The Black Sword's Tale: For the Kurious

[The Black Sword]

After checking over the diplo rules it seems we're supposed to send the messages in-game and I've already sent the save on.

Probably easier to apologise after the fact .

I guess I'll move to the forested hill. It is a declaration of war whereas I've just realised I will be able to see his city from the diagonal since he's on a hill. But if someone moved to the diagonal on me I'd view that move as just as agressive. It is possible that someone could intercept the scout but not defend the city and the hill tile is safer.

[The Black Sword]

So I was back in time for the blitz and we got a good 4 turns played I think. Unfortunately I didn't take as many screenshots due to the blitz.

First I had received this email from WK:

Greeting Black Sword,

I believe your scout managed to find me last turn, bringing us into contact. If you wish to send me diplo, this address is the place to do it at.

Anyway, nice to meet you. Not much to do right at this moment aside from greetings sadly, but we look forward to future cooperation with your Kurio's.

Regards,
WK

I guess nothing wrong with email diplo. I then played my turn declared war and moved onto the hill. Unfortunately he had a warrior with 15% fortify defence in the city which I though was a bit weird. I think that means he moved out 1 tile then back in and fortified. It seems the diagonal would have been quite safe for me also.

Anyway, with war obviously a no-go I sent off this email:

Hi,

I wasn't sure if we had to do send diplo messages in game or via email. Truthfully I was happy to have the excuse not to send anything because I was going to declare war on you this turn.

I had assumed that your warrior might go out exploring and if so I didn't think you could get a unit back in time to defend your capital from my scout. If someone had shown up at my capital at the same time then I couldn't have stopped it so early. It was a chance I felt I had to take. Unfortunately for me, it seems you were wiser about it and your capital is safely defended.

I'm sure this early opportunistic war declaration has done nothing to build trust between us but I hope it hasn't made it impossible. Once the Kurios have their main 3 cities up they have little need for more land so war would hold little appeal. In theory that could allow us to be good allies. I would be happy to make up for the war declaration with some gesture later in the game, perhaps a mana loan at a later date, that's the only thing I could offer with any certainty for the moment.

So, nice to meet you too and I hope my co-operation proves better from here.

TBS.

He replied:

TBS,

Don't have enough time for a full response now due to the blitz, but I can accept your compromise. I've offered peace in-game.

WK

And then during the night sent this:

TBS,

I must say it was quite disappointing when I logged into the game to see your declaration. However, your honesty in your message is very clear and also appreciated, even if your plans, had they succeeded, would have resulted in my demise. There was no real damage to my civ due to the war declaration considering how early it is, so I can accept a compromise later on in the game to make up for it. You suggested a mana loan, that certainly seems to be the only thing I can think of atm as well, so I accept that deal. A 10t loan of a mana of my choice, to be payed at some point later in the game. Is that agreeable with you?

Putting that aside for now, greetings. Like I said in my earlier message, there isn't much to do right now, although I do believe you've managed to meet the Khazad?

Regards,
WK

I was rather hoping to put the 'gesture' off until a bit later until I could think of something else because a mana loan is quite a nice deal I think when he suffered no damage but I'm going to take it anyway. I had given the example in the email because I felt I needed to say something concrete. He didn't have much reason to trust in empty promises at that stage. Some Pros in my mind:
-Doesn't cost me anything
-he'll need at least KoTE to make use of the mana so it gives him a reason to keep me around.
-I had a quick look at his palace mana and it actually overlaps with mine quite a bit, I was thinking spirit or water might be the best choice but he already has those. I'm not so sure how useful sun will be. If he wants something else then he's going to have to wait even longer for me to get my nodes up.
-I was worried about the grigori early but I'm more afraid of the others of actually winning the game. So boosting his economy is n't boosting the biggest rivals.

I'm not sure whether it's a pro or a con but it's a big plus for him. He's gotten a free mana for essentially nothing. I think I might be on:
-3 You declared war on us!
+4 Our trade relations have been fair and forthright.

[The Black Sword]

Ok, so here's the more boring part of the blitz:

My worker completed and is just about to finish the corn farm. I need to switch to that from the oasis next turn. It will delay calendar and my revolutions for one turn but worth it I think. I'm thinking of putting the turns hammers into my granary and then back to warriors after I'm in nationhood. Does anyone know how long they will stay there before they start to degrade?



As you can see my warrior also returned to the capital for safety and then promptly went exploring again when my other warrior was close enough to completion. He found my first barb to the north and fortified on the hill.



Here's a picture of all the land Splinter discovered after his early trials with the grigori:


Wish those dyes were closer to me . As you can see I also met the dwarves and they are even closer to the grigori. I also found the grigori scout down there. I think the two of them met on turn 1 or 2 and then WK realised he needed to keep his warrior in the capital for defense, hence the curious fortification bonus. This map is clearly a lot smaller than I thought. I probably have other people to my east and south, we just scouted in the wrong directions. That's almost certainly a good thing for the Kuriotates though. I'm stuck at 3 cities regardless, so it will probably hurt the others more.

Finally here's some demo pictures I took. I'm not sure when I took the first and the second shot was at the end of my last turn.

.

Only change is the power graphs I see. I grew a warrior and the rival worst is down to 3000, average down by 600 as well. 600x5=3000, that suggests that someone started with 2 warriors and lost one, but Khazad graph was flat, I'm not sure anyone else does.

The GNP has gone up because everyone else completed a tech, I'm going to assume Agriculture and are now working a pre-req.

Plan for the next few turns is still to go God King after Calendar, try sending scouting warriors out in pairs of two now that barbs are beginning to show. I was leaning towards education -> mining after that but seeing how close everyone is I want bronze ASAP. So probably mining first and then make a decision on bronze working.

[The Black Sword]

After giving me my early naming scheme, the Teenage Mutant Ninga Turtles, it seems Splinter is quite likely to get eaten:

I think further recon units will be named after the turtles while warriors will be named after their enemies the Foot Clan.

Meanwhile back home the goblin has not taken the bait and Shredder the recently re-named warrior moves onto the forested hill instead. If the goblin goes for the corn tile I want two units in range to hit it.



I wasn't sure when I'd get a chance to fit in a Granary, for the moment warriors, settlers, workers and elder council are all in front of the queue. So I decided 4h into a warrior now was better than 6h later.

A score increase of 4 for Yell0w, which I assume is a pop point. That could make sense, being industrious and working the deer tile he could possibly get the worker out just as quickly as me and I'm about to grow this turn.

[The Black Sword]

Splinter died .

The goblin continues his march on my capital, Shredder now moves to defend the corn.



The Khazad grew to size 2 as well as Yell0w, both industrious, it makes sense they would work the deer tile to get the worker out a turn earlier. Indeed checking the food graph, due to the Khazad's nice worker they actually got their farm up a turn before me!

Sian's score increased by another tech, ancient chants is the only one that fits so I guess he's going for mysticism now. Yell0w is quite probably going mysticism as well, having started with ancient chants and I'd guess the others are working pre-requisites. Khazad and Grigor should probably go mining first, while Calabim go for Calendar. The Grigori revolted to Nationhood after their first worker was built, putting more credit on the mining theory for them I think.

In diplo, I agreed to a 10t mana loan with 5t notice with the Grigori. I'm really not sure about this, I am afraid of his adventurers, but I also have one of the best early games too, not sure if I should be giving things away so easily, but it's done now I guess.

We also agreed to let each other know if we meet other civs, he has met the elves and I've asked the Khazad for a similar agreement. Not sure how much scouting I will get done now though with these barbs showing up. Defogging city sites takes a higher priority now.

[The Black Sword]

Seems the saves are moving back in the day, I just caught the one yesterday before bed.

This about sums up what's happening recently:


Goblin died for a measly 1xp on Karai, defending the capital.

This turn:


I'm getting a bit anxious to explore the land around me. If I was any other civ I would have the next city planned already but I can't delay getting my first settler too much looking for the perfect location.

Worker will finish the incense next turn and I'll start working it, it will delay growth by a turn but I want another worker at size 4 anyway and I can finish it by the same turn either way. Hopefully that will help this picture.



However, dyes makes me 23 GNP, and the pre-req bonus on myst would then push me to 27, same as the leader, maybe not as bad as it looks. The production and food hopefully makes up for it.

The workers will farm their way over to the gems, I can't waste a turn to bring the gems farm on first or I won't keep up with my growth. I should finish that just in time for the borders to pop on the reagents. I'm currently trying to decide whether to fit Exploring in before or after mining, bringing that sugar online would be nice.

Trying to sort out score increases a bit:
Sian: no change.
WK: growth 1 pop
Yell0w 1 pop + 1 tech
Khazad: pop + tech
Decius: a tech first, then increase by 5?
I'm not sure what that could be, my knowledge so far has been noticing that my score went up by 4 and 8 respectively for pop and tech. Can anyone point me to a comprehensive list of possible score increases? Other possibilities are land points and wonders that I know of, but neither seems likely here. Checking the top cities screen his city did grow to size 4, so I'm just going to assume that's what it is and it scales up somehow. Timing for the techs here indicates 160b for Calendar rather than 200b for Mining/Myst.

Let's see then,
Sian: agriculture+chants, teching to myst I think.
WK: agriculture and nothing else yet, so going Mining
Yell0w: agg + Calendar
Khazad: agg+ Calendar
Vamps: agg + Calendar

I'm not sure about HK or Yell0w teching Calendar first. It's no so useful for them I think when they don't have to grow to size 8 and were not revolting anyway. Mining and Myst seems stronger I think, though for Vamps or elves starting off with exploration it is a good option.

