[SPOILERS-PBEM15] Mansa Musa of the Ottomans

[Piet]

T72 is in.

Research :
Archery finished, Polytheism started (1T)

Builds :
Morpork : Worker > Spearman

City news :

Pseudopolis : GS born, sent him to the capital for an academy. Fired the scientists there - Quirm will create further Great People, its food is much better.

Quirm : Grew to 6, a scientist was hired

Sto Lat : Grew to 4, onto a plains forest :-(. Thought about hiring a specialist since nothing there will be improved in the next few turns, but decided to get the Hammam done a round earlier (due in 4)

Al Khali : Borders expanded, Artist fired, tile switched to (next round improved) sheep

Sto Helit : Borders expanded, Artist fired. Thought about culturally stealing the rice from TT - this would probably be possible, at least for a few turns. 2 points of culture into the border region meant 14% culture, so it would take about 2-3 turns with 2 artists to get the tile under control - thats exactly the time I will be running caste. But I think the loss of food, production and also the diplomatic hit won't be worth it, especially because it would only be temporary. Better build library and get Confu, then claim the tile next caste phase.

Djelibeby : will be founded next turn

Foreign news :

Not much, TT has founded his 8th city, the rest did not do much. Power graphs are not worrying atm. Demographically, we are first in the big 3 again, after firing those specialist (GNP took a slinght hit by this, down to 125 or so).

Map and demos will follow

[Piet]

Hm - maps and demos didn't follow ;-). Sorry, I will try to do better this turn.

Anyway, T73 is in. Poly researched, Mono next.

Jkaen revolted to Judaism. T-I founded his planned border city last turn, but it will have real trouble to compete vs. Morporks culture.

My scouting boats found a jungle island with seafood and gems NNE of Arabia. Definitely planning a city there.

Djelibeby was founded, sealing the western border. It will run an artist for two turns to expand borders, then I will try to make the best out of its crappy location.

Al Khali finally has its first improved food resource (sheep pastured). It will develop a lot faster now.

Our workers have begun to improve the road network in the Doble Sto / Lancre - Triangle.

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Alltogether, it was a rather quiet turn. Next turn we will get population growth in 5 or 6 cities - so really looking forward to it.

*********

Maps and Demos will follow this evening

[Piet]

Allright, the Screenshots :

The core with the new founded Djelibeby in the lower left. Note 5 Cities will grow next turn :-) :


"Arabia", with Al Khalis borders extended and the "gem isles" in the east :



Demographics :



As a bonus, worker and military overview. Workers first :



Its pretty clear that my worker focus lies in the west atm.

Military - really thin yet, but this will get better soon. We have some chariot scouts in the west and are starting to get together a response force if someone comes visiting :



I am planning to post a really detailled report at 1AD, i.e. in two turns.

[Piet]

T74 done.

Mono researched, HBR next, then Metalcasting & Construction. Would like to research CS too, its 7 turns atm - must decide when I go for it.

Diplomatically, everything is really quiet right now - along with my current lead, I am a little bit concerned about this - although power graphs are still low.

Builds :

- Morpork Spearman > Settler (for the city N of Quirm probably, or the one S of Ankh - depends on workforce available. N of Quirm would be good because it would help my to get the cottages in Quirms valley up very soon, S of Ankh is a prime location once the jungle is killed)
- Sto Lat Spearman > Barracks (or Chariot, don't remember it exactly)
Confu spreaded to Lancre - thats nice, I didn't need the second artist turn there. Hired one for a turn in Sto Lat though, just to irritate TT a little bit.

Next turn it is switching back into slavery (and org. religion). Especially Quirm needs some whip applications, as it grows like a weed and is already on happy cap (7/7). When my workers have finished roading and chopping in the west, most of them have some business around Quirm and Pseudopolis, building cottages and finally getting rid of that jungle.

@Spaceman : As I will be away from tomorrow afternoon to sunday evening, I would be glad if you could play a turn or two. Will ask Jkaen to send the save to both of us, in case you don't read this in time.

Anyway, my 1AD report will be a 40BC report, coming tomorrow.

[spacemanmf]

@Spaceman : As I will be away from tomorrow afternoon to sunday evening, I would be glad if you could play a turn or two. Will ask Jkaen to send the save to both of us, in case you don't read this in time.

Yeah, that's fine.

[Piet]

Great, thank you :-).

The last turns, I've mainly playing along without that much planning ahead, which is generally a bad thing ™. I will do my 1AD (allright, 40BC) overview today though, which hopefully explains roughly what is going on in the empire, so you will have a more solid base than the turn-by-turn-reports.

[Piet]

State of the empire at 40BC (T74)

Overview map :



Heres our core area, with 8 of our 9 cities. Our western border has been settled completely and will be culturally expanded by artists next turn, which will do for the moment. In a longer perspective, they will probably need their own source of culture, especially Sto Helit at the Mali border.

Generally, our production area is planned in the north and west, taking advantage of the hilly area (also, our border cities there were planted on hills when possible. The south and east is dedicated to commerce, with coastal cities profiting from GLH trade routes and a lot of cottageable grassland beneath the jungle hell. As border security was more important, some of those commerce centers are yet to be settled, unfortunately.

Theres also the southern outpost Al Khali (I apparently forgot to make a fresh screenshot of the area, so you will have to do with the last turns one) :



This area, dubbed "Arabia" by Jkaen, which fits really well, will be our border region to Zululand, with Al Khali as its prime city. Used caste and artists here to expand its borders as well as in the north. We will settle two further cities here, a rather nice one in the south and a not-so-nice filler in the north. Also, there are the islands, which can host 3-4 more cities (very interesting are those gem isles just discovered in the far east).

[Piet]

Military Advisor :



- 11 workers, which is barely enough, more would still be better.
- 2 Workboats, one intended for Al Khali, one scouting
- a galley, currently scouting, will need a few more soon
- 2 chariots, 2 axes, 2 spears, barely enough to look competitive on the power graph

Military stationing :



As you can see, most military is at the western border, around sto Helit/Sto Lat, since it is central. Northern defense force will concentrate on the hills between Morpork and Ankh / Morpork and Lancre - this force is currently 1 Spear only. With our road network beeing improved, production cities coming up and HBR/Construction in view, we should get a more viewable force online fast (mainly HAs, Cats, Spears and Crossbowmen I suppose, although the last will have to wait until Machinery).

Also, our fleet is lacking atm. We will need 2-3 more galleys and perhaps a trireme or two, especially when the island cities are coming up.

[Piet]

Domestic situation :



These articles contain some good german vocabulary training I suppose

So, listen and repeat ;-)

Hamam > Hamam
Siedler > Settler
Bautrupp > Worker
Kornspeicher > Granary
Bibliothek > Library
Streitwagen > Chariot

Happy cap is currently at 8/7, 11/10 reachable with Hamam and Confu. Can't build temples yet.

Health cap is not high, but easily improveable by roading the wheat at Morpork - the Ankh source currently is shipped to TT. Anyway, thats a project for the next free worker in the area and not very urgent.

[Piet]

Our cities :



Our capital, with an academy and the GLH. #1 provider of research and money. Happy cap will be 11 when the hamam is finished and whip anger wears out, and I intend to let it grow to that size, adding more cottages at the grassland tiles. Still don't have a plan for the plains tiles, perhaps I will workshop them for a switch to production when neccessary.

Ankh will need a market after the hammam and is a fine candidate for providing Confu missionaries afterwards.



When I founded Morpork I promised it would serve mostly as a settler/worker pump and indeed is has not done much apart from that in the last 2.500 years - at least not before the population decided to do something against it and found a religion. Morpork has served its role really well with, and will probably continue with it, as it has five good tiles to work on and not much more. I can imagine it beeing a production city with all this food and workshops on the savannah in the future, still I started a cottage and not a farm at the lakeside grassland - hmm...



Pseudopolis currently is in the same situation as Morpork - 4 great and an ok tile to work, which made it a good choice for building settlers/workers and getting my great scientist. Opposed to Morpork, it has good potential for later - I am planning to mine the three grassland hills and probably cottage the flatland and I will have a nice coastal hybrid city there. Definitely a very string site.

There is also my planned Moai city in the vicinity, which will borrow rice and copper from Pseud until Granary, Lighthouse & Moai are up. Should really found this one soon.



Sto Lat was founded for the horses at the best spot in a rather bad area. It will (hopefully) be home to the hanging gardens. The city needs a granary direly after that, and it has far to few unimproved tiles atm. With all these plains around and not much food making this city productive will be an interesting task. I am currently thinking production city, with irrigation carried from the northern river, the hills mined and the plains workshopped / farmed after CS. That means Hammam > HG > Granary > Barracks probably



From one of the bad cities to this one - Quirm is a really great site. Growing like a weed thaks to 3 good food resources, on a river, with enough hills to produce something if neccessary. Atm, it is starting to work on my second GS and trying to get some infra up.
Long term, Quirm will be our GP farm and probably also the globe city (these two seem to do not well together, I am think about drafting at wartimes and GP generation in peacetimes, with a short growth period before this. I could imagine Morpork as Globe city alternatively). It will probably borrow its mines to Pseudopolis most of the time and its cottages to its (unfounded) northern neighbour, using only the food to full effect.



The "star of the south", Al Khali will be a nice production city, with two food and 3 excellent production tiles when improvements are finished. It will get its basic infra up fast, then build settlers for its neighbouring cities, later focussing on military.



Sto Helit is our westernmost outpost, sealing our land to TT. It has nice production potential, with a lot of hills and two relatively save food resources available. Did its initial culture with artists, which will not be enough long term. I think spreading Confu and whipping out a cheap temple will be best, a library would be an alternative / addition. Main goal for this city is military production though.



Lancre has very sensible inhabitants, adopting Confu as soon as the border pop was needed :-). Apart from that, its a border city which claims Iron and has quite nice production potential once these tiles are improved. Thats another city that will focus on military.



At last Djelibeby, a damp hellhole between desert and jungle. Founded by prisoners in a moonless night, inhabited by people who criticized the patricians decisions, toiling endlessy in the desert sun or struggling against the monsoon.
Ok, its not THAT bad. We have rice there, and sugar. While the city was founded solely to seal the border and claim a canal spot (building a fort on the land bridge), it can be an ok little commerce city as soon as the grasslands are cottaged. No production however, which means granary, library, (lighthouse,) stop.