RBC13B - Crazy Cordovans

[Justus II]

Great campaign, Corrado!

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Charis
> Our culture, unfortunately, sucks. We seem to be 1/3 of France
Irrelevant!! Culture nets us no VP, and if a city flips we recapture for yet more points
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yeah, but it's when those cities flip with our armies inside that it becomes relevant. I did build quite a few temples, but most of them were either very quick (1-2 turns) or in areas where we needed cultural expansion (i.e. our front).

I noticed a couple points in your post where you left armies in cities to heal, that's a pretty big risk at this point. The turn a city falls can't usually be avoided, but I would tend to keep armies adjacent to cities to heal, rather than in them. I've done it myself, especially if the city has a barracks and the army is really hurt, but it is quite risky. And I don't disagree we could use more culture, although I was more concerned with flip risk on home cities when Castille was so close.

The disadvantage is that now we can never capture HRE for ourselves; Paris holds France's last king as well, so capturing Paris will kill France first.

That's too bad, but the best effect of HRE is the two free techs, and we already got them! Also, Norse Saga has the Heroic Epic effect, and it's a small wonder, we can definitly get that once we get the tech.

That doesn't sound like much, but we need every unit we can right now to stomp out rebellion. Bordeaux alone has 7 of our units stuck in it because the last 3 citizens won't stop rioting.

AFAIK, there is one 'roll' per resistor to end resistance, as long as there is a garrison unit to offset it. More units than resistors have no effect, so if there are 3 resistors, a garrison of 3 gives the max chance to end rebellion. Hopefully ending the war will quell it quickly anyway. I'm more concerned with having 7 Ansars in a flippable city!

As for Divine Right: Sheriff's offices should go into all of our cities. +25% production, reduces corruption, adds to tax, but makes one person unhappy- we can generally absorb the happiness penalty, but desperately need something to reduce corruption.

Agree fully here, they aren't cheap, but are a real boost to our good cities, and even some borderline ones.

Whatever we do, though, I think it is imperative to take Venice before taking Dorestad. Burgundy kings are in, IIRC, Dorestad, Venice, and either Aix or Cologne; if we go all the way to Dorestad first, taking Venice destroys the Burgs. And we definitely want to keep Venice with the harbor and the trading and such.

Actually, either way works, as both Dorestad and Venice have harbors. Just make sure to take one of them intact. That said, Venice might be more strategically located en route to the Middle East, but either option is open.

 

[Arathorn]

Arab Thorn had ruled the Cordovans for almost 30 years. He met with his advisors one final time before embarking on that last great journey into the unknown. Here follows a summary of their reports.

City Manager:
"As you know, things were left somewhat in disarray after the death of Corrado, as military things took precedence. Much of that mess was cleaned up, leaving more efficient, larger, happier cities.

The end of the Golden Age of our people hit hard, and many projects were greatly delayed due to this unfortunate slowdown. Others continue apace.

The general principle guiding us was Town Halls for semi-corrupt cities, blacksmiths for good cities, and some cities given to the military advisor, who will discuss his use of those later on today."

At this, the city manager nodded toward the enigmatic military advisor. The latter showed no reaction to this courtesy.

"One of our primary goals was to resucitate Cadiz, which had somehow been knocked down to size 2. With 5 fpt always easily available, this oversight by previous leaders has been corrected. Cadiz is now, and should be for all time, a 4-turn settler factory. This takes a little TLC, but it should be done.

The people of Toledo long to build a Magna Carta -- a second palace and a town hall in every city. While the tech for this is in the uncertain future, a prebuild should probably begin soon, for this most-important of great wonders. Seville had been considering trying to get Robin Hood after its sheriff's office, but the byzantines began before us and will certainly beat us to that."

Financial Advisor:
"Map sales were restarted, giving us many extra coins every few years. Essentially all of our moneys, however, are going into the coffers, with none, essentially, being used for science or entertainment. Taxmen in captured cities aided us for a while, but most of those are either starved or flipped back to their original nation.

