Suboptimal IV: Indonesian Insanity

[Cornflakes]

What government are you planning to take? Without an offensive war planned for the near future it’s probably best to take Autocracy for the better policy slots and boost to capital yields. That leaves Oligarchy open if you need the combat bonus at some point.

[suboptimal]

Iw as planning for Autocracy as I want to avoid the diplomatic policy slot for the time being (and keep Oligarchy for when I need it). Oligarchy may not be of much help anyway - our military is heavy on knights and they do not get the bonus (it applies only to melee, anti-cav and melee naval). Policy-wise I'm on track for Maritime Industries + chop on T56 then completing Military Tradition on Turn 57 and going with the following policies:

- Maneuver
- Conscription
- Urban Planning
- Revelation

The settler out of Sound is headed for the city site east of Punky's (screenshot T43, henceforth "Interior") The city will have a 2/2 city center, there are 3 tiles everywhere, I've got two grassland hills I can mine plus horses and dyes. I'll probably open with a monument here for some culture, then switch to chariots. The city is in a good spot defensively given the river.

For builders & settlers under monumentality I'm thinking the following, with just the order to be sorted out. I think Boxer and the new location get the first two builders to get them productive quickly.

- settler for the island location
- one builder for the new city location for a farm and two mines
- one builder for Sound - Kampung, mine the grassland hill NE of the iron and mine the grassland hill SE of Punky's
- one builder for Island - chop & mine the grassland hill then farm the wheat or camp the furs.
- one builder for Boxer - chop & mine the GFH E of the city and mine grassland hill NE of the city.

For builds I'm looking at the following:

Sound: settler completes EoT 56. Start chariots, pausing at some point for a monument
Punky's: Holy Site completes EoT 62. Low production here, I think a monument followed by a builder (Revelation should be expired by that point). I'd like to clear out that jungle for the govt plaza at some point but if push comes to shove I may just place the plaza over the jungle and forfeit the chop.
Boxer: The Campus completes EoT 69 with no further assistance. The chop with Magnus would have it done on Turn 62 and then I could start with or a monument here.
Interior: monument followed by chariots.
Island: monument & water mill. Need to decide what type of district to place first and put it down as soon as the city is founded.

[suboptimal]

Turn 55

I had a brainwave today regarding Woden’s probable reasoning behind settling Alexandria where he did. The one thing his lands generally lack is . The two copper at that city are the only unimproved tiles that provide any sort of income. Without them (and/or Conscription) his ability to fund an army along with district and other maintenance costs is severely hampered.

I briefly consider delaying completing Wheel for a turn. That’d save me 5 on the cost of the Campus I’m putting down at Boxer next turn. However, it’d cost me 6 on the chop (43 x 1.5 x 2 = 129.5) so that’d actually be a net loss on my part.

Open the save and clear the notification about the dead warrior (as expected). Magnus is now established in Boxer. Archduke has a second galley off the coast of Methone, right next to where I want to embark. I’m going to do it anyway and see what happens. If I stay put the warrior is toast anyway, so it’s really a matter of who decides to kill it first. Northern warrior continues moving towards the coast and the galley continues going around the land mass. My own swordsman and eastern warrior is trekking towards Nan Madol while the Cathaginian one heads for Hattusa. The city-state has a defense of 21 and a Campus. I have no envoys and a crap quest. Therefore, I shall use my rental unit to do one of two things – pillage the Campus or try to take the city. For that I might heal outside the borders and bring over the other warrior….

Eastern & northern moves completed I look west. The builder disembarks into the forest at Boxer for next turn’s chop. The galley confirms it’s a three-tile island and finds more coastal waters to continue east. I can also see the borders of a city-state in the fog, three west of the galley’s position:




I can’t quite tell from the shading if that’s an industrial or commercial city-state.

