A Challenger Appears!

[Tankra]

Hmmm.. You raise an interesting point. I could very well just settle the gold cause I don't really need the copper, unless I were afraid of chariots. It would be a ballsy move, but I can probably keep him from settling on the spot I want, as well as make sure he can't settle his horses.

Either way, gonna have to decide tonight.

[CFCJesterFool]

Question : Which site do you think will contribute sooner? I like the gold site but it does require some worker turns and doesn't block off land. The hill plant (copper) site could work whale (3f2c) while building a wb to net the seafood and is a good block site. If you go for the gold site first, city after that needs to block off to the east i.e. secure horses.

[Ceiliazul]

Question : Which site do you think will contribute sooner? I like the gold site but it does require some worker turns and doesn't block off land. The hill plant (copper) site could work whale (3f2c) while building a wb to net the seafood and is a good block site. If you go for the gold site first, city after that needs to block off to the east i.e. secure horses.

Looking at the northern site again, I agree with Jester. Deer and clam is as very decent site on its own, and fur can tide you over until gold gets improved. Nice analysis Jester.

Tank, the final decision is yours, of course.

[Tankra]

Ok, so much has changed since my last update. First of all, I was hit with the nasty surprise of finding out that there's another source of copper to the south - woe to those who do not scout properly, can I get an amen - and Stick now has Axemen due to his southward expansion:



Situation on that front is that he's placed his two Axemen in a position where he can attack my stack with impunity if I move to his wheat farm. I'm therefore waiting on my third Dog Soldier to join the fray before I move to pillage. There's no rush anyways; I like having the battle play out on his side, and wish for it to remain this way.

Expansion-wise, I've decided I'll go settle the Gold to the South rather than the northern position, especially since there's a good chance that I can get both the gold and the copper in one fell swoop. And if I can't, well, the copper isn't that necessary to me, and the need to deny TheStick his own source has greatly been reduced by the fact that he got some anyways.

Here's a more detailed picture of what's going on down South, as well as Stick's new city:



So I know that within one of those squares, there's copper. Good stuff.

Pottery just finished, and now I can either go for Archery or Writing. Seeing as our friend here has a pretty massive production of Axemen going on, I'm leaning towards Archery. As much as chopping a cheap creative library really quick sounds appealing right now, I'd rather build Granaries before either way, and for better or for worse, I still have a war to deal with.

EDIT: Fixed picture

[Ceiliazul]

wrong image for showing the new city? hard to tell on my phone but I think I see the same pic twice.

[Tankra]

Moved my troops onto his Wheat farm, intent on giving him exactly the same treatment that he gave me, oh so many years ago:



If you're wondering if it's a good idea for me to go on flatlands, well, I think it can't be that bad. Against his Axemen, it'll be a 5 vs 6 battle, with 6 being my Dogs, and against his Archer, it'll be a 3 vs 4 battle, with 4 being my Dogs again. If he wants to attack my stack, he stands to lose a fair amount of troops, assuming I have at least a little bit of luck.

Also, found out that the gold + copper city is actually going to be working out after all! Good stuff.



Oddly enough, I'm at the top of the score. This makes no sense to me; I'm quite sure everyone else got their first city before me, and most of everyone has a city bigger than or at 3 pop. I know I should probably attempt to explain it, but I've pretty much given up on doing rigourous C&D. This game was my first time doing it, and I realize that it's a particularly tedious task. The analysis aspect of it isn't that bad, once you've got all your data. But the actual data collection... Having to go through saves one after another, writing it all down on Excel, and THEN having to translate the arcane numbers that Civ demographics give you into actual, usable data... It's a bit too much tedium for me. I'd rather just improvise, at that point.

[CFCJesterFool]

What tech after Archery? I assume Pottery since you have so much good land available to settle (and will need the commerce). Settling the gold site means you can still expand while waiting for cottages to be laid down. Pretty good progress so far.

[Tankra]

Well, well, well. As one might expect, thestick went for the kill. As the pessimist inside me expected, he managed to do so with very minimal losses. Almost aggravatingly minimal. I killed the first Archer who attacked, but lost against everything else. He won a battle at 26% and another at 50.5%, as seen here:

So that was pretty cool. Then, he offers in the banter thread this piece of diplo:

Alright Tankra, your stack is dead. Peace?

Obviously peace would ensue from having killed my attack force, because I don't think he'd be foolish enough to try and counter attack me. He wouldn't stand to gain very much, let's put it that way. But I still have a Dog Soldier, the 3rd one, who was straggling behind. Why preemptively get thestick off the hook, when I can potentially piss him off for longer? So I decided to attack his wounded Axeman on the hills/plains, the one from battle #3 in the above spoiler. Winning would ensure that I keep annoying him, especially since that is a very defensible tile, and it's right next to his capital. Losing would just mean that I defacto accept his peace proposal. I had a 2 out of 3 chance of winning, and so I took the chance...

...and destroyed his Axeman! Now my Dog Soldier has 4 experience and 3.1/4 hp left, while being on a forest/hill adjacent to his capital. Me likey. Unless his streak of luck continues, he'll have to waste at least another axeman to destroy my Dog. Doing so would thus assure me that he won't be trying any funny stuff with his Axemen in my territory in the near future, cause he just won't have enough. Here's a screenshot for those of you who are more visually inclined:



Back at the home front, the city of Senile Felines was founded:



The cows will be online very fast, and then in a few turns, so will the Gold. I think I'll research Writing after Archery, Jester, so that I can get some fast libraries up. Don't have a long term tech plan though.

Oh, and I almost forgot, I added this to the banter thread afterwards:

All my troops aren't dead yet. I'll get back to you on that offer though.

[Ceiliazul]

Back at the home front, the city of Senile Felines was founded:

That city is too rich for it's own good! Amazing.

[CFCJesterFool]

I think I'll research Writing after Archery, Jester, so that I can get some fast libraries up. Don't have a long term tech plan though.

What about expansion? Also need to think about what kind of economy to run. If you plan on buro cap, getting cottages down asap pretty important.