Where to will Singaboy steer the Teutonic power?

[Singaboy]

Turn 17:
Who do we have here? Yet another barb horseman on the gates. However, I am no longer intimidated. In fact I still need to defeat one barbarian for that BW Eureka. And one does never mind some unit promotions.


In the image I indicated the my moves. I will bring the warrior (27 hp) back to the capital. At the same time, I suspect the horseman to move to the tile W of the slinger in an attempt to attack it. Hence I fortify my slinger there. I doubt the horseman can actually attack it. I will get another warrior done (good thing I did NOT swap to the builder). Depending on the horseman's action, I will attack it next turn.

As suggested, I am slowly pulling the scout SE to move beyond the mountain range into eastern regions to uncover more land and hopefully more city states. I suspect, that two players came from the west (TheArcheduke maybe from the western regions of Kilimanjaro). Archery research moves along nicely.

[Singaboy]

Turn 18:
Isn't it beautiful when the AI does exactly what you predict it would (unfortunately, we play MP here and I can't predict what those other humans are doing)
The situation: oledavy reveals himself with a slinger. Makes sense as Gorgo to try and defeat barbs. I have to be careful not to gift him unit kills for free here. However, if he walks into the barb nest with a mere slinger, that unit might be in deep trouble. In the image I indicated the path of my scout (this turn he moved already)

At the capital, the horseman did exactly what I thought it would do. With my slinger right in position and a new warrior produced, this doesn't look too good for the barb horseman.


First, in order to be able to use the new warrior, unfortunately, I need to pull out the injured warrior. I pull it into the hill forest next to the capital. There it is really safe to heal. Next, I get the slinger to attack at nice odds. It safely attacks and gets its promotion for next turn.
Then, it's the warrior's turn. Discipline (+5 strength vs barbs) really helps.


The final result after two attacks:
It doesn't look pretty for the poor horse. Please don't run off into the arms of Gorgo. That would be really cruel. I suspect, the horse might just attack the slinger and suicide itself. As the slinger gets promoted next turn anyway, it doesn't really matter. My plan is to move both slinger and warrior west towards the barb camp to finally smoke it out while the first warrior heals inside or outside the capital (in this case it makes no difference due to arithmetic)


As for the overall situation. My research will be swapped next turn to BW in order to avoid getting archery too early. The capital will grow to size three and will work two stones and the forest for a net production of 8. This will reduce the builder production to 6 turns total.
As I mentioned before, I will most likely go for a settler after that. With the builder improving both stones and the wheat, I have a potential production of 10 per turn. Unfortunately, any production boosts beyond that point will require some tile grabbing effort. For example, the horse to the west or the forest hill in the NE. Might need to use some gold for that.

The other debate is whether to settle west or east next (still have quite a few turns to think about that)

[Dreylin]

I bet it's oledavy who met Seoul; probably worth confirming on the Envoys. If he came from the N, then Archduke is probably W or SW (likely didn't dodge past the Kilimanjaro camp), but they're both kind-of close. If you can clear the W camp out then I'd recommend grabbing Kilimanjaro ASAP and then spreading NE up the river. The Mountain range SE of Hattusa looks great defensively ... plus Campus fodder.

[kjn]

Nice to see that the barb situation seems under control now!

[Singaboy]

@kjn, thanks mate for the kind comment. I guess playing AW really helped me with the finer details of warfare. Of course, some luck was needed too to escape a barbarian onslaught from turn 3 onward.

@Dreylin, that's my bet too. oledavy can't have come from anywhere else but the north (since the west is blocked) and he happily ran into Seoul. I tried to check the envoys but didn't see any details there. Maybe, I need to dig deeper for the information. The UI is really poor to help you with MM things.

My excel worksheet tells me that the builder will be done in 6 turns and then it takes 9 turns for the settler. Maybe I should get two quick slingers out after that with Agoge enabled (slingers would take a mere 2 turns), then go for another settler.
Unfortunately, the timing for a civic change from God King to Ilkum doesn't match this as I need 25 faith for the Pantheon (22 turns left). So, maybe I start another settler once the first settler is done, wait for the Pantheon to finish and then switch to both Agoge and Ilkum.

By the way, looking at Seoul, it does look pretty dry up there. Not too sure whether I would like that city state before others.

[Dreylin]

To see the Envoy summary, select the individual CS and then there's a bit that says "influenced by : #" it's not entirely obvious, but that's a button. Press it and there should be a bar graph showing everyone who has put in Envoys & how many.

[Singaboy]

Thanks again Dreylin I shall check it next turn, though I am 99% sure it must be oledavy. I am curious what he will do to move in against the injured barbs as there are two to choose from. I will do my best to prevent him from getting easy culture.

I was thinking about the correct time to insert the encampment. I want it for various reasons of course.
My suggested build order is:
builder - settler - settler (until Ilkum) - 2 slingers - finish settler and then go for the encampment. However, in order to get the encampment out fast, I would like to harvest the eastern stone (almost finishing 50% of the camp). there is a policy card for encampments. but it is beyond even Political Philosophy and not really attainable with my meager culture at this time. Hmm....so many options here for different combinations. As I said, it's like playing a puzzle.

