[SPOILERS] Getting my feet wet in multiplayer

[Charriu]

No so far I did not find any safe spot. Further exploration would have meant to declare war on Yuri and I did not want to do that as it would cause an annoyance for him, which is just unfair and I would be in awkward three-way turn split, which is just not worth it.

I won't forget about the catapult. It worked great in Academia.

[Charriu]

T130:



I missed to post for some turns. Sorry about that. There was just not that much to show and tell. Last turn JR4's units were at the hill 2S of Lyceum. I suized the catapult and almost all Swordsmen and Axemen. They will be just fodder for JR4's CKN and that way they were able to damage them down. JR4 will propably take some turns to mow down my defenses and heal up, so more Archers for me during that time.

[Charriu]

T132:



I'm still alive. Right now I have:

3 spearmen
6 archer vs
what you can see above.

Two CKNs are still damaged and JR4 is still working on bringing down the walls (42%) of Lyceum. I think I will see the next turn. A crazy thought came across my mind. What if I manage to get peace with my enemies and start a crazy One City Challenge.  
But that could only happen if somebody attacks JR4 in the next turns, which would force him to stop his campagne. I highly doubt that that happens. But wouldn't it be awesome and crazy, I'm certainly up for that.

[Charriu]

T133:



IT'S A MIRACLE. JR4 attacked and I survived barely. I totally overestimated my chances of survival last turn and I was quite lucky in the fight, even got a second great general out of it. I used the general to give every unit promotions, which enabled me to heal them all almost to full health. Now I have 5 units in good shape and JR4 only hast 2 CKN in shape for an attack + the trebuchet. I don't think he will attack again, in fact he's bringing in 3 more CKN as reinforcement (1NW of Academia)

I tried my luck and gave WilliamLP and JR4 peace offers. If they accept it will be a crazy ride for the rest of my game here.  

What are my chances that they accept and what about my other neighbor Dark Savant:

Dark Savant: I think taking Lyceum is not an advantage for him. For him the city will be in a really awkward position to defend. So I don't fear attacks by him.
JR4: My main attacker. Peace would mean that he can start focusing on other things. He won't fear me attacking or retaking any cities from him, because he out-techs me in a long shot. Taking and keeping Lyceum will awkward for him too, as he will have another city squiched between Dark Savant and WilliamLP
WilliamLP: He may have the biggest advantage by taking and holding my city. He will be able to defend it and it integrates nicely in his border against JR4. His biggest problem is that he does not have an army in position to take it alone.

Of course all if this is for nothing if somebody really just wants to finish me off. 
So I cross my fingers and hope that I can start a new challenge as a city state in this game.

[Charriu]

135:





This is propably my last turn in this game. JR4 has the superior army and I would only survive if I had such good luck like last time. Beware lurkers in the lurker thread. I'm coming for you.

[Charriu]

And it finally happened, I'm eliminated. Despite my defeat I must say I really enjoyed playing. I made a lot of mistakes and will work on improving my game. It was a pleasure to report for you, although reports for the last turns were a bit rare, which was due to lack of content and me getting more involved in PB40. By the way I hope to see some of my lurkers in my PB40 game, so feel free to come by and say hello.

It was a real pleasure. Thanks for letting me play with you.

[JR4]

Hi, Charriu. I`m sure you learned a lot from this game, you already played better in PB 40. Playing the first MP game alone is hard, no doubt about that. Not every new player manages to play all of his turns on time AND keep up with reporting. In this game it does feel that you fell behind at three cities and as EXP you should have been able to keep ahead for a while. Prioritizing food in the early game is ever so important, to get the snowball rolling. Plus military, of course. Dark Savant got a city from you early on and then he and William kept on bullying you in the early/mid game. Build Archers to defend your cities, as they don`t have a clear counter. And Archers on hills are very hard to break down early on.

Using an Axe as a Scout is.. questionable. It doesn`t really leave your neighbors any other option than to get rid of it at all costs. As you`ve noticed by now, scouting matters (not least because we were able to claim the contested lands between us) and you losing that Scout to a random Warrior was in fact a lucky break for us. I think moving it back to keep control of any incoming Chinese units would have been a solid play.

I still can`t believe that you were a single turn late to build the Great Lighthouse. That would have helped you out in a big way and was a very good play imo. You just got unlucky that other players wanted it early on also.

[Charriu]

Hey, thanks for the feedback, very much appreciated. I agree I feel a lot more confident with my play in PB40. One reason is because of my reporting and the feedback I get from others. I can only encourage other new players to report as much as possible, it definitely improves your game.


I wrote down a little analysis of my failings, which you may already have found. Yes I agree with the (bad) third city placement it went down for me. I've pretty much found the same mistakes you already mentioned. Not moving back my scout was a big mistake. If I had done that he could have found the barb cities and explore the east. But I think the biggest mistakes where the city placements. To be honest this was the first time I was playing on such a lush map and I was a bit overwhelmed.