[SPOILERS] Suboptimal's Arabian Adventure

[suboptimal]

Turn 30
Let’s see if I’m the odd man out of if I’ve got friends in local places….



Japan yes, America no.  And it looks like the horses I heard at the end of last turn were in our neck of the woods, with the horse archer to the south.  That could make things a bit more interesting.  I do see that Rowain has also backed off his warrior.  Good.  Unless the other warrior has crossed the river in the fog he won’t be able to intercept before I get to Glenkinchie.  Rowain may also be distracted, as he’s finally met the unknown civ somewhere out east.  Kaiser’s military strength is down to 35, I’m guessing from the rather heavily wounded warrior or he’s lost his slinger.

I advance my warrior 1 tile to the east, onto the hilltop.  Nothing new over there.  Slinger fortifies, settler joins slinger.  Warrior due in one turn at Tomatin.  

Over at Stockholm the scout advances into Swedish territory.  In addition to defogging this area I want to keep an eye on Stockholm.  As soon as their campus goes up I’m going to pay them a visit with a warrior.  I’ve found that pillaging districts of city-states can be a very effective early game strategy, especially if there are no envoys at risk.  They do have a 2-charge builder but I think that builder is going to pasture the cows during the interturn and it’s not worth going after it.  

Hit next turn, the horse archer most certainly shot someone.  I’ll find out who when I get the next turn.

I feel a bit more comfortable with the situation around Tomatin.  In my SP games I never really drilled down to the nitty gritty of the numbers behind combat, but after looking around online and checking out the formulas it’s not as bad as originally thought.  Still, though, I do need to be careful.  On the upside, Rowain’s score is still 55 so he’s got two warriors, a slinger and maybe a settler lurking about.

I was originally going to put forth The Grande Planne this turn, but I think I’m going to hold off until I see if I can get Glenkinchie settled as intended.

[suboptimal]

Turn 31
So, let’s see what happened...ugh.  Look who came over for dinner!  



Guess the barbarian scout didn't get killed by Kaiser.  Good news: the warrior in Tomatin completed.  Meh news: Kaiser’s warrior is dead (good: one less opposition warrior. Bad: one less thing to beat up barbs for me).  Also looks like Rowain is advancing in to kill some stuff.  So, how to deal with the situation while still advancing my agenda?  First, Tomatin starts another warrior.  We’re gonna need it.  I make the following moves:

- Warrior in Tomatin moves to plains due east of deer
- Slinger moves to city center, kills barbarian horse archer (eureka for Archery & 2/3 barbs killed for Bronze Working).
- Settler joins warrior due east of deer
- Hilltop warrior moves 1 NE to the stone hill.

After the moves:



This has done two things – it puts the settler on the faster (by a turn) path to Glenkinchie and the only units that could be attacked by this turn are...Rowain’s.     I figure if he’s going to put the bulk of his military power just outside my borders then he’s offered to help when the barbarians get restless.   Of course, he might get a promoted unit out of it.  He might also get ticked at me and try to do something to me, but I’ll deal with that if it happens (and I’m not as worried about it as I was a few posts back...).  Likewise if the barbs pillage the rice.  I've got a slight numerical superiority now as well, with another warrior due on Turn 34 and one in the bank if I need it.

Over in the west, the scout moves through Stockholm's territory.  If I found Cragganmore as intended there would be no more city spots in this part of the landmass.  Kaiser has founded the city of Shido, west of Kumasi.  I know this because I can see the borders and Diya-al-Din told me what the city was called:





What I find interesting is that the diplomatic screen puts up a “+1 New Report” in the Gossip Items heading to try to get your attention (of course, you need to check the screen every turn....    I do like the in-game effect of sending a delegation to a human player -- it sends a message of "let's be friends" or "let's not be aggressive", uses a built-in mechanism to do so and isn't as...hacked together (?)...as the gold-for-gold or horse-for-horse messaging trades of prior games.  It also comes at the cost of giving your opponent a little more information as to what you're up to.

Based upon the map I assume that Shido was the best available spot -  it’s the only non-desert spot that can be settled that is also along a river, unless he came north through the desert to Glenfarclas.  He will probably take Kumasi at some point since it’s wedged between his two cities and could cut his empire in two if I were to take it before he did.  Also of note is that Kaiser has spent most of his gold as he’s down to just 28.  Judging by his domination score and the amount of gold it looks like he bought a replacement warrior.  

