[Spoiler] Suboptimal Goes on a Pseudorandom Walk

[suboptimal]

Turn 34

Writing completes, start Bronze Working. Switch civics from Foreign Trade to State Workforce. I’ll switch back the turn before I hit 25. Not quite sure where the Incan scout went, even after sending the newly completed slinger south to look. The warrior and builder both head east – if I see no scout next turn I’ll send the builder NE and bring the warrior back south.

Northwestern warrior finds a dead-end:




Going to take a few more turns to get back home…however, it will still be just in time to escort a settler.

Up north my warrior has been met by a slinger/builder pair:




Using the mouseover tooltip I see that the borders belong to Abberath. I head west and will summit a jungle hill next turn to get a hopefully better look at the situation.

A bit of a dotmap:




The central city location has an Encampment marked two tiles north – putting that city down, along with the Encampment, would be a provocative settlement as the district would be just outside the loyalty range of Pindicator’s capital. The Kilimanjaro site is probably best suited for a fourth city. If I were to try to settle that first I run the risk of having Pindicator settle between LFSR and Kilimanjaro and that would not be good.

[suboptimal]

Turn 35

Open the save to find the Incan scout within my borders. That’s sort of good as it means the builder can head off on its own. I do so and bring the warrior back to the sheep. I send the slinger to the direct south, finding only tundra and hills. Up north I run into more mountains but also see an example of what I’ll be up against – Pindicator has put down a terrace farm:




Nice yield. This will be a problem longer term. Since he has no reservations about moving into borders I’ll do so next turn to see what’s going on in Incaland.

[suboptimal]

Turn 36

Four turn day! Woo-hoo! Makes up for the fact I could play a second because my internet connection got done in by severe thunderstorms that came through in the early evening.

Pindicator’s scout has disappeared into the fog; I am surmising it is 2W-1NW of LinCon as that’s the only place it could have gotten to and be out of the fog. Slinger tops the hill and sees




The barbarian camp is likely to the west. I’ll need to get my slinger back towards home and the help of the warrior. The warrior crosses the river and will be “on-site” next turn.

Up north, Pindicator has moved his slinger to block me from entering his territory. I’ll move south and then defog in the area of my Encampment marker.

The builder moves into LFSR’s borders. The monument there has two turns remaining. I’ll switch to a slinger build next turn and then back to the monument the turn after that. It will complete and I’ll chop the forest into a Campus on the now-cleared tile.

[suboptimal]

Turn 37

Open the save. Switch from a monument to slinger at LFSR for a turn, see that Pindictor has likely completed a monument of his own. Builder enters LFSR, northern warriors continue their respective treks. In the south the barbarian warrior did me the favor of moving to the southeast, leaving the slinger’s escape route wide open. I bring the slinger north and the warrior southwest:




I’d like to get the barbarian warrior into a position where I can attack it with both units and have the slinger get the kill for the Archery eureka. This might take a turn or two of finagling but I’ll be switching into Discipline in three turns, which should help matters.

Hit end turn and the barbarians attacked something (probably the warrior).

[suboptimal]

Turn 38

Open the save to my first disaster of the game:




It didn’t do anything, as far as I can tell. I also see that Pindicator increased his science by a bit (up to 10 per turn now). Based on the empire score he’s completed a Campus.

Northern warrior continues moving south to try to find a path to Incaland through the mountains. At LFSR the builder moves into position and the city restarts the monument. I’ll get two overflow plus the chop, giving me 31 into a 78 Campus.

In the south the barbarian warrior has attacked my own. I back up both of my units one tile – I’d like the warrior to attack my own again, then I’ll finish it off with a combined attack from my units. That should get me 10 and the Archery eureka.

Next turn I’ll need to change civics to finish Foreign Trade and get God King swapped out for Discipine, then go barbarian hunting. I’ll also be letting Baldrick out of the basement on Turn 40 in order to give a quick situation & strategy update.

Hit end turn, hear the barbarian attack my warrior again.

[suboptimal]

Turn 39

OK...got some things to do this turn. First off, the barbarian in the south.




Good. The warrior won’t kill it outright, so I attack. Slinger advances and gets the kill, I get 10 and the Archery eureka. With at 24.6 I queue up Foreign Trade to complete next turn. I’ll swap out God King for Discipline and go find that barbarian camp once the warrior heals up a bit. I’ll work State Workforce for one more turn then switch to Early Empire while the Campus completes. On to LFSR…

The monument has completed. As you can see in the above screenshot I’m in the slightly unusual position of having my culture generation outpace my science generation. Time to fix that. I chop the forest for 29, drop the Campus down on the clear tile and I’m 8 turns from having a +4 Campus. :woohoo: With the monument complete the city’s culture will grab the stone tile next turn. The builder’s last charge will be spent there on a quarry and the Masonry eureka. The city will gain a population in 6 turns and once the Campus completes I’ll probably build a couple of hoplites for the era points and some early defense.

