sand 01: the computer knows best

OK Got it and will play and post tonight or Tuesday pm at the latest.

Ralph
 
good hope you had a good weekend.
 
OK, The plan as laid out by the machine god and feebly interpreted by me…..


Hold off Issie’s forces in the East until she will grant us a Peace Treaty, then take the :hammer: to Napoleon in the west by razing his cities.

Lo the mortals were worried about the Perennial lack of Power in Military Force, but the Machine God decreed, worry not soon my University will finish and then you will feel the force of bearded students in open-toed sandals wearing strangely un-amusing t-shirts…
3power.jpg


Report

In the East Issie’s was showing the AI’s tactical stupidity (not our AI of course which is all knowing) by allowing my Knight tot sally out of Uzbek, kill a unit return to the city and then repeat a couple of turns later. This meant her forces were being whittled down for few losses and hopefully would bring her to the peace table sooner or later.

Now tempting though it was to continue the master plan of building Universities whilst at war with two nations I am afraid I bottled it and went for a Pikeman.

3tempting.jpg


Of course trifling with the machine’s gods will is not to be tolerated so the Masterplan continues

3university.jpg


In the west Napoleons forces were strangely absent so I assemble what forces we had with a view to invading Napoleon’s land when the time was right.

Once the stack was assembled we pushed forward into Napoleons land outside Rheims and found it lightly defended. As we had quite a few Catapults I decided to sac these as I wanted some action and lo and behold…

3rheims.jpg


The next turn Isabella agreed to peace + 50 Gold so we are motoring.

EOT Report

Issie at Peace, Napoleon is now the target, we can do a bit of Pillaging but will need to beef up our forces to actually raze cities, but fear not a near limitless supply of students are on their way…

Ralph
 
woh were good with us and alex against nappy were unstobable. frankcor your up
you guys are so good at getting us out of the mess i made.
 
Or maybe it's just the traditional French luck at war working for us...
(Has colonial French ancestry, and is therefore allowed, urged, and inclined to poke fun at them. :p)
 
I played 10 turns, starting with shutting down research to build up some cash for upgrading. I know, I know, I know I should not doubt the wisdom of the Machine God but something within me is crying out to build Grenadiers -- call me wacky. I would never go against the dictates of our faithful leader, but perhaps it's okay to upgrade a few obsolete units to Grenadiers? Something that can actually capture an enemy city?

It's my fault, I know. I'm just too stupid to figure out the correct way to capture cities using Banks, Universities and Theaters. Certainly, the AI must fear our cashiers! See them tremble before our students! Watch as they cower at the might of our actors!

Anyways, with my fundamental shortcomings in learning how to use the tools the Machine God has so generously given us, I upgraded a few Knights and Grenadiers using 10 turns of 0 research.

I checked for trade opportunities but nothing much is available.

We captured Paris on my final turn, even without the help of 2 grenadiers who are arriving at the front now. It ended up we didn't need all the units I had thought we would, namely because Napoleon was pretty stupid in sacrificing units by attacking our stacks, even using up many of Paris' defenders. Paris will be under extreme cultural attack soon so it's vital that we capture Avignon next. I chose to go after Paris because I wanted to deal the French the biggest blow possible. Alex has been active in the North of France and Avignon is lightly defended compared to Paris. We have plenty of catapults, though some will need healing in Paris soon. There's a medic Knight there so be sure to let him tend to the injured.

Spoiler Turn Log :
Inerited Turn (1770 AD)
I start moving catapults and escorts towards Paris.

IBT: Herodotus weighs in:
sand25.jpg

Obviously, the fool knows even less about how to wage war with bank tellers, professors and thespians than I do!

Also, a French crossbowman takes position in the horse pasture.

Turn 1 (1772 AD)
While attacking, Musketman defeats (1.80/9): French Crossbowman <whoa, heavily wounded
Musketman promoted: Combat I
Musketman promoted: Combat II
Beijing finishes: Musketman

IBT: The counterattacking begins:
While defending, Pikeman loses to: French Musketeer (6.12/9) <- Ratz! I was going to upgrade him. But at least he was succesful in protecting a wounded catapult adjacent to the border.

Turn 2 (1774 AD)
Beijing begins: Musketman YES! Choice was catapult
Musketman promoted: Combat I
Musketman promoted: Combat II
While attacking, Knight defeats (8.30/10): French Musketeer <-- revenge for the Pikeman.
Well, here's the situation at Paris:
sand26.jpg

We're gonna need some ground troops here.

