[SPOILERS] Suboptimal's Arabian Adventure

[suboptimal]

Turn 46



Three things of note to start the turn:

- Archery completed
- My scout was attacked by Stockholm
- Rowain has declared war on Hattusa

Hmmm...unless Washington is directly north of Hattusa that seems like a bit of a spread for territory, though I guess no more so than my intent to settle at Dalwhinnie.  Wonder if Bacchus will react militarily to losing a couple of science a turn if Hattusa falls.  Based on the city garrison strength at Baltimore this seems to be another warrior+archer assault.

Back to the immediate matters at hand.  Over at Stockholm the scout/builder pair move SE.  That takes them out of attack range.  I do see that if the scout gets attacked again that it will gain a promotion.  That might be useful in this situation….I may have to see if I can set things up to allow the scout to get attacked while the builder runs away.

Back at Tomatin, Rowain has moved his warrior out of sight.  I continue moving units southwards.  I do have one sticking point – that barbarian horseman in the south didn’t attack my warrior.  Instead it’s moved to the Dalwhinnie tile.  This makes it rather unsafe to advance my slinger down from Glenfarclas.



One option is to attack with the warrior that’s in the area. That’s a stalemate and would heavily damage both units.  It would let the slinger (or warrior) finish off the horseman, though.   Alternatively I can hope for it to go into Kikyo's territory.  However, I've seen where RNG hope has gotten me in this game so far.   I decide that the horseman is better off more injured and attack.  It also moves that warrior closer to promotion – if I can get that warrior promoted before attacking Kikyo it’d mean I have two strength 43 swordsmen attacking instead of just one.

Redlined warrior at Tomatin fortifies to heal.  Other promoted warrior likewise stays put.  I’ll decide for next turn if the warrior en route to Kikyo will return and if I’ll send both promoted warriors south.  I’d prefer to have two warriors and an archer at Tomatin when I attack Kikyo.  However, having two battlecry-promoted swordsmen attacking Kikyo would also be quite an advantage.

Hit next turn.  I hear some movement (probably warriors from Jerusalem and Stockholm as I heard three movements and there are three warriors up there) and the barbarian horseman attacked something.  Couldn’t tell from the sounds if it was the warrior or the slinger.  Either way it should die next turn and I may have a promoted warrior.  Early Empire will be completed when I start the next turn and I’ll switch into Mysticism.  Glenfarclas should have also expanded its territory and picked up the SE silver tile.

[suboptimal]

Turn 47

Let’s see if there’s anything interesting right off the bat…..



Early Empire is in.  Policies remain the same (Agoge for military production, Urban Planning for production). A unit was attacked by a barbarian and Kaiser/Adrienier has proposed a deal.  Hmmmm….let’s see what that’s about…



80 gold of mine for 1 GPT and Open Borders?  That would give him about 180 gold at the start of next turn, which would be enough to purchase a warrior or a slinger (or three archer upgrades).  However, this deal stinks.  First off, I don’t care about open borders because I can see most of his remaining city’s territory by walking up to it (and I don’t want him in my  borders if he survives). That alone is not worth the money.  Besides, I need that gold (plus more) in order to upgrade my units to make an attempt to take his capital.   He’s probably in a world of hurt even if Ichabod isn’t pushing past Masters of War.  I also realize that he has nothing else to give.  I pass with no regrets. 

Down at the intended Dalwhinnie the horseman attacked my warrior – both are death-lined but the combat infobox says that  it’ll be a major victory if I attack.  A survived attack means a promotion for the warrior, so I go for it, killing the horseman, gaining 5 XP and the promotion and losing 2 hit points.  My guess is that warrior has 1 hit point left.  That should last until I promote it next turn.



Up by Stockholm the warrior has moved into a favorable position for my builder to make a break for it:



I split the group up, with the builder heading two tiles east on its own (red path) and the scout fortifying in place.  The warrior can’t give chase as the scout has a zone of control and it can’t kill the scout given the terrain and the fact the scout has 57 damage left.  Even with a good RNG result the scout should just live.  The builder will continue on the yellow path over the north of Jerusalem next turn.  The scout will move on the lower yellow path next turn and then take the Ranger promotion on Turn 49.

With the promotable warrior at Dalwhinnie I continue moving troops southwards as planned with the intent of keeping one promoted warrior behind to hold down the fort.  I have to wonder if Rowain may be under the impression that I’ve launched a full-scale invasion of Stockholm.  It might be a missed opportunity to take Baltimore but there will be other opportunities.

