[Spoiler] Any volunteers for a human sacrifice? Brennus of the Aztecs, by Krill

[Square Leg]

Turn 166 - Question Time

Still no change, but the power graph suggests that azza is building some units. What those units are I don't know, but I know he is building them. Not particularly fast though.

I mean seriously, seven spears?Absolutely no threat if they attack me, but short of maces there is no simple way through them short of a huge stack of WE, cats and HA.

Next turn Sarmatian dies and I'll get a few more units another promotion. Most interested in the capture gold and the extra XP though.

Building a court house in the capital because I basically have nothing else to build except a settler but the settler would take too long to build to be of much use. I'll take the extra 2ept and 3gpt...

Boring.

Three more longbows to go...

Obvious...

I will get a settler out of Crapital in time for this galley.

The court houses in Crapital and GNAP are the last two to build on the peninsula.

Slave the settler at size 8.

More boring.

Stolen a farm from PRNGG as PRNGG does not need to use the farm every turn to grow to size 17. And I'll trade one production for two gold right now.

Missionaries ad infinitum now.

FP mark two. I want to farm the tiles south of PD and workshop the northern tiles, but I also want to farm north from PD towards NS for a short term boost to growth in NS.

Slaved settler. The overflow will be saved by building wealth until I want to build into the next settler then immediately slave it.

To slave or not to slave. I don't think I need the trireme this turn so I'll salve it next turn so I don't give up a decent tile to work. The reason I don't want to settle any further south than SG at present is that it would stretch my army too far, and would be fairly indefensible to a fast mover stack from azza. If I could take advantage of the removal of HA from Fuchsia I would consider settling it as bait, but I just lack the right type of unit to crack Fuchsia.

Grow on turns 167, 169, 172, and 174. At that point I want everything cottaged, and I have over 15 workers in range of PRNGG at the moment, so that is easily managed.

I'm building wealth whilst growing to size 9, because the forge doesn't seem like it would pay off well enough - note, this is a completely different decision to DP, and that is because I think I kinda screw up at DP. Slave settler for three pop at size nine.

I need to get these galleys out quickly. This galley will be built eot T169, and another eot T170. worst case scenario, I fort the rice and the plains tile named fort to get them out of the city, and load the galleys on one turn, and on the next turn move one over to the island to drop off a settler and longbow. The next turn I just shuffle galleys between the fort and the island city and no one can stop me short of a lot of triremes and caravels...and I'm not turning on tech until I have enough gold to research Machinery, Compass and Optics in one go. That means I'm not research anything until I have about 1500 gold saved. And By-Tor is probably not going off navy for a while...

I hate cities with no forests for granary chops.

More growing, more slaving...more settlers.

Boring...

Mistake here, should have built culture...

*whistles* Nothing to see here...

Someone asked me how I'm going to afford a bunch of cities. Simple answer. The only team I'm really behind tech wise is scooty. I don't really care about keeping up with them, I just need to take that island and then catch up as I get all of my cities grown. once they are grown, caste system and guilds are in play, workshops are strong enough to just build wealth and research to keep me solvent and build whatever I need. If I get to Democracy at some point then I can consider using Emancipation to swap over some cities to cottages. Until then, well, I just build wealth in a few cities. I have enough that I can grow to size 14 or so and sit on a bunch of workshops even without Guilds or caste in play.

See, I have over 50% more food per turn than second place. Growth isn't a problem. Hammers I'm ahead of second place slightly, so taking some cities off buildings is reasonable when I have no decent buildings to build nor need any units. And Guilds, and then Banking open up 75% in gold modifiers, which I want in both DF and Crapital and PRNGG, but aren't really needed in any other cities.

[darrelljs]

Handicap your odds of winning.

Darrell

[Krill]

What do you mean by handicap?

[Square Leg]

Turn 167 - Settlers 11 released yet?

Maybe? I doubt it though.

Good enough.

And won that first battle.

