uSuthu!: A Chevalier Story

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Good to see you back! Unfortunately that means I have to step up my reporting game. D:

Ah, yeah, good question. I met Rome's scout up at the Persian capital, of all places, so I figure Rome is Archduke's other neighbor, lying in the far east. Nubia/Russia is next to Rome, and then Russia/Nubia is next to whoever that is, and they're next to me.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Morning turn in. I might also get one around 1 pm, and another by 4. The Europeans are mental with their turn pace this game. Hopefully it'll slow down once the turns get more complicated, because my reporting quality is inversely correlated to the number of turns I have to report at once. 

"Why not just do one report at the end of the day, Chevalier?"

First of all, shut up

second of all, mostly because I type these things in real time as I play, but I can't devote that kind of time three times a day on top of grading, lesson planning (oh, yeah, and teaching x_x), parent emails, etc. If I wait til the end of the day, I miss things, fall into summary, and am kind of burnt out on Civ 'coz my reporting time is eaten up by playing time.

Now, am I really complaining that the turn pace is too fast? Nah, not really. I'm just whining. Don't mind me - I don't want to sound too negative, and I'm enjoying the game and I'm in a good mood. Just, sheesh!   This game is blitzing! 

Anyway let's see what I've queued up today:




That's an instant improvement to GPT, which is definitely my biggest weakness right now. With a camp at Bromhead and a plantation at Chard, I get amenities a bit in order and bump my GPT to best-in-class 15, although Archduke still has way more net gold than me due to his frequent barb camp clears (visible on the total gold graph on my sheet). I need gold for Archer upgrades and for the deer purchase at Chard in the immediate future. Not sure which will come first. I'd love to buy the deer, except...well, you'll see. 




We hard research through State Workforce, putting us 8 turns away from PP. We outclass Rome in culture, and only Russia and Persia have hit the SW inspiration, so we should be comfortably first to our tier 1 government. Delaying SW to research Writing and place and build a campus would have been too slow on the curve, so I just skipped it instead. The plaza will go down at...some point. Not sure where yet. I plan my cities for tile yields, not necessarily districts, these days. 

With the settler one turn from completion, it's time to abandon Colonization and move to Urban Planning (going Colonization -> Double settler for FIVE cities is tempting but too risky, for reasons which will become clear):




This has me perfectly set up to pump out units, or flexibily build infrastructure. In 8 turns or so I can re-evaluate the double settler plan. 

Here's the reason for me shifting over to military builds. We have neighbors:




I spotted the settler shadow last turn, this turn I see borders. Regrettably, it's Nubia. Damn. I'd've loved Russia. Happy to leave him alone until I hit Mercs, then march in and steamroll. But, not to be. Given the fate of Pindicator in PBEM17, I have to honor the threat of pitatis. I know Thrawn has at least one, probably more, given his barb problems. I can't believe he'd settle so close without scouting me, first, as this city is prime Impi fodder down the road. But Mike made the same mistake in PBEM7, so -shrug-. 

For now, I'm holding off on making contact. I know Thrawn's research and culture rates well enough, barring specialized tiles, from his population tracked. Gold would be nice, as would be an estimation of military score, but I know the lower bound from his best-in-class military ranking. That means he has more than my 3 warriors and 2 slingers. 

Well, assume a Pitati rush is incoming. We'll shift over to military builds for a bit. Archery is queued on a 1-turn delay to finish the slinger at Bromhead, giving me a 3/3 military, then we'll finish archery and kick out some of those. HBR or Bronze Working? I want both. Bronze Working unlocks encampments, HBR will neutralize the potatoes. Masonry is only 6 turns away, too, so I could have walls started in as little as 7 turns. That might be what I do at the capital - no way he has Masonry close, and I bet he doesn't bring a ram. Seeing walls even in place around the cap will probably discourage a rush, then I can negotiate a DoF and go hit the city-states in the middle with my now-redudant military. That, in turn, carries us to Mercenaries, then I hit Thrawn with the potato obsolete and my corps coming online. 

yeah. That sounds good. We'll do that. Archery -> Masonry -> HBR/BW, have a strong military, force peace with Nubia, eat CS, eat Nubia, win. Gameplan in place. 

In Persia, if I can nab this scout, I have BW inspired:




We'll see. I'm running out of health, then I need to heal up and get home (or vice-versa). I want htis guy available to become a sword for Kumasi or Nubia as needed. 

The relevant military theater, for both Nubia and Kumasi:




Thrawn is way behind on expansion, so even a potato zerg should be survivable - I should have 3 cities, oligarchy, and walls in place by the time he can show up, with swords and horses on the way to obsolete his killer app, at which point...he's just behind, with no further advantages to be gained. Too slow, my friend. Maybe he'll go for Russia instead (but then why settle in my direction? Does he know I'm even here? Settle one way and attack another? EH. Better safe than sorry. Nothing to lose by being cautious since I'll need the units eventually anyway). 

-knocks on wood-

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

2:45. I was off by about 2 hours on my estimate of the second turn. But I expect I shall get a third before bed. 

Anyway, let's load it up.

Disappointing, all around. The scout moved away, so I can't kill him. With so many units around I gotta heal up before I can go for the third barb kill. Another is pushing my capital, so I might nab him there.

I did some quick math and I should have walls up around the capital around turn 55, which will neatly shut down any Nubian rush attempts, so long as I can hold until then. That's 14 turns from now, which I think I can manage to hold until then considering it's entirely possible thrawn doesn't evne know I'm here. I'll put together some micro on the spreadsheet in a bit. Queue up a warrior and a slinger, which will give me 4 of each, and might be enough military since that will be the Mercenaries inspiration. We'll see how safe I feel. Once I have that army in place, walls on the way, and I'm healed from my barb fight for the BW eureka, I'll push a unit down to make contact with the Nubian city and find out thrawn's strength. Most likely I'll want a DoF and target a turn 85 attack with Corps. 

Let's see, around the world:

1)Archduke finished a campus last turn, which I forgot to write down. It's at Carthak and has a nice +4 adjacency, putting him in the visible lead for science atm. However, as we're learning from other games, a science advantage isn't all its cracked up to be unless you can get a whole generation ahead in tech. I don't think he's going to get there before my corps are rolling, and so an early campus isn't threatening to me at all. Culture is the real threat to Zulu. He also improved his culture, though, so I think he finished an envoy quest since I don't see no monuments and his pop is stagnant.

2)Did Archduke get out a settler? Need to double check the screenshots, I don't think so. His capital has been the same size for a while now. Thought it was at 5 last turn, it's 4 now. My pop fluctuated for a single turn, so if anyone is paying attention they can see settler #2 is on the map, but it's possible I snuck this one by. 

EDIT: looked at last turn's screenshots. He DID get out a settler, same turn I did. I think this one goes towards the site I pinned earlier, or out to a good spot towards Rome. Mine is going to the nearby site with a 4/1 tile and a 1/4 tile in the first ring. Real fast starter there. Due on turn 47 - thick terrain. 

3)Ljub has been on 2 cities for a while. Looks like he's getting his religion set up. If no one else goes for a religion, I might need to make sure I can stop a religious victory, just in case. We'll do that by having our own religion and murdering his missionaries, of course, using all our pointy sticks. I think Byzantium can muscle their way to a religious victory (although they could win domination even more easily...), but not Russia. 

4)Ioan cleared a nearby barb camp. He's up to 390 gold. Legion rush saving? Iron is the real limiter there - wait, do legions need iron? Balls, I dont' think so. Bad news for Rome/Russia, which is good news for me! 

Here's some screenies:




I knew this would happen - couldn't get over the river before the spear out of the fog hit me. I'll pull back towards Bromhead, though, if this guys pursues he's dead. Note all the Persians and barbs - hot battlefield! I want to heal then see about getting my first camp. 




Wasn't sure about a warrior or slinger for Chard. In SP I'd go economic with a second settler probably, but can't do that with Nubia as a neighbor. I do that and then you get dozens of pitatis boiling at you out of the fog. I decide I'll want a 4th sword down the road (I like to have 5, typically, in sp), so a warrior it is. Might swap to an archer next turn. That'll give me 5 with the one out of Bromhead, should be plenty. Then it WOULD be an encampment but I don't have the tech yet. ;_; Stupid barbs, why are they pestering everyone BUT me?

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 40something




Finish that and start up a couple of archers. I'd desperately like to go double settler right now, but that's a good way to end up with potatos running around burning all your stuff and punching you in the mouth. Against Rome or Persia I'd have some time to prepare, but the unique strength of the pitati is how damn early it is. That also means it can obsolete before you get an effective rush off, but even an ineffective rush will torpedo your game if not prepared for, as pin saw. 

