Das Boot (directed by Wolfgang Petersen and Singaboy)

[Singaboy]

Turn 66:

The turn before getting my settler out finally. Nevertheless, it is an eventful turn

Let's start by looking at the score and situation. Only oledavy has made a jump and that is due to a campus I assume as he is now in the Great Scientist race too. My cities are humming along with their production. Things will be a little more exciting on T67 to T71.



I check out my capital, as I know overflow of production has to be quite significant. I am going to use this for the first horseman to boost my city defenses. My military rating is at 240 and much higher than anyone else but I am still vulnerable to sea attacks.
Aachen in fact is a mere hammer away from the settler. This will result in an overflow of 27 hammers going into the horseman. As I am going to change the policies enabling Maneuver, Aachen will produce around 27 hammers a turn. The horseman should be done in 2 turns in fact. However, I prefer it to be done in 4 turns with a big overflow yet again to speed up the CH in Aachen.




How about Kiel, the production is dismal. I will use a rain forest chop to clear the hill for the Hansa. The chop currently gives 25 hammers and 25 food. This will reduce the required hammers by roughly 3 turns at current production levels. Kiel will get its districts eventually and the Hansa will surely help with production levels later on.




In the west, as suspected, we finally uncover a natural wonder for the Eureka. From what I can see, Japper's cities are pretty far apart. This might make staging the initial attack a little easier. Maybe he is planning to fill the land later on?




In the east, I finally meet oledavy. He is the only other Civ I met that is in a classical republic. The rest are still in the first level government. Through the settler lens I can spot a tiny bit of his empire, but there is no direct access to it. My galley might have to sail a long way around the Islands.

The last part of this turn is an offer to Woden. First of all, it is always nice to have access to yet another luxury (though I will get wine myself soon), but I want to cement relationships in the east to get them off my back for now. Let's see whetehr he will accept this deal.

[Singaboy]

Turn 67:

Aachen's settler is finally done, Games and Recreation finished as well. Good news is that Woden has accepted my deal and due to even more amenities, science has gone up by 0.5, culture by 0.3. The loss of population in Aachen is evened out by growth in Salz am Meer.

Apprenticeship has dropped by 1 turn, not sure whether it will reach 50% before T71.




First, I am changing the policies and realize my mistake by wanting to swap to civics that can't be combined in my current government  

Hence, I can't enable Conscription, Maneuver and Strategos at the same time. I decide to go for the combination below. I leave Ilkum in place as I am still and will produce builders. I still have quite a need for more builder actions. 



The northern builder has reached bananas to improve them next turn for another amenity (I finally figured that those resources provide an amenity for one city not 4 each). It will provide more gold and culture too. Together with the monument to be finished, culture will grow even more. In the south, the settler and builder are having a problem  that both want to move the same route. Luckily the builder can use the lake to move towards the stone.

In the west, my warrior has been spotted by Japper's long boat (he definitely has two boats around). I will need to get my galleys back in time if he wants to get funny again. The Island looks pretty decent to settler really with horses and iron.




I am thinking of producing another builder in Zitronenhain to be able to improve the citrus and two sea resources for the Eureka. Salz am Meer will go for a warrior for some coastal pillage defense before the Hansa will kick in. Zuckerstadt can start the campus for 2 turns before switching to the Hansa on T71.

[Jabah]

(reply from an older post)
+1 to thank you for all the time dedicated to write your reports/thoughts.
As a global lurker, I won't comment but hope you keep having fun and doing those frequent updates.

[Singaboy]

@Jabah, thanks for the kind words.

Turn 68:

Salz am Meer and Zitronenhain finished their builds. Throughout the turn, I am changin my mind what to build there next. First focus is my capital though. Thanks to happiness etc, the horseman would be done next turn but without any overflow. That's not what I want. I change on tile assignment and reduce production to 16.5 +50% making sure, that the horseman is ready only in 2 turns. Next turn, with additional growth of the city and the second stones being improved too, production will reach 20 +50%. The result will be an overflow of around 30 hammers into the CH. Well worth the one turn wait for a horseman. Making currently 30 hammers for horsemen gives me a good feeling to mount a war once the Hansa has been built.




Next thing to think about is the production for all other cities. Kiel will stay on districts until both are done. Initially I though if building a warrior in Sand am Meer but without the right policy, that takes a smacking 6 turns. I decide to build another builder there, ready in 8 turns. The one good thing is, that the city actually claimed the desert tile planned for Zuckerstadt's Hansa. That will save me precious 80 gold. Zitronenhain emphasizes growth now, working the citrus instead of the crab. The city will grow in 3 turns and goes for the city walls. I will need it for a Eureka and it will boost my naval defenses too.

