PH06: One is the Loneliest Number!

The lonely guys are pretty lonely at the bottom. We don’t like being at the bottom especially on Prince. What’s with the constant money bleed now with the patch. We are losing coin fast. Need to get gold hooked up again but will wait until Alex has been suppressed.

Turn 1

Axe attacks Antium and dies. Praets takes out 2 chariots, then we use combat chariot to take out last chariot and win at 50% odds. Axe finished in Rome on the way to battlefront.
Thanks to Alex we now have two CR2 Praets.

Turn 2

Sword moves on mine but can’t do anything about it until axe gets there.

Turn 3

We bleeding coin bad need COL soon and construction is going to take a long time at 40% which will likely drop to 30%.
Sword does pillage mine.

Turn 4

That’s it even at crappy odds he’s got to go that sword and attack him with an axe. He looses but Praet finishes the job.

Turn 5

Take out archer protecting horses and will pillage next turn so he has no chariots.

Turn 6

Pillage horses move to defensive ground with our mini stack.
(mmmmm mini stack is that good on a Kaiser bun)
Lonely guys need food too you know.

Turn 7-9

Troops gathering to have a party since now they aren’t as lonely.

Turn 10

Odds not so good so we will need lots of soldiers to take Athens without siege. Do take out one sword and loose one Praet.

Turn 11

More Praets heading to battlefield. (they having a weenie fry there now whilst waiting for reinforcements.)
No sign of Wang or ding dong.

Turn 12

Wow Praet takes out swords at 9.9% odds. Loose another Praet but take out axe at 27.9% odds. We now have taken out the heavies and only chariot/phalanx/three CD1 archers.
Also send a chariot out to find his metals. (and maybe find his girlfriend too)

Turn 13

Disconnecting road to Athens will do the trick since the city beside him does not have metal so it must be the third city west of Athens. Now get this Athens is built one tile away from the coast so no sea connection there which works to our advantage but if we take it, leaves us with a city with no ocean connection. It is a nice city with nice resources like wine/corn/ and horses. The wine is the most important to deal with our happiness.

Turn 14

Hook up the gold again and Antium is happier just have to road it now.

Turn 15

Gold will be hooked up soon to help the rest of the empire and barbs built another city maybe send a few praets from Rome to deal with it since Cumae is producing well enough. (Praets every 4 turns)
After some tweaking and working gold again we get science back up to 50% and a small deficit of 1 coin. Construction now due in 7 turns and we can hold at this rate for 5 turns then drop back to 40%.

Tactical situation:

Our army
Civ4ScreenShot0029.jpg


Their defenses (cannot build horses or metal based units now)
Civ4ScreenShot0030.jpg


Alex’s poor city placement
Civ4ScreenShot0031.jpg


I really wanted to take Athens during my turn however might have ended up wasting all of our units to do so and end up fighting CD2/3 archers. Once we get let’s say two more praets there and even one we could try but our good units need to heal first. There is Praet in Cumae ready too go so good luck next lonely guy and that would be Frank.

EDIT: Note that there is a settler having a snooze in Antium. Maybe we should raze Athens and then settle there on the coast as then that lake would provide more food with lighthouse. I really, really, really, really, really hate one tile away from the coast it really, really, really bugs me.
 
We'd been playing 15 turns before Pholks turn and no mention of changing. Greyfox played 10 because he was too tired to play 15 and Furrie only played 10 as well as you did. I don't think it really matters. Just wondering are you the "turn police". :rolleyes: Am I under arrest mein Herr. Then you will have to travel far and need a spacecraft. :lol:

It sucks not having siege and notice too we went for metal casting before construction that's two :smoke: towards not getting to construction. We even have elephants which would put my mind into priortizing construction. Good move on vetoeing that meditation though. We are very close to construction now. Notice how big Alex's capitol is. Does that make sense this early in the game considering he only has three cities that I can see. So how does he keep health/happy and such quick growth. We have food galore and 1 happy but can't get past 7 I think and even with a religion maybe eight. Alex does have HR so that might explain happy but health can't be.
 
We are at 10 turns, but i don't mind. You'll just have to play five next time ;) :lol: nice job in repulsing him, too, btw. That alex is part russian and part roman ~ he's got roamin' hands and rushin' fingers :rotfl: no seriously, pholks . . .