And won the second. Those two HA are now potential sentry HA, but also double as F2 HA so can flank off cats or be sacrificed in stack combat depending on need. The extra XP is just to provide more tactical flexibility.

And the 10XP HA gains no XP against barbs, and captures the city. It is not on a good tile and I want to replant it one tile east, but lets have a look at what it comes with. Note the option to return control to the Egyptian Empire. Not frigging likely. And a pitiful amount of gold but whatever.

Um, buh-bye.

No change.

How to capture this city? Simple answer: couple of CR cats and a bunch of HA, and screw the losses. But losing units will increase my war weariness. I expect the city to be defending by 1 axe and 1 spear, so perhaps an F2 HA or two will be enough to go ahead without the cats.

I'll show you mine if you show me yours...Pingo have shown me a catapult and a WE. Neither scare me so long as their power stays low.

Two GS will bulb about 4200 beakers into Education by the time I get the second GS. But they will also drop the same amount into Astronomy which would give me beakers in real terms, as Education has a 1.2 beaker bonus but Astro has no beaker bonus. Astro is a potentially important tech simply to force others to research it otherwise I can ride roughshod over scooty and screw up all of their island holdings, but Education would open up OU (and I have stone) and universities which are completely meh for me but I can slave them out wherever I need them.

More Boring. Though if someone does finish the Sistine Chapel I will get a decent amount of fail gold.

Two longbows to go...and I might have to stop growth at size 16 due to the war weariness, by adding a few workshops.

Settler number 3.

Boring.

More boring.

Definitely should have carried the overflow by building wealth. It would have helped speed up the settler I shall whip out of here by two turns.

Settler numbers four and five from here.

Settler numbers six (and seven, but that will use a minor whip after growing to size eight) from NS.

I really need to get another monastery in PD to help lift the weight from SMS. And SMS should get the banana back on T172, and with some attention from the workers at PRNGG it can easily grow to size 10 and higher.

I really look forward to this finishing, so my economy stops sucking.

Size seven, maybe eight if I can afford the extra turns delay and then it can whip settler number eight.

Slaved the trireme to ensure that azza can't do anything to mess me around.

I'm going to have to stop growth at size 16. I can't get the happiness to keep the 17th pop point working, nor will I have enough food without keeping the second banana. Size 15 is probably safer. but at size 16 I can get PRNGG working two plains river cottages, six river grassland cottages, two grass cottages, two grass hill mines, one grass hill gems mine, two plains farms and a single banana to be food neutral and making 13hpt. It will finish the court house then go onto a market.
(Read: size 16, 10 cottages, 3 grass mines, 1 banana, 2 plains farms, 0fpt, 13hpt, 12 river tiles).

Settler number nine.

Lots and lots of galleys.

Slave the granary next turn. It should mean I grow faster.

Settler number 10 due eot T170. And with the settler I will get from DP...that's 11 settlers either built or due in the next six turns. I currently have 21 cities...and yes. I can imagine going bankrupt. It isn't going to stop me getting that island though.

Next turn focus on growth, try to move one worker to hook up that wheat.

Grow, my pretty...

I popped a missionary into Smart Alec to pop borders, and because I was about to hit the limit for the amount of missionaries I could have either built or being built.

Watch the city maintenance grow over the next 18 turns...

I'm not even trying to build an army and I'm still keeping my power advantage over second place.

[darrelljs]

a. to attempt to forecast the winner of (a contest, esp a horse race)
b. to assign odds for or against (a contestant)

Darrell

[Krill]

50/50 right now. If Pingo don't attack me, azza dies quickly if I attack him and scooty don't get in my face though I might have a chance at a domination win if I play things out right.

[Krill]

Okay SL...tomorrow I'm travelling to Vienna but I should be around from about 1700 BST if you have any additional questions. I think everything important was in that email I sent to you last week but there is always something missing. Looks like you should have a maximum of five turns to play.

[Krill]

I'll be around the same time tonight SL.

[Krill]

Might have to play this turn solid my gchat is sucked on the phone for some reason.

[NobleHelium]

Did you download the Google Talk app?