ALC Game #4: Egypt/Hatshepsut

[Nares]

In my haughty, arrogant oppinion, north was not the direction to settle in. I've always been a proponent of cities on the edge of the jungle, since they have so much future potential. When making choices in expansion, I always gravitate towards the warm, wet jungles and their opportunities for commerce rather than the drier temperate zones.

The value of going north is that you don't have tons of jungle choking you. Until you can put a ton of worker turns into cutting all that down the city will be much more limited than the northern sites, the north will require a lot less worker attention.

Hans. Bubby.

You're looking at close to 60 worker turns just to get cities in the deep jungle up to growth. Maybe you could get away with 45-52 here, if you couple it with pure Farm improvements (okay, maybe it's really only as low as 30-36 just to get growth initiated...but that's certainly not enough to get growth at reasonable levels).

More expansion to the north might be ill advised, but planting anything in the deep jungle when you're only running one or two workers is a massive waste of resources.

Not to say the southwestern Copper site isn't a good city (I like the Gem/Rice/Copper/Banana combo, even if it looks to be placed by the AI {one tile off the coast...}). But it's a heavy investment, and very much counter-productive to engaging in an early war, even if it means building roads towards some enemies rather than away from them.

With a big and currently unsettled continent your chariots are likely to be busy suppressing barbarians so won't be wasted.(Think Catherine cottage spam)

I found only a handful of War Chariots are needed for this. 1 per city, perhaps one or two more overall, for multi-barb pops inc on a single city. A key fog buster or two might even eliminate the need for those. Especially given the generic barb setting ran in these games. We're not exactly talking about raging barbs.

EDIT: No less, with the near constant WC building that can be ran (we're talking 1-2 turns per WC in Thebes and Memphis), you'll never really be unprepared for barbarians even if you empty your cities regularly (aside from the one guy for Happiness).

To Sis and all the other people contribuing...

Ha, take that Sissy.

PS: Screw the Copper. What do you really need it for? WCs are the only units that can get there in time...

 

[stuge]

Sisiutil, if you're still planning to attack with chariots, here's some of my experiences with them.

If the enemy has two, unpromoted archers in a city with no defensive bonus whatsoever, you'll need four war chariots to reliably take the city. If the archers have city garrison promotions, things get ugly. So to take three cities, one being a capitol, you'd better bring at least ten chariots.

I once managed to take out Washington with only chariots but he was right next door to me and didn't have copper. Going up against enemies who are far away and possibly have spearmen is much harder.

So I'd go with using the WCs to stunt your opponents' growth. Just expand by using settlers and attack only to prevent the AI placing cities at the cherrier locations.

 

[Nares]

So I'd go with using the WCs to stunt your opponents' growth. Just expand by using settlers and attack only to prevent the AI placing cities at the cherrier locations.

From what I've seen, there's not enough choice locations to settle in at this point. There's some good spots in the Jungle, but, this early in the game, that's as bad as settling in the Desert (not quite, because those Jungle cities would at least have a future, but not for a significant amount of time).

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Sisiutil, if you're still planning to attack with chariots, here's some of my experiences with them.

If the enemy has two, unpromoted archers in a city with no defensive bonus whatsoever, you'll need four war chariots to reliably take the city. If the archers have city garrison promotions, things get ugly. So to take three cities, one being a capitol, you'd better bring at least ten chariots.

I once managed to take out Washington with only chariots but he was right next door to me and didn't have copper. Going up against enemies who are far away and possibly have spearmen is much harder.

So I'd go with using the WCs to stunt your opponents' growth. Just expand by using settlers and attack only to prevent the AI placing cities at the cherrier locations.

Well I think the plan was almost pure Harrass (which only needs ~ 2 WC per enemy) while waiting for Axes. Throw in opportunistic city capture/raising (for about 4-6 for one enemy ie Caesar) and then you have the abiltiy to hold them back in their capitals while you build the Swords needed to crush a capital with Archers. (Swords that can use WC for protection)

 

[Lance of Llanwy]

I'm so bent on Vicky because it's the same scenario as the game I stomped Genghis...except the positions are reversed. They can be very, very effective, but, I suppose JC would be the better primary target, as he's closer. You may wish to build satellite cities closer to your fronts, as long as they can be dropped in good spots. This means that you can get a road network going throughout the continent, and the workers can be defended by WCs that're en route to the front. This gives you nearby cities that can pump out axemen if the need arises, and allows axes/swords/WCs/whatever to get in from Thebes and Memphis faster. Snag the marble first though...CoL from a slingshot seems like it'll be a very juicy propisition in this situation. Other than that....well, your warmongering may have to forego the other early wonders, unless the Parthenon sticks around(which is seems to do). No matter...you should be done by the time you hit Liteture, and the GL will help boost you. And speaking of GLs....looks like you're going to have a lot of coastal cities, so why not going for the unsung GL? It's a fairly cheap wonder, so long as production is good...

