Role Play Challenge: All Good Things.......

[madscientist]

All Good Things....: The Egyptian Backstab

We vote for Hyuna as he shares a border with us and is friendly (Imagine that!).

Also since I expect to see egyptian elephants and an AP vote stopping this war, we attack Hatty's coastal city near us.

Of course we razed it, but immediately resettled.

And dragged Hatty in for negotiations

She vassaled to someone (I think Hyuna) which eliminate an immediate threat.

However, there are other threats. Most notably Ragnar marching a stroong stack through our lands, scoping us out and looking for an easy target. Big enough to take a city or two and we have the Horde following it.

For now, we see the result of the AP.

Good, Hyuna is the chair!

We then finish teching

As was suggested, the AI was slower researching this than machinery giving us some leverage.

No way I am waiting to see how long I can monopolize it (I can't anyway, pericles has it). We trade it off like Mansa at a thrift shop.

So instantly we have

Opened two strong warring civics, and a strong economical one
Got LongBows, Crossbows, Maces
one turn from Literature (HE), Guilds (Knights), Engineering (Pikes/Trebs)
A Healthy Treasury.

We saved here po9ndering

What civics to choose

My concern is we revolt to whatever and get DOW'd by Ragnar without the ability to whip out defending longbows. So do we swap civics first, or upgrade defending archers to longbows?

A view of the map

And Demographics

So where to go from here??? I am tempted to hit Monty again or finish off Tokugawa (Hyuna did a number on him already) before he gets Samurai or Gunpowder.

Hatty can wait until I decide to attack her vasal (whoever that is).

But I really think this time I need infrastructure and an improved military.

Also, what tech after Literature (We have marble for fast HE) and which civics?

 

[AlienSexFilth]

You go for blood, then go for blood. Whip a Longbow in every city and upgrade your archers to xbows.
Get into Bureaucracy + OR + Serfdorm. Build up your land and spread your state religion to all your cities.
Go tech guilds to upgrade the horde and when you get guilds, go to Caste+Vassalage+Theocracy. You know have good workshops (+3H-1F) so put that to good use. Workshop your production cities and start spamming Knights (Flanking2+mobility to keep up with the upgraded keshiks) and go against the weakest lapdog.

 

[Tempesta13]

Looks good so far. I'd so do only a brief pause in the warring to build up troops and maybe a couple buildings then go finish off Monty. Your economy isn't that bad and you have a lot of gold saved up. Don't forget to make a few settlers to go with your units also. I don't think you have to worry about Ragnar - wouldn't he have DOW'd you already if he was going to do it and have gone for the closest city? I don't think he'd be moving his stack through your land if you were the target - worth keeping an eye on though.

As for civics it's hard to say - go for bureaucracy and probably stay in slavery for now to whip a couple buildings/units before the next war and wait for guilds to do the code of laws switch. For religious civic it really depends on if you have enough troops now for the next war or not. If not go to theocracy now - if you do have enough (or close to it) go for organized religion, and maybe pre-build some troops, letting them finish after guilds and do the code of laws/theocracy switch. Either way you could try to do a 2 civic switch now, and a 2 civic switch after guilds which (for normal speed anyway) is only 1 turn anarchy each. You might not be able to save anarchy turns on marathon though, not sure.

The fast heroic epic will really help your cause shortly - after Monty i'd say attack Hatty + master to finish her off. Where is Toku?

Techs i think engineering and guilds are good targets. Trade for or bulb philosophy and maybe go for paper/education/lib if you have a shot to get there first still - otherwise i think gunpowder/chemistry should be the next goal.

 

[Fetch]

power graph?

 

[madscientist]

power graph?

It doesn't show anything really. Demographics shows the soldiers is the best. Remember we have alot of AIs out there and right now all eps are directed towards Hatty. I probably should fix that next segment though

 

[muxec]

I love the list of villains. Personally for me Ragnar is number one as he always attacks me with a dozen of jet fighters and destroys SS components.

As for Gandhi - he probably tried to culture flip a couple of neighbor cities and others did not like it.

Don't forget to check WvO culture on victory screen regularly.

 

[Kev]

Can't you check on the relations screen to see who is Hatty's master at this point?

Also, you can check to see if Ragnar has "enough on his hands" as well.

Near as I can figure, the only rival you'd be able to go against now and be assured a quick victory would be Monty. He's dead in the water pretty much, so someone will surely take his lands soon enough (perhaps Ragnar - they are opposing religions after all). Just have to remember that Monty is Buddhist as well, so it could cause some additional diplo hits and might make you subject to the AP stuff if you decide to take him on again. Also you should be careful about him becoming a vassal to someone and causing a larger war you don't need right now.

Way I see it, while you can maybe afford a bit more land, you'll have to start growing your population and taking advantage of this land to get to a better economy running. You can head for those military techs quickly, but even so you will likely still find yourself at tech parity with most of the others. Might have to wait for a later window to strike where you have some unit advantage.

Perhaps you might want to dedicate a keshik to give you some better scouting of the landmass itself as well.

 

[madscientist]

Ragnar has enough on his hands and is annoyed at us. He is the wildcard in teh game right now.

