[SPOILERS] Commodore, Mist and the Weed. A Farce in three acts.

[Commodore]

Okay, bad reporter is bad. Let's see, all the news fit to print...Scooter is shooing away the scouting warrior with a chariot, fully expect him to kill it next turn if he's happy with ~80% odds. If not, well, onward we bumble.



Scooter's own scout is poking around, he now knows we lack horses still. We'd be really vulnerable to axes...if it wasn't for the whole, you know, crossbow thing. Hopefully flashing the archer makes him hesitate.



The new whale city was never going to be anything but Melville, seriously. This place isn't going to be very whipped, thanks to the low(ish) food and the high hammer output of a horse pasture, plains hill lumber-mill, and grass hill mine. Still a nice settle, and boom, already done with worker labor for the nonce.



Here's the Nine Cities of Byzantium, all working hard on growing still further. A library or nine wouldn't go amiss, but that's going to be a bit much. If we do manage to get extra beakers before the bulb is due, Monotheism for OR looks tempting. Not gonna happen, though.



The tenth city is going to be settled in two turns, meet Carroll. This place is going to be focusing on culture for a bit, getting a missionary in short order then chopping/whipping in a monastery and a library, with a galley in there somehow. Those deer need to be camped for the ivory island.



Carroll's settler is being made by MacDonald, an amazing city. Those 12 hammers of overflow head right off into a crossbow for Brian's massive power to splat into. I need to get eyes on things over there soon, he's still nuttily massing power.



Despite the Machinery jump we're actually second to last in power, which is going to get rectified. If folks are smart they'll start pushing us before the cats roll out, although Mr. Terrifying GNP there, Serdoa, needs harassment more. C'mon Brian, attack that dude.



Scooter is going to be a beast whenever he gets the economy back in shape (actually, looks like he bulbed Currency to stay within hailing distance). That's a lot of pop!



Also, Lewwyn's theme is kind of lame. Really, reptiles?

[Commodore]

So I see now how Scooter's been able to research at all, he's been using the towns very well it seems. The fact that our warrior is still alive is probably Scooter's way of saying "hey man, let's be friends". CTON isn't something that happens with humans.



Unfortunately, Scooter and I now are at an additional -1. Our close borders cause tensions. Might want to consider moving Carroll 1NE to pick up that riverside gold. In any case, whipped a crossbow, and more are coming to ensure security. Any bets on Scooter reaching for ivory here?



'phractagedon is coming, 14 turns out or just a bit more if we pick up a prophet. That doesn't mean we're not going to mess with Scooter with the brutal power of early crossbows if he's made a silly reach like that.



Yum.

[Commodore]

Define "stone-plated bitch of a turn" in one image:





Oh, and also...



So, it's DoW time, I think. Serdoa's been getting backslaps in his tread for the boating, the worst of it is that in another two turns the borders of Kipling would have popped and it would have been able to spot the incoming pain. As it is, oops.



My whole empire is upset due to the loss of gold, so why not whip is some more? Crossbows are in, everything else is out (unless it's an emergency archer to at least give us a 75% chance to stay alive in Thackeray.



All this results in some very very sad demographics. Economy, gone, happiness, gone, Serdoa's chances of winning, gone.



Finally found Lewwyn, who needs to be messing with someone not us for a while. Scooter's friendly signalling in leaving the warrior alive means nothing if Thackeray burns, though.



Meh. Carroll is moving for the gold as apparently I need a second source, and you better believe its getting a crossbow ASAP to protect from more of that nonsense.



Bleh. The Guilds bulb is more and more the way we're getting fast 'phracts, our economy is going phfffpft otherwise (unless the Colossus thing works out. That's been delayed by having to divert a chop into a crossbow though.

[Ceiliazul]

Define "stone-plated bitch of a turn" in one image:

Wow, that sucks.

[Ilios]

Warrior on the defense at the Kipling Boating Incident?

[Commodore]

Warrior on the defense at the Kipling Boating Incident?

Yup, and mea culpa there. What's worse, I think we're about to lose another one, somehow Serdoa magicked in a chariot as well.



