? Well well well I said to myself, I have stone and can whip walls...Shaka will go for the capital or Sparta, and it's only later that they plot for a turn then DoW... what could he have now? I have, I reckon, fifteen turns, which is enough to build a few axes in sparta with chops. So I finished the settler, then chopped units. It's sucky because I wanted to wait for math, but whatever.




Pyramids done in 1320BC-> instant Police State. He Dows in 925BC, which delayed the war I wanted to fight. Rather than bulbing math with a scientist, I bulbed metal casting with an engineer. Shaka was about five turns too late, really. I had six phallic symbols waiting for him (in Spartaaa no less), and behind (a) walls at that.




Now its 50BC and I have giant slingshots on wheels. I will completely wipe Shaka, milking him for Alpha, IW, Sailing along the way. Then I will play it by ear. But I'm in such a good spot I'm grinning: currency is in and there are forges in my core cities + police state = I am number one in production and at tech parity. There's no reason to stop before Sury is crippled at least, because his culture is so annoying and he's not a great neighbor anyway. Also he looks like a frog. Only worry is there's no great cottage site... maybe the crab site with floodplains... better get on that.

I can then recover with Rep or take the continent with trebs. I'm not sure how big this continent is but I just met Cyrus, so there's more to it. I'm happy nobody has more than 6 cities (except for me, very shortly)

 

[Jellybug]

Spoiler AD 1834 :

Victory

Took longer than I'd like but I'll take it.



Sal was the only one teching reasonably. I'm not the best at using Rep early game (I switched into it after Shaka got relegated to Joao Nobles Club. Needless to say, Shaka had a pretty bad Optics date.) Am I supposed to run caste or slavery?




I could have won lib earlier, but, without an academy or universities and already in representation, there was no cost to waiting. Unfortunately, Ragnar was closing in on Lib before I could get gunpowder and bub chemistry. That's on me. If I had managed Sury better, I could have libbed Steel. Sal got rifles before I was going to declare with Trebs, then he got Infantry before I declared with cannon. I think cannon vs. infantry is a better matchup than treb-rifle, though. Protective infantry were a kick in the dick... war weariness appraoched -6. I was racing against strike, using capture gold to float along, then finally that sweet sweet capitulation (lol that sounds like a hair metal song.) Sold a few techs to Izzy to keep afloat.

Ragnar also had inf, but it didn't save him. After him I was at 59% land, so instant dec on Cyrus, killed his stack of cav, and he capitulated without me ever setting foot inside lands. Was a fun map... it's strange how Shaka, Sury and Player are the only ones who could have shared a three way border

Here are the final stats. Thank you for this map