Où sont mes vins?

[stuge]

The round started rather cheerfully with some extortion.

Thanks, moleman. That'll come in handy.

Our cities builds were pretty much infrastructure still. Aubagne finished the West Point and is ready to pump out some cavalry. I also ran Corinth as a missionary center, as I thought that would be the best role for it.

We made a peaceful aquisition this round.

Decided that moving the city one tile north wouldn't be worth the bother and
kept it.

When economics came in, I pulled a free market/free religion switch. The revolution (3 turns!) was quite bloody, with several priests losing their heads,
but it benefitted France enormously.

Research is set at replaceable parts, for our cities could use some more production. We aren't researching at full rate, however, because I wanted to raise some money for upgrades.

On that note, the time is ripe to deal a blow to the english swines. We could also consider a pillaging war against Mansa, as he's not very fond of us and
razing a couple of his border cities could really help with cultural pressure. Just upgrade elephants and knights to cavalry and let them loose.

That's about it. Have fun, Cochon.

 

[Big Pig]

Merci beaucuop. Will pick up le baton this weekend

 

[Big Pig]

The turn started slowly, upgrading our obsolete knights into nice shiny new cavalry. However by turn 5, the French army were champing at the bit, wanting new lands to conquer and new trees to hide behind (and Louis was getting a bit bored of Chateau Greque....).

Knowing Loup's fondness for extortion we took 390G off Vicky's hands that she would otherwise have wasted on upgrading her excuse for an army, before letting slip the dogs of war....

Newcastle was the first conquest - an inconsequential hovel somewhere in the deserts south of Paris. It provided good experience for the Parisian garrison of musketeers.

Next came Warwick, a shabby little town with few nice resources (and pas de vin). Louis took mercy on the pleadings of the townsfolk and incorporated the city into the Greater France.

Finally Mycenian, a barbarian city with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. It was summarily burnt to the ground.

By now all this fighting was becoming all rather dull and so Mansa was drafted in to help subdue the remaining pockets of Rosbifs. He will of course not be allowed to get his paws on our vineyards.

During all the excitement the invention of Replaceable Parts by scientists of the Sorbonne passed almost unnoticed. Louis heard a rumour that the mystical art of 'Chemistry' might change water into wine (and lead to steel with the rather more useful metamorphosis of catapults into cannons) and so ordered the scientists to unlock its secrets tout de suite

Meanwhile we leave our Sun King resting the royal backside in his summer drinking Palace of Versailles, dreaming of a nice glass of English red. It can't be long now before that dream is realised.

 

[stuge]

Good set. The plan seems straightforward enough for now. Crush everything with cavs etc.

With regards to teching, a constant swagger towards mass media looks advisable.

Oh, and it's Sommelier's turn to fetch some wine to our beloved monarch.

 

[patagonia]

Zut alors! Les rosbifs sera mort jusqu'a un moment de plus.

I'll stop it with the bad French now.

Suffice to say that we have a new wine colony (York, currently) due to come out of revolt next turn. Louis also decided to keep London, but raze all the other cities the foreign legion captured. Victoria's down to one city, which our forces will be able to take in a turn or two. Then it may be prudent to press straight on into Egypt (with a brief pause to heal) as Rome and China have just started dogpiling there.

We've got a great artist currently parked in London. I favour a culture bomb there, but alternatively we could save him for somewhere in Egypt, or use him to lightbulb half of Astronomy. We're well ahead in power so domination definitely seems like the best way to wrap this up once we've met the variant rules. In terms of research, I added knowledge of Steel to our bow so we've got all the tech we need. Scientific Method is currently selected purely because it's on the way to Radio/Mass Media, but there aren't any beakers invested yet.

Finish them off Loup.

 

[stuge]

I'll be on their heels tomorrow.

Sci. method looks like the way to go. I think we can afford a detour to physics if we can grab that free GS. And railroads would be nice too, since our empire is getting rather vast.

 

[stuge]

Our forces were nicely poised to take Nottingham, so this round began with the extermination of Vicky.

That also, thank gods, took care of the war weariness that was crippling our cities. No backbone in le paysans, hrumph!

The next several turns were rather quiet, as I gave our army a chance to heal and ran 0% science in order to upgrade our catapults to cannon. With the war weariness gone, I did some micromanagement to optimize our cities. I also fired several workers. We had 22 of them and they were running out of meaningful things to do, so some unfortunates got the most royal boot.

This ended the lull.

I agreed, and then took a look at the power graph...

...which spoke for itself. Note the sudden upwards curve where Cyrus upgarded all his longbows to rifles apparently with the money that he found between the sofa cushions.

Then I reminded Hatty about the virtues of charity.

And then, a couple of turns later, I let loose
les chiens de la guerre.

MUAHAHAHAA!

Elephantine and Alexandria were pushovers, taken with no losses. Of the two, Alexandria was put to the torch. I expected a tougher fight at Memphis, but the defences were somewhat decimated because of Roman and Chinese attacks, even though the snivelling morons had signed peace with Egypt a couple of turns back. So the cavalry commander, knowing Louis' thirst for new vintages, took the city without artillery support, losing only a single unit.
The hindu shrine was a nice bonus.

Also note this little stack ready to expell hatty from our end of the continent.

And by the way, Caesar is going down next, because our caravels found the last grapes.

