RBP7 [SPOILERS] - The Chronicles of Nyania

[Lord Parkin]

What's this about?

He just got our graphs, and apparently noticed a slight climb in power. Whether he's trolling or just genuinely unaware it only corresponds to one unit so far, I'm not going to bother responding to his brazenly unsubtle bait.

If the reason he's asking is because our power is higher than his, then I would have thought the more pressing question is: why the heck is his own power is so low while he's poaching incredible sites from an unhappy neighbour with Copper. But if that's the case, that's his own problem... and I'm not going to point it out.

[nabaxo]

Ah, thought he had a scout or something nearby. I think you're making the right call on this.

[Lord Parkin]

Yeah, no units of his anywhere close as far as I can tell. I doubt he's built any more Scouts as he needs to concentrate on military, and most of his military is probably going to be tied up for a while defending his rather ambitious city placement. I'd be very surprised if he sends anything else our way for a long time to come.

[Lord Parkin]

This turn we got visibility into HitAnyKey's city of Hard Knocks, located a Copper resource in his territory, and found the outline of the borders of his capital. He's actually a bit closer than I thought.



There were a few more "WTF" moments this turn that I thought I'd share. (Lurkers, please be careful not to pass any of this on.)

First "WTF" moment: While passing by Hard Knocks, we could see into the city... and bizarrely, it was completely empty. The crappy terrain we can see around this city suggests that it was settled specifically to claim Copper... and yet defending it against rival civs and barbarians was, apparently, a low priority for HitAnyKey. Since when do you leave any frontline city - let alone a critical metal-providing one - completely undefended? I don't know, maybe something's on the way there or being built there soon... but it's still a far greater risk than I'd take with such an important city.

Second "WTF" moment: TT is now teching towards Priesthood. You heard right. Yep, this would certainly be an excellent time to start building the Oracle... not. The worst thing is that, as far as I can tell, the only city which has Marble and Copper connected right now is his capital - so it's the only logical place to build the wonder, but it's also the only place he can currently build Spearmen/Axemen. And yet Priesthood and the Oracle are somehow higher priority to him right now than getting The Wheel to build roads? Let alone anything else, like AH/Pottery/Archery. Crazy.

Oh well, good news for us. If TT especially seems hell bent on dousing his empire in gasoline and waiting for someone to light a match, so be it.

[Lord Parkin]

Not much time at the moment... just thought I'd quickly note that we've spotted our first barbarian humanoid of the game. It's a Warrior down south of our new city, I'm on a Boat!



T-Pain is ready and waiting to dispatch him if he comes too close. Because this ain't Seaworld... this is real as it gets.

[Lord Parkin]

Hmm, I wonder if TT is halfway reading my mind, or if he's just making decisions at complete random at this point. He's switched mid-research from Priesthood to Archery. Um... ok?



To update on tile improvements in the above screenshot: ASM hasn't hooked up either the Gold or the Corn around his new city, despite it being there for quite a while now (~15-20 turns). Maybe his Workers are being harrassed or something... but either way, not much use in having an awesome spot if you're unable to improve it in good time. TT has hooked up Copper and Corn at his southern city, but none of the Pigs or Cows since he apparently still doesn't have Animal Husbandry.

As for domestic news - Fishing is in, and we've started on Sailing (due T62). We'll finish a chop into the Stele at our canal city next turn, which will enable a border expansion there on T64. After the Stele we'll build a Work Boat, which will be chopped to completion on T62 - just in time for the border expansion. In the meantime the Worker there will build a couple of segments of road to connect our capital to I'm on a Boat!

[DMOC]

Looking good. I haven't been following TT's thread so I'm equally as puzzled as you are. I'm just curious about your expansion plans -- do you have a settler ready to go somewhere for your third city?

[Lord Parkin]

Looking good. I haven't been following TT's thread so I'm equally as puzzled as you are.

I'll be very interested to find out what exactly his thought process was after the game is done. Certainly it's not making much sense to me right now.

I'm just curious about your expansion plans -- do you have a settler ready to go somewhere for your third city?

I think the only serious option for our third city is over by the Gold to the west, but we need to be capable of defending it first. We might also want a fourth Worker before the third Settler so that we can road to the location before settling it, as it's rather a dangerous and isolated spot otherwise.

The other, less likely, options for the third city include the island to the north (which would have to be T65+, so probably city 4+), or the land across the ditch to the east (also T65+ and more risky as it's in xenu's backyard).

I really would have liked to have a third city out earlier - and indeed I know quite a few other nations have theirs out already. But the fact that we had a relatively slow start, crappy surrounding territory, and a need for a strong military just to claim a half-decent location out of our sphere of influence hasn't made things easy.

[Lord Parkin]

Chop finished into the Stele. The lone citizen - more of a hermit really - is still dutifully working away at the Gold mine.



Work Boat queued up next for those tasty Clams.

Here's the web of diplomatic relations to date.



It's most interesting to note the people who haven't met: specifically, with the exception of HitAnyKey (who we let through earlier), no-one we know to our east of us has met anyone we know to our west. This seems to suggest that the choke point at I'm on a Boat! is the only passage connecting two larger continents. In other words, we can deduce that the water to our south is probably part of an ocean rather than a large lake - because if it were a large lake then we'd expect some of the folks to our east would have met some of the folks to our west through some other passage by now. (Unless HitAnyKey is blocking another chokepoint, I guess... though the fact that he only met the civs we know to our west after going through us suggests otherwise.)

[Lord Parkin]

Couldn't get any further into HAK's territory, as he was blocking our path with a Warrior. Headed away to the southeast instead, and ran into an Archer of Plako's.



Seems this part of the world is rather unfriendly to wandering adventurers. Will try to move the Scout away ASAP next turn, and hopefully he'll survive a little longer. Not looking good for his long-term prospects though... guess we're just arriving at that point of the game where Scouts are a becoming a bit obsolete.