Alright guys. We're back with more. The game was down and then paused for a while so you didn't miss much.
I decided to settle in place rather than moving, although I realized my mistake. In this instance I decided to stick with my current position, even though akots correctly pointed out that to persist in a mistake is an even greater mistake. My plan was to chop/whip a settler quickly getting one out as quickly as possible to put it back where I started. I'll have to make up for my bad capitol with quantity. To move back and settle there would pretty much mean I would get only one semi-good city on my island. This way I get this Fish site (which isn't that great) and a city farther south with grass river forests.
Here's what it looked like when I settled on the plains hill:
I started building a Fast Worker to chop a settler, the fast worker would get the EXP boost with the first border pop. My warrior explored the rest of my island. On t=5 my neighbor popped their borders (I guess they didn't wander before settling):
This is very close. I think we're going to transition into the take someone else's capitol mode. Looks like it's going to be Gandhi of Russia's capitol. Guess I'll need some Fishing and some Sailing after BW. If I get copper (which would be absolutely great) I'll be able to put two axes onto their continent with a galley.
My warrior finishes exploring the island after having found way too much desert and not enough food. He is able to spawnbust the whole island on t=9 (only 4 turns after barbs were able to appear. This means any barbs that spawn are more likely to be on my opponent's islands if they aren't properly spawnbusted. Here it is:
With a galley I could drop two troops two tiles from their capitol without having been seen. Without copper the best I can send is archers, but that requires another tech. Without copper I will have to have more than two troops, which means either waves of two troops at a time or more than one galley. Four warriors would probably be enough. Substitute in some archers and it would definitely be enough. People don't like to rush for archery, so the best I'd be facing is probably 2 warriors. Any spawnbusting troops he has that are more than two tiles from the capitol won't get there in time. I'll know if they have slavery by then and they will whip another warrior most likely. In the picture it probably makes more sense to land on the forest for defense.
So the current wish list is two galleys and four troops to invade, with perhaps some more for a second wave. With demo-work I might be able to tell if Russia builds a lot of warriors.
The questions I have to ask myself:
-Is a barracks a good idea or a waste of hammers? I'm thinking with galley-space limited I'll want them to have promotions, but not sure if a second wave would be more helpful than promoted units.
-Are archers likely to be needed? I am thinking I'll want to attack before getting archery so it will be warriors or axes (fingers crossed).
-How do i micro my poor land to get all those troops faster? Obviously with forest chops, but what about a work boat after sailing for the fish to fuel growth for whipping? I'll have to count how many hammers I'll have and see what I need to build and match resources with needs.
Here's an overview of my island with resource bubbles on. Notice all the desert and the lack of food resources (no seafood anywhere except the fish in the capitol). I think much of the riverside grassland will have to be farmed.
