TheArchduke tries his best not to be overrun again as Pericles

[Bacchus]

Anyway, we are now very much in the "every click matters" zone. We need two horsemen and three hoplites I would say for our campaign, ideally they should be ready as soon as the general pops out. We need the third hoplite to retain the 10 strength bonus even should one die to concentrated fire, plus general extra movement allows for rotating units to/from the frontline. The most efficient way to turn gold into these units seems to be buying builders -- three chops would be ~120 base cogs which become 180 cogs with agoge/maneuver for 200 gold. Unfortunately we don't have three forests, but we do have two rainforest and a forest in Ithake. That would give us 80 base cogs, plus boost city growth, 120 with Agoge, so just short of two hoplites.

There is a forest in first ring of jungle dot, which gives another hoplite. The capital can build horsemen after Settler, but very important that it builds them in Maneuver, not Agoge. This basically means the following -- we should purchase the builder in Ithake right now, and chop the hoplites before Early Empire completes. They will go and capture Buenos Aires, plus get promotions. Ithake will return to completing the builder with an extra pop point, which should complete roughly in line with the settler in cap. On Early Empire completion, we switch into Maneuver.

Ideally, we want to switch into Agoge for the one turn when the chop will fall into the jungle city. Need to think about how do this.

Finally, we need forces in place in case oledavy or singa move to pillage our horses, so do bring all you can back to cities asap.

In any case, even if you don't follow the above plan, make sure you have a plan, of precise build orders, purchases and movements for the next 15 turns. We will have a very short window of opportunity in which to execute everything and it must be done precisely, as lots of different things have to come together.

[Bacchus]

And if you see that the general is coming too fast, consider switching out to run both Agoge and Maneuver after early empire, or something.

[TheArchduke]

That was NOT a quick turnaround. I assume Oledavy looked at the situation and asked himself what the heck I am up to with my mil strength.

Singaboy accepted an offer of friendship, which prevents a dow for the next 10 turns, maybe he gets the message. The scout survives, ready to wreck havoc on the campus in 2 turns, if oledavy let´s me which I doubt. Still.

Pantheon wise, Singaboy went for Oral Tradition? Oledavy for Lady of the Reeds, a most powerful early pantheon if you get the tiles for it.

   

Our twin core this turn. One newly promoted warrior will escort the settler, the 2 archers will be on defense duty with the warrior and we will chop some rainforests for hoplites. Oledavy has no horses, so I think getting 2 should be fundamental and next on the shopping list. Our economy will be strained by this, so we will have to run the -1 gold policy before soon.

   

I am starting to worry how it looks if I agree to often with you, but the chops are a good way to go about it. I am unsure if I can spare the time for a settler, but will try for now, as in the worst case, we at least force Oledavy to waste cogs on military production as well and we could do with more cities.

At the very least, I will offer vastly more entertainment and action then in PBEM 1.

[Bacchus]

Are my eyes lying or did he just complete that campus? I kinda figured that it's not even being built, hence the lackadasiacal attitude to its protection, but... wow. We will make a mortal enemy, but I don't see what choice we have except to pillage -- it's 25 science to us, and -4 per turn to him, our most likely military target. Unless he has a unit to the south, there is nothing he can do to prevent our pillage, moving across the river takes too many points.

60 gold and 25 science is a really nice boost.

Yeah, we will have to run conscription soon, looking at that gold per turn.

Very nice move on the declaration of friendship.

[Bacchus]

You do need to sense-check my advice even (or especially) when you agree with it, as I'm not in the game and can't see the full picture.

For example, I now see that the hoplite is 13 turns, on what I thought is a 6 cog yield -- and sure enough, Agoge bonus doesn't apply to them. Makes anti-cav even worse than I thought.

We can try asking Singaboy for horses, after all taking down oledavy is in both our interests. Rather chop horsemen with maneuver than hoplites that can't be boosted.

[TheArchduke]

The campus is finished, our scout is at 50 hitpoints though, he might survive to plunder it, he might not I take the gamble.

Yeah, your eyes are not lying the ridiculously bad anti-spear units are not boosted by Agoge. What worthless units indeed...

It is really a question if they are worth it at all.

I doubt Singaboy will give us 2 horses, but I will try so Ithake is stuck with hoplites anyway, so we are going for 2 there and 2 horseman in Mykenes.

[Bacchus]

Well, we haven't chopped into the hoplite, so nothing is stuck, I would rather not throw 125 cogs just to not waste the 5. There is a lot of better stuff we can do with 125 cogs.

What we do need to do is revise plans a bit. We still want to take Buenos Aires quickly, but obviously we will not be able to rush oledavy in a reasonable timeframe. We only need a smaller force, and we need to think what it's composition could be.

As there is nothing to chop in Ithake at the moment, I would switch it to Max growth (cattle and marsh), production back to builder and and send the purchased builder to mine and pasture. Switch cap to Horseman, and Horseback Riding should complete immediately upon pillage. The builder can then still chop the forest, but chop it into Mykenes under Maneuver. Couple of horses and an Archer will take Aires down without much trouble.

On Early Empire we can switch into Maneuver, Urban Planning and Colonization. Newly completed builder in Ithake can then chop rainforests into a Settler. We would keep the general for defence and deterrence and aim for a second one around knights time.

That's one plan, let's come up with a couple more and choose one.

[TheArchduke]

Rather annoyed at the Agoge rules, but then again Multiplayer is not Singleplayer.

The two greek games I had I used Hoplites for giggles and you do not care about misused cogs too much in SP, well at least I do not.

Our situation does however gives us one important detail, oledavy will probably not build hoplites himself, so horses are the way to go and a priority should be to ensure he does not connect his own horse.

I disagree that we have time to wait on knights, Oledavy has a campus, Seoul as his vassal and is running away science wise, I think we need to force an engagement now, rather then later.

Horseman is the only way to go by now, our build buy and our ironless situation forces us down this path, let´s hope that Oledavy does not catch up to that and goes with hoplites because defensively, expensive or not, they could be quite the nightmare.

I will post some more screenies and plans in the evening with the turn.

[TheArchduke]

Huh,

Greece is running the +2 great scientist policy added to the +1 campus. I am not sure if that is a smart play.

Also the scout did not survive. Darn..

Plan for now is 1jungle chop at Ithake, followed by a forest chop for horseman after the settler is finished and a cow/tobacco improvement and stone harvest in Ithake for some units. Maybe a cautious scouting with my 2 archers towards Oledavy.

[Bacchus]

Don't rush playing this, occasionally it's OK to take until the next slot to think, turnpace has been crazy so far anyway.