[Spoiler] Suboptimal Goes on a Pseudorandom Walk

[suboptimal]

Turn 174

So far no preemptive war declaration from Woden. Niccolo Machiavelli is ready to be recruited. He appears in LinCon and immediately heads west. Pindicator will likely get the next one. In other GP news Woden will be getting a Great General in four turns. That wouldn’t be ideal. After running the numbers I switch Acorn to an Encampment project. That will get me exactly 240 points and hopefully the Great General. The next one should then cost 545 points. It delays the Workshop two turns. Speaking of Acorn, the IZ is generating 6 Great Engineer points by itself.

Mustketman moves towards the barbarian camp but I won’t see anything until next turn due to line of sight issues. Settler disembarks at the wheat 3NE of Mersenne Twister and picks up its warrior escort. There are no hostile units in the area (yet). Auckland has mined the coal but is not giving me any (and it doesn’t show up in the city-state suzerain bonuses. I’ll see if that changes next turn.

Out at sea I’ve lost track of the northern caravel. The southern one has remained in place. Chaucer moves first, moving NW a couple of tiles and then generally north on the assumption he’s defogging the northern ocean. He finds the frigate roughly due west of its position near Rublev last turn. I start inching the westernmost cuirassiers towards Persia. Move one a tile west, move the other a tile west. They see nothing. Jeanne d’Arc makes a beeline for open ocean due west. I do the snapshot plot again on the southern frigate, bringing up one of the coastal units to fill the gap. The other one goes due west. I send Rublev northwest. Bi Sheng moves due west and finds nothing in the south. At the end of all that the Pacific Ocean looks like this:




The spit of land with the bananas on the right edge of the picture is west of Bologna. Here’s where things are with respect to Persia:




The catch will be moving the cuirassiers around Ha Long Bay so that they do not get seen by the galley/admiral combination that’s been hanging around there. I don’t mind having one unit get spotted as that “is only a scout” . In fact I might have one unit go through there in order to draw any pickets away from the desert coast. As of right now the easternmost cuirassier (the one next to the frigate) will take 6 turns to get to the LZ and disembark.

As can also be seen the Persian city hasn’t been planted yet. Looking at Woden’s cities a new city’s garrison strength would be 45. I could theoretically take the city in one turn with only three cuirassiers and hold onto it. They’d be able to heal up by the time the other units arrived and formed up and it would let me bring Triple-A over to join the party. Of course, Woden might put the new city in a location that can be shelled by his frigates but I’d only want the city as a temporary post anyways.

This continue to evolves into a strictly pillaging raid but if I can do enough damage it might cripple Woden for a little while (and, done properly, fill my coffers). I’ll only send the bombards over if he attacks Xorshift with the frigates.

In gossip news, Woden has built another settler and finished Urbanization and Military Science. That latter one could be a complication once he gets his gold generation up. He’s also adopted Force Modernization so I’m expecting a few upgrades sooner or later. Could make things...interesting. Pindicator has finished a Military Academy in Ralakesh.

[suboptimal]

Turn 175

I’m starting to get that sense of pre-save-opening dread & excitement. Each passing turn moves me closer to getting my plan in motion or having it all fall apart rapidly. I open the save to see that was has been declared but I’m a bit confused – Pindicator has declared war on Yerevan and has worn down the city defenses pretty badly:




Under the terms of engagement one wasn’t supposed to declare on a city-state without declaring on its suzerain. Elsewhere I do see that Auckland is now providing me coal at a rate of 3 per turn.

In locations that are not the Pacific Ocean a lumbermill goes down at Xorshift and LinCon has finished a settler. The city will regrow to 8 population next turn at which point I’ll harvest the northern wheat. I shuffle some citizens for extra production since I only need 3.7 to grow. The city is starting its own factory while the settler heads off for the nearby coal resource. That city will found in three more turns, as will the location near Auckland. I complete my shore battery by upgrading my remaining catapult.

