[Spoilers] Chevalier Gives You Something to Cry Aboot

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Huh.

My 2 cents, if things are that good, why are you moving away?

I for one think that if a relationship is good, one should fight for it. I myself am married to someone from another country 2000 km away.

Well, I had made plans to move back in March. I took a contract with a really, really good American school, gave notice to my school here, etc. Bought my ticket, my visa is expiring, the whole shebang. I started dating more or less as "practice," to get back on the horse after my girlfriend of 9 years left me in November. The thinking was I'd keep it casual, meet a few people, have some nice dinners maybe, nothing too serious. I didn't expect, like I said, to have such a meaningful relationship blossom so quickly, and my plans were already pretty set. 

To stay would mean abandoning all hope - forever, you don't get two chances at this - of working at the school district of my dreams in the USA, and trying to stay here with no visa and no job. If I was madly, passionately, convinced she was the One, then yeah, maybe I would move heaven and earth. But I've only known her six weeks or so, and while I do like her a lot, I'm not at the heaven and earth stage yet. So home I will go, and in the meantime a part will always wonder what might have been.

[TheArchduke]

There´s your answer.

Anyway, chin up, the game is not over yet.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 33

Another fairly quiet turn with no decisions, really, to make. But our snowball is starting to pick up, although I foresee some obstacles ahead! Let's dive in. 

First up, we finish Mining, and I order up Irrigation next to unlock our plantations:




our capital, at least, won't really lack for housing once those go up. With all the pastures around, it even has decent production, although I do lament the lack of hills. On the whole, The Blues is a pretty okayish city, then. In fact, it's so okay it's mediocre! Here's what it looks like after I pasture the horses and send them to Kings:




7 culture, 13 food, 12 production, 5 gold. At size 5 that will probably become 7 culture, 16 food, 14 production, and 8 gold in a few turns. That'll be 20 hammers per turn towards settlers with Colonization, 40 with the Ancestral Hall, which should suffice. As for where to send those settlers...well, Capitals, Blackhawks, and Penguins are all decent sites, but I'm sort of thinking about stretching for the jungle belt with Bruins. The land in other directions is uncontested desert and tundra garbage, so I think we want to muscle into that fertile jungle asap. Our military ranks second place now before our two warriors finish, so defending some land grabs shouldn't be difficult right now. If we can swing that, then we're in business! We can start to build a lead and snowball from there. 

Here's Kings:




It's a really unconventional second city, but long-term it should work out. We're up to 3 housing, so the growth penalty is lifted for the 5 turns it'll take to grow. I'm working the horses for now, then probably the horses/plains hill until I can finish a granary following this warrior, then perhaps swap to the rice to grow to size 4 so we can place two districts. I haven't done the micro leg work on that to know if it's optimal, though - you know unless it's for a specific plan I never put that level of effort into my micromanagement. The benefit never seemed worth the amount of effort required, frankly. 

The warrior might be kind of a wasted build now, of all things. Antananarivo cleared the camp for us:




Or there's another player lurking up there and he sniped it. Not too worried about that with 4 warriors and a slinger running around due to our barb issues, though. Anyone who rolls into the neighborhood will have bitten off more than they can chew here. 

Besides, the other players are all still leading comfortably as their stupid fertile cities that their stupid productive capitals built with no trouble grow like weeds:






We'll show them. We'll show all of them. Mark my words, Canada shall rise again!

[TheArchduke]

Empire score looks okish, ignore era score. I think we should start to to keep ourselves to a dark age and maybe explode into a golden age.

Maybe we could go for 1-2 holy sites and monasticism. Culture is not an issue.

I dislike holy sites in general though. Going religion has always provided me with grief in those PBEMs where I went for it.

[Sullla]

Definitely do not build any Holy Sites, it would take forever to establish a religion and there's no production to spare for those districts. The big question at the moment is what to build next in the capital and Kings when they finish their current warriors over the next two turns. Kings at least is pretty straightforward: it needs a granary to avoid getting capped on housing again at size 2. It can reach 8 production/turn at size 2 by picking up the 1/3 forested plains hill tile and that's enough to knock out the granary in about 7 turns. The city then likely starts its Campus district after that and uses a trade route back to the capital to grow upwards (when the Government Plaza finishes, that trade route will have 2/2 yield). So Kings has its upcoming build queue set for the next 10-15 turns and looks pretty easy to manage.

