Space-1: War While Waiting

[TedJackson]

Playing now


Ted

 

[TedJackson]

SP1-1375AD

Pre-flight checks... OK

Pre-turn
We've fallen behind in tech and the era change hasn't helped but we seem to be doing alright. Militarily we're a bit thin but holding out.

Ashur looks to be our bottleneck for the Spanish. I'll try to leave Armies in place to take it for the next player.

Press button...
Lone Bab Spear lands ESE Palmyra
Niagara Uni - Market
Grand River Worker - Court
Neapolis Bank - Cannon (needs irrigation changing to mines)
Pompeii Bank - Musket (needs more workable tiles)
Brundisium Mil Academy - Cav (needs mines)

1 - 1380AD
Vet Cav kills Bab Spear
Upgrade 3 Knights Artaxata
MM Brundisium & surrounding cities to maximise Brundisium's production capability (now 19-1spt)
Spear Army fort Fortress (2S Pike-honorum)
Germanicus creates Army
Anthony Mark (*Elite) joins Army
Elite Legion kills 1/4 Cav (Leader fishing )
Cav Army (Ashur) pillage, NE
Cav Army (Babylon) pillage, SW, pillage
Knight Army (Uruk) S, pillage
Move Musket (St Regis) NE
Knight Army (SE Northern's Ambition) S
Vet Cav joins Army
Upgrade Pike (Oil Springs)
Vet Cav joins Army
Upgrade Cats (Birka)
Londinium hurries Walls (24gp)
MM Rome to get production to 18-1spt
Bergen hires taxman
Neapolis switches to Court
Pompeii fires clown, hires taxman
Stockholm hires taxman
Pisae switches to Harbour (Won't grow without it)
MM Brundisium (again) for 22-1spt
St Regis hires taxman
Odense hires taxman
Hareid hires taxman
Jerusalem switches to Market

IBT
Lots of Bab Cavalry appear
Greece lands a Knight 2SW Molde (well within range of our Cav at Artaxata)
Northern's Ambition Worker - Temple
Byzantium Aqueduct - Harbour
Odense Worker - Worker
Viroconium Musket - Cav
Lugdunum Aqueduct - Cannon
Londinium Walls - Temple

2 - 1385AD
Vet Cav kills vet Knight (Molde)
Elite Cav kills 1/3 Cav but red-lines
Knight Army (Uruk) SE, pillage
Spear Army (Uruk) SW
Cav Army (Babylon) SE, pillage, SW
Wake all the workers at Ambition (they are under threat of capture) and move them into the city
Elite Cav kills 2/4 Cav but is red-lined and I can't spare enough defense from Ambition to cover him properly so I sacrifice him as bait

Disband Slave in Ambition & hurry Temple for 232gp
Knight Army returns to Ambition
Research 30%

IBT
More Bab Cav appear
Artaxata Lib - Court (only 6spt)
Ambition Temple - Worker

3 - 1390AD

bombard everything in range
Cav Army pillages mountain road
Slaves (Army) N - I think they're safe here. At worst they'll distract the AI
Knight Army (Babylon) pillage, W, pillage
Spear Army (Uruk) pillage
Knight Army (Uruk) SW, pillage
Elite Cav kills 3/4 Cav (NNE Ambition)
Vet Cav kills 2/4 Cav (NNE Ambition) - that takes care of the most serious threat
Play "Shuffle the Pikes & Muskets" to get a Pike into Grand River - this might have been the attractor.
Elite Cav kills Cav
Elite Longbow kills Cav
Vet Cav kills Cav & promotes
Musket moves to cover Cav

IBT
More Bab Cav arrive
We enter the Industrial Age
Discover ToG - Steam
Rome Cav - Cav
Oil Springs Worker - Lib

More follows...


Ted

 

[TedJackson]

4 - 1395AD

Bombard Cav down to 1hp
Elite Cav kills Longbow
Cav Army (Ashur) pillage, fort - prevent Eastern approach to Ambition
Knight Army (Uruk) SW
Spear Army (Uruk) SW
Cav Army (Babylon) NE, pillage, NW
top up Cav Army
Knight Army (Ambition) to mountain SW, fort
Research 90% (Steam in 4 @ -44gpt, 1566gp)

IBT
Brundisium Cav - Bank
Nicopolis Walls - Lib
Lutetia Cav - Musket
Palmyra Cav - Cav

5 - 1400AD

Cav Army kills 2 members of Bab Cav stack
Elite Cav dies to 2/4 Cav
Elite Cav kills 1/4 Cav
Cav Army (Babylon) pillage, NW, pillage
Knight Army (Uruk) pillage, S
Spear Army (Uruk) pillage
Upgrade Pike (Oil Springs)
Cav Army (Ashur) SW

Tech Status
Spain: up Nationalism & Medicine (has no Iron)
Babylon: up Nationalism, Medicine & Steam (has no Iron, Horses or Saltpetre )
Egypt: up Nationalism, Medicine & Steam
Ottoman: up Nationalism, Medicine & Steam
Greece: up Nationalism, Medicine & Steam

Notes & save follow...


