[SPOILERS] Whosit Plays Alone for Fun (and Profit?)

[Whosit]

We sure live in interesting times, mostly thanks to me.

Unfortunately, I wasn't the last to play, so I have to wait until tomorrow to see if I lose a city to a low-odds combat roll. That would really pork me over good. There's a slim chance I can do the same to Dreylin, but I'd be awfully surprised if that were the case.







I did not see a defender after he moved, so I pretty much just had to make an attempt to raze here. Note there's another warrior visible after I move. Honestly, I'm expecting he either has a warrior inside his borders in the fog, or maybe a chariot or axe and he was just luring me in. That's fine. I think it would have been the worse play to not try and attack the city.

However, in the unlikely chance that this is as it seems (Dreylin was anticipating barbarians and had his warriors out fog busting), I have good odds to defend in the forest and then I can burn the city. There's even another empty city to the east, but I KNOW there was a warrior nearby last turn. Not sure why it's not in the city. It could be hustling to Breccia, but then that means I might be able to raze granite. However, I screwed up my approach (I was looking for city visibility, not to attack). My warrior had been on that hill copper. I should have moved 1W, but I didn't know the city would be on a hill. If I'd gone that way, I might have been able to stick to defensive terrain. Now I'd have to go on flatland (but that warrior can take Shock).

So... yeah. Not much to do but see and wait. Not sure if he has horses or copper yet, or has archery. That copper in the southwest in the last screenshot would not be in his capital's borders (4th ring), but he could have settled on it because he has a total of 4 cities, like me.

[Whosit]

...I guess that's game. Civstats shows the barbarian razed my city. Because of course it did. Maybe I should have just dropped a Worker next to the barb, but I was really hoping I'd, you know, win that battle. Time to officially stop caring about this game.

[Whosit]

So it turns out that Serenity burned at even lower odds than I thought. 3%! Because the city also had a 25% barbarian defense! And I just saw Grimace planted an aggressive forward city to boot.

As expected, Dreylin got defenders into his cities. He had offered peace and I re offered. Oh well. Also, Hinduism was founded so I've wasted a bunch of turns on religious techs I'll not finish any time soon. I took some pictures, might put up tomorrow. Might just delete them. My demographics are pretty pathetic now. #1 food is double me.

So plan is to tech IW, get a few more cities down, and go into "ruin someone's game" mode. I wonder what Dreylin needed lurker consultation for..... Next city? You know, I think I might just road all the way down to the "fortress" spot to at least try and block Dreylin off. I'll backfill later. I'll need another city to the east to keep Grimace from pushing too far forward. I'll be getting an Axe out of Euphoria that I'll poke at Grimace with, I guess.

My god. I suppose it could be argued that I should have had a second unit in the vicinity, but I lost a city to a 3% battle! I know shit like that happens (just happened to me), but it's not like I left the city undefended.

I'll also want to get a city planted to the west for horses and to stop barbs from spawning on my back lines. So, 3 critical cities, then I'll just whip/chop as many axes and jaguars as I can and see what I can burn down.

[Whosit]

Got an amusing message from Dreylin and a cease fire (not a peace treaty). Flashing his axe, might chase me back with it. Could be a problem since I've got only the one, and the best unit I can field to the south is going to be an archer.

Upshot it, did some sims, and pretty confident I can settle the fortress city on T64, an eastern coastal city on T68, and a horse city on T74. I may crank out one more settler to resettle the Serenity location, but then I'll definitely pause to consolidate, get a few more workers, and prepare to crank out Axes and Jaguars.

Oh, Grimace showed me an Impi 'cuz I poked at his borders with a Warrior. Whee.

Anyway, the main wrench to this would be if Dreylin either settles north soon, or gets too aggressive that I can't protect my workers and settlers. My axe cleaned up the last visible barb in my western reaches this turn, so I think next turn I'll send him towards the south and hope he can get there quick enough. Cease fire is only an illusion of protection.

Doubt I can come back after this. Even if I somehow beat up my two neighbors, then someone will just come with galleons and dump cavalry on my land.

[Whosit]

This gem from a few turns back:




Current situation:




Settler pops T62, arrives at spot T63, and settles T64. I could not find a way to get the worker power to allow settling T63, unfortunately. Barbarian may cause trouble, but should die or suicide. Archer on hill can beat it, Warrior in forest is slightly wounded, but has Shock. Should win, but then again....

Don't know if Dreylin's warrior is just observing or waiting for a settler. Hope not a settler.

[Whosit]

Won't post demos because I'm basically awful in everything. Even if I hadn't lost Serenity, I don't think I'd be doing too well (Harmony and Serenity were both weak locations). This, though.




Not sure what that huge spike is. Too much to be a single tech, I think. Several axes completed? HBR + axes? I don't know. I'll just have to be wary.

Oh, Barbarian attacked my Warrior on the city settle hill. My warrior won, but barely (barb had 4.4% odds to win). Moved Archer to that spot to keep Dreylin from killing the warrior. Well, I guess he could have done that on his turn if he wanted to. Now, what was I gonna name this new city? Let's call it "Hope."

[Whosit]

Question: Do any lurkers not want to see me try to drown my continent in blood and fire?

[Commodore]

Question: Do any lurkers not want to see me try to drown my continent in blood and fire?

With jagaurs please?

[Whosit]

Well, I'm on the way to having Iron Working by the mid 70s, so.... Really, I'm hoping to get the chance to say "I have a Jaguar. Ho Ho Ho" one turn before I send 20 across the border.

Now, a quick... analysis, I guess. Globally, I am losing badly to characters like Fenn and Yuri (who doesn't update his thread, argh!). Locally, I think I'm still losing, just not that badly at the moment. For an IMP leader with AGG Impis, Grimace has seemed rather passive and I would be out-expanding him if I hadn't lost my 4th city to that cursed barbarian. Dreylin seems to have a much better map presence, but again, I'd probably be keeping even in city count if not for the loss. So I think my rough strategy here is thus: Attack someone (probably Dreylin) before he's able to establish a strong defense, and also before the other player (probably Grimace) is in a position to backstab me. I'll have to keep a couple axes on my eastern border, but eh.

One thing I think I will do, though, is leave the bulk of military production to my satellite cities and keep the capital on Settler/Worker/Defense duty as much as I can. There's a good chance my attack is just going to cripple me, so I should still push Settlers out as much as I can. Capital is due to push out 2 more settlers now, after that I want to grow to happy cap, get some cottages down (I only have 1 cottage in the whole empire right now), and try to develop a half-decent core. I need more Workers, but for now the cities that lack enough improved tiles will just whip stuff. It's easy since I have a lot of spare happy.

[Commodore]

If you actually field 20 jags you'll win the cool award for the next dozen games.