[SPOILERS] DaveV: The vampire bites! Goodbye level 9.

[DaveV]

Turn 109. The bear attacked my scout and joined the team. My wolf ran into a dead end.




You can see by the minimap how close I am to circumnavigation. Griffon #1 can't find any more peaks to move onto, and he's afraid of sea monsters.



Thoth razed the barb city. Interesting.

The other griffons are headed home for border patrol.





I noticed I have a trade route with Thoth, so I can rummage through his medicine cabinet.




City list:




When I checked the foreign tech screen, Military Science showed up as researchable for Ichabod. I didn't want him to steal my Great Commander, so I ran a substantial deficit to finish the tech this turn (see upper left).




When I ended turn, my prize clinked into the slot.

[DaveV]

Turn 110. I used my free Great Commander to pop a Golden Age, which gives me a free civics swap. My debate was between Slavery (for infrastructure in my new cities) and Military State (drafting, +13 commerce, -25% culture). Military State is definitely my long term goal, but I think it's worth it to spend 10 turns in Slavery to get my new cities off the ground (I know, whipping in a golden age is a bad idea). I'd like to build some Command Posts before I start drafting, so the drafted units are born with a promotion.



In the north, it looks like I've reached Land's End. And my wolf is going to die. I forgot to move the wolf into Letum Frigus, so the scout is headed there instead. If he survives the barb warrior's attack.



Since I'm just a few tiles short of circumnavigation, griffon #1 is looking for a southern route.



Griffons #2 and #3 are looking for good spots to monitor for invasions.





My goal now is to build up for the inevitable dogpile, because:






At end of turn, my golden age boosted capital produced its great person, which was:



Perfect. As long as I don't build a Command Post in Unicorn Horn, it can't produce a Great Commander, and I'll be able to trigger the two person golden age.




I better remember to switch that.

[DaveV]

Turn 111. Griffon #1 is encountering a traffic jam.



A wild griffon is wandering around in the south.



The barb warrior didn't attack, so I popped Letum Frigus. No point in leaving a free golden age lying around for plako, even if it is a long way from his territory.



Demographics before ending turn.



After ending turn, my GNP dropped to 266 because I don't have a tech queued. My choices now:
* Sanitation for food to grow my cities into their new, higher happy caps.
* Hunting for more health and happy, and upgrades for my two highly experienced scouts.
* Priesthood for Ritualists and Tsunami.
* Arcane Lore for Snowfall Hemah. No way I could accomplish this before the end of the game.
* Feudalism for Vampires. I've delayed this long enough. Time to go bonk some heads.

Another thing that happened after ending turn:



I'll switch that Command Post build to a temple, then it'll be all Zealots, all the time. This is not the worst place and not the best for my holy city. The culture won't do me any good, but it's also behind the front lines.

[DaveV]

Before starting the turn 112 report, some editing notes. Twice in the last week or so, I've uploaded new pictures on top of old ones and messed up one of my older turn reports. The latest casualty was turn 109, but now it's fixed. I've figured out that it's because of my turn order position in the two PBEM games I'm currently playing: I'm next to last in this one, so the turn number is the same after I finish turn as when I begin. In EitB 29, in contrast, I'm last in order. After I end turn, the barbs do their thing and then the turn number increments. So if I look at a screenshot from game 29, the turn number shown is one higher than the turn I just played. This has caused me to assume that the turn number is one lower than it really is when I'm saving screenshots for this game, 27.

Sorry for the long digression, but I wanted to explain why some of the screenshots may have been glitched if you looked at them at the wrong time. They should all be fixed now.

In the actual game, I now have the option to worship the Octopus Overlords.



I don't have any other religion in any of my cities, so there's no reason not to. It will give me extra happiness in a couple cities that need it.

The (presumably) wild griffon in the south ate something during its turn.



My scout is going to move to Eastern Point next turn.



I planted my new island city. This time, I had a bear with full movement sitting on my galley, so it has its Dancing Bear and will pop borders in two turns. I did my first whip in Holy Water; I need three more workboats. I will produce one in each of the three cities shown. Towel has enough hammers in the box to whip the Governor's Manor when it grows to size 4.



Griffon #1 is finding a lot of animals, including a gorilla!



Now that I've cranked up research on Feudalism, the demos are starting to look really ridiculous.




