SGOTM 11 - Shaka, not stirred

[Paul#42]

Take all the time you need. A turn per day is absolutely acceptable (if we get the laurels)

Although this might bring Abegweit up again before my time has come...

 

[Andronicus]

Preturn 740AD

On home continent
trebs 3/6 v WEs
eKn d 2/5 I LB (1-0)
kn l 3/6 WE (1-1)
6th KA (Knight Army) d 3/6 WE (2-1)
load 3 knights into AC army - rename 10thAC Army
@ Chengdu eKn d I spear (3-1)
send injured armies at Chengdu to P'yong to heal
Settle Bapedi 2 NE of Chengdu
@ Nanking 1st MDI d 2 LB -> capture (5-1)
rush rax in N Umtata

On other continent
@ Philad 5thKA d 3 spear (5/18) - at least 1 spear + LB remain (8-1)
@ Wash 3rdMDI d 2 spear (4/14),11thKA d 2 spear (12/17) -> capture (12-1)
@ Coventry AC retreat spear, kn d spear (1/4), eKn d 2/3sp -> capture (14-1) - England must have settler on boat
Nr Chicago (11 zerks) kn l 5/5zerk(1/5),kn l 2/4 zerk(2/5), kn d 2/5zerk, kn d 1/5zerk -> promotes5/5, ekn d 2/4zerk (5/5), 8thKA d 2zerk (6/18), 9thKA d 2 zerk (2/18), 4thKA d zerk (13/18) (4 remain) (21-3)

upgrade 4 horse to set off for Northern viking island next turn
spend rest of money rushing settlers in English towns

IT
Many French troops move into ex-English lands
5 sams approach Nara
zerk d knight nr Chicago (21-4)
A LB retreats knight nr Philly

Settler builds in Thebes, London, York, Canterbury, Uskudar, Warwick
Horse builds Zim, Mpondo, Ngome
Impi in Leipzig, Pike in N Swazi (both to help hold French front)
Treb in El-Amarna
Galley in Amatikula
KT produces a crusader (reg unfortunately -> rax next)
Rax in N Umtata (on Chinese frontline)
French are building Bach's cathedral

Turn 1 750AD
Other continent
Near Chicago; kn retreats 3/4zerk(2/4), kn retreats 2/4zerk (2/4), ekn d 2/4zerk (22-4)
Near Philadelphia 5thKA d 2/4 A LB (23-4)
@ San Franscico 11thKA d spear (10/18) (24-4)
Near Chicago ekn d zerk -> MGL -> 12th army (25-4)
Most units need to recover, reinforcements make their way and some discourage Germany anbd France from attacking undefended towns
Settle Hlobane 2 (Map 2 brown dot - 2W of York)

On home continent
Near Nara; 6thKA d 2 sams (12/20), kn l sam (2/5), ekn d 2/5sam (3/5), AC d 1/5WE promotes 6/6, 2 sams on mountain bombed to 3/4, treb left exposed on desert as bait (29-5)
Near Canton; kn d 2/4 C LB, 10thACA d C LB (31-5)

save game continue tomorrow


The situation on our French - German border

 

[Paul#42]

The situation on our French - German border

Ouch - that's not looking too nice...
Any french settlers approaching?
I think we need an army / some units to take care of those French units - at least prevent them from taking empty towns. This distraction is still cheaper than a war now...

Should we try to block the invasion with slaves?

 

[Andronicus]

760AD short update
Philadelphia and San Fran captured
French and Germans still at peace
Another MGL, this time in JIC - hopefully I can now make some progress there - Canton has 1 LB left.
Civassist says we need 554 more tiles

edit
770AD short update
Canton and New York captured
Yet another MGL - number 14, we'll run out of knights to fill them soon
Have 55% territory, 501 tiles to go

edit 2
780AD short update
No captures or MGLs this turn but more towns settled
Getting ready for attack on Vikes - French border towns all have walls, getting decent number of healthy units for attacking French units in our borders (13)
In JIC, Kohlpur and Beijing should fall next turn
435 dom tiles to go - most sites on my dot maps have been settled or are about to

