[Spoilers] All rho21s lead to Rome

[rho21]

Played turn 96 this morning just before work, and turn 97 was waiting for me upon my return.

Turn 96

Score tracking
Russia founded a new city. That's 12 now, 3 ahead of me and 5 ahead of Brazil. We're both 4 population ahead of the Russians though, I believe, so it's not a telling advantage just yet.

I've added about 160 military strength over the past couple of turns (360 -> 517), but I'm still in second place behind the Russians. A tad concerning if they're much further away.


Military
The Greek settler appeared on one of the expected tiles. I've miscalculated though: it was always a turn behind my settler even without blocking.


Housekeeping
My fourth trader is completed at Trebia, which will next finish a baths in 1 turn. Overflow is great. The trader will be going to Mohenjo-Daro for the extra envoy, despite that this will decrease the potential value of the route a little. Starting from Arausio would give the best possible road connection, but instead I'm going to launch the route from Carrhae for an extra thanks to passing through another one of my cities.

Arausio finished repairing its granary and finally grew to size 2. It gets working on baths next, as it's growing pretty quickly now.

At Lake Trasimene, I decided to buy the 3rd ring floodplains wheat tile for the princely sum of 165. Expensive, but it will really help the city to grow and will be well worth it if it gets me the boost for Civil Service quicker.

Here's a view of the settler race, with the settler overlay.

[rho21]

Turn 97

Score tracking
Greece founded a new city; apparently they had another settler out too. It's Argos, which lies E of Sparta, NE of Athens.

Brazil and Russia discovered techs this turn, Russia also picked up a new civic.

I thought I might take this relatively quiet turn to talk about one of the more subtle bits of demographic information available: the Culture victory screen.

The domestic tourists number counts the total amount of earned by the civilization over the entire game, including civic boosts. This is divided by 100 and rounded down so it's not perfect information, but it gives a much better idea of how well another civ is doing culturally than just the number of civics they've completed. (Note also that foreign tourists are subtracted from other civs' domestic tourist pools, so you have to account for that.)

Right now, Cornflakes' Brazil has a scary number. Roughly twice the lifetime or Rome and Russia, and 4 times that of Greece! Eek. Thankfully, that's not all put to effective use. Much of it will be tied up in boosts for civics further down the tree that I'll be able to earn before I get to researching them. For example 460 for Civil Engineering and 327.5 for Mercantilism make up most of 8 domestic tourists between them. Still, the Brazilians are a good distance ahead culturally.


Military
No sign of a barbarian camp in the tundra south of Carrhae. There's a bit more to uncover yet though.


Housekeeping
Celestial Navigation is complete. Next up is Construction, as Shipbuilding isn't boosted for another short while. I want a harbour at Carrhae, but I'm going to wait so I can place the discounted harbour at C3 (because Carrhae is an established city).

The trade route from Carrhae to Mohenjo-Daro is started, earning 41 per turn, an envoy and the boost for Medieval Faires, now just 3 turns from completion.

Trebia has finished its Baths and still has more overflow. It continues with its watermill (for the construction boost), due in 2 turns.

Allia River has 195/200 in its settler, so I'm going to chop a rainforest into it, producing 373774. The overflow goes into the market, dropping it to 3 turns to go.

The settler gets moving for C1, on the coast N of Cannae. It is escorted by a legion, not that there's any trouble for it to run into.

Looks as though Edessa's overflow from the granary repair has disappeared. I think that might be a bug actually: overflow from repairs doesn't. Worth knowing for the future.

Here's a look at the icy peninsula south of Carrhae:

Definitely room for three pretty nice cities down between Azteca and the tundra. I need so many settlers.

[rho21]

Turn 98

Score tracking
Brazil finished a civic, Russia and Greece both completed techs. In Greece's case, that was their first medieval tech, probably Apprenticeship.

Greece spent 190 on something.


Military
A new barbarian scout has appeared on the tundra peninsula, giving an excellent indication to the location of the camp. The legion rushes up next to it and the archer shoots it for a bit over half its health.


Housekeeping
The city is founded at (the new position of) C3. It produces a really helpful free road that will speed up my settler heading to C1 by a turn. I'm running rather low on Roman military defeats, may have to start with disasters from other civilizations. There are one or two more though; this city is named Cap Bon.

Cap Bon places a discounted harbour, which will cost 121. It starts work on a galley. It's also immediately converted to Defeatism.

Looks as though I have enough districts completed to make the next harbour cheap too. I guess that will be the one at C1, then Carrhae and Cannae can pay full price.

