Soda I - Jumping to Monarch

[retro V]

It's me, sorry. VeryApe did say he might have to skip, so I should have jumped in a lot sooner.

Having said that, without someone posting roster updates (where ya gone, Sprite?), this SG is lacking the motivation to keep going smoothly. Which is a shame, cos we're kicking ass so far.

I'll play tonight and have it back up for rrau who's next.

 

[retro V]

I've just had a good look at the state of play.

Do we want to resume hostile intentions towards Germany? He's the score runner-up after us, he could close the gap on us with his war on Mali, but he's also no more of a threat while he's occupied on the opposite border. That and the fact we're united in arms for the time being, even better for diplomatic relations.

We have 4 Immortals just a short distance through Egyptian territory with which to assert pressure on Mansa for a decent peace deal. He's got the cashflow at the moment, but he's sueing us for peace.

Russia has a pretty weak position. We could stock up on cats and elephants and take on the Red Queen. One of her cities is closer to our capital than half the cities in our whole empire. It would make good expansionistic sense

Oh, and I just closed borders with J.C. He had a settler pair floating right outside our southeastern coastline, most likely heading for the island with the iron, Rusty Island if you will,

 

[AdamW81]

I think we should go for germany. At this point he will have used up alot of his reserves on his war with Mansa so we can probably sweep through his western cities.

Plus, German land is alot better than the Russian land and sets us up to go for whoever we want after that. And given that Catherine is pretty aggressive, she probably has a ton of built up military since she isn't fighting anyone. I would stick a catapult or 2 up in Susa in case she tries to sneak attack us, but overall I see Germany as a much better war target at the moment.

 

[retro V]

I agree, Cathy probably has huge stacks (no pun intended).

I think it's too soon to press the advantage on Germany. With war on both his fronts, we will overrun him in no time. Can we really afford to expand again, so soon?

We would be better off culling future targets, all the while improving our own economy in preparation for a larger empire.

 

[AdamW81]

Ideally we would not have gotten into the first war with Germany until we had catapults so that we could get courthouses built everywhere. I think we need to be careful about expanding to fast but a I just think its a good time to go for Germany while he is in another war. I would probably aim to take a couple cities (at least the one next to us with marble, and maybe the coastal city to the south) and make peace. I always like to knock a high score opponent down some when the opportunity presents itself.

I think our short term goal should be to have a quick war with Germany and somehow bring Hatty into a war. Hatty and Mansa can really takeoff in the tech lead mid game if they aren't fighting any wars.

 

[retro V]

Wasn't it Hatty that brought us into war with Mansa in the first place?

Fair enough. I'll do Germany a bit. The marble will come in handy for HE or other stuff soon.

 

[AdamW81]

ya she was, I'm just saying something we all need to keep in mind is trying to keep Hatty at war with people. I check on a regular basis who will go to war through trading and since she is our good friend we can probably bribe her occassionally. I've found that even if it costs a few techs, keeping them in a war will really allow you to jump ahead.

 

[rrau]

I am not getting my email notification of replies in a timely fashion on this thread. I posted yesterday morning and didn't get an email notification of another post until AdamW81's 2:15 post this afternoon. I didn't get any emails on the posts in between.

 

[retro V]

Just played 10 turns.

Then I somehow managed to delete the savefile while fumbling with an eventlog utility to extract a combat log.

I'm such a tit. Gonna have to play it again, back in an hour.

EDIT: luckily there was an autosave at my last turn, write up to follow shortly.

 

[retro V]

0. 590 AD. Woke up the immortals at Carib, our northwestern province, and sent them down to Stuttgart, the German coastal city.
IBT. Teotihuacan finished a catapult, started on war elephants.
1. 605 AD. Spotted an Egyptian Hindu missionary in our territory.
IBT. Hiduism spreads to Persepolis. We are stil agnostic, so another choice for a religion later would be nice. Taoism FIADL.
2. 620 AD. Looked at our resource deals. Renegotiated with Hatty: cancelled fish for spices, and offered dye for spices instead; cancelled the free clams, took 3gpt for clams instead.
IBT. Hatty offers her new silks for our fish again, accepted, that'll do nicely. Courthouse finished in Susa, started on an axeman.