We have over 1000 gold in the treasury. It does us little good there, but no major items of important seemed to need rushing. A few things were rushed here and there, but mostly cities worked on things on their own. The next leader has much flexibility with finances."

Diplomatic Advisor:
"It's about time we got an embassy established. Two is even better. Both the Germans and the Franks had an even dozen units in their capitals. We used those embassies as part of our alliance structure against the Burgundians. More, like with the Polish and/or some of the viking nations, are probably worthwhile causes.

Map sales helped attitudes towards us marginally. We made few trades, owing to the poor conditions of our trade route(s). Deals made were for per-turn inclusions only. The French did pay handsomely for our help against the Burgundians, though.

We lost three trading partners during your reign, sire. The Celts were eliminated by the Evil English, eliminating that potential source of revenue. The Burgundians are under attack. And the far-away Turks declared war, simply to make our people happy, I believe."

Technology Advisor:
"Why am I even here? We have one poor lone scientist continuing to work on Assassination, even though the Turks and Abassids already know it. Fine, fine, they demand exhorbitant prices for it, but this is ridiculous. We should know it in about 50 years, though, on our own.

Some of our tech lead is dissolving, as polearms is becoming more commonly known. Divine Right is still pretty rare, but it's getting out there a bit, too. We didn't sell anything, because nobody could really scrape together much cash.

We're behind the Byzantine, of course. They have Middle Class and maybe stuff beyond it. It'd be nice, but we weren't given funds to purchase it at monopoly and no attempts at more covert means of acquiring the tech were given any in-depth thought here. Sure, we'd have no one to sell it, too, but isn't the extra happy face and commerce enough reason? NO? Yeah, well, nobody listens to me, anyway. Once we got ansars, you all just started ignoring me...."

Military Advisor:
"As you know, sire, I only came to this post recently, when my predecessor had a nervous breakdown. Most attribute this to concerns over barbarians in Africa. He kept muttering something about 59 keshiks attacking a lone city. It wasn't even ours, so I'm not sure what his problem was.

He was a good man, though, moving our irreplaceable armies out of the potential danger zone immediately. His caution was rewarded when Angers flipped and crashed the computer. It was doubly rewarded when Orleans flipped on the reboot -- either would have been a disaster with the troops orginally stationed there.

The armies took slightly longer to heal in open country, but they proved their worth in the battles against Burgundy. We have captured five cities in 15 years, including Venice twice. None have come with buildings intact and all were originally resistant to our occupation. While capturing cities is dangerous, we had no settlers at all to replace the cities. Many of the cities were gateways, too, keeping open forces to the front.

There are still two Burgundy cities in Italy that we've not yet reached. Two armies have been working their way through the important areas of Italy. French troops in the area have been spotted and have occasionally caused delays. Capturing the final two cities here should be a high priority -- before Burgundy is utterly destroyed.

We recently captured the Shroud of Turin in the north. While the northern army was originally tasked with defending our position, the lack of counterattack by Burgundy allowed it to push forward and capture another city. It is near Aix now. German and French troops have promoted many defenders here, however, and it is not yet ready to be taken. Destroying a couple defenders before retreating to heal might be a wise move, though.

We have a number of regular archers now in our employ. For those skeptics who thought we had no 20-shield MP units after polearms were discovered have learned better. All regular archers and nearly all swords are intended as MP/flip suppressers/resistance stoppers. They move slowly to the front, but a steady trickle should be arriving soon."

Arab Thorn himself:
"Thank you, advisors. You give a good accounting of your actions. I will attempt to give the big picture.

We are currently leading the world in VPs. We have nearly double our nearest opponent, the Abassids. We are over one-third of the way to victory. But we cannot rest on our accomplishments. We must push forward. I have a bold plan, but one that will lead us to greatness.

Justus_II, who will follow me, should be able to capture the final two Italian cities, oversee the complete elimination of the Burgundians, and position our three armies near French cities -- specifically, one each by the cities in the south and one near Orleans. Burgundy should be simple to eliminate, by continuing to march north and will the 'help' of our erstwhile teammates, the Germans and French. Peace is not an option.

