AU 601: alexman's DAR

[alexman]

More barbarian trouble

Not in C3C, for sure. In fact, they won't even attack the spearman because he's not in their NW-SE direction.

On the other hand, Pisae IS in the NW-SE direction of that other barbarian, and I had no time to bring a defender. We'll get ransacked, and we have lots of cash to lose!

Quick, give away the cash! Who wants free money?

[alexman]

Of the leading civs, Carthage has the best chance not to have met Greece. We buy Writing from them for 200g, with the intention of getting it back later. No more cash to lose!

We then trade Iron Working and Writing to Egypt for Polytheism plus 30g, and we are caught up in tech even before we discover Currency, and we have nothing to fear from that barbarian.

Actually that's not true. Persia, Babylon, Germany, and Carthage know Literature and we don't. A Greek influence, I'm sure.

[alexman]

1375 BC

The Greeks at last!

Alexander is doing very well in terms of technology. Probably better than us, actually, so our bid for a fast tech pace to leave him out of the loop has failed.

However, Evil Caesar now has another plan: Next turn we will learn Currency. We will use this new technology to get everyone's cash, establish embassies, and convince the world to declare war on the Greeks. At the very least, we hope to give Greece a Despotic GA.

Caesar just hopes Alexajshelr doesn't have the same idea and does the same to Rome this turn!

[alexman]

1350 BC

Fortunately not.

Since I had almost no cash, I renegotiate peace with the backwards Celts for 51g. That was enough gold to establish an embassy with Carthage, who if you rememeber from a few posts above, had all my cash (308g). Unfortunately, Carthage had not met the Greeks, so I cannot get them to ally against Alexander. Even worse, I don't have enough cash to establish more embassies. That means that I have to trade Currency to Hannibal to get enough gold to establish embassies.

So I traded Currency to Carthage for Literature plus 308g. That gave me enough cash to establish embassies with everyone else except Greece and the Celts. In addition to Carthage, Greece has not yet met Egypt and the Celts.

It took Currency plus 117g to convince the Germanic tribes to ally with us against Greece. Persia and Babylon were far easier, even paying us all their gold for Currency and the alliance. We then traded Literature to Egypt so that Greece doesn't have much leverage to bring them into an alliance against us when they meet.

[alexman]

1250 BC

Not sure what happened here, but I suspect it was great timing by jshelr to bribe Xerxes from ally to enemy, when a Persian Horseman was conveniently adjacent our vacant town. That will teach me to leave my towns empty...

But what was the horseman doing there anyway? I was hoping he was just after barbs, but there was nothing I could have done about it at that point except maybe woken up the Worker. So it just could be that Xerxes decided to backstab me even though we were allies, with no encouragement from Alexander. You'll have to read jshelr's DAR to find out.

No huge loss, even though I lost the Worker as well in the next turn (don't you hate it when you can't activate workers immediately in PBEM?). It keeps the game interesting. At least I killed that horseman, and enlisted Carthage as an ally to keep Persia busy. Now the only civilizations at peace are Egypt and the Celts, none of which have contact with Greece or Persia yet.

[Arrian]

I can just see it now: constant backstabbing as the two humans' cash flow changes, allowing them to buy off each others' allies/enemies and get them to continually switch sides. What a mess that's likely to be!

Good trading, btw. And sorry about that hut thing Surely you used those guys to train your troops (I often find myself deliberately moving my units onto the NW/SE axis so they will be attacked and promoted - if the terrain is right).

-Arrian

[vmxa1]

I don't know it for a fact, I would go with the back stab. They just could not overlook the big target.

Maybe they won't bother to rip up the irrigation.

[Arrian]

Actually, in the particular case of the Persians hitting Alexman's town, I'd agree it was a straight backstab. The AI has real trouble ignoring empty towns.

I once allowed myself to get really comfortable with AI settler teams walking through my lands. So comfortable, in fact, that I left core cities empty as spear/settler pairs walked right past.

This bit me in the ass, HARD, when I lost one of those core towns to the AI's spearman. It was the first time I'd seen the AI break up a spear/settler pair to do that... but it's happened to me at least twice that I can remember, so it happens (though it strikes me as rare, since in the midst of a major war AI settler teams will continue to just be settler teams and ignore the warfare).

Given that, I think this was just a case of Xerxes being unable to help himself. But I still think the humans are going to spend considerable sums buying the AI into/out of alliances.

-Arrian

[alexman]

1200 BC

Nooo! Please don't settle there next turn!!

(If he doesn't, I'm plopping New Pompeii immediately, even if it's not on old Pompeii's ruins. If he does, that Persian sneak-attack will have cost us more than I thought initially, since we can't conquer AI cities.)

[Arrian]

Bastards!

I figure that settler team will move another tile before settling... in which case they might walk right next to your 2 spearmen. 2 vet spears, 1 regular warrior... granted, I typically don't like attacking with spearmen, but you have the firepower to get this done if need be. Of course, then you're at war with both Persia and Carthage... that would suck, I guess, huh?

How long until you have Zeus?

-Arrian

[alexman]

1175 BC

You were right, Arrian, they didn't found the city, so we did. I decided against bopping the Settler with Spearmen, as we don't need another enemy just now.

Even though Rome was not the first to Writing, and several civs even had Literature before we got Writing (!), I decided to go for optional and expensive Philosophy anyway. Maybe Greece will stop research in favor of saving cash to finance their wars. I doubt we will get there first, especially since they will likely enter their GA, but I guess the gambles I don't take militarily, I have to take in other areas. Anyway, for now our economy is #1, so we'll try.

By the way, the SoZ is going to be finished in 10 turns or so (or earlier, if Carthage beats us to it ).

[alexman]

1100 BC

Jshelr gave some cash to Babylon for peace this turn. Just when some bowmen had finally arrived outside Greece.

But since Greece also met Egypt this turn, we gave Currency to Egypt for an alliance plus all their gold. Good, because we needed some extra gold to keep up the slider for the race to Philosophy.

Persia still will not talk, so we don't know if they're still at war with Greece or not.

[Arrian]

No attempts at pillaging jshelr's lands?

-Arrian

[alexman]

Too chicken, as usual, in this game!
Besides, they're hoping to get some Cavalry help soon.

The warriors are still scouting and spying. I'm sure they will be toast if I leave them exposed to his Archers. Perhaps I'll risk it after I have a better idea of where are his cities.

[Arrian]

Oh, I figured that was the reason... though given the screenie you posted when you first made contact, I might have taken a shot at pillaging the floodplains "3" of Sparta, hoping that my opponent might be caught unprepared for the appearance of my warrior and that he couldn't muster an archer in time to nail my warrior.

But at this point, sending your warriors in is almost surely suicide.

I'm finding reading your DARs fascinating, though I have to be careful not to unintentionally give anything away about jshelr (to you) or you (to him).

-Arrian