SGOTM 10 - Peanut

[civ_steve]

Just an update - only played a couple of turns (RL has been busy!) Got the furs connected up for a 7th luxury, so was able to drop Lux% to 20. Waiting to do the Maya trade - they stop paying us 124 gpt in 3 turns, so we might as well make 1 trade for all the market will bear. That's about it.

The Barbs are fairly worn down right now (believe it or not!) Most of their units are defensive (only 1 Knight and 4 Cav), and these units are tied to defending their cities, so I only expect a few units wandering around and then whatever they build/rush. The balance is tipping and I don't believe they can possibly tip it back.

Should finish up over the next day or two. Til later.

 

[AVN]

Thanks for the update

I already had the feeling the balance was tipping. IIRC the barbs had 20 cav at the start of my turnset and at the end of my turnset they had only 4 of them left. So possibilities of the barbs to counterattack were already limited during my turnset.

But it's good to hear that this is still the case
Should give us more possibilities to conquer/destroy barbarian cities.

In general I share your optimism in this

Success with the rest of your turns

 

[civ_steve]

Another status - it's only 1420 (4 turns done, but they take a LOOOONG time), but we've captured 7 Barb cities in the South (6 have been razed or Abandoned). Picture 1 shows the end of 1420 in the South; the turn before we pushed a Settler/Infantry stack forward to found Carlisle at the beginning of this turn. This gave us the tiles to Bombard 2 cities (the stacks S and SW of Carlisle have Artillery in them under their defenders), Teotihuacan2 to the SE (which was razed when captured) and Cherokee2 to the West, which we kept initially. Then we moved a Settler/Infantry stack to the space West of Cherokee2, Abandoned Cherokee2 and founded New London, which allows us to attack New Chinook next turn. Another Settler/Infantry stack is pushed South from Carlisle (onto the Iron) to found a city next turn which will allow us to attack an unknown city in the fog just SE of the Barb Workers on the Mountain.

Picture 2 shows our relative Armies; we've definitely surpassed the Barbs. I think it might be possible to complete this game during the next 6 turns (it will be close!)

Picture 3 shows a Settler/Artillery/Cav strategy to advance quickly capturing cities. The expansion of Barb culture indicates a Barb city at the Red X. I plan to push a Settler/infantry stack forward next turn to the Orange S space. The following turn I found the new city, push an Artillery stack forward to Orange A space to bombard the Red X city, and take with Cav once the defenders are Redlined. A 2nd Settler can be pushed to anywhere along the Orange line, along with supporting units, the Red X city is abandoned, the new city founded allowing further advancement. Workers can complete Rails as needed; repeat as often as you can in one turn allowing multiple captures.

 

[Mathilda]

That sounds excelent Steve
I don't mind mopping up the rest, when you've had enough

 

[AVN]

Sounds indeed very good

I'm impressed by the technique you use and I like to study it a little bit more once the game is over.

Can you please save every turn of this turnset (maybe by renaming the autosaves ?) and send me the files, if it isn't too much work for you ?

Thanks in advance

 

[civ_steve]

Certainly! I can probably just post them here, and I have to save about every turn (which have been over an hour each).

Also, I can see I need to put a unit or two to control the road around Carlisle; there's a rail path that would allow the Barbs to send a unit through and possibly cause some damage; might as well not allow that.

 

[civ_steve]

OK, I'm getting a little burned out (not too much, this has been fun!), and I wont be able to play another session for at least 24 hours, so I'm handing it over to Mathilda. Here is the turn log:

Turn 0, 1400 AD
Check out situation - we have 66 Cav, 37 Inf and 44 Art, mostly in the Barb territory
Barbs have 80 Inf and 10 Riflemen, 4 Cav and 1 Knight, so mostly defensive, and likely to stay holed up in their cities (about 20-30), very few units to send out. They have some navy - 6 Frigate, 8 Galleons, 10 Ironclads and 19 Pirate ships; we will look for opportunities to whittle them down

We are building mostly Cav; this is reversed IMO; we need stacks of Artillery, guarded by some Infantry, to whittle defenses down, then a handful of Cav per stack to take cities defended by 1 hp defenders. Perhaps stacks of 15 Artillery or so (so we can have 3 stacks right now), guarded by about 5-6 Infantry, with 5-10 Cav per stack. Infantry are also needed to defend important terrain and cities, so number of Infantry is about right. Change Cav builds to Infantry where the number of turns doesn't change, and Artillery otherwise.

