The Black Sword's Tale: For the Kurious

[The Black Sword]

Glad you enjoy it Molach.

Yeah, old Financial might be hard to pass up. It actually would only make 9 base commerce right now, but then that goes through my 30/60 % commerce multipliers, then 25/75 % research multipliers, at least doubling it to 18. And that's with most of my commerce coming from a few high yield tiles and +1c rivers. I'm going to go on a cottaging spree in a bit and that 9 commerce would jump massively.

[The Black Sword]

Sent this back to HK:

Hail Flintheart,

It is good to hear from you again. You appear to be moving up in the world, I'm sure the 'Royal' tag is well deserved after your recent expansions. Alas, it is unfortunate to hear about the troubles with your nephew. I was under the impression that all dwarves were industrious and hard working sorts? Nonetheless, I think we may be able to assist you, Kwythellar is indeed full of myriad creatures and attractions, enough to hold the attention for many months.

However, Cardith tends to be a bit paranoid these days, complaining of scouts and spies on our borders. I've managed to convince him to take pity on your situation, but he insists that your nephew confines himself to Kwythellar and spends no extraneous time exploring the surrounding countryside or disturbing the locals. In addition, what knowledge of the Kuriotate lands he does gain must not be shared with any third parties upon his eventual return to Duckberg.

With respect to compensation, we confess to being a trifle curious about your capitalist faith. However we feel the voice of a missionary may be lost in the hubbub of our cities, a fully fledged priest would probably be necessary in order to have an impact on the Kuriotate culture. Would such a project be feasible?

TBS.

I don't think anybody has much visibility on my land at the moment and I'd like to keep it that way until the era of hawks and magic eyes. I'm not sure how much of an advantage it is, but I'd still like to keep it as much as possible. Asking for a Priest feels quite high to me, but I figured I might as well try. It's quite likely that they'll delay Priesthood for ages though. That said, even if they offered him for 30t from now, I think I'd still take it. Plus, they'd have to give something to whoever took their GM, then I should probably get a little extra for giving the best return.

His other offers don't excite me so much. A kilmorph missionary on his own is more useful to them than me tbh. The only time I want Kilmorph is during one of my golden ages, when I have 1 city spitting out Priests to be turned into temples. I'll get the 1 missionary I need by teching WotE and another converted city won't even get me the 1gpt when I'm not in RoK. I do need copper, but BW is likely to be my next tech after Stirrups. I'd like something a bit more concrete than a few extra turns of peace of mind. I don't like temporary happy resources, so the Ivory wouldn't interest me much, plus I want to get my own source. Finally, his mana isn't great, since I want some metamagic anyway for floating eyes. So Law mana isn't much use when I need Divination for the ToD anyway and neither is temporary earth mana. I'd have to hope he improves a more useful source.

Hoping for a turn tonight ...

[The Black Sword]

It looks like Karai may have some company after all.



Being currently diseased, that goblin presents quite a problem for her, so I didn't start exploring the dungeon yet in case the goblin moves in that direction. I could have sent Donatello to deal with the goblin, but I prefer to investigate the dunegeon further south. I think I'm more at risk of losing that one. I guess I'll send Venus to go protect Karai, let the girls stick together. All these goblins are rather annoying, by the time my units have healed the poison for one, another pops up. I'd prefer my turtles to be hunting for animals and elves. I want a better return than 2 tigers and a scorpion from them.

I expected the adaptive change this turn btw, but I guess it must be next turn instead. That's fine with me though, since I get another 6 free gpp in Naggarond. I'll only need 1 turn outside Philo to finish the scientist now.

In the north, WK settled a new city:



Stealing my ivory! It's not so bad though, because I got a couple of trade offers as well.

TBS,

All of your terms are sensible and agreeable to us. The only wrinkle is this: we're going to need get rid of this lad fairly soon, but we don't expect to have any priests of Kilmorph for some time yet. But if you're willing to do business on credit, I can promise you that the first priest who comes out will head straight to Kwythellar, or whereever you think he'll do the most good.

On an unrelated note, it would seem that we've finally got ourselves a trade connection (through the Grigori, I guess). If I recall correctly, you've got no source of Ivory. We expect to have several sources soon, and would be happy to trade for either Fine Clothes or Furs.

Finally, we're thinking of getting into the mapmaking business. How would you feel about opening up our borders to trade? With the caveat that it would be only for trade: the Khazad will certainly respect your desire for privacy, as I'm sure you can respect ours.


Flintheart Glomgold, Founder and CFO of the Royal Khazad Mining Corporation

Actually, the trade route is because I just finished researching Sailing. I think I'll let him know that, he can figure out that it is reasonably likely, seeing fish on my resource list and me finishing the Heron Throne next turn. Maybe it makes up a bit for me not researching Cartography. I should probably ask for a rough estimate on the Priest as well, even delayed though, I think it's the most useful thing I can get off them. Perhaps for them it will be relatively cheaper than a missionary now by the time they get around to building it. However it turns out someone else wants my trade routes too:

Hey,

With our borders touching, all we need to do is build a few roads in order to open up resource trading. Not that you seem to be in any need of extra happy. Trade routes would also be quite nice for us both. Do you have any plans to get cartography in the near future?

I also wanted to touch base with you re. our borders. I'm sure Raphael saw some roads to nowhere. I'll be settling a city by the rice/gems shortly, which is as far north and west as I'm planning to go.

All the best,
Jalepeno

Unfortunately, for both them, I don't really want to trade with my main competitors. Actually, it's a bit interesting that they want to trade with me, since I'm doing so well. Though I guess my trade routes are worth more than anybody else's and I have some resources no-one else does. Anyway, my response is to try get these deals with my third possible trade partner.

Hi WK,

Congratulations on settling your latest city. I had hopes of a settlement there eventually myself, but I'm sure you'll use the area a bit more productively.

I've had some correspondence with both the Khazad and the Calabim recently about some trade opportunities and I wanted to shop around before I agreed to anything. I am a bit worried by the expansion of those two, so I would prefer to trade with someone else if possible.

There are 3 points I'm currently considering: open border trade routes, a source of ivory and a temporary source of copper.

With regard to the ivory, after your recent city I don't see any easily acquirable resources near my borders. If you had a second source would you be willing to trade for some Fine Clothes? If not, I have already received an offer from the Khazad, perhaps you would be willing to make the deal anyway to limit their happiness?

I'm also on the look out for a copper source. Unfortunately, my subjects are too worried about dirtying their beautiful clothes, we still don't have Bronze Working! I'm not too worried about this, our military is still quite effective, but some extra peace of mind is always nice. You wouldn't happen to have an extra source of copper? I could offer a temporary happiness resource(thinking ~20t) or a mana loan. I'd be open to any other ideas you had also.

Finally, the open borders; I don't have plans of researching Cartography myself any time soon unfortunately, so this would only make sense if you are planning on it in the near future. Tied into this deal I think, would have to be a map swap to maximise available trade routes. I have done a lot of exploring and I think my map could be useful. I'd like to limit the number of people I give my map to and I don't think I'd need more than one trading partner, so I'm unlikely to switch from the first person I make this agreement with.

Let me know if any of these are of interest.

TBS.

I should have asked him about marble as well, wouldn't mind some multipliers on the epics. My preferred trading partner probably goes WK -> HK -> jalapeno. I don't really want to build a road for raiders to use. I'm not really bothered trying to construct a road to Yell0w or Sian either. I'll try delay responses to those two until WK gets back to me.

I'm also not too happy about jalapeno settling that excellent jungle site, but there's not much I can do really. If he is ok with that as his most western city, I'll be happy enough. I should probably get out a few more settlers from Kwythellar soon to pick up the land I want. It is hard to prioritise them though when their main purpose is just to hinder my competitors.

Finally, the most important news of T70 happened after I ended turn:



Jackpot! That clearly solidifies the Avelorn location as the best choice IMO, even if it is taking so long to get off the ground. I had a good hunch that there would be pearls there, since the lake looked a bit bare on a map brimming with resources.

[The Black Sword]

Well, turn 71 took a while in coming, but the Kuriotate empire had a very productive turn. Of the 3 cities:
Kwythellar: completed The Great Library.
Avelorn: completed The Heron Throne.
Naggarond: completed a Great Scientist(and grew).

If only all turns were that good .

First thing though, we switch to Organised as planned:


With Sailing discovered, I have trade routes with both the Khazad and the Grigori, let's see what they have...


