It's Chevalier's Thread and He Can Do What He Wants To

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Yeah, I'm just frustrated because I'm trying to run a minimalist military and it's obviously backfiring. I wanted a skeleton military of 3 slingers and maybe 3 warriors to patrol the island, but the rough terrain and unexpected size means that barb camps keep popping up in the fog. If I'd invested ~60 more cogs in 2 more warriors, then I'd be able to explore with THEM instead of the slingers.

This one was doubly frustrating because there was literally nothing I could do. The camp was not in sight when I moved; I entered the forest, was next to the camp, and then I opened the save for the second time in a row to a dead slinger. Bah. I wish I could just build straight warriors, but galleys are what I need - galleys to explore, patrol, conquer, and defend, not land units. Warriors will just be fodder for ships in transit, and eventually torn to pieces by Quads and Frigates.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Chevalier talks baseball: Epilogue, part 2/2 (final)

That's right, we have come to the end of our long series of baseball posts. I'll attach a few more posts with the resources I used putting this together - well, not the 100+ articles I looked at reconstructing events and gathering images, but I'll at least put up the summary videos in their own posts, and a link the document I started so I could do my writing once the forum interface proved inadequate to my needs. 

Anyway, the playoffs start next week, with the field looking mostly the same: A's at Yankees for the Wild Card, Red Sox, Astros, and Indians division winners (in that order). In the NL, the Rockies have displaced the Cards for Wild Card #2, so they may travel to the Brewers, while the Cubs, Braves, and Dodgers are likely division winners (Cubs and Dodgers could both end up wild cards!). I'll comment on the games if people want to watch 'em - baseball is fun! 

In any case, the time has come to say goodbye to our Royals:

Where are they now?
Baseball is a business with no room for sentiment, sadly, and even championship teams eventually break up and disperse. Contracts run out, players get old, trades are made to meet the new needs of the team. The 2018 Royals are unrecognizable, mostly, from the old days, and lost more than 100 games this year - but the team is aging veterans and a new crop of young rookies, and there’s every reason to hope for the future.

One last farewell to the players, as we trace their many and varied fates (ranging from repeat World Series wins to the grave) since 2015:

Alcides Escobar




Escobar for many years was the Iron Man of baseball. He played more consecutive games than any other Major League player from 2011-2018, one of the longest streaks since Cal Ripkin. Esky was a magnificent leadoff hitter in the playoffs, winning ALCS MVP in 2015 and memorably opening the World Series with an inside-the-park home run, but his production collapsed after 2015. Never a great hitter, he quickly became abysmal - the worst hitter in the major leagues, in fact. His sharp defense kept him in the lineup, though, and when his contract expired in 2017 he signed a 1-year deal with the Royals. He has since been surpassed by Adalberto Mondesi, a young player with the makings of a star (who made his Major League debut in the 2015 World Series, the first player in history to do so).


Ben Zobrist




Zobrist, the indispensable man, was at the heart of so many of the rallies. Time and again Zobrist came through with a timely hit or walk, while playing solid defense at second base. Zobrist was a one-year rental and following the Series he signed on with the Chicago Cubs. Zobrist spent the off-season carting his World Series trophy around, and the next year he would lead the Cubs to more comeback victories, winning World Series MVP as the Cubs finally broke their 108-year drought. Today, when people think of Ben Zobrist and the World Series, they think of his 2016 performance.

But when he had a daughter, Zobrist named her Blaise Royal.




Lorenzo Cain




Cain finished 3rd in MVP voting in 2015, and he remained the Royals’ best player in years to come. His defense, elite speed, and excellent hitting skills made him a highly sought-after player when his contract expired in 2017. Cain returned to his old team, the Milwaukee Brewers, who had traded him to the Royals back in 2011, where he is leading them to their first playoff berth since that year.

When he came back to Kauffman Stadium with the Brewers in the spring of 2018, the crowd gave him a standing ovation. Later in the game, he hit a home run to give the Brewers the lead.

