PBEM5o: Tatan doesn't get protective Skirmishers!

[Tatan]

BUT THAT WON'T HOLD ME BACK

[Tatan]

Alright, so Commodore was obviously aiming for massive synergy when he picked the leader/civ I'm using. Hammurabi is Agg for Vultures and Org for Ziggurats--both unique things aren't great on their own (and heck, the traits suck!), but perhaps now they will be more formidable. Plus, facing off versus skirmishers is the one area where vultures shine over regular axemen! Can anyone say "Combat 1/Cover Vultures yaaaaaaaaay"???

Of course, one mustn't celebrate one's eggs before they have even been laid yet. AT's playing Mali, my personal favorite civ in the game, along with being a much better leader--I consider Agg to almost suck as much as Pro, and Org is _way_ worse than Spi. Basically, this game is going to boil down to a few factors:
-Can AT find me fast enough to choke? (answer: since this is Hall of Mirrors, probably)
-Can AT choke my copper before I connect it? (this is the big one, and merits settling on top of copper if possible)
-Does AT know how to properly leverage Spi economically, and will he be able to figure it out before I start trolling him with Vultures?

So this gonna be a fun, fun chokefest!

[Tatan]

I see no compelling reason to waste critical opening turns wandering around for the perfect start (and I'm lazy ), so I settle in place.



Judging by the demographics screen of the next few turns, AT settled in the same place.

As for research, I already have Farming for that Rice (thanks Commodore :D), so I'm going to cut to the chase and race to Bronze Working. There a lot of forests that need chopping before a skirmisher sits in one of them...

[Commodore]

Try a tiny cylinder for a few. I'm actually worried you're OP.

[Tatan]

Try a tiny cylinder for a few. I'm actually worried you're OP.

The leader/civ in a vacuum? Yeah, maybe. But a lot depends on where the copper is on the map. I expect this game to be decided (or for one side to get a heavy advantage) within the first 30 turns.

Anyway, turns out AT went mining, too (at least, I assume that's why our scores both increased the exact same amounts on the exact same turn). I haven't looked at the demographics, but it would not surprise me to learn we are playing identical worker-first starts. I know in his shoes, I would play the start the same way he has... as I've already proved!

[Tatan]

So it turns out AT went warrior first, because he fears me, I guess. I don't regret my worker-first opening, as there are a lot of forests that need chopping if I don't want to get choked to death.

Warrior was moving out in a SE tangent before I remembered that I was going worker-first and having defenses of some sort near the capital was probably a good idea. Which turned out to be awesome, because as I was retreating my warrior I found some sexy floodplains:



Too bad that's too far away for me to plant my second city.

[Tatan]

Skirm vs Vulture combat odds sheet, for future reference:

C1 Vulture vs D1 Skirmisher: 92.7%
C1 Vulture vs D1 Skirmisher in a forest or hill: 55.9%
C1 Vulture vs D1, Shock Skirmisher: 67.3%
C1 Vulture vs D1, Shock Skirmisher in a forest or hill: 23.0%
C1, Cover Vulture vs D1 Skirmisher: 98.4%
C1, Cover Vulture vs D1 Skirmisher in a forest or hill: 67.3%
C1, Cover Vulture vs D1, Shock Skirmisher: 92.7%
C1, Cover Vulture vs D1, Shock Skirmisher in a forest or hill: 55.9%

I also looked at a few potential battles with the Skirmisher as the attacking unit. When attacking a Vulture in a forest or hill, no skirm could get anything more than about 7%. :D

This confirms what I already knew: copper will be the biggest deciding factor in this fight.

[Tatan]

Laaaame. Now I have to work a grass forest to get that warrior out in 4 turns. :\

Also, fun C&D note: AT whipped his cap back down to size 1 for some reason a couple turns ago. I was... puzzled. Looks like my extra worker turns are going to be wasted anyway, though.

At least there's copper near by!



The dilemma here is whether I should settle 1W of it for the extra corn, 1NW/1W of it to be closer to my cap, or just on top of it. I'm probably going to go with the latter.

[Tatan]

I'm getting a sinking feeling about this game for some reason, like I'm missing something...

[Commodore]

Ah, yep, missing Ctl-R right there!