AU601: Aqualung71's DAR

[alexman]

Re: 250AD

Originally posted by Aqualung71
The next milestone has been reached, and it's clear that the human scores in our game are well behind some of the other Monarch level games. This is not a good indictment of the standard of play in this thread

You guys are doing fine. You can't be expected to have the same score as someone else who is building Settlers non-stop. Score doesn't show the whole picture, by any means.

[Aqualung71]

That's very true. I don't usually pay much attention to score in PBEM games, though this being more of an SP game it gives an indication of how your REX is progressing compared to others. Perhaps my empire is a little more developed than some others, but it's hard to know. However, I'm pretty much even in techs with the Persians and number one on the important demographics. My objective now is to get a bunch of new towns established to the west before my territory gets completely cut-off by the Persians.

[nbarclay]

Re: Re: 250AD

Originally posted by alexman

You guys are doing fine. You can't be expected to have the same score as someone else who is building Settlers non-stop. Score doesn't show the whole picture, by any means.

That view has a lot of merit in most cases. But given the special rule this game imposes against attacking AI cities, a "build early, REX later" strategy results in a loss of opportunity for expansion. If one player would recognize and adjust for that difference in the rules and the other wouldn't, the player who recognizes and adjusts could end up with a major long-term advantage.

[alexman]

Still, even in this game, REX is not the only important element. Exploration is very important also, and you need to sacrifice expansion for it.

Also, especially at Monarch, you might be building military units to delay the expansion of your neighbors. This might result in more land for you in the long term, and (more importantly) leaders to use against the other human.

[Aqualung71]

Yes, I think you are both right. As I was implying with my last post, I recognise that I sacrificed expansion for economic development and that may have been an error given the game rules. However, for quite some time I have had AC and Legionary's posted on mountains around my empire looking for optimistic AI settlers and stray units, taking care to ensure that it's always the AC that take on the battle. I've bopped a couple of Carthaginians that way and some Germanics during my inconsequential war with them. As a result, no new AI towns have been planted near my territory for some time.

I'm now pushing 4 or 5 settlers westward to secure some coastal land to provide route to Greece via the inland sea, and I also intend to block the Persian isthmus with units to curtail any further encroachment.

I'm currently toying with the idea of leaving Greece alone completely and playing a Catt-like game of peace and diplomacy for a SS victory...inducing the odd AI-AI war to try to gain more territory from razed cities.

[Aqualung71]

300AD

We've now dropped a few more towns down out west, with some more to go. The isthmus with Persia is blocked, and we have AC moving through Persian and Germanic lands to scope out Greece.

The map still looks pretty blotchy, so we will also drop a couple of towns inside Carthage territory causing war, but they are no threat and if they send units out we will use them for leader farming. If we can score a few flips from Carthage our empire will be a pretty good size. Regardless, we have sufficient cash and income to rush culture in some of the newer towns, so we'll pretty quickly steal some of the Carthaginian land area.

Forbidden Palace has commenced construction in Lutetia.

[Aqualung71]

380AD

Things have developed smoothly and as planned. The Roman Empire now reaches the shores of the Great Sea. In order to get to the free land south of the Carthaginian city of Leptis Magna, we had to cross through their territory. When Carthage ordered us out, we just declared war since we didn't want our settler pair to be sent back into our territory. Another town will be put down inside Carthage territory next turn. The map looks fairly nasty, with lots of brown splotches preventing a homogenous Roman Empire.

Meanwhile we have 2 AC near Greek territory to finish off our exploration. Paddy has made peace with with Babylon, Persia and Egypt. We have decided, in our mercy, not to renew the world alliance against Greece for now. This was partly to do with the huge demand Persia made for a continued alliance, and partly in fear of Paddy being able to generate too many armies with his Hoplite defenders - to date, we have not managed to generate a single army from any of our various skirmishes.

Several days ago Rome and Greece communicated via telephone (a wonderful Roman invention ), and it is wonderful how leaders at war still have time to pick up the phone and discuss the world in a friendly manner In fact, this is how we received intelligence of the Greek armies being generated through combat - directly from the Greek leader himself

We have completely rebuilt Rome - now with a Granary, Library, Marketplace and Barracks. A Courthouse has also been added, making it our most productive city. We have commenced Sistine Chapel as a pre-build for Copernicus. The FP build is also progressing well.

Astronomy in 4 turns, then probably Banking and Economics for Smiths....and hopefully trade with Persia for the lower branch techs.

[Aqualung71]

440AD

We reached Astronomy a few turns ago, while Persia researched Invention on the same turn. Persia will give us Invention and some cash for Astronomy, but I prefer to keep it for a few turns and get a head start on Copernicus.....and to guard against the small possibility that Persia generated an SGL with Invention. Now researching Banking at a surplus in about 10 turns, in order to generate some cash for culture rushes in the new towns near Carthaginian lands.