I reckon I've dropped the ball a bit on getting the Civil Service boost. There are so many civics dependent on it that I'm running out of places to put spare . I have only the rest of Medieval Faires (~42), half of Exploration (200) and the rest of the first half of Civil Service (~100). At 38 per turn right now, that only gets me 9 turns. There's half of Naval Tradition available too for another 100, but it's a dead end, and far from certain I'll ever finish it. So ideally T106, the longest I have is until T108.

Lake Trasimene is size 7, growing to 8 at the end of this turn. It needs 215 to grow those last two sizes, and can at best produce a surplus of 14.3/turn. I need more like 20 to make it in time. But I could harvest that floodplains wheat I was about to farm. That would be worth ~78, which should make it possible. I'll have to do the maths to see whether it's necessary to put a farm on it for the few turns before it gets harvested.

I also have the competing priority of building Petra, for which I naturally want more -heavy tiles.

Anyway, here's a view of Cap Bon:

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Let's see, I don't remember all your city names off the top of my head, but I believe I haven't yet seen

- Caudine Forks (Samnite humiliation of Rome)
- Gergovia (Caesar repulsed in a bloody debacle)
- Adrianople (Goths! Goths! Goths!)
- Drepana (Another naval disaster for the Romans)
-Laetulae (Samnite wars)
- Heraclea (Pyrrhic War)
- Asculum ("One more such victory and we are routed")
- Thermae (1st Punic War)
- Castulo & Ilorca (Spanish battles in the 2nd Punic War)
- Herdonia (a lesser-known Hannibalic victory)
- Mount Vesuvius (Spartacus's rebellion)

There are more defeats to be had especially if you look at 4th and 5th century Roman-Sassanid wars, like the siege of Dara, etc. And then you can always fall back on Byzantine defeats.

[rho21]

Three turns yesterday (two arriving at slightly inconvenient times, but that's the way it goes) and one this morning mean I've managed to get three turns behind reporting, including a round number turn. I'll hopefully have time to catch back up today. So let's get started:

Turn 99

Score tracking
Greece finished a civic while Brazil managed both a civic and a tech.


Military
A barbarian quadrireme has appeared on the coast south of Trebia, where it has bombarded my scouting chariot. This is not a big problem, the chariot can easily retreat inland. And it's an opportunity for XP on my ships that will be built soon and possibly also for getting a kill with a quadrireme.


Housekeeping
Medieval Faires will be delayed for a few turns to allow placement of more districts at new cities before increasing the cost. Culture goes into Civil Service instead for the moment.

Cannae has built its Barracks and gets going on another settler.

The watermill is complete at Trebia, boosting Construction. It starts on a catapult, as a couple of these will be useful to upgrade for the Siege Tactics boost before too long.

I harvest the cows at Cap Bon for 9494 and an immediate point of city growth. Hopefully several more over the next few turns too, assuming the overflow works. Baths are placed where the cows were, but the city continues to work on the galley.

I decided a little while back to send a missionary to expend one more charge in Azteca to speed up conversions. It has arrived, and Carrhae is converted this turn.

[rho21]

Turn 100

Score tracking
Russia has recruited a great writer. This is a bit of a problem for the Russians generally: they generate all these cultural great people thanks to their excellent Lavras, but they have to invest heavily in cultural infrastructure (or wonders) if they want anywhere to put the great works they generate.

Greece and Brazil both created settlers this turn. Greece's is heading south from Athens, presumably to the lovely city site I pointed out recently. I'm very impressed with the number of settlers the Greeks have produced recently.


Military
My troops are falling back from the site south of Athens now that the area is scouted so as not to be a nuisance to the Greeks. One chariot continues up the coast to the NE to finish scouting the Greek backlines.

In the tundra peninsula, the legion has cornered the barbarian scout, but there's still no sign of the camp.


Housekeeping
Construction is done, Military Engineering is dialed up next to give the option to build an armoury to boost Gunpowder and a military engineer to boost Ballistics. I hate that boost: military engineers are insanely expensive and the forts they place (particularly as they have to go in your own territory for the boost) are rarely worth anything.

The market is finished at Allia, giving the boost for Guilds. Not much to build next here. I plan to put a campus down shortly, but there's a marsh I want to harvest on the tile first. The builder will be ready to do so on T103, so I need something for 3 turns first. A builder is a strong possibility, but I decide that the second catapult can come from here instead.

