AT loves it when a plan comes together!! [Spoilers]

[AutomatedTeller]

I think we are ok with D.

Honestly, if anyone but us settles in this area it's basically a free city for us once we want it. it's FIFTH ring for commodore and he has just cut off a huge peninsula to settle.

right now, I'd make commobrick the favorite in this game. I have a hard time actually assessing how strong we are right now - i like our position, but we are very short on infra. Granted, we are fin/cha, so have no cheap anything, but cornflakes has no cheap buildings yet and has managed to build some libs and have the highest power in the game.

[MindyMcCready]

Yeah that makes sense. Commodore's got that peninsual and Cornflakes is "busy right now". Sounds like we have some time to grow it properly rather than rush in.

[AutomatedTeller]

Jowy ended turn, turn rolled and Jowy logged out. Wonder why he did that? Generally, people play when they roll the turn.

Wonder if he attacked someone (ie, cornflakes) - he's not in any position to attack us, so that's not it.

it's a good thing my work blocks me from getting to the save

[MindyMcCready]

I just want to double check that our military prep over at LA Law is going to cut it. I'm going on the assumption that Jowy could make a move in 10-12 turns from T102 and, other than the barracks in NYPD Blue, we're in total builder mode. Actually, its probably more like 12T plus travel time from T102. HA can catch up but elephants can't. So we'd probably add 5-6 turns for travel time meaning that we'd need to be ready around T120.

If T120 unrealistic or unlikely indicate what the assumption should be.

So we're 15-16T or so away from war against nigh-unstoppable elephants and catapults and HA. Our current 3 archers won't deter Jowy from making a play at LA Law. How much more military do you plan to get in there? Because if LA Law falls, we could easily be triple forked. And that's pretty much game over for us. Jowy has scouted our lands after all.

We've lost 3 turns of prep on revolutions. And that's 3 turns later on catapults and walls which are our deterrant signal. If we only look prepared on T119, he may well go for it anyways thinking that he's lost a lot of turns on building and travelling and whipping. So many that he's lost the initiative against anyone else and must proceed with whatever his odds are.

Things to consider/re-consider:
1. We'll barely have any roads in place in 10-12 turns. Of course, given our strategic play its very difficult to do anything about that right now. Not throwing stones, just pointing out how vulnerable we are. We have 16 turns to rectify this situation. Worker by Magnum PI will have his hands full with the pigs and those roads so that's all we can expect out of him before the hammer drops.

2. LA Law is building a granary. I'd love a granary in there but in 16 turns I'm not sure that we'll have the population to whip walls. So our assumption of our archers having a decent chance against elephants is false. Our CGIII archer with full fortify will defend at 9.6 with full fortify assuming that Jowy doesn't smash our cultural defense in 1 turn with 3 catapults. Also, I had hoped that we might be able to build both granary and walls if the iron was online, but it doesn't look like that'll be happening any time soon without an immediate effort on workers. Also, I'd really want to dissuade him with a show of walls before he commits to a warpath. An earlier wall plus a few more archers and spears might save us hundreads in hammers from having to rebuild our military.

3. NCIS is building a workboat. This city might be a worker pump for the next little while. Can we get more out of a worker mining the iron than we could from a workboat?. Is that workboat destined for LA Law? If so then we're probably going to get T120 - T102 (LALaw founding year?) - 10T (culture) so maybe 8T x 2-3 food before that investment is at risk.

Our best effort might be to chop out that forest in LALaw and put that towards either the granary or walls in LA Law. I would totally approve an NCIS whipping to make that forest chop happen.

4. The MASH workboat. An extra worker on forest chops around 'D' could go towards making infrastructure or even chopping out the settler for '1 NE B'. The one worker over there is not going to get us up and running quick enough before the Cornflakes-Azza skirmish is concluded. Of course, you're the one that pointed out our lack of workers, I'm just asking if the workboat is our best investment right now.

5. I really do want to get a Trieme pas LA Law by T120. We'd have to have it built by T116 in the capital to do that. This will complete our deterrant. Also, if Jowy did take a run at us, he might sue for peace if he saw his capital starving down.

[AutomatedTeller]

ahh - our worker situation is tough, but less tough on the west than I made clear.

We have a worker at LA Law currently improving the iron It has 2 turns to go.
We have 2 workers by Magnum PI - one will improve the pigs, the other is the one roading.
NYPD Blue builds a rax, then military.
LA Law is currently building a scout, rather than a granary. I'm ok with walls after that, though like I said - Jowy doesn't yet know there's a city there, so the deterent effect is currently small. he will know in 5-7 turns when our borders expand, of course.

The workboat in NCIS is for LA Law and I think is critical - its the one food source LA Law has.

We lost 2 turns on prep, and I think they were strong investments for the civ overall. While I'm worried about elephants, if we lose 20 turns of OR for fear of Jowy, we lose the game, quite simply.

I think that with LA Law and NYPDBlue providing units, as well as some from Magnum PI and NCIS, we should be ok. My guess is that he shows up with a stack of 3 or 4 cats, 2 war elephants and 5 or 6 axes. By then, we should be able to handle them (famous last words

saving grace for us is that his units are expensive - all we need is one more unit in our city when he hits us, and enough in reserve to hit him back hard.


A trireme for LA Law area can't come from the cap without a fort and we don't have enough workers to afford a fort yet.

i'll write up more about micro plans tonight and the weekend - i think we might be in a critical time here, so it might make more sense to see what's up.


