RB2c - Mali - Noble - Just Win Baby!

[Ozymandous]

Erm, I dunno? The game saves weren't the same so I would think it would be all right to talk general strategy, but I'll leave that up to the others.

It seems DH is still having problem maybe. I'll lay claim to the save with "Got it!" and try to get the turns posted by tomorrow sometime.

 

[Ozymandous]

1660 AD (IT):

I cycle our cities and change almost all of them to max food. I swap to Vassalage for our units about to be produced, and then dial up Napoleon to see if he will settle for peace.

Peace with Napoleon for 50 gold and 7 GPT from him.

1665 AD (1):

Awd finishes a Knight, starts a grocer.
A lot of military units promoted and moved to multiple staging points.

1670 AD (2):

Djenne finishes a knight, starts a Grocer.
Kumbi finishes a Knight, starts a Grocer.
Awlil finishes a forge, starts a Granary.

1675 AD (3):

Timbuk finishes a Musketman, starts a Bank.
Moving military units. A lot of our units are in Niani now to help fortify the town and make it less of a target.

1680 AD (4):

Nationalism discovered. Music chosen next.
Tad finishes a bank and men with blue suits and cigar’s everywhere rejoice. Grocery chosen next to import all that caviar and white bread.

1685 AD (5):

Gao finishes a bank and again, men with blue suits rejoice. Grocer started.
Frederick finally makes peace with Genghis. Maybe he’ll survive long enough for us to take out Genghis?

1690 AD (6):

Elizabeth comes to us asking for Gunpowder in exchange for Music, which id due in 1 anyway. I decline with a slight grin and thanks.

I swap Niani to the Hermitage (100% culture) in hopes that it will eventually be able to get a bit more room.

1695 AD (7):

Music discovered, Replaceable Parts chosen next. Lumber mills will soon dot the landscape.

1700 AD (8):

Djenne finishes a grocer and starts a bank.
Kumbi finishes a grocer and starts a bank also.

1705 AD (9):

We’re the largest empire in the world! Alexander is second.

Genghis comes a’callin asking for Banking for less than it’s worth. I decline and he goes away in a huff, taking the smell of horse with him. Fumigator’s are called and take months to get the stink out of the royal greeting hall.

Walata finishes a bank and an aqueduct is started.

1710 AD (10):

Timbuk finishes a bank, starts a grocer.
Awd finishes a grocer, starts a bank.
Awlil finishes an aqueduct, starts a harbor.


Replaceable Parts due in 4. Niani has Hermitage due in 7, an idea might be to start the Taj Mahal there next since it output’s 10 culture per turn. Just a thought.

Mainly infrastructure built this round, as you can tell. When we finish all that I dunno if we need to build more military or missionaries. More missionaries = more cash so it’s a thought. Either way.

Oh, and that Caravel with the GM is still out roaming the waters. Alexander is next to us in score and land size so he'd be the best to use the GM with but since Alex won't open his borders I'm not sure what to do. Ah well, someone else can mess with him. (The caravel is in an English Port so if Lizzie has a decent sized capital he might work there too, )

 

[Ozymandous]

Well drat, you can't edit a post to include a file. Well blah to that..

 

[Ragnoff]

got it, but will not be able to play until tomorrow (Monday).

 

[Ragnoff]

The glorious Ragnoff dynasty is once again in power. When he last left the throne a nasty war had begun, so the first order of business was to look at the State of the Union. It must be admitted that the union seems to be in pretty good order. No cities were gained in the war, but none were lost either. Most cities seem to be working on peaceful projects, primarily various ways to increase their financial strength. As we are a financial empire, this seems to be a good choice. There are several very large gatherings of warriors yet there is also not but warriors and skirmisher's holding the towns to the extreme north. Until enemies have a substantial Navy, this is probably an acceptable risk. Our legal system is still vassalage an expense we probably no longer need, and while a system of bureaucracy would allow great production in our capital of Timbuktu, nationhood would put an even smaller drain on the treasury. Moreover, we are still following barbaric labor practices, having our people locked in slavery. It would be cheaper, or at least no more expensive, to give them some rights and elevate them to serfdom. Finally, although it is cheaper to remain a theocracy, harnessing the power of organized religion will allow our many financial buildings to be completed more quickly. The savings gained in stepping down from vassalage to nationhood will offset the costs involved in organized religion. These changes in our social system are ordered immediately.

