AU501 - DAR4: Steam Power

[Rhothaerill]

Well I haven't written my DAR for this block, but I finished up to this point last night by researching steam power and I just wanted to share a few thoughts.

During this DAR I conquered both the Hittites and Sumerians. I had somewhat neglected settling on the two jungle islands, only getting 3 of the 5 cities on the closer one (one of which inexplicably culture flipped to the Sumerians despite me having a library in it ) and one city on the farther island. At the close of my Sumerian conquest I had taken their homeland and the closer island, but didn't have enough units on the far island to take their cities (and war weariness had started setting in causing me to have to use the slider and lose gold) so I offered them peace and grabbed two of their remaining three cities in the peace deal. So I finish researching steam power and the only coal within distance of me is IN THE BORDERS OF THE ONE REMAINING SUMERIAN CITY! Ugh, a mini war is in the offing.

On another note, something happened to me that I hadn't ever had happen before. While I was taking the closer jungle island I left my two cities undefended with the knowledge the Sumerians had no units that could get to it quickly enough and no ships close. The same turn I declared they put two medieval infantry in a caravel in their homeland and sailed it toward my homeland. I thought for sure they'd go for some of the undefended cities of my home island, but I wasn't worried since I had several cavalry in a central location and roads everywhere. Nope, they go for the cities on the small island and manage to take one before I can get a couple more units over there to take it back. I'm impressed! The AI passed up some cities that were nominally undefended, but had cavs in striking distance, to go for the completely undefended city that didn't have a cav in striking distance.

BTW, I just wanted to mention that I still have not been hit by the plague and NEITHER of the volcanoes on my two main islands has erupted yet and I'm almost to 1000ad.

[ducki]

This one is super-short and very incomplete because I forgot to take notes. I got too engrossed in the game. Sue me.

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280 AD - Japan is eliminated. Yum.
320 AD - With 1 turn left on Education, trade Chivalry to Russia for Education and some gold. Can get Gunpowder and 40 gold for Edu and Printing Press...
Researching Music Theory at 90% in 7 turns. Definitely want to get Democracy soon, but once all my MPs quit working, I'm gonna need some help. I need more lux too. Hmm..if I trade, at least I'll know where it is...


360 AD - Everyone is building Sistine, and since my GA ended, I'm pretty sure I'm going to lose out.
MM a bunch of cities to get Music Theory in 2 instead of 3. Cross fingers.


Erm, lots of stuff. Looooooooooooooooong war with Hittites that just trimmed my forces down, basically. Very poorly executed, but Egypt joined my in Alliance 3-4 turns into the war and she's still at it. They did steal a town on the southern island which later flipped back, but no longer had the accumulated culture and had lost the rushed library and other stuff. Then they recaptured it. I gave up. Many many many turns later, Egypt takes it and valiantly defends it. Damn, I didn't want to have to fight her.
I also traded for Saltpeter in there somewhere, which was lucky, as I couldn't seem to take any from the Hittites.

Oh, and somewhere in there I think I built Bachs.

On another note, I completed Shakespeare's Theatre(why don't they call it The Globe?) in 750AD - revolted that same turn - anarchy lasted FOREVER - Entered democracy in 850AD. FINALLY!
Gonna have to MM all the towns around Duckst. to work tiles away so I can grow to max size. The upside is, I'll MM as Duckst. grows to avoid unhappiness, though that shouldn't be a problem.

Researching at 100% with +83gpt - I must have some trades going - Theory of Gravity has 2 turns to go, which is 2 turns better than when I entered Anarchy - I love scientists.

Fell behind by Magnetism.
Amassed a treasury of 4535 gold.
England declared war on Dutch - - I hope she does well.

Ack! I accidentally exported all of my ivory. Gaaarrgh! Riots in Edo and Smyrna, other cities getting restless. Dagnabit!

Argh, I got beat to Metallurgy, too, so I had to buy both of the M techs - Egypt gave me Metallurgy for Territory map and 120g and England gave me Magnets for World Map and 1360g!
Steam was the freebie, so here I stand.

