PBEM #1 - Saladin [Spoilers]

[athlete4life10]

I think you also really need a healer to speed their recovery

I will have one next turn. Mine got killed on Dreylin's last attack.

[athlete4life10]

Well I severly miscalculated the power of cannons and numbers and unfortunately Damascus fell...I'll spare the lurkers the suspense of my response to Dreylin's email which was:

Taylor,

Once you get the game you'll see that Damascus is no more. I didn't want to have to burn it to the ground, but I didn't have the forces to keep it and protect the rest of my stack. Anyway, I am still looking to negotiate a settlement if you are interested?

You gift me Kufah and send Economics to both Ruff and myself. You would be free to re-settle the Damascus area, however all trade relations with sooooo must cease. We would sign a NAP along the lines of our previous agreement with a 10t cancellation and minimum term to at least t150, I'll even throw in Rifling.

Let me know what you think, and if it's too much then make me a counter-offer.

Andy.

my response:

Hey Andy,

Thanks for the heads up. It's a shame but I guess I underestimated the power of cannons and numbers. I really thought I'd hold for atleast a turn, giving my cuirassiers a chance to hit a weakened stack. Guess not. Yet another mistake on my part...In turn I had to kill your Heroic HA. I couldn't just leave him there without punishment for razing Damascus.

Apart from Kufah, I don't believe you can attack me anywhere's so that should give us a chance to discuss peace. I'm not overly interested in it, as rather then play a weakened civ it almost interests me more to fight to the death, however I would be more than willing to accept the aforementioned terms as long as Soooo gets rifling in the deal. Any other trade relations present and future with Soooo will be ceased. Whether you or Ruff give me and Soooo Rifling or you allow me to finish it and gift it to Soooo is up to you. All other terms will be accepted.

To Recap:

I am free to resettle Damascus.
I give Kufah to you.
I send Economics to both you and Ruff.
We sign an NAP with a 10T cancellation and minimum term to at least T150.
You/Ruff gift rifling to both Soooo and Myself or you allow me to finish researching it and gift it to Soooo.
All other trade dealings with Soooo cease and the trade embargo will last the duration of this new NAP with you but not the trade embargo will not be renewed if our NAP is.
Oh and also you are not allowed to settle any further west then Kufah.

Taylor

that last bit about the trade embargo should say the trade embargo against Soooo will not be renewed even if our NAP is (past T150). Sent an e-mail to clarify that.

[athlete4life10]

YES!!! Dreylin finally had to go onto some flatland where I could hit him. I had some great luck with withdrawals too so I figured I'd show an update as to what I did. The first picture is our stacks. Baghdad only has 4 units but that stack 2 tiles to the S only has 3 "2-movers" that can attack it and my hit on Dreylin's stack got me a GG which produced my supa-unit in Baghdad so I should be fine there. I moved 2 healthy units onto my attack stack remnants so hopefully I can defend for the turn there. I'd much rather pull back to Baghdad and heal but it's possible Dreylin has enough units left to kill it. Either way I have to be happy with the results. I'm simply outnumbered. The 2nd picture shows precisely what happened aka the event log.

[sunrise089]

Wow, great combat results there Athlete. Nice work.

[athlete4life10]

Great combat results is an understatement !!! I had odds for 2 maybe 3 of the actual battles. Though if you add the chance of withdrawal to my chance of victory the majority of them I had odds of survival. Still I was quite pleased with the results.

[athlete4life10]

Well as expected he was able to destroy the stack. Rather than retreat to Mecca I decided since I had decisive odds I would hit his stack again, killing 3 jannissaries. My guys are dead next turn and soon after Mecca and Kufah shall fall. It's been a fun yet ride!

[Square Leg]

So - any comments on your game/experiences/what went well/what didn't... perhaps the war?

[athlete4life10]

So - any comments on your game/experiences/what went well/what didn't... perhaps the war?

Ya, plenty. I'm going to do a whole write up. Tonight will probably be my best chance, but RL time constraints (and RBPB#2, if I get the chance) demands some attention. I promise I'll have it done by the end of the weekend at the latest.

[athlete4life10]

Well my apologies for what follows, it will be a wall of text!!!

First a big thanks to all those that made the game possible. Sulla for the map and the other players. The lurkers for their help with what they could. This was a great introductory game into MP play for me, and as if I wasn't sold already, sold me again on the community here.

Henceforth this write-up/report shall be known as Athlete's Comedy of Errors

I say that as my understanding of civ grew, and of MP, my whole outlook on the game changed and it was quite easy to identify mistakes. I also felt I made a lot of mistakes through my diplomacy but I'll get to that. Let's start it off with the grandaddy of them all:

My civ choice!

