[SPOILERS] Pindicator helps clean up SMEGmod

[pindicator]

Something that confuses me (a bug?): a 2-pop whip is worth 50h, and so a 2 pop whip at dry whipping penalty should be 25h, correct? But if that is true then how was I able to dry whip a chariot for 2 pop?

[pindicator]

Turn 053

My first blister came today. And it didn't come from the endless miles of walking shoes and dirt paths, but from the cobblestone streets of Pamplona, walking all afternoon in sandals. I've used a bit of second skin to stop the rubbing on the back of my foot, but I'm not positive it will hold.

This was a long day. A hard day.

The city walls of Pamplona were left behind early in the day. Narrow old city streets turned into suburbian roads and then to quiet back roads that went out into fields. By mid morning the city was receding behind me; up ahead, the windmill lined Alto de Pardón. The wind was already whipping about us before we started to ascend; at a small church in Ziriquiegui when I went to refill my water, another peregrino ran by chasing after a map as the wind pulled it away, just keeping it out of reach like one would play with a cat. By the time I had climbed the Alto it was me chasing after my hat; on two occasions I almost lost it, so finally I stuffed it in my pack.

It was midday when I reached the top, and although windy the morning clouds were burning off to clear skies. Behind us you could barely see Pamplona, the city we had started the morning at. Ahead I could not see the city I would end the day at. To think so many miles could be walked by one person in a single day, that you could not see the start or the end of it from the middle.

As we descended the heat grew. I stopped in the shade of a church for a late lunch at Muruzábal, but instead of heading directly to my destination followed the path to the old church at Eunates.




But the church was closed and there was no place to stay anywhere nearby, so I continued to walk in the heat, climbing the hill to Óbanos, and then pressing on because I knew I was near my destination for the day, Puente la Reina. There was almost no more room to be had in town, but I found refuge at the last place in the city. I showered, washed my sweaty clothes, but even when I tried to sleep that night, my legs still hurt from all this walking. I did nearly 30km that day.




There's a worker that just moved to the sheep this turn, and a work boat for the crabs. Decided not to improve the whales first because I'm probably goign to want to whip a granary at Roncesvalles next. Well, after I build another worker or two.

Back down in Pamplona things are not going well... When I said I had a 10% chance of getting screwed, this is exactly the scenario I had feared:



The just-whipped chariot only could reach to the plains hill tile, leaving it useless for defending Pamplona, but I suppose it can always destroy the barbarian's remains. And since winning a battle at such absurd odds gave the barb 5xp, it was able to heal from 4hp all the way up to being a battle that was certainly very losable. Should I go for that battle and lose it I would certainly lose Pamplona. So instead I decided on another course of action, that most will probably not agree with.




Perhaps I've been burned by losing these early low-odds battles too many times before, but I am willingly sacrificing a worker to keep Pamplona safe. The worker on the flood plains stayed in place and finished the road on that tile, so that next turn the barbarian will not take the slim chance of attacking Pamplona, but instead will take my worker. Then next turn I have a chariot and a warrior in range to finish off the barb.

I'm okay with this because it's the least risky option. My advantage is getting all these cities out (and with improved tiles), but I can cheaply make workers. Plus I have a lot of production so I'm not going to fret too much about a lost worker. (Maybe he won't delete it and instead will try to run with it?) And I was planning on pushing out some workers soon anyway; might as well start now.

I've met 2 other people so far this game: Both German Joey and CH have 3 cities. I'm now on 5. Surely the expenses are making further expansion impractical? You may ask this. But if you've been following along I bet you already know the solution I have in mind.

[Ichabod]

another peregrino ran by chasing after a map as the wind pulled it away, just keeping it out of reach like one would play with a cat.

the morning clouds were burning off to clear skies.

Nice metaphors. (not sure those are actually metaphors, I'm not exactly good with such technicalities).

And it's nice that you seem to really know what you are talking about when describing trekking (is this the name of it? Perhaps long distance walks). What is "second skin" that you mention on the first paragraph? Is it some kind of "technical term" or am I just being dumb?

