SGOTM3 Rome - Team Bugsy

[grahamiam]

very true, and we get cannons in about 12T. those should hit cav's about 70% of the time vs the current 50%. Upgrade cost will be 40g per cat so we may want to turn off research for 2T to get about 200g and upgrade 5 at the front quickly. The rest can get upgraded as we have cash.

 

[denyd]

Nice work G-Man.

I agree about the cannons. Having muskets and cannons in the frontline might allow those defending armies to move on to offensive duties. If we happen to get another army, we could load it with a couple of defenders and a knight and send it on a horse pillaging mission.

I'm thinking we should complete metallurgy & military tradition and then turn off science for a while and concentrate on upgrades. (Delay long enough to get those front line cats upgraded though). It's probably a good idea to have those southern cities each build one last catapult before the cannon arrive.

Once again, well played Grahamiam.

 

[RowAndLive]

All hail, catapults! We'd have been out of this a long time ago without them.

I'm continually amazed that even though we push the cities forward, the penetration range of the AI troops is pretty much the same. We need to get to that next ring of mountains / hills / etc. to really form a new front. I am disheartened when even our stongest players (which is pretty much everyone, since I'm the low man on the team) end up working hard to keep holding the perimeter - then every 100 turns or so, we get a burst of expansion. Who will it be next? Fortunately, the landings haven't been a real problem yet, even though they can be neavy, and cerrtainly are consistant. Given the current progression of the game, I think we could win eventually. The question is, will it be before 2050...

Come on cannons and cavs!

 

[Sir Bugsy]

As we keep moving forward, we are slowly taking away land and tiles from the AI. With the founding of Curia, there is one less horse source that the AI can use. We just need to keep building settlers and slowly creep forward. When we get cavs, I think we will be able to break out. That's what happened in the 3CC AW game we played in DI1. We just need to keep cranking out settlers even if we can't use them right away.

 

[grahamiam]

IBT: Lose 1 vet Legion in Caesarea from American cav 34-12. Indians come calling but I don’t answer.
Kill 1 Cossack in Lauriacum
Kill 1 French cav in Neapolis 36-12
3 Babylonian cav come into view near Arretium, 2 more near The Gate

T6: 1540AD Turn research back up to 40% (metal in 11 @ -8gpt)
In the NE
At Curia, cats go 5 for 16 on 2 Babylonian rifles.
At Neapolis, cats go 0 for 5 on a German rifle on a hill.
Use a knight to kill a 2/4 German knight near Curia 37-12
Center-North
At The Gate, cats go 4 for 7, reducing to Babylonian cavs to 2hp each.
Death in the South moves N to hill with 6 cats and 1 settler.
At Tarentum, cats go 5 for 15, redlining an American cav and a Babylonian rifle.
Use a 4/5 knight to kill the redlined cav 37-12
Use the Defenders of Rome to kill the rifle 38-12
Center
Bombard ships in the bay, redlining a Greek galley (1 for 2), hitting an American ironclad (redlined), and the Galley it was protecting (3hp of 5 left)
Not sure, but I think Babylon is abandoning ships at sea as a galley that was protected last turn no longer has it’s escort will be frozen again.
Redline a Greek galley near Hippo Regius
Blue Bolts and Caesares Army can heal this turn and get back to full strength for next turn.
Look around and decide to use Ceasar’s Savages in Curia to attack a 2/4 rifle, killing it but losing 13hp 39-12
Hit space before I get any more bright ideas.

IBT: See a redlined Greek galley take out the redlined American Ironclad. Now that’s balls.
@Lauriacum: 3 Cossacks die vs cats and Legions 42-12
@The Gate: Cossack retreats
@Neapolis: Cossack retreats
See this happy sight

infantry, just when we start to pull even, they pull away again
T7: 1545AD
In the NE
At Neapolis, cats go 1 for 5 vs a German rifle on desert (3/4)
At Curia, cats go 3 for 9 vs German rifle on mountain, redlining it.
At Lauricum, cats go 1 for 6 vs Babylonian rifle on mountain (3/4)
Center-North
At Tarentum, cats go 3 for 7 vs French rifle on desert (1/4)
Near Caesarea, cats go 3 for 4 vs 3 Babylonian cavs (all ¾)
Blue Bolts kill 1, Elite Knight dies flawlessly to a second 43-13
Bring out 8 cats to redline the 2 cavs, then kill 1 with the Blue Bolts and a third with a 3/5 knight 45-13
Caesare’s Army kills the redlined French rifle 46-13
Cover exposed cats with 2 Legions (1 English cav in range)
Settler with Army and cats moves N near the Gate.
Core
Cats hit various ships. Looks like a Jap galley may land @ Pisae instead of the bay.

