[spoilers]Casually, Commodore: Isabella of Sumer

[Commodore]

Couple fun turns, albeit very quiet ones. I'm setting up for a return to slavery and another expansion push. The rough terrain to the southeast is interesting; primarily I'll be contesting Dazed for the area, although the region is food-light so its not very snowball-boosting. Interesting is that bare grass hill covered by a river; it might be iron or coal, and although its food-light that's a lot of riverside and it is well-wooded.


Nothing compares to this beauty, however. I'm giving high odds on a resource on the bare patch of land here, but otherwise, this is basically begging to chop one or two wonders in. I could, intriguingly, also chop a forge and Colossus in record time here. Probably not, but worth consideration.


Right now, though, it's all about Building. I balanced some wealth building, specialists, and tiles together to snag a 1t Monotheism; next turn when I swap back into slavery I can net OR too as I need to start spreading Confucianism around. I think Vinson is up to the task of missionary-building, that's for sure. Worker swarm is heading up to get that wonderful cow/sheep/sharing location running.


I opened borders with Mostly Harmless, so Currency is getting close to its full value for us here. Calendar needs to get slotted in soon just to keep the capital growing; I want it to take over every riverside tile it can here shortly. Man these are some lovely capital locations, aren't they?


On the subject of GP, I'll take a Great Scientist or Engineer from the capital next, and then I'll look into netting and artist or two to royally mess someone up. Right now, sorry bud, MH is looking tastiest.

[TheHumanHydra]

It's fun watching you play, Commodore; you make it seem so easy.

[Commodore]

It's fun watching you play, Commodore; you make it seem so easy.

Thanks, THH, I'm here to entertain. I'm playing an easy-breezy kind of game here, and make no mistake, it is showing; Fin/Spi (Nicolae) should not be beating Exp/Spi in development like this. Still, I think I have a reasonable chance at winning assuming I can keep up with expansion and make the economy hum; painful as it is, that means disciplined cottage work in the capital and along this main river valley, and rapidly getting the hammers up elsewhere.

[TheHumanHydra]

Painful? Cottages make my mouth water like one of Pavlov's dogs. All those coins ... bags and bags of them ...

I'm sure you'll do fine, Commodore.

[Commodore]

Heck yes painful! Representation scientists are so much nicer in the very short term. Of course, once I have villages and Bureau, it's easy, but that takes sucking up turns of cottages. Not to worry, I'm sure I'll do fine too. Fine enough, that's the question!

[TheHumanHydra]

Right, I see what you mean. I guess you can console yourself with the fact that working cottages will let you grow onto more cottages (or whatever), whereas specialists will cost you food.

[Krill]

The answer is always more pop as quick as you can get it.

[Commodore]

Slow turns over the weekend; still, much has happened. The empire grew to nine cities with the settlement of Odin here:


It's expensive to be an empire on Mirrorland. I sucked up a bit of wealth building to get Calendar fast; silks, spices, and soon dyes will make it worthwhile, particularly in Vinson Massif and Everest. No HR means super-cities are hard, although a couple cheap temples in each will help things along. The Great Wall? See wealth; stone makes it a great bargain.


Dazed is kind of pissing me off with all his war chariots and axe all up in my grill down in the southeast...


...so I did something about it. I offered peace, but no sweat if he rejects it.

[Commodore]

Sumeria is OP: You heard it here first. Not only are the cheaper ziggurats awesome for this game, where the second-ring cities are costing ~8gpt at even size five or six, but vultures are great for chariot dealing-with. I socked out a damaged axe with my spear in the north (43% odds), and then cleaned up this southern full-health war chariot at 77% odds.


Flush with victory, I then cleared his warrior out; no more yellow units are visible on the field. Up 33 hammers and a whale of a lot of GG points, sweet. Now let's see if he'll take peace again.


Nicolae is very aware of the implications of our fighting, I'm sure. He's hanging around down in the south, lurking all opportunistic. Yo Nico, opportunities are all over in Egypt, mate!


Slowly but surely, I am growing Everest to a proper size to use Bureau. Just because I'm in an ancient-era war with Egypt doesn't mean I shouldn't focus on the economy! Temple(s), spice, dyes, and gems are still to come to boost the happy-cap, and I'm not going to dismiss Notre Dame from the roadmap; Engineering makes sense sooner rather than later.

[Kurumi]

Thanks for the update! Awesome so far. Still, so many possibilities await!