AU210 - UN Peacekeepers DAR 4 – End of middle ages

[jshelr]

Yes, Spain is saved for now

But the alliance to "save Spain" is causing India to collapse

[Taian]

I'm going to give this new DAR format thing a try instead of a blow by blow...we'll see how it goes.

My goal is, and has been since the beginning, to expand like weeds in a garden. The more land I have = the possibility of controlling more resources and the chance to minimize the AIs having border clashes and killing one another off. I guess I should mention again that I'm playing Monarch level, AU mod. I had a few objectives inside of that overall growth plan. One was to cut off the Indians from the rest of the continent, ie. keep them on their little peninsula. The second was to gain domestic control of as many resources as possible. That meant I'd have to string myself out up towards the Romans to get access to the Ivory.

Since the game is peacekeeping, I'm assuming I'm going to need a peacekeeping force. I went nowhere near as military thin as it seems others have. At the point of the industrial age I have:

68 workers (only 3 are foreigns)
20 warriors
18 spearmen
NOTE: Planning on upgrading these to what...riflemen I guess? Not sure...but I'm going to upgrade them They've been my military police so far.
13 swordsmen
6 horsemen
3 pikemen
15 knights

OK...so maybe I did go a little military thin. But there haven't been any wars *knocks on wood* since the ancient era. Everyone's living in peaceful harmony

The beginning of this block for me was in 650BC. For the most part, I'm at tech parity with the world. They know some techs I don't and I know some techs they don't. I tended to trade whenever I could get a decent deal and later on, I would start buying techs rather than researching seeing as I was producing about 150 to 200 gpt and could buy the techs for the equivalent of 4 turns research, so why not?

The same turn the round started, I traded the Babs to get both of us into the Middle Ages. I know they'd get a free tech and it was Feudalism. This would start the buying phase of my turns The Ottomans and the Babylonians were the tech drivers all the way through the middle ages with sporadic help from the Germans.

I kept founding towns like crazy...MORE LAND, MORE LAND!

Barbarians started to be a problem once the middle ages started since the Jungle to the west of Washington was largely unsettled. I had a force of about 8 swordsmen that I sent over to clear the way for the army of settlers I had moving there. Things went largely as planned and my expansion pushed all the way to the Ottoman/German border. I would have liked to get a row of cities in there to act as a buffer between them, but no luck.

Once I had settled everything I could in the jungle, I entered a heavy builder mode. That was about 230AD and I had 33 cities. Up to this point, I had been largely ignoring city improvements, but now started building them like they were going out of style. All of the 1 shield cities I had start with a warrior and then a worker. If, after the worker they could build another one, they did. Otherwise it was osciallate back to warrior/worker. My personal feeling is that workers make the world go 'round. I tend to have a ton of them wandering to clear out jungle and get the roads up asap. I guess the 68 workers works out to more than 2 per city. Given the jungle out to the west though, I'm glad I built as many as I did.

Over the course of this block, I encountered two main difficulties. The first was a lack of a war. The AI continued to expand and without a war, I really couldn't "prune" any to keep their expansion in check. Hence the Babylonians, Ottomans and Germans running rampant at the moment. The second difficulty, and something I could have planned better, was the lack of leaders for wonders. It really has been a wonder race for a lot of them. At the moment, I have Copernicus' Observatory and Leonardo's Workshop. I know that they won't be overly helpful for me this game, but I was more concerned with denying them to the other big 3 civs. I lucked out and the Romans picked up the Sistine Chapel. At the moment, they're relatively harmless and I have a feeling they'll stay that way. Right now, the rush is on for JS Bach's, Adam Smith's and Newton's University. I'm making a push for Adam Smith's, but I'm not overly concerned with the other two. I'm hoping the efficiency of my empire can make up for not having Newton's while I haven't had trouble keeping 6 or 7 luxuries around, so Bach's shouldn't be too sorely missed either. I could always be wrong

One of the benefits of my early expansion was that I had a good hold on the special resources. Iron and later on saltpeter, were two of the major ones I could parcel out to 3 or 4 different civs. I ended up with 3 iron and 3 saltpeter, leaving 2 to trade out. Towards the end of the middle ages, one of the saltpeter got me 63gpt (from the Germans) and ToG (from the Babylonians). I think the big civs not having access to this (save the Ottomans) was one of the reasons that everyone's been out of war for so long. Here's hoping the same thing happens with oil and coal

One of the turning points I think, was my construction of the Forbidden Palace. I know it's not optimal, but the vast majority of my cities are now at least decent in production. It was actually completed (built from scratch) in 540AD.

