Princess in a Castle

Long Live The Queen! An Empire Divided (Turn 111 – 120)

This is how I started my second reign. So much has happened since I was last here. Check out Naithin’s dedicated page for coverage of each of our turns.

Also, I’m still super annoyed we play with red-white units. The city states are black-red, and the barbarians red-black. Super confused all the time.

Turn 111

I finished Paeroka’s turn and immediately, I have an angry latinx at my doorstep, banging on the door. Brazil denounces us. It might have something to do with the military units still at his doorstep. Anyway, I let him be. If he wants to come at us, we’ll be ready.

The spearman in Stoke-Upon-Trent finishes.

Turn 112

Catherine wants to make peace with us. Still with the same offer of 5 gold. Sigh. What about ‘no’ don’t you understand?

I sent our scout to the far north across the West flank of France to see what was out there and I found a nice surprise: a barbarian settler. I’m going to claim him.

London has started production of Ancient Walls. It makes sense to protect our capital with these aggressive AIs.

Our friendship with Cleo expired.

Turn 113

Once again, we’re friends with Cleo. Our unfriendship didn’t last long. Maybe this is better.

Math finishes and Military tactics is automatically chosen as a follow-up. Did I do that? Or did someone else set up the sequence? Is that possible now or am I seeing ghosts? No idea.

Turn 114

I finally captured the barbarian settler <insert evil laugh>. Those fuckers pestered us long enough. It’s time we start collecting. We’re going to have some fun with this one.

Mass production is boosted (I don’t remember why, sorry)

Turn 115

Catherine wants to be friends again and I’m going to accept because I want to build a city right next to her empire. Just to spite her and have access to the open ocean.

Turn 116

Cleo made peace with Gilgamesh.

Turn 117

Aquaduct district construction started in London. I didn’t know what else to do and I always get in trouble with housing, so this seemed like a good option. Leeds is spotted by the barbarians, but the scout will never make it back to camp. Stoke-Upon-Trent gets a campus district, just in case we still want that scientific victory.

Turn 118

I’m ending out the military to take out the barbarian camp to the south. They bother me, but the galley has spotted a swordsman. This could get difficult without range support. Calling in more troupes

Turn 119

Hanging Gardens in Birmingham, because what else was I going to do. It seemed like a nice spot too.

Bristol is founded and we get a swordsman. Catherine doesn’t like us that close. I knew that. Sorry, it won’t happen again. Probably.

So this might be were everyone else in this game is going to facepalm. Why the hell would I found a city *over there*? Well, why not? We get bonus points for being sea side so it makes sense to found cities there, but none other than London has a waterfront. There’s also resources there and I was kind of scared the barbarians would’ve taken the settler back if I walked much further. In the end, it’s a free city that could help us a lot in the end.

Turn 120

Military tactics is done and we’re moving on to Construction. No boosted techs available at this time.

The savegame can be found here

April Wrap-up

I should probably write this one before May ends. Not that much happened besides Blapril posts. I talked about some personal things, gave advice, highlighted things that helped me cope and might help you, but most of all, I rested. I didn’t play much, didn’t read much, didn’t watch much, just to give my head the rest it needed.

Still, I read five books this month. Two books for book tours, two ARCs (one was a comic book), and a hard copy I won in a contest. It’s the only thing I can do without feeling stabbing pains.

I can’t play any fast games. I try to log in to Guild Wars 2 every day, even if it is just to get my daily login reward and the possible free item. Maybe I can do one world boss (the one in Queensdale only requires auto attacks and not much moving around), or a little bit of map completion. I never play long.

Then I switch to something else. Lately, it’s been a house in The Sims 4. I built one of the largest houses I’ve done for the game. I’m no architect, nor do they look pretty as a picture, but it’s mine. But because it’s so big, I’m still done decorating. I have a lot of space to fill. And my headache always gets worse before I finish my second room.

I tried Stardew, but even just one day is tiring. I don’t want to risk messing up this save game so I stopped playing it for now. No other Switch games either. Pokemon is too flashy, too many movement on the screen, and too much screen turning.

Heck, sometimes scrolling through Twitter is already enough to make me close my eyes, close my laptop, and wish for a nap.

The Civilization game was pushing the limits a bit. It’s only ten turns, but I had to read a lot in-game to make sure I wasn’t doing anything stupid. At the moment, anything complex gives me a headache. I have trouble understanding simple connections between words if there are too many other words between them. I did it though. And I’ll do it again for my next rounds.

