SGOTM 09 - Xteam

[Frederiksberg]

General Strategy:
Take Borsippa and Sippar and then make peace for Engineering.
Move three Galleons towards Borsippa for loading of Paratroopers for trip to Incaland.
Would be nice if we could load the units in Nippur. I was thinking that we could airlift an xbow to Akkad and then move all 4 paratroopers up there to Nippur and load them into Galleons together with one more paratrooper. Perhaps we need a ore detailed war plan so as to determine if the remaining forces are sufficient. A compromise would be to send 3 paratroopers to Tiwanaku in one early galleon from Nippur and then a few more after capturing Borsippa
EDIT: Had a closer look at the save. It doesn't seem feasible to send troops to Tiwanaku before we have taken Borsippa. There are simply too many Babylonian units in range of Babylon and Nippur and we can't risk loosing these cities.

Found our colony cities on the Horses and 1-tile NW of the Copper.

Tech:
Continue 0% research for four more turns to complete Laboratory in Athens, then on to Chemistry, as long as we have secured Engineering, otherwise, complete Guilds. We could complete Guilds in four turns at 20% research? Guilds is in itself not very useful so we should probably not spend any gold on this right now (We need it later to get to Corporation)

Great People:
Send our Great Merchant on a Trade Mission. Looks like Zululand? Is the capital the best place or ? Don't really know the mechanics. One of the big Zulu cities is my best bet

Both Athens and Pireus have Great People due in 12 turns, fire a Merchant in Pireus to allow the GP to complete in Athens. Rehire in a turn or two.

Builds:
Athens – complete Laboratory => Paratrooper => Paratrooper => Paratrooper.
Pireus – complete Forge => Chariots for MP (once Horses hooked up) …
Delphi – complete Paratrooper => Paratrooper. (could also build Chariots?)
Sparta – complete Paratrooper => Paratrooper => Paratrooper.
Corinth – complete Paratrooper => Paratrooper => Paratrooper…
Thebes – Paratrooper => Paratroopers… Thebes is about to grow into unhappiness, turn on Avoid Growth? This is almost never correct to do. Anyway we can trade for silk.
Argos – complete Forge => Paratrooper => Paratrooper …
Knossos – complete University => Lighthouse => Harbor? Harbor doesn't add many gpt. Perhaps an Observatory
Mycene – complete Paratrooper => Caravel => Caravel (for upgrade to Frigates with Chemistry.) How many do we need? Not sure we need any frigates and I'm quite sure we don't want to spend any gold on upgrades. I'm thinking that our hammers are better spent on Paratroopers and airships and perhaps cannons when Steel is researched. Perhaps Mycenae should have a lighthouse?
Pharsalos – complete University => Lighthouse => Forge
Ephesus – complete Forge => Paratrooper => Paratrooper
Babylon – comes out of revolt in two turns => Library.
Akkad – comes out of revolt in six turns => Library.
Nippur – comes out of revolt in five turns => Granary.

Worker actions:
We have improvements to finish in the south. Then it seems the Workers need to head north and begin irrigating our brown land in preparation fro Biology? Also, work needs to be done in the new Babylonian territories. Cottage a few plains near Pharsalos. Build lumber mill on forest SW of Corinth


Things we need to decide:
Location of National Park? This will effect what workers do around Babylon. I think Babylon is the best place considering that Cuzco won't be available for the next 15 turns or so. Grassland S of Babylon could be farmed (Instead of water mill) and all the forests should be preserved.
How many Caravels to build for upgrade? None
What promos to give our Paratroopers? Are we going up the CBT line? How many Medics do we need, 2?
How soon do we grant freedom to our colony cities?As soon as possible. I think we should delay founding the city on the horse until we can found the city NW of copper. Found both cities simultaneously and liberate colony. This will save gold in maintenance.

There are some trades that can be made:

Theology would be nice to have since it leads to DR (Versailles). We can get it and some gold too in a trade for Calendar and Compass. I think we should stay away from HBR since it doesn't help us and without it we can build cheap charriot MP's when we get the horse from our colony.

