[SPOILERS] Parity Parody

[suboptimal]

Turn 51

Stuff to do this turn. Sailing and State Workforce are both complete, start Bronze Working and Mysticism. I’m not going to finish the former, at least until I get the Preserve down at the next city. I’ll work on Mysticism to inspiration + 1 then start Political Philosophy; I should have a pantheon in six turns. Magnus gets the Provision promotion, no change in policies. The era score counter is pulsing so I check the age display – we’re on schedule for a T61 classical.

Builder chops the marsh, The Saga Begins is now four population. Move the citizens around to work deer, amber, grassland plains forest and the forest to the southeast. Other builder moves to the wines and will move to the first chop location next turn. Warrior to the Campus, eastern Okihtcitaw to the stone; I may move it all the way back into The Saga Begins as it’d heal faster.

Western okihtcitaw finds another continent:




There’s some land poking out of the fog to the northwest, dunno yet if that’s connected or not.

Archduke leads in score at 71, though 18 of that is era score. He’s got 6 techs and 5 civics, just like I do, though his tech rate will be faster than mine in the short term. My empire score is the largest at 29. Marcopolo is lagging the field with four techs, four civics (same as Thrawn) but an empire score of 19. Alhambram has the low civics count at three but has six techs complete. I’m not formally score tracking this game but will post the score comparison at the turn of the age on T61.

[suboptimal]

Turn 52

Well….crap:




This is a problem for three reasons. First, it’s Thrawn. Second the camera goes here:




That means he’s likely got a galley though there’s an outside chance it’s a land unit. It’s also likely on the fish to the NW since if it was anywhere else I’d see it. This also likely puts him to my southwest, on the other side of Bandar Brunei, if my current map theory holds. He can’t get any further than Inactive’s crabs without declaring war, but this is Thrawn. Third, Thrawn being Thrawn my expectation is that he’d attempt to attack Inactive with the galley if left unoccupied at a CS of 10. He might even do that anyway. So, what’s Thrawn up to:




One city, one resource. Kepler has a Campus and copper within its borders. Thrawn remains within the second column of the tech tree. He’s got 10.5 and 6.5 per turn. There is an immediate temptation to buy one of the coast tiles in the channel to force a declaration early but I want to hold onto my for the time being.

Meeting Thrawn also removes any possibility to get a dark age unless I stall the Campus for 7 turns which is not something I want to do as it effectively gives up about 40 in yield. Given my formative intent for the Classical Age (expand, expand, expand) I don’t know that a Heroic Medieval will be that advantageous. Getting my up now is more important than a Heroic age in….49 turns.

I decide to move the warrior towards Inactive and garrison it there the turn after next. It will beat the galley there and the Campus’s completion will also boost the garrison a little bit, as does the fact that it’s on a hill (IIRC). The eastern okihtcitaw moves to The Saga Begins and will heal up there and act as the settler escort. Western okihtcitaw moves northeast across the river. This area is a bit more fertile but also lower in appeal.




Hit end turn and Thrawn has met a third city-state (at a minimum), giving him the Political Philosophy inspiration.

[suboptimal]

Turn 53

In another forgotten detail it’s occurred to me that I won’t get the district discount on the Government Plaza because I’ve mismanaged my tech & civic completion. In order to get the discount I’d need to complete a tech or civic after the Campus completes next turn and that’s...not happening in a timely fashion. That’ll delay the Ancestral Hall by two turns. The upshot is that it means that I can delay my pantheon and the completion of Mysticism until the Classical starts, preserving the shot at a dark age.

It’s also occurred to me that Thrawn’s unit is likely a land unit just based on the fact that he has a 35 milpower. A galley + deadlined warrior would have a milpower of 40. The question is whether or not he had the time to super-promote a scout like he did in PBEM 19. Regardless, the unit is not around this turn and I assume it’s somewhere west of Eat It. I do move the warrior back towards Inactive, mainly because that barbarian scout has show up and activated. I do bring the northern builder home due to the wandering threat to the west. The other one stays put as I’ll be chopping the Government Plaza next turn.

Out west I can move the Okihtcitaw two to the northwest or one to the northeast. I go one to the northeast since I’d like to try to sniff out Thrawn’s unit. I find lots of jungle.