Out in the Pacific, Woden has moved his southern frigate out of visibility. His northern one has come south a little bit – not in the sight range of anything...important …but he might not be defogging anymore. I bring Bi Sheng westwards and slightly north to see if I can relocate that frigate and am unable to do so. I then move Chaucer westwards past the frigate and find Gaius Duilius four hexes WSW of the frigate. The closest cuirassier moves due west, straight towards Ha Long Bay and finds no naval units present. The other western cuirassier comes NW, right in behind the trader. The other part of the southern contingent moves due west. I decide to send one unit around the frigate to the north and the other around to the south. As for Jeanne d’Arc I move her west and south. The unit positions are now:




The lead unit will disembark in three turns at Antananarivo – that will let me check Ha Long Bay for ships. The southwestern unit can also disembark in three turns, anywhere from Antananarivo up to the southern edge of the desert. The middle two will be disembark in four turns and the last two in five. Matthias establshes in Micro Burst in two turns and that will give me some visibility as to what’s going on there.

One odd tidbit that I had either forgotten about or wasn’t aware of:




Great Generals provide extra movement while embarked. Huh.

Check the gossip, see that Woden has completed Ballistics and Exploration and just promoted two field cannon – one to Garrison and one to Volley. Since he just finished ballistics and has little cash on hand I’m assuming those are both crossbow upgrades.

[suboptimal]

OK....so I was correct in remembering the rule regarding city-states.  No declaring war on them unless you declared on the suzerain.  On T174 there was no suzerain in power at Yerevan as Pindicator and Woden both had three envoys.  On T175 Woden still had three envoys and Pindicator was at war with the city-state and at peace with Woden.  Since the only way Pin should be attacking Yerevan is if Woden took suzerainty and then Pin declared on him, either something is amiss or something really weird is afoot.  I also see the lurkers' thread has come alive, at least, for what passes as alive.  I'll see if Pindicator shows up in the tech thread before or after his next turn.

[suboptimal]

Turn 176

Looks like Pindicator may have been confused about city-state mechanics. I’m also guessing that he’s taken Yerevan. That’s fine as the city-state was doing no good. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t looking at Pindicator and Woden going on a city-state rampage, particularly since two of them are effectively keeping me in the game right now.

Get the save loaded, Woden has declared war. He’s also booted me from Antananarivo with envoys, I’ll get to that in a bit. Pindicator wants an embassy. I decline and reoffer him setting me up first. Nationalism didn’t complete because I lost suzerainty. Check the screen, I need to get to ten envoys to tie Woden. That will take my remaining three envoys so I put them in there and send Amani back to the city-state. Getting them to declare peace with envoys nets me two era points. Interestingly Amani will only take one turn to establish:




Nice.

I’ll take care of non-ocean based stuff first. LinCon has regrown to size 8 so the builder harvests the northern wheat. That gets the city to population 9 and in a production-heavy configuration. Settlers move out, Triple-A goes to sleep in Xorshift. The trader based at Xorshift is available for a new route, it goes to...Tokuhama Reborn….via Ralakesh because of pre-existing roads. Eh, it’s worth the gold. Musketman starts attacking the barbarian encampment. It’ll take a couple of turns and I’ll need to use the promotion to heal at some point. Bi Sheng and Machiavelli start defogging and scouting the southern Pacific. Time for the main event:




Looks like he spotted Jeanne d’Arc and three cuirassiers and decided that he didn’t want to deal with a Distributed Denial of Service attack. I could be looking at losing two cuirassiers this turn if I don’t move to a spot where he can’t locate me. The good news is that the caravel is a melee attack so that’s a little easier to avoid. I also notice before moving that he’s settled two cities, Fog and Sleet:




Chaucer moves west and uncovers the Great Admiral. I at least know one spot where not to end my turn. Rublev likewise moves west and finds clear ocean. The northernmost unit goes due west, trailing Rublev. One cuirassier moves to the area just NW of Ha Long Bay and finds open ocean. Another winds up at the SE and is also in the clear, as does a third. Jeanne d’Arc follows. Now, what to do about the trailers? If I go west I’ll likely be pursued (if he finds me) and those units will get killed when they try to disembark. If I go east I might be able to get his frigates into a position where he exhausts his movement in range of the shore batteries. However, that leaves me with only four units to raid with. Even if he finds my westbound units with something closer to his shores I’ve caught his frigates out of position. Moving east also means he can’t find me with the frigates and attack in the same turn. I decide to retreat those two units eastwards and I cross my fingers that he’ll pursue. I just need one turn of pursuit by the frigates to get the other units onto land and then inland relatively safely.

