AU502 DAR 2: First Gallic Swordsman

[jshelr]

[jim_steer]

AU502 Dar 1 - Emperor - AU Mod - 1125BC

Not much of interest has happened since the last DAR, I have spent most of my time REXing trying to grab some decent city sites before the ultra REXing Iroquois grab them all. The Iroquois seem to be dominant as regards military and expansion speed. I am just about matching them in the rexing stakes, but at the expense of my military. Everyone is pretty much level in tech at around the MM/Lit stage.

The REXing stage of the game seems to be coming to a close now, so I am currently building up an invincible army of gallic swordsmen to trim back my northern neighbours. I am particularly interested in grabing the Sumerians Ivory before they complete The Statue of Zeus.

The only other interesting thing to note is my fleet of exploring Curraghs, since AU501 I have taken to building vast (5-10) fleets of Curraghs to explore the oceans. Unfortunately in this game the two movement sea/ocean and increased sinking chance is taking a horrible toll on my brave Curragh fleet The only dividends from my exploration is the discovery of 2 seemingly uninhabited landmasses to my west.

The Celtic World 1125BC

[Krill]

This was written during play, so it will be fragmented. My rather unusual and frankly suicidal tactics payed off with tech parity at the end of the DAR.

2030bc, switch to 100% science spending, to get poly in 24 turns instead of 31. The plan is to rush ToA with the SGL, and the accompanying border expansion will turn Alesia into a 4-turn pump city. It was not to happen, though, and it was used as a normal pump city after building a lot of warriors

1990bc, Camulodunum built on the hill 99996 from Entremont, built for protection and curraghs. In 1750bc, Sumeria are found by a worker prepping a new city site that the Sumerians are trying to steal. They succeed.

This is the plan that I have thought of: build two cities, using CxxxC spacing, on his border. When I get ToA, which will be mine in 8 turns, the free culture from the temples will push back his border, and link up mine, giving me the bonus grassland and rivers. In 1625 Richborough was built on the hill 4477 from Richborough.

In 1550, poly researched, but Germany and Iroquois already have it, so I trade it and 32g to Sumeria for IW and masonry. That really annoyed me, but at least I got ToA one turn later. Started reseach on monarchy.

Started to connect the iron, and sent a settler to build 223 from the capitol. 1475bc, catch sight of some spices, and the Iroquois steal them. They will not get to use those spices, though, thanks to the power of ToA

In 1425bc the Iroquois demand 21 gold. I give in because they have horses, and I (still) have no military

In 1300bc, my tactics start to pay off big time . Because of ToA, I can build my cities two tiles away from the other civs cities and push their borders back. On this turn I placed Agedincum next to the spices, and nicked them back. Next turn Eboracum is founded at 8889 of Entremont.

1225bc Burdigala is built on the hill south west of the iron mountain. It is next to a fresh water lake, so it can churn out workers to clear the jungle. All the settlers are wandering around without escorts, so I’m trusting the AI to take out any barbs they come across. I will not bother mentioning the future founding off cities, because They are just peripherals in this game.

1025bc will be a year to remember, with Richborough becoming a BBQ pit. Since the road to the iron is intact, I plan to rebuild the city in about three turns, one tile south east.
In 975BC, I started to scale back the settler operation, and focus on the military that I lacked.
In 825bc Monarchy had been discovered and Brennus declared king. It was traded around for writing, maths, MM, lit, HBR and about 550 gold. Tech parity is a wonderful thing, but so is the AI on this game. One turn later a GS is rushed so that I can post this DAR and go to bed. S*d the cash.

[Aqualung71]

AU502 – DAR2 First Gallic Swordsman – part 1

Demigod level, AU Mod

2110BC: Oh no, the Iroquois are marching back towards us. Hiss!!!!!

2070BC: Town of Benefit established. Keeping to a fairly tight 3-4 spacing, which may hurt me if I can’t get enough Settlers out before the AI encroaches too closely. The Sumerians are already threatening from the north. Brennus’ resolve on city spacing is wavering.

1950BC: Settler built. It’s becoming abundantly clear we need more workers to clear settlement areas before the Iroquois towns culture-expand. Now building worker.

Brennus adds not building enough workers to his growing list of early empire mismanagement and blunders. Let’s hope these mistakes don’t end up qualifying Brennus for the 1950BC Darwin Awards. Luckily we don’t have Libraries so the populace are still too dumb to notice

Sumerian Settlers are again approaching.

