[PB70] Charriu tries to promote the arts again

[Charriu]

The song



Music: 744 - Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess 'Frozen Mourning' OC ReMix

One of the more famous songs from Twilight Princess. In the original Midna's Lament is mostly a piano piece. This arrangement still contains a piano, but as you will quickly find out. Here the piano only plays the right hand part and the left hand part is played by a harp. And I have to say it's a great idea. It makes the piece and bit less heavy, but more fragile without sacrificing the sad melody in any way. Later the piano is even replaced by a flute further increasing the lightness and fragility.

Similar to the original we have a part, where the orchestra (strings in the original) join. Unlike the original these instruments stay way longer and give the arrangement some of the heaviness back. All in all a great piece showcase what you can do with instrumentation.

This is yet another arrangement you can find and download from Overclocked Remix.

T80:

---

This turn was a great relieve for me. As you can see I landed an axeman and a settler on the gems island ready to settle it in T81. Thanks to currency I was observing Bings gold and maintenance costs. For the most part he was safing money and since I knew that he doesn't have Sailing (thanks again Scooter) I was sure I am safe to settle the gems island. Then to my horror I discovered that Bing must have finished Sailing in the last turns even though he saved gold. He must have used Scientists to research it I guess. I noticed it because his city Gao had a lighthouse since T78 according to my screenshots. But now that my units have landed, he can no longer deny me settling this spot.

As you can see I also learned why he chose this greedy spot. It was not to deny me the gems spot but rather because he wanted to take away two sea food resources from me. Well buddy tough luck as one of those will be in my first ring and thanks to CRE I will pop borders soonish to and then you can say goodbye to one of the sea food resources.

The only question now is should I settle in T81. Bing might have a galley nearby and could transport 2 skirmishers over to attack my lonely axeman defending my settler. That's why I'm bringing over another axeman together with a worker. The worker will board the galley in T81 and the axeman in T82. Axeman can then unload into the city in T83. With 2 axemen the city is fairly safe from his skirmishers. The problem though is that he potentially attack the city in T81, T82 and T83 before the second axeman lands. I was thinking through some potential scenarios for the following turn.

T81
1. He could already have a galley with 2 skirmishers and make an immediate amphibious attack. This I will win with a 82% change of victory. But he could immediately load in the next 2 skirmishers from Niani and attack in T82, which I would loose. I can't do anything to prevent this other then loading back into my galley. Still I think it unlikely this will happen as it would mean he must have suspected me landing this turn and there is no way he could have seen me.
2. If I see a galley with my unit without any fighting, it probably means he will land 2 skirmisher on the gems tile in T82. They could then attack in T83. The only way I could defend against that is by not settling immediately and rather keep the jungle for defense. It would also be a 50% chance of victory.
3. If I don't see a galley it means he can only attack my axeman in an amphibious attack in T82 or T83. If I settle it would mean a 50% victory change in T82 and 47% in T83. If I keep the jungle it's a 87% chance of victory.

Putting it all together I think it's better not to settle in T81 and rather wait maybe even until T83 when the second axeman lands. Good thing is loosing these two turns doesn't really matter that much in the great scheme of things. The worker can still start chopping the jungle in T83 and I will still take over the seafood with my culture just a bit later.

The biggest events in the last turns where Mjmd finishing Stonehenge, Scooter finishing Pyramids and me finishing Currency. So here is the diplo with that stuff. First Scooter.

I also continued my diplomacy with Scooter which was very interesting and entertaining for me:

Charriu: Congratulations to building a huge pile of rocks. ?

Scooter: thanks! quite happy and relieved it's all done. Congrats on your wonder - currency. That GNP is something

Charriu: Absolutely understandable to be relieved. Good observation, Mr Holmes. ? Yes my wonder is a T76 Currency. A bit better hidden then your wonders. ?

Scooter: I admit I was pretty skeptical of your clearly intentional choice to slow expansion and get tech up and running, but now I'm not so sure I was right. very curious to see how it works out longterm

Charriu: Me too. ? Well as for our shared neighbor. He is making 3 gold per turn

Scooter: I was wondering. My tech situation is rough, but I knew his was even worse. Going to be ages before he fields anything better than skirms.

Charriu: Yes, but with Representation it should be easier to get the economy and tech up

Scooter: yeah, I have ways to dig out. Will get a much belated island shortly too which will help routes

Charriu: Yay more foreign trade. ? But I am also working on another island should be up T81

Scooter: is david wise on an island? I picked up a route to it a few turns ago

Charriu: No, Mitsuda is an island

Scooter: ah

Charriu: David Wise is at the pig south of Bings Gao. Needed to secure the border there

Scooter: ah yeah

Charriu: I was slightly disappointed that Bing managed to finish a Monument in Gao. Otherwise I would have taken the cow via culture

Scooter: by the way, in all your DLL research, did you ever learn what happens when two cities are scheduled to pop a GP on the same turn? I assume it goes in order of city processing which I believe is essentially oldest city first? I wonder why he didn't build stonehenge he's got all the forests still. just chop the thing. stonehenge is a beautiful pro/chm wonder

Charriu: Oldest city goes first and that really means oldest settled not acquired.

Scooter: right, that's what I thought. it's the city cycling order

Charriu: But don't quote me on that. Haven't actually checked the code. It's just a very educated guess from my memory

Scooter: yeah

Charriu: I somewhat doubt that Bing will do Stonehenge since he already build enough monuments. Then again its Bing. Another reason for not building Stonehenge is that as soon as you obsolete Stonehenge with Astronomy you loose all the monuments forever and with that the extra happiness on it via Cha

Scooter: well yeah obviously he's not going to now - I just meant rather than build all these Monuments and that's true about astro, but usually by then it's not a huge factor

Charriu: It's true by astro it's not a huge factor, but that changes when you have a monument UB since those don't obsolete anymore, but Stonehenge still does

Then Mjmd finished Stonehenge so I had a little chat with him:

Charriu: Congratulations to building Stonehenge. To be honest you were the last player I expected to finish it. ?

