Singaboy and Sullla's team thread

[Ianus]

Surprise! Metal Casting!

Wait, what's that down there in the corner...

[Sullla]

Wow, that is terrible, terrible news. Chevalier Mal Fet didn't even have an Industrial district finished until about ten turns ago. He must have done some kind of mass chopping/harvesting play to get the wonder done so quickly. I knew it was a bad sign that he had a unit spot our wonder attempt. I just didn't think he could finish Venetian Arsenal so quickly.

Finishing the wonder the same turn that we signed a Declaration of Friendship is a real kick in the teeth. We may have just lost the game here on this turn.

[Singaboy]

Turn 115:
Trying to stay focused though having this really bad news is tough. However, we can't just give up but England + Arsenal is a deadly combination. My guess would be that England goes first after Russia and Germany. Our options are now somewhat limited. Attack Germany and Russia with a combined land and sea force?

The short term goal is still to take out Kongo and go for a quick conquest of Seoul. The situation at the beginning of the turn. Both tech and civic are done, all three builders got produced, two campuses done. However, the trader ended up one hammer short due to tile swapping and the interface didn't show that update as usual.
Science and culture have increased of course due to the campuses and that monument (though in an occupied city)



Time to upgrade the remaining 4 units. Upgrading two catapults gains the Eureka and it is only a turn to siege tactics completion.

Time to look at the changed tactical situation at Seoul. I agree with the path the battering ram is taking. It can reach that hill on t117 and then move next to the city on T118 with the Roman caravel attacking. I will have 4 units able to attack the city. The units will stay out of sight of the city borders until T117, when they reach their positions for attacks. Maybe that could be enough to take the city. However, if we fail on T118, the following turn, the battering ram can move away to enable an attack by the crouching tiger or a musket as well as the bombard which would be on the hill north of Seoul. That should be sufficient to take the city.

With all four upgrades done, it is time to change policies again. Now, there is one issue for China and that is the lack of civics to research. I have reached the threshold of humanism, waiting for the inspiration from Rome. That will take some time though (3 turns?). Exploration is the other but I will reach the 40% threshold soon too. I will then run into wastage of culture. Hence, it is time to drop Meritocracy for the time being as I rather have more science.

With Limes back in business, I can harvest the stones at Pagan for a handy 126 hammers completing the walls and getting the harbor down to 2 turns completion.

The situation of China at the end of the turn. Shangdu and Hangzhou have resumed with their districts to be finished in a rather short time frame. Quanzhou is producing a library, Tianjin will finish a quick granary before starting naval production again. We will need a navy in the west whether we have the Arsenal or not. And with galleys soon going obsolete, I would like to produce another couple of galleys.

I changed the build at Beijing after the screenshot, building a medieval wall for 4 turns to get another Limes overflow bonus when chopping the forest in 4 turns into the campus.

The builders are moving to improve land and chop. I recruited a missionary in Hangzhou to move south for conversion duty. And finally, I drafted a horseman in Kashgar.

It is obvious that we have no use for the big army in the east for now. Are we going to plan attacking Germany in the west? Germany doesn't have DotF bonuses. If we can muster a superior navy, we could attempt to hit them from the east. Obviously, China's western coast has to be prepared for a counter attack. However, if we take Seoul quickly, we should be able to have a science edge over them. Even though we don't get the numbers for naval units, we might have technical superiority to tackle Germany.  We need more intel about the vulnerability of their eastern coast. Roma can use the canal cities to get the navy there. We could take out Bandar Brunei to hurt them economically too. I am sure they enjoy huge monetary benefits from that city state.

Finally, I don't think England will sit around for 30 turns to let us do our thing. They might attack Germany/Russia too. This will only add the pressure for Emperor K and Archduke. What do you think, Sulla?

[Modo]

Hindsight is always 20/20 and England hates other players having VA and loves using it  and all that...

But they also sacrificed probably a lot to get it and VA also gives you a lot of maintenance for that navy so the long term is not so rosy for them either. Given that they offered the DoF only when they knew they'll get the VA means they might have feared retaliation from you and makes it more likely they'll attack Russia / Germany.
If that's the case you can use your military to frustrate their efforts / pathing and actually gain an ally against England / Nubia. Hell, you could do that even now by helping Cornflakes; I doubt England / Nubia can finish their campaign before you finish yours and even in 30 turns I don't see them in a better position...the VA is only as good as your capability to use it.

