[SPOILER] - Suboptimal finds trees, still seeks forest

[Banzailizard]

If Alhambram has 2 settlers out, then that is really bad news. Ceterum autem censeo Pindacator esse delendam. You have an outside chance if you take Pin down because his lands are quite nice. With an experienced military and defense terrain it might be enough to make a run at it. If your current attack is repulsed though, there is no hope for it. Maybe an all out joint assault on Alhambram, but with his 100% production bonus and tech lead? Probably not.

[suboptimal]

OK....pyramids are out and we're going whole-hog after Pindicator. I'll use the policy swap from D&P to switch to Autocracy and run Conscription, Maneuver, Urban Planning and...something else (Caravansaries?) in the wildcard slot for the time being. The completion of Games & Recreation can be timed to get Limitanei in if/when Res Publica get captured. Conquest of Paradise or....we lose faster. Dauphinoise will build horses after the builder to send a few down the river valley. Hasselback will be running around 12 after the city grows and I mine the 7-yield tile. It can 5-turn a horseman so that might be worth doing (send those down the Nazca route), though it might also be worth building a battering ram so we can use the gold for sword upgrades.

Techs will be to complete Currency, finish Sailing (1 turn), complete Iron Working and then make a dash straight for Machinery and crossbows.

I think that the best way to go after Alhambram might be to send a large number of mobile units (light/heavy cavalry class), pillage him out as fast as possible and hang on while the 100% production bonus works its way through the system. That should crater his science yields, get us some reasonable pillage yields and maybe slow him down. One can hope, anyways.

[CFCJesterFool]

I'd get the Encampment down at Dauphinoise once you run out of horses. Also, run the +2 Great General points policy card until you need Limitanei. I don't think letting Alhambram get a Great General is wise unless you can counter with one of your own.

[suboptimal]

Turn 69

What news does the save bring me? Nothing in notifications. Swap civics back to Drama & Poetry to complete that next turn. Currency is also down to one turn. Take a look around at production levels; battering rams are 7 turns at Hasselback, 6 turns at Dauphinoise and would be 4 turns at Mashed. No sign of walls in Khmer yet.

Down at the Abarath River Valley:




It appears the loss of the archer caused Pindicator to withdraw his troops along Wealth of Nations’ borders. That or my understanding of LOS remains flawed. Up north the warrior has traded places with an archer. Its two friends are still there and, just like with the warrior, one archer alone is not enough to advance and kill. Maris Piper would almost kill it. There is one option, though. I could advance Maris Piper into the rice marsh and shoot, then send the archer to its SE down to the fissure in the volcano pass. I’d be able to finish off the archer from there. However, that leaves me vulnerable to an unknown counterattack – I don’t know if there’s just three units up there or if a fourth is lurking. I also don’t know if there’s something is the pass northeast of the city. I shuffle the archer down to look through the pass, see nothing on the desert hill and return to the hilltop. I back the warrior down from the hill into the marsh between it and the city. I lose sight of the archer but Pindicator will need to advance something onto the 2MP geothermal fissure if he’s going to see anything and the only thing that unit will see is certain death. I bring the unpromoted archer south east to the grassland forest hill. If one of Pindicator’s units shows up north of the borders I should be able to wound or kill it.

As can be seen in the above screenshot, over on the Nubian Desert/Nazca theater the Nazcan archer has done me a favor and moved into its territory, clearing the way for the horsemen to advance. What can’t be seen because it’s behind the minimap is that Pindicator’s warrior has retreated back into the fog. The archer moves one tile east, revealing the warrior and a bit of a problem:




The previously fogged tile to the E of the iron is a mountain. That means there’s one path through that pass. A horse on the iron and one on any adjacent tile can make it to the Holy Site and the tile NE of there, respectively. An archer on one of the adjacent tiles could likewise advance to the pasture, but not shoot, on the same turn, with following archers setting up on the iron and adjacent hill. I’ll need to rework the prep movement here. I do shoot the warrior this turn as that earns this archer a promotion and it won’t be moving next turn. That causes 32 points of damage and the archer will take Volley next turn while everyone else advances, or tries to get through the crowd of units that’s forming.

