[SPOILERS] The Rise and Fall of Whositania (all glory to Whositania!)

[Whosit]

Turn 47 Report

Scouting determines that the Zulu have at least 3 workers:

Two were building a farm south of that wine. Not a surprise for an Expansive player, I suppose. I'll just keep scouting around the borders.

Demographics, now that I have Krill's maps, too. Cheater Hater is putting EP back on me, so I'll have to make sure not to lose vision.

I'm falling behind in Crop yield, and I think that trend is going to continue for the short term at least. My 3rd city is grabbing Copper, but won't add to my food count because it's stealing food from the capital, and its only native food source (grass cows) won't get improved immediately anyway. Overland Park will get its pigs improved eventually. The city to the south is going to grow slowly unless forests spread to let me chop. Horse city also won't contribute much to crop yield initially.

I'll probably catch up on manufacturing... maybe. My towns are going to grow slow, and that's a pain.

At least I'm OK in power at the moment, and I don't think it includes the Archer that just popped. Of course, a higher power might be arguably bad since that means my neighbors are putting their beakers and hammers into other things that will help them. I am just feeling very squeezed.

For the moment, I'm pretty much still going to follow my plan to turn 70. Nothing much should change that unless I scout something important or someone attacks me.

[Whosit]

Turn 48 Report

IMPI!!

ZOUND THE ALARMS!! OH GOD OH DOG WE'RE ALL GONNA DIEEEEEEE!!!!

It might sound like I'm over-reacting, but I'm still an eternity away from having Copper connected, and that one Impi could really mess me up if Cheater Hater decides to get aggressive with it.....

I really thought it would have made a bigger blip in the power charts. I'm not so good at reading those.

[Commodore]

Archery takes how long?

[Whosit]

I have Archery already, actually, and just got an archer out of Overland Park (I think it has to stay there to deal with anything from Krill/Novice, though). Willow Lake is getting an Archer after the Settler. I was hoping to use it as MP or as an explorer, but I could have it hang around as defense.

I'd rather not defend against Impis with Archers, but I do recall the maneuvers you pulled off in Pitboss.... whatever number that was. (How do you people even keep track?) My expansion plans kind of assume I'll get breathing space for a few turns, but I guess if I have to whip out a bunch of Archers I will. Hrm.

I keep flip-flopping between being optimistic about my position and feeling like I'm really behind. I'm slow to get that 3rd city, but I feel like a lot of other players would be where I am but with more workers or more units or more stuff. I'm pretty sure that building the Workboat basically meant I had one less Warrior than I would have otherwise, though I still feel like that was the right opening because I got the Worker out not that much later than it would have otherwise.... But who knows.

At least I made sure to get Archery early. I wonder if settling Overland Park first was the right move, or if I should have settled for Copper instead. I... could settle 1E of the copper and steal Overland Park's Corn, but since OP won't have the pigs improved by then, it's probably a bad choice. That location also doesn't really grab me any more space, and gives up the hill location for defense. Copper city (Prairie Village) isn't the best spot, but I think it is still good strategically. I hope. Too bad it will only have a Warrior or two for defense for a while.

[Ceiliazul]

If only there was someone with direct, recent experience in fighting impis with archers...

If only someone, maybe from pitboss8, had *successfully* fought off impis with archers...

in fact ended up conquering said zulu without copper...

maybe someone in this thread...

...

be not afraid. Also, pb8 impis were driven by Pindicator/Scooter, which is a good bit scarier than CH has proven so far... Be not afraid. :-)

[Whosit]

I know what Commodore did in PB8 (just couldn't remember the number offhand). :P It was certainly impressive. I'd just rather not have to do the same thing. After all, Commodore didn't have a Krill on the other side of him.

But, yeah, I'll try not to panic. I just want to play in my sandbox in peace..... considering my strategy is basically "don't die now so maybe I won't die to Krill later."

[Whosit]

The Zulu are also a tad closer than they were in PB8....

It appears that on Turn 48, CH moved after me, and moved before me on this turn, T49. Because that Impi is 4 spaces away from where I saw him last. I pulled my still-healing warrior (that stupid animal battle) to the forested hill, because even with the +25% fortification, the forest hill provides better defense. I also sent my scout further west. I want to get something up north to scout, but I feel it would be valuable to see how much expansion room the Zulu have to the west, because it seems that their expansion has, so far, been in my direction.



This is arriving at a critical time and could really mess me up. Will he declare and kill my Warrior? Even if he doesn't, if he moves towards me he'll see my Settler popping out, and I can't think of very many people who would elect not to try and snipe a Settler (and Worker!) if they could.

I feel like I have maybe 3 options.

1) Proceed as planned and hope for the best.
2) Send the Settler elsewhere.
3) Delay the Settler long enough to get an Archer out.

I'm really anxious not to fall behind in city count, but as PB8 has been mentioned, I've been looking at that again. Com didn't have a 3rd city until turn 62 or something (though he had a lot of other things by turn 50, like cottages and more troops and workers) and he wound up really strong in the end. Of course, he's a better player than me. :P So, let's consider those options.

1) High risk for low reward. Very good chance that my Settler gets captured, and maybe a Worker, too.
2) Not optimal because I haven't prepared any other location for settlement, so the city would be sitting around unimproved and undefended for some time.
3) Slows down settlement, but increases the chances that I can hold and defend the settlement.

Option 3 seems like the best choice. I'm gonna do a quick sim to see what an Archer whip in the capital does to it. It's going to be very unhappy, I'm sure. I'd have to switch an Archer this turn, put a turn of hammers into it, and then one-pop whip it. The Settler would finish after that. So it's a 2 turn delay, I think? But I'd get Archer > Settler > Archer, so I should be sitting a lot more comfortably. I might even make the new city's first build an Archer. Kind of painful to slow down the Granary, but less painful than losing the city to a pair of Impis or one really lucky Impi.

It's kind of late for me, so I'm not sure if I'll play the turn tonight. I probably will. But everyone can probably wait 12 hours, too.

[Whosit]

OK, so I worked it out in my sandbox, and doing the archer basically delays everything coming out of Willow Lake by 2 turns (Prairie Village is late 2 turns, Avendale is late 2 turns), but assuming that Overland Park escapes harassment, everything will go on track. Of course, it wouldn't be hard for an Impi to get that deep into my territory, or for Krill to come poking around... but, hey, what can ya' do?

A few other micro things are going to have to be re-jiggered, and I think I'm going to end up a tad bit weaker come turn 70 (demographics wise, I will have 10 combat units instead of 8), but hopefully I'll be more secure. I also think that OP won't go into an Axe right after the Settler. Should get Granary, Library, etc. I can always whip units if I have to.

[Whosit]

I'm trying to take a steady as she goes approach to this, but it's still distressing to see that I'm slowly falling behind everyone with each passing turn.

[Whosit]

Turn just flipped, but I don't know if I'm going to check it until after CH has played. Maybe tomorrow....