[PB59] Lazteuq worries for the endangered lurker species

[Lazteuq]

Turn 69:
Charriu put his warrior on the same tile as my axe. If I tried to declare war and move into his borders, I'd get teleported back, and he would get another turn of reaction time. I made a big mistake by not declaring war last turn. I decided to make the best of the situation by moving 1NW and declaring war:

I founded the cities of Steller and Bottlenose this turn:

The barb axe might force me to whip an axe, but it could be worse.
In the north, one of my warriors is on GKC's border, forcing him to protect a worker.

I decided not to commit Masonry, because I doubt I'll get the 140 beakers of value back with failgold. This might be a mistake, it all depends on when the mids get built.

I'm up to 11th place in food, but my economy is the worst in the world. Being FIN or PRO would help a lot right now.

[Lazteuq]

Charriu whipped his city, and I moved my axe 1 tile south.
I think he most likely built an axeman. In that case, we'll probably just have a standoff and I'll use my axe for area denial.
On the other hand, he might have whipped a chariot. In that case, he'll probably attack my axe. If he gets lucky, the two warriors nearby will be able to finish off my axe. If he gets unlucky, my axe will be able to promote heal.

The threat of him building a chariot is why I didn't move West onto the flatland. Even with the river crossing penalty, he would have very good odds. I'd really like to be threatening his other cities, but it doesn't look possible.

[Lazteuq]

Turn 71:
Charriu whipped an axe, so I moved to the flatland 2N of his city Nobilia. If he has a chariot hiding in the fog, I'm screwed. If not, I might get to force a second whip from him.


I'm trying to get more workers built and my first cottages are finally online. Up to +11pgt at 0%, but it will get worse.

I'll ease up on the city founding rate a little bit.

GKC's power is pretty high, I'm a bit concerned about him threatening my new cities of Steller and Bowhead. I'm moving a warrior to watch the peninsula so I have a few turns of warning.

[Lazteuq]

Turn 73
Charriu did not bring a chariot, but he did bring a second axe with a couple warriors. I decided to keep pushing deeper into his territory through the forests and cause more trouble.

I wonder if he'll defend that worker, or just move away.
I started thinking about an exit strategy for this war. All I wanted to achieve was some disruption. I don't want to turn Charriu into a forever enemy, although it might already be too late for that. I'll probably offer no-strings-attached peace in 1 or 2 more turns.
I think Charriu doesn't have horse connected yet, because I would expect to see a chariot by now.

I sent GKC a fish for fish. I realize its weird to do that when I stole a worker from him only 20ish turns ago, but whatever. I'm just trying to signal peaceful intent. We seem to be expanding our empires at similar rates and are pretty evenly matched in most demographics.

Not much has changed on the home front. I'm working on two new settlers, one for the floodplains and I'm not sure yet where to put the other one. Maybe it's time to settle on the GKC isthmus, but the land there isn't very impressive.
I'm going ahead with the plan to overflow Manatee's granary whip to produce 2 warriors for cheap happiness, and only afterwards connect the trade route.

[Lazteuq]

Turn 75:
Last turn, I moved toward Charriu's capitol, but he defensively moved an axe to the Ivory tile. The capitol is on a hill with +40%, so I decided to turn around instead of pushing forward. I moved back toward Nobilia into the forest Charriu's axe had just vacated. I expected this to force him to whip another unit. I guess he didn't have time to whip so Nobilia had nothing but a warrior in it!

I don't want to develop an unfortunate reputation like Superdeath, but...99.54% odds! How could I not take a chance against such a poorly defended city? I'd expect anyone to do the same to me. I briefly considered not attacking in the interest of being friendly, but that thought didn't stop me for long.

I think I actually caught him by surprise, I guess he expected me to keep moving south/west toward his capitol. You could call this an accidental feint I guess. My axe is left on 3.7/5 hp, so I expect Charriu to kill it as revenge.

GKC has a warrior stationed on our isthmus, I guess he's thinking along the same defensive lines as me.

