Dave Fires Up The Epstein Drive [Japan]

[oledavy]

So we're not doomed yet...although Singaboy has shown himself to be a very sharp tactician, too. Too bad he couldn't be overrun with barbarians again to start this game, slow him down a little.

Yeah, we're hardly doomed yet   

The important thing here is a continuation of my philosophy in PBEM2. If you're not in the lead, but there is nothing you can do to arrest the progress of the leader, make sure you at the very least keep yourself in a position to win. This means keeping pace in science and trying to ensure you have enough production/military at a given time to take advantage of a sudden shift in the geopolitical situation. 

For what it's worth, I'm glad to see Singaboy doing better here after he got shafted in PBEM2. He's a smart player, so I'm happy he's getting a chance to actually do well. I don't expect it's going to end in a neat and tidy march to victory for him from here though. He's got experienced players on either side, and there is a diplo thread where dogpiles can be organized. Sooner or later, someone will theoretically try to do something about him.

[oledavy]

I had a moment this afternoon, time for stats on everyone!

The Juggernaut

Singaboy of Germany

Score: 131
Cities: 6
Non-Capital Pop: 19
Government: Classical Republic
Foreign Contacts: 4
Treasury: 73
Gold Per Turn: 25
Techs: 16
SPT: 24.8
Civics: 10
CPT: 20.6
Military Strength: 281
Districts: 6 (1 Encampment, 2 CH's, 2 Hansas, 1 Campus)

The Techer

Woden of Brazil

Score: 99
Cities: 4
Non-Capital Pop: 13
Government: Autocracy (guessing he's building SH or the Oracle currently)
Foreign Contacts: 4
Treasury: 96
Gold Per Turn: 22
Techs: 15
SPT: 35.3
Civics: 8
CPT: 14.1
Military Strength: 241 (Somebody has been mobilizing recently)
Districts: 4? (I can't figure out for sure, but I think he has 2 Campuses and 2 CH's.)

The Landlubber (I don't think he's built a single boat yet this game)

CFCJesterfool of Spain

Score: 81
Cities: 3
Non-Capital Pop: 9
Government: Oligarchy?!?!?
Foreign Contacts: 3
Treasury: 83
Gold Per Turn: 17
Techs: 12
SPT: 21.1
Civics: 9
CPT: 11.9
Military Strength: 155
Districts: 3 (1 Campus, 1 CH, 1 HS)

The Seadog

Archduke of England

Score: 94
Cities: 4
Non-Capital Pop: 12
Government: Classical Republic
Foreign Contacts: 3
Treasury: 47
Gold Per Turn: 16
Techs: 14
SPT: 17.1
Civics: 8
CPT: 11.2
Military Strength: 148
Districts: 2 (2 Royal Navy Dockyards)

Turn Down for Wats!

Jpper007 of the Vikings

Score: 88
Cities: 5
Non-Capital Pop: 10
Government: Classical Republic
Foreign Contacts: 4
Treasury: 164
Gold Per Turn: 10
Techs: 14
SPT: 14.8
Civics: 7
CPT: 14.8
Military Strength: 134
Districts: 1 (1 HS)

The Religious Isolationist

Dave of Japan/The OPA

Score: 102
Cities: 5
Non-Capital Pop: 10
Government: Classical Republic
Foreign Contacts: 5
Treasury: 110
Gold Per Turn: 9
Techs: 13
SPT: 32.8
Civics: 9
CPT: 14.4
Military Strength: 119
Districts: 5 (2 HS's, 3 Campuses). 

I will note that these categories do leave out two I'm strong in: buildings built and possession of a religion. That being said, I think it's clear that while I'm holding my own in the tech rate, I'm lagging on expansion and population. This is to be expected with my religious opening, but will be a cause for long-term concern if I don't find other ways to keep pace. 

What I really want to know is how Singaboy has managed to produce guns and butter at the same time. He has the most cities in the game, the largest population, the biggest miltiary, and the most districts. He doesn't have a religion, but his economy is strong and he is leading in CPT while being strong on science.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Thank you! This helps judge about where everyone's at, and what they've been focusing on.

It also shows how Singaboy is head and shoulders above the pack right now, with 30% more score than anyone else. Could he have managed to capture *two* cities? I'm just wondering how he's managed such a rapid expansion while also laying down infrastructure. He has the most culture, the most districts, and the most GPT, and is 3rd in science, on top of fielding the largest army. It's an extremely impressive achievement any way you slice it. I look forward to seeing how the game deals with him going forward.

[oledavy]

Yeah, what's remarkable to me is how much everyone else is about within a metaphorical "1 Standard Deviation" of each other, after you discount Singaboy.

The Vikings are lagging on pop, but they grabbed a religion. The British are ahead on population, but they are lagging in districts. Woden is ahead in science and districts, but is lagging in city count. 

