TGOMTG Conquest Class Challenge (C3C)

Bede said:
Let's have some fun. You can all play a lot better than you think you can judging from the discussion.
Bede's right. Keep up the dialogue. :thumbsup:
 
namliaM said:
I still think getting 142 gold for pottery (even if that means possibly doubling growth on the other side) They will research or trade it somewhere else pretty soon anyway. Spending 72 or trading Pottery and getting 70 making Pottery worth a (massive) 142g is not a bad thing. But that is my oppion

Wait, it's worth 142g if we trade it away??? In that case, I'm going to have to say I agree with the trade. But if it's only worth 10g, like a missed out 20g that someone was talking about, then I disagree with the trade. Wait, are we talking about the net worth of it when we trade it to the greeks? We're all in agreement of the greek trade, just not on the agreement of other trades. Sorry if this seems confusing, as I'm pretty confused myself.
 
@Whomp: Thanks for explaining how to post images. I was having a lot of trouble myself. Thanks again.

@namliaM: Hope you don’t mind, I adjusted the names of the units (as in Wa1 to Warrior 1). It just made it easier for me.

Turns out Babylon does reside on our continent and it appears like they are the tech brokers of our neighborhood.

Trade Options: Everyone except us has Ceremonial Burial and everyone except Sumeria has Warrior Code. Sumeria is willing to trade CB plus 10 gold for WC. According to CA2 CB is estimated at 48 and WC is estimated at 66. This would mean Sumeria would be getting the better end of the deal by the cost of 8. I’ve attached an image to show this:

Tech_cost_2550_BC.JPG


Also we can sell Alphabet to Babylon for CB & 70 gold, though I don’t think this is worth it. I’d rather do the trade with Sumeria instead and save Alphabet.

Washington will grow next turn, which also means that we will have shield waste if we don’t adjust citizens. I would suggest placing a citizen to work the tile south of Washington (2f, 2c), this will still get us the necessary 3s to finish the settler. I’ve also roaded and mined the other bonus grassland within our city radii and begun building a road towards our 2nd city plans.

City #3: Sumeria has built a city where we had planned on putting our 3rd city so we may not be able to block them in the north.

Edit: Looking at it again we can still block them in the north but will have to place our city a little further south than we intended.

City_Placement.JPG


City Production: Unless I have miscalculated after we finish this settler we can have enough shields for another settler in 9 shields [Edit: should be turns] (with a 4 shield waste), though the city itself won’t grow to size 3 until the turn after. The question is do we wish to go warrior settler for a while to get settlers out, or should we wait until Washington is around pop 3 or 4 before we start building settlers? My own opinion is we go the warrior settler route so we can gain as much ground as possible. Washington won’t grow for a while but the other cities should be able to.

Also of note is we are weak compared to everyone else. It also appears Babylon is fighting barbarians towards the west of their nation as I saw a warrior and spear head west of Nineveh (plus I saw a fortified barbarian).

For everyone's benefit here is the current trade options:

2550_BC_Trade_Options.JPG
 
This is what I was thinking of for our 2nd city. I hate to put it so far away as our border won't overlap so it might be better to go either one or two NW. The reason I put it where I did was so it would be located on a river tile.

Wow! I didn't realize CA2 had this feature until Bede's comment here and Tubby's reply found in Teme Bede (sorry, figured I'd lurk).

City_Placement,_possible.JPG


To be honest, I wasn't entirely for sure exactly what to do with the scouts during my turn. I attempted to do the most to explore the continent. I also wasn't for sure what to do exactly with Warrior 2 until I saw the Persian spear within Washington's radii. Was it wise to put 2 MP in Washington?
 
I've finally downloaded Civ Assist II. Just by the screenshots that were just posted, I can tell it will be a brilliant program. Well organized, and many different features.

Wow... The extent to which Methos documented his micromanagement was pretty thorough. He explained nearly everything he did, gave us points of discussion to start on, and has given us a lot of information that some people may leave out, like the Babylons having trouble with Barbarians. I agree on the Warrior>Settler route of thinking, making Settlers prematurely isn't a good thing to do.
 
Nice bit o' work, there, Methos. And lurk Team Bede all you like, if you want to see total confusion, m-b has built a map which puts AWD on its head....

Need to step back a little and reassess the city placement. The planned city to the east of Town2 is, as DocT would say, "junk". Lousy terrain, too much jungle and marsh and too far from home to be worthwhile any time soon.

After Washington finishes the settler it should build a barracks so it grows to at least pop4 before starting the next settler. There is too much lost commerce when the town gets to pop1 and it takes too long to re-grow the population to where it can build another settler.

