[SPOILERS] Suboptimal Goes Waltzing Matilda

[suboptimal]

Turn 24

Alhambram hasn’t founded his second city yet.  Archduke has sent his slinger off to the north.  There’s an outside chance that he’s masked a settler build with population growth but I don’t feel like going hunting.  If there’s any sort of conflict between myself and Archduke it’s to my advantage for him to do the declaring unless I have a guaranteed settler poach out of it.

Move my units around...at Luthadel I’ve got the terrain to the NE revealed but the terrain to the west is hilly so this will take a bit of time to move through.  I’m still tracking the scout in the SE corner, though it’s turned north.  I’d like to get it before Archduke does.  I do know where his warrior is, though.  

In the west the warrior has uncovered a rather large peninsula NE of that mountain.  

[img] https://cdn.pbrd.co/images/GWyMY3U.jpg[/img]

The tile to the NE of the warrior is fresh water, not coastal and settleable.  Likewise the plains tile NW of that forest is freshwater and settleable.  Valetta has a builder out but the envoy is more valuable than the builder, so no poach there.

[Cornflakes]

unless I just want to farm the tile E of Irukandji to get the inspiration.

This will not work. The eureka specifically requires farming a resource. EDIT: After posting this, I realized you might be talking about Craftsmanship not irrigation, I'm pretty sure the farm will work as 3rd improvement for Craftsmanship.

[suboptimal]

unless I just want to farm the tile E of Irukandji to get the inspiration.

This will not work. The eureka specifically requires farming a resource. EDIT: After posting this, I realized you might be talking about Craftsmanship not irrigation, I'm pretty sure the farm will work as 3rd improvement for Craftsmanship.

Yeah, I wasn't clear and that was even after re-editing it once.  I'm concerned about the Craftsmanship inspiration more than the Irrigation eureka.  Once both Campus districts are complete I can get the Irrigation eureka from my 3rd city.  I could get the Irrigation bonus from farming the wheat over at Cassowary but that wheat will be harvested for population once the builder is out.  My plan is to harvest a food resource for the population boost when a builder is available to jump start new city development.

[suboptimal]

Turn 25

Continue moving around. Archduke has moved his warrior back across the river.  I find this puzzling as he doesn’t yet know where, exactly, my capital is.  There’s also cattle up where the barb camp used to be.  The slinger completes its loop around the lake, revealing more sheep and wheat.  There's room down here for a few cities.  



In the west my warrrior moves up to reveal the rest of the peninsula...and a barbarian camp.  That’ll get me some much needed barbarian action. (Wait, did a player just say that?)



Alhambram completed his fourth tech.  Archduke is still at two techs.  I wonder if he’s gotten Animal Husbandry and Mining out of the way and is going for Bronze Working next.  Given our relative parity in science rates he should complete that in a couple of turns if that’s his current research.  Otherwise he may be slow-teching for district costs in the same manner I was intending (but didn’t need to).

I realize after hitting end turn I should have changed the civic over to Craftsmanship.  Whoops.

[suboptimal]

Turn 26

I change my civic to Craftsmanship then set about moving units around.  Up at Luthadel my scout walks into a pile of trouble.  Archduke will have an even bigger pile of trouble if I can get my scout out of there…



  Perhaps I’ll retreat back towards Luthadel and see what they do if I still have my scout next turn.

Warrior in the east moves into position to attack the scout, now at red health.  Don’t see Archduke’s warrior anywhere so unless the scout crosses the river I should be able to kill it.  Warrior also uncovers a copper resource, making this neck of the woods look better for cash generation.  Slinger starts to return to Irukandji and the warrior in the west starts bashing barbarian heads.  

Mining and first campus due in two turns.

[suboptimal]

Turn 27

Open the turn to a notification that I’ve met Alhambram. The camera zooms over to Cassowary but I don’t see any units. It looks like Persia is in the lower left corner of the map and Emperor K is on the upper left. I’ll see if that’s a warrior or a scout in a turn or two.

My scout was attacked by the barbarians but lived. The horseman and horse archer have been joined by another horseman. I retreat east towards the forest 2NW of Luthadel. Let’s see what the barbs do.

Warrior tries to chase the barbarian scout in the east, who’s crossed the river. Might not be able to chase that one down. Warrior in the west moves up and attacks the camp. The scout has retreated and is pinned between the warrior, the coast and the camp (I think).

I’ll have a full look at Alhambram in the next turn report (I was running late this morning so couldn’t take a full look around).

[suboptimal]

Turn 28

Open the save and am greeted by:



Campus complete!    Science is now up to 8.5 per turn.  Cassowary has also grown to size 2 and slows its growth down as it’s now working a 1 / 3 tile.  My scout is injured but not dead yet.  I retreat around the mountain to the north and see if I get pursued or not.  At the other barbarian situation in the west I attack the scout, killing it and revealing a bit of coast and something...interesting:



It looks like there may be a small spit of land that extends past the blue dot mountain.  It’s also far enough away from everywhere else that if I settled at Blue Dot and over here by the barb camp I’d be able to park a maritime city on the visible tile.  That consideration is for much later.

My other units continue their local adventures.  I’ll use the slinger for civilian escorts while Alhambram’s scout is in the area and the warrior will probe the area north of the Kandy River to try to find and kill that scout.  

Irukandji starts a builder, that’s due in 5 turns.  The GUI there shows 4 but when Cassowary’s completes in 3 turns the cost will go up by 4 and take another turn.  I start researching Masonry and will go halfway then switch to Bronze Working in 5 turns.   

Looking at Alhambram, he’s running 6.4   2 , no and 7 per turn.  He’s probably met a scientific city-state given his science rate unless he’s cranked out a Campus like I have.  We are at mililtary parity (he has a power of 65, I’m at 52 from wounded units).  He’s also probably working a gold resource or two given his GPT.  He, along with Archduke, have met Emperor K.  Emperor K is helping me out a little bit early on by not building military – he’s got a lower score than Archduke who’s at 37.  If he keeps that up Alhambram will (hopefully) go after him first and not decide my soon-to-be-double-digit science rate is a bigger problem.

[suboptimal]

Turn 29

Up at Luthadel the barbarians seem more interested in hunting my scout down than harassing Archduke. The scout moves back towards Luthadel. I don’t know if the AI programming will task switch once it’s made up its mind but I’m sure going to try to convince it to do so. Units move around and I locate Archduke’s redlined warrior just south of the jungle. It probably finished off the barbarian scout that was down here. I may wander off towards Kandy or Zanzibar with the warrior to see if either has a builder they can be relieved of.

With Alhambram in the area I’ll have to decide if I want to be careful with the builder. On one hand I’d like to harvest the wheat with the first builder action but that will put a 2-charge builder practically next to his scout. I could go put down a pasture and chop the forest before harvesting the wheat (if I were being careful”. Alhambram might not try to poach the builder anyway because he’s a long way from home and he’d give me ten turns of double production (with which I’d crank out warriors and try to overrun Archduke). I’ve also got that warrior in the west that could be used to recapture a builder making a run for it that he doesn’t know about.

[suboptimal]

Turn 30

Open the save and the action is focused on my now-redlined scout. Looks like the barbs will deal with the scout first then go pillaging. Archduke also has a warrior in the capital – he’s still got plenty of gold (266, actually) so that was a build. The good news is that the situation at Luthadel will slow Archduke down a bit – he can’t get a settler out with two horsemen and a horse archer wandering around in his borders.

[suboptimal]

Turn 31

Irukandji grows to 4 population, netting me the inspiration for Early Empire. The scout died, as expected. Cassowary’s builder is complete and the city starts working on the Campus. The northern warrior continues moving towards Kandy and I come across an injured barbarian scout, though not the one I was originally pursuing. Hopefully I can kill it and, with the camp I’ve been dealing with in the west I can get the barbarian boosts. Speaking of that camp my warrior has healed enough, attacks and earns a promotion. At Cassowary I decide to pasture the horse, then I’ll spend the next two turns going back for the wheat, then I’ll go chop a forest. The pasture nets me my second horse resource, the two tiles south and the tile west of the horse and the Horseback Riding eureka.