uSuthu!: A Chevalier Story

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Lots of good terrain in here. So many rich tiles available, it's hard to actually pin cities because I have a surfeit of options! Bromhead is the minimum distance from the capital, but maybe I should move it across the river to open up terrain around these lakes?

I also dont' know what's best re: chopping anymore. Since the Magnus/Overflow nerf, I've used it much more sparingly (compared to when lining up chops WAS the metagame, basically), but waiting for Machinery and then, what, Colonialism? Mass Production? to enable lumber mills on everything seems suboptimal, too. 

This map definitely won't let me just play the autopilot meta, I have to actually think about things. Ugh. How annoying.

Right now, working on AH to reveal nearby horses and keep Archery ready in case I need to defend against potatos quick. Then probably Pottery -> Irrigation for my luxuries, then Writing/BW for a district depending on inspirations.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 14

I push a bit further, unexpectedly revealing coast:




There's tons of food but very little production south of Chard. I could have two high-growth cities, though, and I can probably find some way to make them contributors. Need them to fill in this area anyway - I believe Civ VI is very much about ICS, especially these days with Magnus Provision and Ancestral Hall pairing with settler-boosting policy cards. The main limiting factor is the point when settlers become more expensive than the city they found will repay in production, factoring in the extra science/culture/faith/gold the city will produce, as well as valuable district slots. So I'll settle here, eventually, but I think your first settlers should go to nearby, quick-to-start sites. 

Anyway, the coast is interesting. I could be on a very large island after all - that would explain the total lack of city-states or other players nearby. I expected one of my neighbors to show up by now. It's possible they've glimpsed Zulu borders and decided not to pay us a visit, but they'd have to come from southwest and with the shape of the coast that's a low priority for exploration. My home defense slinger might probe that way a bit. 

Scorewise, I'm last to grow to size 3, which will happen next turn, even though I grew to 2 before Archduke and Thrawn. They both must not have opted to work the high production tile at size 2, like I did. If I'm right, then I should beat both of them to my second city. Ioan and ljub have been bigger for a while now. As a result, I am dead last in science  and culture, but no worries - metrics like that don't mean much at this point of the game. There's just not enough time for anyone in the pack to separate themselves. All reading the score oracle bones does at this point in time is just clue you in to people's gameplans a bit: ie ljub finished a tech this turn -> last to finish a tech despite having highest pop -> expensive tech -> Is Russia -> Astrology. That kind of thing.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Quick turnaround.




Along with everyone else (save Russia, so far) we finish Code of Laws. Russia should finish on his turn or the next one since he moved turn 1. I take Urban Planning and Discipline, naturally. 

I scoot my warriors along, with the only real decision being whether to cross the river to head south along the coast, or stay on the north. I can cover more ground to the north, so I do that. Like I said last post, the south will probably be defogged by a slinger in the west - the east I'll try and get my warrior around over here.

the northern move is the right choice, though. We meet city state #2:




A culture state is the best possible news. Now I just need a militaristic state and I'll be in business. 

I have lots of thoughts on intermediate plans to write about tonight and tomorrow, but I can give you a preview:

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Two turns today. Everyone is really rapid with theirs. ljub and thrawn don't surprise me, given how frequently they post, but Ioan being so engaged is a pleasant surprise. 

Unpleasant surprise:




I start turn 16 with a Persian warrior in the WORST possible spot he could have appeared. Short of appearing next to my capital, that is. Not only is he near my planned city #2, he's actually between the site and my warrior - which makes it impossible for me to get back to escort the settler. This is disastrous. 

I quickly plot out some scenarios:




Lots of pins, so let me explain.