The crowd gave him another standing ovation.

Eric Hosmer




Hosmer had up and down years since 2015. Brilliant when the pressure is on - like the Wild Card game, or the ALDS, or sprinting home in Game 5, he struggled in less important situations. Hoz started at first base in the World Baseball Classic in 2017, which saw Team USA win for the first time ever, and was MVP at the 2016 All-Star Game. When his contract expired in 2017, the Padres signed him to a massive deal. He has struggled there, but he will always be beloved in Kansas City for his postseason heroics.

Kendrys Morales




The bargain bin DH had repaid Dayton Moore’s investment magnificently. Morales had come through with multiple home runs or timely hits in the playoffs, most notably his 3-run homer off Dallas Keuchel to seal the win in Game 5 of the ALDS.

Morales had one more year with the Royals, where he was serviceable if not brilliant. Afterwards, he signed with the Toronto Blue Jays, where he has continued to serve decently.

Mike Moustakas




Moustakas finally turned himself into the great hitter he had always promised to be in 2015. In 2016, though, he missed most of the year following an injury in a collision with Alex Gordon (the loss of both players doomed the Royals’ playoff hopes, of course). In 2017, Moose set the Royals’ franchise home run record at 37, finally shattering the record of 35 set by Steve Balboni in 1985 (the lowest in the major leagues). He signed a one-year contract with the Royals for 2018, and was traded to the Brewers halfway through the season, where he joined old friend Lorenzo Cain.

Salvador Perez




The Royals’ catcher was awarded MVP honors for the 2015 World Series. The charismatic young Venezuelan was many Kansas Citians’ most beloved player, and he signed a long-term contract with the team through 2022. Perez has appeared in every All-Star game since 2014 as the AL catcher, and is the face of the franchise for many.

Alex Gordon




Gordon, the longest-serving Royal of them all, signed a 4-year extension with the team following the 2015 season. He was injured in a collision with Moustakas in May of 2016, and has not been the same since - his defense remains as spectacular as ever, worthy of the player with the most outfield assists in all of baseball, but his bat declined dramatically. He seems to have turned things around in 2018, though, and is a lock for the Royals HoF when he finally retires next year.

Alex Rios




Rios never fit in well in Kansas City. Injured by a pitch early in the season (which contributed to the Royals’ early confrontational attitude), he had struggled to produce before finally coming through in the ALDS. After earning his World Series ring with the Royals, Rios struggled to find a contract for the 2016 season and ultimately retired.

Jarrod Dyson


Jarrod Dyson had been a 50th round pick for the Royals, but had worked like a madman to improve himself and make the major leagues - in a sport where the vast, vast majority of prospects never sniff the majors, and even more never make a career there (at 25 players on a roster, there are only 750 major league roster slots, while there are thousands of players laboring away in the minor leagues).

Dyson established a niche for himself with his speed on the basepaths and his brilliant defense (Dyson Miami catch here), stealing third in the Wild Card Game and then tying the game, and scoring the clinching run in the World Series a year later. Dyson stuck with the Royals through 2016, then was traded to the Seattle Mariners where he became an everyday starting outfielder, before moving on to the Diamondbacks in 2018.

Paulo Orlando




Orlando, who made his debut in the majors in 2015, never would be a great player. But he did his part - a walk-off grand slam was one of the high points of the season, and his solid defense often saw him closing games out in right field over Rios, and Orlando squeezed more than his share of final outs in the playoffs.

He bumped along with the Royals for two more years before ultimately being designated for assignment by the team.

Christian Colon




Colon, the Royals’ #1 pick in 2010, could be said to have a perfect postseason record. He batted only twice in those two years, and both times he delivered. The first was in the 12th inning of the first game, the Wild Card Game, when the Royals had two outs left and needed a hit to tie - Colon chopped a ball three feet in front of home plate, stole second, then scored the winning run. After that, he sat, and waited, and practiced, until Game 5 in 2015, and his team needed him - in the 12th inning of the final game. Colon’s second postseason at-bat ever ended in a hit as well, putting the Royals ahead for good.

