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

[TheArchduke]

Ok, suboptimal.

If two crossbows bring his musket to under 30 damage here is an idea:

Attack first with the musket.
Then shoot twice.

Boom dead.

That way you do not need to sacrifice a musket.

[Cornflakes]

In order to get the death-lined musket out of the way I first move the eastern musket southeast. The death-lined musket moves to the now-open tile and the two units then swap tiles.

It looks like you did some extra maneuvering here than was necessary, moving the other musket just to swap it right back into the same tile it started on. Your death-lined musket could have simply moved right through the other musket. Leaving the other musket with full movement to fortify or whatever

[suboptimal]

In order to get the death-lined musket out of the way I first move the eastern musket southeast. The death-lined musket moves to the now-open tile and the two units then swap tiles.

It looks like you did some extra maneuvering here than was necessary, moving the other musket just to swap it right back into the same tile it started on. Your death-lined musket could have simply moved right through the other musket. Leaving the other musket with full movement to fortify or whatever

Yeah, you're right.  I had forgotten the movement would be taken as a block...for some reason I mentally figured the movement step-wise and had the two swapping places into the front line.

[suboptimal]

Ok, suboptimal.

If two crossbows bring his musket to under 30 damage here is an idea:

Attack first with the musket.
Then shoot twice.

Boom dead.

That way you do not need to sacrifice a musket.

Good point.  I'll have to remember that for next turn.

[suboptimal]

Turn 162

With the Enlightenment complete it’s time to make some policy changes.  Press Gangs, Public Works and Town Charters are out.  Rationalism, Free Market and Professional Army are in.  Now, as far as why swap Free Market for Town Charters?  Well, here’s what these two policies, along with their science-generating counterparts, will get me at present:

Town Charters: +15
Free Market: +19
Natural Philosophy: +13
Rationalism: +20

Free Market is a bit better now and will continue to get better over time – I’m not building new Commercial Hubs but I am gradually putting up Markets and Banks.  Likewise I’ve got four Campus districts with no buildings at all,  so Rationalism will only get better over time.  It also means I’ve got another 13 in “reserve” if I can pop open a free slot for another economic policy (like, say, next turn).  Of course, I think I might put Town Charters in for the time being in order to get plenty of cash on hand for the next round of upgrades.  This change also loses me quite a bit of overflow at Find for the upcoming chop next turn, but I think the change needs to happen now.  As for civics, I start Nationalism.  I’d like to be able to do one or two “rolling” upgrades of Frigates over the coming turns.  

The sum of these changes put me back on top in terms of science, 144 to rho21’s 140.8.  Income momentarily goes up to 61 but will be down a bit by the end of the turn.  Once the battleships are done I’ll complete Colonialism (or hold onto it if Nationalism is close) and then put either Town Charters or Natural Philosophy in, depending on what I need economically.

So, what’s going on in the world?




Look who showed up to the party.  The knight is toast if either of the cavalry attack it.  The rifleman in the city is healed up but I have to do something with the death-lined unit as well.  I decide to move the knight one tile to the southwest.  I then move the rifleman into the knight’s former spot and bring the crossbow into the city and upgrade it to a field cannon.  The death-lined musket then takes the crossbow’s former spot.  In the northern part of the engagement I have the opportunity to take out a knight – fortified musketman first, crossbows finish the job.  I rotate the unfortified musketman southeast to get it into the woods for defense.  Over at Horse the two horsemen closest to the action upgrade to cavalry.   I can upgrade the third the turn after next.

Edit: realized after I posted that I forgot to see if there was anything else in the fog with those Greek units.  Loaded the EoT save to take a look around and found there's at least two.  The northern cavalry has a +4 support bonus, as does the knight.  The central cavalry has a +6 bonus.  That puts one unit on the niter and the other unit SE of the knight.

