RBD5 Succession - French Musketeer Artillery Variant

[Zed-F]

Note to Cy: No problem, I wasn't quite ready to take my turn then anyway. The revised turn order was posted by Charis on Jan 22, if you care to look at it.

Incidentally, I bet the Great Lighthouse doesn't help for trade, meaning sea squares won't do until we get Navigation or Magnetism; thus we still need a coastal route.

 

[Sirian]

Nit: The Lighthouse definitely does mimic Astronomy, bringing sea squares online for trade path.

It might be that both sides in the trade agreement need "revealed map" squares along the path of the trade route. We could try selling everyone our world map, that ought to bring Russia online, if we ourselves can see a path to one of their harbors. Now that India contact has been made, there's no more good use for holding back on our map.

- Sirian

 

[Zed-F]

Well, I was just guessing on that one, but I find that a mite surprising. That's good news for us anyway...


Ok, got it, will play tonight.

 

[Zed-F]

410 AD (1): Athos builds Library, starts Settler. Porthos builds Spearman, starts Aqueduct.

420 AD (2): All for One builds spearman, starts worker.

430 AD (3): Athos builds settler, starts Cathedral. Tours builds spearman, starts Harbour. Aramis builds spearman, starts Library.

440 AD (4): One for All builds spearman, starts catapult for Point du Hoc. Marseilles builds Courthouse, starts Temple. Monte Crisco builds Catapult, starts Temple.

450 AD (5): zzz

460 AD (6): All for One finishes worker, starts another. Greeks start building Art of War in Thessalonica (size 4.)

470 AD (7): Bane of Bombay completes Barracks, starts worker.

480 AD (8): We get Republic, Monarchy, and Feudalism out of the Library! We initiate the French Revolution!

490-500 AD: Lots of cities in civil disorder pending end of revolution. We have a warrior about to hit a goody hut, and a swordsman on the way to another. We should have put warriors on our Galleys, we could have picked up a couple other huts.

 

[Charis]

Well 480 was a banner year for the French scientists!

Lots of cities in civil disorder pending end of revolution

Hmmm.... What do others do? I thought that cities under disorder do bad things like flip, start tearing down city improvements, etc. When I start a revolution I always go through and redistribute to keep the folks content and avoid disorder. Shields are the first to go because there is no production at all.
We'll be in anarchy for what, 3-4 turns? With that many cities in civil disorder, chances are decent something unpleasant could occur.

Fast way to do it: hover cursor over "center square", click to redistribute in a way that will 'fix' the mood and emphasize food. Use your *KEYBOARD* right arrow key, click again. You can do an empire of dozens of cities in about 20-30 seconds. Repeat when coming back to a new government, and if needed 'adjust' workers for better shield output.

Is this a great idea... common knowledge... or dumb?!

Charis

 

[Charis]

Jean Paul's artillery regiment saw there was anarchy sweeping through the
land, and sought to impose military rule to protect and serve the people.
Louis Charisse thus came to power...

500 AD (0) - Stationed troops (uh, and hired entertainers, to be honest) to
calm down the people! One LONE Scientist, oddly enough in the town of
Louis the Mad, kept the torch of research going! Well done Dr. Loius!
He takes a Sabbatical in Porthos

Wowza! Look at that treasury!! You guys left this for me?! (Almost 2400!)

510 AD (1) - Japan feels urge to start on some Gardens. That and SunTzu by
Greeks are the only current wonder projects in the world... The 'goto'
Warrior wakes up angry barbs.

520 AD (2) - So much for no projects, Greeks start Hanging Gardens, Russians
and Romans start both that and Sun Tzu, and Persians start to Hang.
Wasn't there much discussion to avoid this -- folks will cascade into
Sistine, which we wouldn't mind getting, and we're not only not building,
we have no placeholders or plans.

530 AD (3) - India is squeamish about our Silk - Ivory deal. We add 2 gpt to renew.

540 AD (4) - Viva Le Republique!!!! The time of anarchy is over
Hmm, what about those wonders? Athos is a powerhouse with 21 shield rate.
We're halfway (4 turns) from Cathedral, but they're happy enough for the
moment there without it. So we switch to Sun Tzu, which might instead become
Sistene later. (Theology due in 19) We put Paris on Hanging Gardens, since
it looked basically like nothing more than a city of stables for horses!
Major Charisse surveyed the artillery situation and found all up to snuff!

550 AD (5) - 570 AD (7) - Takin' care of business...

580 AD (8) - Greece makes an outrageous 'request' for tribute, world map and
100 gold (see! that's what having a fat treasury will do) I tell him
"That will be all" and see he's bluffing. On my turn I take a look at him
in trade. He's broke, large number of cities, no extra luxuries or
resources. Equal in tech. We have nothing to offer each other. I toss
him a silver dollar.

600 AD (10) - Those 'goto' swordsmen on a long trek got... 'maps'
Running a small deficit on science, so that Theology will arrive
before Sun Tzu gets built (by us or otherwise).

Consider carefully the wonder situation. Also, there's a settler in Porthos
who just popped out with no plans and with full movement left.
It would be nice, but too unlikely, if no one else researched Theology
before SunTzu and Hanging were complete. Athos might be strong enough to
snag a current one and Sistine right after it. Education and Music Theory
next? Or Astronomy? Paris will finish (unless beat) Hanging Gardens BEFORE
Sun Tzu in Athos. The other way around would see Sun Tzu opponents switch
to the lower-shield-cost Hanging and snatch it. Sistine is also a 600 shield
wonder, and it's hard to see Athos getting beat out, even starting a few
turns behind. It's even got five excess food! Could change some irrigates
to mines for even more production.

Roster/order:
Charis
Jaffa
Sirian
Cy
Zed
(Poor Ionpure has been plagued with problems, and we wish him luck ;p
If things clear up and on his request we can reinstate, but for now
go with the above list of 5)

Good luck
Charis

 

[Sirian]

How about we ride the Great Library for all its worth, let the AI's continue to go broke at first-civ research costs, get their gains for free until such time as they deign to educate themselves, pray they have a fascination for gunpowder (I've seen it happen), save our treasury (and continue to grow it), then run 100% science (or less, if we reach the 4 turn breakthrough rate) at whatever insane deficits once the Library goes obsolete as we race ahead on the back of all our stored gold and rushbuilt (with cash) improvements, like courthouses and libraries?

Just a thought. Don't mind me, I'm over here in the corner mostly being quiet for this game.



What's enabled again? Cultural? And what else? What kind of endgame vision do you have in mind? What direction would you like to see things take? You wanted artillery practice, and for that, we need to gear up for some war. Do you want to attack somebody with knights and catapults? Cavalry and cannon? Or wait for the Full Monty and roll over them with genuine artillery? Or try some of each? Or just build artillery for show, and roll them around between our cities?

Or... what? And why (in this situation) are you preferring Sistine over SunTzu to such a degree as to research Theology (which we WOULD get for free... eventually)? Lead us! Tell us what to do, oh brave Fourth Musketeer! Reveal your visions to the masses.

All For One, and One For All!


- Sirian

 

[Zed-F]

Pre-building note: I left Athos on Cathedral precisely because I knew it would take longer to complete than my turn, so if we wanted to switch it to a wonder we could.

Note that de Winter was being seduced at the end of the turn by the Indians cultural expansion -- I started a Library there to help offset it and try to get our borders back up but we may need more than that.

 

[Charis]

The advisor to the king had a chilling dream one night, as the ghost of Arthos spoke to him...

"Pasteur, listen my friend. The people are happy, and the world has been at peace for so long some have forgotten what it is to be at war. Peace is fleeting, and alliances are deceptive. There is power in but one element... artillery! Diplomats may see gain, and pikemen may hold a wall, but it is only the daunting pyschological and kinetic power of artillery that will carry the day in the end. D'Artagnon did not believe me at first. What need does a musketeer have for 'backup' ?? And yet... the art of the musketeer is lost, and must soon be found again!"

