Rat38 - Silence is golden

Wow. Great job Greebley. We're hanging by a thread but we're so close to changing the tempo I can taste it.
 
I agree with NP about research. We should slow our research. We can ill afford another war at this moment.

Often, the AI attacks towns that are defended apropriately but not too well. It's a slight risk one has to take in order for the AI to attack and not wander through the land (which is worse)
 
lurker's comment: Fantastic Job! When I try from NP's save, I either got NY or Chicago overrun by Immortals, or got Philly overrun by Sumerians. And it seems that empty city could lure Persians.
 
The hardest part was keeping the Swords flexible enough to defend the other cities if they changed targets - which they did. As it was I had to build a regular sword instead of the barracks and pop-rush another to have a chance at saving the western cities.

RNG was also on my side for the most part. Things could have easily gone much worse. A sword vs a defending Immortal can easily lose.
 
Turn 90 - 750BC
Do shield swapping between Boston and DC and lower research to 20%. Fire scientist to let Atlanta grow and get swordsman a turn sooner. Slow growth in Chicago to get more shields. Gain a beaker in Seattle by working the sea instead of the hill with its corrupted shield.

IT
Our vSword in NY is killed by the vImmortal. [0-1]

New York: Walls > Swordsman
Philly's borders expand

Turn 91 - 730BC
Put a warrior out of DC in the path of a Persian spearman.

2 eSwords kills vImmortal and rImmortal. [2-1]

IT
2 vImmortals don't move next to NY, but 1 tile SE of there, towards Chicago. Our eSword in NY redlines a 3hp vImmortal, but ultimately dies. [2-2]

Chicago: Walls > Swordsman

Turn 92 - 710BC
The situation is becoming very precarious with the two losses we suffered. On the other hand, the way the Persians are spreading out may prove advantageous.

vSword kills rArcher next to NY. [3-2]

The current situation:
rat38_bc710_situation.jpg


I end the turn by moving Boston's archer to DC, and the DC swordsman towards Chicago (we'll have a new swordsman to reach the same tiles near Boston as before).

IT
Persians continue towards Chicago mostly, one vImmortal moves next to NY. A new vImmortal approaches from the northeast of DC.

Washington: Swordsman > Swordsman
Atlanta: Swordsman > Swordsman
Tyre: Barracks > Swordsman prebuild

Turn 93 - 690BC
Here's the situation at the beginning of the turn:
rat38_bc730_start_situation.jpg


I start with the vImmortal on the hills near Boston, because the outcome of that single battle will determine what troops I can spare from that area. Our vSword loses 1hp to defeat the Persian. Our eArcher out of DC redlines but kills the spearman.

Then things turn bad: vSword succeeds in redlining one of the stacked immortals but ultimately dies. eSword attacks the other stacked vImmortal and also dies, promoting the immortal to 3/5hp. [5-4]

I move a spearman out of Boston, a warrior out of Atlanta, and upgrade a warrior in DC.

IT
Gilgamesh demands alphabet, and declares upon our refusal.

rSword in NY dies against vImmortal without making a scratch. The wounded immortals retreat. [5-5]

Turn 94 - 670BC
vSword out of NY kills vImmortal. NY is empty now. [6-5]

Switch Philly to a rSpear in 1. Rush a swordsman in DC and NY. Switch Seattle to rSpear, wasting a shield.

IT
Our exposed 2hp vSword kills a 2hp immortal and promotes to 3/5hp. [7-5]

Washington: Swordsman > Swordsman
New York: Swordsman > Swordsman
Philadelphia: Spearman > Spearman
Seattle: Spearman > Spearman

Turn 95 - 650Bc
3hp vSword redlines but kills eastern vImmortal on the Boston forest.
vSword dies on 2hp spearman (received a ZoC hit from Boston on the IT).
eSpear dies on that same spearman.
eSpear finishes him off. [9-7]

IT
The Sumerians ignore empty Seattle, and all go for Philly.
The Persians contact us:
rat38_persian_peace.jpg


Turn 96 - 630BC
I move almost everything we have towards the Sumerians...
I rush another swordsman in DC, another in Atlanta, and two spearman in Philly and Seattle.

IT
Two of our rSpears kill 1 vArcher and die. We will lose our iron next IT.[8-7]

Washington: Swordsman > Settler
Philadelphia: Spearman > Spearman
Atlanta: Swordsman > Swordsman
Seattle: Spearman > Spearman

Turn 97 - 610BC
Upgrade a warrior. Continue moving towards Philly.

IT
rSpear defends against rArcher and promotes. [9-7]

Turn 98 - 590BC
Move some additional units into Philly, just in time. There are 6 archers, a chariot, and 10 enkidus next to Philly. Science goes down a bit again for the last turn on literature.

