[Spoiler] Suboptimal Goes on a Pseudorandom Walk

[suboptimal]

Turn 150

Hmmm...Turn 150. I should be preparing some sort of update but RL is currently in the way of that. Maybe if Saturday is slow I’ll get one out then. If not, here’s to Turn 200.
Open the save to a pile of notifications:




Available ranged attacks, Victor established in Threefry, lost two chariots and a horseman. That weather event? Meet Hurricane Artistun, a Category 5 headed North-West:




My scout is up in the corner, hiding behind my progress in Ballistics. I’m still suzerain of Antananarivo and have three envoys in reserve. I’ll pick up another two envoys in two turns. Over by the city-state my scout and artist continue making their way around the shores. Chaucer makes his way southeast and discovers that Sun Dogs is an island:




He continues east and finds the outer rings of Bomb Cyclone.

Outside of the battle front Hypatia the Sneaky has returned to Acorn. I place her on Counterspy duty on the Acropolis. That will help protect the Acropolis, City Center, Campus and Commercial Hub from any interference from Pindicator’s spy if he decides to try any missions in the city. Periphery done, here’s the scene of battle:




Over at LFSR the crossbow and city attack are directed at the courser. Run the numbers, order of attack doesn’t matter in this instance, city goes first and I do 46 points of damage. The crossbowman also earns a promotion, I’ll likely take the +10 while in a district one next turn.

With Victor established at Threefry I can move El Cid to LinCon. As long as my units stay on defense at Threefry they’ll be +5 to CS and it won’t matter what era they’re from. Triple-A moves out of the city, El Cid moves in and transports over, Triple-A returns to the city. The two knights down there are now +5 CS. The closer knight moves to the amber, the second moves up to flank and I start the attack. The courser dies and 22 goes into Humanism.

Back at Threefry the crossbow and city center turn their attention to the wounded Cuirassier to the east. The musket’s defense against ranged attacks is presently 70 while the cuirassier’s is only 65. While lining up the crossbow I see it: the Garrison Commander promotion works on offense as well as defense within the city limits:




Nice. Crossbow first, city second and that unit is under 50hp. It’ll most likely promote next turn but hey, more for my crossbow who is one attack shy of a promotion itself. I have a knight on flanking duty at Threefry so I bring that one south to the niter. That should keep Pindicator from pillaging it long enough for me to deal with his cuirassier.

Turn just about complete I remember that there was a sounder for a new barbarian camp. Where is it? There isn’t one, or if there was someone else killed it before my turn started.

Ballistics in three turns. Next turn I pick up three two cultural Great People. I thought it was three but didn’t see that the first Musician costs 420.

[suboptimal]

Turn 151

Open the save to one knight at Threefry being killed off by field cannon fire and LFSR’s other lumbermill getting pillaged. Hurricane Artistun is on the move and is now located southeast of Ha Long Bay, approximately 5 tiles east of Ground Blizzard. The notification indicates that the storm is now moving west. Should be interesting to see what happens there. Scout continues up the coast, as does the artist. One of them is going to cut across the peninsula that they are navigating while the other goes up and around. Southeast of Jerusalem Mr. Chaucer disembarks in the desert southwest of Bomb Cyclone and finds a wonder:




As can be seen above, I’ve got some Great People to claim. I recruit Li Bai, who appears in LinCon, and Andrei Rublev, who also appears in LinCon and earns me the inspiration for Humanism and an envoy at Bandar Brunei. I immediately send Li Bai to Mersenne Twister, where he will start creating great works next turn. Andrei hangs out for a little bit until I decide what I’m going to do with El Cid.

Here’s the battlefield as it stands:




Pindicator’s bombard seems to be beating a retreat back to the Encampment at Ralakesh. His cuirassier has also retreated to the east. At LFSR I was going to promote the crossbow but the city attack and the crossbow would be able to kill the injured courser, so they do so.

Down at LinCon I move the musket adjacent to the cuirassier and then move El Cid up as well. This lets me advance the crossbowman out of LinCon and fire off a shot for 12 points of damage. I then bring the knights east and effectively seal off passage to the west for the time being:




Up at Threefry I’ve got another decision to make. Pindicator has moved a warak’aq up to occupy the hex due east of Threefry. The crossbow there can one-shot it. The alternative is to fire two shots at the cuirassier to its east, which would redline it but not kill it and likely result in a promotion. I attack the warak’aq with the crossbow, doing 90 points of damage. The city attack finishes it off, though I get no culture for the kill. I also reposition the archer behind the southernmost knight for more support bonuses and bring the warrior down into the Encampment.