The warrior is 4 turns from Bromhead. My settler will emerge on turn 18 (my math was off, apparently. Instead of being 2 cogs short of finishing on 18, it'll come out on that turn. Neat!). By the end of 8, I can be 2 NE of Chard. On turn 19 I can step onto the hill, and on turn 20 I can step onto the city site. On turn 21 I can found. That's...not good enough. If Archduke swings south of hte lake buts keep pushing to the west, he'll step onto the forested hill SE of Bromhead on turn 20 - he can then declare war and take the settler on turn 21 before I have the chance to found on my turn. (Turn order rears its ugly head for the first time in a while!). On the other hand, even worse is if he swings through the open ground NORTH of the lake, when he can reach the city site itself by turn 20. 

I can't get my warrior there in time to block this, either - I didn't expect a player to appear BETWEEN me and the settler. I would have had to predict the future and swing back early to prevent this.

Okay, options? 

First, the settler isn't out yet. I don't need to commit to Bromhead, so I can wait to see what the Archduke does. Accordingly, I need to maintain contact iwth him, so I can monitor where he goes. If he goes west, we're in trouble. If he goes south or east, we're okay. So, I placed my warrior alongside him so I can keep an eye on things.

Second, Archduke could muck about by declaring war and getting +2 movement. That is a serious threat to my unguarded civilian units that will be noodling around soon. So, I need to take that option away from him, or I need to know in advance that's what he intends and prepare for it.

This is more or less exactly what a DoF is for. I send one to Archduke. If he accepts, wonderful. The worst he can do is interfere with settling by occupying the site. If he declines and doesn't declare war, I can declare war myself to prevent the Surprise War movement buff and take it into my plans. If he declares war, then I can plan around it and send the settler to an alternate site. So that's what we'll do.

Situation at the end of turn - I pinned an alternate Bromhead site, although it mucks up all my dotmapping to the north. Then again, I've hardly dotmapped that direction at all, there's so many good sites to settle. Almost can't go wrong.




Turn 17:

I...took only one, bad picture. Oops.




The picture needs explanation before I can explain it.

First, we hit the best-case scenario: Not only did Archduke accept, but he moved southEAST instead of west at all. That effectively removes any chance of mucking with Bromhead. Fantastic news! On turn 46, he could declare a surprise war, which is right in line for an Immortal attack, so I'll need to be on my guard for that. We'll probably prioritize military over economy at first. We need to inspire Mercenaries, Campuses aren't really key to my victory, and with Nubia and Rome also lurking out there we need to be prepared. 

Anyway, with that, I'm safe to reveal new ground with the warrior, so I backtrack him along Archduke's path. The Duke hasn't met any religious, science, gold, or culture states per the banner, but he's possibly got a militaristic or industrial state his direction. And, if I find his capital, I can guess where it'll be - on a tiny island off the coast. So that's guaranteed PP. As I do so, I reveal a Natural Wonder - a freshwater lake that boosts district construction adjacent to it. Really nice for Russia, so-so for me. If I stack it with Veterancy and my super-Encampment, though, we could get a hilariously cheap Ikanda, though. That'd be funny and definitely something we'll do later down the line. Or put my Government Plaza next to it to enable building the metroplex easier? Who knows?

Finally, regarding medium-term strategy:

First, Archduke will NOT be the direction I attack. He knows what he's doing, he's better than me at tactical maneuverings in war, and he's the type of player who, if left to marinate, will gradually lose focus. I can outbuild him, but I'm not sure I can outfight him. So we're going the other way, into one of the newbies.

On that side, I have either thrawn, Ioan, or ljubljana. I'd prefer Ioan first, since in my estimation based entirely on thread activity he's the softest target. Then ljubljana's Russia, and finally Nubia. thrawn is about as active as ljub, but he has a decent military in the Ancient era and a boost to building ranged units, which will be annoying. Still better than tackling Persia in an open war, though. 

Second, Kumasi is meat. It's a short walk from the capital. I intend to settle in that direction steadily, getting up to 4 or 5 cities. Not going to bother with the Ancestral Hall, though. In a bold move, I'm going to skip it, not delaying settlers to build it, and instead get out a Warlord's Throne when I can. Every city captured will goose production in my remaining cities, as well as hopefully giving me a brand new corps at Mercenaries. To get that started, though, I need a punching bag to jumpstart the process - that's where Kumasi comes in. We can throw together an army quickly, cross the intervening land, and be on Kumasi quick. In fact, I can get it before Mercenaries and the Warlord's Throne, in which case I'll use some other city (Armagh as al ast resort, but I need Corps to take that city. Tough nut to crack otherwise). 

