[Spoiler] Suboptimal's Next Attempt at Lurker Frustration

[suboptimal]

Well, my future looks like this:

- dig up artifacts
- pester/hinder Egypt in as low-cost a manner as possible
- work on building up my navy some more to keep Woden from getting any ideas (and giving me an opportunity if need be)
- make myself as spiky as possible for any land-based attacks
- make tourists

I need to be ready to make and defend against nukes. For the initial round using fighters for air defense against bombers should suffice. Once missiles come around I'll need the advanced AA units to deal with things.

[suboptimal]

Turn 189 World Congress Edition




ORDER! ORDER! The questions are as they appear in the screenshot below.




Well, that’s...different. I was also expecting a vote for Diplomatic Victory. Wonder why that’s not showing up here? I also didn’t think resolutions could repeat themselves but here we are with Patronage showing up again. Last time around the votes went like this:




Well, there are no prophets around this time so what’s it going to be? I could see someone trying to nerf the artsy types but that’s fine by me – mine’s a unit-powered culture run. Double points to scientists would be interesting but really screw up my timing if Mary Leakey is the first atomic one up. Kaiser’s also cranking out generals and we can’t be having any of that. I’ll put my initial vote there.

Now, as for Migration Treaty, well, A and B both hurt me in different ways. I certainly don’t want +5 loyalty in Canadian cities and I know that’s where all of Canada’s voting power is going. That sort of screws up that plan. Of course, I can upvote A and target Canada. If they chuck everything at it they can muster 7 votes while I’d only get four. I’d also need to vote option A instead of trying to reroute B. So…..I think it’ll be one vote into Patronage B (Generals) and 4 votes into Migration Treaty A with a plan for some Bread & Circuses to overcome the resolution bonus.

Before I cast my votes I duck out of the halls and check out the goings on in the world. Woden’s caravel is over by Barry so he’s checking me out. I think maybe I’ll sail an ironclad up the northeast passage and see what’s going on...you know...friendly look-see. Boudica is about four turns out from the barbarian camp and if I convert the garrison there I’ll use that to scout Woden by land. Kaiser moved the injured cavalry unit into Isaac, shipped the pike & shot to parts unknown and has a builder on the lumbermill my teleporting musketman pillaged. I also see that the Encampment remains at 0 damage. The tooltip doesn’t show it as pillaged but the graphic sure does. Looks like I’ll have to go after that bombard to get the promotions.

I check the loyalty levels at Bruins and Wild – sure enough the resolution will get Bruins just positive (at +0.1) and Wildless negative (-0.7). Bread & Circuses at both Pearl and Marina would flip Wild in 5 turns and Bruins in 9.

I cast my votes and send the turn along.

[suboptimal]

Turn 190




ORDER! ORDER! The results of the World Congress are:




I missed the picture the result of Patronage – it was to ban Great Artist point accumulations for 30 turns. I have to chuckle at that as I’m not relying on them (and will still accumulate writers and musician points). Migration Treaty can be overcome easily.

Opera and Ballet is complete. There is a new Category 4 Hurricane:




I’ll have to move the ironclad out of the way, though the storm is headed southeast. The good news is that the WC resolution giving the +100% cost to units has lapsed. The other good news is



the production carried over.

Alrighty then. I start Scorched Earth, four turns for that, then I’ll start Conservation. Steel completes next turn and then it’s the 14-turn run to Flight. That also means it’s time to get Truly up to 13 population to get a district slot open for the Aerodrome so I pull the specialist out of the Campus and turn it into a volcano farmer. Also need to get some housing at Cleggy. Cleggy has two turns on the archaeologist and then I’ll finish the musket and university builds, overflowing into Bolshoi. However, I’ll get a builder out first for a fishing boat, mining that 6 volcano tile and harvesting the stone into Bolshoi. I’ve now got 8 envoys in my pocket. Scorched Earth will get me two more, I’ll generate two more in 10 turns and then I see if I make a play on Bologna.

In the eastern ocean I get the ironclad out of the way, heading due south. Boudica lands at Weathertop, hope Woden doesn’t mind the intrusion. Going to work my way NE from here to get to that camp. Missionary reaches Howard and spends a charge – 4 citizens converted, at least 3 to go. Builder closes in on oil. Truly’s amphitheater is complete and it starts its archaeological museum. Auntie Wainwright’s Water Park is complete, netting me 4 per turn from adjacency bonuses in addition to the amenity. Three turns to go on Huey Teocalli. Currently running a two amenity surplus but Barry will take one of those in two turns. First archaeologists in two turns. Cuirassier in the desert checks Charly Burke’s borders and finds the usual quiet. That leaves the unit pile off Egypt’s coast.

