[SPOILERS] Suboptimal Goes Waltzing Matilda

[suboptimal]

Turn 60

Lots going on this turn.  First off:



I’d say time for a government switch but I’ve got another  LOC_DIPLOMACY_MAKE_DEAL_NOTIFICATION_SUMMARY_INSPECT to check out .  Let’s see who’s calling:



Emperor K wants open borders.   One the one hand the only thing down here is a scout.  On the other, he can get past my borders and find those military city states.  Not that big of a deal but I’d rather keep those away from him for now since I’d like to keep Grenada for myself for a while.  I decline and return a 1 for 1 offer as a sign of...neutrality?  No hard feelings?

I go back to my government business and choose Oligarchy for the +4 combat strength.  I set up my policies as follows:



Since Irukandji will be building walls and then switching to archers I change to Agoge now, along with taking Conscription for the reduced unit costs.  I slot Charismatic Leader as my next envoy (from Mysticism) will go to Grenada, so I'd rather have the points.  Mysticism will complete in two turns.  

I found Blue-Ringed Octopus at the marked location, booting Emperor K’s scout back a hex or two and netting me the eureka for Sailing.  It starts on walls, given its proximity to the front lines.  Likewise, Irukandji starts on walls.  There are about 22 overflow from the horseman so it’ll take 5 turns to completion.  I’ll continue Engineering for two, complete Sailing and then finish Engineering.

I move the wounded horseman around in the north to check out the unit situation – Archduke still has an archer on the iron and one behind the warrior on the hill.  That archer is NE of the warrior:



This position is after I’ve moved the horsemen around.  I’ll be able to take out the archer next turn and then work on the warrior with all three horsemen (or chase after the iron archer).  

Over by Cassowary there’s a barbarian camp that’s sprung up a few tiles west of the lake.  There’s a wounded barbarian warrior that’s showed up this turn.  Unfortunately it might get to the campus and pillage it before I can kill it.  

Slinger moves into Mouse Spider’s territory and I upgrade to an archer.  Mouse Spider has also grown by 1 pop and is now working the forest for extra production.

In looking around at my cities and potential cities I’ve come to a few decisions:

1) For the Commercial Hubs maintaining tile appeal for just 1 extra isn’t worth being able to chop and mine things. That puts the forest SE of Irukandji on the chopping block and makes the hills SE of its Commercial Hub mineable once that’s incorporated into my territory.  The forest by Mouse Spider will stay put since I’ll be putting a lumber mill there.

2) Blue-Ringed Octopus will not be putting down a Commercial Hub.  I’m thinking about a Campus in the intended location and am split between an Encampment or a Harbor.

3) The site in the east along the Kandy river for a  potential Petra placement is a no-go.  That’ll be too contested to attempt a build there.  However, I fully intend on building Petra over on that peninsula east of Valetta.  It’s a more defensible position and it has the same amount of second-ring desert (four tiles).  No third ring tiles but three desert is enough.  Is it worth the build?   Maybe, maybe not.  However, gaining two tiles at 3/2/2 and a third one with an 1 additional I think is worth the resources.  I'll change my mind only if something drastic happens in the north and Archduke becomes a non-factor (not likely).

4) I'm going to hunt down the two archers, maybe take out the hypaspist and converge on Austrex in an attempt to take the city and liberate it.  We shall see how this works out in practice.  

Next post will have the cultural expansion scoring for Blue-Ringed Octopus.

[suboptimal]

Blue-Ringed Octopus Scored

Here’s the turn-of-founding scoring for Blue-Ringed Octopus.



It should go fish → flip-flop between the 197’s, take both → go bonkers trying to pick a 198 tile. I do have a suspicion, though just anecdotal, that the forested plains next to the horse will be selected first as it’s closer to a resource.

[suboptimal]

Turn 61

My big question when opening this save is whether Archduke has found my maneuvering just off to his east and has he done anything about it. On opening the save it doesn’t look like it. Emperor K has accepted my little “peace offering”. He was also at war with Zanzibar and declared peace with them (???). Need to check city-states more often. . That barbarian warrior has moved onto the Campus in the east...and is backed up by a swordsman. . Lastly, Archduke has won the race for the Great General as he’s recruited it this turn.

Warrior at Cassowary upgrades to swordsman as we’re gonna need it. Way out west Alhambram has fortified his scout to prevent my warrior from going west. Going to head south and see if I can go around his borders that way.

Movement finished in the west it’s time for the east. Archduke has sniffed me out and moved his Hypaspist and archers into poition. (Forgot to take a screenshot). With fortification the hypaspist is at 51 combat strength. Not attacking that front anymore. Time to shift units around for a defensive stance over here. The two horsemen to the south head around to the western side of the mountain range. I’ll see if it’s worth attempting a run at Austrex or if hanging back on defense is the better plan as my troops there might not be enough to take the city. The two horses on Archduke’s side of the river retreat – I’m going to pull them back and set up a picket there. Those four units are 106 of his 174 military strength, with an archer probably in Austrex. I have to winder if he’ll be sending a settler down towards the iron in the middle.

I swap out of Engineering and decide to put science into Mathematics instead of Sailing for the time being. Once the walls in Irukandji complete I’ll finish Engineering and start Machinery.

[suboptimal]

One would think that having the week off from work would allow for plenty of free time.  One would be proven wrong.     On to catch up reporting....


Turn 62

Expecting the Campus at Cassowary to be pillaged when I open the save, however the warrior moved off the campus.  Don’t know where the swordsman went but there’s an archer on the way.  I decide to attack the warrior – I’d rather not lose improvements to pillaging right now.  I’ve also got yet another LOC_etc etc etc.  Let’s see who’s calling:



Um, what?  No.

Mysticism completes, what to start next?  Drama & Poetry gets me to Recorded History while Games & Rec will get me to Defensive Tactics.  I’ll go fro Drama & Poetry first as I figure I’ll get the inspiration for Games & Recreation sooner rather than later.  Envoy goes to Grenada where I’m now suzerain.  Grenada declares war on Archduke. With 1-2 turns left on the current round of builders I replace Ilkum with Caravanseries for the extra gold.  Mouse Spider’s builder goes up a turn but Cassowary’s is still done next turn.  

I move the horsemen around just to check on Archduke’s positioning.  I’m in a position where I can move into visual range and then back out so I’ll be able to track any unit movements.

I didn’t check Blue-Ringed Octopus’ expansion target last turn – it is going for the fish.  

Internationally everyone but Emperor K is in Oligarchy – he remains in Chiefdom.  One thing I don’t understand in this game – why isn’t Emperor K building more military?

[suboptimal]

Turn 63

Archduke is using his Hypaspist to do the same thing I’m doing with my horsemen, as they’re both unfortified.   Based on his unit positioning we’re pretty much establishing a front line – I don’t see attacking him any time soon or vice versa.  I take a flyer and offer straight peace.  We’ll see what he does.

Sailing is complete, start Construction.  Irukandji’s walls will be done in two turns and I’ll switch back to Engineering and then move on to Machinery while Cassowary builds a water mill.   

Swordsman at Cassowary was attacked by a barbarian archer – have the archer and a swordsman to deal with.  I move it to the Campus; next turn I’ll take Battlecry for some healing and then deal with the archer.  The just-completed builder moves towards Blue-Ringed Octopus.  I’m going to farm one wheat, put an Alcázar east of the city center and then harvest the other wheat.  

There’s a barbarian swordsman to the south but it’s currently being dealt with by Grenada’s spearmen.  

In the west my warrior continues skirting the Persian city of Sinbad to towards the south.



Persia also completed a Holy Site this turn and is generating Great Prophet points as well.  I’ll claim Euclid next turn.  Hopefully the eureka that’s not Mathematics is a good one.

[suboptimal]

Turn 64

Looks like Archduke doesn’t want peace for the time being. That’s fine.  We’ll see how this plays out.  I’ll be interested to see if he goes for a second Great General or is content with one.  Meanwhile in the west my swordsman was attacked by the barbarians.  I take the Battlecry promotion and hang tight on the Campus for the time being.  In the final start-of-turn notification there’s this:



Why hello there!  Claiming Euclid nets me the eureka for Education.  Activating Euclid nets me the eurekas for Mathematics and….



  That is a eureka that is both very handy and not one I was planning on being able to get.  That also means that I’ll be headed for that tech once I complete my run for Machinery.  Of course the next Great Scientist is Hildegard of Bingen, which is going to be useless to me unless I can acquire a Holy Site.  

In looking around the rest of the map Boudica has put in an appearance:



The warrior has moved NW, the archers have shifted over but the hypaspist remains in place.  After doing the Horsie Shuffle to check on unit positions the focus shifts over to the builder by Blue-Ringed Octopus.  The first task is to farm the western wheat tile and move the citizen from the jade to the wheat.  Short term I’ll lose the from the jade but I’ll get it back when BRO grows in 3 turns.  Next up will be putting an Alcázar and then deciding what to do with the eastern wheat.  On one hand, harvesting it will net me 2 immediate population.  OTOH, given the hills I’ll probably need the food source to be able to mine them (learned that lesson with Cassowary, though don’t regret that harvesting).

Before ending the turn I switch back to Engineering.  With walls completing in Irukandji and one turn of science that tech will complete next turn.  There will also be about 10 overflow to put into something else.  Might be worth finishing that monument….

It looks like Emperor K’s finally paid the price for his lack of a military – he’s lost a city as his empire score dropped by 9.  No districts were lost as there’s no change in GPP generation.

[suboptimal]

Turn 65

Walls in Irukandji done, Engineering done, start Machinery, due in 8 turns.  Mouse Spider has expanded to the other citrus resource and completed its builder.  In the north Archduke has rotated his forces to the west, with a Hypaspist, builder, two archers and a Great General by Austrex and a Hypaspist supported by another unit east of the iron.  

Nothing special this turn with unit movement other than sending the archer in Irukandji over to Cassowary.  

The walls in Irukandji completed with about 11 overflow.  There’s enough production there to finish the monument in one turn and then build two archers before Machinery comes in, so that’s the plan there.  With about 20 overflow expected from the first archer I may dump that into a builder that will be completed after the second archer.  At Mouse Spider the builder moves to the central citrus and the city starts a monument of its own.

Over at Blue-Ringed Octopus the builder moves to the wheat.  I’ll farm that next turn.  That’ll leave me with three farms to go for the Feudalism inspiration.  The rice at Irukandji and the two hexes south of the western wheat at Blue-Ringed Octopus will complete that.  One lumber mill each at Cassowary, Irukandji and Mouse Spider.  I’ve also decided that the hill I was going to put an Alcázar on will get a mine instead – I’ll put an Alcázar SE of the city center instead.  That will boost production at Blue-Ringed Octopus and complete the inspiration for Apprenticeship, giving me the option for filling that tech and getting a few more production.  

Looks like Emperor K got the message – his domination score jumped from 58 to 94, so he’s either got a swordsman or a hosrseman out.  He also just settled a city as his empire score is back up by 6.

[suboptimal]

Turn 66

Start out the turn and it looks like the Macedonian invasion is on:



He’s also come with a peace “offer”:



Um, no.

With the line of sight rules I don't know that he saw either horseman when he advanced.  This might work out in my favor.    

This changes the dynamics and plan at Blue-Ringed Octopus.  First, the builder heads for the 1/3 forested hill west of the city – I’m going to purchase that tile and chop out the walls.  Second, the archer that was headed for Cassowary is going to Blue-Ringed Octopus instead.  This takes away a quicker upgrade to a crossbowman but will stall any invasion until a battering ram shows up (which I expect sooner rather than later).

I move the horsemen up to the front lines to attack the Hypaspist.  It’s going to put both of them in archery range but hat unit needs to die.  If I can kill or seriously injure that unit it brings the invasion to a temporary halt.  He has shifted the other hypaspist to the western front, so I do advance the horsemen on that side as well. .  He does have two units supporting it as it has a +6 support bonus.  

After my attacks the situation looks like this:



The hypaspist is down to less than 20 HP.  I expect the horseman on the right is going to bite the dust next turn or come very close to it, depending on how Archduke promoted his archers.  I'll need to maneuver things next turn to get my uninjured warrior out of the corner.  The wounded one will head back to Blue-Ringed Octopus to heal up and await an upgrade.  If one or more of the archers cross the river I'll have to decide whether I finish off the hypaspist or try to take out the archers (though he can't take a city with archers....)

Dealing with human opponents in combat is new for me so this is the part of the game where I’ll be most concerned.  Hopefully I’m up for the challenge.  

I continue with the planned archer builds at Irukandji.  I’ll get two out then switch back to Maneuver for a few more horsemen.  The barbarian swordsman by Cassowary disappeared from view.  Don't know if that's because I killed it when it attacked.  My swordsman attacks the archer.  Next turn I'll kill off the archer, heal up and then go for the camp.  With the money from the camp I should be able to upgrade a warrior.

[suboptimal]

Turn 67

Let’s see what sort of mess I’ve got on my hands….



He’s moved Boudica and the archers across and is definitely making a push for Blue-Ringed Octopus. What’s more a Hetaroi has shown up.  We’ve traded one horseman for a hypaspist.  I can try to push the issue, knowing that I’ll lose another horseman and probably not kill the hetaroi.  Let’s check the numbers...hetaroi at 42 strength with under 80 damage and unpromoted, horseman at 34, archer at 25 and warrior at 23, with another warrior at 23 if I move the horseman out of the way.  I can expect to do 68 damage not kill the hetaroi.  I think a fallback is in order.  Warrior moves west, archer moves SW, fortified warrior takes up archer’s prior position and horseman takes up wounded warrior’s old position:



As far as the western forces go, Archduke has walled off the approach.  I send the wounded horseman south to go around the mountains...since I’m an idiot and don’t move one tile at a time it attacks a barbarian scout on the second hex and doesn’t kill it, redlining itself in the process.  One of the two uninjured horsemen cross the river. The third one heads north –  based on the domination score he’s got 1-2 units north so I should be able to get some pillaging in up there.

