(0) 1071 - Take a nice, long, liesurely look around.
Hawk WM around a LOT for a bunch of gold. Check current deals. I see no need to make peace with the Rus immediately. Consider cash-rushing a building here or there, but I'm saving up for a steal and a huge trading round (I hope).
(I) Swede ship appears out of nowhere and captures Athens. I had no troops (and still don't) within 100 square miles. I *hate* fighting an omniscient foe with nearly infinite movement.
Turks and Cordova make peace.
Castile and Abbasids ally against Turks.
(1) 1074 - There's not much to do. We have somewhere between no units and not nearly enough units. I try to cover frontline cities that are actually next to enemy troops. Swedes can capture another city of their choice, but I want to recapture what's ours before paying their exhorbitant price for peace.
(I) Denmark and Swedes ally against us. That'll make peace so much easier. And the Danes do own Sicily, so they're in range of us pretty much immediately.
Corinth falls to the Swedes. I'd moved all the troops that could reach it there this turn -- a regular warrior. They move two berserks and an archer in, leaving I dunno how many troops in Athens. At least the longboat sails off for other waters.
France joins Denmark against us. Denmark, of course, has been ROPing us without our leave and captures and disbands about 50 workers. Nothing we can do about it. Ordering them to leave earlier would've just signed our death warrant a couple turns earlier. I can probably thwack a lot of their units, but those slaves/workers are just gone.
Abassids start Notre Dame.
(2) 1077 - Elite sword actually manages to defeat a Dane berserk which had been hit by one of two catapults. We use a horse and kill an archer, too. We shouldn't lose any cities to the Danes we can see now, but a good 2-4 cities are in range of their longboats. Nothing I can do about that.
Desperate times (and these are desperate) call for desperate measures. Immediate steal vs. Abassids nets us Invention. Give MM for peace with Rus and get 12 gold back. Theology from the Turks costs Invention and 475 gold. Sigh. Theology and Polearms is an insult for Heavy Cavalry from the Rus. So much for that plan. I'd hoped to get a 4fer, but that's just not the way things are going.
Nothing else to do but to press enter and await the onslaught.
(I) Bulgars and Castile ally against Germany, who's also getting crunched. Denmark declares on the Turks, which doesn't really help much, as we're still in the way.
(3) 1080 - Bombardment is crappy, as 2 dromons and 6 catapults combine for one hit. Assassin recaptures Athens for us. I just wish I could get Corinth and make peace, but that's a huge pipedream. I also try to clean out a few Danish troops in the north. We're so thin and our front is so broad, it's nearly impossible to defend.
(I) Burgundy comes and wants straight peace. I'm happy to accept.
Swedes lose an archer against a spear, kill a spear with a berserk, sail a ship from western Africa to recapture Athens from our assassin, and generally make life miserable. I would really like to just get back our original holdings and make peace, but that's a lot easier said than done.
Norway and Abassids ally against Turks.
(4) 1083 - Dromons bombard is pretty useless against swedish longboats, doing nothing. MDI does kill a berserk, however. And the MDI army captures Corinth. Too bad I can't attack Athens with it this turn, too. Too many cities falling, too few units to use to cover with. Sigh.
(I) Swedes capture Larissa, moving from god-only-knows where. 3 berserks land near Constantinople, next to undefended Adrianople. Options are very limited.
Poland and Norway sign alliance against Turks, who are getting dogpiled as bad, if not worse, than we are.
Danes only land 4 berserks and a spear. It's looking up. Of course, our troops in the area consist of one catapult and one spear...
Turks and Abassids make peace.
(5) 1086 -- 2 vet assassins (attack 5) attack the yellow-lined berzerk (defense 2) in Larissa. Those were the troops I had in place to try to re-capture the city. They didn't. Sigh. This game is really frustrating. Vet horse that I had originally intended to use in the defense of the capital does make it, though, and recaptures the city. Harbor, temple, and town hall lost. Sigh.
Regular Dromon (attack 4) dies against a red-lined swedish longboat (defense 2). Umm...I can't win "fighting" like that.
11 hp MDI army yellow-lines against a defending pike in Athens. Spear, at least, still there.
Manage to scrape together enough troops than neither Adrianople nor Constantinople will fall to visible troops, but with longboats appearing in hordes every turn, that means very little. I wanted to recapture Athens and make peace with the Swedes, but it didn't happen.
