[SPOILER] - Suboptimal finds trees, still seeks forest

[suboptimal]

I saw that when it happened. It occurred in conjunction with a gold spend of about 150 or so. My first guess is 3x slinger -> archer. My second is 2x warrior -> swordsman, which more lines up with the spend and his income (~20 per turn). I didn't check where he is on the tech tree and should do that next turn.

Right now his best move is to watch me attempt to take out Pindicator while he builds away, so I don't know that he'll directly interfere unless Pin collapses.

Note for myself for later - I need to put a turn into Masonry in order to get it over the eureka completion threshold. If settling LARV doesn't stabilize the loyalty at Au Gratin I'll need to have the builder at Mashed put down the quarry first and buy the ram at Au Gratin that turn (or perhaps the turn after). Otherwise the city would rebel before I could buy the ram and that'd dent the campaign quite a bit.

[suboptimal]

Turn 54

One of these turns I’ll open up the save to find something unpleasant. This is not one of those turns, but it is not a positive development in the south. I’ll get there in a bit. Switch to Masonry to get a turn into it. Archers up north move around, the one east of Brussels locates a desert tile that is likely next to Uluru (22 on a flat desert). Units elsewhere make their moves and it’s off to the south:




So, my archer could, indeed, be shot by his archer, and has taken 69 damage, which is above average for where it was standing. I could shoot back but with two archers there I’d definitely lose Maris Piper to enemy fire and that’s no good. Pindicator’s milpower has also gone up by another 30 or so, so he’s likely got a third archer of his own out. I think without reinforcements ready I need to take a defensive position at my border and dare him to counterattack. The level 1 archer next to Maris Piper shoots the warrior in front of Maris Piper, killing it, and I move the latter NW back into my territory to get out of range of the archers and heal. The warrior heads northwest through the pass. I’ll have it go around the mountains to the west (north of Res Publica) and if it’s followed I’ll send the promoted one over to the sheep hill.

LARV will settle next turn. If that gets enough loyalty to Au Gratin to get the city to more than +2 I’ll be able to unslot Limitanei when Political Philosophy finishes. I’d like to get Agoge back and send down a second wave of archers. If I could get three or four and a warrior to approach Res Publica from the northwest that might put enough pressure on Pindicator to collapse him. The problem is that it’s a while off yet and puts off necessary infrastructure. Marshed might build an archer to speed that process along.

Unfortunately as long as this slog is going on the rest of the players will be pulling away from us. One other note – if I can’t get the rebellion under control at Au Gratin I’ll need to get my forces north of the city before it revolts so I’m not displaced into Pindicator. If revolt does occur I think a razing is in order here.

I checked the tech tree – Alhambram is still even with us so no horses or swords from him yet. He has switched to Oligarchy and is now triple my rate. Pindicator finished a sixth tech but he’s not yet even with us, so it wasn’t Bronze Working or Masonry.

[suboptimal]

I think I have a formative "new plan". Let me know how bad it is :

- Hold the line at Au Gratin provided the LARV city being settled next turn alleviates enough of the loyalty issues to keep it from revolting any time soon.
- Switch to Horseback Riding next turn and finish the tech (8 turns at current rates)
- Dauphinoise finishes its current archer (EoT56) and builds 1 more (complete EoT60).
- LARV builds an archer, completing EoT64 with Agoge running
- Marshed builds an archer, completing EoT65 with Agoge running
- Marshed buys a horseman (320) the turn before the archer completes (during Turn 64 so it can move out during T65).
- All of the units head down the west side of the Lakshadweep Sea, arriving near Res Publica around Turn 70 or so.

Yes, he might have walls up by then but he's probably quite a bit out from getting Masonry at his current tech rate (13 turns with no quarry, 8 turns with a quarry). I'd start a beeline to Machinery once Horseback Riding was complete. If we can hold the line long enough to get crossbows that would turn the tide.

