SGOTM8 - Xteam

[leif erikson]

Definitely a good idea to reduce flip chance - no arguments there. Just trying to think about how to expedite our complete elimination of flip chance to Vikings.

Keep thinking Willow, that was a really good idea.

I'll be happy to see it when ALL flip chances are eliminated!!

 

[Capt Buttkick]

I've had a good day with the kids, which means I've had a not-so-good civ day
I'm at 810 AD. I'll try to make some more time to play tomorrow. If I can't get to it, I'll at least upload the save so the next player can grab it. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are always busy for me and first time I know I can play is Thursday so that might be a little late.

 

[DJMGator13]

Great progress

With GA we should be able to research MT in 4 turns and still bank some gold. It might be worth holding off on England until we upgrade to cavs. You may not need many more troops there.

Keep up the good work.

 

[bluebox]

After uploading my save it deemed to me that Smith's could have something to do with a GA for us, but forgot to check. Now it comes pretty handy I think. With the JPN-Roman war, it's getting dynamic now! Keep it up, Capt.!

 

[leif erikson]

With GA we should be able to research MT in 4 turns and still bank some gold. It might be worth holding off on England until we upgrade to cavs. You may not need many more troops there.

Cavalry is a mighty delicious thought!!

I've had a good day with the kids, which means I've had a not-so-good civ day
I'm at 810 AD. I'll try to make some more time to play tomorrow. If I can't get to it, I'll at least upload the save so the next player can grab it. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are always busy for me and first time I know I can play is Thursday so that might be a little late.

We are getting behind the other teams. But it is only by a couple of trunsets, so it isn't critical, yet! However, I leave it up to you. Gator is up next and I'm not sure how he is fixed for time. If you can finish up Thursday, that will leave Friday for discussion and the weekend for Gator, unless he has to travel for his team?

I'll PM Alan and see where we are?

 

[leif erikson]

Ah!, The old double post.

Heard back from Alan and we'd better try to get things moving a little quicker.

He would like to start SGOTM09 in early November. Thus far, we are averaging about 4 to 5 days per turn set over the last 6 sets. We should try to get that down to 3 days even as the turns are getting longer with more to do.

If there are suggestions for best play times for folks so we can move things along, please post them. Thanks.

 

[Capt Buttkick]

I'm not expecting to see this again after my handoff so I'll leave the discussion on best play times to you guys

I'm thinking it might be wise to rush walls in Norrk. instead of a horse for one turn? After that, I'll do a few muskets to keep the Vikings at bay and then do what Willow proposed and go for a horse per turn.

 

[leif erikson]

I'm not expecting to see this again after my handoff so I'll leave the discussion on best play times to you guys

This is certainly encouraging!! I hope you are right, but we're still not secure on the Japanese/Roman continent. Once there, I'll breath easier.

I'm thinking it might be wise to rush walls in Norrk. instead of a horse for one turn? After that, I'll do a few muskets to keep the Vikings at bay and then do what Willow proposed and go for a horse per turn.

That sounds fine. I take it you are planning to finish the turn set then?

 

[Capt Buttkick]

Turn 5 – 800 AD .
Syracuse: 4/4 Knight redlines, but defeats 3/3 Musket
4/4 Knight defeats 3/3 Musket flawlessly and we raze Syracuse
4/4 Knight wins against Roman Mi outside Viroconium, looses 1 hp
Move forces in position for Viroconium
Sci to 40% for MT in 5 turns +452 gpt.
Hurry horse in Oxford and Brighton.

IBT: Loose a healing 2/4 Knight in Norrk. without denting the 4/4 Sword attacker.
Athens Bank --> Harbour
Shanghai riots?
Phily Bank --> Wealth
Xinjian Harbour --> Temple
Chicago Bank --> Worker
Pharsalos riots? WW probs?
Norrk. Horse --> Horse
Newcastle flips, only 1 healing Knight so no biggie, time to declare again, methinks...
Oxford Horse --> Horse
Area 51 Bank --> Wealth
Brighton Horse --> Horse
San Diego Worker --> Wealth

Turn 6 – 810 AD Norrk.: disband a Viking Worker, rush Horse, upgrade last horse. 5/5 Knight defeats 4/4 Sword and 4/4 --> 2/4 Knight defeats 4/4 Spear.
Viroconium: 4/4 Knight redlines 3/3 Musket and looses.
4/4 Knight looses to 3/3 --> 2/4 Musket
3/4 Knight defeats 2/4 Musket
4/4 Knight looses to 1/3 --> 2/4 Musket
4/4 --> 2/4 Knight wins over 2/4 Musket. We capture Viroconium
Declare on England: 3/4 Knight looses to 4/4 Longbow in the jungle between London and Newcastle
Outside Viro: 4/4 Knight retreats against 4/4 MI
4/4 --> 3/4 Knight defeats 4/4 MI
Hurry Horse in Tientsin
Upgrade horses in Brighton, Oxford and Norrk.
30% luxand a lot of MM'ing...