(I) Yellow-lined Swedish berzerk kills a vet spear with catapult support with no problem. Longboat appears from god-only-knows-where and recaptures Larissa. NO troops near it now.
Another longboat appears and sends a berzerk against Constantinople. Pike dies and blacksmith is destroyed.
(6) 1089 - 6 catapults combine to do one damage. Dromon manages to sink what had to be a full Danish longboat. Army redlines but re-re-re-re-recaptures Athens. As much as I hate to lose Larissa, the Swedes are too frickin' scary. Of course, peace would cost all our 265 gold and 57 of our 102 gpt income. WTH???????
Assassin dies to D. berzerk, longbow kills D. berzerk, assassin kills S. berzerk, horse dies to S. spear (doing no damage). If I don't make peace with Sweden NOW, they will destroy us next turn. I can't defend either of our king units anywhere near sufficiently. If I had any combat luck... Anyway, pay them 254 gold and 57 gpt for peace. Sucks royally, but it's better than destruction (I guess).
Horse retreats from Danish berzerk, horse kills Danish berzerk, Alexius kills Danish berzerk.
(I) Poland declares on Abassids. Cordova and Turks ally against Kievan Rus. Cordova and Turks ally against Sweden. Cordova and Turks make REALLY nice and ally against Bulgars, too.
French arrive with a small stack (about 50 units) of assorted trash. We have 3 troops on that border.
And, in a first for my turns, no cities lost on the IT.
(7) 1092 - Assassin redlines but manages to defeat a red-lined spear on flat ground. Sigh. Are they really attack 5 or are they attack 3 and just say they attack at a 5?
Mostly a healing turn, before the French arrive en masse. I also plan to try to evict the Swedes in about 2 or 3 turns, when I hope to recapture Larissa and clean up around the capital. Very little but military units being built right now. Constantinople is down to 20 spt.
Cordova somehow shows up with 259 gold. I sell them polearms for that. Cheap tech, but it gives us a chance to buy some units or something.
And C3C crashes. My frustration is already high, so I quit again for the night. Will have to replay from the autosave tomorrow. BAH!!!!!!
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Now, normally, once the kids are in bed, I can't wait to get to my games -- playing Civ3 is a relaxing escape that gives me hope to get through the next day. Tonight, though, with this game looming. UGH! More trudging through drudgery with no hope of anything cool happening. Hope for the future? I see none. Anyway, back to the game...try to repeat exactly the same moves as before -- bombing the spear red and then attacking with the assassin. Assassin wins unscratched this time, though. Nothing I can do about that. Our dromon did do less damage this time, so it somewhat evens out....
The rest of the turn shakes out about the same.
(I) Turks and Sweden make peace. Too many wars and peaces to keep track of.
Swedes declare on us again. No time to do ANYTHING. I hope we don't lose the game now.
Well, we are only attacked twice -- a spear loses to an assassin and a berzerk actually loses to a pike in Constantinople. They only have about 8 longships in the area, so no more than another 24 units or so should appear in the next couple turns. On the plus side, we get back our gpt payment to them, and the brief hiatus did us some good.
Poland and Turks ally against Castile.
For some reason, the whole French stack turns around and goes back north. A few units -- 3 or 4 or so, move onto the square they were before, but most are gone. Weird.
Norse Saga completes in Chalcedon. The Heroic Epic effect will be very nice and we can actually use the extra ship movement, too.
(8) 1095 - Dromon bombard misses, but it's gotta be a full longboat. Second one just attacks...and loses one hp but wins and promotes! That's probably 3 less land troops to worry about. Wonder if we get credit for killing them....Not gonna go back and test, since loading the game takes a good ten minutes -- even longer from the autosave I had to use tonight. Anyway...
Vet assassin attacks 2 hp Swedish spear in a forest, redlines, but rallies and wins.
Second assassin has better luck and kills his spear, only losing one hp.
Horse kills Swedish berzerk. A bit of combat luck for a change. The constantly shifting fronts is getting to me, though. I feel like an AI being puppet-stringed from one area to another, with not enough units to cover even one properly and covering them all extremely poorly and much too late.
Germany offers WM and all their 5 gold for peace. I don't think we're getting war happiness from them and one less foe means one more potential trading partner for gold sales. I accept. Heck, they'll actually chip in 2 gpt, too. What a deal!
Abassds show up with Religious Persecution. That allows Inquisition, which is like an FP. We want to prebuild for that soon and buy/steal the tech fairly quickly. Adrianople's Notre Dame might actually be better as an Inquisition. We can try Magna Carta somewhere else, maybe.
