Whosit Clowns Around in EitB PBEM XXVI [SPOILERS!]

[Whosit]

Well, he's just walking by, not declaring war, but new events are still incredibly distressing:







I don't think I realized the extent to which "the Line" would hand him all that territory. I knew he'd get a head start, but I didn't realize he gets double settler production, and I didn't really think enough about how being allied with Barbs keeps him safe (not that it matters since his army is massive). I can't tell if I'm being overly pessimistic to think that I'm pretty much screwed. Sure, his GNP sucks (it's particularly low now since I think he's gone to 100% gold), but he can still overwhelm me with numbers, and the absurd city lead means he's going to make that up in the long run. I'm only just about to get my 4th city, and it's really a mediocre spot picked to get copper. I want to get a couple more cities down to the west that have much better agricultural and commerce land, but first I have to beef up my army so I can defend those places, then I have to build the actual Settlers, I need a ton more workers to improve those cities, etc.....

Certainly won't happen in 30 turns, and I see no reason Serdoa won't just descend upon me as soon as time is up. Even if he hadn't attacked me early on, I'm not sure I'd be in a much better position.

[Whosit]

More Barb Warriors showing up. One died attacking the capital. I killed another at ~73% odds with a new spawned Agg Warrior. He won, nearly died, and got 5 xp. So that's good. Combat... II + III coming up, I guess?

Settler popped. Trying to decide what to build in my towns. Settled on a Market in Coombe View. Hexam is finishing up another Warrior. I think that I will have Hexam and Jubilee both produce Siege Workshops, in no small part because I am Aggressive right now and I get to build them faster. Might as well make use of that while I can. But I need more Settlers and Workers. And more Warriors and blaugh. I would really like to get a Temple of Kilmorph in the capital so I can build priests to spread the religion, but I don't feel like I can afford to build much infrastructure right now. Though Hexam isn't too many turns out from becoming a decent production city. Maybe within a dozen turns it will be there. It does have 3 Workers improving the tiles, and even so, it's not going as fast as I'd like, so I really need more Workers....

[Ellimist]

The barbarian trait is an easy one to undervalue, but he's riding pretty close to the score limit for keeping barb peace. He can run 0% science to avoid technology points, but city growth and land points are harder to control.

[Whosit]

Yeah, I'm definitely in trouble. The other two have practically caught up in GNP, so I don't even have that as a serious lead anymore. And Serdoa, I think, has been very careful about managing his score. He's been skirting close to the limit for some time now. I think he knows what he's doing.

I just planted my 4th city for the copper. A Warrior popped at the end of the turn and got Bronze weapons but... none of my other warriors upgraded?! Did I just forget? Because I thought as long as you take a unit into a city, they'll upgrade. What's going on? I really hope they upgrade at the start of the next turn, because otherwise I wasted a Settler and a lot of time. You don't need a FORGE to upgrade a unit, right? That's just to remove rust, I thought. Augh. Well, anyway, working on Siege Workshops and I started a Warrior in the new city. I wanted a Granary, but I've decided it's probably not worth the time at this point. I'm hoping I can somehow crank out a couple more Settler before the 100 turn mark, but I don't think that's particularly likely.

Seriously, though, I really need those Warriors to upgrade to 4 strength.

[Jabah]

Yes, you need to either move into a (connected) city, or just wait until the beginning of next turn.
(If you don't care about fortification bonus and have a (non-river) road, just move your warriors out and in the cities.

[Whosit]

Ok, well, as long as it's not a glitch or something. Though I did miss a chance to upgrade a couple warriors that were hanging around outside because I was so confused....

[Jabah]

Sorry, my answer was not crystal clear and was missing a bit. AFAIK, you need to be IN a city to (automatically) upgrade to bronze, so warrior waiting in the wild won't be until they do go in any (connected) city.

[Brian Shanahan]

Sorry, my answer was not crystal clear and was missing a bit. AFAIK, you need to be IN a city to (automatically) upgrade to bronze, so warrior waiting in the wild won't be until they do go in any (connected) city.

And when you first connect the copper it takes a turn for the existing units to get the upgraded weapons, i.e. you connect during T50, no copper bonus until start T51.

[Whosit]

I know that Warriors outside of a city don't get upgraded. I just thought that those already in the cities would get upgraded as soon as copper was connected. That didn't happen, so I "wasted" a turn, but whatever. All units are upgraded now.

I do not have Horses. This makes me sad and uncomfortable.

I think I'm gonna grab Fishing, the get Education and Code of Laws. I'm losing out on 16-18 commerce right now because I don't have Aristocracy, and everyone else has caught up to my GDP. I'm pretty sure Molach has a good city lead as well, but since I haven't met him, I can't be sure. Just have to find a way to hang on and to make any attack on me not worth it.... I'm gonna invest in some more Warriors since they are cheap, but I hope to transition to Freaks and Swordsmen soon. But I need more cities and everything, basically.

[Whosit]

Got a border pop at Argenteria. If I survive past T100 and that hasn't been claimed, I think between the corn and cotton on the river would be a lovely place for a city. It would also pick up that extra dye, too. It's tempting to just try and snatch it, anyway, but I don't really want to provoke Serdoa earlier than is necessary. I'd like to grab the spot with the Silks first, but I think the safer spot would be the one south of that, which only has corn and cows. There are places for farms and mines, so it could provide some income with aristocracy.

I'm thinking of going for Arete after Code of Laws. I'd love to build the mines, but my best guess is they'd take about 20 turns in my best city. Not sure I can afford to wait that long. If I teched to Iron Working, it would probably be a little longer than Arete + Mines, but it would mean I don't have a city stuck on production. Of course, there's a chance I don't have Iron nearby, so the Mines make that a guarantee.... Unless the city is captured.

Anyway, I'm gonna have to bank on Catapults and mostly Warriors to keep me alive, and will add in Swordsmen as I can. Dang, but I just need more cities!

Some ugly demos: