Rowain Wrote:The more fools the better for you neh?
Yeah, well I guess you are right
Though in this special case instead of fooling around I would rather have them go insane on troop production 
[SIZE="3"]Turn 80:[/SIZE]
A somewhat more eventful turn. First we discovered Code of Laws
There were so many talks about Aristocracy on these forums already that I won't restate how strong it is - I simply adopted it, together with Apprenticeship.
That does mean that the settler in production in the capital will take a turn more, but I can live with that. Especially as I had 12 gold distance maintenance already with my 6 cities. Now
Saved 6 gold. And also my 4 (!!) farms are now getting me a ton (!!!!) of commerce, thanks to Financial. I had produced 94 research + gold before I switched, now it is 99. Ok, ok, it is not that much of a change, but it will get more when I get more farms - and I am working on that.
Speaking of working on something: I am again pondering about what to research next.
I split my choices in 3 parts. First are the mostly war-time techs.
1) Warfare:
For the Conquest and Military State civic. Conquest does provide 2XP for units as well as let you build military units with food. Military State provides +15% to military unit production as well as lower unit support costs and also lets you draft troops and build troops with gold. Thats both interesting choices for wartime. Also the tech enables the wonder "Form of the Titan" which does provide every unit 2XP. If this would be an all-out war it would be obvious to go for it. Though in our particular situation it first has to be weighed against other options which are better economically and second against options which do provide a stronger military short-term benefit. What brings us to
2) Horseback Riding:
The tech would provide Stables and subsequently (and with Horses) Horsemen. Str 4, 3 Move units. Again, for an all-out war which I have to fight alone this would surely be worthwhile. But for what we have in mind? He will have to split his forces anyway so 3 Movers won't actually make that much difference. After all he has only 4 cities to attack. Why do I even mention it then? Because I remember that the Malakim have a Desert Shrine (instead of the Pagan Temple I think?) which does damage to enemy units next to it. So if he has built some of them, which I guess he will, then our 1 movers will be lacking. That could be helped with 3 movers.
Now that does sound good, so why am I hesitant? Time-constraints. It takes 8 turns for the tech. In this time I would have to
- get a settler next to my horses (doable)
- get a road connection from there to the cap (doable, but will not get several needed improvements in time)
When this is done we would have T88 and would now need to get a stable built in some cities (doable in 2 cities, though obviously it takes some turns)
and then get the actual troops built. That means troop production would start somewhere around turn 92-95 I guess - on T97 we want to have the first troops going. That does not cut it unfortunately. Next option
3) Knowledge of the Ether:
Adepts obviously. But unfortunately my mana would only provide one worthwhile spell, Dance of Blades. And worthwhile is stretching it in my opinion. Lets just pretend we didn't talk about this.
So, only Warfare is interesting from the war-time techs. Lets look at the "economic improvements" branch:
1) Fishing:
Quickly researched in 4 turns and would provide me with the possibility to build workboats, getting my clams worked finally. But it doesn't provide anything else apart from that - it's just one tile I can improve. I could also work several coastal tiles, especially in the cap, but I do not have the population for that and also can instead build workers and get farms going. Certainly something to research sometimes, but I somehow doubt it is the right option for the coming turns.
2) Construction:
I need to research Masonry before I can research Construction. But there is simply no reason to research Masonry except for research Construction. Construction itself does provide our farms the possibility to spread irrigation, which in itself would be a reason to research it as I somehow didn't get all that many rivers. It also lets us build workshops (though I think they are not worth it right now).
As for units, it does provide the catapult. We are going in a war, probably against troops in cities with fortification - catapults probably would be helpful. Only it does take 12 turns to get both techs researched. As with Horseback Riding, I simply won't get the units in time. Still, it does provide with irrigation alone already an incentive to go for it.
3) Hunting:
To get Ivory and therefore another happy. Hunters and Hawks are not to be laughed at either but I hope that uberfish gets at least one to us, so that we actually can rely on his intel instead of having to gather our own.
So, from the economy techs I think only Construction is really interesting, though Hunting does have some things going for it. Off to the last category, "economic buildings".
1) Philosophy:
Bone Palace. Thats pretty much it. Uh yeah, I don't think I will build a wonder right now, at least not that. Just move on, this tech is really only here to have 3 in each category
2) Way of the Earthmother:
RoK temples for money, 'nuff said.
Unitwise the Soldiers of Kilmorph cost 60 hammers. I'd rather build a Freak for 40 which is as strong and might have nice mutations as well - or maybe even better I would built nearly 4 warriors which are each 1 str less. But hey, it's 4 of them!
What might be interesting though is the Thane of Kilmorph. Creating a Great Work for 13 Culture would make cities come instantly come out of revolt. Though we have to take cities first for it to work. It would also be a Medic unit, which might be worth it. Though call, I am not too experienced with warfare in FFH2.3) Writing:
Providing Libraries, a strong wonder with the Great Library (which only a few of us could build already but I feel like Ilios might be doing exactly that right now) and lets us build Research. Well, I will get involved in a war in some turns, so I probably don't want to spend production right now on building Libraries. Short-term, this won't be a benefit.
Conclusion
Warfare, Construction, Hunting, RoK - those are the 4 techs to choose one from. Someone want to guess which one I will choose next turn?
Foreign news
I finally made contact with Sciz
Guess I was lucky to actually make contact with him here - lets see if this city belongs to Sciz still after this turn. Though I hope so, because I want the Doviello occupied AND I don't want them to make progress. Not that there is much to make progress left anyway. Sciz has his capital and one city left, thats it. Though that is only one city less then the Calabim. And he does get copper from Ilios, depending on his production speed, some warriors with bronze weapons in a fortified position could be rather nasty. So his capital might actually be save.
