Always War

[ungy]

By the way, I am not sure who should we focus the EPs on. Usually, Zara will tech better, but Saladin will probably survive longer.

yes I realized I should have picked one.
Probably doesn't matter at this point--either should survive long enough to let us use the EP's we generate now to steal something useful. Pick sal?

Should I continue tomorrow for a little?

I'm thinking let Hamburg grow to 4 producing char, then whip setter (take slavery).

Berlin build the barracks before completing chariot--might as well get it near completion before the barracks just in case we get a surprise.

Research? I'm thinking we go myst-med-priest-pot-masony and start oracle once we hit priest.

 

[Terrance888]

Also, they are only Always War with the player... they will trade military tech amonst each other. . I will lurk.

 

[Duckweed]

Sure, go ahead for more turns, the early turns run fast.

I think we probably don't need slavery early on, can wait until mids is in and then change to representation and slavery at the same time.

I will probably go masonry after priest and improve the stone for Berlin to produce mids immediately after Oracle ( Not sure. Need to check the synergy between Oracle and tech speed).

 

[ungy]

I play on a bit (5 turns)--Berlin builds bar-char.

the chop on Berlin hit last turn--I hadn't considered this but we might want to build SH. That'll be 80H and we have 22H overflow--with growth we'll have it in 5 turns. Seems like a pretty good investment. Haven't played emp in a while but I think 1960 is pretty likely to get it. We can still get at least 2 char out of Berlin before oracle--if we build unpromoted ones in Hamburg we can get a decent force going.

I'm thinking we send the chariot down to Zara by way of the copper but not sure.

There is another scout to the NE in the fog.

Anyway I'll turn it over here

Oops forgot to allocate EP's.
End of mother's day--or as those of us with small kids say...the longest day of the year.

 

[Duckweed]

Hmm,SH is still not gone until ~2000BC, I am also tempted to have it as playing an Ind leader. My major concern of going for it is that if we are able to grab Oracle and mids as planned, then the GS for academy in Berlin becomes unpredictable. With only Oracle and mids, we are sure to pump a GS from Hamburg as 2nd GP. I'd like to hear other opinions.

 

[PaulisKhan]

I think it's best to make sure we can secure the choke before worrying about all of these wonders. Otherwise we're going to get swamped.

 

[r_rolo1]

Signed under. All those wonderful plans are putting me somewhat edgy about safety.

 

[PaulisKhan]

I've been doing some experimenting on random AW maps and I'm finding that I tend to have more success with archer chokes than I do with chariot chokes, at the very least a combination of the two is more effective than just chariot. Two guerilla archers on a forested hill is a tough nut to crack, even for axes.

 

[Duckweed]

Chariot is not for choking, but for harassment. As long as we can deny these two AIs from metals, this game becomes much easier. If they do have copper in capital culture range, we will in little more trouble, but I would pillage it at any cost.

 

[Earthling]

Apologies to everyone, I had not realized I'd been put on the list to play here, I was just expressing interest earlier. I might stay around and lurk but it seems you have enough players, I don't have time to keep up with the rotation. Good luck though.

 

[Duckweed]

So Earthling does not have time, then the next player would be Rusten

Roster:
Duckweed
Ungy--just played
Rusten--UP
Dirk1302
r_rolo1
PaulisKhan

 

[Rusten]

Right. I've got it. Didn't look at it yet so won't comment further until tomorrow.

 

[Rusten]

Don't think the early GS is as important here as in a normal game so I wouldn't worry too much about GP pollution. We won't be able to sell things for gold and we will surely be paying unit upkeep. Combining these two means a much lower science slider and effectively a less useful academy. Still a great thing to have, but not essential--settled GPs with representation are good too.

I like SH next, but I am in no way demanding it. If the team feeling is to get some more chariots out I'd be happy to oblige.

I, too, want to settle the fish/corn site next.

