[SPOILER] - Suboptimal finds trees, still seeks forest

[suboptimal]

You're right. The client had been behaving for quite a while and then today it crapped out and I never passed the save via the website. It's up now.

[Woden]

Thanks for all your reporting. You and TheArchduke have been keeping this game interesting.

[suboptimal]

Someone's gotta keep it interesting. Of course, Archduke and I are currently at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of how the game is going, but having opposite viewpoints is always a good thing.

[suboptimal]

Turn 94

Crossbow at Wealth of Nations is dead. Feudalism is in. There’s another notification that Phanom Rung Volcano (the one just north of Wealth of Nations) has erupted in “one of the deadliest explosions known to mankind”. Net effect: 1 tile fertilized, no citizens lost but my redlined warrior is gone. POOF 31 grassland is now 41, though, so that’s something.

Start Mercenaries, 6 turns to completion. Get the “you’ve got Great People” bells. Change civics...out with Veterancy, Natural Philosophy and Strategos, in with Feudal Contract, Colonization and Serfdom. Actually, though, no builders will complete before Mercenaries so Serfdom can wait until then. Hasselback has two horses in the build plan so I slot Maneuver as I’ve got more than 40 horses right now. I claim Sun Tzu, he shows up in Dauphinoise. The errant trader follows General Tzu.

Next settler due out from Mashed next turn – it’s 229/230roduction. So close..I’ll put the overflow into the next settler and swap the settler & builder in the build order. The settler coming out next turn is going east; the next one will travel south via Hasselback to defog the coast Depending on what happens in Khmer I’ll either settle Au Gratin II or the Dauph Coast location. Up north the builder and chariot continue repositioning. It turns out I miscounted by a turn. The builder will be in position for the plantation the turn Gnocchi grabs the tile. Hasselback’s crossbow is also at...179/180. It’ll overflow 17.9 yield into a horseman and get two out in 6 turns. Nice.

Unable to build a warrior because I can’t upgrade one, Fondant leaves the Encampment at two turns and starts a swordsman, that’s due out in 6 turns. I’ll save the gold for upgrading Maris Piper when Mercenaries completes. I may also be able to get another archer up to Fondant to upgrade as well. They can upgrade while the new ones from the north engage the battle. Another thing that’s happened at Fondant is that a trader from Kabul has reached the city. This has put a road through the two marshes to the east. With Sun Tzu in the area it means that the crossbows can get to Maris Piper’s position from Fonant in two turns instead of four or five.

At Res Publica I check the city, there’s a trader there. It’s traveled from Art of War as there’s now a road connecting them. Horseman moves east, finds nothing. At Wealth of Nations the swordsman has come up, killed the crossbow and now stands on the grassland adjacent to both Maris Piper (to the NE) and the horseman (to the W).

OK. There are two ways I can do this. Option 1 is to kill the sword (two shots from Maris Piper, attack with the horse and not get bad rolls) and the city stands there mocking me healing as I lose the only unit that can take the city. The alternative is to take the city with the horseman now. That sacrifices the horseman as it’ll surely get killed when Pindicator goes. Horseman attacks the city and takes it with 24 damage remaining. This also exposes the two units flanking the archer:




The city is at a laughable -20.7 loyalty per turn. I raze it after pinning the archers on the map and checking their support bonuses. Everyone’s got a +4 support bonus so there are no other units adjacent to the other archers. Let’s see...45 plus….33 milpower (damaged sword), a warrior (20) and horseman that were east of CoP (56), two warriors and an archer somewhere near or in the Khmer core (65)….that’s….50 short of what’s displayed. Hmmmm….

With the city razed I now get a good look at the line of sight situation:




The only units that can attack me next turn are the two visible ones. If Pindicator kills the horse with the sword the archer can only shoot at jungle tile directly north (if I move something into it). If Pindicator uses the archer then the promoted archer can move up but not shoot. I move Maris Piper northeast one tile. Two-shotting the swordsman from here will do about 50 damage (although based on recent turns it’d only be 40 ) but it won’t be able to kill the unit. I get slightly better than expected rolls and do 51 total damage. The sword, if it attacks Maris Piper, can do 60 damage. I advance Red Pontiac up to the jungle next to the sword and bring my injured swordsman over. The swordsman will die next turn and then I gotta deal with the archers. Yukon Gold holds its position.

