[SPOILERS] Suboptimal Goes Waltzing Matilda

[suboptimal]

Mouse Spider Scored

Since the city was just founded, here’s the scoring for cultural tile expansion based on the post here.  After we see where the tile picker goes for Mouse Spider I’ll update the post accordingly.



Based on this I anticipate both citrus being picked before the rice.  I’ll also note that Irukandji has the rice selected as the next expansion target; that city will grab this tile on Turn 60 unless Mouse Spider, for some reason, grabs it first. As a side note the 3rd ring sheep is scored at 193.

[suboptimal]

Turn 51

Trader completes at Cassowary, Wheel is down to one turn, Early Empire in 4.  Time for some trade routes:



The plan right along has been for Grenada to move forward on gaining suzerainty there.  I get the envoy and the eureka for Currency, which I switch out of Wheel for.  That’ll complete next turn, then I’ll dump one or two turns into sailing (depending on the overflow into Currency) as I want to have that completed when Blue Dot settles.  Speaking of settles, Cassowary resumes the settler and that’s due in two turns.  

Builder at Blue Dot holds tight.  Builder at Irukandji spends its last charge putting a plantation on the spices.  Gaining the spices pushes Irukandji and Mouse Spider into ecstatic territory, netting me and additional 5% on yields.  

Up at Austrex Archduke appears to be dispersing some of his forces, though he may just be establishing a front line (“if you have a river and terrain, defend”).  I’ll need to keep track of that.  I send the first horseman around the west side rather than the east.  



That might present a good opportunity if he continues to do so.  Since my horseman is at an east/west decision point I bring it west and park it behind the other troops.  He has one warrior in the city for defense.  

Internationally Archduke’s science has popped up to 12.6.  That’s a reflection of the 5 population in Austrex.  Emperor K also looks to have conquered a city.  Based upon the scores it looks like he grabbed a city-state as well.  His Great General Point rate also just went up to 3/turn so it looks like he’s running Strategos.  I’ll guess and say he just finished Mysticism this turn.  

In the cultural expansion “study” Mouse Spider is currently selecting the left citrus of the two unclaimed ones.  We’ll see if it flip-flops or stays put.  I also have to note that each of those tiles actually scored one point lower because they are adjacent to unclaimed non-bonus resources.  Expansion is due in 7 turns.

[suboptimal]

Turn 52



Archduke has shifted his forces around a little bit – looks like he’s lining up the archer to maybe shoot at the fortified warrior.  With his units having fortification bonuses and good terrain crossing the river here in an attack is not the way to go.  He has two warriors in the fog – one to the west of the line just NE of Austrex and one on the iron (that’s how the support bonuses work out).    The best way to deal with this is to try to get them to move and/or attack from his side of the river.  To that end I’ll need to send the horsemen around to the east then across the river.  Whether or not I go for Austrex or just try to clean up units will depend on the circumstances.  The units there, fully healed, represent ~105/155 so he's probably got another 2-3 units in his back lines at present.

I also want an extra horseman, so Cassowary stops the settler with 6 to go and switches to a horseman to be completed in 5 turns.  That will give me a total 4 horsemen in 6 turns, 3 built and the one already out.   Irukandji, set to grow in one turn, goes back to working the stone for 2 extra plus bonuses.

Elsewhere the “scouts” are finding interesting things.  The slinger has located another source of iron on some promising ground south of the desert while the warrior headed west has found a very...remarkable...inland lake loaded with bonuses.



With Currency completed Irukandji and Mouse Spider both place Commercial Hubs.  Mouse Spider will start the long slow build while Irukandji continues with horsemen for the time being.  

As much as I would like to keep the district costs at Blue Dot down it’s time to start getting techs done.  Wheel to complete next turn, then Masonry and Iron Working after that.  

Archduke has completed a Basilikoi Paides in the Encampment in Luthadel.  Alhambram has reached the Classical Era as well.

[suboptimal]

Turn 53

Open the save.  Forgot to move my warrior out of archer range last turn so Archduke pinged it.  He’s also completed his Encampment at Urteau.  He’s now got two archers on the front line and has moved a warrior into Urteau proper.  The warrior at the end of the line has moved off, leaving the archer with only one support unit.  

I start out by moving out of the way with the warrior.  The horseman rounding the mountains meets Emperor K’s scout.  Let’s see what’s going on with him:

- Science: 10.7/turn, 9 techs
- Culture: 5.4/turn
- Military: 72
- Faith: 3

Here’s the deal screen in the diplo interface:



He’s got cocoa, confirming my earlier suspicions about the map and the continental distribution.  Good thing I didn’t hold out for the Foreign Trade inspiration.  He also has a very weak military.  Hopefully he does something about that before Alhambram gets immortals.  Oh wait, they’re at war already and his declared friend is dealing with me right now.  Heh.  I think Archduke would flip out if, for some whackadoo reason Emperor K declared war on me for some opportunistic pillaging.  Wonder if he could be baited into it???

I’ve decided to shuffle build orders at Cassowary so the builder I was reserving for the settler at Blue Dot heads for the iron.    I also switch Mouse Spider back to a builder – that’ll do me more good in the short term than dumping into the district.  I’ll do that once the city’s got better production.  A small bit of with these two but nothing too damaging.

The slinger continues touring the edge of the map.  My reasoning for this scouting is two-fold – first, defogging this area now might reveal a good city spot that I’d want to plan for or reveal resources I could use (like the iron I found).  Second, I’ll know where any barb camps spawn rather than having to guess.  The slinger should be back around to Mouse Spider around the time I’ll need the third archer for the Machinery eureka.

Domestically Wheel is completed so I set Masonry to complete next turn.  Irukandji grew to size 5 and is now working the plantationed citrus for more and .  Once Mouse Spider expands in two turns I’ll swap that tile over and Irukandji will work the 5 rice to speed its expansion to 6.  Speaking of Mouse Spider it is flip-flopping between the citrus tiles.  The other good news for this city is that when Irukandji grabs the SE rice in 3 turns I’ll be able to swap that over to Mouse Spider for it to continue its growth.  

Internationally, besides the news from Poland and Archduke’s activities the GGP race is heating up.  Euclid is a lock for me and Poland will be the first to a religion.  No other Great People Points are being generated yet.

Horseman and Masonry due next turn, Early Empire in two with Political Philosophy 6 turns after that.

[suboptimal]

Turn 54

Masonry and Early Empire are in.  Iron Working and Political Philosophy lined up, both due in 6 turns but Iron Working will get the eureka in 2 turns. Closed borders will keep Emperor K’s scout away from anything valuable unless he wants to declare war.  Horseman completes in Irukandji, start another one, overflow has it due in three turns.  Archduke moved a couple of units around, looks like he’s got an Archer in Urteau now.  Barbarian Scout has also showed up in the east near my horseman, that might explain the injuries to the Polish scout.  

Horseman goes and whacks the scout, doesn’t kill it.  Second horseman moves up.  Builder moves closer to iron, slinger continues wandering and the warrior in the west has found resource heaven west of Valetta:



If only I could airdrop two settlers and a couple of builders into here.

[suboptimal]

Turn 55

All’s quiet all over the place.  Barbarian and Polish scouts have both disappeared into the fog for the time being, though the Polish scout is revealed to be standing on the iron NE of Irukandji when I start moving horses around.  I move one of the horses to the river and look what I find:



That one’ll get plunked by an archer.  However, it does mean that I can cross the river to the east and then wheel around to the north, either skirting his forces altogether or taking them down from the end.  Archduke has a warrior in Urteau now but hasn’t built anything more advanced than that (and archers).  

Domestically Mouse Spider has grown by a pop so I swap over another citrus tile.  Internationally I expect that I’ll start seeing some stronger units – Archduke has completed a Classical Age tech but no idea if it’s Horseback Riding or Iron Working (probably the former).  That gives me some time to get some horses up here to do some damage as his builds will take a little bit.  Next two horsemen in two turns, Iron Working in two as well.  The horsemen should get to the front line right as I switch to Oligarchy.

[suboptimal]

Turn 56

Archduke opened the turn by moving both archers east and shooting at the horseman with one of them, causing about 20 points of damage. Both horsemen move east in order to cross the river next turn. A Hypaspist has showed up at Austrex with the attendant rise in city strength – his Classical Age tech was Iron Working. I’ll be curious to see if he remains on defense or brings it across the river next turn to attack. My next two horsemen are going west to help plug up that side of the front. We’re now at the part of the anticipated program where it’s hang on for crossbows.

At Cassowary I mine the iron and complete Iron Working. Engineering in 12 (don’t have walls at a city yet) and Machinery 18 turns after that. I’d be able to build walls in Cassowary in 8 turns, one turn for the settler and 7 for the build, not counting any overflow.

