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I haven't abandoned reporting, Woden (and peanut gallery)! I'll make up my lengthy silence to you tomorrow, I spent my energy tonight getting caught up on my PBEM8 reports. I've got detailed notes and pictures from the last 3 turns, they just need to be assembled into coherence.
The day of the VA is almost upon us! :o
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Nubia-Turn 107
Are there any suprises when I open the save?
Nope but he did hit my crossbow. I retreat to heal. I don't expect him to come out at me. It serves him better to sit tight and wait for me, which will be a few turns. Down south...
My units are moving east to get into position. The western most horseman ended up on the forest tile east of the other 2 and revealed a Roman knight sitting between the 2 capitals. They are going to make this easy for Sullla, aren't they? A few more turns to wait for the crossbows, then I will start moing across the river. Part of me was thinking to move on the hill next to the crossbows next turn to reveal myself to Cornflakes, make it look like a mistake where he would bring forces down south but I don't want to ruin the surprise factor. Wait until everything is in position. Besides, I did upgrade my last chariot to a knight and he needs a few turns to get to the front.
I notice Geneva made peace with Japper/Cornflakes, so I go and check...
Cornflakes put another envoy into the city state, removing CMF as the Suzerain. I hope you have another envoy CMF, in case he somehow puts another one in there.
Speaking of science city states, I noticed Germany's science rate skyrocket to 98.3  . He reached the 6 envoys into Seoul for the +4 per campus and is generating 11.8 Great Scientist points. He has 4 Campuses that I can see and I assume another in his capital for 5 total and most likely all of them have libraries or maybe a university or 2. Luckily I will have a few universities in the coming turns.
Here is the current science rates:
Rome/China: 81/50.4 (131.4)
Russia/Germany: 39.6/98.3 (137.9)
England/Nubia: 57.4/69.3 (126.7)
Kongo/Khmer: 23.8/15.5 (39.3)
Overall, a tight science race and still a very close game. I will say Rome/China are probably in the better position since China gets 60% boost value. He can have a lower rate than Rome and still keep up.
Anyways, back home...
I chop the jungle at Throth to drop 3 turns off the Holy Site and harvest the marsh at Taueret. Since I was doing some chopping this turn, I did faith buy a granary at Taueret before harvesting the marsh. I put a mine down at Isis and removed the copper mine at Horus so I can harvest the copper next turn. I switch off of Gunpowder and Divine Right to Castles and Guilds, respectively. Hopefully I get the boost for Divine Right next turn from CMF finishing it, then I can get some walls up and chop out a few universities. Finish a market at Horus and start a sword (5 turns). Also finished a library at Isis and started a sword. That sword would take 4 turns but rearranged teh tiles for more food and it dropped to 5 turns. I will regain the turn after I put my 6th envoy into Valletta next turn.
I did faith buy a granary at Taueret and also at Osiris...
I figure I can afford the granaries since I won't need faith for the captured Khmer cities for a few turns and I am going to do a lot of harvesting in the coming turns. Another 130  for free thanks to Valletta, bring the total to 1,040 . I should have enough next turn with the copper and a wheat to buy a barracks and granary at Amon. Then, the following turn I will harvest stone at Nu-Kandy for any walls I will need.
Lastly, let's take a look at the current military power:
England/Nubia: 779/639 (1,418)
Rome/China: 869/542 (1,411)
Kongo/Khmer: 550/265 (815)
Russia/Germany: 205/504 (709)
These numbers should in include the last battle. Both Cornflakes and I have dropped. I do have some injured units that are healing so I should increase a little. Rome/China are also pushing at our combined power, only trailing by 7 points (well, I did upgrade another chariot this turn). Anyways, we will have to watch out in the coming turns.
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I did drop another envoy into Geneva, reclaiming suzerainty.
I also counted and assuming Germany has a campus at his capital, I got 6 campuses and 5 commercial hubs, plus a Hansa in every single city. Archduke was setting this up for a long time, and we're finally seeing Germany come into its own. It'd be a damn fool mistake to count that team out of this game.
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(March 26th, 2018, 21:23)Chevalier Mal Fet Wrote: I also counted and assuming Germany has a campus at his capital, I got 6 campuses and 5 commercial hubs, plus a Hansa in every single city. Archduke was setting this up for a long time, and we're finally seeing Germany come into its own. It'd be a damn fool mistake to count that team out of this game.
