[Spoilers] Woden wonders if he remembers how to play Civ 6

[Woden]

Turn 27
Quick turnaround on save today, lets hope it continues so we can make up some lost days. Starting in the south...
   

Find Kumasi and I am first, so my warrior will head back now in case barbs become unmanageable. They want me to get a prophet, which won't happen any time soon. 

Back home, settle and warrior move across river and will move to planned city center next turn. 

Out east, I move my scout a few tiles and...
   

Run into one of TAD's warriors. Using settler vision, there is a city to the east of my scout, might be his, might be greenline's capital? Best bet is one of TAD's cities becuase the loyalty is off.

[Woden]

Turn 28
Settler moves to city location and will found next turn. Reworked my other city location north of Hong Kong to fit into my plan...
   

Builder will hook up iron next turn and I purchase the tile to chop for my encampment placement. I figure the northeast corner of my capitla is probably the best place to reduce movement of units during the early turns. The barb camp spawned a new scout, so this could get interesting if he moves onto the plains hill and gets activated right after I found the city. 

Out east...
   

Found one of TAD's cities. Pretty close to greenline. Good chance TAD launches an early war with him. Pin also founded his 2nd city, so I am last to 2 cities. He founded towards TAD. Not too good since if TAD plays this right, he can take out greenline quickly once he hits Iron Working and then move directly towards pin. Depedning on where is capital is located, he may be closer to pin than I am. I need to find where Yuris is located, best bet is directly south of Hong Kong. I need to think about which one I need to attack once I take Hong Kong. Yuris is probably a little closer to more of my planned cities but don't want TAD to ingest both greenline and pin. My souct is going to poke around TAD lands a bit and look for the eastern edge of teh landmass to get a good sense of how much land we are playing with. No real use of bringing him back home right now, it woudl take too long to be useful. My current warriors and the one being built now can scope out my surrounding lands as they get into position for taking out Hing Kong around T50-T60.

[Woden]

Turn 29
Cake is founded...
   

And starts working the marsh for quick growth and starts a builder. Will be size 2 in 6 turns to boost Early Empire. The current plan is go builder->immortal (2x) and then maybe settler. For Jelly, it will be warrior->builder->trader->encampment->immortal-> settler(2x) ->builder-> settler(2x) with chops in to the 1st builder (to clear the encampment tile) and clear cut into settlers with Magnus in place. Then, pretty much any new city will start an immortal. Should be good enough for quick expansion. One thing I am weighting right now is it too slow to attack. I am also considering chopping into a few immortals before settlers for quick action on Hong Kong. I am pretty sure a few players are gunning for it since they are a pretty useless industrial city state and it should be fairly easy to conquer with 4 warriors. I want 2 immortals and a few warriors to take it quickly. I need to think about if I want it quickly. If I chop out an immortal at both cities, I can probably get them marching aournd T44ish and capture the city around T52ish. That mighty work. Need to see and rough out the numbers. That would give a little time to heal before marching on either pindicator or Yuris and build a few more units.

Edit: Also got lucky with the barb scout, he moved southeast to the lake tile that is now in the fog. No immediate hoard spawn!

[Jabah]

I am curious to know why you décide to found where it is compared to NW 1t earlier. There are obviously some minor différences but 1st ring tiles seems weaker, no river to watermill the few céréales, same distance to iron, main point is being on plain hill for 2h.

[Woden]

I am curious to know why you décide to found where it is compared to NW 1t earlier. There are obviously some minor différences but 1st ring tiles seems weaker, no river to watermill the few céréales, same distance to iron, main point is being on plain hill for 2h.

Mostly so I can get an aqueduct on the tile SW of the city center for a +2 for an industrial zone one tile west. The plains hill is also nice for the added cog on the city center and I lucked out with the 3-food marsh being first ring for quick growth. 

Turn 30
Barb slinger comes next to Cake, so I hit it with the warrior...
   

Not enough to kill it but should be an easy kill if he sticks around. In the south, barb scout blocks the path for my returning warrior. The warrior is too injured to attack, so I fortify and heal. Might keep him healing for a few turn before he continues. With the warrior at Jelly finishing next turn, I should be able to protect my cities from the barbs and keep the southern warrior on defog duty in the south. Scout out east continues east to find the east coast, then will go north to poke aorund TAD's lands. Everybody but TAD and I have 3 techs, which might indicate that TAD is going for BW and IW. He doesn't have iron yet but will be tracking.

