Tupac05 - A Classic Replayed

[JJJSpider]

OK I got it and Played!!

Pre-turn
MM Mange to squeeze out couple more Gold
Shorten to a 1 turn Sword in Nuremburg

IBT:

Turn 1 (400AD):
Nuremberg -> Market
Not sure of the Rules on Galleys within Striking Distance But I demand Aztec to leave Complies
Tell India to leave or War he Chooses to Leave
Establish Busker in the South
eSword Kills LB (1-0)

IBT:
Japan Building SC

Turn 2 (410AD):
Kongsberg Knight -> Knight
Berlin on Settler For Last Spot on the Tip
Told Aztec (galley) and India (settler Pair) to Leave they Comply

IBT:

Turn 3 (420AD):
Brandenburg gets Diseased
Hamburg Worker -> Aqueduct
India Told to Leave or War (LorD) - Left.
eSword on Redlined Knight (2-0)

IBT:

Turn 4 (430AD):
India LorD - Left

IBT:
Knight Attacks Fort Knight on Mount. (3-0)

Turn 5 (440AD):
India LorD – Left
eSword Kills LB (4-0)
eSword kills LB (5-0)
Retreat Yellow knight
Sword Shadowing Russian Galley

IBT:

Turn 6 (450AD):
Establish Burdi On India Escape Point
India LorD – Left but to the Other side of the Peninsula Grr!

IBT:
Aztec Establish Teayo On the tip.

Turn 7 (460AD):
India LorD –Left
Berlin Settler -> Market
eSword Kills Redlined LB (6-0)
vSword Kills LB (7-0)
vKnight Kills LB (8-0)

IBT:
Knights attacks Loose Sword and Knight On Mount (8-2)
Kill LB vs Sword (9-2)

Turn 8 (470AD):
Kongsberg Knight - Knight
India LorD -Left
eSword Kills LB (10-2)

IBT:
France Building Copernicus

Turn 9 (480AD):
India LorD - Left

IBT:

Turn 10 (490AD):
India LorD – Left
2 vSwords Die Attacking Knights (10-4)
vKnight Kills Red Knight (11-4)
vKnight kills Knight Promotes (12-4)
vSword kills LB (13-4)

Russia kept coming from several directions. Making it Difficult to Mount an Offensive so it became more like leader fishing with no results.
Kept the India Cats over on that front because I was afraid with all the Leave or Declares. I didn’t want to Leave us completely defenseless on that side.
I thought Nuremburg could use the Market before an Aqueduct feel free to change.

Russian Front

View attachment 137963

 

[markh]

As vind2 asked for a skip this puts me up, I guess.

 

[markh]

I played 5 turns so far and just got a leader. I stopped to discuss with the team what to do with him. Army or FP ? If we want the FP, where do we want it ?
Just for your information we are at war with Russia, France, America and Japan at the moment.

 

[JJJSpider]

Interesting.
I think if Sun Tzu is still not built. I think I probably go with that or the FP.
An Army is nice but I think we will pop another Leader hopefully.

 

[tupaclives]

Ouch thats a lot of enemies..., i guess we could end up playing another AWE ay Markh .

Hmm, a leader. We had the same problem back in Tupac02, what to do with him? Army, Wonder, or FP (except then it was an actual palace)? If the opportunity to build Sun Tzu's is there take it. If not then definately FP. Where do we want it? I'm not sure without having time to examine the save carefully. My only thoughts are to place it somewhere to the west of Berlin, maybe further north nearer the top of the peninsula (bremen maybe?) so that when we expand into some of that cleared jungle later its very productive.

My choices Wonder -> FP -> Army

Go Markh!

 

[markh]

Ouch thats a lot of enemies..., i guess we could end up playing another AWE ay Markh .

Yupp, looks like that. We definitely need to hurt somebody seriously soon. These oscillating wars are not good. There is no space left to expand, so the AIs will build much more military now and it will get very difficult to stand it. Our position in the middle of the continent does not make it easier.

Sun Tzu has been built last turn or the turn before by Joanie. Leo's is also gone. So these are not an option. FP it will be. I would appreciate if somebody could have a look, too where to place it. Will continue in a few hours.

 

[markh]

Ok, here it is.

