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

[TheArchduke]

That barb camp. Ugh. Watch out, barb scouts love themselves some trade route pillage.

[suboptimal]

Turn 93

Start the turn with a few notifications – my swordsman was attacked by a Greek archer, I’ve got a trade route available, finished Celestial Navigation and the barbarians are approaching Cant.  Over at Camp Donut Hole the spearman has decided that it wanted to come out and play and has moved to the forest east of the camp.  rho21 has moved Hannibal away from the front line and his swordsman out of view. Guess he saw the spike in military power and is forming up for defense.  Japper didn’t attack Brussels this turn.  

OK..I move the injured swordsman west to get it behind cover.  I’ll wait and see if rho21 moves north to harass the Eagle Warrior.  At Cant two of the chariots kill the scout and the third moves up to the Commercial Hub to avoid the incoming spearman.  I bring the southern sentry archer across back the river to deal with the spearman.  Other units continue their planned move and then there’s the galley.  It moves around the island to the west and finds more coastal water in the middle of nowhere and possible land to the SW again:



I’m starting to wonder if Emperor K picked a map (or edited one) to add a galley/builder accessible bridge between coasts.

Builders start doing their thing.  Districts are charged at Kenneth and Maps.  Chariot is chopped at Oddfellows, Harbors are placed at High Speed and Harborcoat.  Next turn a builder will be out at Welcome and it’ll be three turns to chop the forest there (two moves, one chop).  

I start Mathematics, that will complete in one turn.  Feudalism currently shows three turns to completion.  If that holds after any overflow from Mathematics I’ll start that next turn.  Theology will be up next on the civics side.  I’ll keep my current policy configuration for the time being.  When Theology completes I’ll take out Maneuver, Serfdom and Strategos and put in Professional Army, Limes and Caravansaries.  I suppose what I could have done was start Theology this turn and then arranged to do a double swap in a few turns.     I blame the lack of coffee in my system for not coming up with that until I was editing the report.   I will hold the envoy from Mercenaries until I get the second one from Theology, then put both into Geneva for suzerainty and visibility to the north of Pythagoras.

[suboptimal]

Turn 94

Open the save to a pile of notifications.  The trade route between How and Cant is complete.  I’m going to relocate the trader to Maps for the extra production.  Mathematics and Mercenaries are complete.  Find completed its Commercial Hub and a couple of cities are complaining about lack of housing.  

Up in the north, rho21 is trying to get his Great Scientist through the front line...again.  Um, no.    He can’t get through the ZoC so can’t proceed, so I’ll just hang tight with my positioning and keep my two units fortified.  He’s also retreated his Great General completely out of view.  

Down south, Japper has settled Kapsalon right in the area my Eagle Warrior was killed by that barbarian horseman.  Makes me wonder where the horseman went.  It’s also the first Kongolese city I’ve seen this game.  And no, Japper has not attacked Brussels this turn, either.  

At Cant the spearman has decided to move closer to the city.  I’d rather not have it pillage a plantation but my only units up here are at a disadvantage.  I get the chariots out of the way, move the archer up to where the trader is and the spearman coming from Maps advances next to the camp.  Outside chance I lose the trader in two turns as it’ll take three for the archer to kill the spearman.  Hopefully it turns around with my spearman in the area.  

Out in the western ocean the galley advances southwest.  More land:



They’re 1 or 2 hex islands, but I think I found some sort of connecting bridge.  rho21 might get a surprise if he has any coastal cities at this rate.

Down to builder actions my seaborne builder in the southwest makes its last move on the coastline and will come ashore next turn.  Tantalizingly I find pearls 2 tiles off the coast:



The start of another sea bridge, perhaps?  The galley out of High Speed (due in several turns) will have to investigate….

Another charge goes into the districts at Kenneth and Maps.  Builder at Welcome moves next to the forest in the NW.  That’ll be the next chop.  I might put it into Barracks instead of the Aqueduct, as that is coming along rapidly (6 turns left).  Other builders reposition themselves (Cant’s builder holds tight because of the spearman situation).  

Stirrups shows three turns remaining, so I start that tech.  I need 6 more points for a Great General, that’s 2 turns with Strategos and 3 turns without.  I pull Strategos and put in Caravansaries.  That’ll be 2 extra income now, 2 when the next trader gets going and more as additional traders come online.  Natural Philosophy is tempting, but I’ll take that when I get rid of Serfdom.  I start Theology, that’s got four turns on it.  Find the River resumes its builder (3 turns).  I’ll have my fourth Commercial Hub come online next turn (Oddfellows) and Kenneth’s will follow in a few turns after that.  At some point over the next couple of turns I’ll buy the tile for the Colosseum and maybe the one for Maps’ Campus.

[suboptimal]

Turn 95

Open the save to a bunch of notifications and an attempted breakthrough in the noth:



I send all of the chariots at Cant up the road towards How.  They'll position in the hills over the next two turns in preparation for the upgrades.  I also reshuffle units at Near.  The Eagle Warrior and Swordsman are a bit outgunned here so I fall back to the west a little.  (Eagle Warrior W, Swordsman NW-NW from the above positions). The plan here is to delay/harry for three turns until the knight upgrade then I’ll counterattack.  rho21 also put an envoy into Geneva so they’re at war with me and I lost the science.  I put my spare in there and peace with the Swiss is realized once again.  I'll have another envoy in 3 turns for additionalI also notice that rho21’s milpower has shot up to 400 from 310 this past turn.  Don’t know what he’s built – he hasn’t done any upgrades as he’s sitting on 317.  I may have to load the game without CQUI to see where he is on the tech tree to see if he’s gotten to Stirrups yet.

I’m going to hold the line at the Cant-Near border.  I don’t want to run the risk of him having an ambush set up in the fog.  The swordsman down there doesn’t have any support but the forces in the north are only about a third of his total force complement in terms of power.  I should have enough gold to support upgrades of six chariots, two archers and perhaps two Eagle Warriors or a third archer depending on force distribution.  Just gotta wait until T98 to do so.  Hannibal will also be out on Turn 98 and can get repositioned to How for the main advance.  Feudalism is actually due in two turns, not three -- the display shows 3 turns because of the 52.9 rate.  However, my rate post-envoy is actually 59.1, which completes Feudalism in two turns.  I could do an expensive upgrade on a chariot (the one at Near, most likely) on Turn 97 if need be.

Elsewhere the barbarian spearman has advance to one of the plantations.  Notably it’s not the one with the trader.  The archer shoots it for some damage.  My spearman, meanwhile, clears the camp.  The Eagle Warrior I was sending to the Pantanal turns east and heads for How.  I was going to buy a tile at Maps this turn but I’m going to hold the cash to perform ugrades where needed.  

Builder repositioning continues.  High Speed’s builder finished so it starts to build the Harbor while High Speed works on its galley.  Begin is one turn from completing its Granary.  I’ve got three turns left in Maneuver and a horseman will take three turns, so I start one there.  

Exploring Galley finds no more land (yet) but does find more shallow water to continue crossing the ocean with..until it runs into a dead end.



I’ll have to backtrack and try again.

Oddfellows was going to start a trader, I stick with that plan.  The Greek troops can’t get here before I get Limes up so I’ll do my planned farming in this area and if they manage to get this far I’ll chop in walls.

[TheArchduke]

Delay action, you do remember how combat works and how it does not?

2 units are just asking to be killed, full retreat.

[suboptimal]

Delay action, you do remember how combat works and how it does not?

2 units are just asking to be killed, full retreat.

Good point.  (I thought that sounded familiar )  We'll see if he tries to go south or continue east.  I don't know what, if any, scouting he has up here - dunno if Egypt and Greece ever met.

[TheArchduke]

Delay action, you do remember how combat works and how it does not?

2 units are just asking to be killed, full retreat.

Good point.  (I thought that sounded familiar )  We'll see if he tries to go south or continue east.  I don't know what, if any, scouting he has up here - dunno if Egypt and Greece ever met.

No worries, try to save the sword. The EW is dead.

[suboptimal]

Turn 96

The situation in the north:



Eagle Warrior isn’t dead yet, the mathematician is trying to sneak by and my trade route got pillaged by the spearman.  Oh, and rho21 had another envoy to put into Geneva.  His income also shot up to 30gpt.  His Great General and Swordsman are back in their usual positions.

