[SPOILERS] Suboptimal Goes Waltzing Matilda

[suboptimal]

Turn 42

Open the save, all seems quiet (no notifications). Screen is centered at Cassowary so move the builder towards the jade and send the warrior back to the city center to heal. Looking to the north the Macedonian forces now include an archer and Archduke has put all three of his units along the river. I pull the warrior back as a matter of precaution. If he doesn’t want me interfering I’ve got no issue with that. Back at Irukandji everything holds tight. Builder due in one turn, Horseback Riding, Foreign Trade and another population at Irukandji due in two, settler due in three. Citadel of Civilization will run out after next turn. After that I’ll see if Alhambram wants peace or not.

Internationally I see that Archduke is also building an Encampment at Urteau. Alhambram has also completed a district this turn as his empire score increased by three but he’s generated no GPP yet. Wonder if it’s an Encampment or a Campus?

[suboptimal]

Turn 43

No notifications, builder completes in Irukandji. Archduke’s warriors have crossed the river but the promoted one is in the red. His archer has been promoted. Kandy has yet to be attacked, or rather, is undamaged. The just-completed builder starts to move for the citrus. I bring the Campus archer north to the horses. It and the warrior just north will move to join the other warrior if Archduke continues south. That warrrior moves south to the hills, just outside of the range of Archduke’s two warriors. That loses me vision on Kandy for the time being but I’ll take that risk.

Builder at Cassowary mines the jade, getting me the eureka for Wheel and an amenity. Irukandji will spend the next turn putting into the settler then finish the monument and start horsemen.

Horseback Riding and Foreign Trade next turn, settler from Cassowary & Military Tradition the turn after that.

[suboptimal]

Turn 44

Open the save and there’s a lot going on:



In addition to Horseback Riding and Foreign Trade completing, the notifications along the left, from the bottom up:

- Alhambram wants a deal
- All roads are 1 MP regardless of terrain
- Kandy wants a trade route (what is it with city-states and trade routes this game?)
- Housing warning in Irukandji (because it grew to 5 population this turn)
- Food warning in Cassowary (because it’s stagnant)
- Increased trade route capacity.

Not pictured: my production is now back down to single strength.  Irukandji is at 18 for units, 14 for non-units and Cassowary is currently at 11 for everything.   Settlers at Cassowary in 2 and Irukandji in 3, though the latter will have its cost increased to 140 after Cassowary’s completes; that will extend the build time by two more turns.  I’ll do horsemen until Early Empire is finished, then slot Colonialism and complete the settler then (it's going to Yellow Dot because, dare I say it, I have a Plan).  Once Maneuver is in place I’ll be able to complete a horseman every three turns.

Let’s see what Alhambram wants:



I’m half-tempted to ask for some gold as pillaging compensation, but I’ll go with straight up peace.

Looking around the map, Kandy is still not under attack.  Hmmm…..  I advance my warrior and archer and will advance all three units next turn to bring Archduke’s forces into view.  Archduke is taking damage as his military domination is down to 121, putting me in the lead at 139.  He's fighting something somewhere.  Wonder if it's barbarian horsemen in the north.  Neither of his Encampments are complete.  Speaking of Encampments, Alhambram’s district was an Encampment.  The Great General Race is going strong now, with Emperor K ina  4-2 lead over Alhambram

Westernmost warrior, despite being injured, will begin scouting off in that direction.  Gotta find out what’s past Valetta.  Warrior in Cassowary holds tight, as does builder by spices.  The other builder crosses over to the citrus.  

I start Irrigation, that’ll be done in two turns. Edit: I think my overflow + increased science rate from pop growth may complete it next turn. I also resume Military Tradition, that’ll be done next turn.  After that it’ll be State Workforce (6 turns to complete until I get some plantations in).  I take the policy swap and switch to Urban Planning.  I’ll leave that there until State Workforce completes, then contemplate whether I’ll take Ilkum (for a builder out of Cassowary to help develop Blue Dot) or Caravanseries (for the trader that’s up after the settler).  Over at Cassowary I didn’t have a 1 /3 forest tile locked.  The good news is that I don’t mind working the jade and getting 1 at a cost of 1 .

[suboptimal]

Turn 45

Open the turn completing Military Tradition.  Swap out Agoge, put in Maneuver.  It’s horseman time!

Archduke has come with a deal:



Peace?  A little surprising, but not just yet.  I have horsemen on the way.  Wonder if he saw the Classical Age intro and blinked.  More on this towards the end of the report.

