Rat 09 - going for conquest

[Dimy]

Roster:
ThERat - on deck
Dimy - just played
Greebley - away from 18 to 28th Nov
Thrar - up
Xarathas - on cruise from Fri til Monday

Go Thrar! Get us a religion!

 

[ThERat]

I am glad that that gamble with the marble city seems to pay off. great job, Dimy

I think we should expand slowly, but try and get to caravels as soon as possible. Isolated like this isn't really good

 

[Thrar]

Me again?!? Wow, this goes fast...
dunno how much time I have, may take me until Sunday.

(that means: got it!)

 

[Thrar]

(0) nothing really. I cancel the goto of Rome's worker, and turn on Antium's governor (no-growth). I have the feeling that by the time we get that marble connected, 75% of the oracle will be finished.

IBT - barb warriors attack our warrior out in open desert, but he wins.

(1) Start quarry on marble. Since Oracle production speed will double once that is completed (and roaded), I decide to build a granary first (useful once we get some happiness, or for poprushing). If we lose the Oracle by 2 turns (that's what we lose this way), it's my fault.

(2) Archer in Antium finished. I have no idea what we can build there waiting for Sailing to complete, so I order up another archer. Will complete same turn as sailing.

(3) Lots of barbs running around lately. Cumae gets obelisk, starts on granary.

(4) Note: that granary only costs 1 turn on the oracle, we get lots of overflow. So sue me if we miss it by one. Finish Sailing, start Writing. Actually, we need to delay the Oracle to get CoL. We first need writing! Don't sue me, no matter what happens about the granary!

IBT - 2 barb warriors commit suicide on different groups of archers. And we have a problem: There's a barb city now interrupting our roads to Cumae! It's defended by 2 archers.

(5) Our units gather to take it out (hopefully).

(6) Doesn't look good. 3.0 vs 4.5 odds for our archers. May need to build a road around it.

(7) Trying to lure out one archer with an exposed warrior, we could kill the second then.

(8) Doesn't work. Preparing to road around.

(9) starting to road. 3 turns.

(10) Writing finished, BW next turn. Taking that barb city is extremely risky, I don't dare.

Before ending this turn, check this:
1. If you want to attack the barb city, you may want to move that archer healing in the forest outside their borders. If not, you may want to move the woodsman II warrior NE of Numidian back to Cumae, to make the people happy.
2. I think a settler in Antium is pretty useful, and they have big production going. In Cumae I just didn't find any other good alternative, so I also ordered one. Note that it's built slowly because of unhappiness.

If or rather once you take the barb city, I suggest razing it (if it isn't autoraze anyway). It would look a good deal better on the river.

Stupid barbs, if it weren't for that city we'd have CoL by now.

 

[Dimy]

Crap...that's some rotten luck with that barb city messing up our trade route!

Yeah you're right about Writing, good spot! Btw, we could also grab Theology instead of CoL, theology is a more expensive tech and gives us Christianity. Assuming we still built the Oracle of course. Oh and I think you can play 5 more turns, as far as I know we play 15 turns a round.

 

[ThERat]

well, in order to avoid such a desaster again, we need to place our units tactically so that we bust the fog, no fog = no brabs

I guess we can wait for Xarathas, he can play next Monday night I guess

Roster:
ThERat
Dimy
Greebley - away from 18 to 28th Nov
Thrar
Xarathas - up on Monday night

Thrar, please post the save

 

[Thrar]

15 turns? I thought that was for the first round only.
Here's the save anyway, play as many turns as you like.

 

[ThERat]

Thanks Thrar, maybe we should play 15 turns until we get any contacts, since this can be pretty short right now

Actually, that a barb town could pop up there in between our land is really crazy weird

 

[ThERat]

save

decided to swap with xarathas, since tomorrow I might be busy with some other games
thought a swap would be fine

Pre-Turn
the situation is all but rosy
wake the archer to bring it in as additional attacker next turn
turn down research a notch so we go to -1gpt

IT we get bronze working, next iron working on the way to caravels and maybe iron itself

1. 675BC
before the attack

use 2 warriors to soften up defense, but lose both
lose another archer and warrior

now the odds are our favor, archer defeats archer

win battle, another archer steps forward, attacks

Oracle build drops to 3 , now hopefully we get it

zooming out reveals that we have NO copper

2. 650BC
zzz

3. 625BC
Cumae's borders expand

take CoL to get an expensive tech and a free religion

4. 600BC
start Rome on archer

Cumae is home of our religion
start anarchy to get this as our state religion

5. 575BC
spot 2 more barb archers near our cities

6. 550BC
kill 1 barb archer with our archer (that was promoted with 25% add attack against archers)

IT barb archer suicides against ours

7. 525BC
something funny happens, it's 525BC but the no unit can be moved???
load the autosave of the same IT and now the game can continue, well ,well where is the patch
Rome: archer -> archer
spread religion to Rome for added happiness

8. 500BC

9. 475BC
archer step to the south and spots a yellow border (it's Egypt)

10. 450BC
Rome archer -> library
Antium: settler -> galley
step one tile west and we get this (somehow screenshot in diplo don't work)
anyway, we get contact with Egypt, get open borders since that doesn't matter but will improve the relationship

11. 425BC
Cumae settler -> rax

IT beat another barb on defense and get Iron working
tough decision but since we met someone, go for alphabet in 13 so we can trade

12. 400BC
great news, we do have 3(!) iron sources in our land
found Neapolis (->rax)

13. 375BC
found Pisae
beat another barb warrior
need to reduce research to 90% and alphabet drops to 13