Down at Glenfarclas it has grown by a population.  That citizen is locked to a forest tile for the production.  Archer there due in 3 turns but will be chopped out in 2.

Hit end turn, the scout got attacked and didn't die so hopefully that promotion is in the books.

In taking a look at the scores I see that I’m the first to 8 techs unless someone has also gotten a tech this turn.  I remain middle of the pack (but late to the party) with civics at 4.  Military-wise I’m next to last in power.  However I’ve got two warriors and a scout all of whom are wounded pretty badly.  My total forces are currently two slingers (30), four warriors (80 when fully healed, two have Battlecry and a third is about to get it) and a scout (10 when fully healed).  That will improve when I get my builds and upgrades complete over the next dozen turns.  At Turn 50 I’ll give a full statistical report on the game scores & tallies as well as a tactical/strategic update.  Of course, the last two times I’ve said that stuff’s happened.  Watch me open the save to play Turn 50 and see Kikyo in English hands.

Regarding the England/Japan war my prior declaration against Stockholm for the builder may serve me well here.  Kaiser and Ichabod have both met Stockholm and both know I’m at war with it.  Neither of them have units in the area and I'm guessing that the “typical” expectation for this situation is that I’m trying to take Stockholm and that’s where my military is.  Given my slightly decreasing power rating it might also seem like I'm conducting a low probability of success attack or I’ve screwed up and damaged my military to the point of retreating.  If this is the case then Kaiser won’t suspect anything is amiss, at least until I get a warrior or scout poking around or Dalwhinnie gets founded.  With Ichabod I'm a little less certain.  He could think I'm in retreat, think he might pick up a damaged city as a result of my failed attack or be wondering what I'm doing with a good portion of my military down here given my earlier Rowain problems.  However, I don't think he'd be expecting an attack on Kikyo from the east unless he sniffs out the fact that my Stockholm war is a smash-and-grab instead of a conquest operation.

Based on what Ichabod’s military power has done and his gold per turn availability I put Ichabod’s total military force at four archers, a scout and perhaps five warriors.  If he’s planning to take Kikyo I expect that the attack will begin in the next couple of turns unless he’s going to take Kumasi en route.  I expect that Kaiser's forces are to the west of Kikyo in preparation for an assault.  That should soften up or slow down Ichabod a little if he comes knocking and leave everyone out of position for a Turn 61 declaration (if Kaiser lasts that long).  If Ichabod does take Kikyo I'll need to see what his force composition is before determining if I attack or hold back.

[suboptimal]

Turn 48

OK...scout was attacked, took some damage but got the promotion.  The Jerusalem warriors have also moved out of the way and I’ll be able to move the scout out of harm’s way and promote this turn.  Situation elsewhere is normal, no opponents or barbarians in sight.  

I do take a gander over at Hattusa – it’s built a campus and has a city defense of 26.  That might have stopped Rowain’s raid in his tracks.  Hmmm...the district boosts its defense by 2, the envoy by 1 so it’s got 23 left over to attribute to a unit?  Dunno how that math works out as no units have strength ending in 3 (off the top of my head).  .    Maybe the campus finished and the city defense hasn’t updated yet, meaning there’s an archer garrisoned?  Can city-states build units without the requisite resources and do they get a +3 palace bonus?  I also look at Stockholm and it's finally done me the favor of building a quarry.  Its city defense is at 26; with one envoy that’s an archer garrisoned in the city.

Moving right along.  Scout moves east two hexes to the builder’s current position and takes the Ranger promotion.  I’ll be able to pick my way through the rainforest and get to Kikyo’s borders in 4 turns.    Jerusalem hasn’t closed its borders so the builder can move through the holy site, bypassing the hill and shaving a turn off the transit time.  Warrior at the Dalwhinnie site takes Battlecry and will fortify to heal next turn.  Warrior north of Kikyo moves southwest.  Warriors at Tomatin relocate – injured into the city to heal faster, the other one to the SE to meet the settler (which will complete in the interturn).  Lastly the builder in Glenfarclas moves into the forest one east.  That will get chopped next turn to finish the archer and clear a spot for the campus.  The overflow will go into a new builder which will be done after Turn 51.

