[PB59] Charriu welcomes all the townfolk

[Charriu]

T85:

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Lazteuq double moved me in a peace turn split!!!!!  

Now I know how that feels  

But in all seriousness, that's totally ok and I have absolutely no problem with that. I just have to make a mental note to play after him next turn. By the way our peace treaty is up next turn. So what's the situation on the ground. I never spotted a settler crossing the jungle so no pink dot. He's obviously not interested in another attack otherwise he would have move towards my border. It's not like his units can hide everywhere. His axeman and immortal must be somewhere in the 5 fogged tiles. As you can see I have a Phalanx coming from the north. He could have spotted that if he used the double move to enter the hill SE of the Phalanx and leave again. What he can't know is about my 2 axeman and 1 Phalanx coming from New Nobilia. As you can see I also have a settler ready to settle the stone spot. It's now only a question of how to stop Lazteuq from delaying me any further. Yes I know that there is no defender in New Nobilia right now, but any of my units can still move back next turn.

Oh and thanks to the KTB from 7 players I can finish Sailing in 2 turns. Nice.

[Charriu]

T86:

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Feels like I made a blunder again. I first saw the Immortal without his axeman. I moved my southern Phalanx 1E to see if the axeman is on the stone tile or 1S of that. But no. Then I made the stupid move to move my two axeman to the position in the screen. What I totally missed there is that the Immortal can reach my axeman. At least my top axeman gets 31% odds in the fight, so not a total loss. I then moved my northern Phalanx into the position so that I have another attacker in the field. I knew that the Phalanx has 34% odds to defend against the axeman. Most interestingly the axeman is damaged already with 4.8. Can't remember if it already was damaged or if he killed a barb unit.

Nonetheless I declared war and offered peace to Lazteuq in hopes that my 4 units may discourage him or turn him away.

[Charriu]

T87:

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Interesting Lazteuq did not choose to delay me in settling the stone spot and instead returned to his harrasment strategy from last time. Now I did anticipate this, which is why I prepared a Phalanx in New Nobilia to whip. I was thinking about my movements, when GKC logged in and greeted me with the most beautiful message.




Go get him! "Scatter your enemy, drive him before you, see his cities reduced to ashes, see those who love him shrouded in tears, and gather into your bosom his wives and daughters." One has to love the Mongolians if only for this abbreviated quote.

With this new information the turn got a lot more interesting.




In the north the axeman can't hurt anybody right now. My new stone city spot is ready to be settled next turn with enough defenders. Down south the immortal can really do much harm. The fight against my axeman in the jungle is a 50v50 fight and Phalanxes are close by. Just in case I started a Phalanx in Clock Town if everything goes downhill. This left me with the last thing to ponder about. Should I offer peace to Lazteuq again? If I offer it and he accepts his Immortal will be teleported to the hill 2E of New Nobilia from there he can move the Immortal and the northern axeman towards my new city spot most likely before I can settle. Then by settling I will teleport his units back in his direction. Honestly if this is a real attack from GKC towards Lazteuq he will need his units back sooner then later. So I did not offer peace. I much rather trap his units in my territory so that they can't contribute to his defence.

[Charriu]

T88:

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Open the turn with a peace offer from Lazteuq. I could see that no fights occured, so I accepted. The best thing as you will see soon is that I managed to trap both of his units in my territory. Those are my hostages for the next 10 turns. I'm especially happy about the axeman as you will see shortly.




Before I settled my city the axeman was standing on the cow tile. But I knew that he won't be teleported to the other side of my borders, because Lazteuq has a city a few tiles north of my new city outside the screenshot. Thanks to my investigation of the teleportation rules I could estimate that the axeman will be teleported to where you see it now. This passive aggression feels very good after the last turns.

But more importantly as you can see I settled a new city: Freeja. This is a town from another great Quintet game Illusion of Time or Illusion of Gaia for you Americans. What I like about this town is the duality present in the towns visuals and lore. When you first enter it you see all these beautiful flower petals flying through the air and the whole town is in vibrant colors. But as you explore the town some more you discover its dark secret in the alleyways in the back. There's a thriving slave trade in the city. Throw in some more encounters with the townfolk in which you rescue some people and you have a example for a town in a game.

Freeja will serve as my main defense position towards Lazteuq (and maybe soon GKC ). It also will be a great production city, which also provides stone. But that's not all for this turn, because...





If you look closely you find a new town north of Amn: Old Camp. This is from a German Action-RPG called Gothic. I can recommend this game wholeheartedly with it's dark humor, excellent and unusual world-building and awesome voice actor of the main protagonist, although I don't know if it is as good in English as in German. The game takes place inside a big prison colony, which is vital for the empire as it supplies it with important ore. The empires magicians established a magical barrier that traps everybody inside the colony, but the only problem is that while they did that there was a prison riot and now the prisoners are in control of the ore and bribe the empire for everything they want. Old Camp is the town of these prisoners and it is first town you encounter in the world. It's mainly a castle with a bigger slum around it. Of course you start in the slum and have to fight to get what you want. As you can imagine it's full of ruffians, who do everything to climb the hierachy ladder in town. As a little easter egg the developers also put their favorite medieval metal band into the town, who perform a concert there.

I had to settle Old Camp now before Mjmd's culture negates the spot. It will be a production center on this side of the empire.