IBT: various things move back and forth. Japs Samuria and LB dropped off N of Pisae, away from our cats. English want to talk but I show them the hand. Barracks in Arretum are destroyed by a French frigate
Lose 1 Legion covering cats 46-14

T8: 1550AD
In the NE
At Curia, cats go 4 for 16 vs rifles and Cossacks, taking 1hp off 4 German rifles.
At Neapolis, cats go 2 for 5, redlining one of the rifles.
Vet Knight kills it 47-14
Found Gramstand NNW of The Gate. Cats in that town go 3 for 6, dinging 3 cavs nearby. Use Death in the South to kill an American cav 48-14
Move 3 more cats and an Elite* Legion into town.
Center-North
At Arretum, cats go 3 for 13 vs 2 English cavs, redlining 1 but not touching the other.
3/5 knight kills ¾ English cav 49-14
Caesare’s Army kills a French cav 50-14
Blue Bolts kill an English cav 51-14
core
Cats go 2 for 4 vs Jap Samerai
5th Knight Army kills the Samurai but is badly damaged (3/12). Didn’t realize I would loss so many movement points attacking and now I can’t get the damn army back to a town.
Kill the longbow with a vet Legion 53-14

IBT: Retreat a Babylonian cav at The Gate, Walls in Arretum are destroyed by navel bombardment, too many units move in on us, much more than we can handle.
Aztecs drop off a rifle in the core

T9: 1555AD
in the NE
At Neapolis, cats go 2 for 5, damaging a German knight and a Cossack.
At Lauricum, cats go 0 for 6 on 2 Cossacks on the adjacent mountain.
Reinforce a couple of towns to make sure the Cossacks cannot capture anything.
At Gramstand, cats go 0 for 9 vs rifle on mountain
Use the 1st Knight Army to kill a redlined Cossack, revealing another Cossack behind Rheims
Center-North
At Tarentum, cats go 3 for 9 vs Babylon cav to redline it but an elite knight loses 5 straight. Kill it with a vet knight 55-15
Use 5 cats to redline a Babylonian cav on a hill near Antium, then kill it with a legion 56-15
Kill another redlined Bab cav near The Gate 57-15
Caesare’s Army kills 2 reg French cav’s but is badly damaged (9/18) 59-15
At Arretium, cats go 1 for 3 on the cav, then hit 2 of the 3 infantry (2 for 11). Rush walls in Arretium.
Core
Near Pompeii, cats go 0 for 3 vs rifle on irrigated grass.
Longbow dies without scratching it 59-16
Knight retreats, taking off 2hp, Knight is redlined but kills it 60-16

IBT: Lose 1 Legion at The Gate, retreat 1 Cossack and kill 1 Cossack at Augustadorum
(retreated 1 as well) 61-17

T10: 1560AD Science rate is unsustainable. Turn it down 10%, increasing time to metal from 7T to 9T.
In the NE
At Lauriacum, elite legion kills redlined Cossack 62-17
At Curia, cats go 2 for 2, redlining a Cossack. Kill it with an elite Knight 63-17.
At Curia, cats go 2 for 13, taking 2hp off a Babylon rifle on a mountain
At Gramstand, cats go 4 for 9, redlining a ¾ American cav and taking 2hp off a Babylon rifle.
Center –North
At the Gate, cats go 1 for 5 on German rifle on mountain
At Tarentum, cats go 9 for 17, damaging 3 cavs (2 ¼, other 2/4) and 1 rifle (3/4)
At Caesarea/Teurnia, cats go 1 for 2, damaging a French cav.
At Arretium, cats go 6 for 14, redlining an infantry, taking 2hp off an American rifle, and doing 1pt of damage on another Infantry.
At The Gate, elite* legion redlines but kills American cav 64-17
Between Gate and Tarentum, Knight kills redlined cav (promotes) 65-17
Caesare’s Army kills other redlined cav 66-17
Defender of Rome kills a full strength American cav 67-17
Blue Bolts kill the ¾ French cav flawlessly (15/18) 68-17
Blue Bolts move out and kill a French 3/3 cav (12/18) 69-17
Vet knight kills 2/4 American cav and promotes 70-17
Core
Redline an Aztec Caravel with 2 cats (2 for 2), but lose a galley trying to sink it 70-18
Cats go 1 for 2 redlining it again (1/4)

Found my alma matter, Syracuse, on a gold hill in the S that was never going to be worked, hoping to boost income but it doesn't do anything but add unit support.