Mjmd: I blame SD. He didn't let me know his turn for completing great lighthouse, so I whipped a worker and overflow was SUPPOSED to go into that, but since I had the overflow did a 4 turn stonehenge instead lol although honestly I was expecting fail gold still

Charriu: Well at least your neighbor doesn't have it. That's also worth something with you being CRE. Sorry I could have told you that Bing was probably not going for it since he built monuments.

Mjmd: no big, it was a situation I was happy with either outcome

Charriu: Ok I will soon enter SDs territory with my scout. Anything you are interested in while I'm there?

Mjmd: I'm interested in his Scooter border. I know scooter is pushing in on bing territory for obvious reasons. So curious how far SD has managed to push down. Some day I'll build a second scout, but that day isn't this day

Charriu: Ok that will take a bit more time until I'm there.

Good to see that Superdeath and Mjmd aren't getting along that well. Hopefully I can keep good relations with Mjmd. Speaking of Superdeath we also had a chat. This started after he came back from vacation and the Bing incident:

Superdeath: How are things going in charriu land?

Charriu: Funny I wanted to chat with you too when you are back from vacation. ? Well things are working on peacefully on my side. Mjmd is quiet, Bing not so much. He settled all of his cities towards me except for one and he settled all the spices between us. I'm not so worried about that. It's just one "bad" source of happiness and he's paying quite a lot of maintenance for those 6 cities. Oh and Bing is completely erratic. But you probably know that from past games. ? I'm thinking about accepting war declarations

Superdeath: Lol seems like I did miss a bunch of fun

Charriu: Well the very short version about Bing being erratic is the following

- Bing was rightfully not okay with something I did resulting in Event A.
- He wanted a reload so that he can move on with Event B
- He got the reload, but did a mistake himself which resulted in Event A again.
- This time he was fine with Event A and play continued.

What a clown

Superdeath: Tis bing

Charriu: I already have a moniker for him:

[Insert picture of Batman's Two-Face]

Superdeath: An interesting take

Charriu: Well he pretty much plays like him. Throwing a coin and going with the result of the coin

Superdeath: Figured he is more like penguin. Yeah, he does play a bit more casual than even I do

Charriu: You play casual, but at least you know what you are doing. Those things would not happen with you

Superdeath: Lol

After he finished the Good Lighthouse

Charriu: Congratulations to building the big phallus symbol. ?

Superdeath: Why thank you ?

[Two days later]

Superdeath: How are things going in charriuland?

Charriu: Settling the gems next before Bing gets any more idea. Speaking of islands I consider the marble island between us yours

Superdeath: Sounds good to me ? Bing actually thinking of taking your gems island? That would be a hell of a reach. Also, I'm quite curious what your going to use your enormous teching ability to go towards. Early rifles vs skirts? Lol Skirms*

Charriu: Bing settled up on me and could prevent a good gems spot by culture. I would also suspect him going for Sailing next (but slowly). I have plans for tech, but who would I be to spoil everything right. Where is the fun in that. Don't worry it's not against you. Also I should rename the skirmisher to skirts

Superdeath: Gonna beat DTAY's super early knights? Lol Bings tech rate has to be atrocious

Charriu: It is do you have graphs on him?

Superdeath: Yup. Putting 1 ep into everyone equally atm

Charriu: I expected that

Superdeath: I think u lost graphs on me

Charriu: I did

Superdeath: Wasn't my intention

Charriu: No problem. Bing continued settling towards me. His last masterpiece. A city with just one spice in it's BFC, which is already claimed by a different city of his

Superdeath: [answered with a funny meme about Bing]

Charriu: ?
I was surprised to see Mjmd landing Stonehenge. Had you or Bing for that on my card

Superdeath: If I had played this game solo, probably.
Or if it had gone another.. 10? Turns I'd have started building it

Charriu: Oh yeah you have Cornflakes with you this time.

HI CORNFLAKES. ?
Off to bed now

Superdeath: Cornflakes is shy
Night!

I have absolutely no intention of going to an early knights like Superdeath suggested here. Yes that might be a good idea and probably is the best way to a win. But it's also utterly boring and who would want that when I could bulb my way to Education followed by Gunpowder.

Lastly I had the usual diplo interaction with Bing:

And that's all he said.

[Charriu]

The song

https://merregnonrecords.bandcamp.com/tr...et-of-mana

Music: Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus - Fantasy II: Secret of Mana

This is such a cool arrangement for one of my absolute favorite OSTs. And I am so lucky to have seen this piece being performend live over 10 years ago in Cologne. It's a medley for the OST of Secret of Mana. An energetic and very rythmic OST. It's really astonding what Hiroki Kikuta managed to conjure up from the SNES sound chip. Just listen to the piano and percussions in the originals. They are so good if you think back that it runs on this old hardware.

But back to the arrangement. Jonne Valtonen really did an amazing job of arranging these pieces for the orchestra and choir. Speaking of choir it's really interesting what the choir contributes in the first 2 minutes to Fears of the Haven the games great opening song. What you say there is no choir singing in this part you say? Well they actually are there just not singing. Did you hear the Wind blowing? And the rain drops falling together with thunder? Well that's actually the choir sound painting this piece. I let you guess how they are doing that and spoiler ahead they do it again at the end.

Valtonen also did a great job of stringing the different songs together. Phantom and ... a Rose ... really hits different if you play it after disonant The Oracle. All in all an amazing piece, which I can only recommend highly.

As for buying this piece you can do so at bandcamp. If you want to know more about the concert and/or buy tickets you can do so at https://www.gameconcerts.com/en/welcome/.

T83:

---

I finally settled the gems island now that it is safe from Bing. As you can see I had to move an axeman from Uematsu over to Kikuta to defend it. That of course leaves Uematsu a bit underdefended for now, but it shouldn't be a problem to get another axeman there in an emergency. Kikutta will also take over the crab from Bing. Thanks for connecting that for me buddy.

Kikuta is named after composer Hiroki Kikuta. You most likely know him from his greatest work the soundtrack to Secret of Mana and its sequel Trials of Mana. By the way that game was his first sountrack he composed and what a hit it was. He did continue and do or contribute to other games like Shining Hearts, Soul Calibur V, Earthlock: Festival of Magic and Tangledeep.

