SGOTM 14 - klarius

[Northern Pike]

That's fine. It's unlikely that this round can be played properly in one session, so you needn't push yourself to do that.

A recap of what needs to be done before we hit Enter:

1. Gift Future Retirement B on our home continent to the Indians; provoke them into declaring war, or just declare on them if that doesn't work; and take out the Indian swordsman next to Persian Retire on the former French island, first bombarding it with the cannon in Nazare.

2. Ship the cav army on the small Aztec island through Xochicalco to Tenochtitlan, and then move it to Tlaxcala, where there's a barracks.

3. Rush the settler being built in Babylon, which will then be able to found a time-saving port city on the hill just across the straits from Bangalore on the third turn of the next round.

4. Switch Ta-Tu in Mongolia to a settler build, which will complete immediately. The settler should then found a city in Greek territory three tiles SE of Ta-Tu.

 

[greatbeyond]

We are just one or two turns away. I figured if Klarius reappears, he could do the honors.

The save:
http://gotm.civfanatics.net/saves/sgotm14/Klarius_SG014_AD0690_01.SAV

Some minor miscues in losing a couple of minor cities that were potential future retirement homes. We haven't lost any more civs but it has been difficult keeping track of everything.

Hittites are down to one city.
We have gained a foothold on the Greek's home island. It proved much tougher than the others. I should have waited 5 or 6 turns to do an en-masse landing. It probably would have gone better. They still seem to have quite a few Troops.

We landed some troops in Sumeria and signed a ROP so they wouldn't ask us to leave prematurely.

The Indians are down to their Capital and their retirement home. We have troops at the door and it will fall next turn.

We still don't have a foothold with China (at war) or Egypt but It doesn't appear we'll need it.

If anyone's really interested, I took sparse notes, but nothing great to report.

 

[Northern Pike]

The lack of a real turnlog makes it difficult to comment on your play. On the positive side, we took a lot of cities. On the negative side, it looks as though the game could have ended a couple of turns ago if we'd been more systematic about claiming tiles with cities founded by rushed settlers.

At 65% we can obviously win next turn, as long as before hitting Enter we raise gold by any means--improvement sales, tech sales--and then rush settlers where they can claim tiles and fill space next turn. The question is whether we can add enough extra tiles to win this turn. We still have attacks available against Bombay, which would add twelve tiles. We have the option of trying to take Aztec Jungle Hut from the Sumerians (yes), since they won't need it as a retirement home; it's only worth three tiles in itself, but we could gift it to another civ whose retirement home is costing us more tiles and then take that. Anyway, the first requirement is that we should know exactly how many tiles we are from domination now; so could someone with an appropriate utility please post the number?

 

[greatbeyond]

Mapstat says 22 tiles. It should be very close but not exact.
There is a Settler waiting on the Indian continent to be settled which will gain us 6 tiles. Other than that, the only significant land open is in the former Hittite lands. I didn't start any settlers there because the game will be over before they get there. They could be cash rushed there and settled the next turn.
The open lands on the former Mongol continent and the Egyptian continent are marshes which we can't clear or settle. I tried to get a settler to Egypt but the escort was insufficient to protect him.
I saw that Sumeria was going to take the Aztec retirement home so I gifted the Aztecs another. I wasn't quite ready to DOW the Sumerians yet which is why I didn't take it. We could DOW war the Sumerians this turn, but I'm not sure we have enough units there yet to do it. Perhaps invest some cash in a city investigation to find out.

I spent the first couple of turns building/rushing more Carracks as our ship chains were still inadequate. Our military was also suffering from a depleted stockpile of Cavalry. The Greeks, Indians, and Chinese all made amphibious landings on our lands but have been rebuffed several times.
One thing that did give me some concern was the stack of ~20 Mongol units next to our city in the former Mongol lands. We do not have enough units to even make a dent in them. Hopefully they'll stay content for one more turn. They have the potential to take back the whole island. As I said, we don't have enough units. There is another wave heading for the ports and ship-chain in the form Babylonian area of our continent.

 

[Northern Pike]

We're agonizingly close to adding twenty-two tiles before pressing Enter, given that taking Bombay, gifting Aztec Jungle Hut to the Persians after taking it from the Sumerians, and taking the Persian retirement home would add twenty--assuming for the moment the success of all the necessary attacks. Can anyone see a way to squeeze out two more tiles?

I saw that Sumeria was going to take the Aztec retirement home so I gifted the Aztecs another.

