[Spoiler] Suboptimal's Next Attempt at Lurker Frustration

[suboptimal]

Turn 160

OK...need to decide what to do about the sea dogs, Geneva and recover from the movement cockup last turn. But first, what happened at the World Congress?






(Yeah, I was lazy, didn’t bother cropping them out this time)

So, production of military units got nerfed by 100% for 30 turns. That still represents an advantage to me because I’ve got Cleggy. Kaiser pushed hard for that one. That tells me that his capacity to replace is lacking OR he’s trying to severely hamper my ability to replace lost units Based on the votes for Military Advisor I’d guess that Ichabod has a lot of heavy cavalry. I pin the likely locations of the field cannon that killed the sea dog and take a look around.

The World Congress kicked in before Cleggy’s production of the musket so there’s three turns to go there. Gold purchases are still OK. The loss of units has increased my income to 82 per turn, so that’s good. The sea dog could be replaced quickly if I reslot Press Gangs but I’ll hold off on that for now. Upgrades are done and my pillaging may be ending sooner rather than later. I’ll definitely take out the whales up at Alara Kitan but the pillage value is healing. At Geneva the musket has left the city, as stated earlier. I move Sinan down to investigate and there’s only a builder in the city. The muskets would be 60 vs 68 but by the time I’m in position to attack I should have Terracotta Army completed. I can also manipulate the AI into shooting at things it shouldn’t and leaving the muskets alone. The problem I’ll have is that the muskets can only really attack twice each and I’d need more that to get through the city’s defenses. However, I could land and start the attack then promote-heal with Terracotta Army. That’ll work.

First things first. I move SEAWACS up to check out the situation as Isaac. There’s now a cuirassier by the builder. I send land forces east. Musket that’s in the wrong moves into the no man’s land between Geneva and Isaac – embarking now would be bad since the field cannon at Isaac could move out and shoot. I don’t know that I want to trade a musket for a field cannon just yet as the field cannon would 1-shot it. I’ll stay on the rice and then move out next turn. Frigate and armada take out Geneva’s sole land unit. I send the promoted sea dog north to just outside Alara Kitan and find a level 2 Phoenician caravel up there. Woden’s come for a look. So far he appears to be alone. I shift Chola slightly north and pillage the Campus with the other sea dog, putting the into Siege Tactics. With the penalty against units I’ll now just go straight for the tech. The tech is down to two turns. If the sea dog survives until next turn I’ll pillage the crab boats and move out of range. I back SEAWACS off the coast and will start plotting my next moves.

I think going after Geneva and the delay to the Isaac invasion will help – I’ll be able to get that other musket out, I’ll have Tortoise-promoted muskets and Barding-promoted cuirassiers and a city that will help me retain Isaac via loyalty. My spy will also be established for battlefield visibility. I may lose a musket in the process of taking Geneva but I’ve got a plan for that as well. Position at Isaac after all movement:




Note that my musket is outside of Egyptian territory. After the screenie was taken I moved SEAWACS back up to its usual spot. The embarked units at Geneva also split up – pike & shot to the west (as musket backup), crossbows to the coast east of the city-state.

I think my tentative plan will be to get El Cid, two muskets, a siege tower and a pike & shot to the east plus an equal force complement (minus El Cid) to the west. I’ll need three turns to get the units to the east disembarked and lined up correctly for the assault. The frigates will start bombarding the walls while everyone moves into position. I’ll complete the Terracotta Army in five turns as planned – that’s when I’ll need the promotions. The big sticking point will be if/when the city-state builds another musket. This city-state has given me poor timing before (see the musket upgrade in PBEM 10). I can finish Divine Right and slot Feudal Contract and Press Gangs or Chivalry to start getting some more units out, but I think I’ll hold that until I get the crossbows back to Howard and upgrade them to field cannon. Two next turn, two the turn after. Actually, I can start Divine Right now.

Over at Howard I shuffle the cuirassiers a bit and the pike & shot moves west. The bombard at Marina starts making its way up as well. Scout verifies the farm at Geneva has no units. The spy that’s en route to Geneva will continue as planned – if I don’t take the city I’ll start running missions.

As my last unit action of the turn I lock an Entertainment Complex at Pearl. I’ll continue building the walls for now.

[suboptimal]

Turn 161

Open the save to see that my sea dog has survived (just) and Kaiser has moved a field cannon into Ed Mercer. Venice has changed hands and is now at war with Ichabod. Geneva’s defensive strength is back up to 78 as the city has produced a pike & shot and fortified it in the city. Howard has completed its archaeological museum and I get the inspiration for Natural History. With the current World Congress resolutions I can produce a musket every 6-7 turns. With Press Gangs slotted that’ll be every 4 turns, which is a reasonable rate. One turn into infrastructure, four turns into a musket.

