SGOTM 02 - Rat Pack

[hamfist]

Pre-Turn:
Whip Forge in Kyoto. 2 Pop. Free whip as Forge give +2
Revolt to Vassalage

Turn 1:
Accept offered trade from Mali: Our sheep for his fur
Gift 1 deer to Kublai Khan to speed up the +1 Resources bonus.
Whip Forge in Barcelona

Turn 2:
Start Galleon in Kyoto
Start Pikeman Osaka

Turn 3:
Start a Forge in kagoshima

IBT: Inca founds Vitcos on our East Coast by the Wheat. It has +25% def due to Chichen Itza.
El Amarna (Egypt) is founded on the Southwest coast, near the Sheep.

Turn 6:
Gunpowder is in, switch to Chemistry

IBT: Mansa Musa has completed the Hanging Gardens

Turn 7:
Whip Galleon in Barcelona

Turn 8: Start another Galleon in Barcelona

Turn 10: Whip Globe Theater in Madrid

Turn 11: Whip Galleon Madrid

Turn 13: Save the game, as we have 4 Galleons and a big stack on the East Coast ready to load up and begin the attack.

 

[ThERat]

so Till gets to start the invasion...

shall we let that city on our Island grow and then take for ourselves once it's pop 2?

Remember Till, catapults are key in addition to pikes and grens

 

[hamfist]

Team Members,

I have made a large error. I was goofing off with a previous save and accidentally uploaded it instead of the correct save. Please do not download the current save. I have uploaded the correct one but it does not appear. I have PM'd AlanH and requested that he fix it and also asked for forgiveness. I have aldo asked that if he decides to take disciplinary action that he take it against me and not against the team.

I am truly sorry and rather ashamed about all of this. If there are any repurcussions for this game, I will leave this forum and not return. I feel pretty bad about this.

I guess my nick is about right, rather ham-fisted of me.

 

[ThERat]

I have made a large error. I was goofing off with a previous save and accidentally uploaded it instead of the correct save. Please do not download the current save. I have uploaded the correct one but it does not appear.

you mean you replayed a previous save? If you did play straight with our current save and have that to upload, it should be fine. As long as you do not reload and replay a game it should be ok....we'll see what AlanH has to comment on this...but I guess he might be sleeping in good ol England right now...so does Till

 

[hamfist]

I did play straight with the current save. I have uploaded it but it does not appear on the save list. Don't download the current save from the server. Until AlanH lets us know what's happening.

 

[AlanH]

I've PM'd hamfist to say that I've deleted the incorrect entry, and I'll give him the benefit of the doubt over the sin of playing forward.

However, I propose that he doesn't take part in any team discussions until you reach the date he played to, which was 1466 AD. He must not give the team any information he may have learned about events during the period from 1418 AD to 1466 AD.

 

[hamfist]

Hi team,

Thanks AlanH for being understanding, and see you all in 1467.

 

[ThERat]

I've PM'd hamfist to say that I've deleted the incorrect entry, and I'll give him the benefit of the doubt over the sin of playing forward.

However, I propose that he doesn't take part in any team discussions until you reach the date he played to, which was 1466 AD. He must not give the team any information he may have learned about events during the period from 1418 AD to 1466 AD.

a wise man is a kind man, thanks AlanH.

hamfist anyway, you got to keep quiet here now until we reached 1466AD, but Till, myself and Tatran will know what to do until then, that is to take out Inca's.

 

[Till]

Got it. My gut feeling is that it would be better to just raze everything in our wake on the AI continent, but i understand that those Incan cities will grow to valuable supply stations with short reinforcement lines. Mainterence will be a problem though. When becomes Versaille available again?
Maybe one of the Ais does us the favour of building it in an OK location.

Will start the war tonight!

 

[Till]

Early:
Not much to do, everything was handed to me in fine order.
I boarded our galleons with 6 samurai, 6 catapults and 2 pikes as well as a musket.

Midterm:
While the galleons were on their way, i whipped a market in Barca and kept producing units elsewhere.

Late:
I ask Huayna for a series of gifts, but he is one cheap Incan.

Well, i guess we'll just have to borrow that gold the hard way!

Our army just happened to be in the area, so they decided to pay Huayna a visit. They dropped off near Vilcas. Huayna send a catapult as a welcomming gift, but it somehow broke upon delivery, injuring several soldiers.

They were a little miffed and demanded a new one. But the folks in Vilcas would have none of it! So the samurai entered the city by force and looted it thoroughly.
But there was no catapult in Vilcas. Only a couple of ships.

Vilas turns into rubble, along with four Incan galleons.

Next they turned to Tiwanaku, which somehow had a lot less defenders than Vilcas.

This one we kept.

This one we didn't.

While Huyana is taking his time with the counterattack, he did pull off a stunning manoeuvre just after the capture of Tiwanaku.

Notice the two archer and the settler on the tile of former Vilca...

I forgot to remove the merchant specialists in time, which unfortunately resulted in a great merchant.
Especially frustrating, as i reminded myself to keep an eye on this just two turns earlier. Hopefully it won't set us back too far.
To add insult to injury, i also lost my notes, which led to this pretty barebones report.
Btw, it is 1460 now. Almost there, hamfist.

Losses:
1 pike
2 catapults

We need some healing time now, but i am confident that we can take Cusco along with the Pyramids. That should be enough to extort a tech. Otherwise there are a couple of small towns to raze. I thought about sending raiding parties to disconnect his three iron sources, but didn't feel like i had the units to spare. Maybe this is something to consider for the next player.
I wouldn't the the one near former Vilcas, however. It seems to attract Incan settlers and there is nothing wrong with Huayna building them instead of military.

 

[Tatran]

We can use the GM for a trade mission, so we can upgrade some
units to grenadiers.
I hope we didn't miss an opportunity to bring Kublai Khan into play.
The option is open, but the price isn't right.
Also, the AIs have Nationalism and Huayna + Mansa have Education.
We need to extort at least one of these techs.If we use the GS for
speeding up Education, maybe we can extort Economics too.
The GM will lightbulb 1) Banking, 2) Economics, 3)PrintingPress/the Corporation.
The GS will lightbulb 1) Education, 2) Printing Press, 3) Scientific Method

I think we have enough galleons, once Chemistry is in we need a lot of
frigates not only to protect our resources, but most of all for coastal bombardment.Most AI cities are coastal.

What do we research after Chemistry ?
The AIs are 1 tech away from Military Tradition.
And we are 3 techs away from Rifling.

If Huayna doesn't give any tech, he has to go before
he gives away more techs to Mansa and Hatty.

 

[ThERat]

I will use the GM for a trade mission so we can upgrade all those city raiders. And after chemistry, we might want to go for cannons (steel) as they would help us plenty and the AI doesn't research it. We can extort the other techs

 

[ThERat]

Pre-Turn
load GM into caravel and send him towards Egypt
increase culture to 20% to fight WW, Osaka goes for a theatre first
cancel a host of galleon buids, we do no need that many
renew deal for sheep with Bismarck to get 7gpt instead of 5gpt
instead of letting the missionaries sit around, spread faith to Seville

1. 1466AD
defeat 2 catapults, land 2 units next to new Anda

2. 1472AD
we get a new source of copper next to Seville, how nice
spread faith to Satsuma
conduct trade mission for 2250gold
take out Anda for no losses

3. 1478AD
start to move towards Cuzco with big stack

4. 1484AD
mansa demands chemistry and changes to cautious
found Nara on our continent to prevent AI from settling there

5. 1490AD
Huayna loses yet another knight and now moves a stack of 5 units towards Tiwanaku
our stack reaches Cuzco

6. 1496AD
lose 1 samurai and Huayna loses 2 knights in the attacks
bomb Cuzco to 0%, suicide one cat
take out half a dozen units and the city is ours

7. 1502AD
Huayna fights fiercely and goes 2:3 defeating a pike and grendier

move part of the stack towards Machu Picchu
take out 3 units in the field and whop some more stuff
nuture Bismarck by seeling him theo which we got from Khan earlier on) for 280gold

8. 1508AD
move some units towards Vilvabamba, defended by only 2 units, step next to machu Picchu
Tiwanaku comes online, whip a court there

9. 1514AD
bomb defenses in Machu Picchu down to 0%


10. 1520AD
samurais ain't good enough and we lose 2 at Machu Pichu to counterattacks
we need some more units there, they are on the way, but very slow
Tiwanaku is one powerful city really, start rax so we can pump military there

spread our faith to Tiwanaku

Hatty has chemistry now
what are we going to do about that? Trade it with the rest?
Huayna does not want to part with a tech yet, but I would go for peace once we have taken out Machu Pichu
since WW is at 6 already

the situation

as you can see the AI will settle any spot that is empty, which is highy annoying. I feel we should keep the big cities and raze all the coastal junk.

 

[ThERat]

I think we need to go for cannons as defenses are pretty strong now. With a stack of cannons we can create real havoc for sure.

