Random SG 01 - The Randomness Begins

[Sir Bugsy]

Pre-flight (con’t) – Per the discussion, build an academy on a plains tile. I agree with Menelann’s assessment that we are ready for war. We’ll have the cats next turn. I’m sure Darius will send his embarked knight our way. I’ll declare next turn. First, we need to denounce Darius. I go through and ask him to stop spying and stop settling cities near us. Then I denounce him. He isn’t pissed off yet . . . yet.

IBT – Attila landed a trebuchet next to Persepolis and it was promptly destroyed. That pulled several units away from us. We will need to careful to not lose Persepolis to Attila. Utique completes and starts on a coliseum. Do not set up a build queue in an SG. Physics is completed.

Turn 161 – 1010 AD – Time to declare war. We get 100G from pillaging a trade route. Take out a Persian Comp Bow with four volleys from crossbows. Upgrade three of our four catapults, a warrior to a sword and a comp bow to a crossbow. Take a shot at the warrior in our rear with the galleass and charge him with our jumbo. He barely survives to see 1011 AD.

As Menelann pointed out, our Q-Boat is trapped. We’ll never get open borders with Attila and it will not survive a run past the Hunnian city, Cana. We put the crew into a lifeboat and they scuttle the ship, saving 2 gpt.

We have some extra truffles now so I dial up Theodora. We also have some wine. She greets me in her sheer blouse and she buys some wine from us for 7gpt, a smile, and a kiss. I get slapped when I try to increase the level of intimacy. We still have those truffles. Our only options are Attila and Haile. We actually have two truffles for sale. I sell the truffles to Haile for 6 gpt and to Attila for 6 gpt and an embassy in our capital. We’re going to need open borders with Ethiopia to land our trebuchets so I swap them with Haile.

Leave the coliseum in Utique since it will complete in a turn. Select a trebuchet in Carthage.

Select steel for longswords (due in 5). Losses: Darius 1, Carthage 0.

IBT – Lose our chariot archer to a pike. Watch Attila lose a galley and a sword. (1-1)

Turn 162 – 1020 AD – We have a great writer so Charles Dickens writes A Christmas Carol. Tourism up to 4.

Kill off the scout, the warrior, and capture the settler in our rear. Begin moving units forward on the northeastern front. Darius is turtling. He now has six visible units and a galley off his east coast. Embark two trebs and a crossbow.

Utique: coliseum => galleass (3 turns) (4-1)

Here is the tactical situation:

 

[Sir Bugsy]

IBT – Darius polishes off a Hun sword and shifts in our direction. He takes a shot at our forest elephant to no avail. A golden age begins. An embarked knight heads toward our shore.

Turn 163 – 1020 AD – Our connection with Utique is broken since the knight is in range of the city. Find the Swedish city of Dublin. Move the trebs toward a landing position. Bring the crossbow back ashore. Shoot the knight with our crossbows and bombard the other. Bring our elephant back to heal. We’ll need some shore bombardment before we land our trebs.

Hippo: galleass => galleass (3 turns) We have some very nice production. (4-1)

IBT – We lose our sword on the northeastern from attacks from the comp bow, the pike, and the knight. Darius is either in a golden age or has gotten a few units with mountain training. Suleiman completes Notre Dame. (4-2)

Turn 164 – 1030 AD – Kill both knights. Redline a pike. Embark another treb, move landing force towards desired positions. Eight Persian units in sight.

Carthage: treb => galleass (3 turns) (6-2)

IBT – Watch Suleiman lose a galley off Ethiopia. Darius retreats. A galleass takes fire from a comp bow.

Turn 165 – 1040 AD – Continue moving toward a landing position. Kill two pikes and a comp bow. Ranged units are starting to pay off. Red line another comp bow with ship to shore bombardment.

Utique: galleass => galleass (3 turns) This should be our last one for a while. (8-2)

Here is the tactical situation at the end of turn 165:

 

[Sir Bugsy]

IBT – A galleass takes fire from the comp bow. A pike attacks a crossbow. Steel comes in. We are losing Cape Town.

Turn 166 – 1050 AD – Send 250G to Cape Town. We can steal a tech. I go for Acoustics since it is the most expensive and we enter the Renaissance Era. We also find out that our spy in Persepolis thinks Darius is plotting against Ethiopia. That man is obviously been partaking of some fine Persian hashish. Despite his obvious drug use we give him a promotion for his fine work stealing acoustics.

Upgrade our sword to a longsword. Crossbows kill a pike. Galleasses kill a comp bow. I see four Persian units. Move the landing force forward.

Hippo: galleass => university (10-2)

Here is the tactical situation:



I am going to stop here and see what the team wants to research next. Our options are astronomy, gunpowder, printing press, and chivalry. I am really torn. I really like gunpowder and heading toward cannons, but astronomy would give us caravels and the opportunity to find more city states and heading toward frigates.

