[SPOILER ALERT] Grimace hopes this one doesn't BSOD.

[Grimace]

Turns 108 - 111

It's been fairly quiet in the game. Building infrastructure and units, and laying down cottages to try to get my economy out of the crapper. Observe:


Elkad and I are battling for worst economy this game. I have a slightly higher score, so maybe he's winning.

And you can see just how bad it is compared to the other players:


I'm not even sure how long I've been researching Metal Casting now, and I still don't have it. 20 turns? Something like that. But damnit, I am going to get forges.

Here's my domestic adviser.


I'm building monasteries for the culture in my border cities and libraries in the cities that I can run scientists in so I can try to get some kind of research going. I've temporarily stopped building units because I can't afford to build more. I'm at +4gpt at 0% science.

So that's where I'm at right. My last settler is built and heading towards a filler-city location at the southernmost tip of my empire, which will probably tank my economy even more in the short term, but long-run it will help.

[Dreylin]

Elkad and I are battling for worst economy this game. I have a slightly higher score, so maybe he's winning.

You don't mean Elkad, do you?

[Miguelito]

Elkad and I are battling for worst economy this game. I have a slightly higher score, so maybe he's winning.

You don't mean Elkad, do you?

Sorry, but there was a missing :P

[Grimace]

Actually, I did mean Elkad. Though Gavagai's GNP is roughly on par with mine, he's ahead of me in most other categories. Elkad, though I don't have his graphs, seems to be struggling as well. He's the only person lower than me in score, and based on maps from several turns ago, I think he has fewer cities than me as well.

[Dreylin]

Huh, OK then.

[Grimace]

Turns 112 - 114

Still just chugging along. If all goes well, I'll have MC in 4 turns finally!

First off, new city -- Spinal Tap


This is basically a throwaway city, but more is better.

Also, as an amusing side-effect of planting that city, I blocked out HAK's galley from getting back to his land.


He's not completely locked there (he can get out south through his own city) but he can't get back to his main area.

I saw that Elkad got a GG...no wars being fought, so I assume it was barb battling.

On the other hand, I smell a war starting sometime soon...


Gavagai blew up his economy to get that army...I can't imagine not using it if you have it. It seems likely he'll wipe out my two cities, but he shouldn't stop there.

But hey, I'm still in the top 5 cities!

[Dreylin]

I saw that Elkad got a GG...no wars being fought, so I assume it was barb battling.

You don't get GG points from fighting Barbs.

Also, you haven't met Elkad yet, correct? So the only way you could find out would be the Foreign Adviser screen "trick" with selecting third party then hovering over the other civs. Even that wouldn't work if you didn't know the other party in the war (I think).

[Grimace]

You don't get GG points from fighting Barbs.

Also, you haven't met Elkad yet, correct? So the only way you could find out would be the Foreign Adviser screen "trick" with selecting third party then hovering over the other civs. Even that wouldn't work if you didn't know the other party in the war (I think).

Oh yeah, duh. I have not met Elkad, you are correct. I also haven't met GJ, so maybe the two of them are battling.

[Grimace]

Turn 115

Retep whipped the crap out of his cities the end of last turn -- over 60 points' worth. HAK whipped several of his cities as well. I wish I could afford to whip that many units.

I did whip a little bit of infrastructure with overflow going into units this turn...whipped 2 libraries, a temple and a granary. I'll also get my first great person in 3 turns -- a GS. Running the two scientists in Motley Crue has been really helpful there.

[Grimace]

Turns 116 - 118

Holy crap! What a couple of turns!

First off, Borche & Gavagai are definitely at war, which is a bit of a relief for me. That means Gavagai is probably not going to cruise over and wipe my two cities while that's going on. They both got GGs on T116.

Second, this turn, retep declared on Commodore! Right now I have the lowest power (largely due to my sluggish economy causing my tech to lag and not let me keep much more of an army).


You can see where Gavagai's power fell as they engaged in a mutual orgy of destruction. I don't even have contact with Borsche, so I have no idea what's going on with him.

It's a little tempting to join in against Commodore, since he is the leader and my Gallic Warriors aren't going to be at tech parity for too much longer. A G3 Gallic is still pretty good even against longbows (50% withdrawal, baby), so I think I'll wait to see what their first big clash is like before I decide.

Also looks like maybe HAK is going to go after Commodore:


He has his cultural borders right up against that Commodore city, so we may see an attack there. If that happens, I am DEFINITELY going after HAK's island cities down south, and maybe the marble city. But we'll see.

I also got my first great person, a GS in Motley Crue. An academy is not really worthwhile, as I can't afford to run the science slider very high right now, so most of my research is coming from specialists. He would discover Mathematics, which also doesn't really seem worthwhile to use a GS on. So it's basically down to using him for a GA or a superspecialist. A GA doesn't benefit me from the standpoint of civics/religion changes since I'm Spiritual, but the boost to commerce and production would be helpful, and it would shave some turns off my next GP. However, a super-specialist in MC would give me 8 bpt (6 +35%, library & monestary). I'm just not sure what to do. Argh!

Ok, don't really want to waste a turn right now to think about it, so I'm going to go with my gut and go super-specialist, with the next GP being used for a GA, assuming I survive that long.