teh: Frederick of Germany

[teh]

In terms of the opening turns, I would say I probably played them a bit more conservative than needed, as in, I could've easily skipped out the 2 slingers and gotten my 2nd settler out much quicker. Also, I should've explored the center region more quickly either with my starting warrior, or by getting a scout (like I saw Archduke do). Missing out on the free envoys for the 2 city states there put me slightly back.

The biggest challenge for me is, if I decide to settle aggressively in the center, to have enough military to keep a hold of that rich region. Taking out city states in the middle would be a complimentary strategy to settling there, and like I said, with Germany's +7 extra strength against them, it should be doable with less military than other civs. It also takes out the benefits other civs get from having envoys there. The lands around Stockholm and Vilnius are much better than the lands around Kumasi (the city state in my peninsula), so I'm leaning towards attacking them instead of Kumasi. Also, I have an envoy in Kumasi providing me +2 culture which helped me tremendously in the initial stages, but that could easily be replaced by a monument at this point in the game, so I might take it out. The suzerain bonus is nice, but it's so far in future that it might be better to control that land directly than wait for 5 envoys to come.

[rho21]

Isn't suzerain bonus at 3 envoys? Or do you mean that you're intending to put your first couple of envoys into other city states anyway?

[teh]

Oh you're right, that makes waiting slightly less painful. The suzerain bonus is +2 culture and +1 gold for every district in the origin city for a trade route going to a city-state. In the near future, that would be from Aachen to Kumasi. I started building a commercial hub in Aachen (or at least put it down - still working on settler), the next one could be campus.

[shinghand]

Any long term plans on how you're intending to manage your cities? e.g. location of districts, wonders etc. It'd be great if you could post some photos of your land and how you want to develop it.

[teh]

Here's the report up to turn 49. I'm working on the screenshots of individual cities and future plans for improvements + districts, and that should be up in a separate post soon.

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Turn 39

The builder improves the stone near Cologne, and this boosts the Masonry tech. I start moving my warrior from yuris peninsula to the center region again. Aachen grows backs to size 5 and starts working the coffee plantation for some added culture and gold.


Turn 40

Not much on the domestic front, waiting for the settler from Aachen (4 turns) and the monument in Cologne (also 4 turns). The builder moves towards the truffles to improve it in 2 turns; that should solve the amenities need for a long time.

Sullla is the first to 7 civics.

Turn 41

Currency is completed. I start Bronze Working to reveal iron and chop rainforest (which there are plenty of). I put down a commercial hub NE of Aachen where the pin is to lock the cost.

Cologne grows to size 4 and starts running into housing issues (housing cap is 5 there currently). Plan is to build a granary there after the monument.

I get a notification that an unmet player has been defeated. All the other civs are still in game, so this means someone attacked and eliminated a city state. Yuris' empire score goes up by 7, indicating that he acquired a size 2 city, and I can see Lisbon under the list of his cities, so he's the one that conquered Lisbon, the city state that was eliminated. Lisbon is a commercial city state and those can give a lot of gold in your commercial hubs, so I probably wouldn't have eliminated it and kept it instead for the nice envoy bonuses. Yuris might not be planning to build commercial hubs, maybe?

Turn 42

The builder uses its last charge to put a camp on the truffles, making the hex a very nice 2f1p4g tile. Not much else happened domestically or internationally this turn.

Turn 43

State Workforce is complete. I keep the same set of policies here. Next civic is Political Philosophy naturally, and it will be done in 7 turns.



Here's a screenshot of the center region. You can see the two pins where my next 2 settler will go. One slinger is already at the city location (under the pin) closer to my peninsula. These two locations have vastly superior production capability compared to Cologne, with the copper mines, horse pastures and hills. The warrior in the upper part of the screenshot is slowly moving west to reveal the entrances to the two other peninsulas.

Turn 44

I finally meet Sullla as he wanders his warrior near Cologne.

