AU 601: sabrewolf's DAR 2 (rome)

[sabrewolf]

Please do NOT read this thread of you are playing the game and:

1) You are Andydog
OR
2) You are playing as the Greeks
OR
3) You have not yet explored the entire map (including oceans and islands).
OR
4) You have not yet discovered gunpowder.


this is the thread of my 2nd DAR for my AU601 game against andydog.

we are the playing the AU mod at monarch level.

i'll add the link to andydog's DAR thread and first screenies soon...


link to my DAR1

[sabrewolf]

where we left...

the DAR 1 ended in the year 390 AD shortly after the discovery of gunpowder.

i have attached the scores from 380ad.

[sabrewolf]

i'm at war against greece ever since around 1800bc (?) and he's been off and on in war against various AI neighbors (me bribing them into war, him bribing them out of war).

he has managed to keep up in tech with the AI, but REXing and military buildup hasn't been happening. so while i was at nearly 30 cities, he had around 12. and while i was leader-farming (and got 4 of them... 3 for armies and 1 for the pentagon-rushing), he was obviously not fending off the suicide missions very well (egyptian war chariots come in masses and are easy to pick off).

a few hundred years ago, i surprise attacked his persian-border city of knossos (3 defenders) with 2 armies. after a short consolidation phase and filling of these armies (now all with 4x ancient cavalry), i continue my pursuit of his cities and picked them off one by one.

2nd city to fall was sparta (1 hoplite), his gems city, which had to be abandonned. then came corinth (3 units), then herakleia (4 hoplites) and a turn later thessalonika (2 hoplites).

so he has lost 5 cities, about 20 miltary units, 4 non-combat units... being in republic, his war wariness is probably hurting him right now and will be killing him, once he buys babylon out of war (which he has to do, because they are sending in medinfs)

[sabrewolf]

400ad

engineering still hasn't appeared, but education has spread. persia had it already for quite some time, now egypt got it and the germanics too thanks to their great library (which now has expired with the minimum of possible recieved techs )

unfortunatly, no civ except persia were willing to pay a decent gpt for a tech, so i decided to sell engineering to persia for nearly all their money (~355g) and 53gpt!!!

after that, i got education from egypt for engineering and 8gpt.

the only thing that would annoy me would be if persia cancelled the deal quite soon.

however, i wouldn't mind, if andy made peace with greece. currently, i'm giving cleo iron and 15gpt total. not that it matters too much, but i would prefer to use the money for other things...

[sabrewolf]

my own fur coat

finally, i've planted the fur city deep in germanic/celtic territory!

im 3 turns, my fur contract with the celts will run out and then i'll have the 2 other luxuries available for trading around (hopefully gaining more gpt).

[sabrewolf]

here the trade window with the persian. i forgot to take a screenshot earlier on and i don't feel like replaying the turn to display it... but trust me: i got an additional >350g for education!

leonardo's workshop will be completed next turn and then i'll mass upgrade all units that need upgrading (i don't like going legionary-->medinf, because 3 defence is quite neat too)

so far, i've also got about 6 horsemen waiting for either chivalry or - at this pace - military tradition.


meanwhile, in greece, i've moved one nearly-fully recovered army (the 11/18HP (now 17/18HP) one that took herakleia) towards the next city in the jungle next to pharsalos (see the 380ad screenshot). i doubt andy will put too many defeces in that city because the other army can engage athens twice and he won't want to lose athens (yet).

[sabrewolf]

to be honest - i wish andy would give up. even if he does manage to kill my armies, victory will eventually be mine - he can only delay it.

i currently just feel like a sadist, picking him off city by city, making his nation absolutely war-weary, etc.
and it may still be fun for me - it surely isn't for him. and this is slowly turning into public humiliation...


what would you guys do in his position?

[nbarclay]

I'd send him a message saying something like, "It seems clear from the current economic and military situation that Rome is ultimately going to win. If you are having fun seeing how long you can hang on, we can keep playing, but if not, you are welcome to call it quits. Whichever you would rather do is fine with me."

So far as "public humiliation" is concerned, I don't see how playing the game out ought to be considered any more humiliating than giving up. In real life, continuing a losing fight so that people die needlessly is despicable. But in Civ, depending on a player's attitude, there is honor to be had in putting up the best fight you can in what is ultimately a losing situation.

[sabrewolf]

ok, wrong choice of words. "humiliating" (i just looked it up) is a bit too strong... i had grabbed it from when you resign in civ3

i know there's nothing bad about playing it out until the end. one could call it "never surrender, die in honour". on the other hand, it's just as noble to give up when you notice that the fight is indisputably decided. there's no shame in losing, only in "bad losing".

thanks for the great formulation, nathan. i've sent him exactly that message, but i doubt he'll resign... he didn't do so either in the 1on1s we had.


i'm not really sure, what i prefer. having this "over with", so i could focus on a clean SP game, would be nice.
but for every of his cities i capture, i can gift it to the AI and recapture it later on, without interfering with the au601-idea. if he should resign, there's suddenly going to be a lot of open space for babylon and egypt to settle.

i think in such a case, i may "bend" the rules and say that i'm allowed to capture any city, that i founded within the former greek territory. then i don't need to send over 15 units, just to block the hills against invasion. is this acceptable?

[sabrewolf]

410ad

aaaanyhow.....

leonardo da vinci has opened up his workshop in rome!

first unit (spear-->musket) was upgraded this turn!

[sabrewolf]

pharsalos

two more cities have phallen!

this time, the persians managed to capture one town! it is the phirst time that the AI was successphul in taking a city! i'm surprised! the isthmus phor reinphorcements has been blocked phor about 12 turns and bephore that, only horsemen and archers passed through. andy must really be concentrating his phorces in athens or completely crumbling after losing all resources and connections to all other cities

notice the 'ph's? yeees, you guessed right. pharsalos has been captured and in honour of the brave roman men for now all 'eph's have been replaced 'pee-ache's

[sabrewolf]

next to fall, is delphi, (3x NW of athens) and thermophylae (3x N of pharsalos). after that, army 1 will capture the last -well fortified hilled, walled cities, while army 2 will take out athens unit by unit while always retreating back to the mountains for safety (maybe not even needed, if HP loss is minor).

i reckon the nightmare will be over in around 10 turns, 15 tops, if i'm unlucky with the RNG or if andy has a surprise ready.

meanwhile, i'm gifting cities to the germanics and celts. these will be competely unproductive and unconnected for centuries... and they may even trigger and inter-AI war

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by sabrewolf
ok, wrong choice of words. "humiliating" (i just looked it up) is a bit too strong... i had grabbed it from when you resign in civ3

It always struck me as an attempt to be funny. This is because it is not likely to be a truely humiliating situation.

[sabrewolf]

420ad - thermopylae

it was a close battle against a fortified veteran hoplite behind walls and then against a fortified regular medinf behind the same walls... but it worked ... with 4HPs left (started with about 16), thermopylae has been captured! btw: this is a great city as it has walls, barracks, iron and access to the sea... so i'll keep it

[sabrewolf]

420ad - delphi

a powerful programming language, the first 6 lettres of my former best swimming stroke (in switzerland we call it "delphin", meaning "dolphin"... the swimstroke is what english speakers (and germany too, btw) call "butterfly"), and the last greek city i'll capture...

for andy has accepted my offer (the nicely formulated one --> thanks nathan! ) and will give up.