[Spoiler] Suboptimal's Next Attempt at Lurker Frustration

[suboptimal]

Turn 237

Alliance with Woden ends in nine turns (my Turn 246). WC votes in 12 turns, era rolls in 22 turns. Those are the timings I’m keeping an eye on (along with needing to recruit a great scientist in 11 turns). His milpower has shot up to 2982, I’m at 2481 and Ichabod is at 2000. Dunno if Woden is planning offense or defense here. Cavalry looks around and finds no build up of troops. Neither does Sinan. Between the trade routes he’s sending me and ones that appear to be running internally (or to Ichabod) he’s got 13 traders visible.

I’ve completed a bomber and earned 4 era score (3 for the plane, one for using aluminium for the first time). Synthetic Materials is also boosted as Compo’s Aerodrome is complete as well. Got a great person waiting for me. Katsushika Hokusai appears in Truly. Woden’s general is north of Foggy (on the bananas) and the tank is in no-man’s land north of Glenda, saying hello to my swordsman .

Up in the northern ocean I leave the new battleship armada where it is, out of side of Woden’s convoy. The sub armada moves north out of the trade route lane with Howard. Check Fez, the fighter has moved on. I move the bomber to Compo’s airstrip to keep it out of sight of his general. Compo is going to get a tank done then get a bomber going. I tank one tank out of Nora Batty’s queue. Pike & shot consolidates into an army at Barry as the city starts its archaeologist.

Builder at Pearl to Marina. Next turn to Howard, turn after to Barry. Engineer at Nora Batty sits tight for now. Hokusai goes to the National History Museum and The Great Wave off Kanagawa. With the next great work I’ll break the 400 per turn barrier. Glenda gets a lumbermill. I’m going to use the remaining two charges to plant another forest and then lumbermill that. It’ll get me an extra appeal for one of the resorts and some more production in the city.

That leaves Silent Tiles. It’s two turns of movement to Bologna National Park and then the concert happens on turn 3. The band moves into Phoenician territory, stopping two tiles north of the Ruhr Valley/Big Ben complex. Depending on how Woden reacts I’m going to move two tiles SW of the Casa de Contratacion and stop there next turn. That’ll give me the option of playing at Bologna or Moria national parks on the following turn. A rock band playing a level 1 concert (which is anywhere but a national park for this group) has a 44.9% chance of disbanding. A level 2 concert (national parks right now) has only a 34.5% chance of disbanding. Likewise, a level 1 concert has a 10% chance of promotion while a level 2 gives a 17% chance. A promotion means better success on the next concert and a better chance at success & promotion. Knowing my luck they’ll be aging rockers, get 1 star on their performance and disband.

I do see a healing tank army I missed on my various scouting movements. While I’m thinking about it I put pins on everything military I can see to keep tabs on it for later.

Gossip says that Woden is trading with Phoenicia and that they’ve settled THE SHIRE. That’s up on the spit of land on the coast north of Weathertop where I pulled up an artifact a while back.

Next turn Advanced Ballistics is in, the turn after that Rapid Deployment. I’ve also decided that Foggy is going to get a settler out in order to gap fill the coast by Truly. I’ll most likely settle between the niter and the wine to stay close to other cities for defense (and air coverage). That unit will be out in six turns. I also need to start looking at potential WC resolutions in the coming vote. I can currently buy 5 votes vs. 3 for Canada and 2 for Ichabod.

[suboptimal]

Turn 238

Advanced Ballistics is complete, start Chemistry. I’ve got four builds that complete next turn, those cities will all likely turn their focus to getting some AA guns out (around my other objectives). That times up nicely with the completion of Rapid Deployment – I can take out Trade Confederation, move Triangular Trade out of the wildcard slot and put in Defense of the Motherland and have Cleggy possibly 2-turn a bunch of AA guns. However, depending on overflow I might not need the policy to do that.

I have a notification that the Barry to Mount Doom trade route has completed, giving me a free trader and an era score (first trade post in Phoenicia). I take a look at the trade routes and that trader is going to Rio de Janiero – 1140222. Yes please, can I have some more? The best part about that route is that it goes through Mount Doom to get there, then over water to Osgilath and then over land through Phoenicia and most of Brazil.

