[Spoilers]Pindicator With All the First Strikes in PB71

[pindicator]

Hey scooter, you still plan on covering for me starting Saturday? Seeing you post in the lurker thread and Krill's thread has me wondering.

[scooter]

Hey scooter, you still plan on covering for me starting Saturday? Seeing you post in the lurker thread and Krill's thread has me wondering.

I can definitely cover as planned, I just haven't stopped lurking this time around so slightly more explicit directions would be good. I mean, it doesn't have to be hyper specific if it's as simple as "build Samurai in every city and whip when it's logical" but you know what I mean.

I thought about pulling back like last time, but at the time I agreed I realized I knew a little too much to be able to realistically be semi-unspoiled. If something unexpected happens it may just mean I have to hold the turn until I can get ahold of you to get updated directions.

[Magic Science]

Financial Advisor, please? What is costing all this money?

[pindicator]

Probably all the Samurai




Krill sent us a Sheep for Sheep trade when I went to take this screenshot, so now we're locked into 10 turns of enforced peace (RtR mod thing I think? Or perhaps it was just because we were in cease fire for a while and now we go to enforced peace? Not sure how RtR works there.)

Anyway, our cities are small, spread far apart, we have no happiness, and there's very little natural commerce. I could have played sim city more but I wanted to whip out Samurai instead.

[pindicator]

126

Everybody is declaring war on Superdeath. This is why he wants us to declare on Commodore.




Thoth moved up an axe, and I gladly killed it. This let me scout out the defenses at his next city ... and I feel like we can take this one on.




Also, see that 3f lake? More coastal tiles for our Colossus! However, this is so far away I don't think I would want to keep it. Indeed - right now I'm leaning towards burning Murder Squad, unless it has something really nice that I have yet to see. Then I could try to peace out Thoth and send the Samurai after Commodore some.

My empire is both too small and too large:




I've marked the settler for claiming the gold as well as the barb city we're likely to capture next turn (2 archers left, 2 healthy samurai ready to attack). I suppose I could try to just take all of Thoth and then settle the coastal spots in the east ... it will depend on expenses I think. I need to get to Currency and then I can expand like mad to fill all that in. So really I just want to find raze gold.

Great person was born at end of turn. A 30% Great Merchant would make life easy right now. A 5% Great Engineer would be useful still.




No idea what I do with a Great Prophet, however.

I've hired Scientists in Morphy and Lasker. That gets Currency down to 6 turns at max science - so we only would need 450g.

[pindicator]

127

Right, so here are your instructions Scooter, because I'm not sure if I'll actually get to play tomorrow or not.

First, the easy part: The East




Both of our Samurai won their battles and we captured Kassite this turn, netting with it a nice 146g. This gold amount was huge, as I think we have enough to go for Currency. More on that in a bit, but I've turned on the slider to 100% and set cities for max commerce.

From here the axe should stay in Kassite to defend, and the pair of Samurai should head south to the gold city location. Meanwhile there is a settler on the way to found the new city, with 3 workers nearby. 2 workers will need to road to the next city location and then improve the sheep while the 3rd will ... well, I'm not really sure. Chop forests for hammers into Casablanca, perhaps?

Now, the tricky part is we might not actually want to settle the next city (Gold City will be "Euwe", unless you have a different world champion you'd like to pick) because we really, really want to get to Currency. So if the gold gets a little tight on t130 (like if our attack on Murder Squad stalls) then perhaps we delay Euwe in order to make sure we get to Currency.

Assuming we get Currency, we are going to want to settle Euwe, another city north of Kassite, raze the barb city southeast of Kassite and fill in another city on the marked hill 3S of Kassite. All that greenery is going to need to be cottaged, and the gold mine hooked up and cottaged. Mind any barbarians from the north. If we dont' get Currency then we still will need to settle Euwe for the gold and happiness, and still will want to cottage up Kassite, but the other cities will need to wait.

Second, the tricky part: Krill




I misread the enforced peace last turn: we only have 2 turns of forced peace left. However, I think as long as we are fighting Thoth then Krill is happy to leave us alone (for now). He has just moved his worker to that hill and gone out of his way to show that he is mining the hill only. (He could have easily mined a number of other hills, but this just shows Krill will come at us with his horse archers at some point.