 

[pigswill]

So if using chariots primarily for pillaging/worker suppression (and picking off any settlers not escorted by spears) do you then go for axe/sword stack to finish opponents off or settlers to start cities (you do both of course but in which order?).

 

[KrikkitTwo]

I'd say swords/Axes... maybe a Jungle settler (for a 'Road Watching City'), an eliminated opponent requires no further attention, a crushed opponent requires constant attention.

 

[pigswill]

So maybe go for a plan of city#3 for copper, I'd favour east as closer to Jules but it ain't that important, thebes and memphis start pumping out chariots, once city#3 (is it elephantine?heliopolis?) gets established then start building axes. Memphis could interrupt chariot build to establish a city for marble (or just build oracle in thebes without marble) for CoL slingshot. If you're looking at swords then possibly looking at establishing another city for iron though you may be lucky.
Go for Jules first anyway, you might be able to finish him off just with chariots depending on how soon you get a stack established.
Edit:One thing to consider is that if your warfare is succesful you could end up with 6-8 cities by 1AD, several of them at a significant distance so maintenance will become an issue. Good argument for early CoL for courthouses and forbidden palace.

 

[Sisiutil]

Round 4: to 925 BC

Okay. First, let me get this out of the way: those of you who are shadowing me and getting all those techs from goody huts--I hate you.

There. I feel much better.

Now, on to the recap.

In this round, things finally started coming together. I built city #3, Heliopolis, based upon Hans' suggestion:

Those lucrative floodplains are going to be very handy. Cottage spam, here I come. Once the workers have the basic resources hooked up, I'm going to lay down cottages all over the place.

I also finally got the horses hooked up and started producing chariots. It turned out that I had a few production cycles to burn before that happened, however, so I took another of Hans' suggestions and built barracks in Thebes and Memphis.

As you can see, Thebes hit its happiness limit the following turn. I've now stagnated growth in the city to keep that from becoming a problem. I could whip it away, I now, but Thebes has become a production powerhouse, you see, thanks to...

Check out where the iron appeared:

So I finally got some luck with the resource placment. And I had iron hooked up before the copper! There's not many games where I've had that happen, even playing as Rome. Actually, having iron appear underneath a Worker's feet as he was laying down a road made the copper a much lower priority. I had the worker over by Heliopolis hook up the cows first to assist with city growth. The copper will follow for production.

As you can also see, my first War Chariots started appearing. Again, following Hans' suggestions, I gave them all Combat I promotions. I sent the first one over towards Caesar to do some raiding. I had much better luck there than I did sniffing around London:

Ooooh, a fat, juicy little Worker, ripe for the plucking. How could I resist?

I think I captured a total of three Workers from Caesar, one in the form of a Settler. I gotta say that Combat I WCs do very well in the field against Archers, even when the latter are in the jungle. The WCs started earning their Level 3 promotions quickly. Most got Combat II, but I gave a couple Medic I as well.

The WCs were also reasonably adept at city raiding:

Antium I razed. I don't need the maintenance costs, nor the worker cycles to hack away all that jungle. As you can see from the way my treasury is going, the infusion of gold came just in time. I was able to finish researching Writing on schedule while still running at 100% research. I then approached Isabella with a proposition:

Woody II, my promoted Warrior, had pretty much explored all the other territory in the middle of the continent. Letting him run freely around Spain extended his usefulness. (Woody I, the Scout, I'm sorry to say fell to a barb Warrior.)

Isabella has been busy expanding and has at least three cities. They are defended by a mix of Archers and Warriors. She definitely doesn't have Iron Working yet--there's iron in her territory with no mines or even roads to it--and I'm not sure if she even has copper.

I'm considering her as my next target, because Caesar is done like dinner:

I razed Rome. Yeah, yeah, I know there's stone over there, but I don't have Masonry, I'm not wonder-building, and I, uh, pillaged the quarry. Probably not one of my wisest moves, but I was in a pillaging mood.