The crab is the only thing I might want long term. There are crab options to my south, but it will be hard to get a workboat over there.
In other international news, jalapeno settled a new city to put him on par with the Khazad. It looks like it was the city by the lake on his border with Yell0w. His power graph also spiked a bit over the last 2 turns, looks like 2 Moroi maybe? I'll watch out, but I should still have plenty of warning if he tries anything. Yell0w also turned his research back on, for some sick GNP. I'm not too worried though, I'd thought about what my golden age GNP is going to look like, I think Yell0w will be impressed. Demos:

(research turned off btw).

In the south, Donatello got sidetracked on his dungeon quest.

That's a combat 2 tiger, must be the one who killed Leonardo. We'll put him in a carnival cage, Revenge!
Unfortunately, he didn't want to go quietly, Donatello is down to ~1.8 health IIRC. Will take quite a while to heal for the dunegon.
You can also see(barely) the goblin chasing Karai. I attached the General to Venus and sent her over to help. Apparently detaching Great Commanders give them new names btw, his new name is Averax the Cambionne. I somehow forgot to give Venus her poisoned weapons though.

I do have one other city:

I finally got the cottage online at Karond Kar. I'm working a few plains cottages at Avelorn also, because I need to delay growth a bit until I have wine. It also has so many useful buildings to get through: Lighthouse, Courthouse, Tailor, workboat, harbour, some more hammers won't hurt.

In light of recent developments, I had a look at my settlement plan. The north:

There are 4 possible goals with the settlements:
1. Claim new resources
2. Make sure people don't settle up on me and take my current resources.
3. Push out my borders for more of a cushion in case of war.
4. Take land so others cannot.

The mana settlement fulfils #1. I definitely need this. The one to the west gets horses and protects the mana. To the east, more horses and #4 against jalapeno. I'm not sure how necessary the second two are. I'll probably want one, eventually, for the bonus on Ride of the Nine Kings, but that can wait. Jalapeno said he wasn't settling further west and if anybody settles up on me for the mana, well that's a declaration of war in my book. So, I haven't decided there, definitely low priority anyway. All 3 could work cottages for Kwythellar.

I'm also wondering if I should settle something to protect that rice a bit better, but it will be second ring in the mana settlement and again, WK would have to settle up on me. I don't think I want anything further north, sandwiched between two civs. I'd prefer to give the Grigori and Calabim a border.

The south:

I have to finish mapping this out, but here, I think I'll be more aggressive. I'm thinking of spamming out a few settlers, backed up by mobile centaurs/hunters and grabbing a lot of this area. At the least, each city will get a free crusader for defence . I hope I can go as far south as to get that mana node in a first ring city. I can also use the whales, sending a workboat through the settlement on that dungeon. I am also wondering whether I should move that city further east to get both mana first ring, that would make it a lot harder to defend from jalapeno though.

I need to scout out the western land quickly, but hopefully I can settle in a decent defensible formation and block off a lot of land from WK. With regard to resources, getting multiple copies is quite handy I think because they're worth so much to me. It will make it harder for people to pillage them. Additionally, mana nodes are always good, if nothing else, I can build another Enchantment node for happiness.

[The Black Sword]

Diplo dump time.

Hey TBS,

I can see where your coming from, as the Khazad and Calabim are growing at an alarming rate. Sadly for the two of us, I seem to have missed the growth curve and you've already hit your max city count, so I can certainly see why you'd look elsewhere first, not to mention I'm always open to new trade possibilities.

However, I regret to inform you that I cannot supply you with anything you seek at this time. I do not have a surplus source of Ivory or Copper to trade, nor do I have plans or even the means to research Cartography anytime soon. Since your GNP is so good, I'd presume you'd have the means, but I guess if you don't plan to get it anytime soon either then that just proves that it's a tech everyone wants someone else to get huh? That said, once one of us does eventually get Cartography, I'd be happy to discuss OB/Map trade possibilities with you. As for the resources, It's possible I have a spare somewhere nearby as my scouting has been limited by barbs (a problem that I am working on fixing at this very moment) but I cannot promise anything in the time frame your probably expecting.

