SGOTM 11 - Shaka, not stirred

[Abegweit]

Pre-turn

As Paul noted, there is lots left to do.

OK 118 Tiles to dom limit. Objective: to finish in two, perhaps three. One comment: we have far too much crap which will never serve any purpose, including settlers which will never found a city.

Home continent:
I estimate I can get about 45 tiles with new cities in India and 8 more in the homelands. Together with 4 from the settler at Iba, that’s 57. I should be able to take a couple of Jap cities too.

Disband two trebs and a knight at Lahore to get a settler
Disband five trebs at Madras to get another
Disband horse at Kohlapur for a third
1st MDI army goes out to the farm at Bangalore. Farewell old friends and thanks for a job well done.
2nd does same at Bombay.
Mpundo, Isa and Ngome switched to settlers
Horses and knight sent to Ngome
Take out a knight and LB near Lahore [2-0]
Swazi 2 founded (114 left)
Xinjian cash-rushed
Settlers and workers are joined to random cities for no particular reason
3-3 galley vs 3-3 Indian galley -> 2/3 Indian galley [2-1]
Rush galleys in Namp’o and Yekaterinburg. The bastid is goin' down
New Iba switched from wealth to galley (not rushed)

France:
The objective is to pinch a bit of land around the edges of the country.

3-4 Knight vs 3-3 pike near Umtata 2 -> 1/4 knight [3-1]
Knight, treb and cat go at Rheims. This adds up to exactly 29 shields Somewhat less than an army
New Umtata 2 founded (108 left)
2 galleys, 2 slaves and a rush at New Swazi
New Umfolozi 2 founded (102)
Prevent starvation at Heidelburg by rioting. We want a settler here next round.

Scandanavia:
40-some tiles should be available with settlers. Perhaps take a couple of cities on the second turn. Land pinching is also good too.

Knight + 2 trebs @ Trondheim
Bergen cash-rushed
New Iba 2 founded (95)

I turn the governors on in selected cities to prevent rioting.

Inter-turn:
4-4 French LB vs 4-4 Impi -> 4/5 Impi [5-1]
Japs land an LB and a Pike near Beijing, a very poorly-protected area. We will probably lose a city.
Nine Settlers and two galleys produced.

Turn 1
New Izipezi 2 founded (91)
Battle of Kyoto
14/18 army vs 4-4 sam -> 12/18 army
13/17 army vs 4-4 pike -> 9/17 army
9/17 army vs 3-3 pike -> 7/18 army
12/18 army vs 3-3 pike -> 9/18 army
9/18 army vs 3-3 pike -> 7/19 army
7/18 army vs 3-3 pike -> 6/18 army
Kyoto falls (87 left)
5/5 knight vs 4-4 LB -> 4/5 knight [12-1]
Send army towards Beijing to recover a likely lost city
New Ama 2 founded (66 to go; not sure what happened here, but gotta like it!)
Xinjian cash-rushed
Two slaves disbanded at Lahore and cash-rushed
Three trebs at Bombay and cash-rush
New Zunguin 2 founded (still 66, this is weird)
Miami and New Intombe 2 cash-rushed
Zim 3 founded (52 left, whatever)

I land several unprotected settlers in Viking territory. We’ll see how many get hit.
Protected ones move into France.
4-4 Knight vs 4-4 Lb -> 3/4 Knight [13-1]
Ulundi 3 founded (42??)

Inter-turn
4-4 LB vs 2-4 knight -> 2/4 LB and, as expected, Neu Tugela falls
4-4 LB vs 3-5 knight -> 2/4 LB + 2/5 ( ) retreating knight and we lose a settler in Japan
Eight more settlers built
None of the unprotected settlers in Scandia are attacked
36 tiles to go. How can we lose a city and gain towards dom? I don't think there were any border expansions.

Turn 2
Army, knight and MDI win to re-take Neu Tugela.
Bapedi 3, Hlobane 3, Isa 3, Intombe 3, Mpondo 3, Ngome 3, Swazi 3, Tugela 3, Umtata 3, Umfo 3, Iba 3, Isipezi 3, Amatikulu 3, Zunguin 3, New Zim 3, New Ulundi 3, New Bapedi 3, New Hlobane 3, New Isa 3, New Intombw 3, New Mpondo 3, and New Ngome 3 are founded. Twenty-two cities! Tiles to limit: 36. I claimed several dozen.

