Woden's Wondrous World of China

[Woden]

Turn 70

Quick report, not much time this morning.

I start by settling my Petra city...




This gives me the eureka for Sailing. I will have to check but that might be a single turn tech now. My builders are all moving closer and will be ready to build Petra when it is available. I start a monument so it will grab tiles quicker. I won't be able to buy any for a while as I am saving up fro upgrades.

I chop the archer in JC and overflow into another builder that will be done next turn. Next I will mine and start another archer to overflow into the encampment with a chop and then rinse and repeat. Archers should only be 2 turn builds when I get a few mines down, so it should go pretty quickly. The archer also was my third and eureka'd Machinery. Now I just need the iron mine (in 3-4 turns) and build some walls (6-9 turns) and my path to Machinery is all euerka'd.

I move my eastern warrior north and see...




I find another opening to the east and it looks like the north is blocked by mountains. That would be good if I could get a city in here and a city on the other side of the northern mountains. Then I would have 3 choke points that would need defending with limited units.

I checked the scores and nobody's changed this turn. So "No gnews is good gnews with Gary Gnu!" Now, who's old enough to remember that!

[Woden]

Turn 70 Strategic Review

Here is the remaining strategic review I start writing last night...

For review, I have built 4 wonders and have +1 charge to builder, +15% to food in cities, +2 GPP for each district, and a religion. For my religion, I chose Divine Inspiration for +4 faith to wonders and Scripture for +25% religious pressure. I chose the add faith to wonders for more faith once my religion spreads and Theocracy unit buying and I chose Scripture to quickly spread my religion among my cities to gain the faith to wonders and protect against Russia. I won’t have a holy site and shrine up and running anytime soon (~20 turns) and I need religion in multiple cities.  Additional, Russia will have his religion soon and already has Larvas up and is probably building shrines. If he were smart, he would spam my capital with missionaries while we still have friendship and killing my religion. Hopefully, I can get a spread or two before he could do this, making it much harder but it might be still be possible. I will have to keep an eye out for this. I now have 1 religious population in each city. I need 50% of the population to follow, so it will be a few turns before I can get another city to follow. Once I have a holy site, shrine, and temple, I will build the Mahabodhi Temple to get the remaining beliefs (Tithe and Meeting Halls) or I will use 1 apostle to start an inquisition, depending on the religious pressure from Russia. 
 
Here are my lands on turn 69. I have since founded my 5th city…
 



I am finally starting to explore east with a few units. Hopefully I can find oledavy and get some good information and him. 

Now that I have built the first 4 wonders and will have Petra in 5-7 turns, I am shifting gear to development. I want to continue expanding to fill in my lands but I don’t want to be vulnerable to attack, especially since my friendship ends with Russia in 10 turns and Pericles in 20. So, the focus on the next 10 turns will be to shore up my defenses while improving my existing cities and then I will push expansion afterwards.

Defense-wise:
I want 3 archers and 2 warriors at JC and SM and a few units for reserve at SM. I will put the archers around the city, keep a warrior in the city and have the second warrior behind the city. I want the warriors in the city center in case siege units show up. My archers will kill the guard unit and then the warrior will attack and get rid of the siege unit. The backup warrior will then be there to take the city center in case the initial warrior dies. I will put up walls before the friendships end and as soon as I have the Limes card (5 turns). I will chop the walls and overflow into a district for bonus cogs. I currently have 1 warrior and 1 archer at JC and will put out a few more units as I chop the districts out. SM has 2 slingers and will get a warrior out soon. I will probably shift my promoted archer up at Aladdin down here and have another warrior protecting the settler for city #5. My northern warrior will come down soon to hang around MS. I should also be able to chop walls at MS in the next 10 turns and finish the entertainment district.
Now, I just need gold for upgrades. I am going to buy the iron at SM in the next few turns and after that I am going to hold my gold for upgrades. The CD at MS will be done soon and I will build a trade route right after to get one going from Pirates to Zanzibar. All that should add +10-12 gold per turn. I will chop out the CD at JC and try and get another trade route going. I will want to send a trader to Toronto to make it harder for Russia to get Suzerain and bring them into the war. I can also shore up my Suzerain-ship at Vilnius with a trade route. Hopefully my trade route from SM ends soon and I can get another to Zanzibar. In about 10 turns, I should add ~+20 gold per turn, hopefully.

