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

[rho21]

Turn 174

Score tracking
Aztec strength has dropped by 270 and is now only 70 above mine. They haven't had any losses, so I assume they must have generated a lot of corps.

Military
As expected, Dinostratus is no more.

In the arctic, let's see how much damage I can do to that caravel. First up, the engineer goes to check if it has any supporting units, and finds none. Frigate attacks (55v57), doing 26 damage; frigate attacks (55v54), doing 29 damage. One of the frigates has earned a promotion. I deliberately moved the frigates in close so the caravel shouldn't have the speed to run away. Hopefully it won't be able to escape.

Housekeeping
Dinostratus' loss has slowed down Nationalism by a turn. I swap research to Scientific Method for a turn to resynchronise.

I have three traders now free, between Dinostratus and routes finishing. Two are sent off to Frikandel immediately, the other has to rebase before that's allowed.

Pythagoras has finished its amphitheatre and I immediately purchase an art museum for 580, boosting Opera & Ballet. Not certain what to build here next. It's allowed another district but has nothing that seems worthwhile. It could build a market for a little more cash, or run a project for some great merchant points, say (I'm currently 1 turn ahead of the Aztecs in that race). But I eventually decide to build the oracle here. It's worth 6 great people points per turn, 2:culture and 1, plus makes the costs of patronage for great people cheaper. Sounds not too bad, and it's only 11 turns to build now.

Meton has finished a builder and gets started on a field cannon. I'm expecting to put in the production boost card for those when Nationalism is complete, but it might as well get started now.

[rho21]

Turn 175

Score tracking
Kongo built a commercial hub in their capital. That makes it almost as good a target as Frikandel, so finally I should be able to get some more roads through their territory.
The Aztecs built a market or bank.

Military
The Aztec caravel has run away, but not well enough. My two frigates track it down and sink it off the coast of Underneath the Bunker.

Nearby, the knight on the ridge has reappeared, as a knight corps. Not hugely scary until it becomes a tank corps.

In the eastern ocean, one of my scout outriders can see that a battleship heading back to Aztec lands at full speed. I don't think they saw my scout until the last move, and I don't think they've seen my frigate at all.

I assume they have decided to send their fleet to deal with my frigates in the arctic, then raze Perseus and Geneva. We'll have to see how much damage we can do to them when they try. If I can land the first strike, I have an excellent chance. The scouting engineer may help with that. Of course it won't be possible to take advantage of Defender of the Faith at the same time. Shame I won't be able to get the third frigate back there in time.

Anyway, my fleeing frigate moves off to the SE instead. I guess I'll have to turn it around and upgrade it on the eastern coast, and hope there's a fleet left to join up with later.

Housekeeping
Research switched back to Steel, due in 2.

Trader sent from Xenocrates to Frikandel: the lack of a trading post in Pataatje Oorlog makes this specific city's route to Frikandel better.

A builder at Aristaeus could place a farm on the rice, but really what's the point? So instead it harvests the rice, taking Aristaeus to size 10.

[rho21]

Turn 176

Score tracking
The Aztecs finished another tech.

Military
My frigates are unmolested. They head home ready for upgrades.

All my units in the eastern ocean have survived. They move back towards my coastline.

Another barbarian camp has appeared in the northern tundra. I send a horse and musket to deal with it.

Housekeeping
Euclid and Hippocrates have finished their arenas. They both get started on zoos, due in 14 and 21 turns respectively. Ugh. A jungle chop at Hippocrates immediately drops 3 turns off that time.

Xenocrates has finished its bombard and starts on a field cannon. The city is hugely unhappy, having accrued 5 points of war weariness (none of my other cities have any at all). I have builders moving into place now to look at the possibility of harvesting to make it size 15.

A view of the new barbarians:

[Garath]

Man, I know amenities are valuable, but are zoos *really* worth it at that price?

[rho21]

As things stand, it is effectively 5% to all yields which pays back reasonably quickly if the game goes on long enough.
However I lose ~2 amenities for each unit lost. Significant casualties could be crippling without a new source of amenities, so I'm putting that in place in case it's needed.

[rho21]

Turn 177

Score tracking
Kongo finished Military Science. Yup, definitely heading for Steel. Kongo also claimed the great scientist Dmitri Mendeleev. I was expecting the Aztecs to try to snipe him, so that's a pleasant development. The new scientist is Albert Einstein (boost one modern/atomic tech and universities provide +4). I cannot afford to lose Einstein to the Aztecs, he is insanely good: those +4 will be doubled to +8 by Rationalism. I do have almost 1000, and 17 turns to acquire more; I'm going to need to push to get close to enough with the current cost sitting at 3340. The discount from the Oracle may be more valuable than anticipated.

