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

[suboptimal]

Turn 107

All’s quiet on the open save.  Barbarian crossbow at Begin hasn’t moved, crossbow and knight combine for the kill and the Military Science boost.  Begin starts a swordsman as I’ll want to get a couple more of those out before I complete Gunpowder.  Chop out a jungle at Maps, Colosseum will complete after Turn 108.  Oddfellows has expanded to the niter, so that gets mined and Rifling is boosted.  City production get rearranged to work that tile.  I’ve got three Eagle Warriors left on the map, upgrading is 20 each.  Since the upgrade to mustkets might be a little while from a cash perspective I upgrade the two that are in my territory and move the third into position to upgrade next turn.  

rho21’s science has shot up to 77.9 per turn.  I have no idea how he’s doing that, even if he’s running Natural Philosophy and Trade Confederation.  He did complete another Campus or library as he’s up to 4 Great Scientist points per turn.  Only 25.2 of that is coming from population and he can support four trade routes. He's got three Campus districts and one library.  This is a problem I need to solve.  I think part of that will be to press to Exploration without the boost to get into Merchant Republic and then run Natural Philosophy.

IIRC Natural Philosophy also doubles city-state bonuses because they're handled like adjacencies. Geneva would be giving him 28 science alone as a result of that policy. Throw in +2 for a Library, another 6-7 doubled for intrinsic adjacency and that's low 40's science. I think Geneva must die.

[suboptimal]

Turn 108

Open the save to see that Japper cancelled a deal with me and that he’s declared war on Hong Kong. This should be interesting….wonder if it will go the same manner as Brussels. Hong Kong is not a good location. You know the land is bad when the city’s expansion has been out to sea. rho21’s science rate remains stable at 77.9. The Colosseum will be completed next turn. As a result I’ve decided that I’m going to push ahead with Exploration without the boost – getting to a 6 slot government will help me out with a few things (including some extra income from additional trade routes). I’ll still finish Cartography since that will let my galleys go across the sea to take a look at things over there.

It’s all unit repositioning this turn, with two mines going in at Maps and Legends, pushing that city’s production rate to just under 20. A new citizen will be added in two turns as well, at which point I’ll be above the housing cap until I get a granary in.

[TheArchduke]

Yeah, delaying Merchant Republic is probably not worth it, the boost is terribly akward to get.

Curiously is there ANY religion going around? Or did I just forget?

[suboptimal]

Yeah, delaying Merchant Republic is probably not worth it, the boost is terribly akward to get.

Curiously is there ANY religion going around? Or did I just forget?

Yeah, I need the extra slots.  The diplo slot would get me some extra income (6/turn), I could continue to run Caravansaires, put in Natural Philosophy (+7 science), and arrange the military cards for better production output.  I don't know if I want to spend produciton on a couple of settlers, though rapid initial city growth would get me some more science and I've got a couple of open spots, but builders are definitely on the menu once I get my district builds sorted out. I've got an IZ location that's not ideal (just east of How in the hills) but at least provides a production boost to the host city and would cover four cities if I built a Factory. Maps will probably put down a Theater District to complete the Civil Service boost. I think my current advantage over rho21 is that I've got four cities at or above 20 per turn which will let me scratch-build military units if need be. I also still have chops available at the smaller cities.

rho21 founded Parallelism after completing Stonehenge.  The religion was founded on his Turn 86 and has Church Property and Jesuit Education as its beliefs.  He has one holy site but my faith output (5.1) is higher than his so he has not constructed a shrine or temple for missionaries or apostles yet.  Three cities are converted - two from founding the religion, one from pressure (I assume).  He is not actively spreading it.  The next Great Prophet would cost 240 GPP to get - I'm in the low 30's at 1/turn.   I don't know that religion would be a good investment at this point, though Holy Sites are discounted and DotF is still available.

[suboptimal]

Turn 109

Maps & Legends completes its build:



It covers six cities at present, so thats 12 and 18 amenities, plus 3 more from city status and a couple extra science.  Amenities will get shuffled around next turn but right now I’ve got a bunch of ecstatic cities on my hands.  Maps starts a granary to relieve its housing pressure.  

Trade at Oddfellows completes, relocates to How.  Units reposition.  I have a galley taking the southern route around the land mass and the northern one is healed up and heads west. Cartography completes next turn and it will take off across the ocean.  Exploration in three turns.  

Internationally rho21’s science ticked up a couple of points as well (culture remained the same) and his income is now equivalent to mine.

[TheArchduke]

Either you do another settler push or you try to expand into Kongo (probably unwise, rho will stab you then.)

It seems Rho keeps up easily atm.

[suboptimal]

I thought about expanding into Kongo. That would require 4-5 new knights to make a push and leave everything in their wake undefended. The would get me somewhat developed cities plus a few districts. Japper's military has also been growing (just under 300 now) so that may be easier said than done.

For a settler there are four locations on the mainland (SW of Begin, NE of Pantanal, N or Near and the donut hole) that settlers would fit. Settler costs would be 260, 290, 320 and 350 (effectively 174, 194, 214 and 234 with Colonization running). This would take 12 turns to complete, during which I'd stop building military in the high production cities. The question is whether I should stop building military...I don't know that I could hold at Cant on a full breakthrough attempt and I most certainly couldn't hold against an end run at Begin at present.