Ping on Barb Ironclad off Diamond River, no naval units to follow-up with
Adjust defenses around Chanca2 to try to hold Hill to SW, and move Workers to connect road

124 gpt deal with Maya expires in 3 turns; will wait until then to make gpt deal for Tech

Cash rush Settler at Diamond River to found Adjcent to Furs to get 7th Luxury

(IBT Barbs redline one of their Cavs attacking Diamond River
Barb Inf forces a Cav to retreat from Hill SW of Chanca2, but we hold
Other Infantry move around in interesting patterns
Propaganda Campaign upsets Chanca2's citizens
We renew 4 gpt for our Wines deal with Maya)

Turn 1, 1405 AD
Build Settler, several Infantry, setting builds to 2 Art/1Inf ratio
Found Gloucester adj to Furs
We now have 7 Luxuries, adjust Lux% down to 20 and set some Entertainers in our less productive cities
Research to 60%, Mass Prod still in 2

Elite Cav does in Wounded Barb Cav - no luck
Bombard in the South, Redlining units in 1 city, and wounding those in a 2nd
Use Artillery near Chanca2 to redline all infantry defending the chokepoint
Elite Cav attacks 1 hp Infantry - Luck! We get Wellington, and therefore, a new Infantry Army
Elite Cav wins against 1 hp Inf in Fortifications
Vet Cav takes 1st Fort; 4 1 hp defenders in 2nd fort
Lose 2 Cavs (hmmm); bombard promoted Inf back to 1 hp
Win2, lose 1, Win2 and we own the 2nd Fortification at the Chokepoint
Move InfArmy and CavArmy to consolidate (New Apache is in their sights)
Use Arty and Cav to take care of 3 Infantry that wandered too close (lost 1 Cav)
Ship a Cav Army and a bunch of Cav (plus 1 Inf and 1 Settler) to Gateway to Barbland

(IBT we lose an extended Infantry who got too close to the Barb Guards
Some Barb Naval Units are Sailing up the coast)

Turn 2, 1410 AD
Several more Infantry and Artillery join the ranks; we get a Settler as well, we will need more of these
Set Science to 0 - still learn MassProd in 1

Bombard New Apache and Lupaca 2 to red lined status - Cav Army takes New Apache and Cav/Inf take Lupaca2
We now have control of the chokepoint; move Workers up to RailRoad it
Bombard 2 stacks of Barb Naval Units; destroy 1 stack of 4 units, capturing 1 to be a MoW
Move units up to bomard and attack Anasazi2 next turn
Ship over Infantry and Artillery

(IBT, Several Barb Inf advance; Galleon drops off 4 Barb unit (known as target practice) near Lupaca2)

Turn 3, 1415 AD
We learn MassProd; Motor Transp next, 7 turns at 60%
Maya know Communism - trade Refining and Electricity for Comm
Gpt deals are over; trade SciMeth, Saltpeter and Iron to Maya for 195 gpt; down to -34 gpt with 616 in the bank, so this is doable
Anasazi2 is captured with loss of 3 Cav
Push more Artillery, InfArmy, Inf and Cav forward to attack New Olmec and Chinook2 next turn
Bombard 4 high stack of Barbs dropped off adj to Lupaca2; Use Elite Cav to take them out (lost 1 Cav), no GLs
Push 1 Cav forward into Barb Territory for Scouting
Push Settler and Infantry Stack South of Lupaca2; City founded next turn will allow Bombard of 2 more cities
Load up more troops to ferry across
Split off 2 Galleons and 2 MoW to work in the South

(IBT Swell! Anasazi2 is recaptured by a Cav; Lupaca2 flips
Barbs mount mini offensive aimed at Gateway to Barb)

Turn 4, 1420 AD
London produces another Army
Lose a Cav, and an Infantry, but recapture Lupaca2;keep it for now
Bombard Anasazi2's defenders down to 1 hp
Start Bombard on New Olmec; a Musket is showing! (Musket and Pike is what it has)
Lose 1 Cav, but 2 others succeed and New Olmec is ours (for now)
Bombard Chinook2 (2 Inf and 1 Cav); lose 2 Cav in taking and razing it
Lose 2 Cav but retake Anasazi2; keep it for now
Found Carlisle in the South
Advance Artillery to bombard Teotihuacan2 (Rifle, Musk and Cav defending)
3 Cav take and raze Teotihuacan2, and sink some of the Barbs Navy
Bombard Cherokee2 (2 Inf, 1 Guer, 1 Cav) to 1 hp each; CavArmy and 2 Cav capture (for now)
Just took a Rubber source; it would be nice if this was their only rubber!
Send Cav Army to Leicester to heal
Bombard Advancing Barb Units near Gateway to Barbland
Complete transport of another 20 units
Destroy 2 Barb Inf and 3 Cav that were threatening Gateway; Take out another lone Cav
Move Workers to Apache2, Abandon it, and rebuild Road
Abandon New Olmec2
Move Workers to Chanca2; Abandon it, rebuild Road; Found Ipswich on Road leading to Chokepoint
Pillage Rubber and Abandon Cherokee2; Found New London to open way to New Chinook
Push Settler/Infantry south to found next turn and attack unknown city
Abandon Lupaca2
Cash rush several more Settlers back in the homeland (651 Gold remaining at -13 gpt and 6 turns for MotTransp at 60%)
hmm, decide we probably wont need MotTransp; set Research to 0, +569 gpt

(IBT Maya land Settler/Rifle stack in corner of Barbs South Continent

Turn 5, 1425 AD
Several more Infantry, Artillery and Settlers enter the inventory; start to build more Cav
New York is founded near Carlisle, and Zapotec2 is exposed
10 Bombards leave it with 3 1 hp Infantry; 3 Cavs take it out with no losses
A lot of Barb culture is cleared; looks like 1 city in the Fog to the South of Zapotec2
A Cav goes forward and exposes Teoihuacan, with Rifle defense
6 Bombards leave it with 2 1 hp Riflemen; lose 2 Cav but capture and keep it
Next, New Chinook (near New London)
12 Bombards leave it with 3 1 hp Infantry and 1 2 hp Cav; lose 2 Cav, but capture and raze immediately
Next is Apache2 with no cultural expansion, Rifleman is showing
5 Bombards reduce it to a 1 hp Rifle, 1 hp Musket and 2 hp Cav; lose 1 Cav but capture and keep
Next is New Chanca2, Rifle Showing and no culture expansion
4 bombards reduce to 2 1 hp Rifles; lose 1 Cav but capture and keep
Except for a couple of Island cities; Barbs are evicted from the South of their Continent!!

InfArmy takes out a couple of Cav that tried to penetrate near Ipswich
Clean out 5 Infantry (after Bombardments) that were exposed
Push Settler, Inf Army, several Infantry and a couple Artillery towards North near Diamond River
Push Settler, several Infantry into Barb Territory to West of Bath (I can sense a couple of cities out here!)
Bring over several Settlers, Artillery and an Infantry
Rush several Settlers and a Transport in former Dutch cities (to support going after Western Barb Island)

(Barbs lose a couple Cav attacking our Infantry; capture a couple Workers)

Turn 6, 1430 AD
New Nottingham and New Hastings founded, pushing into Barb territory
Chehalis is exposed to the North as predicted
10 bombards take it to a 1 hp Infantry; 1 Cav Army and 1 Cav capture with no losses
Scouting beyond reveals the next city, but it is too far for bombarding, even with pushing a Settler forward and razing Chehalis
New Teoihuacan is revealed to South of New Hastings
16 Bombards take it to a 1 hp Infantry showing; 3 Cavs perform flawlessly in taking out 3 1 hp Infantry and we raze
No more Barb culture in this area!
Scouting reveals Chinook and New Chehalis, neither can be directly attacked this turn (If I had held onto New Teoihuacan, I could have bombarded from one space; however, I am running out of Cav to attack with)
Bombard and take out 4 Cav and 3 Inf floating around
Push forward 2 Settlers, 1 to the North and 1 to the West; with defenses
Adjust units, ship over more to just off Gateway 2 Barbland, upgrade some Galleons to Transport; upgrade roads to Railroads in places
Abandon Chehalis

