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

[Krill]

I think the scout needs to head east, and buying both the banana and the wine costs 50 gold apiece, so 100 gold total?

Well, I only need to buy the 3/2/1 win first, and then later on can decide to buy the banana for the 3/2 tile, or just use the 3/1/1 wine. Otherwise I think it makes sense to save the gold for potential slinger upgrades.

Question: If I wanted to build an encampment in VV, what would be the best tile to put it on? A hill towards Jester? Because such a tile would likely need to be bought...

[Krill]

Ok...settled, bought the 3/2/1 wine, swapped to agoge, warrior in 3 at CS and slinger in 6 at VV, barb warrior dead for 10 culture into FT plus a promotion on slinger 1, and 52 health off the barb slinger.

Scout has gone east, I'm going to head around what we think is Jester to search for another continent and for CS quests. I am tempted to store culture in State Workforce, until I can clear out the barb camp, get Kandy envoy and extra faith to speed up the Pantheon, then finish FT and swap into Iikum and shove out 3 builders. Probably going to grow CS to size 4? And hook rice, horse, citrus and cow? Then use the last two builder charges at city 3. I will likely put hammers into the campus after this warrior whilst growing to size 4. Tech will be to get AH to one turn from completion then go to BW as I also have that Eureka now.

[Krill]

Question. How do walls work?

[suboptimal]

- Ancient walls can take 50hp of damage before they are destroyed.  Medieval walls can take 100hp, Renaissance walls can take 150hp.  Upon researching Steel all cities in a civ gain Urban Defenses with 200hp and battering rams and siege towers no longer function against them.

- While the walls are intact the city center can make a ranged attack against any unit within two hexes, but this is restricted by line of sight.  The ranged attack is made at the strength of the strongest unit your civ has built.

- If there's an Encampment in the city it also gains its own walls and a garrison with 100hp (instead of the center's 200hp), the tile becomes impassible to other civs' units and can make ranged attacks.  Once an Encampment's walls and garrison are reduced to zero damage the entire district is pillaged.

- Without siege units fully healed walls will take most or all of the damage of an attack first.  As the walls become damaged the city will take some damage until the walls are destroyed.

- Melee units suffer an 85% reduction in damage vs. walls, ranged land units take a 50% reduction (I think this is in addition to their -17 strength penalty for attacking a city).  Siege units and ranged naval units do their full damage vs. walls.

- A battering ram removes the damage penalty for all land units attacking the city.  A siege tower bypasses the walls completely.  In both cases only one of these units needs to be adjacent to the city for all attackers to benefit.

[Krill]

So basically cram a walls and then encampment in VV and it's not rushable? The walls seems to make an opponent also take Masonry and build the battering ram, which delays an attack, and my main concern is if Jester rushes BW and IW, builds an encampment and builds swords...

Walls seems worth moving for, so maybe Masonry next? Actually, should I contest the GG?

I'm just thinking out loud here.

[Bacchus]

Encampment can't be built adjacent to city centre is one crucial point.

[Krill]

There are two nice hills, 97 and 96 of VV that look decent? I am extremely uncertain about what constitutes good encampment placement.

[suboptimal]

So basically cram a walls and then encampment in VV and it's not rushable? The walls seems to make an opponent also take Masonry and build the battering ram, which delays an attack, and my main concern is if Jester rushes BW and IW, builds an encampment and builds swords...

Walls seems worth moving for, so maybe Masonry next? Actually, should I contest the GG?

I'm just thinking out loud here.

Bronze Working should be first in order to reveal iron as that might be a determining factor in placing city #3. 

Jester would not be able to rush swords unless he gets two iron resources or gets one and cranks out his own Encampment.  BW -> Masonry might be a good approach.

Regarding Encampment placement could you put up a screen shot of the area around VV?  As Emp K Bacchus pointed out it can't be first ring. 

What's the current build in VV?

[Krill]

VV is currently on a slinger, growth in 4 to size 2. I will do an update when I play in the next 2 hours. Currently have 1 warrior and 2 slingers, building a warrior and slinger and 1 turn from AH and Mining so now is crunch time for tech decisions.

[Krill]

   

The overview shot. I killed the slinger, turns out that the ability to harvest culture only gives half the melee strength, so ranged units are worthless for harvesting. That culture went into FT, but I swapped over to Mil Trad because I'm keeping with the plan to go kill the barb outpost with the warrior and the unpromoted slinger.

That should give enough XP to at least promote the slinger, but I'm interested in the GG TBH. I've changed my mind about going for the GG, because with the numbers posted above for strength differences and the previous games propensity for getting a GG=killing someone, trying to defend against Jester when I don't know how to. I know there is a spear present but I expect to run into another warrior which should give a chunk more culture, and this gives the scout time to get the inspiration for FT, and I am about 26 culture from finishing FT, 6 culture from crossing into the inspiration.

This then gives me the unfortunate question about Amenities. I want to grow CS to size 4, but my understanding is that it would become "unhappy" unless I hook a lux. Which would require me to research Irrigation to hook either the citrus or the wine, but I want to use the first three builder charges for the stone (Masonry, Walls), Rice (the Irrigation inspiration) and Sheep (HBR Inspiration).

Now, I'm focusing on the tech needed to defend against Jester. I think he must have gone Mining>BW because he only just got his second tech unless he was sandbagging, to then dump his settler down on the nearest iron resource, grab an encampment and rush someone with swords. That way he wouldn't have to deal with the increased settler costs. Two upgraded warriors later if he doesn't spend gold and what is the counterplay?


   

I'm kinda torn on this, because I think that the only way to beat a sword rush would be Walls, force him to tech for a Battering Ram. Now, I have one promoted slinger, should get a second and a third basic one here, and I'm 6 turns from Archery with the ability to upgrade them all in about 12-14 turns. Archery takes 7 turns to complete with AH also completed in that time frame. Does it make sense to go Builder next in CS, hook the stone and then build the Walls here? Would that plus Archery be enough to delay Jester for me to grab the GG, BW and an Encampment? I have just pink dotted him, I don't see the point in being aggressive now, I need time to grow.

An additional point: If I were to go for the GG, I lose the wildcard slot for 30 turns. I would need to give up UP for Iikum, but for a 50 and 54 production builder it's worth it, except it would also slow down production in VV of Walls due to the lost 1 production per turn. OTOH, I could use the second worker to improve both cows for culture and production. OTOH, I'd only need it for 8 turns, maybe only 7, and I may be able to micro between completing FT and MT if I discover the other continent quickly enough. So builder production is probably better sooner rather than later...gah, it's complicated, but I think the Campus keeps on being pushed back.

Also, here are the Great People: