[SPOILER] - Suboptimal finds trees, still seeks forest

[MJW (ya that one)]

In response to sub trying to post a random g. ramsey video. I can outrandom you.

[suboptimal]

Turn 102

While sitting down to play tonight’s turn I had the thought of “I talked about making some moves in my last turn report...did I actually make those moves?” and then remembered it was the World Congress vote.    Speaking of the vote, what happened (for the benefit of my posterity, Jester and Banzailizard)?




Interesting….how did those votes shake out?




Heh...Archduke and Kaiser threw votes at getting their unique units a buff, as did I.  I call that a good result even if it’s for spearmen.  




Ah, CMF went for the economic buff.  Wonder if this means a few people “over there” have run trade routes to him?  He’s also apparently neutral on the current affairs with the Khmer...at least, for now.

I have an additional notification – the redlined crossbowman has received a promotion.  Interesting.  More on than….later.  

What’s Cornflakes up to?  Well, he came back with my deal plus mutual open borders. That old gag.  I delete the open borders and reoffer my original terms. Cornflakes, if you read this post, my reason is as it was a turn or two ago – I’d consider opening my borders IF I could get to where you are.  I can’t, so therefore that deal is actually more one-sided than you are aware of at this point in the game because I lack Shipbuilding at Turn 102.  

Up north the chariot moves to the rice east of Hash Browns.  Even though this river hasn’t flooded yet I’m going to move to the plains hill just west of this location to avoid getting flooded out.  It’ll still let me see anything approaching on the far side of the river.

Builds are progressing.  Dauphinoise grew last turn and I forgot to assign the population. However, the auto-governor assigned it to the PFH next to the city, which is where I wanted it anyway.  Lots of cities grew this turn (Disco Fries, Gnocchi, Hasselback (actually, that grew last turn and I missed it, too).  Gnocchi I wasn’t expecting (nor paying attention to the counter) so that speeds things up a bit there.  The auto-governor put the new citizen on the PFH SE of the city (what, did the Dauphinoise regent take over here, too?).  I leave it there for the production since I don’t have a high-food tile to work until I swap the wines back to this city on Turn 105 (when Disco Fries’ monument completes).  That oversight will complete the Commercial Hub and Market two turns quicker.  Nice.  

Settler crosses the river towards Dauphinoise, reserve crossbow reaches Fondant.  Do the dance at Res Publica and there’s been a couple of changes…




Can’t tell what swordsman that is though I suspect it’s the one with the Tortoise promotion.  Maybe it’ll come out and say hello.  The promoted archer is also gone, though I don’t know if it’s the one that’s now on the Government Plaza.  I back up to the iron and turn my attention to the front.  New picture since Archduke has moved:




The redlined crossbowman has earned a promotion. It cannot kill any units.  The rear crossbow can kill the warrior but not the horseman.  I can, however, rearrange some things and still be able to keep an eye on the front.  I can move Yukon Gold NW, the redlined crossbow NW and the swordsman down to the jungle hill.  That unit, with Sun Tzu in tow, would be defending at 46 vs. ranged and 50 vs. melee.  I shuffle the spud guns, bring down the swordsman, check the support bonuses on the archers, horse and warrior, then kill the warrior with the rear crossbow (earning it a promotion) and getting me +2 era score for Sun Tzu’s first military victory.    

I do have an interesting decision with the swordsman here.  I could attack the horseman at a straight-up 40 v 40 battle for 30 damage.  It would take the swordsman down to 61 points of damage but still defending at 43/47 ranged/melee.  However, it would either earn a promotion (if it gets 8 XP) or be very close to one (if it gets 6).  The horseman would likely be sub-40 damage (it’s currently -3, which is 65 to 75 damage left).  However, if it’s counter-attacked and survives it would definitely gain a promotion.  However, I don’t know that it would survive a badly damaged horseman, an archer and a garrison-promoted archer with only 61 damage remaining (give or take).  While it would be nice to advance and take Tortoise next turn I’ll take my chances will accumulating XP on defense and hit fortify

