[SPOILERS] Woden and ljubljana like boats

[ljubljana]

Turn 62 - Phoenicia



GP completes in Cuneiform, and I start the AH, due in 9. The chop will shave 2 turns off of that and overflow into the settler that is to follow. Linear A gets a builder next turn, and then will start a 6-ish turn settler, which is slow enough to get the AH builder. Meanwhile, in the east, our warrior baaarely survives the double-attack from the scout + warrior, and ends up very redlined but with the scout dead and the barb warrior even more redlined. I attack to see the result of the upcoming combat before committing to a settler move, and win with 1 HP remaining - thanks, Discipline . The third city will be founded next turn (name TBD), and will buy trader + sheep while starting either a builder or (more likely) a Cothon.

Shipbuilding comes in, and I head for the last turn of Archery. If Construction is after that, I'll consider taking 4t to hard-research it next to get lumbermills up and get the Eureka for you, since I doubt either of us wants to sink 60 production into a watermill (I guess I could build one at city 8 if I found that one next, but we'd be waiting a long time if we go for that plan). Otherwise, it's after Irrigation, which is also easy enough to get to since I'll get Masonry and Irrigation in 1t each with overflow. We also get Craftsmanship next turn, and will hopefully catch a break and have RH appear after it at 1 in 3 odds. Either way, though, the next target should be MT to unlock flanking bonuses for the Geneva attack. Speaking of which, Amani starts establishing in Geneva - I think we only have to delay the attack by 1t to get the suzereignty ES first, which seems worth doing.

Archduke caught some decidedly mixed luck at Akkad this turn:



The galley finally did something by attacking out...but the city's now working on walls, which will obviously end this attack if they complete. Ouch. You caught some good luck at Vilnius, though, which finished a slinger on the interturn and moved the warrior out .

Hmm, I actually do have two CS quests that don't require sending a trade route. One is to clear a barb camp near Nazca, which is obviously borderline impossible, but the other is to eureka Mathematics for Akkad. That would be very difficult to get in the traditional way, but if you hard-researched it I could pick up two more ES with Amani. Would you be willing to do that? You'd have to start fairly soon before I run out of other things to research, but I doubt either of us will be able to build 3 different districts for the boost, so I think one of us will need to hard-research it at some point anyways.

[Woden]

For Mathematics, do you have a spot for a Campus? You already have the GP and a Cothon, so only need one more district type. Has Geneva built its Campus? That would also get you the boost. I will see where I am at on research and if I need anything, otherwise I can research it.

[ljubljana]

As far as a Campus goes, Linear A and Cuneiform have that solid +3 spot available, but I'm pretty sure neither one can grow to size 4/7 quickly enough to build it for the eureka. Linear A could build it in 20 turns, maaaybe, but I think that's too slow...and also we'd need the tile picker to grab the right plains tile on its next border expansion for that to even be an option. Geneva doesn't have one, and its production is beyond abysmal, so I think that's out, too. The one plausible option is to start one in city 3 immediately. It wouldn't get the district discount, though (it would if we did the Cothon first), and would be a +1 campus (+2 if we're willing to buy a tile) instead of a +3 Cothon...my instincts are that we'd lose more in terms of hammers and beaker/gold output from delaying the Cothon than the boost is worth. I'm open to arguments either way on that one, though.

[Woden]

Turn 62-Vikings
Writing is complete and I start Math, due in 6 turns un-boosted. I kill Vilnius with 2 longboats and send the 3rd south across the ocean. My other 2 longboats are heading towards where I think Russia and Australia are located, trying to keep to ocean tiles to prevent and attack if they see me before I see them. Builder finishes at Odin and I start another. Builder heads to hook up the iron....
   

Political Philosophy finishes next turn.

[ljubljana]

Turn 63 - Phoenicia



Hieratic founded, sheep tile purchased and pastured. Looks like the trader cost increased since I last checked it, so I need a few more gold, but I'll buy it next turn. The new city starts a Cothon, due in 13, but not really since the trader is worth +3 hammers. Linear A also finishes the builder, who mines the iron, and starts a 6-turn settler. I'm thinking the spot marked "3" is a good choice for the next settler, because it's a strong site but will take a bit longer than the others to get online. It needs to go monument before Cothon to get its food tiles acquired, and needs a trader as soon as its founded to get through the rough early turns (which we can do with the AH trade route). Once it gets rolling, though, it should be a nice city with all those mines/lumbermills and the strong IZ.



