PB83: Pindicator builds a Trade Empire: Hannibal of Portugal

[Mjmd]

Ah ya then I would just go spears and skip the HBR research. IF IF you want a military tech I would think construction would be way to go.

[pindicator]

026

I already shared this with Mjmd and NobleHelium yesterday, but the power spike we saw out of Dreylin was a lot more than just Horseback Riding:




That's 20k worth of power.  In other words, he timed 2 axes to finish the same time he completed HBR.  To me this is more alarming than if he had just made a couple axes over the last few turns because it shows intent to deceive.  So yeah, more evidence that Dreylin may be coming for us.

With that in mind, I sent him a Pig for Corn deal.  Closest thing we have to Fish-for-Fish.  And how does he respond?  He declares war and moves the archer in!  He must have thought that I was sending the Pig for Corn out of weakness?  (I mean, in a sense yes, but not like "we settled an undefended city on your border" weak.)  In the end we have enforced peace with Dreylin through t35 - which is huge because if you recall we get the copper hooked up on t33.  That means warriors will be whipped and/or chopped into spears.

The horses are now showing as improved this turn.  Not hooked up yet, but I'm sure that will be next turn.

In better news, we got a big piece of info in the west when we beat Dreylin to a hut out there.  It looks like we have no competition for anything that direction for a long ways:




So we treat this game like a duel with Dreylin and feel confident that we have a lot better land to settle into than he will.  It's not great, but it's a gameplan.

[NobleHelium]

Well there's no substantive evidence that our land is better or bigger than Dreylin's, that's just an assumption based upon the fact that he seems to be rushing us. He might just be rushing us because we're close and he has an easily accessible UU.

[pindicator]

029

Another hut found out west. So glad Dreylin didn't beat us to all of them:




This one is for 95g. I immediately switched us over to Construction and turned on the science. 15-16 turns to complete, and if we can land it before we get invaded then we probably stop any invasion dead.

Have found nobody out west, nobody but Dreylin. Dreylin continues to sink EP into us each turn so he hasn't found anybody else either. I'm starting to think that our winning strategy is to just hold against Dreylin in the east and expand to fill the entire west. So I'm being extra safe now: Pure Talent hasn't started its granary yet but instead had its chop go into another archer. Next turn we'll put a turn into walls there so we're ready to double whip them if need be. I would love to tech Currency now but Construction is the safe play.

Looking at power, it's possible Dreylin is just building units to be extra safe himself:




Not exactly the unit combination that screams invasion. Also, the horse is improved but still not hooked up.

In any case, settler starts in the capital next turn, whips on 31, settles on 32, and the copper is improved and hooked up on 33. I'm probably going to set Inspired Learning to another settler when it regrows to size 6 if I don't see any invasion force from Dreylin by then. Though we'll need more workers too.

[Mjmd]

I would be shocked if someone (s) isn't somewhere over there. But it is a random map. Still a two person continent doesn't sound likely (although I haven't run this modified script).

Is copper city still going to be SE of it? Just curious for dot mapping the rest of that. Right now I'm thinking production city NW of the grassland cow and then a really good commerce city 1NW of the corn. It is a long reach to that pig, but maybe that goes before (although if we are at war with Dreylin planting a far away city that  someone else might think is "theres" is maybe not a good idea). So maybe it is the corn plains cow city before that.

Should also probably have a discussion on which cities are production vs commerce. Right now of current cities only the original two I think should be commerce cities.

[pindicator]

Going to plant it north of the copper. This was needed to get the copper hooked up on t33 - going with SE of the copper would have caused an extra turn delay because it required an additional road. Noble also pointed out that N of the copper is the better production spot.

I'll post a wide screenshot next update so we can do some city planning. I'm hoping that maybe Dreylin is just building more military than necessary and I can whip a couple more settlers out soon.

[NobleHelium]

Right now I see the next cities as wheat/gold, corn/cow and then corn/coastal cow, in that order. For the last one it can be 1N of the peak, the tile that's a knight's move from both the corn and the coastal cow. That utilizes the land most efficiently IMO. Stone could be next after that, if we want it.

[pindicator]

030

Finding elephants out west is huge:




Also, Dreylin has met someone else. No EP into this last turn

[pindicator]

031

Our position just got a whole lot more complicated:




That's Krill (Washington of N.A.) in the jungle

EDIT: Krill went Iron Working first

Oh, and Dreylin has finally hooked up the horse. We whipped our settler, so can whip spears in 2t if need be.

[Mjmd]

I was already kind of on get the hill pig and this does not change my mind. Where to settle is a more interesting question and what to settle on the way. It was too much to hope we had no one the other direction. Luckily its not like dry jungled rice is that attractive. If Krill does end up getting the hill pig I would assume he would settle south of it and then you could settle SE of corn to help claim that western fish.

Again, up to you but this is how I would do builds.

Fall - after gran produce settler for gold spot 4>2 whip. Overflow / just keep producing chariots for barb coverage both west and north. After first settler probably worker > another settler.
Reckoning - keeps cow and produce settlers to go west. Overflow spears although maybe an axe to deal with barb spears whenever you think those will start appearing. Edit: honestly new city could just build gran working the copper (or get enough in for a 1 pop whip) so maybe can at least take the rice for growth turns.
Leap - produce spears and archers (you can determine if should be two pop whipping spears or if can fit a barracks whip in ect, but kind of just like more spears). Maybe could fit in a worker (something like two pop whip a spear overflow spear, then next two pop whip a worker if determined you don't need more military. I would keep an archer here.
Talent - with the mine should be able to two pop whip spear > finish spear pretty easily. Repeat. Produce archers in between so can set up next two pop spear whip.Edit: this one maybe should get a barracks, but again like spears until determine if Dreylin is going after us, someone else, or no one.