IBT: The Vikings destroy improvements outside Norrk.
Sparta Harbour --> Duct
Nanking Duct --> Market
Chicago Worker --> Wealth
Norrk. Horse --> Walls
Tientsin Horse --> Wealth
Brundisium flips with some slaves and a 3/4 Knight.

Turn 7 – 820 AD Brundisium: 4/4 Knight defeats 3/3 Spear without HP loss, we capture Brundisium
Norrk.: Hurry Worker, switch to Walls, hurry Walls.
On Tientsin Island, move forces towards Caesarea.

London: 3/3 Knight retreats against 4/4 --> 3/4 Musket
4/4 Knight retreats against 4/4 Musket
4/4 Knight retreats against 4/4 --> 3/4 Musket
4/4 Knight looses to 4/4 --> 3/4 Pike
4/4 Knight defeats 4/4 Pike
4/4 Knight retreats against 3/4 --> 2/4 Musket
4/4 Knight retreats against 3/4 Musket
4/4 Knight looses to 3/4 --> 1/4 Musket
4/4 Knight looses to 3/3 --> 1/3 Pike
4/4 Knight defeats 3/3 Pike
5/5 Horse defeats 2/4 Musket
Regroup and upgrade, I guess...

Upgrade horses in Tientsin and Norrk.
Norrk.: 5/5 --> 3/5 Knight defeats 4/4 Sword
Lee is born on the battlefield, form a Knight army with 9/14 HPs, now I really hope I can hold the city.
Up sci to 60% at -2 gpt

IBT: Loose Norrk. in a string of bad RNG, including loosing the 9/14 army in 3 attacks by swords, without taking out a single sword!!!
Thermo Harbour --> Temple
Boston Bank --> Wealth
New Orleans Duct --> Bank
Baltimore Bank --> Wealth


Turn 8 – 830 AD 4/4 Knight defeats Roman 4/4 Leg outside Brundisium
4/4 --> 2/4 Knight defeats 2/4 Longbow outside London.
Palo Alto founded starts Wealth
Japan has MT so sci at 30%

IBT: MT is in Switch research off.
Outside London: Loose a 2/4 Knight to a 4/4 Knight.

Turn 9 – 480 AD Caesarea: 4/4 Knight retreats against 3/3 Musket
4/4 Knight looses to 3/3 --> 2/4 Musket
4/4 Knight retreats against 2/4 Musket
4/4 Knight defeats 2/4 Musket and capture Caesarea
Move forces towards Lutetia
Rome will talk, but aren't quite ripe yet.
Hurry Cav in Oxford

IBT: Vikings unload 2 swords next to Oxford.
4/4 Knight wins against an MI and then looses to a Longbow (1/4) in the jungle outside London.
Houston Duct --> Harbour
Oxford Cav --> Cav

Turn 10 - 250 AD Lutetia: 4/4 Knight retreats against 3/3 Musket
4/4 --> 1/4 Knight defeats 3/3 Musket
4/4 Knight retreats against 3/3 Musket
4/4 --> 5/5 Knight defeats 3/3 Musket and we capture Lutetia
Outside London: 4/4 Knight defeats 1/4 Longbow.
Oxford: 4/4 --> 3/5 Cav defeats 4/4 Sword.
Upgrade 8 Cavs to Knights in Kalmar


Notes: Nice start, terrible ending to the turn set. I underestimated the power of the Vikings. That, in addition to some poor RNG luck, cost us our foothold on the Viking island. I'm happy with the progress against Rome. Once we get a few Cavs upgraded, our military forces will be closer to their strength, and they're still in democracy, which must hurt now so hopefully we can get a city on their island soon. After that, I think we should rush a Cav every turn in Rome and station them outside the city, in case it flips.

Firaxis 1555, Rome 1329.

 

[WillowBrook]

Yes! We have cavs!
And Rome is feeling the pinch....

I guess we'll have to do the gift/take thing with the Vikings to get back on the island. And hopefully, Rome will soon give us a prize.

 

[Capt Buttkick]

Yeah, I'm not too worried about the Vikings since they're so far behind in tech, but it still is a drag to mess it up that badly...
Maybe we can get a city on their island for peace soon anyway. There was a size 1 city there...

 

[bluebox]

IBT: Loose Norrk. in a string of bad RNG, including loosing the 9/14 army in 3 attacks by swords, without taking out a single sword!!!

That's hilarious! One mad smilie is definitely not enough:

X-Team doesn't have no luck with leaders even when we get them!

 

[DJMGator13]

Got it, I'll try to play tomorrow night. That should help speed us up some.

Should we try to take 12 to 15 turns instead of 10 to help?


A quick look at the games shows the VIK have 2 size 1 cities on their main island so hopefully we could get one of those for peace. Rome is grabbing JPN cities so we may want to declare on Japan wait a few turns and try to gain one of their smaller southern cities.

 

[WillowBrook]

Should we try to take 12 to 15 turns instead of 10 to help?


A quick look at the games shows the VIK have 2 size 1 cities on their main island so hopefully we could get one of those for peace. Rome is grabbing JPN cities so we may want to declare on Japan wait a few turns and try to gain one of their smaller southern cities.