Oh, I just noticed how Archduke found Hasselback:




He’s also got one over here:




Guess who’s getting +5 era points for the first circumnavigation? Of course, I could be cheeky, declare war and send one (or both) back to where they came from. I won’t, though. That’d just put a rage target on my back.

[suboptimal]

Turn 95

The horseman has been killed, as expected. Crossbow at Hasselback and settler at Mashed are complete. Start a horseman and a settler, respectively, three turns on the former, five turns on the latter. Overflow at Hasselback as the horseman done in three turns even if I work the 5 tile, so I make that switch. Disco Fries and Gnocchi both grow next turn. Rearrange the units up north, crossbows in the midlands head south. Those will each be outside Fondant next turn and then Sun Tzu will lead them south. Start the trade route from Fondant to Mashed. Check Res Publica, it’s empty. The horseman moves east one tile, finds nothing. At the Khmer Front (formerly Wealth of Nations):




The archer has a new friend in the south. The concern is that it could be a horseman. So, what to do here? Well, the sword will require two shots from the spud guns to kill it. I can’t kill the archer outright this turn with just one shot. The issue here is that if I advance Maris Piper it’s possible for a horseman to reach Maris Piper, attack it and then have the archer finish the job. That leaves me with many not so good choices:

- shoot the sword once and allow it to retreat. In theory he could attack Red Pontiac with either the sword or a horseman, and the southern archer could shoot it, possibly killing that unit off.
- advance Maris Piper, kill the sword, redline the archer with Red Pontiac and hope there’s no horseman back there
- shoot the archer with Red Pontiac and ignore the swordsman
- kill the sword with Maris Piper, move Red Pontiac into the open (and move Yukon Gold east to that jungle) to block an attack on Maris Piper, likely sacrificing that archer in the process.
- back Red Pontiac up and otherwise hold position until the crossbows get here in three turns.

After running the numbers (famous last words) I decide to shoot the archer with Red Pontiac. That will take the archer down by about 70 damage and reduce its CS to 23. That makes the archer v archer a fair fight (30 points damage) and the swordsman would be attacking a CS 27 archer and won’t be able to kill it. I shoot, doing 70 points of damage. Red Pontiac is 7 XP from getting a promotion.

After the attack I bring Sun Tzu out of Fondant to the pasture to the north. That will give +1 movement to both crossbows next turn, speeding their arrival to the front, though not enough to get the transit time to two turns (it’s nine tiles from Hasselback’s crossbow to Maris Piper’s position). I also decide to fortify in place with Maris Piper instead of crossing the river, as being next to the volcano has been better than being two tiles away. With Mercenaries done in 5 turns I’m going to send Maris Piper back to Fondant (the Encampment hill) once the crossbows arrive. When the civic completes I’ll have enough gold to upgrade two archers to crossbows with Professional Army slotted, so I’ll likely upgrade the unpromoted archer in Fondant at the same time.

Internationally it looks like people may be gearing up for some fireworks “over there”. Archduke is leading the military power rankings with an even 500. TBS and Cornflakes sit in the #2 and #3 spots, so I have to wonder if there’s a possible 2-for-1 brewing there. Archduke has been denounced by at least one of them and Kaiser. One of Cornflakes & TBS has also met Khmer, though I don’t know which one. Alhambram, meanwhile, is in last place with milpower at 193 but has a significant tech edge.

End turn and hear the promotion sounder. Hopefully that wasn’t that archer I shot getting a promotion...

The World Congress will vote in 5 turns. Current diplomatic favor of visible opponents:

Archduke: 76, +3/turn
Alhambram: 140, +6/turn
Kaiser: 51, +1/turn
Pindicator: 4, +1/turn
Me: 57, 0/turn (because grievances)

Alhambram and the other continent are going to be driving the bus on this one. I’ll have two free votes plus some buyable votes (up to 2 on any one vote and a third on the other). I’ll be curious to see what issues come up for voting as it may shed some light as to the politics on the other land mass.

