The Tribal Elders of Delphi

OOC: quick heads up, planning to play the next turns and the base write up in
[TIMER="06/03/2015 09:00 PM GMT; The time has come... TO BUILD!"][/TIMER]

Rulers... get ready!

 

((Sounds great! ))

((I forgot to mention at the time but I really enjoy the in-character write-ups. So I'm glad you went back and re-wrote it in character. ))

 

OOC: awww you make me blush Glad you like it, thanks.

But that's what I see as making sense in character. What best than to do a "diary" of the bigger events? Scrolls upon scrolls of remarks and little stories.

 

OOC: Not the most exciting set of turns... Story write-up will probably only happens tomorrow, as I have a few more things to do today.

IC:
=======================
Story
=======================

"... and that's where the new market will be built later, son. It should be a sight to see", Bazil explained to his son, who looked at it in amazement. His wife smiled, loving that small moment.

"Woooah. But why not build it right now? It would be amazing." the boy asked.

"Well son, if you want to build up a city, you do what's best to get wealth. But when you want to build a kingdom, you have to look at the whole picture. And before that, we need to train people to work on what's outside the city." said Bazil, now standing and walking back home, wife holding his arm. The boy hasted behind.

"Well I guess I understand... But it would be really good to see it".

"Yes it would...".

=======================
Bazil's personal logs
=======================

A few days before that talk with my boy, I had to decide exactly that. What to do about Delphi, and what to prepare for. At first, I thought about a new caravansary, to improve our land routes... But then I remembered what all the traders there want... "internation goods", all the little things that others produce... And since the late King Alexander, we haven't been seen with good eyes, not even by other traders. It's a shame our people can't appreciate what we have right here at home...

So, I was left with workers or start a new market. And I did want the market, just like the boy, what a sight would it be. All the colors, the smells, and the weird baubles coming from other places. Not that I care much about them, I still prefer our goods. But wouldn't they turn a good profit...

Turn 11 - Game Turn 151 // 820 AD

Our old trades have been detected by the Shoshone, and we terminated. Seems like even their rulers are holding our trades with their merchants. I've made several attempts to return the trade routes back to normal, but all they said was "We cannot allow blood trades". No matter how much how it was explained that the old King was dead, they would only remember him. It will take longer for them to forget. And by them, I mean everyone.

Our scouting party in the north seems to have met a big city, that doesn't abide to Polish rule. Brussels is the name, gold and culture is their game.

Spoiler :

In the middle of the year, Khirra finished a new work-boat fleet. The sea seems to accept our fishing quite well, so we'll take whatever he offers to us. Many fishermen all over the kingdom have complained about the rocky coast and the night fishing required on their borders, just like the traders before them. I guess we can't ignore them anymore, and since we've had these plans for building tall light towers, I guess it's time to test them. "Lighthouse" seems to do them justice.

Thanks to it, our population grew a bit more, and the mining operations seem to have increased near Khirra with all the new blood (new miner @Melda).

Spoiler :

The west war against the barbarians seems to never end, they seem to be an unending flood. These war meetings have been bothering me more and more... If only Awpathos was stil here, he could've taken care of this for me sure.


Turn 12 - Game Turn 152 // 840 AD

A strange message arrived late last night. It contained the official symbol from Netherlands. Fearing the worst, I left for my chambers and open it slowly. To my surprise, William proposes a new deal, where they are willing to buy some of our copper. That should allow us to improve some relations in time, and any gold is welcome, so I quickly scribe an answer and return it to the carrier. I must keep this issue down, I do not wish to make this public, or they might suffer the consequences, we need to rebuild trust.

Spoiler :

A new celebration was held by Queen Sueang. She hasn't been in the city lately, and she seems to be pleased to return for a celebration, and to do some prayers at the temples. This time, she seemed to be way more please about the travel.

"So how was the travel this time?" I asked "Better than before I expect?"

She seemed happy about the whole change.
"So much better now, my traveling party seems to be complaining less! I swear I can't listen to them sometimes, I'm older than them and I complain less about my back."

I laugh at that outburst of energy. What was the celebration all about... Ah yes, Muang Sulang has now been connected to our trade routes ((we are at 34 gpt)). A new farm is comissioned on the spot the road was finished, to mark the start of a better time.

