[SPOILERS] Mountain, go

[yuris125]

Also, here's an answer to a good number of questions, including "why did you pick an Agg leader instead of Gandhi of Inca?"

[yuris125]

T7



This is going to be one tricky map to dotmap. Torusland maps usually are

Azza researched a tech. Demo screenshot didn't save for some reason, but I believe it was AH, which he researched 1 turn fast than me because he had 2 pre-reqs. My research finished EOT

Random card which kicked my arse last night

[yuris125]

T8-9

On T8, I see Khmer borders (in the bottom right corner)



I consider if there's benefit in not getting contact with Oxy right now, and don't see any. So on T9, I move the scout SW. Because of a hill in his borders, this is enough to establish contact



At the moment, I have a lot of unscouted land around the capital, and keeping the Scout alive is too important. So I decided against trying to choke Oxy, and moved the scout back where he started the turn. This way, Oxy won't know how we established contact, and where I'm located. Although he probably will be able to figure it out

My main concern is that the horse on this screenshot is the closest horse resource I currently know about. Hope we won't have to fight for it...

[yuris125]

T11

Doesn't even deserve a comment

[Merovech]

Ooh, that seems like a pretty decent card. (Not like the others aren't, just that one seems more fun then the vamp, for instance).

[yuris125]

Depends on what's fun for you Explore is certainly fun, and allows to do broken things

...but I'm a red player. I like to bash with my creatures And the vamp is crazy good, she grows very fast, and can steal any creature the opponent plays once you hit 7 mana. Which is not a problem for decks that play her. If you can't kill her quickly, you're in deep trouble

[yuris125]

T13

The game seems to be on hold, so this is the current position

More exploration. Some nice land down there in the south:



After finishing the Mining research, I had to consider if I wanted to go for Pottery or BW first. There were some arguments for starting on cottages early, but ultimately I decided that BW is a better option:
* The capital does not have a lot of hammers, early Slavery is important
* I'm going to whip the capital at least once, so the cottages are going to stay unworked for significant periods of time
* I have no known horse resources nearby, and need to have access to at least one strategic resource
* I would prefer to revolt to Slavery before the second city is down

So... BW it is



Also, I pondered about the location of the 2nd city. Unless I find better option, here are the current thoughts



Blue dot is a solid production city. Not much food, but it gets to share the cow with the capital, can get a couple of grassland farms, has access to a 2/2/0 lumbermill tile and a good number of grassland hills. No real spark, but a good solid city

PinkMagenta dot is a greedy city. No real food, no long-term potential.. but can start working gems early

[yuris125]

T15

Found my own Horses. With a food resource nearby, too!





Also, Retep's Scout came from NW. Didn't like the look of his Mongol face, so declared war on him

[yuris125]

T21

Nothing really happened in the last few turns, until I discovered BW on T21. Copper is nearby in the south



Dotmapping this land was a challenge, signs on this screenshot show the best option I could think of. The best thing is that I have so much riverside grassland, and don't really need to cottage everything.. I can easily farm some of the tiles if need be. And I do need to do it. The planned copper city shares corn with the capital, leaving it only with a cow as the food resource. But if I farm 2 or 3 grassland river tiles, and considering copper is on the grassland, I should be ok on food in this city even if it doesn't have a food resource of its own. What I like about the copper city spot is that it will be immediately connected via the river, and is quite easy to defend

Everything else just tries to maximise the use of food resources. I don't like the elephants are not in the 1st ring of any of the cities, so will be a while until I can connect them, but I don't see a good spot which would get them in the 1st ring

The other interesting puzzle is how to connect the gold. Options are 1W or 1E of the gold. 1W causes me to lose the unique plains forest mine tile with 1/4/0 yield - impossible to get naturally until much later in the game. And it only has a flood plain for immediate food. 1E is probably a better long-term city, but it's farther away from the rest of the empire, so more difficult to defend, and it causes me to waste some of the tiles. On the other hand, because 1W is so food-limited, it won't be able to work all the hill tiles anyway. Still undecided on this one



The main purpose of the city in the north is to work cottages for the capital. It's likely that with the food situation, I will have more cottages in the north and more farms in the south of the capital. The northern city has its own food resource, so can easily work all the cottages it needs, and has its own production. The city in NE connects gems, I'm not very happy with this location, but don't see a better one. The city in SW connects horses. Finally, the city in W has 2 food resources, but nothing else, so probably will end up being a GP farm. I might decide to split those 2 food resources between 2 cities, but not sure how yet. There is no production in the area, so GP farm is probably the best use for those food resources



A better look at the NE region. There will probably be a city S of the clams, but I need to scout further east to confirm it, so that spot is not marked yet

[yuris125]

T23

Here is Oxy's Warrior being annoying



It's wounded (1.4/2), but has a promotion saved. I should be able to force it to move away without too much trouble. If it goes to pillage the hamlet, I'm perfectly fine with that... my main priority is to found the copper city without too much trouble

Also, I established contact with Azza at some point during the last few turns. Never saw his units, have no idea where he is yet... but we're in contact and (obviously) at war