[SPOILERS] Haram's thread

[Haram]

Update!

I settled my cities no. 5 and 6, both of them to the east. Seven already managed to take adventage of the war between me and Jojo and grabbed the sheep/cow location, which in fact is closer to my core. I was wandeing whether to settle the hill SE of corn or SW of it. Finally decided for the letter. I could probably win the culture battle over the cow, but it would be clearly aggresive, as Seven settled first. In case of a further conflict with Jojo (which is probably only a matter of time), Seven could easily snipe that city. There was one more reason for such a settlement - Jojo's culture will jump soon and there is a mountain in the second ring of his city. That pike would give him a full visibility over the foreground of my capital and it is something I dont want to happen.


Seven was offering me OB for a couple of turns but I kept turning it down, as I dont have sailing yet and he would be the only one to benefit. After a second thought, this turn I decided to seal OB, as I dont want him to look for some other options. It is 3 more turns until I have sailing, so I can live with that (18 commerce in his favour). After sealing OB Seven also gave me free horses, which I guess is a sign of a good will and a desire for cooperation. Im not surprised, because he took a good share of the land between us and he has Lord Parkin to care on the other side (I got a trade connection with LP after signing OB with Seven). But it is also fine with me, as I need to deal with that northern barbarian and a peacefull eastern border is just perfect.

There is one thing interesting in the resources screen in the foreign advisor menu. Seven has iron connected but no copper C'mon, wtf??? I can figure out 4 possible reasons, but each of them seem crazy:
1. Seven settled his second city the way I settled my horses and just missed copper (its hard to believe, cause copper is much more important than horses and additionally Seven is CRE, so he would be able to get third ring culture by now).
2. Seven intentionally didnt connect copper to build more warriors (its not possible at this point of the game and he went for the iron!, which is pretty useless for him).
3. Krill screwed the map balance (also hard to believe as messing with copper is the best way to sink the game).
4. Krill decided to give us (the greens) the handicap to be able to compete with those Sevens, Mackoties and other Parkins (this is the option I dont want to believe).

To be honest, I cant even tell which reason seems least crazy of all to me


The demos are still bad, but I keep whipping cities hard. I need to catch up with the land grab. In fact the food and the land are already above average, which I believe is a good sign.

[Haram]

Barbarian uprising. I killed 3 barbs axes and 2 warriors during the last 2 turns, but lost a camp on a deer. One more barb axe charging.

[Haram]

I was concentrated on Jojo and Seven, while the biggest problem could be Lord Parkin. I initially thought he was on the other side of Seven, but in fact he is SW of me, behind the sea. He also took adventage of Jojo's attacks and grabbed the land west of him. Additionally, he has crippled Gavagai to his west, so no real threats. I think no one even has his demo, so he could be running farmers gambit with a bunch of warriors. He's already got Confu from Oracle, 10 size capital, I expect more first-to banusses to fall in African hands soon. To be honest I'm scared of him right now.


That's how the land looks like from my perspective. I was planning to go HBR-Construction, whip all my cities for elephants and catapucts and go after Jojo. Hmmm, I need to re-evaluate my plans...


Seven has a war with HAK, but I didant see any cities changing hands so far. Whats interesting - I didnt see that note, from the perspective of my leader on foreign advisor menu.

[Haram]

Got currency, HBR in 2. Settled cities # 8 and 9. Because of the turbulences with Jojo, my scouting was really poor. I previously thought this penisula is an isthmus, leading to another player. Well, in fact it is a nice tiny piece of land, so I changed my settling plan and rushed the remaining settler here. Next turn I settle my 10th city on the red X. I dont know how LP will react, but I'm not leaving him this penisula. Obviously, I could place the city 1S of red X to have both seafood in the 1st ring, but this location seems better from strategic point of view - I want the peak in my culture soon. My land will now be extended far far west, but oh well... I'm settling what's not yet taken.

Please note the barely visible white border on the far west edge of the pic. Yup, its Mack. I'll have Seven to my east, Mack to my west and LP to my south (and north). It's gonna be an interesting game. Well, maybe not very successfull, but definatelly an interesting one.

[Haram]

Quick update.

