[Spoiler] Suboptimal's Next Attempt at Lurker Frustration

[suboptimal]

Turn 71

Masonry complete, start Wheel. Games & Recreation complete, start Military Training and will research that to inspiration + 1. No notifications.

Settler in Foggy and builder in Truly are complete. Foggy starts another settler, Truly starts building its Encampment. Settler moves out to the Government Plaza and rendezvous with the archer. They’ll head for the open grassland on the north short of the lake and found the city in three more turns. The builder does not harvest the forest this turn because math. The tooltip shows a yield of 67. Strictly speaking the harvest value is 45, with Magnus that’s 67.5. In theory that should round to 135. I’ll get a turn of production at 34 and a turn (post-harvest) of 32. 135+34+32 = 201. If I harvest now I lose 2 and the settler finishes a turn later (and wastes a ton of overflow). If the 67 holds and it doubles to 134 I hit 200 on the nose.

At Truly the builder moves into the forest to the NE. I’ll farm the NE rice next turn then return for a chop two turns after that. That’ll get the Encampment almost completely done and then I’ll farm the other rice. That gets me +1 Housing in addition to the and the Irrigation eureka.

I give some more thought to sending Themistocles towards Egypt. I decide against it because I’m only willing to go as far as Geneva – he’ll be trapped if I lose suzerainty and if there’s a low probability city-state up there I’ll still likely still find it first – Kaiser seems to be setting all of his cities off the coast. Speaking of which, he’s finished walls in Issac. I’ll send Themistocles around the top of the corner and down the east coast to about where I want to get a city put in, then decide my next move with him.

Down at Armagh the archer has come out of the city and one of the warriors has started to move away. I set up my forces for next turn’s suzerain & declare:




Now, if I get lucky that warrior swaps places with the archer during the interturn. Otherwise this will be a three-turn attack instead of a two-turn attack.

Out west it seems the Canada has decided to shadow my scout instead of exploring.




This works out well for me. I cross the river to the southwest, which puts me out of view of the archer and the city’s line of sight. There’s a jungle hill banana to the west of that hill so I won’t see the city center from there. The tooltip for the bananas tells me this city is Bruins. However, there’s another jungle hill SW of it and I might see something from there. I’ll also be in position to shoot the gap between Yerevan and Bruins to explore further into Canada’s area of the map.

One other thing to note while I’m thinking about it. We’re seeing some balance updates on the 27th (next Thursday) and the Government Plaza was specifically mentioned. The good news is that I’ll have my two remaining settlers out of Foggy by then. I will admit to hoping for the nerfhammer to come out on Work Ethic with that update. Which reminds me...even though I haven’t met Ichabod I can see his religion:




The addition of the galley to my milpower now has me in third place in that ranking with Kaiser at the top (248) followed by Woden and Ichabod then Canada (160) below. Woden and Ichabod have both jumped in tourists, presumably from inspirations (Woden’s picked up 4 in the last two turns).

[suboptimal]

Turn 72

No notifications other than the game wanting me to place my naturally obtained envoy. Nah, quick pass on that. Gonna save it for later. Archer/settler pair head towards their new home, builder at Foggy chops a forest, that settler will be out next turn. It’ll head downriver to Compo, then proceed to Mountain Silk from there. Builder will relocate to the stonefor a harvest the turn after next I was going to harvest the forest but realized that if I leave it there I can put down a lumbermill and a mine and have more per-turn production as a result.

Up north Themistocles continues defogging the extended coast and finding nothing. Another turn or two of this and I’ll send him back towards Cleggy. Builder at Truly moves to the rice and farms it for the Irrigation boost and suzerainty of Armagh. That reveals what’s left of the main land mass to the east:




That’s quite a bit bigger than expected. The iron is a bonus as well. Enough of a bonus where I might have to give serious thought about buying that iron tile. The city-state claimed the wheat as expected, the next expansion should be to the forest next to the iron tile. Another option for down here would be to get a settler and found a city right on the wheat tile. I could chop an RND into the lake, lumbermill a couple of forests and have a reasonably productive city down here. If I do build the fourth settler out of Foggy maybe it goes here instead of to the northeast.

There’s also coast just outside the borders to the south of the city-state. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the warrior is still in the city center, so this will be a bit more difficult. I bring the lead galley to the designated spot and delete the pin, advance the second one to the tile just outside the borders and declare war. Teleport works as expected, my galley winds up on the tile SE of the crabs. Both galleys move into position and I see somethings...odd




The city defense is only a 23 instead of the advertised 25. That’s some good news. The other oddity – that coast tile to the SE, the one with 2. The tooltip and yields both show the tile as having fish but there’s no resource icon.

