[Spoiler] OW PBC1 Canada and Egypt again?

[Kaiser]

It looks like the hide ability works also when stunned, bummer but still a good result to force Bruindane to settle the more distant city first. I decide to farm some more XP for my leadergeneral and shot on his Builder with a critical hit for some very nice damage. This builder will have to heal 3T to be back to full efficency (building improvements take him longer).
Sadly I only realize now that they might be able to push me out of the forest once I get stealth after my next turn, in that case they might be able to move into the forest and force my unit to be moved outside. I should have positioned myself on the Southern larger forest just for safety.




In the meantime I am utilizing my orders to clear some of the coastal forest so later builders can build urban improvements with less order requirements. My goal is to connect the city borders of Urban Planning and Agoge to make reinforcements very quick. This will be some work though but I am counting on shrines, hamlets and maybe 1 or 2 specialists to get this done.

My Worker near Urban Planning will soon move and uncover the river leading to the Sages site in the E so there will be a connection with the added growth for the sages seat. It will then help placing the 3 marble quarries before returning to Urban Planning for urban improvements.

[Kaiser]

Bruindane expectedly stunned my Leadegeneral but was also lucky enough to roll a critical strike for maximum damage instead of a trickle. I am curious to see if they can push me out of the woods and keep me stunlocked.
Luckily CMFs Warrior can be here in two turns and I also got my event for Urban Planning becoming developing culture. The event had the option for two Militia units (crappy strength 3 unit which cannot get experience) which can be at the current combat site in 3 turns, my Warrior from Agoge can be there in 5-6 depending on how the engagement shifts.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Shifting warrior down to support you near the forest. My scouts meanwhile continue to defog and probe for reinforcements.

At home, I finished the farmer and nearly done with the worker, settler is up next, and probably a military unit for home guard? I'm feeling things out still.

[Kaiser]

Shifting warrior down to support you near the forest. My scouts meanwhile continue to defog and probe for reinforcements.

At home, I finished the farmer and nearly done with the worker, settler is up next, and probably a military unit for home guard? I'm feeling things out still.

Your Warrior is great to have here




I am curious if they decided against stunlocking my Leadegeneral or if this works differently than I expected (maybe they just cannot enter the tile?)

Bruindane is building the Hanging Gardens for 400 Stone, 200 Wood, 100 civics and 8 worker turns. My attack on his worker already cost him at least 3 worker turns, as damaged workers work 1T slower than normal and healing 12 damage takes 3 turns. 
He either went stonecutting -> stone boost (like me) or Egypt spent half of its CIV bonus to supply him with ~200 stone. Hanging Gardens will bring him 4 culture/T in his capital and an egalization of Babylons CIV bonus (20% growth in all cities) on top of two victory points.

I consolidated my forces near Agoge, the Slinger is supposed to heal inside Agoges borders next T for 5 before we can consider moving back out. I disencrouage attacking his capital as there is an event giving two militia which could be triggered.
However, delaying his Hanging Gardens and him settling the NE city site are great achievements on their own. I assume we have local military dominance (Egypt has similar power to me, so likely 3 units as well) with your Warrior, my Slinger, Warrior (3T eta) and 2 militia. We also have the terrain advantage, as his slinger does near no damage inside forests and there is loads of to fight around. We just need to make sure that my Slinger is there counterstun him.
This engagement is supposed to be limited, we can loose my militia but should make sure to keep the Warriors and Slingers while delaying his REX and forcing him to build units of hist own. I will likely settle an Artisan city after the Sage Seat on my NW city site so I can start Warrior production right away (it will receive the 2nd worker I got from settling the seat as its worker)




I recommend you leave 1 scout here to track Gingers REX progress, find a nice spot inside a forest to supervise this area. The S approach might be more interesting to spot military support movements E of their mountain range.
My Scout will move behind Bruindane's capital to spot incoming support from that side, so we will be likely to act on good information in the Carthage theatre.
Your other scout should scout the middle and the N of the map, getting you as much first to bonusses (more Legitmacy) and ruins as you can.




This works out neatly, Caudine peaks can start the 2nd farmer right after the Settler before it resumes Settler building. 
Allia River can go for a unit, I recommend a Warrior for the moment. 
Your next city site should be the one to the W for your champion seat, make sure to have a plan to claim the ore with the champion seat, as it will add further training for this unit pump of a city. Here will be mostly units coming from, but you will want to have a family builder earlier than later (depending also on what you want to improve)

The red circled area is not important to be scouted as it is a barren wasteland (see you scouting on the other side of the map), but the orange circled area is quite important. I assume you have another free city site there (3 + the contested middle spot for me was already more than I expected for me, but I assume your third is there or S of Allia River).

