SGOTM 05 - Misfits

[cnwjr]

Here is some miscellaneous brainstorming I was doing.

SoD hitlist:
1) Kulhapur, Thracian, Bangalore
2) Madras, Bombay
3) Santiago, Calcutta

SoD Composition:
5 Riflemen/Grenadier combo, 4 cavalry, 15 cannons = 24 units.
Plus 8 galleons & 6 frigates escort/bombardment

Current inventory:
4 Knights, 10 Cavalry, 14 Canons, 11 Grenadiers, 1 Rifleman, 10 galleons, 12 Frigates.

For 3 SoD, we need to build 16 Canons, 14 galleons, 6 Frigates, 3 Riflemen, 2 Cavalry.

Currently producing:
5 Canons, 6 Cavalry, 1 Galleon, 2 Riflemen, 2 Grenadiers.

We will be getting a GP in Beijing this next turn. Probably a GProphet. If so, put him to work as a Great Citizen in Beijing for production. If GE, save for Scotland Yard. GS Academy in Ning-hsia. GM, send off to Cyrus for gold.

We also need to check out the southern part of the mainland. Izzy's old territory likely has a number of cities as well. We will want to try to get the coastal ones at least.

Comments? Changes?

 

[cnwjr]

Do we keep holy cities and/or wonders? Or raze away. Remember the risk of recapture and revolt and the loss of troops as defenders.

After taking out the main coastal cities, the SoD move inland. Taking out the coastal cities should severely cripple production of anti-shipping. Cyrus is a small threat, of course, but we can't do it all at once. Continue to build units after reaching minimum goals. Either to reinforce or prepare additional SoD.

If stuck in a hex without a move available, pillage. Don't split up stacks. Leave at most one or two defenders on a healing stack. Try to not leave units behind healing. Speaking of which, remember to get at least one medic in each stack. Preferably one that won't get killed off. Maybe build a few explorers to give healing promotions to. Have to cut something from the SoD to do this, so I'd prefer a combat unit with medic.

Reminder: Don't put units preparing in Cyrus's territory. I don't recall when he can DoW or break open borders us after we DoW Asoka, but we don't want to get kicked well outside of range. Keep invasions fleets in a single hex for mutual defense. Though we 'might' be able to bring the units already on the mainland to Asoka's borders via Cyrus's territory. If so, we need a few fewer galleons and this will probably change the sequence on the SoD list above.

 

[Mastiff_of_Ar]

I'm playing this set very slowly to get all this input. I have an idea regarding your reminder about Cy's territory. If we put a stack in Alexland, then DoW on Asoka, we can hit him from the south. Once we move into Asoka's territory, we make peace with Alex. He doesn't seem to have open borders with anyone, so they'd have to go around or declare on him.

So, Alex may have some use after all...

 

[cnwjr]

Staying at war with Alex while we build up enough to attack Asoka will cost us heavily in unhappiness and research/production. Either kill him off or make peace with him.

I feel it is far more important to kill off his coastal cities first. They are also generally much most useful to him than those close to Alex. We also can not DoW until all three stacks are ready. We need a knockout punch, not a nibble.

 

[Mastiff_of_Ar]

Then perhaps peace is the answer... he's kind of a block between us our victims.

 

[cnwjr]

Hmm. My brain was a bit fried when I did the brainstorming. We need 31 new canons, not 16. My bad.

We are building up to tear down Asoka. Even if we can't win by conquest/domination, if we knock Asoka down we might still get a score win. This might only be good enough for a wooden spoon, but that's better than losing to the computer.

Of course, even once we start the SoD's a-movin', we keep building and might get one or two more to go after Cyrus and/or Toku. Cyrus as long as he wars with us. We will probably lose Alex's old cities as we destroy Asoka's.

Mastiff, go ahead and play. Make goody with Alex. Build lots of combat units. Put them aboard ships and get them to open ocean near Asoka's coastal cities. Have fun.

 

[Mastiff_of_Ar]

I keep getting called away because of work. I hate when it interferes with my Civving... I put up a save, even though only a couple turns have been played. I won't get to it until late tomorrow or Sunday, and I don't want to hold people up.

If no one plays it, I'll be happy to get after it this week-end, though! I'm enjoying my first SGOTM, even though we haven't done so great...

