[spoilers] Commodore: Worse than Toku, it's Giggles of Siam!

[Commodore]

So sometimes, I get a little bummed about not being in the best of positions here. But then I remember this bit of trivia.

Turn 66, PB5:




Turn 66, PB8:


...so it could be worse.

[Commodore]

Oh, finally, Thoth, might want to look around and see if anything particularly interesting strikes you at the moment. The other news of this turn was Judaism founding, I think by Lewwyn, but I'm sure not by the Zulu so I'm happy.

[Thoth]

I think I agree with this one. IW will be obvious if they're either checking tile yields or closely C&Ding, and if they aren't, a whip won't make much difference. Having agreed, I've directed Andy down to build another riverside cottage for the river cities to share; sadly, this is the reason why I still don't like Pro in Krillmod. Cheap granaries are nice, but we ain't whipping nearly as often as in vanilla. Give us back Drill 1 and castles!

Not so sure about the castles...but Drill 1 enables shock at 2xp. And that would be right handy about now.

Looks like we're not getting choked (yet) but Shock Archers would have meant we could skip IW ftm.

*sigh*

NM that, let's play the hand we've been dealt.

Indeed. Ivory online will be sweeeet, and I think Sailing is our next tech. Scooter's next? Mathematics. Thanks for the EP help, Azza.

NICE!


Also: That means we're either on the same landmass as Azza/Lewwyn or we're within galley range.

Until we get either CoL or Currency online, we need to think about making each new city now pay for itself. The Greenways with gems are easy; 2/1/6 tiles make that break-even pretty easy. The island city will also be easy, natch. However, the north-of-salt-lake choke city and Coldspring Way are both going to be a touch more costly, with notably less quick return. Which is why all cities much contribute; a pair of Hidden Valley river cottages will help, as will more in the core.

I'm less worried about beakers (assuming Sailing soonish) than hammers if we want to send in UN Peacekeeping Mamoths and cats.

Capital is a great hammer city, but nothing else is.

We can get some mad good commerce going, but hammers are going to be scarce.

Mad commerce to HBR/Const while growing to size 7ish....then mad whipping and chopping for some thumpie thumpies?

Recovery can be helped with Creative Colls.

Long-term *mid term*, there are three (non-exclusive) ways to get some good GNP going: Super-bureaucap, Representation, and cottage cheese/fishing villages. Representation is out, although we have nearish stone and the 'mids have yet to fall, even if we could do it 250 hammers is a huge "kill us" sign to the Zulu. As great as a lot of these close spots are in the short term, we're woefully under-landed for the nearer cities to spam cottages (now the jungle north does have potential). We're going to want to focus on getting the capital really really rolling then; size eight with the near-term luxuries needs to be without the four shared riverside cottages Tranquil Meadows works, then once we get to HR/Bureau we can rocket up to 12-13 citizen funneling through an academy. Nothing less will get us through those RBmod-inflated late techs.

Near and mid term we can make do with IC trs, some riverside grass cotts (lots of capital cots....peferably worked by sattelite cities ftm), and eventually lighthoused coast on free happy.

Rep is doable in reasonable timeframe via teching to Constitution.

Ren era bulbing is a bit nerfed due to the increased costs of Edutcation/PP, but it's still solid.

I don't see us getting a tech advantage without a solid population advantage. So we'll need a lot of cities.

Hi Scooticator! Nice cities.

[Thoth]

Oh, finally, Thoth, might want to look around and see if anything particularly interesting strikes you at the moment. The other news of this turn was Judaism founding, I think by Lewwyn, but I'm sure not by the Zulu so I'm happy.

Pretty certain any poking I do tonight would be pointless.


But I'll have a nose about ingame tomorrow and see what I can do about a REX/Whumpie plan.

[Commodore]

First event of the game! Man, it would have been sweet to have been able to plan on this event firing this turn. I'm open to ideas for a whip or two I guess, it's a nice event later on when you can take advantage for or even later when you can toss the elderly and the infirm on the barbeque for some anti-factory health.


As it was, however, those Generican frowns were turned upside down longer term not by herbs but by ivory. In addition to the happiness, it's a pretty okay tile for Hidden Valley to work, although again, I'd have chosen the sheep first if I'd had the choice.


Scoopin have just brought their own happiness online with the massively superior plains hill gold here. Nonzero chance of road-boosted impis being able to strike the sentry here, but I'll take the risk. A warrior will join the Sons of Krill next turn to cover them and make it a little less attractive to take the shot.