IBT:
While defending, Catapult loses to: French War Elephant (0.80/8) Not quite the reception I was expecting -- no rejoicing in the streets of Paris as we approach.
Napoleon offers 210 gold for a peace treaty. What planet are you living on, buddy?

Turn 3 (1776 AD)
Knight promoted: Combat III
Bactrian finishes: Musketman
Uzbek grows: 4

IBT: A French Catapult hits our stack and withdraws.

Turn 4 (1778 AD)
Bactrian begins: Catapult <-- choice was Theater -- FEAR OUR THESPIANS!
While attacking, Pikeman defeats (6.00/6): French Catapult <-- Maybe that was dumb. Our Pikeman is uninjured but exposed.
Beijing grows: 14
Guangzhou grows: 8

IBT:
While defending, Pikeman defeats (5.04/6): French Catapult
While defending, Pikeman loses to: French Catapult (2.80/5) <-- yep, dumb.

Turn 5 (1780 AD)
While attacking, Knight defeats (8.80/10): French Catapult <-- we've finally got some mounted units at Paris -- now we can counter the counterattacks without leaving a grunt exposed.
Nanjing grows: 6 and grows unhealthy

Turn 6 (1782 AD)
Beijing finishes: Musketman

Turn 7 (1784 AD)
Beijing begins: Catapult <- choice was a Bank! Brilliant!
Musketman promoted: Combat I
Musketman promoted: Combat II

Turn 8 (1786 AD)
Beijing finishes: Catapult
Bactrian finishes: Catapult

IBT:
While defending, Musketman defeats (7.92/9): French Catapult
Also, two War Elephants attack our pillaging team of Knight and Musketman and withdrew. The knight is at 4 health, the musketman at 4.4.

Turn 9 (1788 AD)
Beijing begins: Bank Choice was another catapult
Bactrian begins: Theatre Choice was a maceman?????


I messed up and lost the rest of my log (forgot to close it after editing). Regardless, two knights dispatch the two wounded Elephants sitting on a tile outside Paris.

On my last turn, I sacrified 3 or 4 catapults and had 3 or 4 survive, all delivering collateral damage to the remaining defenders in Paris. Musketmen took care of the rest, but I did get some additional experience points in for our veteran knights. Paris is ours and there's a green Musketman (not all our cities have barracks yet) who can anchor the garrison of Paris for us.

Good luck!
 
great turnset nappys going down. akuma-sama your up try to see who else we can get into the war.
 
Well, it's that time again, my third round ever in an SG, and hopefully I won't throw the masterful playing of Ralph Jackson and Frankcor out the proverbial window and screw everything up.
And sorry for the lack of screenies, my computer decided to be on the fritz about them, dunno why.

Turn 00 assessment:

Friendly with the Greeks, though mostly because of the +5 &#8220;mutual military struggle&#8221; bonus. Even without that, though, we&#8217;re at +6 with him, enough to make even a military nut like him relatively harmless. Still, I&#8217;ll feel better when we form Defensive Pacts with both him and The Khan, as soon as we can.
We&#8217;re at war with the French and our military situation is very good, although Paris is badly culture-crushed by Avignon, so taking it is my first priority. Orleans is under attack by Alex&#8217;s hordes, but with 85% defense bonus and absolutely no tactics other than &#8220;Bash units against the wall, repeat as needed&#8221; from Alex&#8217;s part, this might take a while unless I help him out.
Looking at the resources the cities net, Orleans is a far better prize than Avignon. So, I&#8217;ve decided; I&#8217;ll :devil: Avignon and take Orleans. :king:
Maybe I&#8217;ll raze Chartres, too, to eliminate Nappy&#8217;s Iron. I don&#8217;t want to open up too much cultural room, though, just in case Peter pulls another Krasnoyarsk on me.

But anyways. Avignon and Orleans first. &#192; l&#8217;attaque!

And I hit enter.

Turn 01 (412)
Well, after looking over our stack outside Paris, I was pretty surprised to find it would take 20 turns for it to heal itself. I moved it in Paris to enjoy the benefits of the Medic Knight, it&#8217;ll be healed in 4 turns, just enough to move the reinforcements into Paris.

IBT: A reinforcing catapult is owned by a sudden musketeer. :mad:

Turn 02 (413)
Our catapult is avenged by a grenadier, and the reinforcements move instead to a gold hill west of Shanghai, preparing for a 2-pronged assault on Avignon, since additional reinforcements won&#8217;t take as long to come in now.

IBT: Another sudden musketeer(TM) randomly bashes itself against Paris. Brave Athos&#8230; Brave, but stupid.