Granted, that's one way of looking at it and there are more factors in play but the way I see it Russia  / Germany can be the kingmakers now since it's clear that a passive posture leads to the same fate as Kongo / Khmer.

[Sullla]

It was a somber Turn 116 for Rome:



There's the message about the Venetian Arsenal completing on Chevalier Mal Fet's turn. He won the race by 6 turns, and I'll be curious to see how exactly he built the wonder so quickly. I suspect lots and lots of forest chops / resource harvests that he managed to line up at one of his coastal cities. I mean, he didn't even have an Industrial district completed until about 10 turns ago, and he managed to knock out the 920 production cost in that span of time. I think that if we had devoted 100% of our resources towards landing the Venetian Arsenal, we could have finished it first. That is, two or even three builders chopping tiles at Firenze, more purchasing of forest tiles for chopping, perhaps runninng the +15% wonder production card, etc. But realistic I couldn't put every resource in the empire towards this one city, not while fighting a hot war against Kongo at the same time. We also had no idea who else was competing for the wonder or what kind of ETA was necessary to land it. I still think the Turn 121 finshing date was a pretty good one. This is one of those cases where you have to compliment the other player on a job well done and move on from there.

I thought about what to do with the 300 leftover production and ultimately decided to build a Harbor district on the same tile:



The Harbor was undiscounted and cost nearly all of that leftover production, but there was nothing I could do about that. (Sadly, I actually have 16 districts completed now and the Harbor would be discounted if I had finished a tech or civic to refresh the count. Ah well.) I chose a Harbor district because I intend to do some serious shipbuiding out of Firenze. It's a very strong production city at close to 30 base production/turn (albeit with two trade routes for help right now) and there's still a bunch of hill tiles to grow onto. Losing Venetian Arsenal just means that I'll need to spend more time than ever building ships to keep up with England. I really would have liked to build Great Lighthouse here for the movement bonus, however I didn't have a Harbor district or a lighthouse to meet either requirement. It would be really, really nice for Rome to land the Great Lighthouse to get some naval movement speed to match England, or for China to build it for denial value. England already gets +1 movement from the Royal Navy Dockyards and then another +1 movement from the omnipresent Great Admirals. If Chevalier gets Great Lighthouse on top of that, it's going to be tough to ever match him at sea. We'll have to think more about potentially going for that wonder in the near future.



This was the view on the Kongo front. Japper did what he should have done last turn and moved a crossbow onto one of the jungle hill tiles so that it could fire on my units as they moved in. I started by shuffling my knights a tile forward in the east, which was a simple move to make since they had nowhere else to go. The terrain up there is very, very rough going, lots of forest hills and jungle hills. (Kinchassa will be a fantastic place for chopping once it's captured: double stone and forests everywhere. Yes please!) Over on the western side of the formation, I kept on shooting the exposed Ngao Mbemba:



Three crossbows fired for a total of 51 damage. Even those pinpricks do add up over time. This unit is now redlined and doesn't appear to have anywhere to go for safety. Japper will probably send it on a suicide mission to attack, perhaps against one of my own crossbows. I would love it if he tried to save the Ngao Mbemba by swapping it with the crossbow behind it, which would only cause the crossbow to die instantly since it lacks all the defensive advantages of the Ngao. This isn't really Japper's fault either, he's in an impossible tactical position here. No amount of strategic trickery is going to get him out of this position.



My final disposition of units. Note that I deliberately left a jungle hill tile vacant; that tile can be hit by both of the Kongo crossbows in the rear row, and a unit standing there could theoretically get attacked by three crossbow bolts and a Ngao Mbemba. Every other tile where a unit is standing is much safer. The northeast Kongo crossbow has exactly one shot, against my knight two tiles southeast of it, and that knight has the rough terrain advantage and the fortify bonus for 61 total strength. Even if both Kongo crossbows and the Ngao Mbemba all attack him, he should survive and then can go heal. In the center of the formation, two crossbows have moved up into position to hit the southern Kongo crossbow next turn. Japper should be trying to kill the Roman crossbow on the marsh tile since it has the defensive penalty there, but I'm pretty sure it will survive even if it gets hit by the Ngao Mbemba and a crossbow bolt. On the west side of the formation, the Kongo crossbow southwest of Kinchassa's city center can't attack anything this turn, nor can the city shoot at anything yet. I'm hoping to take out the row of Kongo units two tiles south of the city next turn, and then move onto the city's firing range on Turn 118.