 

[Menelann]

Nice work killing Persian army

His units positioning looks pretty smart for an AI.. Though I hope it won't cause much problems to our fleet

Sorry about the coliseum queued, for some reason thought that units have combat bonus during golden ages

I like astronomy due to the observatory in the capital Some exploration could be useful too, we still haven't met one civ and a lot of CS's... By the way, how is our brave lonely scout doing?)

I think that I f you're feeling this war won't end so soon musketmans/cannons would be useful. But if we finish this war without these techs I like upper side of tech tree. Like astronomy, navigations, public schools eventually. Frigates would play a major role in war with Attila if it happens I think.

How is Suleiman's progress in taking Harar?)

What do you think about moving our spy away of Persian drugs?

 

[Sir Bugsy]

I think Persia will be gone in another 6-8 turns. Persepolis at strength 41 will be a tough nut to crack.

Suleiman's progress at Harar is non-existent.

Good point about moving toward frigates. Attila's fleet would melt away.

Our lonely scout is still over by Sweden finding former Celtic cities.

I was thinking we should keep the spy in Persepolis until we have it surrounded. The intelligence we get by having him there is still valuable.

I'll wait for more input. I'll play the remaining turns this afternoon.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Turn 166 – 1050 AD (con’t) –Select astronomy. I ask our stoned spy to give us an idea about what’s going on in Persepolis. Darius is building the musician’s guild. Now we are certain our spy is stoned.

IBT -

Turn 167 – 1060 AD – Bombard a pike with three galleasses, get him down to low yellow.

Carthage: galleass => iron works

Gades: university => long sword

IBT -

Turn 168 – 1070 AD – Darius has a gret general which he moves within range of our galleass. Bombard and kill a pike. Elephants are healed so they go swimming. Plan on landing them near Ethiopia.

Utique: galleass => university (11-2)

IBT – Theodora visits, gives me a peck on the cheek, and asks to open embassies. You want me to jump? How high? She is located west of Sweden.

Turn 169 – 1075 AD – Darius has a galleass in Persepolis. Bombard land units. Bring a treb ashore in Ethiopia.

IBT – The Persian galleass sails southeast along the coast. Darius does not have open borders with Haile so our treb in Ethiopia is not attacked. Attila bullied a city state.

Turn 170 – 1080 AD – Our road to Utique is complete. I move the worker to start a road to Persepolis. Bombard and kill a pike. (12-2)

Astronomy is due in two turns. Production, science, and economy are all booming. We’ll be able to build Oxford in two turns. The Iron Works will be completed then. Darius doesn’t even understand he is in a war. He is presently building a Satrap’s Court.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Here is the home front. I have left a crossbow in the southern part of our lands. We might want to have at least one other ranged unit there. The new galleass is just south of Cape Town.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Here is the present tactical situation:

 

[Sir Bugsy]

And here is what my war plan was:



I have been waiting to kill the pikes before landing the elephants. The trebs in Ethiopia can fire with impunity.

Be sure to move all units forward on the same time. We're going to lose at least two trebs from the city/archer/galleass bombardment.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

And the line up:

Bugs <= got to do some
Polus <= Traveling. Skipped until return.
Teproc <= Gets to finish off Darius
Gurra <= on deck
Eric
Menelann

 

[EricTheGreat12]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Can somebody please remind me how much science an academy gives ?

IIRC, 8 beakers per turn.

 

[Teproc]

We have the GS on a hill at the moment. We would get an extra shield for production.

A shield ?

Edit : Oh, stuff happened, looks like it's my turn ! Things look pretty good, will play tonight I think.

Yep, looks like Persepolis will fall pretty easily. I get all the glory, haha !

We decided we wanted to go Domination right ? Because if so, we should get o work on Attila pretty much right after Darius is done. If Suleiman can be bribed to go to war with us that'd be even better.

 

[Menelann]

IIRC, 8 beakers per turn.

+sweet percents^^ 87% right now I guess, so like 14

Yeh, Persepolis is definitely falling and we'll have extra 50 culture

Wardecing Attila right after navigation is done and we improve all our frigs sounds not too bad. We should be able to take down former Ephiopean capital very quick. Probably his coastal city too (it's his capital, right?). But I hate to do landwar against The Great Wall civ...

What do you think about using Oxford on navigation? I usually build it later on, but it fits nicely here.

Our next Social Policy is rationalism?

 

[Teproc]

It would only shave a few turns, I'd rather keep it for something bigger like Dynamite.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

A shield ?

I meant a hammer. Shield is a Civ III term.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Yes. Let's get frigates before declaring on Attila. Right now our military is stronger than him. Since his modus operandi is that of a bully, he won't pick on us.

