[Spoiler] Suboptimal Goes on a Pseudorandom Walk

[suboptimal]

Turn 24

Southern pair moves towards the city site. Northern warrior moves atop a hill and reveals a couple more jungle hills in the distance. In doing some fog-gazing it appears that the land north of the river does extend a bit further west than my starting area. I’m also contemplating how to fit a city in up here and whether or not I put a city here and then backfill the desert hill area:




The positive is that this area is relatively fertile and settling on the jungle W of the wheat would make for a good location – it has spots for a Campus and a Commercial Hub, several 22 tiles, room for a farm triangle and is likely just off the coast. Settling there, though, would rule out using anything between there and the capital as a backfill and forces the capital to purchase the amber as a third ring tile.

[suboptimal]

Turn 25

Craftsmanship is in, start Foreign Trade. Mining due in next turn. Move the settler up one hex and...




henceforth LFSR in the reporting. LFSR starts a monument, due in 15 turns but the micro says it’ll be done a little earlier than that due to population gain. This does make me the second to their second city as neither Woden or Jester have gotten theirs down yet.

Elsewhere I decide to spend 80 at Linear Congruential to purchase the amber tile. It’s cheap, gets the resource into my borders now and gives me options for getting a bit more generation if I feel I need to. I also see that the lost pop from the settler was pulled from the sheep. This is something I should have checked earlier. I didn’t lose any time now, just some extra overflow which will cost me 1 turn on the warrior build coming up.

In the northwest I send the warrior across the river to the deer tile. This doesn’t reveal anything immediately but I’ll go around the mountain in a westerly direction to keep track of the coast. The warrior at LFSR will start heading north next turn.

Before I hit end turn I take out Discipline and put in Agoge. I’ll be going warrior → slinger → slinger → settler at LinCon once the builder is out.

My plan remains to finish Writing before Bronze Working. LFSR will complete its monument on time and with working the amber at LinCon I’ll be generating just under 5 per turn. The Campus should complete around Turn 44, getting me the inspiration for State Workforce and 4. That should put me in good early shape. LinCon will be finishing its settler right around the time that Bronze Working completes. That will let me use the settler to either grab any iron that appears or settle in the river complex in the northwest.

[suboptimal]

Turn 26

Mining is done, start Writing. The bigger news is that we’ve found a neighbor, or rather, they’ve found us:




Pindicator is nearby. He hasn’t found any of my cities, yet. Let’s take a look at what he’s got:



He has no resources connected and his second city is named Abberath. For the time being he’ll be poking around, though I’ll need to keep an eye on his scout once the builder is out. I may hold that at one turn to get a warrior out for escort. Likewise, the eureka messes with the timing at LFSR a bit, but I’ll sort that out later. Just gotta remember to hold Writing at one turn.

Warrior in the northwest moves west, finds the outer ring of a volcano. Not just any volcano, but Kilimanjaro:




You can see the doubled yields and make out “T ARO” in the fog. That might mess with the dotmap a little bit. This also probably means that the land continues a bit further west and I might be on some sort of peninsula jutting south from the main land mass.

In the east the warrior heads north, not yet revealing anything new.

Woden and Jester are still both at one city.

[suboptimal]

Turn 27

Builder in the capital is at one turn. I swap over to a warrior, due in four turns thanks to Agoge. I don’t want to take a risk of having Pindicator engage in some early-game shenanigans and poach an unprotected builder. Having an escort is bolstered by the barbarian scout which, for the second time, has approached the borders of Linear Congruential and not triggered the Exclamation Point of Hah-Hah I See You ™. The downside of the wait is that the timing at LFSR is thrown off. I can use the delay to get out some more military or perhaps a late scout.




Northwestern warrior goes onto the hill to the west, making the discovery of Kilimanjaro official. There is an ivory resource NW of the wonder; the tile yields 431. That tile would be second ring from a reasonable city site.

Over in the northeast, the warrior moves to a flat jungle tile and reveals a mountain and a grassland hill. The hill should give me some more visibility next turn.

[suboptimal]

Turn 28

In the northwest the plan is to scout around Kilimanjaro and see if I turn up any Pervuian loyalty influence (or a city-state). In the northeast, defog. Three turns until the warrior is complete at LinCon and the builder will be out the turn after that. Of course, that’s fine and good until I open the save and see that guests are coming over for dinner….




