Space-1: War While Waiting

[a space oddity]

Well done taking out 4 cities! Stockholm should be ours soon too.

Handy, you're UP.

 

[handy900]

Got it.

 

[handy900]

EDIT Thank you for setting me up for a very fun set of turns.

Space 1250 AD (pre-turn)
F Y I I’m setting the coastal units to “Sentry” by hitting the “Y” key. They are fortified on defense, but will “wake up” if An Ai unit (including boats) approaches. To put them back on sentry just hit the “Y” key. It can get a little tedious, but his will help keep watch over our “back door” coastal cities.

Update on Ted’s Medium Term Plan.
* (Ted) “I think we take Oil Springs (Dyes)”, That’s already done
* (Ted) “Raze Mauch Chunk and settle on the hills E & SW of the ruins.”
Not yet done There is a settler that can be used Nicomedia for this.
* (Ted) "We're only 5 turns away from Cav so if we generate any leaders I think we should create empty Armies and fill them with Cav as they come online. Yeah, let’s steal Bach from someone else. If we steal it but do not have the tech, do we still get the effect of Bach’s?
* )Ted)"Our Spear Army in Viking lands has a Knight in tow and the Knight presently protecting the Cats on the road between Byzantium and Jerusalem could also join the party next turn. This would increase the effectiveness of our Viking Pillagers enormously." I’ll work on cleaning the Vikings out of our back yard if we can spare troops to do it the knights.

Pre Turn
I agree with Ted & Greebley about building libraries over temples. Check to make sure there are no temples under construction.
Jerusalem switch from Temple to Library
Grand River switch from Temple to Library
No more temples under construction
F1 Astronomy due in 27. Switch 1 Stockholm clown to scientist, now due in 26.
Leave Brundisium as is.
Leave on Astronomy. Who knows maybe we get a lucky & timely leader for Copernicus.
Hit Enter

IBT
Allegheny – library – cavalry
Stockholm riots. Switch back to clowns
Viroconium – cannon – cannon
Dyes are connected – a few of WLTKD’s begin
Lots of ship movement
Traffic Jam at Oil Springs in all the jungle. Spanish Longbow, pike & MI as well as a Babylonian Musket are next to Oil Springs. One Spanish musket is 1 turn away.
Greece archer exits near Stockholm. Why Stockholm? It’s a long way from Greece and has an ARMY in the city.

Turn 1 – 1255 AD
Rush walls in Oil Springs (Dyes) – 20 gold
Move cats from Seleucia to a position that will reach Oil Springs next turn, but is out of AI range. Cav is fortified & guarding just in case.
Cav kills Spanish Pike near Oil Springs, then fortifies on top of the cats.
Shuffle elite legionary from Caesarea towards Oil Springs. He can leader fish.
Capture Viking city of Molde. Set to worker.
Shuffle Musket that way to free up Knights for additional attacks. The problem is not with taking Viking cities, it’s having sufficient forces to guard them
Upgrade some cannons in Nicomedia
Capture Viking city of Haried with two cav. 1 Kill & 1 retreat. Send Knight Army From ruins to finish the job. Set to worker.
Tarentum – sending half the workers to Jerusalem metro area, which is near to the FP to works on lower corruption tiles.
Park a cav near Rome to watch for AI landings.
Settler heading to the ruins N of Jerusalem.
Cav kills MI near Oil Springs. No more attacks there as we would get stuck in the Jungle.
Send 5 cavalry toward Cattaraugus. They will raze that city and then capture St. Regis.

IBT
Brave Greek archer takes on a spear ARMY & dies.
Oil Springs – walls – worker.
Ravenna – Musket – Cav
Lugdunum – Harbor – Aqueduct
Syracuse – cannon – harbor
We are a little light on infrastructure builds Switch Cumae & Neapolis University. That’s two of Rome’s core building infrastructure, the rest are making military
In the FP core I switched Niagara to a library &

Turn 2 1260 AD
Cats arrive at Oil Springs & Bomb muskets
Knight kills spear about to pillage our Dyes
ARMY kills longbow in Jungle
Cav kills musket in Jungle
Cav kills musket in Jungle
Need roads in the Jungle so we can kill & retreat back to the city.
Capture Cattaraugus with no losses. On to St. Regis J
It’s good to have Sun Tzu’s !!!!


Turn 3 1265 AD
Veii – Musket – cav
Brundisium - Library – University
Fresh troops heading toward Oil Springs, all our cav retreats to the city.
Knights towards Stavanger (Viking) for assault.
Ai ships appear to be moving towards Stockholm
Knight army from oils springs begins the march toward Babylon. I added a cav to this ARMY.
Capture St. Regis
Kill musket near St Regis. Capture a settler, the two workers will start road to Nicomedia.


