HNDY07 AWE Standard Size Pangaea

[-0blivion-]

Turn 0: 1750 BC

Workers move east to chop wood.
London switches from archer to spear. York switches from spear to walls.
Lux is at an unneeded 20% - down to 10%.

Turn 1: 1725 BC

Mongol warrior and archer move adjacent to York and the workers.
Archer from London kills Mongol archer, no loss.
Archer from York kills Mongol warrior, losing 3 hp.
Move Settler, archer and spear from London towards plains.
Lux up to 20%, lost an MP there.
Workers start chopping.

Turn 2: 1700 BC

Lux back down to 10%, Archer moves back to London to MP.

Turn 3: 1675 BC

Found Nottingham. Starts on walls, in 10 turns.
Forest chop reveals normal grassland. Workers move to road up Nottingham.
London spear-archer

Turn 4: 1650 BC

Nothing

Turn 5: 1625 BC

York walls-barracks (14 turns)

Turn 6: 1600 BC

London archer-archer.
Need to build up a force to raze a Mongol city or two.

Turn 7: 1575 BC

London grows. Lux to 20%

Turn 8: 1550 BC

Talking to Mongols reveals they have IW and HBR, among other things.

Turn 9: 1525 BC

London archer-spear. We have 5 lying around now. We need the spear to reinforce York.
The 5 archers start to move towards a Mongol city.

Turn 10: 1500 BC

London expands. Archer stack sees Mongol archer by their city.
Here is the situation. Red dot looks a great city spot. The luxes are dyes i think.

 

[handy900]

Yep. I have been ill today which wasn't pleasant, so it has kinda hampered my playing plans. I have played some before i had to go to the doctor, now i am playing the rest.

Sorry to hear that. Feel free to ask for a swap next time until you feel better.

Roster
Greebley is UP
Handy
T_McC
Yom
Ankka
Oblivion

 

[T_McC]

If the Mongols haven't attacked us yet, they are probably at war with someone else. We're certainly close enough to walk to in 10 turns.

It may not even be a bad idea to found the city on the red dot before attacking the infringing Mongol city. If they're not going to come out and play we might as well juice up our economy while we can. A stack of 5 Archers + a Spear for cover can probably toast any small AI city this early in the game.

 

[Greebley]

Ok, I got it.

I think the archer stack needs some spears to defend with. Otherwise, it will get butchered by enemy archers when it goes into enemy territory.

I will also look into your comment, TMcC, on the town and see what makes the best sense. If I need to build spears, I may very well be able to get the town built too.

 

[-0blivion-]

We do need spear cover actually.
We have one underway in London, and we probably need more to be more secure in our cities too. Build one in York one the barracks completes?

 

[Greebley]

Preturn: Switch our capitol to build a settler as it grows to size 7 so we don't empty our granary (MM to growth and settler in 3).
We also need more workers.

Early: The Mongol town has Dyes near it.
Our attack on the Mongol city goes abysmally badly. Our stack of 5 archers are pruned to 1 without any loss by the enemy.
Hastings is built.
Get Mathematics and start Iron Working.

Mid/Late: Sulk and Whine about the RNG? Nah! Not after killing all those units with 3 impis and an archer in the other game.


Notes: I didn't attack with the last archer, but leave the decision up to the next player.

 

[Greebley]

Here's a picture of our current situation:

 

[T_McC]

Well, the pRNG was bound to turn on us at some point in the game. Better it costs us 80 shields of units instead of a city.

I can't tell from that picture: Can we build another city S-SW of London? We could aim for a 4-tile distance (ont the Tobacco) since the river prevents a 1-turn trek from London before Engineering, but 3-tiles and coastal may still be best. I just can't figure out whether that would be 1 or 2 tiles from the Mongol city.

If we can remove ... uhh, Greebley ... you did cross the river before attacking, didn't you? Maybe the pRNG wasn't so unkind after all.

As I was saying, if we can remove the unnamed Mongol city SE of Hastings we have a terrific site to build the Great Library. 2 Lux + 2 MP + 6 BGs (at least!) = a minimal lux tax and 10+ shields at size 6.

 

[handy900]

Bummer on the archers. I never seem to have good luck with archer rushes.


I'll try to get this tonight, but may need until Thursday.

Roster
Greebley
Handy is UP
T_McC
Yom
Ankka
Oblivion

 

[Greebley]

Ya, I did spend a turn to cross the river first. Four archers losing is probably not that uncommon, but it really hurts when it is your first 4 archers. We did kill one of the two spears, but the other healed and I decided not to attack with our injured one vs a healthy spear.

 

[handy900]

Still 1250bc
Take a shot with the elite archer versus Mongol exposed archer. We win but no leader luck. Elite archer gets some spear cover.
MM York to get the worker faster.
Drop slider. Still get IW in 5 now +1gpt

IBT
Declare on Arabia. No trades were possible.
They have IW, W, Mysticism, HBR and 8 cities.
Mongols have the same techs but on 5 cities.

