[PB62] naufragar and Rusten earn their wage in rostygold

[naufragar]

*The turnpace is pretty good though, makes me want to sign up for a (small) pitboss again once my schedule is more predictable.

Increasing post count with Squid Game spoilers:

I just finished it and I thought that the 001 reveal was awesome until he started speaking. For a long time I had thought that the contest was going to be an initiation into some secret cabal of amoral Illuminati types. (I assumed that was the payoff with Front Mask. He won and bought into the system in a sort of Will to Power kind of way.) And I had seen that trope of masters of the universe earning their place through primitive savagery before (the movie The Exam and Riordan's Red Rising book series, neither of which I exactly recommend...).

[naufragar]

And in the non-squid game:


Interesting. What do you think? Start moving to the east or go back to find that neighbor that I can almost guarantee is just a couple tiles in the fog?

[Rusten]

I think we should check south of our capital for more info (so 2SE next turn IMO).

[naufragar]

Found a neighbor:



Bing Xi Lao playing Genghis Khan of Sumeria. Put our EP into him just in case.

[Rusten]

Holy smokes that's close considering our original starting position!

[naufragar]

Indeed. I plan to finish de-fogging the land immediately south of our capital and then try to more thoroughly scout our Imperialistic/Aggressive neighbor with Unique Axes.

[Rusten]

Want me to play the turn? You're holding up the game!

In which case, where do you want the scout?

[naufragar]

Turn your back for one minute, and turn pace bites you in the proverbial.



I moved the scout to the tile 1W of the cows and spotted a lion on the tile 1E, so maybe overcautiously I moved to the forest 1S of the cows for maximum defense. We beat the lion without a wound and then I moved as you see.

EP spending confirms that Bing has met another neighbor.  Edit: And rival cities shows that someone who founded on turn 0 grew to size 2.

Let's play a game of read the map maker's mind: we see marble. It's highly unlikely that stone & marble were left unbalanced. Marble was placed with a second city's distance of us and Bing. I don't think there's stone to the West or North. Conclusion? There's stone equidistant between us and an eastern neighbor. Perhaps.

I haven't moved the worker yet because I figured I should sim just a tiny bit more. (Btw, in case you didn't know, I put the password in the first post.)

[Rusten]

The fact that a city 3S of our starting location is already a slightly aggressive settlement makes me question this map design a little. But this is what we're playing now so we can only adapt. I think we should aim to settle that PH early though.

[naufragar]

I call this one "Ain't It Good We're Creative?"


Bing moved his scout to its current position on turn 11. I've set the governor to food emphasis in case he steps onto our oasis and I don't log in after he's played.

Bing is Imp and we're slow to our second city if we have to slog through all those hills and forests. I'm not happy about our position.

The fact that a city 3S of our starting location is already a slightly aggressive settlement makes me question this map design a little. But this is what we're playing now so we can only adapt. I think we should aim to settle that PH early though.

This map would have been perfect for a Holkan rush: very, very tight plus only the capitals have tiles worth anything. I'm very sad I didn't pick Maya. 

Alright, now back to thinking about what we do if Bing forward settles us by settling a spot 6 tiles away from his cap. 

Edit: It might be worth it to Bing to camp one of our resources. Not a kind map.
Edit 2: It's not all bad news. We got a forest growth 1E of the Corn.