Turn log cont
IT
C LB l eMDI near Canton (2/5) (32-5)
C land horse at Chengdu
Sam takes treb bait, other withdraws off mountain, 3LBs and 2 pikes approach Nara
Near Chicago zerk l knight (1/5), zerk d knight - 7 other zerks approach Chicago - Washington (33-6)
Settlers - St P, Hamburg, Novgorod, Alexandria, Chicago, Coventry, Isipezi
Horses - Bapedi, Hlobane, Isand, Swazi, Hangchow, Ibabanago
Umfolozi misses its horse because I failed to recognise it was showing increased production due to WLTK day after upgrading 4 horses there last turn - I should have disbanded a worker there as had been my plan
Treb - Konisberg, Giza, N Intombe
Impi - Hastings
Galley - N Memphis
Culture expansions Tsingtao and Shanghai
Get Japs building Bach's message again (what does that mean when its the same city - Osaka ??)

Turn 2 760AD
Other continent
Settle Isand 2 at orange + on French border
Settle Intombe 2 at pink + on French border
Settle Mpondo 2 at red + on French border
Rush rax in Canterbury
@ San Fran 10/18 11thKA d 2 spear (7/18) -> capture (35-6)
@ Phily 4th KA (13/18) d 3 spears (13/18) -> capture with colossus FWIW (38-6)
Near Chicago 6/18 6thKA d 2 zerk (4/18), 10/13 12thKA d 2 zerk (7/13), 8/13 3rd MDI d zerk(6/14) (43-6)
Settle Ngome 2 on lower green dot
Had planned on upgrading impi to muskets for defence against France, but no salt connected. Also cant upgrade to pikes -> connect up salt

Starting continent
Near Chengdu eMDI retreats C horse (4/5), 4/5 kn d 1/4 horse (4/5) (44-6)
Near Nara - 3/4 sam bombarded to 1/4, various J pikes and LBs bombarded, eAC d 1/4sam (6/6), 6thKA (12/18) d J pike + 3/4sam (12/20), ekn d J LB -> MGL (48-6)
@ Canton 14/18 10th ACA d 3 musket (3/18 - lost8hp on the 3rd), LB remains (51-6)

At end of turn civassist says we need 554 more tiles for dom - thats over 100 in past 2 turns - lets hope France doesnt dow and raze those new towns

IT
more French units cross our border
zerk stack approaches Wash
Horses - Zim, Ulundi, Tugela, Umfolozi
Treb - N Bap
Settlers - Izmit(going to northern Vike island)
Galley - Intombe
Caterbury rax -> walls

Turn 3 770AD
Starting continent
Time to remove Koreans; treb misses, lose galley doing no damage, 2nd redlined but succeeds -> Koreans no more. (OK, now officially its JIC not JICK) (52-7)
@ Canton eMDI l LB (1/4), 3/18 10thACA d 1/4LB -> capture - sell the market, keep the rax (53-8)
Near canton 2ndMDI d J LB (17/18) (54-6)
7thKA moved adj Beijing with 1st MDI in support
Settle Tugela 2 east of Nara to provide gateway into India (also covers some tiles otherwise missing after expansions)
Near Nara;eAC d I 1/4spear, eknight d J 1/4pike -> another MGL -> 14thKA, 14thKA d J 1/4LB, 13thKA d 2 J 1/4LBs, 6thKA d J 1/4pike (60-8)
Settle Ibab 2 (black dot northern Russia)

Other continent
Settle Swazi 2 at purple dot west of Berlin
Settle Umtata 2 at green dot west of N Avignon on French border
Settle Umfolozi 2 at northern green dot near Phily
@ New York; 10thKA (7/18) d 2 spears (1/18) -> capture (America OCC) (62-8)
Near Washington; 3rdMDI d zerk (5/14), 12thKA d 2 zerks (5/13) (65-8)

IT
2 Chinese muskets exit beseiged Beijing attracted to empty Nanking
China land archer at Chengdu
French troops continue across our lands - no doubt heading for America (what happens when America destroyed?)
SoZ produces AC
Horses - Mpondo, Ngome, Ibab
Impi - N Avignon
Settler - N Hlobane
Walls in Isand2, Intombe2, Mpondo2

