Two noteworthy things this turn.
A) We finished Guilds! And revolted to Vassalage, on the last turn of our golden age. Now we just need to finish up our barracks and build a quick knight-based army.
B) THH flashed a Knight at us, in ex-Polynesian.
From this I deduce:
1) We don't want to fight THH just yet. He's apparently ahead in tech, at least a little, and he's definitely ahead in hammers and whippable pop. I'm sure we could ruin his game still, but profit is unlikely.
2) THH doesn't want to fight us. If he did, he shouldn't be scaring me, he should put a bunch of knights and cats just behind the city where I can't see, and slaughter me when I land.
So...I think I'm going to go for Alhazard. We'll hope this picks up enough cities to let us pull actually ahead of THH and hit him later. But I'm not mad enough at his stealing our barb city to throw away the game, not when I think we still have a real chance.
I still haven't seen anything non-ancient in Egyptian lands. I think speed may be more important than army size or composition, as a result. Knights can be hot knife through butter if I hit him early enough. 15-20 Knights is probably sufficient to kick him off the mainland, at least the part we've seen. Which is six cities, clustered around a little sea - they'd be great for us, more production and lots more Colossus tiles. A quick Fort for a canal, and we can bring most of our navy straight to his home sea - that ought to let us grab his homeland island too. He might have something more on the mainland somewhere, but if we've got 2/3 of his empire, we ought to be able to hunt down the rest - presuming that neither Miguelito nor THH get there first.
So...I need to finish Barracks, whip a pair of Knights per city, and get them moving north ASAP. Can follow up with longbows for garrisons, cats for security against vultures, and so on - we're not going to stop building army by any means - but I think I shouldn't wait for them to be built before I kick off the invasion. Not when his border cities with me are each guarded by ~4 War Chariots and an ax. And if I'm reading the terrain correctly, I ought to be able to hit both cities T0 of a war from the fog, without Engineering even.
My biggest worry here is that THH decides to spoil, one way or another. He really can't afford to let me double my empire without doing something of his own, not even when he's in first place and I'm arguably in last. I could see that something being a spoiling attack on me (only why flash knights first?), or a simultaneous attack on Alhazard for a share of the spoils, or an attack on Miguelito for spoils + wonders.
But...I don't see what I can do about it, really, other than keep back some cats and a trireme or two. And, of course, aim to make this a real blitzkrieg, but I want to do that anyway to keep Alhazard from being able to whip much or get to better units. I can't abort, that just means I lose eventually instead of losing immediately.
A) We finished Guilds! And revolted to Vassalage, on the last turn of our golden age. Now we just need to finish up our barracks and build a quick knight-based army.
B) THH flashed a Knight at us, in ex-Polynesian.
From this I deduce:
1) We don't want to fight THH just yet. He's apparently ahead in tech, at least a little, and he's definitely ahead in hammers and whippable pop. I'm sure we could ruin his game still, but profit is unlikely.
2) THH doesn't want to fight us. If he did, he shouldn't be scaring me, he should put a bunch of knights and cats just behind the city where I can't see, and slaughter me when I land.
So...I think I'm going to go for Alhazard. We'll hope this picks up enough cities to let us pull actually ahead of THH and hit him later. But I'm not mad enough at his stealing our barb city to throw away the game, not when I think we still have a real chance.
I still haven't seen anything non-ancient in Egyptian lands. I think speed may be more important than army size or composition, as a result. Knights can be hot knife through butter if I hit him early enough. 15-20 Knights is probably sufficient to kick him off the mainland, at least the part we've seen. Which is six cities, clustered around a little sea - they'd be great for us, more production and lots more Colossus tiles. A quick Fort for a canal, and we can bring most of our navy straight to his home sea - that ought to let us grab his homeland island too. He might have something more on the mainland somewhere, but if we've got 2/3 of his empire, we ought to be able to hunt down the rest - presuming that neither Miguelito nor THH get there first.
So...I need to finish Barracks, whip a pair of Knights per city, and get them moving north ASAP. Can follow up with longbows for garrisons, cats for security against vultures, and so on - we're not going to stop building army by any means - but I think I shouldn't wait for them to be built before I kick off the invasion. Not when his border cities with me are each guarded by ~4 War Chariots and an ax. And if I'm reading the terrain correctly, I ought to be able to hit both cities T0 of a war from the fog, without Engineering even.
My biggest worry here is that THH decides to spoil, one way or another. He really can't afford to let me double my empire without doing something of his own, not even when he's in first place and I'm arguably in last. I could see that something being a spoiling attack on me (only why flash knights first?), or a simultaneous attack on Alhazard for a share of the spoils, or an attack on Miguelito for spoils + wonders.
But...I don't see what I can do about it, really, other than keep back some cats and a trireme or two. And, of course, aim to make this a real blitzkrieg, but I want to do that anyway to keep Alhazard from being able to whip much or get to better units. I can't abort, that just means I lose eventually instead of losing immediately.
EitB 25 - Perpentach
Occasional mapmaker
Occasional mapmaker