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

[Dark Savant]

In C&D activity of an altogether different kind:



I mean, we know perfectly well what just started there, but I wonder if other people can guess that.



Krill has always been at war with the White Walkers.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 62 (1520 BC) - Part 4 (C&D)

Score tally:

• JR4: +3 points for planting city #5 this turn, which may claim the full 9 new tiles in first-ring (there was +9000 land area between the last two demographics screenshots I have, but that includes the interturn); -5 points for 2 -1 pop whips (12 pop total)
  
• Krill: -2 points for a -1 pop whip in Wigan Pier (14 pop total); +6 points for  another technology researched in just 4 turns .    No, that isn't a land area increase, Krill is due for that next turn not this one.  As previously noted, Krill isn't whipping either Animal Farm or Room 101.
  
• Ventessel: +5 points for +2 pop (7 pop total).  Yeah, that two pop still leaves him at half Krill's. 
  

Ventessel has the second half of the turn split in his war.  No blood has been shed yet.  They've both already ended turn.


Gavagai probably built a chariot or spear last turn.  He also got +1000 power from an even-numbered pop point last turn.  No barracks or indeed any building (other than the palace) in either of his first two cities.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 62 (1520 BC) - Part 5 (C&D cont'd)

Add the following to the above:

• GermanJoey: +2 points for planting city #5, named Yellow Maple, that claims 8 new land tiles (13 pop total).  It isn't within visual range.
  

We're now behind the curve in number of cities, but we'll plant city #5 on t64, and we do already have 3 barracks, 3 granaries, and circumnavigation, so I don't think we're really behind.  It's a reminder to keep land grabbing, though!

[Dark Savant]

Turn 63 (1480 BC) - Part 1

No screenshots this turn; I was the turn roll player (that turn was quick!), did not want to hold things up, and nothing earth-shattering happened this turn.  Well, to us, at least.  

Sailing is due in 3 turns.

I start moving our distant scouts around GermanJoey's land.  We're already approaching his capital, so I move Sandro northwest rather than northeast since I'll almost certainly hit his capital and water walling off further progress otherwise.

Castle Ironfist completes its whipped settler and starts on a barracks, which will complete precisely in 1 turn with the help of the whip overflow.  It's set to maximum food since it's now just size 3.  No barbarians show up near yellow dot, so we're due to plant city #5 next turn as scheduled.

Harmondale grows and already is on the brink of unhappiness again.  I slow down its growth (we're still working nothing but improved tiles: 2 cows, horse, grassland river cottage), and then it will build a worker and then it will have fewer issues with happiness.  I'm going to have the nearby worker help chop out the worker.

The workers at Castleview that built the silver mine both move onto the bare grassland hill.  We need production and improved tiles there ASAP.  We are actually close to completing the spear naturally there; I'd prefer to save that for overflow if I can help it, so I plan to start a worker next turn, 2-pop-whip it the next, and have the overflow go into a lighthouse.  We will have Sailing in time for this, thankfully.

Coeurva's warriors are finally now completely out of sight.  I suppose maybe he can feel we've got our first chariot coming out soon.  Gavagai also has nothing but his defensive archer on our border.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 63 (1480 BC) - Part 2 (C&D)

Score tally:

• Coeurva: +2 points for +1 pop; -5 points for a -2 pop whip (13 pop total).
  
• dtay: +2 points for a new city planted at the end of last turn; +3 points for +1 pop (12 pop total).
  
• Gavagai: +6 points for Writing (10 techs total); we can now trade maps with him too.
  
• GermanJoey: +2 points for +1 pop in his capital State of Yue (14 pop total).
  
• JR4: +2 points for +1 pop (13 pop total); +6 points for a technology that I strongly suspect is Animal Husbandry (11 techs total).
  
• Krill: +10 points for 7 land tiles held by Room 101 for 20 turns; +2 points for +1 pop in Wigan Pier; -5 points for 2 -1 pop whips (13 pop total).  I thought this was Animal Farm and Room 101 at first, but now that it's t64 I'm not quite sure.
  

For comparison: we have 13 pop (leader: Gavagai with 15) and 8 techs (leaders: JR4 and Krill, both with 11).

edit: dtay's new city plus the expansion of Gavagai's city #4 Bursa 5 turns ago claim a total of 12 land tiles.


No serious bloodshed yet in the war between Krill and the White Walkers.  They apparently both built 1 axe each last turn, and now Krill is starting to whip.  

[Dark Savant]

Turn 63 (1480 BC) - Part 3 (C&D cont'd)

Krill is now also putting espionage into us; we are now a popular target for EP, as now everyone we have contact with other than Coeurva is putting points into us.  I'm going to choose to interpret this as a sign of non-aggression from Coeurva.

I'm going to have to watch carefully so we don't lose graphs on anyone; putting points into GermanJoey probably isn't going to happen for a while.  I don't think anyone has hostile intentions, really; it's more like "well, what else am I going to do with these?"

[Dark Savant]

Turn 64 (1440 BC) - Part 1

When the turn rolls, I get an offer from Gavagai to trade world maps.

I do want to convey the information that he really needs to go after Krill, but I decline for now -- he would learn a lot more in the deal than we would, and there's a good chance he knows to go after Krill anyway.  Let me know if you do want to trade maps, but you seem to be even more against it than I am.

We have that solitary axe in the border city, but I do not want to show any more axes or chariots there if I can help it; we do want a couple of spears there, though.

It looks like Sandro can inch his way through some of GermanJoey's territory:



You can see the southern borders of his capital State of Yue to Sandro's northeast.  State of Yue is exactly 6 east and 14 north of Ventessel's capital Anchorage, as expected.

Our second work boat Astra finds is finding some pig-tastic islands:



Mmm, pork with a side of venison.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 64 (1440 BC) - Part 2

War between Krill and the White Walkers Update

... brought to you faster than George RR Martin!  

Krill has ended his turn, but Ventessel has yet to play.  Before Krill played:



After Krill played:



Krill also whipped 2 pop this turn.   I would have said it was a 2 pop whip, but his two visible cities still have 6 and 3 pop respectively.

Anyway, those numbers show that Ventessel likely lost 12,000 soldiers of units this turn so far (he was and is presumably the soldier leader), and Krill lost 10,000 soldiers of units, plus another 1,000 soldiers from the whip.

[Dark Savant]

Also, unless Gavagai shows signs of hostility just now (he just played his turn), that offer of a map trade isn't useless!  I'm going to interpret that as an offer of nonaggression from him; he likely knows we won't actually accept it.

That means I'm going to build peacefully for a while, and rely upon "you are not going to attack the guy who is Expansive/Aggressive, are you?" to protect us.  If push comes to shove, we just a giant army out of nowhere, out of cities with both barracks and granaries.

[Dark Savant]

Historical aside:

Often, throughout history, incest is a practice that is discouraged among ordinary people, but encouraged among royalty.

Examples include:

• the Spanish Habsburgs:
  
  
  
  
• the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt:
  
  
  
  
• the Sassanid Persians (you may have heard this from Crusader Kings II players, heh ... though that doesn't really make sense, the Sassanid Empire was overrun by Khalid ibn al-Walid and the Muslims centuries before the age of the Crusades)
  
• the Incans.  Yeah, they did a lot of that too, and we know that even with the very limited records we have of them.  Huayna Capac married multiple sisters of his, and the second heir to the throne (yeah, they developed that concept of monarchy independently of Europeans) Huáscar was a product of incest.  Huayna's Capac favorite son, Atahualpa, was probably the offspring of a non-family concubine.  When Huayna Capac and his primary heir to the throne both died of smallpox, a succession crisis and civil war resulted, resulting in an empire weak enough for Pizarro to run over.
  

So yes, we are watching the White Walkers invade an empire famous for brother-sister incest from the north.