RBC13E -Middle Ages- Delirious Danes (Deity)

[Aggie]

How does the shipping of the relics to Jerusalem work? Do we have to keep the victory location for the entire game or is it sufficient to place the relics there (for the Victory Points)? If the last situation is true, then we don't need to ship a settler and we can also use the military for further destruction and VP-scoring.

I will start playing when I have an answer on this question.

EDIT: It seems to me that the three longships are enough to sail to Jerusalem. This city is -probably- defended by spearmen so that an army of berserks should easily be able to deal with this situation.

 

[6thGenTexan]

All we need to do is capture Jerusalem and march in our relic carriers to glain the VP's. We do not need to keep the town.

 

[Aggie]

IHT: I ship a few berserks on a longship and order others to board as well. I agree that one army of berserks and 8 normal berserks should do the trick.

-Sweden gets 25 gpt for Horseback Riding.
-France agrees to give Castle Building, Ampurias and Clermont for peace.
-Norway gives us Seafaring for Castle Building, 11 gpt and 50 gold.
-Sweden gives 3 gold and 13 gpt for Castle Building.
The rest is too poor.

Lejre is switched to Longship.

Plan is to send a couple of ships to the Holy Land and have some fun in Europe. England that is.

Research on minimum towards Smithing.

IT: Hedeby: berserk->berserk. Lejre: longship->berserk.The Franks start the Holy Roman Empire in their only city. They seem to think that troops are not needed...

Turn 1 (936 AD) Troops are still preparing for the long trip.

IT: Vorbasse: warrior->temple. Germans start the HRE.

Turn 2 (939 AD) Preparations take long. But next turn we will go!

IT: Burgundy starts the HRE.

Turn 3 (942 AD) We set sail to the Holy Land with three Longships. Carrying 8 regular berserks and 1 berserk army.

IT: Viborg, Ampurias, Clermont: defense->temple.

Turn 4, 5 (945, 948 AD) We are sailing past our cities in Western France. Another Longship sails from the Baltic States to western France as well, to pick up a few berserks.

IT: The English established an embassy in our capital.

Turn 6 (951 AD) We sail west and are now -for the first time- discovering new lands, no new civilizations though.

IT: Lund: temple->berserk.

Turn 7 (954 AD) Longship now sail to the south. We pass Castille.

IT: Riber: berserk->berserk.

Turn 8 (957 AD) Now we pass Cordova. We met those people before.

IT: Hedeby: berserk->berserk. Boulogne: spear->temple. A lot of Burgundy troops move trough France, I mean our land. They don't seem to want war with us however.

Turn 9 (960 AD) We have contact with the Byzantines and the Fatimid Caliphate. But the Byzantines have our techs and the Caliphate is poor. We pass a narrow strait in the south. We can now move to the east.

Closer to home we ship a berserk army on a longship.

IT: Yes, obviously the Celts and Burgundies are at war, on our terrain. Paris riots and the Poles start HRE.

Turn 10 (963 AD) The three ships on a holy mission are now definatelly heading east. Our other longship is in striking distance to raze an English city. But I leave that to the following player. Note that I have seen some English galleys around, who may land troops on our shores!

These were boring turns, I wished Skyfish could have played them and leave the fun for me Next player should have a ball. Good luck with Jerusalem. I also assume that this was my last turn

963 AD save - Send those relics to Jerusalem!

 

[6thGenTexan]

With Skyfish out, it looks like it is back to me.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Obviously...

One thing to look at are Barbarian vessels, they could be dangerous for our Longships (there's a stack of Libyan Galleys at the N African coast); better ship through Byzantine territory as long as possible.

The Settler was only for 'safe play', I once lost 2 Relics (with the complete SoD) in the siege of Jerusalem, so I prefer to bring them in the turn after I secure the location.

 

[6thGenTexan]

Well it looks like I will not have the pleasure of delivering our relics. I took to long for me to cross the Mediterranean Sea to have all the fun. I'll have the save up later today.

