Shyuhe-6.5 - War!

[shyuhe]

Our economy looks to be in good shape, as does our military for the time being. I don't know how much gold we want in reserve. For the time being, maybe research at 50% so that we can get up to 100 gold? I think that's more than enough for an emergency upgrade.

We may also want to build a sword or two to deal with wandering archers. They'll have better odds than other units.

How are we going to protect our southern border? I think a city 1E of banana may be a good kill zone for the souther AI. Guerrilla bowmen are really hard to dislodge.

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shyuhe
BurnEmDown
Ralph_Jackson just played
GreyFox - UP
Paulus III (on deck?)

 

[GreyFox]

A relatively quiet turnset ... considering it is an always war game.

Started off with the oracle predicting that our warrior won't die:

He is a really a die-hard, survived the barb archer, and wandered around, always getting close to archers of monty, boudica and frederick without them attacking him. He is still around end of my set

Then we celebrated monty's achievement of arranging stone in a circular pattern by helping him sacrificing his people to his blood-thirsty god:

Meanwhile our bowman bravely goes where no babylon has gone before ... boudica's land and find himself surrounded with axes:

They are all scared off his bonus against melee and dared not attack. So the bowman retreated back to a higher vintage ground.

End turn, the barbs build a city right at our back ... hmmm ...

Not too sure whether we should raze or keep it. Rather than trying to figure that out, I decided to instead build a settler of our own ... and then realized that it leads to an even harder decision -- where to settle:

We could take the safer option of settling the yellow dot nearby, or be bold and try to grab red dot for the ivory. The other two candidates would be slightly to the west, green and blue, both on a defendable hill top.

Research wise, after writing, I continued with maths (presumably for construction). I haven't been able to build any libraries as we need a few more defenders given that boudica has settled towards us and monty is sending a few units up north towards us.

I suggest that we build a few more units and start to march for Boudica, while making sure we have enough defenses against the Aztec and France(?) down south.

--

 

[PaulusIII]

Red dot is a no-go as it's much too close to Monty, lacks hill bonus and is too far away from our core cities to properly reinforce it. I go for yellow dot, we should try to play safe a bit.

And unfortunately my laptop's still in repair so I can't take it yet.

 

[shyuhe]

Red dot is tough. While I think it'll be good for ivory, it is definitely far from our core. In terms of finances, it looks like we can afford a city that far away. I was thinking either yellow dot or 1N of the eastern marble. Yellow probably won't be able to work the tiles south of its position so it will only produce commerce.

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shyuhe - UP
BurnEmDown (on deck)
Ralph_Jackson
GreyFox just played
Paulus III (skipped - let me know when you're back)

 

[BurnEmDown]

I'd take yellow dot and settle blue due next, settling red dot maybe after some time, altho 1E of the marble seems nice too (especially if there's a hill in one of those fogged areas).

 

[shyuhe]

What's so good about 1E of marble? I just see fish in the first pop... It misses both the gems and ivory.

 

[shyuhe]

Ok. I played a short set.

IT - I notice that Bablyon isn't working its gems.

Turn 92 - I found Nippur on yellow. It'll get some river tiles and it's on a hill. Plus the 3 tiles south of it are all flat land so once we clear the forest/jungle, we can roast AI parked outside the city.

Turn 94 - Nappy builds the GW. I also discover that we couldn't get the ivory anyways - Monty planted a city next to it.

Turn 97 - math is in. I stop here for tech discussion.

Are options are:
masonry (3)
sailing (2)
MC (20)
currency (18)
HBR (11)

These rates are all at break even, leaving us emergency upgrade funds.

I'm tempted to either go masonry or HBR. Masonry helps Dur-K get more hammers. It'll also open up the pyramids if we so decide. Although I'd rather build some attackers to go after one of the AIs. HBR is more direct - it gives us an excellent unit that will be very helpful against enemy catapults. Both are needed to get construction, which is where we probably want to go anyways. And to get the elephants, we'll need to take Monty's border city planted next to the ivory. Plus HA will prevent our little oracle-feudalism fiasco from last game

After Bablyon finishes its library, I think it should build a couple of swords to take the barb city. It's a pretty good spot with food and hills.

Turn sets are 10 turns or a tech - whichever makes a better stopping point.

