*Spoiler* Obama Free Zone PBEM

[Robi D]

I've started a PBEM with mauer.

The setting are fairly straight forward.

-Quick speed
-Tiny Pangea map
-Balanced resources
-No tech trades, No vassal states, No alliances
-2 AI
-All civs randomly chosen

I got Arabia, Mauer ended up with Babylon. The AI... we'll see.

[Robi D]

Turn 1

I settled on the spot and founded Robigrad.
Warrior is going for a little walk to check out the surroundings.

Started with Mystism so i'm going for an early religion

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/2317/ara3940b1ob2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Robi D]

Turn 3

I can see some borders. They are a yellow colour so its not mauer. I can only think of egypt and zulus that use a yellow. I'll see soon enough

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/6627/ara3820b1pe8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[BCLG100]

Out of interest, what does this have to do with obama?

[Robi D]

Out of interest, what does this have to do with obama?

Positively nothing hence the name:D

[Rik Meleet]

My guess is Zulu. Just a tad too light for Egypt.

[grahamiam]

[B)]

[Robi D]

Well Graham you can't spam him in the game:p

Turn 10

As it was it did turn out to be the Zulus, as i met the scout the following turn so good eyes Rik;)

Finished Agricuture and hunting will be done next turn. After that AH then work towards BW.

Also got a hut to pop next turn. There are some barb animals wondering around now
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/7918/ara3400b1vb5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Robi D]

Turn 17

Looks like i've spotted the 2nd AI. Those borders look very Aztec like. That would make it 2 very aggressive AI to contend with.

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/7540/ara2980b1do9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

I got my warrior to station in Robigrad, now its time for a worker. After archery its mining.

Also got a spot worked out for city 2. It'll take in the sheep and horses as well as 3 furs which are just south of that shot.

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/205/ara2980b2ri7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Finally the demographics, so far, so good. Nothing really stands out at this point, its all fairly even

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/7905/ara2980b3ms6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Robi D]

Turn 26

I guess a maniac like nothing more than a fellow maniac. I say this because Shaka and Monty have not sent a single EP against each other. Further more they are both pleased with each other in the relations.

One relvealing thing is that while Mote is send all 4 of his EP's to me, Shaka is only sending 1. I can only assume he has met mauer and the other 3 are going there.

I've pretty much got my plan work out for the short term. I've built a scout to go and explore and find where mauer is exactly. I've hooked up the cows, next turn i'll have BW.

My worker will then start chopping the forest next door because once my archer is built it time for a settler. My wondering warrior will go and check out the peninsular in the SW i can't yet see.

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/7389/ara2440b1fs6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Robi D]

Turn 39

I've got my 2nd city planted, only Monte beat me to it, but his capital was only size 2. The sheep have already been hooked up. Next the road will be connected to the horses and they will be hearded.

The peninsular had some corn there so that could be a nice spot for a GP farm. Also my borders have expanded again so i'm reserving a nice area all for myself

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/8774/ara1660b1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Now i thought i had it all worked out with where mauer is, but now i'm not so sure. I figured him to be north of the zulus but from tyhe exploring i have bee able to do, it looks like the zulu are right in the corner there. There could be a tiny strip of land going further north that i can't see but it seems unlikely.

I'll be going to explore around monte's area next to see whats there
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/5748/ara1660b2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

And the demographics are still all fairly even, although i'm doing well in the points department. I thinks that down to my land score more than anything else.

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/7708/ara1660b3k.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Robi D]

Turn 45

We are moving along at a good pace. I've finally met mauer, he is behind Monte.

I'm now looking to get a third city up and running in the NW next to the copper but i'm building a second worker at the moment so i can improve the land quicker. I've also labeled some other potential sites, most of them are already in my borders so there isn't a problem to get them.

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/5175/ara1300b1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

My scout ran into mauers warrior the turn before and when i kept moving i found the edge of his borders. Unfortunately i ran into a barb so i lost the scout. But at least i now know where everyone is

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/4486/ara1300b2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Robi D]

Turn 60

Had a power session with mauer today so the saves moved on quite a bit.
I founded my third city Kalemegdan. I moved it originally planned placement 1 tile NE to get the iron right away. Between the iron, copper and ivory this will be a high production city

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/5493/ara0600b1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Shaka has been expanding his military at a rapid rate so to keep his advantage managable i'm going unit-infrastructure with my build. Once Kalemegdan up to speed it along with Connor City can take the bulk of military needs while i focus on turning Robigrad into a financial centre.

