[SPOILERS] TheArchduke blasts into Space as Russia

[TheArchduke]

Turn 67

I agree but not fully. I switched over to Agoge and started one archer in Funky. With 80 milpower we look like a target, I want to prevent an attack and discourage it. Thus I need milpower before the DoF runs out. Funky could do a shrine, or a quick archer until we switch out to Maneuver. I think Horseman will be builds by Funky and Just do It next. You will disagree heavily, but I feel I need a bit more milpower to stop TBS from getting ideas.

Anyway, policies.

   

This coupled with a double first envoy in Fez.

   

Makes our science rate competitive again.

   

In the east we prepare for Act on Instinct and our builder goes for Just do It. Plans are a mine on the volcano tile, a sawmill on the 3 faith hill and then a quarry for act on Instinct. Those 3 farms at Funky will come after Games and Recreation.

   

In the West we go in position and will mine the iron thereby boosting The Wheel, enabling us to buy a Waterwheel. Problem is we need 320 gold for that, no? I fear I need to handbuild it. It is probably smarter to just research Construction.

[Sullla]

Switching into Agoge was a nice call, you're almost finished with the builders and don't need to keep running Ilkum. Given that TBS is pushing up closer to 200 military rating, it seems like a good idea to get out some more units and match his buildup. An archer or two for now into horses down the road (after switching to Maneuver) sounds good. You want some more archers anyway before they get obsoleted by crossbows, and any horses build now can later become cossacks at a future date.

Jumping up to 49 beakers/turn feels really good. TBS has some Campus districts and will presumably be joining you with Natural Philosophy policy soon; expect him to jump up to 50 beakers/turn in the near future as well. However, Cornflakes doesn't appear to have any Campuses finished based on the big summary post from earlier this week, and that means Rome isn't going anywhere in the immediate future. I think Cornflakes could be in some trouble here as the game continues onwards; he just doesn't have very much in the way of districts. Stronger than Greece but weaker than Russia and Cree.

Lumbermills arriving on the tech tree in the near future are going to be really important tile improvements. Each one is worth +2 production and there are tons of places where they can be added. If 1/3/2 faith hills are great already, they'll only be better as 1/5/2 tiles I think you'll want to crank out a bunch of them after reaching Feudalism and getting up to five charge builders.

In the West we go in position and will mine the iron thereby boosting The Wheel, enabling us to buy a Waterwheel. Problem is we need 320 gold for that, no? I fear I need to handbuild it. It is probably smarter to just research Construction.

This is the one place where I disagree with your post this turn. You definitely do not need to handbuild the watermill or hard research Construction tech, just micro your cities a bit for more gold. There's several places where you can pick up more income:

1) Timbermist works the 2/2/3 truffles tile when it gets founded next turn (better to work the rice tile in the long run but this works for now)
2) Atreides can swap to the 2/1/2 copper tile temporarily
3) Hell March can grab the 1/1/2 whales tile temporarily when it grows to size 7 in two turns

There's another 7 gold/turn right there, enough to increase your gold income by 50%. Russia picks up 15 gold this turn to get to 265 gold, then just needs to average 18 gold/turn over the following three turns to be at 320 gold on Turn 71. Research goes into Construction this turn, finishes The Wheel after boosting it with the iron mine next turn, then takes Construction to just over 60% completion over the following turns. Watermill purchase in Atreides on Turn 71 finishes off the remainder of Construction tech instantly, this boosts Games and Recreation (picking up an envoy in Fez), then Games and Recreation civic research finishes on Turn 72 on the same turn that Amani establishes herself and Russia takes over the suzerainty of Fez... which itself comes just before the first missionary begins converting cities. Everything just barely finishes in time to knock over the next domino in line. You probably don't even have to have Atreides work the (bad) copper tile for more than 1-2 turns before you have enough gold and can swap back to better stuff.

Six cities established next turn and science hits 50 beakers/turn for the first time. Things are looking good.

[TheArchduke]

Yeah, the double eureka for iron working and the wheel just comes in time.

Turn 68

We mine the iron thereby completing the Wheel and with a bit of micromanagment we have a bought watermill in 4 turns, just in time for a boost to construction and in time for Games and Recreation.

Hell March is going to build a 2nd archer and then we flip over to maneuver and complete the commercial district (discounted 4 turns).

Funky and Just do it will do Horseman next. Better be safe then sorry.

   

   

Misc stuff:

Australia is down to 5 GS points, we both went off Inspiration with the race done.
2 GG points for Australia as well, up to 14. This does not bode well for us. Going after other players with scienced up units is a great idea.
No Merchants points whatsoever so far.

33 come from Hell March, 11.5 comes from Funky Swamp, the rest is neglible. 
Culture is even more crazy, 19.3 alone are from Hell March. Pingala in a decent city is crazy.

Our army is 4 archers and 3 warriors in 2 turns. 3 archers and 2 warriors will guard the south, 1 archer and 1 warrior will cover the south. 2 horseman as a mobile force. If nothing untowards happens we then try to resigns DoFs and then ignore military again.

Only blind spot are ships.

The next turn could be uneventful, in 2 turns another wave of stuff will happen.

[Sullla]

Not a ton of thoughts to add for this turn, your call to squeeze an 2t archer out of Hell March while running Agoge policy looks like an excellent choice. I have no idea if TBS is planning any military action but you certainly can't take chances. Running 20 gold/turn with 265 gold in the bank should be sufficient to reach 320 gold for the water mill purchase in Atreides right on schedule on Turn 371. I was also pleased to see that the Commercial district only takes 4 turns to build in the capital, that's going to be a nice addition in the near future when it finishes. Here are some other random ideas that came to mind from the turn:

* TBS has a unit stranded by your new borders, unless here's managed to research Shipbuilding tech that is. He can cool his heels for a while near the new Timbermist.

* When Theology civic finishes research, the plan is to swap from Agoge to Maneuver in the Wildcard slot to build some horses, and obviously you'll also drop the 2 for 1 Diplomatic card in favor of the one that grants more envoy points. There's one other change that I think would be worthwhile: drop Urban Planning in favor of Scripture (+100% Holy Site district adjacency bonuses). I think that would be worth about 10 faith/turn and that's better than getting +1 production per city. Scripture is a new policy card that unlocks at Theology and it's probably the best choice available in that other Economic slot when Russia isn't working on builders.

* I was thinking a bit about era score this turn. It's going to be very important for Russia to land a Medieval Golden Age so that the faith-purchasing of settlers can continue. After the Medieval era, the map will be filled up and Monumentality won't matter very much, but the Medieval Golden Age is critical. This is a difficult task but not an impossible one to pull off. This is the full list of different ways to gain era score for the curious:

https://www.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/7w...gives_you/

The biggest era score accumulator is going to come from constructing the Mahabodi and enhancing the religion to fill out its beliefs. That's worth 4 points (World's First Religion to Adopt All Beliefs) plus another 4 points (World Wonder Completed) plus 3 points (Religion Adopts All Beliefs). This gets much of the way towards the next Golden Age, and I don't think Russia can make it without landing this wonder. With that in mind, I think Atreides has to focus on getting this wonder built over the next 25 turns. That means building the Lavra, then the shrine, then the temple, followed by Magnus-chopping out the wonder. That should be doable in time since Atreides is going to grow very quickly once the water mill is in place and those wheat tiles farmed. I mean, the city's going to have +7 food/turn at size 2 when it's working double irrigated 4/1 wheat tiles with a watermill in place. But Atreides won't be able to do much else if the wonder is going to be done in time to provide era points. Something to be thinking about over the upcoming turns - this city is going to need some builder support to chop out the wonder.

[TheArchduke]

Turn 69

Quiet turn, if not for TBS declaring war on Mohenjo-Daro. It pains to say but I concur with his decision to conquer this CS, I can only hope he underestimates the CS. I also fortify the warrior west so he can not easily access or attack Cardiff. Time to cockblock TBS a bit as well. 

   

   

   

I get +1 era score for farming volcanic soil at Just do it which brings the tile to 5! . 

Our eastern worker will go farm the tile W of Act on Instinct and then quarry the stone to give Act on Instinct a leg up.

