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

[suboptimal]

It might be a fool's errand, but with Perseus around any Geneva assault must be conducted from the east - the DotF bonus is what gets the navy killed trying to get to Geneva as it goes through the chokepoint there (exception - subs).

In some ways you could be right regarding the x vs y. I'm still relatively new at this and a bit paranoid...my concern remains with being able to hold the front in the event of an attack. I'm very conscious of the fact that rho may try something in the not-too-distant future. I'm trying to figure out what, if anything, he could do on offense. The southern end-around, west coast backdoor and a rush through the knights in the north are the three that come to mind.

I think the plan will be to get frigates built, upgrade to battleships and try to take out the coastal cities before he gets Steel. Apollonius first would be ideal - that's his holy city and it'd remove the possibility of a religious victory.

Japper's only city within naval reach is the former Hong Kong - that can be taken via direct sea assault. Everything else is buried in the interior. There are 2-3 greek cities within one tile of the coast (Dinostratus, Apollonius and I think a third city between them in the fog). Dinostratus can be done via direct sea-based assault but the other two would require landing melee units to take the city. I can build up the navy and landing party while I work towards a second spy and get that one into a coastal city to see what's there. I'd prefer to leave the current spy in Xenocrates to watch the front line for the time being (or do you think visibility at Kapsalon is more beneficial at this point?)

When I get home I'll look at the save. I will have enough cash to upgrade the two swords at Begin to muskets and then can move that force towards Kapsalon on T151.

[suboptimal]

Turn 150

Turn starts quietly. In looking at the stats Japper’s put a settler out this past turn. Rho21 built a couple of units to get him up to 1044 power, Japper’s added an Ngao Mbeba to the mix at Xenocrates. I start my turn by claiming Jeanne d’Arc and Jakob Fugger. Next Great General up is Napoleon Bonaparte – he could be quite useful. Next Great Merchant is John Spilsbury….TOYS! (in the Attic, which R.E.M. happened to cover on Dead Letter Office). I relocate Jeanne d’Arc to Near. She’ll swap places with Ghengis Khan next turn and he’ll go to Begin. Jakob shows up in Oddfellows – I use him immediately for the 200 and adding two envoys to my reserve. I currently have enough envoys in reserve (6) to knock rho21 out of suzerainty. I have a feeling that he’s got a few in reserve, but let’s find out – I put all 6 into Geneva and we’ll see what happens next turn. This does have an immediate effect, though – my indicated science output has risen from 127.4 per turn to 146.2 per turn. Probably won’t keep it that long but good to know what the effect for me would be. Perhaps at some point I’ll be able to get ahead of rho21 for a turn or two and see what kind of damage it does to his civ. Maybe I’ll put the +2 envoy point card in and drop three in there when I finish Colonialism...

Kenneth places its Industrial Zone and starts a builder. Its horseman moves east and I restart its trade route to Begin. Crossbow from Cant continues south, as does a musket. Begin upgrades the two swords to muskets and I’ll move out the turn after next with Ghengis in tow. Japper’s city defense has risen to 47.

Find, Maps and Begin all pause their builds and start builders. Horse to Water’s Granary has completed, it starts a builder as well.

[TheArchduke]

Hmm, those envoys won´t be enough and could have been used to push out his units ahead of an offensive.

[suboptimal]

Turn 151

First of all, here are the stats as of T150:



Open the save to no notifications. Notably rho21 has not put any envoys into Geneva for the time being so my science rate remains in the mid 140’s. Two things are instructive about this situation, though. First, I’m running Natural Philosophy and only gained about 18 plus the 5% amenity boost (4 Campus districts @ 4 each, +2 for the capital). That means that somewhere along the line they fixed city-state bonuses being counted as adjacencies. That also means that rho21’ s science is coming from...where?

There is also a pile of gossip this turn as having open diplomatic status with Greece lets me see what’s going on:

- Adopted Press Gangs
- Adopted Rationalism
- Adopted Triangular Trade
- Built an archaeological museum in Aristaeus
- Built a harbor in Dinostratus

Looks like he’s going to start building a navy. Find will start up its naval construction once the builder is done there, as will Harborcoat and High Speed. I’ll need to evaluate getting a harbor in the water at Welcome as well. I don’t know that it’s worth upgrading the galley and sending it and the caravel over to Dinostratus to pillage the harbor – one or more units would die and the harbor could be easily rebuilt. However, I may upgrade the galley and send the caravels to monitor the Greek harbors while remaining safely out of shooting range.

