[spoilers]Oh Canada! Victoria has a Commodore, eh?

[Commodore]

By the way, still seeking that ivory. If the Vikings can make War Elephants and I can't I'm going be mad. WE aren't the be-all end-all that they are in base BtS, but they're still seriously badass units for how early you get them.

[Commodore]

So I offered peace to the Vikings; not like it matters, haters gonna hate.


Workers incoming; ecological evisceration of Portugal beginning. I'll be hooking up corn as soon as borders pop, then we'll mine gold in time for the four citizen to work it. Little nervous about the lack of military on this side of the empire; I'll toss >5 hammers into an axe for emergencies.


Here's the world as we know it. Let's see what's in store to the mysterious east!


Also, Serdoa (?) got Stonehenge.

[Commodore]

Oh ho! So the nubbin is a bit more of a spit, perhaps even a peninsula!

Dear Santa Brick,
I wanna elephant an' some fishes an' a whale an' some sheeps. Please.
Sincerely,
-Commodore

P.S. Please don't have made this an isthmus.

[Commodore]

“Upon the fifth year of the reign of Lord O-Neill, may his name last as long as the stars, this city of the Chulak Chappa’i is founded.”
-Inscription upon the “Founding Stone”, cautiously dated around 1720BC, the earliest recorded instance of linguistic Writing in the world.


In roughly 1700BC, there is a clear record the settlement of Chulak Chappa’i, buried beneath the seas just a little southeast of the modern port. Although there are signs of continuous human habitation of the region, the first permanent settlement was a planned expansion from the territories of the Fifth Tribe. The new city was at the end of a long new road and immediately became a part of the nation’s trade routes, while the natural harbor was filled with fishing vessels almost overnight.


The Fifth Tribe was fairly small and backward compared to many of the other polities of the ancient era; conservative estimates place the total population in the three cities and their outlying regions at a mere 10,000-15,000, and even the most generous estimates place the total tribal population at around 20,000. There were only just beginning to be signs of development in the farming regions north of the freshwater Sea of Dakara, while the development of a true gold mining technique, hailed as an early and extensive national tradition, was still centuries off.


It is hard to determine what the Tau’ri thought of themselves as a people; although their culture embraced writing early, most of what was written was practical, either legal pronouncements or mercantile inventories. Absent their legends and stories of the fallen Ancients, the Tau’ri had no unified mysticism or religion; the default spiritual seemed to be a simple folk ancestor-worship, coupled with a reverence for the First Tribe who had walked the hungry shores long before.


What is known is that the central oligarchy had deep, far-reaching plans, particularly for the east. Axemen companies ranged hundreds of miles east of the new borders, seeking gold and junior tribes to subjugate. Beyond the narrow Isthmus of Tollan, Fifth Tribe pillaging expeditions reported vulnerable small villages and extensive gold yields in the nearby streams; the stage was set for an eastward frontier expansion.

[BRickAstley]

Dear Santa Brick,
I wanna elephant an' some fishes an' a whale an' some sheeps. Please.
Sincerely,
-Commodore

P.S. Please don't have made this an isthmus.

You get plains cow as far as the eye can see.

[Rowain]

@Commodore

I really like your reporting/stories Thanks.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Dear Santa Brick,
I wanna elephant an' some fishes an' a whale an' some sheeps. Please.
Sincerely,
-Commodore

P.S. Please don't have made this an isthmus.

You get plains cow as far as the eye can see.

PB11 spoiler

Karma rears its ugly head. You rolled the 11 map, right? Plains cows and dry rice seem justified. At least you don't have to hack jungle off every tile.

[Commodore]

Pfft. I would kill for a plains cow. Right now the food sitch is "nuthin". Mardoc's Company receives a B- for hut popping; could be better, but at least it's not a map that crushes all joy and hope and gladness from the game on turn 2.



Timing is a bit annoying to my OCD self here, my worker is 2h short and my tech is 4b short, but that means overflow into the next settler and a mere 2t Archery, so I'll take it. My unhooked crabs are starting to fill me with shame, if I keep this up for another eighty turns you can call me Kuro.



Examining more greener grass, this at least jungle-choked, in Rome. Not that Rome minds researching early IW. Very nice land here Nakor/Jester, please hold on to it a bit better this time.



Every eastward move makes me wonder more and more if I have a neighbor; if it's all mine and all foodless I'll laugh and laugh and laugh some more.

[Commodore]

So, as referenced, Writing is almost done! Next few techs on the planned path:

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

HBR invasion + MIDS?

And an offshore city for an ICTR or two?