DaveV talks like a pirate, me hearties!

[DaveV]

See, I was researching AH all along:




I really want to see where horses are; it may affect my city placement or order of founding.

I'm emphasizing hammers for the settler, but still number one in GNP (thanks to prereq bonus):

[DaveV]

Not much happening. Farmers farming, pirate coves growing, settlers building, animals wandering.




Demos are still looking decent.




Q still hasn't built his second city. My workboat opening apparently didn't set me back as much as I feared.




Q's much lower land area is very odd. The culture graph shows that he built his city on the first turn, and he has more culture than I do.

Top 5 cities:

[GermanJoey]

I don't know about FFH2, but in BTS/RtR/ToW, the victory screen will always round down the rival-best Population and Land Area percentages. So, for example, Eden is actually somewhere between 1.00% and 1.99% land area. (I realized this in one game awhile back, where I was repeatedly astonished every day for like an entire month that they were always somehow round numbers, even though mine was decimal... it started to become the first thing I checked when I logged in, and I almost made a big post about it until I suddenly realized what a doofus I was being. )

[DaveV]

Thanks, Joey, that makes a lot of sense. Especially given that the demo shot right above the F8 screen shows enemy worst land area at 28000 to my 23000. The top value of 32000 seems a little low for two cities; what's taking the other guys so long?

This turn I finished my farm, shaving a turn off my settler completion date:

[DaveV]

I finished my settler at EoT. Q still hasn't settled a second city; I expected to be further behind than this after cranking out all those workboats.




I've fallen to the bottom of the scoreboard, thanks to the Creative guys' land area kicking in and to me changing my mind on research.

Q also appears to have lost another scout:




Demos still look decent. I'll be sacrificing four food for one extra hammer next turn so I can produce the workboat in two turns instead of three.

[DaveV]

Disconcertingly, the AI is recommending two of my planned city sites.




After I moved, a griffon popped up in the fog 2E of the blue circle. Well, that's why I sent along three warriors as escort. 3.75 defending against 4 strength has a decent chance, right?




Wrong. Flawless win. He'll get two promos and I'll have to watch out for him. On the other hand, he can help protect my flank from other players.

In better news, horses are in a very convenient spot. Next city is the riverside horse/rice/reagents (and maybe furs some day).

[DaveV]

Sacrificing a warrior to a wandering griffon hasn't made the RNG view me with favor:




There goes 1/3 of my Expansive health bonus   .

After two techs in two turns and another population point, I made a significant jump up the scoreboard. Let the other players figure that out!

City borders expose a few more tiles:




Oops, forgot to rename it. Planned name: Shoulder Parrot. Also, as predicted, a double-promo griffon is now prowling my borders. In addition to the lion in the west, there's an elephant south of the new city. Yay for free spawnbusters.

Demos are still looking good:

[DaveV]

Here's the situation after my turn.




Finished my second worker. I'll put a couple turns into a settler, then build another worker to help with the gold mine. I may need to squeeze in a warrior from the capital before the settler finishes.

The Pirate Harbor on the lake will upgrade to a Port next turn; four more turns for the coastal one. The Cove by Shoulder Parrot will upgrade in five turns.

Finishing the pig pasture gives me a good boost in demographics:




That's Q who's tied with me for production: he revolted to God King.




Probably a good move for a Spiritual civ.

Q also finally built his second city, the turn after I did.

[DaveV]

I put one turn's production into the settler and will switch to a worker next turn if I remember.

Here's the current layout, highlighting the ridiculous lake pirate port.




Demographics look better all the time, especially considering the Creative guys are being given credit for +4 culture rolled into their GNP, and that Q is in God King and I'm still outproducing him. Crop yield is not as impressive, but my next few cities should help on that front. Sixth in soldiers worries me a little. Stupid griffon.

[DaveV]

My spawnbusting animal buddies are not doing their job.




Two attacks at 50% each. Sareln's calculator says my odds are 80.62%. If I lose, it's game over.