Pirates!

[Melior Traiano]

IIRC, Berserks upgraded to Grens keep their Amphibious promos, which will be mucho handy in this game.

 

[Madtown]

Got it again.

 

[qwertz]

IIRC, Berserks upgraded to Grens keep their Amphibious promos, which will be mucho handy in this game.

right, also fortunately we can still build berserks, so it might be still a good idea to build them and upgrade them to grens instead of building grens.
once they definitelly get obsolate we'll have a problem untill marines.

 

[Melior Traiano]

Well, I can't sleep because my brain's working in overdrive for some reason. So I took a peek at the save & wanted to make note of a few things.

• Everyone except Saladin is in WHEOOH. For a bunch of civs that have never fought any wars with each other, there's a lot of bad blood going around.
  
• Saw some Privateers going to Saladin's islands, which is good. We need to slow him down some. HC is also doing pretty well in the tech department, so we should probably send some Privateers to slow him down some too.
  
• If we adopt Vassalage & Theo, we can pump out 9 XP Berserks from Nidaros & Paris. Those 9 XP guys win one combat & we can upgrade them to CR3 Grens.
  
• We're 155 votes short of having a blocking majority on a stop the war resolution if we declare war on Toku. Even if Hinduism is spread to all our cities, we won't have enough to block that vote.
  
• Having said that, I think we should gear up for war vs HC. He knows Astro & if he techs Chem & sends Frigates around, the jig may be up for our Privateers all too soon. Toku can wait because he's not going to get away from us in tech or power.
  
• Some cities are really production poor. Slotting in a Hindu Temple will give +2 the rest of the game.
  
• Hatty is getting the much better end of a Corn + Clams for Pigs deal, to the tune of 4 to 1 (assuming Granary + Harbor in each city). Perhaps we can trade her Ivory for Pigs & even get her to throw in some gpt?

That's kind of it. Again, not trying to be critical, just having a look around & evaluating things is all. Hope I can catch some zzz's before getting up for work again.

 

[Madtown]

I'm swamped with work and school right now and I don't think I'll get to this game today as I had hoped. Please skip or swap me for later in the week, whichever is more appropriate. My apologies to the team for the delay.

 

[Melior Traiano]

Guess this means I'm up. I'll play my round either tonight or tomorrow night.

 

[Melior Traiano]

Okay, no time for a blow-by-blow report tonight, so this will be brief.

Cancel deal with Hatty, trade her Ivory for Pigs + 9gpt instead. Freddo asks for CS, tell him to take a hike. Toku demands cancel trades with Hatty, he takes a hike too.

Upgrade Berserks to Grens. Run 0% research for another turn to upgrade two Galleys. Research then dialed up to 40%, Steel in 18.

1665 Saladin adopts the Democracy civics. Nidaros now has 2 .

1675 Saladin builds Versailles in Medina. Meanwhile, Mecca & Medina are starving down due to blockades.

Hatty asks for Gunpowder, no.

1695 GS born in Nidaros. I ponder what to do with Madame Curie, who looks awfully manly, what with all the facial hair.

1708 Not sure what HC just researched, but he's now in the Industrial Era. I think we need to knock him down a couple notches and soon.

1716 Steel comes in. I think it's a logical point to hand this off.

Privateers are raking in 17gpt. Mecca, Thebes, Medina, Baghdad are starving from blockades. Two of Saladin's island, including his starting one, are cut off from the rest of his empire.

Our navy is almost completely modernized, there are some 5 Galleon loads of troops for the next player to deploy, with more on shore waiting to be upgraded, and even more being trained. I whipped in some Hindu Temples & there are more being built now for the extra .

Saladin's picking up his tech pace a bit, despite the blockading, so it comes do to him or HC for our next target, I think. I still vote for a quick war to stunt HC a bit & then turn on Saladin. BTW, everyone is WHEEOOH.

As for next tech, I vote for bulbing Printing Press & seeing if we can get something from Hatty for it. Bulbing will shave it down to 3 turns from 9, if I'm doing my arithmetic right.

So who's up next, yena or Madtown?

 

[yena]

Cool. It is obviously time to hit someone, and it wouldn't hurt if that someone (HC?) had some happiness resources to spare

I think Madtown should play if he is not too busy. Release the dogs of war, and have fun

(I will take it if I don't see a "got it" from him in the next few days.)

