SGOTM7 - Team tao

[Furiey]

Americans are building Sistine in New York, Vikings in Nidaros, I'm trying to remember how long they're been building it, before my turns I think. In a flip risky town we'd get it back if it flipped, a Library we wouldn't.

 

[Renata]

Have you guys looked at F4 or the tech screen? The silly AIs went for printing press. Of all things!

That's a good point about not losing Sistine culture if a town flips. Perhaps put it in the Persian town with the most resistors, since we'll be able to rush while still in resistence. Going to look at the save now.

Renata

 

[Furiey]

Hmmm yes - we can hurry it while the town is in resistance. Sistine is beginning to sound better and better.

Must wait until tomorrow to look more - I need sleep!

 

[Tone]

Yes, I've had no cultural build warnings in my turns so they will have been at it for a while now. It'll still cost them 360sh though and that will still take them a fair few turns with their poor production. However rushing it in a currently resisting town could be useful and I really can't see anything better.

 

[Renata]

All right. A bunch of suggestions.

- Switch South Beach to galley and use that plus the one that's fortified in Desert Beach to try to sink a few of those enemy galleys heading up the coast (after you've bombarded as best you can). Build galleys in every city close enough to the area to help with transport; we probably have nearly enough knights already.

- Empty Jungle Port and leave an empty landing tile next to it -- if knights are constantly heading to Denizli, who cares if units land by Jungle Port -- you'll be able to kill them without trouble.

- Build one galley in Sogut and consider shipping two knights over to India if those Viking galleys continue up the coast. In any case, keep the galley handy to transfer units.

- Send the galleys currently in Denizli to the southwest end of Persia to aid in the invasion of the nearer Viking island. Ship them loaded if that helps; you can keep them on sea tiles if you want, but I doubt they'd be attacked since all those enemy galleys are probably full.

- Start rushing settlers everywhere you can. Closer to where they'll be settling is better, obviously. Use captured workers for road building if needed, but otherwise use them to join self-built cities to rush settlers, because the larger captured cities will be a while yet getting out of resistance.

- Rush Sistine's this turn in Persepolis.

- Keep those two galleys between Zululand and Arabia available to transfer the settlers you'll be rushing in Zululand.

Oh, and very good call on sticking those two swords by Bapedi, IMO; losing that town for multiple turns would be more than annoying.

I'll attach a few maps that I worked on with suggested spots for settlers and libraries. I'm not sure if it's better or worse than Furiey's; it's another option, anyway. Key to the maps:

L = build library. Rush the ones first that'll grab the most territory.
T = build town.
R, R, L = raze and replace, build library. You may be able to get away without razing some of these; this is for towns that are still in resistance when we're within five turns of domination and that need libraries to grab tiles.

I also suggested razing one or two towns outright to allow for grabbing more territory more efficiently. Can't remember which ones, though. And building Sistine in Persepolis may change things slightly; you'll have to check. I only went up to the end of Persia with these maps.

Renata

 

[tao]

I'll attach a few maps that I worked on with suggested spots for settlers and libraries. I'm not sure if it's better or worse than Furiey's; it's another option, anyway.

• We don't need no library in Bangalore (build galley instead), we need a town W-NW of Bangalore.
• Madras already has a library; hurry settler in 1 turn and settle W-SW.
• I would not raze any Persian cities.
• We need a "close-by" harbor on the Viking island. Either on the forrest west of Persepolis (but that needs additional roading), or raze Mpondo and settle on the hill to ship from Pasargadae.

And I definitely would notmove our Palce, as we are 10-15 turns from finishing this game and have no time to develop a new core.

 

[Tone]

@ tao: I think we do need the lib in Bangalore otherwise there will be a four tile gap in the middle but I'll look again when I can open up the save and switch if yours is a better option. (Looking at Renata's maps do you mean W-W-NW?)

Raze and replace would be a last six turn option. Difficult to time but not my call I feel. I'll try and get some settlers in the area if I think that we are almost there.

