DrA vs Anarres *SPOILER*

[DrAlimentado]

and so it begins....

this match should be interesting.

anarres has taken a handicap of me being on emporer with 2 settlers whilst he (and the ai) are on deity (he has just the 1 settler).

so what are the odds ?

I can win deity against the ai most times (if i micromanage to hell probably all the time, although this isn't thoroughly tested ) but this is my first time ever pbem... and as we all know anarres is a pretty slick player. (read anal micromanager )

now i know some of you here (if not all) are pretty shit hot players as I've lurked on cfc for a while and read your previous games, so all advice will be gratefully received

I am also hoping that I can somehow exploit the fact that he seems confident he'll win this (hence the handicap), hmmm, I'm still working on how I turn this to my advantadge! I think I have a pretty good grasp of his style too, lets call it aggressive and ruthless!

The diplo stuff will be interesting, years of sibling rivalry will make us both pretty hard negotiaters I reckon with neither of us afraid to push the limits.

From what can be seen in the start pictures we've posted at cfc in our open thread I'd say I've got the edge in start positions (dosen't mean a lot obviously as only 9 tiles are visible), and the handicap will help a lot obviously.

Erikk, our map maker obviously has a slightly sick sense of humour as I'm spanish (cunting conquistidors!! not the worst UU... but fucking close!) and anarres is mongols. Whilst keshiks don't bother me too much, scouts could really hurt if he gets a good tech lead/bonus cities, I'm hoping he's on a really small continent/island, but somehow it seems unlikely. (I'll laugh my ass off if he is on an island though)

shit, maybe I should just take odds on how long I'll survive

anyway, enough ramblings from me, on with the game.

[DrAlimentado]

004 - Second settler founds the city of Palnu, NE of Iest. Palnu is sat right on an ivory resource (still get the gold bonus and no need to road) it will share the wheat with the capitol. When it is founded it reveals another wheat (on a floodplain, yay!) in its 21. Decide to prioritise a temple here.

007 - pop a hut, empty.

011 - pop a hut, barbs. My warrior is on a hill but cannot withstand the onslaught.

016 - research pottery on max science, switch to writing on min science (hmmm, maybe i should have gone straight for writing and traded for pottery... not that I've met anyone yet.)

017 - pop another empty hut... I have now popped 3 huts, all empty hut or barbs

018 - pop a hut, empty

022 contact english scout, at last! I was beginning to feel a little isolated. Here's the minimap showing how much space there is around me:


isolated

English start with Alphabet and Pottery and already have Ceremonial burial so no trades... I knew I should have gone straight for writing!!

023 - discover celts to the west and nice wheat in NE. trade Alphabet + allmygold(32) + 3gpt for WC and BW. Switch Writing to max science to get it in 22 turns.

024 - 033 - nada. no contacts, no huts. Only the celts seem to be anywhere near me, I don't even know where englands borders are.

034 - Disease hits Palnu Found Seville.

035 - Disease hits Palnu again Arse. My max science becomes worthless as a result of the pop drop. Feck and Arse.

037 - Meet the Iroquois. They are well ahead of me and have 4 techs I don't. They also have contacts with everyone, let's see if they sell my contact around.

039 - The French say hello. They are way ahead! I start to feel like the backwards neighbours.

043 - Found Toledo to the south.


Toledo

mmmmm, lots of bonus grassland. I couldn't force myself to put it right next to the wheat. That's just too many shields to resist right there, at least the spanish are religious with all these temples going up.

045 - anarres buys contact with me from someone (after i tell him i wont split the cost as im an isolationist imperial power and too backwards to afford it on top ), tells me i am backwards. I agree.

[DrAlimentado]

047 - a wandering barb horsie gets another warrior This is 3 tiles from Lower Felda (was Seville) so I pop rush a spearman to join the lone warrior defending the city. With pop rushing and disease my research is still on min science.

048 - wake up from playing until early hours of easter morning! check turn, realise i have sent a settler in completely idiotic direction, curse myself, then see i have also mined the wrong tile! the one i have mined IS a bg but ISNT the last remaining bg shared by my capitol and palnu!! curse even more as i do some math and realise if i had mined the correct one i could have micro-managed my next settler in 2 turns instead of 3! as it is im going to miss it in 2 by just one shield :twat: agonise over turn...

France must have MM as we can map trade, I sell my map for HR and 16 gold (I will soon have my first horsie roaded, and soon after have another for trade). I am still 8 turns from writing on min science, which everyone else already has by now. (I suspect anarres has traded it all over - bastarrrd!)

049 - buy IW for 50 gold from anarres. My map is entirely worthless to all civs... they all seem to be sharing their maps every turn
Found Ibetha.

050 - Found Grappa (2 grapes in 9-tile radius.) IW reveals... no iron close-by. The nearest is under Celtic control (in an outlying city.)

051 - roaming barb horsie kills a spearman who was clearing an isolated spot of fog nr. Grappa, it was on a mountain too! (fuck the rng!). now the city is undefended if the barb horsie moves any closer... but at the end of turn a (unseen) celtic archer first diverts barb horsie and then kills it! hurrah for the celts!

057 - Valencia founded. I am building Horsies now in my capitol. My two core cities can pump horsies/settlers/workers as they both have good food and shields plus granaries and barracks. (Well Palnu will have barracks in 2 turns.)

067 - kill barb in NE with horse, reveal camp but a celtic archer gets there first and disperses it.

068 - Casablanca founded 11 tiles to the NE. It's a fair way from the capitol but there's a strip of desert inbetween with no resources on it. It's also got a wheat on a floodplain and a cow when it expands... I couldn't resist.

069 - Vitoria founded.

070 or so - fuck up diplo... After screwing it once I end up sending anarres 3x80 gold instead of just one lot of 80... twat! A simple tech buy takes 3 turns to complete and I waste some beakers.
Found Lower Iest next to a newly discovered horsie nr the capitol. I'm running out of nice spots for cities now.

071 - finally after some tech trading with the celts (I give them a 3gpt deal in the hope of improving relations and discouraging attack) and anarres I get onto researching Monarchy. I still feel very isolated.

074 - the celts have monarchy.

075 - Celts extort 26 gold, I give in for now. I know all civ pos (more or less) except anarres... he must be nw though... past the french and chinese.

078 - lone gaellic warrior on my border... ignore for the moment. This strange political system called Monarchy is being discussed in circles above my station. I try and buy my way in but it is still beyond my means.

080 - all AI but england now have monarchy... anarres is still in despotism... i can get it for 225 + 18gpt from france, I decide to wait.

I ask Anarres if he is near Monarchy, he says no, and try's to persuade me Republic is nearly always better. Hmmmm, it's quite possible he's done the maths to back this up... I am too near Monarchy (and I've bought Poly off anarres and mysticism cheap-ish off the celts) to abandon it now but decide to rethink my preference for monarchy in the future. As I'm religious I can hop governments anyway.

081 - Buy Monarchy from France for 252 + 15gpt. Immediately trade it to England for Philosophy, Code of laws and MM + territory map. I am beginning to catch up slightly with tech. Glorious Anarchy sweeps across the Spanish Empire .

latest minimap:

[DrAlimentado]

082 - King Alimentado reigns

084 - Iroquois extort WM +3gold. strange, as I have a fair bit more gold than that.

085 - quite a number of gaellic warriors are passing by vitoria heading 4 england...

I see from the F3 screen that anarres has been busy


mongol slaves

089 - chinese building sistine...

090 - french building sistine... turks building Sun-Tzu!,

091 - dan builds sun-tzu , Arse, I am waaay behind in tech.

095 - chinese demand wm + 24 gold, I decide I've had enough (besides, they are busy beating up on england) and refuse, they back down !

098 - after much procrastination I give in and buy republik from anarres for 9gpt + 115gold. The deal cleans me out of money. (yes, I know, I should never have bought monarchy. Some things you got to learn the hard way.)

099 - arrrgh!! I declare anarchy, but stupidly I haven't left any money in the pot to pay my dues whilst I'm in anarchy... I go cap in hand to the french (who is super-polite to me for some reason) and borrow 18gold for 1gpt (this will be just enough to pay my dues to anarres and the french... dam, borrowing money to pay the dues on my existing loans... I feel stupid.

100 - We are a republik! Check out the Histograph:







That handicap really makes the difference

[DrAlimentado]

Despite the increase in trade from Republik I am still only just breaking even, (dam unit costs) so I decide it's time to point out to the Celts that Richborough is sited on a historically spanish area. I demand what is rightfully ours - the town and surrounding lands, the Celts foolishly dismiss our claims leaving me with no option but to declare war.
I kill a couple of loose archers and take a slave, and move a mini-SoD of 11 horsies (the best I can muster ) next to Richborough. Shit, It's now defended by a pike , a couple of turns ago it was still a spear... that'll teach me to wait.

The Celts kill my two loose horsies with MI. I hate it when horsies forget they can retreat. I am however glad that Gaellic warriors upgrade to MI as I intend to be doing most of the attacking here. (MI=D2,M1 GW=D2,M2 stupid stupid firaxis )

101 - take Richborough with no retreats or losses!! (killing 2 MI + 2Pike with just horsies!! yay the rng!!) get one promotion to elite. I now have 3 lux's (richborough has furs in it's 9). I fortify my mini-SoD in Richmond as about half of em need to heal.

I just haven't got enough units to blitz the celts but my empire is pretty well defended. I really need to take Augustodorum for the iron, and if possible I'd like to take Lugdunum too to deny the celts iron at all.
In the meantime the celts will probably throw units at workers I have near the borders of my empire, I can hopefully chop em down in the open.

