[SPOILERS] The Wild Card

[The Black Sword]

Yeah, T57 was the turn his power graph jumped, wanted to keep that in mind ...




I really should have kept the scout over there until The Turtle was setup.

Power graph also shows another unit built:


I guess we'll have to upgrade a warrior? Since his guy is promoted though(I guess he popped borders with a barracks, forgot about that), we may need to upgrade the second guy as well, which would require a turn saving gold. If we're lucky, he might go away after seeing the first upgrade, but something tells me we're not hooking that wheat.

Other options for units:

The Turtle makes 6hpt, which would be a 3t unit with one of the chops inside our borders if we're allowed, or 4t if we chop one of the forests outside the borders.

Jetboy could switch from Missionary and put the chop into an axe next turn, though it has 5t travel time.

Dr Tachyon has a chop this turn and whip next turn into a granary, that could also be switched for an axe, with 6t travel time.

Haven't done anything in game yet.

[Jowy]

Hey at least it's just one unit, and we have that gold banked for upgrades. I reckon we should just get as many axes out as possible, it is now crystal clear that he is intending to hurt us. We should save gold for the second upgrade. Best case scenario is that he leaves when he sees that we can defend the city and will have copper hooked up. Worst case scenario is that he will keep spamming shock axes, knowing that we don't have horses (if he knows that). He still has the scout around, so it is possible that there are more units on the way and he's checking out if we have any reinforcements coming. How many axes we should get out? Your guess is as good as mine

[The Black Sword]

I'm thinking let Jetboy build that Missionary, the border pop will be important for the defense of The Turtle anyway, and get an axe out of Dr Tachyon. We can probably get the Granary finished before the food box is half full at size 2 anyway, whether with another chop or overflow+slow build. We're only losing out on the workboat/galley hammers for the south island, but I think we should certainly be going Animal Husbandry next instead of Sailing anyway.

The unit will take ages to get there, but maybe he'll see 2 upgrades, a unit from The Turtle and another whipped unit and see we're taking things seriously, take peace. 10t turns to hook the wheat and chop those 3 forests would be amazing.

Looking at his power graph, that latest increase doesn't seem high enough to be an axe, and we know he does have animal husbandry. Should we get a spear in the front city? A Chariot picking off our units while the axe sits on the front forest would be painful. He also whipped something this turn.

[Jowy]

Okay that disruption in our plans doesn't sound too bad. I actually forgot that we didn't have AH yet since we already had pastures up, damn RB mod :P Definitely go for AH asap, we should have a source of horses close-by since our copper is so far away. Yes we should build a spear if that second power spike is a chariot. One spear should be enough to deal with any chariots.

[The Black Sword]

I just can't make scout moves.



At least it gives us a good idea how his empire is set up. I think his capital is 3N, 2w from our scout and East(2nd) city is 2N from the copper. Obviously his latest city is 1E of the mountain. That's farther away than I thought tbh, makes me feel a bit better about things.

Anyway, in important matters, I upgraded the warrior to an axe and started a spear in The Tutle and an axe in Dr Tachyon as planned. I didn't finish the chop into the axe since it just needs the whip next turn and we might as well stay flexible. Instead I started a road on the village tile which would speed travel time up by a turn.

Tech is actually still on agriculture, I think the pre-req bonus is going to save us the turn on AH anyway.

Still expecting a war declaration next turn.

[Jowy]

He was probably going for the wheat+copper spot himself, but we beat him to it. It was a good decision on our part to settle our third all the way over there. War declaration is definitely coming, no other reason to haul that axe to our borders and keep that scout over there for that many turns. His best bet is forcing us to upgrade the second warrior, then leaving. Unless he has more units ofc, then he will push for more. Let's hope that once we manage to hold him off, he will realize that further aggression will only slow us both down.

[Ceiliazul]

It was a good decision on our part to settle our third all the way over there.

doesn't that remain to be seen?

[Jowy]

It was a good decision on our part to settle our third all the way over there.

doesn't that remain to be seen?

Nah. Well, maybe if he wasn't trying to contest that land, then perhaps it was a mistake. But if he was (as it seems, judging by that weak looking plains city), and we hadn't settled our third there, we would have suffered a lot long term by him grabbing that land and we'd also still be without metal against an aggressive neighbor. The plant seems like the correct play when trying to be a force in this game. If we lose it, that will suck and we'll be in trouble, but if we hadn't tried we'd be in big trouble anyway.

[Ceiliazul]

"better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all"? makes sense from that perspective.

[The Black Sword]

Nicely played by dtay. I guess the graphs must lag a bit for him to have gotten here already.


65% ctk for him with our 5% fortify and he gets another promo if he wins. If he misses the first, we're probably safe, he misses the second, we're probably still dead.

Nothing else on the power graph:


I would lament my choice of a spear there, but doesn't look like we'll finish in time anyway.