Back at LinCon I use Andrei Rublev to create a great work for the palace’s slot.




He’ll go off and start scouting somewhere for a bit until I can get a museum built somewhere.

In a convenient happenstance the inspiration for Humanism has brought the time to completion down to two turns, so that’s synched up with Ballistics. That means I can complete Humanism, upgrade my units and then use Exploration to change governments and policies while saving Naval Tradition for the next time around.

While looking at some stats I see that Woden’s milpower has spiked considerably – he’s now top dog with 1049 milpower to my 928 and Pindicator’s former 875.

[suboptimal]

Turn 152

My trepidation about opening the saves has been lessening as each turn goes by, since Pindicator seems to have stalled out a bit. The retreat of the bombard is a further sign that he might be starting to mount a withdrawl after hitting a few units and improvements. I’ll need to stay on my toes, though, as Woden’s increase in milpower and probable upgrades are indicative that he may be thinking of doing something. Let’s face the stark truth – I’m probably the weakest civ in the game and whoever eats me probably wins. Pindicator tried and failed, Woden might be thinking it’s his turn after going through my lands. However, I do maintain a slight tech edge on him and need to maintain that as long as possible, though with his science rate having moved to the top of the pack that will be difficult.

It’s another round of notifications at the start of the turn. Hurrican Artistun has dissipated, Petra is complete, my warrior at LFSR was attacked (and nearly killed) and Amani is established in LFSR. Pindicator is indeed withdrawing:




I move some units around elsewhere on the map and Li Bai creates Drinking Alone by Moonlight at Mersenne Twister. Units at Threefry hold their positions, though I do take the opportunity to upgrade the crossbow there. Acorn’s project is complete and I resume the crossbow. That will finish next turn and then I’ll get out a builder. I change Ballistics to Castles, then I’ll finish Mass Production to reveal coal. At LFSR I do want to ensure there’s a retreat so I move two knights over to the city. El Cid moves to LinCon and rebases to LFSR to help out the crossbow. Pindicator has put the bombard in range so the city center and crossbow both shoot at it, doing a combined 72 points of damage. As for the warrior, it embarks onto the reef to get out of the way. Up at Mixmax I shuffle units back towards the city as Pindicator has brought forward a field cannon, presumably to one shot a couple of obsolete units before seeking peace.

There’s a chance that Pindicator makes a go for the city though if he does so I’ll be able to kill that bombard before the walls are dropped completely. If he promotes next turn I’ll be able to remove all the damage and I’ll switch over to Ballistics. If he shoots next turn he damages the walls and then loses the unit.

He’s also feeling a bit of war weariness. Before he declared only Arakaali had an amenity issue. Now:




I have three war weariness, it’s all at Acorn.

I finish out the turn by directing Xorshift and Mixmax to stop their projects and (re)start their university builds. Threefry queues up a market after its pike & shot and LinCon queues up its unfinished workshop to start next turn (after its pike & shot). I may spit out a couple of projects at those two cities to grab Bi Sheng. I’d use him to get a Commercial Hub down at LinCon.

[suboptimal]

Turn 153

Humanism, Castles, Threefry → LinCon trade route and pike & shot at LinCon all complete. Pindicator pot-shotted my horseman at Mixmax but that will get out of sight this turn.

The big question of the turn is do I want to do a policy change now or later? Doing so now will let me upgrade with the completion of Ballistics next turn. However, is that something I want to do now knowing that it will further drain my income and gold on hand? Yes, I think so, if only because it will deter Pindicator from thinking twice about his retreat and perhaps give Woden some pause if he’s up to something. I change policies, dropping Retainers and Feudal Contract for Professional Army and Retinues. I’ll upgrade next turn with the completion of Exploration and then swap those out for Republican Legacy and Caravansaries.

Speaking of Caravansaries, where to send that trader? Looking at the trade list I see just the ticket: Xorshift to Ground Blizzard for 12 per turn. Once Mercantilism completes that’ll go up to 16 per turn. Trader relocates and I’ll start the trade route next turn.

What’s the scene at the front? Well,




Pindicator is still there but he’s moved out of range of any of my ranged attacks. Yeah, I think this invasion is over. If it isn’t the appearance of a few cuirassiers and field cannon next turn might put the nail in that coffin. I do take the opportunity to promote the crossbow in LFSR, taking the Garrison promotion. The redlined warrior disembarks down on my quarry.

