[PB84] Lurkers on a Hill

[GeneralKilCavalry]

Nice unprotected settler by SD in civac's thread lol

[Sullla]

Not to beat a dead horse, but I find it baffling that Tarkeel still doesn't seem to think this spot was an aggressive plant:

Mjmd had a rather strange opening: bee-lining towards us, then whipping out (there might have been a cash-upgrade too!) four axes to burn our non-threatening border-city when we declined to harass him with Impis.

I can't think of a single person at Realms Beyond who wouldn't feel the need to burn this spot!

[Thoth]

It's one thing to deliberately plant a "pink dot" and back it up with troops and worker support. 

It's quite another to be completely oblivious to the fact that you're doing it. 


I must say, I don't really like either party's approach to this area.  MJMD's city would be better one tile further north on the plains hill so he doesn't leave his opponent a defensive tile in front of his fortress city.

[Commodore]

Calling the plant "Leviathan Wakes" was nice and ominous too.

[Cornflakes]

Turn 121 (150 AD)
We slip in a city in the last possible spot on the border:


Meddling Kids tells the tale of a former teenage detectives returning to the scene of their last mysteries 13 years later as young adult. The signs are there that the case was more than just a guy with a mask. The story was pitched as "Enid Blyton meets Lovecraft" and it's a fantastic take on the whole teenage detective genre.

Why? What benefit do you get from this? That resourceless and culturally crushed location will only drain the defenses of that region.

[greenline]

Dyes in 50 turns, maybe.

[williams482]

Naming the city "Meddling Kids" is going to seem pretty on the nose, I think.

[Thoth]

Turn 121 (150 AD)
We slip in a city in the last possible spot on the border:


Meddling Kids tells the tale of a former teenage detectives returning to the scene of their last mysteries 13 years later as young adult. The signs are there that the case was more than just a guy with a mask. The story was pitched as "Enid Blyton meets Lovecraft" and it's a fantastic take on the whole teenage detective genre.

Why? What benefit do you get from this? That resourceless and culturally crushed location will only drain the defenses of that region.

It looks to be in a reasonably defensible position.  (at least until I thought about the borders....12+ turns to get control of the inner ring is a huge window of vulnerabliity)

A Chariot and an Axe are not enough of an initial garrison.   3 Chariots from MJMD have an excellent shot at killing the city.   On a good day it only takes 2.

[Thoth]

Hmmmm.....since planting that city is an act of war anyway, Tarkeel would have done well to bring along a Impi to pillage the road on the Iron to buy a bit more time.

[RefSteel]

It looks to be in a reasonably defensible position.  (at least until I thought about the borders....12+ turns to get control of the inner ring is a huge window of vulnerabliity)

It's ... worse than that; if you want to say 12+ turns, you need a really big emphasis on the "+."  That city is competing for three first-ring tiles with Marching Inland, which has the engineer-rushed MoM (visible in that picture) and has already popped its third-ring borders.  The iron, first-ring to Meddling Kids, will never be claimed culturally as long as Marching Inland exists; it's in MI's BFC, and it's going to hit fourth ring before MK gets to third.  Which means mounted units (and post-engineering, everything) will be able to hit Meddling Kids from the fog at any time throughout the game.

My suspicion is that Tarkeel put that city there as a pure crumple zone plant though:  If MJMD tries a full-scale attack, Tarkeel would rather have a forward city-on-a-hill to lose than let MJMD control that tile and the dyes hill and go after Shatterpoint through those:  It might buy him an extra turn of warning for his real cities. Of course, if MJMD just razes the city as a "border adjustment," much as he did to Leviathan Wakes, the city just wastes resources for them both - especially if it provokes a larger-scale attack. And since controlling the first-ring dyes (which without combat will presumably happen ... eventually) would mean Tarkeel could first-strike the flatland MoM city with fast-movers from the fog, MJMD probably does have to erase this city.