SGOTM 04 - Team VQ

[namliaM]

and

Revolting to HR will cause 2 turns of revolt and adding theocracy doesnt add a third turn so why not?
The 2 most important cities (Nadiros and Haithabu -the gold city-) have for sure our religion, making a good enough reason to keep it for now.

Spear + 100% + Culture defence + fortification is a good match for a WE. Atleast it is much better than an Archer or Axe....

I also must agree that (offensive) units right now takes just about precidence over anything to get back control over things, Birka is more than just commerce right now it is + as well that we are missing due to the gems. Which is why Yellow would be nice

 

[Cosmichail]

Why build a workshop near Nadiros when we have the Plains hill still unmined??? I think other than the hills we want basicaly cottages around Nadiros...

What the heck is this? We have a ton of unworked land and we build a workshop which pre guilds/chemistry yields zip. A poor use of our workers and although a mine would have been better but Nidaros probably couldn't work it anyways.

If/when we get Birka back we should settle Orange and Yellow ASAP too, while building up for Khaaan and defending on Gandhi,

mmmmm don't think so....4 cities (well five eventually) and only one really produces and tie it up with building settlers. Build offensive units until Khan is finished I'd say.

Again I say what is done is done but I had to vent there earlier. Looks like we are trying to fulfill the variant too early. PS: When I saw all those Triremes showing up and galleys I had a gut feeling Gandhi wasn't going to be an easy neighbour.

I could do a swap with Scowler if he can't play. I see our priorties as this:

1. Trade for Feudalsim/HBR (primary)
2. Trade for Currency/Calender (secondary)
3. Leave Uppsala as suggested with one of each and remainder join stack at Birka. That should be enough to take it back.
4. Build nothing but military in Nidaros during my turnset.
5. Revolt to HR/theocracy.
6. Get a few more workers so we can hook up those happy resources once we take back Birka. (maybe)

Whoever follows me can worry about settling but let's give Khan a bloody nose if we can. PS I won't be whipping at all our empire is so stunted it needs to grow and with HR can.

 

[healium]

I see that Healium is up too. Wow not the best time to start. At least if you are up to it Healium.

i´m recovering but not up to playing or typing long posts. right now i can sit for a couple minutes max. so i just look into the forum from time to time. the doc promised that i should get a lot better by next week. really looking forward to participating, but not possible right now.

 

[Cosmichail]

Some more thoughts on gameplay.....

Once we get HR we should be able to get Nidaros red face back to working and moving those workers to plains hill and mining will give us an extra 4 hammers in Nidaros hopefully bringing the speed of building say a sword from 3 turns to 2. At least if that's not the case there will be overflow to the next unit with the extra hammers. I feel that we should have the production superiority and should be able to subdue Gandhi and GK. (EDIT: Not sure but if we don't have forge in Nidaros we may want to get that and unfortunately the only way I think is whipping as we don't have time to let it build on it's own)

Getting back those two red faces in gold city (geez I keep forgetting the name) will deal with the starvation unhappy. I don't like seeing workers on the coast with fog there as Gandhi could just land a couple of units there too. They should be protected and will let the chariot finish in Iron city (forget that name too) DOH... and use that to protect workers.

I also notice too that GK has longbows. We are going to need a lot of cats for that episode. Depending on the promotion of course but can be problematic for swords.

Research wise once code of laws is done I think we should think about machinery. I don't think Hannibal will be the answer there. Even if we do remove the -3 religious negative iirc Hannibal won't trade until he's at least pleased. (I could be wrong but I do recall that with other civs like Ragnar for instance)

Now I won't play until Scowler wants a swap and glad to hear you are feeling somewhat better Healium. I can relate to pain since I have two artificial hips myself. (RA)

 

[namliaM]

mmmmm don't think so....4 cities (well five eventually) and only one really produces and tie it up with building settlers. Build offensive units until Khan is finished I'd say.

ASAP doesnt mean now... Gandhi first and I think we can mix in the two settlers after that...