However, the second baseman was eclipsed in 2015 by Ben Zobrist, and in 2016 and afterwards by Royals’ prospect Whit Merrifield, an older minor league who reinvented himself as one of the best second basemen in baseball. Colon was designated for assignment in 2017 and bounced around various teams’ minor league systems. He is currently a minor league for the Mets.

Drew Butera




Drew “Butters” Butera had only two moments, but they were big ones. The backup catcher who can’t hit worth a damn drew a walk during the fateful 8th inning at Houston, keeping the Royals’ chances alive. He also caught the final three outs of the World Series with Wade Davis.

Butera never had a chance for regular playing time behind Salvador Perez, and in the summer of 2018 (after I started writing this series), he was traded to the Colorado Rockies, where he rejoined Wade Davis.

Terrance Gore




Terrance Gore, the fastest man in baseball, continued his specialist role as a pinch runner. In 2018 he was traded to the Chicago Cubs.

A few weeks later, 3 years after having already won a World Series, he notched his first major league hit.

Edinson Volquez




“Steady Eddie” was the Royals’ most consistent pitcher in 2015, and he shined in the postseason, shutting out the torrid Blue Jays’ offense in the ALCS opener, to say nothing of his World Series performances around the death of his father.

Volquez was shakier in 2016, though still one of the best pitchers in the rotation. In 2017, he signed with the Miami Marlins, and later that year he threw his first no-hitter for the team. Down for Tommy John surgery after the season, Volquez spent 2018 recovering and has signed a minor league contract with the Texas Rangers.

Johnny Cueto



The Royals’ enigmatic rented ace left the team at the end of the season, but with a positive legacy after his early struggles - the complete WS Game 2 and his brilliant Game 5 in the ALDS cemented his bona fides in Kansas City. The town would never love Cueto, but he had earned his place.

Cueto signed with the San Francisco Giants, joining Madison Bumgarner to create a fearsome rotation, and returning to the playoffs in 2016 (where the Cubs, and Ben Zobrist, at last put an end to even-year magic and extracted a measure of revenge for the 2014 Royals).

Yordano Ventura




At times brilliant, at times terrible, always fiery and passionate, Yordano continued to bounce up and down through 2016. He showed a measure of improvement down the stretch, and all signs were that Ventura was about to blossom into the ace that the Royals always believed him to be.

In January 2017, Yordano Ventura was killed in a motor accident near his home in the Dominican Republic. Mourned throughout Kansas City, Ventura was honored with a patch bearing his number (#30) on the teams’ uniforms that season.

At the funeral, his teammates were his pallbearers.



Chris Young




A solid performance in the 2015 playoffs proved to be the peak of Chris Young’s fading career. The aging pitcher, in the majors since 2004, struggled with his extreme flyball tendencies through 2016 and 2017, in addition to battling injuries. When his two-year contract expired at the end of 2017, Young signed on with the Padres, the team he had spent the majority of his career with, before retiring from baseball.

Danny Duffy




Duffy, one of the vaunted relief corps, moved into the rotation in 2016. Duffy broke through that season at last, with a strong campaign highlighted by a 16-strikeout game against the Tampa Bay Rays that set the Royals’ franchise record. Duffy was the Royals’ Opening Day starter in 2017, but battled inconsistency and injury the next two years.

He remains one of the better pitchers in the rotation, and has repeatedly expressed his desire to finish his career with the Royals alone.

Franklin Morales




The weak link in the 2015 bullpen, Morales’ only notable appearance was his disastrous relief in the 6th inning of Game 3 in the World Series. Morales was signed by the Brewers at the start of the 2016 season, but never made an appearance with the team. He spent a brief spell the same year with the Blue Jays, and then went abroad in 2017, pitching in the Mexican leagues.