From Kumasi, we play by ear. If there are other city-states nearby, eat those, then finally go for a player. Or just go straight for a player. We'll see. Again, detailed long-term planning is goofy when you have so many unknowns. The benefit of taking city-states first is that you get it free of loyalty concerns or occupation penalties, but if any player takes it off you, they DO have those problems (I have ways around that, though - liberate, then declare and kill. I think they spawn without units, so you should be able to do it. Have to take the city twice, but it makes it your own). 

Accordingly, I am sending warrior #2 to Kumasi to feel out the lay of the land, so we can start detailed planning for our invasion. Ideally, I'd secure a renewed DoF with ARchduke and Neighbor #2 around turn 46, hopefully with them intimidated by my bigass military, then when we're clear I go for Kumasi and start my snowball.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 18

To quote Woden, "Open the turn with..."




This does a couple of things for me. It'll reveal horse sources on the map. If there's not one at Chard or Bromhead, then I need to seriously consider either relocating Bromhead or sending a quick third settler. Horses are the main counter to Nubian pitatis, so I want them available and accumulating as soon as I can. Second, it opens up Archery, another important anti-rush tech. With no immediate need of Pottery -> Irrigation, and Bronze Working still uneureka'd, I'll buff Archery up to the boost, then leave it for my slinger to complete. 

Let's take a look - where are our horses? Oh, neat:




Looks like I'll need 2 builders out of Chard in the near future. Horses -> Copper -> Wheat with my first one, inspiring HBR, the Wheel, Irrigation, and Craftsmanship. Second one plantations the sugar and quarries the stone, nabbing the Masonry eureka. Then it'll probably a deer camp, for reasons to be explained later. 

I scooch my warriors along, and in the north I spot Archduke's loyalty pressure:




If my hypothesis is correct, there'll be a militaristic or industrial state nearby. Probably due north of him, or northeast to counter my northwest city-state. We'll head up there and sniff around, also get eyes on his capital - this will clue me into Immortal builds, and is a valuable source of information. The Persian warrior is swinging southeast. Archduke had better take one more step south with his warrior to unveil Kumasi's no-settle zone - if he continues on his current path due east he'll just miss it, which he'll be infuriated about later. My other warrior approaches Kumasi and unveils a new continent, Australia. No one else has found this continent, which is...interesting. 


Finally, it's time to choose our pantheon. If you look at the maps above, I have two options, basically:

Goddess of the Hunt, or Goddess of Festivals.

GoF was my original intention. There are 9 plantations available in the area I've revealed, meaning that long-term it'll equal 9 culture once I get all those settled and developed. That's a very significant amount, 4 monument's worth! 

GoH, though...I have 4 deer unveiled, as well as 1 elephants. And that's without even scouting much to the north! Every single camp is +1 food and +1 production. Even if we didn't unveil any more after this, what's more valuable to me? 5f/5p or 9c? 

On the one hand, I need culture to reach Mercenaries ASAP. That is my major power spike, and the sooner I hit it, the longer it lasts. If I reach Nationalism before anyone else does, it's basically game over as I field armies against regular units. Culture speeds me there, and plantations give gold to help support my expensive military.

on the other hand, food and production are valuable always. They help early cities in particular snowball - their impact is felt much, much sooner than the plantation culture. Furthermore, it's a lot easier to build 5 camps for 10 yield instead of building 9 plantations for 9 yield. Much more efficient, and it gives me individual insane tiles instead of lots of decent tiles. I think that's stronger - the more tiles you have, the more pop you need to work 'em, but just one citizen will cover each camp. So on the whole, Goddess of the Hunt is much more efficient and has a stronger early impact, while possibly a weaker late impact once I get to the point where I'd have all 9 plantations in reach.