For May I suspect more rest, less books finished, and maybe another Guild Wars 2 character at level 80 (she’s level 70 now, so even with just the free Tomes of Knowledge, she’ll get there). I’m not going to do goals since I my only priority is my health and surviving just another day.

Long Live The Queen! Turn 31 – 40

Previously on “Long Live The Queen!”

This is our playing order with 10 rounds between us. I think it’s enough time to actually do something, but not to push the game in a certain direction.

Check out the coverage of the previous turns:
Turns 1-10 – Turns 11-20 – Turns 21-30

Cleopatra is the first AI we met and we discovered two city states fairly close to us. Not much happened except for the settler being done. Paeroka did her last turn before handing it over to me. This is what she left me with.

Turn 31

It’s my turn and oh boy, was I in for a treat. Paeroka left me with the responsibility to choose a location for our first settler. There were two spots with a big city logo on it, one on the coast, and one near the horses. I’d almost say the whisper of Paeroka kept replaying in my head. “Horses, horses, I like horses.” So I went with horses. For the first round, it didn’t matter much. Move the builder out of the way, and send the settler on his way. The slinger is going eh, I don’t know. What am I doing anyway?

Turn 32

I have no idea what happened, but Cleo decided to say hi to the new ruler of England. She might be from a desert civilization, but she’s ice cold. More ‘ice queen’, less ‘hot stuff’.

Not much else happened. The warrior moved northward, the scout westward, the slinger is on its way to meet the settler and keep the Carthage warriors off the spot.

Turn 33

Our slinger spotted the ocean on our left. That’s not bad if that means we only have to defend one side. Can we take Chartage as our own? I’ve never tried, but it would be a nice addition to our empire.

The settler moved into the right spot, but I couldn’t build the city yet. Next turn! The warrior is still heading North, and our scout heading South West. So far, so good.

Turn 34

Our scout discovered a barbarian camp and the scout of a new civilization, Gilgamesh of Sumeria.

Look at this chill dude. His happy face and relaxed attitude are the complete opposite of the frigid ice queen Cleopatra. Maybe we can be friends? I did decline on sharing capital locations so I don’t know where he recides yet.

The barbarians are more of a problem though. I’m glad I hadn’t moved the warrior yet, so he’s on his way back to London in case the barbarians get it in their head to come our way. Gilgamesh’s scout already had an encounter with the barbarian group outside of the camp as their health revealed.

Leeds is built and I started with another slinger since archery was well on it’s way and I wanted to be more military minded than I normally am. Who knows if it’ll pay off.

Turn 35

The warrior is still moving down, the slinger is exploring the new coast line. Not much interesting happening on that side of the map. But on the Westside…

Ok, I did something stupid. I attacked the barbarian with the scout. It was already injured so I thought I could take him. Scout survived, and he could handle another attack if the barbarians survived.

Turn 36

I ended the turn and the barbarian attacked me and lost. The other scout was nowhere to be seen. That was my kill and the scout got a promotion. But the spearman in the barbarian camp decided to take revenge for their fallen brothers and attack the scout, killing him. Well, it did give us something at least *scratches head*. I made a new scout to make up for my incompetence. (I’ll leave the actual building to other people)

Turn 37

I really don’t like the colours of the city states. Black and red somehow remind me of the enemy (barbarians) and their units crossing our borders however they feel like, I don’t know. I don’t like it.

The slinger is finding more water which is interesting but not surprising. Now I really want to usurp Chartage. It’s sensible to expand that way, or we could try to claim the whole south coast if Gilgamesh is kindly staying out of the way.

The builder was roaming around the city of London and I finally decided to get him to work on the pearls. I didn’t know what else to do with him. The next person can create another one. The warrior is still walking South to protect us from any incoming barbarians if needed.

Turn 38

I get to make decisions again as Craftmanship is finished. I decided not to change anything. Then it gave me the option to pick a new civic and I chose Military Tradition. It was one of the few with a bonus (which I like and imo it’s always worth picking one with a bonus). It should give our units some benefits too which is always welcome.

The scout is done and I send him West again. Why? I need to make sure no barbarian is going to find us.

Turn 39

Not much happening here, just moving pieces along. Archery is ready and I picked Horseback Riding to profit from our newly acquired horses. It had a bonus too so only 10 more turns.

Turn 40

More bonuses! I like those and I wish Civ 5 had them.

