Round 2: to 600 BC
What a difference 1000 years makes.
The round started with me attempting to implement as much of the advice I've been given as I could. I decided to stick with the Pyramids in Athens after all, especially since I'd already started them there. I also sent my lone Warrior eastwards in hopes of snagging a Worker from Mao. Look what he found instead:
My Scouts also confirmed that the AI is aggressively expanding while I build units and wonders. Normally I'd be worried, but since I'm playing as Aggressive Alex, I just think it's terribly nice of them to build all those lovely little cities for me.
Mao's Settler and Archer companion were headed for our next city site, however--the red site, destined to be our GL/science city, or at least in that vicinity. Now I could leave the city and take it later, then keep or raze it, depending on its location.
OR I could attack him now and stifle him.
Let the dice fly high, as Caesar would have said. I declared war and attacked.
The Warrior was free anyway, popped from a hut. He had a very slim chance of beating the Archer, even though the latter was unpromoted and unfortified on open ground. But he managed to weaken the Settler's protector (down to 2 strength). Meanwhile, I sent Athens' Axeman out in that direction, and adjusted the build queue in Athens:
The whip cracked and I had two more Axes. I'm probably not doing this optimally; I certainly didn't queue up units in Athens as several of you suggested. But an opportunity arose and I decided to seize it, or at least make of it what I could.
My Axe got to the new Chinese city of Guangzhou on the turn after it was founded:
The Archer was still weakened from his fight with our Warrior, but look at that! A Chariot! I checked the map; Mao must have horses in Beijing's fat cross, somewhere in the unrevealed fog around it. Well, that just makes it a richer prize for the taking, doesn't it? But it also means I'll definitely need a Phalanx or two; in fact, as soon as I saw the Chariot, I changed the build queue in Sparta to get a Phalanx out the door ASAP.
Still feeling like fortune's favourite, I had my Axe attack and auto-raze Guangzhou, especially since I didn't like its location, taking up tiles best distributed between two cities, as per sigmakan's dot map. I half-expected to lose him to the chariot on the next turn, since he was down to 1.5 strength.
But in a typically-strange set of moves, the AI-driven Mao did
not attack the Axe on the very next turn, when the latter was weak and on open ground. No, Mao waited a turn, until after I had both promoted the Axe (Combat II) to recover some of its strength,
and moved it into defensive terrain (the forest tile NE of the former city). Of course he lost his Chariot. Fortune does indeed favour the brave.
A short time later, Sparta's borders popped, and I had my lone worker in position atop the stone:
As you can see, the Pyramids had 62 turns to go at that point, but of course, that wasn't helped by my whipping away 2 pop for Axes. Still, Athens has plenty of food available, so it recovered the population quickly. Since we were talking about not even working on the Pyramids until after the stone was hooked up, I thought I'd be okay. Especially since I was playing with my toes and fingers crossed, my lucky rabbit's foot ensconsed in my pocket...
As you can see, I was researching towards the Oracle. Once I had Priesthood, I began building that wonder in Sparta. (I should also mention that someone else beat me to Stonehenge) Now, with all this wonder-building and unit-whipping, I still only had one Worker, and the time was fast approaching when I would have to turn from improving tiles to chop-rushing. Who should come to my rescue but our friend Mao, as he sent
another Settler my way--with two Archers this time, and a Warrior nearby too. For all the good it did him, since I had one of my whipped Axes (with Combat I/CRI) lying in wait in the woods nearby:
After that Axe took out the first Archer, I gave him that Cover promotion you see here. So he now has the unusual combination of Combat I, City Raider I, and Cover. But under the circumstances, it made sense. End result: a free worker, and Mao is still stifled:
Yes, he made it to Athens' fat cross, successfully evading that Chinese Warrior. Two moves to one is a wonderful thing.
I started researching Mathematics next--I was thinking better chops (I still have some forests left for both cities!) as well as Catapults.
Shortly thereafter Athens, after getting the quarry going and now
two workers chopping...
Drum roll please...
YEAH, BABY, YEAH!!!
Now I did NOT change to Police State right away, in fact, by the end of the round, I still haven't. Remember I was building the Oracle in Sparta, and didn't want to lose a building turn to Anarchy.
Nonetheless, the time for that civic is fast approaching. Mao sent some Warriors my way to harrass me:
Heh. Free XPs for my Axes. Thanks, Mao! My Combat I/Medic I Phalanx also eaned his second promotion (March) thanks to a barb Warrior he encountered on the way to Shanghai.
Thanks to a couple of chops, in 600 BC, where this round ends...
PHEW!! What a relief. I took Metal Casting, with the idea of building a Forge in Athens to run an Engineer specialist, as well as getting Macemen that much earlier.
So here is what my two cities look like in 600 BC:
So one more Axe and then Athens starts on the Forge. I whipped a couple of Axes as soon as the Pyramids finished, so Athens has 2 more turns of whip-induced grumpiness left. Perfect timing; on the following turn, I can whip the Axe and have the overflow go into the Forge.
Now that the early wonders are done, it's time to start expanding again. Most of that will be done at the expense of my neighbours, of course, but I want to get the red (science) city near the floodplains built.
My army currently consists of the following units:
- C1/Shock Axe - fortified in Athens
- C1/Shock Axe - fortified in Sparta
- C1/CR2 Axe, C2/Shock Axe - In Athens' fat cross
- C1/C1 Axe - half-way to Shanghai
- C2/Shock Axe, C1/CR2 Axe, C1/Medic/March Phalanx - fortified outside Shanghai
- C1/? Axe - being built in Athens
I'm thinking that the C2/Shock Axe near Athens will head over to the red city site to become that city's first protector. The Axe being built in Athens will get a CR promotion and head east to China, following the other two CR Axes. The CR Axe who is halfway to Shanghai is in a forested tile and has spotted a barb Axe coming his way, so I'm thinking of fortifying him there in the hopes that the Barb Axe will attack him, lose, and earn my boy his CR2 promotion.
I lost one Scout to a Barbarian. The other two are fog-busting, one in the north, the other to the southeast, and they've acted as distant-early-warning systems for Mao's forces, too.
Here's a look at the map:
So I await your thoughts. Here are the discussion points I've thought of, but if you have others, by all means raise them:
- With the Pyramids built, we're set for a hybrid economy of specialists and cottages. How best to achieve that? Looking at sigmakan's dot map (and beyond it, as most of the map is now revealed), which cities should have predominantly cottages, which farms and specialists?
- Do my next couple of builds make sense? Do I have enough units for now, or should I get some more out before starting on the forge in Athens and the Settler in Sparta? How many? Of which types?
- Related to that: Now that the Oracle is finished, I can change civics. Police State makes the most sense. Again, should I change civics, build more units, and then do some civilian builds? Or finish the Settler and Forge first?
- I would really appreciate some advice on upcoming research paths. I have to decide between Code of Laws (to help defray the costs of the cities I plan to soon take from Mao) or Alphabet (towards Polytheism, maybe via a trade, then Literature and the Great Library) next. Or should I keep going on the war path tech-wise as well, and get Masonry/Construction?
I look forward to hearing your thoughts, as always!
