RB23 - Alex the Decentral....

[GreyFox]

Good build up, darell. I mostly agree with the decision you made on our behalf

I think 10 turns feel short for a peaceful-build-up turnset, but 15 may be a tad long for a warring turnset. I say we take either 10 or 15 turns, as the player wishes (which of-course may depend on his mood, the alignment of the stars, the phase of the moon, the height of the tide, and whether if there is crow croaking nearby ... )

EDITTurns Played, Report tomorrow morning[/i]

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[GreyFox]

Basically a Chemistry-pursuing turnset. I pondered over how to use the Great Engineer lazing in London: Forbident Palace or light-bulbing Chem? Rushing a national wonder is really not my taste ... thus:

This bring chemistry down to 1 turn. As for the forbident palace, I have chopped 2-3 forests near London but outside cities' BFCs. There is still 18 turns to go ... I shifted tiles emphasis on hammers.

Other things of interest:

- Circei flips to us

Looking hard at it, I think that english city which I razed centuries ago is much better ... so, I razed it again

I have also started 2 more settlers: 1 to settle the old england site, another to settle the silver site. Leave it to the player to decide the exact spot, but I suggest settling directly on one of the silver that will claim the other silver, iron, and fish.

- We razed yet another city!

I have some stack of maces and cats detoured to the south, and razed the barb city.

Afterwhich, they are moving back up north. (Not quite there yet, so they still have movement order).

- I have set research to 0%, for some Mace -> Gren upgrades.

- I have been building Longbows throughout my turnset, and shuffled the defenses a bit.

- I think the next player would be ready to declare around middle of his turnset, after 2 to 3 grenadiar upgrades.

- I played 10 turns, even though I wanted to play 15 to set the next player up for war, but 1400 AD is too nice a number ...

 

[darrelljs]

Sly fox! That's the perfect use for the GE, don't know why I didn't think of it myself . I checked the diplomatic situation, and JC is back to Friendly and KK is down to Pleased. I would trade Liberalism to JC for Banking/WM/170 gold to get an extra upgrade (and put a Bank in the Jewish holy city). Right before we declare I would trade KK Liberalism for his WM and Cash (and maybe Divine Right) just so he can't get any ultra cheap upgrades to Grenadiers.

Darrell

 

[Ozbenno]

Got it.

The plan is to peg down Mr Khan. I'll see what I can set up. After Chemistry I'm thinking Steel for Cannons.

Bank in the Holy City is always worth whipping .... d'oh!

 

[darrelljs]

Steel is probably worthwhile. I would wait until all the Maceman are updated to Grenadiers before turning research back on, if we can fund deficit research enough to get it then why not? However, I think it is probably the last tech we get. I'm for rolling all the way through KK, then straight into Bismarck without pausing. I bet we can hit Domination before 1600 A.D.

Darrell

P.S. Might be worth trying to get JC to take on Bismarck or KK so we don't end up in a 2 on 1.

 

[Ozbenno]

Yep, I was going to run deficit research only after maces all grened up! Although, I usually leave a couple of maces who are close to next level XP to get an extra CR promotion before upgrading as well.

 

[Ozbenno]

Once more into the fray!

First the good news, we're waging war with KK. Now the bad news, I declared on the third turn in before fulling upgrading the troops . More good news, I had (in my opinion) a good reason for doing so. More bad news, well just read on.

I notice we have some unhealthiness, so I trade JC rice for silk. I also pull off the Liberalism for Banking + Wm + cash.

OK after pressing enter, I notice that Hanno is born in Karakorum and sure enough KK has just discovered Economics. This means he hasn't got Chemistry and won't for a while, so our window of opportunity is NOW! I can't get a Liberalism/Economics swap with cash, so instead trade Liberalism for Divine Right + Wm + all his cash (no upgrades for you). This gives me exactly enough cash for the upgrades I want to wage war!

Next turn I notice that KK's GA has begun, not good but at least he didn't burn the GM on a tech he could use against us.

Ideally, I'd like a few more turns to beef up the army a bit but knowing he can't get Chemistry for a few turns means now. No one else is willing to take on the big guy so here goes. Kukblai, its been nice knowing you.

We immediately get hit with warring with brothers of the faith unhapiness.



First target. We lose one of our upgraded grens but sucess is ours.



Second target. No losses.



The first sign of a counter attack, a knight takes down one of our phalanxes but is killed next turn.

I found Delphi on the silver and Pharsalos on the bones of many cities .





Forbidden palace built in London.

We get another scientist, I bulb him for (partial) Printing Press, which we're sort of researching at 0% anyway .

Third taget. No losses.



I'd been dreading a huge naval invasion and here it comes.



Printing Press comes in on my last turn (I played 15) and I switch to Steel, but at 0% research.
And that is that. Obligitory peace offer.



Other thoughts...

I'd cottage the floodplains at Hastings, as we need cash more than GPs or food at the moment, and it will have a market, grocer and bank.

Other things to note...

I've troops on the move, at this stage mainly longbows to garrison newly captured cities and phalanxes. I've tried to cancel all orders but you never know. .

Power situation. He has been taken down slightly but obviously still has more troops around.