Select Ballistics and Exploration to finish them next turn, then on to Mercantilism and Mass Production. Li Bai creates his second great work, In The Mountains on a Summer Day, in Mersenne Twister. I then see that my extra envoy at Bandar Brunei caused the city-state to grab the forested plains hill I had my eye on. :gripe: Oh well. The builder will stay put there as I think I’ll get a settler built at LinCon for the wheat fields by Auckland. I’ll probably also build a second settler for any coal that pops up that I can’t currently get to. Next turn LFSR will stop its Commercial Hub project and start work on a bank.

Over in Persia Chaucer finds another two wonders:




The scout continues up around the north, checking out a potential sea passage, while Murasaki disembarks to cross the isthsmus towards the Panthalassic Ocean:




I also had a bit of a whackadoo idea. Acorn can build Chicken Pizza in 18 turns. It currently possesses 6 rainforest tiles, all but one of which are being worked. That would be +12 and +6 on top of another +12 from rainforest lumbermills after Mercantilism completes.

[suboptimal]

Turn 154

Ballistics, Exploration and a pike and shot at Threefry are all complete. The battlefield remains mostly unchanged:




The challenge for me here is going to be to get Pindicator to withdraw his troops, rather than just parking them there. First things first, I’ve got 961 to spend on upgrades. Crossbow to Field Cannon is 155, Knight to Cuirassier is 115. Hmm...my calculations were off slightly. No matter. I upgrade three crossbows. The upgrades also get me the inspiration for Scorched Earth. That leaves me enough gold for four knight upgrades. I decide to upgrade the knight on the amber at LinCon and the two front-line knights at Threefry. I’ll hold off on the remaining upgrade and see that upgrading knights to cuirassiers requires no iron. Interesting.

After upgrades and shuffling:




The plan here will be to move the LinCon and southern Threefry field cannon into position next turn to threaten and possibly attack the cuirassier located on the jungle hill 3W of LFSR’s city center. If I can dislodge or kill one or both of the cuirassiers that’ll make going after the field cannon easier. There are also two more things that could make this easier – making a corps with El Cid and getting Jeanne d’Arc in 5 turns (unless Woden pulls off another massive GG project run). I’ll need to ponder the former as to whether that’s better invested in a cuirassier or a field cannon.

My situation is a bit critical – I’m down to +2.1 per turn. Time to make some changes. I change governments to Merchant Republic and set up my policies as follows:




I want to keep Professional Army around for a little bit so that if I see a use for a fourth knight upgrade I can take it. Set the policies, is up to +12.2 per turn, send the trader to Ground Blizzard for another 16.3 per turn. I set science to Mass Production, though I need to complete Military Tactics first. On civics I have a choice – Mercantilism or The Enlightenment first. Mercantilism gets camps another 11 - that affects the two camps at Acorn and the camp at Mersenne Twister. It also unlocks Triangular Trade, getting me another 6 per turn from trade routes. The Enlightenment unlocks the Rationalism, Free Market and Liberalism policies. The first two used to be good until they split the bonuses to be 50% in cities with 10 or more population and 50% to districts with +3 or better adjacency. The question becomes how much are these worth? Right now, 7.5 and/or 4. That would increase as banks and universities get built but all my districts except those at Acorn would be getting only the 50% bonus. I go with Mercantilism first.

Over in Persia Woden appears to be blocking (or sending the message) that Chaucer should not head east. That’s fine, I bring him back west. I transfer Andre Rublev to Xorshift and will send him across the seas to keep track of what Woden is doing on his coast, just in case. To the north the scout moves west and finds a land blockage. It’ll disembark to cross it next turn. Murasaki follows on land – I’m going to continue to defog this peninsula then head back towards Ground Blizzard.

[suboptimal]

Turn 155

Let’s see what, if anything, Pindicator has done in response to my upgrades:




He’s pulled back across the river. Good. I can’t shoot at any units from my current position as everything is out of range. I could advance the field cannon, one to the aqueduct and one to the floodplain just east of Threefry. They’d be able to shoot at the nearest cuirassier, inflicting about 52 points of damage on average rolls. I do swap the southern field cannon and southeastern cuirassier. That’ll threaten the Incan cuirassier with violence and further encourage a retreat. If he doesn’t move next turn (and doesn’t offer peace) I’ll move up and give some encouragement in the form of damage. The cuirassier and field cannon at LinCon also move northeast, the former next to the pillaged lumbermills and the latter onto the amber. El Cid remains at LFSR. So long as I have eligible units there I’ll leave him there to help out the troops.