Ted

 

[TedJackson]

Notes
I think the battle for Ambition is essentially won now. Although the next player should expect attacks there as a matter of course.
There are quite a few Cav & Muskets coming online in the next few turns so we can bolster our defenses.

The isolation of Babylon is almost complete. If the next player moves the Army NE, pillage then NW the job is essentially done

Because of the battle for Ambition I couldn't get enough forces to Ashur but it still remains an inviting target although it would be quite a stretch for us to keep it. It would probably be more useful to raze Akkad.Personally, I would hold our current defensive line (maybe razing Akkad as above) and carry on pillaging Babylon then Spain. In the meantime build an invasion fleet for pillaging the other continent (remembering that you can't fit a full army onto a Galleon). Ideally a pillaging Army for each AI if possible. This would slow the tech pace over there and wreck the inter-AI deals.

Here's a list of cities that really need a particular improvement or action (IMHO):
Allegheny needs Court
Artaxata needs Court - building
Byzantium needs Harbour - building
Eburacum needs connecting
Jerusalem needs a Market - building
Nicomedia needs Court
Niagara needs Market - building
Ravenna needs mines
Syracuse needs a miracle
Seleucia needs Court
Stavanger needs Harbour (to grow past pop 2) - building
Veii needs a Harbour
Viroconium needs mines

The save is > here <


Ted

 

[Greebley]

I got it and will start playing now.

I expect this is the last time I go after Ted as Karasu will probably be back.

 

[handy900]

Ted,

My compliments on a very well done descriptive report on a nice set of turns.

 

[TedJackson]

Glad you enjoyed them


Ted

 

[a space oddity]

Originally posted by Greebley
I got it and will start playing now.

I expect this is the last time I go after Ted as Karasu will probably be back.

Yes, you're UP Greebley, and enjoy playing after Ted while you can... Karasu has a habit of taking all the good cities on his turns.

Nice going, Ted. Rails in 3, guys. All that jungle should give us at least one coal. ...but actually I expect quite a lot of sources, if I was a betting person I would say at least three. [dance]

 

[TedJackson]

Pray for Iron Works at Brundisium... I am

Edit: make that Handyaugusta


Ted

 

[Greebley]

Preturn: Things looked pretty good. Decided to remove the blight that is Egypt from our lands so I activated a few Cav defenders to deal with them.

We have a few of size 12 towns with excess food. I may mine a few irrigated squares and skim a few workers for upcoming rail building.

Hit space (err.. space on the keyboard. Not our valiant Moderator).

IBT:

Antium: Musket->Cannon
Pike-honorum: Worker->Worker

1405:By shifting shields around I get syracuse up to 5 shields. I switch to an aquaduct. If this town can grow, it will produce alot of science/gold.

Attack on the egyptian attrocity:

Find it is guarded by a MDI - Cavalry wins and the city is auto-razed. The other cavarly ready to attack wonder why they were invited and wander home.

Bombard everything that is close
Attack on 3 hp MDI with the cav army wins.
Attack on a 1 hp rifle with knight army wins.

Change Hareid to a settler and rush for 72

All other attacks would put units at risk, so I don't make them
Steam power still in 2 at 80% science.

IBT: A bunch more babylon cavalry appear.
Veii: Cavarly->Cavalry
Cumae: Cavalry->Cavalry
Neapolis: Courthouse->Worker
Pompeii: Musket->Cavalry
Byzantium: Harbor->Cannon
Ravenna: Cavarly->Cavalry
Hareid: Settler->Worker
Eboracum: Walls (though I highly doubt it will ever have an enemy unit within its city radius) ->Worker

1410 AD:
Hmmph. This jungle is awful terrain to fight. All attacks will just kill our unit.

Bombard a very few units within reach.
Kill 2 bowmen with cav army
Advance stack under army toward Akkad with cannons. keep some defense on the hill.

