kjn's Ryde (spoilers!)

[kjn]

Choking fur fun and profit

1. Open warrior first
   
2. Choke!
   
3. ???
   
4. Profit!!!

SBB opens with a worker, and haven't started a warrior yet. I can't budge their CG3 warrior, no matter my taunting in the banter thread. On the other hand, outside of a city and when attacking, their warrior is hardly better than Agn - I doubt they wants to risk it on a battle, even on open land - Agn have about 40% odds there against their CG3 warrior.

A world-buildered presentation of the tactical situation around Sternum:




First goal must be to preserve Agn: even defending on a hill two warriors will most likely win. As long as Agn is there, SBB's development will be stunted. Ie, Agn serves primarily as a threat, as a force-in-being. I will need to look at the hammer buildup in Sternum.

I think I should move Agn to the hill 1N of Sternum. From there the rice is threatened, the ivory can't be reached, and Agn can move 1SW to threaten the improvement of the sheep - though the latter carries a risk. I won't be able to get my next warrior until T21, and no real military unit until T30 in my micro plan.

On the forested plains hill my warrior will be very hard to dislodge: even two warriors will get very bad odds there.

Question: should I send Blom down there to pressure SBB as well?

[kjn]

T5 - 3700 BC

Choking time! Agn moves next to the city, onto the hill. SBB will get a worker when the turn rolls (34H invested), and will then most assuredly 3-turn a warrior, available on start of turn 9, if I do my math correctly.




Blom goes S. My plan is to go around the mountain 2S (1SE of cow), visit the hills south of the cow, and then go northwards to Silverdalen, ending up 1N of the deer on T17, but I might very well shorten the route.




This way, Blom can also go reinforce Agn or threaten the Zulu sheep pasture.

C&D

Demos after ending turn:

SBB gained a tech, and rival worst in power rose 2000. Rival best in GNP shrank from 22 to 18, so SBB has researched Animal Husbandry in 6t. Due to rounding, they will only receive 2 overflow beakers.

Catwalk is researching a single-discount tech, which pretty much has to be BW. He will have that on T8, the same turn I have both Fishing and Agriculture. Of course, they will both need to research The Wheel to actually connect the resources, which will take another 4 or 5t.

So the opening strategies seems to be quite different:

AT: Worker first; Fishing -> AH (ignoring Hunting for now)

Catwalk: Worker first; BW

SBB; Worker first; AH -> ?

Me: Warrior - WB; Fishing -> Agriculture

[kjn]

T6 - 3640 BC

I must have caused a lot of discussion among SBB, because the save was with them for quite some time.

The upshot is that they've abandoned their worker build for a warrior The worker would've finished this turn, but instead they have (via EP checks) 4H invested into something. The warrior will finish T8, and T7 I will retreat my warrior to the rice, and then probably to one of the forested plains hills next to the rice later on.

First mission accomplished - their first worker is delayed by 3t, and they will have to cover their rice tile for a long while. SBB will need three warriors to seriously threaten Agn there.

Stark goes towards the capital, Blom goes SE, and Agn fortifies. Hit end turn.

The main question is: should we sent Blom eastwards to threaten the sheep tile and reinforce Agn? It will hurt our scouting a lot, but will secure our frontier against SBB for a long while. Will have to decide next turn. I'm also thinking of moving Stark all the way to the rice - he can reinforce the capital or Agn quickly from there.

Demos and C&D:

No changes

Again, these are from after I ended turn. I will switch the clam to the plains forest on T7, get my work boat on T8, and will be the first to an improved tile on T9.

A pop point is worth a whopping 13 points here Well, it's a small map, but with another tech next turn I think my score will draw some eyes early game.

[kjn]

T7 - 3580 BC

A short report, since I'm tired, it's late, and I have a headache.




Sternum will produce a warrior next turn, so Agn goes NW, to the rice. I intend to send Stark to our rice tile, from where it is possible to protect Ryd or help hold the mountain pass. After ending turn, I realised that the PBEM production didn't work like I first had thought, but that the warrior won't appear the end of SBB's turn 8, so I could've left Agn next to the city for another turn. But better safe than sorry in this case.

The tile that Blom had intended to go to next proved to be a lake, but he found a bear and wheat in the area, which should be located 2E of our jungled sugar.

