[Spoilers] Suboptimal - Welcome to the Tlachtli of Blunders!

[TheArchduke]

Hmm, remember Lisbon can not be put under siege without ships, so you need to wait on the third one at least.

But a nice location and an iron. Definetly worth it. It also is crazy defensive in the long run.

[suboptimal]

Yeah, this is tucked away in a very good position. For better or for worse it's going to be 3-4 turns, if not 5, to get into position. As you'll read shortly, I've located the other city-state's other units and will take the time to capture at least one of them. I'm willing to take the time for some captures here since there's a farm available for pillage-healing.

[TheArchduke]

The farm changes the equation a bit, still waste no time if possible. I will await your exploits.

[suboptimal]

Turn 34

Tech and civic complete. I start Early Empire and Masonry.  I’ll work on Masonry until half complete and then start Archery.  I should complete Archery around Turn 45 or so, which is in line with when I need to upgrade for the advance on Egypt.  Eureka for Early Empire will come in three turns when Cant Get There From Here expands.  

In the south the warrior did not attack – it retreated towards the city.  Looks like this one got called away on garrison duty so now I have to give chase.  I move west and reveal an injured barbarian scout that’s also in the neighborhood.  Wonder if that was the other Preslavian unit or something else?

Up at Lisbon the warrior disappeared.  That can only mean it went SW past the farm.  The builder has stayed in the marsh.  I hold off on declaring war for the time being and move the other Eagle Warrior to the spot east of the mountain, revealing three units. Lisbon has a Tortoise-promoted warrior that’s fortified, along with a slinger, 2-3 tiles NE of the mountain, along with a barbarian scout.  

That changes things a bit and I declare war now.  That’ll force the builder back into the city and bring the units down towards mine.  I’ll try to get a builder capture or two now (the slinger is a very high percentage capture) - having a builder in my pocket means I can pillage the pasture for some and know I can repair it as soon as I take the city .  The other one will probably come back from the west to garrison, but not much I can do about that on this terrain.

The builder at Welcome is in position to start farming wheat; one this turn and one next turn and I temporarily get rid of the housing crunch.  Then it waits to see if I need the remaining charge for a copper mine or a chop.  The slinger is a couple of turns away from crossing the river.  I thought I had a screenshot of the situation at Lisbon but never took it.  More pictures this evening.

Internationally my tech/civic completion moves me into first place in the score at 32.  I’m only one tech behind rho21 and that will start to change as more population comes in. Bronze Working also slowed me down there a little bit so I’m not too worried at this point.  If RFS-81 has any garrisons in his cities they are slingers.

[TheArchduke]

Well, he does not has any other choice by now then to take the DoF and build infrastructure for now and at the end, build military and pray that you are merciful.

I hope you are not.:D

[suboptimal]

The good news with the Lisbon situation is that the Eagle Warrior that is closest to Lisbon's units has Battlecry and is attacking/defending at 41/40. That should make quick work of both units, 2-3 turns at most.

RFS-81 hasn't even gotten a builder out, as far as I can tell. The only thing I can think of is he went scout -> settler. The only reason I pulled that off in PBEM 6 is because I had +2 to units on Turn 5 and I knew that I had space and time to work with because of the map type and expected buffer zones. I don't know what he's building in either city (should check that next turn) but have to think he's had some barbarian trouble.

There is a bigger question that looms larger with every passing turn....where the hell is everyone else? I would have figured I'd have seen a scout from either Japper or rho21 by now. I think Begin the Begin is going to go Slinger (current build) -> Encampment -> Scout -> Scout so I can start getting the east defogged.

[suboptimal]

Turn 35

No notifications, Japper & RFS-81 both completed a tech and Japper gained a population (but still only has one civic completed).  I took another look around, RFS-81 has a builder out – he’s farmed a floodplain and mined the gypsum at Beta Colony.  Still no garrison and his military power dropped from 30 to 24.  He does have quite the treasury, though, at 263 on hand.  I also took a look at the Great People screen for the first time since Turn 1.  No one has completed a district or is otherwise generating GPP yet.

In the south, the situation is:



The warrior didn’t attack me, it just sat there.  Preslav, at 23 garrison strength, has a warrior in the city center.  I attack, doing 39 damage and taking 25 damage.  Also of note is that Preslave is now building a granary to address its housing problems.  This is a good thing.  

Something, however, is attacking that barbarian scout across the river.  Its health meter was firmly in the yellow last turn.  I’m now very interested in what’s going on up there.  

