Aussie Group MP Games (may include Americans and other ring-ins)

[trev]

The wars have seriously damaged my capabilities, with the loss of about a dozen cities, most of which even though smaller had better production, my early core of cities were mostly built on jungle which has been cottage spawned and offer little production. My ability to tech has not been seriously damaged and therefore I can maintain a tech lead over some of my enemies, however the problem is that my production of military units is too slow and movement also too slow between the theatres of war, around 15 turns were required to move units from one side of empire to the other when it was at its peak, that is now reduced by about 4 turns though with the losses at one end of the empire, because it is a long narrow empire only 1 - 2 cities wide. I am hoping in the next session to stabilise the situation with new techs and better units, but they will take time to have an effect.
The offer of vassalage to deity was an offer of desperation, my full army had been decimated in an allout attempt to destroy frank's stack, an attempt that failed, probably 3/4 of franks stack was destroyed with the rest very weak, as well as simutaneous attempts to defend against a weaker stack that marcus was moving around my territory pillaging with, and trying to destroy a large stack of viles as well,trying to fight stacks on 3 fronts lead to a near annilihation of all units. Even though I am not providing any units to the war against frank, deity is looking after that now, I still have been unable to defend successfully against vile losing about 8 cities to him, Marcus's units which belong to an older tech age I can successfully defend against though.
The latest series of wars were initiated by myself, with the belief that I could overcome the frank and his allies, as I was the only one with cannons at the time, however frank developing cannons about 6 turns into the war and having the money to mass upgrade his cats turned the tide. So the loss of the war was an error of judgement on my part, but sometimes risks need to be taken, and they do not all pay off.

[trev]

In this game, because of the destruction of Alex by barbs, and the growth of vile and marcus stalemated by barbs for some time, I tested the limits of fast expansion by going quickly to 25 cities or so.
An analysis of the game to this point reveals that my tech growth initially was slowed by the rapid expansion with a GDP significantly lower than the other leading civs. This situation had started to reverse with my GDP hitting the front just before the series of wars began, and therefore I began to reduce the tech lead several civs had on me. If the game had remained peaceful I have no doubt that an increasing GDP would have seen me overtake a number of other civs technologically and maybe all other civs eventually, although deity was so far in front in particular he would have be hard to catch.
The terrain did not make it easy for me, all cities I founded from about the 4th to 12th were almost entirely jungle, with no nearby river, meaning farming was not an option, so I indulged in massive cottage spawning, this paid for the empire, but left me with most of my largest cities having poor production, several cities having only 2 or 3 hammers of production available, and majority of these cottages are villages now with a scattering of towns only, so although I am using Univerasl Suffrage as my civic, it is not yet returning its full potential in extra production.
The size of my empire lead to envy and fear which saw 3 civs decide to attack me before I had a chance to get invincible, I think this is the main lession I can gain from this experience, stay small enough so that envy and fear do not lead to repeated attacks, therefore I have formulated a new strategy for future games that will not result in as large of a civ, but one which I am sure can still win through other techniques.
The Roman experiment of massive expansion failed because of human envy and jealousy and as humans generally do not change their nature, a repeat of that strategy is probably worthless.

[vilemerchant]

Interesting posts trev. Sounds like you've really been hurt by the terrain as normally such a huge empire would be able to outproduce anyone, but if many of your cities are only making a few hammers it makes sense now why you haven't been able to send a huge number of units to the front. Marcus and I will now concentrate on pillaging what few mines you do have :P

My story is one of the exact opposite. My capital was all plains and had a lot of crabs and beavers but my 2nd and 3rd city sites were basically tundra with a few hills and deers on the tundra for food. Good production but it was well into the game before I built my first cottage. With the barb problems I had to use the whip a lot in my capital, mostly caused by sending what few precious axes I had to try and save Beijing for Alex. I think my 3rd city got razed twice by barbs during that debacle. Once Alex was destroyed and I got over the shock of the Romans snatching Beijing away from the barbs the turn before my axes would have done the same, I got down to the business of expanding into some more cottagable areas while transforming my first few cities into a specialist-based economy to make up for the lack of commerce. This finally got going after building the pyramids for early representation, colossus, plus eventually building the shrine in jewville to get some gold coming in. Jews and gold who woulda thunk it? Since then I've been able to get some decent science happening and have pulled away from Marcus, after we were level in tech at the start of the session.

The next session really is crucial as to deciding the final outcome of the game. I have no chance to win, but be assured that if anyone tries to build a spaceship I will whip every citizen I have into action and make my best effort to burn the bastard on the launchpad!

In the meantime I will be looking to inflict as much damage upon the Roman empire as possible, their stated goal before the last session was to ethnically clense marcus and I from the continent, and I think if peace was made they would only rebuild and try again to achieve that goal. No longer will we tolerate a threatening presence on our borders. We consider all roman presence south of Deitan territory to be illegal settlements and will endeavor to remove them by force.

[deity]

OK Mike. I'll go along with that.

Need to think about which nights I can commit to....

[vilemerchant]

I would prefer to play on monday or wednesday nights. Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays are definiitely out for me.

[deity]

Originally posted by vilemerchant
I would prefer to play on monday or wednesday nights. Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays are definiitely out for me.

Can not do Mondays but Weds night possible for a few hours... what about the Americans/Bulgarians at this time?

[Toni]

7pm aussies time = 2am toni's

If i join Mrs =>

Sorry no go

[vilemerchant]

If i join Mrs =>

Haha! That reminds me, I'm getting married late November so I'll be missing for at least a week, that goes for our Sunday game and any other game. I'm hoping our Sunday game will be finished by then, that way I can just sit the next game out.

[trev]

As far as evenings go Tuesday evening are no good for me at this stage, other evenings are often alright, but will often not be able to guarantee my appearance in advance of the evening.

[Master-Mike]

Ok looks as though the only night would be a wednesday night at this stage. If everyone were to play.

Could people play from say 7pm-11pm? or is that to long.

Myself and major can do nearly any night, some times i cant make it till about 8pm, but normaly 7 or earlier is ok. Seems trev is good for most nights as well, if hes not working.

Just need to sort out vile and deity.

any other interested, marcus, alex?

[trev]

If I play on weeknights, I will need to finish by 10pm, 11pm is too late for me.
I am available tomorrow afternoon for a game.

[deity]

I should be around in an hour or so.... if there is a game on...

[trev]

The suggestion has been made that we play on Wednesday evenings, can all post there availability on Wed evening, I can play for about 3 hours from 7.30pm Aust EST

[trev]

I have had a conversation with Alex, unfortunately he is not available until about 9pm due to basketball training, he is too sportsmad, other nights messed up due to cricket also, other sports other seasons as well i think.

[defcat]

Hi all!

Availabilities:

Mon anytime from 4.30pm
Tues anytime from 5.30pm
Wed after 8.45pm
Thurs after 10.00pm
Fri Unavailable due to basket ball
Sat Unavailable due to Cricket
Sun Available

I am not availble much due to traing after work for my sports however this is not as bad in the football season while i am here in SA. Therefore as much as i would like to play if my schedule is the only one screwing us all up i am happy to be out of the night you guys come up with.