[SPOILERS] Out of retirement and into the fires of war. yuris125, Pitboss 68

[yuris125]

Didn't think of walls this way, but think it's a great point that more units is going to be better in every way, at least at this stage of the game

It was my intention to go for Writing right away after Pottery. Pottery is the last key early game tech we need. We will want AH and IW eventually, but I don't see a reason to prioritise them. We will likely also want a religion for Theocracy (or another civic?), but the Mysticism branch is even less urgent. There are some wonders we can benefit from (Oracle, Pyramids), but they will be a huge investment this game. Won't be surprised if no wonders at all are built until the game is decided, or if a key wonder built by someone who establishes a strong defensive position will give them the decisive advantage

Anyway, with our leader pick, I always assumed that our win condition is claiming our fair share of land and defending it while teching/bulbing to better quality units. I know we're preparing an early attack right now, but that will help with both claiming a fair share of land (which so far we struggled with) and defending against the big danger that is praetorians. I agree that getting enough of a tech edge to open a window of opportunity with better units will be pretty much impossible until... cats are a possibility, as you said, but knights more likely

Cornflakes, thanks for the oasis info!

[yuris125]

Still no Thoth's chariots on our border, and bowman completed in Gruul Smash. Will start another one as discussed, for safety as well as to contribute to the attack if we feel safe about it. Started settler in the capital. Pottery will finish at the end of next turn, won't be able to take advantage of it right away with our aggressive plans, but soon enough

[yuris125]

Still getting 2 turns/day on weekends. Settler whip will be in 2 turns to maximise overflow. Writing only takes 8 turns to research at 100% science, faster than I expected - but of course we'll need a few turns on gold, especially with the 3rd city on the way

Thoth seems to be falling behind the pack on the power graph - and that's before we start intensive unit production

[yuris125]

Lots of world population has been sacrificed to the whip last turn. People went from 4+2 pop cities to some variation of having 4 pop (3+1 for Thoth, 2+2 for Miguelito, 2+1 for Commodore). Think everyone is whipping settlers for 3rd cities

Curiously, Thoth's 2nd city hasn't been up to size 2 yet. I think he's been working the gold all this time (although it's not being worked this turn). Another curious point is that I'm pretty sure I saw him build a workboat in that city, but he did not improve the seafood there - was it for the third city? Does he anticipate us making a play for his 2nd city, does he purposefully avoid to grow it? We would like to capture it, not autoraze, so hope not

Switched Gruul Smash to granary after investing a few hammers in a bowman. The city has next to no production, it will not be able to contribute more than one bowman to the attack; almost all its hammers will come from whip, so getting a granary there is a priority

[yuris125]

T42

Miguelito is, I believe, first to 3 cities. His pop is showing 28k this turn, which matches to 3+2+1 pop cities

Ours gets founded in 2 turns. Whipped the settler this turn, now it's units time

Will have to delay one chop by a turn to avoid losing hammers to too much overflow. But that's ok. Axe we started building before gets finishes next turn, after that I'll build as many axes and bowmen as possible, with perhaps one spear mixed in to protect against chariots. Mostly just going through motions at the moment, the turns are mostly mapped out unless something unexpected happens, like Thoth's stack showing up near Gruul Smash

Thoth gained 6k power last turn - could've been an axe (defender for his 3rd city or an aggressive unit?), or he could've finished Archery himself (how much would he want Archery?)

[yuris125]

Commodore's settling party appeared on the hill where I expected it (not that I claim any credit, that spot is pretty obvious, a hill settle with two fish resources in range)




Notably, I think Commodore's gold is still out of range of his cities - it is very much in the backline, and tricky for him to work during the landgrab part of the game. Both Thoth and Miguelito did claim gold with their 2nd cities. The quirk of northern starts - the gold is further back and trickier to settle while also claiming the land

Our settler is position to settle next turn. This will claim our gold - admittedly we won't improve/work it for a while, as that land will be a battlefield soon

Thoth's 2nd city grew to size 2 - autoraze is no longer a worry

[yuris125]

In terms of attack movement, with all the lakes on the map it's hard to move troops covertly - there's a lot of visibility. I guess the best plan is to stage on the tile S of the capital, where the axe is at the moment, move to the jungle on the turn we invade, and then probably bypass Thoth's axe and move onto the ivory if he doesn't move it? Moving on flatland sucks, but trying to kill an axe fortified in a jungle sucks more

[yuris125]

Big Red Dragons settled




Unit conveyer started. An axe finished this turn. A spear is next over another axe. Overflow from spear will go into a bowman, then the turn after another chop will come in and we will complete another bowman. Then I will move the workers to the gold tile, without protecting them (don't see how Thoth can capture them from the fog). This will look like we want to improve the gold - but instead we can road the hill and take the axe from Big Red Dragons along for the attack (think leaving the city defenceless is fine). So I think we can invade on T49 with 3 axes, 2 bowmen, and a spear. If we want to wait a few extra turns for the capital to regrow to size 4, we can add a double-whipped axe into another axe to the force

I think I'm in favour of going earlier with 6 units, and having the axe double-whip in reserve, with potentially redirecting them to Gruul Smash if Thoth decides to counter-attack there instead of defending his city

Two people now know Sailing. Looking for 2k power increases on the graph, one of them is almost certainly Commodore, don't see who the other one is, but this research finished this turn, so we will see the increase next turn

Thoth doesn't have the 3rd city yet - he's the last to settle it

[yuris125]

Actually, I'm going to think if there's a chance to move the invasion to T48. T50 is the first turn we can move the starting archer, so Thoth can add it to city defence by T51. If we invade on T48, we get to attack the city before that happens

Would mean moving the axe from Big Red Dragons to the gold hill on T47, before we get a chance to road it. Might telegraph our intentions a bit, but what can you do

[RefSteel]

Roads can be built on oasis tiles but the oasis still uses up all movement points.

Wait ... what? Roads (and railroads) are the only things that can be built on an oasis tile (no tile improvements, no cities) but they do work normally there. If you lack a road on the tile, or if you're crossing a river to get there without Construction (though rivers never spawn next to oases unless placed there manually) then the oasis costs two movement (and I haven't tested to make sure it's not 3) when it looks like flatland that's easy to cross with 1. And as I recall, it does block vision as though it were a forest or jungle, again in spite of looking like flat desert. Is that what you were thinking of?