P666-01 Fix the Trash Game

[Calavente]

ok,

upper round finished..

not so good I think

Spoiler :

1-15 took barcelona + barb city, razed spainsh cities. converted to confucianisme to have nappy convert. GS got education, colossus seized. Hanging Garden, Notre dame, hindu shrine were made.
16-30 attack madrid, used missio to convert cities, founded one. earn Nationalism with liberalism. goto optic. (2tech)
30-50 : saladin, caesar and mansa came knocking, discover optic : whipped 2 caravels, won the circumnavigation race. Took sevilla. (holy jewish city) 1430 Golden age with Taj Mahal. reassigned tiles to get the most gold. (to uppgrad further well promoted horses.) seiging last spanish city with boat : see another spanish border .. grr the little **** ! lost two very good HA on that city to get it in one turn.. also a good cata. sevilla revolts during the seige of last city.
got MILitary Tradition : need gunpowder : I launch the research: using the GA to get a lot of gold. build gold + cata in most cities
1490 : spanish distroyed! !!!

still 1 more turn until gunpowder, nappy not suspicious at all but not harmed, cavalery should take care of him + all the cats.

issues:
Have not yet take care of nappy
No real specialization of cities: I can't seem to do it right.
No really good use of specialists.

that's all.

I hope other people are doing much better.

Cala.

 

[Cam_H]

My game's presented with some hesitation ... I hope at least 'respectable' in terms of military, but weak in some other respects. Once again, I've opted for big cities, but war weariness is starting to be telling.

Spoiler :

Pretty terrible technology-wise, but have made good progress on the war-front. I've been reluctant to trade technology (one trade with Napoleon, one with Julius Caesar, one with Mansa), and I've steered clear of Mali's tech' swap proposals.

(Image removed - server space - empire screenie)

Hamburg, Ning-Hsia and Turfan were specialised as unit pumps, and set Munich up to be a commerce city to support the 'gold-laden' Pigswill's City and Berlin.

I had the following technology targets for this round ... and fell a long way short: Optics, Guilds, Liberalism, and one of Military Tradition / Chemistry / Rifling / Astronomy ... I'm still researching Liberalism!

I went ahead with most of Calavente's wonder builds except for the Colossus, which I envisaged would expire fairly quickly, and my commerce-oriented cities were pretty land-locked anyway.

A large commitment was made to military strength, and the game was characterised by churning out Macemen and then Knights with an occasional Catapult, while building infrastructure in newly captured cities. Forbidden Palace in Madrid. I got the circumnavigation bonus.

I opted to burn Calavente's Great Artist with a Great Prophet from Pigswill's City on a Golden Age. Two Academies - one in Berlin, the other in Munich. I have yet to see a Great Engineer!

Civic-wise, I went with Police State and Bureaucracy. Mercantilism came up, but I didn't want the anarchy and decided to hold off until Free Religion became available so I could swap into both.

All up, Germany's a monster on the Power charts, but I've slipped in terms of technological prowess. As seen in the graphic above, France has two weak island cities, but if this game is played in the next round, the continent should soon be ours.

 

[armstrong]

Howdy everyone,

I'm having a really busy week here. I think I can squeeze this in tomorrow evening, but if I can't would anyone mind pushing the submission date back to, say, 1pm est Saturday? I'm sure everyone will have plenty enough to digest before then...

Hopefully it will be a moot point.

 

[Cam_H]

Not lurking but have a comment for Armstrong.

I just want to thank you for holding up VQ008 for three days and then quitting. I hope you will be more considerate of these fine people playing in this SG.

Lurking

Sounds like an interesting variant and sorry to comment to Armstrong but I didn't appreciate his approach in VQ008

Hmmmmm ...

I think I can squeeze this in tomorrow evening

Hmmmmm ...

 

[cabert]

armstrong, try your best to play it tonight!

seeing other games, mine doesn't seem too bad finally techwise, but i think cam_h's military advance is better (nappy seems really in bad shape)

 

[Cam_H]

HeHe ... Lyons would be lucky to last two turns ... Tours about five!

Be warned ... technology is really awful.

 

[cabert]

HeHe ... Lyons would be lucky to last two turns ... Tours about five!

Be warned ... technology is really awful.

well, my game is exactly the opposite
techwise i'm doing fine (grenadiers!)
but i'm so low on power that i fear nappy is going to crush us!

 

[Cam_H]

well, my game is exactly the opposite
techwise i'm doing fine (grenadiers!)
but i'm so low on power that i fear nappy is going to crush us!

I knew this would happen - tons of cr*p military and huge population vs. a few 'untouchable' units and a massive tech' lead.

 

[cabert]

I knew this would happen - tons of cr*p military and huge population vs. a few 'untouchable' units and a massive tech' lead.

and i was the one saying you were not playing the war variant

I'm anxious to see pigswill's game.
Maybe he did find the sweet spot between all out war and all out tech?
To be true, my game would be much better if i had not gone to war vs nappy at all.
I needed at least double the troops i had, but didn't want to turn chicken only a few turns from the end of the round. So i attacked with 2 stacks not even close to what i need and lost very valuable level 5 grenadiers

 

[Cam_H]

I'm anxious to see pigswill's game.
Maybe he did find the sweet spot between all out war and all out tech?

Likewise ... Calavente's game is interesting again ... and I can't wait to see the others'.

