13-02-2005 19:54									#1
	How do you feel about an early GA? Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

Thought we could explore our ideas on this. We have a UU that will come early - and we have seemingly aggressive competition. That may mean we won't have much choice. But there are ways of delaying the UU - by using large numbers of spearmen to defend contested cities for example.

I suspect we may have to take what comes. If we can get thorugh to another form of government - so much the better. But an earlu UU would also mean more temples and barracks and libraries - all of which are good in the long run.

There - those are my meandering thoughts. What are yours?

	13-02-2005 21:13									#2
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Hm. On a small map with many warmongerers we might be sent to the eternal graveyards of history pretty soon if we tried too much to delay our golden age. So better an unfortunately timed GA than none at all. Of course it would have more benefit if we had a better infrastructure by then, and even more with a decent government.

I voted "Take it as it comes" since sacrificing opportunities for a possible "perfect" GA isnīt too good of an idea... IMHO

	14-02-2005 06:31									#3
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Yes, take it as it comes. It's a bunch of cut-throat teams out there. We can avoid the obvious situations that might lead to a GA until Monarchy (hoipefully)

	14-02-2005 09:22									#4
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Don't go after it, since our starting position isn't one where I'd want a despotic GA. (Fair amount of bonus grasses.)

Let's not tie our hands, though. We have a decent early-game UU, and on such a crowded map, we need to use it. So take it as it comes.

	14-02-2005 17:42									#5
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We need a bit of an infrastructure before the GA. Otherwise, an early GA has the advantages mentioned above.

	19-03-2005 07:28									#6
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Looks like it's time to revisit this on a specific scenario. If the Morporkian warrior threatens our worker next turn, do we defend it with a warrior or a bowman? (Or none at all?)

I really don't want a GA this early. I'd say use the warrior and keep the Bowman back. It would make their taking the warrior a slightly uneven toss-up, while the pissing-the-Babylonians-off factor would of course be the same 100%

	21-03-2005 05:16									#7
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I would like to talk to them about it first.

But if diplomacy fails - then I say the warrior. I hope they will not be as fooloish as that to start a conflict now.

	21-03-2005 05:26									#8
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I'm not proposing to attack, just to cover the worker so they can't swipe it without a battle.

As I said above, I think covering the unit will erase any thoughts from their minds of doing it; I'm just worried that leaving it out in the open will make it too tempting a target.

	22-03-2005 01:41									#9
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I voted "take it as it comes". Then push for it in Monarchy. This is a small map. We will need the GA sooner than later.

re: the Worker.
Cover him. Cover him with the Archer. I am not pushing for war, but why cover with a Warrior that could lose?

	22-03-2005 01:54									#10
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This particular worker crisis is over, but it may come up again, so it's good to hash this out now.

My thinking is that if the worker is left uncovered, they'll have a decision without probabilities. If they move their unit against the worker, there's a 100% chance they'll take it and be able to start moving it out of our area and back toward theirs. A 100% chance they'll make us angry too. They know the consequences, good and bad, and personally, I would seriously consider taking the worker in that case.

If we put a bowman on it, their chances of taking it are bad - less than 33% if we're talking reg warrior vs. bowman with 10% bonus or better - but their chances of our Bowman winning are good. That's an important flip side of it in this case, because that would trigger our GA, during a time when we still have few cities and they're low in population and when we're still in despotism. Right now would be a great time for someone to trigger our GA, because then it would essentially be wasted. If I saw our exposed bowman, I would attack if I had a warrior; sure, I lose a scout, but you lose your GA.

(Considering this, I think we need to protect our bowmen from confrontations as much as possible; for instance, once we have a basic core bowman army and have built barracks, I think we should start building spearmen so we don't have to use Bowmen when we want 2-defense units.)

This brings me to covering workers with warriors (or spearmen if they're available), which is what I think is best. They have at best a 50% chance of taking the worker, and it's still sure they'll anger us. In that case, I would pass the worker/warrior stack by; my relations with the Babylonians are not worth a coin flip for a slave. Yes, there's a 50% chance we lose the worker if they attack, but I think the chance of them attacking would actually be fairly low.

	22-03-2005 02:50									#11
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Thanks for the explanation on protecting our GA.

	22-03-2005 06:40									#12
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Yes - very well put Kloreep. I agree - produce some spearmen for the front or for city defence IF we need them. Use the bowmen for barbs and promotions.

Get through to Monarchy as fast as we can.