In the west the warrior (finally) crosses the continental boundary. The slinger in the east had found tundra with nothing interesting and will now head for Mouse Spider for the upgrade and Machinery eureka.

Irukandji has culturally expanded to the SE rice and has selected the NE 1/1 plains by the horse & jade as the next target. This lines up with the scores. Likewise Mouse Spider picked up one of the two citrus and is targeting the other one for its next expansion.

[suboptimal]

Turn 57

Given the increase in Archduke’s city strength my strategy going forward for the next several turns will be to try to take out some of the weaker units in order to reduce his opportunity to upgrade.  After that, depending on what he has around, I may try to do some pillaging.  Other than that I’ll be looking to reinforce the defensive fronts.  One other consideration here is that by getting Iron Working with only a few warriors around I’ve limited my ability to have swordsmen unless I get a second iron resource or build an Encampment.  Not sure about either approach yet.  I will need to get a few more archers out between now and Machinery.

Two horsemen complete, one each at Cassowary and Irukandji.  Cassowary will finish the settler while Irukandji spits out another horseman.  I’ll switch to archers once I can change policies at Political Philosophy.  It just so happens that the horseman will also complete in three turns.  That one will go reinforce the western portion of the front for the time being.  

The new horsemen start moving towards the mountain.  I position one just across the river from Archduke’s warrior – if there are any archers behind we don’t have line of sight to each other.  The other one stays put on my side of the river a few hexes southeast.  It will cross once the other two horsemen get there, right around the time I switch into Oligarchy.

The slinger continues its eastward march.   In the west, the warrior has found Persia’s borders:



Internationally Archduke has begun building a Campus at Luthadel.  Archduke has also completed multiple Encampment projects as his GGP total has spiked up to 38/60.  Alhambram has built a settler.  Emperor K has likewise completed a project but it now losing the race with Archduke.  

Archduke completing a Great General will change the situation quite a bit over here.  I do know I won’t get walls up in any of my cities within the next dozen turns unless I change over to non-military builds.  However, I do need archers.  I’ll have to run some numbers at Irukandji.  The horseman there will be getting about 21 overflow if I’ve got the numbers right.  That’ll make for 5 turns of building walls after the next horseman.  I can half-research Sailing or start Construction while that completes, then switch into archers afterwards.  That’ll get me that much closer to Machinery.  Of course, getting units upgraded is another matter.

[suboptimal]

Turn 58



I will note that just before I took this screen shot I moved the horse across the river.  The only reason for Alhmabram to declare war on Archduke is for the movement bonus to his units in his war with Emperor K.  As for Archduke’s units the warrior and archer are the only ones that are there as they each have a +2 support bonus.  I move the injured horseman back.  Whether or not I pursue the archer with the lone horseman remains to be seen, but right now Archduke can’t see it.  The other archer is over by the hypaspist as it currently has a +3 support bonus.  

The other horsemen continue making their way over while the settler completed at Cassowary heads for Blue Dot.  Cassowary continues working the jade and will switch over to the iron in two turns when Blue Dot is founded.  

Internationally it looks like Alhambram and Archduke have settlers out this turn as well.  

In looking at the situation and at Blue Dot I think I’ll probably buy the hills NE of the wheat for an Encampment.  That will hamper my upgrade plans a bit but an Encampment there plus an Alcázar just east of the city makes for a good defensive front – the Alcázar will have ranged attack visibility against anything trying to melee attack the Encampment.  The builder coming out of Cassowary in 5 turns can chop the forests to speed along the district build.

Domestically I’ll have Euclid in 6 turns and the Machinery eureka in two, along with Political Philosophy.  I’ll probably make a quick grab at Sailing once Engineering is half-way while I get walls built in Irukandji.

[suboptimal]

Turn 59

Archduke has moved his hypaspist out of visual range. He’s also probably upgraded a unit to a hypaspist. He’s also finished a tech so I’d expect to be seeing hetaroi soon. Move the settler to Blue Dot unescorted – Emperor K’s scout won’t be able to get to it before I settle the city. I move my horseman up to see if Archduke’s warrior is still there – it is, and it’s supported by one unit to its northwest. I move the horseman back out of line of sight, a second one will cross the river next turn.

In looking at the domination stats it seems that Alhambram’s war against Emperor K is as much a paper war for the bonus movement as anything else. Despite his paltry military Emperor K does not appear to be suffering any losses.

I have to wonder if sneaking three horsemen up Archduke’s eastern flank would be a good idea vs taking out his front line troops. Gotta think about that.