So, it kills my growth curve and it sucks, but these games always come down to neighbor luck in the end. Archduke and Ioan got lucky, ljub and I didn't. Well, we can make it work. Our military will BECOME settlers when we take everyone else's stuff, starting with Kumasi. 




The Russians founded a religion last turn. Work Ethic and DotF, pretty much the standard two beliefs at this point. No surprises. Ljub shoots to the top of the scoreboard, which is more or less useless. Archduke and I will be on top when we both found our third cities. Mine is due turn 48 due to the thick terrain. No idea where he's going with his settler, whether towards me or toward Ioan.

Probably towards me, have both neighbors settle in my direction. It's what I'd do. :/




Someone else has an envoy into Antananarivo besides Archduke and myself, either Russia or Nubia. My bet is Russia given the location, that should be the Russian corner. We'll see who finishes more civics. 

Overview:



A few minor notes I've found baffling: Ioan swapped out of God-King at 17 faith. Why? 8 more turns would have gotten him his pantheon, and he has plenty of civic swaps. He totally squandered one of the advantages of Rome and will pick last now. 

Rome and Nubia are growing really tall cities, too, but Nubia expanded so slowly. That's good new for me - if I can nip past the pitati danger zone, then Nubia will sink into irrelevance and will be the perfect path to victory. And I think I will be out of danger within 12 turns or so. Masonry in 5, walls in 7 after that. 

Or he might go after Russia, but then why settle towards me? But why settle me if you haven't scouted my direction? I dunno, makes no sense over there.

[VoiceInTheWilderness]

My God, it's full of turns...

You haven't contacted Nubia yet... are you deliberately avoiding them? (I remember waaaay back when in the first Civ4 team game written up on Sullla's site, where the Maya team deliberately avoided the yellow borders, which Sullla said was madness... but then again, that was a game with tech trading. And the Inter-Site Democracy Game in 2012 did see my CivFanatics team rushed simply because we were the first neighbours the Zulu team met...)

I think it's a decent idea to keep Thrawn in the dark until the most dangerous period is passed, and to assume that he'll initiate contact before you've entirely closed the window, but I could be wrong.

TheArchduke is currently tied up with barbarians, it seems like, but what do you rate the odds he opportunistically piles on if Nubia attacks you? Probably can't lift a city off of you, but my warmongering instincts are not as sharp as yours, let alone his.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

My God, it's full of turns...

You haven't contacted Nubia yet... are you deliberately avoiding them? (I remember waaaay back when in the first Civ4 team game written up on Sullla's site, where the Maya team deliberately avoided the yellow borders, which Sullla said was madness... but then again, that was a game with tech trading. And the Inter-Site Democracy Game in 2012 did see my CivFanatics team rushed simply because we were the first neighbours the Zulu team met...)

I think it's a decent idea to keep Thrawn in the dark until the most dangerous period is passed, and to assume that he'll initiate contact before you've entirely closed the window, but I could be wrong.

TheArchduke is currently tied up with barbarians, it seems like, but what do you rate the odds he opportunistically piles on if Nubia attacks you? Probably can't lift a city off of you, but my warmongering instincts are not as sharp as yours, let alone his.

I am deliberately avoiding Nubia, for the moment. Right now, I don't know if Nubia knows I'm here or not, and if he's not aware of Zulu, I'd prefer to keep it that way as long as possible. It makes me less likely as a rush target and it also makes thrawn less prepared to face Zulu corps down the road. Via score tracking we have exact estimates of cities, population, and available techs, so I don't need that info. What I'd gain from contact is precise data on his gold reserves and income, his total force (we have a minimum bound via the Domination victory screen - he's ranked 1st, above my 96 points, so we know >96), and precise data on culture/science research (right now I have minimum estimates but can't account for science/culture tiles, pantheons, or governors). That all is handy to know but not essential. I intend to make contact once my walls are on the way and my army's in place. THen, in an ideal world, I get a DoF, freeing me from all threats of potatos forever and I can push on Kumasi and Venice. 

