[Spoiler] Suboptimal's Next Attempt at Lurker Frustration

[suboptimal]

Turn 97

Only notifications are city-state war declarations – Antioch declared on Kaiser and Vilnius declared on Antioch. . Ichabod reclaimed suzerainty of Antioch. Truly is complaining it lacks housing – it has 9 pop and 10 housing. Eh, wait a handful of turns, you’ll have more. No cities completed builds or added population, so quiet turn in that regard.

I’ve realized that in order to complete Apprenticeship for Turn 99 I need to resume it now as I’ll be researching it without the dedication in effect. There will be a pile of overflow to deal with but I’ll figure it out. I’ll likely dump it into Stirrups.

Looking around the map, Yerevan has completed its Harbor. It has not started walls. Unfortunately its garrison defense is now up to 38. I send the warrior outside Wild’s borders south. I’ll use it to help deal with one of the archers. It’ll arrive in three turns and then I’ll make a decision on attack timing.

The Ogaden Valley site would be settled on Turn 106. I’ll likely send the settler through the desert to evade potential Canadian detection. It doesn’t matter which way around the mountains I go, it’s the same travel time. I’ve also done some accounting. Turns out that if I buy the marsh at Truly for Cleggy’s IZ and the builder at Marina I’m one turn short on funds to both buy a granary and the second ring wine when the city settles. I’ll buy the granary on settlement, then buy the wines the turn after. Speaking of buys I save a little money if I buy that marsh at Truly now, so I go ahead and get that out of the way. Also, Wild’s done this:




I might be buying that wine plantation first after all.

Northern galley meets the Brazilian galley checking out the coastal spur between Geneva and Howard. Bad news, Ichabod, the only way you’re getting through Geneva is to go around it. Quadrireme moves southwards. Over on Brazilian shores I see a galley at sea and a chariot on land. Dunno what they’re here for. I head northwest and then northeast. That narrows the fog gap to 5 tiles. It also puts Fez back in view. The quadrireme and Gaius Dulius, along with a bireme, are residing in Fez’s waters. The Cothon remains unbuilt and the walls are incomplete.

Back on land the scout does its thing and finds a dead end at the borders of the Egyptian city of Claire Finn.




Everything west of that mountain group is Claire Finn, everything east is Klyden. Neither is the capital and in fact both are late settlements.

There have been some international developments. Ichabod appears to have lost a city – he lost 12 empire points. Woden gained 9 empire points. Coincidence? I don’t know; they’re not at war. Loyalty flip? Maybe. Do a quick check of gossip and that might be the answer, but not with respect to Woden. Gossip shows that Kaiser conquered a “lost” city. Maybe it hasn’t shown up in the scores yet. Wonder if he liberated a city-state rather than keeping it?

Something for the whacky department. Loyalty pressure from population is supposed to max out (min out?) at -20, but




If that’s an active Reyna it’s not in Recife – that city is 10 tiles from the southernmost tiles in the picture.

I also figured out what was going “wrong” with my loyalty calculation at Bruins. The city is only 9 tiles from The Blues, not 10 as I previously counted. After trying a few combinations I’ve figured out that Gordon Malloy is a 7 population city located 8 tiles from Bruins. That puts it 5 tiles due west of Issac. I’ve also now located Kaiser’s capital. The tooltips up here




show that the bananas and the two coast tiles to the north belong to Ed Mercer, which does not show up in Kaiser’s deal screen. I should start seeing that area in three turns. Wonder how close to the coast he is.

[suboptimal]

Yeah, Amani.   I found it odd because the loyalty calculation applies a max(20,min(-20,...)) bracketing to the population pressure calculation and I thought that's the number shown by Settlervision.  Guess not (and good to know).