Turn 1 1225
Start a mine. Archer retreats safely.
FYI - London does not have walls.

Turn 2 1200
We could use a spear on the mountain adjacent to Nottingham

IBT
York – worker – spear

Turn 3 1175
Kill a lone Mongol archer from Ta-Tu with our elite and cover with a spear. No leader

IBT
IW – writing
London – settler – spear

Turn 4 1150
Settler heads off to found a core city we won’t be able to reinforce in 1 turn for centuries.

Turn 5 1125
Not much

Turn 6 1100
Lots of MM for 1 turn.

IBT
London – spear – archer

Turn 7 1075
Found Canterbury, which is under Mongol cultural pressure.
Kill another archer from Ta-Tu but no leader.
London’s new unit means we can drop the lux tax.

Turn 8 1050
Not much

IBT
Bump London lux tax
Two Arabian warriors come from the North
Mongol archer approached Canterbury

Turn 9 1025
Workers move.

IBT
Canterbury’s spear defends.
York – spear – spear
London archer – archer

Turn 10
Nothing.

Notes:
York is well defended against attack
London is on a 3 turn archer 7spt
I put Hastings on 2 mined BG’s to speed the temple. It’s 4 spt net.
2 SPT is the best Canterbury can do.
I’d do an archer then settler from London. Next leader may decide to switch to a settler sooner.
An elite archer win would help us quite a bit in this game.
I feel like we are stuck in crappy lands with lots of mountains and the AI are expanding rapidly out there beyond the fog.

Roster
Greebley
Handy
T_McC is UP
Yom
Ankka
Oblivion

 

[Greebley]

I was just noticing our complete lack of iron despite all those hills and mountains.

If we can spare a spear to go check out the mountains, we should do so to see if we do have iron just outside the black areas. A spear should be relatively safe in mountains (or at least give us good odds). We may want to specifically grab iron so we can get swords. They tend not to die as much as archers.

 

[handy900]

I was just noticing our complete lack of iron despite all those hills and mountains.

If we can spare a spear to go check out the mountains, we should do so to see if we do have iron just outside the black areas. A spear should be relatively safe in mountains (or at least give us good odds). We may want to specifically grab iron so we can get swords. They tend not to die as much as archers.

This is a great idea. I should have done this on my turns. It will get too crowed to explore if we wait too long.

I think we may be in a narrow passage of the continent (looks like water beyond the mounains). If so perhaps we can block off the north with defensible positions and then take all the mongol cities to the south.

I hope T gets a lucky leader with our elite archer.

 

[T_McC]

Notice anything different in this picture?

 

[T_McC]

HNDY07 - Crumpets!

1000 BC (0)
No need for changes, except a Spear to an Archer. One of those Mongol cities has to go.

IT - Win vs. Arab Warrior.

975 BC (1)
Win with Elite Archer. Double-check to confirm Mongol city is not built on a Hill. Have to leave a city empty to cover the Elite Archer.

950 BC (2)
Nothing happens. We have 3 Archers, a Catapult and a Spear in Hastings. I figure 4 Archers and 2 Cats with a Spear will work.

900 BC (4)
Arabs are wandering around with a bunch of Warriors. Bite the bullet and get the attack force set at Hastings.

Writing comes in and we go for Mysticism in a surprisingly quick 5 turns. River starts are nice.

875 BC (5)
We have 1 Spear in Hastings. Everyone else is across the river.

850 BC (6)
Apu hits the pipe and suicides a reg. Warrior against the Walls of Nottingham.

London builds a Spear and starts a Settler.

D-Day: Catapults score two hits. A single injured Spear is showing ... and we pop a leader.

I immediately run him back to London to rush the Pyramids.



What?

Heh ... have to watch my "glaucoma medication".

I'm genuinely perplexed with what to do with this guy. An Archer army is kind of weak, but we can probably activate the Mongol's dental plan with it. It can't get out ahead of an attack, but it can give two solid wins each turn ... we don't have any small Wonders to rush ... Spear Armies are always nice, but I'd rather burn cities than pillage right now.

We're building an Archer army and wiping out the other visible Mongol city.

825 BC (7)
Apu slaughters another of his own, this time charging into a Cat shot first. Archer Army is formed and is two turns from it's destination.

800 BC (8)
Hastings completes Temple, set to Palace as pre-build for Great Library. Two lux and 7 bonus grass!

The Arabs continue their "Giant Sack of Crap" operation as more regular Warriors come into view.

Mysticism next turn.

775 BC (9)
Set a course for Currency. We have plenty of time to pick up Lit before we can accumulate 400 shields, and Markets are useful.

750 BC (10)
Two hits at Almarikh with our Cats. Two injured Spears inside.

Another one bites the dust, two wins by our Army with only 1 HP lost. We score another slave as well.

Final Notes:
I leave the next guy with an active settler. First guess: the FP three SE of Hastings. There would be another spot three S of Hastings. SE-SE-S of Canterbury should also be good. We appear to have coastline there. We have as many cities as the Mongols.