Charis, then, who will follow Justus, can capture those three cities, unite the armies and burn Paris, eliminating the Franks from the face of the earth. By that time, we should have settlers in place to found replacement cities. With luck, the assault on Germany can begin at this time, as well, although an attack more southerly towards Jerusalem might be better. That's beyond what I can see. The elimination of Burgundy and France are my vision."

Over a third done

 

[Charis]

Well done!

Charis, then, who will follow Justus, can capture those three cities, unite the armies and burn Paris, eliminating the Franks from the face of the earth.

Works for me!!!!

Go Justus! (and remember the 'settlers on hand' part)
Al-Charislayer the On-Deck

 

[Justus II]

I see it, great progress on Burgundy. Glad you moved the armies out of the Frank towns, I was worried about flip risk. Did you notice if we got the VP again when you recaptured Venice? I would think we did, so flips (of empty towns) might actually be a good thing! I will plan on grabbing the rest of Italy (and securing the relic), and keep an eye out for a chance to hit a weakened captial in the north.

Charis commented in the Kiev Rus game that there would be a slight delay in playing while wrapping up Epic39. If that would be acceptable, I will take him up on that, as I am also racing the Monday deadline. If that's a problem, I could swap or try to squeeze it in tomorrow.

 

[Corrado]

I don't have a problem with the delay; I expect to have to deal with 2-3 other succession games this weekend anyways.

 

[Arathorn]

Delay is fine by me. Charis is hit by it, too. Hard for me, in some ways, since I just got skipped, but I think it makes the most sense. If you can squeeze it in, though, it'd be nice.

No later than Tuesday, though, OK?

Arathorn

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Historically, Cordova at around 1000AD was the most advanced and 'civilized' nation in all of Europe, centre of learning, artisans, irrigation techniques, medicine.
Technically, Cordova is a REL/ COM/ SCI Civ (the later because of access to Libraries).
You seem to almost desperatedly trying to avoid any culture, no Libraries - no research, and if a city flips back to an enemy, even better, recapture it to get more VPs....well, I wouldn't call this an exploit, not even dastardly - in fact, it's fine for the Vikings and Turks - but thematically it's WAY off...like if a Viking game would focus on peaceful settling, or Catholics ignoring the Relics.
Especially since there's absolutely no need, by no means you have to sweep through Europe now. The Riff-Raff with Spears and size 2 towns leads to nothing, killing some Knights and capturing 5+ size 12 french cities will result in more VPs anyway.

Just wondering...

 

[Corrado]

Hm.

Actually, might I suggest a different course of action that attacking Germany? Oh, certainly, finishing off the Burgundians and Franks is the wisest course of action- destroying crippled foes who can only force flips is always a good thing.

But what do we gain in attacking Germany? Chances are, they arleady have Knights, and their iron production and lack of fighting means that they will have a very strong army to fight with, not the half-empty forces France and Burgundy tossed at us. Any cities we gain from Germany will be corrupt to the point of useless. They have no luxuries we do not; they have no technology we do not.

If I might make a suggestion as to a different, future course of action:

We have a rival that has already extorted us once, and will likely extort us again. They have technology we covet; more importantly, they have 2 enemies we are polite with that could easily be bought into a war. Best of all, there is no border between us and them, but an ROP with an intermediary would likely be very cheap.

I suggest we gather the Abassids and the Turks and declare war with them against the Byzantines. Let the Adabassids and Turks fight while we finish off Burgundy and France; let Byz send its forces east. Then, when we are rested and ready, we sign an RoP with the Bulgars. Our units can swiftly move across Bulgar territory, and we will have the crown jewels of the Byzantine Empire- Constantinople, the Greek holdings and their luxuries, etc.- directly in front of us.

We can get just as many or more VP for killing the Byz units and cities. Their counter-attack units- Cataprachts- are weaker than German Knights, and if we send the Abassids and Turks after her before she has a chance to counter, we may never see a counter-attack.

