[Spoilers] RFS-81 - Anubis? More like A-noob-is!

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Thanks! I'm glad you like it. It sometimes feels a bit lonely here with only shallow_thought responding. I can see the view count going up of course, but seeing someone actually say hi is more motivating, even if they can't make any in-depth comments.

Hello! I read every report!

[RFS-81]

Turn 39:

Barbs are showing up at Barrayar, and I send my warrior after them...



Turn 40:

Turns out their warrior brought friends!



I move my warrior back towards the city to wait for reinforcements. They're already on the way, actually: Beta Colony just finished a slinger, and my northern warrior is done recovering and heading West. Note also the area I'm discovering south of Beta Colony. If I placed a city on the southern side of the river, I could still place another city directly on the copper tile. Building Petra in that city would be a challenge though. Not much to chop, and the river is far away...if I placed my third city on the jungle tile, it could swap the floodplains to the desert city, though...

Beta Colony's next unit is a warrior which I want to explore eastwards.

Turn 41:

A barb hits my retreating warrior. I move him back into the city and attack with my slinger. There are no other barbs in range to attack him, so that's safe.



Barrayar finishes a builder and starts on my third slinger. That's enough to upgrade for the Machinery boost. I think I'll produce chariot archers instead of slingers/archers from now on. I've pretty much committed to slow-researching Wheel now.

I move the builder to improve the wheat and then chop a forest, instead of building a mine first. I can't let him run around Barrayar unescorted.

[shallow_thought]

Alternative to slow researching wheel is to slip in BW first and hope it reveals iron in or very near existing territory. Not sure how practical that is, or the impact of a delay in getting chariots out. Also means keeping a builder charge around or getting another one out. The other key military tech if you think suboptimal is a direct threat is masonry, but I'd think you have more time to look to get that. Eagle warrriors aren't war-carts or Mongolian super-chariots.

[RFS-81]

@shallow_thought: Masonry is actually one turn before completion. I sure hope that I don't have to build walls before Limes, though!

Turn 42:

More barb fighting going on!



I move my warrior as indicated and move the slinger back into the city. The other warrior fortifies in the forest to heal.

Turn 43:

Suboptimal has conquered Lisbon, too!



Meanwhile, at Barrayar, I hit the barb warrior with two slingers. The warrior fortifies in place to act as a punching bag. I hope the barb warrior will attack over the river into fortified defense, but he'll probably pick the slinger instead...

At Beta Colony, the warrior is one turn from completion, so I start on a Holy Site. In two turns, I'll chop out the warrior and put the overflow into the HS.



The HS actually gets an adjacency bonus of 2 for now because it's next to two forests.

Finally, a score overview:



This is not looking too good. I have one civic and one tech shortly before completion, but even with 4 points more it doesn't look good.

Looks like Japper lost a warrior, his military score made a ~20 points dip in turn 42.

[RFS-81]

Turn 44:

Beta Colony grows to size 5:



Exploring in the South leads me to another river. I'll keep following it in the hope that there's a city state there somewhere. I kept checking the Settler lens, but no luck yet.



At Barrayar, I killed the warrior with my slinger across the river. The slinger in the city moved up to attack the barb slinger, and then my warrior attacked him. Also: Scores.



Turn 45:

My first forest chop!



32 , plus 50% makes 48 , minus 2 left for the warrior makes 46 for the district. By the usual chop = district/3 heuristic, I've just knocked out a tiny bit less than half it's cost. It finishes in two turns. Barrayar finishes my third slinger, who moves out to immediately score his first kill, and starts on a settler now. My injured warrior goes back to the city to heal, and my injured slinger promote-heals with Volley.



In other news, I've researched Wheel and now go back to Animal Husbandry to unlock Archery. Those slingers are not very threatening if I can't upgrade them to archers at a moment's notice. I switch civic research to EE so that I can slot in Colonization on the next turn. I'm wondering if I should swap in Discipline again. I'd like to build settlers in both of my cities, and my little army at Barrayar could use some help.

