[SPOILERS] How do you make this thing work: Krill randomly mashes some buttons

[Krill]

I love being wrong.

I could have built HG for little more than an aqueduct, not just been reliant on farms.

So much to learn...I think I might be up for a three way PBEM after the the expansion comes out.

[Krill]

OK, let's sit down and work out some rough build plans based around meeting those eurekas and inspirations.

I have rough plans in place for Cartography, Exploration, Medieval Fairs and Theology. I have the aqueduct placed for Military Engineering. So I need to have plans for a barracks for Gunpowder, 2 markets for Guilds and to firm up how I'm...procuring the two Traders for Medieval Fairs and two more once I swap to Merchant Republic.

The Barracks for the Armoury can only be built in VV. Because of the short period of time between finishing Military Engineering and Wanting to tech Gunpowder, I likely need to just buy the Armoury for roughly 650 gold, and slow build the Barracks in VV, probably before a granary actually.

Markets require I build the market in CS, but because it is more expensive to buy a trader than build one, Should I not buy the market, and build the Trader? I still need a second CD, so I think I need to go CD next in MS. So I should plant that ASAP, and with the adjusted dot map (to be posted later, when print screen actually works), I should do it once the discount kicks in after I finish both IZ and the first Harbour (9 districts built, 1 CD in place should give the discount to the second CD). Then that should take roughly 10 turns to complete, around about T115 at the latest. The market costs 120 production, and with MS at size 5 it's 8 turns to build. Which is actually pushing too late. I may need to dump a chop into the CD, that would make it definitely work out.

The Traders are now the problem. I should have MF half way complete by eot105, so I am again waiting on the traders. I need to consider just buying one trader and essentially chopping the second with a hill forest at CS, or if it is worth delaying and just hard building it? I think if I chopped, I could finish one trader with the chop, and the second trader eot107, for the inspiration on T108. OTOH, even buying the traders, and if everything works as hoped, would only give the eureka on T106, so fuck it, just use the chop, save the gold and buy the markets and libraries after Merchant Republic.

I can put excess culture into Theology and Recorded History, and get both one turn from completion. I should consider just finishing Recorded history actually, it would give me 6bpt to run Natural Philosophy, but I still need Revelations. And I want to keep Trade confederation. So no, just keep it saved, once I'm in MR, I want to run both National Philosophy, Trade Confederation and Caravansaries for 12SPT, 12GPT and 6CPT.

CS can then finish a market by eot113, and I think it makes sense for CS to produce the next two traders as well. That would unlock Guilds in plenty of time. Actually...I should just dump the culture into Recorded History and finish it, I'll still have Civil Service on a 4 turn timer, and Theology on a 2 turn timer once Religion lands.

And this means I can just stockpile gold until I'm into Merchant Republic and then buy all the district buildings I need. Like Libraries.

What trade routes do I really want to set up? I want to use Lisbon as much as possible, and Sun Zhou. The only three cities that can reach Lisbon are VV, Scombridae and CS, which has no effect on the road network, so I'm likely to send from VV, EF, MS to Sun Zhou (SS already sends a trade route) and then from from CS, VV,. and Scom to Lisbon. That's 7, but with the discount on the CD at MS and a chop, that CD should be built around T110 anyway. With Trade Confederation and Caravansaries, those routes should bring in 62gpt base, 7SPT and 7CPT (compared to 18, 2 and 2 presently in place). With the Merchant republic rush modifier, I think that works out at an empire wide gpt of +90, or around 30 production per turn in pure rush terms for city improvements. Or a unit upgrade per turn with Professional Armies.

Actually, I'm feeling a bit positive about this now.

[Krill]

So beyond Conscription, Trade Confederation, Caravansaries, and Natural Philosophy, I'll have two wildcard and one diplomatic card slot remaining. The latter is easy, charismatic leader until I'm ready to dump down the remaining 3-4 envoys (ideally for the second level benefits in 2 city states), then realistically I need to have professional armies in place until I get another DoF with Jester, and if he becomes aggressive then I need a production card (Maneuver, and upgrade 10 knights plus the 4 archers I have lying around). With a DoF in place, then...Colonization, Meritocracy (another 14 culture per turn once I get to Civil Service) and to consider Craftsmen (+100% IZ adjacency bonus, about 7-10 production per turn depending on culture pops?).

So I'm basically 15 turns behind Pin in culture.

[Krill]

Ok, so, plans for potential war with Jester. I don't want war but need to prepare.

Basic plan, as outlined by Dave, is to have old junk and use PA to upgrade. And with my gold output, that's the best path to take. What to build: I want to upgrade to knights, so build Heavy Chariots. Conscription removes the gold per turn cost completely. Can I use Manourve? Maybe? But with MS on a CD, Scombridae being junk, EF on an aqueduct, SS is the only city capable of building them. With another mine and the IZ, I think it can make 3 turn units with Manourve. Social could get three more out, 2 without. Scombridae...fuck it. So something has to give.

But I have a power advantage. Would mass building units precipitate war? Should I be a bit more careful? We've just agreed OB, maybe I should offer another resource trade...

Hmm, maybe I should go into Manourve after MF, but have Recorded History one turn from completion, then when I need to upgrade the galleys to complete Exploration, which is looking more and more like a 6 turn civic, finish RC to use PA? Sounds better to me than sitting in PA. And 2 swords, 4 knights and 4 Xbows is not an unreasonable defensive force, but isn't a huge threat either. And OB should work well to show honesty and none aggression. And I'll want some units because Alhambram is a lot closer than I realised. Seems more reasonable.

But I will need colonization and another half a dozen builders soon.

[Krill]

Discount formula and order of resolution is wonky. Harbours are not discounted despite 8 completed districts, 8 available district types and no placed Harbours. Review next turn after completing an ED and Machinery.

[suboptimal]

Discount formula and order of resolution is wonky. Harbours are not discounted despite 8 completed districts, 8 available district types and no placed Harbours. Review next turn after completing an ED and Machinery.

District costs and discounts are only updated when a tech or civic is completed.  The discounts available should show up once Machinery completes.

[Krill]

I finished tech last turn, Celestial Navigation. So I think tech is processed before production, so costs should reset end of this turn as you say.

Useful for future planning.

[Krill]

CS. Capital. Grows eot106. Builder moves to forest hill t105, chops t106, and then farms t107 to not hit the housing cap. 1 charge left, will mine the plains hill remaining because it's a good tile. With the Harbour not built until eot105 at the earliest, then I need to dump the overflow into another building. Most likely a market, but a 2 turn monument is nice because it speeds up grabbing the remaining two hills for the IZ. This pushes back the completion for MF, but can't be helped. Depending on civic timings and DoF with Jester, Settler here would take 6 turns. Potentially might be able to squeeze two settlers out of here after reaching size 10. Slightly tempted to buy the tile 441 for an IZ...nah, that can wait. Settlers first.





I bought the granary, so...Barracks next, for the armoury. I've had a mischievous thought that an IZ 99 could get adjacency bonus China's mines, but I'm doubtful it would actually work that way. Other choices are a heavy chariot (well, same at CS really if I can fit in Maneuver for a turn or three).

VV is in a really awkward location to fit districts into for any adjacency boni. At this point it's been strangled too much to become a great city, so I'm most interested in keeping it as a decent defensive border. Production needs mines, but I'm starting to run out of builder charges. Realistically, might have to go Builder after Barracks. There is a horseman at 76/80, so a potential chop through that could yield 50 production into a barracks.





Housing capped, but maximum production to get the IZ finished, and then onto the Aqueduct, and then Campus. Need to grow to size 10 for the Harbour, and I'd like to try and get the Colossus here a bit later. It'll spend the next 30 turns claiming junk tiles as all the second ring tiles left are peaks or two coast. Then it should claim the rice and then three hills. Potentially with Colonization, it's a settler production city.





Scombridae, poor Scombridae. Junk city to the end. Plan remains, next turn plant the Harbour for roughly 114 production. Harvest stone into the galley for 220/65, to overflow the remaining 161 production (including per turn output) to finish the Harbour, then on T106 finish the Campus, the drop the remaining 41 production into something else. Probably a builder, potentially a shrine to enable purchase of missionaries.

As much fun as it would be to put an encampment 33 of the city, I don't think that's going to be necessary. Two Xbows are plenty for wrecking face IMO, with the city walls. It makes no sense to attack Scombridae unless you also take VV, so I have to focus on holding VV.





OK, this is where I think my decisions become more questionable. Building the Granary now for a turn, then I want to place the CD. It can make more sense to instead chop the rainforest 1 of the city for a HS, which should also be a discounted district. That is a 3 adjacency tile, and combined with the Scom HS, it can push missionaries towards being almost usable. But I'm going to go instead for the CD and Campus combo due to trying to keep up in science. The granary is still necessary to reach size 7, however it may be most prudent to use maneuver to get an extra 35 to 40 production out of the forest chop and grab an extra heavy chariot for upgrade purposes.





I've decided to build this granary. If I can, I'm going to build an Encampment on the hill 47 of SS, and keep the Acropolis on the tile 4. That gives a 4 output acropolis, and the Encampment guards coastal approach to the city. Encampment can be built last using Veterancy. Harbour should hopefully be built on T106, but if that doesn't have the discount I might be forced to wait until T107, and finish Recorded History to reset the cost. If I do slot in Maneuver, then after the granary, that would be another rainforest chop to go through the multiplier.








So in retrospect, I can chop four tiles through 50% multipliers in CS, VV, MS and SS. One stone can go through a 100% modifier in Scom, and these should complete a trader and half a Library, over half a barracks, a CD and monument respectively, providing 3 heavy chariots and a horseman to bolster the army (at a cost of 1gpt due to conscription). The Stone harvest should give a Harbour, finish a Campus and over half a shrine.





Met Zanzibar. So I want to use Diplomatic League to turn 2 envoys into 3 here for the extra 8 gold, 12 once the second CD finishes. I will then later on get the second envoy and try to use the same "trick" in another CS, but I'm unsure when that will happen. Another Science CS would be gorgeous. So far there are 2 Commercial and 2 Mil CS known to me, one Holy and one Science CS have been eaten.





Right now my SPT is not dreadful. I'm 2.5 behind Alhambram, 6.9 behind Pin. I can hit every eureka except Education, which is annoying because that is the one eureka Zanzibar wants (I mean, seriously, am I getting awkward quests or is this just par for the course?). I'm about even in tech totals, with 2 techs 1 turn from completion. 50% higher than Jester.





Alhambram at 23.1 and Jester at 20.8 suck. Rome and Pin are doing stupidly well. I'm at 30.9, and hitting all the inspirations. So the question is, how many inspirations are the two leaders hitting, because I may not be as far behind as first thought. Meritocracy and trade routes push culture to 50, NP, trade routes and 1 campus push science to 58, and I can make CS hit size 10 eot113. MF and Exploration are 7 turns total. T120 is a conservative estimate to have all of that on line. I will be trying to push T115.

[Krill]

One point.

If this game stalls and a patch fucks trade routes from harbours and commercial districts, I'm reserving the right to be thoroughly pissed off, because it will basically destroy the previous planning.

[Krill]

Any questions for a newbie?