(IBT lose a Cav or 2 that were exposed; enslave a Barb ship to the South of our continent)

Turn 7, 1435 AD
Lots of new Cav builds

End of Turnlog

The save is at the beginning of the turn - nothing has been moved! 2 settlers are pushed into Barb Territory; founding with them will expose 3 Barb cities to Artillery barrage, and eventual conquest. There may be an oppotunity to continue expansion by pushing a Settler to edge of newly gained territory, Abandoning just captured city and founding new city; I think that's the case for one more city in the North.

I've been upgrading Galleons to Transports here and there; Science is shut off to raise money - we wont need Tanks (I'm pretty sure).

Two Transports are to the South of our continent (Erech I believe) and I was planning to use them to attack the 2 Barb cities to the South of us (former Dutch island cities).

One Transport is heading from former Dutch Territory to former Southern Barb Territory, to support attacking that one Barb Island to the SW.

I figure our existing Galleons and Transports can take care of the 2 island cities to the NE and SE of the Barb continent.

Most of the usable Cav are in our Barracks city on the Barb Continent, as well as our Settlers.

I think that's most of the subtleties; just be sure to protect the Artillery every round, push forward, keep rushing Settlers, use Workers to build Railroad as necessary. There are more Workers in Carlisle in the South, fortified. And blocking the chokepoint; make sure no one but us can easily get through.

In general I've been razing cities as or shortly after capture; the 3 captured Barb cities in the South have no cultural expansions, so they can be easily recaptured if they flip. Thinking about it, Anasazi2 should be razed - it has culture and might not be easy to recapture if it flips.

Good Luck, Mathilda! We should be able to beat a couple team's dates at least.

1435 AD Save, at start of turn

 

[Mathilda]

Thanks Steve
Got it.

Started typing this and got distracted by the game.
It was too delicious not to start playing.
Still turn one, four cities captured
Nive balance of troops to play with Steve

 

[Mathilda]

Game over.

Here it is.

Turn 1 1435ad
Raze Anasazi2
Settle new canterbury on the northern front.
Rail, move arty and bombard New Lupaca.
Capture at cost of 1 cav.
It has Magellans might be worth keeping.
Settle a colony near Bath to get silks - eight lux. Drop lux to 10%.

Settle New Coventry on the Southern front.
Bombard New Chehalis and capture without losses. Abandon.
Bombard and capture Chinook with loss of two cavs.
Move settler in position and abandon chinook.
Found New Warwick.
That puts us in range of Apache.
Bombard and capture, lose one cav.
Abandon and found New Liverpool.

Change my mind about Lupaca, abandon it and found New Oxford.

Barbs in is down to 33.
Start moving towards islands.
Spend the cash in rushing troops.

IBT:
BBB ironclads sink our MoW, trasport and galleon in the Southern seas
They attck with a cav, inf and rambo against one scouting cav, who survives

Turn 2 1440AD
Start with New Zapotek in the north-western corner of BBB continent.
Capture without losses. Abandon. Settle New Brighton.
Next Cherokee on the South coast, one cav lost.
Abandon and settle New Norwich.
New Chanca next on teh coast, no losses, abandon, found New Leeds.
Next Lupaca - only two tiles away of the Barbarian guards, to teh west of Barbarian Stronghold.
Same story - no losses.
Comes complete with Sistine Chapel and Uni Suff. Tempting, so tempting.
Found New Birmingham and New Reading.
Disband a load of workers on the barb continent to rush a transport in the south.
Sell Furs to Mayans for 7gpt.

IBT:
The Barberian guard bombardement manages to slightly wound one of our infantry armies. That's it

Turn 3 1445ad
Found New Richmond to get to Zapotec without crossing a river.
Capture New Lupaca2 - the western of the south of barbarian continent islands.
Bombard and attack Zapotec. Lose 8 cavalry taking it
ANd abandon - don't want to take that one a second time.
Bombard one of the barbarian guards, redline, attack with cav army - easy!
Rail teh mountain and move infantry armies and all the artillery there.
Bombard Barbarian Stronghold just to get an idea how it goes. We manage to touch all of them, but not redline.

