Race Wars 1: Nordic Sagas

[-0blivion-]

Good turns, but *ouch* Bergen not on the coast

The seafaring benefit is useless except for extra ship movement if our cities are not on the coast. The extra commerce can be really good.

 

[alerum68]

It sure can Oblivion, but we need shields at this point as well. We had access to more tiles this way, and until we're stable enough, shields are more important then gold, especially since we won't use most coastal squares until later in the game.

 

[Bede]

it is really a horse apiece here.

At this stage of the game every extra gold piece can fund the science budget immediately; the productive grasslands shave a turn or two off the military camp.

I might have put the second city on the fishing coast since we went with the looser spacing.

 

[alerum68]

Alright, to help ensure this doesn't happen again, does someone want to throw a dot map together? I think we explored enough land that we can throw at least a first ring dotmap up.

 

[alerum68]

JB is up. I'm going to PM him and see if whats going on... SC, will you be able to play if JB can't?

 

[jb1964]

I'll download when I get home from work tonight. I should be able to play and post before morning.

Consider this an "I got it".

 

[alerum68]

Glad to see you could make it. Have fun.

 

[jb1964]

I would realy appreciate comment on city placement before I dig into my 10 turns this evening. I'll probably start in on this ~10:30pm EST.

Blue - On the river
Pink - On the coast (Shouldn't be our next city )
Lt. Green - On the Coast (I would for for this location next.)
Yellow - Coast/river nearing the tundra.
White - Filling in the gaps, could move out NE one space

 

[Bede]

Consider movong light green to coast SE of Bergen for the fish. Otherwise looks good.

 

[jb1964]

Preflight: All looks good on the map. At home the wife is pissed at me. Unrelated to gaming.

Turn 1: Scouting and building roads

IBT: Volcano in American territory went active. Lucky for them.

Turn 2: Going to send settler due east to settle on river so I build roads in that direction. Our warrior scouting to the south. Ventured the curragh out into sea and found a passage to next island over.

IBT: We grow to size 6 in Trondheim

Turn 3: Hire a taxman in Trondheim for a turn before the settler pops.

IBT: Settler pops. MM Trondheim to get growth and warrior in two.
Volcano spews on the Americans. I weep for them.

Turn 4: Move settler into position. Workers finish road and mine for Bergen and move on to do the same for next settlement.

IBT: Trondheim, warrior -> worker

Turn 5: 1790 BC, Copenhagen founded and set to build a barracks. Workers connect bonus grass. Warrior headed north to explore and looking for luxuries. Lux tax still at 20%. Both Cleo and Abe are willing to trade for writing but I decline.

IBT: Bergen barracks -> warrior (needed from MP duty to lower Lux tax)

Turn 6: 1750 BC, We meet the Celts and trade them Alphabet for Mysticism and 10g. They’re up on us Wheel and we have writing and are 6 from Philosophy.

IBT: Zzzz

Turn 7: 1725 BC, We find the Celtic boarders. I’m sending our southern warrior on a quest for the goody hut near the Americans.

IBT: Zzzzz

Turn 8: 1700 BC, Nothing much

IBT: Bergen warrior -> granary

Turn 9: 1675 BC, Woohoo, we have ivory to our north. Philosophy in 3 so I’m going to check trade opportunities. Warrior headed to Trondheim.
Hmmm, we have spices and gems on our continent to the far north and now I notice a red boarder. Our track of land is looking crowded.
I get Iron Working for writing and 8 gold. America only has gold to offer and I’m tempted to empty Abe’s coffers before someone else does. Wheel is available from Cleo with a 6g kicker but I think I’ll see how it looks next turn.
MM Trondheim to get settler and growth in 1.
No iron close to us. Closest is near the Americans.

IBT: Trondheim settler -> warrior

Turn 10: 1650 BC, Our settler can head north towards the ivory or to the east towards the Americans and settle just below the three bonus grass, on a river and on the coast. I’ll let the team make the call and not send him on his way just yet. I’m voting for the bonus grass/river/coastal location.
With warrior in Trondheim I can set Lux to zero and push research to 90% giving us Philosophy in 2. The curraghs continue to explore as well as our warriors.

