Girl Power!! A Playground Mod story

Don't send a man to do a woman's job.... Unless that man is a woman now... -Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki

Hikaro stood outside the school with a large sack on his back staring at the entrance and thinking about his latest assignment.... This would be one of the toughest that the Secret Order of Civ III Modders had handed him yet, but he felt up to it.... Only time would tell if he could pull it off, though. He sets his shoulders and steps through the doors....

Inside the school, He walks down the hall until he can find a convenient unlocked storage room. Nobody pays any particular attenttion to him, since some random kid with an over-stuffed backpack was nothing out of the ordainary. He slips into the long-since unused room and empties the contents of his pack.... There are no books beside a journal for recording reports to send back to the Secret Order HQ for analysis, and the other items are of particular interest, especially since two of them were "borrowed" from an ancient temple in China. One is an old Chinese style water ladle and the other is an equally ancient bronze teapot, both of which are inscribed with various characters. He sets them aside for now and reaches for one of the two remaining items: Both are small casques with Chinese writing on them. One says "男溺泉水" which translates as "Water from Spring of the Drowned Boy" The other has "娘溺泉水" written on its side which means "Water from Spring of the Drowned Girl, and this is the one he picks up and opens.

He hesitates a second before pouring the contents over his head. The cursed water, which comes from one of the many cursed springs in the remote and little-known Jusenkyo valley in China's Qinghai provence, immediately goes to work, changing the person who is soaked with it into who-or what-ever drowned in the spring last. She drops the now-empty casque and picks up the ladle, filling it with some water from a rusty spigot on the wall and splashing it on herself. Since this is a cold-water based curse, hot water temporarily reverses it, however, this magical ladle has the ability to seal the person in their cursed form, which is necessary for this particular assignment, since changing back could ruin her plans in an instant. The other two items, the magic kettle that dispells the power of the ladle and the water from the spring of the drowned boy are for when she needs to turn back.

So, stashing the ladle, kettle and the remaining casque under some decrepit shelving, she reaches into her backpack for the last things she needs to put the finishing touches to her disguise...

A typical looking Japanese schoolgirl with a typical Japanese schoolgirl uniform slips out of the room when nobody's looking, her Secret Order record journal hidden safely in her now almost-empty backpack. As she is walking up the hall, she reviews her assignment from the Secret Order or Civ III Modders: Enter the Playground Mod, play as the Girls and actually win it for once, since the Girls almost always lose when they're played by the AI. On top of that, she decided to play her own unique game variant, which may make winning even more difficult.... Thus here's how it stands:

The Game: Playground Mod v1.1 for C3C, random map version with Plague turned off (everyone who playtested or played the mod complained about how it was completely out of hand, so I decided to avoid that)

The Civ: The Girls.... The girls are Scientific and Commercial, and start the game with a unique government called Blissful Anarchy, which is similar to Monarcy in the Epic game (but with higher unit support rates), giving them an initial advantage over the other civs, which start in Despotism (which is the same as in the Epic game), however, the only OTHER government they can get is Democracy, which comes late in the game, and in this mod has the same corruption as republic. They do get a unique luxury (flowers), Wonder (Flower mound, which requires flowers) and City improvement (Gossip Tent, which makes people happy) Their big disadvantage is that they have the weakest and fewest military units of all the civs... Thankfully they get all the artillery units the other civs do, so they can even that up a bit with massed artillery barrages.... But still, it will be difficult.

The World: Small size with 6 civs (including mine), everything is random, except barbarians, which are raging.

The Variant: Using Hikaro Hibiko Takayama's patented Sierra Club variant. The rules of this variant are simple: You cannot build or do anything that creates pollution... That's right, no polluting city improvements, small wonders, great wonders or cities above size 2. This variant has its advantages and disadvantages. Advantage: since your cities will all be size 12 or smaller, CxxC and even CxC city placement becomes even more ideal, since you can have a group of CxxC cities at 12 pop with no specialists. Disadvange: No factories, so potential productivity will be slightly lower than other civs (except that I terraform my tiles to maximize production and manage growth so that the city will stop growing when the last tile is worked)

An even more extreme version of this variant would be the GreenPeace variant, which would combine the rules of Vegetarian Vengance with these, but I'm not feeling particularly insane.....

As these thoughts are running through her head, she sees some punks picking on a girl just down the hall. An evil smile creeps onto her face as she walks over and says, "Hey, why don't you punks be nice for once!"

The ringleader of the barbarian kids says, "Yeah, and what are YOU going to do about it, little girl!" as he turns around and gets a face full of backpack. Hibiko, having gained the advantage of surprise proceeds to roll out her martial arts moves and opens a can of "whoop-ass" on the bullies, who run off crying for their mommies.

"Are you OK?" she asks the other girl.

"Yeah, but if you hadn't shown up, those jerks would have stolen my lunch money! Thanks for the save... My name's Jessica, what's yours?" the other girl says.

"I am Hibiko, I just transferred here from Japan," Hibiko replies, "Maybe you could show me around the school?"

"Err.... I don't think that would be a very good idea," Jessica says, "This school can be pretty dangerous, especially the staff."

"I see, that would explain the bunkers, sandbags and mortar holes outside the office."

"Well, you'd better come with me, everything will be explained at the meeting," Jessica said as she turned and headed down the hall with Hibiko in tow. Soon they ended up in a grassy, hilly section of the schoolyard, where a group of girls had gathered together beside a stream. There was a heated debate going on as the two newcomers joined.

One blonde girl was at the forefront of the one side and a Latina girl was on the other side. The blonde girl was shouting, "Gawd! You people are, like, so totally stupid! There's, like, no way we can possibly win against any of the boys, let alone the . .. .. .. .. .. .. . teachers! We should just, you know, get back to class and forget this lame idea!"

The Latina girl replied, "Shut up, Ellie, just because you're too stupid to figure out how to win, doesn't mean it's not possible.... We just have ta try and figure something out! I mean, we can't have the stupid, neanderthal guys running everything around here.... Especially since theres some rogue students setting up camp accross the river from us!"

Ellie glared and said, "Well, Maria, if you, like, think you're so [/i]smart[/i] lets hear this wonderful plan of yours!"

"Umm, could I say something," Jessica timidly spoke as she and Hibiko drew even with the two arguing girls.

"What, did those bullies steal your lunch money again, Jessy?" Maria asked.

Jessica gave Maria The Look (the ones that girls normally reserve for their boyfriends when they screw up) and said, "Actually, no, this Japanese exchange student here," she pointed to Hibiko, "came up behind them and proceeded to lay down some Kung-Fu theater on them. Her name is Hibiko Takayama, and while I was explaining things to her on the way over, she mentioned a few good ideas..."

Maria and Ellie both looked at the newcomer. "So, you're, like, one of those super-smart Japanese kids, huh? Let's hear this totally genius idea of yours, Miss Hibiko," Ellie said.

"Uh, I don't know about the 'super-smart' bit... The results of my plans will prove or disprove that," Hibiko diplomatically replied, "As for the plan itself, I say we take our workers and send them accross the stream into that rogue kid encampment... Not only might they get something good from the rogue kids, but we'll be able to see our surroundings better, and decide if this is the best place to build our first fortress or not."

Jessica, Ellie and Maria looked at each other then at the other girls gathered there. "Okay everybody, gather 'round, it's decision time!" Maria said, as the rest of the girls gathered around the three leaders and started hurriedly whispering amongst themselves.

After a few minutes, the group of girls broke up and Jessica came forward and said, "Well, it's been decided: Hibiko will now be our leader!" After looking to both sides and getting nods from Ellie and Maria, she continued, "Lets hope you don't screw this up, Hibiko."

Hibiko bowed as a smile spread accross her face Excellent, Phase 2 of The Plan is now complete now for my first orders.... "Okay, listen up! The workers are going to go to the rogue kid encampment accross the river and see what they're up to... The rest of you, get the building materials together... Once the workers report their findings back to us, we'll decide if we want to build here or not," Hibiko said, "Since I'm seeing snow to the south of us, I'm saying probably not, but we'll wait untill the workers send in their report."

The workers set out and a few hours later they sent a runner back, who said, "Lady Hibiko, The Rogue kids have taught us the secrets of Trading, and the workers have spotted Sugar!!11!one to the Northeast!"

Hibiko's face got a quizzical look and she replied, "Don't you mean Sugar?"

"No, it's, like, actually called Sugar!!11!one," Ellie interjected, "I totally think that some hyperactive kid got to naming our resources or something. It is, like, totally awesome too: It, you know, makes people happy 'n' stuff, and like, boosts food shield and commerce production... Totally cool, right?"

"O---kay...." Hibiko replied, "I say we move Northeast to the other side of the river so that our main fortress will have direct access to some of this 'Sugar!!11!one'. Also, have our workers start building a road from where they're at to the Sugar!!11!one so that we can start importing it immediately."

And so Hibiko's orders were carried out:



The next day, the Girls built Shijuku Park accross the river from where they started, and discovered that there was another source of Sugar!!11!one within reach of the capitol. Hibiko now called in her top girls and gave them advisory posts: "Ellie, you're trade advisor, Maria, you be our cultural advisor, and Jessica, you're domestic advisor...We got Sid, that nerdy boy from the rogue kids who taught us Trading as our science advisor, John, another one of the rogue kids and a former jock as our military advisor, and finally, Alberto, the janitor as our foreign advisor," Hibiko stated, "so, if there are no objections, advise away."

"Build a girl warrior... We need some kind of defense in case some barbarians show up," John said, as he was lounging over the back of his chair in the middle of the Girl Palace Fortress' Oblong Office.