[Sullla]

That's an important piece of news this turn, TBS declaring war on Mohenjo-Daro. It suggests that he's probably building up his military in the hopes of capturing some city states rather than planning an invasion, although you can't count on that. With a defensive strength of only 20, that city state is very likely to fall to attacking swords/horses. (Strength 35 units against 20 defensive strength would average about 50 damage per attack while taking 15 damage.) Unless that city state gets walls in place almost immediately, it's toast. Very smart move to start blocking the land route to Cardiff to prevent a similar outcome - once you have some horses on the field and the ability to embark units, it would be a good idea to work towards capturing Cardiff.

In better news, farming that volcanic tile up to 5/1 yield is amazing stuff. The only weakness of Just Do It was a lack of food and now it's largely solved that problem. I have one suggestion for that worker though: definitely do farm the other 4/1/1 volcanic tile west of Act On Instict but don't use the last charge on a quarry. Instead, you can put a lumbermill on one of those plains hill tiles near Act On Instinct; I think the tile Northeast-Northeast of the city center will be grabbed by the city's borders and it would have 1/5/2 faith yield with a lumbermill in place. Much better than the +1 production that a quarry would add to the stone resource.

How much does a missionary cost to purchase? You want to buy one soon so that it can be standing next to Funky when Russia becomes suzerain of Fez, ready to go with the conversion. And has anyone built a single world wonder in this game yet? You're getting close to the point where two Magnus forest chops would equal the Pyramids so that would be something worth considering at Funky if you get the next governor promotion and no one has made a play for the wonder.

[TheArchduke]

That's an important piece of news this turn, TBS declaring war on Mohenjo-Daro. It suggests that he's probably building up his military in the hopes of capturing some city states rather than planning an invasion, although you can't count on that. With a defensive strength of only 20, that city state is very likely to fall to attacking swords/horses. (Strength 35 units against 20 defensive strength would average about 50 damage per attack while taking 15 damage.) Unless that city state gets walls in place almost immediately, it's toast. Very smart move to start blocking the land route to Cardiff to prevent a similar outcome - once you have some horses on the field and the ability to embark units, it would be a good idea to work towards capturing Cardiff.

In better news, farming that volcanic tile up to 5/1 yield is amazing stuff. The only weakness of Just Do It was a lack of food and now it's largely solved that problem. I have one suggestion for that worker though: definitely do farm the other 4/1/1 volcanic tile west of Act On Instict but don't use the last charge on a quarry. Instead, you can put a lumbermill on one of those plains hill tiles near Act On Instinct; I think the tile Northeast-Northeast of the city center will be grabbed by the city's borders and it would have 1/5/2 faith yield with a lumbermill in place. Much better than the +1 production that a quarry would add to the stone resource.

How much does a missionary cost to purchase? You want to buy one soon so that it can be standing next to Funky when Russia becomes suzerain of Fez, ready to go with the conversion. And has anyone built a single world wonder in this game yet? You're getting close to the point where two Magnus forest chops would equal the Pyramids so that would be something worth considering at Funky if you get the next governor promotion and no one has made a play for the wonder.

The move on Mohenjo-Daro is competent and thus annoying. It secures a naval base in the middle sea and makes TBS even more of a headache.
Blocking Cardiff is the minimum reaction. Our milpower is lowest as well, so it is time to rectify that anyway.

Another volcanic farm is a given and a missionary was bought this turn.

[TheArchduke]

Turn 70

We finish Sailing and Theology and boost Machinery and Mercs. Also Cornflakes as Rome has completed the Pyramids.

   

Another policy change.

   

We improve some tiles and buy a missionary. I decide on a chariot + 2 horseman. I am kinda feeling uneasy at being the lowest in milscore and want to change that posthaste. Machinery is theoretically 8 turns away (Need walls to boost Engineering then it is 6 turns) so we should be fine. Still.

   

I switch to Engineering, better safe then sorry.

   

Apart from that our next move will be Amani in Fez and we will see where that takes us next. Inspirations we need to hit are 6 farms and the watermill. Eurekas 6 farms and 3 mines. Where to put those 2 mines is the question. I think we should delay apprenticeship as long as possible as we are not terrible dependent on mines anyway.

