[SPOILERS] Dhalphir PB13

[Dhalphir]

well




I made the settler move. As long as the barbarian doesn't move on to the city site, we can found Zerus next turn and move the forest warrior in for defense. Then I need to get that city roaded up and put some defenses in it. Plako MUST have horses and chariots by now - his horses were most likely first ring for his city near them, and it wouldn't surprise me if he sends one or two over to my borders to look for opportunities to get an early strike against the noob.

If the barb moves on to the city site - well, i'll have to think of something. I dont' think it will, but at least on the bright side, if it does that, I don't need to worry about what plako might do.

Really want that fourth city though - plako must be about to get his fourth soon and no doubt cities five and six a handful of turns later, gotta keep pace.

Should I be worried if he sends chariots up to my borders? It's two turns until the borders at Antioch expand to cover the horses. Two turns until they're roaded, so I can start a pasture immediately, but that's five turns away and I then still have to whip a chariot. If Plako sent a chariot our way already, looking at the forests - well, it can probably get to Zerus in less than those seven turns. Can warriors defend against chariots reliably, if they outnumber them? Is Plako likely to declare war just to run a chariot around my lands and pillage me? So many unknowns.

[Dhalphir]

Sat up all night trying to figure out how to save my pasture at Antioch.

If the warrior doesn't pillage, OR attack the city, if he moves away, how do I stop it from coming back again?

I wish I had changed research from IW to Archery earlier just to knock it out. Defending against barbs with warriors is stressful.

[Dhalphir]

new turn has rolled

update on the barbarian situation!




The barb attacked Bacchus' scout

Left the scout with 0.1hp. Actually is okay for me that Bacchus got lucky and kept his scout, because that means only one barb warrior to deal with, not two.

Other barb situation - it moved southwest towards Shakuras, into the forest. Annoying, but it means I can plant Zerus this turn, so I did. Moved the warrior from the north into Zerus.



I whipped the granary in Antioch for 1pop this turn as planned. The worker finished the road, borders expand next turn and I should have my horses hooked up on turn 68. At the moment I am thinking I want to overflow into a warrior, not a settler. I'm not comfortable with the amount of units we have - plako's power took a big spike last turn and I will assume that was a chariot or axe. Probably chariot. For now, I left the settler to benefit from any overflow.



I also whipped a warrior in Shakuras for 1pop using the hammers invested in it already. Overflowed into the settler. I immediately regretted this, because it lost me the crab tile with its commerce, but I really really wanted two warriors in that city, because I want to send a spare one up to Zerus as soon as I can. Zerus won't be big enough to whip a chariot immediately when the horses are connected.



I am currently debating whipping the settler in Aiur. It would be a 2pop whip, but that settler could head down to the southern peninsula and found my fifth city, near the silver. Not sure what I would then do with the settler from Shakuras - I don't have the military to settle a sixth city for a few turns. I barely feel safe settling Zerus and the fifth city with just warriors.

Zerus' current build has it on a warrior working the rice tile. Due to grow in 6 and warrior in 15. I am debating switching it to the plains forest hill for 3 hammers, to get the warrior out in 4 turns, and delay worrying about growing. With the second warrior due to finish in Shakuras, can I wait the extra two turns? Growing sooner will mean Zerus can whip a chariot sooner. Decisions. I haven't ended turn, so I have time to think about this today and get some lurker opinions.

Accomplished this turn
-horse tile ready to connect when borders expand
-Barbarian troubles mostly over
-Potential plako troubles just beginning, depending on what he's planning
-Fourth city founded in a decent location
-One more warrior due to finish soon, whipped from Shakuras. Considering a second warrior from the granary overflow at Antioch. Waste of a chop, though. Don't have anywhere for that settler to go right now though, so maybe it will be better to get the warrior.

Decisions to be made
-Whip the settler in Aiur for city #5 in the south? It's a 2pop whip, it will be a 1pop whip in 2 turns, but slowbuilding will only take four turns.
-overflow granary whip into another warrior or into a settler that I have no settling plan for yet. Or a worker?
-

[Dhalphir]

I think I'm in trouble. Another warrior moved onto the pasture. Bacchus wasn't around to save me this time, so I queued up a warrior to finish in 1t in the city and attacked out with the one in the city already. Lost the 50% battle and only did 0.4 damage. So new warrior will finish before the barb can attack, but if it was going to pillage it will still be able to do that.

