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

[suboptimal]

Turn 135

Up north the dead-lined swordsman has disappeared from view. Navy advances, spearman dies, one frigate promotes while the other will do so next turn. Siege engine moves to the rendevouz point where a caravel is now waiting for it. In the south the barbarian crossbow has also disappeared. I’m not going to chase it and I bring the knight back towards horses. Shuffle some units around and on to the next one. The Geneva attack is now scheduled for T143.

At Begin I have both a musketman and a crossbowman one turn from completion. I’m going to let the musket complete to bring up my city defense values. Diplomatic Service also completes and I’ll get rid of Merchant Confederation, put in Machiavellianism and build out a spy.

[suboptimal]

Turn 136

Astronomy completes, Diplomatic Service completes, I get a boost for Colonialism and a bunch of cities complain about housing limitations. The two universities completing brought my science up to 100.2, which is close to rho21’s 108.5 output. Having no need for Reformed Church I start Humanism. For techs I start Ballistics. Having some field cannons around would be nice. It’s also time for a policy change – Merchant Confederation out, Machiavellianism in.

Green Grow the Rushes gets two charges into the Aqueduct as one builder exhausts itself. That’ll be done next turn and the city can start to fulfill its potential. How starts a musket, Begin starts a spy. Cant starts a builder. At Maps the builder chops the forest for 104. That finshes the library and puts 83 into a Theater District. I’ll eventually build out the amphitheater and archaeology museum for the Natural History boost here.

Frigates in the north start catching up with the rear caravel. Siege tower embarks next turn. I advance the forward caravel along with the horseman. I’d like to try to find where the Greek galley went to (or if it’s now a caravel) before the rest of the fleet arrives. I’ve also started bringing the second catapult towards Maps as I formulate my attack plan on Xenocrates.

[suboptimal]

Turn 137

I start the turn by naturally generating an envoy.

At Green the builder charges the Aqueduct and comes up 1 short. . Gotta love rounding in this game. Next turn it’ll farm the rice and the city will finish the district. The frigates catch up with the second caravel, which has formed up with the siege tower. The lead caravel moves up to the ice pack and uses its longer visual range to find the greek galley (located within Perseus) and a lone knight on a hill a few tiles west of there. Given the unit positions I’ll be able to slip by along the ice cap unnoticed, at least until I make the turn towards Geneva at the strait. Perseus’ Acropolis is completed this past turn and it’s starting to build a harbor.

[suboptimal]

Xenocrates Plan v 0.10alpha

Here’s the overview of the region as of the end of my Turn 136:




Xenocrates has Medieval Walls, so that’s 100 points of wall damage to get through.  Last I checked there’s a crossbow in the Encampment and probably another one in the city center.  

All four swords will upgrade to muskets.  Two crossbows at Near will upgrade to field cannons.  The catapult at Near and the one en route to Near from Welcome will upgrade to bombards.  There will also be one land “upgrade” - the jungle two hexes east of Near is getting chopped.  I need that spot clear of vegetation for a bombard position.  It was claimed by the city on T137 and the builder is under construction in Cant (completes T141).

My existing great general affects Medieval & Renaissance Era units.  I will also claim Jeanne d’Arc on Turn 150 - she affects Renaissance and Industrial era units.  All of my units are +6 for luxuries when attacking.   rho21’s current great general doesn’t affect units past the Medieval and he's too far back to run a project to steal the current one (Xenocrates is currently building the Commercial Hub).

My spy completes on Turn 142 and would establish in Xenocrates on Turn 147.  Terracotta Army will be started in Welcome on Turn 138 and finishes on Turn 154. 

As for timing I’d be looking at a Turn 147 invasion.

- I’d have just enough money (960) to complete all upgrades on Turn 143 provided I can maintain my income until then.
- It’d take 2-3 turns to position units as upgrades are completed since some start positions are outside my territory.
- Geneva and Perseus should both be razed by this point.
- The establishment of the spy will give me vision on any units coming in from the east before they join the battle.

I could start 3-4 turns earlier by not upgrading one crossbow to a field cannon (the one that starts within Near) and then upgrading it mid-conflict.  However, I think the delay to Turn 147 for the spy’s vision is worth it.  I am assuming that if rho21 doesn’t already have field cannons he’s got Ballistics completed and can upgrade into them if need be.  

Unit positions just prior to the start of aggression:




Key:

Purple: Bombard
Red: Musket
Red w/ Black Dot: Musket/Ram formation
Green: Field Cannon
Yellow: Crossbow
Blue: Knight
White: Great General

On the first turn the following would occur (in order):

1) Bombards advance and shell the Encampment.  This should reduce the district’s walls to zero (current expected damage of 54 per attack) and may carry over damage into the district.
2) Field cannon advance to cover the bombards
3) Southern units advance.  If the encampment is damaged under 90 the southern knights will attack it.  This will possibly destroy the district and kill whatever unit is there.  If the district is under 80 it would be pillaged and the unit within it destroyed (current expected damage of 41 per attack).  The eastern knight would be second attacker in this case.
4) Northern knights and musket move into position.
5) Great General moves NW to be more central to the assault.