[suboptimal]

Turn 98

No notifications. Screen opens to Yerevan, who’s got a third archer out. That warrior I was sending down is going to turn around, get upgraded and then head down again. Hopefully the city continues to not build walls. There does seem to be some action up at Bruins – the Encampment’s walls have been damaged (60/100):




I send the horseman to investigate but get blocked by a couple of Canadian archers. Canada has at least one courser built as their base garrison defense is now 32. I did check the numbers on what happens to Wild if Bruins falls to Egypt. It’s population pressure would drop to -5.7 but would remain positive overall as long as the governor stays put. Egypt would just be holding onto Bruins at a loyalty of zero with no governor. However, Wild could be susceptible to a loyalty flip.

The other horses move east, away from the borders of Yerevan once more in the hope that these units all disperse a bit. I’ll use the galley and a horse to track unit movements while I bide my time.

Cleggy’s second galley is out, as is Foggy’s settler. The settler heads down the road to Compo and the city resumes its builder, which will be the first of two (more on this later). At sea the new galley heads east. The other galley up here learns that Geneva has swords and I also see a lighthouse under construction. On the other side of the ocean I see something I missed last turn – Fez is now losing loyalty as Woden has pulled his troops out. It’s at 61/100 and losing 2.2 per turn. The display shows a -1.2 from population, -2 from a governor and +1 from its monument. Looks like the Amani (not Reyna, thanks Thrawn for pointing that out) is Brazil’s. It’ll revolt to a free city and likely stabilize from there since free cities get +10 loyalty. Dunno if Ichabod will attempt to take or liberate. My galley heads northeast and finds the quad/admiral pair.

As my last action of the turn I move Magnus to Marina because I’ve got plans. After the Entertainment Complex completes I’ll build a monument. The builder under construciton at Foggy will arrive at the southern stone and harvest it into an empty build queue. I’ll put a Theater Square down and the Magnuschop will put it one turn from completion. The builder will then plantation the silks, do a harvest & mine on the stone west of the city and finish with a banana plantation. That second harvest will complete the city’s amphitheater and put about 45 into an arena.
I decided against buying the builder in Marina because of the cost. Instead, builder #2 out of Foggy will put down a mine and then put down three banana plantations and a lumbermill at Howard (the city is getting the forest in 8 turns according to the tile picker). Cleggy is going to build the third builder right after the current galley completes. That’ll take 6 turns and I’ll use it to pasture the cows, camp the elephants, chop out the two second ring jungles to the south and then head to Truly to Magnuschop the stone into the Armory and the first of three military engineers.

Another small quandary is poor Auntie Wainwright:




Medieval Age city with Ancient Age production, and it’s already working both jungles. It’ll be up to a whole 4 per turn once it grows its population (after next turn) and starts working the whales. Lots of flat land, though. I’ve decided that I’m going to put the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus here on the pinned location and start slowly building it at 4.4 per turn (at least, while I’m still in Autocracy). I’ve got two options for completing the wonder here. The first is Isidore, who would be claimed in the T135-T140 range. The second is Magnuschopping the two jungles and the forest, which is going to happen anyway. I can also use a military engineer for this, which is a bonus. The chop approach is the primary one since Isidore isn’t guaranteed and if I do pull it off it saves a charge for something else.

I suppose you’re wondering “why here”, especially since the wonder synergizes with Pingala and he’s at Cleggy. Well, Cleggy is intended as an industrial city first. Pingala is there because it’s one of my two largest cities and will eventually be generating GPP of the types that I want most (admirals, scientists, theater types and engineers). The city also has not claimed much in the way of water tiles and even when it does I’d want the population getting , not working water. What Auntie Wainwright has is food potential, and lots of it. My plan is to clear the tiles to the east, use a Serfdom builder to put down a farm triangle and a whale boats and then watch the city grow. Except for the three farms it’ll work only sea tiles. Yes, I’ll need a lighthouse, but by that point in the game I should have enough income to comfortably purchase one into the city.

Next turn the Medieval Age starts and things should get interesting.