Sell libraries and universities to raise some money.
Cross fingers that the troops on the southern seas survive this interturn.

IBT: I had troops on two transports, one survived.
Teoihuacan flips.

Turn 4 1450AD
Capture Chehalis2 - island south east of barb continent. Destroy.
Capture (of, I forgot already what it was called) that island north of Barb continent - destroy.
Retake Teoihuacan - destroy.
Land one infantry and two cavs on the southern island.

Atack Barabarian Stronghold.
This time we have enough artillery to redline everything.
Attack with cav armies first and then cavs - take city with seven cavs spare

And so it is that all they have left are Eindhoven and Haarlem, in the south seas, where the ironclad guard is strong.

Let's see, how long this takes.

IBT: The Barbarian guards still bombard - as if we care.
The Mayans make a move like they're about to declare.

Turn 5 1455ad
First cav takes Eindhoven.
The second takes Haarlem.
And we get this strange message:


Thank you Steve and AVN!
Didn't look good at one stage, but in teh end, we weren't the last ones.
And now time to dive into other threads.

 

[AVN]

Great job Mathilda

And I like to thank you and Steve for not giving up on this game.
IMHO our start wasn't good and it was difficult to continue this game with only three players, but we did it ...

And now we can finally read how the other teams played this challenge.

 

[scoutsout]

@Congrats, team! Looks like you beat us to the punch by about a dozen turns

 

[leif erikson]

Congratulations!!

Nice strong finish!!

You got us again, but we'll see you in the next one...

 

[civ_steve]

Good Job, Mathilda! You played this technique very well!

I thought it might possibly be done in 10 turns, and we finished it out in 11 so very good execution! In the end it wasn't the concentration of Barb Guards and other units but the way the Barbs had spread out that presented a logistics exercise. And I am glad that we could finish as a team, even if we did get cut down to 3 members.

AVN - I'm including the save files for a few of the end of turns during my turn set. Have fun!

 

[Mathilda]

Thanks Scout and Leif!
Better luck next time, eh?

I thought it might possibly be done in 10 turns, and we finished it out in 11 so very good execution!

It could have been done in ten - with a bit of patience.
I should have waited for the wounded MoWs in the south seas to heal to have three protectors for the transport. I didn't and that cost us the one turn.
Oh well. This time it wasn't down to a turn or two on who won or lost

 

[AlanH]

Well done, Peanuts!

 

[Ansar]

Nice job, Team Peanut! well played and lots of teamwork

also, Congratulations civ_steve on the new job. think you will be back for SGOTM11?

 

[civ_steve]

Thank You! ... and I hope to

 

[AVN]

A little evaluation (or maybe better the start of an analysis).

I have compared the total uncorrupted commerce and production of our civ with the games of the top teams. And the results are shocking.

In 1000 BC
Klarius had 57 gold and 37 shields.
Team Liz 59 and 36
A-team 73 and 35 (they were in republic by then)
Team Peanut 39 and 25.

The top teams had at that moment already 50% or more, more commerce and production.

In 350 BC (only 30 turns later) these figures were :
Klarius 130 and 93
Liz 201 and 103
A-team 155 and 65
Peanut 62 and 60

In later stages these differences becomes even bigger, although results are more difficult to compare (saves of all above mentioned teams in the same year aren't available then).

The lesson for me is that we lost this competition already in the first 80 turns.
At that moment we already didn't have a chance anymore to compete seriously with the top teams. For me that's already quite a lesson.

OK, because I have doubts you will be interested in further game analysis, I'll stop posting figures/conclusions for now.

 

[AlanH]

Don't forget that you'll see a lot more statistics when we publish the results. Including graphs of uncorrupted gold and shields, and surplus food.

 

[civ_steve]

This is good analysis, AVN! What would you most attribute the differences to? Not enough Workers, maybe more granaries, more early warfare, better use of the nearby bonus squares, perhaps closer cities able to share resources more efficiently ...