Dave's Not Throwing Away His Shot

[kjn]

Also, I have been noticing in screenshots that there is one grassland hill tile south of BA that gives an extra 2 gold. I expected this was because of copper on the square. I reopened the save and looked closely, but this was not the case. More puzzlingly, I can't find a natural wonder that gives just that bonus to adjacent tiles. I'm not sure what's going on over there.

As far as I can tell, this appears to be a quirk in the Civ 6 UI.

[oledavy]

Turn 27

Another quiet turn as I move ever closer to settling my second city.

Completed foreign trade, on to Mysticism and a shitty GS!



I like those odds a lot better. I'll clear the camp out next turn for the Military Tradition? Inspiration, 12 Culture, 40? Gold, and the Bronze Working Eureka (Question marks because I don't recall the exact names/amounts). That will in turn allow me to complete Bronze Working at the end of next turn. 

Still strongly considering laying down an encampment for Schuyler immediately to lock in the cost, the only question is where. I still have a couple days to make up my mind. 

No though, speaking of Bronze Working. 



I'm guessing that's what Singaboy finished that got him to the third tier. He almost certainly killed 3 barbarians in his skirmishes down there. I doubt he would invest that much science into the wheel when the eureka is so easy to get. Still, it might have been wheel and he's planning a heavy chariot rush. 

I thought that chariots required horses, but looking in the Civlopedia, I couldn't find that listed as a requirement. Going to assume they're resourceless for now. If I'm wrong, I would appreciate being corrected. At any rate, going to watch out for a chariot rush of course, but I think BW was more likely. That may indicate he's planning to go on the offensive sooner rather than later. That will be something to keep an eye on. 



I'm glad I accompanied my settler with the warrior, otherwise that barb scout could have interdicted me. At the moment, the BA warrior is in the process of chasing it off. Also note, I defogged Athens this turn. The slinger is heading northwest then northeast next. 

I miscounted Archduke's science last turn, he's making exactly what he should make at size 4. Abroad, I think Woden went down a pop (I haven't been notating scores but I'm pretty sure). If that's the case, he just finished a settler. The timing makes sense. I imagine Archduke is building a settler now. Singaboy still doesn't appear to have gotten a worker out. Me and him continue to dominate the military stat for the region. Still no sign of Alhambram and Woden.

[oledavy]

Oh wait, I bet Archduke cleared the encampment by Kiliminjaro, and that's why he has more gold than me and Singaboy. Singaboy couldn't have because we've remained tied on gold this entire time, with me a mere 1 gold ahead for adopting GK a turn sooner. That means there is likely no commercial city-state around. 

I should have known this from checking their GPTs, but I did not check until this turn...

If my supposition is correct, I would be pretty incensed about that if I was Singaboy.

Anyway, decided on encampment placement, I will post more about it next turn.

[oledavy]

Btw kjn, thanks for the heads up on the visual glitch. Noticed another one for sheep near Seoul. Weird...

Anyway

Turn 28

The answer turned out to be 50 gold. 



Also, in the process of getting all that culture, gold, and inspiration/eureka, I revealed a nice new city spot. 



The warrior is going to loop around to Hong Kong and then heal before attacking. It's almost time. 

The gold influx is really nice because I have a lot I want to buy in the coming turns.

1. 90 gold for archer upgrades
2. 1 Tile near Schuyler for an encampment
3. 4 Tiles near Hong Kong for Petra (1 desert to put it on, the banana tile, and two plains forest tiles for production/chopping). 

Needless to say, for the last four tiles, I'm going to have the policy that gives a 20% discount on tile purchases active. I may edit out buying the tile for Schuyler's encampment to have enough gold for the Petra plan, and just eat the hammers in extra costs later. Plus, seeing an encampment early may make Archduke jumpy. 

It occurs to me I never explained why I am going encampment first in Schuyler. In sum, because I think there is a lot of untapped potential in encampments to exert control over land and fortify your position. I would really like to showcase that this game by fortifying both my borders with 3 encampments total (also, as mentioned up thread, I'm secretly hoping for Carthage on this map   ). Even if it's not though, I'm still planning on building them. Besides that, I think encampments are actually pretty hammer efficient. They're the only district that gets a 30% hammer buff (including buildings in it, and I think the stable/barracks are extremely cost efficient with that 1 hpt and 1 housing). I want to be in the running for GG points, as I want one eventually. They add a hammer on trade routes, which will prove useful down the line. Finally, I need at least one encampment for the "I forget the name" Inspiration. So, even if I stop building them after this one, it will have been worth it in my opinion to have one for the free culture. 

It occurs to me, I need to post district plans for all my planned cities at some point 

At any rate, you can see my position for the encampment in this screenshot: 



I decided to go with the southwestern location for the Kiliminjaro city, and split the difference on encampments, going with my defensive location in the north and my slightly more aggressive encampment/city position in the east. If I manage to get all these cities/encampments/walls down, I will have nice overlapping fields of fire that will allow me to control the river valley and withstand a serious attack from the southwest or south. 

I've also decided that after I take Hong Kong, I'm going to rotate my army south and try to take BA, provided they haven't built walls yet. This is why the encampment protects the southern approach to BA as well, as I am anticipating incorporating it. 

