[Spoiler] Nakor needs new oranges

[Nakor]

Back late today or tomorrow. Can you play one more turn?

[Gaspar]

Back late today or tomorrow. Can you play one more turn?

Yeah, no problem.

[Gaspar]

Ok, since this is my last turn for the foreseeable future, here's what I'm up to and some advice for the near future.

First off, settlements:




You can see in the shot above 3 units completing next turn - a Settler in Four, an Immortal in One and a Galley in Two. The Red Arrows are t104 moves, Yellow t105, Blue t106. After you land on 106, you can plant there on 107, but I'd probably explore with the Immortal a bit first. If there's say, Silver down there, its worth waiting a turn or two on planting to ensure you get it. I have the worker down there in the Green box building a road to nowhere primarily to keep him in the area if he's needed to improve a something in the tundra city. After that road completes, he can build another 2NW and then be ready to load into the galley by SE-SE-S t106. I can't imagine there won't at least be a forest to chop or something.

The white box represents the city ready to plant next turn. There's currently an Immortal on the tile but there are two spears at the White circles heading towards the area. The one closer to the city needs to cover the worker that is building a connecting road until the spear in Three catches up. Six is building a work boat for that site.

Overall domestic matters:

I put a lot of stuff in the queues to give you a sense of what I would do if I were still playing. Keep in mind I spent about 10 minutes thinking about it, so don't take it as gospel, more of just a suggestion. Basically, the Forges in Five and Seven should be whipped as soon as they're able. You are going to be stacking some whip anger here, but that's okay. The payback horizon on an IND Forge is so quick, you have to get them done as soon as possible. Actually let me go city by city here...

One is finishing that Immortal for the island. After that it should roughly go Axe-Axe-Spear-Axe-Spear, etc until you have other military priorities. I'll discuss that at the end.

Two does the Galley as discussed, then a work boat for the clams at the new city, then the lighthouse, then goes to military, same as One, alternating Axes and Spears.

Three and Four are going to need some tile changes. After this turn, I'd swap Three to the mines and let Four work the cottages so that Three can complete that Library. Four should do a barracks while this is going on. After Three's library is done, it should keep the cottages close to full-time until you improve your happy cap and Four just cranks military with the production tiles.

Five will have to complete that Forge slow, since it has the chop in there and we don't want to one pop whip anything other than units when necessary. Therefore, when it grows, it should take the riverside plains hill mine back from the capital until the Forge is complete. After that, I'd love a library but let it just take forever to complete it on commerce tiles. Its not a city you will want to whip much since when its working all its good tiles, it will only have a 3-4 food surplus.

Six will do the work boat for bad clams city and then a Lighthouse. After that, military.

Seven should put 1 more turn into the Forge. Then next turn you should swap to the Library while growing to size 4. If you don't swap next turn, the Forge will become a 1-whip. Upon reaching size 4, 2-whip the Forge into the Library. You need the culture to push back there. Then regrow to size 4 and 2-whip the Library. Don't worry about stacking whip anger, you desperately need the culture in there to stave off Zanth. I have it with both the Wheat and the Rice right now and since you don't have need to whip either the cap or Two while the Forge/Library whip cycle is going on at Seven, you should keep it that way until the Library is whipped. Once the Library's whipped, you'll need to juggle the food again.

Eight has the buildings it needs and can just do units. If you want to turn that forest into a worker, I don't think its the worst idea, but I also don't think you desperately need one anyway.

Nine, at clams should have its granary chopped by the worker roading and helped by the chopping worker at Six, then I'd go Lighthouse then Forge, burning all those forests in the process.

Okay, let's talk defense:

Basically, you need 3 things to defend against a tech superior opponent - City defenders, Catapults, Mobile Hitters. Right now, you only have tech for one of those, so that's what you build. You don't know if your opponents are bringing mounted or maces, so you alternate between Axemen and Spearmen. Axemen are very slightly better city defenders because of the higher base strength, but as I learned again recently, you always need a spear faster than you need an Axe. Nonetheless, I would aim to have at least 3 of each in Seven ASAP, and at least two of each in Two. After that, just pile them into each at roughly a 2:1 ratio for Seven over Two. Part of what is important in this period is projecting strength, and letting Zanth see those units will tell him - I'm up for a fight, go pick on someone else. In the west, Six and Nine will be forkable once the plains forest N of Nine is chopped. I don't think Catwalk is really good enough to do that to you, though, so I'd be much more concerned about leaving that forest up and giving cover to his one-movers. What I'm saying is that all three forests N of Nine need to be chopped immediately. Anyway, because of this, both cities need to be defended at an equivalent ratio. I would err towards Axes here, probably 2 Axes for every spear. You want at least 2 Axes and a Spear in each city pretty much immediately.

