[SPOILERS] Roland and Suboptimal Team Up

[suboptimal]

Turn 75

Mathematics complete, Engineering starts and will complete in two turns. Horseback Riding will follow that. No builds to deal with so it’s all movement this turn.

Embarked units move first. Warrior by what is now Midway Island finds another turtle resource. Settler disembarks. Swordsman moves towards the center of Big Island, slinger moves SE and promotes and the warrior crosses the river to be adjacent to one of the putative camp spots. The camp is on the other side of the river and there’s another warrior to my south.




The barbarian warrior is under the B city marker, the slinger is under the Holy Site. I think my warrior will fortify in place and let units come to it until the swordsman gets down to the camp. It’ll be able to attack in four turns and will make easy work of the spearman.

Further afield the exploring galleys don’t find anything of note except empty land. The southern galley has an island between it and Geneva and is in the “ish Sea”. If that’s the Irish Sea then Archduke is (relatively) close by. We still haven’t met him yet, either.

Checking gossip the city-state of Mitla is in the game – it just declared on Japan. That means either Phoenicia or Norway is their suzerain.

Both Woden and Ljubljana have suffered casualties as their milpower is down slightly. Kaiser appears to be cash flow negative as he had 3 last turn and 2 this turn. Of course, he could be shuffling to Archduke. Archduke appears to have a settler out as his empire score’s gone down.

I’ve realized that Diamonds can build a warrior while I don’t have the iron available so it’s going to do that before working on the temple. Of course, the monument has two turns to go still.

[roland of gilead]

Turn 76

you can still build warriors after researching Iron Working?

Only one Big thing happened this turn but it's decent.

Drama and Poetry comes in and reveals Divine Right



not the best 6 policy government, perhaps the worst infact but still 6 policies is good, it's on the way to Feudalism and i need a 6 policy government to find castles which is a key tech for me.

I will have to hard tech it realistically. But 9 turns isn't so bad.

capital starts another warrior the 5th. 2 workers move towards the Mahabodi, first 2 charges next turn. 5 turns to completion.

2 turns till i can buy the builder for Jebel.

up west i get my finger out and advance a spear, 2 warriors and i send my slinger up to explore the sea in the north. The scout may get back to the camp but if it does i will have a pile of units in the area.


good to see actual figting happening down at japan

[suboptimal]

Warriors after iron working - there was a change with Gathering Storm where you could build "obsolete" units if you lacked the resources. So, yes, if you don't have sufficient iron to build a swordsman you can build a warrior. If you lack sufficient niter you can still build a swordsman, etc. HOWEVER, if you are the process of building an old unit and sufficient resource becomes available you lose all production spent on the old unit and the city reverts to building the resource-requiring one.

After the patch changes I prefer the policy distribution of Monarchy over Merchant Republic - the two wildcard slots give you a bit more flexibility. I know where I'm going after Mercenaries comes in.

[roland of gilead]

Warriors after iron working - there was a change with Gathering Storm where you could build "obsolete" units if you lacked the resources.  So, yes, if you don't have sufficient iron to build a swordsman you can build a warrior.  If you lack sufficient niter you can still build a swordsman, etc.  HOWEVER, if you are the process of building an old unit and sufficient resource becomes available you lose all production spent on the old unit and the city reverts to building the resource-requiring one. 

After the patch changes I prefer the policy distribution of Monarchy over Merchant Republic - the two wildcard slots give you a bit more flexibility.  I know where I'm going after Mercenaries comes in.

yeah it's a good balance. 

Not a fan of the inherent benefits but those are small bonuses really. 

another small advantage for us there with drama and poetry being boosted.

[suboptimal]

Turn 76

Open the save to notifications that Nazca is at peace with Norway/Phoenicia and my warrior was attacked by the barbarians. I’ve also got a great person waiting for me. Check envoys, Woden dropped one in there and has tied Kaiser at three. Great Person first – my prophet is in. Confuscius appears in Al and I teleport him to Graceland. I’m going to send him SE of there to the coast and then go fog bust to the SE of Big Island. No need to found a religion right now (if ever). The prophet points will flow directly to income now, helping things along.

Galleys are up first, northern galley rounds the island and finds it’s empty. Middle galley returns to Good Time and southern galley determines that it’s in the Irish Sea and finds land to the west. It’s desert but it’s also a new continent: Zealandia.




