[Spoilers] Pindicator already misses slavery, and other out-of-context quotes

[pindicator]

Brussels War Recap (t46 - t58)

Gains
50 culture - 2x pillaging of stone quarry
1 captured builder with 2 charges

American losses - 40h of units
1 warrior

Brussels losses - 350h of units
4 archers
1 warrior
1 builder with 2 charges

Summary/Recap: Attempting to take an early city, I attacked Brussels with a force that was unable to keep up with Brussel's rate of producing new units and eventually had to retreat.

What Went Right: I stole a builder and while my unit tactics weren't always great, I managed to get promotions on all my units while juggling multiple red-lined units. Pillaging quarry tiles allowed faster progress to political philosophy. In the end I think I made the right call to pull troops out instead of risk losing more promoted units.

What Went Wrong: My initial approach was haphazard and rushed, so my units completely lacked coordination. I tried to accomplish multiple goals of scouting, clearing barbarians, and attacking all at one which caused my units to be injured and late.

Also, despite by feelings about the fairness of the city state being able to spam archers at an ungodly rate, it still stands that I did not appropriate a large enough force for the task of capturing the city or overcoming its defenses.

[pindicator]

Turn 059

How to build a campus, in 3 steps:


1.






2.






3.





It bothers me that all the formulas are just a little off.  For instance:  58 hammers from the chop when the formula suggests 62.  126 hammers for the campus when I thought it would be 122.

Still, I'll take a 2-turn campus.

[pindicator]

Turns 061 & 062

I got a little bit of time to myself this morning and while there's no turn we can certainly recap the last few turns.


Even though Brussels didn't fall as planned, I still decided to put my next city out to the west.




(And Brussels pumped out another archer in 3t time!)

Continuing the theme of "Proposed US States that never came about", we have Absaroka.  From Wikipedia's article:

The region's complaints came from ranchers and independent farmers in remote parts of the three states, who resented the New Deal and Democratic control of state governments, especially the government of Wyoming.

We'll probably see that theme repeated a few more times with later state names:  rural portions of existing states unhappy with how the more urban areas are governing the state as a whole.  I'm not sure if it will make my city name list, but just last year the same idea was proposed for eastern Washington state to secede from Washington and form the state of Liberty.

This city in this game, however, gives me 2 native sources of iron (right now I have one at Acacia and another coming in from Valletta).  I bought a monument with faith straight away, and started a Holy Site, because La Venta is about to fall and I do want to keep my faith generation (as well as culture generation) going strong.  I plan on swapping the city over to a warrior or archer and using a chop-overflow technique to get a large portion of the holy site complete.  Similar to what I did at Forgottonia, but unfortunately we have no +100% policy cards for ground units.

A couple other things of note happened on t61:  my campus finished at Forgottonia, boosting my science by 3 and faith by 1 (adjacency bonus), and I hooked up a pair of seafood resources (the whales at Forgottonia and fish at the capital), which got me the eureka for Celestial Navigation and fulfilled the quest for Vilnius.

Abroad, Japper also planted his 4th city:




He also graciously gave me open borders so my scout was able to move out.  I am starting to wonder if this is all one big inland sea, but it is nice to have some scouting again.

Alhambram got the Great Scientist Hypatia.  I am a little happy to see it was Alhambram, as his civ seems to be the one that has had the slowest start.  However, I can't help but think about his PB2 romp where he converted a slow start into a crushing win.  Still, Krill is likely his neighbor, and Krill will not let a neighbor fulfill a late-blooming plan like that without some kind of punishment or concession.

In the end, on t62, I finally passed Rome for the highest culture output in the game (I think that's safe to claim), and also passed Rome in science rate.  That one seems a little more nebulous, but I think we are at least in the thick of it with science, which is all I can hope for.

Drama and Poetry finished on t62, and Theology comes next.  3 turns away, and then we will plant down 4 faith, 4 culture temples.  I have not let myself think too much about wonders because I haven't thought that I would honestly be able to go after any with China out there, but CFCJester's plan so far as been ... well, I'm not sure what his plan is.  He hasn't built a wonder yet.  As such, i am thinking that going after the Mahabodhi Temple would be good -- except I don't really have a valid location to place it.  There's a spot at Forgottonia, one top of a plains forest hill that is not yet under my culture.  I should have considered this when placing Absaroka's holy site; giving up the +1 adjacency for that wonder would probably be worth it.  Effectively it is free enhancements for the religion and 4 faith per turn to boot.... well, not necessary but nice.  400h nice?  Maybe...  Probably not.

I decided to push out another settler from the capital, but I really do need to grow the capital after that.  I changed policies again, swapping out +30% builder production for +50% settler production, and taking away +100% naval units for agoge's +50% melee and ranged production.  However, when Theology finishes, I probably will stop both builds in their tracks and swap Forgottonia and Jefferson over to temples.  Well, at least for Forgottonia's archer - I think I do want Jefferson to push out another settler still, since it is only a 7-turn build.