Knocking out galleys should be easier now that we have the cats by Jungle Port. The two Viking ones have just sailed up and down the coast during my turns after dropping off something in Furiey's. Annoying but harmless.

I'll shut down AI Bait then and rely on the stream of knights to do some damage if their ships get that far. I might rush galleys in all our south coast towns and look to use this diff naval movement to ship a set of new builds straight to the Vikings and then get some more ferry ships to either create a ship-chain or a link from our homeland to Persia and the first Viking wave can then transfer them to onwards.

I'll go with Sistine in Persepolis this evening unless I hear otherwise.

Thanks everyone.

 

[tao]

@ tao: I think we do need the lib in Bangalore otherwise there will be a four tile gap in the middle but I'll look again when I can open up the save and switch if yours is a better option. (Looking at Renata's maps do you mean W-W-NW?)

W-NW of Bapedi will close the culture gap.

 

[Tone]

OK, I understand now. We could change the build in Bangalore to a settler but it will take a while to get to anywhere that we want. I'm still unsure as to whether the 40g extra will benefit us in the bigger picture. The settlers in Zululand will have a direct path all the way south to where we really need them.

 

[Furiey]

I wouldn't use a Settler near Madras, the Library in Madras, plus the one due in 5 in Iznik will claim all the spare tiles up there.

I suppose it doesn't matter if we build the Libraries now or in a few turns from now when they'll be cheaper and we get more for our money, just so long as we get them to expand before we reach domonation. I would probably rush the Settlers first, but if it is taking too long to get them there - hmmmm.

Raze and replace v raze and keep: It's taking a long time to get the larger cities out of resistance and they are useless in that time as (apart from with a leader) we can't rush culture to close any gaps or Settlers to fill gaps. If we have a Settler there, we can raze, replace, join the workers gained from the razed city, start a Settler and rush the following turn giving us another Settler in 2 turns to repeat with. So, we lose the 9 tiles gained immediately which we gain back once we settle, then 2 turns later at the cost of the gold get the Settler back as well. This is more of an option than I first thought. If we don't have the settler, or don't have the gold, then it may be better to keep, if we have both and would get 2 or more workers from a razed city that would otherwise be useless for as many turns as there are resistors, then raze and replace.

 

[Furiey]

Take the Settlers in Zulu S, take the Settlers in India to Zulu. The Galley ferrying between Antalaya and Konya could get the Indian ones to Zulu, a Settler from Bangalore, Edirne and Madras would fill in all of the gaps there we can fill with Settlers.

Arrgh - late for work, got to go

 

[tao]

Raze and replace v raze and keep: It's taking a long time to get the larger cities out of resistance

To speed this, we have to starve them, e.g. Makkah, Susa!

Hurry the Salonika library now; we need to get acces to the irrigated gras.

 

[Renata]

@ Furiey -- Tao wasn't talking about settling by Madras; that was a typo. He meant NW of Bapedi, not NW of Bangalore.

I like the idea of sending settlers from India to Zululand to close the couple of culture gaps there and settlers from Zululand south to Arabia/Persia. That'll get everyone in place in time, more or less.

Renata

 

[Tone]

To speed this, we have to starve them, e.g. Makkah, Susa!

I'm trying but we only lose one resistor/turn and we have started with a high population and high resistance-a feature of deity that is not so wimpish in this game.

I've made my exit earlier than usual from work tonight and I'll get going soon to finish the remainder of my turns. Thanks for the advice-I'll read it all again and post any questions once I've had time to cool down!

 

[Tone]

6-(410) continued
Rush libs in Solinika, Iznik and Bapedi and Sistine in Persepolis. I decide to rsh lib in Bangalore and we can get a settler afterwards. I've decided that if we can get the settler south where rushing may be a problem then we'll be better off. Switch Bombay to settler and rush here as well.

Switch builds in AI Bait, Desert Beach and Jungle Port to galleys.

The extra lux enables us to have all six citizens working in Jungle Port with three MPs which takes it up to that crucial 10spt rate.