I also check out Rowain's diplomatic screen and see that he’s chosen Lady of the Reeds and Marshes for his pantheon (that shows up in the gossip section as well, despite no diplomatic access – something that was not reported on or was not noticed by the players in PBEM 2).

Hit next turn, the horse archer shot something, probably Rowain’s warrior.  That might leave me a snipe with the slinger for my 3rd barbarian kill.

[suboptimal]

Turn 32
Let’s see what we’ve got...

(and in case you’re wondering, yes, I type up my reports in real-time rather than taking notes and editing later.  Gives more of a “feel” to it)



I had the settler lens on just in case Rowain had settled in the fog to the northeast.

Looks like I’m in a 1.5 v 1 situation, as Rowain has declared war on me and done a number on my warrior (I won’t give the barbs a full point as they can help as much as they can hurt). He hasn’t purchased any military units yet based upon his current military power.  It also appears that the horseman didn’t attack his warrior, either (had no movement to do so).  I figure the barbarians are just as likely to attack his units rather than my units, though I don’t know how the barbarian  AI chooses targets in an MP game.  If this were SP I’d say they have a bias to attack the player and not the AI.  So, what to do?

First, get the settler out of there, so it goes 1NW to the sheep tile.  Rowain can’t move and attack that tile next turn.  The warrior will go with it so that I can hold onto that unit for the time being.  I’d like to keep them around until I can try to get to Glenkinchie.  My other warrior is a bit useless on this side of the river (20 vs. 30).  It crosses the river to be behind Rowain’s units – that makes it a 25 v 20 affair, which is a bit more manageable.  If it survives three combats it should get a promotion, which will help.  Slinger moves out to deer tile to gain some high ground.  It, too, cannot be attacked by Rowain this turn, but could get potshotted by the horse archer if it crosses to the rice tile and it decides to shoot me instead of Rowain.  Lastly I buy a warrior in Tomatin.  I’ll have another one built out on Turn 34.  I’d prefer to keep the cash but right now I need military.  

Upon moving the warrior it looks like Rowain will be settling nearby.  I’ll probably still have the Glenkinchie site (it’s four tiles from where the settler is now and the settler is on a river).  I expect that Rowain will settle and use his large cash horde to claim both horse tiles and possibly the other diamonds.  He might also buy in reinforcements...

The situation after the moves:



That just leaves the scout, which crosses the river to the NE.  I hit next turn, the horses move but I hear no attacks.  Hopefully one of the barbarians has moved to the rice tile.  That’ll slow things down a bit.

Internationally Rowain has met all of our other opponents, as he now has two unmet civs in his diplomacy screen.  Curiously, one of the civs is showing a yellow unhappy face.  Not sure how that works in MP.

[suboptimal]

Turn 33
Let’s see where we’re at….



Not as bad as it could have been.  Still, though, I’ve got quite a mess on my hands.

Rowain has retreated, so it appears that this war was more to get Baltimore settled.  Perhaps he thought I was going for that spot instead of the southern location of Glenkinchie?  He hasn’t grabbed the horse tiles with cash yet and Glenkinchie is still a valid city spot.  Ichabod has also shown up, though his scout may have walked into a barbarian horde.

Ok...time to start fixing things.  Three things to take care of.  First, the warrior in the east is surrounded.  I’d rather move back across the river and deal with barbarians than stay here and deal with barbarbians and Rowain.  It moves back to the stone hill.  Next, that horse archer.  Warrior from Tomatin takes first shot at it, kills it.  That gets me the eureka for Bronze Working and an envoy in Zanzibar for completing a quest (along with the +4 GPT in the capital for the envoy).   The warrior settler pair moves to the rice tile NW of Tomatin (this was boneheaded on my part, more on that below).  The slinger moves to the plans tile to get between them and the barbarian scout.  Warrior due in Tomatin next turn.

Out west the scout continues the loop around to the NW.  Before I move I see that the builder in Stockholm has moved to the stone tile to the NE of the city, presumably to build a quarry.  



Mea Culpa

The past four turns have been a shit show.  I have not even lived up to the standard of my username, never mind something approaching it.  Therefore, all commentary by the Lurkerati from my Turn 28 through now (this turn inclusive) shall refer to me as “Antioptimal”.  

