[Spoiler] Suboptimal's Next Attempt at Lurker Frustration

[suboptimal]

Turn 43

Bronze Working is in. Where is the iron? Why, right here:




Right on the spot for Location ‘E’ and one of the desert hills down in the southwest. Can’t say that’s entirely unexpected. The question then becomes how important does Location ‘E’ become in the grand scheme of things? I start Sailing and will put three turns into that before starting Astrology. I’ll finish Sailing the turn after Location ‘A’ founds.

Other than that it’s a quick turn. One unit is already fortified, two units fortify in place and the slinger moves southeast. Next turn the slinger will be in barb-baiting range. London starts a settler, shows 5 turns to completion but that will change in two turns when Birmingham completes its settler.

Woden’s empire points were buildings/pop. Kaiser and I remain the only players with known districts. Kaiser has finished his seventh civic, eighth tech and has a settler out – he just dropped an empire point. Ichabod founded his third city as his empire score has jumped by six. CMF has finished his fifth civic.

[suboptimal]

Turn 44

Craftsmanship is complete, start State Workforce (6 turns to complete), no change in policies. On the city management front I switch the citizen working the bananas over to a free 22 tile. I want the city to gain food but remain under 5 population. If I don’t do that the city will grow to 5 population the turn before the settler completes. Stalling pop growth now by going right up to the “edge” actually gets the city to grow to 5 population 2 turns quicker post settler. Besides, what’s a little score subterfuge between opponents?

Another quick turn since three of my units are fortified to heal. Settler in Birmingham will complete and start moving out next turn. Slinger up north moves southeast. This does defog some empty coast and ocean tiles, but more importantly puts my slinger in a position to taunt the barbarian camp. No sign of the scout. This does have me concerned, though, since the camp is coastal there’s a chance it is a naval camp and a quadrireme will show up. I believe if that’s the case the boat won’t be able to move into range and shoot during the interturn.

Woden’s pair of empire points appears to have been buildings & population since he’s not generating any GPP. CMF’s empire score has gone down a point so he’s now got a settler out as well. Kaiser is up to 23 era points. With my unit healing my milpower is up to 49, which moves me above Kaiser. CMF is in first place in that regard, which is a minor concern given his status as a probable neighbor.

[Alhambram]

Iron did spawn in other places than 3 tiles north of London after all. I would say simple settle upon spot E.
Though we would miss out ironworking euerka this way unless there is decent city spot west of desert iron and we can hook up that iron resource.

Kaiser seem to have strong start, hopefully one of his nearby neighbors is going to drag Kaiser down somewhat, otherwise we might end up with runaway civ.

Naval units for barb camp is nasty, then you need to move slinger to safe zone 2 W of berb camp, where barb spearman can hit your slinegr directly, nasty stuff.

[suboptimal]

The good news about directly settling on iron (or coal) is that the +2 resource per turn bonus still applies. With the tech rate and the intended settler chopping I might be able to delay Iron Working long enough to get the eureka. There wouldn't be a need for the tech unless we received a direct threat.

Kaiser is starting to move away from the pack. What I'm curious about is why he and I are the only two players that have completed districts. I would have figured there'd be more districts being built for the State Workforce inspiration. The only thing I can think of is that people have deviated to either Military Tradition or Mysticism (likely the former) for some reason before picking up SW. IIRCmMost other PBEMs I've been in have seen everyone in the field build at least one district by this point in the game. Makes me wonder if the rest of the map is as flat as our section is and if people not in jungle starts are having a hard time finding reasonable amounts of production.

Fingers crossed that barb camp has a scout in the fog rather than it being a naval camp.

[suboptimal]

Turn 45

Settler at Birmingham is out, start a builder which will complete in 6 or 7 turns. The city will regain its population in two turns thanks to the trade route food. Pingala has also established in the city. I swap techs over to Sailing. I’m either at or just beyond the eureka + 1 turn point with Sailing so I swap over to Astrology. I’ll finish Sailing as soon as I get the city founded. The settler and escort warrior (still yellow-lined) move to the forest NE of Birmingham. Provided the spearman doesn’t move out of the camp I’ll be able to settle in three more turns.

The spearman didn’t move out from the camp and remains fortified. However, there’s no sign of a quadrireme or a scout so the jury is still out there as to what type of camp it is. I don’t know if this is naval barbarian AI behavior or if the pathfinder thinks it needs to cross open water so the unit is staying put. I will leave the slinger where it is for the time being but fortify in place just in case.

Nothing new in the northwest but down by the desert the camp has spawned a slinger. I attack it with the warrior in the jungle, doing 48 points of damage but more importantly earning a promotion. I’ll take Battlecry next turn, eat the attack and then kill the slinger before clearing the camp.

Kaiser’s earned his fifth tourist, Ichabod his third. His empire score grew by three points this turn so maybe he got a district done. Find out next turn.

