RBP3 [SPOILERS] - Zara of the Ottomans

[WarriorKnight]

Hmmm, bad luck on the Carthage Warrior. Not quite sure what to do but don't leave any units exposed.

Update on Krill attack:

Right now the biggest problem IMO is we don';t have anyone else contributing HAs. THe plan is a good one but even with our fairly robust production we can't get all the units in time by our own. If you can get even a single HA to us within then next 6-7 turns please do so.

Darrell

Can we switch production to HA's in Aquilonia? I'd happily help them raze the Hindu Holy city. Other than that, how many could we possibly spare to help them?

[WarriorKnight]

Carthage had ended turn, but their warrior was still where we want Koth. I moved them onto the appropriate tile and there is an archer on that tile (forested hill) so we can't lose it (well we can, but that would be incredably umlikely).

[Sockboy]

Worker micro for t104 complete.

The English are coming! They've got a HA scouting around to the SE between us and DIM. We should chat with DIM and see whether they've seen any other English units in the area. Also, we should co-ordinate our sentry net in that region, maybe moving our warrior out to cover any gaps down there. It's probably worth an email.

Nakor (of the Incans) caught me in game for a quick chat, mostly just complaining about city maintenance and not getting feudalism yet. Sounds like they're sending a few HAs (along the Aztec war road) over for the strike on Krill, so sounds like we're not the only one's sending units over (which is good). He also wondered if we're planning to settle the area between us, I suggested he send us an email about it as we hadn't really discussed it as a team. Looking at the land, it's pretty marginal, but there's one or two 'maybe' sites. It's probably best to discuss it with them since we're not really in a position to beat them in a settler race at present.

I also did a quick city count amongst our rivals. India is up to 7 cities already, I haven't founded our seventh yet due to the 12 hour rule between settler moves. I guess that explains how they've been keeping up with our production/food. Civstats suggests it was founded 2 turns ago. I haven't requested gold for research for this turn, as I'm not entirely sure how city maintenance will increase, hopefully there isn't much change, but probably best to get 50g or so this turn if we can.

After discussion with WK we've decided not to immediately revolt to buddhism, we'll wait out the three turns to get another HA out of Aquilonia before we revolt. Then we can either revolt to Buddhism or to Bureaucracy/Slavery (or both). Speaking of which, when do we need the Great Scientist? We can get it in 3 turns at present, or we can start growing a bit before we leave Caste Systems so we've got a bit more population to whip. I'd prefer to grow now, rather than pop the GS early and not use him. Thoughts?

[WarriorKnight]

And there was another one:



Koth is only costing us around 1gpt ATM. However, the other cities have increased with maintanence as well (or they've just increases with time) and now would be a good time for Zingara's and Ophir's courthouse (unfortunately, we need troops as well )

[WarriorKnight]

The English are coming! They've got a HA scouting around to the SE between us and DIM. We should chat with DIM and see whether they've seen any other English units in the area. Also, we should co-ordinate our sentry net in that region, maybe moving our warrior out to cover any gaps down there. It's probably worth an email.

Well, DIM cover the area East of the lake, so I'm assuming that if anything comes down that way, we'll know about it. Maybe a sentry on the hill overlooking the lake would be good (although currently we can't spare any units, warriors would die to barb axes)

Nakor (of the Incans) caught me in game for a quick chat, mostly just complaining about city maintenance and not getting feudalism yet. Sounds like they're sending a few HAs (along the Aztec war road) over for the strike on Krill, so sounds like we're not the only one's sending units over (which is good). He also wondered if we're planning to settle the area between us, I suggested he send us an email about it as we hadn't really discussed it as a team. Looking at the land, it's pretty marginal, but there's one or two 'maybe' sites. It's probably best to discuss it with them since we're not really in a position to beat them in a settler race at present.

Heh, Joao of the Incans complaining about the city maintanence? Didn't see that one coming, especially on Emperor. Why are they complaining about Feudalism? The denial bonus to PAT is worthwhile on the only tech we are currently up on them. Only thing I can think of is that they aren't committed to an anti-PAT alliance but just want to catch up in tech, which was practically a given anyway.

Anyway, I've sent them a message saying if they want a border agreement or not (we do want one as undisputed land in our (current) backlines would be excellent) and also a follow up on the NAP (which they also haven't responded yet).