Rome was badly placed; it should be one tile west to snag the two Ivory tiles (EDIT: and the rice tile). As it is, it's one of the most poorly-placed capitals I've ever seen. And it wasn't a holy city either. I'll rebuild there later. Since Vicky and Izzy are so far south and on the other side of a jungle, it's unlikely they'll rush settlers there. Barbs may be a problem, but the WCs should be able to deal with them.

Sensing that Izzy and Vicky may be tougher targets, what with those religions potentially raising their cities' defense levels, I've changed Thebes' build orders:

I've also got a couple of workers building a road heading south to speed up the transfer of troops. The healthy WCs are heading down there while the injured ones heal with a couple of Medic I WCs on top of what used to be Rome. I already have two Level 4 units, both now at Combat III; one of my WCs won a battle versus a City Garrison I Archer in Rome against astounding odds--around 25% or so. He jumped from 4 XPs to 9. I only lost two WCs against Rome, and only one taking the capital itself.

Isabella may be my next target because I've scouted more of her territory. Woody II has found her capital:

Better situated than Rome, at least, and it's a holy city, so I'm pretty much obliged to keep it. That 60% defense is going to be costly unless I can get Catapults sometime soon. Given my current research level--unlikely. I think it's just going to require brute force--overwhelming numbers and several losses. The other option is to take her other, easier cities, sue for peace (and hopefully a tech or two), go after Vicky and whittle her down, and by then I should, hopefully, have Cats.

Along the way to either Spain or London, a barb city has appeared in the jungle. I'm definitely going to take it out, since it's easy pickings, free XPs, and on the way south:

The question in my mind is, do I keep it or raze it? It's not too badly situated--lots of grassland, rivers, and four luxury resources in its fat cross. On the other hand, it misses the cow and is not next to the river. The cow, however, should probably belong to the city that claims the horse tile nearby.

Here's the big picture at 925 BC:

Now I have more decisions to make, and keeping or razing that barb city will be among the least of them.

Who do I attack next? I have more intel on Isabella, and she's somewhat closer, but Victoria is (slightly) higher in score. As I said regarding the capitals' defense level, I may have to settle for crippling each of them in turn before cats are available to take the holy cities. Isabella is, as you can see, encroaching towards me, whereas I haven't seen any signs of Vicky yet--no surprise, she has a desert as well as a jungle to cross to get anywhere near me.

What should I build next, and where? Heliopolis' barracks are almost complete and its copper mine will be on-line soon, so I can, potentially, change Thebes' build queue from military to civilian. I'm thinking I should build two Settlers to grab the marble and the stone. I'll have to research Masonry or trade for it, though either one will take awhile; I see what several of you meant regarding Hatty's slow research levels.

How should I improve my research? Another thing that appeals to me about keeping that barb city is that it looks like it could be a good commerce/science city, perhaps even a GP farm later in the game. I don't have a good commerce city yet; Heliopolis, with its floodplains, could do well in that regard once I get cottages going on them. Should I keep Thebes building military units and have Heliopolis handle the civilian builds, or at least a library?

What about Wonders? Should I not even worry about them? I'm warmongering, and I find you usually have to worry about one or the other; doing both is challenging, to say the least. But I could have marble and stone available before too long, and the Oracle and the Pyramids are beckoning. A CoL slingshot is very appealing. But if I can't get my research to speed up, it's kind of a moot point.

I look forward to your comments.

 

[Hans Lemurson]

D'OOHHHHH!!!!

Now that I think of it, I should have razed Rome too. 1 square west picks up 2 ivory and a rice at no cost, which would transform Nova Roma into a truly awesome city. But it would be immoral of me to go back to 800BC and try to do everything right. Good move Sisiutil.

Do you see Barcelona? Do you see it? Can that city be anything but a GP farm? 2 fish, cows and rice, and 7 grassland that could be farmed (or cottaged).

Take Vandal and don't look back. When I placed my second city at the horse/cow/gold/gems location, I had to sacrifice some efficient dot-mapping in order to get all that. Vandal will get you gold and gems which will be invaluable sources of funding as well as providing happiness to your empire. It also smooths-out the dotmapping process a fair bit.

