[Spoilers] Commodore as Darius of the HRE

[Commodore]

Agreed, perhaps work to court the Ottomans and play RL7 and GES against each other.

"Wow, yeah, you should take those galleons RL7 are selling, galleons full of Jans are nearly unstoppable. I'll start my own NAP cooldown when you guys cancel, Yuri."
-Commodore, diplomatic arsonist.

Yep. Been a few chats which I'm having difficulty retrieving due to gmail farts. But here's the jist of it all:

• Yuri will be mass-drafting Janissary troops and buying galleons to go play havoc with GES. We're NAP'd to 130, we get along really well, and he knows I like him and Maestro.
  
• GES is handing over his reigns to Luddite for warmongering/ defensive wars despite wanting to win culturally. We're far away from each-other, he's a fan of me and thinks I'm his best ally in this game, and we get along pretty well.
  
• RL7 has just fought a war "with me" (although I didn't start it, really only picked up the scraps/told them scouting info they already knew). The "what to do about GES" question is tossed around a lot, Seven and I are having nice chats, we get along well, and we like each other personally.
  

They seem to be forgetting (and I need to start buttering up Luddite immediately in case he's noticed), the person in this game I've gotten along with the best, who I've said I like the most, is...Mr. Nice Guy. Who I've declared on twice. Look, I'm an amiable dude, but guys, I play to win. Just, well, let's bet on them forgetting that little fact.

Oh, also, it might not matter. On that other little question:

I don't know that GES remains the favorite for long once RL7 is cooking with 1.8 starting blobs.

That. Um. Isn't RL7. GES has turned research back to on, with what I can only assume is Oxford up and running, and he's still two techs (2-turns) from Printing Press. Yeah, I'd say he's still the favorite. New plan: I'm bee-lining Assembly Line. Org factories turn on, military goes to infantry on rails, and I'm getting Drama on overflow next turn. It's culture-pumpin' time.

Legendary city candidate #3, the lovely Miss Zamora ladies and gentlemen.



Look at how those lovely cottages shine! My other core cities will shift to pumping support infrastructure next.



Although I really need Biology for poor Ophir. It's a trial, getting this little holy city up to snuff while all the lands are so poor.



The two cities of MNG's that I'll have will just be soldier pumps and, should worst come to worst, acceptable crumble zones. The last planned new Hyborian settlement will be founded on the plains hill tip here in three turns.



If nothing else, it's an adventure. Just need to keep a low, low profile here...and well, see top of this post.

[Commodore]

Sigh. Friends don't let friends post while sleepy and overly-dramatic at 1am. One final interesting thought; with Luddite taking over for GES, and MNG on the way out, I'm the only original turn player still playing. (Well, I assume as Ranamar seems to be completely out of control of his own civ and Yuri is on vacation). I need to start a "free Ranamar" campaign, complete with signs.

[Commodore]

So, you want massive battles, stirring combats, deadly clashes?



Yeah. I'll get right on that for you when I actually have those fights myself. As it was, a mace, chariot, and warrior vs. a knight, two landsknechts, and two war chariots wasn't going to go any other way. Somewhat unexpectedly, the flanking knight won his 30% battle rather than withdrawing, but the other 98% battles went as expected.

In the lower-right corner you can see that captain vroom-vroom is about to really take off. Here's this turn's demos for comparison. My lovely little 4:1 ratio is about to amount to, as they say, nothin' but a hill of beans.



My cultural cities are a full little balancing act. Aquilonia is a hoss, don't get me wrong, but she's very nearly maxed for growth. After taking screens I stole the wheat back from Ophir to drop the growth down to 1-turn. I'll max her out at the current happy cap of 19 and there we'll stay at least until biology farms.



Poor Ophir. It's my holy city, on a hill, and unboatable, on the one hand. On the other though, it's a dang hard place to grow. This is where the Hermitage is going, I think. The only good news is that I can pull a heck of a lot of hammers here for every available cultural building that I can cram in, which will be "all of them".



Maybe I should see about getting Christian Missionaries before the Ottomans suicide on GES...

[Ceiliazul]

Congrats, for the first time your crop yield is above average!

[Ceiliazul]

And you're winning the Regoarrar prize for most posts in a spoiler thread, too. Truly a banner day for Holy Rome.

[Commodore]

And you're winning the Regoarrar prize for most posts in a spoiler thread, too. Truly a banner day for Holy Rome.

You hurt me there, Ceil. I'm not inflating things by posting diplomatic correspondence without commentary, nor am I only posting on my own spoiler thread in the forums.

me: Hey Luddite.
charliepye: hey
4:48 PM me: So, are you officially in the driver's seat now in PBEM 19?
charliepye: yeah
GES is still around giving me advice, though
4:50 PM me: Ah, okay.
4:51 PM Well, welcome to the game as a turn player, although I suppose you've been around for a while.
charliepye: haha, thanks
me: You've probably got the nicest position of any replacement player in RB history.
4:52 PM charliepye: yeah, no kidding...
usually people only quit if they're in a bad position
I guess GES just really doesn't like the late game stuff
4:53 PM me: It's weird, I never usually even play with the late-game stuff.
In SP you can usually see which way things are heading by a certain point.
4:54 PM charliepye: yeah, me too
me: I take it your first act while taking control of Egypt would be to finally, y'know actually research stuff.
charliepye: i'll just stop before the game really ends
haha yeah
4:55 PM well he was stockpiling gold until finishing oxford
me: I figured as much
4:56 PM Either that or he thought it was Alpha Centauri for a second and was going for "corner planetary stock market" victory.
charliepye: haha that would be sweet
4:57 PM me: So, I notice you're flush with cash and yet low on the power ranks...want to buy some War Chariots?
4:58 PM charliepye: hmm not particularly :/
me:
charliepye: i'll just tech for a while
4:59 PM maybe start building military if i feel threatened, though XD
5:00 PM me: Well, as you can tell by the most recent name (of MNG's captured city), my expansion's about maxed for the moment.
charliepye: hmm i see
7 minutes
5:07 PM charliepye: so what are your plans going forward?
me: Right now? MNG didn't settle his south all that completely, actually.
5:08 PM charliepye: so you're just gonna take more land from him?
me: I'll be settling the island on my side of our inner sea, too
Nope, the two I've taken are it, I'll just be filling in the dotmap.
5:09 PM As population shows, I have a lot of vertical growth still. I'll be growing and teching, mostly.
5:10 PM charliepye: yeah, sounds reasonable
me: I'm fairly sure I'm prickly enough to be a non-optimal target, but at the same time I'm not screwed for land anymore thanks to my MNG gains. I'm content.
5:14 PM *of course, now watch aluminum be on the other side of the world.
5:15 PM charliepye: haha
anyway i need to go
5:16 PM nice chatting with you, i'll talk to you more later
me: That's fine. Welcome and cheers, Luddite.
charliepye: thanks
me: 'till later.

Even when the chat is mostly just "hey, whatsup?" "hey, you gonna kill me now?" "nope" "'kay". Luddite is a reasonable feller who knows what's coming, and he knows exactly where I am right now...to use Pitboss 4 terms, I'm the luddite to his Lord Parkin right now.

Meanwhile, I'm frantically trying to push the Ottomans into doing my dirty work while I do nothing.