I do recommend REXing over building a safety unit in Caudine Peaks for the moment, we are lucky with the tribes being more on the other side. Barbs are less likely to trigger a raid event which is an AI attack on your cities. You likely want to Push W from your current position, so the Champion seat is the best place for unit production (position and efficency wise) in any case.

Let me hear your thoughts on my proposed limited engagement near carthage.

[Kaiser]

My scout is in place, it will move on the hill NW and then to the forest next to the mirrored 3 marble side to watch for any egyptian reinforcements coming from that side of the mountains.




Combined with your scout we can keep an eye on nearly all approaches for egyptian reinforcements. There is a small mountain pass 3W of the silver which we cannot see from the current location of your scout. The red hexagon would be most likely to have LoS, but I am not sure if it does due it being a flatland forest and the hills to its SW/S. The green hexagon is less likely but a little safer, in case Egypt settles this city, as you are not invisible inside of enemy cultural borders.

The city site N of purple location will be a great 2nd LO city, it can get 2 farms for additional income and just needs to grows its population to be able to build some specialists on it to get a 2nd city for pushing workers and settlers (they get more expensive per unit built in the city).




My 2nd settler is finished and I queue the 3rd one. It currently is still at 540 civics to be rushed, but it will reduce with progress. I will settle the Sages seat in 2 turns, wish me luck with the free tech. Navigation would be huge!
In case it is not navigation, I will rush the settler for the 4th city in the capital, I might need some food to start another settler right after for my last known free city site. 
We need to check if you can provide me the food or if I will buy it on the market.




My Leadergeneral heals here, as I will need roughly 6-7 orders next turn for getting the settler to the city site and getting the worker up as well as the scout in position. That means that I will be short on orders for moving my military up. I currently consider healing another turn and setting up the militia better with the remaining orders, I could then be moving out when the warrior from Agoge is ready in 2T.
What do you think?

[Kaiser]

We see that Bruindane was not so lucky and has some barbs on his backwards marble spot. Ginger is showing up with w tribal unit and a slightly damaged Warrior (Leadergeneral, so +1 movement). With Bruindane's freshly built Warrior (with a Zealot General, meaning he will survive a killing hit with 1 HP as long as he has more than 1 HP before) we already delayed his REX successfully as my 3rd settler is already on site and he has likely started his 3rd one just now.

Total known forces in this theater:
Team 1 aka Team Evil Carthage/Egypt
1 Slinger (tactician, leadergeneral) hidden somewhere in the forest, can stun
2 Warriors (1 leadergeneral orator slightly damaged and still busy for a turn, 1 zealot general)
1 Tribal unit (str 3 like militia)

Team 2 aka Team good Babylon/Rome

1 Slinger (tactician, leadergeneral) will be hidden in the forest, can stun
2 Warriors (no generals, 1 spawns my next turn)
2 militia (str 3 but gets a slight family bonus)


We still have a slight advantage and already exerted some non-REX commitment. I think we can try to pressure a bit to hopefully get some more commitment, the militia are not that important for me. I will soonish need more units here, did you already check the cost for hiring a tribal unit with your Orator ability?




I am delaying settling this city for 1T so I can finish slavery and have a chance of getting Navigation or Phalanx as my free tech. Urban Planning will rush buy this settler if I do not get Navigation to get my 4th city down quickly.




I am not sure what happened here, did you get the milita from an event and the scout from the tribal hut? They definetively are better than us at getting tribal huts as they already got likely two from our side (there seems to have been one to the S of my sages city).

You should avoid building militia/conscript units if you can, as they have 1 base strength less (3 instead of 4) than T1 units. Build a Warrior instead, these units are only worthwhile when gifted and even then a small strain on your food income.
Next turn you can do the 2nd farmer in Caudine Falls and then continue with Settlers.

Let me know your thoughts regarding our options near Carthage

[Kaiser]

I start the round right away with the action and then remembered that I wanted to settle for the free tech.



The free tech I got was husbandry, not the optimal T3 result (Navigation or Phalanx) but at least a T2 tech. I have 2 horses and 1 sheep pasture, so this brings me 1 order and 2 growth (once I get the sheep into my capitals borders).