Mf

 

[Mastiff_of_Ar]

Log:

Turn 492, 1882 AD: The borders of Samarqand have expanded!
Turn 492, 1882 AD: Sidon has grown to size 10
Turn 492, 1882 AD: Sidon has become unhappy
Turn 492, 1882 AD: Ramakrishna has been born in Beijing!
Turn 492, 1882 AD: You have trained a Work Boat in Corinth. Work has now begun on a Granary.
Turn 492, 1882 AD: The borders of Delphi have expanded!

 

[cnwjr]

Well, there aren't a lot of decisions to be made at present. That assumes, of course, that everyone kinda agrees with my attack plan? So anyone can play out the construction of troops.

I believe Maro is next up?

I have no objections to waiting, but last I heard officially, the game ends with the end of October. We still have around 170 turns to play out. That means 10 turns times 17 sets in 26 days. I don't really see us winning before the last turn on points. We can do a bit better if we play out 15 turns a set, but it takes (me at least) several hours to do one turnset... at least during wartime, which is probably going to be most of the remainder of the game.

 

[Piko]

a lot of teams i doubt may finish? i guess we wont know, perhaps it has been hard for everyone and they lost some interest? oh the plan is good cnwjr, sweet by me, though i have to say, a backup SoD of cannons to replace those lost may be very useful? I know when i attack, i use the cannons to weaken to a level where i have higher odds for my unit attacks, so high cannon use means maintained fighting force... however, if he sends a SoD up against a unit stack can hurt, though hitting him hard enough he will go into defencive mode?

Also keeping one city may be ok for somewhere to heal units, only thing is you know he will try to take it back... could be a good way to milk out some of his units from behind cities defence... then when his stack gets near? cannon, cannon cannon slam! . could also be a waste of time but

 

[Mastiff_of_Ar]

I can try and get back to it tonight, but I'll be home pretty late.

 

[cnwjr]

I expect that we will be lucky if each SoD manages to take out more than 2-3 cities each. Asoka just has too great a lead. The big goal is to cut his score and slow him down. We are fairly close to him in score (combine with barbs remember). We will of course need to keep building attackers.

Also, I figure 2-4 canons should wound most of the defenders enough for the other 'attack' type units to take out the defenders. Another 2-4 might be necessary to reduce city defenses first. That's one reason for 15 canons to a stack.

Priority should be killing the cities before killing his stacks. If we lose every unit but one taking a city, we still profit in the long run.

I will be busy much of this weekend and will certainly not be able to play. I may have little time even for comments.

 

[marowaker]

I don't know if Mastiff is still playing or not, but it seems I am up now. Mastiff can complete his turns if he wants to but I don't mind, I can't play right now anyway.

How much population do we have? Maybe we can try for Dimplomatic victory.

I think we should keep it at 10 turns and just try to make 1 set a day or 2 if we are lucky. We are busy in a middle of a warring phase anyway.

 

[cnwjr]

Diplomatic is extremely unlikely. Asoka is first in population and land. We are not really liked well enough by anyone due to our barb allies.

One thing we 'might' have to watch out for is Asoka getting a back door victory of some kind... such as cultural.

 

[Mastiff_of_Ar]

Go ahead and play a set, Maro.... Life got real complicated for a couple days. I should be ready for my next set, though.

 

[Piko]

yes it my be a good idea to check victory conditions and see how close asoka is to cultural, india is well known for it.

 

[marowaker]

As the Maintenance Thread has already stated, you can't load SGOTM 5 saves if you have 3.13, which I have before I saw the warning. So, put me on skip until I fix this.

 

[cnwjr]

Well, as the two people ahead of me have both passed, I will play out the turnset. Also, I have noticed on the maintenance thread that the end of October seems to be final. A number of teams have apparently already finished. Not surprising.

I will play the turnset today. As we have 163 turns to play in 24 days I will play out 20 turns. It looks like we need to play about 20 turns at a time every three days. We can't let another entire week go by with only a single turn played.

It looks like we have positioned troops to take out Alex, so I will do so after I pillage around him. We can't keep the city and don't need to give good terrain away.

 

[Piko]

alrighty then. 20 turns is fine, yer i know our first major error in this game was not going direct for saladin from the start but we learn these things, we got too carried away by getting the pyramids that we made a crucial mistake

 

[cnwjr]

Actually, I think our first error was in the location of settling our second city. The stone and surroundings were more important to getting the early stonehenge than getting copper in place was - especially since we were alone on the island.

Also, though I want to check out the other SGOTM after we finish, I think we spent too much time building buildings rather than troops. From what I have been reading, war is more important as you progress up the ladder of difficulty.

It was still fun though. And I want to try to finish by the deadline even if all we can qualify for is the wooden spoon.