Yuri: hey Commodore, you around?
me: Yep, what's up
Yuri: I was thinking about your earlier chat with Maestro
in which you mentioned that RL7 and you are planning something against GES
me: Eventually
3:53 PM Yuri: I was wondering if there are any firm plans? some kind of a timeline?
me: His GNP while saving gold is more than mine at 100%
Yuri: yeah, he is definitely the biggest threat
and with his 3 religious wonders, he will only increase the lead
me: Yeah, it's scary.
3:54 PM I'll definitely be including you in the plans when its something concrete.
3:55 PM For now, I'm really trying to figure out how long the GES/RL7 NAP is.
Don't want us to cancel while they're still NAP'd into the next twenty turns.
Yuri: yeah, I understand
the point is, we now have Janissaries, might as well use them
3:56 PM me: Yeo
Yuri: I'm sure Maestro mentioned that we want Lyons, don't think we have a chance to get it though, we can get there in 5 turns at the earliest, I'm sure RL7 or you will capture it by then
me: Erm, yep
Yuri: so GES is the most logical target
if we want to attack at all
me: It won't be me in Lyons
Yuri: I'm thinking if we should build military at all :P)
3:57 PM me: RL7 might take it, but it's a mess up there.
3:58 PM Yuri: oh, really? we're actually talking to RL7, and asking them to leave Lyons for us. they could even agree
but so far it looked like a steamroll
I thought it was like 2-3 turns until MNG is dead
me: It has been, but MNG does have a ton of knights/maces around there.
3:59 PM RL7 might lose one of their just-captured cities.
Yuri: aha, I see, interesting! they actually told us last turn to hurry up while Lyons was still available, and we were thinking of sending a small stack of just 6 units for Lyons
we won't now
4:00 PM me: I'm a lock for Chartres in his south.
Won't hurry up? It still might be for the best.
Talked to MNG at all?
4:01 PM He's a little miffed about RL7 more than anything else, might be willing to let you guys take it more easily than them
4:02 PM Yuri: hmmm, I might talk to him. we didn't really talk lately. he was repeatedly asking to re-open borders, which we couldn't do due to the agreement with RL7. and then he sent us the strange trade offer, which even caused Maestro to hold the turn. but now dialogue
me: Of course, turn order matters. I lost the shots at Tours and Rheims due to MNG-RL7-me order.
4:03 PM Yuri: Oh, we know that, we lost Taj to GES on turn order
4:04 PM me: Bah
4:05 PM On the plus side, GES would have been even scarier early if he hadn't lost Hinduism and Judaism to me via turn order.
Yuri: true
4:06 PM ok, thanks a lot for the update on the situation in France! A lot to think about And please let us know how the plans against GES develop, we're thinking hard about cancelling the NAP and forcing him to start building units
4:07 PM me: That might be wise.
Force him to spend money on units rather than tech
4:08 PM Plus, he's a ways from Astronomy still, so you can hit him but he can't hit you.
4:09 PM Yuri: well, we have common border in the middle, so he could hit us there. but cultural borders in the outer sea are certainly to our advantage
me: Ah, yeah
Yuri: and if we land a stack of 10 Jans in our border city in the middle, it could be intimidating by itself
me: Yep
4:10 PM One suggestion, a few cats too
Yuri: definitely
me: It's been hurting MNG a lot to not have any collateral.
Yuri: he doesn't have Cats?? wow that's weird
4:11 PM me: Yeah, it's odd
Maces and knights, but not construction.
Meanwhile, I have a ton of cats at critical nodes throughout my land.
I made sure that RL7 saw 'em too.
4:13 PM Yuri: that's wise. I didn't expect MNG to undervalue Cats so much though
