Rise of the (siege) Machines: HidingKneel reprises the Khazad [Spoilers]

[HidingKneel]

A week has passed, and Yell0w has decided to grace us with another turn.

Got a trade offer from Autorarcher:



Nothing for nothing. No deal!

Lost a Trebuchet to the barbs between turns:



That's annoying... the warriors are supposed to defend the Trebuchet, not the other way around .

Also, it seems like Yell0w has decided to show up to the war:



Stack of five unpromoted Moroi. Anyway, they were right next to two of my warriors guarding a crew of two workers. I thought about retreating, but actually those warriors were pretty well promoted and had excellent odds on the Moroi (even though the Moroi had higher strength and were standing on jungle). So I attacked and killed two of them, and moved another shock-promoted warrior out to join them.

Meanwhile, I might have trouble on another front:



Kredom has a really well-promoted Griffon that he's using to menace one of my workers. I decided to leave it dangling there; if he attacks I'll probably be able to kill the griffon on my turn. And a warrior/worker pair for a griffon is a trade I'm willing to make (those griffons can be really annoying).

Decided to abandon the Esus plan and tech Kilmorph instead. I'll convert next turn, tech Arete, and in two turns convert to Arete/Overcouncil. Or maybe Arete/Undercouncil? Depends on how soon I'm planning to shut science off, I guess.

[HidingKneel]

Two more turns played (part of the delay was my fault this time...)

Turn 103 opened with a new tech that I researched:



and then a second tech, which I didn't:



That second tech was from the Maenalus:



That's a pretty awesome result, actually. Was going to research it reasonably soon anyway (for Haste adepts). Now I can get those Haste adepts a little earlier.

Event log also reveals that Yell0w attacked and killed the Warrior that I fortified between his jungle city and the rest of his empire. Lost a Moroi doing it though, and another Moroi fired burning blood (so might go barbarian). Hammer exchange is good for me. He's moving a big stack of Moroi in my direction, though, so I'm going to need to start building units along that border. Fortunately he's slow (no horseback riding) so I should have plenty of time to reinforce.

Converted to Runes of Kilmorph on Turn 103:



Put that in the capital. Had enough overflow to 1-turn a Temple of Kilmorph on turn 104.

Got another nice epic dungeon result the next turn:



Not sure what to do with that adventurer. For any other civ, I'd probably promote it down the Arcane line. But the Khazad can't build mages, so that would be a waste.

Lurker question: Rangers upgrade to Druids, right? Does that mean I can do a Scout -> Druid upgrade? If so, would it require Feral Bond?

Popped a bunch more dungeons (I'm spreading out my units over the islands as I conquer them, so there's no room for nasties to come out). Got some lousy results from the NW island:



But I got some nice results elsewhere (not screenshotted): on the southeast island I discovered Gems (that island had a source of Gems already; now it's got two). On the northeast island (the one that borders Acheron) I found the Timor Mask and popped an Acolyte.

Lurker question: If I convert to Order without researching Orders from Heaven, can I still get Acolytes/Crusaders from spreading the faith? If so, that might be worth it.

Founded myself a sixteenth city on the northeast island:



And Arete came in at EOT. Next turn I'm thinking I'll convert to Arete and Undercouncil.

For the next few techs, I'm thinking Divination -> Priesthood -> Animal Handling.

Divination will let me get started on a ToD and unlock my superweapons. Priesthood will let me spam Stonewardens in my Heroic Epic capital, which is an easy way to get Kilmorph spread around the empire. (Need to do this if I want to build Mines of Gal-Dur, since it can only be built in a city with Kilmorph and I don't want to tie up the production queue in the capital).
Animal Handling will let me build hawks, which I'm thinking I'm going to need soon. War with Yell0w won't stay cold forever, and Clan power is also starting to spike.

Afterwards, either Smelting -> Ironworking or Mathematics -> Engineering.

