Nice going CfL
Killing yet another bear, tho we dont get credit (Exp) for it this time
on spotting that culture!
That looks like it would be a capitol, it has expanded borders. This means another capitol close by
Looks like Ragnar or one of the indians, anyone hazzard a guess?
Good news is, I dont think that AI can reach us by Galley way direcly maybe via the South (Alex) but not directly.
For Alex for going way out and planting a city right in a spot where we wanted it. Lets let it grow to size 2 so we can capture it, Assuming Alex is working the Grass Forrest like a nice AI, that would be rougly 15 turns from now => Somewhere close after turn 85 or so we should visit Sparta, which means we have time for a quick visit to MM.
The first Axe will take 11 turns at minimum to get into MM Culture (straight east) and go SW to Sparta. So we have something like 5-6 turns where he can do some damage. Look out for the skirmishers tho, a combat promoted Skirmisher can do some damage to a unpromoted Axe!
Sparta (Bahowe?
or Hahoel?) still needs some more food before I get all happy about this city. The banana +3, FP +1, CC +2 for a total of 6 food, while I can see 9 tiles that need food... So without another food resource it needs 3 farms to work the max, which we will probably never reach tho.
In 15 turns we should have 2 more axemen ready from London to go and claim Sparta, so even if we find an Archer... It shouldnt be a problem with 4 Axemen. Finish the settler and build 2 Axemen should take about 12 turns. Needing 6 turns to reach Sparta = 18 turn total. Leaving still those same 5-6 turns to bother MM a little.
The warrior just south of sparta should head towards Athens to see what that land looks like, but also he may get lucky and find a Worker in transit from Athens to Sparta
. Look out for archers tho and bears! There seem to be a lot about?
About our own lands. We need the worker still at London for 4 (mine) + 1 Move to hill + 6 mine = 11 turns, When working the current mine London is going to take some 20 turns to grow. With the second mine beeing worked it will take 40! turns to grow again to size 7.
Alternatively we can finish the farm on the Dye first for added food which we can work at size 6 to grow faster to size 7. In which case we add these 5 turns to the count above. 16
I allmost forget we need to road that Gold! So yet more turns are needed at London.
Either:
- 2 moves and 2 roads to get the western gold (8 turns)
or:
- In 6 turns London expands, we can mine the gold SE of london which AUTOCONNECTS to London, This offcourse takes 6 turns + 1 move. So we save 1 turn, but... it is towards our enemies, so the likelyhood of pillage is higher.
After which he is free to go. i.e. First task would be Build a road to Horico.
What do we do in the meantime? I think we need an additional worker Sooner rather than later, two options:
- We "waste" an Axe and build the worker in 6 turns in London
We want the 2 Axemen after the settler I think to try and steal Sparta from Alex, so Axe => Axe => Worker will take 8+6 = 14 turns.
- We slowbuild the Worker in Horico for 23 turns
Building the worker in London gets us both the worker faster but Horico can also start the monument immediately. So we get the Monument atleast 23 turns earlier = Border pop earlier = Food earlier = Everything earlier.
But at the very least we delay Axe#5 for 6 turns.
What is more, somewhere between Axe#5 and #10 we may want to get ourselves a Barracks so we can start with promoted units.
With that AI to our SW, is it smart to build that Gold X city? This would make us meet him... maybe we do not want that?
With MM founding Hinduism in Timbuktu, this will make his culture horrible. With skrimishers on a hill behind 40% culture, I dont fancy the odds we want Catapults before we really attack him I think. PLEASE when we pillage lands leave cottages alone, the AI can grow them for us making us money in the end.
This definatly makes Alex our first target, Alex' capitol is 15 tiles south of us, while MM is some 13 tiles East of us. So maintenance should not differ to much. Capturing Athens tho makes for a need for Sailing (connect the cities) AND makes for a LONG frontline against Hannibal
As I see it we have 2 big priorities:
- Calander
- Construction
We do not need (or do not have time for) Meditation/Priesthood I think (revising my own ideas/plans I know) These two techs are 171 and 127 = 298 beakers / 17 bpt = 18 turns delay of both priority techs.
Sure for 11 turns (while researching writing) we miss out on 20% bonus. 20% * 17 = 3.4 This is rounded down to 3 * 11 = 33 beakers we miss out on, which is two turns "gain" we would have on the Med/Priest/Writing branch. Still a 16 turns we get Calander and Construction later.
Or do we want to go for CoL ASAP to try and get Confused for the free culture points?
Also IW fits a bit in there so we can found C and A, but first we want atleast 1 AI gone I think and that means Axe's Chariots and what not. First, then Catapults/WEs (construction), then calander, and then IW... Followed by Currency/CoL or has anyone other ideas?
Actually if we go after any capitol soon, we are going to need CoL soon, the courthouse would really help in keeping that capitol and keeping our economy "up to speed"
Edit: Quick additional note: We are paying allready 1 gpt in supportcost due to units outside of our culture. Maybe we should NOT use the warrior to scout North after settling Horico and keep him inside our culture bounds to save up some gold. I cannot imagine there beeing a lot of (usefull) land up there anyway.
. Axe2 started with the chop, and was done in 2 turns
I spotted a neighbor, just W of London ... 