Russia and Sumeria have Medicine and Nationalism.
Netherlands has Medicine.
I'm running a 26gpt deficit with 2892 in the bank.
Dutch will give Medicine, Map, 31gpt, 420g for Steam.
Sumer will give Medicine, Map, 127gpt, 9g.
Russia will almost give me Nationalism for Steam. Stingy wench!
To trade away Steam or not? That's a toughie. A jumpstart on the ToE line would be nice and Rifles would make my anemic military less problematic, but I'd be trading away Steam! Argh.


Research Electricity in 8 at 80% with 26gpt deficit. Arg.
Oh, yeah. I had been pretty aggressive with "my" western islands, so I just have to get the coal connected. It's one tile away from a town. It's also on Sumeria's border, who is a cultural force, so I hope I can rush some culture and not have to go to war with Sumeria - that would be rough. heh.
It's a good thing Unit support is only 1gold in Demo, otherwise I'd be in big trouble, I think. Not sure why research is slower under Demo than it was under Monarchy. Must be luxury slider-related - which should clear up when I get my ivory back. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Always clear out previously offered deals before negotiating. Greed kills.



Plans for industrial:
Get ToE and Hoover(duh). Try for Universal Suffrage.
Build more workers for railroading and hope Demo speeds slaves as well as natives, since it's mostly slaves roading coal.
Continue to grow capitol to behemoth size.
Consider Infy-Arty war if I have rubber. *crosses fingers
Figure out way to support more troops. Dutch will have to be destroyed, though I'm making sure England has things she needs to fight the good fight.
Also, Sumeria will have to be knocked down a peg or two.
After getting lots of World Maps in trades, I can see an island waaaaay to the west with tundra and forests, I think. Maybe I can get there before anyone else. Already dispatched settler+crusader.

So, to sum up, Buildermonger is the plan, though I need more income to support units and Science. Blarg.

[Catt]

Stock rules; demi-god.

My last DAR ended in 850 BC shortly after contact with all civs. My plan at the time was to research Republic, hold off on the revolt a bit; and take Japan since that little island so properly belonged to Byzantium.

Sometime around 600 BC, Japan demanded Philosophy and declared war when rebuffed! Silly Tokugawa. And the Japanese were sitting on what seemed to be the world's sole supply of ivory but hadn't yet researched Mathematics. Between 600 and 300 BC, several other civs declared war when rebuffed on demands (maybe I should build a few more units?), including the Russians, and the English. Rather than drop the hammer on Japan, I concentrated on Rexing and used the powerful Dromon force as immobile blocking forces -- hardly honorable work for such feared beasts (as I learned later).

Here's a screenshot of my Dromon wall preventing all but the GL-powered Dutch from exploring west to Japan and the western islands.

Catt

[Catt]

In 290 BC the Dutch joined the party by declaring war when rebuffed on a demand for Literature. By now, with all the war happiness accrued, I'm enjoying largish cities without a temple without happiness problems. In 270 bc I learned that the Russians had destroyed the Egyptians.

Around this time I had finally eliminated the final barb camp from the home island (something like 40 barb horsemen), and the troops moved west towards the embarcation point for Japan. I had assembled a small force of swords with a few covering pikes for Japan. I traded Monotheism for Feudalsim and Engineering, upgraded most swords to Med Infs, and landed next to Osaka for the assault. The landing force was 15 Med Infs and 3 Pikes, and the 9 Dromons bombarded the foritifed spears in Osaka. In 130 AD my landing force came under concerted counter-attack -- numerous archers and even a few warriors attacked my stack, killing or gravely wounding all 3 pikes, and inflicting some damage on Med Infs. I had been at "war" with Japan for 500 years during which time I had done almost nothing -- I figured Japan might have been concentrating on forces and so expected large numbers -- I planned on taking Osaka and the ivory, and then whittling all the AI attackers after Dromon bombardment - I would then press on or sign a 20-turn peace to prepare for the conquest. I got quite a bit more than I bargained for.

