[Spoilers] rho21 follows the works of Homer... D'OH!

[rho21]

Right, catch up time. First off, I should mention that I've solved the mystery of how the Aztecs are getting 1.5 great writer, artist and musician points per turn... they aren't! I was repeatedly misreading the display. It's actually Kongo getting those points; they have a civilization ability that gives them +50% points there. D'oh.

Turn 90

Score tracking
The Aztecs gained a civic, a tech and a population. The civic was from the Feudalism column, almost guaranteed to be Feudalism itself.

Western Theatre
An Eagle warrior cleared the barbarian camp, as mentioned. I keep manoeuvring, looking for an opportunity for more plink damage to Aztec units in the area.

Housekeeping
Hippocrates has finished its commercial hub and gets going on a chariot to provide chop overflow in a few turns.

The Pyramids are complete at Euclid. I would have loved to wait for Feudalism (would have been in already if it weren't for that detour to Mysticism) for a couple of extra charges on the free builder, but it's not worth taking that risk. Euclid starts work on a trader, due in 5. The free builder heads down to one of the newly-claimed hill tiles to drop a mine.

Some micromanagement was done at Xenocrates to maximise the upcoming chop overflow.

---

Round-number roundup™


Civ Comparison

Civ	Cities	Pop	Techs	Civics	Gold	Districts	Military estimate
Aztec	12	51	19 (+52.0/turn)	14 (+32.7/turn)	534 (+27/turn)	2 Encampments, Holy site, Commercial Hub, 2 Campuses	458 strength, maybe 16 units.
Kongo	5	21	15 (+22.3/turn)	10 (+18.6/turn)	19(+3/turn)	Campus, Theatre square	120 strength, maybe 6 units.
Greece	7	26	18 (+33.0/turn)	11 (+22.6/turn)	244 (+20/turn)	Holy site, Commercial, Campus	244 strength, 11 units + ram. 3 builders.

Everyone has been working on infrastructure, the Aztecs rather more effectively than the Kongolese. In particular the Aztec science rate is exploding upwards. This will drop a little if I can win the envoy battle for Geneva. My biggest gains have been in income, which is now high enough that I might be able to do at least a few upgrades when the time comes.

Great People
(General) Hannibal is mine
(General) Temujin (120): Aztec 98 +4/turn
(Prophet) John the Baptist is mine
(Prophet) Madhva Acharya(240): Aztec 31 +1/turn
(Scientist) Aryabhata is mine
(Scientist) Emilie du Châtelet (240): Kongo 40 +1/turn, Aztec 41 +2/turn, Greece 7 +2/turn
(Merchant) Zhang Qian (60): Greece 13 +2/turn, Aztec 12 +1/turn
(Writer) Homer (60): Kongo 9 +1.5/turn, Greece 9 +1/turn
The Artist and Musician look similar but with higher bars.

This has gone superbly. All three great people so far are mine. The Aztecs won't be getting a religion unless they devote a serious amount of effort to it. They will be recruiting a general before long though, which might well be their timing to attack.
I am still in pole position for the first merchant, but the Aztecs have loads of commercial districts placed so might accelerate at any moment.
Being in a race for the great writer is a little annoying. I will have a second acropolis before long, plus the ability to buy amphitheatres with faith once my religion spreads.


Research and boosts

Tech	Cost remaining (assuming boost)	Boost	Turns until boost
Military Tactics	150	Already boosted
Education	122	Already boosted
Stirrups	42	Have Feudalism	1
Military Engineering	195	Build an Aqueduct	4
Castles	195	Have a 6-slot government	5+ (Scientist)

Going along nicely. I'm hoping that missing no boosts will help me keep up with the Aztecs. The scientist will ensure I have everything boosted before the renaissance. The next set of boosts I'm looking at require a lumber mill (easy), 2 universities (might spend faith for at least one), an armoury (need to get going on this at Xenocrates) and 2 crossbows (not too far off).