Now, let's have a look at Zuckerberg. The builder improves the banana and it looks good. Housing goes up to 6 and I am now contemplating to get this city up to pop 10. Aachen is too productive not to use if for settlers for a long time. Next turn, I will swap to its campus before it will start the Hansa. I will need a second campus for yet another Inspiration. I might go for faster growth before focusing on production again.



I can afford to focus on growth in cities to keep up with Woden's frantic science pace (he now makes 25 beakers a turn). His culture output is lacking though. None of the others is good at both science and culture. My output of 20 science and 19 culture (banana culture not shown in display yet) isn't too shabby.

Bananas give us another small amenity. Let's have a look at the city status:
A nice picture here with two cities being ecstatic. I am hoping that the horseman will strengthen city defenses too. I shall revisit this in two turns.



Another statistic, the Great People overview. I will get the Great General in around 14 turns. This will be in line with my plans to attack Japper around turn 90. I have scouted his shores near my Island and feel confident to launch an attack from there. I doubt he can match my military strength. Currently, his military is really weak and he still has no harbors too. In 4 turns, he could start his shore bombardment again and it will be time by then to be ready to defend tiles at the coast.



The last piece of news is my discovery of city state #8, Hongkong. Unfortunately, the quest is a little problematic as I can't attack barbarians over there.

[Singaboy]

Turn 69:

Zuckerstadt has its new builder and switches to the campus. Kiel's CH is at 8 turns. The new builder will reach the rain forest for the chop on T71, the turn apprenticeship will finish. This chop will reduce the CH to 3 turns. However, I will swap to the Hansa most likely. I might think about it, maybe it is better to finish the CH first for some added gold and the adjacency bonus for the Hansas.

Zitronenhain is slowly building its walls. Growth might reduce the number of turns. It would be good to get some trade routes going soon in order to increase production of the smaller cities.

In the score, oledavy and Woden are making up ground. Both make 25 science beakers a turn now compared to my 21.2. oledavy still has three cities only. Well, my score is stagnating a little currently and that will remain until T71 when things start to accelerate again thanks to techs, cities and then districts. Everything is prepping up for the big turn T71.



At Aachen, the micromanagement has paid off. The horseman is at 78/80 and the city with the improved stone and its ecstatic mood is making 20.9 hammers. On T71, upon switching to the Hansa, Aachen's CH will be at around 30/107 hammers. With the Hansa and the added bonus from Buenos Aires, Aachen should be able to finish the CH in three additional turns.



The galley in near Hongkong discovers not only the barbarian camp, that the city wants removed. It also spots Jester's archer. As it sometimes is, no contact appears on the screen for me yet. I guess I will have to wait until next turn for it to happen. With all civs and most city states discovered, I might start to move back all three galleys to defend the seas in case Japper gets funny. In 20 turns, I need them at home anyway to aide the invasion.

[Singaboy]

Turn 70:

The calm before the storm...
It's the turn before the 'big' turn and things are looking good. Aachen finished its horseman right on time as Japper is sniffing around again with his longboat. It is time for counter measures, in this case, covering of coastal improvements so he doesn't even think about attacking.

I have one galley around and its right next to him to show him what I think of his 'moves'. The good thing here is that I have a horseman now that is pretty flexible to move where needed. I also move the warriors at Aachen closer to cover stuff. I actually wonder whether the copper can be pillaged since its on top of a cliff. The horseman could easily cover the bananas or the Hansa when required.

Aachen swapping to CH with overflow needs a mere 4 turns to finish. However, I will swap out of it next turn. Everyone is ready for action:
1. Settler in place in the south to found city, then buy the 2nd ring iron tile
2. Builders in place to mine iron, mine copper finishing apprenticeship. This will make all three mines more valuable too
3. Third builder in position to chop rain forest for Kiel (I will deliberately wait for the technology to be ready in the hope to gain more hammers through the chop). Kiel's population will grow via that chop too, Zitronenhain's pop will go up as well.
4. Hansas will be locked at Aachen, Kiel (after the chop) and Zuckerstadt. Salz am Meer needs to wait for the builder to chop yet another hill for the Hansa. That chop will also flow into Kiel hoping to speed up the Hansa nicely.




As promised, here is the city status update now that a horseman has been built. This is excellent news. The city strengths have gone up by 11 points in each city simply due to the strength of the horseman. Districts will make them even tougher in time. A strength 30 long boat doesn't look so intimidating any longer. 



In other news, I still have no contact with Jester although my galley is directly next to his archer. What is actually needed for a contact here? This is really weird.

[Singaboy]

Turn 71:

The big one. I open the save and everything is in place, including Japper's irritating long boat. No contact with Jester yet, maybe boats and units can't meet? But I met with the rest too.



