[PB25-SPOILERS] The Lunacy of the Reign of HAK Continues

[HitAnyKey]

Houston....We already have a problem...


Or at least a slight glitch. The 31 overflow in Sleepy I was planning to put into a Granary is going to have to go into a 1-turn Axe....as we spy a Barb approaching that we need to deal with. So will have to re-sim again tomorrow anyway because of that. And also decide where to send that worker, since he was going to move to the Horse.

In the way of good news....


The Spear spots yet another Stone on our landmass....though it's even closer to GJ than the southern one is to Borsche. Looks to me like the map maker gave everyone a Stone resource right across the water from their capital, and being in the backyard of someone else. LOL
This gonna be fun.

[MindyMcCready]

So ran a sim, kinda like it. Made the decision (good or bad, it's late, I'm sleepy) to 2pop whip the Settler and push for that spot 1N of the Marble. With the rate of my making the roads, the city ends up getting settled on the same turn it would have previously.

Alright.

Not sure what I would have done,...2pop is expensive, but the value of landing that extra food location is high. So,...still literally not sure what I would have done. The die is cast in what's looking like a very interesting game.

Same turn is awesome of course.

Houston....We already have a problem...
Or at least a slight glitch. The 31 overflow in Sleepy I was planning to put into a Granary is going to have to go into a 1-turn Axe....as we spy a Barb approaching that we need to deal with. So will have to re-sim again tomorrow anyway because of that.

Well I think that that axe will have to beeline down to defend our new C4 location right after it's dealt with that barb. So it's probably more of a necessity than a waste.

And also decide where to send that worker, since he was going to move to the Horse.

You could put 1T into the roaded riverside cottage,...then cancel when it's clear.

Alternatively, getting that corn online sooner could make the difference between keeping and losing that city. This city will want a lighthouse as soon as possible as well as defense, culture, granary since, in the event grimace tries to pillage, we'll have 3 nice lake tiles to work. So farm to whip defenders and chop-chop-chop infrastructure where you can get away with it.

The Spear spots yet another Stone on our landmass....though it's even closer to GJ than the southern one is to Borsche. Looks to me like the map maker gave everyone a Stone resource right across the water from their capital, and being in the backyard of someone else. LOL
This gonna be fun.

Those bastards! Nothing like artifically induced conflict!

[MindyMcCready]

Btw, the one annoying thing that this would do make all those tiles SW of that mountain range unworkable by any city, as they would be out of range. So that would be 3 GH's and 1 PH that would remain unusable. We already had the two Grass Hills right up against the mountains that were unusable. Unless a future city (after Grimace is eliminated) gets settled on that GH 1W of the Cows over there.

I don't think that I understand this. Presumably we move 1W of our original C4 location and have an awesome Heroic Epic city with 4 foods and 5 hills?

[HitAnyKey]

I don't think that I understand this. Presumably we move 1W of our original C4 location and have an awesome Heroic Epic city with 4 foods and 5 hills?

I'll respond to this one first cuz it's easiest.
Hmmm, quick glance I see what you mean. That would make a good spot.
We'd need to move C5 1W as well, which should also be ok. Just means it won't be able to grow quickly by having early access to the Pigs. But as soon as we get those Horses pastured, and then the Ivory, it'll have good production while it slowly grows.

[HitAnyKey]

Well I think that that axe will have to beeline down to defend our new C4 location right after it's dealt with that barb. So it's probably more of a necessity than a waste.

You could put 1T into the roaded riverside cottage,...then cancel when it's clear.

Alternatively, getting that corn online sooner could make the difference between keeping and losing that city. This city will want a lighthouse as soon as possible as well as defense, culture, granary since, in the event grimace tries to pillage, we'll have 3 nice lake tiles to work. So farm to whip defenders and chop-chop-chop infrastructure where you can get away with it.

For the axe, I had a similar thought. Or him being around for backlines while one of the Archers I was going to have to make for C5 could instead go to C4.

For the worker, I probably would have had the same thought of starting the Cottage. It was just late last night, and didn't spend much time thinking. I had actually gone to bed after making the decision to whip the settler. Right after, my phone made a noise and I noticed the new turn email so came back downstairs to check it out.

EDIT: LOL, just noticed that our thread has the most posts in it of anyone. Even more so than Comotay & Donovan/AdrienIer...and I know those pairs love to post banter back and forth. What should we call that second pair? Donien? DZAIer?

[MindyMcCready]

For the axe, I had a similar thought. Or him being around for backlines while one of the Archers I was going to have to make for C5 could instead go to C4.

EDIT: LOL, just noticed that our thread has the most posts in it of anyone. Even more so than Comotay & Donovan/AdrienIer...and I know those pairs love to post banter back and forth. What should we call that second pair? Donien? DZAIer?