Still not much going on besides moving pieces on the board. I sent the slinger to Leeds for an upgrade. The archer building in London should be done soon too. Hopefully, that’s enough of an army for now and Krikket can focus on more fun stuff.

I survived! The kingdom isn’t on fire, we’re not under attack, nor have I declared war on someone. It wasn’t as bad as I thought, but I did notice I’m more consciously thinking of all the steps and that’s not a bad thing.

Next up is Krikket. Here is the direct link to the file. I don’t have much advice for you besides don’t set the world on fire. Yet.

Looking Back on Blapril

When Wilhelm suggested doing a blogging event in April, I happily agreed it would be nice for everyone. It’s a nice distraction from the outside when we focus on the world we find inside. Reading everyone’s blogs and adventures did cheer me up. The cross-blog interactions are fun made me feel part of a larger community, which is exactly the point of Blapril.

Even those with a smaller niche or blogs not focused on gaming are welcome to join the Blapril/Blaugust community. We cheer each other on, not to post more, but to enjoy blogging. Some of the participants returned to blogging after years of absence, only to find that joy again. And that’s what I love. Sharing a common passion and talking about the highs and lows.

My low came earlier this week as my headache became worse again and I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to finish the month. But here I am, writing the last Blapril post. I did it. I probably posted a few more than 31, but I haven’t counted yet. I posted here mostly, but I also posted on my other blog, Narratess. I think those count too.

One of my goals this year was to post more on Princess, with a 20-post goal. I blew that out of the water, didn’t I? Cheers to me, and I’ll get a beautiful rainbow award to celebrate too. Now all I need to do is to keep posting here.

I’ll do a round-up post for April next week after a few days off from blogging to give my head a break. There’s the Civilization posts to look forward to, and I want to introduce the other Guild Wars 2 characters. Beyond that, I don’t know what you can expect. I still have a few things in my drafts but I’m not sure if I want to write them. Yet or ever. For now, I’m satisfied with my own participation in Blapril and I’m happy so many others joined in as well. It’s been fun, guys. Let’s do it again. Just not tomorrow.

A Round of Civilization

After the numerous posts on five favourite game series, Naithin proposed to do a succession game of Civilization since many of us named it as a favourite series.

The majority of the people voted for the sixth game, my least favourite since I’ve never even made it to the next age before dying a horrible death to an overload of barbarians. Still, I liked the idea, also because I only have so much influence on the game. All rules for the game can be found on Naithin’s blog as well as the overview of the first ten rounds.

Rakuno is next, then Paeroka, then me. All of them have played more of the game than I did, do we should at least by the time I get to play. That doesn’t mean we’ll survive though. I’ll do my best to at least finish those rounds and I’ll give a round-up here when I’ve done so. I might do two versions: one as the current right hand to the Queen, and one as a player. Writing Civilization can be interesting and I’ve heard of other blogs who thrived on it.

For now, all I can say is, I’m very excited and afraid of what I’ve to deal with. At least the difficulty isn’t that hard, so it might be manageable to survive those ten rounds. It’s also a fun way to play together, but not together, if you know what I mean. I’ve never done something like this, not with a game anyhow. I’ve done roleplaying like that on forums before.

If you’re interested in joining, you still can. Just leave a comment on one of Naithin’s posts to share your interest and he’ll put you on the roster. The more the merrier! Also more people to shift the blame to if I happen to die on one my turns.

Guild Wars 2 Goals Before The New Expansion

We still don’t know when the new expansion is going to drop, what’s in it, or what the story is going to focus on. It’s hard to prepare when you don’t know anything. So my goals will be based on what I know, and that’s content that’s already there.

There is one thing that was announced, and that’s the coming of the legendary armory. I don’t know when this will be implemented, before or after the launch of the expansion, but I’m excited. This is an addition to the build templates and gear load-outs. Now you only have to craft one legendary and you can use it on all of your characters. No more swapping via the shared inventory slots. This is an extra incentive for me to finally craft that first legendary and maybe even more. But before that, there are a few things that I’ve to do. Level my crafting to 500. I still haven’t done that for every profession.