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shyuhe just played
BurnEmDown - UP
Ralph_Jackson (on deck)
GreyFox
Paulus III (skipped - let me know when you're back)

Also, we've spotted our first AI "SoD":

 

[GreyFox]

Ah, sorry abt the gems, but I whipped that the very last turn, didn't bother to check the pop distribution as I am handing off.

I would go masonry, not exactly for the stones, and definitely not for any wonders, but for construction to get cats for some attack.

--

 

[Ralph_Jackson]

Definitely Masonry and lets avoid the temptation fo too many shiny things (a.k.a Wonders).

As soon as the Barb city won't Autoraze I would take it as it is a ncie position.

Ralph

 

[BurnEmDown]

Got it, will play later tonight.

 

[PaulusIII]

Yeah, Masonry is good if only for walls (if we got stone we should not hesitate to build them on our borders) and Construction.

We should try to consolidate our borders, maybe an extra city. If anything, purely defensive action.

 

[shyuhe]

Masonry-construction then? I guess catapults will let us go on the offensive just as well as HA (possibly better). As for an extra city, I think one near the eastern gems is a good spot. Of course we have to raze Monty's city first, which we should anyways before he gets elephants.

also, we should probably put an axe in the forest SW of Babylon to make sure nothing comes through those mountains. It'd be awful to see a big stack head straight to Babylong (which is unlikely, but possible).

 

[BurnEmDown]

T0 - I set Masonry for research.

T1 - Our axeman defeats nappy's Chariot and Axeman, but another stack appears, featuring a swordsman and a chariot this time. A GG is born and I send him towards Nippur as I really don't know what to do with him. Should we make
a super-medic-chariot?

T2 - Another of Nappy's stack appears from the SE, heading towards Babylon, I whip axeman there and will build spearman just in time to defend the city.

T3 - Masonry is in, I switch to HBR, which will be done in 11 turns. I just realize I could've sent the GG to Dur for our super medic chariot >_< oh well I'll just attach him to our best Axeman, in preparation for taking Monty's city (should we keep or raze?) I also move our troops closer to Monty's city.

T4 - Stupid Nappy doesn't raze our horses, even tho he's in a very good position to do so.

T5 - Stupid me make it impossible for us to kill both Swordsman and chariot that turn, our combat I axeman is promoted to Shock, and this makes him fight Chariot instead of Swordsman >_< and of course spearman can't kill Swordsman even if axeman kills chariot. However the RNG hates us even more and we lose the Axeman, I whip another because we must defend Babylon >_< and Nappy is now in a perfect position to raze our horses :\

T6 - Nappy doesn't raze resources ^_^ but he stations his troops on the forested hill, which makes it impossible for us to attack. Monty sends a SoD of his own, including 2 archers and 2 chariots, our Bowman paired with a spearman can't lose Nippur, so I send the spearman in Babylon to Nippur (no need to fear Nappy's chariot, it has 2.2 HP and can't possibly take on our axeman, a spearman will be built soon).

T7 - Monty built an axeman, and our GG axeman only has 60% to kill his archer in the city, which is too much of a risk for us. Our army at Dur is getting bigger, maybe we can send it to war soon?
A barbarian city spawned southeast of Dur, mediocre location for my taste, the dots were much better and the city should be razed when captured.

I stop here since I'm not really sure what to do next .

 

[Ralph_Jackson]

Ok Got it....

Ralph

 

[shyuhe]

Burn, a few comments on the current state.

Babylon really shouldn't be whipped down to size 2. If you time the 2 pop whip properly (i.e., put in less than 5 hammers the first turn of the build), you shouldn't have to crack the whip 3 times in a row. I'm also not sure why we sent out a stack of only 4 units. It should have been called back once Nappy's stack was spotted heading towards Babylon. 4 units also will not be enough to capture a city with these game settings. Either way, I would call that stack back for the time being - it's just going to cost maintenance outside of our borders.

Also, Bablyon should ALWAYS be working the gem tiles. Please make sure you check what tiles are being worked after you whip the city.

As for the units over in Dur-K, they're going to have to hold tight. We will want a few more axes to deal with Boudica's stack. I'm not really sure why there are so many chariots sitting around. I would make a few swords in the western cities so that we can either go on the offensive or go grab the barb city.