[suboptimal]

Turn 46

Barbarian slinger in the southwest attacked my warrior, putting it at 28 health. Up in the northeast the spearman at the new camp remains there. Interestingly two warriors from Armagh are near Birmingham, one at each of the southern corners of the city’s territory. The eastern one is promoted so the city-state has been doing some barb-busting of its own. I move the settler/warrior pair northeast and see that the coast is clear I send both units northwest for the time being. I bring the slinger down a tile so there’s a land path to the barbarian camp. I then move it down to the rice realizing that it’s not a good idea to put three units next to Kilimanjaro all at once…

I turn my attention to the southwestern barbarian camp and I realize it wasn’t just the slinger that did damage to my warrior. The spearman in the camp is at about 50% health and unfortified. I have no idea what would have caused that as there are no climate events listed in the log and no visible units around. Biremes don’t have ranged attacks and no one’s going to have a quadrireme out yet. I promote the warrior with Battlecry and my turn is done for the time being. I should be able to take out the slinger or the camp next turn.

Kaiser’s settler founded a city; he also earned three era points last turn and now has enough for a golden age. Ichabod completed a tech and a civic. His 2 empire point gain last turn was a Holy Site and he’s generating Great Prophet points. Hopefully he and Kaiser are neighbors.

[Alhambram]

Suboptimal, I am going away for a week at holiday.
Plan seem solid for now: expand and go for RND in coastal cities or lakes. Recommend to expand in west more before in east, maybe except spot E for iron resource and connecting Armagh with remaining ENglish cities.

[suboptimal]

Enjoy your holiday!

[suboptimal]

Turn 47

Open the save and...this is unexpected:




It appears that the spearman attacked out because I was flanked by the slinger (last turn and this turn) but the slinger didn’t attack because… That warrior should be dead, at least, if the AI were “smart”. I clear the camp now and I’ll deal with the slinger next turn. That reveals a couple of reefs along the coast and gets me three era points. The warrior north of here is at a high enough of a health where I can attack the spearman, earn a promotion and survive any retaliatory strike. Attack now, promote next turn and this camp will be cleared in two turns.

Over in the northeast the spearman has come out to play. There’s a temptation here to break the warrior off from the settler but I’m not taking any chances. They head for the city site and the next turn I’ll bring the warrior back down towards the river. The slinger takes its shot for 26 damage. I expect to be attacked, I’ll attack and the spear will run for cover. That works for me. I’ll send the warrior across for camp cleanup and the slinger to Birmingham (or the new city) for healing

Birmingham is back up to 4 population. I briefly consider buying the jungle hill to the east for a bit more production, but I’m going to hold off. The jungle hill at the coast and some additional tiles up north are more important right now, so better to save the gold.

Kaiser continues outpacing the field culturally; he’s completed his 8th civic. I’ll be the last to 5 civics and the last to Political Philosophy. I do have one issue coming up. State Workforce completes in two turns and I need (want) to get Maritime Industries slotted by the time the southern city is founded. I need to decide which is the bigger need – Maritime Industries for galley building (and quicker conquest of Armagh) or Discipline for the continued barb-busting. I might put some time into Military Tradition until I get the western barbs cleared.

[suboptimal]

Turn 48

The barbarians have made their attacks as expected – slinger v. warrior in the southwest, spearman v. slinger in the northeast. That redlined scout has also reappeared in the northwest. No other notifications of interest. Take a quick look around, see nothing else of note and get on with the turns primary business:




I’ve bought the fish and volcanic soil tiles and am working the latter. Three turns until city growth, nine turns until 3 population. The city’s next citizen will work the elephants. The plan here will be to have Birmingham’s builder camp the elephants (Turn 56), boat the fish (Turn 58) and chop a forest (likely the grassland forest) to complete the RND on Turn 61. After that it’ll be two galleys for exploration (T64 & T68) and then I’ll evaluate my needs.

Yes, I’ve finally decided upon a naming theme. London has been renamed Foggy Dewhurst and Birmingham is now Truly of the Yard.

In the southeast my warrior, despite being redlined, can kill the slinger and does so. I’ll move up to the city location next turn and heal-fortify there. Northwestern warrior promotes with Battlecry and will resume assaulting the camp next turn. It’ll take two shots to clear, which is good timing. In the northeast the warrior comes back down towards the river and the slinger attacks. The spearman is under 20 damage and will most likely retreat. If that occurs I’ll have the slinger give chase.

With another 100 coming in from camps I’d have about 200 available for additional “city improvement” tile purchases. However, the cities can’t use the purchased tiles right now but costs only go up from here. Up at Cleggy I’d like to purchase the 33 Kilmanjaro tile but I want to wait for the city to acquire the other elephants first. At Truly the 5 Kilimanjaro tile would help the city pick up some growth, but I also can’t use it immediately as the current housing cap is 6. The city will pick up the rice in that direction in four more turns. I was considering a tile purchase at the southern city location and still might do that (likely a jungle hill for extra production) but that’s not as much value as the other two tiles.

I was considering delaying State Workforce. However, it’s completing after the settler at London and I’d like to get Ilkum slotted as soon as possible to help get the builders out. Given the situation at the remaining barbarian camps I’ll be able to remove Discipline two turns from now. I can kill both barbarian spearmen in two turns, then make the policy swap. As far as the governor promotion, that’s going to Magnus and he’ll hang tight in the land of the unassigned governor until the southern city is founded. On the tech side of things I had my nubmers right for delaying Sailing, it’s now at one turn with the eureka. I’ll complete Astrology now, complete Sailing then start working on Celestial Navigation.

Nothing major internationally. CMF just got two empire points – did he finally get a district out?