I also did a quick city count amongst our rivals. India is up to 7 cities already, I haven't founded our seventh yet due to the 12 hour rule between settler moves. I guess that explains how they've been keeping up with our production/food. Civstats suggests it was founded 2 turns ago. I haven't requested gold for research for this turn, as I'm not entirely sure how city maintenance will increase, hopefully there isn't much change, but probably best to get 50g or so this turn if we can.

50 gold covers everything nicely. I've requested it off India, although we might want to get some spare change from somewhere. Shame we aren't the 1st to 7 cities, but at least we are the 2nd.

Speaking of which, when do we need the Great Scientist? We can get it in 3 turns at present, or we can start growing a bit before we leave Caste Systems so we've got a bit more population to whip. I'd prefer to grow now, rather than pop the GS early and not use him. Thoughts?

The GS is supposed to be bulbing education, which is a fair way down the road (T115ish). We can probably halt running scientists for the time being and just run 1 (or 2) scientists for the time being.

[WarriorKnight]

New Turn (T105):

Bad news:

Judging from the tech screen, looks like Carthage got paper, Babylon got Feudalism and Krill got DR (that last one I'm not sure about). Additionally, Inca founded 2 more cities last turn to bring their total up to 7.

Good news:

Uhhh, Carthage, England and Krill haven't declared yet? Seriously, it kinda looks grim with the 6 of them having a tech lead and Inca not even caring (much) about helping the rest of us. Additionally, they responded to the NAP but not to the border agreement, which makes me think they probably want to grab it themselves.

[Sockboy]

Hmm... Turn 105 Micro played.

Got an email from DIM saying that Civil Service will be delayed a turn as they didn't get quite as much bulbed as they had planned. That's a bit sad, it's a good thing that we changed our plans for revolting this turn. Machinery is coming in pretty soon too, so we'd best not delay getting to paper.

Bad news:

Continuing the trend of bad news for the turn, I spied a Krillian War Chariot promoted combat2 + formation(!) Within 2 moves of our nearest sentry. At combat 2 that thing matches a HA I think, we need to move our chariot away I tihnk. Either that or be poised to strike whilst he's slightly out of position (which we're not). We might need to change/cover our sentries to/with spears?

Oh I also requested 50g from Both India and the Incans but no one has paid up yet. I really don't want to dial down research yet if CS is coming in next turn.

[WarriorKnight]

Sent to DIM:

Hi DIM

It's been a while, so we'd just like to share some thoughts/idea's etc that we've thought of and would like to hear your opinion on them.

Firstly, we would like to create a road network so that our mighty civilizations can quickly reach each other, for whatever reason that would be for. Fortunately, the city of MB makes this project much less difficult. Looking at the map, it seems the only tile that you have to road in your borders is the grass hill 1SW of MB which connects to our borders. Is there a possibility that you could road this tile sometime soon? We can quickly finish the road on our side of the border to complete this marvel.

Secondly, we were wondering if you have a sentry net up on the E side of the lake between the lake and your city. Usually it wouldn't matter but we are paranoid of a English stack being sent our way and there is a route where it could slip by you by hugging the Eastern side of the lake. Given that you are much closer to the area of interest and have an active NAP with England, is it possible that you could watch the area between Singa Malta and the Great lake for PAT stacks? (BTW, thanks for the head's up on the English HA)

Finally, we'd like to share with you an idea that we've been thinking about recently. As you know, India is planning to send some HA's over to Egypt's Hindu holy city. What we are thinking about is that we quickly build an army while India is building/organising/sending the HA's and attack Egypt's border city at around about the same time in a co-ordinated strike (exact date unknown but we are guessing ~T115). While this is still in the planning stages, we think that, if we can pull it off, India's attack on Egypt is more likely to suceed or at least we can distract some troops from that front. While this would be very helpful, we aren't sure that we can make enough units in time for this plan to suceed. We would probably need some assistance from yourself and/or Inca to pull this off. What I am asking is are you willing to help us in this mission by contributing some units to us (most likely HA's since they can get to us quickly)?

Anyway, just wanted to hear your opinion on these things. We look forward to your response.

Enough Talking!
WarriorKnight of A4

We've talked about it and we are thinking of attacking Lancre at about the same time as India invade Krill. If we can pull this off, Krill will probably lose at least one city and maybe 2. It depends on the defenders at the time but given that Krill is in Pacifism ATM, he probably isn't focusing much on defenders right now. Wonder how much he'll have in 10 turns?