[that's from my notes... I notice now that it's the same number as in the inter-turn. Perhaps I saved the game wrong. In any case, CA certainly seems to have issues in this area.]

However… the game puts us at 79%.

Attacks.

I attempt to take Chartres and fail, losing a Crusader. This was fully expected. I gathered what troops were in the area.
At Nuremburg, another motley crew moves forward. Our last attacker, a heroic 1/4 knight, takes a 3/3 spear and the city falls! Germans die. Suffer!
Then I hit the Indian galley and another one bites the dust. No flips. As promised, the bastid went down.
Osaka falls.
Copenhagen is next.
Oops. Missed a settler. New Swazi 3 founded.
Oslo is the last AI city to fall.
Then strange 2/5 retreating knight gets his revenge on the LB. Whatever.
And another missed settler is discovered. New Tugela 3 is founded.

Twenty-four cities in one turn! Nice!

CAII says we are 110 tiles over the limit and the game puts us at 82%

Inter-turn
Some AI movement and then…

For some reason we are back down to 81% but I'll take it.

 

[AlanH]

Well done Shaka - good date

 

[Abegweit]

Some stats:

I started with 10 horses, 68 knights, 14 armies and 15 galleys. I finished with 9 horses, 61 knights, 12 armies and 12 galleys. A lot of other units went to their reward too. But… there were 38 new cities. Not bad for two turns.

 

[Andronicus]

Well done

Thanks for the game guys ... lets hope we dont fall foul of rule 11

I've stopped playing civ3, actually opened my CIV box I got many months ago, perhaps I'll reappear in those forums ...

 

[Gyathaar]

Congrats on your victory

 

[markh]

Great game, guys.

Hope everything calmed down for you, Abegweit.

 

[Paul#42]

finally

Your turns proved worthy waiting for them.

@Andro: This sounds like a fare-well

After the match is before the match
I was already thinking about putting a team together for #12 in time this time so we won't have t ask for supporters when most teams are already set - I guess we will have patch a team again

Who's with me in SGotm12?

edit: I'd like to say I really enjoyed this game. Apart from some organisational problems of course. After all it's only a game (read my sig!).

I'm still shocked by the incident that happened to team Wotan
Things like that will shrink the SGotm community quickly I fear
I hope we will have another SGotm however...

 

[Abegweit]

Thanks for the game, guys.

I too have pretty much stopped playing Civ 3 but I might be convinced to join another SGOTM. Won't be the same w/o Andronicus on-board though

 

[Ronald]

congratulations for your win

 

[markh]

I think I will sign up for the next one, but I am not 100% sure (although I am quite sure I will hardly be able to resist ). Depends a bit on what Gyathaar is presenting to us.

See you in CIV land, Andronicus.

 

[Paul#42]

@ Ronald: Thanks. Yours was not too bad either.

I did some analyse of some of the teams' milestones.

We were not fastest in all departments and not the luckiest either. But the most communicational team by far.
The main difference I see is the planning and playing focussed.
And of course taking some good decisions: Monarchy, no water to the cow, knights, start on Egypt

If I see players play over important team decisions like what to research or what to do with a MGL without stopping I'm proud about how we solved those situations. Sometimes exhausting but I always enjoyed it!

Condolences to team Wotan who had a real good attempt. Hope you guys try it again next SGotm.

 

[Northern Pike]

Congratulations on a fine win...eventually.

 

[Andronicus]

And of course taking some good decisions: Monarchy, no water to the cow, knights, start on Egypt

Correct decision was going straight for philo then seeing what slingshot was avail considering rapid AI tech rate - Rep was an option if CoL avail, it wasnt for us. I confess I never thought feud was an option because of the WW, although with small towns it suited quite well (although it resulted in a much longer despotic period).

I still believe done correctly (settle as soon as irrigated up to hill, plains forest chopped to speed settler and roaded and after settled immed building settler without growth) irrigating cow through hilltown to north was a strong move. Our planning in getting irrigation ASAP from the SE was just about as good considering irrigation needed for plains anyway.

Our decision to go for knight conquest and stick with it meant we had more money for sustained shortrushing / upgrading - AFAIR we spent no beakers on science after chivalry. This gave us increased numerical supremacy in our conquest. Had it taken much longer those going with cavs would have overtaken us. It is my belief that this tipped the balance our way.

