teh: Frederick of Germany

[teh]

I don't have much experience as most of my single player games have been quite peaceful.

I haven't thought about taking Vilnius much, but if I could, it would definitely be a nice boost. The only problem would be to slip enough troops through Aquileia's ring of fire. It would also leave me a bit too vulnerable near Frankfurt for my taste now. Food for thought for future turn plans, though.

[teh]

Quick update:

Well, Yuris attacked me, and chances are he will take Frankfurt, though I might take it back if I counter attack. I can't fault him for attacking me when I'm busy and taking advantage of that, but on the other hand, I feel like this is handing the game to Sullla as I will have no chance of bothering him while I'm trying to defend/counter-attack against Yuris.

[RFS-81]

Damn, I feel sorry for you. I think you're right, with Yuris fighting you, Sullla will run away with the game. I still hope you can prove me (and yourself) wrong! Don't give up!

[teh]

Oh I'm not planning to give up at all! I'm still optimistic that I will have a good production base and my loss of Frankfurt will be temporary (even if it might take 10 turns to get it back). I'll report on the past turn tonight, but as a quick note, I'm finishing a 1-turn civic to switch to the 50% military production policy, and I have 2 Hansas that are going to be finished, so it's more and more military pump from now on.

[teh]

Turn 81

The turn starts miserably as I get the notification that Yuris has declared war on me. Like I said, this pretty much seals the game for Sullla (not that there was a big chance of me stopping him before, but still).



Yuris has 2 archers and 2 eagle warriors there. Now, he will most likely take the city next turn, but I do have a lot of units here that would be available for a counter attack immediately. I guess I should've started the city wall here sooner, but oh well.

This screenshot is actually after I attacked the eagle warrior NW of Frankfurt with the two archer you see SE and SW of the city. In the meantime, near Aquileia, Sullla has destroyed one of my archer, but I managed to pillage the pasture there so that might cause some minor damage to him. I make an orderly retreat to the north.



As serious war is upon me, I decide to finish Military Training (1 turn left) so that I can make a free civic change here to the 50% production (melee+archer - ancient and classical) bonus policy next turn.

Cologne and Frankfurt have both grown this turn. Cologne picks up the whale to get some gold, and Frankfurt pick up the unmined plains hill 1E of the city center to get some production (will most likely not matter with the capture next turn). Cologne is running into amenities issue (it's at -1 now).

Mainz has 2 turns to complete its Hansa, but I borrow the mined desert hill from Cologne and move the citizen from the farmed floodplains to the desert hill. This reduces the time to complete Hansa to a single turn, though it also causes the city to starve. However, the city will only drop to size 3 in 2 turns, so I will get switch to the floodplains next turn. Cologne loses the desert hill for this turn and the free citizen moves to the marsh (no other available tiles here). Luckily its Hansa was 1 turn to complete before this switch and it's still 1 turn. With a total of 3 Hansas completed by next turn (Aachen, Cologne and Mainz), and the policy card in play, I should be able to start pumping military out like there's no tomorrow. I'd like to get a city wall in Mainz just in case, but that should be done quickly with the Hansa in place and with the 100% production bonus card for that.

Empire scores reveal another captured city from Archduke by Sullla, not much I can do there now that I'm occupied with Yuris. For what it's worth, Archduke accepts my offer of open borders.

[teh]

I actually just played turn 82, and it's fresh in my mind so here's today's 2nd report:

Turn 82

As expected, Frankfurt falls, but it is very vulnerable to a counter-attack at the moment:



Notice that the city defense is not that high, and the city health is somewhere in the middle. I also have plenty of troops nearby. Time for a counter-attack, then!

However, before I do that, there's a couple of things to do. First of all, Military Training is completed, so time to change my policies:



Note that I actually switched my government to Oligarchy, so I have 2 military policy spots now. It also grants extra strength to my melee units (+4) which will mainly be useful in taking cities. I'm running conscription to keep maintenance down (or actually 0 maintenance with it so far), Agoge to get cheap archers and warriors, and Limes to get cheap walls. I am in no rush to get settlers or builders at the moment, so I retain urban planning to get some more production in all my cities.

Secondly, I get a free envoy from Military Training. Coincidentally (but I was checking the numbers before so I knew they would align), I also get another envoy from my influence points. Those two envoys go to Stockholm, a city-state under Sullla's protection at the moment. However, my new 2 envoys bring my total to 4 as opposed to Sullla's 3, so I get the suzerainty of Stockholm. This has the nice benefit of reducing Sulla's science down to 22 from 24.1 and increasing my science to 18.7 from 16.6. It will have an even larger effect once I finish my campus and get a library instantly there with the great scientist because at 3 envoys, Stockholm grants an extra 2 science in every campus.

Next things on the list are what to produce in Cologne and Mainz because both cities have just completed their Hansas. Mainz gives the desert hill back to Cologne to prevent starvation and goes back to working the floodplains. Cologne starts an archer (3 turns). In Mainz, I wasn't sure if I need to go with the city wall or a military unit, but I decide to produce a warrior (2 turns) there. I'll explain the reasoning more later.

Finally, the counter-attack:



The archer SE of Frankfurt moves 1E to make room for the warrior, who moves there. The archer on bananas moves to where the warrior was. After that, all 4 archers shoot the city center. The city is heavily damaged, but it's not enough for the warrior to take the city this turn. I decide not to attack to preserve the warrior's health for next turn. The warrior build in Mainz is also heavily influenced by this, because I will need a warrior to take the city (archers can't) and I want to have a backup warrior to do that in case I lose this one from Yuris' counter-attack here. If the warrior survives here, I think I should be able to take the city back next turn, but if not, I hold the production edge in the conflict vs. Yuris. I actually have a larger military score than Yuris after this attack, so I'm beginning to feel better here. I also hold the civic edge (I have 3 more civics) and I should have a better science rate than him in about 2 turns (I already have one more tech). All of this would be thrown to trash if Sullla shows up with some units and I'm trapped between Yuris and Sullla of course, but nothing I can do for that but to hope that it doesn't happen.

[shinghand]

I think we agree that Sullla is the clear favorite to win, what do you think it would take for Sullla to not win?

Under what circumstances would you concede the game in favour of Sullla?

[teh]

Hmm that's tough to answer. I think if I can get the advantage over Yuris and even conquer a city or two from him (long shot, but possible) without Sullla intervening in the meantime, I would be able to challenge him better. Conversely, Yuris holding Frankfurt and conquering Mainz would give him a nice hold over the the eastern side of the center region and he might be able to challenge Sullla. Again, it all depends on how fast (or if) Sullla finishes off Archduke.

I would concede the game if it looks like I would not be able to keep up with an arms race against Sullla but my Hansas should give me plenty of production to compensate for the larger number of Sullla's cities. Also as long as Archduke is at war and not be conquered completely by Sullla, his cities taken by Sullla are considered occupied and do not grow, so they're slightly limited in that aspect.

[teh]

Quick update:

Yuris made a tactical retreat out of Frankfurt, so I was able to take it easily back easily.

[teh]

Aaand it's back in Yuris' control.