TT01: Beating Demigod

[DWetzel]

At extremely first glance, looks fine. I agree with the tech trade with Inca. Hopefully I can get not too over-exuberant and bring home the Vikes and Iros without too much trouble.

 

[Bucephalus]

we don´t have any cash

IMO, it's important enough to shut down research until we do. Our own research can afford to be slowed if we destroy the French economy.

 

[DWetzel]

we don´t have any cash

*sigh* Up to me to be the responsible one, is it?

I swear, playing with you people is like shopping with my wife.

 

[Bucephalus]

*sigh* Up to me to be the responsible one, is it?

I swear, playing with you people is like shopping with my wife.

You've a lot to learn about married life, then - I would never go shopping with my woman.

 

[DWetzel]

You've a lot to learn about married life, then - I would never go shopping with my woman.

Believe me, the alternative is worse. THAT'S like driving down a cliff face with no brakes--you know there's going to be a disaster, it's just a matter of how soon and how much it's going to cost.

 

[Bucephalus]

Believe me, the alternative is worse. THAT'S like driving down a cliff face with no brakes--you know there's going to be a disaster, it's just a matter of how soon and how much it's going to cost.

I once had my credit card stolen; I didn't bother reporting it, though - the thief was spending less than the missus does!

 

[templar_x]

you guys are hillarious

the nice thing about CFF is that most of us seem to already be grumpy old men... ahhm, of course i mean, respectable well-aged gentlemen who each have their real sitcom-style life to tell about.

so you have something to digest while i am away... my woman pays for all of her bills herself.

ok, now for our cash issue , i already grabbed my guitar and will go down to the shopping mall and try to collect us some coins... won´t be enough for your women to come down to join me at the mall, but it should buy as... maybe a reg warrior 2 turns earlier.

if you don´t trust my musical talent for our economic needs (and you would be right not to, but then maybe they´d pay me to stop) then adjust the slider, for god´s sake. our economy should earn you up to +400gpt if you really go into milking.
lagging research a few turns definitely won´t hurt us. however, i´d like to wait for steam before we do that. no urgent need for any other tech then, factories and RP will come early enough, if we even need them. but we need steam to do anything meaningful with our workers again. with steam, we should even skim off some more of those from corrupt cities, imo.

 

[Bucephalus]

i already grabbed my guitar and will go down to the shopping mall and try to collect us some coins... won´t be enough for your women to come down to join me at the mall,

It wouldn't be enough if you were the Rolling Stones.

my woman pays for all of her bills herself.

Great - does she have a sister?

 

[templar_x]

Great - does she have a sister?

no. but she wouldn´t pay for her sister´s bills anyways.

 

[templar_x]

@DWetzel - are you playing already? on the Vike island you should use the units "farthest away" first next turn. i do not expect any counter-offensive, i should have already killed that few units which they had there. looking at the save i think you may be able to take all 3 remaining cities in one turn. and with the 2 cavs from Utrecht (and maybe a 3rd one from somewhere else) you should be safe for Chondote, too - and Ragnar has to buy a history book to see a pic of his own mug.

 

[Bucephalus]

It might be an idea to pick up that Incense from Inca; they will want 4 lux's for it, but there's no harm in giving them a boost if we're going to use them against the French.

The French have Nationalism already, so I strongly urge that we get a Cav Army over there during your set, DW.

I don't think we need to involve Inca at this stage, either France would take advantage of the military depletion due to the long war with Abe, or Inca might do the same once we've pillaged the French core. We want them finely balanced until we are ready to land an invasion force.

 

[DWetzel]

No, I haven't started playing yet, I plan to do that later this evening (the children have been MONSTERS today).

Noted on the cav army. If we're pillaging, wouldn't a knight army do just as well? Little slower, but same defense and all. EDIT: Never mind, for some bizarre reason I thought we had one of those around. Pretend you didn't see this.

I'll check into the lux deal with the Inca.

 

[DWetzel]

OK, here it is. An indifferent set, but useful enough. Iros and Vikes are dead. So, nearly, is America, though of course that's not my doing. We haven't QUITE landed that army yet, but we can do so this turn (still lots of units to move for the next better player). I've tried to shore up some of our infrastructure, with decent results. In particular, we should be close to finally dropping the lux slider once and for all.

Next player will probably want to rearrange troops and get a few more ships for invasions. I've tried to leave you with at least a LITTLE cash. Also, start planning those factory prebuilds, Industrialization is on the way. We may want to stop research for a bit after that to rush some factories.

