Very merry christmas!

Nice stadiums!

You showed how you earned that Aesthetic DD award, it looks sublime. Here's to another great year for you

Very Nice!

Very nice city building here, keep it up!

simLink: Thank you very much!

111222333444: Thanks! And a merry christmas to you too.

K50: Thank you my friend. I was most privileged to receive the award.

Republicmaster: Thanks!

Frex_Ceafus: Thank you, and welcome to Cattala. I'm glad you liked it.


Buongiorno and Buon Natale! Welcome back to Cattala, where today we're visiting a brand new town south east of Calora, in Fieranti province. A few updates ago we followed the M2 motorway from Celeste up to Vittoria - well now we're heading one step closer towards Cattala's second city as we enter its suburbs.



Welcome, to Cydonia.



Cydonia isn't just another Mediterranean town with the multicoloured walls and red rooftops we're used to seeing in much of Cattala. Perseni Heights is a modern development on the edge of the town, between the railway line and the motorway. It's an assortment of stylish apartments and also an industrial park which we'll take a look at a bit later.



In the heart of the original town though, there are plenty of red roofed traditional homes, which are synonymous with Calora and its surrounding regions. Modern developments have introduced some whitewash to the area in recent years, especially in desirable areas like this well-to-do part of the town above its winding streams.



There are many traditions that remain, of course. The Church of Cydonia is a Baroque masterpiece and for centuries it has, and continues, to dominate the skyline. The Church's grounds used to extend far into the forests, but now its immediate lands are dissected by the roads coming off the motorway. It's a good job the cemetery was moved out of town, or it wouldn't be suitable for the mourners any more.



In the town centre, modern offices and towers have been built alongside the railway station, which connects the Calora mainline with Celeste and Jennai. This prime location means that many businesses and developers are eager to tear down some of the older buildings and create more boxy offices like these 1960s designed council offices with their dodgy fluorescent tube lighting.



Towards the north of the city, the traditional employers still remain, although diminished. Industry and trade had always been the focus of this town and now the railway links to Calora, Celeste and Jennai ports mean manufacturing does still play a role in the town's economy.



Nowadays commerce is the breadwinner. The Cattala Chamber of Commerce has one its head offices in the town's historic quarter and there are many independent shops spread out across Cydonia, with little competition from multinationals, many of whom are banned from the town.



But one of the key industries they've encouraged recently in Cydonia is high technology, specialist engineering. With its good road and rail connections, the town's Perseni Industrial Park has become a leading employer and is one of the country's most successful industrial centres of recent times.



The future of Cydonia is rooted in Perseni Heights, whilst its past is across town in amongst the compact roofs of the old quarters.



The last couple of updates haven't featured a Memory Lane because of their length, so we've got two today. Both are from Hellas Province, in the far north of Cattala. The town of Amano Bridge clings to the river and hasn't changed for centuries. Nestled in the hills that dominate this sea-faring island, Amano Bridge is one of the few crossing points in the hinterlands of Ionia.



In the south of the island, the city of Ionia is a contrast to the traditional communities elsewhere on the small outpost of the kingdom. Tilia was featured 50 updates ago in April 2011 and highlighted a vast development alongside a boating lake in the suburbs of Ionia, Hellas' port and main town. A hotel and leisure complex was under construction and near completion at the time. Will we ever go back and see the end result? Perhaps.



Thank you for reading Cattala today and I wish you a Happy New Year!

Looks awesome Thomas

Oooh I like the river crossing the town

Wow both of your latest are amazing! Love seeing one of your other bigger cities, since mostly Celeste gets that spotlight. Great Work and once again congrats on Most Aestethic DD

Great cities!

I'm running out of new and interesting words to describe your cities' awesomeness. So... awesome work.

lol linkie

K50: Thank you very much!

111222333444: Thank you. I think the town crossed the river first though.

mayorm: Yes, definitely. Celeste has made up a quarter of all the Cattala updates, mostly because it's now on its second version and I've completely rebuilt it. Calora was initially the capital city and was the first city I actually started, before I even knew it would be a Mediterranean journal. So Calora has a place in my heart, but Celeste is much more English, especially Vittoria, and is something I really love to build. There's some information on Jennai, which usurps them both, and whether I will ever build it, in this update.

Republicmaster: Thank you!

simLink: Haha, thanks. Your CJ is the awesomest though.


Buongiorno and Felice Anno Nuovo! Welcome back to Cattala, and today's special update from two cities. Calora and Celeste have been centrepieces of this City Journal over the past two years and 97 updates, so I thought it fitting that we see off 2012 with fireworks from both. But first, an autumnal mosaic of Cydonia.



The annual fireworks displays in all three of Cattala's main cities is a rivalry that dates back for decades. Once upon a time they went to war over small things - now they fight with fireworks. Jennai always has the largest budget, but Celeste and Calora have a fierce battle over who can produce the best display with a smaller budget than the country's largest city.



Alder Hill has always been a focus for Celeste's displays, but in recent years the glistening steel of Azien's skyscrapers, and its two huge stadiums, mean that many of the displays now end over the modern quarters of the capital.



This year, for the first time, the Calora display will be held over the historic bay after the Church of Cattala agreed to allow fireworks near the city's cathedral. You can catch a glimpse of what has been built since the Advent update. Perhaps some suggestions about the slummy houses were listened to?



The mythical Jennai has been mentioned many times over the past 97 updates - back in September 2010 I was asked when it was going to be built. I did begin building the city, home to 1 million of Cattala's 4.2 million people - in summer 2011, but abandoned it soon after. I have skirted around the city, with border towns like Santa Cecilia, Confini and Elloria, but the metropolis hasn't emerged yet. If it does get built, it will be an enormous project and perhaps it will happen once Celeste and Calora are done. Aziens is the only modern urban CBD I've built. Maybe it will turn out to be a dry run for the jewel in the crown.



