Jeitinho Brasileiro! - Ichabod's Civ5 PBEM4 Spoiler Thread

[Ichabod]

Btw. thanks for the updates, makes following the game "slightly" more interesting I hope you keep it up, especially for the war turns.

Well, now I'm commited to the attack on Rowain. I think he'll keep going for the goodies in the tech tree (he entered renaissance through Acoustics, not really sure why)

I'd guess he wanted to get a quick start on Rationalism, and Acoustics is often the easiest route to get there.

Do you have any scientists coming up for some quick bulbing towards more advanced military units?
Edit: Oh yeah, kind of hard to get scientists before education

Yeah, I should have reported more. It's a nice way to think about the game, and in these last few turns I realize how many mistakes I have been making.

Good idea about Acoustics. Rowain has policies in Tradition and Patronage, but perhaps he already has the Rationalism opener (I think the opener doesn't show on the diplomatic screen, for whatever reason). Yuris probably went for fast renaissance for the same reason.

Rowain is building Borobodur and that's very annoying... He'll get 3 free missionaries and there's no way I can comepte with his religion after that, which will make mine kind of useless. I now realize that Borobodur would have been a crazy good build for me, but I don't think I can beat him now. Well, it seems attacking Rowain is indeed the way to go. I'll try planning around a Terracotta Army + upgrades strategy and see where I can go from there.

Ah, I should probably start stagnating my cities, so I don't go into major unhappiness after I capture more cities/lose the happy deals I have with Rowain. It's a pity there's no hammer improvement for flat tiles in Civ 5, you can't even stagnate your cities right...

[Ichabod]

No turn today, so no report.

Anyone interested in another Civ 5 PBEM?

[wetbandit]

The prime format that people stream is a 6 person ffa. Someone even made a balance mod that changed much of the policies which makes the game better (i.e. encouraging expansion by making happiness easier to obtain, tradition not the One Right Choice) imo. I don't think it plays like starcraft, or how I remember playing starcraft, but there are a lot of things to do in a 60-90 second window that can make the game fast paced.

It sounds pretty fun, actually. A pity there's the fast-click in combat thing going on. Otherwise, I'd actually try to set something up, if it's possible to play such a game in more than one session.

I'd be interested in an internet game if you try to set one up! Maybe a quick speed PBEM too.

[Ichabod]

Yuris didn't accept my peace offer and sent back one with peace for Yaroslav. I refused. He had a trebuchet set up near the city and a crossbow:




The treb was 1W of the salt and I killed it losing only 10 or so HP on the pikeman. Yuris will have a hard time attacking me due to the terrain, he needs to walk to one of those 2 hill tiles to attack the city, and that'll make me able to attack him with a lot of ranged units. Well, I'm so unexperienced with Civ 5 combat that I just now realize that the crossbow can perhaps fire at my pikemas from the tile it is, since I think that it's satanding on a hill. Damn, I'll probably lose the pike... I hate how Civ5 graphics are so difficult to identify in such situations, I can't tell if the crossbow is on a hill or not. Well, perhaps the pike will survive with some hit points, there's a GG near him and all that...

Anyway, also pictured is the cost to upgrade CBs into crossbows, which I can do in case of an emergency. But my Capital builds 2 turns crossbows, so I think I'll be safe soon enough.

Finally, if things go sour, I can try to place a Citadel in that choke point near Yuris. That'd be a pity, though, because I really want to use the GG against Rowain (I doubt he has one, since he hasn't been in a war).

Ah, I missed the screenshot, but Azza wasn't able to steal the barb camp from me. He ran away. Perhaps I'll be able to get another Alliance with a CS. I wonder if I can wait until the CS reaches the new resting point of 25, before getting the bonus from the camp (and the +15 from religion too, since I think religion will spread there soon enough).

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Speaking of religion, I abandoned my religious plans after I realized I can't beat Rowain to Borobodur. I'll spend my faith in another monastery (which will give +5 faith and +5 culture per turn, decent enough) and spread my religion only after conquering Carthage (if that happens).

[Ichabod]

So, I just realized Yuris has Chemistry already, therefore Cannons and muskets. I'm happy that I correctly read the state of the games, in regards to Yuris being the runaway. But that makes it impossible for me to attack Rowain. If Yuris went for military techs instead of economy ones with his research advantage, that means he wants to take more land for himself (he must have started researching Chemistry before my attack with Azza). So, I cannot attack Rowain and leave my flank wide open, that'd be suicide.

Good news are: Azza has the Great Wall and the biggest military around. He HAS to use it to attack Yuris (he's too far away from me and Rowain), otherwise he'll lose the game. So, I'm hoping he'll do it after 10t of peace, while I keep most of Yuris army in check in the East. You could argue he'll get all the prizes if we conquer Yuris, but I wouldn't agree with it. He can't keep all his cities due to happiness, and getting rid of Yuris/make him a non-contender would really help me. I sent a DoF proposal to Azza, hopefully he gets my message...

I'm debating about building the Terracotta army: 2 CS quests and that would give me quite a few hammers in units.

Finally, the MP community in Civ 5 seems to use a mod called NQ mod. It might be interesting to try it, especially considering it is a MP mod. The mod instalation is a bit annoying, because Civ 5 doesn't let you use mods in MP ( ), so I think I need to finish this game first.

