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

[Jabah]

Thanks for all your input.

What are the min distance for settling on different landmass (not 4 tiles obviously since your planned Vladimir is exectly 3 tiles from your island city but the tiles closer are invalid -but also already inside the city culture).
Also, why do you want Olsyabya harbor to be away from the city, you got much better adjancy with 1 fish and city than with only 2 fish (+ you could have Erevan harbor opposite whne/if you capture the city to increase)

[marcopolothefraud]

Turn 90



Nothing much to report. Military Engineering and Castles have both been researched up to the Eureka.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 90

We open the turn with the long-awaited Military Engineering:




We are third to the tech, after Roland and Kaiser. This is excellent news - China is no real frigate threat, and Kaiser is starting to slip in city count. He's been stagnant in science for about 15 turns, not even the usual pop growth. I forgot to check on Mohenjo-Daro, but it should fall next turn, which would get Kaiser to 6 cities total. He and Archduke are starting to lag in all aspects, I guess because they got hammered by the raiding team. Rolandoptimal leads in score, mostly through China's 60 wonder points, but their window is opening up fast. If they don't build a significant lead in the jong era, I think they'll have shot their bolt.

On that note, they did not accept DoF! So I can expect to need to defend Shikishima from suboptimal within 30 turns. 

Where's my niter?

Some at Navarin: 



My other source is at Shikishima, which makes that city much more significant:




I'll have a builder available in just a few turns, when I found my next city. So I can get that hooked up very soon. It'll also be useful for Admiral Senlavin. My next settler is due on 92, and then I think (due to cost increase from Petropavlosk's settler finishing) I can get one on 97, and a final settler on 101 or so. I hope to squeeze in 3 so I can full settle the island to the south at era flip.

The downside is that this will continue to ring alarm bells around the world, but with Wodenjana and the Central Powers locked into war, I'm hopeful that we'll just have to deal with an isolated attack from a small jong squadron, which I think I can weather. 

Lotta 'ifs' in that plan, but if we manage to hold out until I have Frigates in the water, I think we can outbuild any team on the map.

Navarin grows and its lavra is now due in 8 turns:




Then it should hit size 4 ~10 turns after that and can quickly build out the harbor. 

Here's the Russian tech tree at the moment:




Machinery was behind Military Engineering, which is good - I would need to wait for Australia to finish Buttress to get the boost, but I can pick up Machinery myself fairly easily with a 3-turn archer build in one of the tundra cities. Marco, I'll research Castles (boosted in 3 turns) -> Apprenticeship next and should deliver the final tech to you ~t100. Kaiser has a 3 turn headstart on us BUT he won't be able to boost Castles. Roland DID boost castles, but his science is weaker, and Wodenjana only just scraped up some commerce science but lack the production, I think, for the Castles or the Military Engineering boost. We are still in good ship on research.

Roland hasn't hooked up any niter yet:




Kaiser connected his on the first turn it was unlocked. No one else has any. I also note a few sword builds/upgrades around the world. I can afford one of my own, but right now there's no urgent need. I want to wait for the era flip if I can to bank the score. 

Woden shadows me away from Vilnius:




With jongs possibly incoming in 20 turns or so, though, I need to station my ships at Shikishima to bog suboptimal down. I will use my great writers as invincible pickets instead, perhaps. I'd love to get peace on turn 97, if we could - Suboptimal we can stop. If we have to fight sub AND a Wodenjana offensive on my western flank, well, we'll fold, probably. 

Overview of the east:




Granaries to speed up size 4 and get campuses down. Oryol is building a (sigh) builder so I can chop the Campus forest. The campus is due in 8 turns, I believe. Quad and harbor otherwise. 

Overview of the west:




Settler next turn, then infrastructure until I can start the GMC. A quad and lavra, naturally. Mikasa is working the granary instead of a ship because the city is starved of growth and I'd like to get that out, THEN swap over to ship production. It converts in 7 turns, which will triple production in the city.

Overview of the colonies:




The harbor, even though incomplete, saves the settler a turn. VM is due on turn 92, same turn I purchase my next settler.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I have a slinger at College Dropout. Should I maneuver it to try and block that Great Prophet, or should I keep it in the city and protect it from Viking incursion? (My instinct tells me Woden's not going to go for a target so far into our heartland...but it could protect from barbarians or escort that settler...)

I'm not following your logic of the "another 10 turns of x2 production" here. Who exactly will declare on me and give me that extra production?

Here's my thinking: 

We want to space Australia's DoFs out at least 10 turns each, because you get 10 turns of extra production each time someone declares. The way to counteract that bonus, of course, is for everyone to declare war on Australia at once so you just get the one time boost. Staggered DoFs make that either impossible OR they force one of the teams to give up a first strike.

For example, let's say we have DoFs with The Central Powers and with Rolandoptimal timed to end on turn 100, both. On turn 100, both teams declare war on us at once - Australia gets x2 production until turn 110. 

But, if we stagger it, either:

Central Powers declare on turn 100 - Australia gets x2 until turn 110.
Rolandoptimal declares on turn 110 - Australia gets x2 until turn 120.

OR 

Both teams declare on turn 110 - but we get an extra 10 turns' of warning and prep (when they don't accept DoF renewal), the chance to first strike ourselves, etc. 

What are the min distance for settling on different landmass (not 4 tiles obviously since your planned Vladimir is exectly 3 tiles from your island city but the tiles closer are invalid -but also already inside the city culture).

Also, why do you want Olsyabya harbor to be away from the city, you got much better adjancy with 1 fish and city than with only 2 fish (+ you could have Erevan harbor opposite whne/if you capture the city to increase)

For different landmasses, it's 3 tiles, as long as there's no land connection. So, for example, I couldn't settle directly across the narrow lake from Sevastopol, since the land goes all the way around. 

As for Oslyabya's harbor...because I'm rubbish at eyeballing adjacencies and thought 2 fish = +2 harbor vs fish and city = +1.5 harbor. I'd probably have noticed when I tried to build the thing.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Quickly played the turn before work. Made an EoT save to update the spreadsheet and provide screenshots later.

Nothing to report, so instead I'm going to tear Norway and Phoenicia's play thus far to pieces.

[marcopolothefraud]

Turn 91


Brief overview. Illmatic will probably crank out another settler, while the Blueprint will make a Shrine and spread the religion to MBDTF. Sadly, I don't have much use for faith...


I wonder if Suboptimal is blocking this spot on purpose? I will use my Archer to chase him out.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 91

A quiet turn in Russia, mostly. No construction queues finish, a small amount of population growth, and exploration has ceased while I concentrate my fleet for defense. The biggest news of the turn is the predicted fall of Mohenjo-Daro:




Kaiser's first new city in ages, the main prize is the harbor. It's a decent enough little shipbuilding city - nothing compared to Russian tundra shipyards, fired by religious fanatics, of course - but otherwise won't contribute much to Japan. It's also a prime target for liberation in the future, to goose Australian production when we need it. 

On the far side of the world, near Geneva, our exploring galleys meet:




We are probably last in the world to circumnavigation, given that we've been consistently last in everything exploration related, but that's no big deal. Russia now needs just 7 more points to secure a second golden age. We'll get 3 from our Harbor, 3 from Monarchy (2 for the government, 1 for the civic), and the last can come via great person or iron upgrade or Petropavlosk settling. So basically the Golden Age is guaranteed in 9 turns. I believe Australia is likewise guaranteed one. Marco needs just one era point and can pick it up via Military Engineering at any time. 

Roland picked up 4 era score and it's easy to spot how:




Not gonna lie, it's a bit of an odd choice to upgrade his Great Wall now. The desert is a prime place for it, especially once Petra comes in, but why not wait 9 turns? Is 18 gold really worth it? I suppose Roland is rocking in sources of era score as China and will have scads of wonders still to build in the medieval era, but I'm paranoid about 'wasting' score. In fact, Roland's era score is so inflated that he's fully 17 points ahead of us in that category:




Between that and his wonders, that's 77 points of China's score advantage over Russia. But there's not a lot of meat on those bones - his empire score, far more important, is starting to slip. Also note Australia's distressing empire score - lowest in the game by far. Hopefully this settler push and an increased emphasis on food within Marco's lands will fix that up for us. It's our team's main weakness at this point, I'd say, otherwise we'd be easy favorites (assuming we can survive the jong onslaught losing only a few colonial cities). 