Turn 4 780AD
Other continent
Settle Isipesi 2 at grey dot near Scandinavia
Settle Amat 2 1N of planned lt purple dot (room for 1 more 2N of Washington)
Settle Zunguin2 at yellow dot near Hastings
Settle N Zim2 at ornge dot
Settle N Ulundi2 (red dot near Konisberg)
Near Washington; 9thKA d 2 zerks, ekn l zerk promotes 3/5, eknight d reg zerk (4/5) (67-9)
Near Hastings; 5thKA d zerk (68-9)
Currently 13 French units crossing our territory plus 3 Germans

On starting continent
Near Tugela 2; bombard J LB and pike, 5/6AC d 1/4 LB, knight d 1/4pike (70-9)
@ Beijing; 7thKA d 3 muskets (10/18) - still spear and LB there (73-9)
Move 1st MDI back to Nanking trapping 2 C muskets in our territory
Settle N Bapedi 2 pink+ and N Hlobane2 red + - both on northern desert peninsula
Near Chengdu; eMDI d C archer (74-9)
@ Kohlapur; 13thKA d musket (10/18) - trebs brought in for next turn (75-9)

 

[Paul#42]

good progress!

where's the save

I saw many workers / slaves do their duty deep inside our land - I'd send them to the front or sacrifice them. We don't even need irrgation back there, do we? Only usage with sense is forestry action to speed up horses.

I also saw knights deep inside. If we upgrade our horses near the front, we delay spending cash freeing resources for more rushing.

 

[Andronicus]

good progress!

where's the save

I saw many workers / slaves do their duty deep inside our land - I'd send them to the front or sacrifice them. We don't even need irrgation back there, do we? Only usage with sense is forestry action to speed up horses.

I also saw knights deep inside. If we upgrade our horses near the front, we delay spending cash freeing resources for more rushing.

OK I'll upload this save too HERE
workers are mostly chopping - many have been sacrificed for the greater good
edit - just checked and yes every slave on starting continent is either chopping forest, moving to forest, moving to disband town or waiting at towns needing regular slave disbands
The decision of when to upgrade horses I have made with respect to firstly - quickest time till reach the front (eg upgrading after moving 4 or 5 roaded tiles better than if only move 2 or 3) and secondly, the closest rax to front (so pay latest poss date). Occasionally this may result in upgrading a horse at Zimbabwe or Mponde, but the majority upgrade at Hangchow or N Umtata

There have been a number of other changes I have made which increases our horse production
Most critically Umfolozi was switched from working desert to m hill -> 9spt. With rush of worker after 9 shields in bin for 4g, then disband slave for 2 more shields leaves 18 shields to complete 3 turn horse as opposed to 5 turn horses it was building. Tugela and Hlobane have a slave disbanded once each build to give 4 turn horses from their 7spt. Ibab starves 3fpt working iron and 4 hills for 2 turn horses. Before it starves it goes back to 3 turn horses working 2 i grass, 3 hills and i plain for 10spt and slowly grows back 1fpt.
All this is finicky MM but overall increases our knight production which determines our fighting force. We now have 71 knights.
The 2 horses in Tugela are about to be joined by 2 more, all upgraded next turn to knights and shipped off to southern vike island following turn (galleys will part ship chain to next waiting pair who can directly enter ocean)

The next player should find quicker progress against JIC and sufficient forces to hold French (with care) whilst making headway through Vikings.
I am no longer afraid a sudden dow from France would significantly delay our finish, indeed I plan to dow next turn or following.
MM of corrupt towns has employed far more taxmen - many 1s tile and even some 0 shield tiles have been transferred. We now make over 400 gpt.