Edit: Just noticed that TAD only has 2 faith. Went back to when I meet him and he had more, which means he already has his pantheon and must have a religious CS near him or a faith providing luxury in his capital. I shoudl be 3rd then to get a pantheon unless Yuris also has an envoy in religious CS or faith generating luxury.

[Woden]

Turn 31
Open the save to a notification that I met a new city state...
   

A couple of their warriors can across my scout. They want me to build an encampment. Going to do that shortly. Akkad is not a good city state to be next to TAD. They pretty much give your melee and anti-calvary a free ram, as those units do full damage on a city. It is even better, since rams and siege towers obsolete eventually. Their bonus doesn't! All my envoys are going into this city state until I can raze it. Don't want TAD to take advantage of them. 

Back home, not much going on. Warrior completes at Jelly and start a builder. I hold my chop until next turn to preserve any overflow that the city might have (forgot to check last turn). Barb slinger retreated a tile, so my healing warrior at Cake will fully heal before engaging.

[Woden]

Turn 32
Strat by chopping into the builder (due next turn) and placing the encampment...
   

Scout keeps scouting and southern warrior is healing a bit. Now that I have a 2nd warrior around my cities, might just completely heal the soutehrn warrior and scout out the area down there. I want him health in case he finds a barb camp. 

Everybody but me has 3 techs finished but I am halfway through a classical age tech. Question becomes if TAD has completed BW or did he go another route. No iron yet but will check in the near term to see if he hooks it up. He does have a bunch of horse (as does greenline) but the others do not. TAD does have 2 furs, I wonder if I should send him 10 iron in a few turn for his spare furs? He is on the other side of the world but do I want to help him push on his neighbor quicker? Then again, if he just got BW he is behind on IW and he might have iron-wise what I have so it would be a mute point. But, I can dangle iron in front of him to get some spare happiness. Might not work if I wait too long. Need to think about this, the happiness would help, since every city beyond the capital starts unhappy until you get some luxuries hooked up and all the ones available to me so far require irrigation and it will be a while until I get that done. I will have no problem with having enough iron by the time IW completes. The new builder is going to hook up a second iron as his first action and will upgrade one of my warriors to get the 2 era points for first classical age unit right when IW completes.

[Woden]

Turn 33
Builder completes and heads to Cake's closest iron. Will buy the tile next turn. Jelly starts a trader and I set the city to high production to get it out in 3 turns instead of 4. Don't need the growth right now and an extra turn of gold and culture will benefit Cake. Warrior moves closer to the barb camp...
   

Cake is 2 turns from Size 2 to boost Early Empire but I will need to switch off of EE next turn. It should be right not finishing with the boost, so a turn into Craftsmanship and then swap back to finish EE the following turn. Won't change any policies, as I still need God King to get a pantheon. Will wait until Craftsmanship to swap anything and it will be boosted in 5 turns when the builder mines the iron. Not much going on elsewhere. 

Next turn, I will have 10 iron and will see if I can get TAD's spare furs for it. 10% to yields is really not that much but in this early game it can be the difference in finishing something in 9 turns that would take 10 turns with the penalty and this early every turn counts.  Maybe I am thinking about this wrong but by the time TAD is a threat to me, having 10 extra early iron won't make that much of a difference. I think it would help his snowball but not too much that it outweighs the benfits of having the luxury for 30 turns. And if I am wrong, this will be the point where I lost the game. Additionally, I think I can get a understanding of the level of iron around him. If he rejects my offer, he basically would have what I have, a bunch of iron aroudn his cities. If he accepts, he may be iron limited.

[Woden]

Turn 34
Start the turn by switching off of Early Empire to Craftsmanship and buying the iron tile at Cake. Cake's warrior is fully healed so I move him out...
   

Maybe could have waited a turn so my other warrior would be in position but hindsight is 20/20 and no changing it now. I think the spearman might move out of the camp to attack with the slinger but no sure. Regardless, he can't attack next turn if he does and I will have 2 attcking warriors teh following turn. 

Out east...
   

My scout finds TAD's capital. I should get a good view of it next turn as scout will climb on the hill next to the city center. TAD killed another barb camp as his gold jumps 350 with now 600+ gold in the bank. We will have to see if he spends it or if he is saving for legion upgrades. Regardless, I send him this...
   