Civic	Cost remaining (assuming boost)	Boost	Turns until boost
Military Training	60	Already boosted
Recorded History	87.5	Build 2 campuses	~10
Theology	60	Already boosted
Naval Tradition	200*	Kill with quadrireme	Never
Feudalism	Just completing now	Already boosted
Civil Service	137.5	Size 10 city	~30
Mercenaries	145	Already boosted
Medieval Faires	192.5	4 trade routes	~20
Guilds	192.5	2 markets	~25
Divine Right	137.5	2 temples	??

I feel as though I'm just a little critical distance behind. I really need Mercenaries ASAP for the cheap upgrade policy, but I'm at least 10 turns away. Upgrades to Knights and Crossbows cost close to 200 each without this. I'm really concerned that I'll be just a little slow and have to pay over the odds if the Aztecs attack.

[rho21]

Turn 91

Score tracking
Nothing much happened.

Western Theatre
The exploring Aryabhata runs into an Aztec sword. The Aztecs are clearly keeping this part of the map well patrolled so I can't sneak units through. I position some archers to hurt the sword if it kicks my scientist out.

Housekeeping
A forest was chopped at Xenocrates, finishing the last of the chariot and overflowing into the aqueduct which is due in 3 turns.

Feudalism is done. For the policy switch, I drop caravanseries in favour of serfdom. Not ideal to decrease my income, but I need that policy and don't want to sacrifice production.

Military Training is next up, due in 2 turns. I'm going to have to delay that by a turn in order to get all three builders completed because I need to complete the ones at Apollonius and Aristaeus first before the price goes up. Pythagoras can cope with the extra expense and will be first in turn order.

Accordingly, those eastern cities recommence their builder construction while Pythagoras pops out an extra chariot.

[rho21]

Turn 92

Score tracking
Aztec gained a pop.
Kongo finished a campus and a civic and also gained a pop. From inspecting their campuses, it appears they are now running Natural Philosophy for double campus adjacency bonuses. Wish I had time to go to Recorded History for that any time soon...

Western Theatre
Aryabhata was indeed kicked by that sword. In return I do it 19 + 12 damage with my archers. Aryabhata heads back out that way again, in the hope of finding a way through.

Housekeeping
I switch to researching Theology for a turn as planned to delay my next civics swap until all builders are complete.

I have quite a few chariots finished now, and a couple more on the way. It will soon be time to stop building them, as I already have too many to upgrade quickly. They're free to maintain though, and may come in useful if the Aztecs do attack.

[rho21]

Turn 93

Score tracking
Kongo founded a city, I know not where.
The Aztecs finished a tech, a campus and a library. Their science continues to shoot up. Just as concerningly, their military strength has jumped up by 70-odd this turn. They haven't spent any gold though, so that's probably just a couple of units finishing (sword + chariot, perhaps).

Southern Theatre
I've not forgotten about the hoplites in the south. They've been sat around healing for the past several turns. Will be several more too: they currently have 62 and 51 health.

Western Theatre
Aryabhata moved up next to an eagle warrior in the hopes of drawing it off its forest. I have three archers and 3 chariots lurking just out of sight.

Hannibal has wandered over to take a look at Brussels. I can see no units of any sort on the three squares next to it where I have visibility. I suspect what is actually going on here is Kongo doing continuing plink damage for XP, rotating damaged units out for healing. That would certainly explain their low military score relative to the number of units I suspect they have.

Housekeeping
At Hippocrates I chop a forest from the campus location. The overflow from the chariot goes into the campus but it will still take 8 turns to build naturally.

Time for another d'oh moment. Apollonius and Aristaeus have finished their builders but Pythagoras will take two turns to finish what's left on its one. That means delaying the civics swap for another turn, and one more turn off the critical path to Mercenaries. Hopefully that won't be too costly.
On the plus side, lovely 6-charge builders.

Apollonius continues work on the shrine. It will want a wall chop to complete that very soon.
Aristaeus puts a turn or two into a granary. It will also be building walls next, with a chop going to complete the acropolis.

