SGOTM 14 - klarius

[Northern Pike]

We may need to get several worker factories in gear so that we can boost population fast. If anything will slow us down, it would be slow growth.

Don't worry about this, and in particular don't let it keep you from reducing the population of towns where there's flip risk. It's actually rather difficult to reach the domination standard in territory without reaching it in population. By the time we're at 66% territory we'll be at 66% population without taking extraordinary measures.

 

[ThERat]

I agree with NP, there is absolutely no need to join workers we will have far more population by then. It has never been an issue.

Anyway, the number 48% looks good

 

[TheOverseer714]

I think I can get to somewhere over 50% in my turns. I have the Aztecs and Koreans retirement homes nicely sandwiched within our culture and well away from anyone, and the Germans will get theirs in a similar location. I haven't heard from Renata about the marsh clearing issue, but if there is no answer soon, I will resume play.

 

[ThERat]

The marsh clearing had issues the last time round as well. AlanH fixed is for us that time

 

[Renata]

I've talked to Alan about the marsh clearing, and he has to decide if he's going to edit the saves. Feel free to play on in the meantime if you want to/can.

 

[TheOverseer714]

I've talked to Alan about the marsh clearing, and he has to decide if he's going to edit the saves. Feel free to play on in the meantime if you want to/can.

I think I will, one or two towns will not win or lose this game, so I'm going to resume playing.

 

[Northern Pike]

Sure, go ahead. And Alan needn't exert himself unduly to fix the problem, when strictly speaking the fairest thing now would be for marsh clearance to be impossible for everyone, not just the fast teams.

 

[TheOverseer714]

Finished my turnset, we are cooking with gas, gentlemen! By that, I mean victory is very nearly at hand, we have 56% land and 66% population. The invasion of the Maya has begun, the Koreans only have 1 original city left, Germany and the Aztecs are retired, just need to settle their former citizens down, and the next player can go after the Hittites and India. I think India needs dealt with before the IBT, because they have a Sword threatening Persias retirement home on the old French Island. I recommend gifting India a retirement home, the Declaring and killing that Sword. They may even be goaded into declaring, as they have a Spear near Hamburg. I apologize for any automoves, I think I stopped them all. I left the MM'ing for the next player and unfortunately, very little money, I figure why not spend it? Anyway, good luck, I think it can be finished within the next turnset.

Spoiler :

A Couple pictures:
The Indian Sword

My progress:

My turn-log:

Spoiler :

Pre-flight: CivAssist 2, Word running. Get the save loaded. Look things over.
Rush Settlers in Intombe, Niagara Falls. Rheims, Rome and Paris. Land 6 Cavalry on hill at Tlaxcala.

Non-Combat:
Settlers 6
Workers 8
Military:
Warriors 2
Musketmen 7
Cavalry 99
Armies 6
Cannons 2
MDIs 17
Carracks 29

Hit enter=>

IBT: Aztecs have other “friends”, Japan and Sumerians ally against them.
2 Aztec Knights lose to Cavalry at Tlaxcala.
Greeks land a Crusader and Hoplite at undefended Alesia.

Turn 1, 510 AD: Take Gordium, set to starve=>Temple.
Kill the Greek landing.
Come up a couple Cavalry shy at Tlaxcala.
Rush a few Temples in key spots, a couple Cavalry and a Carrack.

IBT: Persia wants peace, but I want the resistance gone from their cities first.
Lots of Galley movement, only 1 attack, an Aztec MDI kills a Cavalry at Tlaxcala.
Several pikes reinforce there.

Turn 2, 520 AD: Settle a bunch of towns, getting up to 44% land now.
Rush a few Temples and a settler, spending like a drunken sailor, though hopefully more rational.
Land an army to guard troops at Tlaxcala.
Start gathering troops to land at Korea.

IBT: Sumerians land near Tlaxcala, otherwise the typical Galleys milling around.
Greeks land a Hoplite on Mongol island. Persian Galley nearly sinks a loaded Carrack.

