simple_01 Is This Monkey Craaaazy??

[Ansar]

lurker's comment: This is small continents right? If so, then I think there are only about 3 or 4 sources of ivory in the continent.

 

[markh]

I got it !

 

[markh]

0) 1000BC : perfect as always getting the game from Andronicus

IBT : IW is in -> pottery
Con : worker -> archer
Nicaea : pult -> another one, please

1) 975BC : archer army kills HM

IBT : nada

2) 950BC : archer kills warrior and promotes elite
eArcher kills warrior

IBT : two HM come into view

3) 925BC : our warrior discovers some big fourfooters in the NW

IBT : HM approaching Nicaea
Con : archer -> settler

4) 900BC :archer retreats HM
eArcher kills HM
archer army kills HM

IBT : Russian units from north and east
Caesarea : archer -> spear

5) 875BC : nada mucho

IBT : we kill an archer on defense

6) 850BC : lose an archer on a spear
eArcher kills spear

IBT : pottery is in -> CB in 6

7) 825BC : just scouting

IBT : Nicaea : pult -> pult

8) 800BC : archer army kills HM, but is almost redlined

IBT : Con : settler -> archer

9) 775BC : just moving units

IBT : Caesarea : spear -> archer

10) 750BC : I leave all units unmoved as I think we should discuss about this :

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads11/SM_01,_750_BC.SAV

 

[markh]

There is a settler/spear combo in Caesarea to move out for settling.

 

[SimpleMonkey]

All in all, this is some great news. We've built military, lost almost nobody, and -- best of all -- discovered a whole stretch of territory in the west that's ripe for settling. I'm out on my laptop, so I can't open the save, but it appears that Fat Cathy is running out of steam. I suspect that markh has left me the makings of a respectable stack. If Con gets busy cranking out settlers (especially if I can get a granary built fast), the rest of the empire can get to work sending troops up north and east to claim the soon-to-be-former Russian lands.

I probably would have gone for MM before CB, but as long as we have a few turns invested in it we might as well finish the run. The path to Monarchy is a long one. Also, do we plan on revolting out of despotism before we set loose the dromons? Regardless, I do plan on getting a dinky boat out there soon.

Got it. Can't play until tomorrow (Friday) or Saturday at the latest, so we'll have plenty of time to discuss choices to be made.

The roster is now:

goz - fourth city and army!
Andronicus - Started a statue
markh - found excellent expansion territory and swatted down Fat Cathy's troops
SimpleMonkey - UP!
classical hero - on deck

 

[markh]

There are are not many units. I think 4 - 5 archers and the army. Nothing I would try attacking a deity AI. At the moment it is sufficient to hold our position. I took CB as writing would have taken 25 turns. Too long in my opinion. We need a few more towns to be able to research at a reasonable pace. We are already suffering unit costs.

 

[SimpleMonkey]

Hmmm. 4-5 archers plus an army, you say? And a cat or two? You give a monkey general much hope. As long as I'm burning cities rather than trying to hold them, that doesn't sound too bad. I do totally agree with the need for many more cities. Con is likely to be dedicated to alternating settlers and archers for quite a while. I also am very encouraged by the fact that Fat Cathy is still fighting with pointy sticks. We don't have iron close by, but neither does she. And we will have iron eventually -- sooner now that the west has been scouted.

I'm optimistic.

Writing and Lit I'm not so worried about. Libraries will be a big boost much further down the line, but not an immediate concern. And in this sort of game I'd much rather let someone else build the GLib.

 

[SimpleMonkey]

It's time to sharpen the saber and get the war machine rocking.

Monkey Generalissimo takes command.

Preturn (750BC) markh has left things in good shape so far. We have 4 (count 'em) workers, 5 spears, 2 warriors (one on patrol duty), 7 archers (3 in our glorious army), 1 settler, and 2 cats. Our economy is not so splendid -- we have 3 in the bank and are currently pulling in 0gpt. That will change as soon as our 5th city comes on line. CB due in 3. Writing must come next so we can get MM after that. (I keep forgetting that you have to have Writing for MM -- I always think that all you need is Pottery and Alphabet. Duh. )

Oh, and SoZ is due in 13.

Okay, so far so good, but do we see the problem? Take a look.

Yes. Rostov. Rostov that has ivory. Rostov that is near a river and floodplain so its pop is already up to 7. This is not acceptable. This cannot stand. Rostov must burn. And this monkey will make it happen.

There's a pesky Russian scout outside our southwestern borders, but it's beneath me to send a troop down there to kill him.

I send an expeditionary force off to burn a Russian city.

IBT A lone Russian spearman comes into view. What can he hope to accomplish? The scout runs away.

