SGOTM7 - Team Wacken

[dmanakho]

Spend cash on short rushing knights using granaries.
Next wave of cash should go on libraries...
I missed the place where i could build a city on Zulu land - it's on top or next to Furs source. There is a city building settler near it - can be short rushed.
We should start filling gaps culturally that will make it easier to count how much more we have left to dom limit.

I have a second thought on army.. I do highly recommend to fill it now and roll over vikings ASAP!!!!
then the second wave of the knights will just tneed to take one to three american towns and it won't matter how huge our losses are at that point.
MOst important at this time is speed and with army we certainly will get trough Scandinavia much faster... Well.... If you decide not to use army on 1st scandinavian island do it with second one. They have at least 2 10+ pop cities on that island.

 

[WackenOpenAir]

Spend cash on short rushing knights using granaries.
Next wave of cash should go on libraries...
I missed the place where i could build a city on Zulu land - it's on top or next to Furs source. There is a city building settler near it - can be short rushed.
We should start filling gaps culturally that will make it easier to count how much more we have left to dom limit.

I have a second thought on army.. I do highly recommend to fill it now and roll over vikings ASAP!!!!
then the second wave of the knights will just tneed to take one to three american towns and it won't matter how huge our losses are at that point.
MOst important at this time is speed and with army we certainly will get trough Scandinavia much faster... Well.... If you decide not to use army on 1st scandinavian island do it with second one. They have at least 2 10+ pop cities on that island.

Instead of shortrushing, it is cheaper to produce horses and upgrade them to knights.
I have all faith in Offa knowing how to turn money into knights though. We have been doing this for 3 sgotm's already

 

[dmanakho]

Instead of shortrushing, it is cheaper to produce horses and upgrade them to knights.
I have all faith in Offa knowing how to turn money into knights though. We have been doing this for 3 sgotm's already

Agree, but Bursa and Istanbul should keep building knights.
They can build a knight each in 3 turns. It doesn't make much send building horse there in 2 turns, wasting lots of shields and then spending 120gold on upgrade. so iron connect/disconnect procedure should be timed extremely carefully to let our most productive cities keep pumping knights.

 

[Wotan]

I have a second thought on army.. I do highly recommend to fill it now and roll over vikings ASAP!!!!
then the second wave of the knights will just tneed to take one to three american towns and it won't matter how huge our losses are at that point.
MOst important at this time is speed and with army we certainly will get trough Scandinavia much faster... Well.... If you decide not to use army on 1st scandinavian island do it with second one. They have at least 2 10+ pop cities on that island.

I believe filling the Army vs. the Vikings to be the wrong approach. Especially if the Vikings are on two small islands. With no Muskets on Viking lands but probably in American I believe it to be a sensible thing to wait until then to "ramp up" the army.

 

[WackenOpenAir]

I believe filling the Army vs. the Vikings to be the wrong approach. Especially if the Vikings are on two small islands. With no Muskets on Viking lands but probably in American I believe it to be a sensible thing to wait until then to "ramp up" the army.

I agree with this.

 

[dmanakho]

Ok, just playing a devil's advocate.
Promise won't hold it against you if your plan doesn't work well. Promise to keep my mouth shut if it goes perfectly either.

I hope Offa will finish Scandinavia by the end of his turns.

 

[Wotan]

I hope Offa will finish Scandinavia by the end of his turns.

I am a bit worried the limiting factor for our expansion is access to sea transport. For every island we need to traverse at least 2 galleys are needed and that will result in a trickle of units to be able to move large quantities of units we need more galleys.

 

[dmanakho]

I am a bit worried the limiting factor for our expansion is access to sea transport. For every island we need to traverse at least 2 galleys are needed and that will result in a trickle of units to be able to move large quantities of units we need more galleys.

This is why i have 5 galleys near scandinavia island at the moment That will help offa. Two more galleYs are setup to ferry troops from our island to arab land.

 

[Offa]

450 - 550 ad

Pre flight: we have 3 connected sources of iron, One of which is in Antioch. It will therefore take a while to disocnnect it all and allow horseman manufacture.

Wake the knights in Gordium. The first one advances towards Oslo and meets a bezerk. I attack and lose, inflicting no damage at all (a 2.5% chance). Not a good start.

Second knight kills the bezerk.

Oslo is defended by a reg pike.

Short rush galley in Madras for library.
Recruit several more persian taxmen and reduce lux to 10%.


ibt. Berzerk exits Oslo and attacks elite knight. The knight is redlined but wins. Viking caravel sails into Oslo which is now defended by a vet pike.

I currently have 5 units ready to attack Oslo, I don't think this is enough.

460
Reg galleys sinks reg american galley off south coast of Zulu land.
Move troops towards Vikings.

ibt
Americans land one vet sword next to Gordium.

