Woden's Wondrous World of China

[Woden]

Turn 90 Strategic Review

In review, war was adverted when Russia decided it was not going to go so good for him and ask for friendship. It took me a little time to decide because I was not sure if I wanted to conquer him or peacefully build. In the end, I decided to let him stay around. Part of me regrets this decision because a war would have been fun but part of me knows this is the best decision. I don't think he will win this unless he can bring in somebody else and attack me jointly but the other 3 are busy with their own conflicts. I have other reasons I wanted him to stick around but I will wait to reveal those if they pan out. There is always 25 turns from now. For now, I have to worry about Pericles. His GG is almost useless but he is working on the next one and will probably have that one in 20 or so turns. I will not offer friendship again but if he asks I might accept. He is far behind in science and culture, unless he attacks me I don't think he has a chance.  Besides, I want to focus on hurting Gorgo more. She is my biggest threat. Actually, maybe I will has Pericles for friendship. Then when their (Gorgo and Pericles) firiendship ends, we can jointly attack. I will have to think about that.

Anyways, that is where things are at. For now, I am planning on expanding and developing for the next 10 turns and want to set things up to get my next round of wonders.  I should be close to building all of the ancient and classical wonders during the next 20 turns. They might not all be complete but I should have all the requirements meet. It will be the Colosseum and Great Library next. I should have both those shortly. I am still working on longer term plans to hopefully win this thing. Maybe have something sketch out by T100.

[Woden]

Turn 91

Guess who came calling for a renewed friendship...




Let me think about that: a) I can reject it and worry about an attack and have to build up my army or b) can peacefully build and pull further ahead of him. I think I will go with b. Now this means I can't attack him for 30 turns but it does mean I have 1 less avenue for attack I have to worry about. I would much rather focus on building things up to become stronger. Anyways, the only person I want to attack in the future is Gorgo. She is the only one that is keeping up right now but now that my neighbors are peaceful, I can kick building in high gear. In the next 30 turns, I should be way ahead in most aspects of the game. I sure this is boring for the lurkers but I promise once I get all my wonders and pull some weeds, I will pray and I will attack Gorgo. Speaking of Gorgo...




Half-a-god-damn turn short! I have 395 faith and need 405 to buy the first scientist. She gets it next turn. Bastard! I will get my merchant in 3 turns. Russia is definitely converting my cities. Nothing I can do right now, that will have to wait.

Here are my units around Nan Madol...




The northeast horse is out of position but I might attack next turn. I actually may keep it up there to handle the swords. Or I might wait a few turns and see if I can get into a better position. I am in no hurry. I don't think I am going to take Toronto out until I have a few districts up and running.

IZ finishes in 2 turns, then I will start an aqueduct for housing. A grainery would take half the time but the aqueduct gives the eureka for Military Engineering and I want that to get muskets going. After the aqueduct, I will finish the entertainment district to build the Colosseum.

[Woden]

Turn 92

Slow turn today, not much going on. I finish Construction and start Military Engineering. I might have to switch before the aqueduct is done at MS (will start next turn). I shift unit around Nan Madol and I think I will attack next turn or the turn after.




I want to attack from the south because hopefully the swords on the north side get caught in a traffic jam or attack my fortified sword on the hill. Then I should be able to quickly take out the archers in a few turns and capture the city shortly after. I may want until 2 turns so I can upgrade another crossbowman. I get my merchant next turn and will have him grab the jungle tile where the Colosseum is planned.




Hopefully, he spawns in MS and can reach the tile and grab it in 1 turn, if not , I will attack the turn after I have the gold and can upgrade. Russia is definitely trying to convert my cities...




He has converted JC and SM and will soon have SM1 converted. I guess he is following his religious name, "Weedy Movement". I am the last one he wants to convert. All these missionaries are a waste, granted it is forcing me to change my strategy a little but still a huge waste. Let me explain: I have a religion, I can fight his religion with my religion. I don't have a holy site yet and it looks like he converted my planned city, so I will take emergency actions. I am going to build a holy site at MS. It will be hard for him to convert that city and if he does, I can just grow it and most likely the new population will be my religion since it is the holy city. After I get the aqueduct finished, I will chop 2 jungle tiles to get a grainery out and overflow into the entertainment district. This should help get it to size 10. If not, I will chop the jungle and harvest the banana tile. Then build the holy site, shrine, and temple, then buy an apostle to start the inquisition to get inquisitors out and remove his religion from my civilization. In addition, to protect MS, after I finish Nan Madol off, my army will surround MS to prevent any of his missionaries from getting close to the city center.

