Singaboy and Sullla's team thread

[Sullla]

Looks good Singaboy. With regards to settlers, having a Chinese city planted in the Roman "doughnut" on T106 instead of T104 isn't too bad. I think it's mostly important that we have a city there at all in order to get a steady stream of reinforcements as needed. With China's massive faith income, we can faith-purchase units faster than we can build them right now, and we just need a place to make the units magically appear. Getting a second settler out of Beijing isn't a huge deal right now (perhaps we can come back to the idea later), we mostly need that one city for strategic purposes.

I did have another idea about diplomacy with Russia/Germany: I realized last night that it's possible to request a Declaration of Friendship with the OTHER player on the same team. In other words, I could ask EmperorK if he wants a Declaration of Friendship right now, and if they're interested, we won't have the hard deadline of an expiring DoF coming up in a few turns. What do you think Singaboy? I believe both of our teams are probably interested in renewing for a while longer, and this way we can establish a new deal prior to the current deal wearing off. And of course if they reject, then that gives us valuable information as well.

For your missionary, I still think you can move directly next to the city of Kinchassa because Japper has no unit available to kill the thing. He can embark a unit onto the same tile, but that would then open up the embarked unit to attack from my units, and putting a unit on top of a missionary doesn't instantly kill the missionary anyway. It requires an action on the part of the combat unit, like pillaging a trade route or a tile improvement, to do the deed from what I remember. I think you'll be safe, and even if not, we'll have a good chance to kill one of his embarked units. Since we have nothing else to do with a 1 charge missionary over there, I think it's worth the attempt.

Good to hear that the third Holy Site will be finished soon, and I'm glad that the Guilds boost passed over to you right on schedule. Hopefully Theocracy government will arrive in five more turns. The presence of Simultaneum policy there is going to be really useful for us, since it's already worth 18 faith/turn and will only keep going up as more Holy Sites and shrines/temples/Wats complete. 100 faith/turn, here we come.

[Singaboy]

That's an excellent idea and I think you should suggest to Emperor K right away for an extension on DoF. That way, we will know by T101 what they are up to. Plenty of turns for me to be prepared. I do hope I can get Reformed Church and theocracy on T103 (!+3 turns) thanks to the overflow from Guilds. After all, everything was perfectly timed.

If Germany/ England accept the DoF, I won't need to rush three units over in the west, but would rush 3 archers on T103 in Hangzhou, Pagan and Shangdu. I would then let machinery finish on T104 while moving some archers west. Next in line would be swordsmen for eventual musket upgrades. Then, it could be horsemen that can be upgraded to cavalry eventually. The question will be how long it will take us to get there. Of course, field cannons will be more valuable for us before cavalry.

I will enter the waters at Kinchassa and move directly next to the city. As you said, it's not a situation where we can lose much anyway.

[Sullla]

Alright, here we go for the big even numbered turn, Turn 100:



The military situation remained stagnant when I opened up the savegame file. Japper didn't even move his units out of the tiles where they're being shot by my crossbows, and Cornflakes hasn't moved his knights + crossbow down to the south of the river. They seem happy to dig in and remain in place; maybe we actually could get peace with them, who knows.

Before doing anything else, Rome entered the Renaissance this turn and I checked out the new quests:



The only city states that I really care about are Seoul and the two Commercial city states. I've been stuck on the same lousy quest from Lisbon for ages (build an Entertainment district), but I had new quests from almost every other city state. Seoul and Bandar Brunei asked me to fulfill the identical quest: trigger a boost for The Enlightenment civic. Hmmm. That one is probably doable; it involves recruiting 3 Great People. Rome has recruited two of them thus far, and I can probably get another Great Scientist for the third. Woden will likely get the next Renaissance one, and I'm hoping that we'll have another Renaissance one behind it. 15 turns of natural Great Scientist point accumulation plus a Campus district project will likely do it, and trigger the boost right around the point in time when we'll be finishing the civic anyway. I'll try to make the attempt if possible since 2 envoys in key city states is a major plus.

The other quests are all pretty pointless since I'll lose them all when England/Nubia declare war in a few turns. An enemy civ declaring war doesn't destroy your envoys in a city state, but it does remove any active quests. That's too bad since Nan Madol has a very doable quest (build a Commercial district) and Geneva's quest is also pretty doable (trigger the boost for Square Rigging, i.e. kill a unit with a musket). Oh well.