[wetbandit]

Finally, the MP community in Civ 5 seems to use a mod called NQ mod. It might be interesting to try it, especially considering it is a MP mod. The mod instalation is a bit annoying, because Civ 5 doesn't let you use mods in MP ( ), so I think I need to finish this game first.

Seconded. There seems to be a split within NQ as to how many play modded games and non-modded games. The mod is definitely more interesting to me as well as the balance map someone else made.

[Ichabod]

Forgot to report that I didn't lose my pikeman on the previous turn.He survived with very, very low health. Yuris' pike, on the other hand:



I'm unsure about what Yuris tried to accomplish with this. He knows I have loads of units in the area. Why go and suicide another unit when he's not moving full force. If he lets me pick them 1 by 1, it'll be easy. The pike died after 4 units shot him.



I moved a longswordsman (I build one so I get another unit type when I complete the Terracotta Army - I completed the unit on the same turn I finished Gunpowder, so there's no such thing as queue upgrades on Civ 5) to the front to scout. I don't think you get vision from terrain inside your borders in civ 5, because I couldn't see the musket before moving the sword. Perhaps Yuris is going for a defensive play of placing a Citadel on the choke point. That's probably a good, or at least interesting strategy. I'm not sure how Citadels work exactly (can you capture them?), so I'll have to research if he does it. It woldn't protect his city to the South (you can see it in the minimap), so it's not like it would totally defed him from a Azza/Icha dogpile.



A shot of the theater of war. Ife is allied with Yuris, but if I read things right, he only has one more turn of alliance. It's not that big of a deal, though, CSs are strange in war. I moved a unit on range of a crossbow from Ife and they didn't attack, just retreated... Good for me, I guess.



You can see here the Azza/Yuris frontier and why I think they won't keep peace for long. They are really close to each other and, though my scouting is pretty poor, Azza doesn't have that much land to expand to anymore.



Finally, the screen I hope Azza checks on his turn. He has the largest army, Yuris the smallest. And I have more than Yuris now, which is very good. If everything goes according to plan, I'll get the Terracotta Army about the same time Azza declares on Yuris again. I'm willing to pay Azza for the war, though I don't have much to offer. You could argue that the 2 for 1 happy is a payment of some sorts...

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The Terracota plan:



I know, those citizens are very, very ugly (I'm mining over the hill farms, by the way, but that takes a while and I should probably have more workers - not only because I don't need more food, but because chemistry goves +1 hammers to mines). But why would I work food tiles when that'll put me on unhappiness? And I don't have the gold to buy hill tiles, so here I am. How I wish I had more specialist slots... Rowain is killing with his university jungles and I'm working citizens... Well, at least I'll reach Rationalism soon enough. I'm getting a GArt and a GWri pretty soon, so I'll fire a Carnival for more quick GWri -> Two culture bulbs should make me reach the +2 sci per specialist police!

Yes, I forgot about the Terracota Plan. I wonder if going for the Wonder before Ironworks would be better. why go for Ironworks first? Well, I'm still growing some CSs to the 25 base influence that I have now. One of this CSs has sugar, which another CS wants. So, if I ally the one with sugar (I need at least 20 influence before the quest will give me an alliance), I get an aliance with the one that wants Sugar. So, if I want the bonuses, I need to wait. Finally, I'm building a musketman, that will be ready in 6 turns, while the IW + Terracotta are ready in 7. This way, I make the Wonder worth +100 hammers.

Yes, I risk losing the wonderto another player, especially Yuris, but I think it's a worthy risk. In 7 turns, I'll have a massive boost from the wonder, if I finish it in 4, is mostly for the denial value. We'll see hat happens, though...

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My scouting was really subpar, because I was running behind my opponents since the beggining, what with all the settler juggling. I just met Prague (and they already like me, +7 influence for whatever reason) and there's still more CSs hidden (a CS wants porcelain and I still haven't founf any mercantile CSs). I'm trying to rectify the subpar scouting now.




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This barb camp really likes to spawn units! Azza had a scout around, but I think he moved to try and steal the barb camp prize from me and ended up killed by the crossbow and axe. My horseman wasn't injured in the interturn, so that must be the case.

I don't want to take the camp yet, though, since the CS that wants it killed still has room to grow to the new 25 influence cap.

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Any questions/requests?

[Ichabod]

A quick search tells me that Citadels can be stolen by Great Generals building a second Citadel near it. So, if Yuris builds a Citadel on the choke point, he's toast. I'll steal it for me.

[Meiz]

A quick search tells me that Citadels can be stolen by Great Generals building a second Citadel near it. So, if Yuris builds a Citadel on the choke point, he's toast. I'll steal it for me.

How many turns until you get Education stolen? It seems to me like missing universities/scientist specialists is the biggest thing holding you back at the moment, especially with stagnated cities.

[Ichabod]

A quick search tells me that Citadels can be stolen by Great Generals building a second Citadel near it. So, if Yuris builds a Citadel on the choke point, he's toast. I'll steal it for me.

How many turns until you get Education stolen? It seems to me like missing universities/scientist specialists is the biggest thing holding you back at the moment, especially with stagnated cities.

I can finish Theology in 2 turns, 4 turns for education. I think my next stolen tech is ready in 3 turns, so it's probably time to research Theology. Or better yet,wait untilwe can align 2 turns for the tech and 2 turns for Theology, because, as far as I know, the time it takes to steal a tech is based on the cheapesttech your opponent have that you don't have (in this case, theology). COnsidering how Civ 5 work, I think we can "cheat" the game by finishing both things at the same time.