Aachen finally produces the first planned settler, and starts working on the second one (8 turns). It drops down to size 4, but it will grow back to size 5 in 6 turns again. Recall that it's working the rice hex (5f), the horse pasture (2f3p 1culture), plains hill mine (1f3p) and the unimproved grassland hill (2f1p) at size 4, picking up the coffee plantation (2f1g 1culture) whenever it's at size 5 (see below).



I'll start producing builders after the settler, and the first one should improve the three grassland hills in Aachen's vicinity to increase its production capacity.

Cologne finishes the monument, increasing my culture to 8.8/turn. It will also help with acquiring more tiles for the city faster. I need the housing next, so Cologne start working on a granary (13 turns currently).

Sullla and Archduke also produce a settler this turn. Sullla is the first to 8 civics. The next ones are me and Archduke with 5 civics. Rome seems great for rexing early on with the free monuments fueling the culture engine.

Turn 45

Not much domestically. The settler is moving on the first city location.

I notice that we have our first gpp in the game! Sullla is producing 2.3 great general points. Now, my guess is, given his 8 civics, that he's already in Classical Republic government (which gives +15% gpp), and I don't think he's built an encampment (given that he's getting settler out), so he must've researched Military Tradition which gives a policy card that provides 2 great general points. The first great general (Boudica - see below) seems pretty powerful, +5 strength and +1 movement to units within 2 tiles, and it would certainly give an edge to Sullla in conflicts.



Turn 46

This is a quiet turn, too. The settler is now at Cologne. There is a slinger, there, too, so I'll escort the settler with that slinger to the city location next to the copper while the slinger already there will start moving towards the central horse city spot.

Turn 47

Another quiet turn here. The settler is moving.

Yuris produces a settler this turn. Sullla and Yuris have 3 cities, while Archduke and I have 2 cities so far (settlers in transit excluded).

Turn 48

My warrior runs into two of Archduke's warrior near the entrance to his peninsula, south of Stockholm. Cologne picks up a grassland forest tile, so I switch from a rainforest (3f) to the forest tile (2f1p).



Cologne is working the unimproved bananas (4f), truffles (2f1p4g), grassland stone (2f2p) and the grassland forest tile (2f1p) currently.

Turn 49

Political Philosophy is complete. I change into Classical Republic, and pick the following set of policies:



For my free military policy, I keep Agoge and not the -1 gold maintenance per unit policy since I don't have any units costing me maintenance yet and I want to build some cheap slingers and warriors before researching the next set of military techs. Charismatic Leader gives me extra influence points per turn, but I might switch to diplomatic league (first envoy = two envoys) if I decide to put some envoys in city states where I lack envoys currently. For the economic policies, I go with +50% settler, +30% builder and +1 prod in every city, and these should help get me some builders and also help the new cities become productive faster with the extra production. +1 prod. also helps my current cities as Cologne especially lacks in production. I start mysticism next (3 turns) because by the time it ends, my settler will be out in Aachen, so I might decide to change the settler policy with something else. Also mysticism gives a free envoy, and the policy card that gives 2 great scientist points. The first great scientist is the one that gives +1 science in libraries and builds a library in the district it is activated on, so my plan is to move the +30% builder policy card to the economic policies (taking out the settler policy) and use the wildcard policy slot for the +2 great scientist card.



I spot a settler of Archduke moving to the central region like I plan to do so. It's accompanied by two warriors I spotted a turn ago, so no chance to stop that settler now.

Yuris settles a new city, getting him to 4 total cities.

[SadGit]

Nice report. Easy to follow your thoughts even though I havent tried VI yet. Any plans beyond the next wave of settlers. Might we one day get blood?

[unaghy]

Nice report teh. However, I would prefer having it split in several small ones and posting them as you play on daily basis (or just more frequently), of course if you have time for that. Its easier then to match what is going on in comparison with other players. I do check threads for this game daily, while drinking my morning coffee

Now some questions

I do see that you are doing some "intelligence" - did it impacted your turn planning or tactics so far? You have mentioned your thoughts about great general points and also some other parts (settlers completion for other players, city-state capture, etc.), but how do you use this information for your benefits?

