[68] Miguelito's famous last words, and Amicalola's sighs

[Amicalola]

decided to run past Commodore's scout. If he camps our banana forest we do the same for him. In which case he delays our worker by 2 turns and we his by 1. So . It's always war but not zero sum, and I suppose Comm has a sense for that.

Yeah, I think that's probably fine. I have a vague recollection that Goethe is a poet, but what's our naming theme? 

I missed your other post, I'm sorry. I hate Yuris' pick, but I'm curious how Commodore is getting the second promo on his dogs? Or are you including C1 in that. And then yeah, Thoth's pick is obviously scary and probably the best. I wonder if there is any way to nerf praetorians slightly, while still keeping their flavour as uber-swords. Maybe a cost increase? I know they're probably not going to win a game with a conquest most of the time, because they're so slow, but at worst they're still a get-out-of-jail free until the medieval era, or even renaissance.

As far as AGG Rome, your plan might be the only one we've got. I'm not sure what the counterplay is to that, particularly if they can get guaranteed early iron.

[Ginger()]

I look forward to how your team plans to manage this pair of neighbors while the food is tantalizingly on the other side

[Miguelito]

I look forward to how your team plans to manage this pair of neighbors while the food is tantalizingly on the other side

Well, we hope that the food is poisoned, and we come out laughing despite empty stomachs. Both sound manageable if we make it to MC and ge the opportunity to whip a round of Tatara forges. Will Comm let us though?

Yeah, I think that's probably fine. I have a vague recollection that Goethe is a poet, but what's our naming theme? 

I missed your other post, I'm sorry. I hate Yuris' pick, but I'm curious how Commodore is getting the second promo on his dogs? Or are you including C1 in that. And then yeah, Thoth's pick is obviously scary and probably the best. I wonder if there is any way to nerf praetorians slightly, while still keeping their flavour as uber-swords. Maybe a cost increase? I know they're probably not going to win a game with a conquest most of the time, because they're so slow, but at worst they're still a get-out-of-jail free until the medieval era, or even renaissance.

As far as AGG Rome, your plan might be the only one we've got. I'm not sure what the counterplay is to that, particularly if they can get guaranteed early iron.

Goethe is the poet around here . The theme is famous last words, and apparently the last thing he asked for is for someone to open the windows. But of course More Light also lends itself to further interpretation.
If you have any favourite last words be welcome, else I have looked randomly into this list: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Last_words and there's ample material.

So, CtH totem poles, which Comm gets for cheap, give +1XP to melee in CtH, and with Cha and barracks that's enough for 2 promotions on top of the C1. Maybe the worst thing about it is not the dogs but the spears, because chariots/horse archers would be an option to defend early against super dogs, but if his spears get formation (?) out of the gate that makes it hard. Just have to see if we can survive on just axes all the way to catapult. Probably what has to happen for that is for Comm to focus on yuri -  but if bowman are good for anything it's dogs axtually. Ugh.

Is picking Rome too much on the nose to be fun? As for how to nerf praets, a cost increase as you said seems sensible, or what happens if you give them -1 or -2 first strikes?

I finally came around to setting up the spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1...d=45355071
There's an elegant opening with a t28 2nd city, settler whipped for 2, and 3 warriors. It has the little flaw though that BW comes a turn too late for chopping . I fear not even KTB can really solve that, but I'll see after next turn. With 2 or 3 KTB sources on BW it might work. Otherwise the settler comes a turn later, but a bunch of overflow foodhammers go into the axe, so that could be worse.
Edit: If you actually go and check it, I just noticed I forgot to include the extra hammer on the city time ton copper once BW is in. Maybe that can be converted to some beakers via the oasis.
also we should uncover our neighbour's horses, so by checking yields we'll know whether they have AH. Rome first, then Commodore's, which can thankfully be seen without having to run around his city.

[Tarkeel]

Goethe is the poet around here . The theme is famous last words, and apparently the last thing he asked for is for someone to open the windows. But of course More Light also lends itself to further interpretation.
If you have any favourite last words be welcome, else I have looked randomly into this list: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Last_words and there's ample material.

This is fictitious ofcourse, but one of my favorites is "What a stupid scroll. It just says 'Hastur, Hastur, Hastur' all over."

[Amicalola]

I hadn't realised totem poles also gave XP to melee units as well as gunpowder - did that get changed at some point?! That makes it a way stronger pick than I thought. We might be in some trouble.

[Charriu]

Yes it got changed with 3.0 I think

[Miguelito]

Just when I wrote Amica that there's nothing to report I produce a massive moment:


I truly only wanted to have vision on the iron hill, to have a warning as early as possible when praets come rolling - and then I did the one thing that I did not want to do and stepped on their banana forest. Sadly I can't claim a misclick, it is just honest stupidity. The true genius lies in the fact that this happens just as they have their scout on our border   (need 2 turns to get to our banana forest though). I will move the scout off there next turn. The question is, will they camp ours just for 1 turn, or much longer? I was close to just disbanding the scout. If we're lucky they only set us back for a turn or so. If they block the wheat (which would be a logical thing to do) we have to send the worker to the corn and replan the whole micro (still probably just 1 turn setback, but ).

Interestingly they started with a slow workboat after growing to size 2. I had not really considered that option, but Commodore also seems to have gone for it:


Well we would be in less trouble now if we had done the same

[Amicalola]

Oop. Well, no one is going to aggressively return-choke us or send early units in this game, right? And definitely not Rome!

(although fwiw I think this might not end up being too big a deal. We will never know, but I think there's a decent chance that Thoth/Krill of Rome choke their slowest neighbour regardless of whether it is retaliatory)

[Miguelito]

Kroth (haven't found a better protmanteau) are peacefuller than expected!


It can't even be that they would try to block the corn, because they've seen the worker. Anyway, the plan was wheat all along.
I also moved away our scout. Surely that secures peaceful relations until samurais . It's also important to scout Comm's horse, thankfully we can do that even without having to walk behind his capital.



last in everything!



Interestingly, one of Comm or yuris did not take mining for their first tech. Either it's Comm rushing archery (but that's too early), or yuris also went fishing. I found that 3 strong food sources for the capital alone is too much, so I went with worker->warriors>settler->(axe/WB/...). What would be your guess Amica? Kroth and Comm both went WB first it appears. But they are just now starting the worker with 9 fh per turn, 10 after BW.

[Magic Science]

Kroth (haven't found a better protmanteau) are peacefuller than expected!

Thrill.