I also discovered Sailing this turn and with it not only Freeja will be connected to the trade network, but I also got connections to all the players I encountered so far. I offered everybody on the other continent OBs. Those are Miguelito, Donovan Zoi, Civac and AT, who I met a few turns ago. Hopefully somebody will accept. That way I get the best trade routes for now without settling an island city of my own or researching Writing. No reason to do both of those if everbody else puts in the work for you. I also offered OB to GKC as he's the only one who hasn't declared war on me in the past 30 turns, therefore still providing enough trade bonus.

[Charriu]

T89:

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Just a quick report without pictures this time. GKC and Lazteuq signed peace again, but it looks like there was some fighting I guess, because their power rating dropped. I got open borders from a bunch of people from the other continent and all of my cities now have +3 trade routes. Awesome, that's 14 extra commerce. Last but not least I got lucky and got a Hinduism spread to the one city that needs extra culture the most: Old Camp. I'm still finishing a Monument to get at least a bit even on the culture front with Mjmd.

[Charriu]

T92:

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Not that much has happened in the last turns. I exchanged fish for fish with Mjmd, who might have been worried because of my troops in Old Camp. I put more troops there because I fear a potential culture flip of the city, but I made sure to only put warriors in there so as not show too much aggression towards him. Lazteuq has his immortal and axeman still split in my territory, but I have a counter unit for each of them nearby. Hanging Gardens and Pyramids were finished somewhere and I will finish Temple of Artemis in 3 turns. I thought about whipping the temple to completion, but there's so much hatred for this wonder that I doubt that I have any serious competition for it.

That means I will most likely be be very unhappy in the next 2 turns I guess.

As you can see I'm finishing Monotheism in order to swap into Organized Religion next turn. I have some buildings to be finished in my cities. Next I'm thinking about researching Monarchy so that I have access to Serfdom. Maybe I do Priesthood just before it for the additional research modifier for both Monarchy and Writing. Serfdom at the moment improves my economy by 6 gold thanks to the farm bonus and lowered maintenance and it helps with my low number of workers. Right now I have 5 workers for all my 7 cities.

Way in the west past AT I found the third continent and on it Cornflakes.

[Charriu]

No big report this time. Just wanted to mention that Mjmd lost a city, most likely razed by Ramk. So the war is actually going somewhere

[Charriu]

T95:

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I've got the Temple of Artemis. Great that's a prophet for a shrine or a Great Merchant to bulb currency in 19 turns as well as a tiny boost in hammers and commerce for the capitol.

As you can see I also settled a new city: Figaro. This is from this 'little' game known as Final Fantasy 6. I'm cheating here a little bit, because this references two places from the game, which are connected. First Figaro Castle. A standard castlein the desert at first, but when the castle is under attack it can submerge underneath the desert and later even travel to different places. How cool is that! The second town is South Figaro, the first proper town of the game. What I love about it are the little secrets you can find all around town, which all contribute to a little gem of a puzzle later in the game to get out of town when it is occupied by the empire. Oh and of course this is also the first time you hear one of the best town themes: Kids run through the city corner

Here a lovely piano arrangement of it:



I settled Figaro now as it is a smaller filler city that can already work an improved food tile, is fairly safe and limits the movement of Lazteuq's immortal towards my capitol and cottage are.

In other international news: Mjmd lost another city. Good work Ramk, as Mjmd become a little bit too dominant on our continent. My next plan is to crank up military production so that I'm not looking as tasty anymore. There is the option of joining Ramk in the war, but that's way too risky right now with the annoyance Lazteuq on the other side. I also don't want to alienate my other neighbor by conquering his island cities. I want Mjmd as a friend now that Lazteuq presented himself as the main enemy. Would have loved it the other way though. Speaking of Lazteuq I have set my eyes on the fur island between us. Maybe I get it. The fur is another nice happiness addition, even though it's not 100% required for me at the moment.

[Charriu]

Just a heads up for our lovely lurkers. As of this turn my peace treaty with Laz lasts for 2 turns. I double moved him so that we are now in the order of Me first in turn order and Lazteuq second. I expect another war with him when the peace treaty ends and if he doesn't declare I will as soon as I am in range to kill his units in my territory. I don't care where in the turn order I will be, I only play my turn as soon as possible. If this is a problem let me know and I will play in which ever turn order is needed.

[Charriu]

T97:

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I new war is on the horizon. Lazteuq double moved me back, so he will be first in turn order next turn when he can declare war again, which is fine with me. As you can see I managed to trap his immortal in the south. There's only one tile one which my Phalanxes can't hit him. If he moves there my two Phalanxes nearby can move NE and E cutting off any escape routes. I thought about moving my Phalanx E of New Nobilia on the same tile as the immortal causing another neat teleportation trick. But this time to my disadvantage, because the immortal would have been moved 1N from which he could have destroyed New Nobilia. This way it is safer.





Up in the north I also setup a trap.  I expect Laz to move 1S on the hill. From there he will see my lightly defended city and hopefully moves in or on the corn tile. There I can hit him with my chariot.

But what am I talking about. You lurkers are most likely enjoying the main attraction on our continent, which is the Ramk vs Mjmd war and I envy you. Ramk took another city off of Mjmd this turn and this time kept it. He destroyed 3 cities so far dropping Mjmd from 12 to 9 cities and 3 of those cities are smaller island cities. I'm seriously thinking about moving my galley in the southern sea in range and building another galley in Old Camp to capture those lightly defended island cities. What is even more amazing is that Mjmd has the stronger military according to power and didn't loose power in the last turns unlike Ramk. Good thing both players seem to report frequently. Enjoy the