RBC13J - Gregarious Germans (Monarch)

[barbslinger]

RBC13J – 966AD – All looks wel for the spanking of Burgandy. I change one build to worker and growth in 2 at Regensburg. The Danes offer seafaring for wines and 10g. Who am I if I can’t get a bunch of Vikings drunk. We take it.I get 48g from the Bulgars for HBR. We are at parity. Smithing can be had in 32 turns at +5gpt but I opt for the single scientist an +31gpt. Rush the temple in Chappelle due to tremendous pressure for 88g and I think we’re ready. Wait a sec, there is a sword/archer pair ready to step on our iron next turn. All I have available is a 3/3 sword and a 3/3 warrior to get on that hill. I also swap the units in Strasbourg/Augsburg to get the sword closer to the upcoming defensive action.

IT – Burgandy elects to attack the elite and vet swords next to town instead? (edit: I see the shroud was there) We win getting an elite promotion. Settlers from other nations are scurrying around like rats going who knows where. Chappelle – Temple>Horse in 15. Strasbourg – Sword>Sword. Hamburg and Heidelburg-Barracks>Horse

[1] 969AD – We win the day in Dorestad losing no units but taking the elites to 1hp. They lose a King. Set to temple. Who do I assign to hold this shroud. I have a 4/5 sword grab it and put it safe in Regens. The other swords that were heading N turn around and come back towards the southern front. I rush the barracks in Metz. It will be the front line city and I think I’ll need some healing powers. No tech available.

IT – No attacks, they are just shuffling. Metz-Brax>Temple. Regens-Worker>Horse.

[2] 972AD – Moving troops around for next group of assaults. I can’t drop this relic. Is he destined to hold it forever?

IT – Cologne-Brax>Temple. Wurzburg –Sword>Horse. The FRANKS are building HRE.

[3] 975AD – We can get it for 19gpt and 80g. There is not much selling opportunity though. I’ll wait a bit. We meet the lovely Theodora. One civ left to contact. I kill an archer with an elite sword. Then kill 2 more archers getting one promo.

IT – Those wacky Burgundians send a settler out and deposit him in front of 3 swords.
Augsburg-Sword>Horse.

[4] 978AD – We kill the spear and collect 2 slaves. Attack on Basel does not go so well. Lose 2 vet swords to a now elite spear. Our elite sword does defeat a reg spear. 2/5 elite spear remains with us bring up a new vet.

IT – They trot out yet another settler! We also lose a sword to a sword outside of Venice. Hildesheim-Horse> Settler. Naumburg-Horse> Settler.

[5] 981AD – We lose another vet sword to the 4/5 spear in Basel. That place is impregnable! We collect 2 more slaves. Burgandy is down to 4 archers, a warrior and a spear in the vicinity.

IT – No attacks. Regens – Horse> Settler. Strasbourg – Sword> Sword. English are building HRE.

[6] 984AD – Abe has castle building! Looks like peace is coming soon. Shuffling troops.

IT – Lose a sword near Venice. Salzburg riots. Sorry, missed the growth.

[7] 987AD – Basel rufuses to fall. I have 2 elites coming up and a vet waiting for them. Abe will give castle building and maybe one city. Not yet.

IT - No attacks. Wurzburg-Horse>Spear for Dorestad. Hildeburg – Horse > Horse.

[8] 990AD – There are 4 elites outside of Basel. That better do it. I kill a wandering warrior.

IT – Lose the sword that killed the warrior after he beat one archer. Augburg – Horse>Temple.

[9] 993AD – Basel falls and we get a leader! Woot! Army time! Abe still won’t give much else but CB and one of his 3 worst cities. Basel has iron not hooked up 2 tiles away.

IT – Not much. 3 settlers are built for filling in around Pisa and whatever else.

[10] 996AD – Load army with swords and head it to Pisa along with 2 horses and 2 elite swords.

I think after Pisa falls and we should take peace for castle building and whatever else you can squeeze from him.

>> THE SAVE <<

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Great playing Slinger!

Rubberjello is up!
Pokiste is on deck.
Bugs is crying over Gonzaga

 

[Rubberjello]

I see it. I'm going to run out of time to play it tonight though...

