Dave's Not Throwing Away His Shot

[oledavy]

Turns 97-98

I did the final math today, it's official, turn 100 is fittingly going to be the big turn I finish Medieval Faires and begin swapping. It all works out that I will have just enough time to get everything upgraded before Archduke can declare on me on his t105 if he is indeed coming. 

t100 - Civic Swap, Start walls in Hamilton and Lafayette
t101 - New York Archer finishes, Lafayette Builder finishes, Schuyler Chop Comes In, Great General Project Finishes, Grab El Cid
t102 - Finish Machinery, Lafayette Builder moves onto forest
t103 - First turn I can upgrade archers, chop walls in Lafayette, overflow into finishing the Heavy Chariot
t104 - Finish Chivalry
t105 - Upgrade into Knight

Recorded History will finish around t107/t108, and I can swap back into gold producing civics and make the push for Exploration. 

I have 2 turns of research (t101 & t103) that I can put anywhere I want while waiting on my Heavy Chariot to finish and making the push to gunpowder. 


I'm strongly considering doubling back to get Astrology and whichever tech that gives access to harbors, so I have the option to lay down and lock in harbors in my two coastal cities. I need to weigh the relative benefit of harbors in this scenario, taking into account things like the +100% gold building yield civic at Humanism and the requirement to have 7 different district types for Urban planning. Leaning towards wanting to build a couple though, I would especially like Washington to have the option to produce naval units. 

On the flip side, diverting to these two techs is a dead end on the tree, even if it's a dead end other people are also likely to research, and I can use every advantage I can get via Woden. Then again, once I get Musketmen, there are no techs in the Rennaisance portion of the tree that are particularly worthwhile to beeline, at least that I can think of right now. 

I'm also vaguely considering dropping a Holy Site in Georgetown and using the Great Prophet Civic to make a push for getting the final religion of the game. The opportunity cost is fairly low, and it would give me an alternate way to combat Alhambram's religious victory attempt. I'll worry more about that later down the road though. For now, just a thought. 

Anyway, I was up late last night and able to grogily play the turn when it got to me. 



Chopped, getting Schuyler close to size 6 and the Encampment project to within 1t of completion. Now to chop the forest south of the city. 



Finally found Woden. He's a bit closer than I thought, although I have no way of knowing at present how far that city is from his capital. Note though, he's behind at least 3 1-tile passes. Crazy 

I haven't updated my map in awhile, but if I do, this will definitely be called The Central Highlands. 

Also, Archduke laid down another city. 



Despite running Strategos, scouting doesn't make it look like Archduke is looking to fight. That's further reinforced by him settling a 6th city this last turn. It's too early to tell for sure, and his horseman running around in my empire is still bothering me, but at present, I don't see any signs of an impending attack. 



I'm going to scout northwest of Mykenes and west of Buenos Aires. At present, I have spotted 3 horses, 2 archers, 1 warrior, and 1 hoplite. I haven't seen his GG, and there are at least 3 horses unaccounted for. I really want to do more scouting, but I don't want these horsemen to be too far away as the DoF draws closer to running out. I think I will get out a couple scouts after I finish my medieval mobilization though, and I can finally start filling in the rest of the map. 

Started my final TR. 



This in turn granted me: 



I think I'll be the only one to get this Inspiration for quite some time. Nobody else has the infrastructure or Carthage. This in turn gives me a massive leg up on getting to Merchant Republic. I anticipate Woden and Alhambram will both be targeting Monarchy instead, taking advantage of their founded religion to get the Inspiration for it. 

I finished the first great general project, and queued up another. I'm finally in the lead on this venture: 



Still, all it would take is 1 well-timed great general project finishing to take El Cid from me. I still have 3 turns to go until I can get the chop out. It'll all come down to whether or not Archduke has noticed and responded in time. 



1 more turn, and then the big one. I'll see if I can throw together some big empire overview including pop numbers, districts, techs, etc, and try to convince the others to do the same.

[Ituralde]

I'm strongly considering doubling back to get Astrology and whichever tech that gives access to harbors, so I have the option to lay down and lock in harbors in my two coastal cities. I need to weigh the relative benefit of harbors in this scenario, taking into account things like the +100% gold building yield civic at Humanism and the requirement to have 7 different district types for Urban planning. Leaning towards wanting to build a couple though, I would especially like Washington to have the option to produce naval units. 

So which of your cities were you referring to here with Washington? Or is it one of the planned city sites?

[oledavy]

I'm strongly considering doubling back to get Astrology and whichever tech that gives access to harbors, so I have the option to lay down and lock in harbors in my two coastal cities. I need to weigh the relative benefit of harbors in this scenario, taking into account things like the +100% gold building yield civic at Humanism and the requirement to have 7 different district types for Urban planning. Leaning towards wanting to build a couple though, I would especially like Washington to have the option to produce naval units. 

So which of your cities were you referring to here with Washington? Or is it one of the planned city sites?

Brain fart. Uptown was originally meant to be named Washington until my girlfriend suggested the name change. I meant to say Uptown there.

[pindicator]

I haven't updated my map in awhile, but if I do, this will definitely be called The Central Highlands. 

Top of the World?
Cloudspine Mountains?
Just spit balling a bit.

[oledavy]

Really interesting t100. There's quite a bit going on in this game at the moment. It'll have to wait until later for now. In the meantime, here are some raw stats on the state of Hamiltonia on t100

Cities: 7
Population: 31
Districts: 4
Buildings: 9
Wonders: 0
Tile Improvements: 14
Great People: 1
Civics: 15
Techs: 16 (Chivalry and Machinery both 1t from completion)
Science: 31.2
Culture: 21.8
Score: 139

Other notes: 
I have 4 Traders running currently
I have 2 Suzerains

[yuris125]

Civics: 1

This can't be right

[oledavy]

I haven't updated my map in awhile, but if I do, this will definitely be called The Central Highlands. 