Now why is his effort to convert me useless and a waste of faith. I can fight it, therefore you want to rush me with missionaries last before I can do anything about it. If I were him, I would go and convert everybody else. Which should go quickly and he has friendship with everybody so there is nothing they can do. Also, I would do it evenly so all would get converted around the same time. This would prevent someone from noticing and working towards a religion. If he converts 1 civilization at a time, then people might notice. Better to convert them close together because it is a huge investment, probably 50 turns, to build everything, get the prophet, and generate enough faith to get a few missionaries or an apostle. If he were to leave me to last, he could pull the AI move and flood my lands with missionaries and win the game. There would not be enough time for me to react if he sent 2 or 3 missionaries to half my cities and he could convert them quickly. Instead, he is slowly sending missionaries to convert my cities first but guess what, now I know what he is going to do and I can take counter measures. I will remove his religion in all my cities for cheaper than he converted them, inquisitors are cheaper than missionaries. Maybe I can get peace again in 25 turns and them spam his lands with my religion. I wouldn't do it slowly but gather my missionaries for full-on AI spam.

We will see what happens with this, I should be able to counter it. Part of me thinks it might be a smart move. If his objective is to have me spend some cogs in developing my religion instead of other things. I wasn't planning on investing a lot into religion and I want my next district at MS to be a Theater but now it has to be a holy site. If tries to convert PC and MCA then I know it is for religious victory and not to have me waste a few cogs.

[Woden]

Turn 93

I get my merchant...




I move him towards the jungle tile for the Colosseum but he can't cross the river. I will grab the tile next turn and upgrade a crossbowman. This means I will attack Nan Madol the turn after. This will also give me time to move the builder at PC away from the action. I will grab the jungle tile for the Colosseum and the iron at MCA. After that I need to decide what last tile I want. I was going to try and grab the 4th ring tile at MS but I have another horse up by MCA where my next settler is going. I will have think about it. Maybe grab the tile surrounded by mountains in my planned city in the middle of the mountainous area...




I could get a +5 science campus there. I still need to think about where the city center is going. I am not sure I like where I have it now. I am think about moving it 1 tile northeast or northwest. The northwest spot would be more defensible with the hills slowing movement but the northeast tile would instantly cut off the easterners from moving in there with out open borders or war and I could get a river CH on the jungle tile. The settler comes out in 3 turns and will need a few turns to move so I have a little time to think about it.

Mt eastern horse found a Pericles city and a Gorgo horseman. Now that she is at peace again, the horse must be coming to see where I am at. I doubt she will want to attack, my mil. power is much higher than hers. My northern sword will block that path and SM1 will block the southern path, so he will only see my eastern edge and will not see that my capital is quite a bit west of there. I started a settler in MCA now that the grainery is done. It says 22 turns but once the builder at MS mines the plains hill at PC, it will move north to mine and quarry and hopefully speed that up. Industrial Zone finishes at MS and I start the grainery. I initially chose the aqueduct but the grainery only takes 2 turns and the aqueduct 5. I want to get the city growing again quicker so I can get to 10 pop soon. I will actually finish the chariot before starting the aqueduct because it only has 1 turn left or maybe I will wait until I can switch policies to get the 50% production for some overflow. I will have to think about that. Actually yes, I will switch cards to get the 50% production bonus and then chop a jungle tile into the aqueduct. Nice!

I move a few units around Nan Madol and see they are moving units around too...




Taking this city is not going to be quick, look at all those archers. I will need to take out most of them because otherwise they will just start picking off my units. I want to have both horses to the east to take out the sword. I have a sword and crossbow on the north side to handle the swords up there and I have various units on the east side to start taking out the archers. Hopefully it will go smoothly and I don't lose any units. I will attack in 2 turns. The Russian missionary that was hanging around is gone, so either he was used up or headed east. Good, maybe he won't convert PC. Hopefully we get 1 more turn before oledavy takes his 4 day break. Part of me is glad we are taking a short break, gives me a chance to stop obsessing about this game but part of me also wants to get things built. Maybe it will give me a chance to outline how I can win this thing and figure out the fastest way possible. I think it might be possible to win it before T200 but I am going to wait to tell you how until I have it figured out and run some numbers.

[Woden]

Turn 94

After a short break because oledavy went on a short vacation, we are back in action.  This short break allowed me to ponder my next moves and think about what I want to do in the next 20 or so turns. I have a feeling that the world will remain in peace for a little while. The eastern 3 have ended their wars and now have a mandatory 10 turn peace. I have friendship with Russia until ~T114 and Pericles ~T121. I think the eastern 3 are going to continue the peace for the immediate future to build and expand a little and are probably shifting there eyes onto me. So, I figure I have a good 20 turns to build and then may need to shift military. My most immediate need is to increase my gold per turn so I have some gold to upgrade knights and muskets. I have 1 CH in MS and laid down CHs in JC and SM1. I will start them as soon as their current builds finish. With that, I take my first tile with my Great Merchant...