Because of this, Spears are the unit of the day. We currently have 25 Samurai in the field - over 20 of them down by Thoth. However a spear is just as good a defender as a Samurai against a horse - except we can build twice as many spears for the same cost. So I would like to have at least 4 spears in both Lasker and Staunton eventually. Meanwhile a small reserve force of Samurai can be kept near the capital. Also, Staunton needs a Lighthouse but I have no idea when I'll be able to afford that luxury.

I am still building some Samurai currently, but i think it's only useful to build Samurai where I can 2-whip them. Because of the cheap forges everywhere I no longer can 2-pop whip spears. Also, a treb here or there will help, but we don't want too many. I have 3 and a 4th in production. I can't imagine starting more than 1 or 2 more in the days I'm gone. So spears until we have a good amount in our border cities with Krill and then Samurai.

Also, I've got cities configured for mass commerce. Scientists are hired in the capital and Lasker. Lasker is starving and I'm not working a single bonus tile at Staunton. We are squeezing blood from a stone to get to Currency here. But I don't trust Krill and so we want to be building up spears.

Also, the Great Prophet. Right now my best idea for him is either a Golden Age or to hold on to him until we get a holy city. But really, with how tight we are to Currency, it might not be a bad idea to settle him in the capital. If we have to settle him in order to get Currency then do it, but otherwise I'd like to hold on to him for our first golden age.

Finally, the hard part: Thoth




This is the most important part of getting to Currency, because we might need the capture gold from Murder Squad in order to finish the tech. Last turn there were 2 horse archers showing in Murder Squad and this turn they are gone, so it is possible we have a large conflict with horse archers. I'm going to have to leave the details of when to attack Murder Squad to you - whether you bombard down the walls or send the trebs in, or whether you are able to wait for both because we have enough to pull in Currency anyway.

We burn Murder Squad 99% of the time. Only time we wouldn't would be if Thoth loses all his army spectacularly, but even then we need to turn our armies back home for the eventuality that Krill attacks us. Which is sad because it helps Commodore - but I plan on going after Commodore next anyway.

Any questions?

I guess tech is one: if you do get to Currency then we have a few choices for where to go next. Horseback Riding, Calendar, or the religious techs are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Probably the religious techs - that way we can use that golden age and get into HR, Org Rel, and adopt Hinduism.

Any other questions?

[scooter]

Yeah I'm not too worried about tech because clearly tech is "try to get Currency without striking," and if that somehow happens while you're gone I can just pick one of those techs and set rate to 0% because that's what you'd likely to anyway for a few turns.

We burn Murder Squad 99% of the time. Only time we wouldn't would be if Thoth loses all his army spectacularly, but even then we need to turn our armies back home for the eventuality that Krill attacks us. Which is sad because it helps Commodore - but I plan on going after Commodore next anyway.

Any questions?

On this one, might be worth being pretty explicit on what circumstances would dictate a capture. Otherwise it's hard to imagine a scenario where I capture rather than raze since you have said "99%" raze, so that's pretty definitive if there's any doubt whatsoever. Just want to make sure.

Sounds like Prophet instructions are keep unless settling is the difference between Currency and Strike, more or less?

[scooter]

Also, I definitely should have asked you this earlier, but will you have internet access at all during this time?

[pindicator]

Yeah I'm not too worried about tech because clearly tech is "try to get Currency without striking," and if that somehow happens while you're gone I can just pick one of those techs and set rate to 0% because that's what you'd likely to anyway for a few turns.

Exactly. You might have to run Wealth even after getting to Currency, but one problem at a time.

On this one, might be worth being pretty explicit on what circumstances would dictate a capture. Otherwise it's hard to imagine a scenario where I capture rather than raze since you have said "99%" raze, so that's pretty definitive if there's any doubt whatsoever. Just want to make sure.

If Thoth loses his entire army and we have ours intact so that conquering him looks possible then keep and continue on. If someone else attacks Thoth in the next few turns and he looks like he might collapse then ... well, I hate to say it but it depends. It depends on more things than I think I can think of. Basically, the only reason to keep Murder Squad is if the situation changes such that it looks like we can take and hold a good chunk of Thoth's core. Which is why I don't think you really need to worry about it 99% of the time.

Sounds like Prophet instructions are keep unless settling is the difference between Currency and Strike, more or less?

Exactly correct.

Also, I definitely should have asked you this earlier, but will you have internet access at all during this time?

No internet access for me after Saturday morning. I'll be backpacking and tent camping for 6 days with a travel day on either end. Will be back late on Friday 7/28.

[scooter]

Oh, what are your diplo preferences? Are you wanting to attempt a peace out with Thoth if/when Murder Squad is burned?