[Spoilers] Suboptimal - Welcome to the Tlachtli of Blunders!

[suboptimal]

Turn 74

Two new population are born, a settler is produced, Sailing is completed and I can try to make peace with Japper.  That’ll complete in three turns right when Cant’s Commercial Hub completes, hopefully giving me a discount on another Hub.  

Let’s see how this all goes…open the save to a bunch of insufficient housing notifications (four, actually).  In the east rho21 has put his units into a bit of an usual formation:



Yes, the Great General is leading the way and the swordsman is by itself.  I don’t understand.  Baiting me, perhaps? That Eagle Warrior is Tortoise-promoted, just for reference.  In the south that barbarian camp is not under active attack as the spearman’s health is unchanged.  In other international news rho21 has a settler out last turn and Japper seems to have upgraded into another Ngao Mbeba.

I go into the deal screen to make a peace offering to Japper.  His income was negative wen I declared war and he hasn't fixed that...he's flat broke.



I make the straight up peace offering and we’ll see what happens.  His cash crunch is going to do more damage than an invasion on my part would right now.  

Down at Preslav I promote both Eagle Warriors (both take Battlecry) and the archers disperse to Find and towards Begin.   Settler is now in Find.  Find the River will claim the stone next turn.  The builder moves to the open land between Find and High Speed – not sure what I’m going to do with this yet – I do have a stone harvest and two chop-and-mines available.  Stone for a district (maybe with Maneuver) and woods for a granary?  

Elsewhere in the west the Eagle Warrior and builder continue on their way south.   Oddfellows starts a granary, adopts a high-food configuration and the settler starts its journey to the City #3 site.  

Down by that barbarian camp I move the scout into the mountain pass and regret the move:



So, that’s where the last horseman wound up.  Well, it can’t get to me next turn because of the marsh.  Time to get out of dodge.

[suboptimal]

Turn 75

Open the save and see that Japper has accepted my peace offer.  He’s also declared war on Brussels.  This will be interesting to watch.    The city-state, by the way, is undamaged.  Wonder if this might be a potential for me to run a snipe operation.    I also have a notification that the scout was attacked by the barbarians and has earned a promotion.  Up north, rho21 has moved the Great General into the fog but the swordsman is still hanging around.  If it moves into a position where it could attack an Eagle Warrior I’ll upgrade both to swordsmen (I have the cash).

In the west I move a bunch of units in their intended directions.  Same in the south.  Begin starts walls with the archer at one turn.  The builder at Begin will chop next turn to complete the archer and overflow the walls, mine the hill the following turn then get the other wheat farmed in two turns.  

Now for the scouts.  Down south I move southwest to the hill and take the Alpine promotion.  Lots of hills here and it’ll let me get away from the horseman for a turn or two.  Up north the scout advances carefully.  It’s at half-strength and if a Greek unit pops out of the fog it could be toast.  It finds fish, crabs and truffles.  No fresh water, no city borders yet.

I finish off the turn by swapping techs to Mathematics.  I’ll switch to Engineering next turn as How will complete its walls for the boost.  My math says that the tech will have 2 left.  I’ll start Machinery after that.

[TheArchduke]

What does Japper want peace for? Hmm, if those two come to blows (as rho might want to expand or vice-versa) they are done for.

WAIT, what? 0 gold?

[suboptimal]

Judging by the amount of space on my side of the map there's room for about 15 cities depending on how the city-states are placed. Given the central positions of Brussels and Valletta and the fact they've got five over there it's probably a bit tighter. Their DoF runs out on Turn 89. What happens then will be telling.

Yes, Japper is broke and probably has been since Turn 68. On Turn 63 he had 20 gold on hand. On Turn 64 (when I declared war) he was down to 16 gold. I have to assume that continued and he ran out. Both Japper and rho21 are woefully low on income (Japper's at 0, rho21 is at 3).

[TheArchduke]

Income + science = milpower.

I would just research away from them.

