Random Deity Troublemaking

[microbe]

preturn: so we are going to attack Spain. Start moving units to the border. I'd be comfortable with 10 legions, and we have 7 at hand. There is a bigger German SoD nearby with a leader!

I hire a scientist in Veii and lower lux.

IBT we lose curragh. I start another one. Mongols take a town from Spain!

(1)330BC: crap, we have a reg warrior in Spanish territory. I disband it, and declare on Spain.

I raise sci to get HBR in 4 turns.

IBT messy fight among Germany, Spain and Russia. Germany took the dyes town.

(2)310BC:

IBT Russian units are retreating?

(3)290BC: we lose one legion and kill 3 spearmen and raze Barcelona. We got 3 slaves. And we enter GA.

(4)270BC: we have not much to build but I start one temple and one library. Don't want to waste our GA purely on legions.

(5)250BC: I set sci to Republic.

(6)230BC: IBT Mongols completes Sun Tzu. Byz completes Sistine Chapel!

(7)210BC: IBT Spain and Mongols make peace. Spanish MDI dies on our legion. LOTS of Germany/Russia fighting. Russia starts Knights Templar and completes it.

(8)190BC: There are pikes in Madrid. We claim the iron. Legions move toward Murcia instead of Madrid as capital is normally too heavily defended.

(9)170BC: Russia captures the dyes town.

(10)150BC: Kill 2 spearmen and capture Murcia.

We can get Currency+Polytheism from Spain by 151g, and then trade for Map Making and Construction. If we make the deal this turn we can switch most temples to markets.

Or we can try to take Madrid. We can get some 6-7 legions over there after quelling the resistance. Madrid is a big city, and if it has a couple pikes + 3-4 spears we probably need 10+ legions. My opinion is to sign peace and come back in 20 turns.

Germany and Russia are at stalemate, which is great, but Russia is gaining with better units.

Republic in 10 turns.

And we can build FP - where to do it?

 

[microbe]

 

[Sir Bugsy]

We need some settler to poach some lands in Spain. Nice to see Germany getting the down side of something. We couldn't defend Valencia, I'd go for peace.

 

[microbe]

We have a settler west to Vironconium that can settle on the hill. We can also get another one on the gold hill west to Murcia.

I would make peace and prepare the war against Germany. It's backward and after its existing forces are gone we should be able to conquer it easily.

 

[Renata]

Great job.

Some idle thoughts at 4 in the morning:

Murcia's a major flip risk over there -- worth trying to get a settler over there to abandon/refound a town of our own? Nah, scratch that; someone'll capture Madrid soon enough the way things are going. Maybe. Hispalis is bad, too. On the other hand, *we* might be able to flip Toledo -- it's practically in our first ring, and held by Russia, whose capital is a loooooong way away. Let the temples in Ravenna and Hispalis complete?

No opinion on the FP placement -- don't know enough about Conquests corruption yet.

Is there some reason there's a stack of workers on a jungle tile that isn't in any city's radius?

I think we should keep praying to our volcanos to keep taking out the German units and sparing our gems and iron. Pele's getting annoyed at all the trespass, possibly.

I agree on making peace now -- there's no way ten legions is enough to take on a size 11 capital. There'd have to be at least 7 or 8 units in there, tricky enough if it was just spears, never mind pikes.

Ugh, I'm braindead. Forgive me if I said anything stupid.

Renata

 

[el_filet]

will get and play it tonight

game plan:
make suggested trade and build some markets, stay on temples in hispalis, pisae and murcia (viroconium?)
build new towns on suggested positions
attacking another foe doesn't seem wise, russia seems too strong (walls, probably pikes) and germany is on the other end of our empire. the 20 turns may be enougth to start attacks on cologne or heidelburg, if we don't need the units to reduce flip risk in murcia.

 

[microbe]

Is there some reason there's a stack of workers on a jungle tile that isn't in any city's radius?

Please stop them.

 

[Nad]

How about Hispalis for the FP (after removing governor control )?

For Murcia, I would suggest crushing resistance and then whipping a settler and abandoning/refounding.

I agree with peace now. We have to be careful about attacking Germany, they turned the dogpile surprisingly easily and they have iron + ancient cavs, which makes them dangerous. Since we have so many temples on the go, I would suggest using the rest of the GA for basic infra and then starting on another round of legion building.

