Sengir01 - Spying with a vengeance
- Thread starter Sengir
- Start date
Norvin_Green
Emperor
Well, it's one thing to have the idea and completely another to be actually be able to figure how to pull it off 
The only issue that I see with bulbing Communism is this:
Why would we waste our time to create 2 GPs to bulb Communism when we could focus on generating 2 Great Spies ourselves.
Secondly, Communism is pretty low on the bulbing totem pole anyways.
I doubt we could avoid enough techs to even do this.
For example, if we had two scientists available.
We would need to already know:
Physics
Astro
Bio
Medicine
PP
Electricity
Refrigeration
MilSci
Radio
All while avoiding Replaceable Parts.
So best to let this one go...
I apologize for starting this dead end idea
Why would we waste our time to create 2 GPs to bulb Communism when we could focus on generating 2 Great Spies ourselves.
Secondly, Communism is pretty low on the bulbing totem pole anyways.
I doubt we could avoid enough techs to even do this.
For example, if we had two scientists available.
We would need to already know:
Physics
Astro
Bio
Medicine
PP
Electricity
Refrigeration
MilSci
Radio
All while avoiding Replaceable Parts.
So best to let this one go...
I apologize for starting this dead end idea
Well, we'll see when we get there. Indeed bulbing seems hard, but maybe at that point we can temporarily hire an awful lot of specialists (with caste maybe) and see how that works out. If we don't get it, no probs either. Somehow I have the feeling that by then the game will be quite in the bag anyway...
Norvin_Green
Emperor
Good luck today Sengir. I will need a skip after you as I'll be on vaca until next week. Have fun stealing techs team
Turn 230:
Place signs on our cities to know what they should be doing.
Turn 231:
Dortmund: Granary > Barracks
Attach GG to the chariot. A healer will help us smack down Ragnar quicker.
Ragnar is kind enough to move his stack towards Uppsala/Munich where our troops are, so no need to scramble a defense in Ligurian.
Promote an horsearcher in Uppsala to flanking II so that he can escape the axeman without dieing. He escapes, but doesn't harm the axe. His brother gets C1 + shock and ends up fighting the chariot (whom he kills). Which is rather nice, as I can now use the chariot to take on the axe.
Turn 232:
Spy 003 got caught in Nidaros
Alex comes asking for Feudalism. I want to say no, as he is in WHEOOHRN and should be after Wang, but I'm not quite sure. Besides our western flank is not properly defended as most of our troops are in the east fighting Ragnar. So in the end I decide to give in. Gets him up to pleased though.
Taoism has been founded, but we need one more turn to get enough points on Gandhi (and a bit of discount. I might even wait some more turns for the full 50%)
Ragnars spearman stack is coming south again. Going to send some defense down there.
GSpy is born and send to Essen
Turn 233:
Berlin: HA > Catapult
Ragnar is crazy, now his stack is moving north again.
Turn 234:
Gandhi want Feudalism as well.
Didn't think so buddy.
Our favorite psycho declares on Hammi (again).
Also, the stack moves south again. If he would have headed straight towards Ligurian, he could have attacked this turn. Now it takes at least two more turns.
Gspy builds Scotland Yard in Essen (I always wonder where that build crew is hiding).
Turn 235:
A spear on its way to reinforce Ligurian is killed by another spear, but not before he took out a chariot.
Stuttgart: Barracks > Longbow
Our stack moves towards Nidaros
Turn 236:
Ragnars stack retreats again :crazyeyes:
Hammi loses Nippur to Monty (he is warring pretty good actually).
Our spear punks a freshly build HA, cover him with another
Turn 237:
Bah, another freshly build HA kills the covering spear.
Berlin Catapult > Catapult
Dortmund Barracks > LB
Spy 004 gets his name for starting a revolt in Nidaros.
Send our lonely suicide Pult in, but he refuses to die (33%)
Flanking HA dies to an HA to even the odds (33% winning, 32% retreat)
2 shock HA kill as many axes (78% winning, 4% retreat)
Swords do their job and kill the remaining two axes and the HA.
That went better then expected. Will heal up for a couple of turns and move on I suppose.
Create another flanking HA to kill that annoying HA that killed our spear and cover it up with a LB (though there should be absolutely nothing capable of coming near it, but that's what I thought last time as well).
That last victory gave us another GG by the way, whom I'll send to Berlin I suppose. Won't settle him though.
Spy 005 gets his name as well, for this:
Also make this deal with Ghandi:
Both to get his gold and for the theatre which might come in handy in Frankfurt.
Turn 238:
Spy 004 is send as backup to Hammi, Spy 005 to Monty for Lit
Turn 239:
Hamburg: Forge > LB
Cumam: Granary > Courthouse
Turn 240:
Frankfurt: Bud Temple > Theatre
Alex completes the Paya thingy. I wish the moron would just research Machinery instead of turning research down/revolting every 2 turns
Move our stack to Birka
Turn 241:
Berlin: Catapult > Spear
Hamburg: LB > LB
Uppsala: Courthouse > Theatre (needs to fight Hammi's culture)
Turn 242:
Place signs on our cities to know what they should be doing.
Turn 231:
Dortmund: Granary > Barracks
Attach GG to the chariot. A healer will help us smack down Ragnar quicker.
Ragnar is kind enough to move his stack towards Uppsala/Munich where our troops are, so no need to scramble a defense in Ligurian.
Promote an horsearcher in Uppsala to flanking II so that he can escape the axeman without dieing. He escapes, but doesn't harm the axe
. His brother gets C1 + shock and ends up fighting the chariot (whom he kills). Which is rather nice, as I can now use the chariot to take on the axe.Turn 232:
Spy 003 got caught in Nidaros
Spoiler :
Taoism has been founded, but we need one more turn to get enough points on Gandhi (and a bit of discount. I might even wait some more turns for the full 50%)
Ragnars spearman stack is coming south again. Going to send some defense down there.
GSpy is born and send to Essen
Turn 233:
Berlin: HA > Catapult
Ragnar is crazy, now his stack is moving north again.
Turn 234:
Gandhi want Feudalism as well.
Spoiler :
Our favorite psycho declares on Hammi (again).
Also, the stack moves south again. If he would have headed straight towards Ligurian, he could have attacked this turn. Now it takes at least two more turns.
Gspy builds Scotland Yard in Essen (I always wonder where that build crew is hiding).
Turn 235:
A spear on its way to reinforce Ligurian is killed by another spear, but not before he took out a chariot.
Stuttgart: Barracks > Longbow
Our stack moves towards Nidaros
Turn 236:
Ragnars stack retreats again :crazyeyes:
Hammi loses Nippur to Monty (he is warring pretty good actually).