Up at Lisbon…



Talk about wanting a bad damage roll - I do not want to one-shot this thing with a good one, that's for certain.  Curiously I don’t think the slinger attacked my Eagle Warrior as I had no attack notification.  I move to the rice tile before attacking the slinger – if I don’t kill it I may move to the hill next turn and let the third Eagle Warrrior bat clean up.  The attack does 76 damage to the slinger and I take….8.    The slinger is now a 100% capture chance.   With that knowledge in hand I pillage the pasture for 50 .  Further troop movement up here will be determined by what the Portuguese units do.  I'd like to get the NW-most warrior through the swamp and to the farm so I can get the other two in on the eastern edge.  The SE Eagle Warrior ended the turn directly east of the forest.  The granary up here is still not complete.  

At Welcome to the Occupation the builder farms the first wheat, netting me the boost for Irrigation.  Once I farm the other one I’ll temporarily be done with the housing growth penalty, at least until I get to 2 population.  I use the pasture gold plus ten more to buy the plains tile 2SE of the city center and lock in the Encampment at 78.  That one will be builder-assisted, once I capture a couple of them.

The slinger moves west instead of NW to avoid being seen by any Egyptian builder that may be at the gypsum and the turn is complete.

[suboptimal]

Turn 36

I got to the turn early in my window, went out to do some gardening, came back in and the turn was back around to me! 

I had a notification that I was attacked at Lisbon.  Looks like the AI did something smart , moved the slinger away and attacked with the warrior, leaving my Eagle Warrior at 51 health.  The attacker is in the 60-70 range.  My Eagle Warrior retreats to the hill.  My southern Eagle Warrior moves up adjacent to the Portuguese one.  If the target decides to pursue it’ll hit the ZoC and I can attack twice next turn, killing it off.  Eagle Warrior on the pasture holds tight.  It’ll move to the marsh once the other one is on the iron the turn after next.  After the moves:



Builder at Welcome farms the second wheat and the city can now grow normally...for 3 more turns.   This place needs some housing. I'll build a Granary after the second slinger is out.  The city has also culturally expanded to the copper tile.  That’s good news.  The bad news is that my territory now borders that barbarian camp.  Wonder if that causes the camp to start spawning?  Guess we’ll find out.  Slinger continues on its merry way.

Down at Begin the Begin I’ve got a slight quandary.  The warrior has moved out of the forest instead of attacking me. If I attack it there’s a chance it will attack me in a suicide attack.  That wouldn’t get me a builder.  What to do?  I move to the NW to try to get a glimpse of whatever was going on up there and see nothing.  I will wait to see what the warrior does next turn.  If it attacks the scout, great, as it’ll take enough damage so that I can kill/capture next turn.  If it attacks me, great, same thing.  The good news is that it can’t move very far due to Zone of Control.  



To finish up this report I’ve decided that I’ll start tracking builder captures and how much I get out of them…here’s the current situation.

Gifts for the Tlatoani

Builders Captured: 1
Value: 50
Improvements Made: 2 farms
District Boosts: 0
Chops: 0

[TheArchduke]

Looking very good so far, keep your focus and you should be golden.

Three questions:

- You plan a settler push obviously, how many and where? 2 I guess on the 2 dots connecting to your northern real estate?
- I remember the plan was to go after Egypt with EWs, I think this is still very valid, do you?
- How long do you plan to milk Preslav? Judging from the mediocre terrain a good while longer, who could steal it from you, anyway?

[suboptimal]

Yep, especially with the builder captures this turn. Lisbon should be mine on Turn 42 barring something unexpected.

- I'm thinking a settler push after I commence the attack on Egypt. The settlers will need to come from the capital and Cant as they have the best production rates. Where to send them is an open question - part of me is thinking to have one go to the area north of Preslav as that has high potential and I think earlier is better than later there. I don't want to make a final decision until I get the western area scouted out better.

- Eagle Warriors are still viable. Egypt has no iron so he's archers, spears and warriors. It'll be 3 EW's and 3 archers at Barrayar; I'll be bringing a 4th EW and a battering ram up from the south (ram from Begin, EW from Welcome) to help with Beta Colony. Lisbon has delayed me and I may go at Barrayar with mostly-healed, rather than fully-healed, units. The dumb thing with cities is that a city-state with a foritified warrior starts at a garrison strength of 24 while a player city with a fortified warrior starts at 20. I might be able to 1-turn Barrayar unless he stacks up some units outside the city.

- I plan on milking Preslav until crossbows. I believe the city-state can't produce swordsmen if they don't have iron available. If, however, Prelav disproves that theory I'll kill it sooner. Likewise, if I find a second city-state down here and it's not scientific or commercial it will also get builder-farmed. I figure I'll need an Eagle Warrior or two and an archer to farm builders.

Lisbon has slowed me down a bit as the city attack won't be coming until Turn 40. However, that will have me that much closer to Oligarchy for the Egypt attack.