[Spoilers] Chevalier Gives You Something to Cry Aboot

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Back from teaching.

Okay, so, game so far.

We're in decent shape, I think. Definitely the weakest empire on the board, but given that we're playing by far the weakest civilization* and I'd wager have had the toughest start between barbarians and our neighborhood. We're not falling dramatically behind, and if we can keep pace in expansion the advantage other civs have over us will fade and we can start to come into our own. I mean, we're still hampered with no UU, UI, or abilities worth mentioning, but that's fine. We just have to be better. 

Regrets: 
* Scout first. The security from the warrior is just too good to pass up. I was angling for meeting more city-states and maybe making something happen, and I just seriously value map knowledge (look at all my games here for that). But we got nothing from it, and having 1 (or 2!) more warriors right now would have possibly let us decisively stop the settlement of Isaac. I think always go warrior first, not slinger or scout. Lesson learned.

* Denouncing Kaiser. My thinking was I wanted the ability to declare war to snipe civilian units if he was being casual. But I should have denounced him right away if that was my plan. Had I done so, I could have taken a settler, or forced him to hold both back for escorts. Alternatively, had I never denounced him, he couldn't have settled Isaac even yet. He'd have to denounce, wait 5 turns, and then declare war to kick my scout off. So the No Surprise War ability is like a mini-DoF, and should be used as such. Lesson learned. 

* Poor micro causing me to slip on locking in districts. I need to be better about that, I need to plan civic swaps better, and plan things like the district discount better. We have to wring every drop out of this civ if we're going to be competitive, I can't just survive off sloppy play and busted-ass districts like the Seowon right now. 

What has gone well:
- Scouting has been good and I'm confident we've settled in the only direction that would give us a chance to be competitive. Imagine if we had, say, Blackhawks and Capitals as our cities #2 and #3 versus Kaiser's lush jungle cities. They would rapidly outgrow and outproduce us, and Kaiser would rapidly expand to fill the whole fertile river valley, even cutting us off from the Lightning valley to the east. That would be more or less fatal. 

- Dry Kings -> Double Campus seems like it will work. We'll reach size 4 and a Commercial Hub without problems, and that's good for a city. Kings will never grow to be a monster, but it's doing all right. It'll be a good military hub if nothing else down the road, those units are always relatively cheap. 

- Good use of advantages we have, like our early religious meeting to grab a strong pantheon, which is doing wonders. Decent military, good job whacking barbs. 

On the whole, I'd give myself a C+ so far. Handling the denouncement would have earned me a B, and making no mistakes is an A. Slightly above average seems fine. 

Okay, future plans. 

William, thank you so, so much for being willing to step in. I'm going to outline my general thoughts and intentions for the Classical Age, but use your own judgment. The game state changes and detailed micromanagement is impossible. My policy is always to trust subs to handle things, as long as they know my intent, and they just execute as they deem fit. If that sometimes means going about things a different way than I would have, no worries. 

So: Evaluation.

Our only chance to dominate this game is to build a large, productive empire. For that, we need secure access to good land. It does us no good to overbuild military and fall behind in production to be ultimately overwhelmed (sub in PBEM17, Archduke in PBEM2). It also does us no good to neglect military and get our game wrecked by an opportunistic rush, or to have to play defense and fail to expand (too many other players). So, we need a balance. Our infrastructure is good for the immediate future, good enough that I think an army and expansion are viable next targets. Which should come first?

I always favor security. Look at how useful our warriors and scout have been in limiting and slowing Kaiser. We don't want to overinvest, but I want horsemen able to accomplish two missions. 

First mission: Antananarivo. I have mentioned multiple times that that city is a dagger pointed at our heart. It lies barely two turns' march from our capital over open terrain. Whichever power controls one city will naturally threaten the other. In a perfect world, we'd just capture it and fortify it, and it would form a chain with Bruins and, ultimately, Hurricanes along the river to form our frontier with Kaiser. Unfortunately, we can't do that. Accordingly, we need to be prepared to respond. If Kaiser attacks it, we need a military capable of striking back. If he suzerains it, we declare war ourselves - I think it's a worthy enough casus belli. If he does nothing, we keep an eye on things and work on our second mission:

Second mission: securing our expansions. I really like the fertile valley east of Bruins, but it's a long walk and it takes some set up. That might be our NEXT wave after the immediate one. Worth thinking about. If we need more build queues now, though, then I think Ducks (either site) and Capitals are good expands, with Blackhawks a good one closer to home if we don't want a long walk but want to expand west. Hurricanes and Devils are "nice to haves" but need demonstrable military superiority or parity with Kaiser yet, and we don't have that. Ideally, we'd use a couple of horsemen to keep Kaiser out of the river valley east of Bruins and Geneva, and try to point him west, towards Bologna and Vilnius. Or even north! He has to have land north of him, yeah?