The turnlog:

Spoiler :

750 AD Preflight: CA2, Notepad as usual.

Do the luxury deal with the Inca (4 luxes for 1). I'm not too worried about helping them. Should let us lower our lux slider to 0%.

Spend some time figuring out why we still are having such a problem with unhappiness--then realize it's because most of our core cities don't have markets still. Rectify that with various market builds. We'll need a bit of time to get organized with a full-scale sea invasion, and these will pay for themselves.

Make a few build changes (notably, not bothering with settler builds that are coming out of towns with 0 fpt--I switched those to cannons). I'm selling the barracks at highly corrupt Dordrecht and Holwerd, and switch the cav builds there to explorers (could be very handy on the other continent), each due in 1. Then realize a forest chop is coming at Holwerd, so switch it to Heroic Epic for a turn to redirect the chop (I'll get my explorer next turn).

Move two cavs from Utrecht into the boat inside Rotterdam 2, then unload on the hill outside Chondote (guarded by a spear). On the main Viking island, decide to play it cautiously and wait for cannons. I'm in no great hurry there.

Set all our taxmen to scientists (more efficient that way), and set science to 0%: we still get Steam in 12 right now, at +289 gpt. This is temporary until I get that army built (I do want that on the way ASAP), which should be in two turns.

Some other random MMing that you don't want to know about.

Hit Enter.

IBT: Nothing exciting.

1 (760 AD): Dordrecht explorer-galleon. Groningen settler-market. Maastricht settler-market. New Delft settler-worker.

At Chondote, first cavalry takes the city with 2 hp left, sinks a boat, 1 resister. harbor intact. Set to settler. (1-0)

Our peace treaty with the Iroquois has expired. I see no reason to wait! DOW Iroquois and advance on Oil Springs. First cavalry in stumbles on an Iro longbow/worker pair, kills longbow flawlessly, takes a slave. Oil Springs has a spear on top. (2-0)

Can't resist a shot with the First Mace Army at Stavanger, it wins flawlessly (3-0), then I remember I'm waiting for cannons.

Found Breda 2 on the south island, and Delft 2 on the far east coast near the wines.

IBT: Trondheim deposes, losing one SM (3-1), but we have a nice stack outside the city. Pasargarde spams a crusader, our last. I plant some trees in the front lawn of the palace.

2 (770 AD): Amsterdam market-cav. Pasargarde market-cav. Rotterdam cav-cav. Holwerd explorer-worker. Rotterdam 2 explorer-worker.

With just those markets kicking in, we're up to +310 gpt. And we can rush that army now. So I do, for 732g. Also rush a galleon at Middelburg for 136g. And swap Arnhem to a frigate, due in 1, I'm taking no chances. Set science to 60%, Steam in 5, +78 gpt.

At Trondheim. we bomb the living crap out of a poor spearman, then an elite MI finishes the job (4-1).

Our far north Privateer kills a Viking elite caravel, and promotes (2/4), but does not enslave. (5-1).

At Oil Springs, three cavs do the job against three spears, though two were redlined; raze Oil Springs (probably could have kept it, but I was hoping for a slave or two). (8-1).

At Stavenger, three of four cannons hit; that takes the two rMuskets down to 2 and 1 hp. The Second Mace Army loses 8 hp on the first one. An elite cav finishes the job flawlessly, capturing size 6 Stavenger with an aqueduct and harbor (5 resisters) and two slaves.

Found Leiden 2 on south coast.

IBT: French sink a privateer (8-2). Molde (on Viking island) deposes, grr. A French caravel lurks off our core coast. I plan to ignore it for now.

3 (780 AD): New Amsterdam cannon-market (and put some scientists back to work). New Hilversum worker-worker. The Hague army-army. Arnhem frigate-frigate. Middelburg galleon-market. Den Helder and Leerdam want aqueducts, I say no. Wine City cannon-cannon.

Hareld is guarded by two rMuskets; three cannons hit again. First Mace Army finishes both muskets at the loss of 1 hp, taking Hareld, size 7, with an aqueduct and 6 resisters, and two slaves. (10-2). Send a cav back to retake Molde (11-2).

Frigate dings a point off an Iroquois caravel.