Overview of the east:




Nothing to report. 

Of the west:



Imperator Aleksandr will build a monument, then start on the Grandmaster's Chapel, due in ~15 turns from now. Petropavlosk should be settled on t98. 

Of the colonies:




New colony and new settler next turn. 

Okay, so, picking apart Norway and Phoenicia thus far:

I feel like Woden is playing Norway all wrong. Here's what I can deduce from the scoreboard thus far:

Woden and ljubljana both built fairly sizeable, though by no means enormous, early navies. Woden explored everywhere using his ocean ability, and captured two early city-states. Ljubljana also took two early states, with lots of biremes, adn then they attacked Archduke and seized one of his city-state conquests as well. So far, so good.

Here's where things backfired, though - I think they've gone about this war all wrong. It looks like they let themselves be drawn into a slugging match with England and Japan, which fell into a lull for a bit after the fall of Writing on the Wall but has picked up in the last three turns again, with a few more ships being sent to the bottom. That plays into England's Twilight Valor/oligarchy/Great Admiral strength, and Japan's +5 combat bonus. Sure, Phoenicia and Norway can outproduce them, but that's come at the expense of development - Woden has founded only 4 cities and built a grand total of one district, I think (a single mediocre holy site), while Phoenicia has built some Cothons and nothing else, really, entirely dependent upon his dedication for science. As a result, both players are kind of slipping behind as they pour more ships into the meatgrinder. 

But Norway isn't built for slugging matches! That should be Phoenicia's job, if it must be done at all! Woden has unmatched maneuverability and speed with his longships, they're cheap as hell to produce, they can get anywhere and sail around any hostile fleet, and they're the only thing capable of pillaging before Mercantilism and expensive Privateers. So how should he be doing it? He SHOULD have 2-3 longships at least roaming up and down England and Japan, sailing around garrisons and pillaging undefended improvements. Japan has a hugely ripe area between Milne and Tibbet's Brook that's been totally neglected by Norwegian raiders - with Mohenjo-Daro under siege I highly doubt the entire Japanese navy was camping out in the bay there. I'm sure England and Japan both have plenty of coastal stuff. Yet as far as I know, Norway hasn't pillaged any of that - Woden has had no gold surges, no one's research has fluctuated much, his tech progression has been in line with expectations...And no raider has come by to visit me, despite my having a minimal garrison at home. No one has visited Australia, even to scout him out, although Marco is safely fortified against any shenanigans. 

Basically, Woden is completely forgoing the main strength of his unique unit. He apparently treated it as a tank, meant to be thrown into headlong assaults against the enemy's main strength, and furthermore attacked the one opposing team that could really match him and Phoenicia strength-for-strength on the oceans. But the longship isn't a tank. It's a raider. So raid! Let Phoenicia and his Cothons handle the slugging match, as much as you must, and use your raiders to draw off enemy reinforcements and garrisons. If the English and Japanese fling everything at ljubljana, his production advantage should let him bog them down, and in the meantime Woden cna plunder to his heart's content. If they try to defend, then you use your ocean mobility and bonus movement ot sail around until you find someplace they're not, and meanwhile ljubljana is protected due to the enemy ships being drawn off.

So, if I'd been Woden, I would have trained ~8 longships or so (2-3 for each enemy) and I'd have them skulking along the ocean all around enemy islands. Wherever I found a weak spot, I'd come in and plunder, like he did my campus earlier, then disengage. I would NOT be drawn into open battle with the Royal or Imperial navies. I feel like Norway has been squandered and this team has largely shot its bolt.

I don't really have any critiques of ljubljana, he seems to be playing Phoenicia the way it's meant to be played - not enough settler spam for my tastes but apparently he's just barely keeping pace in shipbuilding, as it looks like he had a Cothon pillaged last turn, so can't criticize him too hard there.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 92

Teaching from home today, so I can play and report early. I've got 38 minutes before my next online class starts, let's see if I can squeeze this in. 