The key to this effort is the naval component. Next turn I'll embark the battering ram and that musket coming down from the north, then move next to Kinchassa on Turn 118 and attack with a caravel. That attack should take out most of the walls, and I can follow up with a second full health caravel attack the following turn. I would love to land that musket from the sea and use it to help capture the city. One of the two muskets here has to get a killing blow to land the Square Rigging boost. Capturing a city DOES count for a unit kill in that regard (oledavy did it with this exact boost in PBEM2), and that may be how I ultimately land the boost. This boost plus natural envoy generation can get me to 6 total envoys in Geneva in as little as three more turns.



This caravel is heading out on a scouting mission and spotted something interesting at Nan Madol. Chevalier has used one of his Great Admirals (the oldest Classical era one) for a caravel fleet. He can use his Great Admiral abilities twice, so he hasn't retired the Admiral entirely yet. I'm wondering why he chose to make a fleet out of a caravel; I would have thought waiting and creating a fleet for a frigate would be the better choice. The 67 strength rating is really nice now, but this unit would still get torn up in a hurry by frigates and their 55 ranged attack. Now perhaps Chevalier is thinking further down the tech tree, when ironclads become available, but it still seems like an odd choice to me. Frigates/Battleships are the power units at sea, not caravels/ironclads.



I continued moving the battering ram forward towards Seoul, two more turns until we launch our attack there. As a side note, I would prioritize getting the bombard and muskets close to the city if possible since they will do the most overall damage. The bombard in particular will be outstanding here, since it does full damage against cities. My caravel attack will probably not get the full city walls down, just knock out most of them, and if the bombard could somehow be in range to fire, that would be awesome. Barring a Turn 118 attack from the bombard, perhaps you could move onto the 1/4 lumbermill tile on Turn 118 and then fire on the city Turn 119? Anyway, I know you have a plan here, just trying to throw out idea.

And yes, Rome's brief stint in Theocracy government allowed me to purchase a scout unit. This guy will go to sea and defog some tiles for us to the south of Germany. We might as well, right?



I forgot to take an overview picture of my territory this turn, nothing too critical changed from last turn (aside from the Venetian Arsenal finishing). We did retake the in-game score lead from Russia/Germany this turn due to Singaboy's districts completing, for the small amount that that's worth. England also built another city this turn, taking Chevalier to 8 total. It's another coastal cities - every one of his cities other than his capital is coastal - and another Royal Navy Dockyard was already thrown down. Speaking of England, I sent this message to Chevalier letting him know how long our Declaration of Friendship lasts with Germany. We'll see if he sends us a message back. I plant to follow up with an 18 message next turn, and then a 17 message so that it's clear that this is a countdown. I think that their offer of the DoF was a sign that they want to work with us, so let's see if we can get some further buy-in from their team.

I also spotted something important on the diplo screen: England/Nubia have an alliance with Russia/Germany. This means that they are currently sharing vision with one another in the same way that we share vision. Singaboy, I think that we should see if we can sign an allianc with England/Nubia as well, largely because it would enormously increase our map knowledge. We would get to see all of the England/Nubia cities, plus all of the Russia/Germany cities in one stroke. Of course, England/Nubia would get to see all of our cities as well, but Chevalier did a great job of scouting out our territory in the early game, so they already know what we have. It would be a very one-sided deal in our favor. They absolutely should not sign a deal with us, but perhaps we can get them to bite. If they refuse then that's key information for us to know as well. We only need to sign an alliance one time to defog the whole map, and then we could let it lapse thereafter. (We would not want to sign an alliance with Russia/Germany because then we're locked into peace for another 30 turns again. Since we just signed with England/Nubia, we'd only be extending the deal by one or two turns.)

I think that we should tentatively plan on attacking Germany when our current Declaration of Friendship wears off in 19 more turns. In theory, we would send Roman ships to the north around the top of our continent to fight at sea while landing units on Germany's eastern coast. Let's see if we can get more support from England/Nubia first before we commit ourselves any further right now though. We don't want to leave ourselves open to attack anywhere if we can avoid it.

[Singaboy]

Turn 116:

With the save making its quick rounds, the report had to come late, too late for Sulla. However, as busy as T115 was, there was almost nothing happening this turn. The big news of the turn is that Khmer is still around, really.

The other bad news is that both civics, I am researching have reached their threshold and I am going to waste research for 2 turns. There is nothing I can do about it. I don't quite understand why exploration had advanced so much in one turn. Maybe some display issues. Anyway, I slot in humanism and it will automatically finish once Roma has gotten that civic in 2 turns.
Tianjin finished its granary and started another galley. I am trying to get 5 galleys out then producing a few quadriremes before all become obsolete. The builder near Quanzhou is on the way to mine two hills south of it to give both Beijing and Quanzhou more production. Beijing's builder climbed the rain forest to aid the wall completion at Kashgar next turn, while the settler reached its destination. Finally, the missionary moved south to convert the new city before embarking towards the east.



In the east, my units moved into position. I tried to hide them from Seoul for as long as possible, but this turn a few of our units will be exposed. There isn't much we can do about it. I had to change my battle plans as the tile S of Seoul is a 2 movement tile and it would make the knight attack from the south via the forest hill impossible on T118. I reckon that there will be only three direct attacks on T118 from my units with the bombard, a musket and the second horseman able to attack one turn later. There is a question for Sulla though. I could move the western musket in position to pillage the horses for gold and a horseman to pillages the spices for research beakers. Are you fine with the fact that Seoul would have two tiles in need of repair for a while? Seould would drop to pop 4 and could still work sufficient intact tiles while giving China some immediate boost.

[Sullla]

The turn was just flying around today, passing through all seven other players in about eight hours before coming back to me again. As a result, you get your second turn report in one day.



Chevalier Mal Fet accepted my deal between turns. What that means though is unclear. Are they onboard with going after Germany and Russia when our Declaration of Friendship wears off? It's unclear at this point. We'll push them a little further this turn and see what they do. There was also a notification of the Siege Tactics boost coming over from Singaboy, and one of my units getting attacked between turns. Out of all my units in range of his crossbow, Japper decided to attack my knight on the tile northeast of the mountain. Why in the world did he choose that one? Very odd. That knight even earned a promotion from getting hit by the crossbow bolt, which meant that I would be able to heal away all of the damage taken this turn. It wasn't the best tactical decision for Kongo.

My focus for this turn was the southern Kongo crossbow. Because Japper didn't attack either of my crossbows, they were able to go after his unit:



Two of my crossbows on the cocoa tile and the marsh tile could both reach his unit by virtue of the fact that it was on a jungle hill tile. Perhaps Japper didn't realize that my crossbows were in range and vice versa? The combat rules are a little weird here in very rough terrain. In any case, I lined up this first shot at +16 combat strength advantage and dealt 62 damage, then the second crossbow did the remaining 38 damage for the kill. If they had fallen short, my knight would have been able to finish off the crossbow with minimal damage taken. Scratch another Kongo unit. I've been systematically killing Kongo units for the last few turns while closing in on Kinchassa, and time is almost up for poor Japper.

Next I moved the injured knight a tile to the west and promoted it with Barding, +7 strength against ranged attacks. I figured this was a situation where that might be useful to have. The other knights in the east all shuffled forward a tile, and that revealed more English units heading for Kinchassa as well. No! Bad Chevalier! Kinchassa is our city, not yours. That prompted my strangest move of the turn:



That caravel fleet was closing in on Kinchassa, and I could see what Chevalier was planning on doing here. He wants to occupy the tile west of the city center, the only tile where the city can be reached by sea. Chevalier had one of his Great Admirals squatting on that tile for a long time earlier in the war, and I did not want him to take over that tile again. We need sea access to Kinchassa for our battering ram, and if there was a 65 strength English caravel right next to the city, it would be really difficult for our units to capture the place without Chevalier sneaking it for himself.

As a result, Chevalier forced my hand one turn earlier than I wanted. Instead of hitting the city center tile next turn with the battering ram in place, I had to occupy that tile with a caravel this turn to stop Chevalier from taking over the tile himself. That meant that the caravel I placed on the tile would almost certainly die on Japper's turn, since he could concentrate two crossbow shots and the city wall shots against it. And if the caravel was almost certain to die, I might as well get some damage out of it before it bit the dust. That's why I attacked the city center of this turn; the 1 damage won't stick on the city, but the 7 damage to the city walls will remain. That extra damage could be important, as I'd like to get the walls down immediately if I can. Right now, if a caravel attacked with the battering ram in place (50 strength against 38 strength) it would deal about 48 damage on average - enough for the walls to come down instantly. But Japper could move his full strength Ngao Mbemba in there, and that would increase the city strength up to 46 again, at which time a caravel would only deal 35 damage on average. The extra 7 damage done this turn to the walls could be the difference. Since the caravel is almost certain to die anyway, I figured I might as well get the extra damage.



