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

[suboptimal]

Now What?
(Verbosity Warning a/k/a challenging Sulla & CMF to a post length duel  )

The war is over, Egypt has been conquered (sorry, RFS-81).  Peace falls over most of Azteca and the remaining opponents are still out in the fog.  The Aztec Empire as of the end of Turn 60:

The North



The South



The Plan

The immediate plan is to heal up my troops, establish defensive fronts and build things, namely settlers and districts.  The goal is to secure population-based leads in science and culture as well as establish a large enough gold income to support a massive round of unit upgrades and continue funding those units as the next war phase starts.  Oh, and conquer Preslav because it's started to outlive its usefulness as an independent entity.  Besides, it's presence here is a blemish on the otherwise exclusively Aztec continent.


Settler Push

Settler #1 is complete and will found Find the River at the City #1 site on Turn 61.  Cant, How and Oddfellows are all at the starting end of settler builds.  These will go to the City #2, #4 and #5 locations.  

Government

I think that switching out of Oligarchy and into either Classical Republic or Autocracy is the correct move here.  I am leaning more towards Autocracy for three reasons:

- don’t need a diplomatic slot
- want to be able to keep Agoge as Begin will resume building units sooner rather than later, so need two military slots. 
- the two military slots will allow me flexibility with regards to Agoge, Maneuver and Limes while keeping Conscription in place.


At some point Agoge will give way to Maneuver and the chariots will come out (along with several more Eagle Warriors).  Once the final settler is out I’ll swap into Ilkum because there will be builders aplenty getting built.  Of course, if a city-state gives me a capture opportunity I’ll take it.

Civics

I’ve stopped Games & Recreation at the halfway point and switched to Drama & Poetry since the former was a bit under halfway complete.  Drama & Poetry will go to completion.  By then I should be in position to finish Construction in a timely fashion for the inspiration.  The immediate goal is Recorded History for Natural Philosophy, Defensive Tactics for Limes for some chop overflows and then Feudalism for the population explosion.  I may or may not get to Mercenaries in time for the knights push.  I think it'll be close.

Techs

Completing Horseback Riding then starting Construction.  Currency will be left unfinished until I get both Campus districts completed.  Engineering and Machinery round out the final techs before the military push begins.  At some point this will be interrupted by Sailing as I’ll want to be able to improve the pearls at the City #5 location.

Dotmaps and Build Plans

Begin the Begin

The trader here will complete during the interturn.  It will be sent to How The West Was Won, which will send the trader to Cant Get There From Here for a road.  This will ease the transfer of units along the front line cities.  The next build will be an archer so that I have two archers and two Eagle Warriors to take Preslav with.  I’ll harvest the southern stone to complete the archer and put the overflow into walls for defense and the Engineering eureka.  That all wraps up on Turn 64.  I’ll most likely build another archer, a builder or two and then start on chariots.  My original dotmap had a Campus district going in between the city center and the Encampment.  That is still a possibility though more likely is dropping a probably discounted Harbor into the lake for a trade route.

Cant Get There From Here

The plains hill directly east of the city center is the intended target of my mine & chop with the builder’s two remaining charges.  The overflow from the chop will be fed into the Campus, which is locked at a cost of 69. The chop should give me 72 and will leave the Campus with two turns remaining.  I’ll finish the builder that’s in the queue after the Campus (to follow the settler), get a second one out for local improvements and then build a couple of archers to defend the chokepoint.  The second builder will be on hand for one or two improvements and to help chop out a Commercial Hub.

Welcome To The Occupation

I’ve removed the Campus from this dotmap as I believe this to be counterproductive.  Plains will be farmed, an aqueduct will be built and this city will be set to grow as best it can.  At some point I will want to buy the furs tile for my sixth luxury hookup.  It’s currently working on a scout and then it will most likely start on builders for the city locations to the south.  Once those are done I may build a Stables (I’ll need an Armory at some point), perhaps drop in a specialist (for and ) and then start on chariots.  Yes, Stables are not ideal vs. Barracks but if I’ll be spitting out chariots from here and the +25% XP bonus will be useful.

Harborcoat

Talk about production starved.  It’s currently building a monument and then I’ll get a couple of galleys out for exploration and the boost. The Campus will get slow-built after the galleys are done.  When discounted Harbors become available I’ll put one here for a trade route.  As Commercial Hubs come online I may use this city for trader construction.