I would tech Currency > Archery > HBR > Construction. Once you have HBR in, you should stop producing Spears/Axes in all of your decent production cities and move to HAs. I might do a Stable in the cap or in Four, but only if you feel you still have time before an attack. Anyway, once this happens, every possible build queue should be on HAs until Construction comes in. You would like at least 6 HAs for both the Eastern and Western theatres, though the Babylon border should get the first six before you start loading for the England border. I marked the appropriate staging tiles but the farm tile SE of Seven should be roaded and then be the place you keep your HAs. This will allow you to hit stacks 2 tiles out from both Seven and Two. The bare grass hill W of Nine gets the HAs there and should also be roaded.

Once construction is in, Cats go into production everywhere. Again, don't stay the whip hand. To start with, you'll want 4 cats on the staging tile out west. After you achieve that, I think you want another 4 but the cats move into Seven and Two specifically so you can hit 2 mover stacks as well. Once you have 8 cats in the west, go ahead and build another 4 for the east. The staging tile should be fine there.

EDIT: Three and Four need defenders too. While they're less likely to be attacked than Six and Nine, they're nothing and they're two very important cities for your empire. Something like 2 Axes, 2 Spears each should be enough so you at least have advance warning to shuffle units further. That should come after the 4 border cities get their defenders, however.

Once all that is done, I would go for Civil Service > Machinery > Engineering. If you live to see Engineering, you've defended well.

[Nakor]

Thanks for taking care, Gaspar.
I really appreciate your thoughts and will try to get a better defense before I'm off again (26th of April - 3rd of May).

One question: how often should I whip the units? Just try to micro it as 2-pop whips with overflow into the next unit every 10T? Or more often? Or 1-pop whips?

Another question: what to do with the Great Prophet? If I use it on a GA now, I might get those units and techs faster... or wait untill the Forges are done? Or wait for a bulb?

[Nakor]

Gaspar?

Catwalk isn't happy with me building that city. He offered me 120 gold... not going to take it...

Zanth and Slowcheetah are at war... that is a very good thing.
Still following that plan of building military.

Island to the south has a city... from 2metrninja... going to scout a bit...

[Gaspar]

Sorry, Nakor. Gotten pretty terrible at reading threads - even ones I'm at least passively involved in.

Thanks for taking care, Gaspar.
I really appreciate your thoughts and will try to get a better defense before I'm off again (26th of April - 3rd of May).

Make sure to remind me closer to the date - that's very far into the future.

One question: how often should I whip the units? Just try to micro it as 2-pop whips with overflow into the next unit every 10T? Or more often? Or 1-pop whips?

Definitely 2-pop whips. It's not really about 10t cycles, its about growth cycles. Well, and how badly you need stuff. And what your happy cap looks like. And how many tiles are worth working in any given city. And how much natural production a given city has.

You get the idea - there really isn't a hard and fast rule. Generally speaking, you don't want to whip your cap. But you are happiness constrained. I didn't really look around, are there any trades to be made? Anyway, the most important thing is ensuring you have enough units on hand. Right now, your power rating makes you look like an appealing target. So units have multiplicative value. I'll try and find a minute to look over the cities and give you something specific in the next day or two.

Another question: what to do with the Great Prophet? If I use it on a GA now, I might get those units and techs faster... or wait untill the Forges are done? Or wait for a bulb?

I dunno, honestly. Sitting on a something that long seems dumb - how long for the next one? How long for the next one if you work an Engineer specialist in the cap? If its not too terribly long, you probably should just settle it. There's just no point in going into a golden age when your happy cap is 7/8 everywhere. Also when you have no civics to swap into.

Gaspar?

Catwalk isn't happy with me building that city. He offered me 120 gold... not going to take it...

Zanth and Slowcheetah are at war... that is a very good thing.
Still following that plan of building military.

Island to the south has a city... from 2metrninja... going to scout a bit...

I wouldn't sell him the city, mostly because then he has a foothold in your territory. But if Zanth is tied up with sc, then I'd shuffle units to the Catwalk border first, as opposed to what I said above.

Unfortunate that there's a somebody on that island already. Is wrap toroidal here? Maybe 2metra is just your very distant north/south neighbor. Much as its pretty terrible to keep a Settler on ice, the last thing you need right now is another potential enemy. Hopefully you can find something interesting with the galley.

I'll try and log into the game with the new info and see if there's a better plan for the short term. Its possible my experience in PB16 has me colored on how much military one needs on hand.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

/delurk The map is toroidal. /lurk

[Nakor]

Following your plan, Gaspar.
Look at this:



Doing a few more units (HBR will be done in 3T, so I'll start on some Stables before HA's).

And I'm going to settle that overseas city:

[Gaspar]

Nakor, man - you'll never keep that plant. That's clearly the north end of the map, so you're in 2metra's homeland. I didn't realize that when I suggested to plant there - I thought it was an island.

[Nakor]

Building an army:



And there is a bit already:



I think it's better to attack Zanth, if there is a chance of succes. Catwalk has been paying gold for peace the last 10 turns..



Great Scientist in 3 turns, can be used on a Academy or a GA.



And that's the smallest empire in the game...