Okay, a mild refinement made possible: I could move the warrior garrison towards Verdant Acres a little bit earlier. Clams are online, so the new city is growing very healthily.


...and with that, horses are free and Tranquil Meadow is back up to 15fhpt. The herb event means that if we'd like we could go ahead and grow it to size 5 without waiting on the whip unhappiness to fade, but I didn't bother this turn as we'll need one extra turn to finish a cottage anyway. We're close to optimized, here.


Our demos are looking very very nice, particularly when you consider the culture GNP boost we're getting isn't really more than our Wonder/Religion triplets.


Whumpies unto Zuludom, indeed.

[Qgqqqqq]

Are you still settling on the hill?
Or just traditional sentry?

[Commodore]

Are you still settling on the hill?
Or just traditional sentry?

Traditional sentry. Copper means impi but also axes; pink dotting for anything other than metal isn't going to happen this side of ballista mammoths.

[Commodore]

From The Eleven Nations: A History of the World

The mythical King Thoth might or might not have been the first Generican king to have fielded chariots, but it is known that the abrupt end of the chariot era came with the defeat of Thoth's Company in the forests east of the young city of Hidden Valley. Both Generic and Zulu records show that after a long campaign the chariot force, accompanied by allied tribal warriors, were surprised by two fast-moving impi regiments.

The unwieldy chariots were cut off from the warriors of the Metwo tribe and the long assegai of the Zulus were used to deadly effect, killing horses and then bogged drivers. The only notable point of resistance was provided by the chariot archer Mardoc, who gathered other dismounted archers and led them on a long retreat, their ranged weapon proving fearsome enough to deter even the swift impi. Although Thoth's Company, sustaining near-total losses, was disbanded by the local prince of Hidden Valley, Mardoc's men formed the core of the new company of archers that turned aside Zulu raiders who harried the city. A statue of Mardoc is still seen upon the southernmost shore of the Long Salt Lake.


By 1300 BC the Generican civilization was primarily known for its fielded archers, who were recorded as a terror for both the Zulus and barbarian tribes in the surrounding area. Under the watchful protection of its eastern rangers, the civilization grew and prospered, topping out at a population of some two hundred thousand around the time that hemp was first used as a drug in 1280BC.


The central river valley where the ancient cities of Lakeside Garden and Tranquil Meadow sat was still the core of Generican civilization, with the high kings always of the great families of Lakeside Garden and the most of the wealth and trade coming from the riverside hamlets, cots, and farms. Although progress was slow, domestication of horses made plow-farming far more efficient and a road network formed as gradually more lands beyond the river banks were cleared and settled.

West and north of the core, the city-state of Verdant Acres was founded along the coast among the dry hills there. Although fresh water for a large population would eventually become a problem by the standards of the day it was a very fast-growing city, trading overland with the main valley pearls from the clam banks nearby and salted pork from the fertile valley farms to its northwest. Later, sailing ships would begin to carry the majority of its trade, particularly when the island to the west was colonized.

In the east, the city of Hidden Valley came to dominate the near plains region, standing as a bulwark against Zulu westward expansion. Ivory and venison from the mammoth and deer hunting grounds in the southern tundra as well as wool and mutton from the northern pastures along the Long Salt Lake made the city and cots around the city rich, but the city was also always under threat from the assegai of the impi regiments as they pushed their own influence on the eastern edge of the lake.

[Commodore]

Momentous day! Barbarian warrior is shooting down the chute to meet our archer, which is fine and dandy. Azza also made contact with this cute lill' guy.


Still not sure if he's on our continent or just in coast-range, but we should know after he plays with any luck. Poor feller, he was up to five cities a little while ago, but Lewwyn just razed another to bring Azza down to a paltry three. No idea why he doesn't have many resources hooked; maybe he's been pillaged too?


In more pressing news, there was a annoying impi feller this turn poking around. I had only middling odds of killing him with the full swarm, so I opted for the unusual "wait and see" approach. I just suspect sneakiness with the second impi out there.


So a slight annoyance, for what feels like the millionth time, I'm one hammer short on finishing the settler here in five turns, not six. So, I'll either eat the commerce loss or jigger things to steal a corn next turn; either one won't be tragic. We're going to be scraping every last beaker to make IW in that projected time, though.


Please, oh please, oh please let there be iron...

[mackoti]

after the beatiful story you deserve some iron.