The Encampment healed some damage. That’s fine. I hold off on promoting the noob for a turn, back it off the coast and shell the Encampment. That zeroes out the district health. The other battleships and Ching Shih shift west by a tile and give the bombard corps the good ole what-for. It doesn’t die, but is instead dead-lined. I bring forth the sea dog and finish the job. That gets me three era score since the sea dog killed a unit with at least two more promotion levels than it. The frigate has also earned its promotion, leaving just the armada needing 5XP to get its promotion. Isaac or the Encampment will take care of that. Hopefully Kaiser wasn’t using that bombard as armada bait.

I move the ironclad corps up into city-sniping position. Alara Kitan is at 178/200 garrison and 215/400 walls. I think I might be able to poach the city in 2-3 turns if Woden isn’t careful. He won’t like it but that city has things that I want. Bouboulina and the scout both move west. If the scout does an amphibious attack of the Encampment it would have a combat strength of zero. I’ll need to see if I can disembark and attack in the same turn. Sinan, meanwhile, stays put. There’s a chance that I lose the sea dog on Kaiser’s turn. I don’t think he’ll have enough firepower available to sink the armada.

On land the cavalry pillages the Commercial Hub and then stops on the Dam. That puts me in position to pillage-and-run on the Holy Site and pasture starting next turn.

Ichabod relieved Woden of The Misty Mountains. Ichabod has a governor in there but it’s still losing 3.5 loyalty per turn and will flip free in 15 turns. I’ve earned my second Tourist against Woden, so I’m at six out of 179 and rising. The numbers at Wild and Bruins are in line with expectations though the time to rebel hasn’t updated yet. Pearl will start its Bread & Circuses project in three turns, Marina will follow a turn later. The resolution is enough to stop me from getting Kings to complete the hat trick.

[suboptimal]

Turn 191

My biggest concern when loading the save is that Kaiser managed to sink my armada. It’s still afloat, so that’s a relief. He did kill the sea dog and really tried to sink the armada though:




The good news is that the armada has earned its promotion and will fully heal with the first one. I’ll come back to this mess later. This accounts for about 480 of Kaiser’s current 1084 milpower.

Steel is complete. I’m going to get Combustion completed first since I can upgrade the cuirassiers at Barry into tanks. I switch from Astronomy since I had that queued up. Canada has peaced out with Kaiser. TABARNAK! That has the effect of taking away my +5 CS bonus from my alliance. Uh huh. I’ll remember that. The one storm in the ocean is now, apparently, two storms.

Spend a charge at Howard, no majority religion. It’s another two turns to buy a missionary in Pearl. Builder gets to the oil and I see Canada has a cavalry unit along the river. Boudica heads for the camp, it’s going to be a few turns due to hills. That’s everyone not in the above screenshot. Right.

Battleships move so they’re all three tiles off the coast. The good news is that I have a sight range of three so I’m not limited as I normally would be. Armada and “elder” frigate take out the exposed field cannon corps. I get two era score since Ching Shih is involved in the battle and it’s his first victory. At Barry I move the depredation cavalry back from the pike & shot. I’ve got a couple of choices here – target the cavalry, target the pike & shot or promote. I decide to use the battleship and the field cannon corps to kill the pike & shot. However, it only deadlines instead and is at 1hp. I’d love to finish the job but that’d cost me a land unit. I consider swapping over to Reformed Church to slot the War of Religion card (as Kaiser has done) but decide against it – I’d rather have the income than +4 combat strength.

This situation also changes my promotion plans back to their original ones – heal-at-sea plus range of four. It’ll help keep the ships away from the field cannon a bit better. They’ll be able to post up in a position where the four-range ships can only be attacked from tiles that do not have roads. He also wouldn’t be able to shoot from a protected position, like that corps in the Encampment can. I’ll still need to be careful in terms of what I’m doing when I shell Isaac, though. Promotions will start next turn unless Kaiser still has units on the coast. Net-net I’ve lost a sea dog and he’s lost a 3-promoted bombard corps and a field cannon corps. That’s about a 4:1 cost ratio considering he likely built individual units. If he keeps the field cannon corps in the Encampment but leaves the road there open I’ll shell the Encampment down to zero and then use a 1-promoted cavalry to pillage the Encampment and kill the corps. That’d be a fair trade.

Pearl’s Entertainment Complex completes next turn. Pearl, by itself, could flip Wild in 9 turns and Bruins in 13 turns. However, with Canada going peaceout on Egypt I have no reason to be slow about this. First archaeologists are out next turn as well. A check of the gossip shows that Canada not only peaced out with Egypt but is trading with them. Nice cities you have there. It would be a shame if their citizenry didn’t like you any more…

[suboptimal]

Turn 192

Open the save to the Professional Sports inspiration (already had it but needed a new Entertainment Complex to trigger it), one storm dissipating, another moving along and hey, I can buy a missionary!

Take a look around, civilians are up first. Builder puts in an oil well at the Howard/Marina swamp. Next stop: Pearl’s desert oil. Buy the missionary at Pearl, that’ll head for Howard. Archaeologists are out at Cleggy (Emory) and Compo (Sunngifu). Emory immediately takes to the sea – there are three artifacts available in the Phoenician tundra that I’d like to claim. If I only get two of them I can claim one of the ones I’ve allocated for Truly because, well, there’s an extra one in my neck of the woods. Sunngifu detours southwest to grab the one that’s in Compo’s first ring. That gets me the Combustion boost, an era score and




I choose Barbarians and get a mummy. That’s 3 and 3 tourism, plus one era score. This is where it gets..ridiculous. You get one era score each time you unearth an artifact. That means I’ve got at least 12 era score coming to me from archaeology if all goes well. The eureka cuts Combustion down to four turms. Nice! Boudica inches towards the barbarian camp. I need to be careful how I do this – I could be camp-adjacent next turn but I’d surely get returned to sender if I did that. Instead I’ll just move NE one more tile next turn to see what I’m in for, then go convert & take the camp next turn.

Pearl has finished its Entertainment Complex. It had a temple queued up but changes over to a Bread & Circuses project. This is one area where things don’t make any sense. Most projects will return 15% of the as some sort of benefit. This project just gives you +50% population pressure regardless of the amount of you’re putting into it. Just 1 per turn? +50% population pressure. 200 per turn? +50% loyalty pressure. The upshot here is that while the project takes 17 turns to complete it’ll cause Wild to flip in 9 turns and Bruins will go the turn after that. If Marina gets into the act (which it will) that will all happen much faster. Barry has grown in population which means it’s time to lock down its Theater Square. It’s a zero adjacency district but that’s not what it’s there for. This will eventually be for great works of art.

Up in the Tethys Ocean things are getting busy:




Kaiser’s sent the ironclad out on a mission impossible...I fully expect to not see that unit next turn although I’m surprised that it did as much damage to the battleship fleet as it did. The artillery is useless unless/until an observation balloon shows up – it’s only range 2 and the battleships are all range 3. The appearance of the frigate fleet is interesting as well. I expect Woden to upgrade that as soon as he takes the city.

I started to move reshuffle units around at Barry and then lost the ability to right-click to move. I then saved the game, tried to exit and wound up having to hard reboot my computer. Something went wrong. Of course, my computer reboots only to put me through the indignity of having to wait through a firmware update and then when I load the game I see that the save, despite having appeared to work in the game, didn’t. We pause now for station identification….

{insert muzak here}

Once I replay everything I just described I go back to the unit shuffling at Barry. Field cannon back to the city. Depredation cavalry to the dam and the tile behind it. I’ll start pillaging the Holy Site next turn. I also see he’s completed the Entertainment Complex. I don’t know that I can pillage that and the Holy Site in the same turn. It’ll depend on how much movement the Holy Site pillager has left. One issue is that the Dam is still an Industrial Road.
.
At sea I shift all my battleships east one tile. Artemisia and Bouboulina move west. All three battleships promote. I’ve decided to go with Supply Fleet (heal outside friendly territory) and Coincidence Rangefinding (+1 range) for the armada and Line of Battle + Preperatory Fire for the already-promoted battleship. The noob will take Bombardment first and Line of Battle second. I’ll use the admiral promotions next turn, wipe out the Encampment’s remaining defenses and then start in on Isaac. It’s going to take longer than previously since the city’s defense is now 81. It’s not because of advanced units – the pike & shot is +7 on the garrison and the Entertainment Complex is another +3. He’s also moved Victor over. Eh, it’ll crack...just take a little longer. I bring the scout back down to within 3 sea tiles of the Encampment. I’ll shell it down to zero and then see if the scout can take it.

Assuming I get 12 artifacts from my archaeologists and Huey Teocalli completes next turn I’ll secure a normal age. After that I’ll need 12 era score for another golden age. I should be getting two from the barbarian camp that Boudica will be converting/clearing, three more from Bolshoi Theater and two when I do an envoy dump into Bologna after completing Conservation. Looking at the city-state I could levy its unit(s) for 240 if I were suzerain. That would be marginally funny to do (and worth another two era score). Flipping Wild and Bruins is 2 era score each. All told I could theoretically get a golden age for the Modern. That would be interesting, to say the least. I’d be able to do the envoy dump in 8 turns but that would only tie Kaiser for envoys. Finishing Conservation would let me drop 13 into the city-state in one shot, granting me suzerainty.

Kasier is running projects for great scientists. He earned 73 points for Einstein. If he runs another one this might help me out a little bit. We’re currently tied for the getting the second and third great scientists of the Modern Age. If he gets the second one I’ll pass on the third. If I take the second that works out for me. Foggy will spend three turns prebuilding its research project beginning next turn. In six turns’ time I’ll have four out of seven projects at one turn to go, then it’s just a matter of getting Marina, Cleggy and Truly prebuilt. Then it’s just a matter of waiting for Leakey.

In checking out the gossip it appears that Canada will be joining the Brazil-Egypt axis once our current alliance expires. They’ve signed a DoF with Egypt this past turn. I’ll need to keep that in mind for around Turn 215. Depending on what they do when our alliance expires I could be in position to put Canada in a world of hurt. I don’t know that I’ll be able to flip Kings once Bruins and Wild are in the fold but my southern fleet should be able to take out Penguins and Stars rather quickly provided Woden doesn’t get uppity in the meantime. I have to keep reminding myself that despite the current political situation I could find myself at the wrong end of a 4 vs. 1 by Turn 220 and that I need to plan accordingly. The first alteration means planning to finish Scorched Earth simultaneously with Combustion. Eh, I need to complete Conservation sooner rather than later so that'll get a few turns into it.

[suboptimal]

Turn 193

Open the save and I’ve completed Huey Teocalli! That’s +3 amenities in Foggy, +1+1 in all (three) workable lake tiles in my empire. For at least this turn Foggy is at +4 amenities and is happy. I start working on the research project here. Two turns of that and I’ll get out a builder for improvements to the southeast (Nora Batty’s oil, for one). I also switch Scorched Earth over to Conservation. Two turns of that and I’ll finish Scorched Earth.

Looking at Wild & Bruins it appears that Canada has signed a cultural alliance with Egypt. There is no pressure coming from those cities:




Wild is now at +3.4 loyalty. It’ll flip negative once Marina starts its project and I start my excavations. I could flip it a bit more negative if Howard also runs a project.

Missionary and archaeologists head off. Boudica moves up on the hill and I see two things. First, the jade between the stone hill and the camp is only 1 MP, not two. Second, there are no other barbarians around. Boudica moves up and...has her movement zeroed out when she moves adjacent to the camp.




I started on the hill SW of the stone, moved to the stone (2MP) moved to the current tile (1MP) and….stuck. :gripe: I guess we’ll see if she’s still there next turn.

At sea the admirals retire. Armada takes Coincidence Rangefinding and gets me an era score for having the highest promotion. The old hand takes Preperatory Fire. I’ve verified that the scout can move onto the Encampment from its current position so I’ll shell the district and yolo the scout. Isaac will be a tough nut to crack. I think Sinan will disembark either next turn or the turn after so I can see where all the field cannon have run off to. Isaac has reached Mobilization as he’s improved the pike & shot to a corps. I move the Depredation cavalry to the Holy Site, pillage it once and then return to the Dam. That takes out the Stupa, nets me some and reduces Kaiser’s amenities by 1.

Intriguing possibility:




That’s the noob’s attack rating against Alara Kitan. I could, in theory, take the city this turn. That would piss Woden off to no end, though. What’s also interesting is that the city is down to 50 loyalty despite having +27 pressure. Interesting. I don’t know that Woden can hold the city so I’ll see if he does a repeat of the Brazilian coast. That’s fine as Howard’s archaelogist is due out in three more turns and will head there first. I shift the noob west and shell the Encampment now.

I’ve realized that Canada has parked their cavalry back on the donut hole tile:




Wasn’t planning on settling that because I don’t need to. Builder heads back towards Compo – going there and then by sea to Pearl is faster than walking.

I look at the gossip and immediately see what happened at Alara Kitan:




Woden took it and Kaiser took it back on the same turn. Guess that’s where all his forces are lined up.

In my first look ahead at a possible 4 v 1, my situation. I currently make 157.7 per turn. I have 244.6 income from trade routes and 117 coming from districts (RNDs), worked tiles and miscellaneous sources. Expenses are currently 138 for military and 86 for infrastructure. If I lose all my trade routes I’d be 86.9 in the hole. I’m not running Triangular Trade (+40), Naval Infrastructure (+27) and Levee en Masse will save me another 36. I’d be running a pretty tight economy at that point but I could get some seaports out to help. Additionally at some point I’d be putting up that coastal resort city east of Nora Batty. Therefore, while my situation might suck in a 4 v 1 I wouldn’t go broke.

[suboptimal]

Turn 194

I went back through last turn’s screenshots given the events at Alara Kitan. Looks like Woden lost his caravel. I don’t know that he’d risk an ironclad fleet to do that again so my expectation when I open the save is to find Alara Kitan is gone. However, I open the save and…




If he doesn’t raze the city on his next turn I’d expect him to lose another ship. There’s a reason why the musket has left the city…

The notifications indicate that Ichabod and Canada are now at peace and Kaiser has built the Potala Palace.

Builds at Cleggy and Marina are complete. I take a look at Wild’s situation and the city is now at +8 per turn. Bread & Circuses won’t be enough to flip any cities at this point in time – he must be running loyalty policies. I can move Cleggy’s works of writing to Howard for another -2 loyalty but I’ll wait until I’ve got three artifacts. Pearl starts its temple and Marina starts its project prebuild. Up at Cleggy I place the Bolshoi Theater and will put a turn into it. Builder embarks and will boat the unimproved fish next turn. It’ll then land to harvest the stone and then put in a volcanic mine for Truly. That city’s museum is done and it starts its archaeologist. It’ll be grabbing the artifact in the third ring and then sailing for Brazil.

The barbarian in the tundra remained fortified. Boudica activates, I gain a pike & shot and 50. There’s no longer era score for clearing barbarian camps; that ended when we left the Medieval. I’ll use the pike & shot to wander through Phoenicia. Embarked archaeologists go on their way. Emory (Cleggy’s) is skirting the ice pack to the north to avoid being spotted by traders. My options are to land at Weathertop and Woden can see what I’m up to or I can try to land north of the cliffs at the northern passage, where he may or may not see what I’m up to. Of course, that discounts his southern fleet, if that is still around. Marina’s archaeologist is Montgomery. He heads for the artifact west of Wild. If I’ve counted movement right I’ll be able to excavate that in three turns unless Canada has blocked the pass.

With the Canadian rebellion situation on pause for the time being I bring my field cannon corps towards Smiler. That leaves the Tethys Ocean and the Egyptian coast.




He’s moved the pike & shot out of the city. This has done two things. First, it’s dropped the city defense to 74. That makes life a little easier. Second, it means I can kill the unit. First things first, though. I shift all battleships east one tile then the noob shoots the Encampment. That doesn’t quite do in the walls. I decide the pike & shot is the better target because the Encampment will be there next turn. Veteran battleship moves up to the coast and shoots, armada moves in behind and kills the unit off. Cavalry goes in an pillages the temple. I back the scout off the coast to keep it from getting shot up if Kaiser responds en masse. It can still get to the Encampment from its new position on the fish. I’m going to pillage out the Holy Site, the Entertainment complex and then the pasture & mine. I do a quick check of the area with the caravel and find no Phoenician units hidden in the fog north of the fleet. Sinan stays put – he can’t disembark onto the Campus because there’s a tiny sliver of cliffs there. Next turn I’ll start shelling Isaac. It’ll take 5-6 turns of shelling to take down the walls and most or all of the city’s defenses.

While getting my score logging complete I have a bit of a laugh:




So...turn 363 at this rate. As can be seen in the screenshots I’ve broken the 200 barrier. Gee, that only happened 94 turns after TBS did that in PBEM 17 . Some of that is from projects that are currently running in higher production cities so the number will drop back down a bit. Right now I’m generating 22.4 from projects.

Speaking of projects based on the numbers it looks like Kaiser has snuck ahead of me in the scientist queue. In running the numbers I think what I’ll do is tee up Marina, Foggy and Truly to finish projects at the same time. That’ll put me at the front of the queue because, well, Einstein would be a good catch but more importantly I could build points while the others work on the other two. Notably, Foggy remains at Happy status so it appears that the amenities from Huey Teocalli remain local.

In the gossip report I see that Canada has found Lake Retba. Eventually I’ll find it. Maybe that can be the now-civilized pike & shot’s mission.

[suboptimal]

Turn 195

So….notification pile:




Listening post at Isaac complete. Amenities and housing issues (Nora Batty grew in population and is apparently my current war weariness sink). Bologna peaced out with me then redeclared. There’s a new barbarian camp. Where? Here:




Well, that’ll make things interesting. I especially like the watchtower of the modern camps. I check out Bologna, Ichabod is now suzerain with 16 envoys. I’ll have 12 in-hand in 7 turns and then 15 when I complete Conservation.

OK...Combustion is at 1 turn. Switch civics back to Scorched Earth. I’ll slot Professional Army next turn, upgrade the southern fleet, the remaining swordsman and the four cuirassiers. After that I’ll complete Reformed Church to put Conscription back in and start working on Urbanization. I probably should have started that over Conservation but them’s the breaks.

