[SPOILERS] Dhalphir PB13

[Molach]

Yes, a city there to establish a straight border. On a hill for defense.

By the way your X is perhaps just as good as 1E. I was thinking EiTB where desert cities are -25% defense. SW of the X is worse BFC, but closer to home so easier to defend. But you'll be back in time for _that_ city. Indeed for next city too.

I whipped a granary up north, means some turns off a cottage and slower growth, but gains it quickly in extra population.

Capital will grow into unhappiness - but then mine will finish on the turn so we win. A unit then settler? Or settler right away?

I moved an archer out of cap to the grass plains hill location to build up fortify and see what is going on.

[Dhalphir]

My plan was to triple whip the next settler out of the capital once shakuras finished the worker and then use shakuras for some military hammers while it regrows.

[Molach]

Okay.
We have 5 cities, 8 workers. Good.
Our military is a bit low. Apart from 1 warrior per city, we have an effective force of 1 warrior, 2 chariots, 2 archers and 2 spearmen. Axeman finishes next turn, Char whipped granary and will overflow into an axe while growing. Shakuras will build an axe while growing. There was a library queued here, do you want that up after the axe? Can help with cultural gain, and also a decent place to run 2 scientists.

Capital is size 7 now, building a settler. I'll 3-pop whip it next turn. But where to settle next? X in jungle by iron, or to seize the no-mans land next to plako?

Char. I debated putting overflow into a settler. There are two hill forests I can chop in the BFC to make mines. But I ended up going with the axe instead. Do you want the chops in, or just prechop and save them for after maths?


Northern peninsula.

Seizing this will mean at least conflict, perhaps war with Bacchus.

Silver mine up. I did not whip granary here, because it was almost done and I wanted to keep pop to work the 3 resource tiles here. Worker is prechopping the forests here, for a lighthouse, or library, or something else. Your call.


Power.


Demos.

[Dhalphir]

I want to focus on securing an adequate military for now, just enough to deter plako from coming back later.

He is probably in expansion/economy mode now anyway.

I would settle our next city NW-NW-E of Aiur to share the pigs, finally allowing us to still work both of those tiles even when aiur is happycapped.

Or we can settle further north before bacchus can. The only hesitation I have is that we probably want 4-5 of our workers ready to clear some jungle before we plant that city.

[Dhalphir]

i am back!

[Dhalphir]

thanks for handling things while I was away, by the way, really appreciate it.

[Dhalphir]

Molach, did we meet Scooter already on your turn? I spotted a ship of his near the barbarian city in the jungle, but wasn't sure if that was first contact - you don't get a popup in MP like you do in SP I guess.

Anyway I went ahead and proposed a map swap with him. We each have the same amount to gain, if he's explored his whole continent, so it will be a worthy swap and he's not going to become relevant to our chances in this game for a long time.

[Molach]

You're welcome.

I have no record of meeting scooter, but with weekend looming I had to play my last turn a bit hurriedly, so not impossible.

[Dhalphir]

Founded the city NE of Aiur. Next city will go into the jungle once the four northern workers finish what they are doing and can get up there and cut some shit down. I've marked out three city sites in the jungle that I think I can claim without provoking Bacchus too much. After that I'll head offshore.

[Dhalphir]

Things are not going that well, I will give a summary of what's going on. Suffice to say my demographics are awful, my economy is not great but I have to keep making cities otherwise I will lose the opportunity to do it in the future. Bacchus is going to want that jungle between us and I need to get at least one or two cities up there since I won't be settling towards plako any more. After that my expansion will have to be off to the landmass to my west, whatever that is. I am not doing too bad in workers, I have plenty. I have a decent number of cities, I think, with seven, soon to be eight. They are all decent locations. The real struggle is my tech - I am researching towards Maths at 25ish beakers per turn at sustainable science, I have yet to get libraries in many of my core cities, and that isn't going to change anytime soon.

Post-war with Plako (which I now think was inevitable given the early farmer's gambit by Serdoa), I had three things that needed doing. I had to continue expanding, I had to build some metal units like axes and spears, and I had to get some economy going. Given the late date at which we acquired metals (we got Iron in the late 70s, still haven't got coppper), that meant a LOT of double whipping axes, and I've spent a lot of time whipping population off cottages just to have enough military to be safe. It wasn't ideal, but something had to give and that something was tech.

My power is staying roughly even with Plako currently, so my hope is that he builds a bit more military than he might otherwise. His GNP is way way way above mine, so at some point in the game he will come after me with superior military units and roll me over. It only remains to be seen whether that will happen at maces, knights, or rifles. My hope is that Plako gets caught up in a power struggle with another civ to allow me to hang on for a while. I have no real aspirations to win, but I have set myself a goal, and that goal is to not be the first one to be eliminated with a secondary goal of surviving for at least twenty turns after plako declares on me before folding under the onslaught.