Polish/South Korean vacation succession

[Kaiser]

So CMF asked for somebody to keep his a game rolling he was playing on a different site. As I am currently working a lot from Homeoffice and there is no indication of this changing, I volunteered and will report my efforts here.



I was surprised to see that his token works alongside mine for PBEM18 but that is very convenient. The current player (Hungary) has a note in PYDT informing me that he is on a Kayak trip returning on 02.08.2020.
As CMF is starting his vacation / relocation tour on Friday/Saturday, I believe he will not get the same another time to send some screenshots, so we have to take it like it is.

[Kaiser]

Let us start with CMFs summary

CMF
-------------------------------------------------
So here's the situation:

It's a 6-player game, online speed, so everything builds fast. Map is a Pangaea with random Civs, and I drew Poland, playing against Germany, Hungary, Japan, India (Chandra) and Canada. I've got an absurdly central position, with something like 5 or 6 city-states I've found already, with first-to-meet bonuses on 4 of them! I leveraged a native-built settler, Fertility Rites, and a gold purchase to leap out to 4 cities, twice as much as anyone else, and some people (Germany) are still on one. So we're exploding out, although I've only met Canada and India so far. 

Canada is played by an AI now because his human dropped, and he's very close by, so he's meat for conquest. With Hungary in the game, so are all the local city-states. 

You'll have two main options when you takeover - I've pinned most of my plans around each city and projected things, so you can keep track.

Option A: Peaceful expansion. We're in the jungle belt, so there's a dozen good fertile city sites around. I've pinned some good ones with possible district plans mapped out. THe main goal is to just spam settlers with Colonization and a chopped-out Ancestral Hall from the capital (possibly with a promoted Magnus if you like) and take all the peaceful land, which there's plenty of. 

Option B: War. This might be more fun for you. There are at least 3 eatable city-states very close by, and in fact I recommend it to neuter Hungary. A military can be build cheaply and quickly, and would also do good service in incorporating Canada. If you can successfully do that - and I don't see why not - then those ~6 extra cities will catapult you even more into the lead, and then it's just a matter of filling out the rest of the land with the settlers for Option A and then using the huge tech and production edge to maintain security and win however we want.

And my response so far

Kaiser
-----------------------------------------------------------
thanks for the overview, a couple screenshots would be nice, I am open to follow any plans you lay out, but considering Hungary is in the game I concur that military to conquer the close CS is probably the better strategy to eliminate that threat while also preparing for a Canada occupation.

Please let me know if you have any preferences and when I should start taking the turns (probably Saturday, I assume). Do you mind if I create a thread here in the forum to document the progress/game state? This will likely make it easier for you to pick the game up when you will be returned to the US again.

So I am curious how this will look, is there any naming scheme I should respect CMF?

[Kaiser]

Also, I am going to be on vacation from 08.08. - 15.08. but I will bring my convertible to play both CIV6 games

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Here's the message I literally just sent you before seeing this thread:

Good morning, Kaiser! It is 9:30 am Friday morning here in Gwangju, Republic of Korea. I'm teaching my last day of school but I have hours between classes, so I can just squeeze in this message to you before leaving on my grand tour this afternoon. 


Just wanted to give you a quick overview of the game state, my cities, and my rough intentions so you can jump right in. Feel free to take the save whenever you see it - I'll set up email forwarding to you so you'll get turn notifications from my client for Coronapalooza. 

Here's my capital, Just Read the Instructions. 



Note that it lacks freshwater, it's a coastal settle but the "coast" is a tiny inland sea, barely more than a lake but regrettably salty. Lots of good tiles, but it'll never be as big as some of my other cities. The production is nice enough that I think it has a good potential as a settler pump. Just to the north, you see a planned Government Plaza complex. JRTI's builder is being sent north there to chop the jungle for the Plaza and campus. The order is up to you, but I'd go Plaza first I think, with some tile purchases (preferably from City #4, it's a shorter distance). You might also swap the Theater Square and Campus locations for JRTI, and then have the Square actually be built by City #3, since it's a good candidate for Pingala and would get the most from the Square. JRTI's first 3 districts should be Plaza/Campus/Commercial Hub anyway so the Square couldn't be built until size 10, which won't happen for a while at this city. 