Spoiler :

Since Khirra's mining operations are improving regularly, a new mining area is commissioned nearby. Wouldn't it be good to find a new deposit of a precious metal there... But I hold no expectations on that, the area doesn't seem to be good for that.


Turn 13 - Game Turn 153 // 860 AD

Some of the boat builders returned from Khirra to Dostana, just in time to finish the new work-boat fleet there. Since this is the biggets fishing area of the Kingdom, a Lighthouse is dearly needed. And we don't want to bring a raging rivalry between Dostana and Khirra's fishers. It seems that with so many visits from Sueang had a big effect into bringing the word of our religion, and so Dostana becomes officially Hellenic.

Spoiler :

Some might not like her, but she has been useful in her own way to the kingdom.

As I walk past the streets with my wife, she spots a painter in the streets. She quickly runs there to see what he's working on. She loves painting herself, and I find this child meekness towards it rather fun. But she calls me near. As I observe all that he has painted, I notice a big city besides a big golden hill, painted in a rather large canvas.
"What city is this from?" I ask. The painter answers in a rather strange accent "Brussels, my lord, the golden city". I hadn't seen it before, and I guess that this is the closest I'll be to knowing it... And now it seems we have a new painting in our living room...

Spoiler :

Turn 14 - Game Turn 154 // 880 AD

Rumours of China completing a great work of engineering have been floating around. But stranger than the look, is the name... Chichen Itza... sounds more like Chicken It's-a, but reversed, if you ask me. Seems like my old age is taking me into making bad jokes... I'll go to the apothecary later to see if this can be solved

Si Satchanalai continues to be improved, and a new Pasture is being built nearby. Cattle is rather welcome, with the growing population.

Spoiler :

Exploration proceeds near Brussels, and I ask my reporting party to escort the painter back to Brussels, as a way to thank him. The southern area, where Melodios' family seems to have some roots, is being properly charted. I wonder why he has never spoken of it.

Spoiler :

Dostana fishing is booming lately, and more fishers have been assigned there (new fisher @Melda).

Turn 15 - Game Turn 155 // 900 AD

More old deals have been shut down, now with China. This time, I'm not expecting as much luch as with Netherlands though. It's hard being a trader with no one to trade with.

Delphi's farmable area has been improved again, let us hope it can help keeping the population well fed.

=======================
The meeting
=======================

Current status:

Delphi

Spoiler :

Khirra

Spoiler :

Dostana

Spoiler :

I come to the council and ask what direction we should continue on my last years as ruler.
We have almost 400 gold, what can we use it for? Purchase some buildings, upgrade our units? What to research after gunpowder?

Will we annex any city? Or just puppet them?

Save attached

 

((I'll give more detailed thoughts later, but this is just for now.

I don't believe we should be annexing any cities right at this moment because it will slow down the adoption of representation. I think we should wait for representation and then think about annexing.

Also:

Spoiler :

Welcome to Islandia --- means "ice-land", homeland of my grandfather the old, wise and great Melda of Islandia!

His people live in the icy hills at the foot of the mountain. He has not returned there since he was a young man. He hopes to return one day.

 

OOC: ok, finished re-writing the whole turn now. As soon as I get some feedback, I'll play the last turn set.

Also, I'd love to actually be able to change some of the first posts from this topic, to add a hyperlinked list of all the turn sets we've done so far, so we could have easy access for people to follow the base story.

 

Forgive me for being so verbose but I love this part of the game where their are so many different strategies to choose from requiring lots of analysis.

Builds:
My thoughts on builds are that Kirrha could build a water mill for food and production, a shrine is cheep and is needed before we can build the upgraded temples that our religion provides (more on this later), also I like aqueducts since the city can still grow much further we will get good use out of it IMHO. We could also build another workboat but can’t use it until we acquire that other fish tile.

Delphi can also build an aqueduct or a workshop. The workshop will help us if we wish to pursue another wonder (we would be first to gunpowder so can build Himeji Castle, but I don’t think its very good). The workshop is also needed (in every city) before we build the ironworks. We need to keep that in mind before we annex Thailand.

Annexing:
With representation in 4 turns we should settle our new western city. Lets the naming wars begin! I would like to send some workers out there to start improving it. The two workers at Delphi can postpone the farms they are working on and start walking I think.

Military:
I don’t think military upgrades are worth the gold right now. We have 3 swords that can upgrade to long swords for 100 gold and then to muskets for 60. I’d rather just build muskets when we get gunpowder. Then disband some siege weapons to save on maintenance costs.

Techs:
After gunpowder we get a spy. I think our spy should steel techs from the Shoshone. China actually has more techs but they will also get to the renaissance sooner and then may defend against tech theft. The Shoshone will be vulnerable longer but to maximize our advantage we want to avoid researching techs we can get for free.

I think we should research Drama and Poetry for the writer’s guild. A bit of tourism early pays many benefits in the long run. We may also want to get Philosophy for the temple, which is one of the buildings our religion enhances. After that we may want to continue along the bottom of the tech tree while stealing the other techs.

Religion:
Our religion is spreading but Protestantism is beating us out in Sukothai and Si Satchanalai. We will have to spend faith on a missionary or a prophet there. On the other hand we can let Protestantism spread, at least for now. Protestantism allows us to buy Pagodas and Mosques with faith.

 

About the spy: When one player reaches the Renaissance all players get a spy regardless of where they are in the tree. But your strategy is still the right one, I think, because the tech leader is sure to be defending their capital, while the ones who are behind may be off in China trying to steal techs themselves and leaving their own cities vulnerable.

 

I believe the spy strategy is a sound one too. I'll also take your advice about not upgrading our units ((I always get confused about this point)).

But then how should we spend our gold? Save it for later, or try to buy workshops?

I'll look at what workers I can send now, and I agree that we will want to have that city up and running a.s.a.p. Can't we get Khirra to build a workboat or two for the new city?

Also, Alexandria seems to be pretty consensual about the base name, should we go for the larger version?

One thing I haven't seen discussed... Winning objectives?

 

((This isn't the extent of my advice; I'll get to that tomorrow.

But I believe Melodas was the only person with whom the name Alexandria had support. I think most people who voiced a view were more leaning toward Apollonia.))

 

The gold could be used to hurry up development in the new city by buying a workboat for the crabs or a monument to speed up border growth, well be wanting resources in the third ring fairly quickly.

A discussion of our ultimate winning strategy is always a good idea. We have the second largest military with a good amount of siege weapons, we are the first to gunpowder, and if continue along the bottom of the tech tree should maintain military superiority for a long time to come. We have captured a capitol already and we are so so deliciously close to several others. So I don't know, seems we are in a good position for diplomatic victory. Also I'm in favor of Apollonia for the new city, the Goddess of Diplomacy right?

 

Agree, it seems a good solid logic and will get our city up and running faster (dostana could've used it in its time ).

Hmmmm I'm usually weak at winning strategies and decisions, but from what you outlined, we have two options: domination or diplomacy.

Science will be tougher since we're so behind and we're not exactly a research powerhouse, cultural we're growing too much for that and not focused enough.

 

Welcome to the Interactive After Action Report (IAAR) . . . The Tribal Elders of Delphi!

I will be your host / monarch / GM and we are roleplaying our way through the history of the Kingdom of Delphi.

We are always happy for new players to join. If you think you might be interested, pick a name and a colour to represent you and announce it in-thread! Elections are held once every ten in-game turns.

This scenario started its life as a fairly typical democracy game (where the players vote for a leader to play the game for 20 turns before everyone votes on a new leader). But I introduced IAAR concepts upon ascending to the rulership in turn 160 and in 180 officially changed the game over from a democracy game to an IAAR.

The Civ game we're using to build our roleplaying framework around is as the civilisation of Assyria on a Small Shuffle map with King level difficulty. Why are we using Greek names and themes with an Assyrian civilisation, you ask? Good question! Early after the inception of the thread it was decided upon by the players at the time to adopt a Delphian theme, and we've run with that ever since.

This game was originally created by mrkingkong, and he was the first and second rulers. Since then the tribe has evolved to a chiefdom, a kingdom, briefly a dictatorial empire and then back to the more traditional kingdom.


Welcome to the Kingdom of Delphi!





