picklepikkl embarks on the Fool's Journey

[picklepikkl]

I have had a really exhausting day and don't especially want to update. But I've been updating every single turn of this game, dammit, and stopping now would be admitting defeat.

We founded The Emperor and built another Worker, Gomory. We also got our Great Scientist, Alhazen, who built an Academy in The Fool, and turned research on. First in GNP by about fifteen percent, 3t left on Currency, and then 4ish turns to Code of Laws after that, possibly limping over the finish line with the help of Wealth. I'd like to get Confucianism, but given our comparative advantage in Courthouses, Code of Laws is worth getting even if Sian or someone lands the religion ahead of us.

I'll do a follow-up post with images and descriptions of those three new named entities when I hate the world less.

[picklepikkl]

It would be nice if strategy games were better at patching the void of existential frustration in what I shall for the sake of argument call my soul, but perhaps this is just what Kierkegaard (as opposed to, say, Fall Out Boy) would call angst. Anyway, in order of things happening:

Alhazen was a natural philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer at the court of the Fatimid Caliphate during the Golden Age of Islam. He is rad as hell, and possibly the very most deserving of the title "Great Scientist," on account of he postulated something much like what we now call the scientific method (hypotheses confirmed by replicable experiment) several hundred years before the European Renaissance. Also, his book about optics was read in translation by another dude you might have heard of, Galileo Galilei.

Our seventh worker is this guy:



Gomory, also called Gremory or Gamori, is a demon who appears as a beautiful woman (the grimoires are united on calling him "he" nonetheless; I guess maybe his theme song is "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)"?), riding a camel and with a ducal crown, either worn or tied around the waist. He knows secrets of past, present, and future, and can find hidden treasures. Let's hope this means that my worker will improve the tiles that have resources I later unlock hidden on them!

Finally, we come to:



City 4: The Emperor

Where The Empress is the gentle and providing mother, The Emperor is the stern and expectant father. The Emperor sits on a throne as well, but his is hewn from rock, and he sits up straight on it, wearing armor under his robes. He represents structure, authority, and rules. The Emperor teaches the Fool that the world has an internal logic to it: actions have consequences, and these are to some extent knowable, whether they derive from the ordered laws of physics or from the dictates of someone with power over you. I feel like that the main Civ application of this is that he's very disappointed in me for not maintaining my sandbox, to which I say "Shut up! You're not even my real dad!"

[picklepikkl]

Busy day ahead of me, but quick update: in two turns we found The Lovers and get Currency. Also, new worker.



Haborym is one of the weirder-looking demons we've had in this thread, and is notable because he's apparently a coach for the socially awkward. Seriously: "He maketh thee witty in all manner of ways". I know my teenage self really wanted to get coaching from a three-headed monstrosity riding a viper and carrying a torch around in case any fires need setting!

[picklepikkl]

Got the turn just before I had to run for the train. I proceeded to play in a rush so that the turn could keep moving, since I wasn't sure when I would next have time this evening. Well, that time is now, gentle reader*, and so maybe I didn't have to completely wing it on my worker actions. But hey, maybe my choices will create !!FUN!! (in the Dwarf Fortress sense).

Settler is in place to found city #7, The Lovers, next turn, with plenty of worker labor available to speed it along. The Fool will donate it the corn as well. In city #7 news, our scout inside greenline's territory espied an interesting tableau: both greenline and Jowy have settler pairs in the vicinity of the northern gems! This seems to me like a super greedy move by Jowy; there's no way he can sustain the defensive commitments of forward plants in both directions. If Jowy does in fact claim the spot, hopefully greenline will build up a force where I can see it, I can start a war, and greenline can pincer him. greenline just revolted into Hereditary Rule/OR, though; not very military-focused techs.

Judging from the trade screen, Jowy has also secured Currency, a turn before me. I may one-turn Sailing in the hopes of eking better trade routes from Sian until he notices and decides to close borders; once The Lovers is founded, we'll have a defogged route along the southern sea. Alternatively, I could just full-tilt my way to Code of Laws and see if I can get there first.

*I just finished a book called Too Like the Lightning, which is narrated in the "speaking directly to the reader" style, and I find myself unable to get it out of my head. If you like (u? dys?)typoian science fiction and social philosophy, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

[picklepikkl]

Had a long day in which checking my phone revealed I got the turn about twenty minutes after I would have been able to play it; as such, I ended up holding it for ten hours. Oh well.