So, what to do here? First off, with Geneva at 78 it becomes impossible to take. That means Isaac is the main event. Right. Crossbows into Howard’s territory, upgrade, get the Scorched Earth inspiration. Other two crossbows move up and will upgrade next turn. Sea dog at Ed Mercer pillages the crabs and moves out. Because Raid is slotted I got 75 health from the pillage instead of 50 (nice). Chola shifts west, sea dog pillages the whales and leaves Alara Kitan’s territory. SEAWACS moves up. Leofflaed will be here in four more turns. Agent Merciful Death establishes in Geneva next turn and will start to fabricate a scandal. Musket embarks away from Isaac, two cuirassiers and pike & shot at Howard also embark. The other two cuirassiers will do so next turn. I move El Cid towards Howard for some extra embarked speed over there. Sinan heads for the shoreline at Isaac. There’s a flat third ring tile that I can disembark onto. If he moves any units up I’ll likely be able to snipe them with the frigates, so that’ll give me a turn to run around and try to defog Gordon Malloy. SEAWACS moves back from the coast until next turn.

Courser down at John Lamarr doesn’t have any good pillaging targets – the ones at Bortus are guarded and the only ones at John Lamarr that are not on hills are the pasture and the Aqueduct. I would be able to move in and pillage, take a hit from the city center (it’d be just under 60 damage) and then get away to Canada for healing on the following turn. I advance west to check what is around and find a crossbow in the city center. Not going to pillage anything there today – can’t take two hits. I’ll recheck the incense at Bortus next turn.

Builder at Marina is complete and heads to Compo for junglemills. Marina starts the arena, as does Howard (7 and 8 turns, respectively). I hold the scout at Wild stationary – it’s not worth upgrading to a skirmisher at this point in time. I’d move a citizen into the archaeological museum as a specialist but that slows down the arena build by a turn. I’ll do that later. I also need to squeeze in a shipyard at Cleggy – not so much for production but for Steam Power as I’d like to work on that tech once Military Science is done.

I have a policy decision coming up. In addition to removing Professional Army I need to consider whether or not I’ll take out Machiavellianism. The completion of Divine Right will let me speed up cuirassier builds at Cleggy though I don’t know if I want to build any more right now. One possibility is Drill Manuals – that would get me up to 6 niter per turn and I’d be able to crank out muskets from Cleggy every four turns. Regarding the diplomatic slot, Wisselbanken is tempting – I’ve got 6 trade routes to Canada and the policy would net me 22 at Foggy, Truly, Nora Batty, Howard, Marina and Auntie Wainwright. The Blues would get 1010 and Penguins would get 22. I think Canada might like that. The downside is that it slows down the spy missions a bit (4 turns in the case of Geneva, 2 turns for a Listening Post mission in Isaac) but I think that’s OK. I also think my internal trade routes are ending when the traders finish their current legs (that means 5 turns and 9 turns). I can turn those around into Canada for more yields. I think that’ll be my plan.

[suboptimal]

Turn 162

This is likely the last turn before we go on hiatus for about a week. That’s OK, it’s high summer in Ichabod’s neck of the world and if he can get out for some R&R even during a global pandemic then more relaxation to him. Open the save and see what I’ve got.

Siege Tactics and Divine Right are complete. Resume Colonialism and start Military Science, 8 turns to complete both. Policy change will wait and I don’t think I want to switch governments – at some point I’ll want more than two economic slots available. Have a look around, nothing seems amiss. To Howard…

Everything at Howard does a counterclockwise (sorry, anticlockwise) rotation – embarked cuirassiers west, field cannon northwest, crossbows east and upgrade, land cuirassiers embark. I could decide to go pillage a banana plantation with a sea dog but that’s not worth the right now. Over at Alara Kitan Kaiser has embarked Triple-A. Sea dog sends it back to Ed Mercer, then meets up with Chola and they rejoin the main fleet. I’ll use the sea dog to keep an eye on things up here. SEAWACS does its thing. The musket has moved south and his western bombard is promoted (Crew Weapons). The bombard on the Holy Site has disappeared somewhere to the south. Leofflaed’s got three more turns to go before establishing at Isaac. I am on a timer here as Kaiser is likely working his way towards Steel. If he gets there my invasion will be off. I should be able to move the cuirassiers to the coast in four turns, disembarking one in the “neutral zone” on the fourth turn.

Know who doesn’t have three more turns to go? Agent Merciful Death. She’s established in Geneva. Fabricate Scandal has a 63% chance of success (28% chance of failure, 9% chance of spy death) and will “force the top competitors to lose 3 envoys” if successful. Kaiser, with Amani, has 10 envoys and I have five. If the mission is successful I’ll be able to put enough envoys in there to not only take suzerainty but boot Kaiser’s governor – I’ve got two coming from Colonization and two more from natural generation in 8 turns. I’d likely put Amani up there just for good measure. The possible downside is that Kaiser finds out I ran a spy mission (:shrug and/or the spy gets killed. City-states can’t capture spies so worst case I need to spend a few turns building a new one.

Elsewhere I mostly keep my units still. My military engineer moves out – it’s headed for the jungle NE of Foggy (more on that in a bit). The courser exploring Egypt checks out Bortus’ incense – still has a musket on the resource. I end its turn next to John Lamarr’s quarry but in the third ring so it’s out of firing range. I’ll see if that prompts any investigation by Kaiser.

Now, about those policies. I was considering Wisselbanken in the diplo slot. However, because of my trade route concentration I’m not so sure about that. Giving The Blues +10 per turn is fine; it’s the that I’m not so sure of. Extra population in The Blues is not what I want in about 20 turns’ time. I did just notice, however, that I have enough diplomatic visibility to see what he’s building in his capital – the Grandmaster’s Chapel. Interesting. That explains the Holy Site at Wild. My inclination is to keep my current diplomatic policy so that the mission in Geneva completes in 12 turns instead of 16; while it’s an act of the RNG it might be consequential in 17 turns.

In looking at the era score I can get a golden age if I get to 133 (or 134) era score. I’m at 115/120 for a normal age and have 17 turns to get there. If I get to a golden age there’s a good possibility that I start flipping Canadian cities (and keep Isaac easier). So, how can I pull this off? Here’s how it can go:

- Smiler’s Campus is my first splendid Campus; that completes in 5 turns (3 points)
- Truly completes the Terracotta Army in four turns (3 points)
- Colonialism finishes in 8 turns (1 point)
- I should be recruiting a Great Admiral in nine turns (1 point)
- I should be recruiting a Great Scientist in 13 turns (1 point)

That gets me to 124/133. So where does the rest come from?

- - purchase the last Great Prophet and found a religion (3 era score total)
- Build military academy at Truly (completes 7 turns after Military Science, 3 points for fully built Encampment)
- Build the Great Bath at Compo (4 turns, 3 points)

That’s 133 even. Now, I do have several backup sources available:

- Cleggy can build Stonehenge (three points)
- Foggy can build the Great Library (three points) and then Cleggy follows with a splendid Theater Square (3 points)
- A successful mission at Geneva lets me change wartime suzerainty status (2 points)
- I could build the Colossus at Cleggy (three points).

The objective here is to get to a golden age but not beyond it. I need to keep as many era score sources as possible for the Industrial so that I can try to get another normal age for the Atomic.

On that note I now make my policy change, taking out Professional Army and Raid and putting in Drill Manuals and Feudal Contract. Cleggy is now building muskets for the time being. I hop into the Great Person screen, see that it costs 680 to purchase the Great Prophet, see that I have 828 and recruit Bodhidharma. He appears in Pearl (good) and I’ll found my religion next turn. I have a week to figure out what beliefs I want. That also gets me an envoy in Venice, clearing out the quest and raising my total there to four. I’ll likely put Professional Army back in (and take Drill Manual out) when Colonialism completes in order to upgrade my horses at Smiler/Pearl.

Internationally, Ichabod appears to be cash-neutral.

The past several turns have been walls of text with some pictures thrown in, usually of Isaac. During the hiatus I think I’ll do a city-by-city post for current plans and things I might have done differently at each city.

[suboptimal]

Time for the city-by-city looks. Everything is as of the end of my Turn 162. I’m going to cover these in settlement order and the first post is a doubleheader, which is appropriate given the characters in the show.

Foggy Dewhurst




The city is due to acquire the remaining second ring tile (coast SE of the RND) in three turns.

I’m reasonably happy with how this city has turned out. I had some initial concerns about food, then about housing, but those have generally been taken care of. Yields are reasonable and will be getting a boost of 7 once Compo’s coal plant completes on Turn 166, though I’ll lose 1 in four turns. I am planning on using the military engineer to chop the jungle to the northwest. That will give me 51 and 51, which should push the city to 10 population. I’ve then got two options for builds in the empty jungle:

- a +2 Theater Square. That would push Cleggy’s to +3 and Howard’s to +5 and take six turns to build
- The Great Library. That’d push the Theater Squares to +4 and +6, along with providing the benefits of the wonder. It would take nine turns to build.

I’m leaning towards the Great Library because the combination of its intrinsic benefits and extra adjacency are both reasonable. While the GS eurekas will be infrequent, every little bit helps. I’m also looking at starting to build up tourism as the long-shot run at a cultural victory, and picking up the “left behind” wonders will help in that regard. Foggy could build a Theater Square of its own directly to the east; that would be good for +2 for itself and give Cleggy’s another +1. With either of these builds, though, the adjacencies are such that getting Aesthetics slotted becomes a priority when I come off a wartime footing.

The one remaining change that will be happening here is the open floodplain to the southwest. Once Compo finishes its coal plant it will take control of that tile and build the Great Bath. I don’t need the housing but the amenity and era score will help my cause.

Truly of the Yard




The flat plains to the west is the next tile up; that’ll be in 29 turns.

This was originally intended to be my industrial center in conjunction with coastal cities to the north and east. However, Cleggy had more potential than I realized when I initially planned that city so Truly is running second fiddle. It is quite a second fiddle, though. Home of my sole Encampment it hasn’t done much in the way of unit production but that never was my objective with the Encampment. Given my plan to sit tight and make it far enough into the game to industrialize it was always about the military engineers – 4 charges for repairs, harvests and roads/railroads at the low cost of 85.

The city currently has a musket in the queue with five turns to go and will resume building that when the Terracotta Army is complete. The timing works out such that I can complete the musket and then build the military academy for the era score (and corps production). Once that’s taken care of I’ll likely swap between military units, military engineers and infrastructure (Theater Square, amphitheater, university). I’d like to have three military engineers on the map when Steam Power completes – one each at Foggy, Truly and Cleggy – to start building out a rail network from my eastern manufacturing center straight out to Marina. I’d likely cut a new road as part of that process, initially bypassing the road loop down to Compo. They’ll also be useful if I acquire Wild and put a Dam in to supplement any IZ that Canada might build in the meantime.

In the longer term, if I can solve my amenities situation (even with the planned assmiliation of some Canadian cities) I have the option to grow the city to 13 population by buying the high food tiles by Kilimajaro. Given the number of jungles here if I find myself with spare production capacity here () or a Great Engineer than can build wonders () Chichen Itza is a possibility for the jungle west of the Campus.

[suboptimal]

I’ve been remiss in posting. Next up is the remainder of the “trio” from the show and what I consider to be the core of the empire.

Cleggy




The city will acquire the wheat to the south in two turns.

This location was picked as a northern coast location and to take advantage of Kilimanjaro’s abundant food. It was the main reason I took my pantheon since the camps could provide extra and early on. The early intent was to make this a cultural and scientific center, but the volcanic soil hill tiles and the production afforded by the mines and a high adjacency Industrial Zone quickly made this my production center. The Industrial Zone will eventually pick up another adjacency when Truly builds its Theater Square.

Future plans right now are focused around unit production and it’s able to build a “modern” land unit in 4 turns (including field cannon) with the Feudal Contract policy in place. At some point I need to build the Theater Square, a shipyard and a university (all three builds are 4 turns or less). A bit of a hail mary build would be the Forbidden City to the northeast, which would currently take 11 turns to complete. Unless I can find a pile of amenities I don’t think I’m going to grow this city any further (it’ll hit 12 at some point). If I do reach 13 population here I’d likely hold the district slot for an Aerodrome rather than putting in an Entertainment Complex.

Compo




The next tile acquisition will be the coast tile east of the RND...in 28 turns.

The final city in the “trio” of the main cast and the final city that I consider part of my core empire. It took a while to develop but it’s starting to flourish and will hit its stride when the coal plant completes in four turns, giving the city a 17 boost. The builder that’s onsite (currently in the jungle SW-W) will be putting in three lumbermills for another six so this city will pass Truly in terms of raw production power. The production boost will also extends to Howard and Marina.

Future plans are to start providing units to the front lines once the coal plant is complete. The Theater Square will be built out, though I’ll hold off on the museum until I decide which one I’ll need. The plan for museums is to only build art museums when it appears a Great Artist is imminent, otherwise I’ll be building archaeological museums since they’re easier to theme. The city has a long time to go until its next population, but that’s mainly because I’m running two specialists in the IZ. Pushing the city to 10 has no downsides from an amenities standpoint and I could put down a +2 Campus to the southwest if needed.

[suboptimal]

Now for the supporting cast and crew….

Nora Batty




Coastal tiles are all that’s left in the second ring, 25 turns until the first one. The phantom fish still remain phantom (SE of city center). I get the yields, the tooltip shows the tile has fish but I can’t put fishing boats down.

The former Armagh, conquered because it was a city that could easily be taken by boat. The city is getting to the point where builds are becoming time-prohibitive so it’ll start to be a struggle to determine what to build here. I might have it continue to crank out a few more builders to start getting all my jungles milled up and complete other improvements, though builders are currently 10-12 turns apiece. Two junglemills will help and perhaps I’ll try to build a shipyard and university here. Ultimately, though, this city will be outpaced by advancement at which point it might become a project city (mainly Campus Research projects). It does have room for a third district though I don’t know what it would be yet.

Howard




Expansion is currently focused on the second ring ocean tiles, with the first one due in 11 turns. Once those are done it will likely pick up the whales.

My second north coast city and fifth to be founded. Not quite a core city but a still a significant contributor to my empire both economically (via trade routes, mainly) and culturally. The city will be the first to 12 population and I could easily get it to 13 population if I farmed the flatlands. The only remaining builder improvement here will be a junglemill. The city will get a very nice boost in production in four turns so it will be able to somewhat be production-useful for a while. I don’t know if I’ll try building any units with this city as they’d take 10-12 turns to complete with Feudal Contract in place. I’ll likely build the next level of walls while waiting for Natural History to be completed or start on a +2 Campus next to the Government Plaza. The city will most certainly build an archaeologist as soon as Natural History completes. If Wild hasn’t flipped by then the city is just in range to have its great works affect its loyalty. My next great works of writing will be going in here. A settler might be an option as filling in the donut hole to the southwest if there was nothing else better to build.

Marina




For the time being cultural expansion is a bit useless – it’s claiming the second ring mountain tiles next. The southern one will be gotten in two turns.

My gateway to the rest of the world. The city’s primary purposes are to be the front line of defense against an attempted land invasion and to be the trigger point for any cultural conversion of Canada. The city’s next build will be an art museum – I’ll be getting my first great artist in 19 turns and it will need a place to go. The city does need to build Medieval Walls at some point and also get that Campus up and running. I contemplated an Encampment for this city but didn’t see a need for one here - is more important to me at this point in the game in order to keep pace with everyone else. As with Howard the upcoming production boost from Compo will keep the city productive for some time, at least from an infrastructure perspective.

In the unlikely event Canada falls into a dark age or I hit a golden age the city will drop whatever it’s building in order to start running Bread and Circuses. That added pressure should be sufficient to flip both Wild and Bruins despite any governors that are present.

Auntie Wainwright




The city is working on acquiring third ring tiles and is flip-flopping between the eastern jungle tiles adjacent to the wine. One of those will get picked up in three turns.

This city is production poor, having chopped its forests and rainforests to build the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. The city is getting the +10 from Cleggy’s Industrial Zone, which just further confirms how barren I’ve left this place. The shipyard that’s completing will gain the city another 6 (3 from the shipyard, 3 more from unimproved coast tiles being worked). I’ll likely use the builder out of Nora Batty to put in a junglemill just for a little extra production. That’ll get the city to a base production yield of 25. It has two district slots available. A Theater Square next to the Mausoleum is tempting as that also give Compo’s Industrial Zone another +1 adjacency. My plan is to put a Water Park in the lake north of the city and then leave the city to build a ferris wheel and aquarium. The district will take 9-10 turns and then the buildings another, oh, 36 turns or so. However, once the aquarium is complete it will reach seven cities.

I was flipping back and forth between here and Cleggy for the Mausoleum, but settled on here anticipating that it would affect lake tiles. It didn’t, so that was a bit of a waste. There are four tiles that could be bought but they are currently 210 each. A bit too expensive unless I find myself with a few thousand in to burn through.


Smiler




Like Marina it’s working on acquiring second mountains. First one in three turns.

This was put here as a way to apply loyalty pressure to the northeastern part of Canada as well as loyalty support to Pearl when I eventually captured that city. It’s done what I wanted it do to – build districts at a reasonable pace, get some great works for loyalty pressure and otherwise contribute where it can. I’ll likely build an art museum here only because the city will be slow to build an archaeologist. I think I can move artifacts from a filled museum to a completely empty one, though, so that might also be an option (guess I need to fire up an SP game to test that). It’d be the preferred museum as I’d be able to fill it faster. I’ll get the library done first and then work on the university or art museum depending on how long it will take for the second artist to come around.

I find it odd that the city has converted to The Orville (there are 3 followes) but I expect that pressure will decrease and possibly reverse once I found Last of the Summer Wine next turn.

Pearl




It’s working on taking a useless tile (the roaded desert to the west) and in 16 turns it’ll start working on the coastal tiles.

The former Yerevan, taken with the intent to flip cities from Canada during a dark age that didn’t happen. No matter...it’s been a reasonable contributor and is currently acting as my trade gateway to Canada. That lone fact makes it worth it as it means that all of my trade routes to Canada can travel over water and get double the usual . The city will also become a holy city next turn as I found the game’s last religion, more for the era score than anything else. The city is currently building its renaissance walls though I may swap over to a shrine just to get a bit of a faith yield boost before completing the walls. The city will take a while to build the walls and shrine, then it will move on to the Entertainment Complex and the buildings in its two land districts. It’ll take too long here to get a shipyard built and that’d only be for 2 without any policies in place.

[suboptimal]

Turn 163

We’re back. Open the save, see what’s new. No notifications. Good start. Musket in Cleggy is complete, start another, 4 turns to finish. Auntie Wainwright has completed its shipyard, start a builder, currently 7 turns to finish though the cost increase when the next one completes at Auntie Wainwright will add a turn. Position the engineer on the jungle chop that’s coming up in a few turns, put down a junglemill at Compo and send the new musket west via the sea. The junglemill shifts an unlocked citizen from the rice tile and neutralizes city growth. I move the citizen on the flat jungle to the rice for growth in….200 turns. That’s fine – that citizen will relocate once the next junglemill goes down in three turns. Take a look at the picket line and see…




Interesting. Woden is even with me on the tech tree so that means he’s retired that particular great admiral as he currently lacks Steam Power. If/when that ironclad shows up near my invasion force (hell, I might have already been seen by his caravel at the other end) I’ll start keeping Cleggy’s units at home as a defense force.