As you can also see I discovered Iron Working back in T81 and it popped an Iron near Shimomura and the one shown above near David Wise, which is in a great spot to be shared to Uematsu as well as being a bit safer inland for me. Of course I mainly needed Iron Working to chop the jungle on the gems away.

Thanks to Currency I'm also keeping a close look at the other players finances. I can for sure say that I am making the most gold and beakers for now with 44 gold per turn. Next best Mjmd with now 30 (increased from 20 over the last turns) followed by Superdeath with 24 (fallen from 31) thanks to the Good Lighthouse. Then it's scooter with roughly 20 gold per turn and dead last is our mute Bing with just 3 now. Speaking of Bing he has a strange way of working the slider. Everybody else does binary research, but Bing seems to run the slider at break even. He lost money in T80 probably running 100% for one turn, but I saw no spike in his GNP graph or maybe it was just to small to be found.

[Charriu]

The song



Music: L'Orchestre de Jeux Vidéo - Banjo-Kazooie

You can never go wrong with one gamings most cheerful OST ever. What Grant Kirkhope cooked up in Banjo-Kazooie is just amazing so many great tunes and so much variety in style and instrumentation. And the OJV manages to capture this spirit in the best way.

We already start with a high point with the intro to the game. Such a great tune and you already know what you are getting into. This is also one of the few instances, where the laughter of the audience contributes to the piece. And top this is one of the greatest Kazoo performances.
After this fun exercise we are introduced to one of the more moody themes in Gruntilda's Lair. But to be honest Kirkhope even manages to make these tunes fun. I always like the percussions part in this song.
We follow immediately one of gamings best christmas songs in Freezeezy Peak. All around joy and fun especially when the horns take up the main part. I really have to dust of my N64 and play this again.
Treasure Trove Coast is next. I love when the clarinet has a small solo. Last but not least Kirkhope shows us how much sound variety he can serve in Gobi's Valley. That Oboe always gets me.

As for buying and attending concerts for OJV. You find all the information on their website: https://www.orchestre-ojv.ca/fr. Well at least if you can speak french that is.

T85:

---

The next island is ready to be settled and you guessed it already, it is named Kirkhope. Most obvious reason for this city is having access to marble. You might have already noticed from the last report that I slotted in Aesthetics. Yes, I am going for the Great Library in Tin next. Chops are prepared while I'm reporting and marble connected so that the wonder can be ready in T100. Other then access to marble this city will also be a food powerhouse. It would be a great Globe Theatre city if only it wouldn't be on an island.

Kirkhope is named after composer Grant Kirkhope. You most likely know him from such well known games like GoldenEye 007, Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie, Donkey Kong 64, Perfect Dark, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle and Yooka-Laylee. But he also did some great work on lesser known games like Viva Piñata and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. Oh and did you know that he also contributed to Civilization: Beyond Earth?

Over the last turns I noticed some small benefits of CRE that I never have expected. Of course it's great for popping borders on hammer-poor islands as well as securing the border towards Bing. But take also a look at these neat things.

- Near Kikuta (gems city) I will chop a forest in the future. Thanks to CRE and the library in the capitol its borders popped so that this forest is now in my borders and will generate more hammers that way.
- The third border pop in Kondo enabled me to connect the fish resource shortly before Kirkhope was founded.
- Also this border pop will give a future banana city south of Kondo access to the 3 food banana tile.
- Of course the extra border pops ensure that people don't settle on some of the safer spots around my empire
- The third border pop in Uematsu will give me access to a mountain, which is great for observing Bings movements.

Lastly here are some more diplo interactions of the last turns. First scooter who also finished Colossus in the last turns:

Charriu: I noticed that Bing must have completed Sailing in the last turns without running 100% science. Must have used scientist or he is not doing binary research. Probably the latter. ?

Scooter: oh interesting. so he can finally settle an island I guess. but I agree about your non-binary science guess

Charriu:

Now I know why he settled that city this way. There was another sea food which will be in my first ring

Scooter: nice of him to net it for you. Has no chance of holding that haha

Charriu: Yeah he can be a nice guy sometimes

Scooter: watching him play is interesting. He obviously knows how to play this game but his worker management is wild. I guess with that mine he could get a Galley to 1-pop whip range pretty quickly

Charriu: Unfortunately because Bing has Sailing I might have to delay a bit with settling and bring another axeman over. My second axeman will be there in T83 and with that the city is safe from skirmishers.

Scooter: I would be pretty surprised if he made a run at a 1 axe defense honestly. But I've been taking precautions myself just in case. I had my two furthest cities get axes to 5/35h asap for emergency purposes hah

Charriu: Whipping the galley is probably to late for an attack he would have to whip the galley T81 board the galley T82 and maybe attack in T83

Scooter: yeah I think you're fine

Charriu: If I delay settling, the jungle will keep me safe from his skirmishers. With 2 axes it's very hard for him to take my city just with skirms

Scooter: I would call it downright impossible barring obscene luck

Charriu: What I'm wondering most is if Bing will say anything about me settling there. You know like he complained about you pink dotting him

Scooter: I don't see why he would. that island is not really "his" by any stretch

Charriu: But he settled the city to deny me the sea food

Scooter: I'm not convinced there's a lot of thought/planning going on. I think he thought "there's a fish there" and settled accordingly. But i've been wrong before so who knows!

Charriu: Man the espionage system is so strange. I lost graphs on you over the last turns because you started investing in me (no problem there), but this turn I got graphs back on you even though I did not invest anymore points into you. That's so strange

Scooter: Oh weird. I just was putting 1 into everyone every turn sort of mindlessly once I got all the graphs

[For the record. This happened multiple times over the last turns. Very strange]

Charriu: Bing settled more cities most likely in your direction. I can see at least 4 skirmishers, but expect there to be at least 6 skirmishers at my border. 2 for every city. Oh I totally forgot. Congratulations to building the tall golden guy. Now your economy should be in a good spot. ?

Scooter: Yeah both cities went up against my border. They should be his last two on the main continent near me. And thanks! Think it’s finally time for a break from all the wonders

Charriu: Nice to know we peasant can also go for a few. ?

Scooter: Well you have the real “industrious” trait - a tech lead. So you should be good now ?