Regards,
WK

That's unfortunate. I considered researching Carto myself, but the dwarves will only get 3 trade routes from me that will be better than any other civ. That will be maybe 6cpt? Carto is then 200b that gives me no extra bonus.
Btw, WK settled another city this turn, so maybe not quite as far behind as I thought. There's also no information in the event log about him changing trait. When I hover over his name it still says Philo/Org. Does anyone know if this is correct? Not that it's a bad choice, I picked Org too after all. I was wondering if he might try that Arcane/Char trick for his mages. With appropriate Ardour use he could then pick up 4 heroic, arcane, charismatic, archmages. Seemed like a fun Grigori thing to do.

Anyway, with that shot down, I replied to the Khazad and Calabim.

Flintheart,

Do you have any rough estimate on this priest? It's not something we have to sign our names to and I'm happy even if it is some time away but if we were talking 100 turns here, I might prefer something else. Otherwise everything sounds good to me.

Regarding the trade route, our merchants recently discovered how to build boxes which float, it seems they wasted no time sending an expedition to your renowned corporation. Whenever you acquire the necessary Ivory sources, we would be glad to offer Fine Clothes in exchange. It appears unlikely that we will acquire another source in the foreseeable future.

With respect to an open borders agreement, I think this would have to be paired with a map trade also, for both parties to maximise the available trade opportunities. Is this in line with your thinking? We would welcome such a deal as well.

TBS.

I've decided to just drop the whole copper thing. In the event of a war I can beg/borrow/research BW. It would only take 2 turns and Legend borders gives a lot of notice.

Hi jalapeno,

I'd need to check in game again the most efficient method of setting up a trade route between us, worker turns are, as ever, at a premium. The idea sounds good to me though. However cartography is still not on my radar at the moment. Additionally, I have recently been approached by the Khazad in this respect, who plan to research cartography themselves. Assuming that goes ahead, I probably don't need more than one set of open border trade routes.

Thanks for letting me know about the city there. Raphael was a bit bemused by the road. Also, I don't think I said anything at the time, but I appreciated your city in the south staying clear of my borders. Thankfully there was no need for unproductive military build ups.

TBS.

Ok, let me know how negotiations with the Khazad go. I might be willing to chip in an extra resource to make trade routes with me worth your while, but I won't be grabbing carto for a little bit (at least 5 turns, more if I don't have anyone to trade with).

One other thing: has Yell0w approached you about attacking me? He's got ~5 warriors and scouts moving in, well, interesting directions. My moroi are practically drooling. It's probably just a big misunderstanding, but I would be very grateful for any intelligence you could give.

Congrats on TGL and heron throne btw. Very nice.

Best,
Jalepeno

Interesting stuff about Yell0w. Here's the power graph:

Er, I don't like the look of that. 3 Moroi maybe? Before, when he wasn't building military I was complaining of farmers gambits, now that he is, I think I preferred it the old way. I thought the Yell0w war was just an excuse to move through borders, it's possible he's just telling me this to cover his build up. I'll fish for some more info anyway. I should probably get Yell0w's side too, though his power graph isn't moving much and last time I saw, he still didn't have BW.

My golden age is set for 5t from now, enough time for Avelorn to get a LH, WB and Tailor done. Unfortunately I don't have any military builds, besides a mage, planned in either of the other cities until then either.. I researched Archery this turn though, I assume that will show a small power jump. Next then is HBR and Trade, for emergency Centaurs and another power increase. I should also flash my poison weapon equipped Hunters as a deterrent.

My GS created an Academy in Naggarond, it's coming along quite nicely now:

You can see a couple more ancient forest growths.

Kwythellar is building the National Epic followed by the mage.

Yell0w's golden age finally ended, and with me having double pre-reqs on Archery, my GNP shot into the lead, though I'm still a fair bit ahead on normal research too.

[Merovech]

Nice updates! Well-reported Kurioate games are always interesting to lurk, imo.

[The Black Sword]

Thanks.

I was going to skip a turn report here, but it looks like the save is taking it's time coming back around. This turn was mostly diplo though. I don't think I've handled these too well tbh.

First, quick reply to WK:

Hi WK,

Seems you're working on that growth curve at least.

It's unfortunate that we can't come to some agreement, I guess you're right about Cartography. Looking at the number of Khazad cities, they'll probably want trade routes with both of us to fill them all out in any case.

