SGn00b - for those new to SG's

[Sadan01]

Wow! Been 2 days since my last post and not a single reply. Everyone must be busy. Anyway, I have got the save and will play a little later today/tonight. Report back later on.

 

[Sadan01]

Goals for my set of 10 - without looking at the save (in no order of precedence):

* Try and get in on the war against Caesar and possibly improve relations with Toku.

* If necessary, continue military buildup to support war (and support or improve our economy if able).

* Try not to make any moves.

* Try to stop Doom to Azteca from revolting again or worse, flipping. Don't know how I am going to do this at all yet.

* Check out possible "war-plans" for Saladin or even Toku for the future.

Will play soon after dinner and a .

 

[Sadan01]

IT Turn

The Roman War-Plans
Looking at plans to attack the Roman empire, we are going to need to build a Navy Take a look at the situation:

The Romans have three cities left at this point. Two on the island shown in the screenshot and another on the pangaea we are on. Here is a screenshot of its location:

Here lies the problem. That city on the other side of the Japanese lies in a bad location from us. We cannot reach it unless we sail our Navy east from our eastern cities across the ocean (due to the red circled land). I think this third city should be the last we take out. The two on the other island should be the first. Now, we need to get some ships over there to take a look at what to expect. We can use the Drydock at Angle to start preparations in building our fleet.

We have a Caravel sitting on the east coast doing nothing. I personally visit the captain and tell him to get his ship ready and to set sail to the distant Roman lands. He leaves straight away.

Japan
I am a little shocked at the Japanese strength. Maybe they are showing it for our benefit. Take a look at this screenshot:

Their defenses are slightly thinner in other locations but we can't see most of their major cities as yet.

Quick rundown of relations:

Saladin / Annoyed / -7
Caesar / Pleased / +6 ---> Our only true friend
Toku / Furious / -14
Monte / Furious / -12

Interesting that Toku is even more pissed with us than Monte. I think a N00b/Japanese war is on the horizon soon. As a note on those goals I posted earlier, I think there is a more pressing one; We need to build up our defenses in certain cities as they are reasonably thin and I don't know about you but I don't like the N00b/Japanese relations one bit. In fact, they could declare at any time due to the Romans being removed from our landmass.

Cities that need extra defenses (and are close to our border with Japan):

Cori (1 musket)
Huamanga (1 Cannon and 1 Grenadier)
Cuzco (2 Cavalry and 2 Grenadiers) - Lower Priority

Religion
And lastly, I think we should change our religion to Buddhism as every other Civ on the planet has that as their state religion. Seeing that Saladin is the founder and when taking the below screenshot into account (in terms of what cities he will be able to "view"), I think this might be a good idea to improve relations slightly:

If this doesn't work out, we can always change back or adopt No State Religion. Ok. Enough of me wrapping up the situation and now I will start to play.

Cori I cannot really do anything with, food and population-wise seeing we are at population 1 and NOT GROWING!
Move some troops on our southern flanks up north, in case Japan decide to attack now.
Convert to Buddhism. End IT.

TURN 1 (1832AD)
Our Peace Treaty with Monte expires. No big deal there.
Doom of Azteca's borders expand Look at this:

No change.
In changing to Buddhism, our relations have changed slightly for the better:

Saladin / Cautious / -1
Caesar / Pleased / +9
Toku / Furious / -11
Monte / Furious / -8

Saladin still doesn't want to trade techs but we can arrange open borders. Will wait on this as it may not be a good idea.
Move some workers around. A Coal deposit comes online.

TURN 2 (1834AD)
Workboat nets some fish outside of Ironchou.
GZ finishes an Observatory. Set build to a Grenadier (Japan seems to have a lot of Rifles).
Angle finishes the drydock. Set build to a Frigate.

TURN 3 (1836AD)


TURN 4 (1838AD)
Physics comes in. We get the Great Scientist in Beijing. Send him to GE to build another Academy.
We have not 1, not 2, not 3... Not even 4, but 5 sources of Uranium in our borders!
Saladin starts a GA.
Start to connect up 2 of the 5 Uranium sources. One is also under a Town(!!) and another is under a cottage.
In fact, one is already connected due to already being under a mine.
Set research to Assembly Line (16 turns) for Infantry.
Macchu Piccu finishes a Bank. Starts a Rifle for use up north.

TURN 5 (1840AD)
Beijing celebrates we love the N00b Day.
I take a look at the progress of our Caravel going to the Roman lands and see this:

Seems like the Japanese are serious about finishing them off.
Frigate finishes in Angle. Angle set to build a Galleon.
GE finishes a Bank. Build set to a Grenadier.
Send Frigate up to Roman lands - ETA 4 turns.

