Turn Session: August 5th

[Vandal Warlord]

OK, we have a lot to cover during this TS-

Military:
Our Military is going to be the main focus, we have plenty of infantry waiting to be promoted. My main concern, however, is that we have been garrisoning our cities with weak warriors and putting archers in the field. On that note, I think we need to switch the warriors for the archers. That way Coppack and Babylograd are a much more protected.

Babylograd is another matter. We have only a single warrior inside the city with a barb. city nearby. We need to upgrade the archer in the north to city defender and get him down ASAP. I don't want to lose our capital city.

As for the Barb. cities, I think we need to shoot out axemen and go on the offensive. Otherwise we give the barbarians the advantage.

Espionage:
{Taken from Past TS} We need to adjust ep’s, Joao’s ep score increased this turn and we lost his demographics but we are in 8th or 9th place for every important demographic (our highest score is territory – 6th place)

But here are our rivals in rank of score and their number of cities
Inca with Joao II – 3
Egypt with Julius Caesar - 3
Summeria with Tokugawa – 5
Portugal with Zara Yakob – 5
Ottomans with Boudica – 4
Aztecs with Brennus – 4
Rome with Pericles – 4
Germany with Genghis Khan – 5
Us - 2

Production:
As 1889 stated earlier, Axe rush in Babylograd is an option, otherwise it's 5 turns.

Technology:
{From Past TS} Iron working in 10 but at 100% science we are -2 gpt with 59 gold in the bank, 80% holds steady so we have gold for random events

 

[1889]

With barbarian spears already spawning you can pretty well forget about the warriors as military units. If we don't need them to keep down unhapiness in the cities then lets just disband them and save the gold. But at least for this TC our real units will be too busy fighting to stay permanently in the cities. I say keep warriors on garrison duty for a while longer.

Also I'd expect to see barbarian axes soon. Archers are our best defence against those but we don't have anyway of attacking them. I think if we move fast we can retake Dom which means crank out axes for right now.

 

[1889]

Played yet Vandal?

 

[Vandal Warlord]

Sorry I'm late- Here is what happened-

1250 BC
-Archer attacked Axe (Axe Victory)
-Wounded Axe in Coppack Promoted, renamed Black Horde.
1225 BC
-Black Horde healed and heads for Don
-Barabarian city in North found (Hittite)
1200 BC
-Black Horde stops in Bablyograd
1175
-Bablyograd is Attacked
-Black Horde defeats two Spears
-JUDAISM spreads to Coppack
1150 BC
NONE
1125 BC
NONE
1100 BC
NONE
1075 BC
NONE
1050 BC
-Found Rome
-Found Sumeria
-Reached Dom, renamed Visigoth
1025 BC
-Judaism spreads to Bablyograd
1000 BC
-Iron Working FINISHED (No Visible IRON)

I started Masonry as a placeholder.
Esp. Points not changed due to new findings and Judaism spreading.
Both cities have Judaism.
10 turns completed.

 

[civplayah]

Okay, that's pretty good. When's the next session?

 

[1889]

Wow, I really don’t understand this map; with everyone starting on one continent I’m surprised at how much space is available.

It’s nice to have a religion but I wish it Buddhism. I’d recommend not making it a state religion yet but we can research the techs to build temples (or we can research alphabet and maybe trade for them) on the other hand with no visible iron we should probably try to get those horses so horseback riding may be nice.

Visigoth is protected by 3 barbarian archers I think we can get 4 axmen in position during the next TC do you think that is sufficient force?

I'm still travelling so I can't play until about the 20th.

 

[1889]

I’d like to play the turn August 26th, I hope that gives everyone (all 3 of you) time to post your comments. I can delay it until the weekend if you prefer.

We would all like to take Visigoth (formerly Don) back from the barbs, but that would take quite an effort for us right now. It is defended with 3 archers but in 8 turns we can have 4 city raider axes at the gates. Each has about a 66% chance of success, so that plan may be a bit rash at the moment considering that barbarian threats that keep popping up.

There is still plenty of good land so maybe expanding toward the coast is a better idea right now. We don’t see any Iron yet but we can start getting horses connected at site D.

In the mean time we can build cottages and repair our economy (currently last place).

Technology is another difficult choice, horseback riding will be necessary for horse archers (27 turns), math (27 turns) can get us one step closer to plantations and catapults (45 turns each) but our best bet might be alphabet and a chance to trade for some techs (32 turns).

