Pong 3: Turns 52-90 of Norway (Nate)

Session 2 begins and the game resumes in the Classical era (310 BC).

As mentioned last time, my plan at this point was to grow to four cities along the coast of my home continent, “Scandinavia,” and to flood the seas with ships. This is indeed what happened, but what came next was unexpected. Things are getting interesting! Read on:

Turn 57: Policy update.

We're in last place for science and culture. Gotta change that.
Policies: Maritime Industries, Urban Planning, Charismatic Leader, Inspiration (+2 great scientist pts).

We discover Auckland due west of Japan a turn later. It's another Industrial city-state. Combined with Toronto, any of us in Scandinavia could have become a wonder-force, but no one seems to be going in that direction.

Turn 59: The great overseas explorer longship discovers Nubia and Hong Kong, another Industrial city-state! With three of these on the board, someone could absolutely dominate the builder game if they wanted.

Turn 60: Empire Update (640 BC)

Turn 60: I settle Stavanger on Grease River, and Japan whines about it.

Turn 65: switch back Maritime for Conscription to pay fleet maintenance.

Policies: Conscription, Urban Planning, Charismatic Leader, Inspiration

Our attention begins to be pulled further west and we denounce Japan. The viking fleet is hungry and moves into Kyoto Bay. Five turns later we declare war. His ally, Brussels, declares war on us, which is great because it gives us that eureka for declarations of war – who knew city-states can cause this one?

The Kyoto Bay War (120 BC – 350 AD)

Turn 73: the fleet pulls into the Bay.

Turn 74: the viking hordes on land and sea.

The viking fleet tries its best to damage Kyoto but hits several snags. First, Kyoto is only exposed to the sea by one tile, meaning the units must attack one at a time and without flanking support. Second, quadriremes, which are weaker on attack than longships by 5, have a paltry range of 1, meaning that they too cannot reach Kyoto. I'd assumed they bombard from behind the longship. Alas, no dice. The first two turns are pretty successful as the longships do a fair amount of damage (~40%), but Japan quickly puts a couple of units in the city raising its defense high enough that each attack ends up doing barely 10 damage each. At this rate, it'll take about 20 turns to conquer Kyoto.

Initially, the hindrances at sea didn't seem like a problem. I'd used my considerable gold reserves to levy the armies of Armagh, with their not inconsequential 5 archers and 3 warriors. The land force began to move on Tokyo from the north. With luck, they'd be able to take the city and then finish off Kyoto.

Unfortunately, Germany got involved. A mere two turns into the war, they overtook my sovereign status in Armagh and I lost control of their entire army (with no refund of the gold!). This was disappointing and happened much faster than I'd anticipated. I thought that I'd get 5-8 turns at least!

Turn 75: Germany replaces me as sovereign of Armagh.

So without a land army to the north, the war dragged on. I eventually regain influence over Armagh a few turns later, but I cannot afford the increased cost of levying troops. I doesn't matter anyway because Germany replaces me, again, a few turns later.

The fleet raids the entire Japanese coast. Initially it was just in pursuit of healing for my slowly damaged ships, but the rewards were relatively substantial, so I basically went to town on everything I could hit. Soon after, Hojo asked for peace, but he was only willing to offer me Nagoya, a worthless, in-land village. Eventually he offered me Tokyo for 32 GPT, which I can afford (+34 GPT, but Tokyo has a harbor and I have more trade routes on the way). I accept and end the Kyoto Bay war.

Turn 81: Japan asks for peace.

Turn 86: Japan offers Tokyo for 32 GPT.

Turn 80: Empire Update (160 AD)

Turn 80: Scandinavia and Norway in 160 AD.

The Zhang Qian Error (40 AD)

Late during The Kyoto Bay War, I saw a Great Merchant with an awesome bonus that I thought would suit my trader-focused economy. Namely, Zhang Qian, who grants an additional trade route and +2 gold to both cities involved in foreign trade routes with the city. Thanks to my Norway bonuses, holy sites, Crater Lake, and now Stave Churches, I was generating an enormous amount of faith per turn, so it seemed like a worthwhile purchase at the time. I spent ~650 faith on him. Big mistake.

First, I discovered that Great Merchants, or at least this one, must be spent in a Commercial District, of which I had none (my economy is harbor based). So I set about building one in the only city without a harbor, Sarpsborg.

Second, I realized much too late that the Zhang's bonus is only with foreign trade routes, and because Sarpsborg is inland and without a harbor, the likelihood of traders reaching it was pretty unlikely.

Oh well. On the same turn that Tokyo was handed over, I was finally able to get my commercial district up and activate the merchant, so now I have 6 trade routes.

Turn 78: Zhang Qian in Alesund, where I'd hoped to settle him.

Session End

The world in 470 AD

Turn 90: Scandinavia in 470 AD.

Things are looking up quite a bit since last session. I'm happy with how things have gone, but I am still behind. I've located Joe and his super-spread out Russian Empire, but thanks to his pushed out borders, I can't see much yet. I recently discovered Cartography so I can build caravels and have begun upgrading some of the longships, but it's expensive (180g ea.). Russia is dominating in culture, and he clearly has room to expand. He's recently moved up to #1 in score.

Plan: I had seriously considered turning against Scythia, but neither their cities nor coastal tiles look worth the diplomatic hit I'd take for the attack. Their cities are more profitable as trading destinations, at least for now. So I think I'll be better off colonizing the other continent and using my fleet to protect the colonies and raid/attack the nearby city-states. China is particularly vulnerable to a sea-based attack, so creeping up on it makes sense, and China typically has good wonders to steal. Joe's Russia appears entirely disconnected from the sea, and while I plan to send some missionaries over there to investigate the situation, I don't think I'll ever be able to meaningfully attack from the sea. Not sure how I am going to deal with that, but he does not seem to be focusing on military much at all. Perhaps a lighting attack on the midlands before his cultural advances become dangerous? 

Till next time.