"No, build the Steps to Graduation; It will only take 1 turn and it will boost our culture," Maria shot back.

"While you're at it," Sid said, after doing some scribbling on his notepad, "I've calcualted that our best option would be to research Textbooks, then QUEST, so we can build the QUEST Program and be much smarter than the rest of the kids."

Hibiko looked around to her advisors and said, "Okay, start building the Stepst to Graduation, then start on a girl warrior, and set research to Textbooks." She then looked around the room and said, "If there's nothing else, everyone's dismissed!"

So the orders were carried out, and the Steps to Graduation was built the next day and Shinjuku Park (which was named after one of the biggest hangout spots in Tokyo) started training a band of Girl warriors. 19 days into the project, Maria informs Hibiko that Shinjuku park's cultural influence is expanding "Cuz we totally rock!" Several days later, the first group of girl warriors has completed training under Hibiko's gruelling martial arts regimen and sets out to explore regions to the Northwest. At the same time, Ellie runs up into the Oblong office to make the following announcement:



"Great! Hibiko shouted, "Now we can keep our unruly citizens happy!" She then looks down at her watch and says, "Well, gotta go... I need to start training the next batch of Girl warriors. Goodness knows they need it....."

about a week later, the second group of girl warriors is sent off to explore the snow-covered southern regions, and Jessica begins gathering a group of girls together to form a settling party to build another base. A few days after that, the Girl warriors in the north send back 25 gold they got from a soccer player encampment.

47 days into the project, Sid rushes into the Oblong Office, trips over his own feet, which causes the pens and pencils in his pocket protector to fly all over the place. He picks himself up and says, "Lady Hibiko, our nerds have finally figured out the secret of Textbooks, what should we study next?"

Hibiko glances up from the latest round of reports on her desk from the scouting parties and says, "Research QUEST.... I know it will be a good while before we can even THINK about building the QUEST program, but I figure it's better safe than sorry. You may go now." Sid bows, grabs his pens up off the floor and scurries out of the room as Hibiko turns her attention back to the latest scout report. The southern girl warrior party got some maps from the rogue kid encampment to the south, which revealed another encampment to the Southwest. She was writing up orders for the southern girl warrior party to go check out the other encampment when someone knocked on the door. "Enter please," she said as she finished up the orders and quickly sealed the envelope. Jessica stepped into the room and said, "Lady Hibiko, the settler party is ready to go, where should I send them?"

"Send them to that coastal hill to the Northeast.... Oh, and make sure the warrior parties get these orders," Hibiko replied as she handed Jessica the envelopes, "You may go now." After Jessica leaves, Hibiko finishes up the last of her paperwork and sighs... Time to teach another group of girls how to fight....

Two weeks later, the third group of girl warriors is ready, and they are sent off to the north as well. The settlers arrive at their destination and found the town of Kinokuniya (which is named after a world-famous department/fashion store in the Ginza district of Tokyo), which starts training some girl warriors. Hibiko decides that the next project for Shinjuku Park will be a gossip tent, which will keep the girls happy as well as giving her more control over whatever rumors are going around.

59 days into the schoolyear, the Girl Warrior party to the south reaches the Rogue encampment on the Southwest coast and sends back some very good news:



the girl warrior party in the north finally makes contact with another group who call themselves "Freak Attack." Hibiko makes an appointment to visit the leader of the faction, who is an enigmatic charachter known only as "S"

Hibiko and her bodyguards approach S and his bodyguards at the designated meeting place. As she looks at him, there is something familliar about him... "Okay, let's make this short and sweet," He says, "What do you want?"

"I just wanted to see what you had to offer in trade," Hibiko replies, looking down to the notebook in S's hands. She isn't sure, but she thought she saw the emblem of the Secret Order of Civ III Modders on its cover before he rolled it up and stuck it in his pocket.

"Sorry, girly, but we're even in technology, and even though you have access to excessive amounts of Sugar!!11!one, HA!" snorts S, "and we have candy, we don't have any kind of viable trade routes, so that doesn't do us any good."

"I see, well, I guess this meeting's over," Hibiko says as she turns and leaves, making a mental note to do some research on this "S" charachter once she returns to the Oblong Office.

After getting back to Shinjuku Park, she logs onto the internet and does some digging.... Sure enough, this "S" is actually The Omega, one of the middle-weights of the Secret Order, and one of the co-designers of this mod. Not only that, but he was capable of simultaneously controlling two factions: Freak Attack AND the Galaxy Wars Club. This could be bad, she thought to herself, I just hope that both of them are not in this game, otherwise things could get REALLY interesting in short order.... She then decides to check the global demographics on a hunch, and utters a VERY unladylike word when she sees the top 5 cities: Not only is BOTH of S's factions in, but the Staff are players as well!! It was bad enough that she had one of the most powerful (military wise) factions practically on her doorstep, but the most powerful faction in the entire playground was involved as well... The Teachers had units that had attacks and defense up near 100 and HP bonuses that would make ARMIES envious.... It looks like this could go South really fast. "Well, she mumbles to herself as she slumps back into her chair, "I guess we'll REALLY get to test how 'super-smart' I am after all...."

