[SPOILERS] enough is ENOUGH! scooter opens some windows and finishes first!

[scooter]

Right - so the score dip. He lost 32 points. That HAS to be a city - there's no way he whipped that much pop. Thing is - 32 points seems a bit high for the pop of a city. 32 points is what, a size 8 city? He doesn't have any of those. UNLESS... he lost a city that has been in existence for > 20 turns in which case he lost land points too. Add that together with the mysterious lack of a pigs/gold coast city (seriously there's no way he'd foolishly pass on that site) and I'm going to go ahead and bet that Serdoa razed his coastal city with a galley raid. Commodore's graphs have been SO low in power (when you mentally subtract the tech stuff) that I'm betting he has the smallest military out of everyone. We're all running farmer's gambits but as I've seen his other city wide open (if my scout was a chariot that would've been dead too), he seems to be leaving empty cities all over the place. Looks like he's paying for that now. Hopefully I can make him lose another too.

Oddly enough the thing that tipped me off was this:



I jumped to 2nd in land area for no apparent reason. I also was like "oh hey Lewwyn is now first points, that's new" then "wait Commodore is below 400? Huh?" Oh well.

I'm especially happy that he lost that gold. That should actually slow down his research.

[dazedroyalty]

So bets on whether it was Serdoa, Brian or Lewwyn? I think you mentioned in chat it was probably attacked from sea. So that'd be Serdoa? Not sure cuz I haven't opened the save in a while

[scooter]

I think Serdoa. Makes too much sense with the PIgs and gold not settled. Brian and his army of mordor would be my second guess.

Question for you. I'd like your opinion. I'm vaguely considering that IF his city is empty I may let it stand. Now before you freak out, here's my thinking:

1) my letting his warrior live is probably too subtle. HOWEVER, if I let his city stand he may feel he owes me like an ally. In contrast, Serdoa (if he did the razing which makes sense) would be his enemy. That would mean Comm going after Serdoa for sure which would probably make me the guy to beat in the aftermath.

2) contrasting opinion- if he loses two cities his Cat window may be so far back that who cares who he goes after. And he may still come after me even if I show mercy.

So your opinion is...? Am I crazy here? Getting too cute?

[dazedroyalty]

Well Serdoa would be the first target if he razed the city and I think Commodore is suscepitble to emotional decisions when picking his target so that actually may be reasonable.

HOWEVER, in an AW game, I'm not sure I ever like the idea of leaving an undefended city alone.

[dazedroyalty]

OK, I actually opened a save for the first time in a while. A few observations:

1. Commodore has an archer in Thackery now so that's not gonna happen (like 4% odds to win)

2. I think Once Rendering could be permanently safe from invasion if we keep Lewwyn from settling the jungle hill 1W of banana. (Border expansion will keep Lewwyn and Brian from settling on the coast nearby). Of course, Lewwyn could build a fort to the SE of Once Rendering but we should be able to keep an eye out for that.

3. I know we're playing the farmers gambit a bit but we really need to build some military pronto. Karakorum (needs a name?) is really close to Brian and Commodore.

[scooter]

Good comments. I played the turn and yeah I was bummed about the archer. Report coming later probably - not sure I have time before lunch. I moved my chariot forward a bit which was a tad risky but he has a crossbow already. Sigh. Elephants hurry up. I'll need a Keshik actually. Working on HBR now.

Working on the military front. That north city isn't quite as vulnerable as it looks but yeah still not pretty.

[dazedroyalty]

Turns went fast today. I just looked at the new save as well. Commodore built a Crossbow so our chariot needs to get out of there asap. Also, if he sent 2-3 crossbows at us, we'd be screwed. As of this turn there is only 1 military unit being built. I think we should micro whatever necessary (build wealth) to finish HBR in 1T and build some keshiks pronto.

[dazedroyalty]

If he were to move at us from Thackery, that's 5T to xbow sitting next to the city. With combat workers, he could be there in 4!

[scooter]

T58 like markets, giant lighthouses, and chariot harassment

To first address Dazed's comment regarding my Lewwyn border:

]

The jungle hill that is W and N of the two bananas is the site he's referring to. It's a beautiful site. It's coastal with two foods, flatland copper, and some pretty grassland. It also would help seal my Lewwyn border and I'd view it as "mine" probably. Certainly a priority but then again so is about 5 other sites. Anyways, Lewwyn did settle a city in the region:



He's gonna need a fort to chain into my lake plus I have an axe in my city so I'm good for now. Really thinking I need to generate another merchant for MC because I really need Triremes and it's going to take me forever to get there via straight teching with my economy. Anyways, the juicy stuff - Commodore front:



Sorry for the weird picture - I thought I took one earlier in the turn and I took this second one after the turn for a different angle not realizing I only got this one. Anyways - the archer kept the city safe so I went 1S of the city to give me visibility + options. I have since seen that crossbow(!!!). Bleh. That could be annoying. Not anything I can't handle (I'm mostly building 2-movers, not axes) but still annoying. Thankfully I'm safe this turn - that xbow can't hit me as it's on an unroaded hill and it's gotta cross a river. Also - I can safely run away next turn as I can move 2 tiles and even on roads he can't do better than that as he has no 2-movers and no engineering. So I'm safe. And hey - maybe he'll screw up or something. It's vaguely tempting to make a run at Dickens and see if I can fork him (depending on what his xbow does) but we'll see.


Some potentially interesting if you are bored city management:



Chose to 4-pop whip Sante Fe - it was @ 2 unhappy faces. I could've waited 1 more turn and 3-pop whipped it, but honestly with how fast this city grows (yes that a 9f surplus in this picture) it's worth it to just whip now. My happy cap will go +1 next turn with the market taken into effect and I'm about to turn off research which is the other reason - the market will benefit that. Holocene:



I was tempted to whip here which would've been 3 pop, but this is a city that's less smart to take so much pop off of IMO. SO I'll wait one turn and 2-pop it next turn. That'll give me +50% gold in this city which yay. Also, the most important thing:



Just gotta hope this stands for 24 more hours and I'll be set. That will give me 2commerce for every single coastal city immediately - a big deal. I also founded another island city just after this picture:



Somehow I missed the settling picture so you'll have to settle for this. But this city was a net gain - it gained me +1c in every single city so it paid for itself and improved my science rate at break-even. Gotta love net-gain cities. It had a noticeable effect and TGL should have double that effect. Very helpful. Coastal sites will all get priority in settling. Do domestic trade routes increase in value over time? Because right now a TGL city would get the two +2c routes to islands and THEN would get a +1c to Holocene and some other city. With time though, wouldn't that Holocene route be worth more than 1c? Or is it always 1c since it's domestic? I thought it goes up eventually. Anyways, fixing the military problem somewhat:



Just used overflow to 1T a chariot here. That'll help the west front. Simple Math is going to make another one:



I think this would make a nice dedicated military pump and HE city. No commerce potential at all (honestly not sure why I sunk a turn into a market now that I think about it ), but HE can make this a good military city letting other cities produce commerce.



Some ok land here. The gems and fish are the main higlights but placing a city here is REALLY awkward. Finally, demos:



Ouch - Commodore losing gold hurts him bad. His GNP is worse than mine now. That's GREAT news for slowing down his Cataphracts, though potentially bad about his chances to harm Serdoa badly if he does go for him. We'll see. I just need to hope TGL is enough of a spark to keep me teching while I keep expanding.

[scooter]

FYI that was the report for the turn this morning. The new turn Dazed referenced I'm just about to open.