DaveV spoiler thread: Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards

[DaveV]

Arrgh. Second attempt after first post was eaten by "server too busy".

Lots of news this turn: first, the events screen:



I wonder how someone got enough XP to build FotT? In decreasing order of likelihood: a win at ridiculous odds; a hunter beating a bunch of animals; a hero event; lots more wandering barbs than I've seen; potent disciple units.

OO is an interesting choice, since Tsunami appears to be severely nerfed by the map.

The other big news of the turn: I have contact with Lewwyn. I can't see any of his units, so he either made contact with a fast unit and moved back, or it's a spider or hawk.



Lewwyn is running the standard early-game civics. Ichabod has been using his Spiritual trait well and bouncing around. His current civics show he's trying to build more or faster units (the only reason I can think of for Tribalism), and generate GPP.













The graphs tell the story of the game pretty well. I built extra early warriors, and my GNP and expansion suffered. Going for ultra-early Aristocracy meant low crop yield. If there had been as many barbs as I'd expected, those would have been smart moves; as things played out, it means I'm rapidly descending into irrelevancy.



Next turn, Oriental comes out of revolt. I'll whip the monument, and pile a bunch of workers in to start improving tiles. If they're not eaten by a spider. Sigh.

[DaveV]

Another great sage BiaDL. One of my warriors has volunteered to be spider bait, with a team of recruiters lurking just out of the spider's vision:



And I know where Ichabod lives:

[DaveV]

Events log:



I was expecting the spider to eat my warrior, but the Necronomicon is interesting. It pretty much has to be Ichabod who built it, probably mostly for the water mana. He'd better be careful about which tiles he Springs, though...

Not shown in the log: Ilios converted to FoL. With many curses about losing the holy city, no doubt.

The spider didn't take much damage attacking my warrior, so I sent in a warrior to soften him up:



And, he did exactly zero damage. I had another warrior who could go in at 43% odds, the same as my scouts were getting. But at this point, after sacrificing two warriors, I really needed to capture the spider instead of killing it. So, I gritted my teeth, attacked with my scout, and was greatly relieved to hear a trumpet flourish:

[DaveV]

Turn 92: no new events, for a change. I'll finish a settler next turn, and use it for a city on the woods where the spider was hiding. I'm last in power now; I really need to get cranking on the warriors. Especially because I expect to lose several attacking the second barb city.

[Thoth]

an 8xp Spider is rather nice...

Hope you have some fun with it.

[DaveV]

an 8xp Spider is rather nice...

Hope you have some fun with it.

I have to find my fun where I can at this point .

Turn 94: built my new city, and realized I'd messed up my naming scheme with the previous one. Renamed the former Oriental to Reading and the new city becomes the real Oriental. Apparently the lurkers aren't even paying attention.

With the exploration provided by the first ring borders, I discovered some riverside grassland floodplains (). Maybe that's part of the reason why my crop yield looks so bad:

[Selrahc]

Turn 94: built my new city, and realized I'd messed up my naming scheme with the previous one. Renamed the former Oriental to Reading and the new city becomes the real Oriental. Apparently the lurkers aren't even paying attention.

You'se guys have got a different, weird monopoly.

[DaveV]

You'se guys have got a different, weird monopoly.

Huh? Ours is the original, man! Any other version that's causing you confusion is just a cheap copy!

Turn 95 report: I whipped a Mage's Guild in Community Chest, it will grow back to size 6 in three turns, and I'll whip an adept. I'm also three turns away from founding Ashen Veil. Then I'll research writing (finally!) and will be faced with a decision: go straight to Infernal Pact (unlikely, leaves me with just non-bronze warriors and Rosier for defense), detour to Priesthood (lets me start building up XP on Ritualists, lets me do Cure Disease on Diseased Corpses), or Mining and Copper (would give me some badly-needed hammers, cheaper than Priesthood).

My scout stepped over the borders into barb lands, and saw yet another barb city:



I'll have to wait for the fourth member of the kill team. After they leave town, it should be pretty easy to take out the two archers. Assuming no one else snatches the city out from underneath me. At least I have the substantial advantage of moving first to make up for my botched opening.

[DaveV]

Turn 96: if no one grabs the Veil this turn, I'll found it at the end of next turn.

[DaveV]

And the holy city is Baltic. Mediterranean is set up better to build Rosier, but it's nice to have the extra culture in a border city. On the other hand, most of the tiles that will be claimed by that culture are peaks. On the gripping hand, that may give me visibility into Ichabod's lands. On the fourth hand, I should have my first adept (with automatic Floating Eye upgrade) in two more turns.

In foreign news, someone got a free Great Commander. I am getting so totally stomped in this game .