[Spoilers] It's time to be casual again

[Mardoc]

It would but I refuse to keep playing with just 1 happiness resource.

I guess my point is that it seems to me settling for furs is committing ourselves to war. I'm ok with that, if we plan it properly. I just don't want to be surprised.

I kinda think we ought to take Jowy's city *before* settling furs.

Dreylin and Jowy have settled pretty hard in our direction, I'm not sure they can get a border without stretching themselves thin. But we can't be sure until we know more about the map

Ichabod is very close to Jowy's capital

Very glad to hear about Ichabod! Granted, it does mean that Jowy's been beelining us, but at least he's got another neighbor to help limit him.

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I'm concerned about overall strategy. It seems like you're trying to pull in two opposite directions at once. I think we can do the Mids, or we can try for a classical era war. I'm not at all convinced we can manage to do both.

Mids is enough hammers for what, 8-10 Jaguars? That seems like enough to make the difference between an easy war and a slog.

On the other hand, Mids would seem to be able to push us to Knights before anyone else. We could lean on Representation happiness instead of resources, use up our food surpluses on a whole bunch of scientists everywhere, and then use Knights to grab some more land. For that matter, use Knights to actually kill someone instead of arguing over just the middle area.

[AdrienIer]

It would but I refuse to keep playing with just 1 happiness resource.

I guess my point is that it seems to me settling for furs is committing ourselves to war. I'm ok with that, if we plan it properly. I just don't want to be surprised.

I kinda think we ought to take Jowy's city *before* settling furs.

Jowy committed himself to war when he settled so far in order to claim land. The question is just when the war will start. I don't think planting the fur city will hasten the obligatory conflict so in my mind I see it only as a +1 happiness city.

I'm concerned about overall strategy. It seems like you're trying to pull in two opposite directions at once. I think we can do the Mids, or we can try for a classical era war. I'm not at all convinced we can manage to do both.

Mids is enough hammers for what, 8-10 Jaguars? That seems like enough to make the difference between an easy war and a slog.

On the other hand, Mids would seem to be able to push us to Knights before anyone else. We could lean on Representation happiness instead of resources, use up our food surpluses on a whole bunch of scientists everywhere, and then use Knights to grab some more land. For that matter, use Knights to actually kill someone instead of arguing over just the middle area.

My hypothetical talk about possibly going to war against Jowy has misled you. I have no intention of declaring war on anyone before the mids are built. After the mids we'll reassess. The jaguar talk was more in the line of what if someone builds the mids next turn.

[AdrienIer]

Even with a builder combo Jowy can't restrain himself from building the biggest army he can. I put 2 axes and a spear in production.




Apart from the soldier count we're pretty average

[AdrienIer]

It's getting better

[AdrienIer]

I don't remember when I mentioned it last (but I think I mentioned it before), but next week I'm on holiday. It won't be impossible to play the turns, but I can't guarantee a turn a day. Can you take them from next monday to the monday after that ? It would simplify things.

[Mardoc]

Dang it, I keep closing my reply tab before I actually finish a post and reply.

First: Yes, I can play. When you say 'next Monday, do you mean I should play from April 25th-May2nd, or May 2nd- May 9th? Yes, you mentioned your holiday. I hadn't realized we were already there so I'm glad you reminded me. Should be good as a teammate to be forced to log in and look around; it'll help my engagement level. Plus maybe I can answer some of my own questions about things like 'how long until X tech?' .

Glad to see the demos improving. Cities are worth planting, who knew? . Also very glad to see we will have copper units *before* war this time.

After stewing on it, I'm good with planting the fur city. I do have some comments, though. I think it'll be very tempting for Jowy to snipe, and I want to play that carefully. I want to put in enough garrison that he can't have it easily (maybe start with 2 metal units and ramp up to 4-5?). At the same time, it's too early to risk having a total war, so I want to be mentally committed to accepting peace after one city, if he offers it. And not to garrison it so heavy that we can't stop him after one city. In particular, don't split up our forces too much, make sure our main army is between him and our capital.

Also good with making it a goal to prune or kill Jowy later on, given the way he settled. Hopefully we get to pick the schedule and we can do it right. Agreed that now is too early, and the best thing to do is pay attention and try to either hit a break point or a dogpile or both. We probably won't be out of room for expansion for a while, it seems like a map with islands, and we'll want to grow some infrastructure to support Mids, and so on.

[AdrienIer]

Yeah I'm leaving on the monday in 4 days (actually I'm staying at a friend's house on sunday night, he lives closer to the airport, so if the turn rolls late-ish on sunday I'll need you to play it).

Techs are expensive this game (it comes from having more people in and therefore a large map). So "how long until X tech?" is usually answered with "a long time".

There are signs with numbers on them on the map. They were supposed to be the order for settling cities but they're from a long time ago and they don't mean anything anymore.

Fur city is, IMO, an important plant, because if we don't get it we'll be running solely on whales for happiness.
I'm not sure Jowy will truly want to snipe it so far away from his core (or more accurately I doubt he'll have the means to do it if we send a spear and one or two axes to defend it).

Problem with the mids : We don't have a city with more than 4 available forests. I'm leaving the problem of how to build them efficiently to you, as I think we need to start the mids soon if we don't want to lose them, and soon means somewhere during the end of next week (we don't even have stone or a city by the stone yet).
I suggest using the capital (and chopping all of its forests).

[AdrienIer]

I don't like Jowy's axe being so close to our territory. If he tries to settle this area I suggest using the chariot I just started in Crepes to take it.




Demos are much better. The soldier category is more satisfying with an additional 2 axes and spear.

[AdrienIer]

I just made a stupid mistake




I sent the axeman to choucroute as was the plan, except Jowy's axeman can take Cassoulet in 2 turns. I could have sent him to the horse tile and we'd have been fine. And of course I had already sent the workers to the southern hill instead of the northern one. Else I could have roaded the jungle hill next turn and get the warrior into Cassoulet next turn just in time.

Anyway I started an axeman in Cassoulet to bring it to 5/35h, so next turn we can whip it even if it's useless (Jowy plays after us).

This is great.

[Mardoc]

Can we whip the chariot yet?