[PB58] Tarkeel and Amicalola's rule through fear

[Tarkeel]

While we were occupied defending, Jowy settled the rather annoying island of Scream, defended by an axe/spear pair. Our two cities in the area are bound to annoy him, so we've found a way to pre-emptively clear the situation, using our excess axes from the AT front. Some of this activity will be visible to Jowy, but he might brush it off as settling the two islands. (Kiffex might have been better situated one west in this scenario, but the overlap shouldn't matter much)


T131
Axes moved towards Wakeelmui
Galley A: Outside Mon Calamari
Galley B: At Kiffex
Galley C: Midway; en route to DefensiveIsland
T132
Axes into Wakeelmui
Galley A: SE-SE (off Wakeelmui)
Galley B: NW-NW (midway)
Galley C: Unloads at DefensiveIsland
T133
Axes into Galley A+B
Galley A: SE-SE (midway)
Galley B: NW-NW (off Wakeelmui)
Galley C: SW-SW (at sea)
T134
Galley A: Hold (midway)
Galley B: SE-SE (midway)
Galley C: S-SE (Kiffex), Load axe
T135
Galley A: Move SE-SE (Kiffex)
Galley A: Move SE-SE (Kiffex)
Galley C: Hold
T136
All galleys with a total of 6 axes can strike from Kiffex.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 132 (425 AD)
Jowy reinforced The Scream with another axe and missionary and completed walls, so we'll see what we can do there.

AT returned the iron+marble for ivory+marble deal, so lets hope he focuses on Serdoa. I still want to take Endor back, but it will have to wait untill at least Knights. His new cities of Thog and Miko might get a "border adjustment" at the same time, but other than that I'm happy with our border.

Because AT refounded Belkar in a new spot, he's claimed the crabs our second island city was going to use, so that city is on hold. We founded Eriadu, Tarkin's homeworld, on the eastern coast. That leaves just one fishing village and a handfull of filler cities once we settle the second island by Jowy.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 133 (450 AD)
Malastare is founded on the other island by Jowy, and will grow into a nice fishing village eventually.

The attack on Jowy's island is off after the reinforcements; vodka gives us 79% chance of success if we were attacking from land. Amphibously the odds are only 21%, which is not a chance worth taking. Working through the plans for the attack was a good exercise though, so not completely wasted.


Our economy is taking a slight beating from all these new cities, so we've also finished a few more workers to bring them up to speed:


The Great Person from Fondor was another merchant, so we don't have to think about which wonder to snag.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 134-135 (500 AD)
We are slowly growing and improving our civilization, while the turn rate has ground to a halt. It seems like the war is going badly for Ruff, and we might want to snag some of his eastmost holdings. Jowy was the second to reach Machinery, and crossbows  have appeared in The Scream. We'll get it next turn, so we're most likely third in technology. AT is making a culture detour, and I have no idea what SD or Ruff are doing as they seem pretty far behind in tech.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 136-137 (540 AD)
The big news is that Serdoa left and MrCairo was kind enough to take over. I hope Serdoa feels better. It can be very interesting when someone takes over an empire midgame, and I still hold Ethiopia as the favorite to win, but not as strongly as before. Jowy has taken second place, and I think we're in third ahead of AT.

It seems that Jowy was paranoid and took offense at our scouting galley, and killed it and the one that was waiting to ferry the worker back. We killed one of his triremes on defense and retaliated against the survivor, so our losses are about even. I'm not interested in fighting Jowy for a while, so I offer peace back.

We have research vision on both AT and Serdoa/MrCairo, and both are going for Music. SD offers spices for 5 gpt, which is a decent deal but we don't really need it right now.

[Tarkeel]

I'll be travelling the next few days, so Amicalola will take the helm. Here are my city notes:
Coruscant: Has 46 turns of whip, so it could stand to grow some. Doesn't have many tiles left to grow onto though.
Kessel: Needs some farms on those river plains to grow onto.
Fondor: Can go back to building units; maybe ToA?
Kuat: Settler for stone, then back to units
MonCal: Library then back to catapults
Wakeelmui: Granary and lighthouse for growth, then forge, courthouse and library in some order
Dantooine: Workboat for carida, then possibly walls or units. Cottage the plains?
Corulag: Building archer MPs
Kashyyyk: Galley to ferry worker in the area, then courthouse. Needs to finish a WB T145 for Eriadu
Ralltiir: Has 57 turns of whip, but is ready to start building units
Naboo: All set, can just grow onto coast.
Nal Hutta: All set, can just grow and build archer MPs
Hoth: Workboat for Anoat, then library
Alderaan: Try to not whip below number of cottages it can work
Kiffex: Lighthouse and granary for growth, then library for culture.
Anoat: Lighthouse and granary for growth, will get WB from Hoth and work mainly coast.
Sullust: Grow and whip! Needs culture to reclaim and keep sheep.
Carida: Can work loads of riverside plains, give back floodplain when WB from Dantooine arrives
Rahital: Culture starved! Lighthouse and granary for growth first though, then whip to the bone
Eriadu: Will get WB from Kashyyyk, needs cottages to work
Malastare: Can work two mined hills for production, so spare the whip some

General plan is to grow and get ready to trigger a golden age. We want to research Optics for trade routes and Guilds for knights.

[Amicalola]

T145

Have been plugging away at the turns, as planned. 



I guess the main thing we've been talking about is whether or not barays are worth it. Tarkeel seemed to lean 'no,' while I leaned 'yes,' but neither of us was really sure. In the end, we decided to build them in our low-food cities, since it will not take very long for the food bonus to pay off there. But this may very well be bad, and I take full responsibility if that's the case!! But the alternative was more military, and I don't think we want to be conquering anyone right now; Jowy/Cairo can just do it better, and we leave a flank(s) open no matter what. 

Other thing: turned on tech for Compass->Optics this turn, should finish EoT147. And our workboat will arrive at the whalesT148, with an extra happy quite badly needed right now. So that's good! 

Also, we founded the stone filler city, named Cloud City (in honour of Bespin). We are building a settler in Fondor which will settle the northern fishing village. That village will build a monument in 1 turn thanks to a timed chop, and work the fish quickly. The demos are looking... grim. But I have some hope that we can recover if Cairo/Jowy duke it out, or get bogged down in various conflict. That AT war has set both of us really far back, and we're still not really sure what he was thinking. After some barays/units are built, we're looking at growing as much as possible, and probably 2 GAs in a row. That'll be our 'now or never' chance to be back in the game. We also connect a lot of 2nd-ring seafood in the next 10 turns, which will help GNP/Food notably.



Edit: most barays are being built at very low hammers right now, so if we want to switch them off we can do so at minimal loss.

[Mjmd]

I feel like when cities are founded lurkers are supposed to receive star wars pictures with random words under them 

[Amicalola]

Oh My God.. you're right! Tarkeel, help!!

[Mjmd]

Don't sweat it; whenever Tarkeel gets back is fine. BUT THEN I EXPECT MOAR!!!