730BC Move elite archer to cover two busy workers. Shift settler up to build our fifth city. Our formidible SOD moves in. Our Warrior on Patrol discovers the limits of the western peninsula.

IBT Three Russian horses appear. Eh, I've seen worse. It that the best you've got, Cathy? She also pop rushes a spear in Rostov and sends him running away. I was hoping she'd do that. Rostov is now back down to size 6. Cathy, you never did do too well in math back in high school.

710BC Build Varna. Our beloved army pillages the ivory outside of Rostov and discovers something interesting. Rostov is also at least one source of Cathy's horses.

Rostov must burn.

Shift troops around to let our workers finish their jobs unmolested and to keep the Russians from taking any of our cities. I've stretched our defenses a little thin here. Oh well, fortune favors the bold.

IBT Russians try their luck against walled Nicaea. Two of their horses die in the attempt, then the third takes down a spear before retreating hurt and bleeding. (2-1) CB comes in, set to Writing in 18.

690BC Cats yellowline two spears in Rostov and discover that that's all that Fat Cathy has there. Our army kills one, and our elite archer goes leader fishing. (4-1) No leader, but we have this to report:

This gets us four slaves (one was hiding inside the city) and kills Fat Cathy's ivory and at least one of her horses.

Elite archer kills an intruding Russian spear (5-1). Spear takes out the damaged horse outside of Nicaea. Why let him escape? (6-1)

Our army marches eastward onto a spit of land and discovers Yaroslavl. Yaroslavl has wines. These will be ours, and soon.

Use our newly minted cat in Nicaea to take a piece out of the Russian spear outside the walls. Let's see if he still has some fight in him after that.

IBT Nope. He runs away. A Russian archer runs out of Yaroslavl to try to take our cats away, trying to win fame as a hero of the motherland. He gets an unmarked grave instead. (7-1)

650BC Just for fun, I let our army take a shot at Yaroslavl. Cathy has two spears for defense. Correction. Cathy had two spears. Now she has none. (9-1) This time I decide to keep the city and its wines. Russian culture pressure is pretty minimal these days, I think. Turn one citizen into a scientist and Writing is now due in 10.

Use the cat in Nicaea to turn the yellowlined Russian spear into a redlined Russian spear, and use a new archer to turn this redlined Russian spear into a dead Russian spear. (10-1)

IBT One lonely Russian horse gallops across the countryside. Not sure what he hopes to accomplish. A Russian spear comes staggering by as well. Fat Cathy doesn't have much to work with these days.

The resisistance in Yaroslavl comes to an end after one turn. Byz is the way to go, folks. Pop-rush a spear in Yaroslavl.

630BC Move some troops to consolidate, mostly. Nobody nearby to kill.

IBT Well, that Russian horse had some friends, apparently. Our archers put up a good fight, but can't handle all three. Two horses die, two archers die, and we lose our Russian slaves. (12-3)

610BC Move troops. Don't get to kill anyone.

IBT

590BC More of the same. Kill a defending spear in Smolensk. An enemy archer runs out of Smolensk. Perhaps even his dim Russian mind knows what is about to happen.

IBT Fat Cathy tries her luck against our secondary stack of archers. This is not her day. (14-3) And now she's sending warriors out against us.

570BC Move troops. Make workers work. Use cats to yellowline both defenders in Smolensk and the army makes hamburger of one of them. (15-3)

IBT Russian horse and Russian warrior take on our secondary stack. You can guess the result. (17-3) Actually it's better than that -- one of our archers promotes to elite.

The Inca now have the Temple of Artemis. Okay. And Madrid has the Hanging Gardens.

550BC Fat Cathy appears to have rushed a spear in Smolensk, so now it's down to pop 1. Fine by me -- means I don't have to garrison it.

What was Smolensk is now a rockpile. (19-3)

IBT The archer without a city takes a shot at Yaroslavl. (20-3)

And the Inca now also have The Great Lighthouse. They may be a problem once they finally show their faces. Good thing we'll have dromons. Eventually.

530BC Build Smyrna with old Russian roads connecting it to Yaroslavl. Which means we now have wines connected. Take lux down and science up. Writing now due in 4, turning a +2gpt profit.

Kill the fortified warrior lurking outside of Yaroslavl. Just because he annoyed me. (21-3) Nobody else to kill.

And that's my 10. Here's what the eastern part of our empire looks like.

