[PB73 SPOILERS] scooter's Oracle

[Zed-F]

What is the limiting factor on 3-whips at Kendall & Roman — is it food to regrow (considering Logan also needs to grow) or is it whip anger? That might influence whether it makes sense to whip Logan for a forge.

[scooter]

What’s in Gerri on turn 77?

Funny you should ask.





That would be the turn Byzantine units could theoretically walk into the city if left undefended. Note that his Warrior is missing. It seems he moved it in, saw the Elephant, and then went NOPE and decided to walk towards Gerri instead. Fortunately I was guessing he might do this and have been laying down roads as fast as I can, so the Elephant/Cat/Axe/Spear quartet are all comfortably in range. I'm also moving my Chariot out into the jungle. I believe he has a Phract incoming, so I'd like to know where/when. I'm hoping I can trap his Axe/Spear and kill it. Even if I have to take a loss or two, I'm OK with that.





I've got one Galley heading up his coast now, and the second is trailing behind just out of view. I ended up whipping the Elephant at Connor, which I really didn't want to do, but 1) I need better zone defense in case a Phract is, like, 1N of the Rice, and 2) it opens up the possibility of loading the Elephant up. I'm not sure #2 makes sense, but I like having options depending on what Yuris does next turn.





I also settled Marcia this turn, matching Oxy's 10th city. I'm dropping a worker on this island next turn and will ferry another over before long. Mostly just to get some roads and a couple cottages down. Greg is gonna get a cottage/chop on the grass tile to help it get the requisite Granary/Lighthouse down.


Also, Machinery is a 7T tech at break-even right now. It's extremely tempting at this point. Just gonna save gold for a few turns and then decide on a path. It may depend on if Colossus works out. I worked out a pretty good plan for it, but I don't have to commit to it for a couple more turns.





Yuris really does not have much. I think that recent spike is his first Phract, but that's really all he's got. This spike is before I finished another Elephant this turn.

[scooter]

To catch up on a few comments.

I have been ded-lurking this thread so unspoiled. It has been very entertaining following this. Why not let my first post be approtiate for a lurker: WAR! Why fight cataphrats when you don't need to? Capatalize on your advantage! Have a few turns of full war (whip barracks, stables, cats and elephants everywhere) and take Yuri out. I did see all the starting locations and they are all awesome. The infra after the quick war will be very useful for the next war and the left over units also. Snap out-of the wonder-building, this is MP, not SP.

Edit mist you last post. But the point stands: go all-in.

Somehow I missed this post, but these are my favorites. It's fun to have a thread interesting enough to prod someone into creating an account.

You might be right, honestly. It's something I've thought about a bunch. The larger point here is everything must be filtered relative to Oxy. For example, if I get to Yuris' capital and don't bring enough and get stalled while Oxy builds 7 more cities and then drops a 17 city Hanging Gardens (what kind of sicko would ever do that) and pairs it with Colossus, I am in real trouble. And frankly attacking him is logistically hard even with 4-move Galleys as he's actually sort of far away, and I would not even be considering it if he wasn't clearly coming my way first. So it's tricky.

I guess part of that calculus is ‘how important is MoM?’ and ‘how close to it is Oxy getting?’, since you haven’t mentioned Calendar in the last few posts even though it seemed a priority earlier. Do we have a sense of where he is tech-wise right now?

I waffled largely because Metal Casting provides other values plus the chance to deny Colossus (and benefit hugely from it myself). But also the Gems pop makes the Calendar happy considerably less urgent.

What is the limiting factor on 3-whips at Kendall & Roman — is it food to regrow (considering Logan also needs to grow) or is it whip anger? That might influence whether it makes sense to whip Logan for a forge.

Whip anger. Both have not really had good chances for it to wear off. Logan I have setup a max overflow whip, but I do not have to actually do it. One of the reasons the whip is largely fine is 1) I can summon a 12F surplus at any time to rapidly regrow, and 2) whipping the Forge instantly offsets the whip anger because the Forge itself now provides +2 happy thanks to the Gems in addition to the Gold. Will see what the next couple turns look like before making firm decisions.

[Zed-F]

Gerri doesn’t really make a ton of sense as a target for a major attack since it’s the farthest from his core, the least painful of our front cities to lose, and anything approaching is covered by vision from our peak. A couple units isn’t a major attack, though, so maybe he’s just trying to stretch our defenses.

For tech, sounds like we are likely going straight on to Machinery after Archery but not 100% decided yet, and hoping Oxy doesn’t have designs on MoM. It might have been nice to trade a spare silk around to see what we can get, but I guess we can’t really get a silk plantation until we deal with Yuri’s threat on Gerri anyway. Getting some Zerks on the water has its own attractions, though.

[Qgqqqqq]

Anything else going on the second galley, if you decide not to put the WE there?

I was a little confused by your forge comments

[Zed-F]

My impression is the galleys are mostly a 'scare you into backing off or over-committing, but it's actually a bluff' and they aren't loaded this time, since our existing units are in the west defending against a axe/spear poke and we are just building new ones now.

The forge is in preparation for a play for Colossus if circumstances allow, but it's also just good to have in general since Logan is a high-production city anyway and wants to be able to grow quickly to cap to take advantage of the forge doubling for gold & gems and generate lots of commerce. But if circumstances don't allow a play for Colossus then there's no shortage of other things we can build.

[scooter]

Gerri doesn’t really make a ton of sense as a target for a major attack since it’s the farthest from his core, the least painful of our front cities to lose, and anything approaching is covered by vision from our peak. A couple units isn’t a major attack, though, so maybe he’s just trying to stretch our defenses.

Probably. I likely don’t need to actually commit all those units in that direction. This is why I need some more vision to see anything else potentially incoming. But sure would be nice to kill them if they advance rather than letting them combine with a Phract or something. Problem is the lake tiles make it pretty easy for him to get vision, so I may have a hard time trapping him on flatland.

Anything else going on the second galley, if you decide not to put the WE there?

Probably nothing, but yeah I’m mostly wanting to scare him a bit and force him to defend his core rather than send it all at me.

I was a little confused by your forge comments

Confused about what part? Zed-F is correct in that it’s both inherently really useful on its own while also being a Colossus pre-req in case that option sticks around a few more turns. The discussion about happiness with regards to whip was maybe the source of confusion? Basically, a whip adds +1 unhappy, but the Forge adds +2 happy. So to me, whipping the Forge is equivalent to +1 happy for 10T, then another +1 happy. It’s the reason it’s a little less painful to maybe do it.

[Qgqqqqq]

When you didn't realise it was needed for Colossus, I mean. I thought you remembered that but that I was misreading you somehow.

[Zed-F]

Probably moot now… gaining 76 points in a turn is a lot.

[scooter]

When you didn't realise it was needed for Colossus, I mean. I thought you remembered that but that I was misreading you somehow.

I built it in PB70, so you'd think it would be fresh on the mind, but crucially there I built it in a city where a Forge was built first for unrelated reasons, so I didn't notice.

Probably moot now… gaining 76 points in a turn is a lot.

That is a lot. Almost a suspiciously high amount. And, well.





Thaaaat explains it.