Brant Guillory, 28 March 2013

Brant’s long-form AAR, testing the limits of attention spans everywhere. Especially his.

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Hey now, are there really other civilizations in this game? Fo’ sho’!

Movin’ Out.

We’re moving our settler out to a nice little wooded lot with a lot of waterfront and some nearby resources.

And Following Closely Behind.

We’re dispatching a spearman to garrison the new town, too. The inherent self-defense capacity of a city makes garrisons less important in Civ V than in previous Civ’s (especially 2 & 3) but with all the barbarians running around out here, it’s still nice to guard the city.

Local Improvements.

We’re busy improving the areas around Gades, with the wheat already farmed, and some marble coming soon.

Another City-State.

Antwerp is out there. And check this out! We’re not the first civilization they’ve come in contact with! That means we’re getting close to finding someone else out there, and that someone is apparently already allied with Antwerp (see the “Ally (?)” in the middle of the screen?)

The Grass is Always Greener.

As nice as it might be to park this city here, there’s a good bit of real estate just over the horizon, on the same continent with Antwerp. Let’s maybe give ourselves a colonial base for some expansion over there, and come back to the ground later.

Over the Seas (da-dum, da-DUM), Over the Seas (da-dum, da-DUM)!

So we’re going to ship off our settler, along with the worker and spearman, to colonize the new world. We’re parking ourselves along a river, with some different resources close at hand, as well as some arable land. All things considered, it’s not a bad starting point for a city, but we’ll have to explore some more to find the next good place to plant a city over there.

Yep. Barbarians. Yawn.

We’ve seen this movie before.

No “MIssionary” Jokes, Please.

See that on the right? I’ve got my first Cathar missionary, so I’m now going to start spreading Catharism around some.

Now We’re Busy.

Remember when my production was at the bottom of the progress charts? Yeah. I think we’re fixing that one OK, eh? Quarries, the Mausoleum, and the right religion bonuses, and your hammer-swinging count goes way up.

Great. Another Useless College Major Discovered.

I kid, I kid.

A New Era Dawns.

But hey, discovering Theology gets us into the Medieval Era! What that really does is start to affect some of the production, trade, and city-state bonuses.

Found You

I finally found another civilization. Based on the colors, I’m pretty sure it’s the Incans. Hell, it could be the Martians for all I care right now… I just wanted (sniff!) someone to talk to!

Seeking Some Religion.

If I pop open Lisbon’s detail view, you see where they want Catharism to become a majority religion in their city. If I convert at least half the population, it’ll give me an influence boost with the city, so this is a first stop for our new Missionary.

And He’s Off to Spread His Gospel.

For a missionary to spread religion to a city, he must be adjacent to the city. So I need to not just get into Lisbon’s borders, but get adjacent to the city itself. Fortunately, moving non-combat units, like missionaries and merchants, through ‘neutral’ territory doesn’t affect your influence with them.

Hey! I found the Inca!

And no, I’m not starting off declaring war. One of the first things I want to do is trade.

Swapping Diplomats.

The first thing I want to do is exchange embassies. This will let us develop any other trades / treaties going forward. What we can’t do right now is swap an “open borders” treaty because we haven’t discovered Civil Service yet.

I’ve Gone As Far As I Can Go.

And that means that we’re limited on our exploring without that treaty. Cusco is now visible on the map, too, since we have an embassy there. Similarly, he now knows where Carthage is.

Go Forth, My Son.

I’m going to automate this guy for now.

Reinforcing The Colonies.

I’m going to send my wayward archer up to the new colonial site, both as some muscle against the inevitable barbarians that’ll appear, and to start exploring the new continent from the ground.

Spreading Religion.

My missionary has reached Lisbon and I’m now going to spread some Catharism to them.

Next time? A new colony, spreading some more religion, and further developing our policies.

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