My 9 dromons scored 7 successful bombardments and yet an undamaged and fortified spearman still guarded Osaka. I also knew that there were several archers in Osaka since they had been attacking my landing force the turn before. Finally, my landing party's lookouts reported hordes of Japanese troops converging on the plains surrounding Osaka. I decided to make peace with troops at the door of Osaka for better terms, but then have them pile back aboard the Dromons, and get the heck out of Dodge.

Catt

[Catt]

Prior to the failed Japanese invasion, I had decided to revolt to Republic because I didn't want to trigger a GA while in Despotism and the number of Dutch galleys was increasing. I decided to revolt to Republic before I was forced to use a Dromon to sink a galley. I was going to be on the hook for upwards of 50 gpt in unit costs due to a large Dromon force and a large worker force. My anarchy lasted 6 turns. And I actually sank a Dutch galley, via bombardment, with 1 turn to go before I came out of anarchy because I didn't want to risk a landing of troops next to an undefended city.

The ignimonious ending of the Japanese campaing at least freed up Dromons for coastla blocking -- both the Sumerians and the Hittites were sending galleys west. The Dutch war consisted entirely of massive Dromon bombardment and sinking of Dutch galleys. The Dutch never landed a single unit before making peace shortly after the retreat from Japan.

The turn after peace with Japan (in 150 AD) I traded either Philosophy or CoL to Japan for Ivory. The Japanese still hadn't discovered Mathematics. I had made peace with the Dutch shortly before the Japanese invasion (leaving me at war with, and enjoying war happiness from) the Hittites, the Russians, and the English. I sold some tech to the Dutch for a decent-sized gpt payment (+/- 45 gpt). I had used my GA to build and research, taking the upper tech branch towards Astronomy. The gpt helped a bit.

With 12 or 13 turns to go on my gpt payments, the dastardly Dutch declared war again, threatening my most distant, and underdefended colonies. Here is a shot of the far western island one turn after the Dutch renewal of hostilities. I have all of 1 spearman and 2 Med Inf on the island, and the Dutch galleys seen below are there to off-load additional troops.

Catt

[Catt]

Over the course of several turns, 1 of my cities was captured and another was abandoned in the face of Dutch troops, and 2 workers had to scramble aboard a Dromon to avoid capture. Coastal blocking duty around the homeland was abandoned and, with a healthy contingent of Dromons to protect the home island, a second healty contingent of Dromons loaded troops left-over from the Japanese campaign and headed west.

Seafaring trait to the rescue!

Catt

[Catt]

By 450 ad, the distant colonies were secured and a defensive naval net was in place to deal with threats.

Catt

[Catt]

My research path through the Middle Ages was entirely the upper branch: Monotheism (free tech), Theology, Education, Astronomy, Navigation, Banking, Economics, and Theory of Gravity. Rather than promote a fast tech pace, I deliberately withheld techs in an effort to slow the pace down -- until I could get my FP built, I wasn't convinced that trading techs would help more than it would hurt. I did trade Navigation and Economics for techs like Gunpowder, Physics, and Metallurgy. A wonder cascade seemingly assured me of Smith's by the time I was ready to trade Econ.

In 720 AD, I traded ToG to England for Magnetism, launching both of us into the Industrial Age. The Dutch had been there for a half-dozen turns, and the Russians, fully caught up in tech once contacts were made, had also just entered. I received Steam Power as my free tech; the Russians had received Nationalism and sold it to the Dutch for massive gpt. I quickly sold SP to Russia for 250+ gpt plus other goodies, and then made the rounds with it to others. I planned my tech path to be Electricity, RP, Medicine, and Scientific Method -- I didn't plan on bothering with Industrialization since much of my empire was laid out to emphasize commerce rather than production.

In 730 AD, the Mayans built Smith's! They had discovered Mil Tradition and must have gotten an SGL because I was confident that I had broken the wonder chain -- I was able to switch my Smith's build for Bach's, but would much, much rather have had Smith's (the Mayans, and many other civs, had been building Bach's for a long time before they acquired Econ from me which is another reason why I suspect it was an SGL that did me in).

