teh: Frederick of Germany

[teh]

Turn 67

Games And Recreation is completed. I use the free policy swap to switch from the builder policy to the settler policy (Ilkum->Colonization). As planned, Aachen has already produced a new builder, so I start the production of a settler here. I start researching Military Training, mainly because it's the shortest civic to tech (9 turns) so that I can switch back to the builder policy once I get a settler out of Aachen. The free envoy from this civic doesn't hurt, either.

I decide to switch the citizen working the rice tile (5f) to the coffee tile (2f1g1culture) since Aachen's growth is reduced to 50% due to housing limit (6/7). I'll get back to working the rice once Aachen drops down to size 5 after it produces the settler.

Mainz pops its border to get the 2nd copper hill in my borders, so I shuffle its citizen so that it works both copper hills and the farmed floodplains:



It slows the growth down a bit, but I want to get the monument up asap here since it's pretty expensive to buy tiles! The gold from both copper hills boost my income, too.

Recall that I have two builders near Aachen (one who's already spent a charge to chop a marsh, and the one that's just produced). I sent the new one to the west. The 2-charge builders continues its slow march to the hills:



Near Mainz, the 3-charge builder moves to the farmed floodplains on its way to the copper hill.

In Cologne, I decide to purchase the desert hill (80 gold) to bring a hill inside Cologne's 3-ring radius. Since Cologne is heavily starved in production, I switch a citizen from a marsh (3f) to this desert hill (1p). The newly produced worker from Aachen is going to improve this hill asap.

Turn 68

Quiet turn here. I switch Frankfurt's only citizen from the forested hill tile (2f2p1faith) to the bananas jungle (3f1p) this turn since it drops growth from 2 turns to 1 turn here. Other than that, the builders continue on their paths.

Archduke produces a settler as far as I can tell from the drop in his empire score. I also notice that Sullla's military score has been going up lately and he has surpassed me last turn. I see that he has 2 horses connected, so he might be producing some horse units. Something to keep in mind for me. Producing one or two anti-cavalry units might be wise.

Turn 69

The 2-charge builder near Aachen mines the first south hill. Aachen's production goes up to 15.8/turn. That makes it 3 hills mined so far -> I get the boost for apprenticeship as a result and it drops down to 3 turns to research now. The new builder reaches Cologne, but it will take it about 3 turns to move onto the desert hill. The builder near Mainz moves onto the copper (southern) hill to mine it next turn.

Frankfurt grows to size 2. It goes back to working the forested hill next to the natural wonder (2f2p1faith) and picks the horse (2f2p) with the new citizen. The granary is due in 2 turns, so it should be able to continue grow pretty soon.

Sullla has produced the first general of the game. My great scientist is due in 10 turns.

Turn 70

The builder near Aachen moves to the last unmined hill. It will be mined next turn. Once apprenticeship is completed, Aachen production will go up by 4 (4 mined hills) or a bit more with the amenity bonus, which is about about a 25% increase in production here.

The builder on the copper hill mines it. This boosts the Wheel tech. Mainz will complete its monument next turn.

The other builder continues its slow movement to the desert hill.



Here's the overall view. In light of Sullla's increase in military, I'll finish the half-produced archer in Mainz after its monument. Also, I have almost completed Masonry - and it might be useful to have it completed to be able to build city walls if needed. Though as far as I can tell, Archduke's (Sullla's northern neighbor) military score is significantly lower than mine, so Sullla might target him if he decides to attack. Still, it won't be prudent to get a spearman. I'll start moving the warrior near my border with Sullla to see if he's amassing any military near me.

Overall, Hansas are going to be here soon. I think I'll stop with a single settler out of Aachen since I've been delaying infrastructure there for so long. I also have plenty of good tiles to work there so I should stop cutting its pop down and let it grow from now on once the settler is out. I'll get the granary and monument out next, and move onto the districts. Though the earlier I can get the Hansa and Commercial Hub up, the easier it will be to build other things, so the order of the infrastructure plan might change a bit.

[Tyrmith]

So with the game how it is now where do you see your path to victory? Is there an window where you'll be able to go conquer someone with Hansas coming soon? Who do you think will be a good target?

[teh]

Despite Sullla's lead in the game (or I guess because of it), he's the closest and the easiest to attack in the sense that I can bring troops from east and south of Aquileia (notice that Sullla has city walls there). Capturing Aquileia would also have the effect of reducing my front size against Sullla; right now he can threaten my peninsula and Mainz-Frankfurt line with a fork move.

I'll talk about Hansas (how soon they'll be online and how much production each one is going to give me) in the next report (planning to post it tonight).

[teh]

Turn 71

One more turn before apprenticeship. In the meantime, the worker on the way to the desert hill near Cologne farms the second floodplains between Cologne and Mainz.

Mainz completes its monument. It has an archer almost complete in production (3 turns) so it goes back to working on it.

Frankfurt completes its granary, gaining the much needed housing (2/4 now). The next build is a monument. However, to increase growth, it switches to working the bananas tile along with the forested grassland hill. It will grow to size 3 in 4 turns and the monument will be completed in 10 turns (this will speed up once the horse tile is pastured and the 3rd citizen comes up).

In the capital, the builder spends its last charge on mining the last hill in sight. Aachen now has 3 grassland hills (2f2p, soon 3p) and a plains hill (1f3p, soon 4p), along with the horse tile (2f3p1culture). Even before the apprenticeship boost to the mines, it can finish its campus in 8 turns and its commercial hub in 7 turns.

Archduke settles a new city in between the turns. He and Sullla have 5 cities now, compared to 4 of mine and Yuris. The new settler should bridge the gap here.

Turn 72

Apprenticeship is completed! We have hansas on board now. The next tech is wheel (2 turns).

