SGOTM3 Rome - Team microbe

[scoutsout]

After action review:

Got us another leader, built a knight Army, got a Knight army killed, got another leader...sacked some cities, pillaged some stuff, killed some bad guys, got some of our guys killed.

There's a French settler pair headed towards that flatlands area where I cleared out Akkad (and Houston)... that settler pair is headed right into the gaping maw of 2 Legion Armies and a knight army...and a settler pair on the way...

Oh yeah @ 'slinger..there's a leader there for ya...

We need to figure out a way to press towards the NW...grab spices and take the fight to England... aside from longbows and the occasional cav, not much out of France this turnset.

 

[microbe]

If we are out of towns to support army again, we can disband a leg army.

We are seeing cavs..from England only? Got to pillage its horses or saltpeter. Those knight armies could pillage faster.

All in all good job in surviving.

 

[barbslinger]

Does not sound too bad. If we can get the horses pillaged we should be fine. Gotta keep the pillaging going. Will play tomorrow. No chance at the gunpowder from Japan yet? Do I have a declaration coming up?

 

[scoutsout]

@Microbe: We can build an army. I got 2 leaders during my turns. The first one built an army, and I later got an army killed.

@Barbslinger: IIRC, you'll see French cav as well. We have a Legion army, a horse, and some cats pillaging near Marseilles. Our other armies are healing on some fresh rockpiles east of the mountains. That next french town to the north is where Magellan's is. Please take a screenie if you manage to sack it.

Some thoughts: pump some legions into the mountains, so we don't have to clear them out again. That's probably the most positive thing I was able to do was clear out those mountains.

I'm glad you guys thought those turns were okay... I was playing "Barbslinger Method"... and the last few turns are a little hazy.

Oh yeah - @'slinger: couldn't buy gunpowder off Japan, and I think a DoW is due in a turn or two...

 

[microbe]

Does not sound too bad. If we can get the horses pillaged we should be fine. Gotta keep the pillaging going. Will play tomorrow. No chance at the gunpowder from Japan yet? Do I have a declaration coming up?

If our rep is screwed, the only chance to get it from Japan is to reneg peace.

I don't think we care about rep anymore, so when we need to declare on Japan we don't need to keep the deal?

At the end, when should we declare on Japan? According to "the rule that everybody else is playing", we need to declare in turn 237, but according to "the rule that mad-bax gave to our team only", we ned to declare 20 turns after we did it on India, which is next player's turns.

 

[scoutsout]

Just declare on him. He won't sell us anything, and he's the last one we're at peace with. After that we can quit worrying about the DoW timetable, and simply sack stuff.

 

[microbe]

Barbslinger - up
ForTheEmpire - on deck

 

[ForTheEmpire]

We are still alive, that's all I care and that makes me happy. The RNG was definitely at your side there microbe. It sounded like the ever venerable legion is proving its worth all the way to the IA I think Ision needs to rethink his thoughts on the legion as a UU once he reads our thread. How many sources of horses do the english have? I hope none are under cities.

@Barb
For simplicity's sake, just declare on your second turn. I shouldn't have to remind you, but do try to get whatever you can, even world maps from Tokugawa. And yes, please go kick some ARSE

 

[barbslinger]

I'll have to play this tomorrow. It's to late now. Declare on 2nd turn. Okie-dokie.

 

[gozpel]

My premonition of cavs wasn't too far away

Still, it's not lost with pillaging tactics. I think slinger will handle that excellently.

Why the heck am I smiling? It's not funny, just amusing, I guess.

 

[scoutsout]

Why the heck am I smiling? It's not funny, just amusing, I guess.

Yes it is funny. This thing has gotten so messy, there's no choice but to laugh or cry. And big boys don't cry.

 

[barbslinger]

SGOTM03-Microbe-950AD

Preturn – Change Pisae and Rome to settlers to get our new FP going. Titus will be making another army of knights, this time. I plan to secure our FP area, take out Greece and get some pillaging done. Lux can drop a notch and Guns are set to get them in 10.

IT – No attacks as they try to go for the core. A French musket/settler pair are heading towards our FP area. Build 2 settlers and a knight.