I went ahead and kept shooting Japper's units with my crossbows for the XP it offered. The northern Ngao Mbemba is slowly losing health here, but the southern one is literally healing back all the damage that it's taking right now since it's within Kongo's borders. I suspect Japper is fishing for his own promotions here, and I don't really mind. Japper is not our real opponent here, and he's weak enough that he's not going to play any major role in this game going forward. I'd rather get more XP on my crossbows when we have to confront the real enemies, England and Nubia.

I moved my quadrireme forward to scout but then moved it back again at the end of my turn. I didn't want to have it run into the zone of control that Japper's coastal Ngao Mbemba was exerting (and yes, land units can exert a zone of control over water units along the coast). Here's where the units ended up:



Not much movement at all. I shuffled the knights forward and I now have them at each end of the formation as desired. I also went ahead and pillaged the road on the circled tile in preparation for an orderly retreat backwards. This is a strong defensive position but I still think I'm better off retreating backwards from here and defending at Pisa and Savoia. Friendly cultural borders plus having city walls for extra firepower just make for an easier defense, especially if I can pillage the road to Savoia behind me as I move back. I think I can force enemy units to move through choke points and shoot them apart with walls + crossbows. Then again, the jungles make it tough for Woden's crossbow-heavy army to maneuver and fire too; even with the Great General, 3 movement points doesn't let a crossbow move 2 tiles through jungle. So perhaps this is a pretty good spot to occupy? Then again, I can't upgrade units out here in neutral territory either. I dunno. Curious if you have thoughts one way or the other Singaboy.



I used the far eastern galley to get visibility on an English city this turn before moving off to the north. That's a big deal: being able to see at least one English city will let us track when Chevalier Mal Fet upgrades a new "strongest unit" for city defense purposes. The current strength of 30 tells us that Chevalier Mal Fet doesn't have any knights in his empire; his strongest unit appear to be a sword or horseman at 36 base strength. That's 26 base strength since it's top unit minus 10 strength, and then +2 strength for a completed Royal Navy Dockyard and +2 strength for being on a hill. If this city jumps up to 42 strength, it means he has a knight; if it goes to 44 strength, it means Chevalier has a caravel on the map, and that's the more dangerous unit for us to worry about.



This was the turn when Venezia was finally able to start work on Venetian Arsenal with the completion of Mass Production tech. Don't be too concerned about that 59 turn price tag - it's an expensive wonder but it's not going to be THAT expensive. This was before I rearranged tiles in the city to emphasize max production, and that dropped the ETA down to "only" 47 turns at a base production of 19/turn. I can improve on that significantly though, with a mine on a currently bare grassland hill tile for +2 production, another mine on a grasslan hill tile when the city grows for +3 production, and a trade route incoming for another +3 production. That's a 50% improvement right there, and it's not counting the forest chops set up here. Note the city walls at 78/80 production waiting to be cashed in on a forest chop, which should be worth about 200 production (or 10 turns off the current ETA) all by itself. Plus there's a second forest to chop as well, although without the monstrous Limes + Monarchy bonus. I may even chop the forest on the silks tile, which would be a permanent loss of 1 production/turn, but hey, why not right? I have a builder coming out of Roma on its way up here with five charges to play around with, and I might as well use them. With roughly 450 production plus to come in from forest chops, I believe I can have the wonder done around Turn 125 or so.

The one piece of bad news is the fact that Chevalier Mal Fet has a Great Admiral hanging around up here. That means he's much more likely to spot the Venetian Arsenal starting up production, especially if he plays in Straegic View where construction projects are more obvious. According to PBEM8 pictures he uses both so, yeah, he's probably noticing this and will be more likely to react accordingly. England and Nubia both have zero Industrial districts completed and I don't think they're close to Mass Production tech, so hopefully we have a significant advantage here. (The other big danger is TheArchduke due to all his Hansas but his science is quite a bit behind ours, a full 5 techs further back. Hopefully the Venetian Arsenal isn't on his radar - he certainly has no visibility on this part of the map.)



Overview for Turn 100. Siena (and Firenze) both swapped off city walls that are just short of completion while awaiting their forest chops. Siena will train a galley in the interval before it gets obsoleted by the arrival of caravels. Venezia completed a Library and is now doing the same thing, a galley likely followd by a quadrireme. If I can get one galley apiece out of Venezia, Siena, and Genova that would get me up to 6 total, and that feels like a good amount. Meanwhile, Roma works on a trader while awaiting Military Engineering tech for an Armory, and Milano/Ostia prepare for the next round of builders. Roma also has a builder sitting just short of completion while awaiting Serfdom.

