HNDY09 Wonderless XAWM with additional restrictions

[microbe]

IBT: Wheel->Masonry. Walls will be important.

2510BC: I don't see horses nearby. We have 3 units packed in capital, without seeing why I send out a warrior to explore for horses.

2390BC: delay growth by one turn later than granary.

2310BC: We meet Chinese warrior/archer. Warrior retreats, settler switches to archer.

IBT Chinese pair ignores us and goes east?

2150BC: Chinese warrior/archer could reach us in 5 turns. The archer is injured by barbs, so we may get more time. After the current archer we can do setter again.

 

[microbe]

 

[grahamiam]

got it. maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow night.

we wanna stretch for the iron or go incrementally towards it?

edit: sorry, just reread handy's comments, looks like we stretch

 

[handy900]

got it. maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow night.

we wanna stretch for the iron or go incrementally towards it?

edit: sorry, just reread handy's comments, looks like we stretch

Use your judgement based on what comes up. One option would be to place a spear on the iron, settle the red dot S of the warrior in the screen shot and then settle the iron 4th. The other option is to get the iron now. If you do go for the iron, take 2 spears since an iron city typically gets a lot of AI attention.

It will be easier to settle the iron than to allow the AI to grab it and have to fight them for it, but it looks like the AI base is still pretty far away. Either option looks pretty valid to me.

Going forward we will want to designate on of our core cities as a cat factory. We won't need a barracks in that city until we have all the cats we'll need.

We can probably pull back and quit exploring. We have one of the two main resources (iron) and it appears that horses are too far away to get in the near term. We can use that conscript warrior for MP somewhere.

We are in defensive mode until we get our core up and running, and get a second ring down to allow our workers freedom from barbs to do their chores.

The lack of horses will make this game harder (or at least last longer ). Typically we would use a horse to kill the last AI unit in a stack and then the horse can retreat back to the safety of a city. No horses means we will have to let a few AI units escape to be recycled. We'll want to develop a plan to push for the horses before we get to Chivalry. Let's hope we have an army of swords well before that.

The key for us to win is kill ratio. We want a 10 to 1 kill ratio. During our expansion phase, avoid attacking any AI unit if you will be subjected to a counter attack on the IBT. Just let them retreat. For example, three AI arhcers in a stack are next to a city, with another archer 1 tile back. Kill two archers and ignore the third (hopefully our cats will have hurt him). If you kill the third archer, our unit will be exposed to counterattack. Our spears behind walls have great odds, so playing defense is good strategy.

Walls are a great build in AW. Very useful. Sometimes in AWM we can get away with no walls in the core if we can get the second ring down fast enough. We'll just have see where the attacks are coming from. Walls in the Iron town are a big priority. With luck we'll get a defensive leader from there.

 

[microbe]

The lack of horses will make this game harder (or at least last longer ). Typically we would use a horse to kill the last AI unit in a stack and then the horse can retreat back to the safety of a city. No horses means we will have to let a few AI units escape to be recycled.

This is very true. I played an AW game with only iron, and that was exactly the pain I was feeling.

 

[grahamiam]

Preflight check: MM between the 2 towns, letting Oporto use the mined BG for 1T.

IBT: Chinese pair head E; Lisbon archer -> settler

T1: 2150BC Settler in 4T, growth in 3T, so I turn 1 of the citizens into a scientist, getting Math in 7T vs 9T.
Archer heads out to cover Oporto

T2: 2110BC Worker W, Archer covers him

T3: 2070BC 2 chinese warriors and 1 archer come out of the fog, N of Oporto.
MM Lisbon to get settler and growth in 2T.

T4: 2030BC . Move 2nd archer out of Lisbon to help

T5: 1990BC N of Oporto: archer kills warrior (3/4); archer kills warrior (4/4); archer left but no spare attack units and I don’t want to risk a spear.

IBT: Spear in Oporto defends against the archer (2/4); Lisbon settler -> worker; Oporto barracks -> spear

T6: 1950BC Adjust slider to get Math in 3T @ -3gpt (14 in bank)

T7: 1910BC Spot a stack of 3 celtic warriors heading towards Oporto

IBT: Lisbon worker -> spear; a light green warrior comes up to our border NW of Lisbon.

T8: 1870BC Meet the Persians. Give them the finger and declare

Math -> Myst (due in 5T, on the way to Monarchy)
Persian warrior moves towards Lisbon, Celtic stack moves towards Oporto

T9: 1830BC Guimarães founded -> warrior

T10: 1790BC Archer in Oporto kills warrior outside of it (3/4); 2 warriors remaining vs 1 spear and 1 3/4 archer.