The only disadvantage is that she has Pikes, and she has naval capacity to drop units off to plague us at home. But AW units are fast, and we can keep a few spaced out at home to strike invaders, and if our armies work together, even the strength of pikes will not matter.

 

[Arathorn]

We're currently at war with the Turks, so getting them to ally against the Byzantines might be hard. They declared on us during my turn, when I wouldn't give them wool. Completely psuedo-war at this point and they'll probably be willing/ready to talk soon. Right now, though, the war happiness is helping our situation, so I'm content to let it go.

I already have an ansar playing zone defense in Iberia. The Burgundians have dropped off one archer already and have another curragh in the area that might be loaded. They can reach just about anywhere around home in a flash, so we should be safe from the Burgundians.

As for choice of next foe....I just threw out Germany as a possibility. I really don't have good ideas for what to do after the Burgundians and Franks are eliminated. We should have a couple of relics at that point, so we could go sailing, but that's a bit off thematically. We could hit the Bulgars, as they're also in our way -- literally carving a path to Jerusalem/the Byzantines. We could RoP with Bulgars and hit Byzantines, but the congestion on Bulgar roads will be very painful, I can assure you. More luxes would be very nice, though.

I'm just not sure we want the Abassids and Turks fighting. Fighting gives VPs and the eastern powers are the ones we have the least ability to affect. The Viking civs could be painful, but we do have SOME recourse against them. If the Abassids or Turks or Byzantines start running amok (encouraged by an alliance we set up?), we'll have a hard time checking them, I fear.

Arguments for Germans -- big cities for lots of VP, can get a wonder in their capital, more VPs for killing knights, close to where our troops will be anyway, decapitation by kings is probably fairly easy but we can time when to finish off the last one, and they don't have horses (yet) so no knights from them.

Still, that's a good 20 turns away, at best. Lots of things could happen between now and then -- like the Swedes and Danes allying against us or the Fatimid Caliphate trying to cross into our homeland or .... Once Burgundy is a bad memory and the Franks are in the crosshairs, it might be a better time to discuss exactly where to go next.

Arathorn

 

[Justus II]

I agree with waiting until after the Burgundians/Franks, as I think our VP total (and that of the eastern powers) at that point will have a big influence. We'll have to see how it plays out.

Also, regarding Doc's comments, I know that there are a lot of VPs to be had from eventually getting all the techs, is that something worth pursuing? We would probably have to steal our way into the other trees, (or speed up our Assassination research and then min-research it) but once the trees are unlocked, buying/trading for the other techs is dirt cheap. Actually, I've just about talked myself out of researching, if we can steal or buy the techs! Anyway, some culture wouldn't kill us, but compared to more Asnars...

 

[Justus II]

Just checking back in, I may actually be able to get to this tonight, depending on how things work out. My plan is still to finish off Burgundy (if we can get some help from the Franks and Germans), and position Charis to eradicate the Franks. Any other thoughts re: tech/culture? Is it worth it to get some in now, or is it already too late to bother?

I looked at some options, it would cost about 900g for a safe steal of Western Church, then we could probably buy up the remaining catholic techs cheap, (or get some for peace, if we think we can trust Germany or the Franks to finish Burgundy off for us). The techs don't give us anything we don't already have, though, it would just be for VPs. We don't have an embassy with Theo yet, but I would assume we are facing about the same cost for Byz Ingenuity, and then buy the other techs. Again, most of what they would give us we will already get from our own tree, so it's stricty for the VP value. Overall, I don't think grabbing the other techs is a big priority at this point, maybe a "nice to have" option if we need to accumulate VP fast (i.e. if one of the other powers starts catching up to us).

Our own research, on the other hand, is a little more attractive. Assassins are nice, but the real prize is hospitals, basically a culture-generating Aquaduct. Cordova is SCREAMING for one, and several other cities would benefit as well. So I will probably try to boost our own research a little. I would rather research it ourselves instead of feeding the twin monsters of the Turks and Abbasids. Any other thoughts?

