Trade route would be good. It will be tricky because Cornflakes will be able to pillage it but hopefully we can keep it around to get a road to Nan Madol. That would help increase our attack time and ability to shift units west.
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Woden's and Chevalier Mal Fet's [Insert Clever Name Here] Team Thread
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Turn 79
Start the turn by finishing Defensive Tactics, more than 10 turns ahead of my original timeline - thanks, Nan Madol!  This unlocks 2 important things for me: 1)It unlocks the Mausoleum of Helicarnassus wonder. Just as a reminder, the Mausoleum grants a free Great Admiral upon completion, and gives points for future Admirals. But the real kicker is the ability: It lets every Admiral and Engineer you earn retire twice! That's twice as many wonder-builds, that's TWO ironclad Armadas, that's TWO cities with extra districts...Basically, it gives you double the Engineers. It might have been worth the Archduke pursuing this to supercharge his Hansas, but he never built any harbors. No one has, 'cept for me, so I have a head start on the only possible rival for this, China. I'll keep an eye on the Great Person screen to see if he finishes any. 2)It also unlocks Limes, giving me +100% towards Walls, including chops. This gives all my cities another 100% chop to put to use. I pre-built some walls - not the most efficient, perhaps, but I wanted to put Limes into action right away. So, let's get our new Mausoleum government set up:  Maritime Industries grants Navarino and Salamis chops right away, while I can start Quadriremes in Leyte and Actium if I want - I need to do that anyway, for the ships, but Actium only has two more choppable tiles, so I may need to ration them. Limes also grants Salamis and Actium chops right away, and boosts the walls under construction at Leyte. I'll probably start walls in my other 3 cities as well, bring them to 1 turn, and then do some final chops in those areas so I can swap back out of Limes as soon as possible - Conscription is worth 8gpt to me, so I need to minimize my time out of it as much as possible. Corvee represents my dedication to the Mausoleum, which will guarantee control of the seas, and let me dominate the isthmuses with Russia and between Rome/Kongo. Sadly, the game is moving too quickly to guarantee I can keep Sullla's paws off Kongo, but I can at least cut off reinforcements in the future, and be a naval terror along Rome's coast. Urban Planning is still all-around great, netting 6 hammers across the empire. Woden gives me another boost:  Finally, I use a builder to farm the wheat at Aboukir, boosting growth in that city and finishing Farm #6:  I need to pause feudalism long enough to use maneuver to crank out some heavy chariots, if I still go that route. I dunno, though, I might maintain a small army and let Woden do the heavy lifting - I can support him with gold, so upkeep won't matter, he gets production boosts, and he gets a great general. I can use comparatively small naval squadrons backed by a great admiral to dominate the seas - I think I only need 6-8 quadriremes and I'll have two navies strong enough to do anything. Anyway, let's make with the chopping. Chop:  Earn another boost:  My first walls, I realize. Chop:  Too small for a Commercial Hub, but I can get out a bunch of traders quick to boost gold and science. One will go from Leyte to Nan Madol, though. Final chop here will be a Quad into a CH when the pop is there. and chop:  One turn Dockyard with overflow going to more traders. Those are my fastest way to boost gold. Civic plan is to delay feudalism long enough to finish the Mausoleum, which will need to be built in about 5 turns (Magnus would make this a 1-turn project, see why he's so good?), then I can swap out of corvee and into Caravanserais and Conscription. Okay, net results: Mausoleum is sped on its way, and the gold economy is starting to come into focus. Defenses are up at my borders, and the melee navy is largely in place. All that remains now is to finish up the gold, save it for upgrades, while domestically I need perhaps 1 more builder per city - I should delay Feudalism until I have 1 queued in every city with Corvee, come to think of it - to get my infrastructure ready for another round of settlers. But Chevalier, where are the military builds in all that? A fine problem, one that I'm aware of, and working to fix. :I I'll find a way to balance all this, I swear it! Let me end with these two shots. After a pause in exploration for war/provoking war, my scouts are back on the frontiers and ready to resume:  
I Think I'm Gwangju Like It Here
A blog about my adventures in Korea, and whatever else I feel like writing about.
