sand 01: the computer knows best

TURN 00

While doing my turn 0 lookover, I found a glaring problem in our situation. Mainly, this:
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Napoleon is the power holder, and he's only cautious with us. He's an agressive psycho, so I don't trust that mere +4 in relationship to protect us from him. Seeing as Hatty is pretty much knee-deep in crap for now, with Alex, Izzy and The Khan at war against her, and that she can't declare on us again anyway, I move our stack (what there is of a stack, that is) west to Shanghai.

Turn 01 (352)
Catapult finishes in Beijing (and is automatically promoted to CR2), and I'm offered a choice between a Chariot and a Theatre. I take the chariot, as we can always upgrade it later. Due in 2 turns.
A barb axemen pops in through the south west, I move a cho-ku-no previously heading for a stack near uzbek to intercept it.


Turn 02 (353)
civ4screenshot0034ri9.jpg

Hn... damn. Isabella closes her borders to us, then later signed peace with Hatty.

Engineering comes in and I'm given the choice between Guilds and Printing Press. I pick the latter, for the economic boost, and since others (Nappy, Alex and The Khan) already have Guilds and simply won't trade yet. Due in 14 turns.
Hm... look at the engineer that popped in Beijing a while back, I could use him to pop a few turns off Guilds... might be a waste, though. I decide not to do it and simply let the game play itself out, hoping we won't end up faced with Nappy's 'numberless Knights'.

Turn 03 (354)
Chariot is in in Beijing (Promoted to Combat 1 and Pinch...), new choice is Horse Archer/Theatre. See, that's why I didn't want to research Drama in my last turnset. :lol:
HA due in 4.

Turn 04 (355)
IBT: Barb Axemen suicides against our Cho-ko-nu...

NAPOLEON DECLARES!! :eek:
...on Hatty! :lol:

Turn 05 (356)
Shanghai's Cho-ko-nu is done (Combat and Cover), new choice is Chariot/Theatre... Chariot due in 3.
Same with Uzbek's Longbow, new choice is HA/... you know it. Theatre. HA due in 6.

Turn 06 (357)
Bactrian's HA is up, new choice is... ANOTHER CHARIOT!?
It seems the Machine God has a thing for roman games... Chariot due in 3.

The Magazine Chinese Machine God Woshippers Monthly has declared Nanjing to be "an unhealthy cesspool of filth and vermin!!!". The citizens, puzzled by this strange declaration, beseeched the Machine God for a divine cleaning crew. Failing that, they at least decided to build an Aqueduct. Or, at least, as soon as the current generation of automatic crossbow-toting army is done.

Barb Horse Archer pops in south of Bactrian. I send our new horse archer at it, it's an outstanding victory(tm).

Turn 07 (358)
Napoleon asks us to go to war with Hatty... after some thinking, I agree. We're at war with her again, and Nappy is actually Pleased with us!
To be honest, I mostly did it for the relationship point with Nappy (and my peace of mind), but while we're at it, I figured we might as well nab us a city... And Alemanni looks like such a juicy gem... :p
Although it IS pretty heavily defended, but we've got plenty of catapults.

Turn 08 (359)
Chariot done in Shanghai, catapult is next, due in 6. Some troop movements, moving our stack back east and strengtening the other one near Uzbek for a 2 pronged assault.

Turn 09 (360)
Chariot done at Bactrian, I'm actually suggested to build a Pikeman! YES! That's gonna be dead-useful, considering Hatty is probably not that far away from knights.

Turn 10 (361)
Catapult done in Beijing, offer is a HA or a you-should-know-what-by-now. HA due in 4 turns.
Confuscian monastery is finally donein Guangzhou, pikemen and I-don't-need-to-tell-you-what-the-other-choice-is-I-suppose. Pikemen due in 11.
 
