Spoiler for Single-player PBEM - China

He's up three of the most important economic techs?!?!?!?

 

He pulled off a CS sling.

He's going to be up just currency and CS soon and we are continuing to catch up.

Part of our plan was to get the general to a point where he was safe, so machinery was a priority, so ronnie bulbed it with a scientist, so he needed compass.

I'll be researching engineering with a golden age.

The general will pick up currency while ronnie picks up CS.

We were way behind and we are catching up.

 

I gave the general 2 archers last turn - I guess Memphus noticed, so has figured out he is in a 3-1.

It will be interesting - does he attack now, and try to press the advantage that Mace's give him? or does he stay peaceful and hope that the alliance breaks apart once we catch up? I dunno...

 

Horse Archers could defend fairly well as well.

 

We have crossbows and the general has elephants. crossbows defend pretty effectively vs. maces, with the 50% bonus. And we have construction.

 

Haven't posted a spoiler here in a while.

State of the world:

the Triumvirate Alliance is up on tech theology, music, education and philosophy. Memphus is up optics, but I'm about to get that (caravels and whale boats, which will help the general with his weariness)

Ronnie traded an elephant for a level 4 chariot and built HE. He traded that to the general, who is going to pass it on to me and I'll build HE, then give marble and the chariot to the general, who will build HE.

My short range plan:

Build up military
Build a couple more cities and maybe another worker or two.
Continue with some infrastructure...
But mainly units, both to reinforce the general and to build up my defenses.

I've built a bunch of wonders and don't really see any reason to build more - maybe Apostolic palace (2 hammers per building is a nice bump), but it's expensive.

My current long-range plan:

1) Help the general defeat memphus.
2) Work with Ron on defeating the general (he'll be tough)
3) Take out Ron.

We are entering the time where my being protective is an enormous help, as all my gunpowder units will have drill 1 and I will be able to hold cities easier.

I'm reasonably sure that Ron's plan is similar, except with my name subsituted for Ron's
I'm certain the general's is the same as mine, since I think Ron looks more dangerous than I do.

 

that would be me - we have to figure out what we want from it.

 

well. life gets interesting.

I'm sure the general will update his spoiler, but after a variety of disastrous defeats, he pulled off a two-fer which has long-term issues:

1) memphus had a large stack advancing on his southern city - the general attacked it with 5 knights - killed 3 units and lost 1, plus did a ton of flanking damage to the cats.
2) Memphus left 1 of his cities on the inner coast under-defended (1 axe) and the general managed to get a galley in range undetected and burned it to the ground!!

The upshot is that Memphus is, apparently, CAPITULATING!!!

That will bring the alliance to a halt, giving up 20 turns of peace. I don't know what it means after that. I suspect those 20 turns will create a 2-1, of ronnie and me vs. the general, or me and the general vs. ronnie or the general and ronnie vs. me. Or, perhaps, me vs. ronnie while the general sits out, I dunno.

I can't allow the general to take on ronnie and win,however.

 

well, that was exciting.

I'll try to get some screenies, but the border incident was the general declaring war and moving a stack of 2 rifles and 6 or 7 knights into the jungle near our borders. 2 of the knights were great general units.

I have no idea what he was thinking.

Status of the game:

Ronnie and I signed a treaty to work together.

Ronnie and I are up a considerable amount: Nationalism, Mil trad, sci method, physics - so I hit 1 rifle with an airship, hit the stack with 3 cannons and took them out with curaissers and a musket, getting a general in the process. I also killed a caravel down south.

Ronnie got rifling, so I'll be able to upgrade to cavalry and rifles. Cav, rifles, airships and cannons will be enough to do a lot of damage to the general.

 

What exactly is memphus doing atm? Last I heard he was effectively a vassal, is that still true?

 

he is a vassal.

he is burning my 2nd best city I'm not very good at multi-player, I guess.

 

well, now Memphus is burning Ronnie's cities. General has cavs and will have machine guns soon - I'm not honestly sure why Ronnie didn't attack the general - I would, but i'll get ripped apart piecemeal. But that's just what it is.

