[SPOILERS] Roland and Suboptimal Team Up

[suboptimal]

Turn 181

A new age is here. Time to look around and see what I can do with it all. I also completed Humanism...should have been paying more attention to that and delayed it. No matter.

First things first, I offer a DoF to Russia as previously discussed. A Church is Burning is at -6.2 loyalty per turn and He Was My Brother is at -5.5 per turn.

For policies I’ve got Wars of Religion and Bastions slotted in the wildcards. Those need to go. Urban Planning goes in (every counts) along with Triangular Trade (for and a little more ).

Harbor complete at Graceland, start the lighthouse and I’ll follow that with a trader. I might send that one south through Big Island to see what’s going on in Russian territory here. . Confucius gets to the northeastern coast and will embark next turn. The man-at arms moves adjacent to the Harbor and will embark and form up with the jong I’m purchasing next turn.

I start Nationalism, 14 turns to completion. Take Hic Sunt Dracones as the dedication and the turn is over.

[Bruindane]

Turn 182: Is there a war on?




Interesting oddity related to the city suzerainty bug, I don't see the mountain north of Valleta, but Indonesia does.

[Bruindane]

Looking at the screenshot, Valletta screams, conquer me for Indonesia in 5 turns. Chinese troops are up there to pacify the barbarians, but if friendship with Russia is declared, using the troops is very tempting. It depends if suboptimal want to try and re-suzerain, at least temporarily to make faith purchases (perhaps walls at a newly conquered Brussels?).

[suboptimal]

Looking at the screenshot, Valletta screams, conquer me for Indonesia in 5 turns. Chinese troops are up there to pacify the barbarians, but if friendship with Russia is declared, using the troops is very tempting. It depends if suboptimal want to try and re-suzerain, at least temporarily to make faith purchases (perhaps walls at a newly conquered Brussels?).

Roland recently retook suzerainty with another two envoys.  I think I'm a bit far off from getting my next two, but even then I'd need a third to suzerain and I don't have any civics completing any time soon (and their quest is not doable, IIRC).  I'll check both of those when my turn comes around likely tonight (or you can do so tomorrow).  If three envoys is not imminent (10 turns or less) I say take it and send it my way.

[suboptimal]

Turn 182

First things first…I now have a DoF with Russia. This also happened:




That solves their loyalty issues for now. While I’m up here the iron mine is repaired, I buy a jong, the man-at-arms embarks and I start a trader.

Looking at the envoy situation I’ll have two envoys in 5 turns. Valetta wants the inspiration for Scorched Earth, which I’ll only get if China researches it to completion. Roland only has 14 envoys, though, not 15, so my two from natural generation will get me suzerainty in five turns. Bruindane, your choice on conquering Valetta.

This is also my last turn until Dec 12th, so good luck! I'll be reading turn reports and occasionally commenting on my phone. My time zone isn't changing so I'll have my usual hours.

[Bruindane]

Turn 183: Yay Roland for taking the Big Island (back?)

More cities better, right? Scorched earth will take me 4 turns without the inspiration, so could come soon, so the envoy games can continue. We have about ~15 turns to  consider taking Valletta before needing to reposition the troops.



On other mechanics: l expect to be passed Mendeleev in two turns, which is a shame as in three turns he would have been passed to Russia.  I think I won't get the choice to pass as well, as I will be over the 20% reduced cost. For context, I just happened to get a level 2 research alliance with ljublana this turn, which provided the inspiration to Chemistry.

[Bruindane]

@thrawn the general operating instructions for Indonesia as I interpreted them, in case the turn comes your way before suboptimal corrects them.

Research beelined towards Industrialization (many techs to go), which is the one tech not shown in the Industrial era (it is shown on my tech tree). Civics are headed for Nationalism at ~14 turns.

Cause loyalty issues at Al, the captured capital, though I think this is an emphasis on growing the city populations in the area if possible. I have a Chinese spy traveling to Al, that I could use to drop loyalty if we get some traction.