The problem is the capital. It's going to finish that warrior next turn (and sadly waste some of the Agoge overflow production under the new rules, argh) and then need something else to build. What we want to build is the Government Plaza since it's worth a governor promotion and we need it for a future Ancestral Hall. Unfortunately State Workforce won't be done for another 3 turns and then we also need enough money to purchase the tile where the Government Plaza will be situated. That tile should be bought by the city of Kings (where it's a second ring tile and thus cheaper) and then can be assigned to the capital, but that's still going to cost 50 or 55 gold which Canada doesn't have at the moment. The barbarian camp getting cleared is actually kind of bad because that gold would really come in handy. I'm still hoping that Kings will grab the marked Campus tile for itself via natural culture expansion so that we don't have to purchase that tile.

Anyway, so we're looking at maybe 5 turns until State Workforce is finished and that tile can be purchased. What does the capital build in that time span? Here are some potential options:

* Military: this would avoid wasting some of that Agoge overflow production so it's a possibility. However, Canada is going to have 4 warriors, 1 slinger, and 1 scout while feels like plenty for this stage of the game. I think that production can be put to better use.

* Monument: it's not a crazy choice since a monument can be built in 5 turns at 12 * 5 = 60 production and we're looking at roughly 5 turns before the Government Plaza can be started. Once again, the issue is that culture is about the one thing that Canada has in spades right now so I'm not sure this is the best use of production either.

* Trader: this is the correct choice at the moment, as an early trade route will help snowball Kings and give it the food it needs to grow (once a granary is finished). This is where it's unfortunate that our scout had to come home for barbarian defense and couldn't manage to find another continent for the Foreign Trade boost. We don't have the civic completed to allow the capital to start working on a trader. So this is also out at the moment even though it would be the ideal choice.

* Builder: I'd also favor a builder except that there are no tiles that need to be improved. The capital can grab the wines when it grows again and that will mean both cities are working every improved tile. No need for anything else at the moment. I would not suggest chopping any of the non-hill forests because those can be 2/3 tiles as soon as lumbermills open up and will become totally useless 2/0 tiles if chopped. Best to leave them alone. So what's left as an option?

* Settler: I think this is where I ended up, dumping production into a settler for lack of other options. It's inefficient to train a settler without Colonization policy in place but I'm struggling to see other options. The capital could get what, half of a settler done if it put 5 turns into the settler, 60/110 production. Is that good? It still feels like a pretty bad option to me. I don't think it's worthwhile to train a settler unless the plan is to finish it before Colonization policy is in place, and then we're looking at 8 or 9 turns of production from the capital.

So this is my big question for you to decide Chevalier: do you want to build a settler out of the capital right now, without Colonization in place, over the next 9 turns? Or do you want to slip in something else at the capital for the moment with the goal of getting the Government Plaza done faster? I think this is partly contingent on how fast we can accumulate the gold to pick up that Government Plaza tile. If it can be ready in 4-5 turns then it's probably not worthwhile to start the settler. If we need 60 gold and it's going to be 7 more turns, then yeah, get the settler out now and do the Government Plaza next. Again, in a perfect world this would be the moment to get the trader finished but that's sadly not possible. Any settler would definitely go to the northeast jungles where the terrain is much stronger.

I'm not too worried about the scores of the other players yet. Canada is definitely a bit behind after that barbarian-heavy start but it's early yet and the scores aren't too meaningful right now.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

If we had the pantheon belief available to set up one of those crazy adjacency Holy Sites and take advantage of the new Work Ethic belief, I'd consider going religion a game-breaking move. As it is, I'm praying Ichabod doesn't hit upon Sacred Path + Braziilian Adjacency + Work Ethic + Double Holy Site adjacencies or the rest of the game is fucked. 

Sullla, your thoughts on what comes next from the capital echo mine. Our most efficient builds are either not particularly helpful at the moment (a granary or monument), not available (a trader, which would be my first choice if Foreign Trade were in), or redundant (MORE WARRIORS). That said, I think this turn has driven me to start a pre-Colonization Settler. I'll explain my reasoning below.

First, we start Turn 34





Turn starts finishing Irrigation, as expected. Next on the queue is Writing, so we can get started on our campus districts relatively soon. We'll research it to the boost and - ah.




With our scout mostly healed, I sent him back to the northeast and found an Egyptian warrior standing atop our Bruins site. We probably would have met 10 turns ago if I hadn't had to recall the scout for escort duty. Kaiser wasn't first to meet Antananarivo or Yerevan, so he's probably further north, and either scouted in teh opposite direction from us or has other city-states closer to him, so I'll keep driving northeast. 