Rome has switched its Sistine build over to Copernicus, while Lutetia will probably begin prebuilding Sistin Chapel for Smiths (or maybe Leonardos) once the FP is completed.

The FP still has around 4 turns to completion.

Meanwhile, Paddy has killed one of our exploring AC, who was arrogant and foolhardy enough to risk his life entering Greek territory instead of skirting around the edges. We've still made absolutely no attempt to go over there in strength and kick his butt - too busy expanding and building the economy for the late-middle ages boom.

We renewed our RoP with Babylon for 66g from them and gave them Theology in order to renew our trade in Dyes.

Am also building a few more workers, since the latest bunch of new towns showed that we were a bit deficient in tile improvement capacity.

I'm really itching to pull the GA trigger....but want to get some of the outerlying towns working a bit more efficiently first, and get some more growth.

[sabrewolf]

wow, that rome-capturing move was excellent!!
now you've got the capital in a much better place saving a later leader.

are you going to claim some more luxuries? there is 1 source of dyes south of burdigala and incense near the german-celtic border. maybe you could squeeze in a city or two?

from the last screenshot, you look like a builder nation! not a single city is producing military units! aren't you going to use rome's militaristic trait or do you intend to maximize its commercial one?

about your GA: nice and late GAs are wonderful as your many cities can profit a lot of it! mine was just after i switched to monarchy, while most greeks had it several thousand years earlier

[Aqualung71]

500AD

We’now reached 500AD.

FP was completed in Lutetia in 480AD. Corruption (under Monarchy, Monarch level) fell from 23.1% to 18.2%. Lutetia will switch over to Leonardo’s as soon as it completes its Marketplace, since we have now traded Invention for Astronomy with Persia.

Now I’ve got 4 towns churning out workers, I’ve added a few to Rome for the Copernicus build.

Our Legionaries closed in on an errant Carthaginian Archer and activated our GA, just as we are starting to surge ahead in research and build some important wonders. Target will be to get to Economics quickly to build Smith’s while still in the GA (will probably pre-build a Palace in Rome) and then get some Universities built quickly so as to keep up the research pace once the GA ends.

Unofrtunately a Carthaginian MI snuck up on an undefended town, and we had no units within walking distance, so we had to make peace. That’s a pity, since we have one more town to establish within Carthaginian territory

To match growth with happiness, we purchased Wines from Germany. It cost us 2 luxuries + 9gpt - it was our 5th luxury.

Our ROP with Persia finished and Xerxes tried to extort us to renew it, so I told him to stick his ROP where the sun don’t shine!

I offered Paddy peace, just for the hell of it Aren’t I nice?

Banking finished, Economics in 5

[Aqualung71]

Originally posted by sabrewolf
wow, that rome-capturing move was excellent!!
now you've got the capital in a much better place saving a later leader.

Yep, great planning....I hope you've learnt from the master here Sabre

are you going to claim some more luxuries? there is 1 source of dyes south of burdigala and incense near the german-celtic border. maybe you could squeeze in a city or two?

Yes, I've been eyeing that Dye, and I'll be racing the Celts to get there....I've been playing with their Settler pair with the usual line of 3 foot soldiers, inside my territory for about 300 years now, but they've now escaped when I wasn't looking (They snuck through my line while I was playing another PBEM turn I think )

from the last screenshot, you look like a builder nation! not a single city is producing military units! aren't you going to use rome's militaristic trait or do you intend to maximize its commercial one?

Me, a builder? What gives you that idea?

about your GA: nice and late GAs are wonderful as your many cities can profit a lot of it! mine was just after i switched to monarchy, while most greeks had it several thousand years earlier

Yep, now activated.....I've been itching to do it ever since I hit Monarchy, but now my empire is better developed and there are some juicy wonders out there

[Aqualung71]

540AD

Not much to report. We've finished Economics, and now have our 3 most productive cities tied up building Copernicus, Leonardo's and Smith's. Others are building Libraries, Markets and Universities. Our military is no worse than average against everybody, so no need to build too many units just yet.

Gotta love a late middle-ages GA, building wonders and Universities! I'm actually building a bunch of Marketplaces for the happiness, but may switch some over to Universities since we're researching at a high pace.

It's also probably time to trade Persia's Chivalry, which we bypassed, with Banking. They don't have Astronomy yet either.

We have 3 more settlers on the way to squeeze in some more towns to the northwest, including the Dyes. City flips are due to come our way any turn now

Researching Gunpowder in 4. Nobody has any cash to buy techs - the ones that did are already paying me gpt. Nearly time for DAR2.

We've nearly reached the Persians in score now and will pass them and move ahead easily soon, since we've continue to exand, are building wonders and are in our GA.

[Aqualung71]

580AD

Gunpowder researched.....time to start DAR2