Free-for-all Succession Game

[Bloody Monk]

Hope you are feeling better soonest. Food poisoning is an awful thing. Fluids and electrolites may help.

Monk

[-Jrabbit]

Felt well enough to come to work today. Definitely on the mend.
But when you feel so bad you can't even drag yourself down to the computer...
Well, suffice it to say, the weekend sucked.

[-Jrabbit]

1832 and all's well...

Tough to plan and execute anything cohesive across 5 turns. But we're holding our own against the mighty Persians and have the Celts on the run.

Here's the zipped save. Log coming...

[-Jrabbit]

Free-4-all log 1832

We take the reins in 1822. Let's have a look...

We are Supreme and Spotless. Tons of elvi at work in a Fundy regime. Faders set at 30-50-20, netting 335GP and a 10 turn tech rate. 451 GP in the bank, studying Machine Tools -- looks like 2 more turns at current rates.

At war with the Celts and Carthaginians, cease-fires with the Sioux and Persians. Celts have 10 cities (4 known), little money and no capital. Carths have 12 cities (5 known) and about 2K in the bank. Both are in republic.

We also hold 15 WoWs, including all the Industrial and 6/7 of the Renaissance. WoW, indeed! No wonder there are none available...

We make a ton of adjustments, mostly involving changes of white good orders to temples and barracks while changing troop builds to cavalry and spies. We spend all but 54GP in various rushbuilds.
ENTER...

1822
--Persians steal Sanitation and, despite a paucity of troops, we declare WAR! They kill a cannon, a rifle, and sink an empty transport.
--Sioux want to chat. They show 2 arrows and demand we leave the vicinity of Wounded Knee.
--Barbs land 4 dragoons at Marina. (Oops! I just spent a chunk of change rushing a Port Facility there. )
--4 WLTCD celebrations end.

1824
--Spot Dinas Powys, which revolts for 44GP (4 plunder, spy captured)
--Babylonians chat. No arrows, 4 cities, want peace. OK. We gift gunpowder, Consription, and Explosives, then trade maps.
--Insta-fort built outside Godium, loaded with cannons and cavs.

1826
--Much more rushbuilding, treasury down to 24.
--Persians learn Montheism. They attack Pasagardae, taking out 3 cavalry.
--Barbs plunder undefended Marina. We get 4 Partisans.
--Machine Tools are ours! Massive upgrade of deficient troops. Electronics (Hoover) is next.
--Slide faders to 80-0-20 for net of +973/turn.
--We take Gordium, earn 172GP. Generates one partisan.
--Persian chat (4 rifles). They demand conscription, we laugh in their general direction. Peace accord signed.
--3 freights of demanded goods are delivered, netting only about 200GP total.
--Our DD spots and kills 2 Carth caravels.
--We find Durrow. Have to bribe a pikeman for access (56), then bribe the city for 165 (14 plunder).

1828
--Yeah, more ruhbuilding. Non-barracks homeland cities switch to freights.
--Persians expel our spy, who was just innocently mapping a bit of their majestic interior. For fun. Really!
--Carths learn Chemistry, want to chat. We decline.
--Sioux expel our spy.
--WTCD in Monksilk, Pasagardae.
--Stock Exchange completed in Central City.
--Barbs land at Bear Paw. Bribe 3 dragoons (102 ea), train them to join the future war vs. Sioux (or Carths...)
--Dye (d), Daytona to Susa, +248GP
--Bribe Marina dragoons 102, bribe city of Marina 87.
--Rhondda spotted. Gades spotted (experimenatlly, cruiser kills musketeer inside).
--DD spots and kills barb king +150
--We demand Persians leave our territory. The declare WAR!
--Sliders move to 80-20-0, netting 1167-110= 1,057/turn.

1830
--Celts get Gunpowder from Babs.
--Germans (921 GP, Republic, 5 cities, 2 arrows) wanna chat. Demand and receive RR. Counter-demand for a bit of tribute ignored.
--Celt cities of Llangolen and Rhondda are bribed (total cost 837 minus 59 plunder). One spy captured, but we have more...
--Find and kill another barb king.
--Spy spots Swansea south of Carmarthen, bribes nearby caravel to escape detection.
--Another spy notes defenses and sabotages catapult production in Carmarthen.
--Sioux chat, demand Industrialization. Despite our refusal, they want Peace. Since we need a little time to build up our invasion force and complete a RR system for them, we agree.
--Cities of Tarses and Wood Lake are mapped.
--Arbela defenses noted (walls, barracks, 3 muskets
--Dye (d) delivered to Marina for 80 GP. (Trying to develop combined trade route and anti-Persian militia force via shipchain. Needs work...