Moves complete I take a look around at the international situation.  Internationally there are quite a few things going on.  First of all, Kaiser has finished Political Philosophy – there are diplomatic notifications that he’s entered the Classical Age and that he’s adopted the Autocracy government.  Ichabod has completed a district (empire score up by three) but I don’t yet know which type.  I’ll find out next turn when the GPP show up.  It's probably an encampment although a campus is not out of the question.  I doubt he's built a holy site.

I flip into Strategic View (it’s been a while) and see this at Kikyo:



Looks like Kaiser has just placed an encampment (wasn’t there last turn) and is building a shrine.  Interesting.  I’ll need to take Kikyo before that encampment gets finished.  That leaves one question – is Kaiser building a shrine because Ichabod stopped his advance or is strategic view showing a shring under construction because he’s partially built it?

Domestically Glenfarclas’s borders expanded.  Looks like the tile picker changed its mind – a few turns ago it was picking silver but the city expanded to the northwestern rice tile.  I also notice that Tomatin’s expansion to the intended encampment tile won’t happen until Turn 60.  However, with chop overflow management I should be able to finish a monument and the encampment by Turn 68.  By reversing the order to monument first I also get an extra 6 turns of monument culture out of it.  

Hit next turn and nothing happens – no movement, no barbs, no battles.  Quiet….too quiet….

[suboptimal]

Turn 49

Open the save, nothing of note before it comes back around to me. Settler finishes in Tomatin, archer in Glenfarclas is almost there.  Right into movement I go.  Scout moves down through the jungle, reveals the last remaining hidden tile as a desert hill.  Jerusalem’s warriors have moved into my intended path with the builder so I move into the woods next to Jerusalem.  Going through the city and crossing the river at the stone is actually a shorter path which I’ll take if only to reduce the risk to the builder until it gets back to my territory.  Settler moves up to meets its escort and Tomatin starts a warrior.  At Glenfarclas the builder chops the woods for 38 cogs, this gets increased to 57 by Agoge.  Seven cogs complete the archer, 50 go into a new builder which will be done in 2 turns and the hex is cleared for a campus to go down on Turn 61.  The tile picker has shown back up and looks like it's going to ping-pong between the silver tiles.  It's currently highlighting the one on the left.

The archer completion in Glenfarclas gets me



In international news it’s mostly quiet.  Ichabod appears to have finished yet another archer, dropping his income to negative territory (his gold on hand went down one).  His overall military power decreased from last turn, though, so he’s definitely engaged in combat somewhere.  In looking around I see that I missed a war declaration against...Stockholm.  Ok, no pillaging for me.  OTOH, no immediate competition for Kikyo.   This does have long-term ramifications if (when) he takes Stockholm.  He may keep moving against La Venta and/or Jerusalem.  The capture of Stockholm also means that Aberfeldy and Cragganmore are no longer back line cities.     If he's using a 4-5 archer force with a couple of warriors it's entirely possible he takes all the city states around here without much resistance.  That would be a major problem, not just for me but for the others as well as he'd be well on his way to getting a steamroller going.

We may or may not get Turn 50 in before Rowain is civ-less for a couple of weeks.  If we get Turn 50 in now I'll probably put up a new set of plans (including my initial invasion plan at Kikyo) shortly after the turn report.  If not, well, both will wait while I focus on giving Epic 4 a go.  

[suboptimal]

Turn 50

Looks like Ichabod is going after the nearby city-states.




That city is going to fall next turn. He hasn’t captured Stockholm yet and I don’t know that he’s attacking – it has lost no garrison strength. It does, however, make me wonder what I should do with my envoy from Mysticism and whether or not I should switch out to State Property now. For the time being I’ll continue as planned and hold the envoy for an opportunity later. Stockholm is building its campus. If Ichabod doesn’t take that city-state over it’s definitely getting a pillage visit from me now. That’s 50 science waiting to be had. A scout has also shown up near Glenflarclas, probably another one from the barbarian camp off to the east.

Slinger from the south attacks it first to soften it up for the archer in Glenfarclas, getting a promotion in the process. Archer gets a bad roll from the RNG and redlines it but doesn’t finish it off. The warrior closest to Kikyo moves up to the border. Next turn I’ll move next to the Holy Site and get eyes on the city center. Everything else continues moving as previously intended.

Hit end turn and it remains quiet.

