Looking good...Eoforwic may or may not break our way. I think it Chevduke get Ireland settled our settler should head for Sardinia as previously discussed. I won't get to the save until a few hours for now but I think getting the GA and moving into position for Knarr might be a good idea. Getting a longboat in position for the goody huts at Iceland and Greenland may also be a good idea -- in one of my games I got extra population and a builder.
I'll try to comment more once I look at the save in a few hours.
- There are two "middle age" and three "late age" Great Admirals available. If no more than one player has advanced in era then the next GA will be a middle age one and cost 165 GAP. HOWEVER, all three AI's are in Hastings, which may push the cost of the next GA up.
Over at Wolin there's at least one boat in the water there -- that's the only way the city would be under siege. Interestingly nothing over there is pillaged. Maybe have Oslo spit out a longboat after the builder to go take a look?
If we wanted to mess with Chevduke we could use the "Promise you won't settle near my cities" button on the diplo screen.
Where is Sweden going with that longboat formation? Trying a hail mary for the med, maybe? Our four pack should probably keep moving towards Gibraltar, pillaging along the way.
Nidaros finished project and I am going get GA next turn simply by having 165 points, so no buying GA here. GrotLizard and Chevduke don't have faith and gold enough to stop me.
I recall that in testgames next GA was 165 points too, only when I did advance to next age, GG/GA points requirement went up.
In Norway mass build Longships, after those three are complete, we have 10 Longships.
Note that with pillaging France and Spain this turn, we almost reached majority religion, no boost for Monothemism yet. Maybe next turn when I open next save.
If I still don't have Monothemism next turn, then I might refrain from pillaging faith based tiles for a while so I can farm 100 gold per pillage for some turns. Keep in mind that Swedish fleet is close.
(Don't worry about French Knight sitting atop one of our traders, when end turn, our trader moves into sea)
In England, it seems that Chevduke did refrain from attacking Eoforwic a bit to prevent its hp low enough for us to take it. I think that Chevduke manages to take city next turn with all Berserkers and Longships.
I did place Longship above scotland as you suggested to grab huts as soon Knarrs are completed after 2 turns.
It seems that Chevduke hasn't noticed barb camp yet at Ierland, I think. In case that Chevduke thinks that it is safe at Ierland and uses two tiles move without checking towards spot 1E of river, that settler is going be captured by barb spearman.
In that case, I quickly move one of my Berserkers from around Eoforwic (4 movement points) to Ierland to claim that settler.
Chevduke did barely took Eoforwic with most units redlined. I decided to go for Dun Breatann now with Berserkers. Completed Longships from Norway shall join siege.
Chevduke seems noticed barb camp at Ierland since their settler is at tile NW of two wheat tiles outside barb camp's range. I think that they are going found city that spot.
It leaves a southernwest corner of Ierland free for settlement but it is worthless spot, no production. I send that settler to Sardinia from now.
Next turn Knarrs complete, so all units can enter ocean then which makes movement easier for us.
Big news of this turn is of course the fact that I claimed GA. Next GA is worth 165 points or 2660 gold right now. So why not claim that GA with gold?
This gives us another 500 points and deny Chevduke and Grotlizard from 500 points, with Knarrs complete next turn and era advance, next GA likely need more points.
Therefore I refrain from pillaging faith related tiles, and purely went pillaging what gives me other than faith.
Pillage until I got enough gold for next GA and bit more for some buffer to buy some units, then pillage faith for Monotheism. The deadline is Viking civic because other civics past Viking civic need Monotheism.
When Military Training is complete, Viking civic is only remaining civic, so we has roughly 8 turns left for pillaging without faith tile pillage.
I am not sure wheher pillaging Spainish faith tiles do good because Islam might interference with gaining majority religion, so to prevent this possible scenario, I am going pillage Italian faith tiles instead.
I swap policy when Military Tradition is completed: Maritime Industries out and Feudal Contract in for Huscarl production. That is why I keep building Longships now.
Cities not producing Huscarl (I am just going build two of them), shall produce commerical hubs/harbors since Hacksilver tech which gives all Harbor and Commerical district +1 trade route (meaning every city can have 3 trade routes) is close now.
The score screen indicates that faith accumulation goes towards Catholicism, so pillaging Islamic tiles won't interfere with our religious situation (if the screen isn't lying ). Once Hacksilver is out we should get out as many traders as feasible in order to fund the Mediterranean operation. I also agree that recruiting the 2nd GA via pillage gold is a good idea -- between the two that's 1500 VP that's unavailable to everyone else.
Completed Knarrs and seems that Chevduke also completed Knarrs this turn. With Knarrs online, I go to first hut north of Scotland and it did yield extra gold.
Start attack on Dun Breatann, still need to deal with peksy swordsmen south of city who are blocking our Berserkers.
Chevduke's settler went south, founding city at that spot do cover whole Ierland. From there they can attempt to settle Iceland and Greenland before us, although their treasury is still low.
Buy settler in Stavanger/Nidaros and send them to Iceland/Greenland?