1 & 2. Currency is a real high priority for me, atleast it will give us some extra $$$. HBR less so as we do not have the money to upgrade and HA's will take some time to produce. Also IMHO their use is pretty limited.
3. Perhaps leave an additional spear as Keshiks can move fast and can be a real pain if left alone.
4. Build nothing but military anywhere I guess...
5. MAYBE we can hold of on the revolt for a turn or 2 to save some cash. Build every unit to within 1 turn (i.e. dont finish the Catapult in Nadiros) and finish everything right after revolting to Theo. On the otherhand we need the units ASAP and waiting for HR .... not to long I think...
6. I think we still have our 7 workers (not sure), 7 is a good number and I think the gem-mines are still in tact. The only thing need doing is the Spice, and we need some units to COVER the workers while connecting it.

Whipping is THE way to get units out fast, i.e. Uppsala can grow fast with that corn. I do suggest bringing it along, just to make sure.
[rant]spoken like a true whipmaster??[/rant]

(EDIT: Not sure but if we don't have forge in Nidaros we may want to get that and unfortunately the only way I think is whipping as we don't have time to let it build on it's own)

No forge (anywhere) including Haithabu... A forge (with 1 turn of production) is a 4 pop whip!
At 20 (raw) hammers a turn we get 5 bonus hammers. At 180/5 = 36 turns to earn back the investment... Worth it? In the long run, offcourse, but right now I dont know... At the cost of 3 or 4 pop? I dont know.
If you do whip it try to MM it to just over the pop's, meaning just over 135 (4pop whip) or 90 hammers (3pop whip) left, this way we generate 40+ overflow which will get the 25% bonus.

On the swap, yes lets wait a day or so for input and/or Scowlers reaction. If there is no reaction in 18-24 hours from now I think we can move along and swap. Allowing you (cosmic) to play Thursday and possibly report, then allow us to look at things Friday comment, input and for scowler to play over the weekend.

 

[Scowler]

Cosmic, please take your turns now. I won't have time to focus on the game until the weekend, due to work.

 

[bobrath]

IMO, our cities are whipped as far down as I care to go. I don't think that whipping the forge out is a good trade off at this point. 4 pop is a *ton* of regrowth and pretty much neuters that city for the duration of this war with Khaaaan. <-- Exactly what we don't need.

I suggest leaving the forge for later.

 

[namliaM]

I suggest leaving the forge for later.

I think that is what I said too, except .... I took more words and left the option more open.... in the end...

Generaly speaking ... In a city producing 20 hpt will take 9 turns to build the forge then 36 turns to catch up to not building the forge. This is 45 turns at 20hpt = 900 hammers = 15 catapults to be produced which we sorely need now rather than 12 turns later for the next in 45 turns...

With Scowlers short but informative message...
Roster
namliaM -- +1 gmt (Actually 0 atm due to DST)
Greyfox -- +8 gmt
Maquis -- -7 gmt
Bobrath -- -5 gmt > Went and lost Birka
Healium -- +1 gmt -- Auto skip due to a Herniated disk *Good luck man* and be well
Scowler -- gmt > On deck for who know what with this game
Frankcor-- -5 gmt <Lurker>
Cosmichail -- -5gmt > Up for recovery??

 

[Cosmichail]

Thanks Scowler will play likely Thursday morning.

namliaM I concur about HBR in that we don't have the production "room" to build them so I won't worry about that unless we can get it as a bonus.

Research

So top priorty would be Feudalism/Currency/calendar which will get done.

Forges

As to forges forget it for now but I was just thinking that we have MC and with forge whipping is better but it's just too costly right now.

Operation Uppsala

Uppsala can grow fast with that corn. I do suggest bringing it along, just to make sure.

If you look that corn will be pillaged next turn by Keshik. He will die to our spear but our corn will be gone I'm sure. Uppsala is unhappy with whipping and grows in 1 turn. I am inclined even with whipping unhappy to go ahead and whip that spear. Since we will be in HR the happy factor will be offset by troops.

Operation Jelling

I also intend to remove the troops from Jelling and gather those forces in Uppsala with that axe. Leave the axe behind in Uppsala and once Gandhi razes Jelling take those forces out. Only problem is no spears over there but one on the way to Jelling iirc. Send the warrior to Haithabu for MP duty.

