Team Farthings

[Grover22]

3000bc, turn 25, inherited turn

London has unbelievable resources. It's currently working the two corn and a forest/plains/hill for a +6 food surplus. Growth in 3 turns, and fast growth again after that unless we throttle it back.
One worker is pasturizing the horses, and the other is set to mine the gold, so we'll be able to reign in that food surplus and still work good tiles soon.

Bronze working will come in in 15 turns, nominally, but that's likely to drop a bit once the gold mine comes online.

Turns 26-27

London finishes a warrior and starts another. I send him towards Darius, while I split the two warriors already there to have them scout. The one I send SE towards our potential city 2 site spies a tribal village. The other heads NW to see what he could see. (Hoping its not the bear coming over the mountain, as the song goes.)

He offers his hand in friendship. Well, alright. Our NW scouting warrior, whom I name Chip, spotted Musa's scout. The scout came from further NW.

Turn 28

We get a bad event, and we are now -2 with Mali. -1 from the bad event and -1 from declaring war on his friend. I feel the diplo victory slipping away already.

Musa adopts slavery.

London grows to size 4. The new citizen works the just-completed horse farm.
London is at its happy cap with growth in 5 turns. But the next warrior is due in 1 turn, and he can just stay home to provide one extra happy. Or maybe we can crank another out in time before growth.

Spoiler :

Our warrior pops the tribal hut and gets a map. We can see a good deal of empty ocean now. Also, we can see a bear who was lurking just on the other side of the hut. If that warrior beats the bear, I'll name him.

Turn 29

The bear eats our warrior.

We get a good event. Industrious villagers build a pig pasture for us.

The gold mine comes in. London finishes its warrior and starts another 1-turn warrior. Growth in 4 turns, so it can churn out even another warrior before it grows, economy permitting.

The gold mine takes our beakers/turn from 10 to 18. Oh, and it adds three hammers.

Turns 30

London finishes a warrior and starts another, due in 2 turns. Growth is in 3 turns, and the warrior in production will need to stay home to increase our happy cap to 6.

Turns 31-32

The new warrior stays home. London has growth in 1 and by moving off the corn, I can get another warrior next turn when it grows. So I do that.

Turn 33

London grows and pushes out its warrior. We are still at neutral gpt, even with our 6 warriors.
It's at its happy cap (5/5), and I set it on a 6-turn settler. Jeez, that's a fast settler. This town grows so fast we'll want slavery for whipping purposes. And speaking of that, BW is in 2 turns.

In the inturn, a warrior was attacked by a wolf and won. That same warrior himself attacks the wounded bear that got us before. 98.9%, and he wins. I dub him Daniel Boone and try to hustle him back to our borders to rest as he's pretty hurt. I will promote him woods 1 next turn.

I name the warrior I have bird-dogging Darius "Willie." There's another, full-health bear prowling around him, so he stays on the forest/hill most of the time.

Carson, our west-scouting warrior, runs into a lion. Carson is on a hill, and there's a tribal hut 2N of him if he lives.

Turn 34

Carson defends against the lion in the inturn. On his turn, he takes a step closer to the hut. A Malinese scout is nearby and may beat him to it, though.

Turn 35

BW comes in. The only copper I can see anywhere is 6N1E of Persepolis.
Set research to wheel, 4 turns.

Carson pops the hut and we get a free scout.

Our workers have little left to do but chop. I start them clearing a plains hill. They'll mine it, too.

Turn 36

Darius has sent another worker out to the wheat. Unfortunately, he's covered by an archer one square away, and that archer would most likely kill Willie if he grabbed the worker this turn. Willie bides his time this turn, hoping the archer moves away.

Turn 37

Darius' archer moves directly over his wheat worker. Hmph.

I considering naming our scout "Dances with Lions," but I refrain from what must be a very common joke on these forums.

2480bc, Turn 38

Our settler is built. Growth in 5 turns, nominally, and we're at our happy cap.

We are -1gpt now, with 82 gold in the bank.

I set London on a 5-turn barracks (can obviously shorten that by not working the food). Wheel comes in in 1 turn, and I think roading the gold and the horses are priorities 1 and 2 for the happy and for chariots.