14. 350BC
Rome grows to 7 and is unhappy again, but the temple is soon done

15. 325BC
start a forest chop to speed up granary in Neapolis

alphabet is due in 10
we should try and connect gold and rice, and the clam later on, with iron we can build our UU at least

our land, north and south

 

[ThERat]

and the amended Roster:
ThERat - swapped with Xarathas
Dimy - on deck
Greebley - away until 28th Nov
Thrar
Xarathas - up on Monday night

 

[ThERat]

an attempt for a dot map

 

[Dimy]

Hmm...looking on the picture of the southern part it seems like Egypt is really close, that's good news, we should be able to conquer a city pretty soon there once we have the praetorians and some galleys.
The dot map looks good too... purple dot seems to be most important to be able to connect the gold, Iron and Rice is already within our borders so is just a matter of hooking up. Good job on the barbs!

 

[Xarathas]

I'm back I'll download and play later tonight.

I agree with getting that gold ASAP.. that or we just need to start using the whip more

 

[ThERat]

like Egypt is really close, that's good news, we should be able to conquer a city pretty soon there once we have the praetorians and some galleys.

that's why we have a galley ready in 1 to start with some recon trip in the south. I arrnaged open borders so we can sail into the Egyptian land and see what's beyond there.
With some pretorians and support we should surely be able to capture a town there as a first foothold.

By the way, I did not revolt to anything, I do not really fancy slavery since whips give unhappiness, but feel free to change that. And we should try and get monotheism so we can get organized religion for a boost.

A note, Rome was set on no growth allowed in the governor setup. it could well be that Antium is set that way too. So, please change that.

 

[Xarathas]

1)

a - Galley finished in Antium, changed to Great Lighthouse. I temporarily swapped the iron resource to be worked by Antium instead of Rome... this cut our build time for the wonder down to 13 turns . I think this is a very worthwhile investment. Even if we don't get it, it'll at least give us a nice chunk of savings to prolong the 100% science.

b - Barbarian warrior spotted to the NE

c - Moving Galley towards Egyptian borders and will explore west side of our island after that.

2)

a - Cumae: Archer -> Praetorian

b - Rome: Temple -> Settler. I changed the SW plains to be managed by Rome instead of Pisae. Pisae is now using the forest (still 2f 1h, just no commerce). Shaves a turn off the Settler. ETA 8 turns.

3)

a - Hatty converts to Confucianism

b - Pyramids built in a far away land.

c - Neapolis: Granary -> Scout (for fog busting)

d - Revolution for Slavery.. I'm a liberal whipper

e - making the worker near Neapolis start on networking to purple dot & gold.

4)

a - Hatty adopts hereditary rule.

5)

a - northeast archer kills suicidal barbie warrior.

6)

nada

7)

a - Cumae: Praetorian -> Praetorian. I'm not touching the upgrades until we actually need it. Moving him towards Pisae.

b - Galley scouts Egyptian coast. 2 Archers guarding Alexandria.

8)

a - barbie archer sighted to the NE

9)

a - Great Lighthouse built in a faraway land Oh well, was worth a shot.

10)

a - 111 gold from Great Lighthouse

b - Antium: Great Lighthouse -> Praetorian

11)

a - Rome: Settler -> Library

b - Cumae: Praetorian -> Confucian Temple

c - Neapolis: Scout -> Barracks (will change to worker when pop hits 3)

d - Parthenon built in a faraway land.

e - Alphabet done researching, decided to forgo math/construction (doubt we'll need catapults just yet, since I only see archers and no axeman in Alexandria) and go for metal casting. Feel free to veto.

f - Hatty has Polytheism and Monarchy.. but won't trade Monarchy. Not worth making a deal for Poly since our only tradeable techs are CoL and Alphabet.


12)

a - Antium: Praetorian -> Praetorian.

13)

a - Pisae: Lighthouse -> Granary

b - NE archer kills barbie archer.

c - Alexandria now has 1 spearman and 1 archer instead of the 2 archer, moving Galley back towards Pisae.

14)

a - Ravenna founded on Purple dot. Started on Granary, since Gold is already in cultural borders from Neapolis.

15)

a - Antium: Praetorian -> Galley. getting a 2nd galley to explore/backup.

b - Cumae: Whipped 2 pop to finish temple, will grow back to size 5 in 2 turns.. gold resource should be connected in a few turns so by the time it hits size 7 the unhappiness from whipping should be gone.

We now have 4 praetorians at/near Pisae, and Galley is a turn away.

Have fun.. will load save and screenie in a minute.

 

[Xarathas]

Save & Screenie attached.

 

[ThERat]

I feel we should try and get Alexandria, worth it im my mind. But to be safe, without cats, I would think 3 galleys with 6 pretorians for a start and to establish a nice beachhead.

I would also like to see where that Island goes to. i can see you sailed way south, but didn't reach the end.

And one thing I don't understand. Why are the AI's so reluctant to trade. Every game I played so far was that way.

Roster:
ThERat
Dimy - up
Greebley - away until 28th Nov
Thrar - on deck
Xarathas

 

[Thrar]

Some more scouting of egyptian territory might be interesting, then I agree we should go for Alexandria and more.
So, do we keep playing 15 turns, even though we have contact now?

 

[ThERat]

while we assemble the forces, I agree the galley should sail back to find out more about that Island. We could also send over a unit with it, we have open borders, so we can do some good recon work first
Maybe can spread our religion too

 

[Dimy]

Got it. Will have to go to work now, but I'll play as soon as I get back from work this afternoon.