I've done a bit more exploring with my chariot and gotten my first peak into mauers lands

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/4742/ara0600b2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

With the demographics, I've got a proction lead which is alway helpful. Mauer is the one with the 20point GNP lead, with the rest of us pretty even.After Maths i'll be doing Sailing then Calandar so i'll be able to work the dyes and spices.

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/7551/ara0600b3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Robi D]

Turn 70

This is where the power session ended. I continued to make good progress. Shaka had a stack parked on our border which had me worried he agreed to a OB deal so maybe he isn't planning an attack on me right away. The OB deal gives me a chance to send some missionaries his way and hopefully make him a little friendlier

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/1698/ara0200b1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

As you can see Monte built the Great Wall. The game announced with all the associated pomp the Great Wall had been built in a farawy land [lol]

In Connor City i'm going for a little wonder of my own, The Oracle. A free tech would be nice and i'm lean toward MC over CoL for the immediate benefit of building forges.

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/6968/ara0200b2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Robi D]

Turn 80

I've begun to spam some missionaries at Shaka, hopefully i can get him to convert to my religion. Monte got a city build near the silver, denying me that spot and block mauer off on the other side of him.

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/1291/ara0200a1.jpg (http://img100.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ara0200a1.jpg)

I've improved one of the silk tiles which has boosted my commerce so my GNP is nearly up to mauers. I ended up using the oracle for MC so i can build some forges and increase my production advantage

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/3841/ara0200a2.jpg (http://img100.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ara0200a2.jpg)

[Robi D]

Turn 100

Can't say a lots happening, the games just flowing along. I got my shrine and i built the Colossus in Kalemegdan. About to finish the SoZ in Robigrad.

Also managed to build myself 2 new cities to fill out my area
http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/7002/ara0800a1.jpg (http://img5.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ara0800a1.jpg)

Shaka's power graph has leveled out and he is mildly happy with me. Monte still hates me but he has the smallest military out of the four of us which is a bit of a surprise.

I'm slowly catching Mauer on the commece side but he has a tech edge on me, still a clear first in production.

I'm fairly comfortable in my position, to attack one of the AI risks a war with the other one since they are best friends. Besides i feel like sitting back and letting someone else make the running

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/5871/ara0800a2.jpg (http://img26.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ara0800a2.jpg)

[Robi D]

Turn 110

Things are still going along smoothly. I've altered my research path a bit. I'm beelining the Civil Service branch to get up to mauers crossbows and maces.
Not expecting an attack just yet but it never hurts to be prepared.

Overall mauer is a few techs ahead of me, but he obvisious beelined CS for his war with Monte. I'll have to keep a close eye on things to see if he continues to go for military techs.

A look at my lands, the northern Half
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/7154/ara1000a1.jpg (http://img26.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ara1000a1.jpg)

Southern Half
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/5526/ara1000a2.jpg (http://img222.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ara1000a2.jpg)

The fishing boat will work some fish off the coast near Connor City. While i get no food out of it, the health is an important bonus.

My spy is now deep into mauers territory, at least now i have a chance to see what i'm up against
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/914/ara1000a3.jpg (http://img222.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ara1000a3.jpg)

And the city info screen
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/6697/ara1000a4.jpg (http://img216.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ara1000a4.jpg)

Kalemegdan at 25 hpt can build axes and spears (23h) in a turn with overflow.

[Robi D]

Turn 121

Had a power session with mauer yesterday. Mauer took another city off Monte before making peace with him. I don't know exactly why he didn't finish him off.

Anyway things were moving along when two turns before the end Shaka attacked me. My stack protecting the worker managed to survive the sneak attack, and my other one near Kalemegdan wasted no time in cutting off shakas only metal source. He has a lot of troops judging by his power graph so this will take a bit of time to break him down

http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/3752/ara1220a1.jpg (http://img70.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ara1220a1.jpg)

Also last time i meantioned mauers tech lead, here is a look at the tech screen. It a decent lead but nothing that can't be overcome. Shaka and Monte are well covered

http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/640/ara1220a2.jpg (http://img70.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ara1220a2.jpg)

[Robi D]

Turn 129

War will be the theme of my updates tonight.

First off mauer. That lilly arsed sob decided to attack me while my troops were off slaying zulus.