3. 635 AD. DOW-ed on Germany. The odds at Stuttgart are 67%, so I held off attacking there until I could get a throwaway unit to soften up the garrison-promoted archer. Moved the stack of cats and axes towards Essen, stole a worker in the process.
IBT. Spearman finished in the capital, started on an elephant.

4. 650 AD. Bombarded half of Essen's cultural defences. Both Essen and Stuttgart have upgraded their archers to longbows. Bugger.
IBT. Mansa seals peace with Bismarck.
5. 665 AD. Bombarded Essen again, down to 4% now.

IBT. Discovered Civil Service and immediately revolted to Bureaucracy. Set a research path for Guilds to get knights. Started with Metal Casting, should go for Machinery afterwards, assuming we can get Horseback Riding pretty easily from an AI at some point.

6. 680 AD. Threw the 3 cats at Essen and instantly realised my mistake. The first catapult was extremely lucky and killed a longbow with 16% odds. The second cat did a great job too and killed an axe at 48% odds. The third cat lost to the final unit, a swordsman, at 51% odds. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I should have sent them in individually and played it by ear. I probably would have attacked with axes after the first catapult's lucky kill, and almost certainly wouldn't have lost that last catapult. A swordsman hit twice by collateral damage would have been an easy kill for our axeman. And it was, axe kills sword and moves in to take the German city of Essen. 2 Axes and 2 spears now guard the city, should be able to keep it this time

IBT. Government re-established, Hatty offers Feudalism and 20 gold for CS. I forgot to look around for trades when we first got CS. I checked now, there wasn't anything good on offer. Best deal was CS and 310 gold for HBR and a DOW on Germany from Hatty. Didn't want to slow research down by spending all that money so I've left trading CS for the next guy (/gal ).

7. 695 AD. Still holding out on attacking Stuttgart, cats and another immortal moving in to assist. The immortal has come from Carib, I trust Hatty not to make a move on us, so I left just one axe to guard that city, and an immortal to protect the worker clearing jungles and such. The cats are coming from Essen, one of which has been promoted, but both are as yet unhealed. Up to you whether you want them to wait until they heal, or just use them for wallbashing when they get to stuttgart.
IBT. Texcoco finishes a catapult, started on elephants.
8. 710 AD. Still no German reinforcements. I guess Bismarck must have taken a pounding from Mansa on the other side.

IBT. Spoke too soon. 4 horse archers, one of which is slightly damaged already. Susa finished an axeman, more elephants to come. Essen assimilated and starts work on spears, no need for a courthouse until it grows in population more.
9. 725 AD. Moving into position for the inevitable German cavalry charge.
IBT. Essen survives an assault, spear kills a HA. Persepolis finishes an elephant, starts another.
10. 740 AD. Cats arrive at Stuttgart and start battering the defences. New elephant moves to cover a catapult in transit. 2 Horse archers approaching our capital, shouldn't be a problem, the elephant and catapult are in range to defend or pre-emptively attack. Attacked a horse archer near Essen, unfortunately lost a spear with 78% odds, finished the horse off with the other spear that survived the last attack.


I've been around the cities every single turn, looking to rush courthouses and such. Still waiting for a good time to do so. Mansa has been able to accept peace at a cost to us varying from 20-40 gold, to which I've declined. Still waiting for a better deal there. Cathy and Caeser have not been receptive to any kind of deal, be it war allies or tech trades. Hatty can't afford our CS, and we can't afford her HBR and Feud, so I've held out until a better deal can be arranged there.

Stuttgart will easily fall, it's just a question of minimising casualties. Watch out for the 2 HAs near our capital, they either want to squash a few cottages, or charge the single spearman protecting the city, then undoubtedly raze it and really make us cry.

I think after Bismarck has finished trying to take our 2 new cities back, we should sue for peace. If we march any further into German territory, we will bump into his capital first. I reckon we could probably take it, but it's too far and would take a long time to assimilate. Next on the agenda would have to be Cathy. Hatty doesn't much like her either. I can't remember exactly, but I don't think CS was enough to get Hatty to DOW on Russia. If it is, I think it's worth it. We will need help in that war. If we get Russia out the way by the time we build knights, we can probably stop research there and clean up the whole map. Job done. Easy, huh?

