[SPOILERS] Last place in thread creation. Yuris125, Pitboss 83

[yuris125]

Built a warrior for fogbusting, but instead have to keep him at the front door (forested hill E of Call of Destiny) to stop Commodore from going in. I will not be opening borders with him, don't want him to know where my strategics are, nor that I have no choice but to fight him. But if he declares war and moves his scout on that tile, I won't have a way to safely dispose of it

[yuris125]

About to whip my settler in the capital. Had to work unimproved forests to get it out this turn, but will regrow onto cottages. All goes well, 3rd city will be settled on T20

Call of Destiny slow-built a worker and now is going to get one more warrior out. Still waiting for a border pop to improve the horse




The south - if Commodore lets me have at least the coast, we can coexist. But I doubt it will happen




May be better to split the corn and the pig and have 4 cities rather than 3. But if I do end up at war with Commodore, it likely will be his decision, as I will try to keep his cities

Worth nothing that Commodore and I do not have a trade cnnnection, meaning all 3 of his cities are likely inland. In which case I may be better off with horse archers rather than swords. On the other hand, contested area between us is likely to be coastal, and as I said, earlier, swords leverage Agg way better

Finally - don't laugh - but Colossus? Looks like I will have to work a lot of coast

[yuris125]

Maths is in. I've been coming back to the decision to go IW next, thinking if it is the best option. If I stay peaceful with Commodore, I get very little value out of it, there's no jungle to chop, and just revealing the resource cannot compete with the likes of Currency and MC. But I don't want to be purely reactive in this situation. I believe the chance of me having to attack Commodore is high, and if it does happen, I want to have the required units ready to be produced

Also, if a big part of my plan is an attack with jans off 3-move galleys, I will need harbours for boat XP, and IW is a pre-req for Compass. So it's not off the main path

All in all, I'm not too happy about it, but I am going IW next

[yuris125]

City 3 settled as planned




I need to get barracks done asap for border pop, but also need to connect copper asap, as I will need copper units if I am to settle and hold a city next to Commodore. Think I'm going to send the two workers from the south to chop the forest into barracks. For copper connection, I think if I road the copper tile itself and the tile east of it, it will be connected to the capital via river?

Call of Destiny started working on a settler for the corn/pig spot, and Hand of Fate will whip a galley next turn. That galley will be a bit early, but the city is about to grow into unhappiness due to no defenders, and I forgot how low happy cap is with no resources, and didn't keep the warrior back to help with that

[yuris125]

Popping a hut east of Commodore gave me a map which revealed two of his cities




They're indeed inland

What's noteworthy is that Commodore is still putting full EP on me despite us having each other's graphs by now. Makes one wonder if we're on a duel island, and if killing off Commodore sooner rather than later is worth trying regardless of how he plays it. He is creative, and after I tried to have a culture war with a creative leader in 82, I don't want to try again. Meaning even he gives me the northern coast, I can hope for 3 cities at best. That would give me 8 total, one of them a crappy filer canal city, and a single happiness resource across the empire. That's so unlikely to be enough for a win - I'm not even convinced if it's enough to get to Gunpowder. And Commodore's creative culture will almost certainly block me off from further southern expansion

[yuris125]

And there it is




Archer is going back - don't think it's worth harassing his city, I would rather let him develop it before I can hit it

If Commodore decides to be aggressive with the immortal, I will not be able to get a spear in Call of Destiny, but an archer + warrior on a hill should be enough to hold off a single immportal

But mid-term, I'm pretty much committed to settling 2 more cities, hopefully claiming iron with them, and then building axes and swords for a naval attack

[yuris125]

Welp, not ideal. Popped a hut on the northern edge of the map, and it was hostile




Promoted the warrior to C2 / Shock, so it has a chance of survival. But not a great one

Meanwhile, 4th city is ready to go, but I have to wait a turn for the spear, cannot unload the settler in the face of two immortals




Whipped a hammam in the capital so it can grow. Happy cap is real

[yuris125]

Warrior didn't win even one combat, died at 22%. Unfortunate

[yuris125]

City settled




Whether it holds is an interesting question. It is of course dangerous, with Commodore's borders going all the way to the city. Also noteworthy, Commodore's worker is stacked with the immortals instead of improving the corn. I worry about him having a few extra units in the fog, ready to cause trouble. But can't live scared

Also pictured, iron. Obviously out of range of everything. Capital's border growth is in 21 turns. Is that too slow? I may have to settle a filler with no food, say W of the iron, just to use it

[klops]

I can see windmills all over beautiful hills...