IBT
Immortal attacks our knight stack outside Pasargadae and does no damage-a nice surprise (26-13). We learn PP from the GLib.
Persepolis: Sistine>Lib. Bombay: settler>settler. Bapedi: lib>settler. Bangalore: lib> settler. Iznik: lib>settler. AI Bait: galley>galley. South Beach: settler>settler. Salonika: lib>settler.

7-(420)
Short rush knight in Sogut. Build Bolu NW of Pasargadae. Bombard Am galley and then sink it with Desert Beach galley. (27-13) Bombard Viking galley but our galleys in the area are loaded up with troops and head for the seas Southwards. Shut down AI Bait.

Battle of Pasargadae:
1. 4/4 knight withdraws doing no damage
2. 4/4 knight relines the 4/4 pike but loses and the pike is promed to 2/5 (27-14)
3. 4/4 knight loses knocking just one hp from the 4/4 pike. (27-15)
4. same again! (27-16) Reg pike stands up-I hope there are not too many more!
5. 4/4 knight defeats the reg and is promoted to 4/5. (28-15) Now for the knights from Bolu. Wounded pike appears.
6. 4/4 defeats 3/4 pike losing 2hp, but an unfortified 3/3 steps up next. (29-15)
7. 4/4 defeats 3/3 pike losing 2 hp
8. 4/4 loses 2 hp against the 2/5 elite (30-15) and takes Pasargadae. Good job as I only had one more knight within attack range.

Final bit of jungle cleared around Aydin and two workers move to join next turn to get it up to 24spt. Use archer to short rush galley in Jungle Port. Rush galley in Denizli.

I think about moving some knights towards Arbela but there's no hurry here. Cats and axes will do just as well and the knights can be saved for the Vikings. I just move two up to keep the mountain clear-we don't want to have to fight on the way to Arbela. Move settler to site N of Arbela.

IBT
Am drop off a sword and an archer on the hill outside newly aquired Pasargadae. Zulu would like to talk but we are too busy ensuring world domination at the moment!
Sogut: knight>knight. Damascus: settler>settler. GL: knight>knight. Uskadar: wealth>settler. Izmit: knight>knight. Aydin: knight>knight. Antalya: knight>knight. J-Port: galley>galley. Denizli: galley>galley.

8-(430)
4/4 knight attacks and defeats Am sword (31-15). Elite kills archer flawlessly (32-15).
Galleys continue Southwards and settler builds Urfa N of Arbela. New galley from Denizli picks off the wounded Viking galley (33-15).

Join 2 workers to Aydin to get knights in 3 turns w/o short rush. Rush settler in Bapedi.

IBT
Persian immortal attacks knights on mountain and loses (34-15)
Zimbabwe: settler>settler. Bapedi: settler>settler. New Calcutta: knight>knight. Cow-S: knight>knight. Desert Beach: galley>galley. Incense Hill: pike>pike.
Resistance ended in Persepolis, Pasargadae, Susa & Diriyah down to one resistor but Makkah still has 2/3.

9-(440)
Land 4 knights, 2 cats apike and a settler to the north of Uppsala. Not in my original location but there were two workers in the way. 3 more knights and an axeman can land in the town that will be formed next turn. Also have 3 more galleys loaded with knights on their way down the coast. cats, MDIs and a few knights march through the mountains towards Arbela but will not be able to attack for another two turns.

Short rushes in Sogut, Antalya & Izmit for knights and J-Port for a galley. Rush settler in Edirne

IBT
No attack on the landing party-just one axe lands next to them.
Sogut: knight>knight. Edirne: settler>settler. GL: knight>knight. Lahore: knight>knight. Bursa: knight>knight. J-Port: galley>galley.
Our palace gets a dome on top of it! Only Makkah is resisting.