I have two options with tech – complete Steel for next turn or wait a turn and complete it on Turn 164.  If I complete it now the Frigate at Find remain in the queue as a Frigate since I don’t have coal hooked up yet.  I also get city defenses and my conquest at Diminished can set about shelling the incoming cavalry and I’m at no real risk of losing the city.  If I hold off a turn and rho21 can get to the city there’s an outside chance I lose it before Turn 165.  Steel for next turn it is.  In order to not make the third time a Bonehead’s Charm I put the bombard back into active production at Begin so that it upgrades to artillery in the queue.  

He might think the upgrade to field cannon is a panic move on my part, particularly given my past...reputation...in military matters.  That’s fine, let him.  If he hesitates that buys me some time.  If he moves in he’s probably going to lose a cavalry and have the other one in quite a bit of trouble.  He might try to snipe some units but I should be able to fall back to the city.

Builders do their builder thing.  The forest tile between Maps and Sing is not on the river despite what the graphics say (lumbermill is only +1, not +2 for being riverine), so I chop it for 122 into Sing’s bank, taking 13 turns off the build.  At Horse I chop a forest into the Industrial Zone, completing it and getting a little bit of overflow into a musketman.  Horse joins the over-20 production club at 22.  The hill I just chopped will get mined next turn, raising production to 25.  Kenneth starts a Workshop, Maps starts an Amphitheater and Cant starts a musketman.

Internationally rho21 completed a civic and did four policy swaps, inserting Public Works, Press Gangs, Rationalism and Triangular Trade.  He’s also completed a factory in Menaechmus.  I may have to move my spy around to see what’s going on up there (or to the east coast of Greece).  He’s also spent about 600 gold last turn but his milpower only went up about 28, so either it was a big upgrade or he bought some infrastructure.  

It’s been a while since I’ve looked, but here is the situation with non-cultural great people:




I might have to run a couple of projects for positioning.  John Spilsbury is a nice to have, not a need to have.  The next one will be Modern Era, so one of John Rockerfeller, Sarah Breedlove or Mary Katherine Goddard.  Rockerfeller is the most useful, followed by Goddard in this situation.   The Great Engineers are Alvar Aalto, Nikola Tesla and Robert Goddard.  Tesla would be the biggest boon – Kenneth can only reach three cities with its factory but a range of 9 jacks that total up to 11 cities – covering everything but Harborcoat, Green, Horse, High Speed and Diminished.  A factory that affects 11 cities is something to be chased unquestionably, I think.  Of course, if rho21 passes on the current Great Engineer (James of St. George, builds walls) and I pass it’ll be some time before an Engineer comes around (Kongo is not producing any GEP).

[TheArchduke]

Better.

Sorry for being a bit harsh, but you did not loose that musketman out of sheer luck.

Greek units arriving that quickly is bad, very bad.

I agree with the upgrade and steel you need to bloody their noses.

And keep your options open to retreat (although mighty dangerous in CIV VI)

Could you toss me a save, I would like to check in a bit more detail.

[suboptimal]

Better.

Sorry for being a bit harsh, but you did not loose that musketman out of sheer luck.

Greek units arriving that quickly is bad, very bad.

I agree with the upgrade and steel you need to bloody their noses.

And keep your options open to retreat (although mighty dangerous in CIV VI)

Could you toss me a save, I would like to check in a bit more detail.

Given their alliance and Japper's knight rho21 had full knowledge of what I was doing.  The distance also isn't that far to travel so mounted units could cover the distance quite quickly. 

With retreat the question becomes "to where"?  Back towards horses or gather around Diminished and make a stand there while I get a second line of defense at Horse/Begin put together?

I'm going to try to prioritize taking out the cavalry - those are the most dangerous at present.  My two cavalary can be engaged in the battle the turn after next.

When I get to playing the turn this evening I'll make sure to send the EoT 163 save to you for a look around.