Civilians start out with Lake Suwa in Shinano Province getting created in Foggy. I also move one of the art works in Smiler over. That results in a net culture and tourism gain since I now have a different artist in the National History Museum. Next turn Hokusai will go to Smiler and put his third work directly there for the same reason. My yield is 399.4. Sooooo close to 400. At Glenda the builder heads for the deer. I’m going to harvest that so it doesn’t go to waste and drop it into an RND (which I lock at Glenda). Builder at Marina gets to Howard. I could use another one for some improvements (lumbermills) at Marina but it’s not urgent.

Silent Tiles can actually reach Bologna National Park with movement to spare.




Nice. That 2500 tourism is worth two tourists “against” Woden. I had just over 11500 tourism against him so I actually gained three. It also says it’s a third tier performance but gave four stars because of the increased level by playing at a national park. I’ll play Moria National Park next turn. That also gets me three era score for playing my first concert of the game.

Sinan and the cavalry wander about, I see Woden’s building railroads in the direction of Wild. Need to keep an eye on that.

Cleggy completed a submarine this turn, it moves midway between here and Howard. They’re both finishing subs next turn. Auntie Wainwright now has a battleship fleet, armada due in three turns. His armada at Fez has also departed but only moved four tiles from the city. Dunno if I’ve been spotted but I move to a spot four tiles directly west of it. If he moves towards my coast I’ll see him coming.

Woden’s milpower has jumped up to 3228. He’s definitely building up, but for offense or defense? I suspect Canada might be on the menu.

I’m going to have to pick my upgrades carefully. A field cannon army, at a 50% discount, costs 645 to upgrade to machine guns. I expect the costs to be similarly steep for pike & shot to anti-tank. I think anti-tank upgrades are the better option.

I’m going to backtrack in the civics tree and complete Capitalism next. That’ll unlock Market Economy (+1 per luxury or strategic resource improved at the destination, +2+2). That will replace Trade Confederation and get me more culture and science (and hopefully a bit more cash).

[suboptimal]

Turn 239

Rapid Deployment is complete, start Capitalism. My alliance with Woden has reached level two. After looking at build times I’ve decided I don’t need to slot Defense of the Motherland. It doesn’t gain much on build times at Cleggy. I’m also going to hold aircraft in the build queues at one turn from completion in order to save on some costs. Truly’s current bomber build is at 1 turn so I switch over to a fighter. Compo has finished the tank and will get out a couple of AA guns before prebuilding a bomber and fighter. Howard also starts an AA Gun. It might be overkill but having multiple guns at the frontline cities would help deal with any bombers that Woden has flying around. I haven’t seen any (yet) but can’t think of a good explanation as to how he was able to chew down walls so fast. I’m also going to prebuild other units (tanks, mainly) everywhere else with reasonable production.

Up north the subs form an armada. Builder at Howard embarks for Barry. Hokusai goes to Smiler and drops Fuji Mountains in Clear Weather. That pushes just over 400 but that’ll spike again when Pingala re-establishes in Cleggy next turn. In the south the tanks head for Nora Batty and Glenda’s builder harvests the deer into the RND. Woden’s tank army has embarked and stumbled across my submarine armada – I move away to go back into hiding. Woden’s battleship armada has turned northwest but appears to be patrolling outside Fez rather than heading anywhere in particular. It’s at the furthest extent of the sight range of my northern ironclad. Southern one checks for ships at Fez, sees none and backs off. At Isaac Woden appears to be stacking up some units, but I don’t know if that’s for defense or offense.




I send in SEAWACS II for a look, he’s got no other ships in the area (except, perhaps, for some subs). I bring the nearby submarine armada down for a sub sweep and don’t see any. I’ll use this one to patrol the area. He’s also got a field cannon army at the Encampment and the tank army west of there is fully healed. There’s the infantry army and another tank army at Gordon Malloy and an artillery army midway between Isaac and Gordon Malloy. Sinan moves to the south….yeah, I think he’s going after Canada next but will stay vigilant regardless.




I don’t know that I’d be able to hold the line against that.