And what shit luck against that barb. I agree with your decision of sacrificing the worker. Incredibly annoying to have to do it, but it's better than risking the loss of the city.

[pindicator]

Yeah, the first one is actually a simile because I use "like", but the second one is a metaphor because the clouds don't literally burn even though I wrote it like that. But you're not a native English speaker, right? That's pretty advanced terminology to learn for another language!

Trekking is the right term. Backpacking is another term for it, although backpacking in my part of the world generally has a "out in the wilderness" connotation to it, because of all the paths you can backpack where you won't see any other people or cities for a very long distance. And yes, I'm very familiar with the route I'm describing, having trekked it before several years ago. It was about this time of year, it was an indescribeable experience, and I desperately want to do it again, so I become a bit heartsick for it every Spring . This narrative isn't exactly my experience, but it's based on my experiences walking this pilgrimage route. The destinations are going to be the spots I stopped along the way, but I think that's as much as I want to tie myself to the actual trip.

I haven't done any creative writing in years. It feels nice to get something out again, although I'm wondering why I chose a civ game as the structure for expressing myself

Second skin is a product used to treat blisters. It goes around the blister to reduce friction on the blister. Mole skin is another like it.

[pindicator]

Barb is killed and our worker will be mourned.

GermanJoey built Henge, with me 4 turns shy. Ah well, I knew I had started it late. So how best to follow that up? A late run towards Oracle, of course! Maybe we can pull off the bulb MC, Oracle Machinery trick.

[pindicator]

Actually, I changd my mind. There will be no Oracle run because that doesn't really fit well. I'm freaking Joao. I'm going to build a ton of cities and workers. Stonehenge made sense with that, and I probably should have prioritized it more, but Oracle really does not. (If I could Oracle something that would take advantage of a per-city bonus, then yeah it could.) But instead I'm going to finish teching Writing (+1 trade routes), and then build a Stele in the capital and make a Great Merchant to bulb Metal Casting there. Colossus would go very nice on this map, don't you think?

And as for the lost Stonehenge, perhaps I tech HBR next? German Joey isn't all that far away...

[pindicator]

Turn 056

Barbarians are making things difficult. I should be keeping units at the chokepoints to keep them out of my territory; well, that's why I'm building a chariot at hte capital instead of a Stele




Unfortunately the barbarian by Zubiri is going to be able to pillage that sheep. My wounded chariot is only a 58% chance to win; I'm staying in place and healing up at those odds.

City #6 will go south of the capital, where I can get a good port city for the western ocean. There are several islands in that ocean that I am going to want to settle for ICTRs. You can see one of those islands in the left of the screenshot; another one is west of the crabs and has a marble tile.

[pindicator]

Turn 059

With a little bit of security in the form of a pair of chariots killing barbarians on the frontiers, it's time to get down to business:




Iron Working gives us Forest Preserves, which is kind of like cottages on forests. And it gets us Iron. And it lets us chop all those jungles on top of pigs and gems and rice for nearby cities. Gonna need some more settlers and workers soon!

Edit: Oh yeah, and we're gonna bulb Metal Casting in 10 turns!

[pindicator]

Turn 061

Demos:




Food and mfg are still great - but I'm having a hard time figuring out how to get my GNP going. On a water map especially: here we have to build a lighthouse in a city before water tiles can get commerce going. On the flip side, monuments now provide commerce (so I probably should have been quicker to build them in cities), and I still need to get those built in half my cities. One thing the terrain is not suited for is cottages. Here I'm starting to build only my second cottage, up north at Puente la Reina:




GermanJoey asked me for map trade this turn, which I denied. No, I don't care what's north of me past his borders and I don't want him to see what I have. If I could plant a defensible city north of Zubiri I would then be happy to trade with him.

Finally, St Jean grew to size 7 this turn, making it the largest in the world. We also hooked up the whales so that all 7 people are happy working citizens:




Priorities for future settling: the gems to my east; the fur to my south; the islands to my west. More settlers!

[pindicator]

Wait, why am I not even considering the Great Lighthouse? Wow, I am just off this game. Probably a result of the time crunch, but it's not like I've been playing civ 4 mp for four years...