Turn 11 (362)
Izzy tries to extort us for 230 gold. Seeing as she's the only one with less power than us, AND that she has no direct access on us (Her borders through Alex excluded), I tell her where she can stuff her demands.
HA is up in Uzbek, new choice is another HA or a boy-is-it-just-me-or-it's-cold-in-here. HA due in 3.
Research slowed to 80%, as we only have 281 gold left and going from -41 to -3 revenue costs us only 1 turn for Printing Press (lost at 90%, or -21$).
A Barb Macemen pops in near Bactrian, which is only defended by a Spearman! :eek:
Shuffling a Longbow from Nanjing to help out... One the macemen is dead, I'll end it to become Bactrian's fogbuster, 'cuz this is getting awful. Stupid Barbs...

Our two stacks enter Hatty's territory for the first and final attack on Alemanni. Revenue drops to -13.

Turn 12 (36...4? Uh oh, I think I hit enter without noticing... *cough*) Turn 13 (364)
Theatre done in Kushans, new choice is Chariot in 8 or Forge. I take the Forge, since its production is sorely lacking.

Peter completes the Angkor Wat.
ARGH, damn our variant... I can't legally build roads connecting our cities to the front...
*hears faint cries about heresy*
Um, I mean... In his absolute brilliance, our Machine Lord has convinced me that forcing our troops to walk through unroaded deserts can only be good for them. The healthier they are, the harder they'll fight! Or something. Right. *cough*

Turn 14 (365)
HA done in Beijing, offered either a Cho-ko-nu or a Hm-aren't-these-flowers-the-prettiest-thing-you've-ever-seen. Cho-ko-nu in 5 turns.
Catapult done in Shanghai, choice is HA or How-could-a-vampire-apply-makeup. HA due in 8 turns.
HA done in Uzbek, choice is a Chariot (will it STOP with the damn Chariots already!?) or insufficiently-clever-disguises. Chariot due in 7.

One of the stacks is in position at Alemanni, I'll start bombing it next turn.

Turn 15 (366)
Hatty falls to last place in score and converts to Hinduism. She lost Memphis to the French, despite being pretty out of Nappy's way.
civ4screenshot0038mk5.jpg

Nappy's knight has pwnt the barb mace, and the incoming warrior is easily handled by a Combat 2 HA. Longbow moving for the hill for Fogbusting Duties.
Alemanni got bombed down to 33%.

Turn 16 (367)
Printing Press is in, new choice between Guilds and Divine Right. I take guilds, but I've got plans...
I trade Printing Press for Guilds and 320 gold from Khan (to whom we're now friendly! Woot!)
New choice is Divine RIght or Gunpowder. Sign me up for the bang, baby! Gunpowder due in 11.

The Khan captured Thebes, thus firmly displaying the fact that Hatty is officially screwed.

Nappy would trade Education for Philosophy and Printing Press. I say hell no, since I don't want him to get the freebie from Liberalism yet (and we can't stop our research anyway because it would go against the will of our frightfully ingenious leader), and I stop there.

Alemanni bombed to hell. It's protected by 2 Longbows, CD1 and CD3 (Damn those stupid AI raids anyway!), so I gotta soften them up a bit... but only 4 of our cats can still attack, so I stop here and wait for next turn...

Turn 17 (368)
Pikemen done in Bactria, Catapult or Forge. Catapult due in 5.

The Capture of Alemanni!
3 catapults later, the defenders are down to:
civ4screenshot0039yi5.jpg

The defenses are further softened up by our Cho-ko-nus' collateral damage as they beat up the catapults, before that CD3 Longbow gets completely pwnt by a fresh Macemen (who gets properly renamed in celebration).
And that's that. Alemanni is ours! :woo:
civ4screenshot0040tv6.jpg

And so are those 5 workers.
Hatty's last city is Elephantine, and we have no chance in hell of scoring it.
civ4screenshot0043bj4.jpg


Turn 18 (369)
As seen on SandTV, on the Ninteenth of July 1694: "In his call-calculating greatness, our Machine Lord hath decreed that Shanghai shall no longer be a City of Vermin, and ordered the building of an Aqueduct. The Association of Mice-Loving Felines (MiLF) has declared its protests in the decision. In other news, I'm not wearing any pants. More on this later."

