[Spoilers] Adrien and Mardoc relax and play civ

[AdrienIer]

Ok. Construction will make a big difference. How many units do we have in the region between the capital, tri and velociraptor ?

[Mardoc]

Ok. Construction will make a big difference. How many units do we have in the region between the capital, tri and velociraptor ?

We're thin. Maybe five at the moment? Jowy could really cause us a headache if he were to attack right now, but I think his morale was damaged too much by the 20-unit army failure.

Partly that's because I've been trying to lay off the whip, and the rest is the loss of eight units in the past three turns. On the other hand, our backlines cities are finally pretty much mature, so we can recreate our army fairly fast.

[AdrienIer]

Good, we were a one-city empire for a long time the cap needed some rest.

[Mardoc]

Jowy sent a mini-stack toward the copper city (Stegosaurus). Advance force of 1 chariot, followed by chariot, vulture, spear. Fortunately his advance chariot was on a road, so I killed it and retreated the spear back to the city - perfect battle, in fact, spear wasn't even scratched.

He keeps demanding Triceratops for peace. I keep being confused why we would accept. Sure, neither of us can really hold the place without a peace treaty, but I'd rather have it as no-man's land than let Jowy hold on.

We finished Construction this turn First catapult went into a queue this turn. I'm debating what makes sense next, so I'm just saving gold for the moment.
Options:
Horseback Riding: strong quick-response force would be nice - Jowy currently focuses everything in the south, but he may come from other angles in the future. Stables mean we could give HA shock and actually have a decent chance against spears - or else Flanking II. Whenever Jowy gets around to actually researching Construction, we'll want the ability to flank away catapults. And...Shock is his very favorite promotion. Be good to mix things up a bit.

Iron Working: Swords are nice. Higher base strength, inherent city raiderish effect - could probably take on Vultures in a city and win. Would be good to have redundant metal, if we are lucky in its placement.

Sailing: Would help the econ to be able to work coast tiles, build a Moai, and an offshore city. Be good to have galleys out to stop any attempted Sumerian coastal raids, too.

Right now I'm leaning HBR. I think our bottleneck at the moment is hammers. Since I lost so much on the attempted Velociraptor reconquest, and we now have cats as an option, we're going to have to focus our building on a stack that might control our own territory. HA fit in with that beautifully. Sailing would be nice, but then we have to come up with hammers for settlers and lighthouses and galleys. And regarding Iron: if we can build ourselves a good stack of catapults + hitters, we can reconquer anyway. Cats are much more flexible than swords, can fill multiple roles. Granted, cats + swords + axes + HA could probably conquer more cheaply than just cats + axes, but...we're going to be building cats for a long time.

[AdrienIer]

Granted, cats + swords + axes + HA could probably conquer more cheaply than just cats + axes, but...we're going to be building cats for a long time.

Yeah getting IW AND HBR yesterday would be the best plan, along with a dozen additional cities, but in our situation HBR is already a strong option.

[Mardoc]

If we're going to be that generous with our hypothetical, I'd rather have Machinery. Or Guilds .

Anyway, you may have seen from the tech thread that I was unable to finish playing the turn due to technical problems. And Jowy's apparently having some too. So I wouldn't expect too much progress to be made in the next couple days.

[Mardoc]

Jowy asked for peace again . At least this time he didn't demand tribute, but I still don't see why 'leave me alone to research catapults' is something the HRE should want.

He's advancing a chariot and a Vulture in the north. Currently separated - either they'll slow down to stack, or I can kill them individually. Or they'll back up again, of course.

The barbs sent in an archer, which we killed. I'd forgotten that barb's don't give XP after 10, so the only effect was to keep our copper unpillaged .

[AdrienIer]

White peace means we have 10t to take the barb city, get a stack out and at the end of it try to retake raptor. It also allows us to get more cities out. I find it somewhat tempting.

[Mardoc]

Oh, I suppose you're right. It would be easier to expand if we didn't have to keep garrisons everywhere. Ten turns might be enough to get Walls and a culture source in Triceratops, too. And we're not planning any short term invasions, so we don't give up much.

Offered Jowy white peace. Of course, he had started the turn by demanding Triceratops for peace again, so he probably still won't take it

[Mardoc]

Jowy must have accepted, because he played both the last and first turns this time.

So...what do we want to try to get done in the next 10 turns?

Basics: take the barb city, build walls + culture in Triceratops, found the Moai city. Those are things that I'm sure 10 turns is enough for and we'd been working on anyway

Other: Research sailing, try to found at least one offshore city? There's at least two that we wouldn't have to fight for, just offshore - but of course being island cities, only their trade would pay back quickly
Other2: Research HBR, try to slip in stables and some HA?
Other3: Build a buncha catapults, axes, chariots, and a couple spears so we can make something happen at Velociraptor?

Basically, it's a question of how short term we're thinking. Do we think investing in expansion can pay back, or should we just stack up units to kill whatever Jowy invades with next?

I'm very tempted to try to establish at least one overseas city for trade. But...I think I've shown I tend to have a problem with optimism . So maybe that's too much to shoot for right now and we should just go for a stack. Or split the difference and build a stack that can either go for Velociraptor, or defend.