TURN 6 (1842AD)
Grenadier finishes in GZ. Give it City Garrison promotions. It is going to Cori to reinforce.
We construct the Academy in GE.
Beijing finishes an Observatory. Set it to build a Grenadier as its defense are a little light (archers).
Set GZ to build a Cav.
Ollant finishes the Grocer. Set it to build another Rifle.
Death to Azteca finishes the Forbidden Palace. The peasants rejoice. Set to a bank.
Increase science rate to 70% (-1gpt).

 

[Sadan01]

TURN 7 (1844AD)
Ironchou celebrating We love everyone day.
Saladin finishes the Statue of Liberty. How ironic!
Vilcas finishes a Rax. Set to build a Forge.
Ok, here is the rundown of the two Roman cities on the island:

Shouldn't be too difficult to take out.

TURN 8 (1846AD)
Angle finishes a Galleon. Set to Grenadier.
Ironchou finishes the Grocer. Set to a Grenadier.
Cuzco finishes a Grocer. Set to Cavalry.
Doom of Azteca finishes a Theatre. Set to build a Granary.
Galleon set to sleep in port to load troops (you know about the little trick with loading troops in port, I'm guessing).

TURN 9 (1848AD)
See a lovely animation of Toku bombarding the Roman city of Pisae.
Destiny's borders expand. Once again, not by much.
Station our Frigate right outside Pisae's port. Do not bombard or declare as yet.
Tiwanaku finishes a Market. Start another Grenadier.
What! That's the end of the turn?!

TURN 10 (1850AD)
Caesar comes a-visiting. Asks if we want to go to war with Toku. Laugh at him and tell him no.

Borders of Huamanga expand.

My Thoughts

Beef, I didn't move any troops across to Angle as I would've had to leave them on Go-To orders. Besides, after analysing the game, you may decide a war on Caesar's doorstep is not preferable I am thinking that possibly Japan might be a good target however we will need to be a whole lot stronger before that happens. Caesar seems to be out of the game at this point and cities over the other side of the world are not going to be much help to us financially (especially with Toku on the prowl), although we could always raze.

Saladin is an unknown quantity at the moment. He likes us a lot more now since changing religion and I do think we need to have some type of friend but he and Toku absolutely love each other at the moment. I guess this may or may not matter when it comes down to it (war with Toku) but if we can keep Saladin out of it, then I think that is better for us. 1 vs 1 is better than 2 vs 1.

We have quite a few wonders (both national and world) available to us including the Ironworks, West Point, Wall Street and the Globe Theatre.

Good Luck!

 

[BeefontheBone]

You realise you changed our state religion but left us in a pointlessly expensive Theocracy since our core cities now lack the state religion, right? Will revolt out of that and/or spread it around if I can.

 

[BeefontheBone]

IHT 1850: Revolt to Paganism (we obviously can't afford Pacifism, and Org Rel would be almost as pointless as Theocracy - I decide to save the cash). Thought about Representation, but decided against it for now.
I move a load of forces towards Toku's newly taken Roman lands - there's no point in us taking on Rome's last cities, Toku's the only target that makes sense. We definitely need those infantry - I notice Saladin has Machine Guns; he's up Democracy, Railroad, Liberalism but down Physics (why did we research that before Assembly Line or RR? We can't really trade it, and this ain't a space race, guys!) Flight is handy, but you need the ground troops too. RR would improve defences and speed up troop movement - could be important. I'll keep an eye on trade opportunities with Sally.

Dial up Sally and open borders, and trade him some Incense for 3gpt - bit light, but it was mainly a diplomatic thing. He's got very few resources - no copper, for instance. Unfortunately he's friendly with Tokugawa - we should delay attacking until we get closer to him or are sure we can handle them both. We definitely need lots more defence.

T1 (1851):

Toku's forces are concentrated in Cumae. They're not all that advanced, but are experienced - lots of cannon will be needed here methinks.
Turn off research for a turn or two - we'll need upgrades soon.

T2 (1852): Zzzz.

T3 (1853): Research back on. We could take Toku's Southern Roman lands with relative ease, but the losses in the North would be too much at present - more troops!

T4 (1854): Destiny revolts - to keep it we'd need to pile a load of units in there or attack Sally and I don't think either's worth it as yet.

T5 (1855): Zzz.

T6 (1856): Zzz.

T7 (1857): The temptation to attack Toku is really strong, but I'll keep resisting until the end of my turns - we should be about ready by then. I've started on the Ironworks (somewhere in the heartland - highest producer, any road) and built a few Ironclads for coastal defence. Just about everything else has been Grenadiers, Cannon and Cavalry - no point in doing many rifles with Assembly Line around the corner.

