[SPOILER] - Suboptimal finds trees, still seeks forest

[suboptimal]

Turn 63

Fondant has completed its archer and Hasselback has grown a population. In the Abarath River Valley, Alhambram has continued moving out of the way. Pindicator has also brought his warrior north and into view:




What he wasn’t aware of was the promoted archer in the marsh to the NE, because he can’t see it (the hill is in the way) Based on unit strengths I think I can kill that warrior, so I go ahead and shoot with both archers, killing his promoted warrior. That also pulls back the fog on the copper to the south and it appears that the warrior was alone. Archers move out of the jungle by Nazca and run into some units in the way:




I should be able to move past them next turn unless that warrior moves SW. I rearrange the troops at Fondant, bringing Maris Piper into the city in order to heal faster. The city starts building the Campus and will complete it in 12 turns.

Up at Hasselback I buy the 7-yield tile for 70. The city is getting 32 from the trade route with Mashed, which will have the city at 3 population in three more turns and the monument completed in 6. Builders at the other cities move onto their target tiles and will make improvements next turn.

Out east the Archer moves onto a forested hill and spies Australian borders:




Looks like Alhambram is also getting in on the volcano farming action. The tooltip indicates that the city is Hobart.

In international news TBS has added another city. Given that our current build time on a settler at Mashed is 10 turns I think I’d be inclined to get out a settler next (for the nearby NE site), then build the Ancestral Hall. I could complete Mysticism to take out Maneuver and put in Colonization for the settler build.

[CFCJesterFool]

Agree on getting out another settler before building Ancestral Hall.

[suboptimal]

Turn 64

With the horseman at Mashed one turn from completion it’s back to Mysticism as the civic target in order to make a policy swap next turn. Magnus is also established in Mashed, though his utility will come later. Builders at Mashed and Dauphinoise make improvements. The iron mine gets +2 from Nubia’s ability, so that city is at 20 when producing units. Nice. That also brings in the eurekas for Wheel and Iron Working, along with two era points. With Wheel now at two turns to completion I’ll put one more turn into it and switch to Iron Working. Dauphinoise gains a little more and ; that builder’s next stop is the nearest diamonds.

In the Abarath River Valley Pindicator has brought a promoted archer northwards:




Using the nearby warrior and the faulty GUI it has a +6 support bonus, so there are three units nearby. I don’t know if he’s establishing a front line or trying to figure out if he can come up the valley to counterattack. However, his archer can be killed. I use the promoted one across the river first, doing 66 points of damage. The Campus garrison moves SE and shoots, finishing the kill. Just in case Pindicator advances I move the unpromoted archer to the Campus and have Maris Piper and the warrior swap places:




All four archers can shoot at either of the two tiles west of the river. If Pindicator attempts to advance I should be able to kill or severely wound anything that shows up. The priority would be killing a unit that appears in the coastal grassland forest hill since that would be a direct threat to my archer. I also have a debate about Maris Piper – that unit is close to earning a promotion – is it better to take the promotion to gain Zone of Control and put it one step closer to the top level promotion or to take the one for +10 CS when in a district and just park it in the eventual Encampment? In the latter case that’d make it +22CS vs. any unit coming up the valley.

Builder and archers off to the west go on their merry way. Out on the Australian frontier I decide to top the hill to get a view of Hobart. I don’t get a view of the city center so back off the hill to the NE.




I’ll spend a turn or two moving around the city counterclockwise and see if I can get a better view from that jungle hill as it’s second ring to the city.

Internationally it looks like Pindicator got Pingala established in Conquest of Paradise with the science promotion. His science jumped 7 last turn and is now higher than mine. He has entered the Classical on the tech tree, though he hasn’t started building horseman (his horses are still at 50). Likewise I don’t see any walls going up yet. He still hasn’t established a pantheon. He is building a Government Plaza NW of CoP’s Holy Site.

Question for the committee: if Pindicator decides to come seeking peace at some point do we take it or leave it? I’m currently inclined to leave it and continue to press.

I should have a general overview of the intermediate picture up later today.

[CFCJesterFool]

Maris Piper should take the Emplacement promotion (tier 3, same as Suppression, but better ability : +10 CS when defending vs city attacks.) Calvary units ignore ALL ZOC effects so Suppression is pretty worthless. I would not make peace yet, keep farming experience for your military units.

[suboptimal]

Good point....that'll let Maris Piper participate in attacks rather than being relegated to a primarily defensive role.

