[SPOILERS] Suboptimal Goes Waltzing Matilda

[suboptimal]

Turn 32

Builder at Irukandji completes, start a settler, that’ll be done in 8 turns.  Masonry is just shy of the half-way point, switch to Bronze Working.  Warrior by Kandy moves towards the injured barbarian scout, other warrior takes Battlecry and will finish off the barbarian camp next turn (or the turn after).  If I get lucky that scout will move south and my slinger can intercept it to get eurekas for Bronze Working and Archery.  To that end the slinger moves for the choke point by the coast to trap the scout between it and my warrior.  

Builder at Irukandji quarries the stone, gaining the Masonry eureka.  Builder at Cassowary moves to the wheat for next turn’s harvest.   Irukandji’s borders grow in 6 turns and will take one of the food resources.  That’s not too long a wait so the civics plan is to go another 2-3 turns in Craftsmanship, switch back to Foreign Trade to slow-research it, farm the food resource for inspiration and eureka and then decide if the remaining builder charge will go for a plantation on the spices or if it will follow the settler.

Regarding the settler my plan is to settle Blue Dot with it.  I was considering going somewhere to the east (either down by the lake or north to where the barbarian camp used to be) but that location is not as defensible to a rush as Blue Dot.  I'm going to half-research techs until I can get Currency completed, then place a Commercial Hub at Blue Dot and finish all the techs.  That will depend on my time to finish Foreign Trade and how fast after that I can get a trader out.

Internationally “Emperor K” is now showing in-game as “Emperor Kock Monster”.  He’s finished his 5th tech as well.  Archduke’s second city was just settled.  



He’s also taken God of the Forge for his pantheon.  Wonder what he’s planning on doing with that?    Alhambram still hasn’t gotten a city out.  Either his settler is doing something odd, it got poached by barbarians or I’m mistaken in that he got a settler out when I thought he did. 

[suboptimal]

Turn 33

First thing done this turn is the barbarian camp in the west.  Warrior attacks the camp, kills the spear and clears it, gaining me 50 and the inspiration for Military Tradition.  The camp spawned a scout on the interturn so if I can’t get the one in the north I’ve got that one to try to kill.   Slinger and warrior close the gap on the other one this turn.  If the slinger gets a shot at it I’ll need a good dice roll to kill it.  Builder at Irukandji stays on the stone for the time being as the tile picker is on the rice just to the SW.   At Cassowary I harvest the wheat, grow the city to Size 3 and the resulting population cuts the Campus growth to 5 turns.

I switch civics back to Foreign Trade before ending my turn.  Emperor K is back to being Emperor K on the in-game screens.

An overview shot of Australia and its surroundings:



In the 10-15 turn horizon, the plan is as follows:

- Complete Campus and Monument at Cassowary
- Complete Settler and start military builds at Irukandji
- Found Blue Dot, buy tile & place Campus district
- Start military builds at Irukandji as soon as Archery completes.
- Almost finish Military Tradition

Once I have Agoge and archery Irukandji will crank out about 3-4 archers at around 22/turn.  Once the archers are complete I can finish Military Tradition, switch over to Maneuver and build 3-4 horsemen.  I also need a builder (for plantations) and at least one scout.  If (big if) I can get that all done before Archduke gets enough tech to start his unique unit build out I might be able to get a preemptive strike together.  If not I’ll have a reasonable base for a military for home defense (er….defence ).

[suboptimal]

Turn 34

Open the save and…..



Alhabram and Archduke have declared a joint war. I get the boost for Defensive Tactics and I’m now at +100% production for the next ten turns.  Ordinarily this would be an “oh crap”.  However:



Time for some changes around here:

- I buy the rice tile SW of Irukandji for 90 and shift civics back to Craftsmanship
- Next turn Builder will farm the rice, earning me the inspiration for Craftsmanship (completing it) and the eureka for Irrigation.  Builder’s third charge will be on the spices for some cash.
- Upon completion of Craftsmanship I will slot Agoge, leaving God King in place until I complete a pantheon.
- Production at Irukandji is set to warriors.
- Tech next turn will switch to Archery.