Turn 03 (414)
The Great Kushan University is completed, a &#8216;lo did the knowledge of the approaching scholars terrify the French into releasing their bladders. And what choice did the Great Machine God offer his loyal servants, than a Catapult, and the Forbidden Palace. :crazyeye:
Catapult in Kushan, due in 10.

Likewise, the brutish Uzbek Macemen, who would henceforth be known for their&#8230; uh&#8230; brutish&#8230; brutality, have been released into the wilds. Another catapult was suggested, or, failing such, the Marvelous and Magnanimous Machine Lord has offered them a library so they can get to use a thesaurus. Sadly, the little squiggly lines proved to be too complex for the uneducated Uzbekians, who would much prefer a large hulking machine that throws rocks around and goes Bang. Because they simply liked things that went bang.
Catapult due in 8 in Uzbek.

Researched was also lowered, since, at the break-neck speed it was going, the Followers would have been broke in 2 turns. Now they&#8217;ll be broke in 4, at -33gpt, with Replacable Parts due in 15 turns.

Turn 04 (415)
Troop movements, I&#8217;ll begin the bombing of Avignon in 2 turns&#8230;

Turn 05 (416)
Theatre done in Bactrian, And even the distant Greeks trembled before the might of our mighty Chinese Actors. The decision was to be made between a Knight and a Forge, as decreed by the Great Machine Lord from high above, far below, right in between and in front, a bit to the left.
Knight in Bactrian, due in 11.

Troops are healed, heading for Avignon. Small stack is ready and primed to take Avignon&#8217;s catapult in the noggin&#8217; without causing too much hurt to the main stack.
A catapult is pre-empted near Paris. Turned out to be a mistake&#8230;

IBT: A war elephant kills our Knight. Argh.

Turn 06 (417)

War elephant pwnt by knight, Avignon is bombed to&#8230; er&#8230; either 106% or 72%, my computer apparently can't decide... :crazyeye:

Another catapult about to be pre-empted, this time out of the range of any passing War Elephants.

IBT: Catapult suicides against our stack, Elephant pwning knight kills a pikemen, but is then killed by a Longbow. What exactly am I doing!?

Turn 07 (418)

More Avignon Bombing happens.

IBT: French Catapult appears north of Guangzhou. Longbow moved to intercept.

Turn 08 (419)

Avignon&#8217;s defenses bombed to 0%, but even a 12/12 grenadier has only 23% chance to beat that CD2 Combat 1 Musketeer guarding the gates. After some thinking, I decide to take the plunge anyway, as we have too few catapults to waste against their defenses.

:eek: HE DID IT! Battle won with 24% odds, 1.4/12 HP left.
Sometimes, it&#8217;s better to be lucky than good. :cool:
That Grenadier is aptly renamed Chuck Norris.

Another Grenadier handles the Macemen, and a lone Musketman takes care of the catapult. Avignon Captured! Avignon RAZED. :devil:
Sur le pont d'Avignon, on y br&#251;le tout en rond~ :culture:

Turn 09 (420)
Catapult done in Nanjing (yay!), choice is between a Catapult and a Theatre. While the Computer Overmind&#8217;s masterplan evidently requires Scholars and Artists to run forth and defeat Napoleon&#8217;s Musketeers with their sheer talents and intellects, I firmly believe the Lord might have been testing me, and picked the catapult instead. Due in 8.

As a side-note, Alexander appears to have Culture-bombed us in order to steal a plot of ice and a forested Tundra from Nanjing. Unforgivable! :lol:
Joking, Sand. Don&#8217;t go declaring on Alex now&#8230; :p

Turn 10 (421)
Paris is out of rebellion, and the only choice I&#8217;m given is a Catapult. Due in 60&#8230;
And Alex has pwnt Chartres from the map! :eek:
Culture slider raised a bit to give Paris an expansion soon, to avoid giving Alex too many ideas.

Turn 11 (422)
The Brutish Brutes of Uzbek have finished their catapult, and were tested by the Machine Lord as to whether they wanted to built another Catapult or the Forbidden Palace. After much querying to the sage village elders and to the mystical Oracle of the Sacred Forest (who lives in the 1742, Forest Street, second floor, door to the right), a Catapult was chosen, for the wisdom of the old told that the Palace was obviously a forbidden choice, hence the name, and the Oracle, in the ever-knowing and happy two years old ways that were unique to her (and to just about any baby in the Machine Lord Mempire, though the Brutish Brutes of Uzbek didn&#8217;t know that), had spared them these words of knowledge:
&#8220;Bam, BAM!&#8221; followed by a giggle.
Catapult due in 7.