Spear build in Lisbon can be switched to archer to take care of the pesky Persian warrior if desired.
Warrior build in Guimaraes is a holder. May want to switch Lisbon to archer and Guimaraes to spear. I was just trying to get an extra body in Guimaraes and we lose a shield @ 3spt there due to corruption.

 

[grahamiam]

 

[microbe]

Persia and Celt.

I hate their UUs.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

I have it.....

 

[handy900]

Quick note from work while the bossman is not watching

Build some cats.

Regarding Monarchy – we can wait on that one. If we switch to monarchy too quick our economy will crash since despots get 4 free units per towns, Monarchy only gets 2. We need more towns before we switch – and preferably a few size 7 cities.

 

[grahamiam]

math is done, that's why i was going for monarchy. there are no more AA tech's with unit builds or resourses, only choices i had was 29T to currency, 15T to writing, and i forget what was HBR, but we don't have horses so i thought it could come later.

myst was quick too, @ 5T. this gives us time to get another town down while researching the more expensive techs. imho, this was the most efficient use of our research gold atm.

edit: sorry, read your comment on math in the email preview, but didn't see you amended it

 

[handy900]

math is done, that's why i was going for monarchy. there are no more AA tech's with unit builds or resourses, only choices i had was 29T to currency, 15T to writing, and i forget what was HBR, but we don't have horses so i thought it could come later.

myst was quick too, @ 5T. this gives us time to get another town down while researching the more expensive techs. imho, this was the most efficient use of our research gold atm.

edit: sorry, read your comment on math in the email preview, but didn't see you amended it

Good call on myst since it was a cheap. I shouldn't post from work where I can't see saves and don't have time to read turn logs. I had forgotten we had math then I peeked at your log. My mistake. Sorry. We don't have ponies so HRB can definitely wait.

Meet the Persians. Give them the finger and declare

. The one finger salute

myst was quick too, @ 5T. this gives us time to get another town down while researching the more expensive techs. imho, this was the most efficient use of our research gold atm.

Once again, I apologize for the earlier post. This was the right move.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Pre-flight – 1790 BC – I change Lisbon to a archer, I would prefer the offensive unit. We’re at war with everyone we know, just like a proper team of grumpy old men.

Early: Lose a spear, kill two Aztec warriors and a Persian warrior. Looking to where we should put our next city, these rivers are going to be a PITA (3-1)
Lisboa: archer=>settler
Oporto: spear=>spear
Myst=>HBR (Handy, we already know math) Bump the slider to get it in four.

1. Middle - I change Guimarães to a Cat and make a note in the city name.
Lisboa: settler=>settler The settler heads towards the iron.
Oporto: spear=>archer

Late: HBR=>writing (bump slider to get it in ten)
Found Ferro Cidade (Portuguese for Iron Town) Start a worker. I kept the town just across the river so it can be supported from Guimarães
Lisboa: settler=>spear
Guimarães: cat=>cat
Oporto: archer=>warrior

After Action – Not much combat. The new settler can build where he stands. We need some more workers, so you might want to peal off a worker from the new town. I’d just build cats out of Guimarães for a while. When we get ivory, remember that we can’t build the Statue of Zeus.

Sitrep:

Save: http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/Handy9,1500BC.SAV

 

[grahamiam]

Once again, I apologize for the earlier post. This was the right move.

no biggie, and no need to apologize. i don't mind my moves questioned, i was just trying to show my justification to see if it was wrong. sorry if i came off stronger than i meant, as i was typing it at work and was rushing my thoughts

nice turns bugs iron town settled + another in the next turn. looks like our inner ring is complete and we need to start thinking about the next towns.
a. 2T SE and 1T S of Oporto is a safe spot with a game forrest.
b. also, 2T NE and 1T N of Oporto is a decent river location. road the mountain and its 1T from our iron city.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

I was thinking the tundra tile 2S- 1 SE of Oporto wouldn't waste too much.

I really like site b.

 

[microbe]

I thought we agreed on founding the town on the iron? Why 2-tile apart and not on the hill? Now we have to worry about defending the iron.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

First, I didn't see that part of the discussion. My apologies.

Second, I was thinking that moving between Guimaraes and Ferro would require two turns if it was directly on the iron, thus defeating the whole reason to settle CxxC. If Ferro was in extremis before Engineering we would lose the city and lose the iron. This way we would only lose the iron.

me if necessary and disband and resettle if you feel it is necessary.

 

[grahamiam]

I was thinking the tundra tile 2S- 1 SE of Oporto wouldn't waste too much.

yep, much better.