IT
Fortified vSpear wins against vArcher, goes to 3/4hp
Unfortified vSword wins against vArcher, goes to 1/4hp
Fortified rSpear wins against rArcher, goes to 1/3hp
Fortified 3hp vSpear wins against rArcher, goes to 3/5hp
Fortified 2hp eSpear dies against vArcher
Unfortified 1hp vSword dies against vArcher
rWarrior wins against vChariot, goes to 3/4hp [14-9]

Turn 99 - 570BC
Move units into Philly and Seattle. No combat. We can't research anything before we build the GLib, so research is switched off.

IT
A fortified vSword on our dyes defeats a vArcher, goes to 3/4hp.

Washington: Settler > Horseman
Chicago: Swordsman > Barracks

Turn 100 - 550BC
Shuffle some units to defend Philly and the dyes.

If we get an army soon and can keep Philadelphia, we may be able to hold on. Else I think this one can't be won.
 

Attachments

More nice work against the Persians. :goodjob: Getting plunged right into another war is a bad break, but inevitable given our variant.

To have any chance of survival we have to do several things before hitting Enter:

1. Merge one of the workers draining marsh next to Seattle into Seattle, and immediately pop-rush walls there.

2. Move the other worker next to Seattle into Philadelphia, so we'll have the merge-and-rush option there too.

3. Move the swordsman between Seattle and Philadelphia into Philadelphia, and the warrior with it into Seattle. We're going to lose communication between the two towns anyway, so we might as well save the units.

4. Start moving all the swordsmen in our core towards Seattle. It's a desperate gamble, but in a situation like this we have to commit all our strength to the active front and just accept our fate if we're attacked from the other direction too.

5. I'd change all or most of our military builds to spearmen, too. It's painful when we no longer have iron hooked up and the swordsmen on order are the last we can build, but in this situation we're going to live or die by passive defense of walled towns. Attacking Sumerian stacks anchored by so many Enks is out of the question anyway.

Also, next turn we should start moving our settler towards the hill two tiles SW of Atlanta, so that we'll have the option of basing our defense on a town founded there if we lose Seattle.
 
wow, great effort to just hang on...and what a bummer with Sumer...demanding what? alphabet?

Unfortunately I can't play this any more as I fly tonight. Whomp, you can take your time and turns
 
I agree with NP's measures 1, 2, and 4.

I would not do 3, but rather try to hold that road. Otherwise we won't be able to reinforce Philly anymore. It'll be a few turns before they come calling. There have been few attacks on that road during my turns, they're mostly aiming for Philly. If we can get an elite spearman on that tile, it will probably be left alone altogether.

I would not do 5, at least not everywhere. Once the initial rush of the Sumerians runs out, we'll be in a decent position. They don't have iron I think. Let's not overdo it.

The Sumerians have not moved towards Seattle so far, even though they could have. By the time they decide to go there, a few turns will have passed. They'll come knocking for peace not too long after that. If we're going to lose Philly and Seattle rather soon, I think we'll have to give up the game anyway. So I would settle the cleared marsh tile NW-NW-W of Atlanta with that settler.
 
Way to hang it there Mumpulus. It appears the save is to me but before I take it we should come to agreement on 3 and 5. I'll take a look at the save and give some thoughts before I play.

Have a safe trip TheRat! Thanks for leaving me this beauty! :p
 
5 is a judgement call and it's up to Whomp whether he wants spearmen quickly or swordsmen later, except that a horseman would be utterly useless now and Washington should definitely change to building a spearman.

As for 3, I just think it's too optimistic to hope that we can hold a tile without much defensive value--and a luxury tile, moreover--against all the units the Sumerians have. Philadelphia is inevitably going to be cut off, and I'd rather see it isolated with an extra swordsman to hold it than lose that swordsman as it defends without walls.
 
It seems to me trying to press any offensive against the Sumerians is near impossible. The two northern towns are on hills and getting to Bad-tibira and Agade on grass would take a lot of defensive wins to knock back their archers/horses and a MGL. They have 6 vet archers, 3 reg archer and a 2/4 archer on the hills surrounding Philly.

The horseman will do us very little good on this terrain and will change to a spear. The NY sword will take 5 turns and 2 for a spear. That means it can reach Seattle in the same period of time the sword would finish. In Atlanta there's also a 3 turn difference and a spear would be fortified in Philly by the time the sword starts moving.

If we gain a MGL there's enough swords fill the army and possibly try turning the tide with a raze.

On the other hand, I'm inclined to keep the road. If we lose that we'll eventually lose Philly. EW's will block our way and the lack of fast healing in Philly will be a matter of attrition.