A THIRD great engineer is born in Beijing. Instead of wasting him, I make him join the city.
Besides. Archimedes and Leonard De Vinci have already been arguing for a few millenias, trying to decide on the final height of the Beijing Bank, while the workers ignored them and built it themselves based on the specifications of the Machine Lord (which, for some strange reason, required the entrance door to be on the second floor, hidden behind a platypus-shaped crate. A curious worker had wondered why out loud, and had been promptly devoured alive by a random man-eating shrubbery. No further questions were raised). There was no need for a third voice of dissent to make itself known.

Troops are ready to attack Orleans (although Chuck Norris and his ilk aren&#8217;t quite healed yet, I don&#8217;t want to wait 5 turns, and I&#8217;ve got plenty of other troops to use).

Turn 12 (423)
Nappy begs for peace again, this time for 640 gold. I tell him to wait a few minutes while we capture one of his cities, and that we&#8217;d be free to talk afterward. Politely, of course, and using some of the words decreed by the Brutish Uzbek Oracle:
&#8220;Ga ga goo goo, I boom you!&#8221;

The Bank is complete in Beijing, to the consternation of Archimedes and Leonardo DeVinci (although the latter was mostly because the new model did not involve a revolving door powered entirely by a group of hopping crickets), and the choice is offered between a Pikemen and a university. Despite protests from the two engineers eager to get working on individual, genial and ultimately conflicting plans for the Beijing University, the Pikemen was chosen instead. DeVinci&#8217;s plan for an automatically stabbing pike was ignored as impractical, mostly because it went after anything that moved&#8212;or didn&#8217;t.
On the bright side, a certain man-eating shrubbery was stabbed to death, no doubt a decision of the Machine Lord for a being having completed its divine mission.
Pikemen in Beijing, due in 3.

IBT: An Orleans Musketeer ran right into our Grenadier&#8217;s wall of bombs. He didn&#8217;t come back.

Turn 13 (424)
Catapult done in Kushans, and again, the believers are tested by the Forbidden&#8217;s temptation. But no, faithful as they are, they take the other choice.
Cho-ko-nu in 15.
Orleans&#8217; defenses are down to 12%. Invasion next turn. Napoleon attacked by the Media for his poor handling of the situation, even as the catapults flood the city with rocks, stones, cows and small children (though only on Thursday for the latter).

Turn 14 (425)

Knight is done in Guangzhou, and given a choice between a Maceman and a theatre, and since the Macemen is pretty much an obsolete unit at the point, as well as anticipating the end of the war within the next few turns, I pick the theatre. Due in 7.

Orleans is bombed to 0%, Longbowman (already smashed up by one of Alex&#8217;s suicide bombers), macemen and catapult destroyed by our Musketmen, and Orleans is ours!

Unfortunately, another city is detected on the north-east of Orleans, and I decide to BURN IT. Mwahahaha. Later survey would reveal it to be called Grenoble.

Turn 15 (426)
Pikemen done in Beijing, and the choice is between a Catapult and a University. Again, ignoring the protests from the assembled engineers, a catapult is lined up.

Turn 16 (427)
Knight done in Bactrian choice is between a Pikemen and, once again, that thrice-damned Forge.

Turn 17 (428)
Catapult done in Beijing, and to the great joy of the great engineers, the university is favored over a pikemen.
Catapult done in Nanjing, Catapult chosen over the theatre. Why? Because the people of Nanjing, while educated enough to have a university, just aren&#8217;t worth a damn Theatre.

Turn 18 (429)
The Brutish Brutes of Uzbek finish their catapult, among much hammering and smashing and grunting and drinking, and decide to make another catapult for the hell of it. 8 turns.

Grenoble is bombed to 40% from 85%. Invasion next turn.

Turn 19 (430)
Replacement parts is in! No longer shall entire catapults be dumped for the loss of a single wheel! Or musketmen for the loss of some gunpowder! Or knights for the loss of a single horse!
And the choice given is between Divine Right (BAH!) and Rifling. Damnit, we want Liberalism&#8230; Er, I mean&#8230; Obviously the machine lord has decided we need not know how to be liberal, and wishes us either to know how to shoot the unbelievers more efficiently, or to be aware of the righteousness of His power more deeply.
Rifling in 28 turns, at 60% research.
Alex adopted Free Market (forgot to mention it earlier, but both Alex and Napoleon adopted Representation earlier).

Grenoble invaded effortlessly. I hesitate to declare peace with Nappy, and ultimately decide to leave it in the next player&#8217;s hands.

Turn 20 (431)
IBT: Musketeer suicides against our Knight at Paris.