Here's a snapshot of the minimap and infoscreen as of 730 ad. I just recently completed the FP on the near western island and certainly hope that my research rate improves from 7 - 9 turns, depending on the tech, once libs and univs are up and running and the far western isle is RR'd, irrigated, and "scientist'd."

Catt

[Catt]

I'm going to save some detail and some additional thoughts on the Power of Seafaring for the "Post Game Thoughts" thread when I get to the post game.

For now, Russia is a big bad civ in my game, and the Dutch have a nice commercial empire. Interestingly, I've gone through Elec, RP, and Medicine, and no civ has researched Printing Press (or Democracy, or Free Artistry). The GL was built after I had already discovered Edcuation (and the builder civ had traded for Education). I built the Statue of Zeus well before Japan had discovered Mathematics (Japan was a basket case in my game) and did so more for denial than for worth -- the ancient cavs came late enough that I saw them as mild mobile defenders and shield transfers (disband) rather than a potent force to be used.

The large map is actually becoming quite sluggish on my laptop -- not enough to sour the game, but enough so that it is quite noticeable. Plenty of volcanic eruptions; no plague yet.

Catt

[vmxa1]

Those stacks are ugly Catt, dam all that free support.

[Rhothaerill]

Rhoth’s DARs, AU501, Chapter 5

Emperor level played with the AU mod

30bc – Settle Nicomedia on the Japanese island.

I wanted to fill in one more coastal city. The Japanese had actually done a fairly decent job of city placement. There is now only one tile on the island that can’t be worked by any cities.

50ad – Finish research of monotheism. Start research on chivalry at 10%

As I mentioned in my last DAR my plan was to build up a large amount of gold and a bunch of horsemen at the same stroke while researching this tech. Even at 10% research I was still on course for 29 turns of research while gaining 202gpt. I did not want to take the full 50 turns to research the tech so I didn’t use the one scientist minimum research strategy. I wanted to remain at least a little flexible in case I needed to finish up a little quicker later on.

70ad – A round of tech trading.

I gave the Mayans engineering for 34gpt and 150 gold; engineering to the Dutch for 44gpt and 40 gold; feudalism to France for 70 gold in the hope that would balance out the Mayans a bit; and then gifted some tech to Egypt, England, and Russia to improve their view of me. I didn’t gift or trade to either the Sumerians or Hittites since they either already had a slight lead over their AI counterparts (Sumeria), or were my first target (Hittites).

90ad – Discover the Hittites have settled on a tiny island east of the dutch.

That was interesting. It would mean I’d either have to send units over there to wipe them out or leave the city as their new homeland after conquest. I had at first wondered how they got there until I remembered they built the Great Lighthouse.

110ad – Pay 23gpt to the Sumerians to keep Gems coming in.

Unfortunately it would have cost me almost double the gpt at the time to use the luxury slider to make up for the loss of gems. With only two luxuries on my two islands and no sea trading yet as I hadn’t made the Great Lighthouse a huge priority, Sumerian gems were my only recourse. Since I wasn’t going to be hitting them first I didn’t mind keeping myself locked into a deal.

190ad – Golden Age ends.

Bummer. But it was useful as I was able to build a lot of infrastructure and get a huge jump on Leonardo’s Workshop. My main infrastructure building consisted of finishing up libraries, marketplaces and aqueducts in my cities. As there was a certain lack of fresh water on the islands almost all of my old established cities needed aqueducts to continue to grow, while my newer cities (in the old swamp) did not so it worked well for timing. My horseman force was also growing apace by this time as well.

260ad – Leonardo’s Workshop completed in Constantinople

This was the wonder that was crucial to my plans. With the amount of gold currently flowing into my coffers I would have had enough for straight upgrades of all my horsemen, but it wouldn’t have left me much gold. This way I still had gold to be able to rush buy libraries to help avoid culture flipping, etc. Speaking of that though on this same turn I lost a city on the closer jungle island to culture flipping to the Sumerians. The city was just about to increase its culture radius after building a library, but it flipped to the Sumerians who had not yet built any culture improvements either! It was a little strange for me as I’m usually very careful about maximizing culture to avoid flipping when close to other nation’s cities.