T8 (1858): Not a lot.

T9 (1859): Zzz.

T10 (1860): Assembly Line comes in, and we're the first to it. I start on Railroad (the awesome machine guns, something for our workers to do), but Artillery's vaguely appealing. Toku, I notice, is down Military Tradition, Physics and Assembly Line, and doesn't have RR either - I reckon we need to strike while the iron's hot here guys.

Upgrade a number of units (mainly some old muskets) on the borders and the coast to Infantry.
I decide not to bother moving most of our units, since I think it's time to attack Toku but want that to be vetoable We're poised to take Ravenna in the north and Tlaxcala in the South (using the stack to the SW of it - the ones to the East will need to be able to move towards Cumae and try to draw some of the SoD there out into the open without letting them pillage too much infrastructure). If Sally joins in we might have some difficulty, mind.

Enjoy a slightly more exciting set of turns than mine, whoever's next!

 

[pling]

Good turns, people Guess we're just going to have to fight the Japs at some point soon ... hopefully we'll get some input into the timing of the war & not just fight it when Toku wants us to

Have a roster:

Sir Toma (has retired)
pling (on deck)
Chriseay
Sadan01
BeefontheBone (Just played)
Admiral Kutzov (has retired)
Pie-es Tasty (Up!)

 

[Pie-es-Tasty]

Oh I got the save now. Forgot I don't go after AK any longer. I will try to play tonight, failing that I will go tomorrow morning, mabye.

EDIT: Okay, now that I've actually read the turn reports, I'll attack Tokugawa if I think we're ready, and I'll see if I can't pay off either Saladin or Tokugawa to attack the other.

 

[Sadan01]

You realise you changed our state religion but left us in a pointlessly expensive Theocracy since our core cities now lack the state religion, right? Will revolt out of that and/or spread it around if I can.

Yep, I realised that...After I'd played my turns, submitted the turnlog/save, logged off the internet and thought some more about the game. I then realised that I hadn't changed our civics and I had the feeling that Theocracy was still being used. A total oversight on my part there and really something that I should've been more careful with, considering all the thought I put into the game on those turns in other areas (well, at least I thought I was). I'm glad you found the problem and fixed it though Beef. Something I will be much more careful of in the future.

And thanks for bringing it up too. That's probably the only way I am going to learn, if someone takes the time to notice what I have screwed up and then brings it to my attention.

 

[BeefontheBone]

No problem

I realised that spreading it around is actually not possible - we can't build any monasteries. It could be that a few turns of Org Rel and missionary spam (with buildings in other cities) if we get a breather between wars might be an idea. Of course, it will probably be redundant soon since we're at make or break time for Domination.

 

[Pie-es-Tasty]

Turn 0 (1860 AD):
Look everything over, thanks for leaving all these armies to use (evil laugh). Everything looks fine, and yes, I believe it is time to eradicate these vile Japanese. By the way, I looked at the victory conditions, and if we eliminate the Japanese and take all their cities, we should have a Domination victory. Good stuff, eh?

Enough chatter, it is time to strike. First I call up Saladin. Hmm, well he’s not up for attacking Japan, so I call up Tokugawa. Since we’re going to attack anyways, let’s give him a change to delay the slaughter. I demand 500 gold, and amazingly he gives in! Well, we wouldn’t want to violate our honor, so I let him live for a turn.

Whoa, hey, when did we get access to infantry? I use that gold I got to upgrade some of our rifleman to infantry.

Turn 1 (1861 AD):
Shanghai finishes Cannon, starts an Infantry. Ollantaytambo finishes a Cavalry, starts another Infantry. Doom of Azteca finishes Granary, starts a Buddhist Temple to try and get more culture. Dry-dock in Death to Azteca, starts an Infantry. Bad news, Destiny revolted and went to the Arabians (that was my second favorite city too, after Good Enough of course).

And now, it’s time for the annihilation of Japan! No chance to survive for them, they are on the path to destruction. I declare war, and check Saladin. He’s still Cautious towards us, but we’ve got another relations hit. Capture Ravenna, only one Cavalry lost, and we get 71 gold from it. Move the wounded cavalry into Ravenna and move the still-fresh ones towards Japan. Now, down on the Southern front, Cannons bombard a former Aztec city to nothing, then I suicide a cannon. After a massacre of their defenders, we capture Tlaxcala and get 108 gold. I move our wounded troops into heal, and forge onwards. Cumae worries me, as there’s a ton of defenders in it, despite being a wimpy size two city who still has minimal culture. I just hope that some of them at least will move out so we can hunt them down one by one. I capture a couple workers up there too. I decide I can weaken their army by at least eliminating a few, so I attack. I lose a bunch of Cavalry, but I weakened their army and hopefully they won’t attack in between turns. It looks like this is pretty much their entire army, and once we kill that, barring a smaller army up north, they should just roll over.

