SGOTM 08 - XTeam

[leif erikson]

Thinking Versailles and the Minaret might be problems, but right now only India can build them (and hope it does). Are there any other world wonders early in the tech chain that we haven't built?

Perhaps tomorrow I can find some time to do a wonder inventory, what has been built, what is available to be built and what we think the AI has little chance of building?

BTW, with Military Science our six maces can become powerful CR2,3 grenadiers and would be quite helpful against Caesar's WEs.

I have been thinking of this a bit too. Not sure how it will affect our end date. If victory is the bottleneck, then I think it will be worth it. CR2 and 3 Grens with Cannons will be hard to beat. A Pike with each stack might also do the trick?

 

[ShannonCT]

Do you have to stop building WP if your 26+ promoted unit (It is 26, not 27, isn't it?) is killed? If so, then it might be better to promote the CR2 cat near Nuremburg that can at least continue to bombard. If we promote that cat to 3CR plus 2 collateral damage promotions, it would be very helpful later against a city like Rome once it's upgraded to a cannon.

As soon as we get a 5-promo unit, WP is unlocked and it can't be locked again.

SCT, why are you making Vienne more of a priority than Durnovaria? If we are hoping for a fast capitulation (and I'm not saying we should be), shouldn't we go after the low hanging fruit first?

Durnovaria would be easier to take. It has 20% defenses and three units (1 LB, 1 mace, 1 GW). I was thinking that Vienne is closer to other cities we might want to capture, but you're probably right that we could get capitulation by capturing Tolosa, Dernovaria, Camul, and Aachen (with the Buddhist shrine).

Conquest could be faster than Dom'n. Boudica may offer capitulation fairly soon, so we may need to decide soon. Would like to know what kind of, and how many, units Augustus and Pericles have. What about sending our spy to find out?

Yes, let's scout Augustus.

I'm tending to agree about Domination being too slow. Conquest or backdoor-Diplo should both be faster with capitulations. We need to capture Aachen before vassalizing Boudica though, so after capturing Nurembueg, our slow stack should go there.

 

[ShannonCT]

BTW, with Military Science our six maces can become powerful CR2,3 grenadiers and would be quite helpful against Caesar's WEs.

Wouldn't cannons do the same job as Grens?

Grens would be nice too but I'm not sure they're worth the cost of researching Military Science (2990 beakers) and the cost of upgrading (540 gold = 900 beakers).

 

[Cactus Pete]

Wouldn't cannons do the same job as Grens? Not really, but they will certainly prove sufficient. Question is how much slower without Grens.

Grens would be nice too but I'm not sure they're worth the cost of researching Military Science (2990 beakers) and the cost of upgrading (540 gold = 900 beakers).

Mace to Grens is now 540 gold? Wasn't aware of that. Have to have a real need to justify such expense. The Pentagon procurement office must have worked out the deal.

BTW, we can get Caesar's map for 5 gold and preumably locate the GW.

 

[ShannonCT]

Mace to Grens is now 540 gold? Wasn't aware of that. Have to have a real need to justify such expense. The Pentagon procurement office must have worked out the deal.

540 is for all 6 maces.

BTW, we can get Caesar's map for 5 gold and preumably locate the GW.

I don't think you can see where the Great Wall is since it doesn't show up as a building in any city. But we know it was built either in Cumae or Antium.

 

[ShannonCT]

I was looking around the forums and found some posts about people having a hard time getting capitulation from AI that already have vassals themselves. Capturing Vienne+ might be necessary.

Edit: Also note that without capturing Vienne, Bibracte can't use its corn or gold mine.

We can prepare the way for capturing Durnovaria by bombarding with our frigate and then sending in 3 Cuirs when such a force is available. The LB in Durno is CG3 and the mace is Combat2. Victory chance of Combat2 Cuirs against those 2 units (assuming airship attack) is 87% and 90% respectively.

I suggest our frigate starts moving around Durno's borders this turn. If we declare war next turn, frigate heads toward Tolosa, but takes one shot at Durno on the way. Then for the next few turns, it bombards Tolosa until we're ready to attack there. Then back to Durno to finish the bombing. After those battles, the frigate can get into position to bomb Indian cities, along with new frigates being produced elsewhere.

 

[Cactus Pete]

I was looking around the forums and found some posts about people having a hard time getting capitulation from AI that already have vassals themselves. Capturing Vienne+ might be necessary.
Edit: Also note that without capturing Vienne, Bibracte can't use its corn or gold mine. Then we need to at least move some seige units with escorts (fearing HA attack) towards Vienne with all deliberate speed once the SOD is dealt with.

We can prepare the way for capturing Durnovaria by bombarding with our frigate and then sending in 3 Cuirs when such a force is available. I suggest our frigate starts moving around Durno's borders this turn. If we declare war next turn, frigate heads toward Tolosa, but takes one shot at Durno on the way. Then for the next few turns, it bombards Tolosa until we're ready to attack there. Then back to Durno to finish the bombing. After those battles, the frigate can get into position to bomb Indian cities, along with new frigates being produced elsewhere.

