[Spoiler] Suboptimal's Next Attempt at Lurker Frustration

[suboptimal]

Turn 65

Open the save to some notifications. Someone has taken out a city-state. Wasn’t me (yet) and wasn’t Canada. Woden’s empire score jumped up to 61 from 54 and Kaiser’s empire score jumped from 47 to 54. So one of them founded a city and one conquered a city.

Military Tradition completes. Time for a policy swap. Out with Agoge, in with Maritime Industries. I also take out Charasmatic Leader and put in Diplomatic League. I’ll be completing Geneva’s quest next turn and that’ll get me two envoys in there. Resume Games & Recreation. Next turn I swap out of Horseback Riding and start putting turns into Masonry. After that I’ll put turns into Wheel, then complete Horseback Riding once Cleggy’s next project completes.

Compo’s completed its RND (1 era point, 3) and resumes its galley build. I also earned the Cartography eureka. The overflow from the RND is sufficient to complete the galley so all of this turn’s production will go into the next galley. The city also gained a population. I put the new citizen on one of the plains tiles for extra - don’t need to work the 3 floodplain since the city is currently housing limited.

Cleggy has completed its Harbor Shipping project, getting me to 25 GAP at a +4/turn rate. I’m 5 points behind Woden but will pass him in 3 turns unless he runs his own project. The next project will complete in 5 turns and that should get me the next available admiral upon completion. Hopefully that’s Themistocles.

In the eastern half of the empire the warrior is almost to Cleggy and now stands on the coastal elephants. The newly completed archer at Truly heads for Foggy and the city starts a builder. I’m going to go with the rice farm → forest chop → quarry play with that. Slinger moves to the city. I decide to move the warrior down towards Armagh in preparation for the naval assault. If that builder is outside the city center on the turn I declare I want to grab it – that’ll help me get out an RND there faster. The builder at Foggy heads towards its first chop.

Scout moves west and finds the route blocked:




I’m not quite sure how a Holy Site was built on top of copper. I always thought that placing a district caused any bonus resources underneath to disappear. I move the scout out to the coast for some defogging and will bring it back north.

No real changes in scores other than what I’ve already mentioned. Next turn the archer’s milpower will get added to my current 96 and I’ll see where I stand militarily. I do find it interesting that Ichabod nor Woden have built a Campus yet. That reminds me...I lock in the Campus at Cleggy at a 107 cost.

[Thrantar]

Just letting you know that I'm still lurking, even if I haven't had much to say. How far are you from Mathematics?

[suboptimal]

Good to know you're still around!

I got the eureka when Cleggy completed its RND. Strictly speaking I'm two techs away: Currency first, then Mathematics. If I switched over next turn it'd be 15 turns to complete both (6 for Currency, 9 for Mathematics). If you're thinking Petra for Yerevan (or Armagh given the desert to its east) I don't see that as a reasonable wonder target - I'm at the rear of the pack on techs and neither location has the chops for it (literally).

[suboptimal]

It's also occurred to me that first suzerainty of Geneva is within reach - I'll be getting 2 envoys there at the start of Turn 66 and can either complete Mysticism or wait for natural envoy generation to get the third envoy. The question then becomes whether to keep them around for the +15% science (and eventual +2 to libraries) during peacetime or to conquer them to add a city to the empire.

[Thrantar]

More so due to the addition of the diplomatic quarter. Petra's a long slog to build.

[suboptimal]

Things that specifically rely on New Frontier Pass content isn't available in this game. The changes to religions (*cough*Work Ethic*cough*) and other balance items are available since they were in balance updates sent to the entire community.

[Thrantar]

Huh. Then I'm not sure how the game implements updates, since I had a game in progress that acquired the changes, despite me not having bought the pass.

[suboptimal]

I know for certain that the new rules around envoys and the Diplomatic Quarter are not in this game - my envoy at Armagh is providing +2 per turn. Under the new rules it should only be 1 per turn.

