TheArchduke's third time's a charm as England

[TheArchduke]

I continue to have rotten luck with barbarians. Not only do I have another swarm of 2 horseman, 1 horse archer to deal with, I fear I can only get rid of them by a forward settle or a quadrireme. The only good thing about that is that my military power is semi-decent enough that Singaboy accepted a DoF. I did not want him to come after me. I want to push towards 7 cities asap.

   

I also rather screwed up by delaying Astrology until I had the inspiration, as Valetta had a quest for it. Needless to say, Singaboy took that city state about 2-3 turns after I managed to snatch an enovy. Couple that with quests from Carthage (Great Scientist.. ugh) and Stockholm (Great Merchant...)
I dowed Lisbon to get rid of the trade route quest, something which won´t happen in the immeadite future. I also will probably conquer Carthage as well as Stockholm, whilst both bonuses are rather nice, they are too close to me and so present conquest oppurtunities and I do not like them giving bonuses to my adversaries.

I also invested a bit of gold to buy the iron, first to have an iron in the diplomacy screen acting as a possible small deterrent, secondly for the +1 science, as I am already woefully behind in both science and culture. I just managed to get +2 culture thanks to a "build a spearman" quest, not one of my favourite units.

From what I can see Singaboy has an excellent run so far and he has hansas, so he will be a nasty piece of work soon, especially with a GG. I imagine his acceptance of my DoF will point his fury towards someone else, possibly the guy who dowed him (missing Jester and Japper) as contacts.

Right now I am last in score, 61, which is unfortunate, but I am still running Colonization and I will churn out 3 more settlers in the next 5-6 turns. I will also concentrate on getting two harbours up for the money and the GAdmiral which I will use to either snipe Zitronenhain or 2 CS or both. We will see.

   

Right now I am not sure about southcape dot, I am toying with the idea putting it 1 NW, without water, a bit more defensible, flood plains. I am confident that Singaboy will run away with the game soon, so after my initial push for 7 cities, I will get a decent navy and see where I can cause trouble.

[TheArchduke]

We enter the classical age this turn with Celestial Navigation and immeaditly plan out 3 Dockyards, with Bohemian Rhapsody actually building its. So we have an inspiration for State in 5 turns, and a very belated jump to a better government. I will catch up quickly with civics then though.

In 2 turns we have our 4th settler and in 5 our 5th. The capital will delay the settler after the dockyard.
After that we will hardbuild 2 more galleys and 2 quadriremes which supported by the GA should enable 2 quick CS conquests and then descend upon a neighbour, supported by our army. With Iron Working done, we get free swordsman if we conquer far enough. Shame that Singaboy is on the same continent.

   

Well the good thing with my barbarian friends, eurekas.

   

Scorewise, I am once again the underdog, but I can live with that. My goal is to make a better showing then last time, which I am confident I will manage.

Also good news for lurkers, I finally am able to find time again for a bit of reporting, yay.

[Ituralde]

I look forward to your future reports. Time to see what is possible with England on a water map!

[TheArchduke]

On season 2 on Fun with Barbarians.

   

And we spot a rather nice island, Oledavy has set his sights on it, he lands an archer on it as of this turn.

   

My second Trireme has stopped exploring, It will hover near my soon finished dock to prevent any sneaky plundering.

[TheArchduke]

Finally some time on my hands.

First of all, turn 74, an overview of my cities.

   

After churning out a worker, the Granary will be chopped and the overlow and another chop will be directed into a much needed Campus. After that a monument and a commercial hub. I toyed with the idea of erecting the Oracle in Bohemian Rhapsody as it will seriously augment my GP production.


   

Another one bites the dust.

Worker, then chops and a granary and a dockyard. AOBTD built a settler for quite some time, the patch and the settler cog increase makes settler building in none capital cities a bit suboptimal, but alas.


   

Breakthru, our one and probably only inland city. An encampment is preplanned but will have to wait after basic infrastructure is applied as well.

   

We are the Champions, longterm the best city after the capital will churn out a worker as well, harvest the stone and finish a dockyard.