Our spear punks a freshly build HA, cover him with another
Turn 237:
Bah, another freshly build HA kills the covering spear.
Berlin Catapult > Catapult
Dortmund Barracks > LB
Spy 004 gets his name for starting a revolt in Nidaros.
Send our lonely suicide Pult in, but he refuses to die (33%)
Flanking HA dies to an HA to even the odds (33% winning, 32% retreat)
2 shock HA kill as many axes (78% winning, 4% retreat)
Swords do their job and kill the remaining two axes and the HA.
That went better then expected. Will heal up for a couple of turns and move on I suppose.
Create another flanking HA to kill that annoying HA that killed our spear and cover it up with a LB (though there should be absolutely nothing capable of coming near it, but that's what I thought last time as well).
That last victory gave us another GG by the way, whom I'll send to Berlin I suppose. Won't settle him though.
Spy 005 gets his name as well, for this:
Also make this deal with Ghandi:
Both to get his gold and for the theatre which might come in handy in Frankfurt.
Turn 238:
Spy 004 is send as backup to Hammi, Spy 005 to Monty for Lit
Turn 239:
Hamburg: Forge > LB
Cumam: Granary > Courthouse
Turn 240:
Frankfurt: Bud Temple > Theatre
Alex completes the Paya thingy. I wish the moron would just research Machinery instead of turning research down/revolting every 2 turns
Move our stack to Birka
Turn 241:
Berlin: Catapult > Spear
Hamburg: LB > LB
Uppsala: Courthouse > Theatre (needs to fight Hammi's culture)
Turn 242:
Spoiler :
Whosit
Entropic Knight
Got it; will probably play sometime this weekend, but it may be on the longer end of the wait.
Can't look at the save right now, but it sounds like the warring has gone successfully. Do I want to finish of Ragnar completely? I can't think of a reason not to, but might as well ask.
Espionage has been going well, too. If we get a Great Spy, I'll build the SY in the highest EP town that doesn't already have it. Scientist . . . we might want to save it. We could also eventually burn it for a Golden Age, which should increase our EPs as much of it is based off of income.
Great General . . . merge into the highest hammer city?
Can't look at the save right now, but it sounds like the warring has gone successfully. Do I want to finish of Ragnar completely? I can't think of a reason not to, but might as well ask.
Espionage has been going well, too. If we get a Great Spy, I'll build the SY in the highest EP town that doesn't already have it. Scientist . . . we might want to save it. We could also eventually burn it for a Golden Age, which should increase our EPs as much of it is based off of income.
Great General . . . merge into the highest hammer city?
Sounds like great progress that has been made. 
I'd indeed save a GSci for some future occasion. Maybe even for a Golden Age if there would be dire need to mass change our civics for example. GSpy for another SY is the best option, I guess.
And please do kill Ragnar off completely! No need for tiny vassals at this point.
I'd indeed save a GSci for some future occasion. Maybe even for a Golden Age if there would be dire need to mass change our civics for example. GSpy for another SY is the best option, I guess.
And please do kill Ragnar off completely! No need for tiny vassals at this point.
Sengir, great progress towards wiping out Ragnar!
Amazing that Rags stack is getting dizzy running circles in the forest. That cracks me up.
Great Spy should make a Scotland Yard in Munich.
Great Scientist should should be used for a PP bulb.
As I understand it...right now a bulb would be used on paper.
If we can steal machinery while avoiding Paper then the bulb would change to PP.
That would provide us with a small boost to our spy points as we only have 4 qualifying cottages right now but it would increase obviously as time goes on.
Both of Ragnars cities are walled up and on hills so don't expect them to be easy targets.
After Jelling is taken and Machinery stolen upgrading some swords to maces should make our lives easier finishing off Rags.
By the way, Ragnar has a fourth city, Madras, somewhere that I can't seem to find.
We should have a spy search for it...or someone with keener vision can point it out to me (i could easily have missed it on the map)
We should send a spy to one of Saladins cities to steal Machinery sooner so we can upgrade to maces. We will need to adjust some EPs to Sal in that case.
I also think we need to start preparing for a conversion to Hinduism.
Alex and Sal are strong and show no signs of slowing. Joining up with them will pretty much secure our western borders.
I envision Sal building the AP (Only one with theo right now) so its best to be in the good graces of the AP holder...the hammer bonuses from it are always nice too!
We are at war with the jews already and eyeing Hammys territory as it is so no sense in joining them.
So join the Hindus and continue our expansion to the east!
Amazing that Rags stack is getting dizzy running circles in the forest. That cracks me up.
Great Spy should make a Scotland Yard in Munich.
Great Scientist should should be used for a PP bulb.
As I understand it...right now a bulb would be used on paper.
If we can steal machinery while avoiding Paper then the bulb would change to PP.
That would provide us with a small boost to our spy points as we only have 4 qualifying cottages right now but it would increase obviously as time goes on.
Both of Ragnars cities are walled up and on hills so don't expect them to be easy targets.
After Jelling is taken and Machinery stolen upgrading some swords to maces should make our lives easier finishing off Rags.
By the way, Ragnar has a fourth city, Madras, somewhere that I can't seem to find.
We should have a spy search for it...or someone with keener vision can point it out to me (i could easily have missed it on the map)
We should send a spy to one of Saladins cities to steal Machinery sooner so we can upgrade to maces. We will need to adjust some EPs to Sal in that case.
I also think we need to start preparing for a conversion to Hinduism.
Alex and Sal are strong and show no signs of slowing. Joining up with them will pretty much secure our western borders.
I envision Sal building the AP (Only one with theo right now) so its best to be in the good graces of the AP holder...the hammer bonuses from it are always nice too!
We are at war with the jews already and eyeing Hammys territory as it is so no sense in joining them.
So join the Hindus and continue our expansion to the east!
Whosit
Entropic Knight
Spy vs. Spy
Alright, still exhausted, but maybe I can pull this off.
Inherited Turn 244, 990 AD
City views: Starting with Cologne, our new capital (the country-side is a bit more bland than in was in Berlin, but I've adjusted to the change). An aqueduct and a theatre/colosseum will be needed in the future to keep the capital clean and the citizens content.
Need for culture duly noted in Frankfurt. Will follow theatre with a Buddhist monastery, and perhaps see about spreading more religion to the city in order to build more temples and monasteries. We can't afford to let this city lose tiles to Arabian culture, especially the corn.
Stuttgart needs the additional grassland farmed, and probably also tweak tiles around Berlin to allow Stuttgart to steal that one farm from Berlin.
