Japper and Alhambram go bongo bongo in the Kongo [Spoilers within]

[Japper007]

Been a while since my last report, anyway turn 93 ended up being quite a big breakthrough for my civ:

First of all I settled the last city I have room for in my own area, Kapsalon* :



I've also fixed my economy with some encampments and plantations, meaning my army can grow again.




I've taken the lead in GWAM generation from rho's Acropoli due to the awesome Kongo UA, and I have some more points just a little down the pipe! I know it seems weird to finish these now, but I literally could build no units before I got those improvements, so I build the only thing without maintenance costs assosiated. We are going to take off vertically in culture pretty soon that should get us Mbanza's while they can still make an impact.

If you are wondering about those Hoplites chilling near our capital, they got banged up pretty badly by a few barb swordsman south of the capital. I expect rho is just using the heal in friendly territory bonus to quickly heal them up (after all he'd get kicked out once he declares war anyway).

* literally: Barbershop, it is a mix of fries, shawarma, garlic sauce, chili sauce, a simple salad and cheeze served in an aluminium tray. It looks so appetising:



Think of it as an even more greasy version of the Canadian Poutine dish...

[Alhambram]

If possible, can you capture Brussels (it is protected by mountains against Aztecs which is a plus!) and Hong Kong for growth boost?
Also bring battering ram along, it makes life more easier.

[Japper007]

I have been working on the capture of Brussels, they however seem to draw a chariot out of thin air every turn or so (did they have a lot? I can't recall...) it's been slow work killing them with archers and Ngao, though I'll have some Xbows in 3 turns.

[Japper007]

Brussels is mine, I'm going to heal up my troops and move on for Hong Kong next. I pillaged its improvements before capturing because I saw I was going to capture a Builder anyway, so a bit of reletaively painless pillaging was more than worth it. 



I renamed it Waffles, Belgian Waffles are somehow thought by tourists to be a very "Amsterdam" food, especially with Nutella, which I don't understand but find fascinating. Don't buy them if you're ever in Amsterdam though, the waffles themselves are usually shite. I placed a Campus over the broken mine as it's a +2 and I can boost it another time by building a Commercial hub next to it on the river (meaning that that also becomes 3 adjacency). It's pretty naff the city is not on the river but it'll pick up some housing from a granary and farms on the Wheats and a camp on the pigs.

[Japper007]

I also just realized that I need walls badly in this city, I'll build the Campus and then get those.

[Japper007]

Hah! I took Homer, take that rho's thread title

But seriously, that is very nice to have. I also completed a knight, pretty much upgrading my defenses to stop anything expect a knight push on suboptimals or rho's part.

[Cornflakes]

You seem to have fixed the gold situation did you actually lose any units to strike (how does a strike work anyway)? Were plantations enough to pull you through? Or commercial hubs? Trade routes? All of the above?

What are your general plans from here? Is Kongo starting to hit its stride?

[Japper007]

My gold was stabilized by rho sending me some trade routes (probably to more benefit to him) and a small gift of gold when the situation still looked dire and we were both cowering beneath Montezuma. The rest is pillages from Brussels. I'll also have two Commercial Hubs online soon.

As a poor player I can actually say what happens in a strike... You lose amenities to a ridiculous degree, and units start disbanding unless you garrison them (which may be a bug come to think of it). This also includes Builders and Settlers! I've had a few late game collapses on Huge maps due to war weariness followed by rebel spawns which wrecked my improvements... which led to more debt... it is an ugly cycle of misery. It didn't happen to me here fortunately though it was close a few times. I think for future reference mapmakers should consider placing at least one gold generating tile at the capital I think, I have literally 0 gold output in my capital right now even!

I feel I'm hitting my stride yes, no looming threats on the horizon; Suboptimal has a direct path into rho and not me, and rho can't afford to turn away from him similarly [note to future destroyed self: This is where you went wrong, you pillock!]. I'm getting close to Guilds which will solve my gold problems forever with Mbanza. I've already taken the lead in GWAM generation (triple rho's now, and that is with stuff still finishing! Subop has none) and am about to take Great Merchants as well with the completion of commercial hubs everywhere. The city I settled will be the last I hard build for at least a while, now comes my favorite part: recovering from REX-ing and actually booming up. I finally get to show off Mbanza, exciting

Long term goals are grow tall and cultural, maybe suplemented with some wars. I could see a raid on rho being effective here, he is my only real rival in the culture game so if I can reduce his capacity we might see the first RB PBEM Culture Victory. That's all so far, to use a Dutch idiom, riding a bicycle in the sky though, we'll see

[Japper007]

Hong Kong becomes the latest addition to the Kongolese empire, I renamed it Nasischijf (fried rice in a crispy crust)



While taking Hong Kong I saw this little fresh water spot, it's not much but it would give us another Harbor for Cartography and a nice Campus on the flat grassland tile next to the one in Patatje Oorlog. Maybe I'll hammer out a settler at HK after it repairs it's infrastructure (btw HK came with a Harbor, a lighthouse and a Granry and monument, quite the price!)



Here's an overview of the empire, as you can see I'm building some knights and have solved my gold problems (and next turn Mbanza!) My current forces are about 350 at full strenght, rho has a little over 500 and Suboptimal has over a 1000. I need the gold from those commercial hubs (and soon Mbanza) more than I need to build a lot of units right now, I can still upgrade a few archers and I am a few turns out from niter and then Muskets. My plan is to build gold infrastructure upgrade my units and then see if it is clobbering time or I turtle on and settle my backlines.

[Japper007]

Mil Eng revealed niter to us, one source is in rho's land and the other popped up here. I'm going to rush a settler up there so we can at least upgrade our Ngao when Gunpowder is done.

I accepted an Alliance offer from rho, it looks like he has suboptimal well quarantined:



I have begun the process of moving everything we have to Waffles, maybe if rho and i combine our forces at "Near wild heaven" we can put some hurt on suboptimal. Combined we already outnumber him, and we both have some upgrading left to do.