Darius' worker is still out there on the wheat, and still covered by the archer.

I'll pass the baton to Shannon, and he can figure out where to drop our settler. Note that there is a bear "over there" SSE of Darius, so care needs to be taken.

Note that we just finished our settler and that it might be a good time to revolt to slavery.

The north:

Spoiler :

The low-res south:

Spoiler :

 

[ShannonCT]

Where to build our second city?

I was thinking of the red dot, with a later city on the green dot. Red dot will have a few mines and enough food for 10+ cottages.

After Wheel, we could go Pottery to get granaries in new cities and start on cottaging.

Shall we try to double team the archer and steal another worker? Or maybe we should make our next war against Darius our last so we don't take too many more diplo hits with Mansa. We can start building a chariot army and attack Persepolis when Darius sends out a settler (when the capital will have fewer archers).

 

[Grover22]

If you move green dot 1N1E, you have less overlap, you get the gold into the bfc, and you still settle on what is likely desert, improving that tile.

And what about just founding one city there, either 1S1E of pigs, or 1S2E of pigs (getting the pigs and the gold)?

 

[ShannonCT]

1S2E of pigs would have to wait for border expansion before getting pigs, so I think that option is out. 1S1E of pigs would allow more river cottages but fewer hammers.

We could move the green dot city 1N1E but only build it when we have a quick way to expand the borders (like Caste System artist). There might also be some seafood near the eastern corn that would influence city placement.

Our 3rd city could grab corn and stone.

 

[Grover22]

Alright. Put city number 2 where you want it. I'm looking at it as a liability for the near future when we're fighting with Darius.

I'd probably wait to have at least one chariot on the ground before declaring war. It shouldn't take too long. We get wheel in 1 anarchy-free turn.

We can probably take him out with chariots. Maybe we should burn some of our warriors on him too, to cut down maintenance costs.

 

[ShannonCT]

Turns 38-48 (2480BC-2080BC)

T38 (2480BC) - London starts barracks

T39 (2440BC) - Wheel -> Pottery. Revolt to slavery while settler is moving into place.

T40 (2400BC) - scout kills lion. York is founded on red dot, starts barracks.

T43 (2280BC) - London reaches Size 6 and slows down growth for mines.

T44 (2240BC) - Pottery -> Writing. York swaps barracks for granary. London barracks -> chariot.

T45 (2200BC) - London chariot -> chariot

T46 (2160BC) - Darius's settler is spotted within his borders. I will move a chariot to try to intercept.

T47 (2120BC) - Daniel Boone is attacked by a wounded bear and wins. That's three notches on his club.

T48 (2080BC) - Our chariot finds Darius's settler and archer heading west, and on open terrain. We have 86.6% chance of killing the archer and picking up another worker.

I'll hand it off here so we can discuss the possible reopening of hostilities.

Jim's suggestion for a city east of York is looking good, with another gold having been revealed.

 

[jmh]

86.6% chance of removing a settler and an archer from Darius and adding to our workforce versus loosing a chariot seems like a good bet to me.

Presumably by that point we should just churn out chariots as fast as possible and take Darius out at that point rather than attempt to regain peace diplomatically?

 

[Grover22]

Good work, Shannon.

I'm all for taking the 86.6% chance on beating the archer and stealing another worker. Even if we lose, we have chariots on the ground and we should be safe. If we go to war, we should be sure to scout out the rest of the tiles around Persepolis to make sure Darius doesn't have metal (or horses) in there anywhere, and pillage those if he has them.

I think there's no rush to found that city out in the desert, though. Stone city would be better, maybe, but I'd concentrate our efforts on Darius first.

How many chariots per turn can London churn out?

Also, what's our tech path going forward from here?

 

[ShannonCT]

86.6% chance of removing a settler and an archer from Darius and adding to our workforce versus loosing a chariot seems like a good bet to me.

Presumably by that point we should just churn out chariots as fast as possible and take Darius out at that point rather than attempt to regain peace diplomatically?

That's what I was thinking. We can get 3 more chariots from London in 5 turns with some temporary starvation. Assuming our chariot attack succeeds, we'd have 5 chariots for an assault on Persepolis, and we have 3 warriors that are also within 5 tiles of Persepolis.

