AUSG101 – Domination Team DAR 5

[Rhothaerill]

This is the DAR (“during action report”) thread for the fifth turn block of 30 turns (50ad – 450ad) for the domination team. Please post your DAR of the next 30 turns, including thoughts of why you did what you did in the game, along with a screenshot at 450ad and a savegame at 450ad. Please name your save with your nickname, team name, and the time (i.e. rhoth-domination-450ad).

Team registry:

The Arsenal
Konquest02
Theseus
Master Zen
Taian
Beta
Charlie_Six

Current voting (by opportunist team)

Total votes: 0 of 7

[Master Zen]

Ok, here's my save, I'll post my DAR tomorrow because I'm rather busy at the moment.

Carthage has kissed this world goodbye

[Master Zen]

Our Empire:

[Master Zen]

Our latest caliphate of Carthage, now convereted to the word of Islam.

[Master Zen]

A bit of what I did:

Expansion in our continent has practically peaked, there is probably no more than 2 city cites which will perhaps be built in the future. Some of the core cities now have Marketplaces which have increased our budget a bit. First thing I did was trade Feud for Mono, and went straight to Chivalry, getting it a few turns before the round ended and I managed to upgrade 2 Ansars, however, Carthage's collapse was so fast that they didn't see action.

About Carthage. I launched the war as promised though I delayed a bit to build 2 more galleys for Pikes. Being used to emeperor I expected this to be a tougher fight but lo and behold, Carthage crumbled in a mere 8 turns! It was true overkill. Leptis Magna was defended by just ONE merc, vs. my 8 med infs against that city alone. Taking the first 3 cities was a sinch, so I used my many galleys to go "city-hopping". It was a very effective strategy and sped up victory tremendously. It also helped that I encountered NOT A SINGLE veteran merc, they were all regs. As you can imagine the odds favored me tremendously.

In other news, I finally descovered England and traded I belive Lit for over 230 gold. Germany also settled a city near the old Japanese lands, they then landed 2 warriors near my capital and declared war when I told them to leave. They were quickly killed and their city razed. I have since made peace with them, but they are next on the kill list. England is also looking for trouble, for no other reason that they are a big chunk of backwards lands. Fortunately the carthagenian war resulted in very few losses (about 4 med infs only) which means the bulk of the med inf force will be used against Germany and England (simultaneously).

The bad news in all of this? No leader I want one for the FP and better yet, for Leo's. I hope Germany or England provides me with one


EDIT: forgot to add civ stats

Pop: 8,044,000
GNP: 385 million
Manuf: 116 megatons
Product: 358

Order of Battle:

2 Scout
10 Warriors
3 Archers
10 Spearman
25 Horsemen
12 Pikemen
2 Ansar Warriors
32 Medieval Infantry

Holy Arabian Navy:

10 Galleys

Only Horsemen are being built at this moment.

[Taian]

OK, so here's my block for this one.

Surveying our current situation, I was of the same mind as MZ...take out Carthage now. I ended up waiting a few turns at the start to get a few more MI, but set off of Carthage in 130AD, with 8 galleys loaded with 13 MI and 3 horsemen. As well, there was a smaller land army coming through the chokepoint consisting of 2 horsemen and 4 MI. More horsemen were coming up the pipe to support the land army as well. The picture below shows my initial strategy for conquering Carthage. I had plans to also jump over to Germany as soon as my army hit the southern part of the Carthaginian homeland.

[Taian]

Overall, the war against Carthage went very well. The following is the list of cities and when they fell:

Hippo: 150AD
Leptis Magna: 150AD
Theveste: 190AD
Sabratha: 190AD
Carthage 210AD
Cirta: 250AD
Utica: 260AD
Cadiz: 290AD

I got contact with the English in 270AD and founded them to be seriously backwards. However, they did have some gold to part with and dropped down 168 gold for horseback riding.

At this point, I realized that I had a chance to do an encore presentation of the deception. Carthage only had contact with Germany and the Germans only had contact with Carthage. Things looked good to be able to knock both of them out before they could touch base with any other civs. So, I declared peace with Carthage and got Hadrumentum, Rusicade and Leptis Minor in 290AD. I contacted them again and traded Monarchy to them for the Republic and 3 workers. At this point, the only Carthaginian city left was Oea.