This left me with some pondering to do. Luckly for me (in a way) mauer had not completely thought his strategy through. Had he taken the last aztec city further south he could have been hitting Connor City, which i would have no hope getting units back to defend.

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/2747/ara1380a1.jpg

My first move was to attack the zulu capital. I had been hoping to make it a clean win with minimal loss. I did catch a lucky break with the rng and got a win with only the loss of my cats. While i would have loved to keep the city, mauer made that impossible so rubble it is. As luck would have it i got a great artist this turn to
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8921/ara1380a2.jpg

So i launch my GA and switch to beauro bringing guilds down to 4 turns. If i can hang on to Zvezda in this inital wave then i'm confident i can hold off future attacks too.
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/8688/ara1380a4.jpg

[Robi D]

Turn 135

I took out mauers northern stack without much fuss. This made him fall back and after some negotiating we agreed to a peace treaty. This untied my hand and i went after shaka.
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/9600/ara1450a1.jpg

Turn 138

Captured uMgund... whatever. I went to shaka to see what kind of peace offer he was willing to give. He offered to hand over all his gold (50) and the city he founded on his former capital a couple of turns ago.

I decided to take it since Nobamba isn't a priority and i didn't want to get bogged down, therefore giving mauer another opening.

So for now i'll heal up my unit and work out the next move
http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/3853/ara1480a1.jpg

[Robi D]

Turn 160

Been a while since the last update, you know been busy and all. Not that any great event has been missed. On the other hand we are about to hit what will probably be the game deciding event.

Basically Mauer has been building a tech lead over me since his former aztec cities got out of the resistance phase. I decided my only chance was to go for astronomy and try to open a two front war. Mauer still beat me to astronomy by a turn after i researched optics before him, so his research speed is quite scary at the moment.

I was still able to get the navigation bonus so at least thats something. On the other hand Mauers not far away from getting rifles so the time to move is now. If i can hit him hard and take/raze cities before he builds rifles in significant numbers i win, if not he wins.

First off a veiw of my lands;
Northern half
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/1088/ara1675a1.jpg
You'll notice the stack of units and cats north-west of Zvezda. That's for the land assault. The camel archers west of Robigrad and for the sea assualt

Southern Half
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/2652/ara1675a2.jpg
Next turn the 3 galleys will be upgraded to galleons before sailing off towards mauers capital

I still have a production edge so my power increase is greater than mauers for now. On the demographics you can see how far he is ahead in GNP
http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/6494/ara1675a3.jpg

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/4550/ara1675a4.jpg

And heres a look at mauers eastern cities. Neither are well defended.
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/2830/ara1675a5.jpg

The plan is fairly simple, in a couple of turns the land attack will begin. This will force mauer to move units towards our border to stop them. A couple turns later the Camel Archers arrive at the other end to raze all before them.

I call this the stick and stick approach:)

[Rik Meleet]

I'm looking forward to this.

[Lt. Killer M]

remind me never to play against you. I'd hate to play against a copy of myself, strategy-wise



;)

[Robi D]

Turn 162

I've made my move.

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/923/ara1685a1.jpg
My stack will attack Teotihuacan, while my spy will try to cause some mayhem in Tenochtitlan. Mauer has split his group of units between the cities but he can move them easily enough


http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/3930/ara1685a2.jpg
My galleons sail for Mauers capital. Bad news at top of screen, mauer has a frigate which means he has chem as well, something i hadn't counted on.

[Robi D]

Turn 165

The moment of truth. I needed to take at least one city to give myself a chance. First up Teotihaucan.
Mauer had taken some shots at my stack and with units quickly upgraded to rifleman i had to take an extra turn to take out the city defence bonus.
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/7554/ara1700a1.jpg

I stopped the bombing when i was only damaging 2 units collaterally with the cats. The attack didn't go as well as i had hoped, i lost some some 60% battles which i need to go my way. I did do a fair amount of damage but i decided to cease the attack when i was looking at a 30% chance battle
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/2063/ara1700a2.jpg

So no luck there, all my hopes rested on taking Reaganopolis. Mauer had rushed some defender there including a rifle so a win was anything but a certainty
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/3550/ara1700a3.jpg

And it went down to the wire, but with a slice of luck (that was missing before) i got through and razed the city. I moved what was left north to see if i can cause more problems for him
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/325/ara1700a4.jpg

So i'm still in with a shot but mauer has the advantage, particularly since he built the Taj Mahal for another GA

[Robi D]

Turn 171

Well well well, looks like i'm headed for my second defeat this week.

