Long Live the Queen — Science and War (Turns 81-90)
Here we go! Back around to me, and the world has seen some exciting changes since I was last in the saddle. You can find a list of everyone’s turn stories here if you want to get caught up but the one most important fact: At the beginning of Kanter’s reign both France and Brazil declared war on us.
So before even hitting end turn on Kanter’s reign and starting my own — I need to get a lay of the land, see who we might befriend should France and Brazil decide to come a’knockin’ together.
Science victory being ahead surprised me. But I looked into the detail a little more and this is a lead we will perhaps quickly lose. We lead out here by having 12 technologies researched to the nearest competitor’s 10 — but they (and several others) are certainly now earning more scientific research points per turn than we are.
Domination… Well now. This might be something. We have a military strength score of 196. The next closest is Cleopatra with 125. Catherine of the French commands only 74 points of strength, while Pedro of Brazil is a mere gnat at 43 military strength right now.
Are they allied? Do they know something I don’t? Why on earth with those relative strengths would they even bother?
While reading over Kanter’s turn I had decided I might try pursuing peace. But now… Pedro… If I find you — know that you asked for this! (And actually, I think I spy the edge of your borders on the map. We shall see.)
Still — for all that… Friends are nice. Cleopatra is the strongest and has an affinity for other strong military nations. It might be time to court her friendship a little.
With that! On with the turns!
Science and War
Turn 81
I hunt out the nearest scout to where I think Pedro is — but of course it is at the opposite ends of the map. Although I suppose given I’m not exactly heading over there for a friendly chat, I may as well just start moving some military might in that direction.
I’m not worried about Pedro’s forces and France is quite some distance away. Still; I should perhaps be a little cautious — and like I noted in the preamble, I wanted to check whether Cleopatra might be up for being friends in any case.
Our gold position is not too badly off; so I decide to send gifts. Followed by a formal declaration of friendship. Both are accepted!
Otherwise — I start the inexorable march of military might toward the North East.
Turn 82
A set of our archers runs into Barbarians on the way. But despite fighting into melee range, they perform well — these Barbarians don’t stand a chance. Still a nuisance in that they hold up the march — but their encampment will be wiped off the map in my passage.
Leeds finishes production of a spearman unit. Excellent. But what next? I am tempted into the prospect of furthering our military strength, but the fact we are falling behind in the sciences weighs at the mind. And so I set Leeds to work on a great project — 19 turns of Campus building. I pick a spot that shan’t consume any special tiles near the city to the south east.
Turn 83
The barbarian spearmen who thought to harass my archer have returned to their encampment, tails between their legs. No mercy. I fire into their ranks, taking them out. The archers need rest now, but next turn that encampment will be razed.
I set Birmingham’s builder to work constructing a quarry over the gypsum vein, boosting our knowledge of Masonry allowing us to research it in half the time in future. These ‘eureka’ moments are likely going to be all that stands between us and losing our spot as top technologist on the map until such time as we can complete our campuses.
Birmingham would also now like to construct something further after completing a Granary. Honestly, another Campus appeals.
But it also occurs to me that we’re going to need a means of paying for all these things in the future. A centre of trade in the form of a Commercial Hub may help with this. I decide to purchase a tile by the river for the purposes of placing it.
Turn 84
Political Philosophy completes, granting us the ability to change to a more powerful government type — with both bonuses and additional policy slots.
Given our current war footing (not that you’d necessarily know this from my production choices), I choose to go with Oligarchy, which grants us +4 combat strength for all land melee units, and an extra 20% combat XP for all units. Not to mention a military, economic, diplomatic AND wild card policy slot.
Here are the policy selections I make at this time:
There are some interesting options however, so it may well be the case these are changed to suit each rulers preferences as we go. I was quite tempted to use our other diplomatic card in the wildcard slot for instance.
But… Just in case we need to gold-rush units, increasing our income per turn from 8.3 to 15.3 may come in handy through usage of the military policy card reducing unit maintenance by 1 gold per unit.
For our next civic, I choose to pursue Games and Recreation over Drama and Poetry. Drama and Poetry might allow us to make inroads with Culture; but Games and Recreation will keep our people happy.
Turn 85
Celestial Navigation research completes. Iron Working is incredibly tempting given the amount of iron around, but with only needing 3 turns for Masonry after the eureka, I’m going to knock that out first.
Turn 86 – Nothing of Note
Turn 87
Finished Masonry, started Iron working — 8 turns to finish; then we could potentially get Swordsmen if we managed to nab some of the nodes of iron near London and Birmingham.
Brazilian scout passing by Leeds, already a little damaged — shot with archers stationed in the city. Smidgeon of health of left. Thought he may escape, but given proximity to the coast line — we might still have him.
London finished building its campus district. I’m going to train Warriors in preparation for ability to upgrade to swordsmen after our next research. I contemplated buying the iron node tiles next to London — but decided that there is no real rush to do so yet. I will keep the gold in the coffers until a clear purpose comes up for it, or at least until we know for sure how many iron nodes are necessary to train swordsmen.
Turn 88
Scout escaped from view — but there really isn’t too far for it to run. Has to be somewhere on the southeastern peninsula. Going to try cut it off from escape with units in the area — no rush on attacking yet as still gathering strength over this way. Spearmen however taking a closer peak over Brazil’ s borders.
Turn 89
I let the scout go. I just wasn’t comfortable moving military units off cities to chase a unit able to inflict no damage beyond the scouting report already gathered. I returning the archer unit I was moving down from Brazil’s borders back northward, to support the spearmen poking into Brazil.
Warrior training finishes in London and I set it to marching toward the battle. Given the rapidity of training, I start another one going for good measure.
Stoke-Upon-Trent also finishes training a builder. I set the town to building a Granary to further it’s future growth. The builder I direct to the nearby sheep.
Turn 90
Going out with a bang — I set the Spearmen within the borders of Brazil to raze the stone quarry, dropping the production of Curitiba. Apparently this earned us 70 faith in the process. Not sure why? But OK! ;)
We also earned another envoy — which I have sent to Carthage, getting us closer to the 6 envoy bonus.
Of interest to me was the fact that Carthage would in fact lend us its full military might for 30 turns at a cost of 405 gold should we wish it. I’m not entirely sure it’s necessary given the Brazilian city we see only has one unit in it (it is heavy cavalry however). But on the other hand, if our own people don’t need to bleed for our victory?
Perhaps the cost is not too high.
That isn’t a decision I will need to make however, as my turn is done — and it is time for Rakuno to once more take charge!
This was a post for Blapril 2020, the annual blogging event (albeit usually as Blaugust), brought forward to help bring a sense of community during the challenging time of COVID-19. Blaugust is an event aiming to welcome new blogger blood into the fold and revitalise those who’ve been at it a little longer.
The Blaugust Discord is still available to join in, year round!
