[SPOILER] Catherine of Maya - Greens - Kyan

[Kyan]

Firstly, pictures! With some annotations since it's been awhile and i guess i owe you

Demo's:



It seems it IS turn 63 despite the misnaming of the other screenshots. Kyan can't count. Revelation. GNP is worrying me mildly BUT im 3 turns from currency (1 at 0%, 2 at 100%) and am in the process of laying cottages en masse. Food chart is getting silly.


Capital:



Tasty capital. I'm deliberately delaying the Hanging Gardens and have done so for awhile. There is a settler due in 2t from Twinkletopolis and i want to get that founded first. I've been mucking about a lot here BUT considering the following:

-Jowy has only got 2 cities and has been defending his homelands.
-Strike has just got his ass whooped in a war and is also on 2 cities. He needs to be building military or Jowy will get revenge.
-Cull promised not to build it in exchange for me not building The Great Library.

That leaves Seifer and Malakai. So, yeah, it's still a gamble but bugger it, that's how i roll. It worked well in your game PB! haha.

Marshall Mines:



My project city. For some reason i'm not sure of yet i really like this city. Only has silver and sheep but i'm going to grow it on farms and get it working all those hills. This cities job will be to pump out continous military for rest of the game once all basic infra is in place.

Twinkletopolis:



A beast of a commerce city, or it will be eventually. I got seduced by another settler which was probly a naff move (especially if i lose HG 'cos of it heh) but having 7 cities before Hanging Gardens combined with having stones makes that wonder AMAZING in my view. Even if i then just whip every city, i've made the hammers back easily.

good times.

[pocketbeetle]

Thanks for the update!

What's your military and borders looking like?
Is the plan vs Cull still in place?

[Kyan]

An update. Yes, really. It's a brief one though so don't get excited.

Dialled down research to 40% because i wanted to grab meditation in one turn. Mainly to assist in missionary making but will be good for my insane commerce cities also. I configured the two appropriate cities so they can build the monastery next turn. After this, i'll switch back to 0% science for awhile before rushing through Code of Laws (which will be a 2t tech at 100%).

Demos with 40% science (at a hefty profit per turn):



Why the missionaries?

Well, i've agreed to the following deals:

-I'll gift cull at least one missionary and he'll spread it to his cities. Will probly use a few more to spread here if he's slow with that. He isn't in OR. I found a city on the coast to unlock foreign trade routes for him (already done).

-I'll gift Malakai one missionary. He'll spread this to all his cities he has currently (6) and adopt this as his state religion. In exchange, i give him 1/2 gold per turn per city of his that has hinduism.

-I move my border city with TT/strike two tiles further west. I also gift him FIVE missionaries of various timeframes. Two are being built now, one in around 15 turns, the other two at my own discretion but at a reasonable time. In exchange i get a great prophet (already on its way), an extended NAP with a clause for no right of passage to any enemy units. Furthermore, he agrees not to participate in any 'anti-kyan' alliances and if he learns of the existence of any or receives any communications regarding this or anything negative towards me, he will forward it to me immediately.

In other news, i got a great scientist out and got the academy up in my capital which is now nuts. To be honest, if i lose this game from here, then i'm gonna hang myself.

[Speaker]

Some pretty interesting diplomacy. Nice to see something different for a change.

[novice]

Hi Kyan, what's up?

[Kyan]

Hi Kyan, what's up?

Aloha Novice.

Ok, well the situation is this:

my two neighbours both have paper thin defences. Malakai has had ridiculously spiking power and is worrying me. By triggering all NAP cooldowns i get a clean slate with people.

a) i don't need the NAPs anymore. The only comparable military is Malakai's and i will overtake his momentarily. Everyone else is way behind.

b) It doesn't broadcast my intentions to the world if i do decide to attack.

Currently i'm looking at two possibilities all of which will be decided by Malakai's army. If his army attacks Seifer, then i intend to send a shock contingent of fast movers up through Cull (who can either like it or lump it. They're not after him so i cant see him kicking up a fuss) to raze Malakai's capital or alternatively one of his commerce cities.

Malakai is comfortbaly second, a 100 points or so ahead of Seifer. He's had at least 2 great scientists which i THINK he has used for academies. I intend to remove one of those. If i do raze the city, i will likely delete the units or retreat through Culls lands. I dont want Malakai to go after Cull in revenge though so ill probly delete.

If Malakai doesn't do diddly squat with his units, which is unlikely, i may well attack TT. My reasons for this aren't the best, but let's just say i fancy myself in a war against him. If he offers to vassalize etc though, i'll refuse and just take them properly. I have enough production and power for that to be unneccesary and i don't want there to be moaning.

Long story short: I'm having fun in this game but want to spice things up a bit. I was considering declaring war on everyone but war weariness would cripple me. I have a GRAND MASTER PLANtm which i will reveal in a few turns. Whilst i'm not saying anyone would reveal anything, in a few turns it will be too late for anyone to stop me anyhoo and i can go into proper detail. consider this a teaser as it's hugely optimistic but i'm actually about 95% sure i can pull it off IF the next few turns go to plan.

Feel free to guess though and i'll reward you with a city named in your honour if you're closest.

[Bobchillingworth]

My guess- you're going to try to get something insane with liberalism. And then kill everyone.

[Kyan]

My guess- you're going to try to get something insane with liberalism. And then kill everyone.

I won't comment on whether this is close or not yet... but think bigger

To be fair, you guys don't know the situation much, so i'll take a pic of my tech tree for you.

*disappears briefly*





I have every tech lower than those shown in these two pictures.

Other random game information which may or may not be relevant:

Stonehenge was built by China
Oracle was built by Maya
Pyramids was built by Babylon
Hanging Gardens was built by Maya
Great Wall was built by Inca
Temple of Artemis was built by Inca

All other wonders are un-built currently.

Buddhism founded by Egypt
Hinduism founded by Maya
Judaism founded by Egypt
Confucianism founded by Babylon

Other religions are un-founded.

I have copper, iron, horses and stone.
I don't have marble hooked but Cull is trading it to me.

EDIT:

Great People. I used a scientist to make an academy in capital. A prophet i got from TT made the hindu shrine.
In 12 turns i can have a great scientist OR in 13 turns i can have a great engineer. The points are in different cities each with a pure pool to access so i can guarantee the availability of either.

[Kyan]

I won't go into detail on every city. It's turn 89 so that can wait for turn 100 BUT i can now fill you in on half of the master plan.

Ok, step 1 of the plan has just hit fruition with this:



I finished the Mausoleum of Maussolos using the marble borrowed from Cull. Whilst building this i went full research in order to get music first and the Great Artist associated with this. The fact he's an artist is irrelevant but i am desperate for as many great people as possible.

Next turn, William Shakespeare will begin the greatest moment in Mercenary existence. My golden age will begin. Optimally, i'd really rather leave this until i have finished Parthenon (due in 5 turns) but Seifer is very competitive (currently) on the teching front and i therefore need to be wary of losing a couple of key tech milestones.



Whilst researching Music, that GNP figure skyrocketed even further due to pre-requisites. Now imagine those figures in a golden age. My issue with golden ages is that they're so darned short so i decided to change this and try to get one of the longest golden ages in multiplayer realms beyond history.

To that end, i will be researching Drama, Philosophy and then Nationalism next. These will take 7 turns total at status quo. Whilst in golden age, this will be even better. Now, we all know that Taj Mahal is unlocked at Nationalism. I'm sure others have their eyes on this wonder though and Seifer can probably get there at about the same speed i can. With a golden age, i should just about beat him to it. Now, the issue is that neither of us have marble currently and i don't wish to leave such a vital thing down to diplo (although i do have faith in my diplomatic skills, my demo's could make it difficult to convince others to continue helping me )

FEAR NOT! Nothing is being left to fate. I've ensured that Kyaen will generate a Great Engineer in 6 turns. Actually, i lied to you in the last sentence. I'm sorry. There *IS* a small amount of luck involved but if this backfires, it's going to be disastrously unlucky. Kyaen will have a 96% odds on an engineer and 4% odds on a great artist. If i do get horrifically unlucky, i'll make Cull or Jowy (the marblemen- sounds like a great name for a jazz band or something? ) a deal they can't refuse to lend me marble and not Seifer. These are the two guys i'm closest to in this game but we're all playing to win so who knows. If diplo fails (pfft), then i'll ensure Seifer doesn't get marble by other means. Let's just say Cull and Jowy have very insignificant militaries...

Anyhoo, moving on and putting aside the notion i might fail on something, once my great engineer rushes the Taj, i will then beeline for Liberalism. I will likely spend a turn with espionage on to see Seifer's research and i'll get the most expensive tech possible. I can see that world map trades are possible so he's slightly ahead of me in this race but a) i out-tech him and b) i'll have double extended golden ages to get there first. I'm quietly confident i can get there considerably earlier. I'm sure that double extended golden ages has been done somewhere before though SO i'm not settling there...

You may have picked up where i mentioned earlier i was building Parthenon? Well, Twinkletopolis is also pretty close to a scientist. I don't care what types i get though so i intend to work every specialist possible in both here and Orennaí which combined with caste system (civic swapping thanks to golden age) + the GA + parthenon will net me two more great people in under ten turns. These will then be used for a THIRD extended golden age.

Game Over.

[Kyan]

My cities:



Who wants the next one? I think Novice is due a city so he'll be my next priority, but after that, it can be named after anyone.