Où sont mes vins?

[patagonia]

- The GE will appear in ~ 9 turns, so let's build the Versailles in Lyons, as per the original suggestion. The FB can go in Athens. On that note, the war against Alex should probably be a swords-cats affair, as getting maces will probably take the better part of 50 turns. Phants are of no use against phalanxes.

- The Notre Dame will finish in 9 turns. After that, we would benefit from building a couple of workers in Paris and working the lake/cottages there instead of forests.

- There's a rather good trade to make with Curys. Ivory+4 gpt for horses. Take it if you will.

Good work rebuilding the economy Loup.

I think the trade with Cyrus is worth it. An extra happy will be nice and a couple of elephants would make decent stack protectors if nothing else.

As for Versailles, I'd definitely hold off and stick it in Greece somewhere. Remember that Egypt has at least 2 wines too, so we'll probably want to save the forbidden palace for there unless we wait until state property before liberating their vinyards. And if we do get hideously unlucky and pick up a scientist instead of an engineer, Athens has marble which will come in handy.

Does Alex have longbows yet?

And finally: I've got exams at the moment so won't be able to play CIV until the middle of next week. If I'm up before then, please go before me Savant.

 

[Big Pig]

Nice work loup - looks like the paysans are finally beginning to pay their taxes. ('tho it would be the true Gallic experience without at least a couple of strikes....). I'll aim to pick up the save game tonight and play Sat pm

Cochon

 

[stuge]

And finally: I've got exams at the moment so won't be able to play CIV until the middle of next week. If I'm up before then, please go before me Savant.

You actually put exams before CIV? My, aren't you... dedicated.

Just kidding. So Savant, take note that Sommelier is on auto-skip until wednesday.

 

[Big Pig]

Good old Louis. Bit of a mis-quote tho'. Just finished getting rat-arsed after a case of Hatty's Egyptian Shiraz (celebrating the discovery of Divine Right), fell into one of the ponds in the ornamental garden in the Elysee Palace, staggered up to his drawing room, took one look at himself in the gilt-edged mirror, and remarked 'I am in a state....."

Anyway....


Relatively uneventful turns (only 1 new wonder.....):
- Notre Dame built on Ile de Cite
- Divine Right discovered and Islam founded in Reims
- Feudalism obtained from Cyrus for lit and drama
- Large stack of cats and swords assembling in Lyons (tho' sadly Alex has just discovered feudalism and upgraded all his archers )
- Alex (and JC) declared war on Hatty (clearly a red vs white issue)
- GE popped in Orleans (currently checking out sites in Lyons to build Versailles)

Le save

 

[stuge]

Good old Louis. Bit of a mis-quote tho'. Just finished getting rat-arsed after a case of Hatty's Egyptian Shiraz (celebrating the discovery of Divine Right), fell into one of the ponds in the ornamental garden in the Elysee Palace, staggered up to his drawing room, took one look at himself in the gilt-edged mirror, and remarked 'I am in a state....."

Alex having longbows is a bugger, but if he's sending his armies to fight Hatty, we stand a reasonable chance to hack 'n slash our way to Athens with swords. Cats are expendable and Aubagne can pump them out fast.

So, Savant, the war-drums are calling for you, what with Sommelier being a goodie-goodie student and all...

 

[Eshnunna]

Understood, got it, will try to play tonight.

Will begin the Alex slaughter thing, and rename Lyons to Versailles, even if putting it further in Alex's soon-to-be-former-territory could be more profitable.

How many turns am I supposed to play BTW?

 

[stuge]

Play 10 to 15 as you see fit.

 

[Eshnunna]

Guys I'm really sorry, I planned to play last night, but some complicated family stuff occured and required immediate attention.

Now it's been taken care of, but I'm going on holidays in a few hours, so I won't be able to acces civ or internet until 01/02/2007. Please skip me until then.

And merry christmas + happy new year to all of you, when I come back I hope we finally will have some access to fine home grown champagne wine to celebrate the new year in our mighty empire

 

[patagonia]

Bonnes vacances Savant.

I've recovered from my post-exam hangover now so can pick this up if necessary.

 

[stuge]

Okay, Sommelier, have a go at it.

 

[patagonia]

War has begun against Greece, but I had some awful luck with the RNGod so our attack stalled after taking Corinth. We've adopted something called a Bureaucracy, which has made Paris a slightly nicer place to live, and our first macemen will be rolling off the production line shortly. Hopefully they'll have more joy against the Greek longbows.