1832
--5 turns already? I was just getting started...
--Sioux expel another spy.
--Hut = 100 GP.
--2 spies needed to take down city walls in Arbela.
--Deliveries: Silver, Beads, Cloth (all demanded) net +436GP.
--Previously unmapped city of Aberystwyth mapped, revolts for 173-22. Spy captured.
--Carmarthen taken by force, 48 plundered.
--Swansea revolts for 440-46 (good value -- 2 archers, legion, settler)
--Another random barb king picked off by exploring DD.

There is a lot of movement left this turn, mostly involving just-built Freights. Let this be the first activity of my successor. With the taking of the Celtic homeland complete, this may be a ripe territory for new routes. A near-shipchain has been nearly assembled for your consideration.

Next turn, we should take Arbela (12) from the Persians. The troops are in place behind a fortress.

The Celts are on the run. IIRC they have only 3 cities left, and all have been identified (Illauntanig, Methryr, and Tara). In a capital-free Republic, bribe costs are far more efficient than troop movement, but your mileage may vary.

Note on Barking Mad -- I usd a lot of engineering time mining the gold there. This gains us +10GP/turn in Fundy but will require extra food, which is why there are two engineers transforming plains to grassland.

The Coal freight at the south end of Sioux land is actually headed toward the Carth city of (sp?) Gardela or Gades, both size 12 and demanding. There's a cruiser and DD nearby to guide the path, but iirc a transport is needed.

Net result:
We now have 63 cities and 19.67MM ppl. 1479 GP in the bank. We're about halfway to the next tech and Hoover's Dam. Now would be a good time to celebrate a bit as those deliveries begin in earnest...

Now -- who wants to be next?

[Bloody Monk]

-Jr

I was going to get RCC on your slider settings (80% science in Fundy!!) until I noticed a problem with your save.

The year notation says 1832 on the outside but it opens to 1822. Can't imagine how you did it, but you will need to resend the real 1832 save; please.

Monk

[-Jrabbit]

AAARRGGHH!!

That's what happens when you finish late at night and rush to email the save. I can't re-post until tonight, as the original 1832 save sits on the Mac at home. (I send my save to the work PC and save in Microsoft world so I can Zip before posting -- ironically, to make it easier for everyone.) As part of that process, I manually rename the mac file to be PC-friendly -- thus the change in year that escaped me.

Re settings, I inherited to 80% science setting from the previous administration. (Though I admit to keeping it for 2 turns, assuring Artillery conversion for the assault on Gordium.) So I'm afraid you'll have to content yourself with RCC of my non-celebrating brand of fundy, Monk.

Sorry for the delay.

[Bloody Monk]

Actually, no. You inherited a 50% science and if you scroll back to the 10th, you'll see the previous operator has already been applauded for that setting. The only thing I can think of is that you changed it to 80% and played that way for a couple of turns hoping to get more science, before you noted it was a Fundy.

Hey, stuff happens. No need to blame the other guy. I'm just very glad you are well again and look forward to the real save tomorrow.

On celebrating...It may take as much as 60% Lux to get most of the cities celebrating, but that usually can then be dailed back a click or two after they get started. If there are to be deliveries, then getting Republic level trade in those cities will pay off.

Monk

[-Jrabbit]

I may have made the change to 80 science to speed the upgrade of existing cannons to artillery for the Gordium attack. Seeing the beginning of my log, I inherited a 30-50-20. I must have made the change and re-saved, erasing the original settings I inherited. Frankly, I just didn't remember -- wasn't trying to blame anyone.

I didn't go into celebration mode because I was planning a military turnset with minimal freights. That changed when Hoover's came onto the horizon. You'll see a lot of pending freights when I get the save posted.

And yes, feeling almost "normal" again... thanks for the med advice and good wishes.

[-Jrabbit]

The REAL zipfile...

Here it is. Sorry for the delay.

Now -- We have Celts to polish off, Persians to kill, and a Dam to build.

Somebody jump in!