With the jig up for the time being I debate working on either Rifling→ Steel or Steam Power. I remain with Steam Power on the off chance I can kill both his frigates. I do make one other move in anticipation of frigates showing up at Xorshift – I swap Victor and Reyna’s positions, placing the former in Xorshift. He should establish around the time Woden’s frigates might arrive. That’ll give the bombards and city garrison an extra +5 combat strength and the city will have two ranged attacks.

Next turn Acorn’s Encampment project will have completed. That should give me enough GGP to snag Ana Nzinga away from Woden – barring projects he’ll have 236 next turn and I’ll have 240. Unless, of course, there’s a rounding error somewhere.

Also next turn I get a second good look at Micro Burst. That should give me a read on the land-based situation at Persia.

[suboptimal]

Turn 177

A bit of an unintentional delay, but we’re back on track. Didn’t mind the break since I was out late last night. Coulda made the end of the window but wasn’t really in the mood for a turn. However, that did give time for the Yerevan situation to resolve itself. I’m not sure, though, if Woden will come out with three envoys or six. The little voice in my head thinks that envoy counts for non-aggressors are preserved when a city-state is captured and the liberation bonus is applied on top of that. Guess we’ll find out whenever the gift & liberate is done.

Anyhow, back to the game at hand where I’ve succeeded in being the target of both of the game’s war declarations. The start of turn notifications aren’t as plentiful as last turn’s, but there are a few. The action button in the lower left also shows that I’ve got a Great General waiting for me. One cuirassier has been killed and another attacked more on that later. Pindicator has accepted my embassy request so I’ll wait for him to resend his before accepting. Amani established at Antananarivo so I’m back as suzerain and Woden is now at war with them (and his Amani has been booted). Lastly, Nationalism has completed so I have a governor promotion and a policy change coming up. What to do first?




Ana Nzinga appears at Acorn. Up next is Gustavus Adolphus and I’m now regretting my decision. His retirement produces a bombard with promotion level. That would have been handier than the envoy but them’s the breaks. Of course, I was expecting an Industrial Era general but failed to remember that the game era hasn’t rolled yet (that’s in a few more turns). For the time being I keep her in Acorn.

Next up is the policy change. Taking out Rationalism for Professional Army was an impact of about 15. I put it back in and raise my output up to a bit over 144. I also start Civil Engineering, 5 turns to go on that. Part of my output is due to Mixmax finishing its arena and resuming its Campus Research Project.

Acorn and Xorshift have finished their builds. Acorn resumes its workshop, two turns to go there. At Xorshift I do something a bit...unconventional and start a privateer build. That’ll take 19 turns (for now). Next turn all of my cities except Xorshift will receive a 3 boost as Threefry’s factory will complete.

On land the settlers move in preparation for settlement next turn. The builder at LinCon has three charges. I send it towards the Atlantic Ocean. Those three charges will come in handy at the city being founded out by Auckland, especially if I have to chop out walls instead of putting down a lumbermill. The musket at the barbarian camp fortifies and will heal for a turn or two before resuming its attack. While surveying my land units I see that Murasaki has been returned to LFSR. With no art museums yet I send her overland to the east.

Out in the oceans here’s the eastern part of the theater:

(whoops, no screenshot of that). Thought I got one. Woden killed the southern cuirassier. The northern one wasn’t attacked but Woden did chase it. I move eastwards towards the coast and the safety of my shore batteries.

While my focus is at Xorshift I go back to land units and give Victor the Embrasure promotion. If Woden comes into range after Victor establishes I’ll get two shots at him with the city. I’ve also just realized that military engineers can remove features. Xorshift has a couple of jungles I could harvest. The engineer moves into the jungle to its west. I won’t chop this one in case I want to put in Chicken Pizza. The one to the southwest, though, is a goner. I move Triple-A out of the city to the northern bombard’s position and bring Ana Nzinga over. I’ll try sending her across the ocean as well because why not?

In the western part of the theater a frigate has shown up:




That’s where the injury notification came from. A bit further west Matthias has established in Micro Burst:




I might have some guests for my landing party. Given the slow overland movement I think I’m going to try to land between Sleet and Fog. It will take the ground units longer to get there. He’s also got a great general in the area:




That’s probably in the fog at...Fog . Since the highlighted cuirassier can come ashore and the crossbow doesn’t provide much of a threat, I disembark, revealing Gaius at the same time (NE of the fish). He’ll know I’m there but his crossbow is in a bad spot – advance and it dies, general notwithstanding. Chaucer and Rublev check the coast to the northeast and find nothing. The unwounded by the frigate head for shore next to my disembarked unit and Jeanne d’ Arc also makes tracks in that direction. The wounded one takes a more southern path, cutting across Ha Long Bay for Antananarivo’s coast. The northern cuirassier heads for land north of Fog.