Charriu: I also learned that Bing is actually communicating more with other players. Not more in the same way as we do, rather some very small updates in dispersed with silence.

Scooter: As for Bing, anything specific that’s in reference to? We only really talked when there was an issue

Charriu: I meant that Bing is communicating more with Superdeath and Mjmd

Scooter: As for Bing, anything specific that’s in reference to? We only really talked when there was an issue

Charriu: I meant that Bing is communicating more with Superdeath and Mjmd

Scooter: Anything you think to be concerned about? I just wonder if we do eventually divide him up if one of the others will attempt to help him or not

Charriu: No I'm not concerned about Bing occasionally communicating with the others. I was just surprised that he can speak and found it just in general a worthwhile information for both of us. I don't see how the others will help him in a big way. After all there is no tech trading so the only thing they could give him is gold, but I should see if that happens. I do want to divide him up eventually, but before that I want to settle all the other spots and have better units in store. After all the land I have right now is better then his border cities. The only thing for me to gain in his border cities is the extra spice resource and that is only 1 happiness worth.

Scooter: Yeah for sure. There’s a lot of city spots on this map and lots of other priorities. Also in general best to let skirmishers “obsolete” first.

Charriu: And of course we both also have other neighbors to be worried about too. Don't want to carve up Bing and then loose to Mjmd

Scooter: Yeah for sure

Charriu: How is Superdeath treating you so far? You have a jungle between you, right?

Scooter: Good, he’s been quite concerned about CKNs so we have a NAP. But realistically the jungle is the real NAP. He does have IW and has begun settling a city that requires clearing jungle, so he’s starting to settle towards me, but we’ve mostly had things go well
Any concerns about Mjmd squeezing you on the other side?

Charriu: Oh right yes. IW I noticed he was chopping the gems island. Forgot to tell you. No I also have a NAP with Mjmd and in general good relations. I can build upon good relations from past games.

Scooter: That’s good. I did deny him my pyramids completion date (he asked) because I’m concerned about him running away hah. I don’t think he was too mad

Charriu: I think Mjmd and Superdeath engaging into each other would be the best outcome for us to carve up Bing

Scooter: Yeah that’s my hope

Charriu: They have floodplains between them so way more potential for conflict

A few more chats from Mjmd:

Mjmd: settling that island finally?

Charriu: Yes this turn it is safe from a potential attack by Bing. So Bing is actually communicating with others or how did you know?

Mjmd: I saw your SW settler. He occasionally will ping me something. Like when he captured a worker mid turn not in sequential, which is why I knew of that whole thing

Charriu: Ah I was wondering if you just called it without any further information.
I also see that our T100 NAP comes closer. I just wanted to say that I am still enjoying our peaceful border and do look forward to continue that way.

Sadly Mjmd hasn't responded to the NAP comment yet. I still think we are on good terms and one has to trust at least one of their neighbors on this map to make any gains.

[Charriu]

The song

Thalassophobia

Music: Chromatic Apparatus - Thalassophobia: Into the Deep (DoD)

Final Fantasy III has probably the best OST of the 3 NES Final Fantasy games. The original song (Deep under water) isn't actually that special or great, but what Chromatic Apparatus, manages to get out of this piece is awesome. The first have stays rather close to the original I would say, with the Harp taking over the main melody. It's very beautiful and together with the accompaniment it already is a great song.
But at around 1:30 we drift into another direction. A more darker kind of music and I'm all here for it. It gives this piece so much more depth. To bad the song isn't longer.

This song was posted on Dwelling of Duels. Another remix site with an emphasis on rock music and a special twist. Each month they have a different theme. People can do one remix for the month and then people vote which ones the best. If you like rock music I can highly recommend DoD.

T88:

---

Just a small update to highlight thee things. First of all I got graphs on Bing last turn. He's teching Masonry with 3 gpt and 26 gold in the bank. He will be done with it in 116 turns. Bing is also building cottages at our border, which is very nice of him as I can pillage those later increasing my pot and further hampering Bing.

The second thing is that Kikuta as you can see popped borders and took over the sea food. Thanks Bing for improving that for me. I would have been 1 turn later with my own work boat.

Lastly I did a small positive mistake in my micromanagment plan. I forgot to assign the 4 pop to a tile. I quickly assigned it the 1 food, 2 hammer forest tile first and improved my plans. Awesome. This 1 food means I will grow earlier in T99. Great.

[Charriu]

The song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdVpJfXXoFI

Music: Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra : SCORE Orchestral Game Music - Megaman - Suite

The mega man games as most will know have a great OST. But who would have thought that it also translates to an orchestra in such a good way.

T93:

---

Unfortunately I don't have a lot of time to write a lengthy report. I'm sick with Covid (don't worry I'm fine), but because of that I only have short access to my PC.

Founded new city of Matsumae named after Manami Matsumae. She is most famous for the Mega Man 1 OST and with that laid the foundation of the Mega Man sound in future games. She also did noticable games and contributions like Final Fight, Dynasty Wars, U.N. Squadron.

Biggest event of the last turns was Mjmd founding 7 cities in one turn and landing Hanging Gardens. All the other players were now very afraid of Mjmd. Bing told me he would attack me and could see himself attack Mjmd. Superdeath is trying to form a dogpile against Mjmd and Scooter tends more towards a trade embargo. Hopefully my health issues are soon over and I can write in more detail about this.

[El Grillo]

Bing told me he would attack me and could see himself attack Mjmd.

Presumably Bing said he would not attack you, right?

[Charriu]

Yes, of course. Thanks.

[Charriu]

The song



Music: Etrian Odyssey IV Super Arrange - Unrest - The Legend's Successor

Unlike the original the arrangment wastes no time and hits you right into the face. I mean what else is there to say to a start like that. The addition of the choir is a brilliant idea especially considering that they sing the classic dies irae as can be heared in like everywhere (and if you don't know that's true you can hear the melody of dies irae in almost any music.)

This version is from a japan-only CD 'Etrian Odyssey IV / Sekaiju No Meikyu IV Densho No Kyoshin Super Arrange Version'. It's hard to get so get it whereever you can.