The reasons for this are thus: 

1. Low opportunity cost (I think), I'll have an army with not much else to do after Hong Kong that will still be effective in a pre-wall age. 
2. City strength, BA is in a good location, definitely worth taking (especially compared to Seoul).
3. Pericles. Pericles wants to befriend city-states. This is the one he's most likely to pursue a relationship with and sink all his envoys into. It will be difficult to maintain relationships with both BA and Seoul, and Seoul is more important to maintain for my territorial integrity. Thus, by taking it, I remove one variable from the equation, strengthen my defensive line facing south, and forestall someone levying it's army against me. 
4. The Western Frontier. Taking it opens up more direct access to eventually expanding westward. 
5. It's Industrial. Yes, it is the best of the industrial CS's, but it's still industrial. It will do more good to me as a city in my empire now than it would as a suzerain later. 

Anyway, provided nothing goes awry in attacking Hong Kong, neither of my neighbors rushes me, and they don't finish walls in the interim, I will be attacking them down the line. 

One thing at a time though.

I do want to get back to exploring soon, especially the peninsula to my north. We'll see if at some point I can't slot in a couple scouts for the dedicated purpose of exploring the entire continent. I bet that northern peninsula has tundra, and will be an excellent barb farm for some time to come. 

Finally, with all this talk of encampments: 



So, he researched BW. Probably just locking in the cost for now, but that will be something to keep an eye on. Also, he definitely has a worker at this point, and has for a couple turns. I think I missed an improvement when I made the pronouncement: "He doesn't have a worker" last turn. 

As a final side, I'm growing very tempted to start naming geographic features on this  map, both for reference and to make the game more fun. There are quite a few very distinct geographic areas, like: 

1. The great northern desert.
2. The long river my capital is on.
3. The complex river system to the west. 
4. The river valley to the south between me, Archduke and Singaboy
5. The mountain range between me and Singaboy

If lurkers want to have a go at it, I will now be taking clever name suggestions to call these features in future posts. Otherwise, I'll come up with something facepalmingly lame myself 

[Commodore]

2. The long river my capital is on.
The Hamiltonian Path
5. The mountain range between me and Singaboy
The Sticky Burrs

[Fenn]

Thanks for the detailed and frequent updates - this game has been great to follow along from all perspectives!
But:

If lurkers want to have a go at it, I will now be taking clever name suggestions to call these features in future posts. Otherwise, I'll come up with something facepalmingly lame myself 

Give us the lame names!

[rho21]

5. The mountain range between me and Singaboy

Just from appearance, I'd call this the Wishbone... unless that makes you feel like a chicken about to be carved up.

[oledavy]

A few notes from the turn report I forgot to mention

Iron - BW in next turn, it'll be time to look for iron! Hopefully there are a couple sources within my existing dotmap. 
Barbs - I had it moused over in the screenshot, but I attacked the barb in the river valley this last turn. Hoping he sticks around so I can nail him for a cool 5 culture. 
Trader - Finishing a monument at turn's end and starting a trader next turn! I should be able to complete it in 4 turns if my memory serves me right. 
Mathematics Eureka - Yeah, been mulling this one over. I don't think I can get it. It would just be too much of a hammer sink and a delay to early expansion to finish both the encampment and a CH. I'm just going to pony up the 100 extra science. Here's hoping Seoul gives me the mathematics Eureka, or I am able to finagle the timing so my GS will have a chance of landing it. I now really wish that game had given me the GS who gives the mathematics eureka as the first listed GS. No though, we'll see what happens. Maybe I get lucky. 
Alhambram the Conqueror? - He's been on top of the charts for power for the last few turns. Maybe he's trying to rush a CS, maybe he's going after Woden (who is at the bottom), or maybe we're all really close in power rankings and he just has a little bit more. Not sure, but something that I noticed.

[kjn]

Grated Bass Desert
Missis SIP River
The O Hai River
A Mountain

[oledavy]

2. The long river my capital is on.
The Hamiltonian Path
5. The mountain range between me and Singaboy
The Sticky Burrs

I can't say I really like The Hamiltonian Path, although if I have a long road, at any point, I will name it that. 

I really like the Sticky Burrs. I'm filing it away for later because I want to use it, but Rho ruined things by calling the mountains to the south of the The Wishbone. I can't unsee it now. 

Thanks for the detailed and frequent updates - this game has been great to follow along from all perspectives!
But:

If lurkers want to have a go at it, I will now be taking clever name suggestions to call these features in future posts. Otherwise, I'll come up with something facepalmingly lame myself  

Give us the lame names! 

No problem! Okay, first batch of lame names coming up 

5. The mountain range between me and Singaboy

Just from appearance, I'd call this the Wishbone... unless that makes you feel like a chicken about to be carved up. 

I mentioned this above, but great name. Done and done. Hopefully both my neighbors don't carve me up here...

Grated Bass Desert
Missis SIP River
The O Hai River
A Mountain

When I saw OHai river, I just imagined me and Archduke's warriors sitting on either side waving at each other, O HAI MARK. 

What's the rational for Grated Bass Desert? 

I decided on the highly unoriginal Hudson River for the river flowing through my capital, entirely  because I intend to name the city at its mouth New York. The city to the east, I will name Weehawken. 

Anyway, here is the screenshot I took in strategic view, for anyone who has been missing teh's PBEM reports. 



Here it is with everything I've come up with names for so far: 



You'll note the blank rectangle over the pass/causeway east of the Wishbone. I thought it would be easy to come up with a name for it...it was not. I had to stop myself from just calling it Prince's Pass or the Boneway and left it blank for now. Maybe me or a lurker will come up with a creative name for it at some point. There are still quite a few features to the north and west to be named too. For now though, I'll call this good, and keep this edited map around to add to as the game goes on.