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

[suboptimal]

Turn 113

Exploration is in. The barbarians have all come out in force to attack my swordsman. Time to retreat back to where I can get some archer cover from Oddfellows, I think. Down in the south my horseman kills the barbarian scout and my knight repositions to see the barb camp. I’ll deal with the swordsman next turn and then the camp itself. The hoplites in the southeast are now completely out of view so I continue bringing that galley around. In the western ocean my galley has come across Greek borders. I’ll try to check out the city next turn and the retreat back into the ocean so the unit is unseen.



The builder at How puts its last charge into another mine and with some citizen rearranging the city is at 22 per turn. With the available production I think I’ll build a third settler here. Find’s will go to the area SW of Begin, Maps will head to the Pantanal and How’s will fill the northern gap. To that end, Kenneth, Harborcoat and Oddfellows all start builders. I may also start a builder at Welcome, though I don’t know if I’ll need one – the Pantanal location won’t be in need of improvements other than an Aqueduct to start off. At some point I need to get two catapults built.

With those tasks completed I switch into Merchant Republic and take the policies I outlined in last turn’s report. Castles is boosted, science is now at 82.2 per turn (compared to rho21’s 83.6 per turn), income is up to 34.3 per turn. My only two civics choices are Naval Tradition and Civil Service. I’ll put two turns into Naval Tradition, complete Civil Service and then use Guilds to put Serfdom in and Naval Tradition to take it out.

[suboptimal]

Turn 114

The quiet build out continues with only barbarians causing the only notifications (along with complaints about housing). My milpower surpassed 1000 this past turn and is almost double that of rho21. If anything that’s going to keep rho21 from going on the offensive for the time being, but I can’t get too complacent here.

Up north the swordsman retreats to the Commercial Hub and will make its stand there. I should get a turn of healing. I am not gong to upgrade the archer for the time being. Down south my knight kills a swordsman. There’s another swordsman down here and the spearman in the camp. As long as a crossbow doesn’t show up I should be OK but with the second sword appearing it seems the camp is in spawn mode.

Out in the western ocean the lone revealed tile says that the city is Apollonius, which is rho21’s holy city. I move in for a closer view:



A pure sea assault isn’t an option here.. However, it’s all flat land so a couple of frigates and ground troops could still take the city. Need to keep this in mind for the future. I back the galley out of view for further scouting next turn.

Cant has finished its crossbow, so it swaps places with the archer backing up the swordsman in the northern chokepoint. I move the other crossbow out of the city to swap places with the other archer next turn. I’m feeling better about this location in terms of defense, just gotta get Begin up to snuff. Cant starts another crossbow. Begin has one turn left on its swordsman and it, too, will start a crossbow.

How finished its research project and gets me to 10 turns on the Great Scientist. I’ve got 16 left on the Great Merchant and Greece is too far behind to poach either one of them in time. That’ll get me the boosts for Enlightenment and Mercantilism. How starts a settler. I now have settlers due in 5 turns (Find), 7 turns (Maps) and 8 turns (How). Once How gets its settler out it’ll build the Industrial Complex. Due to the discount this will only take 6 turns to complete. I’d just have to figure out where the Theater District would go for my 7th district type. The obvious candidate is Maps next to the Colosseum, but that’d only be for +1 and a tile buy.

Right now I think we’re at a bit of a stand-off. Neither of us have a tech advantage. I have a military power advantage but some of that is tied up in units from a previous era. I think the issue we both have is if one of use does a military strike and fails the other will have free reign over the rest of their lands. Unless the tech stalemate is broken or someone does and end-around on the other.

There are two possibilities for me in this regard. To break the tech stalemate I’d have to conquer and raze Geneva. That would require frigates and caravels and possibly a couple of land units. If my math is right this would cost him 25-30 science along with 10 of his envoys. The alternative would be to land ground troops (a few muskets or knights, a couple of crossbows and a ram) and take Apollonius. That would force him to split his troops in response, which is something I don’t think he’d want to do. The issue with both of these plans is that it would take a number of turns (20 or so) to put either one into effect.