Somebody already got their first scientist and the Good Lighthouse was built a few turns ago. I still have research turned off, but I might push through Meditation soon.
I have no idea why Charriu's capitol is size 7. In general, I don't get why some players have cities above 6 already. Then again, my economy is garbage so I have no room to talk.

[Lewwyn]

I have to admit I'm surprised that your poke has been as successful as it has been. 

[Lazteuq]

I'm surprised too! I thought turn 70ish was too late and I'd missed my chance for a lone axeman to be a real threat. Considering the GKC workersteal as well, I feel like I've been blessed by extraordinary luck this game. Stay tuned to find out how I manage to squander it in the next 50 turns!

I'm realizing now that razing a city doesn't directly help me much: It might pay off in the future, but right now all I got is 40 gold and an angry neighbor. Maybe in the future Mjmd and I will split Charriu. Too early to say.
I forgot to mention that 40 capture gold is pretty nice, it brings me about 6% closer to Monarchy.

[Lazteuq]

Turn 76: Charriu killed my axe and I accepted his 10turn peace offer. I think I'll try to position a couple units near the border in 10 turns. He will surely be wanting to settle that land, so I'll try to delay his worker and settler movements.

A barb spearman has appeared in the west, but I have axes to intercept him, so it's not a problem. I'll found the floodplains city next turn and the copper+spice city south of the capitol in 4 turns.
I've got 4 more workers coming through the pipeline, which will bring the total to 12. I'll try to have 15+ farms running before Serfdom.
There are 3 more city sites that I want to settle soon. The rest will be pretty lame filler cities.

I just realized that Immortals get defensive bonuses, so they have a lot more lifespan than ordinary chariots. I should probably build some.
screenshot:

[Lazteuq]

Turn 78.
I'm realizing I'll have a trade route problem. Before Monarchy, I think I need Sailing for the island trade routes and access to Fur. It makes sense anyways since 7 out of my expected 10 cities are coastal. Also I'm likely to be working a questionably large number of coast tiles just for the commerce. So Sailing it is then. I'll have it in 4 turns and probably settle the fur island city in about 8 turns. I should have planned this earlier.

I was forced to panic whip an Immortal because a barb axe is threatening Manatee. I really should have set up my defenders better.

Other than the panic defense and the galley+settler, I think it's time to stop whipping. I don't desperately need military, workers, or settlers right now. I do desperately need commerce. I'm considering swapping out of Slavery for 5 turns just to save upkeep costs. Right now it would only save 2gpt, but even that might be worth trying. Here's the financial advisor:

That's what it looks like when an inexperienced SPI/AGG tries to keep up with the IMP leaders: I do have the same number of cities as them (or even more), but I sacrificed all economy to do it. Probably not worth it...
I think next turn will be the rock bottom, with about +4bpt at breakeven.

While my economic situation is getting pretty depressing, I feel militarily secure. I'm about even with all my neighbors in power and I think I'll have about 5 turns of warning if an attack is coming. I don't think GKC is planning to attack, he hasn't even settled in my direction very much yet. Charriu has to recover from the damage I dealt (and presumably something happened with Ramk too).

[Lazteuq]

Turn 82.
A few exciting developments:
Having the gold connected sped up Sailing by a turn. Getting sailing created new trade routes with Mjmd, which give +6 commerce total! One of those is even a +3c traderoute, I'm assuming that's because he already has an island city. I feel kinda dumb for not realizing how good Sailing would be.
I discovered that the fur island does have seafood, so the city will actually be able to grow decently fast. I'd already built a workboat without knowing about the clams, because I wanted to explore anyways. I guess I'll build another workboat now.

I did commit to Writing. I think even a single library will pay off in the time before Monarchy, and two definitely will. I don't have much other stuff to build anyways. My plan of beelining Monarchy is gradually being dismantled, but that's OK.
After writing, I'll go back to saving gold again I guess. I'm really curious to see when Pyramids drop.

Miguelito is at war with Charriu, I don't know what to think about that.

GKC is settling up near our isthmus, but I'm not very concerned. That land is pretty terrible until I get Iron Working, which will be a long time.

I played some singleplayer and had a really good time with watermills and lumbermills. I think I'm going to leave all the non-riverside forests on the map so I can lumbermill them.