1870BC: Worker built in our capital. Switched to Spearman. Town of Meddle founded, NE of our capital (are those whale noises we hear in the distance?).

1790BC: Sumerian Enkidus and Archers are approaching en masse. Another worker built. Benefit now switched to Barracks for defensive strength. Exploring worker finds another cow way NW. But it looks too far for our REX to reach. Iroquois Mounted Warriors make their appearance.

Brennus curiously eyes the wussy-looking men with funny wigs and wonders what the Iroquois women do for pleasure

1725BC: Spearman built in our capital. Settler next.

1675BC: It looks like the Sumerians are moving towards the Iroquois. Let’s hope there’s an AI-AI war in the offing! Brennus is happy to act as a scavenger if such a conflict eventuates.

Writing researched, but everyone’s got it. In fact they’re more ahead of us now. Going for Iron Working next – 13 turns. It’s time to look for Iron. Should have done this originally – let’s hope it’s not too late to catch up.

1650BC: Temple completed in Benefit. Worker started. Sumerians are building SoZ. Oh-oh! Wig-wams on one side and Ancient Cavalry on the other!

Brennus hatches a plan in his ancient mind to develop fast-moving athletes, give them swords and teach them to play a new strategy game called chess….ummm….on their pants. Well, that will show those wussy wig-wearers who’s boss, won’t it?

1575BC: Incense connected.

1550BC: Worker built in Benefit. Now have 4, which will be enough for now. Yes, there is an alarming trend developing of going short on workers in this game.

1475BC: Sumerians and Iroquois are now at war. Their movement of troops across our territory, towards each other, remains constant and is very disconcerting and a security concern. Additional defensive units must be built, which plays havoc with Brennus’ REX plans.

Germans building GL – good decision not to go for the Literature play!

Town of Abbey Road founded on the eastern seaboard (and a crosswalk constructed on the main street for no apparent reason other than to get a Beatles reference in). Yay, we can at last build a Curragh!

1425BC: Hiawatha demands our single piece of gold and gets it. We are not in a position to withstand extortion. Luckily we have learnt from past painful experiences not to research at negative gold rates early in the game, to avoid losing an expensive building.

1375BC: Iroquois settler combo approaching the much needed western spice resource. Will our settler get there first?

Iron working researched, and we have none within our borders. But some close by – will we get a settler there in time? Mysticism next.

1350BC: Barbarian annoyingly appears next to our warrior guarding the spices. We kill him, but are redlined in the process and another is approaching. Settler arrives on the spot, to find the Germans have squeezed a town to the north, taking that cow. Drats again! Our restrictive borders are quickly being defined.

1325BC: Town of Beggars Banquet founded on the spices. Not the ideal location, but the Iroquois settler was adjacent and we didn’t have the luxury of time. Curragh being built. Our little empire now spans the western-eastern seaboards….which of course only means the AI civ’s will wander at will across our territory until we are strong enough to throw them out.

1300BC: Another Iron spotted north of Beggars Banquet. Iroquois combo headed there, but our second warrior heads them off and corners them. Screenie attached. Still, someone else is bound to get there first.

[Aqualung71]

AU502 – DAR2 First Gallic Swordsman – part 2

Demigod level, AU Mod

1250BC: Settler built and headed north towards Iron. Meanwhile, first spice connected.

1225BC: Ouch! Haven’t been watching the slider. Research set too low. Reset and now Mysticism in 6. Still playing havoc with the confused Iroquois settler as ours approaches the northern Iron

1175BC: Town of Disraeli Gears founded next to Northern Iron resource. This one will be culture bombed and strongly garrisoned to prevent flipping, as it may be the cornerstone of our GS strategy.

Meanwhile, our cruel warriors continue to play havoc with the Iroquois settler. We shall let him go now, since there’s nothing further up north.

[Aqualung71]

AU502 – DAR2 First Gallic Swordsman – part 3

Demigod level, AU Mod

1125BC: Gilgamesh demands 20g and again, we have no choice. Pliny kindly informs us that only the Incas are less powerful than us. Hmmm, some nasty opposition in that list!

1100BC: First Curragh built on east coast, sent south.