[suboptimal]

Turn 115

It’s remarkable how this game works sometimes. I’ve gained two population and my science went DOWN a couple of points. .

In the south my knight fortifies in place. The sword should attack it and die next turn. My scouting horseman moves to the east and finds a Greek hoplite near Tsingy. I’m going to back off a couple of hexes and see if rho21 is just putting this here or if he’s attempting to scout out the south.

On the west coast my galleys continue moving around. I find Dinostratus northeast of Apollonius with no walls and an archer, though the walls are under construction. This city is coastal, which makes things interesting as it provides a landing point that I can take with a caravel.

Begin finishes its sword and starts a crossbow. I’m going to line up both swords on the wheat between the rivers and the crossbows behind them. I’ll use the horseman to track the progress of the hoplites and then set up accordingly. If I can bait the hoplites into going straight at the swords that would work well with the ranged cover and rivers.

Near Wild Heaven has finished its granary and being the production-poor location that it is it starts a monument.

[suboptimal]

I screwed the pooch on the civics and tech swaps and forgot to switch out of Naval Tradition and Printing before I passed the save. /5.

[suboptimal]

Turn 116

So, having completed Naval Tradition and put one more turn than I should have into Printing I’ll need to figure out a new plan with respect to civics completion. Start Civil Service, the boost for Gunpowder is in. Divine Right will only take 5 turns to complete so I think I can set something up with Guilds and that civic. I’ll finish Gunpowder next turn and then figure out my next tech move. I’d say I can’t believe I did that, but I completely believe that I did that.

Down at Tsingy the Greek hoplites have advance.



Going to set up the welcoming committee at Begin.

At Hong Kong I move in for a closer look and find a builder and galley on the water:



I will capture the builder and attempt to get out of dodge intact. After doing so I realize that the builder only has one charge instead of the two that I thought. The galley, however, has a single movement point left. What I don’t understand here is that I can’t move the galley again even though it has 1 MP remaining. I thought I’d be able to move out of the ZoC of the other galley but it won’t let me.



Hopefully Japper’s got something that the city center will shoot at instead of my galley. That or he takes down the walls on his next turn.

Welcome starts a catapult, the first of two for the Siege Tactics boost.

[suboptimal]

Turn 117

Open the save, Gunpowder has completed, Hong Kong’s city center didn’t attack my galley, and no hoplites in the southeast yet. Civil Service completes in three turns...a musket upgrade is 230 without Professional Army so I may swap into that from Feudal Contract when the civic completes. That’ll be right on time with the hoplites.

I get the galley and builder out of the way at Hong Kong. The other galley’s scouting is complete so I start moving it back towards Harborcoat. I continue setting up the welcoming party at Begin and leave the Knight in the south fortified against the barbarians.

Going back to techs I can currently complete Castles and Military Tactics in one turn, Printing in two (non-boosted), Education in 2 (non-boosted), Metal Casting in 4 and Square Rigging in 8. I’m going to do Castles followed by Metal Casting and Printing. That will let me get the boost for Education when I get the Great Scientist and then I can start building some Universities. Cant and How will have no problem but Near will need help to do it in a reasonable amount of time (42 turns at current production).

The way the builds are setting up it looks like using Civil Service and Divine Right to set up the policy swaps will work. I’ll put two turns into Civil Service then five turns into Divine Right. At that point my builders will be at 1 turn and the settlers will be complete. I can then either complete both in two turns or complete Civil Service and finish Guilds in order to do the policy swaps.

rho21’s science rate continues to climb and sits at 91.9. Killing Geneva is moving up the list. I might be able to do something with a stone harvest at Harborcoat and a forest at High Speed – get a few quadriremes out and upgrade them to Frigates. Three frigates and a galley or Caravel should be able to wipe Geneva out. That would require 510 for the upgrades plus two builder charges for the chops, though I can save on the gold if I try to scratch-build a caravel.

[suboptimal]

Turn 118

Sitting around inside on a rainy day on a holiday weekend doesn’t sound like fun but it’s sure making the turns fly!

