Soda I - Jumping to Monarch

[AdamW81]

ya sorry I didnt post any screens, i was in a hurry and that always takes me awhile do you guys just ctrl print screen and edit in mspaint or is there some easier way I'm oblivious too?

 

[pholkhero]

b/c i was the nudge who asked ~ i use just PrintScreen as the Ctrl+ sometimes gives you the dialog box in the pic, and then edit with Paint and crop with MS...is it called picture editor? something like that ~

 

[VeryApe]

I just press print screen and the select all the files and right click, select resize and choose a size

 

[AdamW81]

you got it sprite or do you need another skip?

 

[SpriteSODA]

oh Im sorry.
Guys I need an auto skip. I wasnt planning this course to take all my time im turely sorry.

 

[retro V]

It's been a long time since I was a student but I'm pretty sure you're all on summer holidays, no? Whatever the course is, hope you do well in it.

Got it.

 

[pholkhero]

It's a course in how to skeev off SGs ~ and he's doing GREAT! =P

 

[aquar]

Man, school more important than an SG???? What? SpriteSODA's influence is starting to scare me.

I hope your course is teaching you how to take over the world!

Ok, Retro, I look forward to your leave.

 

[retro V]

Finished, write-up to follow shortly.

 

[aquar]

sweet. It's a good thing you're in London. My swing shift schedule is a pain but I'm up all night long here and see every sunrise.

 

[retro V]

I wasn't looking forward to this round. I normally give up in my games when it looks like I'm heading for 0% research and still losing money. But actually, thing's have been left in a pretty good state.

35 AD Got rid of that swordsman, it only had 9 hammers so far. Switched it to lighthouse or library or something. Moved a couple of citizens around to get some progress on some cottages for the sake of one hammer here and there. Not that big a deal, could only find 2 cottages unworked.

IBT Library completed in Pasargadae, started turning hammers into research. This and some minor MMing elsewhere dropped the time needed for CoL down from 14 to start with to only 9 from now on (Approximately. It depended on upcoming library completions as well).

80 AD Got a popup that J.C. has cash to trade, so he must have currency. I got a mod that tells me when cities grow, when AI have cash or gpt available, stuff like that. Nothing I wouldn't know without looking, so it is legit. Anyway, this means Rome is getting rich, and could steamroll ahead of us.

155 AD With that in mind, I start considering tech-trading with some dubious characters. Gave away Literature for Monotheism and 110 gold. Whacked the slider all the way up. Swapped a couple of citizens around. Code of Laws is on it's last turn now.

IBT Cathy demands Literature... yeah, right. She's well piffed at us now. Code of Laws done, gone for Construction next. Looked around, couldn't find any good deals yet.

170 AD Still thinking we have a chance at Great Library, got nothing else to do in Persepolis. Where's the marble? It's quite close, we could drop a settler near to it (see illustration). Persepolis could have pumped a settler out pretty quick in 5 turns. I found a quicker way though

"Why, Bismarck, that poor little town you call Essen is not doing very well, is it? Would you like us to take care of it for you? No? Well, your opinion is duly noted. We're taking it anyway!"

I wake up and send the best of the best to Essen's door. Some of our towns on the west coast are unprotected now, but I left at least one unit in our northern bordertowns. That might not be enough, I'm taking a big gamble with the moody Tsarina.

200 AD There's a lot of money floating about among the AIs, I just had to capitalise:
CoL + Lit to Mansa for Currency + 360 gold
Mono to Bismarck for 200 gold
CoL + 20 gold to Hatty for Calender

Started plantations on dyes to up the happy limits in some cities. We got a very reasonable income boost from the extra trade routes with Currency. You can see in the next screen how rich we are, but there are also problems.

Spoiler big screeny :

I've taken the save right after those tech trades, so I've not gone round the cities to sort out their production lines. All I've done is stuck courthouses in front of everything, even when their previous items are almost finished.

There's 4 Immortals waiting outside Essen, and an axeman 2 steps behind them. You've only got 3 archers to take down, one of which has a garrison promotion. It shouldn't be a problem, though, one of our immortals is only level 2; throw him at the garrison, then the other 3 elite immortals should survive. You'll see what I mean.

And one more thing. All the cities obviously need an overhaul. I couldn't be bothered, sorry I must have done something right, so far, we're second in score.

P.S. Watch the worker near our capital. He's pre-chopping a forest, he will finish in 2-3 turns. I got it ready for the GL. The health limit is very high in that city, so we can pre-chop the other forest as well without suffering.

 

[aquar]

Got the save just now. There's obviously lots to think about here especially on Monarch level: Pre-chop forests to save for the GL; city MM/manufacturing; and a battle to take down the German "eating city:" Essen.

Well done, retro. You also left quite a strategical message for us which is especailly great for the newb, me. This will be a thinking turn for I.
Any advice from the rest of our team is highly welcome and from our observer as well.

I was playing my personal civ having a few beers. I was thinking of playing 10 turns here for fun and wow! Better get some sleep AND some great advice from our team on this one. Monarch is a huge step for me.