Civil Engineering has three turns, Industrialization has two turns. I reset some citizens, reposition some units. The forces at Begin will move on Japper next turn, though without a battering ram. Begin will build one and have it play catch up after it gets its builder done. Japper has shown no sign of even starting walls at Kapsalon.

[TheArchduke]

Pillage the harbour against a DotF?

Sending several ships piecemeal to some harbours to check upon then?

Hmm, is this a good plan?




He has press gangs, he will chop/build a serious navy or a semblance of it.

[suboptimal]

Pillage the harbour against a DotF?

Sending several ships piecemeal to some harbours to check upon then?

Hmm, is this a good plan?




He has press gangs, he will chop/build a serious navy or a semblance of it.

I was merely going through the reasoning but had no plan on pillaging the harbor -- district pillaging, generally speaking, only inconveniences the owner since they patched the repair cost a while back.  If I put any ship(s) near his harbors it will be out of shooting range and only to observe when he gets his first ship out (and then leave).  The only way I'd take offensive action would be with battleships so I could be out of range of land-based units.

[TheArchduke]

Sorry, did not want to sound too harsh there.

[suboptimal]

No worries. I expect the occasional contentious debate to keep me from engaging in blatant idiocy from time to time.

I was thinking of trying to crank out four frigates, upgrading them all to battleships and then using 2 + a caravel posted outside his harbors (and firing range) to take out ships as they're built. Perseus has very limited production for ships but I don't know what Dinostratus is capable of from a production standpoint yet.

[suboptimal]

Turn 152

Rho21 completed an industrial zone in Aristaeus. Japper’s Ngao Mbeba disappeared and now there’s a double-promoted crossbow by Xenocrates. I move a knight east onto the hill to see what’s up:




I’m going to assume there will be an offensive here in the very near term, though it’d be a very clogged attack if they did so. The military power that Japper has here is half his army. I upgrade the crossbow east of the Campus to a field cannon and will get the other crossbow upgraded next turn when the two units swap positions. I was thinking about holding Terracotta Army. Not anymore. That will complete in three turns.

The advance knight in the south has spotted a barb camp. I’ll go clear that with the knight while the southern forces move out. The good news is that half of Japper’s army is north of Waffles where it will be very difficult to recall them from.

Industrialization completes next turn, then I’ll start Siege Tactics. Civil Engineering in two turns. Darwin should arrive next turn as How’s project completes or the turn after that. If the offensive gets going I’ll need to finish Steel, skip the frigates idea and go straight to building battleships.

Archduke, I’m thinking about the following regarding the completion of Steel and the promotions from Terracotta Army:

- I don’t think I want to hold off Steel for the purposes of getting Frigates out, at least, any longer than I have to. OTOH I could leave it at one turn from completion for a little bit while I work on getting to Replaceable Parts.
- Once steel is in I’m going to upgrade the bombards to artillery and give them the Grape Shot promotion (+7 vs land units). I may also shift one to the Encampment or to the Campus to provide coverage on the southern chokepoint. They’d be able to attack land units with an effective strength of 76 at a range of 3.
- The knights will all take Barding (+7 vs. ranged attacks)
- Ranged units will take the next available +x vs. land units promotion.
- The muskets at Near will take Amphibious to eliminate the river attack penalty.
- I think the archers and crossbows at cities behind the front lines will take Garrison – thoughts on this one?
- Horsemen will take Coursers (+5 when attacking ranged & siege units) in preparation for upgrade to cavalry.

I also think it’s high time I bought that tile I’ve flagged for the Encampment and use Cant’s builder to get it built.

[TheArchduke]

Amphibious is a subpar promotion.

I think Warcry+Tortoise at the same time is much better.

Also Garrison is also not the best imo, the double +7 promotion against land units is much stronger.

I agree with Coursers.