Over to Silent Tiles. Everything says that a Rock Band can only perform at a venue once. However, when it comes to National Parks each tile is a venue:




I’ve already performed on the southern tile but the northern tile is fair game. I can’t get there for three turns though because it’s not connected by roads. No matter. Moria National Park is reachable this turn and has four venues I could play at. I go up there and




ROCK ON! Curious to see what I get for promotion choices next turn.

Woden appears to have gained almost 300 gold this turn. I have to start thinking about the trade resolution in the WC. If that comes up it’d be possible to embargo Woden’s trade routes for 30 turns. Given that he, like myself, makes most of his income from international trade routes that could have serious consequences for him. Woden also completed nuclear fission this past turn. Ichabod completed Totalitarianism and adopted Fascism. I may go there next but not adopt the government in order to keep four economic slots for as long as possible. Ichabod gained a great scientist point per turn, closing the turn gap back between he and Woden back to 1. That doesn’t help my situation any.

While updating my score tracking I get a laugh:

[suboptimal]

Turn 240

I know my alliance with Woden ends on Turn 246. What I don’t quite know (but should really go back and check) is when his alliances with Ichabod and Canada both end. I believe they both end before mine.

Open the save to notifications that both my listening post missions in Brazil have ended. Pingala has established in Cleggy, raising my culture to 426 per turn and my science to 253.7 per turn. Woden appears to have added some trade routes because the city’s also gained 5.7 per turn.

The situation at Isaac:




He’s either getting ready for a Canadian invasion or to end-run Barry. I’ll need to figure out what I want to do with the latter situation. Sinan will stay put there. Cavalry goes to the Holy Site and finds nothing in the fog near the Encampment. I’ll be getting another scout unit since my trader en route to Gordon Malloy is about to use the mountain pass. Builder gets to Barry and puts in a ski resort. Sub armada off Howard moves out to sea north of the city. Battleship armada does the same. SEAWACS II checks the Pheonician fleet, nothing new. Nearby sub armada finds no subs in the area. I should probably go check north of Cleggy….

I recall both spies. Loefflaed goes to Cleggy – I want to put him on the IZ. At Belem it looks like Ichabod is doing the same thing I am – getting ready for war:




Osgar goes to Compo – I’ll guard the IZ and Dam with him.

Glenda’s finished the tank, resumed the RND. It’s also got a tank corps in town and the army will form up next turn. Builder goes to the hill, will put down woods next turn. Off the coast Woden’s tank army has disappeared into the fog. The sub armada doesn’t find it, based on where I checked it’s likely somewhere E-NE of Truly. I check Fez, find nothing new, then mark the battleship’s location. I want to see if Woden is just leaving it there or moving around.

That leaves Silent Tiles and its promotion. What are my options?

- Arena Rock: Perform at two levels higher at Entertainment Complexes
- Indie: Performing a concert causes that city to lose 40 loyalty
- Reggae Rock: Perform at two levels higher at Water Parks.

Since there are more opposition Entertainment Complexes than Water Parks I take Arena Rock. The nearest one is to my northwest, so I move a few tiles in that direction and promote. Ichabod has a great general on that tile right now so I couldn’t move there if I wanted to but next turn I should have my choice of going to either the EC (for a level 4 concert) or the national park (for a level 3 concert).

Looking at the scientist situation I’ve got no good options. Woden recruits on his turn 246, Ichabod recruits on his Turn 247 and I recruit on my Turn 251. There’s no turn gap to force Ichabod to recruit or pass. The only way this works is if Woden passes in an attempt to get Leakey to prevent me from getting her. That forces Shroedinger onto Ichabod. Of course, I could hope that Ichabod wants Janika Ammal (+400 for each rainforest tile here or adjacent) since she’d be worth much more science to him than Leakey but I doubt it. I think the only thing I can reasonably try here is to have three projects complete on my Turn 247 – either I overflow a pile and get whoever Ichabod doesn’t take, overflow a pile and get Leakey or I get lucky and Woden either opens up a two turn gap between himself and Ichabod or passes on Shroedinger. Smiler’s got two turns left on its project, Foggy just started its project and Truly will start its project next turn. I’ll put a turn into each at Foggy and Truly then move all three cities to projects on Turn 245.

