[SPOILERS] The Wild Card

[Jowy]

We wouldn't get vision on the new city, so it can be in that area, and probably is. I'm okay with going for the horses. It will be a weak city, but to be honest so would almost any city we can settle, and we do need strategic resources.

[The Black Sword]

Ok, starting to road towards the horses then, the area does look sparse, so maybe there is some more fog resources ...

Left the units as shown before so that we have two units that can hit the axe if he attacks and kills. I realised there's no good way of hiding the second axe.

Don't think I've posted the demos since our catastrophe. This is the best it's been in a while, as we're about to start new whip cycles:

[Ceiliazul]

well, at least you still have your spot on the top of the scoreboard...

[The Black Sword]

Yeah, still almost a 30pt gap, it's a good example of just how misleading score can be.


There's a bit more land down there than I thought. Unfortunately, it also means no seafood. Anyway, next turn the worker can move onto the horses to get all the relevant information and we can make a decision.


I was thinking of a workboat in case of any seafood in the south or to circle the island, which may not be an island anymore. Now I'm thinking putting the hammers into the LH would be better in preparation for whipping it in. Could also get a missionary for the south.


Granary here next, I'm leaning towards the chopping plan.


Dr Tachyon should be able to take a second mine off the capital if we switch off the WB. Needs a WB after to get to Sleeper in time for border pop. Or chop a second WB in sleeper.

Another power boost for dtay makes me feel all squishy inside:

The axe sitting on the forest sees everything being built in Jetboy unfortunately. We want to get out a chariot ASAP to take him out.

Tech:

Writing(4t) -> Maths(13t) -> Currency(21t), where we get half priced markets is easily the best economic option. Could go Iron working(9t) for security but I'm still reasonably confident we can secure one of those copper sites. HBR(11t) to get some revenge on dtay is also very tempting.

[The Black Sword]

Lighthouse seems to be the best plan. We want to whip something in soon but need some chariots to kill this axe before we get another settler. It's very good value anyway, 3fpt and 3 other coastal tiles we can work instead of building cottages for ~50h with OR. I set that up, other decisions can all be delayed until next turn when we decide where to put the new city.

[Jowy]

Shit busy day, forgot to reply. Lighthouse is ok. Should get a missionary for the new city if we find a stronger food resource in the 2nd ring in the south. I would also rather get copper than hope for iron, not just for units but also for Colossus which I still want us to build, especially since it seems we'll be having a lot of coastal cities. But obviously we shouldn't use hammers on that while still under threat by Dtay.

[The Black Sword]

Good point about the Colossus. That and Fin are our main chance to get back into the game, with 2/0/4 coast we don't necessarily need as much land as everyone else to stay competitive.

[The Black Sword]

No food. Settle 1W I suppose?


Sleeper needs to prepare some defenses.

[The Black Sword]

Military overview:


Sleeper can get an archer out this turn, and another next turn, at the cost of it's granary at size 2. Then finish the WB and chop out a chariot the turn horses come in. We can get a few chariots, whipping Dr Tachyon, chopping in Fortunato(the horse city) as well. Jetboy can get a settler for them to cover.

We also need at least 1 more worker to go with that settler and a missionary for Fortunato though. I feel like we're going to have way too much military for so early, but what can you do I suppose. We might consider sending a chariot to poke around dtay's south depending how much we have.

[The Black Sword]

If I'd been smart last turn I would have realised the hill is the logical next spot for the chariot and have moved the central archer to be ready to doubleteam him. Anyway, another turn where I need to step back and re-evaluate rather than play right away. Though I suspect the right move is simply to forget all micro and queue up archers everywhere.

I'm pretty annoyed with dtay right now. That's probably rather common when you're at war with someone I suppose, but it just doesn't feel like he's playing in his best interests here. That's 170h worth of units and he's building more at home, either to follow up the attack or to because he's no defense left. That's 2 extra cities right there and then snowballing. This attack will quite probably hurt us more than it's cost him but he's not going to take any cities with it, until much later at the least.