[suboptimal]

Turn 54

Campus at Inactive is complete, start a warrior. The splendid Campus is only three era score instead of the four so I could, in theory, complete my pantheon and Mysticism before the age rolls. Since Mysticism is at inspiration+1 I start Political Philosophy. At the Saga Begins I put down the Government Plaza and the builder chops the southeastern forest. Government Plaza complete, Pingala is recruited and put into Inactive. The citizen working the forest moves to the maize Warrior also reaches the city and fortifies for the time being. Builder at The Saga Begins holds position – but I send the okihtcitaw west. The fact that Thrawn might have a land unit around here may cause logistical issues in a couple of turns and I want to keep an eye out for any approaching unit.

At Eat It a barbarian scout has shown up. Thrawn’s unit has not. The city will grow next turn and I’m likely to purchase the stone tile for some extra to speed up the builder. That’ll also get the tile for the Masonry eureka when the builder eventually completes.

The okihtcitaw further west moves up to the bananas and then on to open coast.




I’m going to work west from here to make sure I’m at land’s end. The jungle tile 2W of the bananas is not coastal and there’s a land tile to its west visible in the fog. I’m going to move NW-SE next turn and then W-SW the turn after.

It’s also here that I’ve realized the worst flaw in my plan – I need a Tier 1 government to build the Ancestral Hall. Holy crap am I afflicted with a major case of the early game stupids in this one! Right now that’s 20 turns after I complete Mysticism. 1,000,000x / 5 for that one. That means I need to get a builder to the new city. The Saga Begins can build one in five turns and that’s what I’ll need to do. I’ll likely follow that with a settler.

[suboptimal]

Turn 55

Bronze Working is one turn from completion. Since it unlocks a district and don’t want to do that yet I switch to Masonry. I’ll get Masonry and Wheel to eureka + 1 (so, 3 turns in each) and then start completing some techs. I do want to get some of these eurekas for era score during the Classical.

At Eat It the activated scout has actually entered the city’s territory. That’s...unusual. I buy the stone tile and the new citizen gets to work there. Okihtcitaw to the south moves to the forested hill and fortifies. It’ll meet up with the settler next turn. The builder at The Saga Begins starts the trek west. Out west the okihtcitaw moves and reveals only coast.

I belatedly confirm that Thrawn is the Unmet Player with the envoy in Bandar Brunei and that he has not met anyone else yet. Archduke appears to have settled another city as his empire score has jumped up to 40.

I also notice something else, not sure why I couldn’t see this before:




Horizontal map wrap is off and I’m in the NE corner of the map. Interesting.

[suboptimal]

Turn 56

Settler at The Saga Begins is complete and the builder starts. The area around the nearby okihtcitaw is clear so the builder tops a hill to look around and the settler heads west. Up at Eat It the barbarian scout is still hanging around. Out west the other okihtcitaw moves west and finds a possible land bridge:




Despite the fact the unit is useful at home I’m going to continue this way. Gotta see what’s over here and know how/where/when Thrawn might come calling. His milpower is still in the 30’s, though, so no early buildup.

Alhambram has jumped up in score, partly due to era score and partly due to empire score. He and Archduke have both completed their seventh techs. Thrawn is still at 4 techs and that gives me reason to believe he’s slow-rolling them for eurekas.

I get my pantheon next turn and am curious to see what my options will be. Given the potential culture overflow I’ll complete Mysticism the turn after next to hold onto it.

What’s also interesting this turn is that I can no longer scroll to the northeast corner of the map and I can’t zoom out the camera as far. Odd.

[suboptimal]

Turn 57

The news of the turn is a disaster has struck:




I’ll have to see what yields appear there as it was a grassland jungle. The barbarian warrior is a problem as it and the scout could cause issues at the city. I start moving the warrior from Inactive to Eat It via the road network – it’ll reach the city in three more turns. Settler and builder move west.

Out west I find a city:




No borders in the fog but I’ll expose them next turn by moving 2W. It’s not Thrawn, that’d be too close and I’d see loyalty modifiers since I’ve already met him.

