[Spoilers] Suboptimal - Welcome to the Tlachtli of Blunders!

[suboptimal]

All out city state warfare, you guys are using the Aztecs well. Thanks for reporting.

I think it's the easiest civ to do it with because of the Eagle Warrrior.  Most other PBEMs have seen city-state assaults wait for archers as warriors can't go toe-to-toe.  The capture ability has yet to fully come into its own in this game.  Over the next 20 turns or so I hope to be swimming in builders.

[suboptimal]

Turn 38

Back in the saddle after a couple of days out of town.  Down in the south the warrior ran back towards Preslav.  I move west and start attacking the slinger.  That move reveals two stone resources north of Preslav.  That city site at the riverbend is getting better and I’ll hope to capture something next turn.



Up in the north not much has changed.  Reposition my units and notice that RFS-81 has finally garrisoned Barrayar with a warrior as it’s now strength 20.  His military score is 49 and mine’s back on top at 105.  In looking at his gold tally it’s dropped to 125.  It should have been around 295, which tells me that the warrior in Barrayar was a purchase.

Gifts for the Tlatoani

Builders Captured: 3
Value: 158
Improvements Made: 2
District Boosts: 0
Chops: 0

[suboptimal]

Turn 39

This turn should be a little more eventful.  Let’s see what awaits me when opening the save…



Pantheon is in.  That’s good.  Not so good – the Eagle Warrior is at 11 health.  The warrior is under 10 and the slinger remains at 24.  My dilemma is that if I attempt to retreat the Eagle Warrior dies or the slinger is severely damaged.  I don’t think I can maneuver to capture both units as the Eagle Warrrior won’t heal enough in neutral territory.  I decide to have the slinger and Eagle Warrior swap locations.  Slinger attacks and kills the warrior, Eagle Warrior attacks and captures the slinger and earns a promotion.  Next turn I’ll move to the farm and activate the Tortoise promotion, then do a little scouting to the area NW of Preslav before finding a good spot to stop and heal up for a bit.  The slinger will escort my new builder back to the capital and then perhaps take a look across the hills to the east.  

One other thing has occurred to me.  Preslav didn’t take the second ring stone when I got the second envoy.  That means that whatever is in the second ring tile it did take is a luxury/strategic resource or a bonus resource better than 2/1.  I’ll find out next turn when I move the warrior to the farm.

Up north the barbarian warrior is not giving chase to my units.  Good.  Builder heads for Welcome, Eagle Warrrior fortifies in place to start healing.  Other Eagle Warrior and builder move to the marsh.  Next turn I’ll rotate them to the iron, the undamaged Eagle Warrior to the marsh and then attack on Turn 41.  

Time to pick a pantheon.  Egypt has taken Monument to the Gods (+15% to ancient & classical age wonders).  I admire the ambition of the pick.  I also note that God of the Open Sky is taken, as is Goddess of the Harvest.  I take Oral Tradition.

Pantheon out of the way with 0.1 to spare, the builder at Welcome farms a plains tile.  This lands me the boost to Craftsmanship which completes the civic.  I advance the slinger 2NE and will park it on the desert hill next turn.  Moves complete I swap policies.  Out with Discipline and God King, in with Agoge and Urban Planning.  

Welcome to the Occupation grew this turn and is back under the housing penalty.  I put the new population to work on the copper for 2/1/2:gold.  With Agoge running the second slinger should complete naturally on Turn 46.  I’ll chop it out on Turn 45 – 4 to the slinger, about 39 overflow to the Encampment.  I’ll continue building the Encampment, farm the plains for another housing point then put the last charge into the Encampment for 15.6.  That’ll get me the discount for a Campus over at Cant, once I get the tile purchased.

Internationally RFS-81’s power is up to 70.  His garrison in Barrayar is also out and about, though my slinger doesn’t see it.  Don’t know yet if he’s coming to check out what’s going on by the city-states or if he’s still got barbarian trouble to his north. The bigger issue is rho21 - he's completed his 7th tech and is ahead of everyone else in that department.  This could develop into a major problem.  I forgot to look last turn -- his completed district is a Campus.

Gifts for the Tlatoani

Builders Captured: 4
Value: 224
Improvements Made: 3
District Boosts: 0
Chops: 0
Craftsmanship Inspiration

[TheArchduke]

Impressive work so far. A enslaved builder in the south should boost masonry.

I can feel the warmonger growing in you.

In any case, if we want to stomp Egypt and seeing Monument of the Gods (really?) we should want to, we need to prepare a battle plan. With encampments and GG points accumulating he should feel safe until the GG comes, but we probably need this for victim #2.

Although with all those CS and Egypt conquered, you could give in into your inner builder and just build your way to victory.

[suboptimal]

The GG does nothing for us or for the attack on Egypt -- three Eagle Warriors and three archers should be sufficient for at least Barrayar and the reinforcements from the south (Eagle Warrior, battering ram) should get the capital.

Teching to victory is not in the cards at present - I need to match rho21's science rate and he's got a reasonable campus and at least one city-state in the bag. Egypt first, then find everyone else and come up with a plan.

[suboptimal]

Turn 40

In the south the slinger ad builder rendevous en route to Begin the Begin’s territory.  Eagle Warrior moves to the farm and promotes.  Next turn I’ll pillage.  The move reveals a 1/2/2 mined tundra copper.  