Here's the final unit disposition. The caravel is a bit of a bait; Japper can and probably should kill it, but that will require two of the three attacks from the crossbows and the city walls. Those attacks then can't be directed against my other units. I'm hoping to get my musketman kill next turn by shooting the westernmost Kongo crossbow and then attacking with the musket, which will also put a musket right next to the city center tile. The other Kongo crossbow can theoretically be attacked by two of my knights, and that will hopefully be enough to take it out. Chevalier Mal Fet may block the path forward with his knight though, which could be an issue. I still think I have the inside track to reach the city though, especially with the sea route blocked. I'm thinking right now that Turn 120 is the likely capture date for Kinchassa, although a lot depends on what Japper and Chevalier do on their turns.



In non-war news, I still had a good bit of overflow remaining from the failed wonder build at Firenze, roughly 80 production total. I thought about this and decided to put it into a Campus district project. I'm going to ensure that I land the next Great Scientist, Charles Darwin, with a double Campus district project. Roma already has a project one turn away from completion for about 40 Scientist points, and this project will yield about 45 more points. I currently have 219/420 points and I produce 13 points/turn, with Germany running pretty close behind at 206/420 points and the same rate of 13 points/turn. This means that I'm actually pretty close to landing the Great Scientist with the double district projects in the works, about 8-9 turns from finishing. I'll finish both district projects at the same time and jump up 90ish points all at once, hopefully snagging the Great Person. That would boost The Enlightenment and also give Rome a giant amount of free beakers to leap forward to some kind of key tech, probably Steel or Combustion. If we could get super early battleships or tanks, that might be enough to swing this game decisively in our favor.



Here's the overview shot that I missed last turn. I'm mostly building either universities (for the Printing boost), settlers, or quadriremes for frigate upgrades and chop overflow abuse. Genova will get a forest chop with Maritime Industires overflow abuse in 2 turns for its Commercial district, while Siena will do the same thing in 3 turns. I also intend to do a quadrireme forest chop at Firenze as well before obsoleting Maritime Indusries. After these quadriremes finish, I'm going to be churning out a big round of builders and traders. The only real question is how long I should keep Maritime Industries and quadriremes available before obsoleting them. Do I really need frigates until right before we push against Germany? I might as well keep building the much cheaper quadriremes, right? I would love to have about a dozen of them before we try anything against TheArchduke.



Getting ready to attack Seoul next turn. Whatever unit was inside the city moved out of it between turns, and hopefully it will stay there when my caravel attacks next turn. 50 strength against 47 strength will deal about 34 damage on average, not quite enough to get through the walls. It will very likely take 2 total turns here to pull off, which is fine.



I gave Chevalier another turn on our countdown, 18 turns, and asked for an Alliance. Let's see what he does here. An alliance would reveal a vast amount of map knowledge to us, and it would also signal pretty strongly that Chevalier wanted to work with us against Russia/Germany. I'm not sure that we can get involved in a big war against TheArchduke and EmperorK without some kind of guarantee along those lines. We'll see what he does. I'm hoping that we'll get an agreement and a near-fully revealed map in return.



Finally, Cornflakes is down to 88 military power and seems likely to be eliminated on this turn. In fact, Woden has quite possibly already posted that Cornflakes is gone. You put up a great fight Cornflakes, with Woden's power dropping again this turn down to 630 total. Khmer put up a good fight given the overwhelming odds against their team, and stalled out England/Nubia much longer than we had any right to expect. They attacked on Turn 101 and it's taken 17 turns to capture two cities thus far. Seriously, really great stuff - you helped our team out a ton. Thanks Cornflakes.

[Singaboy]

Question for Sulla from the previous updated post: Please have a look and let me know:

"Are you fine with the fact that Seoul would have two tiles in need of repair for a while? Seould would drop to pop 4 and could still work sufficient intact tiles while giving China some immediate boost."

[Singaboy]

Turn 117:

The surprise of the turn is the fact that Khmer are still alive. I had really expected them to to dead by now. Every additional turn in occupation is good for us. I forgot to check whether England accepted the alliance, but the fact that the FOW is still there, tells me, that they did not accept it. Now, England is obviously trying to sneak in their units to take Kinchassa. I hope things turn out well next round that Rome can knock down the walls without allowing England to take the city in between. The move using the caravel this turn was brilliant. Even if it might cost Rome that unit. However, unless Rome can take the city, I advise strongly to wait a turn to then strike with full force to take the city. Of course, knocking down the city walls will be vital next turn.