Military
Not much to report this turn. My frigates are outside Perseus and will be upgraded next turn.

Housekeeping
Steel and Nationalism are complete. This has the pleasant effect of enabling modern roads in my territory, and land units actually moving quickly. I get started on Combustion (for this turn anyway: Scientific Theory is only a sliver away and I don't want to risk more overflow than I have to) and Opera & Ballet (in just 3 turns, for the quick civic switch).

Let's have a look around for oil. There are two land sources in the northern tundra, one in the third ring of Meton. The city won't claim it any time soon, but it will be worth the cost of about 250 to bring it into borders. Being able to upgrade knights to tanks sounds like a good thing!
There's one in the Kongolese wilderness, east of Kapsalon. There are also a few about at sea (most notably in the lake at Meton), but these are less relevant as they can't be improved until Plastics.

Before I change government, it's worthwhile chopping a forest at Diocles into a builder. This gives 124124 for an overflow of about 91, enough to finish the granary next turn and make a small dent in the aqueduct. I plan to chop the stone and other trees here to complete the aqueduct and build an encampment (where the stone is now). Sadly it looks as though the city will claim the rubbish dyes tile rather than the very useful stone.

Newly unlocked policies are National Identity (-50% combat strength reduction from unit damage) and Grande Armée (+50% to industrial and modern melee, ranged and anti-tank units).

Policies of interest:
Gold:

• Conscription: 34
  
• Triangular Trade: 369
  
• Merchant Confederation: 18
  

Science & Culture:

• Rationalism: 24
  
• Meritocracy: 17 (18 next turn)
  
• Trade Confederation: 99
  
• Natural Philosophy: 12
  

Production:

• Press Gangs: 2 turns left on the ironclad at Perseus. Will probably have to drop this policy at the next government, just not worth it with only one city producing ships.
  
• Grande Armée: with corps now available, a bunch of extra units will be useful.
  

Utility:

• Professional Army: it's about time to upgrade my navy.
  
• Retainers: the extra amenities wouldn't be at all bad.
  

Public Works is dropping out now, I have plenty of builders for the time being (though they do start to disappear quickly when conservation shows up and forests can be planted and lumbermilled).
Professional Army has to come in, so if I want Grande Armée immediately I need to drop Press Gangs or an economic policy. Losing Press Gangs would slow my ironclad at Perseus from 2 turns to 4. I think that would be just in time for the battle (assuming the battleships are coming straight here). Being wrong by a turn would be very painful though. Ultimately, the extra production in a few cities for 3 turns isn't worth being without the ironclad at a critical moment.

Here's a view of the oil deposits and barbarian camp near Meton:

[rho21]

Turn 178

Score tracking
The Aztecs jumped up by 220 strength this turn. No indication what that might be other than new units all completing at the same time.

Military
The barbarian ranger has run away from Geneva's forces back next to the camp. I attack it with my horse (taking advantage of defender of the faith), then finish it off with the musket.

I pay for two battleship upgrades in the arctic for 115 each. If they're paying attention, I want the Aztecs to think I have more battleships than I do, so I also upgrade a couple of crossbows at the same price.

Housekeeping
Tech switched to Scientific Theory, it only has a trickle left to complete and I'd rather have it sooner than later, as it boosts food from plantations. I'll be going back to Combustion after that though. The archaeologist is almost ready for boosting it.

Diocles has finished its granary and gets going on the aqueduct. I plan to chop the rainforest into that next turn.

Menaechmus has finished its encampment. Next up a barracks is only 3 turns.

Xenocrates has 11 population and a food resource harvest is worth a little over 1 population. I'll need at least 3, possibly 4. While doing this, I'll need to ensure that I don't lose food surplus entirely or overflow may disappear. I think this is going to be worth it to get the boost, it's a lot of culture. The only tricky part is the resource on the Aztec side of the river. Hopefully I won't need that one. I could buy a rice tile on this side instead, but that would be expensive.

Anyway, I get going by removing a farm (this needs to happen before you can harvest, even if you intend to put a farm back there afterwards). More builders will be over to help out shortly.

My new battleships at Perseus:

[rho21]

Turn 179

Score tracking
The Aztecs finished a tech and built a museum plus a building each in industrial, commercial and scientific zones. That puts them ahead of me on turn order in the race for the great merchant, which I'd quite like to win. Wonder if I can hold onto it somehow. The Oracle will be a turn too late to help, I think.

Military
My frigate stuck in the eastern ocean gets upgraded to a battleship this turn. I figure that as long as the Aztec battleships are on the other side of the world I may as well attack Diminished. Should be able to fire the first salvo on T183.

Meanwhile, Kongo appears to be advancing again NW of Diminished. I assume the Aztec musket in the vicinity ran away from the advancing field cannons. Hopefully Kongo can gain control of the land west of Diminished ready for my battleship to take the walls down.

