[Spoilers] Dreylin of the Khazad fumbles around in the earth (EitB PBEM39)

[Dreylin]

Mother Lode cast for 500g. I found a total of 3 workable new Hills - 1 between Gorgonzola & Stilton, and 2 at Brie. The latter is really good as it will enhance that low-production city. Gold spent on Ships as planned and on Camembert's Lighthouse.

Silk Pen in Khazad, and will pop a Hawk out of Gorgonzola next turn after the overflow is into the next Treb. I might buy another Hunting Lodge in Brie as its low production is perfect for Hawks.

Units in position to take the Barb city in 2t. Will found Gouda in the South next turn. Shuffling other units to Cheddar incase of boating.

[Dreylin]

t85 -

Founded Khazak at the Furs/Clams site. Q has a Hasted Settling party (guarded by Paramanders) heading up the isthmus, so I'll need to reinforce this front fast.

Barb city will be mine next turn.

KotE completes at EoT, and I think next has to be Alteration for Haste Adepts of my own. Wensleydale and Camembert will pump Adepts for a while.

[Dreylin]

t86 -

Killed Q's Galley with the Trireme, but he has 2 more in range. Covered the Trireme with my own Galley and starved Cheddar to 1t another Trireme for a counter-counter attack.

Barb city captured for the cost of a single Warrior; Treb retreated leaving C2 Warriors at 45% verses the Archers. First one lost, but the second won. Axes cleaned up and the spare Warrior captured the Worker. Road connection will be up in 2t, I think - before it comes out of revolt, at least.

First Hawk came in and went to scout out the South:


Rushed the Hunting Lodge in Brie, which will 1t Hawks until we have full net.

Now I'm thinking that a better investment than Alteration would be into Optics to force Q into actually defending some of his island cities. Would appreciate your thoughts Auror, if you're around. (Alteration is 4t at breakeven; Optics is 5t)

Other thing is that as far as Mana nodes go, we have access to just 1 currently. 1 more can be claimed with a near settle (working on where to slot in the Settler), but that's it for our "pod". Q has the extra one from the Lair pop (pictured in the shot) ... at least until he takes over Kragroth & Old Lion's pods.

Oh, I engaged in diplo this turn (Kragroth would be proud); sent my spare Ale to Old Lion, since he doesn't seem to have Deruptus himself. I'd probably trade with Kragroth as well, except he doesn't have any coastal cities and so we don't even have trade routes.

[Dreylin]

Road connection will be up in 2t, I think - before it comes out of revolt, at least.

Or I could lose those two Workers to Q's sniping.

[Aurorarcher]

Hmm. Optics is rarely researched in MP games as far as I know - but in this sort of map and situation it could become a really useful tech. Also having so many chokespots there decent ship could make sense.

It's hard decision though, haste is really really important. I think you should consider it this way:

1) Do you think you can hold the chokepoints in south/north and also the coastal cities from an attack?
2) If the answer to above is yes; then Optics. If not, then go for Alternation.

What are the best attacking units of Q's at the moment? Axes/Paramanders/Shamans? What else does he have?

[Dreylin]

What are the best attacking units of Q's at the moment? Axes/Paramanders/Shamans? What else does he have?

That's what I've seen at the moment. He's just got AV but hasn't revolted yet, so I assume he's spreading it around and building Temples and will revolt when he wants to push out Ritualists. I also wouldn't be surprised if he finished the Mines before that happened.

In addition to the Entropy Node that is visible in the previous shot, he also has Enchantment hooked up as his Axes have Enchanted Blades. Presumably his 3rd node will wait for Sorcery to be Metamagic (or maybe he'll rely on getting that from one of Kragroth's nodes).

Hmm. Optics is rarely researched in MP games as far as I know - but in this sort of map and situation it could become a really useful tech. Also having so many chokespots there decent ship could make sense.

It's hard decision though, haste is really really important. I think you should consider it this way:

1) Do you think you can hold the chokepoints in south/north and also the coastal cities from an attack?
2) If the answer to above is yes; then Optics. If not, then go for Alternation.

As of last turn, Alteration is a 4t tech and Optics is 5t at breakeven - so probably 8t to have both. I'm leaning towards Optics first for 3 reasons:

1) I haven't seen a large land-bound stack yet. The largest is what you see to the South and there's no sign of one in the North yet. I've a decent force down there (getting larger each turn) and if I can sort out chopping that gateway forest, I should be able to hold that spot easily.

2) Most of my losses have come from opportunistic swipes landed from Galley. He has the one visible to the South which grabbed the Workers I forgot to cover making the connection to the new city, but if he brought more into this area I'd need to cover a wide front. In the North he has 4 Galleys (2x injured) that could drop troops at Cheddar or potentially fork Stilton. I don't /think/ they're loaded, but IMO they are a greater threat than a stack advancing by land.

3) In 4t I will probably have just 2 Adepts. Neither of them are likely to be in a position to improve the Mana Node immediately, and then they will be stuck away from the fronts unable to start applying the buffs that are already enabled (Enchanted Blades). In 8t however, I will likely have ~5Adepts and can have 2 in place on the node and the others will be distributed across the land ready to start work.

The last point particularly is why I'm unsure of the value of Alteration first.

I'll send you the next turn so you can take a look around...

[Dreylin]

t88 -

Popped the Lair north of Old Lion for a fantastic Jade Torc. Yay.


So Q has gone to AV ... at least that takes away the Religious fighting anger in the RoK cities.

Switched techs after taking the shot; Optics in 4t.