[SPOILERS] Roland and Suboptimal Team Up

[roland of gilead]

i see i did offer a one time deal for 7 per turn. Purely an accident and i will make it up to Phoenicia unless we are killing them.

Got the Norway one right. Well even in fairness.

oops.

[suboptimal]

Eh, it's more of an oops on their part if Ljubljana accepted the deal.

[roland of gilead]

yeah definitely. well it's either incentive to peace or war lol.

[suboptimal]

Turn 94

Soon our fortunes will be made, my darling
And we will leave this loathsome little town
Silver bells jingling from your black lizard boots, my baby
Silver foil to trim your wedding gown
It’s true, the tools of love wear down
Time passes
A mind wanders
It seems mindless, but it does
Sometimes I see your face
As if through reading glasses
And your smile, it seems softer than it was




That’ll get someone’s attention….. I also got an era score for settling within four tiles of another civilization’s city. The city will take the coffee first but it’ll be a little while (unless I purchase it). Already cleared out the notifications, both Woden and Ljubljana accepted my overtures. The city is working the 31 floodplain for the time being. I’m not going to faff about here and start walls immediately. I’m going to leave the warrior where it is until the builder & sword move away. No need to alarm our “esteemed” guests just quite yet. It fortifies in position, along with the slinger to the north. The builder moves to the iron and will sit tight for a few more turns.

Up on the mainland my galley moves northeast and says hello to the longship. Quads continue their approach to Shikishima, I’ll use the western one to defog southeast of Chocolate Island starting next turn. At Al the second chariot has embarked. Next turn quad #5 will complete, move out of the city and quad #6 will be purchased. Actually, I can buy quad #6 this turn so that it can move next turn, so I do just that. I shuffle the warriors so that both can link with their ships next turn.

Galley at Cuneiform continues backtracking, is again blocked by the bireme. I should be able to get by next turn. Confucius finds nothing interesting but the galley in the south…




I could really mess up people’s plans right now. The galley would do about 64 damage to the warrior on the first attack. Right now that settler could disembark onto the land to the north as there are no cliffs. However, once they move to the corner there’s nowhere to disembark. Roland, thoughts about this situation? Likewise, could you take a screenshot of your view down here next turn? I’d like to see where they go. If they disappear into the fog the only place they could go is the coast tile 2E of their current location. That would put them in a position where I believe I could kill the warrior and capture the settler before it could disembark (declare/attack next turn, it moves two tiles, I move up one, see where it went and then move in for the kill/capture).

Looking at the build situation as Al I’ve got three turns of build time before the navy ships out. Having a spare unit or two to go with any upgraded jongs would be nice. However, the only unit I can complete in that time frame would be...a scout. My next jong purchase is something like 10-11 turns out depending on faith yields. I’ll get walls done first and follow with an archer (or a horseman).

No new gossip. Roland, I rechecked for niter and the entire northwest is bare. Based on my current era score I think I will hold off suzeraining Valetta until after the next age starts (T101). Completing the horse at Diamonds (5 turns), finishing Mercenaries (turn after next) and upgrading a jong (two turns) will get me the era score I need for a golden age.

I’ll have 658 when I start upgrades. That’ll leave me 247 short. I’ll put the expected amount required (plus a couple overage) in my next turn report.

[roland of gilead]

Turn 95

Lubijana has realised his mistake and looks to correct it. I accept the deal to be fair. I think he left a little in the deal for me.



I reveal apprenticeship and it reveals bad news for us.



not sure if that changes anything but we would have wanted it further back. Russia and Japan Australia may not be far away from frigates. Everyone will be fairly close except Norway perhaps. Niter will slow upgrades. Australia has 3 and Russia 11.

Settler picture. Normally i would say definitely steal it but will leave it up to you. not sure if pending frigates makes any difference to the decision. Doesn't appear to have moved.


I need to delay games and rec by a turn to make use of the 2 envoys for 1 policy card.



i lay down the CH at AL. Need to get the oracle don on that and i Buy a builder accordingly at Goldson to get there.



Up in the nw i shuffle units to get that sword sorted.

I forget to lock in the IZ at borna but will do so next turn.

[suboptimal]

The reciprocal deal with Ljubljana is definitely fair. We get slightly more out of it because they made the error. OTOH if they are intending to break it by war I don't know that they make the offer.

I realized when reading your turn report that the Australian units would not have moved because their turn hasn't come around yet. Stealing that unit isn't affected by frigates, imho. I also think the setback to them is worth going after it. It'll take a while to get it somewhere useful to settle, but that's one less city they have to work with. If I do attack should I also offer DoF's to Woden/Ljubljana?

I think we still have a little bit of time between jongs in two turns and Square Rigging. Only you and one other person have gotten to that point in the tech tree and given that the boost isn't available. I've seen a couple of screenshots on CivFanatics where Square Rigging was the prerequisite for Gunpowder, making the eureka inaccessible.

[roland of gilead]

yes offer peace to Lubijana/woden.

infact do we just do that on your turn.

i imagine japan is racing towards frigates and they still have woden in their sights. Archduke doesn't seem the forgiving type to me.

how can you even have frigates without gunpowder.

some of my issue is i can't race to it really as i need ships to upgrade and only have 2 places to build them. Cap and brand new city. Still i can crack on with that.

my petra great wall tiles are something else. BTW

[suboptimal]

OK...I'll send them a DoF on my turn and see what happens.

Frigates without gunpowder, yeah, well, tech shuffle mode sometimes doesn't make any sense. You're also correct...Archduke, in the past, has not been forgiving. It's also been quite a while (PBEM 2, perhaps) since he's lost a city (the Hungary PBEM notwithstanding). It's also occurred to me that my advance quads might be able to score a kill for the Naval Tradition boost. Depends on how many Russian galleys may be around.

The Petra/Great Wall tiles I saw last turn were something to behold.

[roland of gilead]

Yeah if you can get naval tradition that will be great. I might from that barb camp but will take a while.

Regardless my culture is on the rise and i can blow through the tree hopefully.

I am not far away from having oracle in cap, 10 turns or so.

I wonder if that flat desert tile was grabbed by petra because the Great wall was already down. Probably was so that was lucky.

Archduke lost or at least ceded cities in PBEM 19. I suspect they made peace knowing they were coming back with frigates in the nearish future.

[roland of gilead]

don't you need to get to exploration to get press gangs to double the speed of jong production?

not naval tradition?