Own9 AWD Small Continents

[Beorn-eL-Feared]

Pre-Turn: BO is what I had in mind - except for the settler, stuff looks good, MM one more gold, hit enter.

T1.
Increase tax, rotate the guard to send a spear over the hill, worker to road the path.

Barracks >> Worker

T2.
Worker >> Spear

T3.
Aztec uprising in sight, all able troops sent back hom, all unable ones moved to improve backdoor tiles.

Settler changed to a spear build.
Push growth faster to be size 7 when the attacks come.

T4.
Spear >> Archer

T5.
The RNG takes pity on us and (presumably) puts a barb camp NW of Persepolis. This will delay the Aztecs and allow us to expand a bit.
Bhorse shows S
Now size 7, 10spt.

T6.
Too good to be true, they (4 archers 6 warriors) climb mount Persia

T7.
Road network established for 1T exchanges on both sides.

IT:



T8.
The attack goes so-so: we lose 2 archers and a spear defending but we take away the bulk. All that remain is 3/4 archer, warrior, and 4/4 warrior.

T9.
2nd wave is out and does no damage.

T10.[11-3]
Send an archer out to pick on the last remainders

Spear >> Settler

 

[Beorn-eL-Feared]

We've faced the first aztec wave, so now I wouldn't oppose a 2nd settler going out there. We'll need some caution planting cities though, but we definitely can make something good out of the land at hand.

I've been lucky to feel paranoid today because we'd have died off of those archers. More will come though, along with jags, so take special care for the workers.

Could we have a roster, Mr Own?

 

[Ansar]

lurker's comment: Nice start, and nice city spots.

 

[SimpleMonkey]

Do we have a roster?

 

[Own]

no...

Here it is!
Smart- started us off
BEF- Continued
Simple Monkey- UP!
Own- On deck

 

[Smart]

Haven't gozpel signed up

 

[SimpleMonkey]

The Monkey has it. Will try to play my ten tonight.

Priorities:
1. Send settler to red dot.
2. Que up another one.
3. Build archers in Pasargarde once rax finishes.
4. Fend off Aztecs.

Any other suggestions? I'll check to see if we have any spare troops for exploring a bit. There's gotta be iron in those hills and mountains, right?

 

[Beorn-eL-Feared]

So long as they don't show up with a lot of spears, and if we have enough rest time for that, a good stack of archers would make for a better defense and leave our capitol free to just pump settlers without concerns about size vs defense. Watch out of jags too

Careful with settlers; we can leave Parsagadae with just say one spear one warrior, but a frontline city needs walls and spears on Deity. That means a lot of units produced for each city to be safe, and kindof breaks the spirit of massing settlers.

Last, I've made sure there was a 1-turn passage on either way for Perse-Parsa, having one ready for any new town to be settled isn't a luxury, it can save us a load of trouble.

 

[Own]

Of course, how could I forget goz?

I'll put you after me.

Smart
BEF
SM
Own
Goz

 

[SimpleMonkey]

Preflight: take look around. One 3/4 archer is all that remains of the Aztec stack, and he's likely take one in the chest from the elite archer and then get impaled on the regular spear. We'll see. We're up Pottery and Warrior Code in addition to our starting techs, with Alphabet due in seven, Math and IW in line after that. We could run a deficit and pick up Alphabet in four, but I'll leave the science slider where it is for now. Beorn left things all ship-shape, so I hit enter.

IBT: The Aztec archer fortifies rather than suffer Persian wrath. Three little Zulu warriors show up on the hill intended for the next Persian city. Let's see what Shaka has to say.

1910BC Well, that's not such a good start. Shaka thinks he's oh so fancy just 'cuz he has Alphabet, the Wheel, Ceremonial Burial, and Iron Working. Plus Gems and four cities. I remind him that his job for the next few centuries is to build up his cities so Persia will gain many new slaver workers.

I declare war.

Move the injured elite archer back into Persepolis. Move the workers that have finished mine building over to connect the road to new city site, right under the Zulu cannon fodder. Three spears to protect. Oh, Alphabet just dropped to four turns.

IBT: Shaka must also have literature, 'cuz he's starting the GLib. Two more Zulu warriors show up from the west. Oh well, could be worse. Could be impi.

1870BC Finish road to new city site. Fortify spearmen for one turn, with one on our precious irrigated cow. Cross fingers.

IBT: Interesting. Zulus walk past our spears and head north. One more shows up from the south.

1830BC Settler pops and I take chance and move him to designated hilltop. Shift some troops. Cue Persepolis up for an archer in two.

IBT: Zulus shift around some.

1790BC Found Arabela, cued up to build an archer.

The good news -- we have a luxury in sight!

The bad news -- we also have even more Zulus to deal with.

In case anyone was counting, that's 11 Zulu we now have in our neighborhood. So it's either lots of promotions all around for the Persians, or oblivion.

I shift troops back to the capitol and remember to bring down the science to 30% to still get Alphabet in one turn. Lux slider can't budge.

IBT: Yet another stack of Zulu warriors shows up from the west, making for a grand total of 10 warriors and four archers. Gee, we must have really made him mad. We get Alphabet and another archer. Oh, and a barb pops up in the east, just for fun.

1750BC Shift troops. Cross fingers.