We will see if he accepts. If he does, it should be good reading for the lurker of the responses of any players following resources. "Why would Woden send iron to TAD?" Because I want the luxury and it is not necssarily a bad thing if TAD takes out greenline or attacks pindictor. Either should distract pindictor into having to defend his eastern flank and may provide an opening for me to attack him or if I find Yuris is closer, provides a distract to pindictor to prevent an attack on me while I go and take over Yuris' lands. I think I am ahead in the swordsman race and even though TAD has upgrade gold, I should be able to start marching around the same time he can with a few strategic chops.

[Woden]

Time for a little theory crafting since we are on a short break:

Japper backed out of covering greenline’s turns while he is on his 2nd break in three weeks. No big deal but it does suck to stall the game in these early turns where you just need to move a few units around and maybe set a build order if something is done. I think we are about 15-20 turns before action and moves are made to show intentions for at least the two players (TAD and me) who I suspect are going aggressive. I figure two things are probably occurring at the same time for the lurkers to feel that a spoiled replacement can’t take over for a few days. First, I think greenline provided only vague guidance without specific turn by turn instructions. Seems to be his MO, the only reason I knew about his holidays was his post about looking for a sub in the general thread and no real communication on when he played his last turn this go around. An example of something vague would be something like I want campuses everywhere when writing completes without actually pinning them or something like I want to head towards such and such tech without laying out a direct plan. Regardless, how do you step into something like that without feeling you would influence the game with spoiled knowledge. Second, I think TAD is planning to hit greenline as soon as he gets Iron Working. This is no surprise, I have been thinking this since the beginning and seeing one of greenline’s cities right next to the influence of one of TAD’s cities, makes him the best target. Again, I can see why the lurkers feel it wouldn’t be appropriate to step in with this knowledge.

The kicker here is if greenline is completely oblivious to what TAD is planning. That, I have no clue on. The other 2 options alone would be enough not to want to step in and play a few turns but if greenline is complete oblivious that would be a definite reason to not want to take over. If that is the case, I applaud the lurkers for not wanting to influence the game because how could you play turns for a player who has no clue what is coming when you do. Then again, how could you be oblivious to such action. TAD has consistently shown more aggression after games where he was more of a builder and lost. He likes to switch it up and he took a civilization that has a classical era power spike. Same goes of me. If fact, in this game you have 2 of the more experienced players who both have civilizations with classical era power spikes. Do you think we are just going to ignore that, or do you think they will play to the powers of our respective civilizations? The need to rush to early aggression was made worst by the introduction of the man-at-arms, shortening the period where swordsmen are relevant and pushes players with unique versions to beeline for iron working to get the most out of those units. Here, I think I have a leg up on TAD. He will need supporting units, like horsemen and archers, where my immortals are both swordsmen and archers. Horsemen for me might be helpful but I can stage an assault with immortals alone. I think that is why TAD went animal husbandry before mining and bronze working is to start collecting horses for when he completes horseback riding. My thought though is that for the first conquest, horsemen will come to late. Maybe TAD think so too and is planning to use them on his second push or if his first push stalls.

How soon will I go to war and how soon can TAD go to war? For me, I figure I will have Iron Working done in 6 turns, with the help of the 2nd iron at Cake and will upgrade 1 warrior and chop out 2 immortals, for 3 total, to attack Hong Kong and have the city by T54-55. The march down there will take a bit. Then, if my 2nd warrior finds Yuris close to the south, my units will heal and march down to him around T60, when I can get into Oligarchy. If he is not close to the south, they will march over to pin’s capital and cities. If they are sleeping on this game, I could eliminate either of them sometime around T75-T80, depending on distance and how many cities they have.  Gold is going to be my limited factor for how many units I can field for an assault. I will be able to run a deficit for a while but need to need to plan on getting more gold generation in eth near future to support a larger army. Not only to assault a neighbor but I will need to have units around to prevent my other neighbor for attacking while my main army if attacking the other neighbor. Ideally, Yuris is close and I can use pin as a buffer to TAD where pin will need to set up defenses against both of us, but then again, if TAD is attacking greenline, pin may see me as a softer target and think he needs to push on someone. However, I doubt he has pushed on iron working, and it may be a while before he has his own swordsmen for a proper assault, especially with my cities benefiting from the defensive strength of swordsmen.
 