[Taian]

This whole time, I've been in Monarchy. I think that also contributed to my lagging the Babs and Ottomans in technology. With the FP up and running, I could up my tech rate to 80% and still make money, so I decided to beeline for Democracy. What a difference! Took 6 turns of anarchy, but once I was out, it was 4 turn research all the way while still making money. Now that the industrial age has started, I can research Steam Power (which noone else has) in 5 turns while making 106gpt. Even at the 100% level I can't get it in 4 turns though...tough luck.

The Ottomans and Germans got Medicine free while the Babs got Nationalism free. My hope is to be the first to Steam Power and trade it for those 2 techs. Then, beeline to make an attempt for the Theory of Evolution. I already have a few prebuilds working with other wonders not built yet. Only time will tell.

Looking back on my two objectives, I think I accomplished them. First, the Indians are for all intents and purposes, bottled up.

[Taian]

I also managed to get up to the Ivory near the Roman territory and also beef up the city string as well so that it's not just a line 1 city deep...there are other cities around to support it.

[Taian]

Anyway...not sure if this was better or worse than a blow by blow, but it sure was shorter. Right now, I think I'm sitting in a good position to keep everyone around. I've managed to keep the Mongols relatively small. They, the Indians and the Spanish are the three smallest at the moment. The Japs and the Romans are in the mid range and the Babs, Ottomans and Germans are in the "watch your back" stage. Going to be a fun industrial age

[Rhothaerill]

Looks like you've got it going pretty well Taian. Glad you're having fun with the course.

By the way I tend to like the way you just wrote this last DAR over a blow by blow. It's always been my opinion that the "why" is more important than a dry list of statistics when writing a DAR.

[Cort Haus]

Monarch, AU Mod

Industrial Era - arrived at in 770 AD in Perfect Peacenik style. Only 2 wars in history - Iroq-Bab (Babs got one city) and Babs sneak attacking USA, but fended off for seven turns then peace.

My game has some simiarities to Taian's, looking at the map, though I did not wish to contain India (I see your Idea, Taian - they'd be safe behind your chokepoint) but to encourage them and Spain to push their expansion westward towards Germany. It seems to have worked, as so far Spain is OK.

I played on a couple of turns after hitting Ind to get Newtons. This screenshot is from 810AD:

[Cort Haus]

Republic was reached 13 turns into the block, with over 2000g to spend on libraries, which got rushed all round the borders and wherever there was a resource 2 tiles from a city. Iroquoian culture was a particular concern, but the eventual result was a culture explosion mirroring the growth explosion reported in the previous DAR. I've never seen a culture graph turn so shrply right. 1 Mongol city flipping almost immediately, and a second some time later. I'm no longer bothered about the Iroq's culture.

After the libraries, walls went up all round, and when Currency was researched in 310 BC, 2 other civs were already in the middle ages - the Babs with Engineering, and the Ottomans with Feudalism.

Middle Ages entry Civ stats:

25 cities - only jungle left in feasible terrain

21 Workers
23 Spears - (nearly all vet)
4 Archers
2 Horsemen
10 Swords

1st in Approval, Pop, Land, Mfg, GNP, Income, Productivity
Strong F3 cf all civs
3 luxuries owned, 4th in 2 turns
3 Iron, 1 horses


Here's the log from that turn that got me all three Middle Age starter techs :

310 BC

Babs have Engineering, Ottomans have Feudalism. Gift Currency to Germany, and they have Monotheism.
Trade Republic for Feudalism (Ottomans)
Trade Republic, Feudalism, 350g and 6gpt for Engineering (Babs)
Trade Republic, Feudalism, Engineering, 16gpt and 100g for Monotheism (Germans)
Trade Republic for Monarchy (Spain)
Sell Monotheism to Babs for 370g + 1gpt

I've never had a Middle Age Starter 'Office Suite' like this. Germany came up trumps, but that's their trait + RNG Gods.
A net outlay of 500g with Republic for that lot ain't bad
Plan 2 barracks in NW territories and one in SW to help with upgrades.
1 needs a courthouse first though (stored too many shields), so drop research to 0 (+80gpt) and rush courthouse and 2 barracks.

Research stayed off for several turns while cash was raised to upgrade all Spears to Pikes. Mil policy was heavier than in some of the DARs here - 2 vet defenders per border, 1 vet defender internal with assortment of 4 archers, 10 swords, 2 horses spread around the (long) border. The two barracks cities assigned early in the game to feed vet spears to settlers from the four pumps kept going to provide this until they had a break for building way into the middle ages (allowing the Babs to catch up in military and get cocky).

