[SPOILERS] Charriu and Zalson are fighting the honorable post count war!

[Charriu]

T70:

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Turns out I don't have to be afraid of RFS' settling plans anymore. Unfortunately Coeurva will settle the gold before me. I moved my settler and chariot to the plain hill. From there I will have to decide where to settle.



So I see the following options to settle:

1. 1W of the rice: Here I would have the gold in the second ring, but it's very hard to defend this city. Should Coeurva settle 1NE of the gold I won't be able to settle this.
   
2. 1E of the rice: This is my initial plan for the rice city. It can be a good spot, but it's still on flat land
   
3. 1S of the rice: This is my current favorite. It's a good defensive position. It denies Coeurva the spot 1E of the gold and therefore the rice in his gold city. The only way he could get the gold and the rice in his city would be 1N of the lake, but that place is harder to defend.
   

As you can see Coeurva brought 2 archers with him, so any plans of conquering his gold city are for naught.



I did not move War Wesley any further towards Superdeath border. I don't want to trigger him and I'm curious if he will kill my warrior, when he's clearly not in a threatening position. He could kill Wesley anywhere I would send him.

I still have the settler in production that was meant for the gold. I could tend to send him east towards the defensive position near Shallow. That way I can fortify my border towards him. I could also send him to the red spot. As you can see above Superdeath did not take Libyan (yet).

EDIT: I forgot to mention, but it should be clear that I'm now also in a turn split with Coeurva. So the order would be Coeurva->Me-> RFS

Graphs:




Coeurva teched some expensive tech there.



Coeurva and Shallow are the clear leaders here for a long time. I should start improving this graph in the next turns, when I start full unit production.



Shallow took the leader in food but I'm still a solid third.



Shallow has way to much power for my liking. Good thing I start unit production very soon.

[Zalson]

Found 1S of the rice; that's the strongest spot. Do you want to DoW on RFS, kill his warrior, and offer peace?

Is the workboat almost out to Magissa? We probably need to think about adding more workers, considering that we are working 2 (jungled ivory, grass hill, unimproved crabs) unimproved tiles.

Our demos are respectable but still worrying; it's nice to be in the top 2 for GNP and production and only 4 real food off (improved crabs) the leader but ... poor RFS. Welcome to MP!

And I would maintain a healthy paranoia about shallow; he's almost certainly going to attack superdeath for that cheeky play. I'd just really like to see superdeath thorn both of his near neighbors while we gobble up RFS.

I would expect that he attacks with like 4 axes and 1 spear.

[Charriu]

Found 1S of the rice; that's the strongest spot. Do you want to DoW on RFS, kill his warrior, and offer peace?

Is the workboat almost out to Magissa? We probably need to think about adding more workers, considering that we are working 2 (jungled ivory, grass hill, unimproved crabs) unimproved tiles.

Our demos are respectable but still worrying; it's nice to be in the top 2 for GNP and production and only 4 real food off (improved crabs) the leader but ... poor RFS. Welcome to MP!

And I would maintain a healthy paranoia about shallow; he's almost certainly going to attack superdeath for that cheeky play. I'd just really like to see superdeath thorn both of his near neighbors while we gobble up RFS.

I would expect that he attacks with like 4 axes and 1 spear.

No, I don't want to DoW RFS right now. Better leave him in a false sense of peace. After all it's just a warrior.

The workboat is already out and improved the crab near Magissa. Magissa worked only 1 turn of unimproved crab. I will whip the granary as soon as Magissa grows to 2. The other tiles are just not worth it to wait for higher pop. After that I will build a barracks there for the border pop and the whales. I will whip it also like the granary. I will use the overflow from both buildings to overflow into a galley, which I will whip after the barracks. This galley can be whipped any time after T82. I'm already building farms around Siren and the 2 unimproved tiles in Karlabos will soon be whipped into a library.

I will definitly settle the blue city spot with my next settler at around T76, if no further forest get into my way. I really want that spot because of defense, but on the other hand this could provoke Shallow to attack me instead of Superdeath. Another problem is that Shallow and Superdeath signed peace in T68. So if they made a real peace deal, they have 10 turns of peace. Have to check the foreign advisor for this.

[Cornflakes]

I would have been strongly tempted to declare war against Couera on your turn and move the chariot 1S of Couerva's settler (1E of Gold). Dare him to settle on that turn and risk the 30% odds of losing the city when you suicide the chariot, since he'd only have one archer at that time (hammer exchange greatly in your favor). Too late now though since he'll have 2 archers to defend by the time you could get there. I'm still tempted to declare war anyway to voice your displeasure and maybe trigger some unit whipping. Might be a good thing I'm not commander in chief

If Coeurva plants in place I also agree that the hill plant 1S of rice is best. If he doesn't plant in place but moves 1S to try and claim gold + rice, then I don't know. I'd still probably roll the dice and take the 30% shot with the chariot in that case. Losing you plant in place and cover with the archer. Winning, you maybe still plant in place or maybe 1NW. Or 1E of gold. Probably just plant in place though since that's the most secure being on the hill, and also avoids any complications from RFS's warrior.

I suspect RFS somehow got sight of the galley, thus his request for a turn split.

[Charriu]

I think I checked the odds on attacking his archers and I don't remember them being in the 30%. A quick sim revealed that on an unpromoted archer the odds of winning are 16%. Don't forget the archer is standing on a forested hill.

[Charriu]

I got more time to think about, where to go with my next settler, if he can't settle the gold. First some know facts:

• Both blue and red dot can be reached and settled in the same time. For the red dot I only need a road 1NW of Siren. Settling time would be T76.
  