Cuman will need some worker attention, and a great deal of CULTURE, because it's getting pushed in from multiple angles. After the courthouse, of course.
OK, things look pretty good, although I'm not sure how Essen got a Scotland Yard before Munich following the discussion on that. I think the tiles are being used well, though I just realized that my mind is not working at, shall we say, full capacity, so I will try to be extra vigilant.
I don't know where this mysterious 4th Viking city is, but I'll take the 3 visible ones and see if I can root out the latter. Ragnar will have the Great Library in 8 turns, so maybe he'll end up building it for us. Though, if we got it, I'd really want it for the culture, which we won't get from conquest. Oh well.
-End Turn-
Turn 245, 1000 AD
Monty wants us to go after the Babylonians. Really, now.
Berling: Spearman < --- Maceman (6 turns)
Hamburg: Longbowman < Maceman (3 turns)
I guess I'm taking Compass from the Greeks since they're so far off from Engineering. Successful mission, upon return to Cologne I believe that makes him 007!
The stack in Birka appears to be healthy, so I'll send them out, except for a few defenders to keep Ragnar's Wandering Stack at bay.
I'm not sure where to send our spies at the moment because it doesn't look like anyone is researching anything we don't know, and I don't want to just have our spies hang out in enemy territory because they will be caught. I guess I'll keep an eye on the situation and send out the spies when needed.
-End Turn-
Turn 246, 1010 AD
Ragnar has moved his stack so as to threaten Birka and our own stack. I will hold position, I think both are safe, but if I can goad Ragnar into attacking . . . .
Settle GG in Hamburg.
Turn 247, 1020 AD
As I planned, Ragnar attacked Birka after I moved our main stack out. Unfortunately, we lost one Longbowman, but the second lived through the attack and the town remains in our control. Also, the survivor leveled up. One Viking archer remains, but I don't think that he's a threat.
-End Turn-
Turn 248 . . . .
Hamburg: Maceman < Maceman (4 turns)
Frankfurt: Theatre < Buddhist Monastery (8 turns)
Promote some axeman to cover and take out Ragnar's lone archer.
In my haze, I use 004 to steal pocket change from Hammy, I think. Well, at least he makes it out alive. I think I was only trying to see what options were available . . . .
-End Turn-
Turn 249 . . . .
Monty wants a stupid trade . . . . On second thought, I go back and accept. Take some change for CoL, which he's about to finish himself, anyway.
Suicide catapult suicides at Jelling. Couple swordsmen do alright, but a CR I fails to scratch a spearman. In an act of desperation, I get us a CR II spearman. And he flawlessly kills an archer ast 68% odds. Our Shock horsearcher manages to take down Ragnar's annoying spearman. Another couple assaults and the village is ours. I think I'll need to get a few reinforcements for the stack, though, before I can take Ragnar's other two major cities.
-End Turn-
Turn 250, 1050 AD
Berlin: Maceman < Forge (8 turns)
Healin' . . . .
I notice that Wang will have Music in 4 turns, so I send a spy to Korea. Nevermind, to Hammy. Maybe we can get the Sistine Chapel? It's not really critical to us, but we'll probably end up running at least 1 specialist (spy) in many towns, so the extra culture can help with border trouble, perhaps.
Oh, yeah, remember to look at possible trades. Sheep to Alex for 6 gpt. Dye to Monty for 3 gpt. Gems to Wang for 2 gpt. Gilgamesh has spices up for trade, but I don't think we need the extra happiness now.
-End Turn-
Turn 251, 1060 AD
Livy says that we are pretty rich.
Cologne: Forge < Aqueduct (10 turns)
Dortmund: Longbowman < Longbowman (12 turns)
Ragnar gets his big library, and Alex declares war on Wang Kon, of all people.
More healing and unit moving.
-End Turn-
Turn 252, 1070 AD
Hamburg: Maceman < Maceman (3 turns)
Munich: Forge < Market (28 turns)
We end up pulling a Great Scientist (darn!) so I put him to sleep in Berlin. He will currently Bulb Optics.
I mix some tiles around at Stuttgart to get some hammers, rather than work the lake tiles.
-End Turn-
Turn 253, 1080 AD
Stuttgart: Catapult < Forge (13 turns)
We lose our wine trade with Wang. Berlin becomes upset. I'm not sure why the deal was cancelled. So Gilgamesh gets Dye for Spices. Then Silk for 3 gpt. Hammy gets Gold for 4 gpt. Berlin is pacified with the new luxuries. Though I'll want to add a market or theatre or something to get some more smilies. Our finances are looking a little better now, too, though we haven't had a positive income at 50% espionage since I started my set.
We set out for Haithabu, through Indian territory.
-End Turn-
Turn 254, 1090 AD
Ligurian: Forge < Barracks (8 turns).
Wang Kon gets Music first and gets the satirical stylings of Mark Twain for his troubles.
Doot doot doot dun dun dun . . . preparing the attack.
-End Turn-
Turn 255, 1100 AD
Hammy wants us to become Jewish. If only we were Spiritual . . . . He's annoyed with us, but it's probably not a big deal.
Hamburg: Maceman < Longbowman (3 turns)
Ragnar discovers a new type of spice . . . I guess that means he "popped" a source of spices? Well, it's really close to Babylonian territory, so we probably won't get it.
-End Turn-
Turn 256, 1110 AD
Someone poisoned Hamburg's water, while another spy was caught near Uppsala.
Frankfurt: Buddhist Monastery < Forge (15 turns)
Alexander built Chichen Itza. He'll be a tougher nut to crack, now. Not much I can do for Hamburg. I switch over to an aqueduct build, will probably whip it in a turn or two.
Berlin: Just to note, after the Forge finishes, I'm going with a Jewish Monastery, Jewish Missionary (for Frankfurt) and then the Forbidden Palace because we were going to put all the Spy wonders in Berlin, yes?
-End Turn-
Turn 257, 1120 AD
All is going well . . . .
-End Turn-
Turn 258, 1130 AD
Berlin: Forge < Jewish Monastery (3 turns)
Argh, 006 was lost the turn after he arrived in Bjorgiv. We'll need another spy to bring down the cultural wall. We will always remember you, 006, if only because of the hole you left in the numerical sequence.
002, however, prepares to bring down Haithabu's defense. Why he isn't getting his stationary bonus, I do not know . . . .
In any case, 002 successfuly convinces the Viking population that conditions in Haithabu are revolting.
Our suicide catapult doesn't seem to get the message, because it withdraws after smacking Ragnar's archer with 26% odds.
I just realized that I forgot to upgrade the reinforcement axemen before they left. D'oh! Well, our first and only CR II maceman on this trip gets owned by Ragnar's axemen at 75% odds. Grr.
At 68% odds, our shock horsearcher cleans up the mess.
Our other horse archer loses to a Viking archer at 73% odds.
Lose CR II axeman at 61% odds . . . . Ugh. This isn't going well.
Lose CR III Swordsman to axe at 71% odds.
At least the odds are much better, now.
After the grueling battle ends, the city finally falls.
I will make sure to be better prepared for the next, and probably last, attack. No, wait, I just noticed that we found Madras. It'll go down soon, especially with a few more macemen arriving on scene.
-End Turn-
Turn 259, 1140 AD
Gandhi wants us to buy Music from him. Oh, you silly little bald man. Why should we buy it from you, when we'll just steal it from your friends, later?
Speak of the Devil, Hammurabi comes demanding that we stop trading with the Aztecs. Sorry . . . .
By the way, I think I'm going to burn Madras. It's under cultural pressure as it is, and would be better off 1 square east, anyway. I don't think we're losing anything by burning it.
-End Turn-
Turn 260, 1150 AD
Wang also wants us to pay an arm and a leg for Music. No.
Cologne: Aqueduct < Market (11 turns)
Essen: Forge < Theatre (7 turns)
Stack heals.
-End Turn-
Turn 261, 1160 AD
We caught an Arab spy in Berlin. In order to instruct the Arab's on their sloppy work, we had one of our men return the spy's head to Saladin's Palace--undetected, of course.
Berlin: Jewish Monastery < Jewish Missionary (2 turns)
Hamburg: Longbowman < The Sistine Chapel (29 turns)
Dortmund: Longbowman < Longbowman (7 turns)
004 returns to Cologne with the secrets of musical composition. He said that it was the most enriching mission he has yet undertaken.
With that in hand, I start Hamburg on the Sistine Chapel. The Builder Bug has me. Of those who already have Music, only Hammurabi has Marble, but he appears to be too busy being conquered by Montezuma to build the Sistine Chapel. We can probably sabatoge it if anyone else tries to build it, too, or sabatoge their marble. Gilgamesh has the only other source of Marble that I can see. I wonder if I'm missing any, and there's still some fog on our map.
-End Turn-
Turn 262, 1170 AD
Ligurian: Barracks < Theatre (7 turns)
Sending some troops to handle Madaras, doesn't even need catapults.
-End Turn-
Turn 263, 1180 AD
Berlin: Jewish Missionary < Forbidden Palace (10 turns)
Going to spread Judaism to Frankfurt.
Ooh, Wang Kon loses Wonsan to Alex and becomes his Vassal, while Gilgamesh declares war on Gandhi. I like a lot of wars that don't involve us. Good for business, in a way.
Only shame is that in Civ IV, we cannot offer to declare war on someone in exchange for money. We coulda been spies AND mercenaries, too!
Our macemen win their rounds against archers, but really took a beating, even with 95% odds. I do go ahead an burn it. I just realized that I should have probably paused here (I was stopping on this turn anyway) but I still think that the town was under too much pressure and stole tiles from Haithabu, anyway.
So, I think the set turned out well, all things considered. Biggest upset to me was the loss of 006. I think another spy is on the way (and I should have built MORE, but, eh . . . next player can remember to do that) but it'll still be awhile. Ragnar's last city is probably too tough to take without lowering the defenses and sending our 2 catapults at it.
On a side note, when we build more spies, let's send them out to destroy Marble connections. Heh heh.
P.S.: Once we put the Greeks down, I think we'll be uncontested, militarily.
Roster:
Sengir
Norvin Green - skip
Whosit - made it through
nocho - up
sturick - on deck
Meiz
Alright, still exhausted, but maybe I can pull this off.
Inherited Turn 244, 990 AD
City views: Starting with Cologne, our new capital (the country-side is a bit more bland than in was in Berlin, but I've adjusted to the change). An aqueduct and a theatre/colosseum will be needed in the future to keep the capital clean and the citizens content.
Need for culture duly noted in Frankfurt. Will follow theatre with a Buddhist monastery, and perhaps see about spreading more religion to the city in order to build more temples and monasteries. We can't afford to let this city lose tiles to Arabian culture, especially the corn.
Stuttgart needs the additional grassland farmed, and probably also tweak tiles around Berlin to allow Stuttgart to steal that one farm from Berlin.
Cuman will need some worker attention, and a great deal of CULTURE, because it's getting pushed in from multiple angles. After the courthouse, of course.
OK, things look pretty good, although I'm not sure how Essen got a Scotland Yard before Munich following the discussion on that. I think the tiles are being used well, though I just realized that my mind is not working at, shall we say, full capacity, so I will try to be extra vigilant.
I don't know where this mysterious 4th Viking city is, but I'll take the 3 visible ones and see if I can root out the latter. Ragnar will have the Great Library in 8 turns, so maybe he'll end up building it for us. Though, if we got it, I'd really want it for the culture, which we won't get from conquest. Oh well.
-End Turn-
Turn 245, 1000 AD
Monty wants us to go after the Babylonians. Really, now.
Spoiler :
Berling: Spearman < --- Maceman (6 turns)
Hamburg: Longbowman < Maceman (3 turns)
I guess I'm taking Compass from the Greeks since they're so far off from Engineering. Successful mission, upon return to Cologne I believe that makes him 007!
The stack in Birka appears to be healthy, so I'll send them out, except for a few defenders to keep Ragnar's Wandering Stack at bay.
I'm not sure where to send our spies at the moment because it doesn't look like anyone is researching anything we don't know, and I don't want to just have our spies hang out in enemy territory because they will be caught. I guess I'll keep an eye on the situation and send out the spies when needed.
-End Turn-
Turn 246, 1010 AD
Ragnar has moved his stack so as to threaten Birka and our own stack. I will hold position, I think both are safe, but if I can goad Ragnar into attacking . . . .
Settle GG in Hamburg.
Turn 247, 1020 AD
As I planned, Ragnar attacked Birka after I moved our main stack out. Unfortunately, we lost one Longbowman, but the second lived through the attack and the town remains in our control. Also, the survivor leveled up. One Viking archer remains, but I don't think that he's a threat.
-End Turn-
Turn 248 . . . .
Hamburg: Maceman < Maceman (4 turns)
Frankfurt: Theatre < Buddhist Monastery (8 turns)
Promote some axeman to cover and take out Ragnar's lone archer.