IBT – Babylonian cav kills a cav @ St. Regis
Handyaugusta – cannon – cav
Palmyra – Market – University
Egypt is building Smith’s

Turn 4 1270 AD
Three war chariots get off a caravel south of Stockholm @ Molde. Rush walls @ Molde for 8 gold. If we lose Molde I’ll get it back next turn. There is no way to reinforce.
Rush walls in St Regis for 36 gold. Next turn all southern cities on the front will have walls. We need a road from Nicomedia to St Regis. There are only two slaves currently on the “Road to Nicomedia” crew.
Capture Stavanger (Viking) Kill 2 spears + Bezerk
Cav kills Bezerk near Bergen. Cav kills Pike near Bergen. Bummer another Pike pops up, I was hoping for spears. Now I’ll have to retreat & heal before coming back.
No attacks on Handy August yet. Hmmmmmm
There are three Babylonian cav near St. Regis. 2 healthy & 1 red lined. We have 3 cav. Only 1 healthy Since the odds favor us on Offense, I’ll attack with the healthy. We win. Their cav are on a hill, I’ll wait, but we may lose a cav next turn as they attack with a veteran.
Bomb & redline a cav near Oil Springs. There are muskets near, and my cav are healing so I will not attack.

IBT

Three chariots attack our musket @ Molde. We win, promote & get a leader! [dance] I built an ARMY & sent it towards Jerusalem.
As expected, we lose a cav @ St. Regis (walls come in this turn) we need a musket in St Regis.
Niagara – Library – University
St Regis – walls – worker
Molde – walls – Library
Egypt building Shakespeare’s

Turn 5 1275 AD
Kill cav with cav near St. Regis.
Kill cav near Oil Springs
Kill musket (after bombing) next to Oil Springs

FYI’s for the next player
Empty Army is up near Jerusalem.
Babylonian Pillaging ARMY is almost through the Jungle.
Bergen (Viking capital) has at least 1 Pike & 1 Bezerk inside. Two cav in Hareid need to heal & then can attack.
Stavanger has 3 elite knights that can attack another Viking city next turn .
Settler is atop the Ruins near Jerusalem.
I never saw a conquistador. If you check F4 you’ll see Spain has no Horses Let’s hope it stays that way!
Not a lot of AI pressure. What pressure there was came north towards Oil Springs. They may have been headed towards Selucia. There are some nice flat grasslands near Selucia you can kill & retreat from. Keep an eye on the dyes, AI will try to get in & pillage.

Roman Save 1275 AD

A zoomed Jpeg is in the next post.

 

[handy900]

Here is a zoomed shot of the growing Roman Empire at 1275 AD.

 

[Greebley]

Ya, they stopped trying to get to HandyAugusta on my turn. It was due to one of 3 things:

1) Oil springs became ours and was a more inviting target
2) W connected our second iron so our first was not so high priority anymore
3) I put a defender on the iron.

1-3 all happened at the same time approximately, so I am unsure what the main cause was.

They were going for Stockholm a lot on my turns too.

Our first kill will be soon

 

[TedJackson]

Good progress everybody

But we need to start thinking about the future. There are still three Scientific Civs left in the game - Babylon, Greece & Ottoman. The next era change is almost upon us and we're behind in tech again.

We can get Astronomy in 4 turns and still make a slight profit but that still leaves us missing Banking, Physics, ToG & Magnetism.

We also need to decide on a strategy to deal with the other continent. As I see it we can either go for Nationalism (Rifles) and assemble 3 pillaging forces each comprising a Rifle Army & 3 or 4 Cav to cut off the capitals of Greece, Egypt & the Ottoman. Alternatively we can wait until Replaceable Parts to do the same thing.

Fairly obviously, I favour the Rifles option as this will slow down the AI soonest and perhaps allow us to reach Replaceable parts first. More importantly I feel that this strategy might give us a shot at ToE which would leapfrog us to Hoover and make us the most productive Civ (after Industrialisation).

So my proposed research path for the Industrial Ages is Nationalism -> Steam -> Medicine -> Electricity -> Scientific Method -> Industrialisation (while Theory of Evolution is being finished). Take Atomic Theory & Electronics as our free techs from ToE then research Replaceable Parts.

This would leave us Sanitation & then the long slog to Motorised Transport just in case we haven't wiped out the AI using Infantry, Artillery & Cavalry

Thoughts and comments welcome.


Ted

 

[a space oddity]

Looks good, Handy. I'll look into the discussion a bit later.

N. Pike, you're UP. (Enjoying feast mode? )

 

[Northern Pike]

Got it...buuurrrRRRRRp {effect of feast mode ).

Ted, Greebley, and Handy, fine rounds since I last checked in.

Ted, I think I agree with your proposed tech path and the idea of rifle-army pillaging. We'll have to see how long it'll take us to self-research Nationalism, though, since that's never a pleasant task. If it's going to take too long we may have to skip Nationalism to give ourselves a decent chance at SM/ToE.

 

[a space oddity]

Leaves the question: what path to the IA - Magnetism (bigger boats, shorter routes and obsolete Colossus) or - ToG (Newtons')?

 

[TedJackson]

Banking for Gold/Science then Astronomy for ships


Ted

 

[a space oddity]

Astronomy is being researched now. With moving up the slider just a bit we'll be able to get it in a few turns. I a way it's good we're trailing because the techs get cheaper this way and we can't sell 'm anyway.

 

[handy900]

Originally posted by TedJackson
Good progress everybody

But we need to start thinking about the future. There are still three Scientific Civs left in the game - Babylon, Greece & Ottoman. The next era change is almost upon us and we're behind in tech again.

We can get Astronomy in 4 turns and still make a slight profit but that still leaves us missing Banking, Physics, ToG & Magnetism.

We also need to decide on a strategy to deal with the other continent. As I see it we can either go for Nationalism (Rifles) and assemble 3 pillaging forces each comprising a Rifle Army & 3 or 4 Cav to cut off the capitals of Greece, Egypt & the Ottoman. Alternatively we can wait until Replaceable Parts to do the same thing.

Fairly obviously, I favour the Rifles option as this will slow down the AI soonest and perhaps allow us to reach Replaceable parts first. More importantly I feel that this strategy might give us a shot at ToE which would leapfrog us to Hoover and make us the most productive Civ (after Industrialisation).

So my proposed research path for the Industrial Ages is Nationalism -> Steam -> Medicine -> Electricity -> Scientific Method -> Industrialisation (while Theory of Evolution is being finished). Take Atomic Theory & Electronics as our free techs from ToE then research Replaceable Parts.

This would leave us Sanitation & then the long slog to Motorised Transport just in case we haven't wiped out the AI using Infantry, Artillery & Cavalry

Thoughts and comments welcome.


Ted

I'm thinking we need to turn tech back up also. Most of the Knights we have left are in an army and cannot be upgraded (a real flaw in the game IMHO). I upgraded a few pikes to muskets near Rome for homeland defense. We'll want to keep a few cav near the Ai's favored invasion point (currently Stockholm - Oil nearby perhaps?) to kill off invaders.

I favor an army of rifles to pillage instead of waiting for infantry. I've seen stacks of infantry walk right past a 4 vet rifle army. With 8 expolers + a 4 vet rifle army you will be amazed how quickly we can pillage an AI core ring of cities. I also suggest that we add Navigation to the "must have" tech list. We can probably get it in only 4 turns. Explorers are cheap and do an amazing amount of damage. The sooner we began to pillage, the sooner we can slow down the AI research & production, so don't wait for infantry.

I believe we should capture our continent first, then get a beachhead walled city on a hill on the other continent with a big fat stack of cannon inside. The AI will all descend on this little city, and we can kill a bunch of then with big guns & cav. A rifle army inside the city will also kill alot of invaders.

One final thought, do we rush the military academy in our best production city with the next leader, or wait until we have rails to do this?

 

[TedJackson]

I favour the Rifle army option mainly because it will slow the AI's tech pace and we can be doing that while we finish securing our own continent.

We can't really make use of the Military Academy until we have Factories, Hydro plants & Sanitation but there's no harm in building it sooner

Edit: IIRC an Army is 200 shields to build and give 100 shields if you disband it so they are useful improvement rushers as well as pillagers.


Ted

 

[Greebley]

No it is 400 shields to make an army.

I don't think there is any point to wait for infantry for pillaging armies. There is nothing that will attack the pillagers until tanks which is quite some way away (and even tanks might not attack them with 4 rifles per army).

We may want to do some upgrades though. We have 13 catapults and 5 knights that are probably worth the cost to upgrade (40*13+20*5=620 gold).

We also have 21 pike (total cost would be 60*21=1260) but that isn't worth it though we may want a few muskets in our core.

Do we want to spend the 620 first? Or keep the catapults for now so we can get to Nationalism fastest?

 

[Northern Pike]

This time I'll start with the screenshots:

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[a space oddity]

Two down! [dance]

 

[Northern Pike]

1275 (0): Very well organized rear-area defense--a pleasure to inspect.

I switch Antium from courthouse to granary. This isn't a corrupt town, but it's stuck at +2 food and could use some help with population growth.

I wake up some units and get them headed towards Akwesasne and Birka.