We need to discuss and get a solid vote on which techs we will grab when HRE comes in. The usual wisdom is to grab Monsticism and Feudalism and start pounding away with Knights way before anyone else can get them. But we could use it to break into the Byznatium tree also and get the Aqueduct builds.

 

[Pokiste]

As I understood Burgundy is without iron now. Peace plan is really clever: we will get Burgundy southern city’s with lux and resources without need to rush there with settlers. javascript:smilie And after 20 turns of peace we will finish Burgundy with coup de grace against Venice.
One vote for christian tree. Byz tree gives us only aqueducts and colosseum, but do we really need them? Most our city’s are at riverside and there is no need for aqueducts. I counted, that we have only 4 not riverside city’s. And future areas of interest ( I mean Poo valley and Seine valley) have rivers to. From happiness point of view is situation same: in christian tree we very close to jousting arena, what has similar stats compared with colosseum.
From other side: byz tree will give us access to defender of Europe and espionage tech, but it will take entire history (we have only 150 turns till end) to get them.
Pokiste

 

[Rubberjello]

Agree to the plan of taking Pisa and then making peace.

999 (1) I see 4 Burgundian Archers heading for the last conquered town of Basel. Strasbourg (Sword-Sword) Wurzburg (Spear->Spear) Hamburg (Horse->Worker) Kill 2 Archers and 1 Spear this round in the Alps with no losses.

1002 (2) Resistence in Basil ends. Main army approaches Pisa. 2 more Archers encountered and killed.

1005 (3) Pisa falls with the capture of one worker. (2 spears and an archer defending - no losses) Kill an additional 4 archers with our reinforcements crossing the Alps. (1 Horse lost) I'm getting greedy now. I don't want to make peace without getting Genoa, and they are *almost* there.

1008 (4) 5 Burgandy Archers actually attack our army in Pisa and quickly die. Cologne (Temple->Worker) Regensburg (Horse->Horse) Augsburg (Temple->Worker) Wurzburg(Spear->Spear) Hildesheim (Spear->Spear) Hamburg (Worker-Horse) Heidleburg (Horse->Worker). Healing turn. Kill one Archer.

1011 (5) Naumburg (Temple->Worker) I give up trying to get Genoa through Peace negotiations. I give peace to the Burgundians for Castle Building, Rome, Verdun, Milan, and 25 gold, and 2 gpt. This leaves them with 5 cities. This improves our financial picture dramatically, but it will a little hard to defend these cities when we do take the Burgundians out. (Milan is a flip risk.) Do the diplo rounds and we can't sell Castle Building for much to the laggards (Sell to the Norwegians for 54 gold) Salzburg changed to HRE - due in 20!? We had better get it... We probably shouldn't have restricted it's shields by putting our scientists there. I'll work rush some workers over there and spruce up the countryside pronto.

1014 (6) Cologne (Worker->Spearman) Metz (Spearman->Spearman) Augsburg (Worker->Granary) (Strasburg Sword->Worker) Heidleburg (Worker->Sword) The following turns are mostly army re-staging turns. Rush a Temple in Dorestad. Meet the Abbasids.

1017 (7) Regendsburg (Horse->Horse) Wurzburg (Spear->Spear) Hildesham (Spear->Worker) Naumburg (Worker->Granary) Dorestad (Temple->Barracks) Sail by our ultimate goal of Jerusalem. Found Nuremburg in the Alp foothills as a filler city. Rush Temples in Pisa and Milan. Salzburg Micro-managed to produce HRE in 13.

1020 (8) Pisa (Temple-Rax) Milan (Temple->Rax) Zzzzz

1023 (9) Hildesheim (Worker->Granary) Zzzzz

1026 (10) Metz (Spearman->Granary) Regensburg (Horseman->Horseman) Wurzburg (Spearman->Granary) Frankfurt (Spearman->Spearman) Hurry spears in our tribute cities. Buy a worker off Sweden for 92 gold.