 

[qwertz]

thoes privateers are really doing their job with sal
I agree that HC will need to get a visit too; either by grens or by privateers.

I'm quite confused by the general WHEOOHRN particularly as the most of the AIs are actually quite peacefull (Hatty DOWing someone ).

 

[Madtown]

OK, I go it then.

Thanks Yena for letting me hop back in the lineup.

No time for comments now, I'm off to the pub. Will post later tonight if I'm not too shnockered.

 

[Madtown]

What does the team want to do with Madam Curie? She will currently bulb PP, which we can research in 6 turns anyway so that's no help. We could designate Nidaros for Oxford, which would make settling her a decent decision. Personally though, I think burning her for a Golden Age would be best. Question is, do we start it now or after the imminent war?

Speaking of war, is there a consensus on who our target is? I agree that HC needs to be reigned in, but he is rather far away and we are already paying 130 for maintenance. I'm not sure our economy can handle that acquisition right now. I suppose we could just raze cuzco and a couple other cities and then move on.

Hatty is looking a little scary too right now. she is even in power with us and has knights runnign around her land. Some of our western cities are gaurded by axemen still, and she says she has enough on her hands. Perhaps a two pronged war is in order? We could send out razing parties east to HC, and gear up for the acquisition of Egypt in the west.

Also, what tech path do we want to pursue now? Should we bother researching the top of the tree at all or just beeline combustion and scientific method for oil?

Lastly, hatty will give us guilds, theo, map, and gold for education. I'd like to pick up theo so we can run theocracy, but I'm worried Hatty will turn around and sell it to HC and Biz. My trading skills are pretty bad, so comments would be appreciated.

 

[Melior Traiano]

I think State Property is the only way to govern a far-flung empire that we're going to end up with. So I vote to bulb PP, since that's on the way to Sci Meth, which is on the way to Communism, as well as uncovering Oil.

Trading with Hatty will almost certainly be followed by Hatty trading with HC & Fred, but that's unavoidable now because our diplomacy with the latter two are trashed to the point they won't trade techs. Trading Education away isn't as bad as it usually is because it's gonna take these clowns a while to build Unis on this map, which means less military builds. I think at this point, pretty much anyone with Horses has Knights. Good intel on when a potential invasion fleet leaves port and a strong navy will be our best defense. Just post a Caravel outside the city where their navy is based and shadow their fleet when it leaves port.

I think the next target should be HC. He's teching quite well and we'll want to stunt him before he gets Chemistry to extend the life of our Privateers. And he needs to be cut down to size anyway. What's tricky here is that he & Hatty are buddies, so Hatty could very well get bribed into war against us if we attack HC. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, if we can sink boatloads of her troops using our more advanced navy.

 

[Madtown]

And so begins the great campaign of the razing and defeat of the Incans.


1716 AD (IHT):

Make the education trade with Hatty:

Research set to PP. Sorry Melior T, but I decided to use the scientist on a golden age. I think the empire wide production and gold benefits will surpass a one time bulb of some 2800 towards PP. Besides, this allows us to revolt to theocracy without anarchy. GPT jumps from +2 to +85 at 40% research, PP due n 8 turns.

Start moving our major naval stack towards the Incans. Here’s a refresher picture of their territory and garrisons.

1720 AD:
Declare war on HC. Notice in the trade screen that he has 0 gold in the coffers and now has education. Damn you Hatty!

The siege of Machu Picchu begins. It will take three turns to bombard the city’s culture down enough.

1724 AD:

Machu Picchu is razed at the cost of 1 treb and 1 gren.

(IBT) we lose a caravel to an Incan caravel at very high odds.

1726 AD:

Toku declares war on HC! Not sure what he’s thinking as he doesn't seem to have much of a war stack.

1732 AD:

PP is in and I go with banking next on the way to RP and sci method.

After bombarding for a couple turns, we attack Cuzco.

The city is captured with the loss of one Gren at 95% odds, grrrr.

[/IMG]

1736 AD:

Raze Ollantaytambo for 0 losses. The city had no food resources and we can’t afford it now that the GA is ending..

Cori is captured for no losses.

1740 AD:

Vitcos is Razed, no losses. The city should be resettled 1 south to grab the banana.