Oddfellows Local 151 and How The West Was Won

It’s a cluttered dotmap and since the cities are so close together I figured I’d handle them at once.  Oddfellows Local 151 is in the same position as Harborcoat – limited room for production growth.  Once the settler completes I’ll get a builder or two out of here to start farming up.  Once Feudalism hits Oddfellows will be set to max growth for the run to population 10 for the Civil Service boost.  That might require harvesting the marsh to help that along, but that’s OK.  A Commercial Hub will go in at some point.  The settler from this city is going down to the City #4 spot.

At How The West Was Won the primary goal is to get to population 4.  At that point the Campus at Cant will be complete and I’ll buy the marked tile and lock the Campus.  I’ll also use the builder to harvest both stone into the settler, overflowing to complete the Campus.  The Commercial Hub will follow later on, after a builder for chops and mines.  This settler is destined for the City #2 spot.

Find the River

This is going to get founded on Turn 61.  I’m harvesting the stone straight into a water mill for the Construction boost and to clear the tile for the Commercial Hub.  This will be the location of a discounted Hub if I do get a +4 for two different rivers.  The current builder will farm the wheat and quarry the Gypsum for a production boost.  A builder will be the second build and a monument will be the third.  When the Hub goes down I’ll do a chop-and-mine on the forested plains hill, using a chariot build to overflow into the district.  When Harbors become available I’ll get one down at the marked location for more gold income.  

Future City Sites

City #2 & City #4

I’ve shifted the City #2 spot one tile east as previously mentioned.  I have no immediate district builds here – the priority will be to get a builder out to plantation the bananas and citrus, then get out a second builder and a monument.  This city is a population and culture play.  The builders will do a chop on the jungle directly west of the city and a chop-and-mine on the jungle hill SW of that tile.  The chops will go into population and a Commercial Hub.  I’ll have to try to work the micro to get the chops to overflow with Limes/Maneuver; otherwise I might just be inefficient and direct-chop.

City #4 could have gone on either marsh tile.  I chose this one as it puts a second cattle resource in the second ring and adds in a 2/2 jungle as well.  A discounted Commercial Hub goes here unless City #1 gets the +4 adjacency, attempting to use overflow to do so.  Once the required techs are in I’d go for Great Zimbabwe here.  Yes, it’s a bit of a vanity build but it’d also be +8 on trade routes.  Of course, by the time I get the opportunity to research Banking the game might be over.

Both of these locations are stronger than City #3 and I do not require a second iron resource at this point in the game.  My first iron resource is also so far in the back lines it would be quite a while (or involve a surprise naval strike) before I were to risk losing it.  By that point I would hopefully not need iron and be more concerned about niter.

City #5

I don’t yet know what’s up here but will find out shortly.  The main purpose of this settlement is four-fold:

- establish a frontier that is further east than the former Egyptian cities, which are essentially my northern core.
- gain control of horses and pearls.  The latter is actually more important right now, in my view.
- The bananas will provide a cultural boost.

The first builder up from Cant will get these resources online.  The first build will be a monument followed by walls and I’ll put down a Campus at the marked location as gold permits.  I’ll use a stone harvest to overflow the walls to build the Campus.  Once this city is settled the units at How The West Was Won will move up to here and establish a front line.  An Encampment district on the grassland just west of the cattle might also make for a good defensive front.  If I’m lucky there’s  some decent production tiles east of the lake.

The Opposition

If rho21 is in the NE corner as I suspect given the previous encounter he’d be running into the teeth of my military if he came west from his position on the map.  Japper is also in no position to make an end run around the mountains (or over the hills east of Begin the Begin) given his military situation.  I see one of two scenarios developing here:

- rho21 puts Japper in the hurt box because Japper’s military is weak, he’s going to be spread out defending his cities and should be a soft target.
- rho21 & Japper come to an uneasy truce given developments in the west and launch a 2v1.  I should be able to handle that even with rho21’s Great General on the field, particularly once I upgrade the Eagle Warriors to swordsmen.

It is imperative that I get scouts to their side of the map to get the lay of the land.  If they engage each other in a war I’ll be on the lookout for an exposed tundra front.  Otherwise I’ll build my defenses, make the run to Stirrups and knights and then go kill some more stuff.

Anything Else

Yeah - it's Turn 60 and the world isn't collapsing in on me. 

[TheArchduke]

Anything Else
Yeah - it's Turn 60 and the world isn't collapsing in on me. 

Not for you.

Anyway, will get into your plans into detail when I can.

[TheArchduke]

My take on the current situation.

Approve of the settler push, right now after a conquest is an ideal time for that, as you have plenty of barb and fogbusters, the other players are still in shock and you can afford the delay easily thanks to your bigger size. Will you build a fifth settler out of Begin the Begin? I would. 7 self-built settler is a good number.

Why the scout build? You have plenty of troops to scout with.

Preslav has outlived its usefulness, you won´t be big on horses and the additional city is worth more then the measly +2 in encampment cities.

Brussels is rather strong on the defensive, which is good, it will not be taken by someone else. I would plan a GG powered Sword push on it if I were you to increase pressure on the other players further.

Yeah, Autocracy + on yields is not to be underestimated and Classical Republic has the nasty problem that only the Wildcard can slot in +% unit production cards for chops and then you can´t use it to push a Great Person. Especially given that you have plenty of luxuries. And the diplomatic slot is totally useless to you.

Yeah, after the settler push I would Ilkum produce workers and keep them 1 turn before completion into Feudalism. Basically by that time you either get a concession or you saddle up, get your army to conquer Brussels and kill the next guy.


Begin the Begin, I would overflow into settler. Begin the Begin is nicely protected by mountains and the encampment and does not need walls. I would put the engineering eureka walls into a northern city. Any other walls should be chopped by the way of +100% or even at Monarchy.

I also if possible prefer commercial hubs over harbours, especially on a not water based map. Great Merchants have some great boosts to money generation.

Can´t Get and Welcome sound good.

Harborcoat has excellent production, I see 1 stone and 1 forest that can be fed into galleys for a nice production boost. I would go for a harbor here and maybe a campus 1 NW of the mountain. You will want an aqueduct here before long.

Oddfellows and How the West same at Oddfellows, the stone and the forests are aplenty to cover production problems for now. I also approve of that campus plan.

Find the River Not sure about the Harbour there, you want a trade route. I would actually go with campus or theatre district over habour over there.

City #5 looks like a good strategic gatekepper. High priority if you ask me.


On the future front. Yes either rho eats japper or they ally you.
If nothing of both happens in 20 turns, it is gameover if you ask me. So priorities apart from the settler push:

- City #5.
- Another city perhaps NE of former Egypt.
- Walls in City #5 or other frontier cities.
- Prepare appropriate defenses after the capture of Preslav
- Prepare an offensive against Brussels if no attack comes.

[suboptimal]

Turn 61

I’d say all was quiet, but this happened on the interturn:



I’d already shot the scout when I took the picture.  Fortunately it’s not a horse camp. I could use the cash though.  I guess it also gives me an idea as to what to build over in Harborcoat – scouts to fogbust and keep this from happening.  Find the River is founded and starts working the 4 wheat.  Builder harvests the stone for 56 and the GUI shows 12 turns left.  That will come down over time so I’m not too concerned.

The only other thing of note is the archer at Begin crossing the river east of the wheat and finding...more wheat and some sheep.

[suboptimal]

Going back to Archduke's questions/comments...

- Two reasons for the scout - they have a slight speed advantage and I'm slightly paranoid of a potential action by rho21.

- Walls at Begin. The eastern approach isn't fully sealed off by mountains. I'll have to get a screen shot of this region now that the archer has uncovered it. The other factor is that as of the current micro this is the only city that gets out the Engineering boost in a reasonable time frame. City #5, with a purchase of the stone, might do it. I haven't fully caught up my micro planning to the game situation. I hope to get that cleaned up on my lunch break and then later tonight. If City #5 can do it I'll go settler here.

- Builders - I'll need to get a few out before Feudalism is in, but can try to keep most of them in the queue until then.

- At Harborcoat I had previously debated what to do with that stone tile. It's an extra production per turn (Harborcoat is at 6 right now) but a harvest is 56 and climbing. Harbor is a definite, didn't occur to me to put a Campus NW of the mountain and build an aqueduct here. If I were going to push religion (I'm not) I'd buy the tile east of the pastures and put a Holy Site next to the Pantanal. I wouldn't try to switch into Maritime Industries for a production boost unless it worked out with a double-swap using Mysticism.

- Find the River: I was thinking Harbor because it'd most likely be discounted and the synergy between it and a Commercial Hub. It was also late at night. Campus by the rainforest would work but a theater square? That seems like a lot of for 0-1.

- City #5 is getting founded by the first settler out of Cant.

Two other notes:

- my builder tally under Gifts for the Tlatoani on Turn 60 included an actual builder capture. I'll need to back that out of the stats.
- My empire score (65) is now higher than the total scores of my opponents (rho21: 64, Japper: 59)

[suboptimal]

OK...looked at the timing of the settlers getting completed, along with potential overflow chops and walls.  City #5 can't produce walls in any sort of reasonable time frame (it'd take until Turn 80 or so), but Cant Get There From Here can get them up quickly.  Here goes the ETAs on settlers, builders walls and Campus districts. These only use chops to complete settlers and overflow into other builds. They don't use chops midway through production to speed things along.

Turn 67: Settler (Cant, 140) -> City #5
Turn 68: Campus (Cant)
Turn 68: Builder (Welcome) -> City #5
Turn 69: Settler (Oddfellows, 170) -> City #4
Turn 70: Builder (Cant) -> City #5
Turn 71: Walls (Cant)
Turn 74: Settler (Begin, 200) -> City #2
Turn 75: Builder (Oddfellows) -> City #2
Turn 76: Settler (How, 230) -> ?
Turn 77: Campus (How)

The settler out of How has several options:

- City #3
- Pantanal, NE corner (fresh water, OK production)
- Directly east of the rice, between the rice and Pantanal (culture grab)
- The Colosseum location
- Directly on the cattle SE of Welcome.  Gets a culture plantation second ring and a +2 Campus location first ring.  Iron would be out of reach, though.
- North end of Pearl Lake, depending on what's there.

Edited

Chopping a stone at How halfway through the settler build finishes that settler on Turn 69 and the Campus the following turn. That delays Begin's second settler from Turn 74 to Turn 75. I could skip farming the wheat there to chop the forested plains hill and finish the settler on Turn 71 at a cost of 230.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Now What?
(Verbosity Warning a/k/a challenging Sulla & CMF to a post length duel    )

uh, excuse you, I had an update that was three words long once. 

I'm not even close to as bad as our esteemed Roman dictator. u_u

[suboptimal]

Now What?
(Verbosity Warning a/k/a challenging Sulla & CMF to a post length duel    )

uh, excuse you, I had an update that was three words long once. 

I'm not even close to as bad as our esteemed Roman dictator. u_u

Indeed.

[suboptimal]

Full report later tonight. Met Japper/Kongo this turn as he's brought a scout towards the former Egypt. He's a little behind me in culture, a bit further back in science and has half my military power. He and rho21 are also in a DoF. His scout can shoot the gap between How and Cant but there's a barbarian warrior right in the middle of the two.

I'm thinking I may try to take the scout out if he tries to go through.

[suboptimal]

Turn 62

Open the save to two notifications.  Barbarians have been spotted by Oddfellows and I’ve met Japper of the Kongo.  Clicking the icon takes me to the open area east of How The West Was Won.  I’ll find the unit in a bit.  Let’s see what his situation is:



Hmmm….in addition to the above he is running 11.9, 11.3 and 1 per turn with a military power of 144.  And he’s got a DoF with rho21.  Uh huh.  We’ll that’s just dandy.  I wonder if I should fit some more units into my plans….

Over at Oddfellows the spearman has come out to pay my archer a visit.  I move an Eagle Warrior towards the city, back up the archer one tile and shoot.  It does 30 damage and earns a promotion.  It’ll get attacked next turn but will be able to retreat to the city to shoot then heal while the Eagle Warrior moves in for the kill.

Down at Cant a warrior from Brussels is coming up to play with my Eagle Warrior.  I advance onto the hill so it can attack me next turn.  That reveals another Belgian warrior two tiles to the east.  Things are getting busy down here.  I bring the archer forward for support.  

Down at Begin the battering ram heads west, the builder enters the city and the Eagle Warrior and archer cross the river back to my side.  I’ll get them healed up at Begin prior to the assault.  No sign of the barbarian archer, who is probably still on that same tile.

Up at How The West Was Won I bring most of my units east and locate the Kongolese scout:



He might try to shoot the gap in between the cities, but if he approaches my units I may take it out.  I move my slinger out of Cant and immediately find out that might have been a bad idea – the barbarian warrior is two tiles north of that position.  Of course, if Japper moves up the warrior will have to choose between the two units.  This also means I’ll be needing to do some settler escorting until I can get that scout out of here.  Of course, if he slips past I’ve got two scouts in the west that can chase him down...

It would be nice to know how long their DoF will last....

I start the trade route from How to Cant, earning the boost to Currency.  Harborcoat has grown to size 5.  I start working both coast tiles again for the cash since I’m at the 50% housing penalty mark.