[Spoiler] Suboptimal Goes on a Pseudorandom Walk

[suboptimal]

Turn 136

No builds, techs or civics finished this turn so it’ just shuffling a bunch of units around and then taking a look at Tokuhama Reborn before sending Hypatia to Ralakesh. Pindicator’s city strengths have gone up to a minimum of 52, so he’s got a cavalry unit out in the fog. That will make the bombards’ job a little tougher but not impossible. The intelligence agency isn’t complete yet. I’ll need to keep an eye on that as well. He’s sent his scout east towards the Ralakesh-LFSR frontier. He’s also got a trader coming down:




Interesting. Nothing has changed at Tukohama Reborn so Hypatia goes to Ralakesh, six turns to establish.

Mersenne Twister sends the trader to Bandar Brunei, increasing my gold per turn by 6. In the far west (east?) Murasaki is met by a Persian quadrireme. She goes west then NW. In the south the scout pulls up next to the snow for disembarkation next turn. Emilie du Chatelet disambarks SW of Yerevan. Knights and catapults make their way towards LFSR though I’ll need to keep the catapults at least two tiles away from the city center while the trader is around. That road may actually help me as I might be able to move and shoot with one of the bombards on Turn 148. I have to assume that the trader is either acting as a scout for the city, putting down a road for an invasion, or both. The complication is that the trader will still be close enough to see what’s going on during Turn 145. I might be forced to delay things a turn or two to compensate, or I could declare and pillage the trader with a knight (and kill the scout) on Turn 146 for some cash. The spy at Ralakesh will give me a clearer picture.

Down in the south Woden’s horseman has embarked and is going around my warrior. I send the warrior off to Mersenne Twister and once it’s there I’ll recall the chariot.

[suboptimal]

Turn 137

We’re back after a bit of a hiatus due to Pindicator holding the turn a bit long and my own RL getting quite a bit busier as it tends to do after the holiday weekend. It’s been a bit of a distraction and, at least until the weekend, will limit my ability to play turns. However, I should be at a one-a-day pace for the time being.

I’ve been giving thought to the presence of cavalry on the map. At a CS of 62, not counting any terrain or support bonuses, it would take three bombards and two knights, all uninjured and within the influence of a Great General, to kill. I don’t like those odds but, then again, he’s currently not flooded with them. I figure if worse comes to worse if I can take Ralakesh and create a new front line I might have a chance if he comes calling with one or more. For the time being I think I’ll continue to play “hide my army” while I build up forces and see what Ralakesh has on offer. If, for some reason, he’s got a pile of units lurking in the fog then maybe I re-evaluate the situation. I’ll get to see the city in five more turns.

I open the save to the notification that Uwinas blew its top spectacularly. So spectacularly, in fact, that it’s seeded the surrounding landscape with




The other thing that’s now a concern – Pindicator’s milpower is now 608. If I had to guess that might be two more cavalry that were produced as he’s spent no gold to get there. Woden’s put down a new city (Inversion Clouds). Pindicator appears to have two settlers out – his empire score just went down by two. Guessing at least one is headed out the Qhapac Nan. I think I’ll need to give that Ralakesh plan some serious reconsideration. Alternatively I can try to delay, make a run at Ballistics, upgrade the knights and then go in. His Intelligence Agency is also almost complete. I’ll have Diplomatic Service completed in seven turns and will then need to park a spy for counterintelligence at Acorn.

I shuffle catapults to the south, bring the knight up to the border and move horsemen at Mixmax. Emilie du Chatelet moves past Yerevan and finds a fleet of barbarian quadriremes:




Yeah, not making a sea crossing there any time soon. Move the remainder of my units (scout embarks, Murisaki moves northwest to try to close the longitude gap for circumnavigation) and claim Geoffrey Chaucer. He shows up in LinCon and I send him northeast. He’s now my scout in that direction.