Thank you for reading Cattala today and I wish you all a wonderful 2013.

Happy 2013 to you too, nice work with the fireworks, they look great

Nice Fireworks! Happy New year to Cattala

Great fireworks! Happy New Year

Great Happy New Year to you!

K50: Thank you! The last time I did fireworks was in 2010's Christmas celebrations, but these are much nicer.

Mayorm: Happy New Year to you as well!

Republicmaster: Hope it's a good one for you. I'm glad you liked it.

111222333444: Thanks! Have a lovely 2013.


Welcome to Cattala, and our first 2013 update. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! Now today I'm going to show you Jennai. Of course, I haven't even begun building Jennai yet, as I explicitly said last update. So, here's some countryside outside Jennai: it's Tamer.



The eagle eyed amongst you may have spotted my little lie there. Tamer is in Fieranti, and is north-east of Cydonia. So... if we're in Fieranti, why did I say we were in Jennai...?



Because we are. This is Rene, in Jennai. The actual city.



Rene isn't the nicest part of town, that's why we're in the car with the blacked out windows today. Despite government expenditure on new housing projects to try and improve the housing stock and the lives of residents, this borough remains one of the poorest in the city.



Just yesterday five men were arrested for the murder of a teenager in a gang shooting outside Rene Elementare. With government cuts beginning to bite, it seems unlikely that this part of the city will be turned around any time soon.



Thank you for visiting Cattala today - perhaps next time we'll visit a nicer place? Somewhere sunny, like Santa Cecilia maybe. That would be nice.

Even your slums look nice

Great update, I'm really excited to see how Janai comes together

Beautiful update, the rowhouses are really nicely done.

Beautiful Update! Though the slums are gritty

Really Nice update! Great stuff

ggamgus: Yes it looks very nice... It's supposed to be the poorest place in Cattala, fool!

Cons: I think I will have to make an even dirtier town now. It's not meant to be amazing!


Welcome to Cattala, and today we're doing a special update which was actually the brainchild of a random comment about Cattala's shops by a commenter in the forum section. See, you guys really do influence what I do.

Welcome back to Rene, in Jennai. This neglected wasteland has benefited of late from upgrades in its railway services - although it isn't connected to the Jennai Metro, it now has more regular InterCity rail services, along the Southport branch line. This has fuelled some new development in the area.


Rene's role as a transport intersection mean it has attracted commercial interest too. One of Cattala's largest supermarket stores, Tesco Rene, can be found in the borough. Tesco once dominated the Cattalian urban market, after it was granted a trading licence in the 1990s to operate in the three metropolitan areas of Celeste, Jennai and Calora. However, it has seen its market share slide sharply after a series of ethical scandals and price disputes with local suppliers.



In efforts to shore up its business in Cattala, against rising local competition, they began building new homes and businesses on adjacent land to their stores, claiming to provide low cost housing for Jennai's poorest. This backfired when it emerged that Tesco's was making tidy profits off every sale.



Local rivals, such as Cooperativa, have taken over the market from Tesco. Multinational rivals such as Carrefour and Auchan have made efforts to muscle in on Tesco's downwards spiral, but failed to gain licenses after public campaigns to stop the multinationals forcing out local suppliers and shops became mainstream. This small convenience store in Rene is an example of their efforts; it is a joint venture between Carrefour and Cattalian chain Rammoza. These ventures are highly restricted and limited only to Jennai and Calora.



The general public have been suspicious of supermarkets since the Tesco scandal began in 2004. Efforts by regional governments to loosen the laws have been met with fierce opposition, even in cities. Rene is an example used by the anti-supermarket campaigners. Since the Tesco opened, six local shops have closed and fifteen other stores have seen profits fall by at least 33%.



The last of our series of my most favourite updates is Elloria, in northern Jennai. This was one of my first opportunities to explore the woodland of rural Amosseri/Monte Calida/Jennai's borderlands, and also where I experimented with truly rural, undeveloped territory. I really like the result of this update and hope you did too. So, all ten pre-100 images are now done. That means one thing only - the next update, is the big one.



I hope you all enjoyed that insight into the reasoning behind the lack of supermarket chains in Cattala. As you've seen in past updates, there's a lot of local shops and Cooperativa alone has around 400 partner shops throughout the country. Tesco's now has just six stores in Cattala, down from a peak of 32, after losing its trading licenses in Amosseri, Lessito, Roumeli and Monte Calida. Monte Calida and Lessito provincial governments were scathing of Tesco after it attempted to create 50 local shops across the provinces, and were the first to revoke its licenses in 2003 after public protests in major towns and cities throughout the country.

Apologies about the lack of updates on this forum - things have been hectic of late, but I will be trying to catch Sim Mania up as soon as possible!

Welcome back to Cattala. After quite a while without updates we're back in Jennai, the financial hub of the nation. Now, I keep telling you that it's a super-big city, more than a million people, and the only place you'll see proper towers. But I haven't shown you any...

Until now! Welcome to Jennai Harbour, the city's central business district. Enjoy.



Over the past few weeks I have been doing some work on what is arguably the most audacious building project I've ever done. Jennai Harbour is the heartland of banking, trading, money as a whole, in the country. The biggest companies in Cattala are all based in this part of the city. So, let's have a look at the busy port by night.



Thank you for returning to Cattala. It's unfortunate that I may have two weeks off for Easter break, but actually my exams are just around the corner in May so I won't be able to do too many updates during this period. But rest assured Cattala will be back, sooner or later!

Thomas

Most impressive Thomas That mosaic is awesome!

Impressive work! I love the detail and the closeups, and the night pics are great.