And so the Battle of the Bands commenced. Ruff the Band manager organised gigs, advertising and the hiring of Band members - always trying for a unique mix of music to attract the ticket purchasing public. Catherine the promoter travelled extensively telling everyone about The Big Bs and how good their music was. The Qinsters and the Persian Pussycats competed for gigs while the Critic berated everyone ... everyone! The mystery woman steamed up in her little corner while the Nuts plotted revenge. Catherine got steamed about the Nuts and asked the band to boycott the tour there ... Ruff agreed ... anything to get on with Catherine.
Meanwhile, in 580AD (turn 139), The Persian Pussycats got serious about the Battle part of the Battle of the Bands ...
... but not that serious ... only a couple of units and 1 boat which pillaged my seabased resources. He settled for peace in 940AD (turn 157) for 100 gold (yes, we paid him) but he stranded his boat.
Ruff, the Band Manager purchased pigs from Catherine (the band promoter) and Deer from The Qinsters (both for 12 gold per turn) to, in his words, "Provide health benefits while introducing a child friendly aspect to the stage act. The band members were a little worried about this but generally they trusted Ruff and his ideas.
The mystery woman came making unreasonable demands "Philosophy please". For some reason, Ruff agreed to send her the sheet music for that song. After learning all the words to that song, she decided that it was not a very well written song and decided to boycott future performances of it and all Big B gigs. She even sent her minions to disrupt future band practices and performances [WAR is declared in 1110AD, turn 171].
The sound system used by the band had generally been improved over time and the music coverage area continued to expand. An outlying gig location frequently used by The Qinsters was over-run and now The Big Bs plays there regularly [city revolt!].
The music system was not able to hold The Mystery Woman's agents back - they must have installed ear accoustic mitigation devises. The first incursion was a a couple of longbows. This was quickly followed by multiple swords, cats and axes. This was a critical threat to the band and its local support. The convinced the local merchants to stop providing food and electricity to the band and the loyal band supporters in Chicago suffered greatly. The anti-band incursion was faught off using cats and a strong city bound band of longbows. One of the road crew took charge of the battle tactics and was later prmoted to Medic III for all the moral support he gave the units [Great General merged with Explorer]. In 1260AD (turn 186), MW called off the band boycott and agreed to pay 100gold (plus an income of 7 gold per turn) by way of preparations.
Meanwhile, the Band Promoter (Cathy) had been hitting the books hard and had picked up Liberalism (plus the free tech bonus) and Economics (free merchant). Hmmn - The Qinsters offered to teach us their hit "Devine Rights" for our hit "Liberalism" but we had to throw in 2560 gold (HA - I don't think so). Instead, we picked up this song from The Persian Pussycats by sending them "Astronomy" (and they gave us 1010 gold!). This song was later traded to The Qinsters for a copy of their tour schedule (world map), 1130 gold and their promise to adopt our brand of music (Christianity). After than, our Band Manager Ruff, decided that a double bill gig with The Big Bs and The Qinsters would be a great idea.
Meanwhile, that funny girl, TMW has now decided that she hates the PP's music ... her troops are now trying to convince them to stop playing [The Mystery Woman declares war on Persia, 1500AD, turn 210]. We also find ourselves in the situation where any new song that we learn obsoletes one of our older songs to the 'out of date' pile ... Sce Mthd (Great Library), Rifling (Walls), Econ (Castle), Chem (Parthenon, Temple of Artemis). On the flip side, we are able to learn Econ (2000 beakers) in 1 turn so our song learning ability is rocking.
Here is Chicago in 1550AD (turn 220). Note that my commerce from trade is greater than my local commerce.
The Qinsters decide that they don't actually like our style of music and desolve the double bill, they also revert to their old music style [Jewdaism]. After further review of the local music scene, it is discovered that The Qinsters have become Catherine's House Band [Qin becomes a vassal of Russia!]. A new music style seeps into Chicago with the spread of Confucianism. Cathy the Band promoter says that this style is all the rage and convinces Ruff the Band Manager to convert the band to this style of music. [Is a conversion to Confucianism, out of Christianity within the rules of the game? The band things no, but the Band Manager, Ruff over-rules them after careful (well, maybe not that careful) reading of the various music conventions and variable rules].
The ongoing boycott [war] of The Persian Pussycats by The Mystery Woman is having some impact with the closure of uneconomical outlying pubs and music venues. These locations have agreed to abide by TMW's rule instead of being dedicated to the listening pleasure of The Persian Pussycats.
In 1770AD (turn 264), Cathy agrees to establish a explorative committee to investigate the possiblilty of a permanent single band promotional deal. [Defensive Pact if you cannot read between the lines.
Where to from here for the Band? And what about the missing band members?