[suboptimal]

Turn 99

The Classical Age is over!  Long live the Classical Age!  Apprenticeship has completed, Fedualism is now one turn out with the advanced era penalty removed and I’ve got a dedication to make and Industrial Zones to put down.  Geneva is the only city-state to give me a quest, they want the eureka for Buttress, which isn’t going to happen since I’m “hard” researching it (if you call 4 turns “hard”).  Me and everyone else on this….planet?...has a Golden Age on their hands.  As planned, I take the Free Inquiry dedication for 36.  With the completion of Truly’s library and a population gain in Cleggy that takes my rate up to 88.9 per turn (from 46.0).  Missed doubling my science by less than a library.  Nice.  Current tech tree state:




Iron Working is off the left edge and will take one turn (technically both it and Military Engineering are complete).  I’ve got a pile of overflow to deal with from Apprenticeship with the advanced era penalty disappearing and how much I had already put into the tech.  I’m going to put one turn into Stirrups and then start plowing everything else.  I’m going to get Military Engineering and Iron Working out of the way first, then finish Buttress while I wait for the settler to reach its final destination (since there’s a Theater Square getting placed there).  Completing Iron Working will also let me use Castles as a turn dump if I need it.  Theoretically I could complete Military Engineering after next turn and then beeline Mass Production - I'd get there in 17 more turns.  Industrialization would be another 27 after that without additional eurekas.  

On the civics side I’ll complete Mercenaries after Feudalism.  I’ll take out Veterancy and Serfdom and put in Caravansaries for some extra and Professional Army for upgrades.  I don’t want to put in Natural Philosophy yet (it’s worth 8) until the techs get a little more expensive.  Medieval Faires will follow, at which point I’ll take out Professional Army and put in Manuever for a handful of chariots at Foggy.  Aesthetics will replace Caravansaries for +4.  Once Exploration completes (late 110’s) I’ll likely “stop everything”, put in Limes and build a pile of walls in a bunch of cities (Foggy, Howard, Cleggy, Truly, Ogaden Valley, Compo).

Industrial Zone goes down at Compo for 95 cost. overbuilding the sheep.  I put the citizen on the open plains until the rice is claimed in 5 more turns.  Another goes down at Truly at the same cost.  Cleggy’s goes down for full price at 160.  Truly starts its Aqueduct, Compo will start the IZ after its trader completes next turn and Cleggy will start a builder next turn.  Auntie Wainwright has completed its monument and starts the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus on the grassland west of the city with 133 turns to go.  

No notifications of any urgency.  Look around and see that Yerevan is building a lighthouse.  This is actually a good thing as I should be able to settle Ogaden Valley before that’s complete.  Galley sneaks in for a look and the units are starting to scatter a bit.  Good.  Western horse advances to the river:




It’s the pike that’s got Canada’s defenses up somewhat.  I have also figured out something interesting – mousing over Canada’s units does not bring up the combat UI, while doing so over Egypt’s does.  I think this has to do with the fact that I can’t surprise declare on Canada.  Wonder if that changes after a denouncement?  I move the horseman back out of the way and skip turn the other two.  Warrior gets back into Marina’s territory and the settler heads down the road.  The settler will spend one more turn on the road and then head through the desert.  It’s actually a turn slower but it keeps Canada from knowing I’ve got a settler in the area until it’s too late.  The good news is that I’ll see niter before I leave the road on Turn 101.  

At sea the galley finds nothing interesting.  At first I thought there was a Geneva galley on an ocean tile but on closer look it’s just a reef tile 3 hexes off the coast.  Newer galley continues east.  Quadrireme and admiral head east and




Now I just need 20 more era score for a normal age.    Good thing I didn’t turn east earlier and get it last turn.  I finish out my movement with these ships and break through a small alley in the fog.  Northeast of Fez I find Phoenician borders four tiles inland.  The Phoenician quadrireme and Gaius are up here, along with a horseman, to clear a barbarian camp. I’m going to head north and look for the Phoenician coast – Woden’s got a bunch of Cothons and they’ve got to be somewhere.  I check Fez’s loyalty and it’s now at -4.  Rebellion is in 27 turns.

Scout trundles along and that’s the end of my turn.  