Out as Australia the warrior has disappeared into the fog. I advance towards Hobart’s borders but don’t get a look at anything new yet. I’ll circle to the south to see if I can expose the city center.

Builder at Hasselback uses its last charge and puts a mine down on the 7-yield tile. That takes a turn off the Campus build. Builder at Dauphinoise positions for putting down the Nubian Pyramid next turn. The Commercial Hub at Dauphinoise will go down as planned on the desert hill. That city is now looking at taking the floodplain NW of the wines next, though I’ll need to check next turn if it’s flip-flopping with the plains by the pearls. Should I place an Encampment 2E of the city on the plains in order to lock in costs? The cost of an Encampment placed next turn will be 122, which wouldn’t be that long once we have Veterancy unlocked and usable. Cultural expansion target and Encampment both marked for reference:




The intended Encampment tile at Fondant will need to be purchased but it will be a little while before I can place the district. I buy the tile for 75 as the costs are only going to go up from here. That means that as soon as we see walls go up in Khmer then either Hasselback or Dauphinoise will need to switch to building a battering ram as we won’t have the cash.

Things to think about and questions for the committee:

- My earlier math about horses was slightly off. Hasselback can get one out in four turns under Maneuver starting next turn. Both Hasselback and Dauphinoise will start horses next turn, with both horses headed for the river valley upon completion. They can build another round or switch to district builds depending on game circumstance.

- Military Training takes 6 turns unboosted, Games & Recreation 4 turns and Recorded History 8 turns (currently unboosted).

- Astrology → Celestial Navigation (unboosted) will take 11 turns as-is. Sailing and Wheel will each take 1 turn, Iron Working will take 4, Engineering will take 13 (no boost), Machinery will take 12 (boosted). With walls going in at Fondant after the Campus we can shave some time off Engineering. I’m going to finish Sailing as planned as that won’t increase district costs. Iron Working after that is obvious, but what to follow? Head for crossbows or get the Harbor tech to eureka-complete first while hoping to find time for a builder?

- If we want to build the Encampment at Dauphinoise then I think the best thing to do is build that for the Military Training boost ASAP, complete the civic and then slot Veterancy to get a 30% discount on the one at Fondant since that would take more time to build. If we’re doing that then I’d want to try to have the Harbor placed at Hasselback so that I could build both districts at the same time to take advantage of the policy (and get more gold and closer to another trade route slot)

- Hasselback expanded and took the salt. I’m going to have the Dauphinoise builder go there, mine it to make it a 223 tile and then do the jungle chop & mine at Fondant. The builder would mine the salt in 5 turns and chop & mine in 8 for about 33 (or more, depending on what else gets completed in 8 turns). I currently don’t need a forest chop at Dauphinoise to put towards a district as the city can complete a district in 7-8 turns.

- I am considering delaying the settler by 1 turn at Mashed in order to get the Commercial Hub placed now. The issue is that I forget if the settler will be built before or after the city spends its food to grow to 7 population. If it spends the food before production and drops back down to 6 it’ll be 10 turns before I can place the district. If it produces the settler then spends the food it stays at 6 pop I believe it’ll be 6 turns before I can place the district. I won’t be building the district immediately but potentially cheaper placement may be the right move here.

- Should I get a builder out at Mashed (4 turns) before the Ancestral Hall? The builder could improve the currently-worked turtles (+1), the pearls (completing the Celestial Navigation boost) and then go to the NE city to farm the wheat to give it a 3 tile to speed growth. The extra amenities would also boost all of the cities in the empire to Ecstatic status, gaining a further 5% yield bonus and 10% growth bonus.

- We will have a naturally generated envoy in three more turns, giving us 2 in our pocket to work with.

Revised movement plan for the Nubian Desert coming in a bit.

[suboptimal]

Nubian Theater Update

With that mountain defogged we’ve got a bit of a bottleneck to contend with. I think it’s doable, only because we’ve got units with more than 2MP. Here’s the revised plan.

