Learning Capria FFH SG

[haphazard1]

OK, I will start playing shortly. Need to finish lunch first. I'll see what I can do to get our economy back in shape, get some bears dancing in our cities, and maybe send some troops after Spilan.

Do we actually want Spilan? As noted, it is not much of a city.

[kjn]

OK, I will start playing shortly. Need to finish lunch first. I'll see what I can do to get our economy back in shape, get some bears dancing in our cities, and maybe send some troops after Spilan.

Do we actually want Spilan? As noted, it is not much of a city.

I think I would want to keep it.

By taking it and culture-bombing it with a Thane at once we keep the bears stationary - otherwise we will have seven bears attacking our wounded stack. It will help us in controlling the approaches towards Bologna, and make it easier to push further west when we are ready to do so. Get an EC and a ToK, and work deer+merchant+priest, and it's not a total drag.

But no hurry, it will take some time to switch some of our city-busting axes towards it.

[haphazard1]

It is unlikely I will manage to conquer it during my turns, so we can always decide later. But Spilan really is not much of a city, and I would raze it myself in an SP game. The effort needed to mini-culture bomb it, build an EC and ToK, etc., could be spent on a better city. And the bears should not be an issue, as we can harvest most of them before making the attack.

Anyway, that can be decided later. Need to get the economy back on track first.

[haphazard1]

Junior Commander haphazard reporting on events during the 179th through 189th years since the Emergence.

Turn 179 (inherited)

- Shuffle tile usage and builds to focus on commerce.
- Change research to Code of Laws at 40% (-19 gpt), 6 turns out.
- Name our nameless workers: Fred Pohl, George RR Martin, Harry Turtledove, and Isaac Asimov are busily improving our lands.
- Change Bologna build to a thane -- we will need a healer for our bear capturing crew, and later for Spilan.
- Start shuffling military to prepare a force to take Spilan, while keeping reasonable garrisons where needed.

Turn 180

- Hawk recon spots a sea serpent south of Krakow. Not much else happens....

Turn 181

- Our peace pact with Amelanchier expires.
- James P Hogan joins our work force.
- We badly need a road connecting our northern and southern holdings, movement is very slow since the Ljos control the former junction tile.
- Hawk recon checks out Acheron. He has 8 disciples (including a C5 and 2 C4), a couple archers, and a lizardman. Nasty.
- Capture another bear for future entertainment.

In between turns we spot an elephant in the desert west of Paris. Need to get a hunter over there. Also, Ljos are moving units past Acheron and get blasted with fire. Turns out to be Gilden and an archer, both wounded to 0.5.

Turn 182

- Hawk recon spots two more bears out west (separate from the den pack).

Turn 183

- The bear den spawns another bear for us.
- Establish a dancing bear in Bologna.
- The AC jumps from 4 to 6 -- city razing going on in the Clan/unknown war, maybe?

Turn 184

- The Coin moves into prominence in the skies. We get a handy 49 gold.
- Auric completes Pact of the Nilhorn.
- Our hunters harvest 2 more bears.

Turn 185

- Finish Code of Laws, begin research on Sailing.
- Katherine Kerr joins our work force.
- Settle a dancing bear in Oxford.
- Harvest 2 more bears as our troops move into position to attack Spilan.
- Hawk recon finds Auric has about 3 javelin throwers per city as garrisons, with a couple scouts wandering around. And Larry, Moe, and Curly in Garduk.