War Elephants

WE's can withstand spears fairly well in that it often takes two spears to take them out. Depending on spear promotion one with combat I will have like 70&#37; odds against WE. In warlords that pretty much death. I even find 90% a crapshoot these days and won't even risk generals at those high odds.

Revolting

Holding off I don't think we should do unless you can convince we should hold off. By revolting (2 turns of anarchy) we get those 3 red faces back in Nidaros and Haithabu. Uppsala can then be whipped and suffer no unhappy beyond it's pop. I am inclined to revolt on first turn but explain to me if I can do that better. Well actually second turn as I want the cat/spear to join forces. Whip spear and cat is ready in one turn.

Here's an idea to help our diplomatic situation:

Isabella's favourite civic is "theocracy" so that will help us with her.
Mehmed's favourite civic is "vassalage".

To get the extra XP points should we venture to revolting to HR/theocracy/vassalage to gain favour with Mehmed?

As we know these are cumulative and as time goes get better and better.

CR3 units much faster

By revolting to vassalage, HR, Theocracy our units will start out with 7 out of 10 XP points meaning in three battles will get to CR3 level. Although sometimes I think they get 2 points for a battle.

We will also get a GG much faster which is now at 18/30 and I suggest we use him for a super healer since we are up against longbows. Once we get to bureaucracy we can change that again.

Ok the benefits of vassalage:

1. better relationship with Mehmed (we need some friends right now)
2. 7 free units
3. Units will get to CR3 level faster and GG will pop sooner too

Once we get GG we will be able to build HE but hold off on that too since I feel the only thing we should build for the next ten turns is military. Where do we want that. Nidaros with forge is already producing quite well maybe HE should go into Haithabu.

Again I am not playing until Thursday morning in order for the team to have some input.

@Bobrath I wasn't complaining at you in particular about HR if anything I understand but I just didn't understand why we didn't do it 25 turns ago. 25 turns of extra happy would have made all the difference in how our empire would look now.

As to the workshop at Nidaros I too understand that when one is under attack the old panic button lights up and we don't make the best decisions under those circumstances. I have done silly things during an invasion too and wondered WTH.

Good stuff on nearing to get the circumnavigate bonus. That will make a big difference in our sea faring abilities. Only if we had some ships to practice with. We are a sea faring people and have what 2 ships. Gandhi is a landlover and he has 6 ships sitting at our shores.

Research

After COL I think going for Machinery/Optics should be next. Optics will give us caravels and we then can sink some of Gandhi's ships.

Production

Nidaros has producton base production of 21 hammers. Once red face is gone work another plains mine +4 hammers= 25 base production. It will still take three turns for first unit lets sword at 60 hammers but the second unit will take 2. 3X25=75 hammers overflow=15 next sword at 60-15=45-50=5 overflow.

Haithabu/Borgevin (the guy that used to play ABBA lol) can potentially offer better production by some workers builds.

Haithabu

Once workers are done with plains farm move them to grass hill and mine one of them. Base hammers there 7 + 3 + 1 from grass mine/plains farm eventually = 11 base hammers. Build archers in 4 turns. (this city needs another farm at some point) (second thought may just move workers to plain hills there too and mine that in that case 7+4+1 = 12 base hammers) If we do that and have HE there axes/swords/cats/spears would build in three turns there.

Same goes for Borgevin so once those workers are done there move them to Borgevin and add another mine.

Longbows

Longbows are expensive at 75 hammers and since we are on the offensive I don't think we should bother for now and the only real benefit from Feudalism is vassalage. Normally I never use this civic (too expensive) but under these circumstances I think it will give us a considerable boost and improve relations with Mehmed.

Downside of vassalage

Maybe having 7 free units saves us money but yet vassalage is an expensive civic so science will likely suffer. It is pertinent to take back Birka as without it our economy blows. Our science is going to drop to 40% or lower but once Jelling is razed that will change a bit. 0% research only yields 17 gold so any units we acquire is thru whipping/building and whipping isn't an option I think for Nidaros. Uppsala I will whip that spear and am not waiting for extra XP points for the cat/spear as they will gain experience in the battlefield or die.

