[Game Spoilers] My browser thinks this forum is written in Portuguese

[Brian Shanahan]

Thanks for the comprehensive and entertaining multi-report!  It's a lot of fun (for me at least) to see how exploration is playing out and how your civ interacts with the map.  Oh, also...

If anybody can write a kick ass ballad, I'd love to hear one for Beary.

Wow - a ballad?  I mean, haiku, sure; a limerick, definitely, but a full ballad?  Who would put together an entire...

Ahem.  With grave apologies to Robert W. Service:

A bunch of the boys were whooping it up on a hill by the Pool of Tears;
Nigh all could hit the soprano notes; just one had hit manly years:
Back of the rest, looking out for game, sat Barry McBeigh, alone,
And watching our luck running out on us, he muttered of blood and bone.

When out of the woods betwixt cotton and sheep, and into the din and the glare,
There stumbled a creature fresh from the woods, dog-dirty, a towering bear.
It looked like we each had a foot in the grave, and scarcely the strength left to fight:
If we tilted and poked that dusty old b'ar, then we'd fill our graves on that night.
There was none at hand who dared to stand, and we stumbled and cried "Gangway!"
As we staggered back, leaving one alone: 'Twas bloody Old Man McBeigh.

There's men that somehow just grip your eyes, and hold them hard like a spell;
And such was he, for he looked to me like a man who had lived in hell,
With a face most hair, and the heavy stare of a dog too old to run,
But he lifted a green log from the fire, and we slowed up, one by one.
Guess we all was figgering what was what, and wondering what he'd do,
When I turned and saw the bear watching him with nothing between the two.

His beard and whiskers they were a fright, and it seems to me I could swear,
For hairiest face I couldn't judge between Barry McBeigh and the bear.
Old Barry'd told us time and again that he feared no claw and no tooth;
I'd thought it was a bare-faced lie, but it was the bear-faced truth!
In a buckskin shirt that was glazed with dirt he stood, and he gave no ground;
When the bear charged in with its 5 base strength, he just swung his club around!

Were you ever out in the Great Alone, when the moon was awful clear,
And the icy mountains hemmed you in with a silence you most could hear;
With only the growl of a savage beast now and then out in the cold,
A half-dead thing in a stark, dead world, clean mad for someone to hold;
While high overhead, green, yellow and red, mana streams swept in bars -
Then you've a hunch whence these battles come ... hunger and night and the stars.

And hunger roared from the belly, out the mouth, of the terrible bear;
But the gnawing hunger of lonely men for a home made its answer there:
By the fireside Barry shouts, "Bring it down!  It's now or never survive!"
And oh! so cramful of courage was the sound of his voice, alive!
He swung his club as though all the world swung with him, and he swung true!
(Oh! how ghastly the looks of that beast - enraged by the blood he drew!)

Then on a sudden our scramble changed, so we who would scarce have dared
But a moment before - we're emboldened, cleaned of all in us that ran scared;
We charge at the bear then, and flanking the beast, let out our own battle-cry -
We whose guts'd been gone, so the best we'd known was to crawl away and die,
Ere the crowning cry of Old Man McBeigh that had thrilled us through and through:
The cry that made him our leader sure, and made us his loyal crew!

We boys each almost died that day ... but we burst like a pent-up flood
Against the bear as it struck to slay each of us, bone, hitpoint, and blood.
We struck as if at an ancient wrong, and we stung like a frozen lash,
And the lust awoke to kill, to kill!  The bear died - with no laptop crash!
And then Barry turned and his eyes they burned in a most peculiar way;
In a buckskin shirt stained with blood and dirt he stood, more than just McBeigh.

Then his lips went in in a kind of grin, and he spoke, and his voice was calm;
And, "Boys," he said, "the barb bear's dead, and now grant our fallen balm."
For some of us fell, though we battled well, in the huge bear's killer path,
But all of us grew (to Combat Two!) in the fight and aftermath!

We each got our share of the bear-skin pelt when we knew the bear was dead,
And we made a cloak with a hood from part of its back and all its head.
That cloak and hood, as we rightly should, we gave up to our leader's share
For the man whose bear face and bear courage alone stood in battle against the bear.

These are the simple facts of the case, and I guess I ought to know;
Our leader's name's grown with the legend too; oh, I'm not denying it's so.
I'm not so wise as the hist'ry guys, but strictly between us two -
Old Beary McBearface has earned that name - and so will say all of his crew!

I'm not worthy!
I'm not wirthy!

[Brian Shanahan]

Hi all, just a quick update because a) I was playing the games from home because I was up with the parents for the bank holiday (Brigid's Day) and took no pictures over the weekend and 2) I'm not doing any scouting while I'm building settlers to stake out a few new city spots.