Luke Hochevar




Hochevar, the #1 draft pick in 2006, cemented his legacy with the Royals via strong performances in teh bullpen - he was the pitcher of record in Game 5, throwing two scoreless innings in extras before the Royals broke through one last time in the 12th. He continued with the Royals’ bullpen another year, before the team declined to pick up his contract for 2017. In 2018, Hochevar retired from baseball.

Ryan Madson




Madson was a good pitcher who unfortunately was in the middle of a bullpen of great pitchers. He looked positively pedestrian by comparison. Solid through most of the regular season, Madson had two notable meltdowns in the postseason that nearly cost the Royals their championship - a disastrous 3-run 7th inning in Houston in Game 4, and the game-tying homer in Game 6 of the ALCS to Jose Bautista.

Madson signed with Oakland A’s in 2016, and bounced around as a trade piece from there. He is currently with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Kelvin Herrera

 

Herrera was the first of the infamous HDH bullpen trio. He continued with the Royals, not as invincible as Wade Davis, but still one of the better relievers in the sport. When Davis was traded to the Cubs, Herrera took over as the closer. He was traded to the Washington Nationals in May of 2018.

Wade Davis




The star of the Royals’ bullpen, Davis continued to dominate in 2016, but a weaker Royals team missed the playoffs. Davis was traded to the Cubs before the 2017 season, and signed with the Rockies in 2018. The Wadebot has declined in the two years since leaving the Royals, and is no longer the untouchable pitcher he once was. When Drew Butera joined the Rockies in 2018, the battery that closed the 2015 World Series was recreated. The Rockies are currently .5 games out of a wild card spot.

Greg Holland




Holland, the third and final member of HDH. Holland was shut down towards the end of 2015, injured, and missed the playoffs. After Tommy John surgery in 2016, Holland returned to baseball in 2017, signing with the Rockies, but he was not the pitcher he used to be. From there, he bounced to the Cardinals, but continued to be ineffective. The club designated him for assignment on August 1, and a week later he signed a minor league deal with the Nationals.

Kris Medlen




The last part of the Royals’ rotation during the 2015 season, Medlen was moved to the bullpen for the playoffs as the weakest starting pitcher on the team. Medlen pitched long relief and low-leverage situations, and figured to return to the rotation in 2016. He was instead placed on the disabled list, and the Royals declined his option at the end of the season. He spent 2017 and 2018 pitching minor league contracts for the Braves and Diamondbacks before retiring from baseball.

2014 players:

Nori Aoki



Aoki, the lowest strikeout player on a team of low-strikeout players, was a joy in the 2014 playoffs, tying the Wild Card Game in the 9th with a sacrifice fly and playing heart-stopping defense in the ALDS. Following his season with the Royals, Aoki bounced around the majors, with stints with the Giants, the Mariners, Astros, Blue Jays, and Mets - picking up a World Series ring with the Astros along the way. Aoki returned to Japan to play in the NPB in 2018, where he is the batting champion.

Billy Butler



Billy Butler, “Country Breakfast”, had been a homegrown Royal, but Game 7 in 2014 was his last game with the team. Butler, clearly on the decline, was signed by the Oakland A’s to a 3-year deal in 2015, but after a fight with Danny Valencia in the clubhouse in 2016, Butler was released by the team.

Butler has since retired from baseball and was last seen playing beer-league softball for fun in Idaho (I’m not kidding).

James Shields




2014 was “Big Game” James Shields’ last brush with greatness. Another player in the twilight of his career, Shields signed with the Padres in 2015, where he was disastrous, giving up the most home runs in the majors. He was traded to the White Sox in 2016, where he was even more disastrous. The White Sox were in the midst of rebuilding (which makes it baffling why they traded for Shields in the first place) and didn’t particularly mind the losses, and so Shields continues with them.

Jason Vargas




Vargas made solid starts for the Royals in the 2014 playoffs, but midway through 2015 he was shut down with injury and missed the playoffs and most of 2016. Vargas returned to the rotation in 2017, and for the first half of the season he was one of the best pitchers in baseball, with his name discussed as in contention for the Cy Young award. Vargas couldn’t sustain a level of success over his own historical level of play, though, and he regressed hard in the second half. Vargas signed with the Mets in 2018, where he has battled injury along with the rest of the Mets.

