[SPOILERS] DaveV is not clowning around. Well, maybe a little bit...

[DaveV]

The barb kill team was, indeed, lining up on the diagonal to Bozo. The barbs are all CI, I have culture defense + warrior in city bonus + decent fortify bonus on the two unpromoted warriors. Here's your chance to help me out some more, RNG!



In my experience, kill teams never pillage. Watch them prove me wrong...

[DaveV]

I won all four combats, although it looks like I'll never be able to see the combat log from the barbs' (Brian's) turn



Coldrain finished the bone palace, Aurorarcher completed the Heron Throne. Those two seem to be fighting it out for first place right now.

[DaveV]

Event on turn 69:



This event is a bit too random, IMHO. You can trade 5 temporary unhappy for a great bard: a ridiculously good deal in a small city; not so much in a mature city like Bozo. I declined.

Turn 70:



A closer call. Without the unhappiness from the previous event, I can grow back to size pretty quickly. I'll lose some commerce and foodhammers during regrowth, but not enough to offset 80 free beakers (especially because I'm way behind in science. Someone just scored the Military Strategy Great Commander).

My scout found a gems tile out to the east (RefSteel put a camp on them, presumably to keep jungle from spreading onto the tile. A big thumbs up for that!). That's where my next city is going:



And there's the spider that killed Auro's centaur. Bad luck for him. As long as a jungle or forest doesn't grow on the tile S of the gems, I'll settle next turn.

Thanks to the boost from the event, I finished Sailing at EoT, and found some pearls.

[Qgqqqqq]

I dunno the last time I've seen the Great Bard event at a small city - there might be a city size requirement?

[DaveV]

It seems to me I have seen it in a smaller city; maybe just late enough in the game that +5 unhappy wasn't such a big hit. Or maybe it's playstyle: I usually play ICS style with lots of cities, so the odds that the event will hit a relatively new city are higher.

Also, I think I've seen it in the capital in the very early game.

[RefSteel]

My scout found a gems tile out to the east (RefSteel put a camp on them, presumably to keep jungle from spreading onto the tile. A big thumbs up for that!)

Hey, I'm glad you noticed! Blocking jungle growth is indeed the main reason I included an assortment of scattered tile improvements on the map, though some I did add just for grins, imagining them all as basically little goblin tribes with ... "creative" ideas about how to use the land.

[DaveV]

Nothing grew on my target tile, so here's my new city:



Emmet Kelly is the first non-fictional clown I thought of, maybe because we used to stop at Emmet Kelly park in Houston, MO on the way to visit my Dad in Arkansas.

Spiders will run away from scouts that are inside borders; I'm trying to drive him to the southeast to act as a defender if someone comes from that direction.

[DaveV]

I'm way behind on my reporting; Aurorarcher has been posting, but here's my side of the story:

At EoT 72, I took another spin on the great person roulette wheel:



It came up merchant. I spent a lot of time pondering what to do with him: a bulb of Horseback Riding would save me ~300 beakers (cost 400, minus discounts). Settling him would give +1 food and +6 gold; a golden age would give ~30 commerce and ~20 hammers, times 9 turns. I finally went with the golden age. I'm way behind, and the extra hammers can be used to build units, infrastructure, and settlers/workers. I'll net fewer beakers than with the bulb, but they will be put into the techs I want most right now. Horseback riding is an important tech and I definitely want it soon, but I think the most important thing is to start being able to summon units.

On turn 74, I gained a trade connection to Aurorarcher. Now I can see his cities and resources:





As expected, he's way ahead of me in development; what really hurts is that he's equal in cities.

I offered him open borders, since it looks like we're pretty far apart and could be friendly. Then, at end of turn, Emmett Kelley's borders popped and I gained contact with xist:



I would much rather open borders with the guy who's last in score than the guy who's first, but it's too late to withdraw the offer.

Turn 75 opened with a flurry of diplo windows:



Accepted, just what I was hoping for. I'm not a big fan of map trades, but I'd like to build trust with the vampire guy and have him look elsewhere for his conquests. Probably not much benefit for me, since Auro's cities will fill my trade route slots. Except:



No quibbles here; Auro already has an overseas route if that settlement to my northeast is indeed an island, so open borders favor me by a little bit. Cotton will give a small boost to his tailors, and I'm not likely to build Deruptus for a while; Ronald McDonald will be building at least two more settlers. Refused.



And a straight-up open borders. Sorry, Auro, my routes are full now. This may result in a bit of a diplo hit from me offering and then refusing open borders, but I'd like to avoid boosting the leader to no benefit for myself. Refused.

I'm not sure xist realized that the trade routes are one-way; I should have offered him my spare sheep as recognition of that. As I always point out, though, this screen overstates the value of foreign trade routes; I am, indeed, getting 2 commerce per city from foreign trade routes, but I'd be gaining 1 commerce from domestic trade routes otherwise. So xist is really giving me +5 commerce, not +10.



Demo and foreign trade screens, spoilered because I already have a ton of pictures:

xist's economy is even worse than mine, and that's saying something. God King is not ideal for a large empire, although it's let him build Deruptus.

Finally, a zoomed-out view of xist's exploration. Note Brian's Bing's borders in the far east; I even have a trade route to him, but no contact. Note also that it took me five tries to get flying camera to line up right; my mouse skills are abominable.