City-wise:
Main Street: The CD will be done in 4 turns. I will then have it build a trader and then a builder. I need a few more improvements in a few cities. Hopefully by ten I will be close to Feudalism. In fact, I might switch the settler’s card out for the builder’s card and have most cities work on builders until Feudalism finishes for some 7-chareg builders. After the builder, I will work on the entertainment district and an industrial zone.  This city is done with settlers and I need it to grow vertical. I probably will need to fit a grainery in there somewhere for additional housing. The current builder will mine the plains hill and add 2 farms.

Jungle Cruise: This city is focused on districts and units right now. I will chop into a few more archers to finish the encampment and CD. I should have 3 or 4 mines, making this city much more productive. It will need a grainery so it can reach pop. 7. I may also chop some jungle to speed growth up. Never enough builders. Once I have a few districts done, I will be spamming Horseman for a more mobile force that will be positioned between JC and Zanzibar.

Space Mountain: I will chop out the warrior into the Campus in a few turns and then buy the iron for upgrades and eureka for Iron Working. Then I will add the 6th farm and then maybe chop some walls (?). I am not sure how long it will take the Campus to complete, hopefully within the next 10 turns. I might forgo chopping the walls and chop another archer into the Campus and finish it soon. Yes, that is what I will do. I have a little time before my friendship ends with Pericles.

Pirates of the Caribbean: This city will finish its watermill and start a grainery. The next builder out of MS will come over and do a little chopping and mining to get it going. Once I can improve its production, I will have this one kick out a few settlers to fill in my back lines. I do need a Harbor for the wonders sooner than later but that is out at least 10-20 turns.

The Magic Carpets of Aladdin: This city was just founded and started a monument. Once Math is done I will bang out Petra in 1 turn and it should increase its production and growth. I will have this city also kick out some settlers, as soon as possible, to fill in back lines and push east.  

Exciting times are coming. I hope Russia is not stupid enough to try and attack me. I could see him waiting until my friendship with Pericles ends, hoping for him to jump in too. Especially if he and oledavy make peace. Luckily that would give me more time for more units. If Russia doesn’t attack, I will attack him after I have Machinery and some Crouching Tigers. I should have a decent army by then. The only probably will be having Pericles then attack me after I declare. I need to work out that scenario soon too.

[Woden]

Turn 71

Explorers explore and assessing the likelihood of Russia attacking.

My eastern warriors push east and find...




A barb camp. Awesome, this guy is worth a swordsman upgrade. I will converge with both warriors in the area and hopefully one/both will gain a promotion.

In the north... 




Warrior defogs this little spit of land. Now I just need to defog the other one and I should have information on all of my back lines. Maybe there is a barb camp up there for another swordsman. 

I build a mine and start an archer at JC (out in 3). I move my new builder in position to chop in 2 turns. I witch to put a turn into the campus at SM while the builder moves into position to chop the warrior. 

I figured I would look to see who has envoys into my city-states. Surprised to find...




Germany has 1 envoy in Toronto and Russia has none. This is great!. I can send my third trader there to become Suzerain and Russia will have a hard time taking it from me. For the others: Vilnius has 1 each from Germany and Russia; Zanzibar has 2 from Russia. This could be his target if he wants war. Good thing I will have 2 envoys shortly. Nam Madol has 1 for both me and Russia. I can get an envoy in Toronto and Vilnius by sending a trade route. Zanzibar will give me one for a Great Scientist (might be do-able since oledavy and Germany have campus but not generating GPP). Come to think of it, I can easily be Suzerain for 3 CS bordering Russia. Maybe I should declare war sooner and bring all of them into it. Maybe.

Russia does have the gold edge...




He has 443 in the bank and earning 20 per turn. I make 13 per turn and have 151 but need 130 to buy iron. He has iron hooked up and probably has Iron Working now or will soon. I will have iron at SM and am getting it from Vilnius right now. I wonder if he thinks I don't have iron other than Vilnius. He might be planning on attacking Vilnius at the beginning, hoping to deny me iron if he captures it. Too bad I have a source that will be hooked up at SM in 3-4 turns and another at Aladdin that I could hook up if I need too. I wonder if his scout made it up by SM. I don't think so since it was following the southern coast.  I think he has 3 or 4 warriors and enough gold to upgrade them all and buy another (or he might buy a ram). He will need more than that to attack me.  I will need to see how fast his power goes up in the next 10 turns. My power is starting to increase because of the units I am building. My power is 191 now and his is still 134. He has been around 134 for a while and probably focusing on infrastructure lately. Maybe he is not planning an attack and I am just paranoid. Even if that is the case, I still need to improve my defenses. Only time will tell...

