Miguelito gets tricked by magicians, but Bob isn't fooled. Kaiser rules from behind.

[Miguelito]

The turns are getting eventful.


The elephant had moved into the desert, but got thirsty apparently. I decided to use the opportunity of catching it on the desert, but now looking at it that is a floodplains tile, so no defense malus right? Anyways, we got lucky:


Also yes that is a str 7 hill giant. Dave completed the pact of Nilhorn recently, but we haven't made contact and I think they are named, so I'll assume it's a barbarian one. Bit scary, but the good thing is that our scouts get +50% on him since he's a beast (I assume he can't be tamed though, as we'd need the capture beast promo that is down at the end of the tech tree). We'll have to scouts and two warriors (all unexperienced), plus the injured scout and an injured c2/woodie/shock warrior if he walks straight towards us, so I'm not too worried.
We were not so lucky in the east:


I suspect Auror wants to plant on the tile our spider is on, or on the hill NE. So it's likely that his units will move this way next turn. His warrior is pointing W, which calmed me, but he has no actual reason to remain there. I really should have declared nationality. In that case I think the spider would have sat hidden under his units. Really need to hold off on sending the save until I write up the report, it's the second time in a row that I get clear on an error while writing .

Bob, is it exactly 50 gold that we should keep for GPs from events, or is it a bit more occasionally? I'm running 90% this turn so that we keep 54 (and still finish Edu in 2 turns). Fwiw remember that we already got the refugees event so no need to save for the settler. But i'd like to keep enough for GPs constantly after finishing Edu.

[civac2]

Sacrifices have to be made for the turn pace. 

[Jabah]

He can't see your spider therefore can't attack it or am I missing something ?

[Miguelito]

Sacrifices have to be made for the turn pace. 

Normally, yes (unironically), but Dave is 6 time zones behind me so it should not be a problem if I delay a bit.

He can't see your spider therefore can't attack it or am I missing something ?

I think NE is his next natural move, and since the spider is still flagged as barbarian I think he'll get to fight it, even if he doesn't see it first. Hence why I should have declared nationality, I think in that case he would have moved on the tile with the spider just siting there hidden.

[Jabah]

From my understanding, at least in SP, enemies can move on top of your hidden spider as long as they can't see you .
The reverse is not true of course you can't move on top of them with hidden nationality

[Miguelito]

I have no actual experience with that, so you may be right, and we might actually get to eat a worker next turn

But, if I move a warrior on a tile where a barb spider happens to sit hiding, that spider will defend, or doesn't it? So I figured it would be the same if he moves his units to the square where our spider is.

[Kaiser]

Don you see adjacent spiders?

[Miguelito]

only with a scout, and Auror should like warriors better (although he likely has at least one)

[Miguelito]

we got two more turns out, but I don't have time to report properly right now. The spider lived, if by luck, as Auror did not move his units. I moved the spider into his borders, meanwhile saw him improving copper (but the turn after the worker was covered, so no temptation), and a settling party (settler, 2 workers, 2 warriors, thane. He's not leaving anything to chance).

mackoti popped his worldspell (for which I think he needed construction), and you can also see him ahead on the scoreboard. So this game is going as predicted. But that's not our problem until we meet him

A second great scientist was born. I don't know how they do it that fast; I thought we were rather quick to mysticism and ours is still 19 turns away (should be 16, but we lost one turn due to unhappiness while the scout had to go and kill an orc, and another to speed up the settler. The first one I chalked up to Dave being Phi (still fast), but that second one?

Oh yes, we're 2 turns away from 2 new settlers. It's possible we'll be last to 4 cities, but maybe ahead of Auror at least to 5.

[Bobchillingworth]

You should store at least 75 gold if you want to save for a free great person from an event, as that's how much you need for the free Great Engineer (50 is for the free Prophet).


Jabah is correct that Auro cannot see your Spider unless he has detector unit within visual range (at this stage of the game a Scout is by far most likely). He'll just occupy the same tile as you if he moves to it, though he won't know your unit is there. If you move to a tile he occupies however you'll attack. Keep the HN active, the Spider is much more useful being able to pick off a stray Worker or Settler without having to declare war first, though he'll surely start building a Scout the turn after you do so (especially if it's in his borders, since a wild Spider would never enter them).


Note that Spiders can be sacrificed for a city building which gives you a Silk resource with one of the latter recon techs, so don't waste the unit even if you have nothing useful to do with it in the short term. Also note that barb Goblins and Spiders can see yours and will attack it if they get the opportunity.


Also, I'd patrol the FP / desert area with a couple Scouts with capture animal, because that's where Scorpions are most likely to spawn and capturing one and being able to exploit its free Nature II promotion will be a huge deal.