Looks like Pindicator and Woden are continuing their expansion. That leaves me in a bit of a bind that’s no different than my first fifty turns – no where good to expand. The entire area between Pindicator and Woden are loyalty nightmares and I think they’ve both gotten enough points for a Golden Age. There’s room south of Auckland but it’d be exposed and have little to no production. I might find something interesting northwest of Yerevan but Pindicator has two settlers out and this area completely defogged. At seven cities, provided I don’t take Ralakesh (which wouldn’t come out of occupation) my only option here may be to go as vertical as possible in another few turns. That or make a hail mary play against Woden.

One last bit of housekeeping – I never promoted Victor when I completed Guilds. He gets the Garrison Commander promotion for the +5 defensive CS and +4 loyalty to other cities within 9 tiles.

[suboptimal]

Turn 138

Alrighty then. After an unexpected two-day break because RL decided to throw a couple of scheduling curveballs I’m back in the saddle. Hopefully I don’t have any more hiccups between now and vacation in a couple of weeks. There’s also been an announcement that there will be a patch coming out sometime during September. One of the patch’s features is that hand-drawn rivers and floodplains will now flood. If that starts to happen in this game well, I’ll be screwed.

While I was away from the game doesn’t mean I wasn’t thinking about it. Despite my optimism some ten turns ago I don’t think that an attack on Pindicator, at present, is wise. I’d most likely get counter-attacked and run over due to his superior tech advantage. Woden is currently the easier target but getting there would take about 15 turns if I went west from Xorshift and had Square Rigging complete. Is that enough time? Maybe, maybe not. Is it worth trying? I don’t know yet. Time for some scouting, I think. However, even if I were to launch an attack would that prompt Pindicator to come through the mountains?

There’s also this line of thought: unless I think I can wipe someone off the map (because that’d be the only way to clear occupation penalties) it would leave the spectating party in the driver’s seat of the game. Granted, if I were to wipe someone off the map that’d put me in the driver’s seat. I’m also dealing with two opponents who have much more robust economies than I do. They’re pulling in 60-80 gold per turn while I’m barely managing 30.

Open the save, get notification that Woden has completed the Mahabodi Temple. Pindicator’s trader is not headed for LFSR, looks to be going straight to LinCon.




OK...if I want to hide the cats from Pindicator for the time being, where to go? East keeps them in play for an attack on Pindicator (if I were to beeline Ballistics) but west keeps them close by and ready to go on the water (for Woden). Ah, the joys of indecision. I decide to send them back over towards Acorn for potential upgrades and going to sea. The two just completed knights also head in that direction. They’ll be close to my main core (Acorn, Threefry, LinCon) for defense. Two more knights are being built at Acorn and LinCon (one each). After that I’ll decide what to do. The knight next to the trader fortifies in place.

Up at Yerevan Emilie du Chatelet finds out why Pindicator’s warak’aq is coming back this way:




I decide to continue my advance with the intent of having the scientist returned to my territory for me. It’ll go back to Mixmax and then I can reposition it somewhere else.

Over near Persia the scout, back on dry land, moves northeast and finds it has some company:




I’ll probably try to push my luck a little to expose some city borders so I know what city I’m dealing with. Up north, Murisaki discovers Ha Long Bay:




There are no Persian cities nearby though that spit of land is within the loyalty influence of one.

[suboptimal]

Turn 139

Open the save, Threefry’s project is complete and I have a Great Engineer waiting for me. The city has started a knight and I clear out its queue. I’ve also lost suzerainty of Grenada as Pindicator has put three envoys into the city-state. Mixmax’s last horse is also done and du Chatelet is also there, as expected.

I shuffle units around, mainly westwards with the catapults. I could, in theory, complete Ballistics for Turn 147, upgrade four to six knights into cuirassiers and four catapults into bombards and attack (I’d have the gold), but he’d see me coming. Or would he? If the trader’s next turn has it move southeast I might be able to rotate the catapults through Threefry and around the trader. The scout is still an issue, but I could deal with that later. Turn 141 and the reveal of Ralakesh will tell. I technically only need to keep three of those hidden as two of them are for the Siege Tactics eureka.

At Mixmax I move the new horseman to the tile SW of the city center for the time being and start a library in the city. I think it’s too early to use du Chatelet so I send him to Mersenne Twister...after I move the builder out. At Acorn I start parking knights on the districts.

Over at Persia the archer remains fortified but the ship has disappeared. I move around the archer and reveal the second ring of Derecho. It’s his third city and has an Entertainment Complex, Campus and Commercial Hub, though I can’t see any of them yet. In the north the Persian ship has also moved off. Murisaki moves another two tiles west and some Persian borders appear in the fog to the southwest. However, that’s not what’s important right now:




If the scout moves to the eastern cows and Murisaki moves due west I should complete circumnavigation. Now, if I’m first that’s 5 era points and another Golden Age. If I’m not first, that’s three era points and I need to manufacture one for a golden age (as I’m getting one for James of St. George this turn). My out is Yerevan – I could put three envoys in there for the first suzerain bonus and the final era point. I’ve got two turns to get four era points. Fingers crossed.

Speaking of James of St. George, I recruit him and he appears in...LinCon. That’s a bit out of the way for what I need. He relocates to Threefry for his first walls next turn. His recruitment does complete a quest in Bandar Brunei, making me suzerain of that city state once more. That also gets me sheep, wheat and more iron. Looking back at the Great People screen Bi Sheng (city can have one more district than normal, triggers the Printing eureka) is up next. He might be useful but not useful enough for a project or two to get.

After Metal Casting completes next turn I’ll get Banking finished so that Acorn can get to work on a bank after its current knight build is completed.

[suboptimal]

Turn 140

In looking at my last-ditch possibility of a golden age I completely neglected to see what my dedication options were. Free Inquiry is gone after the Medieval so I’ll be out 20 or so in two turns. My options for dedications will be:

-Monumentality: I don’t have significant faith generation so this is a non-starter.
- Exodus of the Evangelists: No religious units, not this one.
- Reform the Coinage: Traders can’t be plundered, international trade routes provide +3 per specialty district in the foreign city.
- Hic Sunt Dracones: Cities on another continent gain +3 population and +2 loyalty per turn. Naval and embarked units gain +2 movement.

Both of these are interesting. I could take Reform the Coinage, redirect my traders to Incaland to make more and then consider if attacking Woden, despite previous analysis, is “smart”. Hic Sunt Dracones would add three population to Mersenne Twister for an immediate boost and give naval units +2 movement. That would cut the ocean transit time to Persia from 15 turns to 9 turns. Both Woden and Pindicator (ex Ralakes) are on different continents so the loyalty bonus would help there. Of course, none of this matters if I don’t get the circumnavigation bonus (or otherwise find four era points) this turn.

Metal Casting is done, switch to Banking. First things first, units near Persia as that will determine what else I do this turn. Murisaki goes one tile due west.






That’s a Golden Age. Second movement point is southwest towards the Persian borders. I find a Harbor and lighthouse belonging to Ground Blizzard. The scout moves NE to the cattle, fails to reveal the city center for Derecho.




It is northwest of the Pairidaeza and due to the terrain I can’t reveal it unless I go west, which is not what I want to do. The scout moves to the coast to continue moving northeast, either via land or sea.

Four of the catapults move west. The one north of LinCon goes back north towards Threefry. The two knights at Acorn head towards Xorshift, as does the one between LFSR and Threefry. James of St. George puts up walls at Threefry and I feel slightly better. He’ll go to Acorn next and then I’ll decide what to do with the third charge. Woden’s horseman has yet to show up south of LinCon.

Warrior reaches Mersenne Twister and the chariot that was there embarks in the Atlantic “Ocean”. I send Emilie to Xorshift and put the builder in the Acropolis. The tile picker is waffling between the volcanic soil tile to the southwest or the plains hill forest to the southeast. I prefer the latter for the chop but a mine on the former is a good deal as well.

I have a knight coming out of LinCon next turn and one from Acorn the turn after that. They will head for open ocean and build another set. Threefry will complete its knight in four turns and perhaps get out another for home defense (or take it to one turn). I’ll probably get Acorn and LinCon to get another pair down to one turn, thus keeping three in reserve to save maintenance costs.