 

[Aggie]

Hmmm, that makes me very curious. I thought you needed no more than 7 turns to reach it now

 

[6thGenTexan]

Onward to Jerusalem!

To occupy my time on the way, I will start on England now.

966...sail on the High seas.
IBT Lund Riots.
969AD-2 Liz will part with 80g to avoid war but decide to attack anyway. Kill two spears in Nottingham promoting one of our army units. Our Armada has reached Sicily.

972AD-3 Land Army in England.

975AD-4 Sink a curragh and promote to vet. Kill another spear and sword in Nottingham.
IBT Clermont flips to the Burgundians.

978AD-5 We have reached the Abbasid home lands. Kill two spears, sink a galley and capture 5g with Nottingham. I was hoping for a barrack.

981AD-6 Retrieve our hurt army and gift Nottingham to the Celts.
IBT I let Lund Riot again.

984AD-7 Arrive off the coast of Jerusalem. He has 2 horses watching our ships on the horizon. The Embassy costs 81g. Size 4, Palace, Barrack, Temple, Library, horses, wine and silks. 7spt, 10fpt, 50% science in a Monarchy, growth in 6. Protected by 7 spears, Ansar, King and settler building a catapult
in 2.

987AD-8 IN neutral waters, declare war on the Abbasids. Kill a horse reaching shore with the 3-elite army, 2 elites and 4 vets. Kill 3 spears in Thetford(English) getting one promotion.

990AD-9 Take another turn to move our army to the hills south of Jerusalem. Kill 2 more spears in Thetford and three in York.

IBT Burgundians ask for a 25g donation I cannot refuse.

993AD-10 lose a 3hp elite Berserk at Thetford but it has been destroyed. Too bad I do only have room for 3 of the 4 slaves.
Jerusalem:
Army loses only 1 HP killing 2 vet spears.
vet B v reg spear W 3-2
vet B v reg spear W 3-2
vet B v reg spear W 3-0 destroying the barrack
elite B v reg spear W 3-2
elite B v reg spear W 3-1
3hp vet B v reg spear L 2-3

Ansar showing now. The next turn should see the city fall. Save a turn on the Army to move back to the coast to protect our relic carriers.

Angers grew and will now starve.

Yes I took my time arriving at Jerusalem. Did not want to make any mistakes there.

Nearing The End

 

[Aggie]

@6thGenTexan: Nothing wrong with the careful approach! I thought that you didn't land , but you surely did

 

[Aggie]

What's the tactic now? I would suggest the following:

-Take Jersusalem
-Drop the Relics in Jerusalem
-Raze the city
-Sail back to home, razing 'all' cities of the southern Mediteranian until we have 30,000 VP's
-At the same time: raze coastal cities in Europe. Maybe it's better to make peace with England, as it appears that due to the fact that it's a rather small island cities have lot's of defenders.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Aye,

I'll bring it to an end (hopefully...).
Guess I'll try to eliminate the Fatimids, that should bring us enough VPs (all their Caliphs are in coastal towns).

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

It's over.

Danes 993AD.

Make peace with England for Early Siege and 5gp, don’t want to loose that Elite Berserk. Trade ES to Burgundy for Wool and 4gp. Trade ES to Cordova for CoL and 3gp. Trade Horses to Sweden for 40gp and 2gpt. The Franks are impressed by our culture .
Enter.
Lots of units run around, no attacks anywhere, England wants us to leave.

Turn 1: 996AD
Turn on animations.
Evacuate berserk from England.
Jerusalem: Kill Spear, Ansar, unfortified Spear, Caliph. Capture it. Land the Relic Carriers, cover with the Army.
Enter.
Couple of Abbassid units approach.

Turn 2: 999AD
Return the Relics:

That also nets us 1000gp. 1227gp is still out of question for Smithing? OOC, I establish an Embassy in Bordeaux – King, Archer, Sword, 5 Spears, Curragh, HRE due in 7!
Our VPs: 25045, Abbassids second with 1995.
Kill a few Abbassids to cover our retreat.
Enter.
More Abbassids approach.

