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

[TheArchduke]

Looking good so far, agree with your scouting so far, where will the 2nd EW go at the start?

[suboptimal]

I figure I've got two options with EW #2:

- head up to the sheep, then work in tandem with the other EW to defog & sniff out any city-states to the north.

- head towards the sheep and then turn east. This would require the 1st EW to turn east as the 2nd is moving north, in order to keep the units within "response range" of each other.

If I find a barbarian camp I'd probably stop with one unit to kill it -- it'll take 2-3 hits depending on its terrain but that'd be 50 and an inspiration for not much sweat. Likewise if I find an opposing scout or wounded unit that I can easily surround I'd declare war in order to try a capture on the unit.

The 3rd EW will head immediately for whatever target I'm taking out. At the current pacing it'll be completed on Turn 17. If the picker takes the wheat I'm buying one of the stone tiles. If I wind up going for Preslav I'll attack on Turn 30 or Turn 31 -- that keeps the production bonus until the settler completes on Turn 30. I'll be building either 2x slingers or slinger + scout between the 3rd EW and the settler.

Added: Given it's food situation Preslav's 2nd build will most likely be a Builder so that the AI can farm both flat plains tiles. Depending on what happens between now and then it might be possible to have EW #3 (or another unit) in a position to poach it for 2 free builder charges (it'll use one the turn it's built).

[suboptimal]

Turn 8

Begin the Begin has grown to size 2. I’ll work the forested plains hills until the city culturally expands next turn. The tile picker is saying it’ll grab the southern stone. We’ll see.

The barbarian scout has disappeared into the fog. Eagle Warrior moves one tile west, revealing a barbarian camp. 12 hours ago I said if I found a camp I'd stop to kill it. On one hand, killing that camp now prevents a spawn. On the other that slows down the initial scouting. Perhaps I'll take it out on the loop back - hopefully it doesn't spawn in the meantime. That is where the scout is headed for, though.

The newly revealed forest to the east is on fresh water and I can just make out a river in the fog. That looks like the extension of the river that’s west of the gypsum. I move west again to give the camp some space. I’ll probably move onto the hill to the NW next turn.

[TheArchduke]

Hmm, I would hit the camp, easy with the EW, money, eureka, inspiration, etc..

[suboptimal]

Hmm, I would hit the camp, easy with the EW, money, eureka, inspiration, etc..

I'll need to double check the combat numbers but my recollection from this morning is that the GUI was reporting EW @ 34 vs. Spear @ 31.  That'd make it 4 turns to clear - 1 to position and 3 to kill the spear.  Best course of action may be to get on the hill to see if there's anything "out there" and, if not, attack the camp.

Maybe I get lucky and a CS warrior shows up to help....

[suboptimal]

Turn 9

- Buy or purchase 2/2 stone tile and start working it vs. the 1/3 forested plains hill.

Don’t have time for a report right now, so here’s the TL;DR on Turn 9:

- Tile picker grabbed the southern stone, saving me 50 . I start working that along with the previous 2/1 tile I’ve been working right along.

- Everyone is at population 2 except for Japper, who should have expanded this turn.

- Eagle Warrior moves to the hilltop to see what it can see and finds….two citrus, bananas and furs.

- I check the continent lens. The eagle warrior that comes out next turn needs to cheat east a little bit for the Foreign Trade inspiration

Screenshot of the Continents lens and overview of the area by the warrior later tonight.

[suboptimal]

Turn 9

Now for a little bit of detail on the turn….up in the northeast the hilltop move revealed lots of land but no cities.  The area up there would make for a good city site with the fresh water, citrus and bananas.  It makes the pantheon choice interesting – God of the Open Sky and Oral Tradition are both meh picks as far as the capital region goes, but up here the latter would be quite useful.



With the revelation of furs that makes four luxuries found – gypsum, citrus, incense and furs.  I brought up the Continents lens while zoomed in on the NW to see if they were all on one continent.  They were, but the lens legend showed two continents.  Where was Gondwana? 



  I should get the inspiration for Foreign Trade once a unit moves onto the desert hill just outside the capital’s territory.  For now I’ll leave that for the scout.

[suboptimal]

Turn 10

First Eagle Warrior out of Begin the Begin completes.  Start the second one, that’s due in 7 turns.  Mining is finished, start Bronze Working.  Up in the northwest the Eagle Warrior moves into position to start attacking the camp next turn.  I move to the tile W of the camp in order to reveal a little more to the north and just find some hills and jungle.  

Back at the capital Eagle Warrior #1 is off the line.  That one moves two tiles to the northeast.  I find more sheep and it looks like I’ve revealed most of this desert – it may extend a bit to the NE based on fog-gazing.  It does look more and more like the eastern approach is geographically favorable for defense, but I’ll only know for certain once I get a unit to go due east from Begin.  #1 will move up to the floodplains tile next turn and then continue north on that side of the river in order to reveal any cities up here.



Eagle Warrior #2 is started and will complete in 7 turns.  

The current plan:

- #0 will spend three turns attacking the camp – it will most likely take that long to clear it since it’s in a forest.  There will be enough time afterwards for it to spend 2-3 turns heading N/NE before I would need to turn around to get it back into position for a Turn 31 invasion of Preslav or to join up with the others for an invasion.  I also need to build in some healing time as the barb camp will probably redline it.  

- #1 can spend 7-8 turns scouting around north of its current position.  At that point, if no further city-state is revealed, it will need to turn around for the Preslav invasion.

- #2 completes at the start of Turn 17.  Where this one goes depends on what #1 finds.  If there's a target it goes north.  If not it moves south to Horse Riverbend then heads west to defog the area around Preslav and the river to the NW of there.  

The intent is a Turn 31 invasion of Preslav or an earlier invasion of another city-state, if I can find one.


In looking at the land to the west and northwest there look to be a few good settling spots.  Based on the current information a dotmap would have the following city centers:

- NW of the floodplains wheat by Preslav
- SW of the incense at the end of the river
- Between the citrus and banana in the NW or directly W of the middle citrus.

Right now the incense site wouldn’t be a priority as it is on the weak side for tile yields.  The other two sites, however, look strong but the information is incomplete.  Either one of them, though, would get a city off the ground quickly with the available food.  I’ll need to think about this some more – if the NW location should be scouted as a potential settlement site for the initial settler that will need to be done by #0.  I'll need to think about this and whether or not #0 should scout out this area rather than continuning north. 

[suboptimal]

Turn 11

All remains quiet.  RFS-81 completed both a tech and a civic last turn and now leads the score.  In poking around a little bit I can conclusively say that I have no idea what the number next to the sword in CQUI’s diplomacy banner means.  It’s giving me a 33 when my military power is a 56 according to the score menu.  Does anyone out there know what that number is supposed to be?

Anyhow, back to the turn.  First off, recon.  #1 moves NW one tile, uncovering some flood plain, gypsum and some 1/3 tiles to the NE.  Take the second move to the NE and…



Get the Foreign Trade boost and a second envoy in Preslav.  A look on the Continents lens shows that while I’m still on my home continent the tile 2E of #1’s current position is on Gondwana and therefore within my unit’s vision, netting me the bonus.  Next turn I’ll move 2NW and then consider whether to mount a hill to cross the river (or not).  I think this also means that unless the eastern opponents come scouting in this direction they won’t be getting the inspiration….

Back west it’s a 39 v 34 battle.  #0 makes its first strike, dealing 41 damage and taking 24.  The camp will fall in two turns unless it starts spawning units.

[TheArchduke]

Sounds very good so far. Preslav as a fallback if nothing juicier is found.