Turn 20

[Arrian]

Ack. Persia. Damnit.

Monarchy beeline, WC buildup, attack. Kill, maim, destroy, plunder, pillage...

NYE, I can't see screenshots for a while (I'm at "work"), but maybe you can help me out here... does the jungle up north block our WCs (until we get a road through there?).

Oh, about the other guesswork: I agree they most likely traded for (or received from hut) ceremonial burial. If I'm Persia in a MP game, research #1 is Iron Working. Don't ya think? Please, oh gods of civ, don't let them have iron.

-Arrian

[DeepO]

We still can't see one tile, but other then that, we're surrounded by jungle, it seems. Or mountains, but that's the same... we will need to plan on extra workers for a military road asap. I'd be willing to give a settler for two workers on road-duty, the faster we get to there, the faster our troops can move (problem is of course that those workers need to be protected as well)

DeepO

[DeepO]

Oh, and I located the diplo thread... nye, you do know that you can select to see all messages, instead of just the past month, no? Mss is our ambassador to Vox.

DeepO

[Dominae]

Sorry if this has already been mentioned somewhere else: War Chariots suck with Jungle around.

This may be a bit premature (depending on the exact layout of the big jungle between us and Vox), but we may have to rethink our whole military strategy. Barracks-WCs-Monarchy-GA-yadda-yadda may not work.

Plus, Immortals are just amazing in jungles. While we should be able to defend the homefront quite well with our UU, we will get slaughtered if we try to take their Immortals on their own turf. Also, if the Jungle really becomes the geographical border (which I'm guessing it will), Vox are at the advantage because they can patrol it more effectively than we can.


Dominae

[Arrian]

Dominae,

The jungle concerns me as well. But what concerns me just as much is something Theseus mentioned in the Spartan Academy thread: all those mountains in our territory (or what we think will be our territory). Theseus and I both see them as invasion routes.

I want to forestall that by building a city up in the jungle (probably somewhere between our two northern exploring warriors) and dedicating 1-2 workers to clearing the jungle around it. Actually, only the jungle tiles between the city and Vox's lands. It will take time, but if we can get ourselves a walled barracks city (I propose liberal use of poprushing) surrounded by grassland, they will find invading us much more difficult. We can counterattack their immortals with WCs, and on flat land we stand to do very well.

-Arrian

[Dominae]

Arrian (and Theseus), that's a good point about the Mountains. I'm confident that we can expand far enough to put the range behind our borders, but it could still be a libaility. With two close cities in that "neck" up there (on beside the Wheat, one due East of that), we should be able to defend our lands nicely. The problem is, as I mentioned before, is that Vox will be reaching us through Jungle, so our WCs will not be very effective. Clearing Jungle is certainly a good strategy, but I think Vox will be knocking at our doors way before our clear-cutting efforts are complete.


Dominae

[nbarclay]

Dominae, do you have any concrete reason to expect an attack from Vox?

[Dominae]

Nope, I have not been following the diplo threads too closely on that team. But there are fine reasons to prepare for an attack:

1. The terrain does not favor us. Thus we should be doubly careful with any possible engagements.

2. As the Persians, Vox will probably want to take advantage of their UU. Do we know they've contacted someone else besides us? If it's just us two on the continent, we're the targe by default.

3. With turns being so slow, I wouldn't be surprised if early war broke out just to "get something going" (although no team would think of it this way). In our own threads, the Tacticians are already discussing battle plans. Something's got to give!


Dominae