What is enough? We need at least 3 horsemen to be prepared at Antananarivo, and 3 archers is a nice security force that can operate around Bruins to secure the area. Bruins itself needs walls and the encampment I mentioned (I will add a pin) as the frontline. Later it will get medieval walls at Castles, and Renaissance Walls to make it impregnable short of Observation Balloons. An encampment with walls should be safe enough with a modest garrison, and the GG points will be useful. 

A trader is necessary. We must have a road over the rough terrain between Bruins and Blues to keep reinforcements flowing and enable quick reactions. In an ideal world, we'd have a highway from Bruins to Antananarivo to let us rapidly shift forces from one end of the empire to the other. 

Finally, we need to cow Kaiser and get him to accept the Bruins - Antananarivo line as a long-term border. We've had some jostling but I am convinced that a war of conquest against Egypt is not a viable possibility barring major changes. Too many river crossings against too powerful an empire. Maybe we can eventually leave him in the dust research-wise and try around the Industrial era, but we have to play a great game to get there. Instead, bloodying his nose or intimidating him should do. 

So, for the classical age:
1)Build a decent military core with the mission of confronting and defeating Egyptian incursions. It does NOT need to be capable of invading and conquering Egypt. 
2)Expand to the northwest and northeast at least, then backfill steadily towards the tundra. 
3)Only when this is done should we resume I think infrastructure builds.

Shopping list: 
1)A trader
2)At least one builder. He must quarry a stone and mine an iron to unlock key defensive techs Masonry and Iron Working. Final charge could be an Ancestral Hall chop? Or another useful improvement.
3)3 horsemen
4)3 total archers
5)Ancient walls and an encampment at Bruins. 

Only after that would I feel comfortable with settlers. Is that too much? Will we fall behind? I'd appreciate thoughts on this, because my brain is mostly devoted to the logistics of packing up and leaving Korea, wrapping up my relationships here, finding and renting an apartment in St. Louis nad moving in, and preparing to teach at my old school with an uncertain COVID future and I really havne't given the thought that I should to this game.

Cities:
1)Blues goes Campus -> Trader -> Horseman
2)Kings goes Campus -> Horseman -> Horseman
3)Bruins goes  Archer -> (Archer?) -> Encampment -<> Walls

I need a builder in there. Maybe after the first horseman, if I can get away with hit. Then

Blues: (Builder) -> Ancestral Hall (chop) -> Settler -> Settler?
Kings: (Horseman) -> Settler?
Bruins: If we finish the encampment and walls then either Settler (for 4 total: Lightning/Ducks/Capitals/Blackhawks probably) or Campus for a library push if our science seems to be flagging.

I dunno. There's so much to do and not enough production to go around. We'll need to prioritize.

Research: AH -> Bronze Working then Masonry <-> Ironworking -> Wheel -> Construction <-> Machinery depending on the situation and eurekas. 
Civics: Right now working on G&R, with 1 turn to complete Military Tradition once we're ready to swap into Maneuver. Try and time policy swaps for our build cards, Urban Planning is going to be more or less permanently slotted but we can run Maneuver/Colonization or Maneuver/Agoge as needed. Need a wonder for D&P, which isn't happening, so that's a good culture dump. 

William, I'll have more instructions on the C&D sheet (basically don't worry about it, it'll be super easy) and emails later. I'd really like a grand symposium of all my lurkers, though, right now.


