[SPOILERS] scooter's thread

[scooter]

T159 and Bob still has yet to discover a tech:



At end of turn I get my second:



Beautiful.

[scooter]

I do wonder what tech he's going for here. PP would be a mistake. Nationalism would've been good if he could get there before I got Lib. Education would be a mistake only because I teched way faster than him.

Astronomy though - that could get really nasty if he gets there soon.

[scooter]

T160 went as planned.





Bob still much bigger than me though:





We'll see what happens here. Taking a break now.

[scooter]

Quick picture.



Two turns have passed and I've finally founded my 5th city. Number 6 will come next turn down in the southeast. I'm going to try to push southwest towards the gold because I could really use the happy. Kinda annoyed at myself for passing on Notre Dame honestly - Bob got that fairly recently. Should've just grabbed it - didn't quite realize at the time how few happy sources we have here.

I've been mulling over where to go next. My feeling is I need to use my teching edge sometime soon before Bob's land advantage allows him to dig out of his tech hole. I can go a few routes with this.

1) Right now pump Knights and draft Musketeers and strike before he's ready.
2) Tech Astronomy and fork a few cities with Galleons.
3) Tech Military Tradition, get some Cuirassers, and use those with drafted Musketeers.

I'm kind of leaning towards #2. All of these would include some expansion in the south in conjunction with a forward city planted north and artist bombed.

[scooter]

I'm going to expand a little on those three options because I don't think I explained well enough, and it helps me to get this down here and think it through.

1) Right now pump Knights and draft Musketeers and strike before he's ready.

Problem here is I only have 3 cities capable of drafting right now. The bonus though would be that I think I could hit Bob's nearest city rather quickly, but given how much unclaimed land there is, I'm not sure that's any better than me allowing him to plant 2-3 more cities while I burn 1. This is probably not a good choice.

2) Tech Astronomy and fork a few cities with Galleons.

This is nice because the cities affected are key core cities. If I have, say, even just 2 Galleons with Knights/Musketeers on them, that's certainly enough to burn a city only defended by a few units. The problem here is if he's like me - he's using a few units for HR garrison, so I'm less likely to see a city with the token 1 longbow sitting in it.

3) Tech Military Tradition, get some Cuirassers, and use those with drafted Musketeers.

This is like #1 except I get a better unit (he's unlikely to have had many serious tech advances before I get to Mil Trad) and have more draftable cities. So to me, I need to decide between #2 and #3. Even while I write this post I lean back towards #3 a little bit.

In the meantime, I'm grabbing Economics real quick so I can nab the Great Merchant. He'll be saved for my eventual 2-man Golden Age.

[scooter]

Thought this over some more. The risk of Bob teching Astronomy first (explaining why he has 0 techs) is too high. I need to swap from Econ -> Astronomy now. The Merchant will still be there in a bit, but if he gets Galleons too quickly I'm dead. I'll swap once the save gets back to me. So I'm going with route 2 I think.

[scooter]

Yep, called it. I swapped to Astronomy and adjusted a few things to get it quicker. Next turn comes in and Bob finishes Astronomy. I'm building research in my backline city and I'm burning through deficit gold to get it quickly. I also queued two Caravels in my two coastal cities. I do have a Great General I can use on a ship if that will help me. So we'll see what I can do here. Given the power chart he probably already had his invasion force ready - he just needs to build two galleons (or upgrade!) and then send them at 4 tiles/turn over to me. I THINK I have just enough time to get a couple Frigates.

[scooter]

T163 saw me found another city:



Okay spot but not great. The sheep was actually nice because I need health.



Still way behind in food, and GNP/MFG are golden age numbers. So things are not great. 5 turns later (soon after he picks up Astronomy) some uncool things:



Should've taken the pictures when I saw them, but my caravels saw 3 CAs (1 Galleon's worth) sitting on the left sign waiting to get picked up. Sure enough next turn:



3 Galleons and a Caravel. I'm too far from Astronomy before they get there... Thankfully this is plenty of warning to defend the cities, but blockades will be nasty. Nice city settled on T170:



Two happies and a healthy on a resource-starved map, so that's big. Bunch of Serfdom-powered workers poured in on the next turn so this city will develop fast. On our most recent turn - T173 - Bob forgot to renew the blockade, so I was able to work seafood and ocean again. I've been cobbling together a plan that involves striking at Bob before he gets his economy figured out - but in the meantime, Bob brought 5 Camel Archers to a spot where he might move in on me next turn. So I've set a trap for him. If he moves within range, he'll lose 6 units at fairly minimal cost to me:



Not sure why he'd think 5 is enough nor why he'd move them onto a tile I can see (possible he doesn't realize I can see that tile but I can because it's elevated), but I'm hoping he moves in next turn. He just played and said "the single mace was a tip-off" so apparently he didn't take the bait . Should've put more into the city.

[scooter]

So here's the T174 setup:



Camel Archers and a Pike on flat land defending a couple workers. This is the best chance I get to wipe out those CAs, so I need to take it. So I move up my 1-movers and a worker in range for next turn. T175 comes in, he doesn't move them. So here we go.



I use my 1 cat which soften things, do the kililng with my Knights, clean up and move in with Musketeers. How things look:



Pretty sure Hark is dead. I actually squeaked another Musketeer by drafting and flying along roads. Yay for draftable 2-movers. It's really kinda exploitative. Bob in the south:



Bad news - he's settling down there and immediately rushing something. Good news - those units aren't north. Power graph:



It's better than that as it's a turn behind. Updated demos:



Soldiers is getting to be strong for me. I can draft 2 musketeers every turn, and Bob doesn't even have nationalism. We'll see what he puts into his city next turn. Might have a shot in this game after all.

[scooter]

Ok, quick rundown of T176-177. Situation on 176:



Don't have enough on this turn but I will next turn. So I took the hill:



This means next turn I could fork the cities and make him choose. Draft anger is hilarious at this point:



I hate to draft the capital hard, but it was going to starve anyways with losing the ocean (and now losing the seafood kills my health) so yeah who cares. I need to win. So next turn:



Bob wisely left the LBs (on a hill - rough) and bailed on everything else. At least I think this was wise - it gives him a chance at saving the next city which is more vital IMO. So I take it:



Gotta keep it - can't afford a settler and I need to take and hold land to have a prayer here. Wish I could pump out an artist but I realistically need a GA + swap to Pacifism and for now I can't do the first and can't afford the second. So let's see the next city:



That will be tough to crack - because I expect he'll get more in. I move the Muskets onto the forest for protection. Here's the kills btw:



LBs were a pain but it came out okay-ish. So next turn:



I'm going to try the same maneuver on Knowst that I did with Hark - get behind it and force him to make a decision. We'll see if it works - but healing up and going right at him may not work. I've got a medic 3 explorer on the way to help me out.