April 29th, 2016, 04:22
(This post was last modified: April 29th, 2016, 04:26 by DaveV.)
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The attack went better than expected (I was expecting to lose three units). Welcome to my new city of Aperture Science! Now featuring five turns of revolt!
Someone got what was probably the Drama bard last turn. Probably Mardoc, since Aurorarcher just discovered Sailing. But it could be plako, which would be a worst case scenario.
Edit: plako's score jumped by 14, and Mardoc's didn't budge, so  .
In the forbidden zone, my warrior attacked a goblin and didn't take a bunch of hits this time.
He also earned another promotion. More warriors want a piece of my hunter; they obviously haven't learned anything from the fate of their brethren.
Since I have trade routes with Aurorarcher, time to check out his progress:
He has Hunting already.
plako built another city, he's up to eight now.
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I promoted my Forbidden Zone warrior to March so I can move him off the end of the peninsula where he's having to fight off an unending stream of barbs.
On the mainland, horses popped up in a very inconvenient place:
Right where I was planning to build a city next turn. I could still build there, but it means throwing away the hammers from the horse tile. I can build 1N of the horse, but that means I can't share the two grass hills with Aperture Science, and also means exposing my settler outside my borders for a turn and not having the city roaded for a while. That's what I plan to do, though - I hate to throw away the horse tile. Plus the northern location gets the corn first ring.
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The Forbidden Zone warrior's progress continues to be impeded by barbs. A barb warrior appeared in the forest north of the warrior, and my guy only had 76% odds on attack, so I retreated him across the river.
Back on the mainland, my settler is hanging out with a single escorting unit. This would be a perfect time for a griffon or giant spider to ruin my game.
Lots of other stuff going on there: plako revolted to City States (but not Apprenticeship), and our forced peace is ended. Two freaks were born at end of turn, with fairly uninspiring promotions.
By the way, Q, if you're still reading: making archers and swordsmen cheaper means that a Balseraph player is throwing hammers away when he upgrades a Freak. Old scheme: build a 40 hammer Freak, upgrade for 5g to a 40 hammer Archer, Swordsman, or Hunter. Now only the Hunter is still 40 hammers. But reducing the cost of a Freak is also reducing the cost of a Freak Show, so that might not be a good idea.
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The warrior that I was moving to reinforce We Do What We Must was eaten by a giant spider. Oops.
plako is up to nine cities; Aurorarcher and Mardoc have eight; I have seven with the new addition.
plako's power is spiking; is he going to hit Aurorarcher, or come back for round two against me? If the latter, I have more guys in position than last time, but still won't fare well against his super axemen. If he's waiting for catapults, there's really not much I can do.
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In the Forbidden Zone, the barb warrior moved W of my warrior, so I'm going to play a little hide and seek:
Aperture Science came out of revolt after I ended turn.
I offered open borders to Mardoc. As the two weaklings, I'm hoping we can buddy up. International trade routes would be a nice boost.
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Hah! I'm ahead of the barb now.
Mardoc accepted open borders, shown in the scoreboard.
Aurorarcher and plako are both showing up with offshore resources:
You can see what are presumably the borders of Finnsvik (the city that has a Liberate option for plako) in the lower right.
plako is settling up on me pretty relentlessly, despite having double starting territory  . We'll see how he reacts to the Freak Show I just built in Hard To Overstate.
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After a turn with nothing worth reporting, my warrior has reached the gems hill in the Forbidden Zone, and my hunter is one more victory from yet another promotion.
My freak from Hard To Overstate had a nice pair of promotions: Light and Sentry (and Vulnerable to Fire, but that's unlikely to be a problem). Standing on the tower, he can see across the water to plako's island city:
Those are probably the same guys who won the low odds attack against My Satisfaction 1.0. Either he's facing really tough competition on that island, or he's planning a naval attack on me. Most likely the latter.
Note that I've regained cultural control over the marsh hill 2S of Hard To Overstate. That city will pop third ring next turn, so I'm very unlikely to lose its second ring. I also should be able to take control of the mountain and have pretty good vision over the land approach.
Mardoc must have discovered Sailing, because I have trade arrows with him now:
No Bronze Working; kind of a problem with all the jungle. That's a lot of fish, though. I wish I'd thought to offer rice for fish.
He'll be getting unreciprocated trade routes with me for a few turns, but that's ok.
May 7th, 2016, 20:10
(This post was last modified: May 7th, 2016, 20:10 by DaveV.)
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I lied. Somehow I'm getting trade routes with Mardoc despite not having sailing. No complaints here. I did remember to offer rice to Mardoc for his fish this turn.
Meanwhile, on the plako front, his two Sons are still sitting in the island city, so I took the opportunity to scout out some more of his territory:
He did settle on the copper. And that's a pretty non-threatening garrison.
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Big news of the turn: Mardoc has converted to Fellowship of Leaves (first religion in the game). Now he has access to his worldspell and becomes an unattractive target for aggression. I just hope the religion didn't land in that city bordering Aperture Science.
Mardoc also accepted the fish for pigs deal. I'm reconsidering my northern dotmap.
I'd been planning to settle a city north of the ivory, but that would be pretty greedy now that I'm trying to be friends with Mardoc. If he hasn't settled that area in twenty turns, I may reconsider.
In the south, here's a composite of my sentry freak's vision from the hill and the tower.
In the Forbidden Zone, I'll probably just park my warrior here until I start settling cities; he should be pretty hard to kill. After giving up on the Mardoc border city, I only have one more mainland city to settle, so I'll be sending some settlers through the portal while I'm waiting for a galley to complete.
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I finished my scout in Aperture Science, and went looking for the spider. It looks as though both the spider and the elephant are trapped in my culture until someone comes along and kills them.
In the south, I have both sentry freaks keeping an eye on plako:
He has four unpromoted beastmen in Fjirgard, and now three in Suderholm. More than he needs to hold the line against my guys, and there's always the danger of cheap upgrades. One of the Sons is missing from the island city, but I'd be able to see it if it was walking toward the galley.
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