I move the warriors and archer up to see what’s going on at Kandy.  Archduke is still in the city’s territory.  I wonder if he did it for a builder steal, a pillage or if because I can’t see the city center I can’t see its current damage. 

Start State Workforce, that’s due in 5 turns.  Irrigation is just under completion (by like 0.4 if I’ve got my numbers correct).  Cassowary has expanded to the iron, is going for the plains tile between the jade and wheat next (should be going for the 1 2 tile next to where I want to put the commercial hub).  

Minor dilemma – the settler at Irukandi is due in 1 turn.  I think I can hold off on the horsemen for a turn….of course, after hitting End Turn and getting ready for work I realize that one of the settlers will need a few extra turns to complete because one of them will have their cost go up.    I blame playing early in the morning before having coffee.  If the settler as Cassowary is delayed, I’ll finish it when Colonization is in and send it west to the other side of the lake or up on that peninsula.  If it’s Irukandji that’s also OK and I’ll start horsemen there next turn.

An overview of Australia and the front with Kandy/Macedonia.



The current short-term plan:

- Techs go Irrigation → Currency
- Civics go State Workforce → Early Empire
- Settler to Blue Dot
- Cassowary’s next build is a trader for Grenada
- Irukandji will go full on with the horses next turn

Archduke, Alhambram & the War That Wasn’t

This “war” with Alhambram and Archduke was more of a “we don’t like your tech rate ” message.  I think that even if I go full in this game this war can be considered a major strategic blunder on their part.  At a cost of 25 and 50 they handed me about 250.  That accelerated some of my infrastructure (which was already ahead) and helped me maintain military parity with a potentially dangerous neighbor.  I would take that trade any day of the week.

Archduke, from a game mechanics perspective, has no reason to declare peace. With no war weariness at all he can be in an always war state and not give a crap about amenities, except as required by population. So what gives?  Something has caused him to lose almost a warrior and a half worth of military strength in four turns (156 to 126); wonder if it’s those barbarians I saw earlier?  The three units by Kandy represent half of his current military strength.  He’s behind in techs and may believe that I’ve been sandbagging research (partly correct, though it's only Masonry at this point).  He also has no visibility on any of my territorial borders, so he has no idea what my most powerful unit might be, no idea of my current city improvements nor where he’d need to go to even see them (shades of his poor PBEM 2 scouting).   All of this leads to one conclusion – Archduke feels that he is in a position of weakness. 

It’s in my best interest, for the time being, to let him sit there and stew for a while.  I’ll build my horsemen, let him see the increase in domination and sweat a little bit.  If he takes Kandy I’ll attack to liberate and take another 20 turns of +100% .  If he doesn’t then I’ll hunt down his forces, kill them off and turn my attention to Urteau.

[suboptimal]

Turn 46

The big question before opening the turn is how Archduke reacts to both the rejection of peace and my moving up the units near Kandy.  I would expect he might consider that to be aggressive, but right now I have no intention of attacking.  Even if attacked I’ll fortify the warriors in place and take potshots with the archer.  

Open the save, greeted by Irrigation, a diplomatic notification and a completed settler in Irukandji.  The settler in Cassowary only has two turns left. I switch to a trader and will build that first.  Irukandji starts a horseman, GUI shows 4 turn build time but that should drop to three turns (12.6 base + 4 for units + 5% amenity bonus => 16.8 +50% = 25.2).  With settler overflow and additional overflow the subsequent horsemen should be three turn builds.  Now, about that diplomatic message, it’s LOC_DIPLOMACY_MAKE_DEAL_NOTIFICATION_SUMMARY_INSPECT.  Well, that’s useful. 

He again asks for peace (didn’t bother with a picture).  He might think that I closed the dialog box and couldn’t respond, but as I said before, nah.  This should be more definitive.  However, I won’t attack his units in the north, with all three of them fortifying in place.  The slinger that is to the east unforitifies and I move it towards the river.  I want to scout out that desert area east of White Dot.



I start Currency for research.  I’ll put 4 turns into it, stop for a turn while the trader at Cassowary completes, then finish the tech and the settler.  Once Currency completes I’ll put down Commercial Hubs at Yellow Dot and Irukandji (going to buy the Breathtaking appeal tile SW of the spices to get the +5) and then also put one down once Blue Dot is settled. I’ll chop into that once Blue Dot gains the Campus tile...don’t want to waste the woods when I put the Campus down.  Once the settler is out I’ll need to shift into a higher food mode while I build a builder – need to get Cassowary back to size 3 if not grown to size 4.

