Turn 0 (550BC):
Worker chops deer. Horse unblocks the choke and joins his friends to the north. Lead settler backtracks a bit to join the lone worker roading toward Ta-Tu. Ta-tu will fall first and will be more defensible then sending the settler alone to Green-Dot. Slave in forest SE to start irrigation towards the lambs. Archer climbs mountain between the barb and camp.
Change some preferences to make movements faster and not renegotiate deals.
Starting from top down, I go through each city. Changes as follows:
- Karakorum - switch to barracks and rush at the cost of one foreigner.
- VV switch to harbor, it's cheap because we're militaristic, but could be switched to library when we know lit. 1HP Horse moved to Karakorum for the barrack coming next turn. The 3/4 Sword stays there to heal and cover VV.
- Kalmurkz uses river forest instead of BG, still growth in 1 (zyxy pointed this out in his posts so don't count this as MM I did.)
- OlSmurkzRiver switches to horseman. The swords are too slow at this point. It can use the freed BG from Kalmurkz, leaving a BG for Olive.
- HouseOfTheBeard switches to settler. I'm going to drop it's population to make the FPJ easier and to free up the MPs (as well as prepare for switching to Republic).
- Smurkzgrad switches to horseman.
- Oy switches to worker and use grass instead of forest for 2SPT. It will grow in 2 and will use the forest then for the extra 2 shields need for the worker. I know we need settlers, but Oy is still unimproved and could build settlers faster if it had more improvement.
- Move warrior and archer south from the western choke to have them help with barbs/India/upgrades. Wake the horse in Heim and send him north. The horse that made it as far as HotB will cover his area. Rename Warrior02 so he stops confusing me (he's a sword). Wake horseman in Albusmurkz and send him towards the front. The sword in Albusmurkz climbs the mountain leaving Albusmurkz undefended. I hope that draws the barb onto low ground for easier killing.
No good trading opportunities so I hold my breath and hit space.
IBT Ottoman pairs all move toward the Choke. Numidian appears by our settler/worker near Ta-Tu. Carthage settler pair appears south of our warrior/archer headed home (from a galley). That might be a good thing. A town in this jungle would be a good prison for Carthage. No Mongol movement.
Karakorum barracks>spear. Smurkheim settler>settler, reset to 5fpt.
Turn 1 (530BC): In general, I'm moving the horsemen from the south to Karakorm for an attack on the Ottoman towns. The swords are going towards Hippo. (I may by pass Kazan to get to Hippo with more power and have the horses from the Ottoman war swing around to grab Kazan later. It's size 2 but I can't attack it this turn. The catapults will be more useful against Carthage so they too will head toward that front instead of wasting time on Ta-Tu. The worker stack finish the road to Ta-Tu, allowing 3 swords and 2 archers to prepare for the attack next turn. Healed sword from VV covers the Settler/worker from the Numidian. The 3 worker stack moves to make the road to green dot. The sword stack near Kazan moves N into enemy territory. The 3 swords by Karakorum, follow road, then mountain to be near the Ottoman road.
To the West, the warrior/archer fortify waiting to see what the Carthage Settler pair does. Archer kills barb warrior in camp but horseman has appeared. Sword moves back into Albusmurkz since barb moved to other mountain instead of coming into the valley.
Workers finish a two mines near Olive in a chain reaction. The left over workers split to a)help Olive's deer chop and head north to start irrigating around New Ta-Tu. Worker in south moves to forest that will either help HotB or Albu with their settlers. I pull the worker out of the jungle at the choke to have him help improve the north as well. There is a lot of unimproved terrain up there.
MM Trying to figure out what zyxy means with the cow swapping, I give the cow to Grad who makes 3fpt for growth in 1, Horse in 1. Heim keeps lamb for 3f,5s. Adelphia gets all the BGs for 2f,8s. Oy works a coastal tile for 3f,2s, should grow, use forest and finish worker. Shift some plains around in Grad to let HotB use all plains for 3f,10s, finish settler in 1.
Trying to balance the food around Food and River They need two turns with 4FPT and 1 with 2FPT or 1 with 6FPT and 1 with 4FPT. Opt for the 2FPT using 1FP and 1 Foreset in River this turn. I will just keep trying to make sure they don't need 4FPT on the same turn.
Trading Ottomans have Construction. Construction costs 332g. Philosophy is worth 112g and our Map is worth 20g. Mongols have Construction also and would give it plus a worker for peace, but not their island city Ulaanbaatar. No Deals yet. I'm guessing Carthage with swap currency for construction.
IBT Numid attacks sword on the settler/worker and dies, promoting our sword to 4/5. Carthage archer appears near Ta-Tu stack. (I'll need to watchout leaving unprotected workers/cats.) Ottoman pairs generally move East instead of S. Indians want to talk: "No, not now!".
Grad horseman>settler, set to 1f,6s using both lakes. It will get more shields from the forests when it gets the cow back. Oy does finish it's worker>worker, Restart it's cycle at 3f,4s. Beard settler>settler at 3f,7s. River horse>horse will MM later.
Turn 2 (510BC):
Battle for Ta-Tu, I attack with the Elite swords first since we're not ready for a leader yet and I have a small attack group. First sword redlines the spear but then promotes him. Second sword redlines the spear but then dies. A third regular spear appears. I hope I have enough units. Regular sword wins at 3/4. Elite archer kills 2/4 spear and last unit kills 1/3 spear to raze the city and capture it's worker. With only three troops in the Ta-Tu area left, I'm praying Carthage doesn't have a big stack headed there. As it is, there is no defense for the archer from Carthages archer.
The Swords progress towards Hippo. The workers move to road towards Isnik. The horses fan out around Karakorum while they wait for the fresh troops to arrive. Archer kills barb horse to take 25g. The sword in Albu mirrors the barb warrior. A warrior from HotB is no longer needed for MP and moves to Grad where he could be upgraded if need be. Two worker pairs enter forests near River and Olive. I'd rather delay the chop but it's the only way I could avoid wasting move turns. The chops will help build a galley and a horse with no loss.
The galley has lost sight of the Mongol galley and is exploring the N tip of the island, without suiciding.
MM Heim gives up the lamb also so Grad and Adelphia can work forests for max shields. Grad finishes settler in an even 3 and Adelphia will be one shield over for settler in 2. The slower growth in Heim is slowing it's settler build too but I haven't done the math to see if it's worth it. It seems like it is since I want to lower the population in all core cities.
Since Food doesn't have a forest available, it gets set to 3fpt for the remaining 2 turns. Albusmurkz uses a FP and forest for 2fpt this turn. Next turn, it gets 2FP and grows.
IBT Carthage archer kills our wounded archer in the ruins of Ta-Tu. That was the straw that broke the camels back, our War Happiness is gone. Carthage indeed founds a prison camp.
Ottoman settler pair moves W towards Ta-Tu open land, The remaining 2 move south. I will leave it alone for now. Mongol archer emerges from Kazan near our Catapult stack.
Turn 3 (490BC):
Horseman kills Mongol Archer. Sword (3/4) kills Carthage archer. New Ta-Tu is settled set to Temple Prebuild for a Library, but I may change to a worker.
Slave on FP by Ta-Tu starts a road, two workers move to his tile and will finish road next turn.
Swords move towards Hippo bypassing Kazan. Unfortunately both Hippo and Kazan are size 1 so I'm going to have to replace both. Closest settler is 6 turns from Hippo. One settler is on the way. Workers move to road towards Isnik and Kazan. War with Ottomans will start in 2 turns so I'm following the Settlers with some units. Workers chop. Food's worker finishs his road and moves to finish HotB's mine. That worker is freed and moves to Food's other Grass tile to road. Warrior fortifies in Grad. Galley goes out and back Sea/Ocean/Sea/Coast. Nothing there, he'll head up the Eastern Seaboard.
Sword finally kills barb warrior.
MM Luxury raised to 10% now that war happiness is gone. Olive can be made happy by MM to more commerce, but Nansmurkzet needs the Horseman from Heim for MP. Heim gets lambs back from Adelphia. Deer goes 4f,2s. Albu uses 2 FP for growth in 1.