Turn 46 - you are mentioning moving settler to desired horse spot. Would you mind to explain reasing behind selecting this location?

Same as SadGit asked, any plans on military side, especially after your discovery on GP screen?

[teh]

Nice report. Easy to follow your thoughts even though I havent tried VI yet. Any plans beyond the next wave of settlers. Might we one day get blood?

We certainly will get some blood, but given Sullla's potential future great general and the increasing amount of military units in the center, I'm considering producing at least 2 more slingers -> to be upgraded to archers once I have archery. That would give me a total of 4 archers. My front in a potential war would be a bit stretched with the addition of the planned city in the center, so I will have to bolster my military certainly.

Nice report teh. However, I would prefer having it split in several small ones and posting them as you play on daily basis (or just more frequently), of course if you have time for that. Its easier then to match what is going on in comparison with other players. I do check threads for this game daily, while drinking my morning coffee

Now some questions

I do see that you are doing some "intelligence" - did it impacted your turn planning or tactics so far? You have mentioned your thoughts about great general points and also some other parts (settlers completion for other players, city-state capture, etc.), but how do you use this information for your benefits?

Turn 46 - you are mentioning moving settler to desired horse spot. Would you mind to explain reasing behind selecting this location?

Same as SadGit asked, any plans on military side, especially after your discovery on GP screen?

I'll try to break the reports into 2-3 turn chunks and post them as I play them like you said.

Well the great general certainly impacted my thought process in the sense that as you will see once my report for the next 2-3 turns come out, I'm producing 2 more slingers (and maybe even more) as opposed to my earlier plan to produce some builders after the settler wave. I'll know when Sullla has his general out, and it won't happen for the near future, so I will have some time to prepare for it. Beyond that, tracking the civics/techs/cities etc. gave me a way to check and compare my progress against the other players. I'm still learning Civ 6 and I'm not sure about what dates are good milestones for 1st city, 2nd city, reaching first government and that sort of things; by tracking others, I could tell that I was doing well in civics despite the Roman handicap (Romans have free monuments). Right now, I have contact with each civ in the game, so I can see their number of cities, their total gold and the resources they have, so using score to track their progress is less of a concern (apart from counting number of civics and when they get a settler out by looking out for the empire score drop).

Here's the belated land development report - I placed pins on the map for potential locations of the districts:



Here's Aachen. It has a good mixture of food and production tiles. I plan to mine the three grassland hills (one to the north of the mountain range, two to the south). I already put down the commercial hub where the pin is, and I put down a campus SE of the city center. Once I have Apprenticeship, I'll be able to place down Hansa districts down, too. Recall that Hansas, unlike regular industrial zones, get adjacency bonus from commercial hubs (+2) and resources (+1). That's why I'm trying to place Hansas near resources AND specifically next to commercial hubs, and ignoring hills when I'm considering potential locations for them to go. Since most of the hills here are grassland hills, I think I won't have any problem feeding them (especially with the nice 5f rice tile). The only tile I'm working that's less than 1f is the plains hill SW of the campus. So I can keep a surplus of 4 food (+3 from rice, +2 city center, -1 from plains hill) for the rest of the game here, and can get more if I put some extra farms or utilize the marshes.

You can also see the layout for a potential city in the south (between truffles, newly revealed iron and cattle). This was a low priority location before, but with the reveal of the iron, I might try to get it faster. It will require an aqueduct, potentially NE of the city center. Its Hansa and Commercial Hub will go to where the pins are, north of the city, just outside of my current borders. Aachen, the city to the northwest, already has a commercial hub placed down SE of the city center, so this city's Hansa, when all the districts are completed, will have an adjacency bonus of 6 production (4 from 2 CH, 2 from the resources - truffles and stone). With the iron, stone W-W of the city center, and the pasture, this would be a strong production city when developed. It lacks a bit on the food side (+3 surplus with the cattle), but there is a wheat tile 3 hexes away from the city center SE (right outside of this screenshot, next to Kumasi - the city state), so it might be worthwhile to expand this city's borders with gold and grab that wheat tile for extra food. All in future, though.



