[SPOILERS] DaveV and Kandros Fir sing songs about money

[DaveV]

I'm way behind on my reporting and don't have time for a full update, but I've traded maps with Cairo and mackoti, and am still asking the question: what have I done to make you hate me so much, Bobchillingworth?

Mr. Cairo's land:



Wine, gems, silk, cotton, two (!) incense. Mapmaker love:  

Aurorarcher's land (see post #38)

Wine, gems, silk, dyes, fur. Mapmaker love:  

mackoti's land:



Wine, gold, dyes, fur. Mapmaker love:  

Me: gold, cotton, incense. Mapmaker love:  

[DaveV]

Here's an overview from turn 69. I'm building warriors because Auro and mack have a peace treaty, and I seem like the only other logical target for the witches:



At huge sacrifice to my economy, I built the carnival before the market in Simply Red, to make the odds of a great bard about 51% (instead of about 40% if I built the market first). But it looks like it's not going to matter, because the game probably won't last that long.



Here are some demographic shots:

[DaveV]

Apparently Cairo is grinding XP on animals, rather than capturing them. I guess he can replace any tigers he kills.



It looks as though mack and Auro's enforced peace has expired. Mack has built Rathus Denmora, and the power graphs are criss crossing.



I'm probably going to have to jump in on one side or the other, but for now I'm happy to have them keep each other busy.

[DaveV]

And apparently I never posted the video for The Beatles. I had a choice of at least three songs, but picked the most recent one. I'm too young to be a big Beatles fan, but I generally prefer their later stuff to the early efforts.

[DaveV]

The barbs sent a single combat II warrior at me; it was much easier to handle than a stack of four.



Also, all of mackoti's units are now invisible. That's one world spell out of the way.

[DaveV]

mackoti sent me an open borders offer, but instead of accepting it I declared war on him. He appears to be winning his war against Auro, and the worst result there would be for Auro to peace out so mack can eat me at his leisure. I've seen this movie before, where the leader is allowed to tech away and conquer one player at a time.

[shallow_thought]

Any chance of getting anyone else to join the dogpile? Doesn't look as if Cairo is in the right geographical position, unfortunately.

Also, sadly flat terrain you're having to fight on there. But I reckon you had to try this.

[DaveV]

Cairo could contribute to the war, but I think he will see this as a chance to build more stuff in his sandbox. superjm seems to be in the opposite corner, across the Sahara desert. I expect those two to leave the heavy lifting to Auro and me.

[DaveV]

I popped my great person at end of turn 80. 58% chance of a bard, but I got the merchant anyway. All those turns of lost benefit from a market, for nothing. Sigh.

In war news, mack abandoned Skarlas and I auto-razed it.

Strangely, I made contact with superjm during my turn without ever seeing one of his units.

[DaveV]

Turn 81, with pictures this time.



The mouseover shows the defenders in Vetus; the bottom of the screen shows my trailing stack (south of the cows). Next turn, I'll have 12 units next to Vetus.

I used about half of the stupid merchant to bulb Horseback Riding, after stupidly putting last turn's research into it. I debated between that and a golden age, and figured the bulb is probably better.

Since mack is probably complaining bitterly, here are the graphs of an incipient runaway: