DaveV talks like a pirate, me hearties!

[DaveV]

jalepeno built the Mines of Gal-Dur.



I offered my spare cotton for one of his spare irons. That always works with the AI! I don't have any units that will benefit from iron at the moment, but I'll have a chariot in a few turns.

Q canceled open borders to eject my exploring warrior, and TBS refused open borders. My trading partners are limited to Dreylin and jalepeno.

Overview of the north, to finish the big picture:

[DaveV]

Turn 92 opened with a peace treaty offer from jalepeno. Apparently he wants a safe border, and doesn't care about the trade bonus. I want a safe border, too, so I accepted. He had a pretty decent stack ready to rumble if I hadn't accepted peace:



I re-offered open borders after moving my scout away from him.

Q is sending out an unescorted settler :



Dreylin says "I have a horseman, ho ho ho." Was it worth crippling his economy to get there? Spoiler: no.



Ellimist grabbed the Form of the Titan; he is unquestionably the nail that needs to be pounded down.



After the turn rolled, the barbs showed up with a hill city SW of where I was going to drop my settling party next turn . I guess I'll send the settler to the plains hill sheep tile 3N of Hook Hand instead.

[Old Harry]

And send your army to meet the barbs?

Any idea what's happened to TBS? Its a surprise to see his score lagging so much.

[DaveV]

And send your army to meet the barbs?

At this point, I'm more likely to send them to visit Mr. Running Away with the Game.

Any idea what's happened to TBS? Its a surprise to see his score lagging so much.

He has a bad civ. Elves are very slow starters; I assume he'll come back at some point but it may be too late.

[Brian Shanahan]

And send your army to meet the barbs?

At this point, I'm more likely to send them to visit Mr. Running Away with the Game.

Any idea what's happened to TBS? Its a surprise to see his score lagging so much.

He has a bad civ. Elves are very slow starters; I assume he'll come back at some point but it may be too late.

Yeah Elves are mid to late game. Great in single player, but in MP games they can get caught very easily before they even start to get ready.

[DaveV]

Regarding TBS: if ever there were a setup where you want to go for the long game, this is it. He's too good a player to stay at the bottom of the scoreboard all game.

The turn opened with an open borders offer from Q, which I accepted in a heartbeat. TBS offered corn for corn, which I also accepted. Apparently the only flank I need to worry about besides the one with Ellimist is the one with Dreylin. He seems content to be a peaceful trading partner so far.

Here are a bunch of foreign advisor screens. First, the tech screen: I can see everyone's tech after finishing Trade at EoT.



I was relieved to see that Ellimist hasn't discovered KotE yet. Also, he was evidently not the guy who scored the free Great Commander from Military Strategy. It looks as though Q has discovered Priesthood, so watch out for those Cultists!



Q is apparently mad at jalepeno for declaring war on me. jalepeno is #1 in soldiers by a fairly substantial margin; I'm glad I don't have to worry about him for a few more turns.



Here's hoping Q and Dreylin won't cancel open borders for a while...



Because they both have other trading partners.

Here's my city list:



79 commerce just from trade routes.



A close second place with no tech selected. Did someone cancel open borders with Ellimist, or is he indulging in the no tech selected trick like me?

Finally, an overview of my territory:

[DaveV]

I have four more turns to research civic-enabling techs before my golden age ends. I'd been debating between Slavery and Military State for the Labor column, until I discovered that Boarding Parties are not draftable (unlike all the other champion units ). So, Slavery it is, I guess...

[DaveV]

Dreylin moved a souped-up warrior near Crow's Nest, and also had a horseman in range. My warrior who'd been standing sentry duty for many turns was promoted to Mobility and scooted back into the city. I should gain cultural control of those hill tiles soon, but I'm concerned about losing my OO city in the meantime.



Dreylin is in kind of a tight spot: he appears to border me, jalepeno (#1 in power), Ellimist (Mr. Perpetual Golden Age), and TBS with his powerful world spell. He's thrown away his game to get horsemen on the board, and I want to steer his attack in another direction if possible.



With all that said, here I am preparing to settle another border city with Dreylin.



The griffon was already injured to 3.9/4, so his odds against my C1 warrior were a little bit worse than a coin flip. It looks he won easily; the RNG is extracting some revenge for my earlier good fortune.

In the north, you can see another marble island. No one else seems to be rushing to plant their island cities.

[DaveV]

Catch up post: I missed reporting two turns, during which I flopped down a few more cities. TBS asked for free copper; I countered with copper + open borders, which he accepted. That's the quick summary; here's the log for a bit more of the story:



Note the revolts as the most recent events in the log. I'd been considering changing from Nationhood to Religion, more for the extra culture than the extra happiness, but forgot. So Nationhood it is, arguably just as good as Religion.

And here are some overview shots:



The highlighted settler party can't go to the planned location (1N2E) because of Ellimist's city that apparently just popped borders. I'm now shooting for 3N2E, if that's even possible.



Note where I pillaged Ellimist's pigs (2E1N of Grog), and that jalepeno has a couple galleys afloat.

[DaveV]

Dreylin is giving open borders to Mr. Great Lighthouse plus Infinite Golden Age       .



Can no one else actually see what's going on here? They don't have Trade to see that Ellimist has researched KotE, but what else is he going to do with his massive pile of golden age beakers?

I, for one, am not going to stand idly by:



He stuffed a swordsman in there after seeing my pillaging chariot. He can draft at least one more.

Here's my city list, from before I ended my turn:



Here are demos after I ended turn:



I have three sources of iron in my borders. Broadside (lower left) is built on top of one; Wooden Leg (top center, mostly hidden under the text) has an already mined one to its NE; Bottle of Rum (center right) has one N of the city with a workshop on it.