Polish/South Korean vacation succession

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

It's just on PYDT, which I joined in a moment of idleness back in March. No site as far as I know, just a match against randos that Kaiser prodded me to start reporting for funsies.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

We've reached the Medieval Era. I'll do an overview of the state of other players as best I can, my own empire can wait for another round number since I just did one on turn 50. 




Everyone except Japan achieved a Golden Age after the loooong classical age; Hungary is in a Heroic Age. But he has nothing to take advantage with - almost no districts, no Commercial Hubs, no Holy Sites, nothing. 

I take Free Inquiry, and my science jumps from 80 to 95, well above India, my nearest competitor. 

In the south, I have 3 newly settled cities over the last 5 turns, including one with my only access to niter:




Flexible Demeanor is a little north of where Kaiser pinned it, but I wanted to preserve the 1/3 hill if possible, and I added some forests to the north in exchange, too. Look Out Below! is mostly a filler city to occupy the Canadian isthmus, and Screw Loose is another filler to hold the south shore of Gdansk Bay. There's one more city here, which will be filled with a settler out of OCISLY after the Oracle, so call it about 15 turns before it's ready. 

In the north, New Poland, including the recently conquered Home By Christmas:




The army here is healing before preparing a march north on Cardiff, which has a more substantial military and will be a slightly tougher nut to crack. From there, I think it's on to Nazca and Kandy, while I train fresh musketmen (say, 5?) with some Xbow support, siege towers, and perhaps a pair of catapults for a march on Germany in the next ~30 turns. That army will press on straight over the plains towards Japan, whose long turn times annoy me, and then finish up by grinding down Hungary. Meanwhile, the New Polish cities are finishing up the first wave of Markets for infrastructure. I've also got one of 2 encampments, to start farming GG points for the end game, as well as trigger the district discount and grab some eurekas. 




The Indian frontier. I debated sending the settler to WOnderville, but decided to go for the coast instead to get Sailing -> Shipbuilding and also Niter hooked up. India SHOULDN'T beat me there, but if he does, I'll take it with the army at Nazca. Just Passing THrough is a great city, moving it over the river was a solid move. 

Our competitors:

Canada is weak and driven by the AI. I have been exploiting him for cash all game. Now I soak him for all the Diplomatic favor I can - he's only willing to part with 20, but he'll take only 9 horses in return. I can replace that easily, and with the WC meeting next turn, the extra 20 favor might come in handy. He has 4 cities with no population or districts to speak of because he's just a dumb robot.




Japan is weak, with only the two cities, but a stronger military than Hungary. He'll eventually recover his third, but he's obviously beaten. He takes roughly 48 hours per turn - everyone else takes about 6. 




I offer him this deal that does nothing to help him but does help me. We'll see if he rejects, makes a counter offer, or even accepts! He might want to keep me on-side since I was his sugar daddy against Hungary. He's recovered from being skint broke, but not by much. 




Berlin, which would have been nice for me to settle, is Germany's only real expansion. The others are late plants with no development yet. Berlin is...okay. He wasted a bunch of time throwing up walls first, as if I couldn't steamroll him in a heartbeat anyway. Germany seems to be in a settler push, as his empire score is fluctuating. I think he's got one or two more on the map? Desperately trying to catch up? But that ship has sailed. I don't have vision on most of his cities, but I hope to soon. He makes 19 gpt to my 92. 




Hungary has some huuuuge cities. But he only has built encampments, and is only on 5- and the 5th is a 1-pop dry plant from just a few turns ago. He's burnt massive amounts of production in the stalemated Japanese war, from which he has gained no cities, and has neglected his expansion. He has no luxuries and no gold, and his massive cities CAN'T be happy with just tea. He's third in science and culture from pop, mostly, because Japan and Germany suck, but he's no threat. He's at war with both of his neighbors and is outnumbered. I can ignore him until the time comes to squash him.




India's trying to keep pace. He got caught flat-footed by my expansion, but he's got a few decent cities iwth districts. He's doing a fine job, but is just being out-expanded by me and so has fallen behind. He's about 30 turns behind where I was, so he coudl skyrocket fast - I have to keep my foot on the gas to keep him from catching up. He matched me in science until I got my districts repaired and slotted in Natural Philosophy, and now I double him in science. His Choral Music (+holy site adjacency card?) keeps his culture equal to mine, but my pop and cheap monuments should put the pressure on him to keep up. 

Scores. My empire score matches India and Hungary combined, and I am about to initiate a new settler wave:

[Kaiser]

Where is the next wave of Settlers going to?