Cap Bon has grown to size 3, and it looks as though it has no more overflow. Curious implementation by the game, that. I buy a forest hill here for 110 as it looks as though the Greeks will settle at minimum distance to the NE and I don't want to lose that tile for chopping later. I don't think it's worth paying 165 for the stone in the third ring as well though.

It's turn 100, so time for a special treat for all the graph fans out there.  

Roman demographics

Income:

Treasury and military strength:

Civ comparisons
Science:

Culture:

Domestic tourists (compare with culture):

Cities:

Population:

Districts:

Tabulated civ comparisons to follow.

[rho21]

Turns 102 and 103 came in before I could get to writing this. I'm definitely not going to be caught up today.
This weekend has been a really awesome turn pace, but it is leaving my strategic thoughts a little bit behind.

Turn 100 continued

Civ Comparison

Civ	Cities	Pop	Techs	Civics	Districts	Military	Gold
Brazil	7	39	23	18	16 (3 Encampment, 2 Harbour, 4 Campus, 2 Commercial, 2 Industrial, Theatre, 2 Carnival)	3rd
Russia	12	35	19	14	11 (4 Lavras, 6 Campus, Commercial)	1st
Greece	4	14	14 (18.7/turn)	11 (17.0/turn)	3 (Encampment, Campus, Acropolis)	278 (4th)	159 (20/turn)
Rome	10	43	20 (44.0/turn)	16 (39.5/turn)	9 (3 Encampments, Holy Site, 3 Commercial, 2 Campus)	526 (2nd)	642 (66.9/turn)

Successfully doubled my income in the last 10 turns, as well as increasing and by ~70%.

More importantly, I've taken a small lead in population; I don't expect this to shrink for a while, with all the new cities, growing quickly.

Brazil's culture remains exceptional. I would be so far behind were it not for the free monuments I get everywhere.

Russia's strength continues to be concerning: they remain ahead of my strength as it climbs to new highs. If they're the 300 or so points ahead of Brazil that I suspect, the Brazilians' only hope lies in superior technology.


Great People
Claimed:
Russia: Prophet, 2 Writers, Scientist
Brazil: Scientist, Merchant
Greece: General
Rome: Prophet

Up next:
General (Temujin, 120): Rome: 80 + 4/turn, Brazil: 56 + 4/turn, Greece: 24 + 1/turn
Admiral (Gaius Duilius, 60): Brazil: 15 + 2/turn
Engineer (Isidore of Miletus, 120): Brazil 47 + 2/turn
Merchant (Raja Todar Mal, 240): Rome 66 + 4/turn, Brazil: 45 + 4/turn, Russia 12 + 1/turn
Prophet (Bodhidharma, 120): No takers yet
Scientist (Abu Al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi, 120): Russia: 90 + 8/turn, Brazil: 94 + 4/turn, Rome: 46 + 2/turn, Greece: 40 +2/turn
Writer (Miguel de Cervantes, 240): Russia: 2 + 4/turn, Brazil: 23 + 1/turn, Greece 10 + 1/turn
Artist (Michelangelo, 240): Russia 182 + 4/turn, Brazil: 23 + 1/turn, Greece 10 + 1/turn

I'm in a good position for claiming Genghis Khan, who will be very useful when I fight the Greeks (hopefully with muskets).


Research and boosts

Tech	Cost remaining (* if without boost)	Boost	Turns until boost
Shipbuilding	27	2 galleys	3
Military Tactics	300*	Kill with spear	Never
Education	324*	Great Scientist	Never
Stirrups	195	Already boosted
Military Engineering	110	Already boosted
Castles	195	6 policy slot government	15?
Cartography	270	2 harbours	6
Mass Production	270	Already boosted
Banking	270	Guilds civic	20
Gunpowder	270	Armoury	15
Printing	270	2 universities	30?

Finished recently: Sailing, Astrology, Celestial Navigation, Construction

All coming along nicely here, with all the nearby boosts lined up. I need to focus more on the scientific side of things though: more campuses, libraries and universities to really get my science rate going, otherwise I'll get left behind by the other continent.

Civic	Cost remaining (* if without boost)	Boost	Turns until boost
Naval Tradition	200*	Kill with quadrireme	Never?
Civil Service	22	Size 10 city	7
Medieval Faires	4	Already boosted
Guilds	192.5	Already boosted
Divine Right	290*	2 temples	Never?
Exploration	200	2 caravels	10
Humanism	540*	Great Artist	Never
Diplomatic Service	540*	Alliance	Never
Reformed Church	200	Already boosted

Finished recently: Mercenaries.

