[SPOILERS] Roland and Suboptimal Team Up

[Bruindane]

Turn 140: At a loss

With Civil Engineering, I obsoleted Bastions and its improved city defense, just in time for....




Thanks to Logistics (+1 movement) I was able to spot the upgraded Russia fleet, and retreat back to Steve Davies.  A few more turns to build walls, establish a spy (5), and printing (4), and we'd be able to sink 1 or 2 of theirs, maybe.




I chose policies to fund upgrades at the big island.  I did toy with choosing Oligary, but it only helps melee ships.

[suboptimal]

I'm willing to bet that CMF is blockading any progress south in order to secure Big Island for himself. you may find a similar situation east of Chocolate Island.

[suboptimal]

Turn 140

Go through the notifications and CMF has killed the courser, which is the unit that the promotion notification is for. . CMF has also proposed a deal. Let’s see what he’s got on offer:




Absolutely not. I offer back white peace and call that a day. I have to either cede He Was My Brother or demand its return. I do the latter and will do so for the rest of the game Crossbows both shoot the Russian courser. Graceland’s Harbor was pillaged so the lighthouse build stops with one turn to go (interesting). I start a pikeman.

Some units move around the Confucius makes a run for it.

[Bruindane]

There shall be no peace in our time then.

@suboptimal do you want China to send you ?

[suboptimal]

I do not think peace is a good idea unless I can keep what I have left of Big Island. If he wants peace to regroup and try again, that's fine. Forcing him to take Big Island the hard way slows him down, both for us to come up with a Plan B and for others to try to put a stop to him once all their DoFs end.

As for my issue with upgrading will be my income, or rather, the lack thereof. I'm taking Serfdom and Press Gangs out, putting in Professional Army and Twilight Valor. The policy applies to all non-ranged unit attacks (except warrior monks). I want to keep Bastions in for the time being. I only have three units to upgrade - sword to musket at Graceland, galley to caravel at Al and slinger to crossbow at Proof. That'll run me 485 with Professional Army, so I'll need 190 to do the upgrades and have a few pennies leftover.

I also just noticed that Woden's got 3303

[Bruindane]

Turn 141: Did I bury the lede?



Golden Renaissance, picking Reform the Coinage.



A nice short scouting route.



Russia visibly parked a Caravel, with three support ships, one tile off my borders.  I assume that was not an accident, perhaps the threat component of the peace offering. 

I have a free policy change, which I didn't expect, so I switch to upgrade ships, including putting a Caravel into Borna Barasic to boost the city defense.

190 to you suboptimal. Woden signs a Declaration of Friendship that China offered.

[suboptimal]

Each change in age brings a free policy change.

I don't think that's a threat as much as it is scouting your coast - caravels have a sight range of 3 and he can see your entire coast from the tile SE of Petra to the fish SE of Glen Kamara from that spot. He's likely got another one a bit to the eastor west doing the same thing.

[Bruindane]

Keep learning new things about civ all the time, thanks!

I tend to be paranoid about things I borrow, in this case a whole civ, and would like to return it to Roland in good working order, so I see threats in the fog.

If Borna does burn, it will not be for naught, as our other cities will be better defended shortly and we will get 6 more combat strength due to diplomatic visibility.  Perhaps a small factor in our favor is the unknown locations of our military score, because first strike matters a lot.

[suboptimal]

Turn 141

The Medieval Age is over! Long live the Medieval Age! I’ve lost one of the crossbowmen on Big Island, I’ve completed a quest for Antananarivo (get the Banking eureka), CMF rejected my deal, I’ve gotten boosts to both Printing and Banking, Liang established in Proof, Valetta wants a trade route. My trader was also pillaged. Lastly, an unmet city-state was defeated. Which one was that? Akkad. Who did it? CMF, of all people. Oh, then there’s this:




Yeah, there goes the neighborhood.

I start out with the game management stuff:




None of that is remotely useful to my cause. I do take Monumentality though because what the heck? For governors I grab Victor and park him in Graceland. There’s some good news on the civics tree:




Everything in that first column will take three turns. Diplomatic Service first, Reformed Church second, Mercantilism third. I will note the loyalty situation on Big Island:




I also see that with the nuking of my trade route I’m now at -2.5 per turn and that number is about to get larger….Serfdom and Press Gangs out, Professional Army and Twilight Valor in. Do the upgrades, I’ve got 16 left and am at -9.6 per turn. On Big Island I move the pikeman into Fifty Ways and the crossbow heads up towards Graceland. That crossbow has a promotion available and takes Garrison, as that’s what it’ll be doing when it gets up there.

Confucius makes it into the sea and will turn west as far as he can go before getting sent home. The good news is that I have an inactive trader in Al because I had three traders and two slots. I send it to Conor Goldson – the route is completely over land and goes through the trading post I have in Tavernier. That makes me positive (by 0.4).

Bruindane, that caravel off to the east of the main group has two friends in the fog. Of the two caravels to the west of Barasic the northern one has one friend in the fog and the southern one has two. There is a galley off the coast of Fifty Ways that is within striking distance of your eastern frigates, if you want to go sink something. It doesn’t have any friends over there.

Looking around it looks like I’m not the only one having my lunch eaten. In somewhat of a surprise, Archduke is losing ground fast:




I don’t know what Archduke and Kaiser were up to but TAD is getting killed and Kaiser doesn’t seem to be doing well.

[Bruindane]

suboptimal, I am considering sending a peace offering.  Something CMF may want that does not involve Chinese cities.  Luxes and gold.

Any idea why CMF asked for 4 horses and 2 iron?

Edit: They were part of the resources in the cities asked for.