Gothmog vs. Anarres **Spoiler**

Gothmog · 24-07-2003, 14:29

My first PBEM, a standard map diety/pangea everything else random. I am Persia and anarres is china. I should have thought more about the advantage of a three move Knight in a PBEM game, but I’ll make due. Playing one turn at a time does take some getting used to.

My start position looks OK, and will be really nice later in the game. I’ve got a forest game over a grassland and my first move will be to clear that forest and irrigate the grassland. To make best use of the chop I am going to build one warrior for exploration and then build a granary (through a barracks prebuild). This means I need to do a max research run on Pottery. Here is an initial screen shot a few turns in.

26.4KB

On the 15th turn of the game a barbarian appeared from the east. Crap. My single warrior had been exploring west, then south and was making his way back east (I like to plot out my first few cities as a top priority). He was then going to head directly south to try to make some contacts (based on the mini map South and West are my directions for contact), but I had to send him back home. You will note that I didn’t pop a hut I found, this is typical for me if not expansionist – too big a risk of barbs.

My warrior wouldn’t have made it in time to stop pillaging but the barb didn’t make a beeline to Persepolis so I was spared that setback. I had to slow my production a bit to get my ‘racks to finish the same turn as I discovered pottery, I then went to the advisors screen and swapped to a granary. I decided on a min run to IW just to save up cash for trades, thinking that getting any second tier tech in 40 turns would be fine – I have second guessed this decision a number of times.

The barbarian actually was scared off by my one warrior and went back into the fog. But every time I tried to go exploring a bit he would reappear so I just resigned myself to having an MP and no early contact. I finished my granary and am now building a warrior to hold back that barb who is still staying on my borders. I must have a pretty close neighbor to my SE to explain the barb so I am sending my warrior that way to make contact. I haven’t yet decided if I am going to build another warrior or a settler next. I need to look at what the best size cycle for me is (I assume it will be 7-5) and how to set that up. Here is the current situation.

25.37KB

Gothmog · 28-07-2003, 22:21

Well I finally started exploring again and this time decided to pop the hut I ran across. Got a nice prize.

31.23KB

I am also about to finish my first settler. I have a worker covered by that warrior east of Persoplis.

28.15KB

A couple of turns later I am trying not to let that barbarian get between my worker and me. This was a bad turn for me as in the in-between turns both my warriors were attacked and killed. Then the barbarian pillaged Persepolis and killed a citizen of my great nation. This was a major setback

, but the worst is yet to come!

12.25KB

In between turns a barbarian emerged from the fog onto the spot with the wheat. Then on my next turn my worker completed the road he was working on and I couldn’t stop the barbarian from killing him. So short of having an escort on him I couldn’t have saved that worker (my spear in Persoplis couldn’t get there in time due to the river) – this is new to me. In the turn order I am used to I would have been able to cancel the worker action and move him away. I was feeling quite bad at this point, I am used to barbs (I typically play on Raging) but I have rarely been hurt this badly.

Finally some good stuff happens

. I found Pasargadae and meet the Germans. He isn’t up tech on me and so I can still get one in trade for CB and Pottery. I figured he would have those by now through trade, so most likely he hasn’t met anyone else yet! We may be isolated together by geography! I vow that he will soon be licking my boots.

65.94KB

Then I get my fist bit of real luck

. The turn after I met the Germans I decide to call Biz up again as I still have some cash, and what do I see?

6.96KB

He must be having barb problems too as he has two workers up for trade. I am still 5 turns from having one out of Pasargadae, and that will be painful for Pasargadae’s growth. I almost never buy workers this early, but painful times call for painful measures so I mortgage everything and buy both from him. This will hurt him as much as it helps me. Biz is all but my piss bucket boy now.

Aggie · 28-07-2003, 22:25

Gothmog: thanks for the entertaining write-up

Skyfish · 28-07-2003, 22:37

Let's hope anarres got badly hit by the barbs as well

you wouldnt want to give him a head start

Gothmog · 29-07-2003, 15:08

Well Skyfish, you know the situation since I know you were in collusion with him over the weekend (bastard). He claims to have had some barb problems, but I doubt they were this severe. Not to worry though, I do my best work under pressure!

Skyfish · 31-07-2003, 09:38

Quote:

quote:I know you were in collusion with him

In collusion ??? with him ????

NO ?

really ?

MWAHAHAHA

ERIKK · 31-07-2003, 10:38

That was me I guess...

Gothmog · 31-07-2003, 17:20

Oooo, I'm scared. I need my mommy

Skyfish · 31-07-2003, 18:00

OK I'll challenge your mommy to a PBEM !

Gothmog · 04-08-2003, 20:11

You can see in my last picture above (the WC trade with Germany) that I was 23 points behind anarres, here I am 24 points behind. I think this is basically due to losing a population point and a worker to the barbs. When I last wrote I had contacted the Germans, well the warrior who made contact was killed by barbs a couple turns later and so didn’t get to explore much.

74.25KB

My barb problems continue as I can’t quite get my MP to Susa before it gets raided (just founded it the turn before). I knew this was a possibility when I sent the settler unescorted. So I do this little trade with the Germans.

4.35KB

Thus I only have 9 in the bank and only get raided for 4 gold.

Some time passes and I have founded my fourth city and am completing another settler, I have also built enough (regular) spearmen to have sent another warrior out towards the hut I found much earlier in the game. From there he will restart my exploring endeavor.

If you hadn’t noticed it I am building a ring at 4.5 distance from Persepolis, I finished my settler and was one turn from founding the location 3 squares east of Persepolis when a German border appeared 4 squares (a distance of 6) to the east of Persepolis. Crapola, I turn him around to get another 4.5 spot.

My warrior reaches the hut and I get another tech!:

7.9KB

At first I don’t see any horses around but then I notice that Arbela is actually founded on top of one, cool! The warrior that popped the hut is in the bottom right of this shot:

36.43KB

And in the IT, a barb horse comes out of the fog and kills him. In addition the horse over by Arbela attacks my fortified spearman MP and wins… I’m raided for another 8 gold. I have yet to win a battle against a barbarian. They have killed me on mountains, across rivers, in cities – neither warrior nor spearman can stand against them. I must be forgetting my ablutions, or perhaps ritual sacrifice could help?

Finally my wandering settler founds Antioch. Meanwhile the Germans have encroached with two more cities on my borders. Don’t they have any land to their South? I also win a battle against a barbarian as a horse attacks a fortified spearman in Pasargadae, instead of a fortified spearman across a river in the forest protecting my workers. He promoted and I am sending him to protect my worker trying to connect my first luxury.

The chop of the game forest completes and Pasargadae will finish it’s granary soon and become a nice worker/setller farm, though I may need a border expansion to take full advantage.

Here’s a last screen shot. I swapped Persepolis to a worker to help Arbela, I was going to build one out of Arbela but now that I will have two worker/settler locations I want some barracks! I need to start stockpiling warriors asap, I also desparately need to explore more. At least my expansion is going OK, I am now only 16 points behind anarres.

50.76KB

24-07-2003, 14:29	#1
Gothmog Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Angband. Posts: 334	Gothmog vs. Anarres Spoiler My first PBEM, a standard map diety/pangea everything else random. I am Persia and anarres is china. I should have thought more about the advantage of a three move Knight in a PBEM game, but I’ll make due. Playing one turn at a time does take some getting used to. My start position looks OK, and will be really nice later in the game. I’ve got a forest game over a grassland and my first move will be to clear that forest and irrigate the grassland. To make best use of the chop I am going to build one warrior for exploration and then build a granary (through a barracks prebuild). This means I need to do a max research run on Pottery. Here is an initial screen shot a few turns in. 26.4KB On the 15th turn of the game a barbarian appeared from the east. Crap. My single warrior had been exploring west, then south and was making his way back east (I like to plot out my first few cities as a top priority). He was then going to head directly south to try to make some contacts (based on the mini map South and West are my directions for contact), but I had to send him back home. You will note that I didn’t pop a hut I found, this is typical for me if not expansionist – too big a risk of barbs. My warrior wouldn’t have made it in time to stop pillaging but the barb didn’t make a beeline to Persepolis so I was spared that setback. I had to slow my production a bit to get my ‘racks to finish the same turn as I discovered pottery, I then went to the advisors screen and swapped to a granary. I decided on a min run to IW just to save up cash for trades, thinking that getting any second tier tech in 40 turns would be fine – I have second guessed this decision a number of times. The barbarian actually was scared off by my one warrior and went back into the fog. But every time I tried to go exploring a bit he would reappear so I just resigned myself to having an MP and no early contact. I finished my granary and am now building a warrior to hold back that barb who is still staying on my borders. I must have a pretty close neighbor to my SE to explain the barb so I am sending my warrior that way to make contact. I haven’t yet decided if I am going to build another warrior or a settler next. I need to look at what the best size cycle for me is (I assume it will be 7-5) and how to set that up. Here is the current situation. 25.37KB

28-07-2003, 22:37	#4
Skyfish Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: dead. Posts: 2,349	Let's hope anarres got badly hit by the barbs as well you wouldnt want to give him a head start __________________ <font color=\"brown\"> <b><i>\"NOT back from the dead\"</b></i> </font id=\"brown\">

31-07-2003, 18:00	#9
Skyfish Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: dead. Posts: 2,349	OK I'll challenge your mommy to a PBEM ! __________________ <font color=\"brown\"> <b><i>\"NOT back from the dead\"</b></i> </font id=\"brown\">