Down at Pearl Bodhidhama goes for a quick stroll, finds inspiration from the heavens and…




So, what’s the rationale here? Well, first, I need amenities and all of my cities (save Auntie Wainwright for now) have two specialty districts. Second, I don’t have a lot of generation so I want my missionaries to be discounted. Pearl gets an amenity and comes out of displeased status. I get a little more yields and switch over to a shrine to be completed in 7 turns. What’s the plan? First I’ll buy a couple of missionaries and convert Smiler. From there I’ll slowly work on the other cities as permits.

Enough faffing about, SEAWACS moves into spy position.




The bombard west of the city has moved away. I move to the whales, find nothing and then back up to the patrol position. I’m now wondering how I ever got line of sight on the spot marked “Cuirassier” since that doesn’t defog. I bring a sea dog down to further check the area and find a courser on Gordon Malloy’s Campus. Sea dog retreats just outside the borders. I move Sinan to the whales – he’ll disembark into the unclaimed tile next turn and if he’s not banished back to my empire (to start over again) I’ll move him to one of the mines to the south. I’d like to find a spot where there’s a chance a banishing unit gets stuck and can be shelled, though that’s not likely. I shift the other sea dog a few to the northwest to keep an eye on Woden’s caravel. It’s still there.

Land troops north of Isaac shift northwest a row to make room for arriving units. All units between the main fleet and Howard go “up and over” Geneva, staying at least two hexes from the city-state’s territory. El Cid follows to stay in the middle of the pack for some extra movement. After everything is said and done in the north:




As for timing it will likely be two turns of movement, one turn to position and then one turn to land. Part of me wants to promote the melee and cavalry units before I land, but the other part of me is saying “hang on, they can only shoot at a couple at a time”. I think what I’ll do is land, start the attack and then promote as needed. Now, it’s entirely possible that I lose a unit or two before they get to promote. I’m willing to take that risk. I don’t think he can kill any cuirassier the first turn it lands because he’ll lose whatever unit he advanced to deliver the killing blow. I might want to promote the muskets before landing since they’d be at CS 70 vs. the city attack and likely even against the field cannon. If the field cannon has the +10 promotion that could chew up units pretty quickly. I’ll find out with the cuirassiers and we’ll see how it goes. Loefflaed has two more turns to establish at Isaac.

Far to the south the courser doesn’t have any good pillaging targets. The pike & shot and musket at Bortus have shifted to protecting those districts. I move out of the way and hold outside Canada’s territory. This loner might have 7 turns to wait for the cavalry upgrade before pillaging.

Looking ahead at great people it looks like Woden will get Horatio Nelson (+50% flanking bonus for all naval units, instantly build a lighthouse and shipyard in this district) in three turns (his turn 165). I’ll claim the next admiral in 8 turns. That gives me a 50/50 shot at Ching Shih (Gain 500, military units get +60% rewards for plundering sea routes) or Laskarina Bouboulina (grants 1 promotion and +50% XP to a military naval unit). I’d prefer Bouboulina but if Ching Shih comes along that means I’ll have 800 reserves floating around on the oceans.

The next Great Engineer is Gustav Eiffel and Woden’s got the lead on him. Barring projects I’m first in line for the engineer after that. It’d be either Ada Lovelace (Computers eureka, let this city build one additional district) or James Watt. With my luck it’d be James Watt, in which case I’m likely to pass as I don’t forsee myself building two more Industrial Zones (especially since I don’t have the district slots for it). I suppose I could make a play for Eiffel – Cleggy can complete a project in three turns for 42 points. That would give me a slight lead, two projects would put me in the lead but he’d still be 21 turns off. I’ll take my chances with next in line and, if it’s not Lovelace I’ll pass and either get Lovelace or take the lead on the first Modern one. Of course, if I get Lovelace the first modern era one will be Tesla.

I take a final look around and realize that if I sacrifice 1.8 for 0.9 at Truly by moving the specialist out to the unworked jungle that I’ll complete Terracotta Army next turn. I make the switch and will need to remember to undo that next turn.

[suboptimal]

Turn 164

Terracotta Army is complete.




No, really:






More on this later because there’s a pile of notifications. There’s also interesting decisions to be made. First off, a second wonder has been built. That would be Woden completing the Forbidden City on his last turn and Kaiser completing..something. He had a wonder score show up but there is no notification to that fact. The volcanic eruption is out where Brazil, Phoenicia and Egypt all converge. Unfortunately for Ichabod the eruption pillaged a university. The Campus and library are still intact. Liang has established in Nora Batty and I clear out the promotion notification, which is only for the sea dog.