Guess I took out Discipline a little too early, though if I play my cards right I could pick up the Archery eureka (a slinger is getting built after the warrior & builder). I do like the new notification, though.

Scouting warriors find nothing of note except more difficult terrain.

Internationally Woden has his second city down now. Pindicator is generating 6 per turn. I’ll need to catch up relatively quickly. I could get the builder (unescorted) to LFSR first before improvements at LinCon, provided the Incan scout continues eastwards.

[suboptimal]

Turn 29

Pindicator is skirting the northern border of LinCon and is now between my cities. Warrior in the northwest goes into the pass, finds more elephants and jungle, plus a probable city-state to the northwest of Kilimanjaro or Settlervision. The eastern warrior heads north.

[suboptimal]

Turn 30

Open the save to find that my visitors (Pindicator and the barbarian) have both retreated into the fog. The diplomatic ribbon is interesting in that it shows faith on hand, rather than faith per turn. I don’t know why they made that decision, but based upon Pindicator’s faith and gold rate the last few turns I can tell he’s not running God King (he’s making 5 per turn) and has an envoy in a religious city-state (faith increasing 2 per turn with an increase of 3 every once in a while).

Up near Kilimanjaro the warrior moves NW and discovers Bologna. Pindicator has beaten me here and the city-state wants a trade route. They also have resources:




I think my next city will go on the plains hill E-NE of Kilimanjaro – puts an ivory in the second ring and gets a couple of tiles from the wonder.

In the east I find what I was looking for…loyalty:




Pindicator is north of me and given the loyalty values I’m probably midway between his cities.

At home Linear Congruential gained a population, which has been assigned to the amber. I leave the population as-is. Until the amenity is hooked up pop growth will be slow and I’d rather have the culture at this point. With the barbarian retreating I may use the warrior to escort the builder up to LFSR to have it in place for a T38 chop of the forest for the Campus. I’ll then hold it there for the stone quarry before sending it over to the amber for a mine. I’ll figure out a point to get a second builder for farm duty at the capital. That goes a bit against “grow population early” but LFSR is the better city location right now.

[suboptimal]

Turn 31

The warrior at LinCon is complete. Pindicator’s scout appears to be circumnavigating my capital in a clockwise direction; I don’t know if he’s spotted LFSR’s borders yet. I resume the builder, which will complete next turn. I have time to pasture the sheep en route to LFSR and then do the woods chop on T39. I’ll get the monument to one turn from completion, start on a slinger and then complete the monument once the builder is in position for the chop.

Up at Bologna I send the warrior due west. It finds coast. I’m going to return towards LinCon by passing south of Kilimanjaro. That should have the warrior back in time to escort a settler or go barb hunting with a slinger or two.

In the north I send the warrior NE onto a jungle hill to try to get maximum visibility. I find a wall of mountains and a new continent (America). Settlervision shows I’m two tiles south of the third ring of an Incan city:




The diplomatic ribbon also shows that Pindicator has spent about 60 on his last turn; given that his milpower hasn’t increased and it’s still early I am assuming that it was a tile purchase.

In other international news, Jester has yet to get a second city down.

[suboptimal]

Turn 32

Builder is out at LinCon, I start a slinger. Incan scout has disappeared into the fog. Pindicator has added a unit, possibly an archer.

Northwestern warrior turns southeast, I’ll locate the coast and defog south of Kilimanjaro. Northern warrior moves to the grassland to its NE, I’ll top the hill and hopefully get a glimpse of Incaland next turn. Warrior and builder at the capital move to the sheep.

[suboptimal]

Turn 33

Pindicator’s scout has turned up at the southern border of LinCon. He’s also spent about 70 last turn and has 5 techs completed. LFSR has gained a population and is now working both 22 tiles in its first ring.

I pasture the sheep at LinCon, reducing the slinger build time to one turn. Warrior in the northwest finds that there is freshwater somewhere to the southwest of Kilimanjaro (interesting). Up north I get my first glimpse of Incan borders:




Writing due next turn, Foriegn Trade the turn after that. I may hold Foreign Trade at one turn and start State Workforce in order to have a policy swap available to me once the pantheon comes in – I’d like to get Discipline back in to go barbarian hunting in the south. If Pindicator continues moving clockwise around LinCon I’ll most likely send the builder to LFSR unescorted so that I can send two units southwards.

In other news, Jester finally has a settler out.