[SPOILERS] Team BASTARD settles on deer.

[Mardoc]

If we could spare it

See, here's the crux. One chariot, I can find room for. Maybe even our existing chariot can manage this after it whacks the next incoming barb, but if not, 30 hammers somewhere is easy enough to find. And with where Azza built, we can even look into the city from the hill at the diagonal and abort if need be.

But...how does Azza react? Does he go for immediate revenge? That could get expensive fast - and maybe we even lose the war.

Maybe the gripping hand is this, though: we're way behind FinHarry. So we might be looking to exit the game medieval/ren era anyway, in which case we might as well go out with a bang.

[Mardoc]

Not sure I've got anything to say, so have a picture overview:

[Mardoc]

So next turn I'm going to pop our chariot onto the diagonal hill from "Nothing at All". Then we can decide if we're going in or not. If he's got a spear, two units, or an archer, I won't go in. If it's a warrior, axe, or still empty, then I'm gonna be tempted...

Other news: not a whole lot really. Settler's en route to found Orange, after which we want more workers probably. Barbs have calmed down, probably because FinHarry have settled their third of the continent already

After Math, probably directly to Currency, unless something else seems urgent.

[Mardoc]

And...we probably do have that option!



Odds? 88% at the present moment. Next turn he'll have one more fortify step, and we can promote Combat I: probably better than 90% of victory if he doesn't reinforce.

If he does reinforce, I'm calling it off. But I wouldn't bet that he can.




So...how do you feel about gambling on Azza's reaction?

Also, if we go for it, keep or burn? I really hate that city's placement, stranding not just one but *two* seafood, having the hill next to the city instead of under it makes defense a bear...but on the other hand we're behind on development. It does still get the corn and cows and lots of forests, so it's worth having, just not as much as it could be.

I played first this turn, and I'm pretty sure first last turn, but we'll need to be sure to be first next turn too.

[Mardoc]

Azza double-moved us. Without actually reinforcing, so I don't care, aside from the indication that he's not actually expecting us to go for it.

Should we go for it? Well, Brick's already in favor - and I convinced myself. Azza tends to be fairly passive, and we need an advantage if we're to get back in this.









City's not that impressive, really. No granary yet, tile improvements would stick around - only things that would be saved are Buddhism and a settler. So I burned it. We'll want to get a settler/archer pair up here tout suite to plant our border on that plains hill - unless Azza decides to fight, in which case we'll need axes and chariots instead.



We're going to have to be very cautious from here out regardless, though. I think it was a thing worth doing, but I can't deny that we're bound to have angered our neighbor.

[Mardoc]

We might have gotten away with it . At the very least we've got 10 turns to consolidate. I've an archer already en route to the hill and a settler in production in Troubleshooter due to be whipped in...3, I think. Darn RBMod whips! Hopefully that's early enough.

Also, apparently someone oracled CoL. Good for them! Edit: wait, the order of the turn log doesn't support that. CoL *before* the Oracle. And we probably wouldn't see the tech until during the turn anyway when someone selected their prize. That's a bit of a relief, prizes went to different people.

EditEdit: How do you feel about grabbing ourselves a little insurance? Instead of finishing the Currency beeline, we could divert to Construction, just in case we turn out to need cats and Elephants... that'd cost us maybe 50 gold (10 turns of 5-6 gpt) but I'd feel better about defending if we have to. Also, it may be worth putting up some Protective walls in some/all of our front cities, even though we've got Buddhism culture

[BRickAstley]

Hurrah! Nice call there.

[Mardoc]

Had a chat with Brick. We're going to be doing most of the things on the insurance list, on the theory that Azza posting = Azza mad. If he didn't post it might mean Azza-depressed or Azza-checked out. Fortunately Azza has given us this 10-turn breather to get ready .

So...this is going to be the only settler for a little while, hopefully claiming the plains hill to make a nice front city. I'm going to stack up 2-3 units in each front city and aim to connect them all to roads, and build a small stack of reserves as well. The garrisons will probably be mostly archers, actually, although I think I'll try to mix in some axes and a couple chariots for counterattacks if necessary. We'll take advantage of our Masonry pop to stick up some Walls in them as well. And we'll be researching Construction next so we can clean out Arabian invading stacks if required.

The trick here is going to be balance. We also need to keep expanding. Sure, after the city we fought for, we'll be just filling in backlines, but we need those backlines if we're going to have a chance at keeping up with tech and production. I didn't expect to be getting use from *all* the Pro toolkit this early . It'll help a lot, to be able to a) set up new cities very fast with Granaries and b) defend what we have economically with cheap walls and boosted archers.

[Mardoc]

Played this morning. About the only news is another Arabian spear showed up to the north - definitely we should focus on axes and not on chariots for our insurance force Also, I find Azza's timing strange - if he'd brought those 2 turns ago he'd definitely still have his city. But then I find this whole episode strange: greedy pink dot on a bad actual spot, without proper defenses, and giving peace while he's locally superior yet rushing units to the area anyway...dunno what Azza's been thinking or currently thinking.

Aside from that, just growing cities, and starting chops to be completed after Math. I forgot how annoying it is to set up whips on ancient era things; we might just have to perform a bunch of 1-whips if we want serious production into military. I guess we do have more happiness than we're currently using.

Well, either that, or set up worker-whips instead. With math and a lot of forests still, workers pay back the hammers rather quickly, and we also want them for making a road net and actual tile improvements. I'll probably do this, now that I think of it. Four workers for five cities is a stretch; 4 for 6 will be even worse. Even with a lot of lakes and coasts available.

I forgot how much Huge inflates costs; Construction vs Currency is more like a 15 turn delay, not a 10 turn delay. Still probably worth it, even though it's more like 100 gold lost than 50. Catapults are just that important, even discounted for an uncertain war. Plus, even nerfed War Elephants are probably worth having, and we'll have Ivory before we have Construction. It's one tile outside our current borders, we're due for a border pop soon, and it's at a good backfill site anyway.

Starting to think about investing in a temple and Prophet GPP, but that should probably wait until we've a better handle on what Azza's going to do.

[Mardoc]

Whipped the settler, set up two worker-whips, and we have two chops due next turn as well. Eight more turns of guaranteed peace. Azza's power continues to climb pretty steeply so we're going to have to try to match that.