OK, what to do here?  Swordsman heads southeast.  That puts it out of view of the archers and sends the Great Scientist...to Xenocrates (get the brief flash of the unit there).   The Eagle Warrior retreats to the oasis, putting it out of sight of the units for the time being.  

Elsewhere the chariots continue up towards How and the western Eagle Warrior continues moving east.  Spearman and archer both advance on the barbarian spearman, archer shoots at it.  Galley in the west (east?) backtracks a bit.  Builder time.

Entertainment District at Maps & Legends is now completed.  I resume the walls.  At 757 on hand I spend 110 to buy the Colosseum tile before the prices go up again. Builder at Kenneth charges the Commercial Hub for the fourth time, completing it.  Kenneth starts a monument and the builder will wait to see if the city expands to the furs or the iron.  Builder at Welcome chops the forest for 111.  Two goes into the chariot, completing it.  Thirty-two will overflow into the aqueduct, completing that next turn and the remaining 77 will go into a Barracks.  The chariot heads for Kenneth, where it will pause to upgrade before heading to the front.  Harborcoat’s builder has completed; it charges the Harbor and the city resumes Aqueduct production.  High Speed’s builder likewise charges the Harbor there.  Two builders are left to build in Near and Find.  Find will most likely complete next turn and Near will complete on T98, right with the policy change.

[suboptimal]

Turn 97

Open the save to:



The Eagle Warrior bit the dust, the swordsman is still retreating.  First up, the Great Person:



In some ways this is appropriate – I’m dedlurking Archduke as the Mongols over in PBEM 8 and I get a little slice of Mongol glory in my game.   He winds up in Welcome and I immediately reposition him to Near, once I move the builder out.  Chariots at How reposition so everyone is in the territory for next turn.  I check the donut hole, the barbarian spearman has disappeared. No notification that it attacked anything, nothing looks to be injured, it's just gone and the only hex I can's see is SW of the spearman.   Archer returns to Cant, spearman fortifies in place, builder resumes treks towards Maps.  Swordsman in the north fully retreats back to Near and is within range of Genghis if it needs to defend.  The last military unit to move this turn is the galley, which I’ve decided is currently in the Far East since that’s it’s location on the mini map.  It moves southeast and I determine that this is a complete dead end until I research Cartography.  

Find the River has completed its builder.  I move to the forested hill SW of the city center.  This will get a lumber mill for the eureka and some added production.  After that I need to decide what I want to do with it.  It’d get to Maps quicker than the other builder, so that might be my plan.  Find resumes its Granary production.  High Speed and Harborcoat both charge their Harbors.  The builder at Welcome farms the tile it just chopped, completing a farm triangle.  With Welcome now at 10.5 housing thanks to the Aqueduct it’s now back on the path to growth.  Its Barracks will complete next turn.  Pasture the horses at Kenneth, farm the floodplains at How, which starts another trader.  The completed trader relocates to Maps and will restart the lost trade route to Cant (+2 +2 +2).  

Going back to the Great People races, unless rho21 runs a project I’ve got the Great Merchant locked up.  However the gold bonus for foreign trade routes doesn’t do me much good.  This might be a "scout" until I fill up my trade route quota (currently 6 but will be 8 when the harbors complete).  In some ways it might be better for him to run a project to snag Zhang Qian and for me to get a Medieval GM.  Irene of Athens would get me another luxury, Marco Polo would get me a free trader (and another trade route), de’Bardi would get me an envoy and some quick cash.  

Once this turn is over I reload my EoT save with CQUI disabled so I can take a look at the tech tree.  rho21 is only two techs behind me right now and I’d like to see where he is.  The tree indicates he is ahead of me by one column, so he’s got Education, Castles, Stirrups or Military Engineering or some combination thereof.  If I had to guess he’s got Education since that’s the one he got the boost for.  His city strength remains at 26 base so I need to keep an eye on that for when he gets knights and/or muskets.  In the meantime, though, at least two of his chariots are going to be in mortal peril soon enough.

[TheArchduke]

Thank god you saved the swordsman. Run away even further. Chariots with stirrups upgrade and Knights will smash that army if it goes any nearer.

Although, hmm, you might be better off being defensive for now.

I think you should make a city by city, district by district, pop by pop comparison between you two. Is there a way to soar ahead in science?