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

[DaveV]

Lewwyn and Tholal both grew one population.

Demographics at end of turn 18, after completing Elder Council and hiring a [strike]scientist[/strike] sage:



Yes, lurkers, that means that:



We're number one in sciiiennnnce!!!

[DaveV]

Turn 19: pressed enter.

Turn 20: an event, about 80-100 turns early:

[DaveV]

Turn 21: press enter, Agriculture is discovered at end of turn. Next tech is Education, for Apprenticeship and cottage spam. This is probably the last interesting screen shot until EoT 25, when my borders will pop:



Demographics give me an even better science lead, now that I'm gaining a prereq bonus:

[DaveV]

As predicted, borders pop at the end of turn 25, and:



Lots of junk terain to add to my sim. But, more interestingly, Mist has put temptation in my way: lots of tasty animals out there! I'll still most likely ignore hunting, but I'll have to do some sims to check whether it's worth a diversion.

I already tried building a few animal-capturing scouts and capturing the giant spider and some lions. The lions give +1 happy and +3 culture, at the cost of a very expensive building. The spider was my best unit for a long time, but is it worth paying maintenance on 3-4 units to have him?

[DaveV]

I've been slacking off on my cloak and dagger. Two civs built their second cities on turn 25. The Expansionist Sidar and Kurios, no doubt. Maybe they'll crash their economies...

[DaveV]

Played turn 28. A third rival established his second city. Three turns left till my settler is built; two turns till my first great sage.

[DaveV]

Turn 29: pressed Enter :zzz:.

Turn 30: My first great sage is born!



My sims indicate the best use for him is an academy. That's worth 9 beakers per turn right now, although that will go down starting next turn when my settler completes. Settling him would give 1 hammer and six beakers every turn; I could bulb KotE, but I'm not ready to start building adepts yet. And 400 beakers will be eclipsed by my academy before that time arrives.

The academy (+9 beakers, +4 culture) makes me look *really* good in the GNP row. I'm behind in most other categories, so it's time to get to work...

[DaveV]

Turn 31: the settler finishes, I send him off the the sugar site. Two workers next.



My village grew into a town; now my academy is +10 beakers!

[DaveV]

Two workers next.

Scratch that. One worker, then I need to start cranking the warriors. Barb appearance is tied to number of cities; once there's an average of 1.5 cities per civ, they are unleashed. We are at that point right now.

I'm perfectly positioned to fight off the warriors: aggressive, god king for production, three turns from being able to run Apprenticeship for instant shock warriors. We'll see how well those other civs do, with their weaker warriors and lower power ratings

[DaveV]

City planted on the sugar, as planned. I'm in last place in score, but that's OK. The barbs are coming, and the other guys are going to suffer. I'll revel in my shadenfreude.