[SPOILERS] Roland and Suboptimal Team Up

[suboptimal]

Turn 120

The frigates are about – I’ve lost a jong to a Russian frigate:




It was the wounded one to the west. I think I’m going to press the attack to the east, try to punch through and then either head south or turn east. The galley to the north confirms that the coast is clear (literally) in that direction and that gives me a route back home. First off the swordsman heads for Aquemini. I’m out of frigate range next to the wonder and will promote-heal next turn. To the south the builder has embarked and I think the archer is at the niter at Flower Boy. The knight moves to the lumbermill, revealing a warrior in the city. I could attack but hold off; I’ll pillage the lumbermill next turn and then see what’s around.

The Russian galleys have induced a bit of a logjam. However, I think I can get through this since everyone’s injured. First I need to sink the warrior and use two fully-healed jong to do that. Eastern wounded jong takes out the southern Russian galley, which clears the coastal lane. Bring the next one down, sink the Aussie ship. That lets me bring the two wounded northern ships all the way to the end of the line, where I sink the remaining two Russian galleys. After that roadblock is taken care of:




I’ve got four options here, depending on what the Japanese quadrireme decides to do. The first is to head east. I could then turn south, go around Iron Island and converge at Flower Boy, leaving the land units to deal with Aquemini. The second option is to plow south. If another ship doesn’t show up to block the route I can get most of my navy through the gap and kill those two Russian units. The third is to turn north and it would take me 4-5 turns to reach the NE corner of Big Island. The last is to turn and attempt to sink the Russian fleet, though three of my jong are wounded, with none of the wounded ones currently promotion eligible. The good news about this position is that a Russian frigate would have to show itself to my NW in order to shoot at me. I have to wonder if that galley at Doing the Honours is attempting to cut me off at the northern pass. Roland, thoughts?

At Big Island the spearman at Graceland is done and the city starts the Harbor. The slinger reaches Skies. I’ll embark the swordsman at Cove in two turns for the trip to Midway. The first archer has landed and will head towards Fifty Ways; the second disembarks in three turns. Builder plantations the coffee which immediately gets Al back to content status. Jong up here peeks south, sees nothing. Horseman backs off the coast so as to not be visible.


At Demak Sultanate I send Confucius south, across the river from the Russian chariot. That defogs Blueprint, where the crossbowman I shot at earlier is now convalescing:




Looking at resource counts, Russia has not upgraded any further ships.

[roland of gilead]

is it time to make a tactical retreat from Russia/Australia. perhaps it is with 1 Jong gone and several injured.

It's that or no guts no glory and we accept that they are all ultimately goners and we maximize damage before then. Maybe 2 more cities and several ships.

Both Australia and Russia have Frigates unlocked. With his MP Marco can't have many Quads so is hard building Frigates out of fairly poor cities on the whole.

In 4 Turns i will have 10 Quads and resources to upgrade 6 to Frigates and 1 every 2.5 turns after that.

we could meet up at big island and defend or relaunch an attack?

Russia sure has more production than us but can it out build both of us.

i am ok with either approach depending what you think. if you go for attack i should be able to mount a defense in 4 turns depending what comes for us.

[suboptimal]

I'll see where CMF positions his ships - he currently has the ability to cut off retreat to the north because he can go through ocean tiles. My fleet would take about 10 turns, unmolested, to get around to Hearts and Bones the long way around since I'm limited to coastal tiles until I can finish Cartography (12-15 turns from now). An eastern retreat through the south of England would be difficult without open borders as TAD's borders currently block coastal tiles over that way. If there are no frigates to the south I might be able to take out the remaining three cities. My existing land units can likely take out one, maybe two, on their own (three would be a stretch).

Perhaps I retreat north and see what I can get out of there with while you build your fleet and then we consider pressing the attack at Russia while I recover and rebuild?

[roland of gilead]

i think so yes.

I assume there are frigates to the south. CMF has a couple of big production cities down there.

do we sue for peace? perhaps offer the return of Australias capital? TAD may give us open borders. we have a long DOF with him.

What kind of gold is CMF generating That may be an advantage we have over him

[suboptimal]

CMF's gold income has been lumpy the past few turns - high 70's/low 80's per turn. Smaller than you, about 4x mine.