After a bit, she checks the other cities on the top 5 list and discovers that Char and the Boys round out the competition... Oh yes, this could be interesting indeed....

A few days later, Kinokuniya trains some Girl warriors, who are sent to secure another site to the Southwest that is not only on the coast and along a river, but also has two more sources of Sugar!!11!one as well. On Day 75, Shinjuku Park completes its gossip tent, giving the girls a nice place to talk trash about their boyfirends (as well as double culture gained when they dump them, but more about that later). Jessica takes the opportunity that the opening of the new Gossip Tent to begin recruiting another settler party to go and build a city by the site that the warriors from Kinokuniya is moving to secure.

On Day 84 of the School year, Sid bumbles into the Oblong Office and informs Hibiko that QUEST is done and that all they have left to research for now is Transports, so she tells him to research transports. Two days later, The second setter group leaves Shinjuku Park and heads towards the coastal site. Later that same day, contact is made with the Galaxy Wars Club, which is just north of Freak Attacks territory. S feigns ignorance about his leading the other faction, so Hibiko begins to think "S" has a split personality, and so she nicknames GWC S "Good S" and Freak Attack S as "Bad S" (You're Good S, I'm Bad S! You're goody little two-shoes, goody little two-shoes... Okay, I'll stop it.) Great, just great, not only are they both in the same world, but the same continent as well....

A few days later, Shinjuku Park organizes another group of workers and Hibiko starts training another girl warrior group. When that group is ready to go about a week later, Hibiko calls up Sid and tells him to start getting some textbooks for the city (OOC: Textbook improvement = library). Later that day, a runner comes back from the warriors who are fighting in the north, and John relays the message to Hibiko. "Yeah, our girl warriors to the North ran accross a group of Soccer Player barbarians," he said, "Some of the girls got hurt, but they KO'ed three of the soccer players and the rest ran like the cowards they are -- Typical bullies -- Anyways, they anihilated the soccer player's camp and swiped $25 worth of lunch money."

"Ah, the best news I've heard in a while," Hibiko replied, "Just add it to the treasury, John."

John grinned, "OK, Miss Hibiko, I must say that the girls you personally train seem to fignt better than the others... Must be some wicket martial arts you know there." (OOC: Palace fortress is not only capitol but acts like a barracks, too) He tipped his had and said, "Well, that's all for now, so I'll see you later," and walked out of the room.

On Day 102 of the school year, The fortress of Matsuzakaya (another really famous department store/mall in the Ginza district of Tokyo and popular shopping/hangout spot for Japanese high school girls) is founded on the West coast, along the Matsu River (named because of all the pine trees, or matsu, growing along it) beside two more sources of Sugar!!11!one. Hibiko tells Jessica to start building another gossip tent in that city. In the meantime, Transports is discovered, and Sid is told to start on Comic Books. Two weeks later, Kinokuniya finishes training on another group of girl warriors, who are sent to secure some territory in the desert to the Northwest, and they then start organizing another setter party.

Three days after that, Sid bumbles into the Oblong Office and announces that the secret of Comic Books has been discovered. Now Hibiko can put comic books in the various fortresses to make her unruly citizens even more happy than they would be with just Sugar!!11!one and gossip tents. She tells Sid to start working on Construction, so that they can build walls and monuments. Three days later, Sid once again arrives to inform Hibiko that they've finally got some textbooks for Shinjuku Park. Hibiko thanks him and calls Jessica up. When Jessica arrives, Hibiko tells her to organize a settler party, then another worker party in Shinjuku Park... She wants to be ready to start building the Giant Statue when Construction arrives. About a week later, the settler is complete and on its way to a spot picked out among some floodplains near the Freak Attack capitol.

A week after that, Matsuzakaya finishes its gossip tent and starts gathering up girls to form a settler party. This group is also going North to establish a city in the Great Northern Desert between Shinjuku Park and the city that will be founded even further north. In the Meantime Shinjuku Park organizes its worker party, and the worker is sent to mine some hills nearby, while Hibiko starts taking up a collection to buy some comic books for Shinjuku Park.

Sid comes rushing into the Oblong office 142 days into the school year and says, "Lady Hibiko, We've got construction! Now nothing stands in the way of us getting into Second Grade!"

Hibiko bows and replies, "Excellent, Sid, begin studies at once! If we're the first ones into second grade, that will give us a significant advantage! See to it at once!" Sid nods and stumbles as he rushes out of the Oblong office.