Cornflakes, with the forest chop and current faith generation we’ll be just over 400 when the Golden Age starts. Pindicator is now generating 3 GPP per turn and will have the first prophet in 17 turns (EoT 72). A project would yield 19 GPP and take 6 turns to complete at Sound if I work the GFH instead of the pearls. Running Revelation starting next turn, with the project starting on Turn 57, would get us to 7 + 20 + 20 = 47/60 EoT63. At that point a faith purchase would cost 280. Is that amount (and running a project) worth trying to get the first prophet to secure DotF? If so we should make the faith purchase as soon as the project completes.

[suboptimal]

Turn 56

Wheel is in, Political Philosophy is in. Got two era points for being the first to a government, not that I need them. I do have to laugh, though. Thirty turns ago we were all “how are we going to get 24 era points?” and I’m sitting here with….34. Archduke is leaving my embarked warrior alone. Good. Woden’s brought an archer up over there but can’t shoot yet. That’ll give me time to get outta dodge. Hattusa’s defense is 26. Don’t think that I can crack that with one sword though I would be able to lay siege with two units. It’d take 4-5 hits with a turn to rest for a promotion. Against an AI? Possible. At least the city defense can’t go up with a garrison (unless Hattusa takes a page out of Geneva’s book…) So, what to do first?

Right. Government first. Autocracy is selected, +1 yields in the capital. Maritime Industries is in, Conscription stays in, Colonization stays in, Revelation gets the wildcard. I get ANOTHER 3 era score. If era score thresholds for ages were determined globally by how players are doing everyone else would be screwed. Autocracy is good to the capital:




It’s going to go down to 5 population when the settler pops but I’m going to keep working the GFH and drop the pearls for the time being. Start Masonry and Military Tradition.

Focus turns to Boxer. I note immediately that the tooltip for the chop includes the bonus form Magnus – it shows 67, right where it should be with his 50% bonus. Chop goes the builder, quadrireme is complete, Campus goes down for +2 adjacency. Build cost is 122, shows 29 turns to completion but that number will halve with the new population next turn. Boxer will take the crabs in 7 turns.

I bring the quadrireme down the coast. I think I’ll send it over to that island barbarian camp and use it to clear the camp out for the warrior. Of course, when I look over there I see that Stockholm has already cleared the camp. That’s OK, I’ll use the quad as a welcoming escort for The Scot.

While I’m over here, time to see what that city-state is:




It’s Lisbon. They’d like a trade route and both Archduke and Unmet Player have envoys here. I need to get one in here at some point. It does mean I might be at the other continent. I go to shore and turn north to start heading around the coast.

On the other side of the world my warrior heads east and I get a notification that I’ve found the continent of Europe. With this warrior in the ocean there’s actually a small chance that I could beat Archduke to the circumnavigation bonus…. Even better:




A city in the fog. Probably a city-state given where I am on the map.

In the north my land units close on Hattusa – I’ll park both 2 tiles out from the borders to heal, then plot my next move. The galley continues eastwards along the north coast. Eastern land units are at or within Nan Madol’s territory.

In thinking about my situation with the GPP race I’m thinking it will be worth the expediture to grab that prophet first. I can also speed it up by a turn by purchasing a builder on Turn 61 and using the extra movement to chop the forest NW of Sound into Holy Site Prayers. With Magnus in the city the chop would be worth ~72. The first prayers would be at 68 out of ~81 before the chop. The chop finishes one project and gets me 59/81 to a second one. That’s two turns of production to complete a second project and saves me the faith recruitment cost. I’m willing to take that gamble since I still have all my faith for builders and settlers at a cost of one builder charge. If pindicator beats me to it, good on him and my defense gets a bit harder. If I get it, good on me. To that end I shift Magnus to Sound as he’s no longer needed in Boxer.

[Cornflakes]

I had a brainwave today regarding Woden’s probable reasoning behind settling Alexandria where he did. The one thing his lands generally lack is Icon_Gold. The two copper at that city are the only unimproved tiles that provide any sort of income. Without them (and/or Conscription) his ability to fund an army along with district and other maintenance costs is severely hampered.