Chemistry completes next turn and I think I’ll start Combined Arms. After that I’ll likely go to Nuclear Fission and then Rocketry → Guidance Systems. I’ll have plenty of AA guns around. The World’s Fair competition ends in 8 turns and I’ve generated the most points (3145). Unless Ichabod starts a LOT of projects I’ll be getting 1 Diplomatic Victory point, 100 Great Person points (not sure how that works), 50 Diplomatic Favor and 2 civics boosts on Turn 248.

[suboptimal]

Turn 241

The turns are ticking away. Chemistry is in, Combined Arms in four turns. Things are quiet. At Isaac, Woden has four tank armies and a field cannon army, plus three battleship armadas moored in the corner. He’s moved a fighter into Smiler’s territory, presumably to check things out. Sinan goes up to Gordon Malloy, there’s two tank armies and an artillery army there.




I send the cavalry west this turn – I want to go look for bombers, finding two at the airstrip SW of Kelly Grayson and none to the NW. That find reinforces my notion about having some AA guns around. I’ll head back to Isaac next turn. I move the subs around and find a submarine armada north of SEAWACS II:




Good to know. He’s likely aware of my own sub armada but possibly not of the other. I park my armada just outside his visible range. The eastern one doesn’t find anything yet. The battleship armada by Fez has disappeared but the tank armada has shown up crossing the ocean. I check out Fez and find the armada parked between Fez and Weathertop.

Osgar starts a counterspy mission at Compo’s IZ. Truly stows the fighter in the queue and starts a research project. Foggy will put one more turn into it before getting some prebuilds done. First AA guns out next turn from Compo and Cleggy. Glenda’s got a tank army and a new forest. Auntie Wainwright has a battleship armada guarding its port and starts a tank prebuild.

That leaves Silent Tiles. I decide to perform at the Entertainment Complex next as it’s a higher level gig. Move to the district, hit the button and…




Not a lot of tourism but it got another promotion. That’s not enough for a single tourist. It gets a third promotion and would be at level 5 on Entertainment Complexes. Time to play National Parks at level 4, methinks, at least after taking another promotion. I should get done here and then head for Rohan (or perhaps do that first) – three Entertainment Complexes along with two National Parks to the north.

In my continuing fascination with the great scientist race the situation has changed yet again. Ichabod has evened up the turn count with Woden at 5 turns. If Ichabod passes then I get Schroedinger. If he takes Shroedinger then I’d get next dibs (provided I completed my projects as planned). If I complete the projects a turn early I could force Woden to take Shroedinger. However, that gives Ichabod the catbird’s seat on Leakey. I think my plan remains the same – gamble that the first one in takes Shroedinger, complete my projects and see if I can get Leakey that way. I also only need to complete two projects to get the job done, not three.

In other great people races I’ve got Chopin coming in four turns. I’m also in the lead by quite a bit for Grace Hopper – she affects Atomic and Information era ships but upon retirement grants two free technologies. She’s 14 turns out. In non-great people news, next turn I’ll have enough faith for another rock band. That one will head for Brazil.

[suboptimal]

Turn 242

We’ve reached a new climate level – all 2 meter tiles are now submerged.

Smiler’s broadcast center is complete. I’d resume the research project but overflow will complete it. I start a tank. Cleggy’s first AA Gun is complete. It goes inland en route to Marina. Compo’s AA Gun goes to Smiler. Pearl’s completed a spy (say hello to Radcliff, everyone!) and starts a battleship.

I’ve got three spies available for actions. Loefflaed starts a counterspy at Cleggy’s IZ. Aidan’s just completed a counterspy at Foggy’s Theater Square and starts another. For the time being Radcliff will head to Foggy and sit in the Government Plaza.