[suboptimal]

Turn 76

Two monuments, a spearman, a builder, walls and the Engineering boost all completed over the interturn.  I’ve also got a diplomatic message waiting for me from Japper.  I resume Engineering which remains incomplete by a sliver.  Now, let’s see what Japper is looking for….



Two horses over 30 turns for 50 gold now.  Heh.  I refuse because I don’t need the horses right now.  Near will be gaining them in the next few turns and City #4 will be claiming a second one.  He has managed to get his income positive, though, as he’s got 4 on hand. 

Down in the southeast my scout is toast – it’s been redlined by the horseman again.  I move towards the camp just to reveal some more ground and find a second horseman has spawned.  I'll have to get archers in position at Begin for the eventual attack.  

Begin switches back to its archer, builder chops the forest, archer completes and sends ~80 overflow into the walls.  Those will complete next turn.  High Speed starts its granary repair, Find starts an Archer, Harborcoat starts a galley, How starts a granary and Welcome starts an Encampment project.  I’m only going to run that for one turn then I’ll start an aqueduct.  After that completes I’ll go back and finish the project.  I want the Great General a bit sooner rather than 33 turns from now.  It’s Genghis Khan and he can support Medieval and Renaissance-era units.  

Speaking of Great Generals:



Is he baiting me with that?  Let’s find out.  I move the Eagle Warrior forward to the river.  The fog parts to show an archer on the forested hill SW of Xenocrates.  It could, in theory, move up to shoot me if I crossed the river to pester the GG.  I back up.  If the GG crosses the river I’ll send it back to Xenocrates.  Builder at Near boats the pearls, gaining me my fifth luxury resource.  Brussels is also toying with me – they’ve put their archer on the tile right between my two Eagle Warriors.  If I could redeclare war (I can’t for two turns) I’d be able to shoot it with my archer and then take it for a possible builder capture.  Japper has not attacked Brussels yet.

Scout in the north advances and sees an archer across the river.  I don’t think I’ve posted a shot of this region yet, so here you go:



I move the scout NW to the coast to stay out of view.  With the fresh water up here and the archer’s position I have to wonder if it’s merely a sentry or if it is waiting for rho21’s settler to show up.

Internationally rho21 retakes the tech lead with 15 complete.  His furthest tech development is in the Machinery/Apprenticeship/Shipbuilding column.  I’ll overtake him soon enough as I’m up by 9 science per turn over him.  My culture generation is ahead by a similar margin (23.4 to rho21’s 15.1).  Japper’s military power has dropped back to 140.

Defensive Tactics will finish in 5 turns.  I’ll work on Recorded History and Military Training after that to give me some time to get a round of Ilkum builders mostly built, then I’ll go for Feudalism to spawn out the workforce.

[suboptimal]

Income + science = milpower.

I would just research away from them.

Yup...my culture is what's going to cause them more issues in the near term.  I'll be the first to both Stirrups (thanks to Feudalism) and Mercenaries.  I'll also be looking to get at least one, maybe two more Campus districts down with the Serfdom Surge as well as a couple of Maneuver-overflowed libraries in the existing Campus districts. 

I'm going to try to be in position to have a pile of cash, a bunch of chariots (5-6 minimum) completed and Genghis Khan within reach when I get Mercenaries finished.  Hopefully I'll have a large enough window to go knight-stomping in the east.

Added: I'm most likely switching out of Oligarchy and into Autocracy when Defensive Tactics completes.

[suboptimal]

Turn 77

Engineering is complete, start Machinery, that’ll finish in four turns.  Begin has finished its walls, rho21’s units in the north haven’t moved. rho21 got another settler out and completed a civic, Japper gained a pop, completed a civic and, if my tracking is correct, two techs.  He must have pillaged a mine somewhere (not Brussels).  He’s also had his military power drop to 104.  I’m assuming at this point he’s ineffectively warring against a city-state that isn’t Brussels, probably to do some pillaging.

The scout was killed by the horseman and there are full-strength barbarian horsemen sighted at Maps & Legends.   That’ll slow things down there a bit and may actually delay the founding of City #4.  The good news with that is it’s the one city my upcoming micro timing isn’t affected by so a few turns hiding out in the city is OK.