If you have any trade ideas in the future, let me know.

TBS.

I think I accepted the Khazad's Ivory deal too quickly here, should have pushed harder with WK. Even a 2 for 1 happiness trade between us has the same effect(+1 happy each) as my proposed deal with HK, except that I'd much prefer it with the grigori. Maybe I should still try sort something like this out, but there are a few(not very strong) reasons not to, and I don't like backing out after agreeing to something. The Khazad would still have a spare Ivory, and WK at least would be missing one at this stage, so it's quite possible they'd get their extra happiness anyway, and all I'd have done is improved WK's position. And his position is not that far gone tbh, he settled another city last turn, so he has 6, the Khazad 7 and jalapeno 8. Adventurers are always dangerous if he can just get to a good military tech.

Jalapeno:

Hey,

Well, we can possibly revisit the possibility of open borders if you do get cartography. I've pretty much agreed to open borders with the Khazad at the moment, they haven't given me an eta but it sounds like it will be soon.

I haven't heard from Yell0w recently, so if he's trying something, it's not with my troops. Did anything of note happen in your previous war? I thought it was just for passing through borders or something like that.

TBS.

So, hypothetically speaking, if I got cartography in 2 turns and offered sugar in exchange for open borders...? Obviously I've already played T73, so I'd be offering OB on T76.

Turns out it was just coincidence that Yell0w was threatening 4 of my workers at once...so nothing more serious than a lot of screwed up micro. He's got a reputation for being aggressive which is why I'm a bit paranoid.

Best,
Jalepeno

The answer would still probably be no I'm afraid, though the early offer is tempting. I'll ask the Khazad for an eta, and if it's too far out I'll get back to you.

I have agreed to a separate deal with HK, where he wants to send a trade mission to Kwythellar. This means he's going to get some view of my lands anyway. As I see open borders and a map trade being tied up together, and I'd prefer to limit the number of people with a map of my land, this makes him my preferred open borders partner. Additionally, having already agreed to the deal(admittedly under the assumption that you were going to bypass Cartography for a while), I'm reluctant to go back out on it now.

I'm afraid I already have sugar, and indeed most resources, so it's hard to spice the deal up that way. Ivory is the only main resource(I think) that I'm missing.

Please don't let HK know I told you about the trade mission btw, though it's not a secret. I felt I should explain why I was taking his offer instead.

Oh, and paranoia is very underrated IMO.

TBS.

And, thinking about things again, I might be in need of a second set of trade routes myself. Yeah, I only have 3 cities, but I'm about to research trade(+1), whereupon I can build Inns(+1) and revolt to foreign trade(+1). In addition, Avelorn will get a further +1 for the lighthouse and +1 for foreign trade, for a total of potentially 14 trade routes. The Khazad only have 7 cities. I really should have thought of this earlier, left it in as a possibility of future co-operation. I'm also very honest about my reasoning for wanting to trade with the Khazad, and I'm sure he can read between the lines for my other reason: raiders calabim who are coming up to vampires soon are one of the last people I want to have a map of my land, however good our relationship so far.

And the Khazad:

Hi Flintheart,

All that sounds good to me; the priest, the road, the confidentiality agreement. I'll finish the road into the forest, feel free to offer any of those deals when they become available and send your nephew this way when he completes his preparations.

Glad to do business with you.

TBS.

TBS,

Excellent. We should have the Ivory ready on turn 76, and our mapmaking business should be underway soon afer that. Meanwhile, the chairman's son-in-law should set out for your territory in a couple of turns. Since we won't have an opportunity to trade maps before then, perhaps you could recommend a quick route to Kwythellar? We wouldn't want the poor lad getting lost.

On an unrelated note, we've heard rumors that the Calabim might be starting to build themselves an army. Any idea if there's truth to that, or what their intentions are?

Flintheart,

The quickest route to Kwythellar will probably be along the forest road though our wine fields. Your party can continue along it until you get to the dry hill, from it's peak you can see Kwythellar's tallest buildings in the distance. The lad can then head north east to visit the incense fields before following the river east to arrive at the gates of our fair city.