I note that Woden has started two horse-requiring builds this past turn. He also recruited Gaius Duilius this turn (forms a fleet out of a naval unit, gives strength & movement to Classical & Medieval ships). Next up is Leif Erickson. Pindicator has also changed over to Merchant Republic. That’ll be next for me after Diplomatic Service.

Next turn I get to see Ralakesh. However, that may no longer be the site of the main event….

OK. So far the past ten turns of this game have seen me:

- plan to attack Pindicator
- make the statement that if I build an army then I should use it
- see Pindicator get cavalry on the field and start to get wishy-washy
- opine that if I only weaken one of my opponents then I put the spectating party into the driver’s seat.

Hmmm...Baldrick disappeared and left me with Charlie Brown in my place. So, what to do?

The first option is to delay and attack Pindicator with cuirassiers instead of knights. That’s one tech (Ballistics) away and with the overflow from Banking that’ll take 6 turns to complete. I’d also be slower in my pace and more limited in my numbers of units, though I could build one every five turns at Acorn and LinCon as currently configured. I’d also drain my treasury faster.

The second option is to cross the sea and attack Woden. I could have three knights in the ocean in two turns and the other two a couple of turns after that (Lin Con’s could embark directly from that city rather than going up and around). It’d take me about 7 turns to get the catapults to Xorshift and upgraded. Square Rigging completes in 5 turns and embarked units could be moving at 5MP per turn. The distance from Xorshift’s coast to the island SE of Ha Long Bay is 25 hexes. That’s five turns of movement.

The first problem is that Woden has naval vessels. However, he seems to be in an exploration mode rather than patrolling his coast so if I can shadow them and time the landing when only one of them is around that could work. The other factor is if I keep everything bunched up Triple-A can heal their damage and, due to Civ 6’s naval rules, a quadrireme or galley may not be that effective against embarked Renaissance era units. .

The second problem is that I need to get a city center exposed so that Hypatia-Not-Scientist can scout out the area for me. Ground Blizzard is in a good spot – being in a corner it’d be easier to defend and maintain loyalty at. I also don’t know how fast it would be able to build walls once I was spotted. I should be able to get a view of the city next turn with Murisaki.

[suboptimal]

Turn 141

The Medieval Age has ended. On to the Renaissance! Of course all three of us are starting into the various points of the Industrial Age on the tech & civics trees, but I digress. Everyone’s in a golden age this time around. I take Hic Sunt Dracones (which I keep mentally calling Sic Hunt Dracones). I expect that the others will take Reform the Coinage. The next figures for Normal & Golden Ages: xx and xx points, respectively. I guess I need to look at the tables and see where I can scrounge up some points…I get two new quests – Brussels wants a Great Admiral (pfft) and Bandar Brunei wants the inspiration for Humanism (which is to recruit a Great Artist). At least I got that one in the bag in 20 turns...

I lost count and thought Hypatia would establish in Ralakesh this turn. Nope, next turn.

Banking is done, start Square Rigging. That’s 6 turns out as I’ve lost 24 per turn from losing Free Inquiry. Pindicator’s trader did not go to LinCon but got to the roads and is headed for either Threefry or Acorn. My guess is that he’s taken Reform the Coinage and will get +15 per turn from Acorn. On the upside he’d be less inclined to attack me. Next trader that comes free is going from LFSR to Tukohama Reborn: 8 1 1 1 and it’ll defog Abberath for future spy placement.

Knights and catapults continue towards Xorshift. One knight’s in the water. Knight at LinCon moves to the coast and will embark there next turn. It’ll reach the others while they get sorted out. El Cid moves in that direction and I’ll rebase Triple-A in a turn or two. I move du Chatelet to the Campus at Xorshift and park him there for the time being. I’ll use him later. James of St. George moves to Acorn, walls there next turn.

LinCon starts another knight. Over at Mersenne Twister the volcanic soil hill has been claimed; 19 turns until the forest is taken. I move the builder there for a mine next turn. Warrior fortifies and it’s over to the Persian coast. Woden’s galley in the north has moved off. Murisaki moves next to the harbor, revealing Ground Blizzard’s city center...with walls.