 

[Andronicus]

short update 790 AD (I'll pass this on at 800AD)
367 tiles to dom limit
At war with France and Germany - all bar 1 knight cleared from our territory
Last American town (Atlanta) should fall next turn - provided no flips
Seattle and Miami captured from Vikings
Last Chinese town (Xinjian) should fall next turn
Beijing and Kolhapur captured
12 JIC cities remain - 2 should fall next turn, 2 are building Bach's - progress should now be quick

 

[Paul#42]

Having you play during my work is a bit like playing myself

Like a live ticker...

Looking forward to play...

Did you try to make peace with JIC for towns or rop?

How could those Vikings build all those berserks!?
They are quite a pain, right? I'm glad they don't use their longboats yet...

 

[Paul#42]

got it
(I guess Abegweit is not ready yet and if he was we would have an argument about who's up next)

Will start analysing tonight

btw: Great progress on the curves. However I wonder where smurkz and Wotan will end up
tao seems also still in the race...

 

[Andronicus]

780AD
IT
Chinese LB leaves Beijing chasing a cat out of reach, muskets try to return too late
Nr Washington 3/5zerk retreats 4/5knight
Horse - Zim,Bapedi,
Impi - London, Swazi, N Tugela
Settler - Thebes, Neu Ulundi
Canterbury builds walls
Indians are building Bach's (Paris, Osaka and Madras building Bach)

Turn 5 790AD
Starting Continent
Near Canton; eknight d C 1/3LB [69-9]
@ Beijing 10/18 7thKA d spear (8/18) -> capture (with Sistine Chapel) [70-9]
Near Tugela; 5/6AC d I 1/3LB, capture treb Indians captured and moved adj Kolhapur [71-9]
@ Kolhapur trebs bombard spear to 1/3, only 1, 10/17 7thKA d 1/3sp -> capture [72-9]
@ Xinjian 1stMDI d 4/4musk [73-9]

Other continent
Settle N Isand 2 - black dot east of London
Settle N Intombe 2 as combat settler to Vikings
9th KA reaches Atlanta - hope to capture next turn
Expedition force to northern island finds 2 zerks centrally placed to cover every landing opportunity (clever AI! - not so clever that it doesnt send zerks in boats to capture our undefended cities )
Near Wash knight d 2/5zerk (3/4) [74-9]
Decide now is time to dow France as we have many healthy units not doing anything this turn
French forces in our area
5 knights - 1 on mountain, 2 just in Viking area
2 musketeers
6 LBs
Germans - 3 archers
Near Hastings; kn l kn (2/4), kn d 2/4kn(promotes 3/5) [75-10]
Near London; kn d G archer2/4), kn d G archer (3/4),kn d G archer (promotes 5/5) kn d F kn (3/4) [79-10]
Near York; AC l F LB (promotes 3/5), kn d F LB (promotes 4/5), ekn d 3/5LB (5/5) [81-11]
Near Chicago; 4thKA d 2 musk + LB (4/18), kn d LB (2/4), kn d LB (2/4), kn d LB (3/4) [87-11]
@ Miami 5thKA d 2 V pike (14/18) -> capture [89-11]
Near Seattle; 5thKA d 2 F kn [91-11]
@ Seattle 5thKA d V pike, kn d V spear -> capture [93-11]
French knight on mountain remains -> let it capture a town, then attack it on the flat.

IT
Japanese units capture 2 treb stacks moving them for us deeper into JIC territory
F knight captures un-defended Zim2, no gold
1 zerk on northern island moves off centre tile fighting ? American unit - our landing will now only face 1 zerk
Horse - Ulundi,Hlobane, Isand, Umtata, Umfolozi, Ibab (returns to 10spt)
Settlers - Mecca, Istanbul, Damascus, N Umfolozi, Munich
KT produces crusader (vet this time)

Turn 6 800AD
Settle N Mpondo 2 near Heliopolis for 3 more tiles
Settle N Ngome2 near Moscow for 2 tiles
Settle N Swazi2 neear Damascus to fill in 4 tiles
Near Canton; ekn d C 2/3LB [94-11]
@ Xinxian 2ndMDI d musk + spear (14/18) -> capture - WEAK CHINESE DESTROYED [96-11]
@ Delhi 6thKA d 2 musk (7/20), 10thACA d 2 musk (12/19) -> capture (sited on Indian salt) [100-11]
@ Lahore 14th d musk (13/17) [101-11]
Near Kolhapur 4/6AC d 1/4sam, kn d J 2/4pike [103-11]
Recapture trebs, pos 1 stack next to Madras, other moved so capture leads it to be moved next Madras

