[SPOILERS] Yossarian blames Caledorn

[Old Harry]

They could be swapping just to mess with you...

[YossarianLives]

Turn 28:

Yup, no new food by that copper. We can settle a city so it gets the corn plus copper, but our gold city is probably going to need that corn. Hmm...

Settler will complete in two more turns with another chop. Then we'll put a turn into the workboat before whipping it for one pop. After that, I think we'll grow on another quechua before switching to another worker. The quechua continues to move south. It'll have to avoid that bear. The score increases show that Ponies and Gladiators both grew this turn. According to the top 5 cities, they both reached size 4. This means that the tech that I had the Ponies down for on T25 must have actually been land + pop (growing to size 3). This means that they got 11 land tiles with their second-ring border pop, not 8 like I initially assumed. That makes more sense, meaning they took 10 turns to finish that tech they completed last turn. Power increase shows the 2k from the two pop growths, plus another 2k from someone completing a warrior somewhere. The population shows that someone settled their second city. Predictably, it was the Care Bears, who whipped their settler on T26.

The new turn started when I ended turn. I was going to go ahead and play it, but ran into a problem

I think we just backtrack with the scout here and try again next turn, right? I don't think it's worth it to risk it yet.

Here are the new demos:

Only one score increase, which was EggHeads growing to size 5.

[YossarianLives]

They could be swapping just to mess with you...

Lightning quick reply there, Old Harry! Yeah, writing the next turn report, I realized I gave them an extra tech back on T25. They got 13 points for 11 land tiles and a population increase, not 8 land tiles and a new tech. That means that their last tech was (probably) Animal Husbandry back on T17. As for the Gladiator's quick tech, I think they did swap earlier in the game. They took 18 turns to finish their first tech, but it came without any soldier points, so they probably researched most of BW before switching to something else. So they probably do have BW now.

[YossarianLives]

Still no response at all from the Gladiators, and I'm starting to get worried. So far they have split their EP evenly between us and another team, but when I finished playing the turn I noticed they adjusted their spending last turn.

They stopped spending against us! That's got to be a good sign, right?

I moved the scout SW. We can try NE-E next turn. Or we could go SW-W and try to swing south. What's better, scouting east or south?

[YossarianLives]

Where do we want to go with the scout? Explore east, south of the Gladiator capital, circle back up north of the Gladiators, or head west and then south?

[Old Harry]

I'd guess south will give you the soonest next contact, while east makes circumnavigation possible...

[YossarianLives]

Turn 30:

We completed sailing and have started researching TW=>Pottery. I desperately want to improve our animals, but I think Pottery for the cultural Terraces is more important right now. Cottages are also vital for our economy. The Settler will finish next turn with the chop it got this turn. Then we'll put a turn into the workboat before whipping / chopping it to completion, which will give us 27 overflow into another Worker. I'm not sure if it'll be better to Mine the plains hill or finish farming the river tile north of the corn next. I'm slightly leaning towards the farm, since we already have a mine there, but at the same time we'll probably cottage over that farm tile pretty soon, so is it worth bothering to finish it at all?

Cal and I chatted a bit and decided to send Moiraine south to look for more neighbors.

This will also help barb-bust the area for our settler.

We got graphs on GG!

I included the culture graph to show that they revolted to slavery last turn. Their settler is either en route or about to be whipped, so let's keep an eye on that. Also, I didn't get a picture of it, but I'm pretty sure they put 2 EP's back on us last turn. Not sure why they would switch off for just one turn, maybe they needed to do it to get the other team's graphs?

Demos and Top 5 cities:

[YossarianLives]

Let's take a closer look at the Power graph:

Using this and the other graphs / score changes, we now know exactly what the Gladiator's have been up to:

T00 - Settled cap with 8 land tiles, 1 water tile
T05 - Capital borders pop to second ring, add 9 more land tiles, 3 water tiles
T15 - Completed Worker, started Warrior
T18 - Finished their first tech, probably Agri
T22 - Cap grew to size 2
T24 - Finished their second tech, Hunting
T26 - Finished their first Warrior, Cap grew to size 3
T27 - Finished their third tech, BW
T28 - Cap grew to size 4, revolt to Slavery

[YossarianLives]

When I pay attention, I can answer my own questions. GG never took EPs off us, they just lost a turn of spending when they revolted to slavery.

[YossarianLives]

I obviously wasn't really looking at the other graphs earlier. Here is a (hopefully) better recap.

Let's take a closer look at the Power graph:

Using this and the other graphs / score changes, we now know exactly what the Gladiator's have been up to:

T00 - Settled cap with 8 land tiles, 1 water tile, start workboat working a 0-3-0 tile
T05 - Capital borders pop to second ring, add 9 more land tiles, 3 water tiles
T07 - Switch to 2-1-1(?) tile at 28/30
T08 - Finish workboat, start worker, working 5-0-2 tile
T18 - Finished their first tech, probably Agri, finished worker, started warrior
T22 - Cap grew to size 2, completed mine
T24 - Finished their second tech, Hunting
T26 - Finished their first Warrior, Cap grew to size 3, completed farm(?)
T27 - Finished their third tech, BW
T28 - Cap grew to size 4, revolt to Slavery

Edit: Also, they can't have a settler en route, since they've been growing quickly. So they'll probably be whipping it soon?