Turn 3, 530 AD: Make some lux for gpt deals with Sumeria and Egypt to try to raise our dwindling gpt. Hope that was okay.
DOW Germany, but can’t land this turn, I didn’t realize volcanoes are impassable in this game. NOTE: There were no suitable retirement homes available, so the next player must make peace long enough to gift one to them before killing them off.
Kill about 8-10 Pikes to take Tlaxcala, losing 2.
Kill 5 at Teotiwhatever and that city is ours also. Now to weather the counterattack.

IBT: Persians land a Knight near Tlaxcala, Aztecs pillage.

Turn 4, 540 AD: Make Peace with Aztecs, giving them their retirement home, Aztec Jungle Hut. I think as soon as our Cavalry heals, we’ll go back to war.
Give Korea their retirement home, Kimchee City, but their Galleys are blocking one landing zone, so no DOW.

IBT: Chinese land a Sword/Spear pair near Iron on, a Sword near Machu Picchu.
Aztecs boot us, and I comply for now.

Turn 5, 550 AD: Nearly lose an army on a German Spear, otherwise Hamburg falls easily.
DOW on Korea, landing on the narrow neck to await the Army to land.

IBT: Only 1 Korean counterattack, Longbow loses to a Cavalry.

Turn 6, 560 AD: Nam’po taken, losing 1 Cavalry.
Berlin falls without losses, though 1 army drops to 1 hp. 4 slaves taken, city put on starvation diet.

IBT: Japanese Warrior enters our territory.
Greeks land a Pike and a Crusader near Tabriz.

Turn 7, 570 AD: Killing the Pike generates a Leader, finally!
Forgot about the need for the Military Academy, made him into an army…sorry!
It will at least be a 2 *elite army. If I get any more, I will remember that we want the MA.
Lose 1 Cavalry, but Frankfurt is ours.
Same story at Pusan, lose 1 Cavalry to a regular Pike, but the city is ours.
Piss Monte off, then give them the leave or declare, he declares on us.
Several retreats at Tenochitlan get another leader, lose a Cavalry, but Tenochitlan is ours. Rush the Military Academy there, hopefully it doesn’t disappear in a flip.


IBT: Greek Galley sinks a Carrack.
Aztecs manage to cough up a Knight and burn a new settlement…..damn!

Turn 8, 580 AD: Take Texcoco, redlining an army. The Pikes are worse than Muskets.

Pyongyang falls, 1 Cavalry lost.

IBT: Perfect, Germany wants to talk peace. I give them their retirement home, Hans’ Schnitzel Haus. I will of course re-declare and finish them ASAP.
China lands a Sword near Hamburg.

Turn 9, 590 AD: Re-declare on Germany, take Leipzig and Konigsberg with no losses. The German war is done, AFAIK they have no units left except a wandering Galley.
Take Calixtahuaca and Tlatelco and other than some Pikes, the Aztec war is over.
Gift the Maya their retirement home, Smokey Bacon’s Shack, then DoW them.
Land the Army and 3 Cavalry, get a possibly pleasant surprise: they are only using Longbows in Copan, no Spears or Pikes in sight!

IBT: Indian Sword enters Persian Retirement Home territory.
Japanese Warrior threatens one of our towns.
Pyongyang flips, meaning more work.

Turn 10, 600 AD: Copan and Palenque fall easily, as does Pyongyang and Seoul.


Non-Combat:
Settlers 3
Workers 8
Slaves 72
Military:
Warriors 2
Musketmen 7
Cavalry 105
Armies 8
Cannons 5
MDIs 17
Carracks 30
Unit support:
Units: 182
Allowed : 202
Unit Costs: 0 gpt

Research
Physics, Infinite turns at +551 gpt

Sliders
100%/0%/0%

The save: http://gotm.civfanatics.net/saves/sgotm14/Klarius_SG014_AD0600_01.SAV

 

[Northern Pike]

Tremendous round. I'll have comments later.

 

[ThERat]

excellent work

I agree to get rid of that sword, one civ less throws us back 10 turns...just fight whatever is needed to get the additional 10%, rush temples, plant cities and the like.

 

[Northern Pike]

Loosely speaking--I'm not using a utility, just the rule of thumb that 1% = 29 tiles--we need another 290 tiles to win. Filling in what we've already conquered or partly conquered (Korea, the Mayan island) will give us about 140. Thus we'll also need 150--say 15 cities, being a little pessimistic--from China, India, and the Hittite island. We should be able to do it in the next round, but it's a lot of ground to cover and precise play will be required. As usual, making sure our Carracks keep up with our ground units will be critical.