The most interesting builder micro is at Ravenna. That builder is going to chop the only forest available, the one on the spice resource. I'm going to use it on a Harbor district which will go west of the fish resource, and the forest chop with Limes + Monarchy bonuses should be enough to instantly complete a Harbor that gets the 40% district discount. I was going to have the builder east of Siena is going harvest the wheat resource since I'm planning to put a Campus district there, but now I think it might be better to just put the Campus district down without spending a builder charge. What does harvesting the wheat even get me here - more population at a city that doesn't even have 4 good tiles right now as it is? Seems like a bit of a waste. Of course I could have placed the Campus about 20 turns ago and didn't do so because I was planning on harvesting it, so this isn't going to be pretty from a micromangement standpoint either way. At least Siena has two forests on grassland hills, plus a third forest on the truffles if needed. That will be plenty to get the Campus and Commercial districts done there with some Maritime Industires chopping overflow.



I went ahead and offered a clean peace treaty to Japper. I don't expect him to accept this; he'll probably shoot back by asking for his two cities back, or all of my cities, which of course we won't give him. But on the off chance that he agrees, it would be nice to have peace and get Pisa/Savoia out of occupation. Maybe Japper is ready to check out of this game further and end the standoff along his borders. He's just been defending in place and doesn't seem too eager to fight us right now. Worth a shot.

By the way, I can finally see their finances again now that the 10 turns of initial warfare are up, and wow, did these guys every bankrupt themselves or what. Japper has 14 gold in the bank and is making 6 gold/turn. Cornflakes has 6 gold in the bank and is making 1 gold/turn. One. Don't expect any more unit upgrades out of their team. They are now stuck on their current army and have little chance to build a new one, not with knights and crossbows costing almost 200 production/turn and their civs having a bunch of weak, underdeveloped cities. Honestly, the best strategic thing to do right now is make peace, out-tech them, and then come back with the next generation of military technology, which they can't possibly match. Right now it's knights/crossbows against knights/crossbows, and that's a losing matchup for whoever attacks. Wait 25 turns and we'll have muskets + field guns + caravels (and maybe frigates) which would crush right through these current defenses. Basically, we got what we could get from this initial war, and now's the time to defend and tech up to a level that they can't match.



I also made a Declaration of Friendship to EmperorK and hopefully he'll accept. That will free up Singaboy to take a more active role against England/Nubia with us locked into another 30 turns of peace with our western neighbor. My current read on Russia/Germany is that they are trying to fly under the radar and go pure economy, which is honestly a good decision for them. They're starting to catch up to the England/Nubia team since Chevalier and Woden have invested so heavily into military. I think we have good odds to get a positive response here, probably something like 70-80% that they accept this offer.

The only major score change this turn was Germany building yet another Hansa, TheArchduke's NINTH on the game. Sheesh dude. His empire score is massively inflated with 78 points from districts alone. Here are my spreadsheet tallies for this turn:



We're still looking good in almost every category. Military power is the one place that's a cause for concern, since there are two teams that are likely enemies with a combined 2400 power rating. If we can hold them off then we're in great position to win. England/Nubia has really slowed down in the rankings over the last few turns and their army is costing them a fortune. They are betting enormously that they'll be able to score a knockout blow against us here. And while I don't want to rehash the same arguments again, I still don't understand why they want to attack us instead of the vastly weaker Kongo/Khmer. They could easily clean up half a continent by running over their weak neighbors, while securing their control over Geneva and Nan Madol by putting both city states into their effective back pockets. Instead, they want to attack civs halfway around the world because we're currently in first place. Sure seems like it would be better to take over high quality land at minimal effort as opposed to charging into the prepared defenses of a technologically advanced opponent, but who knows, maybe they're right. We'll find out.

Good luck Singaboy!

[Singaboy]

Big News, Sulla!

Woden has declared war on Japper. Playing my turn now. More information coming later tpday when I post my turn. If Japper makes peace with you, then England and Nubia have played a perfect game with us unable to attack for now. If that would be the case, I suggest to advance toward Nan Madol to take that city as soon as possible.

[Modo]

The other quests are all pretty pointless since I'll lose them all when England/Nubia declare war in a few turns. An enemy civ declaring war doesn't destroy your envoys in a city state, but it does remove any active quests.