Let’s see where I went wrong:

- Misread Rowain’s, though only partly – it was a show of force but I misread the intent.  Thought he was here to conquer, then decided that he was projecting force to protect his settling spot, then decided to pick a fight with barbarians running amok.  I give that /5 weeds.  It’d be 5/5 but I’ll give myself one since I’ve never done MP before.  I’ll be curious to read his thread later on and see if he was planning to declare war or if my moves forced his hand.

- Complete indecision with the settler.  The settler was built on Turn 28 and has yet to get more than 2 hexes from the capital.  /5 weeds

- What you don’t see – I’ve fallen into my SP ways and play through the turn without taking enough time to just look and think. This gets a /5 weeds.

Recovery

I have now managed to have the strongest military in the game.  That's nice, but I’ve still only got one city.  I’m now the last to get two cities and this puts me behind the eight ball in terms of research (tech & civic) and production (via tiles worked).  

I can catch up a little bit by engaging in by city-state farming.   The idea here is to pillage a tile or two for what I need now, in a city-state I don’t need envoys in, then let them repair/rebuild and repeat.  Stockholm fits that bill to a tee – no existing military and a variety of improvements – a farm, a pasture and a quarry, with a hill that will eventually be mined and a campus that will get built...somewhere.  It’s a literal pillaging buffet, at least until someone takes the city or the AI goes into “we shall build nothing but out of date units for the rest of the game”.  

For expansion, I’ve got three options for settling:

Glenkinchie



This is the strongest spot of the four in my estimation, with with 2F/2P and a 3F tile in the first ring, along with two harvestable stone resources.  It also has two Tsingy tiles in the second ring (and one third ring) and if I were able to found it before Rowain bought both horse tiles I might be able to snag a horse.  The settling plan would be to try to buy a horse and, failing that (or succeeding and having the tile picker go astray) buy the hill tile next to Tsingy for the science and culture.

This location is also the most risky, at least in terms of what’s happened over the last 4 turns.  Settling here would instantly turn this into a front line akin to Buenos Aires & Schuyler in PBEM 2.  I’d have to be able to get the settler here without Rowain seeing it come back (once again).  I'd also have to continue military builds in Tomatin while the city builds up.

Looking forward, the appearance of iron in this area when I complete Bronze Working is unlikely.  Based on the resources.xml file the only “valid” iron tile in Glenkinchie’s first two rings would be the hex directly NE of Tsingy.  

I also need to self-examine and figure out if I’m Ahab and this site is Moby Dick.

Next up: Glenfarclas




The pin shows the original spot, but I’m now looking at one tile east.  This keeps a rice tile first ring, moves both silver tiles into the second ring and picks up two Tsingy tiles, both 2F/1P/1C/1S rainforest.  It does establish a front against Japan as well.  It’s flat, so no iron is likely in the first two rings (just like Glenkinchie).  The plan here would be to settle, buy a Tsingy tile and work it while I get a builder out of Tomatin.  

Lastly, Aberfeldy.



Reasonable food, so-so production, does nothing to help with immediate culture or science.  The tile picker would most likely grab the dyes first, which would help a bit.  This would be a farm town and where I build a holy site and a campus.  This will be the 3rd or 4th city I found, depending.  Like the other two I doubt iron will appear within the first two rings as there’s no valid hills.  It would not surprise me in the least to see iron up at Cragganmore.

The Plan

First off, the scout will retrace its steps on Turn 34, I’ll declare war and move to the stone tile on Turn 35, pillage the quarry on Turn 36. Depending on what Stockholm does I’ll either move to the pasture for the 50 gold or make a run for it in the direction of La Venta to clear out the fog between the city-states and Japan.  The 25 culture will be put into Mysticism.  This will complete that civic and grant me an envoy.  That will get placed into Kumasi and double my culture output.

The settler will (once again) move through Tomatin.  The wounded warrior will remain in the city to heal while the warrior built on Turn 34 will escort the settler southeast, exiting the city into the forest.  From there I’ll move to Glenfarclas and settler there.  That will happen on Turn 40.  I will immediately buy the Tsingy tile next to the Tsingy rice – that will cut off territory expansion if I can’t settle Glenkinchie as I’d then try to buy that tile for either Tomatin or Glenfarclas.

