[SPOILER] Yell0w - Rhoanna, Hippus

[Yell0w]

I wanted to talk a bit about my plans for the future in this game. Bear in mind that we are at war and all this might be scraped for more units instead, but here it goes...

I thought a lot about what to tech. And I looked at deception a little bit more, I think it can be worthwhile. I will save some gold and then tech the following:
finish Writing 1 t
Trade 1t
Mysticism 1t
KotE 1t
Philosophy 1t
(Hunting 1t)
(Animal Handling 4t)
Overflow into either Deception or Alteration

Then we can get Deception, Alteration and Elementalism and finally Sorcery, getting Gibbon in the process.
After that we go
Warfare
Military Strategy
Stirrups (that might be researched quite sooner)
Warhorses

and get Knights, Shadowrider and Magnadon

So the thought is to basically follow your suggested path but incorporate Deception.

I also want to get at least another 3 cities out there and will start building settlers soon.

[Mafro]

I think that sounds like a solid plan.

My biggest concern remains that in order to win a military victory, we need the following:

• Units that are superior in either quality or quantity
  
• The ability to deal collateral damage
  
• The ability to reduce city defenses
  
• Higher mobility and/or visibility
  
• A better economy than our opponents
  

I believe your proposed tech path gets us there.

We had unit superiority for a time and used it to good effect against first HidingKneel and then Molach. That said, I believe both are now likely to invest heavily in their military, and at this point I think we should be investing in our tech. Molach is almost certain to get to vampires and we need to be in a position to counter and then overrun them.

My second concern is strategic diplomacy. Given our power rating, I have got to believe we are seen as the biggest, most immediate threat in the game. I'd like to see us finish up our current war, stop investing in our power graph, and start investing in the tech needed to win the next war, which I believe is what you're proposing as well. I wouldn't mind us being seen as "losing" the war, and given the drop in our power rating that could be the case.

The power graphs of the others should increase, especially as Molach and HidingKneel invest in their militaries for the immediate term. That's fine. When coupled with the ability to do collateral damage and reduce city defenses, suddenly our MMs can compete with anything. We just need to get those capabilities.

[Yell0w]

Nice, first of a cease fire pops open, I decline ofc. but that means he most likely won't have advanced his forces, after a little check that turns out to be true.

Now I offered open borders to Suttree. I'm still baffled by the city gifting, just in case they decided to communicate more I hope they'll talk about this and decline. I needed this turn to breath, get some health back on some of my MM's and get the other ones either out of danger or into the mix.

We are at 292 gold per turn which is crazy much, beating HK in his golden age handily. But I think we are slowly passing our peak, if I imagine I had Warcry still, or could have used it to attack, I'd have gotten way more out of it.
I'm very happy how my economic and tech strategy worked out so far. We could run a farmers gambit for the first portion of the game, getting GotN out just in time to counter the first attack - having to use Warcry though. I think only teching economic techs and expanding a lot put us ahead.

[Yell0w]

Wow, this is so exciting =)
I finally feel confident with the tech path. Almost everything we've planed has worked out so far. Playing both traits out very well.

I want to plant 4 cities in the near future. I think we should grab those spots soon.
I'll include screen shots and detailed explanation in the next post.

For now:

I moved the scout in first seeing the city is barely defended I decided to make the planed move, after Suttree declined open borders this turn as expected.

I am 95% sure that he can't reach us this turn except if he had all his units on the gl hill tile range 3 E of our current position, and even then he'd need to blood rush every fighter. We would probably go down but with heavy losses inflicted at least. Let's hope it doesn't come to that. If we live, the size 10 city "Kinestia" is toast.

It's a bit risky, seeing as we can't see where his troops are, but since we didn't see anything for the last two turns I think it's a good assumption that he is holed up in his two core cities.

From that on we easily can take Prespur and maybe the new city, if he already planted it up there.

By the time we hit Prespur our forces should be able to move from Maurosbane with two Catapults and several MM's and warriors.
If all goes as planed Molach should be left with two core cities, absolutely crippled and with no hope of recovery. Then we could think about either consolidating our forces and eliminating him (which should be doable with 4 catapults and a mass of units as meat shield) or leaving him be and concentrating on HK.

[Yell0w]

Ouch, we took a hit and lost our forces. Still this is salvageable situation. The attack on Molachs eastern city will continue as planed. We just have to suppress his forces with higher numbers which we can do. I plan to keep two of his cities. And I'm committed now to finish him off. I really don't want to deal with Vampires.

[Mafro]

That was bloody. Thankfully the losses were heavy on both sides, and we can probably grind him down as long as no one else joins the war against us.

Speaking of which, HidingKneel's power just spiked! Two turns until war can be declared...think he has monks yet?

Looks like we've got enough money to recruit 10 MMs...very nice.

It's all going to ride on tactics now...let's do whatever we can to keep the new stack we recruit safe....

[Mafro]

Haha...did you notice that HidingKneel has a city called Glue Factory? I'll bet that's what he named the city built atop the ruins of the city we razed.... Tip o' the hat to you, HK, when you read this.

Speaking of HK, he has 12 cities now! I think we took our foot off that accelerator too soon, building Siege Workshops instead of Settlers. HK's power has surpassed ours...though of course we've been stockpiling gold, so we really have more than he does, ready to be recruited.