Once things calm down Nidaros is a prime candidate for forge which with those hammers can build in 8 turns (25 base hammers). So base hammers of 25 plus 25% bonus from forge=31 hammers building swords/axes/cats/spear in two turns. So we should at some point think about this but I would prefer we had a semi strong production city to take the slack whilst Nidaros build forge. (not right now but later) Haithabu seems to the city to do that but again we need a 3f farm there to get more production.

So bottom line on civics:

*Vassalage/theocracy/HR = 3 turns of anarchy
(we have enough troops to hold off until then)
Theocracy/HR = 2 turns of anarchy

*bonus here is the extra XP points faster GG/CR3 units and better relations with Mehmed.

EDIT: With currency our economy will improve so vassalage wouldn't sting as hard other than the 1 turn of anarchy. We will have anarchy for bureaucracy so we are only talking about 1 turn here.

 

[namliaM]

GG Points I thought were only earned by battle XP not by barracks or civics... The benifits of Vassalage I dont know, yes we earn browny points... But we lose production capacity from Buro. More units is better than fewer (better promoted) units. And with Theocracy alone we get the 2nd promotion anyway. the +2 for vassalage goes towards an earlier 3rd promotion....
I dont think we need/want vassalage.

Abandoning Jelling might well be the thing to do, it will get taking anyway. It saves in a couple of ways... We save troops and Gandhi no get no XPs.
I am hoping for gandhi to hold on to Jelling as his land city from where he can send troops to capture the rest of our empire (if/when the time comes )

WEs on offence vs a combat 1 spear should be on the down side of the odds. Yes 70&#37; might be right... damned thing on offence is that the Spear will never be vs the WE but rather Axe or somesort.
Still Spear > Axe in our case on defence....

Holding of on revolting would save us a few turns of upkeep, maybe... It was just an option to throw out there. Feel free to ignore it... As for building/finishing units prior to revolting, that is one thing I wouldnt do. XPs... why waste them if it is a 2 turn delay in production?

IIRC you get 2 xps on battles with less than 98% probable win chance, xps go up as probabilites go down 10xp is the cap on any one battle again IIRC.

HE IIRC is a marble small wonder, we should not start it any time soon and/or untill we can get that Marble back up. We can choose and pick at that time...
GG I am allways torn between +2 XP for more units or one super unit. For now I think short term is our goal, this would fit the healer/super unit vs the instructor.

 

[Cosmichail]

But we lose production capacity from Buro.

I know it's late there and maybe you didn't read my entire post but we don't even have CS yet????????? So no buro bonus geez if we had that we'd have production of 30 some odd hammers there pumping out swords every two turns. Pay attention now there is a test later......

I am hoping for gandhi to hold on to Jelling as his land city from where he can send troops to capture the rest of our empire (if/when the time comes )

Aaaah it's only 1 pop doesn't it autoraze.

As for building/finishing units prior to revolting, that is one thing I wouldnt do. XPs... why waste them if it is a 2 turn delay in production?

I agree but am worried that Gandhi may land more troops. He has three galleys sitting there and thanks to the warlords patch we haven't got a clue what's there. Since you are captain I will respect your opinion here and hold off. Like you said more units better than fewer promoted ones. (mmm kind of contradicting yourself here)

IIRC you get 2 xps on battles with less than 98&#37; probable win chance, xps go up as probabilites go down 10xp is the cap on any one battle again IIRC.

Learned something new thank you. And you're probably right about XP's so we have like 12 to go for GG. I have to watch that to know for sure unless you are absolutely sure about it. Of course the creators of Civ IV never thought to make that info available in civipedia.

HE IIRC is a marble small wonder, we should not start it any time soon and/or untill we can get that Marble back up. We can choose and pick at that time...

Of course again you didn't read my entire post (I put a lot of work into that but I am guilty of not always reading all your posts either)

GG I am allways torn between +2 XP for more units or one super unit. For now I think short term is our goal, this would fit the healer/super unit vs the instructor.