Hatty I just did not remember once I posted the segment. She is involved in a war and I am pretty sure she's bound to Hyuna, meaning we expand north.

Also Toku seams like a sap at the moment.

I think the next Keshik from the capital get's flanking II, sentry to scope out the lands!.

 

[cripp7]

whip out a few defenders first before switching civics

 

[matthewthegreat]

I am really sad to see you end the RPCs, I have been reading them every day since the Monty game.

BTW I thought you had some polls to show whats everyones favorite RPCs and you were mix the leaders in with the final RPCs.

 

[madscientist]

I am really sad to see you end the RPCs, I have been reading them every day since the Monty game.

BTW I thought you had some polls to show whats everyones favorite RPCs and you were mix the leaders in with the final RPCs.

Yes, when this RPC is done I'll start a poll for RPCs from Suliman to Kublai. The top 2 or 3 from that group get put into a new poll with Joao/Julius/Mao/Khan/Sury/Pacal to see which was the best RPC.

 

[madscientist]

All Good Things....: The Aztec Punching Bag

A short segment here.

First thing is we swapped civics, taking the chance that Ragnar had someone else on his radar.

Vassalage and Theocracy. The hell with economy civics!

Soon we find that Ragnar in fact had other plans

Hatty got quickly dogpiled. We planned to attack her once we got a settler but she quickly capitulated to the Viking after losing Memphis. Ragnar continued stockpiling troops there while we kept popping our CG II Longbows!

Meanwhile the Horde felt a little fiesty, and treasury was running a little dry, so

To tell the truth, I like keepiong Monty alive to keep pounding him. At elast until we have a real strong economy and war-machine. Besides, we want to keep using those Keshiks!

Techpath went: Literature/Guilds/ start gunpowder.

We took out one of the Aztec cities near our freshw ater lake

We settled the city of Otrar

Providing some instant food and production.

We crossed the desert and started razing some more Axtec cities

Now we found out what Ragnar was up to

So the number 1 and number ranked leaders at at each other! Great since Ragnar has to go through Hyuan to get to us! Let's see how this come out net segment, perhaps a backstab of Hyuna may be in order.

We then finished researching Guilds and low and behold.

Sure it is sweet to have a monopoly on Knights but I know it won't last and I plan to take advantage of it right away.

Not a bad haul!

But what about Monty

we just keep slicing away at him.

We sent our remaining melee units home to heal and used the Keshiks for a little pillaging.

And then finally took peace with Monty.

SO right now I think we shall tech and build a VERY large force of conquest, building infrastructure in some cities, military in others. Let Ragnar and Hyuna buck heads for a while. After Gunpowder I think we start heading toward sliberalism. We have yet to pop GPs, but expect 1 or 2 Great Scientists soon (NE goes into Bibracte) so maybe we bulb paper and education, the liberalism. Then we shall see.

Our cities

HE in Karakorum very soon! The we spam Knights, Knights, Knights!!!

 

[Pieman]

You've got a repeating image of the diplomacy screen...

 

[Kevie]

errors are part of Mad's game. didnt you know?


oh i meant typo errors...=P

 

[muxec]

It's pleasure to see Monty killed!

 

[Jabah]

According to your pictures, "your fresh water lake" is rather salty

 

[StuntedAzrael]

Just wanted to say good luck with this game. I would have rushed with only keshiks from the beginning.

It was a blast reading your RPC's. Sad to see the last one unfolds.

 

[nbcman]

Are any of the Hindu civs nearby? You could send the keshik horde to pillage the infidels plus gain XPs/GGs while you are building up your knights horde.

 

[madscientist]

Are any of the Hindu civs nearby? You could send the keshik horde to pillage the infidels plus gain XPs/GGs while you are building up your knights horde.

Ragnar is the closest. My thinking is to hit him and Hatty to clear out the east. With Impotent Monty (he aint dead yet!) to the north perhaps I can concentrateon a logical westward march. I also think Friendly Justinian is just north of Monty (Damned I need more scouts or paper).

 

[Kev]

Wow. Wasn't expecting Ragnar to hit Hatty right then - I thought that she had capitulated to HC or somebody last segment, but I guess she didn't. Probably a good thing.

It will be interesting to see if anything transpires from the HC/Mansa vs. Ragnar war. Let all the financial civs go at it - go on, get in there Willem and Hannibal! If you DO decide to go after HC eventually, will the other Buddhists keep giving you diplo hits. Seems you've attacked Hatty and Monty (twice) before this. Are you getting hits for that?

While the Hindu bloc is smaller in number, Ragnar, Willem, Hannibal, and Zara are going to be tough. The three financial guys represent 3 of the top 5 in score (with Zara not too far back), and HC may drop soon if the war does not go well. You COULD consider a change to Hindu if you are going to keep bashing your fellow Buddhists (assuming you have a city with the religion). Might be a pain to have to spread it around, but that bloc looks like it may get stronger. If you did that, Hindus would have 4 of the top 5 in score. You could get some immediate bonus with Ragnar if you switched and attacked HC now for the mutual military struggle.

Weird to see that Monty is pleased with Ragnar - different religions and all.

Any status on the AP?