[SPOILERS] DaveV: Seriously, Capria?

[DaveV]

Aurorarcher, at least, is still paying attention. Turn 69 opened with an open borders offer from him:



I declined, and reoffered a combined map swap and open borders deal, then offered the same deal to Mr. Cairo. If they both accept, Aurorarcher gets Cairo's maps for free. Sorry, Mr. Cairo, those are the turn order breaks.

My hope is that I'm so far behind that I'm seen as a safe trading partner.

Next decision: do I stay in God King, or switch to City States?



Leaving God King means much slower settler production, but that ship has sailed. I think my biggest problem right now is economy, and City States will help with that right now.



To the tune of 10 gold/turn. That number will only go up when I eventually crank out some more cities, and grow the ones I have.

[DaveV]

Cairo declined the map swap/open borders combined offer, and reoffered open borders only. I accepted; low-tension borders seem like my only chance to get back in this game.

Auroarcher accepted the map swap, showing that he did much better with exploration, and has a better dot map:





I think there were only two tiles that I've seen and he hasn't, but one of them was copper, so the map swap wasn't completely one-sided. Note the horses 1N2E of his capital. The Dyes island is a surprise; you don't usually see islands on these map settings. Final map note: the barbs built a flatland city between his southern sugar and wine, which Aurorarcher shouldn't have too much trouble conquering. That's one of several spots the barbs loved to settle during my sandbox games; the others were by the ivory and by the grass corn SE of Spanish Armada.

I pulled back a couple warriors from Spanish Armada for a good neighbor vibe (and completed a scout after EoT). I'd like him to feel safe building a road for a two-way trade connection. Once he does build the road, I'll have to increase the garrison since he'll be able to hit the city from the fog with a 2-mover.

Long range plan: build more settlers, try to get an economy going. Settler production is sloooow, but the economy is getting better: I'm making cash at 100% science slider. Still way behind the (creative) leaders, but that's probably going to be the case all game.

[DaveV]

   

[DaveV]

The barbs apparently don't want me to settle toward Mr. Cairo.



That barb warrior is C2, which means he was probably born in a barb city.

[DaveV]

I killed the C2 warrior who was still standing in my way. I'm still undefeated against the barbs, but that may not last if the griffon swoops back in.



Aurorarcher has planted another city while completing Deruptus and his winery. Sigh. I am so far behind.

... and I forgot to mention I now have contact with Bob, presumably from a floating eye. Good job, Bob, of following your best path.

[DaveV]

Mr. Cairo apparently hit the jackpot with mutation, and has a nasty animal capturing scout, who just *barely* managed to recruit a griffon.



I'll be settling my city on the plains hill next turn; I hope Cairo doesn't view it as a provocation. His economy is crashing and his power is still rising; he'll have to do something with his zombies or just fade away.

[DaveV]

Here's my new city, and a clearer view of the barb city (same as on Auro's southern border, the barbs apparently love that spot).



Someone is definitely getting zombie rushed.



Cairo's other neighbor is either Bob or Mack. Let's determine Mack's power:



Total power is roughly 66000*5 = 330000. Subtract my power and the low and high numbers (Auro and Cairo, respectively), and Mack and Bob have a combined power of 141,000. Bob's power is a bit higher than mine, call it 62,000. That leaves Mack with about 79,000. A lot of Mack and Auro's power is in population; Bob and Cairo have lower population than I. Cairo certainly has bronze working; Bob most likely does not; Mack most likely does. So Bob and I look like his best targets. If Mack is on his other flank, Cairo has to worry about an opportunistic attack if he goes after me; if Bob is the other neighbor, Bob will most likely breathe a sigh of relief that he's not being targeted and avoid any provocation. The latter would be true for me if Cairo elects to attack Bob.

Additional meta considerations: Bob has the potential to get a lot stronger if he can manage to reach Sorcery; I'm going to be a weakling for the remainder of the game.

[DaveV]

So here's Cairo, not even bothering to be subtle:



I switched most of my cities to warriors. If he doesn't have bronze weapons on his zombies, I should at least be able to make this expensive for him.

Edit: I moved an additional scout into the warrior/worker stack after taking this screenie.

[DaveV]

Sigh. This is clearly not a winning strategy, but I still get to be the victim of this asshattery:

[DaveV]

And he gets a flawless victory against my shock warrior on a forest hill? If he has that kind of luck, I might as well give up now