[Spoilers] SleepingMoogle's thread

[novice]

I don't get it.

[SleepingMoogle]

I don't get it.

Zama was an Indian city last turn that was severely culture crushed by the Malazan cities surrounding it. Serdoa agreed to part with it for a sum of gold, and also discussed a NAP extension. It's still touch and go, but I think Indian-Malazan relations are slowly improving again.

Now that I am NAP-protected for eternity, the rifling-drafting plan is not really necessary anymore. I have Gunpowder to train some defensive units, and tech was switched to Constitution -> Democracy to rush the SoL on the mainland. 9 Representation-powered specialists should do just nicely. After that, Astronomy for observatories will probably be next, and I'm considering beelining Medicine for Sid's, which should be an absolute killer on this map.

I started scouting the second ring and have located Rice, Cows, Pigs, and Wine so far. The area is a little resource poor (well, compared to the rest of the map), but there's a good amount of rivers, and I'm in a good position to REX further east.

[SleepingMoogle]

Quick update: Democracy came in last turn. I was hoping to spawn a Great Engineer for SoL, but the coin flip gave me a great merchant instead. He headed on a trade mission, because I honestly don't know what else to do with him. My National Epic city will spawn the next GP in two turns, which has a fair chance of being an engineer. Fingers crossed. :-)

Research was set to Corporation to get the extra trade routes before focusing on Medicine. That is a bit of an asterisk though.. Scooter is headed towards Rifling, and Serdoa just finished researching Chemistry so I may have to pursue some military techs myself to keep up.

Two Settler and Worker teams are headed to the eastern ring to set up the first cities there. Dyes have been spotted there as well, and I'm considering possible settling locations. A lot of that is still a big question mark while scouting is going on though.

[SleepingMoogle]

Hmm, there's not a lot of reporting going on for this game anymore. We're still chugging along with 1-2 turns per day being played, but it has been quite a few days since there's been new posts.

Quick updates: Got a great engineer, he'll help speed along the SoL next turn. Observatories are starting to finish in some of my bigger cities, pushing Medicine to a 3-turn tech with a slight deficit. I'll incorporate Sid's in the Hindu holy city which is already building Wall street to reap some crazy income.

After Medicine, I'll probably get Steam Power for levees and backfill some techs. Assembly line is up soon after that, which should finish the game really. Scooter will have to give up the Lighthouse to get Corporation, which is the one thing that allows him to keep pace, and Serdoa is just starting to trail behind. I'm quite sure that I'd survive a triple NAP-stab dogpile at this point; with Infantry it's just a done deal. Most of my newer cities are being set up for production, and can churn out ships and units pretty quickly, and the Globe Theater is finished as well.

Also, I asked the other players if they'd be willing to trade their surpluss seafood.

As an aside, is there something anyone would like me to screenshot or share my thoughts about? That would probably help me report the game progress in a relevant manner.

[SleepingMoogle]

Hmm, is it a bad thing when you almost hope that you'll get dogpiled simply because it would return some excitement to the game? It feels like I'm just going through the motions now. I haven't had much diplomatic contact with the other players lately, other than to reaffirm NAPs and the like. For all I know, scooter and Serdoa are plotting my doom right now but if they are, they aren't reporting on it.

Anyway, Twinkletoes was the only one to get back to my about the seafood question. We're working out the details now, but it's probably going to involve a long-term NAP and substantial gold investment. TT also requested me to vote him into power for the AP he recently constructed. No real issue there.. Serdoa and scooter have few Hindu cities, and I have enough population to vote down anything I don't like, so if he wants to play around with it, no problems. The Ottoman empire really isn't a threat at this point.

For what it's worth, both scooter and Serdoa seem to be doing pretty well keeping pace. Both have finished Scientific Method, afterwards scooter started on Biology, whereas Serdoa is going for Physics. He probably wants the free scientist, which at this point I'll probably let him have. If it was Scooter I might have tried denying it, but Serdoa is still behind tech-wise, and I really should focus on some military techs to ensure my defenses will withstand a 2v1.

I have just picked up Steam Power myself, and now know that the only Oil and Coal resources are on the eastern landmass. It's an interesting mapmaker's decision to make continued expansion attractive. The seas within Malazan borders are very busy with ships ferrying a ton of Settlers, Workers, Missionaries and units east. The oil is still out of reach of the next round of cities, but I will grab Coal, Cows, Pigs, Dyes and Wines.

Happiness will again become very important very soon. Most cities are in the 15-20 size range now, and will explode as soon as Sid's is expanded to them. The first executive will finish next turn and move to a high hammer city to churn out more. Probably the capital of Unta, which just finished SoL and is looking to build something new.

In a probably futile attempt to increase happiness, I've started to spread other religions that Hinduism around for the eventual shift to Free Religion. Still, I am regretting the decision not to build monasteries before obsoleting them now so I'm not certain just how much of a solution that will be. Wait and see I suppose.

Next tech up: Assembly line. After that I'll probably stop for a while and backfill techs while settling the eastern continent and spreading Sid's around. Also looking at Cristo Redentor since corporate maintenance will force me into Free Market before long and I'd rather not spend time in Anarchy for that.

[Amelia]

Hmm, can we have a few screenshots to show your current position on expansion and so on? Your explanations are detailed, but sometimes people just desire for pictures.

[SleepingMoogle]

Earlier today, the other players have conceded the game to me. Both scooter and Serdoa felt that my lead had grown too much, but perhaps more than thatt he heart has been gone from the game for a while. Twinkletoes agreed as well and we decided to end the game.

So yay me! :2dance:

I'm going to write up a post-game report over the next few days. The next two days have little free time between them, but I'll try to have it done by Wednesday.

Hmm, can we have a few screenshots to show your current position on expansion and so on? Your explanations are detailed, but sometimes people just desire for pictures.

Yeah, I really have been slacking on picture content lately. Sorry about that, I'll try to keep this in mind for the future. Hopefully the post-game report will make up for it though.

[Bobchillingworth]

Congrats! Hah, and to think that you were convinced scooter was sure to win just a few updates ago :P

[novice]

Congratulations, Moogle!

[SleepingMoogle]

Hey, I can worry if I want to. Anyway, thanks guys!

I reloaded the last turn to take some screenshots. If there's anything in particular you'd like to see, let me know.