I don’t see any major force movements on Woden’s part. I’ve started to consider the possibility that he might attempt a DoF with one or more of us, namely because I don’t know how well he’d afford getting cut off from international trade routes. Each one is likely worth around 40 per turn and he’s got an awfully big empire to deal with. His milpower is over 4100 now, while Ichabod and myself are right around 5500 combined. I don’t count Canada because they’re behind in terms of technology. He has parked a Tank army on the Holy Site, right at the tunnel entrance. I send my cavalry through the tunnel to the Campus on the Canadian side. Woden’s engineer has run a railroad right through to Wild’s Entertainment Complex, which then links up with Barry. I send an engineer in that direction. It’ll get there in a few turns and I’ll remove that railroad, along with the one in the Theater Square to the north. Dunno if he’s trying to be clever or not. All I know is that of his three opponents I’m the one that hasn’t really proven himself in military matters and that if I were him I’d go after me.

Check the ocean for nearby ships, there’s a destroyer armada to the north. I also find the submarine armada:




I don’t find any to the east. I’m going to keep this submarine armada over here and not worry about Cleggy. I do send the battleship group north of that city to look around and find nothing. The battleship armada at Fez has moved into range of my ironclad there. That’s ok. I move a bit to the south and west, keeping it in sight.

The fact of the matter here is that Woden will have first strike. I just need to prepare for that by putting my units in a position where he won’t necessarily locate them on the first turn. I also don’t have good air coverage at Barry but I can solve that with an airstrip SW of Harry. A bit exposed but it’ll do. I might also get out a second bomber in preparation for that.

I have to wonder what sort of income he’s generating. Empire view doesn’t give adjacencies for opponent’s districts. The expense of keeping his empire going might be the only thing holding him back, and even then I don’t know by how much. If the WC trade embargo resolution comes up I’d be able to push that through and embargo him against foreign trade routes. Ideally I do that under a DoF to give him 27 turns of time to stew over it. However, a DoF brings with it another set of problems – he could then go after someone he doesn’t have a DoF with and stampede them. The next 10 turns (if that) will certainly be interesting. His railroad adventures, though, lead me to believe he’s coming after myself or Canada very shortly. If that’s the case then the game will likely be over in the next 30 turns. Regardless, I’ll attempt to defend myself as best as possible and make a final push to see how close I can get to a cultural victory. We shall see.

Over to Silent Tiles we go. Promotion time.

Religious Rock: convert city to the religion founded by the player
Space Rock: Perform at Spaceports and Campus districts for +500 tourism and at a level higher. +1000 tourism if the Campus has a university.
Surf Band: Perform at Seaside Resorts and Harbors for +500 tourism and at a level higher. +1000 tourism if the Harbor has a shipyard.

Hmmm….Woden’s got plenty of shipyards. I take Surf Band and will perform somewhere nearby next turn.

Capitalism completes next turn. I’ll slot the new trade policy along with Logistics and Force Modernization, just in case.

Cultural victory screen says I have 41 foreign tourists and will win in 172 turns.

Looking at the great scientist race I had a count wrong. Woden will have first dibs on his Turn 246, Ichabod second on his Turn 247. The only way to do this is to complete projects and force Woden to take Shroedinger. I will need to complete two projects on my Turn 246 to have any hope of a shot at Leakey.

Diplo Update: I went back through the gossip to see what expires when. Ichabod's alliance with Woden ended last turn. My alliance with Woden ends on my Turn 246 and his DoF with Canada ends on Turn 248. I think I'll need to reach out to Ichabod about a military alliance.

[suboptimal]

Turn 243

Capitalism has completed, start Totalitarianism. Time for a policy change, especially since Trade Confederation is now obsolete. Market Economy takes the empty economic slot. Machiavellianism is out, Cryptography is in. Interational Waters is out, Force Modernization is in. That last one will slow down the battleship build at Pearl, but that’s all.

No notifications. Make the rounds of the cities. I’ve realized that my in-queue tank (and other) builds are going to cost more once the WC meets. That could be a bit of a problem. Truly will finish its aircraft and Compo will also build out its bomber. After that I’ll need to see what I’m doing. Other tank builds will proceed as my income is up a bit from the new policy shift. Three of them complete next turn, so that’s another army on the map for me.

