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

[DaveV]

Turn 112 opened with Mardoc offering his map for nothing. He's done a little bit of scouting on Aurorarcher:




I offered him Ale and Copper for all of his mana.

And Aurorarcher recaptured that border city:




Not very good odds against that top unit.

I stashed most of my units in Mardoc's capital (the exploring chariot couldn't reach, so he's lurking on the south coast). More chariots are on the way.




Here's the city screen:




Lots of trade still. Production is locked in Final War mode.

Here's the tech screen I didn't post last turn:




Aurorarcher just grabbed Animal Handling, which means Hawks.

[DaveV]

Another Mardoc city falls. The vampires can reach Mardoc's capital from where they're sitting: I hope he moves in a few more units.




If he does attack the capital, I should be able to hit him with my catapults and probably wipe his stack. I have to assume he can see the whole theater, though, so I'm expecting him to stay out of range of my cats.

In the Forbidden zone, I settled a city as planned:




And uncovered a barb city. I hate the way the barbs settle on flood plains. Also, I'm going to have trouble improving that deer tile until the barbs clear out. I killed a barb warrior and earned enough XP for another promotion on my warrior. My other warrior was going to move through Mardoc's hunter and pick up circumnavigation. Then I realized he can't because hidden nationality . I can't see any way to send a no-diplo message to suggest he declare nationality. That path through the ocean is probably a plako Drown, so he'll probably grab circumnav before I can sent someone through the mountains.

The resources screen shows Aurorarcher is saving cash again, and still hasn't bothered to hook up his horses, clams, pigs, or cows.

[Qgqqqqq]

I think FP restore if you burn the city in EitB.

[DaveV]

I think FP restore if you burn the city in EitB.

That would be a nice feature. This game attracts obsessive-compulsive types who hate to see the barbs ruin their terrain. Probably won't matter in this game.

Aurorarcher ate another city, and is poised for more:




I holed up in the capital. I would have preferred to join the stack in Pine, but my catapults didn't have enough move.

Aurorarcher must be feeling confident: he's keeping the cities instead of razing them.

In the frozen zone, my borders popped, and I killed a goblin on the deer at 96%.




Bad news is at the top of the screen: I drew a sage at 11% odds. Ouch. Next great person will be in Aperture Science, but won't come until 8 turns after the golden age expires, and is currently running 30% sage odds. Those odds will go up, since I'm running two sages, one bard, and one merchant. It was fun while it lasted.

I got my first adept this turn and offered air mana to plako for his body mana. I'm hoping he's built enough body adepts to live without it for ten turns.

[DaveV]

Alert readers may have noticed that I left a stack of workers unprotected last turn. I had vision on the surrounding tiles and could see they were safe from barbs. I didn't think about them not being safe from the portal:




I won two 96% battles to kill Aurorarcher's two units, captured and deleted his worker, and left my workers exposed again:




In the land of trees, he's pulled back.




I thought I'd grabbed a shot of the garrison in Pine, but didn't. Just combine the stacks from last turn and you'll probably be close enough.

I'm now forking the two captured cities; does he try to defend one or both of them, or keep pulling back? If he pillages some roads, he can keep the catapults from doing their thing. He would have to pillage off a lot of cottages first, though.

plako reoffered the body for air mana deal, which I accepted. So now I have Haste.

[DaveV]

I guess cutting the roads didn't take as much pillaging as I thought. It would have been smart to bring some combat workers.




He has a commando vampire. Isn't that special.

Apparently my stone skin chariot was the top defender. Despite his three first strikes, I guess he was easy meat.



In the forbidden zone, he left my workers alone. I pushed through another settler, who will become a coastal city in a few turns.

[DaveV]

Game mechanics abuse time. My catapults can't reach Aurorarcher's cities, but if I declare war on Mardoc, I can teleport my stack next to the city on the inner coast.




I had very good combat luck (chariot odds are win/retreat):




And here's the aftermath. He still has an impressive army left.




I renamed Liquidation to Willow and offered it to Mardoc along with a peace treaty. I'm hoping that will pop the borders and teleport my guys to the tile SW of the horse bubble (there's an elephant on the horse bubble tile, which won't show up until my sentry chariot moves back into the city). From there I should be able to raze his holy city easily, and probably Slaughter as well.

Meanwhile, in the frozen zone, I'm going to settle a city east of the crabs in two turns:




Demos at start of turn:




And at end of turn:




Note the big drop in rival best power, and the big drop in my GNP and manufacturing with the end of my golden age .

[Qgqqqqq]

Nice move!

[Miguelito]

Oops, looks like i missed something important :O
What's the objective in attacking auro? I guess you want to allow him down so he can't absorb mardoc and win the game? How much do you need to raze for that?
Also, how safe do you feel from a plako attack?

[DaveV]

Oops, looks like i missed something important :O
What's the objective in attacking auro? I guess you want to allow him down so he can't absorb mardoc and win the game? How much do you need to raze for that?
Also, how safe do you feel from a plako attack?

By my estimation, Auror is on the verge of winning the game. After he grinds his way through Mardoc, he won't have much trouble doing the same to me. I guess the plako front is a standoff (I didn't report it last turn, but plako finished the Bone Palace and is in golden age now). plako continues to maintain a relatively large garrison on my border, which may be part of why he's not making progress against the vampires.




If I sound pessimistic about the game, it's because my stack was teleported to the worst possible tile.




I swear there was an elephant on that tile. Yep, there was:




I don't even know how that was possible.

He was able to hit me with a bunch of units from the north, and a surprisingly strong reserve force from the west. My power dropped by about 140K. That may well be game, unless plako can put enough pressure on his front to cause Aurorarcher to pull out the bulk of his forces.

Ready to settle in the Forbidden Zone:




Here's my next great person. Likely to be no help. Also likely to be irrelevant.