SGOTM 11 - Wotan

[TimBentley]

1000(0): switch Bapedi to settler
MM so Bapedi will use forest on growth, extra gold in Intombe

IBT: learn literature, set research to 0%

975(1): India-Korea trade done as feared: horse promotes killing one of the nine horsemen in Illuryian camp
sell lit to Korea for CoL, 57g (not all)
gift Germany, Russia, Ottomans into MA
3 get feudalism, Ottomans get monotheism
sell monarchy, lit to Germany for feudalism
buy monotheism from Ottomans for feudalism, monarchy, lit, 6gpt
declare war on Arabia
build embassy in Beijing (screenshot attached)
sign MA with China against Arabia for map making
sell currency to England for 206g
20% lux for Bapedi, 80% research on chivalry

IBT: Ulundi horse->horse
England starts ToA, COlossus

950(2): no new wars
kill barb horse

IBT: 2 barbs attack horse and die
Zimbabwe horse->settler
Bapedi settler->granary
HorseTown galley->horse
Arabian allies declare war on China

925(3): zzz

900(4): kill another barb, camp now has 1 horse
Indian spears blocking the bridge
Apparently a locked alliance is just a permanent MPP, so to get Ottomans to declare to avoid gpt payment, we'd have to declare war on India (the other alliance) or get a galley over to Arabia

IBT: Machiavelli's Largest Nations of the World: America, Egypt, Zulu, Vikings, France, England, Ottomans, Germany

875(5): Meet America, sell them currency for 108g; they also lack CoL, lit, and monarchy; they are allied with England
horse dies attacking barb horse

IBT: Mpondo rax->horse
Ottomans start Great Library

850(6): zzz

IBT: Zimbabwe settler->settler
Intombe horse->horse
Ngome worker->rax

825(7): found Tugela, start on worker
lux to 10%, but science must remain at 80%
disperse Illuryian camp

IBT: see an injured Korean archer, obviously the war between alliances is ongoing
Our people want to build the FP
Ulundi horse->worker
Hlobane horse->horse
Paris builds Oracle
Ottomans start Great Library
Egypt starts Great Lighthouse
Arabia starts Pyramids

800(8): zzz

IBT: HorseTown horse->horse
America, England start ToA

775(9): found Umtata, start on worker

IBT: Ulundi worker->horse
Swazi rax->horse

750(10): zzz

Notes: Zimbabwe has more shields than it needs, so make sure you maximize commerce by switching goats to grass the first turn; by mining it Umtata will be able to use goats more (I wish I had realized that earlier)
I think it's worth mentioning here in case you missed it earlier: locked alliances seem to just act as permanent MPPs
Umtata will be able to use the goats a couple times before growth, so it probably should switch to a barracks
The GOTM site is down; I'll check after lunch and attach the save if it's still down

 

[Wotan]

Looks absolutely perfect. Well played, Tim! We are in MA with Chivalry as our next tech. Nice trading sequence in 975BC! And the wars should help soften up the AIs. Too bad the upload site is down. Sure would like to have a peek at the save. How many HMs do we have now?

Stupid indians blocking our movement. Anyone got any good ideas about ways to get them to move? Apart from founding a town in the province the HM is currently in and rushing culture to expand our borders into both the tiles the spears are in. Or can we count on arabs moving there and attacking the indians? They should be at war, right?

Roster
Kulko up
Dman on deck
Schmiddi
Wotan
TimBentley just played

 

[dmanakho]

nicely played... will be waiting for the save to check it.
time to war with India soon... i don't like those spearmen blocking the way to the second lux source.

 

[Wotan]

time to war with India soon... i don't like those spearmen blocking the way to the second lux source.

I am a bit worried war with india would break our current alliance with China. I am as always a bit confused as to the effects such incidents have on reputation? But I hope we soon have an open road into the heartland of our continent. I know you like fighting with HMs! SGOTM3? Right?

 

[TimBentley]

How many HMs do we have now?

9

Declaring war and attacking India in open ground wouldn't trigger the MPP, so we wouldn't enter war with that alliance.

I'll be out for the weekend and leaving soon, so I'll attach the save.

 

[Wotan]

Thanks. Have a nice weekend.

@Kulko: Could you please upload the save to the submissions page when it is up again since Tim is going away over the weekend?

 

[Kulko]

Nicely Played.

As far as the land bridge is concerned I am pro attacking india. Building city just takes too long. We can always make peace as soon as we took out the 2 spearmans.