Galleys attack for a total of 80 points (exactly 40 points each) which is poor rolling. Weirder still is that the galley that attacked second took more damage (21 vs 20). I decide to bring the warrior into the fray and move onto the monastery to attack. Yes, this risks the unit. However, a successful attack now means I might take the city next turn. The warrior does 29 damage and takes 25 in the process. Armagh will be at 111 health next turn and I’ll have an outside chance of taking the city. I’d really like that archer to move into the city as that would drop the defense strength quite a bit.

Out west the Canadian archer has disappeared from view. The only spot it could be is Horse Hill as that’s the only tile across the river I don’t have line of sight to. Geneva also built a galley this past turn. Hopefully it goes west and I get to see some sights. Scout crosses the river to the plains hill and picks up no further visibility this turn. I’ll see what happens next turn.

Looking briefly at my era score situation I’m now at 36/47. I’ll be getting 5 points from district builds, 3 points for a splendid Campus at Cleggy, one point for the horseman at Compo. That’s ten. A second great admiral will be the 11th point in twelve turns. I could also build a swordsman to get that last era point.

Kaiser got the first Great Scientist of the game – Euclid. Woden founded his 8th city.

[Alhambram]

Good headstart for conquest of Armagh, crossing fingers that warrior survives the ordeal, hopefully archer moves in city and shoot at one of galleys.

There are spots for three medium sized cities or two high pop cities east of Armagh, already any idea's for potential sites?

[suboptimal]

In theory there is room for five cities on the eastern coast:

- the cattle NE of Kilimanjaro
- the forest peninsula NE of Truly
- the coastal floodplain SE of the rice at the mouth of the River Avon
- the wheat on the Greenlee Lough
- the open grassland SW of the deer at Land's End

Two of these have direct access to freshwater, two have access via Aqueducts. The settler that should be complete at Foggy was 200, the next one is 230 and is headed for the coast between Armagh and Compo and should be completed either EoT75 or EoT76 (will depend wholly on rounding). A fourth one (for 300 and with no chops) could be out EoT 84. It's ten turns to get from Foggy to settle Greenlee Wheat but the second iron is worth it. Any settlers beyond that will wait until the Medieval. I've got other things (like military) that need to get built.

Edited to add Another consideration might just be to buy the two tiles to get the iron within Armagh's influence - the plains forest then the iron. If I captured the builder at Armagh I could, in theory, buy the iron tile and mine it with one of the builder's charges (farming the wheat and chopping the plains forest for the RND). I could then settle Iron Coast directly on the iron (since I don't need the mine for the eureka) and use that builder for two farms and a stone harvest for the RND. The iron tile buy would have to wait a little bit since I'm planning on buying the second ring bananas at Ullswater Coast for 80 in addition to one of the second ring forests at Armagh. Actually, this sounds like a better plan - just need to figure out how to get a builder out to Armagh if I don't capture the one they got.

[suboptimal]

Turn 73

No notifications except for those related to the scrum at Armagh. Second settler at Foggy is on the map, start the third one. This one may also be within a or two of finishing in three turns. I believe completing Wheel next turn will boost the stone harvest yield by just enough to get it done in three turns. If not then I think I should be able to complete Irrigation the turn before the harvest for a bit more.

Armagh first:




The archer is in the city. :banana: The galleys should be able to take the city on their own. The question is whether or not I get to capture the builder in the process. Stronger galley attacks first for 63 damage, second galley attacks and the city is mine. Unfortunately the builder ate it. I’ve now got a 3-population city in serious need of improving and no builder to improve it. Right. Time to get things moving here. First things first I buy the forest tile in the direction of the iron for 75 That tile will get the granary and monument rebuilt faster and give me the RND chop once I get a builder down here. I place the RND southwest of the city center and more weirdness:




The tile with the exclamation point has a fish resource reflected in the tool tip and tile yields but NOT in the adjacency of the RND. It appears to be in some sort of quantum superposition of there/not-there. That’s the bad news. The good news is that it lets me move the RND to the tile west of the city. I can put a Campus or another district there for an adjacency bonus. I start rebuilding the monument first and rearrange the citizens to zero out yields. I'll get the monument repaired for , get the RND/builder situation figured out then worry about getting city growth going. I bring the warrior into the city to heal and that theater is done with. Galleys will rest up and heal here as well before splitting up for scouting. After wondering why the yields are so low I realize that it’s because the city starts out at 50% loyalty. Fortunately it’s gaining 17 per turn and will get out of its funk, at which point I can figure out what I’m doing build-wise. I may take advantage of Veterancy to get the RND built and then try to get a builder out here as it’d likely be faster than building one at Truly.