 

[Justus II]

It's late, so here's a mid-term report, I will finish up tomorrow. The Good News:

We took the remaining cities in Italy, we re-took Venice (again), we got Dorestad (but the harbor was destroyed, again ), and we are over 17,000 VP. Also, Viking Saga will be complete in <15 turns.

The Bad News:

Our new conquests, AND our 3 armies, are cut off from our empire because the French continue getting their cities to flip back to them! Rheims and Angers flipped (which certainly did Anger me!). Losses have been minimal, a pike and a sword (and an Ansar at Venice) but it's frustrating. Not to mention, Joan then has the nerve to demand we leave!

We still have 5 turns left on the peace treaty, so I don't want to declare on her, and am still planning on getting our armies healed up and in position for Charis to kick off the war, but our "Line of Departure" is getting pushed back. As long as Claremont doesn't flip (I do have a temple there now), we have a spot 1 tile from Orleans. Of course, if I can get the armies positioned soon enough, we might be able to demand she leave and get her to declare on us! Anyway, I will play and post the rest tomorrow, if anyone has suggestions let me know.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

I told you some more culture would be nice...
And consider flips are pretty rare in this conquest!

Anyway, completing the Tech Tree gives a total of 7935VPs. And you should try to get some late-game wonders, esp. the Magna Charta.

Just a FYI

Doc

 

[Arathorn]

We definitely want the Magna Carta -- I even suggested looking at a prebuild for it in Toledo, although it may be too early still.

Flips have been crazy bad. France's culture isn't actually THAT much higher than ours -- 2 or 3 times, only, and they've gotten 4 flips between my turns and Jabah's. Horrible luck. But our losses have been minimal. Just makes me itch to take out France and to never stop another war without finishing it (unless we raze and replace).

Good news on Italy.

We might change our plans for France. New troops can probably take Ampunas (even though it's on a hill) and the armies can take Ghent and then just raze Paris and we can resettle. I'm not sure I like that plan as much, as pop and taking cities are what give VPs, but it's an option.

Arathorn

 

[Charis]

Hey Joanie! I got all the cultyah youse wants right HEEYAH!

Culture smulture, more VPs for recapturing the cities!
Tis just a bad rng run anyway. Set me up Justus, and she is going DOWN and OUT!
Arathorn spoke truly in saying...
> Just makes me itch to take out France and to never stop...

Charis

 

[Justus II]

I think I can get at least one army over the French Alps to near Naples, so we would have at least one to hit from the homeward side. That would give us an army in position to hit Ghent, Rheims, and Orleans, backed by assorted swords and a few loose Ansars. BTW, I did see one French KNIGHT, they have the iron near Orleans reconnected.

As to the prebuild, I agree Toledo will be a great spot. It now has a Sheriff's, and finishing a Blacksmith, should put it over 15 uncorrupted SPT.

 

[Corrado]

French knights aren't a problem if we get to attack first.

 

[Justus II]

IHT: Start off by trading Polearms to Norway, getting Viking Saga, 55g, and his World Map, which lets me kick off a round of WM trading, netting another 28g. Time to instill some law and order, I swap Cordoba, Toledo, and Lisbon to Sheriff’s Offices, Mertova swaps to an Ansar. I rush a few workers and an archer from our occupied cities, wanting to get something valuable before they starve/flip. The Ansar near Aix picks up the Shroud, I hate to tie up an Ansar, but it’s the only way to get the relic away from the front quickly. I plan to send him home as a zone defender to keep the relic safe. Wake up a few workers, no sense in improving French lands (I assume Ampurias was a city that flipped back), and move them back to our land. I also merge a Celt worker (safe, as they are destroyed) into Badajoz, who can now hit 10spt.

