[SPOILERS] Roland and Suboptimal Team Up

[roland of gilead]

Yeah i suppose it's the same for everyone but knowing what used to be a city state and knowing what it was is different and game changing. Say Valletta is out there called something else now. We have lot's of faith we might want to liberate that.

Just an example and hardly game breaking in fairness.

Not suggesting we change Brussels back or anything either but perhaps something for new games.

[suboptimal]

Turn 69




It’s a bit busy. In addition to Woden/Ljublana declaring on Rapa Nui the Australian Soviet has declared on Hong Kong and someone else (Kaiser) has killed a city-state. In addition to Engineering I’ve also gotten Construction’s boost. I accept the Chinese delegation and send one back.

The pending death of Hong Kong is not surprising – it’s right off the Russian coast. What is surprising is my embarked slinger meeting up with one of their galleys:




If you look at the mini-map you can see Hong Kong’s orange dot way down to the south. It’s a shame I don’t have a galley close enough to either city-state – I’d consider poaching one.

Southern galley finds a barbarian camp. No sign of quadriremes but I haven’t seen any scouts on this island, either. That could be a naval camp. Up at Have a Good Time the galley has defogged the coast and takes a detour northwest just to check for city-states (there are none). Builder there puts in a fur camp. That gets You Can Call Me Al to happy status. Settler moves in on home and finds a second wine resource, and it’s on a hill to boot. Warrior crosses the river southeast and




This city will have eight resources to work (and improve)! Yeah, settling on the warrior’s position is the right move here. Settlement in three turns, next settler out of Have a Good Time in five. With the settler safely away from the coast the galley returns to the city to heal and await the next one. Warrior in the south reaches the coast and will land next turn. Slinger lands this turn. They’ll both move inland. I have a feeling, based on what I can see around the edges, that the center is going to be resource-packed. I think I may settle all my cities here off the coast and rely on second ring Harbors for trade connections. That also means my efforts need to be focused on expansion here.

In looking at Big Island I think the next settlement needs to go in somewhere near the slinger:




I suspect the tile SE of the mountain is on fresh water; that would make one of the marsh first ring. The only downside to Big Island is that most of it will be low appeal given all the jungle. I also think I’m going to hold my northern warrior in position until the city founds – I’ll upgrade that one to a swordsman for city defense and barb-clearing purposes.

I see the Phoenicia added a city. In poking around I find out this wasn’t settled – they conquered Geneva. That means two city-states were taken out this turn. Antananarivo might be the only survivor and just because of its location.

One other thing I just noticed:




Obvious Child can’t build naval units because they won’t be able to get out of the bay unless I’m suzerain (it doesn’t carry over to allies). Heh. Even better, Antananarivo cannot be seen from the “public accessible” water ways so Frigates won’t be able to shell the city.

[roland of gilead]

TURN 70

I don't get any messages for captured city states but do discover CMF is hitting Hong Kong



Charge apadana twice and swap out corve for colonisation



Start researching military training to pass across the boost.



got my gold up to 30 odd per turn as well. With chocolate and diamonds added to my luxuries 3 of the 4 cities are happy boosting everything.

[roland of gilead]

no ships at OC is not good. Not even sure what we can do about it.

Privateers perhaps? will we even want them?

[williams482]

Could you have China settle a (crap) city up there and build a canal?

[suboptimal]

I'm of two minds about the situation. First, having the blockade there secures OC from immediate discovery by anyone. That effectively secures the city for quite some time. The downside is that it leaves me with effectively two coastal cities - my capital (which can be better defended) and Have a Good Time (which is harder to defend given its geography and distance). A junk city just to give OC open sea access is a waste of a settler, imho. Privateers cannot go through closed borders unless at war or the borders are open (this isn't Civ IV/V) and those are even deeper into the tree. I might hard-build a Jong at OC once Mercenaries is complete if only for local defense.

I can alleviate the port issue by building a Harbor at the Big Island city being settled in a couple of turns as a sea access point that can be secured. However, that's a ways off as I think the better first district there will be a Campus or Holy Site. I'm not purchasing ships while in Monumentality - it's all settlers with maybe the occasional builder when needed.

Al will be starting quadriremes as soon as the monument is done and I'll be slotting Maritime Industries to speed that process up once PP is done (Oligarchy). I think that's reasonably achievable. The question is whether or not I/we can generate the 1110 that will be required to upgrade all six into jongs within the next 30 turns, plus enough to get some swords and a battering ram ready to go for a land invasion at Norway. We will want land units in formation with all of the jongs because the ships are +5 CS when escorting a unit. That would give me CS 60 ships that should have no trouble dispatching city walls or longships.

What I do need to do is get my core cities growing a bit faster. Big Island won't have that problem from what I've seen so the "play" may actually be to have my starting cities be a "false core".

[roland of gilead]

i am sure we can get up to 100gpt between us in 20 turns.

i am 12 or so away from settling petra city and 7 after that from having +10 tiles to work. very soon i will have two + 5 chocolate tiles being worked etc.

harbours and CH will go down.

Let's see what can be done.

[roland of gilead]

Could you have China settle a (crap) city up there and build a canal?

canals are very expensive as well. 

Still not sure we will ever get the ones at cities 3 and 4 built.

[suboptimal]

Turn 70

Iron Working and Defensive Tactics are complete. Start Archery (1 turn) and Political Philosophy (4 turns), though I expect PP to take longer once Rapa Nui bites the dust. I’ve got a governor promotion and a policy change. I don’t need to change policies. For the governor I take Liang. I’ll put her into a Big Island city to be ready to go if/when the builder purchases start happening. For the time being she goes into Have a Good Time.

On the mainland I embark Al’s slinger, move the Campus garrison to the city and the wandering warrior to the Campus. The embarked slinger will join the party on Big Island. Southern galley finds out that the body of water it is in is the Greenland Sea. It also sees something interesting peeking out of the fog:




I wonder if this was Geneva or if this is Phoenician home territory. The galley north of Good Time doesn’t return to the city but instead continues exploring the north for a bit. While doing so I spot something else new:




Those weren’t there last turn! Looks like I was closer to Japan than I thought. I’m going to bring the northern galley back south and then send the other one over to investigate.

Over at Big Island the warrior disembarks near the Achelous River. The slinger moves southwest into the woods and finds wines. A barbarian slinger has appeared out of the fog and I expect that it will cross the river next turn, where I’ll be able to eventually kill it for some XP. Other warrior moves south and the settler moves west. The advisors want my settler to settle NW of the horses in the open but I’m crossing and settling the turn after next. The warrior will move to the iron next turn, then backtrack for the swordsman upgrade before heading south once more.

At Have a Good Time I move the citizen off the furs and onto the fish for the time being. That speeds up city growth, and thus settler purchase, by a turn. My next settlement location (near the slinger) is 8 turns to reach the coast from either Al or Have a Good Time but I’d rather go from the latter. After that settler I expect to buy all my settlers from cities already on Big Island.

[roland of gilead]

TURN 71

Got my covid vaccine yesterday and was a but delirious while playing.



did some stuff and took a screenshot of my empire.

i think apadana finishes next turn.