RB13 - Collateral Carnage

[Kylearan]

Preturn: I whip the lighthouse in Berlin, as it is working 1f/2h tiles with no commerce at the moment.

Hamburg has an unhappy citizen, but unfortunately it has nothing to whip at the moment so I have to let it be that way. I'm not a fan of unhappy citizens for later whipping, as they are contributing nothing to the empire but consume food; instead I like to whip when cities have reached their happiness limit, and regrow them afterwards. Once we know Metal Casting though, that unhappy citizen will be sold into slavery...

I switch cities from chariots away to other things, and reconfigure all cities for max commerce. Instead of in 10 turns at +3, we will discover Metal Casting in 7 turns at +1 now. I will also use deficit research to speed it up even more.

60AD (3): Argh, all Alex would trade away is fish.

120AD (6): Metal Casting comes in, and I set research to Alphabet next. Most often, I can trade away Alphabet to get Mathematics, so I don't think it will delay us much on our way to Construction, only expands our options.

All cities are reconfigured for max production, and forges are ordered up.

140AD (7): Er, huh? Suddenly we have one unhappy citizen in Berlin which we didn't have last turn? Sorry about that; I have no idea how that happened.

Hamburg, Munich and Cologne get their forges whipped.

160AD (8): Munich starts to build the Colossus. All cities that have a forge a reconfigured again for max growth/commerce.

180AD (9): I trade our extra clam for Isabella's corn. We don't need it, but it will improve relations and if a happiness resource pops up for trade, we can use our only sheep to get it.


Some notes: Despite what I had said earlier, I've decided to chop a forest at Berlin to build a cottage there, and have sent a worker to another one to do the same. It's our science city and needs cottages, and we still have 4 forests left afterwards.

Berlin is at a starving diet right now to complete the forge earlier; please keep an eye on the city. When the forge is complete next turn, reconfigure it to max commerce. Once the whipping memory is gone, put it on max growth, etc.

Hamburg is building a settler for lack of anything else, and we might even use it to settle the eastern food resources, either on our continent or on the island. Hamburg is maximized for commerce though, not for settler building.

Keep also a close eye on Munich. It's building the Colossus, and is set to max growth at the moment. Once it has reached its limit, set it to max production; if the whipping memory has faded, max growth again. If the whipping memory is faded before the Colossus is complete, consider whipping it.

As soon as Frankfurt can be whipped, do it.



Roster:
Kylearan
Sharog -> UP NOW
Snaproll -> on deck
xenikos
Zeviz
Dreylin

-Kylearan

 

[Sharog]

bleuh, double post

 

[Sharog]

got it, and apparantly i cant post a msg with less than 10 chars so i just add some bulls....

another check, i didnt got it, cuz i dont see the saves attached

 

[Snaproll]

I'm leaving to go out of town this weekend, so if my turn comes around (which I think it will), I won't be able to grab it until Sunday night at the earliest. A swap or a skip would be in order. I didn't think my turn would come up so quickly!

 

[Kylearan]

Whoops, sorry about the save...here it is.

 

[Dreylin]

Er, huh? Suddenly we have one unhappy citizen in Berlin which we didn't have last turn? Sorry about that; I have no idea how that happened.

I found that to Max Berlin's production you either had to set it to a slight growth regime, or slight starvation. I had it storing off food and basically stagnated it 1food short of growing, so setting to Max Production probably kept it growing pushed it over the edge. Solving that now though, I see!

I trade our extra clam for Isabella's corn. We don't need it, but it will improve relations and if a happiness resource pops up for trade, we can use our only sheep to get it.

Her Clam - our Corn, but yeah. I held off that one hoping that Alex would have something useful. We've got enough of a health buffer anyway that we could afford to trade away our only remaining Corn if it would get us an extra Happy.

Monty has the Dye site just down the coast, so once he gets to Calendar he should have some trades open ... we'll want him to still be happy with us by then!

Once we have Alphabet, I think we should try and get hold of Meditation/Priesthood and use Berlin to spread Judaism and build Temples - while we're waiting for Construction, of course - we don't need to convert to get the Temple Happy benefits.... Judaism since it's Monty's Religion and the Holy City is right on our borders - and not Izzy's Capital - so should be easy to take. The Monastery in Berlin will help science output a bit, too. If we pop a Great Prophet we might want to save him for building the Shrine as Izzy's not going to build it for us.

