[SPOILERS] Cheater Hater hates bad advice. BGN gives only bad advice.

[Cheater Hater]

Yeah, I have a couple spears--one in Aachen, one in the SW theater (which will remain parked in Vienna for the time being), and I'm chopping/whipping one in Mainz, to complete end of next turn if Mainz survives that long (and if it survives this turn, two axes should survive the turn after unless Whosit has more reinforcements.

The problem I seem to have is that Axes are just better against everything except Chariots, especially the free Shock means I don't have to build as many Chariots for defense against Axes. That's why I naturally tended to Axes over Chariots. Should I try to have the same number of Axes vs Spears? I know I ideally want an Axe and Spear in each border city, but I have to have enough production to do so.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

I wouldn't say you need an even 1:1 ratio of axes to spears, but you ought to try to have a spear as garrison in the frontier cities where you can't count on being able to immediately reinforce. If you could possibly be attacked out of the fog before you can get a spear built, you should look to have one there when you can. Or a few chariots as mobile stack defenders. An axe behind a chariot is decent if you can't find a spear, assuming a single wandering chariot. Even if his chariot kills yours, the axe will clean up. Remember, chariots only have an advantage against axes when the axe is defending. An axe can do just fine attacking the chariot (5 vs. 4 strength).

[Cheater Hater]

Well, Whosit played, and I haven't lost any score, so it looks like I was at least a little overly paranoid
Still, I think I should keep the chop/whip into the Spear, for the reasons you're saying--and I don't have a good use for that second pop in Mainz yet anyway

[Cheater Hater]

I did lots of stuff this turn, pictures are here, but I really want to do an actual report--hopefully I'll get some time to do so

[Cheater Hater]

T85 Report:
Squeezing in under the wire! (or not, since I've been writing this post on and off for a couple hours )




Now that I have a ton of food and not enough happiness to use it, I'm starting to use the whip a bit more to get my infrastructure in place. I did a 3-pop whip at Prague so its Library would complete on the same turn as Rillanon's, and then I'm turning research back on to complete Math in 4 turns (maybe even 3, since it's a 4-turn completion at 90% before the Libraries, and I could get some more cottage growth and more Libraries soon). I also did the Spear whip as described above, mostly to keep the east safe. I've also started my next Settler, but I'm not sure exactly where I want to put it:


A, B, and C are the main places I'm thinking of putting it. A isn't that good of a city (especially first ring), but it'll be good eventually and expands the most. B is a good city (with a ton of food once the borders expand), but it feels like it'll be hard to defend right now (until at least one of A, F2, or F3 is founded). C doesn't expand at all, but it's a great city that gives me a crucial happiness resource. I feel like A is the city I'm "supposed" to found in this position (putting expansion above all else), but I really don't like it



I feel like that GNP is interesting--most people probably aren't researching stuff, and we do decent in that comparison.

One other thing before I go--my western warrior that was scouting around Adrien got trapped inside his borders


What should I do with it? Should I leave it, waiting for Adrien to found a (good) city in that spot or one of us to get open borders, or delete it to save the 1 GPT unit cost? Also, if I do wait for it to get teleported, the game isn't crazy enough to let it cross over that river to the west, right?

Edit: T86 pictures are here; I might write a full report, but if I don't, I still want answers on where I should be building Temples. I started one in Rillanon now (since it's out of stuff to build and we want it to grow onto cottages), but I also could build one in Vienna (where I 3-pop whipped another Library)--it probably wants one eventually, but considering johns is going to re-found Sabata this turn (on the exact same spot, with the exact same garrison no less), I should probably be planning to beat him back yet again once the peace treaty expires

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Build the Moai city. From the screenshot, it looks like you aren't working the pigs and the bronze. Is that accurate? If so, you should look at that situation closely. Those are two of your absolute best tile yields in the entire empire. I know you want to be working cottages, but working resource tiles should be a priority except in the most specific circumstances where you have a need for _______ which requires that extra bit of commerce. If you aren't going to be working those tiles now because you are happy capped (pigs) then that's another good argument for the Moai location. I can't think of a reason you wouldn't want to work the bronze tile at all. I've seen a steady amount of unhappy faces, so you really need the furs. I'm still not a fan of the temple unless you're going to try to force a prophet out someplace.

It looks like, compared to opponents, your economy has largely recovered, so expansion looks feasible again. Just don't get crazy with it.

Last thing, what's going on at Carib? I don't see any workers up there to improve the first ring food or chop out something to get your second ring food into your borders. This city is developing terribly slowly. Meanwhile, you have four cottages improved but not being worked at Augsburg, only one of which overlaps with the capital. You want to improve these tiles eventually, but not until you can actually use them. Put a little more thought into worker management so that you are improving tiles where you need them when you need them. This could certainly be improved.

