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Hot hut tipping tip.
I have been refining my hut tipping techniques.
After the very early phase is completed I now leave untipped all huts which are not in danger of being tipped by the A1.
Then, after Monarchy is achieved, I give Writing, Pottery, Mapmaking and Seafaring a high priority and build a diplo, a trireme and an explorer.
Those three units are dispatched, first to the locality of any huts already exposed and, later, to the four corners of the earth.
The routine works like this. You first roll back the fog of war, exposing the huts. Once you start tipping, if the hut is adjacent to the coast you just tip it in the normal way from the trireme, ready to get back aboard if barbs emerge. But if the hut is one square inland you station the dip between the hut and the coast, the explorer next to the hut and the trireme within reach. On the next move your explorer tips the hut but stands ready to retreat back to the coastal square occupied by the dip and thence to the safety of the trireme. Then the dip gets back aboard as well and all is snug.
As you can see that prevents hut barbs surrounding the explorer and subsequently dispatching him.
When the hut is further inland you use a similar approach but must also take advantage of terrain features. You station the diplo next to the hut
on a two or three movement square. The intrepid explorer tips as before and again can retreat through the square occupied by the dip. He can then make his third move and is now safely behind the two movement square. The dip, when he in turn retreats can go further still. Depending upon exactly how the land lies that will often be sufficient for both to escape without risk of molestation. Even if the retreat backs your lads into a corner, the navy is on hand to pick them up before the barbs get through the blocking terrain.
On the occasions when the terrain does not allow this manoevre, you stand ready to use the dip to bribe one or more of the emerging barbs and that may either open up a safe avenue for everyone to retreat or else you use the bribed barb unit/s to attack the remaining barbs. You station the dip where there is at least one single movement square next to both him and the hut. The point of that is to ensure that you have the option to bribe two of the emerging barb units at need. You attempt to effect the bribes and attacks so as to shield the expensive and valuable explorer and the diplo. The bribed units are likely to be more expendible although, in practice, I find that it is rare to lose even those.
With these methods I do not think I have lost an exploring unit to hut barbs for quite a while.
I suppose that, as far as the first two of the manoevres above are concerned, any four footed unit could substitute for the dip. But a very useful feature of the technique is that the happy triumvirate of hut tippers will often leave a trail of highly useful NONE units in their wake. These units may have uses in situ but, even if not, can eventually be picked up and brought home where they are a great boon to representative gov.ts. The trireme can sometimes take them back while the explorer and the dip are rolling back the fog of war from the next landmass.
So effective has this proved in large map games that I have actually started trying to squeeze out the resources to get two such expeditionary forces into the field early. I managed that in one game recently and had a storming game as a result.
Try it. I predict you'll like it.
[This message has been edited by East Street Trader (edited April 11, 2001).]
After the very early phase is completed I now leave untipped all huts which are not in danger of being tipped by the A1.
Then, after Monarchy is achieved, I give Writing, Pottery, Mapmaking and Seafaring a high priority and build a diplo, a trireme and an explorer.
Those three units are dispatched, first to the locality of any huts already exposed and, later, to the four corners of the earth.
The routine works like this. You first roll back the fog of war, exposing the huts. Once you start tipping, if the hut is adjacent to the coast you just tip it in the normal way from the trireme, ready to get back aboard if barbs emerge. But if the hut is one square inland you station the dip between the hut and the coast, the explorer next to the hut and the trireme within reach. On the next move your explorer tips the hut but stands ready to retreat back to the coastal square occupied by the dip and thence to the safety of the trireme. Then the dip gets back aboard as well and all is snug.
As you can see that prevents hut barbs surrounding the explorer and subsequently dispatching him.
When the hut is further inland you use a similar approach but must also take advantage of terrain features. You station the diplo next to the hut
on a two or three movement square. The intrepid explorer tips as before and again can retreat through the square occupied by the dip. He can then make his third move and is now safely behind the two movement square. The dip, when he in turn retreats can go further still. Depending upon exactly how the land lies that will often be sufficient for both to escape without risk of molestation. Even if the retreat backs your lads into a corner, the navy is on hand to pick them up before the barbs get through the blocking terrain.
On the occasions when the terrain does not allow this manoevre, you stand ready to use the dip to bribe one or more of the emerging barbs and that may either open up a safe avenue for everyone to retreat or else you use the bribed barb unit/s to attack the remaining barbs. You station the dip where there is at least one single movement square next to both him and the hut. The point of that is to ensure that you have the option to bribe two of the emerging barb units at need. You attempt to effect the bribes and attacks so as to shield the expensive and valuable explorer and the diplo. The bribed units are likely to be more expendible although, in practice, I find that it is rare to lose even those.
With these methods I do not think I have lost an exploring unit to hut barbs for quite a while.
I suppose that, as far as the first two of the manoevres above are concerned, any four footed unit could substitute for the dip. But a very useful feature of the technique is that the happy triumvirate of hut tippers will often leave a trail of highly useful NONE units in their wake. These units may have uses in situ but, even if not, can eventually be picked up and brought home where they are a great boon to representative gov.ts. The trireme can sometimes take them back while the explorer and the dip are rolling back the fog of war from the next landmass.
So effective has this proved in large map games that I have actually started trying to squeeze out the resources to get two such expeditionary forces into the field early. I managed that in one game recently and had a storming game as a result.
Try it. I predict you'll like it.
[This message has been edited by East Street Trader (edited April 11, 2001).]
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