Turn 186

- Spot a lion in the jungle SW of the gold site. Need to get a hunter out there to grab him for possible Grand Menagerie use.
- Attack Spilan. The first sacrificial warrior actually wins at 18%! The second dies as expected but takes about 1/3 off the health of the archer. Our top axes go in at very high odds (97+%) and kill the warrior and wounded archer, and we pillage a nice 105 gold. I check the city and it is just as bad as I expected: size 1, no buildings, total crap land. I burn it to the ground! (Hopefully this will not turn out to be a mistake, but truly this was a terrible, useless city. We have far better options available to us.)
- Start looking at Ultigar, the barb city further west. Only 2 archers...will move troops that way once healing is finished. Jonas has borders adjacent to it, so we need to move quickly if we want some of this territory.
- Speaking of Jonas, he triggered a golden age this turn.
- Coimbra finishes a monument, starts a courthouse. Also, settle a dancing bear in the city.
- Prague finishes an elder council, resumes the Summer Palace. Not real sure on this build, but it will be useful eventually and there is not anything really urgent here.
- Get the rice online at Wien.
- Remember a turn late that we finished CoL, and change civics to Aristocracy, Pacifism, Arete. Our economy jumps from 79 bpt at -23 gpt to 87 bpt at -11 gpt -- a nice boost. We lose God-King hammers in Bologna but get better mine output everywhere. Big negative on troop building, so keep it in mind.
- I considered Religion rather than Pacifism, as we are not running many specialists right now. But we still have a little buffer on happiness in most cities, and hopefully can start getting some more luxury resources settled and hooked up soon.

Turn 187

- The bears strike back with Spilan gone, and we lose a warrior and a horseman. (Both were at full strength, covering wounded high-XP axes.) I finish off the bears, capturing the two remaining and destroying the den.
- The Scales moves into prominence in the sky, supposedly being good for deals and treaties.
- Hawk recon reveals Auric is moving his giants SW towards open territory. We may have to deal with them.

IBT we get an event: one of our axes that fought at Spilan has been accused of torturing prisoners. Our choices are to lose the axe, reducing the AC by 2, or to lose 1 XP on the unit. (Other choices require evil or AV.) I lose the 1 XP -- these are our top axes and we can live with a bit of AC.

Turn 188

- Establish a dancing bear in Salamanca.

Turn 189

- Finish Sailing, begin research on Writing.
- Lois Bujold joins our work force.
- Settle a dancing bear in Wien.
- Capture another bear in west (not from the former den).
- We now have 4 trade routes with Auric, for a total of 5 bonus commerce beyond what our domestic routes would give. Sadly he has nothing else worth trading for.
- We also have a connection to Jonas Endain, but without Cartography we can not get OB for trade routes. Soon, hopefully. Jonas does have some surplus resources to trade, including duplicate Fire and Nature mana. Laughably expensive, though. But we could make a deal for his surplus wheat for some health -- he lacks banana and we have a spare. Unfortunately that is the only duplicate health resource we have that he lacks -- any additional trades would require giving him a luxury, which does not seem worth it.

Our breakeven point is up to ~37%, with around 90 bpt at that rate. So the economy is looking up and we have only begun to grab key economic techs. If we can get to Trade, and assuming anyone will actually deal with us, we can get sizable benefits from Festivals and other skipped techs.

I have left some units un-moved so the next player has a bit of flexibility: one hawk in Coimbra, a hunter and scout in our south, and a horseman near Ultigar. The horseman can move south if desired, just avoid ending next to the city as the lizardman will likely attack. Or keep him closer to our other advancing troops. I would love to take Ultigar, but Auric's giants may prove a problem for that plan.

There are two hunters west of Paris, who I was thinking should head into the desert for that elephant and maybe south to grab the lion as well. Once they are away from our borders we can send a hawk or two for recon.

There are some workers around Paris doing a touch of roading to speed movement to the west later. Mainly they are here so they can start improving White once the settler in Salamanca is done, a couple more turns. I prefer the site as marked -- 1E would get the deer north of Bologna, but the grass tiles to the west are worth more than the crummy deer tile.

Here is our current view of the western region. Note that there is yet another very nice barb city by Letum Frigus -- the ice mana would certainly be better in our hands than in Jonas'! And furs would be very nice to have as well.



And our demographics, pretty good overall. Especially since Jonas is in a golden age right now.



Junior Commander haphazard, ending report. Let me know what you think, and where I noobishly messed up.

The Save - T189

[kjn]

Looks good! Will probably take a look at the save later today, but will play tomorrow. But you mention you didn't run many specialists - I think that's a mistake. Merchants are excellent right now, especially on the cities that don't have access to many cottages. Then get out of pacifism on turn 196.

We don't have enough money to get both Writing and Trade in my turnset, especially since I prefer we keep a decent reserve for events (about 100-150 gold), but an offshore city will buff our economy some more, especially once we get Trade.

Given our economy, we should try to keep our forces within our borders (any units more than 4 costs money), if they don't have a specific job to do.

Goals and checklist:

Settle White, build galley and ready offshore colonisation group (bear+garrison+settler+worker) - it's doable with the Skeleton Crew option.

Build galley and workboat in Salamanca and found Golden (bear+garrison+settler+worker).

Both the cities will need decent garrisons (say 2 archers and some mobile units), since I think they will be quite exposed. I hope we have two unassigned bears right now so we can avoid building monuments.

Get some courthouses up.

Push a scouting group west, so we can get contact with the remaining AIs - we don't want to boost Jonas's research!

Make sure we work plenty of specialists while in Pacifism.

[haphazard1]

Looks good! Will probably take a look at the save later today, but will play tomorrow. But you mention you didn't run many specialists - I think that's a mistake. Merchants are excellent right now, especially on the cities that don't have access to many cottages. Then get out of pacifism on turn 196.

I was focusing on growing cities to their happy caps and developing cottages. Specialists do not combine well with those goals, especially when trying to keep at least a little production going. This is why I mentioned thinking about Religion rather than Pacifism -- the extra happiness might have been worth more, grow a bit larger.

We don't have enough money to get both Writing and Trade in my turnset, especially since I prefer we keep a decent reserve for events (about 100-150 gold), but an offshore city will buff our economy some more, especially once we get Trade.

An offshore city will help even without Trade. Once we get Trade we will need another offshore city to serve as a second high-value TR for every city. Foreign routes can also serve as high value, but Auric only has 4 cities. We will eventually want a couple more island cities, on those bits NW of Yggdrasil, so we can get 3 offshore TRs for every mainland city.

Given our economy, we should try to keep our forces within our borders (any units more than 4 costs money), if they don't have a specific job to do.

The specific job I had in mind for those troops was capturing Ultigar. It is a bit far from our borders right now, but would be a very strong city. Auric's giants make this problematic, but I would hate to see Auric escape his bottle and grab that land. Especially the other barb city by Letum Frigus to give him more ice mana. Would much prefer we got those cities, not Auric or Jonas. But with giants coming, withdrawal may be the better option.

Goals and checklist:

Settle White, build galley and ready offshore colonisation group (bear+garrison+settler+worker) - it's doable with the Skeleton Crew option.

Build galley and workboat in Salamanca and found Golden (bear+garrison+settler+worker).

Both the cities will need decent garrisons (say 2 archers and some mobile units), since I think they will be quite exposed. I hope we have two unassigned bears right now so we can avoid building monuments.

We have lots of unassigned bears. In fact, I parked one by White with a sign on the tile ("Bear for White"). There are some others heading south for cities there, but there are several you could divert for Gold.

We do not have to wait for a galley to found Gold -- it is perfectly reachable by land, although with a bit of delay. We will want that galley to support the city and reinforce it as needed, but we can found the city while building the ship to save time.

Get some courthouses up.

As usual this is a tough decision. Lots of hammers for 40% savings on maintenance, which is usually only 2 or 3 gold at most. I would be much happier to grab Festivals and build much cheaper markets. Check each city on this decision, some in the south are worthwhile being farther from our capital.

Push a scouting group west, so we can get contact with the remaining AIs - we don't want to boost Jonas's research!

If it would boost our research as well, OB can be worthwhile. Certainly we need at least Trade for a 2nd TR per city first.

As noted in my report, there are two hunters west of Paris -- on a hill just by that gap in the mountain barrier -- ready to head into the wilderness. There are also 2 hunters with the troops in the former Spilan area, if you decide not to support an attack on Ultigar.

Make sure we work plenty of specialists while in Pacifism.

As noted above, hard to do and still keep cities growing and productive. With the shift to Aristocracy we have given back the food boost from Agrarianism and our cities do not have as large a food surplus as previously. But several cities are a lot closer to their happy caps than at the start of my turnset, so there are places you can hire a few.

[kjn]

I was focusing on growing cities to their happy caps and developing cottages. Specialists do not combine well with those goals, especially when trying to keep at least a little production going. This is why I mentioned thinking about Religion rather than Pacifism -- the extra happiness might have been worth more, grow a bit larger.

I was mostly thinking about Coimbra, which doesn't work on anything in particular, and can hire a merchant and a priest instead of working the mines. Ie, cottages beats specialists, but specialists beat mines. At least right now.

The specific job I had in mind for those troops was capturing Ultigar. It is a bit far from our borders right now, but would be a very strong city. Auric's giants make this problematic, but I would hate to see Auric escape his bottle and grab that land. Especially the other barb city by Letum Frigus to give him more ice mana. Would much prefer we got those cities, not Auric or Jonas. But with giants coming, withdrawal may be the better option.

Giants are not too hard to handle, as long as you have hunters (giants are regarded as animal units). And we have OB with Auric as well, and a lot stronger military (especially if you consider the quality of the units).

I really am unsure about the placement of Ultiger. Yes, it picks up a bunch of resources and is freshwater, but it will be quite hard to defend. It's on flatland, there are hills 1N to 1SE, you can't use active defense due to the river to the east... (seriously, I never imagined me being unhappy with a four-resource city, but I am...)

We have lots of unassigned bears. In fact, I parked one by White with a sign on the tile ("Bear for White"). There are some others heading south for cities there, but there are several you could divert for Gold.

Good. I'd rather use the bears for culture in new cities. Krakow and Prague already has sources of culture, and are far from their happy caps.

We do not have to wait for a galley to found Gold -- it is perfectly reachable by land, although with a bit of delay. We will want that galley to support the city and reinforce it as needed, but we can found the city while building the ship to save time.

Yes, but it's quite the trek, and with bears and other barb units around. I will probably chop out the galleys.

As usual this is a tough decision. Lots of hammers for 40% savings on maintenance, which is usually only 2 or 3 gold at most. I would be much happier to grab Festivals and build much cheaper markets. Check each city on this decision, some in the south are worthwhile being farther from our capital.

Agreed. The reason I push for CoL over Festivals is that I imagine we can trade for Festivals once we get Trade. And long-term the Courthouse will only get better. Right now, ToKs are just as good as - or better than - markets.

As noted above, hard to do and still keep cities growing and productive. With the shift to Aristocracy we have given back the food boost from Agrarianism and our cities do not have as large a food surplus as previously. But several cities are a lot closer to their happy caps than at the start of my turnset, so there are places you can hire a few.

Yes, I plan to run several until turn 196, and then switch back to Nationhood (so we can build galleys and garrisons efficiently again).

[haphazard1]

I was mostly thinking about Coimbra, which doesn't work on anything in particular, and can hire a merchant and a priest instead of working the mines. Ie, cottages beats specialists, but specialists beat mines. At least right now.

I am not sure I would trade an Arete-boosted mine for a specialist. But that would be your call -- I tend not to be an SE player in BtS, and some habits carry over.

Giants are not too hard to handle, as long as you have hunters (giants are regarded as animal units). And we have OB with Auric as well, and a lot stronger military (especially if you consider the quality of the units).

We have a couple promoted hunters in the former Spilan area, maybe needing a bit of healing. There is a thane there for rapid recovery of wounded units.

I really am unsure about the placement of Ultiger. Yes, it picks up a bunch of resources and is freshwater, but it will be quite hard to defend. It's on flatland, there are hills 1N to 1SE, you can't use active defense due to the river to the east... (seriously, I never imagined me being unhappy with a four-resource city, but I am...)

It would need plenty of military to defend it, certainly. But it is a 4 resource city, fresh water, and in an important location. Blocking Auric and Jonas, plus a strong forward base for us, would be quite valuable. It is quite a ways from our current borders, and would need a lot of worker turns to build a road connection and improve it.

Good. I'd rather use the bears for culture in new cities. Krakow and Prague already has sources of culture, and are far from their happy caps.

The highly promoted bear (and the spider) are sitting in Prague as defenders right now. Wasn't sure what to do with them, really.