When the science pedal was pushed down again I chose Invention for Leos and then Gunpowder. Muskets are not considered great defence-for money value, compared to Pikes, but I wanted the best defensive unit available everywhere as a counter to knights, to keep things stable. Everyone says "don't build Leo's unless you're planning a mass offensive upgrade" but I disagree with that, insisting that mass defensive upgrades are also a viable use for this wonder. 40 pikes to muskets at 60g an upgrade = 2400g. Well worth halving.Then throw in a few offensive units, and consider AI-denial and the future too - it's a cool Wonder for the defensive builder.

However, in 320AD Tzu's, Sistine and Leo were all completed by the AI leaving my feeling like this: at my 550-shield cathedral. The turn before a courthouse had completed in Los Angeles, and a start made on the Forbidden Palace (23 turns).

I did at least build Copernicus easily with a Palace prebuild, as all the others were finished, for half of te GA requirement. It's good to see people having to build the right wonders to get their GA for a change (nice one, Abe) rather than going the UU route. Not that I did that well though, as I've gone off early wonders in favour of expansion, and forgot that the Industrial Wonders stop at Hanging Garderns and don't return until Hoover Dam. Hoov it is, then. I added Newton's right at the end of the era via a comfy tech lead, with Smiths near completion in the capital, and Bach's also on the go (opportunist Bank prebuild after AI discovered Music Theory).

During this block trade opened up with the Iroqs (Ivory), Mongols (Spice) Japan (Wines) and Germany (Gems). These added to my own 4 luxuries making a very happy smiley set :





(you get the idea)

Expensive, though, as my population grew (currently over 50gpt to the Iroqs). This is why I like backward trading partners: their lux for my tech +1gpt. I always include a gpt to 'hold' the deal at the end for renegotiation. Since doing that, together with trying to pay whatever it takes for a luxury, I've been better at winning and holding these. I used to fume at the AI for hogging all the lux deals amongst itself, but you gotta get in there and stay in there. It pays off too (for this PP playstyle). Apart from WLTK everwhere it shifts the odds towards peace, and if you are paying them a mint you might be able to get it back on tech sales at another phase in the trade-cycle. They certainly will be less inclined to attack their best source of trading income.

Whilst keeping the 'laggers' a bit behind, I've been feeding them tech too after it's been around a while to keep them in sight - especially Gunpowder. Can't be allowing a 'killer' AI in this game. With the military out of the way early and then upgraded, and supplements added constantly from dedicated barracks cities, most cities could just build, so there are several large, banked-and-uni'd-up cities.

[Cort Haus]

Just one blip on the peace though - the Babs threatened for Physics in 670AD and accepted my refusal. I switched some barracks cities to knights (they'd been catching up on economy) and rushed a couple of Uni's in others to make way for more knights. Six knights and the eastern 4 * Med Inf stack were moved into the border zone with the Babs, who sneak-attacked in 710 AD.

After some initial skirmishes, it was clear that they had a few knights, and an Army...

[Cort Haus]

Defenders were poured into Dalanz' (flip from Mongolia) and the enemy closed in...

[Cort Haus]

Their 3*Cav Army attacks Dalandz, killing my Elite musket but reducing itself to 3HP and is killed on my turn.

The rest of their forces sweep South towards Almarikh.

[Cort Haus]

By 780, they are routed, and Hammy pays 220g for peace, after six or seven turns of combat.

[Cort Haus]

I was 2 turns from Cav when I took peace, (*Theseus faints) but I fancied seeing if I could still get Hammy's vote on judgement day. A five gpt gift took him to annoyed, so there's a chance. Unfortunately, we've nothing to trade so I couldn't keep him off my back.

Here are the numbers:

30 workers
5 longbow
53 Muskets
19 Cavalry
10 Med Inf

1st in all economic indicators except land (3rd).
GNP : 1364
Mfg : 356

Only Babylon (Steam) and Iroquois are in the Industrial Era - others are two or three behind. I'm doing Nationalism in 5 turns in case Hammy starts again and to spread around to stop people getting knocked over.

Memo to Self: after reading this thread, must pay close attention to Spain's well-being.

(End of DAR Block Four from Cort Haus.)

[Theseus]

Great job, Cort.

Take care of the Iroquois too... where else are Hammy's troops (that you did'nt kill ) going to go?

[Cort Haus]

Well actually, I was more worried about the Babs being short if I chased after them, and the Iroqs jumping in to finish the Babs off. The Iroqs got the Great Library and a Middle Age GA, so they did OK in my game, despite their dodgy territory.

(Hammy and I did make up later, too. )