Japper and Alhambram go bongo bongo in the Kongo [Spoilers within]

[Japper007]

State workforce finished, on to an 8 turn PolyPhi. I swapped briefly into Ilkum to train a Builder in both the capital and Frikandel (who will pick up a combined 6 hammers and two culture per turn for us, as well as giving us the Wheel, Iron working and Craftmanship boosts). Rho has 165 military power now so I'm finishing the Archer building in Frikandel (1 turn left) before going builder there. Settler number 4 is at about 40% in the capital now, I'll finish it when I slot Colonization back in when we hit a government.

Time to consider governments:

Firstly the cards I want to run without question: Colonization, Agoge and Urban Planning

that means no Autocracy, since it only has one econ policy slot and a second military slot whose only worth would be saving us a paltry 3 gold per turn.

Republic has the policies but the Great People bonuses do little for us at this point (since we have only a single Campus district in the empire)

Oligarghy is the best I think. It'll boost our already powerful Ngao (round of upgrades about 5 turns out) and give some extra combat XP to all our units, as well as having a good policy setup.

[Japper007]

Found Crater Lake in rho's backlines. We also picked up the Astrology Eureka, I've left the top part of the tree alone for now. The religion and Fishing path isn't very exciting for our inland civ that can't found a religion.

[Japper007]

Oh and before I forget a Very Happy Birthday to our Monarch

(it's King's Day in the Netherlands today)

[Alhambram]

Yes, I did wander in Amsterdam today for King's Day.

Back to PBEM 10, round of upgrades sounds good, but can you afford it? You make 1.2 gold per turn, can't you improve your financial situation somehow before mass upgrading?
Oligarchy don't sound bad but it will telegraph rho21. Maybe first go in classical republic to make rho21 worry less. Only swap to Oligarchy when you WANT to attack or defend.

[Japper007]

Well if anything it's rho who is overtelegraphing:

He's started to accumulate GG points now and has been top military now for a while. He doesn't have enough to force an engagement yet I think, he's only about 50 points ahead of us, but after a round of upgrades he might be. I think he'll see us mass-upgrading and swapping into Oligarchy as a reaction to that given that we are very likely to be the target.

On the financial front I can't see much beyond swapping out off Agoge into Conscription, after we finish one more archer and three more warriors (getting us the 8 units needed for Mercenaries inspiration, and also making us a very prickly target). I could also swap over to some gold-producing tiles, but those are few and far between.

[Japper007]

Looked at the numbers again: it's 109 for us (some wounded units) and 139 for Rho (he has at least one redlined unit, a warrior, from what I've seen.) I just don't see an attack going his way tbh. Maybe he has a target to his west?

About that:



rho switched his wounded warrior blocking the tile with an archer at almost full health, however two archers from me means he risk losing his archer if he attacks on his turn, I expect him to back up and let me settle (this is the aggresive plant btw).



to the north my Scout spots this. I have a suspicion that that is his only source of Iron and he's waiting for funds to buy that tile. Slinger also shows that he hasn't finalized his preparations.

[Japper007]

Founded the city of Gehaktbal this turn, I started it on a Builder since masonry (for walls) is a few turns away. I want to chop in the walls by clearing the tile marked "chop campus". I think rho stole that Builder from a city state, he has no reason to have it this far from his core otherwise.



I also noticed this: Rho doesn't have Early Empire yet (since he still has unforced borders) . He isn't behind on civics score either, 10 points just like us, so what the hell is he going for if not PolyPhi? That means he must either be on track to Games and Recreation or Drama and Poetry. Is he going after the Encampment building speed boost at Military Training perhaps? Or going all in for his Acropoleis. At least it solves the mystery of how he is still on two cities.

[Japper007]

A Tale of Two Cities? At least it explains why he had all the units in the area. It also means it was the correct call to go settle the river valley as our third city. Also rho totally build that settler unboosted as I can still pop through his lands.

Speaking off I got a look at rho's capital Pythagoras:



Waaat, not only did he get a 4-adjacency Campus in the second ring of his bloody capital, but he also gets an utterly unnassailable capital with peaks blocking every angle and smothered in rough terrain and river crossings? What the fuck were the mapmakers thinking! That place is a damn fortress.

[Japper007]

Polyphi is in:



I went for this setup, I'll swap out Ilkum for Urban Planning when the Builder in Gehaktbal finishes.

[Japper007]

Rho came calling for friendship, I was happy to accept.

I also chopped out a Settler this turn, with the peace of our time established, I decided to immediately set up to chop out another one:



This means we need another Builder out of the capital after this settler to mine those hills I cleared off jungle (dejungled? heh)