"In my own day, I too had a vision. It was a vision for the greatness of France. I saw monsterous birdlike machines vaulting up to the sky, and them causing our destruction. I saw armies go to war who would not finish the job, which led to our destruction. I saw diplomats and the arts leading us to a peaceful supremacy, but one in which the hearts of the people found no meaning, for all came too easy to them. Then I saw a vision where the musketeers of France spread throughout the WHOLE of the earth, and did conquer lesser foes. This though, was not with malice, but for self protection. And once we reign in all lands, a *true* peace of contentment came about for all..."

"Train, Pastuer. Train Musketeers. Build Cannons. Prepare for war. Finish studying the ways of the ancient of days and theology, and turn yourselves toward him. After that... turn your selves to the ways of musket, bore and bombardment."

----

'Plain' answers to Sirian's questions:

> How about we ride the Great Library for all its worth, let the
> AI's continue to go broke at first-civ research costs, get their
> gains for free until such time as they deign to educate
> themselves, save our treasury (and continue to grow it), then
> run 100% science (or less, if we reach the 4 turn breakthrough
> rate) at whatever insane deficits once the Library goes
> obsolete as we race ahead on the back of all our stored gold
> and rushbuilt (with cash) improvements, like courthouses and
> libraries?

Given the non-Civ-2 way of dealing with Education, this is worth a shot -- I can't say I've tried it this late before (it HAS worked well in late ancient period).

> What's enabled again? Cultural? And what else? What kind of
> endgame vision do you have in mind?

Diplomacy, Cultural, Conquest are enabled. Conquest is preferred unless we just want to see the defensive power of artillery Having a cultural city timed to win as a backup around 2040 would be good too, and we'll need to build the UN to avoid sudden loss due to diplo.

> What direction would you
> like to see things take? You wanted artillery practice, and for
> that, we need to gear up for some war. Do you want to ...

> Or just build artillery for show, and roll them around between
> our cities?

The latter is definitely NOT the plan

I would really like to see artillery take a BIG role with weapons of most eras. With our peaceful start the cats didn't do much. To go there we would need to go full bore NOW and crush India before the invention of gunpowder. Even better is we get it JUST before they do and we see Musketeers take the OFFENSE in this first war. Musketeers, Knights and Cannons will see the brunt of late Medieval action, with Cavalry coming in at the end.

Artillery shows up with Replaceable Parts and Infantry. Tanks, Marines, Paratroopers and Battleships show up not long after that. Haven't fought with Marines or Para's in Civ3, and only used them maybe twice in Civ 2, so a major surprise campaign dropping a huge army on their coastal cities would rock.

After that, no new guns until Radar Artillery. I *definitely* want to see a war prosecuted with Radar Artillery and modern weapons including missiles, I've never seen that in action and don't know if I ever would again

Six opponents, should give us a chance for a good variety of war. One difficulty with artillery based conquest might be its speed, and the lack of a big blitz. That means we can't wait til 2045 to discover Robotics. We'll want a very strong science rate to get to modern quickly, once it comes on the horizon.

> Or... what? And why (in this situation) are you preferring Sistine
> over SunTzu to such a degree as to research Theology (which
> we WOULD get for free... eventually)?

SunTzu is nice, probably more important than Sistine, but artillery do not benefit from barracks ;p Actually, considering all this upgrading we'll need to do to fight through modern times, we shout REALLY try to get Leo's, shouldn't we? (As to why Theo... I guess I still have a mindset of 'you don't get much medieval techs from GL and "Sistine is the best", combined with getting to my turns at too late an hour ;p)

So yes, SunTzu and Leo's seem like they should be top priorities, and I would like the team's thought on whether to go high-hog on military unit production and go after India with Knights and Cats ???

