Raliuven SG1

[CKS]

Iroqouis have education but not gunpowder, which is something to keep in mind when our deal expires. Roman and the Iroquois appear to still be in the tech game, but not by much. Russia and France are done. It is now between Japan, Carthage and us. We are by far the largest civ on the map.

Actually, the Iroquois have gunpowder, so this isn't so helpful.

We need to decide soon on whether we want to go for conquest or domination. Just settling the empty land would put us over 50%, and there is a reasonable chance we could hit the domination limit without having to deal with Carthage or Japan. On the other hand, Raliuven wanted a military game, so perhaps we should go for conquest, one tile islands permitting. Avoiding Carthage is perhaps not in the spirit of this game.

 

[Elephantium]

I will need a swap. I'm "up" in Rat42 (playing all day and still on Turn 2) and in SGFN-09. I'm probably looking at Friday night before I can play this one.

 

[Raliuven]

Actually, the Iroquois have gunpowder, so this isn't so helpful.

Grrrr. Must have pulled it in on the last turn and I missed it. Grrr.

I will need a swap. I'm "up" in Rat42 (playing all day and still on Turn 2) and in SGFN-09. I'm probably looking at Friday night before I can play this one.

No problem. Thanks for the quick notice. A little tweaking. I'll will insert your turn when it looks to ETA with Friday. That Makes Overseer 'up' if available.

ROSTER:
-Raliuven (just played)
-Elephantium (on hold till Friday)
-TheOverseer714 (Playing)
-CKS (on deck)
-creamcheese

 

[RedKi-rr]

At one time I was die hard 'need an army ASAP' kind of player. At least in PTW I tend to agree that armies are rather weak. I think it was Lanzelot that once told me that armies really are not necessary below Deity (and maybe not even needed at Deity). I took that to heart. I will usually only build an army if I have nothing better to build and only after my FP/2nd core is established. Of course that does call into question how useful a 2nd core is for a fast conquest.

And if we are pitting Cav armies against mechs, then something has definitely gone wrong! I don't think this game is getting out of the early Industrial Age after the excellent warring of my teammate!

I agree that cavs vs motorized infarty is wrong)) I had't much choises, I fell behind in tech (about 2/3 era or even greater) when I was at the first part of Medeival era. Comparing with your save I can see that your Empire is healthy and developed, the tech pace is very good, you have the largest land. So...I bet that after cavalry the game will be completely (and very fast) won.

 

[TheOverseer714]

I may not be able to play til the weekend either, but we'll see.

 

[Raliuven]

We need to decide soon on whether we want to go for conquest or domination. Just settling the empty land would put us over 50%, and there is a reasonable chance we could hit the domination limit without having to deal with Carthage or Japan. On the other hand, Raliuven wanted a military game, so perhaps we should go for conquest, one tile islands permitting. Avoiding Carthage is perhaps not in the spirit of this game.

Sorry, I didn't answer this part. I would like a conquest but I also respect that everyone may have 'things to do'. So I vote for conquest, but I will respect the group decision. If we go for domination, Damascus could be returned to a settler factory with little loss (sell the barracks; IIRC the aqua just started). I'd really like to stomp on Carthage, but there would also be a sense of if we won by surrounding Carthage rather than destroying it.

 

[Elephantium]

I'm in favor of Conquest, 0% science -- pointy-stick research until Metallurgy, then research Military Tradition -- and cranking out a few more settlers from Damascus.

 

[creamcheese]

I don't mind conquest if that is what the team wants, but I prefer Domination. By the time you have that much land your victory is all but assured anyway (barring some kind of culture monster city or the UN or space, but by the time you can controll 66% you should have beaten off these threats)...

 

[TheOverseer714]

Let's play it by ear, if we annihilate Carthage and Japan, we'll have the only real opponents finished. What might be fun is do both simultaneously, as has been done by several greats in the gotm forums.

 

[creamcheese]

Let's play it by ear, if we annihilate Carthage and Japan, we'll have the only real opponents finished. What might be fun is do both simultaneously, as has been done by several greats in the gotm forums.

Does anything special happen if you acheive both at the same time? Or does one victory message take precedence?

Presumably this invloves carefully monitoring the # of tiles left to domination and then achieving domination (and conquest) by capturing the last enemy city?

 

[CKS]

Nothing special in-game happens. The game checks for victory conditions in a particular order, and when it comes to the first that has been fulfilled, it says you won that way.

 

[Raliuven]

Just want to let everyone know I will be out of town starting today (Friday) and back on Sunday.

 

[Elephantium]

Oops, somehow I mixed up SGFN and this game, so it fell off my radar screen. I'll get started immediately.

 

[Elephantium]

Pre-turn:

Preferences
Switch "Always build previously-built unit" on
Turn off Animate our Auto-moves

Micromanagement
Change all Wealth and reg. military builds to Catapults or Workers.

Spoiler :

Once we have MT, we can turn off science and start upgrading the catapults to Cannon as the money rolls in ... if the game lasts long enough

Workers ... we have 49 cities and 21 Workers. I'd call that a shortage.

Sell the temple in Damascus; we don't need the content face, and we could use the extra gpt.

Ditto in Lyons, Rheims, Najran, Kufah, Tours, Fustat, Mansura, and Aydab.