Starting on Egypt was primarily for SoZ (denying Egypt as much as taking advantage of it for ourselves). I believe that JICK first would have been just as effective (esp if it meant we didnt meet jumbos and sams). ToA was useful in getting our culture up and reducing later flip risk. It had minimal impact on territory as we ended up with more settlers on starting continent than we could use.

Ultimately there are 3 (?4) teams finishing very closely - a close competition indeed.
I wonder how much seeing the territory graphs of teams playing ahead of us influenced our decisions? I suspect not a lot as we were still trying to finish ASAP, but we'll never know. Ideally a progress chart linked to each team thread that was updated only as far as latest save of that team would provide the interest factor of comparing to other teams up to same stage without giving away potentially spoilerish information about the future - I dont know how feasible this would be and sounds like more work than its worth for our much appreciated GOTM staff.

 

[Abegweit]

Correct decision was going straight for philo then seeing what slingshot was avail considering rapid AI tech rate - Rep was an option if CoL avail, it wasnt for us. I confess I never thought feud was an option because of the WW, although with small towns it suited quite well (although it resulted in a much longer despotic period).

Yep. Take whatever govt you can get. I'm still not sure whether Rep or Mon would have been the better choice. But the main point was to get whatever we could.

I still believe done correctly (settle as soon as irrigated up to hill, plains forest chopped to speed settler and roaded and after settled immed building settler without growth) irrigating cow through hilltown to north was a strong move. Our planning in getting irrigation ASAP from the SE was just about as good considering irrigation needed for plains anyway.

Klarius' arguments in this regard are quite impressive. He has pretty much convinced me that it was the right way to go although, as you say, there is not much to choose between the options. One thing remarkable about this game is the huge variety of dot maps. In the last one, Klarius and A-team moved north-east and produced identical city positions. Wotan and us moved inland and did the same. Nothing like that in this game even though most teams settled at the same spot.

Our decision to go for knight conquest and stick with it meant we had more money for sustained shortrushing / upgrading - AFAIR we spent no beakers on science after chivalry. This gave us increased numerical supremacy in our conquest. Had it taken much longer those going with cavs would have overtaken us. It is my belief that this tipped the balance our way.

Remember that the AI drove the tech pace in all games. Everyone else did pretty much the same thing. For the most part, the human was simply playing the diplo game. This is two games in a row where the AI was very slow for us. Keeping them constantly at war certainly helps.

I wonder how much seeing the territory graphs of teams playing ahead of us influenced our decisions? I suspect not a lot as we were still trying to finish ASAP, but we'll never know.

In the last game, we got off track. Built too much. Conquered too much on the home continent. This time we stuck to the target. I'd like to think we learned something from our mistakes.

 

[Whomp]

Great finish everyone. Very well played.

 

[Paul#42]

OKay guys, SGotm12 is announced. Sounds interesting.

Who's with me?
team Thea?

 

[Paul#42]

Okay, time to discuss the new team name.

I wished we had taken something consistent but than I recalled that the most consistent thing is the frequent change

So what do we want to call us?

Thea?
Tessa?
Tessi?
tea or coffee?
The A?
The odeuvre (?)?
the order?
the ordinary?

 

[WackenOpenAir]

The klarius'ass kickers

I don't really care about the name, whats up with the T ?
I just hate the name Thea. I'm a VERY convinced atheist, and i hate every reference to religion
(my anthipathy against religion has nothing to do with metal, i am not an idiot satanist or anything, i just think religion is the proof of human's stupidity)

 

[Paul#42]

The klarius'ass kickers

Don't annoy my former short-time-team-members...

Welcome Wacken and Killercane, great to have you on the team (finally, after my disregarded invitations in SGotm11 and Mtdg2).
Wacken, don't be afraid to do 50% of the discussion in this team - you'd have to be REALLY active to beat Abegweit and me in that aspect

Could everybody please officially acknowledge the signup in the signup thread?

 

[killercane]

Paulodora? Feudal Zealots? Klingons? Serfs or some other take on the Feudalism theme?

The team name is probably the most crucial decision we will make, so it has to be good. Do we stay with the "T" convention? Or do we go with Colts (since we know they are winners )

Does anyone have a pet to name it after?