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

[DaveV]

Turn 101. Another great person for plako.



The barbs near Towel sat in place instead of attacking, so I attacked them (at odds in the high 90s). My scouts found yet another lion, and the Ring of Carcer in the upper right. Brigit is a very good unit, but feasting a vampire up to level 15 is a very long term project.



The northern scouts found another deer near the Dragon Bones. With Hunting, I could build a decent city there, but I don't think I really need any extra happiness or health now (I'll be picking up some of both from my island cities). The captured bear took a Mobility I promotion and is hiding under the bloodpet just outside my borders.




The griffons found some more mountains to climb.



The barb in the south moved onto the gold, and I killed him.



Thoth is still building zombies .



Demographics show another surge for me. This is probably not a good thing.

[DaveV]

Turn 102. The stupid lion did a ridiculous amount of damage to my scout; the scout has to heal for four turns now, so I deleted the lion in retaliation. His uninjured friend stepped out to take a closer look at Brigit.



My scouts in the north decided to waste a turn exposing the row of tiles at the edge of the map.



The griffons split up again.



It's good to see that at least some of the pyre zombies are somewhere other than my border.



Looks like a dead end for this guy; he'll move back to the north.

Demographics:



Power:



Getting a little scary.

[Mardoc]

Silly question: what is a Towel good for in Nethack? The rest of your items I can at least make a guess about, or are pretty self-explanatory.

[DaveV]

Silly question: what is a Towel good for in Nethack? The rest of your items I can at least make a guess about, or are pretty self-explanatory.

Nethack spoilers:

1. Lets you blind (and unblind) yourself at will. Useful against monsters with gaze attacks; also very useful if you have ESP.

2. Will clean grease from hands.

[DaveV]

Turn 103. Serdoa built the Heron Throne:



Thoth grabbed the Dragon Bones:



My wandering scout found a warrior:



Griffon number one found another pyre zombie and another Thoth city.



I finished my galley and settler, and am set to plant my island gems city.



Power watch:



Demos. Ichabod's GNP spiked up again; he must be running some form of binary research.

[DaveV]

Turn 104. Another wolf suicides into my scouts. Is there rabies going around or something?



The warrior moved adjacent to my scouts; I retreated them but found a second warrior. My spider moved up there to pick up a mobility promotion, but he won't defend against a warrior, so I have to hope I win the 2.4 vs. 3.6 battle.



I dumped my stack onto the island, and ran back to pick up a worker and an incoming bear.



My scouts in the central north are looking for the bear I saw a few turns ago.



The griffons are scrambling to reveal tiles:



I have to say I'm impressed with the map. It's turn 104, and I think everyone has some expansion room.

My third griffon stepped out onto a hill to look at Ichabod's borders, then back onto the mountain.



City list, showing me pushing GPP in a couple cities.




I researched Trade at the end of my turn, and now I can see everyone's techs (unfortunately, they can also see mine).




From top to bottom:

plako - has Cartography, Drama, Mysticism, Sanitation, Knowledge of the Ether; lacks Code of Laws, Horseback Riding, Sailing, Trade, Warfare.
Thoth - has Hunting, Mysticism, Knowledge of the Ether; lacks Fishing, Sailing, Trade, Writing.
Serdoa - has Masonry, Construction, Mysticism, Philosophy, Way of the Earthmother; lacks Bronze Working (!), Festivals, Horseback Riding, Sailing, Trade, Warfare, Writing.
Ichabod - has Archery, Cartography, Hunting, Masonry, Mysticism, Way of the Forest; lacks Code of Laws, Horseback Riding, Sailing, Trade.

I lost the double-prerequisite bonus, but gained some trade routes. I should pick up intercontinental trade routes next turn when I plant my island city. It didn't seem to hurt my GNP:

[DaveV]

Turn 105 starts with some events in the log:



After some thinking, I've gone back to Military Strategy as a target tech before Feudalism. The other guys don't have the techs to be scary yet (Ichabod: Construction, plako and Thoth: Sorcery. I think I now believe Serdoa's grumbling about being out of this game). Thoth has Skeletons and Pyre Zombies, but I think I can defend against those with my current techs, especially since he doesn't seem to be massing them against me. plako has Floating Eyes and will have much better map intelligence than I do, which will make it even harder for me to attack him. plako has already nabbed one of the first-to-tech Great People, and I don't really want him to grab the Great Commander as well.

All that said, on to the turn.

A polar bear showed up to menace my wolf in the northeast.



I killed the two barb warriors with the bloodpet and spider. The wolf moved away.



I build the island city, and moved in my galley with the worker and bear, planning to convert the bear to a dancing bear. That would have worked if the dancing bear were created by a spell; since it's a great person ability, I need some movement available on the bear to make it happen. Sigh, next turn.



Annoyingly enough, the game thinks I should grant independence to my just-founded city. Um, no. You can also see my great person time going down as I crank up my two great person machines.




In the south, my griffon is still moving to scope out some more tiles in Ichabod's territory.



In the north, I've found the bear. Let's see if he's brave enough to attack my scouts.



Griffon #2 is going to expose some more tiles in Thoth's territory.



Griffon #3 is risking one turn of exposure to gain access to another mountain chain (and more progress toward circumnavigation). He moved west after this screenshot.



Researching Mysticism gave me a 44% bonus, since everyone else already had it. Running at a slight deficit let me research it in one turn, so no one else will see this GNP number:



Instead, these are my end-of-turn demo numbers after moving on to Philosophy. Now that plako has Sailing, he's taken my place as #1 in foreign trade and kicked me into the basement.

[DaveV]

Turn 106. Ichabod pops a golden age and converts to Leaves.



He still doesn't have Construction, and his border garrison looks pretty light:



Out-and-back for griffon #2.



Griffon #1 survived to move into the mountains.



Remnants of Patria is great to have early game. At this point in the game, I'm much happier to have Yggsdrasil, even though its yield is lower (same as a plains cow, and I'll never research the enhancing techs).

In the north, it looks as though the bear *is* going to attack my scouts.



In the northeast, the wolf did some more scouting, while the scouts did their last turn of healing.



The galley did some scouting of his own.



Ichabod is slightly ahead of me in demos with his golden age. I'm happy to have someone else be the tall poppy.

[DaveV]

Turn 107 reveals that the bear did attack my scouts, and barely lost. The scout was able to promo-heal, and scooted back inside my borders to finish healing. The other scout is escorting the bear back home.



The wolf found some whales. I'd only been planning on building two more settlers, but I may have to squeeze out one more for another happy.



Griffon #1 found some barb borders right next to Thoth.



Maybe that's the target for his buildup? He does seem to have a bunch of units in the area:



Speaking of his buildup:



His power notched ahead of mine before I cranked out another Moroi at end of turn.



His culture is also pressing right up against mine now .



I forgot to take my cities shot until after end of turn, so all the counters are one lower than they should be.

[DaveV]

Turn 108. A barb warrior is menacing my wolf.



So he runs away. And finds something interesting.



I better move inside before Mr. Floating Eye finds it and picks up a free golden age.

A little west of there, my scouts have found the bear I knew was lurking.



My griffons are exploring.







Thoth is improving his land, with some disposable guardians.



Ichabod has researched Cartography, and an alliance appears to be forming against me .







Top 5 cities, since I haven't shown it in a while.



And demographics. I'm ahead of Ichabod when he's in gold-amassing mode, even though he's in a golden age . When I pop my golden age in a few turns, things will really get ugly.