Ryd works the ivory and a plains forest this turn, and will get the WB next turn.

After I ended turn, the lion moved next to Blom. Since he's on a forested hill, I will probably fortify and fight the lion next turn.

Demos after ending turn:

Catwalk researched BW, and is the new top rival power. I think both Catwalk and AutomatedTeller has switched to working their rice or clam tiles, having finished their workers.

[kjn]

T8 - 3520 BC

We're maintaining 2t per day here, nice.

WB built, and went to clam. Stark continues south. Blom fortified to defend against the lion. Agn goes SW from the rice to unfog a few new tiles - he will probably go back to the rice tile next turn, or onto the forested hill if SBB sends out both warriors.




Sternum switches to the clam and ivory, and will have a worker avaible on T13, thanks to the clams being improved on T9. My goal right now is to not make too much of a nuisance of myself - I don't have the forces for that. Better to capitalise on the development turn advantage I've managed to generate and my hopefully better micro, and not provoke the Zulus into a full-bore warrior rush against me. The longer before they find the other mountain passes the better.

Hunting will be finished in 3t, but I will lose the overflow beaker. Hope it won't matter later on.

The turn rolled, and Blom won, taking 3 hits in the process (58/100).

Demos after ending turn:

Global power rose 2000, which is SBB's warrior. I think the 22 is AT - he has Fishing now, and can pick up 2b that way, and went Fishing -> Hunting -> AH. Think I'll have to bite the bullet and set up some proper C&D tracking, though not at the obsessive detail of the ISDG...

[kjn]

Well, I've set up a good economically-focused micro plan, but I have the SBB with Willem of the Zulus next door. How to best make sure they don't screw up my development, like I did theirs?

There are 6 tiles between our capitals, using the central mountain pass. Using the flanking mountain passes, there are 8 tiles distance, and they should see the eastern (yellow) pass already.




A defending warrior on a forested hill can probably defeat two attacking warriors (ie three attackers are needed to break through). With two defending warriors, they will need 6+ warriors to break through in the central pass, but a single warrior coming through one of the flanking passes can cause a lot of disruption. On the other hand, I can't afford to hold both of them, or reach them.

Thick blue is the most important tile to hold. Purple is my reserve and fallback tile, which can be used to block a force coming from yellow. Red is in many ways the most vulnerable pass, since that route leads directly to my capital on defensive tiles. The thin circles are picket/sentry candidates. Blue would be preferable, but red is easier.

The first decision point will come on T11 - go for AH (economy) or Archery (military security). He won't have anything that can dislodge a skirmisher on the mountain passes for quite a while (8 effective defense, and a first strike), but that route will hurt a lot, development-wise.

A lot will depend on what SBB does. They will need at least a single warrior to protect the rice from pillaging. Since they haven't been active with their CG3 warrior, he will likely continue to hold their capital. They can start spamming warriors from T10, but that would probably wreck their economy in short order.

[waterbat]

uh oh! warriors on the move.

[kjn]

Yeah, I've played the turn, and report is coming soon. Basically, Agn went 1N to the forested hill (where he has good odds even against two warriors), Blom healed, and Stark continued to the rice.

[kjn]

T9 - 3460 BC

As Waterbat mentioned, SBB moved both their warriors out of Sternum. I retreated Agn 1N, to the forested hill 1W of their rice. He should have decent odds there, even if both warriors attack. Blom fortified to heal, while Stark moved to my rice. He will stop on the purple tile I identified earlier.




SBB also finished their first worker. It is three more turns until I get my worker, but I already have my first improved tile.




Barb animals are also out in strength. Apart from the lion that Blom killed, there was a wolf on the tundra hill 1N of the deer on T9, and a lion appeared 1N of the jungled sugar on T10. The wolf disappeared into the fog as the turn rolled.

Demos:

Working one improved tile shows itself in the demos. I'm almost 50% more productive in foodhammers than the rival best combined.

I finally caved in and started on a proper C&D spread sheet for this game. Waterbat - you've got an invite in the mail. If any lurkers wants to read it, drop me a PM with your e-mail address. (I plan to make it public after the game.)

[kjn]

Quite the interesting tactical puzzle we have here:




Will have to talk this one over with Waterbat, I think.