 

[RowAndLive]

Wow - infantry! Nice job holding back the tide Grahamiam! Probably too many salt to pillage, and in any case, we'd have to get there first.

Off topic, my wife went to 'cuse too.


Say, can any of you guys clue me in as to how to clean out my submissions folder / file? I'm getting close to my allotment. Thanks!

 

[alerum68]

It doesn't matter. They don't need salt peper to build infantry. They can build it as much as they want, no matter what we cut off, or do to them. Every single city in their empire can build AT least Infantry at this point. That may be helpful, at least until they get tanks... it means we'll have movement points on our side.

 

[RowAndLive]

Movement points... I never thought of it that way. Thanks for the lift!

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Let's see, I think Alerum is up with Denyd on deck. Gramstand is going help a lot. I think we need to plant a city in that rubble NW-N of Arretium and another city 2 NE of Arretium. That will force the AI to go off the mountains to heal. 2SE of Sevastopol would be great also, but

 

[alerum68]

Oops. Didn't realize it was me who was up. I won't be able to get to it tonight I'm afraid, but I should be able to tackle at least 2 turns tommorow. Classes are kicking my arse... I'm not used to this.

Edit: Oh yeah... had a thought. What about settling cities in enemy territory? How does everyone feel about it?

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Just as long as we can support them with a proper defense, I think it would be great.

 

[denyd]

Nice work G-Man a new city and holding the line on defense.

The problem with facing infantry isn't their attacking ability, which is equal to cavalry, it that 10 on defense. Our legions won't be much good at less than 33% hit chances and our knights aren't much better. If we can red-line them with cannons (double the bombard of cats) we'll stand a much better chance of killing them with limited damage to the armies.

BTW, I hope that's not the fat lady singing (though I think our chances of winning are less than that of Ralph Nader getting elected). Though I have to ask, is there a point where we say enough or do we just wait for the AI to either launch or get elected?

 

[mad-bax]

You should play it out if you can bear it. All the other teams will also be interested in how they stack up against you. In any case, you haven't reached steam yet.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Checking the score card, Handy's team has lost.

 

[grahamiam]

that is a fat lady singing , as i don't see how we can pull this off atm. arty's + cav, ok, can do, but cannons + cav? and 9+ turns with cats? we will need a lot of cannon, and things will just get harder. I don't see how we can lose via conquest, either, until a huge stack of tanks/panzers show up.

if we want to go pillage, the army will need 2 knights accompaning it as I suspect there's a lot of railroads up N (based on the sudden ability of common AI units to arrive together in large stacks).

 

[denyd]

The problem with pillaging is not knowing where to pillage. We've discovered horses & saltpeter (cavalry), but we have no idea where to pillage to cut off rubber (infantry).

On a side note, I'm hoping to pick up a new monitor on Saturday afternoon and should be ready to go by Sunday noon (though I'm not sure I want to hurry back to this one)

 

[grahamiam]

for pillaging an empire that is so far ahead that i don't know where thier stratigic resourses are located, i usually use fast units to cutoff the capitol, then try to pillage a line across the narrowest line of thier empire so half can't build the unit. works great in C3C with uber army's but in PTW with army pillaging off, I think that'll be very hard to pull off. plus, we need bodies for the NW push.

 

[RowAndLive]

Makes sense. I guess my pillaging suggestion was pointless for this stage of the game, as I forgot that we couldn't see the rubber. Maybe in my spare time ( ), I'll replay it with the suggestion from earlier about going for fast contacts, and max pillaging / "hugging".

 

[alerum68]

Turn 0 (1560AD)
See that muskets aren't much better then legionary, and they can't attack as well... we need attack strentgh now. So, no Muskets builds...

IBT
lost legion at the gate to a cav.
lose some citizen to naval bombard in 2 cities
aztecs unload a unit near cumae
cav attack caesarea, and legion falls
oh my, oh my, oh my, there are alot of units.
ROME? riots? But they were happy last I checked. Did we loose a resource that I missed?!
Scroll ahead and Viroconium would have rioted too, even though both were happy when I hit enter.