As you can see, his Egypt is off to a blazing start. 10 cpt and 9 science, and as I recall he's led on science for quite a while, so we'll probably find a science state to the north. He's also built at least two builders, like we have:




Coffee, truffles, horses, and sheep all connected at two separate cities. Coffee at the capital explains his early culture lead once you throw in a city-state and some sphinxes. I assume he's got an Irrigation farm, 2 pastures, a camp, a sphinx, and a plantation down right now. His era score is high and he has yet to build a Chariot Archer, so he's guaranteed a golden age. He's making 5 more gpt than me, probably from the truffles and coffee. Military score is 43, while we lead in this category with 59. His city is population 2, meaning his capital is population 5. On the whole, Kaiser is leading every major category except military and religion. He's built 2 builders, a settler, and probably a monument at his capital, but not as many military units as we have. His population growth is higher and he has lots of improved tiles to work.

That said, he's not lightyears ahead yet, and his civ is entirely frontloaded while Canada is, uh, not. We're in good shape, I think.

The revelation of Egypt to our north makes me want to throw a settler towards Bruins sooner rather than later. Accordingly, I queue one up. This will delay the Government Plaza by 3 turns, total - we'll finish the civic in 2, but we need 60 gold to buy the tile, which will take 6 more turns to accumulate. The alternative is sinking hammers into a monument or granary, but neither of those is appealing at the capital right now. I'd much prefer to expand quickly, even if inefficiently, and stake our claim to the central part of the map. We really need more than our fair share of land if we're going to be competitive, because otherwise we're a totally vanilla civ that can't conquer city-states unless Kaiser kindly suzerains them for us (and then we need to denounce and declare war on him, which, dont' get me wrong, I'm totally going to do if he does give us a chance to conquer Antananarivo or Yerevan. More likely he'll just ignore them and declare war himself though. ). 

I also start to scatter my warriors - I have 2 fully healed and 2 more available next turn, plus the scout and the slinger. I'm sending units west, northwest, northeast, east, and southeast at the moment, with the slinger to remain at home in reserve. We'll have 5 turns warning before Kaiser could attack, and our barbs are momentarily absent unless there's a camp southeast in the fog. 




Haven't looked closely at scores to spot changes. No one has completed a district yet.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 35

Taking a quick turn today since I'm meeting friends for dinner. Screenshots to come later, if at all - only if there's interesting things, I haven't even loaded the turn yet. 

Okay, here goes:

- Nothing of interest. Kaiser is sniffing around with his warrior. Everyone except Woden and I stands at 20 empire points, we are at 18 and 16 respectively.

- Kaiser lost a GPT, but hasn't finished a district. Do buildings cost maintenance? Could he have finished a monument (12 cpt) or granary? Upgraded an archer? Forgot to check gold reserves. 

- Overview and score screenshot to come later if you want but situation largely unchanged from last turn.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 36

Shipped most of my belongings home today. Can't believe I've been in Korea 11 months! It really is a nice country, and I like it here. But I also miss home, even if home is a clusterfuck at the moment. 

Anyway, turn 36 had some fun. Let's poke around a bit:




State Workforce is in. This gets us our first governor. I think the obvious play is Pingala -> Culture Promotion with our first two titles, yes? Magnus chops have been nerfed (Kaiser tried that in PBEM17 and it failed horribly), we're not building builders for Liang for a while, Amani is the last governor we want (although I have an idea regarding her!), Reyna is mediocre, Victor not needed yet, and Moksha is still a joke. So Pingala it is.

 Next research is uninspired Foreign Trade, because it's better to waste the excess culture we have and hit PP sooner than it is to wait who-knows-how long to get the inspiration. I'll be pissed if I stumble over it next turn (knock on wood) but that seems unlikely, yeah? Yeah. Totally. 

Anyway, last choice is if I want to alter polices to Corvee or Conscription, which I do not. We have no need of Agoge, really, but swapping itno Discipline is the only real alternative. I decide to stay in Agoge in case I need emergency builds or something in the absence of better options, and Urban Planning is obviously our top choice until Colonization is available. 

