RBC13H - Middle Ages - Angry Abbasids (Demigod)

[Kabuki]

Yupp, that would be a decent idea. I was thinking about it in terms of long term planning but the problem is the target. I'd be almost tempted to go after the Turks as they are already busy with the Byzantines and they have several very convenient cities that would be secure hinterland for us. The nice thing about the Fatimids is that they have few contacts, lag behind in tech and have no cash... on the other hand it gives us an immensly long and hard to defend coast which is a problem with Vikings. I think I'd go for the Fatimids, as the Turks are much more useful in the long term as a trading partner.

 

[Rubberjello]

Alright! Actually, the best news is this: "Byzantines and Turks are at war"! With those two heavies fighting it out, we are relatively safe. Byzantium is undoubtably in a Golden Age right now, so by all means, we don't want to piss them off.

Rubberjello - Awaiting decision of Yom/Deceased Horse, then up.
Sir Bugsy -
Kabuki - Just played
Deceased Horse - Status???? (up)
Yom - Status??? (up)

Yom and Deceased Horse. Time to fish or cut bait. Can you/do you want to play in this SG any more? If so, grab it now. Otherwise I'll take it in 24 and we'll go to a 3 person rotation unless someone else wants to volunteer.

Bugsy --- A small war against the Fatahmids is a good idea. We should probably build some 'pults first to help reduce counterattacks and losses on our side. We should definitely try to break into the Western tech tree and get the Manor build, as that would be a major help to our economy.

I've noticed in past games and in other threads, once the Byzantine-Turk war starts, the Bizzies get a major dogpile going on the Turks and eventually become the point leaders by a major margin. We are going to need a large military to take them on eventually --- hopefully some Ansar Warrior Armies!

 

[Sir Bugsy]

We could fish for some leaders with the Fatimids. We don't need to march down the entire coast of North Africa. Plus we would be gaining combat experience for our troops.

 

[Kabuki]

Here are our current forces:

I'd say close to 80%, if not more of our combat effective troops are in four-five cities. Jerusalem, Antioch, Tyre, Damascus and Hatin.

As for taking on the Byzantine. It would not be that difficult to prosecute a limited war to push back the frontier. If we co-ordinated it properly we could hit four or five cities on the frontier and then withdraw and sue for peace.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

The Turks are huge! It might be in our best interests to join the lovely Theodora against the Turks.

I think the only way we will want the Byzantines to disappear is at our own hands. I would not want to see Asia Minor being controlled by the Turks.

 

[Rubberjello]

The Turks are kind of a 50/50 thing. Their lone source of Horses is fairly exposed to the other AIs (if I remember correctly). If they lose their Saphai-making ability, they collapse amazingly fast. Still, they are a legitimate target, as long as the Bizzies take the brunt of their offensive units.

 

[Yom]

I still haven't gotten to get Conquests to work on my PC, but I have my laptop with me, so consider this a 'got it.'

Edit: Btw Kabuki, don't forget those file extensions when doing those links .

 

[Yom]

Turn 0 - We seem to be doing well on the Tech. Front. We have parity with most civs and only lack Medicine (Lost roman secrets gives us a cheaper 'Hospital') and Heavy Cavalry (940 gp and WM).

VP is much closer, we have 6015, followed by Sweden at 5985.

IBT - Various settler pairs move through our lands. Byzantines drag in Burgundians against the Turks.

Turn 1 - Basra:Spearman->Ansar to prevent waste.
New Tyre:Town Hall->Spearman.
Try to set up Workers in better stacks.

IBT - Kievan Rus declare war on the Turks for no apparent reason. The Turk Dogpile might actually bring them down if this continues.

Turn 2 - Jerusalem:Assassin->Ansar Warrior. The Ansars are better than the Assassins IMHO, because of their mobility.
Damascuz:Assassin->Ansar Warrior.
Sidon:Spearman->Spearman.
Samarian citizens die of disease.
New Sidon:Spearman->Spearman.
Rubber Basra:Blacksmith->Spearman.
New Basra:Temple->Wealth (it is an edge city that produces 1 spt and cannot grow).
Lower tax rate to 0%.
Notice a Bug with Theodora. Even though she's gracious, she switches between her happy and annoyed face every 2 seconds, even when there's nothing on the table. Maybe she has bipolar disorder or maybe she's revealing her duplicity .
I also realize that Heavy Cav. is useless for us other than a stepping stone for Intelligence operations.
Hmm..despite having what I thought was a large military, it is weak in comparison to that of the Byzantines.