470
vet kight kills american sword and promotes.
New Edrine founded at southern tip of Zululand.
One MI landed to north of Oslo as temptor.
Rush library in Najran.


ibt Americans land 2 vet crusaders next to Persepolis.

480. Knight army kills the crusaders and falls to 9HP.
I have 13 knights ready to attack Oslo. Finally odds I think are worth a go.

There are 4 pikes (one vet, 3reg) one berzerk and a caravel. I lose 3 knights and capture it together with a healthy 130g or so.

I disconnect iron (sell harbor in Antioch). 4 workers are in place to connect it back every turn.

490

Two libraries rushed in Persia.

1bt New York completes Magellans.

500 continue mass movement south and rush a couple more libraries.

ibt Berzerk leaves Aarhus and dies attacking a knight on the mountain next to it.

510 Take Aarhus for loss of one knight (4 pikes defending) and pillage 174 g. I redline 5 knights and reduce another to 2 HP.
The first Viking island is ours (for now).

ibt Ugly: Oslo flips with transiting units in it, very annoying as I had no intention of garrisoning it). Intombe flips (wasting a newly built library) and the Vikings land and take Pasargadae killing 2 workers.

520 Retake Intombe. Retake Oslo ( 2 spear). Can't retake Parsardae as there are at least 3 defenders now.
Lots of unhappiness as we are no longer connected to Zululand. Presuamably Intome had a harbor.

IBT Zulu impi who just landed next to Aarhus attacks and kills 2/5 knight taking the city.
America start Smiths.

530 retake Aarhus with 1 knight army (only available attacker).

retake Pasargadae with army ( 3 defenders, one MI, one berzerk, one pike), capture 100g.

ibt Americans land 2 crusaders next to Oslo.

540 Kill the crusaders with 2 knights.
Land a number of units on Vikings main island, and pillage some land (including Vikings last iron).

ibt Vikings retake Oslo with a berzerk. They also land a vet pike, and rush a spearmen.
Americans land an archer next to Damascus.
Two zerks attack an AC next to Trondheim. The first makes him retreat and the second kills him. Neither one loses a HP.

550 retake Oslo (just) losing 1 knight, but getting about 100g again.
Kill archer next to Damascus.

I have rushed some stuff but haven't moved any of the units around Trondheim. There are 7 units currently next to Trondheim. These could attack this turn but I would prefer more troops. 3 more units could be landed this turn. Lots of healing units are next to Aarhus, as is an arab galley.

There are 4 workers and a knight on our homeland iron source. These haven't moved, but a Viking source (Aarhus)is currently hooked up as well. This probably ought to be disconnected anyway in case of a flip.

I would have rushed more but was held back, especially in Persia, by resistors. More settlers are needed: the wine to the north of Aarhus is particularly attractive as a site.

We have 54% land area now. This is 594 tiles, meaning we have 132 to go.
We have 40 knights, 11 sword, 15 MI, 9 AC, 14 galleys, 3 settler.

Moving units is tough with so many islands but capturing the Lighthouse will simplify matters a lot. There are very few roads on the viking island we have just captured.

I couldn't kill off the Vikings, but they are quite poorly.
Really we should finish fairly soon, with a concerted settler and culture push, and continued pressure on the Vikings. I don't believe much action v America will be required. Settlers and culture are an immediate priority but they are slow to work/arrive in place.

 

[Wotan]

You seem to have had a very tough turn set, Offa. I had hoped you would be able to finish off the Vikings. I havn't looked at the save yet, hopefully Gman can finish them off and regain some of the time lost. Maybe you should have gone via Copenhagen instead of a landing at Trondheim when the number of units are a bit low to take a capital. Especially since we are so bad on defense Knights vs. Berserkers. But that is just an observation not questioning your choice. just afraid they will succumb to attrition from Viking attacks while having nowhere to heal and no chance to take Trondheim. 7 units would probably be enough to take one of the other Viking locations on this isle and also give us a post of entry to bring new reinforcements into and give a safe haven to heal, while staying outside Trondheim waiting for another 5-7 units before launching the attack might find us back at 7 healthy units and a few killed and several wounded.

 

[Offa]

I had hoped you would be able to finish off the Vikings.

So did I. But they take a bit of rolling over.

If you look at the save you will see a lot of damaged knights, so it isn't that I haven't been trying. The stack next to Aarhus has nearly healed and several of them could then ship over to the next island. I daren't let them heal in Aarhus so it has taken time.

