Despite all the splendid advise, Kemal the Conservative still refuses to utilize all these free tools and stubbornly continues with his ugly paintjobs, hope you all don't mind too much...
So, picking up from where we left last time, the notion of having an enemy AI so close to the gates of Timbuktu did not at all trigger any cautious thoughts with the Malinese government, with the first thought popping up in evil Kemsa Mumal's head during the traditional consumation of the "first contacted Caesar" salad being "how can I obtain your worker ASAP?"
Casually, but not being overcausal about it, the Malinese warrior lurked at the Roman border until the inevitable occured:
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Playing tip 2: never put an unguarded worker in front of Kemsa Mumal's forces this early in the game.
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Note that this choice in reality wasn;t as easy as I am describing here, AI at monarch starts with archery and 4 units, but from what I've experienced in earlier versions, the AI usually overdefends the capital. And an early worker was too good a possibility to let pass, so:
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And there you have it, 3 archers in the capital. The mission now was to get the worker home safely, it would be accompanied by their enslavers at first until a second warrior from Timbuktu heading south could take over while clearing fog in advance to prevent barbs from spawning. Next turn brought some additional headaches, as Caesar sent an archer in hot pursuit of my newly claimed prize:
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Still no problems, once the path was safe, the workers 2 move range would see it outrun the archer, while the warrior would then split off and lead the roman archer away from the Malinese borders into never-neverland in the south.
Unfortunately, it seemed that Kemsa Mumal isn't the only one who sees (ex)-Roman workers as a tasty snack
:
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Horrible. I was prepared to combat panthers or wolfs - and maybe even a lion on a forested hill- with my warrior, but a bear is simply too big an enemy, almost as big as that hugely annoying archer that was still fresh on my trail. Since running to the south wasn't much of an option to me with the worker (it won't be long before real barbs will appear, plus with a little misfortune outrunning and circumventing 2 units might prove impossible), and considering that my 2nd warrior was close to getting the worker in viewing range in the north, the final decision was to split up and hope for the best. The only good thing was that Caesar's archer might be in for a good surprise if he'd follow my steps again.
Thankfully, the worker did not encounter another animal during the 2 turns it was on it's own, and Caesar's archer and the bear have both vanished in the meantime.... that would be too good to be true I suppose, but at least they aren't anywhere near my borders yet.
So as it stands, I have myself a worker near my capital in 3400 BC and have nearly completed my 2nd warrior while growing to size 3. A settler will be the designated project next, though I'm uncertain whether I'll grow to size 4 first... after all neglecting BW in favour of AH makes settler construction a bit more complicated.
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And on a small minimap:
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Note that the minimap includes a large portion of discovered ocean tiles. I found maps from a hut, though in hindsight I would have much rather learnt the technology the villagers used to obtain such map knowledge.
More to follow as the game progresses...