AU601: Rhoth's Roman DAR II (playing against Beta)

[Rhothaerill]

I figured that I had better start DAR II as I now have access to the saltpeter resource as well as information about an island that is not on the pangaea (as well as most of the pangaea itself mapped).

Since my last big trade in 310ad I have continued apace with my plans. I've been researching economics and on 390ad finished it up for a trade (as follows later). I'm continuing to build economic improvements in my cities which has made me the #1 GNP for quite some time now. On the military front I'm also the top guy, strong to everyone but Germany, and continue to produce knights for later upgrade to cavalry. My intention is to wait until I have a horde of cavalry and then attack Beta with it. Whether that actually happens remains to be seen. He might deflect the whole thing and I'll have to scrap my plans. We'll find out.

The other big news is that Ravenna finally finished building (the hard way) my Forbidden Palace, which upped my production and commerce levels even more.

On to the trades. I finished economics and opened up the advisor to find that music theory and democracy had now been discovered. I feel fairly safe trading away economics as I have had most of a university as prebuild for Smith's in Rome while none of the other civs have been building any wonders thanks to a cascade earlier. Persia is the only civ with democracy and won't trade for economics so I call up Germany who is the only one who has music theory and make a trade...

[Rhothaerill]

390ad

Unfortunately Persia won't give up democracy for anything short of both my techs along with 200gpt I don't need democracy (sinve I probably will never switch out of republic unless it's to communism), but I do need gunpowder so I make the trade.

[Rhothaerill]

390ad

As of right now, I am 7 techs ahead of Beta. I know because he does not have education, gunpowder, or printing press, which are the catalysts for all the remaining techs at the moment. My goal is to make Beta work for every tech he gets by making sure that he can't trade for any of them with techs of his own. He needs to research it himself or buy it with his ready cash...thereby making him poorer. If that means giving up techs cheaply then so be it. But so far I've usually been able to get good value from my techs, or at least decent value, while denying Beta the chance to trade.

At the moment all the other nations but Beta know education, astronomy and printing press. Very soon I will be giving away gunpowder to the two remaining civs that don't have it so that he can't use it to get any other techs from them.

[Rhothaerill]

390ad

And my last major trade of the day was to get gems back. I'm the current leader in population so Carthage denied me his gems for a while...but I can get them for at least 20 turns with this trade and thereby set my slider back to 0...increasing my science and ready cash even more.

[Rhothaerill]

390ad

And finally a look at my F11 screen. I'm currently leading in the important categories of GNP, MFG goods, and overall productivity. If only my family size were #1 then it would be even better.

[Rhothaerill]

640ad

It's been a little while since I posted an update so here goes. I finished construction of Smith's Trading Company...catapulting me into a wonder-driven (Statue of Zeus for the military requirement, Smith for the commercial requirement) golden age, just as I wanted.

Since 390ad I haven't really done much other than build up. I've been working toward the largest military in the game (and I have it according to F3 where everyone is weak to me) but that isn't enough. I want a clearcut majority of both numbers and unit quality before heading after Beta.

On the research front I'm only a few techs away from the industrial era...a full 10 techs ahead of Beta. My evil plan has worked perfectly in that I've been able to trade with the AI for techs and give them my techs for more gold, etc. I've made sure that before Beta advances to his next tech I have traded/given away the next techs on the line to all the other civs. That way he has to work for every tech he gets by researching it or buying it from the AI. He can't just get a tech that one of the AI nations doesn't have and then trade it off for some of the ones he doesn't (like I've been doing )

On the diplomatic front my relations with the other nations have remained excellent with all of them being polite to me. I've maintained embassies and right of passage agreements with all nations with a two-fold purpose. 1. They are more likely to join me when I start my eventual war on Beta (and they couldn't join me without an embassy anyway ), and 2. It makes it more difficult for Beta to engage them in allying against me (not that it's impossible for him to get them to ally against me, but with a ROP in my favor and him having no techs to trade it will cost him quite a lot of gold).

Continued in a moment.

[Rhothaerill]

640ad

Here is a screenshot of my nation. As you can see, all but four cities are currently producing military units, with three others joining them soon after finishing marketplaces.

I haven't built a whole lot of improvements other than marketplaces, libraries, and barracks. Universities and banks would be nice, but they are expensive in a time when I want to be concentrating on my military for a shot on Beta. Speaking of that shot, I have a plan for it. I'll mention that later on when I'm closer to executing the plan. In the meantime I'm just building a bunch of units.

[Rhothaerill]

One more thing I forgot to mention....as of this turn (640ad) the Germannics declared war on Beta. I didn't have anything to do with it, but I'm certainly not complaining. He might be able to get a leader out of it (I hope not ), but in the meantime the Germans will hopefully be diverting his attention and units while I continue to build up for my inevitable strike.

By the way...who can guess what my planned strike might entail from the above shot and my current build queues?

[vmxa1]

So mean, I like it.

[Modo44]

The poor bagger. I already feel sorry for him. Clearly you don't intend the war to last long.

[Rhothaerill]

Originally posted by Modo44
The poor bagger. I already feel sorry for him. Clearly you don't intend the war to last long.

Oh I'm sure it probably will last a while. I don't expect Beta to just roll over, even if I give him 50+ cavalry and a multi-pronged attack to chew on.

[Modo44]

You will give it to him from different directions, so there's not much he can do, really. Also withs ROPs in place, reinforcements will come in fast. And as if that wasn't enough, Beta is way behind in technology. He's toast, admit it.

[Rhothaerill]

Originally posted by Modo44
You will give it to him from different directions, so there's not much he can do, really. Also withs ROPs in place, reinforcements will come in fast. And as if that wasn't enough, Beta is way behind in technology. He's toast, admit it.

Not until he says. , "You win."

[pedrojedi]

I didn't play AU601, but I am reading the DAR's with extreme interest; a question ocurred to me. Isn't that internal sea usable for naval operations? I did not see any player using it so far, and just saw for the first time you trying to build a navy - of sorts - in Caesarea. For me, it seems a nice 3rd route that could come handy when things get ugly and he dispatched resistance to north and south. With the large ocean option, you could install mayhem even with a small detachment.

Oh, I love sea operations.

[sabrewolf]

pedro:

yes, it's an option and i've been using it to ship settlers over to former greek lands.

probably the reason why noone uses it for military transport is the location: rome is on the outer side of the torus, so inner cities are very corrupt. and in greek lands the inner sea may be nearer, but it's behind tons of jungle and wetlands - so unlikely to have productive cities there too.

and don't forget: galleys are quite slow and only carry 2 units. taking a RoP road through persia or around northern lands is probably faster... especially with armies, ACs, knights or cavalry.