 Things are not going well For Scott here, so he started complaining to me. Didn't you build any buildings? Where did you get all these units WTF and I told him I was running in a deficit because I was running at a substantial deficit Be my notice up here. My economy has a balanced budget and the reason for that is Just after I told Scott I was running in a deficit, which I was Notice this road to an Athens and Sparta notice how Athens and Sparta are actually similarly sized. They're both pretty big At least for this era in the game and look. Oh city connection. What's this five and a half gold a turn? Because of this connection between these two cities Scott doesn't really he tends to have one small city and one big city in these games I've noticed and With Greece especially I've always had good success by building a larger number of Cities that are all kind of comparatively size instead of trying to really make an outsize capital I actually wanted to build this city here sooner. I haven't yet, but I'm gonna soon as I finish this market I'm probably gonna build maybe one more military unit just for safety and surety because this and then I'm gonna build a settler Because this guy will escort the settler down around here and that unit will go up here to take care of those barbarians Now Scott wanted to save his caravan that I know goes up this way I don't know if he got a chance. I don't didn't see it come back So I suspect that he must have possibly redirected it Somewhere else might just been lucky that he had that capability But that's fine because now what's going on here? What's the hidden back there? This is another caravan He can't kill this hoplite in one turn and that caravan is about to bump into me That's real good news for him these guys I'm kind of bottlenecked here because I can't get over the river easily But if I go take this horseman over here, he could attack it. He might even destroy it But they definitely can't hurt this hoplite and This will build me toward great general stuff So I might just send these guys in anyway, but this guy's a medic So I'm actually gonna leave him here and hold out and then once I eat the caravan I'm actually just gonna withdraw We'll see if that caravan comes up here and otherwise Let's just Let's see. I got plenty of movement here. Oh, there's a bunch of barbarians. All right. All right Yeah, he's got his great general there That barbarian camp is not a target of the city-state yet So I have no incentive to get rid of it. In fact, if anything it just helps me because it's gonna bother Scott So let's just go back over here and stay with my men I'm just gonna hold this line and see what happens Now that guy appeared left to deal with that at some point the other things going on is look at all these plantations I'm building I'm gonna get sugar soon. I think I have sugar. Yep. I'm gonna get citrus soon I definitely don't have citrus Jerusalem as soon as I build this I Think I'm gonna immediately start the road to Jerusalem to connect it to make them allies I don't need their cell because I already get silk But I would like to be allies with them Might as well do it now while I can pretty easily Pretty sure you get money for city connections to these guys too, but I'll build the road just to make that happen And then this guy While I could build this up more the city's okay I think I'm gonna move him down and start building up around Sparta as This guy once he builds this way will continue on join up with the settler and immediately start developing my city out here Not looking great for Scott And notice I'm not I have a pretty big military But I'm not playing this military to invade him like he thinks I am look he is I made two very Defensible fronts. This is sort of a salient. I've got a salient here and just a completely defended front here Once I get those truffles, they'll be my ally might just pay to make them my ally if I get enough money from something later Now I'm gonna wait for the truffles, but this is a very defensible position that I'm just gonna hold I don't know why he's gonna come over here try to throw himself at me It's not gonna work especially with these barbarians here and even if he pushes me back He just pulls these units further away. He doesn't know I have reinforcements coming and I could build a ton more in a hurry and down here While the salient is a little pretty weak It's kind of a choke point here like it's a pretty good defensive position for Scott unless I become allies with Prague Which isn't gonna happen anytime soon but I I can just withdraw these guys after I've lured him away Now if I would build some ships, this would be the moment where I suddenly come in here and fuck a bunch of stuff up But that's not gonna happen So yeah, he's gonna split his units off like this and meanwhile my units these guys can retreat to safety These guys can hold out for a long time. Maybe I should send my great general in Maybe I should send my great general to match his great general If you build a citadel here that would actually be great Because then you won't have the great general he'll feel like he's defended himself from this side Which he kind of has the city said to be my ally and it'll bang against that or whatever But I'll be able to have a city here and threaten him just as well from that side Okay, it's turn 69 Think of that what you will and if you look at the score I guess I'm ahead on the score 473 to 462 Do they actually count his score here? I can't see my own score breakdown, but I can see rims score breakdown, which is cities population land Tech policy. Oh, here's mine Let's check the demographics Okay, so I have more hammers and manufacturing better and I'm smarter I have less happiness less my armies way smaller Less land less money less food only a little bit less food I know our food is tied. It's just making putting me over here for some reason And it could be other way and then Less people Okay, so that's not looking good So what's happened? So I chose song hi as my sieve right so The main ability they have that I cared about they have some ability. I think where they go over water and there's you know the They can fight when they're on the water, even if they're not boats But anyway, um, which actually You know, um, I probably shouldn't knowing that I shouldn't have built this trirem, but anyway Uh, so maybe I'll delete the trirem, but that you'll see that I deleted it and they'll build one. Anyway Anyway, uh, so when you kill the main ability is that when you kill a barbarian camp you get a pile of money So I thought ah ha I can go into debt and negative income Kill barbarian camps to get rich Right, and I'll be able to kill barbarian camps and get money faster than I'm spending it I'll be able to buy and upgrade units it Uh and have a big old army to You know win because basically in a duel in a sieve five duel Military is all that matters right the other stuff doesn't matter because Nobody's gonna just sit there and like let you build stuff It's the same as like starcraft, right? If you know you have to build some units if you just keep building buildings Someone will just come over to you with like a marine and can blow up your whole base slowly You have to build, you know some out of militaries, right? And if basically because this map it makes it even worse. This is a water lake in the middle map Listen to this lake in the middle my try room explored it and Uh, it has a border. You can't it's a flat world. You can't um, you can't go around So if somebody cuts off the board with military units like this, he's made a wall here And he's made a wall here. So really I'm restricted to this part of the map I can't make any use of these hexes rim can settle all this land All right, you can do it every once over here. He can access these city states All right, which he's made super friends with this one because it's at war with me Uh, that one I can't even visit right the only way I could visit And I can't even because these city states happen to not be on the water I can't even cargo ship with them, right? There's no way that I can contact them um All right, so the military controls the board and then nothing else you do really matters Right that the whole rest of sieve, you know getting science faster or Uh, any of these sorts of things, you know, doesn't matter Also, you're going to lose it all those things because you don't have enough land You know look this city can't even expand this way because I had to put it on the edge of the map But why did I put it here because truffles? That's why Uh anyway Um And because making a longer road would have cost too much money So I was going to go and kill this barbarian camp and get a bunch of money But I couldn't because suddenly all these dudes appeared so I have to defend myself my capitals right fucking here So I moved my armies up here got my great general. I got my sword man, right? And now I'm going to build I guess even if it costs me too much money I'm going to just keep building more sword man. That's the best unit I can build I think right strength of sword man is 14 12 11 8 11 10 Up sword man is the best I can do so sword man it is at least it only takes me three turns to make a sword man Uh, I still try to build a monument back here Uh, but yeah, that's what's going on over here. Um Then he comes up whoop he appears down here and not only does he appear down here. He plundered my trade route That's why I'm in negative two. I would be at plus two right now, but I'm at negative two Uh this sugar over here that I think All right, I have the sugar now, uh happiness is fine with that sugar. I actually did that Uh That make me more. Oh, I have more approval now. Thanks to that sugar. So that's good I'm happier than he is but I need money right in five turns I'm gonna have no money at all and then the no money penalty will appear So and actually it's gonna be in three turns because as soon as I make this stupid sword man He's gonna cost me money. I have no way to get money. How do I get money? Uh, I can caravan. Oh, I just did and it got plundered, right? I build another caravan. How do I get the caravan to go to the frog? How do I right rim had he chose grease? Which I guess is a very smart move because look hoplite and companion cavalry, which is basically just upgraded horseman So his spearman and his horseman are both superior better units than normally they would be Actually, I can shoot his spearman Fortify here at least he can't get around to go one the mountain here He has to go a river into a mountain. He can move one hex plus up next to him. He can only move one Good companion cavalry can't tap me over this river either. So this is this is a pretty good the terrain is helping me make a border here um See we got stone iron marble Irons, I guess I could try to settle in this desert On this at least on this river right and make use of these tiles over here next to the middle put the settlement here To get the grass, you know something like that something Sheeps and these Uh right so down here is not good Up here is not good. It's like I can defend But I can't push him out to make a caravan. So I can't afford to have a military Right, it's a whole bad situation and look you think oh this looks pretty even. It's like no That's a companion cavalry a super A super duper spearman a super duper spearman and a scout. I have a scout A general a sword man and two archers, right? I'm I'm can't attack with this I can only defend he can he's got attacking and if he attacks any of my archers they're pretty much dead also This horseman's gonna come in and fuck up my shit. Is he gonna get my is he gonna get my worker next turn? I can't really do anything about that. What am I supposed to do about that? I guess I can make my scout come here to block Oh now I can't even see what's going on if I move the scout like that I guess I have to though in case that horseman comes down Right, it's like what am I gonna do? I need three turns to stop that. I guess I can make the worker run away Worker's gonna have to run away. Oh, I'm gonna run away to over here But I'm this horse that barbarian horse man can still come get me at least the cities can shoot him If he does but he's gonna plunder my shit and then I'm in really I'm in big trouble Uh, and this this trirem is not helping Um Yeah, so it's like I have more science. I have better stuff But if you control the map then you control the game and there's you know normally If there was a round map, I'd be able to send a caravan over to Right or in the back here All right, or Jerusalem or You know, what's the other one? All right, I'd be able to like go poop and like settle up in here from behind But I can't do that because it's flat. I'm just stuck in this quarter. It's just blocked So if you ever play a duel Uh, I'm not sure like what I guess, you know grease is ridiculously good because they get two This is this is the period of the game, right? These spearman Horseman period that's when things actually start to happen That's when the war is that matters in a duel game. So grease is ridiculously strong in a duel Because they have the super units at the time when things happen, right? that any map even a dual-sized nap is too big for Uh, the like you're too far apart for you actually have war that matters during the warrior phase It's once you get the horses phase that the things happen. So having the strongest units at that phase of the game um Oh somehow I'm only minus one gold now instead of minus two what happened there Something happened. Oh, what made that happen? But was it something moving the scout would make that happen? It makes no sense But I can actually move just in case I could put this great general in the forest Anyway, yeah, this is not I don't know what to do. I mean What's my plan here? I guess I'm gonna move I can move my worker to get these deers and these irons Uh, I can build more military units I eat and hope I win and then build a caravan again and somehow do that before I run out of money Uh, I guess I could try to build a market Instead of a instead of a sword man Take four turns to build a market and it'll give me one gold Markets increase the amount of gold the city generates trade routes. Oh gold plus 25 percent Also, how much gold does the city make plus nine 25 percent of nine is two maybe does it round down? It probably rounds down. It's just too gold if I build a market in four turns Blossos is gold. Oh, it's just gold plus five Take me eight turns Use me a cargo ship. That's fucking useless Better than a market. It takes twice as long Build terracotta army in 11 turns. That'll give me a bunch of units that I can't afford Uh board man You know like I can't none of those things are gonna work I built if I could build sword man I could go up and if I get extra units Because if this is enough to defend here if I get extra units I can go up here and kill this barbarian camp and get a pile of cash Then I can build market colossus terracotta army or whatever Also, this is a hot spot to settle if I can get like a settler up in here What's right? I have the I have the settler thing, right? Set in the capital settler production Take me three turns to make a settler right so After I kill the barbarian camp if I send it as soon as I send the units up there I should start building the settler. I build the unit that's going to finish the off the camp It starts moving change the settler. They'll get there kill it. The settler will be done and I could settle up here Just a bunch of sheep and horses and stuff, but also a stone But yeah With silk that's not that's not that's not something I have that's something new. Oh, that's definitely yeah Okay, settle up there. So I guess that's the game plan if we can kill this barbarian camp Without being attacked I just defend here and to hold the line then This settling up here might give us a big enough boost That we can make a push and plus if I settle here. I can caravan from here to here Pretty safely. I think right that looks like a safe caravan to me Uh I guess that's the only out I have right? I need to build enough military to push Not good