[SPOILERS] Parkin brings the rain down in Africa: Churchill of Zulu

[Lord Parkin]

Turn 61

Uncovered a coastal route to Gavagai. Sailing due in 2 turns.

Looks like Gavagai settled city #3 on the incredible spot 1E of the Ivory... not too surprising.

Work Boat at Chimpanzee will be finished next turn as planned. Workers are ready to improve the Gold next turn. This will soon be a strong city for us.

[Athmos]

interesting reports Lord Parkin !

[Lord Parkin]

[Lord Parkin]

[Lord Parkin]

[Lord Parkin]

Turn 64 (continued)

Offered free Fish and Clam to GermanJojo as a gesture of friendship. I figured I'm not using them anyway, and he's a bit behind on the expansion curve, so may as well help him out. He's got a size 8 capital on the Top 5 cities screen and only 2 health resources hooked up, so I'm sure he can use the aid. Maybe he'll offer something back someday when he hooks up resources we don't have, though it's not expected. If little gifts like this help us maintain a peaceful border, that's surely a win-win for both of us.

[Lord Parkin]

[Lord Parkin]

[Lord Parkin]

Turn 67

As if easy Ivory and Silver weren't enough, I just found this at Gavagai's capital:

We also have a capital with Copper and two food resources (albeit Cow instead of lake Fish), but a powerful early happiness/commerce resource in our capital's BFC is distinctly absent. This means that Gavagai has had access to significant bonus research relative to us from near the start of the game. I didn't expect the map to be perfectly balanced, but an extra resource at one of the capitals seems rather a large oversight - unless this is part of an attempt to handicap certain players relative to others.

[Lord Parkin]

Turn 68

Okay, seriously, I almost feel like I'm stepping into the Apolyton Demogame here.

Four out of the five early power resources within easy reach of Gavagai's capital - the only one missing is Gems. (It better not be in the fog nearby!) Moreover, each of the power-resource sites have adjacent food available for a great early city. For comparison, "our" Ivory is 10 tiles away, while our Gold is not much closer and has no adjacent food (had to hook it up after a border expansion). We have no Furs or Silver. Gems are visible but will require a Galley to access, assuming they're not settled by someone closer first. We have Sugar and Incense nearby, but as someone once remarked:

Hunting and Mining are much earlier techs than Calendar and Monarchy.

Sure Gavagai's had trouble with mackoti, but if he hadn't he'd be a monster in the making. Perhaps worse, if (when) mackoti rolls over Gavagai he'll effectively gain the Charismatic trait for free. How did this area of the map get passed for balance? Or is our region just the odd one out?