[Garath]

I'm pretty impressed with the way this is going, still - that last Round Number Roundup wasn't bad. The Aztecs have sheer size going for them - and that's a big deal, of course, we all know this. But everything else seems to be going very nicely - all the great people so far, all the wonders so far. The timing of this military round of chariots in regard to dissuading a timing attack from the Aztecs when they land the general seems very good, and the builder maximisation with Pyramids and Serfdom should pay dividends.

Five(?) chariots seems like pretty good military dissuasion right this minute, though perhaps a couple of archers more would go nicely? You seem long on melee units to me. Therefore, of course, since that looks to be going well, I feel that once again I want to be recommending going back to two or three more settlers if at all possible! This big builder wave sounds like it might well be good for that - spare labour being both good for putting a couple of chops into settlers (at 50%, right?) now they are getting expensive and for getting tiles going at new cities! Assuming that all the labour for the three new builders isn't already spoken for, anyway!

That would mean city sites, so I went back to look at your recent posts on that. In general I think I agree with all the sites you posted - most of them are pretty forced by the positions of other things at this point. C4, C10 and C12 certainly seem like the next round of natural sites, though you will have a difficult decision at C12 as to whether buying the rice tile immediately is worth it - I incline towards doing so, but money is pretty pressured right now, I understand.

I think I want to put a little higher priority on the western border cities than you did in that post, though. I know they are dangerous, but I really don't know how long you have before the Aztecs are settling that land, and that sounds pretty awful. Perhaps these new chariots might be enough to settle C14 before some of the Eastern cities - particularly if it'll be long enough before settlers are actually out that they might have the option of being Horsemen by that point? I agree that C15 seems impossible at this time. But if you're putting enough pressure on the skirmishing in that area (and I do like the reports of archer play around there a lot) then we can hope that at least the Aztecs might feel the same way about it!

[rho21]

I haven't found time for a strategy post recently but I'm thinking similar things to you, mostly. If it weren't for the runaway Aztecs, everything would be looking wonderful. Settlers are definitely next on my priority list, just waiting for the civic switch to put the policy card in. I'd love to get 4 of them out; 3 might be more realistic.

C4 and C10 seem pretty obvious. C12 is a relatively poor city. I think it can wait for the next round as I don't need the horses urgently. Anyway, they would only gain me the ability to build horsemen in one city right now. There's also a good chance I can borrow some from Kongo if necessary. C14 (or C12) would give access to truffles. That would be greatly appreciated as my cities are starting to run low on amenities. Thanks to the vagaries of the amenities system, I have one displeased city (Menaechmus), one content city and 5 happy. No, scratch that, the amenities have switched around since I started looking at the new turn. I now have 3 content and 4 happy cities.

The Aztecs are really tough to keep up with. Not only do they have about twice as many cities, most of them are larger than mine. And they've only just hit Feudalism so if they're playing it as I would they're about to finish a wave of 5-charge builders, many of which will build a district using their special power. That could leave Greece in the dust.

Militarily, all these chariots (6 of them now, which is all I'm going to build) are only a limited dissuasion to an attack if the Aztecs plan to upgrade to knights and crossbows and bring in a great general. Quality really trumps quantity in this game, and I don't even have quantity going for me: the Aztecs are twice my strength even before upgrading. They have enough for 6 unit upgrades now, with another one for every 3 turns of income. There's also a strong chance they'll attack Kongo (who have under half my strength and are some distance from the cheap upgrades policy), assuming the border down there is accessible.

That said, the skirmishing in the north has the potential to rob them of a unit or two if they're not careful. Having a chance at C15 all comes down to control of the long thin ridge of hills and forests that stretches right the way from Xenocrates to one tile short of the coast. Up to now the Aztecs have held this, and advancing archers into it is risky without confirmation there's nothing waiting on the other side. The arrival of chariots on the scene changes this equation.
I still think it's rather too late in terms of founding C15 though because the units up there are close to becoming obsolete. Once they do they certainly can't hold that ground in a fight. Furthermore, I need to send some of them back to Xenocrates as it's a little underdefended.