 

[1889]

975 AD
Science at 70% start alphabet
Scout moves to explore Germany
Archer near Rome comes back to fog bust near site D
Worker starts cottage near Babylograd

950 AD
Ghengis Khan of Germany demands we cancel deals with Romans (open borders). In order to preserve good relations with our southern neighbor I agree.

925 AD
Espionage adjusted
Workers finish cottage and begin road to north.

900 AD
Barbarian archer appears to north.
Axeman reinforces workers.

875 AD
Babylograd finishes axe, starts settler.
Workers finish road starts to chop jungle near Coppack.

850 AD
Worker begins mine near Coppack (small chance to discover iron right?)
Worker begins victory road south back towards Visigoth.
Scout enters Germany

825 AD
Nothing

800 AD
Nothing

775 AD
Nothing

750 AD
Barbarian archer tries to pillage cottage, cut down by axeman.
Start cottage near Babylograd.

725 AD
Oracle built far away.
Brenus, and Zara convert to Judaism.

700 AD
A barbarian steps outside Visigoth to vanquish someone. The injured archer is in woods but our axe still has a 99% chance. We have 3 more axes 4 turns away, maybe we can get it back ahead of schedule.



Boudica and Caesar have beaten us to Alphabet (we are still 27 turns away) and we have nothing to trade.

I’ll play the next turn set Tuesday August 31st if there are no objections.

I think we are finally secure, but our economy still sucks. Our GDP is 31 which was set to put us in 8th place but someones cottages must have grown because we’re still number 9. We need more people. Hopefully with Alphabet we can get meditation and priesthood.

 

[1889]

700 BC
Axeman kills barb archer but is heavily wounded.

675 BC
Workers begin roads near Babylograd.

650 BC
Barb archer attacks wounded axeman and dies! Just one left in Visigoth.

625 BC
Recapture Visigoth (renamed Don) 4 turns of anarchy.
Barbarian archer spotted NE.

600 BC
Nothing

575 BC
Coppack finishes axeman and grows to max pop, starts worker.
Worker finishes cottage near Coppack.

550 BC
Babylograd finishes settler, starts library.
Settler heads north to settle coastal horses.
Warrior disbanded to cut costs.

525 BC
Borders of Don expand, starts monument.
Germany mapped, scout heads west into wilderness.

500 BC
Delete other warrior.

485 BC
Workers continue roads to site Don, site D and coastal horses.

470 BC
New city founded on coast – Port Knyaza.


Think we should trade iron working to Genghis for fishing. It’s a rip off but it preempts German extortion and everybody else already has it. Also our borders now touch Germany so that will lead to some hard feelings at some point. At the moment our power is about the same but he has Iron and much higher production so look out.

Here are some notes on the international situation
From highest to lowest score are the leaders/civilizations, their direction from us, number of cities, and attitude toward us.


Joao II/Inca SE 6 cities cautious
Julius/Egypt NW 4 cities cautious
Tokugawa/Sumeria E 8 cities cautious
Pericles/Rome NE ? cautious but wont talk to us
Zara/Portugal ? 8 cities pleased
Brennus/Aztec ? 7 cities cautious
Boudica/Ottoman ? 5 cities cautious
Genghis/Germany S 7 cities cautious
Us 4 cities


I'd like to play the next set this weekend, Saturday the 5th.

Coppack can build a spear or chariot next, Babylograd will make another worker. We need to start working more cottages and fewer mines. It'll be good for our economy but we can't yet handle the unhappiness without converting to Judaism which will hasten a German invasion. Hopefully Buddhism spreads to Don soon.

 

[civplayah]

5th sounds good.

 

[1889]

470 BC
Traded iron working to Genghis for fishing

455 BC
Workers start cottage in Don

440 BC
Scout begins exploring Egypt

425 BC
Egyptian settler spotted heading East
Buddhist missionary heading toward Don
Pasture finished at Port Knyaza, we have horses

410 BC
Judaism spreads to Port Knyaza
Buddhism spreads to Don
1 turn of anarchy, Buddhism is state religion
Workers chop jungle near Port Knyaza
Archer begins long trek out to site C

395 BC
Scouts locate Portugal West of Egypt

380 BC
Workers begin cottage near Don

365 BC
Coppack finishes worker starts chariot
Workers start cottage near Port Knyaza
Science bumped to 70%

350 BC
Workers start cottage near Babylograd

335 BC
Cottages completed near Don and Port Knyaza
Archer reaches site C

320 BC
Cottage started near Don
Locate Egyptian city on a hill near site C

GNP is starting to move now, we have moved up to 8th place.