IBT: Sweden and Germany make peace. We get the Norse Saga message, Maybe we should! Angers-Worker>archer, resistance ends at Claremont, Marseilles-Worker>archer, Rheims-archer>archer, Milan-worker>spear, Nielbe-archer>archer, Moron-archer>archer. Burgundy starts the Tapestry

1098 (1) Rush temple in Claremont, without a ROP this is our only link with our eastern front. Big investment here, I spend 908g to rush the Sheriff’s Office in Lisbon, this will be our Saga city. Move some workers around, connecting roads in ex-french territory, also move some back to the core. In Italy, healed army moves on Antwerp in the boot, but is blocked by stupid Franks. Other army heals. In the north, relic carrier moves south, army moves north to take a look at Dorestad, kills the top spear, losing 3hp. Some cats and swords move closer.
IBT: Burgundy kills a Frank archer, but a Frank spear goes elite. Then the Franks attack at Antwerp, in Italy, and 2 swords and an archer die while wounding the garrison. The French are so frustrated with their performance that they declare war on the Turks!
Lisbon-Sheriff’s>Norse Saga (at 17spt, due in 18 tns). Cadiz-Settler>settler. Claremont-Temple>archer. Venice flips back to Burgundy we lost an archer garrison. Granada-archer>archer.

1101 (2) Army attacks Antwerp, killing 2 wounded spears and an archer, and only losing 1hp! An ansar retakes Venice (again). At Dorestad, the army takes off 2 more spears, a regular showing, but we need to heal. Turks will talk, and I can get 40g+2gpt, and their WM, so I take it, I certainly don’t want them buying anyone in on us. Check for losing the War Happiness, and shuffle some MPs around.
IBT: Valencia-Archer>archer, Bordeaux-worker>worker, Angers worker>worker, Seville-Sheriff’s>Ansar (now at 22spt), Badajoz riots? (I moved an MP out after checking it). England starts the Knights Templar.

1104 (3) At Verdun, the army kills 2 spear, losing 2hp, and Italy is ours. Swords and Cats move into position near Aix. We get booted by France? Why? A border expanded near Orleans. Germans are hammering Cologne, near Aix. Rheims flips to the Franks! We lost a sword, and but worse it cuts us off from our forces in Burgundy. Granada-Archer>barracks. Malaga-smith>rax.

1107 (4) At Dorestad, the army is now 9/13, and attacks. After 2 reg spears, a sword is on top, so I press on. Down to 5hp, but only a worker is showing, so I go for it, and we take Dorestad. Unfortunately, the precious harbor did not survive the battle. My stack can hit either Cologne or Aix, cats hit Cologne to reveal at least 4 defenders, sword kills a spear, 2 Ansars kill two more fresh spears, and I haven’t seen the ones the cats wounded yet, so I call off the attack for this turn. Invest again, spending 528g to rush the Sheriff’s office in Toledo.
IBT: Frank KNIGHT attacks Aix, killing a spear. A horse and archer aren’t so lucky. Angers flips to the Franks. This Angers me, we also lost a pike.
Toledo-Sheriff>Smith, Badajoz-Pike>pike, Mertola-Ansar>ansar. England starts Bayeux.

1110 (5) At Aix, cats reveal at least 3 defenders, 2 spear and a sword. Ansar kills the sword, another ansar kills the a wounded spear, our Relic Carrying Ansar kills a spear, and the army moves down from Dorestad to take out the king. Burgundy is Destroyed. Details in this post.
Our VP is now at 17,440, England is in second at 6,220.

After a short “Operational Pause”, (see earlier post) I resume at this point. I swap Toledo to a Temple first, as it needs it and at 16spt can get it quick. I do some more MM, rush a Town Hall in Santiago.
IBT: Joan kicks us out again, this is going to be tricky. Santiago-Town Hall>archer, Valencia-Archer>rax, Cadiz-settler>settler, Seville-Ansar>ansar, Franks start Knights Templar and Robin Hood.