[suboptimal]

Turn 55

The turn starts with some unexpected notifications. First up, we’ve met Kumasi via land:




Alhambram has met them first and has one envoy there. They’d like the eureka for Sailing, which is mighty convenient. The other is that we’ve met Valletta via sea:




They’d like the eureka for Masonry, which is not as convenient as Sailing but still good. They have been met by Unmet Player, who has one envoy there. I have to wonder if that meeting was by land or by sea. There is also a notification that an archer at Au Gratin has been attacked, but I’ll get to that in a bit.

Northern units all move around. In the Atbarah River Valley I see what Alhambram spent his gold on:




I think he thinks he’s still playing Hungary because of the color scheme of Australia in this game. No matter. It’s time. I found the city of Fondant on the LARV pin, move the citizen to the marsh and start an archer. That gets me the Sailing eureka, an envoy at Kumasi and +2 per turn. I won’t know if that’s stabilized the loyalty situation at Au Gratin any. I probably have to wait for the numbers to recalculate during the interturn. Speaking of Au Gratin:




Pindicator has moved his archers up. He’s hit the archer next to the Australian warrior. I can shoot back but that archer would be dead. Time to reshuffle things a little bit here. I shuffle the archers around and get Maris Piper into the city proper to heal quicker. I’m now set up similar to how I invaded:




Any unit that Pindicator advances into sight range can be targeted by at least three archers, except for that tile SW of the diamonds. However, I’d still get first strike and be able to damage his unit first. Any help coming in via the jungle would get killed by the other three archers. Now I just need the loyalty to cooperate and this will work out. Based upon the loyalty numbers displayed on settlervision I should have gained about 2-3 loyalty. Two stems the tide, three actually stops it. Fondant will grow in 5 turns, further increasing loyalty pressure of the right type onto Au Gratin.

Ironically being on defense here is better than trying to punch through on offense. This terrain sucks for offensive operations as I’ve learned first hand.

Pindicator’s milpower is up to 162.

[Banzailizard]

Interesting choice for Alhambra to spend his gold on. It may be that he wants to help Pin but his own forces are too far away. Further 150 gold for 3 units is not an awful deal, especially when he can just keep working on domestic projects while he does it. Was it a good use overall? Not sure, guess we will find out soon enough. Right now their combined military is larger than yours too. You can only shoot so many units a turn.

His science and culture rate is rather scary either way. Some is coming from that cultural cs, the rest I am not sure about.

BTW who are the great people up for grabs right now?

[suboptimal]

Yeah, it's curious but we'll see how many units come wandering over. Levy costs in gold are equal to the production cost of the units involved. If he spent about 120 so that's three warriors. It could cause quite an issue for us.

There was a big jump in culture between turns 54 and 55. I have to wonder if he settled near a natural wonder that gave him a big culture boost (like, perhaps in the fog east of Uluru) - he jumped from 10 to 19 in a single turn.

I'll check the Great People. I do recall that the scientist is Hypatia and no one is generating Great General points last I checked. I'll include the info in the Turn 56 report.

[suboptimal]

Turn 56

Both governors have settled into their new abodes. The archer at Brussels moves out to the coast. I’ll be stuck for a turn or two while Politicial Philosophy finishes so that I can get two envoys into Kabul. If I get an easy quest for the third envoy I might be able to cancel Alhambram’s levy. The other archer I start bringing down towards Fondant, both as a possible attacking unit and to back up the warrior if Alhambram gets frisky with his rentals. The settler moves closer to Marshed and I’ve got one turn left on a builder (Mashed) and archer (Dauphinoise).

Looking southwards it appears that Alhambram is using the levied unit to scout. He’s crossed the river due west and seems to be heading for the Lakshadweep Sea. At Au Gratin we’re still at -2.7 loyalty per turn. At this rate we will likely lose the city unless the extra pop in Fondant in four turns is enough to stave off rebellion. He has moved his archers up, with one of them standing on the planted Encampment district. His warrior is continuing to pursue mine around the mountains. I move northeast to the sheep tile and next turn will move the unpromoted archer into position to shoot him as he rounds the bend.