Matthias starts a Listening Post mission of his own. I’m contemplating sending a spy to Antananarivo to run a Fabricate Scandal mission, but I think I’d prefer to do that with a promoted spy (better success chance). That also assumes that Woden’s bombards aren’t en route to Antananarivo. Of course, they’re going to have a bit of a time getting into the city despite the AI. The city has Renaissance Walls (300 damage) and a garrison strength of 80. That will take a while for the bombards and with units on the ground I should be able to protect the city if need be.

Unit positions on the Persian coast at the end of the turn:




I think once I get the IZ’s built out I’m going to go on a unit binge. I may get a spy out at LinCon before the power plant, but once the plants are all done it’s going to be field cannon and cuirassiers all around, with a sprinkling of cavalry and musketmen as resources permit. Mixmax will finish its project and slow build a musketman, I think. LFSR is almost done with its bank and I think will work on its unfinished projects.

[Cornflakes]

I'm almost certain all envoys are destroyed when a city state is captured. Woden should just have 3 after the liberation.

[suboptimal]

I'm almost certain all envoys are destroyed when a city state is captured. Woden should just have 3 after the liberation.

Thanks for that.  .  I did some looking around this morning and found out that he'll probably have 6 after the liberation.  The number of liberation envoys appears to increase with game era - 3 for pre-Renaissance, 6 for Renaissance/Industrial and 9 for post-Industrial liberation.

[suboptimal]

Turn 178

Open the save to find all of my cuirassiers, save one (the northern one), dead. Well, that operation is now over but that was to be expected. He’s even gotten the one off the coast of Xorshift. Clear those notifications out along with a notification that I have buildings that need to be powered, and check out the volcanic eruption. Uwinas has blown its top causing light damage and fertilizing three tiles. That’s the same volcano that blew up and gave Pindicator the impetus to request aid. Right, so first, a screenshot of the Persian coast:




There are two Great Generals around – one in the fog south of Fog and the visible one at Micro Burst (Gustavus Adolphus). Here’s what I don’t get about the situation:




That’s for the cuirassier on the coast. It’s an industrial era unit and it’s getting +5 from the great general in the fog, as is the musket (renaissance) and the crossbow (medieval). Woden has recruited the following Great Generals:

- Boudica (classical & medieval units)
- Sun Tzu (classical & medieval units)
- Aethelflaed (medieval & renaissance units)
- Gustavus Adolphus (renaissance & industrial units)

However, Gustavus is too far away (seven tiles, to be precise) to help the cuirassier. Either there’s something funny going on (that I don’t know about) or there’s a bug. I don’t get it. Speaking of Generals, Napoleon is up next. That would be a useful one to get. It does look like Woden may take a crack at Antananarivo. I’ll wait and see there.

So, what to do here? Well, I’ll let Woden clear out the Great People so that they all go home “safely”. My northern cuirassier goes northwest. I’m going to get up to the channel and then disembark. The unit is useless up here but will die quicker if I don’t get it on land. At least on land I have a fighting chance of getting a little pillaging in. Rublev will head east but the others stay put.

South of the fracas Bi Sheng checks out the island I saw southeast of Persia earlier in my explorations. A nice round 7-tile island with fresh water.




It’d make a good settling spot but completely vulnerable to frigate attacks. Bi Sheng continues his movement southeast to the ice pack for the slow trip home.

With the “invasion” pretty much over I switch techs to Astrology. I’m going to complete that and Celestial Navigation and place a Harbor at Philox for an eventual trade route.

Back on land my two settlers found their cities:






Philox nets me an era point for settling on a volcano. That volcanic soil tile will be farmed (after I complete Civil Engineering) to make it a 33 tile. That’ll get me a nice blend of growth and production, especially with the coal making the city center a 24 tile. The city starts a monument (9 turns). Xoroshiro starts off at 4 populations (Hic Sunt Dracones). I place a Commercial Hub at the marked location and start the city working on it. I also buy the salt tile (140) and “start” walls (select them in production then put down the district). That puts the wall graphic on the map. The builder is going to chop the woods into ancient walls, overflow the rest into the district and then mine the salt. The builder that was NE of LinCon is heading over here to take care of follow-up improvements.