Holy Roman Empire due in 10. Be sure to switch our research to Monasticism on the turn before it is due. All Granary builds are meant to be Blacksmith prebuilds. But if those lazy-a$$ Viking civs don't discover it soon, we might be in trouble! It's up to you guys if you want to start a war while waiting for the Burgundian's peace to be up. If Smithing comes on the market soon, we'll be building Blacksmiths for a while. We will need to save a *LOT* of money if we want to upgrade Horseman to Knights (in 10 turns, hopefully). Maybe it will be a bad idea to start another war before Knights come in...

The game at 1026

 

[Pokiste]

30 peaceful years in Holy Roman Empire wannabe.

AD 1029 (1) Rome and Verdun spearman – temple.
AD 1032 (2) Heidelburg sword-granary.
Third wine in our territory. Party time.
IT Drunken Danes demand wine for free We tell them about healthy no-alcohol life. They agree and are polite.
AD 1035 (3) Heidelburg Horse-spear. Stop horse production: we need already 800 gold for upgrade.
AD 1038 (4) Drunken Danes are back and want change one slave for wine. Send them back to research smithing. Abbasids and Turk have early siege warfare and England knows how to code laws.
IT 4 Burger Spears spear appear from fog and move toward wine. And their workers leave border area.

AD 1041 (5). Army moves toward spearmen’s. France has monasticism. They will not sell it.

IT Spears leave

AD 1044(6) Third wine connected. And where are Danes with slave? Why I told them about healthy habits

IT Unrest in Regensburg. Mea culpa.

AD 1047 (7) Clown in Regensburg. Hamburg spear- granary. No smithing and prebuilds running out. Something must be done here!
We buy code of laws from England for 387 g.
Turks sell us siege warfare for CoL, 1gpt and 109 g.
Abbasids pay 334 for CoL.
For all our tech and money franks say that if we want monasticism we’re getting close deal here.....

Change Bremen, Wurzburg, Naumburg and Dorestad to town hall.

AD 1050 (8) Bremen townhall-granary, Wurzburg: townhall-granary, Naumburg townhall-granary. Franks ready to sell us monasticism for everything we have....

AD 1053 (9) Still no smithing. And HRE due next turn. We stop researching smithing and change for monasticism.
And here I stop as one important decision must be made.
Situation is next: We can buy monasticism for CoL, Early siege warfare, 400g and 39 gpt (almost 800 g in 20 turns). It is almost everything we have. And then we can jump with HRE through the Christian techtree to the chivalry. If we do it we can probably sell next turn to franks feudalism and get money back. But there are certain risk, that franks will spend money elsewhere and we will have tense financial situation. And smithing what we wait already long time can be expensive.
So gentleman’s: shall we gamble or not?

More notes:
*As all Nordic civs are in bad financial situation and last Nordic tech came out already 29 turns ago I tend to believe, that smithing is coming out soon.

*After we get HRE tech’s is maybe good time to start golden age for building manors, smiths and jousting arenas. This means that when peace expires we should start war with Burgundy and take Venice. Before we do that we must have settlers ready to build citys at location’s around Venice. I already send settlers to south.

*And more reasons to start war: we really need wool.


Pokiste

 

[Pokiste]

Save
AD 1053

 

[barbslinger]

But, it is only monarch and I would vote on the gamble. If franks don't have the money we'll survive. We can always go rip them a new one.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

You cannot start a GA after the HRE...the HRE itself will trigger your GA

 

[Rubberjello]

Go for the gamble. It would be neat to finish the Christian Tech tree so early. I can't believe those lazy-butt Vikings! It must be the Monarch difficulty that is slowing down their tech research so much.

 

[Pokiste]

Originally posted by Doc Tsiolkovski
You cannot start a GA after the HRE...the HRE itself will trigger your GA

Heh. Humans are planing but god's are guiding. I will play my last turn today evening.
Pokiste

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Pokiste, the save link is broken. I looked in the uploads folder, and it appears you have posted the 1026 AD save.

 

[Pokiste]

Year 1053.
And here is decisive turn. We buy monasticism for CoL, siege warfare, 420g and 37 gpt. England is ready to buy monasticism “only” for 148g. No deal.
Strasbourg to monastery as prebuild. And press Enter.

Salzburg builds HRE and golden age starts. As oracles predicted We get feudalism and chivalry.