 

[Sharog]

not much to do during my turns, we cant war, and we have no money either.
some mm every now and then to maximize our growth shields or what ever and keep up with the research.

some interesting event toke place though, such as:


so i sent in some spy to check out how izzy is doing and how much force he still have while warring with monty


how ever, he moved some of those out by the end of my turn so guess he is losing some units.

our colossus is almost finished, we have 5 forest next to munich, i would sudjest we chop one, since we really really need the money:


besides, once we got it up we can settle the fishing villages, im actually thinking of settling 2 village there since no matter where we settle on the small island downsouth, we cant use the deer and fish on it, so might as well settle 2, with colossus they will pay their own cost so.


PS: monty went to hinduism, same as izzy, no city exchanging during my turn. and most of our cities are mm'ed to commerce due getting alphabet asap. remember to turn on the stop growth thingy as alot of the cities will grow out of the limit soon.

 

[Snaproll]

I MAY be able to play my turns before I go out of town tonight. Either way, I'll let you know in 8 hours or less

 

[Zeviz]

Looks like we are going at a good pace.

It's nice to have those pyramids in Madrid for easy capture. Pyramids, religion, better lands... The only thing Izzy could do for us to make things even better would be building a couple shrines.

I like the two fishing village spots, if we can get Colossus. And training settlers for these villages will give our cities something to do while waiting for Catapults to become available.

I'd vote for not cutting any more grassland and plains forests. With Colossus, we'll be able to work coasts for 3 gold, which is as good as a village for now. (And villages take 30 turns to grow.) These forests will be very important in late game, when replacable parts come in. These forests that look so useless now will give us an edge over AIs once we build massive lumberbills.

 

[Snaproll]

Guys,

I won't have time to play tonight. It's been crazy at work (as you may be able to discern by my lack of participation in this thread) and I just am not going to have time. Please skip me. Won't happen again (at least, until my next trip...)

 

[Kylearan]

Sharog, I'm a bit confused about your report...do I read this right, that Izzy and Monte are at war? Nice.

The next player will discover Alphabet and has some important trades to make. Mathematics->Currency->Construction should be our next priority IMHO, without any detours which delay our access to catapults even more.

Snaproll, I hope stress levels will return to normal again for you soon!

Roster:
Kylearan
Sharog
Snaproll -> skipped
xenikos -> UP NOW
Zeviz -> on deck
Dreylin

-Kylearan

 

[xenikos]

Since the units have not been moved, I'm going to guess that this isn't my initial pre-turn but the first turn to play.

300AD - Look around, things are more or less in order. Munich is on track to grow (into unhappiness) sooner than it builds the colossus, so I switch one plains/forest citizen to an engineer, for the same shields, plus some GPPs. Now it is set to grow on the same turn that the colossus finishes - so the next player, the turn before the colossus comes in you should move it around to prevent growth. Or grow into unhappiness to use a whip on something, if there's something with a lot of shields coming up to whip (market).

Hamburg is working on a settler....slowly (maximized for commerce), which is just fine - we aren't in a big rush on that anyways (plan is to settle our two fishing spots shortly only after colossus is done. And there isn't much use to build there that we need.

Frankfurt is working on a forge, which I think is the wrong call - we're not in dire straits to build anything there, and a lighthouse, which would finish shortly, would cause it to grow quickly (and net us more commerce). But since it is a good maxim for SGs to not reverse course unless there is a pressing need, I let the forge continue.