There's a settler due in Con in 3 turns. Should probably build a granary there before we do any more settler pumping. I'd put that guy either right on the horses to take advantage of the irrigated flood plains, or on the pink dot to keep CxxC spacing. Not sure. Other configurations are always possible. But putting a settler out there gets us a might fine resource. There are troops healing in Smyrna, ready to take the fight to Fat Cathy's doorstep. Oh, and I switched Yaroslavl to a dinky boat after I took the screenshot.

Grand total: Killed a lot. Gained and then lost some slaves. Burned two cities, took over one, and built two. And the SoZ is due in two turns.

Here's the <<SAVE>>.

The roster is now:

goz - ON DECK
Andronicus - Started a statue
markh - found excellent expansion territory and swatted down Fat Cathy's troops
SimpleMonkey - burned and built, baby!
classical hero - UP!

 

[Andronicus]

Great work SM - Monkey Generalissimo really brought Cathy to a halt in a hurry.
With horses and AC soon we are ready to meet our next challenge soon
Looks like we have lots of land to expand into

 

[Andronicus]

I think we want our SF up and running ASAP - there is likely to be a short period of time of quiet where we can focus on expansion before the next AI we meet sends its forces.
I propose building granary in Con ASAP. SoZ will still be built in 2 turns if Adri gives Con its shared BG. By using all avail BGs Con can do 10spt and build granary in 5. It can then be MMed to produce a settler on growing to size 7, leaving it in good shape for 4 turn SF. Mining the plains tile SW of our original ivory would help with production on growth allowing other towns to use more BGs (6spt size 5 and 7spt size 6 with 2 shields on each growth means Con will only req 2 BGs, the other tiles will be lake fish, game and iPlains or mGrass)

Suggest building military units in Caesarea and (after SoZ) Adri as these are our only rax towns - they can peel off workers whenever about to grow size 7
Should Nicaea build a 3rd rax? - or do we want it to build more cats (currently have 4 - no harm in more)

Is it too early to think about FP ? Varna?

 

[classical_hero]

Preturn. Not much.

IBT. I lose an Archer to a horse. This also happened. Not much of worry.


Turn 1. I kill the horse with the army and we ge another archer as an elite. The army is now 5/13. Next turn we will get SoZ.

IBT. I kill an Archer afet some bombardment.

Turn 2. We build Statue of Zeus.

I bombard a spearman that is escorting a settler. I kill an archer and now it is elite. I think we are near the capital.

IBT. We kill another archer.

Turn 3. We do some more bombardment.

IBT. Nothing.

Turn 4. We build a setler and it going to that spot to get horses.

IBT. More units are for us to kill. This is built.


Turn 5. W build another settler and we go to one on the site that I proposed that we build. I managed to kill two spears and capture We get writing and I switch now to Horseback riding.

IBT. Nohing.

Turn 6. Nothing.

IBT. I expected some horses to attck us but they did not.

Turn 7. I build Heraclea and thu we can now have Chariots and soon to be Horses.




IBT. Two Horses are near Smyrna.

Turn 8. We build our first AC. I kil the two Horses by attacking them with the army and the AC. Soon there will be a greater chance for us to attack the Russians in there territory. I build another city.


IBT. Nothing.

Turn 9. I kill a Russian scout outside of Varna.

IBT. Nothing.

Turn 10. I managed to find Moscow with us able to attack them in the next coming turns.


I build another settler. Con is on constant settler duty right now since it is our best city for doing that. I must say that I have three cities producing temples. They are for te only purpose so that we can start to build some horses. So once we get Horseback riding, we can swap those citied for horses.

Here are some thoughts for the next few rounds. We need to start to expand because we do not have enough cities. Here is a map of two cities that are a must for us to get, one is for the iron, so that noone esle can get it and one that is close to cows. I left the rest empty so that we can do what ever we need for the area in between those two cities I have earmarked. I have one settler that is moving towards the first red dot.

 

[Andronicus]

A couple of comments
Con needs its granary for SF operation which will make settler production much more efficient
Both Con and Adri are ungarrisoned. It probably wont happen, but what if a galley appears (Incans have GLH) and drops a unit off between them? They are our 2 best towns and this is AW.
edit - my bad - just realised we are at bottom of sceen so wont be approached from south
BTW I like gems - must have gems to go with ivory and wine

 

[Andronicus]

I did a dotmap for 530BC and was about to post it when realised classical hero beat me to it
So here's my stab at a 350BC dot map
We have 2 potential towns on eastern peninsula (blue dots). about 7 on lage western area leading up to iron, 2 on small southern peninsula, pink dot as previously planned and various others near Cathy that will probably need to be decided once we take her cities

 

[SimpleMonkey]

Moscow in sight! Do we even want to raze it, or should we keep it as a trophy?

