uSuthu!: A Chevalier Story

[marcopolothefraud]

Which governor will you take when you complete EE?

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Probably Pingala's first two promotions at first.

After that, I dunno. I like Liang to get a builder pump set up early in single player, but here I might not have that luxury.

Magnus's second promotion for a settler pump is too big of an investment.

Pingala's third promotion might be needed in order to keep my research up to snuff - that's as good as a campus district in the early game, and I don't know if I'll be building campuses.

Finally, Amani's always a good backup when I need a suzerainty.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Early morning turn, let's see what boneheaded blunders I make.

First, I opt for the Irrigation inspiration over building the mine, which will cost 2 gpt until my builder emerges. However, it also nets Craftsmanship one turn sooner:




I slot in a second builder, due in 4 turns. He'll mine the copper, plantation the sugar, and, eventually, camp the deer. That tile is very expensive, though, and I'm planning to mimic Archduke and buy a trader. He nabbed a second barb camp out in the fog, btw, putting him up 100 gold on me. 

Meanwhile, I spot my third barb unit all game, the first non-scout:




I'll withdraw towards Chard, while the newly built-warrior comes down to confront him. Then we'll start to probe north and south cautiously with our home defense units trying to find the camps. I opted to explore deeply instead of defogging hte immediate neighborhood once I had a few city locations, figuring Kaiser wouldn't hide the juicy stuff in our own backyards. If he's got 2 more city-states right next to me, maybe some natural wonders, I'll feel like a goof, but, eh. Anyway, finally getting around to exploring the local neighborhood. 

Here's Archduke's territory. Note the trader:




Good move, as Persia. I'll take advantage while we have open borders, he has to be at least a few turns from Early Empire still. I'm 1 turn away but I've had double his culture for a while. ...Actually, I know exactly how much culture he has, and exactly when he hit the inspiration (this turn), so I shoudl be able to calculate if he's there or not. Anyway, I'll follow the road to Carthak, defog it, then head home via the north. 




Overview.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Quick turnaround - the barb whacked at my slinger, which I withdraw over the river to try to tempt him after me, while bringing up the warrior. This is 2/3 of Bronze Working if I can nab him, then I can explore the south. Builder in 2 out of Chard, 6/7 out of Bromhead. Irrigation is still a ways out, so all I'll get from the builder is a mine for now.

Now, I won't be running Colonization for some time, so what do I do while I wait for Bromhead to finish the builder to swap into Colonization? Right now, another warrior would give me 4, which feels like a lot. Another slinger is 3, which I need for the Machinery inspiration (although upgrade gold is tight at the moment if I follow my "buy a trader" plan...Guess I should have dropped the mine first after all, huh?). 

I dunno. With Nubia out there in the fog, and Immortals next door, more military is always sound. I'm not actually worried about overbuilding, since I aim to throw that army at the city-state oasis as soon as I can safely do so.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Lurkers, rules question. I want to move through a CS's territory, but there's a worker in the way.

If I declare war to move through, and delete the worker, that's kosher, right? I assume I can't KEEP the worker, since that'd qualify as farming the CS. But I also don't want to wait for idiotic Venice or Kumasi to move their guy aside and let me pass.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Screw it. I'll wait a turn. See if he moves off. I can't find any way out of this desert, mountains and ocean everywhere. Only way out I've spotted so far si through the borders. If I don't get out before Early Empire, then I'll be stuck until I declare war or get suzerainty, bah.

Other news...nothing, really. I took some photos. A little tired, too tired to upload. Sorry for the lame reports today, it's a long monday and I've had three turns in 10 hours. Crazy pace.

[suboptimal]

Lurkers, rules question. I want to move through a CS's territory, but there's a worker in the way.

If I declare war to move through, and delete the worker, that's kosher, right? I assume I can't KEEP the worker, since that'd qualify as farming the CS. But I also don't want to wait for idiotic Venice or Kumasi to move their guy aside and let me pass.

I think under the current rules meta that'd be farming a CS....IIRC you wouldn't be able to delete a builder that didn't have its full complement of charges, but having never tried to do that before....

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Not gonna lie, the rapid turn pace is actually kind of hurting my participation in this game. 