Tomatin will start a builder, then put out a slinger.  The builder will chop out the slinger (SE forest tile) and put the overflow into a settler.  The builder will then go to Glenfarclas for improvements there.  The settler will then be used to found Glenkinchie, Aberfeldy or Cragganmore, depending on what Rowain does and where iron appears.  The settler should complete around Turn 48 if this all works out to plan, with Bronze Working finishing around Turn 40 or so.  The builder would plantation the dyes then harvest the rice at Glenfarclas.

[suboptimal]

Turn 34

Open the save, take a look around….



Ichabod has moved closer and we’ve met him (more on him in a bit).  Rowain has moved one warrior back to Baltimore and the other across the river from my warrior.  Hattusa has also shown up with a warrior.  From my perspective, attacking the horseman will leave me open to being attacked by Rowain; I’d prefer to keep my warrior intact for the time being.  It moves to the forested hill to the SE.

At Tomatin the warrior has completed and a builder is queued up.  That one moves across the river to the forested tile.  The other warrior also crosses the river.  That flanks the horseman (with the wounded warrior) and gains a +2 support bonus from the just-built warrior.  (Edit: don't have Military Tradition yet.  PAY ATTENTION!!!) I move the slinger NW onto the hill to act as a sentry, just in case the scout sends a few more friends back (there are no visible camps up that way).

Over at Stockholm the scout moves back next to the stone tile.  The builder is in position but hasn’t quarried the stone yet.  Hopefully that happens on the interturn.

Let’s see what Ichabod has going on….



Interesting.  I’ll consider sending a delegation in a few turns, once I get a couple of tile buys out of the way (marsh for holy site, Tsingy rice for science/culture).  Ichabod has also not met Bacchus, though he has met Kaiser and Rowain (and is unhappy with Japan.  I have to wonder if there’s something in the game code that marks one as “unhappy” if you’ve turned down the offer of a delegation?  In checking Hattusa I see that the civ with the envoy is still unmet.  That means Bacchus is the one with the envoy there.  In other aspects of the game, Ichabod is making 7.1 science, 5.4 culture, 2.1 faith, 5 gold and his army power is 52.

In going through the diplomacy screens for Japan and America I see that America is the only one to have met Bacchus.  That means that Bacchus is off to the east somewhere.  But then where would Ichabod be located?  He has to be in an area of the land mass where he would have met Kaiser before meeting anyone else.  He also has dyes and given the continental distribution of luxury resources, that means he’s on the “continent” that is to my west. The only place he could be with this combination of factors would be on a peninsula that extends west of Shido.  That means that Kaiser is boxed in on three sides (north, west and tundra to the south),  with one of his opponents being almost completely boxed in by Kaiser alone.

Hit next turn, sounds like one of my warriors was attacked.

In giving further thought to the idea of founding Glenkinchie I’ve become a bit more against it.  Putting a city out there gives me a wider front against Rowain that I’d have to defend.  It’s also still on his home continent, unlike all of my other city sites except for Tomatin (even Strathisla is on the western continent).  The only reason that I’d need to put a city there is if iron shows up on the Tsingy hill.   Cragganmore is production-rich and food-poor.  However, it has a good adjacency spot for a campus and I’d like to have a campus completed by the time Theology comes in so I can get a Madrasa down to start getting the science going.  Therefore, unless iron shows up by the Glenkinchie spot Cragganmore will be the spot for the 3rd city with Aberfeldy being fourth.  That also means that Tomatin will be building an encampment for defense, probably sooner rather than later.  It does put Tomatin on my front line but I'll have to deal with that for the time being.

[suboptimal]

Turn 35

I had screenshots for this turn but I inadvertantly deleted them prior to uploading to pasteboard.

The main question I have when opening the save is “Is Rowain just intent on keeping me on the south side of the river or does he want to inflict some damage?”  I’m also curious to see which warrior got attacked by the horseman.  Before the screenshot is taken Irrigation completes.  Unfortunately I won’t be able to afford the tile for the Holy Site for another two turns.   Bronze Working is next up, 10 turns to completion.  Let’s see what’s going on.