Not going as well as I had thought 10 turns ago. In particular, I'm really having to scrape to find places to put culture before the boost to Civil Service comes in. Once that narrow point is past though, there's plenty to be getting on with, though the route through the renaissance civics is pretty expensive as the boosts are inaccessible.

Currently no plans to go after a second holy site and two temples: there are just higher priorities than saving that amount of , given that it would also delay reaching the next tier of governments by about 20 turns.


Strategic Planning

• Expansion coming to fruition, with a new city planted and more just around the corner.
  
• Naval production is just getting underway, and will accelerate pretty fast.
  
• Finance is the best point of my civilization. I've successfully doubled income again in 10 turns. Not going to be so exponential for the next little while, but it's pretty awesome right now so that's OK.
  
• Scouting is going pretty well, I'm about ready to get dotmapping.
  
• Chariots are built and will be ready to become knights.
  
• Catapults are now in production, ready for upgrade to bombards for the boost to Siege Tactics.
  
• I really need more builders again.
  

[rho21]

As I write this, I've just played turn 104.

Turn 101

Score tracking
Greece founded Corinth on the coast near Cap Bon, where their settler was standing last turn. They immediately bought an empty grassland tile, the one they were going to settle on. I'm not really sure why, perhaps they were worried Cap Bon would claim it culturally and their hoplite would be stuck behind my lines.

On the other continent, Brazil discovered a tech (24), Russia both a tech (20) and a civic (15).


Military
A barbarian spearman has appeared next to my archer. I guess there is indeed a camp on the last fogged tile on this peninsula. My legion could finish off the scout, but there's no real need, and it would just slow it down by 2 turns in dealing with the spear. The archer retreats in the hope of drawing the spear closer to the legion.


Housekeeping
When is my friendship with Greece due to expire? T107, I believe, which is rather soon. Not ideal timing, as we're pretty even right now in military technology (I imagine I have machinery over them, but that won't last). In 9 turns I will have my own great general and the option of knights, and 10 turns after that I should be just about hitting muskets. So if Greece offers another friendship I could refuse and expect to attack before too long, or accept and expect to be well ahead by the time it's up for renewal again. But that might end up splitting my forces if I need to fight the other continent before I can finish off Greece. Still, a Grecian war will be essentially all land forces while the other continent can be met entirely navally.

I suspect a further friendship would be to my advantage, but I'm wondering whether absorbing the Greeks quickly would be better just to get the advantage of snowballing sooner.

Even so, scouting with a chariot and warrior behind Greek lines seems a little foolhardy when they might be ambushed and destroyed and will need to head home and be upgraded before they are of use in a fight. Oh well, can't get them home right now. On the plus side, I will have shipbuilding before the friendship is up so they should be able to escape via the sea.

The city is founded at C1 and named Drepana. In thanks for those suggested defeats (should keep me going for most of the game), CMF is officially named Cladifex Maximus, high priest of the Defeatists.

Drepana places its harbour (121) and starts work on a galley. No baths placed as there's no good location: they would have to go on one of the city's best tiles. It has fresh water and will be fine without them. There's a missionary present, but the city has 8 incoming pressure so should convert very soon. Instead the missionary heads south as it will be more useful when I place a city further from my core shortly.

Carrhae built my first galley. It sets off to explore the small island just to the NE. Sadly it looks pretty dull, just a flatland plains and a grass forest hill, plus a couple of fish. Doubtful utility but might have strategic value.

Carrhae also places its harbour this turn (204) and starts another galley. I reckon I'm going to want about 6 galleys in total then nothing but quadriremes for as long as possible.

With all the harbours (for the time being) now placed, I switch in Medieval Faires, to finish this turn. There's no more room to put into Civil Service without wastage.

I notice the oppportunity to finish Beth Horon's settler at the end of this turn instead of next by doing a little micro.

With the south mapped barring a few tiles in the tundra, a settler finishing next turn and two more due in the next 8 turns, it's time to finish my dotmap and prioritise settling sites. Here are a bunch of shots in strategic view with the unavailable areas marked. I plan to get these dotmapped today; suggestions would be welcome from anyone who wants to play along at home.

The south east, near Azteca.

The south, with the borders of Mohenjo-Daro visible at the top.
It's worth noting here that the water visible in the south centre is ocean, not lake.

The south west, with previous putative city sites already marked.

The remaining core city sites that haven't yet been settled, C2 and C4. Not marking the unavailable areas here as they'd make the map difficult to read.

And one potential city site on the Greek border with up to 6 wheat! What a site for a watermill.