At Seoul, our cover is blown and the swordsman is actually way south. Now, that guy could move back towards the city, but wouldn't reach it. However, it would at least block my horseman from attacking as I could still use both knights to attack. The question now is whether it is fine for me to pillage the horses and mine in the north of the city for beakers and gold. If not, I would move the archer in as well for T119 to attack. We have additional units there and it should be enough for us to take the city. The battering ram would have to move into the sea on T119 and I could attack with an archer, bombard, musket or crouching tiger on top of the units I use on T118. If that is not enough then I don't know what would.

But in the core, I get a fourth trade route and am eligible for a 5th now with Pagan's harbor done. Three trade routes to Rome alone give us 18 gpt.

At Kashgar, the rain forest is speeding up the encampment. I also discover, that I would get a discount for theatre/encampment/entertainment/industrial districts. Not too sure how that is possible without having 16 districts done, but then I don't understand the whole mechanics completely. It's too convoluted. As Tianjin is adding the hill tile planned for the encampment in 3 turns, it is a good opportunity to lock it for a discount.

For now Tianjin is starting a galley, Beijing slows its walls so that it will take 4 turns for it with maximum overflow that will be used for the campus there. Hangzhou will finish the theatre next turn with a chop. Pagan has started a lighthouse as it is a per-requisite for the Great Lighthouse and the new city of Balkh is founded in the south, starts a wall for maximum production as its meagre size.

Next turn, I will have 3 enjoys to distribute and I will send 2 to Geneva to have 3 envoys there. That will more than make up for the loss of 2 beakers from Seoul. I did not recruit any additional horsemen for now, as we can easily draft them in several cities. I am still not sure, which front would be better, east or west. Maybe it is best to split them having half of the horses in the west, half in the east. As I won't have the gold to upgrade them all in one go anyway, I might as well have them distributed equal.

[Sullla]

Sorry for not responding about Seoul earlier, and you probably won't like my response on that topic either. With all of the legions upgrading into muskets, I don't have any units who will be able to repair pillaged tiles for a long time. The next wave of builders is about a dozen turns away, and that's not counting the time needed to walk some of them down to the south. Since I won't be able to repair pillaged tiles for some time, I think it would be best to hold off on tearing up the environment at Seoul. We've also hit the point in the game where pillaging doesn't do all that much: a pillaged mind is worth all of 25 beakers, for example. I think the self-inflicted damage would be greater than the rewards. By the way, your unit position looks great there, stopping the Seoul sword from getting back inside the city and providing the defensive bonus. Your units will also keep Seoul from killing my unprotected battering ram, which I'll move into the water under the caravel on Turn 119. Really nice unit positioning there.

Elsewhere, I am also very surprised that Khmer is still alive for another turn. If Woden takes much longer, we might actually finish off Kongo before they finish off Khmer, something that would have seemed impossible when we signed the Turn 101 peace treaty a little while ago. I'm also pleased to see that Chevalier didn't push against Kinchassa as aggressively as he could have, I was worried that his knight would take the grassland hill tile to the west of where the knight is currently standing. England staying out of that tile will hopefully allow me to kill both Kongo crossbows on the upcoming turn. I will be taking pains to make sure that England can't snipe Kinchassa, although I don't think Chevalier will be able to get any units in range to take it. I think his plan was to use the caravel fleet to capture Kinchassa from the sea, and we managed to block him with our own caravel this turn.

I'm not sure how the alliance mechanics function here; it's possible that I have the expanded vision but China does not. Maybe? The more likely answer is that Chevalier turned us down. Let's see what officially happened on Rome's turn and go from there. I have some thoughts about how to attack Germany, but they won't be much good if we can't trust England/Nubia to leave us alone. Obviously we're not sending our whole military off to another continent if they're going to be keeping the bulk of their units here on the Kongo/Khmer continent.

The new city of Balkh is in a nice location, and Pagan is a pretty good place to try for the Great Lighthouse with all those forests for chopping. At this point, you could probably chop one forest and harvest the stone, and that would be enough to land the wonder. China is really coming along nicely now from an economic perspective, you almost have as much science per turn as Woden at this point. I also think that we save faith for the moment until we decide where we want to deploy it. Down the road, we may need to declare an Inquisition with an apostle if we're going to fight Russia and Germany, since that would provide a way to remove religion from their cities and remove Defender of the Faith. We aren't there yet, but it's something we may need to do later.