[SPOILER] Darius of Ottomans - Vets - Krill

[Krill]

5 turns and I'll be able to slave longbows...I'm counting down the turns until pretty much everything is safe. Then I'm going to see about expanding that safe area...that gold, for instance...

Galleys, well, I'm lucky that the coast is so far away from sunrise and Cyneheard, neither of them could easily make a coastal assault, the latter because he doesn't have a coastal city yet.

The city placement...well, I want to blanket the land in cottages. 1 food resource/city is enough for that. Those coastal cities will be a bitch to defend later on in the game. I'm going to have to try and own as much of the ocean as possible. And cripple as many other coastal cities as I can. I wouldn't so much as label this as MP placement as adequete placement.

[Krill]

Got Fued down to a 4 turn tech, still around 60% on the slider at break even. Due eot t79. Hope to get Sailing, Calendar and CoL (anything to push tech...) by t87, then reconsider position.

Next 20 turns should be a major turning point in the game. Best thing that can happen to me? I settle the next 5/6 cities unopposed. The stronger I become the less appetizing it becomes to attack me, my population is growing faster than anyone elses' AFAICT, and I have a higher tech rate than Cyneheard (and he is in HR/Bureau, and I can tell because he is making less gpt than me when saving gold. Yes, he could only be running 20% science in an attempt to sandbag, but I doubt that).

[Krill]

Somebody has Fued...put 137 beakers into it, but got 172 out, which is more than I should have. Considering sunrise revolted to HR 2 turns ago, it ain't him. Going to assume it is Cyneheard...

[Krill]

Here is the situation over to the West where Krill has asked me to get a city onto the Northern Gold. Upon opening the save and locating said tile, my response is FAT CHANCE ...



So - what are we seeing here ... some chariots from multiple directions and a watching warrior. The Horse Archer Krill left in the middle of his land is moving West. I think that it might take out that warrior. The Green Circle archer moved 1 tile directly East onto the grassland hill - any other tile and I think it could be hit. My thinking is to get it behind some city walls. The Green Dot worker is chopping (into walls?). The worker that just finished roading to this poor little city will be running over to the forested grassland hill to chop something into the city that will be settled there next turn.

What was that Ruff?



Bet you didn't expect that :neenernee

Two turns ago I moved 2 workers to the tile 1W of Travelling Riverside Blues and cottaged, and one worker to the flood plain 2W1N of TRB and roaded. I moved a HA onto the gold tile, I built into a settler in TRB, and TRB was size 6. I finished Fued end of this turn

Last turn I finished the cottage with one worker, and moved 2 workers onto the gold hill, along with an archer, a second archer, axe and cat to the tile 1SE of the gold, I saved gold, and built wealth in my capital and one other city, so that end of the turn I would have 142 gold. I slaved the settler for 3 pop.

This turn I roaded with both workers on the gold, and the flood plain with the worker that just finished the cottage. I moved the settler to the gold hill and settled, moved both archers to the city and upgraded them both, for 71 gold apiece to LB. I revolted to HR/Fued/(Slavery)/something/OR for a 1 turn revolt.

And that is why there is tactical combat and worker management even with stacks Yes, Cyneheard has a Guerrilla 2 LB, spear and axe on that hill...but they aren't all that threatening with 2LB in a hill city that will shortly be getting walls

[Krill]

Right now I'm wondering if sunrise and Cyneheard expected HA strikes against them? sunrise has a perfect sentry net up, and Cyneheard hasn't pressed me even though he has been militarily much stronger than myself with 2 promo WC, which are complete bitches to deal with.

[Speaker]

Looks like they are letting you expand at your leisure, Krill. You have grabbed an awful lot of land, with 11 cities (I think?) in 81 turns. I guess you aren't perturbed by the map?

[Krill]

I'm top in pop, 20.97% to Cyneheards 17, and top in land area, 14.23% to Darrells' 13.00%. And that is 12 cities total built, after sunrise razed my third city...still got space for 3 easily defended cities (about to start making the settlers against shortly), and one slightly risky city that I don't see sunrise trying to contest because it is about 4 turns travel for any of his fast movers...and is more west than my front city against him. So yeah...apart from that fuck up against sunrise, and Cyneheard scouting me out with a few WC and a warrior, absolutely nothiing (overtly) going on against me at the moment.

The maps fine. Solid amount of food around, resources aren't in stupid places, enough resources of different types mean we can grow out cities without needing a billion HR troops and won't get unhealthy before size 12ish...no horrendous bottle necks, and the land is wide enough that you do have to deal with possible attacks along the coast or by the bottom of the map by fast movers. Overall, solid map for an AW game. Although I must admit that I'd be a lot larger if I didn't have to deal with the tech giant to my left and the only other MPer to my right.

My reckoning is that I should have all 3 grains, all 4 animals, all 3 seafood by the time I've finished planting those other 3 cities. Happiness will be spices, incense, wines, gold, silver and furs. So, 12 happiness with religion and sole HR defender, and 12 health without a granary or fresh water.

I can't see anyone being particularly happy with the strength of the economy I'll have, but I hope sunrise and Cyneheard decide that they can't attack me (no one knows anyone apart from their neighbours, and me.So Cyneheard doesn't know sunrise is on the other side of me). That hopefully means that both of them play defensive thinking I'll go after the person on the other side, which I won't do, at least not before I have a large stack of cannons around...I've got court houses and forges to build.

[Ruff_Hi]

Bet you didn't expect that :neenernee

oh you totally wimped it - you should have been settling 2W of that gold hill.

Actually - I expected you to pick up that hill - well done .

[Krill]

Rule number 1 of Pitboss warfare - don't settle next to hills. I'd have given Cyneheard a simple route towards my city that had defensive boni. Now, if he wants to attack the city, he has to either hit with a pure fast mover stack, or leave a slow mover stack on the grassland for a turn where I can cat it. This is much better than 2W of the gold for me, but 2W of the gold was ideal for Cyneheard...apart from the fact he would have had a little difficulty getting the gold.

Now, 3W of the gold...

[Krill]

When I next get the turn I'm going to consider tech paths quite carefully - someone popped a GE, and I want to see if Pyramids has fallen next turn or not. If it hasn't I have to assume they took Machinery, and that means I'm going to have to be very tentative against Cyneheard and sunrise (more likely to be Cyneheard that did this IMO). I can use LB/HA/cats to kill any incoming stack of maces/pikes/cats with no difficulty, if I have the units...and I have the cities (plus happiness) to slave out that sort of army with no trouble.

Hell, I could do it without cats if I had to, I've done it before...