Rulers:

The current head of state of the Kingdom of Delphi is the Basileus of Delphi, Markos Melodopoulos.

The current heads of government of the Kingdom of Delphi are the Co-Chief Ministers, Lysimachos and Lysistrate Siomaios.

Legislative body:

The Synedrion is a representative assembly from which the Delphian Government is formed. The aristocracy, priesthood and artists of the kingdom cast their votes for the Synedroi of the Synedrion and the Synedros with the most support becomes Chief Minister of the Kingdom of Delphi. For more background on the Synedrion click here. For the first twenty years of the body's existence the Siamese aristocracy were prevented from voting, but in 170 a law was passed by the Second Synedrion under Chief Minister Leonidas Siomaios, himself the former prince to the extinguished Siamese throne, enfranchising the Siamese aristocracy effective at the 180 Synedrian election. The 200 Synedrian election is the first in which voters not of the upper class --- artists --- have been given the vote.


History

 

((For anyone confused by the above, one of the moderators is going to link from the opening post to the post above, which I will keep updated as the new details post explaining the scenario and detailing the history. ))

Edit: Also, Bazil, did you want an appellation like 'the Builder' or 'Twice-King'?

 

OOC: The builder sounds good actually.

 

((Okay, I've updated that.

And Pouakai has been kind enough to update the opening post to point to our new intro post, which is excellent.

I'll have my recommendations for your final term as ruler some time today.))

 

((Okay, here's Melodas's advice. I've done it all out of character for brevity's sake.

I would still recommend holding off on settling our new city until representation is adopted (only four turns to go!).

For Kirrha, I'm still placing my vote for Colossus, because it gives us an extra trade route (for extra gold per turn). Also, if we can increase our gold per turn and start saving up gold, we could start allying with the three city-states nearby (primarily the Despotate of Zurich to increase our happiness and the County of Milan to increase our culture, but also as a lesser option the Despotate of Quebec City to increase the growth rates of our cities).

For Delphia Nova, I like the look of workshop but I am wondering if we should think about training another settler sometime soon, in order to settle in the territory between Kirrha and what-I'm-assuming-will-be-Apollonia on the coast (near the salt), to ensure our territorial integrity.

I agree with the idea of sending workers west to arrive in time for the settling of the new city.

I will defer to our resident military expert on military matters. According to the in-game military advisor the only other nation that could stand toe-to-toe with us in a war is the Polish Catholic Order. The Chinese Despotate and the Dutch Protestant Order are woefully under-armed, which is not a wise position for them as our neighbours.

I like the idea of sending a spy to the Shoshone Republic.

And I agree with the idea of reseraching Drama and Poetry to get the writer's guild and the early tourism. I also like the idea of Philosophy for the temple, and continuing to advance our military tech while stealing other branches of the tech tree.

I agree that eventually we will want to send missionaries to the Siamese cities, but that is an interesting idea to allow Protestantism to continue to take root in order to take advantage of its religious building perk.

I have no strong view on what to use the gold on. Using it to aid the new city's development sounds wise.

Victory-wise, given that we're currently (and presumably will be into the future) international pariahs, I'm guessing the only viable option for us will be domination. I think we've left culture and science too late, and I can't see us having enough pull will city-states and other nations to get anywhere once the World Congress forms.))

 

((Well, we have no Alexander in the game, so pulling city states still is doable in my view, but I get your social pariah point... Tough choice.))

 

I am fairly certain that all victory options are still viable for us if we focus on them.

If we want culture then we get the writer's and artist's guilds with gardens and put specialist in them. Then we make sure to have enough places to display all the stuff. Faith is very nice later in the game for buying artist, writers and musicians. Then stay friendly enough to have open borders an trade routes with all the other civs.

The diplomatic victory is trickier but if we pursue city state friendships and make the painful trades to buy the right votes in the World Congress we can probably do it. We may even be able to create a coalition against whoever won't support us and destroy them. Lots of bribery involved though and most people (including myself) hate doing that.

 

((I normally like diplomatic victory --- seems to be the greatest challenge for me when I play by myself --- but it doesn't sound appetising if that's the way we'd have to go about it.

In that case I cast my vote for either domination or cultural victory. I would prefer the latter because it's more satisfying somehow, but the former would be easier.))