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

[suboptimal]

Turn 156

First question is whether or not finishing Terracotta Army generated any sort of response.  Second question is whether or not I fully understand how Darwin works.  Let’s find out.

To the response question it looks like rho21 moved a musketman into the Encampment and the crossbow back to the city. I also see that their alliance has ended and they are merely friends again. While looking at Xenocrates I check the spy’s promotions – Technologist (steal boosts at 2 levels higher), Rocket Scientist (Disrupt Rocketry as if two levels higher) and Quartermaster (if spy is in home territory all spies act at +1 level higher).  Technologist is tempting, as is Quartermaster.  I choose Quartermaster, knowing that at some point the spy will be operating on home turf.  

On to Darwin.  I go into the tech tree and select Steel as the tech.  The tree now looks like:




Military Science has a cost of 845 but is boosted, Rifling is 970 but is boosted and Steel is 1140 and not boosted.  So, in theory (and as I’ve covered before) I should finish but lose overflow on the first two and put 1000 into Steel.  Darwin is in position on Pantanal, Dr. Forrester says “Push the button, Suboptimal” and I push the button….







If rho21 and Japper thought Terracotta Army was a big surprise they might be surprised to see how much I got out of Darwin.  Steel in two turns.  I’ll hold it at one and work on some other techs for a bit.  I’ll try to get two Frigates out of Find then finish the tech.  Speaking of which…

The builders at Find, Kenneth and Oddfellows completed.  Maps lost the race and will complete next turn, High Speed  in two turns and Welcome the turn after that.  Find starts a Frigate and the builder moves to the lumbermilled hill to the east and ll do a remove-chop-mine here and another one on the other lumbermill (using a charge from High Speed’s builder to finish the task).  That will get me most of the way to two Frigates.  I need to stall for ten turns for Harborcoat to finish its frigate as well.  I’m not dropping 245 to buy the forest to chop it.  If I need Steel earlier I’ll just bite the bullet and slow roll to the battleship.  I am going to hold Enlightenment at one turn and start on Colonialism while I wait for the builders to complete.  I might try to set up a double swap.

Builder at Kenneth charges the Industrial Zone.  Four turns left.  I’ll use the remaining charges to chop-and-mine the jungle hill, pasture the cows and mine the remaining hill.  Up at Oddfellows the builder moves out to the Campus and puts a charge into it.  I’ll do three more then finish another farm triangle in the direction of How.

Down in the southeast Japper has founded a city for me:




That was kind of him.  Already shown here is the fact that I used the crossbow and the knight to clear the barbarian camp.  He’s got the start of walls in the city (could be problematic) and is currently putting hammers into a Campus.  He chopped a forest to get that far along with the walls...at his tech/civic progress (27/25) he should have been able to get the walls completed in one go.  Speaking of which I was going to build a battering ram at Begin...I go to the build menu to switch and…..no rams or siege engines.  They moved the big-ass city defense boost to Steel but the support units still obsolete at Civil Engineering.    I stop the musketman and start a bombard, due in….10 turns.  That’s OK.  I’ll be able to set up shop and either take out the small city or bypass it for the larger one to the north.

[suboptimal]

Archduke - should I finish Steel immediately after getting two frigates out at Find in order to try to lock down any naval builds on the Greek coast or wait around for Harborcoat to complete its Frigate? I'm thinking the former just because of the fact that the sooner I get over there the sooner I keep any sort of appreciable navy from getting built.

[TheArchduke]

If you promise not to end your turn in range of more then 1 possible shot off the land, yes.

I agree.

[suboptimal]

Yeah, I think I should be able to manage that....

[suboptimal]

Turn 157

Steel and Enlightenment at one turn each, switch to Economics and Colonialsm. Japper has pulled his knight back into Katango, relative status quo elsewhere. Rho21 and Japper have reformed their alliance and Greece has a new trade deal in place with Kongo. Xenocrates has completed its Commercial Hub as my spy now has the Siphon Funds mission. However, 63% success for 24 gold is not worth the trouble. I perform another Listening Post mission.

I get builder actions out of the way first. Trade routes from Welcome and Find end, I send both to Cant – once the Encampment completes they’ll get an extra production out of the route.

I maneuver the forces in the southeast closer to Katango. The issue here is that the northern approach is limited by terrain (marsh, forest, water) and is only a hex wide from the south (Tsingy). Rho21 has also brought in some horsemen to Xenocrates. I expect to see cavalry upgrades when he finishes Military Science.




I do check out what’s going on in the north and Japper has started to bring his forces south through Waffles. There are only 2-3 units left up there as opposed to the 5 or 6. I should be expecting those in a couple of turns.

[TheArchduke]

Katango should fall easily and can be used as a staging/healing ground. Excellent.

[suboptimal]

Assuming he doesn't get walls up and I can take the city and maneuver to defend the incoming troops, yes it should make for a good staging ground.

[suboptimal]

[b]Turn 158[b]

Open the save, rho21 has completed Military Science and upgraded two of his horsemen to cavalry. Based on his gold spend (about 400) he’s running Professional Army. I’ll need to keep that in mind for later. The upgrades have pushed his milpower to 1334. I’m at 1683 and Japper is at 635.

High Speed has completed its builder and I’ll be able to use that to get a frigate out of that city as well. Builder chops the forest at Find, that completes a frigate so I start the second one. The first one will sail for Harborcoat and upgrade there. Builder puts one charge into the Encampment at Cant, I’ll put a second one in next turn then let the city finish it of its own accord. Builder at Kenneth chops the jungle, completing the Industrial Zone there. I start a Market and will follow that with a Bank for the Economics boost. Builder at Begin charges the Campus, it’s at 291/301. I’ll put another builder charge into it and see if the overflow (about 40 production) goes into the bombard to shave off a couple of turns. Builder at Maps chops a jungle, takes two turns off the university. Oddfellows also charges its Campus, that’s down to 5 turns.

Down in the southeast I maneuver into position for the attack on Katango.




I’ll be able to get in two musketman attacks and three crossbow shots next turn. On average damage rolls that should be sufficient to take the city by three damage points.

[TheArchduke]

2 things. You plan to bring reinforcements?

And you will get flanked/attacked in 1 or 2 turns from the north. Crossbowman on the line.

Any of your Knights or other stuff incoming?

Else get that city and dig in.

[suboptimal]

Once Colonization completes I'm planning on upgrading two of the horsemen at Horse to Water to cavalry. If enough money comes in I'll upgrade a third one up in the north to reinforce the knights that are in the northern gap - they're starting to get outdated and need to get some help. The trailing musket is going to be guarding the flank. If they've shown up when I open the save I'm going to turn north and see what I can kill before taking the city.

I'll also be completing Steel once the frigates are out, which should help to hold any conquests in Kongo.