A Challenger Appears!

[Tankra]

Yeah. The unfortunate thing here is that not only am I losing those turns, but I'm also at 1 turn from the completion of my 2nd Worker.

As for growing to size 2, I was planning on using the Wheat farm to whip and get 3-4 dogs rapidly before I attack. It'll go much, much slower if I don't have the Wheat farm. If I lose to 50/50 battle, it might even be a good call to call off the rush altogether and just send him a couple of Dogs to make him suffer for his hubris.

For that matter, who says I have to capture his capital right now? If I make one of my Dogs sit on his Horses, he realistically won't be able to knock him off of there for a very very long time. Perhaps I should be thinking of attrition and siege, not of outright rushing.

[Tankra]

Well, the 50% battle has been lost, and I'm going to be losing that farm. I think a or a is in order.

Anyway, his dude will be dead next turn and I'll be able to get my 2nd Worker out. It's still a very large setback...

So what do you guys think now? Is it still a viable option to rush him? Should I just be content to give him an even larger setback for now, then deal with him later?

[CFCJesterFool]

I would pillage choke him (2 or 3 dogs max) and prevent horses from being hooked up. You can't stop expanding though. Obviously, the farmer's gambit is over so improving mines and commerce tiles to support an army (at least for defense) is far better than undefended cities at this point. Maybe I am pessimistic but rushing doesn't seem the wise move. You rush *before* the opponent pillages your tiles. Much better to fast expand I think and finish him off once you have secure land.

[Tankra]

So turn 19 came in, and I finally got to kill that pesky Warrior. Really quite an annoyance, but it should be better now. Unfortunately, my second unit had to be a Warrior as well, because my chop was 3h shy from giving me enough for a Dog Soldier last turn. I hadn't calculated the loss of 3h from moving to a further forest Oh well; couldn't have changed anything anyways.

So next turn I'll have both of my Workers rebuilding that farm and then they'll move on to chopping and improving those Deer.



But lookie here, TheStick is moving an Archer forward. He's probably planning on giving me more trouble with it. He's really being proactive about this whole thing, which I guess is good for him. Well, my own Dog Soldier will be out before he can reach any of my forested hills, so I can intercept him and will hopefully have more luck than last time.

I seriously need to start bringing the battle over to his side. I imagine he's already building another Archer with the intention of moving it towards me. A few chops should quickly get me more troops than him though, and then I can stop having to worry about my own territory.

[Tankra]

I haven't done much C&D recently, but will soon update on that cause it might be useful. Last turn, though, thestick brought his Worker on his plains hill sheep tile, and I had assumed he was getting Animal Husbandry. Upon seeing t20, I realized this wasn't the case:



He's somehow building a mine on those Sheep. I guess in a way it makes sense, cause he doesn't have BW yet and has nothing to do with his Worker, but I can't help wondering if building a camp on his Ivory might be a better idea if he's really that desperate for something to do with his Worker.

Either way, my Warrior thankfully got no damage from attacking TS's Warrior last turn, and is ready for a promotion. I'm thinking of using him in a joint attack with my Dog Soldier to make sure that stupid Archer doesn't annoy me more than he should. Let's see how best to do that:




So, on t23 his Archer will be in one of the three squares in the green box, depending on how he wants to move it. I'm working on the assumption that he wants to get to the yellow-star forest/hill and camp it so as to make it difficult for me to work the deer adjacent to it. I should not let that happen, cause he'd get a 100% defensive bonus on that tile. However, he gets only 50% defense on a flat forest or a bare hill, which means it doesn't matter whether I try to kill him on either T23 or T24, juist so long as I do in fact kill him on one of the two. So my plan is to move my Warrior and my Dog Soldier in a stack together to the North as illustrated here. If on T23 he moves to the Southernmost forest, I'll attack him then. If he moves on one of the two Northern forest tiles, I'll move up and meet him on the hill. Hopefully, the combination of my Warrior and my Dog Soldier attacking him together will be enough to guarantee my success. Otherwise, I fear for the Native American empire.

