[spoilers] Commodore is absolutely confident this will end well.

[dtay]

Ooh yeah this requires some thought. I'll noodle on it and write-up my thoughts later today.

Pigs + Copper first ring city? Settling on stone interesting idea, obviously want horses... yeah lots of priorities to balance

TBS as neighbor - well, we'll be won't be consigned to "TBS wins on the other side of the world with little ability for us to interfere as he runs away?" Silver linings...

[Commodore]

Well, next turn the settler on that fortified warrior will make city #3, so that's probably relevant. :twril: I opted for gold/copper/cows all online fast coupled with good defensive terrain as an easy default. Settler for city #4 won't be too much longer, however...

[Commodore]

Here's Wendigo. It's not the best it could be and I *really* want it to get culture, but securing copper and gold immediately is worthwhile. Costs are notable already but Org/Pro don't care.

Wendigo are basically Arctic Sasquatch. Well, not really no but also maybe yes? Tales of howling white-furred beasts who hunger and stalk seem right, but the more interesting part of Wendigo folklore is how they're made; cannibalism. According to most tales the Wendigo are made when someone in the cold and snows eats the flesh of a companion. I've not seen much research about turning white and losing your feet, but the cannibalism taboo is very clearly adaptive. Nasty prion diseases like kuru are just one good feast on your buddy's brains away. Maybe don't do that?

My local buddies on this continent don't have much brainpower. Eesh, look at those research bonii...

[Commodore]

Turn 50

My empire might not be big, but it's at least cryptid. I'm weirdly healthy in GNP (remember, zero culture outside of palace), and otherwise just average.

I'm not going to grunt and strain too much about the graphs, nobody is being mega-weird here. Lack of food-tier neighbors makes Commodore sad.

[Commodore]

Also, why are my neighbors SETTLING ON GEMS? This also explains the GNP.

Nobody on my five-blob landed Oracle, but someone landed it really early. Any questions about the game and my view of it?

[Krill]

You know how sometimes lurkers ask players how they will win? I'm not asking that.

I want to know how you will lose.

[Commodore]

You know how sometimes lurkers ask players how they will win? I'm not baking that.

I want to know how you will lose.

Nice. Your lurking was missed, Krill. 

My blob is interesting, going as it does clockwise down-tier: 
Tier 1 (TBS)
Tier 2 (Commodore)
Tier 3 (Tarkeel)
Tier Superdeath (Superdeath) 
Tier Bottom (Horrible situation with joshybravo/Vanrobber playing random turns)

So the worst neighbor situation in terms of gaming-winningness is mine, with Mr. Perfect on one side and Sane Newbie With A Strong UU on the other. Pouring one out for Tarkeel, though, as his situation is easily the worst situation in terms of gaming-losingness. I'm honestly a little lost on how best to advance my cause here. TBS will be able to eat joshy at his leisure, and I don't have that option with Tarkeel unless Superdeath Superdeaths him really hardcore. And then I'd be neighboring Superdeath.   There's a chance for something edible across the sea to my northwest, I guess, but the winner of this game is going to be a King of the Blob, I think.

Ergo, how I lose is going to be in a nasty duel with TBS, trying to leverage a Praet edge before Chucklenaughts. I don't have high hopes for that one, but what else is there to do?

[Commodore]

Alternately, I'll die to badly-timed mutual invasions of TBS and the barbarians.

I mean, not really, but I'll be annoyed to have to whip an axe here. Gross. Part of life with barbs, makes for an interesting game.

[Commodore]

Well, I'm interested in how you are going to win especially since I played my first civ 4 turn here.

If you leave TBS for a while things will probably go out of hand, so how can you conquer him as soon as possible?

Well, STEP 1: Don't lose the game to a 50/50 coinflip.

Whew, that could have been bad. If TBS had moved on to the copper, we'd have had to try to clear it with Wendigo's garrison, otherwise there would have been a real chance that he'd cut the copper and the axe in Sasquatch would have gone poof just as the barb hit. Strictly suboptimal, that would have been.

In general I'm going to go Sailing->IW next. TBS is on the outer coast rather than inner coast with these good cities, so the path is pretty clearly copper-targetting sea rampage if we want this to be a duel. Hrm. Yeah, basically I need to get back into duel mindset here, that's how to win...barring someone *really* juicier just over the sea to the northwest.

[Thoth]

I'm going to be disappointed if you can't get at least one of your neighbours to pack everything up on galleys and invade someone else in order to get away from you.