SGOTM 10 - klarius

[klarius]

The Barb Guards are immobile. There seems to be a bug in the civilopedia algorithm that shows 1 move anyway (I remember now , it was the same with China Wall guards in a COTM some time ago).

Otherwise it would have been to easy to break through the wall, probably. They would have retreated if wounded inside our culture.

Sure there's a lot of free land to settle quickly, but I cannot guard all the unroaded wilderness, while needing our military to raze existing cities. This may mean several extra turns to get there.
And if he settles after the last city falls, he gets free units again (4 spears and 2 longbows, if he doesn't settle on a resource).
But in fact we may be lucky. If there is no boat settler underway now, it's very likely that Evil wants to resettle locations near his capital.

 

[Offa]

I wondered if they were immobile (like that previous game you mentioned), but was fooled by their stats implying one movement.

Presumably the barbs started out with these things and can't build them. In which case the question is, if you were building this scenario, how many guards would you put in the Stronghold? 2 or 3 sounds fair. 10+ would be good for a laugh , but you would be risking the displeasure of the teams. I reckon 3.

 

[klarius]

Well,

Turnlog:

Preturn:
Sell saltpeter and furs to Theodora.
Rush harbor in New London to get finally ivory on-line.
Rush barracks in New Liverpool and New Dover.
Put lux tax to 20% to get some more WLTKDs.
Micromanage a few cities. .....
Finally make a saltpeter colony.
Use the leader to build military academy in New Warwick. Will save up money to rush an army, so that will not reduce the number of armies in the long run.
Tell dutch to remove their forces and they declare. We get war happiness. But I don't know how many war weariness points we had before so I don't want to risk the happiness and gift Bonampak to Sumeria.

Do a little reconnaisance (with slaves - doesn't matter if a few get captured). The Barbarian Guards are regulars, so will promote to 10 HP. I see a row of 5 (all on mountains in fortresses). Most likely that's a 5X5 square with the Stronghold in the middle (and 8 other tiles).
I also see now that the Guards are unmovable units (there is a bug in the civilopedia that it always says at least move 1). So they will not retreat when wounded (that would have been to simple).

IBT:
Lose a caravel to a pirate ship. This may get difficult with all these pirates around.
A cav falls to a knight.

Turn 1:
Raze 2 more cities. Move in to settle aggressive city towards Stronghold.
Build a gems colony and we have 8 luxes.
Sell MT to Theodora.
MM and rush a few things.

IBT:
The guards bomb like crazy. Lose three cavs on counters.

Turn 2:
Nowhere enough healthy troops to attack a city. These Barb Guards are really a nuisance.
Settle our attack outpost towards stronghold. And a canon even takes a point off a Guard.
A new leader. Makes army.

IBT:
Bombardments but no losses

Turn 3:
Canons hit something (2 of 4) - strange. One Guard down to 5 HP.
Attack with army - retreats - 2HP on Guard.
Second army takes out Guard and we have a nice view on the Stronghold surrounded by luxes iron and cow . Elite Guard on top
Probe with 3 cavs. Find a second elite Guard losing one cav. Break the attack.
Attack Lupaca and raze it together with Lenardo's. Much to late to start an upgrading madness.
Sell libraries.
In the south at our shiny new canal city, I get a new leader. Army.

IBT:
A lot of bombardment from Guards and Pirates. Lose some redlined cavs.

Turn 4:
Rush army in New Warwick for 1576g.
Move units around.
GA is over. MM a little, though units produced now will probably not matter.

IBT:
Bombing and losing a few units. Army that tried to sneak passed the west side of canon wall redlined.

Turn 5:
Raze 2 more cities with a few ships inside. Maybe that reduces the pirate bombards.

IBT:
Trying to get canons to Stronghold under army cover wasn't such a good idea .
Army redlined by Guards and killed by a longbow.

Turn 6:
Move in on Barbarian Stronghold. Ouch. Lose 3 armies and still didn't get both (yes only 2) Guards. Needed everything I had around to get to the second Guard.
After it redlined it was behind the pikes (roughly 15) and would heal if I didn't get it. Finally I got it but there are still some pikes and longbows.

Get another leader but cannot capture the village I'm fighting at, so cannot use it immediately.

IBT:
Nearly all our units around the stronghold redlined.