Turn 2 (1862 AD):
Massive battle at Cumae in between turns, I dub it the Battle of Cumae, except that it’s not over yet. They kill one infantry, but mostly it is them who take loses. Onward Comrades, to crush the enemy! I attack, and, owing to the fact that all of their troops are either heavily wounded or hopelessly outdated, I can used my wounded troops, however they are still left with a single cannon, at 1.9 health. Up north, a brave stack of Japanese troops ventures into our territory. I suicide a cannon and use Cavalry to nearly wipe them out.

Turn 3 (1863 AD):
The Japanese finish off some of our wounded troops, but it’s not too bad, I think that their army is mostly kaput. The Battle of Cumae finally ends, with all the Japanese resistance ending and us taking Cumae. I choose to keep it as a testament to the decisive victory that was the Battle of Cumae. Also, the stack up north is defeated.

Turn 4 (1864 AD):
A few minor skirmishes, but other than that, nothing really happens. Kind of odd after a few action-packed turns, eh?

Turn 5 (1865 AD):
Grenadier finishes in Tiwanaku, starts an Infantry. Ravenna comes out of revolt, starts an Infantry. Ironchou celebrates “We Love the Monarch Day!” I start to move troops up to capture Neapolis and begin to pillage around it. Hmm… it appears we’re starting to have some major War Weariness here. After Railroad we might think about going for Fascism so we can switch to Police State, and build Mt. Rushmore. Uh oh, looks like Tokugawa is starting to get Machine Guns. I think that we might have to hold off on the offensive after a bit until we get Tanks, and possibly air power too.

Turn 6 (1866 AD):
Nothing much in between turns, but now I begin the offensive upon Timbuktu. It had already be bombarded, so I suicide a cannon and attack, first with Grenadiers, then with Cavalry. I don’t manage to capture it, but there’s only one wounded Rifleman left, so it will fall next turn.

Turn 7 (1867 AD):
I turn research down to 60% as we’re losing gold now due to war weariness, although we still get Railroad in the same number of turns. I defeat the remaining defender in Timbuktu and capture it, and destroy some other assorted Japanese troops. Up North I succeed in capturing Neapolis, and getting 110 gold. That pretty much ends the Chinese offensive for now, seeing as the Japanese are starting to get Machine Guns and most of our army is dead or wounded. I’ll just play defensive and try to pillage until the end of my turns.

Turn 8 (1868 AD):
A bunch of stuff finishes building, start Infantry or Jails in some places. Mostly just healing troops and pillaging stuff. That actually took a lot longer than it sounds.

Turn 9 (1869 AD):
A Japanese Frigate pillages some fishing nets; I’ll send Ironclads up to deal with them. Saladin offers us Spices for Sugar, I accept, it’s always good to make allies. Tokugawa’s Golden Ages ends, which shall help us lots (I didn’t even know he was in one). Otherwise, same as before.

Turn 10 (1870 AD):
Anti-climax, nothing of note happens.

End of Turn Thoughts:
Railroad in one turn, build as many freaking Machine Guns as you can, those things are great at defending even into the modern era and they go obsolete quickly. I would think we should go for Fascism next so we can reduce war weariness. Also, the offensive has halted until we can get tanks, so methinks after Fascism we should go for Combustion then Industrialism, or possible Communism for State Property to reduce maintenance. Good luck!

Also: Sorry for lack of screenshots, it slipped my mind as I was playing.

 

[Pie-es-Tasty]

Might as well post a roster, something I haven't done before:

Sir Toma - retired D:
pling - It's Your Turn!
Chriseay - On Deck
Sadan01 - In The Hole (I believe that's the term, no?)
BeefontheBone
Admiral Kutzov - retired D:
Pie-es Tasty - Finished

 

[pling]

Got it!

Hopefully can play this afternoon

 

[BeefontheBone]

Groovy - I forgot about WW before. Fascism's quite cheap to research, so Rushmore could be on the cards.

 

[Sadan01]

<snip> Of course, it will probably be redundant soon since we're at make or break time for Domination.