I wanted to talk about the (large number) of mistakes I made in this game (which was my first)

1) Expansion - I went south to the marble, instead of north towards Ronnie. This turned out to be an enormous mistake, as what would have been my best city has been really hurt by ronnie's culture.
2) Letting Memphus pull off the CS Sling. Just a bad, bad idea, giving a financial civ that big an advantage
3) Research - I should have had hinduism, but I switched research to archery. It took me a long time to get iron working, which should have been a priority with no copper or horses. Getting careless with liberalism was not smart.
4) Not taking advantage of the advantage I had in having astronomy before anyone - I could well have set out a picket of privateers and made a nice navy - instead, I did nothing and gave up control of the western seas to Memphus
5) Not defending my cities
6) Not setting up a GP farm early - I got 4 GP's - 2 scientists, a prophet and a merchant, I think, plus the three free ones (Music, Economics, Physics), which provided 2 GA's. That's not bad, but it could have been better.
7) Wonders were decent - Lighthouse, on this map, was great - I needed Stonehenge for the culture, GLib was good. On the other hand, I built Chichen Itza, only to have it be useless in 20 turns.
8) Too many unprotected settlers and workers on my borders.
9) Not enough exploration
10) Diplomacy was good - saved my bacon early - the general would have wiped me out. But when Memphus capitulated, we should have negotiated to have my forces returned to me, or partly returned, partly destroyed. The general has way too big a military.

 

allright - enough self-flagellation.

I have a game to try to win.

Situation now is that the general invaded ronnie - he currently has an enormous stack outside of one of ronnie's cities - something like 21 units. Ronnie hit them with cannons and so most of them are pretty damaged. he also managed to take out the general's super medic, so they will continue to be damaged...

I dumped a small stack near W_Central and pillaged the general's sugar there, which should (hopefully) give them some issues.

I have an ironclad and 2 frigates sailing north to contest the waters near Vale of W.

The big thing is the plan to raze Port_W, the general's southern most city (with Moai)

I don't think the general realizes that the ongoing bombing of his galleys from my airships has been giving me LOS into Port_W, or that I know he is garrisoning it with just a crossbow... or that there doesn't seem to be any ships near the southern ice cap.

I have a galleon with a musket, rifle and cav 2 turns out, with a frigate slightly ahead of it to for protection. I'm hoping that all the action up north will distract everyone from the raid. I wish I had 2 galleons and could burn one of memphus's cities as well, but I think Ronnie may need the relief. Of course, Ronnie might just wipe out the general's stack, which is kind of hurting (but 21 units can sustain a lot of damage...)

 

I think the game is in a critical stage, so I figured I'd draw up a little map of where things are.

That's to start the turn, after I ran some recon and bombing.

My galleon moves 5 more next turn, and then attacks Port_W.

I'm hoping that dropping units in on the vale distracts the general some from ronnie, so he can deal with memphus.

 

Operation Raid Port_W worked out just great - lost a musket and I'll lose a cav when he counters, but Port_W lies in ruins and my galleon will get away.

I have an ironclad and two frigates to bombard Vale W, with another galleon to help make them worry about another invasion, which should pull in more defenders. if we are lucky, we can raze another of the general's cities before Memphus gets combustion and starts building destroyers. I dunno if we can hold out against destroyers and transports...

 

ok - so, status. I noticed that Ronnie updated his spoiler, so I'm sure he has some of this, but the General is hurting.

The turn after I burned Port_W:

- Ron killed the stack outside his city (26 units) and, apparently, only lost 4 or 5.
- I had pillaged one of the general's silks - he had sent workers and units to cover them. I hit them, but couldn't kill the stack, he hit me and killed some of my guys, then I hit him again and stole 4 workers! He killed one of my cavs, but retreated.
- I have an ironclad and 4 frigates reducing one of his cities to 0 defense, with two galleons hanging around. It's an empty threat - they have 1 rifle on them - I have to set up for defense, but it's got some of his forces pinned.

I'm set up to build machine guns, which I'll need.
Ron is 5 turns from combustion himself if I can keep him fed with gold.

If we can press our advantage, we might be able to burn a couple of the general's cities - problem is, I'm pretty much gassed right now, so it falls to ron. Plus, i have 25% weariness, which is a problem. I may have to switch to nationhood...

 

Ron took another of the general's cities. I'm hoping to get 1, but I think we have to focus on pillaging memphus,who is teching very fast.

I don't know that I have a chance of winning - ronnie is very strong, but maybe I can be the last to die.