[Merovech]

I can't remember, can you turn a super-city into an outpost or whatever they're called in order to settle a new super-city?

[The Black Sword]

I am fairly certain you can't, I think you can upgrade settlement -> city but not the other way around. I might WB to confirm. It's probably not a great use out of hammers in the early game anyway, even with expansive. This turn:


Yes, that is a Dungeon you see in the left corner. I think I should probably pop it myself, I'm afraid of someone beating me to it. I might try delay it though unless I see someone sneaking through the left. I should be spamming out quite a few warriors as I grow to size 8. I guess everyone must have one of these then. I wonder if anyone has popped theirs yet, it does feel quite late for me to be seeing it.

Shredder is fortifying on the hill beside the lion.

Incense came online and this looks a lot better.


The Khazad revolted into Agrarianism confirming that they got Calendar. Yell0w also got this curious 5pt score increase and someone else grew to size 4 in the top 5 cities screen, so I guess that's probably what this reflects. I am a bit curious about the high rival best approval rating. I thought this would be me given that I still have 5 happy to grow into, maybe someone got to city 2 already? I have been wondering why the Calabim are only size 4 after their RoB start, so it might be them. I'm going to look back through the demos and check if that rival best figure jumped up anywhere.

[The Black Sword]

I got my first event!


Got 2g .

I completed a warrior, ancient chants and grew to size 4 all in the same turn. Now I'm stopping to build a worker, who should be done in 3 turns if I can complete my cow farm to work that on the last turn. The goblin might delay me though. Meanwhile I started Mysticism and Karai scouted some more nice land around the dungeon:


I'm not sure if I've shown you that tiger in the north either. He must have had some nice snacks since he's C2 already and has really discouraged me from scouting further up there, he's only recently moved SW.

Score increases: Jalapeno and Yellow by another 4 as they grow to size 5. Khazad by 5 as they grow to size 4, I guess it's probably some rounding causing this. WK by 12, so a tech, which is almost certainly Mining giving the delay and another pop. He also birthed his first adventurer, coincidentally just as our peace treaty ran out . And Sian got another pop increase also, but still size 3.

That talk about someone being on city 2 last time was clearly crazy, even the vamps couldn't have got another city out that fast, I guess they got a second worker out instead. It must be them with the crazy 23 food and 34 GNP demographics, which equates to working farmed: corn, cows, gems, grass and incense plantation. With all that food, a settler won't long be coming now. It will be interesting to see whether he goes Mining or Mysticism next, I should be able to pick that up from when his next tech arrives. I think Mining might be more useful to the vampires.

I've done some more thinking about the dungeon, putting it on the desert tile was a great idea, should make it a lot easier to defend against other people popping it and the map was feeling a little bare with no dungeons or huts. Having had a look at the possible lair results, I really don't think it's worth popping yet. Seems like there's a much higher chance of bad results than good. I'm thinking maybe when I have bronze working and hopefully someone with a bit of xp also. I might be tempted to do it when I'm in God King and size 8 though, should have some fair defenses then.

[The Black Sword]

The Land around here is really lovely...



Second city down there is looking good. Rivers and resources seem to abound though, so I'm beginning to worry less about my supercities placement. I almost certainly can't scout out their entire enlarged BFCs so I'm going to have to leave some stuff to chance anyway. My criteria for the second city is probably to get a good initial 8 tiles and maybe some overlap with my capital tiles that I can pre-improve. Getting fresh water doesn't seem like it should be too difficult on this map and I should keep an eye out for a good hill if possible too. A site to the East is also a good possibility and looks like it could have nicer overlap. I'll cast Legends after I found the third city , initial 8 tiles aren't so important there. I'm sure there are some people East and South, it would be nice to find their borders before city planning also.

I have been thinking about my coastal city options recently, after noticing the EITB changes could make it worthwhile. In particular, perhaps if there is ocean to the south of that lake in the SE, then those lake tiles could be really nice later on. Growing Kurio cities over size 25 can be rather difficult until late game I think, so even if I had a few useless water tiles to begin with, that wouldn't be much of a problem, and by end game they could be quite useful(especially if I managed the Heron Throne). The main benefit would be seafood resources, I don't like the idea of 3 land cities and being locked out from 3 happy/health, 10% commerce. With really nice land, and lacking any seafood resources so far, the map seems to be pishing me away from this option though.

The goblin has been nice enough to stay away from worker, if he just stays off my corn now he'll be the perfect guest.

Score: Sian and HK by a pop. Another weird number from Jalapeno, increase of 7. No change in his city size but too small for a tech. No increase in top population in demos either, so I'm stumped again. It is about time for another tech from him though, he should be going either Ancient Chants or Crafting and got his last tech on turn 12. I've just realised I probably have him down for the wrong GNP in my last post though, since he wouldn't have pre-requisites for those. I'm guessing this is him getting crafting.