Brandon Finnegan




Finnegan, the young kid who was the hero of the wild card game, became the only player in history to pitch in the College World Series and the World Series the same year. In 2015, Finnegan was the centerpiece of the trade to the Reds that brought Johnny Cueto to Kansas City. Finnegan was unhappy with how the Royals had treated him, and ruffled a few feathers with grumblings on the way out. Finnegan has been serviceable with the Reds ever since and is one of the anchors of their rotation.

Jeremy Guthrie




“JGuts,” one of the spit-and-duct tape rotation pitchers in 2014, was demoted to the bullpen in 2015 after one disastrous start too many. Following the 2015 season, Guthrie bounced around the minor league systems of various teams for a few years. He made his last major league start on his 38th birthday, April 8, 2017, for the Washington Nationals. He gave up 10 runs and never escaped the first inning. Guthrie signed for two weeks in the Mexican baseball league, but shortly after announced his retirement from the sport.


Omar Infante




Omar Infante’s production declined dramatically following 2014, and in 2015 the Royals replaced him with Ben Zobrist at second base. Nevertheless, Royals fans did their damndest to get him into the All-Star game, and even into 2016 Infante was second in All-Star voting - even as the team released him. Infante’s contract expired at the end of 2016, and he signed a minor league deal with the Atlanta Braves and then the Detroit Tigers.

Josh Willingham




Josh Willingham had exactly one hit in the postseason for the Royals. He arrived on the team August 11, 2014, as part of a trade, and in the Wild Card Game he opened the 9th with a bloop single, before promptly being lifted for pinch runner Jarrod Dyson (who would be bunted to second, steal third, and tie the game). Willingham never again appeared in the playoffs and retired after the season.

There may have been other players who had a more impactful final career hit, but there can’t be many.

[Grotsnot]

Ah, I missed the part where the camp itself came out of nowhere. That really sucks

In the same column, this island manages to be much bigger than it first appeared while still having a very low ratio of actually useful tiles. Large crappy hinterlands sound like prime conditions for barb jackassery...

I forget, does barb activity level off as the globe advances through the tech trees or is that just a byproduct of more territory being claimed by civilized peoples? If it doesn't inherently decay might it be worth having a couple Warriors on permanent Wildling Duty? Since Settlers will have better places to go. Still dead weight but at least a small step up from boat fodder and cheaper than settlements.

[williams482]

I'm willing to bet that your slinger was hit by either an archer or a quad that was hanging around in the fog, allowing the spear to finish it off. Something to keep an eye out for in the next few turns.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Yeah, probably somethin' like that. Anyway, I'm over it. Improvise, adapt, and overcome, right? 

Anyway, I gotta confess, I'm not super motivated to post right now - things have been busy in the Mal Fet household the last two days. We've had a doozy of a day.  



Dog turned 13 on September 25 (a day after my birthday!), but spent the whole day throwing up. Then, all last night - literally, all last night, from about 10:00 until 6:00 this morning - he threw up some more, once every two hours. Took him to the vet as soon as they opened (called off work to do it - I hate to get a sub, but the dog was super sick), and been caring for him since we got back. He should be fine, we got some medicine, and we're getting some blood work done to see what precisely it is, so no worries. Let me toss you a quick update so you're not impatient. 

First, I finally, FINALLY meet my second city-state:




We're also first, which is neat, and get a bit of a science boost. Hattusa is a target for expansion later, once I have the navy, since it gives a good foothold on this island. For now, we'll take the modest science boost. 