Let's start with the first action, founding the new city of Weinberg (city #6). Then I buy the iron tile for 80 gold and mine it. This triggers the Eureka for iron working of course. Weinberg is going for growth working the wine for now. The iron tile is shifted to Aachen, especially since it will make 3 hammers soon.



Moving on to Zuckerberg, the builder there is using its last charge to mine the copper. This finishes Apprenticeship. Of course, this also increases the tile yield to 3 hammers too. With many districts, production in the north is hard to come by. There is a lot of shuffling to be done in the next few turns.



With Apprenticeship done, it is time to get Hansas locked and started. I estimated Hansa to cost around 75 hammers. In fact they only cost 68 hammers currently. This is excellent news. Aachen will need 4 turns for the Hansa and then finish the CH in 2 turns due to overflow (I also get additional +2 hammers due to Buenos Aires). This means I can start with horseman production on T77. I should be able to produce a horseman every 2 turns. This will give me roughly 6 horseman before T90. From Aachen alone.

I then chop the rain forest at 27 hammers and food for Kiel. Unfortunately, Kiel has hardly any tiles to work for production and CH is still 4 turns away. I even need to work a useless 1f1g sea tile for a turn until Zitronenhain grows its borders next turn. I decide to keep Kiel at the CH to give Aachen's Hansa a head start adjacency. In fact Kiel's CH will be done in 2 turns when the builder chops the second rain forest. It will then have to go for a long way to produce the Hansa without much of the production. I estimate, it will take Kiel 10 turns for the Hansa, a real pity. I might have to get a trader out before that to send a trade route to Kiel for additional production.



The situation on my Island at the end of the turn is below. I swapped out from Defensive Tactics as I need Military training to be one turn from completion, so I can change policies on T82, when the Great general is done and Strategos no longer needed. On T73, I will swap back to Defensive Tactics and then start Feudalism. I have to work out a plan to build 6 farms, so far I have a mere 2 and both are pillaged.

Zuckerberg has a pretty solid production and will finish the Hansa in 6 turns. Once Aachen's Hansa is done, the production will increase further due to the trader. After the Hansa, I will either finish the campus or start on traders. Zuckerberg has decent production to help out with this as I will need a few traders soon.

Weinberg is going for full growth so I can chop the forest and lock a CH in place with pop 4. I already locked a campus and a Hansa there. Weinberg will get better production once the stone hills are part of its borders.

Zitronenhain stays on course for its walls as I need to Eureka for Engineering and my journey to crossbows. Salz am Meer is finishing its builder and will then work on the Hansa. I will have to come up with some more detailed planning from T70 - T100 soon, as everything is pretty fluid right now. Of course, besides the empire building, there is a war I want to start on T90 against Japper. I think Zuckerberg would need to go for some archers too.




My score has jumped by 10 and is now at 104. I am hoping not to get the others to rally against me. My military strength is luckily far ahead of the rest. In the east, I finally manage to get the contact with Jester. I would like to explore more but also bring back one of the galleys. The other exploring galley is rounding Woden's Brazil and I am hoping to find a path back to my own Islands. I need to have those galleys there to aid the invasion.

[Singaboy]

Turn 72:

There are some peace messages between oledavy and Jester, Woden making peace with La Venta. Nothing too important. Archduke has settled a city close to the Straits. He needs to be monitored as he is the first to have a harbor making Great Admiral points. He will need to be kept in check. Good thing I am building a city wall in Zitronenhain. With some tile shuffling, the walls will be done in 13 turns.



Most of the turn is spent micromanaging the cities. To my dismay I find out that Hansas cost 73 hammers not 68. Must have been the cost without Apprenticeship technology. Looking at Aachen, I am happy to see the production at a healthy 23 
This means that Aachen will finish the Hansa with an overflow of 19 flowing into the CH. In 5 turns, both will be done in the capital. In fact, its Hansa will enjoy a +2 production from the CH done at Kiel next turn. The bonuses will increase in this massive district cluster between Aachen, Kiel and Salz am Meer.
Aachen will finish Hansa T75, CH T77. It will go for solely military output with T79 chariot (for the envoy in Carthage), T81,83,86,88,90 five horseman. On T82, I will drop Strategos and implement Conscription to ease the unit support. I will start to move units moving towards Norway from T86 onward. I will have to check out the cities to see whether a battering ram is needed.


The great thing about Aachens Hansa location is, its factory will give production bonus of +3 to all cities within 6 tiles and that is all cities north of Aachen.