Landings on northern and southern islands

Other Continent
@ N Zim treb misses, kn d kn (1/5) -> re-capture [104-11]
@ Atlanta 9thKA d 2 spears -> capture - FRAGILE AMERICANS DESTROYED [106-11]
@ Boston 12thKA d spear(13/17), 8thKA d spear (13/18) -> capture [108-11]
@ Bergen 5thKA d 2 pike (13/18) -> capture [110-11]
Settle N Tugela 2 on white dot

Save here 298 tiles from dom
I think we should be able to achieve that in 5 turns

Military situation
Viking
- landings on north and south islands
- north may be a struggle - if successful, 2 settlers are waiting across the straight - 1 to settle NE corner island, 1 for if Liverpool razed (has just grown size 2 though)
- 5 armies avail with at least 12hp and 2 knights positioned to attack Houston next turn (situated 1E of Miami)
I expect Trondheim to be more heavily defended, but other towns have only had 2 units
French
No attacks from across the border yet - main concern is knights.
We have quite a few knights down south now, may want to bring 1 army down too (11thKA in Hastings will recover its hp this IT)
Indians
4 towns left - Madras (building Bach edit - just checked F7, Indians must have switched, cos Madras isnt building it now) and Lahore hopefully fall next turn. Have been losing army hp's to muskets -> some are onl;y half strength
no nearby rax for healing
seen no WEs lately, perhaps will try to build now they no longer have salt
Japanese
Sams are quite a nuisance, but giving them an easy target (usually a treb) and bombing them down has worked best for me. Easier now out of mountains
6 cities - Osaka building Bach, Kyoto has GW and Sun Tsu's - may want to tackle Kyoto first after Bombay.
Germans - I've ignored them
English - settler on boat, no idea where boat is - not an issue as flip risk small

Settler situation
I've filled most sites on my dot maps, a number of settlers are named with directions of where they are intended ( just rememberred I forgot to take off go-to orders - sorry. If you want to remove you'll need to check every settler individually - I think most go-to orders were for no more than 5 turns and none done last 3 turns)
Settler in Chicago planned for 2N of Chicago, settler by Hastings for purple dot (3NW Boston)
Need settler 2SE of Philly - can rush one in York for 112g as grows size 3 next turn.
Berlin produces settler in 2 turns planned for blue dot - fills the 4 tiles SE of Berlin
In starting area I have 2 knights in Ibab ready to take out Haried (raze) and settler on boat to drop 1SE where picks up more tiles
Had a brain fart thinking could settle 1W of Nagoya, settler from Nagoya next turn planned for 2E, settler currently 1W could settle 3S of Nagoya
Other sites 2S of Ngome, 2N of Ibab and S,SW of Isand can be built by those core towns 2 turns before expect domination
Not much to do former AERO area - 1 tile from settler red dot W,SW of Alexandria (settler on way) and 1 tile 2SE Pi-Ramesses
JICK area requires most settlers as may not get all expansions.
Named settleres on way to 2N, 1W Beijing and 2NW Delhi
Canton expands in 2 closing remainder of north of mountain range.

City Management
Probably not requiring the same level of attention any more. Building horses for more than 5 turns doesnt make a lot of sense.
Main use for money may be rushing units to protect French border and perhaps a rax in central JIC, err JI..
In last 2-3 turns rushing lib to expand (but limitted by resistance in most cities) may be beneficial
Making 463gpt - 127 from taxmen

Sundries
A few galley builds (actually there are 8) are "just in case" we need to transport - I dont expect these to be required other than across the German strait
The majority of settler builds will not be required but those near the fronts give flexibilty to rush something else if needed

 

[Andronicus]

Did you try to make peace with JIC for towns or rop?

