After a restful sleep, and plenty of time to digest the postgame all-you-can-eat sushi feast from the previous night, we returned to the table for Day 2 of gaming. The experienced players (that being myself, [Egypt], and [Assyria]), now all solidly behind, agree to stop pulling punches and get back to the business of winning. Additionally, the play area smells amazing and quickens peoples hunger, as our lovely host [Hellas] stayed up half the night to start smoking a 15 pound brisket. Homebrewed cider is cracked open, and gaming resumes.
Our day starts by immediately jumping into the trading phase of Turn 9.
I finally get to make some tech purchases, and begin my coastal raiding journey with the key Engineering and Astronavigation. Others around the table begin to grab their own stuff. I still do not advance on AST - which is beginning to hurt.
Calamities are fairly light this turn, with all and only 5s being drawn.
The beneficiary of [Hatti]'s civil war is [Iberia], who is probably in first place at this point with a massive tech lead.
[Egypt] is hit by the Barbarian Hordes, a second turn in a row. Egypt at this point has more barbarians than Egyptians.
Turn 10 is the beginning pf the rest of the game. [Assyria] invades Sicily, removing the Roman presence and placing themselves in the centre of the mediterranean. I sack one of [Iberia]'s cities in Anatolia, looting their one Gold from a hand of 8 cards. The is absolutely perfect, as I already had a pair of Gold in hand. Compounding this, I purchase a 9 card for trade, and manage to get another Gold, giving me a set of 4 to start the turn. I get another good set, and pick up Naval Warfare and Cloth making to finish off my coastal raiding build.
Calamities: Volcano, Tempest, Squandered Wealth, Slave Revolt, Cyclone, Piracy
Cyclone hits [Carthage], but is most devastating to [Iberia] as they once again drop down to two cities.
The world is calm for some time, as everyone recovers and rebuilds from prior turn. At this point, much of the land border have solidified and normalized. I have most of Greece proper, now having some breathing room against [Hellas], they in turn have joined with [Hatti] to both use their Fundamentalism to kick the Celts out of the areas around the black sea - and nobody wants [Celts] near them as they had picked up Provincial Empire at some point.
However, the game does not want for such easy times, and Calamities come.
Tempest, Famine, City Riots, Flood, Superstition, Epidemic, Minor Uprising, and Civil Disorder all happen.
The damage from these is fairly spread out, and nobody is particularly devastated. I am hit with both Famine and Civil Disorder this turn, but since I reduce down to two cities because of having Naval Warfare, the famine is largely irrelevant. It does hurt to still be unable to advance on AST.
Peace in the East requires War in the West, so we learned this turn. The world began to fear the threat of naval invasion from our little eastern coalition. [Assyria] uses their staging point in Sicily to invade [Iberia] - they need to be kept down as to not run away with the game. Having Trade Empire is still a massive advantage in economy. [Assyria] also launches small assaults with individual units to use the power of Metalworking to devastate [Carthage]'s attempts at building coastal cities. I would have loved to use this turn to also launch some global invasions, but I am in no position to do so. Having reduced 5 cities last turn, my population is massive and I move much too early in turn order. From the same cause, I need to rebuild some number of cities to just be in the game this turn. Also, I am unexpectadely invaded by [Celts] from across the Adriatic - I don't know how both [Hellas] and [Rome] let them sit on Pannonia, but apparently they did. I also forget about [Celts]'s Provincial Empire, and end up giving away one of 2 Tins I was hoping to trade with next round.
Calamities include all the fives again, seemingly a trend. This turn we get:
Treachery, City in Flames, Civil War, Barbarian Hordes, Tribal Conflict, Coastal Migration, Regression.
The Iberian Civil War let [Egypt] set up in Southern France, possibly a downside due to now being neighbours with [Celts] and their Provincial Empire.
Barbarian Hordes did some decent damage to me, but having Engineering is helpful.
The Regression was completely irrelevant, as everyone was stuck on AST anyways (Although I think it was purchased by [Egypt], so not getting a 9 kinda sucks).
War never ends. The invasions continue through the centuries. [Assyria] still sends thousands of men to their deaths on the shores of Iberia, and [Iberia] is forced to respond with everything they have to not let [Assyria] gain a beachhead. Slightly further north, [Celts] works towards wiping out as much of Egypt as possible. [Celts] also continues their invasion of my lands, but I am able to fend it off with Naval Warfare and a stack of boats. [Celts] is no longer the timid and afraid player they once were, they have chosen the path of violence. At the end of movement and conflict, the world is up a total of four cities compared to the end of last turn. It seems to be a true dark age. At this point, [Hellas], [Hatti], and [Assyria] all have fundamentalism, so I purchase Philosophy and a handful of smaller techs after a perfect trade round where I completed a full set of Textile and ended with no calamities.
But not everyone had such luck, and calamities there were:
Volcano, Tempest, Squandered Wealth, Slave Revolt, City Riots, Superstition, Cyclone, Epidemic, Tyranny.