Military engineer embarks at Howard. I think I’ll get to the railroad right around my Turn 246. That’ll let me cut the main link but not much else. AA Gun at Howard embarks. Woden will see that but no matter. Other AA gun on the map sits at Smiler. Woden’s pickets in the Tethys Ocean haven’t moved. That’s a good sign. Shift everyone else up there a little west.

Agent Merciful Death finished a counterspy at Cleggy, starts another. Recheck the diplo gossip and my alliance with England ends on Turn 255 (the DoF would end shortly if not for that). Cavalry unit at the pass fortifies in place. Theoretically I could block the pass by stacking up two more units behind it. Hmmm...that might work but then again, one bomber would wreck my day there without AA cover, which I won’t have. I can upgrade some pike & shot, though, so upgrade the one at Barry, the one at Smiler and the two at Marina. Interestingly my maintenance costs go down by doing that. I also bring the tank army at Compo forward to Marina. I’m going to keep it there in case Woden is planning on coming through Wild. I do back the northern tank army towards Barry...it’ll be on a hill instead of open ground and have more support bonuses in the event of an attack (and get AA cover to boot). SEAWACS II will also upgrade once I complete Combined Arms in a couple of turns. Sinan goes on a walkabout, doesn’t see anything.

In the eastern ocean the subs move north and see nothing but a gaggle of traders. Ironclad checks out Fez, the battleship armada doesn’t appear to have moved and Fez doesn’t have any more ships.

I open up the deal screen and offer a DoF to Ichabod. I’ll see if he bites next turn. For the opening act I purchase my second rock band at Pearl. After going through several randomized names I settle on Modern Pantheon. They’ll promote next turn and then head for Brazil. Silent Tiles goes to Moria’s Cothon and can’t perform until next turn because of the embarkation taking up its movement.

[suboptimal]

Turn 244

Ichabod has offered spices for whales. I accept. He did not take the DoF. I’m going to take that trade with the understanding that Ichabod means no harm. He might also not want to give Woden a clear message that he’d attack if Woden declares on me (or, rather, give himself the option of watching me potentially implode ). Climate change also accelerated – all 3 meter elevation tiles are submerged. The good news is that we’ve hit max climate change.

Attention turns to Isaac. Woden’s relocated a bomber there. Yeah, that’s not a surprise. Sinan does a walk around and it seems the tank armies have moved...somewhere else. . I leave Sinan on Isaac’s Holy Site and do a quick check of Wild’s frontier and find no tanks. That is a mystery. He has been busy putting in railroads with military engineers – there’s one laying track between Kings and Bruins as well as around Wild. Since that’s in open territory I may have to send a musket army to go pillage it out. I send El Cid to take a look in Kings’ territory and don’t find any Phoenician units there. The military engineer at Howard will take out the railroad in my territory next turn. Oh, wait, apparently you can’t remove roads and railroads in your own territory. Sneaky. Perhaps I’ll put a tank army up there.

At sea the destroyers appear to have moved. The eastern submarine armada finds them, plus another sub force:




Next turn I think I’ll be upgrading my ironclad armada. No ships at Fez but the northern ironclad spots a battleship armada near the Northern Passage.

AT Guns at Howard move towards Barry. I’ll put one in the city and one behind it. That’ll give the city three AA units (battleships are also AA-capable). The new AA gun at Cleggy heads for Marina. Truly goes back to aircraft manufacturing for a turn and will get out a fighter for Marina. Tanks at Nora Batty, Marina and Foggy have completed; they meet up and form an army between Compo and Foggy.

Down at Pearl it’s time to promote Modern Pantheon. They’ve got Reggae Rock, Goes to 11 (civilizations within 10 tiles receive 50% of the tourism from this concert) and Glam Rock (performs as if 2 levels higher on Theater Squares). I’m going to take Goes to 11 and perform the group’s first concert at Big Ben or the Ruhr Valley – those are both within 10 tiles of Brazil and Canada. Up at Moria, Silent Tiles performs a concert and…




Ah well, that was fun while it lasted. However, 6000 tourism is huge. The culture screen also indicates he’ll win a cultural victory in….160 turns. Their replacement will be available for purchase in 17 turns. Silent Tiles goes about their merry way having generated a total of 8750 tourism, good for 8 tourists.

