[SPOILERS] yuris125 praying to RNGesus

[yuris125]

With the long weekend in the US, we breezed through another dozen turns. Good news - I almost caught up in city count. I am currently on 8, 9th is being settled next turn, and settler is slowly getting to the spot for the 10th. All in all, I should be able to claim the land I hoped to get

Bad news - my economy is in tatters, and some of the cities aren't going to be high quality. Of existing cities, Prague is now at size 5 with 1 food surplus - it will cap at size 6

City 9 is going to be a desert city, being settled just for the iron




City 10 is the far south silver location. Commodore already settled for the silver and it's in his borders, but being creative, I should be able to get it. Even if I don't, it's a decent spot




This land does require a lot of worker power; I have 10 workers, and it doesn't seem enough. Especially with the rapid pace at which I've been expanding in the last dozen turns, I'm not keeping up with tile improvements (I also couldn't improve tiles at Vienna due to raging barbs raging - but that should be over now)

On the diplo front, Pindicator offered gems for my wine; on one hand, it seems to be a deal I benefit from more thanks to the extra happiness from forges; on the other hand, happiness isn't really a concern thanks to HR. I accepted just to maintain good relations, there's no downside for me and I want his keshiks to look in the other direction

All in all, hopefully I am recovering from the rough start, economy should fix itself as cities grow onto Colossus-powered coast and tile improvements get built, and I will start building swords and looking closely at that barb city, and maybe at some Commodore's cities if war between him and Pindicator restarts. I don't have many peaceful expansion options any more, especially if I want to be friends with Pindicator

[yuris125]

Commodore took the barb city. I feel compelled to take a look at what units he has there. There's potential for fireworks. My units in the area are almost exclusively axes, but assuming most of the forest isn't cleared yet, there shouldn't be many chariots around

[yuris125]

No fireworks. Definitely too much stuff in that city




If anything, Commodore might start fireworks over Ulm, which is why I'm starting with walls there, and will try to get a spear there asap. Settling Ulm in this spot orphaned a fish which I didn't know was there, but think I'm fine with it, this spot is better for logistics, and it can use the sheep at Mainz as the second food source

Long term though, I'm definitely unhappy with Commodore having Horserace Bet, and it is going to be a target as soon as practiceable

For now, work on fixing the economy continues, but I'm also looking to settle one more city on the northern coast, and still eyeing the desert spot for gold




Hopefully Pindicator will be ok with it, it is a crappy location after all, and he already has a gold of his own. I would ask if I could figure out a way to do it in AI diplo. It does look like taking land from Commodore is my best play mid-term, so I need to stay on good terms with Pindicator

[yuris125]

Commodore did attack, and did have a chariot in range of Ulm




Unfortunately I didn't feel Ulm was holdable. I would almost certainly hold for a turn, but that would allow the archer to take the hill NE of Ulm, completely blocking off reinforcements (not that I had any coming next turn). The archer is a key unit in general, it is guerilla 2, so it can double-move in the forest, unlike most units

Hopefully I'll get a chance to resettle, although Commodore probably won't give me peace until he secures the spot for himself - if he gets the chance

Chopping some more units to ensure I don't lose anything else

[yuris125]

Commodore did offer peace after razing Ulm. This probably means he has a settler at the ready to resettle Ulm himself? Because nothing stops me from resettling it during peace, and I definitely will attempt. Of course, it takes ages to get a settler from my main cities down here...

Anyway, I'm not quite ready to go on offensive myself, and peace gives me time to finally improve the sheep in Vienna, chop forests around Mainz, and build Wealth rather than units in Prague. So was happy to take it

I need to figure out a way to communicate my intentions to Pindicator....

[yuris125]

I keep thinking if resettling Ulm is worth it. Commodore clearly showed displeasure over that city, and currently has more power than me. I think I should be able to hold it if I prepare better, and it would be resettled while peace trety is still in effect, but do I want it badly enough to go to war over it? If I do, it really is the case of now or never, the longer I wait, the easier it would be for Commodore to contest it, especially as his borders expand and he has time to produce more units

I considered if I could carry on developing what I have, and hoping it would be enough. Unfortunately others can grow large cities as well, in fact Commodore's capital is already size 15 - and I was so happy about having size 9 cities at this stage of the game. With me limited to 10 cities, only 7 of which have potential to grow, I don't think sticking to what I have is a winning play - even with the extra commerce I'm getting from Colossus

I also considered if there's merit in trying to get friendly with Commodore, he has a spare horse resource I could try trading for, maybe we could strike at Pindicator instead? Problem with this is, Commodore and I would likely target the same cities, whereas allying with Pindicator would allow us to attack from different directions, him coming from the north and me from the south

I think I do have to go for it. With walls in cities near Commodore I should be able to defend. If only I had access to chariots, so that I could pick up stray axes if he has a stack without a spear

If we keep playing games like this, I think we need to consider a way to ensure everyone has access to horses. I was in favour of the map being completely random, without even a check for access to strategic resources, and I do think not having metals would've been an interesting challenge. But not having horses is too much of a disadvantage, especially in an MP game where mobility is so important, and the game offers no way to overcome this disadvantage. Maybe stables could provide horses, if it's technically possible?

Wish I knew Pindicator's intentions - maybe next turn, when I have 5 turns left on the peace treaty, I should send him something like 5g for war with Commodore, and see how he responds. Problem is, if he interprets it as a proposal to go to war in 5 turns rather than a question, there's no way I will be ready to attack in 5 turns - all I need to know is if/when he plans to attack Commodore again

[Qgqqqqq]

You think missing both metals would be less of a downside then missing horses?

[yuris125]

Well, firstly we're talking about missing two resources vs missing one. I'd say not having any option to acquire one of the two metals would be extremely unlucky. But secondly, yes, I think so. You have options without metals - turtle up with archery units and muddle through until Gunpowder, or make something happen with horse archers. It's certainly not easy, especially in mid-game when you need iron for crossbows and knights, but I don't think it's impossible to work around lack of metals

If you don't have horses, you aren't going to have ground units capable of moving more than 1 tile/turn until tanks. There's no workarounds. On some maps it may be possible to go naval and get to Astro to find horses overseas - I think this will have to be my plan here. On a land-heavy map even that may not be an option

[yuris125]

I forgot to reassign the tiles and sent a chop to Mainz instead of Ulm




This could be quite problematic, as Commodore could attack in a turn, and I will have to risk losing 3 workers to get the walls up

Of course, he could also accept the city being there, but I have to be ready - this mistake could prove costly

[yuris125]

Ended up asking for a reload, because I definitely need walls in Ulm by the time peace treaty ends. The plan always was the chop from the tile NE of Ulm to go into the walls; with it going into Mainz, I would've had to chop the forest S of Ulm, and probably lose all 3 workers if Commodore attacked the turn the treaty ended

I don't think Commodore's attack is a certainty, which is why I said in the tech thread that the impact of this mistake was unclear. But I still consider it more likely to happen than not