Take a look around, Alara Kitan is now Phoenician but is set to rebel in four turns. Woden deadlined an ironclad to get it done and it doesn’t look like Kaiser attempted to retake the city (yet). However, I think I see why. Check out his milpower:




Last turn he had 921. This means two things. First, I shouldn’t have any ground-based resistance at Isaac. Second, I can engage in a bit more unrestricted pillaging by flooding the zone, so to speak.

OK...boat the fish at Cleggy. I change production over to the over-completed musket. Emory, Sunngifu and Montgomery all continue towards their first targets. Foggy’s research project is down to one turn. I switch over to the Theater Square. Marina’s project is at 5 turns, Smiler & Nora Batty are at two turns.

Take another look around the Tethys Ocean. Noob battleship hits the Encampment. It’s completely zeroed out which means it’s time...or not. Scout’s movement zone shows it has enough when it starts, doesn’t have enough when it gets to the coast. I’ll see if a field cannon comes wandering by next turn, I guess. Since I can see Isaac I shift Loefflaed to Gordon Malloy – 6 turn transit. Battleships open fire, armada first – that takes the walls down by exactly 100 and does 23 damage to the garrison. This should go quickly.

Depredation cavalry pillages the Holy Site and will move back to the Dam once everyone else has moved through. It’ll move once the rest of the units are done. Second Depredation unit hits the Entertainment Complex then backs up to the unbuild Industrial Zone. Next cavalry moves to the mine and finds a unit in the fog:




I pin it and move back up to the rice farm. Other cavalry unit also moves up.

Over in the Phoenician tundra my pike & shot has some company:




That’s OK, it’s won’t stop Emory from carrying out his assigned task. Hope Woden doesn’t settle on one of them but given where the oil is I think that’s a likely possibility. I also can’t beat him to the spot so it looks like I need to find another artifact for Emory to dig up over here. I head east to La Venta’s borders and will defog in the immediate area. Worse comes to worse I can go through the northern passage and grab one of the ones at Alara Kitan if Howard’s unit can’t get there.

Check the gossip column. Woden just completed Steam Power. Interesting...I would have figured he’d gotten that sooner. Woden did a bunch of pillaging and Canada and Egypt have swapped permanent embassies.

End turn and Woden has had a spy complete a mission.

[suboptimal]

Turn 196

Notification-pa-looza:




Bottoms up...trading post in Canada. Kaiser built Big Ben. Bologna changed suzerains a couple of times. My depredation cavalry on the IZ was killed. Canada is DoF blocking Isaac, though not completely – the Holy Site is open. I’ve got a bunch of amenity issues that popped up, I think because a trade deal with Woden expired. I offer him ivory and wines for furs and gypsum. Let’s see what he does. Clear out the notifications and get to work.

Combustion is done, start Astronomy. Scorched Earth is complete. Make policy change, Conscription out, Professional Army in. Start Reformed Church, one turn to complete. Upgrade time. First up, the cuirassiers are now tanks. One era score and the eureka for Composites. Southern fleet upgrades. Two more battleships, two more ironclads, 945 left. Right. Isaac first. A better screenshot:




Kaiser has put the musket corps in the Encampment likely because he believes that it will stop the scout. Here’s the thing….that unit won’t be the one defending. It’ll be the district garrison, which will have a health of zero. Or rather, the noob shoots and it has a health of zero. Note the combat GUI:




The musket is a spectator. Scout yolos on the amphibious assault like a WSB trader high on GME. The result:




I have a scout with 1hp, Kaiser’s musket corps is gone and the Encampment is pillaged. I back the cavalry off the rice farm back into friendly territory. The remaining Depredator finishes off the Holy Site. Battleships shell Isaac. Next turn I’ll bring the Depredator back into my own territory. If Canada leaves an open space in the perimeter I’ll use that to take the city. If not, well, I’ll pummel the city down to zero and start pillaging the surrounding area with the cavalry and tanks, maneuvering around Canada’s units.

Canada is likely protecting the city since if I capture it a flip becomes easier. Regardless, Canada’s actions here have confirmed that I can’t count on them as an ally in the long term. However, I can continue to milk them for trade while they’re still forced to be on-side. I send the trade route and the game crashes out.

Clear the notifications. Redo the research & policy changes, upgrade all the units. Shell the encampment, take the encampment, pillage the Holy Site, shell Isaac. Save the game. Reoffer the trade with Woden. Send the trade route to The Blues. Save the game. Alrighty then. The game slowed down a little bit while I was alt-tabbing around before….that must’ve been something going wrong. Next time I see that I’ll save immediately.

The one thing about the loyalty math is that I’ve got a writer and presumably 8 great works (2 writing, 6 artifacts) being installed within 9 tiles of Wild. Once those are in place I can flip the city using Bread & Circuses projects. It’d be slow but it’d be doable. I could also launch a spy attack and try to neutralize the governor. I’d have to plan that in advance, though, to get the timing right.

Time to rearrange some production queues. Smiler stops its project and starts its university. Thanks to the amenity loss Nora Batty currently has two turns to go. However, if Woden takes the trade deal then it’ll complete its project. Start the Theater Square. Cleggy’s musket it complete. It moves out of the city and forms a corps with the one already there. That gets me the Mobilization inspiration. Resume Bolshoi for a turn. Howard has finished its archaeologist and Wigstan heads for Alara Kitan via the sea. I start a builder. Compo’s spy is complete. The newly-recruited Aidan heads to Bologna, 7 turns to establish. I start a Sea Dog, four turns to complete. I’ll build two of these and then start on battleships. I want to have two fleets ready to go when the DoF with Woden and the alliance with Canada start to expire.

Missionary almost reaches Howard. Cleggy’s builder is at the stone. Montgomery moves into Wild’s territory next to his first target and finds a Canadian cavalry unit there. Hopefully it moves off next turn. That also means getting to Isaac is likely off the table. That’s OK. Emory and Sunngifu continue sailing, now a little faster thanks to Combustion. Woden settled one west of where he was last turn.




That makes my life a little easier. Pike and shot moves next to La Venta and I find a heavy chariot garrisoning the city.

Check the gossip, the usual smattering of pillages – Woden’s 4-promoted battleship fleet is now sporting Supply Fleet (heal at sea). His privateer fleet pillaged a lumbermill. I’ll need to get a few sea dogs out if only to be able to see where his fleet is. Canada has also DoF’d Brazil and their flip to the “other” side is complete. Of course, if Woden doesn’t accept my trade offer then I’ll know for certain that I’ve got a 4 v 1 forming up. The only thing possibly going for me right now with Woden is this:




Those routes are likely bringing him in about 20 each if my own routes are any judge. I don’t think his intrinsic income is high enough to afford losing all of them. At a minimum he’d be doing the same juggling I’d be doing. He’s also not likely to find peace with Kaiser or Ichabod to use them as trading partners.

Without resources from Woden my amenities situation is poor but still workable. However, I’ve also got another option if Woden doesn’t give me a resource deal – I’ll pull Trade Confederation and slot Liberalism next turn. That’ll solve my issues for the time being. Longer term, Marina will build a zoo after the project is at 1 turn to go. That’ll get me three more amenities. Likewise, Auntie Wainwright could switch over to building out the Water Park once it completes its museum but I want the archaeologist first. That district might be a good spot to deploy for infrastructure. Funnily enough with the situation in other cities, Foggy is still at Happy status. I suspect some of that will get redistributed next turn – it’s getting five amenities from non-resource sources (palace, zoo @ Howard + three from Huey Teocalli).

In other news Ichabod beat Kaiser to the Oxford Library – he just completed three techs last turn.

[suboptimal]

Turn 197

Cleggy – Harvest stone, continue Bolshoi.

The primary curiosity is whether or not Woden has accepted my trade offer. Notifications indicate that he has. Nice. However, I can’t take this completely for granted as I’ll discuss in a bit. Despite the trade deal I am still showing negative amenities in most cities. Reformed Church is complete. Time for some changes. Professional Army out, Conscription in. Trade Confederation out, Liberalism in. The yield value from the extra amenities is worth more than what Trade Confederation gives me. That’s evidenced by the fact that my yields went up after making the change. Start Urbanization, complete in 6 turns.

I take a look around and see that Cleggy has longer to go on the Bolshoi than I thought. Why? The production overflow disappeared. I catch up a little bit by harvesting the stone for 119. That takes two turns off the build. I’m going to keep on building the Bolshoi until it’s done, then I’ll take care of the university repair. Missionary converts Howard, making another amenity. Builder at Marina finally gets to the coast and embarks for Pearl. Emory runs into a picket at the Northern Passage:




I head SE to the crabs. That keeps me out of view of everything for this turn. Assuming nothing north of the caravel I’ll be able to reach the tile 2NE of the oil (NW of the copper) and stay out of sight. Fortunately there are no ships in Weathertop to see his arrival. I do see that he’s got his own archaeologist out at La Venta, so I may be diverting south anyways. I’ll see if any of my pinned artifacts up here disappear. There’s also a Canadian warrior in the area of La Venta. Woden’s pursuing the same strategy, I think, as his other visible Theater Square at Osgilath has an archaeological museum. However, he’s only got three Theater Squares while I’ve got seven. There should be enough to go around because of shipwrecks but earlier is always better. Wigstan moves west and is 3 turns from reaching Alara Kitan’s sites.

