[SPOILER] And now for something completely different: DaveV is Hannah

[DaveV]

Here's a turn with some blood for the lurkers. It started with a swap to some pretty sweet war traits:



Time for a sneak attack on superjm. Every city I take away from him is one less cultist from his world spell, if he ever gets around to casting it.



I used all my Tsunami spells to get good odds on the hilltop defenders in Tiriyn. Then I used my warrior to soften up the guy in Grison - and won, at 3.8% odds! Sorry, superjm.

I tried to do some Tsunami pillaging in Aurorarcher's lands, but no joy. I was in no position to complain about the RNG, though.



I razed a third superjm city.



Battle of Midway time:



Aurorarcher has another galley in a city to the south, which became visible after I unloaded my cultists. There seems to be a vision quirk that gives extra visibility if you have land units stacked with a sentry galley. I'm happy to sink his galleys; I was hoping he still had Lucian riding on one of them, but I think I would have seen a message if that were the case.

After I ended turn, I finished the Bone Palace (and two Pirates; let's see how your galleys do against a base strength of 8).



I should be able to pop another great person out of Bruces before the Bone Palace GA ends. Apparently I messed up my great person assignments or the game switched them or something, so there's a decent chance (currently 16%) I'll get a Merchant, which would mean no 3-man golden age.

[haphazard1]

Nice trait swap. You have had some good luck with those this game.

[DaveV]

I really have. I was stuck with the starting traits for longer than expected, but the switches have been very helpful and mostly very well timed.

One more comment I meant to make on the final screenshot above: war weariness is kicking in already. That's one of the problems with running City States.

[DaveV]

Thoughts on the state of the game: I'm effectively at war with the other three players, but I'm developed enough that it's still winnable. A quick summary of the four players, in my estimation of current standing:

DaveV - I'm close to my goal of controlling the seas. I'll need to develop some way of dealing with inland cities and fast Kuriotate units, but I like my chances right now. I've enabled my world spell, which can potentially bail me out of a crisis.

Aurorarcher - a smart and dangerous player with a civ that's tailored for war. He still has his world spell, which I expect him to use when it can do me some significant damage. His economy is pretty crummy, and the world spell tends to make it even worse.

Mr. Cairo - I said at the beginning that I hoped he'd get sucked into the builder trap, and I think that has happened to some extent. He has a good GNP and production, but all three of his super cities are sitting on water, which makes them very vulnerable to my naval strikes. Rosier is cool and fun to play with in single player, but I'd rather have three centaurs for 120 hammers. If When blight hits, it will really hammer his huge cities hard.

superjm - speedily on his way to irrelevance. From what I've seen, his expansion was slow and his one-warrior garrisons were inadequate. He still has his world spell, but he'd better pop it this turn if he wants to get more than a few priests out of it.

[DaveV]

Apparently superjm reached the same conclusion as I did, and fired off his world spell. Mr. Cairo cancelled open borders, but didn't go so far as declaring war. I'll be happy if he keeps playing in his sandbox in the corner; I'd have a hard time dealing with all three of them.

Also, Aurorarcher sank my galley. But, revenge:



I also razed da Vinci, which he had left empty.



superjm had set up his galley to block access to Ugdul, so I sank it. He can hit my galley with a couple Tsunamis, but I doubt he's got a ship in position to sink it.



In my north, I razed a city and killed a cultist.



I switched to war civics:



And remembered to rename my captured city, to Rival Documntry (forced to abbreviate again by the 15 character limit). Here's a link to Rusten's post requesting that sketch, with a spoilered video: http://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/showt...#pid669799

[DaveV]

superjm still has enough in the tank to mount a counterattack:



So far, he killed a galley, a warrior, and a cultist. I killed two cultists, but he has at least one left. The cultists are the key units; if I can kill all of his, I'm back in absolute control of the seas.

At Ugdul, though, he made a huge mistake by leaving three cultists in the city.



I've left my cultists loaded, which means he can really hurt me if he has a galley or cultist hiding in the fog. I'm going to risk it, though; if he can't sink the galley, I can take out Lodente next turn.

On the Aurorarcher front, he had a bigger navy than I'd guessed. I took out one of his galleys, but he has two more left.



He was obviously setting up a naval invasion.

Start and end of turn demographics (my GNP jump is due to completing the Great Lighthouse):





Aurorarcher's power went down by 6K, so that was another empty galley. The man's competence is frustrating.

Edit: I forgot to send on the save, and had to replay the turn. I thought I did things in the same order, but obviously didn't, because RNG results were slightly different. All the combat results were the same, but damage wasn't. I figured it was best to send on the replayed turn and keep the game moving, since I was playing in a hurry and didn't have time to keep reloading till I duplicated the results exactly. I hate getting started on the slippery reload slope, though.

[DaveV]

superjm killed my other two cultists, and Aurorarcher sank one of my galleys.



I'm keeping an eye on Aurorarcher's garrison in Pythagoras. I should never have let him get away with this egregious pink dot; he can move his guys onto the forest tile, cast his world spell, and maybe raze some of my core cities.



Auroracher built a fort on the hill behind Witt, and hid his galley there. I moved in my cultists west of the city, and hit everyone with a couple tsunamis.



And his galley in the fort disappeared. I was puzzled, since tsunami can't kill. Then I realized the spell had removed the fort, which meant the galley was wrecked on the rocks.



I also razed Lodente, as planned. Here's hoping superjm can't muster a counterattack.

[haphazard1]

Action! Chaos! Battle! Us lurkers are entertained. Thanks for the update.

[DaveV]

Before-and-after demos indicate that the galley didn't founder, but was displaced, probably to the fogged tile to the SE. Shucks.

[DaveV]

This was a confusing turn. Aurorarcher sank my pirate and fired off his world spell, and my traits changed. I'm still Aggressive, but losing Spiritual hurts. Philosophical will help me pump out my next great person a little faster, and Industrial will do pretty much nothing.



I don't understand why the half strength pirate defended instead of a full strength drown. And I don't understand his plan for the world spell. He's wrecked his economy, and has nothing to show for it. The huge stack of wolves in Witt would seem to indicate that city is key to his plan. Is he going to move a huge fleet out through another fort-canal? Or is Witt just a red herring? I killed a beastman and three wolves for lack of a better idea.



I settled a city on the big island. It can serve as a canal to get my ships to the front more quickly, and will also give me another overseas trade route (and another mangled city name).



Obligatory video: