PBEM - Dark Ages Always War [Plantagenet]

Team discussion for the House of Plantagenet in the PBEM - Dark Ages Always War game.

Our land (thumbnails, click on to get bigger pics) ...

North


Middle


South


Note the signs with x:y (from bottom left corner) for quicker tile reference and discussion.

Observations about this game:

• This game is about hammers - build stuff, destroy their stuff
• As such, every city should be positioned to maximize the hammer output
• Except for a city that blocks the desert bridge (if any)

Things that I think need discussion:

• City locations
• Build orders
• Attack or defense
• Attack vectors - over land bridge or mass fleet of galleys
• Scouting
• Pillaging
• Scout / Pillage party composition
• SoD composition - this can wait
• Player order - do we have one player that does all the waring and the other just builds units and gifts them or do we both build SoD and invade - both options have pluses and minuses
• other?

This post will contain the information that I can glean from the demo screens.

880AD
Implications:

• all players have 2 cities
• one of their cities is coastal
• city sizes
  • Me: 3, 3
  • You: 2, 2
  • Them1: 5, 2
  • Them2: 2, 2
• Military:
  • Me: Zero
  • You: 4 x Longbow
  • Them1: 2 x Longbow
  • Them2: 2 x Longbow

I'll add additional turns as we go to the bottom of this thread.

I've played my turn, settled my capital and sent my other settler to its city spot (found on Turn 2).

I have also marked up suggested city sites for Karhu. I plan on sending my Explorers into their territory - you should do the same. Explorers are pretty strong until a melee unit or knight shows up.

Karhu, finally reporting in for duty!
Still living out of a bag and shopping for a new car, but it's the weekend so.....

Agreed that scouting is well worth the associated "risks". If one scout is lost, the other can always be pulled back to watch for an invading force. Also the X:Y coordinate thing is really nice. Will be particularly good for military actions.

I concur with your "observation" and "discussion" lists.

So, I was thinking we should start off defensively; Aiming to get a second city up quickly to increase our overall hammer output faster. If an invasion is imminent, then we can churn out some troops to meet it. What do you think, Ruff?

Also, it looks like maybe my 2nd city should be on top of the stone, as i'm a little closer.

I was just thinking.... (dangerous, I know)

Should we be taking screen shots of the demographic screen? With you first, and me last, we could get a good idea if they are producing troops each turn.

first turn, played and sent.
I took your suggestion on a capital site, and am heading for the stone as well. I see you going to chop out a forge; shouldn't we chop out another worker first?

duh! totally missed the 'chop a worker' trick. Doing that now. I was planning on whipping a worker - chop is better.

Agree re demo screens - you can get an incredible amount of information out of them if you work it correctly.

Re start - get city growing, whip to complete required buildings / settlers / workers, connect resources.

I would like to aim to getting a raiding party into their lands (depending on what the scouts show us) soon.

Q: What constitutes a raiding party? Knight, crossbow, spear - move, knight razes, move ... etc

I think an early build at stone city is a mace to take out incoming explorers.

good idea on the mace. if my long bows are quick enough they could step into the desert and stop explorers there.

civics....
I forgot to change mine the first round!

I haven't changed yet either - waiting until I need them or until something else happens.

they are trying to block off the bridge, but my explorer made it onto their stone before the longbows could get there. We'll see if i still have my explorer next turn.

wow - maybe we camp out on their stone hill and block them. Explorers are hard to kill without melee or knights - that will take them some time. Any sign of a settler - I'll check the demographics to see if they have 4 cities.

well - seems like my 'explorers are hard to kill' comment was wrong. I should have WB'd it to see what the success rate is. We are now blocked from their lands (sigh). I will pull back my explorer 1 tile to watch them. Will need to try and block them if they try running an explorer past.

just WB'd the two fights ...

Longbow v Explorer on Hill ... 70%
Longbow v Explorer on Forest ... 36%

I am going to try and sneak my explorer past their longbows - have a 1 in 3 chance of success.

Edit: no luck - they have blocked the way.

yeah, i couldn't get into a forest, so i took a chance with the hill. At first I thought it was a big lost; but really it's not so bad sense everyone seems blocked off anyway.

Here is an overview of the game so far ...

The Good Guys (that's us) are on the Western part of a TeamBattleGround map (LvR with land bridge). I am white and Karhu is Blue ...



The bad guys (that's them) are in Red and Yellow. We cannot see into their lands because they have blocked our passage (Karhu lost his scout trying to get through) ...



At the moment, everybody is in 'getting up to speed' mode. I have 2 workers as does Karhu but we haven't connected any strategic resources yet. I have just swapped civics to Hereditary Rule (this mod includes the ability to cash rush with this civic), vassalage (+2XP) and Serfdom (quicker worker actions). Next turn, I will rush another worker and start my 4th in my capital ...



That is pretty nice and once I get the food and mines set up, the Bad Guys are in for a lot of hurt.

My other city in the back lines ...



... is in some sad need of worker action. My two workers who just finished farming the corn will be heading over to hook up the iron and horses. Then I will put out a couple of knights and see what I can find out about our opponents. I think the team that gets into the back field of the opposition (pillage!!) will win this.

Karhu's cities ...



Nice and with Iron too - needs to hook that up and start producing some pikes and maces. I think Karhu is going to play defense while I play offense.

His other city ...



Oh yes - blocking their entry. I am sending my longbow up to help with the screening (a trick I picked up from the bad guys). They could have got a scout past if they had risked it.

So, still early days, but we are gearing up our worker actions to connect our resources. Note that Karhu will not have his horses connected for a while.

my longbow would have got him out in the open desert.

I'm going to chop one more worker, then I'm thinking of hooking up the cows, followed by iron. (this is all in my capital.)

Heads up ruff, they've moved a longbow next to your explorer.

Looks very interesting. Can't beat a good ol Medieval free for all