Turn 40

[nbarclay]

Question: do we want to send Slash to hellp Grog, or do we want Slash to head south to garrison our new city so Zonk can go back and garrison Cyclone without a lot of time for barbarians to show up in our south? It may be a fluke, but in the test game, I did have barbarians show up at the southern tip of the continent.

By the way, yes, my plan is to have the second chop go to the barracks (and even if it wasn't before, it almost certainly would be now). Using it for our next settler would only speed up the settler by one turn (as opposed to two for the last chop) and we'd build the settler or worker after that at the same time either way.

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by Shiber

You have a point. We need to build more warriors.
I understand that the current plan is to finish the barracks in Hurricane and then start building veteran units. How long is it before the barracks is completed? (considering Hurricane's growth and the second chop's redirection to the barracks)

I think we can barely get the barracks in seven turns after this one, but it might be eight. That should make it reasonably safe to have the warrior currently in Hurricane take over in EotS and the one in EotS escort the settler after the one we're building (which won't be finished for seven turns after the one we're building now is, or nine turns from this turn).

[Harovan]

So what do I do with Grog? Go for the encampment or not?

[nbarclay]

Note to Vox regarding the delay: does this look okay?

Greetings BetaHound and Vox Controli,

In case you are wondering why our scholars did not come to teach you Alphabet with the last caravan [i.e. turn], Sir Ralph has the flu and forgot to send them before sending the caravan to you. They should reach you shortly, and we would appreciate it if you would accept them and quickly send back smiths to teach us Iron Working so that we can complete the second phase of our exchange of knowledge.

Sincerely,

The People of Gathering Storm
Nathan Barclay, Chief Economist

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
So what do I do with Grog? Go for the encampment or not?

I say go for it. Whoever gets it gets an advantage equivalent to more than half of a swordsman/immortal upgrade, and on this difficulty level, it should be easy enough.

[DeepO]

more warriors: do we really need them now? Hurricane could be left undefended for a few turns if it needs to, the warrior from EotS can reach any barb coming towards in 2 turns once the road is finished. It is a bit of a gamble, of course...

I wouldn't go building more warriors now, I prefer spears. Against barbs, a vet spear does not risk to lose, and spears can replace the defense of cities just as easily. We need to build other things first.

How to get the camp: one of the easiest solutions would be if we move Ouch, but this means we lose the shadow of Willy. Vox hasn't seen the barb yet, or Willy would move towards the camp. If we don't want to risk Ouch, maybe we can send a message to Vox, telling them of the camp, and asking to take it out, sharing part of the gold with us. Slash is kind of far away...

DeepO

[DeepO]

BTW, seeing the screenies, I strongly oppose moving Grog. the Voxian guarding their warrior won't move off, but if he sees Grog moving, he could take advantage of the situation. If he's on the mountain, he'll see just as good as where he is now, so we're the ones that lose.

If he decides to attack the barb, it is risky on their side, and the chances of getting promoted are only 1/12... not that good.

DeepO

[nbarclay]

Grog has the best (and very possibly only) chance of our getting the camp before Vox does.

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by DeepO
BTW, seeing the screenies, I strongly oppose moving Grog. the Voxian guarding their warrior won't move off, but if he sees Grog moving, he could take advantage of the situation. If he's on the mountain, he'll see just as good as where he is now, so we're the ones that lose.

If he decides to attack the barb, it is risky on their side, and the chances of getting promoted are only 1/12... not that good.

If we move Grog 6, he's still right next to their worker. Would Vox dare move their warrior off their worker under such circumstances?

[alva]

Kill the Barb !!!!

[Harovan]

And Slash, and Zonk?

I think, with showing up of the barbarians, we must rethink our paper-thin defense strategy. Economy is not all, if a city getting sacked can cost us a citizen or a lot of gold or shields.

Thoughts?

Ah, btw, Nathan, could you please play this turn? I'm having a hard time to follow the threads, I feel awful. I may be able serve my PBEM games, because I get notified, but staring at the screen and follow the discussions hurts a lot. Thanks a lot.

[DeepO]

What if we let that lonely barb as he is, and try to see what we can do about the camp? I doubt that neither Vox nor ourselves are going to get a promotion from that barb, defending or attacking. The best he could do right now is pillage that road, other then that there is real gain for him.

Vox doesn't see the barb yet, so moving Grog off now doesn't make sense, or he needs to head straight for the camp. Next turn, the barb will most likely move towards us, or the worker, with a bit of luck we can reach him from our mountain. But again, it won't matter much

What if the warrior from Hurricane goes up to shadow Willy, and we move Ouch? it should be relatively risk free. and if we start this turn, we hopefully outrun Willy

DeepO

[DeepO]

Get well soon, Sir Ralph. The weekend is a sad time to spend in bed...

Zonk is the one from Hurricane, right? I don't think he'll get there in time...

I agree on the defense, tough, but there is hardly any space left for more military. Barracks are going to be needed, also very urgently in #7 (name for the horsecity yet?). After having 2 defensive cities up, all should get a lot easier

DeepO

[nbarclay]

I guess I can play this one.

Moving Grog straight toward the barbarian is probably the fastest way to the camp. We're taking a chance he'll be slowed down due to injury if the barb attacks him, but assuming this is Chieftain, it's not nearly as high a risk as it would be on higher levels. (And we'll get a defense bonus from the terrain.) If the barb ignores Grog, Grog can ignore him in return and head straight for the presumed location of the camp.

I don't want to pull the shadows off the Vox warriors because part of their job is to fall back to our cities and make sure we have two defenders if Vox tries something with their warriors (admittedly unlikely at this point but not impossible).

That still leaves the question of whether Slash should head north to reinforce Grog or south to serve as an extra city defender until we get our barracks up and producing. If Slash takes over garrisoning the horse city, that will free Zonk (the warrior currently in Cyclone) to go back to Cyclone to defend it.

[nbarclay]

Team Scores:

71 (+1) Gathering Storm
82 (+1) Demogyptica
68 (+0) Glory of War
78 (+1) Role Play
65 (+1) Vox Controli
63 (+1) Lux Invicta
85 (+3) Legoland