We have sufficient Carracks at the Aztec-Hittite and Korean-Indian crossings. In the latter case, though, Namp'o is too far from Bangalore, so we should found a closer port on the hill just across the straits from Bangalore. We still have enough gold to rush the settler being built in Babylon before hitting Enter, which will then be able to found the city on the third turn of the next round.

Finding Carracks for the Mayan-Chinese crossing will be a bit harder, but we can rush them fairly cheaply in Bissau and Tours, for example, which will give us enough of a surplus to send some south (through the ocean, not hugging the coast) while keeping our ship chain and the German-Mayan ferry viable.

The cav army on the small Aztec island should be shipped through Xochicalco to Tenochtitlan, and then sent to Tlaxcala (since there's a barracks there), before we hit Enter.

At this point we should fill in territory by rushing settlers, not temples. Not only are temples more expensive, they don't produce a cultural expansion for five turns, and that matters now.

Ta-Tu in Mongolia should switch to a settler build, which will complete immediately, and the settler should found a city in Greek territory three tiles SE of Ta-Tu.

It's perfectly all right now to scrape up money for rushes by selling improvements. All the libraries and granaries in our core can go, and so can any temple which 1) has produced one expansion, 2) isn't going to have time for another, and 3) isn't involved in a cultural battle with a retirement home or other enemy town. Our core towns have real barracks rather than Sun Tzu barracks, and naturally we can sell them too. Finally, there are lots of selling opportunites in towns we've captured.

 

[greatbeyond]

Your TS seems to have put us in sight of our goal. I 'll try and check the save tonight for any ideas. I'm not sure if Klarius is going to reappear to take his skipped turn or not. I hope he's not still sick. Perhaps like many of us, this time of year is very busy. If he doesn't make an appearance, I can probably play on the 12/24 or 12/26.

Sure Overseer, don't leave any money for Christmas presents. I guess I'll just have to pillage some more. 'tis the season for giving

 

[TheOverseer714]

Sorry 'bout that, I've been spending like a drunken sailor, trying to thrash out more territory. Hopefully I didn't leave the unit cupboard bare and theres enough troops to continue the big push. Just watch the Greeks and Chinese, they keep sneaking units into awkward places. I think the Hittites can be our next new target, then India, China and we should win. The Hittites and Indians can be goaded into declaring for some bonus WH, as they have units in our territory. We can give Klarius some time to grab it and finish it off, if he isn't still sick or busy with the holidays. If no answer by the time greatbeyond can take it, then he'll have the honor. 10% in 10 turns can be done, especially with the momentum we have.

 

[AlanH]

lurker's comment: Sorry about that marsh clearing issue guys. If you can live with it now, that's fine. I'll try to ensure that I fix it for use in future scenarios.

 

[ThERat]

I think as long as you leave it alone for all teams, it should be fine

 

[Northern Pike]

Yes, that's the simplest solution.

 

[TheOverseer714]

Anyone home? I can assume that Klarius was unable to take it, so greatbeyond, you are up. Let's bring this game home in style. I know we can win this game and the overall contest, so let's git 'er done. Gift their retirement home and goad the Hittites into DoW'ing us and put the smackdown on them, finish the Maya and Koreans, then its Indias turn. After India, China and Sumeria, if necessary, but I think we can do it this turn-set or early in the next.

 

[Northern Pike]

Yes; I haven't been trying to push the game along because of Christmas, but it's time to get going again. So, GB, that doesn't mean that you have to play at any particular time, but you should consider yourself up and start formulating your plans and questions.

Just extrapolating the territory lines out by eye, it looks as though we may be headed for a very close finish with the Spooks, allowing for our ten-turn handicap. So we have to play absolutely precise, well-considered turns for the remainder of the game, fighting to save every possible turn.

 

[TheOverseer714]

About the only thing further I can add is, be aggressive. The progress I made was by attacking in force and taking calculated risks. More of the same will win this.

 

[greatbeyond]

I should have a chance to look at it and develop a plan today. Maybe play tonight or tomorrow.