We can do a lot of trades: Fish for silk and selling resources (fur, wine) for gpt

 

[Frederiksberg]

I think we must continue the war with some care like PK has already done during his turn set. There are many Babylonian units in range of Babylon (4 maces, 3 longbows and a swordsman) so keeping 2 paratroopers there for a while seems necessary. I think it would also be a good idea to move the full strength paratrooper 1S of Akkad down to cover the wounded paratrooper NE of Nippur. The two paratroopers in Akkad can paradrop into Nippur and if we also move the galleon inside Nippur they can be loaded into the galleon. The idea with this is that they can then move to the hill outside Borsippa even if it's blocked by a worker (Paradropping can't achieve this in one turn). The wounded paratrooper 1S of Akkad moves into Akkad and the xbow in Athens is airlifted there. Promote our wounded units - I think Medic is best with the intention of continuing with March when they reach 10 XP. Next turn, T112, may be used for healing and moving the two paratroopers outside Nippur inside the city. New paratrooper in Sparta should probably paradrop outside Sippar. Then T113 move 4 paratroopers from Nippur to the hills outside Borsippa. preferably both hills to block more defenders from entering the city. The new paratrooper in Corinth can paradrop outside Sippar. This is hopefully sufficient to capture Borsippa and Sippar in T114 or T115 and end the war in return for Engineering. It's hard to make a fully fixed plan because there are so many Babylonian units running around. Keep in mind the possibility of building an emergency xbow in Athens for airlifting should trouble emerge somewhere.

 

[leif erikson]

Fred. Nice summary of war planning.
I modified it to protect Babylon a bit more and give us a bit more flexibility:

War Plan:
We have 8 Paratroopers in the Babylonian Theater with one additional due for each of the next three turns.
Fred’s suggestions seem to be the best way to go regarding airlifting the Xbow to Akkad and moving the most wounded Paratrooper into the city from its position 1 tile south.
I think I would like to deviate a bit:
-The full strength Paratrooper south of Akkad moves onto the wounded Paratrooper outside Nippur as suggested.
-One of the Paratroopers in Akkad airdrops into Nippur.
-The second Paratrooper airdrops into Babylon. This reinforces Babylon and provides flexibility in moving this unit on either Borsippa or Sippar.
-We load two Paratroopers onto the Galleon for movement to Borsippa to take the Worker on the Grass Hill north of the city and be prepared to attack. We also have fresh Paratroopers that can join them as needed from Babylon.
-The two new Paratroopers from Sparta and Corinth will go for Sippar on turn 113.
-Our Airships can be used on turn 112 to weaken the Maces surrounding Babylon.

Once we have secured Borsippa and Sippar, negotiate peace for Engineering. Only worry is that Hammi will Vassalize to Joao and ruin our chance to get Engineering.

EDIT - I was unsure of the size of the force we want to send to visit Capac. Five Paratroopers require only two Galleons. I was going to leave from Borsippa because that is where the units will be after they take the city? We can jump them in from nearby cities once peace is declared with Hammi.

Promotions:
I think we should promote one more Paratrooper to Medic1 and that will be one that drops into Nippur. All others will get a CBT2 promo.

Settling the colony areas:
I think we should transfer the Airship in Thebes to Vladivostok this turn so that it can better scout for the Settlers next turn. Galleon needs to return to Greenland for a Worker.
Found both cities on the same turn and then immediately form a colony. Where is the button for that, btw?

Trades:
We can trade Marble to Capac for 4 GPT.
We can trade Fish to Shaka for Silk.
We can trade Fur to Joao for 1 GPT.
We can trade Clams to Wang Kon for 5 GPT, but will anger all his enemies including: Stalin, Shaka and Capac. Not sure it is worth a negative one to relations for all three?

EDIT2 - Almost forgot Theology.
We can trade Calendar and Compass (or Drama?) to Joao for Theology, 10 Gold and his World Map.
For Calendar and Drama, we do not get the Map.
So Compass may be better as we have an updated map of his land for the coming invasion.

EDIT3 - On the Liberalism front, Capac only needs Education to begin researching Liberalism. Seems like it is now a race to take his cities before he makes it. Wish I knew what he was researching...
EDIT4 - If we crank up the EP slider to 40% for one turn, we will be able to see Capac's research? 40% leaves us at -13 GPT, so we lose more than a turn's gold but does allow us to better plan how long we have with Liberalism?

Also, on City Builds:
Ephesus does not have a Barracks, so perhaps it would be better to build some Airships there for the coming operation against Joao?
Mycenae could certainly use a Lighthouse. Perhaps we can slip that in after this Paratrooper. It also needs a Rax after the Lighthouse and then Paratroopers?

 

[DJMGator13]

Building plan is more likely courthouse, forge, factory, power plant. Corporate HQ should be placed where we have 200% commerce multipliers (Akkad).



FP only reduces distance maintenance as far as I know so it shouldn't reduce corporate maintenance. A courthouse reduces all types of maintenance by 50%.

I may try to throw a worksheet together over the weekend.

 

[Frederiksberg]

Plan looks good

EDIT2 - Almost forgot Theology.
We can trade Calendar and Compass (or Drama?) to Joao for Theology, 10 Gold and his World Map.
For Calendar and Drama, we do not get the Map.
So Compass may be better as we have an updated map of his land for the coming invasion.