Does that apply only to you, both you and China or both you and China and England / Nubia as well? Kinda wondering why they put this in the game, to prevent a sudden quest completion that could grant you and edge?

Also, Woden declaring was one of the options but if they don't bring enough to quickly gobble Japper and entrench before your (potential) peace treaty with Japper expires then it's not bad. And you can always declare on them (by always I mean starting with the turn when the DoF ends) and harass them to make this even more expensive than it already must be for them.

All in all, interesting times

[Singaboy]

Turn 100:

As mentioned above the turn starts with a bang. I fully expect Japper to accept Rome's peace proposal. This will mean being locked until T111 in peace with them. Maybe it will serve us in a way that Khmer and Kongo will really lose most troops in the war for us to trample over them 10 turns later.

Guilds is done and Reformed Church lined up in three turns
Now, it will all depend on Emperor K's reaction where I will rush troops. If we have a 10 turn peace with Kongo but now DoF in the west, I will concentrate my new troops there. I could rush 3 archers there and then upgrade them all on T104 with Professional Army enabled on T103.



For now, it is time to get rid of Serfdom as the last of three builders in done in Hangzhou. I switch to Colonization for the settler in Hangzhou. With Colonization enabled, the settler will be done in 6 turns on T106. With some time in our hands, we might want to discuss its location. Maybe I should plant it way east after all. It should get into action soon after T111. We shall wait for any developments to decide its location.

It's chopping time, the first chop at Shangdu for a sweet 86 * 2.5 = 215 hammers. This immediately finishes the Holy Site and should be enough to cover the shrine next turn too. I might want to produce a trader there before going for a temple. This remains to be seen.

The second chop is at a rain forest for a more modest 43 * 2.5 = 108 hammers. They all flow into Beijing's commercial district which still takes 10 turns to complete. I really want that district to finish faster to finally get some district discounts. The builder there will improve the hill next for 2 additional hammers. However, the next chop is for Kashgar, but the encampment would be chopped without a discount. I think, I might forgo that chop for now to wait for the discount. I could improve the tiles around Beijing (two hills + sheep) for more hammers and then chop the rain forest into a discounted encampment. Currently the encampment costs 233 hammers, which is not trivial for a hammer weak city such as Kashgar. Some mines on hills would certainly help here and I am sure, I will need to add another round of builders there sooner rather than later. Of course it would really help, if we can get prolonged peace in the west.

Lastly, an overview of China.

Shanghai is about to finish another quadrireme with some overflow for the Holy Site. This city needs to wait for border expansions to be able to chop some forests. Tianjin and Pagan stopped producing their walls short of completion.

At Kahsgar, the proper tile has been added via expansion and the encampment simply needs a discount to get locked. Shangdu is growing again in 2 turns and might want to have a third district.

Quanzhou will get a production boost with copper mined next turn. Once its granary is done, growth will be emphasized again. With the many farmed cows, the city will have more potential to grow than now.

Generally, I have now 600 faith and 600 gold. This is a good base for purchases and upgrades. Faith is enough for 3 archers and 2 swordsmen. By the time, I get into theocracy on T103, I can add another swordsman. Where ever the action will be, I should be able to send my troops there. I am also planning to upgrade at least one chariot to a knight on T103 with professional army to ensure I net two envoys. 

[Sullla]

Singaboy, I saw your post last night right when I was going to bed and was waiting for the turn report to see if there were any more details. Well, well, well - not what I was expecting to see, but not an unpleasant development either. This is definitely the right move from England/Nubia, and the one big question for me is something along the lines of "why now? Why not 15 turns ago?" I guess they were just trying to get units into position to attack and took forever to do so. Still, they waited so freaking long that it threw our team for a complete loop and made us think that we were the target, when apparently we weren't the ones they intended to attack at all. I also can't understand what Cornflakes was doing - why does he have two knights and a crossbow off in the far west in Kongo territory? To me, that seemed to be the most obvious statement that they were working together with England/Nubia, because I couldn't imagine someone sending those units off to the western border unless they had some kind of assurance that England and Nubia were on friendly terms.

