SGOTM 13 - Smurkz

[Othniel]

Argh. Time has been so short still. I might be able to play this tomorrow though.

A brief semblance of a plan:

1. Build a bigger army. No more improvements except barracks as needed.
2. Keep on signing peace deals, especially with tribes who might make good allies or if we can export a resource to them.

War-wise, I think Portugal still looks like the best target. They are reasonably close, we can reach them with Caravels (sea tile pathway), and they only have a few cities. If we can keep them at war with Spain and maybe re-sign France against them, hopefully we can keep them weak. Regardless, we will be facing cavs and muskets at minimum if we land on Portuguese soil. I've been favoring MDI in my opinion on unit builds--best attack per shield invested--but we might want to think about alternatives. Land a big stack of pikes and trebs on a hill and let the cavs suicide themselves? Or, build some Knights for fast attacks?? Cavs will pick apart our pikes on open ground, so we have to prepare for that. We might be able to trade for Gunpowder and get Muskets, who knows if we have salt. I'll see what I can do about that.

In any event, I think we probably will need to start attacking before we get Cavs ourselves. We are progressively falling behind because we lack enough land. Our window of opportunity is fast closing, IMO.

 

[CommandoBob]

I think us attacking is risky, even in crossing the open seas. But I don't see any alternative. We are weak and the AI despises a weak human player. To get respect we gotta bust some heads.

 

[donsig]

I've been favoring MDI in my opinion on unit builds--best attack per shield invested--but we might want to think about alternatives. Land a big stack of pikes and trebs on a hill and let the cavs suicide themselves? Or, build some Knights for fast attacks??

We can't make knights, we make samurai. If we use them we'd have to factor our golden age into the equation. I think the idea of letting the AI suicide against our units is best, but with us being at war with so many civs we'd be facing lots of cavalry. But we're gettign no where fast anyway so I'm good with the plan.

 

[Othniel]

Righto. Can't build Knights, can build Samurai. I knew that.

Anyhow, I've played 4 turns and I expect to play the last 6 tonight and then post here.

 

[Othniel]

Uggh, unexpected guests last night. If I don't get the set finished in the next 2 days, I'll hand this off.

 

[CommandoBob]

Uggh, unexpected guests last night. If I don't get the set finished in the next 2 days, I'll hand this off.

I'll be out of town until late Sunday, so don't rush your turns on my account.

 

[Othniel]

I'll be out of town until late Sunday, so don't rush your turns on my account.

As you might be able to tell from my lack of posting, I'm not hurrying. I will get this finished by Saturday and posted.

 

[Othniel]

Turnset is done. Finally.

Summary:
-Lots and lots of bombarding action. Made the interturns crawl (I had animations on for recording purposes).
-We gained Gunpowder, Navigation, and got most of the world map revealed. We don't have saltpeter, unfortunately.
-A Viking Bersek attempted to amphib attack Akichi. Our vet pike stopped it cold
-Presently having a financial crunch due to heavy war-weariness

>>Here<< is the Save.

Handoff Thoughts:
-Gonna have to fix the treasury deficit before the next turn. I have a couple of potential thoughts I'll try to post tomorrow when I'm less tired.
-I've got our unit producting cities MM to "magic numbers" for production
-We need to get an invasion rolling but at least two major difficulties: protecting our transports and having enough units to maintain the coastal block.

Turnlog:

Spoiler :

Preflight:
Look for trade opportunities. Not much going since all our gpt is already tied up. If we can sign peace with England, we might be able to export iron to her. Keep an eye on that for the future. Otherwise, our greatest peace targets are probably Iroquois or America because they have the most ships in the area. Better would be to get America and Iroquois fighting each other so they can sink each others ships.

The microing of our empire, frankly, was rather weird. Cities with no barracks were building MDI, cities with barracks were building trebs, our lux could be safely reduced by 10%, etc. I microed quite a bit, started work on a couple of raxes in high shield areas, and disbanded a bunch of warrriors that were costing us unit support.

Caravels should work decently fine as bombard bait in our cities as ships will be the first thing hit in a successful bombard attack.

