RAH's Saturday games

[MasterDave]

Yes

(gotta love one word posts- ill be a king in no time)

[Dominae]

Emperor lasts forever.

[Arrian]

Titles are overrated.

-Arrian

[MasterDave]

I've been a Prince since 1970 tho

[Dominae]

Yes...Master.

[Arrian]

So... how many do we have?

Me, Dom, Rah, MasterDave...

-Arrian

[MasterDave]

looks like just us four

[Dominae]

That's too bad...

[Arrian]

Good game guys. 4 humans, 2 AI... Master Dave started in the far west up against the coast. Right next to him (eastward) was Rah. Both played Inca. Heh.

East south east of Rah was my Persian empire, and east of me was Dom (Spain). Far to the west, south of MD were the Arabs (AI) and to the north of Dom, again pretty far off, were the Vikings (AI).

Geographically, I knew I was in trouble, being smack in the middle. I had no copper. Horses I claimed with my 2nd city, and eventually my third city had iron. But that took a while, and I spent quite some time fearing attack by Rah or Dom. MD got out to a lead, and Rah was doing well too. Then MD pulled off the CS slingshot. Ouch. At that point, Dom and I decided to team up on them. I couldn't get to MD without going through Rah, and I rather doubted Rah would let me through (though I didn't ask, which in retrospect seems odd).

I hit Rah with 9 immortals. He had a couple of spears, an axe and an archer in his capital. I, clearly high on something, decided to take a shot. I failed miserably. However, thanks to some gifted chariots from Dom, I was still able to rip up Rah's tile improvements. He decided to retire. Given the military situation, I think he was ok... I couldn't really hurt him until I had catapults.

Eventually I hit the AI rah and took the capital. I then marched on MD's holy city. This was an epic pitched battle. He had macemen. I did not. I had some War Elephants, spears, axes, and a ton of cats. I also had 2 GGs. One boosted a single WE to greatness. The other I spread over a bunch of cats so they could all be City Raider II. I threw everything I had at that city. He threw everything he had (in the area, anyway) back at me. Dom had a single chariot running around which he brought to bear and wouldn't you know it... it was the straw that broke the camel's back. Because of that little chariot, I was able to take/raze the city with my very last unit, a redlined catapult. MD mopped that up the next turn, but he was in trouble now.

Dom had meanwhile built a large, powerful empire. He got to guilds and began pumping out large numbers of Conquistadors, and it was pretty much over. After losing some cities, MD conceded.

Either one of them could have squashed me like a bug. I was so far behind in tech it was scary. MD discovered Liberalism and I discovered the Alphabet. Given that I'm actually usually a builder, such a tech deficit is distinctly strange for me.

Anyway, good times. Time to hit the sack. I look forward to doing this again sometime.

-Arrian

[rah]

Surrounded, last in tech, and no improvements, it was a lost cause. I was wondering where you came up with that second wave. Thanks dom
I was surprised that I didnt lose a single unit from that first sod of imortals. Without that second wave i would have had a few turns to defend my land, once it was destroyed i would have just kept falling farther and farther behind.

I've got to learn some different strats hahahaha

[Dominae]

I got an odd but welcome starting location: both Gold and Gems within my capital's radius. This would go well with my goal of beelining to Guilds (through Metal Casting and Forges). That was pretty much my tech path, except I detoured for Civil Service after Feudalism (and somehow I got the Great Library too).

I actually thought I would be GNP leader again, but MasterDave must have had some capital because he was pulling in over twice my research. When he managed to do the CS slingshot for Civil Service (Arrian: "Oh crap, he pulled off the slingshot", Me: "No, he just took Code of Laws", Arrian: "No, he's in BUREAUCRACY!"). I must say: nice job on the slingshot.

After this it was easy to "convince" Arrian that MasterDave was the big threat in this game. Arrian had to go through rah to get to MasterDave, which had the unfortunate side effect of turning the game into a 2v1 when rah conceded. Immortals can be very demoralizing; they have defensive bonuses so taking them out when they are pillaging your lands is a PITA. I'm not quite sure why MasterDave did not come to rah's aid, that would provided a great buffer as Arrian did for me.

I make it sound like I was "using" Arrian but really he did not have much of a choice: with all the human players in a line (and the AIs to the North and South) you have to strike a deal with at least when neighbor when you're in the middle. It would have been interesting if Arrian and rah had formed an alliance versus MasterDave and I...

Anyway, as it was the game was more or less over when rah conceded, as Arrian and I were doing a fantastic job as allies (Arrian is a wonderful front-man, even though he says he's a builder). I did just enough research to get to Guilds and Theology, but otherwise set up my empire for military production. I started cranking out 2 Conquistadors with 9XP every turn, but this was overkill as Arrian actually had enough strength to take the fight to MasterDave himself: he took out MasterDave's Shrine city with just the help of my lone scout Chariot. I sent a big stack through Arabian lands to hit MasterDave from the rear, while my reinforcements went to help Arrian on the front. This prompted the concession.

gg all. I hope we get a few more to play in the future; four players is not enough to guarantee a prolonged game (once one player is out, it's more or less over).

[rah]

Yes 4 players is limiting. The 7 and 8 player games will usually last longer.
Just a reminder that I'll be going to Florida to golf this weekend but will be back the following weekend.

[Arrian]

I don't think MD had much chance of coming to Rah's aid. Rah retired pretty quickly. It was all over in less than 10 turns.

After he turned his civ over to the AI, MD did a good job of massacring the units I had over there and then taking a shot at my horses city (I barely repulsed that). Granted, 'twas I who attacked MD first. What I accomplished was pretty pitiful - some minor pillaging. He had beaten me to construction (shocker!) and thus had some War Elephants, which ate my immortals/chariots and axemen alive.

It would have been interesting if Arrian and rah had formed an alliance versus MasterDave and I...

I think we would have died badly. The two weakest empires (I think MD's start spot was the best, followed by yours), two fronts... not good. Especially given my inexperience. Thanks for the compliments, but I made a bunch of mistakes along with my successes.

It was also wierd having AIs in the game. Obviously AI Rah was strange (instead of having a banged-up teamate/ally, MD had a banged-up unreliable AI that made peace with me whenever I offered it), but so was the existance of Saladin and Ragnar.

-Arrian

[Snotty]

Well Im up for a game on saturday. definately a euro time friendly get together and I should still be around for the normal kick off time. If needs be my comp should be able to handle hosting if we can connect to my ip

[Dominae]

I'm not available this Saturday either.