[Spoilers] The games they are a changin' - Ichabod Civ 6 PBEM 3 as England

[pindicator]

Another reason I didn't play last night is that Suboptimal gave me a response to my trade proposal that needed some thought, and I didn't get the chance to put any time to it with my brother stopping in. (And now we find the other brother gave the wrong date/time for picking him up at the airport so tonight I might not have a lot of time either Famity sometimes, right?)

Suboptimal offered me 1 gold for 1 gold.

Looking at demos, I see we are no longer #1 in military. Suboptimal now is.

Oh wow, he's going to attack Kaiser next turn, isn't he? I mean, I thought from the gossip screen that he had declared friendship recently but it's possible that I read that wrong. I can't think what else 1 for 1 could mean in this context.

So how to respond?  

If we continue to attack with Suboptimal joining in and Kaiser's troops between us and the capital then we likely aren't the ones coming away with Kaiser's capital. So my first reaction is to ask for peace with Kaiser this turn. This let's Kaiser turn his troops around to focus on Suboptimal.

I don't expect him to hold out for the full 30t so this idea may just end up giving an upset Suboptimal as a neighbor. Or a weakened Suboptimal fighting Rowain in 15t or so time.

But it also let's us turn the bulk of our army towards conquering city-states. There can't be much longer before walls come up, and we are stalemated with Kaiser for the time being. Plus we already have openned up a lot of land to expand into already.

So I'm leaning towards offering peace this turn. But with a big decision like that I'd feel better getting your input before proceeding

[pindicator]

Turn 54

With Ichabod coming back on 9/3 I think this will be my last turn, unless he needs more time away for some reason.  As such I played it pretty conservatively.

First off, here is the deal that Suboptimal sent that I described before:




I didn't bother to counter with the Silk offer I had proposed the turn before.  Perhaps we should throw it Rowain's way?  In any case I think we should shop it around, as other people will get Silk later (it's everywhere in our view), so might as well get some pennies off it now than nothing.

And Kaiser had moved his archers around to snipe at warriors.




With the thought that Suboptimal might attack I decided to just pull everything back. I don't want to show a threat to Kaiser and have him be split between 2 threats. If I had been on my own game I would have offered peace here to Kaiser (Suboptimal plays after us and before Kaiser so he wouldn't have seen the peace deal until his turn after next, but that will always play true in this order).

Having the thought of Kaiser declaring made me wonder what he was doing for the back end. So I switched direction on the scout and moved it to the northeast, and found this prize. (Another reason not to ask for peace quite yet, although I guess we could have used it as a leverage point to have him accept peace.)




Looks like Suboptimal is going to win the race to that spot. So where else could Kaiser potentially send that settler if Suboptimal plants in place there? Let's look at the settler lens:




If we declare peace with Kaiser I would imagine he heads north of Kumasi to settle on the river there. He may try that anyway. But I think more likely he sends the settler to the coast by Preslav, far to the east. In any case he really is running out of spots to put a city! The river valley in the south is all tundra and close to our troops, so it seems the worst spot to put it.

You can also see above how I moved troops for the turn. I wanted to pull back but still give us the ability to strike back should Kaiser advance with his own stuff.

*****

In better news, the west is getting close to under control:




The archer out of Hard Rain moved southwest and fired on the barb horsearcher. It can only be hit by 1 unit in response. Meanwhile the spear out of the capital moved onto the sheep and is in position to knock out a barbarian, unless they do the favor for us in the interturn.

And we finally, FINALLY killed that barb encampment to the east of Hard Rain. The archer there popped the camp and fired a shot at the newest barb horse archer which spawned at the end of this last turn.

Optimistically, I think we could have all barbarian units removed from our area in 2 turns.

Builds wise, I set Changing of the Guards on a monument to get the border growth coming faster. A builder here is very tempting (4 turns) because it gives us Wheel (3 turns of tech), and potentially also gives us 2 farms on the wheat tiles. Note: we can buy the wheat tiles for 110g each. Then we'd buy a Water Mill and actually get to grow the capital! A second option is to build a Library (6 turn build). With the Trader out of Geneva we will get suzerain status over that city state and so that Library actually represents +4 science for us. A third build option is a settler, but that can be done in any city. However, the capital is 10 turns and other cities are only worse.

I kept telling myself that I would get together a District plan for you but I still haven't done it. We definitely want to get an Encampment somewhere; Kumasi seems like a winner there. Watchtower is our only spot for a Royal Port right now. Hard Rain could do another Campus in the jungle and a Commercial district along the river.

After playing the turn I think I'd switch the capital to a builder next turn. Once we get the next civic we should change into 1 turn of Land Surveyers and then buy the 2 wheat tiles at the capital, saving 66g or so. Builder hooks up copper and gets Wheel in and then farms both wheat tiles. That would give us +7 food at size 3 working both wheat and the sheep.

Political Philosophy in 3 turns. Which government do you like and do we push for a Great Person with the wildcard slot? Haven't even thought about it yet!

[Ichabod]

Hey, Pindicator. Thanks for the help with the saves. I'm back and I can keep going from here. I'll take some time to carefully read your reports and I should be able to play the next turn. Thanks again.

[pindicator]

How was the vacation?

Glad to have you back and in the captain's chair! Let me know if you have any questions about my decisions / movements, or things I didn't explain well in the thread.

[pindicator]

So I'm actually still able to view the game status and event download the turn saves with PYDT. I've saw the last 2 turns at the beginning --

T55 - Felt like an idiot for my troop positioning in how I handed things off to you. I had wanted to lure Kaiser in but I hadn't positioned the archers well at all for being able to counter, and that was painfully obvious on how he advanced

T56 - Looks like we killed an archer / drove it back and didn't lose anything ourselves. I'm happy I didn't cause a total disaster

[Ichabod]

Yeah, everything worked out in the military front. We killed a second archer this past turn (we killed one with 2 hits on turn 55, I started with an attack from the archer inside the city, as that one was free, and he did 51 damage, which likely guaranteed a kill with the second archer shot), likely getting lucky again with only needing 2 shots. I think Kaiser is down to 1 archer and 1 warrior. He is building a shrine in the Capital, likely to get the GPro sooner for Defender of the Faith. DotF won't be that useful considering he has almost no units, but I want to try and prevent that, anyway. My plan is to use the western worker to improve both horses (which can be done very quickly, if Geneva's units decide to cooperate), while the eastern one chops a forest into a horseman (with 75% bonus, hopefully enough to 1 turn it, since I'll also try to get some overflow from the previous build). If we can park a unit inside Kaiser's Holy Site, he can't found his religion.

So, the plan is to advance with the full strength archers, heal up our other units, and prepare for the attack once the horseman is done (5/6 turns? Kaiser needs 9 more turns for the GPro, and I don't think he can speed it up for more than 2 turns with the shrine). Killing two archers from Kaiser opened up this possibility, and I think we should try and take it. I'll try and keep the scout alive, to use him on the siege of the city. We could advance even without the horseman, considering how things are right now, but unfortunately our warriors are very damaged.

It'll depend on the timing of things, but I'm not seeing a way out for Kaiser, after he lost those 2 archers. He's currently building a shrine, so I don't think he can get walls before the planned attack. I'm confident we can stop him founding a religion (by camping the HS before he can use the GPro), but even if he manages to get it, DotF isn't so great when you have so few units. Finally, we are about to unlock flanking and support bonuses, further boosting our units.

I wonder what Kaiser will do with the settler (it's currently inside his Capital). The city near Preslav is great and if he settles that, I'll be very happy to capture it. Thing is, he needs an escort if he's moving that settler anywhere, and I'm not sure he can spare one right now. Hopefully he doesn't delete the settler, as capturing it, as a city or a settler, would be huge for us.

