Rat 33 - AWE 3BC - pangaea

[ThERat]

Since the last attempt as turned out to be a flawed Pangaea, DWetzel has agreed and prepared us a map

We play as the Vikings, let's hope we can survive until zerks reign.

Unfortunately, while busting some fog, I ran into Rome and DOW

I played 15 turns and we just acquired BW. We can now either go for IW or the wheel, I prefer iron as we need to know whee to settle next.

The situation, the enemy has not shown up yet. We might need a few spears and archers

The Roster
ThERat - just started us
TheOverseer - up
Mathias
Greebley
Elephantinum

 

[Greebley]

Iron working sounds good.

 

[TheOverseer714]

How many turns should I play? 15 would even it out.

 

[Elephantium]

Checking in. Here's a proposed dotmap for our other two cities:

The leftmost red dot is CxxC from the capital, meaning nicer logistics for defense. If we're feeling a bit more bold, either of the red hills look like good targets -- if, that is, the lower-righthand dot is on a river like I think it is.

The yellow dot is weaker, and we might want to move it based on the results of the next couple of turnsets.

 

[Aabraxan]

lurker's comment: My usual subscription spam. Good luck, gang!

 

[CommandoBob]

lurker's comment:
Just grabbing a seat in the peanut galley. Don't mind me.

 

[darski]

lurker's comment: Signing in for the fun again.

 

[Kulko]

lurker's comment: Good Luck with this. I will be following.

 

[Greebley]

I think we should explore a bit more to see what the areas of yellow and red dots look like before making a decision.

Building on a hill may be fairly attractive here. It makes a town more self-sufficient - a Spear behind walls can usually win against even swords. This gives more flexibility in placement as we don't necessarily need a town within 3.

 

[TheOverseer714]

I will play sometime today, probably evening or so. I will judiciously explore our surroundings, hopefully there aren't too many Expansionist tribes to come and meet us. I will research IW as fast as possible, so we know what our strategy is. Welcome to our esteemed lurkers, the show is just getting good.

 

[DWetzel]

Lurker comment: Have fun!!! (Muahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!)

 

[ThERat]

I'd be carefuk first and await the Roman stack to come. Since they will come from the north, we face possible pillaging of tiles...no good but might happen. I would pull back the warrior to shield tiles/worker.

 

[Spoonwood]

Lurker's question: Do these sorts of games usually turn out really tough in the begining when you have few towns and a lot of war, and then progressive get easier as you take towns from the AIs and spawn more and more MGLs?

 

[TheOverseer714]

Yes Spoonwood, getting out of the gate is a real killer. Especially with early meetings. Here is my turnlog for my turn-set, see turns 12 - 13:

Spoiler :

Pre-Flight: CivAssist 2, Word running. Open the save, look things over.
Not much to see, but what there is looks fine.

Civilian units:
Workers 1

Military units:
Warriors 2

Unit Support:
Total units: 3
Allowed: 4
Support cost: 0 gpt

Press enter=>

IBT: :Sleep:

Turn 1, 3250 BC: Warrior moves east.

IBT: Roman Warrior steps up.

Turn 2, 3200 BC: Fortify our Warrior.

IBT: Roman Warrior loses to our Warrior.
Trondheim Spearman=>Spearman.

Turn 3, 3150 BC: Warrior moves east.

IBT: 2 Roman Warriors step up.

Turn 4, 3100 BC: :Sleep:

IBT: Another Roman Warrior and an Archer step up. I think we are in trouble.

Turn 5, 3050 BC: :Sleep:

IBT: 3 Warriors at Trondheim’s doorstep.

Turn 6, 3000 BC: Kill 1 Warrior, redlining ours.

IBT: Roman Warrior kills the redlined of ours, other on dies on our unwounded Spear. 2 attackers left.
Trondheim Spearman=>Archer.

Turn 7, 2950 BC: Move our harried worker away from combat.

IBT: Roman Warrior retreats.

Turn 8, 2900 BC: :Sleep:

IBT: A second Archer arrives.

