Rat 41 CCM - AW a first attempt

[Northern Pike]

So there was a castle there. Good work taking the town with just one retreat, then.

Sorry, guys. I really shouldn't have skimped on defenders for the Rostov stack.

All's well that ends well.

 

[vmxa]

May as well post what I have for a log to this point:

Too lazy to try to find out what the work stack is suppose to do in the forest between Turin and Milan. I will road that tile, but it can never be worked.

I disband an archer in Venice as we will not upgrade it and it is not worth much and will cost of a lot of gold to sit on the bench. I disband a vet enslave in Turin as well.

Fresh knight out of Venice retreats from Zerk hidding in the trees.
e/char from the Iron kills the zerk (7-1).

Here I now see that Russia has 5932. That is after we took 711. Carthage now has more than 9600. Drop research to 20%.

Turin and Rome are unhappy. For this turn I slide lux up and we will see next turn. Turin would suffer no growth, if we have to use a specialist. Rome could switch a scientist to a joker. Still it cost 4 beakers.

The worker stack just finished a road I guess to Iznik, but I see nothing useful for them in that area for a time and do not want to have to sweat them being attacked. I go ahead and make a road by the town.

Knight jumps on an Indo pike in front of Iz (8-1) and goes elite.
Knight kills an Indo Longsword (9-1).
Missonary kills Indo treb and moves to a hill out of traffic, I hope (10-1).

Monk bombs and now we have some room at Iz.
I chicken out and switch the windmill to an Arq at Rostov.
Trajens kills Indo pike (11-1).
e/knight kills Indo WE (12-1).
MDI drives last phant off the hill.
e/slaver kills cleanly (13-1).

IBT:
4 Indo units head towards Wosan and 4 others head the other way? What do you expect from the AI, but mixed signals?
LB heads out of Orenburg?
Carthage has 5 vet knights and a vet WE enter the border at Wosan.
2 Indo units also at Wosan now.

5 more Turks head for Turin.
Vikes have 5 units around the Iron/Venice location.
Start on Renaissance. Set to 40% till I see whats up.

(2) 1280AD:
MDI kills the Russian LB, barely and I have to cover it (1-0).
Move an Arq into Florence as a precaution as I am not sure where the Turk stack will go right now. Knight kills Egyptian spear and goes elite (2-0).

e/mission kills Turk spear (2-0).
knight carefully steps over the river and then attacks the Russian pike, but still goes red (3-0) at Cheju.

I switch the Slavery build to a Castle in Wosan as there is a bad looking crew about to hit and I panic.

3/5 knight kills Arbian char (4-0).
4/5 enslaver kills one (5-0).
Set research to 70 and drop lux back to 20. Fix Rome and Turin.
Due in 13 now at -86gpt.
18-1]

IBT:
Too much movement to track. The final thing is all Carthage units headed for Iz. All the Indo units headed for Iz.
Two WE die at Rostov (2-0) [20-1]

(3) 1290AD:
Carth has 7 unit next/near to Iz.
Turks have 3 next to it (knights/treb).
Indo has 11 next or near.

I start temple in Turin and Pusan. Making Basilica in Rome.

knight rolls out of bed in the colony and barely kills zerk (1-0).
e/legion comes out of Venice and kills, barely. It does however get a leader (2-0).
switch knight to Acad and rush it with leader in Venice.

I spend 36 gold to rush wall in Rostov. Not becasue I fear attacks, but I want to get to a happy structure sooner.

AC kills Arabian char (3-0).
Bombare kill Arabian WE at Rostov (4-0).

Switch Nampo to temple from Arq. It is far form the action and need a happy build anyway. Switch pop from FP with no road to one with a road. Send workers to water it (smolensk). Switch Smole from slavery to temple. It makes one shield and has no use for a 25% boost.

