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

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 115

Sort of a quiet turn, by Russian standards, so I spend most of my time in the game mulling over the situation and trying to evolve plans.

The main problem is the speed of the Indonesian jongs, their ~4 turn head start on my frigates, and our basic inability to slow them down. We need to slow them enough that my frigates and galleys can catch up and start hitting them from the rear. I'm vectoring every unit I can to throw into their way - Marco, Australia can do the same. A melee unit and a galley in the same tile require two separate jongs to clear. It costs even more production, but it buys us time. I don't know how viable that is, but otherwise I've got nothing, short of like, Japan bodyblocking suboptimal with his ships or something.

Hm, any way we can signal that to Japan? 

Gift our cities to another player and let loyalty flip 'em back? :P Lemme know! 

First, as planned, I complete Feudalism, enabling a policy swap:




Frigates aren't boosted by Oligarchic legacy, so I don't reclaim that card quite yet (though I might once my galleys are about to engage with sub). Instead I go with Serfdom and get the builder wave at home under way. Oh, must remember to pop the builder out of Imperator Aleksandr now that I'm thinking of it - I might not have time later. 

More importantly, Marco, the civics tree has been very, very kind to us:




Exploration is right behind Feudalism and is due in 9 turns (ignore the 10, interface didn't take into account some new culture). This unlocks the all-important Press Gangs card, which will more or less be permanent from now until it obsoletes in my government. That will double my production towards modern ships and will let me absolutely bury Indonesia. All my new builds are going to be routed at his core, not chasing down the fleet - my ships already present suffice for that. Now, I also want Civil Service as rapidly as possible, because a military alliance with Marco will either give us a leg up on Indonesia OR will be needed to counter an IndoChinese alliance. So, how to grab both of these as rapidly as possible?...hm, I think I've got a plan here. 




At present, Russian culture is happily second-best in the game, behind China. And I can hit most of the boosts, while I think China is in many cases overrunning his ability to boost things. Unlike China, I can boost both Exploration and Civil Service in order to maximize culture. I think the efficiency is worth delaying Exploration a tiny handful of turns. What we'll do is research Exploration up to the boost, in 5 turns. That will be the same turn we unlock Caravels, which we'll start in some cities. At that point, we swap to a boosted Civil Service, which should take 4 turns (outside chance at only 3). On turn 123-124, we complete and swap in Professional Army for Maritime Industries (which no longer boosts anything). 

Now, all the while, we hoard our gold. I'm making ~40 a turn, so in 9 turns I can make about 360ish gold on top of what I've got. A Caravel upgrade is 180 gold with Professional Army - in other words, if I am disciplined with my gold, I'll have precisely enough for 2 galley upgrades. So we swap in Professional ARmy, upgrade 2 galleys to Caravels, and boost Exploration on the same turn to completion. In other words, by accepting a 2-turn maximum delay in Exploration, we speed up civil service by 4 turns AND enable an extra Caravel upgrade via Professional Army that we otherwise wouldn't have had, saving hundreds of culture and boosting my "sack Al" fleet. 

While I'm on the tech tree, I note Kaiser finished Cartography last turn:




No one else has even finished square rigging, so we're building up a slight lead on the tech tree, although ljubljana should be more or less 3-4 turns behind me. Now, he's in trouble because he is torn between the twin necessities of building out campuses for his new cities (which will be sloooow without work ethic ;D) and building ships so he can conquer someone/defend himself from the Archduke in ~15 turns. If he doesn't build enough ships and Archduke comes for him with a massive army of caravels, backed by a core of frigates, he's screwed right away. If he does, but doesn't get campuses up before the Medieval Era ends, his research collapses down to below Woden levels and the team is screwed then (note to self: be prepared to take advantage). 

I hope he goes for the latter - fight Archduke and bleed him, but don't collapse (hopefully Archduke goes full suboptimal-style death ride), so England weakens Phoenicia but doesn't grow stronger himself. In the meantime, I focus on ripping Indonesia to pieces. At that point, we SHOULD be clear to confront Japan/England and cut them down for hte endgame. That's the basic metagame path to victory I see evolving. 

If Archduke senses weakness, however, in Australia, then he might come for us - which would spare suboptimal and let the raiders try and rebuild their increasingly creaky economy. Then...well, it's anyone's game. I think I can build a big enough fleet in the ~25 turns we have to at least repel the Archduke, but it'll scuttle any chance I have of going for suboptimal right away. That will be a winnable fight for our team but an uphill one, and our window of opportunity will vanish as Carthage gets its feet under it. 

Anyway. 

Our first frigate upgrades in queue as planned thanks to Australian shipments of war material:




I start a galley in Borodino before swapping it to a Frigate - it'll upgrade in queue next turn and keep the pipeline open as wide as I can. We can afford our next frigate 5 turns after that, which will probably come out of Navarin again. Then we'll hit Press Gangs and outstrip our niter supply in terms of production, so I'll build mainly Caravels, getting in Harbors/Lighthouses on those coastal cities if I can sneak them in quickly. 

I chop Ushakov's lavra:




Due in 12, but pop growth will speed that up. I also opt to relocate Svetlana to the cheeky northern spot - the southern spot will pick up niter and have a great lavra, and the northern spot won't have as nice a lavra (none, in fact) but can be a "normie" city - my first normal city apart from occupied Vladimir (which is being RUINED with a random +1 campus build WHY sub >). The southern settler will be purchased Magnus-free at Nakhimov next turn - the lavra will be done so my production will come from off-map anyway, don't need the pop point too badly. Missionary reaches this island turn 121. 

Further north, we can strike back against the invaders for the first time. Let's see if my little ambush worked:






Hell yeah. 

I move up some ships, using one to slow down the jong that he'll purchase next turn (I THINK it can't move on the same turn he buys it, but just in case, this will keep the galley from escaping), and keeping most out of sight:




Now, sub will buy a jong at Hearts & Minds next turn as he hits 600 faith. He'll be mad that I used two galleys to sink his scout down here, so he will come down for revenge. I'll trail my injured galleys in front of him like a cape before a bull, drawing him down for 2-3 turns...then we hit Cartogrpahy and I'll swarm him with everyone. The jong will be trapped and sunk, which will be very satisfying. This little minigame is all I have while the main fleet tears after the primary Indonesian fleet:




3 turns until we can begin recapturing the Australian capital, but I might need to take everyone after the jongs to try and save the desert cities - Christ, Aquemini might be in danger if we can't figure out how to slow him down. 

Abroad, while updating the spreadsheet, I notice some oddities. First, Ljub and Kaiser's empire scores both tumbled - Kaiser by 3, which is hard to explain with settlers alone - did he get hammered with a volcano? - and ljub by an astonishing 12. The explanation is found in Archduke's diplomacy screen:




Phoenicia traded it back to Archduke. Well, damn. Damndamndamn. My read of this is a peace offering while they agree to go and split the world between their teams. Now, this sort of helps us in that the raiders will probably be all over sub/roland around turn 125...except that DOESN'T help us, because Team Sandbox's core isn't the issue, the massive Indonesian JONG fleet burning its way through Australia is. We can sack their defenseless core ourselves, but we can't until I save as much of Australia from being burned to the ground as I can. The Norwegians and Phoenicians will reap all the spoils while we do the hard work of taking out jongs! Fuck that. I might need to find a way to signal to sub, even letting bygones be bygones - it's not like the two cities he took off Russia were all that important, and while he is weak and vulnerable, I certainly don't want anyone other than me murdering him and taking his stuff. 

The other issue, of course, is that massive English warchest, neatly circumventing their production woes and letting Archduke hurl a massive first punch. Ironically, it's really similar to the jongs - a massive haymaker to lead with and then nothing much to back it up, but wow, what a haymaker it will be. Fuck. Well, we have 25 turns or so until that's a problem, so, I'll, uh, put something together. I have a few contingencies in mind but I'll keep 'em under wraps for now.  

Also Archduke built an encampment for some reason?:




Might be going for the Gunpowder boost, like I sort of plan to, but surely he doesn't have a totally landlocked city like Oryol? I'd build a harbor there if I could, or even a Commercial Hub if a river was nearby (as it is I plan to never unlock Commercial Hubs and just eat the few missing eurekas that'll cost). 

Otherwise that's all. Roland has like a quad out now, I think? He also is building his first campuses and dragging his science into relevancy. 

