[SPOILERS] yuris125 the dueller, round 3 - vs mackoti

[yuris125]

We're the champions... or at least in the play-off

[yuris125]

Now that I'm though to play-off, I'm going to change the leader/civ plans. The reason I suggested a late-era game is that I can pick a civ with a late UU, which I wouldn't use in an ancient era start. Also, I intend to use Protective in this game, to have more options in the play-off

My currently planned pick if Mackoti agrees to a Ren start is Tokugawa of England. So Pro instead of Cha combined with Agg. Then in the semis I can play Hannibal of Mongolia, I think that's one of the strongest combos for a duel (although Washington is good as well - will decide when the time comes and I know who the opponent is). And still have Exp (or Fin), Cre and Ind available in the finals if I get there

[yuris125]

Mackoti and I agreed on a Renaissance start, and I did go ahead and sent Tokugawa of England as my pick

Renaissance start is an interesting one, you start just 2 techs away from Liberalism, and can run Mercantilism right away. So a possible opening is to adopt Caste System and get a Great Scientist asap, bulb Education, and race for Liberalism. Cities start with a Forge, so another possibility is to get a Great Engineer first, who can be used to partially bulb Replaceable Parts, and ignore Liberalism. This option allows to run Slavery first, so that cities are set up quicker

Tokugawa of England is obviously a very aggressive pick, Stock Exchanges are the only economic boost I get. I think getting fast Redcoats and slowing the opponent down is probably absolutely necessary. This means that the Great Engineer opening is probably better. Research pace is very slow at the start, techs are expensive, commerce is low, so a boost to the Replaceable Parts research will be very helpful. Getting Great Scientists is easy with Caste System, but I won't be able to run more than one engineer specialist for a long time. So it makes sense to get a Great Engineer first, when it costs the least amount of GPP, then switch to scientists

To get to Redcoats, I need to research Education, Printing Press, Replaceable Parts, Gunpowder and Rifling. The first 3 techs can be bulbed, Education and PP with Great Scientists, RP with a Great Engineer. At the start I will just save money while settling the first 3-4 cities, then self-research Gunpowder and try to get required great people while doing it. I want to have a Great Engineer and 2 Great Scientists by the time it's researched, so that I can go through Education and PP and start working on RP and Rifling as quickly as possible. I might get an extra GE; if I do, I will either use him to build Notre Dame, or save for Taj

My initial civics will be Hereditary Rule - Bureaucracy - Slavery - Mercantilism - Pacifism. Since I want so many great people early, Pacifism is going to be better than OR, although it means I will need Monasteries to spread the state religion. I probably will stay in these civics until Rifling and Nationalism, then switch to Nationhood and Theocracy and start building the army. Renaissance start allows to build Knights as soon as iron is connected, so I will be safe unless Mackoti picks Byzantium; if he does, I will have to concentrate on building Pikes in the early game

A quick overview of Renaissance start rules:
* Players start with 2 Settlers, 1 Worker, 2 Longbows and an Explorer
* Every city starts at size 2 and has the following buildings: Granary, Aqueduct, Forge, Lighthouse if coastal
* Known techs: Divine Right, Paper, Guilds, Banking and everything to the left of them
* In a duel, every player gets 2 random religions on the 3rd (I think) turn, assuming 2 cities are founded by that time

[yuris125]

We're rolling Mist made us a lake map for this round - thanks a lot Mist!

This is what I saw after opening the save



Quite uninspiring. Let's move those units...



Ah! Much better

As is the case with most non-ancient starts, not settling on the first turn is ok, because the first turn is spent in anarchy. So I decided on the marked locations as the first cities. Magenta dot will be the capital, it's an awesome city with good food, good production and gold. Blue dot has a slow start because of the jungle, but will be a good GP farm once everything is improved

Mackoti is playing Justinian (Spi/Imp) of Byzantium. I suspected he was going to pick Byzantium, building Cataphracts from the start of the game (after resources are connected) is great. Will be interesting to see how soon they show up, and whether I will be able to defend. I probably will, if I find iron for Pikes (but if there's no iron nearby, Mackoti will not be able to build phracts, so it works out fine anyway )

[yuris125]

T128 (Renaissance era games start on T122)

Early exploration





First thing to note: iron is in an awkward location. Plains cows are the only nearby food resource, and apart from the iron and the cows, the city won't get any production. Horses are in a better spot, but not available immediately. Hopefully phracts are not coming any time soon

It looks like I won't have happiness or health problems, there are plenty of resources around. The main thing will be to protect the cities, especially when I start expanding east, towards Mackoti

I got my 2 religions this turn; since I'm running Pacifism and York is going to be a better GP farm, I will convert to Taoism, which spawned in York

[yuris125]

A little teaser: we played to T148, Mackoti has the first phracts running around; meanwhile I researched Gunpowder, bulbed Education, connected iron and built Walls in potentially exposed cities. No attacks yet, but I lost a couple exploring units. Will try to post screenshots tomorrow

I'm certainly glad I picked Toku for this game, it will be much easier to defend against phracts when my units get a ton of promos out of the gate even without Barracks

[yuris125]

Here are land overview screenshots taken in 1500AD (T140)





As you can see, we have barbs on, and a couple of barb cities already spawned. Somehow both of us forgot to check that barbs were off until we saw the first cities. We agreed not to keep barb cities and moved on

Mackoti founded his 3rd city on T139

On T142 Mackoti adopted Vassalage and Theocracy, so I had to assume he already could build phracts

On T144 my Explorer found Mackoti's borders



So looking at my land, it was clear that his 2nd city was on the spot marked on this screenshot



Obviously he connected horses this way

On Mackoti's turn a Cataphract killed the Explorer, confirming my suspicions. Then on T146 my Longbow went to check a barb city in the middle of the map, and found this



That's 3 phracts right there, and too far from my borders too. So Mackoti is wasting no time getting his attackers out. Longbow obviously died on Mackoti's turn as well. From the border configuration, looks like his 3rd city is quite forward (blue dot again)

Here are demos from T149 (the last played turn)





There are a few mysteries for me

* How did Mackoti connect the iron? His capital was founded on the opening turn (T122), I know location of the other 2 cities, and none of them can reach iron. Did he pop it? Does he already have more than 3 cities? Not sure
* How does he have 74 crop yield? There are not THAT many food resources around
* Why doesn't Mackoti tech at all? I already finished Gunpowder, bulbed Education; since Mackoti showed no interest in research, I'm going for Liberalism to get Nationalism and start drafting. Mackoti did not research anything so far, and his GNP is very low. Does he think he has all necessary techs and there's no need to research anything?

I have to be quite careful at the moment, I'm sure Mackoti won't hesitate to send his phracts to attack if he sees a smallest opening. This way I have to let Mackoti expand to the middle of the map. However, the way he plays it, if I deflect phract attacks and tech to Redcoats, I probably will be able to kill him. That's the plan, at least

Finally, look at this ridiculous city spot in the middle of the map, where the barb city is/was

[yuris125]

Huh, well, talk about optimism...



Mackoti said in chat he has over 20 phracts and 5 cities. Looks like I'll have to concede within 5 turns

