What would you do?

[The Professor]

I've got a dilemma. There are, admittedly, worse problems to have, but here's my situation:
I am playing my first AW game, as Persia, on Emporer. Unfortunately, the only source of Iron that I've found on the map (I haven't wanted to explore too much; I'm already at war with my two closest neighbors.) is in one of Arabia's two remaining cities, which are on the other side of a wide swath of jungle, so no Immortals, yet. And even when I take those cities, it will be a while before they are hooked up to the rest of my empire.

The good news is that I got a MGL on defense, no less, against my French neighbors to the East. My question is: what should I do with the leader? I'm considering these options:

A) Make an empty army and wait patiently for Immortals to fill it.

B) Make an army and fill it with spears and go pillage France, and try not to meet anybody else while I do it.

C) Use it to build the Forbidden Palace.

Or are there some other options I should be considering? My only offensive units right now are Archers and Horses, and neither of those are worth much in an army.

 

[Aabraxan]

D) Make an army. Fill it with spears. Hide a stack of cats, horses & archers under it. The AI won't touch a full-health army at this stage.

 

[vmxa]

It is hard to make a choice without seeing the whole picture. How far down the tech tree are you? If a long ways to get out of AA, then how likely are you to find another nation soon?

If I would not expect to get more than one more nation for a time, then I should be able to deal with them without an army. In that event, I would go for the iron and use spears to deal with defense and try to get by with horses or archers.

If you face a nation with cheap early UU, then you have another issue. You may be better to just make a road and not fill the land towards the iron for a time. This is because you not have to defend the road in neutral land.

I would make an army and not fill, if I could get by, fill it if it gets rough. If you fill it, you may want to go with 2 spears and an archer. You may need to attack with the army.

 

[anaxagoras]

How early in the game is it? Obviously AA, but here's how I would make the choice:

Horse armies aren't awful if it is early enough in the game. I would MUCH rather have a horse army than a spear army. Move three in the AA is very useful, and you can pillage half again as much with a horse army, if you want to pillage things. (Pillaging at all is a whole separate topic.) With defense 1, though, the AI does attack horse armies, and the move three means they can easily outstrip any defenders you have, so you you have to be fairly careful about how you use a horse army. Also, since this is AW, you want to get an army win and be eligible for the HE. That's easier to do with horses.

On the other hand, if it is relatively late in the AA, you are eligible to build the FP, and you haven't completed too many turns on it, that is a very good option, as well. Horse armies are subject to quick obsolesence, so if the AA is too far along and the horses won't last, then the FP will be more attractive.

If you are in relatively good shape militarily and economically, then you can hold it for better. I would go get that iron, though, even across the jungle. Settler CxC through the jungle to auto-clear as much as you can. You can abandon the towns and resettle them at the cost of however many turns it takes to get the 30 shields for a settler. Meanwhile, the towns are giving you commerce. Cuts the worker load in half. Also, consider just making roads through the jungle to save time. Sometimes you have to break Conventional Wisdom when your UU is at stake!

 

[The Professor]

Well, I made an army with the first MGL, and before I could decide to do with it, I got another, so I rushed the Forbidden Palace, and then I got a third, so I now have a spear army (currently sitting on top of the iron, just outside my new city), and an empty army. My workers should have the iron connected in about 9 turns. The French, on the other hand, are sending tons of swords in my direction, so I may send that spear army to pillage their iron. It's getting late enough in the game that I assume that I've found everyone on my island.

Oh, and I used the spear army to attack a spearman who was done to his last hitpoint, so I can build Heroic Epic...IF I ever get another MGL. I've never gotten so many so early in the game before.

Thanks for the suggestions and advice, everyone.

 

[Mursi lives]

When I get an early MGL, I usually make an army of horses. Blitz units need movement points to be useful. Even if immortals were available, I would consider filling my army with horses.

 

[Hasdrubal Barca]

Fill the army with 3 industrial workers and you get to move and build a road on the same turn (if only it was possible)