Good job Microbe!

el_filet...UP NOW
Renata...ON DECK

 

[el_filet]

got it - play now

 

[el_filet]

150 BC (0):
peace and 151g for spain gives us currency & poly
iron (theis is disconnectet for the moment), dyes, 5g cur&pol to germans for construction&MM
change most productions to markets
murcia -> settler

IBT:
russian-german war, russia kills german GL
4 resistors quelled

130 BC (1):
build lugdunum -> cat
ship cathy dyes for 10gpt+12g
0.8.2 @-2gpt (pompeii needs it)

IBT:
some fights

110 BC (2):
pop-rush settler in murcia
worker turns

IBT:
russians conquer santiago

90 BC (3):
worker turns
abandon murcia and build lutetia -> cat

IBT:
some fights

70 BC (4):
veii market->settler

IBT:
fighting

50 BC (5):
suicide curragh

IBT:
some fighting
curragh lost

30 BC (6):
antioch: market->legion
reduce science

IBT:
some...you know
give cathy 12g

10 BC (7):
pompeii: settler->temple
veii: settler->legion
reduce lux

10 AD (8):
repu comes in, probably should wait for GA to end for revoltution
start mono

IBT:
mongols&russia join together against germany, mongols declare

30 AD (9):
-

50 AD (10):
antium: leg->leg


notes:
settler on gold hill ready
settler on the way to lugdunum, ready to grab land (some free land N)
legions still in lutetia
noticed on the last turn pisae is not well defended, legion on its way
german-russian war in the beginning of my turns around santiago, later mostly around hispalis, now around cumae

now all civs got mono, wasn't the best decision. should i have sticked to gold?

 

[microbe]

Great, so the AI war keeps going. I've never seen such brutal things. We need to prepare to take Germany when they fall quickly.

What free tech did Germany get?

 

[el_filet]

they got feudalism as far as i remenber. russia has mono, feud&eng, the other ones feud&mono

should i have taken a 2fer possibiliy? i had to invest a lot of gpt which seemed to risky during GA

 

[Renata]

Just checked -- Germany got monotheism. Everyone has that, and everyone but Germany has Feudalism. Russia also has Engineering.

I don't see any 2-fer possibilities at the moment. The only tech we can afford is monotheism, which is 58gpt +40-somthing gold from either Russia or the Mongols. Nothing else is on offer even for everything we have. Since our entire economy is less than 100 gpt even in our GA with lux at zero, I don't think we want to be making any large gpt deals right now. Dissenting opinions are welcome.

Revolt in three turns when our GA ends?

I got it, and I can play in about 24 hours.

Renata

 

[el_filet]

more notes:
hispalis is still building a temple beacause i wanted some culture to reduce flip risk
that means FP hasn't started yet (hispalis or more E?)
legions around gold hill were stationed to stop russian settler wich i spottet earlier during my turns (now with city built dispensible)
started several hill minings (during GA and after republic useful)
emphasised growth in some cities (cumae, pisae, hispalis), but that means considerable shield loss during the GA. suggest to change that for the 3 remaining turns
most cities couldn't finish even one infra building during my turns

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Let's keep building infrastructure until our GA runs out, then build up to take some German lands. Might want to consider raze and replace.

 

[Renata]

I can't believe this stupid site just ate my entire comment. Arrrghh! I'm way too tired to type it all out again, so here's a shorter version. (Yeah, I know, it's not really short. I can't help it.)

Turn 1 (70ad): Met Byzantines up north (curragh), bought engineering for 75gpt and small change, resold to Mongols and Germans for monotheism, incense, ivory and small change. Reseach off thereafter. Byzantium settled on gold hill. Pisae built temple, then set to worker. My thinking is we need one city to build settlers for poaching territory in Germany; Pisae is as good as any, so it should stay below size 7.

Turn 2 (90ad): Pompeii built a temple. Curragh sank trying to make the crossing to Theodora's new tundra town.

Turn 3 (110ad): Veii & Hispalis temple, Antium legionary, Pisae worker, Ravenna marketplace.

Turn 4 (130ad): Brundisium founded in a tiny gap in the jungle up north. On the IT, Temujin demands 25g, which is paid. Golden age ends, dropping our income from 41gpt to 25gpt. I decided to wait a few more turns to revolt as insurance against us being forced to starve towns to outlast our anarchy without growing broke. (Actually, I knew I'd have to delay anarchy when I decided to make the trade with Theodora.) It gave me a chance to complete a galley in Antium, too.

Turn 5 (150ad): Pompeii legion.

Turn 6 (170ad): Nothing, but on the following IT, the Byzantines started Bach's.

Turn 7 (190ad): Pompeii legion, Veii spearman.

Turn 8 (210ad): Antium galley (sent off north to tundra crossing -- should reach on Nad's turn 5 or 6). Lugdunum trebuchet. I finally sent us into anarchy this turn and drew the dreaded 8 turns. Blech. The cash deficit was pretty bad -- -60-something gpt with only about 200g in the bank. I froze growth and made taxmen nearly everywhere to get the gold loss down into the manageable levels.

Turn 9 (230ad): Sold dyes to Isabella for their full market value to her: 40g.

Turn 10: nada to speak of.

Despite all our troubles on the research front, there's still plenty of 2-fer type opportunity out there, so I'd suggest staying cash-only for a while yet. Germany and Spain are lagging severely, and at the moment are only Feudalism and Monarchy up on us. If we can come up with the cash for Theology before either of them gets it, that'd be great for us, as it would open up larger trading opportunities (chivalry, invention, education, printing press).