Bleh. At least Scooter is sure to lose his chariot next turn. The crossbow gets good odds on it, and I can combat road anywhere Scoot can reach. It'll be fine there. If I name him the Victorian-sounding G. T. Efoe that wouldn't be TON would it?



On the plus side, Verne obligingly popped borders at EoT, at least it'll be boggier for Serdoa to reinforce. We're going to clear these pesky invaders soon enough. Darned annoying though.



Scooter is still shadowing the warrior. I'm cool if he kills it though, need the money anyway, the economy is completely in the tank.



On the plus side, if I can get this up and running soon, it'll be basically Verne 2.0 economically, with two railroaded lumbermills, four FP farms, and two fish...plus a much-needed gold.



Setback? Yeah. Survivable? Probably. Serdoa is definitely getting destroyed though.

[Mist]

Setback? Yeah. Survivable? Probably. Serdoa is definitely getting destroyed though.

Uhh, no.

Grudges are all fine and dandy, but he'll have longbows and plenty of cities to whip them out from by the time we're back on track to do any 'phracting. We can still win this, but going to hell in flames with the leader is not the way to do it.

To sum it up :

1) We are not in position of strength anymore
2) We *need* Colossus yesterday.
3) Whatever 'phracts we manage to get will have to go at weakest opposition to get a territory we'll be able to hold.

Send some xbows at scooter to check his ridiculous farmers gambit. And can we please, PLEASE, float a trireme on that one pond of water we still have a port city?

[Ceiliazul]

4 food, 3 FP, gold and decent production? Wow!

[Commodore]

4 food, 3 FP, gold and decent production? Wow!

Heh, yeah, it's going to own the spices, one fish, and one fp by itself, everything else is getting shared with Ivory Isle (deer), Coppersnow (fish), and Northwestofgold (everything else).

To sum it up :

1) We are not in position of strength anymore
2) We *need* Colossus yesterday.
3) Whatever 'phracts we manage to get will have to go at weakest opposition to get a territory we'll be able to hold.

Send some xbows at scooter to check his ridiculous farmers gambit. And can we please, PLEASE, float a trireme on that one pond of water we still have a port city?

Crossbows are incoming to hit Scooter, objective: Cutoff Ivory. Then Eat Him. Then 'phract him. THEN hit Serdoa with two cores' worth of production. Unless the bulbs start looking like Serdoa is going to make rifles in the next thirty turns, which is certainly doable.

[Commodore]

Okay, two turns passed, but not much happened. I roaded to the chariot and killed that crap, might as well not let him mess with the micro. Need to go mess up scooter with some crossbows but at the same time I don't want to send him on the warpath early.



Serdoa has clearly shown that he's in for total war regardless. On the other end of the empire, the attractive new city of Carroll was menaced by a chariot. Yup, Serdoa is in for blood, which is actually probably the smart think for him to do.



His axe and chariot split up and will be able to escape if he applies himself. He might also pillage the horses on his way out, but that's no big deal if so. The crossbow brigade has the situation well in hand.



Thanks to the crossbow heading into Carroll the axe (sorry Tatan, Axe-Man) used the road to hit the chariot at good odds. Defensive terrain, and bonus versus axes? Nah, not with chariots defending.



Because, of course, it wasn't life or death, the result was predictable:



Those two successful combats work well with Imp, check out what we're about to spawn. Also, need more crossbows, but for once I think the worker force is actually sufficient. It helps that the next two settlers are going to cities that fit perfectly into the dotmap and yet are also someone pre-improved.



Most of those extra workers are all with the lovely Dostoyevsky, of course. Colossus is even more essential now with the recent setback, and we'll be aiming to grow to size six, three-pop whipping the forge, and then using that lovely overflow plus a couple chops to polish off the big bronze guy.



Serdoa is a smart man to attack us, even though Scooter and Lewwyn are running massive farmer's gambits as well. Case in point, the moronically named Glass Lizzards. Not going to mess with it, last thing we need is Lewwyn angry-birding us.



I'm not sure what to do about the Scooter border though. We want this nice land ourselves, and we can certainly take it with our current military advantages, but Scooter is the sort to avoid a hot war if he can...he'd probably love for us to ignore each other while we went after Serdoa.



Hard and interesting choices.