T94:

---

Another turn another city: Koshiro. Named after Yuzo Koshiro. The man is most famous for his music in the Streets of Rage games as well as the Ys series and The Revenge of Shinobi. But he did so much more great music like in ActRaiser, Beyond Oasis, Shenmue and the Etrian Odyssey series.

Not that much news otherwise. See you when I have more time to write a lengthy report about the current game situation.

[Charriu]

The song



Music: Jeremy Robson - Final Fantasy VII 'Philharmonic Suite: Part I' OC ReMix

This should be a fairly famous song. Yes, this is the opening song to Final Fantasy VII. It sounds a lot like the original there in the beginning, but there are subtle differences like random notes/noises by other instruments in the first 15 seconds or the Hollywood-esque crescendo at 0:30. I really like what they are doing at 1:20. This is a different build up to the big moment, but not worse then the original. Very interesting.

Jeremy then continues very closely to the original, which to be fair is just awesome. Only at 4:00 we are straying a bit away from the original with a big bombastic moment followed by some more introspective parts by the strings before we then end this arrangement.

This is yet another arrangement you can find and download from Overclocked Remix.

T97:

---

I know it's from after the turn roll, but that way you already get the border pop from Matsumae. As you can see Mjmd and I have now a border. We had some discussions before we settled our respective cities here.

Charriu: So just a heads-up I have it in my plans to settle the red dot in T93. To be totally honest. I am not really interested in the dye in the second ring there. It's just the spot itself that interests me.



Mjmd: I'll be settling teal T90. ya that random stonehenge build is going to make it tough to grab the dye

Charriu: Oh so you will keep the dye. That's totally fine with me. Didn't check that Stonehenge was built in that city.

Mjmd: ya; it was building GLH for failgold but then I had a bunch of overflow from a worker whip
turn SD finished......
so Stonehenge /shrug

Charriu: Well like I said I'm not interested in the dye as I already have one in my other city. I'm also at the Scooter/Superdeath border. Still exploring the border region. I see that Superdeath is starting to settle the jungle belt. I can give you a screenshot, when the important parts are uncovered

Mjmd: no rush

Now remember this happened before Mjmds great Hanging Gardens play. The reason why I was giving up the dye here is that I hoped to keep Mjmd as a peaceful neighbor. Yes I could use the dye to trade for better resources, but I think I can get by without it if it gives me a longer peace with Mjmd. And it looks like I never had a chance for this dye thanks to Mjmds accidental wonder builts in Wheretogojohnny. He later built Great Wall there to, but it's only 2 culture per turn.

Now as most of you probably know by now from other threads Mjmd had a big moment some turns ago right when I was starting to get sick. He settled 7! cities in turn and finished Hanging Gardens. This send diplomatic shockwaves through the ether. I was first informed by Scooter about the happenings:

Charriu: I see a new wonder for you on the horizon. ? [scooter got another Great Engineer]

Scooter: Not quite sure I’d say wonder. Speaking of wonder. Mjmd just pulled off quite a play

Charriu: Which wonder did he finish?

Scooter: [Picture of PBSpys Mjmd score changes]
He uh… settled 7 cities and then finished hanging gardens it appears. That’s scary

Next Superdeath contacted me:

Superdeath: 1. Get better.
2. 17 city hanging gardens by mjmd.. if u had support from multiple sides, when would you be able to declare?

Charriu: Puh would need to plan that further. I would need better units first. I will come back to you when I'm healthy again

Superdeath: All good

And low and behold even Bing came out to honor me with a few words:

Bing: Yo, just wanted to say I am not planning to attack you (ever really) given that your other neighbour, MJMD, is popping off.
Wouldn't want to weaken his neighbour.
Actually, I'm so spooked by him that maybe I could even prepare to attack him over water. I mean - his advantage in the game is immense right?

Charriu: I too don't have plans to attack you. My troops at our border are only for defense

Wow. If only Mjmd knew what a big impression he made on the other players by this move. At this stage I was not sure how to react to all this. Thankfully I was ill and therefore had time to think about things. I was mostly concerned about Mjmd breaking our deal and negating me my city spot. But as it turned out he didn't.
Yes, this was a great move by Mjmd, but is he really that far away from anybody else, I was thinking. The others have advantages to. Superdeath has a holy city and probably a shrine to in the near future. He also has Great Lighthouse, which is almost as good as Currency on this map. Scooter has the Pyramids and Representation. And Bing has more and more cities to tank his economy.
Superdeath obviously is willing to go to war against Mjmd. But who should help us both when he says multiple sides? Bing isn't in any state to fight anybody let alone across water. Scooter has the ships (triremes) and the right unit (Chu-Ko-Nu) thanks to bulbing Machinery with the Great Engineer. But would scooter really do that much in a conflict. I am not so sure that war is the right way right now. Scooter came around with this next:

Scooter: Sorry to toss this idea out while you're sick, so please don't devote brain power to this until you're feeling well enough.

But I'm a little concerned about Mjmd. Not enough to load up some Galleys with units, but concerned. SD is a bit concerned too, but he has a VERY lengthy NAP with him.

Threw out the idea of a trade embargo with him. SD is receptive if we can get more on board. Any thoughts to all of us closing borders with him in order to slow down his tech relative to the rest of us? His 0% gpt rate is uncomfortably good, but I think we could harm that by cutting him off our routes. I suppose I could be wrong about that - my trade route mechanics are fuzzy
Just think about it when you're feeling well enough to do so and let me know. No pressure

Charriu: That will definitely hurt him. I have a NAP until T100 with him. I could close borders, but before that I would like to have some units in our border cities just to be sure

Scooter: yeah that's fair. i'm headed to bed over here, so maybe think about it and if you're in, just let me know what timing would work and i'll catch up with you tomorrow (or later today for you). hope you're feeling better!

Charriu: I'm getting a little better after the fever of the night

Very interesting. This doesn't sound like scooter is really willing to fight Mjmd and I can understand why. There just isn't that much to gain for him. Also good to know that Superdeath has a long NAP with Mjmd. Will have to find out more from Superdeath. But the trade embargo idea sounds reasonable and good to me at this stage. Later that day I hooked up both Scooter and Superdeath at the same time.

Charriu: I've looked it up. I think my border cities are safe enough in T102 and I could close borders then.

