Uncommonly Good: A Story of Elves

[Ravus Sol]

I like the option that involves fire.

But I am a pyromaniac and shouldn't be trusted.

[Mardoc]

I find myself in general agreement with MBTM. Assuming you're willing to run straight econ, Mysticism -> Education is probably better.

I do agree that there's little point in exploring with scouts anymore. And that the question of AH or Hunting first will depend mostly on where you want city #2 - if you go for the Remnants, AH first makes more sense; if you go for the Pyre/Elephant, Hunting makes more sense.

I still would lobby for the Remnants site first, myself, partly on the theory that Nicolae won't be in a rush to settle it so we can still get it with city 3, but mostly I tend to think that city 2 should be about short term production and commerce, getting the snowball rolling. Even if it's not the best long term site, having a solid early game site is what matters. And from that perspective:

• The ivory/pyre site is pretty well buried in jungle and its only food, probably, is jungled banana. So as a city, it's not worth a lot until we have Way of the Forests and some means of clearing jungle, either KoTE or BW. Its value is in the Fire mana and elephants - but frankly, those are both long term propositions compared to what we need from a second city.
  
  
• The Remnants site will have high production, between the marble and the Remnants proper. It has cows and, if we're willing to build on the coast, clams for a quick start. It's also unforested for the most part, so will help with commerce. The main downsides - well, first there's both a ruins and a barrow right there, so it would be under constant attack. Second, neither of those food sources are *that* strong. It would be a strong military pump, and could do settlers/warriors, but without a huge food surplus won't be best at that.
  
  
• The third alternative I see is to go for one of the pigs sites, either the pig/cotton/gold or the pig/corn as a straight up, econ-boosting site capable of pumping workers and settlers all the livelong day. These can be somewhat good at commerce, too, but the main purpose would be to support expansion. The downside here is that from what we know of the map, these are sites we're almost guaranteed to have regardless.

[Gaspar]

I'm inclined to go the Mysticism -> Education route as well, though I do worry about how long it will take us to get cottages up and running, I feel like its the best play for flexibility. We shall see.

Warrior completes as advertised, and fortifies at home. No score increases this turn. Worker relocates from corn farm to a farm on the mana node. Bahamet Deuce continues heading home and finds this:



Apparently, there are limits to our luck. Unfortunately, B2 is now stuck between a rock and a hard place, or more aptly, a bear and a giant spider. I can move him away this turn, but unless that bear moves a lot, I don't see any easy way to get him home short of waiting until I can get a hunter over there, which might be 40 turns.

Here's the homeland for MBTM:



I snapped the demos, but it seems silly to post them every turn, since none of us are actually running C&D. If someone wants to see them, I have them.

[Mardoc]

There's one possible approach to the bear - if you can bait him into attacking a warrior on a hill forest (Str 4.5 equiv), then hit him with a second warrior after he takes damage, that would probably do it. It might be easier to just go for Hunting, though

[NobleHelium]

If we get a chance to build two additional warriors, I say definitely send them out to escort the adventurer. The longer the wait the more baddies are going to spawn there.

[Gaspar]

These developments might also lend additional credence to getting a city on the coast soon, so we can attempt work boat scouting. While I understand there are plenty of sea baddies in FFH as well, generally the waters are a safer place than the land. I don't know that I like the idea of waiting to meet the rest of my neighbors for 50T.

The adventurer is very probably lost. We can have him dance back and forth a bit, but the placement of that bear virtually ensures he's stuck there til we can get a hunter or a few warriors dedicated to that cause. Easy come, easy go.

[NobleHelium]

If you can get him across the river on a forest hill from the bear, that's not too bad of a dice roll.

[Man Behind the Mask]

Lots of thoughts on the recent topics...

One other ray of hope is that the bear stops and creates a den. I have absolutely no understanding of the mechanics for that process, but it might let our man sneak past.

Thanks for the screenshot Gaspar. I realised I should stop whining in here and just open the save, and was disappointed that the jungle is ruining our vision range as well as our settling prospects. I’d misremembered where the northern barrow was hiding, and am desperately hoping for some seafood east of the gold. That would make your coastal city suggestion a good proposition.

If we're resolved to only settling the north, then we could actually stop and draw up a dotmap as part of our decision about where to settle second. We do have "our territory" scouted, but any decisions are still a fair way away.

Because you get graphs straight away in FFH, C&D does seem a little less appealing unless you are trying to track what techs people are discovering. Even then, we’ve proved already that a lucky hut can basically ruin your hopes of keeping tabs on even that.

I hope that there are folks out there also trying to find us, so we may not have to wait until we can send forth an explorer before our next contact. On that front you could maybe check in with the Sheaim again before the weekend, even if there’s nothing to really say. You might get some info back about their scouting.

[Gaspar]

RE: Sheaim, 5 days and no response to our last email is a bit disconcerting. I suppose I should pen a follow-up.

Kyan gained 16 points, which is... pop and ancient tech is 17. Is a Classical tech 16? Help me out here. Anyway, I'm greeted upon opening the save to this:



If the bear keeps advancing towards us, we'll get caught between it and the spider and die. I only moved 1 this turn, because 2 would have put me at the spiders last known location.

There's really nothing else going on - The Chronic grows next turn, AC comes in 2T from now. I owe you guys something a bit more detailed but it will have to wait, perhaps tomorrow.

[Ravus Sol]

Is the last known spider location before or AFTER it moved and killed your scout?