xyzzysqrl

Somehow I just gave myself a fat lip with a soda can.

I swear I wasn't drinking that hard!

Okay, what have I been doing. Uhm. Borderlands unlocks in three days. I am excited. I've been watching a lot of stuff, but nothing I've been writing about here. The only SERIES COMPLETE I got was something called Denpa Shonen. It's a Japanese reality show on Hulu.

I watched a full season, which was six episodes, about a Japanese housewife who was being tested on how far out of her way she'd go to save money. She was given a big stack of newspapers every morning and she HAD to buy the cheapest price for whatever the day's meal was. She ended up riding several thousand kilometers over the course of the show, and there was a huge Twist Ending. That was basically the story of the MOST HOT-BLOODED, NEVER-GIVE-UP HOUSEWIFE EVER. It made me feel like the laziest fucker ALIVE for actually having food in the freezer and feeling too sleepy to cook it, at the time.

Aside from that, not a lot going on. Been trying to play Civ 4 BTS as the Vikings, because RAAAAR. I am really bad at combat-oriented play. I just end up with no idea what to DO, really. So usually I just show up and people are like "HOLY CRAP PEACE?" and I'm like "...yeah okay peace." and leave.

I am a bad warlord.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

seawasp

Ahh, so you have a drinking problem!

"Surely you don't mean that!"
"I do mean it. And don't call me Shirley."

relee.livejournal.com

You need to make Triremes and Legions and have the Legions board the Triremes and then go to England and Sack them then bring the Loot home. Eventually conquer England but absorb their culture ultimately turning you into the very thing you once raided!

circuit-four.livejournal.com

Yeah, I have the worst time attacking people who are being NICE to me... I recommend exploiting the awesome power of religion to create arbitrary divisions between people. Nothin' like a heathen faith to goad your neighbors into attacking first!

Just remember, Open Borders does not equal friendship. Some Civs will even attack when they're allegedly "Pleased" with you. Having jackasses like Tokugawa and Shaka next door went a long way towards curing my pacifistic tendencies. :) You're not any more obliged to treat a trade agreement as a binding friendship pact than they are!

Hmm, if you really want to break yourself of your turtling habits, though... Vikings are pretty awesome, but I consider them more of a hybrid civ. I grab stuff in waves, then rest easy on the profits for a while. Personally, I used the Persians under Cyrus to train myself to attack without remorse. They can be a real pain in the butt, since your special unit requires access to Horses, but if you can get the Immortals they're just AMAZING: high speed, one of the few mounted units eligible for defense bonuses, bonus against archers and axemen... But more importantly, the Charismatic/Imperialist combo can get your units to absurd promotional levels -- and still gives you nice bonuses like fast settlers and happy citizens for peacetime. And having a special unit that's cheap and comes up very early gives you a "use it or lose it" incentive to get aggressive.

Oh, another advantage of not feeling pressured to open borders and be friends with everyone: if you've got a contentious bunch of rivals, you might actually end up with better foreign relations in the long run, because you won't be suffering constant diplomatic penalties for refusing to cancel trade deals with another leader's enemies. You can focus on a few people whose friendship really matters -- I'm sure you've noticed that leaders are, say, much more generous tech traders than others -- and save the rest for conquest bait.

And I'm sure you've already picked up on the awesome power of religious missionaries: make money and allies at the same time! I don't think I've ever lost a game where I've either founded 4+ religions or converted 4+ civs to my main faith...