AD 1056 (10)
Frankfurt spear-townhall. Nurnberg temple-townhall. And bad luck: Joan has only 10gpt and 78 g for feudalism. I have no idea how much costs feudalism, but have feeling, that this is not enough. England has 120 g. As we make +78 gpt I make no deal. Maybe their financial situation will improve. Next player can still sell it, if we decide so.
Start major townhall/manor construction campaign.

Remarks for next player read in earlier post.

Pokiste.


Save AD 1056

 

[Sir Bugsy]

So where do we go from here?

I think we need to look at reducing the Franks and when the time comes the Burgundians. Getting to the coast and building the invasion fleet.

I suppose we can start the Navy in Rome.

So do we want infrastructure? Military? I'm thinking military. I have the game, but will hold off playing for a while as we come to a concensus on where to go.

With two relics we can win just by delivering them to Jerusalem, if we can capture it.

 

[Rubberjello]

Well, this is the point where playing styles will really differ.
I'm a builder at heart, so this is where I would build up the Infrastructure (during the Golden Age), with Manors, Monasteries, and Blacksmiths (that tech has got to come in soon!) Save up money for our Knight upgrades, and then take out the Burgundians in a rush when the peace is up.
After that, start building up our military for our push against France. (hopefully before they get Knights.)

Again...why rush to win this thing? Let's worry about our Crusade later. We should do it in style by turning in
ALL FOUR relics on the same turn in Jerusalem. Just France and England to go, right? In addition, we'll get to investigate the last age of the tech tree a little more thoroughly then many of the other games.

Any way, that's my opinion. You guys can shoot it down...

P.S. Of immediate concern-what to research next? And what level of research?

 

[Sir Bugsy]

I can go for an infrastructure build. I like the style points for delivering all four relics. If we are going to get the relic from England, we'll probably want to start a Channel navy also.

I think I need to reread the civilopedia on the techs to make an informed decision on that point.

 

[barbslinger]

Since this is my first Middle Ages game I would like to see everything the scenario has to offer. I'm thinking of world domination too.

 

[Pokiste]

Originally posted by Rubberjello


Again...why rush to win this thing? Let's worry about our Crusade later. We should do it in style by turning in
ALL FOUR relics on the same turn in Jerusalem. Just France and England to go, right? In addition, we'll get to investigate the last age of the tech tree a little more thoroughly then many of the other games.

Any way, that's my opinion. You guys can shoot it down...

P.S. Of immediate concern-what to research next? And what level of research?

I agree with RJ proposal about 4 relict. And one additional idea: let’s bring 4 relicts to Jerusalem via historic 1. Crusade land route (I added link with map ) and THREE RELICTS MUST BE CARRIED BY THE KING UNITS. If it is unrealistic say it. Maybe I am just to ambitious.
If we do it I believe we need 40-60 knights and at least 10 inquisitors against assassins. My naval invasion force consisted 20 knights (incl. 2 army’s), one pikeman army (I invade at turn 160 with one relict) and some 3 inquisitors and I almost lost. Our invasion date will be probably something like turn number 170 or even180. It’s means Swiss merc.’s (with defense 5) are guarding Jerusalem.
We must have Rop with Byz, Bulgars and Magyar. And ally Byz.
Research: we must finish as quickly as possible middle age and very effective thing is mapmaking.

Pokiste
MAP

 

[Sir Bugsy]

I don't think a unit can hand off a relic to another unit. It seems that once a unit has a relic it is stuck with it for life.


Since we are taking the long term approach on this game, I think we will need assasins. Therefore, I am going to start research on Byzantine Ingenuity to open up that part of the tech tree.

Playing now. Should post in 4-5 hours.

 

[Rubberjello]

Originally posted by Sir Bugsy
I don't think a unit can hand off a relic to another unit. It seems that once a unit has a relic it is stuck with it for life.
Since we are taking the long term approach on this game, I think we will need assasins. Therefore, I am going to start research on Byzantine Ingenuity to open up that part of the tech tree.

Yes...units are stuck with it. (relics)
Assassins are in the Muslim tech tree (2'nd age), not the Byzantine one. Is that the one you meant? Anyway, this is probably the last time period we can afford to do minimum research on another "entry" tech, so it is now or never.
I would personally want the Muslim one rather than the Byzantine one, as there are more potential trading partners.