1742 AD:

Apostolic vote to stop trading with Freddy. I vote no.

Huamanga is captured, no losses.

!744 AD:

Stop trading vote succeeds.

We’re raking in 26 GPT from privateer blockades.

1746 AD:

I need to hurry and wipe out HC quickly because WW is getting to be real bad. We are also suffering 2-4 from emancipation .

HC pops a prophet this turn so I hold off on taking Tiwanaku in the hopes that he builds us a shrine. The city is the confu/tao double holy city.

1748 AD:

As expected, HC builds the Kong Miao in Tiwanaku. I promptly capture the city. Thanks fella!

Vilcabamba is razed at the loss of a cannon.

1750 AD:

We trade Liberalism to Hatty for nationalism and gold. I had purposefully researched 4 turns into nationalism just for this purpose. I plan to do the same with economics and Sal.

In other news, HC poisons the water supply at Cuzco. He must’ve had a spy somewhere on that island before we captured it.

1752 AD:

Make the economics trade with sal, I have to throw in some gold, but I think it is worth it. However, it seems that everyone is in mercantilism at the moment, so I decide to revolt to that as well.

At long last, HC is destroyed with the capture of Vilcas. No losses were suffered.

We also earn a Great General, he sits in Paris awaiting instructions.

That concludes my 20 turns.

Final war stats are:
5 cities razed
5 cities captured

losses:
2 grens
1 treb
1 cannon
1 caravel

Notes:
Research is currently set on Scientific method, but our economy has suffered from the war and emacipation unhappiness. Things should turn around now that the war weariness disappeared. I tried to slot in some courthouses and harbors during the golden age which seemed to help keep us afloat. I’d suggest continuing that, along with drydocks where appropriate to really get our navy going.

There is a galleon with a settler on the way to resettle a city in ex-Incan territory. No garrison though so we will need to pump out some muskets. In fact, many of our cities are still in dire need of protection.

Saladin is still running away in tech, but he lacks chemistry as of the end of my set. Hopefully we can get to him soon although I think that Hatty or Toku may be better for conquering at the moment. We should probably send a razing party to the Arabs and try to raze a couple important cities to knock him down a peg. At the same time, we can begin actions against Toku or Hatty.


Rooster:
Madtown <-- Just kicked some butt for 20 turns.
yena <--- UP NOW for more a$$ kicking
Morganknight <--- On deck
Melior Traiano
qwertz

Happy 4:20 everyone

 

[yena]

A most impressive set

I got it, and will play tomorrow. I had a quick look at the save, and I think we should hit Saladin as soon as the ships are in position. Capturing/razing Damaskus, Media and Mecca looks feasible and should slow him down quite a bit; hopefully he will be crushed before he gets Chemistry for frigates. Smaller cities should be razed, since we cannot pay for the maintenance until we have State Property. Suggestions welcome.

 

[Melior Traiano]

Good work Madtown.

I concur that Saladin should be next on the hitlist. Mecca & Medina at least are worth keeping for the wonders & shrine. The one thing that could trip us up is the AP, which is in Medina. But I don't think we should raze the city because it has other useful wonders:

We're 18 votes shy of a blocking majority on AP resolutions, so we should let our cities grow a bit to avoid having to defy a resolution.

 

[Madtown]

One more note I forgot to mention:

We just got out of merc. civic switch anarchy and I did not go through the cities and MM the new specialists. Sorry Yena, you'll have to do that one.

 

[Melior Traiano]

Noticed this before but forgot to snap a screenie.

That couldn't possibly have been just a coincidence?

 

[Madtown]

Variant change suggestion:

What do you guys think about allowing us to keep ships loaded with units in cities?

You can think of it like the crew of the ship while it is in port, unloading smuggled goods.

This would allow us to guard newly captured cities because the cargo units will still defend the city when attacked. If we don't do this I fear it will be very difficult to hold onto cities as we move into the later ages. In fact, I was surprised that HC failed to recapture Cuzco after I took it since I could only gaurd it with the final attacker. He had knights stationed in Tiwanaku that could've struck back.

 

[Melior Traiano]

Can ground troops on boats defend a city? I thought they couldn't?

 

[yena]

I'm really sorry, but RL is interfering, and I cannot find any time to play until Friday. I can swap Morganknight if you are impatient to get this game moving again.