Turn 3: 1002AD
Abbassids won’t talk. Evacuate Jerusalem, and gift it to Celts.

Turn 4: 1005AD
Sail our fleet towards Fatimids. Still no peace with Abbassids.
IBT:
Ack, Lund produces a Reg Berserk.

Turn 5: 1008AD
Make peace with Abbas for 20gp, don’t want them to drag anyone in against us (especially Byzantium – Dromons :shudder: ).
IBT: Sweden is really frightened from us – I have an empty Longship exploring next to their capital, and they immediately run 4 Spears into it . Hm, 3 Cordovan Spears show up, maybe someone looks for trouble?

Turn 6: 1011AD
Move Halfdan’s Army to Angers for zone controll. Position to attck the Fatimids next turn.

Turn 7: 1014AD
Honorably declare the Fatimids they should hand over us their 13gp – but they dare to refuse! Oh well....kill 4 Spears, Ansar and Caliph at Tripoli, capture it. Too bad, it was only size 2 (couldn’t see this before because of the FoW).
IBT:
Grr, the Fatimid borders expand to where I parked a Longship for healing...

Turn 8: 1017AD
Evacuate Tripoli, and gift it to – Sweden.
Attack Tunis, slay 2 Spears, Ansar and Caliph. Capture it.
IBT:
Fatimid counter is to pillage 2 tiles next to Tunis.

Turn 9: 1020AD
Evacuate Tunis, gift it to Norway.
Iron connected, still 13 turns to Smithing.
IBT:

Cologne completes The Domesday Book instead.

Turn 10: 1023AD
Franks picked CoL and Monasticism.
Attack Oran, but I’m exactly one unit short of killing the Caliph.
But since I feel the interest in this SG isn’t that huge, and Aggie is overcomitted anyway, I’ll play at least one more turn to check how many VPs we’ll get from the Fatimids.
We’re exactly at 26000 now, with Burgundy second (2270) – somehow they managed to seize Jerusalem from the Celts! Wonder if they manage to return their Relic…which btw was in our territory during my 1st turns, but we not a single ‘zerk near.
IBT:
Meet an English Galley near Oran, good to know.

Turn 11: 1026AD
Kill Sword, Horse, Archer, Caliph at Oran – pause –

We’re only at 26890Vps.

Oh, I finally could buy Smithing – for 1246gp and 24gpt .
Nevertheless, I’ll finish this now, those 3000VPs shoudn’t take too long.

Turn 12: 1029AD
Immediately steal a Tech from England (in fact, I hoped they declare) – Western Church it is.
Trade Early Siegecraft to Franks for Monasticism. That brings us to 27265.
Declare on the Celts. Kill a few units at Nottingham, but couldn’t take it this turn.

Turn 13: 1032AD
Capture Nottingham. Gift it to Poland. Kill some units at Cornwall.
IBT: Celts ally with Franks against Burgundy. Several Swords leave Cornwall.

Turn 14: 1035AD
Capture Cornwall, Poland again. 28195 now.
IBT: Franks ask us for an MA against Burgundy, I decline.

Turn 15: 1038AD
Kill 6 units at Dyffed, still no King shows up. Sign a MA against Celts with Mathilda for 4gp.

Turn 16: 1041AD
Capture Dyffed, keep it since it comes with Barracks intact. 28890. Closest rival is Burgundy with 2650, not exactly a close game…

Turn 17: 1044AD
Our expeditionary forces have returned, and will start to whack Ireland next turn (no good target in the mediterranean, didn’t want to get in trouble with Byzantium or Burgundy, and everyone else had no bigger cities there).
Jerusalem is now Byzantine.

Turn 18: 1047AD
Have to kill 12 defenders at Gwynedd, generate a MGL (Olaf Hunger). 29425.

Turn 19: 1050AD
Capture Cork. 30040
Capture Dublin. 30730. (Poland).
Try to steal a Tech from Abbassids (just for the VPs), but fail, and they declare.

