SGOTM 06 - Chokonuts

[Ozbenno]

Loaded the game for comments...

Barracks in London is right. Until the copper is connected to York, I think barracks is right here too. Once copper is connected I'd switch to a spear, whip it at size 2 and join with an axe from London to scout Mansu out. I just realised he's going to have skirmishers, so we may be unable to take him out which would annoying. Pillaging might have to suffice for now.

Research wise I think both Pottery and Archery and even Writing before Iron Working.

Once the road to York completes, we should get the gold mined and then mine all the forested hills and some cottages.

We are periously short of defense, so an axe or two has to stay home.

We probably need another worker and getting a city out to claim the horses would also be good. The familiar frantic feeling of AW is already here.

 

[ngraner42]

What do you think about having the worker start mining the gold while York builds a Barracks. We work the banana until the mine is on line and then work the gold until the banana is farmed. In the meantime we whip the barracks in London and then get it busy producing units, starting with an axe and a spear as you suggest. i just really like the idea of getting the production up.

Why do you recommend the research techs ahead of Iron Working. It seems like swordsmen would be sufficiently useful and we of course can't trade for it. Are you concerned about unit support. With two gold mines, I would not think that cash is a priority either.

 

[Ozbenno]

Iron Working will take a while and we have no guarantee of iron being accessible (especially with copper in BFC). Not worried about unit support as I suggest we build tonnes of axes. If we do research Iron Working, it's not necessarily a bad choice, its just a bit of a gamble.

I'm also a bit concerned about London being at size 3 for whipping. It's another gamble situation, do we risk production being down to grow London to max size and then use the whip, or do we maximise production and forgo the whip. I don't really know whats best, what do you guys think?

 

[ngraner42]

London is working a lot of good tiles. The worker is currently sitting on a forest. What if we let the worker chop out the barracks before moving onto the gold. In the mean time York will still be growing by working the Banana.

 

[Ozbenno]

I think chopping is better than whipping at London at the moment.

 

[ngraner42]

Posting an I have it. I will hold off to check with T3K before playing.

 

[cubbiesin08]

Were you able to play at all?

 

[ngraner42]

I just got Internet access back, but will not be able to play until I am back in Indy Sunday.

 

[ngraner42]

Chopped the Barracks in London, then built a Spearman, and an Archer with a second Archer underway. I would suggest an Axeman next and then go harass one of our neighbors, per Oz's plan.

Hooked up the Gold in York and recommend farming the Banana next. Another farm for London would also be helpful.

We have a warrior eying Alex's gold hill so that he does not mine it. We have another warrior to the NE, which killed a Barbarian. It has 1 star, 1 Woodsman promotions. I would have preferred to go double Woodsman, but we were about to be attacked by a Barbarian in the open. We are at 5 of 8 experience for the next promotion. There is a scout nearby that we may get a chance to kill.

Researched Agriculture, Archery and Mysticism (for an Obelisk in York). I have set research to Iron Working, but we can discuss.

 

[Ozbenno]

Nice progress ngraner!

I would leave the warrior outside Athens as suggested.

An axe after Archer in London and then get the axe/spear of to Mansu to do some pillaging.

I can see two paths after this we could take.

Firstly, get two more axe/spear combos and pillage Alex and Hannibal as well, plant a city to get horses and go conquering after catatpults. If we do this I would suggest teching Pottery then Writing and then towards Construction.

Second, whip out an army of doom for Mansu. The scouting spear/axe will show us what we need but plenty of swords and axes will be required. If we do this, Iron Working is good (although I'm not hopeful of having easy access to iron with copper so close and an extra city may be problematic) but then Pottery and Writing.

I'll wait for some comments before playing.

 

[Ozbenno]

No comments on the plan, so let's forge ahead

I switch research from Iron Working to Pottery.

Axe replaces archer in capital.

York hooked up to capital.

Masonry replaces Pottery, we will need walls.

Here's a look at Mansu's area. Skirmishers on a hill may be too much without catapults. Warrior killed IBT.



May have been smoke to put the warrior in harms way but I really wanted to see what we are going to be up against to see where we should go. If Timbuktu wasn't on a hill I think we'd be all right but not now.

Writing replaces Masonry. Barracks whipped in York.

I played a bit more than 10. I want some feedback on where to go next. I put up a cottage in London as I want to grow London to size 4 and then get another settler going to grab the horses. I think we're going to be playing a somewhat defensive game for the next while and we need a couple more cites to have enough production to do so.

I think we whip York every time it gets to size 2, should whip a granary now we have Pottery.

I have an axe/spear combo heading for Mansu to pillage him, and an axe and spear in production.

Is everyone happy to plant another city to grab horses now? If not, stop working the cottage and go back to the mine.

I really feel we have delayed the early offensive too long, we should concentrate on pillaging and defending. Walls would also be good.

Things are going to get fun soon.

We also need another worker somehow

 

[McArine]

I finally pulled myself together and are doing the necessary upgrades.

I will be able to play sunday.

I'm planning to follow Ozbennos suggestions, if you have comments please post them.

 

[ngraner42]

Here are my observations:

We should get the worker over to farm the Banana tile. It is a waste to be working unimproved tiles. We can mine the hill to the NE of York and use the chop for the Granary.

Working the Copper in London increases the growth time by 3 turns, but shaves 4 turns off the Spearman. As in the case with York I think we need to be more focused on getting units out to follow through with the idea of harassing our neighbors. Once we have that accomplished then work on getting another Settler out. The site on the plains hill will give the horses right away and eventually the Stone and Rice.

With only the one worker and units and Settler ahead of a second worker in priority, I would not be worrying about growing the cities too much at this point, but instead focus on working the best tiles.

 

[McArine]

Hey guys,
I'm sorry I didn't get to playing today, my sunday turned out a bit different than I had imagined (not bad-different, fortunately)

I'll play tomorrow instead, if noone beats me to it.

 

[McArine]

The second Axe/Spear is heading south. First Axe/Spear has discovered Djenne on a hill, south of Timbuktu, defended by 2 warriors
I went for Mathematics, I figured we needed catapults more than iron atm.
I build a library in London to improve research. Mathematics is 11 turns away.

 

[Ozbenno]

If we've found a city defended by 2 warriors, we should raze or capture it. Free XP for our axe. I'll try and load the save later today for comments.

I think it would be Mighty or terminator up.

 

[Ozbenno]

I'm very worried about the (lack of) size of our empire. 2 cities, one size 2 and 1 stagnated on size 1 will be easy picking to the first AI stack that comes along. We need larger cities and more of them, in my opinion. Grow what we've got first and then expand.

As for Mansu's city with the two warriors, we should raze it but we should have pillaged all the squares around his capital. The main function of the axe/spear pairings is to destroy the tiles of the AI, not take over cities (plus it gives us cash). There are 5 squares that need to be pillaged around Timbucktu, so when we've dealt with Djenne, we should mop up here and scout his empire out more for resources.

 

[ngraner42]

Could we please have discussion before someone plays a set of turns with a whole new strategy. There was no discussion of going for Mathematics, the pillaging plan was skipped, and it appears whipping out a Library was a huge shift in strategy as Oz was recommending growth of the capital and I emphasized the importance of working the several very good tiles in the capital.

Before we play any further turns lets get some agreement on where we are going. We have shown we can always make up time and get quick turn around in the later game where their are far fewer strategic decisions.

 

[McArine]

Could we please have discussion before someone plays a set of turns with a whole new strategy.

I couldn't agree more, but I don't think I made a whole new strategy.

There was no discussion of going for Mathematics.

No, there wasn't, but, as I read the posts, there wasn't a definite "go for Iron working". And Ozbenno pointed out that we might need catapults for Mansu.

the pillaging plan was skipped

Not at all, the stack used one turn to gain xp, then I chose to approach Timbuktu from the south, saw that there was a city to the south, and chose to use two turns to check it out. I wouldn't say it was a bad decision if we can destroy it.

and it appears whipping out a Library was a huge shift in strategy as Oz was recommending growth of the capital and I emphasized the importance of working the several very good tiles in the capital.

Ok, I missed that, it was wrong, and I'm sorry.

Should we try to reestablish some kind of voting system, as we had it in our first games? If we need to decide upon things.
Or should we (me included) get more active, and say more of, I like/don't like doing it this way or that way?
Maybe try to make a concensus before everybody plays, so all know, what the three next research goals are, what each city should be doing, and where each unit stack is going.

Example:
Research: Iron Working, Mathematics, Construction.
Cities:
London: Work best tiles, a bit growth, production and gold, no whipping, only units (spear and axe) atm.
York: Whip at 2, a bit growth and production, only units (spear and axe) atm.
Units:
Local units: Keep defending key resources and cities.
Mansu unit: Destroy 2 warrior city. Go Timbuktu pillaging.
Southern unit: Go south pillaging.

 

[Ozbenno]

Probably a better plan is for each player to outline their strategy before they play, ie I plan to research x, raze y, build z etc. The group can then say go for it or what about abc? Also, if you play 10 and we've 1 or 2 turns left on an important build or research (or even 1 or 2 less), play the extra turns and show the research or build queue, nominate what you would build/research and get some discussion going.

Haven't heard from Mighty or terminator, maybe we're back to cubbies?