9 turns to go. The game helpfully reminds me that Mikasa is on zero growth, since I'm at the housing limit and I'm waiting for the city to convert (the religion screen has stopped updating, annoying, but I think it's due on turn 98). It will have taken nearly 30 turns to turn the city into something useful due to the distance from my capital and the passive pressure. Should I have bought a missionary? It would have delayed some of my cities...eh. I don't think, in this case, that 10 extra production and faith in the city would be worth the missionary, especially since the only other useful things it could have done would be go to Australia or to my colonies. 

WILL I convert the colonies? Probably at some point, for the gold. 

The other notification is for a flood near Rapa Nui, which hits only a barb camp. I expect Woden to clear that soon for the gold and era score.

The big news of the turn is the foundation of Vladimir Monomakh:




The Russian border pops take in 2 horse resources, excellent! They also reveal an Indonesian sword lurking in the fog.  

This, coupled with the lack of response to our DoF, more or less confirms my suspicions that Indonesia is up to no good. If I thought peaceful relations were possible, I might have hesitated to found this city for fear of provoking Indonesia, but that ship sailed a while ago. He COULD have been barb hunting, I suppose, but better paranoid and alive than trusting and dead. 

With reluctance, I upgrade the warrior to a sword to provide a basic garrison:




That will at least mean he has to bring more troops. Jongs obviously can take the city, if I lose Shikishima first, so my intention will be mainly to fight it out in that narrow Y-passage around the city. I also start walls and will begin walls in Shikishima as soon as it hits size 3 and I swap over to max production. I will try to plant two pastures and connect the ivory, although those won't last long in event of war. I place the Harbor, which must be done first, since when Admiral Senlavin founds in 3 or 4 turns the harbor tile will be first ring and unable to be swapped. At size 4 I want an encampment more or less right where the sword is standing. Better one tile to the rear on the horses but you can't build on strategic resources for whatever reason in this stupid game. 

Gold is a serious issue for me and Marco at the moment. Russian gold generation is second to Ljubljana, thanks to Tithe, but I have too many demands on it. Australia is fixing his food and production with the war-dec burst, so hopefully Marco can get taht desert silver city online, get some turtle and fishing boats going, and, eventually, plant harbors. This sword upgrade is more or less the last purchase I can afford- everything else must be jealously hoarded until I can upgrade some frigates and caravels. 

Overview of the colonies:




Settler for Admiral Senlavin purchased. 93 embark, 94 step onto land, 95 onto city-site, found 96. I have 6 galleys and 1 quadrireme in the area, which will obviously melt like snow before jongs, but I have another finishing soon and then Borodino will join in. Sub's military power and gold is spiking, so Jongs are probably ~12 turns out. 

Abroad, Marco and I join hands and find the English/Phoenician battlefront:




The promoted Punic warrior ("Ulysses") suggests that the city-state bone of contention is nearby, since why the hell else would he be here? The fighting has grown serious again in the last 3 turns, as Woden, Archduke, and Kaiser have all suffered punishing losses. Ljubljana's military score has spiked, suggesting mass bireme builds out of those Cothons. This is mostly excellent news, since it means Wodenjana isn't really a threat to us and they're dropping behind, while dragging the Central Powers down with them. 

So, guess that means we get the jongs all to ourselves. Lovely. 

The west:




No changes. 

The east:




Sissoi Veliki finished its granary and with nothing else to build (ancient walls? If anyone gets here I've lost anyway. An aqueduct? if I ever need the housing...well, I shan't need the housing) I start a shrine. However, Oslyabya and Sevastopol will also complete builds next turn, and there are some resources - the niter, silver, pearls - I'd like to hook up and a forest to be chopped at Sevastopol. So I think when I hit Monarchy next turn I'll slot Ilkum and crank out builders from all 3 cities rapid. Then Olsyabya can go back to quads, while the other two work on growing to 4 for their campuses. 

In the scoreboard, dire news. We tied China at 300, for the moment, until Petra finishes in the next turn or two. That's going to set off alarm bells in Call Me Al for sure.

[Jabah]

A commercial Hub on the stone at Vladimir would be worth a ton of gold !!!
(unfortunately very exposed, but no more than the harbors and cities of course).

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

That's true. If I ever reach size 7, it might be worth thinking about. At least two Commercial Hubs would let us hit some important Eurekas down the road...