( Spoilers! ) 52 ways to cook shrimp.

[superdeath]

Just realised that Japan is playing as Cyrus!? How can you have all those forest, be IMP but still only have 4 cities turn 82? That horse city is 7 tiles form his capital and 15 from ours. I think that we might claim it before him though. Since he lost the other even closer horse resource to Pindi it looks really bad for Japan vs. Numids. Maybe we should build that city just to give Japan horses to stop Pindi from running all over him =). For that matter we might need an army of horsemen to stop Pindi from getting a too cheap conquest vs. Japan.

We should immediately beef up the army regardless (like you are doing). We have played a successful farmers gambit so far, lets not push it when our neighbor signal aggression by teching HBR. Before we get HBR our power graph will act as a deterrent. We need archers in all the backline cities anyway for growth. We also want an extra or two spear to escort a worker to improve the ivory for more happiness. Pyramids would be great for us but I'm not sure if we can build it safely. At the very least we should have 2 scouting units in his land to cover all approaches to us and try to keep equal in power. If we can do that with the other cities and build the Mids in boil, then go for it.

I sent this to TRY and warn Japan about pindi's incoming numids. 



Horses for his EVERY resource... would have to declare on him should he be dumb enough to accept it, but as with most deals i try and show ( cough JR4 ) they dont always get read how id like.



Demos are still pretty good, and we should only really be behind 1.5t to HBR compared to pindi. I, Kinda want to prevent Pindi from eating Japan, but man is that gonna hurt the economy.


Scouting has begun

[superdeath]

I was able to swap tiles around to both grow most of the cities, AND get HBR a turn earlier.. So, if Pindi starts whipping hard. Do we whip hard in response? Both as a deterrent for coming after us, and to prevent him from easy Japanese gains? Or do we sit back?



IMO, 2 promo HA's are worth it in our mostly production-focused economy.


This island turned out to be mostly worthless... Do we even bother settling here? NOTE: Whales require optics again so no easy extra happy.. Do we ship the settler to the coast to go settle down in the jungle? Ugg.....



Ive got a lovely bunch of gems... "dooodle dooo" All sitting here in a bunch "doo doo dooooo"

[chumchu]

The island should still be worth it for the trade routes. Settle on the plains hill. It seems likely that we will be at war with Pindi some time reasonably soon and then we will want that extra commerce in every city. It also allows s to close border with him with less of a loss if he gets Gl or Cothons online.

We should definitely counterwhip if we see whips or power increases.

I will be away in the countryside the coming 2 weeks. Might check in one or twice but expect less regular feedback.

[superdeath]

The island should still be worth it for the trade routes. Settle on the plains hill. It seems likely that we will be at war with Pindi some time reasonably soon and then we will want that extra commerce in every city. It also allows s to close border with him with less of a loss if he gets Gl or Cothons online.

We should definitely counterwhip if we see whips or power increases.

I will be away in the countryside the coming 2 weeks. Might check in one or twice but expect less regular feedback.

Wasnt all that worth it for the routes, as we are covered via foreign trade sadly... at least for now, its only costing us a gold or two.. Sigh.

He has produced at least 3 numids so far, and im watching to see if they go our way, or more likely.... Towards the horribly backwards at turn 89 already Japan. I really want to help Japan and make sure that Pindi doesnt double up on land this early.. But then Japan goes and does this stupid shit:


And accepts the copper/copper deal instead of you know.... SENDING IT BACK. GAH. Some people's kids..


GNP is down a bit, and it will take awhile to get to currency... probably 10t or so including saving gold. But our other demos look pretty nice i think. I feel like we have plenty of time to respond, as SURELY Japan has seen the whips and knows to build spears right? And if they dont, they certainly wont be better to us alive as they arent even a thorn in someone's side at that point. So, ill slowly build HA's and prep to slice into Pindi.

[superdeath]

I hope this means he understands that there is going to be a horse-based attack by the cows... not that he thinks ill actually give him my only source of horse. Right?



Ignore all the signs, except the # of numid's made so far. 5. So, that is enough numids to warrant a counter whip/building of my own HA. Ill have 3 next turn, and 6 the turn after that if my math was correct. With basically all of them able to get to my copper before his could. If i see those numids head south, ill raze Pindi's oracle city and try and raze more.


Even after whipping, my production lead is rather... weird. Leading in food too? Weirder. I need more happy.

[superdeath]

On break at work... but heres this:




He's upto 9 numids so far. And im upto 2nd in power... i really hope he goes into gira's lands without defending himself with spears.... Would be fun.

[chumchu]

Does he have vision on the tile 3 NW of cook? We can stage some horse archers there and 1-turn that city. If he still only has archers in an unwalled flatland city we get great odds on him. Razing it cheaply is an extremely good conversion of hammers into wealth for us and a harsh blow for him. He is our closest rival in score and our natural route of expansion: weakening him for cheap seems worth it. Long term we do not want to give him trade anyway as both protective and Carthage. We can make do with Japan plus island routes while he will need many trading partners.

[superdeath]

Does he have vision on the tile 3 NW of cook? We can stage some horse archers there and 1-turn that city. If he still only has archers in an unwalled flatland city we get great odds on him. Razing it cheaply is an extremely good conversion of hammers into wealth for us and a harsh blow for him.  He is our closest rival in score and our natural route of expansion: weakening him for cheap seems worth it. Long term we do not want to give him trade anyway as both protective and Carthage. We can make do with Japan plus island routes while he will need many trading partners.

3NW of cook?

There isnt a tile we can stage that doesnt require us getting the 2nd half of the timer to get the jump on him. I think we can raze his oracle/border city and his capital before his numid's would make it back for what its worth.


He's invading with that stack + 1 straggler numid.. And Japan hasnt seemed to respond to the buildup.


Couple more Horse Archers...


World class production...

[superdeath]

Well! First off. Pindi took 2 cities off of Japan... Judging based on power, rather easily. I suspect with most of his Numid's being promoted down the shock line. So what is a guy to do?


Build a big stack of rocks of course! I should be able to get this done before Japan is murdered right? And use that to ride to a win? No?



Well, this is insurance.



#1 military.



13 total HA's built, 4 more popping EOT, with another 3 popping the turn after.


War plan is straight forward. Pindi or someone else rolls turn, i ram my stack into his border city and probably keep it. Galley moves forward and "can" help by unloading a HA somewhere fun. Axe in the corner hopefully razes that city up there, but im betting pindi can whip something into the city. But at least it distracts something of his. .



HA overflow + production should allow the next HA to complete the turn after, but i might have done my math wrong. Either way, i still have 2 full forests + 2 more that can go into the mid's. Mhmm.... Representation...



Questions? Concerns?

[chumchu]

Nope. We can not let pindi eat Japan unmolested