1075BC: Mysticism researched. Now Polytheism in 17. Getting slower! Need more towns and commerce. Hard to do when still pumping settlers. Still, not many more now.

1000BC: Town of Foxtrot founded, next to southern Iron resource. This will be another culture town well garrisoned (eventually). The extra iron resource may keep us within touch on tech.

975BC: Our REX is continuing, trying to squeeze extra towns into the few remaining spaces. We are taking a serious risk, as our military production has not kept up. But GS will be on the way soon. As long as Sumeria and Iroquois are at war we feel reasonably ok, however aggressive Germany needs to be watched.

Germans complete GL

Town of Blood on the Tracks founded, buttressing against the eastern border with Sumeria. And yes, this town has been symbolically named.

950BC: Sumeria completes the SoZ. That’s not good. Western town of Beggars Banquet completes Curragh for Northern exploration.

The optimistically named southern town of Who’s Next is founded, sneakily stealing a corner tile of Iroquois cows.

925BC: Forbidden Palace is offered, but we’re not sure where to put it yet.

900BC: Iron connected. Western Curragh lost while trying to reach promising looking western lands. Did Brennus forget the gods of the AU Mod nerfed sea travel? Hmmm.

825BC: Town of Hunky Dory founded in the far north (or should we call it a camp….ha-ha-ha!).

775BC: Connected second spice and immediately traded it to Gilgamesh for Masonry and 32g. Sumerian/Iroquois war is opening up new territories – jungles that may hold future resources. We continue REXing, dangerously!

We are tempted to connect our second Iron and trade it to Gilgamesh for techs. But this will strengthen his military. Still, with the GS now available, we may do this as soon as our defences look reasonable

750BC: Town of Transformer founded in the western jungles (ummm….another camp?). Ok, enough with the gender-bender jokes.

740BC: Bismarck demands half our gold – 21 – and of course we are only happy to oblige our friendly German neighbour, whose ugly cousin Panzer has dreams of future might.

Gilgamesh continues to ignore our territorial boundaries, sending his Ancient Cavalry all over our empire in search of the Iroquois Wig-Wams.

730BC: Polytheism researched. Monarchy next in 26 – great! Perhaps it’s time to connect the Iron and trade it for Monarchy. Ok, decision made. Research dropped to zero.

710BC: Our remaining Curragh finds a coastal channel to the west.

Town of Moondance founded in south-eastern jungles. Let’s hope this fondness of pagan rituals doesn’t lead the citizens to defect to the Iroquois.

630BC: Foxtrot culture expands to take the Sumerian (former Iroquois) Dyes. Gilgamesh won’t like that. Better connect the Iron and trade it to him before he declares war. Then again, he’s still friendly because of the profitable Spice trade.

570BC: Second iron connected. Gilgamesh won’t give us Monarchy for any price. So we traded it plus 200g and 1gpt for Mathematics, The Wheel and Philosophy. We promptly swapped Philosophy to Hiawatha for Currency. Researching Monarchy at 43 turn pace – great!

Ah, the value of Iron!

[Aqualung71]

AU502 – DAR2 First Gallic Swordsman – part 4

Demigod level, AU Mod

530BC: Hiawatha demands, and gets, half our gold again – 21. This guy is taking things a bit far. No, really, he is. Really!

490BC: Germany enters the war on Sumeria’s side. REXing phase completed. First Gallic Swordsmen built (so-named based on the Celts' continental origins)

Current thoughts and plans for the future:

I've identified a number of mistakes, and will probably find more on reading other DAR's above (which I won't do until after I've finished the next stretch).

Research selection I think has clearly hampered us, and as a result we are way behind on techs, but luckily able to catch up somewhat by securing the second Iron and additional spice. This will be a useful renewal every 20 turns, but only if our reputation remains intact, which may make it difficult to use the GS to full effect.

While starting out with the objective of waging early war with the GS, the delay in researching IW has pushed back our GS accumulation, which may make it too late to be of any use. We need to finish researching Monarchy and then switch governments before any GA is triggered, and this could be some time away. On the other hand, we've established 13 towns now, partly due to lands freed up by the Sumerian/Iroquois war, so we may be looking ok for continued peaceful expansion. Oh, but wouldn't that be a shame!

Clearly we need to meet other civs to bring down our research costs. But that may be some time away since the western island appears empty and we don't have Map Making yet to build suicide Galleys.