Turn 1(1565AD)
We'd be in much better shape if anyone had taken my advice from my last turn and built some roads all the way to the border. We'd be able to attack and retreat instead of leaving units.
Death in the South, which has worked his way far to the north, retreats a bab cav.
go 2 for 13 trying to bombard a english infantry.. (gulp)
@Tarentum - Elite Knight vs 1hp Bab cav - win, 1 dam
Defender of Rome takes out bab cav, and goes to Tarentum to heal a bit.
Max's blue Bolts vs vet bab cav - win, 2 dam
repeat - 3 hps that time. only 3 cavs left in that stack. (rolls eyes)
Elite Knight vs 3hps rifle - retreats back into Curia. Deals no damage
1st Knight Army vs same rifle - kills rifle, gets a bit hurt though.
repeat - sorry guys, I lost our 1st Knight Army.
Where's all our Dromons?! Oops, wrong game... that ones alot more fun.
vet legion vs 1hp aztec inf - win, no dam


IBT
bab cav kills a knight near tarentum
keep getting majorly bombarded by sea, lucky none seem to take.
caeseara looses a musket to a cav
Then it takes out a cav with a knight.
another cav attacks, and falls to a second knight.
walls in verona bombarded. is okay, don't need 'em.
Japan starts Theory of Evolution

Turn 2 (1570AD)
Tarentum @
Defender of rome takes out a american cav, then goes for the one below it
Bombard the borders, but because there are no roads, I have no safe moves and must leave the injured units.

Alot of regular units have been built, and are being built. Since Bugsy is usually the one complaining about it, and he's the one who passed it off to me, I'm assuming that we're at the point where it doesn't matter, just get units out on the field for the meat grinder?

Alright, so I did take out a few units... but I did it under bad terms, and left some units exposed.

IBT
I hate those damn american cavs! They gather around our cities again.
And Japan's subs bombard our roads along the border, taking none out.
So do aztecks, and russians take out a legion.
german.... aggression... is... severe...
verona looses it's barracks, and citizen to english MoWs
then a 1hp cav takes out a legion, and a 2 hp one is retreated
damn the english!

Turn 3 (1575AD)
take out an english cav with army in arretum
use Knight army to take out other 2 cavs there.
Send workers south to hook up incense again. A cat and a settler go with by mistake.
caeser's army takes out a bab cav, turns north and takes out another, lossing 4hps this time.


IBT
road ruined by japan bombardment from sea.
bab cav attacks caesarea and dies.
england bombas the hell out of Verona.


Turn 4 (1580AD)
Take out german rifle with legion, but redlined.
take out german rifle with knight.
army is hurt bad by 2hp cav, but wins.
defender of rome takes out bab rifle easily.
legion takes out german rifle near neapolis redlined, no promotion
repeat as above, perfectly.
vet knight vs 1hp german rifle - win, no dam, no promotion
Savages take out german rifle, with 2 dam
Knight retreats from the second rifle there.
legion army takes out english infantry, but is hurt badly by it. 14 hps lost on one assault.

IBT
trapeuz's walls are bombarded away
bab cav attacks caesarea and dies
loose knight to 1hp rifle!?
babs drop off some cavs.
pike falls to inf at arretium
Then we take out inf with our 1hp army
but fall to the second.
I lost 2 armies?!
Shoot me now.

Turn 5 (1585AD)
Death in the South takes out rifle at Gramstand
Kill Bab spear near the south, but redline the knight I used.
Legion takes out bab cav in the south, and is redlined too. We now have a wall of units in that little bay where they love to drop off units.

Notes:
The easiest way I see of beating this game is to launch an assult against Aztecs and Japan when we get cavs, and drop them on the historgraph and just bring this one to turn 540.

France is done. They're sending 1-2 units per a turn, and there was 1 turn where no unit came. If we're trying to soften them up, don't worry, they're as soft as they're going to get. Raze their first row of cities, and pray the AI can't fill it before we do.

ROAD TO THE BORDER DAMN IT! I can't stress enough how much better shape we'll be in if we stop trying to improve corrupt citys with mines, and instead focus on the WAR!!!!!! ROADS!!!

Here's the
save. Good luck!

 

[grahamiam]

detail of the front, looks grim. bede definitely will have his hands full on the 1st turn. Caesarea looks like its about to be overwelmed (2 defenders with more than 3 attackers in range). Hopefully, the AI lives up to it's normal ineptness.

@alerum -> bodies were my idea, not bugsy's. i always prefer vets as well, but in this game, we're up against the wall and i didn't feel we had a choice nor did we have the chance to wait. also, please calm down with the roads thing. everyone is trying thier best under difficult circumstances. i was trying to road in the begining of my turns in the NE but got frustrated as the workers were stuck in town (Lauriacum), doing nothing, due to the large number of AI units. so I sent them back to road and mine around Antium, as we could always use more spt in the core.