You could always just Patronage the last 0 points if you want to change the timing of the general, right?
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[Spoilers] rho21 follows the works of Homer... D'OH!
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Turn 66
Score tracking The Aztecs finished a monument. They're now at double my culture. Kongo's military strength has been gently slipping recently. I suspect skirmishing with barbarians. Eastern Theatre Garrison starts on 171/200. Archer (8 vs 26) plinks for 15. Hoplite (34 v 26) deals 46 damage, receiving 24. Hoplite (32 v 24) deals 39 damage, receiving 20. Lastly the warrior attacks (19 v 22), dealing 23 damage, receiving 30. Final garrison strength is 48/200. Should fall next turn without problems. I should even be able to spare a hoplite to heal by pillaging a farm. Western Theatre The warrior puts the city under siege by moving over the river onto the desert hill. Three archers attack, for 11, 10 and 12 damage. During this process, I uncover an Aztec Eagle Warrior hanging out SW-W-W of the city. It has two promotions, which mouseovers suggest are Tortoise-Amphibious. If the Aztecs should care to declare war this turn, it could attack the archer at a 35-18 strength difference. This wouldn't be enough to kill it, though it will do a fair chunk of damage. There are safe places for it to retreat if needed. Accordingly, I show a swordsman to the Eagle Warrior so it knows there will be serious consequences should it attack my archer. I wonder if the plan was for it to try to snipe Valletta or just to see what I'm up to. The final sword attacks Valletta for 39 damage, taking 26 in return. This leaves Valletta on 121/200 (it had a few damage unhealed from last turn). I have enough force to take it next turn, but that's naturally going to depend on whether I need to deal with the Eagle. Housekeeping Apprenticeship completes, giving one extra  in Hippocrates and 2 in Euclid (which takes over the mantle of best production city). It will now finish the builder this turn.Current ETA for the settlers is T72 from Euclid, T76 from Pythagoras. Research is set to Construction next (due in 5), to boost chop values a little. I'd like to get Engineering (as the final prerequisite for Machinery), but I don't have walls built yet anywhere. I'll be looking to chop those in Valletta, but that's a little while away unless the city state helpfully makes me a worker before I can capture it. Here's a shot of what I was talking about last turn in the great people screen: ![[Image: T66-gp.png]](http://rho21.aqxs.net/rb/PBEM10/T66-gp.png) 58/60 +2/turn, due in 2 turns? Very strange. I wonder if they have a > rather than a >= in the code. I decide to take the risk here and assume that the ETA is wrong. Political Philosophy will be completed next turn. As you suggest, patronage would fix things if needed, but there's a base cost so it would still cost 150  or 200 for those zero points.Heard the sound of a barbarian camp spawning at the end of turn. Here's a shot of the core:
Turn 67
Score tracking Kongo founded Kroket south of C7 (blocking that site) and grew a pop somewhere too. Aztec finished an 8th civic and also grew a pop. Housekeeping Hannibal is indeed available to recruit.  The next general (should the game go on that long) is Temujin, who is Medieval and so costs 120 points. I finally have the new governments unlocked. I'm going to join the others in Oligarchy. It has a good mix of policy slots and I don't really need a bonus to wonder production right now. The military bonuses may be useful. Policies are:
Eastern Theatre Very little damage left to do here. One hoplite heals by pillaging, the other takes the city, earning a promotion. Yerevan is renamed to Apollonius. For some reason, I have not captured the builder despite it being right there in the city.  Apollonius starts by repairing its monument (3 turns). Western Theatre The Eagle Warrior has moved away. I'm going to let it go unharmed in order to do more archer damage on the city, and so suffer less damage on the melee units. Archers do 14, 13, 17 and 14 damage. 64 to go. The less damaged sword does 57 of that. The warrior will easily clean up the rest so the other sword first heals by pillaging a farm. So Valetta also falls (providing me with the boost to Feudalism). It is renamed to Xenocrates. I place a commercial district here and an encampment here (buying the tile for 68 ), but get started on repairing the granary first.Hannibal is relocated over to Xenocrates. More Housekeeping Both Xenocrates and Apollonius are on maximum production for now. Xenocrates in particular will grow like a weed once its granary is repaired. Euclid starts a settler, as planned. Drama & Poetry is next civic up, due in 6 turns.