Tweak Baghdad for shields; Mkt due in 6 rather than 7.
Change all Library builds to Ansars.
Change Atlanta from (American) Settler to Temple; a little culture there opens up a lot of tiles for nearby cities

War planning:
We have a 4-turn alliance with Russia; I'm going to declare war once that's over. We need Sevastopol and Sverdlovsk!

 

[Elephantium]

We got a Leader! What should we do with him -- build an Army or rush the FP in Paris?

Turnlog so far:

Spoiler :

IBT:

Whoa, I haven't seen this before. Instead of giving me the unit selection window, it just says "Mecca built Ansar Warrior."
Yamama: Courthouse > Barracks
Mansura: Mkt > Court

Turn 1 (560 AD):

Move some troops, mostly it's zzz...
Sci slider to 60%; Chem still due in 4.

IBT:

Khurasan: Ansar > Court
Najran: Ansars
Kufah: Ansars
Muscat: Mkt > Ansar

Palace expansion. We add an east wing to go with the west wing.

Turn 2 (570 AD):

Rouen:
eAnsar kills Spear
eAnsar kills Spear
vAnsar kills LB and takes the city!

Shihr founded 2W of Mansura, in Ring 3. Making Court.

IBT:

Rouen riots as the Resistance ends.

Turn 3 (580 AD):

Sign peace with France for everything they have -- Education, WM, 42 gold.

As suspected, Carthage has Astro.

IBT:

Mecca: Ansars
Damascus: 'duct > Settler
Marseilles: Cats
Fez: Rax > Ansar

Turn 4 (590 AD):

Cancel alliances with Rome and Russia.
Declare on Russia.
eAnsar kills Spear at Sevastopol. Then I stop the attack; I don't want to raze the city for another couple of turns.

Sverdlovsk
Lose eAnsar vs. Spear
eAnsar retreats vs. Spear
eAnsar kills Spear
eAnsar kills redlined Spear, enters city, and promotes!

 

[TheOverseer714]

I think FP is the better deal.

 

[Raliuven]

I vote for the FP. I agree that Paris is a good choice.

 

[CKS]

FP in Paris gets my vote.

 

[Elephantium]

Spoiler :

Turn 4 IBT:

Iroquois and Rome sign peace.
GA ends

Najran: Ansars
Chartres: Workers

Turn 5 (600 AD):

Bombard Sevastopol. 1/4 hits, killing population.

Make peace with Hiawatha. He gives WM + 26 gold, all he has.
He's also willing to kick in Akwesasne, a minor city out past Japan. I leave that out of the deal; it's a liability to us because it's hard to defend in the event of war with Japan.

"Buy" America's WM with our Territory map. He also kicks in 6 gold!

IBT:

Chem > Metallurgy, due in 13 at 50% science (+3gpt)
Kufah: Ansars
Balkh: Ansars

Turn 6 (610 AD):

Bombard Sevastopol. 1/4 hits; 1hp off a Spear.
Aden founded near Grenoble. Making Worker.
FP rushed in Paris.

IBT:

Paris: FP > Barracks
Medina: Worker > Court
Damascus: Settlers
Rheims: Cat > Court
Baghdad: Mkt > Ansar
Basra: Harbor > Galley
Yamama: Rax > Ansar
Aleppo: Ansars

Turn 7 (620 AD):

Bombard Sevastopol. Destroy Lib. Kill citizens. 1hp off Spear.
eAnsar kills Spear.
Sci slider to 60%; Metallurgy due in 9.

IBT:

Muscat: Settler > Ansar
San Francisco: Catapults
Miami: Catapults
Mosul: Worker > Court

Turn 8 (630 AD):

Zzz...

IBT:

Lyons: Cat > Court
Anjar: Duct > Ansar
Seattle: Catapults
Bayt Ras: Ansar > Court

Turn 9 (640 AD):

I notice that Rome, Carthage, and France all have Printing Press. Carthage has a Banking monopoly, and only Russia and America lack Astro now.

IBT:

Mecca: Ansars
Philly: Worker > Galley
Najran: Ansars
Chicago: Workers
Avignon: Worker > Galley (maybe prebuild for Cannon?)
Fustat: Ansars
Grenoble: Catapult > Court
Suhar: Catapult > Court
Hama: Cats
Sana'a: Workers

Turn 10 (650 AD):

Found Tabuk S of the ruins of Sevastopol.

Handoff notes:

Russia lies prostrate before us. The next player can make peace, leave the war going, or send a stack of Ansars at Kiev and Odessa (6 or 8 should do the trick). I left one Ansar active near Kiev since there's a settler pair we could snap up if we decide to continue the war.

America is sending a settler pair S from Detroit; my plan was to block off the peninsula at Seattle with catapults and an Ansar. A Settler is heading for the area from the mountains near Mansura.

There are stacks of military in 4 locations:
1N Centralia; for defense of the western coast.
Merw; for attacking St. Petersburg when we attack Carthage.
Aydab; for defense of Paris and/or attacking Rusicade.
Grenoble; for defense of the Japanese Isthmus and perhaps an attack on Carthago Novo.

IMO we should declare on Carthage soon and fight a short war -- it will cause significant WW if it runs longer than 4-5 turns.

 

[Raliuven]

Very nice! Haven't looked at the save just yet but the log looks like very good news.

ROSTER:
-Raliuven
-Elephantium (just played)
-TheOverseer714 (Playing)
-CKS (on deck)
-creamcheese

**Edit** I can't believe we are still weak compared to Carthage!!!