With all the chops, Magnus makes sense as a governor here, but is he worth taking before Pingala-> Culture promotion? Eh, probably not. Magnus -> Settler promotion makes sense and then this city can just spam settlers non-stop once the Ancestral Hall is built, you have a dozen good sites. 

City #2, a hand-built settler, is But Who's Counting? 




It's just southwest of the capital, 2 tiles from a volcano. Right outside the city are the Chocolate Hills, which actually aren't as good a NW as I first thought because of low food. Because of the volcano, only a Campus and CH are planned here, then Liang will make the city a great builder hub. Her reinforced materials promotion will let you improve the volcano tiles, but another good Governor would be Reyna, whose promotion for unimproved tiles would sync wonderfully with the Chocolate Hills and the volcanic tiles. Then the capital or city #4 could be the builder pump. 

City #3 is Of Course I Still Love You. I founded this one with the Fertility Rites pantheon almost at the same time as City 2. 




It has tons of jungle and will have very speedy pop growth, plus my highest adjacency-campus. With a ring of hills and districts to the northeast at the Plaza complex site, I have pinned an Industrial Zone whose factory will one day reach the entire core of the empire. With good pop growth, so-so production, and high adjacency campus, I think Pingala belongs here more than the capital. Note that it's already almost the same size as the capital and will continue to grow, especially if you farm the wheat and plantation the chocolate, though you could forgo the farm for a lumbermill on the PFH if you like for production instead of pop. Up to you! You'll have two charges after I plantationed the bananas on my last turn. 

City #4 is just to the north of JRTI and OCISLY, It Builds Character. We bought the settler for this one - thus, 4 cities by turn 30. 




Cotton, deer, and hill are the money tiles here. Just south is where I have planned the Plaza complex. IBC can participate with a decent campus, so I think Camp -> Plantation -> Chop jungle for the builder that emerges before placing the campus. In the meantime you can work on a monument or whatever, no matter. This will get crazy pop growth and have decent production. 

Overview of the northern cities:




The north is pretty dry, but there should be room for a city on the river between IBC and the pinned site to the west, and another on the river to the north, and finally one on the coast in the far north. In the east, there's a good frontier site on the river which will claim land towards India, and cities can spread up that river valley to establish our border. 

The south:



Room to pack in two more cities along the narrow sea, then it's Canadian territory. Lots of barbs here. Most of your military may want to head here in the early days. I signed a DoF with Canada to give you time to eat the city-states before thinking about that. 

In what I think is the far east of the Pangaea, we have India. He has good science and culture, and he's invested in a Holy Site. He should found a religion any turn now, so check out what beliefs he takes.



With Germany AND India chasing religions, I didn't think it worthwhile to invest myself, even though we get easy conversions. It just didn't seem like enough of a benefit to be worth chasing. India doesn't lead us in any meaningful techs and his pop is much lower, so if we continue to out-expand him we should be fine. I just signed a DoF so you don't have to worry about that flank for 30 turns. I figured you could use the time to either expand or eat the city-states. Note that there's a militaristic city-state (not pictured) that I haven't met yet, but you can see the borders when you pick up the save. Be sure not to miss that.



To the south, just across the narrow sea, near BWC and OCISLY, is Canada. Canada's player left so he's run by an AI. He's on the tundra border and should be easy meat.




To the west of Canada is Lisbon, on the edge of the tundra, meat for expansion. There's also a room for a city on the far side of the Chocolate Hills in that river valley. I haven't scouted much this direction so there should be another player contesting this area. 



You can also see Bandar Brunei to the north, another expansion target. I met a German warrior outside the city, so Germany is somewhere to the west of us. He is on one city and built a holy site, so I don't think he'll be very dangerous competition. 

A better look at the northwest:



Cardiff is our final of 3 targetted city-states. Then it's a lot of flat, dry ground. Germany is somewhere west of here, don't know how far. I also haven't scouted for city-sites as thoroughly as I have the east, but there may be good opportunities here. 

Scores. We have sinced moved into 1st place. India is in second, then Hungary, then Japan, then Germany. No one has more than 2 cities apart from us, at 4. We've got a good snowball going.






Hungary and India are the threats. India can be contained peacefully and walled off, Hungary I haven't met but is dangerous with city-states, so we should kill those ASAP. 