I must have missed one, good to know. I think we will see Germany start to snowball now that he has his production is online and we should see the Rome decline a little bit since they have the early advantage. My friendship with Russia should end next turn or the following. I will resend it so we can see what their intentions are.
I hate being locked in peace until about the time of Cossacks with Russia being my neighbor but I don't want a dogpile with Rome/China advancing on the other side. I will have to upgrade defenses and I think I will put a harbor in the lake and get a few ships as look outs, so at least they won't be boogeymen again. Maybe settle the canal spot soon-ish too.
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Our best is to try and coax them onto our side against Rome/China. If we split the Kongo lands, and Rome/China continue to have a slight edge in development, hopefully the bad blood between the players and the historical friendship between our teams will tip them onto our side.
March 27th, 2018, 10:31
(This post was last modified: March 27th, 2018, 17:26 by Chevalier Mal Fet.)
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Okay, here it is, the long-promised update!
Turns 105 - 107
Sorry for the lack of updates guys, weekend trips take a lot out of me, and I sweat over these things. Let me hit the highlights of the last few turns, but you all know the broad summary: Continuing to research, save, and send workers towards the Venetian Arsenal build site. The army I'm trying to use to support Woden until it can be upgraded - which is very soon now! Knights will be online for me around t110, Woden, right as Sullla declares war, and give us a shot in the arm just as we need it. Let's dive into the nitty-gritty here:
Turn 106 rolls around and I get Sir Francis Drake, the worst of the Renaissance dudes. Sun yat-sin gives you an ironclad a full era early, and with the Mausoleum, I could grab that ironclad and then use the damn Admiral to boost it, or keep around my second Renaissance dude and get TWO ironclads, one in each sea, or more likely concentrating both against Rome. Imagine an ironclad out there while Sullla is still researching towards caravels! Santa Cruz creates an armada with his ability - I want to use him on a Seadog and on a frigate. I might use both his charges up early, since Drake has little use. Drake gives me +75 gold (whoopee) and lets me plunder trade routes for more gold (because that'll happen.  ).
Santa Cruz is up next. DAMN it sucks that I couldn't get him and Sun. Such bad luck! (Maybe...)
I also need ot send a new trade route. After some wavering over yields, I finally select this as my best option:
Lots of gold, production, science, and culture for Actium - thanks, Woden! His cities are improving enough with campuses and libraries that I can replace the Geneva economy with the Nubian economy soon.
Sullla has spent the intervening turns encamped just short of Japper's borders:
Those knights and crossbows are there every time my patrolling great admiral comes by. I wonder what his strategy will be when the war renews? I'd expect him to strike hard and fast for the capital - that's what I'd do, then roll up Japper's remaining cities, finishing with most of my army in the north here menacing Nan Madol. However, Sullla doesn't know Woden and I's troop placement, so maybe he'll concentrate most of his forces at the capital to meet Woden there. So are these guys just a flank guard? Is he planning on trying something flashy like going for every Kongo city at once? (He could, because as far as I know most of Japper's units are in the north, again, facing me, again, leaving his border cities with Sullla unguarded, again:
-sigh-).
Exploring Roman knights appear in the south:
In the meantime, my own explorer's find Venice's borders:
Sullla has 4 coastal cities by my count - 3 that he self-founded, including Venezia, and 1 he took off of Japper (he gave one to China in intervening rounds). That's nearly as many as I do (but I have 4 more incoming, 3 of them on the sea facing Sullla), and he can transfer ships between seas with his canals (such bad luck! maybe...). Without the VA, I'm sunk (dohohoho I'm funny). With the VA, I'm competitive, probably with an edge given my great admirals, but I'll need to dedicate my new cities to shipbuilding and sealing up those canals. I'm not confident that Woden and I will ahve the strength to launch a land offensive yet - but if I can use the sea to choke off most reinforcements, we might have a shot to roll up the Kongo/Khmer continent.
Finally, my scout finishes the long circumnavigation:
New goal is to head out and explore the sea between Woden and China. Any sea-fight between those two powers will be even, no GAs or VAs to muck things up.
Turn 107 sees me hit my tech target, about 7 turns behind Sullla by my count:
And Sullla has picked up Stirrups before that, while I still need to research it. Only 3 turns until I have knights - then it's just a matter of gold. Professional Armies next turn.
