Northern Expansion Proposal

[alex_t]

Rik, I must disagree on one point, the priority of building core cities or the next ring out first. If we build the 2nd ring first and someone steals an inner ring location, we can try to flip the intruder. If we miss out on an outer ring location, there is likely no way we can recover without going to war. When playing this close quarters (why on a large map are we so close???) we need to expand as far towards our neighbors as possible stealing their outer rings, and then fill in.

Absolutely right, Dave. "Outside-in-expansion", that's the way it works.

 

[blackheart]

Northern Expansion Proposal Circa 1450 BC

This is the 2nd proposal, but considering we still don't know much about the area surrounding the coast this is still a work in progress. All of the cities (red circles) are on very defensible sites. I placed a possible city to the east because that would solidify our borders and plus we can possibly culturally convert the Zulu city of Hlobane. You may notice that some tiles are wasted, but I would rather waste a few tiles than give up defensible positions and a nice river view. With these cities we would net ourselves wines and horses. Please post any thougts, comments, and objections about this proposal.

Dark Red lines - maximum city tile utilization
Red Circles - future city sites
Blue line - possible course of a river, probably off

 

[invy]

Finally good Wine city. blackheart, this location should be a proposal for our very next city because we need to secure Wine immediately.
Everyone seems to ignore defensive bonus from hills and wants to settle in the plains (i almost gave up with this position because i thought noone likes it:/).
Second location is nice (i like hills and 'horse city' needs more info which we will have soon.

 

[ravensfire]

Interesting proposal - aggressive though. This would quite probably push us into an early war with the Zulu.

-- Ravensfire

 

[blackheart]

Interesting proposal - aggressive though. This would quite probably push us into an early war with the Zulu.

-- Ravensfire

It is meant to be aggressive and stick it right to the Zulu's face so they can't expand anymore. If we play our cards right though, we can avoid war with the Zulu, at least for now. By simply expanding there though, there shouldn't be a war. If we leave room for Hlobane to connect to Zimbabwe and let the Zulu move troops back and forth through their own entire then there will be no hostilities.

 

[invy]

We can get Hiobane culturaly because its far from capital and our Wine city has great production potential with plenty of food for growth and hills for production. If war comes nothing can get through few fortified spearmen in the city on the hills. We might build walls there too.

Other cities should be there simply to stop Zulu expansion and to expand ourselves ofcourse. More cities = more unit support in monarchy.

 

[blackheart]

Other cities should be there simply to stop Zulu expansion and to expand ourselves ofcourse. More cities = more unit support in monarchy.

True, but more cities = more population = more taxes = more money. So more is better .

We may or may not be able to convert Hlobane, it just depends on how things play since our cultures are even right now.