2nd Apolyton C3C MULTIPLAYER TOURNAMENT - Page 2

Taian · December 15, 2003, 22:58

The 4 civs in our game ended up being the Inca (me), the Carthaginians (Wittlich), the Greeks and the Mayans. I had contact with the Greeks and the Mayans by about 3200BC and I think Wittlich and I ran into each other sometime around 2700BCish. No attacks took place, but I didn't proceed any further south with my Chasqui Scout so for most of the game, Wittlich's land was blind to me. I used the scout to keep tabs on where his warrior was wandering and followed it all the way to my own borders

At this point, I had a spearman in each town, but little else in the way of military. However, he didn't proceed any further and was content to keep the warrior stationed a few squares outside my borders until (I think), the Mayans started a war with him at which point he moved it back towards his land.
So, expansion continued along merrily in the Incan homeland. I had decided once I saw all the rivers to pursue an aggressive growth strategy early on, moderated by the omission of granaries. Unfortuneately, I didn't make it to the iron until the Greeks had already settled a city there (they beat me by two turns

) I ended up sending the settler intended for the iron south to found a city near the dyes. It was at this point that I decided to bulk up and prune the Greeks back. They had started slow, but were coming on strong and with the hoplite unit, it was better to do it quick. So, barracks were built in the majority of the core cities and mass horsemen were begun.
In the screenshot below, you can see three luxuries within my immediate borders (dyes, incense - under the spearman, and gems). Past the upper right corner there is also ivory and another iron off in the jungle to the right.

Taian · December 15, 2003, 23:06

The pruning war went remarkably well with the Greeks. I started with a stack of about 10 horsemen and razed their iron city without losing a man. I went on towards their capital and captured it as well, leaving them with 2 cities. At this point, I sued for peace and we stayed at peace for most of the rest of the game.
The dumb thing about pruning the Greeks was that they were on the complete other side of the landmass from Carthage (top vs bottom). So, I had to move everyone back and start them on the road down. I also wanted to build up a decent force first since

a) It was a long way down and I didn't have a road there yet, and
b) I wanted to make sure I didn't lose steam while pressing the attack.

I think this was sometime late sunday that most of the build-up was happening. Wittlich was expecting my invasion force, but I was in no position to send it yet, but was getting close. I started my workers on the road south to help get the swordsmen to the front lines. I wasn't as concerned about the horsemen with their extra movement point, but I didn't want to only go with them against the 3 def Numidian. After about 4 and a half hours on Sunday afternoon, we saved the game for finishing tonight.

After loading up the game again, the plan stayed on schedule. The road was progressing well and the troops were making it to the front lines.
I took Hippo relatively quickly with a sword/horse force and also threatened a couple of his other cities with the same type of make-up. Within the first few turns of the second sitting, three of Carthage's cities were fallen; two of which were now under Incan control.

Oh...I guess I should also mention that prior to engaging Wittlich, I had moved my Chasqui scout into the neutral land between him and the Mayans. The Mayans had previously declared war on me and I used that opportunity to trigger my GA. Moved by scout onto a hill beside a Mayan warrior and it was triggered when he lost in the attack. So, I was now producting either a horseman or a sword every 5 turns or so.

Taian · December 15, 2003, 23:13

Wittlich's first few cities weren't defended with a ton of NMs...I think maybe 3 in each. I used the next few turns to consolidate my army and finish the road down to the front lines. The turn after I finished the road, there was a barbarian uprising triggered by Carthage's entry into the middle ages. I had previously entered it and had just finished research on Feudalism. The turn before, I had also rush built a barracks in Hippo (I had changed to Monarchy quite a few turns ago). The same turn that the road finished, 9 swordsmen were promoted to the ranks of the medieval infantry. Since it didn't really matter now if I lost Hippo, I left it relatively underdefended and started sending the infantry against Utica. Silly me....he must have had about 7 NMs defending it. The first wave of attacks saw me lose about half of my MI and a few horse to boot. Regardless, I managed to push through and took it on the next round of attacks. All during this time, I had troops moving down the road network from the homeland, killing the barbs as they went. After a few more turns of consolidation, I pressed the attack onto Carthage. Same thing there...a good 5 or 6 NMs (or seemed like it anyway). But by this point I had a few MI, about 5 swords and 5 horse who managed to take Carthage as well. I probably could have ended it a little sooner, but I was expecting another onslaught of NMs when I went after the last city. The following is the pic just before the final attack. The stack showing is only one of two currently outside the city.

Taian · December 15, 2003, 23:15

I think that I was the one pushing the tech pace for most of the game. I detoured a while and then decided to go for Philosophy and managed to be the first one there. I have to say though that I'm really frustrated with the lack of pop-ups. I ended up getting Map Making as my free tech, because I didn't get asked what I wanted to research next. Dumb thing

Anyway, it was a fun game...thanks again Wittlich..well played from the tough start you had. I'm sure I'm going to be met with the same rotten luck in the near future

MarkG · December 16, 2003, 00:54

Quote:

Originally posted by notyoueither
Problem, Mark. Krasny is in Britain (?) GMT time zone. I am GMT -7. We missed each other this past weekend, and now can't hook up until this next weekend.

What do you want to do?

can you arrange it for this friday?

notyoueither · December 16, 2003, 01:42

I work Friday, and it is 1am for him by the time I get home. :/

Snotty · December 16, 2003, 03:54

Quote:

Originally posted by Taian
I have to say though that I'm really frustrated with the lack of pop-ups. I ended up getting Map Making as my free tech

It is indeed a pain. You just have to remember to queue up the tech you want after philosophy by shift (or ctrl?) clicking it in the tech tree. I have not figured out how to get your tech of choice from the sci trait yet though.

Taian · December 16, 2003, 08:43

I'll give that a try. You don't get to choose with the sci trait though. It's a random tech upon entering (as far as I know, anyway).

notyoueither · December 16, 2003, 21:42

Krasny and I have an appointment for 20.00GMT Saturday, if that is not too late, Mark.

MarkG · December 17, 2003, 00:40

it's ok nye

Beta · December 18, 2003, 10:51

The Snotty-Beta match is scheduled for High Noon (est) today.

MarkG · December 18, 2003, 17:00

Defeat!

AAR coming up

Beta · December 18, 2003, 20:44

The Snotty-Beta match went for two rounds totalling well over 3 hours today. Snotty has retired for the evening (UK), and my wife is getting restless for dinner.

Snotty (Persians) clearly has the lead. The two AI's (England and Celts) are still both around and have played key parts - as we have both been trying to buy their alliance.

An early foray by me was repulsed by Snotty. He now has a huge campaign threatening my homeland (Chinese)- but much blood has been spilt, and the game is far from over - unless he has a major breakthrough tomorrow.

The game is scheduled to resume at 5pm est tomorrow.

AND I AM HOOKED!!!!!! This is a wonderful way to play civ. I had some early frustrations when the auto-jog for your own units was not on - and my initial settler wasted two turns while I figured out that just hitting enter wasn't doing much.

Also, combat is very interesting - with its give and take and timing issues. I was a bit slow with the mouse at times I'm afraid. Need more FPS experience.

But large battles are very interesting, His large stack attacking a walled city - while my horsemen counterattack from another spot.

Stay tuned.

Shogun Gunner · December 18, 2003, 20:54

Sounds great! Can't wait to see the screen shots of Persian-Chinese conflict!

Beta · December 19, 2003, 19:19

After another two hours of brutal battle and attrition - Beta surrenders.

Congrats Snotty! Great game!

At least I feel very much "initiated" in MP after a 5.5 hr match.

AAR's from both of us to follow.

akulla · December 19, 2003, 20:34

In the Game between Swishy and Akulla. Akulla won, not by virtue of skill but by a lucky starting position. Swishy was a worthy advisary and probably would have kicked by b^tt if he had a better position.

Swissy · December 19, 2003, 20:54

I conceded top Akulla due to time constraints, he hadn't the time to complete the game and Mark wanted it done tonight. While he hadn't won, my start area was so horride in comparison to his I figured he would send a lagre attcking stack at me soon, if he had it. He had rivers and forests and iron at two of his cities, I had jungle desert, no fresh water within 7 squares, and no iron until I took Egypt's.

I was ahead on tech and about to kill off the Egyptians and had the Germans believing Akulla was evil incarnate. But they had no iron either so didn't want war. I may have changed the Germans mind soon as I had Invention in 5 turns and would have gladly given it to Otto for an alliance. But we will never really know.

MarkG · December 20, 2003, 04:03

thank you for the results!

waiting for krasny vs nye

round ii games: BigFree vs Snotty
Shogun Gunner vs akulla

if the game could be played during the weekend it would be great

Snotty · December 20, 2003, 06:24

Whew! Beta really made me work for that one!

After getting the essential techs I beelined for monarchy so I could make the most of my GA and have a few shots at a SGL. Beta had Liz declare war on me and I beat her back with archers to save my GA. As it turns out I had the worst GA ever after as I revolted, moved an immortal onto a mountain next to my land only to find a sneaky stack of Betas swords. My immortal won in defense which meant I lost ~8 turns of my GA

I knocked Liz down to one city taking the Oracle in the process and started to swarm towards Beta with my immortals. It was a hell of a long walk and by the time I had got there Beta had aged up and his citys had walls. There was jungle in the way so I had to build roads for my cats. I built two long connected roads the length of the continent but I had to predict what units I needed many more turns in advance.

We had a great series of bloody seige battles, I attacked with a stack of 16 immortals, 6 cats and a few pikes but due to Betas strong defense he repulsed it. I flanked with 8 immortals at the same time and burnt a city down before they got picked off. Large stack feudal warfare is a very bloody affair.

I broke my ROP and grabbed Entremont as it had just built the temple of artemis. I started researching up the gunpowder path with the end goal of getting to cav. I built a strategic city (Zohak) and Beta seiged it. My free temple pushed the borders so he couldnt heal and that proved vital to my defense.

Beta had got a MGL somewhere and made a 3x M inf army with it. There really was nothing I could do about it. It would charge in, kill a pike and then pull back to heal. It was going to prove expensive to keep replacing them. Beta got Zeus up after taking ivory from the celts

I moved a regular galley to explore Betas coast and it saw off two vet galleys! I blew all my gold on buying two more and landed 2 pikes, 2 immortals and 2 knights on a mountain next to a back field city. I guess it must have been poorly defended as Beta rushed his wounded army back only to have it die on my pikes!

After that Beta threw the towel in as it was obvious I would get him eventually. My hat goes off to him for managing to hold me back for so long. I was in the lead for a long time but I just couldn't make anything of it. I should have launched a galley assault earlier but it tends to be the last thing on my mind on a pangea map.

Snotty · December 20, 2003, 06:25

My land. There used to be more jungle.

Snotty · December 20, 2003, 06:25

The temple of artemis had a stunning effect on my culture. Combined with the Oracle, up to 3 Military Police, and a few lux I had non-core citys in WLTKD which helped greatly with their waste. They were not fantastic producers but definatly added to my war effort.

Shogun Gunner · December 20, 2003, 09:48

What an epic battle!!!! Great game Snotty and Beta!

Snotty, you are on a roll!

alva · December 20, 2003, 10:20

Yep, looks like a great game.

Good AAR too.

Snotty, King of apolyton MP.

notyoueither · December 20, 2003, 16:11

Krasny, I sent you an email an hour ago. I am in Apolyton chat right now. I am in the Civ lobby. I'll pay attention for the next few minutes. After that please send me an email or PM to get my attention.

Beta · December 20, 2003, 20:16

I just spent 45 minutes typing up a detailed AAR, and then I attached an image - which I forgot to reduce in size - and of course - you get the notice - your image is too large - and then when you hit back - everything is gone. AAAArghhhhh!!

So here is the very much abridged version.

Great game Snotty! Well played!

As a first MP experience, I enjoyed it immensely. It took me several turns of the start to figure things out - because the auto-next-unit-to-moove-thingie was not checked. I was waiting for the white circle to show up - and with my settler sitting there - just kept hitting enter.

Also - combat takes some getting used to. Especially the timing of unit moves. It would also appear that it helps to be quick on the draw, if two units are facing off against each other - or as was my situation - where one is trying to run away.

As Snotty has indicaated, we had some large battles. A lot of the fighting took place around Canton and Tientsin, and the Persian city of Zohak when it was built.

After Snotty's initial siege was repulsed - he pulled back to the hill where Zohak is now built. Ther was only one pike protecting a stack of Immortals and Catapults. I was within two turns of being able to attack - and hopefully take out that stack - when more Persian pikes arrived. The opportunity was lost - and probably the game as well at that point.

Another stack of Immortals did some dmamage on th east side of my empire, but without pikes around they got chewed up by MI's and horsemen.

Snotty is correct in that the expansion of the cultural border around Zohak was key. I then got into a rut of cycling my pikes from Canton to the front - and back again to heal. Every third or fourth turn, my healed MI army would come out and smack a pikeman - then go back and heal. This was trench warfare at its finest. Snotty had trebuchets near the end, so hell was raining down on everyone.

I was hoping that riders and ancient cavalry would turn the tide. I had to delay research to keep up with the attrition, so I was just starting chivalry when his landing occured. I had also just built the Temple of Zeus, but it had not had a chance to produce any cavalry yet.

When the landing did occur - there was little in my backfield to stop them. I surrendered.

I was aware of Snotty's cultural and economic lead at this point - and that I was fighting an uphill battle - the landing was the final straw.

It was a great game. The AI's played interesting roles. And the shape of the continent with a narrow isthmus - which Brennus quickly settled - also made things interesting.

Once again - congrats to Snotty, and good luck to all in the next round.

And IN THE NEXT POST

, you will see a pic of the main battle area - and my pike and catapult stack duking it out with the defenders of Zohak.

Beta · December 20, 2003, 20:21

The main theatre of the war - Canton-Tientsin and Zohak.

Beta · December 20, 2003, 20:25

This is a pic of my besieged empire at the end of the game. You can see the Canton-Tientsin-Zohac triangle of death near the top and Snotty's decisive landing on my west coast. There is a settler underneath the Pike at the head of the bay to the east - where the destroyed city is - but as was the case in the latter stages of this game - it was too little, too late.

Shogun Gunner · December 21, 2003, 23:45

Akulla vs Shogun Gunner game beginning now!

Shogun Gunner · December 22, 2003, 01:19

First update....

Shogun Gunner is Byzantine
Akulla is Zulu
Rome and Germany for the two AI

Akulla and my starting locations are not close to each other...

Shogun Gunner · December 22, 2003, 02:59

After a few hours, akulla and I have agreed to save and finish the game later. (it's 2 AM!) The game has been saved as of 310 BC.

So far no military or diplomatic contact between our two civs. It's an interesting game so far!