But first... I'm thinking it's time to get my vaults filled. "Full" vaults in 16 cities only requires 2400 gold, and it'll net me +25% production empire-wide. I've got 500 gold in the bank already, I can probably generate about 500 per turn in my Golden Age, and my worldspell is good for about 1000. So I just need to save up for two turns (maybe three, haven't done the math). +25% production is worth a lot more than any of the techs I just mentioned, so I'll get started next turn and probably fire the worldspell the turn after. Arete-boosted mines + full vaults ought to be able to compete against Warrens and Governor's Mansions, even when my Golden Age runs out.

[HidingKneel]

Several more turns played.

No time for an update with pictures. Here are the essentials:

1) Kragroth took over for Yell0w. He's offered peace to Khazad and Clan, both accepted.

2) Kredom is menacing me with very well-promoted griffons. Quite annoying.

3) Aurorarcher fired his worldspell on the same turn I fired mine. His power went through the roof. Most likely, it consists mainly of barbarians stuck on islands, rather than things I need to worry about.

4) I've now settled all four of my islands. Just finished popping all the lairs.

5) Vaults are now full. I've got 18 cities, so it's 1800 more gold to "overflowing". I'll hold off on that until I've got a few more techs.

Got two pieces of amazing luck this turn:

a) Exploring a graveyard popped a free tech: Mathematics.
b) Generated a GP in the capital, which came out to be a very low-odds Engineer.

I think it's pretty clear what the RNG is trying to tell me. Engineer builds the Mines of Gal-Dur, I tech Engineering, and then build (or cash-rush) the Guild of Hammers for +40% production from Dwarven Smithies everywhere.

Teched Priesthood this turn. Still need Divination and Animal Handling... but I'm not entirely sure those are higher priority than Engineering any more, given how close it is and how big the payoff will be.

[HidingKneel]

Finally a new turn.

Kragroth grabbed the Great Library, right before I was about to build it (well, two turns before). Oh well.

Need to think about what to do with my Great Engineer. Several possibilities:

1) Ignore the fact that it's an Engineer. Wait for the next GP to spawn, then fire a GA.

My present GA is worth 78 hammers and 154 commerce (before multipliers). Add my vault multiplier (+25%) and figure 1h = 2 commerce, and that's a value of 350 commerce per turn. So 9 turns of GA has a present value of 3150 commerce. The Engineer buys me half of that, so a value of 1500 commerce. Opportunity cost: later GAs are more expensive. But using the Engineer for this increases the chance that I'll have the opportunity for a 3-GP Golden Age before the end of the game.

2) Use the Engineer to bulb part of Engineering. Value: 895 beakers. Minus the prereq bonus, that's worth 745 beakers.

3) Hold the Engineer for a few turns, use him to rush the Guild of Hammers. I could either do that in 3 turns (if I empty my vaults for it) or in 5 (keeping vaults full). The Guild costs 368 hammers (paid for by the Engineer), and is worth an immediate 70 hammers per turn (once my GA is over).

4) Use the Engineer immediately to rush the Mines of Gal-Dur (cost: 469 hammers). No immediate economic benefit (I need the Guild of Hammers first), but it comes with benefits that are difficult to quantify: Iron for defense, and I don't run the risk of losing the wonder to Aurorarcher. But Aurorarcher doesn't have Arete yet.

2) seems pretty clearly bad, and 4) is too hard to judge. So let's just think about the difference between 1) and 3).

If I fire a GA, it'll probably take ten turns to finish the GoH by hand once Engineering comes in. So using the engineer for that nets me 368 hammers (cost of wonder) + 700 hammers from the turns I don't have the GoH in my build queue... roughly 2100 commerce using my previous estimation method.

So probably 3) is best. (It'll also let me put the GoH in the capital, which will help me get another Great Person there.)

[Qgqqqqq]

since I think that Dwarven magic resistance means the Stygian doesn't get to use all of its Unholy strength against me.

Magic resistance doesn't affect base strength/typed strength. It only works as an added resistance to spells/spell damage.

Actually, the following is spoilers.