Turn 9, 2850 BC: Trondheim Archer=> Spearman.

IBT: :Sleep: Somewhere I screwed up the turn dates.

Turn 10, 2750 BC: Move an Archer out, Spear to cover.

IBT: Roman Archers have a powwow.

Turn 11, 2710 BC: Fortify our Spear/Archer Pair.

IBT: Roman Archers and Warrior threaten Trondheim, 2 more Archers arrive.
This may be too much for our infant military to stop.
Lux slider raised to 20%.

Turn 12, 2670 BC: Roman Warrior loses to our Spear, Archer kills one.

IBT: Oh no, 2 Archers stand on cow tile, causing Trondheim to riot. One Spear, Archer and Warrior facing 3 Archers. We may lose right here.

Turn 13, 2630 BC: Hunker down, can’t risk losing any units.

IBT: It’s alive, It’s alive! Our Spear wins against all 3 attacks.
Trondheim Spearman=>Archer.

Turn 14, 2590 BC:

IBT: :Sleep:

Turn 15, 2550 BC: I Stop here, this is nerve-racking.

Civilian units:
Workers

Military units:
Warrior 1
Spearmen 2
Archer 1

Unit Support:
Total units: 4
Allowed: 4
Support cost: 0 gpt

Sliders
10/0/0

Research:
Iron Working, 13 turns, 0 gpt. (4 in the bank)

Whoever plays next, if you get a break, get a settler out, we are dying from lack of unit support.

The save:

 

[ThERat]

wow, are the Romans on steroids? We better get a break here soon or else we are in trouble. I vote for putting down a second city soon for units support.

Once we know whether iron is close, we can then settle there.

The Roster
ThERat
TheOverseer
Mathias - up
Greebley
Elephantinum

 

[Greebley]

Lurker's question: Do these sorts of games usually turn out really tough in the begining when you have few towns and a lot of war, and then progressive get easier as you take towns from the AIs and spawn more and more MGLs?

I think there are two classes of games that lose. One is an early over-run as you describe. The second often occurs when surrounded by AI's. If the AI's all get their civs sufficiently developed they send more and more troops until the player is eventually overwhelmed due to the very long front line. Generally, it appears that at monarchy level you can win pretty much every game, but at emperor a surrounded position will often be difficult to impossible to win depending on resources, time of contact, etc.

Once the players' Civ gets to a certain size it becomes impossible for the AI to win by conquest. The hardest difficulties (deity and SID) could run into further late game issues with UN, Space, or culture) though sufficient science farms and forward progress will prevent that. The current GR game is in fact a test to see if the 30 AI can out-research the humans at deity when the GLib isn't available.

 

[Mathias]

I killed the Roman archer and built an archer, a settler, and a spearman.
Rome discovered Iron Working, saving us 12 beakers on our research, which we have completed.
A nearby source of iron has been located. Let's hope they aren't so lucky.

I'd like to build here, as Trondheim doesn't need both cattle. This is turn 9, so I figured I'd stop for the decision.
Our next settler will be out in 4 turns, obviously heading to the iron.
Research is on The Wheel, with only 1 beaker invested. Do we want to head for Mathematics first?

 

[TheOverseer714]

I would have settled near the Iron first, but where you picked is a decent site too. Looks like I got the Roman rush, things look calm now. The Wheel only serves to find the horses, whereas Mathematics gives us Catapults. If Rome has Iron, we will need cats to handle the Legions. I vote math.

 

[ThERat]

Glad you got a more quiet turn.

Ok, maybe I sound a little odd now. I don't think we should settle where the settler is. I would suggest the hill instead. But, for now I'd say move the settler S-S-SE to settle next to the iron and hook it up as soon as possible. Chnage the build to a worker before another settler so we can hook up the iron real fast.

And of course, we prefer maths first. I am happy you stopped for discussion and maybe you all disagree with my thoughts.

 

[Elephantium]

Agreed on maths and settling the Iron first.

As we move forward, we can pump out some Workers from Trondheim to help develop our empire quickly and then join to our other cities for fast growth.