Preparatory Movements (T70/T71)




Turn 70: Red Archer moves southwest. If nothing is on the pasture it will promote, otherwise it will shoot. White archer will move to take red archer’s place on the hill. Yellow horse takes white archer’s current location. Blue archer and green horse will take the salt and the flat lands to the west if available (archer to the west). If only one of the two is open then the horse gets it and the archer takes a trailing position or moves past the warrior to the coastal desert W of the Nazcan warrior.

Turn 71: Red archer moves southwest, shoots if there’s an available target, promotes if that is still an option. White archer likewise advances and will shoot any target on the pasture. Green horse advances to the western hill sheep, yellow horse to the desert hill NW of there. Blue archer closes the gap to the pass, depending on where it wound up on Turn 70.

Battle Movements (T72 onwards)




The blue dots on the desert hill and the flat geothermal fissure indicate the two possible EoT71 positions of blue archer.

Turn 72: Horses move SE to the pasture and iron. Archers hold their positions, except for blue archer, which takes yellow horse’s place.

Turn 73: Horsemen advance as indicated. If they don’t need the 3MP for river crossing to attack the city they do so. White archer moves to the iron, red and blue archers hold position.

Turn 74: Horsemen attack the city. White archer advances and shoots at either the city or troops across the river. Red archer to iron, blue archer holds.

Turn 75: Horsemen press the attack, as does white archer. Red archer advances to the pasture and shoots the city. Blue archer to iron.

[Banzailizard]

- Astrology → Celestial Navigation (unboosted) will take 11 turns as-is.  Sailing and Wheel will each take 1 turn, Iron Working will take 4, Engineering will take 13 (no boost), Machinery will take 12 (boosted).  With walls going in at Fondant after the Campus we can shave some time off Engineering.  I’m going to finish Sailing as planned as that won’t increase district costs.  Iron Working after that is obvious, but what to follow?  Head for crossbows or get the Harbor tech to eureka-complete first while hoping to find time for a builder?

- I am considering delaying the settler by 1 turn at Mashed in order to get the Commercial Hub placed now.  The issue is that I forget if the settler will be built before or after the city spends its food to grow to 7 population.  If it spends the food before production and drops back down to 6 it’ll be 10 turns before I can place the district.  If it produces the settler then spends the food it stays at 6 pop I believe it’ll be 6 turns before I can place the district.  I won’t be building the district immediately but potentially cheaper placement may be the right move here.

- Should I get a builder out at Mashed (4 turns) before the Ancestral Hall?  The builder could improve the currently-worked turtles (+1), the pearls (completing the Celestial Navigation boost) and then go to the NE city to farm the wheat to give it a 3 tile to speed growth.  The extra amenities would also boost all of the cities in the empire to Ecstatic status, gaining a further 5% yield bonus and 10% growth bonus.

- We will have a naturally generated envoy in three more turns, giving us 2 in our pocket to work with.

Revised movement plan for the Nubian Desert coming in a bit.

In order:

Tech should be for Xbows.  Remember you need to kill Pin.  That is the overwhelming priority right now. Main techs you want are machinery and Stirrups.  You do not need harbors right now, you do not need a navy.

I would suggest the settler if you have somewhere good to put it.  Is the production saved really worth the extra turn on a new city down.  That new city means a bit more science culture and production .

Ancestral hall timing depends on 1. when you plan to next settle a city 2. if you plan to build a settler in the next 4 turns.  If you can get a city down just after ancestral hall that would be nice, its a free builder in a city that will need it.  If not and if you do not need the 50% boost, then go ahead and build a builder.

[CFCJesterFool]

Dauphinoise should finish the Encampment asap after the first horseman. Hasselback can continue building horseman as needed. I'd lock in the cost of the commercial district (spend one turn building the Ancestral Hall). You gain one turn of yields from the extra population and so the delay producing a settler is basically a wash anyway. Does Mashed have any forest to chop? If so, getting a builder before the Ancestral Hall makes sense. Grab the eureka for Celestial Navigation and use the last charge for a chop once Magnus is back in place (and chop into the Hall.)