At Wild the cavalry unit has cleared out to fill in the protective ring around Isaac. That’s fine by me. Montgomery moves in and claims a Renaissance-era Genevan astrolabe. Era score, 3 and 3 tourism in Marina plus -1 loyalty per turn to Wild and Bruins. I’ve changed my targets a little bit and will send Montgomery after the two artifacts in Canadian territory; the first is south of The Blues and the second is over at Capitals.

Going back up to the Tethys there’s a battleship fleet missing:




It was at about 50% health judging by the meter bar. It could be up in the fog at The Grey Havens or it could be up by the ice pack. SEAWACS goes north then returns south and finds no Phoenician vessels. The trader is almost to The Grey Havens and will provide more information in a turn or two. The ship wasn’t sunk as Woden has gained a little bit of milpower since last turn. Of course there’s also a privateer fleet running around up here.

A field cannon killed the scout. Loefflaed has four more turns until he establishes at Gordon Malloy. I land Sinan at the banana plantation because why not? The pathfinder disembarks him at the Encampment with 2.5 movement left. Sweet!




Somewhat earlier I stated that battleships could do indirect fire. My recollection from PBEM 10 might be incorrect. I move the armada over and check. (Missed the screenshot) Yup. I’ve got a spotter and I can hit the target. It dies. I’m going to leave that pike & shot alone. I can’t pillage the Campus and might as well not let Woden pillage it easily. This does mean that I can shell Ed Mercer from the sea. I think I’ll do that starting next turn, using SEAWACS as the spotter. Gordon Malloy would be risky as that would force my ships in a little too close to shore, especially with that observation balloon. Also good to know that Kaiser has Flight completed. Sinan can’t embark again so I move straight west to defog and look for units. That reveals Kelly Grayson with a wounded Cavalry unit and a field cannon and Gustavus Adolphus north of Ed Mercer:




If I can weaken the city enough I know where my tanks are going. This also means that I can pretty much shoot anything I can see from the city center that is located to the northeast once Loefflaed establishes. The veteran battleship relocates off the coast in preparation for a change in targeting plans.

I do get to check out something else – the movement range on my Depredation cavalry:




I could reach Gordon Malloy’s Campus in 3.5 MP, pillage and retreat to the Encampment, which is third ring to both cities. I misclick and send it out to sea. I’ll return next turn. (Whoops). Actually, that misclick on the Depredation unit isn’t so bad after all. I can send it up to the tundra north of Alara Kitan and have it sit tight there to monitor things. If the city flips free while I’m up there I can go in for some pillaging. The other units will stay at Barry until/unless I get Ed Mercer down to the point where I can take it. I do check out the movement ranges of the other cavalry units and tanks but know better than to send a solo unit in for some pillaging. I’ll wait until I can either move in en masse (because Kaiser’s milpower drops that low) or I need to relocate to kill Canadian units.

Going back to tanks, the two at Pearl head into Canadian territory. I’m going to cross the river into the desert and then go pillage a few things. They can get there in one turn and I send the first one on its way.




Oooh...a builder. Shame I can’t get to it. I park the other tank to the south, out of view of the builder and just outside Canadian territory. While the tanks can’t pillage and run away like the cavalry these units both have unused promotions so they can take a bit of a beating, move away and heal up for some more. John Lamarr’s Aqueduct is rebuilt so that’s an obvious target. The niter up at Charly Burke is another one.

The Great Scientist situation is also getting away from me a little bit. Ichabod’s GSP rate has increased, as has Kaiser’s. Canada is now only two turns behind me for fourth. The only good news there is that the costs go up quite a bit after the third one goes. That would give me a little bit of time. I think my best case scenario is to either beat Kaiser to second or, failing that, pass on the third one and take my chances with what comes next.

Now, what about Woden? Well, if I presume that all of his frigates that were pestering Brazil have converted to battleships and came up here then his navy is accounted for. I might find out in a few turns when Sunngifu reaches the Brazilian coast. The turns have gone by quickly – I could start building ships at Cleggy but the Bolshoi’s free civics are too good to pass up right now. What I will do instead is bring both battleships at Nora Batty around and up to Cleggy. That’ll be close enough to come in support if needed. I’ll also bring back the ironclads that are picketing. The rest of the navy will tie up around Howard. Compo will get out a couple of sea dogs and then a battleship or two. Foggy will take 11 turns to build out its Theater Square and the archaeologist. I may interrupt that for another battleship depending on how things look.