Take a look around and see that Kaiser lost quite a bit of milpower last turn – he’s down to 422 from 474 last turn and 546 two turns ago.  I also see that Phoenicia is able to generate 41 without a single completed Campus (he’s generating 0 Great Scientist points).  Woden was getting 65 last turn so I have to think that’s Free Inquiry at work.  He’ll likely be back up at 65 when the next turn comes around.

Before that can happen, though, we get to experience the splendor of the World Congress.  Wonder if the “Vote to stop accumulation of Great People Points” resolution will make an appearance?  

[suboptimal]

Turn 99 Part II – World Congress

Yeah, it’s that time of the game. Everyone looks at a couple of voting topics and opts to spend (or more likely, not spend) their diplomatic favor. In PBEM 17 (or was it 15?) I realized I could exit out of the World Congress screen to look around. However, it never occurred to me to see if there was any info leakage. Specifically, does the diplo banner show both the updated yields and scores of the players after me and the diplomatic favor expenditures of the people in front of me? I exit out of the World Congress (more on that, obviously, coming up) and check the banners vs. my tracking spreadsheet.

First off, yes, Woden, Canada and Kaiser have all had their ribbons update accordingly. I won’t update my tracking spreadsheet just yet since I’m always recording “last turn” with them anyways. Woden is up to 82, likely from taking Free Inquiry and slotting Naval Infrastructure. It’ll make him more difficult to catch. Interestingly neither Canada or Egypt had any significant yield increases. Wonder what they’re up to? I check Ichabod’s diplo ribbon – he’s at the same total as before, so anything he might have spent (which I’ll need to check) isn’t reflected here.

I do get to take a look around the map as well. The Canadian archer has disappeared and the horseman is at about 50% damage. Bruins, meanwhile, could be in some trouble:




That Encampment is toast on Egypt’s next turn. Canada has gone up 7 points in milpower, Egypt down one. Elsewhere, Fez is now showing the Fist of Rebellion as it’s loyalty has updated and it will become a free city in 14 turns.

I have run some loyalty scenarios with respect to Bruins and Wild. If Bruins falls to Egypt it will leave Wild exposed to a potential loyalty flip. I’d wait until Marina finished its Amphitheater (Turn 113/114) and then run Bread & Circuses. That’s flip the city in somewhere around 15±5 turns, depending on relative population levels, whether Bruins is razed or kept by Kaiser and whether I’ve taken Yerevan. The upshot is that if I got Wild to join my empire it’d immediately begin a slower flip process on Bruins. However, by then I’d hope to have a couple of great works of writing stashed in Marina to speed that process….

Back to the main purpose of this turn:




Hmmm...trade routes and great people. The latter one doesn’t surprise me. I don’t know how option ‘B’ works on the trade route voting with respect to city-states.

So, how to vote here? Well, for trade routes I could either vote myself or against someone else. I think the latter option is more likely with Kaiser as the target given that he’s at war with two people. No one will be sending him trade routes though since it’s for “us” and for him. There’s also another possibility – based on what I’m seeing at Geneva and Yerevan a Harbor provides +3 to foreign trade routes. Given the number of Harbors I have that could be lucrative for someone. Of course, the same could be said for Woden and no one except Egypt and Canada can reach my cities anyway (and neither have likely scouted enough coast to have open water). I still put my freebie vote into Option ‘A’ targeting myself.

Now, as for the Patronage vote. Given my domination of Admirals I could see everyone saying “knock that off” and targeting admirals with Option ‘B’. This is a pangea map, though, and everyone is off the coast quite a bit so how harmful are all those admirals? I could see Ichabod voting for Great Prophets to keep Egypt and Phoenicia from getting their own religions – both would claim a Great Prophet in four turns. I don’t see any reason to try to ban other great people at this point in time. On the flip side we could try to double scientist point output but what’s that get anyone? It just means we all plow through them twice as fast. I don’t see any reason why “the field” would want to double the output of other types, unless Ichabod wanted to speed up writers or perhaps someone wanted to speed up merchants. Voting engineers lets the cat out of the bag, so to speak, while voting generals might send the wrong impression to….Canada? Egypt? I decide to vote against Great Prophets. I figure that even though it’d cost Ichabod 9 per turn if passed it might show him that I’m “onside” with him for the immediate/intermediate future by supporting him as the only religion having civ on the map. Votes cast the turn ends.