[shallow_thought]

Hmm. Things don't feel great but I can't point out too many places where there's been an obvious mistake (bar one - these things happen)

As can be seen from the fact that I've not been tracking your tech progress carefully, let alone any of the other players, I've not been terribly useful. I'll be probably be even less use over the next week or so as I am away. I expect to have Internet access, but time may be spotty (I'm also away Jun 9-16 which I think overlapped with the time you might have been looking for a turnplayer - sorry). Once I get back I might ask you to post a save so that I can at least try to catch up.

That all said, I don't think that things are as bad as they might superficially appear. Empire scores are flat except for suboptimal's lead, and that's what you'd expect from the Aztecs. Ideally you'd get a jump from chariots helping to push you forward - having suboptimal as a neighbour is leaving pretty slim city-state pickings, but it' still worth looking out for some - you've barely seen the land directly W yet.

Hopefully you'll hit the time when Egypt starts to show advantages over the next 30t or so. Cheaper districts, a couple of key wonders, chariots to scout and maybe grab a city state - or even, if suboptimal shows signs of sloppiness, grabbing something back from him; these are all possible.

[RFS-81]

I played another turn before going to bed yesterday. Rather uneventful, so no screenshots.

Turn 46:

I completed EE and swapped in Discipline and Colonization as policies. The Holy Site is due next turn, then Beta Colony will also begin work on a settler. The barbs were leaving alone Barrayar for the moment. My new warrior proceeds eastwards and I spot some freshwater spots with the settler lens. Exploring in the South is slow with all the jungles and forests around the river, still no sign of any city state.

[RFS-81]

Turn 47:

Finished the Holy Site, settler next. I switch Beta Colony to high-production to get it out in 5 turns, and swap the two farms to Barrayar to lift it out of the housing penalty for a while.



SettlerScope™ reveals a city in the South!



Exploring in the East, I find a lake, an oasis and horses. I didn't know that lakes could have pearls. Maybe that was a tweak by EmperorK. I guess I know where my third and fourth city will go now. Still need to think about the exact spots a bit.



Finally, score overview:

[RFS-81]

Turn 48:

Turns out the other continent was hiding a few steps to the East the whole time.



In the South, if you squint at the fog, you can see a city state border. Hurray!



Turn 49:

Turns out that the three city states for the Political Philosophy boost don't have to be alive at the same time! That's a major relief. Hello, Preslav!



Preslav had the misfortune to meet Suboptimal before me and is currently at war with him. I've spotted a pillaged farm, so that's probably a hot war, not some builder farming operation. This confirms my theory that Suboptimal's plan was to take out another player's city states while letting his own grow for a while. The militaristic city state helped him pump out more Eagle Warriors while building up its own infrastructure. Goodbye, Preslav!

State Workforce finishes, and I swap in Agoge again. I'll be stuck researching PP for a while, and I might need more soldiers during that time. The DoF with Suboptimal has lapsed last turn, and he didn't offer a renewal. It would be good for me right now to renew it, since Suboptimal has over 200 military score, but I don't know if it's in my best interest to commit to 30 turns of peace.

I'm searching for the barb camps near Barrayar, but only find a scout running around. In the East, I found a spot on the cost that's one tile away from the oasis, so it could start with 3 housing and could be brought up to 5 with an aqueduct later on. I really want a coastal city for the sailing boost - I need sailing for the pearls in the lake - and for exploiting Maritime Industries overflow, but there's not a lot of forests around, and the place lacks production in general. I forgot to take screenshots of the area. Next turn!

[RFS-81]

Turn 50:

There's a barb warrior in the desert in the East. I fortify my warrior on the hill, hoping that the warrior will just mindlessly charge.



The tile North of my warrior is where I might place a coastal city. That'll not be my third or fourth, though.

Barrayar has grown and now is under the housing penalty again. I bought the plains forest tile, and the grassland stone will be added naturally in two turns. This city also doesn't need to grow much for now. It can work all production-tiles in the first and second ring.



I move the warrior from Barrayar towards Beta Colony. The settler will be finished in two turns and needs an escort. I plan to plant my third city SW of the capital, on the river at the edge of the desert.

Scores: