P3-03 - The Eternal War

[PaulusIII]

There's no harm in trying for Feudalism. If we get it we get longbows and Vassalage. It's a bit of a gamble, but totally worth it if you look at the benefits. Unfortunately I can't upgrade to 3.19 just yet; there's still 2 older SG's which I need to finish on 3.17, and I'm not computer-literate enough to try a double partition.

 

[Pindrus]

BTW who has the next set?

 

[PaulusIII]

If Muxec can't take it due to having 3.19 then I'm up. Consider this a got it if we don't change to 3.19 directly.

(Though I'm considering it. Unfortunately a FFH game is harder to switch to 3.19, since that means using a new version of FFH which is incompatible with saves of previous FFH games)

 

[nocho]

If Muxec can't take it due to having 3.19 then I'm up.

I think that in that case actually ojimijam is up.

 

[OJimiJam]

Iv got this will check the save tonight and either play and post tonight or tomorrow if thats okay? I think were good for the feud gamble and longbows would garuntee our future like nothing else

EDIT: Im sorry about this guys but im gonna have to beg a swap or a skip, life/work kinda exploded and i dont think i can get to this til maybe sunday... much as i hate to say it civ isnt really a priority that will hold up

 

[nocho]

EDIT: Im sorry about this guys but im gonna have to beg a swap or a skip, life/work kinda exploded and i dont think i can get to this til maybe sunday... much as i hate to say it civ isnt really a priority that will hold up

Please post a new post if you need a skip, as when you edit a post the thread doesn't show up like containing anything new. I just entered the thread to post a bump smiley ...

So if OJimiJam needs a skip it goed back to Paulus.

 

[PaulusIII]

Got it, playing tonight.

EDIT: Likely not going to finish tonight. Playing/reporting tomorrow.

 

[Pindrus]

Good to get this one moving again and will be crossing my fingers for the Feudalism slingshot!

 

[PaulusIII]

Okay, you're not going to believe this.

IT ACTUALLY WORKED!!!!

Report up soon. I'm too happy we have Vassalage and Longbows right now.

 

[PaulusIII]

Oh, and did I mention our final foe? He's Sitting Bull. Don't mind him until we get there.

Mansa tried his first attack. He nearly caught me by surprise there and I had to throw Persepolis briefly in unhappiness to get an archer across. That archer was enough to keep him out, though.

Mansa failed. He ended up killing one of our archers. We need a replacement. Also note that I'm chopping that forest SE of Susa, so that there won't be any Malinese to annoy us there.

I ended up going for Mansa's cottages to keep the cash flowing in. Cottages yield more in cash to pillage and we direly need some cash right now to keep the research running. He nearly surprised me with an axeman but thankfully he ended up doing nothing but giving a much-needed anti-Melee promotion on that axeman.

Also note Joao's stack under way. We have nothing to fear from him though. He's forgotten to pack proper troops.

One minor annoyance when I built the Monument at Pasargadae...

Yes, that monsoon only destroyed the Monument. Don't you like it when Random Number Generators start annoying you like this? I mean, it's not like I've ever had the feeling that the RNG is out to get me before...

Well that's actually not true. The previous AW game featured me being angry at the RNG for... well, everything.

Several nail-biting turns of waiting for Monarchy to finish later...

OMIGOD! It worked! Feudalism and Medieval Era, here we come!

(I suggest HR/Vassalage immediately. )

But we need to focus now. We need IW badly to clear out the jungle, Sailing to settle offshore, and cottages or specialists to start up the economy. Since we'll be safe for a looong time in terms of troops, we need to focus on the economy now.

 

[nocho]

Feudalism!

HR and vassalage seem obvious... Less obvious for me is where to go with the settler. At the lake in the NE we could settle E of the gems to pick those up, with rice and ivory. Elephants would be a great acquisition of course. But it would be on grass. So maybe the plains hill NW of those gems? Not the greatest city ever, but later the surrounding jungle could be cottaged.

Techwise, I agree on IW, Sailing and then I'd say go straight to construction, especially if we have the elephants.

And yeah, the economy. Build some cottages around the capital for starters?

I guess we'll settle the GG in the capital by the way?

 

[Pindrus]

Yay on warding off intruders and the Feudalism slingshot!

I agree on the tech path, IW -> Sailing -> Construction. We'll need HBR for elephants too, don't forget! But I think it would work very nicely to build up swords + cats to XP while bringing Rome under a Persian flag while waiting for HBR/Elephants.

2x civics change also sounds good.

I might actually settle the GG in Pasagradae. It's closer to the action and could get the HE in the mid-game. Cap will probably be used for more workers/settlers in the near future.

Also, don't forget to change the tile assignments at Persepolis, it looks like it was tuned to eek out Monarchy ASAP.

It looks like we are building a lot of internal roads, which are nice, but I would probably prioritize tile improvements. I assume we don't have the quarry @ Susa due to the Mali visitors, but why build a road before improving the sheep now that it's borders popped? Likewise, we should mine the forested grass hill in Persepolis' BFC (maybe chop into a settler?).

I don't have a strong preference for the settler either. Now that we can churn out CG2 or Guerrilla2 LB's I might be tempted to make border outposts that would allow us to settle our interior more efficiently (without worrying about hills). I'd say on the plains hill 1N of the copper, on the north shore of the large interior NE lake (that was a mouthful!) and on the grass hill between the rice & gold on Mansa's border. Obviously we'd need to wait to bring an axe + 2 LB's with the settler, but if we set up these cities we probably could forget about pillagers in the heartland. Maybe that's too crazy though...