Davis starts replacing our slingers, which I will no longer use to scout, purely for defense. Probably gonna upgrade to ARchers once both are done, in fact:




Scores and overview. Two more settlers coming out, then I think a round of navy building is in order. We'll make sure we're safe enough from The Archduke, then go for Hattusa, probably, and begin expansion that direction. No plans are very definite, I know, but I'm mostly in sandbox mode now:






I'm at the bottom, but that's mostly a product of era scores and Great People/Religion. We'll catch up, and our fundamentals are sound enough.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Another quick turn, I didn't even click anything so I just took a picture of the scores.






Archduke leads me by 33 Era score points, and leads by 40 total score. Not too shabby, actually! 

Emperor lost a city, and his military score is down to 171 to Archduke's 279. Not good. But Archduke didn't take the city, so he razed it? But he would have been able to occupy it, since it was originally "his" city, right? And with scores trending the way they are, he should have been able to hold it. 

Well, no way to tell what's going on without vision. Archduke's no slouch, so he knows what he's about.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Good news on the dog front - no new vomiting, which means that it's probably not pancreatic cancer. Instead he probably just ate something that upset him. I was sweating all day, and hated to leave him alone, but I couldn't take two days off work. Anyway, knock on wood, but he seems to be okay after giving us a scare. 

Baseball update: As we head into the final weekend, the Rockies and Dodgers are battling for the NL West, while the Brewers and Cubs battle for the NL Central. The Cardinals need to sweep the Cubs (essentially) to make the playoffs at all. Cubs need to avoid being swept to win the division. Dodgers need to not get swept to avoid missing the playoffs, and both Dodgers and Rockies need to win as many as possible to force the other into a wild card spot or out of the playoffs entirely. Should be a fun weekend! 

We'll start the wild card games next week.

Anyway, turn 80 was fun. Let's dive in. 

Turn 80




Finished the Wheel, but I'm not really sure where to go from here - symptomatic of my general lackadaisical attitude towards this game. I really don't have a research strategy - stop wincing, Cornflakes! I'm doing my best - so let's talk through it.

Celestial Navigation is the most important tech to grab, I think, because it enables Harbors. I'm the only person on the map besides Emperor with any Harbors, thanks to Grenada. However, I presently need to complete 1 district to unlock the discount. If I complete CN, though, I'll need to build two undiscounted districts. The main issue is that I have Bronze Working but no Encampment, and no good slot to place one. That patch of desert near Escobar is good, but Escobar has no spare district slots before size 10. 

Currency, same issues, while also being less useful. 

Archery, need ta finish my slingers first. 

Cartography, no, too far out. 

Engineering and Iron Working cause no problems, but are not immediately useful.

I set research to CN for now, we'll sort it out later once I have a strategy. For now it's just expand, expand, expand, then build military to keep the Archduke or Japper/Rowain from taking my stuff. 

Speaking of...




We found Moustakas al Mumim, which translates as Moustakas, the Guardian of Faith. It gets an instant Pasture from our free builder, and the Ancestral Hall begins to pay itself off. It was 150 combined cogs, but it gives +50% towards settlers and a free builder, so I think it'll come out in the black for us pretty soon. I want at least one lumber mill here to boost Moose's otherwise lacking production, and the last charge I don't have a plan for. Maybe reserve it for a chop? That flatland forest is a good Campus target - chop a galley/quad into a campus there? We'll tentatively plan on that.

Guess I need to go ahead and get Machinery, which means I need archery. Let's plan on that next. 

Anyway, just to review my name scheme ("Oh, no, he's going to repost the entire 150-page story!" No, worry not, dear reader, I'm not that unbalanced. Just a little unbalanced): 

City names - Royals position players, in order of starting lineup for the World Series. 
Conquered cities - Royals pitching, starting with the 'pen and working my way around as I please. 

But the other half, to make it more Arabic, are the 99 attributes of Allah. It might be blasphemous for me to attribute these to mortal humans, but no offense is intended and I pray that the Good Lord will allow me this flair. Our translated names so far:

Escobar, the Gracious
Zobrist, the Merciful
Cain, the King
Hosmer, the Holy (pinned, not settled)
Morales, the Provider of  Peace (pinned, not settled)
Moustakas, the Guardian of Faith
Perez, the Guardian & Preserver (pinned, not settled)
Gordon, the Self-Sufficient
Rios, the Compeller (pinned, not settled). 