Back at Xorshift I relocate Ana Nzinga to LFSR and put Triple-A back into the city center. The military engineer moves to the jungle it will be chopping next turn. Machiavelli moves NW and finds the Persian frigate three off the coast.




I’m not sure that Woden has seen the short battery yet. It’s a shame I don’t have an observation balloon or I’d be able to give his frigate some what-for.

Threefry’s factory completing nets the surrounding cities 3. Acorn is down since last turn, though, as it has gone into Displeased status. Connecting salt in a few turns should help that out, as should its workshop completing next turn. That city sits at 62.7, followed by LinCon at 56.7 and Threefry at 39.9 . Threefry starts its coal plant and that’ll be done in 8 turns.

Over at the barbarian camp it has spawned another skirmisher. My musketman is fortified and will continue healing for the time being.

So, with my stab at attempting to do something rather than idly passing turns by and waiting for something to happen to me the question needs to be asked – was it worth it? From a military power or production/resource standpoint, likely not. Lost 5 cuirassiers, eventually will probably lose the sixth, along with the investments in those units. From a game perspective I think it was worth it. If anything it might show my opponents that I’m a bit foolish (duh, read my prior misadventures and you would have known that) or desperate but it might also show that I’m not about to just sit here and go through the motions. I’m going to take a stab at making something happen, no matter the risks involved, despite my last place status. I’m also in a position to rebuild before the DoF so that should keep Pindicator at bay. My milpower is going to tank down to the high 600’s next turn but a policy change and a bunch of field cannon and other units will get that up relatively quickly.

Perhaps more important that either of those, however, it probably from a player perspective – my own. CMF’s post-vacation “what now?” inquiry along with the relative focus of attempting some sort of operation, no matter how ridiculous, put me back into a “game state” and got me trying to pay attention to the fine details again.

So, what now? Immediate term is to get the IZ’s built out and get a bunch of field cannon and modern units built. That’ll keep Pindicator off my back when the DoF runs out and should deter Woden from attempting an amphibious assault of his own. Short to intermediate term I’m going to have the peripheral cities work on projects and try to go vertical as I work my way through the tech tree after Steel. I’m going to have Xorshift drip out privateers. If I can stash a few somewhere and then bring them back to my territory for submarine upgrades while Woden is still using frigates I might be able to reduce his naval power a bit. Hey, gotta try something. Longer term, well, Chicken Pizza is still an option once my units are built. After that I’ll try to wend my way to Flight (observation balloons and aerodromes) and then on to the space race (or the nuclear race). I need to get LinCon to 10 population for an eventual aerodrome and Threefry to 7 population, also for an aerodrome. I don’t know that I’ll be able to get Acorn to 16 population given it has maxed out its food. However, that’s where Bi Sheng comes into play. He’s going to wander the world until it comes time to put down a Spaceport and then I’ll retire him at Acorn.

Looking around the map I’ve noticed something that might dictate how the later game plays out. Both myself and Pindicator have created a couple of production-heavy cities. I’ve got Acorn and LinCon with Threefry a reasonable third. Pindicator has lumbermilled the entire forest west of Tokuhama Reborn and has good production capabilities at The Brine King and Gruthkul. Woden has three Industrial Zones: +2 Bomb Cyclone, +4 at Micro Burst and +3 at La Nina, all with workshops (and he’s working a specialist at La Nina). Here’s the thing, though. From what I can see his maximum yield from worked tiles is 24 at Micro Burst, with La Nina right around there as well. Threefry, which is my lowest producing “production city” is generating 26 from citizen yields with no specialists. The longer this game goes on and the further he gets into the tech tree I think he’s going to have a problem. Yes, he can always upgrade existing units. However, if he has to build new units that cannot be upgraded (e.g. aircraft) or build new districts it’s going to slow him down. He’s also in a bad spot if he starts to lose his units – his time to replace is going to be much lower than my own. For instance, Acorn right now can build field cannon or cuirassiers (330) in 6 turns with no policies. That’s cut to 4 turns with the appropriate policy. La Nina and Micro Burst would take twice as long. Woden’s empire size and cultural generation are a big problem. His science rate is lagging and if he can be put into a position where he starts losing units he could be in trouble. The question, then, is how to go about causing that?