(4/19/2012 8:48:52 PM) yuris125: hmmmm not even sure what to do with you now :P
(8:49:06 PM) mackoti: why?
(8:49:17 PM) yuris125: where did you get so many phracts??!!
(8:49:27 PM) mackoti: i ahve 5 cities
(8:49:33 PM) mackoti: and 10 workers
(8:49:36 PM) yuris125: 5??
(8:49:37 PM) yuris125: wow
(8:49:41 PM) yuris125: that was fast
(8:49:46 PM) mackoti: yup
(8:49:56 PM) yuris125: I was expanding too carefully
(8:49:59 PM) yuris125: keeping in mind incoming phracts
(8:50:07 PM) mackoti: well they came
(8:50:15 PM) yuris125: how many are still coming?
(8:50:24 PM) mackoti: i have like 20
(8:50:25 PM) mackoti: 25
(8:50:28 PM) mackoti: i think
(8:50:31 PM) yuris125: uh oh
(8:50:53 PM) yuris125: well we'll see if I can do anything
(8:51:01 PM) yuris125: but if you have that many, and I'm sitting without iron
(8:51:06 PM) yuris125: likely I lost
(8:51:20 PM) mackoti: its imposible to defend against practs
(8:51:26 PM) mackoti: on reny
(8:51:38 PM) yuris125: hehe, I tool Byz against Catwalk
(8:51:40 PM) mackoti: if you dont have choke points
(8:51:56 PM) yuris125: so couldn't take it here
(8:52:08 PM) mackoti: well you wanted reny
(8:52:17 PM) mackoti: medieval was way beter
(8:52:17 PM) yuris125: I didn't realise how strong they are
(8:52:30 PM) yuris125: I thought Redcoats were not too far away, etc
(8:52:36 PM) mackoti: oho
(8:52:44 PM) yuris125: but you produced way more than I expected
(8:52:44 PM) mackoti: far enough to doesnt matter
(8:52:54 PM) mackoti: well its my specilaity
(8:52:58 PM) mackoti: big armies
(8:53:36 PM) yuris125: you think it's impossible to defend even if I get iron earlier?
(8:53:42 PM) mackoti: yup
(8:53:49 PM) mackoti: becasue i could atack
(8:53:53 PM) mackoti: other way
(8:54:00 PM) mackoti: forking cities
(8:54:03 PM) yuris125: yeah
(8:54:08 PM) mackoti: so not
(8:54:13 PM) mackoti: practs are unfair
(8:54:27 PM) mackoti: and imperialist
(8:54:29 PM) mackoti: too
(8:54:34 PM) yuris125: ah yes, I forgot about it
(8:54:39 PM) mackoti: you played with severe handicap
(8:54:39 PM) yuris125: I also used it already
(8:54:55 PM) yuris125: I think Toku was the best pick in these circumstances
(8:54:57 PM) yuris125: but not good enough
(8:55:14 PM) mackoti: yuo picked worst era posible
(8:55:28 PM) yuris125: well I thought it was going to be fun
(8:55:50 PM) mackoti: if i wanted i could have beat you econmicaly
(8:55:52 PM) yuris125: I never played MP on late eras, wanted a late start just to save good picks for play off
(8:55:56 PM) mackoti: take all the land
(8:56:00 PM) mackoti: until near you
(8:56:07 PM) mackoti: but
(8:56:15 PM) mackoti: didnt felt like
(8:56:27 PM) mackoti: was like disconsediring you
(8:56:40 PM) yuris125: hehe, well, why play a long game when you can win in 30 turns
(8:56:50 PM) yuris125: I really didn't think it was possible to build that many phracts so quickly
(8:56:59 PM) yuris125: but I guess you're right, Imp is way too good, and phracts are way too good
(8:57:15 PM) mackoti: in pbem 23 i build 40 kings in 3 turns
(8:57:41 PM) mackoti: you have to plan alitle
(8:57:46 PM) mackoti: but its posible
(8:58:14 PM) mackoti: and did noticed
(8:58:21 PM) mackoti: units are cheper?
(8:58:27 PM) mackoti: cheaper?
(8:58:31 PM) mackoti: 10%
(9:00:13 PM) yuris125: well, I just have a lot to learn building armies seems to be my big weakness. I played the turn, I'm not conceding yet, but it looks hopeless
(9:00:25 PM) mackoti: k

[yuris125]

York has fallen T154, London T157, and I conceded