That was good play.

 

[TheOverseer714]

How about gift and swap some other retirement homes? Some of the early ones occupy alot of Domination tiles, ie. Russia, America and the Ottomans are taking up quite a few tiles that could be ours. We might not have the troops there, so it might not work. Anyway, I think we should PM Klarius and if he doesn't respond within 24-48 hours, then his top lieutenant should get the honors.

 

[ThERat]

NP, just finish it. Do we know whether we get any border expansions to make uo for the few mssing tiles? We might rush a library in addition if there is a city with 6 culture points...

 

[Northern Pike]

Sure, I'll finish it; but it might take me a few days just to play the one turn, because I have to go out of town on a family emergency. If you gentlemen find that too frustrating you can nominate someone else, and I won't object.

 

[Vind2]

I'm fine with letting NP finish it off

 

[TheOverseer714]

Plan A, NP finishes it before the weekend is done. Plan B, Klarius shows up and does the honors before then. There should be no need for a Plan C, but if there is, we'll figure something out.

 

[Elephantium]

Plan C - There is no Plan C

 

[Elephantium]

Okay, I checked the save, and there's definitely nowhere to rush a Library to squeeze an extra couple of tiles from a culture expansion.

Despite that, winning next turn should be easy whether or not we can take Bombay before we hit enter. We have plenty of improvements to sell, and we can get a lot of tiles by rushing settlers in the following cities:

Hattusas - 6 tiles
Hattusha - 7
Tarsus - 6
Tyrana - 8
Texcoco - 6
Veii - 5
Pusan - 4
Wonsan - 6
Seoul - 6 or 8 (depending on whether we use Wonsan)
Calcutta - 6
Delhi - 4 or 5 (depending on whether we use Calcutta)
Tikal - 4
Chichen Itza - 6
Copan - 6
Berlin - 4
Leipzig - 4
Ta-tu - 4

which is WAY more tiles than we'll ever need.

 

[TheOverseer714]

We could gift America the town "Later Retire" and DoW them, taking away the current retirement home, which gains us 3-6 tiles. Taking Bombay would be 9 more, and the Persian swap would possibly do it. There's nothing to lose by trying it.

 

[Northern Pike]

I haven't had time to play yet, but Elephantium, thanks for checking the possibility of rushing a library. That will save me a lot of work.

I agree with Overseer that taking an established retirement home on our home continent after gifting looks necessary, though we may not have the units to do it, given that our enemies have been building up the garrisons of those towns for some time now.

 

[TheOverseer714]

True, at this level the AI free unit support is huge and 10 spears take 10 units winning to capture. It might be worth the sold infrastructure to investigate the American retirement home. We have confidence that if there is a way, you'll find it.

 

[Northern Pike]

700 AD, save after victory

 

[Northern Pike]

690 (0): Step 1: We can't gain 22 tiles without Bombay, but it falls easily, being held just by two pikemen (2-0). Plus twelve tiles, still at 65%.

Step 2: We take Aztec Jungle Hut, held by a pikeman, an Enk, and a longbowman, from the Sumerians, losing a maceman (5-1). Plus three tiles for fifteen gained, still at 65%.

Step 3: We gift AJH to the Persians, losing three tiles, then attack Persian Retire. Shipping in every possible unit, we overcome the garrison of four spearmen, surviving the loss of a cav (9-2). Plus five net tiles for twenty gained, still at 65%.

Step 4: Arabian Retirement Home has to be our next target, since we have a lot of units cordoning it off from when two of our captive civs were at war. We gift the Arabs Future Retirement A as part of a peace treaty, which costs us five tiles. We then attack and take ARH, which proves to be held by just three spearmen. We lose a maceman (12-3). Plus four net tiles for twenty-four gained, and we control 66% of the world's territory.

Since something could still go wrong in the interturn, we go through the full procedure of selling improvements and then rushing settlers in nine of the towns suggested by Elephantium.

We put the lux rate way up as a precaution against flips and hit Enter.

Our small force in Sumeria, left in a hopeless position by our rushed DoW, is wiped out, taking only a maceman with it (13-8).

But…



Congratulations to the team.

 

[ThERat]

great execution to cut a turn. Now, we can only hope that the other teams need another 10 more turns than us as we lost 1 Civ.

Am I right that we can lurk the other threads now?

 

[AlanH]

Well done, guys

 

[Northern Pike]

Am I right that we can lurk the other threads now?

Yes, that's our traditional reward for finishing first.