310AD - Great Lighthouse is built somewhere

Long down the road, here's a potential city site, that grabs that deer and a few lake spots:


320AD - Big turn - Alphabet comes in! Start on math


I survey the available trades: Isabella has Meditation and Polytheism and will trade none of it...Montezuma has Masonry and Iron Working, and will trade both for Alphabet, which I agree to. He also has Math but won't trade it no matter what. Alex has...Meditation (which he will trade) and Horseback Riding (which he won't). However, the only things we can trade for Meditation are Metal Casting or Alphabet...we're not about to give Alex that kind of deal. So, not the tech bonanza we might have thought (our neighbors aren't exactly the nerdy types), but we do have iron now:


340AD - Judiasm spreads to Munich
350AD - Buddhism spreads to Frankfurt (our civ is split down the middle! North vs. South! Yahweh vs. Zen!). Of course, Spain maintains its near-monopoly on religion:


360AD - Cologne finishes a library, and is set on barracks.
Berlin finishes its barracks, and is started on a settler (to eventually fill the 2nd of those spots to the east)
Alex converts to Judiasm. How strange that the only two civs that share a religion are at war! Not a riveting war, however...the chariot that someone left in the area gets to watch the front lines, but not a lot of battles are occuring.
Speaking of units out of our borders - we have an archer that was planted all the way in Alex's territory With everything mostly explored, I send him back (along with that workboat on the other side of the world)

380AD - Iron is hooked up


Cologne doesn't exactly have a plethora of options for growing itself.

We should think about if we want to sacrifice a few forests in order to pipe in irritation later....in any case, having run out of 2f tiles, we could do one of two things: 1. grow it to size 6 by working both a plains tile and that grassland hill, or 2. just stop growing by plunking down on that silver mine. I currently have it set on the latter, just to give us an immediate commerce boost...but at some point we'll want to put a cottage/windmill on that hill, do some irrigation, etc.

Hamburg finishes its settler. Lacking any buildings to build, I put it on an axemen (we'll need to use up a few units defending the new cities, so another unit or two is justified). The settler is sent to Frankfurt.

Just this turn, Izzy is now offering Meditation for trade. We could trade Sailing for it....this is a call I leave to someone else. We could use temples, but Meditation itself does us little good. I just wanted to avoid unnecessary trading with the enemy, or becoming too advanced

Well, that's it. Not a super exciting turn. Here's an overview of our lands:


Hey, the first time I remembered the save file when I first post!
Enjoy -

Edit: Almost forgot - we're one turn away from a Great Prophet at Hamburg. If we feel like we want a religion, we can save him until we've traded for the lower half of the branch and then discover theology or divine right....or, we can save him and then build a shrine for one of the religions that Izzy has built

 

[Zeviz]

390AD (0) Our empire is in good shape. Being unable to buy Math was an unexpected setback, but we are about to research it ourselves and our economy is pretty strong (#3 in commerse).

I MM Hamburg and Munich for faster growth (without losing turns on the Collosus), to enable them to reach happiness limit quicker.

Somebody interrupted a nearly complete lighthouse in Frankfurt for a useless Forge. With 3 hummers, the forge will not even give any benefit and the lake is the only 3-food tile available for the city to grow. Using 3-food lake and a mine will give us much more production than a forge would, so I return the lighthouse back to the top of the queue.

An archer that was originally doing Barbwatch on a hill north of Frankfurt is sent to guard our future fishing village.

400AD (1) We get a Great Prophet in Hamburg. I am putting him to sleep on a pasture near Berlin, until we conquer some religions from Izzy.

Munich reaches happiness limit, so I hire an Engineer, nearly stopping growth.

410AD (2) Workers work. Troops guard. Cities build.

420AD (3) We complete Colossus! We also learn Math and start research on Construction (15).

I move Hamburn from farm to lake, slowing down its growth, but giving an extra 3gpt.

Munich gets ready to finish its chariot, which will go to guard Cologne. Cologne's archer goes east to guard our future island fishing village.

Our chariot scouting Izzy's lands noticies 2 of Alex's axemen. I don't know what they are doing so far from home, so it's better to keep track of them.

430AD (4) Essen is founded and starts work on the lighthouse. With help of colossus, the city is almost paying for itself already. Unexpectedly, the distance maintanance is only 2$ with another 2$ for number of cities maintanance and 2$ for increased civic upkeep costs.

440AD (5) Munich chariot -> Work Boat (for Essen) Chariot goes to guard Cologne. Frankfurt Lighthouse -> Forge (although Granary might be more useful)

IBT: ALEX DECLARES WAR!

He kills the chariot that was monitoring the movement of his axes and the worker that was building a road towards Spain.

