Cut more Crap **Spoiler**

[Robi D]

Turn 15

We have our first contact. Its Worset to the north. It kind of has me wondering if i should knock his scout off if he comes further south. Not that i want any early conflict but i don't want neighbours grom opposite sides teaming up either.



I'm close to getting my second worker, also the other workers is 2 turns away from hooking up the pigs. I'm nearly half way through mining with wheel on the agenda next. Why wheel, because i got horses nearby



It's not completely clear but the horse are right where the "press <enter>" words are. With the horses where they are that site becomes expansion city A. I've also picked out spots for B and C which should give me a nice core with lots of production available.

[Robi D]

Turn 20

Thing contine to roll along. I've just completed research on mining and have now started wheel. Mauerville grew to size 3 so the barracks build is again interupted to start on another worker. Robigrad has nearly finished its barracks, i'll build a couple of warriors after that before starting on a settler. The cows are now tucked away in their new yard the workers will move to the two hills to the west. One will hook up the pigs while the other builds a mine.


My expolring warrior found a hut and got a map for his trouble. Although now the best gift its still useful, as it reveals some more good settling spots and another hut. It also gives a more perspective on how big my area is. Since the land bridge heading east is not yet in sight despite the map extending further south then i've been previously it shows i have a fairly large area to settle, since its fair to assume the land bridge will be roughly central between north and south.


And finally the demographics. GNP is still a stuggle which isn't unexpected given the demographics 10 turns ago. Food and Production are still near the top and there arn't any dramas in the other figures so overall things are positive. With wheel i'll be able to build some roads and get some domestic trade routes to give me a few extra gold fairly soon plus i can work the sea squares in Mauerville until i can get some cottages up and running. Still no sight of any resources that provide happiness.

[Robi D]

Turn 25

Not a big update. The pigs and mine at Robigrad are done and i've started a settler build. Wheel will be done soon so i can start hooking things up.

Worset's scout has wonder off somewhere into the darkness.

I'm tossing up between doing BW or pottery next. I need some cottages but i also need some forests cleared.

[mauer]

I'd suggest going with a worker (maybe two) in mauerville next turn and saving the barracks for a few turns. I'd probably go with pottery, then use the extra workers to quickly build cottages. Just what I'd probably do after giving it a quick glance. You should finish that settler and road to the horses for chariots if you think you'll need to defend against axes quickly.

EDIT: I got in a bad habit of forsaking cottages in alot of my MP games, and it always came back to bite me.

[Robi D]

I was waiting for Mauerville to grow, then another worker will be started. That way it doesn't get stuck at a low pop level while building workers.

Also after much thought and pondering i decided to go with BW first, then pottery. My reasoning is that there are a lot of forests many on tiles where cottages would go. With BW i can clear them in advance and use the hammers from the chops to build some extra workers, maybe a settler as well so i'll be able to build the cottages quicker once i have pottery. I think its the best compromise in this situation.


edit- As decided enough time had passed since my last attempt at espionage, hence another question (see below) for the others in the open thread. Hopefully i get some fishies to bite

Am I the only one with no copper or iron within the area around my starting position or is this one of the challenges our great creator barbu has set us?

[mauer]

Right, I suggested the worker in Mauerville next turn because it looked like it would grow after the roll. Not sure I'd waste all those pretty chops for workers/settlers though (maybe a settler). Libraries maybe. Although I understand the press to get the cottages up.

[Robi D]

The swap was done, Mauerville building the worker.

As for saving the chops for libraries, once all those hills have mine i doubt that there will be any problems building them

[Robi D]

Turn 30

This update offers no less than 4 screenshots for my avid readers, and as an add bonus i'll explain my exact reasons for my little venture into espionage as mentioned above.

But first to the screenshots and the game itself

The last five turns have been productive in the hut department for me. I popped 2 huts. One in the far east (seen in the post for turn 20) and one 3 tiles SSE of the city A site. The former gave me 32 gold, the latter Mysticism, which may seem a small tech but in reality solved a major dilemma.

Since i am yet to discover any happiness resources and i get the feeling i wont be anytime soon mysticism is a double bonus for me. Firstly since i have a charismatic leader the statue/monument improvement gives me 1 happy face and secondly it means i'm closer to getting a religion which would provide more happy faces going into the future.



Next is the view of my glorious republic, well my two cities at any rate. Settlers and workers are the go, expect to see some statues as well coming soon. The blue glowing warrior at the very bottom of the shot is where the second hut was.



The demographics show i'm still at the back of the pack in GNP but a strong (and impressive) 3rd and 4th in production and food.

I did a bit of investigating by playing with the tiles being worked. With a GNP of 20 i'd be in 10th place, with 22 i'd be 7th. So while one or two nations maybe ahead by a greater margin most are only just ahead.



Now i did say being near the top in production and food was impressive and here is why, all the top 5 cities have populations of 6 and 5 where as my two cities are at 3 and 4. This is also backed up by the demographics which shows me 12th in land area and 9th in population. So in reality i'm geting my numbers from a lot less tiles. It would seem not many are investing in workers right now. Also incuded in the top 5 is Lengalotalalalaland or whatever its called which is worset's city as i have not met anyone else.

I can also see his graphs now. Most are pretty even incuding the GNP one, i have a slightly larger lead in production but the big one is food, where i'm well up.


I've also being thinhing about the possibilities of war. Now we are on a large map with distictly seperate areas or zones. Not really a map made for wholesale warfare, in fact quite the opposite. But there is one tactical benefit. It stands to reason if there isn't much to be gained fighting someone next to you then there would be a hell of a lot less to travel through two zones to attack someone, which the neighbour of my neighbour would have to do to attack me.

By taking out a couple of neighbours i would for practical purposes have less neighbours to worry about. The only drawback at the moment (and its a big one) is that city razing is off so i'd need to keep the cities rather than wiping them off the map. I'd need to be sure that it wasn't a drain on the economy, that at the very least the conquered cities would be cost neutral. But there is still lots of time to consider this option.

Now finally the reason for my bit of espionage at the open thread. Since Barbu is one of my avid readers and a good sport not to say anything despite his map making being called into question (which i personally would never do) for a few days, i will reveal the underlying reasoning behind it.

While on the surface it is an attempt to find out if anyone has BW or IW that itself is a bit of an distraction, although had anyone spilled the beans it would have been a bonus.

The actual reason is the absolute non-existance of happiness resources in my area. Ok there may still be some in the few unexplored areas but it would still make them hard to get to in the near future and of minimal impact. While thats what i want to know i don't want everyone to know that, because it could be a case that different areas have different properties to them, some may have lots of happiness source but little health of strategic sources and in that case i don't want to give away my situation to all.

It would be nice to PM barbu and ask him, but that would be unfair to other players obviously so he wouldn't give me the answer anyway. So by stimulating a conversation about the lack of metal i was hoping that it might reveal incidently something about the happiness resources. Why did i choose metal, simply because apart from highly sucessful hut popping there is little chance anyone would have BW and IW at this stage, so any half decent player would think i was BSing to a degree.

But like i said that was not that important too me, i was trying to get the other player to relate the lack of something and hopefully apply it to something else (like the lack of happiness sources) in the following discussions. Basically its a physcological ploy. While it wasn't successful in that no one overtly said something there still were a few comment about the map being odd which at least for me reenforces that other people have things missing. Whether or not its happiness resources or something else will be a mystery for a little while longer

[Robi D]

Turn 35

A couple of bits of good news. First up, a new city


Connor City will have the ponies ready to go in a couple of turns. The other two cities are going along as normal. Once i have BW i'll get settlersgoing in both of them so i can use the chops to get them out quicker

Second bit of good news, i found gems!


Finally a happiness resource although it will still take a while to get to

[Robi D]

Turn 40

I've finished BW, so pottery is up next. There is a copper source at Robigrad, it would seem to be the only one in my area. Also have made contact with ynnek the previous turn when his warrior came wondering in from the landbridge to my west. I got my first chariot build and ready for action, which will be to explore a bit more at the moment. I've begun builds on a settler and a worker.


Here is an overview of my area, lots of food and very little of everything else. Also gives you an idea of my settlement plan. The sites with brackets () and locked in, the ones without may still move around a little or have their order changed.


And finally the demographics. My GNP has picked up over the last 10 turns so i'm now middle of the road and just above the average. Food and production are up there as usual. Overall the numbers are middle pack which is reflected in my position on the points score.

The is also a discussion about an unbalance in the amount of happiness resources, from what has been said, some people have one, other none at all.