AU 601: sabrewolf's DAR

[sabrewolf]

before the iron, i also sued germany for peace. they were happy to give me monotheism for a mere 5 more gold.

/me takes of course.

now i'm up to date in techs AND i'm ahead by engineering. but andydog is either going to get this any moment now, or chivalry or theology.

i would trade it to all civs, but none had any gpt money that would have made it worth it (andy has probably tied them up in gpt deals when he got feudalism and monotheism).
maybe in one of the next turns...

meanwhile, i'm rushing for invention, as no civ can be doing that (engineering is nowhere to be seen)

[sabrewolf]

i've just discovered that i managed to in fact flash the leader generation itself... until now, i always missed it...


edit: this is still my 3rd leader... it's not another one. i'm not that lucky

[sabrewolf]

70ad
persia got theology before everybody else!
however, i have no idea what andy is researching, so i don't want to spread theology too much. anyway... i'd probably not be able to afford it. engineering +18gpt+230g wasn't accepted by persia and i'm not willing to sacrifice even more. so i'll wait another turn or two. if i'm lucky, another AI will get it before andy does.


90ad
i can pump up my research to about 70 beakers without loss and up to 90 with acceptable loss. that's probably less than persia and greece, but it still gives me a good shot at invention.

i have attached the newest scores.

compared to 250bc (17 turns ago),
rome has gone from 405 to 569, which is +164 or +40.5% respectively +9.65 per turn.
greece grew from 257 to 313, increasing by +56 or +21.8% respectively +3.3 per turn.

[sabrewolf]

so i'm getting nearly 3 times to points per turn of andy! but still he is a research powerhouse! even if i could pump up research to 90% by financing myself via AI, i'd still barely keep up.

the wierd thing: from what i can see of the culture borders (see attachment) only 4 cities have over 10 culture (pharsalos, knossos, sparta, and the non-visible capital athens). how can these and the other 5-7 cities outproduce my economy? is republic beefed up that much in the AU mod?

another wierd thing when you look at his screenshot: why has he not REXed more agressively? he just needs around 4 hoplites covering the persian border and a few more against egypt and babylon. the rest would be easy to fill up!

but i see delphi (top left) stuck between mountains and marshland... just for that luxury resource there.
the incense sources south, the wheat and cattle and the nice and juicy sugar-river-plains are still unclaimed.

i was beginning to think that my ultra-agressive "get-all-to-war-against-him" style backfired.. but if that is also the reason for his expansion, then maybe it was a good choice

[sabrewolf]

last screens for tonight, the ranks (score, power, culture)

[sabrewolf]

here the demographics screen of 90AD

believe me: it's the complete oposite of my SP games where i am the real builder type.

now i've got the largest military but miserable technology rates.
at least i earn the most and produce the 2nd most (who's first there? can't be greece, so it must be egypt or persia?)

[sabrewolf]

and last, but not least, the victory condition screen.

actually a joke, because:
- no chance for domination or conquest because of the au601-restrictions
- cultural is nearly impossible because 100k is too difficult on standard sized map and 20k only works with enough ancient wonders
- diplomatic? ... most hate me. persians, greeks, germans and carthagians all felt my wrath, so at best i could get 4 votes. but cleo is a bit self confident

so the only thing left is space race... and that could be quite tricky i andy continues his techwhoring!


so there are imho 2 variants:

A) i conquer greece, then go for spacerace.
B) i don't conquer greece, lose spacerace.

simple, right?

[nbarclay]

Given the disparity in populations, about the only way I can imagine someone having higher Mfg. Goods than you is if either (1) one of the top other civs is in a golden age or (2) a huge percentage of your population is in distant cities without courthouses. (Of course it's always possible that my imagination at the moment isn't as good as it ought to be. )

[sabrewolf]

110ad

andy continues to impress and surprise me with his resourcefulness!
he has made peace with persia and in fact brought them back to war against me!!! after just 3 turns!

and to think that i had given them iron in that time and now lots of immortals are swarming around

oh well... by the time they come, i'll have to turn them around against him again

[sabrewolf]

the downfall of greece, part I

undocumented and only known as rumors, caesar had secretly dispatched 2 armies, loaded with ancient cavalry to surprise attack the greek-persian border.

caesar knew from earlier epic battles against alexander that defences were mostly limited but lots of reinforcements are ready.

despite the war, slowing down the journey by a few years, roman armies slipped through persian lands and waited in the shadow for their troops to gain energy for the big assault...

[sabrewolf]

as expected, the defence wasn't very strong, but caesar didn't expect just one single hoplite commando defending knossos.

alexander may be able to read, write and teach the kids of his world the art of technology, but when it comes to the art of war, he can only learn from caesar the great!

[sabrewolf]

the second army, also waiting in the shadow of persia to rescue what could be rescued, had knossos been better defended, dashed out from the desert and removed the overwhelmed and surprised hoplites that had been watching the conquering of knossos and only took little losses...

[sabrewolf]

back to topic war wariness:

i'm going from the minimal possible

- 28 (from my declaration of war)
+16 points from loss of knosses
+ 4 from 2 unit losses
+ 2 from 2 worker capturing

that's something around
- 6 WW points... so 36 more to make him feel the effect. that means at least 2 more cities...

after that, another 2 more, and he'd have 50% unhappy people. but if i should get that far that i capture/raze 5 cities, i've probably won anyway...

now i hope andy doesn't have a great army coming towards me...

as soon as i can get peace with persia (6 elite wins, 1-2 losses, no new leader), i'll bring on a few reinforcements. legionaries should do a good job defending knossos and i'll need another AC to fill in one of my unfull armies.

meanwhile, my economy is great! thanks to the war declared by persia against me, i've got enough happiness to put luxuries down to 0%! and next turn, i'll also get the gems hooked up and in about 20 turns the incense i went to grab from germany, should be available...

things are looking good. and as long as i don't get surprise attacked by germany or the celts, i can focus on persia and mainly greece

[sabrewolf]

yet another leader!

210AD

persia offered me peace in the beginning, but i declined so i could leaderfarm one last time. i threw everything i had into it, even wounded units. i even lost a ver spear against a wounded archer, but my 3HP elite spear killed the archer and.... spawned another leader

i've used this one to rush the pentagon, switching rome to wonder-building (currently sun tzu's, but as i won't get that one because the AI probably cascaded to that not long ago, i guess i'll switch to leo's).

heroic epic will be completed in 4 turn ins veii.


luxury is now permanently down to 0%. the celts are trading me furs (for ivory+spices+4gpt) and the gems are hooked up. so now i can survive most cities without cathedral and marketplace up to the size of 9. above, i need garrison and/or more happiness than temples.

[sabrewolf]

210ad afterthoughts

interesting... engineering still hasn't been researched. i decided correctly (and lucky) chosing that one! had andy received that as free tech and an AI had research feudalism, it would look worse. one the other hand... if andy would have got monotheism, he wouldn't have theology either, so i guess this was the "neutral" solution. no great luck for either of us...

i'm not intending to share it yet until chivalry becomes available! it would be bad luck if someone else should get it before chivalry comes up, but as i can trade to the AI just before andy, i could profit of that situation.

i presume andy is researching chivalry because he needs faster units against my armies. i can currently attack 2 units and still retreat to regain strength.

by the way... thanks to 3 new cities, some courthouses and libraries and the 0% luxury rate, and getting some gpt from persia (for iron) i can now research at about 120 beakers per turn. this could get me invention in 2 turns, but as engineering is nowhere else to be seen, i'll take it a bit more easy and save for some rushes (eg in knossos).


now another question:
where is a good place to put my FP? i'm planning to move the palace later on to a more central part of my empire, where i currently would place the FP. should i build it in rome just after i move the palace?
i know it's the first thing good players build when available, but i never have the guts to build it soon enough. what would you guys recommend? this is what my empire currently looks like (2 of 29 cities not visible).
rome and veii are the best. antium, neapolis, ravenna, pompeii and lutetia are reasonably productive.