I get some city management and unit positioning out of the way.  Up in the north the scout advances east.  I’m currently not visible to any Greek units but there are city borders just coming out of the fog.  Next turn I might get some better visibility on the city but I’d rather not cross the river if I don’t have to right now.  

Right now it looks like I’ll be getting Defensive Tactics on T81, Military Training on T84 and Feudalism on T90.  If Feudalism will wind up completing before T90 I’ll switch to Recorded History to delay it until Turn 90.  I may also set up a double-policy swap once I determine if and how many tiles I’ll be buying.  If I’ve got all my numbers correct I’ll have 11 builders (one at each current city plus one at City #3) with at least 50 towards them plus 7 chariots one turn from completion by Turn 90.  I’ll then start spitting out builders, going from low-production cities to high-production ones, and use a combination of chops and builder charges to get out the chariots and districts.  My planned district build list is:

- 1 Campus (Near)
- 6 Commercial Hubs (Begin, Oddfellows, City #3, City #4, Maps, Find)  Find the River is chopping out the Commercial Hub in two turns via an archer overflow.  
- 1 Encampment (Near)
- 1 Entertainment Complex (Maps)
- 2 Aqueducts (Welcome, Harborcoat), not builder-assisted
- 2 Harbors (High Speed, Harborcoat) when Celestial Navigation is completed (down the road)

I can put the Colosseum in Maps & Legends and get the same coverage I would have by founding the city in the middle of the map.  I've pinned out all the districts and will lock them once Find the River gets its discounted Commercial Hub placed and chopped out in two turns.  High Speed and Harborcoat have no good river access so they'll get Harbors.

Yes, I have ambitions of grandeur.  If rho21 doesn’t go on the offensive or is willing to make peace on Turn 80 they may become more than ambitions...

[suboptimal]

Turn 78

Commercial Hub in Cant completes and it grows in population to boot.  Over at Maps and Legends the lone barbarian horseman I could see disappeared back into the fog.    Greece finished a Campus and founded a city.  His Great Scientist total also shot up and is now 10 turns from completion (instead of the 20-21 it should be).  I guess rho21 feels he needs that Great Scientist that badly.  Japper completed a tech.  Interestingly our collective military power seems to have stabilized – everyone looks like they’re in builder mode.  Only Japper’s has moved much and he’s back up to the 147 he had two turns ago.

The horseman retreat up at City #4 is going to let me continue to advance towards the spot.  The Eagle Warrior and spearman are in the area and I’ve got an archer escorting the settler.  Maps and Legends got its first plantation down last turn and will be putting another one down in two turns.  Likewise the other settler is two turns from founding on the City #3 spot.  

Down at Begin I stop the chariot and start a trader. That’ll cost 66 for now and I’ll build it to completion.  Builder crosses the river to the wheat, archers move into position to cover in the event barbarians show up.  Harborcoat mines the hill it just expanded to in the northeast and then shifts a citizen to it from the pasture for some extra production.  Yes, I’m still running a coast tile in preference to a pasture – right now I’m housing limited and am trying to build up a war chest.  Cant’s new citizen works the hill I chopped previously and starts a granary.  The district discounts don’t show up yet because I need to complete a tech or civic.  I’ll do both in three turns and then place the districts.  This messes with my timing at Find a little bit but nothing too severe.  I’ll put one more turn into the archer as planned and refigure my plan here for next turn.  

I move the scout east a tile, it doesn’t find anything interesting.  I could stop here or risk the move onto the hill.  I take the risk.  Looky at what we have here:



The settler can get away from me by going southwest across the river.  I wouldn’t give chase only because I know there’s an archer somewhere down there.  More importantly I think I’ve located rho21’s capital – Pythagoras.  I don’t recall seeing it in the deal menu but can check it in 2 turns.  The border is also two adjacent cities.  I think his capital is located 3 east of that wheat, based on the border shape.

[TheArchduke]

Scout east to get maybe a glimpse on the capital. I would move the EW east, to annoy the settler further.