SGOTM7 - Team Peanut

[Crazy Eskimo]

Here's the long version:

Preturn 350 AD
Switch to Chivalry
Switch Margates Tax Collector to a Scientist
Switch Seiska from Cat to Library and move citizen from mined grasslands to coast
Switch N Cows Citizen from Cow tile to Mined Grasslands (Spear in 5 rather than 4 and MDI in Queue)
Switch S Cows from Mountain to Freed Cows. Warrior in 1. 11spt Growith in 7. Join worker?
Follow Queen M's suggestion on getting Bursa the sheep.
OG Starving> 15spt Horse in 1
Sogut Normal 15 spt Horse in 1
Decide to make Chlora the military town in Arabia, since it could potentially (with the right tiles) get useful 10spt. Switch cat to barracks. Switch other FP 4.x towns to Settlers.

Upgraded 2 vet warrior to MDI
UPdgrade 1 spear to pike
Pinged Indian 3/4 Galley>2/4 Galley
3/3 Galley > 2.4 Ind Galley > 3.3 Galley (1-0)

IBT
Zulus land 2 Impis in Arabia despite the galley being wounded!
Starvation in Arbela
Palace Expansion. I go for nice looking Minarets to flank the entrance.
S Cows Warrior > Barracks
Sogut Horse -> MDI
OG Horse > MDI
Shanti Spear > MDI (in 5)
Bursa Warrior > Aqueduct (to get another 3 turn MDI factory)

Turn 1 (half my play came before this point)
Ping Impis
4/4 MDI > 3/4 Impi > 4/4 MDI (2-0)
4/4 MDI > 2/4 Impi > 3/4 MDI (3-0)
Ping Am. Galley. Ping Indian Galley
3/3 Galley > 3/4 Ind Gal (didn't want it messing with our invasion and I had plenty in the area) > 2/4 Ind Galley (3-1)
3/3 Galley > 2/4 G > 3/3 Galley (4-1)
Decide to leave American Galley alone to see if it retreats (as the Zulu didn't). It does!
Decide to wait for back up MDIs to take out St. Louis

IBT aka WTH, mates!?!
4/4 Amer. MDI > 4/5 MDI > Promotion of American MDI! (4-2)
4/4 Amer. MDI in Chicago > 4/4 Sword > 1/4 MDI (4-3)
Lots of Zulus moving in range of our beachhead...
Zulus land Impi and horse on Arabia
Arabian dyes settler > library
Bta Spear > Galley (since we need to replenish)

Turn 2 370 AD
Upgrade Spear to Pike
Ping Impis in Arabia
4/4 MDI > 4/4 Horse > 3/4 MDI (5-3)
4/4 MDI > 1/3 Impi > 4/4 MDI (6-3)
Ping Chicago. All fail
4/4 Horse > 3/3 Amer. Pike > 2/4 Horse! WooHoo! (the RnG decides to get revenge) (7-3)
4/4 MDI > 3/3 Amer. Pike > 3/3 Pike (7-4)
4/4 MDI > 3/3 Amer. Pike > 4/4 Pike (7-5) Argh!!!
Decide to leave Chicago alone for now.
3/3 Galley > 3/3 Amer. Gal > 2/3 Amer. Gal (7-6) (yeah, I ordinarily wouldn't do this, but I didn't want this galley landing)
3/3 Galley > 2/3 Amer. Gal ? 3/4 Amer Gal. (7-7) (Not my day...)
in St. Louis
4/4 MDI > 4/4 Amer. MDI > 2/5 Amer. MDI (7-8)
4/4 MDI -> 3/3 Spear > 3/4 MDI (8-8)
Switch Persepolis and Arbela to Libraries
Found Mathildapolis

IBT
Some Shuffling but no landing
Izmit Mktplace -> MDI in 4 turns. I see a way I can get it to 3.
1 resistor quelled in Kufah. Kufah riots. Change 2 citizens to tax collectors in Kufah. Switch Cat to Library

Turn 3 - The invasion begins
Ping Chicago and fail everytime
Ping St. Louis - Citizens killed
Ping Zulu Galleys from 4/4 each to 3/4 and 2/4
Switch Jungle Port and Margate from Cats to Galley
Upgrade Warrior to MDI
Ping Amer. Gal to 3/4
Change Pasaguarde from Pike to Library
Land 5 Pikes, 11 MDI, 1 Settler, 2 Horse, and 4 Cats in CS's recommended position using MM's triple-dump method.

IBT
on beachhead
4/4 Z Archer > 4/4 Pike > 3/4 Pike (9-8)
4/4 Z Archer > 4/4 Pike > 3/4 Pike (10-8)
4/4 Impi > 4/4 Pike > 4/4 Pike (11-8)
near Chicago
4/4 Amer. MDI > 5/5 MDI> 2/5 MDI (ours) (12-8)
4/4 Ind Galley > 3/3 Gal > 4/4 Galley (13-8)
Arabs want audience, but I tell them we're busy!
2 Impis and 2 horse land in Arabia
Kirka Settler > Settler
Oliver Settler > Settler
OG MDI > MDI

Turn 4 390 AD
Ping Impis
Found Beachhead to Zululand > Walls
Land 1 Pike and 3 more cats
4/4 MDI > 2/3 Impi > 1/4 MDI (14-8)
near St. Louis
5/5 Sword > 4/4 Z. Horse > 5/5 Sword (15-8)
4/4 Horse > 4/4 Z. Horse > 3/4 Horse (16-8)
4/4 MDI > 2/3 Impi > 3/4 MDI (17-8)
3/4 MDI> 1/4 Impi > 3/4 MDI (18-8)
Ping St. Louis and Chicago, but no dice
Upgrade 3 swords to MDI

IBT
Lots of attacks on BtZ. I wasn't able to write them down, but there were at least 10, we never lost, and some of our pikes promoted. (28-8)
Near St. Louis
5/5 Amer. MDI > 3/4 MDI that I thought was out of range > 3/5 Amer. MDI and GREAT LEADER!!!! (28-9)
Americans Land 1 Pike and 1 MDI
S Cows Barracks > MDI
N Cows Spear > MDI
Sogut MDI > MDI
BtA Galley> Galley

About this time, I realize that Sogut no longer has 3 turn MDIs. I think I made a mistake MMing and make some changes, but can't get the setup I had before. Later, I realize it's because the Indian culture expanded, taking away a forest Sogut used to use (ominous forebodings of the future).