 

[pigswill]

Working on it chaps. 1370 -wiped out Spain (just), circumnav, liberalism etc got astronomy, lots of tech-trading, working on gunpowder. Trying to decide if I should go after Nap or consolidate and chase chemistry.

 

[mice]

Here's mine. Kept Madrid,Barca,Santiago the jewel city, and Salamanca in the north. Consolidated as opposed to attacking Napoleon, and have good stacks waiting. Teched to gunpowder and Chemistry is 2 or 3 turns away. circumnav. Liberalism to Astronomy, and I started building galleons to save time after the war with France.

 

[pigswill]

Well, got there in the end. No war with napoleon, got a few units lined up, Just got to grenadiers (decided not to attack in the end).Building a couple of cities down south to claim a few more tiles. I haven't razed anything; was going to raze Salamanca but its the holy city of Islam. Seems like a pretty average round.

Spoiler :

Few Details
Started by trading with Nap (currency,calendar for drama, lit, CoL), peace with Izzy (3gpt),bit of tile adjustment, gained 17 gpt somehow. changedresearch towards optics; burned GA on theology;merged prophet in pigswill. Started HE in armstrong, NE in cabert. Pinched ligurian just ahead of Nap.
Started war with Izzy about 1120.Burned a GS on education to get back into liberalism race; got Kashi Vishwanath 1240ad; completed circumanv 1270; lots of missionaries flying around; various trades with MM (got eng, guilds, horses for music, drama, educ and phil); got liberalism and astronomy 1310. Swopped astronomy and drama for economics 1330. Finished off spain in 1360. Bit of building, research towards chemistry. Current civics are rep, feudalism, slavery, free market, free religion.
Rambling thoughts
I tend to emphasise religion more than some other people, I like the money from shrine income which means I can get away with just one cash city, I also like the religious civics; easy to switch economy between builder and warmonger mode simply by OR and theology.
I'm also a big fan of seige weaponry; I always aim to have 4 accurate cats per stack tasked solely with defence suppression and I'm beginning to think that seige are the most powerful attacking units mainly because of collateral damage though they do of course need defending. Basic stuff like a medic per stack also useful.

 

[VuDu]

Here's my save and log.

Spoiler :

1000 AD - traded CoL and some cash for Currency; changes research to Compass; switched around some worked tiles.
1020 - Razed Murcia; built Hindu shrine; used GA to end revolt and expand borders in Beshbalik.
1030 - Built an academy in Berlin.
1040 - Razed Toledo; whipped a few buildings.
1060 - Captured Santiago; researching Optics.
1150 - Captured Barcelona.
1180 - Used GP for Theology; Isabella accepted my peace treaty offer in exchange for Calandar and 120 gold (needed to heal troops and get backup to the North).
1230 - Education finished; started researching Liberalism.
1280 - Met Mansa.
1290 - Razed a barb city in the South.
1300 - Declared war on Isabella; Napoleon is ahead in power.
1320 - Took Astronomy as the free tech; open borders with Mansa; switched to free religion for science bonus; researching gunpowder.
1330 - Gems to Mansa for 5 gpt; deer to Napoleon for 6gpt, to keep research at 50%.
1410 - Captured Seville.
1440 - Razed Salamanca; peace to Isabella - she has another city on an island to the North and I've only built one boat with another on the way. Figure I'll kill her off on my way to the other island. Researching Chemistry.
1470 - Met JC; we are back in the power lead.
1500 - Whipped a few buildings; one turn from Chemistry. I've been spreading religion around, but still need more to add to shrine income. I did not declare war on Napoleon yet, but troops are ready in to attack on several fronts at once. Scout has been looking around and they have many horse archers so I've built a few pikemen the last few turns - hopefully that will stop them before they can pillage much, but will probably need a few more.

 

[armstrong]

Okay, here's my save (finished at 12am CST, so an hour late

No time for big discussion, but short story: Izzy is dead, Nappy is hurting but still has 5-6 cities. Have lots of Macers and some Grens, 7 Galleons built, all technologies needed to win (Astro+Chem.) I think it's surprisingly strong given that I was really rushing the turns at the end.

 

[cabert]

i officially declare the round over
we have 7 submissions
- vudu
-armstrong
-pigswill
-cam_h
-calavente
- mice
- cabert

running for the best game.
Petrucci, since you didn't submit a game, do you care to coordinate the vote?
All can vote, but not for your own game, deadline fo rthe vote is sunday evening.
Cam_h, what's the next round? worst game or win (monarch level players excluded), up to 1900 AD?

 

[Calavente]

thats fun, it seems I was the only one to go cavalry...
was it a bad move ? I know I have skipped astronomy yet but...

oh, I won't be here this WE, so maybe I won't have time to vote.
I will try, but cannot promise it.

 

[mice]

Pigswill, thanks for making me the Hindu holy city, and coastal

 

[armstrong]

Pigswill, thanks for making me the Hindu holy city, and coastal

Hey, why is my city one tile from the coast?

 

[cabert]

Pigswill, thanks for making me the Hindu holy city, and coastal

hey, i'm the capital thanks!

No answer from petrucci yet...

i'm going for an easy way for the choice:
- tech necessary = yes/no
- victory conditions = %landmass (pop will come easily)
- military force available = yes/no

too bad none of us have all the tech or all the military required!
I'm relieved that i can't vote for myself, since i'm in a bad position (i'd give me n°3 or n°4 position).

and cala, about cavalry, you may notice that i'm 2 turns from it (it's a very strong unit for fast conquest, not necessarily useful from a boat, though)