Great job, CH! You really kept up the momentum on Cathy. I totally agree with going for Horseback Riding before Map Making. Horsemen will carry us far. But definitely MM after that.

Can we agree that Inca are going to be a problem? Looks like they're a bit of a runaway, and are probably close to the Middle Ages if not there already.

I like the dotmap that Andronicus made. I probably wouldn't settle on that one gold hill, but right next too it, but that's just me. A mined gold hill is a beautiful thing. Other than that, let's get Con to finish its granary and then get some settlers out there. Do we have any other cities that look like likely SF? Pretty rare in AW to have way more room than settlers this far in the game.

Dunno exactly where our FP should go, but we should get it up and running soon. Maybe that's where our next leader should go, although Cathy may not be giving us too many more chances to pop a leader. Heh heh.

Let's keep it rollin'!

goz - UP!
Andronicus - ON DECK
markh - found excellent expansion territory and swatted down Fat Cathy's troops
SimpleMonkey - burned and built, baby!
classical hero - got us horses!

 

[Andronicus]

I probably wouldn't settle on that one gold hill, but right next too it, but that's just me. A mined gold hill is a beautiful thing.

Good point
On rethinking suggest
1) delete town N,2NW of Varna
2) move most northerly town 1SE
3) move gold hill 1NE
3) movemost westerly 1SE
4) add extra town on most northerly explored tile

 

[SimpleMonkey]

I agree with Andronicus's shifts. Not that the next player is going to be able to place all those towns in 10 turns, but it's a start.

 

[Andronicus]

I agree with Andronicus's shifts. Not that the next player is going to be able to place all those towns in 10 turns, but it's a start.

Hey thats only 16
All we need is a 4/turn SF instead of 4turn SF

 

[gozpel]

The dots look alright, but we have to plop down cities withing "3-steps" all the time, or they will be defenseless. It's a basic mistake to build towns too far away and we won't do that mistake.

Some very nice turnsets and with Cathy pretty much gassed, we can take her out in our own pace.

Strange that we haven't met anyone else yet...all this land shared between us and Russia, that's not something you see in every game.

Got it and will build that granary.

 

[classical_hero]

I must say that during one IBT, I saw the colours of another AI, but they did not stay nearby long enough for us to make contact. IIRC, it were the Incans.

 

[gozpel]

Pre-turn - Swap some tiles between cities to get HBR in 2t.

Con is changed to granary, 15t atm, I will probably whip it.

Trebizond is placed in a peculiar place, no 3-step, but we can live with that.

2 workers are standing on a tile where next city should be, waste.

IBT - A pink galley shows up.

330BC - Smyrna worker -> barracks.

Pink are Inca, they know heaps and we're at war. Send an archer to Yaroslavl, just in case.
Army is ready for assault on Moscow next turn.

310BC - We learn HBR -> MM in 13 turns at 80%. 3 cities swap temples to horses.

Army goes 10/13, killing vet spear.
AC goes 3/6 killing another vet spear. [2-0]

Pink galley went E btw.

290BC - Russian vet archer suicides against our mini-stack.

Adrianople (renamed Adri) produces AC.

Army 8/13 kills vet spear in Moscow, take a punt with elite archer, who kills last vet spear and we take the city. [5-0]: (Drats, upload server is mucking up)

Chalcedon founded -> barracks.

Our little stack of 4 pults, 2 archers and a spear move strategically to kill some archers next turn (hopefully).

270BC - Incan galley shows up again, now getting close to Adri.

3 cities build horses, Nicaea continue on that path and Caesarea start pult, so Con can use BG. Adri start settler.

Army kills reg archer threatening Moscow. 2 AC's and 2 archers kills stack of 4 russian archers. [10-0]

250BC - Russian settler pair walks through Moscows territory. Pink galley doesn't seem to have anything to unload.

Yaroslavl curragh -> barracks.

Get a couple of slaves from the settler pair.

Inca have founded a town NW of the goldhill, the 3 new horses are going there.

230BC - Kill another archer. [11-0]

210BC - 3 reg archers shows up and dies. [14-0]

Decide to now whip the granary, pop is good.

190BC - Adri AC.
Caesarea pult -> horse
Trebizond worker -> barracks

Army 6/13 kills 2 vet spears in St Pete's, elite AC finish off the last spear and we have another town.

Kill stray archer. [18-0]

170BC - Adri settler -> horse
Nicaea horse -> settler

Kill 2 spears in Chiuto (Inca). Kill 3 russian archers. [23-0]

150BC - Con granary -> settler

Raze Chiuto, killing a spear and an archer, losing a horse.

Kill 3 scattered russian archers. [28-1] That's all they throw at us now, reg archers that is.