28-07-2003, 22:21	#2
Gothmog Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Angband. Posts: 334	Well I finally started exploring again and this time decided to pop the hut I ran across. Got a nice prize. 31.23KB I am also about to finish my first settler. I have a worker covered by that warrior east of Persoplis. 28.15KB A couple of turns later I am trying not to let that barbarian get between my worker and me. This was a bad turn for me as in the in-between turns both my warriors were attacked and killed. Then the barbarian pillaged Persepolis and killed a citizen of my great nation. This was a major setback , but the worst is yet to come! 12.25KB In between turns a barbarian emerged from the fog onto the spot with the wheat. Then on my next turn my worker completed the road he was working on and I couldn’t stop the barbarian from killing him. So short of having an escort on him I couldn’t have saved that worker (my spear in Persoplis couldn’t get there in time due to the river) – this is new to me. In the turn order I am used to I would have been able to cancel the worker action and move him away. I was feeling quite bad at this point, I am used to barbs (I typically play on Raging) but I have rarely been hurt this badly. Finally some good stuff happens . I found Pasargadae and meet the Germans. He isn’t up tech on me and so I can still get one in trade for CB and Pottery. I figured he would have those by now through trade, so most likely he hasn’t met anyone else yet! We may be isolated together by geography! I vow that he will soon be licking my boots. 65.94KB Then I get my fist bit of real luck . The turn after I met the Germans I decide to call Biz up again as I still have some cash, and what do I see? 6.96KB He must be having barb problems too as he has two workers up for trade. I am still 5 turns from having one out of Pasargadae, and that will be painful for Pasargadae’s growth. I almost never buy workers this early, but painful times call for painful measures so I mortgage everything and buy both from him. This will hurt him as much as it helps me. Biz is all but my piss bucket boy now.

28-07-2003, 22:25	#3
Aggie Emperor Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: N/A Posts: 4,490	Gothmog: thanks for the entertaining write-up

29-07-2003, 15:08	#5
Gothmog Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Angband. Posts: 334	Well Skyfish, you know the situation since I know you were in collusion with him over the weekend (bastard). He claims to have had some barb problems, but I doubt they were this severe. Not to worry though, I do my best work under pressure!

31-07-2003, 10:38	#7
ERIKK Moderator Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Netherlands!. Posts: 2,636	That was me I guess...

31-07-2003, 17:20	#8
Gothmog Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Angband. Posts: 334	Oooo, I'm scared. I need my mommy

04-08-2003, 20:11	#10
Gothmog Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Angband. Posts: 334	You can see in my last picture above (the WC trade with Germany) that I was 23 points behind anarres, here I am 24 points behind. I think this is basically due to losing a population point and a worker to the barbs. When I last wrote I had contacted the Germans, well the warrior who made contact was killed by barbs a couple turns later and so didn’t get to explore much. 74.25KB My barb problems continue as I can’t quite get my MP to Susa before it gets raided (just founded it the turn before). I knew this was a possibility when I sent the settler unescorted. So I do this little trade with the Germans. 4.35KB Thus I only have 9 in the bank and only get raided for 4 gold. Some time passes and I have founded my fourth city and am completing another settler, I have also built enough (regular) spearmen to have sent another warrior out towards the hut I found much earlier in the game. From there he will restart my exploring endeavor. If you hadn’t noticed it I am building a ring at 4.5 distance from Persepolis, I finished my settler and was one turn from founding the location 3 squares east of Persepolis when a German border appeared 4 squares (a distance of 6) to the east of Persepolis. Crapola, I turn him around to get another 4.5 spot. My warrior reaches the hut and I get another tech!: 7.9KB At first I don’t see any horses around but then I notice that Arbela is actually founded on top of one, cool! The warrior that popped the hut is in the bottom right of this shot: 36.43KB And in the IT, a barb horse comes out of the fog and kills him. In addition the horse over by Arbela attacks my fortified spearman MP and wins… I’m raided for another 8 gold. I have yet to win a battle against a barbarian. They have killed me on mountains, across rivers, in cities – neither warrior nor spearman can stand against them. I must be forgetting my ablutions, or perhaps ritual sacrifice could help? Finally my wandering settler founds Antioch. Meanwhile the Germans have encroached with two more cities on my borders. Don’t they have any land to their South? I also win a battle against a barbarian as a horse attacks a fortified spearman in Pasargadae, instead of a fortified spearman across a river in the forest protecting my workers. He promoted and I am sending him to protect my worker trying to connect my first luxury. The chop of the game forest completes and Pasargadae will finish it’s granary soon and become a nice worker/setller farm, though I may need a border expansion to take full advantage. Here’s a last screen shot. I swapped Persepolis to a worker to help Arbela, I was going to build one out of Arbela but now that I will have two worker/settler locations I want some barracks! I need to start stockpiling warriors asap, I also desparately need to explore more. At least my expansion is going OK, I am now only 16 points behind anarres. 50.76KB