Top of the World?
Cloudspine Mountains?
Just spit balling a bit.

Cloudspine mountains it is! 

Archduke got El Cid. A setback, but not an unexpected one. I will be planning to land the third GG (Gustaphus Adolfus) as one of my great people towards the 3 for Humanism total. In the interim, this makes Archduke significantly more threatening, but I'm confident I can hold off a t105 assault if he indeed comes. 

Just two turns short.... If I had gotten out my worker a couple turns sooner. Ah well, you win some, you lose some.

[oledavy]

Civics: 1

This can't be right

Error on my part, thanks for catching that!

On an unrelated note, I wish Civ6 showed how many science/culture you have invested in a tech/civic. I would prefer to represent our tech/civic progress by a total number of science/culture rather than a total number of techs/civics.

[oledavy]

Turn 99

Very quick t99 before I do the t100 roundup. 



Hattusa finally finished their walls. That makes me feel a lot better about their safety going forward. Singaboy can still take them out, but it will take a lot more effort at this point. Also note, they have 3 swords. 



Also, found Archduke's second city. Based on those borders, he has another city settled just west of here.

[oledavy]

Turn 100

Alright, you want pictures, I got screenshots out the wazoo. 

After a long period of no researching, it was time to finish a tech: 



Also, a civic!



But then the bad news: 



As I said, not unexpected, but still disappointing. I might have been able to overrun Archduke with ease with a GG enhancing my muskets. Now it will be significantly more difficult. In the interim, it makes his potential attack a lot more threatening. If he attacks me with his current army, of archers, horsemen, and maybe a couple crossbows, I can live. If he builds an army of crossbows and knights with two GG's giving them bonuses, he will be near unstoppable. Fortunately, he seems a ways away from having an army of that caliber. Also, I can't be the only one to have realized his potential. 

I don't think I'll have any difficulty recruiting allies against him at this point, my would-be runaway status be damned.  



I'm switching off Strategos and stopping work on the second GG project for now, but I will, be coming back for Gustavus later....

Anyway, it's time to look for niter! Here's hoping I have two sources....



That's a great tile! I can mine it really soon with the four serfdom builders I'm cramming out. Even better...



Sometimes things just work out perfectly 

Unfortunately, there was not a second source in my lands, so I only be able to build musketmen out of cities with encampments for now. I went to the tedious length of mousing over every city-center and district just to be sure. I did find this however. 



Singaboy is in for a pleasant surprise there. He should be set for quite some time with one encampment and that niter at his capital. Want to know where the other sources are? 



Nice job distributing the strategic resources RNG...

No though, Carthage's stock just went up quite a bit. Eventually, they will give me a second source, but I have no idea how long it will be before they mine it. 

Anyway, without the need to cram out a chop in Schuyler, I could take my time. Instead of chopping and mining, I decided to plantation my coffee and then go chop to speed up my armory. 



I did this because I noticed Alhambram had an extra truffles to trade. 



I could really use the happiness, I want to work more closely with Alhambram, and I already have a source of coffee coming from Carthage. 

Btw, someone is rolling in the gold. 



That's a tremendous jumping the last couple turns. I can only guess he took a gold generating belief with an apostle. That's incredible, and seriously is making me reconsider the relative value of religion in this game. 

To further strengthen our relationships, and because I'm going to end this civic swap about 30 gold short of being able to upgrade 4 crossbows and a knight, I'm going to request a loan from him next turn. I think 2 GPT for about 50 gold. 20% interest. Seems about fair. That's only 1.45 turns of gold production for him at this point, so I imagine he'll be able to spare it. 

This was also the turn that I remembered all those notifications the game spits out at you in SP. They appear in the diplo screen! 



Holy shit. I have been overlooking a great source of info. Alhambram is currently trying to take over Toronto over there! More power to him, I hope it was Woden's suzerain!

No though, I had been wondering why his and Woden's power had been going down. Woden is currently at war with Nan Madol. 



Diplomatic visibility might actually be really useful, come to think of it. A note for future games...

Anyway, time for my much anticipated civic swap: 



This actually didn't hurt my GPT as much as I anticipated. Merchant Confederation did a lot to mitigate losing Caravansaries and Conscription. I considering sinking my extra envoy into Carthage to shore up my hold on the city and get an extra GPT, but decided it was better to sit on the envoy for emergencies. I will be gaining a second free one in a couple turns. 

I might try to get Hattusa up to 6 and spam out a couple more campuses. Then again, there's always the risk Singaboy could invade it....

Speaking of: 



I had been putting off doing this to work the time, but the time was finally here. Lafayette expanded, and I locked in a campus in the Twins location. 

Found Archduke's GG's!



Next turn, this horseman is probably going to start heading home as I steel myself for the coming storm. 

I didn't screencap it apparently, but I offered Singaboy a DoF this turn. I don't see any reason he would accept, with Archduke looking as scary as he is. 

For the first time in a long time, my culture is beating Woden's: 



Granted, Alhambram is ahead of both of us, but I still consider this something to celebrate. 

Finally, my customary end of turn overview shot: 



One thing of note here. As soon as Hamilton hits size 7, I am going to cram out an encampment at one of the locations south of the city marked above. It helps my economy thanks to Carthage, enhances the productivity of all the TR's going to the city, helps me get a GG, and allows me to build muskets from the city with only one niter source. 

I had been debating for a long time whether to make my third district an industrial, acropolis, or encampment. 1 niter makes my choice for me. I was going to put my encampment to the southeast of the city, but I really don't have the money to buy a tile, and either location shown works decently well.