[SPOILERS] JR4 tries his luck in PB 37

[JR4]

Hmm, good points.

Just to make sure, by the way:  Nambui has Avoid Growth turned off now, right?  It's the sort of thing I would inevitably forget (and really hate to forget).  I've got a bunch of other stuff (including another installment of the narrative history) I'm hoping to post later today, but I figured I'd get this item out of the way while I'm thinking about some of the rest!

Yes, this time I remembered to do it. Nambui is going to need every food and hammer it can get. Also, another installment of the story you`re writing up sounds good to me!

[RefSteel]

Great - thanks for the update!

On the story: I've got a lot of catching up to do (and for various reasons I haven't yet finished crystalizing the other things I was hoping to post today) but I'm already working on the next chapter. We'll see how soon I can pull it together with semi-reasonable pictures; in the meantime, here's part 12: (Like the previous one, this is old news but bears on the present - potential - crisis.)

They had heard rumors already of the people from the south: A mighty nation whose empire - divided though it was by its geography - was united by its people's love of the squat, rotund, bald-headed leader who by his energy, his skill with words, and his commitment to the defense of his empire at all costs, had won the hearts of all whom he ruled, both far and wide, as no other ruler had done before, no matter how tall or how strong or how chiseled their figures, nor how impressing their manes of flowing hair. Countless tribesfolk flocked from the wilderness to the cities of this hero of the southern empire - this "Churchill" as he was called in a language alien to the Khatunate - and he drove them to feats of labor never before equaled, building kilns and pithoi to store grains and fermented drinks in every population center across his far-reaching empire long before the clans of the Khatunate even understood how to do so, and soon driving loyal citizens to their deaths in slavery merely to raise monuments to his person, all in service to an impossible promise.



His promise was of a gift that according to myth had been given to Churchill himself by his closest and indeed only advisor: A spirit or demon from the terrible nether realm of the Germans, who was called by an arcane name that some had heard whispered as Jo-Ee. The myths held that this gift - or the curse, coming as it did with the surrender of Churchill's own free will and that of all his people to the implacable Jo-Ee - was the very one that d'tay had supposedly offered Tokugawa, with which Krill Gamefinder had tempted the Amazon warrior Boadicea according to Khatunate mythology, and which according to the same myths, the holy spirits had granted to Izabyella Khatun, the Eternal Empress, that she might have hope of leading her people to victory against these myriad and powerful enemies: It was said that Churchill had promised all the people of his empire a share in the gift of immortality, and that they had named it in honor of that promise - and that ambition.



Naturally, the promise warned that it would take time to be fulfilled - a matter of many generations of hard labor - and though it would never be seen in the lifetimes of the "Immortal" people, still they toiled and strove for Churchill and Jo-Ee in the hope that their children or their children's children, or the children of the next generation after that, or of others of their descendants who would follow, eventually, would at last achieve the glory of true immortality.

Such rumors and such legends were indeed hard to believe, and the stories at first came across a great gulf of wilderness from the old war-clan known as the Ankhny Tsus - a clan rumored still loyal to the holy spirits and the Khatunate, but that had not actually been seen in Khatunate lands in centuries. Indeed, the last time the Ankhny Tsus had been seen by anyone then living within Khatunate borders had been before the time of the Khürel Noyod aristocracy, when a dark and mysterious forest still stood on the banks of the lake west of Borte that would come to be called Zesiin Mori Nuur: The Lake of the Copper Horse.



Yet the news from the south was troubling, no matter how little the Khürel Noyod might wish to credit it, and so it passed that even as the fur trade began to fluorish in Toregene, word came down from the Palace to send Clan Ekhnii Sükh, the mightiest Khatunate warriors of their era, to depart the city of Borte and set out to the south in keeping with their ancient nomadic roots, to learn the truth of the rumors about the self-styled Immortal people. So the Ekhnii Sükh, armed with enormous war-axes whose bronze was drawn from the Borte mines, marched south along the ancient road that took them over highlands in sight of Toregene, and then set out across the rocky plains to the outlet of what would later be known as Lake Oghul Qaimish, feeding the great southern river that ran past Toregene. There they forded the river and thereby passed beyond the borders of the Khatunate itself, but contrived with the aid of the river itself to get word quickly to Toregene and thence to Borte, their messengers traveling more swiftly than could any of the great clans first by canoe along the river, and then by word of mouth and travel along the road up to the fords of the upper Alph and thence to the Palace in Borte itself.

The word they had to send was grim: The rumors from afar of the Ankhny Tsus were true. All the wild peoples of the land south of the river spoke of the warlike tribe who called themselves Immortal and watched over all the lakes and valleys from the northernmost spur of a long highland ridge that extended northerward all the way from the great southeastern sea to within view of the south riverbank. The Ekhnii Sükh could see for themselves how things stood across the lake, with Immortal camps built behind rocky fortifications built up over the course of almost two centuries, with more little additions every day.



But as they crossed the grasslands to the shore of Eastern War-Choke Lake, they saw further movement as well: Smoke rising from a host of new campfires, with dust rising from the tromp of innumerable feet, as behind the war-clan's fortifications, a new influx of Immortal people began to crowd the crest of the highland spur, setting up tents, carrying wooden crates and ceramic pots, leading pink and grunting pigs. None of the details could be seen from the camps of the Ekhnii Sükh, but they learned all they could wish and more from the fisherfolk of the War-Choke Lakes: A great migration of the Immortal people was indeed underway to the highland spur - and word from across the western lake brought news from the Ankhny Tsus as well: They still survived, and still were loyal followers of the Khatunate traditions even after centuries in the wild ... but they were moving north, preparing to skirt the western edge of the enormous lake, passing through the woodlands to avoid a phalanx of Immortal soldiers as well-equipped and deadly as Clan Ekhnii Sükh itself, already preparing to climb into the spur where so many civilians had gone before, where they would hold the high ground in company with the warriors already fortified there long before the forces of the Khatunate could hope to arrive, no matter how warlike their intentions might be. In deference to the Immortals' numbers and entrenched position high above the lakes, the Khatunate nomads retreated toward their homeland once again, and within two generations, all the once-wild tribes of the fields beneath the spur, and all the fisherfolk who dwelt on the near banks of the lakes, proclaimed their fealty to the mighty Churchill and the German spirit or demon called Jo-Ee.



Another people might have quailed, and left their warlike nomad clans alone to watch over the growing threat upon their southern border - and certainly the Khürel Noyod aristocracy was content to remain safe in Borte, tightening their grip where they could on the power built up for them by their ancestors - but there were many of the Khatunate, though they grew up in civilian life and never had known war, who felt the heat of their ancient blood - the blood of steppe nomads who long ago had fought upon the grazing slopes below Deed Tusgal Nuur - and when a new danger arose, there were many who rose to meet it almost as a matter of course. Over the course of the next century and more, the greatest migration of Borte's people since the founding of Toregene - less sudden and sharp, but strong and steady - wound south and west toward the headwaters of the great southern river, before it flowed down and through the lake that would one day be named for their settlement, spreading among the hills beside the lakeside woods and the western sea. So in time, across the river basin and Western War-Choke Lake, two fortress-cities would stare each other down with grim and baleful gaze: The Immortal State of Zijin held deadly and compelling sway over the south, the lifeless figure of its xoanon of Churchill seeming to call tribesfolk from all around to slave for the man it represented and his promise of immortality; but it was matched from the northwest by the city of Oghul Qaimish, whose Deer Stone megalith barely post-dates the xoanon - and whose imagery already incorporated an early version of the Khatunate answer to Jo-Ee's promise of immortality: The cycle of rebirth, and the liberation of the spirit in attaining Nirvana.



Though centuries would pass before the people of Oghul Qaimish and Borte at large would be taught to fully absorb their old animistic rites into the way of the Buddha, Muqa's potent new faith was already beginning to make its influence felt across the length and breadth of the Khatunate.

Image credits:

Greek "Barn" Pottery: Photo by Giovanni Dall'Orto
Statue of Churchill: Photo by Adam Carr
Lakeside Horses: Photo from the Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks department
Ridge Overlooking a Lake: Photo from hikemtshasta.com
Greek Phalanx: Image from the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities
Mongolian Deer Stone Megalith: Photo by William Fitzhugh

[JR4]

TURN 95

Just one turn away from Currency. Couerva is the only player we have met to know this technology. It`s going to be worth an absolute fortune for us, at least 20 gold per turn! As it is we can 2 turn Iron Working. We`ll have to save gold for at least a turn before we can go full research again.

Muqa is celebrating the "We love the... Day"! So that saved us maybe 5-6 gold. Nice. Also, dtay`s capital got a religion spread. A Hinduism spread. Muqa is much closer to him than Krill`s Holy city, so that`s a bit of bad luck for us. He hasn`t revolted yet.

The workers on the gold island finished the mine. A 1/2/7 tile is just beautiful! There are a few work boats sneaking around so we should keep Radnashiri safe at all times. It now has a C1 axe/CG1 archer, so an attack on it won`t be cheap. Kokejin was whipped in order to complete the Lighthouse asap.

There are still no sign of a city on the western island we`re planning to settle soon. On turn 96 we`re landing our units and if all goes to plan we`re looking at a turn 98 city. Oghul Qaimish whipped out a missionary that`s going to Nambui, the plan is to let it overflow into a work boat heading out to the new western city. We have 4 cities that`s growing eot. One thing I`ve been thinking about: Should we multipop whip that settler in Borte in order to get the Market up and running asap? The Market will give us +3 happy as well as the boost for the economy. Also, from next turn on we have the option of building wealth in some of our cities. I`m inclined to wait a bit on doing that unless we have a very important tech goal in sight.

[JR4]

Graphs and demos: Our gnp and crop yield still look very good but we`re a bit light on production right now. If I counted correctly we`re about to grow onto at least 3 mines next turn so I`m not too concerned.