Turn 5
Ping American MDI to 1/5
4/4 H > 1/5 Amer. MDI > 4/4 Horse (29-9)
Pike Amer. Pike to 2/4
4/4 Horse > 4/4 Amer. MDI > 2/4 MDI and 1/4 Horse (draw)
4/4 MDI > 2/4 Amer Pike > 2/4 Amer. Pike (29-10)
3/4 MDI > 2/4 Amer. Pike > 1/4 MDI (30-10)
3/4 Horse > 2/4 Amer. MDI > 1/4 Amer. MDI (30-11)
Just now realize I had one more cat in range that could have pinged. ARRGH! Can't attack because only have 1 hp units in striking distance.
Upgrade Spear to Pike
Near BtZ
Ping Impis
4/4 MDI > 1/4 Impi > 3/4 MDI (31-11)
5/5 Horse > 1/4 Z. Horse > 5/5 Horse (32-11)
Hurry Walls for 76 gold
4/4 MDI > 2/4 Impi >2/4 MDI (33-11)
4/4 MDI > 2/4 Impi >3/4 MDI (34-11)
4/4 MDI > 2/4 Impi >3/4 MDI (35-11) REALIZE THAT THIS IMPI WAS THE LAST IN THE STACK AND LEAVE MDI EXPOSED! DOH!

IBT
Near St. Louis
1/4 Amer. MDI > 1/4 MDI> 1/4 MDI (36-11)
Near BtZ
4/4 Z. Archer > 3/4 MDI > 1/4 Arch (36-12)
4/4 Z. Horse > 5/5 P > 4/5 Pike (37-12)
4/4 Z. Archer > 4/4 P > 2/4 Pike (38-12)
4/4 Z. Archer > 4/4 P > 2/4 Archer (38-13)
4/4 Impi > 4/4 Pike > 2/4 Pike (39-13)
4/4 Z. Horse > 4/5 P > 3/5 Pike (40-13)
4/4 Impi > 3/4 Pike > 1/4 Pike (41-13)
4/4 Impi > 3/4 Pike > 1/4 Pie (42-13)

BtZ Walls > Barracks
Shanti MDI>MDI
Sinop Horse>Horse

Turn 6 410 AD
Ping Zulu Impis and Archers
4/4 MDI > 1/4 Impi > 4/5 MDI (43-13)
5/5 Horse > 1/4 Impi > 2/5 Horse (44-13)
4/4 MDI > 1/4 Impi > 3/4 MDI (45-13)
4/4 MDI > 1/4 Impi > 3/4 MDI (46-13)
4/4 MDI > 1/4 Z. Arch > 4/4 MDI (47-13)

IBT
5 4/4 Impis attack. 3 are killed and 2 retreat. (50-13)
We master Engineering
We master Chivalry
Switch to Invention and remove scientist.
Starvation at Kufah

Turn 7
Near BtZ
Ping Impis
4/4 MDI > 2/4 Impi > 4/4 MDI and 1/4 Impi (draw)
4/4 MDI > 1/4 Impi > 3/4 MDI (51-13)
4/4 MDI > 1/4 Impi > 4/4 MDI (52-13)
5/5 Horse > 1/4 Impi > 3/5 Horse (53-13)
4/4 MDI > 4/4 Impi > 3/4 Impi (53-14)
I stop my counterattack. This is the first time that a lack of cats being able to ping all the units near me has prevented me from counterattacking

Ping Ind. Galley to 1/4
4/4 Gal > 1/4 Ind. Gal > 4/4 Gal (54-14)

Join Worker to S Cows to make it a 8 and get optimal spt. With knights, these extra shields may not be as important as with MDI but oh well.

By St. Louis.
8 Pings. 1 hits.
4/4 MDI > 3/3 Spear > 1/4 MDI (55-14)
5/5 Sword > 2/3 Spear > 3/5 Sword (56-14)
4/4 MDI > 3/3 Archer > 4/4 MDI (57-14)
3/4 MDI > 3/3 Archer Army > 3/4 MDI (58-14) (glad that leader didn't go to anything important)
St Louis Destroyed. No slaves or gold.
Switch OG, Sogut, Gateway to N. and S Cows to Knights
Upgrade horse -> knight

IBT
by BtZ
4/4 Archer > 5/5 Pike > 5/5 Pike (59-14)
3/3 Z. Warrior (yeah, I know! right.) > 4/4 Pike > 4/4 Pike (60-14)
3/3 Z. Warrior > 5/5 Pike > 5/5 Pike (61-14)
3/3 Z. Warrior > 5/5 Pike > 5/5 Pike (62-14)
3/3 Z. Warrior > 5/5 Pike > 5/5 Pike (63-14)
4/4 Z. Archer > 5/5 Pike > 2/5 Pike (64-14)
4/4 Z. Archer > 4/4 Pike > 4/4 Pike (65-14)
4/4 Z. Archer > 4/4 Pike > 5/5 Pike (66-14)
4/4 Z. Archer > 4/4 Pike > 4/4 Pike (66-14)
(I may have missed a couple encounters... these went fast and my notes are a bit disjointed).

by Chicago
MDI attacks Horse sent to pillage around Chicago. Rest of units had been drawn back to draw out attackers.
4/4 MDI > 5/5 Horse > 1/5 Horse! WooHoo! (67-14)

Seiska converts to India. I see a War elephant
Kufah riots again. Make one citizen a tax collector
Arab Gallery appears near Pasa (which has little defense. Doh!)

Turn 8
Found Cston
Attempt to ping elephant in Seiska once and fail.
Call it a turn.

 

[Kaiser_Berger]

Sounds like some harrowing stuff near the end, but it seems you handled it well. Don't beat yourself up over the flip too much. We've all been there before. When you said that it hit the fan, I figured that the Zulu had totally overrun our attack force and we had little to no offensive army left

 

[Crazy Eskimo]

Thanks for the kind words Peanut. And just to clarify, I don't think these happenings are catastrophic. I have full faith that CS will be able to win back the lost ground (or even that I could, if I weren't so tired and near the end of my turnset). Given everything, I figured CS should have two more turns to begin the recovery.

Notes to CS:
1) I have some workers mining the sheep above sogut to get us back in high spt range. We really don't need the extra food at this point.

2) I have moved virtually no units, so you should have a good bit of freedom.

3) The Zulus seem to have given up on doing much more than harassing BtZ. Instead, I've seen their galleys loading units, so I think we can expect 6 units to land on Arabia's east coast if you don't intercept the galleys en route.

4) I've moved some units towards Pasa in Southern Arabia to defend against the Arab galley. It's a bit vulnerable, so you may want to look at what your options are there.

5) We have a goodly force outside Chicago (I had to do some re-arranging... one reason why Pasa is so lightly guarded) and it just lost an MDI. You might want to try conquering it again (and I hope you have better luck than I did).

6) I think Zulu is in despotism, because it's cities are dropping in population fast. I think it must be pop-rushing.

Now, an analysis on my mistakes:

1) I was too cocky. I thought my 3 MDIs could steam roll St. Louis, and so had the rest of the army pass it up and go to Zululand or disperse on the continent. I also was a bit cocky with Chicago and started pulling units off the island before it had been conquered. As a result, it still isn't.

2) When St. Louis didn't fall, I pulled about half the southern forces back to deal with it and the Impi incursions. As a result, I lacked about eight cats in BtZ that are now finally en route to Zululand.

3) Didn't rush the library in Seiska. I was the one who was worried about it flipping, so I should have put in the culture to prevent it. Yeah, money's tight right now, but the lost city is going to be quite expensive.

4) Made some noobie movement mistakes, like leaving that one MDI exposed or forgetting I had that one extra cat. to ping with... that cost us a horseman.

5) After being too cocky on the American cities, I got too conservative on the Zulu. I wasn't willing to attack unless a unit had been pinged down to 1 or 2 hp. Most of the time, this meant I cleared out the grassland and jungle near BtZ (except for one unit on the jungle) and left the mountain units alone, but on the last turn, there were definitely some units I could have attacked, but didn't. Again, part of the problem here was the cats tied up around St. Louis.

That's all I can remember at the moment. I'm very tired and need to go to bed.

 

[Crazy Eskimo]

Thanks, KB for the kind words as well. Don't worry, I don't feel too bad. I just wish I could have continued the awesome forward momentum that was handed off to me.

 

[Mathilda]

When I read the stuff hitting the fan I thought the Indians had landed 20 elephants next to Sogut.
I've looked at the save and the situation doesn't look bad at all.
Taking Seiska back isn't hard. Ok, it would have been better if we hadn't lost it, but it's just one of them things. I don't think rushing libraries at this stage was on anybody's list of priorities.
The situation in Zululand looks good as well.
No reason to presume the Zulu would have had any less troops to send at us than the Persians did. I'm sure the same will be true in India as well when we get there.

Arabian galley next to Pasargadae is probably empty as it hasn't unloaded yet even though it could have done.

btw playing ten turns at this stage of the game is in no way compulsory.

 

[civ_steve]

CE - your turn set sounds pretty good, actually! Your kill ratio was above 4-1!! Most of your losses (8 out of 14) occurred in the first 2 turns, and the main reason appears to be taking some risks on the offensive. That's usually a bad idea on Deity, because the AI can replace the units much faster than you can, theoretically. Then you went more defensively, which really caused the AI to lose units, but then our advance goes much more slowly. The trick is to find a middle point, where you play defensively as you approach your target, then roll it over!

The Zulus have no resources, so their best units are 20 shield Archers, 20 shield Impis and 30 shield Horsemen. At Deity, they only cost 60% in Shields, so these are actually 12, 12 and 18 shield units to them. With the cities they have they can practically build 1 unit/turn, especially during their GA which probably occurred sometime ago.

Seiska flipping - not good news, but it's a risk we take. We'll capture it back.

Chivalry - that's good new/bad news. Knights will be much faster for us, but the AI will have their equivalents. In general the AI builds much fewer Horsemen, so we have a temporary advantage that we have to exploit quickly.

OK, I've got it. Probably play some time today, into tomorrow.

 

[civ_steve]

A couple other questions:

Right now I'm planning to raze Bapedi when captured and plant a Settler there or nearby. I don't care to take the Great Wall twice!

If we get a GL, my first thought is if Sun-Tzu's is still available, build that on our main island, selling off our Barracks. That will give us some gold, and add more gpt to our treasury.

Once Invention is available, Leo's would be very nice. We can only upgrade one Horse to Knight per turn with our current gpt.

Anything else? I'll probably start in 4 or 5 hours.

 

[Crazy Eskimo]

CS:

1) Makes sense. The cultural spread is too thick there. We don't want to risk Bapedi flipping and the Great Wall doesn't help us all that much.

2) I would save any GL for Leos. I don't know how much gold we'll get from selling off the barracks, but with all the horsemen we have to upgrade, I would imagine Leos would save us more money in the long run (40 per horse vs. ?? per barracks... and we have ALOT more horses than barracks.) Unless, of course, there's a rule that we can't hang onto GLs?

Sounds like it's going well for you! If you're thinking about taking Bapedi, then the stacks outside of BtZ must be dwindling.

 

[Kaiser_Berger]

Razing Bapedi sounds good. I agree with CE on saving a GL up for Leo's. The more knights we can field the better.

 

[civ_steve]

Here's a brief status report, with a picture you might enjoy:

Needless to say, we've got Leo's!

Bapedi was razed on the 2nd assault (500 AD). High body count, but mostly Zulus (I'm up to 53-10 so far).

Zulu's are still in Republic, but their population has been dwindling rapidly. Must have a lot of Specialists.

Forming up for Amphib vs Intombe and assault on Zimbabwe. Should finish within the next 24 hours.

 

[MailMan]

Good news.

Now that invention is out, we need to keep an eye on the Vikings. if they'll get it we need to defened all our costal cities (or better yet - finish them off).

Another thing to keep an eye on is gunpowder research...

 

[Crazy Eskimo]

Nice job, CS! That's definitely quite a bit of good news. 2 upgrades per turn to Knights instead of one is going to be a big help.

Re: the Vikings. The Vikings are sort of our Murphy's Law correlary for this game. I would have loved to take them out before Invention to keep them from getting berserkers. Without Beserkers, they were middling civ in this game - only 4 cities, backwards, no place to really expand. Heck, I don't think they've even sent ships our way. They would have likely been an easy conquest.... except for their placement. Supply line problems would have made taking them out while ignoring the Zulus and Indians difficult at best. Pressing one with our then-current army would have been difficult ot get new units to, difficult to defend once we had taken the island, and would have exposed to more raiding by the Indians and Zulu. Operations against the Zulus and Indians required we move our southern army back north, preventing any sort of offensive punch against the Vikings.

Now, I don't think the Vikings will have Invention for a little while. They're tech backward, so likely they're in on the trading circle the Indians and Americans have going. But, I also don't think we'll be able to take them out before they get it. We likely have a little time before they come, which will give us time to build up a bit of a naval fleet. The way I see it, the best way to protect against berserkers is to sink the ships they're on before they get to our islands.

On a related topic, does the AI use the berserker's amphibious assault well? Obviously, if the berserkers are landed first, we have a better chance to take them out, since they're only 2 on defense. Otherwise, we need to head them off at sea.

Lastly, we may need to change our approach to science sooner than expected. I don't like the little trading circle the indians and Americans have going. From CS's post, it sounds like the Zulus will soon fall and we can move on to the Indians, which will slow their tech pace. However, I don't think we'll be able to do this before they develop gunpowder. Gunpowder makes our life difficult because a four-defense unit will dramatically worsen our kill ratio.

IF the Indians get gunpowder before we can begin the invasion of their island

and

IF they have saltpeter

and

IF they roll out the musketmen units quickly (they probably won't be able to produce many quickly with so few cities, but they can probably upgrade quickly if their treasury allows)

THEN we should pump out some libraries and try to research Military Tradition as quickly as possible.

Yeah, we had hoped to have this game wrapped up before Sipahi became available. Yeah, we hadn't planned to do any research prior to the demsie of the GL. But I don't see taking on Muskets with Knights and Cats (maybe I'm overestimating how difficult this would be... if so, please tell me). Cannon and Sipahi, on the other hand, make this much easier and quicker. Plus, it's a three tech jump from where we'll be, meaning that the rest of the MA is largely undiscovered, so we won't have to deal with Riflemen for some time.

BUT if any of those three conditions aren't met, we can probably keep to our original research plan. We don't need to take out America, so no worries on whether they get muskets. The Vikings probably won't be able to bring the technology to bear effectively, so we don't need Sipahi just for them. So, it's mainly the Indians we need to worry about in terms of saltpeter. If they don't have any on their island, we can try to take out any cities that have harbors first, to block potential trading deals for it.

All in all, though, sounds like it's going good, CS! Keep up the good work!

 

[Crazy Eskimo]

Oh, and I just noticed Seiska is back in friendly hands. Yay, CS!

Do we want to build a library there or something for some culture? How much chance is there of a city re-flipping?

 

[Mathilda]

CE - re: researching to military tradition.
Researching at first tech prices to get military tradition from invention costs 7120 gold.
At the moment we can afford 111 / turn at around 0 loss. That's roughly 64 turns. With libraries optimistically we could improve that to 50 turns. And that would mean no upgrades in that time. I don't think we can afford to just sit around for 50 turns if we want to be anywhere in this competition. I think we'll just press on.

 

[civ_steve]

Retaking Seiska wasn't a problem. The darn city flipped again a few turns later, and was retaken. I'd moved all military out of the city just in case, so we didn't lose any units on the 2nd flip; but we did lose one unit retaking it the 2nd time. Karachi is on my short list of cities to get rid of!

Vikings have finally climbed into the Middle Ages, but they don't know any of the first tier MA techs, nor any of the optional AA Techs. So they are at least Engineering - Invention from Berzerks. They will probably learn a Government Tech first. I don't think they'll make it. They do use their Berzerk capability, but rather spottily; again, I don't think they'll get the chance.

America seems to be the leading researcher. They'll probably get Gunpowder first; they learned Invention first. India might get to Gunpowder, but not by much; I think we can swamp them before they get many Muskets.

Now that we have Leo's, I think the best strategy for Military growth is disconnect Iron, build Horsemen and upgrade. I've pillaged a mountain near Arbela that disconnects that source of Iron from our main section, so only the Iron near Sinop remains to be disconnected. We can build Horses, connect, upgrade and disconnect every few turns. This should get us the firepower to finish this quickly. I plan to pillage the Sinop Iron, then mine it only to keep the 3 Shields; we can use the Arbela iron to do the upgrades.