At Irukandji the builder at the citrus puts down a plantation.  The other builder starts to move for Blue Dot – I want to fully expose the coastline before the settler gets there, just to check for coastal resources.  Next turn I’ll stop working one of the 2 / 2 tiles and work the 5 rice for 5 turns.  That’ll grow the city back to 5 population but not take much, if any, time off the horseman builds.

The settler heads for Yellow Dot.  The plan is to swap the southernmost citrus to that city on founding and when it grows it will get the other citrus tile to work.  Yellow Dot will also put down a Commercial Hub as soon as Currency completes and its first build will be a monument.  It will get a few Alcázars and be a culture & gold generating hub once it gets going.  

Western warrior continues the trudge towards Persia, hasn’t found anything of note yet.  

Internationally, Persian’s military domination just jumped up 40.  He’s probably built two warriors as unless Emperor K is there I’m the only one in the Classical Age.

Some Random Thoughts

- Galleys could scout the coastline faster than warriors/scouts
- There’s a lot of desert over by White Dot.
- Gotta get a water mill into the build plans

Edited to add the following

In thinking about this map I think there may be an odd distribution of continents or bonus resources. Normally there are four land-based bonus resources per continent. There should be two continents on this size map. Given how Cornflakes puts these together (the native lua files for everything past land mass shape) I have to assume that the resources were placed “correctly”. Given that Archduke, myself and Alhambram all have similar resources (Archduke has coffee and citrus in his territory, Alhambram shows citrus & jade in the diplo screen) the assumption is that Emperor K is on his “own” continent or there’s been a hiccup in the continent generation function.

[suboptimal]

Turn 47

Let’s see if Archduke has gotten violent at my ignoring his peace offer and my non-aggression in the north…nope, all is quiet. Relatively quiet turn to boot. Just moving some units around. Builder headed for Blue Dot does find a fish resource in the tile NW of my harbor pin. It’ll reach the Campus pin next turn and I’ll have full vision of the coast.

Emperor K has finished a ninth tech. Wonder if he’s got some scientific city-states up by him or if he’s just banging out all the cheaper early ones. He just built a settler because his empire score dropped by 1.

The turns line up well with the weekend. That'll give me time to give a full Turn 50 overview report in addition to the turn report.

[suboptimal]

Turn 48

No notifications to start the turn, looks like it’ll be another quiet one.  The builder near the Blue Dot site moves to the campus pin and reveals that the area I saw from the barbarian camp is, in fact, a one tile island.  There’s no second ring production to put a city on the island but it’d be a good spot for a district.  That desert hill tile is looking like a good city location though it is lacking in production.  



I need to figure out a good way to exploit as many of those crabs as possible…..

Up in the north Archduke has finally started to do visible damage against Kandy.  He’s also completed the Encampment at Luthadel, so that’s something to be mindful of.   



Over at Irukandji I have to move the settler back to my side of the river.  A barbarian scout has shown up east of the line of citrus and was within one turn of movement from the settler’s current position and Yellow Dot.  I also move the archer over to provide cover for the settler.  That’ll delay settling by a turn or two.

Over in the “far” east the slinger reveals a single-tile lake with crabs in it just east of the mountain.  I had white dot on the desert west of the mountain but don’t know if I want to move it on the grassland hill NW of that mountain.  Less production but gets more desert into the second ring. 



Internationally, Archduke completed Early Empire (his borders closed, as did those of the city-states) along with the Encampment and Alhambram has completed another tech.  Archduke has also taken the lead in military power having probably built a warrior (141 -> 155).  Time for a look at the left half of the Great People screen:



All three of my opponents are now generating Great General points at the rate of one per turn.  Archduke is late to the party on that one.  I'll be interested to see who, if anyone, starts running Strategos and/or projects.  Emperor K is generating Great Prophet points at 1 per turn while I’m generating Great Scientist points at 2 per turn.  It’s not visible on the screen shot but I’ve got 28 points.  Barring losing a Campus I’ll have Euclid in 16 turns.  Hopefully by that time the world will be far enough along where the next scientist is from the Medieval Era (as long as it’s not Hildegard ).

[suboptimal]

Turn 49

Archduke is making slow but steady progress against Kandy – he’s taken it down to 129 from 190 garrison strength. He’s got another unit north of the archer as it has a +6 support bonus (3 units) and something besides the archer is attacking Kandy (since neither of the warriors are). It’ll probably be another two turns until it falls. Over at Irukandji the settler and archer both cross the river. No sign of the scout so Yellow Dot will be settled next turn as Mouse Spider. Slinger finds more desert up against the map edge to the east, warrior finds some sheep, deer and some fresh water in the fog (most likely a lake).

Development-wise I’ve got my first horseman due next turn and the trader the turn after that. State Workforce will complete next turn but I anticipate no change in civics. Currency has 5 turns left but I’ll lose a little overflow if I take it to four turns so I switch to Wheel. That’s due in three turns but I’ll stop one turn short to complete Currency (and save 10 on the district cost). I’ll most likely switch to Iron Working to go for a few turns while Blue Dot gets settled, then complete Wheel and Masonry while a builder comes out of Cassowary to keep the cost of the Commercial Hub there down as well.

Internationally, Alhambram has put an envoy into Valetta while Archduke’s culture has gone down by 0.7. He must have stopped working a coffee at Urteau.

[suboptimal]

Turn 50

State Workforce and Horseman #1 are complete, along with the inspiration for Mercenaries.  

I also get a notification of this:



He’s taken Kandy.  The diplomatic notification is that of Archduke cancelling the negotiation of a deal.  

Start out the turn dealing with management.  Swap out Urban Planning and put in Ilkum, start Early Empire, that’s currently due in 6 turns.  Cassowary will be starting a builder in three turns and I want the policy in place for the start of that build.  The loss of the single in the other cities won’t have too much of an effect.  Irukandji starts a second horseman, that’s due in 4 turns.

With that complete the settler moves to the wheat and founds Mouse Spider.  It grabs one of Irukandji’s citrus tiles and is immediately productive. The culture from the citrus cuts Early Empire down to 5 turns, at which point the city will also grow.  For lack of a better thing to start here I start work on a builder.  It will switch over to a Commercial Hub as soon as Currency is completed (the turn after next).  

The horseman moves to the jade north of Irukandji.  It will head up the eastern side of the mountain range and then cross the river.  Once there (and the second horse is on its way) I’ll decide if Urteau or Austrex ex Kandy is the first target.

I hit “next turn” and hear the cash register ring.  My guess is Emperor K just met a city-state (since there’d be no city-state movement on my turn, I think).

[suboptimal]

The Turn 50 Overview & Look Back Report

First things first, right to the current stats (updated through the end of my turn):



I got lucky with my choice of scouting (west rather than north) and the map gods were good to me – two militaristic city-states, lots of resources for plantations and generation, a double-horse city location and high-Appeal tiles near both city locations.  This meshed well with my intent for an early settler and to put down early (and cheap) Campus districts.  The only downside to this map layout, so far, has been starting between the two civs best equipped for an “early” game unique unit rush – Alhambram’s Persia (far) to the west and Archduke’s Macedonia to the north.

I got a “nice” surprise when those two declared a joint war on me on Turn 34, especially when it became apparent that only Alhambram would do anything, and even then it was only some pillaging.  Both of my cities had per turn in excess of 10 and the extra boost gave me the ability to finish my early infrastructure builds faster and switch Irukandji to military production.  The bonus disappeared after Turn 43 but the benefits remain – I’ve got two completed Campus districts, I’ll have four cities to everyone else’s three (or two) after Turn 55 without the benefit of Colonization and I’m at the top in terms of military power.

Cities

Irukandji



Irukandji is a solid capital with good production and amenities.  With Mouse Spider’s founding it will gradually hand off the citrus resources to that city and focus primarily on military production due to its city-state bonus.  I have the flexibility to swap back citrus for more food if needed (above and beyond the 5 rice).  A Commercial Hub is going to go onto the grassland 2W of the city center – that’s Breathtaking appeal hex and with the river the district will produce +5 .  I won’t build that out until a bit later on in the game.  That position also frees up the forest SE of the city center for a chop & mine as I no longer need the extra appeal on that plains tile.

Cassowary



For the time being Cassowary is my support city – it’s running the infrastructure builds (builders, trader, settler) and has production rivaling Irukandji (at least until the settler is finished).  It is a little food poor, particularly since I harvested its lone food resource, but farming the grassland SE of the city will help get it back up to population 3 after the settler is out.  Guilds is a bit off but once the Outback Stations start getting built the city’s food problems will be alleviated.  

Mouse Spider



Mouse Spider will be targeted at my economic and cultural growth.  To that end it will eventually control and improve all four citrus resources and I’ll put two or three Alcázar improvements around it for their culture as well.  Initial builds here will be a Commercial Hub and a Market.

Short Term Plans

Civics & Government

Going for Political Philosophy is the current primary goal.  I will want to complete Mysticism for the envoy into Granada and suzerainty as I’d like to build some Alcázars.  However I am going to wait until I can complete that civic in 2 turns before doing so.  Beyond Political Philosophy the immediate targets become Recorded History (for the Natural Philosophy civic) and Feudalism via Defensive Tactics.  Inspirations will be important here, though with good planning I can get the one for Games & Rec, Feudalism and Guilds.  Drama & Poetry and Civil Service will be the bottlenecks as I don’t see getting either of those inspirations.  

I’ll be switching into Oligarchy for the +4 combat strength as soon as I complete Political Philosophy (right around T60 or so).  That’ll be around the same time that I start my initial attacks on Archduke.  

Alcázars will be important here as they will be a cheap and easy way to get my culture up.  I can fit two of those first ring at Mouse Spider, can get one in at Irukandji (on the hill next to the campus) maybe one at Cassowary and at least one at Blue Dot (plains between the city and the spices).  Then it just becomes a matter of working those tiles for the culture.

Techs

Masonry and Wheel are at 1 turn, Currency will be finished on Turn 52 (eureka from the trader + 1 turn of researchh).  Once Blue Dot gets its Commercial Hub down I’ll complete Masonry, Wheel and Iron Working very quickly.  After that I’ll divert to sailing then do the bottom of the tree right through to Machinery. All of the eurekas along the way are easily doable – iron mine and water mill at Cassowary, ancient walls at Cassowary or Blue Dot and build one more archer.  Two more mines would get me the Apprencticeship eureka.  Education and Mathematics will be sorted when Euclid comes calling.  

At some point I’d like to run down the top of the tree through Shipbuilding – I’d like to be able to embark units and build Harbors.  I’ll get the Sailing eureka when Blue Dot is founded and though Astrology is probably a long shot (unless I’ve got a natural wonder in the tundra fog south of me) its research time will be quick.

One other thing of note – despite being 50 turns in Kandy had not yet placed a Holy Site.  While I’m not sure how city-state tech research operates (Victoria at CivFanatics has looked into it a little bit) this leads me to believe that only Emperor K has researched Astrology.  

Cities

Blue Dot (to be christened Blue-Ringed Octopus) will likewise be commercially-focused though I would like to also get a Campus down on that spot next to the mountain.  Like Mouse Spider it will be able to share previously improved tiles from other cities and harvesting the wheat to make way for the Commercial Hub.  It will start on the Commercial Hub until I complete Sailing, at which point I’ll build a galley, do a 1-2 turn swap into Maritime Industries and then chop for overflow into a district or walls.

Further out in the future, and highly dependent on my ability to contain or deal Archduke a major set back, is White Dot.  If I can achieve territorial security this is a perfect spot for a Petra city.  Petra in the hands of Australia can be a powerful combination with Outback Stations as those desert tiles can become 3 / 2 /2 powerhouses.

In addition to Blue Dot and White Dot there are three additional city sites I’ve got my eyes set on:

- Purple Dot (see T34 and T45 screenshots) as a filler
- The peninsula east of Valetta (T48 screen shot)
- NW of the lake west of Cassowary (specifically one tile west of the “Red Dot” pin in the Turn 9 screenshot)

There might also be a spot for a city northwest of White Dot, up by the coffee (Turn 46 screenshot).  However, all of these depend, in part, on successfully containing Archduke (to allow for more infrastructure than economic/military builds) and perhaps getting a liberation bonus to speed the process along.

District-wise I do not anticipate building any Industrial Zones this game.  Outback Stations can provide the additional production at a far cheaper cost.  Mouse Spider might see a Theater District at some point, provided I can get the district discount for it and it’s cost-effective.  

With regards to city-states Kandy is already toast – Archduke has annexed it and I’d like to liberate then annex it myself.  Grenada is an ice ball that is going to be more useful as a suzerainty (for Alcázars and trade routes) than as part of my empire.  Likewise, Zanzibar will be better for me to power my economy via trade routes and envoys.  Valetta, well, that’s a toss-up.  It has reasonable land, is coastal and could be a good city to add.  However, its +2 bonus is more useful to me at present than taking the city.  As for the others, well, I need to find them first.

War

I’m currently positioning to go on the offensive against Archduke, with Urteau, the Austrex or both in my sights. The plan will be to move the first two horsemen up the east side of the mountain range and across the river.  The third horseman will complete at the same time.  If Urteau’s city strength is still at 10 (or even below 20) and there’s no sign of walls then I’ll send the first pair to that city and the remaining horsemen to over to Austrex.  If Urteau goes over 20 or gets walls up in that time I’ll attack Austrex first while I get additional forces in place.

I do need to keep an eye on my western front with Alhambram.  Though it's a long way off he could decide that I'm a better target than Emperor K and come calling.