I didn't take enough of mauers cities out (only he capital) and with a second GA he has spammed his rifleman at a great rate. My only salvation, grenadiers are a half dozen turns away. By that stage i'll only be able to slow mauer down, not turn him around.

Zvezda is gone and Robigrad is in the firing line

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/2837/ara1730a1.jpg (http://img7.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ara1730a1.jpg)

[Robi D]

Turn 175

I caught a break a couple of turns ago and was able to start my second GA. This cut the time for military science and grenadiers.

However it looks like mauer (who can see my research) have set himself up for a shot at my capital. Although i have to say from a personal point of view he's made a couple of errors. Firstly instead of bunching up and attacking right away he has spread himself out and look to surround the city giving me time to get some more defender in Robigrad. I also switched back to slavery and whipped some units out.

Secondly a bigger surprise (and error) was the complete lack of any siege units, none what so ever. Even if he had had a couple of cats he could have used the time while setting up to knock down the city defense. At 80% i still have a chance, where as he he reduced them to 50 or 60 he would have gained the edge

I also took the oppertunity to build some frigates and took out the navy he had blocading my coast
http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/5678/ara1750a1.jpg


Turn 176
Mauer attacked my capital and failed to take it. This gives me a big chance to get a foothold into this game.

I can now build Grenadiers and get rid of his Rifleman, which if he keeps in my territory will start to cause him happiness problems. If you recall i build SoZ a while back so getting a bunch of units killed in my lands will be especially painful.

Mauer does have Steel and therefore connons but at least i have something to attack them with. Also i have i naval edge with Ship-of-the-line. Not that i exepect this to last long since mauer will proabably go for MS next in his reasearch. But it still allows me the oppertunity to lauch amphib raids and maybe raze another city

http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/1685/ara1755a1.jpg

Mauer definately still has the edge overall, but for the time being at least i can hold him off. He could still get lucky and take Robigrad next turn but the chances are much smaller.

I also took a risk and saved my GG for my first grenadier since i figured i wouldn't be able to upgrade a musketman for a while (i'm researching steel now) and they are pretty much useless long term

[Robi D]

Turn 185

Mauer was able to use one of his spies to send Robigrad in revolt. Without the defensive bonus he took it and that was it. It more than a little annoying since i had a couple spies stationed in Robigrad to prevent such a thing from happening.

I lost my 2 southern cities and now its just a matter of trying to hold him off a little longer. Kalemegdan with all its production should help me frustrate him a bit, but thats all i can do

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/7717/ara1800a1.jpg (http://img18.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ara1800a1.jpg)

[Lt. Killer M]

Espionage often sucks :( Given my experience with CIV 2 and CIV 3 (cheating AI that knew troop disposition, rounding errors in the RNG) I keep an eye on combat odds and how often 'rare' results happen. And I must say that the RNG setup for CIV just does not really fit games below the size of huge map, 16 civs. In smaller games the 'rare' events, such as the 'spy defeats enormous odds to revolt whole city' are far too common, compared to their influence on gameplay.

[Robi D]

Turn 203

Still hanging around, just waiting for mauer to attack.

Its fairly clear to me he is waiting for infantry. Not too much for me to do, neither AI is close to helpful, monte joined in the war and shaka happy with mauer. Only positive is my navy has pretty much sunk all of mauers ships that came my way.

Don't know how far infantry is away for mauer but its main pressing enter at this stage

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/3475/ara1866a1.jpg (http://img153.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ara1866a1.jpg)

[Robi D]

Turn 210

Mauer finally got his infantry. Just going to throw everything at it
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/2254/ara1880a1.jpg

Turn 213
Made a dint but its the end of road
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/3759/ara1886a1.jpg

Well done mauer

[mauer]

I'll say that luck was my best ally, as I'm anything but a planner. I'll have to break this down a little to make it easier on me.

War with Monte.
I was hoping to capture all his cities, but with a lower MFG than most at the time wasn't able to provide the unit count I would like. I definately needed to expand though. I made peace with him when it was clear that I'd either run out of units, or run low enough to allow you to roll over me if you had chosen to.

Our first war.

