AU 601: sabrewolf's DAR

[sabrewolf]

and here the image at the end of my turn (painfully redlined AC army, huh?)

speaking of AC: i've got 3 more going through persian lands. unfortunatly, persian workers and archers are often blocking the way, so i can't move at ideal speed

but once they get through, i can add them to the 2 armies and they'll have the stats 5,3,3... an AU mod cavalry...


so, what is andy's next move going to be?
i presume he's move his units in direction of knossos. as i can't get enough defence there in time, he would take it back without problems. but in that case, i'd gift it to the persians to get them back into war against him.

however, if he should do that move, he would bind 4 units in a distant region. units that he would need back in the rest of his empire...

on a side note: invention is invented and next, gunpowder is being researched at 80% (economy breaking even, ETA 10 turns).

i now think i know why not much has changed on the front of research: they're all probably researching the "upper" part of the tree... education, printing press, etc.
but now, everybody except the backward cathagians have got theology...


i'll keep you guys posted.

[Solomwi]

I presume that's a 3xAC army. Get him into the mountains to heal and he's a veteran hoplite, effectively. Think about how reticent you'd be to attack a vet hoplite fortified on a mountain.

Also, are those side by side volcanoes I see, or is it just a graphics trick?

[vmxa1]

With the movemment of an AC army you can move a couple of tiles away and fort on a mountain. Then you should have at least two turns to heal.

[monkeyman]

Holy crap! Just wanted to chime in and say how much fun this was to read! Keep it up!

--mm

[sabrewolf]

solomwi:
yes, it's the 3xAC army. the other one is a 2xAC army (at the time i didn't have enough ACs in the carthage region (2 up north against the germanics) so i sent over 1 smaller force. unfortunatly, the temporary persian war delayed my efforts so i left the non-loaded ACs leader-hunt against persia.

vmxa1:
with no imminent danger, i could leave the army in the desert. but i'm withdrawing them back to knossos to fill them with 3 more ACs within the next 3 turns. that would give me two 4x AC armies with enough punch to punch through 2 vet hoplites per turn

monkeyman:
thanks

anyway, he's what i built overnight. this should make things more interesting the the upcoming AI wars

[sabrewolf]

here's the current power graph.

greece didn't lose a lot of their power by losing these 2 cities and the total of 4 military units and 3 workers. so i'm expecting to get some fierce resistance for the rest of the greek empire.

corinth is my logical next target, but i'll have to do that more systematically: pillage the roads leading to it so he can't counterattack (except with fairly inefficient horses) and do typical cavalry raid tactics: enter the lands, destroy somethign, exit the lands.

btw: i'm sending through 2 legionaries to the persian-greek chokepoint to block any persia settlers. trying to get through. this is all unclaimed territory and there are some nice things like gems and more incense and spices.

[Arrian]

That's just a massive power gap. I don't think you will have much trouble nailing this one down.

-Arrian

[sabrewolf]

anno domini 290

well, i'm behind in the upper tech branch and it's time to get it. but i'm not willing to give engineering yet. i first want to ensure getting leo's... even if i risk losing being first to sell engineering.

and as i've also seen in the foreign advisor screen that andy has a deal with both egypt and babylon (where i presume he's getting gpt for theology which he brokered around), i decided to get egypt and babylon into the war against him... even if it's just to make him spread his hoplite to both fronts.

as you can see in the attached image, i'm paying 13gpt, gems, iron in return for theology and both their alliances. and with a bit of luck, andy will buy them OUT of war when they accept negotiations again and i'll save this money and mainly the resources.

the cost of this operation: losing 1 turn towards gunpowder... for theology. not bad, uh?

[sabrewolf]

dp

[sabrewolf]

meanwhile, i'm trying to get my reinforcements to knossos. unfortunatly, persia forces are blocking the way as a archer per turn is awfully annoying. also next turn i won't be able to get past that chokepoint. but now i've also got my legionaries and medinfs in place and as soon as the passage is free, they will block and never let those annoying persians through again

btw: i have no idea where the persian army is going to. so far about 6 horsemen and 6 archers have been spotted and all are heading towards the greek-egyptian-babylonian border. maybe they are planning something similar as they planned when trying to get my iron town.

oh well... delaying my armies by 2 resp. 4 turns...

next image: victory status screen. doesn't really matter a lot, because most victory types are forbidden (domination, coonquest) or virtually impossible (diplomatic, cultural). so that leaves me with histographic and spacerace victory
(that is of course, if andy doesn't turn things around! if he gets lucky and makes 2 (not more because he hasn't got 12 cities) medinf/hoplite or even knight armies, then my life could get a bit difficult. but even then, i'm quite optimistic: i can always create a 4xmusketman army (defence 8 !!!) )

[sabrewolf]

here at last my F1 and F2 screens.

as you can see, i've got 4 own luxuries (dye, ivory, silks, gems) and am importing furs (from the celts)
and in 2 turns, my incense will be connected... that gives me 6 luxuries!

once i get knights, i'm thinking of harassing the celts, cutting off their iron and horses and grabbing the 2 furs they have got. i'll also go annoying other civs and taking their luxuries. the germans for example don't really need 3 wines, don't they? so i'll eventually settle right beside berlin, culture rush everything (even if it should flip, i'd be allowed to reconquer the city). and i'll definatly claim the 3 spice sources in the greek jungle. that's in fact the first city i'll place over there!

once i'm in control of 8 luxuries... that's 20 happy faces per big city

[sabrewolf]

now another question:

do you think i can start the next DAR? maybe 20 tiles or so are missing...

can you spies tell me, if alexman, nbarclay and theseus new every single tile? if so, i'll open up a (very short) 2nd DAR

here's the enlarged minimap

[vmxa1]

Close call. Alex has about the same with no black area in the center.

I don't see the problem as no advantage will be gained by going on to Dar2.

There are not very many screens with mini maps and few of local land.

[nbarclay]

The time to start writing the next DAR is when you either discover Gunpowder or discover an island. The "uncover the entire pangea" criterion is a prerequisite for reading other people's DAR 1's, not for starting your own DAR 2.

And considering that important Greek resources might be hidden in the black area of the map, it's not safe to start reading other people's DAR 1's yet.

[sabrewolf]

ah, now i get it, thanks guys

ok, i'll start a new DAR thread as soon as i get gunpowder (ETA 7 turns, as you can see above).


but i don't see why i won't be able to read other roman's DARs. they won't be unveiling gunpowder (as they'd start a new thread then anyway).
and to be honest... potential secondary greek iron and horse resources don't worry me too much for their primary source is so far north, that they'll be the last cities i'll take anyway. nothing else will really influence my game.

as you can see, i'm getting twichy and nervous to at last see other people's games and strategies! reading DARs and AARs is one of my favourite things about civ3