[suboptimal]

Turn 163

That old familiar feeling sets in as I start up the game and load the save.  Let’s see what rho21 and Japper are up to in the south:




Lost a musketman and the knight.  He’s brought Hannibal Barca, which boosts...the knights.  However, the cavalry are the bigger problem, so let’s see what can be done about them.  City attacks at 60, field cannon at 71, crossbows at 56 with the great general in tow.  First off the deadlined musketman goes naval, into the lake next to the city.  Now, what else to do here?  I don’t want to put the musket into the swamp.  After some thinking about the situation I have a brainwave of sorts – whether or not it’s good or bad, I dunno, but here goes:

- My eastern musket moves to the city via the open grassland, causing the field cannon to move 1 NW of the city center. Musket attacks first for 29, Field Cannon attacks for 46 and the city overkills (unit has less than 10 hp) to finish the unit off.  I did run the numbers and needed all three attacks regardless of order.  Retrospectively having the field cannon attack last would have earned it a little more XP for the unit kill.
- Crossbows and northern musket kill Japper’s musket.  

I bring in the two cavalry from the west as well.  This situation is not under control yet as there’s another Greek unit in the fog SE of the Great General’s position.  However, with the cavalry on the way (pun intended) and the city walls up and running I might be able to pull this off.  

Post-combat situation:




This might cost me the field cannon but whatever units attack it will have a lot firing back at them.

Back to non-combat activities.  I resume working on Steam Power, 6 turns to complete.  Builder at Horse mines the hill, city production now up to 27.3 per turn.  Builder at Begin drops a farm SW of the city.  Builder at Find chops out the frigate, overflow to caravel.  Pasture goes in at Kenneth, expending the builder.  Other builders and the settler reposition.  Welcome stops the IZ build and will spend the next two turns getting out a musketman (there’s a partially completed one sitting around), just in case.  Begin’s bombard upgraded in the queue, preserving the production.  I switch back to the musketman and that finishes in three turns.  

Since I finished Steel that means I can see oil.  Where did oil pop up in my empire, you ask?  Well, let's just say I need Plastics....




Four oil in the north – three at sea.   The desert one is the only one on land on my half of the continent.  The bad news is that it’d be 410 for Kenneth to get it.  I could put a settler on the copper as that’s actually an available settlement spot.  There’s another one in the sea, fourth ring at Underneath.  There’s a third ring sea oil at Find, next to the Harbor (gave the Harbor +1 adjacency so I’ll take it) and….




Seriously? Couldn’t have been in the desert...nooooo. 

Archduke, the save is attached.   I’ve been skipping playing morning turns given their limited time and wanting to have time to think about what I’m doing, which I don’t have in the morning, so we have “all day” to discuss.  I’ll have enough gold to upgrade the horseman at Horse to a Cavalry on Turn 165.  If I don’t need to upgrade that unit I’ll be upgrading two frigates to battleships on Turn 166 to start harassing the Greek west coast.

[suboptimal]

Turn 164, TL;DP Edition

The summary: the Greek and Kongolese forces both bugged out.  In my limited exploring while I shifted some units around I only found a 3x promoted crossbow 3 tiles due east of Diminished.  All the other units are out of exploration range.  Tomorrow, when I'm not so tired, I'll plot my next move down there (likely Kapsalon for the raze).  I'll also get a slightly fuller turn report out in the morning.

Archduke, the EoT 164 save is here.

[TheArchduke]

Unite your fleet at Harborcoat.

You do not want to be suprised piecemeal and it is the only city under any threat by sea anyway.

Move your mobards west of near wild heaven. They are only liable to be attacked imo.

Build a city southeast of the coal in the southeast for, coal, defensive purposes.


To keep up or overtake Rho in science you need to hit every eureka possible.

2 banks, dig up an artifact, etc.

I fear that without any major blunder on his part, this game comes down to the endgame.

I would plan accordingly.

I honestly do not see any major military action resulting in anything less like a stalemate. He has DotF you have your luxury bonus.

I would start to take a hard look at science victory here.


Xenocrates is only vulnerable to a huge tank attack rush and you saw your oil situation.

I wish I could offer better advice.


On Kapsalon, I fear you will get bogged down trying to take it and flanked. You carved out 2 more cities. Dig in and fortify.


Or, even better NUKES.

How do those work again? I think I build them maybe once.

The other is getting more siege and stack observation balloons.