Last night (it was a dark and stormy night) as the GOTM4 midnight deadline loomed, I was intently clicking to completion, madly managing the minions of my now omnipotent empire, and abusing no substances (delaying gratification until after submission), when the game in its infinite richness threw the fear of death at me!
I had allowed a single English city to survive and its people had periodically made pathetic attempts to intimidate me. So, when I entered a new turn and noticed a blur of orange approach a city in the southern polar region, I made note of it but continued compulsively adjusting my cities to their new improvements.
Once I had finished the initial tasks of the turn, I confidently clicked to the bottom of the map to check on the latest minor irritation. There, just outside my tiny undefended (oops) town of Tsingtao2, a tall slender figure was standing starkly on a glacier, wearing the orange garb of the English. He was jet black, bearded, and carrying. . . a scythe! The pixel image was easily recognizable. It was the Grim Reaper! This unit is not in the instruction manual.
I feared what the forces of darkness had in store for my civilization. Had some fiendish programmer (now in effect standing outside Tsingtao2 and mocking me) anticipated that someday players would have the vainglory to obsessively pervert the game well past Sid Meier's intended vision? (Shadowdale, has this ever happened to you?) Here was one Grim Reaper. Would there be more? Could they be stopped? Was I about to be punished for my presumptuousness, my many magnificent metropolises annihilated by uncountable almighty manifestations of the forces of evil?
Only the uncommon valor of the crew of a fortuitously located ironclad (which I moved into Tsingtao2 and which on the following turn withstood the scythe) saved my civilization. Six turns later, now relieved, exhausted, and chastened, I submitted my game.
Have any of you, my fellow fanatics, ever faced the Grim Reaper as I have?
I had allowed a single English city to survive and its people had periodically made pathetic attempts to intimidate me. So, when I entered a new turn and noticed a blur of orange approach a city in the southern polar region, I made note of it but continued compulsively adjusting my cities to their new improvements.
Once I had finished the initial tasks of the turn, I confidently clicked to the bottom of the map to check on the latest minor irritation. There, just outside my tiny undefended (oops) town of Tsingtao2, a tall slender figure was standing starkly on a glacier, wearing the orange garb of the English. He was jet black, bearded, and carrying. . . a scythe! The pixel image was easily recognizable. It was the Grim Reaper! This unit is not in the instruction manual.
I feared what the forces of darkness had in store for my civilization. Had some fiendish programmer (now in effect standing outside Tsingtao2 and mocking me) anticipated that someday players would have the vainglory to obsessively pervert the game well past Sid Meier's intended vision? (Shadowdale, has this ever happened to you?) Here was one Grim Reaper. Would there be more? Could they be stopped? Was I about to be punished for my presumptuousness, my many magnificent metropolises annihilated by uncountable almighty manifestations of the forces of evil?
Only the uncommon valor of the crew of a fortuitously located ironclad (which I moved into Tsingtao2 and which on the following turn withstood the scythe) saved my civilization. Six turns later, now relieved, exhausted, and chastened, I submitted my game.
Have any of you, my fellow fanatics, ever faced the Grim Reaper as I have?