The loyalty lens shows four cities giving influence and influence accumulating at 25 per turn. In the south the scout moves NE and says hello to an immortal:




Interestingly Woden has not yet researched Printing. Good to know. The mine NE of the immortal belongs to Polar Vortex. That city does not appear on his deal screen so I assume that it’s his capital. I’ll need to backtrack and embark next turn. While I’m on his deal screen I note he’s started a third horse build. His horseman has shown up SW of LinCon. I’ll be interested to see where he goes with it next.

Four turns until I can upgrade the catapults. I’ll need to delay Diplomatic Service by one turn in order to use the double swap with Naval Tradition. At that point in time I’ll pull Chivalry and Equestrian Orders and after the bombard upgrades I’ll get Civil Prestige and Caravansaries in. That should give me a bit of a boost.

[suboptimal]

Turn 142

Open the save to find out I’m not the suzerain of Auckland anymore. Pindicator has dropped three envoys in there as well. I do have 6 in reserve and could start deploying them, but I may need them for later...

Hypatia the Sneaky has arrived in Ralakesh:




So they’re cuirassiers, not cavalry, that he’s got on the map. That is clearly a defensive position, though it does comprise almost half of his current military. I mark everything with pins, along with The Brine King’s location. That IZ near the fog will be a 10 monster when it’s completed. I think it’s a good thing that I thought better of putting an attack through here, or at least doing recon of the area first. I probably could have taken out the Encampment but the city would have been quite a fight. In other news, Woden’s milpower is up 80. That’s about two horsemen or two knights. The thing I can’t figure out about Woden’s resources is that his iron occasionally drops by 4 and then goes back up. I suppose he could be running Equestrian Orders and have five internal sources of iron plus one from a city state. His unoccupied city defense base remains 48, though, and he’s still in the Gunpowder column of the tech tree.

I get some knights at Xorshift into the water and meet an unpleasant surprise:




I’ll need to see where he moves the galley – he’s got 3MP so I wouldn’t be able to fully outrun it. Since the knights are “early” in the water I could run them north for a bit to “go barb hunting” and maybe pull the galley with them. The knight from LinCon is going to duck around the islands to the south and bug out in that direction. I’ll keep the trailing knights at Xorshift for the time being and stash the catapults to the north of the city, though I’d like to have the latter in the water in 4 turns. They’re still out of sight of Woden’s galley around Acorn. That city has finished its last knight for now. James of St. George puts up walls and the city starts a Military Engineer. I’ve got two spots in Xorshift that are clear for fort and will put them there.

Chariot from Mersenne Twister reaches the coast east of LinCon, Chaucer reaches the coast west of Mersenne Twister. Builder there puts down a mine, earning me an era point. Working the tile speeds up the city’s growth to 9 turns to pop 3 but reduces my science a little bit for the time being as I’m no longer working the iron. I do see something a bit quirky with disembarking, though I didn’t take pictures. Chaucer moved one water tile and has three movement points but is unable to disembark this turn onto the coastal hill tile. Is that because it’s 3 MP for disembarking plus an extra 1MP for the hill?

Over in Persia I was going to backtrace the scout as a crossbow has come wandering over from Derecho. However, I have a cheeky option as I can move through the immortal to the hill to its east. I take it. That reveals Inversion Clouds two tiles to the east of the hill, along with some other stuff:




The wonder and Holy Site are in Polar Vortex. The Pairidaeza is in Inversion Clouds. Note the canals at the latter: it’s on a single-tile land bridge. No walls yet. Woden appears to have started off on a peninsula and somewhat close, if not minimum distance, to Jester. Up at Ground Blizzard I move Murasaki (whose name I’ve previously mispelled, I believe) southeast. I will continue scouting out the coast with her and the scout, though she’ll need to head back to the northwest at some point (maybe). I do wonder if Woden is building walls in all of his cities as a precaution or just on ones he feels vulnerable (or built them at Ground Blizzard only for an early eureka). My ground scouts will continue “innocently” on their way. Hypatia the sneaky, however, has a new destination: Ground Blizzard. She’ll be there in 5 turns and that should be highly informative.