That’s it. Didn’t know what to do with the Settler, would have resettled Bordeaux or so. For any reason, the pRNG didn’t gave me a MGL through all the Abbassid and Fatimid campaign; would have relocated the Palace to Paris.

Final standings:
Danes – 30730 (55315 with Deity modifiyer)
Burgundy – 2650
Abbassids – 2195
Byzantines – 1670
France – 1245
England – 1205
We were really incredibly ahead…we even lead the regular score with 3950 to Byzantium with 2993, that’s pretty impressive!

Well, Aggie, I apologize if you would have loved to play this turns, but believe me, with our lead they weren’t really interesting.

Kudos to Aggie for excellent opening moves, and to 6thGen for the preparation of the assault on Jerusalem.


(I'll add the save and a final screenshot soon; forgot it at home, sorry)

 

[Aggie]

Good work team

As soon as you got the Relics into Jerusalem the game was over Doc. No problem that you played until the end. I can imagine that you thought it could end every turn, after killing a civ or two. Those berserks are awesome in this game and no deity level can prevent you from using the strength early on and even later in the game, on civs not too close to you.

I am happy that we played with a clear goal: capture relics, get them to Jerusalem and raze your way to victory. True Viking style

 

[Aggie]

In his write-up Doc T assumed that the interest for this one wasn't very high. I actually liked it, but I think that we took the sting out of it right at the start. As soon as we got the relics we were the winners. We only had to ship them to Jerusalem. And do some damage after that for the rest of the VP's.

The fact that we acted so swiftly in the beginning allowed this fast victory. I was the one who got the relics, but only after a good discussion at the start in which we all agreed how to proceed. I assume that you both would have done the same

Also, there was no need for discussion to agree upon what to do next. It was clear: get 15 berserks and 5 longships. Improvements in the cities were only delaying the build-up. This was true Viking style, but also made it a one-dimensional game (which is nice for a change).

I think that the berserk is overpowerd in this scenario. They should either lower the specs of it OR they should give the AI more units at higher levels. The fact that the AI started with only a few units made them as harmless as on Chieftain in the vital beginning (almost...).

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Oh yes, by no means I think the team played uninspired; the opposite is true, we had a heavy focus on winning this ASAP in a truly way.
In fact, we focused more on winning than on 'fun'....
IMHO, the Berserk isn't really overpowered; the fact they are so powerful makes the other Civs interesting. But of course, in the hands of experienced players with good knowledge of the Scenario, even a Sid victory seems no big deal with them.
Catholic Civs are definitely more challenging, and I guess the design of the conquests was done primarily for those.

And despite taking some more turns than expected, I think it was fine to not hand that over any more, those last couple of turns was just a job to be finished. I could have attacked the English as well, trashing our Rep - who cares? - and since London was at size 8, guess that would have been some turns faster; but I just felt there was no need to not finish it honorably.

 

[Charis]

Way to go guys! A truly fine Viking victory!!

I must say, playing any other flavor civ, the 'dread' or fear or healthy respect I hold for the Vikings AI has been unparalleled since RBC9 trying to fight Cavalry with Pikes and Chariots. You know, that cry "omg, please don't attack ME! Go attack someone else!! For the love of all that is holy, not me!!"

Besides, with 13 civs to choose from, who says that a few of them can't be easier and lighthearted?!

Good game - thanks to all here who played, saw, and conquered!
Charis

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Final Map:

The final save:

 

[PTB]

'Scuse me

Cool stuff to read, do you think you could post a pic of your units?

 

[dgfred]

I have used your team strat in a couple of Middle Ages
games on emperor and diety winning each time. England and
France do not stand a chance vs the Beserks. After taking their
relics in one game both the Burgs and the Germans "brought"
their relic to me while attacking my captured French territory.
Needless to say I was glad to accept them but it seemed so
stupid of the AI that it took some of the fun from the game.
In each game I took the relics to Jerusalem and pillaged on the
way while avoiding the Byzantines and their UU. Easy victories
with much thanks to you guys. I lurk all the succ. games and
really enjoy watching your abilities and stategies.