For TAD, he finished BW on T31. Iron Working currently costs 144 beakers, 86.4 with the boost. He currently has 6 beaker science rate. If he increases it to 8 over the next 10 turns, he completes IW on T44. He has a power rating of 84, so probably 5 warriors, maybe 6 with a few promotions and a few injured ones. At a 150 gold upgrade costs? Is that right, I forget the ratio for upgrade gold but legions cost 110 cogs to produce and my immortals cost 130 gold to upgrade with a 100 cog production cost. A warrior is 40 cogs and upgrades are based on the cost difference of production. Is the formula 2 gold per cog difference + 10? That would make it 150. Regardless, he has the gold to upgrade 4. Will he have the iron? He has 1 source now and I sent him enough iron for 1 upgrade. T44 is 10 turns away and if he only has 1 source, that is enough iron for 2 more upgrades on T44 with one more on T47. If he has another source, I think he will be more gold limited for upgrades, or at least until he starts taking cities. Regardless, 3 legions will be enough to take out a city quickly. His closest city to greenline’s city looks to be 2 turns of movement away, 3 if you want to have any positioning. So, TAD finishes IW and upgrades a few Legions on T44 and can declare on T48. Let’s say 3 turns to position and take the city, then how long does greenline last? 10 turns, 15 turns? I think it is more of a question of how long it takes TAD to move units than actually attacking cities. Is greenline out before the era change on T60? Is this too quick? He did have a settle on T7! I think it will take longer for TAD to move units than eliminate him before the era change, but it might be possible. Let’s say he takes out greenline by T70 and gains 4 cities, which I think is more or less reasonable. Then what does he do…probably move on pindictor. Figure if pin goes for expansions right now, he could have 5 or 6 cities by T70. It will probably take a little longer for TAD to work through pin’s cities but does pin last to T100, probably not. The good news is that I can head straight from Apprenticeship after picking up irrigation and have it around T75-T80 (?) and have man-at-arms to negate legions. Can I become an impenetrable force by T100? TAD will have twice the land if I only take out one neighbor and he takes out 2. Maybe I will need to help pin when TAD comes calling. For that, I am going to see how this game develops and timing of everything. Maybe I try and keep pin in this game for a while.

What are my immediate plans? My goal is to get 3 immortals out and march them to Hong Kong as quick as possible. After that, Cake will continue to build immortals, and Jelly will focus on getting a few settlers out and then quickly chop out the Ancestral Hall for free builders when settling cities. As of now, I thing my next city (the one going southeast of the barb camp) won’t benefit from it but the next one (to the islands) will. Might need to delay it a few turns but will definitely benefit from the builder. After that, frontline cities will build units while backline cities will focus on economic builds. I want commercial hubs and markets in every city for trade routes from all my conquered cities. Bonus culture and faith will be a huge help. Gold is going to be my biggest bottleneck and limit how many units I can sustain. Some plantations will help but will need CHs. I can also place and work a few of my unique improves for more cash and culture but at the cost of production and by the time they are placed, I might have some CHs built. IDK, will need to see how things shake out. My current plan is to have a line form Armagh to Hong Kong and south will be my frontline cities. If I can keep pin in the game and use him as a front against TAD, I might beeline Cartography after Apprenticeship and look to sail west to invade his eastern side while he is focused on pin’s empire. I am planning a few (5) coastal cities that can help build ships and maybe get a decent grip on the ocean. Going over land to TAD’s empire will be a slog, but depending on how much land, it might be quicker to go over by sea. I don’t know though, I might be able to see the same compass rose on both sides of the map, meaning I am close to revealing the world warp if my scout continues east but it looks like his western most city is about the same distance to me as my capital is from his capital going west. Then again, you can usually move 2 tile, 3 or more as the game progresses over the sea, so even if they are the same distance, it will be quicker by ocean. Regardless there is a lot of game before I can start planning any of that.

In summary, I am ahead of TAD to Iron Working but think he will be ahead of assaulting the first civilization and eliminating them. I probably will be declaring war on some as he is finishing greenline off but hopefully I can be quick about it. The biggest unknown right now is if pin can withstand an invasion against TAD and if I should join in to eliminate pin and split the spoils or help pin out and try and keep him as a buffer against TAD. I think that will more depend on how the game develops than anything. I will need a good economy if I want to split lands with TAD and help eliminate pin because TAD will just continue to roll towards me and need to units to stop him while have the defenses to make it look difficult. Regardless, it should be an interesting game coming up.