I went ahead and rushed the settler for my 4th city, I am still debating between the W site for Artisans and the E site for Hunters. The first is closer, so saves orders and we have its builder already at hand, the latter is the better military production city (by 2 training due to hunter).



Here I focussed my attacks on his Warrior, as he could kill your Warrior next turn. Ginger's tribal unit is out of range and I am quite confident (though not 100% sure) that tribal units cannot be force marched.
His Warrior is down to 12/20 life, but a Zealot so he will survive a killing blow with 1HP as long as he has had more. My militia can do 3 each, my Leadergeneral can do 2, but I think we want him available for stunning any of the other units.
I thought a lot about how to best proceed and decided to invest 200 training into additional orders, so my Warrior could move up max distance as well as be promoted to heckler (+25% strength vs generals, all units we see have a general outside of the tribal unit) for another 100 training.
My Warrior can now do 5 damage to that Warrior, so I would have enough to kill him if I can use my leadergeneral, but Bruindane is certainly stunning one of my units.

The particular problem we face here is that his leadergeneral as well as his warrior are on hills and both have the highlander promotion. The leadergeneral gets +25% strength and the Warrior and addtional +10% due to his leader having this ability.
We need to consider between saving your Warrior (by running back to my territory for healing) and playing it on the edge but killing his Warrior.
If we want to kill his Warrior, then you should attack it and I will finish it on my turn. You probably will want to stay in the forest so his leadergeneral cannot kill you easily. This comes at a great risk to your Warrior as I do not think I will be able to cover him from Gingers tribal unit and his leadergeneral which can be here after my next turn.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Sorry for the lack of updates - the last two weeks have been extremely hectic at home and at school. Wednesday, so I have a bit of a gap.

1)The warrior is stunlocked and I was not able to move or attack with him. He is likely lost next turn. I really don't know anything about warfare this game, and I'm sad my schedule got so busy in February (I didn't envision that when I proposed this back in November!). I'm flipping turns but not giving enough mental energy to the game.

2)Scouting continues with spare orders, but yeah, I'm thin on those now, too.

3)I have gotten a free settler for my 4th city out, and am building more farms for growth. I need to think about expanding orders, though, because there's no way I can be militarily active at all with the small amount I have. Researching ironworking now for more warriors, due in 3 turns.

4)Sorry for being a shitty partner this game. I'll try to be better moving forward.

[Kaiser]

No worries, we are still doing good, I think . I hope your timetable relaxes a bit so you can breathe again.

Farms to not increase growth but food income. Growth can only be increased by improving growth yielding ressources (pretty much every food ressource like wheat, pigs, cows, etc.), by hiring specialists to work these ressources, by building granaries (which boost surrounding farms as well but are limited in number to your development level) and by governors and leader abilities.

I recommend the following rough rural imporvement priorization
- quarries, as stone is essential for development by building urban improvements and can be used for slingers
- mines, as iron is essential for building most units
- lumbermills, enough to pay for your improvements, gets more important later for siege units as well. If you want to go archer or navy heavy, earlier investment is necessary but they come anyways as the last rural improvement typically
- farms, pastures, camps, nets for food, enough to have a positive food income and acquire the 100 food necessary for building settlers on time (this is a balance act as growing population and military will require more food)

- luxury ressources can be on farms, grooves, mines, nets, camps and need a special mention. These are difficult to have an easy approach as it is always the question if you need the culture and money or the ressource connected to pacify a family (later reduce discontent). Generally they are a bit of lower importance though I went with an early pearly myself to get quicker to developed so I can rush my settler
- order ressources (horses (pasture), elephants (camp), camels (camp) are important for building the associated units in that city and bring 0,5 orders each. Typically you want to get them connected quickly just for the order. Horses are the most important as many units are gated behind this ressource, Elephants and Camels enable 1 unit each

I am not sure I can keep your Warrior alive, but we will likely cost him his Warrior as well, I think.
Worst case I need to retreat, let me see when it is my turn. Ii is possible I get my 4th city down before Bruindane gets his 2nd down, that alone is a good advantage already, so our main goal needs to be security for my forward city

[Modo]

the last two weeks have been extremely hectic at home and at school.

I need to think about expanding orders, though, because there's no way I can be militarily active at all with the small amount I have. 

That applies to your life as well, without ordering around and delegating you can't militarily put your home and school in order...you get the point.