Don't know when the last clan came out, but none during last set, so one should come out in mine.
I am going to plan accordingly. That is I am movng the stack of workers from Cheju to build around the colony. That is where I want to found the next town. It give protection to the Iron. It gives the worker stack a place to work that can be defended. It lets us be a bit more controlling the Vikes traffic. Mainly it is safer for the next town and the workers for now.

Legion from Venice kills zerk (5-0).
e/archer from Venice retreats a Vike cat (6-0).
Take risk with 4/5 char and finsih the cat (7-0). I think the char will not be able to reach ours.

Legion from Cheju kills a Vike char (8-0). I see only the lone char left in that area. Well ignoring all the boats. Four units in that area are goners, if any hidden units can reach them as 3 are red and 1 is yellow.

Turin sends out a knight to chop one of the Turkish knights (9-0). I leave the other as we cannot get back from the trees.

It took three Yogi to kill one MDI at Wosan (10-1-1).

Send out some knights from Wosan to check on Orenburg now size 2.
I take the archer and Arq from the workers at Iz and move them in the town as lots of attacks coming and the workers cannot be reach in one turn.

I want to clear the Indo from the road in from of Iz. Do not want them to cut it.
e/knight kills first thai pike (11-1).
e/knight retreats on second pike.
knight kills MDI (12-1).
knight kills wounded pike (13-1).
knight kills asian spear (14-1).
2 knights kill asian spears on flat ground (16-1).

Push my luck and a knight dies on a 3/3 Turkish knight (17-2).
knight goes red, but kills 3/3 knight (18-2).
I decide to sacrifice the archer and it attacks the Turkish treb. The treb retreated
and shockingly the archer lost no points. It will die on the IBT though. It was worth getting that treb out. 3/4 missonary kills the treb (19-2).

knight dies on Carth WE (19-3).
knight kills knight (20-3). Goes elite.
knight kills knight (21-3).

knight dies redlinning Indo WE (21-4).
knight kills WE (22-4).
knight kills knight (23-4).
Ran out of units. I was not sure about attacking or defending as most were on hills. I just figured that so many strong attackers would be able to do a lot of damage. So lost 3 killing 12. Who knows if that was better than defending. I figure we would have lost at least 3 and probaly be left with no Arq. What stinks is 2 WE are nearly dead and now will get away. Busy turn.
[41-5]

IBT:
Not bad, archer is killed (0-1).
Lots of Indo and Carth units zip to Iz. [41-6]

 

[ThERat]

wow, busy stuff....

I can play either tonight (which is Monday here) or on Wednesday night. So either you post your turns tonight (Sunday night for you) or take your time.

 

[vmxa]

Alright then I will plan on doing all 10 and see if that is done tonight or tomorrow for sure.

 

[vmxa]

Since it is easy reading and easier posting I will put up another chunk and take a small break.

(4) 1300AD:
2 knights take Orenburg killing a pike and spear (2-0).
We got 462 gold. Workers road to Bologna along the river.

4 LB and a sword arrive at Rostov. The sword as been working its way here for a few turns.
e/cahr kills LB and I see another Arabian char (3-0).
An e/knight and then an e/treb kill 2 LB no damage (4-0).
6/6 WE kills the sword and for now Rostov is clear and I send the slave towards Nampo (5-0).

Send supply over to the worker stack on its way home. Another thing that a town there would help with.
knight from Turin kills Turkish pike (6-0).
knight kills sabre (7-0).
knight chops 3/3 knight (8-0).

Iz a knight barely kills an Indo WE clearing the road (9-0).
Not going to be able to attack any of the other units.
13, 11 from Carthage are next to the town.

I switch the Slavery to a Castle, but do not want to rush it.
[50-6]

IBT:
Naples starts temple as it will grow soon.
Bombarde from Pulsan.

It was a bit quick, but I think it went down like this at Iz.
Indo WE died doing no damage (1-0).
Carth Treb died (2-0).
Three straight knights retreated (2-0-3).
knight dies (3-0-3).
knight retreats (3-0-4).
knight kills arq (3-1-4).
knigh dies (4-1-4).

