Suboptimal IV: Indonesian Insanity

[Cornflakes]

I recommend you don’t take the promotion yet. The promotion can be invaluable if you get in a situation with a barb camp eruption sending multiple units and need emergency 50HP healing at a critical moment. Just spend the time healing now when it isn’t critical. It’s not like the warrior needs to be anywhere in a hurry right now.

EDIT: also that’s another quick and easy 2 era points that you needed with that new barb camp spawn, plus 50

[suboptimal]

Turn 25


Wish I was a lurking Cornflakes
Floatin’ in my bowl making comments,
Relaxin’ a while, postin’ in style
Talkin’ to a player who ocassionally makes mistakes
Casually glancing at his reports





Swap the sugar over here, buy the Yosemite plains and start Sailing. We're first in culture, science, gold and faith output (or should be - I'll reconfirm next turn). I’ll spend a turn putting production into a builder at Punky’s then swap over to a galley since Sailing will complete next turn at the higher science rate. Looks like Alhazard settled a city last turn but his empire score of 14 seems to indicate that both cities are population 1 (!).

Of some concern:




It isn’t anywhere it can do harm yet, but somewhere to the southwest there’s a naval barbarian camp. Warrior by the spearman up north fortifies in place for the time being. Out east I move back towards the barbarian camp and see that the warrior from Nan Madol is also moving towards it. That’s ok, it’ll be nice to have some help (unless, of course, the AI gets next to the camp and just fortifies…).

[Cornflakes]

Beware of capturing the barb camp, and then getting hit by the barb Quad + freshly spawned warrior. This seems really early for barb quads to be spawning.

[suboptimal]

Turn 26

I thought Sailing would be in but it’s got one more turn to go. That’s OK. The barbarian quadrireme has disappeared into the fog. I’ll need to keep that ship in mind when I start chopping out galleys. Up in the north the warrior continues to heal. No further sign of activity. In the west I cross the river to begin moving on the other camp. Next turn I’ll have visibility on it and can start attacking the turn after that. The good news is that this camp is on flat & open terrain, so things should go a little faster here.

Internationally Woden has settled a city. Based on the empire scores it looks like the capital is worth 6 points and subsequent cities are 5 points under R&F – I’ve got 15 empire points with two cities and 4 pop. That means that Alhazard is at 3 total pop instead of 2. Archduke, notably, has not settled his second city so his settler is still on the move. Archduke remains listed ahead of me in culture but that may be due to his total culture generation as he’s the only one with a domestic tourist. Wonder if he found a continental boundary for the Foreign Trade boost, since that would show up in the tourist figures? Intriguingly Macedonia remains below us in the domination scoring, with Civ 6 (not CQUI) showing us at 31 milpower.

[suboptimal]

Turn 27

Sailing completes, start Shipbuilding. Builder in Sound of Silence is also complete. I start another builder there and start a galley in Punky’s. I’ll chop that out when Foreign Trade completes for Turn 30 – the earlier chop doesn’t mess up anything on overflow (as we’re putting production into a second galley at that point) , gets the first galley out five turns earlier and the second (and subsequent builder) out a turn earlier. That will tell us if we’re first to a ship and hopefully get us three era points. Sound of Silence will also grab the western Yosemite tile in two turns – that’ll open up some more continuous visibility along the coast. I expect the scientific coast tile would be the next for expansion.

Builder at the capital starts to head for Punky’s. It’ll be in position to chop its first forest on Turn 30. Out east the warrior enters the fur hills and gets sights on the camp. No units are out yet so I’ll start the attack there next turn. In the east I hold off – I’ll complete that attack next turn as the warrior will have enough damage points to take the camp and sustain a quadrireme attack, though I don’t think the quad is up here.

Internationally Alhazard gained a population, Archduke still hasn’t settled and he and Rowain remain at one city.

[suboptimal]

Turn 28

I realized that I’ve made a bit of a mistake in my exeuction. The first builder at the capital should be making improvements there, not heading to Punky’s. Nice to pay attention. Fortunately it’s a only a one turn delay and the change in yield output doesn’t mess anything up too badly at the capital. We also appear to have enough era points available that the third point from the galley does not appear to be “critical”. (Famous last words). I’ll need to work dumb cows for one turn to make up for the slight loss of food.

Get the save opened up and the quadrireme is back out of the fog, just west of the sugar. Nothing is new at either barbarian camp. Time to get to work. Builder pastures genius cows, which nets the and the eureka for Horseback Riding. Warrior up north whacks the spearman netting me 50, the Military Tradition inspiration, 3 era points and also reveals a fish 2W of the dyes. Out east the warrior attacks the barbarian camp, takes 27 damage, gives 38 damage.

Punky’s second population is in and the city starts working the GFH to the southeast. Of course, that’ll be the first plot on the chopping block once the builder gets there.

Archduke settled his second city but only appears to have 2 population. Woden has gained a population while Alhazard and Rowain remain steady. Woden also jumped from last to second in military power (Civ 6 milpower) leaving us in last for the time being.