Versailles is still being pondered over by the architects, as Thermoplye might be a better location. Louis is still the only ruler who reigns by Divine Right, so there's still time to decide. Paris produced some fancy-dan artiste who has headed towards the front, in case a special performance proves useful to convince captured Greek citizens of the glory of France (translation: he'll lightbulb half of Nationalism, or we could maybe use him for a great work to bring a captured city straight out of revolt).

Save ici

 

[stuge]

Got it, let's see what Louis gets as a christmas present. Surely he's been a good boy?

 

[Big Pig]

Ou sont les updates. We're all dying to know what Louis got for Christmas. I know he asked Santa for Athens......

 

[stuge]

It occurs to me that I should've put a sirianesque disclaimer after the "First thing tomorrow" in my PMs.

Oh well, here goes.

Vous améliorez la montre dehors, vous améliorez pas le cri, vous améliorez pas le tacaud que je vous dis pourquoi. Le père noël vient à la ville…

(Insert that into google.com and behold the power of its language tools. Also be prepared to either laugh or cry.)

Louis had indeed been a good boy and Santa had many nice surpises in store for him.

Knossos.

Thermopylae.

Unfortunately, Louis wasn't satisfied with Knossos' colour, and so it was, erm,
returned.

Another nice gift.

(This caused a terrible amount of MM but if it makes Louis happy, so be it.)

And another.

Oh, Thespis got beheaded. The moron was rude enough to gift Louis the idea of Nationalism only half-baked. (15 turns to go. With Thermopylae's marble we should have a clear run at the Taj, especially with so many forests around Paris.)

Santa also brought with him a set of shiny new soldiers with big, big balls on the end of chains. With that in mind, here's a sneak peek at the defences of Athens.

It looks like the only resistance will be coming from WW. Fortunately theatres are easy to build for us.

We still have a monopoly on DR, so putting the Versailles in Athens looks like the best choice. Mansa wanted a share, but no dice.

You don't deserve it, buddy.

The sudden defict brought by the New Year's celebrations required some bartering. (Egyptian wine merchants must be getting stinkin' rich.)

Thoughts

- Keep going in the general direction of the wineries.

- After the war we'll have a massive territory. That means many more
workers and much more infrastructure. The Taj-inspired Golden Age should help with that.

- Cochon is up.

Thanks, Cochon

(P.S, could someone tell me how to link the save without that terrible http etc stuff.)

 

[Big Pig]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/90346/Ou_sont_mes_vins_AD-1160.Civ4SavedGame

(P.S, could someone tell me how to link the save without that terrible http etc stuff.)

1. Highlight a suitable bit of text (e.g. "le save")
2. Click on the 'Insert link' button in the centre of the reply toolbar
3. Stick the http etc in the box provided
4. et voila

I'll try to see what Louis got on the 2nd Day of Christmas either tonight or tomorrow......

 

[Big Pig]

Well, a whole bunch more stuff. And Louis is very excited about the fact that there are 10 more days of Christmas to come. Makes up for the disappointment of Knossos coming in the wrong colour.

But first, Louis' festive spirits were somewhat dampened by an ignorant monk called Bede:

The puny......!????

In a Royal pique, Louis summoned his advisors and demanded more presents (and none of them had better be in the wrong colour this time.....)

His Military Advisor was the first of his royal flunkies to find another present:

Louis was delighted. It was in his favourite colour too!

Next up was his Science Advisor:

'Nationalism' exclaimed Louis! What a clever way of encouraging more of our paysans into the armed forces to scour the globe for more presents. 'But what I really want is a few crates of my very own wine. I'm fed up of this Egyptian muck'

On hearing this his military advisor scurried away, shortly to return with another present:

As you might imagine Louis was besides himself with joy - he didn't even mind the Retsina-like taste. 'Get that Hatty girl on the telephone' he ordered (several hundred years ahead of himself) 'and I'll tell her where she can stick her putrid Nile-water'

'What a perfect day' mused Louis supping his very own Chateau Louis 1250. 'If only I had a summer palace in my newly acquired lands, close to my vineyards so I could relax and enjoy all my winey treats at my leisure'

With a gentle cough, his Domestic Advisor entered the room. 'Its funny you should say that......' he said:

Le save

 

[patagonia]

Magnifique! Should we rename Pharsalos Bordeaux in tribute? We've already got a Reims so that option's taken.

Good work on the war, and on building Versailles in Thermopylae too. Since it doesn't look like Mansa has any wine of his own, we'll probably stay friends with him so the culture there will be a big boost.

What are your thoughts on the next move?