Acorn’s builder has completed and it starts heading east. I’ll keep it out of view until peace is declared (if that occurs). It starts another builder, 3 turns to complete. I’ll use that builder for some lumbermills on the unimproved jungle tiles. I also “return” both of the northern lumbermills to Mixmax, which takes 12 turns off the production of that city’s university. I’ll probably hold the builder for a turn while Mercantilism completes, slot Serfdom, complete the second and spit out a third before The Enlightenment completes, then get Serfdom back out. Most of those charges would get spent on jungle lumbermills – two at Xorshift, two at Mixmax, five at Acorn, two at Threefry and a few at LFSR. Threefry also needs a farm as it can’t support 6 population

Elsewhere, Andrei Rublev starts heading for the Persian coast. Chaucer probes the Persian borders a little bit and finds nothing interesting. The units in the far north also see nothing of note.

LFSR switches over from Campus Research Grants to a bank. LinCon will finish its workshop next turn and then I’ll run a 4-turn project for some Great Engineer points, build a Serfdom builder for LFSR and then decide if I want a second spy or an art museum next. I also need to decide if I want a Harbor in Xorshift. That’d get me another trader after building the lighthouse but I’d spend two turns getting the necessary techs.

[suboptimal]

Turn 156

This is the first opportunity for Pindicator to seek peace after his invasion went slightly awry (from his perspective, anyway). I open the save and do find a deal notification waiting for me – white peace. Military Tactics is complete and I’ve lost suzerainty of Bologna. First, Pindicator’s force disposition:




Everybody going home. Good. Next up, the peace screen. Nothing major, white peace, I take it. However, he’s now got a stranded a pike & shot in my territory NW of LFSR. Whoops (on both our parts, I suppose) Now, Bologna…




Interesting. Woden showed up with some envoys. This will be a tough one to crack since he’s pulling in culture and envoys at ridiculous rates. I do, however, drop two envoys in to reclaim suzerainty, leaving me three in reserve.

At Threefry I decide that I’m going to keep Triple-A around. He did some good with healing one of the knights that was being attacked and that ability is worth more to me than the eureka for Siege Tactics. I relocate him to Acorn so the builder can make its way through. I shuffle a few units around to get them balanced out between Threefry, Acorn and LinCon and start moving the catapults towards Xorshift. If there’s a naval attack coming and I have the cash I’ll upgrade them to bombards as siege class units do full damage to naval and embarked units (IIRC).

Rublev finds a bit of a surprise in the Pacific:




That could cause a problem for my trader in a few turns’ time.

Over in Persia curiosity gets the better of me. I send Chaucer back to where my poking around was implied to be unwelcome. The units there seem to have cleared out so let’s see if they return. Woden’s horseman northeast of Antananarivo, presumably looking for my units which are well to the northwest. My scout finds an interesting situation:




Based on the support bonuses these are the only two Persian units up here. Depending on what that pike & shot decides to do I might lose the scout. Murasaki continues west, finding lots of open space. (Missing screenshot, sorry) Quite frankly, if I had that type of land and that much space I probably would have settled that as soon as it became clear that the world was effectively bifurcated.

LinCon’s workshop is complete. Due to overflow the builder would complete in two turns. I’ll put one turn (plus the overflow) into a spy, leaving it with 6 turns to go, then complete the builder. I also shift two citizens around, moving them from the 14 tiles to the horse (33roduction) and the 41 wheat. That cuts the time to grow from 28 turns to 8 turns while only costing me 4 per turn. Once I start the builder I may continue to swap citizens to farms to get another population into LinCon. That population will disappear a little later on as I think I’ll build a settler before getting the spy out. Its destination would either be the salt and wheat by Auckland or the high-adjacency campus location NE of LFSR. In the latter case I’d actually put the stone second ring instead of first ring to take advantage of the rice. The culture from the population would grab the Campus location in 9 turns or so, which is enough time for me to build some walls. I’ll have to ponder this further as the builder is completed.

[suboptimal]

Turn 157

Went to open the game like I usually do (right click the Steam icon, click Sid Meier’s Civilization VI on the menu) and it told me the game could not be found. I was able to start it by going into the client, finding my games and starting it from there. There have been no changes to my computer or to the steam client as far as I can tell. Odd.

