The Dark arts - C&D Master Thread

[Lewwyn]

Scary thought: it's the Spanish who has chopped a barracks, and the reason is that they have copper in their BFC, ie no reason for a fast settler.

Thought of this, and its scary.

[kjn]

:D
:oldD

[Sullla]

plako did create this map - I'd wager that he probably didn't put copper in the starting capital. That's an obvious balance problem.

My vote is that Spanish Apolyton just made a poor build choice. They did pick Boudica as their leader, after all. Yeah, they'll probably try to rush someone, but we have only 1 in 8 odds that we're the unlucky party. The notion that someone we haven't even met yet would be trying to attack us through a sea of wilderness and barbarian animals feels... unlikely.

[kjn]

Another option is of course WPC, in which case they must have lost a warrior sometime after T20. Come to think of it, that's probably the most likely alternative.

[kjn]

T29 Breaking News!

The Germans has settled their second city! It adds 7 land tiles to their empire.

They grew to size 3 on T22, so at a guess they've done some build swapping and put overflow into their settler since they grew to size 2. It's also quite likely they've built some roads to speed the settler along, so the settler haven't spent more than a turn before founding the city.

7 added land tiles means the city is either coastal or very close to their capital. However, a coastal city must be located further away from their capital (one or zero tile overlap instead of two), and they haven't researched Fishing, so it is likely inland.

If we take our start as an example, they probably settled on a plains hill 1E of the deer, and their new city is on the MM spot.

They also added 1000 to their power, and are now equal to us (we were #4 in power and are now #5). This tells us they have 2 warriors.

Rival best in food rose to 22, and that is probably the Germans too. 4 from city centres, 6 from corn, 5 from deer, 4 from a farmed banana, and 3 from an unimproved floodplains fits nicely.

If we assume both CivFr and the Germans went for a quick second city to claim gold (or equivalent), how quickly can they get their gold mine up and worked compared to us (T39).

CivFr settled on T27. Their borders will expand T32, and have only a single worker (they might go for a second worker in their capital after the settler, but it will likely stay there). If they risk to pre-position their worker on the gold, they can finish the mine T35, otherwise it will be T36.

The Germans settled on T29, probably next to the gold. Their city will grow to size 2 on T34, and they can finish their mine T33. They will gain 40C compared to us, but our early cottages will more than make up for it.

[kalin]

Question: how long would it take to research archery once the gold at MM is worked?

I am thinking that even if we are rushed, I wouldn't expect too many axes/chariots. A couple of archers would be able to defend. Sure, we'd be set back a lot, but we would survive... Do you guys think that's an option?

Kalin

[kjn]

With the gold, our commerce is 36 or so, ie we'd research it in 3t.

As for rushing - the Spanish will only be able to begin building Impis from T37 or so. I think the risk for a rush from them is minuscule, especially since we haven't met them yet.

I think we can trust Plako to have placed copper and horses within a sensible distance of each team's starting position.

[kalin]

I am pretty confident we won't have an issue but even if we do, researching archery in 3t and whipping an archer in 2t gives us 5t to defend against a choke which is quite nice.

Kalin

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Archers don't do well against Impi chokes. You need alot of archers, especially if you want to defend flatland tiles. So scary, but nonetheless, BW next. And keep C&D'ing.

[kjn]

T30 - 2800 BC

Cliff's Notes: Two warrior builds.

Demos:

Hardly any changes. Average power rose 4000, ie we have two warrior builds, and we dropped from #5 to #6 in the rankings, so one of the builds must have been made by a civ with 12000 or 13000 in power. One of them must also have been made in a city of size 3 or 4 that earlier didn't have a warrior in it, since average approval rose by 1.

As for who built the warrior, CFC is one possibility, but I'd have expected a warrior build on T27 from them. WPC is another, but in that case they didn't build a barracks last turn. CivFr is one very likely candidate, and so might the Germans be too.