• Shallow may or may not be in a 10 turn peace with Superdeath ending in T78
  
• Shallow never send a unit towards Karlabos, the only way for him to know that I settled there is if he knows and watches the cow and crab for improvements.
  
• The barb city Libyan north of red dot has not been conquered so far, contrary to what I painted in my screenshot above.
  

So with this in mind here are my pro's and con's for both cities:

Blue

Pro

• Good defensive position.
  
• A spearman and an archer will defend it right from the time it is founded.
  
• It can work the improved cow from Karlabos from the beginning.
  
• Could chop out a barracks for border pop and then improve the plain cow
  
• Immediately connect to my trade/road network
  
• Secures Karlabos nicely
  
• Good vision on Shallow's border activities
  
• 2 forests in first ring, 4 in second ring (1 of them shared with Karlabos)
  

Con

• May trigger Shallow to attack me instead of Superdeath
  
• A spearman and an archer may not be enough in an attack of 4 axes and 1 spear like you assumed
  
• A bit close to Shallow's border and therefore definitly needs a barracks and culture pop.
  
• Low on food for the beginning. It could only use the shared cow from Karlabos, plain cow and a farm on a plain for food, which is in it's second ring on Shallow's border. So the possible food surpluss would be only 3.
  
• Next possibility to increase food here would be only with Civil Service
  

• Higher distance maintenance cost
  

Red

Pro

• Good defensive position
  
• Can work the oasis from the start for food
  
• Worker would chop the forest 1E for barracks or granary and then build a farm there for food
  
• Secures Siren a bit more
  
• Good vision thanks to the mountains in the first ring
  
• 2 forests in first ring, 5 more in second ring (2 contested with the barb city)
  
• Lower distance maintenance then blue
  
• With Iron Working, which is almost done when this city is founded, I will have the oasis for food and could build 2 farms for food. It could also share a farmed banana with Siren for more food and with a border pop there is the potential for another farm. Net food surpluss possible: 6
  
• Does not trigger Shallow in any way. A war between Superdeath and Shallow will make this city even more secure, because Superdeath will be occupied.
  
• Could take the wine from Libyan for an additional happiness later. But it will be contested, with whomever takes Libyan
  

Con

• Would need to shift an archer to this city for defensive from Karlabos and Siren.
  
• One archer the turn after founding for defense
  
• Only defense while traveling to location would be a chariot
  
• I will have to fear Superdeath's fast moving impis
  
• Connection to road/trade network only after 3 turns of founding
  

Well what is your opinion about those two spots?

[Charriu]

T71:

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Well look who is here to the party and way to late. RFS must be really pissed to find out that not only was he in a settler race with but with Coeurva, too and he lost in a big way. Now he has to send his settler all the way back. Even better if Coeurva wasn't here I could have easily dispatched his axeman protector if he founded his city. While we are at the topic of RFS. I'm currently at a espionage ratio of 140(me)/113(him) with him. I think spending any more points into him will be a waste of espionage. If I'm not mistaken I need way more points to neglect him the graphs, right? I put my espionage into Superdeath for now.



The last screenshot already spoiled it, but Coeurva settled this turn. Well can't do anything against that for now, except for settleing in place. I started a barracks immediately and will chop it, when my workers are done with the rice farm. I want to pop borders soon to increase the culture pressure on Coeurva. His city so far has no road connection and if I keep the grasland 1N of the rice with culture, his city only has 2 graslands to farm and the oasis, so food will be a mayor issue in his city.
On other Coeurva news, he just build the Oracle. Well so much to the idea of bulbing Machinery with the Oracle, good that we did not go that way. This only leaves the question what he has bulbed and I'm sure it was Alphabet. Why? Well he discovered a tech in T69 and I find it very unlikely that would be able to tech to Alphabet in just 3 turns. I'm also sure that it is Alphabet, because I can now trade open borders with him, which I couldn't last turn. For a short moment I was afraid he would bulb Iron Working and starts swarming the world with Praetorians.



Superdeath is not the mad aggressive type, which I expected at first or at least he wasn't bothered by my warrior in his lands. Well good for us that Wesley can keep exploring. Now how do I get to Magic? The only way is between Superdeath and Shallow's cities around the gems. Or I wait till I have open borders with one of them and move through their land. Oh and Libyan is still in barb hands. It's somewhat tempting to capture it, but I have some strong arguments against doing that:

1. I'll propably be late for that any way
   
2. I already have spice and banana in my borders. Silk could be gained in RFS territory and the wine could be secured by red dot city.
   
3. Coeurva cow city is propably to the west of Libyan and Superdeath almost to the east. Because of the mountains NE of Libyan it is a kind of chokepoint between Coeurva and Superdeath.
   
4. Taking Libyan would put me right between those two. I would rather have them share another border there and maybe attack each other.
   

Back at home I whipped a granary in Magissa and the library in Karlabos, so I can work some scientist soon.

EDIT: By the way there is something I was wondering about. Coeurva's score increased two times during his turn. One time by 8 points, which is his new city Schilda and what brings him to 6 cities. The other time it increased by 12 points, from 396 to 408. What could this be?

[Charriu]

About that 12 points mystery. Of course 6 points must be from bulbing a tech with the Oracle. But what about the other 6 points? If he would have bulbed another tech with a Great Person it would have shown those 2 bulbs in 2 seperate score increases, right?

[Charriu]

In time I would also want to build a road towards Coeurva for 2 reasons:

1. I want to see what resources he has on trade
   
2. Maybe I can get good trade income with an open border agreement. But I'm not sure if this would benefit him more than me, because of my island resort MAgissa.
   

[Charriu]

Man, I'm increasing the post count today  But I forgot something important. I checked the foreign advisor for active treaties and there were none. This means Superdeath and Shallow only signed a cease fire and not a peace treaty. That's very good.