PH17: pholkhero and the Holy Grail

[mc-red]

Just to play the otherside of the argument. Bribing KK will have him waste hammers on Izzy and give us a chance to stay focussed on getting cossacks.
Also, I have had many times when I have been so successful in a defensive war that my future victim takes advantage and runs away with it.
Is it worth bribing KK and letting the two of them waste their immortal bonuses while we stay focussed on Capac?

 

[pholkhero]

nice turns and great report...it's a shame about Ruler Whosit ~ he seemed a wise and just leader.

agreed on izzy's phony war, but i like the suggestion of a mounted sentry over that way. even a spy would work at this point.

i know we need HBR for Cossacks but we don't need Guilds do we? Imo, we should head right towards Cossacks ASAP to really take advantage of it. (which i think, means Guns). also, wonder if it would be worth it to spam Cuirries and then upgrade them all.

here's my "thing"

ROSTER
pholkhero >> on deck
nocho
mc red
Whosit >> just played
talamane >> up now

 

[Talamane]

I will take a look at the save this evening. If i have questions or suggestions, i will post a reply here.

Spy sounds good. After the spanish phoney war is resolved, we could use it to scope out HC.

 

[Whosit]

No, we shouldn't need Guilds for Cossacks, just Rifling and Military Tradition and Horseback Riding. I'm not sure if our income could support a mass-upgrade, though. It costs 80 gold a pop on Normal speed, so it will probably cost more here. If we wanted to mass upgrade a dozen, and we still made about, let's be optimistic and say 120 gpt at 0% science . . . we'd have to run at 0% for 8 turns. If that's judged to be worth it, then so be it.

 

[Talamane]

IT - 266 - 1210AD - Flip the builds between moscow and novgorod. ou in 13 and taj in 29. guilds is cheap(er) because HC has it.

267 - 1200AD - Spanish HA suicides on Yekat's archer. mm'd rostov to grow. start on a farm for Yekaterinburg, with chops to the courthouse.

268-270 boring worker and city micro stuff.

271 - 1255AD - HA in the funnel reveals no SoD coming from Spain yet. Chopping some wood that does not belong to any city (betwixt Moscow, Novogorod, and St Pete), anybody's guess as to which city will get the hammers, hopefully Novgorod.

272 - 1260AD - 9 chariots, 4 cats, an HA and a spear are approaching. I will start to move our army camped at St Pete. Izzy's declarartion is typical of the 3.19 AI, when it "senses" that the human will get a wonder or an advantage without opposition, the weaker(est) AI usually will declare on you. In this particular case, her being furious certainly did not help. But it is good, since she is the weakest.

So how do we want to handle this? It won't reach our lands until after my turnset--I just want to prep the next player. Uh, Mr Pholk? I got a little problem.

 

[Talamane]

BTW, I put off trades with HC to see if the religion thing with him would pay off in attitude, and it did. He is now pleased. Go figure.

@ Pholk. Guilds are required because rifling requires replaceable parts, which requires banking, which requires guilds. Yes, the tech path to cossacks is a long one.

 

[Whosit]

Oops, I forgot about the requirements for Replaceable Parts.

Well, it's a good thing we had a scout down in the ice! How to handle it, though . . . if our production cities weren't busy with Wonders, I'd say that we should just crank out Pikemen, but . . . The other option is to bring down the wrath of Khan on Izzy's stack, though I wonder if that would actually cause them to stop advancing on us?

Seriously, though, my kingdom for four Pikemen and an Axeman. They could hold that gap, 'cuz it's one tile wide, and let Izzy's stack suicide on them. But our troops are not in a position for that. In this wonderful fantasy world, I'd also have 2-3 Flanking II Horse Archers to take care of the catapults.

 

[nocho]

To me it looks like a rather ridiculously weak stack for an immortal AI in the 12th century! With our maces and elephants I think we can eat that stack for breakfast, especially if we arrange for a rendez-vous on flat terrain. It also will take many turns still for the stack to arrive so ample time for some reinforcements. If needed (but only if needed) you could whip some maces or even muskets supposing you switched to GP.

 

[Talamane]

I was thinking of upping a couple HAs to knights (guilds are in 2 turns). Would be nice to have a catapult though.

I will complete my ten turns and hand it to pholk.

 

[Talamane]

273 - 1265AD - Izzy' SoW (stack of weenies) approaches its doom. One tactic i definitely recommend if possible would be to use KK's land as a safe landing zone for damaged units. Our funnel HA performs a tactical retreat.

274 - 1270AD - After teching guilds, sold lib to KK for music, banking (both needed for cossacks). Sold lib to HC for 1030 gp, world map and compass. tech rate back to 70%, gunpowder in 10.

Spoiler :

Hmm, there is something swishy about the way he's lookin' at me.

Rostov is off wealth and building stables. All HAs are now knights and well positioned. The Spanish funnel of death:

I envy the next player, he is going to have some fun. Moscow will complete OU in 2 turns. I have workers chopping wood that may not be ours much longer (HC's culture), please do this to hurry Taj. I started on tiles that are not in Nov's BFC at the border.

 

[nocho]

Not a bad yield for lib, so I can live with that!

pholk's up!

 

[mc-red]

Just got to read this nice trades and tactics
You're right about Capac -- wouldn't want to have to pick up soap with Capac around

Maybe we can try to get a merchant for the upgrades rather than switching off research.
Izzy usually takes peace pretty quick when her stack gets destroyed.

 

[Talamane]

We have hit the WFYABTA barrier with QSH on tech trading. He had no bux, so there was nothing to trade.

@mc-red. What upgrades are you referring to? I usually have a hard time getting a GM, if i want one (Sushi), i usually ensure getting one by taking economics via liberalism.

 

[Whosit]

I look forward to the utter destruction of the Spanish Expeditionary Forces. Good job, Talamane. Glad you got some mileage out of Liberalism, though a shame that Qin won't trade anymore.

With Music in hand, I'd like to get a Cathedral in St. Petersburg, when we are able to, in order to try and get some tiles back.

 

[mc-red]

@Talamane
I was thinking at rifling we will want some upgrades depending on units but
mace->rifles and mounted->cossacks are always useful upgrades.

Merchant can be gunned for in a golden age if some prep work has been done in a city.
I don't have save will look at our GP situation and see if its possible.

 

[Talamane]

You're right about Capac -- wouldn't want to have to pick up soap with Capac around

I am trying to picture that in my head. ROFL.

 

[pholkhero]

Not a bad yield for lib, so I can live with that!

pholk's up!

and he's lazy

yeah, i know i'm up everywhere. first week back to work after a month of illness so RL has been hell to say the least. Will work on all things this weekend. Have no fear, his pholkness is here!!

 

[mc-red]

Good to hear you are back at work Pholk

 

[pholkhero]

in an effort to make up for lost time, presenting the worlds worst report:

Okay, i pretty much annihilated the stack of izzy's w/o a loss of a unit. Took peace

I moved our armies so that we are one turn away from attacking Tiwanku if we choose to.

Oxford was finished at Moscow, guns came in and I went with Mil Trad next. QSH got a GA, and Kubey ended this deal:

err...i mean QSH (still confused by that!)

the taj is about 6 or 7 turns from being finished. perhaps we could use that time to upgrade to Cuirassiers and attack? idk....

i'm pretty much caught up now at work; thought the marking period ended Friday but was told i had to have my grades ready by Wed...needless to say, not a fun week last week.

ROSTER
pholkhero >> just played
nocho >> up now
mc red >> on deck
Whosit
talamane

 

[Talamane]

Hmm. We are not spending anything on spies and i hope none of the ai's have stolen nationalism. QSH cutting off the marble will double the turns needed to complete Taj?

Nice job on Izzy. She's so cute when she's angry.