East:




Vectoring things to Australia's east coast in an effort to help bog down jongs until my frigates arrive. Econ builds must continue before I can go full military here. 

West:




Same as always. my new build fleets, which shoudl be ready in ~15 turns, about 4 frigates, 2 caravels, and a LOT of galleys, will be executing Operation Neptune, I think. Between that and catching and sinking the jongs it'll hopefully be a knockout blow to Indonesia.

[marcopolothefraud]

If Archduke senses weakness, however, in Australia, then he might come for us - which would spare suboptimal and let the raiders try and rebuild their increasingly creaky economy. 

I think the odds are very high that Archduke does this to Australia. Just around 10 turns ago he almost settled a city near Aquemini / MMLP but I shooed him away with a Quadrireme and a Missionary. Not to mention, there's a fertile continent southeast of me and directly south of Kaiser that we will likely have a land grab over.

My cities are so close to his that Kaiser potentially doesn't even need to raze my cities - he can wrest their Loyalty up to 100 and begin working some really nice yields on them...if he can fully eliminate me, that is. Not to mention that Miln and Tibbet's Brook are vulnerable to Frigate attack, and he's seen my Missionary snooping around his continent.

If I were Kaiser, I would invade Australia in a heartbeat. I don't even have walls, for Christ's sake.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Yeah...what we must do is beat the jongs, and then I'll probably have to keep my initial fleet covering your eastern territories while you regroup and rebuild. My new builds will go on the offensive against Indonesia -as before the objective is to sack the capital but not invade via land, and instead use naval superiority to isolate and shell down his island cities. Every single one of those (except for Vladimir) goes to Australia. Meanwhile I'll use the 4 eastern shipyards to build caravels for defense against Japan and England. Hope the raiders stay out of it, I don't think I can fight all 3 teams at once.

[marcopolothefraud]

The royal court has fled to, err, College Dropout:


I guess I would've preferred my Palace in the Blueprint instead but it probably won't matter too much in the long-run. Also, theArchduke comes up to me with a Declaration of Friendship, and I accept.



Why do they have a Declaration of Friendship with every major team? If I had to guess, they're going to turtle up and push their tech advantage until they get Battleships. Well, it's quite the scary plan.

Elsewhere, Suboptimal has overrun my defenses in front of Low-End Theory, and I've regrouped my ships around MMLP. I have at least 8 units there right now, and I'm somewhat confident of my odds.

I'm a little worried at the lack of my land-army, though. What if Suboptimal disembarks an army and invades MBDTF with it? I plugged in Feudal Contract, and MBDTF can make a Crossbowman in 4 turns, but I'm not sure if I should do that or keep spamming Galleys instead.

Here's the front north of Demak Sultanate:


Here's the Military Emergency I called against Roland/Suboptimal:

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 116

Even as our ally's capital falls to the rapacious Indonesian pirates, Borodino is booming:




First in the world to size 10! My monomaniacal focus on housing and growth is paying off! Suboptimal's capital is still at size 6 last I checked, China has his second city at size 8, but on the whole despite our tundra start the Russian empire is the most populous in the world by far. I've been zealous about getting out granaries (ironically, Borodino still hasn't got one) and most cities are more or less on permanent food focus, with rare dips into my chilly tundra for important production projects. The result is I'm getting more districts down than anyone else, even though I've got to dedicate a slot at every single city to a lavra just to make the city basically productive. 

Partially this is attributable to my abysmal performance in PBEM7, when I barely understood Civ VI at all. I didn't understand housing, really, and mostly ignored it. I didn't think food was very useful and prioritized science and gold. As a result, I had tiny, unproductive cities, and worse, I hardly settled any. I figured out what I was doing wrong before the end of the game, but at that point I was ages behind everyone. Since then I've been much more conscious about housing and growth. As long as there are good tiles to work (ie, 3 yields or better), then I do my best to grow onto those tiles so I can work them. 

Marco, this is one difference in our playstyles that I've noticed - you're a lot more zealous to chop food resources like marshes and fish into your cities for early growth, while I like to keep them around for long-term sustainability. I haven't chopped a single food source all game, in fact, although I will chop Borodino's rice marsh since I'm paving it over with an Industrial Zone soon. I think that's why some of your cities have stagnated a bit, notably Ilmatic and the Blueprint - how long will it take MBDTF to reach size 7 now that its fish is gone, too? This is, of course, purely my opinion and how I learned to play after some early disasters. 

Anyway, the result is that the foundations of Russia are very strong. I'd be decent without work ethic but with it I'm practically unstoppable. Work Ethic is also what gives me the flexibility to sacrifice on-map production to prioritize food pretty frequently - not working a 1/3 hill means giving up ~10% of my production for 5-6 turns in return for doubled growth, which quickly pays for itself. Without Work Ethic, that sacrifice would mean giving up half or more of my production in some cities. I did the math and I am getting 82 faith/production from Dance of the Aurora - the other 140 faith comes from natural adjacencies, Russia's tundra ability, my 3 (broken) shrines and temples, etc. 82 production per turn! Who else can come close? Nobody, that's who, and if I'M struggling to build expensive frigates, imagine how screwed everyone else will be when their stupid DoFs run out in 15ish turns and they have to defend themselves. 

Seriously, look at Borodino struggling to build in the overview of the west shot at the bottom - it had 62 production invested in a quad, and STILL needs 9 turns to finish my next Frigate. 9 turns I suppose isn't that long...but it FEELS like a long time when every ship has been 1-3 turns so far. Once I get Press Gangs in ~8 turns those times will come down to more reasonable 5 turns or so, all I can afford, so that's not too bad. Thanks to my high culture only China/Indonesia will really get to Press Gangs in anything like the same timeline, and, well, Sub's jongs are more expensive than my frigates, his cities are less productive, and he has all of three cities that could potentially build ships. I have that many just in the eastern colonies. 

At Novaya Zemyla, the cornered galley promotes, prolonging its life for a turn. I will trade one Russian galley for one promoted Indonesian galley, so I rotate the injured galleys home and send in two fresh ones:




The jong should appear on the tile marked at the end of sub's turn, and I'll see it at the start of my next turn. It shouldn't be able to fire, since that's maximum movement, so I can sink the galley with a sacrifice and flee with the other. Sub will need to take a turn to sink the sacrificial lamb (2 turns to Cartography), perhaps pursue south (1 turn...) and then get ambushed and sunk by the 8 galleys or so waiting for him. 

Now, the main reason I haven't gone on the offensive against sub is my lack of Cartography and those faith purchased jongs trickling in. These galleys are enough to take Shikishima, walls or no, but I can't - absolutely cannot - push past a jong in the straits. I can't get enough attacks into it. With cartography, in the open, I might be able to, but I need to lure him south first. In essence, to attack Shikishima I need concentrated firepower, not my dispersed galleys, so that has to wait for Frigates and, potentially, caravels. 

I have repeatedly contemplated leaving the jong fleet to run through Australia and go for sub's throat with my own fleet, but doing that ignores the center of gravity: Indonesia's fleet. Sub's main influence on this game right now is those 7 jongs ripping through Marco's empire. He cannot replace those once lost. It would take 70 turns of Indonesian faith generation to do so and in that time I'll have, what, 14 frigates? From one city? To say nothing of my caravels? The empire, though, contributes basically nothing to the war right now. It's all inland. Sub could lose every city I can see and the jongs would still be a threat, while if he loses the jongs the cities are mine anyway. So, no, I need to chase down the death ride, and leave follow-on troops to begin the siege of his island strongholds. It'll be like Japan in WWII, fighting tooth and nail for his islands, but like Japan, he'll be ultimately doomed. 

Now, onwards. Donskoi finishes its granary and I want to start a man at arms:




The MaA will clear the barb camp to the south fairly easily, hopefully before it starts spewing frigates in my face, and will raise my city strength. It can then sail to the other continent and start clearing barbs from it. I will leave the coast to Australia but will claim the tundra as Russian territory. That will likely be my last Monumentality push - the easily accessible settlements will be gone, apart from Novaya Zemyla, and I'll begin using faith on land units instead. 

On the other end of the empire, Nakhimov grows to 2 and immediately kicks the new generation out of the city into the frigid wilderness:




It will travel to Niterville, picking up that niter and chopping out a 5/10 lavra. Fish, niter, and sugar to grow, some mines...yeah, good city. That's due on turn 120. Svetlana is due on turn 119. I'm probably going to rename both cities with my pins from Novaya Zemyla, since settlement there needs to wait until Shikishima is back in my hands. 

Over in the bay, Mikasa reaches size 4 and places a harbor:




11 turns, yikes. At some point we'll tackle that, when I think it's more useful than another Caravel. For now it stays on galleys. 

On the front, Marco has engaged the rearmost jong:




Remember, Marco, I move after you, so you can also leave space for Russian ships to engage if you want. If that jong stays in place to fight next turn, or promote, it is dead - my frigates will catch up. More likely he will flee to the east, but we're getting closer. If you can keep him on THIS side of the desert peninsula, I can catch up and savage his ships. 

Here's the new Australian core, gearing up for defense:




It's a tough call on the land unit or the galley, marco. I think...go for the land unit. That knight is going to land at LET next turn, and if sub doesn't re-embark it we will have a devil of a time stopping it with just archers and heavy chariots. MBDTF has its Super Holy Site very vulnerable to pillage, and your campus, too, which will seriously delay rebuilding efforts as you repair it - not to mention efforts to continue getting out units! So yeah, need to cover that before we get more ships on the board. There are also Russian ships entering the theater, and I'm building 2 galleys in the south - these will be upgraded as part of Operation Double-Dip to land both Civil Service and Exploration in rapid succession. The caravels can steam straight for Sub's jongs, stop them cold (with galley support), and let us finally crush the fleet between both of us. 

At that point, Australia can abandon military builds and focus on rebuilding. If you look at the graphs, before the Indonesian assault you were doing excellently at getting your house in order - Australian science was top 4, culture had reached top 5 status, and pop and districts and city-count were ahead of Norway and Japan. You'll be behind again, BUT the other teams will have to deal with wars, too, without your doubled production, work ethic sites, or Russian defense umbrellas.  So hang in there. We are still in this game. 

Let's see...Archduke skipped Magellan:




He wants the ironclad or the armada admiral, makes sense. Again, voting double admiral points was a pretty bad blunder by the other teams - it's the main claim to fame for RNDs (plus they're cheap and give +1 movement), so they had the chance to totally neuter England's main gameplan, countering with Cothons and Norway's inherent melee bonus, but instead they voted to double his advantage, guessing that...the one admiral they'd get would compensate? Eh, I firmly disagree, but with Marco's new DoF we're good until turn 146. 

That's probably the last DoF we should sign, Marco. We're locked in to peace with Raiders until turn 138 and the Central Powers until 146, which is a LONG time, so no more renewals - we might want to intervene by 138 and get our share of the spoils. But at least we don't have to worry about Japan and ENgland descending on a weakened Australia for a little while. 

East:




2 final galleys, then back to econ builds - harbor and man at arms for the barb camp. Fuji will finish its lavra next turn and is already converted, so it will need a granary right away (growth is abysmal) and then will be free until it's time for the harbor at size 4. 

West:




Those build times are crushing on the frigates, but I console myself that no one can do better. I hate tying up the cities for so long, but I see no alternative. I ache for a lighthouse, granary, monument, library at these cities, but they are my main shipyards and I can't spare them. Note the massive wave of 5 builders emerging over the next 5ish turns - that's 26 build charges, more than enough, I think, for most projects. Every city should be working only improved tiles soon. 

Svalbard:




We need 3 screens now, yeah. This is a nice colonial region. 5 turns until it converts and hits its proper stride. 

Finally, fleet overviews:




3 turns until I get Cartography and can really chase these Indonesian bastards down.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

If possible, Marco, we should of course have you strike the blow to liberate your capital. Have a galley nearby - I can redline the city but you'll need to chew through the healing on your own, sub plays between us sadly. Anyway, that's +100% production empire wide if you do and can help cover the cost of the 2 new settlers we'll need to replace the cities.