Archduke has a galley in the SW, ugh. That probably means they'll scout two of our biremes...I think about holding the others back to prevent this, but decide it's not worth it. I'm not sure if that was the right choice, though, since we have to wait a turn on attacking anyways because of Amani... You can also see that the city strength is back up to 32 again, which is awkward, and might mean we need Oligarchy to take the city efficiently. I'm going to put one turn into MT now, but will save the policy swap until we attack...in the worst case, we can hold back until the AH finishes, then complete MT and swap to Oligarchy for an attack. If TAD tries to interfere with a decent number of ships, though, we could be in trouble here - they finished DT already, and will have PP and Oligarchy + Twilight Valor up soon to match our Biremes in combat strength. They could also swing around with their Akkad attack force and try to pillage our Cothons if they figure out how many ships we've committed down here.



Policy swap, since the settler is the only boostable item. Conscription's already worth a nice 6 gpt, taking me to +12.



Tech shot with updated info. I'm getting Masonry now, because it's free and we need it for the Engineering eureka - I think I'm going to try for that via Limes Walls in Linear A after this settler, though it's possible our beaker rate is too fast for that. I think unboosted Construction makes sense as the next research for me, since that lets me eureka it for you without trying to fit in a watermill before the next settler at Cuneiform. What do you think though?



We catch a big break in the civics tree, with RH available after Craftsmanship! Obviously there's no chance of me boosting it - I'm going to research it unboosted ASAP, other than the short detour to MT. That'll come in after the AH finishes but before Magnus is established, meaning we'll have Magnus up with the no-pop loss promotion before the next settler in Cuneiform! I might have to delay that settler by a turn or two to make that happen, but that's fine, since it gives us space to start on the lighthouse or (ugh) a watermill for the Construction eureka, I guess. I probably could have gathered that RH would show up here anyways from Australia's science rate, which jumped an enormous 12 points this turn (!) in what seems quite likely indicative of them swapping into NatPhil. Did they get RH before PoliPhil? That seems like a strange choice to me in most circumstances, but I guess it makes some sense here with RH so much easier to access.

[Woden]

I will have 2 longboats near Geneva in 5 turns, one this coming turn and one coming out in 5 turns. I am going into Oligarchy right away and can help take the city if needed. We can attack from 5 tiles, so even with a defensive strength of 32, should only take 2 turns of attack to kill it.

Construction works for me as your next tech.

[Woden]

Turn 63-Vikings
Open the save to...
   

Switch into Oligarchy and run this policy set up...
   

I keep Maritime Industries and Urban Planning and add Charismatic Leader and Conscription. Conscription is so I can build more boats without going broke. 

Longboat finishes at Thor and heads towards Geneva. There is an English galley hanging around there. I leave one of my longboats to heal inside Vilnius and have the other 2 head south and come across 2 city states...
   

Rapa Nui might be another target for capture. I can bring over the longboat out of Thor if you think you can handle Geneva. I will probably scout around the city a bit while I can get more boats over here but I don't see any reason to let them live for too long. Suboptimal has 2 envoys in the city and Roland has 1.

[ljubljana]

Turn 64 - Phoenicia



The galley in Akkad is apparently continuing to attack out, which means TAD may have a window to take the city after all if it dies next turn. TAD is also creeping one of his galleys northwards, possibly in an attempt to go pillage Cothons somewhere in reaction to having scouted our Geneva attack. My bireme does its best, taking a position that will allow it to block the other tile next to Akkad if the galley in the city dies while still retaining the option of racing the TAD galley to Cuneiform.

I think I might be stretched a little thin here, with too few biremes in this area to both keep our Cothons from being pillaged and deny the Akkad conquest. Thus, with considerable reluctance, I make the decision to peel off one of the biremes from the Geneva attack to reinforce up here. If you think I shouldn't bother with that, though, it can still turn around next turn and participate in the attack - let me know if you think that's the better call.