Up in the arctic, the Aztecs have their siege tower cunningly positioned on a hill overlooking the narrow strip of sea up there. As a support unit, it can't be blown up by ships in any way so it makes a perfect sentry in this circumstance.

My horse gets an attack in at awful odds (36v44) against the spearman in the barbarian camp. It earns its promotion and the musket finishes off the spear and the camp at the rather better odds of 73v32.

Housekeeping
Scientific Theory is done; work continues on Combustion. The archaeologist will be done next turn, so I should be able to extract an artifact for the boost to Combustion on T182, just in time.

A rainforest chop (6464128) at Diocles pushes it to size 3 (size 4 next turn) and knocks off half the cost of the aqueduct.

The ironclad is complete at Perseus. It gets started on a privateer (due in 8). Perhaps that should have been another ironclad instead.

160160 for a wheat harvested at Xenocrates. That takes it to size 12 with 115.2/139 in the food box. At -1 housing now; I shall have to place some extra farms to deal with that, and to prevent any lack of food surplus.

Pythagoras borrows a mine from Euclid to speed the Oracle up by a turn. Not that it will be enough to grab the great merchant, I think.

The siegewatchtower:

[rho21]

Turn 180

Score tracking
The Aztecs appear to have produced a settler and built a workshop or factory.

Military
Kongo is indeed advancing near Diminished, and possibly making progress. It's even possible they've killed an Aztec unit here, though it's tough to tell. I move a cavalry forward to look into the possibiliity of supporting them, but I spot a cavalry corps SE of Diminished. That's a danger to my knight force, so I drop everything back out of range. Not that the Aztecs are likely to attack, as the cavalry corps wouldn't survive the counter-attack. Still, I don't know what's behind it. My battleship will be here in a few turns to start causing problems for the Aztecs.

Housekeeping
Opera & Ballet is complete; it comes with envoys that go straight into Geneva, naturally. I get started on Urbanisation, due in 11 unboosted. I'll see if I can get the boost in time, if not I'll switch out at halfway.

So, what's left to upgrade?

• 2 archers (205 -> field cannon)
  
• 2 bombards (115 -> artillery)
  
• 4 horsemen (190 -> cavalry)
  
• 3 scouts (265 -> ranger)
  

Ignoring the scouts that will never be upgraded, that's a total of 1400; I have 1211 on hand.

However I don't think I should upgrade anything right now because tanks are just around the corner and it will cost ~235 for each knight -> tank upgrade (I have 6 knights). Infantry aren't too far away either, and I'm going to need to buy the oil tile before long.

New government time. The newly-unlocked policies are Grand Opera (double from theatre district buildings) and Symphonies (+4 great musician points). Neither is of interest. In fact I think the only thing worth doing is dropping Professional Army in favour of Grande Armée.

Aristaeus has finished its Archaeologist. I'm going to want Flight before too long, which is boosted by an Industrial or later wonder. The obvious one is Ruhr Valley, in this lovely hilly area. So I'm going to work on that in Aristaeus, due in 26 turns with a mine borrowed from Euclid. Maybe I should just be building military instead, but I feel it's worth a go.

I could harvest a stone into this (probably via a production multiplier), though that would drop the adjacency bonus of the industrial zone. I'll have to run the numbers and work out whether it's worth it, and how soon it should be done.

The Diminished front:

[rho21]

Didn't have time this morning for the round-up. Don't have time this evening either probably, though I can play the next turn quickly as it's just arrived.

Turn 181

Score tracking
The Aztecs used patronage to take the great merchant.

Military
The Aztec battleships have reappeared on my east coast, at Apollonius. They can't really hurt the city unless they have military units in support. Just in case, I have a few units heading this way.

That means my navy in the arctic can advance on the city I've just found up there, Hairshirt. It's holding a very narrow passage below the sea ice, so I need it removed.

My battleship in the eastern ocean may be attacked if it spends any time at Diminished. Should be able to do some damage then run away to the west, hopefully.

The Kongolese advance continues near Diminished. Difficult to say what damage has been done to the Aztecs. Kongo has lost a musket corps, I think.

Housekeeping
The archaeologist extracts an ancient Yerevan artifact, providing 3 and boosting Combustion, which will now be finished next turn. I decide to buy the oil tile for 255 now before it gets any more expensive. No real point waiting for the chance to run the policy (not yet unlocked and on a side branch) that boosts settlers and gives money off tile purchases.

A rice is ready to harvest at Xenocrates but should wait a turn. In the meantime I get the wheat harvest ready to go.

Menaechmus has finished its barracks and gets started on a field cannon, due in 8 turns.