World Conquest Online

"So that is the initial buildings decided, however I think the next group will cause the most discussion." Dom began, "We have a mixture of Military and Civilian Buildings. The Civilian ones I think are quite obvious in placement, we have a Vineyard and a Wine Maker, as well as an another Tavern."

"The Vineyard and Winemaker sound perfect!" Lucius exclaimed, "I am more than happy to place these in either Riverside or Bountiful Town, Peruda will also be happy to expand from her Brewery. Her Daughters have learnt a lot and could potentially take over the management."

"Do you not have experience of making wine yourself?" Crassus asked Lucius, having owned Vineyards himself.

"Some, but it always taste’s better when someone else makes it." Lucius replied with a laugh. "This is definitely something I have been looking forwards to."

"Ideally, we should move the Brewery to Bountiful Town and place them all there." Xun Yu commented, "Then we could have our drinks all made in the same location, next to the fresh fruit that makes them. It is also central enough to move them to Riverside and Sea View easily enough."

"Especially if the Potters is nearby." Lucius stated excitedly. "I can work with the farmers and create a long term expansion map. It also gives lots of our new residents a new life opportunity!"

"It would also give the Legionaries an additional reason to get the roads completed." Crassus commented, "Especially if they are rewarded with some."

"I am sure Gan Ning and myself can support if needs be." Liao Hua said from the side, before going silent again when he realised he had spoken his thought out loud.

"Would we move the Animal Husbandry’s?" Dom asked, wondering if it was worth sending all of the farming related buildings to Bountiful Town and having it as a whole farming centre of the new Kingdom.

"It is an option, but let’s get them set up first and make the decision later." Lucius agreed, his mind going through many different plans on how he could expand the farming of Riverside. "Did we get a granary?"

"No, but I expect that will spawn with the basic buildings when we use the Town Centre Cubes." Dom replied, realising that he hadn’t noticed a granary in Tongpai Town and the food had been stored in warehouses.

"I can always speak with Sostratus." Hatshepsut commented.

"Where do we place the Tavern?" Lucius interrupted before Sostratus gained more work.

"This is a difficult choice, the more obvious option is at Sea View, it’s a place for merchants and create trade deals. However Bountiful Town would be a good reward for all of those that will be working hard to feed the Kingdom that we create." Hatshepsut replied, sharing her thoughts.

"It would be nice to reward the people, but I think that can wait for now." Crassus countered, "Sea View is more important currently, it will become our face to all those that come to visit us. We need to invest as much as we can in to making it an amazing place, second only to Riverside."

"I agree with Crassus on this one." Dom stated, "We need to expand Sea View as our priority, the distance from both Riverside and Sea View to Bountiful Town is minimal, so they can benefit from both of the other locations."

"So what buildings are next?" Meritamen asked, clearly excited by how the conversations were going so far.

"We have an Arena." Dom replied, "But I think this will be kept for Riverside."

"An Arena?" Crassus asked, his eyes wide with excitement.

"Yes, an Arena." Dom smiled, "Somewhere where we can show entertainment to the masses, be that Gladiator fights, theatrical plays or music."

"I agree this should be in Riverside." Crassus stated, "We can use it to let the currency flow, and with the Gambling Hall, we can also make it an exciting place for visitors to come to. It is tempting to send them to Sea View, but I think Riverside is best."

"I will think on where to place it." Hatshepsut smiled, "It is a shame we didn’t have this earlier, we could have used it in our celebration plans."

"We still could." Meritamen laughed, "What a spectacle it will be when a large Arena appears at the end of the games. I will look in to adding this in to our plans, if you can find somewhere to place it."

"I’ll get on it straight after this meeting." Hatshepsut replied happily, the two of them having become good friends quite quickly.

"It’s a shame that Crixus isn’t here currently." Crassus commented, on the Ex Gladiator that had spawned in Riverside in the early days. He was currently setting up an information network in the Northern Trade City and he would have been a huge fan of the Arena, if not fighting then at least in watching and maybe managing it.

"The next items are the four that I think are more Military based, if we use them all for that purpose." Dom explained, moving on to the final items. "Firstly we have the Shang Swordsmen Warriors Hall which is a Grade D. Do we use it in Riverside, do we respawn it or do we try to re-spin it if we get the chance to get a more advanced unit. There is no guarantee that option will arise though."

"I think from our past experience that if we spawn it in Riverside, we will get the opportunity to re-spin it." Subutai commented, from the past experience with the other cubes they had reused. "I do not think that will be the case if we use it in other towns."

"I would agree, Riverside is grade S and our capital. The others are of a lower grade and we do not yet know how the Riverside grade will impact them." Shang Yang explained, "We should also keep Riverside as our Military centre. I doubt it, but if there are any internal issues in the future, which happen a lot in Dynasties and Empires, Riverside will be able to maintain control. If all of the Military is centralised here, then the external arms will be reliant on Riverside for defence. Not that I expect anything to happen within the first generation or two."

"It’s a worrying thought to think about, even if it is far in the future, but I agree." Xun Yu agreed. "If we do use it, I think we should re-spin it. Our current Shang Swordsmen are all being retrained as Legionaries and we should have enough for two full Centuries at least. However if we don’t re-spin it we will have sub optimal unit that will need to be constantly retrained. The positive is that we could have a steady number of reinforcements for the Legionaries, but we could be missing an opportunity for a much better unit."

"I am in agreement with both points, though I do think it is good that we have groups from similar backgrounds forming unity within Riverside." Xun You added, "Also adding in a third point that any that are spawned here can be orientated before moving to units they will be stationed with. That way they have a better understanding of what they have joined and what they are fighting for."

"It feels like we can create something similar to Rome, where their loyalty to the capital is higher than anywhere else, as this will always be their starting point." Crassus stated, with an agreed nod from Lucius. "Riverside will be their heart in everything that they do."

"Also, without being disrespectful to the Shang Swordsmen that we have, the Shang Dynasty is behind all of our other units both tactically and equipment wise. Their Era was a long time ago and was a lot less advanced. The Swordsmen that have arrived have been eager to learn, but they are a generic unit and not even the specialised forces of the Great Dukes of the later Shang." Xun Yu explained, which received a nod of agreement from Shang Yang.

"Ok, so we agree that we will use the Shang Swordsmen Warriors Hall in Riverside and Re-spin if we get the opportunity." Dom announced, "The next item is a positive surprise, that was from the corpses that Gan Ning and Xun You had gathered, it is another Beast Hall."

"Oh this is great news!" Lucius exclaimed, partially in excitement and partially in frustration. The Sabre Tooth Tigers had been a great military asset, however they also consumed a large amount of meat that put additional pressure on the Animal Husbandries. "I may need to use the other Wooden Upgrade Token depending on what we decide."

"Well, I will need to check the pest control book, but I believe we currently have the animals that Crassus has brought back, the Dire Wolves of Meritamen and the baby Red Snakes of Gan Ning’s." Shang Yang explained, his mind going through all of the documents and things that were happening in Riverside.

"How are your snakes?" Subutai asked Gan Ning, they had been in a house that Gan Ning had claimed early on that had been built in the Housing Area. He had shared it with the two ex prisoners Atzi and Tayanna that they had taken from the Gluttonous Chief’s Village. Helena who managed the Docks of Riverside had persuaded Gan Ning, rather aggressively, that they should live alone and could be trusted. Gan Ning had claimed their freedom as his reward for the attack on Gluttonous Chief’s Village, having a similar belief to Dom that Slavery wasn’t great. In gratitude the two Women, who often worked at Fisherwomen near the Docks, were feeding and bringing up the Red Snakes for Gan Ning.

"They are growing well. I have been tempted to invite the Hoplite Dion round to see them and show them they aren’t scary, as he has a huge fear of snakes after his involvement with their mother." Gan Ning began, "But they are growing a lot faster than I expected, and I am not sure if it was their mother after all."

"Does that mean we may have another large Red Snake hiding in the south of Riverside?" Dom asked, worried about another surprise. The large Brown Bear from their first exploration of the forest had been a surprise and almost caught them off guard when doing their initial exploration, the Red Snake had almost taken the Hoplite Dion for a deep swim as well.

"Very possible, I have shown them to Hua Tou and Peruda." Gan Ning began, "I know that is a strange combination, I asked Hua Tou to look over them as he’s very knowledgeable, but he wasn’t aware of their breed, he just advised we feed them the fish we catch. Peruda had come for me to test some of her beer and she believed they had similar looks to a type of snake called an Anaconda that they had in her old home, just larger in their infant stage and of a different colour. An Anaconda was a snake that lived in wet areas like swamps that hunted from the land and the water." 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"I will come and see them later." Dom announced, hoping the system would give him more information about them now.

"Ideally, another mount would be great, but I am unsure if the Snakes will be big enough and the Dire Wolves would be better for hunting and scouting." Crassus explained, changing the conversation back to what it was supposed to be about. "Can we use it for more Sabre Tooth Tiger’s and then repurpose it in the future? Unless someone has a better idea."

"What is wrong with my Dire Wolves?" Meritamen asked, feigning fake hurt. "They are very clever and would be very helpful."

"I do not disagree, and they would be very handy in searching the forests for the Type 3 Humans." Tomyris agreed.

"We’ll need to train Warriors to control and manage them." Tomoe added, "I think some of the Spartans could do this, they are like Wolves themselves."

"Let’s leave this for now, we will place this in Riverside as well and make a decision later." Dom explained, "I am leaning towards the Dire Wolves though, but I will inspect the Red Snakes. We could also do Brown Bears, which I think could be good mounts."

"The Bears would be very good mounts." Tomyris agreed, "They would be more handy in the geography that we will be exploring. I am sure some of the Hoplite would appreciate the chance to fight from Bear back."

"A Bear Cavalry, a Sabre Tooth Tiger Cavalry and then our main Cavalry." Subutai stated, "It does sound exciting. I am more than happy to increase any Cavalry unit we could get. What are the final buildings?"