I'm going to try to get trebs in the south so we can ping enemy ships.

Guns due in 42 turns with lone geek. Our economy is at -1gpt with 20% lux.

Hit enter...


IBT
Lose some stuff to bombard:
Yamamoto lost a harbor and 2 citizens
Kemuri lost a citizen
Gojira lost temple, harbor, and a citizen

Turn 1 --> 1210
Ao Caravel --> Caravel
Gojira Barracks --> Harbor (I think the harbor will payoff if we can keep it alive...)

Mongols are up to 99,000 gold!!

Ping two Indian frigates with trebs. Let see if they retreat...


IBT
Indian frigates move away without firing a shot
More bombard losses:
Yamamoto loses 2 more citizens
Gojira loses its shiny new barracks and 1 citizen

Turn 2 --> 1220
Kiiro Barracks --> Pike
Saki MDI --> MDI
Bahitsu Pike --> Pike
Mothra Caravel --> Caravel

Switch Gojira to treb duty. Better than keeping on having new improvements blown up.

We are getting some war weariness. I'm a bit surprised our war happiness is starting to wear off --we have so many sources--but bombard can do that.

Ping a Hittites destroyer and an Iroquois frigate.

With raising lux to 30%, we are at 111gp with -48gpt. Our Spanish deal ends in 3 turns. Unless we get a cash infusion, something is going to get disbanded.


IBT
More losses:
Kemuri loses its Market despite having 3 healthy units inside to absorb blows
Yamamoto loses 1 more citizen

Turn 3 --> 1230
Sensei Pike --> Pike
Kemuri Barracks --> Pike

Only 1 of 4 trebs hits so only one frigate pinged.

Aztecs now have Guns so that is a trade opportunity, but we have nothing to give them at the moment. I cannot figure out a way to raise more money either...

IBT
Spain signs MA against us with Mongols. Geez woman! Why could you have done that 10 turns ago??!!!! Still, better late than never.
Bombard losses:
Kemuri loses its barracks
Gojira loses a citizen
Nibanme Smurkz loses a citizen
Gojira and Kemuri have really been hammered by the navies despite my best efforts to put in cannon fodder units.


Turn 4 --> 1240

Sign peace with Maya, giving them Mono and Invention and getting 7gp in return. Just to reduce the dogpile a little and maybe get another trading partner. Should have done this before.

Sign peace with England, giving 86 gpt and getting Navigation in return. Oh buggar. England still has trade embargoes against us. I had planned on turning around and trading our iron and wines back for our gpt. But no go. Way too bad. Just FYI, I got Navigation so we could do map trading with backward civs plus the ocean travel ability. No other techs were possible to get.

Get Incan World Map for Republic, Monarchy, and Mono. We now see much more of the world…
Trade Theology to Byzantines and get their WM and 10gp in return
Trade Theology to Maya and get their WM

Decide to try something semi-desperate…
Build embassy with England for all our 151gp
They are at war with Egypt. I’m hoping that by signing an MA with England, that we can get the embargoes to end. I seem to recall that working in the past.

Sign MA against Egypt, giving England 11gp and our WM.
Drat! No embargoes ended. Perhaps it has to be a new foe that England was not previously at war with,,,

Ok, I’m going out on a huge limb here…BUT, the only embargo that I can find that England has signed against us is with Spain. If I can sign an MA with England vs Spain, the embargo should end. I go for it.

Sign MA with England vs Spain for 34gpt. The embargo ends and we can trade!
TRADE Iron and Wines to England for 116gpt!!!

Essentially here is what happened with all that trading.
We got peace with England, Navigation, all the World Maps, an embassy, and an MA against Spain and Egypt. In return, we gave up Iron, Wines, 151gp, and a net of 17gpt. Not too bad of a haul for us, in my opinion.

After all that, I have to up our lux to 40% to quell war weariness. At this point we are making +52gpt with our sci slider at 0%.

Decide to bite the bullet one more time.
Trade Aztecs Navigation, our WM, and 49gpt in exchange for peace and Gunpowder. Why not use the gold if we can advance technologically?

