Game won: Beorn vs Mauer #1, BtS
 

So we'll see whether he can mau my lawn.


We did 15 turns before his boy came from school today, more to come soon.

I'm Will: creative, financial, +1 hammer water+river tiles UB, super transport UU.

He's Hammi: organised, agressive, +2 health colosseum UB, shock archer UU.

Difficulty is Noble, there are AI's, map is fractal, tech trading is off IIRC.

Dragon Belly, 100% Grumpy, founded on the spot.

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u...rn/texas01.jpg

The advisor told me to move 1 left but I didn't listen, so I missed out on stone + cow. Fuck. Well as it stands, it has 5 hills and is a great prospect for Ironworks, HE and settled MGL's.

I could get the cow and 2 hills if I settled the green circle.

However, the more I look at it, the more I could get a super sea city (the question mark) with 10 extra food, a few land shields +moai statues +dike = super duper production city. It has 10 coast (1 fish), 1 sea tile, wheat and stone with 2 river plains it can borrow from the capital. Big on specialists, big on use for my financial trait from sea tiles.

Then there's another high food spot up North with corn and sheep.

I don't plan on pasturing the pigs so I didn't go for a size 1 worker with AH first. Research was set to BW for slavery and chops. I'll get to see where copper is so that I can agressively disconnect his copper when/if I meet him. His shock archers will be a pain if I rush him with axes so it's not in the plan basket. Chariots would be, given the opportunity.

This is my first BtS - hell, my first Civ4 game where I'm not under the masterful guidance of the Whomper. So I'm alone in the dark, and I hope that the light will come not from the tunnel but from the dragon belly's fire that will consume Texas.

Over msn I hinted at the US overspending military and crumbling under it - wartime was declared before we met [lol]

I found a bunch of goody huts and I thought I was alone - I'm on an isolated peninsula anyways - so I figured I'd pull a scout out and open them up. Might have been just dumb though.

After 2 power sessions, I have slain Mama Lion, Papa Lion and Baby Bear with my first warrior.

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u...enShot0033.jpg

Contact is made with mauer and Mehmed 2 (organized and whatnot, gunpowder UU, won't make a difference in the early slugfest)

Dragon's belly has already whipped away some stuff (before cow and pasture were done with, extras were carried over into a settler) and settler #1 is underway. With the discovery of a choke-point, of Copper and of Horses, city placement becomes much more tricky and I need to come for advice. If this was C3C I'd jump on the occasion of doing a nasty-quick ICP swords rush. This might be good here. Might not either.

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u...enShot0034.jpg

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u...enShot0035.jpg


I was thinking NE of Wheat (super water city), NE of cow (copper+fish+hills), NE of Horses (horse, wheat and 2 hills) plus the choke - maybe 1 real city, 1 as a purely defensive wall? I really don't know how to place cities. N of rice would be a good city I think, and then 2S of crabs would completely seal the other guys out.

Mehmed still has warriors for D-Fence while I'm headed towards HBR. Got horsies, these can ride the ride. As he makes more and more stuff to compensate for my horsies, I'll prepare for a backdoor macemen drop.

I have tons of chops and stone: pyramids?

I founded NE of horsies + NE of wheaties. Seacity will build moai + colossus asap to try and shoot for GLB afterwards. It'll be my big specialist bet early on.

I was planning on putting a city up for copper real soon but then I saw a very very nice hill spot just east of the choke. So I am back to don't know square.

If you had an industrious AI neighbor you could gift stone and hope they build useful things. But probably no go here.

Great Wall is powerful, ~4000 beakers of tech aint bad (Great Spy) and ensures that if M attains the Oracle or something you can keep up with him.

I'm probably up a tech or two on him, maybe plus a city and a number of demographics. I have enough spy points right now to know what tech he researches - last one was Monotheism, at (at most) 4/5 of my current pace. At this stage my pace will increase faster than his: I'm financial. So techs are not an issue.

However, 150 shields is dirt cheap. x2 prod with stone means I'll build it just for the kicks. This also makes a good point for the far-off city in a good hill location from where I could have a military platform. I'll start a great wall build soon in horsetown. Just need to connect stone and build a comfort zone of military.

This is the hill spots I'm talking about:

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u...rn/texas03.jpg

Red gets sea, green an extra hill + chop, purple is more agressive, orange sets me up for Mehmed. But I'm leaning towards Blue: it defiantly stands in the way, there is no good cover to attack it from and it has great ressource access.

So here's mauer's place (forgot resource icons):

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u...rn/texas02.jpg

He has copper (under Babylon), horses, stone, pigs and a crab (out of reach) - just like I do, but for me it's the copper that's out of reach for now.

He has a size 1 city that is holy, his capital and maybe another, maybe not. Olmecs will pester him but in the end they mean another city for him along with a military buildup, which I'm not fond of.

I have no direct access to his place from a boat drop that wouldn't be seen. Putting a boat drop together and dropping off at Babylon could still work very well if I bait him to his frontline cities with axes and such.

How many tiles away is your proposed city? Looks like 20 tiles, and it aint that good! You are screwed if he puts together a decent stack as you cant reinforce the position.

Yeah, beam i think you really need to be settling closer to home first. I appreciate you've got three cities there already but maintenance and your inability to defend it is gonna kill you!

I guess I'll just settle my 4th, grab a couple civics and get a first strike going before getting into a full expansion then.

What about a nasty little quicky at Mehmed's? Would that be too far too expensive as well? I really hate the way they limit expansion now.

Either way, there is but one sea route and one land tile choke. I have archers on the choke and I can put boats in the water - triremes even. So my inability to defend is overrated.

Nice to see the view from your side of the fence on this one:)

With Mehmed the other way you could go is to be real friendly then get him to go off and annoy mauer