Overall, a mediocre position, but we shall plod on. Our best strategy may still be to strike at the Iroquois and secure more lands.

Current position:

13 towns (Sumeria 12, Iroquois 9, Germany 9)
1 settler
12 workers
5 warriors
12 spearmen
1 gallic swordsman
1 curragh

[nbarclay]

AU Mod, Demigod Level

I've played the game through Flight, but I'm a bit behind in posting my DARs. I wrote the initial draft of the DARs while playing, but marathon gaming sessions left me a bit too tired to trust myself proofreading and editing them.

In 2070 BC, I pop rushed a temple in my worker pump in an effort to stay a bit more even in the culture race. With a temple, it could reach additional high-production tiles, and the temple would help the city grow bigger once the unhappiness wore off. My intent was to make the city able to build settlers, not just workers.

A Sumerian Enkidu Warrior and settler appeared north of Iberia in 1990 BC. The good news was that I had contact with another neighbor. The bad news was that I was about to be crowded in a bit more.

In 1650, one of the game’s most annoying quirks struck: Germany demanded gold while I was running a deficit. As a result, the granary I put all that work into in Iberia was destroyed, costing me a fair amount of time replacing it when I wanted to use it to crank out settlers and workers.

I finally finished researching Polytheism in 1400 BC. I was able to trade that to Sumeria for Bronze Working, Masonry, Alphabet The Wheel, Warrior Code, and 26 gold; to the Iroquois for Iron Working and 100 gold; and to the Germans for Writing and 32 gold. Next up, Monarchy.

The Celtic nation continued to expand over the following centuries. Iroquois forces continued to trespass, but, fortunately, chose not to attack even though they could easily have ravaged my empire. (It would have been game over if they had, but I didn’t feel like I could stay competitive if I diverted my attention to building a military that could have stopped them.) I decided to take advantage of my Religious trait to mount a cultural campaign against the Iroquois, and especially against their city of Mauch Chunk, which I built a city on either side of for the specific purpose of crowding it culturally. The tactic worked, and in 1100 BC, the city was mine.

In the meantime, the Iroquois had recently gone to war with the Sumerians and captured one of their cities. A plan started to form that if the Iroquois would be as successful against Sumeria as I thought they might, I would, at some point in the future, enlist the Germans in an alliance against the Iroquois. (But that was left for the fairly distant future, since I had no military to speak of thus far.)

[That was what I was thinking at the time, but as it turned out, the Iroquois weren't all that successful after all. So that particular thought about the possible future had to be scrapped.]

[nbarclay]

The Celtic people completed their research into Monarchy in 850 BC and embarked on a series of trades. First, we traded Monarchy to Sumeria for Mathematics, Philosophy, Code of Laws, Literature, Map Making, Horseback Riding, and 14 gold; and to the Iroquois for Construction and 301 gold. Next, Construction and Code of Laws went to Germany for Currency and 15 gold, propelling the Germans into the medieval era. I was hoping that I’d get lucky and the Germans would get Feudalism, which my Sumerian and Iroquois neighbors already had, which might have made it practical for me to trade for it. But they got Theology, and buying that from them when they were the only ones who had it would have been prohibitively expensive (if it would even have been possible). I decided to start research on Engineering at Maximum with an eye toward a MedInf/Trebuchet stack as my primary offensive force, since I’d taken too long for Gallic Swordsmen to be quite as effective as I wanted. (Neither pikes nor Enkidus make especially attractive targets for them.)

The Sumerians had succeeded in recapturing the city the Iroquois had taken from them earlier, and had the Great Wall as well as the Statue of Zeus to enhance their military status. They also had the Great Library, and so could be an extremely valuable target to attack – if I could do it successfully.

I waited one more turn, until 825 BC, to begin my transition to Monarchy in order to pop rush one last temple. The shorter anarchy faced by religious civs is nice.

In 390 BC, I got Engineering only to find that my three rivals on the continent all already had it. That meant I would have to research Feudalism myself. My first Gallic Swordsman was completed in 210 BC; I could have started a lot earlier, but I’d wanted to build some warriors for upgrade.

[nbarclay]

Between aggressive REXing and flipping an Iroquois city, I managed to get a total of seventeen cities through peaceful expansion. The spacing was tight enough that some in the southeast couldn't get up to size 12, but at least I had them.

