North Korea Part II- The Final Naming Scheme

[MindyMcCready]

Well you're results certainly look good, so no complaints there.

[Oxyphenbutazone]

This turn was pretty big




So we met sisu and Molach today, I actually did't see Molach, presumably his scout moved towards our borders and then moved away. Here you can see Sisu's borders, and one thing is immediatel apparent: Sisu will be our number one enemy.

To demonstrate, I'll post 3 screenshots

Our West:

Our North:

Our East:

Now let's play a game, which one of these is unlike the others?

I mean, just look at the marked tile, where Sisu will almost certainly place his next city:

4 Floodplains!!
PH plant
3 Hills for production
Riverside Ivory(boosted by FIN)
Dry Corn

And he's FIN, the fact remains that in the long term, if our empire and Sisu's empire come to an equitable split of land in the east, we will lose. The land is simply too good, and his traits are simply too powerful, especially in conjunction with that amazing land. So yeah, we are totally gonna make Sisu's life hell, that is our only chance of beating him.

So here's what I propose:

Operation: H.A.M.M.E.R

Hinder All Maliciously Mendacious Enemies Ravaged

(Ok, he's probably not mendacious )

1) We're gonna settle him up on him as much as it will be economically viable. I propose we settle the first 5 cities close to our core, and then start pushing aggressively for the Green dot and the desert hill+corn+double wines city.

2) We're gonna start harassing him as much as it will be economically viable. We'll send our first scouting warrior east and skirt around his borders for a little bit, obviously sniping a worker if we can't. At the very least, we'll make him waste worker turns, or screw up his micro plan. Later, we'll send a "scouting" chariot or axe for the same purpose, except this time maybe take a crack at one of his cities.

3) We're never going to lose site of our original goal- winning the game. I do think that this plan will help us win this game, but whipping a bunch of chariots to smash themselves into Sisu will not help us. We're going to be building up our economy, spreading our religion, building workers and expanding and many of those objectives will take priority over the war.

4) The key thing here will be to make Sisu react to our moves, and not vice versa. I really doubt Sisu will think of declaring total war on us like we are doing to him. He probably just wants to build up in peace, building as little military as possible. We're gonna make him drastically change his game plan if he wants to survive.

5) Forgive me for the sports analogy, but I am a pretty good high school American football player (D1 recruit for those of you who know what that means). One of the most important aspects of the game is psychological. When you go face to face with a guy on the line, you need to rough him up constantly. Whether it's pushing him a little harder than necessary, or staying on a block for a little bit after the play is over, its all about making him uncomfortable. Eventually, the lineman will start to get sick of it. He'll become frustrated, and that in turn will lead to poorer play. It's a negative feedback loop, where he plays worse, you keep pressure on him, and he plays even worse which makes him more frustrated. Around the third quarter, you have won this mini battle and with it, helped your team win the game.

My point is, this is exactly what we need to do to Sisu. We need to make his life hell, beating him up whenever we can. Whether it's a worker steal, an aggressive settlement, or burning one of his cities with a chariot, we need to keep the pressure on him. Eventually, he will get demoralized and play worse, or just give up contesting land between us. That's when we go in for the kill.

Tl;DR

[Commodore]

Um, if that's what I think it's about, I don't think PB8 is a good lesson. 20+ tiles of more than a dozen city-spots away != my PB8 start. Ask not WWCD, but WWKD. I don't recommend playing like me.

[Oxyphenbutazone]

Perhaps, but I got swept up in the cool acronyms

For the record, that was more of a macro post, with some vague ideas about taking on our FIN neighbor with very good land. I'm not going to get all tunnel vision-y here and not ignore other threats (i.e. AGG Rome)

[NobleHelium]

Ahem...

Why is the corn instantly irrigated after CS?

[Oxyphenbutazone]

I meant easily, though looking at the picture again I guess its not

still a pretty awesome city location though...

[MindyMcCready]

Not that i don't love a good harrassment,....

I'm not sure that you're going to be able to set him back so much. Physiocological warfare aside there's a pretty good chance that our harrassment simply puts us at a negative hammer exchange. Home turf advantage and mobility advantage for him and no forecasted gains for us other than in a relative sense and even that's debatable.

Other options:
1. We don't yet know who our other neighbours are. In a newb game, we may have opportunities to gain land that could put us ahead of him.
2. (recommended). Short term with the Academy and bulbs we should at least keep up with him tech wise. You already plan to bulb civil service. How does your military harrassment plan compare to projecting a peaceful border and then showing up with a whack of macemen? If a builder feels safe enough, he'll build and research economic techs. Have axes on hand; research machinery; bulb civil service; cash upgrade to maces (GM for gold) and try to keep those cities. It would be hilarious to project a peaceful border by walking a GM through his land, conduct a trade mission and then mass upgrade axes to maces.

[MindyMcCready]

Um, if that's what I think it's about, I don't think PB8 is a good lesson. 20+ tiles of more than a dozen city-spots away != my PB8 start. Ask not WWCD, but WWKD. I don't recommend playing like me.

WWCD = What would Commodore do?
WWKD = Hmmmmmm?

[TheHumanHydra]

Krill?

[MindyMcCready]

Perhaps, but I got swept up in the cool acronyms

For the record, that was more of a macro post, with some vague ideas about taking on our FIN neighbor with very good land. I'm not going to get all tunnel vision-y here and not ignore other threats (i.e. AGG Rome)

Missed this post. Wow, stuck between Financial Industrious and Aggressive Rome is going to force some hard decisions. Going to be an interesting game.