We should be able to get London and Hastings off of the front lines. Currently Nottingham is poaching some good tiles from Hastings, but after the border expansion we should be able to work around it. The workers can put a road on the Dyes and run back across the river. One good thing about all that jungle: No one can sneak up on us.

I deliberately did not use the Catapults against the Arab Warriors. I want them to attack into artillery and walled Spears. It's much easier to kill them that way than by attacking them on the mountain.

Nottingham's Temple may be better as Barracks.

 

[Yom]

Fantastic turns, T_McC! Who would have thought that Handy's request would be fulfilled?!

Now that our environs are a bit clearer, we should consider expanding peacefully a bit and actually exploring. We're not gonna survive off of archers and spearmen alone if we want to win. Hopefully we'll find iron in the mountain range just another ring or two out.

Edit: I was thinking of a city 2S and 1E of Canterbury and then another 3E of the new city. That would get us both Dyes and a strong FP city (it will have 3 or 4 forests).

 

[Greebley]

Nice turn TMcC.

I think the archer army was a good plan with those cities so close to us. We just have to be careful and defend it. A vet sword will attack it for example and will often win.

 

[T_McC]

@Yom - I think your 2S-1E spot and my 3SW (typo in my post, I think) spot are the same tile. The Flood Plain at the junction of the rivers. I'm not too keen on your second spot. I think those "forests" are actually jungle.

I'd really prefer to minimize the number of mountain tiles we build adjacent to, and maximize our river tiles. We're also a little tight in our core right now, we may soon hit the point where pop growth will work water tiles or mountains. It may be beneficial to go a little farther away when we found SE of Hastings to give it a little more breathing room. Being 3 tiles from multiple cities is good, but we don't have to confine ourselves to a 3x3 grid.

@Greebley - Exactly. I didn't say it too clearly in my post, but the Archer Army should be treated as an infantry unit. I had it stacked with a vet Spear, vet Archer and two Cats. The Army is still top defender, but even a vet Sword is fairly unlikely to win 13 HP against artillery support. Once the army is injured the Spear (and hopefully soon, Spears) is the top defender.

Viewing the Archer army as a "move-1" unit also makes it much more natural to keep it on defensive terrain.

Also agreed on expansion. The Mongols really aren't participating and the Arabs seem fascinated by regular Warriors. If we're not going to be under seige it makes sense to peel off another couple of Settlers, even if we get ahead of our worker force (I believe we have 4 natives and 2 slaves). York is a good candidate for a Settler build. It may have run out of good tiles already. It'd be great if we could found 3 cities in the next 12-15 turns. Then we can build another army.

 

[handy900]

Great turns, and the archer army was definitly the right play for our situation. Now we have a chance to do some damage. As T_McC said, the army will need spear escorts, preferably more than 1. Cat support for the army is good too.

I'm a little confised about the next city spot. Is the red dot priority #1, blue 2 and perhaps black 3 (subject to change upon further expolration?)

The red dot will "autofill" the borders with hastings.

Looks like a plan to hold on defense in the N and expand into the mongols.

With the next leader let's send a spear army to Arabia to ensure their warriors do not turn into swords. With any luck we'll get a leader on defense against the suicidal warriors from Arabia @ Nottingham.

If the next leader has a chance, stroll a spear along the mountaintops to see if there is any iron nearby.

Roster
Greebley
Handy
T_McC
Yom is UP
Ankka
Oblivion

 

[T_McC]

Handy's got the red dot 1 SW of where Yom and I were thinking, but I think I like the new spot better. Pro: More breathing room at Hastings, common defense with Canterbury and black dot. Con: Blue dot is really isolated. Another Pro: Blue dot doesn't appear to be next to a mountain.

So yeah, I like Handy's red dot. We'll just have to leave a large garrison at the blue dot until it's no longer on the front lines. One nice thing about all these flood plains: Our 2nd ring cities should be more than capable of supplying workers while our core produces troops.

I think red dot is the first priority, as that closes the door on anyone reaching London (and its the closest dot to our capital). Blue dot serves a better strategic purpose, putting Hastings behind the lines, but black dot is better land. Which comes 2nd will probably depend on where the enemy troops are at the time.

We already have a Temple at Hastings, so the Dyes come on-line in one or two turns. Next leader should examine the lux tax during his reign. I suspect it is too high with London being size 5.

Hopefully our Palace will go to 400 shields soon. We currently only have a 300-shield pre-build, so we may have to go for Lit next after Currency. I suspect we can squeeze 10 spt out of Hastings if we need it. At present it doesn't have that many shields, I was letting Nottingham have a couple of good tiles. After the borders expand at Hastings and we put a few more worker turns in, we can give those tiles back to Hastings without hurting build times in Nottingham. {Edit: Well, we always have the Pyramids to use as a pre-build, but I don't think we can count on that lasting for too long.}