[SPOILERS] Dark Savant leads the noble Inca as half-noble Churchiill

[Dark Savant]

Turn 74 (1040 BC) - Part 3

wetbandit planted city #6 after I played turn 74.  He's catching up.

Charriu's score deficit is very real.  So is his city count deficit; he's tied for last with 5.

I forgot to mention -- I made a non-aggression pact offer to , now that I'm certain I'm not going to declare a scouting war.



He might interpret this as a plan that I'm going to attack Charriu, but then again he probably suspects that's likely anyway.

Even being Aggressive Zulu isn't saving from the GNP plunge.



Not like it matters much as long as he doesn't drop to strike levels.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 75 (1000 BC) - Part 1

I receive the non-aggression pact offer back from .  I understand this as a real NAP, but I decline so no one else can see it.



He's so crushed in GNP at the moment that he's not expanding much more soon anyway.  And we're doing poorly in GNP at the moment, too.

On the wetbandit front, well, so much for what little stealth we had.



So that scout already saw our settler-archer pair last turn.  Good thing I'm bringing up a second archer.

I plant White Harbor on the hill.  That lets us see across that nearby lake.



Wow, there's lots of stuff there.  We should have hurried here earlier; ah well.

Our GNP is now at the "barely able to keep our head above water at 0% science" level.  Well, we have no island city yet and I'm not really trying to work commerce tiles at the moment.

[Dark Savant]

I wake up and I'm already last to play turn 76. 

Turn 75 (1000 BC) - Part 2

Our galley heads out with a settler-axe pair.



There's still no sign anyone is there.

I'm going to see where silver is on the other islands before I randomly drop off passengers.

Core overview:

• King's Landing finishes another archer and starts another settler, also destined for the southern island.
  
• Casterly Rock 2-pop-whips a barracks.  It'll overflow into the archer it has partially done and then horses should be online.
  
• Winterfell reaches size 2 for the first time and 1-pop-whips a work boat.  It'll regrow next turn.
  
• I start a pasture and a forest chop at Highgarden.
  

I had considered building a galley out of Casterly Rock and staking a claim to the west, but that would be a reach: that island is closer to both and wetbandit and it'd take some effort to maintain even in Always Peace.  I'm going to see if I can get a galley out of Winterfell fast enough to also claim the northern island.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 75 (1000 BC) - Part 3

Our work boat finds that JR4 is already making good use of the Great Lighthouse and has planted an island city to his north.



Notice that unconnected silver there?  Here's JR4's current trade screen:



So he also already has a galley to his south and has already claimed the silver that is there.

JR4 also planted his 8th city this turn.  This goes with planting his expected 9th city this turn as well. 

Also this turn, we got graphs on wetbandit (in spoiler).

wetbandit just started to put EP into us, so one more full turn of EP and it's then on to JR4.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 76 (975 BC) - Part 1

Time has suddenly slowed down, for mysterious reasons. 

From the pattern on the other islands, my guess is that the silver is on the western side of the southern island.



I guessed wrong, which will delay the planting of our island city by one turn.  Ah well.  I have two workers near Oldtown temporizing so I can ship them to the island ASAP.

The rival front with the most activity is actually wetbandit; he had a chariot in his border city, and now he has an axe, with the chariot nowhere in sight.  Two hilltop archers should be enough defense there for now.

• Casterly Rock finished its barracks, resumes the almost-complete archer, and will overflow into a chariot next turn with near-maximum overflow.
  
• Castle Black completes a slow-built archer, and continues on into walls.  I may have to 2-pop-whip an axe/spear just because it will soon have a lot of pop.
  
• Winterfell finishes its whipped work boat, and starts another.  That work boat is going to take a peek at the northern island before it returns to improve seafood once Winterfell expands borders.
  
• Highgarden now has a horse pasture.  It'll be connected next turn.
  
• Our GNP still bites.
  

[Dark Savant]

Turn 76 (975 BC) - Part 2

Our scouting work boat runs into a continuous JR4 land-sea border.



JR4 almost certainly has a galley very close.  Next turn, I consider whether to try to crash through with the work boat, or go around the island.  (Probably the latter -- it'd be easy for my work boat to get in his way accidentally.)

In other news this turn:

• Charriu is the first rival to show up with Horses, one turn ahead of us.
  
• whipped three times this turn.  Hmm.
  

[Dark Savant]

I played early in the turnset, for once. 

Turn 77 (950 BC) - Part 1

The work boat from Winterfell has a few turns to poke northward until it can actually work seafood.  Anyone up on the northern island?



Nope.

I move our galley east and dump its contents on the southern island.  Anyone there?



Nope.  I'm not going to plant directly on the silver; I debated that, but the current location is more defensible, eventually pulls in silver commerce, and get the crab in first-ring.  (I'm sacrificing an earlier silver connection and one forest in return.)

The galley now contains two workers, which can be put on the silver hill next turn.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 77 (950 BC) - Part 2

Core overview:

• Horses are now connected by road at Highgarden.  A third worker finishes a chop there; its terrace completes next turn.
  
• Casterly Rock finishes up that previous archer (which heads east), and puts the overflow into a chariot.
  
• Castle Black swaps to a spear, with less than 5 hammers into it, just so I can 2-pop-whip something there.  (Too bad we can't produce libraries yet.)
  
• I move an axe, archer, and worker to the hill on the border with ipecac, just for a mine.
  
• I start a pasture at White Harbor.  That only has one worker, but development there will not be fast anyway, with no forests to chop and one pre-Iron Working food tile.
  
• Our scouting work boat near JR4 retreats and is now going counterclockwise around that island.
  

We want more luxuries badly.  As Charismatic.  I've whipped hard in the failed bid for the Great Lighthouse.

In international news:

• JR4 immediately moved over all EP over to us.
  
• I'm putting +1 on wetbandit and +3 on JR4 now; we're not quite ready to sign off on wetbandit yet.
  

No sign of action on any of our borders.  We're #1 in power now, though it isn't by much.

[Dark Savant]

There's a brand new appropriate Civ 5 AI Battle video up!  (You need to watch full-screen to see details.)



This has been a Dark Savant Blog/postcount++ Post.

[Dark Savant]

Something that I should note:

No one has built the Oracle.  It's getting rather late for the Oracle -- late enough that I wonder if someone is going to try to grab Currency with it.

yuris125 is the most likely candidate for it.  He'll want to research Priesthood early even for non-Oracle reasons (for cheap Hindu temples).

WilliamLP is the other.  He still doesn't have Writing, though -- Metal Casting and Monarchy are your only real options if you don't have Writing.

Charriu, , JR4, and wetbandit don't have either Meditation or Polytheism, so they can't be building it soon.