[SPOILERS] Athlete and Lewwyn are SHAKA OF THE VIKINGS

[Rowain]

So lurkers, ideas on a new naming theme? Maybe something Vikingy... Like name the cities after Viking gods? Are there enough gods in Norse Mythology for all the cities I'm going to end up with after I assimilate TRD?

Don't know how many names you need but:
Odin and his brothers Vili and Ve
Tyr, Thor, Heimdall, Frigga, Freyr, Freya, Balder, Bragi, Idun, Sol, Mani, Forseti, Jord, Sigyn, Skadi, Hel and of course Loki (although this one is a special case ) thats 20

Of course how could I forget Hoenir and Lodur so 22 I think thats enough for a while

[Lewwyn]

Thanks Rowain! I think that's definitely the way to go.

After getting to play 2 turns yesterday, the turn did not come back today. Already past midnight, I suspect it will come early morning as I sleep, ah well.

[Sciz]

Don't know how many names you need but:
Odin and his brothers Vili and Ve
Tyr, Thor, Heimdall, Frigga, Freyr, Freya, Balder, Bragi, Idun, Sol, Mani, Forseti, Jord, Sigyn, Skadi, Hel and of course Loki (although this one is a special case ) thats 20

Of course how could I forget Hoenir and Lodur so 22 I think thats enough for a while

By Jord do you mean Jörð (mother of Thor) or did you just misspell Njord?

[novice]

Don't know how many names you need but:
Odin and his brothers Vili and Ve
Tyr, Thor, Heimdall, Frigga, Freyr, Freya, Balder, Bragi, Idun, Sol, Mani, Forseti, Jord, Sigyn, Skadi, Hel and of course Loki (although this one is a special case ) thats 20

Of course how could I forget Hoenir and Lodur so 22 I think thats enough for a while

Hmm.. I think many of those must have different names and/or spellings in norwegian. I guess Rowain is listing english transliterations from Old Norse? At any rate, there's a multitude of gods and other antiheroes to choose from.

[Lewwyn]

I bring goodies, got the turn and played it. Want some battle plans? Want some diversionary expansion plans? Want city lists and unit lists? Want subversive Diplo? I've got it all baby.

City List:


As you can see, another 4 zerkers on the way this turn as well. 2 will be offshore though one in the south. They'll take time to reach the battlefield. Only one (In the newly renamed Freya) will be of immediate (2 turn) use. Oh and Freya is now triple whipped, Yay!

Unit List:

Notice that I still have some axemen to upgrade, I've upgraded one in the south this turn in order to start the expansion plan in the next turn.

Expansion Plan:

Here we see the settler. He has a spear with him. In the city next to him he has a crossbow, a freshly upgraded zerker and two axes. One axe has yet to be upgraded(he also has a free promotion and one of the available promotions is bonus vs mounted, I believe that what I'll choose). So to recap the settler will settle on the ruins of the hill two spots west. the spear, crossbow and two zerkers will garrison. Not bad if I do say so myself. If TRD wants to stomp that city he's going to have to divert a lot of troops. Yay for hills. So this is part distraction and expansion. Oh and I have a worker there who will begin removing the jungle from the rice.

Battle Plan:

So his units are getting healthy. However, no culture pop yet (I probably have 4 turns). Walls are beginning though and the city will grow soon so I have to get a move on so he can't whip walls. My plan, next turn move the units in Freya and the two red circled units to the X (staging site). Next turn after that Hit sloth. I should be able to wipe a good part of his army if not take the city back. I'll be hitting with 5 zerkers, 2 crossbow, 1 spear, 4 cats. One of those Zerkers is the GG too. You'll also notice I have a zerker i tile east of Freya. He will not be joining the first attack wave unfortunately. He will have to wait a turn as he is a tile behind. I'm only realizing this now as I write that I could have moved the galley he was on into the city and gotten him into the first wave. However, my plan of attack was not in place when I dropped him off. I was more worried about getting the galley back to home island (Thor) to pick up the zerker due next turn. And I thought I'd be waiting an extra turn before attacking. The thing that changed my mind was how fast sloth would hit 3 pop.

Any comments? Am I better off waiting an extra turn to attack, or am I correct that this is truly necessary to move quicker? Oh and outside of sloth he has two injured HA's, about 5 health each. To the north that's a healthy HA and a spear.


And last but not least Diplo with TRD! :

11:38 AM me: Hi
TRD: hey there
11:40 AM me: how goes it
11:41 AM I wonder if this counts as a summit given our current war status.
TRD: haha oh yeah
well im never opposed to talking
its a good time to break up all yours naps and attack the leader with me!
11:42 AM haha. too eager?
me: lol, just a mite
11:43 AM I've been told that I can actually choose new allies and friends based on being a new joining player
like wipe the slate clean and all
TRD: good plan
11:44 AM it wasn't you who was going to attack me with beserkers... i can forgive the vikings
haha.
me: Orly? Just like that?
not so bad
11:45 AM Care to give back "Sloth" as a gesture of goodwill and peace?
TRD: oh wow you're getting right to the negotiations!
me:
11:46 AM TRD: btw. from china or just living there i couldn't tell?
me: Just living, I'm teaching English at a University here
11:47 AM TRD: that's pretty cool, i'm a bit jealous
anyway. i could probably be convinced to give back that city if it meant a tight partnership (and perhaps a guaranteed trade for one of the two gems)
11:48 AM me: How tight is tight?
11:49 AM TRD: well... i attacked because I felt like i wasn't going to have any shot of winning sort of sitting back letting Seven out tech us
11:50 AM and i still feel athlete was gonna hit me with those beserkers and i was just starting it when i had the advantage
11:51 AM now. i dont really like my chances of breaking through more cities
but, im not sure you'd win either trying to take me out... id definitely go down fighting
11:52 AM sorry about sort of rambling, my thoughts are kind of all over the place
me: It's cool
11:53 AM I wasn't really put in a great position so I'm just attempting to get my options straight
11:54 AM TRD: yeah. hey your best bet might be to press on the attack.
me: LOL
11:55 AM I've never heard anyone say, "you should really just attack me"
TRD: hahaha. i think i'm in a vulnerable emotional state and am being too honest.
i certainly will make the war as hard as possible for you!
11:56 AM that great general beserker is scary looking though.... athlete did well with teh bulbs to get them before i thought he could
me: "I'm really weak, but I'll try my best!" XD
TRD: i know i'm a master of diplomacy
11:57 AM me: yeah the GG is nice
he is in fact quite scary
TRD: i haven't even checked my progress for one... i guess those awesome catapult withdrawals didn't earn me any points
me: they were duly noted
11:58 AM um, people are calling me for lunch, will you be around later to conclude our discussion?
11:59 AM TRD: this is my primary email account so im on plenty
but not tonight... pretty late here already
almost bed time
12:00 PM thanks again for picking up the game!
me: allright, goodnight for now! np
my pleasure

So, yeah. TRD is weak at diplo, feeling nice or is trying to egg me on. He's basically revealing too much or just enough to get me to over extend, but I believe he knows the hammers coming and just doesn't feel he has any other choice. But seriously, who tells their opponent, "you should probably just attack me" ? Also interesting is the possible return of sloth for an alliance and gems. That's really almost no skin off my nose at all, beyond losing Seven as an ally. But I don't want that. TRD's logic was his only option was to attack me and get land to get even with Seven. Well then by that logic if I want to win I have to take TRD's land and assimilate it in order to tech with Seven if I want to win. Overall this changes nothing to my plan, but its interesting.

Oh and let me know if the chat formatting is difficult to read.

[Lewwyn]

Oh and I haven't started renaming units... I do not want to rename every unit I make at this point because there's going to be a lot of them. What is protocol regarding unit naming at this stage of the game? I'm probably going to go through and remove all the Canadian names... Would that heartbreak my carryover lurkers?

[Rowain]

By Jord do you mean Jörð (mother of Thor) or did you just misspell Njord?

The first one (Jörd)

Hmm.. I think many of those must have different names and/or spellings in norwegian. I guess Rowain is listing english transliterations from Old Norse?

Very likely. I think I'm using the german transcriptions of the nordic names. (I don't like the oldgerman names ie Wodan instead of Odin etc.)

Oh and I haven't started renaming units... I do not want to rename every unit I make at this point because there's going to be a lot of them. What is protocol regarding unit naming at this stage of the game? I'm probably going to go through and remove all the Canadian names... Would that heartbreak my carryover lurkers?

You can name them however you like. But perhaps you can keep some canadians to honor the former leader .

[Lewwyn]

Played the turn. TRD got walls up. Culture pops in two turns. Its unfortunately that makes my previous plan foolhardy and foolish. As a result I'm delaying my attack.



Instead as you can see here I've moved my troops from line of sight, set them up two steps away and have begun spamming cats in cities.Not included in the current staging army are the southern berserkers and the two left in the city. My hope is to double the cats and take the city in one blow. I'm going to coordinate all of my units to land one tile from the city at the same time. I'm looking at around 5 turns I think.


Here's the power graph from the last 50 turns. I've surpassed TRD at the cost of several double and and 1 triple whip.


I've also delayed building the new city while I pile up some gold and while my worker clears the jungle on the rice tile.

Seven has said 9 turns to Galleons. I believe I will have been able to take back my city by then, In which case I'll be able to spare some zerkers for surprise naval attacks only under defended targets.

[luddite]

you might still be able to make it work if you sacrifice all your catapults. Depending on promotions, I think you'd have at least 80% odds despite the walls.

[Lewwyn]

you might still be able to make it work if you sacrifice all your catapults. Depending on promotions, I think you'd have at least 80% odds despite the walls.

True but I'm thinking it would be best to get all my zerker units together. Before I had 3 waves of zerkers. TO make the cat sacrifice worthwile I need to gather the zerkers for one mass hit.