Also, input from the team on the garrison artillery rule -- I realize now that if we start cranking knights and musketeers, our artillery support will be sitting at home defending attacks that are not coming. The question is: do we need a rule-shift allowing our masses of catapults to leave garrison duty and head towards Milady and the Indian homeland for offensive duty, re-making ones for garrison after the war is over? I think between the low cost of cats and the ability to send what we have and "queue" up a replacement catapult, we'll be ok -- I just don't want to see us start world war I with 18 catapults sitting at home doing absolutely nothing.

Speak up, musketeers... thoughts on wars and wonders?! (And on late late modern conquest goal)

Charis

PS If we can, pre-war, get roads built in those Northern mountain passes or our artillery will never be able to get up there.

 

[Zed-F]

Hmm. We should try to get Sun Tzu, Leo's, and Sistine.

Seriously, if we're going to be trying to get to the Modern age we will need research once the GL expires, which means we really ought to be in a Republic government... which means oscillating war. Sistine (and/or Bach) would be of great help in combatting war weariness. Right now our larger cities are managing to keep enough people happy only by running 20% lux, and even then it's barely enough to let them max out at 12 without other contributors to unhappiness.

My vote would be, let's try to concentrate on:
- (priority 1) infrastructure and wonders that will help long term growth of our cities or with waging a war (e.g. aqueducts, cathedrals, above-mentioned wonders)
- (priority 2) support units that we can build now
- (priority 3) other less vital infrastructure.

Then, when we get Gunpowder, we switch over to musketeers, build up a large force, and go on the offensive! Conquering enemies in the early middle ages with Knights is so... conventional.

I agree that the garrison catapults should be allowed to be mobilized -- the rule ought to be (IMO) we should *own* x number of artillery units per city, regardless of where they are used/garrisoned. By the time we get our rail net put together, we will probably have *so many* that we will definately want to stack them all in one city to keep track of them all...

As for modern conquest, let's head in that direction but just see where the road takes us. If the road goes all the way to the modern era, fine, but I wouldn't want to delay victory simply to see those shiny new units. Proliferation of units to move, pollution to clean up, etc. tends to make the game bog down in the modern age (if not before!), and we're already on a large map which will exascerbate the issue.


EDIT: If we disabled Space & Domination, doesn't that mean the AI can't win by those means either? I mention it because in the story you have visions of those scenarios causing France's defeat.

 

[Jaffa Tamarin]

0) 600AD Settler sent to fill in the gap between the dye town (Avignon) and the rest of our empire. Trade furs + 24 gold for Japanese wines, and get 10 gold back to renew RoP. Cancel RoP with Rome since they have nothing to pay us with.

Tried to renegotiate the furs deal with India, but they weren't having any of it (apparently they have their own furs now, and were just paying us 5 gold/turn for no reason. So we lost that. Ooops).

Turned off the science budget to let the GL do its stuff. With just 10% entertainment, we're at +61 gold/turn.

There are an astonishing number of unused goody huts. Are we saving them for after the GL expires?

1) 610AD A new wing is built on our royal palace, in a strange mixture of architectural styles. (Huh? I didn't know you could mix-and-match?)

4) 640AD Entertainment back up to 20%.

6) 660AD New island discovered to the south. Cows and iron and fish and goody huts.

7) 670AD India complains about our galley in their water, so we complain about their galleys in ours.

9) 690AD Rouen founded. Japan wants to trade world maps. The trade screen shows that the furs for wine deal I set up at the beginning of my turn has vanished. WTH? Theology pops out of the Library Most of the rest of the world starts building Sistine Chapels.

10) 700AD Indian settlers are sneaking in past Milady. Again. Unload a conscript swordsman from a galley onto a goody hut, and it vanishes. Merf? Was it empty, or do goody huts not work if you unload onto them?

I haven't yet told the Indians to get out of our territory. Again.

The settler in Bastogne still has movement left this turn. I was aiming to grab more of the jungles (where the swordsman is waiting).

There is a catapult en route to Rouen. I sent all our extra catapults to Milady.

 

[Jaffa Tamarin]

 

[Charis]

Looks like a decent turn. Poor Indians, they're so confused Now if you see a swordsman stack or elephants, be worried, but the AI just doesn't send a settler wave to fight a war. Keep an eye, but don't panic.

