The Turn 50 Overview & Look Back Report
The current stats:
Japper’s science and military power are from CQUI. All other numbers are from the score displays or from my own tracking.
rho21 got an early jump on science I have to assume he’s got some combination of a scientific city-state somewhere near him and/or a science-providing natural wonder. His Campus district must also be a high-adjacency one as he’s only generating 4.2 science from population and 2 from the palace. The extra 6.6 is coming from somewhere.
Japper is also in the same situation – he’s got ~7.6 coming from population, so he’s got an extra 2.4 coming from a city-state.
Early on I was behind in culture – rho21 has a culture-providing resource and RFS-81 was first to Vilnius. The capture of Vilnius was a major setback to Egypt, which has yet to recover. The fact that I could get a quick monument via repair helped boost me into the culture lead and I haven’t looked back. I’m now generating more than double everyone else and will be the first to Political Philosophy.
Military-wise I’ve generally been at the top of the heap or flip-flopping with rho21 every couple of turns depending on who built what. However, that lead has widened over the past several turns and I've firmly got the advantage here. Speaking of military, here's my current force composition, courtesy of CQUI's reports:
Why does all this unbridled optimism sound familiar? Hmmmm.....flashback, perhaps?
Eagle Warriors have certainly shown their might, allowing me to capture two city-states by Turn 43. In a typical PBEMs it seems the city-state assaults wait until the 40’s and generally require a larger force in terms of numbers and sheer production cost. The fact that I could easily roll over two city-states this early in the game has paid it’s own dividends in terms of overall output.
The captured builders also provide an immense benefit:
Builders Captured: 5
Cost to Build: 290
Improvements Made: 7
District Boosts: 0
Chops: 111
, 36
Craftsmanship Inspiration, Irrigation, Masonry, Wheel, and Iron Working Eurekas (20
, 165
)
I’m willing to bet that most of my opponents have built no more than two. I’ve yet to build one myself, but that might change in 20 turns or so. One other indirect benefit of the Eagle Warrior – ungarrisoned cities defend at a base strength of 18 instead of 10. That is a huge difference from a defensive perspective.
The Oral Tradition pantheon hasn’t really gotten going yet, though with a settler eventually headed for the City #2 spot and it’s citrus & bananas that should change. It has definitely helped, though, as it currently accounts for just over 20% of my current culture output.
So far this game has felt like one of my 50-60 turn test games. Beat up a city-state or two, capture a builder or two and it’s Turn 50. If this
was a test game it’d be towards the top of the heap – 5 builders and 2 city-states captured with 12
, 9
and 9
per turn. That feel will change as my focus shifts from abusing the AI to going after humans.
One more note - I haven't had any war weariness issues. Two of the wars ended quickly and zeroed out the WW, while my battle with Preslav has largely been a paper tiger for the past 20 or so turns.
Cities
Here’s the current regional view as of Turn 50.
The Northwest
The South Central
City Stats
Begin the Begin
It was a bit of a food-poor start, with the wheat providing a good portion of the start position’s food. I moved to the gypsum to improve the capital’s yields and gain the +1 combat strength bonus to all units. With the wheat starting to be acquired by the city I’ll start getting some farms up to try to speed growth. From a production standpoint this location is a powerhouse. At 4 population it’s generating 14 intrinsic
and it will only go up as population grows and mines get put in. Defensively this is in a good spot – approaches from the east are over rivers and rough terrain and the northern approach is mostly cut off by Cant Get There From Here.
Cant Get There From Here
I like this spot better than my capital as it has good food availability and reasonable production. Of my four cities this is probably the strongest in the short- and long-term. Geographically the spot turned out defensively stronger than expected. The eastern approaches through the mountains are each 1 hex wide and through hills. Any hostile forces coming through here could be easily be bottled up by a couple of melee units and several ranged defenders. The city growth should pick up now that the second bananas are on-line. The next tile grab should be the cattle for yet more food. I may purchase the 1
/3
tile in the second ring if I need to get production going here.
Welcome to the Occupation
The former Vilnius. Poor city placement but that’s the start location script for you. Good food availability, limited production potential (three hills, one of them not usable in the dotmap, within the first two rings) and not on fresh water. I can’t even get a farm triangle going with the wheat because the third tile is desert. Once the Aqueduct is in I’ll run food-heavy to grow the city, using builders to complete a Campus here at some point in the future. The Encampment will be completed by a builder next turn.
