[SPOILERS] Pindicator as Qin Shi of China - Boring Ol' Vanilla

[pindicator]

Turn 137

Let's look at a few more cities!



I got all excited about building my first Cho-Ko-Nu, and then what did I do? I switched the build from a CKN to a regular archer. The reasoning is I'm still missing Hinduism in something like 7 cities, and I really want to push that out plus get a good infra push underway. Maybe we'll burn a turn to get to Theocracy later on, but for now Comfort is ideally placed to pump out missionaries for my near eastern empire.

Because we gotta feed this beast:



I :love: this city. I'm not even the top religion; dtay has Judaism at 21% to my 17% for Hindu. That market can't finish fast enough; and then I'll need to get Guilds & Banking to really get the money flowing.

Monarchy to finish this turn

[Ceiliazul]

You're certainly defending it well enough!

[NobleHelium]

Poll: Does the swordsman look like a man or woman?

[Ceiliazul]

Joan of arc. Late 90s version.

[Ituralde]

Completely legitimate Braveheratesque Warrior Man!

Also that's a lot of money that Shrine is making! Appreciate the reports.

[pindicator]

Turn 138

The end of every golden age is a sad time, as we know that things will never be as they once were. But this golden age was eternally sad, and our Joan of Arc cosplay attendants at Llancarfan all wept bitter tears when the news was heard:



A pox upon all followers of that false "Confusion" religion. I will burn their cities to the ground!

We were so close...



The Cath Bruig empire is nothing but a resiliant folk. Which is good, because there was yet more suffering to be had this turn:



Hey, it's still better than having your people slaughtered by Soulblighter. Am I right, guys?

Yet still, we wonder if we will be able to hope again



6 turns is such a long time...

[pindicator]

Turn 139

Quite happy with how the demos look after the golden age is done:



Next step should be to identify a weaker neighber and swarm them with CKNs, no?

Maybe I should travel north, across the seas and take revenge on the Confucian heathens that wronged me.

[Ceiliazul]

Hey, it's still better than having your people slaughtered by Soulblighter. Am I right, guys?

Long time Pin, did Soulblighter cross dimensions and slaughter you IRL? I hope not, but if so... can I have your beer?

Hows the "hope or sadness" build going?

[pindicator]

That's true, I do owe an update here. Although I haven't been on-theme in quite a while... Anyway, where are we at now?

Turn 142

So last turn we got to gain the reward for all those specialist-turns I ran inside of Strand for the Golden Age:



I thought about bulbing half of Education and just really investing in infrastructure. But while I don't really have the itch to go declare on someone, I do think this is a game where the long-term growth options will pay off tremendously. So we're headed to the capital to build us an academy. Capital is hardly a commercial powerhouse, but that's also in part because I'm emphasizing commerce to finish up University of Sankore.

I've been thinking a lot about who I want to attack next. I'm going to be profiling my neighbors over the next several turns, leading up to the t150 report. (Haven't done a big post in a while, might as well make it at t150.) As you'll see, it's rather a murderer's row. Nobody "easy" to knock over, which is probably contributing to my reluctance to go on the warpath at all. And the easiest person is probably the one I'm least inclined to do so, just because we've gotten along so well so far.

Dtay, however, isn't helping his case, as he's being a bit of a dick:



He refuses to give open borders (and finally did remember to cancel that 1gpt he had been gifting me), so I have to sail all the way around to the north to get sight into dazed. There's no guarantee I'll be able to get past dtay going north of that island either, so I may just send the galley + sentry chariot combo to the west and see what can be seen west of WilliamLP.

So maybe we should attack dtay. I do have all those swords sitting around. I can make CKNs now. I will have Guilds in a few turns too...

And when you look at the power graph, clearly he's in a hot war somewhere else:



Yet, I'm not really preparing for war. I'm still focusing on infrastructure. I'll finally have missionaries for all my cities in the next few turns, and if I land UoS in 2 turns, I'm going to want to build temples everywhere and research Divine Right.



There are a lot of reasons to just tech up. I am #4 on the scoreboard, and probably a similar position in land area. I do have more room to grow my cities upward -- a lot more room in some spots. Oh, the dilemmas

[pindicator]

Turn 143

Hey, popped one!



Strand will be a really good production city in the future, once I get Tallow's tiles better improved and re-arranged.

I realize I never gave the obligatory Moai screenshot after completing it. So here it is, another city that will be able to pull it's weight in production:



A random shot of the east:



Next turn could be a really big one. I have at least a dice roll odds to finish UoS at the end of this turn. The market in Llancarfan will net +19-20 gold when it finishes at end of turn. The scientist arrives at Madrigal right in time to set up the academy right when we will rearrange tiles agian for growth and commerce there.

If we do get UoS I'm going to want to head for Divine Right in the short-to-medium term. And temples will go up in priority. But regardless I really need to start building some longbows and knights and CKNs; a few CKNs are being built now but it's kind of meh. Maybe I should stop building that wonder in Tyr and just start pumping units. Hagia is a nice-to-have but does not really fit into any strategy.