*I think only Eleanor of England is even in the same ballpark as us, and at least she has RNDs going for her. Harbors have been buffed and buffed and buffed again - Veterancy lets you build them 30% faster, Lighthouses give +2 housing, you can pile production and gold onto sea tiles, trade routes are always good, etc. - and let sub play with the district discount. Egypt has the decent sphinx improvement (early culture, built on otherwise useless floodplains), Iteru is a nice ability to get some situational wonders or districts, better than nothing, Bride of the Mediterranean again is a nice little buff, Egypt has some stuff in their kit. They're no Russia, but they're not France or Canada either. Phoenicia I don't even think is bad. The loyalty is a gimmick, but the Cothon is better than the RND right now. The only question was if he could use htem, which, WELP, turns out yes, he can. And we've been over Brazil and seriously what is Brazil doing in this game.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn report tomorrow. Quick notes:

* Barbs in the tundra. Diverting a warrior to deal with that nuisance.
* Uncovered Matterhorn for the Astrology boost when we need it; might not have the chance later.
* Kaiser chopped monument -> 4 adjacency campus on the tile his builder was on. 
* No major news but we're going to waste a LOT of era points. Gonna come up just short of a Golden Age by my calcs. 

*Oh well.

[williams482]

Just about the only thing Canada has going for it in this game is decent music.

You're definitely right that we have a major production crunch and will have to prioritize. Finishing the Campi is essential, and we're at war, so we absolutely need at least one horse on the map to bump city strength and make us look a little more prickly. However, I'm not sure we can afford to delay Ancestral Hall (and the subsequent settlers) any more than we absolutely have to, so my instinct is to skip the horse in Blues and go builder/trader -> AH. That's definitely going to depend on build times and how policy swaps line up, but if I have to sacrifice something, I think limiting the military builds in our settler pump is the best bad option.

I assume your planned encampment location is 2NW of Bruins? Or the jungle hill 2W? The wheat tile between those two works, but it's going to have bad sight lines by virtue of sitting in a valley with hills and forests on five sides. Regardless, we're going to need to buy the tile; natural expansion won't be fast enough without a monument or a plantation there. I'll see if I can find a chance to swap in the 20% discount card for a turn or two.

If we're really close on Era score, settling Penguins (tundra) will get us a point. Not a high priority spot without that consideration, but easy to reach and some strong tiles. Worth diverting to if that's the difference between 30 turns of PB&V vs not.

I'll get in touch via PMs regarding email and score tracking. Very happy to keep your spreadsheet going. And of course, any further suggestions from Sullla and Archduke would be appreciated.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Just about the only thing Canada has going for it in this game is decent music.

You're definitely right that we have a major production crunch and will have to prioritize. Finishing the Campi is essential, and we're at war, so we absolutely need at least one horse on the map to bump city strength and make us look a little more prickly. However, I'm not sure we can afford to delay Ancestral Hall (and the subsequent settlers) any more than we absolutely have to, so my instinct is to skip the horse in Blues and go builder/trader -> AH. That's definitely going to depend on build times and how policy swaps line up, but if I have to sacrifice something, I think limiting the military builds in our settler pump is the best bad option.

I assume your planned encampment location is 2NW of Bruins? Or the jungle hill 2W? The wheat tile between those two works, but it's going to have bad sight lines by virtue of sitting in a valley with hills and forests on five sides. Regardless, we're going to need to buy the tile; natural expansion won't be fast enough without a monument or a plantation there. I'll see if I can find a chance to swap in the 20% discount card for a turn or two.

If we're really close on Era score, settling Penguins (tundra) will get us a point. Not a high priority spot without that consideration, but easy to reach and some strong tiles. Worth diverting to if that's the difference between 30 turns of PB&V vs not.

I'll get in touch via PMs regarding email and score tracking. Very happy to keep your spreadsheet going. And of course, any further suggestions from Sullla and Archduke would be appreciated.

It depends on what you think. Personally, I'd feel safer with one horseman to garrison Bruins nad get our strength up, until walls. I think cav do lessened damage to cities but I'm not sure if that's only walls or it's cities in general, but with only 10 strength Bruins is easy meat. I'd slot the Maneuver civic this turn to finish in 2 turns along with our campus, then slot maneuver in place of Inspiration and crank out a horseman. That will give us a warrior, 2 archers, and a horseman to guard Bruins, which should be enough to guard it against anything but a determined attack, which we'll see coming from Kaiser's milpower. After the horseman I'd feel comfortable going economic again.