Kiel's CH is at 94/107 and will reach 102/107 next turn. The rain forest chop will get it to 129/107 resulting in +2 production in Aachen and an overflow of much needed 22 hammers. Unfortunately, production will be almost non existent at 6.3 hammers a turn after the chop. The Hansa costs 73 hammers and would take 8 turns to finish on T81. With a Hansa, production will then increase by 3 hammers. A trade route could add another 4 hammers. This will result in a production of 13 hammers a turn, nothing fantastic.




Zuckerstadt has a much better potential. It will finish its Hansa in 4 turns. It is a good city for a short term water mill to get a Eureka. I will look at civics and technology planning in a separate post. Looking at Salz am Meer, another production starved city, I assign the horses from Aachen (Aachen switches from horses to stone losing a mere food) to it. SaM is making 8 hammers a turn getting the builder done on T76. It could then go for a trader (at least two are needed for now) or right away for the Hansa. Even though this would take around 9 turns, the resulting production boost and adjacency multipliers are well worth it. After finishing the Hansa, it could then go for naval production as I need a better navy and at least one quadrireme for some Inspiration.

The tile expansion in 3 turns also opens another nice possibility and that is to buy the sheep tile. An improved sheep would not only give +3 production, it would add yet another +1 amenities.



Finally a look at the Great People overview. Nobody has even built an encampment at all. This means also that production so far is limited for all of them as none has 2 copies of horses or iron. This is good news for my war with Norway, though Norway has two horses that I can see. I need to prevent them from connecting both.
My GG points are not really 3.5 but more like 3.45 and that results in the GG done either on T82 or T83. I am pretty confident to get the Great Engineer as none of the others can finish so many industrial districts as I can. there will be five of them in time to come. It will grant me the Eureka for Printing, which would be having 2 universities, something I could actually achieve. The added district limit is something that might come in handy at a much later stage.

I am curious about the next Great Merchant as I would like to net it.

[Singaboy]

Technology Planning:

With Apprenticeship and Industrial Districts researched, the next aim is to

a. get to machinery and crossbows
b. research more naval technologies

Looking at the technology tree, the plan is this:
The Wheel T73
Iron Working T76
Engineering T81 (waiting for city walls in Zitronenhain to be done by T85)
Astrology T83
Celestial Navigation until T85, switch to Machinery T92 (might finish Celestial Navigation if the required Eureka has been done)

This puts me in a good position in the upcoming war to upgrade a few archers to crossbows if needed. I could also upgrade warriors to swordsmen for better offense and defense. Crossbows will greatly help me to deter any naval invasion. There needs to be a network of defenders around to prevent that.



Civics: Planning:
Slightly more complicated due to missing Inspiratons etc. the aim is to get to Merchant Republic.

Mil Training, switch to Defensive Tech T73
Defensive Tech T74
Feudalism T81 (need 6 farmed tiles to finish Eureka: Two rice at Weinberg, two wheat, one flood plain one farm at Zitronenhain. To achieve this, the current builder will move north after chopping the rain forest to repair the farm at Zitronenhain, then move to Zuckerstadt to farm the wheat there after tile has been bought. The builder currently produced in SaM will farm the floodplains, then move to repair wheat tile at Aachen and finally move south to farm both rice fields at Weinberg. In the ideal scenario, this is achieved by T86)

Mil Training T82 switching civics by dropping Strategos and possibly implementing Conscription
Mercenaries T90
Medieval fairies T100 (need 4 trad routes, which means one additional CH or harbor is needed. Weinberg might be a potential city for it)
Exploration T110 (need two caravels for the inspiration)

This is a mere rough plan with potential adjustments as Civil Service and Guilds are very good civics along the way. Of course, research times hopefully drop due to increase in science and culture as well.

[Singaboy]

Turn 73:

Let the districts power start... I actually forgot that the Hansa builds get +2 production from Buenos Aires. Good to have this city with me. Kiel's CH is about to be done, but even Weinberg at size one with working wine is making 4.3 hammers due to the various bonuses.



The builder chops the rain forest and the CH which was at 103/107 is done with big overflow (the chop produced 28 hammers due to the wheel being done). I realize that it might be better to wait with putting down Salz am Meer's Hansa, I might as well wait for 2 turns and work the hill. This means that Kiel's Hansa will be done a lot faster, currently it shows 6 turns.
Mathematics gets its Eureka thanks to the third unique district.

I switch research from Mil Training back to Defensive Tactics. Japper is still checking out the shore looking for possibilities to pillage I assume. I can't wait to get rid of this pest. On the mini map you can maybe spot my two galleys trying to find their way home. I would like to build a quadrireme to pound Japper even harder. I might build one at Zuckerstadt.



By the way, as a side note, I was checking whether to buy the next settler and got a shock. It would cost 800 gold as its 200 hammers now