How fast are your map-makers progressing btw? The Calabim emissary has been touting the experience of his own countrymen here, suggesting they could have a map in readiness for T76. I've put him off for the moment, but I'm afraid the annual review would have my head if I didn't get a quote from you too.

Our contacts have reported an increase in the Calabim standing army also. Some tensions with the monks have been cited as the official reason, though their emissary claims this is all in the past now. We are a bit on edge over here, however our generals assure us we have sufficient defenses in place for the moment.

TBS.

I figured I might as well use the Calabim message to try get an earlier Cartography here. Each turn after Trade is probably worth at least 6c, which then goes through my multipliers. As mentioned I'm not too happy with the Ivory deal, but I'll go through with it for at least the first 10 turns and maybe look at my options then.

Some pictures:


The southern military situation. The goblin turned around for some reason, so Karai did the same in a weird game of musical chairs. Venus will still head over there, Raphael is the Hunter to the west, who will get poisoned weapons next turn and go deal with the latest goblin incursion over there. Donatello and Michelangelo are healing. In addition to Michelangelo I have a Foot Soldier and a Tiger in Avelorn, but the lake provides a nice defensive barrier to be honest.

The Calabim's latest city:

I thought it would be settled 1N for the corn, but I guess he has nothing working the horses yet either.

[The Black Sword]

During that long wait, and seeing lurker thread posts, I was feeling a little paranoid about the Calabim's rising power. I was going to slip in some pre-golden age military builds but looking at it again I'm safe enough I think. I'm going to keep 4 units; Konnond, a tiger, a foot soldier and a hunter in Avelorn and 2 units in each of the other cities. The other hunters will still be floating about. If a stack does pop up out of nowhere I can fire the golden age straight away and start 1 turning Centaurs everywhere.

That said, I am probably going to want to build some other units before I get Stirrups and my basic horse archers. In Kwythellar I'll be building a couple of adepts, but I also want to fit in some more Hunters so my opponents can't just take formation everywhere. S5 vs S6 is reasonable in places where the Centaur's extra mobility or withdrawal won't be useful. Elsewhere, just a few normal centaurs will be fine. I'll give them mobility and just use them for scouting purposes since Centaur archers will be superior at pretty much any other activity. I'll also try get a few shock promotions on my hunters, particularly Venus and Michelangelo, since that will counter the majority of the Calabim military.

The Calabim's borders expanded rather quickly in their latest city:

I think they must have gotten RoK and be using disciples to pop borders. I haven't being paying much attention to what other people are teching at the minute, since I'm about to get Trade and can figure it all out then.

The southern standoff:


The goblin has moved back, so I guess Venus will get to finish it. And the northern one:



I've been shuffling Kun around to defend Karond Kar with his Guerrilla promotion, since that is the most vulneruble city I have. I'm quite happy if the goblin suicides over the river, giving him another promo, when Raphael, the Hunter in the picture is on 5/10xp. That will save Rapahael a lot of healing time and he can resume his search for the elves.

Avelorn is finally coming good:

I decided to leave the workboat until after the tailor, which can actually be 3 turned. That will push the golden age forward a turn and hopefully the Ivory trade will make up the happiness issue, though I think I will have 1 turn unhappy because I'm after the Khazad in the turn order. I might have some unhappy during the golden age also, until I can hit Social Order, all 3 cities are coming up against their happy caps now.

Demos:

I think my time as foodhammer leader has passed. I'm going to really pull away in GNP though, since aristo-farm economies don't grow as much. I need to make sure that gold goes toward useful stuff. I have been considering doing break-even research to hide my GNP, but I'm about to get trade so people can track my progress pretty easily anyway.

Jalapeno's response:

Hey, thanks for your candor. I certainly understand your desire to keep map trades to a minimum. I have a 2nd ivory 1 tile outside my borders, but it will need another city to claim it. So it won't be available for trade for a while longer. Anyways, keep me in mind. A deal's a deal, but you never know what'll happen in negotiations.

Oh, and I won't mention the trade mission to HK regardless.

All the best,
Jalepeno

Sounds good, and the Khazad:

TBS,

Shouldn't be a problem to put a rush order on those maps. We can be ready to start doing business on turn 76 as well.

The lad is finished with his honeymoon, and we'll be sending him your way. You can expect to be seeing him along our borders in about three turns.

Awesome, going to get the T76 trade routes anyway!