[1] 960 – Kill 3 knights and a LB. Start the pillaging boys through the mountains to take out the gems on the way back to France.
IT – Lose 2 units to cavs. France plants and will be raised. More units moving in.
[2] 970 – Kill anumber of units losing an elite knight against a 2/5 cav. Raze the new French town of Cherborg losing 2 hp from the 4 knight army. Can’t even get a WM out of Japan so he gets the finger and a war declaration.
IT – Lose a knight and a legion guarding a mountain. Build a bunch due to rushing the last few turns off of builds.
[3] 980 – Get to work and knock out the cav after using cats that were in the field. Use the new army to knock out a knight, back up to the road and move some other cats to knock hp off a Russian knight sneaking towards the core. Amiens shows a spear to 2 legions moving in for the kill. It’s a future town site. Rheims will be attacked by the legion army next turn. All looks clear, for now. Whoa, just realized the 2 elikes in our FP town can attack Amiens now and it gets razed. Now that group can head to the Greek capital at the end of the peninsula. 3 legions moving on a Greek town in the south.
IT – Greeks come up with some LB’s out of two towns to stall my plans. No attacks but more troops move in to die.
[4] 990 – Kill one musket in Rheims. An army kills a musket and disbands a settler. Kill 2 cavs and 3 knights. Only one LB and 2 reg LB’s in sight.
IT – More troops move in. One of the greek LB’s in the south loses to our legion flawless so that plan continues with 3 legions attacking soon.
[5] 1000 – Kill all threats. I see one Russian knight in the distance near Rheims. 2 E knights near Greek capital. Guns in 4. That will help on defense.
IT – Another knight joins up with the other and they hold position.
[6] 1010 – Raze Rheims and Magellans and disband a worker. The Greek capital holds with 1 kill and one knight retreating. Reinforcements coming. Time to stock up the FP towns. The southern Greek town has one injured hoppy left.
IT – An English cav drops off near undefended Antium. 2 knights were built within striking range and there is backup.
[7] 1020 – Damn we lose the 2 new builds to the damn cav. Kill him with the 3rd pulled from Neocaled… Lose another vet knight flawless killing a knight near Byzantium.
Found Tarentum and Nicomedia and Selucia for the core. All set to walls. French gems are finally pillaged. Guns in 2 at at +12gpt with 72 in the bank. Key up another settler in Veii for the soon to be vacant Greek capital.
IT – Survive a cav in Brund but not in Neocaled…
[8] 1030 – Kill the cav at Neo that was injured. Raze the greek capital Pharsalos. The southern greek town Mycenae stands after a vet knight and a vet legion can’t take down one hoplite.
IT – Guns are in and I kick science to 10% to build some cash for upgrades. The Ravenna forum I started is done. Set to knight. Other knight builds. A 2/4 knight on a mountain that had killed a knight prior beats almost two knights leaving the last one injured.
[9] 1040 – Plenty of saltpeter but none hooked up. Moving on the one near our FP now (closest to workers). Loust RNG again losing an E knight to a 2hp knight on the flats.
IT – My God, our yellow NOT red army gets attacked by a cav and we lose an army. RNG luck continues with another loss.
[10] 1050 – Get a leader near Corinth that heads back to make another army. He is near Ceasarea. Damn, lose a vet legion to a ¼ cav! This is out of hand and our troops are super thin now at the front. I high tail a knight in FP towards the front and shift some others. There is not enough enemy to knock off a city, unless the brundesium army falls.

I have a knight underneath the legion army to disconnect French horses in the NE. there are legion builds coming to hopefully take out the two southern Greek towns. Maybe get some knight backup to guarantee it. Knights are building this turn so it should smooth out a bit after some rushing. Workers in the SE are heading to the salt and check them for movement left. I can’t remember if I moved them.
It started out very nice but the last 3 turns were horrible RNG. Good luck.

 

[scoutsout]

A well played set there Barbslinger... this game is getting hairy. Any chance of settling some towns to the NW? Or is that territory too heavily contested?

 

[barbslinger]

A well played set there Barbslinger... this game is getting hairy. Any chance of settling some towns to the NW? Or is that territory too heavily contested?

Perhaps when our armies can get freed up we can send them in groups to take out the french town, Dijon I think, and the English town, Coventry, I think. That extra lux in Coventry looks nice.
On the game I wouldn't wait to long before getting research going. We need to get to cavs fairly soonish. Building some more markets would certainly help. More workers are needed too when we get a chance. Ravenna could use some irrigation and hill mining.

 

[barbslinger]

If we can get up to Paris and get those Englis towns it would provide a thinner front it shows on the minimap. Once Greece is out of the way we can set up some fishing villages and that will provide some income too from unit upkeep. I could not believe when the cav attacked the knight army! Beware!

 

[gozpel]

That's the AI in a nutshell, it knows when to attack and when to win. Ah well, luckily you got another leader straight away, so no great harm done.

Good job whacking and settling

 

[microbe]

My gut feeling is we shouldn't expand withour proper defense. If our defense is thin, I'd keep what we have and just pillage.

The sad thing is that we seem not to have a proper SoD to take AI cities one by one.

 

[scoutsout]

The sad thing is that we seem not to have a proper SoD to take AI cities one by one.

We could assemble a stack... the problem is that we are literally fighting in every direction. Though I managed to clear out the mountains, it came at some cost...and the armies needed time to heal. Once the mountains were cleared out, the enemy just started showing up in the west.

You guys are going to think I'm nuts, but we're not necessarily out of this thing... at least as far as winning the game goes.... but I think we're going to have to figure out a way to do more fighting on our own terms if we're going to pull this off.

And I'm not sure we know what terms we'd want to fight on.

 

[ForTheEmpire]

Hrmm... sorry guys, but the earliest I can pick this up and play it would be tomorrow morning. I have relatives and friends over all day. If you feel like taking a crack at this first microbe if you can't wait about another 14 more hours, then by all means switch up with me.

@Barb
Yay, we TNTed our first AI wonder , now how many more to go?

EDIT: I just noticed this, but since when did India started to collapse (the grey)? Those Aztecs will be mighty tough to budge later in the game if we are destined to cleanse our continent.

 

[ForTheEmpire]

Hmmm... alright, I got it. Expect a report within 6 hours.