IBT - Nothing of importance

Turn 3 - Alexandria:Blacksmith->Aqueduct.
Tyre:Assassin->Assassin (I notice it's at 19 spt! and do some mming to get it to 22-19-19 so that it can still grow)
Mosul:Spearman->Spearman
Aleppo:Temple->Worker
Samaria gets hit by disease again.

IBT - Bulgars declare on the Turks (again, no alliance)! Sweden declares on the Turks! My guess that this epidemic of declaration on the turks is because they have tons of assassins running around and other countries are trying to settle Siberia.

Turn 4 -Baghdad:Assassin->Ansar Warrior (it's at 18 spt, but can't reach 20 w/o WLTKD or growth).
Sidon:Spearman->Spearman
New Mosul: Blacksmith->Ansar Warrior
Bugsy Basra:Temple->Spearman
Gaza:Blacksmith->Temple. Let this finish or evacuate the King, as it could technically flip until its borders expand.

IBT - Nothing of Importance

Turn 5 - Jerusalem:Ansar->Ansar
Antioch:Aqueduct->Ansar (16spt now, but with growth can become 20+)
Damascus:Ansar->Ansar
Aleppo:Worker->Town Hall
New Antioch:Spearman->Spearman


I don't have time to play tonight so I'm passing it off here. Also, I won't be able to play again until April 12th, so consider me on auto-skip until then.

VP Standings: Us-6140, Sweden-6120, Byzantines- 6715
Those wars VPs are stacking up, we may have to do some soon as well to keep up.

The Save

Edit: Hmm...forgot the subscores. See if it works now.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

We might want to jump on the dogpile. Pick off the Turkish city in our backyard and a few in the southern portion of the Turk lands. Otherwise, the Byzantines might run away with this one.

 

[Kabuki]

Yom - the assassins are needed, at least one in evey border city and some for zone defense as they come with the "detect invisble" trait. Without them we'll keep running into obstacles we can't see and people will be able to pass those units through our lands without our knowledge. And we have enough Ansars for defense.

 

[DeceasedHorse]

Link seems to be broken and I can't find it on the upload server.

 

[Arathorn]

You might try...

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/al-Mansur_of_the_Abbasids,_1182_AD.SAV

And see if that works out better for you.

WARNING: I'm not certain that's the right save...but it looks right.

Arathorn

 

[DeceasedHorse]

Preturn: Looks like the right save to me. We sure have gotten alot bigger since I last played. Upgrade five horses to ansars, start moving our forces to the Byzantine border. They will give us ally with us and give an ROP, and kick in a couple of gold. I will wait until our troops are in a better positiong to cross attack first. Our armies converge on New Jerusalem, where we will marshall our forces and then move north for our assualt on the Ottoman cities on the Caspian Sea. Research to 50%, polearms in 18 (I hope this isn't a mistake; we still have over 2000 gold and 53 gpt. Switch Jerusalem to Colloseum; it will riot next turn so I have to fire a taxman. There is a Turkish city on the edge of the map; I will kick off the war once some Ansars are in attack range of it.

IBT: Nothing happens, but the scenerio is really chugging.

Turn 1: Rush the Colloseum in Jerusalem for 396 gold. Rush an aquaduct in Alexandria for 256 gold. Hurry another in New Damascus for 56 gold. Trade Early Siegecraft to the Swedes for Viking Sagas, start Norse Sage in Antioch, due in 14. (might as well get the Heroic Epic effect going).

IBT: Turks sign the French in against the Bulgars, French turn around and sign the cordovans in against the Bulgars.

Turn 2: Time to kick off our war. Sign an unholy alliance against the Turks with the Byzantines, and they will kick in 29 gold. We could also get a +/- 500 gold discount on Heavy Cavalary; the only thing that would give us though would be the possibility of eventually building the intelligance agency, so I decide against it. This does commit us to a 20 turn alliance, and the Byzantines are now up to 7120 VP's, so we may have to turn on them later. Our Ansars take Karabuk. Had a settler in it so we get a couple more slaves too.

Turn 3: First wave of Ansarw kill 4 archers and an Assassin outside of Salonika, one promoting to elite. 17 more are in position to attack next turn.