Turn 80
Score report: Notes from the score: 1)Development is still good - my score continues to increase as rapidly or more rapidly than anyone in the game. Emperor, Sullla, and the Archduke also built lots of districts/founded more cities. I recognize that I'm slipping behind in city count, but settlers are just too damned expensive to tie up my cities for 20 turns building them. I need more builder improvements and more developed cities, then I can go to Colonization and build in a decent time. 2)Singaboy has the fastest tech rate, and note again how appalling Cornflakes/Japper's is. Cornflakes finished a bunch of techs, though - could be knocking off cheap ones or ones he's been saving near completion, since his science rate isn't great. 3)I highlighted the leaders in various areas. Sullla must have slotted in Natural Philosophy, charging up his campuses, since his science jumped about 10 beakers, dramatically ahead of Singaboy - Woden and I are the next two closest after that. So science rate is good, not great. Culture, though, I have an equally dominant lead, up to 41.8 clefs per turn! Monuments are cheap but I'm skipping them in favor of more urgent needs. If Nan Madol comes under heavy attack, I'll crank 'em out for a quick +12 boost, which will mitigate the loss to a small degree. For now, must profit. Finally, Singaboy's faith generation is astounding as well, MILES ahead of anyone else. His 5 wonders account for +20. Oh! Dammit! He also evangelized his religion one more time, but I forgot to check his new belief! I'll report that later. 4)Sullla is CLEARLY gearing up for war, and it's almost certainly with Kongo. He's stockpiling huge amounts of gold, funded by a lot of Lisbon-boosted Commercial Hubs. If I can't use my navy to take Kongo's new city, I'll probably try and hit Lisbon while we're still in a DOF. Anyway, be on alert for a mass legion upgrade when his DOF with Japper expires, which can't be before ~t90 or so. Woden, we may want to hang back a bit, see if we can coax Japper/Cornflakes to transfer the bulk of their forces to defend against a Roman attack - so we wait until t95 or so. I could honestly use the extra time, since that will get me to Crossbows (more on that later). 5)Japper blew his whole treasury, and I can see 3 archers and 2 Ngao Mbebas approaching Nan Madol. I need to be sure to upgrade my two warriors there to swords just before the DOF expires. That's pretty much going to be it for his strength - everything he builds now has to be slow-built from scratch, out of his handful of cities. Cornflakes continues internal development, but I can't quite make out what he's up to from the score - no districts but an encampment, slow gold generation, no new cities founded, no surge in military strength. Hm, builders? Dunno. Great people races are all over the place. Woden is chasing Cornflakes for GG #2 - Cornflakes might be spending his production on an encampment project - while everyone except Singaboy and Cornflakes has a hand in the scientist race, which Rome is dominating. Rome/Germany are dueling for a Merchant, while Germany finished its first Hansa this turn - Archduke will probably race ahead of me again in score soon. Woden is closing in on a Prophet while I get my first Admiral next turn. Okay, full turn report up later, but that's the state of the world at the moment. I rate Woden and I as #2 at the moment, behind Rome/China, but we have the military to match theirs, and the tech rate, so it'll all depend on who comes out on top in the coming war.
I Think I'm Gwangju Like It Here
A blog about my adventures in Korea, and whatever else I feel like writing about.
February 24th, 2018, 18:58
(This post was last modified: February 24th, 2018, 18:59 by Chevalier Mal Fet.)
Turn 80
Mostly another set-up turn. We have about 10 turns left until Japper and Cornflakes can declare war, meaning I'll accumulate 300 gold in that time (slightly more, given new trade routes coming online). At 80 gold a pop, I can probably get 4 of my 5 warriors into swords, while my 5 archers outmatch Japper's. Most of the army can be in place around Nan Madol then, with the reinforcements coming in behind. We'll be in a good position to cover my trader and the city-state - right now, I think the best move is to play defensively until Woden can come up, while we wait to see what Rome does. Speaking of, let's look at the actual turn. I start with another barrage of tech completions and inspirations:  I finish horseback riding, and boost Mathematics as I finish a Commercial Hub in Trafalgar. I'm still not using England's abilities to their fullest - I've yet to play around on other continents, and I've yet to double up on Commercial Hubs and harbors. Salamis and Navarino are the only two cities I have big enough to build Commercial Hubs at the moment, but Aboukir will hit that size soon. Actium is still waiting on a granary, which is top priority after the traders. Here's my current tech tree. I have two main options:  On the one hand, I could drop the easy 7 turns into Apprenticeship and boost my mines. I could sorely use the production, and I have at least two Industrial hubs to drop - one in the center of Navarino/Salamis/Trafalgar, and another at Actium/Leyte/Aboukir. But, it'll be a while before I can build IZs, and that means delaying my second path: The military path, on the other hand, gets me to Crossbows, which will easily dispatch Japper and Cornflake's units. If I start the beeline now, I'll grab 'em on turn 92, just after the war starts. I won't have the gold on hand to upgrade - yet - but I'll be making it hand over fist by that point and should be able to gradually upgrade. Even 1 or 2 xbows at Nan Madol will shut down Japper cold there. My science rate is sufficiently in advance of theirs, as well, that I THINK I'll have ranged superiority for a few turns, too. Sullla, of course, will be ahead of me, but he'll need a while to reach the next generation of military tech so that's a problem for another day. Actium finishes a trader and I see that I don't need to move it to Leyte to get a road:  It'll lay a path right along the coast, perfect for our purposes. This means Woden and I have a trunk road all the way from Nan Madol to Isis. We could afford to make it denser, and I think my secondary traders (the ones from Commercial Hubs) will focus on that, while my primary ones go to Geneva to boost my science and keep pace on that front. Salamis executes Chop #2:  This spits out my last naval melee unit of the game, hopefully, and slashes the Mausoleum from 19 turns to 10 turns. I have one more chop left, which won't be 100% boosted, nor will it be stone, so it'll probably take off only about 5 turns or so. I need a few turns to set it up:  I need to let the turn process once to lock in the boosted production, then next turn I'm going to look at a Quadrireme build time - might be worth pausing the final chop and using it on a Quad instead - I want at least 3 quads in this sea to control the shores, so it could be wasteful not to build one here. In the south, my galley starts to push to sea again - and finds a potential natural wonder!  1 science, 1 culture - could that be Tsingy on that little island? Might be worth a small tundra settle later in the game to grab those tiles. Low priority spot, though. In the far west, my scout finds more Chinese borders. I might try to thread the needle - there's no rush with this scout, and more information is better than less:  Just a couple of more points to make. First, Japper's military is definitely thinking about Nan Madol. One team, at least, knows my source of power:  I'm not sure of the math, but I think that's 75% of his deployed military at least. He's leaving himself wide open to Rome.  Humbug. Sullla founded another city, a canal spot facing Kongo:  He immediately threw down a bath district. He'll be churning those out and driving his population even higher. One weakness of my coastal empire, while it's great at chopping, culture, and trade, is population growth. I can't build more districts without pausing to churn out some granaries in at least 4 cities. Oh, well, it is what it is. Finally, I found Singaboy's new faith. Bummer:  So Crusade is gone. However, this means one of two things: 1)Sullla/Singaboy are planning to let Singaboy do most of the conquering. This makes sense, since he's got so much faith he can buy a metric shotton of units, to use the technical term. However...Sullla's the one hoarding all the moeny for upgrades, and he's the one with the high military score, and he's the one settling on Kongo's frontiers. So maybe HE'S gonna be the sharp edge while Singaboy continues to tech. Or... 2)They don't realize that Sullla won't profit from Crusade. It took Woden and I a stupid amount of time to realize that Archduke isn't protected by Defender of the Faith, so maybe they haven't worked out Crusade yet. I mean, think about it for a moment, though - Crusade applies to ENEMY cities. For civs that haven't founded a religion, how would the game know when to apply beliefs like Crusade? It's not like Sullla can officially adopt Marco Polo as his religion, it can only ever be a majority religion - so when he fights around a Kongolese city, the game wouldn't have a clue to apply Crusade. So, only Singaboy's units get the boost. If this is the case, it'd be funny to see Sullla's face when he attacks Kongo, expecting a +10 boost that he won't have. The downside is...when he DOES figure out why it's not working, he'll probably work out that it won't apply to Archduke either, and Singaboy/Sullla are in a much better position to attack Archduke than we are. Note also that Emperor can't use his cities around Archduke's. DOTF only applies to your own cities, not foreign ones. If he wanted to defend his ally, what belief would be necessary? ...why, Crusade, of course! Singaboy can fight with a boost around Sullla's cities, so it's actually like they have DOTF after all. I'll need to watch out for that if I ever find myself invading the Roman heartlands (you gotta dream big).
