[Spoilers] Easy Meat - Dreylin swims with sharks and tries not to drown

[Dreylin]

Looks like mackoti's got me snookered here:


I'll go for the Yuris defense - advance across the river onto the Cows and see if the RNG pays back what it took....

[Dreylin]

Yeah, well that didn't work.

[Dreylin]

A few turns later and we complete the set:


Not sure exactly where they are located, but they seem reassuringly across the water from us right now.

Oh, and world wrap shows we're actually pretty close to mackoti:


Oh, and in a completely shocking move he has completed Stonehenge.

I really need a dotmap...

[Dreylin]

So here's my sort-of dotmaps:




The West is most developed since that's where I've got accomplished the most complete defogging. Southwest is limited and Southest (not included here) is very limited. I'm not too happy with the dot on my peninsula, but there's really only space for one city out here and there's more potentil to throw something across the water to the East. Of course I don't know exactly where TBS are located out here, so there's a good chance I can't defend something across the way anyway.

I've kept my Copper unconnected so far (my 5 Warriors are currently just 1K behind the top Soldier count), and I feel the need for some Chariots to explore the South and firm up the dotmap there, so the Horses spot is first up (Settler whipped out at EOT). Next will be the SW spot on the Plains Hill - it controls a swathe of land and the fog in the South is Mountains - second Settler comes out of Trotters in 2t. Both of these are using CRE to grab second-ring food resources which coud be , but whatever.

Just discovered Writing; going to jam a cheap Lib into Scrag End then another Worker to start putting down cottages. I think I need to "rush" Calendar to get some Happy into my cities (4 resources in the immediate area) and let them grow. Considering making a break for Judaism (then Monarchy for HR), but I feel it's too late for that. Regardless, it's save gold for a chunk of time now before making a decision.

Feel free to ask questions, and I'll post more!

[Dreylin]

Screenshots!


Founded Loin this turn, Worker will have the Horses up and running (so to speak) in 3t, and the other Worker will finish the Cottage for Scrag End and then move to the Pigs when borders expand. Chops will found next turn and do very little until the borders pop to bring in the Pigs - so that will be first priority for the Worker.



Trying to grow Scrag a bit; next turn will start a Worker. Once Trotters finishes the Granary it'll be more Settlers for a while I think - I want to settle the NE spot soonish and will bring the WB back for that.

[Dreylin]

Time for an update on my dreadful RNG luck:


So the Barb Warrior was 2S of Loin last turn; I evacuated the Worker into the city with the Warrior and had a second Warrior in the forest moving to support the city. I'd expected it to move onto the Horses, but of course instead it attacked the Warrior in the Forest at 9.9% and wins.

But at least I could connect the Horses to start a Chariot in Trotters and get a second Warrior to complete in Loin. Of course the Barb will move NE and head to Scrag End rather than attack the city....

Oh, and in the SW there's a Barb city:

[Dreylin]

Barb attacked the city and didn't win the 4.9%.

Someone (mackoti, I think) founded Judaism.

First Chariot rolls off the line at Trotters next turn - and will go to swat a nearby Barb Warrior.

[Dreylin]

I owe an update on this game, but I haven't had a lot of time.

Short summary is that I've been seriously crimped by the Happy Cap and so have spread horizontally like a weed and have therefore killed my economy ... hard ... with a pointy stick ... and a club.

Limped to Currency last turn, but need Calendar ASAP to start pushing upwards. Going to found an island city in a few turns to get the bump on Trade Routes (it's close to the Cap, so it will be a next positive on GNP), but other than that I'm going to have to hold off any more plants until things are back under control. Which sucks because there's a pod of land to the SE that I really want to claim!

Anyway, I'll try to take some shots over the weekend to give an overview.

[Dreylin]

So I promised an update a week ago, and now is a better time than any to make it as a small exploration has led to a big potential swing.

I'd been sniffing around Joey's borders and found an unguarded Worker finishing a Sheep Pasture. Moved up an unpromoted 3XP Chariot and on the new turn I see:


He took a 50/50 shot with his own unpromoted Chariot and lost. OK, so let's have a look - pop NW looking for a pillage and there's an Axe across the river in a Jungle on top of the Worker and the city stands empty. Well, if he's willing to take a 50/50 Chariot attack with no back-up then there's probably an opportunity here, so promoted C1, Shock and that gets me 57% with an extra 4% withdrawal. Here goes:


And as a bonus my first IMP Great General pops in Trotters. Worker deleted and we'll see what happens on the interturn.

Overview stuff in the next post.

[Dreylin]

As I mentioned in the previous post, I limped to Currency with a mediocre happy cap and then realised I had 2/4 Market Happy resources already hooked ... so Markets were whipped into core cities and growth was started. I also queued up Wealth in a bunch of cities to help with the research effort.

Calendar completes at end of turn and most of the cities will be back up to happy cap with the Whip Anger worn off and ready to grow onto the Calendar resources. Incense and Spices will be hooked 2t later, with Dyes a turn after that - poor micro meant my second Worker for the Dyes needed an extra turn to finish a road.

I've got IW queued up after Calendar to get the Sugar and Pigs in the NW out of the Jungle; which is a good place to start the overview:


Nice choke-point land border over here with Joey/Mackoti to the NW (the Chariot skirmish is a bit further North). I've been wavering on planting the defensive "Here" spot verses the actual chokepoint tile and fighting for the Wheat. I think he's got too much of a head start on that though and this is likely to be a defensive border for a while.

The real action is going to be at Sea, I feel and that filler spot may contribute:


Yuris' Southern reaches visible here, but he's not planted this side of the continent so no presence on this body of water yet (that Worker is Mining BTW). TBS/Seven OTOH have a strong city visible and I /think/ the one further to the NE is coastal as well.

The pod of land across the water has not been settled yet, although there's a Barb city waiting there.

And Yuris, we'll see wraps around:


Another secure border. Rack is going to be whipping infra overflow into Moai (Fort 1W to allow transit); Chops will be going full Military once the cheap Library is complete. I think that I'll plant the first GG here to get 5XP units out. Second GG should be spawned by border skirmishes before a big offensive in or out, so I can get my Medic then.

The interesting stuff is in the SE:


This pod is currently unoccupied, but has been getting a lot of interest: Yuris borders to the SW, Ichabod to the SE across the water and TBS/Seven are further South as well. You can see the ruins of 2 Barb cities here that I've taken out - and grabbed my HE unit in the bargain. Ichabod has 2Axes on the Southern hill; he was a bit late getting the second unit in place to take the city and I got lucky when the second Warrior attacked into my Chariot allowing a hit and run without exposure.

I have no idea how best to settle this area, which is one of the reasons I haven't started. The Phalanx is sitting on a hill S of the "Here" sign, and I probably should plant that spot ... only it orphans the Dyes. As for the rest, I have no idea how to approach it, but I'm starting to think that settling away from the Southern water is the right call - maybe a plant 1N of the Pigs and on the Chariot hill? Actually, that trio is looking better the longer I look at it.

Demographics:


We're on the growth curve here with the Calendar resources coming online soon, so things are improving. Yuris' economy is in a pretty similar state to mine from what I can tell from the demogs, Ichabod is in a bit better state, and Mackoti/Joey & TBS/Seven are riding the Wonder train. We'll check back in 10t and see how things have changed.

I hope to keep up the reporting a bit better now, so any questions?