[SPOILER] PB37 Dark Savant tries not to be a blatant MP n00b

[Dark Savant]

• Krill: new technology that is very likely The Wheel, since he still didn't have it, he could really really use it now, and he took 7 turns to do it, about the right number
  

Actually, no, that sounds slow.  I only just noticed that has TWO mined silver sources at Animal Farm.  (Yeah, it's in one of the screenshots..)

So his capital move got him a size 7 capital that is already working 7 improved resources: 4 food, 1 copper, and 2 silver, and 5 of those are riverside for another silver mine's worth of commerce on top of THAT.  And he can already grow his capital to size 8, since that second silver mine is on the same river.

Ventessel is taking one for the team and slowing his snowball some with that early axeman, at least.

[ipecac]

I don't need to decide that until next turn, but I'm pretty sure I want an axe.

Keep in mind that copper barb units are bound to appear soon, and you don't want to be caught off guard.

[Dark Savant]

t53 rolled, and while I haven't had a chance to even log in, look what Krill is going to have to deal with:



Those two whips are probably units headed in Krill's direction.

I wonder if we're the only third party player who knows these details.

[Dark Savant]

Okay, I'm about to log in.  But before I do: why did Krill build a spear?  He had to know there were axes on the way.  Without graphs my best guess is that Ventessel doesn't have Animal Husbandry.

So does Ventessel actually have a chariot somewhere?  He could have pulled that off, researching Animal Husbandry quickly if he's got mined silver at Juneau.

[Dark Savant]

I'm going to start splitting up the turn reports, partly to avoid walls of text, and partly in an attempt to win the postcount war.  

Turn 53 (1880 BC) - Part 1

Krill has always been at peace with the Empire of Might and Magic.



In other news, CML built Stonehenge.

Here's a glimpse at what Ventessel is up to before I move the scout:



He's building a farm in a curious location -- that isn't within reach of Anchorage.  So that must be for Juneau.  (edit: I should have looked more closely, the border of Juneau is visible there.)
That means our scout can go around Anchorage without us having to declare a scouting war; Ventessel is unlikely to gank our scout for a bit of free XP; and his units can reach Krill faster.

Did I mention that Ventessel had a solitary axeman?  Not anymore, he doesn't:



Two axemen that I can see, and now I notice that axeman has been fortified there for a while, so Ventessel is definitely massing.

Ventessel's empire is now named after the White Walkers, so his axemen are some combation of Alaskan, the Others from north of the Wall, and the Wild Hunt from the Witcher 3.

I start to move the scout around Anchorage.  I don't expect the scout to uncover anything interesting for a while now.  No wildlings in sight, maybe the ice zombies killed them all?  

[Dark Savant]

Turn 53 (1880 BC) - Part 2

Okay, before I get into this, I noticed this turn that  Castle Ironfist was working a random tile for no reason I could see .  That lost us 4 hammers I was expecting to have.  I'm going to have to double-check city MM every city, every turn so this doesn't happen again.

Anyway, Gavagai's power graph shows no sign of an increase, and he now can see Krill's power graph spiking.  We also know that Gavagai does not know that this is a response to an attack by Ventessel.  And Gavagai withdrew the warrior on our border.

We now have reason to believe that Gavagai is concerned about a non-existent early attack by Krill, and that he has peaceful intentions towards us.  We do have enough hammers at Castleview to whip an axe on short notice, so I put Castleview back on maximum food and resume the granary build there; the plan is to whip it once it reaches size 3 in 3 turns.  (edit: wait, no it doesn't, I'll leave it on the axe for 1 more turn before I resume the granary.)

Harmondale completed its worker, named Bilba Labingi (Bilbo's Westron name).  The two workers at Harmondale connect it to the road network, and ... Harmondale doesn't get a trade route?  It does have copper online now, which is why I did that.

Coeurva's warriors both moved away from us, so Razanur can chop the forests at Sorpigal in peace, and I had the warrior who could cover him move into Castle Ironfist.  Yay, we have a garrison in our capital finally!

With no threat at Harmondale, I resumed the granary there.  I'm going to work max hammers there for 1 turn so I can potentially whip the granary once it crests 30 hammers in 2 turns.

Speaking of granaries, Castle Ironfist has one now, and it just started an axe.  Castle Ironfist is now on max food as well, so our production demographics rating has dropped through the floor.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 53 (1880BC) - Part 3

Our warrior on the western peninsula is going to chill on this tile:



That will guarantee that no barbs spawn there.  

Since our work boat is now definitely not going to be working any seafood any time soon, I'm going to rename it and all navy after sorceresses (which have a navigation bonus in the early Heroes of Might and Magic games).  Our work boat first appeared in Might and Magic V:



but she's more famous for appearing in Heroes of Might and Magic:



That's from the Shadow of Death campaign.  (I'd hate to play a long campaign with such terrible skills -- you're forced to use First Aid with Gem in that game, but Luck?  Learning?  Mysticism?  Those are just awful.)

Anyway, she finds that Coeurva's west has what looks to be a bunch of little islands:



Yeah, delaying Sailing looks like a bad idea on this map.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 53 (1880BC) - Part 4 (C&D)

Score movement since the last update:

• CML: +18 points for completing Stonehenge.
  
• Coeurva: +2 points for +1 pop.
  
• Gavagai: +6 points for controlling the first-ring tiles in Edirne for 20 turns.
  
• GermanJoey: +3 points for +1 pop in his second city (he still has only two cities, but they're size 7 and size 5!)
  
• Ventessel: -5 points for 2 -1 pop whips (last turn -- I'm fairly certain one of these is the axe that just appeared on the massing tile)
  

Also, CML and dtay don't appear to be in a turn split now, so I'm guessing their conflict has died down.  dtay's empire doesn't seem to be healthy even though he razed one of CML's cities.  He's currently last in score, though if he has a settler on the move that would explain it.

Neither Coeurva nor Gavagai is showing any soldier increase, as implied before.  Krill's power is spiking hard, of course.

A single land tile was claimed this turn.  I'm not sure how that happened.

[Dark Savant]

Also, I don't think Ventessel noticed that Animal Farm's just-expanded border lets Krill see his massing tile.  

[ipecac]

Krill, Gavagai and Ventessel arming up is one classic MP phenomenon, a variation on prisoner's dilemma. One person arming up causes the rest to also invest resources into military, while other civs that run minimal military have faster growth.