The Antisocial Team

[Ichabod]

It seems we have met Gaspar/NH... hopefully they don't annoy us with anything.

I'll wait for your input in the HR/Currency deal before playing, Mist.

[Mist]

Sure. But when preparing for an army assume worst possible scenario - Walls in place, one axe ( shown ) and three to four spears ( assume one present, two built when he sees our power spike, one whipped after we declare ). He can do this, he has stone somewhere there, we see improved cows and corn being improved. Estimate required forces and build accordingly ( possibly 3 or 4 axes and 9+ HAs ?).

[Ichabod]

Sure. But when preparing for an army assume worst possible scenario - Walls in place, one axe ( shown ) and three to four spears ( assume one present, two built when he sees our power spike, one whipped after we declare ). He can do this, he has stone somewhere there, we see improved cows and corn being improved. Estimate required forces and build accordingly ( possibly 3 or 4 axes and 9+ HAs ?).

I wouldn't expect him to build so many spears. He saw we have archers and axemen. I expect him to go for the more well-rounded axe fighters than a spear force.

Besides, the way I'm planning the attack, we will stage in our land for 1t in a tile I'm not sure Davey can see (I'll test it today). After that, we can hit his city in 1t from inside our land. I was thinking something on the side of 4 HAs/4 chariots, investing on speed rather than strenght. I need to post you the screenshot of the road. Davey city is really far from his core, there's no way he has so much defense in there.

Maybe 6 HAs and 4 chariots, propelled by some chops. I'm betting that'll be more than enough. If he has loads of defense, we can always pillage or gun for his undefended core using his own neutral roads.

My thinking is that people don't expect an attack so soon. We'll see... But I'm definetely on board for this plan. We are the antisocial team, after all.

[Mist]

Maybe 6 HAs and 4 chariots, propelled by some chops. I'm betting that'll be more than enough. If he has loads of defense, we can always pillage or gun for his undefended core using his own neutral roads.

No, this is a bad idea. If we want to do an early attack, we either do it seriously or we don't do it at all. Going in halfassed with assumption our target doesn't watch graphs, won't react to buildup and can't chop/whip two spears with a cheap wall is just wasting hammers.

This is a pink dot. For stone. His whole Pyramid microplan depended on it for good two dozen turns. He's improving it with worker turns to keep. We can't expect he'll just left it defended by an axe so any two random chariots from us or Yuri would let it go in smoke.

My thinking is that people don't expect an attack so soon. We'll see...

I would ( especially having myself at the other side of the border ), and even then, it's a naive assumption. You don't start war with opponent's screw up as an essential part of the plan. This is a "loosers" game, most of people around got bitten by underprotected farmer gambits and ambitious settlements. And if they didn't, they lurked those games.

I do not think 10 units will be enough. If you think we can't commit more now, let's wait for Catapults.

[Ichabod]

Gah, I'm extremely undecided... Do we risk our very nice position for a shot at that city?

Well, I don't really appreciate passive playing, so let's give it a try. It's a game after all, i'm not obligated to win. Let's try and have fun.

I think I can get 12 HAs + 2 chariots in a timely fashion. That's a force to be reckoned with. I'll probably whip the capital and the second city for HAs, after they finish their builds. Composure and Long Shots will build a chariot each while waiting for HR and than they'll chop/whip Some HAs too.

It'll be extremely hard for Davey to reinforce the city, so all the army he gets is from troops made in that particular city. See why here:

But we can't 1t him while working from an undetectable staging tile inside our borsers. So we'll have to give him a whipping turn anyway.

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Anyway, since this is very important, I want to ask you again, Mist: do you want to go with this plan or keep on settling/expanding/trying to get to key techs/wonders? If we get that city and keep a good sized army, we'll have a pretty strong foothold in that area and we'll be able to expand a lot. But if we fail, we are probably losing a very good position...

Choices, choices...

Holy insecurity, Batman...

[Mist]

Anyway, since this is very important, I want to ask you again, Mist: do you want to go with this plan or keep on settling/expanding/trying to get to key techs/wonders?

I say we go for it, this might be the last attack window before phracts, and I'd rather phract Yuri.

In the end, this is a key location. If that city stays we won't be ever able to use that floodplain region properly and we'll be pretty boxed in. There is also an outside possibility he lands a Holy City there and that would absolutely suck.

[Ichabod]

Plan attack Oledavy is in motion. Let's hope he goes for Hanging Gardens...

[Ichabod]

Mist, I hope you are taking a look at the saves. I'm having a hard time updating this properly and it'll probably keep going for a bit.

But here's a thought I had. We have 2 settlers completed/about to complete. My initial thought was settling the clam spot near the capital and that rice spot way up in the north:

Clam:

Rice:

But we can't commit troops to that rice spot right now. So I thought about settling the gold/clam spot in B and work the gold to get a monument/WB. That'd be just because those are safe cities that we wouldn't need to worry about that much.

But than it ocurred me:

We could settle this red spot. Why? It shares the corn with pace (that doesn't need it right now) to grow and it's one a plains hill. I have some workers in the area and I'd chop/whip some fast HAs from there. We can get 3/4 HAs very fast just by chopping.

I think it's worth it. That city will be a mediocre production city in the future, but right now it can help us immensly in getting things done fast. Besides, it's safe from attacks.

Your suggested spot near Davey might give the impression that we want to attack. Besides, I want the city settled in that place to share the corn with that city will capture from Davey. Take a look at how Davey wanted to proect his road from our warrior. I decided to play nice and not try to pillage it. I really don't want to give the impression that we are coming for him.

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Another question is about stables/barracks. I think i'll build stables in Composure and Long Shots, since they already have barracks ready. But the other cities that will produce HAs (new city if settled, capital and Pace) don't seem to make it worth. We could make 2 HAs + spare hammers with the hammers needed to do a barracks + stable combo. Not worth it, IMO.

What do you think?

[Mist]

Mist, I hope you are taking a look at the saves. I'm having a hard time updating this properly and it'll probably keep going for a bit.

Yes, I'm keeping up to date on that.

We could settle this red spot. Why?

Go for it. That's one of the cities I had marked for a filler. After HA's we can build a library there and work some scientists, so it'd still be useful.

Another question is about stables/barracks. I think i'll build stables in Composure and Long Shots, since they already have barracks ready. But the other cities that will produce HAs (new city if settled, capital and Pace) don't seem to make it worth. We could make 2 HAs + spare hammers with the hammers needed to do a barracks + stable combo. Not worth it, IMO.

Yes to long shots, yes to composure ( both future hammer cities ), Pace would be good, but is probably too far, we want the HA's there early so they can make it to the front in time. I'd build a barracks+stables in Technique eventually, that's going to be a good hammer city too.

[Ichabod]

I'm following the guidelines proposed on our posts above regarding the Oledavy attack plan. I'm pretty confident about it. Oledavy is lagging in all meaningful demographics. He must be trying really hard to catch up against the other teams (Gaspar/NH reached CoL last turn - they are really going for a specialist economy, it seems) and the number one thing people neglect is military while doing this. His military is so low right now that it makes me think he has that one axe as meaningful defense...

But like planned, I'm looking at at least 10 HAs for the attack.

Here's the another thing that makes me confident. Players that make long micro spreadsheets (which, if I recall, Oledavy fits in) are prone to not read the game circumnstances well, because that'd mean remaking everything that was planned. I think Oledavy might fall into this trap and not be ready for our attack. One can dream, right?

We have to take care to not reveal that our attack will be full mounted. Finding axes in that city will be waaay better than finding spears. And if he doesn't know what's coming, there's no reason why he'd prefer spears.