[Sockboy]

Ok been looking at the micro for the next 15/20 turns. I'll attach my workings.

I think we won't be in a position to strike at Krill until T117. By that time we can have 7LB or Cats, 1 Spear and 5 Macemen (on the copper tile), ready to move on t118 (the spear and 4 of the 5 maces will be promoted). If we are happy to strip the defences of Zingara (it will be at size 8 so can whip some defenders if needed), then we'll have 16 units by my count (not counting a pair of combat workers). We might be able to get a few more units by whipping into the ground, but I thought we'd save some pop so we can start whipping knights once they come in (I'm assuming around t118ish). This also assumes we have Machinery on t109, if it gets delayed any further then we'll have less maces (but more other units). Aquilonia's production will be quite scary by this stage (40+ hammers per turn) and should be able to get a few(1/2) HAs/Knights to the front in time to matter.

Make of that what you will, I think we'll be a little short of units to take the city, but if Carthage can provide 4/5 HAs then we should be in pretty good shape I think. We need to determine what split of LBs and Catapults we want, I'm thinking 5 Cats and 2 LBs. Biggest concern is Krill will probably have walls and longbows (on a hill), and we'll be (mostly) unpromoted. Hopefully his cats will all be cowering in his Holy City.

For those interested next settler looks like it'll be finished around t115, settling on T118, although I'm not sure where the garrison unit for the city will come from yet (probably Aquilonia will build one and we'll shuffle the units around).

In game, there's a barb warrior approaching Ophir from the W. Barb hunter is healing in Cimmeria for the moment but should be able to wander over and take it out next turn, Barb Hunter won't be at full strength but should be around 3health with shock. Should be enough to take out a warrior.

[WarriorKnight]

Ok been looking at the micro for the next 15/20 turns. I'll attach my workings.

Nice work as always Only problem that I forsee ATM is that most of our units won't have a barracks to benefit from, maybe not a huge problem but something to keep in mind.

I think we won't be in a position to strike at Krill until T117. By that time we can have 7LB or Cats, 1 Spear and 5 Macemen (on the copper tile), ready to move on t118 (the spear and 4 of the 5 maces will be promoted). If we are happy to strip the defences of Zingara (it will be at size 8 so can whip some defenders if needed), then we'll have 16 units by my count (not counting a pair of combat workers).

Stripping the defenses is something I'm not sure about yet. Let's decide when we get closer to T117.

We might be able to get a few more units by whipping into the ground, but I thought we'd save some pop so we can start whipping knights once they come in (I'm assuming around t118ish).

Good idea. I think we'll have Guilds by then, but I'm not 100% sure yet.

This also assumes we have Machinery on t109, if it gets delayed any further then we'll have less maces (but more other units).

Machinery ETA is T110

Still, more cats is a good thing, so let's have some more of them.

Aquilonia's production will be quite scary by this stage (40+ hammers per turn) and should be able to get a few(1/2) HAs/Knights to the front in time to matter.

Excellent :fireball:

Make of that what you will, I think we'll be a little short of units to take the city, but if Carthage can provide 4/5 HAs then we should be in pretty good shape I think.

You mean DIM? Like Carthage would help us.

Since we (are trying to) attack at the same time as India, I think we might be able to get this to work. Peg thought that if India simultaneously threaten the Hindu holy city, he might abandon Lancre (although never assume anything).

We need to determine what split of LBs and Catapults we want, I'm thinking 5 Cats and 2 LBs. Biggest concern is Krill will probably have walls and longbows (on a hill), and we'll be (mostly) unpromoted. Hopefully his cats will all be cowering in his Holy City.

I think that's a good split, maybe 6 cats and 1 LB (the Longbow will only be used to defend after we win)

For those interested next settler looks like it'll be finished around t115, settling on T118, although I'm not sure where the garrison unit for the city will come from yet (probably Aquilonia will build one and we'll shuffle the units around).

Well, we are currently focusing on Lancre, so the delay on the settler is understandable.

In game, there's a barb warrior approaching Ophir from the W. Barb hunter is healing in Cimmeria for the moment but should be able to wander over and take it out next turn, Barb Hunter won't be at full strength but should be around 3health with shock. Should be enough to take out a warrior.

Bit of a risk but I think we'll have good odds.