I Think I'm Gwangju Like It Here
A blog about my adventures in Korea, and whatever else I feel like writing about. 
Nubia-Turn 80
Uneventful turn as I wait for builds to finish. Up north, the archer takes the barb camp for 50  . Here is an overview shot...I am waiting for Apprenticeship to finish before chopping out both libraries (at Isis and Nu-Kandy). After Apprenticeship finishes I will research Shipbuilding before heading towards Machinery. I want Shipbuilding because it will probably be quicker to sail my units from the southeast to the western front and when the trade route ends in 10 or so turns, I can send it to Geneva for an envoy and my current envoy will make 3 for +2  to my campuses.I noticed Japper's units by Nan Madol... This is really bad. Not because his units are too powerful or CMF is in any kind of danger but because it means he doesn't see Sullla attack coming. Why Japper? He has to know Sullla will go after his weakest neighbor as soon as he can. He should be building units non-stop and not looking to expand. All it really means is he's going to fold like he did in PBEM4. Let's hope not! Here is a look at the score... Still a close game, other than Kongo/Khmer. Good job CMF on keeping up. We are still a little behind but, again, I will judge on T100. Spoiler from Khmer/Kongo should help us get ahead unless the majority go to Rome. CMF, I had a thought. If the war with Khmer/Kongo goes well, maybe we can just keep pushing west to Rome. If we can keep Germany/Russia as friends, maybe get a joint war with them, but that is a far ways off and a lot has to go right in the next 30 or so turns. Just a thought. I was able to sit down today and work out how quickly Cornflakes could get the next General if he really pushes for it. If he abuses chopping a little with Limes and/or Agoge, it would be possible to get a few projects done in the coming turns. If he started a project right away (which is most likely) I think he maybe able to get the General around T86, give or take a couple of turns depending on how much faith he has stored up, and that has me a little worried. I don't want him to have a General that will boost knights and crossbowman. The good thing is that he probably is not building units at his capital if he going for a General. Now, I might be totally wrong but it is what I would do in his position, counter a general with a general. But not is all lost, I can get it on T85 if I push it. Unless he can get it on or before T84, I can steal it from him. This will mean I have to buy 1 more tile than I was planning on and I will be harvesting 2 forests and 1 stone to get it. Those resources might be more help elsewhere but I think denying him a general will help in our chances to win the war. The next general should cost 240 points and I don't think he can spare chasing that one and better for us if he does because it means he is not building units. What do you think CMF, should I try and deny him a General? It will also mean I push building horsemen a few turns but should still be able to get a pack of them to the front around T95. He may be able to get it before T84 with massive chopping but then at least I can abort the mission without much lost. (February 24th, 2018, 23:39)Woden Wrote: I was able to sit down today and work out how quickly Cornflakes could get the next General if he really pushes for it. If he abuses chopping a little with Limes and/or Agoge, it would be possible to get a few projects done in the coming turns. If he started a project right away (which is most likely) I think he maybe able to get the General around T86, give or take a couple of turns depending on how much faith he has stored up, and that has me a little worried. I don't want him to have a General that will boost knights and crossbowman. The good thing is that he probably is not building units at his capital if he going for a General. Now, I might be totally wrong but it is what I would do in his position, counter a general with a general. But not is all lost, I can get it on T85 if I push it. Unless he can get it on or before T84, I can steal it from him. This will mean I have to buy 1 more tile than I was planning on and I will be harvesting 2 forests and 1 stone to get it. Those resources might be more help elsewhere but I think denying him a general will help in our chances to win the war. The next general should cost 240 points and I don't think he can spare chasing that one and better for us if he does because it means he is not building units. What do you think CMF, should I try and deny him a General? It will also mean I push building horsemen a few turns but should still be able to get a pack of them to the front around T95. He may be able to get it before