With your leave, I would like to dot-map your entire known world now. I like dot-mapping, and I think that your city-arrangements will actually make everything go smoother than mine. At least in the North 'n Equator. I'll use the large overview image so I don't accidentally leak any extra information.

 

[Nares]

I'll use the large overview image so I don't accidentally leak any extra information.

Why not just download the attached savegame file and dotmap from it?

And Vandal does indeed look like a good site.

Taking Isabella is going to be tough. She's got Iron, and it's way way down south, by her capital which you seem loathe to touch (shame you can't raze it, because one thing WCs can provide is numbers, and numbers would take it eventually).

You may want to have Woody II either attempt to knock out the Iron early in the war (sometimes the AI won't have it defended this early), or have him knock out the road heading north (easier, safer for Woody II, and almost as effective). Scorched earth it down to Madrid, then leave her alone. Grab Alphabet sooner, and sue for peace and a tech.

Vicky's probably safe, especially if she's got some metal. Too far to reach her, really, and certainly too far to reinforce troops attacking her. Make friends, and let her apply pressure to Isabella while you finish settling the north.

 

[Sisiutil]

Nares, I don't know if you noticed, but Isabella does not have the iron hooked up yet--not with a road or a mine. And no worker on it. Conclusion? She doesn't have Iron Working and, given her predilection for religious techs, may not be anywhere close.

Nevertheless, she may research IW or possibly even get it from me. It may be the only tech besides Alphabet, perhaps, that I'll be able to trade to her before attacking. I'll have to wait and see. I would like to do some trading with her before declaring war; I've found Izzy can be extremely reluctant to give up techs for peace, even when oblivion is staring her right in the face.

I want Woody II to completely scout Spain and England so I have an idea where the metals are. I will probably dispatch pillagers--likely fresh, unpromoted WCs I'm willing to sacrifice--to make sure they're unavailable. OB and friendliness with Vicky is a good idea--and easy, since I have no opposing religion. Unlike Isabella.

Hans--nice to see I got one better than you on the city placement, since you're proving very perceptive in that regard. I really dithered over keeping Rome, but when I looked at it and saw no seafood resources, I could not fathom nor accept its placement. Yes, I see Barcelona, thanks for calling it to my attention. As for the dotmap, go ahead. I'd really appreciate it.

Okay, so next thing, I'll be capturing Vandal. After that, it's on to Isabella. If I can get enough CR Axes built--maybe give them some XPs with Vandal, Seville, and Barcelona--I may try to take Madrid sans Catapults. Thebes is currently capable of churning out a unit every 2 turns as Hans predicted, so I could very well have the numbers if nothing else. I've noticed the AI has this strange tendency to send units out of a city under seige, so it just might work.

 

[pigswill]

If you're worrying about immediate economy and research rates then you'd have to think about maintenance for any more cities. If you keep Vandal it'll pay for itself once gems and gold are working, others more debatable. Will it be quicker to research CoL direct or via religious techs and Oracle? Cottages and a library for Heliopolis should help a bit. If you're thinking about needing cats to finish conquering the continent then the research up to construction could be a major delay. Two choices:settle for what you've got, cities in jungle to claim the tropics and north,build up and finish off Isa and Vic much later or bite the bullet, city raider swords to finish off the conquest without waiting for cats and accept the casualties. Any which way you need CoL to recover the economy.
If you're lucky Isa may get monotheism before you polish her off (another holy city to keep). Have you given any thought to eventual victory conditions yet?
Edit:Third option, call it a day after Isa (leaving Vic as a tech trade partner before you grab the continent for yourself).

 

[KrikkitTwo]

One thing (especially v. Isabella with no metals) SWORDS

A City Garrison 1 Archer in a 60% defense City v. a City Raider 1 Sword is
3(1 +50%+25%+20%+60%-20%-10%)=6.75 v. 6, losing odds, but closer than 7.05 v 5 for the same Axeman

Option 2 is Flanking WCs, if you count them as throwaway... odds there are 7.65 v. 5 (they should cut the Archer down to about 1/2 hitpoints and you would only lose 60% of them.. or fewer)... 3 :1 WCs should do it.... but that isn't the best so I'd try going with CR Swords... keep the axes for Barbs, and Vicky (try for OB with Her too, to see her metal situation)

Actually I just realized you don't have Masonry Or Priesthood...