IT’S OFFICIAL. We got cheated. We have no salt in our land.

Before the turn ends, I ping two Korean frigates and one American frigates with trebs,

Keep our fingers crossed. Hopefully Aztecs or England will re-declare and get our gpt back. I also put a lone scientist run on Chemistry. We need Cavs and salt to even dream about winning this thing…


IBT
Bombard losses:
Gojira lost its market L
Kemurii lost 2 citizens


Turn 5 --> 1250
Ping two Indian frigates and one American frigate. Little else happened this turn


IBT
Bombard losses:
A tile near Kemurii loses its mine and road
No other losses, everything is already destroyed.
Jerksees attempts to plant a spy in our capital and fails. Must have been scared of our military buildup.


Turn 6 --> 1255
Kiiro Pike --> Pike
Saki MDI --> MDI
Bahitsu Pike --> Pike

CA2 tells us that Persia and Mongols have reached the Modern Age! Crazier, the Mongols paid the Persians over 50,000gp on the inter-turn, almost certainly to purchase the Persian’s free tech, What a princely sum.

Trade Byz Education for WM and 21gp. Mainly just to get a little gold buffer in our treasury.


IBT
Egypt and England sign peace, which means we get our 11gpt back for the MA against Egypt. Gracias.
Bombard losses:
A tile near Komurii gets bombed
Persians are building SETI and Hoover

Turn 7 --> 1260
Sensei Pike --> Pike
Nibanme Treb --> Treb
Gojira Treb --> Treb

Zzzzz


IBT
Bombard Losses:
Gojira loses a citizen
A tile that had just been repaired gets bombed again
Persia tries to plant another spy. Idiot.
A Viking caravel appears.

Turn 8 --> 1265
Sushi Caravel --> Worker to repair the cow tile

Disband last warrior…

Ping an American frigate. Move pikes into northern towns to combat possible Beserks.

This sucks. I have to raise lux to 50% to combat war weariness. Peace with our most persistent rivals (America, Iroquois, Russia) is at unsustainable gpt prices. Our economy is now at -21gpt with 40gp in the coffer. Hoping for a miracle.


IBT
Spain and Byz sign MA against us
A Beserk attacks Akichi, our vet pike kills it flawlessly and promotes. Wow, just wow.


Turn 9 --> 1270
Akichi MDI --> MDI

Trade Maya Education for WM and 18gp, just to sustain us
Trade England WM and get 6gp.


IBT
Nothing really


Turn 10 --> 1275
Sushi Worker --> Caravel
Kiiro Pike --> Pike
Saki MDI --> MDI
Bahitsu Pike --> Pike

Ping some frigates…

Time for the next player. Economy is negative for next turn so that needs to be solved first.

One picture just to show the international collection of ships blasting our poor lands:

Spoiler :

 

[Niklas]

Heh. If two civs are in the MT, Amphi War should be out there. Should we take bets on whether we'll be conquered before someone launches their spaceship?

Great playing though, Othniel. Even though this game has lost its appeal and is going down the drain, I still feel I'm learning things by watching you play.

 

[Othniel]

Heh. If two civs are in the MT, Amphi War should be out there. Should we take bets on whether we'll be conquered before someone launches their spaceship?

Great playing though, Othniel. Even though this game has lost its appeal and is going down the drain, I still feel I'm learning things by watching you play.

Thanks for the compliment.

I'll place a wager. My money is that we survive but suffer a diplo or space loss. Both bet options suck.

Seriously, Amphibious Warfare might not get researched for a while. I think I recall games that lasted long into the Modern Age and no AI ever got Amphi War. We'll see of course. I think you are right though that we are facing spaceship (or diplo) loss very soon. The only way I can conceive us stalling off a loss is to somehow get the world to dogpile Persia and Mongols, the tech leaders, and wipe them out. Probably impossible to do.

Anyway, my thoughts on keeping financially afloat.
Short term: Probably have to drop the lux tax a notch and hire some taxmen. This will be painful because our unit production will get screwed up.

