[SPOILERS] Chevalier Mal Fet and Marcopolothefraud lead a Soviet Down Under

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Got. If you swap then I'll do so as well, although I need to hold off on BW until my Plaza is down. Iron mines will be a welcome boost. Then Shipbuilding so we can start overseas colonization.

[marcopolothefraud]

Turn 64

I didn't find enough time to update the spreadsheet today. Sorry, CMF.



CMF hypothesizes that Kaiser's Japan might be to our east, and probably pretty close by given the loyalty tooltip. I think there's a chance it might be Norway as well, because Woden sent a Longship down here before Kaiser did...we shall have to see. Given that Norway and Japan are both natural warmongers, I think I might need some defence at MBDTF. Definitely Ancient Walls, probably a Quadrireme and maybe a Horseman if I have time to squeeze one out. (the Horseman will be good for land defense, most importantly my districts.)



A brief look at my core cities. Illmatic will make a Galley soon, I think.

P.S. I noticed that both of us are researching Defensive Tactics, but CMF will get it 1 turn earlier than I will. Do you mind researching it all the way through and giving me the Inspiration for it?

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Yeah, I'll take DT, and you can swap to something else. We'll both want to start PP as soon as we can, obviously.

A galley for map knowledge is essential, I think. Given Nazca's location and the others' high culture/science rates, I think there's a good number of city-states just off the coast. If you can find the production for it, an Australian wolf-pack of 3-4 galleys would let you get your own colonies abroad under way.

The other thing to prioritize is Australian production, so BW and Construction (for lumber mills) are both important techs. You have science out the wazoo, but as yet only a limited ability to turn that into useful map things (although it will be fantastic for Russia to draft behind you on many techs).

[marcopolothefraud]

I already have Construction . I got it around turn 62.

It's not just production I need to prioritize - I need to grow my cities as well. Because I have so few 3-food and 4-food tiles, I'll have to harvest my Marshes and Rice soon. I don't have Irrigation or the Eureka for it...is it worth farming Illmatic's rice to get myself the Eureka? I think so.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I have irrigation at one turn, I can get you the eureka at any time.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I wonder if Archduke is okay? He hasn't posted in his thread hardly at all and the last two weeks his turns have taken a minimum of 24 hours each, frequently 2-3 days.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 64

No worries on the spreadsheet, Marco, I don't expect you to update it. It's something I use to keep my finger on the pulse of the game - I don't know if the info I get is worth the time I spend on it, but it only takes about 5 minutes (I've got a good process now) and you can learn some interesting things. Honestly the best part is the graphs to let you see long-term trends, and the military order of battle helps me since I know there's no threat at present from Japan and only about 6 Norwegian longships to worry about, which can be defeated by crash-shipbuilding programs even if the entire Viking navy comes calling. 




Construction is in from Marco. I'm swapping to Irrigation to give him that eureka, although I won't have the builders out to make use of it for another 5 turns or so. Then I'll probably pick up the Wheel, but need to delay Bronze Working until I place the Plaza at Imperator ALeksandr. That will come as soon as I finish a tech AFTER finishing the campus at Knyaz Suvurov, which will happen on turn 69. So I'll trigger the Wheel on turn 70 probably and place the Plaza on 70, then go straight into BW? That makes sense. That should keep me on track with district discounts. 

The Hong Kong attack force moves into position. The city should fall on turn 66:




4 tiles to attack from, 5 ships available, should be overkill. 3 would do. I'll heal and then push north for Nazca. I want to take it this era if possible to begin spamming settlers out of it. 

Speaking of, I could afford another settler this turn, but I hold off for one turn to grow a pop. I feel like my yields are slightly higher this way vs. dropping down a size and then regrowing, but I'm honestly not 100% on that. I am very fuzzy on the internal mechanics of the game so it might have been better to just get the settler out this turn. Plus I'd've planted the city one turn sooner, which would make up for hte lost yields THIS turn...oops. Oh, well.

Shrine is finishing next turn, but I will need to wait a single turn for the missionary - won't quite be able to afford it and the settler on the same turn. 

I know sub finished a shrine this turn, because he's got 3 GP points but only 2 holy sites. That's probably for the culture boost, too, given that China purchased a missionary a few turns back. I wonder what sub's plan is with his prophet? I think players are really starting to master the religion system in these PBEMs (cf. thrawn's masterful PBEM19 - Work Ethic + pitati rushing the city state cluster earned him one of the most rapid victories ever), so it's fun to see what they do with it. 

No news on gossip, but we can see from the resource report where Phoenicia's yields are coming from:




He has 2 improved mercury, 1 improved turtles, 1 marble, and 1 iron hooked up (as of last turn). That's at least 4 science resources and 1 culture resource, plus he might have more in his area not yet improved. Figure he's running Free Inquiry to get probably +6 or +8 science from his Cothons and all is explained. Thus he's fielding a strong navy, has strong research, and just planted city #3 - expect more to come now that he's got Cothons and probably an Ancestral Hall soon. Very strong start from Dido. 

Woden is doing well, with a culture pantheon and Pingala accounting for most of his yields, with an equally strong navy and now 5 cities, leading the pack (I'll tie him in 3 turns, of course). Sub and roland lead in score, mostly from roland's wonders.

Once sub takes Brussels he'll be on 4 cities and should have a settler for 5 soon. He's got the second strongest faith generation, but the Earth Goddess nerf should knock him back a bit there - no way his two non-boosted Holy Sites can keep up with my three DotA-doubled lavras. I expect him to focus on faith and culture (Mercenaries for Jongs). 

Kaiser is building strong districts but no military and is on 3 cities (soon 4), Archduke jumped to 5 (I think) with either another CS conquest in the fog or founding his 4th city. His era score spiked fully 9 points from 12 to 21 this turn - first RND coming online? Splendid district? Threatening camp cleared? Not sure what's all going into that.

I'm keeping up with the leaders, and think I can start to pull ahead through monumentality, but Australia so far is the runt of the litter. marco is just hampered by his extremely low population and production. He should focus on food while I spread my religion to him to fix the production issue. Hopefully we won't drop too far behind. At least he has competitive research rates - but that's what comes from early monuments and campuses. Oh, well, you live and learn. 

Overview of both of us:

[marcopolothefraud]

Australia so far is the runt of the litter. marco is just hampered by his extremely low population and production. He should focus on food while I spread my religion to him to fix the production issue. Hopefully we won't drop too far behind. At least he has competitive research rates - but that's what comes from early monuments and campuses. Oh, well, you live and learn. 

 Well, as long as I keep playing turns in a timely manner, and don't resort to cheating, this will be a good experience. I won't be like MikeForAll, at least.


Roland of Gilead built the Pyramids, one of the best wonders in the game. Qin Shi Huang + Pyramids + Serfdom policy + Liang = 8 charge builders...that will be scary, especially with Monumentality.

A builder finished in the Blueprint, but I will wait until it grows to 4 pop before I chop out the Holy Site. (It's working on another builder right now.) MBDTF due t67.
What's the quickest way to improve the tiles in MBDTF? Should I move one of my builders from the Blueprint to MBDTF?

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Australia so far is the runt of the litter. marco is just hampered by his extremely low population and production. He should focus on food while I spread my religion to him to fix the production issue. Hopefully we won't drop too far behind. At least he has competitive research rates - but that's what comes from early monuments and campuses. Oh, well, you live and learn. 

 Well, as long as I keep playing turns in a timely manner, and don't resort to cheating, this will be a good experience. I won't be like MikeForAll, at least.

Roland of Gilead built the Pyramids, one of the best wonders in the game. Qin Shi Huang + Pyramids + Serfdom policy + Liang = 8 charge builders...that will be scary, especially with Monumentality.

A builder finished in the Blueprint, but I will wait until it grows to 4 pop before I chop out the Holy Site. (It's working on another builder right now.) MBDTF due t67.
What's the quickest way to improve the tiles in MBDTF? Should I move one of my builders from the Blueprint to MBDTF?

Good question. I feel like walking one over will take ages. How long should it take for MBDTF to build its own? It should be safe enough from longships, especially with a warrior or slinger garrison, that maybe you can make that the first build.

I think my biggest weakness right now is builder labor - I have only 2 improved tiles from my single builder, so I need a wave for each city as soon as I can. I think that should come next. I don't regret my infra builds - each lavra and campus more or less needed to be built when it was to maximize era score and discounts. But compared to Phoenicia you see how much I lag.

[marcopolothefraud]

Turn 66



Suboptimal conquered Brussels and renamed it to Have a Good Time.

I also finished researching Bronze Working, which reveals 5 sources of Iron on our continent. (Unfortunately, I forgot to take screenshots.) One is to the very southwest of the continent, one is near Imperator Aleksandr, one is just outside of the Blueprint, one is just northeast of Illmatic, and one is in the desert northeast of MBDTF. I pinned the two sources close to Russia, and set the pins to "To Team", so that he could see them and change his plans around them.

I *can* get Shipbuilding in 4 turns without the eureka, and I'm tempted to do so because building two Galleys will take much longer than 4 turns. Preferably, I would time it to finish with Defensive Tactics, so I can switch into the +100% Production towards ships card and build a Quadrireme in Illmatic before I get to Political Philosophy.