I've been behind all game for two and a half reasons, all of which connect. Kredom razed my second city with a C5 griffon (which I couldn't attack back at) at a time when I had 3ish cities down. That city was also running a priest that was ~5t off from bulbing runes. So to me, that was basically a death knell for my conventional plans, and I went for Hyborem. I also screwed up the bulbing order for Hyborem, delaying him 10-15 more turns than necessary. Importantly, though, I went for Hyborem after only the most basic of technologies (before, I was racing for Drama, but when I lost that city my tech rate plummeted so I didn't bother) meaning I couldn't very effectively develop the land, and I didn't want to expand into shared regions because my only defense was (pre copper) warriors. Lastly, I wasn't paying much attention because the pace was shit.

I sent you that trade basically to express my submission/the fact i wasn't going to challenge you.

Barb moved towards you because you had units closer.

Fireballs can travel over water.


Well played game, btw.

[Qgqqqqq]

I've always been a bit unclear of upgrade paths. If rangers do upgrade to Druids, though, that will require Feral Bond.

[HidingKneel]

Another turn played.

Only thing of note: someone got a Great Engineer in the log. Irrelevant unless that's Aurorarcher, in which case he could use it to steal the Mines of Gal-Dur from me. Gonna keep an eye on tech. If he grabs Arete, it might be worthwhile to use my Engineer for the Mines, or to just cash-rush them (I have enough cash on hand for that).

since I think that Dwarven magic resistance means the Stygian doesn't get to use all of its Unholy strength against me.

Magic resistance doesn't affect base strength/typed strength. It only works as an added resistance to spells/spell damage.

It also decreases certain typed strength (though not Unholy). For example:



That would be a 50/50 battle if I wasn't a dwarf.

Well played game, btw.

Good game!

[Qgqqqqq]

Huh. Apologies, I had no idea.

Any thoughts on Khazad balance, btw?

[HidingKneel]

Any thoughts on Khazad balance, btw?

Good, I think. They've got a lot going for them and some weaknesses.
Two things I'd change:

1) It's too easy to get dwarven druids.
2) Paramanders shouldn't make Soldiers of Kilmorph obsolete.

Several more turns played.

First, I decided to use my Engineer for another GA and just to build the GoH by hand. It's not like anybody can realistically beat me to it (and I could cash-rush it if they tried). I want the cash and tech up front because it's time to get this game moving...

Kredom has been using his griffon to nab workers on one of my island cities and then fly away out of reach (over the water).
He also sent the following settling party right next to where I was about to settle:



That Hunter is well promoted, but he's brought a knife to a gunfight. I killed the settling party and also another crew of well-promoted hunters (with an assassin) that had parked itself by my southern border:



Cost to me:
1 Worker (killed by Griffon)
1 Slave (killed by Griffon)
2 Warriors

Cost to him:
1 Settler
3 Highly promoted Hunters
1 Highly promoted Assassin

Also, I now have an elven worker! Does this mean I can build stuff on forests?

Build myself a new city:



Teched Animal Handling this turn. I'm about to launch an invasion of... well, probably everyone. But I don't want to go in blind.

Next up: Divination (for a ToD to get me some Dwarven Druids). Then tech off. Two or three turns of that should get vaults to overflowing, after which I'll use the gold for upgrades.

Here's an empire overview:



And demos look solid:



Of course, I'm in a GA. But I think Kragroth, Kredom, and Aurorarcher are too.

Endgame looks like it might be fun. Khazad, Calabim, and Clan are all production powerhouses. A big slugfest pitting
Dwarven Smithies + Overflowing vaults vs. Command Posts + Warrens vs. Governor's Mansions would be a very satisfying end. I've got the edge on everyone individually, but maybe not everyone together. Most fun scenario is everyone holds their own for a while... and then I get druids

[Mardoc]

Also, I now have an elven worker! Does this mean I can build stuff on forests?

I imagine you're about to find out for sure, but I think the answer is no. You'll still get the elven forest-move bonus, though, which could be handy for roads and lumbermills or chopping.