u/cheerfulstoic11

How do I ride here?
▲ 28 r/Zwift

How do I ride here?

I went through the junction to the south this morning and saw the road but I didn’t have an option to turn onto it. I don’t remember seeing any connections from the KOM road either.

Edit: if unclear, this is in Watopia, next to the bit with the dinosaurs.

u/cheerfulstoic11 — 4 days ago
▲ 27 r/civ

Emperor Science Victory, All Thanks to...Rock Bands

I'm a King player mostly, because I like to win, and because early war freaks me out. But I'm experimenting with Emperor for this game, and shooting for a Science Victory with Pedro.

I'm off to an okay start, expand rapidly into empty territory. But I'm next to Catherine de Medici, who just WILL NOT give peace a chance. Surprise wars all the time, even though my army is bigger than hers, and even after her attack wave has broken on my superior defenses she just won't knock it off and accept a peace treaty. I'm not looking to invest in an army of conquest here but I raise the stakes: fully pillage a nearby city - no change. Raze a little undefended French city near my border - nothing. I'm willing to pay her, but she won't accept a peace deal for anything. Meanwhile the war weariness is starting to hit, and Brazil's best and brightest are in the park growing their hair out and getting stoned with the hippies instead of in the lab, doing science. I'm building street festivals to try to keep the mood up but it's really hurting the treasury.

Finally, FINALLY, in the Modern Era Cathy agrees to call it quits. I'm still ahead of everyone in science, and get my traders back on the road to make some cash. Around turn 300 with a little help from Hercules to save some turns on spaceport construction I've got my Mars mission off the ground and I'm feeling pretty good. Until I take a look at the victory screen and see that on the other side of the map Tomyris is 50 turns from a culture victory, while I still have quite a bit of sciencing to do before I've even discovered Smart Materials. It's time for evasive action.

First up, rock bands. Gotta slow that roll and buy some more time. I send over a fleet of five to test the waters, and unlike my usual experience none of them fail on the first concert. Special shout out to New Crew, who quickly got to the max level and just kept on going, hit after hit. Even with bonuses on both campuses and theater squares they were starting to run out of venues when the inevitable finally happened and Tomyris banned rock bands in her territory. But all that time the Scythian Tourism Board was too busy waiting in the Ticketmaster queue for New Crew seats and getting their samba on to run any ad campaigns. It's working; Tomyris's counter goes up to 60 turns to victory, then 75.

I was not sitting idle. My big developed cities were issuing research grants at top speed while everyone else went all in on tourism. Theater squares, national parks, stadiums everywhere, whatever I could think of, and more commercial zones to pay for it all. My spies were robbing every museum in Scythia. Those Brazil Great People bonuses helped too. I even let Shah Jahan bankrupt me again to build the Biosphere: I hardly had any coal or oil anyway so why not have my clean energy built by necessity generate tourism as well? I spent most of my faith on Carl Sagan and Werner Von Braun, who got my Exoplanet Expedition and my first Lagrange laser station off the ground in no time at all.

Now my rock bands are hanging out just outside of Scythia, twiddling their thumbs hoping for a change of policy. There's no turn number for Tomyris on the culture screen anymore and I think she's losing ground, but that bubble is so, so close to being full. My expedition's on its way and I'm building new laser stations as fast as I can pull the aluminum together but it's a nail biter. Shah Jahan has another charge so I've got him sitting on a partially-built Statue of Liberty, an insurance policy in case I need to trigger a last-second diplomatic victory instead to save the day. But that's cheating, you know?

I didn't need it. Science Victory just like I wanted, turn 344. Thrills and chills right down to the last turn, 10/10 would do again. I should play Emperor more often.

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u/cheerfulstoic11 — 6 days ago