Suttree has been growing rapidly in cities and power. He has 9 cities now, the same as we have, and he's #1 in power. It will be very interesting to see where he directs that power. He has Air, Earth, Fire, and Water mana, so he's almost certainly building the Tower of Elements. He and HK could both pursue strategies based on building strong defenses and going for ToM victories.

Strategically, I don't like the way the game is going. We've beaten ourselves bloody against the vampires while we have two strong opponents remaining that are getting more and more difficult to defeat. Ideally, HK and Suttree go at it, but I don't see HK as being the aggressive type, especially playing the Elohim.

Suttree could definitely go after him, calculating that HK is the greatest threat to win and seeing that we and the Calabim are otherwise occupied while Mardoc remains too weak to interfere.

Then again, Suttree may see himself as already holding a winning hand, with enough mana to built the towers, and instead is the turtle building his shell. If HK sees that, then perhaps HK could be coaxed into attacking him.

I think we should offer a trade to HK - Cotton for Sugar. It doesn't really matter whether he accepts or not. The offer itself signals that we have no intent to engage him militarily in the short term, and if you're serious about finishing off Molach then we'll probably need to remain focused on him for at least 10 more turns. It should ease his fears of an invasion from us and perhaps he'll see himself as saddled with an expensive military that should be applied to good effect. We've got a large enough war chest that he won't target us, especially if he accepts the offer, but he could certainly attack Suttree to prevent him from gaining the towers, at least hoping to distract Suttree and cost him his world spell.

At this point we really need more time in the game, and the best way to gain that would be to set HK and Suttree against each other. Without diplomacy I think an in-game trade offer has the best chance of success....

[Mafro]

Question: why is Gaene set to avoid growth? We have 4 more population before we hit our cap....

HK just got Valin Phanuel. He'd have to be crazy not to have Monks and Confessors as well, with the latter boosting all his troops with Bless. Given HK's massive rise in power, I wouldn't be surprised if he sends a sizeable force against us, most likely against Fort Mafro.

Speaking of which, any reason we're putting a lumber mill on the forest just outside of Fort Mafro? I usually clear forests from tiles that could be used to attack from. In this case, I'd like to see us clear both forest tiles west of Fort Mafro, and maybe even the forest to its southeast. Clearing forests would also get us the archery range in place more quickly, and I think if it's going to be useful it will need to be in place in the next few turns.

Did you see that Suttree declared war on Mardoc again? This is bad news for us, as it continues to leave HidingKneel totally free to act. I also don't see Mardoc being able to field a meaningful defense, as I'm thinking Suttree has got to have firebows by now...hopefully I'm wrong.

I really like the fact we've saved up and are keeping a sizeable war chest. To me, that's a "don't mess with me" sign facing right at HK. I'd really like for him to consider attacking Suttree or even Molach instead of us, and I think now is the time to encourage that with some sort of trade offer. With all his opponents occupied with war, he can join in on a double team against whoever he thinks is his biggest threat - that's what I'd do. That's gotta be either us or Suttree, and if we can encourage him to go after Suttree we should do so.

We've been holding our Great Bard for quite a while now...longer than I was thinking we'd hold him for. What is your plan for him?

[Mafro]

Looks like we can complete the Heron Throne in Gaene next turn if we turn off some of our food producers, converting them to Citizens, at the cost of a wee bit of starvation and 9 gold. It would be good to get that city growing again.

Suttree and Mardoc made peace again...not sure what that was about....

I like that you are keeping a reserve in our war chest to allow us to respond to the unexpected. At the moment I am particularly worried about HidingKneel joining against us. That's what I would be considering. I'd much rather see him slug it out with Suttree.

I've been thinking about our Great Bard. Maybe we should hold on to him for another 8 turns and then use the Great Merchant that is brewing in Conrond Mor for a golden age. That would allow us a second golden age once our next Great Person is done, probably in Altheriol-ta-Mealthiel or Urgortheth. We likely couldn't have back-to-back golden ages, but we could probably start the second within 10 turns of the first completing, if we optimize for it.

What's the story with tech? Seems like we might be at risk of falling behind if we don't start pushing on it again....

[Yell0w]

Looks like we can complete the Heron Throne in Gaene next turn if we turn off some of our food producers, converting them to Citizens, at the cost of a wee bit of starvation and 9 gold. It would be good to get that city growing again.

HT finished, this actually makes me happy. This makes a bad city (still gave some gold all that time though) a very good city. Next buildings will be a harbor and a lighthouse. And of course I lifted the no-grow.

Suttree and Mardoc made peace again...not sure what that was about....

Don't know either but I don't like it =(

I like that you are keeping a reserve in our war chest to allow us to respond to the unexpected. At the moment I am particularly worried about HidingKneel joining against us. That's what I would be considering. I'd much rather see him slug it out with Suttree.
[...]
What's the story with tech? Seems like we might be at risk of falling behind if we don't start pushing on it again....

Well I wanted a reserve of about 1200 gold. Since I've started teching again this turn and it'll be at least 6 turns of techs now, our reserve will shrink.

I moved further on Mafros city. Unfortunately our Catapults move SLOW so I'll be able to attack only next turn, but we'd have to be really unlucky to lose more than 1 unit during the attack.

Planted a new city in our South grabbing a Mana Node