Woden's and Chevalier Mal Fet's [Insert Clever Name Here] Team Thread

[Woden]

No time tonight for a report, will do it tomorrow. Nothing really to report just moved units around. Builders due next turn.

CMF, if you are going to hold off on Celestial Navigation, just make sure not to finish anything else in the intern. Want to lock the districts in as cheaply as you can. If fact, it might be a good idea to research a few techs down to 1 turn so you can rapid fire them after you place the districts to increase the value of the chops. Remember, a chop is always 1/3 the cost a standard district at any give point in the tree, so if you place a district and research a couple of techs, you will increase the chop percentage. Each tech is worth roughly 3 more in a chop.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 63

Turn reached me right as my time for playing this evening was closing, so I rushed it through, but didn't have time to take pitchers - sorry about that, I know how pretty they are. 

Anyway, nothing of interest to report:

- Scout revealed more tundra, possibly an isthmus over to the northern side of Lisbon. Could be a tiny inland sea there in the north. 
- Relic warriors revealed a second Khmer settler in the north (headed for those lakes?) and more tundra in the south. 
- Single-charge builder at Trafalgar chopped out the warrior, dropping Campus time to 1 turn. 
- Other builder marched towards Salamis
- Salamis swapped to a galley, prebuilding for Mausoleum chop. 5 turns, swap in 4. 
- Kabul's second archer vanished, a single warrior appeared. 3 total units? My 6 should be enough. 
- Nothing else of interest, Actium, Leyte, and Aboukir continued their various projects. Research continued on both fronts. 

Sorry for the abbreviated report again, I'll give you something pretty next turn to make up for it.

[Woden]

Nubia-Turns 62 & 63

Turn 62
Not much time last night for a report and the little free time I had after the kiddos went to bed was spent checking Rise and Fall out. Regardless, it was an uneventful turn. Moved units around. I did check Nu-Kandy to make sure the worker was on the farm... 

Governor had already shifted the worker but I wanted to lock them in. 44 turns to grow but the city is at 25% growth due to hitting teh housing cap. Once the grainery is repaired, I think it should grow to size 4 around T72 (9 more turns). Right around the time I can harvest stone into a galley to overflow into a campus. The only other thing of importance this turn is that I switched to Astrology now that Iron Working is down to 1 turn. 


Turn 63

A slightly more eventful turn. Builder is ready to chop at Thoth...

43; 86 with the archer bonuses for 83 into a 117 Encampment. It will finish in 4 turns. With that complete, I switch research to Writing to start rapid firing techs (will get to that later). 

Builder finishes at Amon but the increased costs prevent the builder at Isis to finish. I move the builder to pasture the sheep next turn but after I played I decided I will move him to chop the jungle and then head over towards Nu-Kandy. This way I can harvest both stones at Nu-Kandy. First stone for the Campus and second for either a settler or library, haven't decided yet. Amon will build a builder after the settler to improve tiles. Here is an overview shot of my empire... 

Not too impressive now but will be much better in 10-12 turns when I will have another city, a monument or 2, a barracks or 2, a watermill, 2 campuses, a commercial hub, an encampment, walls at Thoth, and completed at least 6, maybe 7, more techs plus have a few more improved tiles. With all that in the next 10/12 turns, lets see where I will stand in the rankings...

Compared to the leaders...

I am going to compare my standings to Rome because his score is not inflated by anything (e.g. wonders or double district points. I have the fewest techs out of anybody at 8, with Rome at 12. Not going to discuss civics right now because he is Rome! Rome's empire score is at 53, mine is at 42. He does have a city on me. He has 3 campuses and I have 2 encampments and a holy site with a shrine. He has 5 more population than me. If I do everything I have planned, my empire score will raise 18 (not counting any city growth) and tech score will be 12, maybe 14, higher. Unless he goes on a building bonanza, I should be able to be on tech parity and closing in on empire scores. Don't get me wrong, he will continue to improve but I think I will do it faster.  

I am last in number of techs but...