Next faith settler in 6 turns. Target Spice Melange.

[Sullla]

Yeah, the reason why I raised the Pyramids was due to the fact that this was about the time that they became very cheap to build. Nice move by Cornflakes to snap them up, although I continue to think his position isn't great in the long run due to a lack of Campus districts. Rome was making 20 beakers/turn when you met him on Turn 55 (when Russia was at 20 beakers/turn) and Rome is still stuck on 25 beakers/turn at a time when Russia's gone up to 51 beakers. Better that Cornflakes land that wonder than TBS or Alhambram.

Apparently Scripture policy is already worth 12 faith/turn and that's before the Lavras complete at Atreides and Timbermist. Russia as a whole up to 63 faith/turn, holy cow! As TheArchduke said, the next faith settler can be finished in just 6 turns practically from scratch. Really awesome stuff. This is another reason why Classical Republic is the better goverment to run right now even with its annoying lack of Military cards: Russia basically wants to perma-run Natural Philosophy and Scripture, at least until Serfdom opens up at Feudalism civic for the extra builder charges.

I approve of the double horsemen builds at Hell March and Funky. You've been doing a nice job of lining up the military builds with the appropriate production-boosting cards, not easy to pull off while in Classical Republic. I'm less certain of the chariot build in Just Do It since that's a newer, weaker city that could benefit from further infrastructure. Still, this is the time to get out mounted units while the empire is running Maneuver policy, and Just Do It is going to grow onto one of those awesome 1/3/2 faith forested tundra hill tiles at size 3 so the chariot won't take long to finish. One longer term suggestion for cities like Funky and Just Do It: it might be useful to produce some builders to near-completion (while running Ilkum?) and then wait to finish them until after Feudalism finishes for Serfdom civic and the bonus charges. I bring this up now because Russia isn't too far away from Feudalism and you'll have to get started early, after the military units finish, if that sounds like a useful plan.

I genuinely don't think TBS is planning to attack you. I can't see how he benefits from that and he has to know that attacking into someone with Defender of the Faith and crossbows on the horizon has to be a losing move. You are completely correct to train some military to be on the safe side here, I just think that he's preparing to conquer city states, not Russia. Those horsemen need to go investigate Cardiff when they pop out to make sure he doesn't snipe another city. I don't think you necessarily need to research Engineering tech but sure, why not, it doesn't hurt. I'd prefer to grab the water-based techs since they're cheap and will let you meet that offshore Scientific city state but safety is always important. Obviously research switches back into Construction when the water mill finishes next turn.

Apart from that our next move will be Amani in Fez and we will see where that takes us next. Inspirations we need to hit are 6 farms and the watermill. Eurekas 6 farms and 3 mines. Where to put those 2 mines is the question. I think we should delay apprenticeship as long as possible as we are not terrible dependent on mines anyway.

Amani grabs control of Fez in 2 turns, that should line up perfectly with the missionary moving over to Funky and converting it after grabbing the suzerainty. For the Feudalism boost, you have 5 obvious farms: two wheat farms at Atreides, the rice farm at Timbermist, and volcanic hill farms at Just Do It and Act On Instinct. You need exactly one more so perhaps the builder over at Hell March heads to Funky after placing the other wheat farm to finally place a farm on the 5/2 floodplains tile. I think that's the best tile available, not sure. The watermill comes next turn via purchase at Atreides. I'm less sure where the mines end up going, probably on a post-chopped forest hill tile somewhere.

Longer term, Spice Melange gets planted next for city #8. What's next after that? If you have some time, it might be useful to dotmap the eastern wilderness a bit more. I think that you want to push east with future settlers, both to claim that territory and be in position to capitalize on Kaiser if he starts collapsing. I can't wait until your Great Writer can hit the seas and start doing some more exploring.

[TheArchduke]

Yeah, the reason why I raised the Pyramids was due to the fact that this was about the time that they became very cheap to build. Nice move by Cornflakes to snap them up, although I continue to think his position isn't great in the long run due to a lack of Campus districts. Rome was making 20 beakers/turn when you met him on Turn 55 (when Russia was at 20 beakers/turn) and Rome is still stuck on 25 beakers/turn at a time when Russia's gone up to 51 beakers. Better that Cornflakes land that wonder than TBS or Alhambram.