I decided to grab the stone at JC. It is a third ring tile and the builder currently in production will harvest the stone on his way to build the Colosseum at MS. He will harvest the stone, chop the jungle on the tile where the Colosseum will go and build the wonder. The stone should take a big chuck out of the CH at JC, then I am going to build a stable, grainery, and armory at JC while it grows to 7 so I can put down a IZ. That will give me some housing and the eureka for Gunpowder.

At MS, I going to go: ED -> Aqueduct -> Market/Builder -> District (Holy Site or Theater). I have been rethinking the Holy Site as the district at 10 population. I might wait until pop 13. I want to get Great Writer points going quickly and with the Oracle I can get a good jump, especially with the Russian Larvas going. If I can get a few writers, I maybe able to get a sub T200 cultural victory. I have not foreign tourists yet but I will have 1 from each player in the next 10 turns. I don't really want to talk much about that right now, I still need to work it out but I think it might be possible if I can get 100 tourism per turn. If/when I finish all 11 wonders, I should have 40 tourism (in the current era) and that will go up by 11 each new era. My religion gives me 8 tourist (4 against Russia since they have different religion). Each great book provide 4 tourism (8 with Printing). I f I can get 3 writers for 6 books, that will put me over 100 tourism per turn, which may be enough to win unless Gorgo or Pericles instantly builds their theater replacement everywhere and start get over 100 culture per turn. But this is one avenue I am going to chase but not the only one. I still want to attack Gorgo. She is my biggest threat. Speaking of her...




I believe I have found her western most city (unless she has something north under the fog. I hope there is passage to the northeast of my horse, I would like to get a better sense of her lands.  This also confirms my suspicions that she was to my northeast. Hopefully she is not planning to settle a city in the center of the mountainous area in the next 8-10 turns. I decided the farthest east I am going to settle is the city in the center of the mountainous area and west of the river in the north. I have plenty of land to fill if I want more cities but I think I probably only need 5 more, 3 of which will settled in the next 10 turns. I am going to need to improve my economy and my army before I can push more expansion and I don't know if I need more cities after the next 5. We will see. 

This break in play also gave me a little time to think about taking Nan Madol. I have decided to shift my units around (again). I don't want to attack form 2 direction, splitting my forces up and I am worried about all those archers in the south. Horse may be good against an archer or 2 but 4 shooting at it can make it disappear in a turn or 2. Better to bring most everything to the north and push in that way. Those archers should be bottle-necked around the city and I should be able to take the city without having to kill all of them (hopefully). This means I will have to deal with the swords but I should have the forces to do that. With the gold from the GM, I upgraded another crossbow. I will upgrade 1 more when I grab the Colosseum tile and then attack. Hopefully they don't upgrade a few archers into crossbows in the mean time. 

For reference, here is the current score of the other players...




I currently have a score 173 and am 1 civic and 4 techs on oledavy (he must be researching a bunch of techs to the point of the eureka because he has been falling behind quite a bit and has not gotten a tech in a while). I am 2 civic and 3 techs ahead of Alhambram. 

For the immediate turns, I am going to switch off Recorded History next turn until the builder is complete at JC (the turn after). I want to switch into the wonder card and switch out of the builder card for the next 6-7 turns. I am going to build the Colosseum and Great Library in the next 6-8 turns. I will also switch out of Military Engineering in 2 turns until the aqueduct is built at MS.

[Woden]

Turn 95

Not much going on this turn. I switch off of Recorded History to delay my policy swap by 1 turn. This will allow me to upgrade 1 more crossbow next turn or the turn after depending on if I can grab the Colosseum tile next turn. I plan on swapping out Serfdom and Professional Army for Corvee and Veterancy. 

Settler finishes at PC, start another one. I shift units around Nan Madol and probably will attack in 2 turns. Move my horse scout east...




Looks like there is a path north of Gorgo's city. The horse will continue east as far as it can. Not much else going on. Here is teh score for reference...




Russia finished a few districts and grew or settled a new city and grew. His empire score went up by 7. Hard to tell. I will check his screen next time I play (already played another turn).

[Woden]

Turn 96

Getting ready to attack Nan Madol next turn...




North of Nan Madol, I should be able to take out the archer and 1 of the swords on the initial attack and probably the other sword the turn after. In the south, I have 1 archer and 1 crossbow to start picking off the archers down there. Hopefully they move towards the city so it can attack. Hopefully the attacks goes well and I can take the city in 5-7 turns if not sooner. I figure 1-2 turns to get rid of the northern units, 1 turn to move into position to attack the city and 3-4 turns to capture the city.

