[SPOILER] [PB38] OT4E plays this one because lurking around takes too much time

[OT4E]

Just some pictures as possible development for our attack:

There is an obvious fork. If we spend 1 turn healing and promote axes we can hit either of cities on the 4th turn from this one. Probably he can prebuild walls in both cities but he cant share garnisson. Since he didnt whip any he cant have much by now.

[OT4E]

If we get rid of this for now, we can take control over island and it can be decisive for our coastal based economics:


Of course GJ will be angry but it seems he has no other ports. With our GG and triremes we can block him for long while:

[OT4E]

I hope we are getting Metal Casting in 2 turns. It now shows 3 turns but we plant 2 cities next turn and we have some extra gold after we razed city. So I started our overflow cascade. However our workers are not even close to mine and chop surroundings so it now depends on choppings and will take 3-4 more turns than I have expected. It seems we wont need to chop deers then.

Most of our cities are not ready to build forges quick and will slow build them while growing. Our land improvement count is total disaster, still 0 cottages, 0 farms and very small number of mines. And after all workers are still busy chopping and roading so the situation will not change in the following 10 turns, but I hope I can recover it by turn 100 or we will become history.

Sailing is important for us to start building lighthouses because even with colossus working non-lighthoused coasts will be very bad for our development and city growth.
Masonry we need for walls to keep our borders secure and also we can make Moai somewhere.

[OT4E]

Sorry everyone for posting too much, but I need to keep a track of things because otherwise I forget about them. I didnt track specially but it seems it was Xenu who got Pyramids and Rusten who got Zeus. The last guy has double score compared to us.

One more question to discuss is how to use GG. I dont think it is good idea to settle it because we mainly aim on numids who can get 3 promos with just a stable and double promotions on axes dont seem to be relevant. If we only had swords....

OTOH GG-galley or a couple can serve us good job in fighting for islands. But this only works well if noone lives us away from the mainland.

3-mover chariots could be nice to capture some workers. Otherwise it can bring us nothing good. Triple foresters could help in making pressure but in general I think it is a waste.

[Thorite]

Don't apologize; we like the play-by-play posts.

Great job on your second city kill!

[chumchu]

I second that. I read your posts with great interest and the detailed reporting is what allows me to keep track.

About strategy. I think we once again have to decide to either go for a sustained attack or cosolidate. We have already razed a city to replant and gotten a great general.

If we go for a sustained attack we need more units to both keep the land we took and push forward. Then we can settle the forward and try to keep GJ out of the sea. This makes him a mortal enemy. We do not want to push forward with a small stack that he has LoS on all the way, he should be able to find the couter and attack us with it. That would risk our precious units and leave us open for counterattack. This route requires HBR soon.

If we want to consolidate we need to know that GJ will also cool down. For that we firstly need a defensible front that does not invite an attack. Secondly we need for GJ to think that he can win without attacking us right now. If we take his only port and try to keep him out of the sea that is not possible. This route allows us to tech for sailing which is crucial for our economy.

I think that we may be too weak to go for a full attack even if he is also weak. He has the advantage of superior lines of communications, information and a reinforcement advantage.

Techs I think depend on war plans. We want to whip forges and light houses but that can not be done if need units at the same time.

What to do with the GG. A fun option is to go for a combat 6 numid. For that we need 26 exp which is 3 for barracks, 2 stable, 20 GG and 1 from a combat. At 10.5 strength it is formidable and even more so when we upgrade it to a knight later (if it survives).

[OT4E]

GJ played his turn in 4 minutes with 0 whips. Only for this he deserves death.

It is too early to talk about suistained attack. We cant really bring reinforcements and without HBR it is not really smart. We could do better with 5-6 chars but we have lost the moment and now we need to recover economics.

What I am proposing is to rush forward aiming to raze just 1 more city with what we have. We will have 2 triple CR axes, 1 ~3.25 double CR axe, chariot. 3spears archer and warrior. This can be enough to breakthrough 3 defenders behind walls.

I refused to go forward against OH in similar situation and I honestly regret it because we were still counter-attacked, while we could force him to keep all his units behind walls again. But that time I knew that OH had whipped 6 units immediately and now GJ didnt whip anything. Obviously he lost interest and is playing automatically. I saw it in PB36 where he failed to conquare Mr. Cairo and didnt put much efforts in resisting.

Do we really need that city? We will not settle those islands in the following 10-15 turns, so this is investment in our future. But I believe in this future.

[chumchu]

Zero whips after a few turns with almost no whips???

Let's press this and hope that your reading of GJ is correct. Razing polarity sect should give us gold and space. Is the chariot close enough to scout out the enemy?

[OT4E]

GJ has only whipped walls in his front city.

Chariot is just built and is heading towards our stack. Our scouting information is mainly brought by warrior. Of course I will check the city before entering. Btw it is the same warrior which was scouting OH's city. It is still alive. I will rename it into 'doombringer'.

Right now we have 2 options for attack but imho only coastal city is worth going for it. So I will keep illusion that we are choosing but will cut that other road at last moment. Also if we attack I will keep a spear and an archer at hope in case of possible desperate couter-attack with chariots.

Also to mention that just 3 turns of forced peace between us and OH left. Imho OH cant afford serious attack on us. He has many of cities to develop, wide border with others and probably high maintance. So I think he must be happy that we found another rival to bring troubles.

[Zalson]

 BLOOD FOR THE LURKERS and all that.

It's been really fun to read and to see an expert respond to adversity, you two. Keep it up!