105 - Here's a pic of the Celts moving in for a retaliatory attack:


Celtic attack


But wait! what's that stack with a spear on top... is it a SoD, no, it's a stack of 3 workers and a settler hehe, the fools!

Celt SoW

107 - The war drags on, I am doing okay against the celts superior yet less mobile troops (thank-god they haven't connected their horses yet) but my small army is being worn down defending against a so far steady stream of MI. If I can survive this war I think I'll be in a fairly strong position, but it's touch and go for the moment...


The latest minimap:



embarrasingly I still don't know where anarres is... but my guess is either of the red crosses. (He must be close to France as they have GL and he's been goading me about it)

Here's my Glorious Empire:



And the Glorious score

[DrAlimentado]

I think I have finally located Anarres! Look carefully at this pic...



here's the location on the minimap:




The annoying thing is that warrior has been trapped in that small bit of territory for a looong time... maybe anarres border has only just expanded to there, but it's quite possible it's been like that for ages and I just didn't see it

Also, perhaps I should just that disband that warrior and save the 1gpt upkeep?? am I stupid to have not done so already?

[jack merchant]

Probably, yes - but then I'm a maniacal pennysaver (but poundfoolish - I wasted over a 1000 gold on an immediate tech steal with a diplomat in my game versus Anarres )

Have you started construction of a Forbidden Palace yet ? That should really help your income.

[DrAlimentado]

Hehe, I didn't disband him and something very amusing happened when the chinese border finally expanded... check the latest update in the open thread for details

FP is top of my list, I've ended the war with the celts but no leader (I had a few elite wins but not enough to justify a complaint at not getting one )

But where to build... I would say grappa, but it has precious few shields. So maybe it will be valencia with an eye to conquering the celtic empire. My income is ok right now, but the rest of the world is quite a few techs ahead and anarres has the GL in paris

I'll do a better update later with more details...

[DrAlimentado]

I've been very remiss with this spoiler... so I'll try to make up

After the short "iron war" against the Celts I bought some techs from anarres and built up a force of Knights - after 25 turns or so I was strong enough to go for the Celts properley. I had a couple of really bad rounds with the rng and then some good ones... of course the celts did everything wrong and slowly but steadily I pushed them off the map. I also declared on the English to take Norwich (founded on MY turf) and forced a tech from them in settlement.

During this time anarres wiped the french completely and took the GL pretty early (turn 120 IIRC). I have been constantly behind nearly everybody in tech, watching others start late MA wonders whilst I am still researching early MA techs...

And then in the last few turns I have managed to pull it back a bit. At turn 163 I finally triggered my GA with my single conquistidor by attacking the ottomans who have some annoying cities on my borders. Amazingly the same turn I get my first great leader!! about fucking time!! I decide against using it for Smiths and will keep it for a cav army.
With the boost in research from my GA I research Democracy pretty quick... anarres/china/turks/iroqouis are all industrial by now but have beelined so I monopoly trade Democracy with China for mil trad, magentism, and ToG to reach IA.
I kill a few turkish units then make peace (which they want)... in the peace deal I give them democracy + 260gpt in exchange for nationalism AND steam power!! (the going rate for just 1 of these is democracy + >800gpt !!) Cool... now I am ahead of anarres by nationalism and still in my GA. I also sign a MPP with china and get 10gpt from them, china have the biggest mil and could probably make life difficult for me or anarres right now.

Time to build/upgrade a shitload of cav and go-for/defend-against anarres I reckon... will rail as well obviously, it will be a couple of turns till i connect coal and I pay attention to some of my satellite towns to turn them into worker factories. No doubt anarres has a shitload of workers waiting (his style) and is busy industrialising his heartland, according to my advisors his military is small though so it'll be a short while at least until he's ready to attack me.

169 - I buy a wm from china, yep, anarres has RR connecting his main cities already , I am just starting mine! He still dosen't have nationalism though and I have 20 cav, a cav army and a dozen rifles already waiting on my western border in case he shows up soon.

[DrAlimentado]

172 - Dan asks me for a peace treaty... hmmm... I prevaricate for the moment. Thing is that I have MPP's right now with china, Ottomans and Iroquois... and he still dosen't have nationalism. If he wants peace then it's time for me to mount an attack I reckon!!

I won't be able to steamroller him but hopefully I can damage him enough that he won't recover. Unfortunately the lie of the land favours him in that he can defend a narrow border... and to do a sneaky with ships is a looong way round the southern cape... also I should think he's pretty much all rail-connected his cities by now so it would be to little avail anyhow.

I have 30+ cav and 14 or so rifles, and a larger mil according to my advisor. China has the biggest mil still and are a few techs ahead (but still cav and rifles I would think), getting them in a MA as soon as the MPP triggers will be crucial. I have 10 turns of GA left and am pumping cav (and workers) at a fair rate too.

Wish me luck