Just wanted to give that overview. I think most of the nicknames match their players fairly well. 

Anyway, other fun stuff. 




I recruit Pingala, and boost the capital with him. But where to send Liang now? Well, where am I building builders (I HATE saying that)? Ultimately, Zobrist, perhaps, but Zobrist has Magnus for a Holy Site chop incoming with a +100% settler. Then I remembered that Gordon is building a (sigh) builder! So to Gordon she goes. The trouble is Gordon's builder is due in 4 turns, while Liang isn't established for 5. So we'll sink 2 turns of production into a monument. I don't remember if her effect applies before or after the builder completes, so we'll take an extra turn, just to be safe. The two turn delay is worth it for an extra charge, I think pretty clearly. 

We leave Hattusa and head on for other climes in the south.




I suspect there's nothing else on the island - settlerDar would have spotted it. So we'll keep exploring. Intermediate goal is to build a navy to hold off the 'Duke, and capture Hattusa as a long-term base on this island to repeat expansion here. We'll call that Operation Neumann. 

Scores, still safely at the bottom:





But fundamentals are strong enough. I am worried about my lagging research compared with Rowain and Archduke, otherwise we compare quite favorably in all important categories.

[williams482]

Glad to hear the good news about your dog. I hope he comes out of this all right.

It looks like the most promising place for an encampment in the near future would be in Zobrist, on the spot where you have Morales' campus pinned. West-southwest of Gordon (in either city) could also be an option. That probably requires buying the tile, chopping that last hill forest, and significantly delaying either the campus or harbor.

Assuming you can set that up, is it worth it? The benefit is one, maybe more discounted districts, plus the boost for Military Training, some GG points (which nobody else has yet!), and the marginal benefits to whatever units you build in that city. I could see that being a decent use of some gold and a chop, but I have zero confidence in that assesment.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Morales' campus is pinned there to take advantage of the Plaza adjacency bonus - anything else would be wasting the location of the plaza, and frankly Morales doesn't have anything else going for it. Right now, I'm thinking to do two things:

1)the captured Grenadan builder has 2 charges left. One charge I will use to chop a settler +100% from Zobrist for a Holy Site in 4 turns (when it reaches the dang forest.
2)I'll build another boosted item - either a settler for Perez, or a slinger with Agoge, and then use the second charge where I have pinned Zobrist's campus to chop the campus. That's a +3 campus (maybe +4? once I have the Harbor complete?), which is the only possible spot on the map I can achieve that. With Morales, that should boost my science rate by 5 points alone, not counting population growth, which takes me from 16 to 21, which is much closer to the Archduke's 26. Meanwhile, the completed Campus will give me a discount on my next non-HS/Campus/Harbor district, which can be an encampment...somewhere.

I need to do a survey of everyone once I make contact with all players. I think Archduke's strong science and culture is from his Dutch river bonus; I have nothing to compete with that. Need my religion to get that online - but the good news is, following the completion of our Prayers, our religion is due as soon as the save gets to me, and then we can start using our saved up EG faith to purchase libraries and missionaries. We're in mid-snowball. Just gotta see if we can catch up.

[Grotsnot]

I'm actually a little surprised by G&R over gunning for Recorded History. Any particular reason? Planning a play for the Colosseum? Could use the discount for an Entertainment Complex. Or perhaps to push for Defensive Tactics for Limes chops? I would think Jesuit Madrassas would outweigh that, though.

I do like the desert SW-SW of Escobar for the Encampment, assuming it's worth getting one at all. Another option would be to have a northern watchtower somewhere but I kinda doubt that has a good enough payoff for a district slot. Planting next to the Plaza is definitely out - is there a spot 2-tiles from the Plaza that would help bump up the adjacency bonuses?