The most frustrating thing is, even if I *did* manage to build up enough artillery to clear him off a forested hill, he would just see it coming and move back. He can see two tiles away, and we can both move at most 2 tiles per turn. If I try to move past him, he'll move past me and hit my capital. Things are much better now than they were 10 turns ago when I thought I was about to immediately die, but they're still pretty bad. I feel like I'm in one of those chess end-game situations where there's no way to force a mate.
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[Spoilers] luddite tries to remember how this game works
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I see three options to force him off the defensive tile:
- Outgrow him with more cities, infrastructure, tiles developed. Then he has to go on the offensive or let you get ahead. - Threaten his cities with a part of your units. Then he has to defend or disrupt the attack. - Bait him with a worker/unit/weakly garissoned city.
My singleplayer balance mod of BTS: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/3u6g4b2nfa74qhm...%20mod.odt?
(August 16th, 2023, 09:03)chumchu Wrote: I see three options to force him off the defensive tile: Well, here's how I see it. I've been *trying* to bait him with something. I've tried workers, i've tried axeman, and at the start my southern cities were undefended. I tried really hard this turn, giving him a warrior, the hill, and using a new AT he hadn't seen yet. But he just plays everything so cautiously, I don't see what I can use to bait him that doesn't just let him win. Outgrow him? I wish. Admittedly we both have 4 cities, and I can refound Dulle Griet. But I can see from the top 5 cities screen that he has size 5 cities- mine are only size 2. Plus his overall land is better, and I don't have a single building yet. I think he knows that he can outgrow me, and that's why he's playing this for the long term. Threaten his cities...? I don't see how I could do that and still defend myself. If I go with just part of my forces, he can probably just whip a few units and defend it while also attacking me. If I go with everything, it's still tough to take his cities, but then he can run over me faster than I can run over him thanks to 2-move units. What am thinking about... maybe... is something that involves being both crazy and kind of a jerk. I could move next to Cairo's units, and *threaten* to do an all-in counter-attack. At the same time, I offer him a peace treaty. The counter attack would at least hurt him, even if it fails, so he might agree. With the 10 turn peace treaty I could build galleys and go after *scooter*. He's way ahead in cities, but he's low in power. He's been trading me his only copper, so he probably just has warriors right now. I could swoop in and make an amphibious attack, taking 1 or 2 coastal cities before he has time to react. Then uh... I guess we would see how it goes, with the world thrown into chaos. Scooter has 7 cities already, so I'd still probably die to the counterattack, but at least it would be more interesting than sitting here doing nothing. 
One thing I just noticed is that, surprisingly, I'm not last in score. Somehow I'm 1 point higher than Yuri. Of course score doesn't mean much, but I'm still surprised, since I'm barely teching at all and don't have much land area. Maybe Yuri is at war with Oxy?
He might be in the same situation as me, getting declared on early since his pick of byz/guilds/poor start is obviously a "war" pick. Although, noone else has high power either so I'm confused.
Bad news: Mr Cairo showed up with 2 new musketeers this turn. I didn't expect it because he's still 2nd in power. I think I'm getting fooled becase musketeers don't really count for that much in power demos, so I'm still "on top" thanks to a bunch of warriors. But I'd much rather have his army of 5 musketeers than my 2 AT, 4 axes, and 6 warriors.
His 2 musketeers are in the west, north of Rodman. From there they can move onto the forested hill that I was *just* about to chop. But no time now... That's going to really be a problem. Good news: I finally finished my silver mine. My very first luxury resource!
Do you have anything you wish you'd done differently, in the picking or the game?
Erebus in the Balance - a FFH Modmod based around balancing and polishing FFH for streamlined competitive play.
(August 18th, 2023, 23:25)Qgqqqqq Wrote: Do you have anything you wish you'd done differently, in the picking or the game? I should have picked a start first. Especially with picking artillery first, it just made me a target. If we do this again Id vote for having equal starts. Or maybe you get a juiced start OR a tech, not both. Otherwise it just feels like an overwhelming disadvantage being next to someone with such faster early growth. For the game itself... I don't know. Maybe settle fewer cities and get an artillery out faster. Having Rodman 1 NE would also make it a lot easier to defend, since that would give me copper and put it within a move of the capital.
Yeah, the snake was fun, but felt like it went a bit too far.
Erebus in the Balance - a FFH Modmod based around balancing and polishing FFH for streamlined competitive play.
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