Interestingly the hetaroi does not show a promotion flag – is this because it’s still a “Level 1” unit despite getting a free promotion or because he hasn’t taken the promotion yet?

Away from the front the swordsman kills off the barbarian archer.  Time to heal up and then go eradicate the camp. The builder and archer position themselves at Blue-Ringed Octopus – the latter in the city and the former ready to chop.  The city just grew this turn and is working the jade with the new citizen.  At Mouse Spider the last citrus plantation goes down.  I rearrange citizens at Blue-Ringed Octopus, Irukandji and Mouse Spider as follows:

- 1 citrus transfers from Mouse Spider to Blue-Ringed Octopus.  Mouse Spider is now working the other three citrus.
- Blue-Ringed Octopus swaps over the spice from Irukandji and starts working that.

The net results:

Irukandji: -1
Blue-Ringed Octopus: +2 , +2 over working the jade and grows in 5 turns
Mouse Spider: no change in output, will grow next turn and resume working the forested hill to the west.

The builder at Mouse Spider has one charge remaining; that will be saved for a lumber mill for Mouse Spider.

In two turns I’ll gain an envoy – I’ll probably put that into Zanzibar for some more cash flow.  

Over in the far west the warrior rounds the bend on Sinbad and runs into Aladdin’s borders:



Based on the city list it looks like I’ve found his capital.  Now let’s see if I can shoot the gap between the cities before he gets a unit in there to block my path….

[suboptimal]

Turn 68

Two thoughts occurred to me while I waited for the turn to come back around:

1) I wonder if Alhambram is declaring war against Archduke and myself to gain the extra movement and if he’ll do so against me in the coming turns (his ten turns of movement ended on his Turn 67)?
2) If I had sent two horses north instead of just one would I have been able to threaten Urteau enough where Archduke needed to turn around to defend his home territory?

As for #2 I believe that the “good” play was to send two horses down and around for defense, rather than just one. I also don’t yet know what’s up there, so this could turn into a major missed opportunity.

Let’s see what I’ve got on my hands this turn:



This just got a bit more complicated, though the hetaroi is down to < 60 damage.  There is some good news – chopping the forest completes the walls at Blue-Ringed Octopus this turn.  Attacking archer → warrior → warrior has an expected damage of about 53.

First things first.  Builder chops forest, completing walls.  Blue-Ringed Octopus places a Campus on the cleared out hills and starts an archer.  Horsemen in the east continue their move south.  Archer at Mouse Spider begins moving northwest – that will act as city defense for Irukandji while the archer completing next turn will head to defend Blue-Ringed Octopus. I also stop the monument with 6 turns to go and start an archer which will complete in 6 turns.  Horseman near Urteau advances and comes across a promoted warrior on top of the spices.  Hmmm...on the one hand it’s a fair fight but on the other he could promote that unit.  I decide to take the time to attack it, dealing 34 damage to it and sustaining 26 in the process.

Out in the west the warrior shoots the gap between Aladdin and Sinbad, revealing a couple of interesting facts:

- Sinbad is at 20 strength, so he hasn’t built any immortals yet.
- Neither of these cities is within two tiles of the coast.

Back to the main event.  Holding my breath for good rolls I shoot the hetaroi with the archer, doing 16 damage to it.  Bad roll, there.  However, the hetaroi is now under 40 damage (it’s -6 to combat strength).  Attacking the hetaroi with the less-wounded warrior will pretty much redline it, but that leaves Archduke the choice of hanging around to deal with an archer.  The warrior dies, doing 18 damage and giving Archduke +5 Great General Points (and that was a good damage roll).  The last warrior won’t kill it and I’ll be in trouble if it promotes next turn (though that’d give time for the horsemen to get around).  They get a good damage roll and do 20 points to the hetaroi, who is now under ten points.  That will hopefully slow him down a little bit, though I don’t like the trade off.  It occurred to me after the turn that I could have gotten the warrior all the way back to Blue-Ringed Octopus and been able to save it until I had enough gold to upgrade it. 

The lack of an encampment is showing here as I have no good melee units to build.  Lesson learned here, though painfully so.  Irukandji will, however, start building a couple of spearmen after the archer completes next turn.  Should have thought of that earlier.  I am definitely in the “hang on and try to outlast” part of the program.