Internationally, Genghis Khan and his Mongols are furious with us, while Alexander and Napoleon, leaders of the Greek and the French, are merely annoyed. Frederick is pleased with us, while Elizabeth and Julius Caesar are both cautious. Both astronomy and philosophy exist in the world, but none who have them will trade them.

I wish to have replaceable parts quickly, and we have a surplus, so I turn science to 100% in order to speed the production of this technology. With that, I initiate my reign.

1715 A.D. we learned that a holy building, the Kong Mao, is built in a faraway land. Napoleon cancels his gold to us for its peace treaty, but it may have simply been netted his responsibility to provide us with recompense for the war has ended. I say this because, despite the end of the Golden peace treaty, he has not declared war. Tadmekka has finished producing a grocer, I order a missionary to send to a Roman town. I also discover that my attempts to adjust the finances were not wholly successful, I had not considered the increased military costs of supporting the large army, no longer enhanced by our system of vassalage. Several orders are given for workers to start expanding our farm system across the many planes that.our kingdom. Finally, the caravel containing a great merchant is ordered to Greek waters. Although we do not have open borders with Alexander, caravels may enter territory of others without provoking war, as many merchants the largest known city in Greece is Sparta, although this is not their capital. The other caravel also is navigating the Greek coast, also searching for their capital city.

1720 A.D. Djenne constructs a bank, and is ordered to begin a Jewish synagogue, this will help its culture improve quickly. Gao grows to size 13 is ordered to construct the Taj Mahal. It will take it 17 turns to build, but this will help push back the border in this area. Finishes one mercenary and is ordered to begin another. Replaceable parts will be learned next turn with science dropped back to 80%. We are gaining 25 gold per turn rather than losing gold, although we have only 92 at the beginning of this turn.

1725 A.D. We understand replaceable parts, I increase science to 90% again and I begin chemistry because it is next on the path that could lead us to railroads, something that I think would be useful in helping to defend our large territory. Kumbi finishes a bank and begins a Jewish missionary. Walata builds walls, as it is one of the cities that could be attacked should the Mongols move through German territory. This will also allow it to build a castle which will increase its culture output. The allowance of wind and water mills allows several forests on hilltops and on rivers to be converted. In the future, there's also the possibility of shifting some farms to water mills depending on the cities. The caravel reaches the waters around Sparta, and discovers to our dismay that Sparta is not the city it once was. We will continue to search for a good location for our great merchant.

1730 A.D. Alexander surprises me by offering an open borders, something he would not consider at the beginning of my reign. As we are looking for a place to land our great merchant, I agree. Alexander furthers offers a trade of paid for for, something I also except as we do have a few cities that are borderline unhealthy. Finally, I sell our extra cows for eight gold per turn. Kumbi finishes the missionary and begins a musketman, while Walata finishes the walls and begins a castle. Tadmekka finishes a missionary and starts an explorer.

At this point I have a crash to reboot.

Luckily the autosave lets me fix this problem.

We convert Neapolis to Judaism., I landed a great merchant on a hilltop outside Sparta, and I am able to see the capital of Athens inland.

1735 A.D. A Roman galleon has been working around our coast carrying a settler. There is one frozen spot in our north where he could land, however it would be a horrible city location for. I decide not to try to block this settler, for even if the city is placed in that one available spot, I think it can do us little harm. The merchant arrives in Athens and will get 1300 for a trade mission. This is the largest of the cities I have so far checked, and I decide to establish the mission. One of our missionaries board the Galleon to be transferred over to the German isle, in the last Roman city, Cumae adopts Judaism.

1740 A.D. Awdaghost finishes a bank and begins a musketman. Tadmekka finishes an explorer and begins a missionary. We have over 1300 gold pieces, and are losing but a single gold per turn with 90% science.

1745 A.D. Walata begins a caravel, and has another great merchant appears. He will give us over half of the technology, constitution, which would give us representation. As I think we may benefit to switching from her editor a rule to representation, at least in finances, I decided that will be the next technology after chemistry and spend a great person. I realize that some time earlier Niani had finished the heritage, and started a market. This market must have been geode already. I place a Jewish synagogue before the market, primarily for the culture boost in that critical area. The Explorer, and future missionaries, will be moved to Walata in preparation for transport to Greece.

1750A.D. Chemistry is learned and constitution is selected. Timbuktu finishes a grocery and begins a knight. Kumbi finishes a musketman and begins a caravel as I realize it's probably shorter to travel to England from this city. Tadmekka begins a grenadier and Tekedda begins a Jewish monastery after finishing its market. The Roman galleon passes by the icy northern shore leading me to believe there are islands Roman knows about that we do not. The German city of Cologne adopts Judaism, and every German and Roman city that we know about follows our faith.

Although that is not a full 10 turns, ending a session at 1760 would feel as weird as beginning one at 1710 did. So I'll stop here and pass the torch.

By the way, how do we plan on winning this game?

As Ragnoff the fifth steps down, he has one thought. Unlike his two immediately previous ancestor's dynasties, he did not leave the kingdom in the war when passing it off to his successor.

 

[DeceasedHorse]

Finals are over and I am home for Christmas break, so I can definately for sure (provided my laptop does not break AGAIN ) play, if you want me to. If not, I understand; I was a complete jackass towards you guys and I am really sorry about my irresponsibility.

 

[Dwip]

Well, I see it, and will deal with it sooner rather than later.

What IS our plan for winning, anyway?

 

[Talamane]

A plan? Sounds radical.

How about: take out Khan, JC, Napoleon, and Frederick, in that order? Own the continent once we have the financial power to maintain the cities we could/would gain? Khan will declare sooner or later, he's trying to gain a mil tech lead that would give him an advantage, since we've got the numbers.

It's too late for cultural. SS will give us a win, and then we will have the leadership abilities of Ethelred the Unready or maybe Warren G Harding. I will go along with whatever we decide upon.

While our start was not as auspicious as RB2a and 2b, they went on to conquer their respective continents. I think 2b pulled the SS switch. I need to read their threads.

 

[Ozymandous]

Plan? Heh, I'd agree with Talamane except maybe change the order of conquests. JC first, since he's closest, then Khan, then Napolean (after someone hopefully takes the last German city on the mainland). I'd be willing to leave Fred's last city on the mainland if none of the others takes it before we get them just because he's pretty weak and hasn't tried to backstab us.

I say JC first becasue we don't need him causing issues on our flank/rear when we go after the others.

Conquesto f the continent and then cruise to SS victory or go on to domination, either or is fine with me. We need to get started sooner rather than later, although with Christmas right around the corner we'll be a bit slow.

DH, jump in when you can, just post one way or another if you plan to finish this or spend your time on all the DH based SG's that you started.

 

[Talamane]

From a logistical standpoint, i agree.

However, it has been my experience with Soren's AI From Hell (TM) that Khan will declare on us as soon as we move on JC. I wonder if there is some sort of diplomatic perfidy we could come up with to counter this. Ideas anyone?

 

[Dwip]

Let us flog the horse some more, because I'm way too tired to post coherently tonight.