The Machine Lord has apparently gotten tired of our ignoring his glorious plans for the having theatres in every town, and has forced me to queue one in Uzbek.
Um... I mean... In his brilliant plan, so brilliant it escapes even the brightest minds throughout history, our Mighty Lord has declared that no longer shall the citizens of Uzbek be cultureless barbarians, and shall henceforth visit the theatre once a week.

Turn 19 (370)
Cho-ko-nu done in Beijing, and the choice is between a Catapult and a Do-you-know-what-is-delicious. Surprising even myself I take the theatre, because... well, we gotta build it one day, don't we? Theatre due in 4.

Peter discovers Liberalism! With that out of the way, I quickly nab Education (and 540 gold) from Nappy, for Philosophy and Printing Press. Research shot back to 100%.

Turn 20 (371)
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...ok, this isn't good...

...and I accidentally hit enter... :eek:

Guangzhou's Pikemen finished, choice was Cat or Theatre. Feel free to change, but we just lost 3 catapults taking Alemanni.
 
[End]

Ok. So Peter just pissed me off with that city and I elect him as our next :hammer: target.

civ4screenshot0045st1.jpg

In terms of power, We Are Inferior, but not as badly as we were compared to Hatty. But then, it's not the size of the army that counts, it's how you use it, and that's where we players have the ultimate advantage.

Unfortunately, Peter is friendly to both Alex and Khan, Neither Of Whom We Want To Piss Off.
Incidentally, we could also pour on the culture in Uzbek and try to flip Orenburg before it gets too much culture going.
Oh, and we're still at war with Hatty, considering it gets us friendly boosts with Nappy, Khan and Alex, and she didn't want to give me Divine Right for Peace. Too bad for her.

In terms of Tech, Gunpowder is due in 3, and both Khan, Nappy and Alex already have it. Nappy also has Banking while Peter has Astronomy. And Liberalism, of course, since that's how he got Astronomy so quickly.

So, War with Peter? Should we or not?
 
good turnset.
well i will play abit later.
 
sadly pictuure hosting isn't working now so i'll have to give a report later but here's a sneak peak.

COULD IT OF GONE MORE WRONG

well this is one hell of a turnset. it really couldn't of gone more wrong i was schocked at what happend and wonder if we can recover.

well to start the usual. i decide to attack peter and take his outer most city which is razed.
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then i see one of his close citys is poorly defended so go in to strike.
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sadly i have to quickly retreat because of this
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the manages to capture the city but the next turn i got it back

sadly i also saw this
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the remenants of izzys attack on hatty had come to attack.

then napppy demands more. i daren't refuse.
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the next turn the bastard comes with a message out of the blue.
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arrrgh the backstaber

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there's more from all attacking all around china.

then izzy attacks
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then khan and alex!!!!
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make deals i even get alex to join the war (well against nappy)

well i geuss i better start writing my speech.
 
Well, that's... not a good sign... :eek:

EDIT:
Just looked at the save and... yup, we're screwed. :lol:
Poor Obenzo. HOW exactly did that happen?
 
At least wait 'till Sand puts up his report, it might help.
 
ok report done and ozbenno's up survive this turnset to get a lolly pop.
 
I'll be able to play tonight. Have had a look at save and have the following thoughts.

We shouldn't have declared on Peter so quickly, mainly because we didn't have the road network connected up to the front. He also was a tech leader with good relations with the other AI, so can bribe them into war easily.

Once we did and we got declared on, we should have revolted to slavery straight away to whip out troops asap. As it is I don't think we can hold Shanghai and should probably give up Alemanni to whoever (we'd lose it to cultural pressure anyway) and bring the troops back home!