I don't know that they'll take peace right now. I hold two Russian cities (well, one plus a captured city-state), I've razed three Aussie cities, sunk something like 30 galleys and my losses to date are...one jong and one galley. They also don't want me holding the Aussie capital and me just giving it back with an active emergency isn't a good idea.

I'm still hesitant about open borders with Red/White -- how large of a strategic advantage is it that they have no idea of the internal layout of Big Island?

[roland of gilead]

Yeah peace seems unlikely the offer they made was bold in the extreme.

Yeah there is a trade off for sure but we can scout them too of course.

Still waiting on the other teams doing something instead of just holding hands.

[roland of gilead]

TURN 121

I use my Great Scientist and combined with a policy change am now getting 8 science from him.



Australia got the healing great scientist.



I do some policy swaps



Buy a builder for the NW to get the tiles improved starting with the turtles and one for the Colosseum.

[suboptimal]

Turn 121

Fleet update:




Two jong sunk, four left and a courser has shown up to say hello to the knight. I use UI tricks to see what’s around. That northern frigate has three buddies behind it (+8 support bonus against my galley). One oversight – I’m cut off to the north because I can’t traverse that single ocean tile to the north and don’t have open borders. They’ve also flipped suzerainty of Antananarivo. Roland, my fleet is doomed here as anything that’s left will get shot up. So, what to do here? I’d like the escort jong and the uninjured one to be able to run south. The jong next to the galley/chariot pile moves one tile east, picks ranged attack and targets the stack. UI shows galley, so I shoot. Other wounded galley comes down next to the pair, also draws galley and it’s at the bottom. Embarked units do not have a ZoC. The escort jong moves down to Aquemini and shoots, dealing 147 damage to the city. The knight charges in and the city is no more. Assuming the knight is still around next turn I’ll move inland off the coast. The sword moves SW one tile and promote-heals with Battlecry. My remaining, uninjured jong passes the chariot and heads east while the galley bugs out north. Overview shot:




There is an Aussie missionary two tiles NE of the Phoenician admiral. If there are no frigates to the south I might be able to take out Flower Boy before I lose the land units down here to Russian aggression.

Over at the Demak Sultanate I move Confucius around the mountain to the east.




Eh, if I get sent back to Demak Sultanate maybe I’ll go west.

Up at Big Island I decide to move the jong into Hearts and Bones instead of leaving it outside. There’s no telling if/when the Russian fleet will show up on a direct beeline. I hold off on getting the trader with this turn – I want to have 220 in hand for a wall purchase if needed. Units move around, two longships have shown up on the north coast:




The swordsman will land at Midway in four turns.

At home, Al gained a population and is now working the niter mine. Trebuchet in four turns and then I’ll start building jong to replace the fleet.

Roland, both Phoenicia and England appear to be building frigates or upgrading them – they’ve both reached Square Rigging and England’s spent half its gold. Square Rigging is at eureka-complete so I switch over to Military Tactics.

Roland, I think you should move forward with the development of your frigate fleet while working on Cartography. If Russia hasn’t come calling by then I think making a move on Russia’s west (to bring the fleet back in the other direction) while I rebuild my fleet might be a good call here. I’m debating between building jong (6 turns each at Al with Press Gangs) or building a pile of galleys and using a bunch of your to upgrade to caravels when I complete Cartography. The latter will raise a fleet faster, I think.

[roland of gilead]

TURN 122

Lubijana has a deal for me. Eh no those are Sub's chocolates. I also already have pearls.




CMF has taken SUze of Antananarivo from me. This is a losing battle for him I have 6 spare envoys. I even get 2 era score for taking it back.





first charge into Colosseum done in 6 turns which will really boost my happiness.



speaking of happiness



i then get marble and 100 faith




then i get a second turtles.


Kaiser loves an IZ a man after my own heart.



bought a builder and need 1 more before buying wats perhaps.

That happiness boost has given me 6 science and 8 culture.

[roland of gilead]

BTW the eagle eyed may notice i have RMT running as a carry over from another game. Will try to remember to turn it off