 

[handy900]

i was typing it at work and was rushing my thoughts

Me too.

I'll play this on Saturday.

We are loonking good in this game. We will have to be a bit patient and develop our cities but we have a great starting location food wise.

I don't think it is worth refounding the Iron. I like to settle on it to get the defensive bonus. It's hard to lose a town on a hill with walls protected by spears & cats. We can park some cats & spears on the hill and throw rocks at the AI. Let's play it like it is.

 

[handy900]

Looking Good

Pre-turn
Switch Lisbon to food since it will not slow down the spear. Until we mine a grass we can get 6spt, 6spt, then 8spt for a 3-turn spear. The food will be 4+4+3 in this configuration to get us growth and a spear in 3 turns.

Change Oporto to a spear. I seldom build warriors since it seems we never have the cash for upgrades, and the odds are much better playing defense with spears than on offense with warriors. Also bump the food in Oporto to get growth so we can peel a setter or worker.

Guimaraes can pull 3 spt after a swap of a tile with the 1-spt Iron city.

Here we go…

IBT
Celts demand a talk. We are ahead of them. They have 3 cities and 45 gold, dyes and no iron yet.
Lisbon – spear – spear

Turn 1 1475
Found Grahamville
Move workers to Iron. No ivory for the AI
Lisbon pulls 8spt this turn and grows.
Writing in 5 –1gpt

Turn 2 1450
China wants to talk. They have 3 cities, 104 gold, horses and wines.
Three turns to iron.
I’m bringing the conscript back to Lisbon for MP duty. Even on a mountain he only has a 36% chance of winning versus a regular archer.

Turn 3 1425
Can dial slider down and get writing this turn.
Switch Oporto back to warrior since we will have the cash to upgrade this one dude.

IBT
Writing – Philosophy (at 7 turns the cheapest)
Lisbon – spear – settler
Oporto – warrior – spear (will switch to sword)

Turn 4 1400
Lisbon’s spear heads to ward the Iron

IBT
We have iron

Turn 5 1375
Upgrade the warrior, and switch Oporto to a sword
Lisbon is size 6 so lux goes to 20%

IBT
Guimaraes – cat – cat

Turn 5 1350
Troop movement

IBT
Ferro – worker – walls

Turn 6
MM Lisbon
Conscript arrives in Lisbon so we can dial down the lux slider.
Lisbon settler – spear

Turn 7
-

Turn 8 1300
Swap tiles so Ferro gets walls quicker.
Maybe the AI is fighting each other?

Turn 9 1275
There comes the AI.
Chinese archer moves onto the mountain NW of the Iron
Switch Oporto to Spear and send the garrisoned spear with the settler. Two spears in a front line city on flat land is a safer bet. Oporto is empty and can replace the spear in 1 turn by working a forest for 1 turn. After that Oporto goes off the forest for growth.
MM Lisbon (Good MM opportunity here until we get more mines)

Turn 10
Chinese Horseman approaches. We will need to keep the workers far away from the borders from now on, or provide spear cover
Cats go 2 for 2 and we kill the Chinese horse and archer.
One more spear on the hill where the archer now stands would be nice. Then the AI will have to attack from flat land and will get no defensive bonus.
Until we can get a spear up there, move the archer back to the iron tile to wait for more guests.
Remember – do not attack the last AI unit if you will be exposed to a counter attack


Notes:
Remember to protect our workers from horsemen.
MM Lisbon. You can grow every 3 turns getting 4, 4, 3 food. That’s 20 shields each 3 turns (8+6+6)
Oporto could use some worker attention, and is safely behind borders. Might want to change the build to get a worker there.
Settler is in position on the nice river tile. Suggest we build walls in the new city.
After Ferro’s walls come in back to worker builds.
I think you can pull 2 spt in Grahamville when it grows. Swap tiles with Guimaraes.
Sometimes in these games I stack workers up in chain gangs and cover with spears to prevent losing one to a horse from the fog [ of course we need an extra spear first J ].
FYI – I like the “Y” key to “sentry” units. They are fortified but automatically wake up if an AI approaches.
We may get a couple more cities down, but it will be more difficult to settle new lands. From now on any settler going toward the borders to extend the front lines should have 2 spears as an escort. That tundra / game location can get away with one spear until we see AI galleys.
Long term a road on the mountain NE of the iron would be sweet to allow us to move cats there. But first we need to mine our core.
Don't bother to hook up the ivory until we have the troops to protect the road.
Wide angle screen shot follows.

We look really good in this game Still #1 in all the important stats in F11.