[rho21]

You have a duplicate picture in your last post.

Continuing to really enjoy the reporting, keep it up.

[Woden]

You have a duplicate picture in your last post.

Continuing to really enjoy the reporting, keep it up.

Thanks for letting me know, I missed it on my read through. Should be fixed now.

Edit: forgot to mention, thanks for the compliment. I am glad you are enjoying my ramblings.

[Woden]

Turn 72

High Risk, High Reward...

Long turn around today, TheArchduke held the game for a little over 21 hours. I don't have a problem needing time to think about your moves or ask your helper for advice, especially during a war but come on. At least have the decency to post something when you decide you can't play when you have normally played during the last 30 days. But I'm not mad...I actually want to thank you for holding it that long. TheArchduke, if/when you read this, THANK YOU!

It got me thinking and looking at my next moves and I have come to a decision, but I will get to that later...

First, my turn. I started by chopping into the campus at SM...




1 cog left on the warrior for full benefit chop into the campus! Awesome! 54 base chop for 80 cogs into the campus. Dropped it down from 16 turns to a reported 9. I will double check next turn. I wait 1 more turn at JC to chop the archer into the encampment. 

Builder at MS mined the plains hill and I assign the new population to work it. Commercial District due next turn then I will start a trader (4 turns). Move my other builders closer to Petra city. Settler moves closer to city location (new city in 3 turns). Eastern warrior attacked barb scout and other warrior moves closer to camp. I switch off of Mathematics to Iron Working and will mine the iron in 2.  That was pretty much it for the turn. 

So what I was thinking. It all started by looking at how long it will take me to get to Machinery and Mercenaries, my 2 immediate goals. For Machinery...




it takes 120 science for Iron Working, 200 science for Engineering, and 300 for Machinery for a total of 620. I already have the eureka for Machinery and will easily get the other 2 in soon. I reality, it will cost me 40% or 248 beakers to get all 3. I am currently making 19, will get 1 more when I mine the iron in 3 turns, Aladdin will grow in 5 and my new city will be settled in 3. That should bring me to 22.4. Then my campus will be done in 6 turns (?) for another +3. I should be able to get all 3 done in 12 turns or at the start of T84. Then I can build Crouching Tigers and if the game is not broke (haven't tested it) will give my city walls an attack of 50. If I play things right, I can chop one out and have it ready T86. Unfortunately, I can not upgrade to them because crossbows are still available to me.  

My civic goal is to reach Mercenaries as soon as possible for Professional Army, for cheap upgrades...




I have 3 turns left on Defensive Tactics and the Limes card. 1 turn to finish Military Training once my encampment is complete. 3 turns into Theology in case I nee the envoy or a quick card switch, 7 turns into Feudalism, and 7 turns into Mercenaries. This gives us 18-20 turns but will be sped up by the new city and monument at Aladdin. a little longer than I would like but what can I do. 

This was as far as my thought process got before playing the turn. I don't know if Russia is planning an attack but I want to be ready just in case.  He is building walls in his front line cities...




You can see the start of walls in Desertgrad and Astrakhan  but not Rostov-on-Don and I would assume St. Pete's. He might just be thinking that I am going to attack when our friendship ends. Or, he could be planning an attack...

Now for my high risk, high reward. Magic Carpets of Aladdin is an OK Petra city. You know where a better one is....Desertgrad! I think Petra might (big might) be safe. Oledavy's and TheArchduke's armies must have meet on the battlefield and that is why he took so long and posted he was overthinking his turn. It also looks like he is going to hold the turn again tonight or at least he is taking his time to think about moves. He has been up for at least an hour now and I am pretty sure he is thinking his moves over and over again. If the war is as heated as I think it is, Oledavy can not afford to build Petra anytime soon. Of coarse I could be making a big mistake and oledavy is crushing Pericles, IDK, and that is why he needs time. But the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward. Now for my decision, since I am preparing for war, why do it half-assed, why not just go to war and run over Russia. I have the production edge (I am pretty sure he doesn't have Apprenticeship), I have the tech edge, and I have the civic edge. Next turn I am going to start sending my 1-charge builder south again to improve my cities. The 2 up by Aladdin will go to city #5 site and get that city going. The others will go to Pirates and MS to get a few more production tiles going and chop walls (at MS). 

I still hope Russia attacks me at JC. In fact I am going to hide units behind it to entice him to attack. If he attack JC, it will be slow and gives me time to finish a few things up. I expect him to try and Suzerain Toronto and attack Vilnius to get rid of my 2nd iron. Attacking Vilnius will be a mistake, look at all those units in the above screenshot (8 warriors and 3 archers). If only I had 500 gold to take control of their army. He does! He could look to Suzerain them and use them to attack me, IDK. Toronto would be the better choice, it gives him direct access to my capital and if he was smart, that would be his first target, easier access. I will have walls in both.

Now, I expect about 5 to 7 swords to come calling. He has 4 or 5 warriors now and should be able to get a few more warriors out before T80. He has the gold to upgrade and probably enough to buy a ram too. I think he will leave most of his archers (I think he has 3) behind to guard his cities. The reason I hope he attacks is that if I can get rid of most of his army, does he have enough production to build another? IDK! But I do know that I am going to start building horseman after the encampment is done at JC and I am going to build a ram at Pirates soon and I know I am going to try and get 3 or 4 horseman and flank 1 of his cities. Either Desertgrad or Astrakhan, depending on where he attacks. Maybe I will even push directly to his capital, hopefully he didn't think to put walls there. After my current districts are done, I am going full on military build up! I think I should be able to clean him up sometime between T100-T110, depending on how aggressive he is. If he doesn't attack, I will attack around T85. Once I control Desertgrad, I will throw down Petra as see if I can win this thing.

Well, there you go. This should bring excitement for the lurkers...And yep, TheArchduke just posted he needs time to think about his turn, no new turn tonight but it confirms that their war is hot and Petra should be safe for the time being. I hope! Of coarse, Germany could be sneaking it in too. I just think 4 more cities and basically this side of the mountain range all to myself is worth losing it. It would suck but I will deal with it.

[Woden]

Quick update. My phone dinged shortly after going to bed and I found it was my turn to play, which means TheArchduke was able to play last night. (his morning). So, I got up and played. When I opened the save, I went to check to see if any city was exchanged and come to find that they are now at peace. WELL THAT SUCKS! Now they are free to develop and potentially dog pile if I start something with Russia or he attacks. Well back to Plan A with Petra. Not because I fear losing it but because I will need a decent back line city to make sure I don't fall behind developmentally. I guess it is good it happened now instead of when all my builders were moved towards there future destination. I am still ramping up for war but I also have to make sure I keep up with development. I am still thinking about my next moves and will share some thoughts when I write up this turn this evening, after work but wanted to give a heads up.

[Woden]

Turn 73

Like I said I played this turn last night....

I open the save and check if anybody captured a city and ....




Pericles and oledavy are not longer at war. I was really disappointed by this turn of events. Why couldn't they keep fight for at least another 10 turns? I think by then I would have been in a position where my development would be good enough that I could afford to focus on an all out war effort. Now, I am facing the possibility of Pericles declaring war on me at T90 and oledavy once he finds me. They already have armies and nothing to do with them. Now they are going to focus on developing and if I go all out war mode, I will fall behind. So, now I will half-ass my military effort while expanding and trying to keep up with oledavy. I will have the southern cheek focus on military build up and the northern cheek on expansion and development. This means JC will go all out unit spam once I finish the encampment, walls , and commercial hub (will chop near complete walls with limes and should only take 3-4 turns to finish). MS and SM will primarily focus on military and may fit a builder or something else in. Pirates, Aladdin plus my city #5 will go all out expansion mode once they can. This means I will put Petra in Aladdin, it should help get the city going quickly and should provide some nice gold. At least oledavy will not be getting massive culture from kills.

Anyways, I only took a few screenshots this turn (it was 1 am and I was nearly/was asleep when my phone dinged). I bought the iron this turn and will move the builder next turn and mine it in 2. I will only put another turn into Iron Working because I think I will only need like 4 more beakers after I get the eureka. I will switch to Engineering next turn until the iron is mined. Otherwise, I moved the eastern warriors closer to the camp and moved the builders closer to Petra location. I chopped the archer in JC and overflowed into the encampment. I finish the CH and start a trader, out in 2. Must of had some overflow.

In other international news...