T84 with massive chopping but then at least I can abort the mission without much lost. I think you should push for it. Denying Cornflakes the general after he pushes for it would be basically fatal - all that production will be for nothing, since he won't be able to get another GG before the war is basically over. T95 is a long time to wait for horsemen at my cities, so I may hold the bulk of my troops there while I train up some heavy chariots, but you having two GGs, even though they don't stack, would benefit the war effort far more than having the horsemen earlier - we just play defensively to start. The main worry is Nan Madol without our army moving quickly to relieve it, but I have a plan there: Japper only has a few Ngao Mbebas, but the bulk of his army is archers. So, I plan to pull back and execute a reverse-slope style defense. If I position my units on the 4 tiles behind that line of hills south of the city, Japper's archers will be effectively neutered. They can't fire over the hills, so they'd have to climb them to get shots off - which would in turn expose him to first-strikes from my own archers and swordsmen behind the hills, because they're not Nubians and can't enter difficult terrain and fire on the same turn. That narrows his options to basically just his Ngaos, but only has 2 of those that I can see, plus maybe 1 or 2 mroe in the fog from domination score. If I have 4 swordsmen in Nan Madol (I have two more warriors en route by sea from Actium), then I can hold that city come what may. I'll try to get 2 archers there as well, stationing them on either side of the city to provide fire support. If Japper gives me the time to get set up, I can hold that city against whatever he can throw at me - certainly long enough for the rest of my army - chariots, archers, and maybe one or two swordsmen plus a battering ram - to sweep in from the east in relief. So, my building plan: the Mausoleum will be done in ~5 turns, depending on my chop. I'm going to pause Feudalism at 1 turn, then research Military Training (2 turns) to swap into Maneuver and build 5 chariots as quick as I can. Then, I build a bunch of workers to -1 turn, then swap back to Feudalism. The wave of 5-charge builders will be plenty to finish off infrastructure, 5 chariots will become 5 knights once I can get Stirrups, and I can use the Feudalism swap to adopt Conscription/Maritime/Caravanserais/Bastions? (If I'm under attack) or Urban Planning if I'm not.
I Think I'm Gwangju Like It Here
A blog about my adventures in Korea, and whatever else I feel like writing about.
Friendship expires t87, Woden, so I'm going to start upgrading my swords at Nan Madol. Just FYI.
I Think I'm Gwangju Like It Here
A blog about my adventures in Korea, and whatever else I feel like writing about. (February 25th, 2018, 20:35)Chevalier Mal Fet Wrote: Friendship expires t87, Woden, so I'm going to start upgrading my swords at Nan Madol. Just FYI. Sounds good. Let me know if you need gold. I need about 250 for tile purchases in the next 6 turns but can send you anything left but will need money for xbows around T95. Also, just an FYI, I will need to have the Feudalism boost by T90, otherwise I can finish Mercenaries on T95. Keep that in mind as you plan your next turns.
Turn 81 & 82
I played turn 81 in a hurry before work this morning, and I failed to capture any snapshots! I apologize for that. I took lots of 82 to make up for it, and there was little that happened in 81 that really mattered, so hopefully this will tide you guys over. Anyway, I open the 82 save to find that Japper has at last declared war...on Nan Madol:  He has the bulk of his military deployed opposite the city, but seems to have contented himself to murdering some isolated units to start with. Annoyingly, I also see that Geneva joined in - Cornflakes is the suzerain of the city. I don't mind him getting the 15% science - that's only about 3 spt right now, not to be sneezed at, but not gamebreaking like Nan Madol is - but it DOES mean that my trade routes will vanish in 5 turns if Cornflakes declares war. The good thing is I can knock him out in 7 turns with the right civic research, so that's my plan. All my trade routes to Geneva are over water and won't be pillageable. Anyway, let's respond to this war dec. My boys here are the tip of the spear, and I want to avoid problems upgrading later, so I go ahead and drop two sword upgrades:  Swords outstrength Ngao Mbebas, 36-35. Japper is in Oligarchy, but I'll revolt there in 5 turns - the same turn he can declare war - and I'll ensure he can't get a first strike first. Might need to maneuver cautiously at first. As it is, Japper is distant from the city, and has no ram in sight yet to deal with Nan Madol's walls. Let him bleed a bit against this city before he gets smashed by both his neighbors. His military has swelled to 4/4 NMs/archers, smaller than my land forces. I need to check Cornflake's military, but in just a few turns I'm going to swap to maneuver and start pumping out heavy chariots. Cornflakes can't match my production. I send another trade route to Geneva to maintain gold and science. This one runs from Actium all the way over to Salamis and then across the sea - perfect:  That's #4:  One runs from Navarino to Geneva, and fully three depart Actium - 1 for Isis, 1 for Nan Madol, and 1 for Geneva. Also in the south, Tsingy (not pictured) is indeed on that tiny stupid tundra island. More annoyingly, a barb quad blocks my progress:  I'll withdraw temporarily until both galleys can attack together. Don't wanna lose a ship to barbs, that'd be dumb. In the far west, Singaboy's borders run practically across the continent. There may not be a way through without ocean crossing:  In fact, I've come so far west that I've almost emerged in the east!  Hopefully there's room for me to slip down, see the border with Singaboy and Archduke, and find the final city-state on the map. I might also be able to send a galley around the southern end of Molotov-Ribbentrop, but the way is blocked by barbarians as well. While flipping through the great person screen, I notice Sullla's Great Merchant points have vanished! He was chasing Archduke, and it looks like he ran some projects and passed him. I might have noticed, but Rome's GPT is so high that it got lost in the noise. Crassus is gone:  Down the line, I'll compete strongly for Great Merchants as well, but I have neither the pop nor the time for more Commercial Hubs at the moment. We're wrapping up these last infra builds, then it's all war, all the time, or at least until we have a stable border with Rome/China. Speaking of, Sullla founded a second canal city, pushing him well into the lead for city-count:  And his gold continues to grow, even as his domination score does. I don't know how much more warning Japper needs - he's got a hostile neighbor forward settling him, he has a DOF expiring in <10 turns, the same neighbor is stockpiling gold for upgrades and mass-building units, and his own civ is badly behind and exposed. And yet he flings his entire army, more or less, at a city-state that will be a marginal expand for him - that same army could do wonders fighting on the narrow isthmus. Sullla will have Legions and Xbows, no great general, against Japper's own NMs and archers (soon crossbows? Nah, he has no gold) - Japper could mount a creditable defense, particularly behind walls, but he's not going to bother. Is he out to scuttle my culture in revenge for Aranyaka? Torching his own slim chances to drag down mine? Diplomacy has been a weakness with Woden and I, I admit, but we really had no choice with Aranyaka (plus his teammate cheated to plant it to begin with!). Oh, well, you can't control your neighbors. I do want to keep an eye on Cornflakes, so I'm scouting the no-man's land between us. he has a few sentry warriors, but no more yet.  I have 4 turns left to patrol in safety. Here's the situation at Nan Madol, and my plan:  In 4 turns, I'll have 3 swordsmen and an archer around the city, plus the city defense force - roughly even with Japper, perhaps even slightly outweighing him depending on the AI and Cornflakes. The remainder of my army cannot reach the city in time, so I've diverted them to hold the isthmus and form up with Woden's troops. I will try and use the reverse slope to neutralize Japper's archers, giving me a slight combat edge. If things get too tight, Japper has no ram, so I'll pull what units I can behind the city and embark others. Actium is going to start kicking out Quads, and they will be the leading edge of the relief force. Meanwhile, once my home army is upgraded and Woden is in place, I'll push down the road and relieve the city overland. As long as no ram appears, I'll prioritize my units over the city, which should be fine on its own.
I Think I'm Gwangju Like It Here
A blog about my adventures in Korea, and whatever else I feel like writing about. (February 25th, 2018, 22:43)Woden Wrote:(February 25th, 2018, 20:35)Chevalier Mal Fet Wrote: Friendship expires t87, Woden, so I'm going to start upgrading my swords at Nan Madol. Just FYI. I want to build ~5 heavy chariots first, then as many builders to 1 turn as I can squeeze out in that time. That gives me about 12 turns to T95, which won't be quite enough, but I'll finish it T95 with whatever I've got. How does that sound?
I Think I'm Gwangju Like It Here
A blog about my adventures in Korea, and whatever else I feel like writing about. |