There are 5 wounded knights near, one was from prior turn. Crap I missed the fact that no fort was built, so not all the arq are at full health. Switch castle to fort now. The way C3C works is that we will get the fort done on the IBT and so the units will get the benefit of it and be healed for the next turn.
[54-7]

(5) 1310AD:
Clan and Pret born in Rome.
Note to self, had to move pop to grass in Turin to prevent starving as LB on the deer.
Upgrade clan.

Volcano blowing its top by Rostov.
Florence need tweaking as Turks step on a tile. Pisa from growth.
Switch Rome from Knight to Arq. Need a replacement and an augmentation. Pret heads there as well.

e/knight barely kills Turkish pike next to Iz (1-0).
e.knight kills WE (2-0).
e/knight kills wounded sabre (3-0).
knight kills wounded knight (4-0).
4 knights kills 1hp knights (8-0).
knight kills Turkish knight on flat ground (9-0). [63-7]

Still 7 knights and 3 WE at IZ. One knight is wounded. None sit on our roads.

IBT:
Genoa I start a happy and then would go with aqua and let it grow again. We need the pop and can squeeze infra in from time to time, especially from places that are far from the front and cannot deliver units quickly.

Indo WE dies attacking Iz (1-0).
Indo knight dies (2-0).
I am not positive on the order and tpye, but I know that 5 units attacked. 3 died and 2 retreated.
1 WE and 1 knight retreated (3-0).

I spotted a Russian clan combo on the move near Rostov.
I saw at least 2 bombarde and a char form Arabia near Rostov.
[66-7]

(5) 1320AD:
Corrections, it was 2 trebs and a bowman. The bow is at our door?
The clan was with a pike and I can reach them. The question is where do they plan to squat? If I knew and it was close I would let them and go for the gold. I am afraid it is into the fog toward Cheju though.

Bombarde arrives in Wosan in time to kill Carth pike and go elite (1-0).
e/char comes out of Rostov to kill the bow (2-0). It spots Arabian char.
e/slaver kills Treb and gets a slave (3-0).

e/knight comes out to kill Russian pike (4-0). Settler is now our slave, cover knight with arq. May be dumb, but I sent the 6/6 WE to kill the treb (5-0). It was a clean kill, but I have to cover it with last arq from Rostov.
I just did not want the trebs to get loose. The WE spotted an Egyptian MDI as well.

Knight out of Florence does no damage to Turkish spear and goes back to Florence.
Never know what to make of the rng. After knight does nothing I send out an MDI from Pisa to hit the other spear and it kills it. I then send out a legion from Pisa and it kills the original spear and goes elite (7-0).

e/Pret kill Turkish LB at Turin (8-0).

Trajens kills Carth pike at Wosan (9-0).
e/Yogi kills Indo LB and makes a leader (10-0).
Rush Academy.

Sweated as e/knight bout goes up and down, but we survived (11-0). This was Indo at Iz squatting on the road. Next battle is the same, except our elite fails (11-1).
Knight finished the job (12-1). We need some bigger sticks to keep the road clear at Iz. Even 5/5 knights are iffy with the other guy on a hill. Going to send the next treb out of Rome to Iz.
[77-8]

 

[ThERat]

Nice to follow the intense fighting.

As long as we can produce at least the amount of units that we loose we're good. I agree with inserting happy buildings every now and then. We should be able to make cathedrals soon too which give +2 happy.

I hope that eventually we can crawl our way forward to take some Turkish cities. We have to do that. At least for now you already recovered the cost of research for your round (taking 1170gold from Russia)

 

[Northern Pike]

Tremendous kill ratio so far.

I'd leave that Russian settler alone to found a city for us regardless of where it's heading. Even given that we're concentrating on the north right now, there's no way the city will produce enough to add seriously to our problems before we take it.

