SGOTM8 - Cutlery

[jb1964]

Notes from the save:

With only one sheild left on the racks you can get 5 food on turn 1.
All those mountains and jungle really suck. The upside is that it's not swamp and we can settle w/o improvements.
I'm looking forward to the Greeks and Chinese killing each other.

More sage thoughts later...

A short time later...

Pump the towns.
Any interest in regular warriors out of WKnifeBerg as escorts until it grows? The fact that the barbs have not been much of a problem makes me think they're on our doorstep. Keep the settlers escorted.
It looks like we'll need to use colonies to get the southern mountain gems.

 

[Beorn-eL-Feared]

We can figure out a menacing barb camp in probably 60% of cases by clicking the Mil advisor and looking for what town are babs close to. If it is WKnifeB it's probably in the mountains, and if PHV probably up somewhere. If he fails to tell us anything, the way is clear a priori. Escorting is good, but might not be of extensive need to us right now, given an efficient F3 dude with the hat.

That places my opinion in the no-reg-we-can-avoid category.

 

[Minute Man]

Pre-flight MM WSPton for max gold for a turn (and the extra gold lets me turn lux down 10%). Switch rax in WKBurg to a warrior, planning to follow with a worker. Settler in PHVille seems OK to me, too.

Our advisor says there are tribes near PHVille. Of course, that could be just about anywhere. I'm not really comfortable with the idea of letting unescorted settlers run around, though. Building a few extra reg warriors is a minor inconvenience (and they can be used as cheap MP's, if nothing else). Having a settler eaten by barbs would be really annoying.

1 - 1725 BC WSPton rax->settler.

Re-MM to get the settler in four turns, including the chop. Have to turn lux back up.

2 - 1700 BC
Sure enough, a Saxon warrior appears out of the fog to the north. I think we're definitely going to need warm bodies (preferably carrying sharp objects) to protect our settlers. And exploring to the north doesn't look to promising, so I'm recalling Alpha 5 to help pacify the natives.

3 - 1675 BC
Another barb warrior (representing the Zapotec community) appears from the west. And a barb galley sails into view from the north. Not looking real good for the Republic slingshot, but we're committed now.

The Saxon warrior is dispatched flawlessly by PHVille's archer. Since WKBurg is about to finish its warrior, Cap'n Kill 'n maim 'n hack 'n slash (or whatever his name is) is dispatched to have a word with our rowdy neighbors to the west.

4 - 1650 BC PHVille settler->warrior. WKBurg warrior->worker.

Settler sent toward the olives. The forest chop at WSPton revealed a BG.

On the tech front, Greece and China now both have Writing. It looks like the Greeks learned it and immediately traded it to China. I'm going to be officially amazed if we pull off the slingshot now. But we have too much research invested in CoL to abandon it.

5 - 1625 BC
Cap'n Whatsisface is attacked by the barb warrior and wins flawlessly.

WSPton settler->warrior. We don't quite have the shields to run a four-turn settler factory (too many flood plains), but I think we can get a warrior+settler in 6.

Both barb camps are now visible. The Saxons are parked on the olives, while the Zapotecs are a space north of the dark blue dot (and have a horseman in camp ). It looks like we'll be able to get both settlers in safely, barring really bad RNG luck.

6 - 1600 BC
The barb horse sallies forth from the camp, but Cap'n Killnmaim lives up to his name and dispatches the lout (with the aid of the mountain I parked him on), though he is red-lined in the process.

7 - 1575 BC WSPton warrior->settler.

Idiot Academy founded by the olives (which, unfortunately, we can't work at the moment, due to the unwashed masses loitering in the vicinity). The Saxon camp is dispersed, but now has a horseman in it. IAcad set to warrior, at least for the moment.

8 - 1550 BC PHVille warrior->warrior (not growing fast enough for a worker).

The barbs north of IAcad apparently feel that they are sufficient idiots already, as they choose to mill about rather than storm the town.

9 - 1525 BC WKBurg worker->warrior.

Wooden Fork City founded on the blue dot, dispersing the Zapotec encampment. Set to warrior for now.

10 - 1500 BC
A Zapotec horseman attacks WFC, but accomplishes nothing except to promote the defending warrior.


Our empire at 1500 BC:

Notes:

If I'm doing the math right, WSPton should work a forest upon growth, giving us enough shields to complete the settler. Please feel free to double-check my work. Not sure whether it's better to send him to the white or orange dot.

There are three barbarians wandering around (two warriors and a horseman). WFC has both an archer and a warrior; one of them should probably be sent on barb-chasing duty. If we don't build on the white dot next, I recommend sticking somebody on the mountain NW of WFC to eliminate the fog there.

And do keep in mind that the barbs have horsemen. In particular, be careful with workers near our borders.

Feel free to change my warrior builds; since they're all ending after my turns, I didn't spend too much effort deciding whether something else would be better. WFC in particular should probably be building a worker.

Roster check:

eldar - on deck
Tubby Rower
soul_warrior
Beorn
Minute Man - just played
jb1964 - up!

And >>>The Save<<<.

 

[Tubby Rower]

looks good. I just did a mild analysis using CAII and it's generating 17 food for 6pop (+5) so it should go to the highest shielded tile (forest). There are 23 shields accummulated with another 5 coming next turn. So that'll get it up to 28 + the 2 from the forest = 30.

I still don't see how the other teams are out-expanding us by so much....Actually I don't think that the initial expansion is going to be the game-breaker. I think/hope that Gyathaar has an island-civ that we will only be able to get to via helis.

As far as further expansion.....I'd settle white, orange, then the jungle tile just north of the Alps (1-S of the BG for the free auto-clear). then go for the dyes. Fill in the red only when no further expansion can be had. We will need to get some units over there in a hurry if some one comes snooping.

