OK, I will get to your requests ASAP. There has just been too much going on to post it all.
We are a close second in soldier points. Elkad and Joey are right up there with us, as I check the power graph every turn.
If it's cool, I'd like to get Masonry first. It will only take us 2-3 turns to get, and allow us to wall any city where there may be trouble. Also Pyramids would then be a possibility. But Maths would be great with all the chopping we have yet to do. I'll add pro/cons of suggested techs to my list.
I have to say I was pretty effing pissed by this turn of events, but I am over it now. Read it and weep.
Are you kidding me??! On the turn that Joey founded his 7th city and hooked up Horses, our capital was being held in check by both the RNG gods and a wayward drifter. If only we had just let him eat at the diner...
So Salmon Falls is currently without garrison, with one protester and only a 0.4 retreated Chariot standing between Rambo (now at 0.2/2) and the World's (Currently) Greatest City. Luckily I will have a second Chariot headed down from Duquesne to protect our capital next turn, totally decimating any eastern strategy I was going to tell you about. I also have the Axeman that ignored this threat in the first place lumbering back to SF as well. You had one job, Punchy. ONE JOB!
Anyway, this too shall pass. We will either lose the mine or the Chariot, or Rambo will limp to temporary safety.
Ever dauntless, I am continuing unabated with a Settler build in SF that we should be able to 2-whip in 3 turns, to claim that Wheat City (to be named Frontenac) solely because it would be a tactical nightmare in Joey's hands, giving him the pick of 3 different cities to terrorize from one central location.
Let's see how we do. I'll get demos next turn once this crisis has passed.
OK, so Rambo left our mine alone, patched up to a healthy 1.1/2 and took out far less conditioned Chariot, which remained at 0.4/4. Our new Chariot made a beeline to Salmon Falls to provide whatever defense it could hope to give, but it should be enough. Punchy ambled into town just in time to observe the attack on our capital next turn.
Should We or Shouldn't We?
Off to the east, there is more self-fulfilling trouble brewing as we rattle our sabers in Joey's general direction. First of all, I refused a map trade with him this turn because we can already see all but his last city. Then I have two FW's just west of Oswego ready to road a path that our newly whipped chariot can use to attack an empty Creole Osceola if we want. But I am not sure that is the best play, as it could leave our FWs and Chariot vulnerable as well as Oswego itself. It could also make us an eternal target of Joey's as well, if we aren't already.
Right now Joey seems to be getting his Barracks in order before building more units (there is already a Barracks in Creole), so his evenness with us on the powergraph speaks more to that than actual units. But units will be coming to be sure. It also seems that we can get the 3 other sites we want (Frontenac and the 2 coastals) without Joey's interference, so we really don't need to prove anything there. Plus we have Elkad up north, presumably an easy mark against our Chariots and land with which ourselves and Joey can share the spoils.
So what do we stand to gain here? To at least prove ourselves a civ not to be trifled with so that hopefully he will look elsewhere for his fun? To maintain pressure via choke strategy to keep him from settling more, agitating him in the process, even though we should be able to beat him to the remaining sites we want? Or to maintain a solid push that results in a war of attrition that keeps him from getting too strong but ultimately helps neither of us?
In the end, I really think I am going after the first option. To just let Joey know that I am willing to counter any moves he decides to make on us and to keep him from toying around with us via choke. Besides, with Creole still at Size 1 we would be razing it with no means of replacing it, which to me seems a bit pointless.
In answering these questions, I'd feel alot better if I knew with certainty that our capital wasn't about to be toppled by the fucking Black Knight himself.
I hate this game sometimes. SF should hold though, so we've got that going for us which is nice.
Attacking Joey early on in the pitboss game is soooo 2014. Let's just wave our soldiers at his face to make him understand not to go west any more. We have so many cities to found, it would be a shame to lose good spots because of a 1-city border war. We're already being slowed down by the ultimate warrior (maybe it's Grignr the barbarian, sent by Commodore from another dimension).
But if GJ appears to go west again we destroy his game ok ?
Sorry, haven't had the time to post a decent report lately.
The cold war with Joey is over at the moment, evidenced by the fact that I played consecutively at the turn flip. He is guarding his southern forest now and has pulled away from Oswego. He never did get a chance to hook up the Marble, leaving one turn into it.
The Salmon Falls threat is finally over, with victorious Punchy being promoted to protecting the workers roading to Frontenac. I decided not to burn 2 pop in SF after all on the Settler so it will be a full build. Perhaps a Library next here to allow it to grow to Size 8 (or a Galley/Settler combo).
Duquesne starting a Library now, and has another farmed GL. It grows to 6 next turn with Carilllion stewarding the Gold for the first time. Early Libraries will be good as the techs are getting more expensive, plus we can look into getting a few Academies up.
I think we should go for the Stone site next, risking the 2-crab site in the process. It's just too good of a site to leave any longer, for a variety of reasons. This avoids us another cold war down south with Gavagai (with just founded Judaism), plus retep grabbed a Silver site in the far west so we need to start
Running at 0% this turn, but I would like to snag Archery real quick for 1 turn to help defend our hilled city sites (which will especially keep us safe after Walls).
Workers will be mining all available locations (2 in Oswego as of next turn then there are 3 in Duqusene). Then lots of chopping once we have Maths, and probably some before that...we are at 10 turns for now without Libraries.
OK, it's been a few turns since I have been able to report. Let's see where we are at.
Here's a screenshot of our current map:
Salmon Falls: After completing the Galley in 4 turns, I was able to 2-whip the Settler here after 2 turns of production. Unfortunately, new Stone site (Niagara Falls) will not be founded until T77 (turns lost boating and landing) I'd like to start a Library next to rebuild population so we can whip another Settler afterward.