1750 AD - State of the Union:

Techwise, it's like this:

Khan: Up Philosophy, down Nationalism, Printing Press, Chemistry
Alex: Up Philosophy, Astronomy, down Music, DivRight, Paper, Gunpowder
Nappy: Down Music, DivRight, Paper
Fred: Down Nationalism, Printing Press, Chemistry
Beth: Down DivRight, Printing Press, Gunpowder
JC: Up Astronomy, down Nationalism, Chemistry, Replacable Parts

Repwise, thusly:

Khan: -5 Annoyed
Alex: +1 Cautious
JC: +1 Cautious
Nappy: -4 Annoyed
Beth: 0 Cautious
Fred: +8 Pleased

Militarily, we have spread out over our entire empire:

Crossbows: 1
Longbows: 5
Skirmishers: 12
Horse Archers: 1
War Elephants: 4
Knights: 15
Axemen: 1
Spearmen: 1
Macemen: 2
Warrior: 3
Pikemen: 3
Catapult: 8
Musketmen: 8
Galley: 1
Caravel: 2

With reference to future warfare, JC's army looks thusly:

In Neapolis: 5xKnight, 1xMusket, 3xPhant, 1xCrossbow, 4xLongbow, 1xPike, 3xCatapult

In Rome: 1xMusket, 1xPhant, 1xMaceman, 5xLongbow, 1xPikeman

In Cumae: 1xPhant, 2xMaceman, 2xCrossbow, 3xLongbow, 1xPike, 1xCatapult

In Antium: 1xMusket, 2xLongbow, 1xPikeman, 4xCatapult

Random: 1xKnight, 1xMaceman, 1xCrossbow

Total: 6xKnight, 2xMusket, 4xPhant, 4xCrossbow, 14xLongbow, 4xPike, 8xCatapult

Taking down Fred pretty much isn't an issue. No idea what Khan or Nappy have, so cannot estimate.

So we can take down JC's base, if we desire, albeit with some losses. Cutting horses should be fairly trivial, but iron? No chance. None at all. Kumbi will be in some trouble, without serious persuit units to protect from all of JC's Knights being in Neapolis.

If we keep on going through JC, into Khan or Nappy, then into Fred, we will likely win a domination victory through our continent alone, and if not we can pick on Alex or Beth.

OR, we can cash in on our likely to pick up science lead, run with that, and do the spaceship thing. If we do, it's fairly likely we aren't going to need to conquer anybody at all, because we're already the biggest civ in the world, with great land, albeit land that needs help because we have no workers improving half of it.

Now is likely the time to make that choice, though. We've got a lot of cities that can switch to either military or infrastructure with no penalty this turn, and if given a couple turns, I could pull the trigger on JC. It sounds like people are leaning for the military route, but I thought I'd throw some stats out for discussion.

 

[Ragnoff]

Merry Cristmas fellow rulers!

 

[Talamane]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I have patched to version 1.52. Some of its features are based on the work of Harkonnen and comes highly recommended.

 

[Ragnoff]

also patched to 1.32, who is up?

 

[Griselda]

Looks like Dwip is, but he's waiting for feedback from others regarding the direction of the game before he plays.

Dwip, you're up in RB7, too, BTW!

 

[Dwip]

What she said. However, it's been long enough, so if nobody's said anything by the time I've got my RB7 turns in (later today), I'll go ahead and make a decision and play.

 

[Dwip]

[0] 1750 AD - Ok. My executive decision is this. We have a tech lead on the whole planet. We COULD finish Caesar with what we have on hand right now, but we're probably better off with keeping him as a buffer between us and Nappy/Khan, not to mention if we try to fight him now, our forces will likely wind up being so anemic that Khan will steamroll us. Last but not least, I'm doing 3 warmonger games right now, and I'm tired of it. So.

Lots of swaps: Kumbi Caravel->Christian Missionary, Timbuktu Knight->Islamic Temple, Tadmekka Grenadier->Aqueduct. I'll let Walata's Caravel complete against my better judgement.

[1] 1755 AD - Djenne Jewish Missionary->Colosseum, Kumbi Christian Missionary->Christian Missionary, Awdaghost Musket->Colosseum, Awlil Harbor->Library.

I'm not sure why we've got all these Jewish Missionaries around we can't convert people with. Caravels to Beth and Alex? Maybe, but not yet.