 

[schmiddi]

about indian spearmen: seconded

 

[Kulko]

save uploaded

 

[Kulko]

ok My plans:

Military
Collect 3 more horse and artack India immediately. than try to rush one horse into Arabia to cancel payment.
Build up a HM force of 10-12 horses for schmiddi.

Exploration + Tech
Just plod on.

Core infrastructure
HM + Settlers + Workers.
I suggest not investing in Libs and Markets as we want to jump palace anyway.

What does the Settler factory in Z look like?

Worker actions
Now that water has reached zimbabwe, is it ok, to switch some off these irrgated grasslands back to mines? we have no hills or mountains near Hlobane and ulundi so it looks like a waste to me.

Cities
I will continue building north. Swazi is somehow badly placed, making exansion in the southwest not worthwhile.

 

[Wotan]

Military, I would sure empty out all available HMs to move into arabia with. If needed use lux to keep people happy.

Agree on libs etc at least for the time being. Z runs as a four turn settler factory right now with 5+fpt. Will check the save and get back on any details if needed but from what I read in Tim's report it looked pretty straightforward. Maybe some sharing of tiles, goats in particular, with the hill town.

Workers, still important to keep food running at high levels, any mining is just to balance a situation where an extra shield would simplify production but in general priority is given to food.

 

[Kulko]

ok will try to play tonite.

 

[Wotan]

We have not discussed GA? Shouldn't we build a couple/few Impis to help trigger a GA. We are in Monarchy and would benefit from it soon. Our current core is almost up to full production now.
FP? Do we want it in Mpondo? Should we hand build it? If so maybe start that process now?
Connect Iron near Intombe, when? We need at least two of the grasslands near it to be irrigated if we are to really be able to use it for production. So no more grass to be mined. We might even consider irrigating the tile NW of it after a while of using the mine being built now.

 

[Kulko]

GA:
I would rather wait until we have conquered a real core and jumped palace. It might take a few more impis for a victory then, but we can always manage.
But this is a point, where I am not really sure. Good production now is worth more, than later too.

FP:
This is not PTW, so a FP far away from the real core will only not reap much benefit in the long run. Rather wait, until we got the two neighbouring cores.

Iron:
I assume you mean the Iron near Ngome. You are probabaly right, working it is worth the trouble, so I will start irrigating the area.

Hlobane:
I do not really see the advantage of wasting prodution, to have it grow to size 6 and spend luxury on it.

Military:
I didn't want to send all our hoirses, because it wouldnÄ't be enough to make a campaign anyway. Just wanted to start the war and then retreat untill we are really prepared for ahard strike. Also we don't have much culture, so we probably need stellers to conquer territory, which are also not ready yet.

Timing:
Will not play tonite to allow more discussion, but then it may wait until monday evening.

 

[Wotan]

I think GA now is more worth than a later GA. Resources we get now will be ours for the game. Better return on resources created early in the game. My experience of Civ is that early speed is more important than anything else. Since assets can be used for a longer period of time.

Ngome it is.

OK on military campaign. If there is not an opportunity to wreak havoc in arabia, they should be in war now and slowly draining their resouces. At least move all HMs across the land bridge in time for Dman's turn set. Trust me, he is soo keen on going to war! And we should have 12-15 by then, and a few Impis for a GA to start.

We are going for a domination in this game so I think we should stop research after Chivalry. Any other techs useful (Engineering) will become available when we capture the GLib. Depending on where it is built we might even bag a few more advanced...

If you feel like playing tonight do so. You have given ample time for comments. Tim is out of the loop for the duration of the weekend and I understand Schmiddi has approved of your plan. Dman might drop in with a few comments but since he has not voiced any real concerns I guess he approves too.

 

[dmanakho]

agree on the plans

 

[Wotan]

agree on the plans

Getting your hands on a stack of Horsemen tipped the scales, right.

 

[dmanakho]

well.... how else you are going to dominate

 

[schmiddi]

As Wotan said, I'm fine with the plan.

 

[Kulko]

Pre-turn:
moved the horsemens to the front. Raise Lux to 30%

Turn 1:
nothing happen

Turn 2:
Attacked India and cross the bridge.

Peace between the alliances.

Turn 4:
Attacked Russian Settler wanting to settle on the land bridge.

Turn 7:
Got attacked by Indian Archers.

Turn 9:

I moved into arab territory finally. Unfortunately I was killed, before I could cause a war.

Turn 10:
Peace with India again.