Duquesne: Recently built another FW and will complete a Library next turn with two completed chops. Will likely build a quick military unit (Chariot?) before either a Settler or another FW. I am keeping two FWs onsite until the last two hills are mined, and then will keep one here to slow build some Cottages.
Oswego: Also went the FW/Library route here as well, bringing us up to 7 FWs. Oswego grows to Size 6 next turn and then on T76 will have enough hammers in the Library to 1-whip it. I am thinking Walls > Settler here, and may go directly to Settler depending on how long it will take the city to get back to Size 6.
Carillion: Chopped out an Axeman this turn. It has been tougher than I thought to get this city the dedicated food resources it needs for rapid growth, but sporadic use is working just fine. I pulled the Corn and Deer from SF due to the whipped Settler there to give Carillion a 9 food surplus and get the city really close to size 5 the turn after. I haven't checked, but I am hoping that the chop from the Forest SW of town will go to Carillion instead of Frontenac so that we have enough to 3-whip a Settler there within a few turns. Since this city will be borrowing from 4 others, I don't see a problem will the grow-and-whip method here in the short term.
Frontenac: This city will grow in 2 turns with a Granary set in 9 turns. So, what to do? I was going to 1-whip the Granary if allowed, but since Frontenac will grow slowly until we get to Calendar, I had 2 FWs start on a Plains mine in order complete the build organically and continue growth from Size 2. I am considering Walls next here as well, and then Barracks. Here's why:
Chop Strategy after Maths
In 4-5 turns, we will get Maths so I am trying to downplay our chops until we finish researching the tech for maximum benefit. After that, there are several forests around Frontenac to be chopped, two of which were grabbed by Joey in his border pop of Creole. I had mentioned earlier about using frontline forests to chop out military so getting the Barracks here would not only add a promo to those units but also get us enough culture to hopefully win back the 2 forests in time to use them as well.
Stone Strategy
Rather than landing on the Cows in the new Niagara site, I elected to work Stone first. This is to hasten our Walls builds where needed, as well as to open the discussion about possibly going for Pyramids. Combined with our 30h chops, we could get these up and running quickly in new (and especially troll ) cities that cannot build them quickly. Oswego should be able to build Walls in 2 turns, as well as Duquesne and SF but only once necessary.
At long last, here is that Demographics screen I promised you over a week ago. I am not going to post on each individual item on this, but let me know if you have any questions.
The main thing here is that we are behind on food and population. Despite this, we are thriving on GNP, production and soldiers meaning we are making the most of the tiles we have. With the Settler push I have outlied above, we should see a decent gain in most of these categories pretty quickly.
City Count
GermanJoey - 8
Commodore - 7
Borsche/Johns - 6 DZ/Adrien - 5
Grimace - 5
Gavagai - 5
Elkad - 4
retep? Not sure, but he has founded one of the 4 sites we targeted (NW one) on the new world, leaving only 3 for us there. By the outlines it appears he has at least 5.
CivStats
For the first time in awhile, we have dropped to 2nd place on CivStats. I don't see this changing in the short term due to our whip strategy but it should ultimately pay off once we have more cities on board.
After Maths?
We will have Mathematics in 4-6 turns, depending on the gains we get from the new Libraries. The available options are all good, but which would be best?
Currency - This tech will allow us to pair our Libraries with cheap Markets, greatly enhancing our binary strategy. The additional funds would help to fuel research for the other techs. It also sets us up for a possible religion via Code of Laws.
Construction: Want to maintain our military effectiveness? This tech would be the way to go, getting us Catapults (for offense or defense) and eventual War Elephants if we priorize the Ivory ste. Plus we eliminate the movement penalty for crossing rivers, which has been kind of a pain so far. Long story short, I just want to have this tech before someone else does.
Metal Casting: Gives us a shot at the Colossus, and unlocks our cheap Forges. Also, the Forges can be 2-whipped after 1-2 turns of production (in most cases) and will synergize nicely with our FW mining strategy. They would also provide +2 in each city they are built in.
Calendar: We have several plantation tiles that can't be worked, which could take our cities to the next level once active. Incense, Dyes, Bananas. But two of these would need IW first in order to chop out the jungles.
Iron Working: Needed to remove jungles, so should come before Calendar. But not as exciting to have Swordsmen with the Archer buff and all the Axemen floating around the map, though the 50% city attack is nice.
My thoughts are Currency > MC > Construction, though the last two can be switched if warranted. Since we are only working one water tile at this time, the Colossus isn't really a priority to me against others. Let me know what you think.
So many more things to post about! Wonder pros/cons, strategy against our 4 neighbors, new landmass (island?) SW of Ivory site. I'll get to those when I can.
Are libraries really useful ? One or two in the cap and a commerce city is ok but everywhere sounds a little suboptimal (giving us less than 1bpt on average). Walls are also a bit much, more settlers (and more units to escort them) would be more useful. FW also. Infrastructure can wait.
Where are we regarding city sites in Gavagai's direction ? Did he start settling in our direction ?
What kind of army does Elkad have ?
I like the MC idea to make good use of our production advantage and to build some workshops but the main thing that would make me prioritize it is whether we've reached the happy cap in many cities. We should probably go for currency immediately in any case. What's our breakeven research right now ? 60% ? We wouldn't want to crash our eco. You want to build markets : how many market resources do we have ? Ivory furs and silk if we race Retep for them ?
Do we have graphs on all our neighbors or did someone spend EPs on us ?
Do we have a good site to chop the HG from ? How many wonders have been built so far ?
I'll be back home in ~36h, I'll log in and take a closer look
) cities that cannot build them quickly. Oswego should be able to build Walls in 2 turns, as well as Duquesne and SF but only once necessary.