Rowain has crossed the river.  Uh huh….the horseman attacked the western warrior.  What to do?  Hmmmm….both warriors attacking the horseman result in “Stalemate”, with Rowain being able to attack the eastern one and inflict a bit of damage (25 vs. 20 if he attacks).  This is part of the problem with running Agoge instead of Discipline, but no matter.  After looking at the numbers, I decide to have the western warrior attack, followed by the eastern one.  End result: horseman dead, eastern warrior at Str 14, western wounded at Str 13.  Rowain may or may not be able to kill the eastern warrior, that’ll depend on the RNG.  However, he can’t get two as I’ll be able to get one out of the way (or get an undamaged one onto him in open ground).  

Over at Stockholm, the builder is just sitting there.  No quarry as of yet.  Ugh.  I cross the river with the scout, just to get it on the other side from the Swedish warrior.  

In reviewing diplomatic screens I no longer understand the UI.   Victoria is unhappy with Japan and happy with America, yet both American and Japan show neutral with England.  Is this a reflection upon who offered and accepted whose delegates or something else?

In other international news, Kaiser finished his Holy Site this turn (no GPP points yet).  His gold per turn dropped to 4, so he’s built something requiring maintenance.  He’s also got a tech one column further than the rest of us.  Probably Bronze Working.  The “show yield icons” option doesn’t show the one hill tile in his territory as having science output, so if he’s got iron in his territory it’s in the fog (h/t to Alhambram and finding the invisible niter in Woden’s territory in PBEM 2).

[suboptimal]

Turn 36

Things I’m curious about before opening the save – do I still have four warriors and did that Swedish worker finally build that quarry?  Survey says:



Still have four warriors, Rowain hasn’t attacked – I guess the Dow was either “let's poach the settler” or “how dare you put me on the front against your barbarian issue”.  Or both.  However, I'd be remiss in not thanking him for the DoW – it'll save me 87 or so culture when researching Defensive Tactics.  

Barbarian slinger coming up from that camp southeast of Tsingy.  Scout is the area as well from the other direction.  Tomatin has grown to size 4 and Foreign Trade has completed as well.  The city governor put the new population onto the dye tile.  I move the population over to one of the rice tiles as I’d like to get Tomatin to 5 pop quickly – the city details window shows 9 turns until growth.  I leave my policies the same for the time being as I need Agoge to get a good chop for Settler #2 and I want the extra production from Urban Planning.  Start working on Early Empire.  Over in the west, still no quarry.   I wonder if that’s a reaction to my scout being there?  The warrior has also started to return home, which could complicate things.

OK.  I’ll deal with the west first.  The scout will move away from the builder but still within striking distance.  Back to Tomatin.  Warrior/Settler pair move SE into the forested hex.  Red-lined warrior moves to the farmed rice tile to start healing.  The warrior over by the slinger is a bit of a question mark.  I need one more battle to get that warrior promoted.  Rowain’s warrior probably does as well.  I think the best bet here is to fortify in place.  That’ll heal up the warrior a bit and guarantee an attack against the slinger for the promotion.  As for my own slinger I bring it back down to the sheep tile.  That reveals Rowain’s slinger coming down to the party.  Hmmm…..

I was originally going to purchase the Holy Site tile next turn.  However, I'm going to hold off on that so I have the cash to buy a Tsingy tile at Glenfarclas, then keep Bronze Working at one turn to completion until I can get the Holy Site down.  I'd have the cash to do that on Turn 42 or 43 depending on the expense at Glenfarclas  (I'll get Archery out of the way after Bronze Working).  Regarding that tile purchase I'm thinking the tile directly SW of Tsingy is the better purchase – the tile picker might go for the deer tile or I could buy it in – 1F/3P/1C/1S is significant tile.  Of course, given PBEM 2 and one or two SP games I've played the tile picker will see the natural wonder and take that tile even though it is of no yield value (just like Singaboy and Kilimanjaro in PBEM 2).

Internationally, Ichabod has founded a second city, All Along the Watchtower.  I sense a Bob Dylan theme.

[suboptimal]

Turn 37



Situation around Tomatin is “normal”, for what that is.  The slinger has advanced to the hill next to my warrior.  Rowain has stayed put but has also advanced the slinger south.  That does make me wonder if he needs a barbarian kill for the Archery eureka….the barbarian scout has crossed the river, which will let me move my settler south without having to deal with the scout’s zone of control.  Over at Stockholm there’s no quarry.  I’ve got a few turns to kill with the scout so I’ll defog a little around La Venta first.  Now for some moves….