I suppose I could relocate Pingala (again), which might help with loyalty, but at this point I think abandoning, retaking and razing may be the way to go here. That’s lots of effort for not much gain but making Pindicator refound the city might cost him time and effort he could be putting into other endeavors. I bring the promoted warrior eastwards. I’d like to get it northeast of the city so that I can try to take out the city with archers and a warrior and try to raze it before Pindicator can retake it. I’ll drop Limitanei and move out of the city when Political Philosophy completes. That’ll cause it to revolt a turn earlier than Pindicator is expecting. That should leave me in position to take it before he does.




Banzailizard, here are the non-artist Great People available.




Only Pindicator (15/60) and Kaiser (1/60) are generating Great Prophet points. Everyone except Pindicator and Cornflakes (!) are generating Great Scientist points. Alhambram is generating 5 per turn, TBS is making 3, Archduke is making 1.1, Kaiser and myself are making 1.

Current Rankings:

Science: Alhambram, Cornflakes, TBS, Archduke, Kaiser, me, Pindicator
Culture: Archduke, Cornflakes, TBS, Alhambram, me, Kaiser, Pindicator
Military: Me, Pindicator, Alhambram, Archduke, TBS, Kaiser, Cornflakes

Alhambram’s milpower is 148, so everyone on the other landmass looks to be playing a peaceful builder game (or there are so many obstacles that Archduke isn’t going all agro).

[CFCJesterFool]

As soon as you can buy a horseman, send the unit to Res Publica. You need to make sure the horses and iron do NOT get improved by a builder while the stand off continues (otherwise the game might get out of hand.) Razing Au Gratin is fine. However, I'm pretty sure that once the city revolts, the encampment placement disappears (but the tile stays bare.) If you were to recapture, you could enter the city screen (before dealing with the keep/raze dialog box) and place down a campus on the jungled hill to remove the jungle. That should allow you to regain terrain advantage.

[suboptimal]

Turn 57

Builder at Mashed is complete, it heads for the stone. The city’s queued Granary starts, done in 5 turns. Archer at Dauphinoise is complete, it heads for Fondant and meets up with the other archer headed in this direction. I was going to start another archer but with the one coming down from the north I start a builder instead. In the way north I move the archer into position to “discover” Uluru next turn to get two envoys into Kabul.

Down at Fondant a second levied warrior has emerged from the fog:




I bring that fortified warrior back towards the city. Archers will be there in a few turns (3 or 4, depending on the archer) so backup is on the way. Both archers will have enough movement to shoot at something the turn they arrive, if need be.

Down at Au Gratin Pindicator has advanced:




Each of my archers can shoot one of his, with the one in the city having the advantage of not being subjected to return fire. Both archers would be in the position of having to retreat or die on Pindicator’s next turn. They shoot, doing 57 points to the western archer and 60 points to the eastern one. With that warrior continuing to pursue I decide to shift archers around a little bit. Both of the archers north of Au Gratin shift west. I bring the unpromoted warrior NW into the jungle hills. If he pursues onto the sheep hill it will be killed next turn – both of those archers will be able to shoot and the warrior will bat cleanup if it’s not dead. As for that promoted warrior I move it northeast for the time being to shadow Alhambram.

When Political Philosophy completes I’ll enter Oligarchy, keep Limitanei active, slot Agoge in the wildcard slot and finish Military Tradition. That should complete right when Au Gratin rebels, letting me swap policies cleanly and get Conscription slotted. That will give me four more turns of keeping the city and attempting to injure Pindicator as he advances. If I can keep him at bay long enough then I should be in control of the territory when the city revolts.

[suboptimal]

Looks like no turn until tomorrow as Pindicator has held the save for 24 hours now. That's find as my first attempt at finding a forest was harvested by a v1.0 builder from the Reality Civ. I played an SP game as Khmer last night and found out (because I don't usually pursue a religion) that the Martyr promotion only triggers in theological combat. That entire strategy requires either an AI opponent (that doesn't know what the player is doing) or a dumb human opponent, which doesn't exist around these parts. Gotta come up with a new plan.