[The Black Sword]

International news:

In addition, the Khazad founded another city. Yell0w is the only one on still on 4 cities btw, while the Khazad and Calabim are on 8. His GNP does look to be about 50% more though. Hard to see that being a winning combo unless he leverages a military advantage from those beakers. But I'm not sure what the Elohim will be close to that could efficiently kill swarms of defending bronze warriors.
With the overflow from HBR, Trade was 1 turned, so I'll be able to figure out where they all are on the tech tree next turn.

In domestic news, 2 goblins bit the dust:



Neither Hunter was injured much fortunately. And the Calabim power continues to grow:



Kwythellar came off two villages onto ancient forests to 1 turn the mage guild. I want the oasis sprung by the start of the golden age, also at this stage, saving a turn there means an extra unit for me since Kwythellar can 1 turn most things.



Naggarond completed a Smokehouse. It's probably worth mentioning, since no-one else is Expansive, I doubt Granaries and Smokehouses are the top of their agenda. I probably have a much higher food multiplier than anyone else. Maybe my food demos are still pretty good. On the other hand I do have more actual pop than anyone according to the victory screen, so my figure is also inflated from that.

My workers are mostly focused on getting lumbermills down at the minute, particularly riverside ones for the extra commerce. Too bad they won't be available until about half way through the golden age.

[The Black Sword]

I realised I made a mistake grabbing Trade last turn, I should have taken Festivals first so that jalapeno couldn't see that I hadn't researched it. Hopefully he isn't checking that screen every turn, I picked up Festivals this turn instead. The Carnival is of reasonable value, at least if I plan on leaving Social Order eventually. I had to bite into my event fund unfortunately, hopefully this won't be the turn of the engineer event.

Also, this is obviously how he managed to pop the borders in his latest city, not a religion.

Here's the tech screen:


It's interesting that everyone else seems to have gone a similar path, particularly with BW, Sanitation and Drama, while they've all ignored the Trade, Military Strategy routes. I suppose Trade vs Sanitation is due to cottage vs aristo economy. Military Strategy is a bit more suprising with all the Organised traits, but I think they're just not ready for Military mode yet.

Summary:

Khazad
Up: Drama, WotE, BW, Carto, Masonry, Sanitation (2400b)
Down: Sailing, HBR, Trade, Archery, Writing, Warfare, Philosophy, Military Strategy, KotE(3300b)

Calabim
Up: Drama, BW, Masonry, Sanitation, Construction(2200b)
Down: Fishing, Sailing, HBR, Trade, Archery, Mysticism, Warfare, Philosophy, Military Strategy, KotE(3300b)

Grigori
Up: BW(400b)
Down: Sailing, HBR, Trade, Hunting, Archery, Philosophy, Military Strategy, KotE(2900b)

Elohim
Up: BW, Masonry, Sanitation, Construction, Priesthood(2400b)
Down: Fishing, Sailing, HBR, Trade, Archery, Warfare, Military Strategy, KotE, Hunting(3100b)

It's likely I think that both the Elohim and the Grigori have some beakers invested in Drama as well, they just didn't want to finish it after the Bard was grabbed. Ignoring Drama has been great for me I think.

The most interesting thing is clearly the Elohim picking up Priesthood, for potent monks. That's S6, M3 units, only slightly worse my Centaur archers . That's the sort of thing that could make up for his city deficit but there aren't any showing up on his power graph yet. The Grigori don't look like they're doing great at all and, thankfully, the Calabim are still nowhere near Vampires.

I'm really happy with my position at the minute, that's ~1000b ahead and I reckon that could triple by the end of my golden age. My main worry is that people are going to start working against me on seeing my demos. Nobody has a military to dogpile me really at the moment, but I'm going to be building one for defense now anyway. I can likely easily get a military advantage over any single opponent but I'm not sure if slowing everything down for a fruitless war is a good move. Typical Kuriotate problem, can get ahead, but can't win.

Naggarond is starting Command Post and Heroic epic, Kwythellar finished a mage and Avelorn its tailor.

I offered OB and the map trade to the Khazad this turn, I hope they can improve the Ivory and offer that on theirs because Kwythellar is going to need the happiness.

Finally, Karai and the dungeon: Take 3.