Scooter: Ok, so tentatively interested but hold off a little longer

Charriu: I have nothing in my cities there right now and closing borders would just an invitation card for Mjmd

Scooter: yeah totally understand

Charriu: Other then the timing I'm on board for an embargo

Scooter: sounds good. it will still be useful then. I'll see if SD is still on board for that date. if yes, I'll wait until closer to the date to see if Bing will participate. I imagine he would (I would offer to open to him to replace the routes), but I'd rather not give him 10T to waffle or negotiate with mjmd or something

Charriu: Bing is PRO. If he has island cities he will gain almost nothing from foreign trade

Scooter: oh true. I guess PRO is pretty lousy on this map

Just to clarify I might be totally wrong here about PRO. It's hard to say without my tracking tool. As you can see I am willing to go for the trade embargo. At the same time I was chatting with Superdeath. I wanted to know how strong this dogpile really can be and what this long NAP of his is.

Charriu: Just to throw some questions at you while I'm recovering.

1. "support from multiple sides" does that mean scooter is willing to attack? Bing won't be any help I fear.
2. I have a NAP with Mjmd. Do you have any in place?
3. How and who would coordinate this operation?

Superdeath: 1. Yes, he has made talks about sending galleys/harassing his coast
2. I also have a NAP, which I'd why I'd need a total commitment from others before I break such a treaty.
3. Dunno yet

Charriu: I've looked at my current plans which are geared towards a defensive play. Right now I have available. Axes, spears and swords as well as galleys. I will have horchers around T105. Catapults and elephants at T114. To get those earlier would require a complete new plan, which I am not able to right now.

Superdeath: I'd have to see when I could get some units. Atm, looking like just WC's. Heading towards currency then I'll be able to judge better

Charriu: I think just WC would be a futile attempt.

Superdeath: Well, after currency hits I'll be able to get to a better military tech. Just saying if we wanted to hit him before he can actually "use" that population/cities, I'd have WC. I think we would need scooter to engage first, and fully take any islands/burn coastal cities before either of us engage as we border mjmd and scooter does not.. so a long drawn out war is possible if we engage and scooter doesn't send much, making scooter the new front runner ect

Charriu: If I were scooter that would be a lot to ask of me. To go in first.

Superdeath: He has far less to lose. He borders mjmd only by sea

Charriu: And right now I am not at all ready to attack anybody

Superdeath: Same
Which is why it was also suggested to try and get a total embargo on him first. With maybe island razes to keep his income really low

Charriu: How many island cities does Mjmd have anyway?

Superdeath: Should have 4-5

Charriu: An embargo might be a good first step.

Superdeath: Embargo also doesn't break NAPs technically..

Charriu: Yes, but before I do that I would like to have at least something in my border cities towards him

Superdeath: Probably a good idea

Looks like the dogpile is a suicide commando. Why should scooter ever do that. Superdeath is most definitly not ready to fight a war and he won't be for the next 20 turns. Same for me. Dogpile is of the table for me. But I had to find out more about those islands of Mjmd. I looked them up in-game and contacted scooter for some confirmations:

Charriu: I also checked. Mjmd must have 5 island cities.
2 on his gems island
1 on the stone island
2 unknown to me. Must be marble islands

Scooter: If they’re marble, they’re not the ones facing me as I’ve settled on that island and he’s explicitly told me he would leave them for fear of triremes

Charriu: If I haven't done so I can confirm that I can close borders with Mjmd in T102.
This should cost him at least 15 commerce per turn by my calculations.

Scooter: I think Bing faces “his” marble
Which would make sense

Charriu: Then 2 must be by Bing

Scooter: Ok sounds good. I’m in as is SD. I think he was going to talk with Bing. I’ll check in with him soon then and see if he’s gotten interest from Bing
That should force him to slow way down and consolidate and will keep him from hitting first-to tech spikes combined with his land and snowball out of control

Charriu: We need Bing to join the embargo. Even if he doesn't has islands his cities would give Mjmd 10 commerce total in his islands

Scooter: Ok. I don’t see why he wouldn’t. He doesn’t benefit the same anyway

Charriu: Definitely not

Scooter: I was hoping to let SD do the persuading since he’s been mildly annoyed with me in the past. But we’ll see

Charriu: Better SD does the convincing

Scooter: Yeah

Well that's the last nail in the coffing for the dogpile. There is only 1 Mjmd island for scooter to attack and take/raze. All other 4 Mjmd islands are safely between Mjmd and Bing. No way to raze those fast. Scooter would need to sail down south via Superdeath or Bing to attack those islands. I highly doubt this will happen. So trade embargo it is and will most likely be the only thing against Mjmd for now.

[Charriu]

The song



Music: RebeccaETripp - Secret of Mana Epic Orchestral Medley

I have to admit that Secret of Mana is one of my all-time favorite games since I played it so often as a kid. One major factor why I love it is the OST. Rebecca managed to write an astonishing medley encapsulating all the best pieces of the OST here and this is all live instruments.

And there are so many single great pieces like 'Phantom and ... a Rose' at 2:32 immediately followed by 'Into the thick of it'. Or 'Eternal Recurrence' at 11:02 with it's mystical charm. But I have to admit what gets me every time is 'Now Flightless Wings' at 15:10 with it's Glockenspiel part here played together with the harp and flutes. And then Rebecca has the audacity to follow this up with one of the most energetic pieces in 'Leave time for Love'. Awesome. There's just way to much to unpack in this single post, so just sit back and enjoy the music.

You can buy this great piece from Rebecca at her Bandcamp account: https://rebeccatripp.bandcamp.com/track/...ral-medley

T100:

---

It's T100 and as per tradition this requires a bigger report. First for the events of the last turns. I finished The Great Library in Tin. Awesome.  This more then doubles the great scientist generation in Tin. Now may ask why not build the National Epic there to increase GPP production. For this consider the following. With 2 scientists in Tin I was producing 15 GPP. With the National Epic this would increase by 6 GPP + 2 (unwanted) Artist GPP to a sum of 23 GPP. The Great Library though enables me to run 4 scientists in Tin. This increases GPP production to 35 GPP way more then the 100% from National Epic and I do not dirty the pool with Artist GPP points. In addition the extra beakers are also very much appreciated. Tin is now producing 42 beakers each turn even when I run 0% science.