Turn 0 : looks good, hit enter

IBT : some Russian knights suicide in the mountains, we lose one sword
France wants some gold and territory map, we decline and we are at war with Joanie

Leipzig : sword -> sword
Heidelburg : sword -> sword
Nuremberg : market -> knight
Busker : worker -> cat

Turn 1 : 500AD : boot order to Gandhi
esword kills Russian spear at Konigsberg
eknight kills Russian knight
eknight kills Russian spear at Vladivostok
esword kills Russian knight
sword kills Russian longbow

IBT : nothing

Stuttgart : pike -> lib
New Berlin : harbor -> rax

Turn 2 : 510AD : boot order to Gandhi
knight kills spear and we take Vladivostok, netting us two slaves

IBT : France allies America against us
Salzburg : pikeman -> lib
Potsmith : sword -> worker
Orleans completes Sun Tzu

Turn 3 : 520AD : boot order to Gandhi
esword kills knight at Rostov
lose 3 swords on the attack on Rostov

IBT : lose a sword, one sword retreats a Russian knight
Konigsberg : knight -> knight
Mid Jungle : worker -> worker

Turn 4 : 530AD : boot order to Gandhi
sword attacks wounded knight at Rostov and loses

IBT : Marseilles completes Leo's
Chittagong completes : The Great Lighthouse

Turn 5 : 540AD : boot order to Gandhi
boot order to Japan and he declares war on us
eknight kills Japanese archer and gets us a leader

IBT : a knight at Vladivostok kills a Russian longbow and knight on defense
Munich : market -> longbow

Turn 6 : 550AD : boot order to Gandhi
rush FP in Bremen, looks like the best city currently

IBT: the first American knights appear in the West
Leipzig : sword -> sword
Frankfurt : sword -> sword
Heidelburg : sword -> sword
Cologne : sword -> sword
Bremen : FP -> rax
Bonn : cat -> cat
Portsmith : worker -> worker
New Hamburg : cat -> rax

Turn 7 : 560AD : boot order to Gandhi
just moving units

IBT : Nuremberg : knight -> knight

Turn 8 : 570AD : boot order to Gandhi
sword retreats Japanese horseman
eknight kills Russian spearman

IBT : lose one sword in Bactra, two American knights retreat on the second sword
knight kills Japanese archer on defense
Berlin : market -> settler
Portsmith : worker -> sword
New Berlin : rax -> pike
New Leipzig : cat -> rax

Delhi completes Sistine's
Kiev complete Copernicu's

Turn 9 : 580AD : boot order to Gandhi
sword kills Japanese archer
sword kills Japanese archer
eknight kills Russian spear at Riga
sword kills Russian spear and Riga is ours

IBT : lose a knight on defense
lose a sword and with his death Bactra
Gunpowder comes in -> chemistry

We have 2 salpeter ressources in our territory, but unconnected

Konigsberg : knight -> knight
Hannover : pike -> sword
Dortmund : cat -> rax

Miami completes Magellan's

Turn 10 : 590AD : boot order to Gandhi
esword kills Russian knight
knight kills Russian knight and promotes elite
knight loses to Russian knight
eknight kills Japanese archer
esword loses to Russian pike
eknight kills Russian pike

Hopefully Russia dials up soon. It will difficult to fight in all directions. I tried to get Rostov, but was a little unlucky.

 

[tupaclives]

Looks like another well played set in difficult circumstances. Vind2 should be up next so we'll wait the full 72 before skipping unless he says otherwise. I haven't got time to examine the save but I think that we definately have to hope Russia wants a chat pretty bloody soon. I think we also need to try and get more cities than just nuremburg building knights. If we avoid Education (i don't know if we've got it alreay) then I would not be averse to a Great Library slingshot if its doable. If its not then don't worry we'll find a way to do what needs to be done regardless but I'm going to say no if it is a viable option. I think we need to try and get a knight army soon if we get another leader. Although we are short on knights if we slap a knight army in a city its safe from attack until tanks.

 

[markh]

We have not researched education. We even do not have theology. We went the lower path and I set research to chemistry. We have some salpeter sources, so we should speed up to military tradition. Who has built the GL ? Was the GL-slingshot within the rules ? Maybe I mix up.