Current archer XP levels:

Maris Piper: 83/90
Lvl 1, SE of Fondant Campus: 38/45
Lvl 1, E of above: 39/45
Unpromoted, Fondant Campus: 0/15
Unpromoted by Nazca, SW-most: 0/15
Lvl 1 by Nazca: 17/45
Unpromoted by Nazca, NE-most: 5/15
Australian Frontier: 15/15, promotion not yet taken

For reference, the attack & kill of the Khmer archer earned 5 XP for the first shooter and 6XP for the kill shot. Shooting/killing a warrior is worth 6/7.

[suboptimal]

Another Forest

Right, so plan ‘A’ didn’t go well given Pindicator’s staunch defense. His tech rate has also eclipsed us and though he’s a few behind he does have a Classical Era tech – we just don’t know if it’s Horseback Riding or Iron Working yet (my guess is the former as he has the eureka for that one already). Alhambram has used the war to become the dominant entity on our land mass. We (Nubia) have been driving the bus in one way – all three of us have higher milpower than anoyone on the other large land mass. At one point Archduke and TBS were both higher than Alhambram and Pindcator, but that’s no longer the case. However, Alhambram would be down to just over 130 if his levy were ended as 65 of his milpower is from the Kabul levy.

The question now is where to go and to what end?

Current Game Status

Here are the various rankings as of my EoT64:

Science: Alhambram (32.3, 14 techs), TBS (12 techs), Cornflakes (11 techs), Archduke (10 techs), Kaiser (10 techs), me (13.8, 9 techs), Pindicator (15.2, 7 techs)

Culture: Archduke (10 tourists), Cornflakes (7 tourists), TBS (8 tourists), Alhambram (27.7 , 9 tourists), me (18.6, 5 tourists), Kaiser (6 tourists), Pindicator (4.7, 5 tourists). These are all domestic tourists and no one has completed any wonders or otherwise generated tourism.

Domination: Me (273), Pindicator (233 minus one archer), Alhambram (204, 2 levied warriors + 1 levied archer), TBS, Kaiser, Cornflakes, Archduke.

Religious: Archduke is the only one with a religion and he’s scored 10 points for converting two cities.

Based on this situation and how it’s evolved I have to assume a couple of things about the other land mass:

- Kaiser is the “runt” of his continent and may have taken a war footing given who else he’s got to deal with.
- Archduke and/or Cornflakes may be at war, and not with each other. Archduke, at one point, had the largest army on that landmass by milpower and now he’s got the smallest. Where’d it all go?
- Cornflakes may have tried something other than Legionnaires as his milpower has been on the low side all game.

The current players to beat: Alhambram on our land mass and TBS on the other land mass, despite Archduke’s cultural generation.

To Victory?

I think talk of victory at this point is a bit premature. The likely most possible ones would be a long-game cultural victory or perhaps some sort of domination victory via decapitation strikes. I don’t see religion, diplo or space being practical.

Cultural

This is a longshot only because of the relative culture numbers. Based on the tourist numbers Archduke has already generated over 1000 in inspirations and yields, which is double our current position.

Our best ways of generating tourism at this point appear to be:

- Wonders – limited tourism
- Archaeological Museums – production heavy for the units but could generate quite a bit of tourism
- Seaside Resorts – limited Breathtaking coastal locations without an appeal boost
- Desert Theater Squares surrounded by Nubian Pyramids with Flight completed. +1 tourism per pyramid.
- City Park improvements with a 4-promotion Liang and Flight completed.
- Every city builds every level of walls (doable but expensive)

This list expands if Rapa Nui or Grenada are in the game and can be suzerained. I don’t see getting Great Works to be viable with Russia in the game. There are valid locations for natural parks but those are intensive (1200 for a naturalist) with not much payback (10-12 tourism plus amenities per turn).

Domination

On the local land mass we would need to wipe out Pindicator and use that conquest to catch up with Alhambram’s tech rate. If that doesn’t work then Domination is out the window. We’d also need a large naval presence on our western shore and a smaller, but significant one, in the inland sea to keep Australia from settling along that coast. Based on loyalty auras Alhambram has, for the time being, remained to the east and not yet settled that coast.

On the other land mass right now it’s hard to tell what’s going on over there. However, until the situation on our land mass is sorted out we just need to monitor the situation.

The Short Term

The short term (next 20-30 turns) goals are:

Mashed: Settler (6 turns) followed by Ancestral Hall and a library
Dauphinoise: complete the horseman, build a granary (5 turns) and then….I don’t know yet. There are a number of options. A builder for a forest chop into Pyramids (currently 43) plus two fishing boats at Mashed for the Celestial Navigation eureka? The current builder is getting down a diamond mine and a
Fondant: finish the Campus (11 turns) and build walls (currently 11 turns). An Encampment would follow.
Hasselback: finish the monument, build the Campus, build two galleys for Shipbuilding eureka

Techs: Get Wheel (1 turn), Astrology (1 turn), Currency (5 turns) & Iron Working (3 turns) down to one turn each before going on a tech completion run. I’d want to complete Currency first for cheaper Commercial Hubs at Mashed and Dauphinoise.