If you play tomorrow, Gator, and if Leif can play Wednesday or Thursday, I can play the next day, so probably no need to take more than 10.

Of course, with the luck we've had, we'll probably all be playing two more turnsets.... (shh, Willow - don't be so pessimistic the RNG gods might hear you)

 

[leif erikson]

Excellent work Capt.!!

A very productive turn set!! Just a little tough RNG luck towards the end, but that isn't too unusual?

Roster (just for the record):
Gator - UP
Leif - On Deck
Willow
Capt. - Just played
Nemesis
Bluebox - Played before The Capt.

Admin notes: I will be able to play as soon as Gator has completed. I will get to Willow before the weekend for sure. Thanks Capt. for getting your set completed sooner than you thought you could.

As far as number of turns per set is concerned, I think that if we can stick to a schedule of 3 days each or better, we should finish in time. I have no objections if someone has enough time to complete an extra 5 turns or so on a set, but I think 15 should be max for now. Does anyone else feel strongly that we should stay solely with 10 turns?

Game notes:
When we get England cornered, please remember that we need to get Norwich in a peace deal before we send Lizzie packing to exile. Norwich is on the island between us and England's island.

I called up Caesar and checked each city in turn. He will currently give us Seleucia, located on the island between us and Rome/Japan's continent. I was thinking that this might not be too bad an idea as we could throw together a small army of Cavs and take Nicomedia and Aurelianorum should we be unable to get a city on the main island. Should we call this island hopping?

Caesar said he would be insulted for all the cities on the main continent. However, he doubted whether he would give up Hippo Regius, Nicomedia, Tarento and Palmyra (north of London), all located on the islands around the main continent. I am thinking we may have to do a couple of war and peace cycles before we're going to get on the main continent. Also, the only city left to take that we can get to is Palmyra.

On resources and strategy? The Romans have begun to take Japanese cities. Japan has no source of saltpeter. Should we consider trading saltpeter to Japan for Navigation and whatever else they may have to give? It will help eat up more of Rome's units. I fear that if Rome is too successful with Japan, it may take longer to get a city on the Continent, unless of course if we declare on Japan and let Rome do our work for us? Then we must be careful not to let Rome drive Japan's capital off the main continent.

BTW - The reason Pharsalos has flip risk and riots is because there is a Viking citizen there. We gifted that city to the Vikes and then took it back. I think we ought to use it again to try to get a city on the Viking island.

Good luck Gator!!!! GO GATORS!!

EDIT - Sorry Capt, the site made me remove a couple of Bananas I had put up top because I had too many smilies.

 

[DJMGator13]

I'll shoot for 10 turns tomorrow night.

Trading some saltpeter to JPN and gaining the ROM city on their small shared island might be a good strategy. We could build a small army there and then declare on Japan hopefully before ROM has made peace with them. This gets us closer to their main island.

 

[leif erikson]

Trading some saltpeter to JPN and gaining the ROM city on their small shared island might be a good strategy. We could build a small army there and then declare on Japan hopefully before ROM has made peace with them. This gets us closer to their main island.

I'm just thinking that the more cities we can get from either Rome or Japan moves us that much closer to gaining a city on that continent.

 

[WillowBrook]

Would it do much good to build some libraries in our core towns, not for science but for the culture? (What? X-team building culture again?!?) It may not make enough difference to be worth it, but thought I'd throw it out there.

I have no serious objections to people playing more than 10 turns, though I'd prefer we stick to 10 for now. But if someone has a good chunk of time to play carefully, I won't complain (too loudly)

 

[leif erikson]

Would it do much good to build some libraries in our core towns, not for science but for the culture? (What? X-team building culture again?!?) It may not make enough difference to be worth it, but thought I'd throw it out there.

Just checked out CRpMapstat. We are doing our usual sterling job at culture:
We currently have 1,266 culture points and are gaining a paltry 31 per turn.
In contrast, Rome currently has 4,712 and is gaining 106 per turn while Japan has 7,737 with a gain of 127 per turn.
Interestingly, the Vikings have 4,396 points and are gaining 57 per turn while England has 2,075 plus 6 per turn.

imho, building Libraries at this point is sort of a waste of GPT, a drop in the bucket so to speak. But others may see it differently.

I have no serious objections to people playing more than 10 turns, though I'd prefer we stick to 10 for now. But if someone has a good chunk of time to play carefully, I won't complain (too loudly)

Both Gator and I are planning on 10 turns, so I think we have pretty much decided that we'll continue this way until we really hit a time crunch. I just wanted to test the waters and see if anyone felt strongly one way or another.

 

[bluebox]

After a look at the save I support the Seleucia plan, too. There are 3 Roman and 3 Japanese cities on that island. Because it is so difficult to get a Roman mainland city, I'd prefer DOA with JPN. I expect it's easier to get a mainland city from JPN.

We could gift them a few other cities, e.g. on the Tientsin island, beforehand. Re-conquering Viroconium, Ceasarea, Lutetia from JPN would also mean to automatically reduce the citizens by one each.