In my haze, I use 004 to steal pocket change from Hammy, I think. Well, at least he makes it out alive. I think I was only trying to see what options were available . . . .
-End Turn-
Turn 249 . . . .
Monty wants a stupid trade . . . . On second thought, I go back and accept. Take some change for CoL, which he's about to finish himself, anyway.
Suicide catapult suicides at Jelling. Couple swordsmen do alright, but a CR I fails to scratch a spearman. In an act of desperation, I get us a CR II spearman. And he flawlessly kills an archer ast 68% odds. Our Shock horsearcher manages to take down Ragnar's annoying spearman. Another couple assaults and the village is ours. I think I'll need to get a few reinforcements for the stack, though, before I can take Ragnar's other two major cities.
-End Turn-
Turn 250, 1050 AD
Berlin: Maceman < Forge (8 turns)
Healin' . . . .
I notice that Wang will have Music in 4 turns, so I send a spy to Korea. Nevermind, to Hammy. Maybe we can get the Sistine Chapel? It's not really critical to us, but we'll probably end up running at least 1 specialist (spy) in many towns, so the extra culture can help with border trouble, perhaps.
Oh, yeah, remember to look at possible trades. Sheep to Alex for 6 gpt. Dye to Monty for 3 gpt. Gems to Wang for 2 gpt. Gilgamesh has spices up for trade, but I don't think we need the extra happiness now.
-End Turn-
Turn 251, 1060 AD
Livy says that we are pretty rich.
Spoiler :
Cologne: Forge < Aqueduct (10 turns)
Dortmund: Longbowman < Longbowman (12 turns)
Ragnar gets his big library, and Alex declares war on Wang Kon, of all people.
More healing and unit moving.
-End Turn-
Turn 252, 1070 AD
Hamburg: Maceman < Maceman (3 turns)
Munich: Forge < Market (28 turns)
We end up pulling a Great Scientist (darn!) so I put him to sleep in Berlin. He will currently Bulb Optics.
I mix some tiles around at Stuttgart to get some hammers, rather than work the lake tiles.
-End Turn-
Turn 253, 1080 AD
Stuttgart: Catapult < Forge (13 turns)
We lose our wine trade with Wang. Berlin becomes upset. I'm not sure why the deal was cancelled. So Gilgamesh gets Dye for Spices. Then Silk for 3 gpt. Hammy gets Gold for 4 gpt. Berlin is pacified with the new luxuries. Though I'll want to add a market or theatre or something to get some more smilies. Our finances are looking a little better now, too, though we haven't had a positive income at 50% espionage since I started my set.
We set out for Haithabu, through Indian territory.
-End Turn-
Turn 254, 1090 AD
Ligurian: Forge < Barracks (8 turns).
Wang Kon gets Music first and gets the satirical stylings of Mark Twain for his troubles.
Doot doot doot dun dun dun . . . preparing the attack.
-End Turn-
Turn 255, 1100 AD
Hammy wants us to become Jewish. If only we were Spiritual . . . . He's annoyed with us, but it's probably not a big deal.
Hamburg: Maceman < Longbowman (3 turns)
Ragnar discovers a new type of spice . . . I guess that means he "popped" a source of spices? Well, it's really close to Babylonian territory, so we probably won't get it.
-End Turn-
Turn 256, 1110 AD
Someone poisoned Hamburg's water, while another spy was caught near Uppsala.
Frankfurt: Buddhist Monastery < Forge (15 turns)
Alexander built Chichen Itza. He'll be a tougher nut to crack, now. Not much I can do for Hamburg. I switch over to an aqueduct build, will probably whip it in a turn or two.
Berlin: Just to note, after the Forge finishes, I'm going with a Jewish Monastery, Jewish Missionary (for Frankfurt) and then the Forbidden Palace because we were going to put all the Spy wonders in Berlin, yes?
-End Turn-
Turn 257, 1120 AD
All is going well . . . .
-End Turn-
Turn 258, 1130 AD
Berlin: Forge < Jewish Monastery (3 turns)
Argh, 006 was lost the turn after he arrived in Bjorgiv. We'll need another spy to bring down the cultural wall. We will always remember you, 006, if only because of the hole you left in the numerical sequence.
002, however, prepares to bring down Haithabu's defense. Why he isn't getting his stationary bonus, I do not know . . . .
In any case, 002 successfuly convinces the Viking population that conditions in Haithabu are revolting.
Our suicide catapult doesn't seem to get the message, because it withdraws after smacking Ragnar's archer with 26% odds.
I just realized that I forgot to upgrade the reinforcement axemen before they left. D'oh! Well, our first and only CR II maceman on this trip gets owned by Ragnar's axemen at 75% odds. Grr.
At 68% odds, our shock horsearcher cleans up the mess.
Our other horse archer loses to a Viking archer at 73% odds.
Lose CR II axeman at 61% odds . . . . Ugh. This isn't going well.
Lose CR III Swordsman to axe at 71% odds.
At least the odds are much better, now.
After the grueling battle ends, the city finally falls.
I will make sure to be better prepared for the next, and probably last, attack. No, wait, I just noticed that we found Madras. It'll go down soon, especially with a few more macemen arriving on scene.
-End Turn-
Turn 259, 1140 AD
Gandhi wants us to buy Music from him. Oh, you silly little bald man. Why should we buy it from you, when we'll just steal it from your friends, later?
Speak of the Devil, Hammurabi comes demanding that we stop trading with the Aztecs. Sorry . . . .
By the way, I think I'm going to burn Madras. It's under cultural pressure as it is, and would be better off 1 square east, anyway. I don't think we're losing anything by burning it.
-End Turn-
Turn 260, 1150 AD
Wang also wants us to pay an arm and a leg for Music. No.
Cologne: Aqueduct < Market (11 turns)
Essen: Forge < Theatre (7 turns)
Stack heals.
-End Turn-
Turn 261, 1160 AD
We caught an Arab spy in Berlin. In order to instruct the Arab's on their sloppy work, we had one of our men return the spy's head to Saladin's Palace--undetected, of course.
Berlin: Jewish Monastery < Jewish Missionary (2 turns)
Hamburg: Longbowman < The Sistine Chapel (29 turns)
Dortmund: Longbowman < Longbowman (7 turns)
004 returns to Cologne with the secrets of musical composition. He said that it was the most enriching mission he has yet undertaken.
With that in hand, I start Hamburg on the Sistine Chapel. The Builder Bug has me. Of those who already have Music, only Hammurabi has Marble, but he appears to be too busy being conquered by Montezuma to build the Sistine Chapel. We can probably sabatoge it if anyone else tries to build it, too, or sabatoge their marble. Gilgamesh has the only other source of Marble that I can see. I wonder if I'm missing any, and there's still some fog on our map.