[suboptimal]

Turn 50 Review

Fifty turns is a nice round number and with the two week hiatus for Rowain’s civlessness I figured it’s not a bad time to give a “State of the Civilization” report, give the Lurkerati something to discuss and to crystallize my thoughts going forward over the next 20-25 turns. So, here we go…

So far, so good

The summary of my first 50 turns is “Good start. Holy crap what are you doing? OK, pull it together, starting to recover”.  The first 20-25 turns went well, getting the immediate areas scouted out, finding six of the ten city-states in the game and three out of four of my opponents.  The only error with the scouting was not being “forceful enough” in trying to get eyes on Kikyo early and perhaps not going northeast to find Washington.  

Turns 28-35 were a bit of a mess.  I’ll chalk that one up to initially misunderstanding combat math, never having played humans before and a healthy dose of paranoia.  I think I’ve come out of it somewhat unscathed but it did put me behind a little bit.  

Turns 36-50 went reasonably well.  The AI did me in a little bit with my intended pillaging at Stockholm but an opportunity has presented itself in the Japan-England war.  The discovery of iron east of Kikyo turned opportunity into necessity and preparations for war have, so far, gone off without a hitch.  I am still making some errors here and there (like I can’t count things in this game properly) which I do need to stop.

The Map

Having looked at a number of maps before this game started helped me to mostly deduce my position on the map – just above the equator in the western portion of the map.  There seems to be a peninsula that Ichabod is on off to the southwest, which initially had me puzzled until I saw his borders start to appear.  The rainforest belt will help in the long-term, both as a geographic buffer between my planned northwestern cities and Ichabod and as a source of faith due to my pantheon.

I am struck by how flat this map seems to be.  There aren’t that many hills to be had anywhere, except up in the northwest where I have the city of Cragganmore planned.  This is putting a premium on production.  The expanse of desert to the south is also larger than I’d seen in most of the maps I looked at.

Domestic Affairs

I’m running at the back of the pack in terms of expansion, though I’ll have a 3rd city in four turns (more on that later).  Research rates are near the bottom, with only Rowain behind me.  Militarily I’m middle of the pack and will catch up a bit to the leader once I perform my unit upgrades on Turn 56 or 57.

I will be in a bit of a sticky situation once I finish Iron Working, as I won’t be able to build any melee units – I’ll have one iron mined but no encampments.  My income will also decrease a little bit due to unit maintenance costs.  That will relieve itself in the late 60’s as I get an encampment built in Tomatin and finish State Property around the same time.


Cities

Tomatin



I had an encampment planned at the forest tile two east of the city center.  Unfortunately the tile picker has flaked out and is switching back and forth between that tile and the forest tile 2 SE of the city center (the dotted red hex).  Worse, the change in mind is not occurring predictably – on Turn 48 it was taking the eastern forest and then on Turn 49 it switched to the SE one, where it remains for Turn 50.  Regardless, tile expansion is due in ten turns.  

That leaves me with a dilemma.  I need to get the encampment out in order to be able to build melee units once Iron Working is done.  However, the SE location is not ideal for use as a defensive perimeter vs. Rowain.  Two benefits that tile does have are providing a +1 gold for the planned Commercial Hub and gives me the option to purchase that rice tile by Tsingy.  I will move forward with the hope that the tile picker switches back in time for the expansion but, if not, the Encampment will go in the SE tile and I’ll deal with it.

Builds are scheduled to be two warriors followed by part of an archer, most of a monument, then chopping out the archer to start the Encampment.   After that I’ll finish the monument and get out a settler.

Glenfarclas



This city is going to be low on production, particularly since I’m chopping several of its forests.  There are no hills in the first two rings and the desert encroaches to the south.  One of the silver-containing tiles will be added to the city in nine turns, but the tile picker is going back and forth between the SW and SE tiles.  I don’t know that I have a preference as both flat and won’t be of use to me until I can get my food generation up.

The locations of the Campus and Holy Site are pretty much set.  I’ll either build a Commercial Hub to the NW or the Encampment to the south, though I also do not like this location.  However, I don’t know where else I’d put it as anything to the NE would take away from Tsingy’s culture and science.

Upcoming builds after the builder are a scout, an archer and a chop to direct overflow into a Campus.  After the Campus I’ll probably build a Library as I don’t see this city contributing much in terms of military.  The Holy Site’s placement is for the potential adjacency bonus – due to my pantheon it’s a +4 from all the rainforests.  

