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

[DaveV]

As planned, the scout moved back into my borders, defogging a single tile along the way (and revealing more grassland in the fog). My first warrior completed; the player with 5 production finished his first warrior on turn 4. One other player matched my increased commerce and reduced food.





I think the start positions must be similar, but not identical. It should be interesting to check the numbers next turn after everyone grows to size 3.

[DaveV]

No new territory explored; my scout heals and will be ready to move out again next turn (yay for palace Body mana!).

Demographics are interesting:



Most things are a 6-way tie. The player who was generating 5 hammers has sacrificed commerce for hammers - a big mistake. At this difficulty level, it's very easy to crash your economy, so the best play is to emphasize commerce. The soldier numbers are interesting, too: I'm thinking a couple people have had exploring units eaten by animals. Someone has even worse approval than I do, which means his capital is sitting empty. Ouch.

[DaveV]

My scout reveals some more tiles, and I have a happy special! One of the two that gives only one commerce, but beggars, choosers, and all that.



The guy with the high production built a warrior, now has two scouts and two warriors. We'll see how long the scouts last...

[DaveV]

Lord Baden-Powell continues exploring, and discovers a bonanza of specials:



Lewwyn and Ilios jump in score, due to growing to size 4. They've been emphasizing food; two of the other three are emphasizing hammers, and the last one must be emphasizing commerce, like me. Demographics:

[DaveV]

Arrgh. I just noticed the road W of the sugar and N of the pigs. I need to uncover the fogged tiles south of the river, but then I'll have to check out that road. Assuming my scout isn't eaten in the meantime...

[DaveV]

My scout moved as planned, exposing some more river tiles, more mountains, a really nice commerce/happy special ... and a giant spider. Sigh. Sareln's combat calculator pegs my odds at 28%, so this is probably the end of Lord Baden-Powell. Looks like I won't be exploring that pre-placed road for a while.




The scores are starting to spread out a little: Ilios scores the first tech: either Exploration (1%) or Ancient Chants (99%). Tholal is apparently the other player who chose to sacrifice growth for commerce. Demographics provide more information:



The first-place power guy now has 4 warriors and a scout. Last place has a warrior and a scout. The other three have a combined power of 32K, and one of them is tied or ahead of me, so at most 20K for the other two. I'll probably learn more next turn after my scout is eaten .

[DaveV]

Very good news greets me when I open the save: the spider didn't like its 72% odds, and fled! Lord Baden-Powell finds it on the marked tile as he continues his explorations. I expect it will move back to its original tile next turn.

More specials discovered: this is indeed a rich area!



Demographics provide some more information, but not in the way I was expecting (my soldier score dropping):



Apparently, the growth from size 3 to 4 was worth a soldier point, so Tholal must be the last-place power civ, with a scout and a warrior. First place has one more warrior than I do; the average has increased by 4K, so one warrior built plus the population point for Tholal. Whoever had an unoccupied capital has corrected that situation. Someone is getting two extra hammers, and I'm not sure why .

[DaveV]

Turn 11 starts with the Kilmorph event; obviously, I'm not running that religion, so nothing happens.



My scout is still alive and still exposing lots of specials: looks like settler spam is the early answer here (although Immortal maintenance with toroidal wrap will get steep in a hurry).



The only change in demographics is that the average soldier score went down by 400, so someone lost a scout.

[DaveV]

I like to move my scouts onto hills:




Since no flying death is in sight, he is guaranteed another turn of scouting .

Demographics show me in first place for soldiers:



What the heck are those other guys building? Or are they sending their warriors out to be eaten by animals? Tholal has built another scout, now has two scouts and a warrior.

Sorry, guys, but this is bad play. Minimum garrison is 3 warriors/city. I will build my sixth warrior the same turn I discover Mysticism, then build my one-turn Elder Council, then my first settler and workers. I've done enough exploring to decide my first city site, so if my scout dies I won't replace him. I will be building some more scouts, but not till after I've revolted to Apprenticeship (animal capturing scouts out of the box!).

[DaveV]

Too early for a dotmap? Nonsense!



In current priority order:

Red dot: on the sugar for a 3-food plant. Sugar with a plantation is worse than farmed sugar after Aristocracy and Sanitation, so this way I get the happy bonus without having to work an inferior tile.

Purple dot: two high-commerce happy specials.

Yellow dot: more health, wine for my fourth happy, and crazy commerce.

White dot: unless I'm given a compelling reason to build elsewhere.

Black dot: this looked like a great city site when I first found it, but pales in comparison to the southwest bonanza of specials. Still well worth building, though.

If I find copper somewhere, that site will jump in priority, of course.

Lurker comments, suggestions, or criticisms are welcome .