Roster:
Fox >
Furrie >
Karr >
Cosmic > just played
Frank > UP NOW for 10 :mad:
Pholk > on deck
 
Wow size 14 at 125 AD? AI really does abuse Hereditary Rule a lot in this patch don't they.

BTW about Athens not being on the coast, doesn't the AI always settle in place?
 
Yes but pre-patch never seen cities this big that early. I don't like it and think it's nonsense. It's the reason why Pholk was faced with cavs when he has knights/maces. New strategy for me is to focus on growth in the game now priortizing HR and forgetting about alphabet as don't need it anymore AI gets it now way ahead of human.

Cosmic: AI often ignore happiness and health limit to keep growing
Click to expand...

How is it they are surpassing normal growth factors that we are faced with. Even with a food rich city it takes time to grow and Alex only has two good food resources there. No matter there is always a way to beat the AI they still play stupid in a lot of aspects such as warring and city placement.

We should raze Athens btw and Robo I guess they do but it's silly to place one tile from coast.

@Pholk apoligies for playing 15 so you can skip me next turn if you like as I don't like playing just 5. Rather pass then. As to surpressing Alex well that's what I mean by stupid AI they focus now on growth and not so much military as he is a weakling with no troops not like Alex at all. In one game Izzy declares on me and shows up with one HA. It is evidently clear though that they will get into military once they finish growth phase. (build cottages/farms like crazy now too) So early war is still an achilles heal for the AI and as far as I am concerned peaceful games aren't impossible but AI boxes you in quickly so war is often needed early.

Just have to play differently and I do find Prince too easy even with patch.

EDIT: Pholk I realize that you are kidding about turns sorry for my reaction but not in a great mood today. (health)
 
I've never razed an enemy capital before but Athens is going to be a rubble pile -- it's a stupid siting if I ever saw one.

I've been bad -- I played single player all weekend. I think I got up twice to go to the bathroom but other than that, I played and played. But I won my first Monarch game! I got a space victory in 1953 playing Vikings on a large terra map, epic speed using unpatched Warlords! I used the HOF mod so I could keep track of city growth and was able to micromanage 'till the cows came home. Ragnar's financial trait kicked in after two early wars that gained me 3 Holy Cities with shrines; the AI was left in the researching dust. I probably could have won a conquest victory even sooner. Thanks to all who've let me learn by playing with you.

I've got some catching up to do in other SGs but I'll get to this one within 48 hours. Where are we going after construction?
 
I don't get what's so messed up with Athens.

It has Plenty of Grassland, Due to being next to the lake it can build a lighthouse to make the Water Tiles Worthwile and it has some Resources.

'Course I can't look at the save(Don't own Warlords) so maybe it's something I can't see? :dunno: :dunno: :dunno:
 
No you can't build a lighthouse on a lake city, it has to be on a coast. Yes, Athens has to go. Let's see... do you get something like "-4 You razed our capital!!!" :lol:

Somehow I feel suddenly sorry for the 14 units of virtual population who will be dead shortly.
 
@ Cosmic ~ i agree. the AI does really focus on growth, it seems, a bit more now w/the patch. Another thing about early war is that alot of times, when you don't do it, the AI just grows and techs right past you, and then you face the medieval/Cav predicament that i faced ~ i felt like a common AI!

@ Frank, Congrats! I'm sure i know who had the biggest influence ~ in fact, i can still see Fox's :whipped: marks :lol:

now play! and raze Athens!! another first for ya!
 
I played 10 uneventful turns.

Inherited turn (125 AD): I found Rome with unhappiness and so whipped the Tireme just started there for 3 population. That brought Rome to size 4 with 6 happiness and 6 unhappiness and about to grow in 2 turns. I traded food for hammers and stopped the growth. It would have to stay that way for a while. In the west, Antium and Cumae were both at their happiness limits but not due to grow for 11 turns. Our fourth city, Neapolis still had room to grow before happiness became a problem.

On the war front, our Praetorians looked like they were no match for the entrenched troops at Athens. Our best unit could get only 27% odds against a dug in Phalanx. Even if, say, three of our Praetorians could kill the Phalanx, that would have left our Axemen to try to root out 3 dug-in CG I Archers @ 3% odds. Simply put, I decided that at 50% cultural defense, we have insufficient force to take Athens now. We needed siege weapons.

