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

[suboptimal]

Turn 173

Opening the save brings one part trepidation, one part excitement. Have I managed to create an advantage I can exploit for a bit or will rho21 pull something out of a hat to wreck my turn?




The archer has withdrawn from Dinostratus, as has the galley! Looks like rho21 is ceding the fact that the city is going to be destroyed. He also doesn’t have Steel. The question now – what of his frigate? I advance the caravel two hexes SW and find that the galley has taken the frigate’s position and the frigate is nowhere to be found. I mouse over it with a battleship and find out that I misread the icon...it’s actually a quadrireme. Southernmost battleship moves 1 hex SW and takes it out. The other two battleships shell the city, eliminating the walls and doing 32 points to the garrison. I move the caravel inshore onto the oil, just in case rho21 tries to bring his frigate around. At some point that will need to be hunted down. Not now, though. Next turn I’ll drop the defenses to zero then relocate the spy to Apollonius and raze the city. The battleships will lose out on a turn's worth of XP since they're all promotable, but I'll do that after the city falls. The situation after the naval bombardment:




The only real remaining task this turn is to get some units consolidated into corps. Down at Diminished I form a musketman corps. I was intending on forming it SE of the city center but didn’t realize that the unit clicked first is where the corps forms up (it’s been a while since I’ve actually used that mechanic). Now I know. Or I thought I did. When I form the cavalry corps I click the eastern unit first, hit the button and click the western unit and...the corps is in the western tile. The hell? Crossbows I click the western one first, hit the button, select the second one and….it goes west. Guess the game consolidates towards the western tile. I move my Great General to the field cannon – that still covers everyone and gets him some protection.

Up at the Cant/Near/Xenocrates line I’ve got some more combinations to do. First, though, I move the great general out of the Encampment to check on Xenocrates’ Encampment. Just a promoted musketman there. General moves back. I combine the field cannon and bombards into corps. I also pair up the knights to the north. Interestingly right now each corps formation has only gotten me an additional 1 in income. That doesn’t line up with what I’ve found online. I’ll have to see what happens when I load the next turn. I also see that the formation of a corps has no effect on city defenses. Also good to know.

In the north rho21 seems to be hoping the 3rd time is a charm.




I back the caravel off to the west – I want to send the GE back to whence it came (again) but don’t want to be within range of missile fire to do it.

In city news, Hairshirt and Harborcoat have each grown a population. Hairshirt, at population 2, has 0.5 less production per turn than Harborcoat, population 10. Down at horse the plains hill has been acquired and I mine it. Horse can’t use it as it doesn’t have enough population, but the mine is third ring for High Speed – I move a citizen working a 2/1 plains farm over to the mine.

At Sing I decide that instead of chopping the forest I’ll chop the jungle on the hill and then mine it. The difference in production time for a stock exchange is about the same – 19 turns chopping the forest for 128 and grinding away at 13.6 per turn or 19 turns chopping the jungle and getting 16.8 per turn. However, the higher production rate is useful down the line, so that’s the better route there.

[suboptimal]

Archduke...I have a musketman in Welcome, a horseman in Green and a musketman 1 turn from completion in Kenneth (all in the northeast). Do you think it'd be sufficient to bring one of these across the sea for a landing at Apollonius or should I muster up several to send across the seas?

[suboptimal]

Turn 174

Take a quick look around to see if there’s anything interesting going on, particularly since I consolidated a number of troops into corps. All’s quiet. I do see that my gold income has not gone up as expected. What I found online was that maintenance costs for a corps were equal to that of a single unit but here it seems it saves you 1 of the total cost of two units’ maintenance. Makes sense from a balance perspective but didn’t see that in the patch notes. Another interesting side effect – my military power dropped from 2007 last turn to 1737 this turn. However, this is sort of expected given the mechanisms behind that number.

I’ve only got one builder left, that moves into position in the jungle at Sing. The bank will complete next turn and then I’ll complete Economics, overflowing a good chunk of science back into Sanitation. In the north rho21 has moved his Great Engineer to the ice pack but still too close to his territory for me to want to go after. I move the caravel up just far enough to spot it (3 hexes away) and then stay put.

Now for Dinostratus. Battleships drop the city health to zero. I see that the battleship that attacked the scout is not promotion-ready, that’s OK, it’ll catch up. With the city ready to capture I relocate the spy to Apollonius. Seven turns to establish there. I’ll be able to take out a Kongolese city or two while I wait. Spy away the caravel takes the city, losing 25 hp in the process:




I find it interesting that the numbers actually reflect what the city is making now (and what rho21 is losing, except for any added culture from the Theater Square being an Acropolis). The numbers are small, but it’s a dent. The loss of a trade route is also worth 4 plus whatever else he’s making off it. I've also now captured at least one city from each of my opponents....that's worth something in the achievement department.

As much as it pains me to raze a perfectly good city, I’ve gone over the reasons why holding this would be a bad idea. I even gain a trade route out of it because of the harbor. However, all those nice numbers would drop to almost zero as soon as I hit “keep city”, getting attacked here would do wonders for my war weariness and I have no way of holding this city if/when rho21 comes calling to liberate it. I also do not see peace on the horizon so it’d be under permanent occupation status. I raze it and all of its improvements go with it. Rho21 might see that and go but when he goes through my thread and discussions with Archduke he’ll get a better understanding as to why. Maybe this also gives the lurkers something to debate as well.

The navy will take a turn to promote up and regroup, then I’ll send them after Japper’s city that is south of Apollonius or Nasischijf (the former Hong Kong). In looking at my available units I have a musketman at Find that I can try to get across the ocean in order to take out the Greek cities that are inland. It’d take 11 turns to do so. My other alternative is the horseman at Green – that could be at the Greek coast in 6 turns via a northern route through Harborcoat and I’d be able to provide an escort. I also have the galley up there to scout out the route. It’s almost ridiculous to have a horseman to try to do that, but who am I to judge? It’s just a matter of whether or not rho21 pulls out of the city or stays put to fight when I come knocking at Apollonius.

[suboptimal]

Turn 175

This turn I get to see if rho21 will give any immediate reaction to the loss of Dinostratus. One tell will be if he keeps or has spent his pile of gold. I do get a notification that he’s attacked my caravel. With what?




Oh, not that caravel.




Looks like he’s been busy with a navy in the north. Well, this calls for a bit of a retreat. I don’t know that the caravel will be able to survive, though I’ll give it a shot. I move to the west, running over the Great Engineer in the process. The caravel will attempt to get to Hairshirt for shelter. My fleet can be there in 8 turns. The new plan will be to move the fleet to the north, take out those frigates and then see what the chances are of shelling and taking Perseus. I begin moving the battleships eastwards and find another embarked Greek scout. Unfortunately it was out of sight range until I used my last movement point. I may have to try to kill that on my way across. The galley at Harborcoat positions itself directly between that scout and my lands. I also note that the scout is stronger than my galley a sea.




I’ll be getting a Great Admiral in 7 turns, but it will only affect my caravels. With the threat of frigates in the northern ocean I move one of my knight corps SE one hex to get out of bombardment range, just in case. I still keep visibility on the coastal land route, though, so that’s good.

Elsewhere, in trying to preserve science overflow for Economics I threw off build timing, so Sing needs to spend a turn building something before switching to its Stock Exchange. I put a turn into a builder since I’ll be needing one of those at some point.

Rho21 has moved a column ahead of me in the civics tree, I’m assuming he’s completed Natural History or Scorched Earth. I’ll probably use Colonialism to set up a double-swap when Urbanization completes in order to get some upgrades in, then swap back out to my current policy configuration.

I’ll be seeing a number of builds complete in 4-7 turns as several buildings, an Entertainment Complex and two settlers come out in that time period. The big one will be Kenneth’s factory in 7 turns as that will give production boosts to How, Cant and Maps. One other thing I need to keep in mind is that I’ve got four musketmen one turn from completion. I’ll need to get those out before I complete Replaceable Parts. That will delay the settlers an additional turn since two of the muskets are in How and Begin. However, those will let me get a few more cities garrisoned.