Founded city #6 (not 7, I can't count), The Lovers, this turn. Am very tired/grouchy and don't want to go into Tarot, so I'll give the rundown tomorrow. I also discovered that I was a moron and let The Magician grow into unhappiness; next turn the gold will be online and solve that, but I still feel very foolish. It's on Wealth to preserve its overflow, whereas The High Priestess is also on Wealth simply because it's strong for production and I don't need more military (#1 in power with just a couple of axes, a chariot, and a spear, which might mean I should go kick Jowy's southern city over). With just two cities on Wealth I can very comfortably sustain 100% research for like ten turns (CoL in 2.5 at 100%, nice), which means I need to be founding a lot more cities very soon.

Speaking of founding a lot of cities, Jowy did end up aggro planting the super greedy spot. Sian also claimed the western gems, so three of us are on six cities, with greenline still on five (but looking to found at min distance from Jowy's city). There was also a war dec by greenline against Sian, followed by an immediate peace, so I assume that was either a border cross or a snipe. Has Sian been pillaging other people's roads?

[picklepikkl]

Much to my embarrassment, I discovered that I'd misremembered the order of the Major Arcana; after the Emperor comes the Hierophant, not the Lovers. I'll have to fix that when I next get in game!



City 5: The Hierophant

Now that the Fool has learned about rules and structure from the Emperor, they are ready to engage with groups and communal endeavor in the person of the Hierophant. The Hierophant stands for organized religion most obviously, but also for all sorts of tribal wisdom, like a community of nerds playing a 10-year-old game and passing along its secret knowledge (:P). As such, the Hierophant is also the source of the Fool's formal education. This isn't really a great name for this city -- its position as my first port along the inner seas, especially once I fort up the desert for a canal, would have made it a great thematic fit for The Lovers, but what am I supposed to do? Go out of order?

[picklepikkl]

Not a whole lot to say; I played the turn in a waiting-for-public-transit-rush again (Jowy held the turn for like 26 hours, then Sian for another 18 -- I had so much time Sunday and Monday to play, argh!), but nobody had sniped Confucianism, and I was like 20 beakers short, so I rejiggered my tiles and hired some scientists and the religion was founded in The High Priestess when I hit End Turn.

It's nice when things go right. Next order of business, pick up Sailing/Meditation/Masonry, start heading for Civil Service and another Great Person, and take a lead in city count. My "UB" is in play now, so it's time to make my economy work for it.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Not a whole lot to say; I played the turn in a waiting-for-public-transit-rush again (Jowy held the turn for like 26 hours, then Sian for another 18 -- I had so much time Sunday and Monday to play, argh!), but nobody had sniped Confucianism, and I was like 20 beakers short, so I rejiggered my tiles and hired some scientists and the religion was founded in The High Priestess when I hit End Turn.

It's nice when things go right. Next order of business, pick up Sailing/Meditation/Masonry, start heading for Civil Service and another Great Person, and take a lead in city count. My "UB" is in play now, so it's time to make my economy work for it.

Good/bad spot? You get the forests for something at least.

[picklepikkl]

I'm reasonably happy with it. Like I said, it's a production city, so I feel fine building a Monastery there and cranking out some missionaries. Thematically, of course, it is 100% the best possible spot (though I guess The Hierophant would also be a good choice), and so I am entirely in favor on that front.

The forests are currently earmarked for Mausoleum, but I'm not planning to hit up Calendar until after Civil Service, so I may well lose the race. I'm ok with that; my next major goal is to landgrab, landgrab, landgrab.

[BRickAstley]

Anyway, due to Stellaris, I'd had the turn for an hour before I noticed (oops), so I caught up on my missed meal and then settled down to what was sure to be a relaxing uneventful tuWHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT






He is on my side.

I don't know if any of y'all grew up sharing a room with siblings. I did. When you share a room with a sibling, one of the first things that gets established is this: there is Your Side, and there is My Side. Sure, sometimes you need to cross over, or you get invited, or the mess on the floor is no respecter of imaginary lines. But if you start storing things on the wrong side, or hanging out there... well, that's an act of war.

This was an act of war.

New game goal: See this city burn. Obviously not immediately -- I have Jowy's graphs, and he's about equal to me, and it's pretty well insulated from fast-movers 1-turning it out of the fog (water tiles on its diagonals, ack). But one day, it will fall.

Jowy, today's the day you went from "my other neighbor" to "Public Enemy Number One."

I don't see war plans yet! As a lurker, I am obligated to call for blood. hammerhammer