Turn 1 (140 AD): Our workers completed repairs to the road to the gold mine and Rome was able to work food (and commerce!) tiles once again. We gained 2 gold per turn and it knocked an extra turn off the research of Construction(6). Our wounded Chariot outside Athens pillaged a farm for more gold.

Turn 2 (155 AD): Neapolis trained an Archer, started a Lighthouse(5). The archer took up station as a city garrison. I pulled several of our units outside of Athens to a tile 1 SW of their position to put them back inside our borders. This saved us another gold per turn and we were able to bump research to 60%. Construction research was reduced another turn to 4 turns.

Turn 3 (170 AD): Another pillaged farm permited us to keep research at 60% for one more turn.

Turn 4 (185 AD): Cumae trained a Praetorian, started another(6). I had to drop the research slider back to 50% -- Construction was now due in 3 turns.

Turn 5 (200 AD): Antium trained a Praetorian, started a Lighthouse(7).

Turn 6 (215 AD): Cumae trained another Praetorian (aided by a forest chop) and started another(6).

IBT: Isabelle made a threat:
one07.jpg


I figured she was quite crabby enough and I refused.

Turn 7 (230 AD): We got Construction finished:
one08.jpg


So I chose Horseback Riding(22).

Neaopolis completed a Lighthouse allowing me to micromanage for an additional gold/turn by working the whales. Neapolis started a Catapult(7). Cumae paused work on a Praetorian to begin a Catapult(6). Antium stopped construction of its Lighthouse to begin a Catapult(9). Rome, which had grown unhappy again on me (war weariness) stopped training a Praetorian and started a War Elephant. Whipping would be too costly (3 population for 3 unhappiness for 34 yeas) so instead, I started starving the city back down to below its happiness level, getting the Elephant down to 6 turns.

After anguishing for too long, I decided to whip the catapults in Antium, Cumae and Neapolis, destroying all my micromanaging and economic gains. Oh well, they'll all grow again.

We found we had company on our end of the island:
one09.jpg


Obviously Barbarians are unable to read our city signs.

IBT: Victoria made a request:
one10.jpg


Without this deal, she can't sail her settlers to our island.

Turn 8 (245 AD):
one11.jpg

Antium completed the catapult and returned to constructing its Lighthouse(6). Cumae completed a Catapult and started a War Elephant(11). Neapolis completed a Catapult and started a Granary(14).

Turn 9 (260 AD): I moved two Praetorians to the northeast to raze that Barbarian city. We're dangerously low on cash so I'm trying to minimize the number of units we have outside our borders.

Turn 10 (275 AD): The bombardment of Athens began as the first catapult arrived last turn. Two more arrived this turn. They'll be able to remove the cultural defense in about 3 more turns. Remember, Athens is on a hill and it'll still be tough to take.

Here's The Save. Have fun.
 
I found that too Frank but managed to take a few of the heavies out loosing only two praets so theoretically 2 units per 2 units defending without cats. Once the phalanx is gone it should be a lot easier for the Praets to take on the archers once weakened.

EDIT: Greyfox I have seen lighthouses on lake erie and ontario but they are more like seas rather than lakes.
 
Frank, nice going. I think that if we had even numbers, it was a good call to fall back.

@ Cosmic ~ i've found, generally, that 2 units per ONE unit defending is the formula, not 2 per 2 ~ typo?

Roster:
Fox > on deck
Furrie >
Karr >
Cosmic >
Frank > just played
Pholk > UP NOW

I will grab the save tonight, and hopefully have a chance to play.
 
I don't really understand why we're researching Horseback Riding. It's a pretty expensive tech and rather useless for us. Plus you can easily get it from trades later. I'd go for CoL or Currency to help the economy out.
I just looked at the save and we're losing gold at 10%. We pay for a ton of units so we should use them. Also assigning 2 scientists somewhere for some research and to produce a GP might be nice. Maybe stop whipping Rome and run them there.

Just my quick thoughts, I don't want to criticize anyone. ;)
 
Karr I kind of thought the same thing. I never really go for it either and agree that COL or currency would be more productive. With Praets/elephants/cats who needs horse archers anyways.
 
sorry to dissappoint, but i played last night and will have to report tonight. Work has been draining this week so i've had very little Civ time.

@ Karr ~ is that hitler w/a football on his head? :lol:
 
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