Anyway, the timing of this is pretty wretched for us. If they had attacked one turn earlier, we would have had the green light to push straight on to Heart of Darkness and assuredly capture it. I've never been afraid of Kongo/Khmer in this war, only the potential of fighting them as well as England/Nubia. (Ironically, if I had played the war like an idiot and simply attacked Kongo immediately without worrying about England/Nubia, that would also have worked in our favor.) If they had attacked one turn later, then Kongo/Khmer likely would have rejected our initial peace treaty offer and we'd still be at war right now, which would also lead to us pushing on to Heart of Darkness. It's just one of those crazy bits of timing that our 10 turns of war was finishing up on the exact same turn that England/Nubia were moving in for the attack. Lucky for them, unlucky for us. I was kicking myself last night for us not having Singaboy be the one to make the peace offer. That would have given us one more turn to see what England/Nubia did before we signed peace, and this time it would have had a major effect. We just did not think that England/Nubia were ever going to attack Kongo/Khmer after stalling for so many turns without declaring.

Well, if you ever wanted proof that we don't cheat by reading the other spoiler threads, this is surely it. The lurker thread has been really active lately, I bet you guys are having a field day.

Still, I can't regard this as all that bad for our team. Yesterday I was potentially looking at staring down an alliance with a combined 2400 military power against our team with a little under 1200 military power at our disposal. Instead, we get to see the England/Nubia team with 1500 power face off against a Kongo/Khmer team with 900 combined military power. And while Kongo is pretty feeble, Khmer is not, with about 700 military power in total. All of that will be at their disposal while Nubia surely has to keep some kind of force on Woden's border with Russia. Unfortunately about 150 of Khmer's power is off here in the west defending against our team, but Cornflakes still has a pretty good chunk of units at his disposal, and he has both crossbows and knights on hand to defend. Since England/Nubia are also attacking with crossbows/knights, that's a situation where the defender has a chance to do pretty well. Hopefully Cornflakes has city walls in place (he does have one Encampment at his capital) and will play this well from a tactical perspective. I'm concerned by the Great Generals that Woden has to augment his armies, and he surely has a boatload of crossbows that have been upgraded from his UU archer. With no current visibility of what's happening, we have to cross our fingers and hope that Khmer can slow the advance of England/Nubia and bleed away some of their units. (I will be sending units off to scout immediately once peace is signed.)

Here our best case scenario: we're locked into peace until Turn 111 but that's not as bad as it sounds. It's hard to attack in Civ6 over land; it took us 6 turns to capture Mpinda and The Jungle Book with literally zero units on defense from Japper. The peace treaty causes Kongo and Khmer to send all their units east and they successfully stall out the invasion with big losses on both sides. We redeclare war on Turn 111 and capture the remaining Kongo cities with no losses, partitioning the territory of the Kongo/Khmer team but without taking the losses suffered by England/Nubia. And remember, we already have two cities in hand right now while they have zero. Japper and Cornflakes both have three cities remaining right now; if we get all the Kongo cities, we come out way ahead from this.

Here's our worst case scenario: England/Nubia steamroll over Kongo/Khmer in the next ten turns, taking few or no losses. They get all of the remaining cities and we end up with nothing, gaining six total cities to our two cities. England/Nubia now have enough territory to dominate the game and put them in the driver's seat moving forward. I don't think this is the most likely outcome but it's not impossible either. We really, really would like to control Heart of Darkness since it's so much stronger than the other Kongo cities. Even in this worst case scenario though, we're hardly out of the game, just a lot weaker than we would have been otherwise. Right now, we cross our fingers and cheer on our former enemies while waiting for the peace treaty to run out.

Absurdly unrealistic best case scenario: Japper has lost interest in this game and rejects our peace treaty, followed by our team pushing on and capturing Heart of Darkness along with the other Kongo cities. Hey, a mean can dream, right?

[Modo]

Playing under the assumption that your opponents will make stupid moves is wrong on many levels, on the contrary it's best to play under the opposite assumption even when they do make stupid moves. Also, what could have been hasn't been so no point in asking questions about England / Nubia play that they themselves might not have a good answer to

For that matter I still think it was more likely they waited to see what you do before they acted and since you didn't rush head long into this campaign they are doing it now; sometimes it just as good to pass the move to your opponent and see which of the bad options they go with.

Which will also answer another crazy thought about this possibly being a phony war between the two teams to either keep you at bay or commit you after ten more turns...we'll see how things unfold in the meantime. Although if this is the case and Japper doesn't sign the peace you may still face both of them in a "free for all but not for you" thing

At any rate, in all scenarios your superior development is what is carrying you forward and even if that might annoy the crap out of you I enjoy the prospect of getting one town then consolidating, then getting another one and consolidating. I already picture those broad legion shields pushing inch by inch and standing their ground between each push...not that you'll rely on legions for that much longer anyway.