[marcopolothefraud]

Marco, this is one difference in our playstyles that I've noticed - you're a lot more zealous to chop food resources like marshes and fish into your cities for early growth, while I like to keep them around for long-term sustainability. I haven't chopped a single food source all game, in fact, although I will chop Borodino's rice marsh since I'm paving it over with an Industrial Zone soon. I think that's why some of your cities have stagnated a bit, notably Ilmatic and the Blueprint - how long will it take MBDTF to reach size 7 now that its fish is gone, too? This is, of course, purely my opinion and how I learned to play after some early disasters. 


Remember, Marco, I move after you, so you can also leave space for Russian ships to engage if you want. If that jong stays in place to fight next turn, or promote, it is dead - my frigates will catch up. More likely he will flee to the east, but we're getting closer. If you can keep him on THIS side of the desert peninsula, I can catch up and savage his ships. 


It's a tough call on the land unit or the galley, marco. I think...go for the land unit. That knight is going to land at LET next turn, and if sub doesn't re-embark it we will have a devil of a time stopping it with just archers and heavy chariots. MBDTF has its Super Holy Site very vulnerable to pillage, and your campus, too, which will seriously delay rebuilding efforts as you repair it - not to mention efforts to continue getting out units!

1. I don't think I started food chopping in earnest until *after* we started war with Woden/Ljubljana and I suddenly had more production at the Blueprint than I knew what to do with. I created builder after builder to make mines, lumber mills, and gold-generating tiles...and then I realized that I should probably chop some food tiles and take full advantage of Australia's housing bonuses. So far, so good.

2. I don't have a single full-health Galley left north of Demak Sultanate. I guess I'm handing off all counter-attack duties to you. Maybe I should keep my injured ships in the area, as bait for his Jongs to attack - this could potentially work!

3. Hmm...upgrading a Crossbowman takes 250 gold, or 125 gold with the Professional Army policy. If it doesn't mess up the schedule for Caravels, do you think you can send me that gold to upgrade that Archer near Aquemini? I think I could find a nice defensive position for it near the Eye of the Sahara.

I will start making a Crossbowman at MBDTF next turn.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Hm, let me run the numbers, but I think I can get the money to you.

I also think I should put the GMC to use. I'll buy the best unit I can at Donskoi and ship it north to MBDTF to help defend against the knight - that'll probably be a courser, since I won't have stirrups for ca. 6 more turns.

If you build a land attack unit out of The Blueprint, then you could retake the city from the landward side? That +100% bonus is too good to ignore.

FInally, as regards his jongs - I really hope he keeps two back or so as a rearguard, which he might if you jam him up at the northern cape. I think doublestacking the warrior and galleys there will really slow him down as he tries to round the point - make good use of the nearby reef and it'll be at least 2-3 turns to slug through, which should be enough time for my frigates to come up on his rear. If we can snap up some stragglers, then hit the rest as they get bogged down near MMLP, that should do it.

Okay, so, plan:

1)Russia looks into sending 125 gold (I can also send iron, too, I thought I HAD but apparently I did not).
2)Russia will send a courser north to MDBTF. Courser is fast and can go toe to toe with a knight.
3)Australia keeps bogging the jongs down in front of MMLP, which I think can be saved with the right plays.
4)Australia begins gathering forces to reclaim the capital.

I don't know if I should divert any frigates to the capital - it would mean risking MMLP. I think it'd be wiser to take down the jongs first, and once they're sunk and scattered, backtrack to Ilmatic, claim it, and then Oz uses the +100% to train two new settlers and begin repairing the damage. We could conceivably have Australia fully operational again in 30 turns or less, especially if we can seize Sakhalin as reparations.

[marcopolothefraud]

Err...I'm 80% sure I don't have the Professional Army policy plugged in. I will need the full 250 gold.

Other than that, the plan looks great!

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Okay, math. I have 158 gold and make 41 per turn. I will not create significant new expenses between now and then - fluctuations should be minor (do note that every city you convert is an extra +3 g/turn for the team). I will need 7 turns to get Exploration and Civil Service to the right levels, so can expect 280 more gold. That means I will ahve a total of 440 gold or so. Sending 125 leaves me with 315...not QUITE enough for two upgrades, unless we can scrounge up an extra 50g between now and then. Australian income is up to about 12 per turn, so you'd be able to cover it. And I can find other sources of gold, too, including tile manipulation.

That works. I'll send the gold - send me a request on your turn and we can have the xbow in place on turn 118.