[Spoiler] Desperados: The Black Sword & Agent

[agent427]

It's hard to get a good read of Ipecac's map in screenshots due to Toroidal, but here's my best shot:

Core

North of Core

South of Core

Rome - Northeast of Core

The Network has huge swathes of unsettled land to its North, West, and South. The South land seems to compromise its own continent, or may an extension of the lands that Rome currently occupies.
I expected a lot less empty land considering how we're bumping up against neighbors over here.
Also, wetbandit's still is still missing.. They must be in that 1/4 unfogged area of the world between Mongolia and Persia.

My immediate interpretation is... The Network is not competing with us for islands, but that's because there aren't any islands left! We'll see what my scouting Galley uncovers.

I didn't get a good pic of the lands just south of Network (will do next turn), but if you sorta turn your head and squint to parse this:


The area in Red is in the Network's mainland, but has a Mountain range cutting it off from the Network's core. Aggressive but tenable city plant possibility.
Blue is not on the Network's mainland, and could be grabbed easily without appearing aggressive. It's far from our own core, but does have silver.

[agent427]

In the last two turns, HRE has put 2 more Axemen into Aachen, including one with the telltale blue glow. I'll keep an eye on it but so far it's not a big deal.

[agent427]

Sounds good.

The plains hill for the marble is another option, I was thinking it would create too much trouble with Mongolia.

Since when does the mighty Genghis Khan fear the Mongols?

Looks like conflict is inevitable.

I logged into see Mongolia offering us a Sheep in the trade menu... A peace offering, the intent of which became immediately obvious:


They just planted this city, Lazy Susan. As far as I can see it has no resources except the Incense in Cera Una Volta, and the Fish that is in the 1st ring of the city I'm about to settle.

Since we have a headstart in culture for the former, and the latter is 1st ring, I'm not worried about culture war. But when he sees us strangling his new city I expect he'll react. This also blocks off the northern land passage between our lands and the new colonies of the east. Not super important when we're bridging the gap by galley.. but I still don't like it.

It's flat ground, defended only by a worker, and the Impi there is shock, so there should be no repeats of past failures. I really think I should declare and raze it immediately. I'd just like to check with you before starting a tussle with yet another neighbor.

[The Black Sword]

I probably wouldn't push it. I don't think we can afford to do this to all of our neighbours and both Romes deserve some attention. So long as we win the culture battles, and we should, this plant doesn't really make our situation any worse, Cera una volta is still safe, and the new city isn't really any more isolated than it already was. On the other hand, we can probably raze that thing via galleys whenever we want, or he needs quite a garrison.

If you think we can kill it and get peace and go back to the status quo then it's a good idea, but I don't think it really hurts our position(or helps his tbh).

[agent427]

Alright, cooler heads prevail. Thinking about it now, better to force him to over garrison a useless city then to do him a favor by razing it (as HRE did for us )
I sent a Crab gift offer to them. Will they interpret this as a peace offering for the city about to crunch Lazy Susan? Or perhaps realize that I'm feeling crabby about their sheepish incursion?

T100 Report:
Settled newest city. I have 2 workers I can ship over by Galley but I think I'll keep one to start mining Cera Una Volta so it develops into a good production base, which it'll need to be in its frontline position.



Another Sergio Carbucci film starring Frank Nero! I haven't seen this one myself but get a load of that poster.

First build-- Ikhanda, Granary or Workboat? I'm concerned that Mongolia could chop a monument into Lazy Susan to steal Companeros first ring, so I'd like to chop an Ikhanda first, even though it stunts growth.

Espionage reallocated to reflect the new situation:


Research visibility on HRE shows they are going for Code of Laws. Good news... The longer they delay Iron Working, Alphabet, or Construction the better..

Here's a better look at settlement possibilities to the far west:


Both Red/Yellow seem doable. Pink is a silly idea to grab Marble. It has a river crossing defense but seems needlessly aggressive to a potential ally. Plus it'll be many, many turns before I could have a quarry built there, far too late to impact building the Mausoleum.

World news:
The Network (ipecac) declared war on Rome (Adrien) then peaced out a turn later. Did poor Rome get worker sniped again?
Colossus built, guessing it's same party who built the Oracle and then went for Metal Casting.

[agent427]

Forgot to consider that "The Network" is actually the Viking Empire.. settling on the coast near them should be interesting......

[agent427]

Oh yeah and Gold is hooked up. I got a lot of cottages set up during the recession... time to grow, cities!

[agent427]

Another turn another city



Takes up to 6 cities named from Lee Van Cleef films... fella was in a lot of European Westerns.

The culture on the water tile gives visibility of Rome's city, but it works both ways. I see two forests blocking his route for reinforcements though, and the city is too small for him to whip. A single chariot + axe could take it out with 2 turns of attack, I think.

Graphs are discouraging... We are tied for world power, lead in land, but HRE is ahead in GNP, crop yield, and production.

Other world news

[GermanJoey]

Lee Van Cleef is so cool... I mean, goddamn, who else could pull of lines like this without sounding like a cornhole?



"They tell me... you're a good gambler."
"I'm always lookin' for the odds."

[agent427]

He's certain to make many more appearances in this game, I'm sure.

Congrats on making it into the quote banner, jojo!