10-(450)
Build Bingol in Scandanavia. Knights roll out to attack Uppsala.
1. 4/4 knight withdraws doing no damage to the reg pike.
2. 4/4 knight withdraws after taking off one hp. reg spear moves up to face us.
3. 4/4 knight kills the spear flawlessly. (35-15)
4. final knight from the landing party takes Uppsala and is promoted to 4/5. (36-15)

3 knights and an axe drop of in our new town, cats knock 1 hp from the Scandanavian vet axe
and then an axe wades in to KO the Viking (37-15). The knights move onto Uppsala to attack Mpondo next turn (?) and the forces march on Arbela.

Build a couple of towns to fill in some gaps. Rush libs in Pasargadae and Diriyah.

Notes:
The turn is not over! I've left six knights in boats and another 3 boats that can help them get to Oslo this turn or dock in Bingol. You could always just use the empty boats to get a more substantial force from Pasargadae/Persepolis and wait a turn-your choice!

I've done a sweep of the towns and I think everything is in order but you may want to rush a couple of settlers. We have 472g and are currently making 261gpt so there's no problem with cash for the first few turns at least.

Aydin needs to starve once every three turns to work the mountain as 23spt is one short! New Calcutta and Lahore have been sharing the lambs. Lahore alternates 2 turns @ 9spt and 2 turns @ 11. New Calcutta in turn between 17 and 18 spt which is optimal for knights.

The arab galley NE of Diriyah is incoming but there are a number of cats to red-line it and galleys further north if it ventures past our knight area.

The two Vikings by AI bait have been wandering around here for all my turns and are harmless. I've left them as they use up their unit count.

The two wounded galleys are returning home having dropped of units in Furiey's turnset. I'm a bit confused by the others though. I'm not sure if they keep changing their target as we expand or are confused themselves.

I would post a roster but I'm not sure if keath can play next. tao?

save

 

[Renata]

I can definitely play tonight (possibly to finish tomorrow night; depends if Sri needs the computer for a while or not) if we want to keep moving. Keath said he'd be back tomorrow night UK time but not whether or not he'd be able to play right away.

I'm headed home now; will see if anyone has commmented with any opinions on who should play next after I've eaten and got back from jogging.

Sounds like some really terrific progress, Tone. Fantastic job.

Renata

 

[Tone]

I forgot to add that MapStat says we need just 127 tiles for domination. It's going to be a tough job but maybe we can actually finish it during the next turn set by a combination of conquests and new builds. There are a few sites that can claim a few coastal tiles with a lib build-maybe these should be followed up?

I've tried to ensure that we've got plenty of galleys (although we are nowhere near having too many!) as it's very frustrating when you have the troops but they are stuck in the wrong areas-I just hope that the number of knight casualties that I sustained does not cause us problems.

 

[Furiey]

Wow, only 127 tiles to victory!

Might be worth looking at some of the towns at pop 1 or 2 building Settlers - are there any that could benefit from a Library in the meantime? Pike in Sinop isn't going to be much use now either. If we really are getting to the end and we are running out of gold to rush Libraries, there's always the option of disbanding a few troops that can't get to the front to speed a build to get one or 2 tiles more.

Personally I think Renata should play - after all Keath is likely to have other things on his mind when he does get back.

 

[tao]

If that happens, I will have to pass my turns on, so I'll keep you all posted.

Renata should play.

Excellent progress. It should be possible to finish really soon.

 

[Renata]

Really soon! It took me three hours of twiddling my thumbs while my fiance finished his homework and getting kicked off the computer for ten minutes again later on while he burned something-or-other to CD, but ...

Thank you, fearless leader Tao and all my teammates; you are fabulous.

I'm attaching the pre-victory save to this post so you can all watch the victory screens and take pretty pictures if you like. My game crashed right after the domination victory banner came up (it did that last time, too), so I'll be sending the same file to AlanH to hit enter and upload manually to the server. So I have no idea what the final score was or anything; someone will have to tell me.

Turnlog in the next post for anyone who's interested in the nitty gritty. I got 30 more kills, but sadly, not enough to put me over the top in the death-dealing sweepstakes.

Woohoo!

Renata