[rho21]

Turn 102

Score tracking
Brazil finished a civic (19).


Military
The Greek settler south of Athens is heading for a rather inferior city site just to the east of the great one, from the looks of it. Oh well.

My galley exploring on the east coast can see more coast across a narrow but deep strait. No sign of borders or anything, could be an unclaimed island. The count of city states is a little low so I'm hopeful there are a couple to find out in the ocean.

Meanwhile my scouting warrior in the far north can finally see Greece's third city, Pharsalos. It has walls and an archer and is in an excellent location.

Down in the southern tundra, support from the legion means the barbarian spear can be safely shot at by my archer. It takes 37 damage from the attack.


Housekeeping
Medieval Faires is done. I'm going to get Exploration just short of halfway next. Nothing to change in the government right now.

Beth Horon has finished its settler and starts a builder as I'm rapidly running out of builder labour. The settler heads south for now as it will either be going to C4 or one of the sites I'm dotmapping further south.

Cap Bon puts a turn into the harbour to avoid finishing a galley before a chop can go into it.

[rho21]

Time for some dotmapping.

Before I start, I should point out that I have seen 5 types of luxury resource on this continent, of which I have sources of 4. The fifth type is furs, so I definitely want to lay claim to one of those before too long.

The South West

I'm going to move C6 1 tile SW. This is away from fresh water but it has a good spot for the baths, and anyway I have Mohenjo-Daro's free fresh water to fall back on. More importantly it frees up a desert hill for production, and allows another to be handed over to Lake Trasimene, to become an excellent tile if I get Petra. The floodplains move further away, but that's not a big problem as Trasimene has one of them already and can just hand them over as needed.

The C7 area to the south east of that is a little trickier. There are two essential plans: either one very strong city on the site marked C7b, or two weaker cities, on C7a and four tiles to the SW of it, we'll call it C7c.
The former gives a lovely city, very defensible from naval attack, but needing a harbour before it can make ships. It claims the furs in first ring but leaves the gypsum to the east difficult to reach with any city.
The latter gives a coastal city that's rather lacking in land tiles, and so would be very short of production. Instead it has all the food tiles in the vicinity. C7a is a pretty solid city though, especially once it's claimed the resources in its second ring (which won't take long as Rome, of course).

Overall, I don't see any point in opting for the two cities. I'm going to have enough trouble finding the production for settlers to fill up the land. No need to squeeze extra cities in, as good as the free Roman monuments are. Moreover, the sum of the two cities looks weaker than the one, even if I do have to buy a tile and drop a harbour on it to get C7b to its full potential.

The next site lies SE of there, in the river delta region. There are several options, all reasonable but none of them particularly appealing. I'll designate this area C8 and come back for a precise location once I know where cities are fitting in the south.


The South

That gulf that leads out to the antarctic ocean looks extremely tempting for a naval production city. The best spot looks to be just NE of the inlet, especially as (spoilers for turn 104) there's a nitre 1E of it that will be appearing shortly. It's only real weakness is a lack of food (and not even anywhere to place a farming triangle). I'll call that C9.

There are three other points of interest in the area: the iron by Mohenjo-Daro, the furs by the big lake and the 3-mountain adjacency site for a campus to the north.

I see two options for the furs: either a city 1SW of them, or one on the floodplain 2N. The former is the better overall city, but the latter claims the campus location and provides better options for C8. It does make it trickier to place another city in the east near the iron though.

I think my preference here is the floodplain city (I'll call it C10), with C8 situated just south of the river join for lots of hills but a non-coastal location. I'll label C11 on the only valid tile left to the east, but it's definitely a filler.


The South East

There are only two really good city sites over this way. C12 lies at the mouth of the river, 1NW of where the barbarian spear is in this screenshot. The other is C13, at the mouth of the river off to the NE of there. Both provide reasonable food and plenty of production and will make good naval production cities.

I also anticipate founding a city later on at the tip of the tundra peninsula to harvest the copper for and the forests and deer for ships. I'll call it C14.

Lastly, I'll designate the city with 6 wheat on the Greek border C15. That's not a city I'll consider founding while the Greeks are alive.


Planning
I have one settler out right now, and 2 due shortly. The current one I'm going to send to C4 as it's an strong site with a good campus location to fill in before long. The next one to finish is in Azteca and will claim C13. The final one is in Cannae; I expect to send it to either C7 or C10, either of which will give me a source of furs.

That then leaves me with 6 more sites I want to claim as soon as possible. I'll have to see where I can find to churn out some more settlers.