IBT: Turkish assassins pick off a wounded Ansar.

Turn 4: Attack Salonika, lose one Ansar, have another retreat, but our elite comes through and........

We get our first leader, Salah al-Din. Time for an Ansar Army! Form one immediatly, and it rides out and kills a fortified Siphai in Urfa. Enough Ansars have mp left to kill 2 spears in Urfa next.

IBT: Turkish Assassins pick off two more Ansars, recapturing Salonika and a couple of workers. We need to get some assassins up there , but it will take awhile to move them up. The Byz take the Turkish town of Bolu.

Turn 5: Spend 316 gold rushing an aquaduct in Hattin. Kill a bunch of assassins and retake Sal. Our army and Ansars take Urfa, capturing a total of 8 slaves as well. A Turkish assassin on a mountain redlines an ansar but falls. VP check: We are up to 9000 VP's. Both Turkish cities we captured were fairly large. Turns are to the point that 5 took me an hour and a half, so I'm going to hand it off now if that's ok.


Armies of Allah

I apologize again for my lack of attention to this game.

 

[Rubberjello]

Thanks Yom and DH, for jumping in and getting some turns done.

I wasn't looking forward to a 3 person rotation much.
Got it.

 

[Yom]

Good turns. DeceasedHorse! I would have thought that the Turks would be more difficult than that, but I guess the Byzantines took the brunt of their forces .

 

[DeceasedHorse]

The turks are definitly gassed-they have the usual horde of assassins running around, but I've only seen a single regular Siphai. The Byzantines are definitly on the attack; our ansars arrived only a few turn ahead of some Cataphract stacks that are advancing unuppossed. Our superior mobility will let us roll up the Turks while the Byzantines are catching up; they can use our captured turkish roads because of the ROP however

 

[Rubberjello]

Preturn- Take a look around. I'm not exactly thrilled getting in bed with our toughest competition (Byzantine), but I understand the need of not getting stabbed in the back when most of our forces are North. Of course, she *is* gracious to us now, which some of my successor leaders may appreciate! Baghdad was ready to riot, which I hire a clown for now. Hmmm...we should start a pre-build for Robin Hood or Notre Dame (or both)! Damascus is switched to a palace pre-build.
Establish an Embassy with Germany in preperation of a steal of Western Church. Regensburg is a size 6 city, going nowhere fast with 12 units loitering inside it. Scale Science down again in order to afford the steal attempt. We really need those Manors to help our cashflow! A round of map-selling is quite profitable.
We have unescorted Assassins going through our ally's territory? There is a war-trigger/second front problem if I've ever seen one. I hope for the best hit end-turn.

1200 (1) Danes declare war on Turks (Another run-in with an Assassin?) Three Assassins attack, one Ansar retreats, two are killed and two slaves captured and killed. All of our Assassins heading north get assigned an escort so the Byzantines don't accidentally declare war on us.
I'm going to take it easy for a while on the offense here and conserve our troops. The idea is to let our Byzantine friends catch up and take the heat off us. While patrolling our local area though, Abul-Abbas showed up when they stumbled over a group of assassins. He forms another Ansar Army. Manage to steal Western Church from the Germans on the first try. Monasticism is gained from the French for the low, low price of Contact with the Fatihmids. Feudalism comes from Germany for Code of Laws. Chivalry comes from England for only WM and 8 gold. Most of our core is switched over to Manor-building.

1203 (2) A horde of Bizzie units head north past us. I decide to take Bursa ahead of them to get the VPs. This is easily accomplished with our armies, and our patrols take out two more Assassins.

1206 (3) The Turks have made far too many enemies. There is no counter from them at all, and the Byzzies are swarming past us again. Set up our armies for the next Turkish city of Khazar. Do the Diplo round again and pick quite a bit of gold. Trade Map-Making to the Rus for Heavy Cav. plus 20 gold. Buy Defender of Europe off the Byzantines for only 11 gold. Scale Tech research back up to 80% and Polearms is again due in 7 turns.

1209 (4) The Byzantines and Turk Assassins really go after each other this round, each killing about 5 units and leaving us alone. Capture Khazar and kill one of the Turkish kings. Routine patrol sweeps kill 5 Assassins that were sneaking up on us. (It's a darn good thing these guys only have a defense of 1!)

