It's Clobberin' Time! Raging Barbs Highlands Tokugawa on Monarch

[haphazard1]

I think we have enough forces in place in the west to take Tiwanaku and finish off the Incas. Huayna did not have a lot left: a couple archers, a cat, maybe one of his uniques (however you spell that?). We will have to deal with some barbs, but that should be OK once all the Incan culture disappears and we can move around more freely. Hopefully we get another decent chunk of capture gold for the city as well, we could certainly use it.

I am worried about Rome's incoming stack, which has knights. Julius is doing the typical AI thing and bringing like one cat, though, so we should be able to buy some time while he slowly bombards defenses. So hopefully we can get enough troops together to deal with the attack.

[Brian Shanahan]

I can't say much either, away from home on a weekend break and drunk. It looks like our military play is working well but our economy isn't strong at all. I'd put the second down to the map, highlands gives a surfeit of production cities, at the expense of economic ones.

What this game is really showing is that you badly need economy over production in this game. Get two or three unit pumps and you'll have enough soldiers, but you can never say no to another commerce site.

[haphazard1]

Commerce is tough on Highlands maps. Fewer river areas, more mountains and hills. And of course our raging barbs setting has meant a lot more units than would normally be needed for defense in the early stages of the game.

We are also struggling because of the current wars having disrupted our trade income. We were getting quite a bit of foreign trade route income from Mansa and Julius and that is now gone. It would help if we could get trade routes going to more AIs again, but I am not sure how likely that is. The Highlands script also hurts here because there are no islands, so all our internal trade routes are stuck at very minimal values. On most map scripts we would be able to get a couple island cities and double the value of most of our internal trade routes.

Any suggestions for a proper video game empire name for Tiwanaku once we take it? Something relating to extinction or genocide seems appropriate.

[Zalson]

F2+F1 screens will be helpful in figuring out what’s causing the commerce drop. I suspect whipping has not helped much either.

[Fluffball]

Oh well, Fluffball was saying that lining up one civ at a time as a target was dull .

This is indeed getting really fun to read. 

Can you imagine how exciting it would be to read about a bunch of extremely experienced guys playing a normal game on monarch? Not very. 

[Zalson]

Looking at the situation, we definitely do not need a catapult to take Tiwanaku; just brute force it. He's got a few archers and Quecha.

We also are working some questionable tiles. For instance, we haven't connected the furs up at Wolfenstein. That'll help relieve unhappiness and allow us to move units out of backlines and to the front. It'll also give us +4 commerce.

We also have a lot of units in production. We don't need so many being made so far away. We have a ton of available force; we can easily take that knight stack with samurai and spears; it's all mounted units!

We do need more courthouse and should probably chop out the forbidden palace in Inca gold. That'll save us a lot of cash. We have 10 cities that cost us more than 6 gpt in maintenance!

We also have a large amount of production which we can turn into cash via build wealth. We should do that.

The situation isn't that dire. We can easily make our way out of it. We just need to put the hurt on JC. We can do that by focusing our might.

Also, since we have Christianity in streets of rage, that city should do nothing but spread christianity, after it builds a temple and monastery. +4 hammers is nothing to sneeze at.

We obviously want peace with JC. But don't pay for it.

Good luck, haphazard1!

[haphazard1]

We have  a ton of available force; we can easily take that knight stack with samurai and spears; it's all mounted units!

Well, if we actully had some samurai, maybe. We are not quite there yet on the tech. More spears are certainly needed.

Also, since we have Christianity in streets of rage, that city should do nothing but spread christianity, after it builds a temple and monastery. +4 hammers is nothing to sneeze at.

Agree. Grabbing those bonus AP hammers can be very useful. And spreading the AP religion will give us more diplomatic leverage.

Good luck, haphazard1!

Thanks! I will see what I can do finish off the Incas and deal with Rome, while keeping our economy afloat.

[haphazard1]

Have started the turns. Got some excellent combat luck against the Incas and took Tiwanaku, finishing off Huayna Capac. Still need a name for the city, any suggestions?

Found some city ruins a bit north of there, looks like the Incas lost a city earlier to the barbs, much like Mansa did. Helps explain why they did so poorly this game.

There is some good land up there: iron, sheep, corn. We will certainly want to settle it, but maybe a bit later when our economy is stronger and we are not fighting for our lives against Julius. It should be safe enough from the AIs trying to poach it, at least for a while.

[haphazard1]

A question for team discussion: what to do with our second great general? He is currently snoozing in our capital. We could make a second super mcdic, but probably would get better use from a military instructor. I was looking at our cities, trying to decide where we might place our Heroic Epic, and would like to get thoughts from the team. For now I will leave the GG asleep -- delaying placing him does not cost us much, and it is an important decision so I don't want to make it without getting everyone's input. I see a couple possibilities for the Heroic Epic, but there are different ways to use it; make a good city great, or make a so-so city into something good. What do people think is best?

[Zalson]

Do we have a high XP unit that is well promoted? A C4 shock samurai would be pretty nice.

What are the options you're considering for HE? I take it we're going to go Literature after Machinery?