My current military is 6 chariots, 1 sword, 2 warriors, 2 hoplites and 5 archers. Of these, 1 archer, 1 warrior and both hoplites are not on the western front. The chariots are all unpromoted, all other units have one promotion except a couple of the archers which have 2. I'm not able to build more archers (I have machinery already), but anyway they'd do very little damage against knights. Even double-promoted archers can only manage 37 strength in attack (against the 48 base strength of a knight) for 15-23 damage per shot.

I am thinking to produce some crossbows through normal production. I have the +50% card for them already available (thanks to Feudalism). I'll have to see when I can find room for it.

[rho21]

Turn 94

Score tracking
Kongo finished a second theatre square. They also have a new tech.
The Aztecs built a commercial hub, finished a civic and a tech and grew a population. Relentless. I'm now losing the race for the first great merchant, though patronage might be worth considering if I can spare the faith. Would be a good one to claim as the merchant's power to provide extra gold to both ends of a foreign trade route could be rather nice to share with Kongo. Also it would give me a fourth trade route (for the Medieval Faires boost) without having to build another commercial hub.

Southern Theatre
I noticed that my hoplites are actually only healing 5/turn in Kongo territory. D'oh. They move out to neutral territory to speed that up.

Western Theatre
I advance to threaten the eagle warrior in the north with chariots, which means I can plink it with archers too. 33 damage dealt. I expect it will run away successfully, but at least that gives me control of the north end of the ridge and a chance for Aryabhata to scout further west. Next time he's kicked he can head to a campus to use his power as all the other boosts are in now.

Housekeeping
Civic research switched to Military Training (due next turn) as the final builder will be done then.

I have a new envoy from natural production. It immediately becomes my fifth envoy in Geneva. Assuming the Aztecs can't respond, that will hurt their science rate a little. I have another envoy due next turn, so I'm hopeful. Even better, Geneva has truffles and pearls so my happiness problems are immediately gone.  

The aqueduct is completed at Xenocrates, boosting Military Engineering. It starts on a barracks (as a precursor to an armoury). Next turn the policy giving +30% to encampments and their buildings will be available; I'll have to see if I can find room for that policy too. Seems doubtful.

Various cities shuffle around production to maximise chops in a few turns.

[rho21]

Here's a graph of recent military strength changes (as reported by the domination ranking, so no value for ).

[Garath]

Archer->Crossbow and Chariot->Knight are both around 200 base cost, 100 with Mercenaries? Man, that's steep. And both seem, as you say, really important.

I imagine Kongo may well be the thrust of the presumed Aztec assault - I suppose that (assuming you even know it's happening!) you just have to be willing to make your own push into the teeth of Near Wild Heaven in that case just to force it into a full-size front war, as horrible as that sounds.

[rho21]

Yeah, both are just under 100. The base cost formula for upgrades is something like 1.5 x cost difference, rounded down to the nearest 5, minimum 30.

It's possible the terrain to the west of Kongo is really bad for an Aztec attack. Narrow mountain passes, inconvenient lakes, that sort of thing. Certainly Brussels has what looks like an incredibly defensive position. Barring that, I'd expect the hammer to fall there, yes. There's a ram visible up by Near Wild Heaven, which might be an indication of an attack at Xenocrates or might just be sat there as a threat to keep my forces locked down.

As far as attacking goes, Near Wild Heaven lacks walls as yet but they're probably nearly ready and awaiting a chop. I really don't have the forces to do serious damage to the Aztecs there (thanks to the river and forests making multiple attacks difficult) unless an expedition around the far side of the lake can reap benefits. I can't even besiege the city as I can't cover the lake.
I do have plans to use crossbows to snipe a couple of archers, if they stil remain static and unupgraded in 8 turns or so. A couple of dead archers now would save a lot of pain later.