 

[Crazy Eskimo]

Queen M, I don't like the idea of just sitting around either. I didn't realize it would take THAT long, and I had forgotten about attempting to pillage the saltpeter resource as a way to prevent musketification. Hopefully, at least one of those "if"s won't be true and we can overwhelm the Indians with the units we have before they can really utilize Gunpowder. Otherwise, the conquest will be either ugly, delayed, or both.

CS, I thought we couldn't disconnect the iron without abandoning Arbela as I thought someone mentioned it was built on top of iron (although, now that I think about it, we could simply cut off the road from Arbela to overcome that). If we can disconnect it, my apologies to the team for not doing so and building primitive units faster and then upgrading them.

 

[civ_steve]

Not really an issue until we got Leo's. We still haven't upgraded all the Horsemen we have, so we might as well build some Knights straight up, which will give us a little more fire-power faster. Arbela is still on the Iron, but I've disconnected it, so once the Iron near Sinop is disconnected, we can build Horsemen for later upgrades.

Gunpowder will show up and play an effect, or not. I believe it can be handled either way. Our best bet is to let the Great Library continue to work for us and use our shields for Military and our gold for upgrades. Towards the end we'll want some libraries to expand cultural radius; that will be after we've taken care of Zulu and Indians and are on our way to the Vikings. At least that's my prediction (a bit rosy) of the future.

 

[civ_steve]

OK, just finished the 550 AD turn. Here's the log:

Turn 1, 430 AD
First things first - Evict the Indians from Seiska!
3 Catapults get 1 Hp off WE
5/5 Sword vs 4/4 WE - 5/5 Sword and we regain Seiska (1-0)
Set it to build Galley - make an example of the traitors!

BTZ:
Zulus have 2 Stacks of 6 units each, adjacent to BTZ; 6 Impis, 3 Warriors, 3 Archers
3-4 Defense 3 units should Hold BTZ, so I'll aim for 5-6 units with some Cats, and send the rest towards Bapedi
Move out 8 Cats, 10 MDI, 5 Pikes to Grassland
7 Cats left in BTZ take off 4 HPs from Impis on Mountain
Ship 3 Knights from BTA to BTZ
Ship 2 Horse from BTZ to BTA
Land 2 MDI on Galley and Advance with Stack
Land 1 MDI and 1 Settler from Sinop in BTZ and advance with Stack
Upgrade 2 Knigts - BTA and ZweitenFerrum
Leave Builds as they are - 14 spt is good for MDI (3 turns) and Knight (5). Might as well build Knights since we have lots of Horsemen to Upgrade
Start shifting forces in Arab-Persia island towards South; I plan to leave Chicago alone for now

(IBT - Zulus commit and lose 3 Archers and 2 Warriors against BTZ (6-0)
2 Pikes and 1 Knight defended; we got two promotions to Elite but no GL's
Zulus send 2 Impis and 2 Warriors to Mountains space, and retreat 2 wounded Impis to Bapedi; 3 Impis and 3 Warriors on Mtns
Zulus retreat 3 Impis from Jungle to Zimbabwe, leaving this space open
Zulus retreat another 9 Impis from Bapedi to Zimbabwe(!)
3 American Galleys floating around, 1 Approaching our South coast
Arab Galley moves around Pasargadae towards Kufuh)

Turn 2, 440 AD
7 Cats in BTZ inflict 4 hps on Zulus - three 2/4 Impis left and a hit on a Warrior
3 Knights join SOD that is now adjacent to Bapedi (5 Pikes, 8 Cats, 13 MDI, 3 Knights, and a Settler)
Send 5 Galleys from BTZ area towards Aydin (to support possible Amphib against Intombe)
Start congregating units towards Aydin
Upgrade 1 Sword and 1 Horse
Cat puts 1 HP on Indian Galley
Cat misses American Galley in South

(IBT - Zulus send 2 Warriors to their doom against BTZ (8-0)
1 Wounded Warrior and 2 Wounded Impis retreat towards Bapedi
1 Impi and 1 Archer move to Mountain adjacent to BTZ; that's all that' there!
2 Zulu Galleys move out from Bapedi
Arabia lands Horse adjacent to Kufuh
America lands Pike/MDI between Davidiople and Margate
America starts building Leo's!
Darn it, Seiska flips again (no units lost) )

Turn 3, 450 AD
Bapedi!!
No bombardments against Great Wall city
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 1/5 MDI (9-0)
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 2/5 Impi (9-1)
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 2/4 MDI (10-1)
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 4/5 MDI (11-1)
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 3/4 MDI (12-1)
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 2/4 MDI (13-1)
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 1/4 Impi (13-2)
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 2/5 Impi (13-3)
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 4/4 Impi (13-4)
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 2/5 Impi (13-5)
4/4 MDI vs 3/4 Impi - 4/4 MDI (14-5)
5/5 MDI vs 3/4 Impi - 1/5 MDI (15-5)
3/3 MDI vs 3/4 Impi - 1/5 Impi (15-6)
4/4 Knight vs 3/5 Impi - 1/5 Knight (16-6)
4/4 Knight vs 2/3 Impi - 3/5 Knight (17-6)
3/5 Knight vs 2/4 Impi - 1/5 Knight (18-6) and GL Murad!
Move Murad back to Sinop, and that's it for the Bapedi Assault
Cat's ping on Impi/Archer in Mtns until Impi is 1/4 and Archer is 3/4
Cat's take HP off Impi protecting wounded Warrior adj to Bapedi
4/4 Horse vs 3/4 Warrior - 1/4 Horse (19-6)
4/4 MDI vs 3/4 Archer - 3/4 MDI (20-6)
5/5 Horse vs 1/4 Impi - 5/5 Horse (21-6) and Mountain is ours
5/5 Horse vs 1/4 Impi - 4/5 Horse (22-6)
Move Pikes to cover exposed units