The planned encampment should be in this priority:
1)Guards approaches to city (so Kaiser can't just route around it, but has to deal with it)
2)Is safe itself (ie shouldn't be so exposed that it just falls on the first turn with nothing we can do about it)
3)Is dangerous to enemies. 

The Wheat tile has obscured fields of fire, but it controls the open plains west of the city and can fire into the narrow chokepoint northwest of the city. It has to be dealt with, and so it will have targets to shoot at. The river bend protects it from most attacks, except an opponent crossing due north - but then his turn will end and we get a free turn to focus fire him. The Jungle Hill 2w is also good, but it's a 2/2 tile that I hate to give up. The wheat is weaker, but I think controls better ground and doesn't give up as bad ones.

As for Era score...well, the era ends in 8 turns. We can't settle Penguins by then anyway. :/

[williams482]

So begins the reign of williams482, self-proclaimed steward to this fledgling realm of Canada. Etc, etc. 



First observation on opening the save: our scout is screwed. All tiles he can reach this turn are within the Archer's line of fire, and with an effective strength of at best 10 - 8 + 4 = 6, there's no way he can tank another hit. I move him southwest to the forest hill to defog his final tile, a mountain. 



I briefly consider moving the warrior next to Matterhorn, but without knowing where Kaiser's units are, the cost/benefit just doesn't work out. I withdraw the unit back towards Bruins. 

Our warrior in the west turns back east. I plan to loop him around behind Antananarivo, and reevaluate if any targets of opportunity stumble across my path. 



Score tracking screenshots: 




Pretty eventful turn for the rest of the world:
- Kaiser picked up a tech, a civic, and either a pop point or a building this turn. 
- Ichabod picked up a civic and lost a pop point, so he has a settler on the map. Also +3 era score.
- Woden picked up a civic and a pop point/building
- Suboptimal settled a new city

Let's talk era score! We have 13 points. We want 25, so 12 more. We have 7 turns. We're going to get: 
+2 for first Surerian of Bologna
+3 for a +3 campus
+1 for a classical tech (HBR)
+1 for horse unit

We have a decent shot at:
+1 for meeting unmet player 1

We could theoretically possibly get:
+1 for first horse unit
+3 for destroying the barb camp (the warrior will get two attacks, so this requires the barbarians doing something dumb)
+1 for meeting unmet player 2
+1 for meeting unmet player 3
+3 for meeting all civilizations
+2 for levying Bologna's military "within striking distance of an enemy civilization"

So, we will get up to at least 20 points, which means we'd need 5 more from the non-guarenteed bucket. That's not very likely, but we could get that lucky. The one I'm keeping in mind is the Bologna levy, which will probably cost something like 100-150 gold, and in addition to the era points would likely put us in a good position to make a mess around Kaiser's capital. Something to consider when deciding on tile purchases and other gold expenditures. 

I've got annother turn before any techs, civics, or builds finish, so I'll put more thought into those plans in a later report.

[williams482]

Turn 53:

Yep, scout is toast. Goodby, brave scout, you served us well. Additionally, our favorite river flooded again, this time without any of our units nearby. 



Our units continue to march towards their various destinations, revealing nothing of particular interest. 

I goofed last turn by keeping us on Games and Recreation. We want to knock out Military Tradition ASAP for a policy swap into Manuver and Charasmatic Leader. I've decided to go with the safer option and squeeze out a horse from Blues after the campus is done. After that I'll go builder -> Ancestral Hall, and hope to squeeze the trader out of Kings in the near future. 

Right now a first ring tile purchase costs 70g. We have 6 techs and 7 civics, so civics are driving the costs (I think?). Unfortunately, I have no idea what the formulas are for tile purchase increases, So I don't know how much the price is going to rise when I complete Military Tradition in two turns. Right now I'm leaning towards buying the jungle hill 2W of Bruins next turn. We'll still have 107g on t56 when we get our envoy for boosting Recorded History, so the too-clever-by-half levy plan is still an option even with the purchase. 