Done is done, so lets see if we can rescue this.

Stay tuned.
 
OK. Preliminary moves...

Move all our troops out of Alemanni (yep, every single one) and back to the homeland. This is a city we would probably lose in peacetime to culture flip, so not worth saving. Let Izzy tie up her troops keeping a useless city.

Peter is willing to give us 180 gold for peace, um yeah!! Nappy and Issy won't talk. Trade Peter Printing Press for Banking +490 gold. With my new found cash, I upgrade Chariot in Shanghai to Knight. Upgrade Archer to Longbow in Guangzhou. Upgrade Spearman to Pike in Bactrian. Move Horse Archer to Shanghai from Bactrian.

I don't switch to slavery yet as Beijing has 1 turn left on a catapult but after that there is going to be a whipping like none you've ever seen. I just hope we can hold Shanghai and Guangzhou this first IBT.

I close my eyes and press enter....

T1 1732

WE SURVIVE :dance: .

Only lose useless Egyptian city, no troop loses!!!

Revolt to slavery.

The kights from Russia have returned and kill off some Spanish riders.

Fairly sure we'll survive this turn but Nappy has some more troops heading my way in Shanghai.

T2 - 1734

Lose a knight in Shanghai. Out of Anarchy, you know what that means!

:whipped: an aqueduct in Shanghai.
:whipped: a knight in Beijing.
:whipped: a catapult in Guangzhou.
:whipped: a forge in Kushans.
:whipped: a musketman in Bactrian.
Stay tuned for a series of theatre builds next turn.

Nappy will have a rather large stack next to Shanghai next turn, luckily I managed to sneak in a catapult this turn.

T3 - 1736

:whipped: a theatre in Uzbek
:whipped: a knight in Shanghai
:whipped: a musketman in Nanjing
Sac a catapult against stack in Shanghai.

T4 - 1738

Lose a knight and longbow at Shanghai but we're still breathing, I've got re-inforcements arriving this turn.
The Great and Mighty AI decrees in the middle of a war that the surrounding hordes of Spanish Horse Archers would like a university built in Guangzhou, whatever :crazyeye: .
With some mop up work, Nappy no longer has a presence outside Shanghai.:cool: .

T5 - 1740

Nothing from Nappy, still mopping up a couple of Spanish riders.

T6 - 1742

Izzy has been scourged from the lands as well. My next plan is to try and get peace against Izzy and take the war to Nappy. Well that's the plan anyway, just survivingmy ten turns would be good.

T7 - 1744

What do they say about speaking too soon, more horse archers and a mace from Izzy appear and a musketman from Nappy.

T8 - 1746

Our horses get pillaged :mad: .

T9 - 1748

Another round of cleanup the spanish raiders is complete.

T10 - 1750

The AI in all its wonder has decreed that the workers are heading down to hook up the horses. Fair enough but there are spainards about, so whoever picks up the Chinese liberation save please be aware of this.

Well that turned out better than I expected. Thought Shanghai was a gonner at least twice!!! Not out of the woods yet. We need to be able to get peace with Izzy and take the war to Nappy. DO NOT CAPTURE ANY OF HIS CITIES!! We can't hold on to them. Conquest is the way to go for us.

The Save.

View attachment 133248
 
eliminating nappy sounds like a very good plan to me.
frankcors up.
 
Very, very well played Ozbenno! We're still alive! :eek:

And I nominate the Guangzhou university as the :crazyeye: move of your turnset.
 
Cracking work keeping us in the game.....oooops I mean demonstrating the deep and wonderful strategy of the AI. :lol: Lo you may threaten me with lots of troops but I have a University cower before my students with those funny hats....:rotfl:

Ralph
 
sometimes i get to adiccted war. anyway i'll give frankcor another 24 to post got it. :scan: all hail the machine god.
 
sorry double post damn machine god.
 
well 24 hours has gone ralph jackson your up.
 
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