Am enjoying this greatly.

 

[rrau]

If we're going to war, we need to rotate courthouse builds and not build them all at once. Maybe 2 at a time and the other towns build units. Probably no more immortals as they're probably obsolete by now. Axes and swords. We can also ramp up the research rate and get construction and cats soon. Maybe hold off the few turns until that can happen?

 

[retro V]

We don't share that big a border with Germany. I think it's pretty safe to fight them with what we got. The point of taking Essen now was to get marble in 8 turns when the borders pop. The only risk is leaving our Russian borders in a weak position.

I know what you mean about the courthouses. I only placed them in the beginning of each city's queue to illustrate the lack of productivity with their current setups. So far, they've all been setup with commerce in mind, or to develop new cottages. At the time of the save, none of those courthouses had been started, so it's up to the next player to continue or postpone as they see fit.

Sorry I've left it in such a state, but I played more than my 10 turns and just wanted to pass the buck. The initial turn will need a lot of tinkering. With all that spare cash, cities can be MM'd for production now, rather than commerce.

 

[aquar]

You've only got 3 archers to take down, one of which has a garrison promotion. It shouldn't be a problem, though, one of our immortals is only level 2; throw him at the garrison, then the other 3 elite immortals should survive.

How do I guaruntee that the level 2 engages the garrison? Is that done by the level 2 attacking first since I think the "best" unit goes first on defense?

 

[rrau]

Yes, attack with that one first.

 

[aquar]

Greetings fellow Persians. I hope our empire does not crumble soon. We might have awoken a sleeping friendly giant to our demise. I know we all wanted the greatest beer in the world for ourselves for the rest of eternity but we might have hastily ventured toward that end. At least we had one fantastic night with that German beer.

The world before this turnset:

First of all, I MM our cities before I began the 215AD turnset toward production with about one exception so that city would grow. Only Teotihuacan and Tenochtitlan are still building courthouses; those two cities really need a courthouse. City production in all cities still have a queue, so please be aware of that!

1. 215AD--Immortal finished in Persepolis and I begin work on the GL. The one forest near Persepolis is pre-chopped and I move the worker toward the other forest. Our soldiers are approaching Essen.

2. 230AD--Essen still has only three archers defending her. Units will be ready to attack next turnset.

3. 245AD--War on Germany. 5 immortals and an axeman begin attack. Attacks take place with the lowest xp'd immortals to the ones with the most.
First immortal dies but leaves the garrisoned archer with .3 strength.
Second immortal wins.
Third immortal dies but leaves the archer at .5 strength.
...Essen is ours. We are in first place point-wise: 850 points.

4. 260AD--Worker is done with road and gold mine near Carib. Worker sent to build a plantation on the nearby dye as well as build a road there to connect Carib to the rest of our cities. Two other workers are sent toward Essen to build roads and connect the marble when the time comes.

5. 275AD--Mansa Musa want us to declare war on Egypt with him. Hatty is our only friend left since we just pissed off Bismark. I tell Mansa Musa, NO WAY! Immortal scout spots German counter-attack approaching. Two horse archers and a spearman. On our west side of our empire there is a fairly new barbarian city with three archers defending.

6.290AD--Essen attacked. Our axeman destroyed a horse archer. Spearman started in Susa. Doing my best to fortify Essen. A spearman from Susa is detached to Essen. Should have done that last turn but would have left the city undefended.

7. 305AD-- Essend successfully defends against two more German units. Man that German beer sure puts courage in our Persian soldiers. More German units are approaching. Mansa Musa DEMANDS 200 gp. No way! Germany has a galley with a settler going past our southern coast.

Oh no!!! Those German units approaching Essen are an SOD!

As I said in the beginning of this post: maybe we didn't need that German beer afterall. YES WE DID!

I'm ending my turn here after seven because seven is my lucky number.... um, um, err, ah. Actually I don't know what to do at this point. We cannot get reinforcements to Essen in time for this SOD. Should we abandon the city to save our forces?

Note: Both forests next to Persopolis are pre-chopped and ready to be cut in one turn each. I switched production of the GL to a spearman (4 turns) one or two turns ago. The worker is next to one of the forests to build a mine in the meantime. Our workers are at a safe distance from the Germans for now. And last word of note: I did not sell out to the Germans for a lifetime supply of their fantastic ale and beer. I swear I didn't. hic-cup.

 

[aquar]

Oh yeah, here is the save:

 

[retro V]

Who's idea was it to start on Bizzy, anyway?

Um... I'll get my coat....

Perhaps having another war now wasn't a good idea. I bet the GL gets built somewhere else in the next 5 turns, regardless. Perhaps we shouldn't have disbanded all those troops, although research wouldn't have gone this well.

It doesn't look like we're gonna get to keep Essen. I hate to take the coward's way out, but if we pointlessly lose any more units we'll be sitting ducks to Mansa and the barbarians, as well as Germany.

Rrau's next isn't she?

 

[aquar]

Rrau's next isn't she?

I'm so glad you said "she" or else we'd have one more war to attend to.