[suboptimal]

Turn 179

Two turns until the era flips to the Industrial. The DoF with Pindicator has 21 turns. Acorn’s workshop is complete, the factory at LinCon has two turns to go. Astrology is in, Celestial Navigation completes next turn. Curiously my traders are able to embark without having that tech.

Acorn was going to start its factory but given the time constraints and time to build units it starts on field cannon. Civil Engineering will complete in three turns and I’ll swap out something to get the build policy in place.

There’s a bit of a pileup at Xorshift as I start the turn with four Great People there. Machiavelli goes to LinCon, Chaucer goes to Philox and Jeanne d’Arc goes to Threefry. The military engineer chops out the rainforest for 53. That brings the city up to 5 population and adds two more production to the yields. The privateer is down to 13 turns. Since I’ve now got two population working coast tiles (granted, 121 coast tiles) I decide to jump a builder in front of Acorn’s field cannon. That’ll be done in two turns and I can use it to put down two lumbermills at Xorshift. That’ll get the city’s food and production up a little bit. The military engineer will head elsewhere (not sure yet), possibly to put a road down at Philox to connect it to LinCon.

Rublev and the lone cuirassier are still left, plying the waters of the North Pacific. The former goes west, the latter east. In the South Pacific, Bi Sheng has been joined by a barbarian caravel. He heads west towards the strait southeast of Inversion Clouds and finds a crossbowman watching the inlet.

At Antananarivo I am not yet sure if Woden is getting positioned to take the city or standing firm.




He does look like he’s going to do some pillaging.

Over in the Auckland theater it looks like Woden has decided to shell the city-state, presumably to gain XP for his frigates.




He’s also pillaged the harbor and put the gold to use, upgrading his horsemen at Tornado to cavalry. I’ve brought Murasaki into the area to act as a picket in case Woden sends some units down.

At Philox I thought I would need to wait for Civil Engineering in order to put a farm down on the plains hill with the volcanic soil. Guess what? You don’t need the tech:




Looks like volcanic soil overrides that requirement. The farm goes down. At Xoroshiro the builder heads NW. I’ll cross the river into the forest next turn and chop out walls the turn after that. My other builder embarks into the Atlantic to make the crossing.

[suboptimal]

Turn 180

Last turn of the Renaissance Era. I’ve earned the eureka for Economics (bank in LFSR completed) and Celestial Navigation is complete. My remaining cuirassier has been sniffed out by a frigate and Woden has nullified my suzerainty of Auckland. Harbor goes down at Philox. I contemplate locking in a Harbor at Xorshift but do not do so yet. Despite the loss of five cuirassiers my milpower remains above 900.

Military engineer heads towards Philox. Despite the poor return on I may use it to put 20% of the production cost (34.6) into the Harbor rather than putting a road down.

Looking around I’ve got a potential problem at Xoroshiro:




Two cavalry, a musketman and a battering ram. That city is probably a goner, though Woden is set up to take out Auckland. If he moves on Auckland I’ll be able to chop walls first. If he doesn’t then the city is a loss. I’ve already moved the builder to the woods in this shot. If he targets Auckland I’ll be able to chop out woods next turn, at which point I’ll move Victor into the city for added defense and might be able to hold it. The builder I embarked last turn stops its journey and disembarks into Philox. I’ll figure out what to do with it next turn as continuing to Xoroshiro is too risky right now.

At LFSR I start a granary. I’ll finish that, build a water mill and that will get population growth moving again, at least to get another district spot there. Over at the barbarian camp the musket is healed up enough to resume the attack. One more round should clear the camp.

Woden is moving on Antananarivo:




The good news is that I believe the AI will target siege weapons that are in range so Woden may lose one or both of them. It will take the bombards a looooong time to get those walls down. If the AI goes after ranged units first his field cannon is likely toast. It does look like the city has attacked his cuirassier, so that’s a positive sign.

In looking at my policies I think I may take out both generating policies. That’ll cut my income by 25 per turn. However, I’ll move Rationalism to an economic slot and put in Craftsmen and Grande Armee. That will give me +4 at Threefry and Acorn and +3 at LinCon due to adjacency as well as get units out faster. Between that policy and the competion of the power plant those three cities will be at or over 60 production. I may get aggressive with the unit building and also pull Conscription – that’s currently woth 17 per turn but doing so would also let me run Chivalry so I could get out a mix of cuirassiers, cavalry, field cannon and a musket or two.