[SPOILERS] Roland and Suboptimal Team Up

[roland of gilead]

do i also have to offer DOF it never used to work that way certainly.

[roland of gilead]

Turn 96

Finally get a Campus. With oracle this will be spitting out 6 Great Scientist points per turn. 8 with a library.



Put a charge in mahabodi. Completes next turn. going to take DOF and Wats Start cap on commercial hub.



Send you gold Sub and 8 iron that was all i could send. I assume you picked up 2 after your turn.



Switch back to Games and rec. Need all sorts of policy changes next turn. Limes for a start. Maybe horses



a look at the potential theater of war.



9 turns for religion to spread. might not be fast enough. might get charges from Mahabodi.



i still didn't put down that IZ at Borna. Doh.

Up in the NW i stand my ground on a forest hill across a river from the sword if i survive it will be in archer range.

[suboptimal]

I'll pick up enough iron to do the third upgrade on Turn 97.

Did you happen to see if Woden/Ljubljana had taken my DoF offers?

[roland of gilead]

I'll pick up enough iron to do the third upgrade on Turn 97. 

Did you happen to see if Woden/Ljubljana had taken my DoF offers?

didn't think i could see but of course i could have. 

no didn't look. i can send more iron no issue. I bring in 8 per turn.

[suboptimal]

Turn 96

Mercenaries complete, resume Drama & Poetry. Diplomatic check: Ljubljana has accepted the DoF, Woden has not. I guess Woden is keeping his options open. I accept Roland’s kind gift of supplies. No other DoFs have been signed over the past turn. Time for some policy changes. Maritime Industries out, Urban Planning out. I put in Professional Army and Retinues this turn. That’ll let me upgrade the warriors for less iron. I send the 8 iron back to China. I’ll take that out next turn and put in Limes and restore Urban Planning. I’ll leave Raid and Military Tradition for when I start working on Russia (or complete Divine Right first).

Up at Al a lot of changes happen. First off I see that jongs are 185 to upgrade, not 165 as expected. I upgrade the three that are in my territory. Turns out I have enough to get it all done. Three warriors upgrade, the first one gets me an envoy in Yerevan. I’ve got 192 left and will upgrade the remaining quad at Al next turn. Income is at 19 per turn. Not too shabby, all things considered. The upshot is that my base city defense is now 35.

Look around at troop movements. There’s a Viking longship in the sea next to my quadrireme WNW of Shikishima. Down in Australia the settler has settled:




Dunno if that’s supposed to be a message or not, though it’s keeping with the rap theme in his various cities.

On Big Island the builder mines the iron. I lock the citizens on the horses and wines and when the city grows in three turns I’ll work the iron. The iron will also bring in 1 per turn. I’ve got 196.6 . There’s a temptation to buy a builder for 95 - Under African Skies could use a couple of cow pastures for a little extra since it’s only got 1 right now. It grows to 3 pop in four turns so two pastures and it’s got 4 per turn. It’d delay a jong purchase by two turns but cuts the wall build time to 10 turns. I could also harvest in walls at Proof, which also makes way for the Commercial Hub. I think getting walls up everywhere on Big Island (no more than 10 turns at any city) is important enough to spend the faith, so buy the builder at Under African Skies. The city also starts walls now.

Ship time. Galley at Australia rounds the bend and Confucius keeps on trucking. I reveal the Eye of the Sahara and confirm that the southern Aussie cities are on the same land mass:




Confucius will disembark next turn and then run south through the fog. This will be one part reveal city-centers and one part defog as much as possible before getting caught.

I think the plan here would be to take Rodeo and the capital first, get The Low-end Theory and the city south of Rodeo to stabilize loyalty, then clean up to the east before tackling Russia. It’d be slow going unless I split the fleet into two groups of three jongs (all lurkers scream in unison as they are supposed to when I refer to splitting units). To the north the western quad moves towards Desert Isolation and the eastern one is at the coast off Proof. I’ll move closer next turn and then check Shikishima the turn after that. Galley reaches Starfish Island and finds another Viking longship just outside Al’s territory:




I send Woden another DoF to see what he thinks when he sees jongs. North of Phoenicia the galley reveals Runic and sees a coastal path to the northeast. I’m going to follow it in case there’s a city-state hiding out up there.




My golden age is secured with the Eye of the Sahara so I’m not going to suzerain Valetta or finish the horseman at Diamonds until the next age begins.

Marcopolo is fighting something – his milpower went down over the last turn. He’s still negative cash, though only at -1. Pheonicia’s milpower is up to 531, which is the highest in the game right now, at least until my upgrades register next turn. CMF founded another city, so he’s up to 12, and appears to have evangelized his faith based on his religion score going up 5 points. He did and he’s taken Defender of the Faith. Good timing but it won’t help him much.

Check governments as well:

Monarchy: China, Russia, Norway
Autocracy: Japan
Oligarchy: Indonesia, England, Australia, Phoenician

Roland, thoughts on what we do if Woden doesn’t take the DoF again? On the one hand I think that Russia/Australia are the larger threat right now. I also think that if Woden gets feisty and declares I can get bought jong out at Al and take it plus a unit (the horseman) and go find ships to sink.

[roland of gilead]

Turn 97

I suspect Woden didn't accept on hos turn as he played first and knew Lubijana could. Surely a DOF with one locks the other in anyway? all declarations and peace come at the same time so far. Mind you i didn't get any diplomacy notifications.

Also gutted to lose out on DOF by one turn and to that tornado but these things happen.

Lot's to report here. Let' start in the NW.

the sword attacked and redlined it's self earning my warrior a promotion.



I advance the archer and kill the sword. then advance my spear on the camp.



I have a settler in 3 turns and i plan out this little beauty of an island.



Given how good this is it could be great



having completed Games & Rec i lay down the entertainment complex for the coliseum.



This finally reminds me to lock in the IZ



I finish Mahabodi and complete my religion. No DOF but do get Wats.



This Gives me 2 tiles and 2 envoys.

I use the envoys to get to 3 in Vilnius. Between this and Mahabodi i am up to 70 faith per turn.



I don't get any apostle charges in the promotions unfortunately and for some reason the tile picker picks a 1 1 tundra over the 2 2 grassland hills i need for oracle, more on this later.

I do some policy swaps from this.



to this. I need to buy tiles Now for oracl and always did for TOA asap Building wals at cap and new city in NW so limes in.



Will have Mecenaries in 4 turns.

And finally a bit of fun for the Lurkers.

Phonecia is building the oracle.



Best i can do is get it in 7 turns i think. Maybe 6. Still going to try as i can turn my worker charges into production even if i lose (which is turning faith into production). strange tile to highlight in the search though. Doesn't look like a hill now i look at the pic and doesn't appear to have oracle on it.

See what you think SUb am i in a race here.

[roland of gilead]

Unfortunately I have been lapse about keeping save games but 5 turns ago there wasn't even a city here.



The highlighted tile is a floodplain.

This is just weird.

[suboptimal]

I don't think you're in a race for the oracle, at least at that city. It was a floodplain, the city was founded only a turn or two ago and it's got a farm on it now. Faith is looking good and Chocolate Island looks like it'll be a powerhouse.

Also looks like my fleet has been spotted.

[roland of gilead]

It's weird i wonder if the city is called oracle.

Yes Norway has had a look for sure.

oh and my missionary has reached the coast where is it going again? I suppose it is under threat a touch but it's a two charge missionary.

[suboptimal]

The missionary should head for Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover -- that's where the island's first Holy Site is being built.

I loaded up my T96 save to take a look at "Oracle". The city is named "Oracle Bones" and that's why it's coming up in the search. You're the only one building it, at least anywhere that we've defogged.