[SPOILERS] Fire and Blood: Nyles Standish and Zalson watch the world burn

[Zalson]

Another thought that seemed a lot better when I first conceived it: do we have any units that can go scout out pindicator's land? I'd really like to figure out, if we can, what land he has.

Obviously, survival is a bit more pressing than that but if we know what his land is, it will help us deduce their strategy, long-term. Their current goal is, of course, take a bite.

[Zalson]

For naming scheme, I like using the lords of the houses for combat units and sellswords for scouts. For workers, it feels weird to have some units named after characters and others after houses. How about prostitutes for the workers? Or maybe sellswords as workers and lump scouts with combat units?

I like: lords and lordlings for combat units/scouts and ... sellswords for workers.

After all, this is our most important strategic consideration at this point

[NylesStandish]

Sorry for the lack of updates the past couple of days.




After the attack on Valyria, I logged in to this. It actually popped up twice; I guess he wanted to make sure he had asked for it. No, I'm not just going to let your chariots go home without further losses because your attack failed.




We got luckier than I expected. The fortified warrior forced a withdrawal and the other one killed a chariot after being redlined. The withdrawn chariot gets cleaned up without damage, and the third chariot pillaged our cows.




Sent the new spearman northeast to Karego-At, to see what the garrison is like (if any). I was expecting a warrior and maybe a whipped archer.




Civstats showed that pindicator whipped something last turn, and it turns out to be an axeman, which shows that even though the copper at Karego-At is not hooked up, his third city must have some hooked up. I asked for peace since we can't really take the city with just spears and an axe attack will take time that will give him more time to prepare.




On our left, dcodea has sent some workers to connect everything up and mine the copper. Tyrosh grows next turn and can whip an axeman. Dcodea has 2 workers, and mining and connecting the copper will take 9 worker turns, so I think we can get an axe to Tyrosh before he can even get the metal hooked up.

Even though Pump It Up will probably autoraze and the capital won't, it's still a good move since dcodea has no other source of metal. We'll take it out, possibly force him to either delete his workers or let them be captured, and then he won't be able to get any metal except from his southern city, which doesn't have any culture buildings yet iirc, so would have to complete either a monument or barracks, and then wait for borders, and then mine it with workers he may not have. Even if he's got horses, we've got enough spears to spare and still hold the east, at least until Pindicator gets horseback riding. We can get another Axe or two after that one, and maybe a spear or two to guard against possible chariots, then take a capital most likely packed with just warriors. Even if we for some reason can't take the capital, there's almost no way he can save Pump It Up and we can refound a city in its place.

Can't really explore his territory more than the little peek we've had at Karego-At, since he's got counter units available to every combat unit we could use. A workboat scout might be possible along his coast, but we still don't have fishing and I doubt it will reveal too much interesting.

Also, I named the two warriors that defended the capital. Arya is the warrior that somehow survived getting redlined and killed her opponent while still being grievously injured, Jon's the one that survived the initial charge of a wall of horses. The third warrior got deleted because we're wasting gold on unit support now because we have too many units.

Graphs and demos:

[Zalson]

So we have: 4 warriors and 3 spearman?

What are our cities up to? Tyrosh is whipping its axe next turn; what about Volantis and Valyria?

Next research target is pottery vs animal husbandry. I think AH. Let's get horses.

[Zalson]

Also: fantastic defense!

[NylesStandish]

We've got 4 warriors and 4 spearmen now.

All of the cities are on axemen right now, but Valyria has 50 something hammers into a settler and is growing next turn; may want to switch it back to a settler after growing so that we have something to replace Pump It Up with.

Also I logged back in (because I forgot to turn off avoid growth in Tyrosh ) and Pindicator accepted the peace offer immediately.

In regards to tech, we've already got pottery so that choice is pretty easy .

[NylesStandish]

Whipped an axe in Tyrosh, moved 2 workers to road. He'll be able to get next to Pump It Up next turn. Valyria switched back to a settler, Volantis still slow building an axe.

Scout found OT4E on the other side of dcodea as expected. What I didn't expect was this:






No, I do not have bare map on. Two size 3 border cities left completely undefended. Skimping on military units would explain some of his lead; it also shows how seriously OT4E takes dcodea.

[Zalson]

Do dcodea and OT4E even have contact? That could explain it.

We should start thinking about what we want our veritable stable of ... 3 workers to do for each city. So we need more workers.

Additionally, now that the danger is passed for at least 10 turns -- what do we want to research? What are our future plans?

While I agree with us taking a bite out of dcodea, we also need to get some more workers. We've got grow these cities, too, which requires happy. So many things to do and so little time.

Let's burn some of dcodea's cities to get us some breathing room -- maybe stealing some workers? I think we've got to capitalize on that opportunity? If we can get to 5+ cities in the next 10 turns, that's worth not having enough workers.

[Zalson]

I mean, I'd like to go for the kill, but my fear is that the time it would take us to get the requisite axes to kill, we'll be open to pindicator swooping us. Additionally, devoting resources into *not* the economy means we will not have an economy and will continue to languish at the bottom of the leaderboard.

I'd like to kill the civ, certainly. But I just don't know how we do that quickly. Open to thoughts, of course.

[NylesStandish]

They do have contact; OT4E sent a warrior north that went by dcodea's territory. I think it's a bonehead move even if they didn't have contact. If that scout had been a chariot he would have lost a city for free because he was too cheap to spend a few hammers to defend the city. A warrior would at least make the loss of a city not a guarantee, a archer would be comfy and a spear near invulnerable to a hypothetical chariot.

Currently researching AH for horses and furs. Afterwards, I think probably fishing so we can make the most of the city site we're taking from dcodea. Financial lakes are nice too.

We do need more workers, but I doubt we capture any. Valyria or Volantis should get on it after the current builds. As for the workers we have, they ought to get on a few cottages after they're done with the offensive roading.




I went to war with dcodea. Workers built a road for the newborn axeman to get right next to Pump It Up. I named the axeman Aegon, as in Aegon I (The Conqueror, which seems appropriate given the circumstances ); he has 99.9% odds to win. Warrior moved to cover the workers and provide backup for Aegon in the unlikely event he needs it.

With overflow, base production and a chop we put a total of 34 hammers into another axeman in Tyrosh this turn. I moved one of the spears from the capital in the direction of Tyrosh. I'm thinking we send two axes and a spear to Alison after razing PIU. The spear protects against the possible chariot or two and the axes will make short work of his warriors. Even if he puts a turn into a monument next turn, then whips it the next turn, that's 12 more turns until he can pop borders and mine his southern copper, plenty of time to wreak havoc. Probably shouldn't be enough to kill him immediately, but just taking the one city spot from him and making peace would be a good resolution.




He may have animal husbandry but just from eyeballing the power graphs I don't think he has any chariots.

Also need to keep an eye on this graph during the enforced peace to see if pindicator is massing units for another try when the 10 turns is up.




Good news: Second in soldier points, 4th place in area Bad news: Last place in GNP, second to last in crop yield. A result of as you said, dumping resources into *not* the economy. Solution: more workers and cottages and less whipping if we can help it.




Probably should mention that I went to war with two civs this turn. Asked for peace immediately; on the off chance he doesn't accept he can't really do anything to us without going through dcodea.

Also, we've got 4 spears, at least 1 warrior, a scout and 3 workers that need names. I want to name the spear and axe that will accompany Aegon on his attack Visenya and Rhaenys, the others I have no strong feelings on ATM.