[Spoilers] Chevalier Gives You Something to Cry Aboot

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I think generally 1 for 1 is just a vague "I don't mean anything evil towards you at this time" deal, like fish for fish in Civ IV.

[williams482]

All right, that makes sense. Maybe suboptimal is planning to intervene in the Punic-Brazilian war, and doesn't want us to be spooked by his buildup? That would add some helpful extra chaos.

[williams482]

Turn 118:

Still no sign of Egyptian forces. Blackhawks is Catholic. Kings swaps off the builder, and onto to the aqueduct. I've waffled between that and the Commercial Hub, but the Aqueduct is cheaper, more urgent because it provides a valuable boost, and there are Commercial Hubs in progress all across Canada right now. EDIT: Ha, nope. We're working on the Commercial Hub because of my clumsy clicking. 

Military units continue to spread out across our empire: 



Now that I understand his message, I send suboptimal a 1/1 gold deal to show I feel the same. Why should the laggards fight for scraps at the feet of dueling giants? Especially since the laggard that isn't us has the bigger army. 

Kaiser made a very aggressive settlement near the Punic/Brazilian border, in addition to claiming the Devils spot a few turns back:



The loyalty on that spot is iffy, but if those mountains continue (appeal-watching says "probably"), the spot is actually extremely defensible. A governor in the city will likely keep it safe enough, and it has solid tiles. Pretty good plant. 

Woden and Ichabod are definitely fighting; Woden lost 37 milpower even with last turn's presumed frigate upgrade, and spent his full gold income on the turn. Ichabod netted out +3 milpower and spent about 250g. 

Scores: 




"State of the Empire" post coming shortly.

[williams482]

The State of the Empire:

As stated earlier, my plan is to proceed with rapid, focused economic development, pausing briefly to get Medieval Walls up in my border cities. When Monarchy finishes on t120, I will swap to it and adopt Conscription, Limes, Retainers, Urban Planning, and Serfdom. All cities with prebuilt builders will switch over to them, and research will go into the then-boosted Castles tech. On t121, Castles completes, and any border city (all of them except Penguins) not finishing up a builder will switch over to Medieval Walls. Once those are done, we'll switch to completing the Commercial Hubs + Markets, and trying to set up a spell in Colonization for a trio of Settlers. This plan is far from certain, and any visible buildup of Egyptian troops near our border will necessitate immediate and violent changes back to a wartime footing. After all, we are still at war. 

Blues:



Our capital and strongest producer will be the last to finish their builder. I won't claim this is completely intentional, but it is desirable, as it will absorb the largest part of the cost increases. Relevant tile improvements will be limited to a lumber mill and mine from it's own builder. The cow pasture will be swapped to Penguins, which will be able to work it once the stone tile is within our borders. Production plan is builder -> walls -> Commercial Hub, swapping to settlers at an indeterminate future point. At least one, possibly two will be produced from Blues thanks to high innate production, good regrowth ability, and Ancestral Hall boost. A settler with 44h already invested currently takes 8t here, no other city can currently complete one in less than 17t. 

Kings:



This food-poor production site will be getting three new lumber mills, then it's builder will go help out at Bruins. Build plan is Builder -> Aqueduct -> Walls, because I do need that aqueduct to boost Military Engineering as soon as possible and I do not want to waste beakers on boostable tech while already so far behind. I'm okay delaying the walls a bit here because Kaiser has shown no inclination to target non-Bruins sites thus far, and Kings seems the least likely of them all to become his primary focus in the future, being safely behind the river and flanked by other cities. 

Penguins:



This is a really nice site, and (fortunately) the only spot in our empire thus far where Canada's tundra bonuses have been worth a damn to date. It does not have a builder in progress, and will rely on help from Blues and Blackhawks to get the cow, deer, fish, and crabs hooked up. All those tiles except the crabs will be worked at pop 6, easily reachable with extra housing from walls and improvements. The crabs are desirable to boost Celestial Navigation, as well as to provide a high gold tile if we are forced to get back on a war footing before most of the Hubs complete. Build order is Campus -> finish Ancient Walls -> Library/TBD. Eventually we will want a +5 Harbor here, and I tentatively pinned what would be a +2 Holy site as a plausible pop 7 district. A +5 Commercial Hub would be another reasonable use of the spot. 

Blackhawks:



Build order here will be builder -> walls -> Commercial Hub. The builder will definitely put down the pinned mine and elephant camp, plus the deer at Penguins. Those two farms I pinned would be decent choices in single player, but they probably aren't optimal here as Blackhawks will be able to work all it's good tiles at pop 5, which it will reach before the builder even completes. If that 1/3 PFH comes into the borders in a timely manner it would be a good place for a lumber mill, or these charges could be invested into marsh harvests at Blues to cover for lost pop from Settlers. 

Bruins:



This is the city with the most builder labor going into it, all of that assistance coming from Wild and Kings. All told, we'll be adding plantations on the banana and incense, a lumber mill on the GFH, and a chop + mine of the jungle hill 1NW of the city center. That jungle was pretty annoying in the battle here earlier, saving Kaiser a valuable musket because I couldn't shoot over it. Clearing it does open Bruins up to more ranged strikes, but given the rough terrain an opponent needs to navigate to reach the targetable tiles, I think the extra vision favors the defender. Build order will be walls -> Commercial Hub, with the possibility of a settler to absorb the two Magus-boosted jungle chops this city will be getting, assuming Kaiser doesn't force us to dump them into walls instead. 

Wild: 



And finally our newest existing city. Wild is close enough on it's Commercial Hub and far enough from current dangers that It's build order will be builder -> Hub -> walls -> market, and I may swap the walls and market to speed along the possibly-attainable Guilds boost (Medieval Faires will likely be out of our reach). It will be getting a mine on the grass hill 1NE and a chop + mine on the jungle hill between it and Bruins, with Bruins the beneficiary of the chop but ceeding the mine tile back to Wild. 

Red Wings:



A solid spot, but sadly squeezed by Yerevan turning our final Envoy into a 5f floodplain tile (instead of the 4f2h floodplain tile, for some reason. I imagine Suboptimal is also not pleased with that choice). This will be the first new city founded, as it's the only site a rival of ours could reasonable reach, and will likely have to knock out a granary before starting it's +3 harbor due to the low housing cap and lack of spots for a second +0.5 housing improvement in the first ring. The builder will definitely irrigate the wheat, lumber mill that grass forest, and either harvest + mine or quarry the stone, leaving one or two charges free for fishing boats, or use elsewhere. 

Capitals:



Another solid if unspectacular spot that should be very strong with some builder love and border expansion. A silk plantation and TFH lumber mill (same as a PFH would be once improved) are gimmies, as is the second ring sheep pasture, but as that requires both a border expansion and a long walk for the builder that won't be a super early improvement. The two second ring plains hills are certainly worth improving once borders and pop are large enough to use them, but again that could be a bit with the low food here. Sharing a sheep and marsh with Blues might be worthwhile in the early going. Unfortunately the obvious campus spot is third ring and we won't have much cash to spend, so we'll probably need to figure out an alternate first district. Maybe a discounted Entertainment Complex next to the two Blues sheep? We'll want one eventually for district discounts and amenities, and this isn't the worst spot for it. It wouldn't allow a Colosseum build, but we're never getting that anyway, and it would allow Blues to stick a +3 Theater Square in it's first ring. 

Stars:



A surprisingly nice tundra spot, with fresh water, a high food tile, a +4 first ring campus, free culture from the city center, and solid production tiles in the second ring. The builder is going to be pretty bored after hooking up that rice as the reef fish, way shittier fish, awesome 3f1h tundra hill, and others are gradually incorporated, but we can probably find some other stuff for it to do and kick out another one later. Build order should definitely start with locking the campus, although there's a case for a monument before actually constructing it in order to get those second ring tiles in play faster. This city can also share the deer with Penguins for extra production, pushing a citizen to the crabs. 

Finally, Oilers:



I didn't bother with pins here because this site sucks. there are some good tiles here, but growth is going to be a problem and not even Canada can build a farm triangle here. The reef gives a spot for a +2 campus, but that can only go to +3 by bulldozing one of the few good tiles this city could work, and it does prevent construction of a +2 harbor adjacent to the city. Even with those problems, the currently pinned spot is by far the best place to stick a city here. I doubt we'll ever got to the point of wanting to do that in this game. 

All in all, we can put together a decent empire here if Kaiser continues to focus on more pressing matters. It won't be a game winning empire by any means, and I'm well aware of how precarious our military situation is, but it's nice to have something additive to focus on instead of fighting for our virtual lives against seemingly inevitable doom.

[williams482]

Turn 119:

Suboptimal has accepted our 1/1 gold deal. Divine Right is a few pixels (and an indeterminate number of clefs) shy of completing. A temporary advance into the desert reveals this force:



So Kaiser finally has crossbows. We can also confirm that the alliance with Woden is of the military variety. These three units are not enough to conquer any of our cities, and the fortified pike hints at this being a defensive force to stop our horses from wrecking mayhem while Kaiser's main army is busy, but for safety's sake I have to assume more nefarious goals. Unfortunately, I can't safely get vision on the "Unknown" pin, or any tile on the other side of the Saint Lawrence, so I'll have to stick to blind caution. The Knight, one pike, and the Garrison crossbow will remain within Bruins' borders, with the Volley Crossbow between Bruins and Kings, and the three horses on the road between Kings and Blues holding their position such that they can easily reinforce as needed. They deploy as such: 



I realize I actually miscounted on the Blues builder, I need to delay it a turn to make sure it eats the bulk of the cost increases instead of one of the weaker satellites. Thus, we dump annother turn of production into the Commercial Hub. Blues will expand to the useless desert copper hill in three turns, simultaneous with Penguins claiming the grass stone, the next Blues expansion should be that GFH third ring to both it and Blackhawks. That would be another tile more usefully improved than the farms I had pinned, and I adjust my markers to match. Kings does finally (for realzies) switch to working on the Aqueduct. 

Kaiser spent some more money last turn, and has now passed us in milpower with a 54 point bump. That does look rather like another musket, and he has definitely spent some Niter recently. A Bombard is also a possibility, and based on the gold expenditures this new veteran crossbow must have been upgraded either last turn or the turn before it. Kaiser's current gpt is 18, and presumably has dropped a bit as the result of upgrades. That would point to him spending roughly 120g on his t117 (a discounted crossbow is 125g, so call that a match) and ~170g on t118. A Bombard upgrade is 165g, and a musket would be 155g. That does point to the Bombard as a distinct possibility. Crossbows are +15 milpower, Bombards +20 relative to their predecessors, so there is also some healing and probably new units (perhaps a Courser?) mixed in here. I have not been tracking his stockpiles for the past three turns, so it's hard to be sure. 

Scores:

[williams482]

Turn 120:

Monarchy completes:



A temporary advance reveals some Egyptians scattered about:



The formation between Bortus and Bruins has an extra unit now, type indeterminate. That suggests that Kaiser has plans to come back for more, but the injured MCH (and the strength 50 unit in John Lamarr, probably an injured musket?) indicates that Kaiser is fighting in/near Brazil as well, and would be dividing his forces if he tried to launch annother attack on Bruins. This is enough that I will keep Bastions in play instead of swapping it out for Retainers as I would have liked. With that in mind, here's our new government: 



Research goes into Castles, now one turn away. Kings, Blues, Blackhawks, and Wild switch to builders. Kings and Blackhawks will definitely complete them next turn, Wild should have exactly enough production, but this is Civ IV so who knows. Blues will complete it's builder the turn after regardless. Research goes into Guilds, which I think I'll be able to boost, but probably late enough that I'll have to switch off it. I considered researching Naval Tradition to have a faster route to a policy swap if needed, but with both Bastions and Limes in now, we have what we need if Egypt comes calling and spending valuable culture on an otherwise useless civic isn't worth the benefit of dropping Serfdom a touch faster. 

