[SPOILER] - Suboptimal finds trees, still seeks forest

[CFCJesterFool]

I think the best course of action would be to get as much experience on the pitati archers as possible and beeline crossbows>field cannons. Plan on getting the eurekas for all the relevant technologies.

[suboptimal]

Crossbows might be reachable. If we're in the game long enough to get to field cannons it's only because Alhambram has decided he can't be bothered conquering us and is working on a space race victory.

[CFCJesterFool]

Crossbows might be reachable.  If we're in the game long enough to get to field cannons it's only because Alhambram has decided he can't be bothered conquering us and is working on a space race victory.

I thought decent campus locations were being built (and more spots still to settle.) I agree that it seems like you lost from turn one but Alhambram still has to make the correct moves in his play. Also, did you negate his Kabul suzerainty?

[suboptimal]

Decent Campus locations are being built/settled. The two that are placed are a +4 combined (+3 at Fondant, +1 currently at Hasselback). We'll be settling a +4 location with the settler in Mashed. That'd make four Campuses at a total +10 adjacency. Not too shabby under normal circumstances but these aren't normal circumstances. I also have no doubt that Alhambram will play this correctly.

I have not negated his suzerainty as the troops are no longer in the way. The envoy is currently more useful in our pocket than in a city-state. We'll have a naturally generated one right around the time the horsemen arrive at the western Khmer front and we can drop both into Kabul at once to get the XP bonus racheted up for the archers.

[Banzailizard]

I will admit things look bad for you in terms of science. However it does look like you are earning more gold than Alhambram (in spite of your much larger army) you have more production (thanks to Nubia's bonus on mines) and you will always have the 50% bonus on ranged units. In other words you are able to outproduce his military right now, and you will have an easier time upgrading the units you produce. I agree it looks bad, but I do not think your position is impossible particularly if you take out Khemer. As an example consider last game where Pin had excellent campus locations but eventually was swamped by Wooden's outputs.

To compensate for the tech advantage you will need to be considerate of city placement and terrain use. Your biggest risk right now is his settling the inland sea and razing any cities you place there. At sea, you will always be at a disadvantage if he has tech. On land terrain can almost make up for an entire era gap if you are across rivers or up on forested hills. On the defense ranged units in particular, a specialty of your civilization, can decimate an attack if well supported by melee units or rough terrain.

[suboptimal]

The only hesitancy I have regarding PBEM 15 is that Woden's outposts outnumbered Pin's cities (and my own) by almost 3:1 by the time concession was made. It's still doable here, but we'd need to wipe out Khmer, be able to establish a defensive front vs. Australia, hold it and settle everything to Khmer's west in addition to our northeast. Guess what we're going to try to do for the rest of the game?

Regarding the inland sea the only city there right now is Fondant. I do see your point regarding land vs. sea and tech rates and I'll keep that in mind. Right now our dotmap has only two cities on that coast - Dauph Coast and Fondant. Provided we wipe out Khmer both of those should be well within loyalty influence if they were to be captured.

[suboptimal]

Turn 66

Our second horseman is complete in Dauphinoise. That city starts a builder and then will get the granary down. The nearby builder moves onto the diamonds and will mine those next turn. Hasselback is now 3 population; the new population is assigned to the jungle hill to the SW. I move the new citizen up to the 3 volcanic soil. This cuts a turn off the city’s population growth, bringing the time down to 4 turns, without slowing the monument build from its current 2 turns. The builder in this city moves to the volcanic soil hill to the NE and puts down a mine, getting us an era point for mining volcanic soil and gaining the city +1. Horsemen in the area move towards Nazca, five turns until they reach the Nubian Desert.

Warriors at Fondant fortify/alert in place. On the other side of the sea the Khmer warrior has disappeared into the fog, as has the Nazcan warrior:




I am assuming the Khmer warrior has moved to the sheep that is NW of the iron. Given the terrain here I believe that moving my units up to the flat ground by the word Nubian would make my archers visible to any Khmer units in the hills two tiles to the south while leaving them in the fog from my position. I decide to leave the promoted one in place on the tea hill – this will let it heal and prevent the Nazcan forces from moving back up the isthmus. As for the unpromoted units I decide to move the lead archer to the desert SW of the Nazcan archer. This reveals the Nazcan warrior on the tile west of the word “Nubian”, with no units beyond. I’ll keep this one here and perhaps move onto the desert sheep hill – I’d be able to shoot or retreat if I see anything interesting. The other unpromoted archer moves through and takes the first archer’s place. If any units show up on the hill or start shooting I’ll be able to back up from here without issue. FWIW, Pindicator has no envoys in Nazca while we have two.

The archer on the Australian frontier doesn’t find anything interesting in its movement to the southwest.

Next turn Fondant grows, both in population and cultural territory. This turn the tile picker is showing the rice. Hasselback’s picker seems to have settled on the sheep for some reason. Wonder if there’s a tile adjacency weighting. In a similar coincidence Mashed will grow in population, pop its borders and complete its settler all on the same turn (EoT70).

Just noticed something odd on the deal screen – Alhambram’s iron count is not increasing and is stuck at 16. Wonder if he got pillaged by a barbarian? He’s also met two other players this past turn, so someone’s got galleys out. That’ll be Hasselback’s next build, then I’ll get the Campus done.

[Banzailizard]

Can you put up a rough dot map with turns for the attack? You ultimately want this to be a pincer attack right? That way you take advantage of your numbers to overwhelm Pin. The dotmap might also help Jester when he takes over for you for a week. No plan survives first contact with the enemy of course, but a roadmap helps.

[suboptimal]

Can you put up a rough dot map with turns for the attack?  You ultimately want this to be a pincer attack right?  That way you take advantage of your numbers to overwhelm Pin.   The dotmap might also help Jester when he takes over for you for a week.  No plan survives first contact with the enemy of course, but a roadmap helps.

Yep.  I'll try to get a dot map with turn positioning up tomorrow night or sometime on Saturday.  Jester, we should also try to get you logged into PYDT as me so we have time to work out any bugs.

[CFCJesterFool]

Can you put up a rough dot map with turns for the attack?  You ultimately want this to be a pincer attack right?  That way you take advantage of your numbers to overwhelm Pin.   The dotmap might also help Jester when he takes over for you for a week.  No plan survives first contact with the enemy of course, but a roadmap helps.

Yep.  I'll try to get a dot map with turn positioning up tomorrow night or sometime on Saturday.  Jester, we should also try to get you logged into PYDT as me so we have time to work out any bugs.

You will have to explain the process. I have the PYDT client open and there doesn't seem a way to enter a token. I guess I have to join the game on the PYDT site?