Canada lost 7 empire score last turn, likely to coastal flooding. Looking around, yeah, they lost quite a bit of coastline in the south:




Smiler shifts from tank building to its research project. It has two turns to go on that. Foggy and Truly will join in next turn. After that it’ll depend on what Ichabod does and whether either he or Woden make recruitment moves.

[suboptimal]

Turn 246

Last turn of enforced peace with Woden. The scene up north:




That doesn’t look like the buildup of someone with an impending attack. His subs are being mighty curious, though. He’s also got one next to my submarine armada on the east coast; that one was spotted by traders last turn. His battleships out east haven’t moved, either. Sinan will get booted from Phoenician territory when the alliance ends, so I send him from the Holy Site down towards the Encampment and see nothing alarming. He can’t go any further so I expect to find him teleported out. Once the alliance ends I’ll put a spy off counterspy missions and send one to Isaac (and perhaps a second to Gordon Malloy). Check Fez, it has a tank army and an AA gun. Jog the eastern subs south of Woden’s and I’ll see where he goes with them. I also shift Nora Batty’s battleship armada east for stationing in Glenda next turn.

A bit further south I have to wonder if this is a small buildup for a Canadian invasion:




Canada won’t necessarily be able to stop what’s there, I think.

Combined Arms is complete, start Plastics and then Nuclear Fission will follow. However, I’ve also noticed that I’m only three techs from Giant Death Robots. Might be time for some research labs. I’ve got four sources of Uranium in my borders – one under the lumbermill at Glenda, one under the airstrip at Nora Batty, one under Auntie Wainwright’s Theater Square and one in the jungle ENE of Marina.

The great person waiting for me is Chopin. He appears in Truly, goes to Foggy and puts Nocturne is E Flat Major there. He’ll go to Smiler next turn.

Ichabod has a deal waiting for me, I give him 30 aluminum for 5 diplomatic favor. Looks like he’s building aircraft. The 5 diplomatic favor seems extraneous...is he offering support or indicating something on Turn 250 (WC, perhaps)? I take it. Now...to settle in for the business of the turn at hand.

OK...first things first. Foggy and Truly start their research projects, Smiler continues its. All three will complete next turn and I’ll pass on Schroedinger and see what happens from there. Military engineer at Marina heads for Nora Batty. I’ll put an airstrip down east of there in the desert and then remove the airstrip over the uranium. I need to get a builder out of somewhere – likely Foggy after it finishes its machine gun. Barry now has two AA Guns, though one is still embarked. The others shift around so that I’ve got one in Pearl, one in Smiler and one just outside Marina. I also back the tank army off the Canadian frontier to behind Marina so it has AA coverage. The tank army north of Compo moves to the hills SW of Smiler, still within its AA coverage.

Up in the Tethys I move SEAWACS II into Barry’s territory and upgrade. It’s now SEAWACS III. . I back the battleship armada off towards Howard a little bit. Enough to be close to Barry to support, far enough away to make Woden spend time looking for it. I move one sub armada to where that unit was to keep an eye on the battleship armadas and the other backs off to keep both Phoenician sub armadas in sight range. I’ll go look for the destroyers next turn.

Auntie Wainwright completed a lone tank. It heads to Nora Batty since the city has no land units. Howard is working on another lone tank so it’ll have some company. Auntie Wainwright had a machine gun in its queue (same with Nora Batty) but it will likely take 7-8 turns to finish since it won’t be done until after the WC resolution ends. The fighter just completed at Truly rebases to Marina for deployment next turn. Down at Pearl I move a musket army to the Holy Site to prevent any railroad shenanigans.

That leaves Modern Pantheon. It moves next to Kings.

In the department, even if the number is intriguing:




Once the WC resolution ends and I see what the peace/war state is I think Heritage Tourism may see some action. I also see that my culture increase has gotten Totalitarianism down to 1 turn. I’m going to let it complete but not switch governments and then head for Globalization or Environmentalism. Sports Media is a bit superfluous given my current culture output so I might take a culture hit for either more gold (Economic Union) or to get Heritage Tourism slotted in advance. The Tier 4 government target was Distributed Sovereignty but it’s got three diplomatic slots, which are useless in this context. I need to decide if the inherent effects (+2 per specialty district, +2 Amenities in all cities, -3 CS to all units) are worth the trouble or if I go for Venture Politics (3 Military, 1 Economic, 1 Diplomatic, 5 wildcard), eat the -10% penalty and get nothing out of the inherent bonus (+10% production in cities with Encampments and Commercial Hubs, all improved resources provide an additional resource per turn).