That thought occurred to me as well but Alexandria will not even have enough food to work both desert copper! Alexandria is not generating culture yet either so it will be a long time before those copper tiles are acquired. As a later filler city that could piggyback off development to chop in Petra that site looks ok but in the short term it is incredibly weak.

At that point a faith purchase would cost 280. Is that amount (and running a project) worth trying to get the first prophet to secure DotF?

That's the faith-equivalent of nearly 3 builders to purchase the prophet. That is a high developmental cost to pay. Also Pindicator isn't the worst rival to land DotF as a counterweight to TheArchduke.

I can also speed it up by a turn by purchasing a builder on Turn 61 and using the extra movement to chop the forest NW of Sound into Holy Site Prayers. With Magnus in the city the chop would be worth ~72. The first prayers would be at 68 out of ~81 before the chop. The chop finishes one project and gets me 59/81 to a second one. That’s two turns of production to complete a second project and saves me the faith recruitment cost. I’m willing to take that gamble since I still have all my faith for builders and settlers at a cost of one builder charge. If pindicator beats me to it, good on him and my defense gets a bit harder. If I get it, good on me. To that end I shift Magnus to Sound as he’s no longer needed in Boxer.

I like the chop plan better than the faith purchase plan.

Please post a couple wider-view screenshot of the north (Hattusa/Macedon area) and east (Nan Madol/Macedon area). I've lost track of your unit movements there.

[suboptimal]

I'll post overview screenshots next turn. I've been bad at that the past few turns.

The chop plan has a slight timing delay as the builder can't move and chop on the same turn it was purchased. The chop will be during T62 but the second project still completes EoT62. I'm going to hold off on completing any techs or civics beyond Military Tradition, which just finished. That'll keep the production cost locked at 77 (IIRC it scales even while building a project) and 20GPP yield. pindicator would get 14GPP from a project that costs 49 so if he starts running projects he could still beat us. Hopefully the rapid completion of projects catches him out.

[suboptimal]

Turn 57

Still at war but a quiet turn because we’re not in any direct combat. Three turns until the Classical Age. Somehow I’ve wound up back at the top of the board on milpower (at 205). That’s probably from the quadrireme getting built.

Military Tradition is complete so I take out Maritime Industries and start in Games & Recreation. That’s going to take 8 turns. I slot in Maneuver and leave the rest of my policies alone. Settler is complete at Sound, stop working the pearls for the time being and start the Holy Site Prayers. Pindicator is two turns ahead of me in the race (15 turns to my 17 turns). Punky’s Holy Site will be done in 6 turns. Boxer’s Campus will be done in 17 turns – the new population there has masked my settler build (if anyone else is keeping track of that).

In the west I send the galley NE up the coast and don’t find anything interesting (yet). I move the warrior towards Stockholm to defog the island interior and find some dyes. An overview of this region:




Back on the mainland I send the settler east to start heading for the inland city location up by the horses and dyes. The quadrireme comes down the coast. At Nan Madol I bring my swordsman SW into the mountain pass and bring the warrior up to flank it. Next turn I’ll move both into the mountain pass and fortify for the time being. Nan Madol now has a slinger and a galley out. Also note that Woden has brought a hypaspist towards Carthage, presumably to look for my units.




In the north I continue to close on Hattusa for the time being. It’s garrison strength has dropped back to 21. The galley continues going around the continent.




In the east we’ve found intelligent life:




We’ve met Pindicator’s Australia but it’s Archduke’s Scotland (and the city of Nicodranus) that is right across the sound from Woden. Pindicator and Archduke have an active DoF according to the diplo screen. Here’s the deal screen for Australia:




He’s running 6.6, 5.8, 6 and has milpower of 84.