I also noticed that in the prior game that got past Turn 100 (that would be PBEM 15) that the ages ended every 30 turns after the Medieval started – ages rolled over on T131 and T161with a T101 Medieval start. The game didn’t make it to T191 but I assume that it would have rolled over then. Something to keep in mind as it means I need 20 more era score in 30 turns to avoid a dark age.

[suboptimal]

Turn 100

Let’s see how the game has changed on the players’ first take of democracy this game…




OK, so I was targeted by Canada, Woden and myself but Kaiser chucked a pile of votes into this one.




This one is more scattered, though it makes sense. Ichabod is the only one generating merchant points, Woden has no Campus districts and I think Canada was attempting to help me (and/or Woden) out.

Close that screen, Feudalism is complete and Stirrups is down to one turn because it’s been boosted. Swap tech to Military Engineering – I’m going to have a crapton of overflow next turn and nowhere for it to go. I’ll do Shipbuilding next, drain its overflow into Buttress then complete Mathematics and Iron Working to open up some longer-turn techs. Time to change policies – out goes Maritime Industries, in goes Serfdom. I start Mercenaries as I’d like to get unit upgrades done sooner and the completion of Medieval Faires will let me take out Professional Army. Marina, Auntie Wainwright and Nora Batty have all gained population this turn. The Entertainment Complex at Marina will complete next turn,

Trader at Compo is complete and starts its Industrial Zone (10 turns to complete) The trader relocates to Howard for a route to Geneva next turn. Settler moves west on the road to Marina. If I don’t need to backtrack for niter it heads for the desert next turn. Cleggy starts a builder (5 turns) and the galley heads...east. I’ll use it as a picket.

Over at Yerevan and Canada I move my western horse to the jungle hill next to Yerevan’s Holy Site. I park the galley two tiles off the coast, which let’s me see everything but the city-state’s incense tile. Eastern horsemen hold pat. The navy has nothing to report except for the galley on the left coast of the land mass – it’s found what may be the northern passage. The galley in the Tethys Ocean unmasks Ed Mercer:




Yeah, I wish I had that capital location. Forested plains hills, hills coffee and a double-reef adjacent Campus. I’ll find out next turn what a theoretical trade route to here would yield, but I’m still sending the trader to Geneva. Land recon doesn’t find anything notable. The Harbor under construction (and the northern PFH) belong to Alara Kitan.

Since it’s Turn 100 here’s a look at the current scores.




My milpower is 30 higher due to the uncounted completion of the galley. I also forgot to record my completion of Feudalism so my civic count is one higher and my score is 3 higher.

[Alhambram]

Things are looking slowly good, time to catch them up with science and if possible with culture.

We can do two things: keep building or intervene with Canadian-Egyptian war if Kaiser starts sieging Bruins. What is best option?

[suboptimal]

For science the issue will be keeping up once the current age ends. I should be able to complete Education without too much fuss (5 turns at current output) to build Universities. I eventually need to complete my two pending libraries (+8 total) and find Bologna (another +7 with the libraries completed and three envoys). I'm also considering attacking Fez once I get caravels - liberation will give me 6 envoys straight off the bat. Culture-wise I'm not too worried. the Theater Square construction is just starting (Howard completes EoT102, Marina completes EoT105 or 106) and I've got plans for at least three more, maybe 4.

Regarding the Canadian/Egyptian war I've got three horsemen in the area, plus three warriors I'll be able to upgrade after next turn. Intervention is an option but I don't know to what end. My preferred outcome is that Egypt takes Bruins and attempts to keep it. My second preferred outcome is for Egypt to raze the city. Canada holding the city is the least preferred right now. My reasoning for this is that it's easier to flip Wild if Bruins is not Canadian (or not on the map). I currently exert the most pressure and if the city rebels it goes straight to me (same with Geneva, actually, though that's not close to rebelling yet). I could run Bread & Circuses at any point starting this coming turn but would prefer to wait until after T105/106 since I'd have more population and the Ogaden Valley city would add to the pressure (as would Yerevan).