Production of units is currently 30 per turn.  Agoge will raise that to 37.5 (+50% of the base 15 ).  With those production rates the first warrior will complete in two turns with 37.5 overflow.  Each subsequent warrior will complete at the rate of one per turn with 2.5 less overflow than the previous warrior.  If I can get archery finished during the build out I’ll toss in a couple of archers.  The first six warriors, plus the warrior and slinger to the north, will gather near Kandy and then head for Luthadel.  The remaining units off the line will follow.

Cassowary will finish the Campus in two turns.  I’m going to hold off on the forest chop while Cassowary is at 21.4 per turn.  Cassowary will spit out a settler for Blue Dot, the existing builder will follow it there and Cassowary will get out a monument as the bonus runs out.  

Archduke going to war is an easy one to figure out – I can get up there with 7 warriors and a slinger in 18 turns.  Luthadel has, by my count, 11 native giving him a rate of 16.5 with Agoge and God of the Forge.  If he does nothing but build warriors he could build 7-8 by the time I got there.  It’d be enough to defend with, especially with a river in the way.  He could buy another one with the amount of I was last aware about.  He could also build a few archers or try to boost city strength with a spearman (though I don’t know that he has the science rate to do both).  This could get interesting.  My expectation is that he's expecting an attack.  What Archduke is not aware of is the +4 bonus from my envoys (+6 with Agoge).  He may figure that I'm running about the same production rate he has and not realize that the envoy bonus effectively matches his current production bonus from God of the Forge.

Alhambram, on the other hand, perhaps he thinks pillaging a Campus for 25 is worth doing for war.  The cost of repairing the Campus will be marginal and unless I missed something in the patch notes it won’t have an effect on my science rate.  Even if it did, Cassowary is online in two turns, fully replacing the lost science (and then some).  I don't see what he gets out of it unless he's planning on not making peace later on.

I need to figure out if I’m missing something larger here. At least I don’t have to worry about any diplomacy threads mucking up the works (or letting them better coordinate their efforts).

I’ve been given a good opportunity to raise a quick army and attempt an assault.  I have to get my units out and up there and let the battle be joined.  This will not be an easy fight and hopefully I don't mess this up too badly.

My attention turns towards the barbarians…..in the west the scout stayed put, so I attack. It dies, I get the boost for Bronze Working.  In the east the scout has moved into a corner.  I use my warrior and slinger to close the door – the slinger will be able to kill it over the next two turns.  If I can I may try to get a couple of archers into the mix for the assault.

[suboptimal]

Turn 35


In thinking about the situation some more I’ve decided that a “warrior stampede” is the wrong approach. The fact of the matter is that I’ll be able to build better units in 4 turns and warriors will be on the cusp of obsolescence by the time they get up to Luthadel. Instead I’m going to use my higher tech rate to put together a force that’s smaller, will take a little longer to build but will be relevant longer than warriors. I think that will be a better use of than just spewing warriors.  

Likewise my objective here should not be to kill, but to cripple. The idea here is to slow him down enough in his progress where my already-higher tech rate can get further ahead. Archduke has already seen what happens in PBEM 2 when he neglects development in the name of military. I already have infrastructure in place and can rely on that to focus on military for the time being. To that end Urteau becomes the target. I could also hurt his economy and take out Zanzibar.

Alhambram, as expected, pillaged the Campus, science is down to 6.8. It will cost me….5 to repair. I can fit that in at some point. Slinger in the north kills scout, gaining the eureka for Archery. Warrior up there crosses the river and will stay on the hilltop to watch for any approaching Macedonian troops. Builder at Cassowary moves into the city for protection, warrior in the west starts to move back to Cassowary. It’ll take 6 turns to get to the Campus location. Alhambram’s scout can get there sooner so I leave the Campus at one turn to completion to avoid the pillage.

