Continue Turn 99 (570BC)
Turn down Science to 10%, Republic due in 41t @ +6gpt.
Give the Dutch Lit for 334gp.
Best we can do with the Mayans is 76gp & 2gpt.
Rush sword in Barc for 104gpt. MM Barc to ivory to pick up 5th shield but we are in negative growth until the iron mine is done. When the mine is done we can short rush swords in Barc every 3 turns for 60gp (1st turn 5 shields, rush archer for 60gp, two turns of 5 shields).
IBT – All greek units start to move around Madrid – heading back towards ???
Turn 100 (550BC)
Madrid: Archer=>Settler
Barc: Sword=>Barracks (I didn’t see that we don’t have a barracks here
)
Cats go 2/4 vs sword on a hill. Cover cats with 2 spears from Madrid hoping to draw them back to Seville.
Move archer & new sword from Barc towards the battle front; we still have a healing hoplite in our area. We need to close up that gap.
Lux to 30% so that Madrid remains productive.
Swap Toledo to worker.
IBT – Greek shuffle units, Greek sword retreats.
Dutch finish GLH
Turn 101 (530BC)
Toledo: Worker=> Settler
Iron mine finished, Barc at 6spt, back on zero growth. Short rush barracks for 92gp, still 2 turns to build.
Cats go 1/3 on retreating sword, redlining him. 4/4 archer vs 1/4 sword – flawless win.
Move spear to cover.
Toledo worker to sugar to reconnect Seville & Toledo.
Workers on Iron move toward Ivory. We have an extra worker that irrigates. Move 3/3 spear to iron mountain.
IBT – More movement, generally towards Seville. Two swords, 3 archers, 1 hoplite.
Wounded Hoplite gets up and moves towards worker on sugar.
Turn 102 (510BC)
Madrid: Settler=>Sword
Seville: Archer=>Archer
Dyes are connected; don’t know for how long.
Drop lux to 20%
Move 2nd worker to sugar to get us connected. Move a spear to cover and protect from hoplite.
Send our new settler to the ‘green’ dot placement I think we agreed upon. This works well because we already have a sword in that square for cover.
Cats go 1/4 against an incoming archer. Retreat exposed archer and spear to catapult stack.
Move an extra archer to back up Seville.
Workers are on ivory this turn, connected next turn. Madrid will start producing swords in 2 turns.
IBT – Alexander is definitely after Seville. All units are converging there. An archer also moved out of Herakleia.
Turn 103 (490BC)
Barc: Barracks=>Sword
Found Santiago to clear up our backyard and keep the Greek from using the local parks to heal their units. Also adds +6gpt. Start Barracks.
Ivory is reconnected for all time now.
Misclick sends an archer back a step rather than forward on the attack.
Cat hits the marauding hoplite to 3/4.
Evacuate our army from Seville and send toward Madrid where swords will be forming soon.
Cats ping a stack moving past Madrid’s boarders going 2/4 and wounding a hop & an archer.
Santiago is left undefended in a hope of drawing the greek units into our area so we can bombard them with cats and attack from Madrid and Seville. Road network via Santiago is ETA 4 turns.
With Ivory reconnected, drop lux to 10%, +14gpt.
Rush a sword at Madrid for 64gpt to get it on schedule. It will start turning out 2 turn swords thereafter.
IBT – Arabia demands Lit. We are average to them but I don’t want any problems so I give it up.
Turn 104 (470BC)
Madrid: Sword=>Sword
Madrid: Ancient Cavalry
Short rush an archer in Barc for 56gp and then swap to Sword. We can alternate off the iron mine to the fresh water every other turn to get 10spt and pick up 2 food ever other turn (1fpt average).
We will have 3 swords (4/4) for our army in 2 turns meeting around Santiago.
Cat out of Seville pings the 3/3 archer walking past on its way to Santiago and he is finished off by a 5/5 archer flawlessly. Still have two incoming 3/3 archers that will reach Seville in 2 turns but they will need to face the Grand Spear.
Stack pinged by Madrid forts in the jungle to wait for their hoplite to heal. Not gonna happen guys . . . err . . . cats go 0/4. Okay, no problem guys. Stay as long as you like.
Move a 4/4 sword into Santiago to protect from marauding hoplite.
IBT- Greek units seem confused and mill around. Some seem to move towards Seville but they may be thinking of going for Santiago now.
Turn 105 (450BC)
Seville cat hits an incoming archer that has moved to pillage our dyes (2/3) . 5/5 archer vs 2/3 archer – win, -3hp & GL. Withdraw Bartolome to Seville. We don’t have enough cities for form a second army.
He’ll just have to hang around for a while for a AC army. Move 5/5 spear to cover 2/5 archer.
Retreat cats so that advancing stack must move off a hill to enter our lands. But cat stack reducing marauding hoplite to 1/4. 5/5 AC vs 1/4 hoplite – win, -3hp. Our backyard is clean.
Join 1st sword into army . . . err . . . nope. Army has no movement left. Next turn.
Rush a settler in Toledo for 84gp.
IBT – they are definitely going after Santiago now. 1 hoplite, 1 sword & 1 archer heads that way.
The incoming 3/3 archer by Seville decides not to attempt a fight with the Grand Spear. Smart move, buddy. But he joins with another archer and a sword. Hmm. It is going to be tight for the next few turns.
Turn 106 (430BC)
Madrid: Sword=>Sword
Barc: Sword=>Archer (short rush)
Toledo: Settler=>Cat
Seville area – cat hits incoming sword to 3/4. Going to make our stand on the dyes. Stack 2 spears, 1 sword, 1 archer and a cat on the area.
AC retreats to Madrid to heal.
1st sword joins the army. Form the Grand Sword Army. GSA. Move out of Santiago and join with 2nd sword. 3rd sword from Barc is on his way but it will take 2 turns to join.
Cats by Santiago go 1/4 vs incoming hoplite. GSA kills the 2/3 hoplite clean but I just realized that the cat stack is vulnerable to a sword/archer attack. I load it up with an extra spear and archer so that if the Greek are lucky they won’t get our cats at the very least. I also can’t stop them from pillaging that tile, but it is not currently in use anyway and our back road will be complete soon.
Settler from Toledo moves towards Santiago so we can expand our war front with the Greek.
Gut check time. Could lose big at Santiago and Seville this turn.
IBT – Hittites demand 31gp. Give it to them.
All Greek units converge on Seville again but they don’t attack anyone?
They are making a formidable stack.
Receive HE message.
Turn 107 (410BC)
Cats at Santiago go 2/4 and wound a sword and archer.
Cat at Seville misses.
Short rush archer in Barc for 52gp. Swap to sword.
Swap Seville to Sword and rush for 52gp.
Even though dyes are connected, cannot lower lux; stays at 10%.
Netherlands has Republic.
IBT – Babs demand 25gp. Give it up.
Massive Greek stack moves on Santiago.
Mayans finish the GW.
Turn 108 (390BC)
Madrid: Sword=>Sword
Seville: Sword=>Sword
Santiago is facing 2 swords and 4 archers.
Cats redeem themselves and go 3/4 against and wound both incoming swords.
Sword army picks up last sword. Now a 12/12 army. Kills a 2/3 sword by Santiago -1hp. 5/5 cav vs 3/3 archer – win, -1hp. 4/4 sword vs 3/4 archer – win, -1hp. Sword army finishes off the 1/3 sword flawlessly and promotes elite (11/13).
Cat from Seville misses. Decide to hold tight rather than risk a failed attack. The Greek offensive is starting to crumble.
Move settler towards yellow ‘X’ on our dot map.
Santiago is still under pressure from two 3/3 archers but now the Greek can’t take the city now matter what they do.
Decide to swap Santiago from barracks to cat. We need a few more. Rush the cat for 40gp.
Also evacuate our GL to Madrid.
Mayans and Dutch know Currency & Republic.
IBT – An archer impales itself at Santiago in a clean loss after an defensive shot takes it to 2/3. Swords move on Santiago by they need to walk past our army to do it and it costs two swords a hit point each. Suckers!
Turn 109 (370BC)
Madrid: Ancient Cavalry
Barc: Sword=>Sword
Santiago: Cat=>Cat
Cat by Seville misses, again but remaining units are wounded. Decide to go after the 2/3 sword with a 4/4 sword – clean loss.
Cats by Santiago go 2/5 vs the stack of swords but with our army ZOC all swords are now wounded, which is good news.
I decide to go after the stack. 11/13 army takes out the 3/4 sword, -3hp (8/13). Newly produced AC cleanly kills the 2/4 sword. 4/4 archer vs 3/3 archer – win, -2hp.
Advance settler to yellow ‘X’.
I empty out Madrid to protect the cats. Need to add a garrison after Yellow City is established and interior lines are secured.
Need to up lux to 20%.
IBT – A Greek sword cleanly kills one of the spears guarding yellow ‘x’ settler. Then a 3/3 archer cleanly loses to the second spear. Units begin to retreat out of our core. But they seem to be converging on yellow ‘x’ settler soon-to-be-city.
Dutch warrior comes out of the fog to the northeast of Seville.
Turn 110 (350BC)
Madrid: Sword=>Sword
Leave units unmoved for next play to strategize.
Notes:
Yellow ‘x’ settler is in place and ready to found the city. It will be immediately connected to our roads so so we have 4 cats immediately available to start taking hp off the surrounding swords.
I have a stack resting on the dyes and they enemy doesn’t seem to want to attack a 5/5 spear with any type of defensive bonus.
Our army is in the field near Santiago and is 8/13. A worker is chopping wood by Santiago due in 2 turns.
Madrid just grew to size 8 again after I peeled off the settler. It is already at 15spt and now 3fpt. Madrid can manage 15spt & 1fpt at size 7. We could add growth here to peel off a settler in 8 turns or we could leave the mined wheat for Yellow ‘x’ City. Not sure what is best here. We can probably afford to peel off a settler at Barc as well if we want to.
We have ivory and dyes connected – honestly I wasn’t sure about trying to connect the dyes when we couldn’t protect our cities but it seems to have worked out very well so far. I’d say that only a major issue would disconnect our ivory again.
We have a 2nd GL sitting in Madrid which cannot be used to form an army until we put down two more cities.
Something I should have realized earlier - the Greek are unwilling to attack a spear backed by defensive shot unit if they are in open. I think if our spear has one hit point more than the attacking unit and has an archer with them, the AI will to attack them. So a 4/4 spear with an archer will not be attacked by a 3/3 sword. Not completely sure, but there were a lot of times the AI could have attacked an exposed stack and went around instead.