If I had to rank most likely to win to least likely to win from this position, I would put everyone in about the following order: 

1. Singaboy
2. Me
3. Woden
4. Archduke
5. Jpper007
6. CFCJesterfool

I would rate myself below Woden, as I believe his position is slightly stronger than my own, except that I believe I have a better geopolitical position. I can't tell for sure at this point, and won't for a long time, but I think I have the most isolated start of all the players. Moreover, it seems that Singaboy is very close to the Vikings and Archduke. This is why I don't think its set in stone that he will be able to bring it home at this point, as his neighbors will in theory seek to bring him down sooner or later. 

Singaboy's lead seems to be the result of a confluence of small factors that combined to make his position very strong. First off, he had a militaristic CS, which allowed him to get out an extremely fast second settler. It also allowed him to more efficiently build a military to take out the city-state. Having a lot of districts is explainable by the cheaper cost of Hansas (for the most part...). The big difference really seems to be the acquisition of a city-state. I don't know which one of his cities it is, but I think Valletta was actually on some good land, with 5-6 pop, and that is what has really tipped the scales. Maybe they even finished the encampment before he took the city... I just don't know where all the culture is coming from. It can't all be from pop, and I don't think monuments completely explain it either. 

At any rate, I intend to try to foster a conflict on the other side of the world, while I sit back in my glorious isolation and set myself up to take advantage of whatever happens. The time to build the Venetian Arsenal is almost here....

[oledavy]

Turns 76-78



As you can see, I went ahead and renamed my cities to account for my new paradigm. I'm tempted to name the islands to the east and southeast Saturn and Neptune, but I think I'm going to hold off on that until I actually settle them 

At any rate, the big news is the settlement of Ceres and placement of a commercial hub. In the north, I'm going to use my last builder charge to harvest that rice and lay down a theatre district on the tile marked "Commercial Hub." I'll buy the tile in a couple turns with gold from clearing barb camps. In the interim, I'm just moving units to clear barbs and take control of all these islands, and waiting for Natural Philosophy to come in. I also bought my last library with Faith in Callisto. 

The immediate plan after finishing military is to push infrastructure, completing a round of districts, granaries, monuments, and watermills at home. I'm also going to make sure Ganymede hits 10 pop before building another settler out of the city. After that, it will be back to expansion. 

Here's hoping the next Great Scientist is someone really good.

[oledavy]

Turn 79

Got the turn to the news that Mormonism has spread to Io, getting me to six cities for the Reformed Church Inspiration. 



I started my second attempt to pacify the eastern island, which I am provisionally calling Saturn. 



Welp, that is a lot of barbs....

My units should both live through the next turn, but establishing a beachead here is going to be a slow, painful progress. I'll keep shoving units into the meatgrinder for now. If I need to retreat, I'll pull back, and land on the eastern end of the island. From there I'll have enough room to fully deploy before moving on the camp. 

Attempting landings without fire support from the sea is just extremely hard, I shudder to think of anyone trying it against a human player.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Glad to see that expansion is proceeding apace.

Would it not be wiser to wait until you have superior forces to clear off the barbs? I worry about sending in the boys piecemeal like that. Even just enough troops to grab the beachhead and shoot down the camp would be enough to pacify the island, so it doesn't have to be a long delay.

[oledavy]

Turn 80

Indeed, it would have been smarter to wait to land until I could put more troops ashore. However, I made the mistake of landing the archer first. When it was just my archer and warrior landing against what I thought was just a spear and a warrior, it seemed like a good idea to just try and brute force it. However, landing the warrior revealed the other two barb units, retroactively making the landing a bad idea. 

Needless to say, I'm going to try to be more patient and circumspect moving forward. 

This was a pretty eventful turn, I must say. First off: 



Finishing my archer got me the Mercenaries Inspiration, and the Machinery Eureka. This was also the turn Recorded History and Celestial Navigation finished. 

Abroad, the Vikings declared war on the Spaniards. 



Given that he made peace with Hong Kong immedietly, I imagine he declared war to make an opportunistic coastal raid on an improvement, or to steal a worker. I'm starting to feel really bad for CFCJesterfool, as this is the third time someone has declared war on him. 

In this screenshot, you can also see the number the barbs did on my landing troops. I pulled out both units, and I'm now planning on moving the wounded warrior and my two most recent archers to the eastern end of the island to begin setting up shot. It will take awhile, but I will eventually clear off this island. 

Clearing out The Belt is also slowly grinding towards a conclusion. A second warrior is waiting offshort to directly assault the encampment, waiting on my other warrior to heal enough. 

My other two warriors are heading to the southwest island, It will be a little of a stretch for me to settle compared to the other two, but I can definitely make my claim to it stronger by getting some boots on the ground. 

Woden continues to explore with a wounded galley near Ganymede. There is another galley further south between the Spanish and Norwegians. 



I'm becoming very tempted to make a push for one of the now cheap Ancient and Classical Wonders. 

This game is rather notable in the fact that with 80 turns under our collective belts, nobody has built a wonder. I expect that is about to change though, as Woden is definitely building something. I'm mildly tempted by HG. Someone will probably beat me to the Oracle if I try it. On the other hand, I may just go for the "More districts and settlers" wonder, and save my hammers for Venetian Arsenal - one that blows most other wonders out of the water on this map. 



