Rat20 - Middle Age AWM - Byzantines

[ThERat]

This sounds like a terrible turnset with lots of losses. simply overwhelming numbers

Maybe I agree on your tactic to take a super stack and simply eradicate everything on the path and take Jerusalem. If we raze a few more cities (500poins each), we should get beyond 30000 with those 10000 of the prize. I hope our armies will be immune against the attacks.

Who wants to take a turn here?

The Roster
TheRat
Doc T
empiremaker - just played
pindicator - up
Greebley
pat4

 

[Empiremaker]

Cities are 100*pop. We may also want to veto LRS, and go MM to polearms for def 4 pikes. A def 4 pike army I'm sure won't be attacked, but Assassins have stealth attack.

 

[pindicator]

I got it, and can play. Turns done by Wednesday, I'm planning.

 

[Greebley]

I too am back and can play in my normal order after Pindicator.

 

[Greebley]

I don't think making one large SOD works - we lose if we don't have a town.

 

[Empiremaker]

We won't lose if we put a settler on a boat in the baltic.

 

[choxorn]

What if the boat is sunk by Turks?

 

[Greebley]

pindicator,
Feel free to take your time to play. I have two games I am up in and won't be able to play right away anyway.

 

[pindicator]

well, i found out how to crash the game... move a catapult onto a tile with an invisible unit. That's pretty frustrating. So is losing our western empire

Edit: 3 turns in and we're already near 19k VP. We've lost two cities in the west, another is isolated and cut off, and we are not going to hold much longer. Here is my plan:

Draw back all troops in the west to Constantinople. We don't have iron anymore, so we're not really losing anything. In the east, make that SOD and poor on the rampage to Jeruselum. Thoughts?

 

[Empiremaker]

Sounds good. A couple of points I was thinking about.

•Use spear armies to defend where Constantinople and Nicea are. At least Nicea should be abandoned to prevent longboats entering the baltic.
•Send a settler and our kings on a boat in the balitc to prevent us from losing.
•Bybass the northren Abbassid city. We'll need every troop on Jersulam.
•Don't forget Dromons can bombard.

 

[Greebley]

Armies can block incoming attackers (they won't attack) We might be able to keep our cities to the south of Constantinople by placing the armies so it is impossible to go south. They may try going around but that should take time.

I would rather not abandon every city, but keep or main empire building units. We can win even if we don't take Jerusalem simply by taking enough cities. We get more vp since we are fighting everyone.

I would also keep the settler with the SOD. If we lose that then we are dead. I suggest taking a settler even if we try the above as we may lose the cities. No need for the boat idea as that is safer.

 

[cubsfan6506]

You guys should of played as england. Nice little channel for seperation.

 

[choxorn]

lurker's comment: Then there's the Celts and Norwegians to deal with.

 

[cubsfan6506]

There easy in comparison.

 

[pindicator]

For reference, here is the state of affairs in the west.

Notice Sredets is now completely cut off from the empire; as soon as it finishes its spear I will sell the city walls and abandon the city. Things are a little more harried to the south. Ochrida is defended by a single MDI and has two potential attacks against it next round. I will disband that city and take out what I can. Larissa is not even ours, and has 3 damaged units in it. I am moving MDIs to hopefully retake the city in a turn or two. If we cannot retake and defend Larissa we may have to abandon the peninsula. Well, an army at Corinth can save that end of the peninsula.

All we can currently build are horsemen, spears, and catapults. So I'm building lots of catapults.

Finishing turns now

Edit: I forgot Ochrida has our iron source under it. I will try to keep that town, then.
What is a Treasure Horse anyway?

 

[pindicator]

I only finished with a total of 5 turns played. Sorry that I took a short turnset, but things just keep coming up to interfere with my Civ time around here. For example, I woke up with back pain yesterday that has not gone away, so aside from it hurting to sit up or stand for extended periods, I have a doctor appointment shortly.

On to the game report,

From the picture above, I abandoned Sredets. AI was walking around it anyway, and the army is going to be used to reinforce the iron supply lines. Unfortunately, there is a stack right outside Varna of 2 sword, 2 spear, & 2 archer. We currently have 2 defenders in Varna and I don't think we have any others nearby. If we lose the town, we will lose our iron supply line (even if temporarily). If we abandon the town, we will just need to the keep the roads from being pillaged.

I tried to retake Larissa, but was met with a heavy counter-attack. We won all the battles, but our units were damaged heavily and are currently healing in the hills to the south.

The AI is also taking to sending pillagers after our tar. I've been clearing many spears. They are also attacking the spear army stationed in the town to the far north (can't recall the name, but it's NE of the picture above). So far we're holding steady.

In the East, I've been playing whack-a-mole with assassins. We have so many slaves out I've been leaving them out in the open as the only means of detection. I also run armies around in the hopes of running one over. I think I've killed half a dozen or so already. Watch for lone spearmen from the Abbassids, as they are usually covering assassins.

I also founded a city with our settler. We have another settler due next turn

The the far east, we've also met the Turks. I've killed lots of horsemen (at least 6), lots more to come I'm sure. Somehow there is a berserk out in the east, but he's going to have to be dealt with.

Because our iron situation is so precarious, I've ordered MDIs in every town that can readily build them. As soon as we lose the iron it's probably time for that SOD. I would also strongly consider pulling back troops in an organized retreat to Constantinople, especially if the iron is lost.

Current VP: 19320, a jump of almost 2k in 5 turns.

the save

 

[cubsfan6506]

If i were you guys i would definitly try to take juresulem.

 

[Greebley]

One easy way to gain points might be to allow the AI take towns but then take them back.

Or is that too cheesy?

 

[Empiremaker]

Pindicator- The "Treasure Horse" is the unit with he 10K treasure attached to it. Hope you feel better and can play Civ.

 

[choxorn]

lurker's comment: What you should do is pull a bunch of defensive units into one city and put the rest of the units in a huge SoD, which will go after Jerusalem an deliver the treasure. Hopefully, you can get enough VP by that time to get over 30k.