Nobody expects the Chinese Inquisition: Isabella of China

[Mardoc]

If you subtract culture, we're actually #1 GNP

[Gaspar]

If you subtract culture, we're actually #1 GNP

Yeah, I think we're in pretty good shape. I'll wait until T50 to do a sort of looking back post, but I think we ran the first 30 turns or so about as well as could be expected. The map is weird and the first ring of cities is destined to be exceedingly mediocre, but there's just enough food around to whip the hell out of everything and Expansive China is well positioned to do just that. My current thought is to save IW until we either get the Jungle Rice (unlikely) or settle another jungled location. So Writing -> Math -> Currency -> CoL. If we get the pyramids we can go on a spam specialist/binge whip cycle every 5T, using the remaining turns of slavery to regrow on cottages. Not sure if it'll really work, but should be fun to try. Be nice to found Confucianism but ultimately I just want Caste System.

On an unrelated note - I'm mildly disconcerted that mackoti has not yet responded. For someone who I've essentially signed a game-long alliance with, there's a lot of tension in our relationship. I'm banking on being to out-expand him, or more aptly do a better job of outexpanding my eastern neighbor than he does of his. I've hoped for TT as a neighbor, but he is Imp/Org - no doubt he's going to be expanding hard to get anything out of his traits. So if he's the neighbor, we'll have to probably go to war sooner rather than later. Knights are probably the target regardless, though ultimately I'd rather face the Mongols if I'm on offense, HRE if I'm on defense. Commodore has a lot of neat toys to prosecute an offensive war but not nearly so much on the defense. TT has Landsknechts which are not much better than pikes but give him incentive to build them. Commodore on the other hand is likely to have Keshiks, which are useful on defense but require a heavy investment in cats to make effect defensively which I doubt he'll actually make.

Anyway, the original point - I need to find a way to communicate better with mackoti. Right now it feels a bit like this:



And I really need this for the current gameplan:

[pling]

From the PBEM25 Vet's tech thread, looks like Mackoti's been busy this w/e - might be why no reply other than to follow through with moving his units to let you settle where you wanted? I mean other than that the rest of your message was friendly fluff, so he might not feel it needed a reply.

[Gaspar]

Yeah, seems fair. Obviously, since he responded to me approximately 3 minutes after I posted that.

Hi,
Sorry i didn't responded , I was in big rush just playing the save and i was out.
You can be sure i wil keep the Nap and i realy like acontest for every think that makes things more inetristing for me.I realy dont know why people believe i dont keep naps? Because the game with Luddite?He lied me there, we had an agreement wich he clealy broke and i dont like that.
Yes i do have gold, and like other resource i have dye and sugar which you have of course with the new city.You have dyes too( i have like 3 of them) if you have something diferent we can exchange in the future.
Did you met your foe? Me not yet..
Have a nice day,
Mackoti

[Gaspar]

Big news of the turn - Wonton Frito settled. Additionally, I'm about out of menu options that fit as city names so from here on out I'm either going to have to truncate names or be a bit more liberal in translation.

Wonton Frito was a big deal - bumping trade routes across the empire to 2C/city. It also gave me sight on an apparent cavalcade of Barbarian warriors headed around my little lake.



Suppose I might need to keep one of those chariots home.

Otherwise, pretty quiet stuff. Carne Ahumada had to switch to foodhammer production to avoid growing unhappy. We'll get a bit more flexibility once Gold is online, but for the meantime, no complaints about working on a settler there. Arroz Frito was put on a Barracks for a turn to grow, but will swap to a worker next turn. Pyramids starts in CC next turn as well, with Stone now online.

[Lewwyn]

HAVE A NICE DAY!

[Lewwyn]

CHARIOTS AWAY!

[Mardoc]

Excellent. I assume Wonton Frito will eventually be our Moai city?

The only issue I have is, I don't see any workers or settlers in construction? I realize we've got to survive the barbs, but I'm still disappointed.

[NobleHelium]

Who the hell fries wontons?

[Lewwyn]

The only issue I have is, I don't see any workers or settlers in construction? I realize we've got to survive the barbs, but I'm still disappointed.

Whip those, grow on everything else slow build.