Zalson plays one turn at a time [COMPLETE]

[Zalson]

If I start everyone on Chariots just before I get guilds, does that mean I'll get knights from the chariots and knights from the horse archers (provided they complete?)

The two queued items would coalesce into one knight build, and you would lose the hammers invested into one of them.

Right. Don't do that, then.

[Zalson]

If I am going to get guilds in 1t (next turn), should I whip every horse unit before I end turn? So that the newly completed units all auto upgrade? Or does it not work that way?

[novice]

That should work.

[T-hawk]

I'm not 100% sure if the build orders upgrade immediately or a turn later. I seem to remember some cases where it's the latter, although that might have been Civ 3. There is no shame in keeping a save game to try it out and reloading if it doesn't go how you expect.

[mackoti]

If I am going to get guilds in 1t (next turn), should I whip every horse unit before I end turn? So that the newly completed units all auto upgrade? Or does it not work that way?

They will became knigs,and if your whip was big enough you get directly knigs.

[Zalson]

T184
Qin is nothing if not persistent. Gotta admire a man for trying.



Operation switch away from horse archers commences. There is no picture. Just imagine it:

Quartermaster: "Hold tight guys. In about 20 years we'll teach you how to shoot arrows from Camels!"
Horse Archers: "O-kay."
FIN

Demographics looking quite nice.



T185



Qin decides to move North on Elephantine. So I’ll move onto the forested hills in his approach and hopefully goad an attack.



Shaka AND Ragnar are on the same continent. Wow. They’ve already had one war.

Open borders with Shaka because, well, why not?

Qin’s first Cho-Ko-Nu hits the field. The immunity to first strikes really hurts the unit on defense, I think. It’s Drill 3 but all for nothing.



T186

Well that worked out nicely!



Guilds is due in 1T. Unfortunately, i do not have enough cash to get it in 1 turn. So, let’s do some micro.



I also got a great merchant out of Thebes, which is now happy capped (the merchant is on his way over to hang out with the Great Prophet in Najran). I’ll probably be forced to add both temples there — and maybe even a colosseum.



Although the globe theatre would probably be a better choice. (need 1 more theatre; don't worry. I queued that theatre UP!)

T187
Guilds comes in as planned.

Unfortunately, it looks my plan to whip each of the horse archers to completion did not work as well as i had thought.





I guess I didn’t have enough hammers to complete each build as they rolled over. I did get one camel archer (out of Heliopolis). The rule is exactly what Mackoti said it would be (but I had played before I could get that info).

And here’s another customer.



I am sensing a theme. these guys don’t have a lot of cities.



He’s preparing for an attack in the east but he’s still 7 turns away. Zalson: consider this your reminder to get some caravels up ... in like 5 turns. Other than that, he’s just stacking in Hangzhou. Unfortunately, the cavalry is coming. (not cavalry unfortunately but knights)

He also started Engineering so I need to act sooner rather than later. It’ll be 2 turns to take Hangzhou (mostly because catapults aren't two movers). I’ll try to post the attack vector next report.

[Zalson]

T188

Oh hi Pacal!

He and Victoria are at war. and it is not going well for him.



QIN has another incursion on his mind.



This will be the avenue of attack. Need to get a worker in position to road that spot.



This stack plus the stack defending Alexandria will be used on the attack (that secondary stack will likely roll in after I take Hangzhou, just logistically). I will need to beeline Beijing (want to get rid of the SoZ; Qin is already suffering war weariness.

I’d move now (there are 2 longbows and an axeman remaining in Hangzhou) but I’d like his attacking stack to suicide first.

T189
Get the circumnavigation bonus. Which is nice because I’ll be needing to invade the two far continents.



Qin continues his suicide mission. I’ll need to probably keep some units in the area to cut down these forests.

Workers move into position for the attack on Hangzhou.

T190-1
Why would I do this?



Shaka declared war on Ragnar too. They’re just making it easy for me

Oh and Qin suicided his stack as predicted. No casualties (although he did get a horse archer to withdraw).

Alpha comes in. As expected, I am up a lot. The only tech I don’t have is Theology, which Christian Pacal has. Qin, predictably, is the closest to me.

[Zalson]

T191



Move outside of Hanzhou. I would burn this city if it didn’t have the Parthenon.


My first casualty of the war (on defense) (I used a camel archer to kill the stupid axeman that was hanging around Pi-Rameses). I think he was more hurt than I realized (I got him confused with my camel archer that flawlessly killed a horse archer I think).