Woo, cities! Shame about C7, but otherwise this sounds like a nice positive turn - two cities for you and one for Kongo probably counts too for the moment. So long as Kongo's military losses aren't because the Aztecs are already sinking teeth into them, this all sounds great again!
Perhaps I shouldn't have played that last turn so late at night. The only big mistake I've spotted was placing that commercial district at Xenocrates. Should have been an Acropolis on that tile. Can't afford to use the only other hill adjacent to the city centre for that purpose.
Oh well, no way to undo that now. My current suspicions about the Aztec-Kongo conflict is that the Aztecs spotted a Kongolese scouting unit and killed it for the chance of a builder. Kongo's military strength has been stable for a few turns now, so they're clearly not under too much pressure. As you'll see below, it looks as though Brussels is in between them and may be acting as a buffer right now. Still, the military numbers aren't great:
You can see why I'm desperate to get some commercial hubs and trade routes up quickly. Not being able to upgrade would certainly kill all hope. Turn 68 Score tracking Nothing to report this turn. Eastern Theatre I was all set to dissolve the eastern theatre this turn, but it looks as though it has one more task to perform: a barbarian scout is visible just outside Apollonius. The hoplites move that way and discover an adjacent camp. The other units are heading for the C8 site. Western Theatre The Aztec eagle warrior is still in view, somewhat surprisingly. It's also more damaged than it was. This prompts me to go investigating with a couple of Hannibal-boosted swords. Together they uncover an Aztec archer, damaged units from Brussels and some Aztec borders! It's worth noting that's a third-ring Aztec tile as the tiles I can see adjacent to it are valid for settling. Don't worry about the swords, they are all but immune to archer fire at 45 strength. I'm going to move a small warband in that direction in case I can make the Aztecs retreat from their attempt to capture Brussels. Ideally I don't want to declare war: I want them to declare on me for the Defensive Tactics inspiration and definitely don't want to boost their culture further by giving that to them. I meant to denounce them this turn in case that prompted a declaration but I forgot. Next time. Brussels has 1 envoy from Kongo and has given me a quest to get the inspiration for divine right (found a religion). It has walls up (as does Hong Kong, incidentally). Housekeeping Pythagoras finished its builder and started a settler. I'm a little uncertain how to assign my current builder labour. Ideally I want 4 charges: mine SW-SW of Pythagoras, chop W-W of Euclid (settler => commercial hub), mine W-W of Euclid and chop SW of Pythagoras (settler => Acropolis). The builder from Euclid can provide any three of these, it has nothing else urgent to do. The new builder from Pythagoras could hang around for 7 turns to get one use here, but I really want it heading over to Xenocrates to fix the pillaged farm and chop out walls, placing a jade mine at Hippocrates on the way. That jade mine is particularly important as the extra cities captured last turn mean Pythagoras is now only content rather than happy. For now the builder is heading that way. Maybe I'll have to get another builder out of Euclid after the settler. I'm certainly planning to be running Ilkum again by then, probably getting another 3 builders or thereabouts.
Turn 69
Score tracking The Aztecs founded a new city just west of Xenocrates. They finished a campus district with a 3 adjacency bonus. They also grew two population and upgraded at least one eagle warrior to a sword, presumably after seeing my swords. Kongo gained a pop and a tech and also produced a couple of military units. Perhaps chariots? Western Theatre I moved a sword over the river to get a glimpse of the new city centre which appears to be working on walls. The Aztecs have at least a sword, an Eagle and two archers here. I will retreat next turn to my side of the river; going to need to keep a reasonable defensive force here. Housekeeping Xenocrates' granary is done; it starts repairing its monument, due in 2 turns. Kongo showed up with a deal, offering horses for 2 per turn. I don't really need horses right now, so this is more in the manner of a request to prop up their economy. If I had a bunch of gold I would do this, but I badly need every coin I can get my hands on right now. They can just go and run Conscription like everyone else. 
