Rat 41 CCM - AW a first attempt

[Elephantium]

Two spots where I'd like to see cities are:
1. On or near the ruins of Seoul, to help protect the mountain pass roads.
2. To the east, near the gap in the mountains where the Vikings can come through (there might be a "better" site further south, but we can't see that far just yet).

 

[vmxa]

I used the leader right off to rush the Great Pogoda as it makes Yogi.

 

[vmxa]

Two spots where I'd like to see cities are:
1. On or near the ruins of Seoul, to help protect the mountain pass roads.
2. To the east, near the gap in the mountains where the Vikings can come through (there might be a "better" site further south, but we can't see that far just yet).

Seoul has to be a prioity to me as all those roads invite lots of problems. Vikes I have not seen that much so far and we have too big a gap to prevent them from coming anyway.

 

[Northern Pike]

I've been out for most of the day and not in a position to make timely responses. Anyway, using the Leader for the Great Pagoda was obviously right, and the next one should rush the Great Monastery.

I agree with using our next settler to replace Seoul. It's not a great site with its mountain and desert tiles, but nothing better is available, and given the shortage of workers in CCM a location with pre-existing improvements is always good.

 

[ThERat]

Good call on rushing the Great Pagoda, those missionaries are very valuable units as the monks they create are superb in expanding borders. This will help slow down enemy attacks in freshly captured cities. Believe me, it helps to get a better kill ratio.

By they way, we should really switch to producing faster units. They have a big retreat capability and will help us a bit in evening out the lack of bombardments.

I agree with resettling that Seoul site to have some continuum in our empire.

Having met 2 more Civs, be prepared for some initial rushes with their auto produced stuff. Luckily chariots have very low defense values. Maybe I should have set the aggression to higher to get more AI wars. This game looks pretty tough.

 

[vmxa]

I rushed the Great Monastry as I got another leader next turn. I also start WE in Rome. I have to lose a bunch of elite wins while the leaders get to Florence to rush something. Going to stop after 4 turns for the day.

The russian's are making their big rush righ tnow. Took several cats and chariots.

Edit:

BTW are you sure we want to have the warrior scout for more trouble?

 

[ThERat]

Get that warrior back or better, disband

 

[Northern Pike]

Good news. With a new holy man every four turns we should have plenty of monks for culture-bombing soon.

I don't think there's much danger that our warrior will meet anyone new in that northern wasteland. Just try to have him locate one more Siamese city before he dies, I'd say.

 

[darski]

lurker's comment: boy this is an "edge of your seat" read. Good going so far.

Congrats on those 2 leaders. WTG

 

[vmxa]

The warrior got all the way to the ocean on a straight line and moved a bit to the west so far.

Thanks darski, with all the elites wins piled up in front of me, we were due for a few. Will be better with some more 2 move units though. I could kill more, but no moving back to safety.

 

[Northern Pike]

Regarding our next government choice, we badly need to free ourselves of the tile penalty so that Rome and other cities with bonus food can grow. So IMO theocracy would have to be radically better than monarchy in unit support to justify its tile penalty, and it's only moderately better. Thus I'd pick monarchy.

 

[M60A3TTS]

With Theo is a chance to build crusaders. But Monarchy provides a couple decent improvements. I'm playing one solo trying to get a better feel for it.

 

[CommandoBob]

The 'pediea entry on supply caravans is bad. It does not explain how to use them. I had to go back and re-read the prior games to solve that problem.

Suggested explanation:

Each caravan needs to be escorted by a military unit, (just a like princess unit) to the capital in order to deliver their shipment of goods. Once escorted, the caravan will disappear into the escorting unit and now the escorting unit needs to go the capital.

I do not know if a unit can be 'escorted' for more than one turn; I haven't had a chance to check this out.

At Monarch, each one adds 25 gold to the treasury.

Does that vary by difficulty?

 

[vmxa]

Regarding our next government choice, we badly need to free ourselves of the tile penalty so that Rome and other cities with bonus food can grow. So IMO theocracy would have to be radically better than monarchy in unit support to justify its tile penalty, and it's only moderately better. Thus I'd pick monarchy.

Is not the only penalty on the centy center? Not much of a problem as we probably only care about a dozen cities. 1 extra unit for each town over scores of towns is quite a bit. The pedia says city center, not like the old despot one that applies to all tiles. The lost will be greater than the support, but a shield lost in most towns will not matter. The one thing Monarch has going is we get it sooner than Theo. Don't we lose pop for switching to Monarch? That will hurt instantly.

 

[vmxa]

The 'pediea entry on supply caravans is bad. It does not explain how to use them. I had to go back and re-read the prior games to solve that problem.

Suggested explanation:

I do not know if a unit can be 'escorted' for more than one turn; I haven't had a chance to check this out.

At Monarch, each one adds 25 gold to the treasury.

Does that vary by difficulty?

Level does not impact the 25 gold. IIRC you do not have to escort them. We tend to for a time due to hidden units. Later that will not be an issue for most of the supplies.

You just have to capture them prior to cashing them in.

 

[ThERat]

Monarchy is a far better government long term. The tile penalty is lifted for all tiles. Yes, you do lose 1 pop upon change of government, but that will be recuperated fast once the growth sets in.

Unit support is an issue short term as money will flow in anyway sooner or later.

We can build castles on top of the Roman forts and then change to monarch barracks soon enough. As many AI's choose monarchy, taking their cities gives those castles often as well.

As for those caravans, just send them back to the capital alone and then pick them up by a MP of the capital and you get 25gold. Easy stuff really.