[Singaboy]

Turn 19:
The situation gets very interesting. The barbarian horseman has obviously committed suicide against our slinger. This has given us the Eureka for Bronze Working
oledavy must have moved west towards the barb camp. He mustn't be allowed to take the fruits of all my hard work. I need to move on to the barb camp as soon as possible.
TheArchduke seems to be back from what I suppose is a dead end in the southeast. He seems stuck there below my city and the barb camp.

Archery is one turn away from completion, my city has finally grown to its current best size of 3.


I decide to move both warrior and slinger west. The slinger gets its promotion after a one turn move. And there is oledavy's slinger. He might still be unaware of the barb camp lurking behind the forest and hill.

There are a host of possibilities what could happen next. If oledavy moves onto the forest tile, he cuts me off reaching the camp next turn. I will then move onto the forest SW. It would mean he has two shots at the spear inside the camp (I do hope the spear is covering the camp). I doubt one shot would be sufficient to take out the spear. We need to remember its health when I had to leave it alone, being chased by the horseman.

If the spear is protecting the camp, and oledavy moves to attack, he has to think about it carefully

a). A slinger can take out the spear, but won't move onto the camp at the same turn. If he attacks the spear and gets it into the red or takes it out, I can then take the camp by myself.
b) Since I can take the spear out and defeat the camp at the same time, he can't afford not to attack too.

The only hope for oledavy is, either the spear isn't even there to cover the camp or he takes it out in one shot. There are of course, other possibilities. For example, there are more horsemen and they start to harass oledavy's weak slinger. Or, how about he gets distracted by the wounded scout, which he tries to take out (remember he might not even be aware of the camp)

Well, well, we shall know the very next turn.

In other news, I switch to BW ready in 7 turns due to my science rate of 6.1per turn and the Eureka. My city is working 2 stones and the forest making 8 ppt (production per turn). The builder should drop a turn due to this.
In the north, my scout gets into a traffic jam caused by a blocking barbarian scout. I do not want to bother about it and move east as fast as possible to uncover more city states. This is highly annoying.

[Dreylin]

Barring something like the Scout moving up next to him, I'd bet on oledavy moving onto the hill next turn. Why, because it's clearly a Nat Wonder boosted tile and he'll want to get the Eureka for finding the Nat Wonder (assuming lack of other Nat Wonder discovery). Also, if he thinks there's a chance your Warrior is chasing him, he knows you can't attack him on the Hill, but could on the Forest.

What's the tile picker choosing these days, and how many turns to the next tile?

[Singaboy]

Turn 20:
Unbelievable, I get the best outcome possible for the barb camp and oledavy. Apparently, the spear stepped up and oledavy ran off, giving me free access to the forest  

TheArchduke is trying to sneak through my territory to explore the east.



Ok, time for action, I move the warrior onto the forest. Free access to the camp. Next turn, either the spear will attack me or step back onto the camp. A mouse over indicates a decisive victory for me. I hope that camp is finally mine. Given the situation and the fact that my slinger can't join the action anyway, I move up the slinger next to the tile TheArchduke will end his scout turn next. I could have moved my heavily wounded warrior to block the access completely, but he might have had the chance to take out my warrior as he still suffers a -8 penalty. I just want to make it clear to him, that I don't condone such action at all.

And by the way, I can actually kill his scout next turn by moving the slinger SE and bomb it, then bring the warrior to attack too (then 47 health).
@ Dreylin, do you think it is worth to declare war and take out the scout if he dares to move next to my slinger? He shouldn't gain access to the east so easily.

Since Archduke clearly intends to scout the east, I need to speed up my own progress there. My scout is slowly making progress to enter that area to hopefully find another city state (potentially untouched).

Now, let's have a look at my city as requested. The city just claimed another tile and it was the wheat as indicated for the longest time.

Next, it would grab another mediocre stone tile, but that's understandable given the crappy other tiles in the second ring. However, I am thinking, I should pull in 2 tiles with gold. If I get that barb camp, I should have 160 gold next turn. Two tiles could cost me 130 gold. there are now two possibilities.

a) Either I grab the desert tile and the horses in the NW. First, I planned to use that desert tile for the encampment and I could lock it once I got BW. And with the horses, I could chose different builder actions to improve the hill stone, wheat and horses. This would also give some incentives to grow the city to 4 or 5.

b) The alternative is to grab two tiles in the East-NE grabbing the marshland and hilly forest. This would give an opportunity to get better production immediately.

Hmm, which is better?


As for the rest, everything is still according to plan, 4 turns for the builder, then settler, research BW then swap to get irrigation maybe or right away the path to writing.
I checked the empire scores and they are still the same. Then, checking trades with oledavy, I notice that he has spent around 80 gold the last turn. I guess he must have purchased a third ring tile for himself. Yet, he is short of 5 gold to mine. I have chosen god king since 5 turns, means I gained 5 additional gold. Why hasn't he chosen God King? Maybe he has met a faith city state and doesn't rely on this policy to gain his Pantheon. Not good.