I picked up the game on turn 94 (1180 BC). There is a lot of detail that follows but I thought it good to do a play-by-play for this turnset.
Turn 96 – Djenne is razed by our northern raiding party and we get 36 gold.
Turn 99 – Barbs put a city very near the Djenne city ruins.
Turn 102 – The northern raiding party pillaged 11 gold from a Mansa cottage.
Timbuktu has two skirmishers defending the hill-city.
The Greeks send a small force of 2 archers and 1 warrior toward our cities.
A lone Greek archer is spotted in the open and taken out by our southern raiding party.
Turn 104 – Pillaged 3 gold from Mansa farm.
Turn 105 – The small Greek force won’t attack our hilltop positions outside our cities, but they send in on lone warrior that is quickly dispatched by one of our axes.
Our southern raiding party finds Sparta at size 2 defended by 2 archers. The city is not working any promoted tiles so there is nothing to pillage.
Turn 106 - Math completed. Construction in 19 turns.
Pillaged 8 gold from Mansa cottage.
Carthaginian culture is spotted north and east of Sparta. The southern raiding party moves to investigate it.
Turn 107 – Pillaged 4 gold from Mansa farm.
Turn 108 – I find Hannibal’s city of Utica. It is defended by an axe, archer and chariot. Time to find Hannibal’s horses and copper.
Turn 109 – Pillaged 2 gold from Mansa rice farm.
I spot a Hannibal copper mine to the southeast and head towards it.
Turn 110 (850 BC) – The small Greek force is eliminated at the cost of one axe.
The southern raiding party is moved onto a Hannibal copper mine. Carthage is spotted along with Hannibal’s horses. Note that Carthage is defended by just one archer at the moment.
Immediate next steps:
- We have a wounded axe and spear in the woods just to the south of our cities. They will need some healing time.
- I moved the archer out of London to help fortify our defense group. He is on his way back to London in one more turn.
- London will produce a settler in 1 turn and York will produce an axe in 3 turns. The settler will definitely need an escort toward the horses.
- Based on what I could see, it looks like Mansa is down to just two cottages for tile improvements. These should be pillaged in short order, but remember to keep the axe and spear together. Timbuktu currently has two skirmishers, 3 workers and a settler.
- Our lone worker is in the woods between our cities on the way to build a mine on the hill northwest of York. This of course could be altered as necessary.
I have attached screen shots of each of the cities so that the team see their respective current states.
The next steps I think are:
- Get that settler out under escort and make sure that we are all in still in agreement for the specific city site proposed a while back.
- Pillage the copper and horses from Carthage quickly.
- Finish pillaging Timbuktu.
- Continue to build axe and spear in London and York.
- Try to get another worker out as soon as possible.