IBT All three Ottoman pairs head south.
Adelphia settler>horseman.
Turn 4 (470BC):
Move all (9) Horseman in the N to the forest by Ottoman's 2 cities. They are both above size 1 and I if I can take them the turn of war, we should capture both. Swords and horsemen cover all settler pairs with 2 units to spare.
Swords advance past Kazan. I'm thinking now that I should have gone straight for Leptis Minor since it's still at size 3. I may head that way if Hippo doesn't grow. A Numidian is on the Hills NE of L.Minor. Worker finished roading the forest by Deer and moves to mine one of the irrigated grasslands.
MM Nansmurkzet switches to settler to get rid of some unhappy people. It goes 0f,4s working 2 coasts for the settler to finish in one. Adelphia gets the lams back for growth in one. That leaves Heim at 2F,5s using the lake. It can finish it's settler and grow next turn when it takes back both Cow and Lamb. That put's it at 3.0, a result of giving food to Grad and Adelphia. The three FP towns are still sharing the FP tiles as follows: River always gets 2FPs and works a forest for 2 turns. Food gets 2FP on the first turn after growth, then 1FP for the remaining 2 turns. Albu gets 1FP and works a forest on the first turn after growth, then it gets 2FP.
Moving all the Horsemen towards Ottoman left Karakorum empty. Because of the whip, it's not happy and hires an entertainer for this turn.
IBT Ottoman pairs move south. It looked like a Numid moved from the hills NE of L.Minor 2 spaces to the tile S of the gold. I know they only have a movement of 1 so there's 2 Numids SE of Karakorum. A sword also comes from L.Minor. Hope I haven't spread myself too thin.
Grad settler>horse at 1F,6S. Deer worker>worker. Nan settler>horse. Olive galley>galley. The worker chop will get the deer tile to give 3fpt, growing in one.
Turn 5 (450BC):
Move some of the swords in position to protect the tiles from Numids. Get the cap and settler out of the numidian's range.
I demand Contruction from Osman until he is furious. Then I tell him to get out but he conceeds. Guess I have to declare myself.
First horse attacks warrior pair on our road and takes only 1HP before dying. Second horse kills the warrior ending 2/4. Elite Sword redlines
against second warrior but finishes him off. Veteran sword also redlines against spear on the hill but kills him. 6 new slaves captured.
Osman cheated and whipped something in Edrine so it's only size 1. First horse attacks Iznik and retreats from 2/3 spear. Second horse kills r-spear and reveals the 2/3. Third horse dies after redlining the wounded spear. He didn't promote? Fourth horse dies and now spear promotes. Fifth horse wins at 2/4 and Iznik is ours. The new borders reveal a spear/settler pair I missed to the SE. With only four horses left and Edrine whipped, I opt to chase the settler instead of attacking Edrine. Veteran horse scores a flawless victory and two more slaves are ours. I move one horse in and out of edrine to check the status of the road. It's unconnected so our wounded horses are save from counterattack. Remaining 2 horses escort two catapults to the Numidian, who go 1 for 2 and drop the Numid to 2/3. The horses fortify, thinking we're going to be better off with him attacking. I don't have a better defender to cover.
The new galley head north also. This is probably a waste since it's all explored. I'll Turn him around next turn.
MM With spices now in our possession, I can go back to 0% Lux with no unhappiness. Horse is returned to Heim from Nansmurkzet for better response to danger.
Heim gets both Cow and Lambs for growth in 1, should complete settler if the forest is picked. Got Adelphia Grad and Nan both doing 6spt by stealing BG from Oy Deer. I think it won't need the shields to complete the worker. HotB will grow and make settler next turn. I'm not sure it would pick a forest in this case so I set it to the required 9S. Olive is switched to Barracks so that the forest chops will be used for different things and nothing will be wasted. FP towns MM per the plan.
Save to do some work stuff.
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) and making ~10 Warriors that could be upgraded in Karakorum or River before travelling to Carthage. 400g would take less than half of our account right now and all the lower cities can make swords every other turn. If you don't mind regular swords, the Northern cities could switch to warrior builds so they don't have to walk as far.