And at homelands, more Longships and Oslo starts Huscarl since Longship takes 2 turns there and Oslo already got Commerical Hub, next turn Feudal Contract.
I did send one of Longship to get a look around Baltic sea, it is going be close who get Wolin.
Builder finished 3rd farm for Oslo, with 3 from Utrecht we got boost for Feudalism.
Meanwhile at Spanish coast, pillaging continues. I am blocking route for Grotlizard, but I do due pillaging coast and it is far away from Scandinavia.
Next turn I should pillage enough for next GA. No Crossbowmen here which did got two Longships in your testgame, Suboptimal.
Regarding Iceland and Greenland I've never quite figured out what these would be useful for other than to grab the huts. There's not enough food in the area to get significant population growth, IIRC. Is there something obvious about these that I'm missing or forgetting? If we wanted to buy a settler I'd send it east and park it NE of Birka - at least there are chops there.
Since I'm not at home, where did all of the Danish units around Rouen go? Did they head inland towards Portiers or Paris or cross the channel back to England?
If the Moors are not producing crossbowmen then pillaging will be easier. It's a shame that it would take a while to get beserkers down here...Lisbon looks like an easy target.
Iceland and Greenland both has a amenity that you won't find elsewhere, so it can boost city growth empirewide a little.
I didn't really pay attention where Danish units went, most of them went back to England I think.
Finished Military Training and swap out Maritime Industries and Feudal Contract in. With some more pillaging, I bought GA with 2500 gold, next GA is indeed next era with 270 points.
I did buy because Chevduke could claim GA if they are running projects, I don't know whether they did but I take no chances here to deny them 500 points. 2500 gold is 250 VP exchange for 500 VP gain plus 50 VP from 500 gold upon using GA upon Vinland tile.
Producing two Huscarls and commerical hub in Stavanger (it got 2 GPT due adjacent Denmark's harbor). Situation around Wolin is a standstill, seem both Grotlizard and Chevduke are afraid that who attacks first, they gift city to other player.
Around United Kingdom, Chevduke founded city in Ierland, I send settler to Sardinia. It is going reach around turn 40, with 20 turns left it is enough to conquer whole Italy.
Longship pillaged another hut, this time at Iceland, result: meager 10 faith... Also I did pillage dye tile of Wintanceaster forgetting that it do give faith, barely still no Monotheism.
A lot kills by Berserkers resulted in many GG points that we are 2nd in race close behind Chevduke, but next GG isn't good: convert adjacent barbs, most useful for Grotlizard.
Around Spain pillaging continues, avoiding faith tiles including citrus after pillaging dye in England.
Therefore Grotlizard starts to gain some faith for pillaging. I keep pillaging non faith tiles till Viking is completed to farm 100 gold per pillage.
Big news of turn: Grotlizard took Wolin!
This do reel in Chevduke scorewise for us and Grotlizard which is good news for us, but if Grotlizard keep suprise us by somehow expanding as madmen and conquer Byzantines, they might win this.
And another hut in Iceland got raided which gave Stavanger one extra pop, Grotlizard just finished Knarrs and seem also aim for huts, so need to go to Greenland quick.
Around Dun Breatann, things are slow without ram, but slowly health of city is dropping. I did raze barb camp south of Chevduke's city in Ierland, no extra gold for them.
Around Spain pillage party continues, burning down what isn't faith related tiles.
Grotlizard's fleet is around Lisabon now.
The fact that there's an archer in Asilah and the city defense is only 27 presents an opportunity we may wish to consider. It would take 6-7 attacks to take down the walls with the longships we have at the city and then another 3-4 attacks to take the city outright (depending on the damage the garrison takes in the meantime). That would be 5-6 turns with the longboats we have, attacking with two and rotating out as they get injured. However, if we were able to take the city we could then flood the Med from there (and it would get done before the settler got that far). Maybe keep 3-4 ships here to attack and send the remaining ships ahead to scout/pillage? With ships in the area the AI won't have the archer leave the city until it builds another unit and that could take a while yet. We should probably grab that builder and take out the Commercial Hub while we're at it since those are both fat targets. Also remember that given how you can't move into/through the fog with two units in a line blocking we could, theoretically, block the Strait of Gibraltar while we conduct the attack, in which case we plug the Straits with the navy while two attack the city.
After Dun Breatann do you think we'd be able to beat Chevduke to Wintancaester? More importantly, should we? On one hand it's another city the Danes don't get and makes a good jump point for Spain. On the other hand, where'd all the Danish beserkers go? Looking south, Lisbon is 11 turns by sea from Dun Breatann (Xixon is 9 and would give an overland route to the city state to the east). We could get from Dun Breatann to Lisbon in 11 turns (Xixon in 9) with a purchased battering ram and start a Spanish conquest before the Danes can move their forces out.
We've caught up score-wise, only 135 behind Chevduke with 1500 VP on the water, so we're looking good on that front (but it's still early). Need more cities, though.
570
). Once Hacksilver is out we should get out as many traders as feasible in order to fund the Mediterranean operation. I also agree that recruiting the 2nd GA via pillage gold is a good idea -- between the two that's 1500 VP that's unavailable to everyone else.