[SPOILERS] Parkin brings the rain down in Africa: Churchill of Zulu

[Lord Parkin]

Turn 99

Someone got a Great Prophet. Wonder if we'll see a shrine soon to determine who.

Haram's definitely stretching himself with his latest city plants - four cities into his empire and still no capital to be seen.

Whipped the Lighthouse in Elephant in order to gain a 3f/2c lake. Overflowing into a Work Boat to net the Crab at Jackal.

[Lord Parkin]

Turn 99 (continued)

The Hindu shrine was built, so wetbandit got the Great Prophet. Interesting, I was expecting it to be HitAnyKey.

[Lord Parkin]

[Lord Parkin]

Turn 100 (continued)

Another nice round number, so it seems like a good time to once again evaluate how our opponents have been doing so far. For reference, my turn 50 evaluation is here. If you want to refresh yourself on some of the key events of the game, check my summary post here.

- Mackoti (Pro/Imp Germany) continues to do well. The second largest nation in the world behind Gawdzak, and with the Great Library to his name now. A crippled Gavagai lies to his north, holding the Colossus which will surely fall into Mackoti's hands before the next 50 turns are out. Definitely one of the strongest civs at this point, if not the strongest outright.

- Gawdzak (Agr/Chm Rome) has proved himself a fiercely competent player despite being a newcomer to this site. He currently presides over the largest nation in the world, with both the Great Lighthouse and Pyramids to his name. His amazing trait combination has certainly not hurt him, and he's been utilizing it well with frequent whips over the course of the game. He hasn't lost nor taken any cities to date, indicating he's probably been able to expand in peace. With Praetorians surely online by now, he's unlikely to be attacked for some time yet. Certainly a formidable adversary.

- Kuro/wetbandit (Agr/Pro India) have rebounded from what seemed like a floundering position at T50 to become one of the leading nations of the world at T100. I wonder how much of that had to do with Kuro leaving and wetbandit taking over full control of the turn playing. In any event, they're now in a strong position with the third largest nation in the world and the Hindu shrine recently built. No conflicts fought yet either, as far as I can tell. Another top contender.

- Haram (Agr/Fin Mongolia) fell behind for a while following T50, founding his 4th and 5th cities extremely late. Possibly this was related to his declaration of war on GermanJojo at some point before we met him. Regardless, it seems he has now fully recovered and is presently equal with us in city count. Definitely one to watch.

- HitAnyKey (Fin/Pro Spain) seems to have finally suffered from his early pursuit of Buddhism and Stonehenge. At T50 it appeared he was doing surprisingly well, getting his 3rd city out on the same turn as SevenSpirits. However, at T100 he is now one of the smallest nations in the world - second only to the crippled Gavagai. SevenSpirits razed one of his recent cities, so perhaps he's been involved in a lengthy war which has set him back. Probably not a contender for victory any more, but certainly still capable of influencing the outcome.

- SevenSpirits (Cre/Phi Russia) had a surprisingly slow start, but seems to have put that behind him. With 10 cities he's in the middle of the pack in terms of city count - but more importantly with 4 Calendar resources and the Mausoleum of Mausollos in the bag, he's now a serious contender on the world stage. By abusing vertical growth coupled with consecutive MoM-fueled Golden Ages, he could well emerge as one of the top nations in the world by T200 - or perhaps even as early as T150. In addition, we know he has HitAnyKey nearby as he has already razed one of his cities, so he clearly has a weak neighbour to expand into. Watch this space.

- Retep/Douglas Quaid (Fin/Phi Egypt) had a very unusual start, rushing a Great Prophet out before founding a second city. This put Egypt significantly behind the other nations in horizontal growth, though it clearly doesn't explain the whole story. Somehow at T80 Egypt still had only four cities, behind everyone except Gavagai - despite apparently having fought no wars. Until Retep took over, Douglas Quaid was severely behind in terms of growth and frankly looking unlikely to be a serious contender in the game. However, after Retep took control Egypt quickly founded 3 new cities, bringing it back to the middle of the pack - so perhaps all is not yet lost. Retep has a long way to catch up, but could possibly be a contender much later in the game.

- slowcheetah (Chm/Org Vikings) has improved slightly from his T50 ranking, but not much. He seems to have been particularly slow to found new cities for no apparent reason, lagging behind most of the other nations throughout the whole game and playing a game of catch-up. Possibly he's been involved in wars I've been unaware of, though no cities have changed hands around him nor have any been razed. Not a great position, though there's still some future potential.

- GermanJojo (Chm/Imp Khmer) seems to have recovered from the early slow start which likely resulted from Haram's declaration of war on him. He's now up to 10 cities - only one less than Haram - and looks set to become a strong contender in the next 50-100 turns. Another one to watch.

- Gavagai (Fin/Cre Ethiopia) is in the worst position in the game, though to be fair this was mostly due to Mackoti's early rush of him. (I still rather suspect that Mackoti having riverside Copper while Gavagai did not had a lot to do with the success of this rush.) In any event, since the rush Gavagai seems to have done a decent job of recovering, though I do severely question his motives in building the Colossus instead of more Settlers. He should be beyond 5 cities by this point in the game, even accounting for Mackoti's rush. Still, his position is a lot better than the elimination I would have expected by this point when I did the T50 analysis, so all due credit to him for that. I also give him props for his daring in taking the Silver resource from Mackoti with his re-founded second city and managing to hold it ever since. Not a long-term contender, but still capable of some minor influence in the outcome. I don't expect him to survive beyond the point where Mackoti gets Guilds.

[Lord Parkin]

[Lord Parkin]

[Lord Parkin]

Turn 103

Founded our 12th city, Leopard. (Screenshot is from T104 after I'd chopped the Monument.)

Finally got our first autospread of the game in Giraffe.

Seven offered Open Borders. Need some time to think about that... I declined for now.

[Lord Parkin]

[Lord Parkin]

[Lord Parkin]