[SPOILERS] Banzailizard and Woden go hunting!

[Woden]

Turn 25-Gaul
I send my trade back to the capital. I think Ljubljana built a holy site. His empire score is now 17 and their team is leading the religious ranks...
   

Nothing else to report. I am working up my next 35 or so turns (until the change of the era at T60) and will post soon. Now that we know a little about our starting islands, it would be good to start thinking about strategy.

[Woden]

A rough idea of my next 30 turns:
T26 (Next Turn): Builder at the capital completes, starts another one. Builder moves toward FGH by rice.
T28: Chop the FGH into builder.
T29: Builder completes, start a galley. Mine FGH chopped last turn. Move new builder to PH SW of capital. Pottery completes, start Writing. Send 35 gold back to England.
T30: Mine PH and rice at City 2, get boost for Craftsmanship and Irrigation.
T31: Move builder SE to plains forest to chop out campus in 9 turns.
T34: Get boost for Early Empire. Galley finishes at capital, start another. Send galley south.
T35: Finish EE, assign Magnus to capital, start Craftsmanship
T36: Galley at City 2 finishes, start another. Galley heads north.
T37: Galley completes at capital. Writing finishes and capital starts a campus. Choose whatever is the best pantheon left. Craftsman finishes and swap out God King for Urban Planning. Start researching State Workforce.
T40:Mangus establishes and chop into the campus, completing it. Capital starts a galley.
T41: Galley completes at City 2, city places Government Plaza but starts working on galley. State Workforce finishes, start PP (hope galleys have found 2 more City States by the time we need it).
T43: Capital finishes galley, starts another.
T44: If I have found and killed 3 barbs, Bronze Working finishes. If not switch to Irrigation until the boost for BW comes in. Assuming I do find a bunch of barb galleys/quads and get the boost, I start Iron Working. Hopefully Iron is close. There is a good chance it is on the plains hill SW of my capital city center. I don't think I have seen iron under a forested tile. It could also be elsewhere on my island. I will have a builder to hook it up if needed. For this exercise, I will assume it is on the plains hill. I would think Kaiser would give something for the capital, so iron or horses would be a good bet.
T46: Galleys finish at both capital and city 2. City 2 starts GP and capital starts a galley. After I kill 3 barbs, I will start looking at conquering any close city states (after getting the boost for PP).
T49: Political Philosophy finishes. I go into Oligarchy and run Maritime Industries, Conscription, Colonization, and Ilkum. Capital places a builder in production and existing builder uses his last charge to chop the FGH just east of city center, immediately completing builder. City then starts a settler. New builder goes to mine the chopped tile. Trade route should finish about this turn and will get moved to capital to get it to grow to size 4 for the IZ. Start Games and Recreation. 
T54: Iron Working finishes and I finish Irrigation or work on Shipbuilding. GP also finishes at City 2 and starts the Ancestral Hall.

Between T49 and T54, capital builds 2 settlers sped up by chops and works on a builder if I can as existing builder moves between chops to prevent lost overflow. Also, during this time I want to clear out barb ships and hopefully get a few galleys their 1st promotion.  I should have 8 galleys but may lose one or two to barbs. Those barb galleys are no joke and you could move and then have 2 swarm your ship. Will have to be careful scouting.

Once Iron Working completes, I should have enough era points for a golden age. The 2 settlers I chop out of the capital are going to stick around until I complete the Ancestral Hall. I will build a builder at the capital so I can double chop it out with Magnus. Once the era ends, I will build my unique IZ and then a man-at-arms. The man-at-arms will bring my base city defensive strength to 35, which will help against longboat attacks.

After all this, I will start pumping out boats and go exploring. This will speed up my culture, as I race to Defensive Tactics for Limes and building walls. Since you have a barb camp on your island, I might need you to research Military Tradition right after PP to pass me the boost. That is an important civic for flanking. I might also think about just power through it un-boosted if there is a threat of war.

For scouting, I think until I can get a good navy in the water, most of my galleys will hang around our islands, exploring the immediate area. Once I can get 8 or so galleys, I can send 4 out to explore and keep at least 4 back home for protection. We will want a decent navy around in case Thrawn shows up because he will have a decent navy. I should beat everybody to PP and Oligarchy, so we will have some time with a CS advantage.

[Banzailizard]

England Turn 25

A day late but not like we have moved on yet.

   

Second city is down, I choose to work the sheep title to get growth in 6 turns rather than 9.  Warrior is back on the way to the capital, builder is almost done. Another good reason to send the builder to the second city is to get it an amenity hooked up so it can grow without a penalty.