[suboptimal]

Turn 66

First galley completed at Compo and that puts two more era points in the books, two envoys in Geneva and raises my base city defense to 20. Start a second galley, that’s got 4 turns to go. I don’t yet know if I can move past Armagh or Yerevan but will spend the time defogging the “remote” coast between Compo and Armagh. That does lead to something...interesting…




If I remember the map generation scripts correctly, coast tiles do not usually appear more than three tiles away from land. I might have to backtrack next turn and see if that’s a dead end or if it’s a one-tile coastal channel to somewhere else. I am building three galleys out of Compo so can use two for attacks and one for exploring.

Reposition the other units on the map and that’s the turn. I’m still last in milpower with the current rating of 121. I’ll see what the galley gets me next turn. I have a feeling that unless there’s war preparations “out there” I may be a bit behind the curve on military units.

I’ve decided that the first settler out of Foggy will go for the Mountain Silk location while the second heads for the Ullswater Lake spot. That’ll have cities founding on consecutive turns (76 and 77). Mountain Silk is going to use a jungle and stone to chop out walls for defense and the Engineering boost.

Horseback Riding is one turn from completion so I switch over to Masonry. I’ll put a two turns into that (eureka will complete it) then complete Wheel. After that I’ll get Iron Working, Construction and Engineering to eureka + 1

Nothing major internationally, at least as far as I can tell.

[suboptimal]

Turn 67

Truly has gained a population and I set it to working the stone. The city is still two below its housing cap but right now I’d rather have the extra than a pile of coming in. Next turn the city will grab one of the two jungle hills for a bit more production. Compo has just grabbed the sheep tile so I move the citizen working the plains to that tile for some more food.

I continue moving my land units around. The archer moves to Foggy’s Campus and will head to the lake cattle to keep watch. The scout is going to head for the open grassland next to the Horse Hill location to act as a picket. Galley confirms that fish is a dead end coastal tile. I’ll send the galley over to Armagh’s borders to reveal that one coastal resource and see if I can figure out a way to position a galley during suzerainty for a teleport to a position from which I can attack. Lurkers: does a war declaration teleport cause the unit’s movement to be zeroed out or do they keep whatever MP they had at the time of the teleport? Tested it, units keep their MP after teleporting. If I can get a good teleport that lets me move and attack with 2MP remaining then I’ll be able to capture the city a turn earlier.

In the woods northeast of Foggy the builder chops for 58. This puts the Ancestral Hall at 143/150 and it will complete over the interturn. It’ll overflow 10 into the settler, which currently has 56 in it. I’ll use the promotion for Magnus’ Provision and then let the settlers start flowing. First settler for Mountain Silk, second settler for Ullswater Coast and third for the coastal spot SE of the iron. An eventual fourth will be for either horse hill or Kilimanjaro Cattle.

I take a look around my cities and see that if I move a population from the unimproved elephants to the fish tile I”ll be able to grow the city next turn and not slow anything else down. I’ll swap back to the elephants next turn to get production back up. I’ll also be at the start of the housing cap (city has 6 housing) so will likely continue working the fish for the extra gold and leave the 6 tile unworked until I can get a lighthouse in here.

My milpower is now at 152 and that puts me ahead of Ichabod. No significant changes in scores. Woden has 13 techs (got there a turn or two ago). He’s been completing techs to just past eureka point because there have been a couple of turns where he’s completed two techs. Kaiser is the monster right now – 12 techs and just completed his 12th civic.

In looking at the path west I don’t know that I’ll be able to get any land units in that direction until Shipbuilding completes. That means that all of my explorations will have to be via sea for the time being. I do know that I will likely meet Canada in five more turns. That’s when I’ll get a natural envoy and establish suzerainty of Geneva. Canada has gotten a second envoy into the city though, so hopefully I’ll still be able to suzerain them first in order to get the era score. I suppose jumping over to Mysticism (2 turns to complete) is also an option. Alhambram, thoughts on that idea? A delay doesn't hurt too much since I need a little time to get the Encampment at Truly built for the Military Training inspiration.