The non-Worker Thread

[sooooo]

I don't think it's fo-shizzle that we'll be in conflict with Templars. Diplomacy with them is not going that badly. We may get away with expanding towards them and not getting into war.

[sunrise089]

With a research pact with PAL and aggressive expansion, plus the fact that the Impala has better access to resources, I don't know how the Templars wouldn't assume they would fight us.

[mostly-harmless]

@ Sunrise: Templars know nothing of the location of the resources. And I hope we plan to keep the research pact a secret if possible, right? Or did I misread your comment?


As for the non-workers here is a draft list of job offers:

(1) Primary City Guard Airstrip One - vacant (Archer #1 currently being built @ Airstrip One)
(2) Secondary City Guard Airstrip One - vacant
(3) Primary City Guard Pink Dot - Warrior "Gogo"
(4) Secondary City Guard Pink Dot - vacant
(5) Worker #1 Escort & Tile Defense - Warrior "Jennifer"
(6) Worker #2 Escort & Tile Defense - Warrior "Xena"

Future openings:
(7) Settler Escort & Primary City Guard Red Dot - vacant (Archer #2 planned next @ Airstrip One)
(8) Worker #3 Escort & Tile Defense - vacant
(9) Secondary City Guard Red Dot - vacant

I prefer to have at least one archer per city, especially if we are looking at having only one guard per city for a longer time. Archers might be handicapped against Quechas on open ground; as fortified city guards they let me sleep much better.

mh

[sunrise089]

@M_H - You didn't misunderstand anything. I'm simply stating that the Templars will put 2 and 2 together when they can't see any strategic resources in our lands, don't see any horse or metal units, see us settling aggressively, and (post alphabet) notice us knocking off 2 techs at a time.

I'm not saying conflict is to be avoided or that we need necessarily fear the Templars, but I don't know why from their point of view they would leave us alone.

[mostly-harmless]

Templars have not even researched Bronze Working yet.
If they do that before we research Iron Working and have Iron available, there is a small window for them to get aggressive. But even then, they have to make sure they have scouted all the land available to us to be certain of our lack of Copper and must know we have not researched Iron Working yet.
Three steaming mines next to our capital are a good disguise in that respect.

mh

[Zeviz]

Luckly for us, our borders expanded before Templar scouts arrived, so there are at least a few tiles around capital, as well as the city center itself, that they weren't able to scout. So for all they know, we could be hiding a stack of Axemen in there, trained with Copper located next to our starting spot.

[Sullla]

Keep in mind that we will have PLENTY of warning ahead of time on any Templar military buildup, thanks to Cloak and Dagger observations. If they start building something other than a handful of ragged warriors, we'll know about it.

Templars still need to build a settler, move him to their desired spot, connect resources, build units, and then move them into attack position before they can threaten us. That's at least 25 turns away, if not longer. Personally, I think it's more likely that they go for another religious wonder (Oracle?) than an early rush. It's obvious that their goal is some kind of cultural victory, due to the focus on religion. No one is insane enough to research Meditation AND Polytheism (before Bronze Working!?!) if they're intending to attack early in the game.

If our starting positions were reversed, we'd already have copper in our second city, and would probably be whipping out axes right now to destroy the foolish Templar. Luckily for us, they're extremely incompetent.

[mostly-harmless]

The southern scout should definitely stay around to see where Imperio is settling their second city.

mh

[mostly-harmless]

Reviving this thread to discuss what to do with the southern scout next.
Tracey (southern scout) has survived the attack from a barb warrior against the odds and is currently at 0.6 health (I am a bit puzzled why we cannot promote her at xp=2/2 to help healing.

Tracey was destined to scout the Templars southern coast. Unfortunately she got lost and headed the wrong way which led to the fight with the warrior.
Now, ideally we want Tracey to get back to full health before moving her again.
However the time window to scout Templars southern tiles is rapidly closing. Jerusalem will pop its 4th ring @ 500 culture in 8 turns (12cpt) on turn 61!
I have drawn a little sketch to show their current border and their new border on T61 (dotted) as well as a good assumption on the lay of the water tiles in that region (based on previous analysis of land tiles earned & tile bleeding).

If we move Tracey this turn we will get there in time even allowing for a barb induced delay.
If we miss that opportunity, we might as well not move her that way at all, as there is little to see once the border pops.

So I vote for her to move there soonest, unless somebody can convince me otherwise.

mh

[Sullla]

Honestly, I don't think it's worth it. We risk moving our injured scout for what, to reveal two tiles of jungle? There are only six land tiles there in the darkness; the odds of a resource appearing in those spots are extremely low. (If there is ANOTHER copper next to the Templar capital, I'm going to scream my head off!)

I'd rather keep the scout in place to heal, and try to sniff out the location of the Templar settler. I still think that's a better use of our unit right now. Perhaps the Templars are planning on placing a city on the southEAST coast (?)

[ruff_hi]

Originally posted by mostly-harmless
Reviving this thread to discuss what to do with the southern scout next.
Tracey (southern scout) has survived the attack from a barb warrior against the odds and is currently at 0.6 health (I am a bit puzzled why we cannot promote her at xp=2/2 to help healing.

Sorry about that - I'm going back to talking to the other teams and leaving the actual moving of units to others. I would expect her to be able to promote next turn - something to do with the timing of turns in MP? There was a lion 1 tile Nth of the '1' sign 2 turns ago.

The 'Q' and 'W' represent Templar quach and worker units at the beginning of last turn - the worker was roading.

[Zeviz]

Ruff, don't worry about this. You followed the directions that were stated, so if anything, it's the fault of the person giving directions.

As for the current plans, I am not sure if it's best to leave the scout in the area, or to rush her to unfog those tiles. If the area SW of Templar capital wasn't completely jungle-covered, I'd suspect that Templars are planning to settle there. As it is, we might be better off healing and looking for the settler.

As for promotions, Woodsman sounds good to improve her survivability. (I don't think at this point we can hope to survive enough combats to get Medic scout.)

[mostly-harmless]

One thing regarding Tracey (sthrn. scout) and where to move her. I initially thought we could use her to reveal that coastal area next to PAL's border to clear the trade route to Imperio (the northern fog will probably be scouted by the workboat we are planning?). However, if Templars really move their "shadow" settler into that area, we run the risk of Tracey being blocked by Imperios & Templars culture.
(Lakhamas second ring has popped already) so our maps are out of date.)

Thoughts?
I am slightly in favor of risking it.

mh

[mostly-harmless]

I propose moving one of the two worker-guarding warriors northwards to give him a headstart when we move a worker towards capital to cottage.
That way we will not tempt Templars to snatch a worker, while not burdening the worker with a slow movement warrior.

mh

[ruff_hi]

Suggest moving settler 1 tile SW onto the forest. Either way, it will take 2 turns to reach Blue Dot and 1 SW is away from that Imperio warrior. Also suggest moving archer (2 tiles W of settler) onto to hill 1 tile S of current position to fog bust as many tiles as possible. Let the Imperio warrior fog bust in the North.