AU210 - UN Peacekeepers DAR 4 – End of middle ages

[Rhothaerill]

Use this space to comment on your game in the interval between the end of DAR 3 and the end of the middle ages.

[Harovan]

It's 410AD. In my game, wars are going on since early, even big gangbangs, and never ever stopped entirely. For literally the whole game I had the armies of all other civs at my territory. I had nearly all of the big battles going on right next to my un- or at most weakly defended cities. Screw it, I was building my economy and don't need no stynkin' military. For most of the time, I had 1 horseman, 3 or 4 swordsmen (3 of them regular), 1 archer and 1 lone catapult, that's all my mobile force. And a spearman in each border city, that's all of it. Never got involved in any conflict, neither did I attack anyone. I started to build more forces later, so that I'm now average to the most.

I have 3 peace clients, the Spaniards (being at war almost since 4000bc and never had peace), the Indians (waring to much themselves, bloodthirsty Gandhi ! and losing) and the Iroquois (ditto). All 3 are my neighbors, how convenient.

The first action of my peacekeepers. The indians losing their self declared war against the Mongols. 2 American knights (whoever that is, may be John Wayne ) blocking the entry of mongolian reinforcements to the indian peninsula. The Mongols already took Madras and later Calcutta. Since their reinforcements dried out, they lost Calcutta again. Madras flipped back centuries later, when they were already at peace.

[Harovan]

Here's the second, 850AD. The Spaniards made peace with all their enemies except Japan. In fact, that's the only war going on right now. Here you see the American peacekeepers again. Note, that not only our military, but also our civilians are involved in peacekeeping. Note the large stack of potential human shields north of Oakland, ready to intervene. Among them are even volunteers from other countries.

[nbarclay]

The year is now 620 AD, and America just led the world into the industrial era. The middle ages were not as quiet as might have been desired. Bismarck finally figured out that he would never get anywhere declaring war on America and then making peace before his troops finished their long journey to attack, so he sent a strike force to Richmond, a city founded north of America's core to gain access to some silks. A rush-built musket unit proved insufficient help for the valiant band of warriors defending the city even though Bismarck's finest (at least among those involved in the attack) were a horse unit and some archers.

Rather than get dragged into a war it was ill-equipped (indeed, almost completely unequipped) to fight, America offered technology in exchange for assistance from the Spanish, Indians, and Ottomans. Since foreign cities (including a remote Mongol one) were in between Germany and the rest of America, that allowed America to continue in builder mode. India and the Ottomans eventually made peace, but Spain and Germany have not managed to come to terms yet. If the war goes on much longer, America may find itself forced to intervene on Spain's behalf whether it wants to or not.

America has managed to gain and hold a small technological advantage thorugh most of the middle ages, typically two or three techs. Selling technology has brought in a few badly needed luxuries and enough gold to support the nation's scientists with considerable amounts left over for rush building projects in outlying areas. As of the end of the era, America has all eight luxries and is netting 454 gpt from other civs. America's tech lead over its most advanced rivals is down to just Theory of Gravity and Economics, but most of the important deals are newly made so there will be some time to rebuild the advantage and try to fend off the Scientific civs. Steam power is scheduled for completion in six turns. America recently completed Magellan's Voyage and hopes to trigger a golden age with the Hoover Dam when the time comes.

A few cities have finally started building troops so America won't be quite as nearly completely undefended as it has been. But the American military is still paper thin, and will probably stay thin until railroads and factories change the production dynamics.

There is one other point of possible interest: because income from foreign nations has made it possible to keep my science rate sky high, and because my civ is small enough that it generally needs the highest science slider setting it can get, I've had little interest in building banks. That may get me in trouble if most of my foreign income disappears, but it works fine for now.

[nbarclay]

By the way, I'm down to eighth in land area. That could make things both interesting and unpleasant when Sanitation becomes available, an event which I prefer to see delayed as long as possible.

[nbarclay]

I'm afraid I have to report failure in my mission. For some reason, Spain never made peace with Germany even though they were losing cities. I couldn't talk the Indians and Ottomans into allying with me to stop Germany; at least without taking the plunge and declaring war on Germany first without assurances of help. Worse, Japanese forces were traveling through my territory trying to get to the Ottomans, so I couldn't send my forces up to the German front without leaving the Japanese front exposed. And as if that weren't enough, when the Spanish were down to two cities (both away from their original core) and I was considering giving them one of mine to keep them alive, the Mongols declared war on them. That left me with the prospect of a two-front war while a third nation's troops were running through my territory. Nor was the timing good for a defensive war: Germany had cavalry, and Nationalism hadn't been discovered yet. With that much against me, I decided saving Spain wasn't worth it.

I suppose I brought the situation on myself by forming the original alliance against Germany, but normally, wars created through such alliances evaporate quickly once the alliance is over (if not before). This one kept going for about 30 turns after the alliance was over, about 50 total, giving Germany time to finish off Spain in spite of the fact that Spain wasn't especially weak when the war started.

Nathan

[Theseus]

Well, Nathan's last post certainly has thrown a scare into me... as you'll see, I may have put myself in the same position re Germany.

If you followed by last posts in the previous block thread, the Mongols had just gone hog wild (without my help1).

Around 700 AD, most of their wars had settled down, with some minor damage to India and Spain.

I had been the PERFECT Peacenik (MS would be proud)... I was at polite or gracious with all AI civs, having huddled to my oh-so-tight spacing and builder ways (well, not as builderish as SR and Nathan... but I'm me, haha).

