VQ07 - Snakes on Pangea!!

[eektor]

Maybe I was wrong, but I thought it would be good to focus on getting libraries and courthouses than taking out three Chinese cities which would best be razed.

Hopefully later on, the cities will be cleared of the jungle and have improvements which we would be able to take and keep a nice city.

Either way we had no reinforcements coming since all the cities were building libraries when I got the game and I wanted courthouses after we got CoL, so a good break to finish them later wouldn't hurt us or make them stronger.

Well if Beijing can't be added to the first snake, then I guess the only way we can expand the first snake is to raze some Japanese cities and plant our own.

 

[bobrath]

Yes Beijing is a blocker. We have two snakes right now - Rostov and Shanghai. Nanjing and Beijing are blockers. I haven't looked at the save, but Armstrong mentioned he had modified the city names to indicate the head positions.

We can raize Japanese cities or just capture another one and start up our third snake. I pretty much figure that from here on out the only real restriction left in our way is that we can't found a new city unless it somehow fits in an approved "next head" spot. We're free to expand and capture to our hearts content. I learned this from the previous predetermined city placement variant. We got bent over far too often by AI choices of city location.

 

[GreyFox]

Maybe I was wrong, but I thought it would be good to focus on getting libraries and courthouses than taking out three Chinese cities which would best be razed.

:brightens up: .... Did I smell something .... N .. A .. R .. A .... ?




Fair enough.

-

 

[eektor]

:brightens up: .... Did I smell something .... N .. A .. R .. A .... ?

Actually we have a city right now that might incur the wrath of bob (a possible Nara). Not so good when this snake game is supposed to be a perfect city placement and it's his idea.

 

[bobrath]

I'm not listening.

la la la la la la la la

 

[Maquis]

I got it, playing now. I'll get the turnset up in the morning (+/-12 hrs from now)

 

[eektor]

Sorry this is late

Turn 1: 425 AD
Nanjing starts building Theatre
Mao sent an archer out of Beijing. (Nice!)

Turn 2: 450 AD
Buddhism spread to Nanjing.

Turn 3: 475 AD
The Battle of Beijing begun.
Swordman won with 18% odds.
Lost a swordman. Axeman won. Spearman won. Axeman won.
Beijing conquered and kept.



Turn 4: 500 AD
Code of Laws -> Metal Casting

Turn 5: 520 AD
Found the new Chinese capital of Guangzhou and another Chinese city of Xian. The cities were undeveloped surrounded by jungle. I decided to make peace with the Chinese to build the economy a bit and assimilate the new Chinese cities into our empire.

Turn 6: 540 AD
Traded fur for fish with Fred.

Turn 8: 580 AD
Rostov: Library -> Courthouse

Turn 9: 600 AD
Great Lighthouse built.
St. Peter: GL -> Taoist Temple (to be able to grow St. Peter one more population point)
Beijing: Theatre
Parthenon was built far away.

I decided to stop here since it was a nice round number and there is 320 turns left.

We might want to consider converting to Buddhism. Toku, Fred, and Hatty are Buddhist.



our newly acquired cities



as you can see beijing fits onto our first snake nicely.

 

[bobrath]

Heh, of course the AI would do something sneaky like that! Anyway, heads are still where they're marked.

Nice progress eektor.

 

[Maquis]

Well I played my turns, and it mostly was a builder's turnset (Not that I minded!)

A few highlights:

Nappy came a-calling, and demanded CoL. Nope buddy, not this time.

A couple turns later he asks to trade Monarchy for the same thing. I decide to do this, as we have several wines we can hook up. I did not revolt to HR

Learned Metal Casting, and then chose Machinery next. I think having crossbows will be great for the next war, to finish off China.

Out peace treaty w/ China expired late in my turns, so we are "free" to re-declare. I also saw a Chinese settler plop another city down south by the rice that is on the coast there. There's now three cities to the south that can be razed/captured.


Sorry for the lack of screenshots, I was playing this on my PC under Vista, and I didn't realize there's some graphics glitches that seem to be happening when taking screenshots... sorry about that.


The save:

 

[bobrath]

I guess that means I'm next. Will be playing tonight, so still time for thoughts and questions.

 

[bobrath]

First off, thanks for all the helpful..... oh wait.


Near the start of my turns, I was informed that well.. Snakes have very little culture:

We did finish up Machinery and are currently three turns out on Feudalism (other AI's have this). Worked out that Freddy researched Machinery, so I quickly traded with Hatty to pick up Lit, Currency, and some gold:

Didn't bother to trade with Ghandi (all we could get would be Feudalism and/or horses). Didn't want to improve his defenses beyond the longbows he already had. Well he finished research on it the next turn.