Good call on avoiding Ceremonial Burial for now, it opens a branch of the tech tree we really don't need to explore. Your best direction at this stage is down the Writing path as it opens lots of possibilities.

A note on tech pricing: The numbers you see in CivAsisst are beaker costs for self-research and have no meaning relative to price. Price is what you must pay or what the other guy will pay you at any point in time and bears only a passing relationship to beaker cost. And Emperor is the level where the AI "Trade Rate" factor becomes meaningful. Basically the Trade Rate establishes the discount from cost that the AI pays each other for tech, and the premium above beaker cost that the human pays. Be prepared to see the AI asking us for a premium up to 3X beaker cost for a monopoly tech yet offering it to the other AI for what appears to be absurdly low prices.
 
@Methos
(hope its ok to do this, I dont mean to rant or anything just stating things as I see them)
Renaming is fine. All: Maybe we should agree on "naming" of units where needed.
Some kind of "naming convention"?

IMHO it was a mistake/misjudgement to have warrior 1 goto Washington for MP. I would have used it to explore, you dont need 2mp 1 is enough.
As I see it we get 1 content pop "free" + 1mp (or 10% lux) makes 2 pop + 1mp (or another 10%lux) makes 3 pop.

Instead of having Warrior1 head for Washington, you could have explored with it. Waiting for Warrior3 to be MP, this would have taken 2 extra turns at 10% lux or 2g. Meanwhile Warrior 1 would have been out exploring uncharted teritory at say an average of 3 tiles per turn and would have continued to do so your full 10 turns. Meaning we would be able to see 30 extra tiles, with opportunitie(s) of (new) contacts or even goody huts?
This offcourse will mean that at near finish of the settler when at pop 3 we need 10% lux again vs no lux with 2mp that would cost and extra 1 or 2g? Not sure how long we will be at pop 3...
Total cost 2+2= 4g for 30 extra tiles visible and all the opportunity of getting a GH or contact? Possibly take in a barb tent (at 25g) I would say thats a nice "trade" ;)

Having Warrior 2 acompany the worker is a nice touch...

In turn4 I would have headed E with worker2 to road ahead, leaving the mining to Worker1, repeating this process... (in turn 10 you start a mine again with worker 2) Using worker2 to road and worker1 to mine. Thats me personnaly and I dont know which is better "in the end", maybe Bede can shead some light on this.

In turn 6 i would probably not have done worker2 Ne-N-N. To not "waste" the worker turn to pause on step 3, 2 options possible:
1) Ne-N-Ne, using the step to step onto an unroaded tile. Then road that tile, and move on. This "costs" 2 turns, but in the end saves a turn. For in the future somewhere a worker will need to step back onto this tile and road it.
2) Ne-Mine, after mine N-N-NE. This would create the alternative switch for 2s/1c N of Washington vs 1s/2c S Instead of 0s/2c possibly allowing better shield wastage tuning in the future.

After the mine finished by Worker2 s/sw of washington there is no rush in mining what so ever. For we have 3 mines, the city will go to 3 then back to 1.
After going to 1 it will take atleast 10 turns (some at pop 1, 5 at pop 2 and 5 at pop 3) before it reaches pop 4. Having any mine over 3 seems to me like 1 mine "wasted" for atleast 10+turns. Also likely to mine the last BG having 5 mines of which 2 will be "wasted" for a good while. The last BG will be able to be used by city 2 tho.

@Bede/All:
I would like to try my strat from my end turn and see what the diff would be (without spoiling that is) is that OK? I would prob see a bit more of the map, but will not be "back at bat" before its visible anyway.

@All
I think we did a good trade with Greece, while on the subject of trading...
I learned a while ago one should never trade on the turn of the AI. At the risk of them selling your tech on to other AI before you can. Tho i doubt this will be the case in our current game, since we are not researching. Tho it might get into play if we find the other continent (if there is one). For we have found 4 civs including ours makes 5 on this continent. That leaves 3 for the other continent, I will bet they will have a slower tech pace.

On trading Alpha for CB and waiting for writing. Correct me if I am wrong, Alpha is a prereq for writing *diging up Tech Tree online while at work ;)*. So in order to have someone research writing they will have to know Alpha. Thus trading alpha for writing is not an option.
We would need to trade Alpha for Iron, Math (they would need to know Alpha first so not realy an option) or Mist (we need to know CB first). Seeing as Alpha for Iron is the "only" bet "on" and an unlikely trade at that being a 1st tier for 2nd tier, I would make the trade Alpha for CB+70g. Maybe the trade for WC for CB+10 with sumeria would be better. It is likely they will get is somewhere anyway. It opens up Mist to us for the Alpha trade and indeed saves Alpha.