[suboptimal]

Turn 29

Open the save, Foreign Trade has completed – that extra 0.3 from population in Punky’s got it done! Start Mysticism, due in 7. Barbarian quadrireme has disappeared into the fog again. Up north I move the warrior to the dyes to defog the coast a little bit – I want to be able to get a better view up here in order to determine if there’s a worthwhile coastal city location. Besides, if the scout shows up that’s the Bronze Working eureka. The initial move finds crabs 2NW of the dyes.




Settling on the dyes might not be a bad idea – every coast tile within the site’s first and second ring is Kampung eligible. The bananas would be second ring and there's a +3 location for a Campus (forest SW of dyes)

Builder at Sound of Silence moves to the lake. Pearls will get fishing boats next turn and I’ll start to get a wider look to the south and southwest. In the east I attack the camp again. That takes the spearman down to under 30 with my warrior at 47. I’ll probably heal a turn or two before finishing the job because it’s time for a policy change. Discpline comes out, Maritime Industries is in, Urban Planning stays put.

Looking at the scores, Alhazard, Woden and Archduke gained an era point (pantheon, perhaps?) and a point of population. We’re the first to two civics and four techs. Alhazard is sandbagging techs (only 1 tech complete) or going straight to Shipbuilding the hard way. We remain first in all categories except milpower, where we are last (for now). That will change in 8 turns when the first galley is out.

[Cornflakes]

I like Dye settle a lot. Coastal for the +2, Immediate luxury connection, housing won’t be a problem with Kampungs (aqueduct site eventually if desired). It should pick up Banana quick, and after working Banana for a bit it can be harvested along with that jungle for some nice faith yield. In fact with Magnus in place the banana + jungle faith harvest will more than pay back the cost of a builder.

It’s also 6+ turns of movement closer to Punky than the eastern site and would not require any additional military to defend. Might make sense as a 3rd city location. Maybe hold off on the eastern site until you have more advanced military to defend, or your galleys circle the continent and identify our neighbor(s)?

Have you thought about whether you want to make a serious Puramids play? Because that will factor into decisions for city order.

[suboptimal]

Turn 30

Open the save, notifications are quiet, no sign of barbarians except in the east. My warrior there holds and heals for a turn – it should be able to kill the spear and take the camp next turn (or the turn after that). It’s a bit of a race between the scout finding Nan Madol and returning and me killing the camp.

Warrior in the north moves onto the grassland hill, defogs some plain coast. At the capital the builder puts fishing boats on the pearls, which gives us a nice empire-wide amenity boost for the time being. The movement also reveals more of the tundra to the south and west:




Both tundra forests are coastal, with ocean visible to the south of the southern one. The western one has some water visible on its southwestern edge along with cliffs. That might mean the forest west of Yosemite is an island. The tundra 2SE of the pearls is riverside and I’m guessing the river empties into the sea just into the fog in that direction.

Cornflakes, I’m not very enamored with the Pyramids idea. Yes, the extra builder charge for the rest of the game would be a good thing to have. However, I think from a longer term perspective the production that would go into the pyramids is probably better invested into a Campus or Encampment (or both) and some land military to secure the east and to defend Nan Madol.

Given the military situation if the east coast is a bad idea then the capital’s second settler can go to either the desert mountain location close to the core or the river location midway between the capital and the east coast and then we can faith purchase a settler under Monumentality to settle the east coast location. We can get Liang established in the second capital location, buy a builder or two and then move/establish her somewhere else while the faith builds for the next builder purchase.

As I see it the early Classical Age priorities will be finding the other players, getting 2 Campus and an Encampment built (for the inspirations, some extra defense and more science), founding a religion and more firmly establishing our land and sea defenses. At some point (late Classical?) I’d like to consider getting some Shrines built at Sound and Punky's for extra faith generation for later naval purchases. With Indonesia’s faith purchasing ability we’ll want to expand faith generation over time (in addition to chops, as those are finite) and I think religious buildings might be helpful in that regard.

[suboptimal]

Turn 31

No notifications but the quadrireme has shown up to the west of Yosemite. I have a feeling that the barbarian camp is down that way and the AI’s pathfinding/scouting routines are “stuck”. Internationally, Rowain has gotten 3 era points.

Up north I move onto the hill on the “corner” of the coastline and find another fish adjacent to the eastern one (W-NW of the sugar that’s up there). The forest plot W of that sugar is looking like another good coastal spot. In the east the combat predictor says I’ve got a minor victory on my hands, so I go ahead and attack. The spearman is at 1hp. I know this because it’s -10 to strength. My warrior is at 26 damage but has a promotion available. I’ll sit tight for a turn or two then take the camp out. Over at the capital the builder comes ashore on the Yosemite plains:




OK, that spit of land to the west is not an island and we’ve found the barbarian camp. The good news is that since the camp is naval it won’t send out land units. The bad news is that it will spawn quadriremes and, eventually, caravels. It’s also within 5 tiles of the capital so it’s worth 3 era points for when I do get around to clearing it out.

Hit end turn and Woden’s met another city state.