For that let's look at the graphs:


I'm still king of GNP even though I have 7 cities less then Mjmd. But the important part is that unlike the others I always invest in techs each turn. Meaning even if I am even with Mjmd on GNP I still make more beakers then him with added benefit that I have a smaller target on my back. You will later see that I still hold a good tech advantage over the others.

Now this of course comes with a trade-off in that I still have the lowest city count compared to the others as can be seen by the food graph:



I know that a lot of players think food is everything in the early game. But is it though. Look at Bing. He has more cities then me and more food, but is he necessarily in a better position? He's still very much broke and limping to mathematics. Food is important, but you should still not overexpand as best showcased by Mjmd. Now not everything is as dire as it may look for me. For one the spots that I can still settle are safe enough and can't be challenged by the other players. So why bother myself with the extra maintenance for a few filler cities that only contribute less right now. Also keep in mind that I am running more scientists and those do not contribute food of course.

Looking at the production graph I did not screw up that much:



and even my power graph is in a state where I am not that much worried:



Also a very strange thing is happening each turn. Everytime I finish my turn I gain the graphs on Scooter. Right now I have 44 espionage in him and he has 52 into me, but since this is sequential his espionage is added before mine is added leading to this funny situation.

More things happened during the last turns. Superdeath finished The Temple of Artemis and Mjmd used a generated engineer to finish MoM. I have to admit that Mjmd is in the strongest position right now. But I will say more about the players later. The most important other thing for me is that with the turn roll to T101 I finished Code of Laws and founded confucianism in Shimomura. You know what let's look at my cities in order of settle times right now:

Tin - The capital and city of science.



Tin is in a bit of a bad shape after recently finishing the Great Library. But with the added banana plantation it will grow back quickly and I will also finally add more cottages to the cap. As you can see so far 2 great scientists have settled here and another one will join them in about 12 turns. Tin will also get Confucianism from the free missionary we got and a cheap monastery for more science.

Kondo - So far commerce city aspiring to be a production city



Kondo so far did a great job at growing those cottages for capital and will continue to do so. But with Metal Casting on the horizon this city can finally be converted to a more hammer focused city with two lumbermills and mines on the hills.

Shimomura - Heroic Epic city and Holy city of Confucianism



Shimomura will be a great production city thanks to the iron that was revealed in it's BFC. It's a bit of a shame that Confucianism was founded here. Would be nice if it dropped in Uematsu since I want to build Wallstreet there. With it being here I think I won't go for a shrine in this city. Nonetheless the city will put out a lot of military. There's another reason why this city is so important. It gives me access to my only dye tile. Very important.

Uematsu - Pure Commerce City unfortunately at the border



Uematsu was always planned as a commerce city and will remain on this path. It doesn't have the best food resources but thanks to the floodplains it's up to a respectable +5 food. Production is also somewhat poor. Thank god there are some hills and the iron in the BFC. Biggest issue though is that it is at the border with Bing. The mountains NE and the culture though will protect it somewhat. Uematsu also got a random buddhism spread last turn. This was somewhat annoying as it negated this city to found confucianism.

Mitsuda - Moai city



As you can see I finished Moai Statues in Mitsuda in the last turns. From here it's simply growing and producing stuff. If I were to produce a prophet for a shrine I would do it here. The city will get another lumbermill on the forest, but otherwise it does not need any worker attention.

David Wise - Border fortress



David Wise will never be as big a city as the others. Still thanks to good production tiles it will be a formidable border fortress against Bing and will churn out enough units for the situation here up in the north.

Kikuta - Gems culture city



I love this city. Mainly because I get the chance to crush Bings city with my culture. I should be able to gain more tiles from him thanks to that culture. I also plan to build a theatre to increase the culture pressure in the future. With the banana plantation finished soon this city too does not need any more worker attention.

Kirkhope - Specialist city



With the abundance of food in this city I will try to run more specialists here. Ideally I would like to run engineers here, but that's a long way ahead in the future. Of course the main reason for the city was the access to marble. Like the other two islands this city does not need any more worker attention.

Matsumae - Globe Theatre city



With all the food available here and potential for more food thanks to the river I want to turn this city into my globe theatre city. But before that I have plans to build the Parthenon here for some added culture and GPP points. I'm not hyperfocused on that wonder, so no biggy if I don't get it. Good thing about globe theatre is that together with the required buildings this will give the city enough culture to keep up with the southern Mjmd city that contains Stonehenge.
With it being food focused there is also less potential for raids from Mjmd.

Kushiro - Fishing village with horses



Mainly a fishing village. I settled it now even though it's totally safe mainly because it fit more neatly into my plans. It will also give me access to horses.

Those are my current 10 cities. I have plans to settle 2 more cities maybe the fillter city east of Mitsuda. This will keep me still lower then the rest in city count. There is potential to fit more cities in there but they will be poor filler cities and be more a drain on the economy right now. Better get new cities from neighbors.
As you can see I often mentioned workers. Right now I have only 7 workers and will increase that to 9. That should be more then enough to develop the rest of the land. One advantage of those islands is that they do not require lot's of workers.

Lastly before I turn to my fellow enem players, what's up in tech for me. Well this is my current state:




I debated myself when to go for Education (and Gunpowder). I could try it. But I think it's a bit to risky. Looking back at other PBs players managed to get to knights in the T120 at the earliest. I could make it to Education until then, but I doubt I get Gunpowder for some better units until then. Therefore I opted to go the safer route and acquire some better units. These techs should all be finished in the next 17 turns in that order:

1. Horseback Riding (For access to horchers and elephants, going for it first enables me to finish some stables before the units roll out)
   
2. Drama (Mainly for the theatre. It's a very cheap whip for every city, gives more culture on my borders and another happiness thanks to dye. Of course I also need a few for the globe theatre)
   
3. Meditation (I won't go into Organized Religion, not even for Monotheism in fact. Therefore I need a way to spread my religion. Thankfully PHI now gets cheap monasteries to do that)
   
4. Archery (Only for the horchers)
   
5. Construction (elephants as protection against knights)
   
6. Metal Casting (Lumbermills and workshops for some cities, and of course forges for more hammers and happiness)
   

After those I feel safe to go for Civil Service, Paper, Education and Gunpowder.