IBT: Aztec warrior comes to say hello. He's the least of our problems. Zulus move all their troops against Arabela and try to crash the party. Final disposition: 3 dead Zulu archers, one dead Persian archer, one Persian spear promoted to elite. And a Zulu stack is perched on top of our connecting road, so I can't move reinforcements. Here's how things look right now.

I've only played five but I'd like to solicit some opinions before I continue. I don't want Persia to go down on my watch!

Here's the save.

 

[Beorn-eL-Feared]

Looks like we'll need some overtime shifts worked by the spearmen.

TGL

Capturing it sounds good, getting there doesn't. This start might be a dead one, 2 mil civs around with fast UU's within turn 50 is a serious PITA.

I say try what we can, send all available troops to intercept/fortify against the stacks, whip walls and roll anew if that fails.

 

[conquer_dude]

lurker's comment: Looks you guys are in a situation. Just a lurker suggestion: You should try to send out a defensive unit, spearman to search for some of those civs, once you get a break from fighting. A defensive unit because dont attack let them attack you.

 

[Ansar]

lurker's comment: I think its because Shaka was so happy to meet you(polite), and you just suddenly tell him that you dont like him and you declare war on him.

 

[Mr David]

lurker's comment: Looks you guys are in a situation. Just a lurker suggestion: You should try to send out a defensive unit, spearman to search for some of those civs, once you get a break from fighting. A defensive unit because dont attack let them attack you.

lurker's comment:

I don't think they'll get much of a break from war considering they are playing Always War with deity AIs. Besides, more contacts just means more units to fight.

 

[vmxa]

One of the tough things about pangea AW maps at deity and sid is they soon get around to sending in some serious numbers. If you cannot find a means to get them to attack you in a location that you can have a lot of help, it tends to go real bad.

You do not even have enough towns to try to lure them into a tail chase. At least in a straight deity game you can get peace to send them away while you try to find another way to get ready.

Hope the rng is very very kind to you guys.

 

[SimpleMonkey]

1725BC Move workers out of the way to Pasargadae. Maybe they can be bait for a turn. Let's see.

IBT: The troops in Arabela do what they can, but it is not enough. Wave after wave of the Zulu savages storm the city. (Hey, sorta like in that movie Zulu.) A spear and two archers do what they can, but it's not enough. Arabela falls and the Zulus set their sights on the capital.

Oh yeah, and another Aztec warrior shows up.

1700BC Settle troops in for a hard siege. Persepolis produces an archer, and I que it up for a settler. Hey, looking to the future, right?

IBT Zulus march towards Persepolis, barbarian warrior pillages a roaded hill, and a barb horseman shows up. Come join the party.

1675BC I move a worker into Pasargadae and disband him, then move a second one in and pop-rush walls. Not going down without a fight.

Oh, and I crank research up to 70% to get Math in 16 at -3gpt. Figure there's not much sense in saving money at this point.

IBT: Zulus trash our irrigated cow but don't attack the city. Aztecs attack Pasargadae, killing a spearman but losing an archer (1-1). I don't think we got the bargain that time. Persepolis gets another spearman, bringing our total defenders there up to three spears and an archer, all in perfect health.

1650BC: I decide to play defence for a turn. Hold the fort, boys!

IBT: Two Zulu warriors attack Persepolis, and two Zulu warriors find an early grave. One spearman goes elite. At Pasargadae, the Aztec warrior does us the favor of killing the barb before he could trash our intercity connector. Thanks, pal!

1625BC: There are now not enough Zulu attackers to take Persepolis, so I switch production to an archer. I think we might survive this. Oh, and Pasargadae gets its walls.

Okay, that was exciting. I leave it to the next better player to survive the final assault and dig us out of this hole. Here's what the wreckage looks like.

We may or may not want to switch production of an archer back to a settler, depending on when we think the next Zulu wave is coming. Hope I didn't screw this up too much.

Here's the save.

 

[Beorn-eL-Feared]

It's not called screwing up, simple one, it's called doing a respectable job out of a crazy azzed setup. Going out to settle might be a questionnable move, but not a plain bad one, considering it had a better tactical position.

I take it most of the bars under the units are workers, so I'm all for a few more archers/spears before we go settling back. We'll need 2 roads, it wiould have helped you to have an alternate route to Arbela when the attack came and they occupied the primary one.

Own up, Goz on deck.

 

[gozpel]

SimpleMonkey: I played next turn and survived. Archers are better as offense then defense, especially against warriors.

I killed 2 war's with archers and one with the ready spear and lost nothing ibt.

 

[SimpleMonkey]

@B I suspected it was questionable to settle a third city with the Zulu around, but at the time there were only three z-warriors present and I figured I could handle them. Didn't know that 11 more troops were in the neighborhood. As it was, it cost them to take the city. I suspect all of Shaka's free starting troops are used up now. The big mistake, as you pointed out, was not having a second road set up. I really should have done that instead of irrigating for a turn.

I also used up two workers in getting walls for Pasargadae, so it's going to take us some time to get our improvements back to what they were.

The best thing I can say is that making the third city pulled Shaka's troops away so they had very little with which to swarm our capital.

Let's see what Own can do with this.

 

[gozpel]

SM: What I was trying to explain, was that you had 2 archers fortified in Arbela. Kill something with them and the threat is lessened.

I can't see in your turnlog that you tried that?