At Truly I resume the musket, 6 turns to complete which lines up nicely with Military Science. I go to move the citizen back into the Campus as well and then see that the city has taken the wine tile. I then remember that completing a wonder gives the city two tiles through cultural expansion. Nice. The funny thing is that its tile picker has selected the wheat tile to the WNW which Cleggy claimed immediately after Truly’s turn in the pre-turn action queue. I expect Truly to start grabbing the high food tiles at Kilimanjaro (Cleggy is grabbing the wonder itself). I shift one or two units that aren’t anywhere in particular, Cleggy’s musket continues westwards and now it’s time to sort out the promotion mess.

While I was speculating on Isaac field cannon’s promotion last turn I realized afterwards that it definitely has the Garrison promotion. That’s the only way that it and the city center could have killed a musket in a single turn. That, in turn, means my muskets and pike & shot will be sitting ducks when they come ashore, even with El Cid around. Therefore, all of my muskets immediately upgrade to Tortoise. I leave the pike & shot unpromoted, along with the pike & shot and field cannon. I’ll use those for promote-heals as necessary.

It’s at this point in the program I realize something. I was expecting all of my land units to get upgrades because the wiki said so. However, ALL of my units got upgrades (confirmed by the Civilopedia). In theory I can promote both of my frigates with Rolling Barrage (+10 vs district defenses) and I’ll still have Artemsia around for a Level 3 promotion (or, ideally, a Level 4 promotion on the armada). Both frigates promote. Now I just need the armada to get 45 XP and I’ll be able to give it a +1 range promotion. Might have to start shelling Geneva just to get that going. All of the picket caravels get Embolon, as does the one down at Nora Batty. The ranged ships down there hold onto their promotions for the time being. I’ll wait until I know what I’ll need them for.

The promotions also present a couple of opportunities elsewhere. My courser wandering the Egyptian border and one of my horses at Smiler are already level 1 with the Caparison promotion. They’re now level 2 with Depradation. John Lamarr will be seeing some pillaging sooner rather than later, especially since the Aqueduct pillages for . All other units outside the Egyptian theater remain unpromoted.

At the Egyptian coast Triple-A has reappeared on the banana plantation and Woden’s caravel has disappeared. I’ve realized that Sinan shouldn’t disembark on the open tile just east since the Egyptian courser can get there and back in one turn. Instead I’m going to disembark on the under-construction Entertainment Complex. Any unit in the area that would want to get rid of Sinan won’t be able to do so and get out of bombardment range. SEAWACS moves up to confirm unit disposition and I see something interesting:




He’s moved the field cannon out of the city. This...is a positive development. If that unit keeps moving away from the city I might be able to kill it with the cuirassiers. That unit’s position determines how close to doom my invasion starts out at. Wait a sec. This is me. Suboptimal. Conducting a military operation. ALL of my military operations start thisclose to doom. Sinan disembarks, moves to the incomplete district and we’ll see what happens. The combat UI confirms that there are no units next to the field cannon except the musket in the city. The land troops move and the northern sea dog takes a peek around for the Pheonician vessel. I don’t find it in my immediate area. The southern one holds its position and SEAWACS backs away from the coast. The final position in the Tethys:




I’ll be able to see much more next turn. So, what’s the plan?

Turn 165: One cuirassier moves to the spot NW of the rice in the border region. The other three line up one row to the north centered on the fish. Muskets (and siege engines) line up one row north, field cannon north of that. Pike & shot will assemble north of the borderlands.

Turn 166: Border cuirassier lands and moves next to Matterhorn, other three move to the coast directly west of the rice. El Cid will move to the spot SW of the fish. Muskets line up two rows north of there, field cannon close behind. One musket will be in position to disembark onto the rice next turn.

Turn 167: El Cid and muskets advance to the coast, border musket disembarks. Cuirassiers will either pillage or attack any units they can get to. Field cannon advance to the row north of the muskets with one in position to disembark on the rice. Cuirassiers pillage or attack units as appropriate.

Turn 168: Muskets, El Cid and one field cannon disembark, other field cannon advance. Cuirassiers continue their sweep with at least one and preferably two of the units moving into position behind the city center, north of the Encampment.

Turn 169: Muskets converge on Isaac and attack. This should put the city under siege. Field cannon disembark with the already landed unit advancing SW and firing at the city after the muskets attack. Why after? Lower city defense means more damage.

All landings will involve each wave landing on the three coastal tiles west of the rice with the eastern unit in each wave coming ashore at the rice at the same time. This lets me throw four units at a time towards the city. Frigates and sea dogs will serve to clear any Egyptian units that wander north of Isaac’s latitude or if the Swiss pike & shot comes out for a look. If that occurs I’ll do as much damage to Geneva walls as I can – if the spy mission fails I’ll take the city-state. The city-state is worth 12 if I can get it out of Kaiser’s grasp, 10-11 if I take the city and repair it (provided it completes the university it’s started). Actually, in looking at it like that it’s probably better to just take it.

I might delay this a turn or two if I see that field cannon continue to move away from Isaac. However, the fact it only moved one tile tells me it’s staying put. The key is whether or not Kaiser reacts to the first cuirassier on land as a Matterhorn matter or a potential threat. If it fortifies next turn I might promote that advance cuirassier with Charge for the +10. That’d severely crimp the field cannon’s style.

