Archduke and Emperor K team thread

[TheArchduke]

So, finally back in Vienna and with a bit of time on my hands.
The save got to me not in the best of situations so I will offer my 2 cents on what is going on.
First of all.
What went right:
We managed to be first to religion and what a close race, two other teams got their religion very soon after us, and I am fairly confident that one of them would have taken choral music off us if not for a good, planned out approach on the settler buy, double lavra and the project. So yay.
What went wrong:
Barbbusting and Fogbusting. My slinger performance was abysmal and whilst I managed to get a second city site settled quickly as well, the barbs meant agoge was overdue, as well as the 2nd builder being idle for 2 turns. Also barbs meant that one warrior of yours is relocated to patrol duty, which is bad.
So how is our current situation.
Lets check the geography first. To the NW we have Nubia with those very dangerous archers. This team has high milpower and is backwards in score and might look to rectify this with a military push. They would be insane to go against Defender of the Faith but stranger things have happened. Forget Canal City #4 and the one North. In fact you can delete those dots, we will not be able to get them. Let us do general housekeeping on those dots as well.

   

Fresh Water city #4 can stay, we need to scout it out ASAP and maybe put dibs on it. Why? It is in a defensible position. I would even go as far as to say it should be our next settle with possible Bay City 3 following. (Both sites need better names.)
In any cases, I have decided that we should start to name some regions and features for better and quicker communication and better city names. First of all the region to the northwest seems to feature 3 very narrow approaches to our landmass. We can assume that the layout might be similar and we need to scout 2 directions. Your scout needs to head SW and will probably encounter something similar and I need to push our more warriors and slinger and scout NE.
The three legs are very, very susceptible to naval fire and with the right preparation not penetrable without it. Our priorities need to be to settle fresh water city #4 (Sheep Lake Site) and conquer Granada. Granada is a semi useful city site, but with my bonus can be easily conquered and especially guards the eastern leg perfectly, providing for a crucial harbor up there. An encampment on the eastern finger site makes this a redoubt as well.

   

I will run a testgame if a city state with a garrisoned warrior can be conquered by three german warriors, I doubt it, we will go with 4-5.
Let us continue SW. Muscat. Muscat is actually worth a conquer, but as I want to build commercial districts and you will eventually as well, we have 2 very safe commercial CS which we can easily control and suzerain between us. And Muscat has a decent bonus.
Bandar Bruneis bonus is neglible but the site is seriously crappy, so to maximize profits, we want to keep them around. Both. Which means we need to finish and plan out quests to get those envoys up. Muscat is easily done by me with city 3 or Granada (eureka for sailing) and my next priority is getting enough money and an escort warrior to trade route Bandar Brunei.
The area around Muscat is dirt poor as well and we need to focus on shutting out Nubia from our continent Avalonia somehow.

   

I am also of a mind to actually build a scout to go NE which is direly unscouted. Just look at the situation. Ugh. I fear that we have another continent connecting to city site 4 from the NE.

   

Let us hope we border the religious Khmer/Kongo team there and not Sulla/Singaboy.
Now, for all that I will push out 2 more warriors and then 2 more slinger and another warrior for trader duty. 4 warriors will go to Granda, maybe with a slinger support, 1 warrior will cover a buyable trader, 1 slinger will run barb duty. After that is a beeline for EE to get 2 settlers going.
That is me. I think you should get another scout and slinger, then finish the shrine in the southern city (too good for culture) and a priority is a 3rd settler pre-EE.
I know it is terribly inefficient but we need to shut down the NW right now. If you can switch into the settler civic whilst producing the settler, the better.
We are, score and religion wise in good shape, but our knowledge is terribly limited thanks to my botched slinger death and this has to change right now.
So, priorites:
1.)    Conquer Granada
2.)    Settle the Sheep Lake
3.)    Cover both exits that way
4.)    Scout East to see how the terrain looks
5.)    Cover the East
We are both long haul civs so we need to expand, settle down and shut up any attempts to disrupt us from running away with the game.
As soon as that settler is done I think we need to run a double settler in both our cities, expand and then try that crazy Colosseum plan.

I will build 3-4 slingers asap and then research archery thereby providing it to you. The same with bronze working which I need to clear the jungles for my commercial/hansa mega city project near my capital.

So much to do, so little time.

[Emperor K]

I know I am behind but I'll catch up now at least so the lurkers can see whats going on and we have something to reflect on.

Turn (31)

Scouting info...

And the capital

2 turns from growth in both cities and 3 turns until my shrine finishes.

[Emperor K]

Turn (32)

Only had the scout pic from this turn.

Nubia has settled its second city, which as of right now is the closest enemy city to us. We shall have to keep this in mind.

[Emperor K]

Turn (33)

Only a shot of the motherland this turn.

Shrine due next turn. Swampbram is still working on its. Once shrine is done some military is in order, followed by agoge ASAP.

[Emperor K]

Turn (34)

All caught up!!! 

Shrine done in holybram. Start on a slinger, EE is about 5 turns away if I remember correctly so I will finish craftsmanship then get EE. I would like a slinger and a warrior before EE is finished to protect my fragile lands. I will probably have holybram build a settler while swampbram finishes its shrine and then build another slinger there before that city builds a settler. This should allow me to run the Settler card until state workforce is finished all the while having two shrines 2 slingers and 2 warriors, as well as 3 settlers. I plan to have holybram build 2 back to back.

My sight is set on first city going up in the bay area, second settler from holybram will head to the fresh water spot. Settler from swampbram will grab oysterbram location.

Finally scouting info...