I guess I'll throw up a pic of the locations I have in mind...

 

[muxec]

Gold-rice hill looks like a great place for Mansa to suicide his stacks. Settling GG in Parsa sounds great. With Vassalage we need only 2 GGs for 3 promos out of the door. How about settling all GGs in HE city?

Should we beeline literature now? Does WW exist in always war games?

 

[nocho]

Ok, I realize I'm actually up, so got it. Will probably play it tomorrow evening.

Do we really want to settle the rice/gold site next to Mansa? I'm not totally convinced yet, the gold is in Mansa's border and somehow I'd rather keep the empire more compact at this point, so fancy the elephant/gems site more. Maybe that rice/gold place can go afterwards when we have a couple more longbows.

Wouldn't mind some more opinions before I play... (Paulus/Ralph!)

 

[PaulusIII]

Elephants/gems city first. It's better for happiness and for the economy. Take the plains hill, farm some of the lakeside tiles and get a granary early to have it grow. For the rest you can cottage it, it seems best for that.

With hills, cows, sugar and copper Pasargadae is by far the best military pump we have. Put the HE there once we get it.

 

[Ralph_Jackson]

Definitely Elephant Gems on the Plians Hill.

HE in Pasargadae.

Start some much needed cottages.

Basically what Paulus Said!!

Ralph

 

[nocho]

Preflight, send GG to Pasargadae to be settled there. Switch research to IW and we adopt our new shiny civics.

IBT, Joao attacks with his stack at Pasargadae, we actually lose an axe to an archer . The rest suicides though and the portuguese archer that survives won't make it home to tell about his bravery.

T104 Of all the roads we have, this is the one that suffers a sucky event.

T106 A woody 2 dog soldier sneaks out of the bushes at Susa and kills our worker .

T107 Woody 2 dog soldier dares to come on the open plains in Susa and is killed.

T109 Ecbatana is founded on the plains hill near the gems and ivory. Had to wait a couple of turn for some reinforcements to be built to dare to walk there through the jungle.

T113 IW is in, start sailing.

T117 Sailing in, switch to masonry due in 2 as it already has beakers invested and will be needed for construction.

T118 In the very recently built library in our military center (I noticed that 80 of 90 hammers had been invested already into it, so let it finish in 1 turn) we get a decent event. The other option was 11 beakers for masonry. Easy choice.

T119 Masonry is in, hand it off here. Tentatively selected mathematics. Also a granary just finished in the capital, set it to library to get a bit of a research boost. Alternative would be a galley and settler to settle the island with 2 clams and an extra copper.

Capital has 3 cottages now. Capital also built a worker to replace the one we lost. On the penultimate turn Mansa let a worker in the open which I captured with our 2 marauding axemen. Have done some pillaging, not least for the (modest) funding it does for the treasury.

Here is a look at the lands now. Note we have iron near Susa. It's mined already, just need to connect it.

Note: all units have movement left. The captured worker is with the axemen in Mansa's territory (NE of the gold) but it might be a bit difficult to get him home unless we send some longbow to escort him. There are some mini stacks in sight, but nothing to fear really.

JC did some efforts to rid himself from our archers. He actually had an axeman attacking twice. They died, but it does mean he has a metal source. Maybe in trade. I tried to go around to the western part of the Roman lands with an archer, but he was caught by 2 archers of JC. I sent a LB for reinforcement. JC has iron about 3 east of Rome, but it is unconnected (well, last turn it was still).

We start having quite some LBs now, we could start sending them for improved AI-molestation.

 

[Pindrus]

Top-notch play there Nocho, glad to see our axes still out and pillaging, with a bonus worker too! And the city garrisons are all very solid. Mansa is being annoying in settling right at our borders--it will be very difficult to keep the gems mine up if stacks keep coming through that pipeline.

Math seems a solid next tech, probably with construction/HBR next to open up cats + elephants to go seize Rome and throw JC into a deep dungeon in Persepolis. Our economy isn't that hot right now though. I think I might try and work towards getting a settler out to one of the islands for intercontinental routes and for running a couple scientists off the seafood.

We need a couple more workers, so even if it takes some attention from the military units I will try and bring the Mali indentured servants back to Persian territory and build 1-2 more. We have a fair amount of jungle to clear and improve.

Got it then for an economy-focused set. I'll wait until tomorrow night (~24 hrs or so) in case others want to chime in.

 

[muxec]

When do we plan to settle the specialist island?

 

[nocho]

Top-notch play there Nocho

Yeah, pretty top-nocho, huh? Didn't do anything too special though, just made use of Paulus' brilliantly executed feudalism slingshot by building some LBs.

I agree on more workers, we need to cottage up available land to keep the economy afloat. Settling offshore sounds good also.

I was thinking that maybe we should concentrate our sparse espionage points on 1 AI to steal some tech at some (future) point, probably of Mansa. Will take a while to get enough EPs, but well, if it could net us something like calendar which of course is useful, but which we may not want to spend our research on, all the better. By the way, some AIs have construction already, I think I saw some catapults (in Rome IIRC).

I think indeed tech path should be math, constr, HBR. Maybe after that towards literature for the HE. Maybe literature or aesthetics could be stolen, as they are relatively cheap. In that case we should get alpha first, though (after HBR).