[SPOILERS] Small Wunders and Izzy of Inca: The fat lady sings

[WilliamLP]

You know that Retep has silver in his new horse city? That may make him less driven for our Silver.

If he wanted any other tile than the PFH that the axe is sitting on, he could just walk right up and settle it. We couldn't stop him. He may or may not know that, but he's certainly got the military to go and safely take a look around.

An additional archer on the PFH would make his life more difficult.

That he can just go right up and settle it, and deny us that silver tile, and get the best land between us, is why I don't think we can take the risk. I think it's what I'd try in his position. That grass river silver is much, much better than the dry one he will have.

On the other hand, the settler takes a long time to walk back, and Turandot can build one pretty quick with slavery, so I'm considering just doing that, with workers establishing the road connection basically now.

I agree the axe can't afford to chill by itself on the hill for long. I was even thinking of having a spear join as something that can attack out if need be.

[MindyMcCready]

That he can just go right up and settle it, and deny us that silver tile, and get the best land between us, is why I don't think we can take the risk. I think it's what I'd try in his position. That grass river silver is much, much better than the dry one he will have.

On the other hand, the settler takes a long time to walk back, and Turandot can build one pretty quick with slavery, so I'm considering just doing that, with workers establishing the road connection basically now.

I agree the axe can't afford to chill by itself on the hill for long. I was even thinking of having a spear join as something that can attack out if need be.

I think that a spear on the PFH will make his life difficult enough that we can buy some time. If we can't get a spear then an archer will do. Anything that can get there the quickest.

If we can spare a unit then settle the east settler and pump out a settle from Turnadot. It's looking like Ichabod's got nothing come up the line so we should be able to spare it.

[WilliamLP]

The W hill axe shuffled north one. I'm thinking he'll be joined by a spear soon. A spear and an archer are hanging out on the fork tile.

Barbiere will produce three units in the next 3 turns and all the forest is gone. After the axe, I want a settler in Turandot but we'll need to evaluate if we can afford it.

Your unit is in Barbiere by the way - an axe still wounded by barb warriors with 3xp.

In the east, the potential city is tactically awkward because it could have barbarians to the north (or Cheetah), and the W2 quechua is wounded. I'm not sure we shouldn't hold settling until we're sure we can't just raze 2Many with the current blitz.

There are 2 axes in Camen who will go NE-NE, then NE-SE, and two workers will be roading to support this.

Carmen expands in 5.

[MindyMcCready]

Really delay the settler? Probaably 4 turns?

You've got 2 quechas in the area, could we save some gold for an emergency ungrade to an axe?

If we're going to delay the settler until post TooMany raze than we might as well use it to plant the gold-corn location.

[WilliamLP]

The best scenario is:

T68 Settler pass.
T69 3 axes + 2 archer + 2 quechua ready to attack on hill, settler on hill.
T70 Raze city and settle.

Settling north means settling on T69 which isn't even that much slower. Of course this is assuming we can raze the city with this stuff. But... workers aren't ready for the north yet anyway. Delaying it a turn or two is not that high a cost.

I'm really not interested in delaying math by about 8 turns to get 1 additional axe.

[MindyMcCready]

We wouldn't burn the cash unless it was an emergency.

But anyway, that sounds good. Looking forward to the smouldering ashes. Can we deviate from your naming scheme and call the new City "OneLessKojiro"? :LOL:

[WilliamLP]

I guess... Delaying math by floating money, and aiming to have the treasury hit zero when construction comes in isn't awful, but it may have a direct hammer cost if we can't get the extra 10 hammers from chops earlier.

I'm not a fan of taunting or editorializing with city names in a no-diplo game. And besides, Ichabod's Miyamoto Mushashi / Book of Five Rings naming scheme is pretty cool.

Edit: Much better than Retep using the default Khmer city names! It's obvious how much he cares about this game at this point...

[WilliamLP]

(Sorry for brevity, I typed out a report and accidentally closed the browser tab - ugh.)

Upgrading a warrior to an axe is 80 gold, for a 20 hammer value (35-15). It's atrocious enough that I don't think we need to consider it.




How come the only one in this game building units is the one right next to us? Ichabod whipped something, but it must be pretty far away.




We've achieved power parity again. How much we can breathe depends on the next two turns in the east.




The city I want is now 4W of Turandot because it can be defended with Barber at F2, and it ensures we will control the silver. The settler can be made in 3 now after a chop.

Barber has 1 axe and 1 archer, plus another axe to move in. F1 has a spear and an archer. F2 has a spear. So Barbiere has 2 axe, 2 spear, 2 archer ready to move in next turn. It could 1-turn its axe but it would mean working terrible tiles like the unimproved plain hill.

Carmen is empty, but guardable from F1. If Bacchus has a chariot, a road and 2 workers in the tile 3S2W, then I hate my life. Its border pop will be a big relief, to get the peak's vision.

In the east, next turn everything piles on the hill: 3 axes, 2 archers, 2 quechuas.

[WilliamLP]

Ichabod whipped twice:




His whips were in Mushashi and Kannon, very far away.




Retep finished a non-military whip in his non-capital city, either a worker or a granary I'd assume.




East: Kojiros still has only a phalanx and a warrior. He's going to need some serious trick in his sleeve to hold all those Kojiros, with that power graph. I moved the spear to Carmen, since it may be needed to guard the horse improvement in 3 turns.

West: Retep moved up 2 axes. I'm not that impressed. Next turn we have 3 axes and 2 archers that can defend, including the axe that can finish. I thought about moving the archer away from F1 to Barbiere but who knows if Bacchus is still planing something crazy. He's still only on two cities!

The hill guard axe is soon to be joined by a spear.

The settler finishes in 2. 2-pop whipping it to finish it in 1 doesn't seem worth it. There's a worker 1NW of F2, preparing the defensive and connecting road, and to improve the sheep.

[WilliamLP]

Ichabod abandoned Kojiros! But... Carmen is probably getting razed:




This was a nice move, with the right number of units at the right time. On the previous turn, we could have moved back axes from Kojiros, and on the next turn, we'd have the border pop and enough time to move axes back.

Retep is showing nine (9) axes right now so his home defenses must be pathetic.. It's too back Bacchus can't take advantage of it. I hope he at least takes over all the land between them.

As it is my moves will be (I think)

- Raze Kojiros with 2 archers, which will go back and guard the new city.
- 3 axes move back toward Carmen's ruins, for a possible counterattack.
- Barbiere has 3 axes and an archer. 2 axes go to defend Carmen. It needs 2 defenders for the 2 axes.
- Pray to the RNG gods.

Carmen will have to defend: 2 axes, 1 CG1 archer, 1 spear. This will probably lose unless we get really lucky.

Counterattacking force will be: 4 axes.

So it should be a bit of a bloodbath.

Well, I even knew I should have been scouting the west of Carmen. The only thing I can defend with is there have been a lot of priorities going on in all directions. But I learn for next time I guess.