[Spoiler] Suboptimal's Next Attempt at Lurker Frustration

[suboptimal]

Turn 129 – World Congress

Once the save loads I escape out of the World Congress and take a look around to see if there are any visible developments. Kaiser’s settler has moved to the hex two west of Bruins’ Encampment. Canada has moved up their crossbows to fill the gap along the river between Bruins and Kings. Kaiser is likely settling in place since moving further NE would make the wheat useless. Defensively he might cross the river first. That’s preferable from my standpoint. Not much else to report, so it’s time...




ORDER! ORDER!

The first proposal up in this World Congress is




Whip to move? (I beg to move)

I don’t know that this is going to see a lot of voting for Option B. There are only four city-states, two of which are scientific and outside of Woden people are relying on one or both for . I think the more likely outcome is Option ‘A’ targeting scientific city-states. That’d help me out so that’s where my vote lies.

The second proposal:




Whip to move? (I beg to move)

Again, I don’t know that Option B does much to harm anyone in this game. It might be a minor inconvenience here or there. As for Option ‘A’ I think it comes down to who has the most districts under construction. I put one vote for myself into Option A.




The order is as on the order paper. All those in favor say aye! (AYE!) All those against say no! (NO!)




Division! Clear the lobbies!

[suboptimal]

The tellers for the ayes are Ichabod and Kaiser. The tellers for the noes are Canada and Woden.

[suboptimal]

ARE YOU CHUNTERING AT ME FROM A SEDENTARY POSITION?

[suboptimal]

Lock the doors!

[suboptimal]

Turn 130




ORDER! ORDER!

(nod heads)(tellers advance)

On the matter of Sovreignty, the A’s to the right, two votes. The B’s to the left, five votes. The B’s have it, the B’s have it.

On the matter of Border Control Treaty, the A’s to the right, 17 votes. The B’s to the left, 1 vote. The A’s have it, the A’s have it. UNLOCK!




Ichabod and I voted for the ‘A’ option on Sovreignty (2 votes) while everyone else voted for the winning outcome (5 votes). My guess is that it has to do with Bologna’s suzerainty bonus (added Great People points). For the Border Control Treaty everyone but Kaiser put in votes for Option A and targeted themselves. Ichabod put in the most votes (at 6) so won that one. Not much harm to me either way.

Right. James of St. George moves to his next city (Auntie Wainwright) and that city’s engineer starts coming west for the Dam. Up at Truly the builders in the area relocate and the engineer moves to the Dam and will start putting charges into it next turn. Truly starts its Workshop (4 turns to complete) and then I’ll get out a third engineer. The cavalry relocation continues apace. Over at Bortus I head southwest and find a pike and a crossbow hanging out. Pikemen are an issue. Kaiser likely has Printing since he has a level of diplomatic visibility on me.

At sea I relocate the Phoenician quadrireme in Fez. At Recife the Phoenician navy waits outside and a Brazilian crossbow sits in the jungle. It appears that the crossbowman has attacked the city center. It will flip in 7 turns, at which point I wouldn’t be surprised if Woden takes the city again as a matter of denial. Speaking of the navy I start the Frigate in Foggy.

In reviewing available trade routes I’ve got a route available to Sao Paolo from Nora Batty – 161. That might be worth putting a trader into. I’ll have to see how the route values change after the era rolls in ten turns.

Internationally it appears that Ichabod has lost another city or has some districts pillaged – he’s lost 10 empire score. Woden’s gained 6 but that appears to be buildings – he’s completed some lighthouses I think as his admiral point generation increased.

The more I think about it I think I’ll need to engage both Kaiser and Woden. The former will be a pillaging & harassment war. AS for the latter I think I’ll attempt to use my navy to take out what little he has and see if I can make my way up through the northern passage and pillage out the Gulf of Gabès. Only Mount Doom has walls so Osgilath and its neighbor are both vulnerable to a pillaging campaign. I’d need to get my galleys and quadriremes upgraded first so that’s quite a ways off yet.

[suboptimal]

Turn 132

Mass Production is complete, start Industrialization. I’ll put five turns into it to get it to eureka-complete then switch elsewhere in the tree (Castles is now at 1 turn from completion). Compo’s workshop will complete in 6 turns. Science is up to almost 133 with the completion of Cleggy’s library. I’ve also realized that with unit upgrades, the crossbow at Marina and natural envoy generation I’ll be able to drop three into Bologna for another 6. That’ll help the upcoming loss of Free Inquiry. Cleggy starts its first of two frigates, then it’ll likely build the Theater Square. Another engineer charge goes into the Dam at Truly and other constructors continue repositioning and a plantation goes in at Marina. I’ve removed the various fishing boats from the builders’ intended queues – I may need them for coal mines. Foggy’s Dam will start its construction next turn. All in all a quiet turn.

In thinking about it some more, I’ve decided that the time to raid/attack Egypt is not now. He’s got a tech lead on me (he’s got muskets and bombards, I’ve got...not that) and I’d rather not have him angry at me yet. I’ll likely bloodlessly capture Wild 7-8 turns after the age rolls and once Wild goes Bruins will start to suffer loyalty issues as well. I’d like to be able to move in troops to get the new capture(s) secure before agitating against Egypt. Even then a sea-based pillage strategy, while limited, would provide the best bang for the buck – there’s a much lower chance of unit loss while pillaging.

In other news, Woden will claim Yi Sun-Sin this turn. I’ll get the following admiral in three more turns. Vilnius is under siege and has no walls, I expect the city to be captured by Egypt this turn (and I’ll lose 4 per turn as a result).

[suboptimal]

So....I never did post my Turn 131 report. Here it is...read it quick because I just grabbed the T133 save.

Turn 131




Well, that’s a pile of notifications! The bottom one is a bunch of city-state make-peace notifications. I’ve also met Bologna and they want the eureka for metal casting. How did that happen? Well, Egypt declared war against Vilnius and because his envoys go away that makes me suzerain. I don’t have any alliances so their bonus means nothing. He’s also made peace with Ichabod. Right. So, Bologna…




Yeah, I was never getting there without a war declaration. Now….who’s at war with who?

- Ichabod is at war with Phoenicia
- Canada is at war with Phoenicia and Egypt
- Geneva is at war with Canada and Vilnius
- Venice is at war with Phoenicia
- Bologna is currently at war with no one since they don’t have a suzerain. I do know where all the envoys have been going, though:




Counting Egyptian forces there’s 106 base outside Bortus, a musket up at his new city near Bruins and 240 outside Vilnius. That’s about half of Kaiser’s 652 milpower. I’ll need to keep that in mind for when I get around to making a decision about taking a raiding action. One thing I also forgot is that the age will roll before I perform my upgrades. If I start flipping Canadian cities I’ll have a wider front to defend. As I flip cities I’ll need to move units up to reinforce. I also haven’t run the numbers yet but I think Egypt could be on the verge of a dark age. Kaiser has gotten fewer era score than I have (21) and his threshold would be higher due to more cities and more golden ages. Canada might avoid a dark age, they might not.

Because of that I start out by rerouting the chariots towards Marina rather than Pearl. I’ll need to give more careful consideration of the raiding idea. Land-based upgrades, though, would still be needed, if only as a deterrent. The units at Smiler (two chariots, one horseman) remain in place. Out at Bortus I send the horseman around to the SW of the city and find no new units.

Builders and engineers reposition, putting in a mine at Foggy and a charge into the Dam at Truly. I’ve realized that I resumed the workshop build in Truly when, just a couple of turns ago, I said I’d use the jungle chop for it. No matter. I’ll use the jungle chop on the Dam and save an engineer charge on that. As it turns out one jungle chop provides as much production as an engineer charge on this Dam. Walls go up at Auntie Wainwright.

At sea Woden seems to have made a threatening move with his units at Recife:




I back off by heading west and northwest. I’ll move far enough north (one more tile) to clear the fog gap between the northern passage and these units and then hold tight until my frigates are built. All other naval units stand pat.

Marina has grown in population – the new citizen is shifted from the marsh to being a specialist at the Theater Square.

[suboptimal]

Turn 133

In the continuing series on war notifications, Woden and Canada are at peace. Venice has also peaced with Woden and declared on Ichabod.

Auntie Wainwright has completed its lighthouse. I’m now in need of two traders but this city will produce neither. I’ve got 5 per turn here which means nothing gets built quickly. Even a project is not worth the effort at 31 turns to completion (and less than 1 per turn). I start plodding along on a shipyard – 59 turns to produce but since any unit I produce will obsolete before it gets completed that seems like a good alternative.

Check out the great people screen. Woden has recruited Yi Sun-Sin, next up is Santa Cruz – form an armada out of a naval unit. I’ll hold off on that until I get frigates (or a sea dog) and the next age as that’s worth some era score. I’ll have him the turn after next and then Woden and I can race for the final one of this age (and the privateer/sea dog it offers).

The construction crews get to work. Builder at Marina moves to the open unclaimed grassland hill by the silk plantations. That’ll be claimed next turn and get a mine. First of three charges goes into Foggy’s Dam and the third charge goes into Truly’s. Next turn the city will see a big spike in production – the workshop will complete and retained overflow plus the engineer’s charge should complete the Dam. That will give Truly’s IZ another 9 (+3 workshop, +3 adjacency doubled) and the Dam will give another 4 to Cleggy. The planned jungle Magnuschop will go into a University since that’s more expensive than the Theater Square I’ll be locking in (250 vs 238). James puts up walls in Nora Batty and sails off into the sunset.

