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Monthly Archives: August 2017

Let’s Play: Tropico 4: Pt VII

January ’60

Cara Libro truly was an idyllic  place before we invited all of these foreigners to our island. So far most of the crimes have been littering and vandalism, but we can’t have our chief of police operating out of a shack behind the Libro Imperator Hotel, and so we’re ordered construction of a fully functional and modern police station right in the heart of the tourist district.

Additionally the results of the Election are in, only 15 residents didn’t vote, and only 8 didn’t vote for me. With 87 votes that’s nearly 80% confidence level. It is good to be loved by the people.

 

December ’60

The TV station is nearly complete. The current plan is to broadcast educational programming. Learning with Leroy should help boost the brainpower of our citizens, which is especially important with all of the new technical jobs opening up in the marketplace (like working at the television stations for example.)

 

July ’61

Something has stalled the construction of the TV station… The ground apparently is not stable enough to support the TV tower and so they’ve had to install a special foundation, regardless it’s been six months and it still is “almost done”. The bright side of this is that one of our oil rigs has sprung a leak and so we at least will probably be able to fix the issue before it becomes widespread knowledge.

 

January ’62

Only a year late the TV station is finally completed, but due to the massive delay Leroy has left for other greener pastures (a farming programme in Louisiana.) That said we’ve contracted w/ another TV Teacher who should be here on the next boat, and changing the name to Learning with Louise shouldn’t be too hard. Plans are in place for a Cathedral and more housing.

MtC 8: Babas


Babas has been blessed by Slaanesh twice in his illustrious career, but he’s worried that he is falling out of favor. He received the boon of a coveted Daemonette claw early in his career during a battle on the edge of the Eye of Terror, but it was several campaigns later before he got his second “boon.” Some of the other cultists, in particular Rurlan Khyphus, have been dubious, but Babas claims the extra nose has vastly improved his sense of smell (even if it’s unlikely he can smell in stereo) and the extra tongue has some advantages that are obvious to pretty much everyone. While his depth perception isn’t what it was, a shotgun solves most of that issue, and he thrills in the close in combat, even the number of cultists who survive hand to hand is generally fairly low.

This is another conversion, but it’s only about 30% GW. The ridiculous shoulder pads are a bit of a giveaway; still in a mob of 30 cultists it’s nice to not be limited to the half dozen poses available from GW, especially because with just a few extra bits it fits right in. The base model is a 3rd party Imperial Guard replacement from Target games’ Warzone. If you want some additional variety for your Guard/Cult/Genestealer Cult army, you can pick up the game for about $50 which comes w/ 80 models in about 6 poses from Prince August. Apparently you used to be able to pick up JUST the minis for about half that, but I couldn’t find it on the website… so either that deal is gone, or it is buried deeper than I care to look for five minutes.

Let’s Play: Tropico 4: Pt VI

June ’58

The housing situation is just untenable, with nearly 40 people living in shacks. I’ve been told there are some homeless as well, but I don’t believe that for a moment. As El Presidente I promise, we’ll have sufficient housing before the end of the year!

 

 

January ’59

We’ve built 3 new apartment buildings and have a fourth almost finished, we’ve dropped the prices to a ridiculously low amount, but we still have 40 people dwelling in shacks. Maybe if we knocked the shacks down they’d move to the nicer locations we’ve set out for them. With an election coming up there is no better time to make this a big issue.

Maybe the people just don’t realize all the wonderful housing opportunities available to them. Out with shack living, in with Air conditioned Apartments.

 

 

June ’59

The Marina is finished which is great for tourism, but even after we demolished a half dozen shacks the people still seem to prefer to sleep on the beaches rather than enjoy the modern comforts of the Air Conditioned apartments we’ve spent a ton of money building. They’ve even built a few shacks near the marine, but we can’t just blow those up as surely some of the tourists will see us doing it and take it the wrong way.

September ’59

The housing situation is still abominable. They keep building shacks instead of moving into the glorious apartments. I’ve mandated an increase in wages for the uneducated, maybe they just can’t afford to live properly but I’m afraid there’ll be a riot if we order their shacks demolished again. On a brighter note, the seaside resort is finished and will surely attract more high class tourists!