To be continued...

 

[aquar]

wasn't logged in when i went to message board. to be continuned. Ok, removed save.

 

[retro V]

Wha...!? You played the same turns as me.

 

[aquar]

wait a second. I see my mistake, i was not logged in. I am deleting what I just did and following what you did. I had deleted all my passwords under Tools on my Internet Explorer. Please ignore my save, I do not know how to delete that save.

In my save, our capital isn't under attack. LOL

Viewing your save now: you did very well---shows how bad I am at this game.

 

[retro V]

Manage attachments under User CP.

 

[retro V]

Nah, like you said, I let a couple of the enemy's units slip through. Talk about major fault. That and a multiple attack with 3 catapults that went all wrong, 'cos I was lazy.

I want to stay up and see your turns. Are you gonna be long?

 

[aquar]

Should I whip the courthouses in Carib and Pasargadae? Also should I trade civil service for the vassalage tech or should I trade for Cathy or Hatty to go to war with someone---what combination???

Won't be long when I have these questions answered. Still trying to learn this game. Guess I was too long studying the map and watching Star Trek: TNG.

 

[AdamW81]

i would try and wait and get hatty to declare on catherine. If we can bribe her to do it without us declaring that would be great. Then we can wait for them to get started and have catherine move her units to the egyption border and attack the weak side.

 

[retro V]

It's a lot cheaper to bribe an AI to join a war you're already fighting, rather than getting them to DOW before you.

Of course, to pull off a tactic such as that, Adam, could be well worth the premium.

 

[AdamW81]

Bribing AIs to go to war has really helped me win alot of games. I was able to maintain a strong tech lead in an OCC challenge on emperor without ever going to war simply by keepnig my friends busy fighting

 

[aquar]

Before Turn: Whip courthouses in Pasargadae and Carib; also adjust cities.

1. 755 AD---Build catapult in Tenochtitlan and a library in Carib. Cannot build a spearman anymore in Essen so I start a catapult. A brave war elephant takes on two German horse archers and kills the first one before he can pillage more stuff near Persepolis especially the camp for our elephants. A spearman kills an approaching horsearcher near Stuttgart.

IBT---lone axeman defeats a horsearcher invading Carib and takes no damage.

2. 770 AD---The brave war elephant kills the second horse archer. Stuttgart down to 2% (population 1). A swordsman from Teotitihuacan enters a galley to pursue the German galley carrying an archer and a settler.

3. 785 AD---Stuttgart to 0% city-defense. I would like to keep the wounded veteran catapults so I send in the immortals. First two immortals successfully retreat and badly wound both defending longbowmen. The third immortal dies battling a crippled longbowman (2.2)! Swordsman successfully kills one of the two defending longbowmen. I halt the attack. Germans are bringing in reinforcements but I want to save our catapults. Don't know if that is a good idea or not.

4. 800 AD---Immortal joins the swordsman in the galley to take on the German settler and archer. Hatty will still take CS to declare war on Catherine but I think it is bad timing at this point. I wonder???? Should have asked about the timing.

5.815 AD---Success! The immortal using the galley destroys the archer and we gain a worker.

6. 830 AD---I've been healing our catapult team attacking Stuttgart. The city is still not well defended but I don't know if it's worth taking and it does have a population of one only. Doesn't that automatically raze the city???

IBT---Bismarck offers peace for 10 turns after two more of his attacking units were destroyed by us good guys.

7. 845 AD---workers are concentrating on infrastructure especially roads so we can move our military fast. They are being guarded by war elephants.

8. 860 AD---begin forge in Peresopolis.

9. 875 AD---Bismarck completes the Sistine Chapel.

10. 890 AD---not much. I think we are in good position to take Stuttgart and to take the barbarian city.

Hatty will still take CS to declare war on Catherine. I didn't do it just yet, thought someone else would know better how to use; I will be watching for that.