SGOTM 17 - Plastic Ducks

shakabrade said:

Silver canal won't be that bad. It does have gold in second ring, GLH bonus and will most certainly speed the troops up. My faith in importance of that city is immense.

Click to expand...

When I suggested GLH in stone city, I thought that the gold city will offer an intercontinental route and the AIs in south will offers a lots of trade routes of 3C as well. The fact now is that those routes all belong to the same continent. Therefore GLH is quite weak, it gives 4C for each coastal city before Currency and enough AI cities available. With currency, soon GLH will only offer 2C per city when our cities are more than half of friendly AI's cities (we will war with 1 AI all the time and the war will likely disable more AI's trade routes).

I see very clearly that silver canal will be a big economic hole before working the gold (unfortunately this situation will last for at least 30+ turns since I don't see an easy way to get Music in short time). However, as I said many times, every decision has the trade-off. I have difficulty now to decide the movement of 2nd stack without enough map information, which IS a big strategical decision. The economical loss from silver canal is rather trival compared with a strategical mistake, it probably worth a UB.

Edit:

With kossin taking the game during the weekend, anyone volunteers to take next, we really have tense schedule to meet the deadline.

I've gotten permission to take some work with me at home... so this means I'm a bit more flexible with the schedule for a week or so.

For instance, next Monday is Victoria Day in Canada, which means it's a holiday. I will therefore split today's work within the next 4 days ... so a bit less time each day, but I can play today.

~~~

@shakabrade
No problem man, please take care of your wife and yourself. We will gladly take your support and advice if you can offer it

@Duckweed
Scrap/keep GLH? Perhaps a settler is a more sensible option.

@game
After trading for HBR, I intend to start mixing in War Elephants in the builds. I'm going to skip Stables as the 2 xp doesn't offer that much given that I don't think we will build too many of them... mainly for dealing with wandering XBows and LBows.

Movement
This is probably the fastest route to Djenne - assuming it doesn't pop borders (500).


2 closest workers can be re-routed for this.

Promotions
No promotions until we start assaulting first city.

LK: City Raider promotions
XB: Drill promotions
WE: Combat promotions (protection against bows + mounted)

Trebs: would you like 1~2 dedicated to bombardment?
(CR2 treb vs CG2 LB with 4% defense is 55.4%, with 0% it's 56.8%)

Secondary stack
Given that our main stack is still thin, initial reinforcements are likely to be sent to the front rather than formed to work on Gao immediately.

Unless MM is stupid enough to leave only a Chariot there... after capturing KS we can see if MM still only has a Chariot in Gao, we can then decide to send in a lone LK to attempt an easy capture.

Thanks, kossin, for skipping in.

First, I like the bestsss' tech ttades.

@kossin

It is often good to bring couple of workers with SoD for tactical flexibility. Who do you intend to dedicate for worker protection?

I'd like one Accuracy treb. It will take care of 4% in Kumbi Saleh and 8% in Djenne. After that, if any treb getting heavily wounded can be dedicated to bombarding rather than waiting for healing and losing on progress.

If memory serves me right, I think there is a LK coming from IC very soon. It can attempt for a cheap shot against Gao. There is a worker near MC which can build a road to speed the movement up. I am not sure whether there are more workers available for the task now that 2 of them are going with SoD.

I see no need for scraping GLH. It is a weaker wonder on this map, but it does bring gold and will make strikes come later.

XBow in forest is most versatile defender we can have for workers.

Movement of the SoD is most important imo, I'd sacrifice a chance at taking a cheap shot at Gao for it. (Besides, I'd wager MM is building a longbow there based on espionage screen).

I also prefer to take a chance of sending 1 LK to Gao if we could spare it, if Mansa whips LB, then just wait for treb in the next wave.

I agree with faster route to Dj as UnforcedError suggested previously. Are you sure that DJ has no more than 500 culture?

The silver canal settler party could be produced in Silver peak and nearby cities. GLH still could offer 10~20 CPT, not too bad.

Duckweed said:

I agree with faster route to Dj as UnforcedError suggested previously. Are you sure that DJ has no more than 500 culture?

Click to expand...

At turn 80 - 265, 90 - 341 - so probably less than 450 right away.

Hmm, that means it'll be quite tight for the road but we should just about make it. There are 3 nearby workers that can make it in time for T104 but I'll use the one sitting by MC and the one 2W of BF. The 2 rectangles indicate irrigation spread towards the MC rice.


Unless MM's culture does not retract as my tests have shown, the above should work.


General notes:
T103
Trade Eng+Aes <-> CS MM
Trade Compass <-> HBR+Sury gold
Trade Compass <-> Medi+QSH gold
DoW!

Next round of units will be mainly Trebuchets as those are the likely heavier casualties of war and most important to continue warring swiftly. Depending on casualties, Forges can be started next or another round of unit instead... but I don't intend to play too many turns without consulting.

The settler can wait a wee bit as we'll need an accompanying LK anyway (which can't be spared right now). Maybe in ~5 turns.

I have my fingers crossed that Mansa will switch into Bureaucracy in T102, while remaining in Caste.

There is no LK from IC. It is actually a treb. I mixed real game with one of the tests.

Sorry.

But now we could spare a LK from SoD. I built 3 LKs in the turnset.

@kossin

BF could whip LK to replace one from SoD and others finish their trebs.

Worker east of Marble can invade with SoD while worker which is inside SoD could Road to Gao. Worker near SP can stop mining and connect the road to Mansa once it is safe.

I have my fingers crossed that Mansa will switch into Bureaucracy in T102, while remaining in Caste.

Click to expand...

Joining

I'll start playing in ~half an hour, any more comments are welcome.

I'd still favor building the GLH. If nothing else, our capital is coastal. The trade routes + Palace + unhappiness would justify a Market (perhaps the only one).

Dosh, GLH is on, worry not.

Just to be on a safe side, I want to remind that not all moves are made in this turn. There is a trebuchet to be whipped, forest to be chopped, maybe more...

Good luck, kossin!

just, good luck! I believe it's all settled

T103
Sury and MM have met. Thanks for the finger crossing


Unfortunately the above also shows that Sury doesn't like us anymore after trading with his worst enemy, preventing trade with him for HBR.


Still QSH can trade it. I can still trade Compass to Sury for 30 gold afterwards so that QSH doesn't have a trading chip. Let me know, I'll move units in the meantime.

Taking the wimpy trade should allows us to trade w/ him again I guess.

Make both trades or neither.

I'd personally delay, because as much as I like Elephants, we don't need them just yet. Let one of Qin or Sury research Compass on their own, or wait until a better trade shows up (> 30G). Each trade pushes the southern landmass closer to Engineering.

Xpost with bestsss, who I knew would favor the trade.

A tie uh? I'll wait a few minutes for someone to pitch in, if not I'll delay the trade.

Make the trade.

And shakabrade breaks the split!



T104
MM abandons Gao...


First casualty, still a decent job.


Ugh, made a stupid mistake took the city with the lone XBow meant for the worker protection.

kossin - live from the battle field!