In the north things look...weird.  The graphic that shows an incomplete granary has disappeared on both map and strategic views.  Dunno what happened there.  Units rotate into position for the attack next turn.  The move also reveals a two tile spit of land:



This setup will only go wrong if a unit spawns during the interturn.  I’m leaving the one Eagle Warrior outside the borders for some extra healing.  If I get a few good damage rolls on the first turn it might be able to take the city the second turn and forego the farm pillaging.  That’d put the weakest Eagle Warrior in the city where it could fully heal in 5 turns.  I’ll need to see how next turn goes first.  If a unit spawns this attack may be slowed to the point where Egypt can reinforce enough to thwart my attack.  

There’s some repositioning at Welcome and a Eagle Warrior is started at Cant Get There From Here with the new slinger crossing the river.  I want to get a little bit of territory in that direction exposed, just to see what’s out there.  It reveals jade just east of my intended Campus location.  Next turn I’ll move SE and see what’s in that direction.  

I think RFS-81 may have archery completed.  His gold per turn just dropped by one.  rho21 is building up military – he’s in first place power-wise and CQUI shows him at 158 and a science rate of 12 per turn.  He’s also completed his eighth tech.

I stop masonry one turn short of 50% and start archery.  I’ll finish that to completion as Welcome will complete its slinger in two turns and chop out another in three turns.  On the fourth turn I can mass-upgrade to archers and then wait while Lisbon falls.  Hopefully the two coincide on Turn 44.

[suboptimal]

Turn 41

Open the save, Early Empire completes.  Start State Workforce, inspiration for that due in two turns.  No change in policies yet, though I have a notification that barbarians have shown up by Welcome to the Occupation.  Unfortunately I’ve got a major problem here – it’s a horse camp!



This is going to mess things up quite a bit.  Slinger and builder to the city center.  This is going to slow things down a bit, especially since chopping out a slinger will not happen with the horsemen around.  Going to have to suck it up and kill everything with the slinger.   I suppose the good news is that there’s a horse in the fog within three tiles of that camp, meaning there’s probably a good city site down there.

In the south the slinger and builder continue back towards the capital.  Builder will move to stone next turn and then quarry it the turn after that.  Warrior at Preslav pillages the farm, it’s back at full health and will go west for a bit starting next turn.  

Up at Lisbon it’s time for the attack.  Eagle Warrior moves to the pillaged pasture and the attacks begin.  Swamp EW first, 39 damage, slightly above average.  Pasture next, 33 damage.  Builder escort moves to farm, unlinks, attacks.  28 damage.  Average damage for this attack should have been a total of 107, I got 100.  So long as the garrison doesn’t attack out to the west I’ll be OK here.  I may be able to squeak by and take the city next turn, even with the garrison damage healing.

Last move for now is the slinger at Cant.  Moves SE onto the forested hill, reveals another jade.  This approach is rather confined and will be easily defended.



Now, about that barb trouble.  I’ve got a slinger at one turn from completion (34/35).  I can’t complete it because it’ll be forced out of the city.  The slinger in the city will have its hands full but I should be able to get a promotion out of it.  Time to do some rearranging and see what can be done.  First, I switch the builder from the copper tile to the 1/2production forest I was going to chop.  Don’t need the food and while the is nice I have enough for archers.  That change lowers the production time for an Eagle Warrior from 9 turns to 7 turns.  An Eagle Warrior can go toe to toe with a horse camp spawn.  I’ll leave Agoge in place so that it completes faster.  Slinger and builder will stay huddled up.  Once I can get the horses cleared I’ll chop out the remaining slinger with the overflow completing the second one.  In some ways this could be a good thing -- I'll have another Eagle Warrior for the attack on Egypt.

This will require delaying Archery as well.  I’ll get that to one turn, complete Masonry and switch to Writing.  Policies remain unchanged.  I'll also need to figure out what to put a turn of production into at Begin the Begin after the Encampment as there will be a 1 turn delay between finishing Masonry and starting the battering ram there.

Internationally Japper has completed a district and his sixth tech.  I’m the only one with four civics completed.

[suboptimal]

Figured I'd put this up as well.  Here are the screenshots showing Lisbon's disappearing incomplete granary.  Turn 38 on the top, Turn 39 on the bottom:





The entire city graphic changed except for the palace block. 

[suboptimal]

Ran some numbers, I think I've answered two questions from the prior report:

- I won't be able to take Lisbon next turn unless the two healthy Eagle Warriors can both do above-average damage. If they can reduce Lisbon to under 30 garrison health then I can take the city with the redlined Eagle Warrior. If they do not then that warrior will pillage the farm, I'll finish the assault on Turn 43 and the Eagle Warrior on the pasture will head back to Welcome to help deal with the barbarian attack.

- Begin the Begin will put some production into an Eagle Warrior during the Masonry delay. I'll build the ram, follow up with the Eagle Warrior and harvest the stone for overflow into a monument.

[TheArchduke]

Hmm, risky move with the western EW. I would have wait and pillaged. Does your experience show that the CS keeps its unit inside? Mine shows that they actually abandon the city as not to loose the unit. (Bad AI scripting if you ask me.)

We will see next turn.

I would pillage the farm regardless, no need to risk a unit over 1 turn. No CW incoming and one unit spawn won´t matter.