Is that a really good indicator? I have 5 techs sitting at 1 turn. I will finish Writing->Wheel->Horseback Riding->Iron Working in the next 4 turns and should get enough overflow to shave a few turns off of Construction. I will hold off on Astrology until after Currency and 2 Commercial Hubs. Next turn I will place a Campus at Isis and start working on it and finish it with a jungle chop after I finish Iron Working to inflate the chop value. Sadly, I will chop the jungle at Amon into the settler in 3 turns. Can't wait as it will delay stuff at Kandy. 

Lastly, Khmer is running the GG card and making +2 points. Looking for a general are we Cornflakes? The problem with the card is that you can't run projects but I suspect he is building an encampment now. With my ability to buy encampment buildings I should still be able to grab the first 2 generals and hopefully inflate the cost of the 3rd. He is definitely getting ready for war. 

CMF, when do you plan to attack Kabul? I have a few archers heading west from Kandy and maybe they can help out. Also, I will be sending my settler from Amon to the Horus site and want to make sure he is safe (he will have an escort).

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

He's building an encampment at his capital, I spotted it with my scouting warriors a few turns back.

My D-Day for the Kabul invasion was set at turn 65, but I can hold back a few more turns to wait for Nubian archer support. I don't want to delay much past turn 70, though - when do you think they can arrive?

[Woden]

Nubia-Turn 64

Early turn today as Sullla doesn't work on Fridays and I work from home.

Start off with...

and...

Writing is the first of 4 techs that I will finish over the next 4 turns. Finishing Military Tradition allows for a policy swap...

Out goes Agoge for Maritime Industries to speed the galley at Nu-Kandy. Should have the galley out in 8 or 9 turns. I will have to move off of it for 1 turn as the builder gets into position to harvest the stone. Since Writing is done... 

A discounted Campus, only 75. I place it where the builder is standing for +1. Not a high adjacency but no better spot. Other than that, I only moved some units around. Here is an overview shot... 

Builder at Isis is moving to pasture the sheep and then will chop the jungle to complete the campus in 4 turns. Builder at Amon will move to jungle tile next turn and chop it the turn after. Not sure if this will complete the Settler but should be close. 2 Archers are moving to the southwest to handle any of Kabul's units that get frisky and an archer is in the north seeing if the barb camp up there is still around...

Looks to be a fair amount of unless land up here.

Lastly, I look over at Khmer's land and...

Indeed, he has placed an encampment. No way to tell if he is working on it since the hammer icon is there regardless if you are working on it or not. He better clear some of those trees otherwise we can move on his capital from the north and be safe from the encampment defenses. 

CMF, Attack Kabul anytime you are ready, don't wait for me. I will move units towards the city but it will be a while and you might even have the city before I get there.

[Woden]

CMF,
What are your plans for gold expenditures in the next 10 turns? I ask because I looked at/planned my next 10 turns and I may need a loan of 30 gold to buy a tile for a third discounted Campus on T73. It is a ways out and I know you need to buy a tile for the 2nd seafood, which is why I bring it up now to see if you may have the gold by then. This also depends on which tile the picker grabs at Nu-Kandy. If it is the stone, I won't need it, if it is the tobacco, I will because I plan on harvesting the stone into the galley. It is important because on T74 I should be finishing Currency and Games and Rec, which both provide districts and I won't get the discount then. I should be able to repay you plus some more if needed a few turn later and should not need gold for a while after that, want to save from upgrades. Let me know if this is feasible.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 64

I love Fridays, because the turn is always waiting for me when I get home from work. I feel good about this turn, too. So, let's dive right in! (Score updates might be just a Saturday thing now, I hope that doesn't put me too out of the loop. I'll check the scores, but updating them is slow and laborious). 

First things first: My slow gold generation finally gives me enough money to buy the crabs at Leyte, which I do and immediately drop fishing boats on. Behold:




Why is the map centered on Aboukir? Well, because my screenshot button and Civ VI's default "Next City" button are mapped to the same key, apparently. This is an issue I'll be battling until I finally either cave and re-map the screenshot button, or CQUI is fixed. Let me just note one more time how I hate the interface. 