Dyes come available for sale again next turn to the Mongols and Russia, so we may be able to get out of the red a bit. At the moment, all our towns but four, I think, are at no-growth. Cumae will grow to size 7 next turn, Hispalis is growing, and Pisae and Viroconium are both slowly losing their reserves at -1fpt. Viroconium can certainly be set back to no-growth if desired, and/or a few towns set growing again (we have a small cushion against bankruptcy now even without considering the upcoming dyes trades), but it won't hurt Pisae to stay as-is another couple of turns if it's going to build a settler next.

I'm not wedded to any of the build orders currently set except for Pisae's settler and the marketplaces in the larger towns -- with the upcoming anarchy I didn't give them much thought. So I won't mind if they're changed wholesale. I still have no idea where to put the FP. Ravenna? It's cruddy territory, but at least it's vaguely in the right direction for our current set-up, and it's not as pressured culturally as Hispalis is. Dunno.

The tide has finally turned decisively against Germany, by the way -- Russia dive them out of our territory about turn 8 or 9, and the front-runners of the Mongol hordes have reached the Ravenna/Pompeii area. It shouldn't be much longer before towns start to fall, provided the war continues. We're out of settlers; hence the importance of the Pisae build as soon as anarchy ends.

Anyway, Nad -- sorry about handing you six more turns of anarchy and an empire in cash distress! You did say you didn't mind a challenge, right? *Right?*

Renata <-- ducks and runs

 

[Sir Bugsy]

So Renata, how do you like C3C?

 

[Renata]

I like the 2-gpt taxmen, that's a definite. Not being able to trade contacts or maps is disconcerting -- that's a big component of how I'd kept up early in deity in the past. I love the curragh, even if all of ours did sink on a stupid 3-tile crossing in this game. And on a technical note, I'm glad the RCP bug was eliminated -- as much fun as I've had in the last two GOTMs learning how to take advantage of it, I always found it mildly cheesy, and I'm glad to be able to get back to building cities wherever they fit best without obsessing about how much commerce/shields I'm wasting by doing so.

Renata

 

[Nad]

Renata, why are you ducking and running? Very well played turns, both yours and el_filet's We're finally getting into the trading loop and our economy is beginning to improve...once we have republic, markets and FP, we'll be very strong.

The troublemaker in me, however, wants a bloody Middle Age . Sure we could trade our way through, use our comercial trait, stay wealthy and act as broker, but...nah! Legions baby! And once we can't build those, then knights and cavalry...watch out Otto, here we come...

For now I guess I'll be cleaning up after anarchy to get our empire into shape towards churning out military again...

Got it.

 

[Nad]

Random Deity Troublemaking, inherited turn 250AD

Shuffle a few units round, taking legions and a treb out of flip-prone cities. Similarly shuffle a few tiles around and alter a couple of builds to courthouse, but on the whole everything looks very well managed.

Early: watch ridiculous numbers of Mongol troops trample through our land...if they should sneak attack us we'd be toast.

Contact trading becomes available with the Byzantines, who hold a monopoly on contact with Portugal and Sumeria. Since the Byzantines already know the Mongols and are just 1 tile away from a Spanish border I salvage what I can get from trade: we sell contact to Russia, Germany, Spain and 20g for contact with Portugal (contact with Sumeria is impossible to buy, which suggests the Sumerians must be a major power). Although Portugal lacks engineering ut has feudalism and monarchy, we are far too poor to 2fer.

270AD, Byzantium (our Byzantium!) flips to Russia . Heidelburg falls to Russia in a more conventional manner...the Germans are being thrashed.

Middle: attempt suicide galley crossing, fails as galley sinks within a turn. Cologne is razed by Russia, and we have a poaching opportunity. Nuremburg also falls to Russia.

We become a republic, and after sorting out our empire we cash rush Pisae's settler in 320AD to nab the ex-Colone site. We also have contact with Sumeria, so the Byzantines must have sold their knowledge. No deals yet though.

Late: buildings and units begin to complete. Lux is set to 10% to keep all citizens working. Frankfurt falls to Russia.

Notes: settler is in position to found a city next turn...should be founded where he is now.

There is 1 turn left on our ivory deal with Germany and 9 turns left on our dyes deal with Spain. Once these expire we should NOT trade resources to these civs...they could be knocked out at any time and we do not want a tarnished rep. We want to attack Germany anyway...

At the moment we have 208g + 65gpt, but another 75gpt becomes available next turn as the Byzantine deal ends. So we have plenty of cash...I have left it for the next player to decide how to spend...in brokering, or in saving for rushes/upgrades.

I still think Hispalis is the best site for FP all considered, though we are now reaching the stage where we just need the damn thing built without wasting more time...if you go for Hispalis, consider cash-rushing the courthouse to completion first.