Or perhaps trade Calendar+Compass for Theology + 50 gold. Map doesn't contain much useful information anyway.

EDIT3 - On the Liberalism front, Capac only needs Education to begin researching Liberalism. Seems like it is now a race to take his cities before he makes it. Wish I knew what he was researching...
EDIT4 - If we crank up the EP slider to 40% for one turn, we will be able to see Capac's research? 40% leaves us at -13 GPT, so we lose more than a turn's gold but does allow us to better plan how long we have with Liberalism?

I can hardly imagine that he can reach Lib before we have captured his 3 largest cities. We sail for Tiwanaku 5 turns from now and it should fall around 9 turns from now. Cuzco should be captured 2-3 turns later. I think at least we should postpone the decision to use gold for spying.

Also, on City Builds:
Ephesus does not have a Barracks, so perhaps it would be better to build some Airships there for the coming operation against Joao?
Mycenae could certainly use a Lighthouse. Perhaps we can slip that in after this Paratrooper. It also needs a Rax after the Lighthouse and then Paratroopers?

Good catch with the missing barracks. We could probably use 3 more airships so that we have the ability to bombard two cities simultaneously with the maximum 4 airships that can be stationed in a city. More than that is probably not desirable when the hammers could go into paratroopers instead.

Regarding promotions I would suggest that we keep an overweight of Medic 1 promoted paratroopers compared to Combat 2 promoted since Medic 1 leads to March which will allow our paratroopers to heal while moving. This should speed up conquest ore than the combat 2 promo.

 

[leif erikson]

Or perhaps trade Calendar+Compass for Theology + 50 gold. Map doesn't contain much useful information anyway.

Actually, for Calendar and Compass, he'll give Theology, 50 Gold plus Map!

I can hardly imagine that he can reach Lib before we have captured his 3 largest cities. We sail for Tiwanaku 5 turns from now and it should fall around 9 turns from now. Cuzco should be captured 2-3 turns later. I think at least we should postpone the decision to use gold for spying.

Offered it as an option. Trouble is that I do not know where he si on research, when he completed Paper, etc. He could be half way through Education with a GS for all I know.

I checked PK's log and do not see anything about Capac's research. I went back to the 900 AD save (Turn 105) and Capac did not have Paper yet. So he is no more than 6-turns into Education, if he is, indeed, researching it?

Good catch with the missing barracks. We could probably use 3 more airships so that we have the ability to bombard two cities simultaneously with the maximum 4 airships that can be stationed in a city. More than that is probably not desirable when the hammers could go into paratroopers instead.

OK, sounds good.

Regarding promotions I would suggest that we keep an overweight of Medic 1 promoted paratroopers compared to Combat 2 promoted since Medic 1 leads to March which will allow our paratroopers to heal while moving. This should speed up conquest ore than the combat 2 promo.

OK, go heavy on Medics for March promo and constant healing.
In case you're interested, there is a strategy article on Unit Healing here.

 

[Frederiksberg]

Offered it as an option. Trouble is that I do not know where he si on research, when he completed Paper, etc. He could be half way through Education with a GS for all I know.

I checked PK's log and do not see anything about Capac's research. I went back to the 900 AD save (Turn 105) and Capac did not have Paper yet. So he is no more than 6-turns into Education, if he is, indeed, researching it?

We can research Philosophy+Liberalism in 3 turns @100% research rate. I don't think Capac can research Liberalism so fast and he can't bulb it either because he is missing Printing Press that has higher priority for the great people. So no reason to start researching Liberalism as long as Capac hasn't finalized Education. If he does finalize Education we may have to reevaluate depending on how close we are to capturing all his major cities.

 

[leif erikson]

If he does finalize Education we may have to reevaluate depending on how close we are to capturing all his major cities.

Agreed. Gives me something to keep an eye on.

 

[Frederiksberg]

When do you plan to play some turns?

 

[leif erikson]

In about 24 hours.

Apologies for the delay. An exhausting weekend in RL and fatigue leads to mistakes.

Hopefully, some of our team members will return from their travels and can have a look at the plan before tomorrow.

 

[Frederiksberg]

Don't mean to rush things. It's just good to know when is the last chance for making changes

A break when Borsippa and Sippar are captured may be a good idea so that we can evaluate how to continue with wars against Capac and Joao. This should also be the time when we turn on research again.

 

[leif erikson]

Don't mean to rush things. It's just good to know when is the last chance for making changes

No problem. Too many surprises this week!

A break when Borsippa and Sippar are captured may be a good idea so that we can evaluate how to continue with wars against Capac and Joao. This should also be the time when we turn on research again.