Over at Kilimanjaro the returning warrior finds the Incan scout in the middle of the desert. I’m still on target to arrive for escort duty. Up north the warrior continues trudging through the fog to get around the mountain chain. .

[Banzailizard]

You said you want hopolites for era score, do you have a particular plan in terms of dark/normal/golden age?

[suboptimal]

My initial thinking as that I'll go for a normal age now, then go dark -> heroic. I don't know that I can avoid a normal age at this point in the game...

- Have 4 era points
- Campus will give me 3 era points
- City #3 is near floodplains, that's 1 era point
- Pantheon will be 1 era point
- That barbarian camp will be worth two era points
- If I meet Woden and/or Jester, that's one era point each
- Hoplite is worth 4 era points.

This is subject to change as I'm still settling into some sort of strategy. I'll flesh out this answer when I get my "T40 Strategy Update" out sometime tomorrow.

[suboptimal]

Turn 40

Foreign Trade completes, resume State Workforce for one turn. God King out, Discipline in. I have a notification of a tornado family in the southwest tundra. Time to pick a pantheon...the free builder pantheon is gone as is the +1 for pastures. God of the Forge and City Patron Goddess are both available, as it Divine Spark. Hmmm..decisions, decisions. City Patron Goddess would help me get some districts in faster, God of the Forge will help me get units built quicker. I take God of the Forge – with Agoge that will take some turns off military builds and give me more time for other builds.

In the south the warrior returns to the city center to heal. The slinger moves west one tile and sees a barbarian warrior directly north of the tornado:




I retreat back to my borders for the time being. If I get lucky the barbarian will get hit by the storm and weakened.

[suboptimal]

Musings

I’ve wound up in a bit of a food-poor start and scouting that has been...not ideal. Pindicator’s Incas to the north, Woden and Jester probably to the east. With respect to Pindicator I’m a bit behind – he’s got double the science rate right now, pantheon in-hand, more population and a higher population growth rate. My overall score is the lowest of the four, even if the era points are backed out, and I think this is tied directly to population growth as my empire score is currently the lowest.

Slightly bigger picture, I have to plan out this game assuming that Pindicator’s initial core position as unassailable. His second city is defended by two chokepoints and I expect to find the capital in a similar situation. Even if it isn’t, the amount of rough terrain between our territories is such that he’d see any attack coming. Therefore, I think initially my best offense is a good defense, particularly with me out in the open (and my...still questionable military skills ). My approach will be to build up a defensive army, get walls up and then try to get an economic engine going. If at some point in the future I can outpace him economically or militarily then perhaps I try to whittle down his outer cities.

In the game-at-large, I think right now it’s going to be Woden vs Pindicator with me attempting to to make a go at it from a distant 3rd position. Jester, in this game, is being slow to the draw with expansion (his late 2nd city evidence of this) and I think Woden may run him over at some point. If that occurs, Pindicator will need to decide if I’m better off as part of his civ or putting Woden in a 2v1 situation.

Next 30 Turns (or so)

Techs

Bronze Working will be completing shortly, then Masonry, most of Wheel and most of Archery. I will keep these one turn from eureka or completion as appropriate until I get the Government Plaza and the Encampment placed, at which point I’ll finish them off to increase the chop values.

Civics

Early Empire to completion, State Workforce to completion, then Policitical Philosophy, Drama & Poetry and Military Tradition. I’m going to try to arrange completions so that I can use State Workforce to enter Ilkum and either Early Empire or Military Tradition to leave Ilkum.

Expansion

City #3 will be settled around Turn 54. This will change if iron turns up in a reasonable spot to send the settler instead of the City #3 location. If iron is near Kilimanjaro then I may need to consider getting out another settler (likely from LFSR) relatively quickly in order to get the middle city site filled before the Incans show up. Iron appearing in the desert SE of Kilimanjaro is not a bad thing as I could settle on the plains hill E-SE of the wonder and still be in a reasonable spot. n that case I’d probably buy the 42 tile to speed growth and use the desert tiles for district builds.

Builds

LinCon: Finish the settler (5 turns) then get out a military unit (or most of one) before switching to a builder when State Workforce completes. After the builder & unit are complete build the Government Plaza and then a trader (for Bologna). I’d also like to get a hoplite to one turn from completion.

LFSR: Finish the Campus (6 turns) then build a late scout to send east. Finish the slinger, build a second one and also get a builder going with the latter being simultaneous to LinCon’s to get Ilkum used to full effect. I’d like to get another hoplite one turn from completion here as well.

City #3: Place the Encampment and upon founding then start walls (if Masonry is complete) or a warrior.

Ages

I have two options. The first is the dark Classical to heroic Medieval. That would require holding the hoplites at one turn from completion and not trying to meet anybody else until after Turn 60. The other option is to get a normal Classical, shoot for a dark Medieval and then a heroic Renaissance. In this case I’d complete the first hoplite before the era ticked over as that would guarantee me 12 era points.

Metagame

Make/keep myself an unpalatable target for an Incan invasion.