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

[Rowain]

It is always fun to read your thread so thanks for your work here

[darrelljs]

+1. Its crazy the amount of time you must put into those posts.

Darrell

[pocketbeetle]

Thanks guys, and together you broke the 200 post mark.

As for time, it doesn't take too long to quickly bang out the turn update and upload a couple of screenshots.
If anything takes time, it's running the demographic and tech numbers.
And the thing is, I'm doing that anyway.

I don't expect it to last too much longer: you can see how much trouble Selrahc's EDIT: Lapland! is already causing me.
I'll be reduced to relying on the graphs and taking guesses at the techs based on turn gap soon.

Seems to me that the FFH tech tree is a lot easier to C&D in the early game, but all that branching later on may cause me palpitations.

Now I need to go find out if it’s possible for a non-Elf non-FoL running civ to spawn an Ancient forest.

In other news, it would appear that it's not possible.
You need to be in the Fellowship of Leaves religion for a forest to upgrade to an Ancient Forest (5% chance per tile?), and I can't find any event that would randomly cause it for an Agnostic civ.

So I'm back to square one.

Did find a nice little trick to avoiding defensive Treant spawns however: Click

[darrelljs]

That is a neat trick. I knew the trick of having a stream of warriors to walk over, since a Treant can't spawn on an occupied tile, but I didn't think to use a fireball to blaze the trail.

I think you already know this, but you have to be in FoL to get Ancient Forests, but you don't have to be an Elf.

Darrell

[pocketbeetle]

I think you already know this, but you have to be in FoL to get Ancient Forests, but you don't have to be an Elf.

Yeah I do, though I appreciate the clarification.
Non-Elf Fellowship of Leaves followers are already at a disadvantage by not being able to build improvements on forests.
No Ancient forests would be verging on novelty only.


Cull replied back to me just now.
Looks like there may be a minor emergency happening over in Khazad land:

Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2010 12:48:38 PM
Subject: Scout

Hey Cull,

Moved 2S like you said.

Pb

Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2010 11:10:00 PM
Subject: RE:Scout

And now theirs another lizardman 2SE of your scout. I think its dead. Sorry.

Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2010 12:18:50 AM
Subject: RE: Scout

Hi Cull,

Oh no!

Okay, well thanks for keeping me informed.
We'll see what happens when I next get the save.

Regards,
Pb, Biting Fingernails Boy-King

Don't think he could have engineered that.

• His last turn, he suggested I move 2S.
  
• Turn rolls over, Lizardmen move.
  
• I then move 2S.
  
• He then gets the save and sees the Lizardman has moved to 2SE of Vanilla Ice.
  
• Turn rolls over, Lizardman attacks?

The unit definitely doesn't have visibility on Vanilla Ice, it would have to move 1NW first.
Depends on whether it's random walking, or if this is one of those wonderful AI entrapments where barbarians from all over the map coordinate perfectly to box your unit in.

If so, it probably doesn't matter.
I'll survive, move 2SW next go, only to encounter Mama Griffon. ^^

[Adlain]

Vanilla Ice, if he survives, will have one hell of a tale to tell when he gets home

No hard feelings over the Herbailist Joke, i dont think it was spoilerish :neenernee

[pocketbeetle]

Vanilla Ice, if he survives, will have one hell of a tale to tell when he gets home

I very much doubt he'll get home, I'm surprised he's lasted this long.

Overall, apart from the one obvious exception, I think I've been reasonably fortunate with the barbs around Kwythellar.

Part of that is thanks to the terrain, the coast is now fully covered by my borders, so barbs can only approach from the NE.
While any spawning to the SE just get funnelled by the pink square peaks to Selrahc.

No hard feelings over the Herbailist Joke, i dont think it was spoilerish

Of course not!

[The Reverend Doctor]

+1. Its crazy the amount of time you must put into those posts.

Darrell

Amen! You were not lying when you said us lurkers would be well fed... it's been a pleasure to follow so far.

It may be a bit late to be topical... or you might have already addressed it, but do you think Stasis would have been more devastating to fire about 5 turns before the priests of winter were online? Do you actually feel so far behind having ridden it out in the first part of the game?

[Adlain]

iirc wasnt he your Free scout??, because even if your built him i certainly think your got your hammers worth outta him

[pocketbeetle]

iirc wasnt he your Free scout??,

He was indeed, and still is!

It may be a bit late to be topical... or you might have already addressed it, but do you think Stasis would have been more devastating to fire about 5 turns before the priests of winter were online?

Definitely not too late, by my reckoning Selrahc hasn't even got the required tech yet, let alone starting building the ritual.

Do I think he made a mistake with his worldspell?
Yes I think so, although not so much as I initially did.

When he fired it off, I didn't know he was going for this type of opening.
I thought he was simply trying to get an edge + cause trouble for some players via barbarians.
Clearly the barb factor failed miserably, as everyone is alive and kicking, and I say that despite my own Conan experience which slowed me down 4 turns.
If he wanted someone to die from Stasis, the upcoming Orthus spawn could have possibly been a better time.
14 turns of Orthus being able to walk around freely = 14 more xp for him via the Hero promotion ~ 3 combat promos (+60% more strength) on a base 6 str.

Lastly, do I think he should have saved it for a war?
Possibly yes.
I think he could have got a kill with the Priests even without the Stasis; the more I look at them the more stupidly powerful they seem.
Given how close his neighbours are, I think the Prests would have stomped one of us anyway, which would have left him with either another guaranteed kill via Stasis or an effective diplomatic tool later in the game.
(Eg: You plant that pink dot near me, I'll cast Stasis, kill it, and then I'll start on your other cities while you're still frozen).

Do you actually feel so far behind having ridden it out in the first part of the game?

I think there's no denying that I'm behind compared to a normal game of FFH on quick.
Orthus is coming soon, and I'm reduced to gambling that he won't appear near me simply because I can't mount a decent warrior defense while simultaneously countering Selrahc's threat. (Coincidentally, Selrahc with 2 cities and 4 warriors is also taking a huge risk, an even bigger one than mine imo).
There's also the knock-on effect to my Adaptive Philosophical trait: I'm still on for the first GSci, but the second? Forget it, no chance.

So despite my dismissive attitude to Bob's worldspell and my (slight) criticism of Selrahc's timing, there's no denying they've smacked me and the rest of the players for six.

But in terms of being behind compared to the other players?
I'd say I'm doing pretty good to be honest.

• I'm equal in tech count with Bob, Cull, Sareln and Selrahc at 2.
  Archduke (should(?) be getting another one soon) is on one. Cull and Sareln have been boosted by a free hut tech.
  
• GNP I'm leading.
  This will only snowball into increased GNP and production when I get Mysticism, God King, a Sci spec running and hence faster research time to Mining.
  
• Food I'm going to be slightly behind, mainly thanks to delaying Fishing.
  Unavoidable unfortunately. Agrarianism and 4f gl farms will tide me over for now.
  

All in all, I'd say my prediction of Selrahc and Bob being the main rivals is coming sadly true.
And with Selrahc and myself both slowing each other down by building expensive rituals, Bob is the overall winner.

So if I survive, I need to find a way to capitalise on my early contacts with Selrahc, Sareln and Cull.
Hard in a no tech trading game.