Metagame thoughts: Thoth and plako are the biggest long-term threats. Ichabod doesn't have a good late-game civ, unless he comes up with something creative that hasn't occurred to me. Serdoa is a piñata waiting for someone to start whacking him to collect his goodies. Thoth's civ is the one that's the least vulnerable to Vampiric summons, since his top melee unit is immune to death damage. I've had peaceful relations and a low-tension border with plako all game, and he's not a fan of dogpiles. So my current plan is to build up an overwhelming attack against Thoth and eliminate him while I try to hold my ground on the other fronts.

[DaveV]

Turn 113. I'm building Command Posts and growing.

In the north, my brand-new wolf explores Land's End.



In the south, I think I've found the units that the griffon was attacking. The odds must have been pretty bad; the griffon is now combat 3. Looks like plako is still settling cities.



Griffon #1 is still seeking the Western Passage.



Griffon #2 gains visibility on Thoth's border city.



And, a nice bit of news after I ended turn.

[DaveV]

Turn 114. A barb warrior killed Thoth's scout that was wandering around to my north. A very unlucky roll for Thoth, but it works out well for me.



In the south, plako managed to kill the griffon. A sigh of relief for plako, disappointment for me (I was moving some scouts down to take a shot at capturing it). This city will not be putting any cultural pressure on me, so I'll take it as a sign that relations are still good with plako.



It's going to take a lot of worker turns to get that city going.

My griffon spying on Dog Sled Racing can move onto a hill to gain visibility of the tiles east of the city.



I'm able to throttle back on the slider to get positive cash flow and still finish Feudalism in 3 turns:




After ending turn, OO spreads again!

[DaveV]

Turn 115. My scout and wolf are scampering back to my borders. Barb warriors are still spawning in all that fog.



Further west, I attacked the barb warrior at >99% odds, and took a lot of damage. That warrior probably deserved a better reward than death for killing Thoth's scout.



Griffon #1 is still wandering in the wilderness. He found another barb city.



The other two griffons are trying to scope out Thoth's defenses. He has a lot of warriors, only two pyre zombies so far. He does love his guerilla promotions.



Power graph. My drop is from whipping.



Cities.




Feudalism finishes at the end of next turn. Thoth and plako still haven't researched any of the specialized adept techs; Ichabod has grabbed Mathematics. If that means he now builds Gambling Houses everywhere, I approve.

[DaveV]

Turn 116. plako gets some free slaves.



The barb warrior in the north moved between my bloodpet and wolf (2S1E of the wolf's present position).



I hope he doesn't mess with my drown (who will be going for circumnavigation in about 5 turns). The wolf is going to be caged in Unicorn Horn.

Griffon #1 is still wandering. He'll risk exposing himself next turn so he can move onto the lake 3E of his present position.



The capital finishes its Inn for an extra trade route. The 25% bonus pushes it to the magic +200% on foreign routes.




Ichabod has almost caught up to me in GNP.



Thanks to his shiny wonders.



And his economically-oriented civics:



He's also spiking his power.



I finished Feudalism at EoT; six cities are set up to switch immediately to Vampires.




I'm hoping that having Ichabod close to me in the demos will forestall a dogpile. I need a few more turns to build up; I'll be able to switch to Military State and start drafting in 3 turns. Was Slavery worth it? I will have produced four workboats and a couple governor's manors; maybe not.

[DaveV]

Turn 117. Griffon #1 may be in trouble.



That would be a nice city for Ichabod, but it won't be a pushover.

My other two griffons are getting a pretty good view of Thoth's eastern defenses.




Lots of guerilla promotions, as I noted previously. Those will make it painful to take those cities, but it's a purely defensive promotion. As has been said many times before, if you're on the defensive, you're losing. I'm not sure what the speed bump warrior on the road is supposed to accomplish.

In the south, I'm sensing a certain lack of trust from plako.



Demos are still looking almost too good.



I forgot to grab a screenie of F1 until after I ended turn, so add +1 to all those countdowns.

[Mardoc]

That's a lot of vampire production! Remind me, what are you planning for them if not 'defend against dogpile'?

I'm hoping that having Ichabod close to me in the demos will forestall a dogpile. I need a few more turns to build up; I'll be able to switch to Military State and start drafting in 3 turns.

Don't forget, you'll be drafting Moroi, not Vamps. EitB change.