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

[scooter]

March is good. Nuff said.

Hey look, you were right AGAIN - Our luck improved dramatically when we had Pindicator try his RNG luck instead of me. There is some sort of curse wizardry going on, but thankfully it doesn't work on Pindicator yet.

[pindicator]

Here's the end of the turn:



We put an axe on the gold mine to protect against his axe+archer combo. If he tries to trade units he's looking at likely sacrificing the archer to weaken our axe and then clean up with his - but he can see we have a chariot ready to clean up. This will give a little insight on what he's planning: trade hammers and try to grind out victory? Or swarm and attack in strength?

The General moved into McD and we'll be able to combine it to our axe next turn.

3 workers are on the silk tile. Next turn may be dicey - if he moves he troops up thinking he can get a shot at our workers once we chop away, it may be better to just road the silk and attack out again, using the great general to get promotions on a variety of units (well, shock GG axe should be enough to put things in our favor but we'll see).

Our other two workers are one apiece on the southern forests. Depending on what commodore does with his axe/archer pair we will road or chop here. After the silk forest these have top priority as far as being defensive liabilities.

We were just able to 1-turn Archery. I had to put Zaxby's on Research but next turn we can get some archers. If we can chop the trees and get a couple Guerilla archers on that gold mine we should be all right.

White Castle hooked up its clams and we set it to a lighthouse. After the forest chop we'll whip the lighthouse to completion, and then do the same thing with a barracks once it hits size 2 again. Then we'll mine the grass hills and work clams, 3f lake, and 2 grass hills until borders pop.

In N Out is also on an ikhanda - once that gets to 10/60 we'll whip that to completion as well. We need to get some promoted units in the field to help win more battles.

LJS is just putting 1 turn into the ikhanda there - after Archery comes in we'll swap to an archer for MP.

And as much as I wnat to complain about demos, it's really this graph that has me worried:

[pindicator]

FYI- will be getting home late tonight. If i am way late post your thoughts in thread and we'll go from there. Or play withoit me, but if you do that you're gambling with our soldiers' lives

[pindicator]

Here's the next turn's tactical puzzle:



We also have the Great General in McDonalds and an Impi in LJS. Considering the number of axes, Impi probably won't help too much now.
There are also workers on both forest tiles south of McDonalds.

It looks like he is converging on the gold hill. Time to puzzle out how to defend, but i would give for another axe and an archer or two right now. Oh wait, we can chop that out

Edit: Forgot to include the good guys, now it's all there.

[scooter]

Ok, my thoughts:

1) 3 workers chop silk into an axe. Work the tiles needed to get it out this turn.
2) Axe on the gold goes onto the forest with the worker under it. That worker needs to chop IMO - that forest needs to be gone pronto.
3) I think he's going to combine that south axe/archer with the axe/spear/archer group next turn. Or he'll combine the 3 with the axe on grassland and move the axe/archre combo back. Either way, 5-6 units on cover within range of the gold next turn. So we want several axes on that hill by next turn - we can manage 3. Should be good enough.
4) And I think we go ahead with the 24xp axe this turn. C1-C2-C3-Morale-Shock. That gets us onto the gold this turn btw (using Morale).
5) Chariots just be positioned in a place where they could pick off axes. That south axe/archer combo is particularly exposed to chariots if he ever puts in on flat ground. I want to be in range in case he makes that mistake.
6) forest 1S of McDs can probably be roaded this turn.

Thoughts or objections?

[pindicator]

#2 - That's risking him going 2v1 on our axe, but I think it's a risk we need to take. Looking at the combat odds calculator, he has about a 26% chance to win if he goes 2v1 on our axe. Ok, not so bad a risk after all
#3 - Do not move on the gold tile with our GG axe this turn unless you want to give him impi support. He has a chariot 3 tiles away on a road; if he has 2 workers in the fog then the axe would be dead. I think the impis need to stay with the workers in the north, so let's just leave that gold tile barren for now and let him guess where our defenders are (and what they are). If you think we have enough coverage for our 3 workers in the north to spare impi defenders for our GG axe, and if the extra 5% fortify will be crucial then go ahead, but don't put that axe there by itself

#5 - For chariots, I'm 1W of McD is where they should be. On the road network, out of sight, and able to hit a variety of tiles. Well, he can duck along the road with a unit and get sight on this tile from across the lake

If you play the turn, don't forget to swap to an archer in LJS and the barracks gets whipped in In N Out next turn.

[scooter]

#2 - That's risking him going 2v1 on our axe, but I think it's a risk we need to take. Looking at the combat odds calculator, he has about a 26% chance to win if he goes 2v1 on our axe. Ok, not so bad a risk after all

Yeah I don't think he takes that shot, and I'm ok with him trying. I would almost rather him attack that than combine with his other units.

#3 - Do not move on the gold tile with our GG axe this turn unless you want to give him impi support. He has a chariot 3 tiles away on a road; if he has 2 workers in the fog then the axe would be dead. I think the impis need to stay with the workers in the north, so let's just leave that gold tile barren for now and let him guess where our defenders are (and what they are). If you think we have enough coverage for our 3 workers in the north to spare impi defenders for our GG axe, and if the extra 5% fortify will be crucial then go ahead, but don't put that axe there by itself

I was thinking Impi support yes, but I think you're right, I'll pass on it and not show him our GG just yet. I'd like him to have some fear on how we're going to use it. So gold will stay empty.

#5 - For chariots, I'm 1W of McD is where they should be. On the road network, out of sight, and able to hit a variety of tiles. Well, he can duck along the road with a unit and get sight on this tile from across the lake

Yeah, I was thinking across-the-lake sight, which is why I didn't combine them onto that tile last time. So far he's just seen the one chariot as a result, I may try to keep it that way.

If you play the turn, don't forget to swap to an archer in LJS and the barracks gets whipped in In N Out next turn.

I'd kind of like to get a Guerilla Archer for the gold from INO after this btw.

[pindicator]

Considering he can only get a chariot on the gold tile next turn i think we're ok not to tip our hand just yet.
I like the Guerilla archer idea too- we just gotta hold that tile until we can get one

[scooter]

I did go ahead and play btw. I didn't feel perfect about a 2.1 Impi + chariot defending the trio of workers, so I swapped that Impi with a stronger one on the forest tile 1N of it. Figured that gives us a more even defense up there in case of chariots + workers from the fog wizardry. Likelihood of mattering is low, just a precaution.

GG'd the axe, C1-C2-Shock-Morale. I kept it behind, out of sight. It's at 4.8/5 health. I left one chariot on the trio of workers and the other in McDonalds itself, which actually will give it enough range to hit any tile touching McDonalds culture. Left the gold open as discussed. Oh, and turned tech on for Masonry as we slog our way to Construction. I did just defend that worker with the axe as discussed, so if Commodore wants a piece of that dice roll he can be my guest.

Time to sit back and see what Commodore deals us next turn.

[scooter]

So, why in the world are we still getting no trade routes with Azza? We pretty clearly have a defogged coastal route via map trade with him.

New turn rolled, Commodore played, I'm in now. I'm going to whip the Ikhanda in INO as planned, and then I'll take a screenshot of the battle-front and post it. Basically, Commodore did as I expected and packed it in on the tile next to the gold.