I wanted to see what your plan looked like so I could use it as a template.  With that in mind, my next 15 turns should look something like:

Turn 26: Switch off craftsmanship to EE so I don't over research it
Turn 27: Builder completes and, if no barbs are present, moves across the river onto the hills, start a slinger in the capital
Turn 29: Receive gold from Gaul, buy a trader at London to send to Leeds
Turn 30: Move Builder, nothing much happens. Assuming no barbs in the south, send warrior back to north, warrior and slinger will eventually go clear the barb camp on the north of the island.
Turn 31: Leeds grows to size 2, starts working the turtles, slinger finishes in capital, start galley to work towards shipbuilding boost or builder to start chopping near my capital and improve turtles
Turn 32: Move builder onto the sheep
Turn 33: Build pasture get boost
Turn 34: Move builder onto turtles
Turn 35: Build Turtle fishing boat, get EE boost, bringing EE down to 1 turn to complete, London grows to size 3
Turn 36: Move onto Fish, finish EE, start something else for 1 turn
Turn 37: Build fishing boat on fish, get CN boost and craftsmanship boost. switch back to craftsmanship
Turn 38: Select a pantheon from whatever is left, finish craftsmanship, swap out policy cards, GK out to urban planning, if barbs have been dealt with in the north, discipline to maritime industries.

Beyond that, I think I would need to put a spreadsheet together to track growth, so I will need to pull some info from the game.

[Woden]

A couple of general strategy thoughts:
(1) After we get a few ships out, we will want to scout in pairs or 3s. I suspect the map is made up of a bunch of smaller islands with all of our starts being bigger islands and maybe a few additional "bigger" islands to fight over. Given that players will want to clear any camps that show up on there island quickly, there is probably going to be a bunch of smaller islands with coastal camps and lots of barb boats to deal with, especially the ones that spawned at the beginning of the game and have been spawning boats non-stop. I don't know the rate of spawning but I figure a new boat every 10 turns is probably a good guess. If we assume the first boat is spawned at T10 and a new boat every 10 turns, when we get a boat out at T30, each camp should have 2 boats in the water.  Note, you can't fight a barb galley and gain a promotion in one-on-one (like a warriors can), you will lose you ship but also note, redlined barb boats will retreat. Scouting in pairs is better than lone ships, so pair your boats up once you get a chance. Barb boats will also run in groups if close to a camp, so if you come across one, there may be another in the fog. 

(2) When you build your Tier 1 government building, please be running Oligarchy. With the last change to Oligarchy, switching card set-ups with Autocracy (2M, 1E, 1W), it is probably the best Tier 1 government anyways. You will want the Oligarchy legacy card and you get whatever government you are running when you build the Tier 1 building. Ljubljana didn't in PBEM20 and regretted it all game. 

(3) Once we can send traders to each other (after Shipbuilding), all traders should be sent internationally for extra gold. Gold will be a limiting factor, especially for me since harbors will come later. We will need lots of gold for upgrades as the game progresses. Once we hit Diplomatic Service (if the game goes that long), we can run Wisselbanken that adds +2 food/+2 production to both cities for powerful trade routes, even better once we hit Democracy for +4 for both. This was another thing Ljubljana was fighting me on and later regretted it. He though domestic routes were better later realized the gold and Wisselbanken was much better. One exception is if you have a city that is food starved and needs some trade routes to grow. 

(4) If we run across Thrawn while scouting, I think we goad him into declaring war if we still need the boost for Diplomatic Service or just declare war on him (if we already have it). I don't think we let him explore our shores and it would be better if we attack whatever boats he has exploring. It also might be better to scout in packs of 4. I assume he will be scouting in pairs of 2 or 3 boats because 2 longboats (or galleys) can take city state in 3 turns (2 if you are lucky). Four boats should be able to take on 2 or 3 longboats. We do have to be careful once he hits Shipbuilding and can retreat and heal in the ocean. Once that happens, I think it will be safer to stay close to home and defend until Cartography. 

I do think we do have to press hard against Thrawn and hope others join in. All his past games and his posts in the tech thread point to a very aggressive game from him and we must do the same. Hopefully, the other teams understand this too and are not planning on going with a builder game. Given who the other teams are, there is a pretty good chance they are on the same page. 

To do this, I think my main mode of development will be early infrastructure in science and production to get a good foundation and then start going wild with the military builds (which will push me through the civic tree). I think you should focus on building enough ships to defend yourself and build a decent economy with your cheap harbors. One of us should race to Cartography and Square Rigging and the other to Military Engineering for Niter. That way, we pass any boosts along the way to each other. Even though I will probably have the bigger navy, I think it might be better for me to go for Military Engineering. I will need much of what is needed for boosts along the way and you will have the 2 harbors for Cartography. Once I start collecting resources, I can send you them for storage, since your harbors add to your gaps. Then, once we reach those goals, we can switch branch and research what the other completed. I think that will be one way to shorten the time where the Vikings are most powerful.

[Woden]

Turn 27-Gaul
Last turn, builder finished and I started another. This turn, builder moves into position to chop into the 2nd builder. The 2nd builder should finish on T29....
   