City3 is actually s-sw of Lagash, thus still an option?

From the word doc (nicely done by the way)
In 2630 the Sumerians are starting the Pyramids appearently the first AI to start it, IIRC they have some nice BG around their capital presuming that is where they are building it. So they will prob finish it first. Pyramids giving instant and free granarys in all citys. Agri + free instant granary in every (new) city = super growth = double trouble for us?!

Regards

Have to get "back" to work....

Editted to take out some typos and put it the bit about the Alpa/WC for CB trade
 
namliaM said:
IMHO it was a mistake/misjudgement to have warrior 1 goto Washington for MP. I would have used it to explore, you dont need 2mp 1 is enough.
As I see it we get 1 content pop "free" + 1mp (or 10% lux) makes 2 pop + 1mp (or another 10%lux) makes 3 pop.

Instead of having Warrior1 head for Washington, you could have explored with it.

Putting the warriors in Washington was not the best use of them. They can explore the jungle as well as scouts and should have been doing that.

namliaM said:
Waiting for Warrior3 to be MP, this would have taken 2 extra turns at 10% lux or 2g. Meanwhile Warrior 1 would have been out exploring uncharted teritory at say an average of 3 tiles per turn and would have continued to do so your full 10 turns. Meaning we would be able to see 30 extra tiles, with opportunitie(s) of (new) contacts or even goody huts?
This offcourse will mean that at near finish of the settler when at pop 3 we need 10% lux again vs no lux with 2mp that would cost and extra 1 or 2g? Not sure how long we will be at pop 3...
Total cost 2+2= 4g for 30 extra tiles visible and all the opportunity of getting a GH or contact? Possibly take in a barb tent (at 25g) I would say thats a nice "trade" ;)

Nice analysis. And paying for entertainment is not a problem with no research.

namliaM said:
In turn4 I would have headed E with worker2 to road ahead, leaving the mining to Worker1, repeating this process... (in turn 10 you start a mine again with worker 2) Using worker2 to road and worker1 to mine. Thats me personnaly and I dont know which is better "in the end", maybe Bede can shead some light on this.

Most efficient.

namliaM said:
In turn 6 i would probably not have done worker2 Ne-N-N. To not "waste" the worker turn to pause on step 3, 2 options possible:
1) Ne-N-Ne, using the step to step onto an unroaded tile. Then road that tile, and move on. This "costs" 2 turns, but in the end saves a turn. For in the future somewhere a worker will need to step back onto this tile and road it.

Cracker's rule: Never come back to road.

Bede's addendum: Unless you are bringing water to the cattle. In other words if you need irrigation on a bonus food field.

2) Ne-Mine, after mine N-N-NE. This would create the alternative switch for 2s/1c N of Washington vs 1s/2c S Instead of 0s/2c possibly allowing better shield wastage tuning in the future.

After the mine finished by Worker2 s/sw of washington there is no rush in mining what so ever. For we have 3 mines, the city will go to 3 then back to 1.
After going to 1 it will take atleast 10 turns (some at pop 1, 5 at pop 2 and 5 at pop 3) before it reaches pop 4. Having any mine over 3 seems to me like 1 mine "wasted" for atleast 10+turns. Also likely to mine the last BG having 5 mines of which 2 will be "wasted" for a good while. The last BG will be able to be used by city 2 tho.

[/QUOTE]

Good plan.

namliaM said:
@Bede/All:
I would like to try my strat from my end turn and see what the diff would be (without spoiling that is) is that OK? I would prob see a bit more of the map, but will not be "back at bat" before its visible anyway.
Shadowing is good for learning. No spoilers is good for the rest of us.

namliaM said:
For we have found 4 civs including ours makes 5 on this continent. That leaves 3 for the other continent, I will bet they will have a slower tech pace.

And they may even be island nations or one powerhouse with a neighbor and the third at sea.
namliaM said:
On trading Alpha for CB and waiting for writing. Correct me if I am wrong, Alpha is a prereq for writing *diging up Tech Tree online while at work ;)*. So in order to have someone research writing they will have to know Alpha. Thus trading alpha for writing is not an option.
We would need to trade Alpha for Iron, Math (they would need to know Alpha first so not realy an option) or Mist (we need to know CB first). Seeing as Alpha for Iron is the "only" bet "on" and an unlikely trade at that being a 1st tier for 2nd tier, I would make the trade Alpha for CB+70g. Maybe the trade for WC for CB+10 with sumeria would be better. It is likely they will get is somewhere anyway. It opens up Mist to us for the Alpha trade and indeed saves Alpha.

Alphabet and cash for Iron Working is a better move than Alphabet for the Monarchy path. And here is an instance where Bede's Three Trading Tenets do not apply. Getting a resource technology is crucial just don't break the bank for it.

namliaM said:
City3 is actually s-sw of Lagash, thus still an option?

Still better to go north and establish forward bases against Sumeria. The jungle will inhibit their southward exapnsion.

namliaM said:
In 2630 the Sumerians are starting the Pyramids appearently the first AI to start it, IIRC they have some nice BG around their capital presuming that is where they are building it. So they will prob finish it first. Pyramids giving instant and free granarys in all citys. Agri + free instant granary in every (new) city = super growth = double trouble for us?!

Sumeria with a food rich starting location is always "Big Trouble", and those cheap Enks are painful defenders as there will be lots of them. If anybody is looking for a target Sumeria is "IT", especially if they finish the Pyramids.

Rota:
soul - your turn inthe barrel
S'ven - on deck
Bede
namliaM - built a good start
Methos - good follow through
 
namliaM said:
Renaming is fine. All: Maybe we should agree on "naming" of units where needed.
Some kind of "naming convention"?

Sorry about that, my wife says I’m anal about certain things, don’t know why. :)

namliaM said:
hope its ok to do this, I dont mean to rant or anything just stating things as I see them

No problem, in truth I wasn’t really for sure about what to do with the warriors as well as the direction of the scouts. I only moved warrior 2 over to protect the worker since he was getting a ways from Washington. I realize now warrior 1 should have continued to scout some of the jungle and warrior 2 should have gone to Washington for MP. I’m hesitant and nervous on Emperor level so wasn’t sure.

You’ll also notice that at one point scout 2 doubled back over himself. When I hit the southern coast I realized scout 2 was heading towards scout 1 so I turned back towards the west. A wasted move, should have seen that the turn before.

namliaM said:
From the word doc (nicely done by the way)

As I mentioned earlier, I can be anal about some things.

[“but hon, it just doesn’t look right”, as she rolls her eyes and walks off] :D
 
got it.
also lost it due to all this analysing.
will do my best after i reread most of the last 2 pages.

maybe someone (the monk, as our brave and noble leader, perchance) will post a brief plan for the near future. a so called "synergy" of everything?
 
Things to be desided/discussed about after the first settler is done

- Where to build city #2 (with that settler) at City #2 spot (normal) or City #3 spot (try and block them pesky sums)
- is city #3 spot still "valid"?
- Build sequence/or first build in the new city?
- What to build in Washington after that settler
Barracks (include chopped forest or no)-settler ... then what?
Barracks (include chopped forest or no)-archer ... then what?
Warrior-settler-Barracks-then what?
Archer-settler-Barracks-then what?

I would use 1 warrior (probably the regular one) to scout into the fog S of Washington.

Use the scouts to get to know as much as possible about our (future) lands ;)
Judging from the minimap (have not yet seen the save) using the scouts in a more or less Clock-wise pattern.

*So much for my diner break :)*

Oh and maybe some sort of "Naming convention" just not to get "oral" ;) on Methos :crazyeye:

The sumerians will be an even bigger problem if and/or when they get the pyramids. Tag they are IT, accoording to bede. We should also consider starting to build up a couple (6-10) vet archers or horsemen to "dig into" the Sumerian lands and maybe time it to have them finish the Pyramids then us take it over a limited # of turns later, that would be nice ;)

We will probably loose quite a few archers if it turns out to be archer (2 attack) vs Enks (2 defense). Would much prefer Horsemen (need HBR + Horses), but if thats not in the cards (lands) then maybe Swordmen (need IW+Iron)? Swordsman may be created by upgrading Warriors, so if we see light on the swordsmen deal then we could prebuild a couple (10-15) warriors and upgrade them. @Bede or should we not use our hard earned $ that way?
If/When we go to war with Sums, we will need to pick goals/targets.
Which city(s) go first?
What resources (Iron/Horses or lux) do we want to obtain?

Regards
 
soul_warrior said:
got it.
also lost it due to all this analysing.
will do my best after i reread most of the last 2 pages.

maybe someone (the monk, as our brave and noble leader, perchance) will post a brief plan for the near future. a so called "synergy" of everything?
If you are confused it might be best not to say "got it" so soon. To oblige by the rules you need only do it within 24 hours. But also play then after "got it" within 48 hours.

Total time allowed to discuss and play the next 10 turns would be 72 hours. By posting within 13 (or so) minutes you just robbed yourself out of 24 hours being able to think about things and talk things thru or possibly discuss things here on the forum.
 
namliaM said:
If you are confused it might be best not to say "got it" so soon. To oblige by the rules you need only do it within 24 hours. But also play then after "got it" within 48 hours.