 

[Northern Pike]

Is not the only penalty on the centy center? Not much of a problem as we probably only care about a dozen cities. 1 extra unit for each town over scores of towns is quite a bit. The pedia says city center, not like the old despot one that applies to all tiles.

This is peculiar. My version of the Civilopedia uses the same wording to describe the tile penalty for despotism and for theocracy, and there's no mention of city centres in particular. The reference is to "any city production square" in both cases.

 

[vmxa]

I am fine with Monarch, just wanted to get all the avenues explored.

 

[vmxa]

Well I am stopping so I can go play 9 ball. Will check in in 2 hours to see if anyone chimes in on the switch.

It seems we are agreed on going to Monarchy, the question is when to do it? We have the tech now. I could go next turn after the WE completes in Rome or wait.

BTW I got a 3rd leader. Have not look to see what to do with it yet.

 

[vmxa]

Here is the report up to this point:

PRE:
move pop from river forest to spice to gain 1gpt.

Not sure what we want out of Venice. 1 pop I move from unimproved grass to spice with a road. I gains 2gpt and 1 shield, but lowers food by 1. Right now I go for the faster troops and extra cash.

Are we wanting the warrior to keep looking around? We have 6 nations now, I would just as soon disband the guy. I know later we will wish we had more of the map, but that is a long way off right now. If he stays or moves, eventually he will be killed and maybe provide a promtion or a slave for someone.

I was never a fan of searching for more enemies in large AW maps, even more so in CCM.

No idea when the next clan will arrive, but I would guess the only direction we can support right now is towards Korea or SE.

IBT:
We have/had a lone Legionare that went 1-1-1. Would not have died, if we had the razed town as the finally archer would not have been able to reach him. For sure we cannot have lone units outside of the borders at this stage, too many units about and they will just get chopped.

Livy reports:
Italy
Inca
Austro
Maya
Greek
Persia
Indo
and the forgotten Canadians. Were does that leave the rest?

8 boats bombard Venice. I sure did not miss that part of the game.

Hum, I see we have a colony that is sort of out in the open, so that would seem like a good area to fill real soon. Do not want Iron to be exposed that much.

Zerk arrives at the doorstep of Cheju.

(1) 375A:
e/CA kills the zerk (1-0).
We have a short string of units that seem to be moving toward Korea, but 1 spear is fortified. Was that intended, not sure so I leave it for now.

cat retreats from a spear in Pyongyang.

e/CA kills a spear (2-0-1).
Legion kills spear (3-0-1).

Enslaver finished the damaged spear (4-0-1). We get 2 gold. The town has a market, WorldReligion Buddhism and Buddhist Community.

Starts a wall.

Legion goes elite killing Indo spear (5-0-1).
e/cat kills Indo sword (6-0-1).

Workers finished a road in Naples, but I have no idea why. Rome and Naples are on no growth and neither can use another tile for some time.

IBT:
Russian chariots come out of the fog and redline a legion and kill the archer that made the leader. The price for not holding that town is that lots of roads for others to reach are traveling units. (1-1) [7-1]

(2) 400AD:
Use leader to rush the Great Pogoda as it makes a Yogi every 8 turns.
e/Legion kills spear near Cheju (1-0).
e/Enslaver kills bowman and gets slave (2-0).
legion gets the offending Russian char and goes elite (3-0).

IBT:
Mongols make Hunnic Storm in Daidu.
Russian char dies on Pret outside of Pyongyang (1-0) [11-1]

(3) 425AD:
I start the Great Monastry in Rome so we can get some Missonaries eventually. We are ok with troops right now. It is 10 turns.
Would like to see us get out a few strong 2 move units in the not too distance future.

Legion kills asian sword cleanly (1-0).
e/cat kills asian sword and get a leader (2-0).
Switch Rome to WE and send the leader to Florence to rush the Great Monastry.

Enslaver kills an Indo bow (3-0).
e/Legion kills russian cat (4-0).
legion kills russian sword and goes elite (5-0).
Enslaver kills bow (6-0) at Cheju.

Upgrade apprentice.
Legion kills russian sword (7-0).

IBT:
Milan grew so I am gong to squeeze in a theatre to let it grow more.
Nanking builds Great Wall for China.
Korea and Indo want to talk.
4 russians attack my small stack heading towards a Korean town. 2 cats retreat and 1 dies and a char retreats.
One of the Prets went elite.
We get a couple of border pops.
(1-0-3) [19-1]

(4) 450AD:
Enslaver kills one of the 1hp cats and goes elite, but lost a few hp (1-0).
Rush Great Monastry. I rushed these two in Florence as it is the closest without being a flip or capture risk.
I wanted to get the leaders used quickly as several eiltes have to fight and of course cannot get a leader while one is around.

e/legion kills the other 1hp cat (2-0).
e/CA kills Indo sword at Pyongyanf (3-0).
I decide to let the 1hp russian char go as I do not want to expse any units and they have several units on the next hill. Sure could use a cat here, but all are in Pyongyang right now.

IBT:
Florence starts pike.
We learn Feudalism.
Turin starts wall.
Two Russian Chars head for the colony, which I have already reinforced.
3 Indo units pull up to Pyongyang.

(5) 475AD:
upgrade a clan.
Upgrade some spears and will swap the pikes with spears that are covering workers.

e/legion kills russian spear (1-0).
e/legion kills russian bow and makes a leader (2-0). Not sure, if I will cover the legion as I am thinking I would rather lose a legion that already made a leader than a pret.

Will be glad when a few pikes are available for that job.

To be continued......