Mic4 - AWM

[Justus II]

We will build rax next turn, and it won't grow in 4 turns, so switching to settler is a big waste.

I agree rax isn't an optimal build, but there is nothing else we can build.

Well, that's what I get for looking at the picture, and not opening the save! I guess I was just used to MIL (20-shield) rax, thinking we'd use the other 4 turns to finish the settler. And I don't think the barracks are a waste, sooner or later every city does need them, I just thought I saw a chance to get the settler out earlier.

I like grs' map, I don't see the need for 2 towns by the furs, but I like the extra one SW of Thermopolyea, makes it easier to shift along the front if all border cities are within 3 of each other, as well as 3 to the backline.

 

[LKendter]

makes it easier to shift along the front if all border cities are within 3 of each other, as well as 3 to the backline.

Now you are thinking in AW mode.

 

[6thGenTexan]

I agree that we only need one town by the furs. It will be a while before we get a second settler down there and he can go out on the point to look for a fish or whale.

After another look at the picture, our worker is improving a tile next to Sparta that can wait. I think our worker priority should be our road network first. Mines and irrigation can follow.

 

[microbe]

After another look at the picture, our worker is improving a tile next to Sparta that can wait. I think our worker priority should be our road network first. Mines and irrigation can follow.

I think we just need more workers.

 

[6thGenTexan]

I think we just need more workers.

We need more of everything. Thirty turns into the game and we want it all now.

 

[gozpel]

Pre-turn - Not much to do, but I find a couple of commerce tiles that can be worked for a turn or two, without slowing down builds. This cut the research of the Wheel by 2 turns.

2510bc - Sparta barracks -> settler.

Hoplite moves in to Thermo and warrior whacks the barb.

2470bc - We need to connect Thermo, so the worker will road that way.

Athens archer -> settler

2350bc - We learn the Wheel -> IW at 80%, silly Sparta needs some luxes.

Good news, we have a horse west of Athens, perfect for the next town

2190bc - Athens settler -> archer. Move the settler to the horse.

Researching on deficit for now.

2110bc - Sparta settler -> worker. Move the new settler to the furs.

Thermo is connected, worker will connect wines.

2070bc - Corinth founded -> warrior.

1990bc - Athens archer -> archer.
Sparta worker -> archer. New worker will connect furs.

Delphi founded by the furs, revealing a third source -> worker.

1950bc - Wines are connected!

1870bc - Thermo barracks -> archer
Corinth warrior -> worker

1830bc - Athens archer -> settler.

1750bc - We learn IW -> Writing at 70%, 20t. No iron around here.

The archer can be changed in Sparta, he is due next turn.

I was going to play 15 turns, but I can't count. Sorry about that.

 

[microbe]

Good turns. Glad to see we have two more towns and one more worker.

Roster:
microbe
gozpel
grs - up
Justus II - on deck
6thGenTexan
Nick014

Now we have to think about the following:
1. When to make contact. I feel at this level we may be able to take a civ early?
2. When to time a prebuild for GL, and what to use as prebuild. I would think Sparta is the GL city.

 

[gozpel]

Sparta is a good spot, but I think it would need to expand its borders first to grab another BG, so we would need a temple. Swap the archer build to Colossus and change research to CB (5 turns), we could get the temple fairly quickly by chopping the forest.
Can we afford this?

Alternatively, we can go out looking for prey and hopefully trade for CB before declaring?
But our military isn't exactly overpowering yet

 

[Nick014]

My thoughts:
Consolidate our lands before we go to make contact. Right now from the screenshot we appear to have one warrior, one hoplite, and one archer for 5 towns, with a sixth on the way! I recommend making some hoplites, since we now know that we have horses, and researching HBR at the first opportunity. The power of a strength 3 defender combined with catapults when the AI will probably send us at best archers is incredibly important for the kinds of kill ratios we're going to need. The only downside is that this will trip our GA, but we knew an early one was going to be unavoidable..

 

[Justus II]

Well, on the bright side, an early GA might be just what we need to ensure getting the Great Library. With our workers focused on road building, we don't have that many tiles that will be wasted in GA, I'd hold off on mining any of the BGs, focus on roads and irrigating plains, which fuly benefit from the GA even in Despotism.

