Japper's Vindlandsaga

[Japper007]

turn 78:

One of our longships just revealed the Cornucopia of Loot!



No military units, a mine and a Campus (which both give 25 science), also one of the lowest military and overall scores in the game! Meats back on the menu boys!

[Japper007]

turn 80:

So Jester moved an archer onto his Campus, probably detecting something is up. But he left his mine uncovered so....



25 science! I put it into Carto, so we can eventually upgrade these Viking Longships for another round of pillaging our neighbours

[Japper007]

Turn 83:

Back in business after the break!

Firstly, we discover Theology, allowing us to build the Stave Churches that'll turn our cities into powerhouses (fe the capital alone gets three extra hammers and a lot of food from one!):



I'm going to try to net the Eureka for Entertainment Districts (Research Construction), so I switched tech over to Horseriding, which also gives us access to Horsemen, a much toucher unit.



I also swapped the capital over to a Watermill to boost construction, we have two wheats over there and a river so it's going to pay off well there.

[Japper007]

Turn 84:

with the third archer upgrade we unlock the boost to machinery:



That should make our skeleton military somewhat more imposing internationally, being last in military is very stressfull I expect to open the save to a war every turn now...

We also settle another city, Alfheim:



I put it on a worker, faster than a district and there is a forest and marsh to "chop" here, plus a pasture tile in first ring.

With another settler on the way, I think we're staying on top of the expansion game for now, maybe forever, Singaboy and Jester at least have smaller islands than me, or at least, less space for cities within rules.

[Japper007]

Turn 87:

WAAAAR!!!



Singa hit my city of Midgard with two horses a warrior and an archer. I bought a warrior there and switched the city to walls, which complete in 9 turns. I'm hopefull I can hold him off, my city is across a river and I'll be able to smack his horsemen with the warrior and I have an archer in position next turn, with two more coming over the next few turns. I'm also rerouting my longships from scouting duty, they'll be there in about 5 turns too. As long as Singaboy doesn't get a siege blockade going, I'm confident I can hold my ground till the walls complete. Just to be sure the capital'll switch over to walls next turn, after it completes the watermill.

Internationally Oledavy promised support with his galleys which were in the area, with a relieve army on it's way. Maybe Archduke'll jump in if I can make Singaboy bleed enough for his conquest, though he might also try to grab some of our territory if we don't manage to hold Singaboy on the beaches.

[Japper007]

Turn 88:

Well I'll just open the save and... WAAAT



Welp, defending Midgard's a lost cause it seems... I pulled the warrior back, good thing I started on walls in my capital already eh? GG to Singaboy, that was a lot better then I expected to have facing me.

Needless to say, Singaboy better eliminate me fully now, cause I'm not signing peace while he holds that city! I'll drag us both down to uncompetetive if I have to!

[Japper007]

Well...



That went about as bad as expected, bright side, I've yet to lose a unit and I'll have archers in position to defend Asgard.

Also note how that archer moved two tiles into water from land? ...that's the Viking bonus in action for you , if I'm still in this game when the Industrial Era hits my units will move faster on water than they do on land!

[Japper007]

turn 90:

The War Front forms:



Oledavy was kind enough to provide an Iron and enough gold to upgrade our Warrior to a Swordsman (the other one didn't get out of midgard sadly), which boosted our city defenses by 10 points everywhere. I won't say I feel confident because last time... well... but at least we have a chance now.

[Japper007]

Turn 95:

The Drums of Inevitable Doom Sound.

So I completed Construction tech this turn, giving us the boost, and therefore completing, Games and Recreation:

This allows us, finally, to swap into a more aggresive government setup:



This will not help us, however:



This is my capital at the end of the turn, we lost walls and an archer, Singaboy lost one of his Galleys. Not a good trade at all.

I expect death in about 20-ish turns, I hereby apologize to my loyal lurkerati (I hope you're still out there) for such a poor showing in my first PBEM. I don't know if I'll be posting again bwfore I'm eliminated unless by some miracle I manage to throw Singaboy back.

Let's analyse what went wrong with my gameplan:

-That early Holy Site slowed my start down more significantly than I expected, and worst of all, I wasn't even first to either Pantheon or Religion anyway! Oledavy was first to both due to his cheap Japanese Holy Sites... I should've gone for settlers and focused on churning out more longboats and units instead.
-I underestimated the ease of a naval invasion, even if one with overwhelming force. It's like water wasn't even a barricade at all to Singaboys forces!
-I underrated early Campus strategies on this sort of map. On Duel Pangea (which is the way most of my previous MP games were played, mostly cause the in-game lobby is a ghost town, heh) going for a Campus at all is suicide. Yet in this game, the two major powers (Singaboy and Oledavy) are the ones who emphasised Campuses heavily, even over expansion.

[Japper007]

Welp I'm eliminated...

Let me be the first to congratulate Singaboy on his conquest of err... me... No hard feelings towards Singaboy, he deserved it!

I want to say I had a lot of fun, as crazy as that sounds . Getting so thoroughly defeated in civ 6 hasn't happened to me for months, it was fun to be challenged again and to have found a community of serious players!