It takes a lot of attacks to capture Viking towns, sensibly attacking with 10 knights/AC/MI and it isn't easy to get that many units in place. Trondheim is a big prize and I landed there as it was actually quicker to get to than other sites (via Aarhus region where units were congregating). I wanted to pillage the iron as well. A piecemeal invasion force isn't ideal but we haven't many ships to hand there so that's the way it is. I think we could help ourselves a fair bit by loading up the army on that island (currently near Aarhus) and forget the americans for now, especially as I think we need very little american land to win. That would prevent attrition to our stack, and would probably take cities singlehandedly.

The berserks who killed our AC near Trondheim can be picked off now instead of attacking Trondheim right now. That is the only unit lost so far on the mainland (main attrition has been in Oslo etc). I doubt the Vikings have a big store of berserks. They have used a number in attacks from caravels, and in Oslo etc.

Oslo has been a pest as well, captured once and flipped once. The flip was particularly irritating as it wasn't empty. Perhaps I should have just abandoned it.

As there have been loads of resistors in Persia, it has been tough to rush stuff there, but this situation has eased off. That will allow us to rush galleys which are urgently required. Settlers are also needed, but are tough to get in position, which is why I was reluctant to abandon Oslo etc.

There are lots of knights waiting for transport in the southern part of Persia, but it isn't easy to get them to the action, as travelling across the captured Viking island is slow due to a lack of roads.

Our overall number of knights has increased a fair bit and we probably have all the military we need, if we can get it in position. The Lighthouse will be so helpful...

The vikings are awash with cash, and capturing their towns is very lucrative.

I think the iron next to Aarhus should be disconnected, if only to ensure the post flip defender will be a spear. We could build horse for upgrades again then, but this isn't that important. We can't trasport enough units as it is and don't need a whole lot more units that we can't move.

I believe this game shouldn't last much beyond the next turnset.

 

[WackenOpenAir]

Indeed, and whatever happens now, it won't keep us away from another fine victory.

 

[grahamiam]

got it, but not till tomorrow night. nice work, offa. 22/40 knights in theater, looks like we need to rush some boats atm, and the economy will help with that

 

[WackenOpenAir]

Will we write a spoiler?

If so, who will write it?

I can do so, but after the weekend.

 

[dmanakho]

Please do Captain Wacken. I doubt anybody else will volunteer to write it

 

[grahamiam]

Preflight check: Army pillages iron next to Aarhus. Lots of things to move now. Move a couple of units, have some others automove.

Drop off the rest of the units near Trondheim.

Near Trondheim: vKnight kills zerk on grass (1/4), jumps into nearby galley; eMDI kills zerk on hill (4/5)

Spend all our money rushing units and ships.

T1: 560AD Decide to use the Army against the Vikings. They already have Mag, don’t want them to get any farther.
Moving units. Found a couple of towns to gain some land.

IBT: lose 2 knights to zerk attacks on the Viking island; Arabs drop off a warrior near Gordium

T2: 570AD Near Gordium: eKnight kills warrior (3/5)
Positioning for Bergen and Copenhagen.

IBT: Lose an empty galley to an Arab galley near Gordium
Vikings are building Newtons

T3: 580AD Near Bergen: eMDI kills Zerk and we get

@ Bergen: Odin’s Army kills vPike (3/12); vKnight retreats (2/4); vKnight retreats from pike (2/3); vKnight kills zerk (3/4); vKnight kills 2/3 pike; eKnight kills 2/4 pike and we take the town + sink a galleon + get 210g

Drop off 14 knights near Copenhagen

On the Arab/Persian island: eSword dies vs MDI near Damascus; Army has to come up to finish it off

IBT: 2 knights get retreated near Copenhagen; Americans drop off a Crusader near Bergen
Aarhus flips

T4: 590AD Regular spearman showing in Aarhus; eKnight kills rSpear (4/5); 2/4 knight kills it and promotes (2/5) and we take the town + 123g

@Copenhagen: vKnight dies to pike (2/4); vKnight dies to spear (3/4); vKnight redlines but then wins 4 in a row and kills vPike (1/4); vKnight retreats; vKnight dies to zerk and promotes it (2/5); vKnight retreats (2/4); vKnight kills 2/4 pike (3/4); vKnight kills 2/4 pike (3/4); vKnight dies to 2/5 zerk (1/5); vKnight dies to 1/5 zerk; vKnight kills zerk (4/4) and we take the city + 208g
Offload a couple of knights and AC’s into Copenhagen
Near Copenhagen: vKnight dies to vMDI (3/4); what’s with this rng? Unbeatable def 2 units :shakehead: ; vKnight kills MDI and promotes (4/5); AC kills 2/4 zerk (5/5)

Take a galley on a cruise by America and note the large towns with muskets.