IT: No attacks, but the Egyptians impudently found Lisht on the Scandinavian coast west of Tarentum.

Lutetia aqueduct --> library.


1280 (1): We take Odense, held by a pikeman and a spearman, for no loss.

We found Artaxata next to the ruins of Copenhagen--a superb three-cow town, though only in the second ring.

Having accumulated some gold by setting research to zero, I upgrade six catapults and then set research to 60% (Astronomy due in three turns).

IT: No attacks.

The Spanish and the Babylonians are building Shakespeare.


1285 (2): We take Birka, held by two spearmen, for no loss (though we attack with just a longbowman and an MDI).

Our attack on Bergen miscarries, as our 18-HP knight army incredibly loses 17 of them before defeating a regular pikeman, and a cav then dies attacking a spearman. We have one cav left, and it defeats a spearman, but the town is still garrisoned.

We raze Akwesasne, held by two spearmen, for no loss. The Iroquois are down to Mauch Chunk.

We spot a Conquistador around Akkad.

We bombard and destroy a Spanish musketman and a Spanish MDI around Nicomedia, for no loss.

IT: One of our elite knights defeats the attack of a Berserker outside Reykjavik.

Antium granary --> cannon.


1290 (3): Four settlement teams are in sight, two Babylonian and two Spanish. As long as there's open land on our part of the continent, the AI civs will keep sending settlers for us to destroy.

We take Reykjavik, held by a pikeman and a spearman, for no loss.

We destroy a Spanish settler/Conquistador team near Akkad and a Babylonian settler/musketman pair outside Nicomedia, for no loss.

IT: A Spanish MDI destroys one of our pikemen outside St. Regis, though the attack was cross-river against a unit fortified on a hill and I thought I could permit it.

Astronomy --> Banking (due in four turns at 60%, +51 gpt).

Jerusalem library --> aqueduct.

We get a palace expansion.

The Greeks are building Smith.


1295 (4): We destroy an Egyptian knight/War Chariot team (don't see that every day) landed near Reykjavik, for no loss.

On the main front we destroy two Babylonian cavalry, three Spanish MDI (the Spanish are building scores of these, presumably for want of alternatives), and a Babylonian settler/musketman team, for no loss. We're so short of units that I make one of the attacks, on a redlined MDI, with a musketman.

IT: A longbowman emerges from Lisht and attacks one of our elite cav, but dies.

A Babylonian cav kills one of our cavalry near Mauch Chunk.

The Egyptians complete Copernicus. We came very close to getting it with a GL (see below).

The Ottomans are building Bach, Smith, and Shakespeare.


1300 (5): We take Mauch Chunk from its garrison of two spearman, without loss, and the Iroquois are no more. Our second attack produces the GL Hadrian. I'd like to hold the town until we can replace it with one on the hill to its southwest, but this looks tactically impossible (we spot two more Babylonian cav when we enter the city), so I abandon it.

We try again at Bergen, and this time all goes smoothly, with four cavalry attacks defeating the garrison of three spearmen and a Berserker. The Vikings accompany the Iroquois into the mists of Time.

We auto-raze Lisht, held by two spearmen, for no loss.

Romans 35, enemies 3 this round.

We needed eleven elite victories, one of them defensive, to generate Hadrian.

 

[Northern Pike]

We have a settler in position to found a city on the hill just southwest of the ruins of Akwesasne. Building a road through the jungle to this city will take some time, but we have workers in position to do it.

We also have a settler on the hill two tiles to the northwest of the ruins of Mauch Chunk, which can be used either for a city on that hill or (if you're feeling ambitious) for a city on the hill two tiles south of its current location.

Hadrian is stacked with the spearman army just north of the ruins of Mauch Chunk. We shouldn't use him until we get Banking and see whether we have a shot at discovering Economics quickly and employing him to rush Smith.

We'll probably want to switch some of our university builds to banks when that becomes possible in three turns.

Our empty army is in Brundisium. I never came close to filling it, given our lack of units. The discipline with which we've stuck to building infrastructure despite our military needs is admirable, but I think Handy is right that we've been overdoing it a bit.

You can road the tile two south of Nicomedia's saltpetre before you move any units next turn, if you locate the five uncommitted workers in the stack. This could prove useful.

We have a knight army in Hareid, so reduced in HP that a pikeman appears above it.

Don't overlook our pillaging army near Babylon. It's herding four captured workers as it goes, so it can't move two squares (though normally it moves once and pillages anyway) without abandoning them.

We should leave some citiless space in the land we've conquered (north of St. Regis, for example), so that the AI civs will keep draining their populations to build settlers in their compulsive attempts to fill the gaps.

There's a barbarian warrior near Birka.

 

[Northern Pike]

The save:

1300 AD, end of turn