5 days later, Hibiko is in the gossip tent passing out a bunch of new comic books to the girls hanging out there. She takes the latest editions of Naruto and Sakura Taisen back to her room before telling Jessica and Maria to start work on The Giant Statue, which will make one girl in every city of her faction happy. Later that same day, Amy, the mayor of Matsuzakaya informs Hibiko that their settler party is on its way north. Hibiko tells her to start working on a comic book... She plans to turn Matsuzakaya into a second center of production and culture for the Girls.

Day 155 of the school year was one of those really hectic ones: Shinagawa is founded just outside of the Freak Attack capitol on a floodplain near the mouth of the Ueno River, and starts ordering comic books so it can compete with the FA capitol's culture. To the East, Kinokuniya builds a settler, and the Hachikou Statue base is founded (it is named after the famous statue of a famously loyal Japanese dog that is a popular place for Japanese girls in Tokyo to meet their boyfriends). Hachikou Statue begins training Girl Warriors. 12 days later, the outpost of Yokosuka DaiEi is founded on the coast of the Great Northern Desert between 2 Oasises (Yokosuka DaiEi is a Shopping center in Yokosuka city outside the US Navy base, and is a fairly popular hangout spot for Japanese middle and high school girls). It also starts training girl warriors. 3 Days later, Kinokuniya starts work on a comic book collection, however that news would soon be dwarfed by an even bigger event:

Sid comes racing into the Oblong Office, 173 days into the school year, and is practically jumping up and down as he blabbers, "We did it! We DID it!"

Hibiko looks up from her copy of Sakura Taisen vol 3 and says, "We did what?"

Sid, now a bit more composed responds, "We made it into the second grade!! none of our neighbors are even close!!"

Hibiko leans back and says, "Well, that IS great news, here, lets take stock of our situation before we move ahead:"



"We seem to be ahead in most areas at the moment, and our city is the #1 ranked in the world... However, our geopolitical situation is not so good:"



"We may have the advantage of being on a peninsula with routes below our faction pretty much blocked off, but most of that territory is snow and ice... not very productive. On top of that, it looks like the Galaxy Wars Club has good land with plenty of room to expand up North.... They could get to be a monster if we aren't careful." She then turns to Sid and says, "Start research into Tactics... We may have need of some superior military units soon...."

Thus Chapter 1 comes to a close with the Girls going into second grade.

Great start. I like the story and the mod. What do lunch boxes do in the game?

Quintillus said:

Great start. I like the story and the mod. What do lunch boxes do in the game?

Click to expand...

The short time I did play, I think it was a granary.

No idea, I never played it that much.

Lunch boxes = Granary, just like Comic books = Temples, Texbooks = Libraries, etc.....

Hehe.... Good S and Bad S....

And BTW, the reason "S" can control two groups is because the GWC and Freak Attack both existed at different times on the Playground.

Don't worry about the staff. They are incompetent.

We might have actually thought of a way to make them less incompetent in 2.0, but we haven't tested our new idea.

I love the Playground Mod!

I broke my C3C disk...

They still sell Civ III Complete in stores IIRC for $15... And then there's always Amazon.com.

1/5 of the posts in RFMKIII:

When is the update?

....soon. Unfortunately for all my Civ III ventures, I just discovered that the latest expansion pack for Age of Empires III is out, and I just had to buy a copy (Finally! I can play my favorite Civ (Japan) in my favorite RTS (AoE III)).

However, I'll be back to civving once I'm done pwning the single player campaigns.

What? Are you implying that there could possibly be a game more entertaining than civ3?!?!?!?!?!

Heehee. I looked at your start again, and realized just how bad a position you'd be in if you were playing version 2.0 (Deserts and Tundras cannot be settled)

WHAT?!?! That's stupid! Then the whole game would be decided by nothing more than who started where! (especially since the Girls have the suckiest units of any civ with the possible exception of the barbarians, and even then it's pretty close).... Although I could have gotten around that a bit merely by settling some of my tundra cities on the trees. (one of the cities in the destert is actually on a floodplain)

....Although a quick trip to the old editor could fix that (all I have to do is check one box for those terrains and the problem will be solved).

Oh, and expect an update tonight sometime. (hopefully)

Hikaro Takayama said:

WHAT?!?! That's stupid! Then the whole game would be decided by nothing more than who started where! (especially since the Girls have the suckiest units of any civ with the possible exception of the barbarians, and even then it's pretty close).... Although I could have gotten around that a bit merely by settling some of my tundra cities on the trees. (one of the cities in the destert is actually on a floodplain)

....Although a quick trip to the old editor could fix that (all I have to do is check one box for those terrains and the problem will be solved).

Oh, and expect an update tonight sometime. (hopefully)

Click to expand...

Well, so far, in the test games I've played, it hasn't effected gameplay that drastically, except for worst case scenarios like your start. And it serves its purpose of keeping Rouge Kids in play longer, and making colony building actually have a point.

How would settling in a desert or tundra aid you to begin with? Max, it will only give you like 2 pop, useful only as spacefiller and/or resource colony.