In order to exploit Buddhism we need missionaries, so when we finish Alphabet next turn I suggest Meditation (6 turns) and then maybe rushing a monastery in Don.

Already religion is paying off for us, Joao and Genghis are now pleased with us, whew! Pericles and Caesar are now the ones to keep a close eye on especially Pericles who hates us for canceling open borders when Genghis demanded. Both are more powerful than Germany but they are less aggressive and farther away.

Our next settler will probably be built in Babylograd after the Library with a forest chop (about 15 turns from now). Site C may no longer be viable but there are still lots of good land up there and attacking Egypt may not be out of the question. Our axes will do well against his spears and taking that city now can really slow him down. Also although he has iron his manufacturing is not so great. Risky but possibly a rewarding gambit.


Joao 7 cities SE open border Buddhist pleased
Tokugawa 10 cities E none Buddhist cautious
Brennus 8cities ? open border Hindu annoyed
Caesar 6 cities NW open border Jewish cautious
Pericles 6 cities NE none Jewish cautious
Zara 8 cities W open border Jewish cautious
Genghis 8 cities SW open border Buddhist pleased
Boudica 5 cities ? open border Hindu cautious
Us 4 cities Buddhist

 

[1889]

I'm sure we could take that city from Egypt and we'll have to go to war at some point but at this point I think we should hold off. It is unlikely Caesar would agree to a quick peace after we take one of his cities and we really don't have any way of dealing with a long war right now. I'll move a pair of axemen up north for a quick strike if we choose to do that later but for right now I'll look for expansion opportunities in the lands to our West.

Next turn Friday 10th.

 

[1889]

320 BC
Move axmen toward North in case we want to attack Egypt.

305 BC
Joao demands we cancel deals with Brennus, “Yes, Sir!” is our reply.
Finish Alphabet, 3 guys don’t have it yet but Brennus won’t talk and Tokugawa and Joao won’t offers us zip, so start Meditation (5 turns).

230 BC
Finish Meditation, trade it to Caesar for Priesthood



Didn’t take as many notes this turn but here are the highlights.

Egypt and Germany have pretty well boxed us up in the West. There is still room to expand East but its not quite as good. There is a whole nuther continent of barbarians to conquer though so might as well give that a try.

We finished Alphabet but couldn’t make any trades. We finished Meditation and managed to trade it for Preisthood, but what next?

• If we study math (13 turns) we can build catapults and maybe take out that mountaintop barb village. It also leads to calendar (23 turns) so we can hook up our bananas and spice.
• Or we can get started on metal casting (26 turns) which leads to machinery (49) and crossbows, pretty much our only offensive weapons without iron, also necessary steps to Optics and the new world.

Because of our lack of growth our economy is firmly back in last place. Don will finish the monument next turn and start the Buddhist monastery, Babylograd just finished the library and can build a settler I suppose.

Here are our opponents in order of score.
Joao/Inca 7 cities SE open border Buddhist pleased
Tokugawa/Summer 10 cities E none Buddhist cautious
Zara/Portugal 9 cities W open border Jewish cautious
Caesar/Egypt 6 cities NW open border Jewish cautious
Brennus/Aztec 8 cities W none Hindu annoyed
Pericles/Rome 7 cities NE none Jewish cautious
Genghis/Germany 9 cities SW open border Buddhist pleased
Boudica/Ottomans 5 cities ? open border Hindu cautious
Us 4 cities Buddhist

 

[1889]

(crickets chirping)...Well okay thats what I'll do then and good luck to us. I'll play a round this weekend but how about if I submit this to the strategy thread and give the folks there a chance to wegh in?

 

[1889]

Bad news guys. The input from the strategy thread was worse than expected, I won't be playing this weekend. I'm done here, see you all in Civ V.

 

[1889]

Good news guys! Its summer vacation and I've got time to dust this dog off and give it another shot. Basically the way I see it war mongering is our only chance to catch up, we just need to figure out they best strategy for us to fight our way back into the lead without being crushed by our stronger neighbors. It’s sure to be a challenging and exciting prospect and I'm certain you will never forgive yourself if you miss it.

Next turn set Tuesday night, May 31st.

 

[1889]

Started a new thread for our glorius summer of conquest. Click here to visit the Turn Session: Summer 2011 http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=10548674#post10548674.