-End Turn-
Turn 262, 1170 AD
Ligurian: Barracks < Theatre (7 turns)
Sending some troops to handle Madaras, doesn't even need catapults.
-End Turn-
Turn 263, 1180 AD
Berlin: Jewish Missionary < Forbidden Palace (10 turns)
Going to spread Judaism to Frankfurt.
Ooh, Wang Kon loses Wonsan to Alex and becomes his Vassal, while Gilgamesh declares war on Gandhi. I like a lot of wars that don't involve us. Good for business, in a way.
Only shame is that in Civ IV, we cannot offer to declare war on someone in exchange for money. We coulda been spies AND mercenaries, too!
Our macemen win their rounds against archers, but really took a beating, even with 95% odds. I do go ahead an burn it. I just realized that I should have probably paused here (I was stopping on this turn anyway) but I still think that the town was under too much pressure and stole tiles from Haithabu, anyway.
So, I think the set turned out well, all things considered. Biggest upset to me was the loss of 006. I think another spy is on the way (and I should have built MORE, but, eh . . . next player can remember to do that) but it'll still be awhile. Ragnar's last city is probably too tough to take without lowering the defenses and sending our 2 catapults at it.
On a side note, when we build more spies, let's send them out to destroy Marble connections. Heh heh.
P.S.: Once we put the Greeks down, I think we'll be uncontested, militarily.
Roster:
Sengir
Norvin Green - skip
Whosit - made it through
nocho - up
sturick - on deck
Meiz
Oh, we got the great library! .
Normally I'd avoid to send luxury resoucres to AI's for some small gold, but in this game that probably helps them to research better.
Normally I'd also not build sistinel chapel without marble, but somehow I have a feeling that we've already become unmatched and can do much about everything we like. But I'd still not build it if we are not planning to choose any state religion.
Our GP farm, Frankfurt has hired two artists. I understand we need to battle the culture, but do we really want a great artist? At the moment, Corn is in no danger to be lost and the other two tiles ain't that important. Speaking of Frankfurt, should we build NE there for extra GPP and culture?
We can also build HE which should go either in Berlin or Hamburg. They are quite evenly matched in production, so I don't mind either way. Other city can naturally build Ironworks later in the game.
Edit: Btw. would it be a good plan to gift known techs to tech leaders when they start to research that? For example, Gilgamesh is researching Compass at the moment, but if we gift that, he might go for a tech that we don't have. We should also gift Engineering to Gandhi as soon as we steal it from Alex. The biggest gap in our techs is the speed that the AI's research them
.Normally I'd avoid to send luxury resoucres to AI's for some small gold, but in this game that probably helps them to research better.
Normally I'd also not build sistinel chapel without marble, but somehow I have a feeling that we've already become unmatched and can do much about everything we like
. But I'd still not build it if we are not planning to choose any state religion.Our GP farm, Frankfurt has hired two artists. I understand we need to battle the culture, but do we really want a great artist? At the moment, Corn is in no danger to be lost and the other two tiles ain't that important. Speaking of Frankfurt, should we build NE there for extra GPP and culture?
We can also build HE which should go either in Berlin or Hamburg. They are quite evenly matched in production, so I don't mind either way. Other city can naturally build Ironworks later in the game.
Edit: Btw. would it be a good plan to gift known techs to tech leaders when they start to research that? For example, Gilgamesh is researching Compass at the moment, but if we gift that, he might go for a tech that we don't have. We should also gift Engineering to Gandhi as soon as we steal it from Alex. The biggest gap in our techs is the speed that the AI's research them
Got it, will play tomorrow. Still looking good (seem to say this after every turnset...)!
Will finish off Ragnar. Do we want to prepare for a new war? Take out Hammu for instance? In that case I'd buy Monty into peace with Hammu, so that he won't take our spoils and so that Hammu doesn't vassalize to him.
Sturick's suggestion of going Hindu is intriguing. Could be worth it, although we'll need to spread it a lot. What do you reckon?
NE in Frankfurt sounds fine to me. Agree with Meiz that the artists are not really needed. Rather hire something else. Maybe even priests for building a jewish shrine
.
HE maybe in Hamburg? That keeps Berlin free for other national wonders. FP, Ironworks? Or IW and HE together?
Will finish off Ragnar. Do we want to prepare for a new war? Take out Hammu for instance? In that case I'd buy Monty into peace with Hammu, so that he won't take our spoils and so that Hammu doesn't vassalize to him.
Sturick's suggestion of going Hindu is intriguing. Could be worth it, although we'll need to spread it a lot. What do you reckon?
NE in Frankfurt sounds fine to me. Agree with Meiz that the artists are not really needed. Rather hire something else. Maybe even priests for building a jewish shrine
.HE maybe in Hamburg? That keeps Berlin free for other national wonders. FP, Ironworks? Or IW and HE together?
Your exhaustion didn't show Whosit....everything looks good.
I especially liked our response to the failed spy mission by Saladin.
They could learn a thing or two from us.
I agree with the razing of Madras...it wasn't going to be a good city anyways.
Plus, Haithbathu and Bjorvin will make much better buffer cities with Gandhi being on hills.
My choice for our plan of action...
Finish off Ragnar...pretty self explanatory.
Next target will be Hammy (after a good rest to rebuild our stacks)...raze Sippar, take and keep Borsippa and Akhad (holy city), and plant our production city in the jungles.
This is where the plan might not agree with everyone...let me know the pros and cons.
Our scientist can start a golden age....we revolt to OR.
Cuman and Dortmund begin to build hindu missionaries.
Spread to Frankfurt first so they can build a temple for running two priest specs.
Also spread Judiasm to Frankfurt as well.
We want to run max priest specs to build the jewish shrine for when we take Akkad.
Eventually, we want to convert to Hinduism to gain the benefits from the religious civics.
The only non-Hindu that poses any kind of threat to us is Gilgamesh and he doesn't share a border with us...Alex and Sal can deal with him.
We can walk all over Hammy and Monty spreading Hindu/Judiasm to all our new conquests.
From there we can pick and choose our next victim(s).
I especially liked our response to the failed spy mission by Saladin.
They could learn a thing or two from us.
I agree with the razing of Madras...it wasn't going to be a good city anyways.
Plus, Haithbathu and Bjorvin will make much better buffer cities with Gandhi being on hills.
My choice for our plan of action...
Finish off Ragnar...pretty self explanatory.
