Japper's Vindlandsaga

[Japper007]

Turn 40:

Oledavy finished either two Holy Sites, a Holy Site and a Shrine, or is running the Wildcard that gives GP points:



At this rate he'll still beat us to the first GP ! Time to put a stop to that:



Desperate times, desperate measures...

As it's turn 40, lets have a bit of an overall discussion on our progress:

Infastructure and Economy:

So far we have two cities, one district (a Holy Site with Shrine, thanks to Oledavy pressuring me), three tile improvements and a trader in terms of infrastructure.

What could've gone better:

-I think kicking out the Holy Site so early was a mistake, I should've accepted being the second religion, it could've given me another settler and I'd be at three cities now or at least at two bigger ones.
-We seriously lack culture income, I should've worked in a monument earlier, I just felt I didn't have the timespace to build it.

Military:

On the military front we are now in second place, probably first once we finish the second Longship, I will get two Harbors up soon to start spamming out Quinquiremes for the mass upgrade to Frigates. Barring an early attack from Singaboy, which I think is unlikely (so far he's the only "neighbour" we have and he is behind us in military score), we're still on-line to get to an army of frigates at turn 110-130

Diplomacy:

Not much to say here, I have met no-one besides Singa, and he has been un-communicative in the Diplo Thread so far.

[Japper007]

Turn 42:

Our longship meets Valetta (Military, explains Singaboys faster settler), and it also spots Singaboys borders to the south of it, I hope that's an expansion city and not his actual capital, though Dave and Woden seem to be pretty close too (more on that later)



In international news; Woden and Oledavy have met. They exchanged some helpful information for a third party like me; Woden has Lisbon (Commercial) on his Continent, and Oledavy has La Venta (a religious CS, which explains his desicion to go for Religion, especially considering Japan's cheap Holy Sites)

This leads me to the following conclusion on the map-design: all of us started alone on a small continent with one city state on it, but to keep it interesting the map maker gave us all a different type of CS. I expect the current science leader to have a science CS on his island and the current culture leader to have a Cultural one, that'd make a neat selection of one of every type of CS (Unknown=Science, Unknown=Culture, Oledavy=Religious, Woden=Commercial, Singaboy=Military, Me=Industrial!)

[Japper007]

Oledavy met us on the interturn, he reached out to me in the diplo thread and we exchanged map info, here's the details I found particularly handy:

-Toronto apparently has a marble resource in the fogged tiles to it's north. That'd make it a 2-lux grab, more than enough to justify it's non-freshwater location if I decide to conquer it.
-Oledavy is close, to my west, with La Venta on his Island. Jeruzalem is located to his southwest and Woden and Lisbon are located beyond Jeruzalem. Jeruzalem apparently started on it's own little island and is in the center of the map, controlling that location can be crucial strategically, and it'd be a lot easier to hold than say, a city on some other players continent, which doesn't seem feasable until *cough*Cheezwallz *ahem* Urban Defenses (at Steel now, used to be Civil Engineering).

[Japper007]

Turn 45:

One of our scouting Longships spots a golden oppertunity in Singaboys lands:



He's building a Campus right on the shore, and there's a nice Plantation to pillage for culture to boot! There's a total of 25 culture and 25 science pillageable in 2-3 turns there! The problem is of course that if I commit here, my relation with Singaboy'll sour for the rest of the game. Still I might consider it, once he finishes that Campus. I moved back into Valleta's territory for now...

My warrior, who was chasing barbs to the north, stumbled upon a decent city site:



There's a good Campus spot and some great production there, even though the terrain is dirt poor otherwise. Nothing that can't be fixed with a Trader somewhere down the line though .

[Japper007]

turn 48:

We meet the Mohenjo-Daro (cultural) CS:



netting us the boost for Political Philosophy.

Internationally, Singaboy has decided to declare war on Valletta, a nice pickup for him, though I'd personally have waited until it build an encampment for me. I'm teching Archery now to hopefully do the same with Toronto.

[Japper007]

Turn 50:

Finally finish early empire:



Allowing me to swap into Colonization:



This also dropped the settler to a cool three turns buildtime, now we spam!



Noticed that I kept the +100 percent production to ships in? Well... about that... JOINK!



Netted faith instead of culture as I said earlier, my bad.  Now for that Campus and who knows what else we can steal , so far Singaboy only seems to have a slinger and a galley to threaten me back. Coastal Raider on your melee ships is soooo good.

DOW-ing also put us into contact with a CS, Buenos Aires, they DOW-ed me as Singaboy is their suzerain already. No idea how he pulled that one of to be honest, must've been some lucky quests. I of course instantly peaced out with them, since I can.

[Alhambram]

How are things going with longships now?

[Japper007]

How are things going with longships now?

They are still being a nuisance to Singaboy... I've moved the second longship to his west-coast now. I didn't manage to pillage his Campus as he blocked the raids by placing a unit on the tile (Coastal Raider only works on empty tiles, it can't attack land-units in melee) He's come asking for peace in the diplo-thread but I've suffered no real damage so far, only scratch damage to the ships, which was easely healed off due to my greater mobility and ability to heal in neutral waters, so I'm in no great hurry to peace him out and let him recover the war-weariness (if I understand correctly he takes minor hits just from having pillaged tiles). 

He's still firmly atop the scoreboard due to his tech and population lead (he took Valletta last turn) so I hope someone else starts smelling blood in the water and attacks him, though I of course can't suggest that in the diplo thread where Singa can see it too!

I'm sorry for not posting in a while, there just wasn't much happening beyond scouting out Singaboys base. I'll have something to post about next turn though... (Next Time! On Dragonball Z!)

[Japper007]

turn 59:

As promised a big turn indeed!

We settle our third city, Jotunheim, in the rich area to the west of the natural wonder, it gets a very nice 3/1/1 tile and several improvable tiles directly in it's first ring. (Imagine a screen shot here, it got eaten by Steam ) I started it on a builder right away, I thought about a monument, but I believe we'll get it faster if we improve some production here first. I see a builder as a sort of culture and science investment, since the faster pop grows, so too does your science and culture production in the long run.

Also this turn we finish another settler in the capital:

 

I got it out fast by chopping the jungle beneath the bananas. I immediately send it north and qeued up another one, which will be done in 10 turns. I keep the costs down by deliberately not finishing techs and civics and instead putting the yields into different ones all the time. If anyone considers that an exploit, well deal with it  .

I also finally get another lucky break as my second longship finds an unguarded farm; rape, pillage and murder ensue as one expects from the Vikings  :



playing as the Vikings feels suitably dasterdly in this game, I approve. Also something you may not be aware of, every tile pillaged triggers war weariness to a heavy degree, that amenity loss is gonna end up hurting Singaboys big cities, especially since one of his happiness sources is now a smoking pile of caramelized sugar...

[Japper007]

Turn 61:

Send a peace-proposal to Singaboy, he's blocked every pillageable tile left. Was a fun distraction while it lasted. Next turn Religion!

Internationally, oledavy has just attacked Jester. I wonder if it's just a raid or a genuine attack? Guess I'll find out next turn. Jester is a juicy target right now, he has some campuses, a Holy Site and almost zero military (I'm ahead of him with just a warrior, three slingers and two longboats) Could we see our first elimination already?