Oledavy and I are about neck and neck if you take away my wonders. Russia is 3rd but he has a lot of Larvas and I think I am much deeper in the trees than him. Germany is way behind in culture right now. I should really pull ahead in a couple of turns as my other districts finish, I get my 6th city, and I start to finish my 1 turn techs and civics.

I have played another turn already and should get another one in later tonight. I will post those a little later after the kids go to bed and I have time to write them up.

[Woden]

Turn 74

Lots of changes and planning....

First I move my northern warrior to check out the last spit of land to my north and...




Awesome, another 50 gold but damn, I hope that scout doesn't pick off one of my builders and I have to chasing him down. I start by moving the archer guarding the trail of builders up towards the scout and I start moving the archer I had in Petra city a few turns ago that was heading east back west. Both eastern warriors are ready to attack the spearman next turn. Probably take a couple of turns to take the camp. Then I will shift 1 warrior back to city #5 and move that warrior south to SM. Settler arrives at city #5 location. I think I will call this city "Splash Mountain" or SM2.

I switch to an archer at JC for one last unit. I will chop a jungle tile into it and overflow into the encampment which should only have 1 or 2 turns left. I will also start an archer at MS to get 1 last unit out before I leave Agoge for good. Because of this I switch civics to Theology to put 2 turns there and then will finish Defensive Tactics and switch cards to Limes to get walls up. MS should be able to 2 turn walls without a chop and JC should be able to 3 turn them. I will chop a forest in JC with 1 turn left on the walls and get a big chuck out of the CH. I need another trade route after the one finishing in MS next turn for the envoy in Toronto. The first trade route will go to Zanzibar for more gold for upgrades. One thing I haven't decided yet is, do I upgrade when IW is done or wait until Russia attacks and surprise him. I think I might wait.

Speaking of Russia...




He gets his prophet in 2 turns and his writer in 4. I hope his quest for Zanzibar is not a great writer. Once again, I think the quests have the same theme but I don't know if they are the exact same for everybody. Mine is a great scientist. Also notice that Germany has had a CH for 3 turns and I have had one for 1 turn. He has 3.4 GPP and I have 3. I should get the Merchant is 20 turns or maybe less when I get a 2nd CH out. Gotta love the Oracle. Both oledavy and Germany have not fixed their campuses, but I don't expect that to last until I get mine going and the 20 turns to get the scientist. If they wait another 10 or so turns, I might be able to faith buy it for the envoy at Zanzibar. I should be able to get the next general too unless someone runs the card.




I sure hope Russia is planning on attacking Vilnius and they can upgrade to swords. Even if they don't, that many units could slow him down and cause him e trouble. I don't like all the Toronto archers up by MS, that is why I need another trader. He might have 3 envoys and if he uses the 2 for 1 into Toronto, he could become their Suzerain with another. I will have 2 shortly plus another 2 in less than 20 turns (1 for a civic and 1 earned). I should be able to take away his Suzerainship pretty quickly. Zanizbar might be another target but I will have to wait and see.

Finally, down at JC...




this is where I hope he attacks. He is probably going to move up along the farms. It will still be slow moving and I am hiding my archers behind JC to goat him to attack. If this is where the attack comes and he declares on turn 80, it will still be 3 turns before he can get anything next to the city and hopefully by then I have Machinery. I should be able to upgrade at least 1 crossbowman by then. Hopefully he comes up through the jungle, that will rally slow him down. We will just have to wait and see.

[Woden]

Quick update...TheArchduke didn't play again in his morning slot so I didn't get the save until this morning. I wish the guy would at least post something like "I am not going play until I talk to my DL" or "Need time to think" in the organization thread so I know what to expect. Anyways, I set up teamviewer VPN and was able to play remotely. I won't have a write up until I get home today but want you to know that Gorgo has come calling, meeting my northeastern warrior with a horseman. I fortify the warrior in case he has ill will towards me. He might declare war to meet the CSs I am Suzerain or he might harass me or he might just cut south between the mountain pass, IDK. He does have an army that he is not using and I am pulling away. In my SP games, I do find if I meet a barb horseman in the wilderness, a fortified warrior healing between turns can fair pretty well and I do have defensive ground so I am not to worried if he does attack. I also upgraded a slinger at SM, he might have another horse coming down that way. I think he is probably located to the northeast of me and Germany might be east of Pericles. I now expect full on dog pile around T90.