Because it would be a terrible report if I didn’t give it to you:

T192
Oh dear: this isn’t going to go well.



it requires most of my catapults to get through the 60% culture (only 3 have barrage). However, my CR3 maces get about 60% vs a CR2D1 Longbow and my camel archers get about 70%. So let’s send in one suicide cat to see how that adjusts the odds.

[forget to screenshot]

They improved by about 5% for the Camel Archer so used him and won. the rest was a cakewalk. Of course, there were only 3 units.




that, of course, was enough for me to get war weariness in Thebes:



Note the helpful spy specialist. I removed that (although spies may come useful for golden ages later).

Because one-more-turn-iris is a real problem.

T193
Qin attacks with another mini-stack that I completely managed to miss. However, the victories were more than enough to trigger war weariness in Mecca.

I also managed to get rid of all my spy specialists except for one (because Kufah doesn’t have a temple), courtesy of banking.

Qin is stacking in Nanking.



T194
Start heading south. The stack in Nanjing will be quite painful.



T195
How short a report can I make?

Here’s the relationships everyone has. As you can see, it is all just single continent love-fests.


Oh, and here’s the army outside/inside Nanjing. we are going to give each other hugs.

[Zalson]

T196
Inter-turn, Qin hits my stack outside Nanjing with a catapult. most of the damage is absorbed by the units axeman that remain in the stack.

Research cranked on Theology. Next stop is paper (for Sankore/map trading). Gunpowder would help but education/printing press will be a lot more helpful in the long term.

The current plan, I think, is capture Beijing and then get a 10 turn peace to tech and rebuild. After that, get galleys/galleons in place to snipe remaining cities on T1 of the conflict. Qin will already give city for peace and he just got engineering.

Although, based on this heatmap, Qin should be gassed once I can take Nanjing and Xian.



Let’s see what happens when we roll.

Demos, in case anyone is interested.



T197
Qin hits me with 2 catapults but, with a medic 3 unit in the stack, it doesn’t do that much. Everything is healed. He’s only got one pike in Nanjing. Let’s send in the catapults and see how we do.

8 catapults in and I finally get the first withdraw. Let’s see what we can do now,

Win 3 60% fights and, naturally, lose two 80% fights in a row. After that, though, and the line has broken.




And in this time of brokenness and strife, a settler is born from Damascus. Where he’s gonna settle, not sure. EDIT: I’ve decided: here



This’ll be a production city. Farm and mine the hills and then just build whatever I need.

[Zalson]

T198
Oh there’s the war weariness from losing 8 catapults to the player with the statue of Zeus.



Nothing that 30% culture can’t take care of. Note to self: finish this war quickly.

Other note to self: put up theatres everywhere and GET RID of the spy specialists.

Finally, Qin’s counter-attack was a single pikeman which predictably killed an exposed camel archer. Stupid error on my part. Could have easily moved a maceman to cover that stack (did so this time).

Final final note to self: maybe next time bring 8 cats per city before you go into the war.

Move into position to take Xian.



Power


T199
30% culture tax really sucks. This definitely makes UoS significantly more valuable.

The maya are spending their war doing effective things like building the Sistine Chapel.

You’ll also see that I nearly lost my great general camel archer to a longbow.



Meet the inadvisably founded (perhaps) city of Merw. #typo #productioncity #hashtag



Catapults knock down Xian to size. Next turn will be the moment of truth, I think. How prescient that it is turn 200.

Oh, what is that? Play turn 200 now? Ok.

T200
La la la just doing some domestic maintenance over here (read: cracking the whip).



Dry whip the theatre here because, well, I might as well. better than starving slowly to size 9/10. perhaps that was a poor choice?

Hangzhou is another hammer producer.



And here’s Xian.



And here’s Xian, under new renovation. Cost me 7 catapults.

Oh, wait? You didn’t see it. Neither did I.

Qin is willing to offer Shanghai (city 2) for peace. Unfortunately, that would leave him with Statue of Zeus. I’ll take Beijing and then take my chances.

T201
Great Engineer out of Mecca (woot). Not woot: +11 war weariness. The Statue of Zeus is no joke. Fortunately, the great engineer means an easy Sankore.



I need 60% culture tax to combat this. I should have just gone for Beijing from the outset.

I should be able to drop that tax down to 30%. but sheesh.

The power reduction by this turn:



T202
Let’s take Beijing.

[Pantomime reducing defenses by a pittance]

Nevermind. (reduced just 13%)

It’ll take me a lot longer to take it. And I can’t afford to take my foot off Qin’s throat.

I’l go ahead and get paper because Sankore might help my science limp along.

That’s enough of a mammoth report for tonight.

FIN