[suboptimal]

Turn 110

Open the save to entering the Renaissance Era.  I’m the first one there.  Everything else is quiet.  Amenities have sorted themselves out, all cities are happy except for Harborcoat, which is ecstatic.  Exploration, despite being at 3 turns last turn is still at 3 turns to complete.  The loss of 1 per turn due to the amenity shift cost me the turn.  That’ll be a large overflow into something else, though.  Maybe I’ll put three turns into Naval Tradition to set up a double policy swap.  I’m sure that will change turn to turn because Civ VI. .  Reposition some units, How starts a trade route to Begin for some more production.  With Cartography complete I start Education.  I’ll put two turns in that, 3 turns in Printing and then figure out what techs I’ll be completing (or putting 4 turns into Square Rigging).  Start a lighthouse in High Speed.

The decision to be made in the time before Exploration completes will be whether I go after Japper or try to get out a few more settlers.  The number of sites left on the map is a bit limited:

- The Donut Hole: only one fresh water tile of three tiles available, food is a bit scarce and growth would be slow but there are plenty of chops for things.
- SW of Begin: would have horse, incense and niter first ring, furs second ring.  Two 2/2 tiles (horses and niter). No chops available.
- On the copper between Oddfellows, Kenneth and Welcome: It’s all desert
- NE of Pantanal: No visible food resources, there’s a barb camp nearby but the cultural output would be huge.  I actually think the non-conventional spot would be between the rice and the wonder and to build (or rather, builder charge) an aqueduct on the open grassland tile.  The rice and culture would cause the city to grow quickly and getting the rice into a farm triangle would result in rapid growth.
- N of Oddfellows: tundra settlement, not productive, only captures a niter resource.
- N of Near: Puts a city in the chokepoint, food is scarce unless placed west of the oasis, in which case it picks up two rice tiles at 3.  No chops, production poor.  East of the oasis is worse as it’s all desert.
- The western islands.  There’d be room for two cities, neither one of which would do much of anything.

Pictures of the various areas with settler filter on, for reference:

Pantanal & Northern Copper


Northern Coast


Southern Area & Donut Hole

[suboptimal]

Turn 111

Market has completed in Find the River, getting the boost for Guilds.  Things remain quiet.  Down in the south my knight attacks a barbarian sword.  I’ll kill this off then go try to take the camp.  The horseman crosses the first river in the area and will head off to begin scouting Kongo next turn.  My galley scouting along the southern edge of the land mass reveals Tsingy and finds two hoplites wandering around:



Good to know they’re there.  Wonder what else Greek is down here?  I select a swordsman and highlight the units.  Both are Thrust promoted and the support bonus indicates these are the only two down here, unless there’s more non-adjacent units in the fog.  Both are at CS 51 against mounted or melee units.  If I only had a quadrireme (if I had a builder I could chop one out at High Speed).  

With builds at Begin and Find complete I need to start a bit of planning for when Exploration comes in.  My current thinking is to continue military builds at Begin and Cant and start settlers at Maps and Find as their builds come in. I’ll use lower production cities to get builders nearly completed.  I’ll research Naval Tradition to one turn then move on to Civil Service. When the settlers are ready I’ll use Naval Tradition to get Serfdom in (or out) to get out builders.  The plan is for two settlers, one at Pantanal and one at the northern choke point.  I’m only going to settle these two sites since they provide rapid growth.  

Find starts the settler now and I’ll take Colonization to speed up the process in two turns.  Maps & Legends will start a settler next turn after its granary completes.  Both settlers will be able to use the road network to get to where they need to go.  Kenneth and Oddfellows will start builders, as will Welcome.

[suboptimal]

Turn 112

Load the save, the intro has changed.  rho21 has entered the Renaissance Era.  I also notice last turn, but didn’t note, that he must have some knights around as his city defenses are all at 38 or higher.   In the far southeast rho21 moved his hoplites away from my galley, not like my galley could attack them or anything.  He’s also put down another city, Mycenae.  Guess he ran out of Mathematicians.

I have a notification that my knight can be promoted.  The swordsman attacked it and died during the interturn.  I take the Barding promotion as that chain appears to be the better one.  The horseman starts to make its way east.  My galleys continue their exploration, not finding anything noteworthy yet.  My sword in the northwest find two barbarian archers.  This could get a little tricky as it’s not Tortoise promoted, but on the other hand it can almost one-shot the archers on the attack.  Put down a mine at How and there’s a builder charge left.  The Industrial Zone is one of the district types I get a discount on so I lock one in place on the hills directly east of the city center.  It’s at a +2 adjacency and would be at +4 once I get two more mines in place.  The existing builder will go chop the forest SE of the city center to mostly complete the district then I’ll slow build the rest after the Campus Research Project is complete.  At 132 it won’t take that long.  Maps & Legends starts a settler.  Education is almost 50% complete so I start Printing.  I’ll put 4 turns in that then finish Gunpowder as the Armory will be complete.  What I need to get out are a couple of spearmen, but I’ll handle that in Kenneth and Oddfellows, both of which finish builds next turn.  

When Exploration comes in I think I’m going to run the following policies:
- Conscription
- Colonization
- Feudal Contract (for crossbows)
- Caravansaries
- Natural Philosophy
- Merchant Confederation

Caravansaries is currently worth 16 per turn, Merchant Confederation gets me another 6 and Natural Philosophy will get me another 7.  I'll then research Naval Tradition to 1 turn to get it ready for a double swap when Civil Service completes.  That should let me get a few builders out for the new cities.