That leaves the pantheon selection. After going down the list it appears three pantheons have been selected: Goddess of Festivals (plantations +1), Goddess of the Hunt (camps +1+1) and River Goddess (+2 housing, +2 amenities for Holy Site next to a river). The builder pantheon is still available, as is the God of the Open Sky (+1 for pastures). I take Fertility Rites for the builder. The builder can move this turn and heads west, though it will need to wait for Magnus once it arrives at the new city. The Saga Begins will complete its current builder for improvements (amber mine, stone quarry, mekewap) and Eat It starts a warrior, leaving the builder for completion later. The pantheon also gets me an envoy at Bandar Brunei, good for +2 in the capital.

I change civics back to Mysticism for completion next turn, at which point I’ll take out Discipline and put in Agoge to speed the unit builds at Inactive and Eat It.

Looking ahead at techs I think I’m going to leave Bronze Working incomplete for a little while. Once I get the Preserve completed at Location 5 I’ll complete Currency and place a discounted Commercial Hub at Inactive.

[suboptimal]

Turn 58

Mysticism is done. Clear out that pop-up and check out the new disaster notification – the forest fire is spreading:




That’ll improve the bananas, hopefully. What’s harder to see because of the fog is that the tile to the west of the one I flagged with the mekewap icon is also burning. The warrior up here also disappeared into the fog though the scout has moved across the river towards the capital. The notifications also show that my trade route from Inactive is complete. The routing from Inactive to Eat It is not what I want – it follows the road towards The Saga Begins and will claim no tiles. I’m going to hold the trader to relocate it to the new city and run the route between there and The Saga Begins or Eat It. The former gets better yields, the latter claims better tiles.

Speaking of the new city, I need to try to hold that settler until T61 for the era score and to keep the dark age intact. I’m also wondering if a better idea might be to settle the floodplain SW of the marked tile.




The downside is not being able to harvest a wheat. After running the numbers, though, I think I will cross the river. I’ll run the trade route to The Saga Begins. That’ll let me save a builder action for mining the amber while still growing out the city. I’ll build a trader after the Grove and send that up to Eat It, at least, after I clear the barbarian threat.

I switch back to Political Philosophy and drop Discipline for Agoge. I keep Colonization for the time being since I’ll be starting another settler before I complete another civic. I also switch techs over to The Wheel. What I’m also concerned & confused by is the lack of district discount for the Preserve. I’ve got three districts unlocked and three districts (2 Campus, 1 Government Plaza) complete. That’ll slow things down a little bit at the new city.

Warrior on the road continues towards Eat It. I swap the positions of the settler and builder, with the okihtcitaw following the settler. I do this since that barbarian warrior is most likely on the marsh and could attack from there. The okihtcitaw has the extra movement to check and I confirm that’s the location of the warrior. That could make settlement a little trickier. I bring the “full” builder SW onto the hill.

Way out west I go meet that city-state...or not, as I never get visibility with its city center:




That’d provide +1 in the capital for buildings with an envoy. Think I might save the one I just picked up.

Looking around, Alhambram completed an Ikanda on his Turn 55. He’s got two great general points and is gaining one per turn.

[civac2]

I seem to remember reading that district discounts only update when you research a new civic. Or something.

Edit: Civic or technology.
Edit2: You finished Mysticism. Nvm.

[suboptimal]

Thats when it should update.  The only thing I can think of is that the unlock came after the discount calculation.  I'm going to find out if my issue is that or a miscalculation of the criteria.  If the district discount kicks in, great, if not, well, I've got my plan laid out.

Edited to add...

My current understanding is that you calculate the values as follows:

a: # districts unlocked (currently, 3 - Government Plaza, Campus, Preserve)
b: # districts completed (currently, 3 - Government Plaza, 2x Campus)

If b/a >= 1 you get the discount for the first district. To get your Nth copy of a district discounted you need to meet b/a >= 1 and Na-a + 1 to be larger than the current number of all districts completed, where N is the number of a particular district type that is completed or placed.

In theory, if I complete Currency after the Preserve is complete and don't unlock any other district I should get the first one discounted and, if I manage to not unlock another district by the time that happens then I'd get the second one discounted. Inactive doesn't have enough to pull that off, nor does Eat It.