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

[DaveV]

Turn 4. More exploration:







Looks like I found the happy resources. Are these meant to be conflict zones, midway between me and another player?

The two hill sugars and the southern rice are on Marsh, a crummy terrain type which means -1 food and won't even stop jungle from growing. At least it can be Scorched to Plains (a fairly recent addition), and Vitalized to Grassland. A beeline to Bronze Working is looking better all the time.

I could send my warrior through the portal next turn, but I think I'll just move him back home and fulfill my overly conservative reputation.

[DaveV]

Here are some highlights from the blitz:




Grumble, grumble. I also got the harpy event, and didn't feel like crippling my capital for a bard.

I managed to get behind Mardoc's scout:




And found an empty capital:




Mardoc couldn't reach the capital, but was able to block my path:




Meanwhile, in the clockwise direction, I found plako's empty capital:




But, next turn it wasn't empty any more:




Here's the layout:







We are very close together; plako is going to be really scary on this map. I think I want to settle on hills unless there's a compelling reason not to. Tentative dotmap:




Cities 1 is going to be very hard to grab, since the resources are so much closer to Mardoc than me. City 2 is basically a fantasy. City 4A has better food than 4B, but orphans a grass hill 3N of the capital. 4B also allows a filler city between the portal and the "bear t15" sign.




1A is the easiest to settle and will be able to work the corn after a border pop. 1B is a better city long term, but pretty bad short term. 1C is a declaration of war on plako, so not a good idea.

[DaveV]

I forgot to mention: I tried to send my scout through Mardoc's portal and couldn't; apparently I can only pass through my own portal.

[BRickAstley]

I would guess due to cultural control? Is his in his culture?

[DaveV]

No, both of our portals are in neutral territory. That's what makes it weird.

Maybe I was on the wrong tile. The portal floats way above the ground, and I was playing fast.

[Qgqqqqq]

I'd say it's probably that. I certainly don't know of any way to prevent other players passing through portals.

[DaveV]

The bear chased my scout away, and I found another corn in the fog! That means a coastal filler city is viable. Next turn, I send the weak scout through the portal.




Demos:



Someone is sacrificing food for hammers. One of the expansive guys (Mardoc and Plako, my two neighbors ) working on a settler? I'm now third in GNP, even with my extra culture, which does not bode well. I'm second in power, which means everyone but plako has lost one of their scouts, or maybe a warrior for the 16K guy.

[DaveV]

Morning turn today. We may get an extra turn in because it's a semi-holiday in the US (not for me, but definitely if you work for the government, a school, or a bank).

As predicted, my Weak scout went through the portal:




Looks like I can get contact with everyone by visiting all the ancient towers, assuming they haven't deleted their Held hunters. A quick XML check tells me ancient towers give zero pillage gold, but the citadels are a bag of ~60 gold sitting there for the taking.

Back home, my unpromoted scout is still alive (speaking of portals).

[DaveV]

The turn opened with me having mysteriously made contact with the Luchuirp. So I must not have been the only one with a unit on the other side of the portal.

All this portal talk led me to change my theme again; I wasn't happy with the clown theme.

I did some exploration of the so-called Forbidden Zone.




I had to move all the way up into the line of sight of the Calabim hunter to establish contact; my scout having vision on the hunter was evidently not enough. Must be because of Hidden Nationality, even though I can see a Calabim flag on the unit.

The injured bear is interesting; someone must have lost a unit in the Forbidden Zone, fairly close to my citadel.

The Hidden Nationality hunter is a cute idea; it means we can't pillage anyone else's citadel unless they delete their hunter.

Theory: the layout of the civs in the Forbidden Zone matches our layout on the doughnut. This would put Aurorarcher on the other side of plako, and jalepeno on the other side of Mardoc.

I was hoping for some bonus beakers on my Crafting research from making contact with everyone, but no such luck. I need to get all the way to 17 beakers to get a bonus beaker from one person (jalepeno started with Crafting).

Now that I have contact with everyone, it's time for a graph dump. Spoiled for those who are bored by such things.

It looks as though jalepeno has not been a very friendly neighbor. Apparently jalepeno and Aurorarcher have somehow avoided making contact with plako. Which is very odd, given my theory that the vampires and wolfmen are neighbors.

[DaveV]

Turn 20. jalepeno has a C1 warrior, which means he's killed something. Someone's scout, maybe?




Other strange promotion: the Calabim super hunter is C2.

jalepeno has also pillaged his citadel down to a castle.

The bear attacked my super hunter, giving him 2 XP. I took a C1 promotion. I could potentially get Subdue Animal some day in the distant future, but I'll probably delete the hunter before then.