Turn 7:
Settle a new village to make an army with leader.
Take New Lupaca. Get another leader. Make army though it will probably not see a fight.
Raze some town.
Go on the stronghold with a few fresh cavs and redlined units. It falls, but there isn't much left of our once mighty military.
Last Barb city Cherokee. An army and a few cavs take it easily from 3 pikes.

Barbs are destroyed!!!

Just for fun plant a spy in Eindhoven. Works fine

 

[AlanH]

Well done, Team klarius

 

[Offa]

Great finish Klarius!

 

[Gyathaar]

Grats on a very early finish year

 

[Northern Pike]

Yes, fine stuff, as we expected. It sounds as though you fulfilled Wacken's criterion of efficiency--taking the last enemy city with our last unit, or d____d near.

 

[Crakie]

Great work, guys!

This has been a remarkable learning experience for me. I mean, there was a time that I was perfectly fine with winning the game at every level it offered. But I realize now there's more to it Still, I want that Sid game under my belt... (got as far as 10 turns from the UN).

 

[Own]

What was our win date? By my count it was 640AD, but what was it to make sure?

Great finish! I learned a lot too. Especially on MM.

 

[Northern Pike]

What was our win date?

570 AD, just ahead of Team Liz's 590 AD. Their meaningless acquisition of ToA masked the fact that they played very well.

 

[Paul#42]

We had hoped to stay in shadows of A-Team's obviously early victory - nevertheless you guys did not only try to beat them but made a strong finish on your own

Congrats on a great game. Interesting to see how different odds turn to totally different games with similar result (date). Nice competition.

edit: bad loser statements discarded

 

[Offa]

It looks like we sneaked this: very close though. Our game was a bit different from team Liz, who are very unlucky to lose like this.

I, for one, overestimated the barbarians. I was expecting a Sid level AI which never materialized; instead we got a standard but strong AI with a number of static but very tough units. If leo's had been built on our continent, capturing it and tackling the barbs with mass upgrades to knights might have been faster. The Great Wall and pyramids in Barbaria was a pity as well. We did, however, get plenty of leaders. As it was we hung around a bit idly for a while waiting for cavalry: fair enough in a way as risking knights against pikes defended by city walls would have been foolhardy.

klarius did a great job on this game I am particularly taken with the effectiveness of the gpt strategy.

hendrickzoon's ruthless pursuit of the slingshot was also very impressive. I can see why he is such a formidible player.

 

[Obormot]

Congrats!

You did a good job and team Liz too.

I still think that our fast science strategy was correct, but we didn't really play good enough as a team - each player was pulling the game in a different direction, so we didn't deserve a victory.

 

[killercane]

Another congratulations. It was very interesting to watch your last few turns .

 

[Northern Pike]

Thanks for your gracious comments, gentlemen.

It looks as though our choice of monarchy was wrong absolutely, since the Barbs were passive and WW doesn't seem to have been an insuperable problem for the teams in republic. But it was right relatively, after the slingshot failed for us.

 

[ThERat]

congrats guys

tight match between 3 teams...but then maybe our fast play let you guys play more agressive knowing that we did beat them.
I think we all overestimated the barbs

 

[Northern Pike]

I think we all overestimated the barbs

Well, I was a voice crying in the wilderness :

I think we should be planning on winning the game much more quickly than this implies. Cheap espionage tricks aside, the Barbs have done nothing to suggest that they're a particularly formidable opponent; consider the miserable job they've done of settling their continent. We should conduct our operations on the assumption that we're going to finish them off in a few rounds with the knights and cav from our GA; and if this turns out to be too optimistic, we'll adjust. Fear of the Barbarian Guards shouldn't influence our plans until the Barbs prove that it must. Gyathaar may only have allowed them a limited number.

 

[Ronald]

Congratulations klarius, very strong finish

It was again fun and very instructive to play with you all. This time I learned how deal with -gpt after mad trading

 

[Crakie]

klarius did a great job on this game I am particularly taken with the effectiveness of the gpt strategy.

Absolutely. Klarius, you're no doubt one of the best players ever to start up the game. It makes me wonder why you've never shown interest in a Sid HoF game. Your style as a captain has been very instructive, if not a bit... German

 

[Megalou]

Congratulations, former team mates. I knew (all too well) that you could do it without me.