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Exploring The Foundations of Rome
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- Written by: Webknight
- Category: Webknight's Board Game Corner
- Hits: 1054
There are 3 actions that a player can take, they must choose one:
1) Take Income
2) Buy a Deed
3) Construct a Building
When a player takes an income action this can be thought of as petitioning Romulus for more resources, and if the player has any commercial buildings, they will also generate income for them.
When a player buys a deed that action gives them one lot on the board. The player wants to acquire the number of lots that are required in the layout of the building that the player wants to construct.
When a player wants to construct a building it is pretty straight forward. However, there is one caveat, if the player wants to construct a building over one or more existing buildings, the new building must have a larger lot requirement than the original one(s) that are being replaced.
Players can take one action per turn until the end of an era. Eras end once all of the deeds for that era are gone. Once the last deed has been chosen any players that haven't completed an action for the turn get one. Then the score for the era is calculated based on the buildings on the board. Once the last era ends the game is over.
There are a number of expansions available that add different dynamics to the game. One is for co-operative play, which is something that I haven't seen in a lot of games.
For new players the game will probably take between one and a half to two hours to play. With experienced players it takes about an hour.
One of the things that I like the most is the detail that exists on the buildings. There are 24 different basic buildings per player, and one of the expansions adds 19 additional buildings (Monuments). I also like that after the somewhat steep learning curve the gameplay seems relatively simple.
I have only played with one of the simpler expansions added. The change of dynamics was interesting. I can see this game maintaining its novelty by using different combinations of expansions.
But, and there is always a but, the game is rather expensive, but I feel that it is well worth it. I highly recommend this game.
An Unfortunate Journey
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- Written by: Silas DeShane
- Category: The Ruminations of Silas DeShane
- Hits: 689
To continue my journal entry:
It seems that due to my unfortunate trip the science of Mechanology marches on. It appears that the hypothesis on the potential difference in the flow of time has been proven with my unintended trip to your universe. When I left it was 1883, yet here in your universe it is 2024.
To answer the question of the city name differences, and with help from Mr Dickinson, we have determined that in both of our worlds the city was called St Anthony due to the fact that the US Army first built a logging and grist mill at the falls of St Anthony. A bit of time later your world's city renamed itself as Minneapolis.
The next detail baffles me the most. How in the name of heaven did your western hemisphere's continents come to be called America? In both of our worlds Amerigo Vespucci was the cartographer who's name was used to categorize the new world.
However, even in your world the America name is an anomaly. For example, is it the Henry River, Henry Bay, or the City of Lucius? All of these places have been defined by the last name of the explorer or legislation of the territory. Hudson River, Hudson Bay, and Cincinnati Ohio.
From what I can see nearly all locations named after a person in your world uses the last name. So, why was Amerigo used instead of Vespucci? Of that question I cannot answer.
Godspeed, Silas
My cat, Daisy
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- Written by: Webknight
- Category: Webknight's Slice of Life Corner
- Hits: 1633
When I first got Daisy I didn't see her for the first three days. She only came out to eat and use the litter box. Otherwise she would hide under the bed.
The caring people that had fostered her brought over some of the toys that she had played with at their place. She would not come out to play with any of the fancy toys. Amazingly, it was a simple one made with some cardboard on a piece of wire.
I would lay on the bed and slowly move it back and forth, and after a couple minutes a paw would appear from under the bed. I would slowly move it further out and she would keep stretching to avoid actually coming out. Eventually she did come out.
However, it took a minute for her to notice me, and when she did see me she froze for a second. I thought that she would dart back under the bed, but she just went back to playing with the toy. After that she started laying around different spots when I was home. In the fullness of time she would snuggle up with me at night.
Since I have Aspergers I would get really depressed at times and I wouldn't even got out of bed for most of the day. Daisy would come to the side of the bed I was facing and she would put one paw on the edge of the bed near my forehead and the other near my chin.
She would get right in my face and loudly meow. Which I would translate into, "Get up and feed me Damnit!"
I would chuckle a little and get up to feed her. It would kind of jump-start my day, so I did some other stuff. Unfortunately, and truthfully speaking, I probably wouldn't have gotten up those days without her doing that.
I got her a cat tower, and she loved to stare out of the window to the balcony watching the birds in tail-swishing joy. Every so often she would look like she was going to try and get the squirrels or birds on the balcony. I'm not sure she would have known what to do if she had been able to get one.
Daisy was a one-person cat. If anyone came over she would hide under the bed. Eventually she got to the point where she would come back out a few minutes after my guests left. But at first, it would take an hour before she would come back out.
As time went by she turned 11 years old. She hadn't eaten all weekend, so I took her in, and they said her liver numbers were off. The vet said that at her age is when you can start to see medical issues. We tried what treatments were available at the vet's office and discussed my options for further action.
Those treatment options would have left me nearly penniless, but I still considered those options. She did begin to eat again, so she must have been briefly feeling better, but she quickly went back to not eating.
I took Daisy back to the vet to see if the treatments had done any good. Nope, her liver numbers were even worse. I agonized over whether to try more advanced care options. But, after discussing it with the vet, there was a slim chance of any of those options actually making any difference.
So I had her "put to sleep". The "nice" way of saying euthanized. Euthanasia comes from Greek, which means "good death".
It's never easy to say goodbye. But, I didn't want her to suffer for days and slowly starve to death.
I so miss the little furball, even her midnight zoomies, which would wake me up and make me wonder what the heck was happening.
Or, her begging me to share whatever I had just cooked. It didn't matter what it was; she would always demand a little bit to see if she would like it.
I still occasionally pat the bed when I go to bed, waiting for her to snuggle in.
In the end I had to euthanize Daisy. I miss my cat.
The Beginnings of Differentation
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- Written by: Silas DeShane
- Category: Timeline Differentiations
- Hits: 682
Before I begin the Timeline divergences I must inform you distinguished readers of how I am able to observe my world, even though I am stranded here in your universe.
First off I was able to cobble together an Ætheric telescope from the remnants of my Difference and Analytical engines that brought me here in the first place. What the telescope does is use the Æther to pierce the veil of Ætheric energy that separates the collection of diverse realities in God's Creation.
Unfortunately, my Difference & Analytical Engines were so damaged that the telescope is of limited capability. It can only capture a snapshot of my world once a variable amount of time has passed in my plane of existence.
Alas, due to this fact my timeline revelations will not be as accurate as I would wish it to be.
Be that as it may, let us begin this sojourn of discovery...
1260:
Roger Bacon was the first scientist on my world to discover how the Æther interacts with various disciplines that we now call Mechanology. The first discipline that was discovered was Æthernautics.
It was discovered when Bacon used an unknown form of energy that he had discovered to cause a metal sphere to spin when he fed it the energy. All disciplines of Mechanology function in this fashion, as an interaction with the Æther.
Disciplinarions are what the practioners of Mechanology were first called. Now they are called Inventors, and to be classified as an Inventor the person must harness the Æther to achieve a task.
The more difficult the task the more complex the interaction with the Æther will be. In practice this is very much like the technology of your world. The methods of those interactions are repeatable and can be extrapolated from earlier experiments.
Mechanology is very much akin to your science, even though the underlying principles of Technology and Mechanology relies on very differing universal mechanics. As an example in the world of the United States of Vespuccia technological inventors are still able to create such things as trains, weapons, and telegraph stations.
Godspeed, Silas
Godspeed, Silas
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