I passed the save before taking score screenshots, and reloading the save gave me the chance to notice this go by:



The temporary pop-up notification is far more explicit: Woden razed a Brazilian city. Why the report drops useful information and hides other information in confusing language is beyond me. A look back through the report now says that the city Brazil settled on t113 is now merely "a lost city", so that presumably tells us that Woden razed a relatively new settlement. Woden't milpower has dropped by 90, Ichabod's held more or less steady. Kaiser rose 17, somewhat less than but in line with the 20 for a bombard upgrade which I predicted based on cash spent. 

Scores:

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Thanks for the big update. I'm a few days behind everything in the forum, catching up.

What's the thinking behind the walls at Penguins? Game is over if Kaiser's attacking there regardless.

[williams482]

Thanks for the big update. I'm a few days behind everything in the forum, catching up.

What's the thinking behind the walls at Penguins? Game is over if Kaiser's attacking there regardless.

Penguins will build Ancient Walls to defend against a small cavalry force sneaking around through the fog to raize it, or a small naval strike force from Woden. Having defenses and a ranged strike should be sufficient to stop a small attack like that. I won't build the full on medieval walls there.

[williams482]

Turn 121:

Castles completes:



Kaiser's deployment:



It looks like I will have the ability to attack and kill that cat next turn, if I'm willing to expose units to do it. The presence of Kaiser's Tortoise musket and ram here makes me feel much better about being able to antagonize him safely, and strongly suggests that his troop deployment near Bruins is defensive in nature. Now, if his true target is Blackhawks or somewhere in Brazil remains to be seen, but I'm feeling bolder. I push two of the horsemen holding our center towards Blackhawks, and advance the Knight in the direction of Blues. That unit is too valuable to use in a risky offensive, but I want it at most two turns away from any potential defensive battlefields. 

Ichabod has a proposal:



We are all kinds of strapped for cash right now, but the turns have tabled and we're alive in part because of Ichabod's earlier gifts. Whatever you need, buddy. 

The builder at Wild completed, but the Builder at Blackhawks did not. This makes sense, because Wild was settled one turn before Blackhawks, which I had forgotten. Oddly, the city cycle order goes Blues -> Kings -> Blackhawks -> Bruins -> Wild, which follows no chronological, geographical, alphabetical, or any other order intelligible to me. With the severe economic issues we are facing after giving away all that gold, the Commercial Hub at Wild, due in two turns, is even more a priority. At Penguins, I swap off the 1/3/0 deer for the 1/0/3 crabs, delaying the Campus by one turn but reducing our deficit to a mere -0.3. With the city's production reduced to 8h, this is a good time to knock off the remaining 12h on Ancient Walls, wasting "only" 4h of raw overflow. That was the only gold generating tile in our empire not currently being worked, so we are completely maxed out until some Hubs come online. Bruins starts Medieval Walls, due in 10. I apparently forgot to switch back to the builder at Blues , it swaps over now and will need three turns (!!!) to complete. Kings continues on the Aqueduct, which seems more urgent than the walls given Kaiser's apparent military priorities, and slightly more than the Commercial Hub as the Wild hub plus connecting the Ivory in two turns should get us (barely) in the black. The Wild builder moves to the grass hill and will mine next turn, the Kings builder moves in the direction of the two grass forests and will be able to place lumber mills in two turns time. 

There are no urgent tech priorities which don't have attainable boosts, so I decide to dump beakers into a long term target, Siege Tactics. Renaissance Walls are insanely expensive at 300h (220h for Medieval Walls is no joke either), but with them our cities will be effectively invulnerable until Observation Balloons and probably Infantry/Artillery make their way to the battlefield. The balance issues with this setup are pretty obvious in wars between humans, but as has been clear for some time, our games are not what Firaxis is balancing around. 

A new barb camp has emerged, quite near the Stars site. Helpfully, there are no horses or iron in range this time. I dispatch a sword to collect our 50g. 



Our spotters withdraw, with one of them taking a relatively vulnerable position which makes a double strike on that cat possible next turn. Hopefully Kaiser either doesn't notice it, or does not have enough ranged units on hand to kill it.



Scores: 

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

What's the GG screen look like? I know we only have the one encampment, but I'm not sure how many are in the rest of the world. A Great General's movement bonus would go a long way towards adding flexibility to our defense (and is more valuable than the strength boost, although that's not bad at all).