SGOTM3 Rome - Team Bugsy

[alerum68]

Nice job razing Knossos, and great to hear about the leader. Didn't like the news about Samuari though... one thing... you said you highly recommend something, then you said nothing more... what are you referring too!? Oh yeah, I got it.

umm... looking at the score chart, it seems like Sesn is starting to tapper off, but we've gone past the danger point. I think it was when japan came in the picture. I really don't like Samauri... anyway, bleak as things look for us, we still have a decent chance of hanging in there til time runs out.

 

[alerum68]

Question: Does anyone mind if I sell our temples? We'll still keep the big borders, and the culture we have already, but we don't have to pay for the temples, in cities where happiness is doing nothing for them. We won't gain any new culture in those cities, but it's the entire civ culture that matters for flips.

 

[grahamiam]

Question: Does anyone mind if I sell our temples? We'll still keep the big borders, and the culture we have already, but we don't have to pay for the temples, in cities where happiness is doing nothing for them. We won't gain any new culture in those cities, but it's the entire civ culture that matters for flips.

i think thats a good idea. just make sure that we don't cause undue happiness problems. maybe sell them after markets are built or something. also, take a look at the lux slider as i didn't during my last 2 turns. with a couple more markets, we may be able to reduce lux tax to 0%.

"I highly recomm" -> sorry, it was late for me last night. i think i completed that thought in the paragraph above but forgot to edit it out in the word document i was using to record the set log.

 

[RowAndLive]

Very nice consolidation all around to everyone! We've finally wrapped the South and East, and are now ready to concentrate on the North, leaving mobile units for defense behind the front.

That traction in the NW is the same problem that I had been having, and it's now been at least 40 full turns of it. With Alerum and Bede up next, I know that I can rest easy , since by the time my turn comes, America will be the only opponent left on our continent...

 

[RowAndLive]

I really don't like Samauri... anyway, bleak as things look for us, we still have a decent chance of hanging in there til time runs out.

Don't worry, in Grahamiam's post it also said that they had 4 cavs, so we won't see too many Samurai...

 

[Sir Bugsy]

I'd sell the temples when we have a market and the borders have expanded. I think we'll be able to keep everyone happy with just markets. Sounds like the backyard is becoming a busy place as well.

 

[denyd]

It seems the off-islands AI have decided that the land SE of Cumae is where they need to invade from. For the fun of it, I played around with not attacking those inbound Japanese ships and they landed 9 Cavalry on a hill tile next to Cumae in the same turn. That's a pretty good amphibious invasion in my book.

It's too bad about those army losses. I'm also worried about that army in Tarentum. We need to complete that temple in Tarentum so the borders expand. Right now, AI cavalry are able to move just 1 tile to heal and then come charging back. With the cultural expansion, we'll force them to the hills & mountains to heal. With the discovery of gunpowder, we'll be able to pump up our defenses. Expect to see whole bunch of infantry once Replaceable Parts is discovered and with Universal Suffrage started, it's not far away. We need to get to Military Tradition (Gunpowder-Metallurgy-MT) to be able to have a quality attacker again. Our knights are only successful once the Cats have softened up the targets. At least with cannon & cavalry we should be able to flatten France & England. If we get lucky and play smart we might be able to take our entire continent before Japan launches.

 

[grahamiam]

Tarentum should expand next turn iirc. it would be nice to keep that temple till the 2nd expansion so we'll force them back beyond mountains, then we can bombard them as they try to come over them. i still believe we ought to try to move something out of the NW region and into the French countryside. all we're doing by sitting back is delaying the inevitable, and we can't get spooned since team sens took that honor for themselves

 

[RowAndLive]

Wow, Team Misfit just logged a loss too.
They were ahead of us right up through turn 200, where they fell 1 point behind, and then closed out 10 turns later. In some ways, this is turning into a race for the teams to beat M-B, not each other - at least for us teams that never turned the corner. (I knew we should have taken that left turn at Albequrque... ) That leaves 8 active teams.

Of the eight, Oblivion is on a winning course, staff & Ankka will likely win, and akots, handy & microbe are clustered with us (all variant teams).

 

[Sir Bugsy]

It also appears that Team Mistfit have swiped the spoon out of Sesn's hands. I'm sure that broke Team Sesn's hearts.