1113 (6) During my map selling rounds (Still get a few coins out of it, maybe 15g, but it also helps keep me up to date on who has what) I see that the Franks also have Middle Class, but it is still expensive. Turks and Abbasids also have it, so still no 2-fer options. Rush a Temple in Metz, which is getting squeezed by the Germans and Franks. I swap Carnoma from Town Hall to Settler, as it would only get to 2spt. Navarre is just as bad off, but already has 40+ shields into it. MM Mertola to 16spt, so an Ansar every 4. Hurry spear in Milan.
IBT: France moves a lot of troops around, 4 spears move into Angers. Resistance ends in Venice, Pisa. Metz-temple>archer, Toledo-Temple>Smith, Milan-Spear>archer, Carmona settler>archer.

1116 (7) Rush spears in Venice, Pisa (good deal as they were started before the cities were connected). Cross my fingers and move one army across the Frank corridor, moving some Ansars through German territory to get back from Dorestad.
IBT: France and Sweden make peace. Lots of spears moving around again, and 4 move south into our territory? Germans boot the Ansars, but they land on the south side. Bordeaux-worker>archer, Venice goes into WLTKD!, spear>temple, Pisa-spear>temple, Granada-Rax>Ansar, Malaga-temple>rax.

1119 (8) I’m hoping the Frank spears are moving to reinforce the garrison at Ampurious, as he moved some knights and horses east into Germany, if he were attacking us he would bring more than spears. Position more forces along the borders, moving reinforcements up, lots of workers trying to fill in more roads near the front.
IBT: Frank spears continue south, past some undefended workers, so I think they are a garrison detachment for Ampurious. However, I’m not so confident about a stack of 3 Dromons that pull up next to undefended Verdun:

That could be BAD (screen shot was actually from after I moved the Ansar there from Antwerp).
Seville-Ansar>ansar, Mertulo-ansar>ansar, resistance ends in Antwerp.

1122 (9) I move our lone ‘zone D’ ansar into Verdun, and shift a spear down to cover now-vacant Antwerp. I also decide to try and take out an insurance policy. We could buy Middle Class for about 70gpt, so if Theo does attack, we get it basically for free, but that’s a lot of money for a long time if she backs down. Next best thing is a loan, I trade 11gpt for 170g, at least if she attacks we get something. We have the Ansar in Verdun, and one spear per town enroute. If she lands, it will get ugly fast, we could lose Italy before we can get peace, although that wouldn’t be so bad, as they are all corrupt anyway, and then we could always retake them….
I resist the temptation to spend the new cash on defenders, it would probably be too little too late, and besides I have another idea for the cash.

1125 (10) Norway is sending a BUNCH of longships around our peninsula, but they are heading through the straits, so I’m not worried. (If that were a human player, I would be concerned they were taking a Relic to Jerusalem). 2 more Dromons join the stack, then they all back into the fog and move north. Don’t know if that’s good or if they are just reacting to the fact that in covering Verdun, Antwerp is now open. (Note, this wasn’t intentional puppet strings, we just really only have the 1 Ansar defender in range!). Anyway, at least we have another turn or two to react. Germany declares on the Turks! Between that and the Frank Knight and horses headed east, we should face limited counter-attacks from both the Franks and Germans.
Cordova-Sheriff>Ansar, Cadiz-Settler>settler, Dorestad has a resistor calm down, which causes a riot. Naples-archer>archer, Badajoz-Pike>Ansar (12spt), Huelva-Town Hall>archer. Paris completes the Knights Templar!

I do the round of map trading, not much out there. Dorestad is in trouble any way you go, it still has 3 resistors, and no 2-food tiles, so using entertainers leads to starvation. I’m not sure what to do, I don’t want to spare extra MPs for it. I have moved up reinforcements from the rear, but all front-line troops are fortified and haven’t moved yet. Here are our current dispositions:

We have an Army with some cats and Ansars near Dorestad, that could hit Ghent. A second army and some ansars (including the Relic carrier, who never made it home) are near Basel, and could hit Orleans or move into the hills to get Rheims. That army is also the only one that could react south to Italy, but would take a turn to get through the mountains, and another to get down there. (We do have a garrison in all the Adriatic cities, Milan is the only vacant one, and an archer could be rushed there). Near Claremont we have our third army, and a stack of a couple elite swords and 2 ansars. They can go after Rheims or Orleans also, using the road to attack together. There are another pair of swords in the west to keep an eye on Angers. There are actually 5 spears on the hill next to Moron, you can take them on with the swords or wait for reinforcing Ansars to deal with them. There are 2 settlers in Moron, and 2 more enroute, as well as a ton of captured workers around there, so feel free to raze anything you don’t like!

