AU 601: sabrewolf's DAR

[sabrewolf]

in the screenshot attached, you can see my elite archer up north. it's exposed and a counterattack by his NM would be fatal... but i'm trusting in the AI to be stubborn... so far NMs have never attacked me... even when a 1 HP elite warrior was standing right beside the capital

the orange circle is btw. a spot a plan to settle. possible also the half-visible tile on the right of the screenie. with culture rushes, i'll then nearly have a connected area... and the longer i keep carthage at war, the less culture building will they build. it'll take quite some time (carthago's culture is beyond 100 and +2 every turn), but eventually i should also be able to grab the red dotted tiles... but that's faaar away still

[sabrewolf]

... for the bigger problem are the germanics. they've now started coming south with their settlers... that's bad... very bad.

i've got an alliance treaty with them, so it probably wouldn't be wise to break it... on the other hand: i'm ready for taking them on. SoZ is ready in 3 and legionaries are being pumped out too...

what should i do? is treaty breaking worth it for this single settler-bop?

[sabrewolf]

last for tonight: here are the scores at 650bc.

that's +5 points for me in the last turn and +4 for andydog. i've got 38% more points than him... but i had a powerstart in comparison with andydog (unlike theseus who actually had more points than nathan very early on)

compared to 950bc (300 years at 25 years/turn pace = 12 turns):
rome: from 224 to 282: +58 or +25.9%
greece: from 174 to 204: +30 or +17.2%

i definetly have the better momentum

[nbarclay]

Theseus's early lead came from building a settler before a granary instead of turning his capital into a settler pump right away. That kind of lead looks good on paper, but it doesn't reflect an advantage in long-term potential.

[sabrewolf]

630bc

- SoZ in 2 turns
- my curragh will have sailed the whole continent in 3 turns (--> as soon as persia has a harbour, i'll make peace with carthage as give persia iron)
- my spearman is staying south of the german settler/archer-pair. this will slow them down if they are facing exactly south (no difference if they want to go SE)

[sabrewolf]

610bc

the game isn't moving along as i had hoped... 2 turns per day isn't overwhelming at all! i hope andy and i can get in a good session some time this week.


but there has been some interesting development lately: the german archer-settler pair is coming further and further south... if only i knew where they are heading to?

my RoP with them ends in 6 turns, so if the city hasn't been founded by then, i'll try to settler-bop. my elite warrior has healed from the barbarian attack and is 3 tiles away.

this may be a good time to take on germany, as carthage is toast anyway. also, germany is the only civ i havn't bought into war against greece, so there's no alliance to break here. if there should be a hassle between us, then i'll get egypt and celts to fight on my side. germany would be forced to defend from 3 sides and it might slow down their expansion.

but on the other hand, cleopatra already has to send her guys towards greece, so maybe a 2 front war for them wouldn't be a smart move by me. i do want to weaken the AI, but more important my immediate neighbors. what do you guys think?

[sabrewolf]

meanwhile, a german archer is 3 tiles away from my dye city scouting. i'm thinking of leaving the city undefended (with 2 spearmen ready to march in) as a honeypot and hope that heinrich will send his archer to "scout" viroconium's borders. then, i'll force him out and with a bit of luck he'll declare war...
[see screenshot]


by the way: i think it wasn't nice of sir ralph to give the germanics horses and the celts iron, but not giving the persians iron

[sabrewolf]

590bc

bad year, really bad year!

andy once again made peace with everybody (except babylon) and persia demanded horseback riding! and it'd cost friggin' 11gpt and a RoP to get them back to war
well done andy!

in addition: persia just got monarchy, therefore removing my monopoly on it

[sabrewolf]

570bc

3 elite victories this turn... no MGL

and oh great... i founded 2 new cities this turn and suddently the city rank corruption caused lutetia have waste rise from 50% to 67%

republic has appeared and 3 AI already have in... so i traded it for monarchy with the babylonians


550bc,
ok lutetia is back to 3spt because i've finally connected the city... AND i've now got horses!

i f#ed up veii when i sent it's spear north... now i've lost a turn due to civil disorder... stupid me!

[sabrewolf]

530bc

- currency next turn.
- curragh is all around the continent
- settlers are being pumped out
- another spearman turned elite
- 13 cities, 1 camp, 3 settlers on the way, 2 settlers in production
- looking good

[sabrewolf]

430bc

rome's golden age is over :sniff:

several new cities have been founded, the 2nd AC should come in one of the next turns (the first one was just regular because i f'ed up happiness in veii and the barracks came 1 turn later

but thanks to the GA, i got lots of courthouses built in medium-distance cities and they have respectable production (not overwhelming, but still). currently, 3 settlers are on the way to grabbing some carthagian territory (2 cities IN their space, 2 bordering) and then i'll finally give them peace and concentrate my forces towards germanic tribes.

[sabrewolf]

370bc, i'm playing instead of typing my thesis

i'm up to 17 cities now, have 3 settlers walking and 3 more in production. my jungle dye's are finally connected and with 2 more road-tiles, i'll have my 3rd luxury.
jerusalem has been founded to steal carthago's gems (i decided to take both), but connecting these will take quite a long time.

meanwhile, 2 more elite victories and 2 more no-leader-spawned
it's time my ACs get into action

[sabrewolf]

here are the scores...
currently, i'm pulling away from everybody by points, but many cities are useless and rome lies in a crappy position

[sabrewolf]

ok, here finally a screenshot of my territory.

i've basicly secured 3 iron sources (blue circles) and 4 types of luxuries. potentially, i could get incence from the germanic area, but that's still far away.

question
do you guys think i should also steal carthage's 2 ivory?

that would probably make me the only ivory broker and give me good a hand for later deals (peace, alliance, etc)


note: as i'm writing a lot and not getting many comments, i'll from now on write question in bold when asking explicitly for an opinion. but feel free to comment and/or request stuff any time...

[sabrewolf]

310bc

persia has construction, so do the germanics!!! so it's time for another great world war!

and andydog hasn't got any of them (but he's obviously got the republic, as he is in republic).

- so i traded currency to the germanics for construction which officially puts me and them into the medieval ages!!!

- then i traded currency to persia for war against greece plus 102g. knowing i want war against germany soon, i didn't want to let them have the money.
- persia got monotheism for free, so i'll research either engineering or feudalism. i think i'll go for feudalism...
- cancelled RoP (which had run out a long time ago) and peace from germany, therefor declaring war.
- celts joined the war against germany and greece (andy must have sent a curragh up north because they didn't know each other earlier) for writing (and they gave me 21g)
- egypt took currency for war against both...
- babylon would have been willing to go to war against germany for the renewal of the greek battle, but i gave them construction and currency to get them into the new age... they too got monotheism (gawd, i do hope andydog get monotheism too, once he sets foot in the mediaval age)


- my first AC battle was won without HP loss and promotion
- my vet 2 legionaries attacked 2 archers. first battle was perfect: promotion without HP loss. second battle was less optimal: 2 HP loss and no promotion... AND walking next to a stack of 1 elite sword and 1 vet archer
- i also killed a worker with my scouting warrior...

on the downside:
- i'm going to lose a warrior
- i'm going to lose a legionary
- andydog has republic so he can always buy himself out and back into the tech race