- Settler/Warrior pair move to the plains tile NW of the intended settling spot.  Was going to move to the rice tile but there’s a barbarian warrior over there.  Will need to deal with that in a turn or two.

- Scout moves 1E into the forest, which reveals some grassland and a marble tile that Jerusalem has claimed.  The scout continues moving SE to reveal a bit more territory (mostly more forest and jungle).

- Slinger and red-lined warrior fortify in place for the time being.

Internationally I don’t see anything of note.  

Of course, after I hit “next turn” I realized that I forgot to attack the barbarian slinger.  I did state back on Page 1 that I’d be making multiple  moves.  If there’s one thing I haven’t let the Lurkerati down on, it’s moves.

[suboptimal]

Turn 38 and The Patch

First of all, the patch has dropped today.  This will be the last turn played before updating.  A few thoughts on some of the patch changes as they relate to this game before the actual turn.

Settler Costs: this effectively makes Ichabod’s & Bacchus’ second settlers 10 cogs cheaper, as they would have cost 100 instead of the 110 they do now.  No big deal although the 10 cog discount would have been nice.

District Costs: now 10% cheaper.  This will reduce the cost of my Holy Site from 97 cogs to 88 cogs.  Sort of makes up for the more expensive settler(s).

Archer Rebalance: archer production costs are now 60 cogs instead of 50.  This has the additional effect of raising the  gold cost of slinger → archer from 30 gold to 50 gold, which I haven’t seen discussed in the forums yet.

Plantations: not in the patch notes but people at CivFanatics are reporting that plantations are now +2 gold instead of +1 gold.  Given that three of the resources in my general area (dyes, silk and tobacco) require plantations, this is a bonus.

City-State Display: relationships with all civs are now visible in the city-state display, making it easier to know who’s met which city-state, even if no envoys have been placed.  I’ll take a look at that during Turn 39.

Aqueduct Costs: This might make desert and low water sites a bit easier to settle.  In this game that makes Bunnahobhain a bit more likely as a settlement point as I’d need an aqueduct at some point.

On to the turn at hand….



Given that I didn’t bother to attack the slinger last turn (because I fortified the warrior and it didn’t come up in the unit to-do list), the warrior is no longer in a condition to attack as it might get killed by the slinger.  Time for some shuffling.  The mostly healed warrior emerges from the capital to the forest to the SE.  The redlined warrior moves into the capital for accelerated healing.  I back the warrior by the slinger one tile west.  That will get it out of harm’s way if the slinger pursues.  Settler/warrior pair was attacked by the barbarian but no matter, we need to get Glenfarclas settled.  The pair moves to the forest to found the city next turn.  Over in the west the scout clears some more fog south of La Venta.

Internationally, Ichabod has jumped to the lead on domination – he may have gotten a slinger or two upgraded based upon his reduced amount of gold.  The diplomatic screen remains conflicting:





So, how does that happen?  Japan says England is a friend.  England is not happy with Japan.  

Hit next turn, the slinger attacks something and I hear the sound of a body drop.  Don’t know if that was one of Rowain’s little warrior figures or my lone warrior getting killed.  The war horns sound and there’s what sounds like some warrior-on-warrior action.

[suboptimal]

Turn 39

Open the save, find out the slinger attacked my warrior.  It’s redlined and retreats across the river.  The slinger entered open ground (the Tsingy rice tile) so the mostly-healed warrior advances and attacks.  The redlined warrior did earn a promotion and will take it next turn.  Down at Glenfarclas I found the city and buy the rainforest tile at Tsingy.  That tile will be worked for 2F/1P/1S/1C.  I hadn’t quite settled on the initial build for it and decide to build a slinger.  The warrior at Glenfarclas comes out to do battle with the barbarian warrior.  I need that area clear of barbarians for the builder to make its way down after putting in an overflow chop for settler #2 and putting a plantation on the dyes (for the amenities and gold).  The builder will then go and harvest the rice by Glenfarclas to boost the population to 3.  The situation in the “core” at the end of the turn:



In the west, the scout continues to fog bust southwest of Jerusalem.  There are several rainforest 2/2 tiles down in that direction with all four settler-available hexes along the river.  Might be something to consider down the line.