[Spoiler] First rodeo: Jalepeno takes the bull by the horns.

[jalepeno]

Turn 73

Turn opened with a new tech.

Tech is now set on HBR while saving gold.

One of my exploring bloodpets finds an interesting intersection of international borders.

Glad I'm not the only one with close borders. This will make dogpiling easier. That's both good and bad.

And then it's time for city #8.

It's a great spot that's going to take a lot of worker love to clear its jungle. popping borders first for security purposes.

In the south, Yell0w insisted on going forward with popping the dungeon.

Hmmm, at end of turn I was at 1/5 culture. I'll work the ivory the next two turns, popping borders at the end of the 2nd one (turn 75). Will my borders pop in time to bump his scout out of the way. I think they should: next turn the scout will say 2 turns, my culture EOT 3/5. turn after it says 1 turn remaining, but my culture pops EOT kicking him out ....right?

Demos

Saving gold makes me look really ugly in GNP. But in truth, I'm only mostly ugly in GNP.

[Qgqqqqq]

Are you before or after Yell0w in turn order?
If after, I think he'll be able to get it first. Maybe cover the nothern tiles to stop a BigBad popping in our face?
I think we should set a bloodpet that way exploring, to see how close he iss.

[jalepeno]

Are you before or after Yell0w in turn order?
If after, I think he'll be able to get it first. Maybe cover the nothern tiles to stop a BigBad popping in our face?
I think we should set a bloodpet that way exploring, to see how close he iss.

After. Hmmm, it'd be much better for the city to work corn instead of the ivory next turn (grows either way, but growth to 3 is faster), so I guess I'd better run a test to see if its possible to stop the dungeon pop. If no, I can't cover all the tiles in time, so I'll just cover the corn. A visible bigbad won't be awful since I've got plenty of muscle in the area. And besides, that'd let me pop it later...

I think I'll send the BP currently on the corn down to the plains hill where his forces are camped out. That should give me good vision, and be pretty safe besides since his troops will be fortified.

[Qgqqqqq]

Why are we saving on HBR?

[jalepeno]

Why are we saving on HBR?

Down to our last 100 gold and I'm trying to keep the event fund stocked. Actually, I'm debating whether or not to leave tech off until our academy goes up (9 turns). That would let us really power tech through to vampires. None of our next techs are all that urgent. As for why HBR, it's next on the vamp beeline (HBR->trade->feudalism).

I'm seriously considering grabbing warfare before trade though: I could quickly build the NE and run two specialists in Collaboration (+6 GPP specialists, +1 NE = 7, doubled = 14 GPP/turn). Great person finishes 10 turns after NE finishes, i.e. about when feudalism comes in. Kickoff a golden age, switch civic to military state for total +25% unit production, and quick-build a vampire army.

[Qgqqqqq]

Oh, forgot about the event fund. How many beakers is warfare/how long would the epic take to build?

[jalepeno]

Oh, forgot about the event fund. How many beakers is warfare/how long would the epic take to build?

Warfare is 320b (~1.5 turns at 100%). NE would be a 5 turn build in Collaboration if I can get a little (~15) overflow. HBR, trade, Feudalism is 13 turns at max tech, so the timing is close enough.

[jalepeno]

Turn 75
(Turn 74 skipped)

It's been a few days as I've been busy moving back to the states. Once classes start back up (1 week) I won't be able to update as frequently as I did over the summer. C&D will definitely take a hit as well. Anyways, on to what's happening.

Exploring:

Bummer.


Had a shot at the worker, but just not worth the enmity at this point in the game. Hope I can find my way out of here.

Exploring of a different kind:

Here's the status of Yell0w's dungeon explorer when I opened the save.


Which enabled me to kick him out of my borders.


I'm pretty sure what happened here is that dungeons don't open until the beginning of the 4th turn rather than the end of the 3rd (lurkers, feel free to correct me if wrong). Probably to prevent a bad result from eating your explorer before you've had a chance to run away. So even though he's explored the dungeon for 3 turns, I'm able to stop him before he gets the result. Working ivory over corn for a turn to do this slowed growth to size 3 by a turn, but I think it's worth it. Off-topic: fish city becomes fishies city.

City #9 will be ready to found soon.

Next turn the settler and bloodpets will move to "Border-wheat" and the moroi will cover the workers as they road incense. T77 city is settled and the workers get start farming the wheat. Costs are skyrocketing right now, but the addition of wheat (brewery finishes soon) should pay for the city nicely.

Demos:

[Qgqqqqq]

Don't fret about not updating, its been fantastic thus far, but real life comes first.
Pity on the dungeon, suppose the grave might've been better after all. If he does get stuck, do you think it's best to delete for the savings or sit around for the intelligence?
that's an awesome result on the dungeon. We'd probably better tell them it wasn't intentional, though us not having a unit ready points to that anyway. Good luck on the fishies too, though we'll need fishing for that too.
Looks good on the city, anyone else matching that expansion? We should probably be on the lookout for anyone trying to hit us for that, fortunate that we're bordered by the unaggressive Yell0w and sprawling TBS. Biggest worry is a big sucker punch from TBS - do you think the hunters could be waiting for a massed upgrade too chariots and/or centaurs? (Probably not, maybe not even possible, but best too be cautious).

[jalepeno]

Don't fret about not updating, its been fantastic thus far, but real life comes first.
Pity on the dungeon, suppose the grave might've been better after all. If he does get stuck, do you think it's best to delete for the savings or sit around for the intelligence?

*shrug* I'm guessing HK popped it on his way through 15-20 turns ago. Unit costs are reaching 20gpt, so i'll probably delete anyone who gets trapped.

that's an awesome result on the dungeon. We'd probably better tell them it wasn't intentional, though us not having a unit ready points to that anyway. Good luck on the fishies too, though we'll need fishing for that too.

I warned him about my borders before he started exploring it, so yeah, he doesn't have much to complain about. There's a kill stack almost fully formed in Stratus, so it might be a bit before I pop it myself.

Looks good on the city, anyone else matching that expansion? We should probably be on the lookout for anyone trying to hit us for that, fortunate that we're bordered by the unaggressive Yell0w and sprawling TBS. Biggest worry is a big sucker punch from TBS - do you think the hunters could be waiting for a massed upgrade too chariots and/or centaurs? (Probably not, maybe not even possible, but best too be cautious).

HK also has 8 cities (WK has 6, Sian 5?, Yell0w 4, TBS 3+1 settlement). Agreed that a surprise attack by TBS is the biggest threat. Can't upgrade hunters that way, so it would have to be in the form of building centaurs/centaur lancers (chariot replacement), so I should be able to see it coming. His mobility would be really hard to stop.

My border placements might piss Yell0w off a bit, but I'm not the one who's worried...

Do I have to be concerned about your recent military build up?

told him it was for the barb kill stack, but maybe I should have kept quiet for a little while