Harborcoat
The former Lisbon. Plenty of food, not so much fresh water or production. It’s in a good spot defensively unless a navy comes calling, in which case it’s probably toast. I’m going to preserve the stone for sustained production, the flatland forest may see a lumbermill and I might buy that grassland hill to the NE for a mine. I was considering putting a Campus district here but after some more thought I think that’s a bad idea. It’d only be a +1 adjacency and the city lacks the production capacity to build any buildings in the district. For the time being I’m not going to put any districts down. Maybe if I’ll get a Harbor and follow it with a Commercial Hub.
Short Term Plans
Civics & Governement
Political Philosphy will be in at Turn 53. I’ll switch into Oligarchy and stay there for the duration of the Egyptian campaign. Depending on the situation afterwards I may switch to Autocracy for a little more flexibility in the policies. I’ll finish Military Tradition and put one turn into Mysticism. I’d like to keep that on-hand for a policy swap situation around the time that Games & Recreation completes – I might need to put in Land Surveyors as part of the Colosseum plan. Once G&R is in I’ll try to work the top of the tree for a bit, then go back for Drama & Poetry.
Techs
Archery finishes over the current interturn, Wheel finishes on the next. Currency and Iron Working are the next targets, order to be determined, though I need a trader to get the boost for Currency. After that I’ll take care of Horseback Riding and then continue along the bottom of the tree. I don’t know that I’ll get Construction completed in time to get the inspiration for Games & Recreation. Gonna try, though I don’t want to hold off on that civic too long. I also need to start considering some chariot builds in order to gear up for knights, just in case.
Cities & Development
I’m at a loss as to where to put a second Campus. Begin the Begin might work as it has the production but I want to get other things built down there...because it has the production. Even the Egyptian lands, once conquered, present no good options for anything better than +1, though Beta Colony would support the production for a Library and University. My only real hope is that something good is available at City #1 or City #2, probably the latter as there are mountains nearby. Right now what I can see is not promising from a science standpoint.
A Commercial Hub is on tap for Cant and probably City #1. I might also build one at City #2 and at Harborcoat. I’d like to get a discount on one or two of them and I’ll chop/charge the others.
Begin the Begin is going to get out a settler after the Eagle Warrior in order to get City #1 settled. Whether or not Cant will build a settler after its Campus depends on what happens both with Egypt and any developments in the east. The Egyptian cities, once captured, will probably be the source of my next couple of settlers. I do need to scout out the lake east of Beta Colony. With the pearls and horses there that could be a potentially strong city spot
The “Stretch Goal” of landing the Colosseum in the center of my dotmap is still in play. I’d try to found the city and get walls and a few units prebuilt as close to completion as possible, then go on a chop-overflow spree to pump as many
into the Colosseum as possible. That won’t complete it but I could get about ¾ of the way there. If I get two horses hooked up I could get a bit closer. Once that’s done, though, the city would have very little production left. I’d need three builders to reasonably pull that off, I think. I would flip-flop the position of the district and wonder in my original dotmap, though, as I’d have the city slowly churn out a Monument and a Theater District after that. Given the game situation, though, I doubt I'd be challenged for it.
War
Egypt is on the chopping block shortly. Just have to get organized at Welcome to the Occupation and then I get get moving on that. His military power is 119 – he’s got at least 35 strength of it away from his cities. Barrayar has a garrison strength of 19, so he’s got a unit in there. Beta Colony is at 15, no units there. Neither city has built or started to build any city center improvements or walls.
In the east Valletta is under declaration by myself and rho21. I’m just trying to poach some builders and perhaps get a farm pillaged to heal up afterwards. rho21 appears to have stopped his invasion, if that’s even what it was. The units outside the city can’t retreat into it because there’s already a warrior garrisoned. Valletta only has farms so there’s nothing good to pillage. It’s also not a good city location as it’s located one tile away from a river. Gotta love the AI
Once Begin gets its first settler out I'll build out a couple more units to act as a southern defense. I don't know that Japper has the forces to come at me full strength without leaving himself open to rho21 (or vice versa for that matter). One possibility would be to bring the Egyptian invasion force forward and take Valletta and/or Brussels, then mass-upgrade most of the Eagle Warriors to swords (most, not all...still want to capture some units, you know). With a large army in the middle of the map I should be able to hold their attention there.
Meta
If I take out Egypt I will need to be on my toes. That would give me a large enough of a lead where a 2v1 situation immediately comes into play. Whether or not rho21 & Japper would be able to coordinate effectively in that case would need to be seen. As for RFS-81, either he's expecting an invasion and has realized it too late or he truly has no idea what's about to hit him.