Speed up the snowball. I can get those camps online much more quickly than all of the plantations. Each camp is also much more impactful than any single plantation would be. Culture is good, but food and production ALSO create culture, and other things besides. So I make my choice:




Now, for example, the deer at Bromhead will go to 2/4/2 with a camp - meaning it's food neutral and gives production and gold in the exchange. The deer at Hitch will go to 2/5/2! With a 4/1 banana tile to work to grow quickly, as well. The second ring deer will be 3/3/2, etc, etc. Those are going to be VERY good cities, and accordingly my early settlement directions will be that way, building a daisy chain towards Kumasi, which I want to attack around turn 50. 

Scorewise, Ioan finished tech #2 and civic #2 - foreign trade is an easy inspiration, or he rushed through Craftsmanship to unlock Agoge. A common problem that Rome runs into is that it outruns its own ability to create inspirations, limiting its culture advantage somewhat. 

If anyone's interested, my scoresheet, with graphs, and kept without gaps this time, may be found here. Tech rates apart from Archduke are projections only, with no allowances for terrain, so they are minima rather than accurate guesses.

[Woden]

Turn 18

To quote Woden, "Open the turn with..."

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Kaiser's pullin' some shenanigans here. 

Thoughts on the map soon.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

That's the good news. PP inspired, GPT up above Archduke's 8, and I'd bet there are more CSes in the fog nearby.

bad news:




Literally one turn too early, and in the perfect place to interdict Bromhead. I move NW across the river instead. If the scout moves away, I'll found Bromhead as planned with one turn's delay. If he doesn't, I'll found on the 2/2 hill instead. Better a decent city up quickly than a perfect city up late. 

Russia has a settler out, while Ioan and thrawn are both growing large - builder first, I expect. 

I'll follow up the builder in Chard with a slinger, while Bromhead will also get out a slinger first. That'll provide a little bit of home defense while my northern warrior scouts Archduke, meets his CS, and heads home.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Two turns today, which happens often, although that should be the last since I think the Europeans are going to bed soon. 




The scout proves to be only a minor irritation, as he moves away from Bromhead. I accept the 1-turn delay in founding the city and step onto the site. Basically, I'm paying 3f/1h/.5s/.3c to get a better long term city - essentially a rounding error in yields. We'll found and start on a slinger, due in [some amount of turns I haven't bothered to calculate]. Chard grows back to size 3, getting 10 production per turn. It'll finish the builder on turn 24 with 5 overflow and then finish the slinger on turn 27 with zero overflow, if my calculations are correct.

In the northeast, I probe deeper for the Persian capital, which I should get eyes on in 2 or 3 turns. 



Then we'll loop north, find the CS, and then head for that barb camp that the scout came from. One slinger in Bromhead will fend off barbs from the north, since I won't have tile improvements. THe slinger at Chard will probe south, since I've sent nothing that direction, until I can get a third warrior out, which will also scout south. That should keep me more or less secure, though I'll want a third slinger for the Machinery bonus (nbd, though, archers are cheap). Beyond that, I shall need two builders, one for each city, and then we probably want to think about districts - a Campus and Encampment - then settling towards the center. 

I made a loose dotmap, a bit ambitious based on where I think the border between Archduke and myself will shake out:




I expect the second or third Persian city to found near where my warrior is standing. The Natural Wonder is probably a bridge too far, since I'd be settling there with city #4 or 5. I'd rather take the southern points near Kumasi, which I think I can get if I'm aggressive enough. All long-term, though. Play it by ear, play it by ear, that's the name of the game.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

played the turn but didn't realize Fraps was disabled.

Quick hits:
a)No eyes on Persepolis yet
2)founded Bromhead. Russia founded last turn.
d)Archduke jumped 18 points in domination- slinger and healing? Warrior + damage?
vi)no movement in scores from thrawn or Ioan for a while.