[RefSteel]

A look at Civstats suggests you're playing the turn now, so I'll reserve suggestions until I see what we've done so far. There's a lot of positive stuff going on though!

One question that I'm sure will be relevant regardless: Where is the Settler from Borte meant to go when it's complete? (There are several good options, but I don't know which you regard as the most urgent.) Oh - also, how many hammers does Moai cost? I can't remember what this version of the mod did with it.

[JR4]

A look at Civstats suggests you're playing the turn now, so I'll reserve suggestions until I see what we've done so far.  There's a lot of positive stuff going on though!

One question that I'm sure will be relevant regardless:  Where is the Settler from Borte meant to go when it's complete?  (There are several good options, but I don't know which you regard as the most urgent.)  Oh - also, how many hammers does Moai cost?  I can't remember what this version of the mod did with it.

Yes, I`m playing the turn. Currency made a huge impact on our gnp! Moai is 250 hammers, +50% with stone. I haven`t decided where to send the settler yet. There are indeed quite a few tempting options.

[JR4]

TURN 96

I met quite a few of the other players in game. It`s a rush to play before bed time it seems. So, where to start? Currency was pretty awesome. We`re making A LOT of gold right now. We have the economy to expand so I`m thinking about letting 2-3 cities in addition to Borte start settlers in the next couple of turns. Bulugan, Oghul Qaimish and Muqa are three good candidates. We have a few quality spots left on the main land but I`d rather send them to colonize the islands.

Our archer/settler pair out west didn`t see any foreign units on the island fortunately. Note that Joey`s warrior moved 1N. He might be a bit concerned that we`re attempting something sneaky. Do we want to whip Muqa this turn to finish the Lighthouse right away? Toregene started a Market, It`s going to be very good for our economy. The city is now working two mines. Chubei started an archer, as we`re going to need some military to back up or island ambitions. Kokejin could start a different building instead of the Barracks.

Oh, we connected the gold so our happy cap just got higher as well!
EDIT: I`m quite tired now, will look into the possible city sites tomorrow some time. Suggestions are more than welcome, of course.

[JR4]

Our demos just got a bit better. Our crop yield is the highest in the world atm. Our gnp just hit the roof as well.

[RefSteel]

Okay.

- That warrior move doesn't do anything vision-wise. A Greek galley probably arrives 1S of the Fish next turn so the Warrior can board it.

- Whipping the Settler at Borte is a good idea if getting the Settler out faster also speeds up the city getting planted faster and working an improved resource faster. That's why the location of the city-to-be is important.

- I would whip Radnashiri's Granary now (even though it would complete this turn anyway) to turn an unimproved tile into a bunch of overflow hammers for e.g. a lighthouse.

- I don't think I'd whip Muqa's lighthouse, though I'm not sure what it's food/hammer/happiness situation looks like right now. Is it threatening to grow into unhappiness?

[RefSteel]

I wrote the post above too quickly, hoping to get it posted before you had to turn in for the night; ah well. I'll try to improve on it here:

- The score and demos look really, really good! Our weak areas are MFG and Land Area, which are kind of functions of one another and the fact that we've been focusing on island cities lately. Our strong areas are ... basically everything else that matters!

- I was wrong about the warrior of course; because of the rules for visibility over water, he does get to see an extra tile northward by standing on the incense instead of the hill. I still don't see it doing him much/any good but it's possible that's all he was looking for.

- Borte has zero whip anger right now, right? And one surplus "happy face"? I'd be inclined to get the settler out quickly (and probably grow on the market) for another port (island or mainland) on the "western" sea but there are some complicating issues, for example:

- With a couple of exceptions (one on our expected capital iron tile and one just north of our gems, I think?) our Workers seem really out of position for the upcoming discovery of Iron Working. (We still have very few workers altogether, partly because we've been building so many island cities, so we've been favoring WBs.) I'm particularly concerned about the Worker in Muqa's first-ring forest because all but one of Borte's forests have now already been chopped, which means Muqa (with two BFC forests and another in its third ring) is now our only candidate for getting a Wonder at a core city with any meaningful contributions from forest chops. Now, it's possible we just aren't going to be pursuing any wonders - or at least any contested ones - and it's possible that chop will be going into something really important at Muqa. Just something to consider that I should have mentioned ages ago though!

- Unimproved non-lighthouse coast is an awful tile, and whipping Radnashiri's Granary T96 would have ensured that the city would never have to work one in its entire existence, and ultimately made it a much stronger city. It's still not the end of the world, of course, but I'd be inclined to take some pretty extreme measures there, e.g. start a Workboat, whip it next turn, overflow into a Lighthouse, and whip that ASAP after the city regrows to size 3. (The Workboat can explore and/or play sentry for a while before returning to e.g. net Sugabala's fish when it pops borders.)

- It looks to me like Muqa is good on happiness until size 10. It could use some more improved tiles though, and Chubei is working three non-lighthouse lakes, so ... yeah, actually, it's probably fine to whip the lighthouse at Muqa after all.