Thoughts

- Scientific method will be done in 1 turn. After that we have a heckuva lot
of research goals. We've still got a GE sitting in Orleans, so pursuing the Statue of liberty would be a good move. Then again, we would really benefit
from railroads. There's also a free GS to be snagged at physics. Let's try to achieve a consensus on this before the next round. Personally I'd go for the Statue. We can trade for constitution and rifling.

- Should we go for pure domination or for backdoor via the UN? Tanks might be needed in any case.

Cochon is up.

 

[patagonia]

In terms of immediate research goals, nothing is going to benefit our empire more immediately than the state property civic, so I'd grab Communism next. After that railroads seem like a logical move.

 

[stuge]

Good point about state property. We could turn Athens into our Ironworks city with it.

 

[Big Pig]

Plenty of trees to hide behind.
For example:

A small copse outside of Giza:


A woods just on the borders of Thebes:


So in the space of 6 or so turns Hatty was confined to an island city off the coast of the main continent. She left behind some strange Pyramid-type building in Thebes in her rush to escape - and a couple of vineyards too much to Louis' delight. Selfishly, Stuge had not left me with any galleons (or indeed any knowledge of Astronony) to allow our glorious Armee du Roi to finish Hatty off, so we settled for peace at that point (WW was getting a bit naughty by this point too)

To make up for the disappointment we declared on Caesar (after a bit of extortion, naturellement) to continue our relentless westward march to the sea.

Heliopolis (by then Roman rather than Egyptian) had some nice woods too:



Tech-wise, we are 1 turn from Communism and our workers have built a few workshops and watermills in readiness for SP. Not sure how Louis will feel about State Property - altho' I suppose as he is the state, then State Property = Louis' property. We have also done a fair bit of tech trading (tech-whore Mansa loves us) and got Constitution, Corporation, Rifling, and Democracy.


I haven't switched civics yet - but when we get Communism there is scope for a mass change around. Neither have I used our GE - I will leave it to Sommelier to decide between the Staue of Liberty or the Kremlin - or saving it for the UN

So, Sommelier - all roads lead to Rome

 

[stuge]

Good set, succesful warmongering is fun.

Let's use the GE for the Statue. Building the UN might not be necessary and definetly not Kremlin, 'cos we ain't going to be rush-buying, as per the variant. You'd better not suggest to Louis that the concept of monarchy is somehow outdated...

And I see that poor Athos has given his life fighting the enemies of His Majesty. We shall remember him with honor.

 

[Big Pig]

definetly not Kremlin, 'cos we ain't going to be rush-buying, as per the variant. You'd better not suggest to Louis that the concept of monarchy is somehow outdated...

Whoops!! Yes, that does rather limit the use of the Kremlin......

 

[stuge]

A word from you would be nice, Sommelier.

 

[patagonia]

Sorry, am a bit swamped at the moment. I can play/post by sometime on Saturday. If that's too slow, please take the reins for now.

 

[stuge]

Saturday is just fine.

 

[patagonia]

I played up to 1700 as it was a nice round number.

Will edit this post when I get the chance to include some pics and stuff, but for now:

War against Rome has progressed well (we've cleaned them out of our backyard and taken a couple of cities on the border of "old Egypt" including destroying their main stack in Ravenna in the process. Although Rome's pretty much toast at this point, it may be worth declaring a brief peace so that we can get some reinforcements to the front line and allow our troops to heal.

I revolted to State Property (which pleased Louis as Divine Right tells him he is the state), and also to Emancipation as Les Paysans were getting a bit grouchy about that outdated slavery concept. Our GA painted a picture in Thebes, which made the people there love Louis very much indeed, and has hopefully stopped Mao from trying to grab all the territory we've liberated. We've still got the GE though - "la liberté éclairant le monde" would probably be the best option for him.

Research is heading towards much-needed railroad.

Have fun loup.

 

[stuge]

Nice, I say! Now, let's shamelessly poach an old, but good, joke:

(Kudos to Sirian.)

 

[stuge]

Here's the save.
Due to lack of free time, here are only the basics to the last round.

We've captured Rome and the buddihst shrine. (Quite the collection we've got.)
Caesar is in the bag, although we'll need transports to claim the wine island. See if he will offer the city in a peace deal when he has two cities left.

Steam power came in and railroads is soon to come. We also popped a GS.
Any ideas for him? I think we should just save him either for bulbing or a golden age.

Watch out for Curys. I've been garrisoning our border cities. He's more powerful than we are and is only pleased with us. It will be a nasty surprise if he decides to cut us in half and we're not prepared.

I used our GE for the Statue of Liberty. I really do not understand why Sommelier didn't, but Cochon will have the honour of managing all those free specialists.

After we've met the variant rules, victory can pretty much be assured by rolling over Mao.

 

[patagonia]

I used our GE for the Statue of Liberty. I really do not understand why Sommelier didn't, but Cochon will have the honour of managing all those free specialists.

After we've met the variant rules, victory can pretty much be assured by rolling over Mao.

Sorry, was a bit with the GE. I forgot we had him initially and then spent 3 turns in anarchy.

re: variant rules, we'll need some transports or galleons anyway as Cyrus has a wine island too. If we time things right, we'll be able to take that with boatloads of siege a turn or two before we hit the domination limit in China to avoid having to slog it out with Persia.

 

[Big Pig]

All looks good. I guess we need to tech (or preferably trade Astronomy, then head towards Radio for La Tour Eiffel. In view of this, then Mass Media and the UN should guarantee victory if beating down on Mao fails to hit the dom limit.

'Fraid its going to be the weekend before I can play, so if Sommelier is itching to go, he is welcome to step in before me