[Spoilers] RFS-81 - Anubis? More like A-noob-is!

[shallow_thought]

Yes, that's pretty much what I meant to say. I think you're going to have to resign yourself to missing ft boost, so slingers is better employed supporting warrior unless there are key short term decisions that rely on scouting more nearby terrain. So, if there's a better city site a few tiles SE, well, it'll have to wait.

[RFS-81]

Turn 25:

Beta Colony has grown and finished the slinger. I switch the tiles to emphasize production and get a builder in 5 turns.



My warrior spots a barbarian.



Turn 26:

Barrayar grows to size 2, and will easily reach size 3 in time for the EE boost.



I attack the barb warrior and get my slinger into position to attack next turn.



C&D says that rho21 also founded a second city. That leaves suboptimal as the last one who still has one city. He'll probably try to snowball ahead later by conquering city states.

[RFS-81]

Turn 27:

The barb warrior attacked the slinger. The slinger alone couldn't do enough damage to take him out, so I had to attack with the warrior first...



That's close...I was lucky and the barb warrior barely survived, so I could kill him with the slinger and earn the Archery eureka! Good to have that out of the way, now I won't have to hope that barbarians survive anymore

Meanwhile, another barb scout shows up at Barrayar. That must be one I hadn't seen before, because he isn't damaged. Ugh...I'll let the warrior take out the camp and the slinger guard Barrayar, I guess. I was hoping to go scouting with my warrior after clearing the barb camp, but that's not going to happen now.



Meanwhile, suboptimal has been putting Vilnius under siege. Is that really where he wants his second city to be? Then again, I can see why he doesn't want me to get free culture. On the other hand, if he doesn't attack city states I haven't met, I have a better chance of getting the PP boost. I can't miss out on that!

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I should also start thinking about what improvements to build. Chopping anything is right out of course, because I need the Craftsmanship boost. Here's what I could build:

• Gypsum quarry at Beta Colony: Luxury, 1 , 3 , 1 - Decent tile, though I'd wish the gold was food instead. Masonry boost.
  
• Grassland hill mine at Beta Colony: 2 , 2 - Meh, it's already swimming in tiles like that.
  
• Stone quarry at Beta Colony: I'm going to harvest those at some point, but having a 2 3 tile until then could be great, depending on how long I wait! Also, Masonry boost!
  
• Farm at Beta Colony: 4 - My capital is a bit low on food compared to my 2nd city...If I chose this, I'll buy the Southern tip of my planned feudalism triangle.
  
• Mine at Barrayar: It's low on production, so that seems a decent choice. But should I put it on the grassland hill or buy the plains hill?
  
• Farm at Barrayar: Would make most sense on the wheat tile, which I'd have to buy. Barrayar has got enough food, and the irrigation boost is not particularly urgent.
  
• Stone quarry at Barrayar: Flatland quarries aren't very good, this stone will get harvested sooner rather than later, I think.
  

I'm pretty sure I'll go for the gypsum quarry. Not sure what the best choice is for the rest. If I want to quarry the stone tiles at Beta Colony, I should do so now, to get the most out of them before I harvest them. I think a mine at Barrayar would be good.

[shallow_thought]

You're going to need the Gypsum amenity when Barrayar hits size 3 aren't you? I'd thought that would be the place to start. I'd also consider farming the wheat for the irrigation boost, but I don't know how long it will be before the tile is picked up naturally. Buying one tile might be worth it, two is probably overkill.

Looks like you're going to need at least one more military unit before Agoge becomes available.

Strategically, I wonder how  far Vilnius is from suboptimal's cap. If he overextends, a push for wheel might make sense even without the boost...

[RFS-81]

Barrayar was placed on the citrus, so it has +1 amenity. That would be enough to grow to size 3. Of course, it's always better to have more than less!

[RFS-81]

Turn 28: Suboptimal has conquered Vilnius. I was hoping he'd raze it, but why would he? It's a bad location, but it doesn't drive up the settler cost, so it's clearly better to have it than not to have it. Umm...to get the PP bonus, do the three city states all have to be alive?

EDIT: I mean, *I* might have razed it, but it would have been easy for me to get a settler in this area for a better location.

[shallow_thought]

I guess you get to find out. At least if the barbs let you scout for a third. That's an aggressive play from suboptimal. Not so much grabbing a cs, that's expected, but grabbing one close to you and valuable. I'm not getting a builder game feel from this. Interesting times. 

His first warrior was injured. Do we know whether it promo healed and went back in, or does he have three in the field?

[RFS-81]

His military score is high enough for 3, but I'm not sure. I went back to my old screenshots and the way his score develops seems consistent with 3. Now I wish I had made sullla-style score spreadsheets!

[RFS-81]

Turn 29: Not much going on, but the builder is due next turn and I really need to decide on tile improvements.

I think production at Barrayar is necessary. I'll need a second builder to chop out my first district. Barrayar already started on one. Beta Colony is going to churn out a bunch of military units. I want one more warrior and at least two more slingers before I obsolete them. With a total of three slingers, I won't have to slow-build any archers to get the Machinery eureka.

So, gypsum quarry, mine at Barrayar, that leaves one. I'm considering a farm or a stone quarry at Beta Colony.

[RFS-81]

Turn 30:

The builder is finished! I decided on the farm, and already purchased the tile, but I build the quarry first. I switch production to warrior, and move the citizen from the plains-hill-forest to the floodplains to get some city growth in reasonable time. I don't want my cap to hang at 3 pop forever!



The tile picker is jumping around like crazy. There are lots of 3-yield tails for it to pick, so it can't decide.

I've been moving my slinger towards Barrayar and my warrior to the barb camp. He'll have to heal up a bit before,attacking, though.



Turn 31:

Barrayar has grown to size 3, so it's working the grassland forest now. This grants me the EE boost. I'll stop researching this one turn before completion, because I plan to first switch to Ilkum and Agoge, then to Colonization.



Masonry was halfway complete, so I switched to research writing at the start of my turn. I wouldn't have needed to, because I also built the gypsum quarry at Beta Colony. I forgot to switch back to Masonry. Oh well, it's not like it's urgent right now.

I didn't do a good job of keeping track of scores. Suboptimal's pop growth seems slow, so he probably slipped in a settler somewhere in between. The other possibility is that he went all in on production for those Eagle Warriors, and that seems suicidal in the long run, so I doubt it.