Looking around the map it looks like Geneva had some cash – all its swords are now muskets. Out at Bortus an Egyptian courser has come out of the fog to say hello. I go around it to see a slight force buildup at Charly Burke:




Wonder if Kaiser is going to have another go at Bruins? That might work in my favor if he succeeds – if he doesn’t get into a normal age in 6 turns then he might lose it to me via loyalty. What’s also surprising is that Kaiser has backed off Vilnius:




I’m not sure why – the city was at 98 and besieged last turn and he’s backed off completely. This also works in my favor since I get the jade resource for being suzerain.

Out at Recife, Ichabod has moved to take the city back. That’s not what’s interesting. This is:




That frigate is promoted but it got BEAT UP. It was at full health last turn, it’s at 1hp this turn. I have to wonder if Ichabod got his galley home, got one or two more built then pulled the trigger on caravel upgrades. It’s not worth declaring war on Woden to kill it – I’d rather only do that after I have frigates, find his potential ironclad and act first to sink that.

In the first change in a while Woden has taken the scoreboard lead, moving from 571 to 585 last turn and past Ichabod at 577.

Looking at the potential situation for loyalty in Canada once the age flips, things are shaping up to be interesting. Canada will be in a dark age. When that occurs Wild should flip to me in 8 turns, regardless of the fact that Canada has a governor in there or Egypt’s age status. The interesting thing is at Bruins….if Egypt has a dark age the city would flip to me three turns after Wild. If Egypt has a normal age the city will revolt to free status in 8 turns (same turn as Wild) and then to myself 8 turns after that. Wild’s pressure makes the large difference. Kaiser also couldn’t hold the city against loyalty if he took it by force – once I’ve got Wild then Bruins eventually falls to me.

[suboptimal]

Never did post the T134 report. The turns have been coming in with less than a half hour to go in my window. Not thrilled about the timing and gives me little to no time to get reports up during the week. Here's a doubleheader...

Turn 134

Open the save to find that Pearl’s river flooded. Didn’t lose any population and now have a 6 and 51 tile, but didn’t gain any new production, which is what I need here. Magnus is now established at Truly. Have a look around the map, looks like Woden’s navy is out in force:




Interesting. Don’t know if they’ve been down here right along or if they snuck past my sentry. I pull my units here back towards the middle of the ocean. While withdrawing I temporaily reveal a great admiral 2NE of the northernmost frigate. Yi Sun-Sun is on the scene here. I’m going to get my caravels and admirals back at the “frontier” cities to group up for defense in case Woden gets frisky, though I think he’s content with harassing Brazil.

Up at Truly the workshop is complete. I select the dam and use the last engineer charge. That leaves the Dam at 275 out of 277. Builder chops the jungle for 6666roduction. City grows to 11 population, Dam completes, 64 to put somewhere. Originally that somewhere was going to be a university. Instead I put it into the third engineer. I also lock down the Theater Square adjacent to the Aqueduct and Cleggy’s IZ. The completion of the Dam brings Cleggy’s production up to 47 per turn and Truly’s up to 35 per turn.

Pasture goes down at Howard, mine at Marina and second charge into the Dam at Foggy. The builder at Marina was going to use its last charge for a mine at Smiler. However, I’m going to mine a neighboring hill for Compo in two turns instead as that city will make better use of the production. The pasture builder has three charges left – it’ll reach Marina around the time that Industrialization completes.

Kaiser continues to scatter away from Vilnius and I have no idea why. ON second glance I see why – he’s pillaging out all the mines for . Hmmm...that’s….questionable? Over at Bruins there appears to have been shots fired. The Encampment is down about 30 health from its walls and Charly Burke is missing 2 points of garrison health. It seems a skirmish has broken out here and I’m trying to get out of the way. Unfortunately I think I put myself in the way while trying to get out:




That’s fine. These two can keep this up for a bit. I can cross the river next turn and fully get out of the way. I also see that Bruins and Kings have Medieval Walls up. Good to know for future reference. Last thing of note is that Kaiser now has enough era score to avoid a dark age. Also good to know.

I’ve checked the trade routes and a couple of the routes to Canada are looking good. Routes to The Blues will get 1 and 13.5 to 16. I’ll get them out at Foggy (4 turns) and Truly (3 turns) after the current builds complete.

Turn 135

Open the save to a notification that Vilnius has been eliminated...and after a shift in envoys I am no longer suzerain. Well, duh. . I also have the option, for 30 diplomatic favor, of calling for a vote to liberate Vilnius. Um, hard pass. I got other things on my plate to think about over the next 15-20 turns. The loss of culture, however, has added a turn back onto Humanism. Kaiser’s galley has shown up again at Cleggy’s easternmost borders. Not sure if he’s still going south or coming back north. I’ll find out in due course. HE’s also got a sizeable war chest of 1603 from all of his pillaging. At least he took the city-state in the end so that’s within the spirit of “the rules” from my perspective.