Like that.

"I don't think you can see where the Great Wall is since it doesn't show up as a building in any city. But we know it was built either in Cumae or Antium." Are they the only Roman cities with walls? Thinking it might be listed with its city in the Worlds Best Cities and Wonders graph section at upper right once we had the map.

Are there any random events that we should create some form of insurance against? (When I click on MXLs in Assets, as directed, lines of uninterpretable symbols and a few insufficient lines of English is all I get. Am I missing a piece of software?)

$540 for 6 grens is good value. Think MS should at least remain under consideration.

 

[ShannonCT]

Are they the only Roman cities with walls? Thinking it might be listed with its city in the Worlds Best Cities and Wonders graph section at upper right once we had the map.

Rome is the only Roman city that shows up in the World's best screen and it only has the AP. The GW has to be in Cumae or Antium then because those are the only other cities surrounded by the GW. Getting Augustus's map won't tell us anything that our current map doesn't already tell us.

Are there any random events that we should create some form of insurance against? (When I click on MXLs in Assets, as directed, lines of uninterpretable symbols and a few insufficient lines of English is all I get. Am I missing a piece of software?)

You shouldn't have any trouble opening XML files if you use Wordpad. Ori's list of events is much easier to read though.

 

[leif erikson]

$540 for 6 grens is good value. Think MS should at least remain under consideration.

I agree that we should consider Military Science, particularly if we think that the bottleneck for this will be victory condition.

If we do not lose too many units and have the forces available, nearly all of Gandhi's cities could fall in a couple of turns.
They are located near the sea...

I've attached a spreadsheet with the current status of wonders. I used the old one that listed all the wonders and what was required to build them and added columns for whether they were completed and, if they were, in what city they were completed.

 

[Cactus Pete]

Getting Augustus's map won't tell us anything that our current map doesn't already tell us. Okay, but is there no way to find out without capturing the city the GW is in?

You shouldn't have any trouble opening XML files if you use Wordpad. By 'use Wordpad' do you mean copy and paste into?Ori's list of events is much easier to read though.

Thanks . . . Went through all 160+ of them, and there doesn't seem to be any bad event that we can do anything about in advance, other than to keep some gold on hand (which we are trying to do anyway). Seems that the administrators should eliminate the best and worst of these in a GOTM (same logic as removing huts). Has there not been discussion about that?

 

[leif erikson]

The only other way I know of is through Espionage. We are way behind Augustus, so I don't see it happening without a major use of resources (Gold)!

 

[ShannonCT]

By 'use Wordpad' do you mean copy and paste into?

No. You can right click on any XML file and open it in Wordpad. Or you can start up Wordpad and open a file through Wordpad's menu.

The only other way I know of is through Espionage. We are way behind Augustus, so I don't see it happening without a major use of resources (Gold)!

It's not a big deal. We know we have to capture Rome and Antium to get their 2 wonders. Capturing Cumae would be a good idea anyway for whatever VC we settle on.

 

[leif erikson]

It's not a big deal. We know we have to capture Rome and Antium to get their 2 wonders. Capturing Cumae would be a good idea anyway for whatever VC we settle on.

Yes, I agree.

 

[Cactus Pete]

No. You can right click on any XML file and open it in Wordpad. Or you can start up Wordpad and open a file through Wordpad's menu. Thanks, I'll try it. Computer illiteracy is a terrible thing.

It's not a big deal. We know we have to capture Rome and Antium to get their 2 wonders. Capturing Cumae would be a good idea anyway for whatever VC we settle on.

Understood . . .

 

[leif erikson]

@rrau - Where are we? Have you made sense of the last few days and is there anything else that we might assist with?

How does the plan look?

 

[rrau]

Due to a family emergency, I probably won't be able to play until next week. If anyone wants to swap or I could take a skip, please do so. Sorry.

 

[ShannonCT]

Hope the emergency is worked out rrau.

CP, can you take some turns in the next few days?

 

[Cactus Pete]

Hope the emergency is worked out rrau. Indeed . . . hope there are no long term consequences.

CP, can you take some turns in the next few days?

Probably, but my schedule is a bit uncertain and if leif's is less so, I'd be glad to step aside. What I know I could do is play a turn tonight and post after Boudica moves IBT. Would like to post a plan (mostly copy and paste) and get go ahead before 8PM EST. Then I'll play some more after consultation whenever I can in the next few days.

 

[leif erikson]

Due to a family emergency, I probably won't be able to play until next week. If anyone wants to swap or I could take a skip, please do so. Sorry.

Sorry to hear about this.
I hope and pray that everything works out. Please take care.

 

[leif erikson]

Probably, but my schedule is a bit uncertain and if leif's is less so, I'd be glad to step aside. What I know I could do is play a turn tonight and post after Boudica moves IBT. Would like to post a plan (mostly copy and paste) and get go ahead before 8PM EST. Then I'll play some more after consultation whenever I can in the next few days.

This is fine with me CP. Should you find that you run short of time, I can take it after that if you wish.