Goals

Get all my characters to level 80
Level armorsmith, tailor, huntsman, artificer, and weaponsmith to 500
Unlock all Heart of Thorns masteries
Have 100% map completion with Naella Ysangwan on all maps available to me maps, excluding raids and WvW
Stay up to date with Icebrood Saga
Unlock all Living World masteries
Unlock the griffon mount
Unlock the skyscale mount
Full ascended armor set for ranger
Full ascended armor set for mesmer
Full ascended armor set for guardian
100% map completion of Core Tyria for Miira
Bifrost

Guild Wars 15th anniversary

It’s the 15th anniversary of Guild Wars and the game is getting an update. The original game has been in maintenance mode for some time so no one expected a new patch. Especially not with ten new skills and new bosses to kill to capture those skills. I logged in a few days ago and I still see a lot of people in the hubs. I don’t know if they’re Guild Wars 2 players who want to fill up their Hall of Monuments, or just people who love Guild Wars so much they never moved on.

King’s Day In Isolation

Today is kind of a weird day. Normally, people will be out celebrating the King’s birthday. People will be out trying to sell their old stuff, entertain, perform, and drink. The kids in elementary schools will celebrate with a sport’s day since the king highly values physical education opportunities for all kids. But now, those won’t happen either.

We’re stuck inside.

It doesn’t change much for me since I stay inside anyway, but it’s still weird. News about what happens always seeps into my field of vision through Facebook, Youtube, or Twitter. But now we won’t see the happy faces of little girls as they shake hands with the queen, or see how the princesses grow up. They tour around a town to connect more with the locals and check out great initiatives to support the community. It’s truly a celebration of the Dutch culture.

But not this year, as we’re stuck inside.

Oh, I know people will gather and drink with friends. They always will, and do. I see and hear people in my street drinking with their buddies outside now that it’s getting warmer. It was the same with Easter. The people who want to see each other will ignore the shelter in place.

People are going to risk getting sick and spreading the virus to celebrate. But instead of celebrating something that’s worth it (like the heroes fighting this disease on the front line), they’re going to cheer for the king, for the nation. But mostly, they’ll celebrate themselves.

I want people to stay home, to protect themselves and others. To support the nurses and doctors. And to not possibly infect the air for delivery workers. By staying home, you celebrate your nation by giving it a better chance to overcome this. I hope people will remember this coming independence day, May 5th. But I doubt they will.

Running out of juices

I’m running out of writing juices and I know I’m not the only one. Blogging every day is hard and if you dive in without building it up or preparing something, you’ll find yourself in a burnout.

I’m not at that point yet, no burnout. I’m just tired. This whole month, I’ve still been in recovery mode. My head recovering from an old injury that popped up again. Being in recovery is exhausting. Especially if you’ve been in recovery mode for months (since last November). I want to write every day, not just here, but also on my other blog and work on my books. I want to play games and read books. I want to clean my house and work on my garden.

But I can’t. I get spiking headaches when I think too much, after I do anything language related for twenty minutes. I can’t work in the garden if it’s too cold or windy because it’ll cause my muscles to tense up and I’ll injure myself. But even if the weather is good, I can’t work in it for too long because it’ll cost me more energy than I have. And I need it to heal other parts.

My life is all about finding the right balance right now. What can I do? What are my priorities? Doing Blapril was a priority and one I had confidence in I could finish. We’re nearly at the end and after I publish this, I only have two blog posts to write for Princess. But I also have two more to write for Narratess. I’ll be happy when I only have one blog to maintain and the occasional post here. No pressure, just when I feel like it.

Guild Wars 2: My Mains

I don’t think I ever shared my characters, so this might be a good time to introduce them. I’m starting with the my main characters, since I have 16 characters and don’t want to overwhelm you with all of them in one post.

Naella Ysangwan – Human Ranger

Naella is the one I played the most and consider my main at the moment. She used to have her trusty fernhound with her, Bark. So far, I’ve only written one story about her. Maybe she’ll make a return one day, but not anytime soon.

She has the most percentage completed of the world map. Core Tyria is done, but I haven’t done the Heart of Thorns or the Path of Fire maps yet. That’s mostly because I don’t have all of the masteries yet so it’s kind of impossible to have all done. I’m going to try to get 100% in all of them though, at least with her.

Miira Lightbringer – Charr Guardian

Miira is one of my favourites. The hammer guardian is so much fun to play but only in PvE. Miira is also the main character in most of my fanfics. I especially enjoyed writing the cub parts of her story. I’ll keep writing them although they’re not my priority right now.

I really like how she looks. White with black stripes. She has a gentle but strict expression. That’s a leftover from her time with Torruhk and the others. I tried to integrate their story with the heart events on the maps. They’re interesting bits and all related to the area. Hopefully, it’ll feel more real too since you can visit the places they’ve been. Maybe you’ll understand the areas a bit better too if you normally don’t pay attention to the story.