Frigate in Cleggy is complete, start the second one, three turns to complete. Santa Cruz is available, I recruit him and he appears in Cleggy’s RND. He links up with the frigate and they stay put for the time being. My plan here is to hold him until the age rolls, then retire him to make a frigate armada. This will accomplish three things for me:

- several era score for world’s first armada, which is good since I’d like to not be in a dark age in the Industrial.
- all of my cities will go up to a base garrison strength of 52 as the frigate armada’s 62 melee CS will be my strongest unit.
- all of my cities’ ranged attack strength will be 72, which is three less than a machine gun

With fleets of two caravels, two frigates (or 1 + armada) and 72 city attack strength with medieval walls my cities should generally be safe if Woden gets aggressive with me.

Truly’s third engineer is complete. It heads for Foggy’s Dam; I’ll complete that first (Turn 139) before putting down two forts somewhere on open ground. The city starts a trader; that’ll be done in three turns. I reposition the construction units and the engineer at Foggy puts its last charge into the Dam. Smiler has completed its (zero-adjacency) Theater Square. It starts the amphitheater, 19 turns to complete (for now).

I continue to recall my caravels back towards home, get the scout in Brazilian territory embarked once more and the horseman stuck in the middle at the Bruins front crosses the river to get out of the way. Kaiser’s got a courser, knight, bombard (in the city), musket, promoted chariot archer and Triple-A for healing at Charly Burke. Canada has a 2x promoted crossbow in the Encampment and 1x promoted pike, horse and crossbow on the northern side of Kings. Dunno what else is around, will find out next turn.

It was after completing my moves but not saving that Civ 6 CTD’d with a graphics error (had a Firefox error at the same time though I didn’t have it open) before I could save the game. I retrace my steps as best I can and hit save.

I’ve currently got a 3-charge builder at Truly, a 3-charge builder on Foggy’s horses and a 1-charge builder that’s putting dow a mine for Compo next turn. The two builders that will be left will handle any coal mines that need to be put down, then if I’ve got the charges I’ll put in a mine and lumbermill at Smiler. I’m eyeing the all the forests northeast of Nora Batty and my inner pessimist is saying “there will be coal there”. Hopefully I’ve covered enough ground to have it show up at least twice within my borders.

[suboptimal]

Turn 136

Clear out the notifications and Woden has come calling with a deal, offering jade and spice for wine and silk. I take it. That should help to keep the peace between us while I get my navy shored up a bit and...carry out some plans of mine...I’ll still keep a wary eye on him, though. There’s also a World Congress vote being called. At first I’m confused. The screen is saying someone else has called the World Congress. The only someone that could be is Ichabod, since I sure as heck didn’t and if it was anyone after me in the turn order the WC would have met last turn. However, the screen is asking me if I want to put forward Vilnius again. I again pass on the Vilnius emergency. The shared visibility is what I’m most concerned by since no one can see my interior. I have to think that Ichabod is calling an emergency against Woden. I don’t consider that to be a good idea, but need to check if losing a city to free city status is good enough to “win” the emergency.

Frigate completed at Foggy; start a trader and the ship heads for Nora Batty. Entertainment Complex at Howard completed, +2 to its Theater Square. That makes up a little bit for the loss of Vilnius. City starts a siege tower, that’s due in 7 turns. A trade route to Howards has also completed and I now have a trading post there. The route was running to Foggy and I resume that route for 33 in Howard.

Industrialization is at eureka + 1. Compo’s workshop is done in two turns and I’ll complete the tech as the age ends. While I’ve got a couple of turns of higher science rate left I’ll put two turns into Printing. I’ll complete that once Industrialization completes so that I can get rid of the +3 for troop movement bonus that a few people have over me for diplomatic visibility.

Builder at Compo puts down a mine. Builder at Truly stays put while the builder near Foggy moves down to the rice. Engineer is two turns out from the Dam. After that I’ll complete Castles and Metal Casting.

Take a look around the map. Woden took both Recife and Sao Paolo on his last turn. He’s also started whittling down the walls at Fortaleza. I really do have to wonder what Ichabod has been doing. With Work Ethic the way it is he should have been able to generate some good and keep up with any military threats. However, I don’t know if he got caught unawares or sent too much towards Egypts forward settlements and got caught off guard. He’s also not reporting so until the game ends and I can jailbreak a save or two I won’t know. It’s especially concerning since Ichabod now has the weakest military in the game.

Kaiser’s redlined galley that I lost track of south of Fez has shown up at Nora Batty’s borders. It’ll get to meet my frigate next turn, though only in passing.