I personally never settle them and always use them as generals. Why because I just love generals. Much like the armies I so much miss from CivIII. Keeping an advance going is much more important I think then a few points.

Diplomacy

Here we go again:

Isabella with theocracy will gain positive points and should be able to do some negotiating.

Mehmed on the other hand will slip easily the other way and we loose another trade partner. (actually I am surprised he will trade at cautious) That vassalage bonus will keep him on our side for a bit longer. But if you feel that isn't worth and have only Isabella as trading partner which too will slip into negative points then I'm fine with it. Washington doesn't like Mehmed and vice versa so if we trade with Mehmed Washington gets negative. So keeping Mehmed on our side for a bit longer may get us some more techs. As you know those type of civics cumulate over time and Mehmed can be a teching civ too. If we knew for sure that Hannibal would trade at cautious then NSR may be the way to go and use vasslage for XP points. Of course then we don't gain bonus with Isabella for theocracy but loose the religion negative.

At this point I am inclined to do the vassalge/theo/HR as it doesn't slow down unit production BECAUSE WE AREN"T EVEN IN BURO HELLOOOOOOO

EDIT: I can't believe I double checked again. That damn mod too adds to the time to load the game. Just to give you an idea of how bad our base commerce is CS in 43 turns. NOT GOOD....

As to research I forget that Compass is needed and probably good to go for next for the harbors but then we don't have the umph to build them. I still like this path=Machinery-compass-optics... Yes please provide input although it doesn't matter as with 3 turns of anarchy and 6 turns of COL which will drop it will be up to Scowler.

 

[bobrath]

Those three galleys dropped of the invasion force north of Jelling. So there may still be units in one of them, but I don't know.

I do like the idea of making the trade for feudalism and then doing the triple civic revolt. I'm hoping its only 2 turns for all three instead of 3 turns, but ymmv.

 

[Maquis]

Aaaah it's only 1 pop doesn't it autoraze.

It might, but I don't remember exactly how culture works into the equation... I think that even a size 1 city will not autoraze, if there is enough culture in it??

 

[Cosmichail]

I thought if one recaptures a city that has any culture from previous ownership then a 1 pop city does not autoraze. In this case Gandhi has no culture invested in Jelling so I think it will autoraze. I could be wrong as I have had that happen with barb cities where I thought it would autoraze but it didn't? (1 pop)

If it doesn't, better yet as it will give Gandhi something to garrison (committing troops) and more time for us to re group and kick him off the island. Although I wasn't crazy about Jelling having a good look at it with the right combo of farms/mines it may be a good production center for us.

 

[namliaM]

don't even have CS yet?????????

Uhm, my mistake?! I ussually have CS way before I can consider going to vassalage... In this case bigger is better As in we are probably running the default civic in that category, and Vassalage is probably (much) better even if more expensive.

Aaaah it's only 1 pop doesn't it autoraze.

Nope it doesnt IIRC any city that has popped its borders (once) for any of its (previous) owners is not going to be autorazed. If it is razed it should be a decision of Gandhi's

I agree but am worried that Gandhi may land more troops.

If what bob said is true, I am willing to bet he has to go back for more.

Learned something new thank you. And you're probably right about XP's so we have like 12 to go for GG.

I am not sure, but nearly. I have never seen general XP go up from just building units. Any generals I have had born will have been from battles and not on the inner turn from building (yet) another unit. Ergo I am 99% certain.

Of course again you didn't read my entire post

NOT guilty your honor
I allways read all the posts all the time, just dont pick up on everything all the time, I guess. In any case it more so confirming than anything else.

I personally never settle them and always use them as generals.

Well its a personal thing. But beeing able to build 5XP units in peace civics (no Vass or Theo) is a biggy. Getting CR or CG2 from the get go in your HE city really helps in keeping the advance going as you have more advanced units. CR2 is really (IMHO) that much better than CR1, further it improves the survival rate of your units, lowering the number you need to keep the advance going

BECAUSE WE AREN"T EVEN IN BURO HELLOOOOOOO

Yeah yeah yeah, bla bla bla
As far as I am concerned, HR/Vass/Theo it is.