Just a wee spit of desert but there’s more to the north. Embarked slinger reaches the Big Island coast and will disembark next turn. Settler moves inland towards Graceland. Warrior disembarks onto Midway Island.




I’m thinking a city on the hill east of the warrior, clear the stone and build a Campus/Holy Site between the mountains and a Harbor in the cove to the north. Actually, settling on the stone might be a better option. That puts more (and better) usable tiles (with higher appeal) in the second ring. I’ve pinned it out for reference. The spot to the SW of there would be a +3 Holy Site. That water by the crab is not freshwater so there’s a way out up there. However, that’d be another launch point for jongs if needed. I’ll move NE next turn to defog up that way.

Back on the home island I see that Diamonds has acquired the tea. What’s interesting is that it’s getting 2 from the pantheon, not 1:




Looks like the pantheon bonus is attached to the cities. That means that maintaining appeal on the three “home” cities is a bit more important. I’m going to put one turn into a builder then get the temple built when Theology completes. I’ll then complete the builder and use that for a tea plantation here and a deer camp and a lumbermill at Al. Over at Good Time I shift the fur citizen over to the fishing boats. That’ll speed up city growth by a turn and let me work the furs and fish to get this city growing a bit faster (and/or get the walls up a bit faster).

Down where the action is I send the slinger across the river. I expect the warrior to move south into the open where I can kill it at my leisure. This should also have the added bonus of drawing the spearman across the river into the open terrain. I could then kill it OR clear the camp (for 50 and 3 era score). I fortify the warrior since it’s likely to get attacked. The swordsman will be on scene in a couple of turns.

Check gossip and see that Norway was declared upon by Mohenjo-Daro. Gotta love the information leakage in this game.

Kaiser remains cash-negative – he’s down to 1. We’ll see if he gets a cash infusion next turn. Woden lost another 47 in milpower on his last turn.

Engineering and Diamonds’ monument complete next turn.

The biggest obstacle to any sort of jong attack will be navigation – without Cartography ships can’t enter ocean tiles and we won’t know where that is until I get two Harbors built. I will also need to decide where to launch the invasion from and make sure I can get my warriors/swordsmen to that point in time. With only two warriors on Big Island that shouldn’t be too difficult to manage. Four swordsmen and a couple of archers with a battering ram as land troops should be doable for the land forces.

[roland of gilead]

TURN 77

Flood on big island and a second warrior as well.



Slinger swims about up north.



Put 2 charges into Mahabodi. 4 turns to complete which still puts us in a position to get the next 2 beliefs.



Up north I think the scout has escaped. moving troops in to counter. will have a spear and 3 warriors at least up here soon.



run through on my cities.

Cap will go warrior warrior Quadrireme settler. While finishing Mahabodi in background.



Tav will finish settler and do a couple of archers then harbour.



Goldson will finish ancestral hall then at least 1 settler. Probably aqueduct too.

Borna will continue with Holy Site into Shrine.



2 turns to growth and can work the 2nd chocolate. After that next growth can work crater lake.

culture tree



Science tree




I can buy the worker for Jebel next turn and start charging 2 turns later. That wonder will repay it's cost in 6 turns.

[suboptimal]

Looking good. You'll be completing Horseback Riding before me. Where is Oracle in your plans? I know it's marked but do you have an approximate idea when you'll be building it? (Next up should be Petra, though, for sure).

I knew about the second (western) warrior...it's chasing the slinger around the mountain (literally). Looks like the spearman stayed in the camp this turn (though is hidden by my city marker).

I just noticed that you haven't met Marocpolo or Kaiser yet. Kaiser should be in a couple of turns.

[roland of gilead]

I hope the Mahabodi will give me the oracle tile (between that and the pearls i think ) then it will be pretty soon after. builder after next is for Petra but i can buy one every 3 turns or so once Jebel is down.

I will have 3 envoys in 4 turns. Will go to 3 in Nazca for the faith may Suze it to cause problems what do you think?

[suboptimal]

I think going to 3 in Nazca is worth it for the extra faith in shrines. I think maybe keeping the extra envoy in your pocket for another city-state is worthwhile. We know Mohenjo-Daro and Mitla are both out there somewhere and it might be worth trying to capture the extra and if my galleys can locate either of them. I've got an envoy coming up but that's going into Antananarivo for some extra .

[roland of gilead]

yeah was considering that.

i thiught i might get some good map info from being Suze?