It looks like when things went downhill for those two teams, it happened pretty quickly. I think the only way for that to happen is invaders in the backyard.

 

[grahamiam]

It looks like when things went downhill for those two teams, it happened pretty quickly. I think the only way for that to happen is invaders in the backyard.

we are thin back there, but we should have more units coming online in a few turns. all the more reason to get markets down as we need more and more troop support.

 

[denyd]

One more thing. Rather than building pikemen, keep building legions. Both have a 3 defense and cost 30 shields, but the legions can attack at 3 vs 1 for a pike. We'll never be able to have enough cash for upgrading pikes to muskets (if we have any saltpeter), so there's no reason to build pikes.

 

[RowAndLive]

Ackowledged. I think I was the one to initiate pikes on more than a 1-2 basis, and is was strictly for upgrade reasons.

 

[alerum68]

Just a little update:

On turn 8, there have been *HEAVY* IA landings in 2 stragtic points... Cumea in the south east, and Jerasalum in the northwest. Jerasalum actually saw more action, and had to move some cats away from the true front to help defend this stretch of coastline. After the assults I've been facing, and even including bombarding down ships, I can easily see how the other teams could have lost... We've been lucky in the fact that all of our coastal cities are defended... I think they left them open.

I haven't been able to do 1 offensive assault, being strickly on the defense, but I'm having around a 10:1 kill ratio in the north. One thing I'm doing is getting about half our worker force up in the north, and creating roads around our cities. This will increase our kill ratio to 20:1 easily, because the units I do loose are usuauly the odd one I leave in the open and a cav pops out of no where and kills him.

I've increased our army by a net gain of about 10 knights, and 5 legions, and have added about 5 workers so far as well. Our GPT is down again, even with markets (Forums) being built.

I have to head down to the uni, so I'll finish this up sometime later tonight. Any suggestion from the team on a way to break out with an assault? I have 3 Settlers in the north ready to replace razed cities, but we need the arms to raze those cities.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

It sounds like you're playing things very well. I would think the location for an offensive would be to continue up the east coast. We could then sweep into France through the flatlands.

Figure we will need a sizeable force, probably 10-15 knights, plus an army or two to hide under. Bring the settlers along to settle the land we clear.

Have you been building any settlers? We need to keep doing that.

 

[alerum68]

I've built 2 settlers during my watch, with a 3rd on the way. Settlers should never be turned off, even if we have to use them for backfill instead of taking new lands. And the East Coast would be easiest, especially since the western half seems to get more of the attacks.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Very good.

I think if we can maintain a holding force in the west we could roll up France from the east and then reconsolidate our front about 10 tiles north of where we are now. Granted, that may take 50+ turns, but I think we need to start moving in that direction. Time for a calculated risk.

 

[grahamiam]

I've built 2 settlers during my watch, with a 3rd on the way. Settlers should never be turned off, even if we have to use them for backfill instead of taking new lands. And the East Coast would be easiest, especially since the western half seems to get more of the attacks.

yes i agree (baby on shoulder) and build in non-core towns, we need muscle

 

[denyd]

OK, here's a crazy idea from a sleep deprived team member.

Let's follow the advice of General George Patton "Hold them by the nose and kick them in the A$$"

Here's holding by nose:

We'll need new cities on the 4 blue X's with a 2-3 defenders (Legion army Tarentum & The Gate) with 4-5 catapults each. Each city will need walls. That should allow us to hold the line.

Now for the butt kicking:

If we move up the coast we will only have French & English troops to contend with. Hopefully we'll be able to crack the first ring of defenders then move to the interior of England quickly. After taking Newcastle, the slower units can advance on London, while the faster ones head for the English horses.

The more I thought about the initial plans to attack through Rheems to Tours & Orleans the more I realized we were heading into the teeth of the AI. With Bablyon & Germany to the east, America & Russia to the North and England & France to the west on that plan, we'd be moving into a bad situation. With this plan, once England is secure, we'll be able to move the western corner of holding to Sevastapol and create a line of advancement from Coventry to Lyons moving eastward.

 

[grahamiam]

it looks like a good plan, though let's try to use the land better for defense. ie, near Marseillis, move the "X" S 1T so more attacks occur across the river. i like the plan, though we need to figure out how to procecute it soon.