As for Archduke, it's a cornerstone of my game philosophy to plan for what my opponents can do, not what I think they will do. Persia can try to prepare an immortal rush with surprise wars, but fortunately being ready for that is the same as being ready for a Nubian potato rush - have walls ready, and have a decent army. The army is more or less a requirement of national security given my neighbors, so I'm putting it to good use by my Kumasi attack plan - that way I won't fall ebhind on expansion. Archduke can attack in the mid-50s, when our DoF expires - he'll have a 1-turn window to declare a surprise war with nothing I can do about it. But that's very soon, he won't have Immortals, and his army is half the size of mine (and I have more archers on the way). He's got lots of barb problems, so I don't think he will attack then. 

Plus, Archduke isn't the sort to pile on. He forms plans slowly and many turns in advance. Once he gets set on a plan, he sticks to it pretty closely, and is slow to adapt to changing circumstances, I think. He can get piqued by opponent plays, and sometimes his games reach crossroads where he has no clear plan and he decides (PBEM12, PBEM7 are good examples of his gameplay). If I look like a good target at one of those crossroads, in he'll come. If I don't, he's more likely to want to go after Ioan, as a newbie and an easier target (see PBEM17 for a good example). Once he's set on a Roman attack, he's not likely to sway because I'm also in a war, if I look prickly at our border. Plus, the DoF locks him out of attacking during the most dangerous phase for Nubia, approximately the next ten turns before walls and horses/swords are coming in. 




Here's the current sitch. Most of my military is drifting back towards my borders, to be upgraded and formed into an army to launch at Kumasi as soon as I have walls in place at the capital to secure myself against Nubia. Hitch is 4 turns away from being founded - it's a short walk but again, the terrain is rough. We make 1/tile per turn there, basically. I have two 1-charge builders that I am sending along with the settler, for 2 deer camps. That will give Hitch a 4/1 tile to work from the start, plus a 2/5/2 tile and a 3/3/2 tile. It's going to be an insanely good city very quickly. If I have to fend off potatos, it can contribue to its own defense immediately, and if I can secure that border, it's a perfect forward base to stage for Kumasi. 

In the north...



One turn too late to snipe that camp. Damn, that's FOUR for Archduke and a FIFTH has spawned in his back lines. He has plenty of military to deal with them, so he's in no real danger, and in the meantime enjoys a 250-gold advantage over me.    

Bummer.  

Gameplan is to get Hitch up and running, along with Masonry and BRonze  Working. Then contact Nubia and obtain some kind of secure border, then march on Kumasi. We should gather it in and be getting close to Mercenaries, then we grab that and probably march on Nubia ~50 turns down the road.

[VoiceInTheWilderness]

Speaking out loud, to catch faulty interpretations - Hitch B isn't happening, and the second deer is under ADW17, yeah? Are you planning to spend gold on the tile (unlikely, given the current demands) or do you have a source of culture I'm not seeing? (Is there any danger the picker takes the rice or the pearls first? Probably not the pearls if it prioritizes foodhammers, but I don't know how it values faith - or anything else, for that matter. Further experimentation required.)

The plan is (as I understand it) to have five cities before attacking Nubia - Chard, Bromhead, Hitch, Kumasi (Bourne?), and Venice (Owen? I confess I haven't cottoned on to your order of precedence), with an upgrade to Impi and Crossbows in Venetian territory. Mercenaries is six civics after Political Philosophy, assuming a beeline to both the latter then the former.

Unorganized thoughts - after Masonry, BW/HBR, Construction should follow immediately to snag the Games and Rec boost; even that feels too late, yet it's not high enough priority to push back any of the Key Three techs; one rung of the ladder at a time. After the encampment boost, the next one is Feudalism - so a district build phase and then a builder one? Have we got a Plaza site? Military Tactics and Machinery are far apart on the tree (albeit only seven techs after the Key Three), which one is first? There's a good campus spot on the swamp E-SE of Chard - is that one for Dalton? Allen and Hook seem to have the best initial tiles, but we want to be expanding south first, which calls for Dalton and Allen - unless the plan is to backfill those once Nubia is liquidated and the area is ringed with Zulu cities? I can't see the trader in the latest screenshot.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Speaking out loud, to catch faulty interpretations - Hitch B isn't happening, and the second deer is under ADW17, yeah? Are you planning to spend gold on the tile (unlikely, given the current demands) or do you have a source of culture I'm not seeing? (Is there any danger the picker takes the rice or the pearls first? Probably not the pearls if it prioritizes foodhammers, but I don't know how it values faith - or anything else, for that matter. Further experimentation required.)

Yeah, that's the second deer. I'd need to buy it, unfortunately.


The trouble is, all my available improvements with that last charge are either weak plantations (like the 4/0 bananas at Bromhead, which the tile picker inexplicably chose over the horses, which was my obvious preference), or require gold purchases (like the horses at Bromhead or the deer at Chard). I don't know yet if I'll actually pull the trigger on the tile purchase at Hitch (yeah, no Hitch B, since I dealt with the Persian warrior issue), because I do need that gold to upgrade my 3 slingers running around. However, that is only ~120 gold, so I COULD afford it. And a barb camp clear would instantly pay for the tile, too...if I could find a barb camp to clear! Archduke has attracted all the attention to the north, and I guess thrawn's sucked up all the barbs to the south, so I've seen hardly any (STILL don't have Bronze Working). I also can't work the tile until size 3 anyway, so there's no hurry to improve. The horses might still be a better pick, but Bromhead already has lots of good tiles. 

The plan is (as I understand it) to have five cities before attacking Nubia - Chard, Bromhead, Hitch, Kumasi (Bourne?), and Venice (Owen? I confess I haven't cottoned on to your order of precedence), with an upgrade to Impi and Crossbows in Venetian territory. Mercenaries is six civics after Political Philosophy, assuming a beeline to both the latter then the former. 

Roughly, yeah. We might get up to seven - the two Jones I'd like to settle to shore up the Persian border, then work on fortifying those while the army marches south. So there may be a Colonization round with settlers in there - but no Ancestral Hall. I can't see any place where it fits in the timeline. I might just take a late Warlord's Throne instead, more useful to me long-term since after the immediate neighborhood is colonized we won't be building settlers. 

As for naming scheme...I'm debating what to do with conquered cities. If I stick just to Rorke's Drift VC recipients, then we're good for 11 cities, plenty for self-founded ones. But (fingers crossed!) conquered cities will take us above that total, so what to do? I have thought about battles of the Zulu War, but that's only enough for a half-dozen or so. I could go for Zulu War VC recipients, which is a decent pool. Finally, British colonial VCs might be the fallback option. 

After PP, Mercenaries is the goal, yeah. I haven't yet plotted out the beeline, since I don't think that far ahead. I'll do that this afternoon when the turn gets back. Ioan wasn't ready for it yesterday since it was outside his window, as it's still with him - normally I findi t waiting for me weekday mornings. 

Unorganized thoughts - after Masonry, BW/HBR, Construction should follow immediately to snag the Games and Rec boost; even that feels too late, yet it's not high enough priority to push back any of the Key Three techs; one rung of the ladder at a time. After the encampment boost, the next one is Feudalism - so a district build phase and then a builder one? Have we got a Plaza site? Military Tactics and Machinery are far apart on the tree (albeit only seven techs after the Key Three), which one is first? There's a good campus spot on the swamp E-SE of Chard - is that one for Dalton? Allen and Hook seem to have the best initial tiles, but we want to be expanding south first, which calls for Dalton and Allen - unless the plan is to backfill those once Nubia is liquidated and the area is ringed with Zulu cities? I can't see the trader in the latest screenshot.

I want Construction, but it might even have to wait until after IW depending on Kumasi - warriors and horses might not cut it. We'd also want the Wheel -> Water Mill at Chard for the Construction boost if possible. 

The feudalism boost...right now I have one farm. I'd have to settle Dalton and Allen for 3, and could get one more at Hitch, then we'd just need a random plains or grassland farm for the boost. That's 2 more settlers - in the wrong direction, I feel - and 3 builders, quite a lot of production. Plus I definitely want the Jones before Dalton and Allen - since I'm attacking in that direction, it's not urgent to grab that land, as we can backfill after our Nubian invasion. It's hard. We're pulled in a lot of different directions. But I'll add "4 settlers/3 builders" to the wishlist before Mercenaries. We could manage it with 3 cities, I think - settler -> builder in all cities while the army is at Kumasi gets us all but one city, and I might abandon W. Jones for later, since my loyalty will crush that site. 