Anora Lorya Sera – Sylvari Mesmer

Anora is the second character I made during the first day of the three-day headstart and my first main. I played her for a looooong time before I switched to my ranger. I really liked the butterflies, purple colours, clones. Popping a clone and running away was my favourite thing to do. Now I use my pet to distract the enemies.

I haven’t played enough with her since the expansions to know either of the elite specializations. I think I unlocked chronomancer, but haven’t done mirage yet.

Kaibush Treewood – Sylvari Thief

I participated in the Heart of Thorns beta and tried the daredevil. I really liked the class so I made one when the game launched and since I wanted a sylvari in all armor classes, I made one. He’s black with red accents.

The elite specs are so hard to complete if you don’t have good enough equipment to do the expansion maps. Honestly, I think I still have green or yellow gear. I have to craft full sets of armor and equipment for all of my chars at some point. That’s long term though.

For now I’m really enjoying doing map completion, meta events, and continuing the Living World story.

What would you like to know about my characters? I might do a full dedicated post with more background information on them in the future. Like full character sheet with builds, equipment, background, etc.

Come back later to meet other characters!

My Five Favourite Game Series

I’m going to jump on Krikket‘s bandwagon and talk about my favourite game series. It’s a good writing prompt and I’m kind of running out of ideas to write about. So here goes.

Diablo

This shouldn’t be a surprise if you’ve been following me for awhile. Diablo is absolutely one of my favourite franchises ever. I love the lore, I love the genre, and I love the games. I still get that itch to play Diablo 2 sometimes even if it hurts my hands. I still regularly play Diablo 3 and I’m really looking forward to both Diablo Immortal and Diablo 4. I’ll be pre-ordering the Diablo 4 CE when it becomes available.

Guild Wars

I came late to Guild Wars, only starting the original game when the second one was announced. I did play a week during the beta, but the friend I was playing with left my behind and I was clueless about what to do. I died a lot and lost the will to play. I wasn’t ready to dive into the world of Tyria. But years later, I was swallowed whole. I tried to play as much of the story as possible before the second game hit, but I still haven’t played all of the expansions yet.

Guild Wars 2 came with a three day head start and I enjoyed those a lot. I’d have had my first character at level 40 if my friends allowed to play without them. But I couldn’t, and didn’t think it was fair to them. Even with the level adjustments and the easy waypoint system to travel between areas.

Since then, I’ve written fanfiction set in the world of Tyria based on my own characters and the lore I’ve grown to love. I’ve participated in multiple community-driven projects. Tyria was the escape I needed during hard times.

I don’t play that much anymore, but that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten Tyria. I’m really looking forward to everything that’s on the horizon. From the rest of the Icebrood Saga and to the new expansion.

Civilization

Just. One. More. Turn.

If you’ve played any Civilization games, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Just one more turn, and then I’ll have finished my researched. Just one more turn, and my army is large enough to attack India. Just one more turn, and I’ll have my victory.

The games are highly addictive, once you start, you have to finish the game. It’s not a game you should start after 10 in the evening because your sleep will suffer.

I’ve played 4, 5, 6, and Beyond Earth. I liked all of them except for six. It’s just not for me. I want my games simpler, I also don’t play on a higher difficulty. Super easy for me please.

Pokemon

Pokemon shouldn’t be a surprise either. I’m a big fan of the franchise, games, animes, merchandise, everything. I bought the Japanese Pokemon Blue for the gameboy last November when we were in Japan. That’s got to be the highlight for me. I haven’t tried it yet, and I’m sure the Japanese will be a challenge to, but I’m going to finish the game. I know I will.

Dragon Age

Dragon Age, and you can blame that one on Alistair. I can’t help it. The writing is just so good that I still have a crush on a fictional character. Even when he becomes kind of a dick in Inquisition. I don’t know what happened to my character in Inquisition but Alistair seems kind of bitter. Maybe my character died and he misses me (aww). That’s what I like to think.

I loved the Neverwinter Nights games, but it doesn’t come close to how much I love Dragon Age. Having multiple romance options, dragons, and butterfly swords is just perfect. I think I’ve done seven play throughs of the first game and I’ve put in about 50 hours in Inquisition and I’m not even halfway. I do plan on playing the second some day, but I want to finish Inquisition first.

If someone asked me, I could probably write fanfic for Dragon Age too.