No-one will talk to us except English
I expect soon Vikes will want peace - they have taken quite a hamereing losing lots of zerks, then several cities - a fe w more perhaps. Not that I think we want to stop the slaughter, but if things got messy with Joan, a brief interlude while we got our defences in order could be achieved before backstabbing once more

I wonder where smurkz and Wotan will end up
tao seems also still in the race...

guess we'll be able to find out soon


its past 1am here so I'll answer any queries you have tomorrow

 

[Paul#42]

Settler situation
I've filled most sites on my dot maps, a number of settlers are named with directions of where they are intended ( just rememberred I forgot to take off go-to orders - sorry.

That's okay, I would have asked you to leave them on. As long as no settler is fortified so I could overlook him...

Form the first look I have to say, you did an excellent job!
Getting to 75% of population also might mean to get some of those big French cities, too - if we focus on taxmen over growth in our outback.

(I had an early Gotm where I lost "in space" to X-Man although I had reached enough domination tiles easily - but not enough population... It needed a spoiler to find out about that )

 

[Paul#42]

I did not have a closer look (i.e. in C3C) at the save yet. I will have this evening.

Any advice is welcome...

 

[Abegweit]

Wow! Territory curve back on track and the troops don't look too weak.

Are you playing out your turns - or do I get to do it ?

 

[Paul#42]

Are you playing out your turns - or do I get to do it ?

I'd planned to play like 3-4 turns to leave the finish for you. That would probably take today's and tomorrow's nights.
Is that okay with you?
Or would you rather like to switch and play first (assumed you leave me some victims)?

I'd love to take some time to enjoy the curves but otoh I'd also love to get it into the box to have a look at the other teams' threads...

 

[Andronicus]

Any advice is welcome...

Well my advice is generally contained in the report
I think the task now is
1) get Vike cities ASAP
2) eliminate India, move on Japan - Kyoto first as it has GW + Sun Tzu
3) holding operation v French - I would recommend using armies v Vikes, spare knights v French
4) rush libs selectively in JICK where lib will allow expansion in 3-4 turns
5) plan settlers to settle in 4-5 turns

At current rate of progress dom should be reached 4-5 turns and with the number of armies we have I dont see the rate decreasing
At this late stage a few risks can be taken - I attacked a few times with injured armies that only just survived and risked up to 2% flip risk to get armies healed quicker - if we lose one army that way so be it. Getting healthy armies back to the front ASAP is the aim.

I left many builds thinking we would still need settlers in 10 turns time - I doubt this will be necessary

I dont think you will have any diplomacy options - cant see them wanting peace on terms acceptable to us unless Vikes prepared to give city ? Liverpool for peace. Well I guess we could have peace with English since we dont know where galley settler is, but other than reducing unhappiness from English citizens there is no gain from peace.

If want to go on offensive on French front, then Heidelberg probably easiest target. I dont fancy your chances v musketeer defended cities with knights, and more to gain attacking viking cities.

I'd planned to play like 3-4 turns to leave the finish for you. That would probably take today's and tomorrow's nights.

I took over 2 hours per turn, but went through every city one by one with MM - I dont think that's necessary any more

I'd love to take some time to enjoy the curves but otoh I'd also love to get it into the box to have a look at the other teams' threads...

Yea, cant wait to see what others did - I think Klarius's rapid jump was cav related - guess I'll find out soon.

 

[Abegweit]

Well,Paul, I think I was up. But obviously you need your Civ hit far more than me so... go for it

 

[Paul#42]

You really try to make me feel bad, don't you?

Actually I feel a little sick this week and my ladies are not too well either. I might have the chance to play friday night, but I'm not sure about it. So if you are ready and hungry (I bet so), feel free to take it and .
EDIT: NO-NO, wait! Do this

Maybe you leave me the last 1-2 turns where I can't spoil anything - maybe you don't, I think I had my share already.

 

[markh]

This looks really great.

 

[Paul#42]

As I had feared, I'm not in the condition to play this night.

So Abegweit, if you are still greedy, take it. I know you want it.

If you don't take it, I might be able to play tomorrow evening, that's 22 hours from now.

good night