The merchant grabs the jungle tile for the Colosseum. He will next go and take the iron up at MCA for his last charge. Builder at PC chops a forest, dropping the time on the settler from 8 turns to 3. Other builder will chop the jungle and hopefully finish the settler, then I will start another. The soon to be finished settler will go between SM2 and MS, by the jade. The next settler will go between MCA and PC, to fill in my civilization. JC finishes builder and starts a barracks (due in 4). The barracks was 2 turn less than the stable, so I went with it. I will switch to Veterancy next turn when Recorded History is finished next turn, in time to harvest the stone and overflow into the CH. I will also switch to Corvee to build the Great Library (due in 6) and the Colosseum (7-8 turns). I will delay civil service until they are due to switch out of the wonders card. Then I just need to build like 5 or 6 builders, a Harbor and lighthouse, and finish the Holy Site, Shrine, and Temple to get the last wonders before finishing Divine Right. Should be do-able in the next 20 turns. Trade route finishes at SM1, move him to SM2. This should help with the holy site. I also switched to Shipbuilding. I will put a few turns into it while I wait for the Great Library to finish, then I will switch to Education.

In the east...




Horse scout finds another Gorgo city. I am going to try and go between them. Hopefully the path is open. I also move the sword to the river to defog the remaining coast. He will move back next turn. Settler for the center of the mountains is due in 2 and will need 4 or 5 turns to get where I want him. I will have a warrior and archer with him in case Gorgo's horse is still around. Maybe I will move the sword down in case she gets any ideas. 

Here is the score for reference...




Gorgo gained a population, no change with Russia. no idea what the other fellows are doing, haven't been paying much attention. Also noticed that Russia is now producing more culture than me...but not for long. I will have 4 new cities in the next 10 turns and 1 more shortly after plus Nan Madol. I hope he didn't have any ideas about catching up...

[Woden]

Turn 97

I played this turn late last night. I wasn't able to sleep for some reason and when I heard the ding of my phone, I got up to play...

To start off, Recorded History finishes so I make a policy swap...




I switch into Corvee for the wonder bonus and Veterancy for the add production to encampment buildings at JC. I harvest the stone while working on the Barracks. Stone was worth 92 (?) base (119.6 with card) and...




I had 58 left on the Barracks and get 61.6 overflow into the CH, due in 5 turns. Now that I have the wonders card going, I threw down the Great Library at Space Mountain and put a charge into it. Other than that it was an uneventful turn until I declared war on Nan Madol. This is the field when I attacked. 




Thought I had a better screenshot but no. Look at teh previous post for a better shot. In the west, crossbow, sword and horse take out the sword. Crossbow, chariot, and horse red-lined the other sword. Archer and sword by the mountain take out the archer and crossbow red-lined another archer. This is what the field looked like at the end of the turn...




Not too bad, let's see what they do as a counter attack. 

I am really busy trying get a report written for work so the next few turns will be short and probably delayed. I do hope to write a "State of the Empire" summary of the first 100 turns. Don't know if it will be between T100 and T101 but will be somewhere around there.

[Woden]

Turn 98

Not bad in between turns. The red-lined sword suicided against a unit. My archer down by JC took the blunt of the counter attack. I forgot to take a before picture to show the damage. Anyways, I moved a few units up towards the city and took out the red-lined archer and another one. This is the picture after my moves...




They probably can take out the sword or horseman if everything attacks either but I don't think they will take both. The sword will pillage the farm to heal next turn. One issue I saw now is that my crossbows are way out of position and pretty much are out of the fight. I will bring 1 onto the hill where the horse is and the other will go around the mountain or he will shift over to Zanzibar because...




Russia must have been waiting to see if I will attack Nan Madol because he attacks Toronto the same turn. Nothing I can do about it now. I am now worried that once he takes Toronto, he will move on Zanzibar. I start shifting a few units to put up a blockade around Zanzibar. He won't be able to attack the city if my units are in the way and he can't attack me until T114 or T115. Hopefully I have a few turns so I can get my units in position. If he isn't planning a Zanzibar attack, at least I will have units around in case he wants to move on me from Toronto. I can't let Zanzibar fall, each CH will get +8 gold (+16 gold with the adjacency card) and I get +2 amenities.

Looking at the rankings, I see one curious thing...




Gorgo is now last in science, she must be researching techs to 1 turn and switching. Hoping to get cheaper units out? Her rate is 2nd (?) but she hasn't completed a tech in a while. I am pretty sure she will get a bunch of techs in quick succession pretty soon.

[Woden]

Also, anybody have a good suggestion for showing combat moves other than cutting out match ups and pasting them all together? That sounds like a lot of work.