Now let's look at what the others are up to. For this I also looked back at my initial opponent analysis:

Ginger + GKC? now Scooter
Nebuchadnezzar (IND, PHI) of China (Pavillion, Chu-Ko-Nu, Agriculture, Mining)


Wonders:
Oracle
Pyramids
Colossus

Scooter inherited this game from Ginger although his ghost apparently sometimes still shows up. He is probably in the best position right now. He has predictably landed Pyramids and with Representation and Colossus he will get his economy up soon. This makes Galleon attacks from him against me less likely. He also has a very easy expansion target in the form of Bing. Unlike Mjmd he can just sit back and react to things to come. Should Superdeath fall against Mjmd Scooter can just grab remaining cities from him. Should Superdeath stay strong, Scooter can just pick up Bing.
In addition Scooter now also has access to his UU. He certainly is in the strongest position longterm. I know other players think Mjmd is the strongest right now, but Mjmd does not have a totally weak neighbor and that will be the deciding factor.

As for diplomacy. I love that Scooter took over. Chatting with him is a treat similar to a certain other player, who abandoned me to be a mapmaker. 

Player rating: 5
Aggression rating: 3
Economy rating: 5
Civ/Leader combo: 4
Diplo rating: 4
Please be my neighbor?: Yes
Neighbour rating: Warning
How likely to build the Pyramids: over 9000

--

Mjmd
Zara Yacob (CRE/ORG) of America (Carnegie Public Library, Minuteman, Agriculture, The Wheel)


Wonders:
Stonehenge
Great Wall
Hanging Gardens
Mausoleum of Mausolos

Mjmd has played this game perfectly so far. Diplomacy worked out in this favor with peace with both his neighbors. But his Hanging Gardens might soon backfire diplomacy wise as it put a target on him. Still he is in a safe position. Scooter can't really do anything against him and Bing declaring war against him is more of a benefit for him. That leaves the burden on Superdeath and me. He is not in a position to attack Mjmd soon. I on the one hand will have better units soon, but they may not be that decisive of an advantage. Hopefully the trade embargo scheduled for T102 will hurt Mjmd a bit without totally antagonizing him.

Other then that Diplomacy turned out good with Mjmd as expected. The biggest question with regards to him is what he will do next. He finished expansion and the only way to grow for him is war. So will he attack me or Superdeath? Hopefully the latter. I will at least make sure to show Mjmd that I have better units then Superdeath to divert any attack. If Mjmd attacks me then this game is probably over for me as this will through me back even if I survive. If he attacks Superdeath the question will be how good Superdeath defends and therefore prevent scooter attacking Superdeath. With a good defense Scooter will probably not attack as a war of attrition will hurt Mjmd more and Scooter is also concerned about Mjmd and would not want to easily boost Mjmds position.

Therefore I conclude that I have to deflect Mjmd to attack Superdeath and at the same time make sure Superdeath can hold up against Mjmd either by attacking Mjmd or boosting Superdeath's defense capabilities.

Player rating: 4
Aggression rating: 3
Economy rating: 4
Civ/Leader combo: 4
Diplo rating: 5
Please be my neighbor?: Yes, please
Neighbour rating: Warning
How likely to build the Pyramids: 3

--

Superdeath
Suleiman (PHI/IMP) of Egypt (Obelisk, War Chariot, Agriculture, The Wheel)


Wonders:
The Great Lighthouse
The Temple of Artemis
Holy City of Hinduism

Superdeath is in a solid position although not the best. I am a bit disappointed that he hasn't built a shrine yet. It's so easy to do with PHI and Egypt and improves your economy in a good way if done early enough. Still getting the Great Lighthouse ensures him a good position longterm. It also makes it less likely that he goes for Galleons since he would have to obsolete the Lighthouse now.

Superdeath biggest problem in this game is that he is sandwiched between two strong players in the form of Mjmd and Scooter. He already showed that he is willing to do something against one of his neighbors. Problem though is that he lacks the unit types and more help from other players. I think he will be destined to defend against one or both of his neighbors longterm. Should he fall then this will boost Mjmd and Scooter, but it would also make them direct neighbors. Better would be if they end up in a war of attrition against Superdeath especially Mjmd.

As for diplomacy. Superdeath talks, but we don't had that much to discuss yet. We both have a shared neighbor in Mjmd which is a hard nut to crack. I have to be a bit cautious with him though. Him asking me to join the dogpile sounded like the dogpile is a sure thing. Either he misjudges the other players willingness to attack or they are not honest with him.

Player rating: 3
Aggression rating: 5
Economy rating: 2
Civ/Leader combo: 3
Please be my neighbor?: NO, please
Neighbour rating: Danger
How likely to build the Pyramids: 1

--

Bing
Churchill (PRO/CHA) of Mali (Mint, Skirmisher, Mining, The Wheel)


Wonders:
None

Bing managed to get himself into a backwards position by overexpanding. He still hasn't finished Mathematics and therefore still needs a lot of time for Currency to. This of course means he is far behind and shouldn't be a danger for Scooter and me. Still we should not leave him enough time to get back on his feet. He is settling finally his islands which helps his economy thanks to PRO. Good thing that Scooter already pinkdotted him. Still that and my culture attempts won't be enough to crush him. I think Musketman together with catapults are the next best option for me to get on the offensive against Bings skirmishers. These should be available sometime before T150. But a lot depends on the Mjmd situation.

Diplomacy is something that happens only in a state of emergency for Bing, so never expect him to do more on this field.

Player rating: 2
Aggression rating: 3
Economy rating: 2
Civ/Leader combo: 3
Diplo rating: 2
Please be my neighbor?: Yes
Neighbour rating: Food
How likely to build the Pyramids: 1


Now those are all of my fellow players. A lot will depend on what Mjmd will do in the upcoming turns. But I still think that Scooter has the best position right now. As for myself I see me behind scooter and Mjmd and before Superdeath and Bing. Also also nice to see that both my water-neighbors are less likely to go for Galleons.