Where to will Singaboy steer the Teutonic power?

[kjn]

[Singaboy]

T43:
When I open the game and get all those messages flashing, I am very surprised. Now, my biggest fear is that one of the Greek nations attacks me before I have swordsmen. In this sense, this is an ideal situation. It will keep my western flank clear, while I can expand northeast and take on Seoul later. TheArchduke actually finished his encampment I guess he is confident enough to have enough military strength to achieve something here. However, looking at the scores, oledavy has spent all his gold to upgrade his slingers, I assume. His military strength is 150, TheArchduke has only 61, I got 73. TheArchduke sits on 334 gold though, enough to upgrade his units and maybe buy more.

I don't mind them burning through some gold and units here. I will follow my path to iron and swordsmen and then plan my next actions which surely contain Seoul too. In the end, I decide to respond to TheArchdukes request and agree to that.



As for my game, the spear in the north has attacked my slinger and injured it while almost being dead himself. However, as the horse has stepped up, I can't afford to take out the spear, but need to retreat across the river. I will await the horseman here and take it on. My settler/warrior are on the way there too.

In the south, a wounded scout is back near the capital annoying me. I move the slinger there too in order to be able to protect the builder as well. As I have accumulated some gold, I will upgrade that slinger once it reaches homeland.



I start iron working as masonry is done. This would give me the opportunity to build walls if required. Maybe I need to build walls in the northeastern front line cities in due time.
In the far south, the slinger steps up to attack the spear next turn. The deep red warrior has killed itself against my warrior, which heals to attack next turn. I hope to take out the spear and camp next turn, but might have to wait yet another turn. I want to pull back those units to help in the north and protect my builder. I am not quite sure why TheArchduke has a slinger near Frankfurt.

As for the scores, oledavy is speeding up his science with a new campus (he is now making 12b/turn). His cities have grown in size too. Woden acquired a 5th tech. I really need to get things up to speed with my 3rd city and possibly more expansion after that. There is room for more cities (dot map will come soon).

[Singaboy]

A potential dot map for the east:


I like the city spots south of Hattusa, near Preslav and of course, city #3. The slot between the wheat is just a filler in my mind and can always wait. Ideally, this expansion would be done using Colonization policy (+50% settler production). It would require a solid defense of the Hattusa, Seoul and city #3.

For now, it is time to sit back and check what both TheArchduke and oledavy are doing to each other. A pity, that I can't see what they are doing.

[Dreylin]

That middle city is always going to be a filler - maybe there's something in the fog down there that will help it be more than mediocre. I'd probably put it S of the river on the Desert tile anyway (it's on a FP now, right?). Potentially nice Petra location if you can score an Engineer to build it.

Also, it's not a great city spot, but I think you need a city down the river from Frankfurt soonish. SW of the Horses gets you an easy second copy of both key Strategics and will really open up unit build options. I haven't seen a second Horses in the East, and the other Irons are badly placed for your current dotmap.

Can you take an overview shot of the area between oledavy & TheArchduke? I guess they both settled towards each other and that's maybe set up the clash, but I wonder if one is trying to knock off Buenos Aires and the other is planning to defend it?

[Singaboy]

Very good input about both the dot map and a city south of Frankfurt. The question really is, where to settle down there due to the distance requirements (SW seems the only viable spot indeed). I will take a screenshot of The area between TheArchduke and oledavy soon.

Your suggestion of the filler city to be S of the river is pretty viable too.

As for Petra, I was actually thinking of the capital

[Dreylin]

As for Petra, I was actually thinking of the capital

Aachen might be an OK choice if you have to self-build it, but there are just 6 tiles that will take advantage of it and 4 of them are in the 3rd ring so would take a quite a while to pick up (or cost $$$) and may not be worth the investment.

OTOH, I see that the first GEng is a pretty crappy one, so you can't rely on picking up a decent one to rush the Wonder in that filler.

[Singaboy]

Yes, for 400 production, it's a steep hill to climb. However, if it ever gets this far, Aachen with its Hansa will be a powerhouse for production.

By the way, what do you think about the friendship with TheArchduke? Do you think it was a mistake or the right thing. I am worried about my iron source and hence, was quite happy to have him off my worries for now. I will have the time to connect it and build some swords in the capital and maybe upgrade 2 warriors. I would like to advance towards Seoul as soon as possible to rob oledavy off the chance to get all the science from there. he has 3 envoys invested there and the loss will surely hurt him.

[Singaboy]

The land of oledavy and TheArchduke as I know it. Not sure what TheArchduke is trying to accomplish.

[Dreylin]

Is that oledavy's city there in the fog next to BA, because that's a pretty clear target right there.

I think Friendship with TA was probably the right move. He's a direct neighbour that you can't quite deal with yet, and since you plan to at minimum anger oledavy in the near future by hitting Seoul, there's little benefit to not "picking a side".

FWIW I'd guess TA's Slinger is keeping an eye out for you connecting that Iron and/or moving another Settler into the area. (Plus warning of an opportunistic backstab...)

[Singaboy]

T44:
oledavy declared war on Hongkong. This is not good as I also have an envoy there. All the more reason to hope TA will be making a dent at oledavy. If only I could help out at this time but unfortunately, it will take a while. Attacking HK must have given oledavy more culture as he gained a 5th civic. TA burned through his gold to upgrade his units (doesn't show in the military strength yet, but his gpt is down to 3gpt).



As for myself, in the north the horseman shows up across the river. I don't feel confident enough to survive a horseman attack with a slinger only and retreat yet again. In combination with the promoted warrior, this should be a lot easier. I hope the whole episode won't delay my city founding.

In the south, the healthy slinger chases the scout but the real aim is to protect the coming builder. The other two units (the slinger got attacked by the spear) manage to take it out including the camp for a much welcome 50 gold.

It's time for the wounded units to return home for healing and upgrading. Both slingers will make their way north to be able to attack Seoul in due time. In the face of oledavy's aggression, I think, I would like to start the offense with 3 archers and 1 swordsman + warrior. This requires 90g + 160g for four troop upgrades and of course, iron working to be finished. Unfortunately, that is only happening on turn 53.

If I delay my slinger upgrades and found the next city in 3 turns, I would be at around 225gold. I will need to take out the northern barb camp to be able to afford all four upgrades. This should all be possible if nothing unforeseen happens. The 3rd city also provides me with enough gpt to maintain that army (+5gpt).