Before we attack the Huns, let's figure out a campaign plan. Going via Addis Ababa might not be the best option with all those mountains. It would probably turn out like Gallipoli in 1915.

 

[Menelann]

Before we attack the Huns, let's figure out a campaign plan. Going via Addis Ababa might not be the best option with all those mountains. It would probably turn out like Gallipoli in 1915.

Yeh, launching a land attack from Addis Ababa would be definetly hard. What I was talking about is just taking and holding Addis Ababa. It's gonna be easy and safe but it won't actually hurt Attila...

But just now I realized that if Attila has a Great Wall in the coastal city we can quick grab it and make a nice defensive spot out of it^^
Though having land reinforcements would be long and painful if needed and our sea trade routes will be wide open
But still, if his Great Wall is in the coastal city I like the idea of grabbing it first
Also he won't be able to build much ships then, which is good. The only problem is the iron, should we buy it?

 

[Sir Bugsy]

This post is just going to be me brainstorming and riffing on some ideas.

Ideally, the best way to take a civ with the Great Wall is with artillery. Do we want to wait that long to go after Attila? Maybe. What would an alternative be? We can ignore Ethiopia since they have already lost their capital and are unlikely to get it back. Maybe we go after Suleiman. hmm...

I'll need to open up the save and look at the terrain, but if memory serves; most, if not all of the Ottoman cities are on the coast. By taking one or two of them (including the capital) we would establish a beachhead across the bay and we would be in a much better position to go after the Huns. This would also give us a very controllable supply chain. Scout always argued that amateurs talk strategy, but professionals talk logistics. Lack of logistics is what allowed Russia/Soviet Union to repel invaders in 1812 and 1942. By limiting our supply lines to just the eastern sea, we can easily defend it and easily get reinforcements across.

One thing I just remembered, is that our units can go over mountains once we have a great general. We don't want to stop on the mountain (lose 50% strength), but that might be the way we avoid the Gallipoli trap. hmmmm.....

Another option might be to go after Sweden. I can be convinced otherwise, but I'm not sure we are ready for that.

Later tonight after I get done grading some papers I'll open the save and take some screenshots of Turkey/Hunland

Any thoughts?

 

[Menelann]

Why this stupid battery dies every time I write a reasonable amount of text ok, once again..

Yeh, waiting for a dynamite and going through Addis Ababa is the waviest option due to the supply problems. But right now Attila's court has 29 combat str with 28 ranged str for frigs and there are 5 slots around for frigs to bombard it. Means that we can wardec, fire bombard the city the next turn and grab it with a privateer

Spoiler :

Actually with a current defence it's one turn, but probably he'll improve it a bit

... And if he has a Great Wall in the capital (it's usually the case for an AI) it will be the great defense against his own land troops for us as long as we don't research dynamite, and who needs dynamite if we have a Great Wall and a bunch of frigs.
I really like frigates rushes to crush a civ or two, they're really powerful against anything before them^^ Though we need some iron, but one of our luxes for gold deals with Sweden ends in 10 turns, we could trade off 4 iron for it later on.
In this case I also really like this idea of using the Great Wall against Attila

Spoiler :

In the last played SP game, Attila was near the Brazil, Pedro build th Great Wall and two cities between his capital and The Huns, but Attila took the capital first and Brazil was essentially dead The most surprising is that it was like a week after I thought about possibility of such tactics in our case)

Again, it's not the safest option though I believe in success if we have 6-7 frigates, 2-3 privateers and, say, all our 4 composites.

About the other options, waiting for dynamite and pushing through Addis Ababa looks easy, there're not too many mountains around.

Spoiler :

Also we can just grab Addis Ababa soon and not pushing with land units but just hunting down all incoming troops, though it's not fun and it won't hurt Attila to much

And I don't like wardecing Ottomans just yet, because first times trying Immortal Domination I ended up being a hated by everyone warmonger too early and it becomes stupid game in a complete isolation... Lately I'm trying to care about diplomacy a bit. For example if Attila will start a war with Ottomans and we join them, we'll be friends with Ottomans for some time at least...
Plus in this case we'll be a very convenient target for Attila (ok, so will be the Ottomans, but I don't want to rely on Attila's choice )

Agree with Bugsy that war with Sweden (or Theodora or whoever is left out there) is a bad idea now. Can we trade off open borders to keep exploring with our scout? Though if we won't go to war we can send a caravel and it won't be so important...

So I suggest war with Attila next: either grabbing, holding Addis Ababa and probably even make peace after it for some time, or waiting for the dynamite and pushing through Addis Ababa or launching a (mainly naval sneaky) attack on Attila's court.
If The Great Wall is in Attila's court, I like the last one; if not- the second one.

Suggest to decide it now because different techs are needed I guess. If the last variant, Navigation with Oxford and Public Schools looks fine. Otherwise we might want a dynamite before, thought it's not a very good idea to delay Public Schools