Turnplayer Thread #2.

[mostly-harmless]

RBS Terror of the Seas is on an epic journey down the coast to arrive in time to net Southern Marble's fishies. Probably with a couple of turns to spare for revealing a foggy tile or two.

mh

[Sullla]

Your suggestions are pretty closely in line with my own thoughts, mh. Sharon actually doesn't have time to make a detour to the south to spot Damascus; I estimated the time to reach the northern tundra, and she's right in line with our galley at present. One thing we can do is have Lady Godiva, our extra chariot, move over there if we really feel it's important. Or squeeze out a cheap scout somewhere (?) We could also double-move Lady Godiva to scout out Constantinople and Damascus, if we're willing to go into dubious moral territory.

Zeviz, our work boat has actually been heading to the southern location for the past five turns, and will get there nicely in time with our current settler.

[mostly-harmless]

You really have no faith in Imperio's road network to speed up Sharon, huh? ;-)
When you move Sharon north, try to hug the coast as close as possible to spot more PAL borders.

I think we need Lady Godiva closer to our cities as we face a period of thin military cover.

Can C&D get a spy soon to sniff around, then? No? Ah, bugrit!

mh

[regoarrarr]

Rather than Parsons roading from A1 to CT and Syme going to the south, couldn't Syme road from Cape Town to the capital, and Parsons head south?

Seems like Parsons would get there sooner but I could be wrong

[mostly-harmless]

One more update from T85. Templars went into Christianity as their state religion.

From T86:
A barb city has appeared north of China Beach on the coastal stone. That city fits nicely with our dotmap (compare Sullla's dot map in T85 thread - light blue dot). Lets hope the single Quecha up there does not get lucky razing it.

Should we put in an axeman at A1 to take care of the city?

mh

[sooooo]

I agree that barb city should be captured. It can work the deer, 2 hills and a plains forest for 8 hammers and gets us some stone we could possibly use to trade.

The city will be defended by archers, right? We'd need quite a few axes - if there is 1 archer we'd need 2, if there are 2 archers we'd probably need 4 to be safe.

I am unsure about the tile configuration at china beach. How about we work the cows over the cottage and build a barracks. Ideally we want to be at size 5 and work clams, cows, cottage, 2 scientists. Our happy limit is currently 3 and will be 4 in 8 turns when the whip anger wares off. The question is: how important is getting the earliest possible academy at the expense of production? In my opinion, we should do this: Work cows now, change to barracks. In 3 turns work cottage, keep growing. Whip anger should have worn off when at size 4. Work scientist, or coordinate growth (by changing scientist/food tile) to get to size 5 at same time as monarchy comes in. Switch to HR and work 2 scentists. Build axes after barracks.

I might have missed a decision on this, but where is our new settler actually going? To the southern marble spot? We don't seem to have military along that path - are we heading to Twin Peaks?

I don't really mind Pink Dot starting another settler, but sooner or later it needs a granary and some workers to improve it.

[mostly-harmless]

We have a chariot for instant settler escort to Southern Marble. A spear and archer initially headed for Pink Peaks can be diverted to improve military presence in the south.

I would suggest that the next settler (after Southern Marble) goes SW on the coast claiming the clams & dyes spot (see dot map Sullla's T85 thread).

I was suggesting to get a workboat out of China Beach to net those clams. Needed there in 10-11 turns.

mh

[Sullla]

Here we go for T86:

- China Beach finished its granary with whip overflow this turn. mostly_harmless suggested (and I agree) with a work boat next for a city-to-be-founded on the western coast.

- We finished our settler at Pink Dot, and it is moving to the southern marble under chariot escort. Two turns to get there, and the city will be founded on T89.

- The big news this turn was the popping up of a barb city on the northern stone resource. This is GREAT news, as it's one of the locations we were planning to settle anyway! Here's a picture:



The Templar quechua in its current position cannot see the barb city; remember, forest tiles block visibility more than one tile away. It will spend at least two more turns healing, and hopefully will start heading home afterwards, to leave us a chance to take the barb city unmolested.

I ran a quick test before playing to see what units would spawn in the barb city. Here on Prince, the city should spawn with a mere two warriors inside; at least, the Prince game I ran had two warriors spawning in barb cities even later on the calendar than we are in our current game. We should be able to capture it with a single axe, barring something really unlucky happening. An important thing to keep in mind: we need to wait about 10 turns (until T96) to let the barb city grow to size 2. Otherwise, it will be autorazed upon capture. Thus, we have a little time before we need to move up there.

Now the question becomes, where is the best place to produce that axe? Here are some options:

1) Build axe in Pink Dot (3t). A strong possibility. It takes the axe 9 turns to move up there, letting the barb city grow, then we capture it around T100.
2) Build axe in Airstrip One (6t commerce config, 3t shield config). Also a good possibility, although it will interfere somewhat with our research. We could also build the axe after the worker (which has 6t remaining) if desired.
3) Build axe in Cape Town (5t). Not a good option, since we still have 3t remaining on a barracks, and the walk up to the north will take ages.
4) Build no axes, rely on our two chariots to take the city. Just want to mention this as a possibility. After escorting the current settler, Betty Hur will almost certainly want to head up there to try and get some more barb experience for Heroic Epic purposes. (She has 6XP right now.)

I would vote for the first option, personally. I don't want to mess with Airstrip One's commerce config at the moment. 3 turns delay on the next settler is worth it if we can capture a barb city by doing so.

- A picture of the east:



Two things to note here. First, Imperio does not have a road connection between Mutal and Lakamha! I know you didn't believe me, mh, but it's true. Their road network is almost nonexistent. It lends some credence to the theory we've been discussing in the Strategy thread that our workers/tile improvements are probably stronger than most other teams.

Secondly, I have not moved Lady Godiva yet. If the team wants, we can do the sneaky double-move to reveal Constantinople at the end of this turn and the beginning of the next (assuming of course that Templars aren't logged into the game!) If we don't want to do this, then I'll simply begin the trek back to the west.

- Little of note from C&D this turn. PAL's GNP has risen up equal to our new boosted total, which is a bit worrying. Imperio, PAL, and RB are all sitting together above the rest of the pack. Some poor team is listed in the stats with a GNP of 19 this turn! Don't know what's going on over in Banana/Rabbit land...

[mostly-harmless]

Regarding the Barb City, I would rely on our Chariots alone (no axe at all). With at least two units defending the city Betty Hur can attack even at size 1 to kill off on defender, gain XP, retreat & heal, and then attack again killing second defender, gain XP.

As a backup I would like Lady Godiva to be around as well.
That said, although I would really love to see Constantinople city tile, I am against the double move. Some sort of honorable thing. Move her towards Barb city.

Regarding Imperios road network: One odd thing is that they roaded all their hills that already get the natural trade connection via the river. I assume this is for better defense?
As for the Grand Tour speed up, I was relying on a road from Mutal to the cow tiles and onwards to Uxmal. A road between Lakamha and Mutal is not necessary for them with all the rivers providing link up of resources.

Regarding PAL GNP. With the opening of borders & trade routes we are likely to see some religious spread towards PAL. In fact Christianity must have spread already to some extent (C&D currently assumes "The Warning" got Christianity on T82). From their it will spread further. Also we saw a lot of whipping after PAL discovered Writing. So assume that a handful of libraries are contributing to the GNP as well.

A bit more from the C&D department: Imperio has quarried and connected their Marble tile! Oracle, Oracle!

mh

[regoarrarr]

If we're worried about them seeing the direction of our chariot we could always double move

SE then N-E - assuming that 2N of Constantinople would be enough to reveal it.

I also favor a few chariots for the barb town, assuming they are only warriors guarding.

[ruff_hi]

just be careful that the chariot doesn't get stuck on the sand - doesn't sand take more movement? Where is that war games sand-box game?

I've also proposed a different city site than the marble in the templar thread ...

The current situation between us and Templars is ...

1) we suggested a border
2) they laughed and said try again
3) we said, no - you give it a try
4) they said (in game) - how about this!

I believe that our correct response to this is to settle a city quickly (which we are) but settle it so that it takes a city site within the 'contested area'. Does the fish-marble site do that? What about we head towards the stone rice site and settle there as a suitable response? We could also call the city 'Response'.

[mostly-harmless]

2N does not reveal Constantinople.

mh

[T-hawk]

Originally posted by Sullla
I ran a quick test before playing to see what units would spawn in the barb city. Here on Prince, the city should spawn with a mere two warriors inside

As I understand it, barbarians get any technologies that are known by all the regular civilizations in the game. If everyone has Archery (which I think is true), barb cities will spawn with archer defenders.

We'd want two axes per archer, of course, plus Betty Hur lurking to swipe an easy mop-up kill.

In single player, the human player can often neglect Archery for a long time, so barb cities in single player can spawn with just warriors much later.

Secondly, I have not moved Lady Godiva yet. If the team wants, we can do the sneaky double-move to reveal Constantinople at the end of this turn and the beginning of the next (assuming of course that Templars aren't logged into the game!)

I'm all for it. One good double-move deserves another.

[mostly-harmless]

Originally posted by T-hawk


As I understand it, barbarians get any technologies that are known by all the regular civilizations in the game. If everyone has Archery (which I think is true), barb cities will spawn with archer defenders.
...
In single player, the human player can often neglect Archery for a long time, so barb cities in single player can spawn with just warriors much later.

Maybe there is a grace period on Prince level. I believe most of us are used to higher difficulty levels when it comes to barbs.
Only a thought.

mh

[sunrise089]

Speak for yourself M-H....all Noble for me

It certainly does require a bit of a readjustment swapping from Quick/Noble to the rare Epic/Immortal SP attempt.