In the north, now that we've met him, Kaiser's loyalty is visible - I think a young city wouldn't have that heavy Loyalty pressure, right? Anyway, I think settling Bruins early is definitely the right choice here. Take a look how close he is:




Kaiser has gone full builder's gambit. He has just finished the game's first campus, undoubtedly has at least one, possibly two monuments, and is if my count is correct already researching Political Philosophy. He's got all of Egypt's early bonuses firing (presumably a trade route up, yeah?), was first to a second city I think, but his military power is 42. I see one injured warrior, which leaves about 25 points. I don't know how much gold factors, but he has at most 1 other warrior and a slinger out there. We have 4 warriors, a slinger, and a scout.

[If we were playing ANYTHING OTHER THAN CANADA I'd literally march on Atananarivo right now. We could easily muscle into it with our 4 warriors and it's not like we need the culture. But nooooo Canada can't declare war on City States because apparently Firaxis thinks Canada is the only peaceful country in the world, as opposed to, for example, Korea, Gandhi-India, Mali, the Maya, Australia, etc. Usually they try to avoid lazy stereotypes in their Civ design but seriously, what the hell is with Canada in this game - peace, mounties, and ice rinks. C'mon.] 

In fact, I'm thinking of denouncing him. I fear no surprise war from Kaiser right now, so it hardly increases our vulnerability, and it DOES open up the possibility of more moves on our part - we could leverage the warriors to threaten traders or settlers, force him to build some military of his own, I dunno. There seems more upsides than downsides right now, the downside being if I want to work with Kaiser down the line. But I can't see that happening if he keeps up this demographic lead.  He WILL be in Oligarchy very soon with his high culture, but hell, what's he going to do with it? Threaten me with 2 warriors? 

With Kaiser visible I propose an alternate site for Bruins, as well as a "stretch" border city of Hurricanes: 




Both Hurricanes positions can only be settled from Bruins B. Bruins B has a 2/2 and a 2/3 tile first ring, more in the second. It connects Incense, and, hard to see, has a really nice Campus spot southwest next to a mountain and a geothermal vent. It sits behind the river and is easily defensible.

Hurricanes B, my favored position, is due northwest of Bruins B. It sits on a hill for defense and has cows, plus a bunch of 2/2 jungle tiles. It'd be a nice border city but it is in Egyptian loyalty (-5 penalty), so it's definitely in the outer reaches of our influence. 

Hurricanes C is further outside Egyptian influence, has 2 wheat for growth and some hills for mining, but only 1 2/2 tile and lots of flatland and floodplains. It's flat and on the wrong side of the river but can only be attacked from one tile, and would be easily defensible with lots of archers, or serve as a good jumping-off point for an invasion of Egypt down the road.

In the south, I find that there's definitely another camp:




Well, I'll divert the slinger here to support this warrior, and start to clean up this area. No new tiles revealed in the west yet. I pinned Red Wings, squeezed in on the coast, vulnerable to Phoenicia and England but it does grab some 2/2s, 2 wheat, and a nice campus spot. It's mostly a filler. I also tentatively pin a totally-unscouted Ducks on the south end of Lake Huron, which could be settled if we settle Capitals in Archduke's preferred dry spot. If we want to cram in as many cities as we can it's a possibility but the tiles are as-yet unrevealed and it may not be worth it. It'll be mostly tundra to the south. 

Scores and overview:

[TheArchduke]

I can only reiterate that in my opinion a settler push to Bruin followed by a horse fueled conquest is imo the best way forward.

3-4 more scout turns should clear things up.

A voice for denouncement, it forces him off builder mode.

Shame about Antanavario. I would blame the crazy guy who picked Canada!

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Live-tweeting Turn 37

all sentences shall be 280 characters or less

or we could go 140 characters for OG twitter - anyone remember that?

might also throw in some screenshots, might not, idk, depends on if I like you guys

(spoilers: I always like you guys <3)

First thought: Foreign Trade is in! Neat! 




better slot Discipline since I'll be fighting barbs in the south and won't be building anything for a bit

west: nothing on settler vision

north: lol of course not I still haven't even revealed new tiles

east: same

south: ANOTHER SCOUT ):< I am so mad right now




smack a barb slinger because fuck him, that's why




cities keep building things

no one seems to have finished any new districts, or grown any pops. Some new civics and techs trickling in around the world.




overall a quiet turn with no real decisions to make. Canada soldiers on, surrounded by barbs and desert and tundra, desolate but all undaunted.

this concludes my live-tweeted update and I shall now pass the save to Kaiser before editting in some photos