[suboptimal]

Turn 70

Currency is complete, as is Drama & Poetry. Time to get some things done. Resume Games & Recreation and Iron Working. Pyramids is out, an unmet player just finished those this turn. Based on score that unmet player is Cornflakes.
Go into the policy & government screen. The diplomatic slot does us no good so I change governments to Autocracy. I slot Conscription and Maneuver in the military slots, leave Urban Planning in the economic slot and put Strategos into the wildcard. The good news here is that the turn Iron Working completes we will have enough iron to upgrade one of the warriors at Fondant. Time for some city management.

Up at Mashed the settler has one turn remaining. I swap over to Ancestral Hall. The city will grow in population next turn, at which point the Commercial Hub will go down.

At Dauphinoise the builder is complete. The city is also flip-flopping the tile picker and is now pointing at the plains NW of the crabs. I clear out all the pins in the city. Nubian pyramid goes down to the NE, making that tile a 41 tile and earning 4 era points. I keep the city in high-production mode for the time being. Commercial Hub is placed on the hill to the west, Encampment is placed on the plains 2E and the city starts a horseman which will complete in four turns.

Hasselback has grown to 4 population and is the new citizen is working the jungle hill. The city’s Campus has four turns remaining but I can’t switch to a horseman because I’ve only got 8 horses. It’ll be 6 turns before I can start another horse. I consider changing techs to spend the next 6 turns finishing Sailing (1 turn) and building a galley (5 turns) but decide instead to start work on a battering ram (5 turns). I figure we’re going to need one at some point and it’s better to have it on hand than wait for it to be built after the need is apparent.

At Fondant the Campus has three turns to go and I put walls into the queue to follow it. This Campus is more important to get done as it represents 3 per turn instead of just the +1 at Hasselback. The new builder at Dauphinoise starts making its way down. Because bridges don’t yet take movement off river crossings the builder can mine the salt on Turn 75. It might be better to get it to Hasselback first for the chop & mine the over to the salt. City management complete, time to focus on the war.

At Fondant everyone has stayed in the fog so there’s nothing to see there. I’ll wait and see if anything comes out of the fog next turn (if the turn even comes around in time). The warrior in the swamp fortifies in place while the unpromoted archer in the river valley goes into fortify/alert status. The archer on the east river bank jogs down to check the pass and sees nothing. I think the rough terrain east of Fondant’s borders has become a no man’s land of sorts. Over in the Nubian Desert, though, there’s a bit of action:




Based on the mouseover that warrior has no friends nearby. It does add a wrinkle as this turn the archer NE of the salt was going to go onto the hill. Seeing two archers might trigger an alarm, but on the other hand that might make Pindicator pull forces from the river valley. I move the white and blue archers as intended and bring the horsemen up to the flatlands behind the hills:




The archer that hasn’t moved doesn’t shoot the new guest but instead takes the available Volley promotion. I will also note that based on Res Publica’s current city defense that the horseman is not complete yet. I expect that on the next turn the city will have a defense strength of 28 as Pindicator’s capital is likely equal to Mashed in production, which means he can build horses there in three turns. He’s also spent about 110 or so last turn, but I’m not sure on what.

Over in Australia the archer has be joined by a warrior again. I move southeast onto a banana hills and see…an escorted settler:




If I had to guess he’s likely headed for the coast by the marsh and bananas.

Sometime later tonight I will post the general city-by-city rundown of my intentions along with tech & civics research, updated thoughts about the military situation with Khmer and anything else that pops into my head. Jester, you will likely be playing the next turn since I seem to be getting them every other day. I’ll be checking for a save up to about 2:30pm or so EST and then I’ll likely pack up shop for vacation. I will put up a post to officially hand over to you. I’ll be able to read and post in the forums, though I’ll be in a different timezone (GMT+0), so if you can manage a report when the turns go by that would be great. I’ll be able to take back over on any turn that comes around on March 8th.

[CFCJesterFool]

Yeah, I'll post reports. 110ish gold sounds like a swordsman upgrade.

[suboptimal]

Alhambram has not spent any iron since his previous turn, so I'm not sure that it's that. It could be a slinger -> archer or two. Check the milpower next turn. He's currently around 220 or so.