[SPOILERS] Back to Basic - Mardoc plays Augustus of China

[Mardoc]

So much for 'if Twinkletoes ignores me'



Another spear, and a Gallic warrior. Each of them can probably soak two Horse Archers if I try to brute force this. And worse, make the hammer exchange look nasty.

I think I'm going to have to try the sneaky approach with a galley or two, instead. Or as an appetizer, anyway. Maybe follow up with a large party of HA looking for opportunities. Need to weaken Twinkletoes before we can manage a killing blow.

The sad part is, it looks like ~10 turns before galleys can get HA into his backlines. So I need to think of something shorter term to do, too. Maybe that's as simple as a stack of HA and axes guarding catapults? I can start adding those in rather shortly...and since Gergovia's been whipped down and I'm a couple turns ahead in the Construction race, I might even manage to get them to the front first.

[Krill]

You're 4 turns from building cats. Just walk up with a 15 unit stack including at least 4 cats and take the city. So long as TT doesn't have HA you're fine.

[Mardoc]

You're 4 turns from building cats. Just walk up with a 15 unit stack including at least 4 cats and take the city. So long as TT doesn't have HA you're fine.

HA would possibly stop that by Flanking? Because I can protect the catapults from anything else, that's true. And if TT wants to fight in the open, I'm ok with that .

I am confident he doesn't have HA yet. He doesn't have the Power for much more than I see, and I know his last two techs in any event.

Why can't catapults stop me, though? TT is behind me in that race, but not by much. He'll get to them before I can have 4+ catapults stacked in his territory.

[Krill]

Don't forget he has to get the cats into position as well. If he is 5 turns behind you I think you should be able to get the cats into position so long as you immediately 2 pop whip cats in at least 4 cities. You could even time chops to complete cats in certain cities.

[Mardoc]

Don't forget he has to get the cats into position as well. If he is 5 turns behind you I think you should be able to get the cats into position so long as you immediately 2 pop whip cats in at least 4 cities. You could even time chops to complete cats in certain cities.

I think he's ~3 turns behind - but it's true, I ought to be able to easily manage 3 the turn I get Construction, and with a little care 4 is possible, maybe even 5. Edit: some may be due the turn after Construction, in retrospect. Only chops apply immediately

No way Durkon can get a Cat for me that fast, but I should be able to get one from each of the other cities. Only real trick is figuring out how to also get a few more HA before Construction is in.

Timing chops is trivial, I've probably got more forests left than I should at this point in the game, and with the heavy whipping and no new settlers, my workers don't have anything better to do.

[Mikehendi]

You don't have to attack either if it looks like a bad battle. Defend your cities and keep settling more while Twinkle whips away his economy with emergency units. Maybe he will make a mistake and move those units out of Gergovia. I don't think it is worth it to attack him where his defenses are strongest unless you can get a clear advantage. You have a better economy and can out-research Twinkle in the long run, right?

[Mardoc]

You don't have to attack either if it looks like a bad battle. Defend your cities and keep settling more while Twinkle whips away his economy with emergency units. Maybe he will make a mistake and move those units out of Gergovia. I don't think it is worth it to attack him where his defenses are strongest unless you can get a clear advantage. You have a better economy and can out-research Twinkle in the long run, right?

The fundamental problem is 'keep settling more' tops out at 5 more cities, max, only three of which have any food, unless I first break Twinkletoes. None of those cities are particularly strong, since they all need 2nd ring borders to be worthwhile. I'll found them, yes, once I find room in the budget for the settlers and missionaries and worker turns, but they can't win me the game. I might have tried that if I had a nice bit of land to my west.

I'm outresearching him, yes, but I'm not outresearching Ruff and Sian, and that'll get worse as time passes.

Also...notice that none of these three wars so far started based on *my* aggression. Not unless you count settling in TT's direction as aggressive (and I haven't had any other choice). I don't see keeping safe as getting any easier by waiting.

Edit: That said, in almost any other situation I think that'd be good advice. It's just the specific factors of this game, particularly living on a peninsula, that change my mind.

[Commodore]

Can we get a big map of the known world, actually?

[Mardoc]

No energy tonight, just enough for some screenies.

Declined. Think I can have my cat stack ready to attack Gergovia in ~8 turns, no point in letting up.


South China


North China


East China (with temporary rebellion)


Far East China (also temporary unrest)



In foreign news, Ruff is now up to six cities. Dang it, Twinkletoes, war or peace, but none of this wishy washy hostility stuff!

[Mardoc]

Good news and bad news: I figured out how to get Construction a turn earlier - this turn, in fact.

But, because I only did that today, instead of a couple turns ago, I was only able to pull 3 of the catapults' construction date early - Roy and Haley both should produce one next turn, and Belkar the turn after. I figured it was still worth doing, but I'm not sure it actually saves any on the timetable to hit TT, because 3 cats is probably not enough. Well, I'll have to sim it anyway. It'll mean a few more hammers into catapults later on, though, for the next fortified position we've got to smash. At least one HA out of Roy is transformed into a cat this way; 11 HA already built ought to be plenty, I hope.