[SPOILERS] 2nd Duel with Alhazard

[ipecac]

The first duel:



Went for the jugular and got a concession at T40.

But it shouldn't work this time..

[ipecac]

Since I have been made aware that a lurker is interested:

Alhazard starts first and picked (out of a pool of 10 choices) ORG/IMP of Byzantium. After seeing that I picked CRE/IMP of Arabia.

The choices are similar in that there are same starting techs (Mysticism/Wheel), IMP, and Knight UUs. The only difference is that ORG should be almost useless on a 2 player Tiny Prince Map, no world wrap with little water, while CRE in conjunction with cheap Madrassa (+ 4 cpt Libraries ) is going to be very useful to place massive cultural pressure.

Assuming either of us don't make serious mistakes early on, it's going to be a race to knigs. And with the culture imbalance the way it is, either Alhazard is going to have to cede me quite a bit of land or he has to invest into wonders or he has to waste time getting Holy Cities to counter culturally, the latter giving me a beaker lead. So I am optimistic.

Also, Madrassas with 4 spec slots allows me to get my 1st GP (and therefore GA) rapidly in 9 turns. I'm not sure how useful that will be so still nooding about it.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Random post because subscribe and make future blood war!

[ipecac]

T55 update:




On this mirrored map, we both settled in place with Mysticism/Wheel. The tech path was naturally Agri->AH-> Mining->BW. (Un)fortunately, both coppers are buried deep in the ice, SW and SE. Therefore I decided to chariot rush Alhazard (again).


Any city that grabbed horses could not share food with the capital. But as CRE, I could farm the floodplain 2NW of the capital and use it, which I did with my first Settler. In contrast Alhazard planted on the highlighted tile to share capital corn. I then whipped out 5 chariots while Alhazard went for Archery.


My mini-stack arrived near Alhazard's third city, which is a bad city planted in a desperate attempt to get horses. Sadly my rush will likely fail to capture any city as he should have at least 2 chariots and archers before I can pillage his horses next turn. However, blocking the narrow path with my warrior and distracting with my chariots allowed me to plant my 3rd city this turn in a beautiful location:




Overview:


Demo screen:

[ipecac]

T56:

Decided to sacrifice my scout for crucial intel.


Well, I'd expected more archers in his capital and Thessalonica.

So that makes 5 archers, 2 chariots, and 3 warriors. And I have 5 chariots, but one must lag behind to pillage the horses.

[ipecac]

T57:





I'm up on the hammer exchange, but now my chariots need to run and heal.

[ipecac]

Raid amounted to nothing.

I chopped the Oracle at Damascus to get a third-ring front city, grabbing CoL to deny Alhazard a Holy City and because I'll need Caste.



T88 demos:



Alhazard got Stonehenge and I just saw a Lighthouse at Adrianople, so probably he's going for GLH.

Currently, I'm saving gold on Calendar for a MoM shot, after which the plan is to get a quick 1st person (4 spec slots from Madrassa) and then a second GA from Caste towards Guilds and stomp Alhazard with camel archers.

[ipecac]

T101: got the MoM!

[ipecac]

Where on earth is this Settler going??? He's not going to settle on the northern dye??



Well, my existing plan was to Caste-force a Great Artist from Aden, so it shouldn't matter much so long as he is unable to dislodge my forces on the Jungle tile.