At Irukandji the builder farms the wheat, completing Craftsmanship and gaining the Irrigation eureka. Change policies, Agoge in and Discipline out. Start Military Tradition and will go to one turn to completion. The warrior at Irukandji completes next turn, one turn will go to a monument, one turn to repair the campus & overflow into the monument to complete it, then I’ll start archers. Archery will complete for the start of Turn 39, I’ll get two archers completed by the time the production boost runs out (Turn 43/44), build two more then switch to horsemen.

Cassowary will build a warrior (two turns to completion), finish the campus, build a monument, get out a builder and then maybe start a settler as the bonus winds down.

[suboptimal]

Turn 36

Warrior completes at Irukandji. Alhambram’s scout has moved towards the builder, presumably in an attempt to grab it. Warrior and builder converge on the stone. Irukandi also does the campus repair now, rather than waiting a turn. If Alhambram makes a move back for the campus I’ll be able to get the warrior there first. Alhambram’s move also lets me switch back to the Campus at Cassowary.

I start bringing the slinger back towards Irukandji. I’m going to go around the southern edge of the mountain range and then set up a picket over the by jade and stone.

Internationally, Archduke’s military power is now at 74, so he’s started building a military. I’ll have to see how long that continues.

I continue to believe that my original, pre-war plan of moving ahead in tech and mounting a defense against any invaders is probably the best approach. The good news here is that I was planning on switching to military builds around Turn 40 but Archduke and Alhambram are letting me get that out of the way earlier and faster. As the Citadel of Civilization bonus winds down I’ll keep Irukandji focused on military builds and let Cassowary work on getting infrastructure (settler, builders) turned out. Irukandji, once Early Empire completes, will finish its settler to settle Yellow Dot. I’ll be able to swap the citrus over to that city for fast growth and plantations for cash to support my army.

[suboptimal]

Turn 37

Campus districts are now completed and/or repaired, giving me 13.6 per turn. I also get the inspiration for Recorded History. Main screen GUI shows Archery done in two but there’s < 25% to go and the tech tree shows 1 turn left.

Cassowary switches over to its warrior. Alhambram has moved his scout to the hex SE of the city center. I may have gifted him another 25 unless he doesn’t move NW across the river next turn. The scout will be dead, though, if he does pillage. The builder there stays put for the time being. Over at Irukandji I switch to a monument. It shows three turns but I think the overflow should cut that down to two. Doesn’t matter as I’ll be switching to archers next turn and leaving that incomplete until I get three archers built.

Archduke has built a warrior and healed up his other one as his military domination has risen from 74 to 100. Emperor K has a district completed – I’ll have to check the GP screen to see which one he’s built, but I’m guessing it’s an Encampment.

[suboptimal]

Turn 38

Open the save, Alhambram went for the horse pasture.  Warrior moves across the river.  Alhambram will probably pillage for some but that’s better than at this point (for me).  That’s also easily fixed once I dispatch the scout.  I was going to go to Horseback Riding but I can wait a turn and will instead finish Bronze Working to see where the iron is first. That won’t slow down my horse plans any.  

Cassowary starts the monument build, game shows 1 turn to complete.  That’s a bit faster than expected.  At Irukandji the warrior crosses the river to the Campus and the builder goes back to the city nope, forgot to do it manually and it was on a queued move to the spice tile.  Won’t need the builder until I complete Irrigation (after Horseback Riding).  Production shifts from the monument (leaving it at 37/60) to an archer (complete in two turns).  Irukandji also culturally expanded to the wheat tile, so that’s a win for the tile picking test.  It’s now on the rice where it should stay (for the next 23 turns).  

Internationally Alhambram looks like he’s completed a monument as his culture has jumped to 4.7.   Emperor K has moved to the top of the leaderboard.  His first district is a Holy Site as he’s now generating Great Prophet Points.  I’ll be curious to see what he does with that, especially since I think it’ll be difficult to convert cities with the Encampment culture bomb in MP.  Speaking of religion I should have a pantheon in two turns.  I’m guessing I’ll be third to the party there.

Minor Contemplation: if I were to run a Campus project at Cassowary I'd generate ~3.2 per turn for 3 turns. This nets me Horseback Riding + Irrigation + Masonry in 6 turns rather than 8 turns, while delaying other builds at Cassowary by three turns. I'll see where iron shows up and proceed accordingly.