[pindicator]

Turn 063

Merry Christmas!

[pindicator]

Turn 065

Wheel and Theology both finished this turn.  Next up I am going for Horseback Riding -- needed to open up both paths of Apprenticeship and Machinery -- as well as Recorded History.  With my second campus finishing in 4 turns I will get the science boost and likely switch to the adjacency bonus for Recorded History to help boost the science.

In the meantime, I decided that it was time to switch governments out of Oligarchy and into something a little better for economic development:




The picks of Colonization and Urban Planning were straight-forward enough:  I want to emphasize production and development.  My capital has a settler due out in 4, my 2nd Campus is due in 4, and my next civic should come in 4 turns as well -- which should let me switch over to boosting builder production after.  I really do want a round of builders: all my unimproved tiles are costing me something like 9 gold/turn, in addition to the housing benefits.

The wildcard pick was the toughest, but I went out of Agoge because I feel like I have all the army I need right now and any more would simply cost gold.  In addition, I've scouted past Brussels enough to see that the tundra is a peninsula, and while there may be a narrow straight of land continuing northwest of Absaroka it isn't something that I would likely settle soon and would be able to defend at a choke should it really come to that.  Therefore the choice fell between gaining 5gpt with Conscription, which I figured to be along the lines of 1.25 hammers/turn, or going with 3 faith per turn with Holy Scripture, which I figured to be somewhere a bit higher than 1.5 hpt.  Considering gold is more likely to be used as tile procurement than unit purchasing, and my desire to push for production I went with the faith-boosting civic.

Here's the empire in it's early form:




Where does the settler go? It probably is right to just plant it smack in the middle of the empire to hook up a horse and bridge the gap to Absaroka in the west. However there are stronger locations to the west in the jungle belt, and I'm tempted to pursue those. I'm also keen to push east and better secure Valletta since I've made that city-state such a big part of my strategy.

I've switch Forgottonia over immediately to a temple, but it will take some time to complete.  It still has an archer in queue that can finish in 1 turn should I need it.

My bigger goals on the civic-side of the board are clear:  opening up the next tier of government with Monarchy for 6-policies, and then pushing on to Theocracy which in addition to 15% faith purchase discounts, will also unlock Simultaneum.  To unlock Monarchy we need the following Civics and Inspirations:

110 - Games and Recreation - research Construction
175 - Defensive Tactics - become a target of a war declaration
160 - Recorded History - build 2 Campuses
230 - Civil Service - Grow to size 10
290 - Divine Right - build 2 Temples

We're likely to get inspirations for Recorded History and Divine Right, and have an outside chance of Games & Recreation.  Defensive Tactics could also be in play if I declare on Rome:  they are allied with Kumasi who would then declare on me and fulfill the requirement.  But I am not sure I'd want to give Rome that same inspiration.  Better to find someone far away and with worse culture production.  Someone like Alhambram, who I met this turn.

So we're likely looking at 650ish culture to get all of those, and at my current rate that is something like 32 turns. Longer if I decide I need to pick up Feudalism along the way. I would like to speed that along, naturally. And that's why you see a theatre locked in at the capital. I considered an encampment, but I want to take advantage of the Divine Spark-boosted great people points and the "free" great writer that would come 26 turns later. I'm still not 100% solid on that, but I think it fits with my overall plan better. (Also, while I do want an encampment that is an awful location; I will look to build one in Acadia when that city reaches size 4.)

Here's Alhambram:




He is currently tops in science per turn at 21, but sitting in last place on culture with 10.5; military is comparable to mine; faith is sitting at 0 (poor choice for Arabia in my opinion). He only has 3 cities and 1 source of iron, though the one I have in the screenshot is not hooked up so he will be able to build the Arabian UU when the time comes.

[RefSteel]

Because I'm crazy enough to talk about game mechanics for a game I don't even own, and because I'm enjoying your reports:

Defensive Tactics could also be in play if I declare on Rome:  they are allied with Kumasi who would then declare on me and fulfill the requirement.

You might want to test this in SP or a hotseat duel where you play both sides or something, but I think this was fixed/changed in a recent patch: You only get the Defensive Tactics inspiration if an actual civ declares on you, not if you "force" a city state to do so by wardec'ing their suzerain.

He only has 3 cities and 1 source of iron, though the one I have in the screenshot is not hooked up so he will be able to build the Arabian UU when the time comes.

Aren't all UU's resourceless anyway?

[pindicator]

Thanks for the warning. I'll take a look into it before making any decisions regarding war declarations.

I never made the connection that every UU was resourceless. I remember seeing it a lot in the different descriptions so I'm sure you're right.

Glad you're enjoying the thread!