Tech wize, I think we want atleast Machinery next after CoL for the XBows. We can see after that what we need/want and/or can or cannot trade for.

@Bob or anyone who know it.... ymmv???

 

[Cosmichail]

I wondered too namliaM ymmv...believe or not I actually went looking in the forum for an explanation but got impatient.

It's good to know about Jelling as that will give us the opportunity to regroup as Gandhi will be tied up with garrisoning.

As for generals I only use them as generals when I have the necessary XP points and of course if I am stuck in NSR I will settle them but that's rare as 90&#37; of the time I have theocracy/religion and some buddies. I just hate, hate fighting with single promoted units. Like you say CR2 is much, much better than CR1. I did play a game where I settled like 3 generals/west point and pentagon. Now that rocked. (Just an attempt to get super ships as I always build west point in coastal production city)

As to reading posts I am glad you read them but mine didn't sink in as I did mention once we get to Buro we could change again. I tend to scan over them and look for the most major points. So apoligies and hopefully apoligies accepted Captain Needa.

So we are in agreement theo/HR/vassalage and hopefully Mehmed will stay with us long enough.

Here's another thought whilst I was looking at the map. We have found all the civs (7 right) but what about all that fog above those civs. There must be another landmass and hopefully not inhabited except for barbs. Maybe Gyathaar gave us a place to start over. So tech path wise Machinery/compass/optics will give us some idea what's up there.

 

[namliaM]

Wow cosmic, you are up early (or late) ...

YMMV on wiki as far as I can cather it mean something that he things it is 3 turns anarchy but when you actually do it things may be different...

Another landmass??? Like an earth map... a new world... Hmz... this would make Astronomy even more important IMHO.
Tho...

Rivals - 7 civs including Gandhi (who is locked in war with Ragnar)

Ghandi
Khaaan
Hannibal
Washington
Isabella
Mehmed
Thats 6, we are missing 1 arent we?? Or do we count as a rival/civ as well? We are a civ thats for sure, but are we a rival?

 

[bobrath]

Yup, ymmv = "your mileage may vary" and paraphrased nicely by namliam.

I think # of turns of anarchy depends on your tech age, number of civics changing, the age of the game, and other unknown items. I'd like to hope the triple civic switch is only 2 turns, but it may end up being 3.

 

[namliaM]

IIRC anarchy is governed by ~ of cities, # of pop and game speed. Not by age you are in, tho... there is offcourse a direct relation in pop count and age.... It is unlikely you have 20 cities at 20 pop in the ancient age, while in the modern times... quite possible...

 

[Cosmichail]

As discussed the first thing we do is make some trades. I make a smoke by trading with Washington but didn’t understand why Washington doesn’t get negative for trading with Mehmed but the other way around it does. This is the bad news as such but there is plenty of good news to follow and there maybe why and wherefores but I have to say that I had to continuously shuffle workers out of harms way making their position now look like poor planning.

Trade with Mehmed which I didn’t like giving him construction/theology as that’s like handing someone a loaded gun. It was either MC/theology or const/theology so I opted for the least beakers.

And this trade again skewed but what else is new. At least now we can hook up spices/sugar now. Too bad for losing the Stonehenge effect but time to move on I guess.

The smoke deal but due to bonus from trading/civic Mehmed did stay cautious.
(why didn’t I go to Isabella I just didn’t want to give her Feudalism for HBR) and why even bother with HBR? We will need it eventually for knights and Nidaros with 25 base hammers can build them in 3 turns. We should have a few around just for fast advancement in the event of an attack. Don’t worry we still can build chariots but they won’t be much good soon. I am of the “get what you can while you can get it” mentality.

I pretty much cringed when I saw the -4 trading with worst enemy but Washington is the only civ now pleased with us so that’s a bonus.

And now the hard part leaving those units to build with new civics or get them out now to join battle. I normally would have just got them out but our illustrious leader influenced me not to. Risky I think since we didn’t know what is in those galleys but nonetheless I follow orders like a good General. In hindsight I wish I had as GK showed up with two Keshiks. I forget to whip that darn spear too and start the revolution.
Vassalage/theocracy/hereditary rule.