Bluemofia said:

How would settling in a desert or tundra aid you to begin with? Max, it will only give you like 2 pop, useful only as spacefiller and/or resource colony.

Click to expand...

NOT, as is the case with most of my tundra and desert cities, if you have a bunch of forests nearby, especially forests with Sugar!!!!11!one in them (as is the case with my second-most productive city) or if they're on the coast.

Like I said, though, any really annoying things I don't like about a particular mod are capable of being fixed with a few mouse clicks, for I am one with the eidtor.

BTW, chapter 2 has been played out.... Right now, I'm compiling a few changes for the FF mod, then I'll post an update.

Well now, that just sounds like a personal problem to me.

I see.

Anyways, isn't it possible to settle on the forests? So settling on the forests will let you take advantage of the forests on the tundra

The Wonder! The Wonder! The.... NOOOOOOO!!!! -Age of Empires II taunt

Now that the Girls entered the Second grade (and ahead of everyone else, I might add), Hibiko decided to look towards the Next Big Thing, which was expansion of her frozen empire (well, it was frozen on the bottom and scorching on top), so a settler group was organized in Matsuzakaya, which was then ordered to start producing a transport. In the meantime, the Galaxy Wars Club decided to start building the Toy Store. Curious, Hibiko called Maria, her cultural advisor in to see what was up with that....

"Hibiko, The toy store costs about the same amount of shields as the Big statue we're currently building, but it halves all unit upgrade costs AND it also makes 4 people happy in every city we own... The Big Statue only makes 1 person happy in every city," Maria stated, "I think you should switch!"

"Well, the Big Statue is worth more from a cultural standpoint...." Hibiko mused, "But! The benefits of the Toy Store outweigh that, especially the benefits of keeping its capabilities out of the boy's hands in general and GWC in particular! Thank you, Maria, see that it is done." Maria bowed and then left Hibiko back to the task of running her empire.

Soon after that, Shibuya Park is founded (OOC: Shibuya Park is where all the girls who are into Goth/Cosplay hang out in Tokyo on weekends), and it starts collecting for some comic books. While this is happening, Jessica bursts into the oblong office with a worried look on her face. Hibiko sighed and put down the book she was reading (How to Properly Run a Nation by Lord Havelock Vetinari), and said, "What is it, Jessica?"

Jessica said, "Some of the girls in our fine city of Shinjuku park are VERY unhappy... They say it's way too crowded here! If we don't do something, we'll have a riot on our hands, and that'll put a big crimp in our Toy Store production plan!"

"Well, we can't have that!" Hibiko replied as she pulled up the production charts for the capitol city and says, "AHA! Hire some of the girls as Class Clowns... That aught to keep the rest of them entertained long enough for us to complete the project!"

Jessica said, "Yes ma'am! I'll see to it at once!" as she curtsied and rushed out to hire some girls to entertain the rest of the miserable ingrates

About two weeks later, Sid comes stumbling in and reports that the nerdy girls on his science squad have worked out some tactics, and Hibiko tells him to start on ranged weapons, since, after all, it's better to put as much distance between you and your opponent as possible. Matsuzakaya also finished its transport, which is sent to explore in the Southwest. A small, 2-tile tundra island is discovered that same day.



One Week later, the transport spots some cities on a land mass nearby, and contact is made with the Boys Union, but as Sid said, "The Boys are ********," (to which Hibiko replied, "Tell me something I don't know!")and they had nothing to trade. Freak Attack also starts building the Toy Store... Looks like we have a wonder race here, folks! Anyone want to wager on who'll get it?

For a while, the Girls continue to expand in peace, with the cities of More's City (Player's Note: More's city is the biggest shopping center in Yokosuka Japan, and a popular hangout spot for Japanese school girls) being founded and research completed on Ranged weapons in rapid succession. Sid is told to Research Library books and Maria comes in right after that to announce that the BOYS are starting to build the Toy Store, while the first Girl Agents are being trained in Shibuya Park.

Hibiko realizes that her exploration is going a bit slow, so she trades contact with the Boys and Tactics to GWC for Map Making, and contact with the Boys to Freak Attack for their World Map. She then, in turn, trades World Maps with the Boys Union



Shortly after gaining that knowledge, a giant octopus sinks the Girls' transport ship. Matsuzakaya sends out another settler party and starts on a secondary Capitol Fortress, since it is the second most productive city in the Girl's territory, despite being surrounded by tundra... It was mainly due to the fact that there were several forests and at least two sources of Sugar!!!11!one and a source of Cool Looking Rocks nearby. Hibiko wanted that city as her number two wonder grabber, and already the effects of corruption were being felt in even her core cities.