First thing I do this turn is to put down Hansas in all my cities where I previously had placed a pin down. That means I waste a marsh tile in Cologne and I had to spend some money to buy the tile where Hansa is put down for Frankfurt.

The next four screenshots show where the Hansas went and how much production they'll provide once complete. You can also see all the boosted mines below:



The Hansa in Aachen will be completed in 4 turns (I'm not going to start working on it yet, the settler still has a turn here) and it will provide 4 production. Aachen's production is up to 21 here, and it will be a very good 25 with the Hansa.



Frankfurt's Hansa would be completed in 12 turns at the current rate (but I'm going for the monument first). It will provide 4 production.



Mainz's Hansa will provide 6 production once completed. It will take 9 turns at the current rate. Mainz goes back to its archer production.



Finally, Cologne's Hansa will provide the much needed 5 production here, and it will take 11 turns to complete.

Turn 73

Aachen produces its settler. The settler starts moving towards the truffles-iron-cattle city spot in the southwest. Aachen starts working on its Hansa. With the overflow from the settler, it will complete the Hansa in 3 turns. Since the housing is back to 5/7 (no growth penalty), I shuffle the worked tiles to the following five: 3 mined grassland hills, the horse pasture, and the rice. I'll pick the plains hill (1f4p) at size 6.

Mainz produces another archer. It stands on guard duty on the copper hill next to the city. I start working on a granary here (8 turns), but I might decide to switch that to the Hansa in a couple of turns since the sooner I have Hansas completed, the better yield I will get from them.

In Cologne, the builder mines the desert hill (3p now), increasing the production to 9 in the city. I decide to rush the Hansa here, so the production is switched from a commercial hub (10 turns) to the Hansa (9 turns).

In Frankfurt, the builder (2 charges left) pastures the horse tile, making it 2f3p1culture. I move a citizen from the forested grassland hill to the newly pastured horses. Frankfurt will grows to size 3 in 2 turns, and once it finishes its monument (7 turns now), it will start working on its Hansa.

I switch the tech from Wheel to Iron Working (8 turns, not boosted yet). I want to delay my techs and civics until I have the new city so that it can put down its Hansa and commercial hub at size 1 to lock their costs (recall that as Germany, I get an extra district slot in my cities, so 2 districts at size 1 instead of a single district). Also recall that I have Masonry at 1 turn left to complete. Once the new city is settled with the districts placed, I'll start finishing those early cheap techs and start working my way towards Engineering (catapult) and Machinery (crossbowman).

In terms of Sullla and his military, I have an archer near Aquileia that I can use to check 2-3 tiles deep into Sullla's border, and I haven't noticed any military buildup of his near the city.

Turn 74

The settler is one turn away from settling the new spot. The builder with a single charge near Cologne starts moving towards the 2nd copper hill near Mainz (it will take him 3 turns to move there). The builder (also a single charge) next to Frankfurt moves to the bananas tile to put a pasture there next turn.

I delay Military Training by a turn (start researching Defensive Tactics) to give time for the new city to settle (see the discussion above). Military Training will give me a free envoy, which I'll use to get 3 envoys in Stockholm. That will give +2 science in all my campuses (of which I have none). The earliest I will benefit from that would be when my capital finishes its campus. My great scientist will be out in 5 turns, so the combination of the free library (with +1 science), the campus (+1 science) and the city-state bonus (+2 science) should help me cover the gap between me (15.7/turn) and the leader, Sullla (22.7/turn). I'll finish Military Training once I get the great scientist so that I can get out of the GS policy card for free (along with the settler card). The most logical policies to adopt would be the builder policy (always useful) and either the +2 gold/trade route (I only have a single one, though) or a military production policy card to help with some military buildup.

Finally, an overall view of my cities and units:

[Ituralde]

Just a question out of curiosity:
Do you play exclusively in Tactical View or do you just use it to make the screenshots?

[teh]

My desktop is powerful enough to play in normal view, but my laptop has only an integrated graphics unit, so the game works much better in tactical view. I usually play my turns when I'm outside, so most of the screenshots are from my laptop. I actually prefer the tactical view for some of its aspects (like seeing immediately what a district under construction is with the unique icons- you have to to hover your mouse over the district to get its name in normal mode).

[teh]

Quick update: Just as I was speculating, Sullla declared war on Archduke (his northern neighbor). Archduke's military score is the lowest among the players, though he has a good amount of reserve gold (220) so if he has slingers, he can definitely upgrade them to archers (if not done already). As far as I can tell, Sullla left Aquileia scarcely defended (I can only see a warrior - though there might be more units in the fog), but the city wall there makes attacking really hard unless I can bring siege units (not yet researched) or a battering ram.

[shinghand]

Quick update: Just as I was speculating, Sullla declared war on Archduke (his northern neighbor). Archduke's military score is the lowest among the players, though he has a good amount of reserve gold (220) so if he has slingers, he can definitely upgrade them to archers (if not done already). As far as I can tell, Sullla left Aquileia scarcely defended (I can only see a warrior - though there might be more units in the fog), but the city wall there makes attacking really hard unless I can bring siege units (not yet researched) or a battering ram.

Any thoughts on the war, how it will shape the game going forward? Do you think Sullla will be victorious, how will this affect your chances at the game, etc.

[Singaboy]

As shinghand asked, will you change your approach to the immediate future with this new situation?

[teh]

It might make sense to declare war on Sullla now, not with the aim of conquering per se, but with the goal of tying some of his troops near my border so that he can't just steamroll Archduke.

Like I said, given the current levels of military score, Sullla has a clear advantage of Archduke, so he might steamroll him.


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EDIT:

I'll also try to post my updates 1-2 turns at a time, as it seems the game got even more exciting and it would be better for the readers to be able to follow my reactions to the war quicker than before.