[SPOILERS] Dark Savant leads the noble Inca as half-noble Churchiill

[Dark Savant]

And now that I've sent a scout through, we do need to rethink dotmapping the area.  That super city would be great, but spacing to the frontier would be awkward -- the problem is that then there'd be no place to plant further west but say on the marble.

That marble hill would be a bold land claim.  We'd need like at least say that axe and two archers to even start such a claim -- but it can be done.  It'd of course upset ipecac.

And the column of tiles to its east looks awkward.  I'd pretty much have to plant on the hill southeast to the marble for it to be defensible.  And we can't have our super city.

I wonder if ipecac knows he has a neighbor where we are, making it worth it to just not push the scout further and just suddenly drop a city on the marble ... He probably does.  edit: but I still wonder if it's worthwhile to try to make a move to just drop a city on the marble with a couple of archers and an axe out of nowhere.

[OT4E]

I believe 1 archer or 1 axe is enough by the moment you plant with a scout covering obvious attack direction. You need more to keep it of coursw but occupying good spot can be even more important.

Needless to mention that I would plant #4 on marble because contest for the good site with IMP leader will be hard. OTOH noone will compete with tou for your #4 at least not Charriu and not this game with his slow start.

City on marble will start with 2 food resources but will get the same 4 after getting 20%.

[Dark Savant]

I believe 1 archer or 1 axe is enough by the moment you plant with a scout covering obvious attack direction. You need more to keep it of coursw but occupying good spot can be even more important.

Needless to mention that I would plant #4 on marble because contest for the good site with IMP leader will be hard. OTOH noone will compete with tou for your #4 at least not Charriu and not this game with his slow start.

City on marble will start with 2 food resources but will get the same 4 after getting 20%.

It's only become obvious in the past few turns how slow Charriu's start is -- I keep wondering what he's actually producing.  It's not military, so I thought it was settlers.  

I can change my mind; I won't play the current turn for ~8-10 more hours -- that's going to result in some awkward micro for a few turns if I just turn around, but the settler itself is just about to emerge.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

I haven't read ipecac's thread in a while and have no idea what his thoughts may be. FWIW, in your position I'd plant on marble for a 3h city tile and feel great doing it. That's a monster hammer city, defensible, and perfect for a frontier. Inca-granary, barracks (culture needs satisfied, good units), pump units, maybe a wall one day if you feel like you need it, lots of extra FH to dump into workers/settlers. Easy profit. And I don't think this bothers any potential dotmapping. I see several good alternatives building around this one. I'd have a workboat ready to go, whip the granary quickly, then this thing is off and running.

[Dark Savant]

I haven't read ipecac's thread in a while and have no idea what his thoughts may be. FWIW, in your position I'd plant on marble for a 3h city tile and feel great doing it. That's a monster hammer city, defensible, and perfect for a frontier. Inca-granary, barracks (culture needs satisfied, good units), pump units, maybe a wall one day if you feel like you need it, lots of extra FH to dump into workers/settlers. Easy profit. And I don't think this bothers any potential dotmapping. I see several good alternatives building around this one. I'd have a workboat ready to go, whip the granary quickly, then this thing is off and running.

With the settler just about to come out, or #5?  I'd been planning to advance in Charriu's direction first, but I'd planned that before I realized just how slow his settling is.

Also, I can't actually get that work boat there for quite some time, unless I sacrifice the micro for the Great Lighthouse.

[OT4E]

Share the sheep and you will see that 3-hammer city is awesome by itself. Workboat or granary in 7 turns.

[Dark Savant]

Share the sheep and you will see that 3-hammer city is awesome by itself. Workboat or granary in 7 turns.

Oh, hmm -- yeah, forgot about that overlap.

I'll see what I can do about the micro, I hadn't planned for this.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 55 (1800 BC) - Part 1

Logged in -- we made contact with ipecac (Commodore playing his turns now) interturn anyway.  And he's clearly planning to plant in the general area soon.



That's one warrior who just stepped out of the fog next to our scout, and a worker who stepped into that forest to start a road (so due eot57).

I'll have to reconsider the plan to plant west -- but at the same time I do not think I can just allow this uncontested, even though I don't have much to contest with.  (I mean.  That's just one warrior.  I have this axe.)

At the same time, my schedule didn't allow me to play anything but late, so if there's a settling race here, I have to play second half.  Except if I claim the split, I'm strongly implying I have (or at least am thinking of having) a settler on the way.

I'll have to take some time to think about this.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 55 (1800 BC) - Part 2

Also, there's also a barbarian warrior incoming.



Not a big deal on its own, but we had plans to claim two more cities quickly, but I don't think we have enough to cover all of this (there exist enough cities that the barbarian warrior will not respect borders, though it doesn't currently "see" a target so it may randomly move away), not to mention city #5 will cost a small fortune in maintenance.

Charriu sent an axe that way into the fog -- that barb warrior and the axe didn't see each other?

[Dark Savant]

If ipecac/Commodore mean to plant on the marble hill, I'll move my axe into his sight late next turn, so he'll see our axe with his warrior on his t57, from two tiles away.

Also, and importantly, that warrior all by itself can stop even a quick marble plant, since the plan to get there quickly was to get the settler there one turn before the axe.

Yeah.  So keeping that axe garrisoned in King's Landing longer than needed did in fact have a cost.