[SPOILERS] Land of Chaos - HitAnyKey

[Injera]

Jungles and forests never grow onto a tile that is occupied by a unit.

Are you sure about that? I could have sworn I've had jungle grow while I was in the process of mining a Gems before. My memory could be faulty, of course.

[HitAnyKey]

So next turn becomes my Happy Turn! I get Iron Working, and hopefully Iron in a nice spot to mine, and then hopefully I can crank out some Swordsmen to go swat plako with.

The Horses have been Pastured, so I can build chariots as well.
Next turn two workers will chop & then farm the jungled Rice.
And three workers will chop & then mine the Gems.

plako has a bunch of units around, so I gotta keep a close eye on them. In that tile west of his city and north of my axe/spear he's got an Archer & a Warrior. In his city, he has 2 Archers & a Chariot.
That's too many units for my comfort. That's why I whipped the Barracks in Puddle of Doom (it grows again in 2 turns). That city will make my first Sword.
Hard Knocks grows next turn as well, and that will speed up production of that Spear. With him having probably a bunch of chariots, spears will be important.
I'll decide next turn or something what to do with Dragon's Mouth. I'd like to finish the Granary first, but that might not be feasible. Though I may whip it out at the first opportunity and let the overflow go into a military unit. Maybe a Chariot.
Currently next up on the tech tree is Poly followed by Mono. No one has gotten Judaism yet, so I think I should try for it. Organized Religion will be a great bonus if I can get use out of it by having the religion. If someone beats me to it, I'll just switch tech to Writing or Horseback Riding.

[HitAnyKey]

Sweet!! I won't be able to put up a picture until later, since I just logged in from work real fast to play the turn and check things out....

But guess where I have Iron? Right next to Puddle of Doom, on the very same hill I already have been using as my first mine. So production in that city has just increased due to that. So I'll have my first Sword soon (I think 3 turns), and with XP from the Barracks. With Hard Knocks now grown, I'll have that Spear in 2 turns.

[HitAnyKey]

So before I prepare for any sort of offensive, I realized I should get out a few more quick Archers for defense. So PoD will make an Archer next turn which will be sent right on over to my new city. So it'll be protected in 2 turns.
And I'm gonna swap the Warrior I have in Hard Knocks with the current Archer from PoD. Want that Archer closer to the front lines.

[HitAnyKey]

Yeah, I'm a crazy nut and I know it.....but at least for the moment, I'm a lucky nut.

plako pulled his warrior back into his city, leaving the archer in the jungle. Because I was bored, I checked the odds. 59% for Thor to try to kill him. So I charged ahead like a madman and won. Moved Mr. Pokey onto the tile for the needed protection from the chariot. plako played his turn and didn't take any retaliatory action, which I expected since I believe his losses would have been too big. Next turn I think I'll pull them back to the Gems to heal up and return to their fortification duties.

And oddly enough I'm now 2nd in Soldiers. I have no recollection what my score was at before, but I'm assuming my jump is based on getting Iron Working and then a Barracks. Since there's no way I actually have more units than other people. I suppose that also means that there aren't many other people who have gotten Iron Working yet.

I'm sure trying to war with plako is a bad idea, as I've played with him years ago and I know he's good. But what is an Always War game for, if not to go down in a blaze of glory? Plus, since from what I can see his Copper was in a bad spot and the only Iron I see is in the lands southwest of the city he just made, closer to me. So if I can get out enough metal units before he hooks up copper or iron, I should at the very least be able to raze that new city of his and cause him some grief.

[regoarrarr]

Iron working is I believe worth 10K in soldier points, and a barracks is another 3-4K.

[HitAnyKey]

A handful of minor things to report this turn, other than moving a few units eastward to their designated locations. The Gem mine was just built this turn, so of course I had to debate with myself back and forth whether to whip the Granary in Dragon's Mouth or not and then also whether to work the Farm (and grow in 3 turns but only get 1 gpt) or whether to work the new gems for a hammer & 6 gpt, but take a full 5 turns to grow. The Gems won the debate. I know I'd love to get the growth fast, but since I'm making a semi-serious attempt to get Judaism & Organized Religion I decided I need as much gold as I can every turn until I either get it or someone else gets it first. If someone else gets it first, I'll re-visit what I'm researching and probably switch to either HBR or to head towards Math.
The other main thing is that I FINALLY got enough EPs into plako to see his research. And as I suppose I expected....he's following my lead. He's only 7 turns away from Iron Working. This is not good. Hopefully there isn't any Iron in his other cities that I can't see. As long as that's the case, basically means I'm going to need to heavily protect that open area where the iron is to plako's west. Need to make sure he does not settle a city there before I can get out enough military to destroy his other city.

Yes, I'm sure all you lurkers will boggle your mind. What is HAK thinking....researching towards a religion while also trying to plan a big war? Well, I didn't call it Land of Chaos for no reason. :blob:

[HitAnyKey]

Oh well, crapolola. Someone just got Judaism. That means no reason to continue with Polytheism. I've switched to Writing, which I should be able to get in 6 turns, instead so I can get Libraries. Then I'll go for HBR, followed by Math. At least that's the current plan.

[HitAnyKey]

So I'm starting to re-think my immediate plans slightly. Especially with seeing so many archers and such in plako's city. With plako only a handful of turns away from Iron Working, I'm thinking I'm not going to be able to get out enough Swordsmen fast enough to really make any sort of impact. I really only want to destroy that one city, but it's just looking like it might be too tough even with him apparently not having any metal yet (no axes or spears in that city yet).
And I think I need to work towards securing that second Iron before plako sees it and expands that way himself.

I think the best overall spot for a city is where I have marked, since it also eventually gets usage of those Fish. But it also means I'll have to VERY slowly build a Monument (with just a single hammer per turn) and then wait another 10 turns for the borders to expand, before I've secured the Iron. And plako could theoretically squeeze a city near the mountains in that time to get to it first. I'll also need to send my first Sword down that way to kill (or scare off) that archer so that I can get a mine onto that grassland hill.
Am I better off grabbing one of those less optimal tiles for the city so that the Iron is in it's borders immediately? Or do you think going for my marked spot should be ok?
EDIT: I suppose another possible decent choice would be the tile 1E of the Iron. Though that puts quite a bit of distance between it any my empire.

On a side note, I switched Hard Knocks to a Monument and whipped it out. I think I need to get those borders expanded ASAP, since I'm sure plako is doing the same with Rotterdam. I'm also now making a Monument in Mt Whacko, though may switch to something else if I deem it more appropriate later.

Also if you have something (for example a military unit) that has 1 turn left to completion, and you put something else in the build queue before it finishes with plans to finish it later....how many turns before the hammers start to degrade? 10 turns sounds like something that is stuck in my memory, but I need to know for sure. Basically how long can I put off completing something, before I start losing hammers?

[kalin]

I think it's something like 10 turns for units and 50 for buildings.
Kalin