Anyway, finishing the boats is my second sea improvement, unlocking England's most crucial tech in this game:




This tech obviously unlocks my key unique district, the Royal Navy Dockyard. Let's recap how exactly they work:

Like most harbors, RNDs generate gold from adjacencies. They like to be next to sea resources and other districts, particularly city centers and Commercial Hubs. The buildings in them are a mix of military and economic buffs, speeding up ship construction and experience but also food and housing (the lighthouse, also now required for trade routes, bah), production (the shipyard), and the seaport (gold, food, and housing). Together, these all combine to make maritime cities great hubs of gold generation, while the housing bonuses mitigate to a certain extent the lack of fresh water common to these cities. As England, I get three additional buffs:

1)RNDs generate a trade route, even if there's already a CH in the city. This is the main reason I took England, for twice as many trade routes as everyone else. 
2)RNDs generate twice as many Great Admiral points. Since no one else is or will be prioritizing Great Admirals, this gives me a lock on Great Admiral generation throughout the game. GAs can be further buffed via the Mausoleum, which gives them (and Great Engineers) two retirement charges. Germany might want the Mausoleum to buff its GEs, and China might want it out of spite because it's China and fuck anyone else building wonders, but I think I have a good shot at this one if neither nation pursues it wholeheartedly. 
3)RNDs are half-cost. This means that my cities can crank them out VERY quickly, in only a handful of turns. In turn, the vast amount of RNDs I will have will trigger the district discount and let me grab all other districts equally cheaply. To improve matters, City Patron Goddess is finally coming into its own, as each RND only costs me 37% of a base district. 

I immediately plop them down in my three* eligible cities:



Leyte in particular gets a great adjacency bonus, with two sea resources and the city nearby. I can drop a CH next door to further buff both. Also, build time is quick - less than the builder I'm working on! I plan to just straight chop this district, no time to build walls or a galley. Shoulda queued up a unit - maybe I still should, Woden? 

Actium shows the plan in action:



You can see the pilings for the quays just north of the city. The newly built worker stands ready to chop the nearby forest, but first I'm going to take 3 turns to build up a galley. On the last turn, I chop and flow +100% hammers into the cheap dockyard, knocking it out in just a turn or two and getting a galley out to explore this sea. At Salamis, the archer is ready to be chopped and just needs the builder to arrive. In the meantime, I keep working on my pre-build galley to chop into the Mausoleum. 

Just east of Salamis, my army reaches its final jumping off points: 


Plan remains the same: The two archers will hit Kabul's exposed archer right away, while the warriors sweep in to start the siege. The galleys will hit the city on the first turn, rotating attacks to keep their health up. Coming up in reserve I have a third warrior and a third archer. That should be enough to dispatch Kabul's 2 archers and 1 warrior...but it's my first contested conquest this PBEM, so let's hope I don't get embarrassed. 

Here's the empire as a whole:



Three RNDs are visible, as is the completed campus at Trafalgar. It's not too impressive yet, I need a library at least first, but it's something. Trafalgar meanwhile is furiously churning out builders for the still under-developed empire. I'll be in Ilkum for a while yet. Salamis and Actium work on galleys, Aboukir prebuilds a warrior to be choped into a harbor - I'll need to buy the forest and the harbor tile for that. 

I need to spend 160 gold to get Aboukir ready for chopping, but I think my increasing gold generation can let me cover the 30 gold to you, Woden. Let's prioritize your plan over Aboukir.

*Trafalgar could be eligible too, but we discussed elsewhere why that turned out to be a bad idea. Later in the game, if a suitably useless GA comes up, I might go ahead and build the harbor, then the GA can just sit there all game in return for an extra trade route for me!

[Woden]

CMF,
Nice! Looks like things are coming together. I will write my next 10 or so turns up and either post them tonight or with my next turn report. That way you can make sure it jives with your plans for the Mausoleum. You might be able to get a discounted Commercial hub at Trafalgar once you have all 3 RNDs finished. Looking good!

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Did you spot that Archduke bought a bunch of tiles to try and claim that northern isthmus? I'm shaking my head at the sheer cheek of it.

[Woden]

Did you spot that Archduke bought a bunch of tiles to try and claim that northern isthmus? I'm shaking my head at the sheer cheek of it.

No, I didn't notice it when I played but do have a screenshot with it in it. He cut off my slinger. Luckily, he can't buy the city center tile (4th ring).

Edit: Good catch!