300ad – Another round of tech trading

Monotheism is discovered by the Sumerians so I trade it around before they can. The Mayans give 22gpt and 15 gold; the Dutch give 22gpt and 120 gold, the French give 7gpt and 70 gold, and I gift it outright to Egypt since Russia gained it as a free tech.

370ad – Complete the Statue of Zeus in Caesarea

A little later than I would have wished. My mistake in not pop-rushing the harbor in Kyoto and losing a bunch of shields after a wonder cascade left me to build a temple in Constantinople hurt. During the Golden Age Constantinople was building Leo’s and my other cities were concentrating on infrastructure which left this wonder a little late in my time schedule. I didn’t get a whole heck of a lot of use out of it, but it wasn’t too bad to have.

380ad – Sumerians complete Sun-Tzu’s Art of War.

I’ll have it soon enough. I also continue my gem trading with Sumeria. I notice that I’m beginning to fall a little behind in the upper branch of techs as Sumeria already has theology and gunpowder and appears to have education as well. That won’t last long though.

420ad – Finish research on chivalry and a round of tech trading begins

After a long bit of research I now have a great deal of gold saved up and immediately mass upgrade 32 horsemen to knights. And wow, I also have 16 dromons for transport and support (though a few are still out exploring). I immediately cut my iron to begin building more horsemen since I have plenty of gold, but my island doesn’t have great shield producing cities (10spt is about it for most of them). I also started research on chemistry.

After this I traded chivalry, ivory and 175 gold to Sumeria for gunpowder, knowing that they don’t have horses for knights and can’t build the SoZ out from under me anymore. I then traded gunpowder and 45 gold to Russia for Theology since they have finally started to make a play in the tech research department. Now comes my decision…Hittites or Sumerians. I still had several deals going with the Sumerians and none with the Hittites. The Sumerians had iron for pikes, but no saltpeter. The Hittites on the other hand had saltpeter, but it looked like they didn’t have enough gold for upgrades. Or so I though.

A look at my forces circa 420ad.

To be continued…

[Rhothaerill]

Rhoth’s DARs, AU501, Chapter 6

Emperor level played with the AU mod

450ad – Begin the war on the Hittites and capture Hattusha and Tarsus. And I generate my first MGL!

I loaded 12 dromons with 24 knights and left the remaining knights at home as a mobile defense force in case of a sneak attack. I sailed close to the Hittite land, declared war (as they weren’t going to declare on me) and finished sailing into toward Hattusha only to discover musketmen defending the city. Oops! I was expecting to find spearmen with maybe a few musketmen. But apparently the Hittites had gotten hold of some cash somehow and managed to upgrade practically all of their spearmen to either musketmen and, even more shocking, a few pikemen. Once again I had forgotten about their Great Lighthouse and their extra ability for both contacts and resource trading.

I was a little concerned since fighting fortified musketmen with knights isn’t a winning strategy. I had deliberately not bothered to build any catapults or trebuchets figuring my large stack of dromons would be more than enough to bombard the heck out of spearmen since almost all the Hittite cities were coastal. But now I was committed. I wanted that saltpeter for my own forces and wouldn’t be able to effect a peace for several turns. I expected to lose a bunch of knights, but at least I’d have my saltpeter. What I didn’t count on was that those little dromons provided my salvation. Even with only a bombard strength of 2 they managed to tear through the musketmen in the city. And thanks to some knights being promoted to elite on defense the turn before, during the taking of Hattusha I managed to generate a great leader.

I thought about building a quick army for some heavy hitting, but decided to wait and use the MGL to rush build a forbidden palace in Harran after I took it. I had all along wanted to build the FP on this island with its wealth of cities compared to the Japanese island, but I had originally figured it would take a while to do. This would just speed it up.