JC will join the war but is asking PP and Chemistry. Not keen on giving Chemistry away so maybe if we want him in, try just PP.

We can trade to JC for Economics but that's a pretty useless tech for us. Bismark will trade us dye but we'll get some Mongol dye soon. I'm trading him for sugar at the moment but we'll have a plantation built in 3 if we can cancel that deal.

KK has researched Nationalism, so I'm thinking he's going for Military Tradition and cavalry.

The troops are in Otrar and Almarikh. Those in Otrar are ready to march on either Old Sarai or Sanchu.

Where to go from here?

We've got the unhappies and can get peace. KK still has a ton of troops hidden away in his major cities. On the other hand, he'll likely have cavalry soon, which we don't really have an answer to. I'm leaning towards keeping the attack up until he gets cavalry and then getting peace.

Oh yeah, that other bad news I mentioned. Guess what I spotted last turn .



We've probably got the troops to handle it but it really depends where he lands. If he keeps going south, we have less troops. There are two knights in Almarikh, I suggest they "shadow" the galley, with a Formation phalanx on its way there.

The Save

View attachment 138762

 

[darrelljs]

Ozbenno,

Looked like a really good turnset to me, taking some cities with few losses. I couldn't figure out what the extra piece of bad news was . My vote: , , and more . I took a look at it and you got two nice stacks that should be able to push through at least another three cities (the eastern stack really needs a medic, KK has a lot of suicide catapults in his cities), at which point he should give us a tech along with all his cash for peace. If he has Chemistry then he has Gunpowder, so I think you are right he is one tech away from MT and gunning for Cavalry, which do quite well against Grenadiers. We have to hamstring him now before that happens. He has big stacks in his cities but no offensive stacks except 2 Knights, a Crossbow and a Mace ? Shadow it with the Knights like you say, or even better with Phalynx. I agree we should not pay such a price to get JC in the war, just not worth it. The only concern is KK does pay the price and pull in Bismarck (JC won't at Friendly) but it is probably a risk worth taking.

Qwack, I know from reading your other SGs that you are pretty busy, but if you get a fast turnaround on this one I can probably get in two rounds before my computer is packed, especially with ThERat on holiday .

Darrell

P.S. Looks like that barbarian city popped back up again

P.P.S. I have a Phalynx on fog busting duty east of Warwick, can move him now that the borders popped. Sorry for leaving him fortified .

 

[Qwack]

Good job Ozbenno. I dont think we can stop here, gotta beat Kublai up enough so hes not a problem in the future. I think we should get JC involved even for chemistry and Printing press. I got it, will have it played tonight. I havent checked the save yet so ill post more thoughts later

 

[darrelljs]

I got it, will have it played tonight.

Heh-heh...I didn't even have to beg . One more thing on Ozbenno's comments, I agree we should cottage out Hastings. We also have a forrest to chop (have three) to speed the bank up, I suggest the one on the grassland river. I agree with the Engineer now to speed up the Bank, but eventually if we run a specialist here it should probably be a Merchant. The other thing, I believe we should bump our Culture up to 10%. It gets rid of nine unhappy faces at the cost of 19 gold per turn, probably an okay deal. We need to prosecute this war quickly as ThERat's favorite game feature is going to be the biggest problem.

Darrell

 

[Ozbenno]

Forgot to mention the barb city. Should have moved the fog busting warrior one hill west once we founded Delphi (as it wasn't there then) but forgot .

 

[GreyFox]

Good hammering, Ozbenno. I think we need to shadow the galley with both a knight and a phalnax. Phanax to take care of the knights (at +100% for phalnax and -50% for amphibuous), phalnax will eat the knight for lunch. The knight is to take care of crossbow.

I also don't think we should stop for WW. Just increasing the culture slider would be good enough for now. Plus capturing cities earn us some gold to further fund our mace2gren conversion.

-

 

[Qwack]

I havent played any turns yet, just did some diplomatic maneuvers. First I notice our barb-watch archer is apparently still fortified on the hill . I move him towards the front-lines. I than pull off these deals:



Yea boi, go get him .



This may look like weed but its some damn good weed. This trade brings us to pleased with bismarck, after which, this deal:



Its time to get a 3-way gangbang going on our old friend kublai, ofcourse all the cities will be falling to us . I know I promised I would play these turns today but my other SG took 1 hour for me to play the turns, which I wasnt expecting. I dont want to play now and make some stupid moves(need to get some sleep), so ill play in 12 hours. Sorry darrell

 

[darrelljs]

Heh-heh...I can wait impatiently, those are some good moves to start with

Darrell

 

[Ozbenno]

That should keep Kublai's hands full some. Ask then to attack his heavily defended northern cities, hopefully keepong those troops there, for us to take the south. We'll still be ahead of Bismark tech-wise for our next invasion but JC will start creeping ahead. Is there enough land on this island for domination without JC's land?

 

[Qwack]

JC's power is still way down there, I dont think we can get domination without his lands but I dont think taking his land's will really be a problem, remember, cannons are city taking monsters .

 

[Ozbenno]

Hmmm, cannons

 

[Qwack]

Played 10 turns.