Another good spot is south, but it depends on how soon we want IW. If you look at the map you'll see an open grassland tile in the middle of the jungle--I'm guessing that tile is iron. I can't remember seeing much iron in jungle areas like this though, so I'm not sure--but what else could it be?

 

[ungy]

I'd probably lean toward SH but I don't have a lot of confidence as my AW experience is limited.

I also think prophets are very useful and I would say that better to get more GPP and maybe go a while w/o academy.

 

[Duckweed]

I have no problem of having other type of GP. However, at any circumstance, I'd like to have an early GS for academy in capital. Berlin is obviously a cottage heaven. Our 1st GP would be an GPriest or GE from capital, so even if we run 2S in Hamburg as early as possible, the GS can only be produced in ~1AD. At that time, we should have saved enough cash for one shot to Currency and after that, with the support from building cash in other cities, our science slider can still be high. So I'm for skipping SH.

Edit: Another consideration as r_rolo1 and PaulisKhan mentioned, 6 turns earlier chariots to AIs land might make difference.

 

[Rusten]

Ungy - Stonehenge
Rusten - Stonehenge / on the fence
Duckweed - chariots
Paulis - chariots
r_rolo1 - chariots
Dirk - <?>

So chariots it is -- unless someone change their mind. I'll play tonight.

 

[Dirk1302]

Chariots for me please.

 

[Rusten]

Decided to put the EP on Zara as it wasn't certain to what extent we'd get to contain him. We also had way more EP on him.

Tech went meditation -> priesthood -> pottery -> MC (Oracle) -> masonry.

Started semi-choking Saladin turn 54. There are only 2 archers in Mecca so the chariot is safe. The other one went south to look for metal.

Our scout revealed another source of fish (and then died).

While I hate to lose good seafood I decided to settle in the original spot. If we were to squeeze in a city for the new fish we'd have to settle with no improveable resources in our first ring. The city would be marginal and not pay off for a long time and in this setting that's just not worth it--we need the early cities to develope fast. I put the city 1SW of the fish so that we can avoid a monument. It gives us some "dead tiles" (ocean and coast) -- but this city is for specialists anyway so its citizens won't be using all of its BFC.

Could've settled where the scout is standing and then put the other city in later, but that would be harder to defend and it wouldn't have the grassland hill to get the NE rolling

The Zara harass got a little delayed as I ran into some barbarian archers in the jungle. It seems to have been in time though, because I have only seen archers so far.

Turn 61 Saladin sends one of his archers back to defend -- the harass is working. This archer would probably be within our borders causing trouble otherwise (I have not seen anything coming our way).

Complete the Oracle turn 62 and take MC (pretty sure this was the consensus).

Saladin is being controlled nicely (Zara still needs some scouting). The units in the screen are in Medina. He has 2 archers and 2 workers in Mecca.

Our core.

Before you accuse me of being a moron )): unhappy citizens don't eat food when producing settlers or workers (which is why I allowed it to grow).

The real question is what to do with Berlin. I think we might want to revolt to slavery. There's much longer to wait for the double switch than if we were to take monarchy from the Oracle. We don't have any way to control our happy cap and being able to whip could speed up the Mids. We don't have that many hills (or plains forests). I think we should settle a city down by the corn/gems/ivory now for the happiness resources (IW won't take long). Gems will give +2 with a forge. It should be fairly safe as the AIs are contained.

Another bonus with slavery is that we can whip early forges and start running engineers. This is especially useful when we don't have a way to increase our happiness.

Stopped here as I don't want to start whipping forges and adopt slavery without notifying anyone.

Think we need to send the chariot on the spice back home in case of barbarians.

 

[Rusten]

Note that there's a grassland hill showing 2 hammers 2e of Medina. That must be either bronze or iron. Don't let him connect it.

 

[Duckweed]

Agree on adopting slavery.
Edit: Then capital would be producing Forge.

All gems are covered by jungle, but we can rely on Ivory 1st.

Another jungle in capital BFC. Nice!

Edit: We can produce more chariots to complete the quest and send 2 more down to start pillage and kill.