After taking Hattusha, the remainder of my knights took the lighter defended town of Tarsus, which contained the Great Lighthouse, which also put me within quick striking distance for my last few knights to pillage both their saltpeter and horses. I long ago learned the necessity for pillaging an opponents strategic resources before moving on in conquest (it was AU208 that was the last time I made that mistake ). In one turn I had completely cut off the Hittites from all their resources (including iron since they obviously had a deal going to receive it).

460ad – Settle Amorium on the far western island.

For a while this was the only settler I was able to get over there. After building it I concentrated heavily on military for my wars. The Sumerians and eventually Mayans and Russians were able to settle this island too.

480ad – Capture Harran. Make my first luxury trades overseas.

After a bit of resting and recuperating (and beginning to starve down my new Hittite cities) I began my new campaign to the north, focusing on Harran as it would be my FP site. Most of my dromons headed north, with a few heading south to take care of any Hittite galleys that may have tried to sneak up on me. Harran fell quickly as the dromons once again did their work and pounded the musketmen in the city. For some reason, when the city fell, there was not a single resister. So instead of having to wait a while for the resistance to go down I was able to rush the FP this same turn. That proved very valuable a few turns later.

I again forgot about the effect of the Great Lighthouse, and this time it was in my possession. I opened up the foreign affairs advisor to see what was going on with my chief rivals and discovered they had some luxuries to trade, and had them ready for me for 3 turns since I captured the Lighthouse. Oops. I traded chivalry, ivory, incense, and 125 gold to Russia for education, and then traded Engineering to Egypt for dyes and 20 gold, and to England for furs and 10 gold. It was quite nice having the ability to trade old techs for luxuries (and still am to my current point in the game). Those extra luxuries provided me the ability to keep the war going even longer because I was a republic that had started the war.

Also, the Dutch demanded 100 gold this turn…despite my military superiority. I didn’t want them entering any war against me with astronomy and those sea lanes so close so I gave in.

490ad – Capture Tyrana/

By now there was not much resistance left in the north, and nothing pushing up from the south. The Hittites had already sent all their offensive forces at me and all were obliterated. All that remained were defensive forces.

510ad – Capture Aleppo and generate my second MGL

With Harran having no resistance and allowing me to use my first MGL already it proved quite a boon since another one popped up. This one I did use for an army and immediately put three knights in it. Now I had a real heavy hitter. It didn’t occur to me until a bit later that I wouldn’t be able to get him off the island until after researching magnetism, but it ended up not mattering. Within another turn I had a three-knight army, four elite knights and three veteran knights back in the south and knocking on the door of the Hittite capital.

Here is a shot of my first MGL in Hattusha in 450ad.

To be continued…

[Rhothaerill]

Rhoth’s DARs, AU501, Chapter 7

Emperor level played with the AU mod


530ad – Complete Knights Templar in Constantinople. Capture Hattusas and the Oracle.

I hadn’t been sure I’d build the Knights Templar so a few turns before I used some of my gold to view the other nations that were building it. It turned out that the Mayans would complete it a turn before me. I quickly rearranged my work force of my best production tiles around the capital and was able to pick up just enough to be able to build it right before the Mayans would have.

Hattusas was by far the toughest nut to crack of the Hittite empire. Except for Tarsus and one of the northern cities (which had spearmen defending it not muskets), I had always been able to have my dromons bombard the city first to soften it up enough that I took little damage. This time I had no bombard abilities as Hattusas was an inland city. My knight army and my seven other knights barely hung on to finish taking the city and I lost several of them and almost lost my knight army.

A bunch of tech trading followed as I also finished research on chemistry this turn. In return from trading around that one tech I received astronomy, printing press, spices, 129 gpt, and 49 gold from trading to just the three civs that could use it. I was now back to near tech parity (down only by banking and music theory, even after taking so long to research chivalry) and had drained the available gpt of my competitors dry for the next 20 turns. Research began on metallurgy. After the near debacle in Hattusas I wanted cannons for the eventual Sumerian war. Plus it was on the way to military tradition, and I now had saltpeter.