I think a spell of peace is probably on the cards. It'll take about 8-10 turns for reinforcements to reach our new acquisitions and we don't look to have enough troops left to be sure of taking Sparta. A smart move would be to trade Nationalism around first to pick up philosophy and guilds, bribing Mansa and Cyrus into war with the Greek before we make a temporary peace with him in exchange for his remaining gold. That'll ensure that he's nice and weak once we've got enough troops to finish him off. Since we're industrious and have marble, nobody can beat us to the Taj if we decide to spend 19 turns of production in Paris on a golden age, but I think short-term more maces, catapults and maybe a knight or two would be of greater benefit than that.

Techwise, the quickest way to beef up the war machine is to trade for guilds and then research gunpowder and military tradition ourselves for cavalry. They'll easily take care of any remaining Greeks and have the advantage of being able to reach the front line faster, plus they don't have a counter until rifles, which are a way off still. However, that could leave us lacking in terms of raw research power. The other option in terms of tech is to take a punt at Liberalism, which it looks like Vicky is heading for since she has paper already. We'll have about a 60% chance of a GS in Paris, which would be nicely timed to lightbulb most of education for us, but that's a bit of a lottery.

Assuming it's in keeping with our variant, I'd be inclined to finish off Greece soon and fight a later war to secure the remaining vinyards elsewhere, using our expanded territory as a production base to stage an invasion of Egypt from. Cavalry and canons would be one option for that, or we could go builder until the modern era.

 

[stuge]

Yep, finishing Alex off properly is a good idea. Take Sparta and raze the small junk cities. Feel free to use any means necessary.

After that, we just need to hunker down for a while to get our buttload of land developed. A turnset or two of good ol' cottage spam and we'll be ready to expand once again.

DR and Nationalism got to be worth a bob or two, so we should be able to pull off some juicy trades.

 

[patagonia]

I think Sparta, Delphi and the city west of Pharsalos would be worth keeping, then there are about 3-4 to raze (especially Argos). I'll bribe Mansa into war, then make peace with Alex and take a punt towards liberalism while building more maces and cats to kick-start the offensive again, since we won't need anything fancier to take care of the Greeks.

May as well hang on to DR for a bit because it's still a monopoly (possibly pick up banking or something with it down the line). We can catch up on everything we're missing by trading Nationalism, which England already have, to Mansa and Cyrus.

I should be able to play tonight/tomorrow so expect my 15 sometime in the next 48 hours.

 

[patagonia]

Louis decided that he wanted a break from all this talk of war, to give him the opportunity to pay his new summer house a visit in times of peace. He didn't want the Greeks to have a breather though, so he "persuaded" Mansa to take up the slack. Nationalism was traded to Mali in exchange for knowledge of philosophy, compass and war with Greece before the French sought hefty war reparations from Alexander in exchange for a short peace.

Nationalism was then traded to Cyrus of Persia, in exchange for knowledge of guilds and optics. Finally the world would experience the glory of French chivalry in all its splendor! The French thinkers, meanwhile, were instructed to direct their attention towards an ultimate goal of discovering something called Liberalism. Louis wasn't sure what this was, exactly, but his advisors assured him that it'd be worth the effort. There had been high hopes that a great scientist would be born in Paris to aid this research, but alas some oaf calling himself St Patrick appeared on the scene instead. He offered to teach the French a bit about something called a printing press, but Louis thought a glorious shrine to Confucianism might prove more lucrative in the long-term and thus ordered him to make his way to Calais and get building.

Julius Caesar got ideas above his station:

Louis got a new present:

The Egyptians then agreed to share their knowledge of the world and some of their gold in exchange for the secrets of philosophy:

​

Now that he knows where to find all the vinyards in the known world, Louis will take some stopping to keep from pursuing a global monopoly.

Cliquez-ici!

==========

On a more general note, I spent my turns building up our economy and army ready to attack Alex and finish him off. We've probably got sufficient forces in Athens now to get started. I'd be inclined to head anti-clockwise round the Greek empire, starting with Argos and finishing with Delphi. Hopefully the stack in Athens can take care of that, so we could assemble another in Thermopylae to head for Delphi and finish the job more quickly.

We've got a shot at Liberalism since nobody has Education yet. Cyrus is up banking and gunpowder on us, but we're not really lacking anything else. Unfortunately Persia popped a prophet for divine right so we've lost the ability to trade that away. We need more libraries (and then universities) to speed our teching somewhat. Reims, in particular, would benefit.

In terms of national wonders, if we build the Confucian shrine in Calais (it's by far the most widespread of our religions), that becomes a no-brainer for Wall Street (it can support a fair-few merchant specialists too with all that food available) and as Alex had the decency to build an academy for us in Athens, that looks like the best spot for Oxford. I'm not too sure about any of the others at the moment though.