Score Tracking:




- Kaiser got a building/pop. His milpower is 73, same as last turn. 
- Ichabod got a tech and an era point
- No change from Woden or Suboptimal

[williams482]

Turn 54:

We finish HBR, and pick up four era points for our first classical tech and +3 campus. The campus brings our Science to 18.6, and we'll pick up another 6 (!!!) beakers when Kings finishes it's own campus in two turns. Considering Kaiser is the tech leader with 19.9, that's pretty damn good. 



The western warrior moves east, revealing more floodplains behind Antananarivo. Gordon Malloy has expanded it's borders, claiming a grass hill adjacent to the pinned Camp Typhoon location. That hill's yields now include a beaker, indicating there is iron on the tile. Not encouraging. I'm going to need walls up soon, and there aren't any quarryable tiles within the borders or even the second ring of any current cities. Most likely, I'll need to knock that one out unboosted, and soon. 



I switch research to Bronze Working, due in two turns. Next turn I may switch to masonry instead, as there's no immediate urgency to reveal iron or start and encampment. I can get the district discount on that encampment if I place it after completing the campus followed by a tech/civic, so setting Bronze Working to complete on t57 would work out well there. I set Blues to work on a horseman, currently due in 7 turns, but that should drop to 5 total when Maneuver is slotted in next turn. More expensive than I'd like given the need for AH, builder, trader, etc, but I really want my cities above strength 10 as fast as possible. 

On a related note, I've been wondering what my best option will be if Kaiser comes offering peace, and when I should be willing to request it from him. I believe I'm a passable civ player overall (if below average by the standards of this community) but the metagame elements of playing with other humans are almost entirely foreign to me. 

Finally, I decide to bite the bullet on buying an encampment tile at Bruins. I settle on the jungle hill 2W of the city center, reasoning that it's defensible and has the best field of fire. Losing that four yield tile (and the future chop) does sting a bit, but Bruins has a lot of those available.

Scores:




- Kaiser had no changes
- Ichabod jumped ahead of Suboptimal, adding a civic, one pop/building, and two era points. 
- Woden had no changes
- Suboptimal got a pop/building

For the moment, we remain the only civilization making more than one Great Scientist point per turn. That's illusory because of the policy card, of course, but it will be real soon enough. Maybe going 2 -> 3 -> 1 -> 2 will confuse somebody about where we're really at.

[williams482]

Turn 55:

Military tradition is in:



I make some policy card swaps, dropping Diplomatic League and Inspiration for Charismatic Leader and Maneuver.
 

The horseman in Blues now due in four turns, as expected, and our next natural envoy will come in six turns. For the moment, I resume research into Games And Recreation. I also switch tech research into masonry as previously discussed; I will switch back to bronze working next turn once the second Campus is complete in order to unlock the district discount for Bruins' encampment. Bruins grew to pop 2 this turn, and it's archer is due in four turns; that unit is valuable enough that I should definitely let it complete before starting on the encampment, but if I need to place the district before that remains a question. Clearing the jungle will reduce the defensive value of the tile, a small but real loss if Kaiser makes a move for the city in the next couple turns. Probably the best plan is to hold off until right before I complete G&R, then place the encampment, finish the archer, swap to something other than Agoge, and knock out the encampment. 

Our slinger moves to the future encampment tile to get a better visual on the surrounding area. Our western warrior continues eastward, revealing an Egyption warrior fortified 2NE of Antananarivo:



That's concerning. There's probably at least one archer in the fog, so my warrior is at considerable risk of being killed this turn or next. Moving the warrior this was was a huge risk in retrospect, and one I realize I should not have taken. The other side of Antananarivo would have been slower but much safer, and if I run into Egyptians there, I'd be in danger of losing more than just the warrior. 

Looking from the other side for a moment, why would Kaiser have a warrior here of all places? On it's own, this isn't exactly a great place to stage a unit for an attack on me, but there may well be others in the fog displacing the unit to this tile. Alternately, it's not a bad tile to hold with the objective of securing the river, especially in tandem with the currently-fogged rice at the river bend. Kaiser could also have simply stopped here to heal up without any grand strategic purpose. Next turn should prove enlightening, one way or another. 

Also relevant, Kaiser's milpower jumped from 79 to 88. That's either a lot of healing, or some unit damage plus an archer upgrade. 

Scores: 




- Kaiser added a pop/building
- Ichabod did nothing trackable
- Woden settled a new city and picked up an era point
- Suboptimal did nothing trackable

Big turn coming up, with our second campus finishing we should suzerain Bologna and see what is to be seen in that part of the world. Plus, we get to find out if our warrior will die to fulfill no purpose whatsoever. Exciting!

[williams482]

Turn 56: 

Kings completes its campus, boosting Recorded History: 



This elevates our science to +25.8 and grants us an envoy in Bologna, making us their suzerian. We get +2 era points, and some map knowledge:



No introductions to be made here, but we do find the edge of a third continent: 



Bologna's military force of five mostly intact warriors would cost 200g to levy. If I had 200g, I would spend it here and now; one of the warriors could strike out into the great unknown, the other four would rush Kaiser from behind, pillage his Government Plaza, and see what other havoc they could wreak before Kaiser found another envoy to spoil the fun. Unfortunately I don't, so that bit of fun comes pre-spoiled. alas, 'twas not to be. 

If I hadn't purchased the future encampment tile at Bruins, I'd have 175 gold in the bank, and would be up to 203 on t58. That encampment is extremely unlikely to affect the trajectory of this current conflict, while a levy would have been a gamble with some major upside. I now regret that decision. 

Maybe I'll get lucky and those Bologna warriors will make some messes on their own. We'll see. 

Kaiser did attack one of my units, but instead of bombarding the isolated warrior, he moved an archer into position to fire upon my lookout slinger near Bruins. The slinger must withdraw; unfortunately because of the local terrain there is no way to escape the archer's reach and stay within my borders. The slinger withdraws to the tile 2SW of Bruins. Next turn he will move back into my borders, to be upgraded on the following turn. 

For the western warrior, decision time. I want this unit in theater as soon as possible. The Egyptian warrior he spotted last turn is now nowhere to be found, and based on the actions of that archer, I suspect it is marching (with friends!) on either Bruins or Kings with malicious intent. Pressing forward with my warrior will get it to a useful position faster but leave a much better chance of being destroyed if he wanders into a force to dangerous for him. However, even that worst case scenario would buy us some much needed time to get our first horseman out and into the fray, so I'm willing to gamble here. 

Move one tile, nothing. Move another, there's our friend from last turn, with no visible allies and no support bonuses (which I should have checked last turn, and on the archer just a moment ago, oops). Good, I think.




The southernmost warrior continues towards the barb camp, ending his turn adjacent. I considered turning him around, but I need that camp gone before it pops and hits me with more milpower than Kaiser has on the map. 

I continue researching masonry, due on four turns unboosted if I stick with it. Barring a peace treaty with Kaiser, I do not believe I can plausibly boost this tech before the need for walls becomes extreme, and there's no rush to put down the encampment just yet. Best to keep more options open while I can. 

Scores: 




- Kaiser added two empire points, two era points, and his science jumped by four beakers. Probably finished a campus, I'll check the GP screen next turn to confirm. 
- Ichabod had a big turn, adding eight empire points and two era points. Probably a city and his second district, but that will be tougher to verify. 
- Woden did nothing trackable
- Suboptimal did nothing trackable either, and we have (for the moment) passed him in total score. 

Kaiser's milpower also rose four points, 88 -> 92. His gold reserves have steadily risen by 15 per turn, and Bologna's lightly damaged warriors suggest his barb troubles were recently dealt with, so that milpower spike must have come from healing? Nine points of milpower would be 90 HP healed, I think, which is a ton. 

What's our milpower? Three warriors and a slinger is 20 + 20 + 20 + 15 = 75. Two of those units are damaged, probably -4 for the warrior and -5 for the slinger? That would match the 66 the game is giving us, so I'll consider that confirmation that I know how this formula works. 

(Bloody hell, I literally just now realized that spreadsheet has tabs for non-score stuff. Oops again, but useful! One suggestion for the future: track the balance of gold/faith, and automatically calculate change from the previous turn.)

I'm going to finish catching up on the tracker sheet, and maybe come back later with a best guess on Kaiser's military.

Any lurkers around? Writing these reports is good for my play and makes sure Chevalier knows what happened in his absence, but it is starting to feel a little lonely in here.

[Cornflakes]

Present and following along