MASH workboat is done next turn and I think the next build is, in fact, a worker. In fact, I think the next builds in both MASH and ATeam are workers. The OC may go to a worker the instant it hits size 4 (and can work all it's specials). The workboat in MASH heads down to CHiPs for it's 2nd fish. I'll look at the timing... maybe it can wait.

fortunately, we don't need any more workboats for a while. the fish are awesome, but netting them is a pain...

[MindyMcCready]

ahh - our worker situation is tough, but less tough on the west than I made clear.

We have a worker at LA Law currently improving the iron It has 2 turns to go.
We have 2 workers by Magnum PI - one will improve the pigs, the other is the one roading.
NYPD Blue builds a rax, then military.
LA Law is currently building a scout, rather than a granary. I'm ok with walls after that, though like I said - Jowy doesn't yet know there's a city there, so the deterent effect is currently small. he will know in 5-7 turns when our borders expand, of course.

The workboat in NCIS is for LA Law and I think is critical - its the one food source LA Law has.

We lost 2 turns on prep, and I think they were strong investments for the civ overall. While I'm worried about elephants, if we lose 20 turns of OR for fear of Jowy, we lose the game, quite simply.

I think that with LA Law and NYPDBlue providing units, as well as some from Magnum PI and NCIS, we should be ok. My guess is that he shows up with a stack of 3 or 4 cats, 2 war elephants and 5 or 6 axes. By then, we should be able to handle them (famous last words

saving grace for us is that his units are expensive - all we need is one more unit in our city when he hits us, and enough in reserve to hit him back hard.


A trireme for LA Law area can't come from the cap without a fort and we don't have enough workers to afford a fort yet.

i'll write up more about micro plans tonight and the weekend - i think we might be in a critical time here, so it might make more sense to see what's up.


MASH workboat is done next turn and I think the next build is, in fact, a worker. In fact, I think the next builds in both MASH and ATeam are workers. The OC may go to a worker the instant it hits size 4 (and can work all it's specials). The workboat in MASH heads down to CHiPs for it's 2nd fish. I'll look at the timing... maybe it can wait.

fortunately, we don't need any more workboats for a while. the fish are awesome, but netting them is a pain...

Ahhhhhh, feels much better now. Especially that worker on the Iron. Looks like I'll get my iron and a chop. And of course, that makes me totally happy about the wb from NCIS. I'd love the food, but if I had to choose only one, I'd choose walls. Now I don't have to choose.

I was also guessing we'd see abot 12 units from Jowy on T120 if he pushed hard for it. I figured he'd have a couple more HA over axes as they could start out later and still make the party in time. So we're like minded on the threat level.

Offside, just thinking about Feudalim and Vassalage. 3XP from Barracks + 3XP from Totem Pole + 2XP from Vassalage = CGIII Longbows off the line. Wow, that is totally awesome. A CGIII LB fortified, walls defends at 19.5 + FS and at 20.1 vs Melee. Man, those chokepoints are just going to be a fact of life for our opponents. Even if the culture's completely removed we're still looking at defending at 16.5 + FS.

In your weekend report, please flesh out your thoughts on tech path after construction because both likely paths are awesome,...which, strangely enough, makes things hard! Man, I'm not going to get any work done on Monday.

[AutomatedTeller]

vassalage is nice, all right. problem is that as financial, we really, really want bureau.

walls are nice - with walls, even fully collateralled spear defends at 5.7 vs mounted - still will die vs. HA or elephants, but they'll do a lot more damage.


I'll try to do a world overview once a week or so, including workers, infra, etc. We generally get through 7-10 turns a week these days, though that may slow down to 7 again with a war going on. I guess I'll start naming workers, too - I'm thinking characters from the shows make the most sense. I'm not naming military, though - that's just painful....

[AutomatedTeller]

btw - I added a tech cost image to my 2nd post here, so we can easily look up how much a tech will cost. The multiplier is ~1.61 (1.4 for large, 1.15 for prince), so feudalism is > 1100 beakers.

That also means that military advantages last a long time, because getting tech takes awhile.

Maybe I should have done more of this analysis up front

[AutomatedTeller]

quick update - Jowy has found LA Law, which is why he didn't play last night - i had moved the archer out to get a glimpse up the hill and so it was, theoretically, attackable. I moved it back and he can still attack (4.4 on 6.75 - I doubt he'll take the chance), or he could take our worker, if he wanted - but we are the only way he can get commerce, so I doubt he will.

Am thinking of asking Jowy, Commodore and cornflakes for gpt or closing borders - does anyone know if this is an idle threat, that if I close borders with them, they cannot trade with each other? They have no route that isn't through me I believe.

more detail in a few...

[AutomatedTeller]

Demos:



Jowy showing up at LA Law



Our newest city!!



I'm currently chopping the forest, but I'm thinking I should, in fact, road it, sinec it's a good tile.



ran some sims about building a forge before the rax... it was a bad idea - we didn't catch up in hammers for 30 or 4 turns.

So, rax, a couple of spears, some dogs, and probably cats after that.

Our southern borders:



That expands in 8 turns, and it's just 3 from mash, so I switched the WB to a worker, so we have another up there. I'll probably run a priest then in MASH. This gets a granary, a lib and then a lighthouse/GLib, depending where I am.


The OC



I think it grows to size 4 in 5 turns - at that point, it will be at size 4 and I'll be chopping into a worker. Then more archers and eventually a settler, I think, probably for the horse site or a supporting site.

This is cornflakes capital, Grandslam: