DaveV and Keelyn: even though you broke my heart and killed me

[DaveV]

I must have done the old "preview, but forget to post" trick on my turn 90 report. Here's the exciting news from that turn:




I've decided to pull the trigger on my worldspell. I'm falling behind, and have some key techs that I'd like to grab more quickly.

Still keeping an eye on plako in the south:




(cute mutation on that settler)

... and east:




There's a significant amount of damage on one of those Sons on the island, so I guess plako is facing some sort of opposition there.

In the north, I'm changing my mind again about the ivory city. Mardoc isn't going to be able to clear that jungle for a while, and I can just gift him a sugar and dye to keep him happy.




And Mardoc's holy city did indeed land right on my border.

In the forbidden zone, the barbs keep coming:




Even in a golden age, I can't match Aurorarcher's numbers.




My city list:




I'm trying to crank out some great people to keep the golden age going for a while.

[DaveV]

Two turns in one day. Woot. I explored a bit more of Mardoc's territory. I'd like to go check out his borders with Aurorarcher, but I want to keep the scout around for a little extra protection of my ivory city.




I'm planning to build the city on the tile marked 95, because that's the turn when the settler will reach that tile. Next turn I'll finish my dye plantation. I'll wait to offer it until turn 95, though.

In the Forbidden Zone, the barbs are trying to gang up on my warrior:




In the south, my sentries are keeping an eye on plako.

[DaveV]

Mardoc has sent a swarm of workers to build roads toward my planned ivory city. Looks like I need to change my mind again.




He can build on the sugar if he wants to be obnoxious, or NW of it to establish a more friendly border (and not pick up the ivory in his BFC).

New plan: my settler will hop on board the galley when it finishes, and head out to grab the cotton. This will probably mean Mardoc misses out on that island, since I bet Aurorarcher grabbed it on Mardoc's other side.

Also: popped a copper! Yay! I can even gift my spare one to Mardoc now, if necessary.

In the Forbidden Zone, my warrior fought off one of the barbs:




Someone beat me to Message from the Deep. I switched to the "more food" path instead.

[DaveV]

Another two-turn day, which leads to two reports in one post.




Exploring Mardoc's land. I hope he realizes that I could have settled the area that he's planning to grab.

Forbidden zone:




Culture graph:




Apparently it was Aurorarcher who got the Drama bard. His culture line looks like a drunken walk.

Turn 95:




Ready to land on the island next turn. I can see all the tiles that a griffon or sea monster could use to attack me; the only danger is a barb galley.

More of Mardoc's land:




Forbidden Zone:




The OO guy had a great person ready for the shrine. Nice planning. And that's probably Aurorarcher with the great commander from Military Strategy. That means he's likely to grab Form of the Titan, too.




The OO guy is plako. He built the Heron Throne in Jalepeno's former capital.




No OO cities in sight. The Leaves spread in his capital is kind of amusing.

And I finally won the culture battle for that mountain.

[DaveV]

I finally checked the Tech screen, and the news is really bad.




Mouseover of Aurorarcher's techs shows him 19 turns ahead of me in research. The number of turns for each tech is rounded up, and I knocked Construction off the list at EoT, but the Can't Trade list doesn't show Trade and Military Strategy. At least he doesn't (yet) have Feudalism. He lacks Animal Husbandry and Cartography, but doesn't need that latter and can knock out the former in a fraction of a turn. Odds are good that he'll score the Bone Palace, too.

I offered straight-up open borders to plako; I thought about demanding something like gold, but I'd rather send a stronger signal of cooperation. Open borders will be mutually beneficial, since his island cities will get overseas + foreign bonus, and I should get some high-value routes to those same island cities. That's assuming our peace bonus has built back up to a reasonable level. [quick check in game] 25 turns = 75% bonus, I think. So, just the right amount for an extra arrow.

I'd been planning to go Sanitation next, but I think I'll copy Aurorarcher and go for Trade, especially if plako accepts open borders. A swap into Foreign Trade will cost me some food, but I need to narrow that tech deficit.

plako looks like he's a little behind me in area under the GNP curve:




Here's my soon-to-be ninth city:




I'd been planning to settle on the plains hill 2N of the cotton, but it turns out to have a sheep on it. So I doubled back and moved the city to a mostly-coastal location, hoping a second city will pick up the rest of the goodies.

I'm peeling one of my sentries away from the plako front now that I have the mountain. Looks like he used his OO disciple to spread into his capital: a risky move, but it paid off.




His galley appears to be moving away.

I've reached the Mardoc/Auror frontier:




Looks like Aurorarcher didn't settle as aggressively as I probably would have in his shoes.

In the Forbidden Zone, my warrior is going to stack up with my hunter:

[DaveV]

Lots of stuff in my first screenshot:




First, Aurorarcher declared on plako, and plako's score went down by more than a hundred. Checking the top 5 cities, plako lost his Heron Throne city. Jalepeno will probably be happy about that, if he's even still around.

Mardoc settled his jungle city (in the good neighbor spot NW of the sugar), and must have researched Bronze Working because his workers are working away on clearing the jungle. I must have been wrong about Mardoc having researched Sailing, because he still has no overseas cities.

I settled my cotton city, after absorbing an attack from the barb goblin. I put research on Sanitation, since I need Writing before I can research Trade, and the extra food will be helpful now, and necessary for a swap to Free Trade later.

Finally, someone spawned a great sage. Probably Mr. Philosophical.

As expected, I get 3-arrow trade routes with plako's island cities.




He has three of them:




Because of the strange way trade is calculated in the demos screen, it looks like I'm giving away a lot of trade income:




But I'm actually pretty happy. I could close borders with Mardoc and not lose anything, but I'd like to keep good relations with him.

plako is scouting me with his galley, so I sent the light sentry freak to run through his territory and check out his border with the vampires:




Speaking of whom:

[DaveV]

More stuff happening in the log:



Great Lighthouse gives plako a huge boost.

[DaveV]

Turn 99. I misclicked the two workers on my island, and they spent a turn farming the cotton instead of building a plantation. That means I have to wait an extra turn to grow my cities.




Mardoc's holy city popped its third ring borders, and I'm losing control of the dyes tile 2N1W of Aperture Science, despite running a bard specialist. At the current rate of change, though, I should be able to pop my own third ring borders before I lose the tile.

My galley is ready to dump two settlers onto the gold island next turn.




I'm very concerned about plako's massive garrisons on our border, while he leaves his wonder cities with a couple units. I take that as an indication that he's planning to attack me. Aurorarcher is clearly winning this game, despite plako's higher number of cities, but I'm not sure what else I can do to communicate that fact to plako.




I gained another freak at EoT. This guy is certainly destined to become a freak show. The only question is whether to move him all the way to the Mardoc border or just plant him where he was born.




Aurorarcher now has Horseback Riding, but I think I'm better off beelining to Trade and forgoing the minor bonus I'd gain from picking up HBR first.

[DaveV]

Turn 100. Extra information time. First, a map stitch:




My cities:




I'll have two more cities on gold island next turn, but this is turn 100, so I look bad.

Other people's cities:



Graphs:

At EoT, the borders popped on For the Good of All, giving me a pretty good view of calendar/sheep island:




Room for two more decent cities there.

[DaveV]

Skimpier than normal reporting this turn, since my laptop's print screen key doesn't work with civ.

Forbidden Zone:




In the south, I must be moving into Jalepeno's slice of pie. I saw, but didn't capture in a screenshot, two plako galleys, one of which had two promotions. Keep killing those vampires, plako! We're all behind you (literally). The bad news: Aurorarcher has discovered Feudalism.




Another Freak was born at Eot; another good candidate for a Freak Show.