So

Research Path

Mysticism-> Meditation+Masonry ->Priesthood (start the Settler while researching Priesthood, then get a Worker or two to Quarry and Chop the Oracle for CoL
->Math->Construction (Catapults And Elephants)

Production..
everywhere:
Barracks, a few Axes, many Swords, and many WCs ( a few more workers as needed)..
except in Marble City which will Only Build an Oracle.. maybe Stonhenge during turns Priesthood is unavailable... and the time to build a Settler for Marble City

Troops
Take Vandal.. have at least one worker working on the Jungle Road

Gather around for a pillage/raze fest on Spain (holding the Iron becomes first priority.. especially concentrating on Swords v. Axes, second priority is razing the other cities.. and pillaging to keep your support up.)

When a Big enough army is present... City Raider Swords plus Flanking Chariots, take Isabella, go for CR Axes+Swords and WCs v. Vicky's small cities then Expand /Tech to Catapults/Elephants v. London... Unless she is also Metal less.. Very unlikely but if so finish her too.


One final point: Off to the Northwest, it looks like you could have a Whole other Branch to your continent... an additional Scout might be good... or a WC.. costs a bit more but will survive to get used later.

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

Who do I attack next? I have more intel on Isabella, and she's somewhat closer, but Victoria is (slightly) higher in score.

Isabella. Conquistadors come before Redcoats. Seville is junk, but Barcelona is a sweet plum (7 specialists at size 11, with 8 more specialists when the city reaches full size at 26), and you can likely make something useful of Madrid.

What should I build next, and where? Heliopolis' barracks are almost complete and its copper mine will be on-line soon, so I can, potentially, change Thebes' build queue from military to civilian. I'm thinking I should build two Settlers to grab the marble and the stone.

If you are a-conquering spain, I'd hold off on settlers, and concentrate on switching thebes to a cottage based economy. Money talks. (For the same reason, I would have prioritized cottages on the floodplains over hooking up the copper and the cows. Of course, hooking up the copper will tell you whether Vicky and Izzy have any, so it's useful intel).

Based on the report, it feels to me like you are itching to zigzag. Pick a direction, dammit.

Oracle is not on the table anymore. You need to research three techs before you can start construction on it. I suppose it is possible that you could land the pyramids, but you would have to research masonry, get two more mines built in Thebes, and probably do some micromanagement as well (you need to take advantage of that cow tile, running up a food surplus then burning it off to get more hammers). I don't think you can get it, but it might be possible.

Researching Alphabet right now makes very little sense to me. Nothing to trade, no one to trade with (especially if you are going after Spain), and given that Izzy has only three cities, it's not like you can hope to extort a tech (if you capture Barcelona, you'll have to go after Madrid as well).

I think you have to make a now or later decision on Spain. It's reasonable to take Spain now (using your current veterans to stifle her production, then burying her under a giant pile of hammers). It's also reasonable to pillage everything and withdraw. I don't think you can afford to start war now and keep it going until cats are available.

The peaceful route is to capture Vandal, research Monotheism for Org Rel, Grab Metal Casting to get some engineers running, work your way to Construction, then back to Alphabet and Literature (with the intent of using Imhotep to build the Great Library in Barcelona). You begin that route by turning off research while building a Library in Thebes, turning it on again to get to OrgRel, turning it off while the rest of your cities build libraries, then racing as you can up the tree.

The alternative is to go after Spain now. It'll give your veteran units some entertainment. In that case, your life is axes for the foreseeable future. The OrgRel section demotes in importance. Raze Seville, Capture Barcelona, pillage Madrid and maybe try to take the city if you have the archers outnumbered 4 or 5 to 1.

 

[Lance of Llanwy]

Definitely keep Vandal. So nice of the barbs to set up a city down there so you don't have to worry about getting a Settler there. You can use the cows to leverage the nearby gold and/or horses. Dunno if it's possible to get all of those, but that would also be a decent city. Good call on Rome, btw. That WAS pretty crappily placed. Just goes to show you that settling in place isn't always a good idea...
As for warfare...all I can say is...I told ya so! WCs rock, but Madrid looks pretty nightmarish. Even if IW is the only tech you can trade to her, I'd say screw it if you're going to go beat the crap out of her. No need to worry about Iron is she doesn't even know it's there! Makes things a little easier on the axes and chariots, if you take the brute force approach. Again, definitely take a shot at the Oracle, but don't forget the Great Lighthouse. This continent has a lot of coastline and is pretty big. That equals a lot of coastal cities to benefit from it, and, perhaps more importantly, it should produce a Great Merchant that you can use for a lucrative trade mission(I'm tempted to say to London). I'm actually going to say be nice to Vicky for now. Trade with her while you beat on Izzy and focus on getting everything on your side of the desert settled. Then go after her in the medieval or renaissance period. You may wish to beat her down a little first, just to make sure she's easy pickings, and that should be manageable so long as you adopt Hinduism as your religion, just to keep her happy as a clam as you sharpen your battle-ax....