Next target will be Hammy (after a good rest to rebuild our stacks)...raze Sippar, take and keep Borsippa and Akhad (holy city), and plant our production city in the jungles.
This is where the plan might not agree with everyone...let me know the pros and cons.
Our scientist can start a golden age....we revolt to OR.
Cuman and Dortmund begin to build hindu missionaries.
Spread to Frankfurt first so they can build a temple for running two priest specs.
Also spread Judiasm to Frankfurt as well.
We want to run max priest specs to build the jewish shrine for when we take Akkad.
Eventually, we want to convert to Hinduism to gain the benefits from the religious civics.
The only non-Hindu that poses any kind of threat to us is Gilgamesh and he doesn't share a border with us...Alex and Sal can deal with him.
We can walk all over Hammy and Monty spreading Hindu/Judiasm to all our new conquests.
From there we can pick and choose our next victim(s).
I agree with sturick: finish Ragnar, then rebuild a bit and start building up for a war with Hammi. After that we can pick our next target, probably Monty.
I'm fine with using the GS for a GA and switching to OR. Not sure why we wouldn't want to switch to Hindu at the same time as well? Monty is not that strong at the moment and we should be able to handle him quite easily with the veterans of the Viking war and the new recruits for the Babylonians wars gathering. Gather the troops in Essen and leave a decent defense in Cologne. If Crazy Monty declares, we can always move our stack north instead of east.
HE should go in Hamburg as it would polute the GP-pool in Berlin (are we still on the plan to build all GSpy related stuff in Berlin?).
IW should probably go to the jungle town for max benefit.
I would personally advice against gifting away techs so that they can tech something we can use, as at the moment we can use our troops longer without the need for upgrading. Still, we are generating a lot of points, so selling a teching for bargain prices should be done, both to keep the AI's broke and get us some shiny new techs.
Also, don' t forget that we can use the spies to wreak havoc on our enemies as well. Our soon to be best friend and number one psycho (after Monty is killed of) in particular looks like he can use some poisoned water supplies. Getting us a couple more spies for these kinda things would be very nice.
@Meiz, yeah, I have the same feeling that this game is pretty much in the bag. I'm going to think of a harder variant for next game
I'm fine with using the GS for a GA and switching to OR. Not sure why we wouldn't want to switch to Hindu at the same time as well? Monty is not that strong at the moment and we should be able to handle him quite easily with the veterans of the Viking war and the new recruits for the Babylonians wars gathering. Gather the troops in Essen and leave a decent defense in Cologne. If Crazy Monty declares, we can always move our stack north instead of east.
HE should go in Hamburg as it would polute the GP-pool in Berlin (are we still on the plan to build all GSpy related stuff in Berlin?).
IW should probably go to the jungle town for max benefit.
I would personally advice against gifting away techs so that they can tech something we can use, as at the moment we can use our troops longer without the need for upgrading. Still, we are generating a lot of points, so selling a teching for bargain prices should be done, both to keep the AI's broke and get us some shiny new techs.
Also, don' t forget that we can use the spies to wreak havoc on our enemies as well. Our soon to be best friend and number one psycho (after Monty is killed of) in particular looks like he can use some poisoned water supplies. Getting us a couple more spies for these kinda things would be very nice.
@Meiz, yeah, I have the same feeling that this game is pretty much in the bag. I'm going to think of a harder variant for next game
Preflight I do some MM-ing, like hiring a spy in Berlin. Decide to start building the Heroic Epic right away in Hamburg, moving Sistine down the queue. Honestly don't think we should spend our hammers on that wonder, as Meiz said, we don't have marble anyway. Also decide to whip the forge in Frankfurt to start on the National Epic right after.
T264 Gilgamesh asks us to declare on Gandhi. Nope.
Frankfurt has its forge and goes NE. Also judaism is spread there.
Trigger a Golden Age with the GS and switch to Organized Religion. Decide to switch later in the GA to hinduism, to not antagonize anybody yet.
Decide to whip the courthouse in Cuman and a longbow in Dortmund in order to start getting out Hindu missionaries asap.
T265 Alexander and Wang declare on us! WTH! Alex took Ragnar as a vassal. That's my second SG in a row where some AI that is about to die at the last minute vassalizes to a formerly "friendly" AI that is in another religion than the terminal patient.
Speaking of dying, Ragnar is no more.
We're rather thin on units on the Greek border so Cuman starts on a longbow instead of a zealous Hindu and I start to move units from all over the empire to the NW. In general start or continue building units. Leave some veteran units of the Viking campaign in Bjorgvin as that is the closest place where Wang could attack.
T266 We steal Engineering from our new foe.
T267 Monty asks us to declare on Hammurabi. Not yet, my friend, not yet.
T268 The Babylonians take Babylon back from Monty.
T273 On the last turn of the Golden Age convert to Hinduism.
The Heroic Epic is built in Hamburg and decide to pump units. Continuing Sistine is not on the menu for now.
All this time I'm waiting for this monster stack of Alex to arrive, but it won't show up. Some units of his march nervously along the Arabian/German border next to Cuman but don't even enter. A sword and a catapult do enter on a hill between Cuman and Cologne opposite to Stuttgart on the lake. They also stand there for ages until I'm that annoyed by their intransigence that I kill them off. Lamentably it cost two macemen though.
With all the cities we can see thanks to our EP spending I do see quite some troop movement within Alex' land, but it all seems a bit randomish.
T275 A cute little stack from Wang attacks at Bjorgvin, but the 3 attackers barely scratch a maceman. It nets us Grat General though who is merged in Hamburg.
T280 The National Epic is finished in Frankfurt. By now it's also hindu so a hindu temple is queued. A jewish temple should go next to hire max priests.
Hand it off here. Alex finally is willing to talk, but what comes out of his mouth is rather delusional. He wants Cuman for peace. Yeah, and we want Athens, okay? By now we have reasonable stacks in Cuman and Cologne. I've actually been tempted to go on the offensive, since the defences of Ephesus don't look all that impressive. But decided against it in order not to distract us from the master plan, which is going after Hammu and possibly Monty afterwards while having our western border "safeguarded" with our hindu "friends".
Maybe Alex will take a tech for peace, too bad you can't really check that. Otherwise maybe next player can assault Ephesus and maybe then Alex will be more cooperative.
In other news, it has been a rather horrendous century for our spies, apart from stealing engineering. Of the initial ones only 004 is still alive. Just built a new one and a couple more are in the queue. Also have been spreading hinduism. We should keep up with that until all cities have the new faith. Apart from that it was mainly units that have been built. In former viking lands also some infrastructure. Powerwise, we're fine, 0.8 with Alex, 1.7 with Monty and 1.9 with Hammu. I'd still advocate brokering peace between Monty and Hammu before going after the latter, to avoid more troublesome vassal mechanics.