In the rear guard I move Maris Piper up to behind the crossbow, bring Sun Tzu down to Maris Piper and the rear guard crossbow down to the wheat.  Phanom Rung Volcano, please stay quiet!  I think what I’m going to do is put Yukon Gold on Tea Pass watch duty while I move up the more advanced units and get Red Pontiac upgraded.  Once I get close enough to affording the next upgrade I’ll bring Yukon Gold north.  Red Pontiac will need to move out of it in two turns in order to let the swordsman appear there.  Final positions this turn:




Keen observers will notice that the display doesn’t show next turn.  Why?  Because despite my micro I forgot about this unit up here:




“What unit?” you might ask.  Why, the builder hiding behind the Aqueduct pin.    I delete the pin, clear the build queue with the walls at 3/80, chop for 63roduction and drop the Aqueduct down.  I also check the city’s expansion target – it’s currently going for the PFH to the southeast.  I’d prefer the GFH to the SW of the granary but the PFH is in the direction of a resource, so the tile picker will go there first (in 32 turns) and the GFH will likely be second.  I may also send that chariot up around the river bend to defog a little bit to the east.  The best settling location up there remains the GFH between the rice and stone up there but everything east of there is still fogbound.  

Intermediate term problem – find some beyond the plantation at Dauph Coast and population growth.  Three cities (soon to be four) do not have monuments (Fondant, Hash Browns, Mashed and Dauph Coast), so I could get those going once my micro pans are over (and the Khmer situation is hopefully under control).  So I’m looking at +5 before additional pop growth.  

Oh, I also saw this…




Where Alhambram didn’t use a naming theme CMF has implemented one.  CMF, one question for you when you get back here (though this may jinx me):

[suboptimal]

Turn 103

Start of turn notifications are my swordsman was attacked by Khmer, I have a crossbow available for promotion (the one that shot the warrior) and there’s a deal notification from Cornflakes.  Builders are also complete at Mashed and Hasselback.    So, Cornflakes…




Again with the open borders.  Cornflakes, Cornflakes, Cornflakes.  Step back for a second, look at my situation and understand that I just might not have a way to take advantage use the open borders.  Jester/Banzailizard, am I way off base here that he keeps insisting on open borders and I keep declining?  For the time being I decline and don’t reciprocate.  

I’ve also once again forgotten to turn off Sukritact’s GUI mod.  Gotta leave myself a reminder at the end of my report file to do that….

Mashed starts its Commercial Hub, four turns to complete.  That’s a turn earlier than I thought, but that’s OK by me.  Hasselback resumes its Campus, three turns left on that (for now).  Builder at Hash Browns moves to the next forest, builder at Mashed moves northeast towards its first chop on Turn 105.  Builder at Hasselback mines the volcanic soil just NE of the city center, Campus still at three turns but I don’t thing the GUI has updated for the +20% district bonus yet.   Chariot moves northwest along the river and will turn the bend next turn.  I’ll be at the next probable city site in two turns and I’ll defog a little but more to the east of that position over Turns 106 and 107. Settler at Dauphinoise and Crossbow at Fondant continue on their merry way and we’re back to the action.  

Res Publica’s garrison strength is back down to 36.  Archer advances and I see that one of the death-lined archers has come home to heal:




That’s fine because you’re about to lose two archers this turn.  The situation at the front after clearing out my pins:




Left archer has +8 support bonus, right archer is only +6.  Based on that force distribution my guess is that there are units on the salt, the Holy Site, the grassland SE of the Government Plaza and the city center (likely the other badly wounded archer).  The objective this turn is to clear out those two archers.  Redlined crossbow promotes in-place, taking Volley.  Yukon Gold alert-fortifies.  SunTzu moves up to other wounded crossbow, who also Volley-promotes in place.  Swordsman moves west onto the plains hill forest, revealing a Tortoise-promoted warrior on the salt.  Maris Piper moves up to the jungle hill and opens fire.  I hit the promoted archer first, it only suffers 84 damage.  That makes almost no sense as the minimum damage roll should be 87. I shoot at the other archer, who dies.  Crossbow behind the horse and ram moves up to fill the gap, horse moves into the jungle and rear guard swordsman moves up to the ram’s position.




My plan of advance is as follows (and in order):

- Sun Tzu to he lead sword’s current location
- swordsman moves SW and has 1MP left.  That reveals the three tiles from the Holy Site to the salt mine.
- Maris Piper moves to the open hill
- Just-promoted crossbows move SW
- Unpromoted crossbow stays put.
- Sword and ram advance 2SE

That position will give me a full view of everything on and north of the line between Res Publica and Conquest of Paradise.  The swordsman would be able to attack the warrior on the salt (earning a promotion) and I’d be able to finish that off with Maris Piper if needed.  Pindicator does have the gold and iron to upgrade that unit, so killing it is somewhat of a priority.  Maris Piper would also be “interested” in killing off any wounded horsemen in the area.  As far as my own horseman goes, it could advance either to the Government Plaza, the hill next to Conquest of Paradise or go finish off the salt warrior if the Plaza is empty.  

The objective right now is to kill military units and earn some ranged unit promotions while bringing up the swordsman and battering ram to the front.  I don’t know if the swords will maneuver to attack the capital at the same time or tag-team it with crossbows volleying in support (they can do about 6 damage to the walls per shot).  Tag-teaming is good because the sword going in won’t suffer two turns of city attacks or be attacking across a river, it’s bad because it slows things down.  The lead swordsman needs 4XP for a promotion and will get it attacking the warrior next turn. I’ll be taking Tortoise with that one, so that will help quite a bit.  

Going right down the middle will hopefully force Pindicator to pick which city he wants to defend, and though Conquest of Paradise is the preferred option (because of the loyalty issues it presents) the road to Res Publica is more open.

Civil Service is inspiration + 1 so I switch over to Medieval Faires.  Three turns to the next crossbow upgrade and city founding.

[CFCJesterFool]

Maybe Cornflakes is going for circumnavigation (era score) ? Regardless, no reason to give open borders. Too many bad things are possible if you allow him entry.

[suboptimal]

Maybe, but Archduke likely got the first (and big) circumnavigation bonus with his writers.

[suboptimal]

In response to sub trying to post a random g. ramsey video. I can outrandom you.

Heh...I just saw this now...you must have caught me trying to (unsuccessfully) figure out how to specify start/stop times in a youtube video.  It wasn't quite that random....

[suboptimal]

Ordinarily I’m generally easy going when it’s come to turn time “disputes”, whether it be the griping in the tech thread for this PBEM or that which has occurred in previous PBEMs. After all, this is just a game and real life issues can sometimes get in the way and cause delays. But holy crap, it’s been 6 days since my last turn. I’m intending on staying put until the bitter end but that’s ridiculous. Fortunately a pre-turn habit I’ve developed (and stuck to more) this game is to go back through my notes to remind myself what I’m supposed to be doing turn-to-turn.

Turn 104

Open the save to three notifications:

- TBS has declared war on The Archduke
- Kaiser has declared war on The Archduke
- Valetta has declared war on The Archduke

That last one means that Archduke’s clone of Amani got booted from the city-state and he’s back down to three envoys. Kaiser holds suzerainty at 6 envoys.

Up north, Gnocchi has finished its granary and starts putting into its Commercial Hub. The city will retake control of the wines next turn when Disco Fries completes its monument. At Hash Browns I chop the second forest, completing the Aqueduct. That generates 33 overflow which I send into the city’s walls. I also pick up the eureka for Military Engineering, completing that tech. I then get a notification that I’ve discovered a new source of niter. Where? Here:




Right under Disco Fries’ city center. There are five other sources visible on the map:

- the tile directly west of the Holy Site at Conquest of Paradise
- the tile that was directly NE of the city center of Wealth of Nations
- one in Australian territory, which is mined
- two northeast of Brussels

Over at Mashed the builder moves to the first chop target and will wait until Magnus is established (end of next turn) to start chopping. The capital waves at Artemisia, who is sailing the high seas for Rome. Now I see why Cornflakes might have wanted open borders – he can’t get past Mashed without Shipbuilding or open borders.
In the midlands the settler moves towards the Dauph Coast location. I’ll actually be settling that location a turn earlier than expected as river bridges kicked in when the era turned. Instead of being stuck on the north side of the river this turn and needing two turns to found I’ll be able to move and found next turn. Builder at Hasselback puts down another mine, the Campus will complete end of next turn. Fondant’s crossbow heads for the front and let’s see what’s up…




Pindicator has upgraded that warrior. The Res Publica shuffle shows a red-lined promoted archer in the city center. Time for some moves. I check last turn’s report and start moving. Sun Tzu goes first, swordsman goes second. That reveals:




Hmmm...interesting. The horseman has a +6 support bonus so there’s something in the fog. Maris Piper could double-shot the horseman from the open hill and kill it OR take a single shot and let the horseman finish the job. I advance Maris Piper, which gets me visibility on the center of Conquest of Paradise, along with both promoted crossbows. The capital is garrisoned by a promoted archer with about 60 health or so. I bring the horseman down onto the government plaza so I can see what’s behind. I forgot the screenshot (or it didn’t take), so picture a promoted, undamaged archer SW of the Holy Site, a redlined promoted archer on the mined salt by Res Publica and a yellow-lined tortoise-promoted swordsman on the wines SE of Res Publica.

I decide to split my fire with Maris Piper, shooting the horseman for 75 and the swordsman for 46. My sword attacks for another 37, gaining a promotion and reducing the Khmer unit to 17 points of damage. The horseman then finishes off the Khmer horseman, revealing a yellow-lined promoted swordsman on the wines SE of Res Publica.

The bad news is that the horseman will eat it here. I don’t know if Pindicator can kill both the horseman and the swordsman on his next turn unless he wants to risk 2-3 of his units for one unit. Sword and ram come down into position and with all of the Khmer military on or south of the Red Paradise line I move Yukon Gold towards Fondant. I also get Red Pontiac out of the Encampment as Fondant is finishing its swordsman at the end of the turn. Final positions:




The sword to the southwest has a +6 support bonus so there’s another unit lurking in the fog over there, but that unit plus what is shown above is the entirety of his military. In theory I might be able to bring Russet (the Res Publica shuffler) onto the wheat and kill something if Pindicator leaves anything red-lined in range. That would probably cost me the unit, though, so I may just stay put and actually heal in place (for once).

What I need to do here is press the attack with the crossbows, keep the swords safe and clear out everything between the two cities. Once that’s done I can move on Conquest of Paradise with the swords and ram. It will take 4-5 swordsman attacks to take down the walls of the city. Fondant was going to go Granary → Swordsman starting next turn but I may go Siege Tower → Swordsman instead, if only to make sure I have a backup plan in the event I inadvertently lose the battering ram. The good news is the new sword at Fondant will be at the front in only three turns.

In “hey, the AI did something reasonable” news, check out Kabul:




Land-based assault on that city-state would be tricky if it weren’t for the fact that the AI doesn’t generally use city defenses to shoot at melee units.

Next turn Celestial Navigation, Dauphinoise’s builder and Fondant’s swordsman complete.

[CFCJesterFool]

I appreciate the time you take to report. Staying put as well but yeah turn pace sucks.

[suboptimal]

Yeah, the slow turn pace is actually why I decided to sign up as a player for the formative PBEM 18. Two daily turns would be too much to handle but a turn a day there plus one every 3-6 days here is manageable.

[Banzailizard]

All those redlined units are encouraging, though dead units would be better. What would you get for pillaging the government plaza? Not like you get to keep it anyways.