[SPOILERS] Roland and Suboptimal Team Up

[suboptimal]

He likely is hoarding. One advantage I'd have if/when his frigates show up is that my units will be promoted - I'm taking all naval promotions first. All seven of my current jongs will be +7 vs. ships and the four with escort units are at +12. 67 vs. 45 defense would make quick work of them. As you say it's just a matter of seeing them coming. Working away from his fleet along Australia will help, though he'd likely try to send a few around the southern end once it's obvious that I'm going in that direction. The larger issue will be Cartography - if (when) he gets that before me he'll have a manueverability advantage.

[roland of gilead]

not much we can do about that i suppose. I should have some frigates by then at least. There is also plenty of coast but it's still an advantage.

[suboptimal]

I think your frigate navy should be held in reserve for defense or to open up a war against Woden if he remains as weak as he is now (or Bruise and Red/White get into a post-DoF encore of their first war).

[roland of gilead]

Yeah definitely defensive or woden.

My plan was to hide them in the NW landlocked sea but that obviously runs a risk. What do you think?

[suboptimal]

That keeps them away from prying eyes unless someone grabs suzerainty of Valetta in the meantime. It's also a bit of a risk if a surprise attack takes out the canal city. Might be worth either keeping them visible as a deterrent or assembling the fleet in your eastern area as if it might head to Russia.

[roland of gilead]

not sure anyone knows about Valletta but the canal city risk is the Issue.

[roland of gilead]

do siege towers work on ancient walls?

[suboptimal]

CMF & MPTF know about it because I'm suzerain and at war with them.

Regarding siege towers, yes, they work on ancient walls. They do work a little differently than battering rams, though - damage goes direct to the garrison, not to the walls. Once you have Renaissance Walls only siege class units are effective.

[suboptimal]

Turn 111

Open the save to Marcopolo having taken suzerainty of Valleta. He hasn’t bought any walls. I drop in one envoy to cancel that out and keep two in my pocket for now, having just earned two through influence points. That earns me two era score for neutralizing a city-state’s war declaration by envoy placement.

Move some units around. Horseman has reached Big Island’s coast and will disembark next turn. Graceland gets a nice horse pasture. The city’s growth is down to four turns and the library will complete in six. I shift a citizen from the rice to the niter at Mother & Child – the city still grows in two turns but that shaves six turns off the Campus build. As the builder comes by to harvest the city’s stone I’ll stop to repair the remaining pillaged pasture.

At the scene of battle the injured galleys have been rotated out:




Swordsman goes to sea, jong links up with it. Bring down the northern promoted jong, 87 damage to the lead galley. Yet to be promoted jong sinks it. First escort jong moves up,




Yeah, I don’t think I want to shoot my way through all that. We’re sinking ships this turn and then heading north. Three Russian galleys are sent to the bottom and next turn I’ll head north. The northernmost unpromoted jong promotes with Line of Battle and the remaining unpromoted jong will move north and promote next turn. I’ll leave that one Aussie city twisting in the wind or take it by land as I work my way around the coast. CMF is still hoarding gold and hasn’t advanced to the Renaissance yet. That pile will make a hell of a caravel fleet, though, so something to pay attention to later.

I know in the past there’s been a lot of complaints about the occupied city status when it comes to taking cities. However, right now I have no issues with growing or otherwise getting use out of either of my captured cities. While the city infobox and the city display panel both look like this:




Note that the city infobar shows growth in two turns and +4 modified food per turn. I think the “occupied” labels are held over from previous GUI iterations. Also note the tooltip for production – there are no occupation penalties. On this basis I have to argue that everyone’s concerns about city occupation penalties are formally overblown. This city has been generating full yields since it became fully loyal. The ONLY thing that I can’t do right now is swap tiles between cities, occupied or otherwise.

[roland of gilead]

CMF & MPTF know about it because I'm suzerain and at war with them.

Regarding siege towers, yes, they work on ancient walls.  They do work a little differently than battering rams, though - damage goes direct to the garrison, not to the walls.  Once you have Renaissance Walls only siege class units are effective.

That is annoying re Valetta but should be manageable. 

Thanks for the siege info it is for another game.