I’ve also realized that I should get a couple of settlers out – any locations to my east would get +3 population and a free builder upon founding. That +5 Campus location would be gettable and settling the wheat-filled area SW of Auckland would provide lots of population but little production. OTOH there is a “hole” I could exploit to also pick up some salt:




Settling on the plains forest might be a good idea. LinCon could get out a settler in 5 turns due to its +50% production bonus. I’ll need to give this some further serious thought. I also realized that Bi Sheng would be useful as I could hold him for later or use him now-ish for a Commercial Hub at LinCon. The open spot next to the Government Plaza might be a +4 adjacency.

[suboptimal]

FYI, new patch is out. Patch notes can be found here:

https://civilization.com/news/entries/ci...h-out-now/

It will be interesting to see if flooding has been fixed.

Heh. This would be a complete circle of sorts:

- I based my initial founding on the idea that the floods would improve the ground over time
- I found out that edited maps don't flood so proceeded to ignore
- It gets fixed in a patch



On the upside it means that building the Great Bath somewhere might be useful (and quick, at 180).

From the patch notes:


Added first pass at hand-drawn river flooding.
Edge case notes:
Only works for floodplains at least 3-long.
Only works for hand-created maps, not adjusted map-script created maps.
There are a couple places where a user may place a floodplain where it will never flood (like sharing a plain with another river branch, for example).

According to this flooding is still borked. We shall see....

[suboptimal]

Turn 143

Alrighty then. Patch is installed and open the save. No river names so my cities are safe. As I posted earlier, flooding has not been fixed for script-generated-user-modified maps such as this. Annoying the UI for the load screens extends slightly off the bottom of me screen. However, there’s enough of the buttons showing (top 2/3rds) to get things done.

The main focus this turn will be moving knights and catapults around and figuring out how to outmaneuver Woden’s galley(s), as well as continuing my scouting along his coast. First up, though, is to switch from Diplomatic Service to Exploration since the former is at one turn. Resource counts what they are I need one turn in Exploration and then I can complete Diplomatic Service. I also see that Pindicator spent ALL of his gold. He ended last turn with 1343 and has a grand total of...6 this turn. Ralakesh holds the answers:

Well, it did except I didn’t screenshot it. Basically Pindicator appears to have upgrade his warrior (plus the one at Arakaali) to muskets and built one at Ralakesh. His troops had also advanced as the two frontline muskets at Ralakesh had another unit in support behind them. Wonder if he’s marching on me or not. I’ll find out next turn. His trader is going to Acorn and has caught up to the back end of my catapult flock.

I have a notification of a tornado family on the map. Where? West of Inversion Clouds and headed eaast. Woden’s immortal has embarked to try to avoid the storm. My scout can’t embark due to limited movement, so it goes to the SE peninsula to attempt to ride out the storm. Murasaki moves south along the coast and finds what looks to be a good spot to disembark and assemble:




Of course, Woden’s quadrireme would need to move a bit further south first. Over by Xorshift Woden’s galley has moved east. It has view of the knight in the city and the eastern knight of the pair. I do a switcharoo. The western knight moves off, as does the eastern knight. The knight in the city takes the place of the eastern knight and the knight en route moves to the city. Catapults shuffle west and James of St. George moves to LFSR. That city’s crossbow will be done next turn which will give my city defense some capability if Pindicator comes across the border. I also bring El Cid over to Acorn’s center to transfer to LFSR next turn. The good news is that I have Victor in that city – the garrison gains +5 CS and all units within the city’s borders likewise gain 5 CS.

I also shuffle two chariots over. If I get declared on I’ll switch to Naval Tradition, finish that, upgrade the chariots to knights the following turn and the catapults to the turn after that. Likewise, if war is declared all my knights are coming back. I’ll also have another Great General in four turns. I also bring a second horseman down from Mixmax.

Threefry will have a knight out next turn, LinCon the turn after that. They might stay on knight production.

