[Spoilers] Coldlight: The Commodtay Saga

[BRickAstley]

Dotmap it!

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Dotmap it!

National Park on the grass hill 3S of the grass gems. PH on the west of the island and pray you can chain irrigation through the city (you won't but pray anyway).

[Commodore]

Yeah, it's farm that one grassland and otherwise let the whole blood island rot.

BUT WHO CARES BECAUSE I GOT THIS:

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Is that the Statue of Magellan? AKA you got circumnavigation?

[Commodore]

Is that the Statue of Magellan? AKA you got circumnavigation?

[Commodore]

Turn 100 (a bit late):
Welcome to the chilly gray shores of the Great Kingdom; population, decent. Wealth? Average. Manufacturing...moving swiftly onward. At least we have a decent amount of land! Sure most of it's tundra, but beggars, choosers, etc...


Make no mistake, this is indeed the Beggars' Kingdom. Our central homeland is basically either greenery or food; you can't have both. Because we're sane, we opted for food, so as you can see there are vast swaths of lush backfill still yearning to be filled by our vital settlers. In good time, in good time. Add a couple of tundra/snow clam cities in the northwest for good measure.


It's not, strictly speaking, “good” land but the southeastern peninsula is at the very least is livable, which is why as you can see we've packed the crap out of this place. Both of the kingdom's cottages are here, in point of fact, and we might live to see cottages in the double digits some day. Maybe. Also here you can see the headwaters of the one multi-tile river we own.


...and here is where the river dribbles out. Can't even find the vitality to reach the actual ocean. I kind of chuckle at the wonder that is our foodiest city being double deer and a lighthouse lake. One of these days this place will pay for itself, but thus far it's just been a giant hole to pour axemen and chariots down. Oh yeah, we gots barbs.


I'll round out the walking tour with a shot of lovely Luxury Island: It's the land so great we don't even need food! We're hooking luxuries, farming the one farm, and then clearcutting this sucker. I don't think we'll even bother with slow dry cottages...just Colossus coast up to modest middling sizes.


Ah, yes, the Colossus. Was/is it worth it, now here past the great hump of Currency? I think...yes. It's currently worth 25 commerce per turn, and that's only ever going up. As circumnavigation-owning Portugal, we can quite reasonably always expect to get this kind of yield from our coasts, because those cheap Imperialist feitoriae will easily come online before Astronomy is a must. And so with the coming stone we're about to embark on a quest for that rare bird: The Moai Capital. What, you think Kojack is going to be investing in land tiles?

In the end, this is a very droll game that probably won't have much of a concluding act. Old Harry's in the driver's seat and has a vast amount evidently productive land, plus the MoM. I don't really see how we're likely to stop him, he's a hell of a come-from-behinder, can't be much worse as a front runner. Maybe someone will eat the weak and tiny 2metra...

[Commodore]

I just realized why this map seems so familiar. I won* that one, we can win* this!

*Conceded due to pace.

[Dp101]

Do you think you can still win?

[Commodore]

Do you think you can still win?

Ah, short answer, no.

The long answer is that this position, while not terrible, isn't very strong; we have a decent economy thanks entirely to the Colossus and likewise a decent population (lighthouse coast tiles being BIG FOOD here), but we're very behind the HG-snagging REM and the MoM-owning OH, both of whom also have some pretty good land. TBS and Mackoti also are running robust games and Pindicator is about where we are. By process of elimination, Mackoti is next to 2metraninja as is probably Pindicator...and 2mn is prime eating. Our neighbors are all hard kills, and very very far away. I guess Pindicator and I should be able to dogpile TBS successfully, but like in PB19 with Dtay and Plako eating me, I don't exactly see that being a winning path. So this is a hard but doable position in some games, but barring opponent replacement I don't see us winning this.

On the plus side, we now own ourselves some Confucianism.

It was an impulsive grab, but we're on the road direct to maces so might as well snag a first-to bonus first.

[Commodore]

1AD update in full next turn, but in the meanwhile, WHAT THE HELL, MACK:

That was a smart smart move. 100% the right call. From demos, I think he's gone into a golden age and/or Bureau, too.