Turn 70
Score tracking The Aztecs finished a civic (their ninth) and a second campus. Kongo grew 3 new population. I note they have at least 2 theatre square districts in production (or at least placed). Not sure those are going to be a good use of production right now. Western Theatre The Aztecs declared war, and the sheer number of units at that new city was apparently enough to overwhelm my sword. Shame, I was hoping it would have enough strength to retreat if attacked. The good news is that this gives me 87.5  for the boost to Defensive Tactics, which is a priority civic. I'm a little surprised they felt that was worth it unless they plan to attack shortly.My remaining units fall back a bit to defend at Xenocrates. Housekeeping This turn Kongo offers 2 horses for a 40 flat fee. Still not interested: I want them to be building horse units right now. They are critically short of money though, so I send them a 10 gift. Hopefully that will give them enough time to enact Conscription and avoid disbanding units.Apollonius finished its monument repair and starts on repairing the granary. Round-number roundup™ Civ Comparison
Well, my culture is now respectable again. The Aztecs continue to pull away in general though. Great People Hannibal is mine Temujin (120): Aztec 44 +2/turn John the Baptist (60): Aztec 11 +1/turn, Greece 3 +1/turn Aryabhata (60): Greece 34 +1/turn, Kongo 23 +1/turn, Aztec 1 +2/turn The Aztecs appear to be making a play for the first great scientist. The next one will probably be industrial, so getting this one is important. I plan to build that library at Pythagoras shortly, and perhaps look at getting the second campus built (at Hippocrates). That would need a tile purchase though, which might be impossible to afford. Meanwhile, I'm in a position to look at stealing the prophet. The cheapest way of doing so would almost certainly be Stonehenge, though that might be under contention. Not sure I can afford that sort of investment though. Research and boosts
Starting to run out of boosted techs now, and some of the boosts are miles away.
Heading for defensive tactics (for Limes) after Drama & Poetry.
Combined with the knowledge that there will never be true peace between us while the Aztecs hold twice the land of everyone else. I'm not going to ignore defence based on that assumption though. If they send everything at Xenocrates within the next 10 turns, I probably can't hold them. I can certainly bleed them though, the terrain is favourable for defence. After that, walls + encampment + crossbows should render Xenocrates relatively secure until knights come on the scene.
Turn 71
Score tracking Kongo finished a tech (number 12). They're still in the early classical era on tech. Eastern Theatre The hoplites manoeuvre to block Hong Kong's warrior attacking the barbarian camp. Hopefully its archers will weigh in though. I'll be clearing it next turn whatever. The 50 will be very welcome.Western Theatre No sign of any Aztecs. I'm doing a tiny bit of exploring to the south with an archer, just to get an idea of the terrain around Brussels. Housekeeping Fiddly micro this turn. Euclid switched from working a mine to the wheat in order to get closer to a full production box before the chop. This delays both settlers by a turn, but significantly increases the expected overflow. Xenocrates meanwhile puts a single turn into walls (having finished its monument repair now). Next turn Drama & Poetry is in, so I can enact some production multipliers for it to work with. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![[Image: T66-east.png]](http://rho21.aqxs.net/rb/PBEM10/T66-east.png)
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![[Image: T66-end.png]](http://rho21.aqxs.net/rb/PBEM10/T66-end.png)
![[Image: T67-east.png]](http://rho21.aqxs.net/rb/PBEM10/T67-east.png)
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/turn)![[Image: T71-end.png]](http://rho21.aqxs.net/rb/PBEM10/T71-end.png)