In the south the Greek hoplites are advancing. The barbarian camp has spawned another swordsman so it’s time to back off for now. I conitnue getting the welcoming party at Begin ready, almost everyone is in position. A third crossbow will be added to the group in three turns. I’m going to position them so that if the hoplites go south I can swing in that direction.

A barbarian archer has also shown up to the northwest of Oddfellows. The archer and sword move out to meet it, with the archer shooting it for 56 damage. The sword will be able to clean it up next turn.

My naval plan is starting to crystallize in my head. I can get a qudrireme and caravel built in Harborcoat using chops, plus a quadrireme when the Great Admiral hits in 14 turns as it’s useless for caravels and frigates. Two quadrireme upgrades plus a galley upgrade and I can attack Geneva with four ships. Now it’s just a matter of getting that done.

I start Square Rigging and will put three turns into that (currently requires 7). Metal Casting is down to three turns but it’s going to take me a while to get the catapults done. Priorities, priorities.

[suboptimal]

Turn 119

Forgot that Civil Service is a prerequisite for all of the other civics at this point. Going to finish that up and start Divine Right. I’ll do that to one turn from completion then work on Guilds. I’ll swap out Feudal Contract for Professional Army to have cheaper upgrades available as well. I’m also going to research Square Rigging to completion without the boost.

Move some units around, kill a barbarian in the north. Awaiting the arrival of the hoplite in the south.

The DoF between Japper and rho21 has expired. Curious to see if it returns next turn.

[suboptimal]

Turn 120

Civil Service has completed, I start Guilds. I’m also going to continue to research Square Rigging until completion. Here’s the new plan to account for my civics escapades:

- Serfdom replaces Feudal Contract now
- Guilds researched 1 turn to completion, then a turn into Divine Right. Guilds complete on Turn 124, Serfdom and Colonization come out, Press Gangs and Professional Army go in.
- Divine Right completes on Turn 128. Press Gangs out,
- Harborcoat will start a caravel once its builder is complete. It’ll move to the forest and chop that out when Press Gangs goes in and Square Rigging completes. That completes the caravel and I start a Frigate. The builder will move to the stone and harvest that to complete the Frigate. One galley will be upgraded as will the quadrireme from the Great Admiral I’ll bet getting on Turn 128. On Turn 129 the pocket navy will be complete and can sail for Geneva.

On to the turn. First, shuffle things as I’ve described above. rho21 has increased his science rate to 97.2 and has resigned the DoF with Japper. A knight has also made an appearance at Xenocrates, pulling my swordsman off alert status. It’s alone for the time being and may just be scouting things out. Cant starts a crossbow. I leave the swordsman as-is – if the knight attacks by itself it could be in for some trouble. I do start bringing two knights down to Cant for added defense, just in case.

[suboptimal]

Turn 121

Let’s see if rho21’s knight is just looking in or if it’s the vanguard for something larger…



All’s quiet. The weak spot here is actually the southern swordman under the Encampment marker. The jade in front of him is currently covered only by an archer and the crossbow to the north. I am going to shore this up by putting a crossbow on the niter and building that Encampment. It’ll take Cant ten turns to scratch-build it and I think that’s a reasonable pace given the game situation. I send one knight back north and continue bringing the other one south as backup, just in case.

The notifications? Well, rho21 looks like he’s declared war on Hong Kong and is doing a much better job at it – its finally red-lined. That’ll leave Geneva as the lone city-state, at least for another ten turns or so. rho21 has entered the Renaissance era on the tech tree.

Down at Begin with the crossbow complete I shift everyone southwest one hex. That puts the southermost crossbow on the niter where it can shoot at the swordsman and it does so. The knight moves next to the horseman for some support and the settler moves into position to found next turn.

Oddfellows has finished a builder. This builder is supposed to head for the northern gap to chop out walls there and to make some more improvements at how (mines and such). Kenneth’s builder is also complete; originally this was going to head south but instead it’s going to put a camp on the furs for the amenity and another +1 CS, pasture the cows and then head north to the Pantanal location. Oddfellows starts a trader, Kenneth starts a granary.

Two more builders and two more settlers in the pipeline. Maps’ settler will be out next turn, How’s will be out in three turns.