Why knights before Caravels? Well, the land war is a lot hotter than the sea war right now. Delaying caravels a little bit lets me squeeze out more galleys to be upgraded later, but I need knights like 10 turns ago. Delaying them has really cost Woden in this war as he struggles to make headway alone. But remember, you have to make choices in this game - I couldn't both chase the Venetian Arsenal and give Woden knight support, and at the time we didn't know that Sullla was on the verge of making peace. Hopefully this surge of reinforcements at t110 will let us meet Rome on equal terms - I'm feeling a bit more confident there.
Cornflakes scraped together an envoy and flung it at Geneva to knock me out:
No big deal, I drop my spare envoy in. Nan Madol now lacks a spare envoy, but they want me to trigger the inspiration for Exploration - build 2 caravels. Gotcha covered, friends.
Like I said before, Pisa was traded to China, who has what I think is his first faith-bought unit in the city:
Theocracy and a brand-new crouching tiger. China is going to start spewing units into the north. I'm not sure if we could ahve done anything about this oncoming wave of faith-based units, fueled by all of China's wonders. We'e on the far side of the world, and we've built and prepared for this war as best we could. Well, nothing for it but to meet it.
The other major news of the turn is Archduke's explosion in science:
His gameplan was pretty clear. He finished Hansas, then he's been feverishly building campuses ever since. It slowed his development in the classical era as he researched up to apprenticeship, then built lots of districts that don't boost your demographic rates. Now, though, he's leveraging both of Germany's flagship abilities to the fullest. I went through his empire, city by city, on the trade screen. Every single city with few exceptions has three districts (Germany's extra district coming into play): A Commercial Hub, a Hansa, and a Campus. As a result, Archduke's 5 commercial hubs (earning +16 gold from his two CS allies, plus possibly lisbon) and his trade routes earn him a cool +120 gold a turn. 80 of that from the hubs alone, let alone his diamond mines, trade routes, or other improvements. His science rate has roared past us to be tops in the game at nearly 100 beakers per turn - 6 campuses, boosted by Seoul and Geneva, will do that. Well, he might not have Geneva. But he has the +8 Seoul bonus, accoutning for half his science right there. I'd like Sullla to raze that city, please.
Next turn Navarino will finish the last of its prebuilds and can start the wonder itself:
Not sure if I shoudl wait for my turn 110 target - Monarchy is 2 turns early, so I might start chopping tonight. We'll see. Did Sullla finish yet?
It's coming along, but veeerrrrrry slowly. If he noticed that I only just finished an IZ, and that I didn't even have Mass Production until this turn, he might think he can saunter across the finish line. I might not win this game, but dammit I'm going to have fun by swiping this out from under his nose.
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March 27th, 2018, 18:42
(This post was last modified: March 27th, 2018, 18:42 by Woden.)
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Nubia-Turn 108
A little bit of a slow turn as I set up to start pushing next turn. No activity on the northern front and at the southern front...
Sullla is cock-blocking Japper's cities! Must be worried that I am going to advance there. I will start pushing north and be visible to Cornflakes next turn. I will also move a few units around in the north to get ready to advance again the turn after. It looks like Cornflakes retreated a little bit as there are not crossbows on the spots I marked. Pretty sure they will reappear after I move the southern force up.
Back in the homeland...
I harvest the copper at Horus for 198  and harvest the wheat at Amon for 99  . This gives me enough faith to buy at Barracks for 180  and a granary for 130 :faith and an additional 155 from Valletta bring the total to 1,195 I wonder if I can come close to the production China for Wonders from his builders. Might be a stretch but there is a lot of jungle by Cornflakes capital and a lot of food and crabs to harvest. I throw a farm down at Thoth and rework the tiles to get the city to grow. Not much else going on at home. Builders are getting into position to chop out walls into universities once I finish Divine Right. Should have 3 finished in the next 5-7 turns with a fourth in about 10 turns at Iris (only a jungle to chop). I do earn an envoy and place it into Valletta for the additional +2 bonus to units (the 6 envoy level). This should help in my cities with encampments.
The copper brought my gold total to 230 , so as planned...
Good luck with your project, CMF. I can't wait to read Sullla's reaction that you finished the VA within 3 turns of finishing Mass Production. Speaking of Rome...
Rome/China passed us in Military Power, most likely thanks to China faith buying units. I must say, I am getting a little concerned about about a power surge. I plan on going to Reformed Church and Theocracy right after Divine Right just in case they push on us after taking out Japper. Should have it in 10 or so turns plus some faith from chops. It will be some tense times in the coming turns.
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Turn 108
Sadly, Woden, we will NOT be finishing the Venetian Arsenal one turn after finishing Mass Production. We're back to about t112 - t114. This post is gonna be very math-heavy, guys, but the thorny problem of this wonder dominated my thinking this turn, so I'll walk you through my thought process as best I can.
With Monarchy in hand, this was the first turn that I was able to attempt the VA with 150% Monarch walls, plus two Maritime Industries 100% chops. Turn 110 is my target date, remember, but I wanted to see how viable a plan that was. So, I checked on the chop value before anything else in my turn. From my most recent planning post, back on page 61, I wrote the following plan:
(March 17th, 2018, 22:15)Chevalier Mal Fet Wrote: With that in mind, I have set my target date for the VA at Turn 110. 12 turns from now. That will be turn I enter Monarchy, which will add 50% to my wall chop - which I learned is not additive, but multiplicative! In other words, I'll be getting the stone harvest x 2 x1.5, not x2.5, as I thought - so it'll be a triple strength harvest.
Each stone should be worth 121.5 cogs, with 23 techs going by Woden's spreadsheet. One gets boosted x3, 2 others x2. So that's 364.5 + 2(243) = 850 cogs just from the stone harvests. A forest chop unboosted is worth 81 cogs, which is enough right there for the 920 cost Arsenal, with 11 extra cogs. A lot of that extra will be eaten up by the loose change of production on my chops, but I have 1 final builder ready to chop a jungle for that. So, 5 builders will be all I need.
Now let's look at gold costs. They keep increasing, but I should just be able to scrape enough together with Land Surveyors (which, I, uh, don't have time to enter. Hm. A problem).
Here's the gold situation around Navarino:
I need to buy 2 115 tiles (the Arsenal itself and a stepping stone to a stone tile) and 3 170 tiles (2 stones and 1 forest), plus if I can I need that jungle for a further 115. So 3(115) + 3(170) = an astonishing 855 gold! I could cut that to 684 with Land Surveyors, but I need time to swap to Land Surveyors. Medieval faires needs 2 turns, so I could swap at Monarchy, then swap later...Wait, that's dumb, I won't need Serfdom or Trade Confederation at Monarchy (well, I will, but not right away). I'll take Maritime Industries, Conscription, and Limes at Monarchy, and Land Surveyors and Trade Confederation as economic techs. So I need ~700 gold. Woden, I have 93 now and I make 58. In 12 turns I'll make 696, which is JUST enough - so no more gold from me for 12 turns. After the VA is done, I can switch back to Gold mode and start saving up again. We'll need lots to upgrade ships and military units, so anything we can do to increase gold between now and then is ideal.
The only issue left in the timeline is Navarino's production. I have 12 turns to produce ancient walls and another quad to be ready to chop. Possible solution is to chop using a galley instead, those are half the cost of a quad. I'll judge when the time for chopping comes in a few turns.
I was counting on 121 cog harvests, x7, to give me 850 production, leaving only 70 to be made up with a single forest chop. However, that's not the yield that I was getting. Each stone was giving me only 108 cogs. When multiplied out, I was getting 756 production - well short of my target! Forests were only giving 84, and I need a total of 50 cogs in loose change to finish off my 3 multiplier builds. The end result was that I could funnel only 706 production from stone into the wonder, 150 short of what I expected, with forests and jungle chops adding a further 168 production later - still only taking me to ~850 cogs, or right where I wanted to be just with the stone, and still needing ~4 turns to slow-build the wonder. Now, that's not an issue - 4 turns is a-ok by me, I think I'd still beat Sullla handily, but I think I can squeeze some more efficiency out of this by delaying the wonder.
So here's the bottom line: I can't finish the wonder in 1 turn, not without a lot more set-up. And I can't finish it sooner than 7 turns after I got Mass Production, not 2 turns. I apologize to the lurkers, but that sort of spectacular finish just isn't allowed by the math. So here's the plan that's been worked out:
First, I can boost the chops a little by adding some tech and civics. Stirrups is due t110, Medieval Faires is due t109 (there's a reason I'm researching it now). That will add a handful of cogs and make this way more efficient. Second, that forest chop is unboosted, but Navarino is out of pre-builds to do. I COULD just sink normal production into the Arsenal, but wait a second...there's one more unit I can use to boost a chop! That's right - the settler I sank some overflow into a few turns ago. The settler will boost the forest chop to 129 cogs, -20 to finish the settler (my math has gotten more precise). When added to the stone from earlier, I'll be getting 815 cogs from the 4 pre-built units. That can be ready to go t112 - a slight delay to add the settler, but it gets the settler out MUCH sooner and the chop more than makes up for the cogs spent on the settler.
That leaves me to come up with 105 production. Navarino could hand-build the wonder in 4 turns at that point, but I still have 2 jungles. I don't have the worker labor to chop them on the same turn, t112, so this will NOT be a 1-turn wonder. I apologize for that - I COULD have squeezed out one more builder from Salamis, but I thought I had enough already based on the t98 plan.
Each jungle is yielding 43 production. The workers could step onto the jungles on t113, and chop on t114 (or perhaps t115 for one of those jungles). So, I have a single turn to reload another boosted unit. Right now, Navarino can build galleys in, guess what? 2 turns! So one turn into a galley will give me 48 production, leaving 17 left over. A jungle chop will give 86 production, so 69 after the loose change, leaving me with a measley 36 production at that point - which the other jungle chop will cover.
So, the new finish date has been pushed back five turns: Turn 115 is the finish date, but in the extra five turns I get one extra warship AND a settler, which is a good deal. If Sullla finishes on turn 114 I'll be SUPER pissed, but -knocks on wood- that hopefully won't happen. If anything, the extra time is nice because it's time he'll waste building in Firenze and he'll get nothing in the end. Rise & Fall added failproduction, but I'm not sure it's in the patch we're playing. I'd really, really like him to come up totally empty handed.
To sum up:
T 112 - chop galley, quad, ancient walls, settler into VA for 815 cogs. End turn on VA build to lock in production, VA = 840 production at end of turn.
T 113 - Swap to galley. Move builders onto jungle tiles.
T 114 - Chop galley, bringing VA to 910 production. VA most likely finishes at end of turn, and builder most likely can't chop on the same turn due to movement restrictions. Either way -
T 115 - Arsenal done. A 4-turn total build. Not as spectacular as 1 turn, and it's coming a pathetic 8 turns after Mass Production is in, instead of 3. I beg your forgiveness for this slippage and my construction foreman has been fired. We strive to bring you projects on time and under budget, but sometimes the laws of nature don't cooperate.
Anyway, so why the government? Basically, I don't need the chopping policies yet, so it's time to generate gold and concentrate on the OTHER major problem, the war. Here's the front at Japper:
Two pieces of good news. First, Japper has at last redeployed to face Sullla. He'll not do too well against knights and potential muskets, but at least it'll be a fight, kinda. Second, notice what I have next to Nan Madol. Yep, it's crossbows!
I took Professional Army and Conscription to generate gold and start getting my military into shape. Land surveyors is just a 1-turn policy - I bought all the VA tiles on my turn, so we're good to go. Next turn I swap Land Surveyors out for Trade Confederation and restore science and culture to more respectable levels. Meritocracy will have to wait until I can spare Colonization or I have more economic slots. Right now it grants +8 culture, while TC gives +8 culture AND +8 science. Easy choice.
So we generate gold, and upgrade my army, as rapidly as I can. Stirrups will be in soon, and while I'll have to drop Conscription I could keep Professional Army - or do it the other way around, and have more gold, but later modern units (upgrading at Guilds civic). Either way, I feel a lot better. My army is nowhere near as strong as Sullla's, but Woden and I together are close. The main issue is Singaboy's faith-army, and Cornflake's stubborn defense. I'm prepared to renew the DOF with Sullla and Singaboy, sending a request juuuust before the VA finishes so they can't react negatively if they accept (and if they decline, they planned to attack anyway so no worries!).
My exploring galley reveals Sullla's coastline:
But my intrepid scout is cut off from going back to the northern ocean!
NOthing fori t but to plunge on and just see what I can see. Reveal as much of Archduke's continent as I can. Maybe someday this scout will make it home...someday.
An overview:
Jutland is founded next turn, with 4 more settlers incoming to push me to 11 cities. 3 of the 5 new cities will be on the ocean facing Rome, giving me 4 shipbuilding centers there, which will match 8 Roman cities - in other words, more than enough to outbuild Sullla at sea, and back up my Great Admirals. I need ot make sure Sullla doesn't run harbor projects to grab Santa Cruz, or that Singaboy doesn't snipe him with faith. He's infinitely better than Sir Francis Drake.
Phew! Sorry for all the numbers, but they were important. The tl;dr: the Arsenal is finishing 5 turns later than planned, but we get way more units out of it.
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