Napoleon did not have Monotheism and was willing to pay us 150g for it. Since everyone else in the world had this... well it helped us research that much faster.

I did deny Ghandi's early request for Open Borders. This limits his trading and economy so we need to keep him as isolated as possible.

I revolted to HR right away. Makes Hatty happy and helped with some unhappy in the former chinese cities. I'm also running 10% culture to keep our borders pushing out. We already lost the northern iron to Ghandi and I'd like to keep Japan's borders at bay.

Kong Miao and Hanging Gardens were built in other lands during my turns. I'm finishing up a forge now in our Great Lighthouse city so that we can also drop the colossus there.

We do need to get our defense/offense up, so next player should probably consider building units in our more productive cities.

Oh yeah and Mao asked for currency to "patch the gap between our nations"... bwa ha ha.

Quick snapshot of the important stuff at end of my turn:

and the save file:

 

[GreyFox]

I think its my turn to be all sneaky and snaky again ... Got it, playing, report will be in tomorrow noon time (San Diego time).

 

[GreyFox]

Diplomacy is Snaky Business

Apart from some early MM'ing trying to balance out growth, production, and research (I don't understand the rationale behind the 10% culture slide. The only cultural pressure significant enough to warrant that is the chinese border, and that, my hissing friends, has a simpler solution -- kill the Chinese. They eat snakes. So kill them ), the rest of my turns are all enaged in trading and diplomacy.

Gandhi came asking for trade:

Sorry, buddybaldy, I would not help solve your overcrowding-induced happiness problem ... and thank you, but my snakes are all healthy.

Then I decided to up the selling price of our spices to Toku from 3gpt to 4.

Well, the baldy has a never-say-die attitude:

Ha, if you had save yourself all those illusionary daydreaming, perhaps you would grow some more hair!

Later on, I get bored, and decided to pay Mao a visit:

Heh, walk back home with 120 gold richer. Thank you very much. Arigato Gozaimasu. Doh Jey. Xie Xie. Merci. Danke. Mahalo ... emm... wait, we are supposed to be Russian ... Spasiba. more like it.

Then, toku decided to do a copycat and try the same trick ... on us

Ha, trying to teach your father how to f--k, eh? I had him tuck his tails between his legs and go scrambling off somewhere else.

End turn, decided to trade Hatty wine instead of fur, and so I cancel the fur for 5gpt and get this:

---

Now if you look at the log at the end, I have been building us cats. This is in preparation for the learning of Civil Service which should come in next turn. When that does, time to go all maces. Also, two workers are supposed in position to chain farm .. we have a city that is stagnant at size 3 that will not do. I just hope that we can chain-farm from a non-irgated wheat.

Also, I have moved some forces down south ... next player feel free to end Mao of his misery.

>>> The Snake at 1100AD <<<

Spoiler log :

Turn 0 - 1000AD:
DO some MM'ing, remove 1 artist from Beijing to cause growth in 2 turns ... more effective then having culture push .... me think

Turn 1 - 1010AD:
zzzz

Turn 2 - 1020AD:
zzzz

Turn 3 - 1030AD:
Research: Feudalism > Civil Service
Rostov: Forge > Catapult
Trade: upped spice to Toku to 4gpt

Turn 4 - 1040AD
Moscow: Crossbow > Catapult

Turn 5 - 1050AD
Shanghai: Theatre > Forge

Turn 6 - 1060AD
Moscow: Catapult > Catapult
Rostov: Catapult > Catapult

Turn 7 - 1070AD
zzzz

Turn 8 - 1080AD
Moscow: Catapult > Longbowman
demanded tribute of 120g from Mao

Turn 9 - 1090AD
Rostov: catapult > catapult

Turn 10 - 1100AD
trade: change fur to wine fot 6gpt to Hatty

 

[Cosmichail]

Updated Roster

Bobrath <-- just played --> He wants culture
GreyFox <-- just played--> setting up a future war
CosmicHail <-- UP --> Looking forward to some fighting
Armstrong <-- on deck --> Probably will be fighting too
Eektor <-- --> Will he be joining fightclub
Maquis <-- --> Good to have you back to play

Greyfox I don't think you can cross irrigate from non-irrigated wheat. I remember trying something like that in a SP game.

Finishing Mao off sounds good. This is "I got it" and will play likely tomorrow am.

 

[bobrath]

I really did the 10% culture because I was upset with Ghandi for nabbing our iron. No good reason there tho.

Glad to see Mao paid off, he had been hovering around 50g with me and I saw no reason to demand such a paltry sum.