Total time allowed to discuss and play the next 10 turns would be 72 hours. By posting within 13 (or so) minutes you just robbed yourself out of 24 hours being able to think about things and talk things thru or possibly discuss things here on the forum.
well, guess what?
RL has struck at the heart of my passtime.
another "urgent" call by THE MAN is forcing me NOT to play tonight.
as i wont be able to play till SATURDAY at the earliest, i most humbly request a switch or a delay.

PS - i never pay attention to when the last post was posted. i just call 'em as i see 'em. thought i would play...
 
Rota:
S'ven - up
Bede - on deck
soul - got blindsided so you can slot in here
namliaM - built a good start
Methos - good follow through

I will try and put together a precis of the discussion later.
 
Mailman said:
- Where to build city #2 (with that settler) at City #2 spot (normal) or City #3 spot (try and block them pesky sums)

I’d say at City #2 spot, I believe that’s like 3 NE and 1 E.

- is city #3 spot still "valid"?

I have no idea.

- Build sequence/or first build in the new city?

I’d say warrior at the start, for both MP as well as defense. Afterwards I’m not for sure. I believe we might want to build a barracks here as well and start pumping out military.

- What to build in Washington after that settler
Barracks (include chopped forest or no)-settler ... then what?

Well, no sense it wasting the maintenance cost on the Barracks, so I’d say archer. To be honest I have never liked archers, but with this game we may not be able to get any decent offensive units for a while. If it looks like we will be getting Iron Working than switch to warriors. My main thought would be a unit or two and than another settler, rinse and repeat, but we’ll see when we get closer to that point.

As to the forest chop I’d say sure. It’ll allow us to get the Barracks up quicker.

If/When we go to war with Sums, we will need to pick goals/targets.
Which city(s) go first?
What resources (Iron/Horses or lux) do we want to obtain?

Ur will be a definite priority or goal, but doesn’t necessarily have to be first. Ur will have the Pyramids (possibly) and has a cow, next to a river, and two bg’s. Lagash is also nice as with an expansion we would have gems in our border.

How soon are we planning on attacking? First do we plan on expanding into all the undeclared territory first or will we attack Sumeria earlier due to their Pyramids (a possibility) and their location?

Game Goals/Victory Condition: Just curious as to what type of victory condition we are going for? Bede has made the comment earlier in this thread that he would like to see a Space Race victory, so is that our goal?

What about our immediate goals or those we will be attempting to attain within x amount of turns or so? Obvious goals are expand, build up military (for what precise purpose-as in attack who/what), etc.

I believe Space victory would be the most challenging since we can’t research techs. By doing this we would have to keep enough AI’s around to do our research for us and not hurt them so badly they are too slow at it. The Apollo Project is a small wonder so we can build that.

Warmongering: I’m not very good at war. I typically set up my invasions to take between 2 to 4 cities in the first turn and several cities within the next several turns. The problem I have is I lose my momentum very quick. In other words I won’t be as much help for war strategies. This is something I am really hoping to learn from with this game.
 
Bede said:
Cracker's rule: Never come back to road.

Had never thought of that, but it makes sense.

Bede said:
Shadowing is good for learning. No spoilers is good for the rest of us.

Good point. It's easier to understand when you see it or play it, than by just reading. Thanks for the tip.
 
Here are my preferences.

Second town should go 1E of the warrior worker pair and immediately start a worker, then a barracks, then veteran offense (archers). And it should build nothing but military for a really long time, maybe a temple or a market when it gets to size 6 depending on the luxury situation.

Washington should build a barracks after its settler, then a vet warrior, or even two as we want the pop at 4.5 or 5 before starting the settler, then a settler, then it should go to a settler/archer/worker rotation if we can make the numbers work out. The Mailman is our best analyst, so what do you think?

That should carry us through at least until the end of the rotation.

Medium term - Gilgamesh has a really big target painted on his back. So the miltary build up needs to focus on facing Enk Warriors and be large and powerful enough to overcome the Golden Age productivity.

Longer term - Win the game. How best to do that is going to develop later as we start to scope the strengths and weaknesses of the opponents.

I will confess to the team that my test game was a Space Ship loss. One nation became a cultural and technological monster and laid down the smack on everybody else, including me. I was scrapping for resources while (s)he was putting the finishing touches on the Party Lounge.

You all are showing a good understanding of how to work the tech trading tactics. I will just restate my preference for avoiding the Monarchy path for now, or at least until we have acquired the two crucial resource techs (IW and TW).
 
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