RBPBEM FfH V [SPOILERS] Sareln of the Amurites

[Sareln]

Also note that Bronze Weapons won't come online until Bronze-Working (Research is set on it for now, will be relatively slow going for a while here as we work with the choke) so I should have time to get both road and mine up after I lay down the city, hence the wanting to get it on defensive terrain.

[Sareln]

Here is the current situation. I'll mark this up at some point. Important things to remember:

1. I need a road one north of the Cevedes. If I can get that road down, than the wolf rider will need to suffer the river penalty in order to do hit and fade's on the city.
   
2. Left Tredje an opportunity to make a mistake. If he tries to mob up his goblins as fast as possible, I'll be able to occupy the hills and force him to stick to the flat-land.
   

[Sareln]

Turn 56:

Tredje moves off the hill, looks like he'll be trying to use the northern jungles as a base to pillage my plantations. Annoying, but certainly not deadly. My warriors fill the space behind his departing archers. I toy with the idea of leaving one warrior out as a potential sacrifice to lure an archer onto the flatland, but decide against it for now. Settler finishes on the end of turn, warriors from here on out. Also, Serdoa's scout finds me this turn.

[Sareln]

[COLOR="Magenta"]Hi Serdoa!
You've found me at an awkward time, as you can see by the goblin archers busy running around my lands. I hope this map (and your neighbors) are treating you more kindly. If you carry on further south you should find both Odio's prison and a southern ocean. There are also quite a few lizards running around, so good luck to your scout on his future travels and hope to hear from you soon!
-Sareln-[/COLOR]

[Sareln]

[COLOR="Purple"]Hi Sareln,

the map is not very kind too me - the starting spot was alright but the land around me is without rivers, without food and without commerce :/ - but at least my neighbours are. Though I am not sure if that is only for fear of Pyre Zombies. Probably it is, at least if I go by the reactions of my neighbours which change their attitude between trying to be friendly and trying to be intimidating

I wish you all the best luck, keep on fighting

Kind regards,
Serdoa[/COLOR]

[Sareln]

Turn 57:

Here are the moves from today, some explanation after the pictures.

Outrider Warrior

Capital and Surroundings

The C1/F1 Warrior has survived two lizardman fights, I'm debating right now whether I want to expose him on the hill and then fortify him to heal or to wait in the square he's in to heal. I'm leaning towards using him to gather intel and if he manages to heal up he should be quite safe on that hill with a 100% (50% terrain, 30% F1, 20% C1) modifier initially, which grows to 125% with fortify. He'll also give me good forward intel on any more incoming clan units. I initially had to detour him south to find good defensive points at which to survive his Lizardman bouts. I was actually planning on him surviving, since his odds seemed so slim, hence why I haven't mentioned him before. The other option is to use him to go harass the clan, but this strikes me as a low-yield option. I think I gain more positive use out of using him for spotting purposes and holding that hill.

Around the capital, Tredje has moved in order to attempt to cut off my commerce by pillaging the two silk plantations and reducing my happy-cap. He will succeed, which is annoying, but the movement of his archers into the north will allow me to run my settler out to the copper location alongside a 6 warrior escort. My capital will continue to pump warriors to hopefully clear out the goblins eventually. This is really annoying . Since the goblin is now directly adjacent to the tile I wanted to road to prevent wolf-rider schenanigans on the far side of the river, I'm forced to abandon that plan in favor of moving to the cleared hill with my worker. I plan to lay down a road there, and then continue laying road along the hill towards the new city location. Hopefully then, if Tredje wishes to cut it, he'll have to assault warriors on hills with his archers, giving my stack an opportunity to hit him. Building on the flatland doesn't make much sense to me, since he'll be able to use the jungles to strike a warrior stack and gain promotions for his goblins while sheltering in defensive terrain.

To break the choke, I will need to lure the goblins onto flat ground, or tempt them into making attacks on warriors. I also need to keep in mind that there's still that C3/S1 Wolf-Rider unaccounted for. In the short term I need to break the choke and finish BW to get Str. 4 warriors. After I can make bronze warriors I should focus on taking at least my 3rd city in the south for another happy point and more non-education commerce. I need more workers, naturally.

Another thought that has crossed my mind: If I succeed in breaking the choke, I should see if I can raise some foreign funds for a warriors --> Swordsmen upgrade to slow the clan down and repay the visit. I don't know how tight Squareleg is with the Clan, but it could be a reasonable offer of proxy battle.

[Mist]

I thought there's no gold gifting/trading until Currency?

[Sareln]

I thought there's no gold gifting/trading until Currency?

Correct. It's a longer term thought and an assumption that Squareleg with Financial will be the first one to Currency.

[Sareln]

Use the warrior for scouting, no Clan Units in sight, it's only those two gobbos.

That wolf still hasn't shown up, and I've got vision on pretty much all the territory between the Clan and I... did he really decide to not commit the wolf-rider to the fight? That would've been pretty effective against me IMO. In other news, Iskender is #1 GNP with 53 and I am insanely jealous

More thorough update to come later.

[Sareln]

Turn 58:

Arright, time to get to work.

I decide that I need to know if that wolf-rider is in the area, so I move my warrior onto the forested hill and take a look. Coast is clear, though it doesn't rule out the flood-plains to my north. I'll just have to chance it though. I move up the warriors and settler, if I've done my math right, the odds are 50/50 for his archer against my warrior so I don't think he'll take it.

Tredje also pillaged my silks, no surprise there, I micro the capital to starve a bit and squeeze out an extra warrior in the process. I burnt the excess hammers enabling a 1-turn warrior while still running a scientist. After Tredje pillages my other silk my Capital will go unhappy, so why bother feeding that population right now?

I'm falling horribly behind in the demographics, but it can't be helped with this choke going on. GNP leader is Iskender, so hopefully he'll be wanting to keep his deals.

Serdoa's scout moves towards the Tomb of Succellus. I can't really do anything if he wants to pop it (Is it poppable? I don't know), so no sense worrying about it. I'm already throwing out as many units as I can anyways. I do realize I gave him bad directions when I talked to him, so I issue a correction.

[COLOR="Magenta"]I misremembered and was in a rush. Tomb of Sucellus is to my south, and Odio's prison is further right, pas the goblin fort. Ocean is still where I said it was :P
-Sareln-[/COLOR]

If all goes according to plan, I should found on T60. Super-Slow, but c'est la vie.