The Vikings have one city left, and I aim to take it: a cav loses two HP but kills a rMusket (12-2), the second loses only one HP (13-2), and THE VIKINGS ARE GONE. Size 5 Caughnawaga still has a barracks, yay.

Found Den Helder 2 in the jungle, and Harlingen 2 near the flood plain wheat. Both are set to workers.

Tweak science down to 50%, Steam in 4, +90 gpt.

4 (790 AD): New Zwolle worker-worker. Mauch Chunk worker-worker. Delft market-cav. Den Helder Swiss Merc-aqueduct (OK, you convinced me, computer). Groningen 2 worker-worker.

Move a bunch of units. Land the First Sword Army on the Iroquois island. Set sail for France et al with two galleons; one has our cav army; the other has a cav (to add in), two explorers, and a Swiss Merc (just for annoyance value). Rush a settler somewhere for like 36g.

IBT: Nada.

5 (800 AD): New Gouda settler-worker. Leiden market-cav. Gouda cannon-cannon. Utrecht 2 settler-settler.

Land some elite cavs/knights on the Iro island, and move the sword army into place.

Spot barbarian near former Oil Springs. Oh yeah, those are on! Send up a couple cavs, one to kill the warrior, and one to disperse the barb camp for 25g. I think I like this area.

Found Lauwerskoog 2 in the jungle.

Lots of worker fun; I'm trying to get these semi-sensibly grouped up over these turns while Steam comes in.

Rush library in Haarlem for 68g.

IBT: An Iroquois longbow attacks one of the eKnights, and dies badly (14-2).

6 (810 AD): Pasargarde cav-Newton's University (we can change this to a university if we want, or the Epic). Eindhoven settler-worker. Haarlem library-market. Breda market-cav. Haarlem 2 worker-worker.

Science to 30% for the last turn of Steam.

Rush market in Perseopolis, which was about to riot.

Found Enschede 2 and Tilburg 2 in the east. Rush settler in New Leiden for 20g.

At Oka, two cavs kill two spears (one barely), and a knight kills a longbow, we capture Oka, size 3, and two slaves. At Kahnwanake, the Sword Army kills two spears, capturing the city (19-2), and THE IROQUOIS ARE DEAD.

IBT: Steam in, Industrialization in 7 at 60% is the best I can reasonably do, but that's at +60 gpt at least. Knights Templar is obsolete.

7 (820 AD): Perseopolis market-cav. Rotterdam cav-cav. Lauwerskoog riots, and so does Utrecht and Arnhem. Hmm. Set geeks to fix. New Arnhem settler-worker. New Leiden settler-worker.

France completes Newton's. Switch Pasargarde to Heroic Epic.

Move lots of workers; lay our first couple sets of rails. A few sets are on their way home to rail up the core fairly quickly.

IBT: Privateer takes out our frigate near the Iro island; another one attacks our convoy near France but loses (20-3).

8 (830 AD): Couple more settlers built. Our towns un-riot. Found a couple more cities (I'm up to Gouda 2).

Privateer kills privateer off the French coast (21-3). There's a small island north of France that the Inca have. Could be a useful base of operations?

Rails.

IBT: French frigate takes out our privateer (21-4).

9 (840 AD): Lauwerskoog market-lib. Delft cav-cav. New Utrecht aqueduct-harbor. Leerdam cannon-cannon. Middelburg 2 worker-worker.

The Inca have all but wiped out the Americans, sad to say. Not much to be done about it. Good news is that we're almost in position with our cav army and secondary explorer annoyances.

Move some units, lay some rails. There's a French frigate-caravel combo just off our southeast coast; I almost hope they try something.

IBT: They didn't, but they did move on our south island. Curious.

10 (850 AD): Utrecht market-harbor. Tilburg settler-barracks.

Our peace deal with France has expired.

Move a bunch of workers and lay rails; we can traverse the continent (barely) east-west in two moves.

Rush frigate and galleon on and near our island, to deal with the French.

I stop here, with most units still to move. Notably, we're in position to DOW France and land near some French saltpeter and coal, and we have another explorer up above (not counting the two accompanying the army) ready to do some annoyance. It looks like there may be a French island up there as well--either that or the coast is strangely shaped.

 

[templar_x]

sorry i didn´t see the post about the incense deal and didn´t mention it in mine - i had checked that deal somewhen around 5.30 a.m. and didn´t make it because we had no markets and without those i expected the effect would have been minimal... what it was. so i got some markets builds on the way (thought i could hide that i did as i was shouted at as the capitalist pig for it already )... sure i like the fact that you added a few more DWetzel.

flip risk, especially in Trondheim, was why i would have preferred a faster pace on Vike island. not that it hurt us by any means, but they´re a nuisance.