For those who lost track of relations, they look like this right now.
Techwise, some AIs have been doing catch up and are in parity. There seem to have been quite some trading among them despite the animosities. We got a slice of the pie as well though, sold two techs (I think it was Feud to Gilga and Philo to Sal) netting us about 1100 in cash. However, nobody is close to researching anything useful in the short term. Guilds is being teched but there is still ample time to get our new army of spies in place.
Overall a bit of a weird set. Nothing went really wrong (apart from our spies getting caught), but it all seemed to pass very slowly along with our shadow war with Alex.
Edit: All units are left with movement. If we would decide to buy peace from Alex they could start marching towards Hammu.
T264 Gilgamesh asks us to declare on Gandhi. Nope.
Frankfurt has its forge and goes NE. Also judaism is spread there.
Trigger a Golden Age with the GS and switch to Organized Religion. Decide to switch later in the GA to hinduism, to not antagonize anybody yet.
Decide to whip the courthouse in Cuman and a longbow in Dortmund in order to start getting out Hindu missionaries asap.
T265 Alexander and Wang declare on us! WTH! Alex took Ragnar as a vassal. That's my second SG in a row where some AI that is about to die at the last minute vassalizes to a formerly "friendly" AI that is in another religion than the terminal patient.
Speaking of dying, Ragnar is no more.
We're rather thin on units on the Greek border so Cuman starts on a longbow instead of a zealous Hindu and I start to move units from all over the empire to the NW. In general start or continue building units. Leave some veteran units of the Viking campaign in Bjorgvin as that is the closest place where Wang could attack.
T266 We steal Engineering from our new foe.
T267 Monty asks us to declare on Hammurabi. Not yet, my friend, not yet.
T268 The Babylonians take Babylon back from Monty.
T273 On the last turn of the Golden Age convert to Hinduism.
The Heroic Epic is built in Hamburg and decide to pump units. Continuing Sistine is not on the menu for now.
All this time I'm waiting for this monster stack of Alex to arrive, but it won't show up. Some units of his march nervously along the Arabian/German border next to Cuman but don't even enter. A sword and a catapult do enter on a hill between Cuman and Cologne opposite to Stuttgart on the lake. They also stand there for ages until I'm that annoyed by their intransigence that I kill them off. Lamentably it cost two macemen though.
With all the cities we can see thanks to our EP spending I do see quite some troop movement within Alex' land, but it all seems a bit randomish.
T275 A cute little stack from Wang attacks at Bjorgvin, but the 3 attackers barely scratch a maceman. It nets us Grat General though who is merged in Hamburg.
T280 The National Epic is finished in Frankfurt. By now it's also hindu so a hindu temple is queued. A jewish temple should go next to hire max priests.
Hand it off here. Alex finally is willing to talk, but what comes out of his mouth is rather delusional. He wants Cuman for peace. Yeah, and we want Athens, okay? By now we have reasonable stacks in Cuman and Cologne. I've actually been tempted to go on the offensive, since the defences of Ephesus don't look all that impressive. But decided against it in order not to distract us from the master plan, which is going after Hammu and possibly Monty afterwards while having our western border "safeguarded" with our hindu "friends".
Maybe Alex will take a tech for peace, too bad you can't really check that. Otherwise maybe next player can assault Ephesus and maybe then Alex will be more cooperative.
In other news, it has been a rather horrendous century for our spies, apart from stealing engineering. Of the initial ones only 004 is still alive. Just built a new one and a couple more are in the queue. Also have been spreading hinduism. We should keep up with that until all cities have the new faith. Apart from that it was mainly units that have been built. In former viking lands also some infrastructure. Powerwise, we're fine, 0.8 with Alex, 1.7 with Monty and 1.9 with Hammu. I'd still advocate brokering peace between Monty and Hammu before going after the latter, to avoid more troublesome vassal mechanics.
For those who lost track of relations, they look like this right now.
Techwise, some AIs have been doing catch up and are in parity. There seem to have been quite some trading among them despite the animosities. We got a slice of the pie as well though, sold two techs (I think it was Feud to Gilga and Philo to Sal) netting us about 1100 in cash. However, nobody is close to researching anything useful in the short term. Guilds is being teched but there is still ample time to get our new army of spies in place.
Overall a bit of a weird set. Nothing went really wrong (apart from our spies getting caught), but it all seemed to pass very slowly along with our shadow war with Alex.
Edit: All units are left with movement. If we would decide to buy peace from Alex they could start marching towards Hammu.
Whosit
Entropic Knight
Well, that was certainly unexpected and weird. The question being, what made Alex think it was a good idea to take on Ragnar as a vassal considering that Ragnar was a one-city nation and that it would mean war with glorious Germany? Also, why he hasn't attacked yet?
Shame about the spies, but they're replaceable: That's why we give 'em a number and take away their name. I'm for stomping on Alex a bit until he sees reason. Or maybe we can buy peace between Monty and Hammy and then sic the Aztec psycho on Alex, if that's possible.
So although events seemed to have dictated your set, looks like you carried through well. The silver lining is that this new "war" forced us to build a larger army, which we needed, anyway.
Shame about the spies, but they're replaceable: That's why we give 'em a number and take away their name. I'm for stomping on Alex a bit until he sees reason. Or maybe we can buy peace between Monty and Hammy and then sic the Aztec psycho on Alex, if that's possible.
So although events seemed to have dictated your set, looks like you carried through well. The silver lining is that this new "war" forced us to build a larger army, which we needed, anyway.
stupid Alex, starting a war and not even taking the trouble to send a SoD to be slaugthered so we can get easy peace. (He hasn't send us one because he hasn't been in WHEOOHRN-mode vs us and so doesn't have the troops with appropriate orders hanging around. Will probably change as soon as we go on the offensive, so make sure that if we go on the offensive, we go big).First point of order is sicking some spies on him, in spirit of the game. Second would be to bash on him a bit, making him more amenable to peace (as in, he pays us instead of the other way around). Ephesus is a nice enough town for us, Argos probably not as is will have culture problems, but perhaps we can capture it and gift it to Sally or back to Alex for some diplo+.
So next set will be a bit of infra, more troops and a bit of war I suppose. And lots of spies off course.
Roster:
Sengir - Probably on deck
Norvin Green - Autoskip
Whosit
nocho - Just played
sturick - Up
Meiz - Probably swapped
Oh, btw, nice set nocho