Near Bergen: 4/5 knight kills Crusader (1/5), reveals Reykjavik (size 9 with vPike)

IBT: Zerk retreats our Knight near Trondheim
Americans are building Bach’s

T5: 600AD Near Trondheim: pillage road to cutoff the Viking capitol from the other port (hopefully, no iron for sure now); kill ¾ Zerk with 4/5 Knight (4/5)

IBT: Vikings, Persians tell us “No Mas”, we show them the hand; Persians land 2 Immortals near Copenhagen
Bergen flips, costing us 1 knight, Copenhagen flips, costing us 2 knights

T6: 610AD @ Bergen: vKnight kills spear (2/4); 4/5 e*MDI kills rSpear and we retake the town + 158g
@Copenhagen: vKnight dies to vSpear (2/4); vKnight kills rSpear (4/4); ¾ knight retreats; ¾ Knight kills spear and we retake the town + 168g
Nearby: vKnight retreats from Zerk (3/4); vKnight kills zerk (3/4); vKnight kills Immortal (2/4); vKnight kills rImmortal (4/4)

T7: 620AD @ Reykjavik: Odin Army kills pike (9/12); Odin’s Army dies to pike (2/4); Crap, this forces me to use the reserve army on the Viking Island. Land it near Trondheim and load 2 more knights into it.

IBT: Americans drop off 3 units near Copenhagen
Americans building Newtons

T8: 630AD Near Copenhagen: (all American): vKnight retreats from rCrusader; vKnight kills MDI; ¾ knight kills Crusader; ¾ Knight kills rArcher
@ Trondheim: Army kills vPike (10/12); Army kills vPike (9/13); Army kills vPike (7/14); vKnight retreats (3/4); vMDI kills ¾ Pike; vMDI dies to 3/3 Pike; vKnight retreats (2/3); vKnight retreats (2/3); vKnight dies (1/3); vKnight kills ¾ pike (2/4); vKnight kills 2/3 pike (3/4); vAC kills 2/3 pike (3/5); vAC kills 2/3 pike and promotes (4/6); 4/6 AC dies to redlined pike (2/4); vAC dies to same pike (2/5); eKnight has to attack across river, but kills 2/5 pike and we get another leader + we take the town + 228g

 

[Wotan]

Looks nice, but why do you post such a teaser. How close are we to domination? Will Reykjavik fall too? And is that the final Scandy location? The scandy flips are a major pain in the... Would be great if they disappeared.

 

[Offa]

Indeed, the main questions are:

how close to domination
how strong are our forces
can we win faster by attacking america or leaving them alone and just filling land.
can we see a save.

Obviously, if we are a few tiles short, we can fill land if necessary in america just by building towns: we don't need to destroy the american ones.

Be careful of leaving galleys in the sea, even if we capture the Lighthouse (flips).

 

[grahamiam]

sorry, interenet connection crapped out last night. anyways, that was a long set, taking me some of Friday and all Saturday night, so it's fitting that is was broken up a little

IBT: Bergen flips again (no losses)

T9: 640AD @ Bergen: e*MDI kills rSpear (1/5); vKnight retreats from spear; ¾ Knight retreats from 2/3 spear; 4/6 AC kills spear (4/6) and we retake the city
Near Trondheim: vKnight dies to MDI (1/4); vKnight redlines but kills it (1/4)

IBT: Copenhagen flips (0 units); Aarhus flips (0 units)

T10: 650AD @ Aarhus: vKnight dies to spear (3/3)
@ Copenhagen: vKnight retreats from spear (2/3); ¾ knight kills spear and we take the city +127g)
@ Raykjavik: vKnight retreats; vKnight dies (4/5); vKnight dies to 4/5 pike (1/5); vKnight dies to spear (4/5); vKnight retreats from spear (2/4); vKnight retreats from spear (2/5); vKnight kills 2/4 spear (3/4); vKnight kills 2/5 spear (3/4); eKnight redlines but kills 1/5 pike and we take the town + 138g

Americans are modern, but we’re @ 65%/73% so I will finish this off

T11: 660AD @ Aarhus: vKnight kills spear and we take the town + 145g
We are now 67/73 so I finish the moves and save just before hitting space (hope no flips!)

Attached is the save just before winning if anyone wants to watch the movie. Nice game all, it was a pleasure doing this with such a talented group of players

 

[grahamiam]

hmm, looks like attachments are a little screwed up, try again

oh, and our submission:

Reference number: 2255
Game: SGOTM 07
Your team: Wacken
Your name: grahamiam
Date submitted: 2005-06-12
Software Version: C3C 1.22
Game date: 670 AD
Player race: Ottomans
Firaxis score: 11899
Jason score: 13291
Time played: 44:04:03
Game status: Domination Victory for Ottomans
Submitted save: Wacken_SG007_AD0670_01.SAV