Do we still have a monopoly on Philo? That's just amazing! If not, lets be sure to get as much bang out of it as we can. I wasn't sure if we researched that to head towards cossaks or if there was a more evil reasoning...

Religion wise... we can convert to buddhism and be in line with a good chunk of folks. Problem being Hatty is not buddhist and she's the current leader. Just tossing it out there.

 

[Cosmichail]

Hatty might still trade with us if we are buddhist just need to do a little butt kissing.

 

[bobrath]

We do have Buddhist neighbors between us and Hatty (and Nappy), so switching to their religion might not be a bad idea. Brother of the faith and all. Course this will encourage Ghandi to hate us just that much more.

 

[eektor]

I didn't think Nappy was Buddhist, I know Fred was buddhist.

If we are thinking of finishing off Mao and then taking out Gandhi, I think we should definitely go Buddhist to become more friendly with the rest of the world and hopefully Toku won't go after us.

 

[bobrath]

Nappy is aligned with Hatty (confused).

Mao and Ghandi are jewish.

(as of my turns, don't know if that changed during GreyFoxes)

 

[Cosmichail]

Turn 1

Me thick on the snakes but if I understand it correctly we can only take Guangzhou but not Xian. There is a city beside Xian so that could be a new snake nest pas?


If Rostov is snake&#8217;s head then couldn&#8217;t Xian be an extension of that snake which ends at Moscow. If Shanghai is snakes head it ends at Beijing??

Ok now to matters non snake. We discover CS. Moscow starts Mace. Rostov finishes Cat and starts another. Even with CS we cannot chain from non-irrigated wheat. Move worker to 1 southwest of Nanjing to start chain there. Upgrade a couple of axes.

Turn 2

Ghandi wants to trade Compass for CS refuse. Revolt to bureaucracy. (why does every hate Ghandi)

Turn 3

Convert to Buddhism for happiness factor. Oh Nappy declares war on us. (me laughs, stupid Nappy you are too weak my son) Move some troops to intercept his stack.

Turn 4

Nappy has a stack near Rostov on Ivory. St. Petersburg starts Mace finishes Forge. Nanjing finishes forge start Mace. Ghandi first to circumnavigate the world. Whip mace in Rostov. Upgrade archer to CB against Nappy&#8217;s axes/swords.

Turn 5

Nappy attacks and looses everything except for archer which pillages the Ivory. Moscow finishes Mace start another.

Turn 6
(somewhere I screwed up my count)

I gift some sugar to Toku to get it from annoyed. (in hindsight it was a bad decision and we should cancel it.) He is the founder of Buddhism and the only Buddhist so I am not sure about staying with Buddhism either. It&#8217;s good now with most cities Buddhist but I would prefer either hatty&#8217;s but she won&#8217;t be able to get missionaries to us since Toku is blocking her. Do I smell the need to take him out soon too even before Ghandi since I find he really isn't teching that quickly right now but could move along once he gets CS which he does not have.
Mace attacks archer and kills him leaving nothing left of Nappy&#8217;s stack. Moscow is building maces every three turns now.

Turn 7

Nanjing has lots of farms now Irrigating grassland now.

Turn 8

We discover paper go for Education try for liberalism. Finish cat in Rostov start CB. We pop GA in Bejing maybe we want to bomb (but maybe no if we are going to war) but decide to leave him for now. I ask Hatty what she will give us for Philosophy and she offers WM/Compass/HBR and take it. Freddy doesn&#8217;t like Toku might have to rethink that.

Turn 9

Now Mao declares war (geez he beat me to it DOH) so now we are at war with two puny civs. Beijing has one unhappy. Reinforce Rostov, worker reconnecting ivory. Move troops into China. Mao must have been bribed/asked no troops other than a lonely spear.

Turn 10

Hatty wants to trade theology for paper I accept she is now pleased again. Beijing starts mace. I don&#8217;t revolt to theocracy but might be good considering war situation but Nappy very little threat. Queue Buddhist temple in Beijing to help with happiness but undo that if you want to. DON&#8217;T FORGET GA he will give us music.

Axeman/cat heading towards Rostov from nappy travelling through Japan. Now how does an AI civ get open borders with Toku not of the same religion????

That&#8217;s really annoying that Toku is accommodating him and think we should try to get Hatty/Freddy into a war with Toku in the future and do some of our own damage to him. Just a thought.

EDIT: Also I don't know but should have looked but did we revolt to HR at any point. Maquis says he didn't and I didn't so I hope Greyfox did otherwise we should revolt to that next. Silly me I didn't even look and could have put bureaucracy/HR together in one revolt.