Dalwhinnie (Planned)



This city was originally planned to be founded on Turn 56.  However, the earlier forest chop at Tomatin took a turn off the transit time and I must have miscounted the distance by one.  As a result, this city will get founded on Turn 54 in the marked  location.  The builder getting finished in Glenfarclas will mine the iron and the silver before returning to that city to chop a forest to start the campus.  I’ve decided to put in two mines, rather than farm one of the flood plains, in order to get a little more production out of the city and because having the second luxury resource will allow the other cities to be a bit larger while retaining the 5% yield bonus due to amenities.

The build plan here is for a trader, then going into either a monument or a district depending on what the tile picker does.  All of the district placements are tentative – they provide good adjacency bonuses, particularly if I can take Kikyo.  The trader will add 1F/2P to the city once Tomatin’s encampment is complete.  It will also build a road right through Glenfarclas, getting me trading posts in two cities.

Future Cities

I continue to evaluate Glenkinchie as a city site given its good balance of food and production.  I think if I found there I’d want to be in a position to buy a Tsingy tile right away for the science and culture and to speed the city’s growth.  I don’t think it will be able to grab the remaining horse tile from Baltimore but since I’m planning to go without horses, no big deal.  Aberfeldy and Cragganmore to the west are not as good and I’d have to treat these as front line cities given Ichabod’s location.  Likewise, Auchentoshen to the southwest of Jerusalem is a good spot but not one I could support in the event of an attack.  That would be a back-fill location provided I can take out or stalemate Ichabod.

One goofball idea would be to not settle at the marked spot for Glenkinchie and instead go here:



It would be able to work a 3F/1C/1S tile right away and be generating 2.3 culture and 2.7 science as soon as I put it down.  That would be a significant bump to my current rates.  The first expansion tile would either be the dyes or the deer tile.  Long-term that deer tile could be swapped to Glenfarclas.  The first build could be a Granary, which would relieve the housing situation enough to make this city usable until the Aqueduct can be built.  I think this merits serious consideration.   I’ll have about 20 turns to decide (or see if Rowain sends a settler down here before I can get one built).

Industrial Zones?

Nope.  Not building any this game unless, for some reason, it goes way longer than I anticipate.  I had previously mused about the cost-benefit analysis on building these.  I had also earlier wondered about giving Oledavy’s PBEM 2 Encampment defense strategy a try as well.  After further pondering I’ve decided that Encapments will not only serve as defensive outposts for me, but as a source of additional manufacturing by fully building them out.   First, Encampments are available now, making them cheaper to get out in early cities but equal in cost to IZ’s later on.  Second, though Encampments get no adjacency bonuses the flat terrain in this game is making it hard to find spots for good IZ adjacencies.  There’s a potential for a +4 at Dalwhinnie and a +2 at Tomatin but they require obtaining a few second or third ring tiles to do so.  Third, there’s the actual cog cost once you start talking about district buildings:

- A Workshop is 195 cogs, gets you +2 production, +1 Great Engineer Point and the potential for a specialist for +2 production.  

- A Barracks and an Armory is 280 cogs (90 + 190) and gets you +2 production, +2 Great General Points, a potential +2 production and +2 culture from two specialists AND +1 housing, +50% to XP for melee and ranged units trained in the city and +25% XP for all other military land units.  Building stables increases that cost by 30 cogs and shifts the first +25% from melee & ranged units to cavalry.

A Factory and a Military Academy occur at the same age (early Industrial) and have the same build costs (390 cogs).  The factory gets +3 production while the Military Academy gets a +2 production and allows the direct-building of corps and armies.   To my eyes there’s more value for cogs in a fully-built Encampment than an Industrial Zone built out to level two in the same time frame.

International Affairs

First, the scores & stats:



Kaiser

I do not understand how he’s wound up in as poor a position as he is.  Was it underestimating the presence of a boxed-in opponent to the west, not having any good settling sites to the east or north, a lack of production around Kikyo or something else?  I won’t find out until I read his thread after I’m no longer involved in this game as a player.  He also seems to have stopped posting reports in his thread – not sure if that’s a reflection upon his mental game state after losing Shido or if something else is at play.

