STR-05: Shaka the Virgin Conqueror

[GreyFox]

I know that "BtS" would undoutably lead to some comments like that ...

Damned.

Archery though not needed now is still okay .. we will need it when we get feudalism for longbows eventually (... like 100 turns later )

As for copper city site, while 1SE of copper is good, it waste a hill a perfectly productive hill. Alternative I can see is 1S2E of copper (need culture pop, so maybe not so good), or 1SW of copper (I like this better, more productive potential with the cows.

Got it, playing today or tomorrow night.

 

[stuge]

I'd go 1SW of the copper. Those cows will be wasted otherwise.

Strauss, don't worry about MM, just watch the masters.

 

[GreyFox]

Had been playing normal games recently that I forgot how longs things get built in Epic.

Anyway, I allowed the archer to complete (with the help of a mine) before starting the settler. I have chopped the forest of the sugar (needs to get chopped anyway), but it still has quite some turns to go. Meanwhile the worker is farming the floodplains, I think once done, he can go 1NW and chop the forest on the hill to speed up settler (if still not done) or to speed up worker (we do need another worker). The worker can be whipped (we have prod bonus for worker IIRC).

Research wise is where I made more dubious decisions. I decided to go for AH to check for horses and also since the next city will need it.

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The only horse I see is near the American border (which is close to another copper down south):



And it is going to cost us the life (most probably, unless the next player is extremely lucky) of the scout:

​

Then I decided that since this is AW, we need to found our own religion. So I go for Myst. Now I think, in retrospect, that is a . #1 we can always capture a holy city, and #2: we don't need to found it now.

So I suggest the next player to switch to IW if we want to rush Rosy (he is pretty near) or go writing (if we want to build better army faster). Personally, I will go for rushing Rosy.

On an ending note, performed a nice dance with Mansa's warrior:

>>> The Save (2200BC) <<<​

 

[stuge]

I'm up and I've got it.

Not so weedy, Fox. We'd need myst anyway for border pops.

The plan:

Finish myst, start IW.
Settle our copper city.
Build some decent troops.
Try to find a nice location for a third city.
Don't die.

 

[GreyFox]

Writing > Library will give culture as well ... but what the heck, Myst is just 6 turns away. Stay in Myst then. Plus you wanted to go IW (for rushing Rosy I presume).

 

[ungy]

I like the city placement and getting the bronze hooked up asap.

I would have gone for pottery earlier. We are expansive and half price grans are huge. So I'd go for it I think before myst.

We should send a warrior out to check the hut to the e.

I think I'd rush Roo rather than build a 3rd city--3rd city site IMHO is the ivory/horse

I'd work another tile to speed up the settler on the general theory of food or hammers >commerce. I'd also skip the farm in favor of getting the 2 necessary roads built to get the copper hooked up ASAP. Build a worker next, take slavery when settler complete......

My little experience with AW is that the BC belongs to the player so we should make the most of it.

 

[pigswill]

We could build settler in four turns with whipping (3 turns building, 1 turn anarchy) or eight turns without. We're running a bit behind the clock on growth (one city in 2200bc ain't fast) so it would be good to catch up. Agree with hooking up copper asap, we can build roads in the wilderness to save some time and that's probably more of a priority than a farm especially if we don't whip the settler.

Slightly longer term do we go for a third city asap or build up an army first? If we had some decent sites nearby I'd say third city but given the dearth of grain and livestock in our neighborhood maybe build up some units. As I posted earlier impis are good scouting units (and useful for pillaging as well).

Techwise pottery, writing, IW seem to be the next bunch. I'd argue in favour of pursuing maths aftertthose coz calendar and construction are likely to be major techs for us.

 

[ungy]

Agree with hooking up copper asap, we can build roads in the wilderness to save some time and that's probably more of a priority than a farm especially if we don't whip the settler.

We can use the river--I think we only need 2 road squares, the copper and one other.

 

[stuge]

From a couple of measly warriors. Oh well, it's enough to keep Shaka from fretting.

Interestingly, our scout didn't die. The hostiles just moved away. Good for us, since we now have our surroundings mapped.

Founded our first unpronouncable:



Discovered some crabs in the north and a real prime estate in the east:




Got a sneak peek at Washington:



Unfortunately it's on a hill.
Also, the Americanos were kind enough to settle a city for us:



That'll make one heckuva city once we get calendar.

And now, the favorite of all you kids out there, MM fun!

Yay! (Etc)

I let the capital finish the settler without rushing and then switched to slavery. Then I put some hammers into an Ikhanda while the city grew to size four, where I started a worker. A couple turns later I whipped the worker for two pop and used the overflow to finish the Ikhanda in one turn. There was still some overflow, which went into a garrison archer, now four turns from completion.