Price of steam power drops dramatically. Some AI's must have just gotten it last turn

IBT: Hanging gardens becomes obsolete Nicomedia riots - check rest but they are ok.
Cavalry attacks a Musket in the mountains and loses

Allegheny: Cavalry->Cavalry
Neapolis: Worker->Cavalry

Ironworks? where? Ah there! Just missed our FP, but Handy Augusta can grab it. Switch handy augusta over to Ironworks (we will want to build up around HandyAugusta it is really underdeveloped - I will start working on it)


1415:
Cavalry killed by Cavalry
Cavalry killed by Cavalry
MDI killed by Knight army
Elite Cav barely beats a longbowman.
MDI killed by Elite Cavalry

Some less important worker projects are cancelled for rails

Nationalism in 4 at +53 gold (its a lot cheaper as the AI has it).

IBT:
2 Cavalry attack 2 mountain Muskets. One loses and one wins.

Rome: Cavalry->Cavalry
Nicomedia: musket->musket

1420 AD:
Bombard some units. Bombard Akkad and destroy barracks (no more insta-heals).
Cavalry attacks 2hp rifle and promotes to elite.
knight army attacks cavalry and wins
Cavalry attacks injured cavalry in the mountain and promotes to elite
Cavalry attacks 1 hp rifle and wins
Cavalry attacks 1 hp rifle and wins
Cavalry attacks 1 hp musket and promotes to elite.
Cavalry attacks longbow and promotes to elite! Yowsa. Elite heaven.

Ashur is now cut off completely (cutting its saltpeter to all town other than it).

IBT:
Cav attacks our Musket and retreats Longbow attacks musket and wins (but is red-lined).
Another Egyptian ship. Sending cav so if it is a settler I can beat him up

Stockholm: Library->Worker
Odense: Worker->Worker
Caesarea:Cannon->Settler

1425 AD:
Bombard Akkad to size 8

Vet cavalry attacks injured longbow and wins.
Elite cavalry attacks longbow and wins
Cavalry attacks a longbow and wins (musket covers cavalry)

I don't think babylon is long for this world. My thought for the cavalry army just south of ashur was to send it to the hill S of ellipi. This will totally cut off spain from attacking without boating across units. The spanish rifles are annoying they need to be bombarded down. I think we can kill Babylon pretty quickly if we got rid of most of the spanish units. They are begun to totally crumple under our assault. Perhaps after disconnecting Urganda from down south we should use our Armies to take towns rather than pillage. Note that Babylon might have a cav or two left healing. I am not sure.

We may also start seeing knights from the South.

For rails my first task was to start building a rail through our lands from the core to the front. You will see some workers on it heading north. There are still some sub-optimal workers that I was letting finish. I may not have caught all the less useful ones.

a\save

 

[Northern Pike]

Great work, Ted and Greebley. It looks as though you've set us up for another major push forward.

 

[Northern Pike]

Have we thought much about the specifics of where we're going to form, and where land, our pillaging forces for the other continent? To me, the essential points are that the sea journey should be as short and safe as possible, and that we should be able to use the same galleons and escorts for all three forces. Given this, I think all three pillaging expeditions should start from around Syracuse (i.e., on the coast where we can most conveniently build ships) and land in the area of Iznik. The first force can do a little damage to the Ottomans and a lot to the Greeks while moving steadily southward and reaching its ultimate destination, Egypt, in about twenty turns. The second can pillage the Ottoman core, and the third can finish the job in Greece (if this is even necessary--one sweep through the Corinth-Delphi corridor with seven or eight explorers will be devastating).

And a question which interests me: will the AI react differently to an army of three spearmen and one rifleman than it would to an army of four riflemen? If no one knows for certain, an experiment wouldn't cost us much and might be well worth trying.

 

[TedJackson]

Great stuff Greebley

Go get 'em Handy


Ted

 

[a space oddity]

Three sources of coal it is. No IW, eh Ted. Too bad.

Greebley: well done (esp. the not hitting me part ) We should be able to grab soon Sistine's and Shake's which the Babs were kind enough to construct for us.

Handy900: you're UP.

 

[TedJackson]

Originally posted by a space oddity
Three sources of coal it is. No IW, eh Ted. Too bad.

But my prayers were answered. Handyaugusta has the doings


Ted

 

[a space oddity]

I can't believe I missed that. So there are 4 sources of coal on our turf. [dance]

 

[handy900]

HANDY>> GOT IT

Originally posted by Northern Pike
Have we thought much about the specifics of where we're going to form, and where land, our pillaging forces for the other continent? To me, the essential points are that the sea journey should be as short and safe as possible, and that we should be able to use the same galleons and escorts for all three forces. Given this, I think all three pillaging expeditions should start from around Syracuse (i.e., on the coast where we can most conveniently build ships) and land in the area of Iznik. The first force can do a little damage to the Ottomans and a lot to the Greeks while moving steadily southward and reaching its ultimate destination, Egypt, in about twenty turns. The second can pillage the Ottoman core, and the third can finish the job in Greece (if this is even necessary--one sweep through the Corinth-Delphi corridor with seven or eight explorers will be devastating).

Sounds good for the pillaging expedition.

And a question that interests me: will the AI react differently to an army of three spearmen and one rifleman than it would to an army of four riflemen? If no one knows for certain, an experiment wouldn't cost us much and might be well worth trying.

Not sure about that one. Lets find out!

As for the invasion (as opposed to pillaging forces), one option would be Lugdunum to Aydin to grab spices as an additional luxury.

 

[Greebley]

I agree on the crossing. In fact, I looked at the crossing on my turn to move the one boat we do have to the correct place to cross, only to realize it was already there

I agree we should be able to do a big push into bablyon territory on Handy's and Northern Pikes turns. To facilitate that, I emphasized building Cavalry. As our Rail backbone gets up our Cavalry will also take less and less time to get to the front also getting us more cavalry into the fight.

As I mentioned in my post, I really like the idea of cutting the narrow neck to the spanish land, effectively making them unable to attack any better than the other continent can. We could even decide to not go for them after the babs if we wanted, though given the time it will take to build a naval fleet, they probably will be our next target.


Shipping our armies to the other continent will be interesting. We want to do it as early as we can, but not lose any ships

REMEMBER THAT WE MAY NOT BE ABLE TO SHIP ARMIES WITH 4 TROOPS AS THAT IS SIZE 5. DO NOT FILL LAST SLOTS IN THE ARMY UNTIL AFTER THEY HAVE CROSSED

 

[handy900]

Pre Turn (1425 AD)
To Do’s
Begin building a fleet to transport our troops across the ocean. Raze Ellipi so out ARMY can heal in neutral territory. Then bottle up Spain so they have to use ships to invade our homeland.
Begin to move an ARMY towards Spain to Pillage.
Raze 1 or 2 babylonian cities.

Viroconium – switch from Cav to Ironclad due in 2. Can build one every 10 turns after that. There is already a harbor in Viroconium.
Cumae – Switch to Galleon due in 4. We can build one every 7 turns, but it will take a while to go around to the Syracuse Lugdunum area.
Veii – switch to harbor due in 1, after that we can build an Ironclad every 8 turns
Switch Ravenna to bank

It’s going to take a while to get our navy ready.
Decide I’ll rely on Ted 7 Greebley to have MM’d before me and N Pike to MM behind me. I have a hunch they are more detail oriented than I am.
WOW – look at all that gold we have!

IBT
Babylonian cav. kills Roman musket near Uruk.
Egypt lands musket & Cav next to St Regis. Veii - harbor – Ironclad
Jerusalem – market - bank

Turn 1 1430 AD
There is only one musket in St Regis, and Nicomedia is empty. Must be cav somewhere near St Regis, there they are.
Send cav to kill musket
Send cav to kill cav.
Send two armies toward Spain. One ARMY to hold the choke point, and one to pillage.
Bombard Akkad. Get the market & library, but no hits on population or the Rifles.
Bomb rifles near Akkad
Red Line rifle kills a cav
Cav kills Rifle
Cav kills Rifle
Cav kills Rifle
Cav kills Rifle

IBT
Not sure what I’m supposed to do with the settler from Hareid. He is on some poor desert land N of St Regis. Either way this will not lose the game, but I’ll send him south & save him to build in Fertile Babylonian territory. If he builds a city on a river that gets over size 7 we can draft units to disband elsewhere.
We get Nationalism
Select Electricity (per Ted’s Scientific Method path recommendation) in 8 turns losing 2 GPT
Hispalis – market – cav
Viroconium – Ironclad – Ironclad
Lugdunum – cannon – cannon
Molde – library – aqueduct
Eburacum – worker – worker


Turn 2 1435 AD
Move workers
Bomb Akkad to pop 7. There are only 3 yellow lined rifles in the city, so I attack
Kill 3 rifles and raze Akkad Capture a cannon + 1 worker for a total of 4 slaves.
ARMY moves closer to the Spanish choke Point. Would be nice to get workers over there to build a fortress.
Think I’ll march cannon & ARMY to Asher. It will take 5 turns to get there.
Uruk & Samarra are not important cities. We can get them later.

IBT
Two Babylonian cavalry die in suicide attacks on Musket on a fortress.
Lots of Spanish Cavalry slip though the choke point. They made it by 1 turn
Northern Ambition – worker – worker
Byzantium - cannon – cannon
Brundisium FP– bank – cav
Palmyra – cav – cav
Niagara Falls – cav – Bank

Turn 3 1440 AD
Rails reach Rome.
Sweet – the cav from Palmyra gets to the front in 1 turn.
The Armies reach Ellipi. They now hold two squares choking the Spanish. Next turn one will take the choke point hill, and one will begin the pillage.
A bunch of Spanish cav moved into the fog, probably on the way to Northern Ambition.
Electricity in 7 and earning 0 GPT

IBT
Egypt drops more cav off near St Regis.
Rome – cav – cav
Nicomedia riots (sorry). Switch Rifle to market.
Cumae – galleon – galleon
Neapolis – cav – cav
Artaxata – courthouse – market
Stockholm – worker – courthouse
Pisae – courthouse – aqueduct
Seleucia – market – aqueduct

Turn 4 1445 AD
Lots of Babylonian Longbows out of the Fog.
Kill bow near northern Ambition
Kill bow
Kill bow
2 cav kill 2 Egyptian cav near St Regis
Rails reach from Antium to Northern Ambition now.
We take the Spanish Choke Point
Roads from Nineveh to Babylon are cut.
Bummer, the Galleon can’t move from Cumae to Viroconium because of a Greek Frigate up there. I’ll flip flop the builds so the Ironclads are build in Cumae & Galleons in Viroconium. Sorry about that, should have known better. Does give me an idea though. Once rails get to Pisae, we can move cannon from Northern Ambition to Pisae to hit ships rounding our northern point, then kill them with an Ironclad out of Pisae. Since we are not invading for a while, I’ll move our Ironclad to Pisae.
It is a pleasure to move cavalry in 1 turn to the ARMY SOD marching towards Ashur.

IBT
Spanish cavalry attacks. They kill a musket fortified on a hill, and a cav S of Pikehonorum. Our muskets killed 5 of them.
Pompeii – cav – cav
Birka – temple – courthouse
Egypt drops Musket, cav & MI off near St Regis. I think we need more units + a couple cannon in St Regis. We need to get rails over there so we can effectively move units in and out to kill AI drop offs. Our cav in St Regis is still healing so I’ll borrow cavs from the SOD.

Turn 5 1450 AD
Kill musket (regular) near St. Regis
Egypt bombards St. Regis.
Elite cav dies attacking veteran cav near St Regis
Cav kills cav
Cav kills MI
There are 3 cav now in St Regis healing + 1 cannon on the way. I’d leave the cav there & get 5 cannon total to up our kill ratio. I’ve got rails built to within 1 tile of St. Regis. I can now move a couple of cannon from Northern Ambition to St. Regis.
Rails go all the way to Pisae now. There is one worker railing the northernmost tip of our empire. The Ironclad arrives in Pisae where he can hunt wayward vessels that stray to within 1 tile (cannon range) of our Northern coast. Hunt if you can bomb to red-line, then kill.
Ellipi There is only a musket displayed. It is so far into Babylonian Territory, I ‘m thinking it is not very well defended. I’m going to attack in the hopes I can let our cav army heal in the neutral territory that will exist after the raze.
Cav Army kills musket + spear & razes the city. I sent the worker to the choke point hill. He can start building a fortress. The bad news is the hill is in Spanish territory, good news is you can heal 1 tile N of the hill, or begin to pillage immediately. I’d heal a little first. If you think this was a dumb play, please let me know [ in a nice way ].

Summary stuff
We are the proud owners of 1 Ironclad + 2 galleons. See my notes above about hunting AI’s from Pisae with cannon + the Ironclad until we are ready to invade the next continent.
There is a galleon stuck in Cumae. The ironclad being built can escort it around our northern point.
The "Settler I didn’t know what to do with" is N of Northern Ambition.
I sent some cannon to St Regis. Egypt sent seven units there during my turns.
Big stack of cannon & cav are 2 turns away from Ashur.
I would ignore the units around the SOD & drive to Ashur. Let the units attack & die on our fortified positions.
Musket SE of N Ambition is intended for the mountain to his W where the 2 cav are.
Huge stack of workers are under the Cav ARMY near Northern ambition building a railroad. Cav can get to the front in 1 turn now.
There are a couple of workers building rails near Lutetia on the plains so it can get more food to grow. You will have several workers free to rail as you desire because the rail connecting the FP & capital cores to the front is done.
Handyaugusta would have rioted when it was set to grow in 2 turns. I MM’s to put citizens on mountains instead of flood plains. Handyaugusta will now grow in 10 turns, and needs three mines on the mountains. It has plenty of food. (I missed this opportunity to MM earlier – sorry).
We hold the Spanish choke point

Here is the save, picture is in the next post down.

Save Rome 1450 AD

 

[handy900]

Rome 1450 AD