1212 (5) Watch more Byzantine troops and invisible Turks kill each other. That temptress Theodora has learned Intelligence Operations, but it is very expensive. The Bulgars go rich all of a sudden, and I was able to sell them Defender of Europe for 85gold and 14 gpt. The tech pace is really slow 'cuz the entire world is fighting right now, I believe. I heal all units up for a massive invasion towards Ghuzz (Turk Capitol) next turn. Patrols only kill one Assassin.

1215 (6) Quiet Interturn. A bunch more civs get drawn into the Turk/Byzantine conflict. Our cash situation is improving now that some Manors are completing.

1218 (7) The Turks come begging for peace. (Perhaps having 18 Ansars camped outside their capitol had some factor in this? But we are not only the Angry Abbasids, but also honorable ones. We will fulfill our commitment to the lovely temptress Theodora, though it hurts us sorely since the Turks have a monopoly on both Medicine and Divine Right, and probably will part with one of both in Peace if we hurt them enough.
Battle for Ghuzz: 8 Spears, 2 Assassins, and Turk King #2 later, Ghuzz falls. Not before we lose two Ansars and get another leader- Arun al-Rashid. (2 'pults captured) Aydin and Muglin were also captured with only one Ansar lost.

1221 (8) Healing turn again. Not much new on the tech/diplo front. Rush a few Temples in our concurred cities. Our Assassins have finally reached the front and reveal two Turkish Assassins sneaking by, which are then promptly killed.


1224 (9) Polearms comes in, and we have a monopoly on it. The next tech choice is really up in the air. The AI is incredibly slow to research, so we may end up self-researching from here on out. I choose Theology for the Notre Dame Wonder (happiness will become more of a problem soon with our Pop growing). It is due in 12. Capture Iznik - kinda hoping the last Turk king would be there and so end our chances for city flips. But no luck (the city fell with 1 Ansar loss and 2 workers and 2 'pults captured.) The last king must be in Patzinak. Stage an attack there for next turn - and crossing my fingers for no flips.

1227 (10) Turk assassin kills one of our Elite Ansars in a city. They are going to pay dearly for that! Norse Saga completes in Antioch. Woohoo! Conquer Konya (size 12 city...that helps for victory points)...with 1 Ansar lost. Their last stand at Patzinak was pretty tough. I had to get through 9 Spears and an Assassin to get to their last king. Before the final attack, I send Ansars out everywhere to "collect" about 5 Turk workers as slaves. The last king is killed, and the game freezes for about a minute, then "We have destroyed the Strong Turks" message appears. They took the secrets of Divine Right and Medicine to their graves though. We now have 18,655 VPs, vs the Byzzies 12,110. We now have a split kingdom. Theodora is sure to cast her covetous eyes our way soon.
Back home, I've mostly been building Manors, Libraries, and Monsateries for Culture and researching, as it appears the Tech pace has stalled completely with the Turks out of the picture. I haven't upgraded any Pikes yet (very expensive!!!) What do we want to do next? We have 3 Ansar armies which are really unstoppable. I changed Jerusalem over to a pre-build for another wonder which may happen along.


Who is going to piss off the Angry Abbasids next?

Rubberjello - Just played.
Sir Bugsy - UP!
Kabuki - On Deck
Yom -
Deceased Horse

 

[Yom]

More good turns ! I think our next target should definitely be the Byzantines. We may want to take advantage of our weak position defense-wise, and use it to overwhelm the Byzantines with a strong 2-pronged attack, focusing on taking out King Cities to conquer them quickly and efficiently. Other than Constantinople, what Byzantine cities have Kings?

Edit: Btw, do we keep the culture when we conquer cities? If so, this could make the blitzkrieg against the Byzantines easier and faster.

 

[Rubberjello]

Nope. Our culture kind of sucks, btw. I did build quite a bit of libraries/monastaries on my turn, but we are far behind the Byzzies. The threat of city flips are quite real.

Before taking on Theodora, I heartily recommend building more military, upgrade most of our Spears to Pikes, bring our captured Catapults down from Turkland, and get more defenders up to the Northern cities. At last count, I saw some stacks of 10+ Cataphracts running around. I don't know where they are going to next. Ideally, Theo will get bored and attack the Magyars or Bulgars. That would be a great opportunity for us to launch an attack!

 

[Kabuki]

Nice turns! I'm for taking the high road and sitting out a bit and building up a civilization... while mmm... unifying the Islamic nations... Let's go for the Fatimids next!