I will be invading on Turn 61.  I’ll be coming from the northeast with three archers, two warriors (one promoted) and a Battlecry-promoted swordsman.  That should be enough to take Kikyo in 2-3 turns.  I am on a bit of a timer with this – as long as he doesn’t complete the Shrine he’s started he won’t have his Great Prophet until Turn 65.  If he finishes the shrine or takes the Revelation policy card he will get the prophet sooner.  In either case he’ll most likely take Defender of the Faith, which could make taking Kikyo problematic and prevent me from getting that belief.

Rowain

He seems to have shifted his focus to the east, having declared war on Hattusa.  I don’t see any pillaging going on, so it looks like he made an attempt to take the city and got rebuffed when its defensive strength went up.  That or Bacchus declared war on him (I wouldn’t see the war declaration) due to that attack.  I’ll get a better idea of what’s going on over there once I get a scout out.

Bacchus

Haven’t met him so he’s either my best friend or my worst enemy.  

Ichabod

He seems to have gone full-out military, having taken Shido from Kaiser and will be conquering Kumasi next turn.  He’s also taken out Kumasi quick.  The first question is whether he’ll stop there or continue pushing forward towards either Kikyo or Jerusalem.  He seems to be operating with a military of 4-6 archers and 3-5 warriors, plus that scout I saw earlier.  Most of that is probably around Kumasi right now.  My scout will head off towards England to get a view as to what’s going on down there.  I’d like to scout out the tundra to his south in the hopes that I’d be able to sneak a group of Mamluks past his front lines later on.

City States

My plan for these is to pillage my way through them as long as scouts can be effective at it.  Mines & campus districts are high on the list with pastures and quarries further down.  I’d like to try pillaging my way through the Horseback Riding → Stirrups path while spending my research time on the lower and upper portions of the trees.  Everyone else is going to be seeing me declaring war on the city-states and wondering if I’ve gone Full Monty.

I do plan on trying to keep Jerusalem and La Venta independent and friendly, along with Zanzibar to the north.  The first two for the faith boost to my Holy Sites and the last as a potential driver of my economy (though the others won’t be half-bad at that, either).

One other consideration – Saladin gets +1 science for every foreign city that follows his religion.  I need to debate whether I’ll attempt to make conversions among my opponents early on in the game for the extra science at the risk of spooking them out over a religious victory.

[Ituralde]

Thank you for the review. Read it with interest. I look forward to your next steps once the game resumes!

[suboptimal]

More on the Goofball Location

I've taken more of a deeper dive on this to check out the yields and potential district placements if I were to settle at the “Goofball” spot I highlighted in my review post.   Here's that spot marked with potential district placements:



What's Not To Like

- No fresh water access so it starts out at a 50% growth penalty.
- It's on America's home continent, giving their troops a +5 strength bonus in the event of war.

What's To Like

- Unless it's conquered it would quickly give me control of all six tiles around Tsingy.  
- Working the rice tile the city would be generating 2.8 science and 2.4 culture per turn when it was founded.
- The city would expand within 5 turns, likely grabbing either the dyes or the deer.  It would grab the other tile 8-10 turns after that.
- A granary could be built in 13-15 turns, depending on which tile was grabbed first.  This minimizes the immediate impact of the lack of fresh water.
- After about 20 turns the city could be at 3 population and generating 7 cogs, 5.1 science, 3.9 culture and 1 faith before any bonuses for policies or amenities are added.
- Tile improvements by two workers (camp, plantation, a pasture and a farm) and an eventual barracks would get me three more housing, potentially eliminating the need for an Aqueduct.
- The Encampment placement would be good as a defensive front vs. America
- The proposed Commercial Hub placement is +3 because it'd be adjacent to Tomatin's CH and Encampments (regardless of which hex the latter is on).
- The proposed northern Holy Site would provide a large faith boost at the cost of a little culture and science.  The southern placement would preserve the culture.  If I were to suzerain La Venta, the northern placement would allow a Colossal Head to be built in the southern hex – that would be a 1F/1P/4Ft improvement and give this location the ability to generate +9 faith without any buildings in the Holy Site.
- The grassland hill forest and 2nd ring grassland hill stone can both be chopped and mined for a gain in immediate cog and no ongoing loss in production.  The stone tile could also be quarried for the Masonry eureka.

I think that this city location is strong enough at founding and as it grows to be worth the early housing difficulties.  The question now becomes whether this city worth rearranging “the plan.”  Let's see.   I could get a settler out on Turn 60 and found the city on Turn 64 provided:

- I stop the second warrior one turn from completion and skip the archer build completely.
- I finish Mysticism in two turns and swap Colonialism in and Urban Planning out.