The presence of truffles over here helps explain some of the gold income I’m seeing from people. I find it interesting that there’s also significant faith generation (Alhazard occupies the #2 spot so he’s got as much or more faith per turn than pindicator) so I’m a bit curious to see what else I’ll find resource-wise over here.

The warrior won’t be able to go around Scotland’s borders so I’ll have to either disembark to explore or turn south and go around the land mass in that direction.

Finally, for completeness, a picture of my territory…

[suboptimal]

Turn 58

Open the save, all appears quiet. Check out the scores and whatnot. A few things stand out…

- Australia has NOT met Alhazard, based on the diplomatic screen. Archduke has a unknown civ icon, Alexander and John Curtin while Pindicator only has Robert the Bruce. This is...mildly confusing.
- Pindicator has not located Lisbon yet as it still shows “Unmet Civilization”.
- Archduke looks to be gunning for a Golden Age. He had just reached 10 Era Points at Turn 45 and now sits at 17.
- Alhazard is a late entrant to the Great Prophet race.
- Archduke is 6 turns away from picking up Euclid. Looks like no one is going to get a Great Scientist this game except him.

When the era turns to the Classical I’ll put up a game overview post in addition to the Turn 61 report. Seems as good a time as any and perhaps I’ll have met Alhazard by then.

Going west to east, the galley continues up the coast of the new land mass. Haven’t found anything interesting there yet. Warrior continues defogging the island and hasn’t found anything more. Quadrireme and settler continue on their way to their intended destinations, as do the northern warrior and galley. Over at Nan Madol I move up into the mountain pass with the sword and bring the warrior along for the defensive bonus. Woden’s got a couple of troops in the area:




Part of me is thinking to try to pin his archer in the corner over there, and part of me is thinking to stand pat until the archer starts chasing after one of the city-state’s warriors.

Over by the Scottish borders I disembark. That gets me a view of Nicodranas.




If this warrior was a swordsman I’d consider going in and attacking the city solo, if only to prod the bear, so to speak. The garrison value is telling in that it shows that Archduke doesn’t have any Classical Age units yet. In fact, he and Pindicator have progressed no farther than the Bronze Working column in the tree.

I am considering giving Pindicator a hand (and Archduke a bit of a tweak) by declaring war on Australia once the Great Prophet race is settled. That’ll give Pindicator ten turns of +100% production to help build his empire up a bit, along with the Defensive Tactics inspiration. It also pokes Archduke for his “interference in my affairs” and hopefully can set up an interesting diplomatic situation between the two continents. The question is what’s the best way to signal that? Perhaps a 10 for 10 gold trade the turn before?

Next turn I’ll need to switch out of Masonry and start Archery to keep my project costs down.

[suboptimal]

Turn 59

I realized that I forgot to check Archduke’s pantheon last turn when I exposed Nicodranas from the fog. He’s running Divine Spark (+1 GP point from Campus, Theater Square & Holy Sites). Good choice for Scotland.

Switch techs from Masonry to Archery. Take a look around, don’t see anything notable except for some goings on over by Nan Madol, which I’ll get to in a bit. Troop movements in the north, west and far east don’t find anything interesting. At Nan Madol:




Woden’s archer has taken damage from something, probably the defending spearman. His hypaspist looks to be on the way for backup given that the Nan Madol warrior looks like it will also be engaging Woden’s archer. For the time being I hold tight. The warrior is battlecry promoted, in Nan Madol territory and is mine, so if one of us decides to pick a fight here I can upgrade and go. I might do that anyway. For the time being, though, I fortify in place. That’ll give the warrior an opportunity to heal up a bit.

[Cornflakes]

Does your Sword have a promo in hand to take for healing? I think it would be best to just fortify in place there to delay his advance. Between defensive +6 terrain + 6 fortify + 2 support you will have a significant combat advantage, plus the 10 HP/turn healing. Time is on your side with your greater empire yields. I wouldn’t sally forward, just stick to the defensive position.

I think DoW on Austrailia isfone given they are last in stats.