We definitely need some real defenders anyway, and with no iron nearby (so no upgrade to swords) I'd rather start building the hoplites rather than more warriors. I would like to explore a little, especially since Corinth is on a small land bridge, might as well find out if there's anyone on the other end, or if it's more backyard territory. Also could be some iron in the mountains to the north. So I'd try to explore out at least a little ways, that also gives us more room for early warning if there is someone on the way.

 

[microbe]

I agree that we are not fully prepared for wars. We need more towns and units. However we shouldn't wait too long either, because then we'll be researching at worst price. We need to find a balance.

If we could find the other continent it would be best, but might not be possible before we have galleys. Also if we can build GL then delaying contact more would be OK, so it's important to manage Sparta. A force of archers+hoplites would be great too.

 

[grs]

I agree on Sparta for the GL. We should start the prebuild very soon to have any benefit from it (though I am still not a fan of the GL on monarch, but as this is the team's deceision I will comply for sure).

I will first do the temple and the chop. Maybe we even find another bg below the forest. I will try to get some more archers out too, but I would really prefer to get 1 curragh to find more distant lands.

EDIT: this is a got it and I will play either tonight or tomorrow night.

 

[gozpel]

I just noticed I totally ignored the dotmap and placed Delphi on "my" spot. How rude!

Btw, we have one hoplite, 3 warriors and 3 archers. Still not a stack.

 

[microbe]

grs, I agree we don't really need GL at Monarchy level, but this game is a predecessor for me (and some others) to AWE, so I want to see how this strategy goes. In AWE you almost always want this wonder.

 

[gozpel]

I concur with what microbe said, this is a training game and we want to do the right things as proposed by the experienced players Then we will try Emperor.

 

[grs]

Okok..I just get the impression some "giants" in this game keep pretending they are dwarves...

 

[grs]

Pre: Set research to ceremonial burial in 5. Sparta switches to Colossus.

1650BC: Ceremonial burial learned; writing is next.

1625BC: We spot iron and 3 wheat in flood plains. Horses and furs connected.

1600BC: ---

1575BC: Thermopylae starts settler for iron spot.

1550BC: The founding of Pharsalos pops pottery from a hut.

1525BC: A Mayan warrior shows. They are up masonry and mysticism, but miss iron working and alphabet. They don't pay for iron working, so they'll have it themselves soon. Trade alphabet + 4 gold for masonry and declare. 3 regular archers move towards the warrior.

1500BC: Curragh built.

Thermo should be mm fro growth and settler in time - ok that's obvious. Barracks and granary are just placeholders. Temple in Sparta will complete next turn - wasting 1 shield.

 

[microbe]

Wow, look at Pharsalos! Do we really need a granary there? I would think shield is the bottleneck not food but I could be wrong. I actually think it should build some workers to mine the mountains?

So we meet the Maya. Not sure if we should have established an embassy with them before declaring, so we would know where they are.

How many cities do they have?

Roster:
microbe
gozpel
grs
Justus II - up
6thGenTexan - on deck
Nick014

 

[grs]

Well the granary just was a reaction to seeing that much food - my way to say oops - feel free to change it.

Can we connect and use the iron while it is damaged? I know we can road it and I know we can't work it, but what about using the resource?

About the embassy. I thought AW is normally without embassies, but I reread and there are different variants around. I got the "no-embassies" from gomaw and we played lk73 without embassies too.

 

[Nick014]

A few Nitpicks:

-Pharsalos is space 4, not 3. I'm thinking even though we would be missing one wheat, 3 should be more than enough.

-You should have let the warrior approach the archers rather than charge it like that. archers have a 2 to 1 attack advantage, but they are only 1 to 1 on defense.

Other than that, wow, what an incredible settler pump I see
And we have iron, that's always good I'm thinking the hill SW of where our warrior is standing now would be the ideal spot for our iron town, but there is the volcanic complication. Where our warrior is standing now would be a good substitute with another city NE of thermopylae 3 tiles.

I'm still a bit shaky at the lack of defenders I see in the screenie, but maybe that's just my play style. We shouldn't need any more archers now that we have the much better retreating horses. I think HBR should be a research priority (if we don't have it already, I might have missed that), as fast units make and break AW games.

Other thoughts: I think that after about 3 or 4 more towns we should curb our expansion, as we'll be expanding well past our production base in our core. We don't have much of a military as it is, let's not compund the problem by running a mishmash of farmer's gambit and AW; they don't mix together well.