BTW I really would not like to see cossacks, so we somehow have to hurt Cathy. Even if we make peace soon I do not think that peace will last very long.

 

[JJJSpider]

I know India has the GLB not sure of the city name. But when I went to check for it once it was still in the FOG.

BTW happy anniversary of the Faked Death of Tupac.

 

[tupaclives]

We have not researched education. We even do not have theology. We went the lower path and I set research to chemistry. We have some salpeter sources, so we should speed up to military tradition. Who has built the GL ? Was the GL-slingshot within the rules ? Maybe I mix up.
I have to apologise here, thank you Markh! Of course the GL-slingshot is against the rules! I completely forgot we are defiant and therefore every city captures must burn.

BTW I really would not like to see cossacks, so we somehow have to hurt Cathy. Even if we make peace soon I do not think that peace will last very long.

I agree, although Cossacks aren't that much nastier than regular cavalry, however if we haven't got the chance to build any real infra by the time the AI reaches cavalry we could be in serious trouble. At least we'll get nationalism straight away when we reach the Industrial Age.

 

[JJJSpider]

I thought we Could keep Cities.
We all ready Kept Bactra from the Persia.
I just went back and re read the rules it does not say we can't keep a city
So the GLB is doable.

Edit:
Actually that line of destroying cites is crossed out.

 

[markh]

Damn, I forgot about the city-burn-rule. The next player has to abandon Riga and Vladivostok. They did no harm as they are corrupt anyway and we have not built anything in it. Sorry. I am beginning to lose track on the rules in this game.

 

[tupaclives]

Ack, went back and read the rules, we can keep cities, that part of defiant has been removed yes GLB-slingshot is doable. And we don't need to abandon cities.

This is embarrasing, I can't even keep track of the rules in my own game

Oh well its sorted now

 

[tupaclives]

Ok looks I'll pick up the save then. I won't be able to play for about 24 hours though so if vind2 posts that he's picked it up before then, then he can go ahead and play. If not

roster

Markh - just played
vind2 - skipped
tupaclives - UP
JJJ Spider - on deck

 

[tupaclives]

Pre-turn

I can't figure out what Berlin's settler is intended for so Berlin goes to knights everything else looks pretty good. Lux can go to 0%
Hit enter

IBT - 4 American knights show up on our west, they decide to pick off a vet sword (0-1). A host of Japanese archers + a longbow and samuari as well as two french knights make an appearance at our north. Russian knights show up at Riga,
Things look bad.

Turn 1 - this could be a disaster, our crap-apults fail to even scratch the surface of the american knights and we could be in for some big losses in the interturn there, an elite knight kills a japenese archer (1-1) (part of a stack of 2, don't want to expose valuable knights) and wins but no leader. No other sensible attacks possible. Give india the boot order and they comply.
Things look bad.

IBT - lose 2 swords and kill 1 american knight (2-3), kill 1 japanese archer (he redlined a fortified full health elite knight...) (3-3). More frogs, japs, yanks and ruskies show up. I'll repeat.
Things look bad.

Turn 2 - Kill 5 american knights for no loss (8-3). Do what I can with our limited cats and kill a french knight, a jap spear and a french spear (with a pike!) (11-3).
Numbers are thin for us everywhere. We have spare cash so the knight builds in konigsberg and berlin are rushed.
There's still plenty of nasties who i wouldn't have a hope of killing... apprehensive going into this interturn.
Things look bad.

IBT - Lose a sword to an american knight, lose and elite sword to a french knight (11-5) the japs leave... i have no idea why... A huge russian force shows up at riga (about 7 knights, its a goner) as well as a French Army! (3 archers)

Turn 3 - Berlin builds a knight... and doesnt have a barracks. I'm furious at myself for missing that. Konigsberg also builds a knight, swords and other small fry finish here and there.

I'm staring at this mess and its not good. I don't know how bad it was in Markh's turns but its bloody terrible now. We don't have enough forces to hold the line, at least not for long. Brandenburg, Vladivistok, Riga, maybe Hannover are all doomed in the next few turns unless something drastic happens. You want to know how bad things are? We have been at war most of the game, haven't stopped building mil virtualy everywhere and... F3 says we are weak compared to france. Thats just the tip of the iceberg too, we are waaay to overstretched. We expanded too hard.

I'll see what I can do.

I start by disbanding our russian workers at riga, why? Because there is 0% chance of their survival and I want to deny russia two workers.
Vladivistok has 1 sword defending it and is up against 3 russian knights and a few french swords. 0% chance of survival so it is abandoned. The sword heads to brandenburg. I'm throwing all our eggs into 1 basket there hoping we can break the back of the enemy forces.
Things look bad

IBT - Japan dials us up!!!!!!!

In my excitement it seems the screenshot i took was of me typing this report on Internet explorer. I must have been too eagre to come here and write it down I took an incorrect screenshot. Apologies, it won't happen again.

I say yes thanks! The most i can get from them though is 22gp and a territory map. Oh well its 1 enemy down. We aren't safe though. France is the big one.
Lose a pike and kill a french knight (12-6). The russians and french are all coming for brandenburg and hannover. Can we defend it? Probably not.

Turn 4 - bombard and kill an american knigth with an esword but no leader. Kill a french knight with a vet knight (14-6). Flawlessly kill a french sword with an eknight but no leader (a leader, and thus an army, would guarantee security to whatever city he was in). Take a deep breath and hope for the best.
Things look vbad.

IBT - The french march straight past brandenburg... they have taken the bait of the undefended hannover, just as the russians have. Aha!

Turn 5 - walls are finished in brandenburg and hannover. Lets see if this can make a difference. Kill a french sword (15-6) and get a bunch of cats to the two salients of brandenburg and hannover.
Things look bad and it is about to get ugly.

IBT - Or maybe not, now with walls the French and Russians decide that they'd rather not tackle either city after all. They both head further south toward our iron source and the city of konigsberg (defended by just 2 warriors). We do lose a vet knight at hannover however as an elite russian knight thinks that he should stay (15-7).

Turn 6 - A brilliant piece of luck with mming, thanks to growthrichland (supposed to be reichland?) can ditch the worked irrigiated desert without losing a single uncorrupted commerce or unwasted shield and the scientist created drops research by 1turn. Nice.
Kill a russian longbow with an esword and get a leader! Vnice
Richtoffen immediately forms an army. Filling it will be the hard part. It will be a knight army however. I do manage to scrape together 3 knigths though. It was costly but hopefully will be worth it, jsut a shame this isnt conquests or we'd be set now. The army has a vet knight, a reg knight and an elite knight* in it. kill 2 french swords with an eknight (don't get a second leader) and a sword (1/4) (18-7). Kill an american archer and knight (20-7) and then our army deals the finishing blow to a redlined french sword (21-7) obviously we don't start HE though, the 200 shields would be much better served with 3 knights. Our next leader should rush the HE unless there is a better wonder available.
Things don't look so bad anymore. Hit enter.

IBT - nothing bad happens at all. A change, no new nasties show up either. I may be able to keep this under wraps.

Turn 7 - bombard all i can, then decide we have to take a few risks. Flawlessly kill a russian knight on a mountain (was bombarded down to 2hp) with a sword. (22-7). Then decide to risk our knight army against France's archer army... and are victorious losing 2 hp (25-7).

also kill a russian lb with an esword but no leader (26-7) kill 2 french swords with elite units but no leaders. A sword goes to mid jungle to help defend it from the french knight but no movement points left to counterattack. the reg archer counterattacks and knocks off 2 hp before dying but also promotes the knight. (26-8) Prepare to lose a sword but we should be otherwise solid, hopefully mid-jungle will hold.

IBT - Russia finally talks!

Result! Not only that but if we throw in just 50gp and a world map cathy will hand over chemistry. Thats nice.
With no russians to kill the sword we don't lose it and the sword at mid-jungle goes 4hp, 3hp, 2hp, 1hp, 1hp, 1hp, 1hp promotion!!! Rock on sword mate

Turn 8 - Research goes to mettalurgy in 18 turns. Kill 2 french swords with swords (28-8) then kill 1 with an eknight and get a second leader!