not having Construction at this point of the game is just... I can't understand it at all
me: Yeah, boggles my mind.
4:14 PM I mean, good play getting guilds, yes.
But I'd rather have the ability to move my maces across rivers.
4:15 PM Yuri: well, RL7 got Guilds AND Astronomy AND built a sizeable army in the same time
and they do have Construction
me: Yeah
Engineering too
All stuff that's hard to counter short of gunpowder...
:-)
Which I'll be getting next turn.
4:16 PM Yuri: well, I won't tell you exactly how much they wanted for the NAP extension, but it was over 500g
guess they didn't expect us to have Gunpowder
good for you
me: Hah
Nice.
That's not worth it.
Although I bet they would agree to a short NAP if GES is the next target.
4:17 PM Might be able to buy galleons, even, unless the excellent lawyer that is GES managed to include a mention of selling to third parties in their NAP
4:18 PM Yuri: Galleons are on offer
but again, we can't agree on the price so far
me: Dude.
Galleons loaded with Jans are incredible.
4:19 PM Might have more luck now with all the MNG cities falling so fast.
4:20 PM Yuri: he actually sent us the price they want just a few hours ago. it's 200g. I know how awesome Galleons are, but not sure they're THAT awesome
don't tell anyone about this offer please
4:22 PM me: Of course not.
That's roughly 1-2 galleons per turn of gold saving.
4:24 PM Yuri: yeah. I mean, for 150g, I would probably accept it without further thoughts. but 200g... almost 4g for 1h... don't know. will talk with Maestro before deciding
me: Hrm
Well, you're heading to grocers soon?
4:25 PM Gold gets a lot more efficiently acquired at that point.
4:26 PM Yuri: yeah, true. guess I just didn't expect to see such a high price
getting Galleons without Astronomy, which is a very bad tech for us, is certainly extremely valuable
me: Yeah
4:27 PM Not to mention the surprise factor.
Flash a galley down south and a couple jans up in the hub, then wham
4:28 PM Yuri: yeah, that would be a big wham for sure
4:29 PM me: He have any critical wonders in coastal areas?
4:31 PM Yuri: Not sure, didn't pay more attention to it lately... on my laptop, it takes ages just to check internal stuff
me: Heh, just post the screen-shots and ask the lurkers, it working for me.
4:32 PM Yuri: I will check it when I'm back on Wednesday, not worth bothering the lurkers I think
me: Either way. ;-)
4:33 PM Keep me up to date, I'll cancel on GES when you guys do
Yuri: will do!
thanks
4:34 PM me: Hey, if any of us win we're going to have to work together.
Oh, Hindu missionary is on it's way, though I note you'd gotten a free Judaism spread.
4:35 PM Yuri: oh, that's nice, I didn't notice that. guess I was only checking for captured cities and new wonders in the turn log
me: Yeah, that's been my main attention too
Just noticed the pop-up message.
4:36 PM Yuri: ah, it could be at the end of this turn, I didn't even have it in my turn log then
but it's excellent news
4:37 PM me: Yep!
Bureau capitals need as many monasteries as possible.
4:38 PM Yuri: sure! we're working hard on it. although Oxford has higher priority
me: Well, naturally.
4:39 PM How many Universities is it for a small map?
Yuri: 5
me: Oh, I was thinking 6
Excellent.
4:40 PM Yuri: no, 6 on standard, 5 on small. I wasn't sure it scaled, was relieved to see it did
4:41 PM me: That's actually nice
There are seven cities that I want universities in soon either way, but it helps in the planning.
4:43 PM Yuri: it sure does! we've been going back and forth trying to figure out the optimal way of getting them
4:44 PM me: Lots and lots of whips.