American Landing
2 Cats take 1 hp off Pike
4/4 Knight vs 2/3 Pike -2/3 Pike with 1/4 Knight retreat (back to training for you!)
4/4 MDI vs 2/3 Pike - 2/4 MDI (23-6)
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 MDI - 1/4 MDI ours (24-6)

Arabian Landing
3 Cats take 1 HP off Horse
4/4 MDI vs 3/4 Horse - 3/5 MDI (25-6)
2 Cats take 2 HPs off Galley to 2/4
decide not to risk 3/3 Galley vs 2/4 Galley

Seiska
2 Cats reduce WE to 1/3
4/4 MDI vs 1/3 WE - 1/3 WE (25-7)
5/5 Sword vs 1/3 WE - 2/5 Sword (26-7)

(IBT American LongB comes from Chicago
defensive ping by Cat
3/4 LongB vs 5/5 MDI - 1/5 LongB (26-8)
America lands 2 Pikes, Archer and MDI between Cholora and Arabian Dyes
Zulus move a 3rd Galley out of Bapedi
4 Impis join Bapedi's Defense

Turn 4, 460 AD
American Invasion
4 Cats take 2 HP's off of Pikes
4/4 MDI vs 2/3 Pike - 4/4 MDI (27-8)
4/4 MDI vs 2/3 Pike - 1/3 Pike (27-9)
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 MDI - 2/4 MDI ours (28-9)
4/4 Horse vs 4/4 Archer - 4/4 Horse (29-9)
4/4 Knight vs 1/3 Pike - 4/4 Knight (30-9) Invasion is cleared

Retreat from Bapedi for healing
Maintain prescence on mountain
Move some Workers over from Arabia to road Grassland, then Mountains
Move Murad over to South Cows; could benefit from some culture

Near Kufah
4/4 Horse vs 1/4 LongB - 4/4 Horse (31-9)
Cats bombard Road out of existence (try that again, Abe!)

(IBT we learn Invention from Indians and Americans!
2 American Galleys approaching Chicago
3 Zulu Galleys heading through strait towards NC)

Turn 5, 470 AD
Start Healing near BTZ
Add 3 more Knights and 4 More MDI to BTZ area
Ping on Zulu Galleys, taking 4 HP's off
Murad moved to South Cows, production changed to Leo's and Murad Hurries Production
Uh .. No upgrades this turn

(IBT Americans land Pike, Archer and conscript Warrior near Kufuh
2 Wounded Zulu Galleys retreat, one move forward - ahh, shark-bait!
2 Indian Galleys approach
Viking are now in the Middle Ages)

Turn 6, 480 AD
We've got Leo's!!

Near Kufuh:
5 Cats take 2 HPs off Pike
4/4 MDI vs 2/4 Pike - 2/5 Pike, sigh! (31-10)
5/5 MDI vs 2/5 Pike - 5/5 MDI (32-10)
5/5 MDI vs 4/4 Archer - 3/5 MDI (33-10)
4/4 Horse vs 2/2 Warrior - 1/4 Horse (34-10) space is cleared

3 HPs taken from Zulu Galley near BTZ by Cats
4/4 Galley vs 1/4 Galley - 5/5 Galley (35-10)
Ship another MDI and Knight over to BTZ
Upgrade 6 Horses to Knights
Start Pillaging around Arbela
Ping on 2 Indian Galleys

(IBT both Indian Galleys retreat
American Galley is wandering around near Kufuh)

Turn 7, 490 AD
Bring over 2 MDI to Kufuh area for reinforcements
Cats take 3 HPs from American Galley
Add several more Knights to BTZ
move SOD forward for another assault on Bapedi

(IBT 2 Indian Galleys approach our North Coast
American Galley drops off Pike/MDI near Kufuh, but stays within range
America completes Sun-Tzu's! Leo's was a close thing!)

Turn 8, 500 AD
Near Kufuh
4/4 Galley vs 1/4 Amer Galley - 3/4 Galley (36-10)
5 Cats take 2 HPs off Pike
5/5 MDI vs 4/4 MDI - 4/5 MDI ours (37-10)
4/4 MDI vs 2/4 Pike - 4/4 MDI (38-10)

Bapedi, Round II
Workers have completed road in Grassland, so BTZ Knights/Horses can participate
BTW Bapedi is size6!
4/4 MDI vs 5/5 Impi - 3/4 MDI (39-10)
4/4 MDI vs 5/5 Impi - 3/4 MDI (40-10)
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 1/4 MDI (41-10)
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 3/4 MDI (42-10)
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 5/5 MDI (43-10)
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 2/4 MDI (44-10)
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 2/4 MDI (45-10)
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 1/4 MDI (46-10)
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 2/4 MDI (47-10)
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 3/4 MDI (48-10)
5/5 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 2/5 MDI (49-10)
4/5 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 4/5 MDI (50-10)
5/5 Knight vs 4/4 Impi - 4/5 Knight (51-10)
4/4 Knight vs 3/3 Impi - 3/4 Knight (52-10)
hmm ... only defender showing is a Settler!
3/3 MDI vs .. ah Ha! a 4/4 Archer appears - 2/3 MDI (53-10) and Bapedi is razed ... Bye-Bye Great Wall
decide that Jungle space is best place for Settler, it controls all roads to BTZ, gets 2 Spice and gives 1 turn access to Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is size5, BTW

Upgrade 3 more Horses

Disconnect Iron at Sinop; shuffle to get 4 2-turn Horse Factories going. (Sogut, OG, Bursa and SCows), and a few others building Horses as well!

