[Spoilers] Defining the phrase "€˜Hung Like a Horse"€™: Pb & the Kuriotates

[pocketbeetle]

Turn 32:

Vanilla Ice moved NE-SE to end up on the ice. Lots of furs around, shame I’ll probably never get this place.
Next turn will move onto the forested fur hill.



Meanwhile at Kwythellar, the worker finished farming the wheat this turn, and capital grows to 2 pop.

Clogz is now fully healed and moved NE.
Will either move SE and cover the worker who will be building a plantation on the incense, or NE again onto the hill to see if that lion we spotted a while ago is still around.




Demographics:

Sareln’s GNP rose back up to 15, so he’s likely researching something with a prereq.
Nothing much else happening.

Diplo:

Sent: Sunday, July 04, 2010 10:10:36 PM
Subject: Dwarves
Greetings to the court of the Pocketbeetle

As you know we've both been hearing rumours of stumpy little men to the far east called "Dwarves", and I'd like to say that their existence has been finally confirmed by brave Illian explorers. I've sent a greeting message to them, and if you have anything you'd like me to pass on from the Kuriotates I'd be happy to act as an intermediary until you can meet them for yourself.

Regards
Selrahc

My reply:

Hi Selrahc,

Thanks for letting me know you've met the Dwarves. Out of curiosity did you find them, or vice versa?

I'm still having no luck meeting anyone else, my scout Vanilla Ice is currently NE of Letum Frigus.
Some nice resources around there, but no Khazad.

Kind Regards,
Pb, Lost Boy-King.

On a minor note, tried a couple of tests the other day.
Turns out Orthus does spawn on a turn timer – IIRC: T51.
Yay.

[pocketbeetle]

Turn 33:

Clogz moved NE onto the hill. Nothing to be seen from there, he’ll fortify and wait for backup before heading up to the red square area.

My worker (who I need to rename) moved NE and farmed for 1 turn.
Next turn he’ll move SE and start on the incense plantation.
Growth to size 3 will occur in 2 turns.





Vanilla Ice moved onto the forested hill, and promptly ducked down.
Multiple hostiles, the wolf at str 2/move 2 will almost certainly attack and die. If I’m really lucky that’ll take Vanilla Ice to 5xp and the next promotion without hurting him too much. Probably will only get 1xp though, so will be stuck at 4xp.

The lizardman is currently engaged in guarding the ruins, from which they spawn.
Similar to the skeleton barrow, he won’t move, but the next lizardman to spawn will.
Lizardman vs scout fights are pretty much guaranteed in favour of the lizardman, so I’ll need to move on quickly.




Demographics:

Let’s take some time to have a close look at Sareln.

• He grew to 3 pop this turn, with associated score increase.
  
• He is now highest crop yield at 13, last turn he was equal with Selrahc at 10.
  Clearly therefore, he chose to work a 3f tile this turn. Since it makes no sense to work a 2f tile at size 2, leaving a 3f tile until size 3, I’m saying Sareln fits again with my 3 x 3f theory, one of which is improved.
  
• GNP: is just under Selrahc and Bob at 15.
  I reckon he’s researching something with a prereq, therefore most of his tiles are likely riverside (we saw he has a river on T27).
  8c (palace) + 3c (3/4 worked tiles riverside) * 1.2 = 13.2 +2 culture = 15.2 = 15 GNP.
  
• Sareln’s Mfg is at base rate, 2h/turn, same as mine.
  
• Therefore Sareln is working: 5f/1c (irrigated rice) + 3f/1c + 3f
  Backed up by GNP graphs so far: increase to pop 2 gave Sareln a +1c boost, pop 3 will confirm next turn. GNP graph will either stay constant at 15 or rise to 16, in which case all his worked tiles are riverside.
  
• Sareln recently researched a tech on T31, he also had a free one from a hut. He starts with Agriculture.
  • 31 turns – 14 due to Stasis = 17 turns.
    Roughly his GNP has been ~14 throughout, so ‘research’ has been 12, so 17 x 12 = 204b (remember he’s been size 1 for most of the game).
    
  • The only two techs he’s had prereq for since the start of the game are Calendar and AH. Calendar = 172 beakers, AH = 193b.
    If we take our 204b and subtract one turn’s research, we get 192b, which is just under AH’s total.
    So I'm happy to assign AH to him.
    
  • Now remember, on T9 he got a hut. It is entirely possible that he’s changed his research target since then. However I can’t see any likely path that incorporates reaching a level 2 tech in such a short space of time.
    AH also fits the profile: we know Sareln’s landlocked with 3 food resources.
    It would be stupidly overpowered to give him a start where all 3 require a tech that he already starts with (Agriculture).
    
• What’s Sareln researching now? Hard to say. Too many variables due to the hut.
  If he’s got 1 commerce resource like I’m guessing everyone has, he could be going Calendar to unlock that, if he got Exploration from the hut then he could be going Hunting to unlock his improved recon line, if he got Ancient Chants he could be going Mysticism, etc etc.
  The only things I can add are: Exploration (roads) are lower value to him, as his units already get 2 movement in forests (which we know he has a lot of around his capital), and that Mining similarly is slightly lower value as he doesn’t need to chop trees down (Elves build improvements on top of forests).
  So to reduce it down to the five most likely paths:
  • Calendar (GNP)
    
  • (Exploration) -> Hunting (Military + religion)
    
  • (Ancient Chants) -> Mysticism (GNP)
    
  • (Ancient Chants) -> Education (GNP)
    
  • (Crafting) -> Mining (Production)
    
  Hunting is the least likely, Education the most if he got Ancient Chants from the hut. If he does now have both food techs (Agri + AH), then it would make sense to head for production next (Mining).
  