Apparently Scripture policy is already worth 12 faith/turn and that's before the Lavras complete at Atreides and Timbermist. Russia as a whole up to 63 faith/turn, holy cow! As TheArchduke said, the next faith settler can be finished in just 6 turns practically from scratch. Really awesome stuff. This is another reason why Classical Republic is the better goverment to run right now even with its annoying lack of Military cards: Russia basically wants to perma-run Natural Philosophy and Scripture, at least until Serfdom opens up at Feudalism civic for the extra builder charges.

I approve of the double horsemen builds at Hell March and Funky. You've been doing a nice job of lining up the military builds with the appropriate production-boosting cards, not easy to pull off while in Classical Republic. I'm less certain of the chariot build in Just Do It since that's a newer, weaker city that could benefit from further infrastructure. Still, this is the time to get out mounted units while the empire is running Maneuver policy, and Just Do It is going to grow onto one of those awesome 1/3/2 faith forested tundra hill tiles at size 3 so the chariot won't take long to finish. One longer term suggestion for cities like Funky and Just Do It: it might be useful to produce some builders to near-completion (while running Ilkum?) and then wait to finish them until after Feudalism finishes for Serfdom civic and the bonus charges. I bring this up now because Russia isn't too far away from Feudalism and you'll have to get started early, after the military units finish, if that sounds like a useful plan.

I genuinely don't think TBS is planning to attack you. I can't see how he benefits from that and he has to know that attacking into someone with Defender of the Faith and crossbows on the horizon has to be a losing move. You are completely correct to train some military to be on the safe side here, I just think that he's preparing to conquer city states, not Russia. Those horsemen need to go investigate Cardiff when they pop out to make sure he doesn't snipe another city. I don't think you necessarily need to research Engineering tech but sure, why not, it doesn't hurt. I'd prefer to grab the water-based techs since they're cheap and will let you meet that offshore Scientific city state but safety is always important. Obviously research switches back into Construction when the water mill finishes next turn.

Apart from that our next move will be Amani in Fez and we will see where that takes us next. Inspirations we need to hit are 6 farms and the watermill. Eurekas 6 farms and 3 mines. Where to put those 2 mines is the question. I think we should delay apprenticeship as long as possible as we are not terrible dependent on mines anyway.

Amani grabs control of Fez in 2 turns, that should line up perfectly with the missionary moving over to Funky and converting it after grabbing the suzerainty. For the Feudalism boost, you have 5 obvious farms: two wheat farms at Atreides, the rice farm at Timbermist, and volcanic hill farms at Just Do It and Act On Instinct. You need exactly one more so perhaps the builder over at Hell March heads to Funky after placing the other wheat farm to finally place a farm on the 5/2 floodplains tile. I think that's the best tile available, not sure. The watermill comes next turn via purchase at Atreides. I'm less sure where the mines end up going, probably on a post-chopped forest hill tile somewhere.

Longer term, Spice Melange gets planted next for city #8. What's next after that? If you have some time, it might be useful to dotmap the eastern wilderness a bit more. I think that you want to push east with future settlers, both to claim that territory and be in position to capitalize on Kaiser if he starts collapsing. I can't wait until your Great Writer can hit the seas and start doing some more exploring.

I like to squeeze a chariot out as the upgrade (Knight) is much more viable long run as the horseman is. Also it is an Eureka for Mil Tradition to kill something with a knight. And as pointed out Just do it is low on production so a horseman takes too long.

I agree, his aggression towards the CS is a smart move coupled with his expansion.
I do think however that neither Cardiff nor Mohenjo-Daro are in good enough position to warrant early or even mid aggression (he is a tad late, but still). Those are not great city sites.
I should probably mine Atreides post chops but I see if I can squeeze out mines somewhere else without ruining appeal.

The overseas Great Writer. Yeah, no need to wait on Shipbuilding Eureka. I know you disapprove of quick engineering, but I like to have the bigger stick than my neighbor.