MtC 7: Varbhor Antrix

Varbhor Antrix never knew when to shut up. Even after taking a vow of silence he broke it in just over an hour, so he “volunteered” for a more permanent solution. Of course not being able to talk sometimes left him not being taken seriously so he picked up literally the biggest gun in the armory. While technically it is a hand held weapon that fires a projectile, it’s actually more of a man portable mortar launcher than a gun. Varbhor’s motto is “Walk softly and carry a big pipe and a bigger gun.”

It’s pretty obvious he’s practically dying to go on the next raiding party, probably because he hasn’t had a chance to fires his big ass gun yet. Any time there’s a hint of action he’s suited up and ready to go.

This is one of my first converted cultists. Blake had this big ass gun/missile launcher thing (I think it was from an Empire unit maybe?) and I knew some crazy ass cultist would have to haul this monster around.

Let’s Play: Tropico 4: Pt V

November 56

In a bid to win the elderly demographic, which should also garner more respect from the older tourists, we’ve instituted a Social Security scheme. Right now there are so few qualified individuals it’ll only cost us about $12 a year…

January 57

Senator Crane is a smooth tongued devil… This “Freedom Tax”; well, we have little choice to pay, as there isn’t much we could do if the Americanos became angry with us. This is a great hardship as most of our current budget was to be spent on improved housing conditions for our populace… We have a tenement building and a condominium, but many are still living in shacks.

September 57

It’s been a fairly uneventful summer. The Llama Flu ban on immigration has been lifted, apparently enough people thought it was a hoax. Our housing situation is still fairly dire, and there’s been rumblings from our local priests that we don’t have enough religious support. We do have the third of four planned ranches is just being finished, which should be a nice dietary addition to the fish and corn that is the vast majority of local fare.

MtC 6: Mobus Ordelax

Mobus Ordelax is one of the few cult  members who shows any sign of psychic ability. He attributes it to a combination of his faith in Slaanesh as well as following Seanan’s colloidal silver regimen. Unfortunately for him, his ability are rather lack luster compared to an actual sorcerer. At best he can do some impressive tricks, which really isn’t the best way to risk your eternal soul, but it does tend to be quite effective at recruiting new members into the cult and winnowing out inquisitors and undesirable rabble as well as finding folk who might be sympathetic to the cause, often before they themselves realize it.

Mobus is also responsible for the consecration of the Eye of Chaos rings. These small orange amulets have 8 spikes and are guaranteed to make great deeds more likely to be noticed by Slaanesh and her minions. Or at least so Mobus claims, regardless their popularity has skyrocketed after the last sortie and Mobus is starting to get sick of making them, complaining frequently that it’s “all he’s good for anymore.”

Let’s Play: Tropico 4: Pt IV

January ’56

Ahh, the start of a new year. We’ve built a tacky little tiki bar since the tourists all seem to want to spend at least one night in the local dive. We’ve also nearly complete a second clinic, and just in time, we’ve been placed under quarantine due to an outbreak of the Llama Flu.

August ’56

The Llama Flu has finally run it’s course and tourism can resume, though immigration is still prohibited. We’ve offered considerable discounts to any tourist who has a significant social media following, this should help get the word out and hopefully really bring the numbers of visiting tourists up. On a more domestic front we’ve started working on an electrical infrastructure, and while it’ll be a while before we can afford to put in a proper hospital, we’re at least able to offer AC now which should improve everyone’s quality of life, event in the more decrepit tenements.

October ’56

A small earthquake cause the tenement to collapse. We were able to fund rebuilding easily, though that will delay the hospital a few months. Much worse, apparently many of the natives are unhappy and some of them are forming some kind of rebel organization. Some of the more violent minded of my advisers are suggesting we should raise a militia to deal with them, but I think if we can just raise their quality of life they’ll see what a great leader I am voluntarily put down their arms.

MtC 5: Vermora Guermayra

Vermora’s unhealthy obsession with fire has been nothing if not fanned by the rest of the cult. Really though, is their reasoning that bad? She’s already fairly expert on the subject, so who better to haul around a huge tank of Promethium to lay waste to Khaslillie and Rheatrivix’s enemies?