My settler will be done at end of turn 28 and I will move him east towards the sheep & cotton spot (I've tentatively mapped the city onto the hill where Beary won his name [https://i.imgur.com/2yFtFry.jpeg], but will be doing a small bit of forward scouting with my escorts and may plant 1 tile north east on the plains hill if that's sufficiently better (at the moment I'm thinking if it's not one tile away from being coastal, it's better). Will keep everybody posted and once I start seeing interesting stuff again, I'll take shots and try and tell a story.

[Brian Shanahan]

Ok, the settler is out so as promised a bit of a mini update.

We discovered Copper two days ago, off to our west, right in a spot where I was debating where best to settle:

I am going with the northern of the two "C?"s as a result, in fact I'd have settled on one of the flood plains only for it loses out on the cow (going from second to third ring). This did not however change my settling plans for the current settler, who popped out last turn and went east, with two warriors covering and a worker building a road for connections purpose.

You can't see him in the world overview but he's directly on the spices just north east of the capital covered by a new build warrior with Beary McBearface ranging ahead for scouting purposes. Next turn he'll go on the sheep with Beary, and depending on what we see, the turn after he'll move either east or south and settle the turn after.

In terms of my workers, as I said one is roading towards the new city (though will drop that on settling), the second will stay at the capital and start mining a few hills for when I want to hammer focus at the happy cap.

My capital has just built a warrior and grown to size seven, it'll take two turns to grow to eight (the happy cap) and build a warrior so it will do that, and aftewards build worker>settler with me churning out warrior settler pairs after that until I've my chosen sites built out.

Demographics for tracking purposes:

In non-EitB news Cobh Ramblers beat Cork City last night at the death 2-1. In a badly played first half City took the lead with a soft goal (somewhat reminiscent of Leicester City's against Man Utd at around the same time), but Ramblers pushed on in the second half, getting some of the legginess out and improving all the while. With about ten minutes to go, club favourite David Bosnjak popped up and equalised with a well taken shot from the edge of the area, and he turned match winner about a minute before the death, receiving a well judged cross from Luka le Brevet to slot home past the City goalkeeper and send Premier Division Cork City out of the cup. Hopefully this is a portent of the season to come for Ramblers.

In other news, as I mentioned in the game thread, I'm on holidays next month, travelling to Wales for two weeks, spending the first up in north Wales and the second visiting my brother in Swansea. If anybody is from those parts and wants to meet up, I'd be more than happy to pop by.

[Brian Shanahan]

Didn't have much time the last couple of nights to post a report (Sunday because of two turns popping up and me having a few drinks , and Monday because of tiredness after work and cleaning up work around the house). But it looks like the save is a bit delayed tonight so I'll post the turns now.

Three turns ago (early turn Sunday) I ended up with this situation after end of turn (the scorpion had shown up one east of where he is below at the end of the previous turn, so I thought Beary might be dead), so I had to move around my units and I decided the exigencies of the situation meant that I change my settling plan slightly (so as not to be dodging animals the whole time). The situation at the end of turn was:

Which meant that the next turn (late turn Sunday), I ended up settling on the plains cotton one tile South of the hill I was originally planning on):

I'm actually ok with this tile (except for missing out on the extra hammer for the plains hill plant and the extra 25% defence). Cotton in EitB is a pretty bad tile to work, so settling on one does not hurt my plans (I'd have only connected the one in any case, farming over the other), and it does leave me in a fairly good spot for developing my second city while also leaving room for a coastal city up north so not too bad.

Once settled, I started a monument for a lack of anything else useful to build and also for the need to expand the borders down the line (no religion). Despite the pair of flood plains, this is probably a candidate for a Temple of Winter to improve all the desert tiles.

In terms of demographics, I've been a bit flat the last small while, but once I've the new city (Lakis) connected and started a few improvements, it'll grow again. In the below spoilers are the last three turns of demogs (oldest first):

PS The worker waving at the bear in the first pic is now building a road on the Pool of Tears while both animals wandered off northways.

[RefSteel]

Nice! I was terrified for a moment when I saw that picture with the scorp and bear surrounding B McB and threatening a Worker - before I realized you're last in turn order and that the screenie was from after you saw the barbs move....

[EDIT: Have you seen the write-up for Syraethe's Stand yet? I can post it here if you'd like, now that your borders have revealed it. It's not an official "Unique Feature," but just what it looks like on the map.]

[Brian Shanahan]

Hi Ref,

I don't think I have seen it yet, so I'd be more than happy to read it.

I'll have another update tomorrow posting a few turns, but the big takeaway will be "I discovered Animal Husbandry".

[RefSteel]

Sounds good - and here's the "Civilopedia Background Entry" for the landmark:

Rumors are spreading about the site of a terrible battle between the living and the dead that took place soon after the glaciers receded from an ancient vault. Many died and rose again to do battle against life, and the master of the undying army was only thrown down and destroyed when one who dared stand alone against it in the face of the deathless hordes transformed the power of the vault itself. Tales vary with the tellers and the audience and with time, but it is said that Syraethe, the mysterious general who led the living army, ultimately gave her life to effect the transformation in a last and desperate stand. Some say her courageous spirit still watches over the site where the vault once stood, but all agree that afterward, when the corpses were carried away - some perhaps still restless - and cairns or tombstones raised above them all, then whatever became of Syraethe's spirit, her body was never found.

And thanks for all the reports, Brian! With AH in handyour icy grip, what's next?

[Brian Shanahan]

Sorry for the delayed report, I got news Thursday, I've been called for promotion interview at work (well technically not, it's an interdepartmental competition within the civil service as a whole, not just the Gardaí) so all going well (and with a bit of hard work) I could be up to Higher Executive Officer in the not too distant future. The promotion would mean extra duties and responsibilities but also an extra (about) €80 into my back pocket every week after taxes (it'd be more only I'm at point 7 on the Executive Officer scale).

But anyway to the game.

Ó ochón, tá Beary McBearface á dhúnmharú!
(woe is me, Beary McBearface is murdered!)

He was done in by a nasty, nasty Spider. We hates it, we hates it. We must exterminates it.

Sorry, I didn't get his heroic yet doomed battle with the spider.

But before we do that, a proper Caoineadh (Lament) is in order:

Mo ghrá go daingean tu!
Lá dá bhfaca thu
ag ceann tí an mhargaidh,
thug mo shúil aire dhuit,
thug mo chroí taitnearnh duit,
d’éalaíos óm charaid leat
i bhfad ó bhaile leat.

Is domhsa nárbh aithreach:
Chuiris parlús á ghealadh dhom,
rúrnanna á mbreacadh dhom,
bácús á dheargadh dhom,
brící á gceapadh dhom,
rósta ar bhearaibh dom,
mairt á leagadh dhom;
codladh i gclúmh lachan dom
go dtíodh an t-eadartha
nó thairis dá dtaitneadh liorn.

Mo chara go daingean tu!
is cuimhin lem aigne
an lá breá earraigh úd,
gur bhreá thiodh hata dhuit
faoi bhanda óir tarraingthe;
claíomh cinn airgid,
lámh dheas chalma,
rompsáil bhagarthach –
fír-chritheagla
ar námhaid chealgach –
tú i gcóir chun falaracht
is each caol ceannann fút.
D’umhlaídís Damhán alla
síos go talamh duit,
is ní ar mhaithe leat
ach le haon-chorp eagla,
cé gur leo a cailleadh tu,
a mhuirnín mh’anama….

[spoiler=source]I'm not a poet and definitely not as Gaeilge so I simply stole from the best, the Caoineadh Airt Úi Laoighaire which can be found here in both English and Irish). I only swapped the word for English (Sassanaigh) out for spider (Damhán alla; literally wall demon)[/spoiler]

In other news I did pick up Animal Husbandry as stated and went working on Bronze working (mainly because my next settlement will have the copper in the second ring).

Yesterday's turn was uneventful until the interturn where a gobbo entered my capital's borders (to the south, three tiles away) and a skellington entered into Lakis, one south west of the city tile. My worker completed the pasture on the sheep at EOT too and will now road a connection to the capital, firstly on the sheep and then finishing off the road at the end of my capital's borders, for the commerce.

This turn the skellington (I just can't stop myself from making that misspelling!) attacked and took my defending warrior down to 1.4 strength. My heart was in my mouth despite having played enough games to be 99% from the animation alone that he had won.

This turn, I completed the settler in my capital. He'll run west with the escorter warrior covering him and the explorer in the west returning back to the planting site for visibility. I started a second warrior in the capital because of the goblin and then it'll be worker>warrior>settler for a while.

A current view of my land:

The exporer is just out of sight on a forest west of my plant sign, good land but no bonuses or improvements to make me want to move the city site)

And demograpics for a few turns:

As can be seen the progression is slow and steady so far. I'm looking each turn at the best way to pick my tiles but while I'm expanding I'll probably be staying in the middle of the pack until my newer cities are up and running.

[Brian Shanahan]

Quick update for the last two turns, no pics as no real changes occurred yet.

I am moving out my settler to the Copper site (hopefully without being et), this turn my second covering warrior took the attack of the goblin (defending at 50% bonus because he was on a plains hill forest) and won with about half health.

My warrior in Lakis (who was attacked again last turn) promoted to combat 1 and my worker there finished the road and will now travel back to improve the terrain that isn't under immediate danger from that skeleton barrow.

As long as my settler doesn't get et, I am happy so far with how I'm going despite my scouting being terribad. I think I may build a hunting lodge in the second city and get some hunters out to try and establish contact with the other players.

[Brian Shanahan]

Evening all, another quick update (was hoping to get a big one done tonight, but the save came a bit late).

In terms of the game, I've met Auroracher of the Kuriotates this turn. A scout of his is parked just outside my second city's borders. And I'll be planting my second city next turn unless there's a ton of horse units ready to descend on me in the west. No barb units showed up out of the fog to menace my warrior/settler pair in the interturn (the joy of being last in the turn order).