Back to wonders discussion...

I see Paris is rather close to Hanging, and Athos not far from Sun Tzu's. Also available to go for is Sistine. In our earlier discussions we seemed to pick SunTzu and Leo's as top priorities. Sistine was ok if we got it, and Hanging near useless due to early obsolescence.

A) Finish Hanging and Sun Tzu. We'll get those unless there's a big surprise lurking. Everyone and his brother will go for Sistine. We can even set Athos after it, but it will take around 23 or so turns after it starts. I rather doubt we'll get it, given that how many folks have been going after hanging and suntzu. At zero research, Athos will have NOTHING to switch to. If Paris instead may as well consider a placeholder, he doesn't have a chance.
IF no one else researches Invention by then, the cascade ends and Athos can get Leo's at will (when we research it or get it from Library)

B) Finish Sun Tzu, switch Paris to Sistine. This punts on the Gardens, someone will get it soon after, methinks. Again everyone is then gunning for Sistine. We'll have Paris due to finish it in 22 turns. (Having Athos start it would take 23ish turns from then, or 29 turns total) This might quite close, although less so than 'A'. If we make it BEFORE Invention is discovered, the cascade ends and Athos can build Leo's.

Summary:
A- Get SunTzu and Garden, target Sistine 29 turns from now in Athos. Being beat loses 300-600 shields (unless we research invention before we lose the race)
B- Get SunTzu, target Sistine in Paris 22 turns from now. Being beat sets Paris on Leo placeholder, achievable 22 turns from now or when we learn Invention, whichever later.

If the top non-Garden opponent for these and reaches in...
< 22 turns -- we're toast in A, and hope no one has Invention by then.
22 to 29 turns -- the pain is even worse, same outcome, and more time for them to come up with Invention
>= 29 turns -- if Invention is not discovered, a clean sweep of Garden, Sistine, Sun AND Leo. If it is (and that's a LONG time), we'll get Sistine but lose Leo.

Which means- if they don't research Invention in 22-29 turns, we'll get Leo no matter what. If they research it we'll lose it in A, and have a got shot at it with B.

So, upcoming leader, (Sirian?) how bad do you want Leo's? How many turns do you think it will take for AI to get Invention? Will the top contender finish <22, >29 or in between? The latter you can find out for sure by Embassy action , if you check out the top contenders: Athens, Moscow, any powerhouse cities that might announce in next half-dozen turns, and possibly Delphi if we do complete Gardens.

If we wanted to take matters more into our own hands, we could
research Invention on our own in, oh, 12-15 turns and about 800-1000 gold.

A final comment, if need be, Paris can be speeded up by 2-3 shields per turn by mining the undeveloped grassland square (and possibly mining one of the irrigated grasses temporarily) shaving one or two turns if investigation showed the race to be THAT close.

Good luck!!
Charis

 

[Sirian]

I'll probably try for A. I'll see what I think in the game and decide from there. And I can always remind myself that no matter how bleak this SEEMS to look, we've got it way WAY WAYYYYYYYYYYYY the Heck better than some other succession games (*cough*7*cough*).

 

[Sirian]

A? A! A there. F'in A. AAA. An A for an A. Good A, mate! A A, sir. A!

Inherited turn: Everything looks good, almost no changes made. I am disappointed to see that my "irrigate Richelieu" project was abandoned after my last turn and vow to correct this.

710AD: Swordsmen heading for Greece are recalled. Milady de Winter dials me up and informs me that she "shall have gems heaped upon her" or else defect to India. Grrr. Saucy wench. I tell you, she is pure evil. But... better OUR evil woman than India's, so I cave to the demand and send our closest settler and pikeman pair on Goto toward the gems in the far south, just beyond the jungle. Our swordsman wandering the jungles is dispatched in that direction, too. Our workers are now in one of three categories: many are heading south, cleaning up jobs along the way. We should have a bunch of them reaching the jungles on next players' turn. We have a pack of them in the west, finishing up there. We have scattered others doing small local jobs. I order our ships at the ends of the earth to start returning home. Mass of Indian settlers ordered OUT of Milady's territory. She is COMPLETELY LIVID and wants Ghandi's head on a pike, but when we offer to get it for her "in lieu of gems", she shuts up for a while, and India is spared an invasion.

720AD: A Charis agent broke into the treasury. Something about "Sherwood Jungle" and the next thing I know, three temples in the far south have been completed, including at that ridiculous desert outpost founded by the King of Currency. A better lock has been put on the treasury room. Swordsmen on the recall make a pit stop on mountainous island to extort 50 gold from a minor tribe there.

730AD: India has wised up. They are now sending their settlers AROUND our land on all kinds of galleys. Look for Indian settlements to be popping up all over the world in a couple of centuries.

740AD: Hanging A, people! The A Gardens have been completed! All for A, and A for One. (Sirian, dozing at the wheel, fails to take Codpiece and Bastille off of taxmen, but he'll probably catch on to this overlooked move by the end of his turn).

750AD: I sell off all our barracks. Recalled swordsmen have landed on mainland, attack a hostile minor tribe and carry off their wealth (25 gold), then head eastward to meet up with Lady de Winter's gem merchants.

760AD: SunTzu's completed.

770AD: Our vet galley in far FAR south attacks and sinks a barb galley, losing another health. Second barb galley attacks us, loses, our ship promoted to elite. Loius the Mad seems to have completed a harbor! How that happened is now under investigation.

780AD: Maginot founded on border with India. Musketeers declare "cross the Maginot Line at your own peril".

790AD: Richelieu Irrigation Project, Stage One completed.

800AD: Galley mysteriously constructed at Mad King Louis. SCANDAL! The Prime Minister himself has been ordering all the government projects for this city. He tries to explain "there's a Persian galley threatening to grab the goody hut" but nobody is listening. Every city in the empire wants "some of that pork barrel" for themselves, and Charis agents are seen to be crowing that the Petard has been caught in his own Hoist.

Out goes Sirian, and in comes some other leader.


Notes: tried to wait on ships coming home to deal with goody huts, but it's taking too long. Board a sword onto new ship and go get them, while we still can. Watch out for barb ships along the way, I cleared the ones I could see but there may be more.

I mostly built infrastructure in the north. In the south I built more settlers. There is the one heading for Milady's Gems. It is on goto and will arrive in 3 or 4 more turns. The location of choice is a hill on the river directly northwest of the gems. Rushbuild a catapult to comply with the rules, then rushbuild temple and walls and fortify all the areas in the unit in that town, as it will have big fat target painted on it.

There is a second settler at the end of a river just behind the first one. It has no military escort and is on a good city site right where it's at. A third settler is moving into the region. We ought to be able to grab everything this side of those gems. My only request, please build ON the rivers. That will save us 400 gold apiece in not having to rush aqueducts someday. There is another good "front line" location directly under the fortified conscript swordsman. This region, if it sees a lot of development and troop buildup (our troops) could someday be a candidate region for leader-rushed FP. India being the other region (if we go and conquer them).

As for wonders: Sistine will surely be lost. So it goes. NO TECH was researched by anybody during my turn. I have Porthos on placeholder, with ~150 shields stored up. It can hold out another 50+ turns, so that should be no problem. Depending on what and when the AI's research, I see these options:

PLAN A: If the AI's research Education next, and cancel out our library thingie, we should top-rate it to Music Theory and grab Bach's.

PLAN B: If the AI's research Engineering next, we should put one scientist up to make sure we get Invention within 40 turns after that, but hope they research it for us before then. Grab Leo with the project.

PLAN C: If the AI's research Printing Press or Chivalry next, just hold out and see what happens. Unless we get within 20 turns of Palace completion with no signs of progress toward a wonder tech, I'd say not to panic, just hold out and follow Plans A or B.

PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE: do our own research.

All of these involve the AI's getting Sistine, and the cascade ending there. If for any reason it takes them another 20+ turns for someone to finish Sistine, I'll eat my hat. :crazyeyes They all had the tech before we finished Gardens, and every AI civ has cascaded its best project to Sistine now. Surely someone must finish it before they get Leo online. Surely!


- Sirian

 

[Cyrene]

I've got it, but it will either be late tonight (after Summon Team Game) or tomorrow before I can play/post.

I think I'll devote our entire economy to researching Vinification. How can France not know how to make wine?

--Cy

 

[Cyrene]

In the year 800, the people of the Glorious Republic of France grew weary of the predictability of their recent run of stable, efficient rulers, and, in what was surely to be a silly move, turned to the infamous Snail Party to interject some random events. In this way did Cy_Cargolade assume power. The name of his house was prophetic, as, indeed, his term was to be a mixed bag. In fact, the regency of Cy_Cargolade was such a mixture, that his library did not keep the history of his reign in tidy chronological order, but in large piles, organized by subject, and spanning all the years. These piles were much-favored crawling spots for the pet snails.

In no particular order, here are the actions and issues.

Burma. This is Cy’s name for the southern jungle cut off by mountains. I founded 3 cities in Burma. Grenoble is at the mouth of the river where Sirian had left a settler, Dijon by the gems, and Amiens in the heart of the jungle dead west of Avignon. The roadway is pushed through Grenoble and on its way to Dijon to link up the gems. Dijon got a little rush money, and already has walls, a temple, and a catapult. Glorious catapults are taken care of in the other cities as well, with an extra one for the area still trundling down a road. Neither Rouen nor Avignon have troops in them at the moment, but some are on the way in the great troop shuffle (more on that later). Two more settlers are created and on their way to jump-off cities in Burma. They should just about fill in the area. All is not well in Burma, however. This leads me to…

What the hell are the Japanese up to? First off, they are building very aggressively straight at Dijon. Secondly, they had an odd bag of units prowling around. I’m used to military/settler pairs from the AI, and to random military units acting as scouts. I am NOT used to what I saw. As I started to settle cities, shift troops, and have short-term exposed workers, settlers, and cities in Burma, I rotated two horsemen out of Paris to keep an eye on things. A turn before I founded Dijon by the gems, and as the Amiens settler was on the move, a warrior/spearman pair of Japanese was sniffing around the gems. The turn after Dijon was settled, a stack of 4 Japanese bowmen showed up, as well as two horsemen, and all headed past Dijon and into Burma. As I was absolutely wide open (open cities, workers, settlers) I found this quite alarming, and rotated two more horsemen out of Paris, and grabbed every loose military unit that was not on the Indian border and sent it scrambling south. In a way, this was even MORE alarming. I had checked the numbers on the military screen when I took over, and they looked fine. When I went looking for units, I discovered that the numbers were deceiving, as we have an enormous amount of cities and all our units are tied up in garrison work. I started pumping out some pikemen (soon to become glorious musketmen!), but the effort is a bit feeble. Anyway, my first two horsemen met the first two Japanese units at the edge of Amiens, and they stopped and fortified. On the same turn, a number of Japanese units turned around and left Burma. I still kept the troop rotation coming, moving everything forwards and south. The rotation created 3 empty cities, but they are well screened, and troops are on the way. Now, for future leaders of our great Republic—WARNING Will Robinson! Danger approaching. Admittedly, the AI being the AI, it will muff its chance to cause us no end of grief and nothing nasty will happen. All the same, note that BOTH India and Japan have both Monotheism and Feudalism, and that BOTH only need Chivalry to get their UU’s. (Japan is currently out of Iron, but, judging by our last World Map, they can get it). Yep. Starting any turn we could be facing BOTH War Elephants in the north and Samurai in the south. Not to mention we are stretched thin and our country is looooooooong and no rail. I think a move of our own to Chivalry and production of a couple of dozen knights ASAP might do wonders for our outlook. I would also pay 1k gold to start a nice 100-year war between Rome and Japan right now…

Research. Sigh. Education was learned via the Great Library in 850 AD. The gravy train is dead. C’est la vie, non? I cranked up research on Music Theory beyond rational limits (but not too completely irrational ones) and it will come in in 3 turns. We are running a 55 gp deficit to do this. We could get it in 4 turns at –8. No one has completed the Sistine yet. Oh, and Chivalry next, right?