Le Save

 

[Bede]

SOunds good, jb.

But.. where's the save?

 

[alerum68]

Nice turns JB. Did ya happen to get any screen shots of the new land? I don't know where you went with the first city, but I'd vote to take as much land from the americans as quickly as possible, so I'd go with the the BG/river site, and grab the ivory with the next one.

Edit: There's both save a screenshot! Looks like we got a nice choke city to work with there.
I'd settle the next to cities stratigically here. The site we were talking about, as well as on the hill 3ne of that site. We'll cut the Americans off, and we'll be able to take the north at our leisure, and since we're only pushing a settler out (I think we don't need to use the warrior/worker combo, it slows us to much) every 6 turns, we'll need that extra time.

 

[jb1964]

Man, you're fast!

Save and pics attached.

 

[Bede]

A small quibble:
Bergen should be building military only. Archers once we garrison the other two towns with warrior MP's. Archers are more valuable to the Vikings than the warrior/sword upgrade path. Put the granary in Copenhagen.

 

[alerum68]

A small quibble:
Bergen should be building military only. Archers once we garrison the other two towns with warrior MP's. Archers are more valuable to the Vikings than the warrior/sword upgrade path. Put the granary in Copenhagen.

I aggree completely. Especially if we can pull leo's (prays) We'll be able to upgrade all those archers to zerks very cheaply... speaking of Leo's, any idea when we should start planning a prebuild for that? I think it'll be very important if we want to afford our 'zerk army.

 

[jb1964]

First time I have ever played Vikes and only my 3rd C3C game. I kept reading about Zerks but never looked into them. Nice unit.

OK, go for the white dot and then plant the next city on the hill (3NE). Good plan to cut off the Americans. We can then settle the plains and claim the ivory. Anyone interested in SoZ?

BTW, I got IW from the Celts. After reading about the Gallic Warrior I now know why they made a dash for this tech.

 

[alerum68]

I don't know about SoZ... unless we're crowded in, and needed to expand, I think building any unit making wonder, (besides the Mil Academy) is somewhat of a waste of shields... but claiming those ivory would be so very nice.

As for Zerks... they are an extremely powerful UU. I think even more powerful then the Immortal... (gasp) Did he say that?! Yes I did! And an archpeliego map there is no question about it... the naval attack ablity of the zerk makes it the only UU to have.... Of course, I'm from Nordic blood, and that may be clouding my judgment on Odinist who go Berzerk.

 

[Bede]

Couple of points on SoZ:
It is a 4cpt producer as well as a unit machine. It is the earliest available cultural wonder and is very cheap (circa 200 shields IIRC). Those AC's come in handy as MP and as zone defenders, and properly supported with artillery can kill tanks and Modern Armor. Looked at another way for 200 shields you get 70 shields worth of production every five turns while building something else. I put together an OCC 20K cultural on Emperor starting with the SoZ and my city lacked iron, saltpeter and rubber and was surrounded by militaristic/scientific/industrious nations with a penchant for warfare.

Net net, if I were going to build an AA wonder it would be the SoZ.

 

[alerum68]

I could see the SoZ being a useful wonder on a Pangea map, where you don't have Iron, but we do have Iron, aren't on a pangea and aren't going to be hurting for units that are powerful enough to build.

Also, the SoZ will pump out AC for us... and every 3 turns I believe... all I see that doing is building AC units which will reduce our unit support total. If I had to choose between an archer or a AC with our civ I'd go with the archer.

As for CPT, that would be a reason to go for it, but the unit support cost will negate that, unless we were planning on going for a culture win, but I don't see the Nordic path being one of culuture instead of iron and fire. In fact, I don't see any AA wonders that would be very good for us to build in this game.

I'm willing to listen if the team things it's worth it, but I can't see the benifits for us for this game.

 

[-0blivion-]

Just a note on the archer upgrade to zerks. It is 150 gold without leos. 75 if we get leos, still not that cheap and we may not get leos.