Here's Cologne. Unlike the capital, Cologne is swimming in food, but it lacks production. Hansa, when finished, along with the Commercial Hub, will provide much needed 5 production. There's a potential for a campus to the west, right on the desert. I might consider developing the desert hill tile with a mine to increase the production, but it will cost me some gold to purchase the hexes. I'll need to chop some of the forest in the south to speed up construction of districts here. The floodplains to the northwest will be farmed eventually.



Finally, here's Mainz, my latest addition to the empire. It has a good mixture of food and production, with the floodplains in the south providing 4f each once farmed, and the many plains hills to the west and northwest (including two coppers for extra gold). There's a campus location to the north (and also to the south, W of the mountain where there is a rainforest currently). The commercial hub is already placed down and it will help the hansa to its west. The other city I'm considering here is next to the horses and bananas. I wasn't sure whether it would go to that hex, or one southwest, next to the other horses, but with Sullla planting a city (Aquileia), that spot is not an eligible spot anymore. The considered spot (with the pin) has 3 great production tiles in the first ring (forested grassland hill, horse and the plains hill). It won't suffer in terms of food, but it might need some farms along the way. Its commercial hub will be placed SE such that it helps the Hansa of Mainz, which would have +6 production adjacency bonus. Its Hansa would go SS of the city center, getting +4 production eventually. There's a potential for a holy district next to the natural wonder, but I don't think I'll play the religion game at all. Like I said before, it might be hard to defend this location if attacked, especially with the lack of roads here currently, so I'm getting more slingers out.

The report for turns 50 and 51 is going to be up soon (though you could see some of the stuff I'll talk about already from these screenshots).

[teh]

Turn 50

Bronze Working is completed. I spot iron in two locations, one next to the potential city in the south and one near the entrance to my peninsula, 3 tiles away from Cologne:



This makes the potential city in the south a bit better, so I would like to send a settler there sooner than I was considering before.

In the meantime, Archduke settles a city in the center region, next to the northwestern horse tile:



It doesn't interfere with my planned city, but the presence of his extra military troops in the center region as a result of this city plant might make it more challenging for me to put down my planned city.

I start researching archery next (6 turns). I also plant my third city down:



Mainz grabs the copper and a floodplain in the first ring, with another of each in the second ring. I start working the floodplains to get a quick growth (5 turns) to size 2, and start building a slinger here (12 turns - but it will speed up once Mainz grows to size 2 by working the copper).

Aachen grows to size 5, and start working the coffee for an extra culture (though only for a turn since the settler will be out next turn).


Turn 51

The settler is out in Aachen, so it drops down to size 4 again. It starts working on a slinger (2 turns - very quick here). The settler moves towards Cologne on the road.

Sullla also drops down a city in the center:



It's a bit closer to my planned city than Archduke's, so it will be more of a headache for me. Depending on how much military I see here in the next turn, I might send my settler to the south of my peninsula near iron instead of here.

Archery is in 5 turns, but I might stop it 1 turn before it finishes to get some cheap slingers out and then upgrade them all to archers (I have 207 gold right now, with 9.4 coming each turn). Given that the slinger->archer upgrade costs 30 gold, I should be able to upgrade 6 or even 7 slingers if I can get that many. I spot a warrior and a slinger (1W of Aquileia - revealed when I moved my warrior south). I'm slowly bringing my warrior towards the planned city spot; it should move past Aquileia in a couple of turns.

[Singaboy]

Thanks teh for more regular updates. As space seems to slowly run out, it is interesting to follow each player and their strategies