That is, I turn the turns around quick because I feel obliged to, and it's doable since I'm working from home so often...but I still have quite a lot to do at work, now that the semester is in full-swing, with grading and lesson planning and parent contact and etc. 

So my reporting has been dropping in quality - I'm writing htis as I wait for the latest turn to load. One turn a day, with time to report it, would be so much more relaxing for me. There's also a two-turn gap in my spreadsheet, which actually loses LOTS of information since the changes from turn to turn get easier to mix. I have an end of turn save for 34, but nothing for 35. Frustrating. 

Oh, well, we soldier on. Nothing much to report - no barbs other than that (now dead) warrior sniffing around, the city-states have parked their builders in the only exits I can find to the great desert, and I've opted to go settler out of the capital and military out of Bromhead. It's conservative, but after my experience with Canada I am taking no chances getting screwed over by barbs. The units won't go to waste since we'll capture Kumasi as soon as I can upgrade swords. 

As of turn 36, Thrawn still hasn't founded his second city, putting him 15 turns behind everyone else there. I wonder if Nubia had barb trouble? Dunno, but he's going to find the pitatis outdated very soon. Need to keep an eye out in case he flings them at someone in an attempt to stay relevant - either he or Russia is my southern neighbor. I'll push a unit that way soon to make contact. 

Let's see...research wise, we're bringing in Irrigation now, then I think grabbing Archery and on to Masonry until I can eureka Bronze Working. Then we'll grab that and throw down a pair of Ikandas, then we're probably set for infrastructure. Build military, build enough infra to grab key inspirations, and otherwise push on the desert and snowball. 

EDIT: Speak of the devil, Thrawn finally got around to founding city #2. 

Hypothesis: Thrawn is my southern neighbor. Russia is off to a good start with lots of lavras, but Nubia has been really, really slow to expand. That could be because of a barb swarm at the cap, which would limit scouting, and I'd expect my southern neighbor to have met me by now - I've already done a loop around Persia's capital and headed home, with my warrior going the wrong direction at game start! Russia should have made it by now, but maybe Thrawn was too distracted by barbs. 

If so, that increases the need for a strong deterrence military. Thrawn is tops of military score, ahead of me, and he upgraded his first pitatis around turn...27, it looks like. So yeah. We need to keep a lookout. Need to get a picket line to the south for early warning of any shenanigans. 

Or it's Russia, in which case i need a picket line so I can rush him instead.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Again too much to do for a proper report, but I had some images upload in the background so I can drop them real quick. My last overview, taken yesterday, is from turn 36:




I really need to start scouting the south, but my warrior is healing for a bit first. The slinger will tentatively push SW, but again, staying cautious. I aim to bring him back to upgrade into an archer soon. Going to finish archery before a third slinger, I think - gold is too tight right now after the trader purchase. 

Also, going double settler is good for the snowball, but too risky with such a void to my south and Immortals to the north. I need to survive to Mercenaries first, and hang in there with tech. I can afford slightly slower expansion. So for now, the capital is going to get out settler #3 for Hook, which will found just a few turns after Nubia has city #2 (around the mid '40s, I think), while Bromhead will build an archer or two. That will give me a solid core to push on Kumasi around the time I get Iron Working.

Tech wise we're going to finish Archery and then start on Bronze Working while I hunt down a third barb for the eureka. Here's a possible candidate:




Obviously I don't want to fight Archduke's barbs for him. He's cleared 3 camps to my 0, which is bad luck on the one hand but on the other he's managed his thin military magnificently - it hasn't slowed his growth hardly at all and he's up 150 gold on me from the camps alone, to say nothing of his good income. 

Medium-term plan is still the same: Get out to 3 or 4 cities, take Kumasi, then Antioch, and snowball from there. Tech is Archery -> Bronze Working -> Masonry/HBR/IW/Writing in some combination to get my basics in place.

[VoiceInTheWilderness]

Just popped by the forums for the first time in awhile, and as I'm not spoiled anywhere else I think I'm gonna dedlurk you.

Wait, s$&%, that means I should say something.

Erm... uhh...

Where's Rome at, anyway? I saw you announce first contact, but I don't have any clear idea where that or his start are.