The Great People situation:




Looks like Japper is going to get Mendeleev and then rho21 and I will be in a fight over the next one. I don’t know if we’ll be getting a Modern Era GS or an Atomic Era one. The game intro is Modern Era but that might be because I’m in the Modern – everyone else is still in the Industrial. I’d prefer an Atomic Era GS, along with an Atomic Era GM (though unless someone else spits out a project I’ll be getting Mr. Spilsbury).

[suboptimal]

Turn 176

Caravel in the north is lost so I’m expecting an intrusion of some sorts, either by the Great Engineer on a scouting mission or worse. Battleships arrive at Harishirt in 6-7 turns. I also have to assume that rho21 has 1-2 spies built and nowhere to put them until he gets visibility on my “good” cities. The scout in the ocean has also disappeared.

Sing, having spent a turn into the builder, switches to Stock Exchange. Builder chops the jungle, cutting 5 turns off the build and adding one to Sing’s population (it’s now up to ten). I start Replaceable Parts and resume musket builds at Kenneth, How, Begin and Cant. Those will all finish next turn and the cities will resume their other builds. Not losing anything in the queue this time around.

War weariness is a slight problem again – what was accumulating in Oddfellows shifted over to Harborcoat, which is now at -4 amenities. The horseman will stay there for a while to act as a garrison until I can get another unit over here. I also have a bit of an idea – I start moving my siege tower towards the coastline north of How. It can park on the coast and see what’s going on where the sea narrows to two tiles but cannot be shelled by the frigates as it can’t be targetted.

[TheArchduke]

Are you sure chasing all your battleships which he clearly can not deal atm east for 7 turns is the smart play here? Does he have something else then 2 frigates which you can sink easily by land units?

[suboptimal]

Turn 177

Four mustketmen are built this turn, income drops into the 30’s once more. The one at How will move a little north to attempt to intercept the Great Engineer when it tries to come ashore. Kenneth’s will garrison in place, Begin’s will move across the river towards the coal location and Cant’s will fortify in the Encampment and the swordsman will make its way north.

A trade route at Find comes to an end. I decide to relocate the trader to Kenneth and start it off to Harborcoat. That will get a road up to that city and add some production to Kenneth. Likewise the trader at Cant relocates to How. That will go to Find, also for added production. The gradual plan will be to shift trade routes to those two cities (plus perhaps one other) to get their production boosted into the 50’s.

[suboptimal]

Are you sure chasing all your battleships which he clearly can not deal atm east for 7 turns is the smart play here? Does he have something else then 2 frigates which you can sink easily by land units?

I have no land units to shoot them with, for starters.  Additionally, those two frigates can become battleships when he completes Steel.  I'd rather try to kill them now than have my own battleship problem in the north.  If I can get those out of the way and there's nothing else up there then Perseus becomes a target.  The siege tower will get vision on the strait next turn to see what's going on (if anything).

Two other factors: there's only one (known) Greek naval unit in the ocean - a frigate. Persues is the only location that Greece can produce naval units. All other cities are at least one tile off the coast and his only harbor is in Perseus.

[TheArchduke]

Once again.

7 turns.

In 7 turns you can wreak havoc on his coast. 3 frigates against steel and some ranged units you have? I prefer razing another Kongo or Greek city.

Anyway, you are throwing away a decisive advantage (see that razed city) for a wild goose chase)

2 frigates without DotF? (they have to go back and upgrade)

With the 2 turns (3 turns) wasted, my point is moot anyway.


Still a good operation, shame it could have been more.

[suboptimal]

I took a look at the save since I was up early and there was no turn to be taken. You're right. I should be wrecking the coast.

The battleships and caravel can be back at the Greek coast in three turns. I can also take the musketmen in Welcome and Find and send them across the ocean as a landing party. The musketman at Kenneth will move to Welcome to garrison the city. The spy is active in Apollonius in four turns and I'll be able to see what's going on there (and shell the city).

As for coastal defense I have Replaceable Parts on turn 179 and a single musket upgrade will raise the city defenses vs. any frigates/battleships that come calling. I'll have to get a unit into Hairshirt as additional defense.