Meanwhile, I also want to get a horseman in Changing of the Guards (after the builder, most likely, perhaps after the monument). Yerevan is looking like a great prize and I think we can capture it with 2 archers, 1 warrior, 1 spear and 1 horseman, even if we can't siege the city, due to the water tile. They are not building walls right now, so it's likely we can strike before they finish it, with a bit of luck. The only bad thing is that they still haven't started a Holy Site... They cut a jungle to build a farm, so I'm positive they have BW. Hopefully they go for a HS before walls.

[Ichabod]

After Kaiser, we can consider advancing against suboptimal. There's a reason he forward settled that city, while he has a lot of good spots closer to his Capital. The reason, if I'm seeing correctly, is that he has no other iron source. So, if we capture that city from him (and he has to keep a sizeable garrison near Rowain), we can deny him Mamluks.

The 2 horses sources are a big boon for us, since we can skip Encampments and still get horsemen. 75% production bonus is also no joke. I think we need to really use our military advantage while we have it, diplomacy be damned. This is likely a matter for 10 turns into the future, but suboptimal needs an Encampment before he can build anything more powerful than warrior/archers, so he's also a bit far from developing his military situation. If we have horsemen while he's still using clubs, we need to take the chance. That city won't grow past size 1 if we capture it, but denying Mamluks is a very big deal.

[Ichabod]

There was some problem and only one of my screenshots uploaded. Anyway, I can more or less describe my plan from this screenshot only.

The units from Geneva worked together with me, so I'll have 2 horses improved in 4 turns. The worker you see on the picture is staying there and will chop the forest into the horseman. The forest is one of the tiles the picker might end up choosing, but if he changes his mind, I'll need 75 gold for it, and I'm positive I can get it until the needed turn (I'm running the maintenance policy card).

Speaking of policies, my current policies are +30% to builders (currently building 2), +2 diplo points per turn, +50% bonus to melee and ranged and the maintenance one. I'm currently at Oligarchy. The idea behind it is that I wanted to run a military policy together with a wildcard policy (the 2GG points one), which is impossible with classical republic. But I ended up using it for 2 different military policies, because it made more sense considering our current position. We can get into Classical Republic later, if we so desire.

The melee and ranged card was chosen because I wanted to get a quick warrior in Kumasi (now renamed Desolation Row) to overflow into the horseman and to help in the attack. Unfortunately, it seems I miscaculated things, and the warrior won't be ready on the turn I have access to 2 horses, meaning it'll only delay things, if I finish it. I think I should have started the warrior this turn, while not finishing the walls yet. We'll see, I might end up finishing the warrior before the horseman, if it makes sense.

I should probably not have attacked Kaiser's archer this turn, because it only helps him getting a promotion, and the district one could be really bad. Well, an archer won't raise the city defense when garrissoned, so there's that, but it could be annoying nonetheless. I moved my scout out of harms way, and hopefully Kaiser will keep escorting his settler with the warrior to settle the site near Preslav, which means that warrior is out of Kikyo's defense in my planned window of attack.

As you can see, I have 2 high health archers and 1 high health warrior. The third archer will probably be decently healed by the time of the attack, in about ~5/6 turns (and he can move near Kikyo very fast, due to the road). I don't think the other warriors will be ready, considering the low health right now, but perhaps I'm mistaken. At minimum, I'll have 3 archers, 1 horseman, 1 warrior and the scout to serve as a siege enabler, when I move in the aforementioned 5/6 turns. Probably more than that, if I move some not that healthy units or if the planned warrior finishes.

If things stay as they are, I think it'll be enough. What could probably go wrong? No walls are being built. Kaiser is still some turns away from DotF. I think the worse that could happen is he upgrades his warrior into a sword, jumping his city defense. But considering he didn't have an iron mined, I doubt he full teched IW (and considering he has a single city, I'm not sure if he would be able to).