The amenities wizard has struck and shifted things around, I thought this wass likely due to war weariness but then realize that I added an amenity to the pool last turn with my religion. Cleggy and Howard are now at -1 amenity. :gripe: Where’d the amenities get reassigned to? Auntie Wainwright and Smiler. Fortunately it doesn’t slow the musket build down. After checking out the rest of the empire I move a citizen into Howard’s Theater Square as a specialist for a touch more .

As a closing laugh:

[suboptimal]

Checked the EoT 163 save and confirmed that Kaiser had no wonder score. He didn't build a wonder so he either got score for one and he's got a pile of fail production or something weird is happening. As long as he doesn't pile that fail production into Great Bath, Stonehenge or Great Library it'll be OK. I currently don't need to build Stonehenge (and would prefer not to) but may have to do so if one of the others is built (Colossus is also an option).

[suboptimal]

Turn 165

There’s been a change of suzerainty at Venice as Canada takes the lead in envoys (at 10).

I put up that nice big plan and then thought some more and, well, slight edit. I’m going to get two cuirassiers to land in the border zone. That will let two of them attack that field cannon and possibly kill it outright, provided it doesn’t move back into the city in the next two turns. The start of turn position:




Loefflaed is established and starts a listening post mission. Kaiser currently has +3 CS due to diplomatic visibility and that is negated while the mission is running. I have to wonder if he’s got a spy in my territory doing the same thing. . This does, however, mean that SEAWACS is free to roam elsewhere for the time being. It heads north to check on things and will then go find and shadow that Phoenician ironclad. I find a Phoenician frigate (2x promoted) northeast of the task force. Something sent Sinan home and I see that the courser is no longer on the Campus. The field cannon has an extra support bonus so that is likely where it went. Sinan moves towards Geneva. I’m going to see if a great person can cause a city-state AI to leave the city. I’ll disembark in the second ring next turn and see what happens. I also realized that I’ve left my frigate armada visible to Kaiser. It moves northeast to solve that issue.

I start positioning troops for the landings. Two cuirassiers move into position to land next turn; I think the cuirassiers will each gain an MP on landing but we’ll see. I keep El Cid out of the way to avoid Kaiser seeing there’s a general in the area. Muskets get in a line and shift west; field cannon form up behind them. Next turn I’ll land the cuirassier next to Geneva’s borders first. It’ll move to Matterhorn the following turn and the second cuirassier will land. That shifts the plan back one turn. Whatever unit is outside the city will get attacked on Turn 168 with the other two cuirassiers approaching the coast.

The at-sea musket heads for Howard. Instead of reinforcing the invasion group I need to give strong consideration about making sure I’ve still got reasonable home defense if the invasion craps out. Once Colonialism completes I’ll put Professional Army back in and start upgrading the obsolete units that are around. I’ll also look at timing swordsman builds for musket upgrades as niter comes available rather than building muskets. It’ll be quicker.

There’s some mundane unit movement. I’ve given the scout the Alpine promotion and move it towards the gap east of Isaac’s Encampment. I’m going to try to send it down around through Bruins to get a view of the area south of that. It should arrive the turn after next. I also do something I should have done at Foggy last turn and chop the jungle now. That completes the university and grows the city to 10 population. I start the Great Library and it shows 12 turns to go. I reassign the citizens from the lake; one to the open plains and the other to the wheat tile; both were in Cleggy’s third ring. That gets the city’s production up to 36 and shaves a turn off the build. I might have the builder at Compo put down a lumbermill up here instead of a third down there. I think that’ll get another turn off the build if I do that in the next few turns.

Down at John Lamarr my courser moves into position for a pillage next turn:




I’ll hit the Aqueduct next turn then spend a turn making sure there are no Egyptian units in the SW hextant of the city. If there aren’t then I’ll pillage the mine SW of the incense – I can hide behind the mountain to avoid the city attack. I might also be able to get the mine W of the incense. Actually, with road movement that incense could also be gotten. Of course, I don’t expect it to be that easy.

Kaiser is showing net of -4 from last turn. Interesting. I’ll have to see if that keeps up as he’s been running +8 or +9 the past several turns.

In the “here we go again :rolleye” lurker column I’ve realized that if Bouboulina is the next admiral I could use her and Artemsia to promote the armada twice to get the +1 range promotion. That’d let me shell Isaac from the coast (and then move on to Ed Mercer and Alara Kitan). Even if Kaiser got to Steel (he’s one column away) I’d be able to peel down the city defenses relatively quickly and painlessly. If she’s not next I’ll start milking Geneva for XP.

Edited to add: two other things I noticed and didn't mention. First, Kaiser's engineer at Isaac is building a railroad from there to (presumably) Gordon Malloy. Second, he's built the Ruhr Valley, also at Gordon Malloy, 2SE of the city center. That's where his wonder score came from.