560ad – A strange oddity occurs and I capture Ugarit

Again on the closest jungle island. Several turns ago I had a city flip that had superior culture. Now I have Naissus culture boundary grow…and instead of growing, it loses three tiles to Agade…including the game tile I had just finished draining and improving.

I capture the last city on the Hittite mainland and once again almost lost my knight army. The Hittites now had only two cities on the southern island and one far off to the east. They had some tech I wanted and war weariness still wasn’t much of a problem because of my proliferation of luxuries so I kept the war going to take their last two cities close to me.

600ad – RNG luck turns against me.

I had originally landed only a few knights on the southern island since the rest were healing still. Even with dromon bombardment I lost three knights to a pike. I landed another four knights and with dromon bombardment the city of Ankuwa was down to one pike with 1hp. Those four knights proceeded to attack and get the stuffing beat out of them before retreating. Luckily each one retreated instead of dying and I had a barracks in the city I had received from the last Hittite war. I must try again another day.

630ad – Capture Ankuwa.

This time the pike didn’t fare so well and I killed it with my first knight.

640ad – Tech trade nets me banking.

I traded chemistry and 235 gold to Russia for banking. All that was left for tech parity was music theory which I planned on getting from the Hittites for a peace deal after taking their second to last city, and navigation which had recently been discovered.

Also on this turn the Mayans complete the Sistine Chapel and the Russians complete Copernicus’ Observatory. It was unfortunate as Constantinople was building Copernicus and all I had left on my wonder chart was the Heroic Epic for a 64 shield loss. That was of course the turn before I received music theory and would have been able to build JS Bach’s Cathedral. Oh well.

650ad – Capture Adana. Peace with the Hittites.

Adana didn’t stand a chance as it only had two spearmen. I offer peace and receive music theory. The Hittites now live far away from me.

A bit of tech trading with metallurgy, music theory and incense this turn netted me navigation, everyone’s world map, 145 gpt, and 362 gold. I still continued to rake in the gold while maintaining close to a 4 turn research pace on all the techs.

670ad – Finish research on military tradition.

All my non-elite, non-army knights are upgraded to cavalry. During the war I had also built several horsemen with my iron pillaged and upgraded those too. Once again I had a mobile force to be reckoned with. And this time I had some cannons to go with them.

680ad – Re-up my luxury deals.

I had let the luxury deal with the Sumerians lapse, but kept my deals with England and Egypt going for more old tech. It would have cost me over 100gpt to lose those luxuries, whereas I traded education to both nations…a tech that is about 8 techs behind the current leader (me of course).

710ad – Finish research of physics and begin magnetism.

I wanted to have some frigates start patrolling the waters before any enemies researched the tech and started sending frigates of their own. I also started a prebuild in Constantinople for Adam Smiths since economics would be my next tech research. With almost all my established cities and even many of my new ones having marketplaces and harbors that wonder would be a definite gold saver.

At the end of 710ad I have a stack of cavalry and cannons waiting to board several dromons and a few caravels (I did upgrade a couple) to drop into Sumerian land quickly without having to slog through the unimproved swampland. My knight army would have to do so though since I didn’t have galleons yet. You’ll also notice the complete lack of initiative the Sumerians had in draining swamp and chopping jungle.

To be continued…

[Rhothaerill]

Rhoth’s DARs, AU501, Chapter 8

Emperor level played with the AU mod

720ad – Mayans complete JS Bachs Cathedral which starts a mini cascade in which the Dutch build Magellan’s Voyage.

But at least no one had researched economics yet so all the wonder builds were done beforehand. A military tradition round of trading the very next turn netted me democracy, spices, 86gpt, and 575 gold. I didn’t trade with the Sumerians since I had plans for them.

740ad – Begin the invasion of Sumeria

On their mainland I dropped off my stack of cavalry and cannons. The dromons couldn’t join in the bombardment yet since Lagash was an inland city. On the jungle island close to me I left my two cities undefended to send all the units toward Agade. As I had mentioned a few days ago there weren’t any ships around and the Sumerians hadn’t cleared any jungle so I wasn’t too worried about a counterattack. I guess I should have been since one happened after a galley left their mainland sailed around my main island to drop off a few units.

750ad – Capture Lagash and Agade

Along with 5 workers and a trebuchet. Neither city provided much opposition. The Sumerians have iron, but cannons and cavalry work well against pikemen. Because of their laxity in clearing jungle and building roads, their counterattack the next turn didn’t even reach me. I was able to take out their entire counterattack forces with nary a scratch to my cavalry.

Also this turn I finished research of magnetism and began researching economics.

760ad – Capture Sumer

Again not much resistance. This time I had to use only my dromons for bombard because my cannons couldn’t get through the jungle until I had a road built. I also sent my cavalry to cut their iron. I refuse to repeat my AU208 lesson.

790ad – Capture Kish. My city of Naissus is retaken by a force of cavalry from my mainland. Another MGL is generated.

Kish again didn’t hold much resistance after a dromon bombardment. Regarding Naissus, I retook it only a turn after the Sumerians captured it. Not bad. I lost a library, work done on a courthouse, and two population points, but it could have been worse. I believe I said above that I was impressed that the AI went for that city as it was the only one that they could possibly take without me having a chance to wipe them out beforehand. During the fight I generated my third MGL which I used to build a second army, this time comprised of cavalry. So far (at the point I’m writing this I’m almost to the end of DAR5 in terms of turnplay) I’ve received 4 MGL’s and not a single SGL despite being a scientific civ and having been the first to discover all the lower branch middle age techs and almost all the industrial age techs. Ah, randomness.

810ad – Capture Ur.

With a road build and my cannons covered I advanced inland to take out the Sumerian capital. With it came the Great Library which was far outdated, and Sun Tzu’s Art of War, which was only useful on that island…and I still haven’t even built a new unit in old Sumerian/Hittite land as yet.

[i]820ad – Capture Septum and Bad-Tibira

The Sumerians are almost finished. Only one city on their mainland, one on the closer jungle island, and three on the farther jungle island.

830ad – Finish research of my the last required tech in the middle ages and advance to the industrial age. Capture Erech.

I was the first to get there. I received medicine for my troubles. Erech was the last city on the closer jungle island. It fell quickly.

850ad – Capture Umma. Peace with the Sumerians. And a mistake.

Umma fell and I asked for peace and received the cities of Isin and Zabalam on the far jungle island. I had an idea I wanted to try so I decided not to capture those cities yet. Instead I received two peacefully, leaving the Sumerians with exactly one city left. What I found odd at the time was the city that remained was the youngest of the ones they settled there. You know where this will be heading of course.

My idea at the time was to send both Sumeria and Russia into the industrial age and hope that they would get the two starting techs I didn’t have with their free tech, and then I could trade for those. I picked up free artistry for theory of gravity from the Russians and then gifted them magnetism. They received medicine as well. Strike one. So I sent theory of gravity to Sumeria for their last remaining worker and then gifted them magnetism. They received nationalism, but wouldn’t trade it for anything I had (medicine, over 4,000 gold, almost 50gpt, even combined they still snubbed me). Strike 2. Sigh. The Dutch and Mayans had also entered the industrial age this past turn so I decided to send them medicine so that the Russians wouldn’t give it to them and so they wouldn’t have enough gold to purchase nationalism from the Sumerians. I received 279gpt and 97 gold and updated maps of the world for my troubles. But this wasn’t strike 3 since I did force them to have to research nationalism on their own instead of buying it from a one-city nation cheaply.

880ad – Finish research of steam power

And naturally the only coal within striking distance of me is in the remaining city of the Sumerians. There was still 17 turns remaining on the peace treaty, but I didn’t want to wait that long for railroads. So I started gathering my forces to hit the last city and prepared to bite the reputation bullet. But that’s a story for DAR5.

The screenshot is of my homeland, Japan, and the closer jungle island.

To be continued…

[Rhothaerill]

Rhoth’s DARs, AU501, Chapter 9

Emperor level played with the AU mod

And the east island. A lot of work still needs to be done with clearing and draining. Many workers will be necessary.