Geneva deploy. If TAD knows we're going for a Geneva attack, the best play for their galley is to block one of the tiles next to the city, which could seriously slow us down here if not outright deny the city capture. Thus, I decide to spend this turn unconvincingly pretending to be scouting . If TAD moves the galley north and scouts the other two ships, it'll be just far enough out of place that it can't turn around and block a tile next to the city before the biremes get there. Since we're waiting on Amani to attack Geneva anyways, holding the ships back this turn shouldn't delay the actual attack.

I think attacking Rapa Nui is a great idea. However, ugh, by peeling off a bireme from my attack to interfere with TAD's Akkad conquest window, I might have doomed your Thor longship to helping me out at Geneva . Sorry about that - if you want to use it for Rapa Nui, I can bring that bireme back down and just accept that I might not be able to block both pillagers and the Akkad attack force. I'm fine with whatever you think is the best play here.

Depending on what the TAD galley does, it might make sense for your longship to occupy one of the tiles next to Geneva next turn, particularly if TAD's galley ends the next turn within range of exactly 3 tiles next to Geneva. If it does that, I can then occupy the other two tiles in range and then can move the other biremes down without fear of being blocked. Up to you though, obviously it's moot if either you want to use that longship for Rapa Nui or if TAD's galley moves further away from the city.

[ljubljana]

Turn 65 - Phoenicia



At Akkad, the galley is dangerously close to dying...I'm not sure my two biremes will make much of a difference in denying this attack, but I'm prepared to try at least. I ultimately move the selected bireme NW-NW-NE after this screenie so I can check for pillagers on the way to Cuneiform next turn, but will have the ships in position to attack on the turn after next if needed. I think attacking with both ships from the east is the way to go here - I could use one attack to kill the redlined boat on the first turn, and could then attack a ship next to the city on the following turn, while cutting wounded boats off from being able to retreat east to cycle in fresh boats from the west. I considered trying to move one bireme up the west side of the city instead, but I think that'd just lead to it getting tied down in TAD's reinforcements without actually being able to interfere with the city capture.



At Geneva, TAD...might have bought that I was just scouting? They moved the full 3 movement SE rather than trying to scout for more attackers (good), but occupied a tile next to the city (bad). We'll find out next turn, I guess...in the meantime, I try to encourage them to think it's safe to leave by splitting my ships. I'm not sure whether we should occupy the tiles next to the city or not if they move their boat away next turn...if we do, we'll reveal the attack a turn before we can actually DoW and encourage them to turn the boat around, but we'll also get a guarantee that they won't block a tile next to the city. Either way, I do think your longship should at least end its next turn within range of a tile next to the city, so you can block it on the following turn right before I DoW. Does that make sense and seem right to you?

Economically, I finally buy the trader (which had a second cost increase last turn, or I would have done it then) in Hieratic. Annoyingly, the tile picker in that city wants the crabs instead of the jade...what? I was pretty confident it would pick the new luxury resource over the mediocre crab tile, but I guess even that small amount of faith in this system was misplaced . Hopefully I'll avoid having to spend a builder charge on the crabs boat or a grassland farm here...but if the picker misses the jade, I'll probably do exactly that, which will at least give us the housing we need to keep growing while the city makes another builder for the jade.

Construction comes in next turn, and I'll probably switch to MT next turn as well to unlock support bonuses in time for the attack, unless you think I should wait for the AH to complete so that I can use the policy swap to get into Oligarchy. That'd be another delay, but a short one, and it might help our odds down here significantly.

[Woden]

Construction comes in next turn, and I'll probably switch to MT next turn as well to unlock support bonuses in time for the attack, unless you think I should wait for the AH to complete so that I can use the policy swap to get into Oligarchy. That'd be another delay, but a short one, and it might help our odds down here significantly.

You will want to already be in Oligarchy when you finish the Ancestral Hall. You get the legacy card of whatever government you are in when the government plaza buildings are built and I think Oligarchy's policy is the best out of the bunch (+4 CS for melee units).