[debeest]

Jrabbit, some thoughts as I read your log:

1824 – Why give all those powerful military techs to the Babylonians? It just makes it harder to knock out their cities. It’s not as if we needed to tech-gift the green civ. Predictably, in 1830 they gave gunpowder to the Celts, whom we’re actively at war with.

1826 – Am I rightly reading 80-0-20 as 20% luxuries, in fundy? Why? Was that enough to produce significant celebration?

1828 – “experimenatlly, cruiser kills musketeer inside” Love that line!!

Way to kick Celt butt and set up to kick Persian butt!

And some thoughts with a quick look at the save:

You're building two riflemen, when we can build fanatics instead. What’s up with that?

63 cities and only 19(3) engineers. Probably should be building more of them.

Building a bunch of temples. In fundy we don’t need them, and they don’t produce much tithes compared to the building cost. In a representative government, we generally wouldn’t need them either, since we’d probably be devoting enough trade to luxuries to make cities celebrate. Wouldn’t units be more useful?

All in all, though, looks pretty good to me. Is five turns too short, do you think?

[-Jrabbit]

Originally posted by debeest
Jrabbit, some thoughts as I read your log:

1824 – Why give all those powerful military techs to the Babylonians? It just makes it harder to knock out their cities. It’s not as if we needed to tech-gift the green civ. Predictably, in 1830 they gave gunpowder to the Celts, whom we’re actively at war with.

With only 4 (5?) cities and little technolgy, the Babs were no threat. Basically, I wanted their maps. I crossed my fingers and hoped the Celts would not have time to utilize Gunpowder effectively.

1826 – Am I rightly reading 80-0-20 as 20% luxuries, in fundy? Why? Was that enough to produce significant celebration?

That was a mistake. should have been either 20 science or 50-60 lux. My bad.

1828 – “experimenatlly, cruiser kills musketeer inside” Love that line!!

Like a cat playing with a trapped rodent...
I wanted to see if there were rifles there, figuring we can rush another cruiser and empty the city with a seaborne fusillade. Need to get a transport with an occupation force into the area...

Way to kick Celt butt and set up to kick Persian butt!

My predecessor gets credit for setting up the Celtics rout. I lost a couple in-the-red cavs to the Persians by prematurely baiting them into war, but overall it went pretty well.

You're building two riflemen, when we can build fanatics instead. What’s up with that?

I dunno. I'm a vet fanatics guy as well. Could these be default build orders in newly-captured cities?

63 cities and only 19(3) engineers. Probably should be building more of them.

This is an admitted weakness in my game. I tend to build "just enough" engineers, especially when not in the freebuild period of WLTxD growth. I did build a couple...

Building a bunch of temples. In fundy we don’t need them, and they don’t produce much tithes compared to the building cost. In a representative government, we generally wouldn’t need them either, since we’d probably be devoting enough trade to luxuries to make cities celebrate. Wouldn’t units be more useful?

Another weakness of mine is an unwillingness to sacrifice more than a few shields to build orders. In general, I was building barracks, though some temples were allowed in small cities with little shield potential. Several of these were changed from inherited harbor projects. In most cases, I was choosing Spy as my default build in small cities.

All in all, though, looks pretty good to me. Is five turns too short, do you think?

Not at all. It forced me to be a bit more aggressive in spending money on RB, Celts bribes, etc. -- trying to do something significant in the short span I had. The downside is the inability to fully execute certain projects that take time (creating a shipchain, completing engineering projects, building treasury/task force, etc).

But I regard being forced outside my comfort zone as a good thing, however uncomfy it may feel at the time.

[debeest]

Originally posted by -Jrabbit
This is an admitted weakness in my game. I tend to build "just enough" engineers, especially when not in the freebuild period of WLTxD growth. I did build a couple...

Heh. I realized right after I wrote this that I was echoing the exact criticism directed at me after my last turn! Let's work on it together!

[Old n Slow]

Hey -- DeBeest -- it's your turn!

(And of course, it is also Rasputin's turn, La Fayettes' turn, SG [1]'s turn, Bloody Monk's turn, Zedd's turn, and a few other's (yet to play) turn, so I can play MY turn.)

[Rasputin]

ill play after beddest, got a few pbem game si got to send some turns off for first...

[debeest]

Most likely I won't be able to play real soon. I think the best thing to do is for someone to post that they're taking it, and then play immediately. That way, anyone who checks here and doesn't find a claim staked, can stake one and go. Agreed?