[spoilers] Going Dutch: The Commodore Files

[spacetyrantxenu]

PB8 taught me that settling across a channel from a competent rival means you can't sufficiently reinforce and that the rival can bring as many units to do the job as are necessary. So if that's all the horses available we may well have to settle and hold them, but if plako is nearby I'd expect a fight over that land eventually. Unless plako is nicer to us than Serdoa was to me in that case.

[Commodore]

Well, damnably, we don't lack for competent rivals. Check out Dtay and us balefully glaring across the deserts at each other. Unfortunately, although river+hill is a good defensive position, that diagonal is going to be annoying to defend for a long long time. Meh.


If we can keep it, Death Masks is a fantastic city. The first choice, of course, is do we want to contest the two hills, get a snowball-boosting granary, or not die with confidence? Chop is about to come in, but it can be only barracks or granary or spear.


On the plus side, this competence concentration has good implications; Mack's definitely got this won, so we can just relax and have fun here.

[Mardoc]

barracks or granary or spear.

Well. Axe on a hill behind a river with fortification bonus and CI should actually win a fight against a chariot, right? Plus, he shouldn't be able to see the axe, so an attack would be going in blind. I'm never certain on vision rules, but we can't see his city tile, so he shouldn't be able to see ours.

Granary would, at best, turn +4 food into +8, after you farm a floodplain. Which you can't do until we can cover a worker, anyway. So for the moment, it's not nearly as much help as it will be later.

But culture, that would not only get us food, it would also give us security. And knowledge. And prevent Dtay from seeing weakness. And vision on his likely staging tiles, if he decides to push on us anyway.

[Whosit]

Dtay cannot currently see into the city, correct. If he gets control of those two hills, though, he can. Getting culture in the city first might make it start slower, but is probably the best tactical choice, and might be the safest choice long-term.

Vs. Chariot... it gets +100% vs Axes, right? Fortification +25% max, hill +25% max. Not sure if you can count on the river defense, though, if dtay wants to take an extra turn to bypass it.

[Commodore]

Yeah, I'm going with barracks, unless I see a chariot next turn (he *can* see in actually, thanks to that danged oasis tile). I think he's going to want to make this a border for a long time...long at how nicely defensible it is from his perspective.

[Whosit]

Ugh, you're right. I think I must have still been half asleep when I wrote that because I managed to forget that YOUR city is on a hill. And... I guess I never knew that an oasis tile blocks vision. That must have been what confused me.

[Krill]

dtay can see into that city. The city is on a hill.

[Commodore]

Rolling dem bones, barracks it is. My next objectives are to settle Changes in time to work the riverside gems, and Blood Rites in time to keep its first ring against Ursa Major (bad city, but still needed).

IW->Calendar->Currency, looks like.

[Commodore]

Blech. Yes that *is* a chariot underneath our warrior. I believe DoW port mechanics save us; worst come, Michael the worker will defend.

[Commodore]

Still watching for a while. Hopefully, Dtay has access to our graphs, because this soldiers graphic ought to give any sane man pause:

Also seen, MFG/CY are pretty okay, but who the heck is that top MFG?