 

[Hans Lemurson]

Heeere's the Dot-map!

Notes:
-I have all the new city-sites labelled with letters going from West to East. -Pre-existing city-locations that are to be kept are indicatedby the double-circles.
-Location "P" is so named because "O" would have looked like a double-circle. It is a low-priority spot though.
-Where there were overlaps, I prioritized which city would be getting the goods.
-Location "D" has fish to the north, which you know of, but can't see in the picture.
-Seville should be razed in favor of Location "L". This was cone so that location "M" would actually have some land and resources, and it more efficiently uses the hilly interior.
-It looks like there's land for a city NW of Thebes, but you'll have to actually explore that to make sure.
-Location "N", "Nova Roma" should, I believe, be where the heroic epic goes. With 4 forests, 2 grass-hills, a quarry and 2 elephants (ivory = watermill), it will have a decent production, but most importantly, it is the most productive coastal city you've got. Heroic epic boosts all military production, air land and sea, and West-Point provides its boost to all of those as well.
-Barcelona should (obviously) be your GP farm. See if you can't whip the Greal Library there, you've got plenty of academy-worthy city sites.

 

[Sisiutil]

I like the latter route, VoU. Spain is weak in comparison to me, even if taking Madrid will be a challenge. And if I miss out on the CoL slingshot and Confucianism, I'll definitely benefit from capturing a holy city. It does kind of preclude early wonders, though. But if I get most or all of the continent to myself, that should more than make up for it.

Ziz-zagging? Hey, once I pick my direction, I'll be pretty committed, trust me. Vandal is also a good staging point for taking on both Spain and England and I could use the infusion of war booty.

Speaking of England...I agree, making nice with Vicky makes more sense than alternating between war with her and Izzy. I could see myself losing a lot of units taking Madrid and being easy pickings for her. Even if I capture Madrid, I may not convert to Buddhism right away if I want to keep Vicky happy with me. I'll see what the sitch is when I get to that point.

Interesting odds on the Swords, K. I haven't used them much, but then again, I usually war later on, by which time I have Cats. I will switch Thebes' production to Swordsmen on your say-so and we'll see how they do.

Vandal and then Spain, kids, while the Workers back home spam cottages!

EDIT: Thanks ever so much, Hans, that's great! Now everyone will tear it apart, of course. Heh. But still very valuable--18 cities I count there, wow.

If I do manage to own the continent early, I'll have a problem with barbs. But if they conveniently build any cities in these locations, like Vandal, well who am I to question their unfathomable motives?

Good point about the Northwest, and the North too. I'm thinking I should have Thebes pop out a Scout quickly to finish exploring those areas. He can then be posted somewhere as a fog-buster. Or should I use a couple of slower-moving Archers, since they'll be better at holding off barbs?

 

[Nares]

Nares, I don't know if you noticed, but Isabella does not have the iron hooked up yet--not with a road or a mine. And no worker on it. Conclusion? She doesn't have Iron Working and, given her predilection for religious techs, may not be anywhere close.

Nope, I didn't pay attention to that particular detail. Maybe I'm just overestimating AIs ability to pull techs and improvements out of thin air.

Has it been announced that she's adopted Slavery yet?

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

I like the latter route, VoU. Spain is weak in comparison to me, even if taking Madrid will be a challenge.

That's fine. Stop fretting over wonders, you can't have any until Spain is taken care of.

I'm thinking I should have Thebes pop out a Scout quickly to finish exploring those areas. He can then be posted somewhere as a fog-buster. Or should I use a couple of slower-moving Archers, since they'll be better at holding off barbs?

Nah - Thebes is busy building axes/swords (note that you'll want to micromanage the cows and the plains forrest until you can get some workers over there to mine the plains hills.) When the Chariots are obsolete, you'll send them up to bust fog.

On the dotmap: it looks to me as though Ironworks belongs at C, unless the tiles in the fog at Madrid are better.