[SPOILERS] DaveV: The vampire bites! Goodbye level 9.

[DaveV]

Mollifying unhappy citizens is what the Calabim do best.

Eh? I thought their preference was to mealify their unhappy citizens

[DaveV]

Turn 83. The wolf explores the frozen north, finding nothing of interest.



In the west, Thoth is showing a quite reasonable paranoia.



In the east, I've moved into plako's territory.



I'm hoping he won't cancel OB, because then I'll have to declare war on him to contact Serdoa. I'm trying to be non-threatening: I don't have visibility on his city, my scout is a poor city attacker. Next turn, I'll move onto his cows; if he lets that slide, I'll contact Serdoa the following turn. In a spectacular show of indecision, I went back to saving gold for the Serdoa bonus beakers.

[DaveV]

Turn 84.

Wolf: more exploration, more ice, impending death.



Scout: making contact with Serdoa next turn.



Griffon: abandons pretense, moves into Thoth's territory.

[DaveV]

Turn 85: massive picture dump time.

In the west, my griffon continues to explore.



I made contact with Serdoa in the east; now the scout will work on defogging a coastal route to the Amurites.



This gives me contact with everyone in the game; let's see where we stand in the diplo screens:



Apparently, Serdoa also knows everyone. He must have contacted Thoth and Ichabod on the wrap-around. Current civics:



Demos and graphs dump:

Top five cities:



Finally, a shot of my core (after ending turn; I finished Fishing on turn 85).

[DaveV]

Turn 86. The griffon is still poking around in Thoth's territory.




I'm in position to settle my (eventual) horse city next turn.




There was a barb goblin standing where I wanted to settle the city, so I (barely) killed him with my super scout.

I can see borders of a plako city in the land between us.




I guess I can't complain about the position of that one, although I had my eyes on some of those tiles for the distant future. More plako cities mean more foreign trade routes for me, so keeping him friendly is a priority.

Current city count: plako: 7, Thoth: 6, Ichabod, Serdoa, and DaveV: 5.

[DaveV]

Turn 87. New city:



This is a decent city, and will be a good city when the borders pop. It's a little light on production, but a Governor's Manor will help a lot with that. Most importantly, it's a stepping stone to the south and the double-happy city.

In the west, griffon, blah, blah.



In the east, my scout is leaving plako's territory. I spotted a second island last turn but forgot to screenshot it.



Demos are looking very good.



City list:




At EoT, I finished Sailing and trade arrows popped up for plako and Serdoa. All my cities are showing 2-commerce trade routes with Amurite cities.

[DaveV]

I was expecting to have some trade requests when opening turn 88, but there weren't any. Let's see what kind of deals are possible:





Neither has anything to offer, really. Serdoa, despite his complaints about his terrible position, has Horseback Riding and Philosophy, both of which put him ahead of me (and Marble - can you say Bone Palace?).

Demographics now show a massive trade deficit for plako. This is overstated, really: I'm collecting 12 commerce in trade routes instead of the 6 I'd gain from internal trade. So the actual difference is only 6.



Ichabod and plako are pretty much tracking my recent power spike. I hope Ichabod isn't trying to beat me to the Yggsdrasil site.



Here's my plan for said site:




In the northwest, my griffon has wandered off into the wilderness.

[DaveV]

Turn 89: I miscounted the turns in my last post, and had to move out with my underwhelming stack. I hope there aren't too many tough units piled up in the barb city. The barb warrior was almost certainly built in a city, so I think that's a good sign.



The griffon moved to the map edge, and will head back south to annoy Thoth some more.




In the east, a barb warrior is approaching. I'm not worried.



The settler from Magic Whistle will plant a city south of the sheep. That city's first job will be to build a galley for settling the islands.

After I ended turn, Unicorn Horn grew (it has +1 happy from its Dancing Bear), and made it onto the Top 5 list.

[DaveV]

Turn 90: one turn from finding out just how tough the barb garrison is.



Edit: haha, a polar bear has chased the cows out of their pen.

[DaveV]

Turn 91: the big setup turn. I finally gain vision on the barb city. Worst case: two weak archers, three double-promo warriors, possibly some random animals seeking shelter. Best case: just the archers. Reality: pretty much right in the middle.



The unpromoted warrior must have wandered into the city, and probably bumped out the two-promo guy I killed near Speed Boots. I feel pretty confident about being able to take out this garrison. My workers can build a road on the tile where the bear is standing, so he can start dancing next turn. One note on the bear: I had to cast Declare Nationality so he could use the road outside my territory. Hidden Nationality units can use roads within your territory, but not in neutral territory.

In the north:



In the east, I killed the invading warrior on the pigs tile, and moved out a scout pair to do some exploring.



Probably the wolf that killed my earlier captured wolf. I'm sure he's eager to take the place of the guy he killed.

And, pearls .