4:45 PM Yuri: yeah, our citizens will remember these years for a long time :D
me: Ah well, it's emancipation time soon enough
Might as well enjoy it while we can.
4:46 PM Yuri: yeah

**************************************
Eric: Heyo commodore. You probably checked the demos / gnp graph in the last turn, but just in case you didn't... it's not good. GES is killing everybody with 1404! gnp
16 minutes
3:40 PM Eric: At this point it's pretty clear that somebody will need to attack him
We're curious if you'd mind sharing your alphabet intel. Specifically, what kind of military techs he has
38 minutes
4:18 PM Eric: just kidding. Yuri informed me that everybody has alpha now, so we can see for ourselves :-)
27 minutes
4:46 PM me: Gah, sorry mate.
Back
I was in the lab, normally I remember to log out.
Eric: No wories
4:47 PM me: I can do you one better though.
Eric: do you have EP research visitbility?
me: My org courthouses went up fast, and I have an EP lead on GES.
Yep. :-)
No machinery even yet.
Eric: we've been splitting RL7/GES for a while now
hmmm
unfortunately we know he has edu, so gunpowder is already researchable
4:48 PM me: Yeah
It's going to be a lot of 1-turn techs.
Eric: I think he probably saved gold through nearly all of the golden age
to 1) lower his GNP, 2) get oxford up before spending
4:49 PM me: More 2 than 1, methinks.
4:50 PM What's your gold/science ratio? IE how many turns at 100% science can 1-turn of 100% gold get you?
I figure you guys have comparable sizes and thus expenses.
4:52 PM The printing press gold will make it even crazier.
How close are you guys to PP?
5 minutes
4:57 PM Eric: Soryr, work happened. hh, off the top of my head, 1 turn of savings pwoers about 1.5 turns of research
4:58 PM me: Okay, so he's looking at maybe about 20 turns of research, as the golden age had to have boosted that ratio.
5:00 PM Eric: yikes
that's a lot of research
me: Yeah
At a roughly 1k beaker per turn rate.
5:01 PM Need to get Yuri to approve it, but we're gonna want to cancel though rolling NAPs.
10-turn cool down for you guys too?
Eric: correct
Clearly he will runaway if he doesn't get slowed down
5:02 PM We're evaluating our ability to attack
me: Buying galleons seems to be the best.
I checked it earlier, he's not in reach of destroyers in a 15-turn timeframe.
5:03 PM Eric: Yeah, seven asked for 200g per galleon, which just isn't going to happen
me: And destroyers are the only real worry.
Hrm, astro annuls the Colossus, that's the wait, right?
5:04 PM Eric: correct
Reasons for expensive galleons:
1) Galleons are good
2) Astro obsoletes Colossus
3) RL7 have an Astro monopoly right now
5:06 PM me: Lessee, I could make a dogleg to astro, but I don't have a ton of hammers free for a naval build-up.
Have you thought about galleys covered by ironclads?
Eric: Reasons I'm not going to pay 4 gold per hammer
1) RL7 isn't going to attack us, even though Seven threatened that they would in the last e-mail
2) We're going to use the galleons to attack RL7's primary competitor for 1st place. They couldn't ask for a better political situation than a chance to build up their new land while everybody else beats the crap out of each other
3) 4 gold per hammer? Seriously?
5:07 PM The major problem with galleys is no ocean access :-/
5:08 PM me: Your borders allow that via me, right?
5:09 PM Eric: Oh, they do. It's just still inferior tactically. Less surprise, less maneuverability, only one real vector of attack.
me: True.
It's...sticky.
Eric: Indeed
5:10 PM I'm obviously biased, but what will RL7 do with their galleons for the next 40 turns? A whole lot of nothing. They could loan them to us, and watch us go attack GES. How is that a bad deal for them?
me: 40 turns?
5:11 PM Eric: say 25 instead
me: Yeah, if it's 40, that's game over and I call them idiots.
Eric: If I were them I'd never attack again :-p They have a huge land advantage now. They just need to sit on it
me: Oh, were you talking loans or sales?
5:12 PM That might make a difference to them.
Eric: Loans would be fine with me. I'd give 'em back after attacking with them.
me: That's...annoying.
5:13 PM Maybe a gpt rental would help them?
Eric: We're still negotiating, and I haven't really pushed hard yet, so who knows. But I get the feeling that Seven wants to push every deal for every possible concession, always.
5:14 PM And it's working. He's got Yuri ready to pay 170g per Galleon. I guess I'm more stubborn, heh.
5:15 PM me: Seven's a good diplomat.
We need to start a "free Ranamar" campaign.
5:16 PM Eric: Yeah, it would seem he gets results. But it bugs me. Working with you is easy: we give a little, you give a little, everybody's happy. Dealing with Seven feels like you give a little, and he'll just take it and ask for more.
me: Yep.
Eric: Heh heh. Free Ranamar :-)
5:17 PM me: I just tested the waters on what had happened in your war (not letting on I already knew from you guys' side).
Seven didn't let anything slip at all.
5:18 PM Start renaming your border units, and I will too.
5:19 PM "Ranamar, buddy, can you hear us"
"Position a knight facing north on this tile if you can"
"We know they don't let you talk, but we can help"
5:20 PM Eric: bahahaha
nice
5:21 PM me: It's telling that the massively huge #1 and #2 teams are MP experienced.
5:22 PM Eric: yeah
I know things we should have done differently
But that's ok :-) It's my first game
5:23 PM me: Yep, chalk it up to a learning experience.
And hey, it's not over.
5:24 PM Eric: No, not at all. It's not like we're Adlain
me: Start one of those 18-turn double GA's and you might be surprised what pops.
Right. Poor, poor Adlain
Eric: yeah, the fact that we still have "cheap" golden ages available is useful.
And I didn't really mean that as a shot at him, just at how he was outclassed beyond the point of having any influence on the game at all.
5:25 PM me: Yeah, understood.
He seems like a nice guy
Eric: indeed
And a good sport
me: Yep.
...but I'd rather have some fun a try to win this.
Let me know when you and Yuri are planning to cut the NAP
5:26 PM I'll hop in.
Aaaaaand quittin' time!
5:27 PM I'm off to head home, might be on later tonight.
Until later, g'day.