Builders at Truly and Foggy move towards their next chops. Just-completed settler moves down the road towards Compo – I’ll move to the city next turn and then head to Mountain Silk from there. It’s 6 turns any way I slice it and making the southern detour lets me pick up an escort. Foggy starts the third settler. Archer/settler pair move to the northern bananas and will found the city up here next turn. That will get whales online which should help with some of my amenity issues (Nory Batty, Cleggy and Truly are all displeased right now).

Out in the west the movement of the Swiss units revealed the Canadian archer fortified on Horse Hill. I don’t yet know if that’s a picket or holding a spot for a settler. If it’s for a settler I might have to slam down an Entertainment Complex in Mountain Silk and try some early loyalty shenanigans. The scout moves southwest and I get eyes on Bruins:




I should have clear passage to the southwest from here. The Geneva archer also revealed a single-tile pass through to Egypt. Interesting. The good news is that if Canada settles Mountain Silk it’ll be on them to defend it. I could, in theory, move Mountain Silk’s location one tile NW (my fortified warrior is on the intended site). That would prevent any city from founding on Horse Hill. However, that city location doesn’t work for me at all.

As an afterthought I continue scouting with Themistocles, find nothing of note in my first two moves and start heading back towards Cleggy. The Geneva galley is headed east. Not the ideal direction.

Woden had another two tech turn. Seems he’s not worried about conserving overflow in his research. Kaiser is likely in Monumentality as he just dropped a bunch of (about 95 or so). I also just realized that I can see the complete list of cities a civ has by hovering over their icon in the Great People display. Odd, but useful. Canada’s capital is, indeed, The Blues, and Egypt’s Capital is Ed Mercer. One bit of good news – with the founding of my next two cities my Tech + Civic + Empire score will be the largest on the map. Just gotta get a military to defend it.

[Alhambram]

Unfortunately builders disappear when they are in city upon capturing the city, but otherwise good news about capturing Armagh without losses!

That fish tile is bugged, caused by game or maybe Armagh builder did harvest it before and causing weird interface.
As you said, we can use different tile for RND due adjaceny. Maybe a commerical hub? It don't get bonus from river but it do get +2 from RND.
You can place campus at spot where you just bought forest, it is +2adjaceny spot thanks reef and place two other districts at desert for another adjaceny bonus.
Maybe a industrial zone at NE desert so it get little bonus from adjacent iron mine too?

[suboptimal]

I think the situation with the fish is a worldbuilder issue. The city-state was likely moved to its current position on the coast as the map script would likely have spawned it on the lake.

As far as districts go I think the city is only going to ever have production to be able to build one district beyond the RND and it'd probably have to be a discounted district to get done in a reasonable amount of time. A Campus on the forest might be worth it. A Theater Square is an option here; it'd only be a +1 but at some point I'm going to want to get the writers and artists started. I don't know that an Industrial Zone would work here (I'd be using discounts to place those at other cities). I might consider a Commercial Hub or even a Holy Site only in the context of getting 7 district types for Civil Engineering's inspiration.

[suboptimal]

Turn 74

Wheel is complete, start Irrigation, that’ll be done next turn. I have notifications for no growth and no housing at Nora Batty and low amenities at Truly and Nora Batty. The galley that took the city also earned a promotion. Have a quick look around, nothing out of place. Time to do stuff.

Builder at Truly chops the forest and the Encampment will complete next turn. Why not wait for Irrigation for the extra ? Because completing that tech is only worth 1 and I got other things I need to be doing. I do shift Cleggy’s citizen from the forest to the 6 tile. I should have done that a couple of turns ago but forgot. Even with a 50% growth penalty the city is pulling in 4.5 per turn.

Galley with promotion leaves city, galley without enters and fortifies to heal with the warrior. I take Helmsman and now have a 5MP galley. That’ll get some serious scouting done. It’ll be at Yerevan in three turns. Settler moves to Compo, builder at Foggy moves to stone. I’ll harvest the stone next turn, mainly because the math previously described works out just right. Up at Ullswater Lake the settler & archer move to the open grassland and…




I immediately place the RND and put a fishing boat on the whales. Likewise, I purchase the second ring bananas to the southeast. This does three things for me. First, it gives me a contiguous border from the north coast to the south. Second, I’ll be able to buy the plains tile NE of the Government Plaza as a second ring tile at Foggy for a nice +2 Campus. The builder will come ashore and chop both western jungles. Third, it will speed city growth. Between the jungle chops and the two 3 tiles the city should hit 4 population on Turn 80 unless something funny happens with food overflow. The amenity from the whales clears my issues in three of my cities and the extra went to Foggy. Nice.

Scout moves SW and exposes the Kalahari Desert and a Canadian warrior.




I may skirt Canada’s borders heading west. They won’t be taking Yerevan so I’m not worried about that.

[Alhambram]

With veterancy policy card coming soon, any plans to make use of it?
Aside building more RND's, also build lighthouses? They gives extra food and housing plus traders (4 for medieval faires euerka).
We can use traders for new city to help them grow or send to city states for gold (and roads toward conquest of city states).

Next civic goal should be Exploration for newer government. All we need is Defensive Tactics (have someone DoW you for euerka), Feudalism (6 farms), Mercenaries (8 land units), Medieveal Faires (4 trade routes) and Exploration (2 caravels).
Only thing what we are missing is able to build/upgrade caravels which means we need Cartography (build 2 RND) at one point. Before Cartography there is Shipbuilding and Buttress (build classical or later wonder).
No need to beeline for it, because I value Construction and Apprenticeship more due extra production. Also Iron Working/Machinery for defense and Miltary Engineering for finding niter.

[suboptimal]

With regards to Veterancy, yes. With the completion of Military Training I'm going to change over to Autocracy. That'll give me boosted yields in the capital and I'll be slotting Veterancy, Conscription, Ilkum and keeping Urban Planning.

Foggy, Cleggy and Nora Batty will all start builders after their current build items complete. Compo will start a lighthouse next, Cleggy after the builder completes. Truly is going Watermill -> Barracks. There will be RND chop-outs with Veterancy at Howard, Nora Batty and Iron Coast.

The rough plan is as follows:

- Newest settler is going to Iron Coast. Builder will harvest the stone for the RND there, then head via sea to Nora Batty. It'll then chop out the RND there and mine the iron.
- Nora Batty will build its own builder and put down three farms for food, housing and to almost complete the Feudalism boost
- Foggy is going builder -> almost builder. I want to pre-build a Serfdom builder here as well as a library. The first builder is going to put down a sheep pasture, rice farm and wine plantation. Its next district will likely not be a RND but a discounted Theater Square somewhere to the north.
- Cleggy is going builder -> lighthouse -> trader then either a Serfdom prebuild or a ibrary. Builder is putting down two volcanic mines and a camp.
- Compo is building the lighthouse
- Nora Batty and Iron Coast will likely build their lighthouses once their RND's are complete.
- Howard was going to put down a Campus north of Foggy's two districts. However, I'm going to change this to a Theater Square since it'll be discounted. If I complete it and the Campus at Truly before placing any Industrial Zones I'll be able to discount two of them.
- That brings me to Mountain Silk. There's a +2 Campus getting chopped clear a few turns after city founding. At some point I need to get a Theater District and an Entertainment Center in here, particularly if Canada settles in the hose hill area. A Theater Square here would be 0 adjacency but it would be discounted and help get the Great Works train rolling.

Regarding inspirations and eurekas:

Engineering - Walls @ Mountain Silk
Iron Working - Iron Mine @ Nora Batty
Construction - Watermill @ Truly
Shipbuilding - complete
Currency - complete
Apprenticeship - mines at Cleggy (2) and Nora Batty
Military Engineering Aqueduct @ Mountain Silk
Buttress - see below
Cartography - complete
Recorded History - complete w/Campus at Cleggy
Mercenaries - complete w/ Horseman at Compo
Feudalism - farms at Nora Batty (3), Truly (2), Compo (1)
Exploration - need to complete Cartography

The key civic here is actually not (yet) Exploration but Naval Tradition. That unlocks the +100% Harbor adjacency card. I'll be finishing Drama and Poetry next, get Recorded History for the governor promotion then beeline Naval Tradition. For techs I'll get getting Engineering, Construction and Iron Working all to eureka + 1. I want to get those all finished relatively quickly and then head straight for Apprenticeship to start getting IZ's down.

For the governor promotions at Defensive Tactics and Recorded History I'm putting one into Pingala's science promotion. The other will either go into Amani or Pingala's +100%GPP promotion at Cleggy. I learned in PBEM 15 that the modifier applies to projects and am considering using a project or two to claim the first Great Engineer. That would let me build the Masoleum at Halicarnassus at Cleggy, drop a wonder somewhere north of Foggy and then the Colossus at Compo. The thinking here is that a wonder north of Foggy can give adjacency to up to three Theater Squares and I can rearrange the pinmap at Compo for a coastal Theater Square with +4 adjacency. If I get the GE early enough I can use one of those builds (likely MoH) for the Buttress boost.