Soon, Library Books become available, and the nerds are sent to read up on Artillery, while the towns of Ashi No Ko and Anjinzuka are founded. Both of them would have been completely worthless except for the fact that they were surrounded by bountiful forests, and Ashi No Ko even had an icy reed-ringed lake (Ashi No Ko means "Lake of Reeds" in Japanese) to provide fresh water to the town. Unfortunately, Shinagawa, the city on the floodplains near Freak Attack's Capitol (SJ Forest) had a bunch of unrully and upset girls start a riot, so some class clowns were put in the city to get make the girls there happy so they'd stop rioting.

A few days later, both Sid and John come into the Oblong office, both of them looking rather pleased with themselves. "You go first!" John said to Sid.

"No, YOU go first," Sid shot back.

"Okay, John, you go first and Sid, you go second!" Hibiko interrupted, "I don't have all day, you know!"

John smiled and said, "Well, one of your veteran Girl Warrior squads just wiped out ANOTHER bunch of barbarians."

"Okay, that is good news, now Sid, what have you got to tell me?"

Sid replied, "We have figured out the fiddly details on how to build artillery... We can produce Gatling Cannons, now!"

"Excellent!" Hibiko replied, "Now start researching Naval Combat... I need harbors for some of these cities to even be worth half a darn, and we could use some battleships to take care of those pesky giant octopi that keep sinking our transports."

Bowing, Sid and John left to carry out their tasks, almost at the same time as Maria rushed in and said, "The Galaxy Wars Club has completed the Big Statue!"

"Oh, well," Hibiko Replied, "Just so long as they don't get the Toy Store as well!"

"Oh, there's no danger of that," Maria replied, "We're nearly finished with that... There's no way any of the fools can beat us to it!"

...And sure enough, on Day 275 of the School Year, the Toy Store is completed in Shinjuku Park, and there is no longer any danger of rioting in any of the cities since the girls are too busy playing with their new toys to be upset about anything.



And with that, the Girl Empire entered a golden age! The Galaxy Wars Club, sullen over their loss is able to switch production to the QUEST Program, while the Boys and Freak Attack are S.O.L. Sid comes in and reports that Naval Combat is done, and they'll be starting on the 3 "R's", which allows construction of recycling bins in cities to reduce building pollution. The thing is, since Hibiko has no intention of generating ANY pollution, she has no use for the technology other than the fact that it is the last thing standing between her and 3rd Grade.

A few weeks later, one of the veteran Girl Warriors up north kills a Soccer Player.... Looks like the rogue kids are starting to haul out the big guns now. She seeks refuge in a nearby forest to heal up after the attack. In the meantime, Shinjuku Park starts on the QUEST Program.

One week later, The Girl Warrior up north defeats another group of mean, bully Soccer Players. At the same time, Sid reports that the 3 "R's" have been learned and implemented, and all that's left is to prepare for 3rd Grade.

Three days later, the Boy Union appearantly has traded contact with the Girls around because an emmisary from a group calling itself "Char" shows up outside the Capitol Fortress asking for an audience with Lady Hibiko.

Hibiko Ushered the boy into the conference room, noticing that he kept playing around with a well-worn Zippo lighter and several times, her bodyguards had to restrain him from lighting random pieces of paper on fire. When they'd arrived and were seaded, Hibiko asked, "So, Alexi, what do you want from me?"

Alexi flicked his Zippo a few times and replied, "Oh, we just want to know the schoolyard better... Hows 'bout we trade territory maps?"

"Sure thing!" Hibiko replied, "Anything to help our exploration efforts, which, unfortunately, tend to get eaten by giant octopi."

"Yeah, hate it when that happens," Alexi mumbled, as he took an envelope out of his pocket and placed it on the table. On cue, Hibiko nodded to Jessica, who placed a folded map on their end, and they both slid their repsective maps toward the other party. Alexi picked up his map, nodded in Hibiko's direction, and left. After examining Char's map, Hibiko sat a while thinking... That name, Alexi sounded awfully familliar, so she went back to the Oblong Office and logged onto the internet. Sure enough, Alexi, like S, also was head of 2 factions: The Boy Union AND Char. Also, like S, Char's Alexi and the Boy Union Alexi didn't seem to know what either one was doing. Since she didn't know which group was more evil, she decided to call the BU Alexi "Normal Alexi" and the Char Alexi "Pyro Alexi" to keep them straight.... It just wasn't fair, though... There were two boys who controlled 2 factions at once, and all she had was one, very weak faction under her control. Still, there was more than one way to achieve victory... For starters, sheer weight of numbers usually balanced the scale in one's favor, even if your individual fighters were weak. Secondly, and especially if this was coupled with the first, Superior Tactics tended to rule the day. History was rife with incidents where small, ill-equiped groups defeated much larger and superiorly armed militaries with nothing more than a tactical advantage. Finally, there were ways of achieving victory without firing a single shot....

A few days later, Matsuzakaya finished the Secondary Capitol Fortress, and started on another Battleship, while the town of Sarushima was founded on the small Island off the Soutwest coast. A week after the deal with Char was made, somebody else traded contacts around, and Alberto, the Janitor/Foreign advisor comes rushing into the Oblong Office and says breathlessly, "Mish Hibiko, The Prinshipal'sh headed thish way with a bunch of teachersh, and he looksh like he meansh bizshnesh!"

Hibiko jumps up, looks in the mirror and says, "Be right back!" and rushes into the door that connects the Oblong Office to her room. She returns a few minutes later wearing her best, starched uniform with the official seal of her former school on the left breast pocket. She then strides out of the room with Alberto in tow, and begins asking him some questions about the teachers as they headed towards the conference room. "So, what do you know about the staff so far?"

"Well, they've got a much shmaller military than we do," Alberto replied, "But it'sh not like is makesh any differensh: They have Teacher Infantry, one of which could probably deshtroy our whole army without even getting bruished in the processh!"

"Yes, I kind of figured that," Hibiko replied, knowing full well how much the Random Number Generator hated her, "Anything else I should know?"

"Yesh, The Teachersh are ********," Alberto smugly replied.

"Tell me something I don't know!" Hibiko shot back.

"No, I mean that they're behind ush on schientific reshearch" Alberto replied.

"Well, I kind of figured that," Hibiko said, "Teachers always seem to be WAY behind the times...." As they were talking, a group of Girl agents formed into an honor guard, with Jessica bearing Hibiko's personal Naginata in case the negotiations got ugly. (The Naginata is a Japanese polearm which women have traditionally been trained on for the past 2000 years, give or take a couple of centuries)

Hibiko and her entourage filed into the room, took their positions and waited for the Prinicpal to arrive. Soon the doors on the opposite end of the conferance room swung open, and a tall, thin man wearing a black suit and dark glasses, surrounded by a group of teachers armed with machineguns, assault rifles and RPGs entered the room.

"Miss Takayama," He spoke, "It has come to our attention that you've been leading a double life: In one, you're Miss Hibiko Takayama, a straight-A student, you turn your homework in on time, and you even help Alberto... Take his trash out. In the other, you're Lady Hibiko, a rogue student agitator who's been amassing an army of girls with intentions of taking over the entire school.... Now, I want to be as forthcoming with you as possible, Miss Takayama; One of these lives has a future and the other does not! We have reason to believe you've been contacted by a number of other rogue kids. Despite what you may THINK you know about them, they are dangerous rule-breakers and are not to be trusted...."

"Um, I'm not really trying to start any trouble with them," Hibiko interrupted, "What do you really want, Principal Smith?" (OOC: Yes, the actual name of the leader of the Staff in the Playground mod is named Principal Smith.... The_Omega, Bluemofia, did you REALLY expect someone NOT to make a Matrix reference with a name like that, especially with the super-powers the Staff units possess?)

The Principal looked over his sunglasses at her and said, "Yes, Miss Takayama, We'd like to give you a map of our areas of the school, just in case you need something. Of course, we'll require your maps as well. Do we have a deal, Miss Takayama?"



"Yes, sir!" Hibiko replied, and they exchanged maps and the Principal left without further incident. After poring over the maps Given to them by the Principal, Hibiko and Ellie, her Trade advisor let out a loud groan.

"What's the matter?" Jessica asked.

"You, like, know that extra-special resource that, like, we can only get?" Ellie asked.

"You mean Flowers?" Jessica replied.

"Yes! The stupid teachers totally have what, like, appears to be ALL the flowers in their territory! GAWD! That, like, TOTALLY makes me SICK!" Ellie moaned.

"Well," Hibiko grimly snarled, "That just gives us one more reason to wipe them out at a later time!"

With that, Hibiko then sends out orders for the newly created settler and transport to head North where there is some unclaimed good land and Candy! to the North of GWC territory.

And on Day 306 of the school year, Sid comes waltzing into the Oblong Office and announces that the Girls have entered the Third Grade and a whole new era of school life.

"Excellent," Hibiko says, "Nice work, Sid.... Start research on Diplomacy... I'd like to establish some embassies with the other factions so we can do some light spying." (OOC: I have worse luck with spies than anyone else here, so I don't even bother trying.... I DO have a fairly high success rate with using diplomats to investigate cities and steal tech, though)

"Now, let's take a look at our demographics compared to the rest of the world:"


"As you can see, we're first in most of the areas that count, and no worse than 4th in any area, and the only one we're that low in is military service, at that. Now let's have a look at our revised world map:"



Well, we aren't doing so bad in this area, this time around! We actually may have a chance of pulling this whole thing off if we can ever get more than one luxury and two cities that are capable of producing stuff in a decent time."

And so the girls entered the third grade with a better knowledge of the overall situation, and a slight lead over the other factions, but many strange and wonderful adventures still await them, so tune next time to the Plaground Mod Theater, when we find out if the Girls ever do manage to get a second luxury, or if they manage to beat the GWC to completing the QUEST program....