[2] 1760 AD - Kumbi Christian Missionary->Christian Missionary, Walata Caravel->Colosseum.

Do some converting to Christianity in various of our towns. We'll start in on Islam sooner rather than later.

IBT - Fred comes demanding we cancel our deals with the vile Mongol. Well, I agree, Khan IS vile, but no. I'm going to keep being the He Kept Us Out Of War leader.

[3] 1765 AD - Timbuktu Islamic Temple->Islamic Missionary, Kumbi Christian Missionary->Christian Missionary, Tekedda Jewish Monastary->Bank.

[4] 1770 AD - Constitution comes in, start on Democracy. We pass Go, collect Representation, and switch over. Tadmekka Aqueduct->Monastary.

[5] 1775 AD - Timbuktu Islamic Missionary->Christian Monastary, Djenne Colosseum->Christian Missionary, Kumbi Christian Missionary->Christian Missionary.

[6] 1780 AD - Djenne Christian Missionary->Grenadier, Awdaghost Colosseum->Grenadier, Tadmekka Christian Monastary->Christian Temple.

[7] 1785 AD - Kumbi Christian Missionary->Christian Missionary. Walata Colosseum->Islamic Monastary.

Thanks to our friend the forest chop, the Taj Mahal completes in Gao, and it is the Golden Age of Mali.

[8] 1790 AD - Timbuktu Christian Monastary->Christian Temple, Djenne Grenadier->Christian Missionary, Kumbi Christian Missionary->Grenadier, Gao Christian Monastary->Christian Temple, Tadmekka Christian Temple->Theatre. Niani Jewish Synagogue->Market, apparently.

IBT - Fred wants us to trade Printing + 740 gold for Astronomy. Being not up on tech, I decline. It'll be there.

[9] 1795 AD - Timbuktu Christian Temple->Christan Cathedral, Djenne Christian Missionary->Grenadier, Gao Christian Temple->Christian Cathedral, Walata Islamic Monastary->Islamic Temple, Awdaghost Grenadier->Christian Monastary, Tadmekka Theatre->Colosseum, Tekedda Bank->Grocer.

IBT - Khan wants us to cancel our deals with the English. Yeah, I'm gonna have to go with a no on that one. Caesar will do Chem + 70 gold for Astronomy.

[10] 1800 AD - Djenne Grenadier->Christian Missionary, Walata Islamic Temple->Islamic Missionary, Awdaghost Christian Monastary->Christian Temple, Awlil Library->Jewish Monastary.

And there we are. Constitution next turn. I recommend Djenne for Statue of Liberty. I also recommend Astronomy from Fred for Printing Press and whatever, because I want to start Observatories during our GA. We have monopoly on our other techs. Education->Liberalism->Economics sounds to me to be a good next step. Steam or Steel would be fine Liberalism techs.

We're mostly but not entirely set up with Christianity in all our cities. I want us to have Islam as well, because then we can go Free Religion with all that implies. So crank some missionaries and get it done. Also, stay the hell away from SciMeth until we get converted.

I'd like a couple prophets for the Christian/Islamic buildings, but.

We should be more or less set up at this point. We have enough land, good land, to win from. We have a decent tech lead, which will be picking up. Once we get Observatories/Universities online, we'll be pretty much good to go, even if Khan attacks us.

Ozymandous
Ragnoff
Dwip
Talamane <-- UP
Deceased Horse <-- ON DECK
Tidus4444 (perma-skip)

 

[Talamane]

Got it. Wont be able to play it until tomorrow night.

 

[Ozymandous]

Sorry I was on vacation, but the turns look good Dwip and Ragnoff.

Spaceship launch it is then, unless we can win with diplo which I haven't tried yet so am not sure about.

Everyone has patched right?

 

[Talamane]

Yes, i have patched to 1.52 version. I am playing in another SG, it's my turn, but it's stalled on a decision as to a settler, so, i am playing my turns on this one @ the moment. Will post tonight late or tomorrow.