Civics: Drama & Poetry, Recorded History, Games & Recreation and Defensive Tactics, in that order.

Military: start the second invasion of Khmer around Turn 73 or 74. The objective is to further cripple or eliminate Pindicator. If we’re lucky he’ll send a few more units up the valley. If we’re not then we’ll be able to launch a two-pronged attack, with the first wave at Res Publica and the second at Wealth of Nations. The issue, just like last time, will be holding both cities long enough to avoid having them flip out of our control right away. Res Publica is actually the weaker city at +20 loyalty while Wealth of Nations is currently at +23. We’d need a garrison (+5), amenities (+3), a governor (+8) and Limitanei (+2) to hold Res Publica for a reasonable amount of time.

The Intermediate Term (30-50 turns)

The primary goal is to start to catch up with Alhambram. That will require increasing cultural and scientific output of our own or going to war to pillage him out. The issue there is that with his current leads there he can take his time building up some Classical Age military. I am curious to know where his high cultural output is coming from. I have to assume a natural wonder of some sort, though three on this continent seems like a lot. The other alternative is that he’s got cattle and horses out the wazoo and took God of the Open Sky.

The secondary goal is to establish a firm naval presence in the western ocean and start to build out one in the inland sea. The latter I’d probably want to keep hidden from Alhambram initially, if only so that he puts a couple of attackable cities on the inland coast.

[CFCJesterFool]

Dauphinoise - finish horseman then builder

Fondant - finish Campus then finish Encampment; use the builder from Dauphinoise to improve production tiles (speed up Campus); build walls if waiting for growth to size 4

The above change is what I'd suggest. I'd probably get a second builder out of Dauphinoise to help improve Hasselback. I assume Mashed will spam settlers after the library?

[suboptimal]

Going last to first...

- Yes, Mashed will start cranking out settlers after the library is completed. The one sticking point might be Magnus - we'd need a governor in Res Publica if we took it. Might use the promotion from Recorded History to grab another governor (Amani?) rather than promoting an existing one, then use the Defensive Tactics promotion for Pingala. If we needed to use Magnus we should have time to move him back to Mashed before the next settler completes.

- Fondant - the city is working the bananas (improved) and a jungle hill. It will start working a second jungle hill when it grows in three turns. The tile picker is still flip-flopping between the rice and the SW bananas. We don't need builder charges down here until cultural expansion, which IIRC is still a ways off.

- Dauphinoise - the city is currently housing limited, which is why I'd like to get a granary out sooner rather than later. The extra population could work a high food tile (the Nubian Pyramid) and a diamond mine. We could get out two builders after the granary in order to get some improvements at Hasselback & Fondant, along with a forest chop to speed along the Commercial Hub.

[CFCJesterFool]

Going last to first...

- Yes, Mashed will start cranking out settlers after the library is completed.  The one sticking point might be Magnus - we'd need a governor in Res Publica if we took it.  Might use the promotion from Recorded History to grab another governor (Amani?) rather than promoting an existing one, then use the Defensive Tactics promotion for Pingala.  If we needed to use Magnus we should have time to move him back to Mashed before the next settler completes.

- Fondant - the city is working the bananas (improved) and a jungle hill.  It will start working a second jungle hill when it grows in three turns.  The tile picker is still flip-flopping between the rice and the SW bananas.  We don't need builder charges down here until cultural expansion, which IIRC is still a ways off.

- Dauphinoise - the city is currently housing limited, which is why I'd like to get a granary out sooner rather than later.  The extra population could work a high food tile (the Nubian Pyramid) and a diamond mine.  We could get out two builders after the granary in order to get some improvements at Hasselback & Fondant, along with a forest chop to speed along the Commercial Hub.

What is the housing cap at Fondant? Shift Magnus to Fondant while Mashed builds the Ancestral Hall and library. Chop/mine one of the jungle hills to speed up the Campus/add food to speed up growth. This assumes the housing cap is at least 4.

[suboptimal]

Housing cap at Fondant is currently 5. Come to think of it Dauphinoise just hit 6, so that bought some time. I think we can go builder -> granary at Dauphinoise and get both done before the city grows to 6 pop. At Fondant a jungle chop with Magnus would be worth 32 yield, which would get the city to 4 population and take 4-5 turns off the Campus. I'll move Magnus next turn then chop the jungle SE of the city center (need the one W for Campus adjacency). I'll also reposition the Dauphinoise citizen working the PFH to the jungle hill. The loss of 1 doesn't hurt much of anything but the extra takes 5 turns off the city's growth.