When she’s not cleansing the world with fire, Vermora likes long walks in the underhive, worship Slaanesh, play cards and get drunk, however her favorite pastime is training her pet Chaos Spawn Cuddles. At this time a picture of Cuddles is not available, but we are given to understand it’s about knee high, and shaped mostly like a large cat, except with soft purple cilia instead of fur, and two pairs of tentacles on it’s shoulders that can meld together into rudimentary wings. It’s face is like that of a bull, but more flattened.

Cuddles is generally consider a sign of Slaanesh’s favor towards Vermora even though it’s not particularly good in combat the rest of the cult tends to consider it kind of like a mascot, and since Vermora is the only one who Cuddles is friendly with she is generally afforded higher status in the cult than she would other wise be granted.

Ancient Kickstarter Burning Suns

Besides giant Slaaneshii Daemons another of my passions is humongous space battles, or as they’re commonly known by the more boring name 4x. If you’re not familiar with 4x games it stands for eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate. In general you’ll fly around a galaxy, expanding your territory, fighting other players, and researching cool technology. Not all 4x games are space based, Civilization is one of the classics, both on the computer and table top. In my collection there is also Space Empires 4x (uncharitably called The Spreadsheet Game by some), Eclipse, EVE, Empires of the Void, Star Trek Frontiers, and Hegemonic. Plus, the not space themed, Mage Knight, Scythe (maybe only a 3x?!), and Tiny Epic Kingdoms (certainly the quickest of all of these).

Well, to these hallowed ranks is added Burning Suns. This is also one of the oldest games I’ve kickstarted, with a projected delivery date of September 2013! That’s right, the game arrived almost exactly 4 years late. That said the components are pretty decent quality. The cardstock is nice and thick, everything punched out super easy. The space ships aren’t the most beautiful but they’ll do, and the game seems pretty simple for also being fairly complex. I got in a two player game, and it was definitely very back and forth near the end, however I’m sure a lot of that was just due to neither of us really knowing what we were doing yet.

Each player gets a Race, Ideology and Framework. Actually you get two of each and pick your favorite until you have one of each, but the neat thing here is that since there are 10 of each there are literally a thousand different combinations, meaning every time you play the game will be a little different. Ideology determines whether you are Light, Neutral or Dark which affects a bunch of cards in the game. It will also give you some choices as your get closer to winning the game, and those choices again affect whether you are Light, Dark or Neutral. Your Race determines the cost and effectiveness of your ships and troops, plus how many technology upgrades you can get and where. Finally your framework affects a lot of your “limits”, eg how far your ships can jump, or diplomats can Diplomasize, how things you can construct in a turn, or how many of various rerolls you get.

There are peaceful and military based ways of taking over planets, though some are easier than others for various techniques. There’s a lot of stuff going on in the game, and I definitely think it’ll be more interesting to play with 3-5 players, or possibly even with 6 or more… I can sub in pieces pretty easy and the major issue will be the increased downtime (the creator has said as much).

Let’s Play: Tropico 4: Pt III

Welcome back to Cara Libro. The first tour ship has arrived, bringing 10 tourists (who may have received some massive discounts on their tour package.) However apparently Monopolies are bad, and so the UN has suggested that we need a second motel, and have even given us a grant to help fund it’s construction.

March ’55

The second hotel is finished. My advisers suggest we may need to build a second Construction Office, as the number of buildings we have planned is getting quite extensive. Of course constructing a second CO would delay all of the other buildings.

May ’55

So the popularity of Social Media has given us a concrete goal. If we can get a million followers we’ll have made our mark on the tourism industry. So, all you twits, follow me #presidenteforlife.

August ’55

The First Church is finally finished, however I just found a report that 3 people died last year due to poor healthcare. This is unacceptable; so I’ve doubled the staffing of the clinic and we shall shortly build a second clinic. Sick citizens will lead to poor service for our tourists. It should not be too expensive to keep our workforce hale and hearty and we shall reap the rewards from the rich tourists!

September ’55

I just stumbled across a year old report about the possible danger of the Volcano. If I were to believe this report, should the volcano go off pretty much everything is going to be hosed in lava, so I choose the simple expediency of not believing the report. Obviously there’s something wrong here, so we will suppress all information about the volcano. Obviously it’s safe, I mean… it didn’t go off last year did it?