RB Pitboss #2 [SPOILERS] - Peter of Byzantium

[regoarrarr]

Thanks Cyneheard!

So darrell and sunrise - thoughts on setting up a team email address?

I know many people set up custom gmail accounts, but I would prefer to not have to check separate accounts (though I am assuming you could forward it to other gmail accounts?)

I could volunteer to handle the diplomacy and use my own email - and just paste in conversations in here to keep you guys up to date, if you thought that might work

[Swiss Pauli]

Re: The Plan. Have you considered that your neighbours might have the idea that allowing you to get to Guilds unmolested would be a Bad Thing? Aside from the ever-present risk of a rush, lacking Construction could leave you open to attack.

[regoarrarr]

@Swiss - that is a good idea. I think you're right that we will eventually decide that Construction before Guilds is probably appopriate.

I think what we're trying to do at this point is sketch out the bare minimum that will get us to Cataphracts, and then apply additional steps only when analyzed and deemed "worth it"

[sunrise089]

It partially depends on the ivory situation. If we have horses, 2-promo HAs can defend against most people 1v1. Also, while our UU is threatening, there is also Zulu, Rome, Holy Rome, Greece, and Korea...so lots of UUs to be worried about before ours.

EDIT: Re emails, I agree it isn't necessary to make a team address. However, what happens if you're traveling without web access? Other than that issue I'm happy having diplo messages posted here.

[Swiss Pauli]

It partially depends on the ivory situation. If we have horses, 2-promo HAs can defend against most people 1v1. Also, while our UU is threatening, there is also Zulu, Rome, Holy Rome, Greece, and Korea...so lots of UUs to be worried about before ours.

Good point about HAs, but you've got the UU situation the wrong way around: those UUs are likely to attack you before you get yours

[sunrise089]

Good point about HAs, but you've got the UU situation the wrong way around: those UUs are likely to attack you before you get yours

We'll see. This is certainly shaping up to be a very different game (from like 8 Cre civs to 1, and from like 1-2 Fin civs to 5), however last game had Zulu, Rome, Inca, Mali(?), Persia, Sumeria, and Carthage. None of them earnestly rushed.

If we do have Rome/Zulu for neighbors, we're certainly as much at risk as anyone else. It then comes largely down to whether or not we have copper. Fortunately our tech path does allow BW.

[darrelljs]

I could volunteer to handle the diplomacy and use my own email - and just paste in conversations in here to keep you guys up to date, if you thought that might work

Good for me!

I don't think we'll neglect military prior to Guilds, I just think it will be purely defensive (which will surely involve Catapults) until then. How much production we need to expend will depend largely on whether we're surrounded by wolves or lambs, and how adroit we are at neutralizing the former with diplomacy. I also believe something regoarrarr said earlier; after watching the demogame no one is going to mess with The General without overwhelming force .

I love the though of using HAs for defense. We can use plunder to upgrade our elite units to Cataphracts. We'll have an excuse to get Stables online. They have two movement, so we'll have a 4X advantage against a typical enemy stank inside our borders. And, of course, they flank catapults .

Darrell

[sunrise089]

...

I love the though of using HAs for defense. We can use plunder to upgrade our elite units to Cataphracts. We'll have an excuse to get Stables online. They have two movement, so we'll have a 4X advantage against a typical enemy stank inside our borders. And, of course, they flank catapults .

Darrell

Just to get it out in the open, 3 reasons not to use a HA-based defense:

1) Enemy has elephants. We think there is a fair chance there won't be ivory on this map though.
2) Enemy can put a stack next to one of our cities in 1 turn and there is a hill next to the city.
3) We're 2v1'd by an enemy without cats in his stack (with cats it doesn't really matter unless our city is on a hill).

The fourth threat, a spear happy enemy army isn't really a problem since 1 axe can defend against 3 spears.

Reasons to use HAs -

1) Get units to upgrade later.
2) On our tech path.
3) Easier to get two promos and we want the stables anyways. Plus the promos are better.
4) Can cover more cites with fewer units.

Anyways, all that is just academic until we know the resource mix.

[regoarrarr]

Since it's been over 7 hours with no posts on this thread, and because I don't like to see us below so many other threads let me just point out that with no Industrious civs, we have better chances at things like the Oracle.

[darrelljs]

You know, I was seriously thinking The Oracle as well, for Feudalism. Even if we happen to get a GP instead of a GM/GE, it would be worth it.

Darrell