Conquer Brussels, using the Jong and available troops. I'm sending my entire navy to support (I kid), though I am sending a calvary corp to provide some muscle. suboptimal also wants to clear the barbarians in that area to settle a new city.

Otherwise economic builds and finishing an Indonesian spy. China has , happy to send it over. Send the Great Prophet to uncover Russia's map and cities. Not sure when that requires asking for open borders.

I do want to conquer Valletta for Indonesia, but there will be Indonesian envoys available in a few turns to re-suzerain. Removing the whales lux at Valletta from Australia's control may drop the loyalty at the big island cities, generally we don't want their cities to be happy. As for roland not diverging Chinese plans, it finally dawned at me that williams482 must have deleted that second trader before I could plunder it (no need to confirm).

roland and williams482 control our strategic interests, so adversarial. Woden and ljublana decided to emigrate their cities away from us, so friendly. Kaiser is there to declare war on if we want Russia to break the peace due to their alliance, not taking their recent rejection of open borders personally. And yes, we know we don't have a chance at all, but if we do recapture Al, we win, no arguments to the contrary allowed.

[Bruindane]

Turn 184: An unexpected gift

First off, thrawn, thank you for picking up the turns and for the insightful questions.



So I was greeted to a number of unexpected notifications. First I got the steam power eureka thanks to the Great Library, meaning somebody else took a great scientist. To unwrap this, Woden passed on Mendeleev as expected, but he went to Russia, even though I was next in turn order and had the highest number of points (oh... I don't get my points until my turn, so I wasn't next and the difference may be due to the pillaging of my campus at McGregor). I took James Young, getting the eurekas for combustion and radio.




I also fulfilled the quest for Brussels, in getting a Great Scientist, but I don't have an envoy and I can't spent envoys on them once again (The city on the map is in fact called Have A Good Time). More importantly, something I had forgotten but remember now happening when we took Australia's capital, the city emergency is providing the `huge amount of positive loyalty` to the target.

I’m sure Russia may have offered friendship to prevent us attacking them to reignite the war weariness, but once Russia entered a dark age, we got an opportunity to flip Al that we didn't have before, and the best way for them to prevent it was capturing or razing the cities putting on the pressure. I am planning to build a water park at Tavernier, but hadn't considered an earlier entertainment complex at Sakala?!, but I think this is going to happen for us. I didn't for-see Australia getting the cities on the big island, but they will be easier to conquer than Russia, so perhaps it is an opportunity to shift Indonesian troops east for invasion. I'll be clearing the barbarian camp north of Joe Aribo quickly so I can move troops back towards Al when it rebels.




Marked on the map where oil will be, there is a land one in Joe Aribo's 3rd ring.

- Woden's rule for city states. Meaning more or less common sense - you declare only if you are going to capture and can pillage only once even if you fail to capture and come back at a later date and the improvements have been repaired.

I checked our thread history and suboptimal initially captured Brussels before they built improvements. I'll be happy to pillage and move the two calvary as directed to block an opportunistic Australian. You are right that Valletta will require ships, so I am putting into Scorched Earth to pass the inspiration to Indonesia that fulfills their quest to tie suzerainty.

[Bruindane]

Turn 185: Ships in the night



I did start a settler in McGregor, but shifted to a caravel, and now will build a settler in Morelos instead for oil. I need to review the eurekas, and see what I can pick up, the lack of them in the tech shuffle UI and faith China would sniff the modern era contributes to the tech debt. I do have to buy things, such as a workshop, to smooth my lack of planning.

[Bruindane]

Who is going to capture Brussels? Generally it's better to build up one of the team to be strong rather than build both equally. Norway and Phoenicia are a good example with all conquests going to Norway and now it's as powerful as Russia, otherwise Russia would have overrun them already.

Once Al is liberated, we'll be in "one more turn..." territory. Brussels/Have A Good Time to Indonesia, along with any cities they flip on the Big Island. We're at peace, so wouldn't mind staying that way while we build seaside resorts.

I read somewhere that the space victory goes through the culture tree. I've also seen that Woden likes to use nukes.