The only notification on opening the save is a tornado outbreak located northeast of Bomb Cyclone, right where I’m sending Chaucer. He can’t be injured so he should be fine. Maybe he’ll see the Wicked Witch of the West. I move northeast and…




Glad it’s not mine. Further north, my scout lives to see another day. Unfortunately the camp has spawned a skirmisher. This may still not turn out well. Murasaki moves southwest and finds the eastern borders of a former Arabian city. How do I know it’s a former Arabian city? No name appears in the tool tip:




This goes back to whatever happened when these cities were founded – only Istanbul showed up with a name on the various screens. That also means that my city count for Woden is off by two on the low side.

Closer to home it looks like Pindicator has decided to set up a “defensive” front:




That’s all well and good but I’ll still try to get things done while the enforced peace is here and see what he does. The builder at Threefry begins moving out to the pillaged improvements. Acorn stops its builder and starts a Bank. A trader has also finished its route so I decide to engage in a bit of...fair play. I send it to Tukohama Reborn for 11011. The route will go via Ralakesh and will defog Abberath for me.

Rublev wound up back in Xorshift so let’s try that again. He heads west over the open sea. Mersenne Twister has completed its monument and starts a granary. That will resolve its housing issue for the time being. Shift the catapults westwards, switch LinCon over to a builder build from the spy and call it a turn.

I will note that I maintain suzerainty of Bologna even though I’m not getting any benefit from it right now. I’m also maintaining suzerainty over Antananarivo. Wonder if Woden is out of envoys?

Hit end turn and I hear the skirmisher attack followed by a bell tolling. I think my scout just died.

[suboptimal]

Turn 158

Open the save and confirm the scout is dead. I do see that Woden’s killed off the camp. The tornado outbreak in Persia has left the Encampment completely pillaged but at full garrison defense:




I would have figured the defense values would have been dropped to zero. Odd.

Mercantilism is complete, camps get a boost and jungles can get lumbermills. Time for a policy change. Triangular Trade fills in the spot of the now-obsolete Caravansaries. I also pull Professional Army and put in Serfdom. Acorn puts its builder back at the front of the queue and I put a second one in there as well. I start The Enlightenment.

In Persia Chaucer moves to the coast – I’ll embark next turn and put him out in the ocean as a picket. Murasaki continues probing the borders to the north. Rublev advances and sees that the coast is clear (for the time being) for the trader. At home the catapults continue their movement towards Xorshift. Woden’s horseman is back from exploring the Atlantic Ocean and is at the coast south of LFSR. I move the warrior and chariot to his available disembarkation points. That should keep him from making a second pass through my land and scouting things out. I remain concerned of his milpower given my position in this game.

Threefry’s market completes next turn and I’ll build another trader to send to...Tukohama Reborn. I think I’m definitely going to go with a settler out of LinCon once its builder is complete.

Hit end turn and a new camp has spawned….somewhere.

[suboptimal]

Turn 159

Should be a quiet turn as not much appears to be going on. Open the save to notifications that I’m not the suzerain of Bologna, there’s a new barbarian camp in town and I can create a new trade route. Oh, there’s a Great Person waiting for me as well. Looking at Bologna, Woden has raised his envoy count to 6, matching mine. At this point in time there’s no sense in putting in envoys even though I have three in reserve – I wouldn’t get the Great Person point bonus. That will change in two turns once the current set of World Congress resolutions expire.

Despite the notification saying that the barbarians were close, they aren’t:




They’re way up next to Brussels and therefore not my problem.

Now, about that Great Person…




I now have a Great General for my modern units. She appears in Acorn’s city center and I relocate her to Threefry. I am now at the maximum 30% bonus from Antananarivo.
I also see that Pindicator has fully retreated into the fog around Ralakesh:




Once LinCon finishes its spy I’ll need to get it up there to keep an eye on things.

Having completed its market I start a trader at Threefry. I’ll send that one to Yerevan – that will get me a road to Mixmax and a reasonable amount of per turn. The builder repairs the lumbermill now and will repair the road next turn. Acorn has a 5-charge builder out, the next one is due out in two turns. It immediately sets out to start putting down lumbermills on all the jungles.

Out in the Pacific, Rublev is approached by a barbarian caravel. I head southwest and find no surprises. I expect that my trader will get pillaged at some point and that I’ll need to build another. If I had a navy I’d take care of the caravel, but alas. Chaucer embarks near Ground Blizzard and Murasaki finds the center of Drought, along with Aelthelflaed. Based on city defense values Woden’s strongest unit is likely musketmen.

I queue up a settler and a spy at LinCon to be built after the builder completes next turn.