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

1 is going to the Late spot near Jerusalem, one is going to Wonderville in the Northeast, and the remaining 3 are going up the river valley in the northwest, with the last settling near Matterhorn. That'll be it for settlers this game.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turns are coming in about every 48 hours reliably now. Japan is a little bit better since he recovered to three cities. 

Right now, I have three main goals:

1)Build 5 settlers for aforementioned sites, complete peaceful Polish settlement.
2)Finish CH builds and lay down a few holy sites. I only have the one in BWC at the moment, but with Work Ethic and Stewardship Holy Sites are as good as IZes and get me more faith and gold in the bargain.
3)Build out military for final conquests of neighbors. 

We're up to turn 65. The last turn I really reported was 61. My own turns have been quiet as I reposition my current forces towards Cardiff in the north and I take care of housekeeping at home. Abroad, the major news is India declaring war on RoboCanada and conquering Quebec City off him. He's levied Jerusalem's military and is pushing settlers and universities. Definitely a strong second at the moment. Japan and Hungary are stalemated, while Germany peaced out with no cities lost. 

With little else to do, I move Amani to Kandy, grabbing suzerainty for the first time and revealing a big chunk of the map:




Madurai is a nice enough city, but where on earth is that Indian settler off to? There's no water up there - most of the northeastern portion of the map is fairly arid, actually. The river Madurai sits on and the coast are the only sources of water. He might be trekking all the way to the north, where that river winds out of the desert. Overall, India could do a lot more expansion in this whole area. He's barely even settled his northwest at all, which is occupied only by Kabul and Geneva. 




The core is finishing infastructure builds before the next settler round next turn - the Oracle, two universities, granaries in overcrowded cities. JRTI and BWC have both hit their population caps, but I'm not sure how to squeeze more housing out of BWC in particular - I'd like a Harbor here for the Lighthouse, which would solve the city's housing problems long-term without sacrificing a good tile for an aqueduct. 




New Poland, including Home by Christmas, is wrapping up the first round and starting the second. MIC is working Barracks -> Armory for the Gunpowder inspiration. GS still needs to finish the Market, since it has slightly weaker production than the other cities. HBC and AYM are spitting out Holy Sites, which will have strong adjacencies once I get the cities converted to Friendship. I need to continue churning missionaries out of BWC, but each Missionary can only convert one mature city - in my own empire! - and my faith generation can only sustain 1 missionary every 4 turns. Clearly unacceptable, especially with Indian apostles starting to nose around in the east. I'll keep an eye on the religious victory screen, and if necessary I'll declare an inquisition and start murdering Indian proselytizers. 




The Indian frontier cities are humming along (see the aforementioned religious units?). JPT is growing like a weed thanks to the fertile volcano tiles and already has two complete districts. It's pausing to build a granary to allow it to continue growing, then will probably swap to a library -> university build. District 3 is unknown - Holy Sites, Encampments, and Industrial Zones all have arguments. I'll see where things stand. LMNH still is working on the initial CH->Market but has a trader. YI is whipping out the Pyramids quickly, which give me a wave of builder labor down the line when I can squeeze it in (after the settlers?). Need to remember to swap to Serfdom before founding any new cities, so my new guys will have  6 charges apiece at the new settles. 




The Canadian frontier is mostly settled, with one spot remaining near Jerusalem. Winnipeg is the second Canadian city to fall to advancing Indians. Only Poutine, the Canadian capital, and the wretched dry Vancouver remain. Canada is one of only 3 remaining areas on the map that remains unexplored to me, but I think it's mostly marginal tundra per the latitude. The other two areas are western Germany, where he has two cities I haven't found, and Hungary/northwestern Japan. Hungary and I exchanged open borders this turn so my scout is heading there to see if I can find his capital. 

That's it for a broad overview, now let me show you the new cities since the turn 50 overview:




Flexible Demeanor I relocated off the PFH, since I want to work that tile, and I brought it closer to the forests near the Carpathian Mountains. It's at present one of only two sources of niter in the empire. It's only 5 turns old but already size 3, with strong production for its size. No CH is placed yet as I built a discounted Encampment first. If and when I invade Canada/India this will be a valuable production base. Build order is probably Granary->CH->Market for the next 10 turns. 




Look Out Below! is a weaker city, mostly built to control the landbridge between Gdansk Bay and Lake Unnamed. It could use some builder love in those hills and that salt, which will make it pretty solid. It's finishing up its initial CH, since there was no discounted district to place that I wanted to build. After the Market -> Trader I think a builder will be in order before tackling the next district.




Screw Loose is the final frontier city here. It's also solid, but lacks food for long-term growth. I even built a crappy farm for lack of better use for the builder and to try to mitigate the food crunch a bit. Mostly it fills space and will be another Encampment site at size 4. All three of these cities are fueled by their traders running back to JRTI with 3/3 routes at the moment. The Polish economy is built on new cities powered by traders, powered by our unique markets that I can't spell.




In the north, Look Ma! No Hands! is a good defensive city with lots of potential for campuses and holy sites. I need a builder here to harvest the stones, but in the meantime it's working on the market startup and then a granary after that. Nothing really notable here. I moved the city one tile south from the pin to enable Wonderville to the north. 




We pinned Youthfull Indiscretion as a filler city, mostly, along this river, but the thick jungle leads to it growing like a weed. I made use of the lone desert tile to crank out the Pyramids, which was a 10-turn build. After that it will need a granary, and then to finish its placed-but-not-yet-complete Commercial Hub. Note also the cryptic Hungarian pin. What does it mean? o_o 




The last new city since last time, and the final one of my major push: I Thought He Was With You. This city has two niters within 3 rings - I had to shift the location to avoid orphaning the final niter 4 tiles from any city. That pushed the horses to second ring, but I made use of my considerable gold income to purchase both tiles, since they're good tiles for the citizens to work. The trade route here has the city already racing to size 3 just 2 turns after its foundation, and I'm working on a granary first to get housing up. No district placed yet. A discounted Harbor is possible, if I prefer the discount and the housing to my unique market. That might be the way I go since there's eurekas like shipyards that I will have trouble hitting otherwise. 

Abroad, Germany and India are slowly expanding, and India's total conquest of Canada would put him near to me in empire size - he's half my size at the moment. But I've got such a lead in development that I just need to keep playing mistake free. Might need to confront India instead of Germany sooner rather than later. That'll come after this wave of settlers finishes, in about 10 turns.

[williams482]

Note also the cryptic Hungarian pin. What does it mean? o_o 

Oh the joys we miss out on by prohibiting such communications...

One thought on Wonderville, have you considered placing it on the fissure 1E of the current pin? that reclaims a largely useless tile and allows both a +4 HS and a +3 campus on useless desert tiles in the first ring, with a good spot for a +4 hub on the desert hill between them (bumping the campus to +4). The initial tile choices are slightly weaker, but the borders should grow towards the more workable tiles.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

That's not a bad idea. Plus, I can use the flat desert tile for Petra. Once I get a good Holy Site with Work Ethic up, I'll have a decent enough production base to crank out that wonder, which is usually tough. I can also park a bunch of trade routes there and knock it out in sub-10 turns, like I've done with the Oracle and the Pyramids. 

Hungary is also in the wonder-building game, having finished Macchu Picchu and the Hanging Gardens in the last couple turns. Neither of those is as good as the two wonders I'm working on, and honestly he needs more settlers or military. He doesn't even have any districts to benefit from Macchu yet! 




In position at Cardiff. Tougher fight ahead, 4 swords, 2 archers, 1 xbow at least. Plus upgrades likely coming, so I need to nab all the archers I can. Then we'll be in position to upgrade to muskets and think about a push either to the south, on Germany, or an offensive east, into the religious states and, ultimately, India. 

Germany is on one of my projected sites:




No worries. I can relocate the city to the north, instead. I'll just conquer the German city; he should have built it 40 turns ago honestly. 

Housekeeping: IBC gets flooded and loses the CH/Market. Gotta repair that real quick before resuming the settler.




Slowly getting my religion spread around, while I build a few holy sites. Not planning to win via religion, but the gold/science and Work Ethic will be nice. 




I can upload the next save if anyone's interested in poking around themselves.

[williams482]

Hmm. Does Petra really get you anything there? The sheep will be a nice tile then, but the flat wonder-adjacent tiles will be unimprovable 2/2/2/1 faith tiles, and the floodplains won't be affected. Great Bath would probably get you more value if it's still around, that river has definitely flooded a few times.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I feel like it's worth the investment. The main thing I like will be the food/production/faith tiles from the Natural Wonder. I'll never get all the tiles before the end of the game, unless I buy them, but it'll be a fun side project. 

Let's see, highlights from the last 5 days...

My tech has now hit the point where everything is 1 turn, even though I have no boosts. I'm rapidly outrresearching my ability to hit the boosts, and I also  can no longer safely dump science into throwaway techs, either. It, uh, might be time to drop Natural Philosophy.




This problem doesn't go away in future turns, for the record. Elsewehre, I begin the assault on Cardiff. It takes me about 3 turns to chew through the enemy army and walls:




I lose 1 sword to the enemy army and I have 4 horses crippled, but the walls are reduced and most of my swords are intact. I might be able to take it in this push, or I might need to send in the horses once they're healed. Note that online speed nerfs healing - units heal at the same rate as standard, which makes it sometimes more economical just to build new ones! Tech advances rapidly and units obsolete pretty quick. Most of these horses are less than 10 turns old but I'm already 1 turn from unlocking Muskets. 




I find the Indian capital, Patna, and a freshly-founded Calcutta. There's also two Indian settlers on the map - one here, might challenge me for the Late site, and one in the north we saw earlier. Germany ALSO has at least one more settler on the map, in addition to the new cities he's been founding. The latest one is indeed Nuremberg, on the site we had pinned:




No worries. This settler push was the right move for both, and India's conquest of Canada COULD be a gamechanger once the cities come out of occupation, but I have such a substantial lead that I'm not worried. India might be pushing for a religious victory, but I have my own and am rapidly swelling my faith income, he has only just met Hungary (via a Hungarian scout and an Indian archer wandering through my territory), so he's not going to get there before I have an inquisition in place. 

Elsewhere, Hungary captures Fukuoka for the first time, continuing to slug away at Japan, while India finishes the conquest of Canada. I denounced Canada 5 turns ago and declared a formal war, but that didn't count to trigger the nationalism casus belli. Bummer:




When we attack India, our invasion will probably start here, or if I can build a big enough army I'll strike both north nad south to split hsi defenders. 

That's basically everything. Cardiff should fall in 2 turns or so, my settlers are finishing at that time, as are my holy sites, and then it's probably an army to finish things off. 

One final thing I notice while doing my daily trawl through the gossip and trade screens for tidbits is this. India stumbled upon the Dead Sea on turn 68:




...and where is the Dead Sea?




...yeah. 7 tiles from his capital. Wow.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I don't have time to report this game much, either. Orientation at school went well. It was nice to see the kids in person, and they were shocked at how tall I was. Everyone's the same height on Zoom, heh. Anyway, once we get back into the semester, say another week, the chaos from the end of the quarter and transitioning back to in-person learning should die down and I can devote more time to Civ again. 

Here's quick hits:

I am first to Exploration, with India about 5 turns behind. His culture is very improved with the conquest of Canada, he's got more settlers out (I count at least 2, possibly even 3 or 4!), and will no doubt start on science soon. I'm well ahead, still, but I can't sit on my laurels. India must be dealt with, and soon. 

I adopt this government. Civics come in fast so nothing long-term necessary:



My fast growing cities profit from the housing and amenities, I love the extra science, need the extra faith to combat India (plus it boosts Work Ethic), and otherwise I work to maximize gold generation, which has been one of my secret sources of success this game. 




Cardiff falls, and is renamed to No More Mr. Nice Guy. It has plenty of food, but no districts and no production. More of a filler city, good for pop but not much else. It cost me 1 swordsman to capture, not a bad trade. Nazca, nearby, has no walls and nothing stronger than a warrior nearby. I have 4 horses, 2 archers, plus a gaggle of swords available, so I intend to heal for a turn or two, then strike quickly. 




India is my next target. He's been busy. He conquered Canada quickly using a levied Jewish army, and while Canada's cites are thankfully garbage free land is free land. He's self-settled 3 of his own cities recently and I saw at least one or two more settlers.




Most annoyingly, his Apostles have arrived to spread Catholicism through Poland. We can't have that, not with the good word of Friendship available, so I'm building my own religious infrastructure. I have decided that it is time to seek a FInal Solution to the Indian Problem.




The real strength of Poland is in my trade routes. I have 13 (finished another market after this photo), each of which runs from a satellite city to the capital. Every city gets 5 extra food, 3 extra production, and 6 gold, right from foundation. I use that quick start to grow my pop swiftly, build out another commercial hub and market, and use the new trade capacity to fuel future cities. The newly mature cities, meanwhile, start on campuses, or holy sites, or encampments as needed. 

Between Work Ethic and Hildegaard, BWC's Holy Site is the single best tile in the empire:



10 faith, 10 production, and 10 science. This city is crippled by its lack of food, as it doesn't have the population for another district still. Instead I move in Liang, and I'll use it as a unit/builder pump. I've got Friendship spread just in time, just ahead of a wave of Indian apostles. I do not intend to renew the DoF. Instead, I'm saving for an Inquisition, and then I intend to make war upon India. 

Images soon. I've looked over the terrain and the approach will be difficult. However, we have the tech for it, and the production to field a large army.