Those were the hardest three turns I have had to endure in a long time. We do remove those troops from Jelling and put them on the hill. Then hit enter and wait for the explosions…..

We got this power report to make us feel good about our empire. I was very happy as I have found those are skewed too counting power in walls/castles and not troops alone so I don’t really give them a lot of merit. But it was reassuring to see that we are fulfilling the variant. (Losing hee hee)

Well I won’t keep you wondering did Jelling survive? It didn’t Gandhi razed it. He also attacked the axe/warrior on the hill but they stood a better chance there than in the city with no defenses. They both died but the elephant was wounded. We have spears around but the odds are terrible. (one was 67.1% and if we win that I buy champagne)

530 ad

One turn left in anarchy and the RNG God is kind to us today. We kill two WE’s and kill another Keshik but loose one spear to Keshik. I was delightfully surprised by this and some spears have formation now which give them 90% plus odds so those Keshiks are toast now. Not sure how well they will do against WE’s but we’ll see.

I also keep watching for getting peace with GK so that we can get our armies organized and fight on our terms.

545ad -605ad

For the most part just getting troops to Birka and taking out the troops left at Jelling. One lbm is wandering around Uppsala but I left a sword there to keep him at bay. Also Uppsala is building a cat so that when he does get out into the open to pillage we hit him with a combat cat and finish if with sword if he looses. For a while he just stood at Uppsala waving at our citizens.

Whipped a spear in Uppsala which has formation and took out a Keshik rather easily.

Here’s the good news so we can focus now on getting Birka back. I felt making peace with GK was needed so we could regroup and go after him once the 10 turns expires.

Now not all might agree with this but we need to get Uppsala corn/marble back for the city to help in this war. That longbow is still pestering us at Uppsala but not much I can do whilst he hides in the forest.

We also trade dyes for gold with Isabella. Happy for happy but we didn’t have something else to offer. We were very close to happy cap in Haithabu however that is now somewhat alleviated and it can now grow a bit. (probably from previous whipping)

I was itching to take Birka but with one cat just too risky. But take a look at this I almost ventured with what we had but decided against it after some thought. Why does AI put ships in city just to be wiped out when taken. Not very smart. It really made me want to attack to get rid of those and keep Gandhi away for a bit but couldn’t. ARGH…..

We also pop a GG and his name Pachachuti me thinks. Well he’s now a chariot super medic and decided on chariot so he’d never be in front line of defense.

(mmm there’s no way we got 12 points of XP during this time since I haven’t even attacked Birka yet. So now I wonder if it’s only XP points during battle)

Genghis also asks to trade wine for gems but decline. It won’t be long before we’re back at him again so why bother and we don’t need the happy now.

620ad

The battle of Birka

We only loose two cats in the process and take out his fleet too. That should keep him at bay for a bit. I did notice a sword heading for our gems but he turned backed after we took Birka back. Those gems need protecting and see where that sword is too as he must be leftover from the landing. What surprised me too was Gandhi sent a sword towards our corn at Haithabu earlier but when I got an axe nearby he turned back. Whew…

635ad

We discover COL and start on machinery. Oh the good news well one was the Gandhi’s fleet was sunk without using a ship and our science is now much better. We can research now at 80% (small deficit) for machinery in 12 turns. Nidaros is actually working a cottage and pumping out 25 base hammers. Whilst we have a breather we should build a forge there now.

Our ship continues to try for circumnavigate bonus but we run into this road block:

Brennus is always annoyed and part of the Buddhist block. I turned the ship back but in hindsight if we gift him a tech he might open borders long enough for us to get thru there.

Last minute worries:

Yep he’s got maces so it’s nice he’s far away. I think he may have his hands full with the Buddhist block so nearby but all the more need for machinery at least. Berserkers even better but we need to avoid CS to lightbulb Astro which I think at this point we should forget. What got to me during this game was the jungle is really slowing down troops especially when the enemy blocks the way. Although 7 workers are good I think we need a few more for road duty/jungle removal.

