[Spoilers] Pindicator accepts his fate

[pindicator]

Okay, I'm actually kind of pissed. We have to settle a city to contest the center and a separate city to pick up a strategic resource but Nyles gets to do both with one city?

[Commodore]

Okay, I'm actually kind of pissed. We have to settle a city to contest the center and a separate city to pick up a strategic resource but Nyles gets to do both with one city?

I'm withholding judgement until we see if Karego also claims copper; hard to say.

On the plus side of the ledger, that's an extra 3 worker turns to hook the thing.

[pindicator]

Turn 033

That archer finishes at Karego-At in 2 turns. What if we just took it and marched it down right on top of that copper tile? What could Nyles do? Take the negative of the copper placement and turn it into a positive.



Borders popped at Karego-At, and we started camping the 1f3h deer. Nyles pulled his own warrior back in the north, and we can see from the border pop that the land seems to curve to the west right at Nyles' capital borders. More importantly, power graph shows that the tech Nyles pulled in 2 turns back was The Wheel. And I still have no sight on any worker trying to hook stuff up at or to his new city.

Don't want to forget about the south in all this. Here's a stitch of what I've uncovered so far:

End of turn we have Mining finishing, and the worker at Gont will complete. Archer done at Karego-At in 2 turns.

C&D

Nada for last turn.

[pindicator]

Turn 034

Here's why we built that road:



With mining finishing at the interturn, we moved and started that mine straight away. Bronze Working was started and will be done in 11 or 12 turns.

C&D

• Gawdzak built his 2nd city last turn, and on the interturn gained another population in the capital and teched something. With a 10 turn tech time, Animal Husbandry fits here.
  
• wetbandit built his 2nd city last turn, and on the interturn also gained another pop in his capital
  
• gsorel gained a pop in his capital

[pindicator]

Turn 035

So the question is...



Do we turn back or do we continue on?

C&D

• OT4E settled his 2nd city
  
• gsorel whipped a pop away at the end of last turn
  
• DTG teched ... something, and something very cheap considering it only took him 4 turns. Archery seems likely
  
• Elkad grew his capital to size 4. Don't see any indication he's started a settler at any point
  

[oledavy]

I would favor the peaceful route. You have a border you like, showing them goodwill may incline them to reciprocate and allow you both to peacefully expand into your backlines without worrying about conflict.

Your decision probably depends on what you think your win condition is. I feel like your leader/civ thrives in REXing environment, and to that end, securing your front and expanding east faster than your opponents can feels like the better move to me.

If you were to plant that archer on their copper, there would be no going back. Do you feel like you can deliver a knock-out punch?

[Commodore]

Do we turn back or do we continue on?

Depends on the response. Unlike davy, I'm pretty sure there is no win condition that doesn't start with "finish this duel efficiently". That said, if he's properly paranoid, he now has 3 turns to build a second warrior...

[pindicator]

Turn 036

I think efficiently is the key word here. If we have a neighbor who's jumping at every shadow then we're not going to take him early without a lot of investment. Or a really good quick strike. And both of those support me pulling the archer back:



Another reason to support retreating is that we need to rotate our warriors east. It's time to start roading towards the future 'horse city, and in case something comes from the east I want a warrior in place to help defend. So the archer stays in Karego-At, it's warrior garrison rotates to playing zone between the capital and Karego, and the last warrior will move to cover the worker as it starts roading east. As for workers, we finished the deer camp, dropping the worker build time to 7, and the 2nd worker quit it's mine to move to the capital. Need to start roading next turn in order to have roads built in time; the deer camper will finish that mine off in the upcoming turns.

C&D

• DTG: +1 pop
  
• Gawdzak: -1 pop (whipped)
  
• Borsche: +1 pop
  
• dcodea: +1 pop (2nd city planted). Elkad is the only one who hasn't planted now.
  
• wetbandit: tech. Another fast one. Uh, Fishing?
  

[Rowain]

It would be nice to sneak a unit between his cities to see who/what is on his western side.

Remembering PB27 Nyles is not a very peaceful neighbour.

[Mizar]

In chess, like in duels, there is a hard rule: never give up the initiative...