akots vs Obormot *spoiler*

[Obormot]

akots said that i may post my spoiler thread here.
This is my first PBEM :D

The settings: tiny pangaea, 1 on 1, no AI, I chose Egypt and akots chose Rome. Thanks to Rik for making the map [thumbsup]

We played some 30 turns in one long session yestoday :)

I had a BG cow and some FPs at the start, lots of rivers and BGs and 2 game forests nearby.

Since this is my first pbem i didn't really know how to procede with this game: if i played on a tiny map against AI i would just build one city and pump it 10spt quickly, build lots of war chariots and wipe them out. But akots is no AI and what if he manages to survive my wave of WCs while still expanding? Then i'm toast. That is very possible since the distance between us is propably reasonably high, otherwise the game would be too simple. On the other hand if i start expanding and akots decides to go for an early rush i am also screwed. After some thought i decide to expand, but keep a close eye on F11 & F8 so that i can guess what akots is up to.

I built 2 warriors, a settler and then a worker and settled my second town very close to my capital to share the good tiles and to reduce corruption (which should be horrible on tiny maps). I researched the Wheel and BW and i am researching pottery now. I have a granary prebuild going in my second city. Akots only has one city, it looks like he started with a worker (his population dropped for a while, but he didn't settle another city). I was a little afraid that he is going for an early rush, but it looks like he built a granary and set up a settler factory. I have only 2 warriors and i am first in "military service" on F11 screen. His population dropped from 5 to 4 and then grew again so he propably pumped out a settler already.

Bad RNG screwed the things up on turn 30 when my capital was hit by disease and it starved to size=1 [aargh]. Hope it happens to akots too, cause it hurts much more with just one big city [fdevil]

I'll post some pics later today when i get home..

[grahamiam]

welcome :D

well, rik stuck me about 11 tiles from killercane when he was Rome, so best to play a bit defensive, at least unit you find him. just remember, his rax are cheap so once he finds his iron... bad luck on the FP, hope it doesn't cost you too much

[Whomp]

Welcome and good luck Obormot! With your recent GOTM scores I think you'll give Akots all he can handle. He is quite a competitor and is proud of his undefeated ranking!

War chariots have proven in other PBEMs they can wreak havoc and skirmish with the slow movers. Any thoughts about this? A despotic GA seems likely in both cases so I'd think getting bigger fast is still the order of business.

[Obormot]

Well, i am not that optimistic. I have absolutely no experience with this kind of games and akots is strong player. Besides that i already lost 2 pop to disiease and this can give him the edge. The GOTM scores are good, but not really exceptional BTW, i think i won gold only because players like hendricszoon, Dynamic, DaveMcW and others are only playing 4OTMs now. But i'll try my best.

I too think i'll go for a despotic GA, in fact i think i won't be researching up to Republic, but now it is still too early for the GA, i am only working the best tiles now and all or most of them are at 2spt, so won't benefit from a GA.

[killercane]

I would bet on Akots being aggressive based on his past spoilers, the only question is when that aggression will manifest itself (pre-govt change or post govt change?). The only thing I can contribute is to map out his territory and pop the goody huts on his side of the choke asap. The more map knowledge you have the better off you will be, I know he likes backdoor attacks from reading one of his spoilers. Mapping out the territory is where your war chariots will come in handy.

The disease hurts a lot, but if you win, it will be more satisfying. How many cities do you plan on building before really going into military production?

[Obormot]

Not many, i think something like 5 cities very tight around my capital to keep the corruption low. But i might keep one of them as a settler factory and build more cities further away and maybe pop-rush some chariots from these.

[Obormot]

OK, i lost the game. My biggest mistake was a very early GA that left me with no other option except an all or nothing attack on Akots and legions behind walls are tough.

I expanded building a very tight core around the capital as planned, although akots' warrior could have taken my capital after his exploring warrior killed one of my 2 warriors that i left in defense, but in the second battle luck was on my side. Despite the setback with disease we were about even on population all the time. Akots was leading in land and score, but that is because he used a slightly more loose build. I started building military rather early because i figured that akots may build up his forces sooner then me because of cheap barracks and the possibility to upgrade warriors. I sent 2 WCs exploring one of which tried to find a passage in the jungle so that i could attempt to hit akots from behind later, but Rik didn't leave any spots where my chariots could get through. The other one went straight to akots cities and that was my mistake, i should have been more carefull. Akots suicided his regular warrior launching my GA. After that i had to direct everything at military production building a SOD of WCs and attacking. Akots knew that and could simply build up his defenses and expand, legions behind walls are tough. I found a place where i could attack 2 akots' towns at the same time and after some maneuvering brought my SOD there. Akots had to split forces to defend 2 towns at teh same time, but even that didn't help, a stack of 24 chariots failed take his town (i killed his legions, but there were some unupgraded warriors left) and after that i resigned.

[akots]

quote:Originally posted by Obormot
... Despite the setback with disease we were about even on population all the time. ...


Little surprize here imho. You had 3 flood plains, cow and a deer for a total of +7 food around the core and you tiles were improved earlier in the game. I had only 2 flood plains, cow and wine for a total of +5 food. It was your choice not to irrigate the deer and build the granary later. Also, you had only 2 workers in the end. [confused] I've built 11 or 12 iirc for a total of 9 cities and it were not nearly enough even though I had joined one or two workers to Neapolis to speed up its growth. Also, I never worker both flood plains with the same city and shared them between Rome and Veii and between Veii and Ravenna to minimize the risk of disease.

Edited, OK, that is not completely fair because I also had another flood plains near Neapolis but I could not irrigate them because it was a rather exposed spot and I was afraid to lose the worker to a wondering war chariot. Only managed to build a road there which you pillaged on the previous turn before the last one.

[Obormot]

quote:
Little surprize here imho. You had 3 flood plains, cow and a deer for a total of +7 food around the core and you tiles were improved earlier in the game. I had only 2 flood plains, cow and wine for a total of +5 food. It was your choice not to irrigate the deer and build the granary later.

Wow, so the map was actually unballanced in my favour and i still lost. I feel really embarassed [blush]. As for the granary, it didn't slow me down, in fact a granary before settler is slightly better for expansion here.

quote:
Also, you had only 2 workers in the end. I've built 11 or 12 iirc for a total

I planned to build more workers, but things changed after i launched the GA. Since i wanted to build up a force of WCs asap, i didn't really care about growth and only worked the best production tiles. And since i was in a despotic GA, there was no need for me to improve BGs or hills for example.