Yes, but it's quite the trek, and with bears and other barb units around. I will probably chop out the galleys.

I have had semi-regular hawk sweeps out that way. There is an elephant somewhere in that area, plus one bear. But I was hoping the pair of hunters west of Paris would be able to deal with them on their way to the west.

Agreed. The reason I push for CoL over Festivals is that I imagine we can trade for Festivals once we get Trade. And long-term the Courthouse will only get better. Right now, ToKs are just as good as - or better than - markets.

We already have ToK in most cities (Wien and Krakow need them), so we can not improve much further there. Markets are cheap and can be built everywhere for a significant boost to our economy. I hope we can get Festivals in trade, or we will have delayed markets a long time for no benefit. Without meeting the remaining two AIs it is hard to know who might trade -- Amelanchier and Jonas have not met, so calculating "known tech" fractions is not possible right now.

Yes, I plan to run several until turn 196, and then switch back to Nationhood (so we can build galleys and garrisons efficiently again).

Good luck!

[kjn]

I am not sure I would trade an Arete-boosted mine for a specialist. But that would be your call -- I tend not to be an SE player in BtS, and some habits carry over.

Depends. If you build something decent - like a worker or a settler or a ToK - then the mine is needed. But if it's only busybuilding a granary, then I'd prefer the specialist right now. Especially in Pacifism+Arete.

Going through the save right now.

Hire a bunch of merchants. It's a pity you fired the merchant in Coimbra, or didn't use merchant+priest there. Now the next GP will be from Oxford, and it will be a Great Sage. Hmmm...

• Settling is not too good (+6 base beakers in Paris).
  
• An academy, in Oxford or Bologna?
  
• Bulbing? Right now KotE is the target, not too good. But Alteration is a decent bulb target, especially if we can trade for KotE.
  

Also micro the cities. If a city is building a settler, try to get it built as quickly as possible, since it stops growth. Bologna can work mainly mines, and build the settler in 6, followed by another settler. I intend to chop the two lumbermills to speed them up, and chop the single forest in Salamanca into a galley as well.

Paris picks up cottages. Better to work cottages than the cotton, anyway. Gets a small food surplus.

Oxford will build archers, for garrisons, and so it can grow to 10.

Salamanca will finish its settler next turn. I will probably busybuild a lighthouse there, but focus on commerce and growth, until we go out of pacifism. The alternative is another worker, who either goes to Golden or support our push west. After that it's navy time. Coimbra hires a merchant and priest - the courthouse isn't urgent.

I consider hiring a merchant or priest in Prague, but hold it off for now. I think I prefer to keep the GP pool pure there, so we are guaranteed a Great Prophet for a shrine for Order of Heaven.

Planning:

Salamanca's settler will go for White. Lois Bujold and Alfred Bester will support that settling. An axe and the Guerilla warrior from Oxford will form its initial garrison. The axe can then continue on to the island city.

White will be settled turn 192. It will need a thane, a bear, two workers (Alfred and Barbara), and a garrison.

Bologna's settler will go to Golden. I intend to chop the two remaining forests in Bologna's BFC to speed up one more settler from the city.

We will get the next settler turn 195, and it will arrive to Salamanca turn 196. If we revolt turn 196, and chop the forest in Salamanca, the galley will be finished turn 197. We can settle Golden on turn 200.

Future unit builds:

We will need another place to build mounted units, apart from Bologna. Oxford gets archers, White and Salamanca are on navy, Coimbra and Bologna builds melee, so I think the best future option is Prague. It has good production. Build switched to that.

Worker actions:

Brian Stableford has a mid-life crisis, and decides that she henceforth shall be known as Barbara Hambly. (Less confusion between Brian and Brian!)

I also nix the road NW from Paris. Better to draw it south of the river, ie E-NE. And there is no need for the road that Alfred Bester builds either. Go north, where the sky is blue!

We have a five-stack or workers between Krakow and Prague. I don't like that, for several reasons. First, it's risks a huge loss if a barbarian comes out of the fog. Second, you will easily lose worker turns. Third, it means you easily overimprove a city while stagnating another. I cover the stack with the hunter and a warrior from Prague.