[Cheater Hater]

The copper not being worked was only for 1 turn post-whip--I valued the cottages over the copper since I don't have that much to build for the time being and valued the added economy over the hammers going into a random unit (in this case a Chariot). That's part of the reason I'm also building the Temple in Rillanon--I don't feel like having an overabundance of units that I'm not planning on really using (remember, I'm still number 1 in power at the moment) that eat up my gold. Why are Temples so bad though--just not an efficient use of hammers?

How much expansion do you think I can do--more than one or two cities? Right now I only really have plans for six cities: A/B/C from above, as well as the three filler cities F1/F2/F3. Obviously that isn't all the spots on the map--there's a chunk N/NW of Carib that's seems really awkward to settle and will be contested; it's in the T86 folder if you're interested, as I intend/intended to make a possible dotmap of that area--but it's all I think I can settle safely without crashing my economy, and I think the western spots are safer (since Adrien has less power than Whosit and johns).

Yes, Carib has been a mess. I was planning on improving the sheep (notice the road out of my borders, built to avoid wasting worker turns), but then the workers got diverted, due to a combination of needing to improve Mainz and johns's Impi wandering around while the war was starting. I'll try to get some more workers in that area (especially since I don't need to focus on improving a western city right this second), and whipping the Granary once it gets to 30 hammers will also help somewhat.

[Cheater Hater]

T87 Report:




See, things aren't that bad at Carib--I have five workers ready to start working at/around there next turn: three improving the pasture and two chopping the forest 1S of the city. Of course, now I won't have enough work long-term (especially since I'm not certain I want this city to be just cottages--or is that just the default if it doesn't have an obvious direction to go?), but it's enough for now, and it's not like I have much other work to do (other than those five workers, I have two improving the pigs at Augsburg and two getting ready to get the Moai city settled and the furs connected and roaded ASAP, and that's all my workers--it feels like that's enough for right now; is that wrong?). Other than that, I did another big 3-pop library whip at Bas-Tyra and continued various builds. Notably, I'm still building the Temple in Rillanon, but that might get postponed after seeing the latest demos:


Oh boy, johns jumped up in power by 13k and moved into first place on the rankings. That's not quite as scary as it seems though, since I'm assuming 6k of that was Math (based on the large score jump). That leaves 6k for an Axe, along with 1k from a population increase (he whipped something, but also founded a city--and surprisingly, it wasn't Sabata (the Settler is just sitting there for some reason), but instead a city in the NW). Still, I feel like I should focus a bit on other units--Vienna's Axe will complete relatively quickly, Prague's Chariot can complete in 2 turns if I switch some cottages to mines, and Aachen might want to build a military unit after the Settler completes--but don't forget I get 6k power when I complete Math in two turns as well

Finally, I was talking about the weirdness in the NE--I finally made a dotmap so we have a frame of reference:


The resource distribution here is awkward--there's a bunch of food to the north of Moai, but a bunch of plains and desert. NE of Carib is where a lot of stone/marble is hiding, but there's almost no food there except on the edges. I like the cities 1, 2, and 3 on the dotmap, but I have no clue when I would want to settle them--I feel like the western cities are a higher priority (which probably delays these until after Currency), but I have a feeling I'll have to choose between one or the other. Maybe there's some way to compromise--settle A in the west and defend it well, then settle 1 over here, and then hope to get to Currency relatively fast? After that I could try to fight for B in the west (from a presumably weaker Adrien) and clear out room for 2 and 3 over here from johns (though we'll be fighting on multiple fronts--isn't Toroidal fun! ). Any thoughts BGN, especially on whether west or east is better land?

The rest of the pictures are here--I'd also like some thoughts on what to do with the stranded Warrior from my last report

[Cheater Hater]

T88 Quick Report:
No clue if we're going to get another turn tonight (probably not, since I don't think johns would play right now), but if it does roll in a couple hours I'll be playing late, since I'll be gone most of the afternoon playing Magic. Until then, a quick report/picture dump:




Yes, johns didn't resettle Sabata--he settled it 1N of the old spot!
Seriously, what makes him think I'm not going to just burn it again? I guess it's technically better since he has a better chance of stealing my fish (since it's first ring not second ring), but I don't see any reason why I shouldn't just burn it again once the peace treaty expires--it's even farther away from the rest of his infrastructure! I have no clue what's going on over there

Other than that, the most notable thing is that I'm starting another settler in the capital now that I've grown to the happy cap there--I think it's heading to the west to settle the 4 spot, mainly since I already have my garrison over there. I still have a couple turns to decide at least



The food deficit surprises me, although I am not working those pigs at Prague, and I'm not sure I'm working the southern rice either. The soldier deficit remains the same, but I'll catch up next turn when I complete the Axe in Bas-Tyra along with Math.

Rest of the pictures are here.

[GermanJoey]

What will you get out of burning it? What is your goal?