 

[vmxa]

Too late on the settler. Here is a screen as I risk a Missionary to see what was past Iznik.

 

[Northern Pike]

Ugh, that's a bad-looking attack on Edrine--definitely cross-river, and is the town on a hill? We may have to increase the arq cover of our advancing stack and make an extra move to get on the right side of the river.

This is just the kind of problem that a combat settler would solve in straight C3C.

 

[vmxa]

Looks like we have a no river tile to use, if we can get to it on the NE corner of the town. Going to break fro another set with the boss. back later. Have 7 turns in the books will try to squeeze the log up.

 

[vmxa]

IBT:
no attacks, unless I fell asleep.
[77-8]

(6) 1330AD:
e/Mission kills Indo pike (1-0).
Turin knight kills Turkish knight (2-0).
Turin knight kills one, barely (3-0). Both were regulars.

Chop a tree in Florence.
e/knight kills knight next to Iz and gets a leader (4-0).
So much for needing a big stick, not. Rush academy.

Making another arq in Rome as it looks like it is time to head out and I would like to be able to send some arqs either with the stack or right behind. I am afraid to send out any scouting units, but sure would like to see what is right next to Iz.

IBT:
I saw a couple of landings by Vikes.
Turin I start Theatre in 4 as we grow in 4.
Nanking does FP.

Ok I see now it was an archer and a zerk near Milan.
Cleo has a treb moving past Rostov.

(7) 1340AD:
I send out an enslaver fron Cheju to bust the fog bewteen it and Rostov. It can go back after that or find something useful to do like attack unescorted trebs. Archer escort supply to the bank.

Knight from Naples retreats from zerk.
Knight from Venice kills it (1-0). Now I am glad I scrapped the archer in Naples and keep a knight instead.
Archer from Milan kills archer and the landing party is gone (2-0).

e/knight from Cheju kills Vike char (3-0).
e/bombarde kills Thai pike at Wosan (4-0).
3 elite knight retreat from 2 pikes doing limited damage.
knight finally kills 3/4 Indo pike at Iz (5-0).
knight dies on sabre (5-1).
knight kills 2/4 pike (6-1).
knight kills LB and is now elite (7-1).
Every the idiot I send missionary after the 1hp sabre and it barely wins (8-1). Yeah we need a bigger stick for sure.

So much for my breakout with all those damaged knights. I elect to not attack the 2 units in front of Iz on our road. If they cut it they cut it.

Naples need another joker. May have grown. Just in case a hidden unit landed, will try to move pop to all the tiles. That revealed nothing. Not sure it would, but why check?

 

[Northern Pike]

I elect to not attackthe 2 units in fornt of Iz on our road. If they cut it they cut it.

Agreed. One reason for keeping a roading stack near the front is so that we don't have to make bad attacks just to prevent pillaging.

 

[vmxa]

On the last turn now, so will post save shortly.

 

[vmxa]

Here is the save:

 

[vmxa]

IBT:
WE dies attacking Iz (1-0). Knight cuts road and runs.
Naples starts Windmill.
Turks send 5 units to Turin.
[90-9]

(8) 1350AD:
chop tree shave a turn off acad at Florence.
Turin knight kills knight (1-0).
Next knight barely kills one and we clear the deer again (2-0).

Cutting the road at Iz cost me being able to get next to Edirine in 1 move. I may now take longer path and stay on hills all the way.
Better chance to get there with most units intack.

I sent the enslaver from Rostov out to kill the Egyptian treb and it gets a slave (3-0).
I then spot an Arab spear.

I jump in the water and send 7 knights, 3 Arq, 2 monks and a pret toward Endirine.
[93-9]

IBT:
Turks send more units towards Turin and ignore our modest stack.
Indo sends WE and Knight to die on Iz and one Arq goes elite. Only had two, so glad only 2 attackers that round.
(2-0) [95-9]

(9) 1360AD:
Found Padova by Iron. Colony was on a mountain, whoops not a valid site for town.
4 Egyptians arrive in view of new town. Send new enslaver and arq towards Iz. Well the slaver gets there.

Cheju send knight to kill zerk (1-0).
Legion from there kills a cat (2-0).

Knight kills Indo MDI near Iz (3-0).
Have to keep the road to Turin open. Workers are no longer in this area as they could not be protected. Stack in Turk borders now.

I start a wall in Padova as it is only 5 turns and probably more useful right away than a fort. Until we get a stream of units there we can wait for the rax till after the wall.
[98-9]

IBT:
Carth starts on Hanseatic League.

Get msg about we should build Great Mine.

2 Indo knights retreat at Iz.
WE dies (1-0).
Some Indo units move past our stack and ignore it. So do Carth and Turks.
Carth attack Iz with WE and Knight one kills Arq other dies with arq going elite (2-1-2).

Turk sabre dies at Iz (3-1). [102-10]

(10) 1370AD:
Pusan send knight to kill Arabian spear (1-0).

I messed up an Pisa riots.

Thought the knight from Padova was going to go down, but hung in and kills Cleo's knight (2-0).

e/char kills the other knight (3-0).

Apprentice upgraded at Milan.
Front line worker stack is near Florence right now.

I guess a yogi popped out at Florence and it dives in and kills Turk LB. Makes elite and gets a monk (4-0).

Yikes the stack arrives on the doorstep of Edirine, but it is size 13. The good news is we are on a hill, no river and the top unit is a pike.

Sorry to be so cavalier with Enslavers, but I use one to kill red WE from Carth and will surely be killed on the IBT (5-0).
Just figure it is a trade worth doing at this stage.

Maybe I fell asleep and that is why the riot, because I did not see the Yogi and now I find a Pret in Rome was generated. Pret and arq to Iz, it could use more help. The problem is the arq gets to town, but not fortified. Then we lose it on the IBT.

Trying to sneak the slave from Rostov to Pusan.

e/Pret from Turin kills Turk LB and gets leader (6-0). I leave leader unmoved for ThERat.

Whoops I had almost forgot a zerk landed at Milan. First knight retreats and second kills it (7-0). 16 units in borders. 11 cannot attack on the IBT.
[109-10]

Breakthrough in 2 turns. Turin has structures you could rush. Cheju needs an acad, but is a bit far. Indo have new towns I can see. At least new to me.

Screenie of Endirine now:

 

[vmxa]

Wosan has a lot of units, but no knights. Mostly hidden unit types or defenders. If we could get a few knights there to add, they could attack the town nearby. If we take down Endirine we will cut off Antalya and coudl try it with what we have. Two treb types and many elite hidden units.

Two knights are in Orenburg. Maybe steal an MDI from the workers cover. Put one in Bologna and one in Orenburg and send the knights to Wosan.

 

[Northern Pike]

Fine play.

I've always assumed that in CCM the only breakpoint for a city is at size eleven, which would mean that Edrine isn't any tougher for being at size thirteen, but I don't know. At least it's on floodplains, not hills.

 

[vmxa]

You are right I was only meaning that is was over size 10.

 

[M60A3TTS]

I think the 4 knights should move up from Turin to Iznik. The remaining units behind should be able to deal with the few units poking about. Too bad we don't have workers to road Wonsan in the south to connect up Antalya. Then we could move the units a bit quicker for an attack at the same time we hit Edirne. I was playing my solo game and am right around this time period so should have a smoother set when I'm up.

What does it take to allow for military alliances? I can't seem to make one in my game.

 

[Northern Pike]

We've made Iznik so strong that we may have a problem with those swarms of enemy units bypassing it to cross the mountains on the roads we built, which would put them practically at Rome. I'd suggest we should pillage two of the three mountain roads so that we have less to defend; hold the remaining roaded mountain strongly; and perhaps even build a fortress on it.