Some notes/suggestions:
- Cordova is at a frustrating size, with the smith and sheriff it can do 28spt with no growth, but that doesn’t speed up ansars. It can hit 31spt working another hill, but at –1fpt. Best bet is probably run a couple cycles of 2-turn Ansars, then drop down to 24spt for some positive food growth and a 3-turn ansar. (Actually, our best bet, IMHO, is max research on Arab Medicine when Assassination comes in, but that’s not my call ).
- I already mentioned Dorestad, probably just have to accept the fact it will starve down or riot.
- Several cities (Margala, Toledo) on rivers can use a boost from a worker merge, I have done a couple but once current projects complete it might be worth a few more. That could also help with unit support.
- With KT (Leos + Crusader/8 turns) plus the HRE in Paris, that would be a real nice city to keep. Maybe we could bypass Orleans, concentrate the armies, and plan to take down Paris then Orleans on the same/next turn, since Orleans is the other King city.
- Norse Saga will complete in Lisbon in 10 turns. IF we can get Paris and the HRE, the saga is considerably less valuable, as we don’t seem to be planning any sailing anytime soon. It could then swap to a palace for some type of pre-build.
- Toledo will finish a Blacksmith in 3, and already has the Sheriff’s office, should hit 22spt, 24 with a merged worker. This is the planned Magna Carta pre-build city, as soon as smith’s completes.
- Finally, after spending all of Arathorn’s hard-earned money, I have restrained myself these last few turns, and combined with Theo’s loan, we have 592g, still gaining 103gpt. My plan (suggestion) was to give Charis the option of going for an Immediate steal (512g) on the Franks to see if we can get Western Church. If we succeed, we can buy up a bunch of VP-valuable techs cheap from Germany or England. (If so, buy them before France is destroyed, as the price will go up when they are gone). IF we fail, well, we were going to declare on Joan anyway, right? But that’s Charis’ call, I just wanted to provide the option.
- Last point, with Rheims flipping, our trade route now goes through France as well as Germany. The only deal we currently have is a straight gpt for wool deal with the Abbasids, so it shouldn’t hurt our rep too much when we declare, but I just wanted to point it out, don’t want any nasty suprises.

Our VP status hasn’t changed, we are still at 17,440, Abbasids are now in second with 6560. Mostly builder turns, getting some infrastructure in, and building up the attack force for my successor, but since half our swords are already named after him , I think the army’s in good hands!
Go Hammer the Franks

 

[Arathorn]

Roster:

Charis -- UP NOW
Corrado -- on deck
Arathorn
Justus_II

Nice turns, Justus. The only reason(s) to build up a treasury are if you get interest or if you expect to need emergency funds. I didn't really feel/see the need to rush much on my turn, but your spending looks good to me. We certainly don't need 2000 cash in our coffers rotting away.

We already captured Orleans once, so I think France is down to one king, almost assuredly in Paris. It would be very nice to capture Paris, but I don't think that's going to be an option, unfortunately. We could be lucky and they may have moved their king, but I would bet against it.

Arathorn

 

[Charis]

Very good, Justus. The flipping stinks, but c'est la guerre.
As Arathorn said, I fully expect the pinkdom to implode and poof when Paris is gone, so this war is going to be short and sweet - they won't have time to counterattack when Paris dies on turn 2-3. I'll think about the steal after I look at the tech situation.
I'm glad you recaptured Venice before the Burgundians went poof. "Got it" but I think the Missus may have other plans for me tonight. (And after her bedtime I need to report on Epic 39, then I'm 'caught up' for SG action)


Charis