[CFCJesterFool]

He's somehow building a mine on those Sheep. I guess in a way it makes sense, cause he doesn't have BW yet and has nothing to do with his Worker, but I can't help wondering if building a camp on his Ivory might be a better idea if he's really that desperate for something to do with his Worker

He is ramping production. Once mined, the PH sheep will have 1f5h yield (super mine). Smart really (I do it all the time when rushing). Safe to say he probably plans to keep being a pita. What's your production looking like?

[Tankra]

My production isn't great right now, considering I have no improved tiles, but I do have Bronze Working, two Workers and Slavery, all things he doesn't have. So even if he mines his sheep, I don't think he'll be able to keep up.

I find it interesting how he decided to deal with this situation, trying to sort of pre-emptively counter-rush me due to the threat of my Dog Soldiers. Unfortunately, it might just weaken both of us while our opponents get sweet expansion and Wonders.

[Ceiliazul]

I find it interesting how he decided to deal with this situation, trying to sort of pre-emptively counter-rush me due to the threat of my Dog Soldiers. Unfortunately, it might just weaken both of us while our opponents get sweet expansion and Wonders.

I think TheStick made a smart play, given your diplo with Nicolae. Speaking of which, did you confirm who the other early warrior choke/defene pair was? Sounds to me like you and TheStick are slightly delayed, and another pair of civs may also have slowed each other down. Question is, who got left alone...

Mining the sheep is a decent play if they aren't getting AH any time soon. However, I think TheStick has made some mistakes in tech choices and will still fall behind in the long run. Settle the copper toward Nicolae and consider TheStick's border a "backfill" direction... he is ottoman however, so it'll be important to actualize his downfall before gunpowder.

That said, if he leaves his archer in a guard position, it's probably time to call off the dogs.

[Tankra]

Ok, haven't updated in a while cause I've been sick, but there are some important things to report.

First of all, horses. I completed my research of Animal Husbandry, and lo and behold, the horses are in the North, right next to the copper.



Oh the tundra shall run red with blood before this game is done, I think.

Either way, that makes me wonder about the spot I've circled in red. Perhaps that should be my expansion, seeing as it has deer and fish in order to grow, and would secure me both the horses and the copper. Only problem with it is that it's on flatlands, but it is a very interesting site. I have a Warrior (finally) exploring the South, so I'll be able to make my choice soon, but I think a strategic northern expansion would be better in my case than a more economic (I assume) southern one. I just know there must be gold or gems to my South, placed there by a mapmaker who wants me and my opponents to suffer the consequences of choosing between strategic or economic resources.

I also know from a brief glance at the demographics and my graph with thestick that he has Bronze Working, and has had it for a few turns now. This means that he's aware of the copper, and might even attempt to settle where his Archer is right now! More likely he's just trying to deny me that spot, but he doesn't know about the horses.

In the meantime, I just got my 2nd Dog Soldier and simultaneously grew to size 2, with no second improved tile to work yet. I think I'll just go ahead and whip out another Dog Soldier if my people don't mind, though they very well might.

But yeah, I think Creative is putting me in a very good position to be able to take both the Horses and the Copper with one city very quickly. If I can do that and deny his horses with my Dogs, I think I could be in a very good position to lay waste to his empire.

And I'm sorry I've been slowing down the pace of my reporting, but it had somewhat taken a bit of my interest away having lost that farm and that Warrior all because I made the mistake of going too quickly for a second Worker. As soon as I saw that we were so close, I should have changed my plans to building a Warrior in between my two Workers. But alas, I have to learn from my mistakes and not beat myself up or lose interest. The important thing is to minimize the mistakes.

So, what do you guys think of settling in the red circle? Too risky? Not as cool as the hills/plain spot beneath the copper? And if I am correct in my assumption that there are economic resources to my south, should I go there instead and forget about inflicting pain on thestick? He *has* gotten on my bad side, and revenge would be quite delicious.

[Tankra]

That said, if he leaves his archer in a guard position, it's probably time to call off the dogs.

Oh, and Ceil, this isn't really a problem because the only tile that he could use to guard me from entering his place is a bare flatlands, so I don't think it's much of a problem for me to get through.