[SPOILERS] yuris125 the dueller, semi-final - vs Lewwyn

[yuris125]

I don't think it's an insult. But I still want that win

T0 played, will post screenshots after work

[yuris125]

Here's the start after Warrior move



I thought about it, and eventually decide to settle NW. There's no visible way to use my Exp bonus from the start; NW has more food, one flood plain can be worked immediately, and the number of forests is at least the same

This start allows me to go AH first, which is what I want. For Lewwyn it's more tricky. He can go BW first, and open with a double Worker (the second one getting a chop), he can go Hunting-AH-Archery for early Skirmishers, or go with Agri first (although I think it's the worst option). In any case, I think this start is better for me, assuming there are horses nearby



Mist, if I get to the final, you better give me the same amount of rivers when I pick a Fin leader

[Mist]

Mist, if I get to the final, you better give me the same amount of rivers when I pick a Fin leader

You need to tell this to the Inland Sea ( mirrored ) script. I'm not touching rivers on those maps

[yuris125]

Played to T85 today, and things are looking good. Although I have to say there are a lot of things going my way in this game, starting with the map

Here's a screenshot from T17



If I settled in place, horses would've been in the BFC, connected via the lake. As it was, I had to build a road to connect them, but still, easy horses for Egypt is great. More importantly, and unfortunately not visible on this screenshot, I have marble nearby. I connected it with the 2nd city

I don't remember the precise early research path, I think it was AH - Pottery - Mining - BW - Masonry. Before the game I was talking about how I wanted to disrupt Lewwyn's Oracle built... well, marble gave me a perfect opportunity, and early flood plains cottages allowed me to research faster than Lewwyn

I think he could've beaten me. He finished Meditation 2 turns before I finished Polytheism. From there I had enough gold to start Priesthood immediately, and it took 2 turns. If Lewwyn went for Priesthood immediately, if he had a micro plan in place, if he researched Masonry earlier... he told me later that he went for Masonry only after Meditation

But... on the turn Priesthood finished, I whipped an almost completed War Chariot for 16 hammers of overflow, next turn 2 chops came in, that's 42 base hammers right there. Plus I had 4 base hammers of normal yield. Moving the citizens from cottages to forests for a turn gave me the required 50 base hammers, and I built the Oracle right after finishing Priesthood

The empire after finishing the Oracle and moving the citizens back onto cottages:



I didn't want to take Metal Casting to avoid giving Lewwyn a discount. Decided to take Monarchy, this probably was a mistake, because I didn't end up using it for the next 30 turns. Should've taken CoL. I even compounded this mistake by stopping Maths research and switching to Monotheism, wanted to double-revolt, then thought about it, and decided to wait for a golden age



We paused at this point, I had to make a call. Before the pause I took screenshots of my land with signs of planned cities





Unfortunately I didn't take many screenshots from our second session. It was relatively quiet, both of us were developing in peace, I sent my War Chariots to harass from time to time. Here's one of such moments



Lewwyn's Worker is trying to improve silver, my War Chariots are trying to stop him from doing it. Ultimately they failed, but at least they made Lewwyn nervous

At about the same time, there was an important incident in the north, screenshots of which I didn't take. Lewwyn's city was protected by a single Spear, I brought 2 War Chariots there to threaten it. Lewwyn decided he didn't like it, moved 2 Workers on the tile next to War Chariots, built a road, and attacked with the Spear out of the city, killing one of the Chariots. The Spear was at 3.4/4 health after that, guarding 2 Workers. I checked the odds the remaining Chariot had, they were 23% to win, 7% to retreat. I decided the chance to get 2 Workers was too tempting, attacked, and won the battle. Lewwyn had a Skirmisher whipped in the city, so it wasn't defenceless, and that Skirmisher killed the Chariot next turn... but I think a loss of 2 Workers was a big setback for him. If he whipped a Skirmisher and didn't try to attack the Chariots, nothing would've happened... but that's why I was moving the Chariots around Lewwyn's land and making him nervous. Although I have to admit I got lucky there

In general, the main advantage I got from War Chariots was that Lewwyn never got a chance to get aggressive. His forces never were on my borders. Although after the Oracle loss, he was mostly turtling, his soldier count never exceeded mine, he was doing his best not to fall too far behind

I built a Stonehenge to get my Obelisks up, and a ToA - both not really useful, but why not. Lewwyn built a Colossus, the only wonder he has so far. On T74 I got my Great Prophet, and started a golden age to switch to HR/OR and convert to Judaism







Founding the 2 southern cities pre-Currency hurt my economy a lot, but with a golden age I had no problems finishing the limp to Currency

After Currency, I researched Hunting (to have a counter in case Lewwyn decided to get aggressive with Horse Archers), and then decided to get to Literature and build TGLib. This is what I'm doing now

Here's the empire at T85





I just finished Literature, and started Construction. It's time to get those Catapults and start building a game-ending force

Here's a recently founded Lewwyn's city which I will try to raze. Because of my War Chariots, he built Spears over Axemen, so my Axemen should be very good here



Demos are still very strong



As long as I don't make a big blunder, I should be able to get this win

[NobleHelium]

The lake wouldn't have connected the horse for you. You would have needed a river next to the horse that flowed into the lake.

[yuris125]

Hmmm, Lewwyn was sure it would've been a connection. But oh well, doesn't matter

[yuris125]

Played to T105. I got TGLib and Hanging Gardens, Lewwyn got MoM and TGLH. Lewwyn founded Confu and will found Taoism too. I don't think I need more religions, and am happily teching towards Knights

Lewwyn tried a cute little HArcher attack



I lost 2 War Chariots (but they gave me a forewarning about the attack, so they performed their mission), and Lewwyn pillaged two sheep resources. I had good enough production to build a ton of Spears, so the only other loss was a Spear who lost a 76% battle. Lewwyn lost 3 HArchers, will lose another one next turn

Lewwyn's Mints are kicking in, and he got a slight lead on MFG. But I'm not worried, my Forges will be completing shortly, and my GNP was ahead of his even when he was in a golden age

I'm still in a better position, I think

[yuris125]

OK, it's been a while, and Lewwyn said he doesn't want to fight for a victory for a number of reasons. So.. surprising as it might be, I'm moving on to the final

[novice]

Congratulations!

[waterbat]

yes, congrats! and good luck!