FFH2 Adventure 5

[Mardoc]

I didn't take detailed notes, but some impressions:

I had an excellent opening; Expansive is great fun, and this was a very strong start.

I swapped to Financial at T70, forgetting it had been nerfed - and boy does it feel nerfed. I'm not sure if it made any tangible difference in my finances at all.

Lost out on the Great Lighthouse at T93; I was up to Deity difficulty by then. Still, given the victory condition, I resolved to take it at some point. Going OO all the way should make that quite doable.

Made it to Trade at T102, I'm sure quite late. Foreign Trade seems the obvious civic to run to make it to 500 commerce/turn, though, with 2-3 extra routes/city and +100% on the routes. Undercouncil T103 put me in contact with Rhoanna, and I promptly trades for a bunch of tech, her world map, open borders, etc. I'll obviously have to get to Optics, and I'll plan to take Tebryn out of the game at some point. Maybe...maybe just this continent will be enough to win this. Maybe I won't have to try to orchestrate a trans-continental invasion.




T105 - aha, there's another Lanun in this game, and he/she built the Great Lighthouse in Innsmouth. Well, I've got my 2nd target, then, if I haven't won by then. Meanwhile, swapping to Foreign Trade actually felt worth doing, it bumped me up a LOT of commerce. I think this could be a viable alternative economy, finally.

T173 - I cross the threshold! 502 commerce/turn. I had conquered Tebryn with Stygians/Cultists, and sent to army to march toward Innsmouth to take Hannah's Great Lighthouse if needed, but it turned out not to be necessary.

I'll try to come up with more thoughts tomorrow...as I squeak in just before midnight local .

[Mist]

Nice

Good to see someone played this to the end. I'll wait for your more detailed impressions tomorrow, but in the meantime

[SIZE="7"]You are teh winner :2dance:[/SIZE]

By virtue of being only person that submitted a report on time

[Ranamar]

I'm curious... What kind of multipliers did you have on your trade routes to start making 18 commerce per route?

[Mardoc]

I'll have more comments tonight, when I can talk with the save(s) in front of me.

First, I played very clearly suboptimally: I lost a city and Saverous to the Sheaim, I swapped to Financial at T70 when I was running 80% science and then Raiders at T146 in time to never build another recon/mounted unit. Both - well, I think Financial might be over-nerfed, but the problem with Raiders was simply not reading the change-log ahead of playing. I probably made similar errors in things like my tech path. For instance, Trade ought certainly to have been a higher priority than I put it

That said - Falamar's clearly better than Hannah now; especially for a civ that plays with trade and City States, Expansive is wonderful - and Financial doesn't appear to matter on a vague impression level. More cities, easier Sea Havens. Meanwhile Hannah's pulled away from the lines that benefit from Raiders.

I really like the build 4 Foreign Trade - it was capable of supporting my civ. The Lanun finally feel like I imagined them - tech leaders if they can get enough coastal cities, but very dependent on their control of the sea. I built some cottages, but between coves and trade, I made the vast majority of my commerce from the sea.

I'm a little worried it might be too powerful, actually, but I haven't played a game close enough to optimal to really have a good judgment here. I wonder how I'd have done if I also put effort into a full-blown cottage or aristofarm econ.

I'm curious... What kind of multipliers did you have on your trade routes to start making 18 commerce per route?

From memory: start with a big city. Add +150% for foreign trade at peace, +25% connection to capital, +25% Inn, +50% Sea Haven, +100% for overseas trade, +100% for running Foreign Trade civic. That's a total of +450%, which meant the base trade route needed to be ~3 gpt. I'll try to check this tonight.

Between the trade techs, lighthouses, and Inns - I had 8 trade routes in the majority of my cities. On the other hand, I was maxxed out on trade routes from the acquisition of Foreign Trade until the end of the game, astronomy or no astronomy. I seriously considered using diplo to push others into Foreign Trade, just so they'd have more routes for me. Certainly if I keep playing I will make an effort to settle the unclaimed island primarily to gain intercontinental bonuses on everything.