Once again, the Cyclone hits [Carthage] and does the most damage to [Iberia]. However, [Iberia] thus becomes the beneficiary of [Hatti]'s Tyranny - once again the Iberians are in Anatolia.
I take some damage from the epidemic, but overall a good turn for me.
We have a wonderful dinner of Smoked Brisket and Chicken, Mac'n'Cheese, Mashed Potato, Cobb Salad, and pickled Beans and Asparagus. This is truly the way to have a good day of gaming.
We also do a quick score check, to see how the game is progressing.
Hatti, Hellas, Celts, Rome, Iberia - 19 points
Carthage - 18 points
Minoa, Assyria - 17 points
Egypt - 12 points
What an incredibly close game, this far in. Usually, we have much more clear clusters by now - Winners bracket, middle of the pack, and the losers - but it really is just everyone and then [Egypt]. Everyone besides [Egypt] being within a 2 point spread amps up the tension and excitement across the board.
The calm before the storm. The waters are still, the world is at peace. Such a state of affairs should strike fear into the hearts of all, for it is a sign of the wars that are to come. But for now, agression is withheld. Borders stabilize, cities are constructed, navies are built, armies are gathered. Calamities happen:
Treachery, Squandered Wealth, Famine, Flood, City in Flames, Barbarian Hordes, Civil War, Tribal Conflict, Banditry, and Piracy.
I don't recall much of note happening to me. [Rome] gets the Civil War, but it fizzles due to them also being the beneficiary (This is an old version rule, I note the mistake later but we all just wanted to continue with the game. It would have been a very minor Civil War anyways).
Trade was once again very kind to me, I ended last turn with 4 Resin in hand, and drew the 5th - setting me up to have a very clean trade round. We also noted this turn that [Iberia] had spent the entire game building a city on the wrong island off their coast, and had a good laugh and moved it. It was strictly bad for them, so no harm done to the game.
[Celts] truly embraces the path of war, and gets themselves Advanced Military.
The Storm comes. The Celts come crushing into Italy, [Rome] desperate to hold them off, but beachheads are formed. [Assyria] takes the opportunity to capitalize on this, and invades in the south. [Assyria] also continues to pressure [Iberia] with any unit that can be spared. I finally break the long truce with a weakened [Hellas] and sac cities along the Adriatic. Although they move after me, I am able to use the overwhelming number advantage of Naval Warfare along with their poor positioning of units to deterministically win two naval landings, securing myself much treasury and a lucky pull of a pair of fish.
Calamities this turn:
Tempest, Treachery, Volcano, Slave Revolt, City Riots, Superstition, Epidemic, Civil Disorder, Iconoclasm and Heresy, Coastal Migration, and Regression.
[Hellas] is hit hard with the Iconoclasm and Heresy due to their reliance on Wilderness Cities, but otherwise the damage is reasonable and spread out.
[Celts] buys Military.
Sadly, this is the final turn. It comes out that both [Celts] and [Hatti] have to get up for work at 5am the next day, so playing until midnight is not the possibility we thought it was.
But what a final turn it is.
On my end, I work with Hellas to maximize both our cities - being friendly and congenial to end the game off. Most players followed a similar path - no more set up, just maximize this turns potential. [Rome], however, had to consider [Celts]. [Rome] does whatever they can to makes sure they can keep a handful of cities and units on the board for the turn. [Celts] then looks everything over, and just builds a pile of cities, letting the Romans starve to death in terror.
[Egypt] has a strike force, and debates for a long time about who's city they will sack. I manage to convince them that targetting me is not worth it, and they go for [Assyria] in the end. This is a major mistake, for I draw Corruption with my 8 cities. I started the turn with 5 of 8 fish, knowing that [Carthage] has the other 3. With some good trades, I could have all the fish and probably a bonus partial set. Corruption ruined all this, but I manage to just be able to get all the fish, and have 15 face value to discard (coinage is painful here). Not as good as I would have liked, but at least it's something.
Besides the absolutely brutal Corruption I suffer, Calamities are fairly minimal:
Slave revolt, Famine, Squandered Wealth, City in Flames, Barbarian Hordes, Civil War, Cyclone, Minor Uprising, Corruption.
For a fourth time this game, all the 5s come together. [Celts] takes some land from [Assyria] in the Civil War, resulting mostly in them taking Sicily. The Barbarian Horde seems to spawn from the pirate city in Anatolia, making the coast entirely barbarian, this also brings [Hatti] below the AST advance threshold on cities, which ends up making a very big difference in final placement.
I manage to get 9 points in tech with my set of fish, using Library and heavy discounts along with a free Sculpture. I would have liked to get more, but corruption hurts. [Assyria] gets 9 points as well. [Egypt] produces 370 points of trade in value, and after having purchased Mathematics, Literacy, and other discount heavy cards in the past few turns, convert that into a whopping 19 points in tech - incredible given that they started the turn at only 18.