I take a look at the tech tree and decide to go for it – I activate Emilie du Chatelet and get the eurekas for Military Science, Square Rigging and Steam Power. One useless, one useful (Square Rigging) and a good one (Steam Power). This means I can get started on Ballistics next turn though it’d be 10 turns to complete without the military engineer. and forts.

[suboptimal]

Turn 144

There’s a little bit of dread as the save loads up as I’m expecting to find a declaration of war waiting for me. Frankly, it’d be a bit overdue as with his tech advantage I’m a bit surprised he hasn’t come down here (or tried) already. However, I think his trader’s scouting may have confirmed that I’m a bit of a paper tiger, though I intend on being one that’s not completely declawed. The save finally loads and...Square Rigging is complete. He’s definitely marching, though – check out that force complement:




No bombards so I don’t think he’s aiming to take cities (yet). The good news is that the crossbow at LFSR has completed. So, what to do here? Well, I send James of St. George to LinCon – he’ll put walls there next turn. El Cid goes to LFSR to give the popgun (er, crossbowman) some help for the time being. Triple-A heads for LinCon. He’ll stay there and transport to Threefry if the action moves there.

Well, I have given some thought to this problem over the past 24 hours. LFSR is going to be a sacrificial city. Threefry is the gateway to Acorn, so that will be the point of first defense. LinCon’s knight will be done next turn and the walls there should help a little bit. I switch civics to Diplomatic Service. Next turn I’ll take out Chivalry and Equstrian Orders and put in Bastions and Feudal Contract. I’ll hold Naval Tradition for the completion of Ballistics. I need to hold off Pindicator long enough to bring back the knights and complete Ballistics (6 turns) so that I can upgrade a bunch of knights to Cuirassiers. That, plus having two generals on the field, should give me enough oomph to slow Pindicator down a little bit. If it came down to LinCon or Acorn I’d try to keep Acorn as that’s my empire’s engine.

I shift the catapults back east, leaving a gap for the knight in Xorshift to move through. Embarked knight west of Xorshift returns to the city. Embarked knight east of Xorshift moves back to the desert coast south of Acorn. Other embarked knights head for Xorshift. Warrior at Threefry moves to cover the trader and I note that Pindicator does have Reform the Coinage active.

My big issue here is not the loss of the cities. Unless I can use my units to stop Pindicator’s assault I’m likely going to get pillaged out and that’ll be the end of things for me. I need to have 1100 (well, 1095) in hand in order to upgrade four catapults and all seven of my knights. I have 1027 now. Is there another way?

The first question here is the bombards. With a Great General they’d be shooting at a 60...minus 17 for shooting at units, so 43. Barely more effective than a crossbow. Crossbow to field cannon upgrades are cheaper and resource-free (115 vs 125 gold). A Swordsman to Musketman upgrade is also 115. Warrior to musket? 170 discounted. However, that gets me a musket that I don’t have as well as an increase to city defense. However, the sword at LFSR would be dead on the first turn even if I upgraded it. That’s a waste of cash. I think upgrading the warrior at Threefry (170) and using the rest of the budget for field cannon upgrades (one at Threefry, one at LinCon) is a better approach. The cuirassiers can make their stands with their generals at Threefry and LinCon. As for the Catapults, well, they’ll be cannon fodder if/when it comes to it.

LFSR starts a Commercial Hub project because I need to pay for all this somehow and every little bit helps. I stop the market and start a crossbow in Threefry. LinCon queues up a crossbow to start behind the knight completing next turn. Acorn queues up a crossbowman to start after the military engineer and I swap over Mixmax’s lumbermill for some added production.

Over in what is now “Fantasy About Attacking Woden Land” my scout embarks by Inversion Clouds. The tornado has moved to the hex directly east of Murasaki. I decide that since she can’t be killed she’ll disembark onto the desert hill to her SW. I’ll see if I can at least get a glimpse of Woden’s capital.

Turn over I pass the save to Woden. Tomorrow will be interesting. Baldrick, we need to set out the fine china for our guests.