Grab some popcorn and settle in for this novel-length report...
Well, Sulla did indeed leave me a tough one. There's an Indian swordsman-archer-warrior stack (one of each) two squares outside Bergen that he didn't mention. Also three other spearmen in the area.
We can trade wines to Carthage. How can this be? We haven't Map Making, much less any harbors. Is the game somehow using an Indian harbor for the trade route?
I'm a bit confused about the location of Birka? I'd think it should've been near enough to claim the fish. It's only redeemming one unused inland tile, and that's just a plain grassland.
Anyway, to business. We need that iron YESTERDAY. And that single road to Oslo has no chance of not getting pillaged. I interrupt the nearer worker building a road to Stockholm (why in the world are they doing that? They only started this turn, too) to get a road going there through Birka, which is safer than doing it by the lake squares.
Also, I don't want to risk our reputation trading Wines on a nonexistent trade route. But we need some way to damage Indian units until we get this iron. 106 gold to Carthage for Warrior Code, and Reykjavik and Bergen swapped to archers. Oslo is changed to a worker. We need all the labor we can get over there.
Inbetween turns, our defending warriors win against an Indian sword and archer, but lose to a chariot and a warrior. Heh.
But, more Indian units swarm into view. There are now four warriors and five spearmen next to Bergen. And there are three swordsmen two squares away.
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730 BC: Bergen whips a spear. But this looks grim. I can see one chance.
I ABANDON OSLO by building a worker, and use that worker to put a COLONY on the Iron. That saves us twelve worker turns of labor, which will make the difference. Oslo would be doomed to the incoming units anyway.
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710 BC: Our archer attacks the Indian spear that is next to Birka and could foil the whole plain. Our archer loses, by one HP! But I had brought extra warriors to the area (although they just barely made it in time) and the first one kills the spear.
Bergen is defended by three spears and seven warriors, and the Indians will be attacking across a river. Next to Bergen are now:
3 swordsmen
2 archers
1 horseman
7 spearmen
4 warriors
I didn't buy Masonry and whip walls; probably should have, although then the city would have only two spears instead of three.
Inbetween turns, the grand battle sees:
Our spear beats an Indian archer.
Another spear beats another archer.
Indian sword beats a spear.
Another Indian sword beats a spear.
Our last spear beats a warrior and promotes.
Three of our warriors hold off three of theirs.
India's third sword attacks; our warrior goes down to 1 HP but wins the last three rounds!
Then India attacks with a SPEARMAN, which our warrior beats.
Other Indian units go pillaging, but none more attack Bergen!
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690 BC:
Our iron road will complete at the end of this turn (three squares, each with two workers, all completing at the end of this turn, and the colony is on the iron itself.) Unfortunately, there's an Indian spear next to one of the worker stacks. Fortunately, Bergen's defenders can reach it, and the second warrior kills it.
India now has next to Bergen:
Swordsman (2/3)
Swordsman (3/4)
5 spearmen
2 warriors
Bergen receives reinforcements, and is now defended by one spearman (just arrived, not fortified) and NINE warriors.
But another Indian stack has appeared two squares away from Bergen, containing two swordsmen and two horses.
Since Bergen is safe for this turn, I now buy Masonry and whip walls. We pay 8 gpt to Carthage for it. We need our current cash to upgrade warriors. BTW, now we can't trade resources with Carthage; the road has been broken now. The game does calculate trade routes through Indian harbors even though we're at war. Was this a change from 1.29?
Between turns, our spear in Bergen holds off both damaged Indian swords and one warrior, promoting all the way to elite.
And we have the iron road connected, and I'm ready to do a pre-turn scroll-and-upgrade in Bergen. But NOOOOO! An Indian horse comes out of nowhere and scuttles the iron colony!!
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670 BC:
We have ONE chance. One warrior is in range of the horse standing on the iron. If he wins, I can move a worker onto the iron square to reestablish the colony and upgrade swords. He attacks... and wins with ONE HP!
The iron colony is reestablished. It will get overrun again at the end of this turn, but now we have ten swordsmen. (Unfortunately, six of our warriors can't reach a barracks this turn.) I can also change build orders to swordsmen, and double-whip a sword in Copenhagen this turn.
Bergen is now safe, with eight swordsmen in the city. But the Indian action has poured past where Oslo was, and now Birka looks rather doomed.
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650 BC: Birka has three swords and two warriors outside it, and I can't defend it with any more than two warriors and a (regular) sword. Birka is abandoned, and the troops pulled back into Copenhagen. I should have whipped walls in this city instead of a sword...
Sword (we don't have iron, but the build order was set while we did) whipped in Reykjavik.
Our swords bump off three Indian spears and one sword. I move our spare swords (all three that I can call "spare") to Mount Copenhagen.
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630 BC: India will talk, and would agree to peace straight-up. I try some combat; we lose three swords, but thanks to Mount Copenhagen, India loses five spears and three swords. Could the onslaught be petering out?
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610 BC: India loses three spears and an archer, but we lose two (still irreplaceable) swords.
But this turn everybody shows up on the F4 screen! Shaka, Elizabeth, and Osman bought contact with us. Communication with the Mongols is available to buy. The Celts (seen via F10) are still incommunicado. Everybody has Mysticism, Alphabet, and The Wheel, and we need those to see any farther.
Well, the Zulu are broke and didn't get the world map; we trade it plus 15 gold to get the Mongolian contact.
Mongolia lacks the Alphabet. We acquire that from England for 100 gold and trade it plus some change to Mongolia for The Wheel. We have no horses, though there's one under Jaipur, nearby. Everyone is on par with the now-visible techs except Mongolia lacks Writing and Mathematics.
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590 BC: A bit more combat. Carthage finishes the Great Wall.
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570 BC: Inbetween turns, India's only unit outside Bergen, a sword, kills our elite spear in Bergen, which was our only spear there.
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550 BC: Outside Bergen are four swords and a spear. Inside Bergen are two healthy swords and some damaged. Not a good situation. We're down to only six swords remaining, and it's clear we can't make a push to reclaim the iron in this war.
I don't really want to do it, but we have no choice. Peace with India is struck. Surprisingly, he'll give us the city of Chittagong, which isn't on our map currently. I'll take it - hey, RBE2 got Mpondo the same way and we won then
We also get Mysticism.
Chittagong turns out to be farther to the southwest, on an island with a wheat and a fish. Odd.
We can now safely trade Wines to Carthage, getting Writing, which we trade to Mongolia for Horseback Riding. No further deals can be made. I sold our world map to everybody for 1 gold.
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Copenhagen can produce a settler in two turns (the map says three but it'll pick up a shield from growth.) This must of course beeline for that iron. No Indian settlers have gone past Bergen yet, so we should get there first.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads3/rbe6-550bc.zip
And now I'm exhausted. Where's my pajamas?.... <T-hawk gets eviscerated by Ragnar the Nudist>
Thanks for your support everyone who has posted - we will do our best to keep the Vikings alive and kicking!
)
that can revenge this atrocity!
(hugs his coffee)