[pindicator]

Exciting news with the district discount conditions beyond discovered. Taking the non-spoiler is bit from Cornflakes' dual thread:

C = total number of completed districts (regardless of type)
P = placed districts of the specific type in question (e.g. Commercial Hub), this includes the sum of completed and uncompleted districts of the specific type
A = available districts to build, which is based on techs discovered. (e.g. Astrology + Writing + Bronze Working = 3 available districts)

For a specific district type, the discount is available only if both of the following are true:
1) C>=A
2) C/A > P

For fun let's see how this works with our civ. Maybe we can discover a future optimization.

C = 3. Holy sites at Forgottonia and Jefferson, campus at Jefferson.
A = 5. Astrology, Writing, Bronze Working, Currency, and Drama & Poetry.

So right away I can tell that I don't meet the requirements because I don't have enough districts completed. I have another campus finishing at Acadia in 4 turns, and the theatre I just placed at the capital will take 9 turns after the settler finishes. But I don't seem to be close to C = A any time soon.

Additional things to consider:

* I am coming up on both Apprenticeship and Games & Recreation which would unlock two more available districts. I should try to delay those until I can complete more districts unless the need to research that tech/civic outweighs it. Similarly I don't expect to get Celestial Navigation any time soon now.

* I need to complete my current districts in order to make future districts cheaper. The bottlenecks there are growth (unlocking more potential districts) and cogs.

* I should avoid planting any districts that are not Campus or Holy Site until I can reach C = A. Similarly, I wish I had waited on that theater squares at the capital and instead maybe bought a tile for a campus.

* This is a bigger boost for wide empires, as so getting more settlers out gives you more opportunities to build up to A.

* This is an incentive against empire-wide specialization, as anybody actively chasing this discount to the maximum value will have equal number districts of each type. However, it does offer a tradeoff of efficiency vs specialization that I think is intriguing. In my game it probably means not worrying about the discount on campus or holy site districts, as I have a number of each down already and plan on building more. But I should try to get the discount on as many of the other districts as possible.

[pindicator]

Turn 073

If at first you don't succeed...




...try, try again.

Brussels is building walls and I fear I'm going to completely misread the situation again, but we're going to make another attempt at the city. I've upgraded 2 warriors into swords, chopped out a 3rd sword (overflow making the holy site a reasonable build time) and have 4 archers moving into position. We are going to be patient with things this time, moving all our units into the opportune position before launching the attack. Not being swayed by any ancillary goals like capturing builders or clearing barbarian camps either. I'm hoping to be able to kill all 3 visible archers in a first strike, and then my full-health archers can start bombarding the city while the swords move to put the city into siege. We'll have to move fast from there, as it's pretty clear that Brussels has the capability of quickly replenishing any archer force. But perhaps we can catch them before they finish those city walls...

You can also see the newest addition to the empire; I just planted down Lost Dakota on the previous turn. We also just finished our trade route with Valletta, and while it is tempting to get the new city up and running faster, I decided to move the trader over to Jefferson: after the settler from Jefferson went to Lost Dakota I decided that it is time to grow the capital as much as possible: that means finally getting the city buildings down, beginning with the water mill. I'd like to get that city doubled in size within 20 turns if possible.

Settler duties have then moved over to Acadia. Note that Acadia has walls now, which is for a few reasons. The biggest reason is that I met a commercial city state whose quest was for me to trigger the eureka for engineering - or in other words, build city walls. Second is Rome has conquered La Venta (still insanely jealous of the difference between city-state conquests there) and now is probing his archer units south. This also means that Lost Dakota did not get the instant-monument that I would have like to have given it, and instead is slow building its monument. (Lost Dakota did however get planted just in time to give me the eureka on horseback riding right before I finished the tech this turn.) Lost Dakota districts are still undecided; Acadia's next district is going to be an encampment northeast of the campus. Or maybe an industrial district in the jungle hills to it's southwest.

But if I can destroy Brussels then my army is coming north and marching with that settler to put a city right in Japper's craw.

Here's Japper:




I'm still dreaming of the ability of planting a city west of the horse, walling it instantly, buying the wheat tile from Catachan (née La Venta), putting an encampment northeast of the horses, my ranged units all within that coastal basin, and keeping my land units to the west of the mountains to keep Rome from gaining the river. Maybe if I could do that next turn it would be a good plan, but I still have Brussels to deal with.

Losing La Venta has caused my faith to be cut in half -- another reason temples are in production. In 10 turns we'll be back up to 18ish faith.

I do need to be careful of what Japper's next plan is. He has a legion unit now, just build a few turns ago. If he pushes south right when I declare on Brussels things could be ugly.

[pindicator]

So I know that nobody has commented in here about my complaining regarding Brussels, but I have a working theory: industrious and militaristic get production bonuses that I've never come across because by luck I've never yet tried to rush one in single player games.

Valletta has an army running around to rival mine, at least