Turn 175 (1150 AD) State of the World VI
Not much to report domestically, so this one is dedicated to the world at large, which consists of two continents: the (much) larger of which is divided into clear east and west parts. Let's try to tell the very short story of each of these:
The Lesser Smaller Continent
Only five players started on the smaller continent, clockwise from the upper left they are: DonovanZoi, MagicScience, Ginguelito, GKC, and Hubabl.
Ginguelito still looks like the leader in this part of the world, but has actually been eclipsed by DonovanZoi in city-count after their invasion of MagicScience got bogged down and DZ took most of the spoils. GKC and Hubabl had some early border tensions from what we could gather, but both are on their way out as Pindicator (lower left edge) has launched a cross-continental invasion. I'd still rank Ginguelito as in it with a hope, but they need to come out on top of this war.
The Western Kingdoms
This part was more crowded, and had seven players. Again from the upper right corner they are Greenline, Piccadilly, Superdeath, Gavagai, and Scooter's lonely island exile. Plemo is briefly visible east of Superdeath.
Gavagai had a very rough start but managed to get the better of Xist to claim territory southwards. Piccadilly chased Greenline onto the islands at some point, while GT had some early border tensions with Scooter. Just as GT was in the process of eliminating scooter, Gavagai attacked and eliminated GT, before turning his attention on Piccadilly. The result is that Gavagai is one of the two clear frontrunners this game.
The Eastern Kingdoms
If the western kingdom was crowded, what should we call this murderfest? Starting from the upper left and going down and clockwise, we have Plemo, ourselves,
Amicalola, pindi,
Bing, Commodore and
Dreylin.
Plemo had an explosive early game, reaching out to eight cities at a point where the second best had just settled their fifth; even more impressively it was done with minimal whipping. I still hold that the land between us wasn't worth fighting over, so we went south to cut off Dreylin before he could grow into a monster, which we'd only just finished when plemo attacked from the fog, costing us the game and saving Amica from being our next victim. After a long simmering war where we teamed up with Superdeath vs plemo, Commodore got knights around T125 and quickly devoured Bing in the south. Around the same time Pindicator started his horcher war against Amicalola over the jungle between them (which still to this day isn't cleared). Commodore then went for Astronomy and settled loads of island cities, before eventually joining the war against plemo to deal a crippling blow. We've since signed an unease peace with plemo, our goal of stopping his victory in this game seemingly complete.
Commodore is the other clear frontrunner in this game, but pindi is also in it with a chance and they seem to have decided to not fight each other for now. Instead Pindi has shipped his knights further eastwards onto the smaller continent, and is eating GKC and Hubabl.
Stuck in the Middle
Just a closer look at the middle-spot plemo got stuck with:
I really don't envy his position here, but I think he'd have been better off building relations with us and attacking west into Superdeath; both from a richness of land perspective but also neighbor quality.
Raw Data
First off, the techs:
Gavagai's GNP lead is fresh of a golden age, and is partially fueled by culture, but still impressive:
Hammerss aren't that different from GNP:
Commodore actually has a slight lead in food, for now:
Lastly, power: Commodore has been slowly arming up for the last 10 turns, and is approaching the three monster who have been stuck in wars for much of the last 50 turns:
So, how do I rate everyone?
Tier IV (Being eaten): Hubabl, GKC, MagicScience
Tier III (Future food of various quality): Greenline, Superdeath, Plemo, DonovanZoi and us
Tier II (Still in it): Pindicator, Piccadilly, Ginguelito (more due to potential than current standing)
Tier I (Top dogs): Commodore, Gavagai
The future food tier is slightly unfair and covers a lot of ground; it's just a matter of time before Greenline gets eaten but Donovan is actually larger than Mig, but trailing in tech. Our current plan is to remain unpalatable to our immediate neighbors, and if we get Riesengardes we might be able to outlive most of the future food tier.
