Das Boot (directed by Wolfgang Petersen and Singaboy)

[Singaboy]

Turn 56:

The situation at the beginning of the turn including the current score:
All is going according the what I have laid out a few posts before. HBR in 2 turns followed by ship building. Civic swap on T59 when Zuckerstadt is almost done with the archer and Aachen almost done with its camp.




By then I hope to have captured Valletta. One archer attacks the city, the other swaps into range, warrior healed via pillage of the farm. The health of the city is still at 108 and will be 128 next turn. Two archers should get it down to 80, the warrior could add another 30 damage and the galley can add more damage. It will take two turns to take Valletta I assume. This is important as I need to send a archer to protect the repaired sugar by then.

Japper has not updated his own thread and not answered my call for a peace treaty. His boat is missing. His score is still low and I think I will try and attempt an attack on him once I got the Hansa infrastructure up. A  Great General with plenty of horsemen, maybe a battering ram and archers should be able to take him down if he is not prepared well.



In the east, our galley finally spots another city state, Jerusalem. As I ma not doing anything for a religion or faith, this is fairly uninteresting and I won't invest in it at all.

[Singaboy]

Turn 57:

I get two surprises at the start of the turn. Valletta produced a warrior that has been teleported out of the city next to my archer/warrior. The other is that Japper is back with his long boat. It hasn't really healed either. He might have hoped my attack on Valletta would keep the campus unprotected. Not gonna happen  

The other news is that Zuckerstadt has grown to size 4 and shed a turn to produce the archer. Theoretically, I could swap and finish the civic a turn earlier. I am still a little hard pressed to decide what to produce in Zuckerstadt next. I could go for
a. the campus, which takes a long time currently
b. a galley for added coastal defense
c. a monument to boost culture
d. a builder for much needed improvements and some chops

The problem is as long as I have to fear coastal raids, I need to protect all my tile improvements. That's pretty nasty. I lean toward the campus at the moment even though it takes 17 turns currently. The camp in Aachen will help a little. Zuckerstadt is still growing to size 5 in eight turns and that will provide yet anther +2 hammers.




Time to focus on Valletta. I attack with both archers which shave off a mere 42 health to leave the city at 86 health. Far too much to do anything here. However, the subsequent attack by our galley is a huge success and the city health drops to 38 (a drop of 48). The warrior attacks and actually, to my own big surprise, takes the city  

This removes Valletta's galley and warrior and I can focus on Japper, if he doesn't agree on peace terms for now. I am impressed by the galley's strength. This in turn means, that my cities are quite vulnerable to ship attacks too and I better get some horsemen out eventually to boost my defenses.



I swap a crab from Kiel to Valletta as it only has useless tiles to work at the moment. The city really needs to expand borders to do anything useful. hence I start to repair the monument. A granary could follow after that for some growth.
Thanks to the new city, I have almost caught up with Woden in science (he makes 18.8 beakers a turn)

It is high time for me to connect new luxuries to take care of happiness with the five cities I have. Salt, wine and citrus will be much welcome additions.



I rename the city to Zitronenhain to continue the habit in this game to name cities after the resources they have.

If Japper decides to move north, I will attack him with both archers, potentially the slinger and my galley. Unless he has access to the open seas I can now block his longboat from moving north. The good thing is, from where he is, he can't see my galley yet.

[Singaboy]

Thinking a little longer term, I do note that Valletta has a potentially significant strategic location.

If  the city controls the tile NW of the citrus tile and builds a camp there, it can control the Straits there. A ship placed either to the NW or NE blocks the passage entirely. Potentially important. the other strategic location is to the west, where one ship could do the same.


Of course, I have set my sights on the west with Japper's land and cities. I am thinking currently, that it might be a good idea to fund the city on the other continent as indicated and then start a land invasion from there. A sea invasion is out of the question anyway. If I can manage to found a city west and sneak in sufficient units while being under the radar there, Japper might not have the land forces to counter that.

I might swap policies from Agoge to Maritime Industries, forgo the unit maintenance discount for now to get Colonization in play until I have 2 additional settler, get my Hansas up in the meantime and then produce military for self defense and the campaign in the west. I am aware that Woden is east and Archduke just north of me. I need to stay vigilant at all times not to fall victim to a coordinated attack by them.

[Singaboy]

Turn 58:

I had hoped to see Japper's longboat within my borders to attack but it is gone. That's a real pity. HBR is done. Due to acquisition of Valletta, now called Zitronenhain, our lead in score has increased. Salz am Meer has grown to pop 2 as well and science and culture increased accordingly.
I hope the others do not see my score as too much of a threat to start a campaign against me. It is now vital to get the production with Hansas up and running before I get into trouble here. As long as nobody has ship building, I should still be fine.



I start ship building and due to science being at 19.2 and some overflow, it is ready in 5 turns, a turn earlier than initially estimated. Zuckerstadt will finish my 8th land unit next turn giving me another Eureka.
Next turn, I will swap civics so I can select Colonization after the moment Aachen starts the settler. Nobody has other GPP except for the Great Scientist and Great Prophets. This is important as I would like to get into the GP race myself, especially the Great General to feel a little safer. A Great Admiral would be good too, maybe with the +2 civic since I don't even have the technology to build harbors yet.

I upgrade the warrior and archer as well, the archer taking the +10 district defense promotion for added defense. This archer will sit on the campus for defense. The other archer moves west to help protect Salz am Meer. The slinger moves down to protect the sugar that will be repaired next turn.

My galley in the east is sailing a little northward to spot other Nations

[Sullla]

Since you haven't had a lot of lurker posts in your thread recently, I thought I'd comment just to say that you are playing a very impressive game thus far. I would ask about your longterm plans but you've already done an excellent job of explaining that. Good luck!

[Singaboy]

Thanks Sullla for the kind words It's also good to hear/read that someone is following my thread. I was wondering whether I am writing all for myself while seeing some lurkers post in other threads, especially oledavy's.

As for the longer term plans, it is clear that I am not going down a religious or tourism route. Germany's strength is clearly district power with plenty of production. In PBEM2, my opponents were surprised how many units I could produce. I am hoping to be able to set up the production base without getting into too much trouble with attackers. Hence, I will need to stay alert at all times. The good thing is, I am having the early lead in science and culture (and currently in military strength), which will enable me to set up proper measures to defend and go on the offense.

Japper is half my score currently (I have no idea what he is doing to have such a low score). He is right next to me near Zuckerstadt (I can see his borders). Given this, I guess he is a suitable target. Taking out Norway would enable me to be a little more relaxed about protection of improved tiles.

I assume he is trying to get harbors and naval power up, hence taking that, would be a good thing.

[Ituralde]

Just the obligatory reading along comment. But as Sullla has already pointed out you're doing such a great job at explaining your moves and your plans, that it's hard to write anything or ask anything that you haven't covered already. The curse of the perfect reporter. Rest assured however that I'm enjoying your reports very much, sorry for leaving you alone in your echo chamber.

One thing I wanted to add is that the German names you chose for your cities are really well done, often those composite German names become garbled beyond recognition, but your German is excellent!

[Singaboy]

That's because I am German

I am thinking of renaming Kiel to include the crabs...something like Krabbenkiel

[Mardoc]

Thirded

[suboptimal]

Thanks Sullla for the kind words It's also good to hear/read that someone is following my thread. I was wondering whether I am writing all for myself while seeing some lurkers post in other threads, especially oledavy's.

I've avoided that feeling in PBEM 3 by occasionally looking at the thread view count - I post a report, it goes up by a bit and I know I've got lurkers watching (for better or for worse ).