Looks like they'll be standing up to the big mean Egypt first. I'm in mind of a certain Chinese proverb: "The nail that stands the highest gets hammered down."

[Commodore]

So after 48 hours of nothing due to the mix-ups of a new turnplayer, we're finally back on track and I got a turn.

To begin with, research back on, demos:



Expenses are low, which is nice, but those game-long lagging indicators are still lagging. My maintenance will be increasing next turn, but internal trade will rejoice with the intercontinental trade routes:



Also, filling in the last good city location now safely inside my borders. I'll build a turn of culture to pop the new city's out and then things should look nice and solid.



No longer do my ships have to make the long voyage around the blob. Second critical canal fort, done! The road connection will be another handful of turns.



Over all, I'm happy with my gains on the MNG front. Sure, I'd have rather taken more, but given how very little I actually brought to the front, I took some nice territory. One aside, I need to ensure Corinthia and Hyperborea both get 3rd-ring border expansions soon to seal off the upper-right area in this screenshot.



RL7 made massive gains, however. Well-taken complaints about the lack of fresh water aside, this is good, strong land. It will need a bit more worker labor and a lot of courthouses to be profitable, but to name of the game for the financial players now is "solidify the tech lead before Mali consolidates her gains".



Actually, interestingly enough, that's kind of the situation for GES too. With my marginal new cities and Yuri's aggressive hub-settling, Egypt is now in fourth (and soon, last) place for land area. We're rapidly filling up this world.



Although don't get me wrong, GES is still in very good shape. The tech screen might not show it quite so strongly, but check out that gold...imagine that's about twice that many beakers in flexible research. Also of interest, poor Yuri is decidedly behind the ball...this upcoming attack of his is definitely a make-or-break proposition.



In the meantime, I really need to get a navy going. Ironclads would do a great deal to relieve my worries about galleons, and in the inner seas at least Ironclads+galleys make for a formidable force. Yes, galleons are better, but against the tech advantages that are about to be brought to bear I need to pick and choose carefully which directions I'll be going. For instance, while galleons/frigates would be nicer, they would not be "loosing Communism's Great Spy and Physics' Great Scientist" better.

I could sure use dry-docks though. My main naval producer is finally up and running at a decent size.



...airships, need airships...and railroads...[SIZE="1"]and what about cannons...[/SIZE]

[Ceiliazul]

GES last in land and first in tech... if I was playing single-player that would a no-brainer reason for an aggressive war.

Here's hoping Yuri can beat him to the punch. RL7 really shouldn't be haggling about the price of galleon if it delays the GES war. Hopefully Yuri resolves that issue real soon.

[Commodore]

Okay, this is just getting silly.



Yeah, Yuri's about to get so incredibly reamed its not even funny, but heck, man, you don't NAP with that, not when you're #2 in soldiers.

[COLOR="Yellow"]Luddite/GES,

I'm writing to inform you both that I've decided to end our rolling NAP. I'm still fuzzy on the exact meaning of "inclusive" in the whole turn inclusive, so depending on what that means I could declare war on either 118 or 119. It's up to you guys how you'd like that to read, because I don't plan on declaring war in either turn, honestly, nor the one after, nor the one after...I actually don't mean this as some sort of hostile "in ten turns I'll come at you, bro" thing, I just have been watching the GNP of insanity and figure it makes sense to call "Farmers Gambit!" If you merely have to focus a little more on an army to feel secure, which is what I've been having to do, then I think we can continue playing economy races.

Hope things are going well,
-Commodore[/COLOR]

Yes, that's a passive-aggressive sign off, but hey, it's not like I'm planning on being active-aggressive right now. Luddite at least seems to understand.

[COLOR="Pink"]You do realize that Luddite will have rifles and frigates within the next 10 turns? If you want Luddite to focus his wrath on yuris, I would suggest you re-thinking. Otherwise, well, I cannot make any promises. Or is it your intention to throw the game to the team with MFG over 300 each turn?

GES

---

Hmm I see. My reading on that is that the NAP includes the tenth turn after you end it. Anyway I hope you don't feel like you have to suicide rush me to stay competitive, although I realize that GES's GNP graph is really scary right now.
-Luddite[/COLOR]

GES is pissed, but I think Luddite is the important actor here. Hopefully this reply amuses.

[COLOR="Yellow"]Yeah, that makes sense, including the tenth turn it is then (through the end of 118). Again, you won't be suicide rushed from this end, I'm not going to be throwing the game to the MFG of 300 or the GNP of 1700, that'd be stupid. Like I said, I'm not going to be jumping one way or the other in ten turns.

And yeah, GES, I understand no promises can be made, that's okay. I'll have rifles myself before then, but of course invasion would be daft. Focus wrath in any direction preferred, but if I get invaded, I'd have to ask...is it your intention to throw the game to the team with the MFG over 300 each turn?

-Commodore [/COLOR]

Yeah I might be getting butthurt myself here, but hey, I can't honestly say that keeping NAP'd would help.

[Commodore]

So, beyond falling to an official third with the French cities coming out of resistance, other things happened and stuff. For one thing, I gained two cities.

Pictish Point is a winsome little burg, actually very strong for me. It's got a fish and shares a pig with Corinthia, I'm busting my workers' butts to get its four cottage tiles up and running asap, and with chemistry coming in soon, my plains workshop + shared plains hill mine will give it a decent little hammer yield as well. (might actually turn one more grassland into a workshop for a 1/3 tile).



Xapur, on the other hand, while it has a ton of food potentially, won't ever really amount to more than a very whipped fishing village. I expect to get in a rathaus next after the lighthouse, actually, as its currently -10gpt. After that and the granary, it'll just go from X to 4 (working furs, deer, two fish) constantly. Actually...can snow get work-shopped? That I have to ask the question at all shows how bad it is.



In my core, my workers have come to the sudden realization that not much more remains to be done. The central valley is all farms, mines, and cottages, bar the occasional plains forest awaiting a lumber mill.



Even out in the wild and wooly west not a lot remains to be done. Zingara's woods await the Kremlin, Nemedia is about to bite the bullet and work desert hill mines, and Bossonian Mark will soon do nothing but grow onto Maoi tiles. I need to start my bored workers on rail lines.



Some little work does remain in the north isthmus area, now with a pleasing yellow color. The end is coming soon though.



Finally, at EOT Pictish Point and Corinthia both popped borders. Need just one more expansion and I'll have comfortably sealed off my inner lake. Hrm...need to do a comparison and see if Nemedia might be a better legendary prospect.



Assuming no Luddite rage (not a given) or RL7 attack (also not a given), things are looking up.