Also, if we're going to put a GG on an axe, it should get CR3, not combat. It's going to be really hard for a combat axe to rack up XP, whereas a CR3 axe will shred most city defenders (especially those without cultural bonuses).

Akkad should be working the riverside cottage, not the plains hill mine. It'll grow to size 5 one turn faster that way.

Sorry if this all sounds a little harsh. But please do make an effort to check each city on a regular basis because there aren't that many cities to check at this point of the game.

 

[BurnEmDown]

Your tips are appreciated, I really need to learn how to MM better about the gems I thought we should let Babylon grow first. The thing with the GG I guess I really screwed up XD should've attached to chariot.

 

[PaulusIII]

Good news, gents! My laptop is back from repair earlier than I expected. This means I'm available for play again!

 

[shyuhe]

I think Babylon has enough food to grow to 3 while working the gems this turn. That's the only reason I pointed it out.

Excellent Paulus. I'll slide you back in the roster:

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shyuhe
BurnEmDown just played
Ralph_Jackson - UP
Paulus III (on deck)
GreyFox
Paulus III

 

[Ralph_Jackson]

So, where are we…

Doing OK. I suspect this stack of Boudi is heading off for the Barb city, but if successful will then come and have a go versus Dur but we have defenders to tackle it.

I switch Akkad to an Axeman to build up defenses as this is about the time I expect sustained AI Attacks.

As we are moving our mini stack with GG that was near Monty back into our Borders we caome across an unpleasant surprise as Monty has sneaked a stck into our territory. We move a Spear into the jungle which Monty sacrifices most of his stack taking out leaving us to clear up with no other losses..

In the meantime we have been growing Akkad and towards the end of the set it is running 2 Scientists so we can get our Academy. Even in AW we need some infrastructure.

A couple of turns in Boudi has razed the Barb city and the rest of her stack plus reinforcements is coming for Dur , which luckily is well defended.

We move forces into the wood E of Dur which encourages her to sac most of the stack and we can again clear up with no losses..

But the troops swarming round show that life was quite exciting in this part of our territory!!

T111 Horseback riding comes in and I opt for construction and decide to play to the end of that even thought it will be a slightly long set.

Now I am only showing the serious stacks we faced and there were quite a few silly AI lone axemen / mini stacks which were easy to kill. So the next real one came from Isabella who snuck through a mountain pass to the SW of our capital which I hadn’t noticed.

By this time our GG stack had returned and could be positioned to get her into a nice kill zone for wiping out next turn.

Around this point we got a GG showing we must have killed quite a few troops who was merged in the capital for double promotion troops. Next one can be a super-medic (and with waves we have incoming won’t take too long to arrive).

Next Wave was small one from Boudi which required a shock axe to be sacrificed before we could clean up.

So end of set.

We have just finished construction. MC selected but no beakers invested yet.

The East is still interesting. Nippur is well defended with 2 Bowmen and a spear + 2 axes so should hold fairly easily.

In the W apart form the lack of siege we are good to go with this stack + an injured Axe & Chariot next to the city from clearing up Boudi’s troops and a couple of swordsmen who can join it whilst it heals.

Other items

1. GS in 7 for Academy
2. Stone has been quarried so Walls are now an efficient build.
3. Haven’t touched the barb city which was defended by 3 Archers. Suggest we use it more for troop training than capturing in the short term as it can give our Swords / catapults extra experience?
4. Napoleons troops next to our capital have done nothing all set but need to be watched.
5. Enjoy…I think I killed a lot of troops and the next player will face the same onslaught

Ralph

 

[shyuhe]

Nice set Ralph. Looking good. I think (if it's possible) we should try to take Monty's two cities on the coast. The first gives us gems, always a plus. The second gives us ivory, which should start to turn the tide in our favor. Of course to take those two cities, I imagine we'll need a fairly sizeable stack (and also defenders to protect them). Maybe if we can get a stack of 10-15 units we can make a move? So probably 5 catapults, 5 axes, couple bowmen and 2 spears?

We should also build some HA in the west to deal with catapults. I think they're going to start showing up in larger numbers.

Techwise, MC sounds good. We get +2 and +25% bonus (don't forget the rounding issue!). I originally thought currency may be better but since we get so many happies from forges, MC looks better now.

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shyuhe
BurnEmDown
Ralph_Jackson just played
Paulus III - UP
GreyFox (on deck)