[Singaboy]

That's true, Modo. Never assume your opponents to make mistakes. If they do, even better but always be prepared for the worst. I am really looking forward to the next turn as it will decide a lot of my actions for the near future

- Potential 10 turn peace with Kongo/Khmer
- war or DoF with Germany/Russia

I was thinking of having some war in the west should Germany and Russia refuse a DoF. I could attempt to take out the closest city there with the help of crossbows and knights/muskets. It would at the very least force Germany to invest more hammers into units rather than building up for a Cossack attack. Of course, I am actually hoping for them to agree for 30 more turns of peace.

[Sullla]

This was a busy turn from a diplomatic perspective:



First of all, as expected Japper signed the peace treaty with our team. Since I also had the war declaration announcement from England/Nubia arriving in my inbox at the same time, this prompted a flurry of city state peace and war messages on the side of the screen. Japper then followed up that deal by asking for a Decalaration of Friendship, and, uh, yeah. Not so much on that one. I legitimately felt about rejecting that overture, but nope, not signing up for 30 turns of friendship with them. As soon as this deal wears off, we're back to vulturing for our share of the spoils. Sorry Japper and Cornflakes... but not too sorry since Khmer was the team that stole our precious Jesuit Education in the early stages of this game.

More importantly, we had an answer from EmperorK:



Russia/Germany has also signed on for another 30 turns of enforced peace. That's bad for the blood god and the lurker thread, but pretty good for us as a team. Now Singaboy doesn't have to worry about rushing to upgrade units and man the border in the west. Of course, TheArchduke doesn't have to worry about defending his border either, but there's a key difference here: we have real opportunities for expansion while their team doesn't. Germany has 8 cities and Russia has 9 cities right now, and they have to be just about out of land for expansion. So long as we're outresearching them and still have places to acquire more territory for ourselves, I'm inclined to let the peace continue. (Side note: my guess is that EmperorK is stalling until he can reach cossacks down the road. While that is a concern, for one thing we don't directly border Russia, and for another thing, we're outresearching them by enough that we will hopefully have units prepared to counter cossacks by the time they arrive.)

I shuffled my units around and eventually ended up with this unit disposition:



I pulled most of my units back a tile from the border. I want Japper to think that he's safe here and send off his units to go fight England and Nubia. Hopefully Cornflakes will do the same (he played his turn before he had any idea we were going to offer peace, which is why they didn't move anywhere). Japper's settler raises an interesting opportunity for us. He clearly wants to go establish a city in the area that we were thinking about claiming for China, and we should be very happy to let him found it. The most likely spot is on the white dot, and I'm going to allow him to move there if he wants to by feigning a retreat back to my borders. Then as soon as he plants the city, we surround it and take it for ourselves on the first turn of the war. With luck, we'll get this city, Heart of Darkness, and the city to the capital's south for five cities in total. That would be a pretty good haul if we can pull it off.

I spotted English units heading for Kinchassa in the north with my naval units. Hopefully they'll have a tough time taking it, given that Japper has some Ngao Mbembas in the area with jungle tiles for defense. If my crossbows weren't doing anything to those units, archers will just tickle them. Japper needs to get the walls done though - I have no idea why he hasn't done so yet. If he's been running Limes like he should, it should be close by now. So far, no power losses on either side in the world rankings, although those tend to be delayed for a turn or two. We'll need to wait to see what's going on. I have two knights and the Great Scientist poking around to the east to try and find out some more info.

Singaboy, I don't think it's practical to try to capture or raze Nan Madol during this peace interval. The terrain between our units and the city state is very rough and packed full of Kongo (and English?) units. I don't see any way that we could get up there, raze the city state, and get back down to this region in 10 turns. Furthermore, a city state with a defensive strength of 46 is no easy pickings. I think that the way we go after Nan Madol is an alpha strike from out of the fog using naval units, caravels and frigates that hit and raze the city state before anyone is in a position to stop us. That's probably 25 turns down the road from now. Definitely something we want to remember for the future though. (We definitely want to keep Lisbon and Seoul around because they'll be in our back pockets and easy to control. Maybe we keep Bandar Brunei too if we can get enough envoys. Otherwise we should raze or capture everything else since we won't be able to control them.)