End of turn notes for next player:

4 workers are starting to farm the corn at Uppsala and a spear is heading there to protect them.

One worker is on the way to Birka (at Haithabu) and one is already there ready to get started on the spices. Two are left at Nidaros finishing another cottage and should be moved to Birka. (done in 1 turn). Watch for the longbow that is near the farm which may say why not a cottage. Well when we lost the corn I wanted Uppsala to have something to work so it wouldn’t starve. Only temporary and nothing much workers could whilst we were under attack.

Whilst the Keshiks were running around the workers also built a quarry on marble. It isn’t roaded as once I could get corn farmed again I rushed workers over there. I think we’d be better to maybe leave two workers behind to road up the marble so we can build the HE. (Haithabu??) The remaining two workers should head to Birka and get the spices/sugar on line.

We do have a fair army now in Birka so I think a few Triremes may be in order for next builds in Nidaros and maybe do some scouting of Gandhi’s land. If we do that never send just one ship always send them in pairs as the AI usually does. We should get some intel on Gandhi and understand his capabilities. (production wise). He’s the most powerful at the beginning of the game but he lost 3 elephants/sword/axe/three galleys/two Triremes. Now that’s gotta hurt.

Good luck Scowler things are better now.

HOF autolog:

Spoiler :

b]Turn 200 (500 AD)[/b]
Tech learned: Currency
Tech learned: Feudalism
Tech learned: Calendar
Jelling razed by Indian Empire
Jelling lost
Axeman loses to: Indian War Elephant (6.72/8)
Warrior loses to: Indian Longbowman (6.00/6)

Turn 201 (515 AD)
Tech learned: Horseback Riding
Catapult promoted: City Raider I
Chariot promoted: Medic I

Turn 202 (530 AD)
Spearman promoted: Combat II
Spearman promoted: Combat II
Spearman defeats (1.72/4): Indian War Elephant
Spearman defeats (0.96/4): Indian War Elephant
Spearman defeats (0.60/4): Mongolian Keshik
Spearman loses to: Mongolian Keshik (6.00/6)

Turn 203 (545 AD)
Spearman promoted: Formation
Spearman promoted: Formation
Nidaros finishes: Catapult
Uppsala grows: 4
Uppsala finishes: Spearman
Haithabu finishes: Archer

Turn 204 (560 AD)
Nidaros begins: Catapult
Uppsala begins: Spearman
Haithabu begins: Catapult
Spearman promoted: Combat II
Spearman promoted: Formation
Spearman defeats (2.20/4): Mongolian Keshik
Bjørgvin finishes: Chariot

Turn 205 (575 AD)
Bjørgvin begins: Catapult

Turn 206 (590 AD)
Uppsala begins: Catapult
Nidaros grows: 10
Nidaros finishes: Catapult
Bjørgvin grows: 4

Turn 207 (605 AD)
Nidaros begins: Swordsman
War ends: Mongolian Empire

Turn 208 (620 AD)
Swordsman promoted: Combat II
Catapult loses to: Indian War Elephant (8.00/8)
Catapult loses to: Indian War Elephant (5.60/8)
Pachacuti (Great General) born in Haithabu
Catapult defeats (2.90/5): Indian War Elephant
Swordsman defeats (3.84/6): Indian Axeman
Swordsman defeats (2.76/6): Indian Swordsman
Birka's borders expand
Hinduism has spread: Birka
Captured Birka (Gandhi)
Birka begins: Walls
Tech learned: Code of Laws
Nidaros finishes: Swordsman
Haithabu finishes: Catapult

Turn 209 (635 AD)
Research begun: Machinery
Nidaros begins: Catapult
Haithabu begins: Catapult
Pachacuti (Chariot) promoted: Lead by Warlord
Pachacuti (Chariot) promoted: Medic II
Pachacuti (Chariot) promoted: Medic III
Contact made: Celtic Empire
Haithabu finishes: Catapult

Turn 210 (650 AD)
Haithabu begins: Longbowman

CFC autolog/save to follow