[suboptimal]

Turn 39

Bronze Working is in. Let’s see where the iron is….



I’ve got two in my territory – one is second ring to Cassowary and the other is just outside Irukandji’s workable borders (and not in my dot map).  The appearance of iron at Cassowary effectively rescores that tile and it will be picked next in 7 turns.  There’s a third iron on the north side of the river four tiles east of Kandy.  A bit too far to consider.  

Cassowary finished its monument (for 64/60) and Alhambram has pillaged the horse pasture.  In the north Archduke has brought a promoted warrior south towards mine.  A quick look on the combat infobox shows that he’s taken Tortoise instead of Battlecry.  I’ll leave my warrior fortified on the hill unless he brings down a second one.  He’s also built another warrior as his military strength has increased to 125 (his city defense has not increased, so it’s not an archer unless archer melee strengths are used.  I’ll remind myself of that next turn when I complete an archer).  

Warrior at Cassowary attacks the scout.  The other warrior down here is almost back, so the campus is safe (I’ve got warriors to either side and Alhambram can’t move there in one turn between ZoC and terrain).  

The remaining decision is whether or not to run the project at Cassowary.  I decide that I’d rather put the into a settler now while the cogs are flowing, then switch to a trader.  That settler will head for Blue Dot.

[suboptimal]

Turn 40

Start the turn by completing the archer in Irukandji (with  and being able to found a pantheon.  I also get an envoy in Kandy for training the archer.  Let’s see what my pantheon options are (no pic, too big to fit them all).  Looks like God of the Forge and City Patron Goddess are both gone.  Oral Tradition and God of the Open Sky are both on the table.  Hmmm..

- GotOS: Two horse and a sheep in the immediate area.
- OT: one spice, four citrus, with plantations starting up in a few turns.

Oral Tradition it is.  Receive the Mysticism boost and set about unit movement.

At Cassowary Alhambram’s scout is running away around the lake to the south.  That’s fine.  I had moved the builder t the jade last turn, forgetting that I had to repair the pasture first.  Going to repair the pasture and then mine the jade.  Warriors at Cassowary put themselves between the Persian scout and the Campus.  

Archduke has brought a second warrior (unpromoted) down through the jungle so I bring my warrior across the river.  Warrior by Irukandji begins to move in that direction along with the just-completed archer.  Next Archer at Irukandji due in one turn.  Builder at Irukandji stays put on the spices.  

I notice that the military domination score doesn’t show the new archer (it’s actually gone down 5 points from last turn.  Archduke is at 147, so he’s built another unit.  Urteau shows a strength of 15 so I think there’s at least one archer around.  Gonna get a little hot around here, I think.

[suboptimal]

Turn 41

Open the save to see that Archduke has declared war on Kandy.  I also see an iron up by Urteau I didn’t see before (partially obscured by unit & city icons in the T39 screen shot).  I move my warrior next to Kandy’s borders just to track what’s going on; the city has an archer and a warrior to defend with.  Depending on how Archduke fortifies the city when he takes it I might consider going after it with a couple of horsemen to liberate it.  That’d be good for 20 turns of production bonus.

Over at Cassowary the builder and warrior move out to the pasture and the builder conducts repairs.  The other warrior moves west to the hill and does not see Alhambram’s scout.  I’m assuming it’s in the area but won’t try to chase it.  

Archer at Irukandji completes.  I was going to start a 3rd archer but I’m in a bit of a cash crunch – my income will be at +1 next turn.  I opt for a builder so that I can get the citrus plantations up and running.  Irukandji will be grow in 3 turns and I’d be able to work both citrus and the spice for one net loss in but with a gain of 6 and 3 per turn.  That’ll give me some room in the treasury and help get me to State Workforce faster.  

Reposition  a couple of units by Irukandji and call the turn done.

Internationally Archduke has started building an Encampment at Luthadel.  Emperor K finished his last turn.  Let the Great General Race begin!