I think there's no rush to found that city out in the desert, though. Stone city would be better, maybe, but I'd concentrate our efforts on Darius first.

Also, what's our tech path going forward from here?

Yeah, that desert city probably needs to wait til we have Caste System. I like Stone City for our next settler. With Darius out of the picture, there's going to be a lot of fog for barb spawning. So maybe hooking stone and building the Great Wall in London would be a smart move. If we get a Great Spy, we can infiltrate Mali and steal techs.

So maybe Masonry after Writing. London could build a settler after 3 chariots and then whip a library and use the surplus food to run a couple scientists.

York can whip a granary in 5-6 turns and get to maximizing cottage income.

 

[ShannonCT]

Two possible locations for Stone City:

South location lets it share London's pigs. North location has better mine potential. Either way, it should become a decent production city with farms on all grass and plains and mines on all hills.

 

[Grover22]

I'd probably take the more northern of those two. It'd be nice to have iron revealed before deciding, but I don't know if we have time for that.

Is Jon up now, or does Shannon have more turns to play? 10 turns seems like not much this early.

In either case, I can't play until late tonight.

 

[ShannonCT]

I'd probably take the more northern of those two. It'd be nice to have iron revealed before deciding, but I don't know if we have time for that.

Is Jon up now, or does Shannon have more turns to play? 10 turns seems like not much this early.

In either case, I can't play until late tonight.

I'll play more. Just wanted to get a team decision on the war.

 

[ShannonCT]

Turns 48 - 56 (2080BC - 1760BC)

T48 (2080BC) - Declare war on Darius again and kill archer. Settler is converted to a worker. Another archer looms over our chariot.

T49 (2040BC) - Persian archer tucks tail. A barb archer is spotted north of Persepolis.

T50 (2000BC) - Writing -> Masonry

T52 (1920BC) - London completes the 5th chariot and begins settler. 5 chariots and 3 warriors converge on Perspolis. Warrior spies 2 archers in Persepolis and we have a worker cornered.

T53 (1880BC) - 3rd archer appears in Perspolis. We steal another worker. We now have 4.

T54 (1840BC) - Masonry -> Math (but turn research to 0% for now). 4th archer appears in Persepolis. This is going to be rough. Chariots adopt the spread offense while 2 warriors get into position. Whip granary in York.

T55 (1800BC) - Still 4 archers in Persepolis.
Our Combat2 chariot attacks at 16.5% and wins. He now has 10XPs.
Our next 4 chariots die at odds of 8.5%, 17.3%, 18.3%, and 32.5%.
We needed one of those to win. Not enough damage was done to finish them off with warriors, so the attack is called off.

T56 (1760BC) - Sign a cease-fire with Darius. Our chariot and three warriors are teleported to York. Our unit costs are almost nil now. I switch to Iron Working (10 turns away).

Darius is hanging on but his development has been severely stunted. He has 3 archers, no workers, and no settlers. He's likely to build a worker and settler now. Our surving chariot can go guard the copper north of Persepolis while we research IW. York can start on a settler at Size 4 and hopefully we'll find iron nearby. Or another option is to go for Math -> Construction for better chopping and for cats.

 

[jmh]

ok, I can take a turn.

Whats the plan?

IW and then Math and Construction? I think we're going to need those cats.
Build stone city to the NW, without waiting for IW.
London has a settler ready next turn for that.
Then, we've got a choice of what to build, we could get great wall in 12 turns, but perhaps a couple extra military units might be better.

Is it worth harassing Darius further? ie, waiting to see if an un- (or lightly-) defended worker/settler happens to get too close to a chariot or should we wait until we're ready to go for the kill to provoke him again?

 

[ShannonCT]

I'm not worried about Darius retaliating if we poach another worker or settler. I think we've got him stuck with archers. The only thing to worry about is the repeated diplo hits with Mansa. I'm pretty happy with our 4 workers for now.

Iron would let us finish off Darius quicker IF we have some nearby. Math-Construction would take longer but gives us a guaranteed unit that is as good as swords, when combined with a couple more chariots. Quick Math also lets us chop Great Wall and Pyramids earlier. I think I'm leaning toward skipping IW.

