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

[suboptimal]

I completly agree on killing that sword, the smart thing to do, he crossed the river in any case. It is not monty play as you call it but smart play. A promoted sword is hard to replace.
I would however not advance on your part that comes when you get: Machinery.


Machinery is crucial, you got the money for upgrades, he does not and machinery pretty much makes any advance on his part absolutely doomed.
You can then advance at your leisure.

Yeah, I recognized that killing the sword was tactially good because he crossed the river.  He doesn't get a beach head, sees less of what's going on and is down a sword.  Just feels monty-ish because I've declared war on everything within a turn or two of a unit moving next to one of mine and have been at war with something since Turn 22. Well, OK, there may have been a brief lull between Vilnius and Lisbon/Preslav.

[suboptimal]

Turn 71

Currency completes, resume Construction and the barbarian warrior is within archery range at How. rho21 is staying on his side of the river for the time being. Japper’s science and culture shot up quite a bit. Looks like his empire grew by 3 population (GP generation unchanged but I’ll double check next turn). Things are quiet.

Down at Preslav another 3-charge builder has wandered out of the city center. It’s mine now. The archer has also returned to the city center. I advance the ram and an archer, shooting with the latter for 10 points of damage. The other Eagle Warrior advances, I’ll shift them next turn to get both in on the attack. I leave the wounded archer where it is as there’s no room to move and it needs to heal up.

Archer at How kills the barbarian warrior, Eagle Warrior heads for the camp in the west. Settler continues inching west. Scout at Begin moves west to the hill, sees the barbarian scout running away. At Cant and Welcome builders have completed. The former heads to Near and will stop on the way to pasture the cattle and the latter heads for the Encampment. The scout from the camp has shown up at Welcome. I start a spearman. I expect horses to show up here and a spearman is just the thing to take care of the situation when it develops.

At Near I swap positions with the Eagle Warrior and swordsman and upgrade for my second swordsman. The remaining Eagle Warrior on this front goes back to the northern end of the lake to sentry that approach. The builder, archer and scout all move towards the city. I’ll send the scout up and around the lake next turn and then proceed carefully.

Checking Commercial Hub placement, Find the River does indeed only get +2 for being on a river rather than +2 per river. Cant places the discounted district between the city center and Campus for a +3 adjacency. Cost is 80 and it’ll complete in 7 turns. I was going to build walls here now but I think I’ll wait for Limes to do that. I could, in theory, get a second Hub down at a discount if I complete Recorded History and put a turn into Theology. The question is whether or not the 56 saved (as of right now) is worth the delay in G&R and Defensive Tactics?

[TheArchduke]

I doubt it. Although I am terrible at abusing district discout mechanics.

[suboptimal]

Turns out I don't need to wait -- even with G&R completing the discount will kick back in once the Commercial Hub in Cant completes. G&R's completion will happen the same time as the final settler build out of Begin/Oddfellows. That'll let me get Colonization out and put in something else, probably Agoge for a couple of units and some chop-and-mine operations in the south. I also want to change the diplomatic policy to Diplomatic League. I've got two envoys in reserve and if I find that scientific city-state I could get 3 envoys in there for a quick science boost. Ilkum will go in with the Defensive Tactics policy swap to get the builders prebuilt.

The question is do I stay in Oligarchy and wait to see what's going on after the next civic completes or risk it and go to Autocracy now?

[TheArchduke]

Difficult question. Oligarchy secures the much needed boost for melee units. It hosts (for you especially useless) a mediocre diplomacy policy card.

I would do the switcheroo to diplomatic league and if nothing crops up after that Autocracy. I doubt that you should push onto Xenocrates before you have Preslav in the bag and the backlines filled with cities or fogbusters. The bloody nose on the swordsman should pose an excellent reprieve, he will be a lot more cautious now.

I would get the house in order and shoot for machinery.

[suboptimal]

Yeah, waiting for Defensive Tactics (11-12 turns from now) will let me see what rho21 does. We could be back to peace by then.

I'm going to use Agoge to get out another 3-4 archers towards the front during that time. Welcome is going to get a trader done after the spearman and then spit out a couple of scouts as interior fogbusters to keep camps from spawning.

I'm thinking of using Find the River and a couple of Feudalism builders to get a settler to the interior location for the Colosseum build (25-30 turn horizon).

[suboptimal]

Turn 72

Open the save, get a bunch of notifications. My one good archer at Preslav was redlined by the city but has a promotion available. Time for that one to back away slowly and heal. The two Eagle Warriors will go it alone for the time being, at least until the walls are down. Construction has finished and that means the boost for Games & Recreation is in. I change to that from Recorded History. That’ll finish next turn and then I’ll start the 10-11 turn slog to Defensive Tactics. Tech-wise I start Military Engineering. My tracking indicates that I’ve got almost 10 overflow remaining, so I’ll put it into the expensive tech then switch out to Sailing (1 turn completion) so I can hook up the pearls when Cant’s builder gets up to Near Wild Heaven. Take a look around, nothing else is out of place.

Down at Preslav I back the archer up and take the Volley promotion. Captured builder joins the archer. Eagle Warriors shift and attack the city center. Walls are down and the garrison is at 132/200. The city will fall either next turn or the turn after next.

Cant’s builder pastures the cattle tile before continuing on its way. Builder at Near moves to the bananas to plantation them next turn. Shuffle the archers around at Near, leave the swordsmen in place to heal. With the Eagle Warrior at the north end of Pearl Lake I could leave him where he is as he can see the entire chokepoint. However, I move him to the forested grassland hill just to the east. I get a bit of a better view of the flat land (marsh, marble, the edges of a farm at Xenocrates and some ordinary plains & grassland tiles) and it’s a more secure point to fortify in. Units by Welcome reposition themselves. Begin’s settler has finished first and heads off for City #4 (settles on Turn 82). Begin starts an archer. The other settler is in position on the City #2 site. Oddfellows’ settler for City #3 will complete in 2 turns.

[suboptimal]

Turn 73

Games & Recreation completes.  Start Defensive Tactics, 11 turns to completion.  Swap from Military Engineering to Sailing.  Next turn I’ll swap back to dump the overflow into Military Engineering.  Oddfellows has one turn left on the settler and its native production will be enough to finish it without Colonization.  Out goes Colonization, in goes Agoge.  Since I was already running Diplomatic League I leave it in place.  Shows how little attention I’m paying to the diplomatic slot.   

Preslav has a second archer out.  This is getting a little dicey.  My unpromoted Eagle Warrior has earned a promotion.  Gonna check the numbers here.  Average damage gets me...146 points with the archers and Eagle Warriors all attacking, garrison stands at 152.  Ugh.   If I sit and heal a turn I’ll be in the same boat.  Almost, but not enough, by about 10 damage.  I attack with everything, well aware I may lose one or both archers here, and see if the RNG will do me a solid….Richard Dawson shouts “SURVEY SAYS!” and



The capturing Eagle Warrior gets a promotion and I got a worker to boot! It’s also probably the last builder capture of this game by an Eagle Warrior. I rename the city High Speed Train and start repairing the monument.  After that I’ll repair the granary though growth here is going to be abysmal (there's a mountain in the middle of my farm triangle).  The ram heads for Cant as its work here is done.  Builder and settler trade spots.  The builder will arrive at Begin’s 1/3 hill for a chop-and-mine in time to overflow the production into something else, then it'll farm the other wheat.  Walls would be good – let’s me get all my frontal cities with walls completed or in progress.  The new builder will head for City #4, Harborcoat's will head for City #3 and that should give me my initial builder coverage.

Eagle Warrior and Builder near Welcome go their separate ways.  A little south of there…



It starts working the bananas.  I start with a monument.  I belatedly realize that this city pushes my Colosseum city off the river unless I want to lose a forest to the chop.  However, I can put that city on the incense and then build an Aqueduct (slowly) once the Colosseum is completed.  

Up at Near Wild Heaven the builder uses its last charge to put down a plantation, adding 2 and 1 to the city’s yields.  Everybody there and at Cant fortifies in place, except the scout which continues moving east and the builder which resumes its journey.  

The last unit to move is the scout by Begin.  It locates the barbarian camp and a sweet spot for a +4 adjacency Campus (but no fresh water).  It's on the wrong side of the river, though, so I won't be doing anything with that site.



Someone has attacked that spearman.  Wonder if they’re still around.  Think I might sit here and watch, especially since the scout can move to the camp in one turn.  I can offer peace to Japper next turn.  It’d be funny if he’s attacking the camp and I can poach it out from under him.  

I’m now at ten cities with a settler en route and another out next turn.  They’ll settle on Turn 80 (City #3 site) and 82 (City #4 site).  That one will be disguised by more population growth as both Find the River and Near Wild Heaven are growing next turn.  My main issue right now is housing.  Gonna need to go on a granary push.  An overview:



Gotta love the Aztecs’ 6 amenities per luxury.  

Gifts for the Tlatoani

Builders Captured: 9
Cost to Build: 594
Improvements Made: 14
District Boosts: 15.6
Chops: 358 , 36
Craftsmanship Inspiration, Irrigation, Masonry, Wheel, and Iron Working Eurekas (20, 165)

[TheArchduke]

If the terrain was any better I would suggest sweeping south around and taking Brussels, but the supply lines are terrible if you get into a real fight there.

You should press your tech advantage to not only crossbowmen but also to musketman if you ask me and do full builder until you can upgrade them.

Do you want to try to Eureka Military Engineering?

[suboptimal]

The geography around Brussels makes taking and holding that city from my direction a major pain in the ass. Brussels doesn't provide anyone with a good strategic advantage - the suzerain ability is meh and as an industrial city-state it has nothing to offer anyone. If anything I might declare and try to poach a builder or two if the AI is careless with its units once the enforced peace runs out.

Gold is the limiting factor for all upgrades right now. The new cities will help that a bit (three plantations and an eventual camp) as will the Commercial Hub at Cant (4 turns). Once Defensive Tactics is done I'll slot Ilkum and prebuild builders everywhere. When I get Feudalism done I'll pop them all out with Serfdom and go on a district-building spree. The production cost of a builder is presently 40% of a district (58 vs 146) and while that will shrink during Builderthon it will still be more production- and time-efficient to use builders - I can save any chops for units or buildings.

I'll probably eureka Military Engineering because I'll be building an Aqueduct at Welcome once the spearman is built (How completes walls in two turns, Engineering completes the turn after that and the spearman the turn after that). Techs I'm in good position with boost-wise. With respect to Civics the issues are the bottom of the tree (Theology's boost is 45 turns out right now) and Civil Service (Oddfellows is going to be the city I try to run to Size 10).