[SPOILERS] Rhoanna's horse is actually a Trojan

[DaveV]

Aurorarcher built a new city that gives us a trade route connection. Side by side comparison:



He has more, and better, happy resources. He has all three grains for +30% on his brew house; I have three rice for +10%. So it's no wonder the game gave him a free great prophet to even things up.

Also, he just fired off his world spell, so he'll be in golden age for the rest of the game.

I tried to gain some mean-spirited satisfaction from killing his exploring warrior (I won a coin flip battle). I also managed to win two 99% battles against the barbs.



Not that any of it is likely to make any difference. The demographics are appalling.

I'm ready to throw in the towel any time the other guys recognize that this is an exercise in futility.

[shallow_thought]

As you say, there is always mean-spirited satisfaction.

[DaveV]

I took a bunch of screenshots for a turn 100 report, but there's really only one that matters:



Here are the rest, for the amusement of the lurkers:

[DaveV]

So, this is going as well as could be expected. I fired off my world spell and managed to raze one city before my troops were slaughtered (at the cost of a few puppets and zero real units. If I didn't have faith in Aurorarcher, I'd be screaming "cheating" right now). Next: the long slow decline.

[DaveV]

I never should have signed up for this game. I've been playing out of a sense of obligation since turn 35 or so when I realized I had no chance of winning. And the other guys are such weenies that Aurorarcher has single warrior garrisons in his border cities. If they're expecting me to hold back the tide for more than a few more turns, they're sadly mistaken.

[DaveV]

I attacked with my horsemen against a couple of my former cities where the garrisons were a little sparse, with worse than expected results. I did manage to kill a couple ritualists and an adept, so that's a teeny tiny bit of revenge. Larger picture, I think Aurorarcher deserves to win, so I don't want to completely sabotage his game. And I can't complain too much about combat luck, since Aurorarcher lost his super griffon attacking one of my horsemen at what had to be >95% odds.

[DaveV]

Sorry for all the venting in my thread. I was getting burned out by the end of last game, and should have taken a break before signing up for another. I'd like my reaction to be happiness when a new turn arrives, instead of dread.

I tried to avoid criticizing Bob for the map; we asked for a random map so any imbalance is not his fault. It would be worthwhile to start a project that changes the code of the map balancer so it doesn't think that grains=livestock=seafood=deer and that all happy resources are equal.

Once again, compliments to the other players on maintaining a very good turn pace throughout the game.

[Aurorarcher]

Thanks for playing Dave. I feel your frustration, I had similar feelings in the previous game...