Gossip shows that Phoenicia just completed Rapid Deployment and slotted Second Strike Capability (50% discount to maintenance costs for nuclear weapons), Cryptography and Military First (50% discount to production for melee, ranged and anti-cavalry units).

[suboptimal]

Turn 246

Am I under attack? How many cities and units did I lose? Is Canada still alive? What great scientist is currently up? It’s been a while since I’ve opened a save with this much trepidation

No, none, yes, Schroedinger as planned. However, someone’s coming over for dinner next turn and they’re bringing quite the catered spread:




Mmmm….caviar and #1 tuna.

I’d say I’ve got until, oh, his next turn before he declares war, if that. That’s my bad for not checking the fog at the edge where the polar ice all melted but really, what was I going to do about it? It’s not a navy that I could have hoped to have built or matched. There’s no way that I could afford that, for starters. Battleship and submarine armadas are 10:maintenance: each with Grande Armee running. He’s got 140 in just sub and battleship armadas, another 36 in carrier armadas, 42 in fighters and that doesn’t even cover the other armies and armadas at 10 each. His current unit maintenance is way higher than my income was, ever, and by a wide margin. That’s 798 ranged milpower, 731 melee milpower and at least 600 milpower in air cover, just there. He can reach and take all but three cities using just that navy.

I’ll be at war next turn (I’m not about to declare on this pile) and see how long I can hold on. However, Howard and Barry are both gone next turn, Cleggy and possibly Foggy likely the turn after that. The land view:




So, to get this out of the way, if Ichabod and/or Canada have been talking about concession and I’m the hold-out, we’re done here and I concede to Woden.

Right. So, on with the turn, then, because why not?

Totalitarianism is complete, start Space Race. I do make some policy changes:




because at this point why not?

I go into the great people screen an pass on Schroedinger. Woden will get him and I’ll see what I’ll have for leftovers. Smiler resumes its tank, two turns to go. Smiler’s AA gun goes to Marina, Marina’s goes to Howard, as does the AA gun in the water at Barry. Smiler’s tank army relocates to Foggy’s airstrip. Battleship armada in the open water moves to Cleggy for air & city defense (yeah, right). Destroyer armada has no port to run to, nor do the submarines. The sub in the middle is a lost cause but by going northwest it gets out of immediate visual range. He’ll deduce where it went and send a destroyer and a few aircraft after it. Sub armada northwest of Barry heads northwest. I’ll go find out if I can get into the Northwest Passage and maybe do some pillaging. However, there’s a destroyer fleet en route. Hmmm...this will require some care. Oh, I also find another battleship armada up there. I send the destroyer armada over to Howard where it might….get out of the way? I park the city’s battleship armada in the lake past the city...it’ll be able to do something from there...maybe.

I go looking for his battleship armada in the eastern ocean and pull up right next to it. Eh, at least I know where he’ll be next turn and might get my sub armada in on the action for a turn or two.

Chopin drops his second musical work, Valse Brilliante Op. 18, into Smiler. Sinan stays put because why not?

Time to rock out with MODERN PANTHEON. They run up to Big Ben, I push the button and…




Well, that’s something positive. I expect they’ll be in one of my cities next turn and spend the rest of their career playing small town gigs in Canada.

For shits and giggles I send a DoF request to Ichabod. He’s doomed but doesn’t know it yet. Or he might.

I will be curious to see if or how bad Woden’s economy gets dinged when his trade routes to me are cancelled – his net income is 103 right now (from what I can tell) and he’d lose about 200 or so per turn in income. Of course he’d probably all send them to Ichabod or Canada. Perhaps the WC will grace me with a parting gift and I can put him in a trade embargo on my way out the door.