[spoilers]Commodore likes it restrictive; Galling DuGaulle of the Gauls

[Commodore]

Okay then. By dint of a little luck on my odds and a strong offensive from Sian's quarter, Slowcheetah has effected a massive retreat. Boldly is pushing up from the south, and I think Slow is now officially in AT-in-34s position. Unfortunately, my win is "I survived!" No spoils for me.


Before I'm off doomed to utter irrelevance, though, I'm going to post a good empire-wide update. Let's look at the state of Gaul, circa 160BC. We might be tiny, but we're also very small!


Demographics tell all that's needed to tell, honestly. Fin/Cre/Inca Boldly is churning full-blast on a tech, so his absurd GNP isn't entirely accurate (I'm saving gold here). Nonetheless, I ought to be doing better than I am for how light my military spending has been of late. The MFG is also a bit sad, given that is with forges in my two big (above size-1) cities. And that sentence is really all you need to know.


One kind of interesting thing here is my religion; I'm the only one making an effort to spread I think, although given Boldly is the only other religious guy, and he's a bit split, that makes sense. Still, this is going to be very helpful indeed once I either get OR or Theocracy going.


So cities! First of all, let's look at the king, Asterix of Gaul.

If I have even a snowball's chance in hell here, it's because of this lovely beast of a city. Who needs HR, by the way? Chm and a little help from buildings means every riverside grassland cottage can be worker, while the prophet settled means we have 12hpt base to play with here. Civil Service would break this crap wide open; unfortunately, I need catapults first really. Even so, this is an excellent, excellent city.

Well-covered all over Obelix is my other big city, and it's been a winner.

Once he grows to size 8 Obelix will push out either a GS or a GE, and either way I'm going to be very very happy. The high-food location is sort of the Platonic Ideal for a second city, although any commerce has been almost incidental as I grow. Once Calendar comes along I'll be thrilled to make this place into a solid GP farm, but for now as the production center of the empire I have little to complain about it. The early monastery has been great to help pump out the missionaries for the rest of my cities.

Captured from the barbarians, Getafix is my essential port to the middle sea.

I'm a little sad about this city. In a peaceful world, it would have a forge, granary, and lighthouse right now and be working its riverside hills for a healthy production. Instead, it's been under threat of attack and building the fleet constantly. I don't know if it will ever be secure, but still...I'll take it in a heartbeat over having to rebuild.

In the sea, also captured but this time from Slow, Unhygenix screams potential.

As cities go, you don't get much better than Unhygenix, sort of the Moai Ideal. If I ever achieve my dream of a dominated and secure sea, this place will rock, but in the meanwhile, see Getafix's story: Whip, whip, whip all the ships and security you can muster.

Finally, Dogmatix is my little bastion against Sian.

I hope you weren't expecting much from this lill' guy...shades of Norvos in PBEM 34s, it'll work its good tiles and a couple cottages and be glad of it. Still those good tiles are going to be excellent, ivory/silk riverside, silver, sheep, and a grass hill mine to round things out. The heroic epic will probably go here once I finally stop lollygagging and head up to Literature. In the meanwhile...

[Commodore]

Slowcheetah is having a kind of bad week.


Obviously, so am I, I ought to meander over there to claim my gold/wheat. Once I get cats, I'll feel a lot better over s here...trouble is, right now Sian is looking playful out east.

[Commodore]

Boldly is my adversary, unsurprisingly. Slow and Sian are my possible navigational hazards. Through a complicated system of grunts, whistles, and formation promotions I have elegantly communicated "GET OFF MY LAWN".


I need horses, pretty clearly. It's going to be annoying to contest for them with the Creative guys, but at least I can soon start shuffling troops over bridges to improve the odds. I need to hook horses and then I can sweep a nice zone defense as I head for Guilds for the Good Stuff (knights, the musketeers).


The observant among you will not the mauled 4xp galley in the lower right above. I was being a bit of a moron with the tactical situation in the sea (AKA "Get off my pond") and lurched my galley west, only then realizing that I was under threat from BGN's trireme even if I retreated. Only way to avoid 4:1 odds at death? Risk 2:1 odds!


Obviously, I won. Party Rock time, man.

[scooter]

What do you think of the map? Do you think the early settling choices were interesting enough?

[Qgqqqqq]

Tundra hill for horse?
Is there a Boldly setttler on the island?

[Merovech]

What do you think of the map? Do you think the early settling choices were interesting enough?

Heh, I've been absolutely dying to hear everyone's opinions, but waiting until they teched iron working, which is taking a while. Should have forced someone to take Rome.



So yeah, how is the map, Comm?

[Commodore]

What do you think of the map? Do you think the early settling choices were interesting enough?

Heh, I've been absolutely dying to hear everyone's opinions, but waiting until they teched iron working, which is taking a while. Should have forced someone to take Rome.

So yeah, how is the map, Comm?

Heh, Rome would have been perfect for this map, but given my Restricted restriction, Imp was a step too far.

Overall, it's been interesting.


The capital location gave a very nice choice, I was highly tempted to go Fishing/Fin for the start. Lake fish is very, very sexy, and even as it is, it was fun to be able to super-charge the copper spot. The ability to mine the deer was nice, giving some sweet flexibility, and overall the capitals are so nice that everyone is still in it if they retain their home base.

The early settling choices are always going to be somewhat constrained in this AW/tight format, but the copper is so much more than the horses that it's a little unbalanced. In general, the map is pretty nicely set up for healthy, big cities but no great GP farm/whipping places...only two +6f tiles, and everything else +4f only until Ligthhouse/Civil Service/Calendar. It's interesting.

My pond battles have been a lot of fun, sub-optimal as this grab has been. The center flood plains area is great, I really ought to have gone there early if I was playing my best game. Borderlands are well-balanced, interesting. I must say, you sure know how to make Construction needed...so many central rivers means zone defense has been hell. That's part of the fun!

I'll probably come in second behind Boldly here, he's done this right, slowly growing, claiming edge lands, and not tussling too much. Ought to be fun before its all over, though.

[Merovech]

Thanks! I had a ton of fun making this map, and I've learned quite a bit. I think I understand why you enjoy making them so much.

[Commodore]

More of the same ol, same ol right now. Boldly took out the wounded galley without a scratch, and covered well with his trireme.


He floated a second trireme quickly, and I withdrew to my own trireme to its buddy. I foolishly exposed my seafood, though, so this turn I had to take a risk. I killed the top trireme, however, so now he's either going to pillage my nets or save his boat, not both, and I have a Nav1 monster now. For Chm, its worth it to take those 1:2 odds at times for a perfect 4xp.


Sian is making me just a touch nervous, but I'm pretty sure he's massing for a hit on Slow. I've got a ton of spears if he does opt to hit my way, including this great general spear.


End of this turn, I solidified my borders and upped the GG points with the Great Wall in Dogmatix, and I also researched iron working...


...okay that's interesting. Well, a spare +3hpt won't go amiss, certainly, brings the time for the Hanging Gardens down to 2t at least.

[Merovech]

Yep! I decided I wanted iron close to the capital, then I decided I didn't want the location to affect the quality of the capital, since it isn't visible at the start. In case you haven't guessed by now, I had no qualms abou making the starting region very strong.