This is what I've been thinking as well. We really are at a point where shooting for a victory condition is basically a now or never situation and in this type of situation (in my own SP games), religion is a largely irrelevant matter when it comes down to it. Although, as we all know, every game is different in itself. The only exception I can see to this rule would be is if you are going for a diplomatic or cultural victory when religion plays a much larger part.

Beef, question for you: Would you agree with the change of religion to Buddhism based on the point of improving relations? Essentially what I'm asking is, would you have made the same move at the time I made it? My line of thinking at the time was based on a possible war with Toku (whether we started it or he did (which was quite possible once he finished the Romans)) and since Saladin was friendly with Toku and unhappy with us, I felt I had to do something to try and tip the equation in our favour. In fact, if anyone else wants to give an opinion, please do.

I take it we are going for Domination then?

Good turns there Pie. Nice writeup of the war effort too I would have to agree with the suggestion of Facism. Seems like a really good idea at this point to reduce that annoying WW.

Good Luck Pling

--Sadan (Conical Flask)

 

[chriseay]

I think the religion switch at that point was a good idea Sadan. If it stopped Saladin from declaring on us after we attacked Toku then it was definitely worth it. I suppose we'll never know, but I think it is the best to make sure that you are as protected from multiple AI wars as possible.

 

[Pie-es-Tasty]

One downside of switching to Buddhism is that we're getting additional unhappy from the "We Don't Want to Fight Brothers of the Faith!" but it's not too bad, and I'm sure the benfits outweigh the downsides. I would have done it myself.

 

[BeefontheBone]

To be honest, the thought hadn't even crossed my mind - I wouldn't have done it, but a good point was made that it might've put Sally off attacking us. Hard to say, unless anyone fancies loading the save and seeing where we get to

 

[pling]

Turn 0 (1870AD):
Short term goals:
Build Machine Guns
Build Railroads
Research Fascism
Research towards Tanks
Build Mt. Rushmore

All looks well

So as cities finish their current builds I'm going to move over to Machine Guns, unless there's a pressing reason to build something else (like there probably will be in the two cities that are just about to come out of anarchy).

Turn 1 (1871AD):
Railroad -> Fascism
Moved some troops around - mostly settling things down to sleep/fortify in place, as we're waiting for tanks.
Getting enough gold to upgrade all Grenadiers to Machine Guns will take 3 turns at no science. Right now I think that Fascism is more important than MG.

IBT Toku picks off some of our troops
Doom of Azteca revolts & joins Saladin!!

Turn 2 (1872AD):
Neapolis comes out of anarchy.
Going to build up military stacks near points of attack: Near Rome, near Antium and near Kumbi Saleh. (Picture taken at end of turnset, lines might still be there in save)

Found a whole bunch of workers that weren't doing anything, so got them out of their cities and started them building railroads. I normally automate this by switching on trade-route automation, but I'm doing it by hand here.

Turn 3 (1873AD):
Timbuktu comes out of anarchy.
Moved our troops out of Destiny & Doom to Azteca - I'd totally forgotten about them (as had whoever was playing when the other city flipped )

Turn 4 (1874AD):
Stack near Kumbi Saleh is quite substantial already, but a couple of units need to heal, so leaving them for the required turns then will advance.

Turn 5 (1875AD):
I've grouped some of the workers together to avoid having to move them all seperately

Turn 6 (1876AD):
Not a lot.

Turn 7 (1877AD):
Starting to move in on Kumbi Saleh

IBT: Toku asks for peace, I tell him to shove it

Turn 8 (1878AD):
Fascism discovered! Revolt to Police State!
Start to research Electricity (pre-req for Industrialism, for tanks)
Start more Machine Guns building
I get rid of the last of Toku's frigates that were hanging around
I mis-click & send the Kumbi invasion force a slightly long way round, but I'll still get to attack the city in my last turn.

Turn 9 (1879AD):
Anarchy is over.
I find an Infantry & a Cannon outside Good Enough, not sure why & they're fortified ... start them heading to the front.

Turn 10 (1880AD):

I suicide a few Cavalry against Kumbi Saleh's two defenders but prevail in the end! Kumbi Saleh is ours!
Realise I've totally forgotten to start building Mt Rushmore

Suggestions for next player:
Build Mt Rushmore somewhere and rescue us from my idiocy
After saving & shutting down I realised I'd not double checked the troops we have just kicking around - after finding some just sat there outside Good Enough I meant to double check, but then forgot again.

Roster:
Sir Toma (has retired)
pling (just played)
Chriseay (Up!)
Sadan01 (on deck)
BeefontheBone
Admiral Kutzov (has retired)
Pie-es Tasty

 

[chriseay]

Looking good! I see it and I'll play either tonight or tomorrow.