We still don't have a road SW from Wien! Instead Diane Duane built an unneeded road between Prague and Coimbra. Remember that Amelanchier has Raiders, so plan the road network (we used to have a painted grid for the road network in-game, but I removed it a while back).

We have a couple promoted hunters in the former Spilan area, maybe needing a bit of healing. There is a thane there for rapid recovery of wounded units.

Good. Though we need more thanes. We will settle three cities in short order.

It would need plenty of military to defend it, certainly. But it is a 4 resource city, fresh water, and in an important location. Blocking Auric and Jonas, plus a strong forward base for us, would be quite valuable. It is quite a ways from our current borders, and would need a lot of worker turns to build a road connection and improve it.

Yes. Our poor over-tasked workers...

The highly promoted bear (and the spider) are sitting in Prague as defenders right now. Wasn't sure what to do with them, really.

Bears aren't too good defenders, since they don't get fortify bonuses. And spiders are too valuable as covert scouts, so I send it northwards, where it can help scout out the west.

We already have ToK in most cities (Wien and Krakow need them), so we can not improve much further there. Markets are cheap and can be built everywhere for a significant boost to our economy. I hope we can get Festivals in trade, or we will have delayed markets a long time for no benefit. Without meeting the remaining two AIs it is hard to know who might trade -- Amelanchier and Jonas have not met, so calculating "known tech" fractions is not possible right now.

Drama has fallen (in distant land), and Amelanchier also knows Festivals.

[haphazard1]

Also micro the cities. If a city is building a settler, try to get it built as quickly as possible, since it stops growth.

I didn't see a need to rush the settler builds as the cities involved were at the happy cap or very close, and we did not have Sailing yet. And focusing on growing cottages means some compromises had to be made.

Bologna can work mainly mines, and build the settler in 6, followed by another settler. I intend to chop the two lumbermills to speed them up, and chop the single forest in Salamanca into a galley as well.

I specifically wanted to work cottages at Bologna to grow them. If we want more commerce in the future, we have to spend turns working those immature cottages sometime.

Brian Stableford has a mid-life crisis, and decides that she henceforth shall be known as Barbara Hambly. (Less confusion between Brian and Brian!)

I didn't name that one.

I also nix the road NW from Paris. Better to draw it south of the river, ie E-NE. And there is no need for the road that Alfred Bester builds either. Go north, where the sky is blue!

Those roads were partly to use worker move-and-do-something turns while waiting for the White settler to be ready. But also a bunch of units had been moving through those tiles north of the river -- we do not have Construction for bridges and crossing the rivers around Paris kills movement. Not high priority but not useless.

We have a five-stack or workers between Krakow and Prague. I don't like that, for several reasons. First, it's risks a huge loss if a barbarian comes out of the fog. Second, you will easily lose worker turns. Third, it means you easily overimprove a city while stagnating another. I cover the stack with the hunter and a warrior from Prague.

The worker stack is inside our territory and could not be hit by a barbarian without warning. (I had checked the jungly area with the scout to reveal any spiders that might have been left over from before our borders covered the area. I am not aware of anything else that could reach that far into our territory in one move.) And there was no loss of worker turns -- I am very careful not to move multiple workers into 2-move, non-roaded tiles. Krakow needed multiple tiles improved rapidly, as it is growing very fast and will continue to do so if we keep providing improved tiles.

And Prague and Coimbra each had three tiles improved in my set, so I was not neglecting them. Krakow just needed their efforts more at the end of my set.

We still don't have a road SW from Wien! Instead Diane Duane built an unneeded road between Prague and Coimbra. Remember that Amelanchier has Raiders, so plan the road network (we used to have a painted grid for the road network in-game, but I removed it a while back).

Amelanchier has raiders and also elven forest movement -- keeping him out of our territory will not be easy. And Wien has rivers in the BFC and we do not have Construction -- a road there does not benefit our north/south movement much.

Yes. Our poor over-tasked workers...

I built three during my turnset. I agree we can use still more, though, especially with more cities being founded soon.