PB83: Pindicator builds a Trade Empire: Hannibal of Portugal

[pindicator]

I like all that. I've been seeing some one-pop whips from Dreylin lately but no more power bumps - which makes me think he's just being overly cautious for barbarians. Even has me second-guessing going for Construction right now.

[pindicator]

034

We've planted Unending Hunger on schedule back on t32, and this turn I'm whipping the spear at Pure Talent. Dreylin is moving up to settle in our face:




We have a choice for what to build next. The chop at Pure Talent comes in next turn, so that plus the overflow means we could 1-turn a granary, push culture hard with a library, go a middle route with a barracks (reminder: Krill gave barracks +1 culture in RtR). Or just pump units. Also: I just realized that I probably have gotten my chariot stuck, once Dreylin plants that city next turn.

Dreylin has double whipped 2 of the last 3 turns, and his power is continuing to increase:




I know there's at least 1 numid in there, probably two. Next turn I'll try sending Dreylin a peace offering. Pig for Pig or something like that.

[Mjmd]

I like him settling that city there, it has to steal a food from a developed city and will be hard for him to defend once you get cats.

I would do a granary unless you think you need another spear. Its going to be pretty hard to culturally take 1st ring long term. Short term culture it doesn't matter except for cultural defense, so walls would be better than a cultural building. But in any case a granary seems like the best long term unless you see a big power bump next turn and want another spear.

Hide the chariot N or NE of the dry wheat. Maybe he will forget about it and you can raze Fry. Unless you want to pillage the road, which may just be better, but kind of isn't a good signal along with pig for pig. Mind you settling a city there is pretty aggressive and he teched HBR sooooo ya..

[NobleHelium]

We do want second ring before he does so that we can hold that peak for visibility. It's important to be able to see into his city and stop him from seeing into ours. Visibility is key for war.

[Mjmd]

I'm more afraid of the city dying. Although granary is a nice middle ground. If Ping wants to whip a culture building afterwards its easier and if he needs to whip spears afterwards its easier.

[pindicator]

Well the big surprise is he didn't settle by the silk and didn't trap our chariot:




Forced peace is done after this turn, and yet there is only the single spear meant to chase our chariot away. So I chopped the granary, double whipped the worker, and moved the chariot SW-SE to make sure there was nothing in the fog (there wasn't).

Now get to decide a few more things:

• Intuitive Leap is giving up the cow & the corn after this turn, so it needs a lighthouse. But I think I might just overflow into an axe and then double whip the lighthouse. That will leave us with a garrison of 2 archers, 1 spear, 1 axe in Pure Talent which I think is more than suitable unless we see Dreylin's power continue to go up. PT can then go for a library to get that peak vision.
  
• Next potential settlers are out of Dead Reckoning (finish eot39) and Lioneye's Fall (eot42). I'm tempted to also triple whip a settler out of PT for the north coast (it can take the pig) just so we can start scouting that shore. Thing is we don't have enough workforce to push towards 2 cities at once, so settler+worker seems like a better choice.
  
• We are finding more food out west, so definitely want to push that way ASAP. Will put up an updated pic next time i post. Though I also would love to get that sheep-silver-fur spot online too.
  
• Archer that just finished in Lioneye's Fall will go to the wheat-gold spot to secure that and fogbust that area. With that in place then barbarians will only really be an issue from north of Lioneye. Also, we finished the road to connect LF this turn so it's building an axe and not an archer.
  

[Mjmd]

I don't mind the axe in dead reckoning to ward off barb spears, but I don't think you need axes vs Dreylin. At least not yet. Will want some to pair with cats for defense, but right now an archer or spear seems best out of leap.

With that spot I am now more inclined for a culture building afterwards, but more towards barracks again as kind of middle ground. Again, assuming power numbers stay low. Between worker availability, plus wanting to go west, plus not taking a food away at a key moment I do not like the idea of settling the coastal filler city (and I very much think of that spot as a filler city). Will also enable you to keep switching the corn back and forth so you don't have to do a lighthouse yet, which saves enough production for a spear and archer or whatever.

[pindicator]

036

Dreylin isn't really putting together much of a stack for a rush, so I'm going to call his a "pressure" by him:




Probably another numid and metal unit behind, from his power graph. Also, he teched Iron Working this last turn.

In any case, overflowed to the spear in IL. New worker from IL moved to chop the last forest at PT. PT will chop out an axe and then be ready to whip walls (if needed) in 3t when it reaches size 4. 2 archers, 2 spears, and an axe behind walls will hold out as long as they aren't outnumbered so I feel good there. Feel less good if he pushes past PT with his stack. But I'm really glad I went for construction now.

[Mjmd]

Assuming the chariot will also get stuffed in. You could dry whip something in IL if you feel you HAVE TO.

Not sure if its too late but I kind of like another spear instead of an axe specifically in case he decides to run past you could leave a spear back in IL or on the corn in case it is needed at PT. Two archers can hold off whatever melee he has fine atm. If he decides to go pillaging it might be a problem but you would need at least two axes for that and I think the threat of numids running around is more pressing. Could divert capital axe east instead of west or north as well.

[pindicator]

039

Dreylin had been leaving his numid on our border, making me cover my workers.  The archer was another unit coming up, looking like he might try to sit on our mine or something.




And then Noble pointed out to me that I could just kill the Numid.  So I did:




The two workers roaded and the spear inside of Pure Talent made the kill.  Also blocked the archer from advancing onto our hill by moving the axe over.  (63% odds to kill his archer, btw, but obviously didn't do that with his spear/axe combo right there.) I then sent him a straight peace offer.  We'll just have to see.

Settler for the gold-wheat location was whipped out of Dead Reckoning, as well as a worker out of Lioneye's Fall.  Both cities are set to overflow into axes, but that's more to deal with barbarians than Dreylin.  I'll probably switch DR to something else next turn, I don't like the idea of 2 axes.  Barbarians are coming next turn, though.

Found another hut out west:




Weird coastline, but it looks like there's land nestled between the mountains and the sea.  Just need boats to get to it.

And finally, we have graphs on Krill now: