LotR13 - Player to be Named Later
1500 BC (0)
Quick self-refresher on the rules, being in 3 AW at once could be a hinderance. Kill all the units you want, wherever you want. Pillage to your heart's content. Never attack a city with anything but culture.
We've got a decent land grab going, but are starting to get that "surrounded" feeling. I
think the Zulu are in the West, and the mysterious owners of Iznik are North of the lake. So maybe we can expand south a bit in peace, but we need about 200 workers to make that terrain productive anytime soon.
Iznik infringes on a couple of our dots, and I wonder how tightly to settle. Do we want abutting first rings, or overlapping first rings? I think we want overlapping, and a whipped Temple ASAP. Probably won't get to do that on these turns, but soon.
We have 12 gold and are going for Poly in 17. Unless the south is completely empty, Monarchy is not going to be profitable for a long time. But too many beakers in to switch now, and maybe we'll get to trade it to our 3rd contact. We are way under our unit cap. That's a good thing.
City-check: Speaker is swapped to a Temple, with a whip looming. T-Hawk's Warrior may be auto-switched unless we can't connect the iron in the next two turns. I like Gothmog's worker, although I worry this may become a front-line city soon. Charis will go Worker --> Temple (whip). More culture early. Skyfish is a terrific city to build a Wonder in, once we get a couple of other military cities. Arathorn can make 10 spt at size 6, but at low surplus food. Will make a Spear-Settler pair timed to growth to size 7 possible, though. I reluctantly agree that a worker is the proper build, we need another one right now.
Now for some MM. We are running a 20% lux tax only for Arathorn. Since it is building a worker next turn, the surplus food this turn is irrelevant. Lower lux to 10%, picking up 4 gold. Then create a Scientist to shave 2 turns off of Poly. This works so well, I set the capital to 0 food surplus, and create another Scientist, lowering the lux tax to 0%. This shaves another turn off of Poly. That then allows me to give a tile to T-Hawk so it can complete its Warrior in 2 to coincide with growth. And the best news is that I get to undo all of this next turn. Since there is no difference between 5 spt and 6 spt with the units we can build, Skyfish works the lake instead of an unroaded BG, for a net gain of 2 lightbulbs.
Poly is now due in 12 at +2 gpt.
Finally, I wake up the worker clearing the jungle tile between Arathorn and Gothmog. I set it to build a road. This is a waste of worker turns, but the critical thing is to connect Gothmog to the capital so it and Arathorn can form a common defense front. When the Ottos show up, it will be at Gothmog. The road will complete by turn 5.
<Return>
IT - I stand corrected, an Otto warrior appears on the outskirts of Speaker. At least I know where to send the Spear now.
1475 BC (1)
Arathorn: Worker --> Spear, border expansion encompasses Horse tile.
Reset lux tax to 10%, and put all of Arathorns citizens to work. I can get away with working the forest for one turn, then Arathorn will get the BG back from T-Hawk.
Here's Osman! And he already has an Elite Warrior. Dial him up to see what the Dilly Yo. Trade IW for Masonry and 31 gold. Might be
to give him access to Swords, but he would get the tech as soon as the Zulu wandered by, and I want Walls. Declare war on his scruffy self.
Spear moves to Speaker, and road will complete after T-Hawks warrior is completed.
Arathorn's worker moves to jungle to connect Gothmog.
Reg. Warrior moves to Charis, I really don't like empty cities in AW.
Shuffle tiles around a bit, and bump science up a notch. Net result is Poly in 13 at +2 gpt, with 45 in the bank. I want the option to upgrade a Warrior if necessary.
IT - Now I see a blue guy in the South. From what I recall, this is Korea. We'll see when he shows up on F4.
1450 BC (2)
I think the Otto Warrior is going for Skyfish. A vet Spear will be waiting for him.
T-Hawk grows and produces a Warrior, set to Spear.
Well, the blue guy is on F4, and it is Germany! Before I chat, I start the unit shuffle. T-Hawk's Warrior to Arathorn, Arathorn's Warrior
and Archer to Charis. Der Kaiser has an Elite Warrior on a vector for Charis, and our units will be unfortified when he attacks. Lux tax to 20% to keep everyone working and the Capital growing. Poly is now in 12 at -3 gpt.
The Krauts have three cities, but lots of tech and gold [Specifically, Alphabet, HBR, and 120 gold]. No deals possible, and I make fun of Bizzies male pattern baldness in declaring war.
From a little diplomatic espionange, the Zulu have neither Iron nor Horses. IIRC, Biz had neither as well. I can't remember about the Ottos.
Drop science to 30% to build up some cash in case I need an emergency Sword.
IT - Otto Warrior approaches our Warrior/Worker combo. German Warrior at the doorstep of Charis.
1425 BC (3)
Well, the Germans aren't really a threat, as Charis has a vet Warrior, vet Archer and reg Warrior defending it.