450AD (6) Munich is put on starvation diet and starts work on an axe in 3 turns. Hamburg is reconfigured for mass hammers and will complete its axe this turn. Chariot that was supposed to guard Cologne goes to Hamburg. One of barbwatch archers is pulled back south. (Turns out we didn't need to keep him outside our borders anyway.)

460AD (7) Berlin Settler -> Axeman (5) (reconfigured for max hammers) Hamburg Axeman -> Axeman (4)

Axeman and chariot go to forest west of Hamburg, hoping Greek axeman will attack, instead of pillaging village.

Settler and archer board Galley in Frankfurt and immediately sail east.

IBT: Axeman pillages, instead of attacking.

Taoism is founded in distant land. (Somebody is going for Liberalism.)

Izabella makes peace with Monty.

470AD (8) Prapairing our tiny army for war.

IBT Hamlet is pillaged down to cottage. The wounded axe (the one who killed chariot) pillages road to the south.

480AD (9) Munich Axe -> Work Boat (2) The city is reconfigured back to stable configuration.

Dortmund is founded on an island, starts on lighhouse.

IBT Izzy demands Sailing. We reject.
Axeman finishing pillaging cottage. Another axe moves further along the road.

490AD (10) Workers start cottage near Dortmund. Axe moves to intercept wounded (1.0 strength) Greek Axe.

War situation: don't promote southern axeman until he kills his badly wounded target. Then promote him to shock. As for the axeman who just finished pillaging a village, don't attack him unless you have a fully healed Shock axeman. Let him come to us instead.

Our archer in Monty's lands didn't see any Alex's troops going through, so this is likely to be a purely pillaging war.

Other notes:
1) Munich needs to build 3 work boats for new fishing villages.
2) When workers finish cottage near Dortmund, take them back to mainland to wait for Essen's borders to expand and build camp on deer.
3) Construction is due in 7 turns. Meanwhile, Berlin and Hamburg can keep training axemen.
4) Prophet near Berlin is waiting for our conquest of Spain, to construct a shrine there.

I am sorry about the Greek war. Perhaps Alex wouldn't have attacked if I didn't leave that worker near the border unguarded.

 

[Kylearan]

I think the forge in Frankfurt was my doing, although I admit I didn't put that much thought into it. I had started it not for the production boost but for the extra happiness, and I expected it to get whipped so that Frankfurt wouldn't reach a size where the lighthouse would be needed for growth at once anyway. That way, it would have been able to build the lighthouse with the (although miniscule) production bonus from the forge. I didn't think about the Colossus though, which makes the lighthouse of course a lot better.

But since it is a good maxim for SGs to not reverse course unless there is a pressing need, I let the forge continue.

Oh, please feel free to change build orders in my SGs whenever you like, as long as you spell out the reasons why you did it so we can discuss afterwards!


So Alex attacked us. Ah well. I guess some shock axemen will be able to take care of that! Just remember to be patient and only attack if the odds are good enough, or let them attack us on favorable grounds.

We should make peace again as soon as possible. But I also think we shouldn't pay for it, seeing that we are preparing for war ourselves now...

Roster:
Kylearan -> on deck
Sharog
Snaproll
xenikos
Zeviz
Dreylin -> UP NOW

-Kylearan

 

[Snaproll]

Hi guys, I'm back in town, so I'm back in the roster too.

 

[Dreylin]

Sorry guys, should have posted sooner - not going to be able to take this until tomorrow evening. So if you want to jump in there Snap?

 

[Snaproll]

Umm, sure! I can't take it until after work today either though. It's up to you Dreylin, I'm happy with whatever you want to do.

 

[Dreylin]

Well then, let's see who gets there first!

I notice you're in Colorado too, so that's Mountain time for both of us; if we're efficient about it, we could probably both get a turn in this evening!

 

[Snaproll]

OK, ok, I got it

I'm in Colorado Springs, not far from you at all! I'll try to play fast enough so you can get a turn in tonight, but I dunno. I have a couple of pages of discussion to read through before I start, ere I botch up our well-laid plans.

 

[Dreylin]

Ah, not too far. My computer has been rather distracted this evening, and still requires some TLC , so don't rush on my account....