The Way of the Civ Player - Ichabod and Wetbandit's PB13 Spoiler Thread

[Ichabod]

The second thing I want your input, wetbandit, is about the attack on plako. Here's the offending city:




I'm betting plako settle this to get a run at the Pyramids. It's an awesome spot, either way. A spot that I want.

So, what do we do:

1. Don't attack plako - focus on economy, settling other cities, planning the attack on slow.

2. We attack plako with a force of 4 phalanxes, trying to capture the city.

3. We attack plako with a force of 5 phalanxes and a settler, trying to raze the city and resettle it 1N. Reasoning for this is that the city would be on "our side" of the island. Not that it makes defending that much easier, because I don't see plako attacking amphibiously for a long time...

Plan 3 is a bit more slow than 2, but not by that much.

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The settler that was going to the spot plako stole from us is going to this little unexplored strip of land:




Reasoning is that I want a second offshore city, but the options of cities to the east of TMB are really bad. 2nd ring fish on a city that the best tile is 2f or 2nd ring rice... We need more development before settling junk like that. So, I'm going to try my luck exploring that little island with a phalanx and a settler. Hopefully we can find something interesting there.

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Overview shots:







Demos:




Currency finishes on this turn. Need to think about what we want after that. Economy is starting to look better, what with cities and cottages growing. We need more military, though, even if we aren't on the low side of it. I think we are protected against Slow, but not so much against WLP.

[Ichabod]

If lurkers want to see something, ask away.

[Rowain]

If lurkers want to see something, ask away.

Not much to ask for but I'm glad you found your joy on playing/reporting again

[Ichabod]

If lurkers want to see something, ask away.

Not much to ask for but I'm glad you found your joy on playing/reporting again

Thanks, Rowain. I'm taking a very lighthearted approach to this game, though not a lazy one (I'm planning things here and there a bit). Coupled with the fact that I have a bit more of my free time back, playing has become way more enjoyable. That's it, until we are at war with 3 opponents at the same time.

[wetbandit]

I could be a dick and settle that sheep within the first ring of a city, but I won't do it for now. Instead, I'll try to signal that, if WLP settled that city, the other one between us is mine. That's the first decision that I need your help, weetbandit: where to settle this city? I have a settler being made in HP for it, which I think I'll whip this turn, since WLP may think he has the right to both cities.

Leaning towards Blue Circle or that Grassland hill, for the hill defensive bonus. You couldn't settle Yellow Circle right now, iirc, because of the Barb city 2NE, unless you've already razed it. I think all legal spots, except Red Circle and the illegal Yellow Circle, send an aggressive message. You'll be culturally fighting for those two flood plains at Blue Circle. The Grassland Hill at least gives the defensive bonus, gets first ring sheep, and enables another city plant between it and HP. I think only Red Circle can be settled with minimal military investment, and its a crappy city because of its slow development without a first ring food bonus.

This choice poses problems with allocating resources around the empire. You have the slowcheetah front, island activity with naval raids, and WLP's border.

Is WLP still at war with Bacchus and Retep? He's got a lot of fronts to balance. He's our main rival for the foreseeable future, letting him peacefully expand into good land we have the ability to settle seems like poor play; especially if we have the resources to better defend our settlements now. I'm not sure if that's the case.

It comes down to what our strategic priorities are, i.e., what actions we think will lead to the best returns for Musashi. I see it like this:

1. Expand into remaining land (this includes a 2nd offshore city for Currency)
2. Conquer Slowcheetah, huge amount of backfill territory, as far as we can tell
3. Contain WLP, even though the land between him and Slow is poor, it's still open land

This would illustrate what I think about Plako's island: capturing and defending Stone Island isn't more important for us than the above list, other than for a nice overseas, city location; which is what we'll settle in a more defensible location at home. We have no plans to use the Stone for a wonder; it seems late to plan for 'Mids and even HG. That said, I think it's a decent idea to land and see if attacking the city will not be a significant investment. I'm not sure it's worth keeping or even resettling on the Stone, denial is good enough. It looks like the island is somewhat close to this mainland.

It may be very important to Plako to recapture the island, so any more significant investment than an opportunistic raid may be too risky.

[Ichabod]

Little moments of joy!






Anyone remember how that first number looked like ~10 turns ago?

Yeah, I know it's artificial due to 100% science that I can't keep, but I'm pretty happy with it. Next turn we settle a new offshore city that will improve the situation even more.

Speaking of which, let's see what that narrow strip of land look like now:




again!

So, where to settle? Fish on the first ring would be good, but the place where the settler is standing could be an awesome Moai city in the future... I'm shipping a worker here soon, since this move from the galley already delayed the attack on plako. I decided to go with 3 galleys, 5 phalanxes and a chariot or 5 phalanxes and a settler. Gotta decide soon. I had a chariot pre-built in DP from the times of war effort, so rather than let it decay, I'll produce it and use against plako!




And the choose tech screen, so everyone can see how awesome we are!

[Ichabod]

I think you are right, wetbandit. Attacking plako would hardly give us any benefits, considering that keeping the city will be hard. Plako could suffer a setback here and there, because he has a big chance of running away with the game, but that comes with the big dillema of "why should I be the one investing resources to do that?". We have other priorities right now, especially planning the slow attack.

I think I'll whip the settler in HP and settle either the red or the blue circle. The city won't be THAT slow, because we can quickly chop a rax and a granary, coupled with a fp farm or cottage. Need to get some workers there to do it.

BoM will get a rax for 5xp units and DP will start on a Market for + happiness and gold (since it's our main commerce city). Other minor cities will grow + get phalanxes and spears, waiting for cats and ellies. Need to fix defenses in the WLP front and prepare the Slow attack. After that, we can start planning an attack on FinHarry if they are playing just a big sandbox.

Don't worry, lurkers. Blood will be spilled, just got to decide whose blood it'll be first.

[Ichabod]

I think I'll settle the island city on the tile the settler is standing. It's yet another slow city, but the later benefits are very big. It has quite a bit of good tiles, it has a fairly low chance of orphaning seafood on the tiles we can't see, it makes a canal between those narrow strips of water. Hopefully we get another food/seafood on the fogged tiles.

Any opinions, wetbandit? I'll explore 1SW, 1S with the galley before making a final decision.

[wetbandit]

New Island City: I think it's worth a turn to scout in all directions to see if we can squeeze two cities there. The Jungle Hill 1S of the horse would be a good forward defensive city against Fintourist, which should factor into the decision here since we're settling up on them. Scout SW with galley, 1NE with Phalanx, and take a 1 step peek 1SE with Settler.

Plako: Just so I'm clear, I don't think it's worth trying to hold that stone if Plako is going to make a determined effort, but a sail-by razing isn't terrible if it's low cost to us. We don't know what Plako's plans are, but I'm guessing he's making a run at the 'Mids or at least HG if he settled on the stone right there. I don't know where the armada is or how many turns it would take them to get there. Don't call it off if you're 3 turns away.

[wetbandit]

Also, we have routes to dtay? I don't remember seeing them on the map. I believe it was Dhalphir who drew the unfortunate honor of starting next to Plako.