At the end of the first turn I should be in this position:




On the second turn the bombards would finish off the Encampment defenses if necessary and troops would then maneuver to deal with whatever resistance shows up.  The objective here is to get a bombard across the river to the cattle tile and the other one positioned just SW of the truffles, then have both advance and shoot at the city center to take down the walls to start the primary city assault.  Alternatively I could move them both to the northeast and bombard the city center from my side of the river and bring the crossbows and field cannon up to support them.

[TheArchduke]

Sounds much better then advancing 5 knights and see what happens.

I noticed a religion? Anything like DotF around?

I do not think you mentioned any religion so far so it piqed my curiosity.

[suboptimal]

At present the only religion in the game is Parallelism - its beliefs are Church Property and Jesuit Education. He has one Holy Site (Apollonius) and does not appear to be actively spreading the religion using Missionaries. Apollonius is also the holy city. Only four cities are converted - three Greek and one Kongolese, I'm assuming all via passive spread. I don't have visibility on the holy site so don't know if he's got a shrine or temple present. Faith generation is about 11 per turn last I looked and that would lead me to believe he's got both constructed but there's been no sign of an apostle.

Since he has Goddess of the Harvest I'm assuming his strategy has been to faith purchase his Campus buildings from accumulated chop-faith. However I am keeping an eye out for a switch to Theocracy, just in case he starts to faith-buy units.

FWIW I'll be getting a guaranteed Great Prophet on Turn 300.

[suboptimal]

In thinking about that galley at Perseus, if he upgrades it and leaves it in the city he'll have complete visibility on my fleet going by. In that case would it be worth doing a surprise hit on Perseus first if he's got no walls up rather than risking a rear attack by the caravel? Two frigates and a caravel would be sufficient to take the city at its current defense rating and he'd only see one caravel coming.

[suboptimal]

Turn 138

The inexorable quiet continues. I’m sure that you, the Lurkerati, are bored to tears right now...I built this, I moved that, this notificaiton popped up. I promise, it’ll change. Not this turn, though.

The navy continues its advance. The galley in Perseus is still a galley. I won’t have any way of knowing if rho21 is moving it out to check on things or not unless/until I see abnormal movement (or an upgrade). Green’s Aqueduct completes so the city is on the path to growth for a little while. The big news of the turn is that Welcome starts the Terracotta Army. With no chop available this will be a 16 turn slow build.

I noted earlier that rho21 didn’t seem to be converting cities. WRONG! He’s got 10 cities converted but he’s the only one who’s civilization is converted over. I also see he’s building forts – he’s got one south of Xenocrates. I’ll need to keep that in mind when I go on the attack.

In the Great People race rho21 will get Isaac Newton next turn. Japper is one turn behind me for whoever comes next. Near Wild Heaven will complete its project in 9 turns but if it’s Darwin I’ll have How blast out a project in 6 turns. Cant could also get one out in 8 turns if needed. I’m also in the lead for the next Great Merchant though I’m not sure that I want him – Jakob Fugger for 200 and 2 envoys. .

[suboptimal]

Turn 139

Is this turn going to be any livelier? Not really. Perseus built walls which will make the city a bit harder to attack. rho21 also has a knight in the city for added defense, so the city is now at 52. I run the numbers – with the siege engine present I could fully take down the walls and do about 167 damage to the city center. Without it I could still take down the walls in one turn. If one of the frigates earned a level 2 promotion before attacking I’d be able to take the city in one. Having only one coastal tile exposed is a bit of a bottleneck, but workable. I’m going to wait for Geneva to be done with unless he upgrades that galley. Even then I’ll leave it be unless he comes out to try to do something (which is throwing away the unit) He’ll have a view of both of my caravels and the siege tower on Turn 141, the whole navy on Turn 142. I’ll be curious to see what he does on either of those turns in response. I’d expect some potshots to be taken by ranged units at the straits between Perseus and Geneva. The good news is that even if he sank the lead caravel I could still take Geneva with the remaining ships on average rolls.

I start shuffling units around at Cant for the Xenocrates offensive. The embarked horseman is making its way west to deal with the barbarian camp. Hopefully there aren’t any spawns while it’s unsupervised. Last turn I started running a Commercial Hub project in Find. That has boosted my income up to 47 per turn, which will speed up my upgrade timeframe quite a bit. However, I still want the spy in Xenocrates. Keeping to the time frame with the boosted income will give me a cushion in case I need an upgrade somewhere else or if I want to bring a third field cannon along.

[TheArchduke]

Attacking Geneva with a mini fleet is valid. (2 Frigates and 1 caravel).

Attacking Perseus will probably result in said fleet death by crossbow bolts. Geneva is the better targets.