[Emperor K]

Ok so I shall respond to the 'current situation' response you made.

-don't beat yourself up over the slinger, scouting is always a roll of the dice when there are barb horse about.

-Nubia is going to be a threat, it is in his best interest to push with those archers if you ask me, although we may be lucky in the fact that Woden likes to build.

-As for naming regions, how about 'northern straights of the motherland' for the area up there.

-I think it will be easiest to send my first settler to the bay city, how about naming it 'al-justalittlesnowbram' on account there is one mountain (i will admit i am not very good with clever names)

-second settler out of holybram will head towards fresh water site. that area needs scouting, however there was a nubian archer moving about when my scout first made contact with woden so I do not want to head to far with out a slinger / warrior pair just in case. I will think of a better name after i see the area.

-since we are to abandon the canal cities (i agree no chance of us getting / holding them) so the annexation of Granada is a great idea to focus on.

-as for keeping the gold cs. I am not sure I agreen, muscat has a good bonus for you so maybe that is the way to go, however I have a feeling that the city will be in a very poor position considering whomever is to the east of us. I would much rather have the city for us to defend that have to worry about fighting an envoy battle, or worse giving our enemies a foothold on our continent. The other cs BB is in tundra, which means I can probably make good use of the city. Neither of these cities are top priority to get, but I do think we may be better off 'incorporating' them into our empires.

-My only worry with building a scout after turn 25 or so is that now any barbs he runs into are going to be archers soon. If you think a scout will be able to scout and avoid barbs than yes it is a good choice. If not might just be safer to send a warrior scouting after you take Granada. That is up to you, I just think the scout is a bit more risky.

-I do like your 3 settler plan, I need a few more military units to push north. One Nubian archer in the right position can wreck a slinger or scout. I would really like to have two units in the area to ensure I get to bay city area unhindered. That is why I am building a slinger, then warrior. I will be in agoge when i get the turn 35 and the slinger will have one turn left. With some luck and rollover I will have a warrior after in about 3 turns, maybe 2 (i will have a better idea when I get the turn).

-EE is about 4 turns away so a settler after my slinger + warrior build will be good. Holybram will then go for another settler right after that.

-At the moment I still have the +1 production card in so I would like swampbram to finish the shrine. Not only does that help us with the Colosseum push, it also gets my faith engine going.

-Now that agoge is in, I am going to switch swampbram to a slinger. Maybe even a warrior as well if I can get one done before EE comes in. If not I will put a turn or two into the shrine again before I start on a settler. I just think that this city really does not benefit from one or two turns into a settler when the shrine is still not done, and I need some troops.

-After my 3 city push it will be time to build workers, lots of them, not only do I have massive chopping that needs to be done, I will also have 5 cities that need builder attention, so holybram will be building nothing but builders until Games and rec is in. If I am going to go for the wonder I must go hard and I really need to chop out the entertainment district and the wonder with everything I got. My other cities will have to pick up the Military builds to ensure I keep that score up so I do not look like an easy target.

-It will be known that I am building a wonder because I will have to take Autocracy with PP. I do not want to waste either of the other two in case I need Oligarchy for Military.

-When Games and Rec is in I should be able to check china's civic score. If I am ahead by at least 1 civic I think I can pull it off if I have enough builders. Also He has to prioritize the pyramids, so after that is built and when is civic score hits 14 we can start to worry.

[Emperor K]

Turn (35)

Well first up is the scouting report.

Met Kabul city state, so Nubia has some extra production towards those archers, not good. Also the quest is not one I will complete soon and that is to train a galley. Oh well maybe bay city can make one. As for the motherland

I have 5 turns until EE hits. With some tile micro and overflow I think holybram can pump out two slingers and a warrior in 5 turns which will work well with the swap, also swampbram can build a slinger in 3 and with the overflow it should take the shrine down to 2 turns and that city will be able to switch to settler as well in 5 turns. I also placed several markers down with names for areas and different district setups. It is troubling that Brick(Sulla) has 10 civic score, I wonder if went Mysticism or they are working on PP right now, does not look good for possible wonder race.
I have not given up yet but we may have to give it up.

[TheArchduke]

SNIP

-When Games and Rec is in I should be able to check china's civic score. If I am ahead by at least 1 civic I think I can pull it off if I have enough builders. Also He has to prioritize the pyramids, so after that is built and when is civic score hits 14 we can start to worry.

Agree on everything, except the commercial CS, we want to keep those around. Granada is boost and use enough imo, maybe we find some non commercial CS.
I will get another builder out in the capital and chop all rainforests into warriors and monuments and then do a 2 settler push as well.

If you can find the time to build a builder, harvesting both stones into settlers with the EE civic +50% is an excellent use for those.
Oligarchy without an offensive war is a waste of time. Both CR and AC are way better. Autocracy is the right call, as is corvee.

Agree on the colloseum plan.

Screenie, soon 4-5 warriors are off to Granada.

   

[TheArchduke]

Finally stabilized the near vicinity, all 4 warriors are off to Granada with 1-2 slingers to follow perhaps.

   

[Emperor K]

Turn (36)

Scouting seems to have reached a dead end.

I am thinking about heading back towards the middle and then going south towards our western commerce cs. Let me know what you think, on the other side of Kabul there are English borders so I am not sure how long I should lurk in this area.

As for the capital area...

Took a shot at the barb scout and moved my other slinger out. Warrior in next turn. I do not have worker card slotted so I will not be able to get one out before EE hits. I am going to build the first one with the production bonus alone. I may be able to swap out after (around the time state workforce is in) but I am not sure that will be optimal considering swampbram will be building a settler as well.