[CFCJesterFool]

Good to see settlers keep being produced.  Hopefully, progress can be made once the great general arrives. You made the right call by not risking Maris Piper (who will make a beast of a crossbow.)

[suboptimal]

Yeah, preserving Maris Piper is worth playing it conservative. As a crossbow with the general nearby it should be able to just about 2-shot kill any unit Pindicator can field while putting up with some punishment (CS 57 ranged, 35 melee, +10 vs. district defenses on defense).

The objective for the next three turns is to hold the line and take my shots where I can. I wlll advance the horseman up to threaten the rear guard archers, if only to force Pindicator to shift them southwards a bit to get me some breathing room.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I remember when I declared war on Japper in PBEM08 with what I *knew* was an inadequate force. Ancient warfare is hard if you don't win decisively right away, because early units are so cheap you can fling them out from all cities super easily. The only real way to end things here, I think, is either with a grinding campaign of attrition where you build nothing but military units and wear pin down, OR you beat him to a key military tech and wipe away his units with a power unit he can't counter. Neither Knights nor Muskets looks really viable right now, though, and i don't think Crossbows will have quite the oomph necessary.

i'd play conservatively while you build up a healthy force to maybe make a decisive push on his capital. Taking that would effectively end things, but the terrain between here and there is horrendous. You'll need a lot of bodies to slog through.

[suboptimal]

I think that the crossbows may have enough oomph with Sun Tzu around, I just need to get them there and in position. If I keep them lumped together with Sun Tzu in the area they should be able to hold up to attacks from Pindicator's forces while dealing out damage. The crossbows would defend at a base of 35, as high as 41 with terrain and higher with support bonuses vs. melee attacks.

Right now the forces at the front are sparse and I need to be careful. I'll have two crossbows there in three turns, have a horse and another crossbow built and on the way and upgrade two archers and have a swordsman two turns after that. The sword, crossbow and horseman will all arrive at the front around the same time.

The main issue with my current forces are the archers - if I move an archer up and exposed they'll be critically injured before I get to shoot because of the terrain. The horse coming in from the west will hopefully be 1:1 against an archer and force units to shift around at a minimum.

I've also cut off a good portion of Pindicator's gold income. He was making 17 per turn with Wealth of Nations and is now making only 7 per turn. That will slow down the warrior upgrades.

[suboptimal]

Turn 96

No notifications to open the turn. There are no Khmer units visible on the map right now as Pindicator has fallen back from the front, likely trying to use the terrain to his advantage. Up north Gnocchi has expanded so the plantation goes down and the tile swaps over to Disco Fries. Gnocchi will acquire the iron in 7 turns. Chariot and settler meet up east of Mashed, 5 turns until the next city is founded.

AT Fondant I move the archer out of the city to the jungle hill to accommodate the incoming crossbows. It will remain there until the upgrade. Sun Tzu moves to the swamp east of the city for next turn’s movement. Check the city center as Res Publica, there’s an unpromoted archer present. Horseman moves SE through the mountain pass, finds some of the army:




The swordsman has a +6 support bonus, the southern archer a +4. I move Red Pontiac southeast into the flat tile to see if there is a unit east of the swordsman. It’s empty, so there’s one unit supporting both the archer and the swordsman on the hill NW of Conquest of Paradise. I debate what to do here. I could leave Red Pontiac where it is and bring Yukon Gold south into the jungle. That threatens the death of the archer though leaves Red Pontiac a little exposed. I could move Red Pontiac NE and shift Yukon Gold east, I don’t see how that improves my position any. I’d rather try to force the Khmer archers to move south or be killed. Ultimately I decide to move Red Pontiac northeast, bring Yukon Gold down to threaten the archer and bring the swordsman into the jungle for support. Pindicator will need to back that archer up or lose it next turn. I’d love to kill that swordsman but will need the crossbows to do it, particularly as it heals up in friendly territory.