Catapult finishes in Paris, and the choice is between a catapult and a theatre. Seeing Paris&#8217; horrible culture and the pressure it&#8217;s under, I pick the theatre.
Few troop movements&#8230; and that&#8217;s it.


END

We&#8217;re fourth in power, very close to Isabella, and still at war with the French (Although, at this point, Nappy&#8217;s probably willing to give us his tech lead (Liberalism! Free Religion!) for peace), I left it up to the next player (that&#8217;s you, sand) whether or not we&#8217;ll stay that way. Our stacks are hurt a little, but a few turns of regeneration and they&#8217;ll be just fine. More importantly, though, Nappy is down to only 2 cities, once of which appears to be some kind of cultural monster and is pushing at Paris&#8217; south side.

DO NOT ATTACK ISABELLA. Whatever you do, just don&#8217;t do that. She&#8217;s friendly with Alex (especially thanks to their common religion), and Alex is currently our ally (though, for inexplicable reasons, our relationship went from Friendly to Pleased despite no negative or positive changes having happened). We do not want him to have to make a choice between us and Insane Izzy.

Sand, I suggest you try to sue for peace for as high as you can to Nappy (preferably Liberalism, since we certainly could use Free Religion&#8217;s pagan diplomatic immunity, at least), you ready up for when the ten turns are out, and you smash him in the face with our entire army. But that&#8217;s just my recommendation; the next turns are all yours. :goodjob:
 
Joking, Sand. Don&#8217;t go declaring on Alex now&#8230;

i'll try i will prably end up attacking someone by the end of my turn though. i would of also captured all citys in paris since we need it if we try domination instead of conquest.
 
well i bet you expect me to mess up the game again. well in alot of ways your right but in others your wrong and luckily if theres one thing i know how to do its war.

well the situation.
Z1.jpg

i ofcourse intend to go down to get lyons so in the sand doctrine i kill them in the fastest time possible wiping them away.

check thier defence
Z2.jpg


stop
before you look down i'm going to have to apologise for dis-obeying akuma-sama's direct orders. so sorry but i'm a war addict and i only wanted to make it a phony war so.
Z4.jpg

Z3.jpg


well now thats over heres the plan. it may look in shambles but arrows are the way to attack. and ticks and crosses are keep or raze.
Z5.jpg


meanwhile i put our settler to some use
Z6.jpg


plans working
Z7.jpg


well heres goes the next stage after our stack from the south does its work.
Z8.jpg


we wouldn't want to go against alex (well i would hime and pete have aa defensive pact so i think i could take both on).
Z10.jpg


khans sadly captured this city
Z11.jpg


i make peace with nappy leaving him with 1 city for
Z12.jpg


the save

well any futre plans

1
we attack another civ preferably khan

2
we allow ss parts to be built giving us a chance of space race.
 
sorry i'm going to have to be skipped after playing that turnset well my internet went wrong and now its painfully it took around 1 hour just to upload the save.
 
With our ugly tech situation (and the requirement to wait for our Computer Lord to tell us what to build), I don't think we can reasonably expect to win a space race.

Nice work on nabbing Lyons and Liberalism, and I expect you switched to Free Religion as per our Great Machine Lord's command? :p

The main reason why I didn't keep Avignon was because it would have massively overlapped with orleans, and we didn't need that. Unfortunately, Isabella is too far away, the Khan is the power leader (and is VERY powerful), and Alex and Peter have a defensive pact, and Alex is Great.

Now, if we could somehow find a way to break that pact, by making Alex declare on someone (Peter or Izzy, maybe?), we could go and absorb Peter while alex is busy.
Or, we could try to get The Khan to bash some of Alex's forces down, weakening both of them while we handle Peter (and try to protect ourselves agaisnt Alex's hordes).
The biggest problem is that we don't have much in the way of bargaining chips...

Win conditions, I say either Diplomacy or Domination is our best bet right now. Too late for Culture, and we're far too backward for the Space Race.
If we decide for Diplomacy, though, we have GOT to stop pissing everyone off. So we kinda have to decide now which way we want to go.
 
yeah were in free religion. well the thing is that perma aliances is enabled however the only ai that will acept one is pete so were screwed there.

well i would say we have no cahnce with dimplomatic but domination or time we could do. we either attack khan or force alex to attack someone breaking his pact then attak him or peter.
 
Nice job, Sand! I hope your internet connection gets fixed soon.

I say it's your call. I like the idea of going for a domination win. Maybe we can get one of big 3 to declare war on another -- best to have Alex or Khan against Peter -- and then we take on the third.
 
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