Your SID level experiences

[vmxa1]

Drachen I have been sweating an invasion for a long time. I am worried about knights right now. I am going for Monarchy. I was hoping to beat it out of the Koreans, but I am not sure they will even talk to me. I will try tomorrow and see.

I want to get to monarchy and stay there. I am counting on my large land holding to let me get in the tech race. I have one lux from India for Iron and got markets in many cities now and Cath going up now.

Here is a shot of my armies dropping the hammer.

[vmxa1]

The cats actually have an army sitting on them as well as the other 4 armies you can see.
I used my 11th MGl on a temple.
I now have 24% of the land in the game and that is #1. My FP is near the middle of the land as I now see it. I am thinking of a palace relocation via an MGL if I get another foothold somewhere.
India is my likely target. It all hinges on saltpetter. I got to figure with this many hills and mountins and some desert, I will have it.

You can see it, but a large mass of jungle was just above my start location, so I am counting on that to give me rubber if I am still alive.

The big issue will be money when I get Chiv.

[vmxa1]

I am hoping my larger number of units will deter any of the others from coming after me for a long time. I probably have around 50 horses by now. I have upgraded a few swords to MI.

My next army, should I get one, will be held for Knights. I only had one city depose me and it was my fault. I got careless and the gov put some pop back to work and I failed to catch it. Not a problem as it was a small town. None of the large cities have been a problem as I will have a couple armies and some other units garrisoned for a time.

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by Paddy the Scot
but that is a great hook that you have and that would be so good in the story forum

my apologies, I do not mean to preach

No problem. I remember you were pushing the forum a few months back. I read some of those stories at the time and will need to visit it some more.

[Drachen]

Originally posted by vmxa1
Drachen I have been sweating an invasion for a long time. I am worried about knights right now. I am going for Monarchy. I was hoping to beat it out of the Koreans, but I am not sure they will even talk to me. I will try tomorrow and see.

I want to get to monarchy and stay there. I am counting on my large land holding to let me get in the tech race. I have one lux from India for Iron and got markets in many cities now and Cath going up now.

Here is a shot of my armies dropping the hammer.

Congratulations on securing most of your continent Vmxa1. You’ve got a great chance to get strategic resources and defend your turf. A couple of questions come to mind. Have you considered letting Korea stick around to be source of MGLs which could be used for Cathedral builds and such? About how far advanced are the other AIs and how do you plan to disrupt progress on the other continents and prevent a Diplomatic/Space victory?

[vmxa1]

Well that is the rub and I have been trying to figure out how to approach it. I am not very good at inter continental invasions.
I want to start getting more harbors and start galley production.
I only have one ship left as they have sunk my others, no wait I have two now.

I was consiering thie issue of Korea, but I have not decided yet.
It is normally not my style to leave any vassals to exploit. Also I think I will have plenty of fights elsewhere soon.

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by Drachen

About how far advanced are the other AIs and how do you plan to disrupt progress on the other continents and prevent a Diplomatic/Space victory?

Plan, you mean I should have a plan?

As near as I can tell they are mostly about 2 middle age techs ahead and have Mon/Rep from the ancient age.
I was going to do Monarchy and fall farther behind today, but I changed my mind. I will attempt to stay close in tech and try to beat Monarch out of someone.

I am not sure I have to worry about the space race. If the AI does not hit me hard, and I can prevent a consolidation by the Celts, I should be able to out research them eventually. I have the most land and it is largely well built up. I am working hard to get the marsh and jungle cleared. There was a lot of it, but I have gotten lots of slaves.

I did not try to offset the city placement of the AI and just took their cities.

The problem I am working on is who to hit next and when and how. It depends on if I can get Monarchy soon.

[vmxa1]

So India is only on par with me and they have Mon/Rep. I was 1 turn form Mono and they did not have it. I know because the tech rate shows only 2 others had it at that turn before. Then the price dropped so much I was able to reduce my research and still learn it the next turn. This told me that everyone had it that turn.

Not sure how they got it, but the point is they are not ahead in tech, if you do not count the gov techs.

So they are close and will be a good choice. The other thing is that if I leave them and hit someone else, my overall position is better. I am hoping the Celts and the Arabians go to war soon.
I would like to jump in on one side and then be in good position.

The Celts are in first, but they probably have had their GA and their UU is now obsolete (me too). The Arabians may still have a GA and are jus now getting their UU.

Right now I have no transportation, so it does not matter. I would like to go in as an alliance so I could land safely. I need caravels and lots of them. I can't ship my armies either.

So in short my good work to date could go into the dumper if things break poorly and I am enering my weakest part of the game.

The best thing is my size and the likely hood that I will not be without the next key resources. If I am, then it could get ugly.

[vmxa1]

Paddy if you want a good story take a look at Alexmans report in the AU game. That is a story, mine is just a relating of events.

[DrSpike]

Nice 'story'.

Now that the patch situation has settled a bit I'm planning a few Sid games soon.

[vmxa1]

I tried to post this last night, but the serve was being maint.

1140ad Korea is of the contient finally. All civs are still at war with me. Universities are being built, while Invention being researched slowly 30%. It takes most of my cash to pay maint and luxs.

Need to fiure out when I can switch to Monarchy. I actually have so many cities that I do not have my max number of units right now. I disbanded all my native workers as I have scores of slaves and nothing for them to do until steam.

All tiles are roaded, all jungles and marsh cleared. Most of my horses are knights. I have had 15 MGl plus the lost one.
Two empty armies waiting. I have 6 in the field,

Need to get shipping going for an invasion someplace.
I captured Great Wall, so any town got a wall. I also captured Colossus.

Moved into second place past Korea. Celts look like they are pushing the Inca off their land, I wish I could get some troops over there.

[vmxa1]

I will look forward to your post DrSpike.

[vmxa1]

Here is a current screenie:

[vmxa1]

That little island was ICA. I had intended to hit it as it was an Inca city. They had three total and I was hoping to beat some tech out of them, but nooooo.
As I sit outside waiting my turn, the Celts took it over.
I was at war with them so I hit it, but I knew I was not going to get any tech from them. I did get peace and 100 gold.

I sold of the barracks, harbor and some other structure and abandoned it. No one want it.

You can see Arabia has only two cities and I hope I can take them. Mecca has 2 or 3 wonders. I can't hold them, but I hope to get something out of it, if I can even take them.

[vmxa1]

It is looking both better and worse. Better I am actually closing in on the leaders score. Worse they are just too many scary techs ahead.
I hit calvs and rifles in that little town. I see they have rails up on one of their islands.
They are in fascism. So they have many techs in the industrial age and I am not able to research fast enough to even get out of the middle ages for some time.

This means they will get all the wonders in that age including the ToE. I have no shot at an SGL.