So anyway, I my sneaky move with Minneapolis (in the previous block thread)... felt like I was playing Go to capture Kolhapur!

And guess who shows up?

Anyone?

You there, in the hood!!

You, the stringy alien fellow!!

You, with the crazy friggin' eyes!!

How about you on the horse??

What? A German barmaid holding a ridiculous amout of beer knows the answer?

Bizzie-friggin'-marckie (he's the only leader she actually knew the name of... ).

AND, if you remember, I had even gifted the Germans a town way in the SE (which the Babs have now razed).

And the attackers are???? 3 Horsies.

Schmuck. Double schmuck. Classic mistake... never engage Theseus in a land war.

I've taken a huge risk here, much like Nathan... I bribed everyone except Ottomans (too risky with Sipahi coming) and the semi-damaged Spanish and Indians into MAs against Germany. Of course that means: 1) Germany promptly got Ottomans into the act against me, and 2) more AI troops traipsing through the land. Like Nathan, I figured Germany was so far away that the AI allies would peter out before any real damage was done... the good news for me, comparatively, is that Spain and India are not part of the fray, and are in semi-decent shape.

At 750 AD, I researched ToG, traded for Magnetism and a LOT of goodies, and dragged most of the friendly powers into the Industrial age.

I have a good bit more military than SR and Nathan reported:
2 Pike
2 LB
32 Musket
7 Knight
25 MedInf
23 Workers (which I have decided to classify as militry from now on)

The economy is weird, having packed in so tightly: 5th in pop and 6th in land area, but first in MFG and second in GNP.

Other than the Germans and Ottomans, however, everyone is STILL polite or gracious.

Spain is definitely the weak link, as I think India will survive till Infantry, and then can be properly defended with an American Maginot Line. Actually, having Ottomans aligned with Germany is probably good.

The screenshot below is pretty interesting... note the tight core, note the single MedInf defenders... NOTE THE FRIGGIN' MONGOL STACK IN THE MIDDLE OF MY UNDEFENDED CORE!!! Those bad boys have been wandering around America since time immemorial.

[Theseus]

Here's the fun spot...

Mongols captured Barcelona from Spain... Japanese from Mongols... Germans from Japan. Germany will go on to capture Batshireet.

America is building Knights.

[Theseus]

Here they come...

Iroq: 7 LB and 8 Knights
Rome: 6 Legion, 10 MedInf, 8 LB, and 2 Archer

I hope they get across my territory fast enough to do anything!

[jshelr]

I just wanted to post a short message comparing my efforts at peacekeeping with old Abe's during the civil war or George Bush for that matter.

Given America's peace efforts, wars have been limited to the following as of AD530

Mongols are fighting Japan, Germany, Iroquois, Rome
Babs are fighting Japan
India is fighting Rome and Germany
Germany is fighting everyone but Rome
Iroquois are fighting Germany, Spain, Ottomans, and Mongols

I could go on, but why?

So, in case I post later claiming to have won the game with all civs surviving, it will be clearly just luck.

Strategic Insight: make RoP agreements to speed the troops of everyone else across your land and hurry the average turn time.

[nbarclay]

I just figured out a blind spot in my playing style that helped play a role in Spain's downfall. I'm not used to being particularly generous with backward civs; I'm willing to give them relatively good deals, but almost never outright giveaways. I did consider giving Spain saltpeter, but decided against it because (1) the general feeling seems to be that pikemen are more cost-effective than musketmen and (2) Spain didn't have a lot of gold to upgrade existing units. I also tended to bleed off Spain's gold per turn out of fear that if I didn't sell them techs, they would buy them from someone else.

What I should have done was give Spain saltpeter, give them all the techs that anyone else had so no one else could draw away gold from upgrades with tech sales, and perhaps even give them some gold for upgrades out of my income from other civs. But that degree of generosity is so far outside my normal playing style that it didn't occur to me at the time and, in any case, I kept expecting the war to end. (And I certainly wasn't planning in terms of the Japanese distraction and the Mongol pile-on that occurred near the end of Spain's existence).

I don't know whether I could have saved Spain with such tactics or not, but chances aren't bad. Higher losses might have caused Germany to make peace, and even if they didn't, Spain might have lived long enough for me to develop the military power needed to intervene successfully on their behalf.

Nathan

[jshelr]

Spain is going down the tubes in my game too, although it isn't over yet. In addition to the above, I'm plotting to get all Spain's neighbors involved in other altercations. But, it's going to take good luck to keep the weak Spanish afloat. Russ

[Rhothaerill]

It's nice to see things are turning out the way I'd intended. Spain was supposed to be weak. With a bad starting location and Germany as their neighbor it was bad for them to start.

[Dominae]

I think the key in this game is to "eliminate" the Mongols to grab more land for yourself, and then the Spanish so that they do not lose the Germans. All the other civs are pretty safe, although the Ottomans could fall to the Germans if Germany gets too aggressive too quick.


Dominae

[jshelr]

Saving Spain

It's critical to have a big gold supply to bribe other civs into alliances. You want to break up coordinated attacks on civs you are trying to protect without doing the job with your own troops, IMO.

The Babs and Gandhi were crushing Spain in my game. So, in addition to propping up Spain as Nathan suggests above, Old Abe waited until both India and the Babs were fully engaged in Knight/Elephant attacks and then bribed both the Mongols and Babs to attack India. The resulting chaos seems to be giving Spain breathing room. Meantime, Abe grabbed a couple of additional lux resources.

Somehow, India is doing all this fighting while staying in Democracy.