Tentatively, I'm thinking the Marsh at Chard for a plaza. That lets all 3 starter cities fit a district nearby, with room for 4 districts if I leave the deer, 5 if I chop 'em. Properly developing the site would want a lot of builder love, since building over the forests seems wasteful. Kaiser made such a lush map that we face that problem everywhere. Another option would be a late Plaza in W. Jones' second ring, where we could fit 2 districts next to the Natural Wonder (which boosts district construction), have good Campus and Commercial Hub locations, and could reach Hitch, distantly. It's an overall superior site but is, like I said, late. Might be good for the Warlord's throne (if the NW boosts district BUILDINGS, too, then it's a natural choice to build it next to the NW and get a boost for that expensive build!). 

Machinery is probably first. Depends on gold - Xbows will initially be upgraded archers, while Impis will probably be built from scratch to take advantage of their cheap cost and my Ikanda bonuses. They gain experience fast but need a single promotion before they can fight melee units on an equal basis. Having Xbow support first will be nice. After Machinery/Tactics, my goal is Cuirassiers, which is beelineable. Cuirassier corps can be hand-built from my cities and will be a game-winning unit on par with Cossacks, I predict. 

The Chard marsh site is probably going to be a Dalton campus, yes. Chard's campus is SW, naturally. Dalton and Allen are lower priority than the north, since I'm not planning to attack Persia - I want to settle my border with the Archduke, not concede that land to him. If I concede the south to Nubia, no worries, since we're rolling that way. He can found some nice cities for me, or I can raze inconvenient ones. Right now, my settle priority is:

1)R Jones
2)W Jones
3)Allen
4)Hook
5)Dalton
6)A northern city beyond Bromhead
7)A city SW of Chard. 

That will do it for self-founded cities, almost certainly. The order might shift based on circumstances, too. 

Finally, the trader is on the PFH SW of Bromhead. Icon is buried under the interface.

[VoiceInTheWilderness]

Huh! I hadn't caught that they were the VC recipients.

I bow to your superior reasoning on city order - there's some part of me that way overvalues contiguous borders (the bastard Civ III AI is guilty, I think), and staking a peaceful claim to the Persian frontier is clearly the better strategy.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

After a slow weekend between the Archduke, myself, and Ioan traveling, we're back in action. 

Typing this report live as I play the turn. Let's see...nothing much to report.



Pingala is established and brings our culture up to 15/turn, nice. Rome has 12 science to our 6, which might be a problem long term. My plan for science is a campus at Chard when I can fit it in, plus population from our CS conquests and roll with a larger empire score than everyone. Rome is our neighbor's neighbor, though, so Ioan getting better units ahead of the Archduke is good. It'll draw Persian attention that direction. HBR is close enough that beating me to Iron Working, as Persia likely will do, won't be too serious a danger from immortals. 




The settler slogs through thick terrain for Hitch. A slinger is in escort, and will be upgraded as the city founds for a garrison. The army will likely assemble here once Chard has walls, and then march on Kumasi. Warriors and archers, mostly. A single charge builder will camp as soon as the city is founded. My other single charge builder is uncommitted. I want a pasture at Bromhead, but the tile picker won't get it for 13 turns. I don't want to buy the tile since I need that gold for slinger upgrades. Hmmm...I think I'll wait, for now. Actually, hell, let me do the math. I have 3 slingers that need to upgrade. That's 180 gold. I have 170 now, earning 17 a turn. Buying the tile costs me 65, which is one upgrade. I'd delay the upgrade by...4 turns. WHich is about how long I need to found. 




Hell with it. We'll buy the tile and plant our pasture - it's a good tile and Bromhead has the pop for it. Drops us to 75 gold. We can upgrade 1 slinger immediately, 1 in 3 turns, and 1 more 4 turns after that. Neato. 




Archduke cleared the camp, as predicted. :/ He has another one in his backyard, though. Here's a better picture of it.




If we're lucky, they'll pillage the Persian trader, which would equalize things a bit (although he'd still be ahead on gold generated). 

Ljub leads on culture, I think via total inspirations from his religion. Thrawn leads my 103 milscore, so he's got a sizeable army. We'll see how things stand after my 2 archers pop next turn and I upgrade a third. 

Archduke lost a culture point AND an empire point - he has a second settler on the map. He'll jump up to 4 cities soon. Curious to see which way he goes with 'em. Still have money on that spot I scouted earlier, I'd settle that ASAP were I Persia. 

Ljub has 31 Empire points, but no jumps indicating a city or another Lavra. Might have finished a campus, will check GP screen next turn. For now I have it marked as double pop growth. His two cities are huge! 

Situation, end of turn 44: