[SPOILERS] scooter, pindicator, and Huayna Capac try some fast Zulu cuisine

[scooter]

Ok, I logged in to see if Azza accepted our deal. Yep, he did. Ok, the land between us first:



Pretty good distance, all jungle. I see Iron Working in our future. Here's Azza's land and wow is it beautiful:



Ok I know grass is always greener and all that, but that is just awesome stuff. He's definitely ahead of us at the moment - compare that pop count of 6-3-2 with this sad situation:

We're fine though. More importantly, here's Azza's neighbor:



Bigwyn of Stonehenge. I smell conflict up thataway. Also, this is a really, really strange main continent. It's so snaky. Anyways, I didn't move anything else because we're waiting on Commodore, but I couldn't resist moving the inconsequential scout:



I suggest we head east with him. We also have routes with Azza now, so once one of us gets Alphabet, we can get some really nice foreign trade routes going. Finally, the workers:



First, barb incoming. If Commodore doesn't do anything that would make us change our mind, how about moving our McDonalds warrior 1NW onto the silk and seeing if we can get the barb to bash into us while we're on the forest? Also, we have two workers on that road tile, and they need to hook the gold. For efficiency's sake, any issues with moving 1 onto the gold to road and the other 1W of McDonalds to road, then mining? Obviously you'd time it so the worker comes after the road so you don't waste more than 1 worker turn moving onto the gold. Again, this depends on his chariot being either dead or out of range, so we'll adjust if need be.

[scooter]

FWIW, one thing Azza has none of is horse or copper. If Lewwyn figures this out and has some of his own, it's lights-out for Azza. I hope that's not the case. We have a route with him, and it's vaguely tempting to let him have horse for a bit since we're only using copper and have little need for chariots at the moment. Nobody has contact with both of us right now, so nobody would know. Thoughts? It would possibly gain us a good ally, and it would prevent Lewwyn from hitting a REALLY juicy target (great land, no strat resources to defend it with).

[scooter]

Holy crap, just noticed something. Look at Azza's land and figure out what tech he is missing.

[scooter]

Alright guys, $64,000 question - do we want to take this shot?



Here's the deal. Woodsman1 Warrior is top defender, we have 72% odds to kill it. Scenarios:

Win: We can clean up the chariot with ease with the other Impi
Lose but damage it below Str1 or so: Chariot is top defender anyways, so we clean up the chariot with the other Impi
Lose and don't damage it much: Warrior is still top defender and the chariot has a chance to run away

The chariot is currently in a position to make it home by moving W-SW-W. We can block that, but that's at the expense of his warrior getting safely onto forest and preserving that 72% shot (which probably isn't really worth taking if it's only a warrior)

I also don't really want to leave the Impi on flat ground, as he could probably combo it with the chariot + archer, and we don't want that. So I see us as having 3 valid options:

1) Take the 72% shot at see if we can nab the chariot that way
2) Back off and play containment - if this is his easternmost city I'm OK with that.
3) Try to make a run for his backlines cities on defensive terrain, ignoring the warrior + chariot prize

I lean towards #1 at the moment.

[NobleHelium]

Yeah, Azza doesn't have any roads. I think we should offer horse if it makes Azza more friendly to us. I've had no interaction with Azza so I don't know if that would be the case.

Anyway whether we attack Commodore's units should be done primarily in the context of hooking up the gold ASAP I think. So do whatever helps us to that effect.

[Cyneheard]

72% with good odds of at least an Impi for chariot trade if it goes poorly? Sure.

Although lending Horse doesn't help Azza if he doesn't have the Wheel to build chariots. We can still do it now, but should be sure to only do it for 10t before more contacts happen.

[pindicator]

Based on Comm teching Archery i think its fairly clear that he has no copper. So he cannot attack us until further eras - or if he has iron.

I think we establish a good border city and expand north.

[scooter]

Although lending Horse doesn't help Azza if he doesn't have the Wheel to build chariots. We can still do it now, but should be sure to only do it for 10t before more contacts happen.

This is actually a good reason to do it now - so that 10T can hurry up and go by and we can cancel the trade at a moment's notice.

Based on Comm teching Archery i think its fairly clear that he has no copper. So he cannot attack us until further eras - or if he has iron.

I think we establish a good border city and expand north.

I agree, but I can't tell if you are advocating for or against taking this shot this turn.

It depends really on how we think Commodore will act going forward. If we think a sign of goodwill by pulling back and letting him be (even when we could cause him pain) would actually be worthwhile, I'm all for it. If we think he's completely bent on killing us come iron or ballistaphants or whatever, then we might as well do whatever hurts him most.

Sigh. If it was literally any other player I'd say let him go and maintain peace, but it's Commodore. Early game rational metagaming is clearly not his thing. Or doing things which help him win for that matter. :P

[scooter]

Random comment: I'm finding this game extremely fun so far. It's also cool to see so many teams updating threads - though it is still early. All but one team have posted in their thread in the last 2 days, which overall is pretty solid.

[SadGit]

If we take that city we can rename it after some franchise where pink is a prominent color.

http://www.impactlab.net/2005/03/02/the-...franchise/ ?

They dont mention a name unfortunately.