This was the worst part of the turn: look what tile Firenze picked to grab next. Seriously, this is the worst part of Civ6 stupidity. Why is the city picking a 1/1 tundra hill tile over a 2/1 grassland hill tile and a 1/2 forest tile?! It literally makes no sense. There is no universe where I would want this tile over either of those two tiles. Now I'll likely have to purchase both forest tiles, the one in the second ring and the one in the third ring, for chopping purposes at Firenze. Argh. Stupid, stupid game.

The good news is that Rome is still the only civ other than Germany with a completed Industrial district. TheArchduke claimed the first Great Engineer this turn, landing Bi Sheng: lets a city build one more district above the population limit. Of all civs, that one isn't very useful for Germany since they already get one free district above the population limit as a civ ability. (Bi Sheng does also provide the boost for Printing tech but that one is pretty easy to get: build two universities.) So now we have the new Great Engineer revealed for the Renaissance era, and it's Mimar Sinan: +1 housing and +1 amenity for the city in question (2 charges). That's easily the weakest of the three Renaissance Great Engineers, and we don't have to worry about TheArchduke stealing Venetian Arsenal or another wonder with one of the Great Engineers that offers wonder production charges. Yay!



If we're able to capture a city from Japper in the southeast, that would free up the current Chinese settler in production for another spot. I think the most logical location is the place south of Pagan that we discussed previously, and with a new Declaration of Friendship with Germany it should be safe to grab. The one other spot I'll throw out for future consideration is this island west of Shanghai. It's a pretty dry spot without much in the way of food, but it's a strategically important location and does have two luxuries in whales and pearls. We definitely do not want Germany to set up a city here since it would constantly threaten the western coast. Something to consider for the future at the very least.



Overview of Roman territory as usual. I'm planning on putting another turn of research into Diplomatic Service right now, then swapping back to Medieval Faires and finishing it next turn to unlock a round of Serfdom for the builders about to complete. Then back to Diplomatic Service again to swap back out of Serfdom after the builders complete. Roma, Ostia, and Milano will all be just short of their builders finishing at the end of this turn. Sinena will chop out a Campus district next turn, and Ravenna will chop out a Harbor district on the following turn. Things are looking pretty good here.

By the way, Pisa and Savoia are out of occupation now and can actually build stuff again. Pisa is a lousy city because it has no production and no forests to chop = useless city at this stage of the game. Savoia isn't bad at all though since it has lots and lots of plains hill tiles. (No forests though, sadly.) I need to build a granary and get a trade route running for more food, then I'll harvest one of the two wheat tiles in the third ring. That will get the city up to size 5, food-neutral at exactly 10 food, working the citrus plantation and four plains hill tiles. That's about 20 production/turn, good enough to turn out frigates in 7 turns apiece with Press Gangs running. Not bad at all as a city.



Here's the upcoming civics tree for Rome. Without the spectre of a deadly war hanging over my head right now, I can indulge a little bit more in domestic development. The biggest problem is the lack of Economic policy slots in Monarchy government. This one is great for those forest wall chops, but it's tough to operate with only 1 Economic and 1 Wildcard slot available. I can't slot in Serfdom or Colonization without dropping Meritocracy or Natural Philosophy, for example. Next up on the civics tree are Medieval Faires and Diplomatic Service, then I'll likely follow Singaboy to Reformed Church and use Theocracy for a brief period just to have the extra Economic policy slot. Just have to wait for the 4 forest wall chops I have queued up to finish first, which should all be doable in the next 10 turns. I want to slot in Colonization and get out two more settlers, one for that "doughnut hole" spot that we were eyeing for China, and one for the southern island with the resources on it. However, I need another Economic policy slot for that, and plus my capital needs to work on an Armory next anyway for the Gunpowder boost. I'd like to have muskets on hand for when we return to war with Kongo if possible. So the plan here seems set for the moment: about 10 more turns in Monarchy to use those chops, then on to Theocracy for a little bit to get out two more settlers.

Why not Merchant Republic? It obsoletes Maritime Industries and I'm not ready to lose that policy yet. Not until I can build about 10 quariremes for upgrading purposes.

No major score changes this turn; the most notable one was Russia finishing another Lavra. Good luck Singaboy - curious to see what action, if any, has taken place during England and Nubia's turns of the war. Crossing fingers for now Khmer cities falling.