That's right, nothing wrong with the Arabians (Kalin and I almost chose them in RBPB#2) but Saladin's Protective trait sucks. I got use out of the Spiritual trait but probably could have handled it better. Regardless that was my first mistake.

Founding Mecca in place was easy, though I much prefer a commerce oriented capital so I had some troubles trying to utilize it properly. Even at the end I think I mismanaged it. I did farm everything I could, and was short on food (biology would have helped) so the only thing I could have done was maybe build some windmills instead of grasshill mines but until rep parts those are kind of useless. Early game use I think I did pretty well. I got my first few cities out around the same time as everybody else. Though diplomatically speaking I really should have taken MH out. I went from thinking about it, to an NAP, to a REALLY long NAP in a very short time frame, really eliminating any option.

I remember having chariots and MH having nothing but maybe a single warrior. If I had whipped a couple out I had roads through my hills so I could have reached him in time to atleast cripple him, probably eliminate MH all together. That would have changed my game immensely.

Medina was founded and I loved this city. It took some turns for it to become great, but if I had survived I definitely would have put Oxford here. The same with Damascus. It became a really great city and was going to become a powerhouse. So I was quite pleased with my city placement. Even Baghdad was OK and had some potential once rep parts came in. I felt Kufah and Najrah could have been done better, I just couldn't figure out how.

Overall city placement was OK, I just needed to found atleast 3 more, probably could have squeezed in 5. Biggest reason I didn't was I focused way too much on infrastructure rather than units.

Diplomacy is easily the area I lacked in most. I expect I'll probably have an even better understanding of this after I read through the others threads (atleast relating to this game) though I did learn some. I already mentioned I screwed up by joining hips with MH so early, however once I did I rode that out to the end. The whole on the fence thing and back and forth with Dreylin, was a pretty big mistake. I feel like I was "all over the park" with my thoughts and could never decisively put a plan together as to what I wanted to achieve and for those with any amount of insight it probably came across as crazy, or atleast a little silly :neenernee. The diplomacy in this game was really reflective of my civ playstyle (all over the place) which I hope to correct from here on out.

In terms of teching I didn't do too poorly. I did have some bad breaks with early religions missing both Buddhism and Hinduism by 1 turn, and during the 5some tech tradings I was probably the slowest. I didn't discover binary research (I think that's what it's called) until 2/3 of the way through this game though which could have helped. My biggest problem would end up being a lack of cities.

I think the only wonder I landed was the Shwed Paya which I of course didn't have a competition for. This was a big issue for me as well, wonder chasing. I made a bid at the Oracle in Medina, but easily should have been done in Mecca. But it was more that I wanted them all. I would think about getting a wonder and it would fall, or I would start on the path and it would be gone. Rather than put effort into expansion or workers or something I would look for the next shiny toy I could try to get. Medina actually got an Aqueduct very early on as I figured I would try for the Hanging Gardens. They were built before I even finished the aqueduct.

Infrastructure building was a problem as well. I remember opening both Medina and Damascus up with Madrassa builds rather than Granaries. When I got short on workers I settled Baghdad and started with a worker rather than build one somewhere's else and send him over. Simply poor city management and worker management. That's probably the area I feel I have improved in the most. Hopefully I'll demonstrate that in RBPB#2. I don't claim to be an expert now, just improved !

My fatal mistake was breaking my NAP with Dreylin. I probably never should have made it in the first place but once I was caught in that position I probably should have done what Sulla suggested in use the time to fill my gaps. I don't regret breaking it, but I should have done it sooner rather than dilly dally my troops to MH's border.

The loss of Damascus was the end for me. It was really the only place I could hold against Dreylin for any length of time. I didn't have the production power to keep up with him, so slaving/drafting was my only option. Once that was done I made the mistake of moving my horses out of Damascus to spare them from collateral, hoping to retaliate. Alas this was a grave miscalculation on my part and ended with Damascus in Ruins. I might have been able to hold on for a few more turns if I had not done that.

Medina being gifted to MH, was kinda cheezy though tacticly sound from my point of view. I was hoping MH would close borders with Dreylin throwing his army to the far side of Vienna but I was also hoping for more gold which never occurred. I expect MH to lose it to Dreylin pretty quickly anyways but it was a fun diversion anyways. I avoided fighting on 2 fronts and forced his hand.

That's everything I can think of for atleast tonight. I would love to hear feedback/comments/criticisms and will definitely answer any/all questions as soon as I can.

Thanks for reading!

[Sullla]

Thanks for your thoughts. It was a pleasure reading your thread throughout the PBEM game.