What effect does this have on everything?

- I'd lose Urban Planning from Turn 52 through Turn 62, when State Workforce completes via slow-researching and I can swap it back in.  This may push back the completion of the campus in Glenfarclas by a few turns but has a negligible effect on production at Dalwhinnie.
- I'd have only two warriors for capital defense, one warrior in the queue which will upgrade to a swordsman and no ranged unit available.
- I'd gain the science and culture benefits much earlier.  They represent 37% (science) and 60% (culture) increases over current levels.  This effectively replaces the need to get a monument out quickly in Tomatin and/or Dalwhinnie.
- I'd have Political Philosophy around Turn 70 instead of sometime in the mid/late-70's due to the increased culture rate.

Hmmm...I'd say there might be a new plan in town.

[suboptimal]

Turn 51

And….we’re back!  Let’s see what the turn has brought me….



As expected, Kumasi is now under English control.  Back in Arabia I switch Iron Working to Writing for that to complete first.  Glenfarclas starts its scout build.  Off to the various unit moves I talked about two weeks ago…

- Builder stolen from Stockholm continues moving towards Tomatin.
- Settler/Warrior pair continue moving towards the Dalwhinnie site.
- Completed builder in Glenfarclas also moves south, escorted by the archer.
- Slinger that killed the scout on Turn 50 promotes, taking Volley (+5 vs. land units).
- In the north I advance the warrior out of Tomatin, just to see if there’s anything interesting going on south of Baltimore. Nothing yet.
- Scout that was headed for Kikyo turns west, heading for the English front.  It finds a wounded Japanese Archer.  Looks like Kaiser advanced his troops to inflict some damage.  I’m intending on sending the scout between Kumasi and Kikyo and then skirting the southern flank of England in order to reveal more map, see if I can locate where Pindicator is positioning England’s troops in Ichabod’s absence and to check if there’s a path around Watchtower to the south.
- Warrior NW of Kikyo moves next to the Holy Site, exposing the capital:



First, Kikyo is at 15 defense, so he’s got nothing but archers and warriors.  The capital currently has no garrison.  If there are additional bonus resources besides the wheat they’re to the southwest of the city center. It looks like he has a pretty barren capital, at least compared to Tomatin.  If he has a luxury resource he’s traded it away as there are none showing on his deal screen.  The only other tile revealed is a plains hill forest tile for 1F/3P.  He also hasn’t built anything in the city center as far as I can tell.   I move the warrior back to the marble with the intent of bringing it around to see what is to the west of the city center.  

In looking around at things I see that the tile picker at Tomatin has now switched back to my preferred location for the Encampment district.  Hopefully it stays there.

Hit end turn, hear the snare drum stinger that indicates...something (barbarians approaching?).  It’s not the “barbarian camp spawn” sound, though.

[suboptimal]

Turn 52

Open the save, warrior in Tomatin completes.  Start another warrior, that will get one turn of cogs and then I switch to a settler.  Down at Glenfarclas it looks like I’ve got a spot of Barbarian trouble:



That camp off to the east will need to be dealt with after Kikyo, methinks.  First, some moves…

- stolen builder crosses the river.  Barring something hostile just outside the fog to the north the builder is secure.
- Move warrior by Tomatin east one, find Rowain’s warrior parked.  This could bode trouble in a few turns if he’s got a settler on the way over.



- Over by the barbs I shuffle units around to continue advancing the builder and settler, with the warrior and archer setting up to deal with the spearman.
- Warrior by Kikyo continues skirting the boundary to the west to expose the west & southwestern tiles in a couple of turns.
- Scout advances southwest, finds the bulk of Japan’s army setting up a front:



Kaiser isn’t going to be expecting my settlement at Dalwhinnie and I’ll be curious to see what he does with this force when I do.  Based on Kaiser’s domination score of 88, this is the entirety of his army – 3 archers (75) and a damaged warrior.  Based on the combat info box the promoted archer appears to have taken the Garrison promotion as it shows no bonuses against my scout.  The short-term consideration here is that Turn 53 marks the tenth turn since Ichabod declared war.  They could be at peace by the time my next turn rolls around.  While that might have an impact on whether or not I attack Kikyo (that will depend on Kaiser’s troop placements) it will not prevent Dalwhinnie from founding on Turn 54.