Mid-term: Hope we get England to break our MA against Spain. Look for ways we can pick up a few gold here and there from backward tribes like the Byzantines, trading them techs at cut-rate prices.

Long-term: Kill the war-weariness. I suspect it is America, Iroquois, and Persia that are the war-weariness sources. Possibly Russia also. When our current gpt obligations are broken or expired, I think we need to invest all our gpt in peace deals with these civs. Peace deals will pay us back directly by freeing up lux tax costs that the war-weariness is costing us. Also, when we sign peace with Persia, we should tie in an MA with them against Russia and other civs. That might slow down Persia's tech pace.

 

[CommandoBob]

I don't know if I'm up next or not, but I've got turns in CBob04 to play before I could get around Unlucky 13. It would be Wednesday or Thursday before I could get any turns played, though an analysis could be as early as Tuesday.

If no one else claims it by then, I'll pretend like it is my turn.

 

[CommandoBob]

I haven't had a chance to get to the game yet; RL (mother-in-law) has rearranged my PC access at home.

I'm divided about conceding (from Othniel's PM and the SGOTM Maint Thread). I dislike quitting and whining, so that forces me to keep on going. On the other hand, I don't see how we can do anything to improve our chances of building the Super Rocket to the Stars.

What if we disbanded all our military and got run over? Would we feel better if we were conquered?

 

[Othniel]

What if we disbanded all our military and got run over? Would we feel better if we were conquered?

No, that would not feel better!

Seriously, I understand why you don't want to quit. I feel the same way. If this was a personal game or a regular SG, I would win or die trying. I may even keep playing this on the side as a personal game (assuming we quit as a team) and see if I can't pull out a win.

BUT, there are a bunch of other teams that are waiting on us. If we keep on going, it could be months before we are conquered or somehow win. If we had reasonable odds of winning, by all means we should keep going. But honestly, our odds of winning are a longshot at best. So that means SGOTM 14 is delayed while we slog on in a mostly hopeless fight. I think the most thoughtful and honorable thing would be to swallow our pride and concede. That's my $0.02.

 

[donsig]

I say we throw in the towel. I don't see much fun or excitement will be generated by continuing to play.

 

[CommandoBob]

Hmm.

Let me think this over.

I'll post back tomorrow (if not sooner).

 

[CommandoBob]

The air was still and even though the lights were bright there was an air of gloom and despair in the room. At a table near the middle of the room sat a pudgy, middle aged man with glasses, sipping a mug of root beer. Across from him was a small, olive-skinned man with black hair and quick movements. Neither one was smiling.

'So tell me, CB, what went wrong?'

'I don't know, Tokuwaga, I just don't know. We had a good start. The island was small and did not have many natural resources, which I know is very familar to you. And we found a larger island not too far away and we were able to settle it. But after that everything seemed to stall and die.

'We lost a lot of galleys trying to explore our world. And once we found other people, they were too far away for us to try to colonize their lands too. Our galleys would have to spend two turns or more in the open sea. In turn, that meant that we could expect to lose 3 ships out of 4 trying to settle someplace new. It was just too risky to do that.'

'And then we started to lose people,' said another voice.

'Hey, donsig, come join us. We're sorta rehashing the game.'

'Well,' began donsig, 'it was, is, a tough game. We did okay with our bait and switch gambit, but in never really paid off. And once it didn't I think that some saw the handwriting on the wall and quietly went away.'

'Hmm, I wasn't that smart,' said the pudgy man. 'Or something. We all have duties and obligations that take time away from the Shining Yellow Disc. ControlFreak was a lurker from the get-go; Niklas has a bum shoulder that is aggrivated by too much time at a computer (and that's how he makes a living, too!); eldar dropped out of all his SGs to spend more time with his family. Every SGOTM I've been in has had casualties along the way. In SGOTM 09 I was the one who finished out the game. In SGOTM 10 and 12 it was ControlFreak; Niklas played out SGOTM 11, if I remember correctly.'

'But what happened?' asked Tokuwaga.