England will pay 106 gold and her WM for peace and our WM. Cities are a no-go, but why have foes when we don't need 'em? Peace signed.
Turks have religious persecution, too.
Poland comes up with 134 gold and a worker, so they get polearms, too, which is pretty widely known.
Castile also ready to talk peace but has little gold, no real presence near us and is actually only doubtful about giving up a city (?), so we stay at war with them.
I hope I didn't break any alliances, but I frankly care very little about our rep at this point.
We have 10440 VPs, Turks are in lead with 10460.
(I) Constantinople is attacked by 3 berzerks -- it loses its library, manor, and one defending pikeman, but it holds -- barely. More ships appear from the Mediterranean.
Franks and Burgundians ally against us. Weren't we already fighting both of them? Anyway, neither is really a huge threat at this moment.
And we lose no cities! What a deal. Constantinople will probably fall next turn, though, unless I get really lucky in reinforcing it.
French do their little dance north of Pliska. If/when they decide to come, it could be dicey.
(9) 1098 - Dromon kills longboat near Const. It's gonna block the entrance to Constantinople from sea. Longboats attack at a 3 and we defend at a 3, but any chance to not be attacked by berzerks is a chance worth taking!
Dromons in Greece both try to bombard a single longboat and both miss.
Longbow kills Castile sword that somehow made it as far as Constantinople.
France is at least willing to talk peace -- we'd have to pay, but it's nice to know that's at least somewhat an option.
Denmark, too, will talk peace (and charge us Invention, which is not very widely known). No deal made, but options are good things.
We have enough gold for an immediate steal against the Kievan Rus. They have Heavy Cavalry. Would that be enough to pry a tech or two from the Abassids and Turks?
I decide that spending nearly all of our gold to find out is NOT the best of options at this point.
(I) Dromon blocking gate to Constantinople does its job, as the longboats choose not to attack and drop off a couple berzerks and a spear instead. Woohoo!
(10) 1101 - Catapults wound all units near Constantinople. Two dromons in Greece combine to kill a Danish longboat I'm certain was loaded. First one bombarded and second one attacked...successfully but went to 1 hp first. Healing might be in order, but progress is being made!
Army defeats pike and spear in Larissa. Spear showing. MDI attacks and ... recaptures the city, sinking at least one longboat in the process! Woohoo! We're back to where we started. What a goal, what luck, what a piece of ..... Barracks, granary, and blacksmith survived. Not bad.
Elite assassin kills berzerk, assassin kills berzerk, assassin kills spear and promotes.
Longbow kills Danish spear that had been wandering our lands for a long time.
Notes for next leader:
- Smyrna has an annoying 13 spt. A 50-shield item would be ideal, but we don't have one of those. I recommend letting it do 13 shields, short-rushing a catapult to 20 shields and then letting it finish a 40-shield item (longbow or pike).
- Pliska needs constant MM as the number of MPs change. It's been borrowing one of Ruse's plains tiles one turn in 3 to get enough shields for a 3-turn longbow. Keep watching it.
- Only 10 units in the stack of Frenchies to the north. We could take them if we were fully prepared, but we're not really. I'd make peace, but it's your call.
- Final MM and map deals not done. A steal from the Kievan Rus of Heavy Cavalry *might* twofer us Religious Persecution and/or Divine Right, which would be handy. Both Abassids and Turks can use the Heavy Cavalry tech.
- Keep the one dromon blocking the port to Constantinople. Even 4 or 5 pike defenders won't be enough if the Swedes really decide they want it.
- Peace with Danes is probably worthwhile soon. I fear longboats and berzerks. Even in the AI's hands, they're dangerous.
- Athens has no defender and really needs one. I just couldn't get one there at all.
- The army is hurt, so it should probably rest again.
Good luck!!!!!
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/rbc13a-1101ad.zip
Arathorn
Sweden signs an MA with Kievan Rus against us.
They should be pretty easy prey to pick off with our own assassins, actually...
But the lurking longboat (on our turn, the stupid Danish boats were blockign our Dromon from reaching it to attack) dumps another berserk right into Ephesus and captures it from us. There aren't supposed to be Vikings in Turkey!!
The cultural control then allows TWO MORE assassins to attack an MDI of ours on a hill, and kill it. Then another kills a king. Then yet ANOTHER captures a worker stack of ours! Aaugh!
