[Spoilers] Pindicator's Nice Thread

[pindicator]

070

I do not understand Gavagai here:




Side note: Antium is a disgusting city. Screw you, random number generator.

You don't decline the peace unless you want to attack now. However, with only 2 praets to his name (one popped up in Antium end of last turn) I don't see how he makes any progress; he needs time to build up. I'm just going to continue whipping axes and Skirmishers now.

Unless you allow me to put on my stereotypical Russian hat for a moment and then the thinking is you don't accept what your enemy offers you precisely because it was what your enemy wants. I hope I can ask Gavagai after why he didn't think 10 turns of free build-up and then striking me with Praets was not better than this? Because I think he might be doing me a favor here by not accepting; I was ready to go back into builder mode mentally and now I'm forced to abandon silly ideas like "building settlers" and "scouting east".

I decided against teching Masonry. Without Stone I don't know if I can justify walls until I have a number of units in a city. Teching Agriculture to hook up the wheat when borders pop in Rescue Rangers and then we'll save for HBR after. If things start looking grim I'll tech Masonry instead.

Oh, mentally I've been thinking "4 strength + 50% for defending on a hill = 8 strength". So that's why I hadn't retreated my Skirmishers back. Little math error there, whoops.

Edit: Also, with 2 precious metals and a religion, why in the world are you not expanding Gavagai? Use those praets to keep anyone from harassing you. Or go conquer the easy-to-kill barbarian city to your east. Going after me is literally the most difficult path for expansion here.

[pindicator]

073

Right as I had resigned to being stuck on the defensive, things get more interesting:




Also, kicking myself for pulling back with the skirmisher, onto the forested hill. I should have made him push me back first and saved a few more turns. Now I'm kicking myself for not having built that chariot. When I saw the praets I nixed any chariot plans thinking they would be useless.

The idea now is to cut his copper after he hooks it up: borders at Rescue Rangers pop in 4 turns. I'll have 2 workers on the ice mine and 2 more on the wheat farm at that time. I'll stack up units 2NE of the copper and then on t80 or 81 will move 2 workers to road beside his copper and move up my stack.

Or I could just move the 2 axes up now but if I lose those then I have nothing behind to stop praets from rampaging my cities. Either way, I want to give Gav a turn to react to whatever Commodore has done before I move anything forward.




The other thing this could do is let me develop a bit more and just stay on Gav's border. The risk of a 4-stack of Praetorians showing up on my doorstep has lessened a little and so I'm still going to try and grow. The chop went into MLP's lighthouse and we will whip that to completion next turn. Thundercats is starting a worker, despite what the picture shows, which will be how it works off the rest of its whip anger. The capital is building a settler to found my last filler spot and work cottages.

As I'm writing this up, I decided to risk development more and so David the Gnome is also starting a worker, leaving it's axe unfinished.

Maybe I should have stuck to the plan of getting a work boat out of Thundercats instead of more units, but I would have felt silly if I would have died to a 4-stack of Praets while investing in exploring distant shores.

[pindicator]

I didn't explain myself with the copper very well, but I'm wondering why he has been roading that tile if he has Iron already hooked up. My guess is he's either going for Metal Casting and wanting to build Colossus, or he's going to put a city by the copper and wants to work the yield. If he improves it I'll know it's Metal Casting and if I see a settler it's going to be right where I'm putting all my units.

[pindicator]

074

I'm glad I waited, because Gav did indeed make a move:




This looks very much like he wants to settle the Sheep/Copper as his 4th city. But if you wanted to settle in my direction - again - why not take the peace? Perhaps he suspected I would have settled there? That would have been madness, settling up on a CRE civ. (Did way too much of that in my previous game and look at what it got me there...) Could there be a mini stack of Praets a turn behind, timed to get there as the road finishes? I checked the power graph: only 3 praets built, and I know one was in Antium not too long ago. At least it is very easy to see Praets on the power graph.

Also: what is Commodore doing?

With his Praet wounded like it was the in-game odds showed up as exactly a 50/50 shot to win. Of course I'm going to take those odds, especially with a second axe to clean up. I doubt the warrior would ever defend unless I got severely unlucky on my first attack.




Killed my first Praetorian

I moved the southern skirmisher up a tile to cover, just in case I need to retaliate against another praet. But I think with one axe being able to promote I should be fine. I don't think I will move forward. He can still whip out another praet and I don't yet have enough to punch through that.

Turned on my research for Writing. MLP whipped out its Lighthouse; I had considered holding off the whip and saving it for something bigger, but the city really does need that Lighthouse in order to have any decent growth. You won't see me whip the lighthouse in my other cities though - both of them have multiple food sources and so it isn't as pressing there. Well, maybe at Thundercats.

[Tarkeel]

At least it is very easy to see Praets on the power graph.

You would think so, but SD did a neat trick in PB62 where he built chariots in pairs instead of praets.

[pindicator]

If I wasn't camping the horses I could be scared of this. (And if the early strategic resources weren't so obviously balanced for each player then I wouldn't be as certain as I am that there won't be chariots.)

Edit: Though that is a pretty neat trick.

[pindicator]

075

Gav offered peace. I thought about it, but refused. With what he's shown me I think he's just going to put a city down in my face and use CRE to push back borders, making an invasion easier. So my goal is to get a library down in Rescue Rangers and get my way on to pushing 3rd ring borders there. I still don't plan on invading and I'd hate to turn this into a situation where I force him to make the "right play" by invading with Praetorians, but I also don't want to give him any room to maneuver on his eastern border for as long as that is possible. EDIT: Also, keeping the horse unhooked will mean I don't have to worry about spears.

Big Stitch Time. I'll try to do these every 25 turns for this game. They make planning so much easier.




EDIT: Gav should put cities SE of the Fish and another on the plains hill north of the horse. He'd be able to push my skirmishers back from both spots to get them and then could get access to all the resources in the area. Plus we'd have a good border. Perhaps this is just what I want him to do, so I'll try to make settling in the center as difficult as possible.

[pindicator]

077

Borders popped at Rescue Rangers




3 workers to the mine the ice silver; 2 workers to farm the wheat.

Looks like 2 more praetorians from Gavagai. That would bring him up to 4.

Also, someone has Masonry. Great Lighthouse? I have to admit I was thinking about it, but I'm not sure it's worth 200h for me and this location. Maybe if I knew I was expanding east.

Edit: And I am very excited about my first 4c hamlet

[pindicator]

078

Great Lighthouse was built. Only Superdeath and Commodore had point gains over 16 and I think the Top 5 City / Wonder screen would tell me if it was Commodore. So I'm going to say Superdeath. Either way, good on him.

Had a very nice surprise when I settled The Smurfs. Two nice surprises, actually.




The truffles bonus stays on the city tile! I had never settled on a truffles tile before, but it kind of goes against the settling-on-resource rule where it only gives a bonus if the unimproved yield is 3f or more. But I guess the Truffles is just an added extra for that tile regardless: so I have a 3f AND 2c city center here.

The Smurfs only exists to work the silver right now. It's going to likely slow-build its granary while it just works that ice mine. Later on its going to work cottage tiles for neighboring cities and maybe even be used for a great person. Depends on if the silver stays with Smurfs or goes back to Rescue Rangers. But I'm going to build a granary and a library here and nothing else for the rest of the game.

And it actually made me money too! Breakeven is still 50%.

Writing came in and I forgot to offer anybody Open Borders. But I don't think I have any trade routes with my neighbors anyway. I'm hoping to whip out a galley from My Little Pony when it reaches size 4, but I fear I might be whipping axes. Gavagai is above me in power and just whipped his capital last turn... I was really considering offering him peace here. Especially because I can get to Horseback Riding in 10 turns and then be able to field something to somewhat go up against his Praetorians. I'm not sold on HBR though; horse archers only make sense if I can get them with 5xp out of the gate so I can grab Shock straight away. So maybe I'll go for Math and aim for catapults? Or maybe slip in Masonry and then try to get Metal Casting? In any case, I'm going to save gold a few turns first.

Right now I only have 4 axes, but I'm going to whip up another round here. Also, all my workers are going to be chopping here so I will be able to get a quick influx of axes and skirmishers if it really is necessary. I'm also debating: when do I offer Gav peace? Right now I'm thinking I offer it to him as soon as he shows a unit to chase away one of my skirmishers. But if I can get that infrastructure down, those barracks and stables, during the enforced peace? So maybe I need to just offer him peace in a couple turns anyway and try to get it all set up within the 10-turn window.

[pindicator]

Logged back in and offered Gav peace. Was thinking on that all night, and I think I have to do it now rather than wait for a couple reasons. First, if he's whipping praetorians to attack out then I want to get ahead of him committing to an attack (if it isn't too late already). Second, I have some builds finishing end of turn and this will help me decide what to go for next. If Gavagai takes the peace then I build barracks and prep for horse archers in 10 turns. If he doesn't take the peace then I whip out axes and skirmishers now.