The Otto Warrior is more complex. I decide the best course of action is to give our combo an Archer cover as well. The other problem we have is that the road we are building between T-Hawk and Speaker crosses the river, so we'll have to double back to finish off a segment.
IT - The archer cover works, taking an HP off of the Elite attacker, and our Warrior wins while red-lining. The Zulu have a reg Warrior adjacent to our small stack, but could be going for the empty (vacuous?) T-Hawk. Ugh. The German Warrior fortifies rather than attacking. Damn Technokrauts and their mad mathematical skillz. Our first Sword will have to deal with this guy. The Ottos send a regular Warrior from Iznik to ???
1400 BC (4)
Temple whipped in Speaker.
Arathorn: Spear --> Spear
Skyfish: Spear --> Spear
Getting a little "caught in-between" on some of these builds. I know we need some more cities, but I can't figure where we have to strongly defend yet.
Skyfish spear goes to T-Hawk.
Eventually decide to swap some tiles around to get Arathorn 10 spt, and a 5-turn Spear-Settler cycle.
Bump Sci-slide up a notch, we'll have 60 gold next turn.
IT - Ottos move to threaten worker, Zulu make a smart choice of tile. Won't help them unless they are really lucky, though. The German warrior is getting a friend in blue
1375 BC (5)
Gothmog: Worker --> Walls
Speaker: Temple --> Walls
You know, I think the trip from Arathorn to Gothmog requires crossing a river! We'll see when the road completes.
Upgrade a vet Warrior to Sword, can't budge lux tax. Poly is in 17. Still.
IT - Road completes, no one tries to attack us?
1350 BC (6)
Arathorn: Spear --> Settler, timed for growth to 7.
Archer clears out Zulu Warrior, promotes to Elite.
Now I see that it does not require crossing a river to go from Arathorn to Gothmog.
IT - So the vet German Warrior attacks Charis, takes an Archer shot, and still beats our vet Warrior. So why didn't the Elite Warrior attack? Does he have Performance Anxiety?
![[pimp]](/images/smilies/pimp.gif "Pimp [pimp]")
1325 BC (7)
Sword now in place in Charis, will attack the Germans next turn.
IT - Injured Kraut runs away.
1300 BC (8)
Skyfish: Spear --> Sword. I think we can get Sword --> Worker timed at growth to 6.
Charis: Worker --> Temple, with a whip forthcoming.
Vet Sword takes out the trash at Charis.
You know, no one is building the Pyramids. Skyfish can build them in ~50 turns with a little TLC. I am sorely tempted, but we need someone to build military. Skyfish will just have to be content with building the Great Library.
Poly in 10 @ -1 gpt. I'll have to re-jigger the sliders next turn.
1275 BC (9)
Arathorn: Settler --> Sword?
Our sword kills other, injured German Warrior.
Charis swapped to Walls (it makes 2 spt), so it can complete that and get an 18-shield whip upon growth to size 2.
On a side note, we have almost double the culture of the next nearest civ.
OK, have it figured out now. Arathorn --> Gothmog is one turn, Gothmog --> Arathorn is two.
IT - Nothing.
1250 BC (10)
Gothmog: Walls --> Worker
T-Hawk: Archer -->
Settler. The city makes +4 fpt, eminently vetoable. The city is probably best for farming workers, as it can only get decent shields by poaching from our other two military cities. Might be better off with a Temple.
Archer joins the settler group heading SW. To where, I have no idea.
I leave the settler and Spear with 2/3 of a move. Arathorn can decide where he wants this city. It does not appear possible to get the Banana S-S of the Horses, and be within 1 move of our other cities. The other option I see is N-W-NW from Skyfish, with the next city W-W-SW from Skyfish. Both of those cites can get multiple 2-food tiles at founding, and will shield Skyfish should we choose to build wonders there. That's the other reason I was thinking of popping a settler off of T-Hawk, things are fairly quiet, so we have a chance to expand in relative peace.
Final Notes:
Poly is in 6 at +0 gpt with 8 in the bank.
Arathorn can be MM'd to complete the Sword on the turn of growth, although it would delay whatever T-Hawk is building. And
Arathorn should watch because .. umm ... he'll riot on growth to size 6 without another MP. (I can never remember whether the unit production occurs before or after the happiness check.)
As of my last turn ... The Ottos have neither Iron nor Horses, and we have more cities than them. Shaka-la has more cities and tech than us, but no resources. Bizzizmark has Horses but not Iron, and is up the same visible techs as Shaka. The Krauts are smaller than us, so the path of least resistance may be to push south.
We are the only ones to have non-capital culture, so we are almost double everyone else.
Picture and Save in next post.
I declare war.
) and that free settler add up to reducing the game by half a difficulty level or more. I'm glad we picked Monarch. 
And I don't find it confusing at all.
) turns, so maybe they got the techs from huts. Better techs than settlers or cities, I say!
?
So I resized the image to fit better in the turn-log post.