I have 16 cities, including some crappy fillers and no more room for further expansion. Here is the land overview, F1 and F5 screen. Production column represents my tech situation. My cities are still small, but I'll start growing them as soon as the have granary/lighhouse/wharf completed.




Interesting things happening in the world. Mackoti declared war on Gavagai. It may be something serious, so I moved my keshics in this direction. Seven is conquering HAK. It seems, that HAK managed to gather enough troops to hold his capital, but I guess its only a matter of time (Seven still doesnt have construction). I still dont rule out piling on Seven, but the problem is that he has a good visibility on the border land and I wouldnt be able to take more than 2 cities.
Gawdzak plays a very impressive game, he's got 21 cities already! GLH seems to be a good investment, cause his tech rate doesn't seem to suffer from quick expansion.
Lord Parkin is probably building AP and already planning Sankore/Minaret. His military is clearly defensive.

[Old Harry]

Why so few workers? Are they just not needed?

[Haram]

I'm having plenty of coastal cities, that don't have many good tiles. They will rely on water and I'm whipping buildings as soon as I can.







...but even having said that, I need to admit it was a good point, Harry

[Haram]

Update! I'll start with a bit of retrospection, as I was not updating lately. You probably know the story from different threads

On T131 I declared on GermanJojo and entered his land with a bunch of Elephantopults. Well, I knew its a high risky business, but I had my reasons to do it.
I was behind the top contenders in my neighborhood - Seven, Mack and Parkin. I think I was strong enough to hold them in quite long term but with my land it would only be living in a shadow. So, I decided to make a move and try to cupture the western part of GJ's land (incl. capital). It was the last moment before the contenders had lots of knights. I didnt rate my chances high (like 20%), but I still decided to go for it. Yeah, I know it was Hail Mary Pass, but you know - playing conservative for the 6th place isn't what I consider fun. And YES, it was also personal. GermanJojo ruined my game in the very beginning.

I have to say, GermanJojo defended well. He didnt take any unnecessary fights and withdraw units to his capital. It also received 4th culture ring just in time to slow my movement, but to be honest - it was not a decisive factor. Anyway, once again proven true, what Commodore wrote in his PB13 threat - a land war against a competent opponent with a similar potential is a bad idea. I've taken 'hitshowers' & 'eagerday', and had to burn two other cities (red marks) when it became obvious, that I won't take capital. 'eagerday' I had to abandon later on.


GermanJojo went frenzy and keeps building units all the time, even now when I cant threaten him. Well, it was my decision to attack, so I have to live with that. His stack below, mine is above plus 10 keshics in range.


On T147 Grimace engaged (more units followed next turn). Hmm, it was a great place to strike tbh. Taking down Tabriz, in fact he takes 3 good cities and this penisula was the only valuable piece of land, except my core. I think I made a mistake here - should have placed this city 1 SE. It would be very slow at the beginnig (fish in the 2nd ring and no forests) but strategic reasons should go first in this location. It's my maoi city


Just to compare, south-western wastelands. Those marked 7 cities have a total of 3 food resources (clam/crab).


I wonder how Mack reacts in this situation. I would be surprised if he didnt do anything, he has a border with me and Grimace. I am more vulnerable, but its a really poor and not developed land to conquer. If he comes, I wont be able to defend anything further than Beshbalik.
I dont think Seven will try anything until rifles. He still has HAK to finish and I think he has taken the Taj route.

[Haram]

A big battle took place today between me and GermanJojo, a total of 72 units died on both sides. I'll post some details later.

[Qgqqqqq]

On T147 Grimace engaged (more units followed next turn). Hmm, it was a great place to strike tbh. Taking down Tabriz, in fact he takes 3 good cities and this penisula was the only valuable piece of land, except my core. I think I made a mistake here - should have placed this city 1 SE. It would be very slow at the beginnig (fish in the 2nd ring and no forests) but strategic reasons should go first in this location. It's my maoi city frown

Wouldn't that have just made the rest of the peninsula even more exposed, even indefensible? Sure it makes sense from a very defensive POV, but giving up that much (good) land so easily would likely hurt more then it helped, IMO.