There's the off chance that Suboptimal declares war on me. He's currently building a Campus in his second city and there's no sign of Encampments, so I doubt it. He has an archer and 2 slingers in his city near Kikyo, which can turn into 3 archers and cause a mess (and he has a scout and a warrior near Desolation Row). But that's unlikely, I think. He could have attacked Kaiser and taken the Capital for himself, but he decided to sign a friendship pact (the diplo window confirms it, it says they are declared friends), so that option is off for a long time, most likely. Perhaps that DoF helped him settle his aggressive third city, but he could probably do it anyway, with the amount of troops he has. My opinion is that it was unnecessary for him to tie his hands like this, in his position.

Man, I'll be so happy if we manage to capture Kikyo. Hopefully everything works out.

[Ichabod]

The biggest issue right now for our Civ is amenities. 

We have only one type currently improved, the silks. Unfortunately, Kumasi had the same luxury as my Capital (and Kikyo also has Silk). We have marble and silver near our lands (silver will be acquired by becoming Geneva's suzerain). We have loads of marble around, but unfortunately, it's always third ring from our cities. Eventually, we'll have to buy one of the sources.

After that, things get more difficult. I'm hoping Yerevan has a sea based luxury (I need to check the screen to see if any info about it appears), for when we capture it or ally with it.

Trade wise, Rowain is likely trading his second source of gems with Bacchus, which is very good for him. I have silks to trade, but nobody is interested right now. Meeting Bacchus would be a very nice thing, to get some more trade options, but I can't spare the units for this right now (he's likely to the northeast of Rowain, so far away). Not that people will be ecstatic to trade with us, considering we have a very high score lead.

Next turn, the scout that was used to defend the Capital will start exploring the west. He already has a hills promotion, which is pretty nice. Hopefully we find some more resources going that way, or some more city spots.

Speaking of city spots, settlers are very expensive to build right now. With the new settler cost rules, conquering City States and neighbours became a must, otherwise it's too costly to expand. Anyway, I think I'll look into getting another round of settlers (perhaps 2 more?) soon, which likely means switching for the settler card, once possible. Considering our lack of luxuries, reducing the size of our cities is actually an acceptable thing, and new cities have free happiness to grow into. It works out, I guess.

There's also the option of building Districts, but they feel very bad right now. The adjacencies are very poor in my currently owned tiles, and I don't have gold to buy more. I'm not keen on placing a Campus for a meager 1 science and 1 GPP. We'll have currency soon enough, so I'll probably plop down a Commercial Hub in most of our cities, if only to freeze the cost. It's also time to start thinking about getting Royal Navy Dockyards avaiable. The easiest way to get the needed Eurekas is by conquering Yerevan, but that city is looking quite sturdy right now (30 strength last turn). It's doable if the CS decides to move his units in the wrong places, but it'll require some work/luck. The other option is capturing the city Kaiser is likely going to plant near Preslav (coastal, with 1 sea resource) and settling another city of our own near a second sea resource. But that option will likely take a long while...

Truth be told, I don't see myself building a lot of Districts in the coming turns. I guess it'll change when we get CHs and IZs (I have planned the builder charges to get Apprenticeship boosted). And everyone else seems to be going by the same conclusion, seeing as there's only 2 districts built so far (going by GPP generation). It's interesting to compare this game to PBEM4, where people are going far more heavy into Districts. The land in that map is just way better and the adjacencies far more powerful, so I think both approaches make sense, in their respective situations.

[pindicator]

Thanks for the update Ichabod! Horsemen will hopefully turn things for us. Do you think it's worth waiting for the warriors to heal up before pressing the attack? Or will they be useful even wounded?

Amenities on the map sound rough in our corner. Having to split them among 4 cities apiece may keep our cities smaller as well. We could look at teching Games and Recreation civic next to build entertainment districts in key cities. We are pretty close to getting suzerain status over Geneva, so at least that will give a boost.

I think we might want 1 or 2 encampments built at strategic points. Walls are probably sufficient for barbarians, but if you see any points that would do well with an encampment then we might want to lock in the cost now. I think locking in a campus at Hard Rain between the bananas is also a good idea. Geneva is going to give all our campus districts +2 science and that spot would get an additional +2 from the jungle tiles it borders.