[SPOILERS] How do you make this thing work: Krill randomly mashes some buttons

[Krill]

   

Scout had to stand still and heal to stop the barb scout being able to kill the settler. Next turn scout checks the hill and settler follows, T25 settle VV and move the warrior into the city to heal.

The slinger did 34 damage to the barb warrior, so I should finish Craftsmanship end of next turn, then dump the culture from the barb warrior into FT. Hopefully the slinger should die the turn after, but I am likely to need to promote the first slinger which would delay killing the barb slinger a turn.

Question: If the slinger gets a promotion, and then I promote it then upgrade, does the newly upgraded archer keep the previous promotion? Are the promotion trees different between units within the same class and upgrade line. I've never actually checked any of that stuff out.


   

27 military strength to 54...wonder what Dave actually built? Whatever he built, doubt the barbs are screwing him as tightly as they area screwing me.

Pity I can't run Iikum/UP/GK, if he doesn't know I've settled VV and the barbs just die out I could have gotten all the builders out.

[Tacitus]

Question: If the slinger gets a promotion, and then I promote it then upgrade, does the newly upgraded archer keep the previous promotion? Are the promotion trees different between units within the same class and upgrade line. I've never actually checked any of that stuff out.

Promotion trees are the same for units in the same line. Units keep their promotions on upgrade, so an archer upgraded from a slinger will have the slingers promotions.

[Krill]

Ok, makes sense.

Ever get to the end of the promotion tree?

[suboptimal]

Ok, makes sense.

Ever get to the end of the promotion tree?

I maxxed out a crossbowman in Epic 4.  540 XP and all promotions.

[suboptimal]

Just catching up here.....

Going back to your free time post,

- buying the 3/2/1 grapes is better than the 3/2 bananas. Of course, if gold permits, buying one now and one after expansion might be a good idea.

- for techs, researching to just under half and then waiting for the eurekas is the idea, unless you really need the tech or run out. Bronze Working is probably good to get sooner rather than later, if only to reveal iron.

- it might be worth putting down a campus as soon as VV is founded to keep the costs low. The 2/1 tile 7 of the mountain is probably a good spot.

- killing a unit gives 50% of that units strength in culture. A slinger should give 7-8.

- I agree with Emperor K to keep God King until the pantheon comes in. God of the Open Sky would be good here, as you point out.

- You'll be needing military at some point (Dave's score is probably starting warrior + warrior + slinger or warrior), so Agoge would be good once you're ready to crank out a few units.

- While it's more efficient to wait for Early Empire and Colonization, getting a 3rd city out before that point could be quite beneificial. Of course, that needs to be balanced with getting a few military units out. Getting a builder out for improvements (and the Craftsmanship inspiration) is also probably high on the list (so many builds, so few cogs).

- Scout should go NE to see if that's Jesterfool/Dave or not. Given the distance it probably is his capital.

[Krill]

Craftsmanship is done when I play the next turn.

Should a campus be prioritized or maybe an encampment at VV? It is a front city...

I should get the Eureka for BW in a couple of turns, then it is 10 turns of tech. Probably better to grab that and get the encampment cheaper...

[Krill]

I've been thinking about openings, and things seem to be slightly funky.

I've gone scout>settler>slinger>slinger.

I'm about to cram a city down in Jester's face and I don't know what he could have done to stop it except...choking me.

Jester built military before settler, but hasn't concentrated it. I don't know if the scouting has paid off for him (he could easily have met multiple CS first and gotten tons of free envoys, unlike me). What I do know is that he would have needed to build a slinger, plus kept his warrior in position to block any settling towards him. Just sit outside my culture and attack anything that moved forward until he could slam a settler down and block any city locations to my NE.

To do that, he would have to have gone at least slinger>settler, maybe even slinger>slinger>settler? But then he would have had even poorer scouting than I did. But he also would have been able to fight anything the barbs threw at him...And what is the counter to someone playing that start? I struggling to see how an early builder works, because you fail to defend against barbs. What is the counter to an early slinger play?

[suboptimal]

Let's do a bit of "snooping"...open the main score screen and mouseover his civ symbol in the science, culture and military areas. The science tootip will provide his current science rate & techs completed, culture will show his per turn rate and tourism output (IIRC) and military will show his military power score and we can compare vs. our own.

In the display that shows the scores for each player check the show details box. That will give you a rundown on what everyone is doing. You get 2 points for each tech or civic completed. The empire score gives 1 per pop, 5 per city and 3 per district. It's too early for wonders, GP and religion scoring, so these should all be zero.

[Krill]

Dave has researched 1 tech, and is making 7.1 science per turn and last place  (so must have met a science CS, plus Kandy that is near to him. Do I have anything to the SW?) 2.3 culture per turn and 0 Tourism, 4th place. Military strength 54 (2nd place). And 2.1 faith per turn (1st place).

To put this into perspective I am 3rd in science, and last in everything else.

Truth be told, I know I've made some mistakes here, but I'm not sure how I would have dealt with the barbs in a more effective manner. I'm pretty sure that an early settler is the best way to maintain growth...and just ignore the barbs. They can't do anything if you don't improve the land. But...well, I just need to explore more, maybe there are some CS I could have gotten to first before others? I need to explore the SW, and I need to get that scout out to look for another continent ASAP.

   

[suboptimal]

Pindicator has a 2nd city up and running with 4 pop total. At 7.1 science dave is getting 1 from the palace, 2.1 from population (the score screen may be stale) and four from a combination of envoys and resources. He's probably met 2 scientific city states. I'm also willing to bet that "jvanheycop" has either met a cultural CS or went builder 2nd and found a 2nd continent (to get the eurekas). 54 military strength is probably two warriors and a slinger. Founding the second city will start to help with science and culture - the grapes and bananas will go a long way to jumpstarting those.

Once the city founds I think the scout needs to go east or north east to see what's in that direction.