I noticed a second player earning GP points and by the empire scores, it looks to be CMF. The race is on between Ljubljana and CMF for the first religion. I am bringing my 2nd warrior back to the capital to protect any coastal improvements I have or move into the city incase we see an early Thrawn. At 13 DS, a single longboat could do some damage and take a city before we could react. Doubtful he will find us before we get out a galley to improve the DS, but more importantly, we need to protect our coastal improvements from raids and any combat unit on an improvement will prevent a Viking raid. 

City 2 will grow next turn and I have the city set to prioritize food (in case I forget to lock in the wanted tile). The 2nd pop should work the cotton. By my calculations, if I improve the rice, the 2nd city will hit 3 pop the same time as City 1 (in 7 turns) and EE will finish in 8 turns (even though the counter says 34 turns on this turn). I am going to really like that 20% culture rebate for combat units. It is going to take a little bit for my culture to get going but once it does, I should be able to get a little lead in culture.

[Banzailizard]

England Turn 27



I will have to make a full report, with updated plan sometime this evening, but for now:

   

I know where the barb scout is at least.  That means my warrior can just stay by London for now.  The builder will head down to Leeds and get on that sheep.  I over estimated the number of turns required to cross a river so my who builder plan moves up by 1 turn. Started a slinger per the plan so I can clear out the barbs and hopefully get the archery boost.


I put all the city information from turn 26 below in the spoiler, will use this later with a spreadsheet to have a better idea of when my cities will grow.

   

   

   

[Banzailizard]

Ok, I put together a little spreadsheet (attached here).  Important takeaway though is the updated plan which is inserted into the post here:

[attachment=24903]

In the spreadsheet I did try 2 different plans for London, one where I ran high production (pop 3 works the 1/3 tile) and one where I tried high food (works one of the 2/1 tiles).  Honestly they turn out about the same.  My inclination is towards the production at this point since I am out of useful tiles.  Both plans support making a builder after the slinger.  While I hate to make one without agoge, and I don't really have that many tiles to improve right this second, it should finish up the same turn as I unlock RND, and can help boost some of the tiles around London.  Hopefully by that time you can tell me where the iron or horses are around my capital.

Leeds should finish its RND around turn 49.  I am not clear if the discontent status impacts anything beyond growth.  Wiki references only growth and food production, but my science, culture, and production all seem lower than they should be in Leeds.  Turtles will alleviate that, meaning my numbers might be a bit better than shown here. If possible I would like to time a swap into colonization around turn 49 to get some settlers out of both Leeds and London.  Speaking of policy cards I did not explicitly include the impact of urban planning, starting on turn 38.  Should add about 18 production to each city.  Factoring it in quickly, looks like it pushes up the RND by one turn for Leeds.  If I can clear the barbs out reasonably quickly, I can use either the craftsmanship swap, or more likely the state workforce swap, to run maritime industries and get a galley or two out from London before any settler production.

[Woden]

I am not clear if the discontent status impacts anything beyond growth.  Wiki references only growth and food production, but my science, culture, and production all seem lower than they should be in Leeds.  

If you look at your screenshot of Leeds status menu you posted under the spoilers, left side in the middle (under Amenities) there is a red head and next to it is the penalties currently active in the city (-15% to growth and -10% to nonfood yields).

[Banzailizard]

Ok updated plan.  I also included urban planning.  Production correction moves the monument up 1 turn, and urban planning, manages to push Leeds RND up 1 turn for 2 turns saved in total. Urban planning pushes London's RND up 1 turn as well.  I added in a galley for London after the RND, and also indicated what happens if I swap to maritime industries. 

[attachment=24909]

Additionally, I decided to look at the list of pantheons. Anything with a Holy Site attached is probably not going to fit in my build right now. I want RND and campuses. I suppose HS could be a third district if we want to go for a religion later. Anyways, the non-HS pantheons are:

City Patron Goddess (No, very weak)
Divine Spark (maybe)
Earth Goddess (yes)
Fertility Rites (yes!)
Fire Goddess (maybe. +4 faith)
God of Craftsmen (Maybe, depends on map)
God of Forge (maybe, limited use but use early)
God of Open Sky (No, only +1 culture, maybe more depends on map)
God of Sea (Yes)
Goddess of Festivals (No +2 culture)
Goddess of Harvest (Yes)
Goddess of Hunt (No, zero camps)
Lady of Reeds (No, zero tiles)
Monument to the Gods (Do not plan to build wonders yet)
Oral Tradition (No, +1 culture)
Religious Idols (no +1 faith for Leeds only)
Stone Circles (No +2 faith for city 4 only)

[Woden]

Turn 28-Gaul
Ljubljana must have gotten to select his pantheon on his last turn and his first choice or two were already selected. Can't think of any other reason why he would hold the turn for so long and have a slew of posts before he played his turn.  

For my turn, I chopped the forest (25 cogs) into the builder...
   

The city ribbon says 2 turns to complete but I unlocked the grassland hill so I could work a FPH. Losing the 1 food shouldn't mess with the city growth timeline and we should be looking at 6 turns until the boost for EE and it finishing in 7 turns.