[Spoiler] Suboptimal's Next Attempt at Lurker Frustration

[suboptimal]

Turn 27

OK...so, what did the barbarians do this turn?




OK, manageable. The warrior/builder pair move back to the jungle hill. The builder will move into London next turn and then should (key word) be able to make a run for Birminghamwhile the warrior deals with the riff raff. Over at Birmingham the barbarian was slowed by the city’s Zone of Control so my warrior is able to move in for the kill and a promotion. One more barbarian death and I’ll have Bronze Working’s eureka. I also notice that someone turned on quick combat. I don’t like that setting so I disable it (I like seeing spearmen throw dead units over their shoulders). The slinger moves up to the coast and finds the best kind of fish…




Mmm...reef fish. I decide to end the slinger’s movement now so that I can move into the grassland forest next turn. In theory, if the “7 turns from the city” for barb camp placement holds then the camp could be as close as that fogged tile NE of the two forests. The slinger does have a promotion available; I’ll hold onto it for healing for the time being. If the camp is in that tile then I’ll need it.

Internationally, Kaiser has a second domestic tourist so he’s crossed the 200 generated mark. I’m still at zero.

[Alhambram]

That barb scout might move into horse tile next turn, in that case finish it off before he pillages horse pasture. Otherwise you need to repair damaged horse pasture with builder to prevent not triggering Craftsmanship euerka, delaying everthing.
Normally it would take 2 hits from discipline boosted warrior to finish it off, giving barb scout enough time to pillage horse pasture, here is where our earlier seemingly pointless attacks at barb scout with slinger pays off.

Fish reef being there is good news, tile west of settle spot A can be used for campus and have it adjacent with RND and city to get 3 adjaceny bonus.

[suboptimal]

The issue that I have is that I need that barbarian warrior dead so the builder can head for Birmingham. It likely attacked my warrior in the interturn. If this is the case and the scout has not moved then I'll move my warrior northwest and the builder into London. At a minimum that should get the scout to retreat and then I can kill the warrior (if it hasn't suicided on mine).

'A' should be founded about 20 turns from now. In the long run the population growth up here might be such that I consider getting Reyna up here with Harbormaster and Tax Collector promotions with an eventual eye towards getting Contractor if I can get overall gold income up.

[suboptimal]

Turn 28

It continues to be about the barbarians. The warrior moved back to the jungle hill NE of London and the scout stayed put. Well, that’s not the outcome I was hoping for. I decide to stick with my original idea – builder to London, warrior to the NE. That should force the scout northwest to the coast, allowing me to deal with the barbarian warrior if it takes the bait. Regardless, the builder will be delayed getting to Birmingham by a couple of turns, which is unfortunate. I do decide to bring my redlined Birmingham warrior over to the lake shore and within sight of the barbarian warrior. Perhaps having a weak unit will bait it in that direction. While that seems counter-intuitive I think it might actually help out. If the barbarian takes the bait I’ll back up a tile and promote-heal. If it doesn’t, well, I’ll attack with the other warrior. Of course, that warrior will move north and really put me in a bind.

Up north the slinger moves to the grassland forest:




In addition to the barbarian camp (right at 7 tiles from London, mind you ) I’ve reached land’s end. Settlervision shows that all visible tiles to the northeast are coastal. There’s a land tile 2 NE of Kilimanjaro, but that’s either just a solitary tile or a small spur. It also means that a galley built in the Thethys Ocean can transit to the Iapetus. I also have to wonder if there’s an island somewhere north. There appears to be about 7 tiles between the edge of the fog and the northern map edge. What is interesting is that even with ‘A’ settled there’s enough room to fit in a coastal city, either NE of that stone or 2NE of Kilimanjaro. I expect the slinger to get hit next turn, at which point I’ll retreat and promote.

Internationally, Ichabod either finished a district or some other 2 empire point combination. I’ll find out next turn once the GPP update (if any).

Alhambram – any thoughts on whether it’s better to go Campus + Warrior + Scout or Campus + Granary after London’s monument completes? I’m leaning towards the latter unless there’s a reason to get another unit out now. I’m still in first place on milpower with “only” 40 milpower at present.

[Alhambram]

As you said when we settle coast elephants, there are two spots left for city to make use of KIlimanjaro tiles.
One is 2 tiles north of Kilimanjaro which get instant access of plentiful food tiles, but it put city at risk of 2 ranged eruption.
Other is north of stone, safer but Kilimanjaro tiles are at 3rd ring. And might be less productive then closer city which gain bonus from fertiziled tiles.

Regarding slinger, if he get attacked and is brought down 60% of HP, it is better to use promotion since combination of strength penalty due injury and bad dice roll might allow barb spearman kill our slinger.

Then London production quene, Barb situation seem still to be pretty under control. Also London lacks powerful food tile, our current best food tile is 32 banana tile.
Also housing is going hit limit soon and since we only improve pasture for London, London's housing limit isn't increased. Therefore I say yes for granary build.

[suboptimal]

Turn 29

Open the save, get the notification that the slinger was attacked, as expected. Barbarian scout at London has fled into the fog (likely to the open tile NW of Ullswater Lake) and the warrior has taken the bait and moved east towards my redlined warrior. Slinger retreats back into the open terrain and takes the Volley promotion, healing up all but 4 health. Redlined warrior backs up to the cattle next to Birmingham, takes Battlecry and awaits the incoming warrior. As for the warrior by London, I take the opportunity to do a little scouting to the west:




I’ll likely move west or northwest next turn for some more defogging before turning around. If the scout heads back towards London I can still do that as it’ll take the scout two turns to reach the open plains NW of the horses and my warrior would be able to attack and kill it if it did so.

Ichabod completed a tech, a civic and gained an era point last turn. His empire score increase was not a district as he’s generating no GPP.

Next turn London’s monument is complete and I’ll place Campus districts at London and Birmingham.

[Alhambram]

If barb spearman don't follow your slinger and stay in camp, maybe better to move slinger 1E, it would make barb spearman unable to attack you and you can get 1st shot in instead, giving you big advantage.
The big problem is if that camp suddenly spawn new round of 2 warriors and a slinger(or maybe archer already), in that case only option is to retreat and go back to that camp later with 1 or 2 warriors supported by a archer(s).

[suboptimal]

Turn 30

Writing completed, start Mining. Foreign Trade in two turns. Campus districts go down at London (NW) and Birmingham (SW). London will build its district out, Birmingham’s will sit for quite a while. I’ll likely only complete the Campus here if I need it to get a discount on an Encampment district at Birmingham and it’s convenient to do so.

In barbarian news the scout stayed put. The warrior by London moved back towards the city, further delaying the builder. The spearman has come out of the camp up north. Alrighty then. I bring Birmingham’s warrior back to the coastline and will have to actively hunt down that warrior now. West of London I decide to move the warrior northwest to defog and threaten that scout...and find a barbarian camp:




Well, I now know where that other scout came from. This camp is also six tiles away from London and, if everything I’ve read is true, is therefore not associated with London and that’s why the scout didn’t alert and I haven’t dealt with any units coming from this direction. . Nothing on Settlervision up here but I don’t know that I’ll deal with this camp immediately. Gotta keep my eyes on that archer.

As for the slinger, I retreat onto the hill elephants. This will get the slinger a free shot at the spearman next turn, along with more damage to the spearman on both my own attack and the spearman’s subsequent attack. My expectation is that the spearman will retreat to the forest after it’s redlined and I’ll be able to kill it three turns from now.

[suboptimal]

Turn 31

The barbarians have moved around a bit. The scout moved a hex east while the warrior at London is now standing on my just-started Campus. As expected, the spearman has pursued my slinger. London switches over to the granary build since the Campus build is aborted for the time being.

In the west my warrior can still get a little defogging done before potentially having to deal with the scout. I move SW onto the other jungle and find the Columbia River.




Drop out to the XML and….TABARNAK! That river name is on the Canadian list. CMF this way lies, along with Sulla, Archduke and whoever else is dedlurking him. Settlervision shows no cities in that direction so he’s only scouted in this direction (and possibly turned around at the river). Given the proximity of the northern map edge my guess is that the land on the other side of the river will turn northwards and he’ll be up that way. That potentially means there’s another opponent to my southwest given the barbarian camp spacing.

Over at London my warrior moves onto the forested hill. Depending on what the warrior does I’ll either attack it or finally get my builder moving towards Birmingham. Up north the slinger hits the spearman for 34 damage. It’s now under 50% and I should be able to kill it next turn if it attacks.

Woden has reached his second domestic tourist. CMF has finally founded his second city.

Next turn my cities will both grow in population, Early Empire’s inspiration will come in and I’ll buy a trader in Birmingham.

[Alhambram]

Good to know that there is a possible opponent west of us, we should claim that silk resources.

Barb warrior around London might attempt to pillage horse tile, so if he moves in direction of improvement, then western warrior needs to turn back towards London.