[SPOILERS] Dazedroyalty - Move along! Nothing to see here

[dazedroyalty]

There's nothing to see here! Disperse!

Move along!

[dazedroyalty]

I'm trying to get myself into this game part way through -- something I've never had to do before and I'm trying to think through all the options. Since Kuro had a settler out and enroute to a city which means I had no choice but to immediately consider settling options. This was my first stab:



However, wasting 4 tiles in the middle of my empire is unacceptable. So stab #2"



I like this because it was the dotmap with the least wasted tiles I came up with (just one north of the capital. It's forested which is a bummer because I'll only get a reduced rate for cutting it down!) I also like that I get horses and bronze in one city. I have no idea what the diplo climate is in this game or what Kuro was or wasn't up to. It'd sure be nice to have units available to counter any strikes. The only thing I don't like is that it divides up those floodplains between three cities one of which (gold) is very mediocre. So tried one more time:



This one wastes one more tiles (2) but still less than the original (4). The north ends up crammed in all of them. I don't know enough about the NE or SW to fully dot map. My plan is to push to the southwest because I like the jungle/lush a lot better than the cold! the second city the Kuro planted is good but I wish it had been one of the cities with bronze. The one nice thing about settling the way I plan to is that I can save orange/yellow/green to be settled at leisure since they'll be safe! Since they're good cities, though, I won't want to wait too long.

EDIT: Just realized that settling the grass hill means no food in the first ring so that's pretty much not gonna happen. Looks like plan three is it! I moved the settler onto the grass hill though in case I switch my mind again. It doesn't slow the time for the settler to get to the plains hill at all. And yes, it is an unprotected setter. Thanks, Kuro!

[dazedroyalty]

Tech choice is hard. I am not thrilled to have researched Hunting. I know it's useful for the Ivory and Furs but I'd rather already have mysticism to pop borders or wheel and be on the way to Pottery. I'd really like to get pottery ASAP and throw up lots of cottages but at the moment I gotta go Mysticism because there's no way to pop borders yet! (Making settling the plains hill for bronze and Fish ASAP even more important!!!)

EDIT: Nevermind... we started with Hunting. That just sucks then. Oh well. Forward, ho!

[dazedroyalty]

Hail, rebel leader and future Dictator!

It is with great interest that we Republicans have watched the swift rise and fall of the government in your lands. First, a tribe of pirates arose and though we could never prove it, we were certain they would be up to no good. Oh, sure, they had all the trappings of being real pirates. They wore the right sorts of eye patches and some of them had peg-legs, but we had not heard tale of a single raid or sack of a seaside village, nor the sinking of any maritime vessel whatsoever. With those oddities unexplained, we were not sure exactly what kind of pirates we were going to be dealing with and it made us uneasy. Our greatest fear was that they were some new breed of peaceful pirates, benevolently running rum between distant destinations and repeatedly telling jokes that ended with "arrrrrrrrrrrrrr!" Clearly this would not have been tolerated and we were, in fact, secretly gearing up for war against them. Why were we preparing an aggression action? They were the slowest pirates we have ever seen. The only thing their pirate ships were well known for was how slowly they did everything. Slow to pull along side, slow to man the cannons, slow to fire, and most unforgivably, they were slow to pass the save. They were, no doubt, the worst pirates you ever saw and even more unforgivably, they never did anyone any harm so far as we could tell. These are not the sort of neighbors we're interested in, being the repressive regime we strive to be.

This history lesson is no doubt old news to you, though, rebel leader. Were you not among the seaside villages not being pillaged and worrying that other nations would laugh at your pirate shortcomings? Because seriously, what pirate does not seek plunder and war? So who could blame your seeking to overthrow such a pitiful government? It would be embarrassing to be known as the pirates who don't do anything. So you rose up, smashed the organs of government, and declared yourself to be the new strong man. We have had no news beyond these basic facts, but it is my esteemed hope that you were able to ruthlessly crush all opposition and make public spectacle of the old guard at their executions. This is the way such things must be done, after all, and it shares the spirit of how we Republicans do things. Entering into relations with your new state, show yourself to be a brutal dictator and gain us as an everlasting ally -- that represents the core of Mao's philosophy. However, seek the forbidden ways of freedom and "human rights" (or be you a sissy liberal) and you will find yourself isolated and scorned from my lands. So, shall we be friends and terrorize our own populations without reason or recourse, or shall we be enemies as you ignore the ways of our enlightened and ignoble rule?

Matters of policy and introduction aside, we'd be interested to know what sort of endeavors your diplomats will be undertaking regarding my regime in the future. We have no quarrel with your abrogation of existing treaties. If the terms had been unfavorable to us we would have simply ignored the fulfillment of terms, citing a failure on your side to include an "in spite of fall of government" clause. You surely realize that we employ a massive army of bureaucrats, likely unrivaled in the world, and they slave long hours crafting my correspondence and negotiating our treaties (we give them no choice in the matter, of course). In addition to human suffering, Mao takes great pride in this kind of governmental inefficiency. Anyway, if you'd like to seek out new agreements or opportunities with the Republican Party, have your diplomats send their correspondence to us at this address.

Also, what do you now call your former pirate lands? We're busily erasing the old name from our maps and realize we don't know what to write in over it, and we assume you'd protest if we wrote REPUBLICAN all over your territory.

Hail Ronald Reagan! (so you don't offend us in future correspondence, this is the correct way to salute a Republican)

Mao,
Chairman
Republican Party

Hilarious!!! And wow... diplo at this level will be tons of work!

[dazedroyalty]

Captial:



City #2:



I'd really like to build some workers but since both cities are only size one and are two turns from growing, I'm gonna hold off.

[Krill]

Only 1 worker?

[dazedroyalty]

Only 1 worker?

That's what I thought at first but there were actually two workers who just completed the cow pasture next to the capital. Kuro had them working as a group so luckily I clicked and noticed that one of them was done already so I could ungroup them and move the one towards Quadratic. Still 2 workers for 3 cities is not great so we'll be fixing that ASAP!

[dazedroyalty]

So, I was looking at the dotmap again and if I use the third map, I can move the dark blue city site SE and pick up the two tiles I had as wasted. That would mean it would have no food at all, but as it stands, it only has 6 tiles (+city center) that are unique. Moving it would bump that up to 8. Moving it would also allow the White Dot to use the sheep, though that may be unnecessary if there's more seafood in the fog.

I also just realized I neglected to check if we were in Slavery or not. Need to remember to do that next turn.

Looking at the capital again...

It's going to be a little bit of a hybrid. It's got 5 hills and five riverside grass+FP. I'll cottage 3-4 of them and mine the plains hill and 1-2 of the river grass hills. That will allow me to switch back and forth based on needs. I'd really like to get the commerce going asap though. Nasty map thing: despite having three rivers, none of them connect to the capital! ARGH! Thanks, Commodore! Of course I'll also build the elephant camp though I've never been a big fan of Ivory as a tile resource. I'd probably prefer to work a cottage for commerce or a mine for production.

As to the newer city, Quadratic:

It has a lot of food to start which is awesome. After hitting size 5, every growth will reduce the food surplus by 1. Take that back, I'll need to farm an irrigation chain to get that wheat going fully. So, here's the tentative plan for that:



So, Quadratic's wheat will stay dry for quite a while, which is a bummer. However, in the end, it'll raise the total food by +2. Anyways, the plan will be to use that food to grow get some settlers going. I'm not a Micro planner so I'm not gonna sit around figuring out which size is ideal to grow to before pumping out workers, but that's the plan. Then I'll probably make this an early Great Person pump too. Working 3 tiles can support 6 specialists!

Also, for kicks, I took a pretty free flying shot of the entire world as I know it:



I really like the green land down there. I wants it! The plan will be to push expansion with my IMP trait to claim as much land there as possible. (Note to self: Get IW soon) That land, with cottage power will become phenomenal GNP machine. If I go for cottages there I'll need to find strong production elsewhere. Looking at the map again, I think that good production sites will be hard to find. Grey dot (island to NW of capital) will be a good place for Moai with a PH and Stone. Green dot (south of capital) will be good production in the short term but until workshops get boosted, will be average long term. I need to find out what's on the SW island ASAP. I could make Purple dot (fish/bronze) production, especially with watermills later.

[dazedroyalty]

Diplo update.

A response to spacetyrantxenu's creative email:

Hail Ronald Reagan!

Your correspondence is most appreciated. My lawyers have discovered proof that Pirates Who Don't Do Anything are actually quite amusing. Fortunately, they are also quite simple to overthrow since, obviously, they don't really fight back. However, in response to the failings of a society built upon doing essentially nothing, the new regime has decided that moving forward our society will be based entirely on Logic and Math. This is the only way to ensure that a civilization can grow strong and avoid the errors of the weak minded and foolish. We will gladly extend our hand in friendship as long as reason and logic prevail--we have no concern with philosophical values but simply strive to be efficient. We assure you that in all our dealings diplomatically the exchange of treaties, resources and deals will be fair and mathematically balanced.

3+4=7,

Dazed

There's no way I will be able to respond with nearly as creative of emails but I gave it my best shot to try to get us off on the right foot. On a serious note, apparently xenu was planning an invasion on Kuro. I hope that he wasn't serious because that wouldn't have gone well for him. For that matter, it wouldn't have gone well for Kuro either but it wouldn't have been a good play regardless.

Message to team slowwalk:

Catwalk and slowcheetah,

Thanks! I think novice is getting the tracker set up so we should be able to avoid my mistakenly only sending the save to one of you in the future. In the meantime, greetings! Since we have met in game, I will also pass along my formal greeting. spacetyrantxenu sent me a message that was extremely creative and I'm afraid I used up all my creativity for the morning trying to respond in kind--and it wasn't even that creative. So, please just accept a friendly greeting and a pledge to have fair and mutually beneficial relations.

Dazed

[dazedroyalty]

Dazedroyalty,
Pleased to meet you, and likewise hope for fair and mutually beneficial relations. I'd imagine we'll probably get back to you with some actual suggestions for achieving that when we have discussed what to do about diplomacy with your nation. Note: this isn't a comment on the change in player we just haven't had too much diplomacy with Persia anyway (NAP to turn 35 was our only (now void due to new ownership) deal I believe). Don't worry about a lack of creative messaging, spacetyrantxenu always makes me feel rather inadequate in that regard (Catwalk tends to do rather better though), straight diplo is fine by me anyway.
Best of luck and enjoy the game,
slowcheetah