60 gold is spent so that konigsberg's knight finishes next turn, then i'll rush the HE. Kill another french sword (at hannover) with a vsword and he becomes an esword (30-8). Our army kills 2 more (32-8) but will now definately have to spend a turn or two healing. Unit costs are killing us so anywhere with unnecessary mp's gets them disbanded. Kill 1 more french sword with a vsword and now our lands are free of foreign filth, if only for a very brief period.

Its getting late here so I will finish the turnset tomorrow. My apologies, it hasn't been the succesful turnset I would've liked. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a bit more luck when I play the last three turns.

 

[markh]

It seems you had a lot of fun. and well played. Good luck for tomorrow.

 

[Vind2]

Nice set of turns, I'm ready to step back into the roster.

 

[tupaclives]

Turn 8 (cont) - set McHamburger to walls and rush for 24gp.

IBT - first thing that happens is America dials us up

if i even add 1gp it becomes 'almost' so I decide that, as we have no idea how long till they next call us up, we should just take peace now. So i sign peace with America. Only one opponent now...

As expected French knights head for McHamburger.

Turn 9 - with our western front now secure I take the opportunity to switch a few cities around the FP to markets. If we don't get our economy up and running properly then all the cavalry in the world won't save us. Kill 2 French swords, and a knight (35-8). Rush build the HE in Konigsberg.
Prepare to lose a sword on the counter.

IBT - France dials us up!!!!!!!!!

Yahooo!!!!!!!!!!!!

We sign peace getting 19gp and a world map. The world looks like this.

Turn 10 - youch... we get riots in Berlin because of the lost war hapiness, scroll ahead to prevent any further riots.
Konigsberg completes the Heroic Epic.

Berlin goes to wealth (upping the lux tax to 10% puts us at deficit), everywhere goes infra, Konigsberg temple (biggest city, the growth that will happen soon will make it unhappy) etc.

I decided to play 11 turns so that we are at a nice even year number (700AD instead of 690AD).


IBT - America comes asking to trade world maps. I renogotiate and have a brainstorm. I really shouldn't be doing this without first consulting the team but I decide that we have to move while the opportunity exists (and people are talking to us!).
I trade America our only source of iron, and our only connected saltpeter (we have another source but it isnt connected) and incense for Mettallurgy Silks, 55gp and a world map.

America: Iron (our only source) + Saltpeter (our only connected source) + Incesne (1 of 3 lots) for Mettallurgy + Silks+ World Map + 55gp.
Research automatically goes to Mil Trad in 30 turns.

Turn 11 - MM all cities and get Mil Trad in 26 turns at + 17gpt, we can run at all cities happy with no specialists at 0% lux tax thanks to the extra luxury. Given that we can hook up our second source of saltpeter and still produce muskets for defence, and just build horses for an eventual upgrade to cavalry when mil trad comes in I consider the trade a sensible one. Hopefully you'll all agree.

Notes for Next Player:

India still has that blasted settler pair in our territory. I've been blockading him in an unoccupied tile for my whole turnset but the workers have finished their jobs there so can't be used to blockade them any more. They aren't at move or declare yet but when we get there we could have another war on our hands. Maybe look at getting a unit in that unoccupied tile so that they either declare or move out of our territory properly.
We desperately need infrastructure. I can't stress that enough, markets, libs, ducts and granaries are so important now. The next player can review my choices of infra for various cities if they wish. there is a settler and pike on go to to reclaim the area of vladivistok (which I was forced to abandon rather than risk losing earlier in the turnset) and the dye source there.
Once Mil trad comes in I think we should cut research off and store cash for cat-cannon upgrades and horse + knight - cavalry upgrades and pike-musket upgrades. We can then use the GL slingshot to get ourselves back on par with these antisocial bastards we're up against.

That strategy is very open to change though, if you think we are better off going for self-research, or think the GL-slingshot too cheesey then we'll just give it a miss.

Also if theres no objections id like vind2 to play the next turnset so that he doesnt miss 2 rounds in a row. This would make the order of play this

tupaclives - just played
vind2
JJJSpider
Markh
vind2
tupaclives
JJJSpider
... continue regular roster.

Thats if thats alrite with everyone else.

Good luck to the next player
here's the save

 

[markh]

Nicely done, tupac. Next round of war will get ugly. They will dial up much later then.

GL slingshot seems to be a good idea. I think this variant is tough enough to allow us to use it.