I switched research to archery, due in 3 turns, same as iron working was. I need some real defensive military and I can't afford to wait until horses are connected in 4turns - at this point, defending myself will need every turn I can. I can finish iron working later. If I was lucky, iron would pop somewhere already mined and roaded, but I can't count on that. You always need archery anyway, so fuck it - let's just do it.

I might still lose Zerus if plako wants to get frisky though. His power is higher than mine and he's a vet sitting next to a newbie.

[Dhalphir]

Okay, I am definitely in trouble. Help.

Plako's power keeps rising



He planted a city on the spot we wanted Zerus to bridge to. The copper isn't first ring for him either, so Stonehenge should mean I can claim it first. Wouldn't stay connected during a war though, so I will have to finish iron working asap after Archery.



We still don't have archery or horses - archery is a turn away, I moved a second worker onto the pasture so it will be able to cut the time for horses from 3turns to 2turns away. Unfortunately, Zerus won't be big enough to whip anything for 4 turns. So we might lose that city.

The good news is that Aiur and Shakuras are both about to finish a settler, so I can easily settle the two spots in the south peninsula without too much trouble. One of those is a good city - the one that would go on the wheat...not so much, so I might send the second settler somewhere else.

Some other good news is that the barbarian at Antioch is gone. No idea where. It didn't attack the city and my pasture is intact.



Either way, if plako wants Zerus dead I think it will die. It all depends. If he gives me only one or two more turns before hitting Zerus, I think it will fall. If he gives me three turns, I might be able to sneak an archer into Zerus. If he gives me four turns, I can definitely get one or two archers into that city.

I switched Shakuras to a warrior so it will grow, and I'll change that to an archer next turn - that will give it population to whip an archer in two turns time. We'll see whether that's enough.

Damn, if I had only switched to archery immediately last week.

[Dhalphir]

Zerus is done for

Can't save it, plako will no doubt declare at the end of this turn or beginning of the turn after. I moved the warrior out so that I don't lose it pointlessly and feed exp. I'll have to resettle a fourth city somewhere else. This won't kill me, but it does mean I won't be able to contest plako's control of that area of the map.




Damn you serdoa you peacenik

[Dhalphir]

I'm really just venting, by the way. This is my own inexperience in not realising that I should have checked what military techs we had and at least picked up archery sharpish. I can't imagine Serdoa would have played it out the same way I have - he would have picked up on plako's aggression sooner and swapped to archery at least a couple turns sooner. If I had swapped to archery immediately after taking over from Serdoa, I would have had it done several turns ago - enough time to have whipped out an archer instead of a warrior from Shakuras, an archer in Antioch, which would have solved my barb problems, and i would have been able to get at least one archer into Zerus to support the warrior defender and maybe be able to hold the city.

[Serdoa]

Honestly I am not sure that I would have done better Dhalphir. I certainly did not expect plako to go on the offensive already. If I had I would have had to settle differently to get horses or copper earlier. Probably would have needed to settle on copper with the 3rd city. It still doesn't make that much sense for me what he is doing here. I mean sure he can cripple you so that you probably can't win anymore. But if you accept that fact and push to hurt him he might still lose more by having to guard against you than he wins. Though please don't see that as advice, I am not informed enough to really give advice here. But from my pov the issue is not that you lose your 4th city (though that hurts) but that you are booted out of copper. If you don't have Iron somewhere you are fucked hard.

[Dhalphir]

We must have iron somewhere. Even if I have to settle quite far to the northeast on the coast or something to get it, I'm sure its somewhere. If not then yeah..no idea what I will do.

Not much of an update this turn, took a couple pictures of the upcoming war.

Zerus emptied of defenders - no point wasting them - I'll need all the units I can get to prevent pillaging and further attacks.




Moved my eastern warrior onto a forested hill to get a better sense of what's coming. there's a chariot coming to the south - that might be a fogbuster, but I doubt it. There's also two chariots heading for Zerus. One can hit it in one turn, the other needs two. Now that I think about it, might have saved Zerus for another turn by keeping the warrior in there and forcing plako to wait for both chariots before committing.

Oh well, you live and learn.

[Dhalphir]

Plako is settling very aggressively with that city plant. Not sure what if anything we can do about it later. If we find iron we can talk about it then I suppose. Two turns.