I think we can go ahead and attack now. Actually it's 5 workers we get, because the captured settler will become a worker also It's 4 with settler. . When we capture the worker in Thessalonicas fat cross I suggest we do it with a spear and move two cats along for bombarding. Later we can bring more units so that the city can be captured. Be sure that we have no more than 2-3 units outside Thessalonica before the whole stack is there. A medium size stack adjacent to a city can cause the AI to do a lot of whipping and we don't want that. Okay. I see that Sheep City is unguarded. I think we have to fix this fast because a chariot could show up. Not likely. No chariot has been built or was able to be built in Adrian (been monitoring city), but I will put 5 hammers into a spear so I can whip one if necessary.
We can bring 11 units to Thessalonica fairly fast even though we loose a little time worker stealing. My guess is that this is enough and that we need only a few more units in order to also take Adrianople. I suggest we play this war a bit slow and don't risk crashing the economy due to unit cost Yes, will build as needed.
I think think first priority in Constantinople is units. Then again, we might not want to take all Asokas cities so we have to judge how many units are needed to take Thessalonica and Adrianople. Second priority is Courthouse. Okay, will build courthouse before library but after units.To reduce maintenance but also to grow a great spy. Like I said, he will be worth ~15000 beakers in stolen techs. In comparison a GSci is only worth 1500-1700 beakers. That's only 1/10th of the Spy.
If we are unlucky we loose the worker outside gold. He is unfortunately placed in range of a chariot attack. But getting 5 is ample compensation. And the spear can't safely go any further away from Gold City. Perhaps he should retreat. Spear will be able to kill any chariot that tries to snatch worker. If worker not snatched, will move him forward to look at city then back to forest with spear on same turn, then will retreat them both. (Worker is building road just to keep from wasting half a turn. He is there to get intel on city before advancing units now NW of Hague.) If multiple chariots in city, then will have to advance those units to Gold City.
We have:
6 axes
3 spears
3 cats
and are producing 2 cats and an axe. I think we need to change build in Utrect to spear and get him to Sheep ASAP. If we whip the cat in Constantinople we can probably build another unit shortly after. That's the plan. Perhaps whip another cat in Utrecht when the archer is done and produce the spy with the overflow. Not clear what you are thinking here, as a cat is already being built in U. It will come out in 2 turns, but -- depending on what the need for units looks like after see inside Thes and barb cities -- may whip cat in U for one pop and put overflow into missionary.After that stop building military at least until we know where we stand i.e. know the outcome of the battle of Thessalonica.
Utrecht needs MM now that the forest is gone. Grassland is better than the hill. Yes, but can't get cat out in 2 turns without using hill. Const can work grassland forest instead of grassland. Not if we want to whip a cat for 2 pop next turn. And our captured workers should help cottaging and mining so that we can turn around our economy. Understood. Perhaps also use some to chop Courthouse in Constantinople and granary in Sheep. We need a missionary for Troy and we need to get the spy there so he can wait for 5 turns before stealing. Grow our cities for a while - probably building wealth.
Appreciate the feedback. Will check back here and then play in about 7 hours unless team feels need for more discussion.