Opportunistic. I tried to take advantage of you being at war with Shaka w/o preparing for a decent assortment or amount of units. I knew I had the tech lead, and a much higher GNP and was planning on defending if need be and not attacking until much later.

Second war.

I was wholly planning on defending, again with the higher GNP and tech lead. Would have waited til at least cannons, possibly infantry. I hadn't great spied you yet, so I knew via ordinary spies where most of your units were. I did notice you were heading for galleons/frigates, so I switched to get them and was able to beat you there. Again though, with the lower MFG still wasn't able to get any frigates out in time to stop your stealthy attack on Reaganopolis. I knew that was possible, but hadn't bought into it yet unfortunately.

I had also been saving 2 great people to kick start a GA when you attacked. I knew I'd be able to upgrade to rifles and throw you for a loop a bit. At the same time, I was building the Taj. If you hadn't attacked, I was going to use that GA to shut down research and upgrade to rifles. Although I mismanaged both wars, I think planning the back to back GA is what saved me as it helped me put my military at a higher level than yours.

The siege of no cannons happened because I knew that you had lost a lot of units. I was hoping to walk up to a poorly defended city, but when I saw that didn't happen I sat around and tried to pillage a bit while waiting for my spy to show up. I was gambling on being succesful in sending the city to revolt, but I knew that I at least had enough espionage points to attempt since I had great spied you.

The last city.

Obviously I was waiting for Infantry. Had considered marching straight on, but after coming to my senses realized that your grenadiers would mow down my rifles since there were no hills and no forrest. Or at least not enough hills to protect me on my way.

All in all, this was a well played game. There's always something you could have done better in the game no matter who you are. Mine was obviously mismanagment of my wars and defenses on my back side. The only thing I can see you did wrong was not attacking sooner. If you had attacked 10-15 turns earlier, I would have been much less prepared to defend. I know you had the best damn navy I've ever seen in a game. And I don't mean as measured in quantity, but in success.

[mauer]

Also, from the onset my goal was growth, growth, and growth. I had by far the largest cities until later in the game. I think my cities were very well developed, but my focus was growth and GNP.

Also, near the end of the game I stopped managing my cities. I just wanted to get it over with and was whipping/drafting with great disregard to happiness, loss of GNP, or production.

[Robi D]

Well the whole attack by Shaka threw me off balance as he was becoming friendlier to me up to that point, you jumping on the bandwagon didn't help. That delayed some infrastructure projects and forced me to whip which slowed down my tech speed.

It ended up being just enough to delay my planned attack on you which meant by the time i got there you already had rifles. This meant i only took one of your cities instead of the 3 (minimum) i estimated i would need to take to turn the game in my favour.

I was never worried about your tech lead since i could outproduce you so any advantage could be quickly nullified. Losing my capital killed me. It was incredibly annoying since i had two spies stationed there in case you tried to cause a revolt. After that it was just a matter of delaying the end as long as possible.

At least i had fun sinking your ships. It was very helpful of you leaving your caravels and privateers hanging around so i could collect some promotions. After that it was easy to take on figates when you got them since i had the advantage of extra promotions. Add to that you also came with them in dribs and drabs so my frigates had time to heal and take on the next lot at full strength and gain more promotions.

Had i not lost my capital i would have been able to keep you on the defensive even with your infantry since i would have been able to hit any of your cities at any time. After getting cannons i would have beelined physics and started hitting you with airships

[mauer]

I must admit that I was giddy when the "Support City Revolt" worked. Seriously, my heart jumped like the nerd that I am. Cannons were on the way to your capital, but as you said, I don't think it would have been enough.....both in quantity and in time. Also, the Frigate here, and Frigate there was just for exploring. Just wanted to keep a good look out for more Galleons heading my way. You just so happened to find them everytime. The caravels were expendable, and obviously a caravel here, or a Frigate there was all I needed.

Oh, and the reason I didn't have any catapults or cannons when I made my siege weaponless approach is because I had to use them all on your SOD that showed up on my doorstep. Like I said, was preparing to defend not attack. I succeeded at that, and got lucky on the rest.

EDIT: Looking forward to another whenever you're ready. If you wanted to wait for Rik and/or Robboo, then it might be some time. You and I started about a year after Rik, Rob, and I did, but we passed that game by a few hundred years, and even to completion.

Of course, my apologies for not keeping a spoiler. I promise to keep one going on the next.