I've spent some more time in the 15th century and have somehow become the proud owner/provider of three islands. I know how the second one came about, but the third is something of a mystery...

See, some of the crazed rulers have it in their heads that they're launching a holy crusade in the name of the one true faith... so much are they enthralled by this that one of them built a bunch of ships for the fleet, then abandoned her island in order to take part in the crusade. I just happened to come by to see if I could borrow a cup of sugar (read: several tons of tools) and her minister was all atwitter about people leaving the island, they had no food, no industry, their children had run off to join the fleet, blah, blah, blah. And since it's always all about me, I ignored the whiny minister and sailed off into the sunset... Only to receive a barrage of messages about the state of things on crazy Marie-Therese's island only the narrator was calling it MY island. Well, hell and damnation! Now I have to save these backwards rubes?! So, I took a page from California's budget plan and started slashing the hell out of things they didn't need since they'd been reduced to peasants, again. When I left them for the night, the peasants were on the road to happy-town and only a couple of non-inhabited run-down peasant houses remained, which I'll probably demolish in the near future. I don't have to beg/buy tools anymore as I've got my own iron ore/smelter up and running. Now I just have to concentrate on getting my original group to progress to the next level... Oh yeah, and deliver whatever the hell it is that Guy Forcas wants this time. Too bad I can't build a house around him and take out all the windows and doors. [Image Can Not Be Found]

So, I finally got tired of the guided tour and decided to strike out on my own by restarting with a Continuous game. I left the defaults as they were with the exception of adding 3 AI players and weakened Corsairs - I am a weenie, after all. I've managed to build my little village into a thriving (most days)... um, village. Or is it now a town? I don't remember. Anyway, I've finally met the Sultan's Vizier and he's accepted my diplomatic mission of basically learning all I can from him in order to turn a tidy profit. I started up a little desert community - with Nomads. I chose a specific island for the ability to grow dates, spices and coffee. My real goal is the spices because the pesky Citizens back home aren't satisfied with just fish for food. Whine, whine, whine!

So, last night I've finished off an actual escort mission where my baby warship has to escort a heavily laden, barely above the waterline trade vessel out of the area. About halfway to our destination we were attacked by a warship! As the trade ship waddles through the waves, my ship heaves to, comes around and fires a broadside right at the Corsairs! Direct hit! Of course, that didn't immediately sink her, but it gave me a strategy - I'd sail ahead of the trade ship, let the Corsairs get within range, and fire a broadside. It was quite entertaining! Eventually, my ship prevailed and we continued on our way (the trade ship never stopped sailing)

Not long after that, as I was attempting to build up my little desert oasis, the village ran out of food and the Nomads began rioting in the streets! Carrying signs, shouting slogans the whole shebang. I did have a trade ship coming to the rescue; however, since it was such a small ship she wasn't carrying enough nor was she very fast. By the time she arrived at the island, the villages had burned half the town! And since I'd already run out of basic supplies, I couldn't build the necessary building for the fire brigade. Oops! So, I just watched it burn - giggling the entire time - then shut down before the game auto-saved. [Image Can Not Be Found]

I've got a little screenie from my original desert island to share. This isn't at the closest zoom but it gives an idea of how gorgeous this game is... even with my barely functioning vid card.

And we're back in business! (Steerpike [Image Can Not Be Found])

I knew I could convince you to come to the dark side, Yap. The storyline is somewhat different in the console version - you have the two brothers “competing” for their father's favor - but the manner in which the game leads you gently into the game's features are similar. In the PC version, you've got the gentle Lord Attenborough (you know me and names) who will offer suggestions. He works in that capacity in both the Continuous game and the tutorials; although in Continuous mode he merely suggests and doesn't hound you.

Let's see… when last we left my adventurers, my desert city was in flames. I'd killed the game before it auto-saved (which is handy as I sometimes get completely wrapped up in playing that I forget to save), so I was able to replay the last 30 minutes or so… completing the escort mission, then getting back to building up the desert island. Since I knew I'd run out of food - the Nomads do not eat fish like those wacky Occidentals, they require dates and goat's milk - I sent my fastest ship back to my main Northern island for wood, tools and stone while the newly gifted caravelle (from the Vizier) was sent to the Sultan's island for several tons of dates. While she lay at anchor in the Sultan's harbor taking on supplies, I took the opportunity and spent some of my honor points (I'd been building up my honor by doing good deeds for a few people - finding errant daughters and wayward knights; rescuing shipwrecked survivors; escorting/protecting the odd ship, etc) to acquire a nicer set of sails for faster travel, and more importantly, the seeds necessary to create the correct fertility to allow dates on my island. When I'd originally chosen this particular island, I'd been more interested in the growing of spices to appease the Citizens in the North never realizing that the Nomads would only eat dates. Oops! So, having them riot and burn the island was a lesson well learned.

This time, when the desert oasis ran out of food, I was ready for them. My first ship arrived from the Northern climes and off-loaded her supplies into the warehouse so I was able to build the fire station and put out the fires. He was certainly busy for a time as the villagers were still rampaging and shouting slogans due to there being no food in the warehouse. Just then, the heavily laden caravelle returned from the Sultan and saved the day! She dumped tons of dates into the warehouse and we planted the fertility seeds so that the island would be able to provide its own food. Nomads began moving back into the village, my treasury stopped hemorrhaging red ink, spices began to flow to the North and suddenly… my Citizens morphed into Patricians! (You can tell the devs are German, the Patricians look like Sinter Klaus as they wander the city in their red robes.)

I have more pix, but they're on my box at home. I'll post them tonight. In the meantime, you can see what someone who knows what they're doing by gazing upon Glycerine's pix (from GamingTrend). In admiring his pix, he's moved most of his production (farms, tools, etc) to another island while the majority of his main island is devoted to his city. I read somewhere, possibly even that thread or gamerswithjobs.com, the reason for doing that is in case of disasters (which I have turned off) it's easier to recover. I may have to think on this scheme and maybe adapt… just for experimentation.