 

[Tubby Rower]

I just noticed that we have a 1 city lead on both China & Greece....more musings later.

 

[eldar]

How about a barracks somewhere? WKBurg is probably okay for one now. No more reg units unless warriors....

 

[Tubby Rower]

We also need to remember that MM should be our last AA tech unless that's all a civ can trade. We'll need it eventually but since we can't get galleys, it's basically a useless tech to us. BTW, we should be able to trade maps to a civ that has MM even though we don't have MM.

 

[eldar]

Oh, a worker from the Idiot Academy, that would be nice - it already has an Archer guarding it. I tend to go on worker-building crusades in my turns if I don't think we have enough.

In fact I'm starting to think that two workers to start from each core city isn't a bad thing; especially with all that jungle to clear.

 

[jb1964]

We can figure out a menacing barb camp in probably 60% of cases by clicking the Mil advisor and looking for what town are babs close to. If it is WKnifeB it's probably in the mountains, and if PHV probably up somewhere. If he fails to tell us anything, the way is clear a priori. Escorting is good, but might not be of extensive need to us right now, given an efficient F3 dude with the hat.

That places my opinion in the no-reg-we-can-avoid category.

A cool way of determining danger. I had never though of that one.

I agree regs are to be avoided but it seemed that a racks in WKB was long in coming and the settlers were about to pop.

 

[jb1964]

@MM, nice turns. I see the input from F3 was helpful.

Will d/l and play this evening.

I still don't see how the other teams are out-expanding us by so much....Actually I don't think that the initial expansion is going to be the game-breaker. I think/hope that Gyathaar has an island-civ that we will only be able to get to via helis.

I think we'll need to get from landmass to landmass by helo no matter what. Given the scenario I'm willing to bet that our landmass is populated by just us the Greeks and Chinese and that the water to our West is a continuous NS channel.

If that is the case then there is the possibility of cultural conversion over the narrow channel. Unlikely, but possible.

I foresee the workers building roads through the jungle to provide a path to kill our neighbors and connect our jungle cities before we start clearing the rainforest.

 

[Tubby Rower]

Cultural conversions won't matter if the town remains undefended for too long. If the towns that convert are corrupt the rushing of defense will have to occur. I've been burned twice in recent games (TR05 being one of them) where the AI is opportunistic and invade an undefended city at the beginning of the game. I can only imagine what they'll do if their town converts and is left undefended for 10 or more turns.

 

[Minute Man]

Yeah, I think the main barbarian threat has passed, so IAcad and WFC should probably switch to workers, and WKBurg probably is due for a barracks. WSPton can do a warrior/settler in 6 turns, and we can get a few more warriors from towns that are waiting to grow, which should be sufficient for our military needs right now.

Map Making gives us harbors, so it's not totally useless. Especially when we start settling the jungle, they might be nice (unless we have a ton of workers, it's going to be hard to clear the jungle fast enough). Agree that it's not a high priority, though.

And I don't think we need to worry about protecting the red dot - WSPton should have another culture expansion before too long.

 

[Minute Man]

Cultural conversions won't matter if the town remains undefended for too long.

IIRC, towns that culture flip get a free defender. And hopefully by the time it happens (if it happens), we'll be in Republic and able to rush a defender or two if necessary.

 

[Tubby Rower]

And I don't think we need to worry about protecting the red dot - WSPton should have another culture expansion before too long.

yup....next turn. it has 98 culture and the 2x is in effect for the palace. expansion takes place that the exponentials of 10.

 

[Beorn-eL-Feared]

I'm all for the troop postings around white and orange dots for fog and barb elimination. Sparing a few men now forthat purpose will save us many more I think. At red and knifeBurg, however, we have time to see barbhorses coming and shouldn't fear more than we need to.

Is it really MM that makes the barbs have galleys? It would sound about right to me, and I'd be inclined then to slow a bit on settler production until we get philo. We can build workers til then, which will not slow our economy (pop loss) down but rather stall it until the roads they build paid off.

 

[Minute Man]

Is it really MM that makes the barbs have galleys?

Yes, I believe so. And they get horsemen when somebody discovers HBR.

I'd be inclined then to slow a bit on settler production until we get philo.

Well, I think we should keep pumping settlers out of WSPton. Expanding is probably more useful than the slingshot in the long run, if we have to choose. And the extra commerce it gets from being bigger is mostly going toward keeping the city from rioting, anyway. But our other cities could use a bit of growth, so they should probably stick to workers, at most (especially PHVille...building that settler there reduced it to size 1, which just killed its productivity).

 

[jb1964]

What priority should there be to colonise the gems?

And if I get a demand for tribute can I tell my neighbors to sod-off and welcome them slogging through the jungle while I try and buy a second front in the skirmish from their close friends? Actually, I doubt we have anything possessing enough value that would do the trick.

I do hate paying tribute so I'll endevour to stay strong and poor.

 

[Tubby Rower]

I'd reject them. Mao has already demanded writing & we told him to stuff it and he backed off. I think that we would be ok. Any towns north of the Academy will need some troops stationed due to the difficulty of getting troops up there quick.

good luck

EDIT:: gems. I'd colonize them after we get the land south of the alps secure and a could of worker pumps up. I'd rather colonize the near gems first them colonize the second one. That way the turns to road to will be cut down significantly.

 

[jb1964]

How did you enjoy the play Mrs. Lincoln?

SPAM

 

[Tubby Rower]

How did you enjoy the play Mrs. Lincoln?

SPAM

huh??

jb, do you realize that your turn is up....it's unclear as are most of your messages.