  

Archduke, Cull and myself are the only players still on pop 2 capitals.
Archduke, Cull and Bob are likely to be building a worker or settler currently: none have grown in quite a while, particularly Bob who is joint highest crop yield.


Diplo:

Sent: Monday, July 05, 2010 12:38:01 AM
Subject: Re:Dwarves

I found them. Letum Frigus is a long way away from where I found their warrior though. A bloodpet has been dispatched to look for the south coast and I found them while on the journey near some sugar rich jungles.

[pocketbeetle]

Oh, and for those who have yet to vote.

Please take the time to act for a worthy cause: sending Justin Bieber off to North Korea

Explanation here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10506482.stm

[Krill]

I voted for NK...thanks for tHe heads up PB

[pocketbeetle]

I voted for NK...thanks for tHe heads up PB

Not a problem!

I'm sure it won't happen, but I still love it when the internet mobilises like this.

[pocketbeetle]

Saw a post in the main forum about FFH, and commenting how slow early game can be.

My $0.02:

On the other hand it still took me 60t before I could build cottages at the start of the game

Proposed solution - Make cottages buildable from the start, like warriors.

I think it's easy to get slightly stuck in the Civ4 maxim that food + production >> early GNP.

In FFH one needs to prioritise commerce a bit more, in order to get the necessary worker techs, so that then food and production can be maximised.

There's many ways of doing that, from settling on the coast (multiple 2c tiles) to making sure to settle near a commerce resource.
Which in turn, is why Calendar plantations and Wineries come so much earlier, and why we're given the high mobility/visibility starting settler bonus.

I covered it in one of my first posts, and will stick by it until I learn differently:

• Production
  General rule for FFH2: for a land site, worry about research. Coastal start, worry about production.

[pocketbeetle]

Turn 34:

Vanilla Ice survived the wolf, but got unlucky on both counts, gaining only 1 xp and taking a decent chunk of damage.

Moved onto the hill, next turn will move SE-SE onto the reagents/spices.
Risky, but it looks like the forest is thinning out and I want to get past those lizardmen ruins before a second one spawns.



Over at the capital, worker ‘Bob’ moved SE onto the incense and starting building a plantation, with 3 turns left to completion.
Clogz stayed fortified on the hill.

Kwythellar grew to 3(!) pop after clicking end turn, and will grow again in another 2 turns.
Ancient Chants came in, Mysticism next up.
Getting the incense up and running will shave 6 turns off that tech.




Demographics:

• Sareln’s GNP took another jump to 16, means all his worked tiles are riverside.
  
• Rival Av Soldier Count: increased by 0.2k to 10.2k.
  No-one has gained any extra pop (Archduke, Cull still on 2 pop, sareln 3), so someone produced a warrior last turn at the same time another person lost a scout.
  Only people left with scouts are Sareln and myself, so expecting to see Sareln’s power drop.
  
• Bob’s GNP dropped by 1 while still maintaining the same crop/hammers yield?
  Don’t understand this one. I know he’s riverside and was working 3 x 3f/1c tiles, maybe barbarian activity forced him to work a 3f tile ‘only’?
  If so, he can’t surely have 4 food resources, so an extra floodplain?
  It’s not a tech as his score hasn’t changed.
  

Food graphs make much prettier viewing now for the worker-first players.

[pocketbeetle]

Turn 35:

Over at Kwythellar, Ancient Chants screen came in, and two turns left to growth + warrior production (one after clicking end turn).



Meanwhile Vanilla Ice moved as previously stated, and next turn I intend to move either SE-S or SE-SE if the land lets me (wasn't sure about the tile bleed).

It’s looking like I’ve reached the Eastern edge of the Pangea, and am now moving South, so was wrong about Cull being in the NE.




Demographics:

• Dealing with last turn’s soldier count change first: as expected, Sareln lost a scout.
  Since none of the visible graphs gained in power, that means it was either Cull or Archduke who built the warrior.
  T36 stuff will later tell me this is very likely to be Cull.
  
• Rival soldier count average: increased by 0.6k (warrior) again this turn.
  Next turn, graphs will show this was Sareln.
  
• Bob continued to swing his worked tiles around madly. This turn he’s working a 1f/2h glh tile.
  Not quite sure what he’s doing, clearly building a settler/worker due to no increase in pop, yet we’re not seeing any new warrior builds. He has 3 warriors when I last estimated, is that enough to deal with a barb or two? Maybe.

And last but definitely not least, the stat that confused me for a while was the Rival best GNP at 18.
No scores have changed, no one has increased in pop, so where has that come from?
I thought it might be Cull at first, who might have built a worker and then completed a winery (available at Crafting – his starting tech).
But the numbers don’t fit.

I figured it out before long, but it becomes much clearer in T36.

[scooter]

Just read through your whole thread today - thanks for a great read! This finally inspired me to download and install FFH2 about 3 pages ago, so I'm probably going to give it a whirl tomorrow. Will definitely be lurking...

[pocketbeetle]

Just read through your whole thread today - thanks for a great read! This finally inspired me to download and install FFH2 about 3 pages ago, so I'm probably going to give it a whirl tomorrow. Will definitely be lurking...

Hi Scooter.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, and new converts are most welcome. =)

It is starting to get a bit long this thread isn't it... and I didn't leave space for a contents page. Oh well!


Turn 35 updated, 36 up [strike]shortly[/strike]. Edit: later today!