'We're getting beat like an orpahn!' said the man with glasses. 'We are about an Age behind most of the world, we have 5 nations with destroyers bombarding our cites and all we can do is throw big rocks at them. Our markets, libraries, harbors and other improvements are wrecked and ruined or even worse our citizens are killed each turn and we can do nothing in reply. We can keep the enemies out, but we are trapped on our two islands.'

'And even worse is the international scene. For some reason the women leaders really want to hurt us. Catherine, Isabella, Joan, even Theodora have been busy signing Military Alliances against us. The men don't like us, and that is fine. But the women are out to get us,' said donsig.

'So what are you going to do?' pushed Tokuwaga.

'I think we give up,' said donsig.

'I don't want to be labeled a quitter,' said the other man. 'Yeah, it's a bad situation, but I'd rather go down fighting than just surrender.'

'Well, CommandoBob, there might be a solution to your problem,' chimed in a chirpy voice from a booth along the wall.

'Oh, and what might that be, O studious Othniel?'

'Team Spooks has offically forfeited their game. That leaves us the only active team left. However, AlanH has forgotten that fact and is ready to close the game.'

'Oh, really!' said donsig. 'That's sure nice of him.'

'But, if AlanH doesn't know that we're still playing, shouldn't we tell him?' queried CommandoBob.

'Ah, No. Let's let this one die,' said Othniel. 'I don't want to give up either, but all we can do now in the game is just struggle to survive. In a few more turns someone will have Marines and then we'll be overrun. I think it is time to end it.'

With a frown and a sigh the other man nodded his head. It was over.

'So what is next?' asked Tokuwaga.

'Get ready for SGOTM 14, I suppose,' said donsig.

'Yep,' said CommandoBob.

'Sounds like a plan to me,' added Othniel.

'Good!' said Tokuwaga. 'Because the Summer Olympics are on and my other daughter is part of Japan's swimming team.' He pulled out a remote and turned on the large, very modern TV screen that dominated one wall. 'Grab some grub and let's watch the games!'

 

[eldar]

I heartily agree that we should give up. It was a valiant effort but I don't see how we'd even get close to winning.

At best, just keep pressing the space bar until we lose a UN vote?!

 

[Othniel]

Nice recap, CB.

We have 4 votes to stop playing. I take it that we officially concede, then? I'll post that decision in the Maint thread in case AlanH hasn't been reading our thread.

Good game, team. We competed well. Now I just want to know how Team Klarius jumped so far ahead! A very large Smurkz Shell Game perhaps?

 

[donsig]

Yes, it will be interesting to see what they did. Good reading as always CB.

 

[CommandoBob]

I finally got one of these:

Spoiler :

so I can now finish one last, self-imposed task from this game, that was prompted by:

I do like the sound of that pizza.

which refers back to Post #282.

I've meant to do this for over three years and can now remove it from my Bucket List.

Breakfast Pizza

• 1 can crescent rolls
• 1 pound sausage
• chopped Candian Bacon (optional)
• 1 1/2 cups frozen hash browns
• 1 cup chopped onion (optional)
• 1 cup choppen green pepper (optional)
• 5 eggs
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
Place the crescent rolls on a pizza pan and spread them out to completely cover the bottom of the pan. Form a crust up the side of the pan (it is good if the crust even stands above the rim of the pan, if possible). This is now the pizza dough.
Sprinkle the hash browns over the pizza.
Crumble the sausage in a skillet and brown. Drain off the grease and sprinkle the sausage over the pizza.
Sprinke the Canadian Bacon over the pizza.
Sprinkle the chopped onions and green peppers over the pizza.
Sprinkle the cheese over the pizza.
Beat the eggs and milk together and then pour EVENLY over the pizza.
Bake at 375° F for 20-25 minutes or until the crust is golden or the eggs look done.
Serve alone or with chilled salsa.

Note: It is advisable to place either a cookie sheet or aluminum foil on the rack under the pizza pan. Sometimes the eggs will bubble out of the pan. I now use my stone bar pan and the eggs don't bubble out. I (Mrs. CommandoBob) even use 2 cans of crescent rolls.