   

The Show must go on, hardbuilding a dockyard and will receive a chop and a farm as well. I decided to go with the waterless, more defensive position which also takes more advantage of the Lady of the Reeds.

[TheArchduke]

Plans for the next turns. Workers, then dockyards.

Iron Working up to 1 turn for an emergency research/upgrade/for more city defense.

Great Admiral will get 2 more galleys and a quadrireme and snipe Stockholm asap to prevent Woden from getting even more science out of it.

The Dof should make us secure from the german horde for now (I assume he will hit someone else hard, I was hoping Woden, but this turn it seems Woden woke up, his military strength shot up.)

Eurekawise we are in decent shape, Inspirationwise not so much, we are behind the pack in both aspects but not by much.

After getting close to IW, I will go for Apprenticeship next to get more out of my mines as I am starting to chop those forests.

Singaboy will be an issue for others soon and I hope to find an ally after the DoF to contain him.

   

   

   

[TheArchduke]

My reporting has been abysmal so far.

Thankfully my economic catchup has not. Whilst I am still woefully behind Woden and Oledavy sciencewise, we will conquer Stockholm soonish (1 more warrior to Swordsman and then 2 quick quadriremes GAdm boosted (triremes are not, silly ancient era units..). Only with Triremes I fear those Archers will result in way too many casualties.

We are at a hefty 50 gold per turn thanks to trade routes and harbours, something we are working to expand even further. We stand at 4 triremes and I plan to expand this to about 8 soonish.

Also we are taking advantage of Mohenjo Daro to provide my waterless cities with pop.

The next 2 settlers will be built by my capital and my lake city to keep our pop nicely maxed.

   

   

[TheArchduke]

Judging from the milscore things for Germany look up, but with them as the industrial powerhouse and Oledavy as the industrial one, I welcome their headbutting.
I won´t make the mistake of going after Germany without a decisive advantage of some kind (like ships on Steroids) and even then their hansas are a frightful prospect.

Especially as my economic program comes into full swing by now.
Growth is high thanks to Mohenjo Daro (granaries will come after the traders. Income is good. My step child is science which means the conquest of Stockholm and the Campus at We are the Champions are high priorities. Bohemian Rhapsody will finish a quadrireme next turn and will build 2 more in 6 turns which will be double boosted by the GAdmirals. Together with 2 Swordsman, Stockholm should be easy pickings, even if they erect walls in the meantime.

A 4th district to further boost my domestic trade routes is next on the agenda.

I am not sure where I can find the production time to squeeze out 2 more settlers to finish filling up my island, but right now I want a decent navy at turn 130 to either ally or dow Singaboy.

   

[Emperor K]

I read your PBEM 2 report. Thanks for reporting

[TheArchduke]

Turn 95.


In 3 turns we will start offensive "Sudden Strike" against Stockholm and Carthage.

I will never build enough encampments to take advantage of Carthage and envoywise I got a bad quest and I am behind 1 envoy on both Singaboy and Woden.
Carthage is a strategic vulnerability and will be taken out by 3 swordsman and 2 archers in a suprise attack.

Two Quadriremes Gadm boosted will take out the archer, whilst 3 triremes will strike Stockholm, supported by the odd bombardment and maybe an archer and spearman if I can land them.

After the warrior is done we will make haste to build 2 campuses (about 8 turns) and a library in the capital (2 turns).

Population, Empire, Income are all rather decent and I am happy with them, but science needs urgent repair.
As soon as we hit caravels we will take those double Gadmiral boosted babies (I doubt anyone else will ever contest my hold on Gadmirals.) Another harbour is incoming and I will conquer 2 of Stockholm and Carthage.

Oledavy and Singaboy will hopefully slog it out long enough so I can get my overwhelming navy into place and then hit Germany or Norway.

   

   

I am getting the hang of this parenting stuff by now and I saw the detraction from lurker enjoyment of missing reports in PBEM 3, so let´s see if I can pick it up again.

I also miss having a dedlurker.