The galley follies. I mounted a two-pronged expedition to destroy a few goody villages in order to save them (this also left Louis the Mad open; a Pikeman is in production in Marseilles to garrison Louis). Anyways, the first ship hit the small Island west of Louis first, only to disturb some angry tribesmen and fight them off. He re-boarded, and was dropped off on the northern coast of the promontory east of Dijon to trek across to the next hut (will take 4 more turns, and two Roman units are also wandering around here) while his galley went the long way around. This way, if the galley were sunk, the Swordsman would still be in operation (so far the galley has beaten off 3 barb galleys and a 4th is about to attack). Galley number 2 is trailing the empty one, letting it beat off the barbs, and is on its way with its own swordsman to the next island south with 3 huts.

Good luck to all future rulers .

Zzzzzzzzz.

--Cy

 

[Sirian]

As thin as we look, we do have an awfully large number of catapults. This may sound crazy, but the last thing the AI likes to encounter is a stack of artillery. Elephants, Samurai, and cavalry run when wounded (when the AI is controlling them). I'm not much worried about India over land, although they could prod us quite nicely with a few galley's full of ships across the bay.

Japan could probably own us down there, but it's just as much a reach for them as for us, or nearly so. This is why I coralled all the units I could on my turn and migrated settlers, troops and workers in that direction.

We definitely need MANY more troops for an empire of this size, and we're going to start feeling lack of a forbidden palace soon (No, I mean WORSE than we do already). All the other RBD games, we've paid attention to the FP and gotten it fairly to very early. This terrain never quite offered a sensible location).

While the idea of knights does sound militarily prudent, we can make do on horsies a while longer, I believe. Considering that we might possibly see the AI's build Sistine too slowly, and cascade to Bach/Cop, we may want to rush the research to Invention (and our glorious Gunpowder!) next. In fact, we probably want to do that anyway, since even if we do get Bach, Leo is still important for all the ENDLESS catapult upgrades we'll be doing. We can't upgrade to a UU, though. All our Musketeers will have to be built from scratch at the whopping 60 shields per.


- Sirian

 

[Charis]

First off, a "BUMP" to Zed, you're up!

As thin as we look, we do have an awfully large number of catapults.

They LUST for action! And yet... the timing... is not great.

I'm scratching my head over FP too. Perhaps Delhi

I certainly like the Invention and Musketeer idea, theme wise Leo's would make triple upgrades on 124 catapults a little more palatable! (It does rot that current
pikemen are trapped, upgradewise. But UU's do get to upgrade. We'll need to keep M'eers around a loooong time for fire control (gunny sgt! :rocket3 Remember, if you wan't to fire a cannon without a Musketeer at the helm...
With that in mind, there should be some war not too far in the distant future, where the obsoleting pikemen are with the catapults in our first campaign.

The knights, or cavs, would be 'typical', and prudent, but... we're variants here! Let the artillery (which can't blitz anyway) do the work for you and even a Musketeer can deal the final blow on a city It's going to be a long haul, deliberately but effectively taking apart the world, one civ at a time, over several era's.

Saltpeter! They need it don't they??? We absolutely, positively, 100% NEED to control one or more saltpeter supplies! The better we learn where those are, the better off we'll be.

Charis

 

[Zed-F]

Hrm. Ok, got it... not sure why I didn't realize it was my turn, but there you go. Thanx for the reminder!

I probably could have gotten a turn in today too, but now I expect it will have to wait for tomorrow.

EDIT: Note we will be able to upgrade our Pikemen to Riflemen, eventually...

EDIT: I see why I didn't realize it was my turn -- I normally go before Cy and after Sirian, not after Cy. Unless we want to change the posted turn order.