Thanks to the Religious trait and aggressive temple-building (often using rush builds), I was actually a bit ahead of the Iroquois in culture and barely ahead of Germany, although Sumeria was another matter. Like Thriller, I had a ringside seat to watch the Iroquois and Sumerians fight each other - almost invariably either in my terriotry or within the borders of the Sumerian city of Isin.

[Jawa Jocky]

The discovery of Iron reveals that my REXH stategy has gained me two Iron sources. I research and switch to Monarchy ASAP and begin building barracks and units. Science is turned down to 10% and the Gallic Swordmen are begining to gather along the Southern border.

Future Plans are laid out.

1) Attack the Iroquois and trigger the GA.
2) Spend about 10 turns trimming them back then make peace.
3) Send the Gallic forces North and ocsillate between neighbors for the rest of my GA and then some.
4) REX onto the empty islands and search for everyone else.

[IthacaMike]

Regent AU mod

By 500 BC I had 7 cities and was spread between the coasts. I had hooked up one Iron and had control of the other when Sumeria declared war and took one of my cities. Two turns later the Iroquois joined them. I had the advantage of interior lines. (That's PR speak for "I was surrounded.")

It was also a three way despotic Golden Age.

I had three cities cranking out Spearmen and three making Gallic Swordsmen. It was nip and tuck until I caught a break in 70 BC and got a Military Great Leader while capturing Niagra Falls. Shortly after that my brand new GS army took Salamanca and the Horses.

Three more leaders follwed in quick succession while I was overrunning the Iroquois while holding off Sumeria. Eventually arround 500 AD the Iroquois threw in the towel (and all the Anchient age techs for peace!). They were down to three cities.

In the mean time I had captured and barely held on to Umma and the Sumerian Ivory. Earlier I had decided I need catapults. Mathamatics + Ivory = Zeus. During the fighting I got my fifth GL. I had too few cities for the fifth Army and it became the Pentagon. ToZ in 450 AD followed by the Pentagon in 460 AD!

I needed all four Petagon sized armies to pound my way into Ur. It was size 12 and it had 8 or so defenders. It also had the Oracle and the Temple of Artemis. I was a happy war monger. I also captured The Lighthouse.

When the Sumerans were reduced to two cities they refused to cough up Engineering. One city later... Then I spotted three German Swordsman approaching Agade on the northern coast of the inland sea. I was absolutely slack jawed when Bismark declared war.

Good-bye Germany!

I then got my sixth leader and turned him into an army of Medieval Infantry. I think this was a mistake, I should have built the FP instead. The conquest of Germany took about 20 turns.

I then traded ~600 gold and Feudalism to Sumeria for Monotheism just as the peace treaty ran out. As luck would have it when my GS armies smashed their way into Akshak that very turn, the Sumerians had ~600 gold. :-) A few turns later the Iroquois followed them into history. I had the continent to myself.

850 AD I switched to Republic and started researching the upper half of the Middle ages tech tree on my way to Economics after reaching gunpowder on the bottom. I finished Leonardos in 1020 AD.

I launched some galleys and found the islands to the west while building cathederals.

From the various reports I figured the tech leader was the Byzantines but they did not seem to be that far ahead.

[Aqualung71]

Re: AU Mod, Demigod Level

Originally posted by nbarclay
...one of the game’s most annoying quirks struck: Germany demanded gold while I was running a deficit.

You and me both. I hate that! So much so that I now rarely risk researching at a deficit in the ancient age.

You should at least get a chance to re-set the slider after that happens.

[Madine]

AU mod, Monarch

After building my first GS, my plan was to build a few more and attack sumeria. However, before I had my force ready, I refused an Iroquois demand for tribute, triggering war. That was a mistake. I lost a city to them, and eventually had to buy peace.

Later the Germans made a demand of me, but their military was on par with me, so I refused. They declared war. My GS's repelled their trickling invasion force, and eventually I captured Heidelburg. Also, Sumeria and Iroquois are fighting each other. If I can take all the German territory, things should be looking up for me.

I noticed that all 3 other civs were in feudalism at one point, although Germany is in anarchy now. I have stayed in despotism. Maybe the AI is noticing the improved benefits? Or was something changed to trigger that?

[Fosse]

Originally posted by Madine
I have stayed in despotism. that?

With a religious Civ?!?!

How come?