Kublai lands his galley stack right next to Tabriz, which I was expecting. (Im going to have to use the manage attachments to post screens since imageshack isnt working ATM. I lost some units at 70% odds trying to take it out, which made me sad. Bismarck sends 5 knights + catpult to some of Kublai's border cities . Nice my friend, as long as you waste your entire army by the time we get to you, everything will be fine. I pull off a paper for 370 gold deal to qin, paper really isnt going to help him much at all, and the gold will be useful for us to upgrade. I also ask bismarck for his 120 gold and he gives it to me.

Bismarck apparently sent his entire force after sanchu, and captures it. But even a good thing by the AI is a bad thing, he pillaged all its tiles before he took it. We meet washington in 1529, who is automatically our worst enemy . I send him corn for 13 gold per turn. He already has astronomy and is sending a galleon with settler on our island.

We capture Samarqand in 1529. 0 units lost. I actually was safe with samarqand, allowing him to reinforce 2 turns before I took it so we wont face a massive counter-attack, but I think I should have waited 2 more turns, and in 1535, KK launches a huge counterattack on samarqand. sends in 5 catupults first, which somehow win 2 battles at 19% and 20% odds. Than a knight and maceman. We lost 4 units but will hold Samarqand easily, I would suggest next player to send some longbows + muskets towards it.

Our secondary army is on the move towards new sarai. Our research is at 40% right now on slight deficit, which will be useful for catupults -> Cannons upgrade. We will probably need to boost our culture slider a bit more during darrell's turn, but I would suggest trying to get steel soon, so dont put research on 0%. It might also be useful to get a settler out soon and pick up that space between england's and our cities, that looks like a good 3-4% extra land right there.

 

[Ozbenno]

Good work Qwack! I must admit I was fearing a big counter attack at some stage, so advanced slower than normal. Looks like it hit you! Once we can get Steel for Cannon upgrade, we'll be sweet.

I'd maybe run at 10% higher research rate (would probably knock 4-5 turns off).

 

[darrelljs]

Interesting...Washington has Astronomy and Replaceable Parts...and, uh, he won't declare war on anyone because "we have enough on our hands right now" which kind of sucks. At least Grenadiers do okay against Rifleman. I start to shore up our coastal defenses (focused on East, but also a bit on West). This is the primary reason I did not run more deficit research, we might need to make some emergency upgrades. Note that he is Pleased or Cautious with everyone except us, who he is Annoyed with.

So, I press the war onward. Samarqand is majorly attacked in between turns for several years in a row. We manage hold onto the city with only minor reinforcements, but our offensive on that side has stalled. I push most of the troops North because a) I want his capital, and b) I don't want more coastal cities to defend just yet.

In 1538 I see a Settler coming down from KK, what an idiot. I smack it and use the Worker for fog busting (all my fog busters are awake if you want to adjust).

In 1544, the Bank in Hastings completes, and I emphasize commerce and Merchants. It is making us 102 gold per turn:

In 1547, I got the expected war declaration but it is Qin

I thought about stopping here for consulation, but he doesn't have Astronomy yet so I continue on. In 1553 Old Sarai falls (lost one Grenadier) leaving the way open to the capital.

KK has been taken down a notch or two, but you can see that Washington definitely has Rifleman from the power graph spike:

Uh, and from the city he parked on our continent

Oh, and Qin now has Astronomy

On the positive side, we captured Karakorum. I lost two of the Catapults in suicide missions and one of the Grenadiers. The fight of the battle was a Knight taking out a Pikeman at 20% odds, allowing me to finish the city off with a CG2 Greandier:

He still won't give us Nationalism for peace, we have enough forces to push on but I am majorly worried about Washington and Qin (he still won't talk to us I wanted to make peace ASAP). War weariness has made me put the culture slider at 20% and 30% is probably needed. My advide is to make peace with KK now and use the 15 turns to build more stacks and get to Cannon. I would make peace with Qin as soon as he is willing to talk. And watch out for Washington, he is second in score and probably coming for us. This thing is far from over, KK has been a real slogfest with all the suicide cats and troops he had stacked in his cities.

A few other notes.

- We have a Great Prophet on ice waiting for Athens to pop hopefully a non GP for a golden age. It might not be a bad idea to go through a GA and build up Grenadier/Cannon stacks before starting the war again.

- Someone might want to check and see if I did any moves with the city management

- We are way down in tech, and I guess Washington's GNP is about 7X ours (409 vs. 62). We have a large lead on him in land (30% vs. 15%) but a smaller lead in population (25% vs. 21%).

- We've lost some Fishing Boats, I have not queued up replacements.

- I've been chopping out Grenadiers, might be better uses for our Workers.

- I would probably not shut research off after Steel, unless we can get Astronomy from Qin for peace (not very likely). We have no Navy at all but with Astronomy we can build Frigates, and Washington doesn't have Chemistry yet (so he is not near Steel).

- Keep checking to see if JC will sign an MP with us (he has Nationalism and hopefully is working on MT).

- If I don't get another turnset in, good luck. I'll be lurking along with ThERat cheering you guys on.

Darrell

P.S. I played 15 turns, just in case I don't get another set