(IBT Amer LongB kills 1HP Horse near Chicago (53-11)
4 Indian Galleys visible, moving around, and a lot of troop movements around Karachi)

Turn 9, 510 AD
Ping on 3 of 4 Indian Galleys; 1 reduced to 1 HP
3/3 Galley vs 1/4 Indian Galley - 3/3 Galley (54-11)

Eskimopolis is founded on Jungle just NW of ruins of Bapedi, starts on Library
Units heal around Eskimopolis
Report of Galleys in action near Aydin! 12 Units (1 Pike, 1 Settler, 5 MDI and 5 Knights landed in Forest near Intombe)
Cycling Knights South in Arab-Persia Peninsula, and sending Horses North for upgrade

(IBT 2 Wounded Indian Galleys retreat, Full strength Galley advances
an Indian Galley shows up near Bapedi Ruins! He's travelled a long distance
Indian's start on Sistine Chapel - Gandhi and Abe know Theology, so we will soon.
Zulu's send 1 Impi adj to Esk. and 4 just North of it
Abe sends a LongB and Pike into the neutral zone

Turn 10, 520 AD
5 Cats take only 1 HP off American Pike near Kufuh
5/5 MDI vs 3/4 Pike - 4/5 MDI (55-11)
4/4 Horse vs 4/4 LongB - 3/4 LongB (55-12)
4/4 MDI vs 3/4 LongB - 3/4 MDI (56-12); we'll see if he has a 2nd LongB
Load a Knight and MDI to transfer to Kufuh

Ping Indian Galley near ruins of Bapedi until he's 1/4

Bombard Lead Impi to 1/4
5/5 MDI vs 1/4 Impi - 5/5 MDI (57-12)
5 remaining Cats only take 1 HP off of 4 high Impi stack; decide not to press on

Form BTZ2 near Intombe, begin on Galley
Transfer another Knight and 3 MDI to BTZ1
8 MDI's and 3 Knights advance to Intombe's outskirts; 1 Pike and 3 Knights secure BTZ2

(IBT Indians land LongB/Pike near ZweitenFerrum
Indian 4/4 Galley vs our 4/4 Galley in stack - our 1/4 Galley (58-12)
Zulu's decide to send Impis after our Workers in Jungle; they wont get them!
Indian 1/4 Galley retreats from ruins of Bapedi
Americans show up with 2 Galleys near Pasargadae
They didn't have an extra LongB near Chicago
We learn Theology

Turn 11, 530 AD
Iron is reconnected; 6 Horses upgraded; hmm, our Horse builds were immediately switched to Knights!
2 Cats take 2 HPs off Indian Pike near ZF
4/4 MDI vs 2/4 Pike - 2/4 MDI (59-12)
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 LongB - 2/4 MDI (60-12); Indians are cleared out

Intombe!
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 2/4 Impi (60-12) bad start
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 3/4 MDI (61-12) that's the spirit!
4/4 MDI vs 3/3 Impi (ha, ha!) - 2/5 MDI (62-12)
4/4 MDI vs 2/4 Impi - 4/4 MDI (62-12) and we capture Intombe
Intombe is distance 6, but doesn't seem to hurt our Ring 7 production, so we'll keep it
3 Impis are visible down the road (too late!)
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 3/4 MDI (63-12)
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 4/5 MDI (64-12)
4/4 MDI vs 3/3 Impi - 4/4 MDI and 1/3 Impi
4/4 MDI vs 1/3 Impi - 4/4 MDI (65-12)
6 Knights advance and are within Striking distance of Zimbabwe

Near Eskimopolis
9 Cats reduce four Impis to 2/4 each (they're in Forest)
I'll use Knights against the Impis while I advance MDIs to Zimbabwe; Knights can catch up next turn
4/4 Knight vs 2/4 Impi - 4/4 Knight (66-12)
5/5 Knight vs 2/4 Impi - 4/5 Knight (67-12)
4/4 Knight vs 2/4 Impi - 3/4 Knight (68-12)
4/4 Knight vs 2/4 Impi - 3/4 Knight (69-12) and the space is cleared! Our Workers are safe for now
Advance towards Zimbabwe (8 Knights, 15 MDI, 6 Pikes and 3 Cats are adjacent to Zimbabwe)
In Eskimopolis there are 3 Knights and 3 Horsemen that can reach Zimbabwe
Transfer 2 more Knights to BTZ2, and Join forward stack; there are 8 Knights here!
Feel the squeeze, Shaka?

We unload Knight/MDI near Kufuh and disconnect Iron

(IBT Americans land Pike/MDI/LongB/Arch near Kufuh
Indians land 2 MDI near BTZ2
Zulus move 1 Impi to menace our workers again! Their Workers scurry into Zimbabwe

Turn 12, 540 AD
Zimbabwe!!
3 Cats take off 1 HP
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 3/5 Impi (69-13)
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 2/4 MDI (70-13)
4/4 MDI vs 4/4 Impi - 4/4 MDI (71-13)
4/4 MDI vs 3/4 Impi (whoa!) - 3/4 MDI (72-13)
5/5 MDI vs 3/5 Impi - 5/5 MDI (73-13)
3/3 MDI vs 3/3 Archer - 3/3 MDI (74-13) and Zimbabwe is ours! Decide to keep it for Pyramids, even though the effect is pretty marginal.
14 Knights advance on Hlobane
2 Cats in Esk take 2 HPs off lone Impi
3/4 Knight vs 2/4 Impi - 3/4 Knight (75-13)

Near BTZ2
4/4 MDI vs Indian 4/4 MDI - 2/4 MDI (76-13)
4/5 MDI vs Indian 3/3 MDI - 3/4 MDI (77-13), space cleared