I wasn't able to convince Khan to join in a war. I don't know whether chemistry will be enough to get them to fight each other.

I would take out Machu and then go for Mansa which is directly next to our new land. but, we need to build up more units for that I feel.

I played 10 turns now, since the game is at a draining stage, I recommend everyone does that.

and welcome back, hamfist now

 

[Tatran]

Pre-turn
Kublai Khan will go to war for Chemistry against Huayna.
He will also go to war with Mao for Chemistry + 1200 gold.
The option for Egypt is open, but the price isn't right.

Mansa is willing to trade Nationalism + 40 gold for Chemistry,
but for Education he wants Chemistry + 630 gold.
I'm afraid the deal has to be made now or he will trade Chemistry
with Hatshepsut.

Huayna has 5 cities and is still ahead in tech.

The first deal.

And the second deal.

This reveals some surprises.
Huayna and Mansa have Constitution.
Kublai Khan has Military Tradition.

IBT 1526 AD
Those AIs are trading like crazy.
Previous turn Hatty had Education.
And now our grenadier killed a Incan Grenadier.
Bismarck made peace with Hatshepsut.

1529 AD (3)
The attack on Machu Picchu.
Lose 2 suicide catapults.Killed most defenders, but lose at 90% a musket
to a pike.

IBT 1532 AD
Mansa changes to Representation.
Kublai Khan is now annoyed with him.

1535 AD (5)
Bismarck has dyes.Well, this was an offer I couldn't refuse.

1538 AD (6)
Kublai Khan is Friendly now and is willing to trade anything.
I didn't see the defensive pact option.Guess, it's disabled in this game.

1541 AD (7)

I asked myself, what takes Kublai so long to get to Huayna.
He doesn't have open borders with Mali.So we're on our own to get
rid of the Incas.For peace Huayna only gives Banking.That's not enough.

1544 AD (8)
Man, this is unbelievable.
Everyone has Education + Banking except Bismarck.
Hatty and Mansa have Printing Press too.
And this is aggressive setting, right ?

1550 AD (10)
Incas lost another city, Huamanga.Island town razed.
And still Huayna doesn't want to give any expensive techs.
He's down to 2 cities and one is under heavy Malinese cultural pressure.
Next turn his new capital should fall.

Well, if he doesn't give one of those techs, just kill him
without extorting anything.

 

[ThERat]

ok, hamfist is up since he can play again...

I am also amazed by the tech speed here. We need to go after Mansa next no doubt. Slow them down by fighting them.
I agree with taking out Huayna. Why bother if he doesn't want to part with techs. That way we get rid of the 'we want to join the motherland' nonsense.

Let's hope that we can at least keep the steel monopoly for a while.

 

[Tatran]

I agree, Mali should be our next target.
The trading mania among the AIs should stop.
Bring in the Mongols ASAP, so we can reduce our losses
and Khan has cavalry.
Try to extort Constitution or Printing Press from Huayna,
or both, techs Khan doesn't have.

 

[hamfist]

Hi all,

Am just into the 2nd turn. Inca has 1 tiny city remaining, and is one 93.4% combat away from elimination. I've being pushing him constantly for techs, and he just won't budge except for divine right. Divine Right seems fairly useless atm. Do i kill him off then? I say yes, so that I can get 3 turns of healing in before I attack Mansa Musa. My first target for Mansa Musa is Gao, holy city of Confucianism. That will take his shrine and Forbidden Palace, crashing his economy. It will also give us another high cash shrine.

It's not a major deal that the AI are settling. Those cities are weak, and I'd rather the AI build settlers instead of Grenadiers.

 

[Tatran]

During my turns Huayna was offering Banking, a tech we need.
On the other hand we don't want to flip the captured Incan cities
back.
Alhazen, IIRC the GS, is still waiting in Tokyo andwill lightbulb
Education.Or trade with Kublai Khan Steel, so Printing Press
will be lightbulbed.And then bribe Khan into war with Mali.
Or trade Steel around to get us back in tech position.
We're too far behind in tech.Maybe the AIs already have
Replaceable Parts and Democracy too.

 

[hamfist]

During my turns Huayna was offering Banking, a tech we need.
On the other hand we don't want to flip the captured Incan cities
back.

Which way do you lean? Towards accepting banking and killing Inca in 10 turns, or just killing him now to stop WW for a few turns and avoid the from homeland issues?

Banking will definitely help us get closer to rifles, but is also relatively low cost tech.