Like I said, you can either focus on settlers to fill up the vast spaces north of our land, or you can build military units to eat 5 total cities: Cardiff, BB, Lisbon, and the 2 Canadian cities. Up to you. Other projects include chopping out the Plaza complex and starting to get Commercial Hubs up - the Polish UB is really great and I plan to have a dedicated trader for every city, plus one extra to run foreign trade routes for roads. 

Thanks for covering me, and good luck! See you in September!

The naming scheme is mostly pinned, so you can work it out, I bet. If you're stumped or Google somehow fails I'll fill you in, but I like people finding my schemes out for themselves - it's the teacher in me. ;D I've actually used this one before at Realms Beyond, but it's by far my favorite.

[Kaiser]

I think I have found it, now I have to read the books :D, thanks

https://qntm.org/culture

Thanks for the overview btw, I will check it later in detail and give some thoughts

[Kaiser]

I just realized why the client is working for PBEM18 as well, it is because I see CMFs turn status. I nearly started to play the turn here but realized it early enough before downloading the save.

I will manage the other game via the HP then.

[Kaiser]

I took a look and here are my thoughts:

- How do you get 16 in JRTI, I see 5 for palace and 3 for working the PFFurs but arrive only at half that amount xD
- Where is your trade route, I see the established route between JRTI and BWC but cannot find the trader. Was it plundered?

Wow, this is an amazing start with already 4 cities and a very high income, even though I found it curious to see that your 2nd city has no freshwater either but I fell into the early NW trap in PBEM 17 myself.
Most of the CS are relatively far away so no direct threat at the moment, but they will help Hungary to become strong if we let him use them, a very important information will be figuring out his position and seeing which CS he already knows. Dangerously close is only Bandar Brunei and Fez after we settle in its direction.
From the land quality, the most interesting expansion direction seems to E judging from land quality as far as I can from the tiles I see.
Canada seems to be in quite a pickle with the barbs and his 2nd city being condemned to thirstyness due not even having an eligible location for an aqueduct. I guess I prefer leaving them alone with their barb issues and hopefully being able to snipe the camp, but I am not sure it is worth it considering that it is only 2.5 turns of value.
Pingala first is a given for me as especially for culture we are in dire need.

To the cities:
- JRTI
is as good a Settler pump as it can be, I assume it already has a Granary as it is up to 7 housing and can reach size 5 easily. At size 5 it will bring 17 base, I fully agree with your plan here and will send the Builder to chop the designated GP spot as well as the Jungle (Theatre) location, to get it quicker to 5 pop while speeding up the GP. It will then afterwards will improve the sugar at IBC to get up to 3 amenities.
As the spaces are quite vast, I think we should push expansion from here so the plan is GP into quick Ancestral Hall into Settler spam, we might try to get another Builder out before the GP placement as we have the spare time and I assume you are in the right civic.
- BWC
hm, I am not sure what happens when a Volcano destroys an adjacent aqueduct, but it is the only eligible location. This place will probably be pumping out some military after its Campus to conquer Bandar Brunei. Long term we might be able to execute your Plan with Liang here and then the city might become decent, but I believe we will want Pingala3 and Magnus2 before that
- OCISLY
The Builder will build the two plantations and I am considering the PWheat, harvest the PWheat and the GHFDeer at IBC. Getting another Builde out of JRTI would help as we could do 2, consider the Banana to the SE and still have a charge left to for example chop the jungle at IBC
-IBC
Has in my opinion the highest growth potential so is the likeliest candidate for Pingala even though I might place him somewhere else first with higher population. It is in urgent need of improvements, but I am not sure we will let it finish its Builder in the queue, I favor my above idea and will switch it to something else and the sugar to grow it quicker.

The small task force for Bandar Brunei should be at least 4 Warriors and 2-3 Archers, favorably something stronger as a Warrior for Melee. I currently see 3 Warriors and 1 Slinger, one Warrior will have to monitor the barbs near Canada while the others can start making their way up. That means we need 2 Warrior and 1-2 Slinger (+upgrade ) as units and will try to get them from BWC and IBC.

That being said, I need to see the game and the first turn will probably take quite a while to better familiarize myself with the possibilities and exact situation. Do you currently have Urban Planning and Agoge as Civics or did you pick Ilkum with the wildcard slot?

[Kaiser]

I think CMF has found the two commercial city states first to explain the income. Looking at it again he also has apparently met 2 religious CS first and I believe Fez (scientific) as well.
This might change things, realistically we can only hold one CS as a Suzerain.
Commercial synergizes amazingly with Polands unique building, but Scientific is the stronger generic choice.

[Kaiser]

Ok, the first turn came around, first some further overview pictures



The game has progressed quite a bit, see the score values in the background. India is leading by 16 points, 15 of which are his religion. Divine Spark is solid, but generic pick and needs more districts to shine. However with the exception of Canada, players seem to be quite far spaced (for health reasons ) as I cannot see any loyality indication from Germany yet. So India should be able to get its full benefit eventually.
He is likely already benefitting from Jesuit Education and the Wat will help him with science later in the game. That being said, I am fairly certain that he cannot even build it right now as he needs Theology for the Temple first. 



And Germany also has found a religion, its pantheon is questionable but might be strong with the right location. However it looks like they are off to a slow start, was there a change to religions I am not aware off that both took a religious building they cannot build at the moment as a founder belief?



Japan has built an Encampment, I hope he is close to Hungary and wants to fight.
No other districts are visible here but I see why CMF is building 2 Campi right now, Hypatia is a great price and we are going to gun for her.



As assumed CMF has been snowballing his city count lead by using urban planning and getting some improvements down quickly.




Science wise we are in a very decent position with many techs either boosted or preresearched. Currency is a must to get our commercial hubs down for our special building, afterwards it is likely a quick Astrology for getting a Religion of our own as long as we have district discount and a very decent site. DoF is also still open and very desirable with our piggy in the middle position.



Culture wise I am not so convinced from our current position, this is one of the drawbacks of Religious Settlements pantheon, it stops you from taking one of the early culture pantheons pushing you quicker to PP. We are currently 17 turns from PP and I will speed this up if possible with Pingala and some monuments.



This however is amazing, we are pulling in benefits from all the CS around us



CMF did a great job finishing quests



Or scouting early



And look at that, one of our key city states even has both. I think we should Suzerain and keep Bandar Brunei as it synergizes extremly well with our Market replacement we want to build everywhere anyway. If there is few competition we might even be able to keep Lisbon under our control, although this is a riskier proposition.

[Kaiser]

Into the turn of the 1st set



We were greeted with the anouncement that this era will end in 4 turns, we are already in a Golden Age so we can delay any further era score if possible
The fight in the S is going on, while I originally said I won't bother helping Canada, I actually decided to help for the gold and era score involved.




The bad news are here, there is a barb camo directly next to IBC and we have no units nearby.



JRTI is already very productive but I dislike building a Settler just before we are getting Colonization. The good news is that we are about to get the Amber in our culture, so we know what to use our 3rd charge from the OCISLY on. Sailing will come after Astrology



This is an amazing 2nd city nearly pulling even with JRTI, it will finish its Campus soon and will be building a HS next on the spot adjacent to two Chocolate hills. It is too good a spot for income in one of our most productive cities to let it go to waste, especially with DoF still up considering our geopolotocal situation.
The Horse near the Volcano is a risk but in my opinion the best spot to use our 3rd Builder charge on. It will further speed this city up and help building a military later, let us hope the Volcano stays inactive.

It is likely our Pingala city for the moment.



Next turn it will get a better tile to work and its Builder is on the way to the Choclate. I consider building a Library here next to speed up our push for Hypatia, which then can build BWC'S Library. It will get a commercial hub soon as well



The barb problem is a bummer but I have a decent idea how to handle it in the short term. I will change the districts here and will build a Commercial Hub first, when we come off military duty



Here is the revised district plan, I already bought the two tiles for the GP placement while they were still cheap as we ill have no time to go into Land Surveyors



I can chop the tile the Builder is currently on next turn into IBC for the Builder to then quickly change to Military.
I currently consider using the civic switch at EE to go into Agoge and Colonization to get the Settler out of JRTI (with the chop from the GP spot and the spot E of JRTI) while IBC churns out a Warrior and a Slinger with a chop (maybe even a 2nd Slinger depending on timing and overflow)

I just have to remember to rearrange tile posession next turn after the chop.



And I also did decide to speed the Campus here by delaying growth for two turns in order to start accumulating points for Hypatia earlier. Working the PWheat was to suboptimal so I decide to go for the 4 yield tile instead. Next turn we can work the GHJ instead.

I do not play a lot of online speed, so I am surprised about the quick build times, please feel free to support anytime you want