Near Kufuh vs Americans
5 Cats put 1 HP on Pike, and 1 Each on two American Galleys
5/5 MDI vs 3/4 Pike - 1/5 MDI (78-13)
5/5 MDI vs 4/4 MDI - 4/5 MDI (79-13)
5/5 MDI vs 4/4 Archer - 5/5 MDI (80-13) and Suleyman!
4/4 Knight vs 4/4 LongB - 2/4 Knight (81-13)

(IBT American Galleys head to East, along South side of Persia
Indians move around)

Turn 13, 550 AD
Hlobane!
4/5 Knight vs 4/4 Impi - 1/4 Impi (81-14)
4/4 Knight vs 4/4 Impi - 1/4 Knight (82-14)
4/4 Knight vs 3/3 Impi - 2/4 Impi (82-15) defense has picked up a little bit!
4/4 Knight vs 3/3 Impi - 3/4 Knight (83-15)
4/4 Knight vs 2/4 Impi - 4/4 Knight (84-15)
4/4 Knight vs 4/4 Horse - 4/5 Knight (85-15)
4/4 Knight vs 1/4 Impi - 4/5 Knight (86-15) and Hlobane is ours!
(edit - notice I missed a loss back a few turns; final count 86-16)
Advance healthy Knights towards next Zulu city, only Ulundi and Islandhlwana are left

I've got 2 Galleys sweeping up the East Coast of the Zulu continent in case there's a Zulu Settler on Galley somewhere.

I've positioned lots of units on the Coasts to prevent the AI from landing there

Our GL is fortified near Kufuh, I figure we should discuss what to do with him; my feeling is make an army for our Viking landing (only 1 unit loaded in or the Galley can't carry it!)

End of Turnlog

I think we need a change of plans with respect to India. It will take too long to get our slow units up to the Northern invasion spot from Zululand to the landing site near Delhi. I think we should combine our Zulu forces and home forces and land in the Grassland spot 2 moves East of Lahore. We don't get a double landing of units, but we can combine our fleets (one near BTZ2 and the other near ZweitenFerrum) to get 10 Galleys, or 20 units, ashore on turn 1. Only response should be from Lahore and whatever WEs might be within range; by the time the Indians can respond in force we should have a city there, and a 2nd load of units. From there we move out in force. This can happen several turns earlier than attacking from the North end of the Zulu.

Lots of units are nearby Zimbabwe; they can be reduced once the Zulu are gone.

Our Knights are within striking range of Ulundi, and after taking it should be able to attack Islandlwana in a turn, maybe two. That should do in the Zulu and allow us to focus on India.

Any horsemen or Settlers produced in Arab-Persia I've been upgrading to Knights and sending South near Persepolis. I've also been sending new Galleys from the South that way to create an invasion fleet. I wanted to bulk up our forces before running over Chicago and setting up for our attack against the Vikings.

OK Peanut, you're UP!

550 AD Save

 

[Mathilda]

Way to go CS 86-16 is an awesome ratio.
Bapedi was hard!
Good job on the advancement in Zululand, it's almost over in there.

Update on the situation in regards to domination: we're almost half way there.
346 out of 708 atm.

The part I don't understand is what's the point of the settlers in south of Arabia?
There's still plenty of space in Arabia to found new cities and we could do with some more.


Edit: re GL - I don't think a pike army would hurt against India either.
I'd still like to think there's fair chance of getting another one for another army to take to America with us.

 

[civ_steve]

Thanks, Mathilda! It was fun!!

Bapedi had by far the bulk of the Zulu army. But it had no really offensive capability. I ignored the stacks of Impis and Archers near BTZ, left enough units to defend it, and moved the Stack forward. Zulus had no counter. I estimated they had 3 Impis left, then they added another 4 defenders, so I knew I couldn't take it. I retreated, healed, and had no problems the 2nd time. Patience and Force Preservation was appropriate at that time; now that they're down to 2 cities, I'd just run them over with Knights and get it over with. Bye-Bye Shaka!

We have enough cities in Arabia-Persia that with Libraries we'll own most of the spaces there. These libraries are nearly half finished, so they can be easily rushed towards the end.

We need at least 4 settlers further West. Once Chicago is taken (or razed since we'll always be at risk of a flip to America and there's one Settler being used), I think there's two spots on that island where we need cities, one in the NW (where we'll stage our units into Scandinavia, and take some of their culture from them) and another somewhere in the SW to grab more culture space. It will take forever to get units to this front, so its better to send stuff you need early and back fill closer in later if needed.

Oh yes, the 4th required Settler is to found our BTV city, once we invade the Vikings.

I expect we should be able to invade India in a few turns, maybe 5 or 6 (up to the next player). I recommend a joint operation from BTZ2 and Sogut to land on the Grassland space 2 moves East of Lahore. Once we know the response the Indians give us, and take a few of their cities, we should start migrating units to the South. I think the best place to transfer them is at that far southern tip city on our island (Gateway to Persia?), and from there shuttle them to Persia, and then over to the Kufuh island. How quickly we can get this done is the determining factor for how fast we finish, so we need to leave sufficient units in India to finish the job and start transferring the extras (mostly Knights; too long for MDI) to the South. There is no doubt we can do this, the question is how fast!

Also, if we have the upper hand in India, all new units head South; new Horsemen go to our southernmost Barracks city for upgrade and then transport.

I've mined the Iron space near Sinop, but haven't roaded it. There are Workers roading the 1 mountain space near Arbela where we can connect and disconnect its Iron. I suggest we use that space for connecting Iron; this way we don't have to pillage the Mines on our other two Iron squares.

Armies - a Pike army would help the initial landing, once its formed, and defend any advancing units (most likely Knights, but the Pike army can't keep up). A knight army might help us knock the door down on a couple cities (and probably prevent them from attacking our stack as it advances.) I'm leaning towards a Knight army.