Yeah,...that doesn't happen too often with me.

Planting this close to Grimace's capital is an aggressive move. We have to assume that his response is in the 'freak out' category. Since the city is pretty far from our capital we won't be able to respond quickly if we see that he's whipped away a bunch of pop. So my recommendation is get those 2 axes down there and immediate start building an archer as the first build of that city.

I'll feel better with 3 units in that city and/or some whippable pop. If he doesn't kill our city in the first 5-10 turns,...well it'll be a fortress after that and we're then free to focus near exclusively on development.

[HitAnyKey]

Well, well, well.....good call on the whipping the settler and rushing out to Pink Dot (I suppose that's what this is) Grimace....



I've been anxiously waiting for Gavagai to play his turn all day, and got the notification email just as I was getting back to my desk from lunch. To find that Grimace had a Scout that he moved to the Sheep last turn...so he was on his way with stuff....

He then logged in while I was connected and played his turn....



Moved his Scout onto the Marble (so when I settle the city next turn, it'll get pushed south and be stuck south of me trapped by my borders. He also apparently had an Axe on the way, which he moved west onto that forest.

Interesting times indeed.....more of the turn update to come in the next post. Just wanted to get this part up first.

[HitAnyKey]

Got graphs on retap this turn, so here are the full set of graphs:












Over in the west....


I have two options next turn. Move the Spear onto the Stone (and meet GJ officially), which would alert GJ to our presence on the land south of him. Not sure what his reaction will be. Either it will cause him to push for Sailing and getting a settler over here quickly to get his foothold.....or it will cause him a bit of concern that I have military in the region and make him think twice about doing so, spending the bulk of his time settling his mainland (kinda like we need to do).
Or I move 1SW to just uncover more of Borsche's border and work my way along the coast for a few turns, until I meet GJ at that time. Basically it's probably only a difference of about 4-5 turns or so before I actually meet GJ.
Thoughts?

As for that Barb axe, I have my Axe on the copper. So wherever it moves, I'll be able to kill it. I chose to send the Worker all the way to help farm the Corn at C4. So those 3 workers will quickly farm that, then all work to road/chop/pasture sheep/etc.

[HitAnyKey]

Oh, and as an aside on the photo of the east...



You can see where Grimace settled his 3rd city....not to far south of his capital. Looks like he settled 1N of those Cows.
And in that general vicinity are his Horses. If he was originally sending a Settler down to the Marble, I'm betting it will now settle somewhere in that area (my guess being on that PH 1W of the Horses or 1N of that), so as soon as he gets AH (if he hasn't already...I've lost track at this point) he'll be able to get those hooked up.
So yeah...need to get Archers to C4 asap.

[MindyMcCready]

Over in the west....
I have two options next turn. Move the Spear onto the Stone (and meet GJ officially), which would alert GJ to our presence on the land south of him. Not sure what his reaction will be. Either it will cause him to push for Sailing and getting a settler over here quickly to get his foothold.....or it will cause him a bit of concern that I have military in the region and make him think twice about doing so, spending the bulk of his time settling his mainland (kinda like we need to do).
Or I move 1SW to just uncover more of Borsche's border and work my way along the coast for a few turns, until I meet GJ at that time. Basically it's probably only a difference of about 4-5 turns or so before I actually meet GJ.
Thoughts?

I'd prefer that our opponents establishly lightly defended cities sooner over heavily defended cities later.

As for that Barb axe, I have my Axe on the copper. So wherever it moves, I'll be able to kill it. I chose to send the Worker all the way to help farm the Corn at C4. So those 3 workers will quickly farm that, then all work to road/chop/pasture sheep/etc.

Great. Next worker for the horses I guess.

That axe that Grimace has,...that puts is in a precarious position. Our axe was at 4.3/5 last yo posted which gives Grimace almost a 50-50 chance. If you have a promotion, make sure that you take it C1 so that he's not so tempted to roll the dice. Axe to axe, fully healed on a hill we've got 75% chance of a win.

Axe vs C1 axe (100hp) = 78.9%
Axe vs C1 axe 5% fort) = 87.9%
10% fort = 89%
25% fort = 95.6%

So fortify matters. I'm saying this so that you don't get tempted to kill his scout unnecessarily. If it gives you a shock promotion however,...

Next problem is a 2:1 axe fight. With C1 full fortify vs 2 unpromoted axes it's a coin flip. 51% in favour of the attacker.

If he's got a bit of roads he's 4T away from our city. Our 2nd axe is a minimum 4T to 5T away if the barb goes directly for one of the hills; longer if it dances around. Back of the envelope, we won't grow in 5T to whip but please confirm.

So that means we could be facing a 2:1 or worse before units get in there. If we can't grow in time, the solution could be to chop out an archer.