 

[Bucephalus]

Cool.

The last two sets have moved us into the last phase of the game, guys, and I doubt if templar will get his wish to split some French heads.

Couple of points: I'm not sure what Explorers turn into when captured, but the French will get them the moment they land unless the intention is for them to stick with the Army, and that may not be a bad idea.

We need to land that Army before pressing 'Enter' because we are vulnerable to Privateers and a French DOW; I suspect that's what that Caravel near our island is for - they could be just mapping the world, but I've never seen them do that with a Frigate escort before.

We have little in the way of protection on that island, so we need to get a few units over there. It's no real worry to temporarily lose a corrupt town, but getting it back is important as it will give Joanie some WW.

There's no real rush to get the next Army out, as it would be too risky sending it over to France while at war, so we should use cash for rushing two or three factories in our best cities. And we need Cavalry, as much as we can build.

Strategically, I would say continue at war until we are ready to send an invasion force. By that time we should have pillaged the French core. Give them peace just long enough to get the units over, then redeclare (reputation is of no importance at that stage) with an alliance with Inca.

From there, it's all over.

I hope TT can smell the scent of victory in the air - let's bring it home for him, boys!

 

[templar_x]

The last two sets have moved us into the last phase of the game, guys, and I doubt if templar will get his wish to split some French heads.

it could be Incan heads as well...

 

[DWetzel]

Yes: DEFINITELY DOW France before hitting enter. There are a LOT of units still to move, but the most important ones are our ships off the French coast.

Explorers act like Scouts when captured. In other words, if you can have an Explorer at that stage of the game, it's an explorer (which doesn't hurt us any); if you can't, it's a corpse. They should stay with the army (at turn's end; nothing to prevent them taking different paths DURING a turn!). I figure they'll be very handy in either pillaging out of the way places (and maybe being sacrificed in the process), or in just staying with the army and tearing the road system apart.

Remember, the explorers effectively have a move of 6 (with pillaging a tile costing three of those), so if there's a turn that the army stops to pillage (move-move-move-pillage, in any order), the explorers can do the same thing, veering slightly off course to tear up some of the adjoining road structure, and then they can hide back under the army at turn's end. If the army has nothing to pillage, that's also no problem: the explorers can act as wing-scouts to help FIND something, and still scurry back underneath.

Needless to say, they'll also be godsends if we run into some icky terrain, because they won't care about it. If we need to pillage something on a mountain, they're our boys.

I may be a little proud of this idea, but it should work EXCEPTIONALLY well for what we want it to do. And they're cheap, so if we have to gambit one or two or even all three of them away, well, don't feel bad about it.


Now, on that French caravel-frigate pair: My money is on a settler pair on the caravel. If it's not, it could be inconvenient. I did relocate a couple of units to the south island; we have two SMs, a medieval infantry, and a cannon or two down there, which maybe should be relocated to the center of the island. More importantly, I rushed a galleon down there; it should be possible to load a couple of cavs onto it next turn (if you move them down that way now) and have them unloaded on the south island. Properly done, we should not lose any cities unless we have some bad luck (though our margin IS pretty small).

 

[DWetzel]

sorry i didn´t see the post about the incense deal and didn´t mention it in mine - i had checked that deal somewhen around 5.30 a.m. and didn´t make it because we had no markets and without those i expected the effect would have been minimal... what it was. so i got some markets builds on the way (thought i could hide that i did as i was shouted at as the capitalist pig for it already )... sure i like the fact that you added a few more DWetzel.

Even our club-carrying grunts will appreciate the markets when we tell them they have something like 50-60 gpt more to rush more club-carriers with.

We probably even could lower the slider now with some creative accounting, but I adjudged it not worth the trouble if I was going to finish last night. I was flagging a bit as it was, and was very glad there wasn't a turn 11.

 

[templar_x]

ok, just had a last glimpse on the game. checked one thing and... now i in fact see a chance that this will take until i´m back. you´ll see why soon...

anyway, guys, good luck with this and see you in about 3 weeks.

 

[Bucephalus]

Roster update:

Since we are down to three active players, I guess that makes it you, Overseer. Are you able to take it?