Concurrently with the Carthage offensive, the German offensive began in 290AD, with the capture of Munich. Munich was chosen as the first target since it was the only source of iron in the German empire. This made the conquest of the continent relatively easy. The Black Land contacted me at this time too and demanded contact with the English. After being told to bugger off, Sauron decided to declare war. Nothing really happened for the entire duration of the war and peace was agreed upon in 390 AD.

England is actually a decent trading partner so far. They have access to ivory and are more than happy to supply the Arab empire in exchange for technology. I believe I'm at 5 luxuries for the end of this block. Very useful in keeping a sprawling empire under control.

Meanwhile, in Germany, the following cities are falling:
Heidelburg: 330AD
Konigsburg: 360AD
Stuttgart: 390AD

In my haste to take care of Carthage, I actually left Hadrumentum undefended for awhile and Carthage actually recaptured it However, I took Oea in 350AD and followed it with Hadrumentum in 400AD, which killed off the Carthaginians.

[Taian]

In 390AD, one of the highlights of this block occurred. In the battle for Stuttgart, one of the Arab elite horse units generated a Great Leader. It was a toss up whether to use it for an Army, a wonder or the FP. In the end, I figured the FP would allow us to achieve the victory quicker due to the increased production.

[Taian]

So, in 430AD, the FP was built in Balkh, west of Washington. And wow, what a kickstart it gave our empire, especially in light of the next revelation...

I was hoping to get Ansars in combat during this block, but I was holding my research at 10%, hoping the other continent would get it and I could buy it off them. Monotheism was bought from the Babylonians in 350AD (368 gold) and then I jacked up the research rate such that it was 8 turns to Chivalry. I actually ended up buying Chivalry from the Black Land in 410AD for 205 gold. Due to all the 10% research, I had something like 1800 gold at the time. One turn prior, I had agreed to peace with the Germans in exchange for Cologne and Hannover, two towns that they had founded in the old Japanese area. I didn't really want to waste the troops to capture those two, so this worked out great. Even better was that the Germans still didn't have any new contacts, the Deception, Part 2, was still in play. The same turn that we agreed to peace, I broke the agreement and took Berlin (400AD).

[Taian]

Now, as mentioned above, Chivalry was obtained from the Black Land in 410AD. I knew that they had it, but was waiting for the price to drop a bit before pulling the trigger. At the time that I bought it, I actually only needed two turns to research it. However, those few turns of delay allowed me to rush build a barracks on the German continent. The next turn, after buying Chivalry, I upgraded a horse unit to an Ansar down on the German continent. The next turn, it saw action and triggered the Arab Golden Age.

Before the end of the turn block, Nuremburg (430AD), Bremen (440AD) and Leipzig (440AD) all fell.

[Taian]

I must say, this turn block worked out well, I think. As you can see from the military, we're sitting in prime position. It's only a mop up excercise on the German continent seeing as they only have 2 cities left and we have about 8 Ansars about to land. My plan was to load up all the military units on the German continent and take them over to visit England once the Germans are finished. Following that, we can take on the main continent. With England as backwards as they are, the Ansar warriors should make short work of any resistance we meet.
I've started to build up the infrastructure of the homeland as well now. With the GA and the FP, we should be able to take, and maintain, the tech lead for the rest of the game. We're at tech parity with the Black Land and the Babylonians and Engineering comes up in 2 turns.

[Taian]

The stats...

[Taian]

And the save...

[Tassadar500]

This is just a general question for all of you in the domination team. How are you going to deal with the intercontinental invasion of the other continent?

[Taian]

Can I say "Cross that bridge when we come to it"?

I haven't thought about it much yet, but it will either be the Babylonians or the Indians that feel the brunt, I'm guessing. The Indians seems slightly less advanced that the others on that continent, so they may be the winner. I will likely delay until Cavalry, depending on the overall tech level. That's because muskets will probably be around by the time that invasions rolls around. Those are just a quick gut response though. I'll think more about it and get back to ya