I was originally thinking to make the Ogaden Valley's first district a Theater Square. However, an Entertainment Complex there first would let me run a second Bread & Circuses project on Canada's northern half. It'd also be discounted and built quicker than a full-cost Theater Square (which would be district #2 in this scenario).

What I need to do is run through Woden's city list and see how much he's getting from population. His rate with no Cothons is 41 and he has no Campus districts so where's all the extra coming from?

[suboptimal]

Turn 101

Military Engineering complete. Clear that window, notifications are lack of amenities in two locations (don’t care where, they’re both at -1) and two resources found. So, where’s the niter?




There are seven on the map that I can see, two are in my territory and easily accessible. That plains tile at Cleggy has doubled its yield and the city is now at 25 per turn. That tile is getting mined and I’ll decide if the cows are getting pastured or if the stone at Truly is more important. The Campus at Foggy is a somewhat lucky break as I’m now accumulating the resource without a builder action. As for the River Avon, well, that river just got a whole lot more attractive as a settlement site. As for the rest of the map there’s one in the tundra east of The Blues, one in Canada two tiles SW of Bruins’ Encampment (now redlined), one in Bortus’ territory and one in the plains south of Sao Paolo. I set tech research to Shipbuilding and will follow that with Buttress.

In other news, Marina’s Entertainment Complex is complete, as is Foggy’s builder. Foggy starts builder #2 and Marina starts a monument. The builder at Foggy heads for Marina and will take three more turns to reach the stone, at which point I’ll harvest it to into an empty build queue and rush out a (discounted) Theater Square. At that point in time if I think Bread & Circuses will do some loyalty damage I’ll run that; otherwise I’ll build the amphitheater. The settler, not needing to divert for niter, leaves the road and heads towards the desert. Settlement in the Ogaden Valley in 5 more turns. I send a warrior along for escort duty; it’ll upgrade to a swordsman after the city founds. No walls at Yerevan, so all’s good there. Up at Howard the trader heads for Geneva for 121 and the Medieval Faires inspiration. Science rate is now 91.4 per turn.

Looking around in Canada I see Kings has a defense of 52 – send the horse to investigate and that’s where the pike is. I’m so used to not seeing pikemen in these games it doesn’t even occur to me to think of them. The horse retreats back to empty space. I’m going to park back on the jungle hill next turn while I bide my time on Yerevan. Other units in the area stay put.

Quadrieme fogbusts the oceanic midpoint between the coasts heading in a southerly direction. There’s a big area south of my shores and I want to make sure there are no….surprises...in the form of islands down here. Other galleys move on their way. Fast galley sees only tundra in the northern passage. Iapetus galley reveals




The Harbor is its only district according to the deal screen. Scout trundles along, finding nothing interesting.

In checking things out I see that Woden is now generating 8 Great Admiral points per turn. This means we will both have enough points for Zheng He on the same turn. Since I’m first in the turn order that works out well for me. In order to beat me there he’d have to either recruit with or or get to 10 GAP in the next 4 turns. When I’m one turn out from getting him It’d be 300 or 375 to recruit. I want him, but bad enough to spend that kind of cash.

I take a closer look at Woden’s population counts and science rate. His current yield is 85.5 and based on the WC intermission he was at 41 base before dedications. Assuming about 40 is from his dedications (he jumped from ~41 to ~82 from the intermission to last turn) he’s got 20 adjacency in Cothons. He’s got 42 population on the deal screen (at least, while he keeps 4 pop Fez) and I’ll assume 8 at his capital (could be 10, but it keeps the math easy). That’s 21 from population and another 10 or so from Pingala. That’s 71. Assume a couple of iron resources for another couple. Wonder if he’s got Yosemite or another natural wonder providing up that way? Speaking of Fez he’s put a governor in there and is now gaining 3.5 loyalty per turn. He’s also in the Renaissance Era now and base don Fez’s defense of 52 he might have a musketman around.

I also see that Egypt is pulling in 3 Great Engineer points per turn. Theoretically I could grab Isidore with a couple of projects out of Cleggy. Two projects would cost about 260 (or so) and take about 8 turns. However, I could use that production instead for a builder (for improvements at Auntie Wainwright) and outright building the Hanging Gardens at my intended Theater Square complex. Letting Kaiser take Isidore would give me a shot at either James of St. George (free Medieval Walls) or Bi Sheng (extra districts), both of which are likely more useful in the long run.

[suboptimal]

Turn 102

I’ve got notifications that the Nile River flooded and that Egypt wasn’t damaged by it. Great. There’s also a new barbarian camp in town...all the way over by Sao Paolo. Not my problem.

Shipbuilding is complete, start Buttress, that’ll take two turns no boosts but need to finish Mathematics first (1turn). Nice. I’ll need to hold Mercenaries for a turn while Foggy’s builder completes but I can put that turn into Theology (for a quick policy change if needed later). Howard has gained a population and I set it to work the remaining open plains tile for some . It’ll complete the Theater Square after this turn and start work on the amphitheater. Nora Batty’s lighthouse also completes after this turn. I think Nora will work on a builder for improvements and/or chops at Auntie Wainwright and Cleggy or Truly will get the trader out after their IZ’s complete. Speaking of Howard, a Canadian warrior has come over to say hello. I also decide to buy the 62roduction volcanic soil tile in Cleggy’s third ring. It’ll add a bit more production now and a bit more once the builder gets over there for a mine.

Settler and builder move, other units stand pat, galley does a shuffle to see what’s up at Yerevan (not much). The Encampment at Bruins has been pillaged. I move to the river to check force complements and find an archer and battering ram pair adjacent to the Encampment and a 2x promoted archer in the forest 2 tiles across the river. There’s likely some more units north of the Encampment. I move back to my starting position. I’ll let this battle lie for the time being, especially since I’ll likely be starting my attack on Yerevan in a couple of turns (Turn 105, specifically).

At sea the fast galley has located LA VENTA:




Dunno why it’s in all caps but it is. On a related note Woden did earn a Great Prophet last turn but has not founded a religion yet. At the other end of the passage I find a slightly disturbing sight:




Woden’s got caravels. Yippee. That also means he can send land units across the ocean, so I should get my quadrireme back towards the east coast for picket duty. The borders peeking out are from The Grey Havens, a pop 3 city with a Cothon placed. I decide that the newest galley is going to hang tight near Cleggy and it backtracks towards home. I might need that for later. You can also see revealed land to the west – that’s my fast galley’s current location. I’m expecting some sort of inlet/bay type situation between these two points in order for Woden to have that many Cothons. He’s got a nice setup here if that’s the case, though – it’d be relatively impenetrable via sea unless one had a significant tech lead.

So, I’ve been seeing what Egypt has on their coast. It’s not much – I haven’t seen any military units on land so far. I was planning on building 4-5 chariots to have for home defense. The question is whether I should take a risk and go on the offensive against Kaiser’s empty coast. I could have 8-10 chariots built by Turn 115 and enough and iron to upgrade at least 8 of them. However, any attack I’d made would be more of a pillaging run than anything else as I’d never be able to keep his cities due to loyalty pressure.

Kaiser is the main issue for all of us in this game – Woden is the science leader but his research is going to crash to a halt come Turn 140 or so (era counter says 37-57 turns). After the Medieval Age ends Kaiser will be back on top so he needs to go down a couple of pegs. It’d also take pressure off Canada though right now I don’t mind a bit of pressure on them right now.

Ultimately, though, would such an attack further my own objectives? I don’t know. It’d knock back the game leader but that would likely just open up things for Ichabod. Woden is also in front of me and is developing out a bunch of smaller cities. It might be worth keeping the chariots for sudden defense, getting a few more cities settled and continuing on with my original plan (amass culture). Having that many knights around would also ding my income unnecessarily. It would also delay my industrialization a bit, which I don’t know that I want to do, either.