Yes, it will be a good time. I'll plan to get through that far tomorrow.

 

[PaulisKhan]

I'm back, got offered the job, currently negotiating salary. I'll be around for another 3-4 weeks for sure while the immigration stuff is being worked out but it's hard to say beyond that point (not cost effective for me to ship my computer from NZ to Scotland). I'll be buying a new computer as soon as I can reasonably afford one to get back into the game though.

 

[leif erikson]

Congratulations PK!

Big chances in the offing, moving half way round the world!

Guess we'll have to get this one finished in 3 to 4 weeks...

 

[Frederiksberg]

Congrats, PK

Just out of curiosity: What kind of job is worth moving half way around the globe for

While I remember: Ephesus should probably fire the engineer and work one of the windmills

 

[PaulisKhan]

The job is for an instrumentation scientist. It's using quantum cascade lasers (a type of semiconductor laser) to do molecular spectroscopy for gas sensing ie building self contained units that can be used to detect various gasses at levels of "parts per billion" (I'm a semiconductor physicist/laser spectroscopist so it's a good match). Lots of security and environmental and safety implications.
It's not really the sort of work I could find in NZ so I was pretty much forced to move, and it would have ended up being to the US or Europe no matter what.
In the end I just went where the work was.

Game related: I'm not particularly used to using the leaders character sheets, but if we knew Hammys attack courage could we work out his odds of him trying to recapture a city?
ie. If he needed 30% odds of winning in order to attack, could we safely defend our cities with one unit.
Also, does attack courage apply to siege as well?

 

[leif erikson]

Sounds like a really great opportunity. Hope all goes well with the move and all.

OK, starting to play now.

 

[PaulisKhan]

watching avidly for updates!

 

[leif erikson]

Hammy has decided to fight back. He has moved a Mace onto the Cow Tile near Corinth. There is a Paratrooper due there nexct turn. In my experience, the unit being produced always completes before the enemy unit can attack. Just confirming this is true before I ignore him...

EDIT -
After attacking the Mace near Corinth, the map is revealed around Sipper. Hammi has more units than I expected and Athens has grown in War Weariness so that if I remove another unit, it will be unhappy.

I would like to Airlift a Spear to Nippur and Airdrop the two Paratroopers from there to Borsippa and Airdrop the Paratrooper from Akkad into Babylon to free up a couple of units to go to Borsippa as well, although that may be riskier than we want to get?
In addition, I think that two Airships should attack the LB's headed for Borsippa.
The Paratrooper in Sparta can be Airdropped to the farmed tile east of Sippar to prevent any other units from heading our way or can drop in the woods to the SE for better defense.
The only other thing to do is check the iron hill west of Babylon to ensure no Bab units are present.
I'll attach the save for your review.

 

[Frederiksberg]

Hammy has decided to fight back. He has moved a Mace onto the Cow Tile near Corinth. There is a Paratrooper due there nexct turn. In my experience, the unit being produced always completes before the enemy unit can attack. Just confirming this is true before I ignore him...

The mace on the cow tile is not a threat since he need two turns to attack Corinth. Let's hope he doesn't pillage but moves towards Corinth

I would like to Airlift a Spear to Nippur and Airdrop the two Paratroopers from there to Borsippa and Airdrop the Paratrooper from Akkad into Babylon to free up a couple of units to go to Borsippa as well, although that may be riskier than we want to get?
In addition, I think that two Airships should attack the LB's headed for Borsippa.

It sounds doable. But we need to recon the foged tiles near Akkad before we can leave the xbow as the only defender. He can easily defend against the wounded sword but not against several units. If Babylonian forces should return to within 3 tiles of Nippur we may be forced to upgrade the spear to rifle. Akkad we could reinforce from Babylon. You could move a warrior from Piraeus to Athens to replace the spear. Keep an eye on the city governor in Athens. It's important that we keep the engineer there at all times even if it means starvation. If Athens get close to loosing pop use the corn tile that Piraeus is using now and let Piraeus work some coast tiles.

The Paratrooper in Sparta can be Airdropped to the farmed tile east of Sippar to prevent any other units from heading our way or can drop in the woods to the SE for better defense.

I prefer the woods. I don't think we need to fear a counter attack on Corinth.

The only other thing to do is check the iron hill west of Babylon to ensure no Bab units are present.

The worker in Babylon can do this by stepping out on the NW hill and then go back.

Remember to cover our wounded galleon with the other one.

We can sell fur and wine for gpt to Shaka and Stalin. No reason not to do this now.

And maybe Ephesus should build barracks+paratrooper after the airship.