And this kids is why you always check the "Recruited GP" tab. CFCJesterfool ran a project and jacked Omar Khayyam from Woden at last minute. Woden, however, was able to recruit the second medieval GS in the form of Abu Al-Qasim. I think all the medieval ones are pretty meh, to be honest. Omar Khayaam is just a crap shoot in terms of how useful he ends up being. I feel like Abu-Al-Qasim can be very strong, but is generally kinda niche. You really need to be pushing military to get full use of him. 

As for the other niche GS?



My partner is a music major, and I learned a lot about Hildegard of Bingen when she was doing a project on her a couple years back. I complained to her last fall how shitty Hildegard is in Civ 6. Then, I played my first religious game as Russia, spamming Lavras with Dance of the Aurora. Man, my opinion on Hildegard changed very quickly. I had a full 6 adjacency bonus on a Holy Site, and was running the policy that doubles output from adjacency bonuses on Holy Sites. Hildegard gave me 12 SPT for the rest of the game, nearly doubling my science at the time I landed her. 

She's easily the best of the medieval GS's for my situation. Currently, I have a Holy Site with a 4 adjacency bonus, which will be increased to 6 before t100. Moreover, with my programme of building ampitheatres and universities with faith, the 100 faith is actually pretty useful. 

Needless to say, I'm pretty happy with this outcome, as she will push my science further into high gear, a stat that just keeps getting better and better for me as I strive to finish my urban core. 



Natural Philosophy gives me 9 SPT, and in a couple more turns will give me 11 SPT when Callisto finishes its CH. Urban planning contineus to be a no-brainer. I thought really hard about running Inspiration or Literary Tradition in my Wildcard slot, but Land Surveyors allows me to accelerate Ganymede's growth, and I can swap out of it in a mere 5 turns. 

The discount allowed me to buy the rice tile 2 west of Gaymede, and immedietly harvest it to bring the city to size 8. I locked in my first Theatre District on the tile. A second one will be locked in soon when Callisto reaches Size 7. I intend to keep my culture competitive this game through combined use of Meiji Restoration, Great Writers, and Faith-Bought Ampitheaters. Moreover, getting a full adjacency bonus from each district and doubled production actually makes them worthwhile to build. I'll be sure to include a shot of the current state of the Jovian megacity in the next turn report. 

Ganymede is now producing no food overflow while I wait for two turns for the granary to complete. Then, it will be time to push to Civil Service. 

What else...I locked in harbors in Io and Ceres, they are expensive right now at 160 hammers each. I definitely will not be able to get the Cartography Eureka. 

My science now is 10 above Woden, and triple that of the Vikings. Things are looking good, and I'm pretty content to take my week-long break from this game leaving on a note like this.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Good luck on the scientist! Nice to see something break Japan for once - looks like Hildegard will synergize perfectly with your gameplan. The longterm plan looks good as well.

My own recommendation on the wonder front is to save the hammers for Venetian Arsenal. Right now in terms of military and expansion your empire is lagging compared with Germany, and my belief is that chasing even cheap ancient wonders will further slow you. The Arsenal, obviously, is deadly on a water map (my first Emperor-level win came when I landed it as England - double naval units coupled with free infantry when I captured cities led to a startlingly rapid snowball into domination once Redcoats came online). It'll go a long way to equalizing yourself with Germany's production advantage. By the same token, Germany landing it would be terrible news for the world.

On a more long-term note, how do you feel about spies in this game? I've never seen them come up in multiplayer, but I remember in PBEM2 you were planning on hampering Alhambram's culture a bit with Great Work thefts. I'm wondering if it'd be worthwhile investment of hammers, if the game lasts that long, to try and sabotage your rivals' districts or siphon their treasuries.

Anyway, have fun with your trip! Looking forward to seeing things in a week!

[oledavy]

Turn 81

I think you're absolutely right on skipping the ancient wonders. As far as spies go, I didn't get much use out of the one I built in PBEM2 due to an unfortunate timing of events. I think they're solid, but I really think you need Machiavellianism in place to make them worth building. They're so expensive otherwise. 

You raise an excellent additional decision to go for VA. Germany will already be scary without it.....but with it.....they could be unstoppable. They're already likely to be best positioned to grab it due to its requirement of an industrial district. Denying it will be one of my top priorities. 

Germany is likely to have an opponent on the seas though. 



Archduke is really churning out those RYD's now. He's a lock for probably all the Great Admirals this game. I'm hoping he will own the seas around Germany and keep him more or less contained. Germany could be stopped purely by assembling a naval preponderance first, and stopping him from colonizing additional islands. If those two keep each other in a stalemate, the game favors me and Woden with our large research numbers over the long-term.  

It also occurs to me, CFCJesterfool went for GS projects to get a GS because he is suzerain of Hong Kong. Well done that making use of a generally pretty marginal suzerain ability. 

At any rate, this is where I leave things on the cusp of my five day hiatus. 



District building and placement is my favorite part of Civ6, so regardless of the outcome of this game, I've had a blast so far just building the Jovian Megalopolis. As soon as Callisto hits size 7, I'll fill in the last bit of the interior. Priority right now is growing both it and Europe to Size 7 for their next districts. 

See you all later this week!