[SPOILER] No, it is I, superjm, who is behind you!

[DaveV]

I don't think I've ever used the woodsman promotion, but I can see it working pretty well on this map.

[superjm]

T51


Bob's capital is named Makoto, so it looks like Danganronpa is the order the day over in Dwarf land. 

T52



Scout redlined by an incoming warrior, which is pretty annoying while having defensive cover, at least it stayed alive. I have another animal capture scout running into the jungle as you can see.

T53



After some thinking, I'm shifting gears. Cottages need to be matured so I should prioritize them early and give my incoming workers stuff to do since I'm not planning on farm everything, so Education it is. Also means when I do tech Cartography I can double revolt into Apprenticeship as well.

T54



Oh yeah, I captured a lion last turn. Almost forgot to get the Carnival for cages, getting that out of the way quickly.

T55



I lose yet another scout, highly promoted this time, despite what I can only assume is overwhelming odds on defense, to a lion of all things.  

T56



And then luck swings the other way yet again, as a griffon in the fog is captured inbetween turns by yet another highly promoted scout, which conveniently ends up on a nearby mountain, revealing both a gorilla and a wolf within spitting distance of the scout. Assuming no more RNG shenanigans, all I need to find is another tiger and we're in business

[superjm]

Also quick question cause Hidden Nationality mechanics always seem kind of wonky, do barbs and/or animals attack HN units? Or is that only relevant in player-to-player interactions?

[shallow_thought]

Also quick question cause Hidden Nationality mechanics always seem kind of wonky, do barbs and/or animals attack HN units? Or is that only relevant in player-to-player interactions?

I'm pretty certain they can, and will, attack HN units. It's not like the Barbarian trait, where neither you nor (non-animal) barbs can attack each other. I've often found it pretty hard ot keep captured animals alive on the trek home, particularly as they start off injured.

[superjm]

T57



Met Cairo and the Calabim finally. I could inch more towards his lands, but I'll probably head up north to meet Auro ASAP, if possible.

T58



Started working the bard slot in the cap, which I would ideally use to pop Drama and then Sanitation in succession for some quick super farms, but it's a bit risky as well. I can also work the merchant slot to get it out faster and even a Great Merchant wouldn't be a bad get early on to either settle or pop a tech or just GA it.

T59



4th ring capital pop let's me get started on the copper early, and I'll have a bear ready for the next city as well.

T60



Nothing much of note this turn, so here's a bit of cheating as you get a quick animation of current demos of people I know.

T61



I really like this event usually, but seeing as I already have two golds available in my land and only one copper that I can see I unfortunately will have to decline.

[DaveV]

Your demos look really good, even discounting the GNP inflation from your Creative trait.

[superjm]

I don't think culture is reflected in the GNP, the inflation is coming from the 20% prerequisite bonus from Ancient Chants plus the Known Tech Bonus from one of Cairo or Bob already knowing Education.

[DaveV]

The GNP graph doesn't include culture, but the GNP number on the summary page with rival best/average/worst definitely does.

[superjm]

The GNP graph doesn't include culture, but the GNP number on the summary page with rival best/average/worst definitely does.

It seems to include culture from specialists and commerce but NOT culture from buildings or traits. I dunno, I'd have to look at the code because I feel like that's different from BtS which seemingly does take trait culture into account. Could someone else clarify things for us?

Anyway

T62



And there's the tiger Surely with literally 230% of bonuses on defense I should have no issue surviving an attack from this thing even at only 2 strength, right? Right????

T63



Spoilers: Tiger didn't even attack and it dies immediately on this turn, what an anti-climax. For more exciting news, Master of Orion was founded, Bob also just placed his 4th city Aoi and Cairo placed two cities himself to get up to five.

T64



Tiger on the way back home. Timing is perfect too, as I'm building three workers out of my cap to get more cottages and farms rolling and the tiger will be there just in time for the last one to finish, and I can use a couple turns of growing into cottages to get the Menagerie done quickly before getting into more settlers and then Dereptus.

T65



Still in "waiting around for things to happen" mode, so here's where's my first completed cottage will be. I'll be farming the flood plains and improving the pigs when I can, but otherwise it'll be nothing but cottages and mines in this city.

T66



And that's the last player. Auro has four cities, I'm hoping he's still focusing on expansion and such and we won't see Samhain for a while still.

[superjm]

T67



I'll be detouring to Fishing after Cartography so I can start settling all my coastal spots, starting with the crab/gold/sugar spot out west. Will probably get a work boat out to explore for any islands I couldn't see before.

T68



Oh ffs   This isn't too bad I guess, this city wasn't growing into anything useful anyway right now and the settler is coming out in two turns regardless. Just annoying is all.

T69



Did a bit of finagling to get Menagerie down to 4 turns, and can even grow in 3 turns regardless in the subsequent turns. It occurred to me later that I could've just overflowed a 5-turn build into a settler for more growth, but this works out regardless for reasons you'll see.

T70



And I get the other gold/copper event in Alpha Centauri   This one actually is tempting, but the commerce will be more beneficial in the long run I feel. I'm workshopping this city site so production won't be an issue looking forward.

T71



I'm waiting for the great person in my capital to spawn so no City States/Apprenticeship juuuust yet. If I get the bard, I bulb Drama and just revolt as per usual, but if I get the merchant I'll pop it for an early GA and switch for free while jumpstarting my economy (and I might just go for Drama anyway in that case).

T72



Speaking of great people, finishing the Menagerie let's me get it a turn sooner, so it all works out  I could have done one more turn of the merchant specialist to do the same thing of course, but I really don't want to seed the pool with merchant points anymore than I already have. As it is I'll have roughly 78% odds for a Bard, which is fine by me.