Also, we have copper hooked up now. (You can also wake up now.)

Save

 

[pigswill]

Got it but I'll wait a couple of days for comments/observations. We could build a city around ele/horse site; maybe on hill 1E of horses. Seafood resources are nice but easily pillaged so we would need to build triremes to protect them.
I imagine that one problem we're going to have is keeping up in research coz in AW the focus is on production. We'll need a decent research city but there ain't any obvious candidates yet. On the other hand, its very early days and as we expand Ulundi might well fill this role when its not on the front line.
I suspect my set will be about building a couple of units without plunging Ulundi into whip misery.

 

[pigswill]

A quiet turnset.

Killed a barb warrior and a scouting Mali warrior. Ulundi built an archer, whipped a granary and is building an impi (2 turns to go). Um finished monument, whipped a granary, built an Ikhanda and is building another impi (9turns to go).

Our workers turned Ulundi's flood-plains into cottages and are completing a road between Ulundi and Um, Um's borders expand in four turns to claim the cows. Maybe use first impi to protect workers while pasturising then go off exploring and harassing.

Our warriors are becoming obselete so I've moved them to the coast to bust a bit of fog.

Producing 15 beakers/turn, IW is due in 9. Hardly rivetting stuf but I wanted infrastructure done before things started heating up too much.

 

[Strauss]

Off to a good start. With infrastructure up, it's time for our Impi to start causing some havoc

Roster:
1) Strauss --> on deck
2) GreyFox
3) stuge
4) pigswill --> just played
5) ungy --> UP!

 

[ungy]

OK-got it. I'll post a plan tomorrow for play Mon.

 

[ungy]

OK some thoughts on my set:

Question is do we want to rush Roo?

Geography is I think pretty good for that. We'd kind of end up with the east side of the map.

We have a couple of worthwhile city sites to the E and also the jumbo site to towards the center. Jumbos are pretty key so I think we will want to capture that site if it gets claimed.

I guess I'd go for rushing Roo. So build axes after the impi--send one to Roo and one to Bis to try and pillage a bit.

We have a couple of worthwhile city sites to the E and also the jumbo site to towards the center. Jumbos are pretty key so I think we will want to capture that site if it gets claimed. However the sites to E only 1 is great and it's far and slow to develop. I don't think it's great to settle into the AI in AW either.

Tech IW-writing-math

If there's iron in a good spot then whip a settler to sword rush Roo instead of axes. We should be able to keep him resource free.

 

[Strauss]

I definitely think we should rush Roosy. Taking cities from him will be tough though: the capital is usually very well defended and New York on a hill and rivers on two sides is a formidable fortress. I don't think we can take them with Axes, we'll definitely need Swords and maybe even Cats before we can mount a serious invasion. Until then, burn his lands!

 

[pigswill]

Impis are better pillagers than axes; if we can deprive targets of metals then axes shouldn't be a problem. I guess we'll have to locate iron before drawing up settlement plans though elephants will be useful later on.

 

[ungy]

OK here we go: inherited turn rearrange fog-buster and up research to 100%.
IW in 8.
1120...
1090 I send first Impi down to harass Bis. Roo will get 2nd.
1060...
1030 border pop uMg
1000 Bis has settled the ivory/horse to the s of where we would. Barbs claim near the gems/dye.
985 we take out a roo Warrior w/impi.
970...
955 IW in--writing. Iron at Ulundi!!!!!
940...
925..impi heading to roo runs into barb axe give it shock and hope for best.
IBT barb wins at 30% vs. impi.
910 Iron hooked up.
895 whip sword in ulundi--2pop. Pillage mine 15$--unfortunately Bis has iron hooked up . and a couple of swords in Berlin.
880 we retreat from Berlin. We meet Toku.
865...
850...
IBT our sword defeats barb axe
820 NY is defended only by one archer+2 war. Writing-math.
whip sword in Umgun
805...
790take out Toku's warrior.
775 We scout Washington--3 archers (+walls). Iron in next culture pop but otherwise no metal.

I think we can do 2 pop whips in around 5 turns in both cities. Get a couple of swords out in each makes 6 and one axe, at least 2 impi. That might be enough to go for Washington. We could start with NY--might lose a unit but would get a promo or 2.

I'm away Wed-Sat this week and next.

 

[ungy]

Save is here:

 

[GreyFox]

I can play tomorrow night, but if Strauss is available, go ahead and skip me.

I think we could wipe out Washy before construction, but that hinges on the other AI not sending units towards us. On that, it might be better to send impis out to oppress the nearby Civs while we tech up to Construction before killing Washy.

If we gonna rely on whip, it might be a good idea to start farming the wine etc pre-calendar.

--

 

[Strauss]

I'll play tonight so no need to skip you GreyFox