Old World Succession Game

[Alhazard]

Not sure why attachment didnt save.

[yuris125]

Gotta say honestly that this game seems boring at the moment with a clear path to victory.
Settle rest of barb camps then take out Babylon (axes and longbows probably) to get the VPs needed. Game would have been more interesting if there was another AI on SW or if the player started in SW so there isn't too many barb camps to conquer.

It is a little sad that we got ourselves to a winning position without ever engaging in challenging combat. We were able to stay on good terms with all AI empires, were never threatened by barbs/tribes, and never had to fight an army of similar strength, which is where the game shines. With our isolated neighbour in the west choosing to wonder spam instead of unit spam, we have little danger of losing the game. Rome is a threat, and we will lose a big positive modifier with them when the queen dies. There may still be exciting combat to come. But for now we just have to stay vigilant and consolidate while teching towards units suitable for overrunning AI empires

[Domino]

So I'm hearing our Tech priorities are basically - Tech towards units & Monasticism.
Steel
Land Consolidation
Manor
Bodkins
Monasticism


I'll work on Poets in Thebes and Athens. Thebes we want culture in so we can get Holy City wonder points.

Do we want to pursue taking the Danish and Gaulish city cites and building there?

Push culture in the Family seats, and Thebes?

Some of our new cities need development, I will stress food and Lumber. The High sale price of lumber means in the short term 1 lumber is worth 4 or 5 of any other raw resource.

Any other directives?

I agree, this game has been rather tame so far. Mostly focused internally and building, hearing you two talk it strikes me that the drama usually comes from fighting wars. I wonder but can't come up with how the building aspect of the game could be made more interesting and build tension. I can at least say it's been a good learning experience for me.

I'm not sure if I'll get the turns in till tomorrow night.

[yuris125]

Yes I think we should take over the remaining Danes/Gauls camps, and maybe Scythians as well. We have been unlucky with ambitions, winning by points should be easier. We currently have 12 victory points, and need 29 to win. Babylon has 8, conquering them will take us to 20. I think we can get 4 legendary cities within reasonable timeframe, the 3 family seats and Thebes (the holy city). That's 24. We can build another wonder or two or three, but I think we need a few more cities to get over the line. No rush on this, the new cities won't contribute much to our gameplan, but do I think we should settle them

[Domino]

Sorry for the delay, done with the turns I just need to get the report together and posted. Should be up in the next few hours. I gotta admit, these turns were a bit of a slog for me, some fighting with barbarians but nothing felt too dramatic, more of a "oh I took a lot of damange, I guess we'll heal then finish them" than a "wow I hope I win"

[Domino]

Turn 71

I don’t like to skip bonus cards, but I do this time to stick closer to the plan. The main reason why is that I haven’t researched great minister before to see how “Great” they really are. Is a great minister significantly better than my existing family options and was this a mistake? I go with Land consolidation that will move us towards our military unit goals and unlock a lot of luxuries.






Per the plan, we adopt the professional army civic.
The Missionary spreads Judaism in Corinth

I begin the siege of the Gauls to the north


Turn 72

Turnover in Babylon. They are weaker, but the new queen does not like us (-45)




More fighting in the north against the Gauls.

Turn 73

Making progress against the Gauls




I’ve been using some of our order surplus to chop wood. I made an archer which offset that though.

Turn 74


I start working on this Danish city, though it spawned a raid this turn:




A culture event gives us the research to finish land consolidation.




I choose the Wheel, it will finish quickly and get us a chancellor. (Edit: Somehow we already had a chancellor? Was that from an event)

To be honest, these turns are rather unexciting as is the building options for our cities, I just pump out more troops

Turn 75

Conquest is complete of the northern Gauls, I should have started settlers but I queue it up now.




I pick the free chariot as 1 year is short and we’re working on troops.

I appoint a spymaster for us and continue to set up some improvements

Turn 76,




I grab the free war elephant research this time. I’m apprehensive about spending so much research time without advancing technologically, but getting free calvery units seems like a good way to improve our military’s mobility.

Turn 77

The end is near for our fearless leader

I finally start researching steel.




I send them back to maintain relations, the queen will take a courage hit but she is about to pass anyways.

I notice we could build the Musaeum with a little purchase of stone and some usage of wood. However, Wood is a sell price of 23.5, which means the 400 wood for that would be a great deal of gold. I’m going to leave this to my successor to decide on.

Turn 78
The queen is dead, long live the king.




And it's time for a new ambition:




This decides my Musaeum question. We may be heading towards a point victory, but we’ll get a VP, the legitimacy of an ambition closed, and make the Seleucids happier. I would have chosen four courthouses, but the Alcmaeonids are already very happy with us.

Turn 79
I get started on the Musaeum in thebes, as a holy city, having high culture there will open up more wonders to build.

I’ve defeated a good number of barbarians, but also taken a beating at this encampment, I’m pulling the troops out to heal up. My successor will have to finish the pacification here.





Turn 80
Our ambassador just died, and I think the promotion to king removed our Counselor. I will leave 2 orders for our successor to decide. In looking at the options I was not impressed with the value of the chancellor, in retrospect I would not have chosen “the spoked wheel” to unlock that role.




Another bunch of barbarians approached from the south, using the archer, a maceman and the chariot I cleared some of them but you’ll have finish off the clean up.

I defeated the hovel, but there is the left overs of a raid here:





Finally, another engagement over here that’s just finishing up







We have a city site to settle in the north.
Elder Poets still need to trained
We have a great deal of luxuries to divy up.
Two council positions are empty
There is an unresolved event to decide if you want to hire mercenary Archers. I think the answer should probably be yes, as I suspect they are cheaper than the raw price of lumber to make them ourselves.
Our relations with foreign leaders is low, but appointing a good ambassador will help with that.
Our families are mostly please, the Seleucids catching towards the Alcaeonids due to a land dispute event and my selection of ambition. Argeads are in the positive but need more love.

[Domino]

Attached is T80

[yuris125]

Got it. Unfortunately chances are I will only be able to play on Saturday

[yuris125]

Plans for my turnset:

* Finish off the Danes camp we know of, settle vacant city sites, scout around to ensure there's no more hostile tribe camps. We can leave the Scythians alone for now, depending on how much effort it would be to conquer them
* Scout around Babylonian territory and move units to the west to get ready to attack them in the near future (my guess is we will be ready by Alhazard's turnset)
* Build some axes. Do we want to upgrade maces to axes? We have enough iron for 5 upgrades, and could use more iron
* Research towards Longbows
* Throw luxuries at the riders, and take any other options I get to improve their opinion
* Buy any tiles we may want and switch to serfdom (we're pretty much out of food and need it for specialists)

Anything else?

[yuris125]

I will start playing in about 5 hours, get your comments in before then!