For London, no sense in putting hammers into Great Wall before stone is hooked. We could whip a library and hire scientists to get a quick academy.

 

[jmh]

ok, lets go straight for the cats then.

Probably go for the southern option for stone city to share the pigs for quicker growth rather than the northern one - if we're not going for IW.

I was thinking a chariot in london followed by library - there's lots of fog out there so I'd be worried about barbs.

I'll send a couple of warriors up into the woods to watch Darius and take advantage of a poaching opportunity if it offers itself, followed by the chariot to cover the copper as you suggested once he's healed up.

 

[ShannonCT]

Sounds good. Good luck.

 

[jmh]

1760 BC, turn 56

We're currently -5/turn with only 34 in the bank. we'll need to do something about that.
London has a settler ready to pop, should probably do chariot next followed by a library.
Mansa mura willing to sign open borders.
Switch from IW to maths - 12 turns.

1720 BC, turn 57
Judaism founded in a distant land.
London spawns a settler - moves up to sit with Jenkins for now - london switches to chariot.
Boone and Willie go hunting, Marshall holds the fort in York - which grows in 2.

1680 BC, turn 58
Nottingham founded. stone city, building granary.

urgh, barb archer appears near nottingham - might be needing that chariot from london v. soon. luckily it builds next turn.
did have worker on the stone but now might need to hide from the archer.
York makes size 4 next turn.

1640 BC, turn 59
new chariot moves up towards nottingham - barb archer runs away.
london starts on its library
old chariot healed and on its way north
york grows - still at work on its library but its due to reach size 5 in 2 turns.
maths in 8 but our cash is running out. will have to drop back on research next turn.

1600 BC, turn 60
chip scouting in the north meets a barb archer and retreats to the jungle.
york switches to settler, thought about letting it grow and whipping the library but they're still unhappy from the last whipping

1560 BC turn 61
london grows becomes quite unhappy.
whip library in london - happy again - size 5 at happy cap for now.
research down to 70%, -1/turn. maths slips two turns to 9 from 7.

1520 BC turn 62
London starts another chariot while we wait for stone to come online - then great wall i suppose
reduce londons growth and get a couple of scientist - maths in 6, scientist in 9
york gets settler in 6, nottingham grows in 2.

1480 BC turn 63
after 2 hundred years of running around we finally catch that barb archer near nottingham with a chariot in the open.
68.1% chance, we go for it. Win!
Sadly Chip gets surprised up a moutain by a barb archer and dies.

1440 BC turn 64
stone online - london goes for great wall (7 turns) if we get rid of one of those scientist.
then we can let london grow - they'll have forgotten their whipping by then.
york has forgiven us their whipping, so interrupt the settler for one turn to let them grow.

1400 BC turn 65
another death willie was attacked uphill on a mountain in the jungle by a barb. Boone gets his revenge and kills the archer.
york back to settler building

1380 BC turn 66
urgh, scout eaten by barbs too!
but research back up to 70%, were 7 and 2/turn, with maths in 2.

1320 BC turn 67
bold bold daniel boone runs away from a barb archer, he needs healing

1280 BC turn 68
we get mathematics, select construction next - 12 turns.

1240 BC turn 69
Great Wall, reconfigure london a bit, great scientist (94%)/spy(6%) in 3 turns
settler next turn in york.

do those great walls remind you of a certain mouse?


thats a good place to stop for now.

 

[Grover22]

Good work, Jon. I'll play a set of turns tonight. I'm very pleased, and a bit surprised, by the pace of this game so far.

After I load the save, I may have some questions. We'll see.

G

 

[Grover22]

Ok. Question 1 is this: Where are we planting that settler that's one turn away from completion in York?

There's an ice hill SE of London that picks up fish, fur, and has three grass tiles (two of them currently forested). Fur + +1 happy for London. Edit: Note that we don't have hunting yet.

There's also the gold/corn/floodplain/desert site east of York. No extra happiness from that, though.

The site that looks best to me is the forested plains/hill NW of Nottingham, 1S1E of the horses there. But that's a bit far from our capital.