It's possible I'll have to move the road units to Seattle anyhow as they have 4 archers that can be next door on the IT.
 
OK, these are your decisions to make now. Good luck.

You're right that the idea of taking a Sumerian city looks like a fantasy, unless we get a Leader/army. We can only hope to make them sue for peace by slaughtering their units as they attack our walled cities.
 
Pre-turn: Move the workers into Seattle and Philly. Rush walls in Seattle. I'll change the builds in the cities to "just in time" spears to make sure we need them. Move out all northern units to the front and push up lux to 50% for NY.

IT
Archers swarm:
Vsword flawless
Vsword redlines
Rspear flawless
Rspear flawless promotes
Vspear promotes 4/5
4/5 spear to 2/5
Rsword promotes to vet 3/4
Vsword promotes to 2/5
Lose a warrior but redline archer. (8-1)

530 That's quite a turn of events.
Here's the battlefront:



Leave the injured units fortified in Philly. Fortify another reg warrior from Philly and the elite spear from Seattle to the road. A reg sword moves into Seattle from Chicago. We'll have elite sword/acher and vet sword there next turn. NY changes from sword to a spear. Hurry a spear in Philly.

IT Take out both vet archers attacking Philly with 2 elite wins (10-1).
NY Spear --> spear
Philly spear --> spear
510 We have 6 vet, 3 reg archers and a vet horse outside Philly. They will be met by 2 elite and 4 reg hp sword/spears that are all forted.
Vet archer and horse approach Seattle and the road. They will be met by forted vet sword and elite archer/sword at Seattle. 2 other vet horses threaten the road and are met by fortified elite spear, reg sword and reg/con warrior.
DC and Tyre switch to spears

IT Take down 7 archers but lose both elites and 2 reg swords at Philly. (17-5)
Byz finish SoZ.
DC and Tyre finish spears.
490 Ouch...well there's only 4 vet horses and a archer near Philly and a lone archer at Seattle.
There's another 8 healthy units coming...
Add elite and vet sword along with a elite archer in Philly. Road gets a reg sword and Seattle has a forted vet sword and elite archer. One spear will be there next and 2 more in two turns.

IT Retreat 4 horses, take a archer and lose a vet sword at Seattle. That's not cool. (18-6)
Persians start Great Wall and pulled a galley up to Tyre.
470 Fort everything I can as there's 8 units at Philly and 2 at Seattle. Need to hold here. Chicago switches to a spear.

IT Get 2 sword promotions lose reg spear but take out 6 archers and a horse while another retreated. (25-7)
450 We're actually reasonably clear with only 3 attack units at Philly, 3 next turn and one healthy horse at the road.
Time for a little of their own medicine. Attack the healthy horse with elite archer and it retreats.

IT our elites take out 2 archers and a horse though 1 elite sword redlines. (28-7)
Persians finish Great Lighthouse.
430 4 attack units at Philly and road. Change Chicago, Atlanta and Tyre to worker.
DC will make one next turn before growth.

IT take out 3 archers but lose a elite sword to a horse (31-8)
DC spear--> worker
Atlanta worker --> spear
Greeks finish Great Wall.

410 Only 2 attack units at Philly and one near the road. Keep the Atlanta spear home and send a reg spear and sword home too.

IT Our road spears take out 2 archers and one promotes. Our elite spear in Philly takes down a horse. (34-8)
DC worker --> spear
Tyre worker --> spear
Chicago worker --> rax

390 Only 2 attack units at Philly and 2 at the road. 7 more are coming out of Bad-tibira but it seems we've knocked them back a bit.

IT Oops...



The Sumerians hit Philly with a horse and two archers. They're flayed as we promote one spear to elite. (37-8)
NY spear--> spear
370 Oh this could be a big mistake for the Sumerians. Let's hope we don't get retreats from the horses.



Our swords get 2 elite wins but no MGL. 39-8
Fort the NY spear and a sword in DC allows us to drop lux to 40%.

IT We're done...


A spear protects Boston and another loses at NY.
We get 2 Sumerian retreats and take 2 other archers at Philly.

Nice timing...



Summary
I presume everyone will agree that we're done. That was a really tough start with all the desert, marsh and jungle.
 

Attachments

Well, we played correctly and we don't have anything to regret except our luck. Starting at close quarters with the Persians and another civ with an ancient GA was just too much, in this variant.
 
This sort of game isn't all that easy after all...

I will be gone for 2 weeks but am surely up to try this again. For a larger map, we need to have a better start I think
 
I'm in too. If Greebley is up for it how about rolling another start for us.
 
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